Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Sampling Methods on the Estimation of Population Structure in Painted Turtles

A natural population of painted turtles [Chrysemys picta (Schneider)] was studied in University Bay of Lake Mendota, Dane County, Wisconsin, from September 1960 to October 1962. Five methods were used to capture turtles for marking, measurement, and release. Each of the methods yielded a different size-class distribution and a sex ratio which, in four out of five cases, was significantly different from that of the total population estimate. Baited hoop nets yielded predominantly males and relatively few juveniles; basking traps tended to yield higher percentages of females than did nets, and large turtles were an important component of the sample. Hand capture resulted in a sample heavily weighted by juveniles and a 1: 1 sex ratio for adults. The influence of trapping method in the estimation of population structure in turtles must not be overlooked. This study indicates that even within a species, trapping method introduces considerable bias in the estimation of sex ratio and size-class distribution. INTRODUCTION The structure of turtle populations, as estiimated by different authors (Cagle, 1942, 1944, 1954; Pearse, 1923; Sexton, 1959), has varied considerably even within the same species. Although this variation may be due to inherent differences in the populations studied, or to various ecological factors affecting each population with different intensities, it is more probable that the disparity lies in the sampling method used by the investigators. Cagle and Chaney (1950) suggested that sampling methods are biased by the behavioral patterns of the size classes and sexes that make up the population, but we are unaware of any study that has compared the variation in estimation of population and its strutcture brought about by use of different sampling methods. A natural population of Chrysemys picta (Schneider) was studied in University Bay of Lake Mendota, Dane County, Wisconsin, from September 1960 to October 1962. The central painted turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata (Agassiz) and the western painted turtle, Chrysemys picta belli (Gray) intergrade in this region (Pope, 1949). Five methods were used to capture a maximum number of turtles for marking, measurement, and release. Variant results obtained from use of these methods were sufficiently striking to, warrant a comparison of the methods. Acknowledgments. -This study was done with the aid of two NSF Summer Fellowships for Teaching Assistants. Additional financial assistance for field equipment and limited field assistance was provided by a grant to Dr. W. G. Reeder from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation through the University of Wisconsin Graduate School. Appreciation for encouragement and constructive criticism is given to Dr. W. G. Reeder, Dr. J. M. Legler, and Dr.
Molecular diversity of glutamate receptors and its molecular mechanism

Glutamate is an important neurotransmitter that initates synaptic excitation by binding to corresponding cell membrane receptors in the central nervous system,resulting in the change of permeating cations of cell membrane and metabolic change of cell by coupling to G proteins. Over past few years, the research in glutamate receptors and their genes suggested that glutamate receptors are diversified in structure and function due to multiple genes,alternative splicing, RNA editing and heteromeric formation. It should be expected that investigation in glutamate receptors and their genes will provide instructive suggestion to molecular mechanism of many important brain functions and drug design for the neurodegenerative diseases related to these receptors.
Effects of climate and forest age on plant and caterpillar diversity in the Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract: Understanding patterns in plant and herbivorous insect diversity across spatial and temporal scales is fundamental to ecology, but comparative multi-taxonomic studies in tropical seasonally dry forests remain scarce. In 36 sites, distributed over three forest age classes (5–10 y, 10–30 y, >100 y) and three seasonal forest types (dry, intermediate, humid), we sampled plants of different stem diameter classes while caterpillars were sampled across vertically distributed forest layers during three seasons over the year. We recorded 299 plant species and 485 caterpillar morphospecies. For large woody plants, species numbers showed a gradually increasing trend with forest age in the intermediate and humid forest types, while the main portion of explained variation in overall species turnover was accounted for by the forest type × forest age interaction (21.3–23.1% of 44.4–48.7%). Ordinations and multivariate pairwise comparisons suggested a faster but also very distinct successional development of species diversity of large plants in the driest compared with humid and intermediate forest types. In contrast, highest species numbers of small plants in the undergrowth was often found in the 5–10 y-old vegetation across forest types, whereas forest type was the major factor in overall species turnover (contributing 24.2% of 48.7% explained variation). Caterpillar species turnover was most correlated to species turnover of small plants; however, variation in caterpillar species diversity appears to be mostly regulated by seasonal cues, and to a lesser extent by patterns of regional turnover and local diversity of undergrowth plant species.
The decline and current status of the Christmas Island shrew Crocidura Attentuata Trichura on Christmas Island, Indian Ocean

The Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura Attentuata Trichura) is listed as an endangered species an Australian legislation. The cause of decline and its current status are unknown. In 1997-98 surveys were conducted at 15 sites on Christmas Island to determine the status of Crocidura Attentuata Trichura. During 17 months, 4,150 trap nights of surveys were conducted using Longworth traps, hair tubes and pitfall maps.
ISSR analysis of the F_1 hybrids of scallop Chlamys farreri ♀×Patinopecten yessoensis ♂

ISSR-PCR(Inter Simple Sequence Repeats-Polymerase Chain Reaction)technique was used to analyse scallops Chlamys farreri ♀,Patinopecten yessoensis ♂ and their hybrids in order to probe into the application of this technique in scallop hybrid identification and verifying the sibship between parents and hybrids.Four primers screened out from twenty ISSR primers were employed to amplify the genome DNA of Chlamys farreri ♀,Patinopecten yessoensis ♂ and their hybrids.153 distinct and highly reproducible ISSR bands were detected,in which 38 bands were the special bands of Chlamys farreri ♀ and 32 bands were the special bands of Patinopecten yessoensis ♂. The ISSR electrophoretogram confirmed that the filial generation was the hybrids of Chlamys farreri ♀ and Patinopecten yessoensis ♂. The average genetic similarity coefficient between hybrids and Chlamys farreri ♀ was 0.6086,and the average genetic similarity coefficient between hybrids and Patinopecten yessoensis ♂ was 0.4402,indicating that the hybrids were genetically closer to their maternal stock Chlamys farreri ♀.
[Biological and socioeconomic determinants of child survival].

This document describes advances in a conceptual framework under development since 1984 for research on child survival in developing countries. The framework links variables explaining biologically determined disease processes to social determinants in the family and community. The major addition is the extension of previous models of proximate determinants to include fertility-child survival interactions, as well as the interaction between child growth and child survival. The role of health policies within the framework of proximate determinants is also explored. A strategy oriented toward specific diseases will not prove successful in developing countries, where most infant and child deaths are not due to a single cause but rather are the final product of a series of episodes of infection combined with malnutrition. Health policies must therefore identify the risk factors that reduce probabilities of survival as well as the pathologies that actually cause death. Risk factors can be classified as proximate determinants, the basic biological mechanisms that directly influence risks of morbidity and mortality, and underlying determinants, all the other social and environmental determinants that operate indirectly through the proximate determinants to influence infant survival. The 1st step in applying the focus on proximate determinants is to achieve a clear understanding of some measurable biological indicators of health and child survival or of their opposites, illness and death. Abnormal growth has been found to be a sensitive and nonspecific indicator of morbidity in children. Measurement of height and weight could serve as the social science counterpart of mortality measurement for a demographer. Mortality and permanent growth stunting are both indicators reflecting different points of chronic and irreversible physical deterioration on the continuum that ranges from good health to death. The proposed conceptual framework integrates Bongaarts' proximate fertility determinants with the proximate child survival determinants proposed in an earlier work by Mosley and Chen. 9 specific determinants are divided into 4 categories of factors that influence both child survival and fertility: factors regulating exposure to conception (sexual union, coital frequency), lactation, ecological risk (dietary deficiency, environmental contamination, accidents), and direct interventions (personal preventive measures, curative measures, and intentionally inflicted lesions). 5 groups of underlying determinants operate through the proximate determinants: individual factors, family factors, cultural factors, institutional factors, and environmental factors.
A Motivational Model of Alcohol Use

The final, common pathway to alcohol use is motivational. A person decides consciously or uncon-sciously to consume or not to consume any particular drink of alcohol according to whether or nothe or she expects that the positive affective consequences of drinking will outweigh those of notdrinking. Various factors (e.g., past experiences with drinking, current life situation) help to formexpectations of affective change from drinking, these factors always modulated by a person's neuro-chemical reactivity to alcohol. Such major influences include the person's current nonchemicalincentives and the prospect of acquiring new positive incentives and removing current negative in-centives. Our motivational counseling technique uses nonchemical goals and incentives to help thealcoholic develop a satisfying life without the necessity of alcohol. The technique first assesses thealcoholic's motivational structure and then seeks to modify it through a multicomponent counselingprocedure. The counseling technique is one example of the heuristic value of the motiva-tional model.This article presents a motivational formulation of alcoholuse. The formulation is intended to incorporate advances madein understanding the inheritable constitutional factors (e.g.,Goodwin, in press; Schuckit, Li, Cloninger, & Deitrich, 1985)and the appetitive systems (T. B. Baker, Morse, & Sherman,1987) in alcohol-related behavior, and also the array of othermotivational factors that are increasingly recognized to play de-cisive roles in understanding and treating addictive behaviorpatterns (e.g., Klinger, 1977; Marlatt & Gordon, 1985; Miller,1985). The particular benefit of this formulation is to place al-coholic behavior in the context of contemporary theory of mo-tivation and emotion, as they relate both to alcohol use in thenarrow sense and to the life context in which the alcoholic con-tinually makes choices between drinking and alternative ac-tions. The formulation thereby suggests additional contributoryfactors, treatment strategies, and conceptual approaches.Despite the fact that there are multiple factors that influencedrinking, the final common pathway to alcohol use is, in ourview, motivational. The net motivation to drink, moreover, isclosely tied to people's incentives in other life areas and to theaffective changes that they derive from their incentives. We be-gin, therefore, by defining incentive motivation and affectivechange and showing how these two concepts are related to peo-ple's use of alcohol.
Classifying plants into groups on the basis of associations of individual traits: evidence from Australian semi-arid woodlands

A multivariate analysis of 43 traits of 300 species from semi-arid woodlands in western New South Wales, Australia is described. The 43 traits encompass vegetative, life-history, phenological and seed-biology characters. Five main groups of species were produced which corresponded largely to growth form. These groups were perennial forbs and C3 grasses, subshrubs of the family Chenopodiaceae, perennial C4 grasses, trees and shrubs and annual forbs and grasses. The traits associated with these groups were vegetative, life-history and phenological. Seed-biology traits were poorly associated with the groups (.)
Complete gradient optimization of a recurrent network applied to /b/,/d/,/g/ discrimination

A complete gradient optimization technique for connectionist networks with recurrent links is presented. A truncated gradient technique is available in the literature. A network with recurrent links for discrimination of /b/, /d/, and /g/ in the context of following /i/, /a/, or /u/ is designed. The performance of this network as optimized with either of the two techniques is then compared. It will be shown that the complete gradient is exact and simpler, and it will be demonstrated that it leads to superior performance.
Characterization of temperature-sensitive mutants of Pichinde virus

The synthesis of viral proteins and S RNAs in cells infected with 12 temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of Pichinde virus was characterized. The mutants could be divided into five groups on the basis of the patterns of radiolabeled proteins immunoprecipitated from infected-cell lysates. Markedly reduced nucleoprotein levels and undetectable amounts of glycoprotein precursor and L protein were synthesized at the nonpermissive temperature in cells infected with five of the mutants. Reduced but detectable amounts of the viral proteins were synthesized at the nonpermissive temperature in cells infected with a single mutant. Two mutants were associated with the intracellular accumulation of glycoprotein precursor, which was apparently not transported across the cell membrane in cells incubated at the nonpermissive temperature. The synthesis of viral proteins in cells infected with two mutants was indistinguishable from those produced by wild-type virus. Two additional mutants were associated with markedly reduced amounts of immunoprecipitable proteins in infected cells incubated at both the permissive and nonpermissive temperatures. Analysis of viral RNA with radiolabeled single-stranded cDNA probes representing complementary and genomic-sense sequences corresponding to the 3' region of S RNA revealed two basic patterns of viral RNA synthesis. At the nonpermissive temperature, the synthesis of complementary- and genomic-sense sequences and mRNA of the S RNA segment was markedly reduced in cells infected with representative members of these mutant groups, suggesting the presence of mutations altering transcriptase activity. Viral-complementary- and genomic-sense sequence and RNA synthesis, as well as nucleoprotein mRNA in cells, was detected in reduced amounts for mutants associated with reduced levels of proteins at both temperatures. Interestingly, RNA species larger than the S RNA segment were detected in cells infected with some of the mutants, especially those with putative transcriptase lesions. These molecules suggest a possible oligomeric intermediate in the synthesis of S RNA of Pichinde virus.
Holştayn ırkı ineklerde süt verimine etki eden faktörlerin CHAID analizi ile incelenmesi

". Özet: Bil~msel çalışmalardah önemli istatistiksel problemlerden biri, üzerinde durulan olayı önemli derecede etkileyen faktoıleıı veya bu laktorlerın hangı sevıyesınde etkinin yüksek olduğunu belirlemektir. CHAID (chi-squared automatic interaction detection) analizi değişkenlerdeki etkileşim veya kombinasyonları bulan bir yöntem olarak geliştirilmiştir. Yöntem, bir popülasyonu: bağımlı değişkendeki varyasyonu gruplar içi minimum ve gruplar arası maksimum olacak şekilde farklı alt gruplara veya böllimlere tekrarlı olarak ayıran bir tekniktir. Bu çalışma ile, 1985-1992 yılları arasında Bala Tarım ışletmesi'nde yetiştirilen 440 baş Holştayn ırkı ineğe ait 2xEÇx305 günlük süt verimi bağımlı değişken, laktasyon süresi, kuru süre, ilk sıfat yaşı, iki buzağılama arası geçen süre, servis sayısı, servis periyodu, buzağılama mevsimi, gebelik süresi özellikleri de bağımsız değişken alınarak, maksimum süt verimine ulaşmada bağımsız değişkenlerin birleşmiş kategorileri ve alt grupları CHAID analizi yardımıyla tahmin edilmiştir. Süt verimini etkileyen özellikler olarak kabul edilen bağımsız değişkenlerin arasından, süt verimini en iyi açıklayan ilk alt kategori olarak 55-74 günlük kunıda kalma süresi tahmin edilmiştir. Elli beş-74 gün olarak belirlenen kuruda kalma süresi ile en fazla etkileşim içerisinde bulunan alt kategori, ilk sıfat yaşı i0i6 ay olan alt kategoridir. Yöntemin uygulanmasında Answer Tree 1.0 paket programı kul lan ılmıştır. Anahtar kelimeler: CHAID analizi, döl verimi özellikleri, Holştayn, süt verimi özellikleri
The Gauss-Codacci equation on a Regge spacetime. II

A relationship between the defect on a timelike bone and the defect induced on the image of that bone in one leaf of a simplicial spacetime is obtained by applying a form of the Gauss-Codacci equation to that spacetime. A simple example is studied in detail and is used to verify the principal result of this paper. A tentative '3+1' formulation is also presented. This paper follows on directly from a previous paper.
The learner-centred curriculum : a study in second language teaching

Series Editors' Preface Preface 1. Introduction 2. Curriculum processes 3. Learner-centred curriculum development 4. Pre-course planning procedures 5. Planning content 6. Methodology 7. Resources for a learner-centred curriculum 8. Assessment and evaluation 9. Evaluation and professional development 10. The teacher as curriculum developer References Appendix Indexes.
The Eucalyptus stem canker pathogen Teratosphaeria zuluensis detected in seed samples

National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant specific unique reference number (UID83924). Tree Protection Co-operative Program (TPCP), the THRIP initiative of the Department of Trade and Industry and the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) based in the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Analysis of genetic diversity in Elytrigia repens germplasm using intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers

The genetic diversity among 30 accessions of Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevski was analyzed using 100 intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers, 12 of which generated distinct amplification products. Out of the 132 repeatable bands detected, 100 bands were polymorphic. The percentage of polymorphic bands was 70.66%, with a mean of 8.33 percentage of polymorphic bands per primer. The ISSR-based genetic similarity coefficients among the 30 accessions ranged from 0.509 to 0.873, revealing high genetic diversity. The 30 E. repens accessions were divided into eight groups based on an unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean cluster analysis and a principal components analysis. We found that genetic distance is correlated with geographical distance among the 30 E. repens accessions studied (r = 0.812, p < 0.05) using Mantel’s test. Our results confirm the potential value of genetic diversity preservation for future breeding programs.
Accurate and noninvasive embryos screening during in vitro fertilization (IVF) assisted by Raman analysis of embryos culture medium

In combination with morphological evaluation tests, we employ Raman spectroscopy to select higher potential re- productive embryos during in vitro fertilization (IVF) based on chemical composition of embryos culture medium. In this study, 57 Raman spectra are acquired from both higher and lower quality embryos culture medium (ECM) from 10 pa- tients which have been preliminarily confirmed by clinical as- say. Data are fit by using a linear combination model of least squares method in which 12 basis spectra represent the chem- ical features of ECM. The final fitting coefficients provide in- sight into the chemical compositions of culture medium sam- ples and are subsequently used as criterion to evaluate the qual- ity of embryos. The relative fitting coefficients ratios of sodium pyruvate/albumin and phenylalanine/albumin seem act as key roles in the embryo screening, attaining 85.7% accuracy in comparison with clinical pregnancy. The good results demon- strate that Raman spectroscopy therefore is an important candi- date for an accurate and noninvasive screening of higher quality embryos, which potentially decrease the time-consuming clini- cal trials during IVF.
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium Nutrition Increases Growth and Total Polyphenol Concentrations of Bush Tea in a Shaded Nursery Environment

The objective of this investigation was to determine the effects of simultaneous applications of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) nutrition on growth and chemical analysis of bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides). Four consecutive trials were conducted at Morgenzon (Louis Trichardt, Limpopo Province, South Africa), a commercial nursery, one at each season (autumn, winter, spring, and summer) under 50% shade. Treatments comprised three levels of N (300, 350, 400 kg ha), three levels of P (250, 300, 350 kg ha), and three levels K (150, 200, 250 kg ha). The experimental design was a 3 · 3 · 3 factorial experiment arranged in a randomized complete-block design with four replications. Parameters recorded were plant height, number of branches and leaves, fresh and dry stem weight, fresh and dry root weight, stem girth, fresh and dry shoot weight, leaf area, and percent concentration of leaf and root tissue N, P, K, and total polyphenol concentrations as influenced by season in a shaded nursery environment. Treatment combinations of N and P at rates of 300 kg ha and K at 200 kg ha increased fresh and dry shoot weight, number of leaves, leaf area, and concentration of total polyphenols. Other treatments did not consistently affect concentrations of leaf N, P, or K during the study period, although the treatment that received combinations of N and P at rates of 300 kg ha and K at 200 kg ha always had the highest concentrations of leaf N, P, and K and lowest root N, P, and K concentrations. No differences in plant height, number of branches, number of flower buds (autumn and winter), stem girth, fresh and dry root weight, and fresh and dry stem weight due to treatment combinations were observed.