Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing body condition in the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus): a comparison of new and old methods

Abstract. Body condition is an important aspect of the health of any animal. The current standard method of body condition assessment in the platypus is the tail volume index (TVI). Although the tail is the largest repository of fat in the platypus, the reliability of TVI has not been adequately demonstrated. The aims of this study were, first to assess performance of the TVI, and second, to develop and evaluate performance of new techniques for routine field assessment of platypus body condition. Morphometric data were collected under anaesthesia from 137 adult wild platypuses (74 males, 63 females) captured in north-west Tasmania; ultrasound images of tail fat were also collected from 100 of these individuals (54 males, 46 females). Three new indices for platypus body condition were identified. An objective tail fat index (Relative Tail Fat Volume: RTFVTBL ) was developed, based on cross-sectional area measurements taken from detailed ultrasound images compared with total body length (TBL). Two body condition indices intended for routine field use were developed – one based on body mass (mb ) and bill width (BW) (Body Condition Index; BCIBW ), and the other based on a single linear ultrasonographic measurement of tail fat depth and BW (Relative Fat Depth; RFDBW). Results indicated that RFDBW outperforms TVI as an index of platypus tail fat. Further work, however, is needed to determine the relationship between tail fat and total body fat in the platypus before conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of BCIBW as a body condition index.
Maternal Care as Exhibited by Wolf Spiders

This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu. Recommended Citation Eason, Ruth Robinson (1964) "Maternal Care as Exhibited by Wolf Spiders," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 18 , Article 6. Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol18/iss1/6 brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac. uk
Effect of Dietary Energy, Protein, Lysine, Versatile Enzyme, And Peptides on Commercial Leghorns

This study was a 3 × 7 factorial arrangement of 3 lysine levels (0.917, 0.828, and 0.747) and seven commercial brown egg layer strains. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of increasing dietary lysine on performance, egg composition, egg solids, egg quality and profits in seven commercial brown egg layer strains and to determine the lysine requirement during phase one (from 21 to 36 wk of age). This experiment lasted 16 weeks. Seven strains of hens (n = 240 of each strain) at 21 week of age were randomly divided into 21 treatments (8 replicates of 10 birds/ treatment). The results showed that there were no interactions between lysine and strain on any parameter. Lysine had significant effects on egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion, percent albumen solids, yolk color, shell color, albumen weight, egg shell and albumen components. There were significant strain effects on egg production, feed consumption, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion, specific gravity, yolk weight, shell color, shell, albumen and yolk components, yolk, albumen and whole egg solids. Strain 1 had the best overall performance. All strains peaked in production over 94% and were laying 94 to 96% at 36 weeks of age. Average egg weight (21wk to 36wk) was 60.3g, varying from 59.0 to 62.8 g between strains. Average feed intake was 112.3g/hen/day varying from
Population Biology of Typha latifolia L. and Typha angustifolia L.: Establishment, Growth and Reproduction in a Constructed Wetland

This study investigates the germination, establishment, growth and reproduction of the native wetland species, Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia, by performing different experiments and by observing the development of a planted stand in a constructed wetland in southern Germany. Both species expressed high germination percentages and vegetative reproduction. A model based on the data from the studies showed that T. latifolia was able to produce a ten-fold higher number of offspring under optimal conditions. Generally Typha latifolia expresses the characteristics of a pioneer with very efficient generative reproduction, while T. angustifolia is adapted to more competitive strategies.
Composition and Variation Analysis of the TCR -Chain CDR3 Repertoire inSystemic Lupus Erythematosus Using High-Throughput Sequencing by Sui,et al

2Clinical Medical Research Center, the Second Clinical Medical College of Jinan University (Shenzhen People’s Hospital), Shenzhen, Guangdong, P.R China *Corresponding author: Hongyan Diao, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, Tel: 0123456789; E-mail: diao.hy@163.com
Within-Host and Population-level Modeling of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C Virus Dynamics

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) pandemic is one of the largest events to impact global human health in the past 30 years. Epidemic and within-host infection dynamics are affected by co-infections, especially by Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). In this dissertation, I present mathematical modeling analyses across scales to answer the question of which strategies have the greatest impact on controlling the co-epidemics of HIV and HCV. I address this question from the perspective of public health policy and intervention (Chapters 1-2), discussing the epidemiological dynamics for HIV in Newark, NJ, a city with one of the most severe epidemics in the US. This research shows that for there to be significant impact on incidence, care-continuum interventions must be bundled; and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is most effective when targeted at specific high-risk populations. These results underscore the need for addressing the “leaky” care pipeline. I highlight the role of immune function in HCV clearance in a within-host model of HCV/HIV coinfection dynamics that incorporates treatment efficacy. Our analysis sheds light on the tradeoffs involved in choosing between treatment protocols, and how both duration and efficacy need to be taken into account carefully in coinfected patients, especially in light of new direct-acting antiviral treatments (DAAs) that are becoming available (Chapter 3). Focusing in on HCV mono-infection, I build on the methodology and framework discussed in Chapter 3 to explore HCV’s unusual viral evolution dynamics. Testing various hypotheses including spatial-structure, latency, extra-hepatic replication and selective sweeps in a model of viral evolution can help elucidate HCV within-host dynamics, which can aid in effective treatment design (Chapter 4). Coinfection and epidemiological modeling are combined in a nested approach that I use to explore relative impacts of antiretroviral and methadone maintenance treatment scale-up, and HCV treatment rollout on HIV/HCV disease burden in Ho Chi iii Minh City, Vietnam (Chapter 5). These model results indicate that scale-up of antiretroviral therapy has a major impact on HIV, but a negligible impact on HCV. Methadone scale-up has an impact on both infections, and HCV treatment roll-out can increase multifold the reductions in death rates afforded by the other interventions.
Effects of Low-Dose Applications of 2,4-D and Dicamba on Watermelon

Abstract The commercial release of crops with engineered resistance to 2,4-D and dicamba will alter the spatial and temporal use of these herbicides. This, in turn, has elicited concerns about off-target injury to sensitive crops. In 2014 and 2015, studies were conducted in Tifton, GA, to describe how herbicide (2,4-D and dicamba), herbicide rate (1/75 and 1/250 field use), and application timing (20, 40, and 60 DAP) influence watermelon injury, vine development, yield, and the accumulation of herbicide residues in marketable fruit. In general, greater visual injury and reductions in vine growth, relative to the non-treated check, were observed when herbicide applications were made before watermelon plants had begun to flower. Although the main effects of herbicide and rate were less influential than the timing of applications with respect to plant development, the 1/75 rates were more injurious than the 1/250 rates; dicamba was more injurious than 2,4-D. In 2014, the 1/75 and 1/250 rates of each herbicide reduced marketable fruit numbers 13 to 20%, but only for the 20 DAP application. The 1/75 rate of each herbicide when applied at either 20 or 40 DAP reduced the number of fruit harvested per plot in 2015. Dicamba residues were detected in marketable fruit when the 1/75 rate in 2014 and 2015 and the 1/250 rate in 2015 was applied to plants at 40 or 60 DAP. Residues of 2,4-D were detected in 2015 when the 1/75 and 1/250 rates were applied at 60 DAP. Across both years, the maximum level of residue detected was 0.030 ppm. While early season injury may reduce watermelon yields, herbicide residue detection is more likely in marketable fruit when an off-target contact incident occurs closer to harvest. Nomenclature: 2,4-D; dicamba; watermelon; Citrullus lanatus, (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai
Solving the multifunctionality dilemma in biorefineries with a novel hybrid mass–energy allocation method

Processing biomass into multifunctional products can contribute to food, feed, and energy security while also mitigating climate change. However, biorefinery products nevertheless impact the environment, and this influence needs to be properly assessed to minimize the burden. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to calculate environmental footprints of products, but distributing the burdens among the different biorefinery products is a challenge. A particular complexity arises when the outputs are a combination of energy carrying no mass, and mass carrying no energy, where neither an allocation based on mass nor on energy would be appropriate. A novel hybrid mass–energy (HMEN) allocation scheme for dealing with multifunctionality problems in biorefineries was developed and applied to five biorefinery concepts. The results were compared to results of other allocation methods in LCA. The reductions in energy use and GHG emissions from using the biorefinery's biofuels were also quantified. HMEN fairly distributed impacts among biorefinery products and did not change the order of the products in terms of the level of the pollution caused. The allocation factors for HMEN fell between mass and economic allocation factors and were comparable to energy allocation factors. Where the mass or the energy allocation failed to attribute burdens, HMEN addressed this shortcoming by assigning impacts to nonmass or to nonenergy products. Under the partitioning methods and regardless of the feedstock used, bioethanol reduced GHG by 72–98% relative to gasoline. The GHG savings were 196% under the substitution method, but no GHG savings occurred for sugar beet bioethanol under the surplus method. Bioethanol from cellulosic crops had lower energy use and GHG emissions than from sugar beet, regardless of the allocation method used. HMEN solves multifunctional problems in biorefineries and can be applied to other complex refinery systems. LCA practitioners are encouraged to further test this method in other case studies.
Soil aggregate stability and organic matter as affected by land-use change in central Iran

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate the soil aggregate stability and selected soil quality indicators in various land uses in a semiarid region in central Iran. Random soil sampling was used to collect soil samples from surface (0–5 cm) and subsurface (5–25 cm) soil layers in rangelands of different condition classes, dry farmland and abandoned land. The aggregate size distribution indices including mean weight diameter (MWD), geometric mean diameter (GMD) and median diameter (D50) of water-stable aggregates in the collected soil samples were measured. Our findings showed that percent of macroaggregates (>0.25 mm) of the surface and subsurface layers in rangelands of different condition classes were significantly higher than dry farmlands and abandoned lands (P < 0.05). Results showed that the trend of changes in soil organic matter was similar to soil aggregate stability in different land uses in both soil layers as follows: rangeland with good condition > rangeland with poor condition > abandoned land > dry farmlands. The structural stability indices (i.e. MWD, GMD and D50) of rangelands with good condition were significantly greater than other land uses (P < 0.05). This highlights the importance of maintaining native rangeland to prevent organic matter loss, structure deterioration and soil erosion.
Integrated crop-livestock farming system for sustainable agricultural production in Nigeria

Integrated crop-livestock is advocated to be very promising in boosting food productivity and soil fertility in Nigeria owing to its numerous synergistic benefits as outlined in this review. Particularly, the system will be very suitable in the savannah regions of the country where livestock production is predominant. Although integrated crop-livestock farming has been in existence in these regions, it is typically cereal based-livestock system resulting in perennial depletion of soil fertility. Introduction of legumes into the system to form cereal-legume-livestock system can function as a key integrating factor through improvement of soil fertility, provision of healthy protein in the human diet and fodder for livestock consumption. This paper therefore, aimed to review the benefits of introduction of legumes like cowpea into the long existing cereal based livestock farming in Nigeria, particularly in the savannah regions of the country in order to boost food security and income of the farmers. The review showed that incorporation of cowpea into the system will in greater measure increase the overall food productivity, ensures sustainability of the soil fertility and substantially improves the income of the farmers in the country.
Livestock effect on floristic composition and vegetation structure of two desert scrublands in northwest Coahuila, Mexico

Abstract Microphyllous and rosetophyllous desert scrub plant communities dominate large parts of the state of Coahuila, Mexico, yet differences in how livestock grazing impacts these two plant communities are not well documented. In order to address this knowledge gap, we assessed livestock impact on plant species composition and vegetation structure in microphyllous and rosetophyllous desert scrublands in this northwestern Mexican state. We collected plant density, frequency, and cover data from sites with and without livestock grazing pressure that were otherwise similar in plant composition. We quantified intersite differences using the importance value index (IVI) and the Bray-Curtis similarity index. The species with the highest IVI for microphyllous scrubland were lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla), honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), and creosote bush (Larrea tridentata); however, in sites with presence of domestic herbivores, desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) and spiny hackberry (Celtis pallida) also showed high values. Plant species with the highest IVIs in rosetophyllous scrublands were lechuguilla, creosote bush, mariola (Parthenium incanum), and blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) for both land use types. The Bray-Curtis similarity index between microphyllous desert scrub and rosetophyllous desert scrub was 62%. Moreover, microphyllous scrub with and without livestock had 48% similarity, whereas rosetophyllous scrub sites with and without livestock were 65% similar. Results indicate that livestock grazing significantly modifies plant species composition and vegetation structure in both types of the studied desert scrublands.
Endocrine disrupters affecting male rat reproductive development - focus on phthalates and the fetal testis

The plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) exhibits antiandrogenic effects in perinatally exposed male rats. Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) and diisononyl phthalate (DINP) are currently being evaluated as potential substitutes for DEHP, but similarities in structure and metabolism of DEHP with DEHA and DINP have led to the hypothesis that similarities in action may also exist. Pregnant Wistar rats were gavaged during gestation and lactation with vehicle, DEHP (300 or 750 mg/kg bodyweight per day), DINP (750 mg/kg bodyweight per day), DEHP (750 mg/kg bodyweight per day) in combination with DEHA (400 mg/kg bodyweight per day), or DEHP (300 mg/kg bodyweight per day) in combination with DINP (750 mg/kg bodyweight per day). DINP and DEHP were both shown to reduce testicular testosterone production ex vivo and testosterone levels in testes and plasma of male fetuses at gestation day 21, indicating a similar mechanism of action for DINP and DEHP. Additionally, plasma LH levels in male fetuses were elevated. Neonatal anogenital distance was reduced and the number of nipples at postnatal day 13 increased in DEHP-exposed male offspring. Serum inhibin B levels were significantly reduced in DEHP-exposed prepubertal male offspring, and in a few adult males. No modulating effects of DEHA on the endocrine effects of DEHP were detected, but a tendency towards an accumulating effect of DEHP and DINP in combination on suppression of testosterone synthesis was seen. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Investigation on Food Ecology of three Cichlid Species in the Mankessim Reservoir, Central Region of Ghana

The Mankessim Reservoir supports a thriving cichlid fishery that provides both financial gain and nutritional value to the people. Fish samples of Hemichromis fasciatus, Tilapia zillii and Sarotherodon melanotheron were obtained from artisanal fishermen by gill nets (10 m long and 1.5 m deep, 3, 6 and 12 mm mesh) and cast nets (25 mm mesh and 2.5 m radius) in the reservoir (5018''52.08'''N 1001''45.08'''W) from September 2011 to August 2012. Physicochemical parameters were measured in situ and nutrients level determined by the spectrophotometric method. Stomach contents were analyzed using the frequency of occurrence and “points” method and condition was evaluated by means of Fulton condition index. As a result, food resources exploited by T. zillii and S. melanotheron were highly similar. T. zillii fed more on plant material and benthic invertebrates with diatoms (Navicula spp., Pinnularia nobilis, Frustulia rohomboides, Stephanodiscus cymbella, Melosira spp., Gyrosigma spp., Tabellaria sp. and Diatoma sp.) blue green (mainly Ulothrix sp. Oscillatoria spp., Anabaena spp., and Microspora sp.) and desmids being the most preferred algae. S. melanotheron ingested more of debris, and fed on considerable amount of algae and benthic invertebrates mainly chironomid larvae and oligochaetes showing a high level of trophic flexibility. The three cichlids showed very good condition (1.75 ± 0.11 - 1.98 ± 0.40). This could probably be as a result of the observed favourable environmental conditions as all physicochemical parameters were within acceptable limits for their sustenance except for phosphates (1.68 ± 0.04 mg/L to 5.37 ± 0.02 mg/L). Key words: Hemichromis fasciatus, Tilapia zillii, Sarotherodon melanotheron, Cichlids, Physicochemical parameters, Condition factor
Managing for delicious ecosystem service under climate change: can United States sugar maple (Acer saccharum) syrup production be maintained in a warming climate?

ABSTRACT Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is a highly valued tree in United States (US) and Canada, and its sap when collected from taps and concentrated, makes a delicious syrup. Understanding how this resource may be impacted by climate change and other threats is essential to continue management for maple syrup into the future. Here, we evaluate the current distribution of maple syrup production across twenty-three states within the US and estimate the current potential sugar maple resource based on tree inventory data. We model and project the potential habitat responses of sugar maple using a species distribution model with climate change under two future General Circulation Models (GCM) and emission scenarios and three time periods (2040, 2070, 2100). Our results show that under GFDL-A1Fi (high CO2 emissions), sugar maple habitat is projected to decline (mean ratio of future habitat to current habitat per state = 0.46, sd ± 0.33), which could lead to reduced maple syrup production per tree and nearly 5 million additional taps required to maintain current projection levels. If global emissions are reduced and follow a lower trajectory of warming (under PCM-B1), then habitat for the species may be maintained but would still require management intervention. Finally, our results point to regions, particularly along the northern tier, where both climate change impacts and currently developing sugar maple habitat may signify viable opportunities to increase maple syrup production. EDITED BY Christine Fürst
Gene Diversity at Three Tetrameric STR Loci Among Eight Ethnic Populations of West Bengal and Manipur, India

Abstract The nature and extent of genetic variation at 3 STR loci (HUM HPRTB, F13Band LPL) were investigated among 8 population groups of West Bengal and Manipur regions of India. Of which, two groups from West Bengal belong to Caucasoid and six (one in WB and five in Manipur) belong to Mongoloid stock. Mongoloid shows similarities in some alleles and differences in some other alleles in STR loci. For example, Manipur Muslims show differences in STR allele frequency when compared to other four regional populations. Similarly Garo, one of the Mongoloid populations of West Bengal differ in allele frequency from their counterparts in Manipur region. Heterozygosity values are higher for Caucasoid than Mongoloid group. The overall gene differentiation for STR loci is 5.3%. The clustering pattern for the eight populations shows distinct clusters for Caucasoid and Mongoloid group, whereas Manipur Muslims stand apart from others. The genetic affinities based on DNA markers do not completely disagree with the results obtained from classical genetic markers.