Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversité des champignons endomycorhiziens de l’arganier et potentiel mycorhizogène des sols rhizosphériques des arganeraies du Sud-Ouest marocain

L’arganier, Argania spinosa, est une espèce endémique du Maroc, structurant des formations forestières remarquables et façonnant un terroir agricole original. Si son statut mycorhizien a été largement étudié, la diversité mycorhizienne associée et son efficacité, en tenant compte du lien avec les contextes pédoclimatiques et la diversité des territoires de l’arganier, demeure méconnue. Aussi, neuf arganeraies du Sud-Ouest marocain ont fait l’objet d’investigations afin, d’une part, d’explorer la diversité des communautés de champignons mycorhiziens associés à cet arbre dans diverses situations édapho-climatiques, et, d’autre part, d’évaluer le potentiel mycorhizogène des environnements rhizosphériques, en vue de les exploiter comme sources d’inocula. L’examen microscopique des racines de l’arganier confirme la mycotrophie de l’espèce et sa dépendance aux champignons mycorhiziens arbusculaires (CMA), quel que soit le site prospecté. Les spores de CMA isolées des sols rhizosphériques des arganeraies étudiées restent de faible densité. Les corrélations entre les différents morphotypes sont très hautement significatives au sein du genre Glomus. Dans certains sites, une corrélation positive apparaît entre la densité de spores et l’intensité de mycorhization des racines. Une corrélation négative se présente entre le potentiel mycorhizien des neuf sols étudiés et les propriétés chimiques des sols. Ces résultats suggèrent que d’autres facteurs édaphiques (propriétés biologiques des sols, par exemple) ou le degré de perturbation des sols des arganeraies, lié aux usages agricoles et au pâturage, pourraient influencer fortement le processus de mycorhization de l’arganier. Il en est ainsi de la performance des spores mycorhiziennes, ce qui conduit à devoir éviter de contre-sélectionner des CMA inefficients en matière de survie et de croissance de l’arganier, qu’il s’agisse de production en pépinières forestières ou de réhabilitation en milieu naturel.
How potassium deficiency alters flower bud retention on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

ABSTRACT Potassium (K) is fundamental for plant growth and development but despite the increased quantities of fertilizers applied, incidents of K deficiency are commonly observed. The objective of this study was to record the effects of K deficiency during cotton’s (Gossypium hirsutum L.) early reproductive stage on carbohydrate content and metabolism, total antioxidant capacity and oxidative damage of cotton flower buds as well as the physiology of the leaf, subtending to the flower buds. Growth chamber experiments were conducted using cotton cultivar DP0912 and treatments consisted of normal K and deficient K fertilization for the duration of the experiment. Potassium deficiency resulted in significant oxidative damage in the cotton flower buds, despite the substantial increase in their total antioxidant capacity. Sucrose metabolism of the flower buds was markedly affected resulting in significant reductions in all non-structural carbohydrate concentrations. Furthermore, K deficiency disturbed leaf physiology leading to increased membrane damage, decreases in chlorophyll and carotenoid content and ultimately leaf photosynthetic rates. Concomitant increases in specific leaf weight under K deficient conditions indicated reductions in photoassimilate translocation, which in conjunction with the disruptions observed in flower bud sucrose metabolism, due to the insufficient antioxidant response, resulted in significant decreases in flower bud retention.
Implant chargé en nanoparticules pour la libération contrôlée et le ciblage lymphatique de nucléotides et d’analogues nucléotidiques

Les nucleotides naturels et les analogues nucleotidiques presentent des activites pharmacologiques importantes : par exemple, le nucleotide adenosine triphosphate (ATP) presente un interet pour le traitement de l'ischemie ou de plaques d'atherosclerose. L'utilisation clinique de ces molecules est cependant limitee en raison de la presence d'un groupe triphosphate, qui est sujet a l'hydrolyse in vivo, et responsable de la forte hydrophilie des molecules, ce qui limite fortement leur capture par les cellules cibles et l'acces a leurs cibles pharmacologiques intracellulaires. Pour surmonter ces limitations et permettre l'administration de nucleotides et d’analogues nucleotidiques, l'utilisation de systemes de drug delivery comme les nanoparticules pourrait assurer la protection et l'administration ciblee des molecules actives. Cependant, les nanoparticules concues pour l’administration intraveineuse ne sont pas toujours adaptees au traitement de certaines maladies chroniques. C’est pour cela qu’un implant sous-cutane avec des caracteristiques de liberation prolongee peut representer une alternative valable, tout en etant peu invasif et capable d’atteindre les tissus lymphatiques, cible importante de plusieurs therapies.Le premier chapitre de cette these porte sur la formulation de nanoparticules pour encapsuler l’ATP ou la zidovudine triphosphate (AZT-TP), grâce a la presence du chitosane (CS). Ces nanoparticules sont formees par interactions ioniques entre les charges positives du chitosane et les charges negatives des groupes triphosphates de l’ATP ou de l’AZT-TP. Dans ce travail, les nanoparticules sont caracterisees et leur delivrance cellulaire de l’ATP et de l’AZT-TP est demontree sur une lignee cellulaire de macrophages. Dans un deuxieme temps, la stabilite de ces systemes a ete amelioree afin d'obtenir un meilleur comportement en conditions physiologiques. Cette amelioration de la stabilite a ete obtenue par la complexation du fer(III) au chitosane (CS-Fe). Cette strategie a ete appliquee aux nanoparticules de tripolyphosphate (TPP) et d’ATP. Les nanoparticules ont ete ensuite testees sur deux lignees de cellules macrophagiques, montrant une internalisation amelioree de l’ATP par rapport aux nanoparticules precedentes. Enfin, les nanoparticules a base de CS-Fe et ATP ont ete dispersees dans une solution de PLGA, dans le but de mettre au point un implant a formation in situ. Une fois en contact avec les fluides physiologiques, la suspension prend la forme d’un depot solide. Des etudes de liberation in vitro montrent la capacite des systemes de retenir les nanoparticules a l’interieur de la matrice et de les liberer de facon progressive pendant 5 jours. Apres administration sous-cutanee chez la souris, les implants de PLGA contenant les nanoparticules ont retenu l’ATP au lieu de l’injection jusqu’a 50 heures, compare a quelques heures pour l’ATP libre et les nanoparticules libres, montrant ainsi leur pertinence comme systemes pour la liberation prolongee de nucleotides.
Alternative reproductive tactics, an overlooked source of life history variation in the invasive round goby

Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) can generate considerable within-species life history variation but are often overlooked. Here, we use the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) to address a number of ecological and evolutionary questions about ARTs. Making use of a 12-year, multisite Laurentian Great Lakes data set, we show that the guarder male tactic was twice as common as the sneaker male tactic but that nonreproductive males were the most common morph. The ratio of guarder to sneaker males did not vary spatially despite a wide range of resource densities across sites. Guarders and sneakers spanned similar age ranges, suggesting that the ARTs are nonsequentially expressed. Based on short-term (gut contents) diet analyses, both reproductive tactics consumed fewer types of food and tended to consume fewer items overall when compared with nonreproductive males. Long-term (isotope) diet analyses showed that guarder males fed at a higher trophic level (higher δ15N) and had a broader isotopic niche. Our results show that ARTs are an important aspect of this invasive species’ breeding system and should be accounted for when assessing and managing populations.
Between Spines and Molecules: A Total Evidence Phylogeny of the Brazilian Endemic Genus Encholirium (Pitcairnioideae, Bromeliaceae)

Abstract We performed a phylogenetic study of Encholirium (Bromeliaceae, Pitcairnioideae) to test if this Brazilian endemic genus is monophyletic when including additional species and morphological characters compared to previous studies. Extensive fieldwork to increase the sampling of Encholirium and evolutionary analyses were conducted. Species of Fosterella, the sister group of the xeric clade of Pitcairnioideae, were used as outgroups. We analyzed two chloroplast DNA sequence markers (matK and ndhF) and 49 morphological characters with maximum parsimony analyses (MP), Bayesian inference (BI), and maximum likelihood (ML) with different sampling in the molecular analyses than the morphological. The phylogenetic analyses of the datasets, both independently and combined, did not recover Encholirium as monophyletic. We found few variable sites in the sequences used. This result is evidence of low nucleotide divergence and corroborates the hypothesis of the recent evolutionary history of these plants. The morphological differences between Dyckia and Encholirium, which are demonstrably associated with distinct pollination syndromes, ant-plant interactions, and single-multiple reproductive episodes, likely emerged in a short period of diversification in species assigned to these two genera.
Natural Hazard Risk and the Effect on Future Stock Returns

This research studies the effect of regional natural hazard risk to expected rates of return. I construct a novel proxy to measure regional natural hazard risk for states in the U.S. To construct firm-specific natural hazard risk, I identify all U.S. states that are economically relevant to firms and link this to the state-specific risk. I find some evidence that regional natural hazard risk can positively predict cross-sectional stock returns, but the explanatory power is limited.
Bacteriophages dynamically modulate the gut microbiota and metabolome

The human gut microbiome is comprised of densely colonizing micro-organisms in dynamic interaction with each other and the host. While the bacterial component of the microbiome is under intense investigation, far less is known about how bacteriophages impact bacterial communities in the gut. We investigated the dynamic effects of phages on a model microbiome using gnotobiotic mice colonized by commensal bacteria that colonize the human infant gut, and found that phage predation not only directly impacts susceptible bacteria but also leads to cascading effects on other bacterial species via inter-bacterial interactions. Using metabolomic profiling, we also found that the shifts in the microbiome caused by phage predation have a direct consequence on the gut metabolome. Our work provides insight into the ecological importance of phages as modulators of bacterial colonization, and additionally suggests the potential impact of gut phages on the host with implications for the use of phages as therapeutic tools to rationally and precisely modulate the microbiome.
The Impact Of Product Innovation And Market Orientation On The Competitive Advantage of Souvenirs In Padang

This study aims to analyze the influence of the dimensions of product innovation (product feature innovation, product packaging innovation, and product uniqueness innovation) and market orientation towards competitive advantage of bengkuang processed products in Padang. The population in this study are UMKM in Padang who sell bengkuang. There were 100 respondents taken by using purposive sampling technique. The data was analyzed by using path analysis through SPSS software.
How social norms affect the corporate bond market: from a sinful perspective

Ioffer a comprehensive study on the existence and drivers of a Sin firm premium on the US corporate bond market. Using a sample of 7,499 non-financialbondswithout any special featuresissued between 2000 and 2019, I providestatistically insignificantevidence that Sin firms paya23.3 bp higher credit spreadcompared to otherwise similar firms in non-Sin industries. Thisinflates the cost of corporate bonds for Sin firms by 7.9% relative to the 3.0% sample mean. The economic significance of the Sin firm premium is robust for different model specifications and Sin firm classifications. Like the literature I aim to supplement, I intendto attribute the Sin firm premium to neglect by norm-constrained institutional investors. Using time, Google trends and Republican electoral dominanceas novel proxies for social norm intensity, I can only provide weak evidence for a relationship between social normsand the Sin firm premium. Also, I investigate whether the Sin firm premium is driven by idiosyncratic risk, liquidity, or sensitivityto market-wide illiquidity. I only find an indication for the latter, on which Ibuild a suggestion for aliquidity neglect effect.
Juvenile Spring Eruption in 4 Male Family Members over 3 Generations: A Case Report

Juvenile Spring Eruption (JSE) is a unique localised photodermatoses characterised by the development of a papulovesicular rash on the helices of the ears of young boys. This condition typically occurs after sun exposure in the springtime and is considered a variant of polymorphic light eruption. It receives scant attention in the dermatology literature and is likely to be underreported. In addition, the heritability of JSE has yet to be established. Here, we describe the case of a ten-year-old patient with JSE who has three male family members with the same condition, spanning three generations.
The collapse and continued low productivity of a keystone forage fish species

Capelin are a focal forage species in the Northwest Atlantic ecosystem as they act as an energy conduit from lower to higher trophic levels. Fisheries and Oceans Canada determined that the Newfoundland capelin stock (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Divisions 2J3KL) suffered an order of magnitude decline in biomass in 1990−1991. This collapse was concomitant with drastic changes observed in the ecosystem during the late 1980s and early 1990s. While the results of more than a dozen studies have supported the capelin stock collapse hypothesis, an alternative non-collapse hypothesis proposed that rather than collapsing in 1990−1991, the capelin stock either (1) changed its migratory patterns while the timing of the spring capelin acoustic survey remained constant, leading to a spatio-temporal mismatch between the spring acoustic survey and the stock, or (2) became less migratory and remained inshore year-round, therefore being largely underestimated by the offshore spring and fall acoustic surveys. The collapse and non-collapse hypotheses were tested using multiple independent data sets, which included both fishery-dependent (inshore commercial catch) and fishery-independent (spring and fall acoustic and fall bottom-trawl surveys, capelin larval indices, aerial surveys, predator diet and behavior) data, and diverse statistical methods. The weight of evidence approach led us to reject the non-collapse hypothesis and conclude that the Newfoundland capelin stock did collapse in 1990−1991 with minimal recovery over the subsequent 3 decades.
Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of Nigella sativa crude and essential oil

Nigella sativa L. (black cumin) is well known for its benefits in the field of traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition and investigate the antimicrobial activity of cold pressed oil (CO) and essential oil (EO) of Nigella sativa L. on food-borne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria. The microdilution method was used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Nigella sativa crude oil (CO) and essential oil (EO) against 4 Gram-positive (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes) and 3 Gram-negative (Salmonella Hartford, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli) foodborne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria occurring in food products. Total fatty acid composition of CO was analysed by GLC, while the EO was analysed by GC-MS to detect its active compounds. The results showed that the major fatty acid of CO was palmitic acid (C16:0), as saturated fatty acid, however, linoleic acid (C18:2) was the main unsatura.
Who cooperates and why? Investigations of the roles of individual differences and reputation in cooperative behaviours.

WHO COOPERATES AND WHY? AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ROLES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND REPUTATION IN COOPERATION Amanda Rotella Advisor: University of Guelph, 2019 Dr. Pat Barclay In this doctoral dissertation, I apply evolutionary and ecological theories to investigate psychological mechanisms that influence cooperative behaviour. Additionally, I investigate how individual differences in prosociality influence these mechanisms, and what contributes to the development of these individual differences in prosociality. I emphasize the role of reputational consequences (i.e., in fitness costs/benefits), and how trade-offs in costs/benefits vary depending on individual differences. I also investigate the underlying trade-offs that contribute to how individual differences in prosociality are developed. In chapters 1 and 2, I investigate how individual differences in prosociality relate to responsivity to moral licensing and cleansing effects (Chapter 1), and the watching eyes effect (Chapter 2). Although I did not find moral licensing or cleansing effects (nor individual difference therein), I conducted a meta-analysis of the underlying effect responsible for moral licensing. I demonstrate that the moral licensing effect is larger when people are observed during the first of two moral actions. After correcting for publication bias, the effect was no different than zero when people where unobserved, suggesting that moral licensing is a reputation-based effect, and not a self-image effect (Chapter 1). In Chapter 2, I failed to replicate the “watching eyes” effect. However, I provide evidence of a partial replication that individual differences in social value orientation (SVO) related to responses to cues of observation. People who were less prosocial (i.e., SVO egoists) gave less in anonymous conditions (but not public conditions) than did those who were more prosocial (i.e., SVO prosocials; Chapter 2). Lastly, in Chapter 2, I use an ecological and biological markets approach to investigate why some people are more cooperative that others. Across three studies and four measures of prosocial personality, I show that dominance, risk-taking, impulsivity, family stress, and socio-sexual orientation have the most predictive validity of prosocial personalities. I provide structural equation models as proof of concept that early childhood stress and embodied capital predict these variables, which in turn predict prosociality (Chapter 3). I conclude by advancing future lines of investigation about how a strong theoretical approach based on reputation and individual differences can advance our understanding of wellestablished social effects.
Reduced serotonin receptors and transporters in normal aging adults: a meta-analysis of PET and SPECT imaging studies

Alterations in serotonin (5-HT) function have been hypothesized to underlie a range of physiological, emotional, and cognitive changes in older age. Here, we conducted a quantitative synthesis and comparison of the effects of age on 5-HT receptors and transporters from cross-sectional PET and SPECT imaging studies. Random-effects meta-analyses of 31 studies including 1087 healthy adults yielded large negative effects of age in 5-HT-2A receptors (largest in global cortex), moderate negative effects of age in 5-HT transporters (largest in thalamus), and small negative effects of age in 5-HT-1A receptors (largest in parietal cortex). Presynaptic 5-HT-1A autoreceptors in raphe/midbrain, however, were preserved across adulthood. Adult age differences were significantly larger in 5-HT-2A receptors compared to 5-HT-1A receptors. A meta-regression showed that 5-HT target, radionuclide, and publication year significantly moderated the age effects. The findings overall identify reduced serotonergic signal transmission in healthy aging. The evidence for the relative preservation of 5-HT-1A compared to 5-HT-2A receptors may partially explain psychological age differences, such as why older adults use more emotion-focused rather than problem-focused coping strategies.
Neuroendocrine signaling pathways and the nutritional control of puberty in heifers

Abstract Puberty is a complex physiological process in females that requires maturation of the reproductive neuroendocrine system and subsequent initiation of high- frequency, episodic release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). Genetics and nutrition are two major factors controlling the timing of puberty in heifers. While nutrient restriction during the juvenile period delays puberty, accelerated rates of body weight gain during this period have been shown to facilitate pubertal development by programming hypothalamic centers that underlie the pubertal process. Among the different metabolic factors, leptin plays a critical role in conveying nutritional information to the neuroendocrine axis and controlling pubertal progression. Because GnRH neurons are devoid of the leptin receptor, leptin’s effects on GnRH neurons must be relayed via an afferent neuronal network. Two neuronal populations located in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) that express the orexigenic peptide neuropeptide Y (NPY), and the anorexigenic peptide alpha melanocyte-stimulating hormone (αMSH), are key components of afferent pathways that convey inhibitory (NPY) and excitatory (αMSH) inputs to GnRH neurons. In addition, ARC neurons expressing kisspeptin, a potent stimulator of GnRH release, are also involved in the nutritional regulation of puberty. Our studies have demonstrated that increased planes of nutrition during juvenile development result in morphological and functional changes in hypothalamic pathways comprising NPY, proopiomelanocortin (POMC), and kisspeptin neurons. Changes included differential expression of NPY, POMC, and Kiss1 in the ARC, and plasticity in the axonal projections to GnRH and kisspeptin neurons. Additionally, increased rates of body weight gain also promoted changes in the pattern of DNA methylation, a key epigenetic mechanism for regulation of gene expression. Finally, our most recent findings suggest that maternal nutrition during gestation can also induce structural and functional changes in hypothalamic neurocircuitries that are likely to persist long after pubertal maturation and influence reproductive performance throughout adulthood in cattle.