Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal patterns of abundance of Kelp Gulls Larus dominicanus at breeding and non-breeding localities in southern Africa

Crawford, R.J.M. , Nel, D.C, Williams, A.J. & Scott, A. 1997. Seasonal patterns of abundance of Kelp Gulls Larus dominicanus at breeding and non-breeding localities in southern Africa. Ostrich 68 (1): 37–41. At Malgas Island, Western Cape Province, South Africa, active nest sites of Kelp Gulls were recorded from August to February, but mainly between October and December with a peak in November. In August and September all active sites were recently-made scrapes without eggs or chicks. Eggs were found from early October until January and chicks from late October to early February. At Dassen Island, Western Cape Province, numbers of adult Kelp Gulls are highest during the main October-December breeding season. After breeding, adults disperse from the island, with only 4% remaining by May. First-year birds were observed at Dassen Island from February to July, with mean numbers decreasing after April. At De Hoop, Western Cape Province, numbers of Kelp Gulls were also highest during the breeding season, but th.
Effect of Habitat on Survival of Eggs and Sex Ratio of Hatchlings of Caiman crocodilus yacare in the Pantanal, Brazil

Flooding of nests and predation were identified as the major mortality agents of eggs of Caiman crocodilus yacare in Brazil. Nests on floating grass mats and in forests were flooded in 1989, but only floating grass mats nests were flooded in 1990. Predation on eggs was high in forest nests, but my presence may have increased predation. No nest on floating grass mats was attacked by predators. The period of sex determination of C. c. yacare can extend to 40 d of incubation. I predicted nest temperature with a multiple regression model incorporating weather variables during incubation. The predicted nest temperatures for nests on floating grass mats and nests in forest were correlated with the sex ratio of the clutch. High nest temperatures (> 31.5 C) produced mostly males, and low nest temperatures (<30.5 C) produced only females. The estimated sex ratio varied between years in nests on floating grass mats, but not in forest nests. Estimated nest temperatures significantly affected the snout-vent lengths of hatchlings but not their masses. Fifty percent of nesting occurred on floating grass mats, so the destruction of this habitat by introduced animals such as the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) will adversely affect the productivity and hence long-term density of caimans in the Pantanal.
Bioprospection of cellulolytic and lipolytic South Atlantic deep-sea bacteria

Background: Cellulases and lipases have broad industrial application, which calls for an urgent exploration of microorganisms from extreme environments as valuable source of commercial enzyme. In this context, the present work describes the bioprospection and identification of deep-sea bacteria that produce cellulases and lipases, as well their optimal temperature of activity. Results: The first step of this study was the screening of cellulolytic and lipolytic deep-sea bacteria from sediment and water column, which was conducted with substrates linked with 4-Methylumbelliferyl. Among the 161 strains evaluated, 40 were cellulolytic, 23 were lipolytic and 5 exhibited both activities. Cellulolytic and lipolytic bacteria are more common in sediment than at the water column. Based on the ability to produce cellulases and lipases three isolates were selected and identified (16S rRNA sequencing) as Bacillus stratosphericus , B. aerophilus and B. pumilus . Lipases of strain B. aerophilus LAMA 582 exhibited activity at a wide temperature range (4o to 37oC) and include psychrophilic behaviour. Strain Bacillus stratosphericus LAMA 585 can growth in a rich (Luria Bertani) and minimal (Marine Minimal) medium, and does not need an inducer to produce its mesophilic cellulases and lipases. Conclusions: Deep-sea sediments have great potential for bioprospection of cellulase and lipase-producing bacteria. The strains LAMA 582 and LAMA 585 with their special features, exhibit a great potential to application at many biotechnology process.
Tree regeneration after bamboo die‐back in Chinese Abies‐Betula forests

Abstract. Gaps created by disturbance in the forest canopy are important sites for tree regeneration from seed but plants already established in gaps may slow gap-filling. This study deals with consequences of bamboo die-back for tree regeneration and the dynamics of Abies-Betula forests in southwest China. Bamboo dominates the forest understory impeding tree regeneration when in its vegetative phase. Populations of tree seedlings were sampled in 1984–85 and 1990 in two sets of permanent plots where bamboo had died back in 1983. Both Abies and Betula density increased after bamboo die-back, Betula more so than Abies, especially in gaps. Before bamboo die-back, seedlings were established on raised surfaces such as logs but afterwards seedlings became common on the forest floor. This reduced the intensity of clumping of seedling populations between 1984 and 1990. A tree by tree replacement model predicts an increase in Abies and a decrease in Betula after bamboo die-back. Life histories of tree species, gap characteristics, and the bamboo growth cycle (mature/die-back/building) interact to promote fluctuating dominance of Abies and Betula in old-growth forests.
Temporal experiences of persistent pain. Patients’ narratives from meetings with health care providers

This article is based on a study of 20 adults with persistent non-malignant pain histories lasting from three to more than 30 years. A narrative approach was used to investigate how the participants experienced their daily life with persistent pain. Data were collected by in-depth interviews, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. The study revealed disjunctions in the participants’ lives between the temporal structure of pain experience, and the common, social time. The results were, first, the temporal unpredictability of the informants’ pain experience, which constituted an obstacle to communicating the pain; second, the importance in health care provision of the patients’ pain history. Pain invaded the participants’ lives insidiously, and forced their consciousness episodically away from the common world. This temporal “confinement” caused problems of relating their pain experiences in objective time. The participants used narratives, metaphors, and emphatic expressions. When health care providers focussed on the here-and-now situation, the unpredictable though long-term character of the pain was disregarded. Several participants told of disappointing meetings with professionals, and of ineffective treatments. The importance of telling the whole pain history was emphasized. Through exploring and explicating their experiences in narratives, some participants expressed that their temporal perspective was being extending to future possibilities. The article concludes that professionals should give attention to the temporal development of pain, by listening with empathy and imagination to gain an understanding of how their patients’ lives have evolved. When patients are given time to “tell the whole story”, the professionals and the patients may develop and share a temporally continuous perspective that spans past, present and future.
Evaluating Wetland Restoration Success Using Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Assemblages in the Sacramento Valley, California

Currently, there is little professional consensus as to which ecological metrics should be used to measure restoration success in wetlands. Aquatic macroinvertebrate communities have many qualities to recommend them as useful metrics in this manner; yet, they have not been widely used to evaluate wetland restoration success. We examined the macroinvertebrate communities of four restored seasonal wetlands across a chronosequence of postrestoration age and compared them to a remnant natural wetland in the Central Valley of California. We examined two qualitatively different sets of aquatic macroinvertebrate metrics, general measures of community properties (abundance, richness, and diversity) and specific assemblage membership (nonmetric multidimensional scaling and permutational multivariate analysis of variance). Our results using these two different sets of metrics give us different answers. The general measures suggest that wetland macroinvertebrate communities converge on relatively stable values sometime after 10 years postrestoration. The specific assemblage results imply that the particular set of taxa found in restored wetlands is not predictable over the chronosequence we examined. Taken together, our results suggest that aquatic macroinvertebrate communities may be useful for measuring some aspects of restoration success but that there is unlikely to be a final aquatic community pattern indicating restoration success.
Characterization of Malassezia Furfur and its control by using plant extracts

Malassezia furfur, a lipophilic, dimorphic and yeast-like fungus, occurring in human skin as an opportunistic pathogen, causes diseases such as dandruff, pityriasis versicolar, seborrheic dermatitis, etc. Suitable media for culturing the organism were standardized. A modified medium for the culturing of M. furfur has been proposed. Growth of the fungus was also determined in the presence of different carbon sources under the influence of different temperature, pH and salinity. Plant extracts of 19 species were screened against the growth of the fungus by using disc diffusion method and the results are discussed.
Internal marketisation and teachers defending their educational setting – Accounting and mobilisation in Swedish upper secondary education

The article shows how, today, internal marketisation processes are intrinsic to Swedish educational municipal managerialism, and how accounting practices are continual, frequent and dispersed and part of teachers’ professional work. A case study is presented as an outline of a teacher teams’ response to an accounting request and their mobilisation to defend their pedagogic activity for pupils ineligible for regular upper secondary education. The accounting response involves translating, collective editing and inscribing the pupils and the pedagogical activity. We show how teachers have become skilled practitioners of accounting practices. Our case provides an empirical example in line with research on performance management: there is no possibility for teachers not to involve themselves in the techniques in use and employing the right signifiers when defending their pedagogical activity. As accounting practices are dispersed and teachers have acquired accounting skills, the practice of accounting is continuously reinforced and strengthened.
Effects of Age and Dietary Fibre Level on Caecal Microbial Communities of Conventional and Specific Pathogen-Free Rabbits

Caecal community structure in conventional and specific pathogen-free (SPF) rabbits was assessed by performing dot-blot hybridization with 16S rRNA targeted oligonucleotide probes. The variation of the caecal flora was analysed according to age (18-70 days old), nutritional status (acid detergent fibre=19% in standard and 9% in fibre-deficient diet) and rabbit health (healthy vs diarrhoeic). Caecal flora was stabilized at around 25-28 days. Bacteria and archaea represented 73% and 22%, respectively, of the total microbial communities at weaning (28 days). Cellulolytic bacteria ( Ruminococcus albus, R. flavefaciens, Fibrobacter succinogenes and F. intestinalis ) represented <7% of total bacteria, with a predominance of R. flavefaciens and R. albus, respectively, for conventional and SPF rabbits. Bacterial and archaeal rRNAs were twofold higher in conventional than in SPF rabbits, fed standard diet ( p <0.001). In conventional rabbits, archaeal community was twofold higher with standard diet than with fibre-deficient diet. In both types of rabbits, quantities of Flexibacter-Cytophaga-Bacteroides rRNA were twofold higher with fibre-deficient diet than with standard diet. In diarrhoeic conventional rabbits, the proportion of eukaryal rRNA increased 4-fold, but proportions of bacterial and archaeal rRNA decreased by 1-, 2- and 6-fold, respectively. The quantities of rRNA of F. succinogenes and F. intestinalis in conventional rabbits were, respectively 17 and 5 times higher in sick than in healthy animals, and decreased by 7-fold for R. albus. This study shows some microbial interactions according to nutrition and health of the rabbit.
Influence of Microbial Flora on Macrophages

The purpose of this article was to collect the existing data on the influence of bacterial flora on the properties of macrophages which represent one of the first lines of non specific defence against microbial invasion and tumours. To the effects of indigenous microflora were added those of lactic acid bacteria potentially usable as dietary supplements which have been widely investigated. The results of these studies indicate that functions important in host defence, such as chemotaxis, phagocytosis, cytotoxicity, intracellular killing of bacteria as well as cytokine production, appear to be, at least in part, under the control of the indigenous microflora. Though lactic acid bacteria exert stimulating effects on macrophage functions, their impact is less clearly established and seems to be strain- and test system-dependent. Results showing macrophage activation in humans by orally administered lactic bacteria are very limited and more studies are needed to correlate the stimulation of macrophage functions and positive health effects of these probiotic products.
Mutans streptococci and lactobacilli on healthy and carious teeth in the same mouth of children with and without dental caries

Interactions between mutans streptococci and lactobacilli contribute towards the microbial challenge of dental caries. A comparison was made between numbers of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli in plaque from primary teeth in healthy children and between caries-free teeth and carious lesions in the same mouth of children with caries. The study group comprised 107 nursery-school children with a clinically healthy dentition and 117 children with caries. After a dental examination with mirror only, plaque was sampled from molar tooth 84 in caries-free children. An untreated carious lesion and a healthy tooth contralateral to the lesion was sampled in children with caries. Plaque was collected using a sterile wooden toothpick, inoculated into reduced transport fluid and processed for microbiology. Results showed no relationship between mutans streptococci, lactobacilli counts and dmft in children with caries. Yet, statistically significant correlation was found in counts of mutans streptococci (r=0.46, P=0.0001) between caries-free teeth and carious lesions in the same mouth. Mutans streptococci and lactobacilli numbers were significantly higher in caries-free teeth in children with caries than in healthy children (P=0.05; P=0.01). Mutans streptococci comprised 4.3% of total viable count in caries-free children, 8.2% in caries-free teeth and 14.4% in carious lesions, while lactobacilli composed 0.02%, 0.12% and 1.2% respectively. To conclude, high mutans streptococci counts in carious lesions causes an increase of these bacteria in caries-free teeth contralateral to the lesion in the same mouth, while caries-free teeth have statistically higher numbers than healthy teeth in children without caries in which the numbers are low.
Alterações morfológicas e acúmulo de compostos fenólicos em plantas de sorgo sob estresse de alumínio

The Al+3 effects on the morphology and on the phenolics accumulation were evaluated in two sorghum cultivars exhibiting differential tolerance to Al+3. The plants were kept in nutrient solution, for ten days, in the presence (185 mM) or Al+3 absence. The root apexes were colored with ferric hematoxylin, and because the intensity of color development is very similar among evaluated cultivars, the use of this method as a selection parameter for Al+3-tolerance is not indicated. Analyses of superficial and internal morphology from tissues treated with Al+3 also expressed very similar alterations among the two cultivars, not allowing its use for selection between sensitive and Al+3-tolerant genotype. The higher lignin accumulation and, mainly, the lower phenolics production in roots of the BR006R cultivar in Al+3's presence, demonstrated the existence of differential tolerance among cultivars.
Enteric Toxins from Bacteria Colonizing Human Gut

The large and heterogeneous microbial population colonising the human intestinal tract includes a number of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria that produce one or more toxins. While exhibiting very different physico-chemical properties these exotoxins share the ability to penetrate intestinal cells after their binding to a specific surface receptor, thus reaching a subcellular target at membrane or cytoskeleton level. The most relevant in vitro and in vivo data, reported in the literature, on the mode of action of the major enterotoxins and cytotoxins produced by bacteria belonging to the human gut microflora are reviewed in the light of our recent knowledge on bacteria-host cell interactions.
Egg size and shape, clutch dynamics, and reproductive effort in European tortoises

Energetic aspects of female reproduction are described for the tortoises Testudo graeca, Testudo marginata, and Testudo hermanni (three populations of different body size) from northern Greece. Egg width increased with body size in some populations, but smaller individuals produced more elongate eggs, and egg weight was not related to body size. This method for overcoming the constraint of the width of the pelvic canal means that egg width is a poor measure of egg size. Clutch size, clutch mass, and annual egg production varied with body size between populations. Mean relative clutch mass ranged from 4 to 7%, and was highest in the three populations of T. hermanni. All populations laid two or three clutches per year, based on the total number of eggs and large follicles divided by clutch size. Multiple clutches reflect the morphological constraint of packing shelled eggs within the body, rather than energy accumulation during the nesting period. Material for reproduction was stored in growing follicles ra.
The histology of processes associated with the infection of resistant and susceptible wheat cultivars with Septoria tritici

The development of Septoria tritici blotch on seedling leaves of the wheat cultivars Shafir (susceptible) and KVZ-K4500 L.6. A.4 (resistant) was studied by light and fluorescence microscopy. Appressoria were usually located above a stomatal opening. Percentage germination, formation of appressoria and the pattern of invasion of the substomatal chamber were the same in the susceptible and resistant cultivars. Growth of hyphae was observed in the intercellular spaces of the leaf tissue of both cultivars. Autofluorescence was more commonly observed in the resistant accession, as was the affinity for trypan blue dye. Some lignification of cell walls and sparse deposition of callosic materials occurred in the resistant line. Leaves of KVZ-K4500 L.6. A.4, which macroscopically appeared pycnidia-free, revealed microscopically the presence of arrested, immature, pycnidia-like aggregations that did not progress further under prolonged environmental conditions conducive for pycnidial induction.
Dispersal of Trichogramma ostriniae in field corn

Abstract Trichogramma ostriniae has shown success as a biological control agent for European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) in sweet corn and the species offers potential for suppression of lepidopteran pests of field corn. Field corn is typically planted at higher densities, is taller, and has greater leaf area than sweet corn, presenting a possible restriction on T. ostriniae dispersal and efficacy. Therefore, parasitoid dispersal in field corn from the centre of a 6.25 ha square grid was determined using sticky cards to capture adult T. ostriniae and sentinel eggs of O. nubilalis to monitor parasitism after releases of ~1 million of T. ostriniae each into four fields of corn. Dispersal was rapid and extensive, achieving distances of ~175 m within 4–7 days after release. The pattern of movement fit well with a diffusion model of dispersal, with the greatest level of dispersal occurring from 7 to 10 days post-release. Parasitism of O. nubilalis sentinel egg masses declined linearly with distance from the release foci, and was also greatest 7–10 days post-release. However, measurement of association showed no significant differences between the spatial distributions of sticky trap captures and percentage parasitism of O. nubilalis egg masses. The distances from the release point that encompassed 98% of re-captured T. ostriniae increased over time and were estimated to range from a low of 100 m at 4 days post-release to 365 m at 14 days post-release. The results of this research suggest that T. ostriniae relies initially on random movement to locate host patches, and that a single release locus per hectare would be sufficient in field corn.
Development of Canopy Reflectance Algorithms for Real-Time Prediction of Bermudagrass Pasture Biomass and Nutritive Values

Timely assessments of forage biomass production and nutritive values during the growing season are important for livestock managers to make decisions for adjusting stocking rate and pasture management. Remote sensing of canopy reflectance may provide a rapid and inexpensive means of estimating pasture nutritive values and biomass. The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between neutral detergent fiber (NDF), add detergent fiber (ADF), crude protein (CP) concentration, biomass, and CP availability of bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. ] pastures and canopy reflectance. An experiment was conducted in the 2002 and 2003 growing seasons using three bermudagrass pastures of 'Midland', 'Ozarka', and an experimental hybrid, 72x12-12. Pasture CP concentration, biomass and CP availability correlated linearly with the reflectance ratios of R 605 / R 515 , R 915 /R 975 , and R 875 /R 725 (0.44 ≤ r 2 ≤ 0.63) as well as with the first derivatives of reflectance with wavebands centered at 545, 935, and 755 nm (0.49 ≤ r 2 £ 0.68). Linear equations between each forage variable and the ratios or derivatives of reflectance were developed on the basis of data pooled across years, plant genotypes, and sampling dates. Validation of developed equations indicated that the CP concentration, biomass, and CP availability could be predicted by either the ratios or derivatives of the reflectance. Pasture NDF and ADF had lower correlation with canopy reflectance than other measured variables. Our results suggest that two-narrow-waveband reflectance ratios or the first derivatives in visible and near-infrared spectral regions can be used for real-time and nondestructive prediction of forage productivity and CP content in bermudagrass pastures.
Crop filling and crop emptying by the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans L.

In Stomoxys the immediate destination of sugar or blood is the midgut, and not the crop. The filling of the crop with blood appears to involve several factors, including age, ambient temperature, temperature of the blood meal, disturbance of the fly, and interrupted feedings. In all experiments the sex of the fly had no effect on crop filling. The age of the fly did not influence crop filling when flies fed by piercing the skin. The crop empties of blood in 10–15 min. Rate of crop emptying of sugar solutions depended upon the molarity of solutions consumed.
Phenological Observations of Nineteen Native Tree Species in Northeastern Minnesota

Catana, Jr., A. J. 1955. The wandering quadrant-a new ecological sampling method utilizing interspace measurements. Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. 36: 88. Clark, P. J. and F. C. Evans. 1954. Distance to nearest neighbor as a measure of spatial relationships in populations. Ecology 35: 445-453. Cottam, Grant and J. T. Curtis. 1949. A method for making rapid surveys of woodlands by means of pairs of randomly selected trees. Ecology 30: 101104.