Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New records of Delphacini (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Delphacinae) from Australia, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea, and an updated checklist of Delphacini from Australia

Examination of Delphacini holdings in Australian insect collections and comparison with material from overseas collections has revealed several species not previously recorded from Australia, Timor Leste and/or Papua New Guinea. Newly recorded species from Australia are Anchodelphax olenus Fennah, Cemus sauteri (Muir), Falcotoya aurinia Fennah, Hagamiodes fuscicaudata (Muir), Horcoma colorata lacteipennis (Muir), Latistria placitus (van Duzee), Nemetor sabinus Fennah, Nilaparvata bakeri (Muir), Nilaparvata myersi (Muir), Numata corporaali (Muir), Nycheuma coctum (Yang), Perkinsiella bakeri (Muir), Rhombotoya pseudonigripennis (Muir), Tagosodes pusanus (Distant), Toya bridwelli (Muir). Newly recorded species from Timor Leste are Falcotoya aurinia, Horcoma colorata lacteipennis, Latistria placitus, Nycheuma coctum and Tagosodes pusanus. Newly recorded species from Papua New Guinea are Hagamiodes fuscicaudata and Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén). An updated checklist of Australian Delphacini is provided. [Correction added on 19 December 2013, after first online publication: ‘Laodelphax striatellus’ has been removed from the list of newly recorded species. ]
CNN-based hierarchical coarse-to-fine segmentation of pelvic CT images for prostate cancer radiotherapy

Accurate segmentation of organs-at-risk is important inprostate cancer radiation therapy planning. However, poor soft tissue contrast in CT makes the segmentation task very challenging. We propose a deep convolutional neural network approach to automatically segment the prostate, bladder, and rectum from pelvic CT. A hierarchical coarse-to-fine segmentation strategy is used where the first step generates a coarse segmentation from which an organ-specific region of interest (ROI) localization map is produced. The second step produces detailed and accurate segmentation of the organs. The ROI localization map is generated using a 3D U-net. The localization map helps adjusting the ROI of each organ that needs to be segmented and hence improves computational efficiency by eliminating irrelevant background information. For the fine segmentation step, we designed a fully convolutional network (FCN) by combining a generative adversarial network (GAN) with a U-net. Specifically, the generator is a 3D U-net that is trained to predict individual pelvic structures, and the discriminator is an FCN which fine-tunes the generator predicted segmentation map by comparing it with the ground truth. The network was trained using 100 CT datasets and tested on 15 datasets to segment the prostate, bladder and rectum. The average Dice similarity (mean±SD) of the prostate, bladder and rectum are 0.90±0.05, 0.96±0.06 and 0.91±0.09, respectively, and Hausdorff distances of these three structures are 5.21±1.17, 4.37±0.56 and 6.11±1.47(mm), respectively. The proposed method produces accurate and reproducible segmentation of pelvic structures, which can be potentially valuable for prostate cancer radiotherapy treatment planning.
Wolves in Canada and Alaska : their status, biology, and management : proceedings of the Wolf Symposium held in Edmonton, Alberta, 12-14 May, 1981

Relatively few wolves were killed in the NWT before 1924, when a $30 bounty payment was first introduced. During the 13 years of bounty payments, from 1924 to 1933 and from 1937 to 1939, an average of 1000 wolves were killed annually. Concern about a decline in barren-ground caribou populations led to a major wolf poisoning program on caribou ranges east of Great Bear Lake from 1951 to 1964. Wolf numbers appeared to have been reduced but they probably recovered quickly. Extinction of wolves on Southampton Island in the early 1950s occurred because caribou were exterminated by overhunting. Caribou were reintroduced to the island in 1967 and wolves have returned through natural immigration. Wolf numbers were reduced by trapping and aerial shooting in the Slave River lowlands as part of a program to halt the decline of the bison herd. The wolf control program was discontinued when hunters failed to reduce their killing of bison voluntarily. At present, wolves occupy all of their traditional range in the NWT and natural densities prevail in most areas. Density is highest on barren-ground caribou winter range and lowest on Victoria Island and the Queen Elizabeth Islands. The annual kill of wolves has increased during the last 20 years, probably because of rising pelt prices and the availability of snowmobiles for hunting wolves. 1. Historical status wolves were killed during each of the 13 years when bounties were paid (1924—33 and 1937— 39, Fig. 1). After bounty payments were discontinued, the average annual wolf kill dropped to less than 700 (1934-36 and 1940-49). The change in the number of wolves killed was also related to the change in the number of trappers on the land. From 1938, trapping was restricted to Indians, Inuit, and non-natives who already held a permit (Usher 1971); in addition, the number of trappers declined during the 1940s because men left to fieht in World War II. 1.2. 1950 to present The number of wolves killed increased sharply in the mid-1950s (Fig. I). In 1948. the first range-wide aerial surveys of caribou (Rungifer tarandus groenlandicus) indicated that mainland barren-ground caribou populations were considerably smaller than expected and were believed to be declining rapidly (Banficld 1954, Kelsall 1968). Because wolves were known to be the major predator on barrenground caribou (Kuyt 1972), biologists believed that a reduction in the wolf population would buffer what was considered to be the real cause of the decline — overhuntins. The wolf control
Cadaver as an educational tool increasing the effectiveness of Combat Application Tourniquet use in extremity injuries.

BACKGROUND One of the most frequent life-threatening emergencies is extremity haemorrhage. In such cases, patient survival depends on a fast on-scene intervention. Thus, both the potential witnesses and medical emergency staff should have the ability to control haemorrhages. However, simulator-based courses do not fully reflect the structures and physiology of the human body. Therefore, invasive procedure training in trauma patients is limited. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of cadavers as educational tools during a training course in extremity haemorrhage control with the use of the Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT). METHODS This study was conducted among 31 paramedic students, who applied a tourniquet to the upper extremity of an unembalmed (fresh) human cadaver with simulated bleeding. Two time measurements were performed, the latter being preceded by a short CAT application training on a human cadaver. RESULTS The mean time needed to stop the simulated bleeding in the first attempt was 38.33 seconds (SD±35.14). After the training, the mean time decreased to 20.58 seconds (SD±5.77). A statistically significant difference was observed between these two values (p=0.004). CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that training conducted on human cadavers led to a significant improvement in the effectiveness of CAT use. Cadavers constitute a high-quality educational tool that, after adequate preparation, allows for practicing invasive medical procedures, such as extremity haemorrhage control.
Utilizing Rasch Model to Analyze A Gender Gap in Students’ Cognitive Ability on Simple Harmonic Motion

Previous research provided evidence that cognitive ability is one of the learning outcomes that students need to achieve. The purpose of this study was to analyze gender gap in cognitive abilities between male students and female students in learning of simple harmonic motion. The number of students involved in this research consisted of 14 male students and 22 female students with an age range of 15-17. The instrument employed in this study was a cognitive ability test with ten questions compiled based on Bloom’s taxonomy and was analyzed with the Rasch model. Cognitive ability which was measured included the ability to remember, understand, apply, and analyze. The data obtained were analyzed using person reliability, item reliability, Wright map, person measure, DIF and t-test. The results showed that there was no significant difference between male and female students’ cognitive ability. Therefore, the study indicated that there was no gender gap in students’ cognitive ability after attending physics class. However, students had poor cognitive ability, so educators need to design a simple harmonic motion learning process that is able to improve students’ cognitive ability.
Impact of Polyvinylidene Fluoride on Nanofiber Cathode Structure and Durability in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

The impact of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as a binder component on the durability of Pt/C cathodes in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell membrane-electrode-assembly (MEA) during a carbon corrosion accelerated stress test (AST) was examined using electrochemical fuel cell data and visual inspection/analysis of the cathode morphology via electron-microscopy. Electrospun nanofiber cathode mat MEAs with a Nafion/PVDF or Nafion/poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) binder or a slurry cathode MEA with neat Nafion or a Nafion/PVDF binder were investigated. The presence of PVDF had profound effects on the structure and chemical/ electrochemical properties of a fuel cell cathode; its hydrophobic property slowed the rate of carbon loss and its robust mechanical properties added strength to the binder. Thus, the extent of carbon loss during an AST was inversely proportional to the PVDF content of the binder and there was no observable cathode thinning nor any change in cathode porosity after the AST, when the cathode binder contained at least 50 wt% PVDF. In terms of long-term durability, these beneficial structural effects outweighed the lower Nafion/PVDF binder conductivity and the associated lower initial power output of a Nafion/PVDF cathode MEA. For hydrophilic slurry and nanofiber cathodes with neat Nafion or Nafion/PAA fibers, low power after the carbon corrosion AST was due to greater carbon losses, cathode thinning and the collapse of cathode pores, which dominated MEA performance even though the initial cathode ECSA and mass activity were high for these two MEAs. © 2020 The Author(s). Published on behalf of The Electrochemical Society by IOP Publishing Limited. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. [DOI: 10.1149/ 1945-7111/ab77fb]
Biochemical Evaluation of SRH Analogs as Potential LuxS Inhibitors

Quorum sensing in bacteria is a process of cell-to-cell communication facilitated by small molecules called autoinducers. Interspecies quorum sensing is facilitated by the autoinducer AI-2. The enzyme LuxS catalyzes the formation of AI-2 from S -ribosyl homocysteine (SRH) in a wide variety of bacterial species. Inhibition of LuxS would therefore inhibit interspecies quorum sensing. The goal of this project is to establish biochemical assays for the evaluation of small molecules as potential LuxS inhibitors. The first assay is a conventional colorimetric assay that utilizes Ellman’s reagent to quantify the homocysteine byproduct of DPD production by LuxS. For this assay purified enzyme (LuxS), a negative control (LuxS C84A), and the substrate (SRH) are required. His-tagged LuxS and LuxS C84A have been purified from overexpression cultures of Escherichia coli cells freshly transformed with a vector harboring the appropriate gene. Chemically-synthesized and quantified SRH was also acquired after extensive efforts of our fellow organic chemists. Ellman’s assay was then performed to determine the activity of house-purified LuxS. This assay would be optimized in future to be performed in 96 well plate to avoid excess consumption of enzyme and substrate. In addition, a fluorescence proximity assay is envisioned for the evaluation of a subset of LuxS inhibitors that function by preventing protein dimerization. This assay requires that purified LuxS be conjugated with an appropriate fluorophore, likely via a cysteine residue. An appropriate LuxS variant i.e. LuxS Y71C to which a single fluorophore would attach was acquired after extensive troubleshooting. An appropriate fluorophore would be attached to this LuxS variant for determination of potential dimerization inhibition.
Acute glyphosate exposure does not condition the response of microbial communities to a dry–rewetting disturbance in a soil with longhistory of glyphosate–based herbicides

Dry–rewetting perturbations are natural disturbances in the edaphic environment and particularly in dryland cultivation areas. The interaction of this disturbance with glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) deserves special attention in the soil environment due to the intensification of agricultural practices and the acceleration of climate change with an intensified water cycle. The objective of this study was to assess the response of microbial communities in a soil with a long history of GBHs to a secondary imposed perturbation (a single dry–rewetting event). A factorial microcosm study was conducted to evaluate the potential conditioning effect of an acute glyphosate exposure on the response to a following dry–rewetting event. A respiratory quotient (RQ) based on an ecologically relevant substrate (p-coumaric acid) and basal respiration was used as a physiological indicator. Similarly, DNA-based analyses were considered, including quantitative PCR (qPCR) of functional sensitive microbial groups linked to cycles of carbon (Actinobacteria) and nitrogen (ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms), qPCR of total bacteria and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Significant effects of herbicide and of dry–rewetting perturbations were observed in the RQ and in the copy number of the amoA gene of AOB, respectively. However, no significant interaction was observed between them when analyzing the physiological indicator and the copy number of the evaluated genes. PCR– DGGE results were not conclusive regarding a potential effect of dry–rewetting× herbicide interaction on AOB community structure, suggesting further analysis by deep sequencing of the amoA gene. The results of this study indicate that the perturbation of an acute glyphosate exposure in a soil with a long history of this herbicide does not have a conditioning effect on the response to a subsequent dry–rewetting disturbance according to a physiological indicator or the quantified bacterial/archaeal genes. This is particularly relevant for the sustainability of soils in rainfed agriculture, where frequent exposure to GBHs along with intensification of hydrological cycles are expected to occur. Further studies considering multiple dry–rewetting disturbances and in different soil types should be conducted to simulate those conditions and to validate our results. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 292 M. Allegrini et al.: Microbial response to acute dry–rewetting and glyphosate perturbations
Determination of Some Plant Nutrients in Sunflower Waste Ashes

Bitkiler gelisim surecleri boyunca cesitli bitki besin elementlerine ihtiyac duyduklarindan bu ihtiyaclari sentetik ve kimyasallar girdiler ile giderilmektedir. Bu da girdi maliyetini oldukca arttirmaktadir. Hâlbuki tamamen dogal bitki atiklarindan elde edilen girdiler sayesinde bu tur sorunlar ortadan kalkacaktir. Ozellikle yakacak olarak kullanilan aycicegi bitki atiklarindan elde edilen kul, iceriginde bulunan bitki besin elementleri ile onemli bir dogal gubre olma potansiyeline sahiptir. Bu calismada, farkli cesitlere ait (Coral, Pioneer63F73, PioneerP64LL05, Pioneer64LC108, Goldsun, Şems, Aga1301, Duna, Bosfora ve PioneerPR64G46) aycicegi bitki atiklarinin yanmasindan elde edilen kullerinde bulunan bazi besin elementlerinin (B, Mg, P, K ve Ca) belirlenmesi amaclanmistir. Yapilan calisma sonucunda, en yuksek B, Mg icerigi PioneerPR64G46 cesidinden, P, Ca icerigi Pioneer P64LL05 cesidinden ve K icerigi Pioneer64LC108 cesidinden elde edilmistir. Yapilan gozlemde, aycicegi atiklarinin kullerinde oldukca yuksek fosfor ve potasyum iceriginin mevcut oldugu, ozellikle fosfor ve potasyumca fakir topraklarda gubre olarak kullanilabilecegi ongorulmektedir.
Evolution and the Recognition Concept of Species: Collected Writings

The term "Isolating Mechanisms" the Washington symposium paper more evidence against reinforcement a comment on "Mate Recognition Systems" the continuing search epitaph to Darlington morphological resemblance perspectives on speciation Darwin and the origin of species the Macnamara-Paterson dialogue simulation of the necessary conditions the recognition concept environment and species species in terms of sterility a view of species updating the evolutionary synthesis applied biology and cryptic species complete bibliography incidental references taxonomic index author index subject index.
Reduced herbivore resistance from a novel grass–endophyte association

Summary 1 Endophytic fungi in agricultural grasses confer agronomic advantages but can be detrimental to the health and production of grazing mammals. Attempts have been made to resolve this dilemma by creating novel associations of high-yielding grass cultivars and ‘safe endophytes’ that do not naturally co-occur. Recently, researchers created a novel association by combining a Moroccan strain of Neotyphodium coenophialum, called AR542, with the tall fescue Festuca arundinacea cultivar Georgia 5. This novel association is marketed commercially and has no doubt become naturalized; it is therefore important to assess its impact on other organisms. 2 The bird-cherry-oat aphid Rhopalosiphum padi uses tall fescue as an alternative host. We assessed the performance of R. padi feeding on Georgia 5 that had been artificially infected with AR542, naturally infected by the common strain (CS) of N. coenophialum or was endophyte-free (EF). We cross-factored these three levels of endophyte infection with four levels of nitrogen fertilizer, and used two different methods of assessing aphid performance, clip-cages and enclosed populations. 3 Endophyte-infected plants produced approximately 20% more dry mass than EF plants. In both the clip-cage and enclosed-population experiments, aphid populations grew fastest on the EF plants, slower on AR542-infected plants and slowest (or not at all) on the CS-infected plants. 4 Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that AR542 infection does not provide the same degree of protection from aphids as the commonly occurring CS infection. If similar results are found for other invertebrate herbivores, then the use of this novel endophyte association may be less useful than previously thought. The widespread conversion of tall fescue pastures, currently infected with the CS endophyte, to pastures infected with AR542 could result in a general increase in the prevalence of cereal aphids and, potentially, the diseases that they spread. However, such conversion might be beneficial to native invertebrate herbivores.
Non integer order, state space model of heat transfer process using Atangana-Baleanu operator

In the paper a new, state space, non integer order model of an one-dimensional heat transfer process is proposed. The model uses a new operator with Mittag-Leffler kernel, proposed by Atangana and Beleanu. The non integer order spatial derivative is expressed by Riesz operator. Analytical formula of the step response is given, the convergence of the model is discussed too. Theoretical results are verified by experiments.
Role physiologique joue par l'interleukine-6 au cours de l'exercice physique

Lors d'un exercice physique prolonge, les muscles produisent et liberent de l'interleukine-6 (IL-6). Cette production est correlee a l'intensite de l'exercice et a la baisse des reserves musculaires en glycogene. L'IL-6 agirait par voie endocrine en favorisant la production endogene de glucose par le foie. Notre premier objectif etait d'etudier le controle de l'expression du gene IL-6 dans le muscle squelettique a l'exercice chez le rat et plus particulierement l'importance de la voie de signalisation de la calcineurine, activee par la contraction musculaire. Nous avons d'abord montre que la transcription du gene IL-6 avait lieu dans les fibres musculaires oxydatives (1 et lia) et etait associee a une activite importante de la voie de la calcineurine. Nous avons ensuite montre que l'administration d'inhibiteurs pharmacologiques de la calcineurine (ciclosporine A ou FK506) diminuait significativement la transcription du gene IL-6 dans les muscles lents/oxydatifs, prevenant ainsi l'apparition de la proteine dans le plasma. Nous avons ainsi demontre l'implication de la voie de la calcineurine dans le controle du gene codant IL6 dans le muscle en reponse a un exercice unique Notre deuxieme objectif etait d'etudier l'action d'IL-6 sur le foie a l'exercice, plus particulierement sur le controle du gene codant une enzyme cle de la neoglucogenese, la phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK). Nous apportons des arguments experimentaux en faveur d'un effet direct d'IL-6 sur le tissu hepatique et d'un controle possible de la transcription du gene codant PEPCK par l'IL-6 circulante. D'autre part nous suggerons l'implication d'acteurs moleculaire~ nouveaux, Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor y coactivator alpha (PGC-1 a) et Farnesoid X receptor (FXR), dans l, controle de la neoglucogenese a l'exercice.
Spatiotemporal Variability of Land Surface Albedo over the Tibet Plateau from 2001 to 2019

As an essential climate variable (ECV), land surface albedo plays an important role in the Earth surface radiation budget and regional or global climate change. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a sensitive environment to climate change, and understanding its albedo seasonal and inter-annual variations is thus important to help capture the climate change rules. In this paper, we analyzed the large-scale spatial patterns, temporal trends, and seasonal variability of land surface albedo overall the TP, based on the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD43 albedo products from 2001 to 2019. Specifically, we assessed the correlations between the albedo anomaly and the anomalies of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the fraction of snow cover (snow cover), and land surface temperature (LST). The results show that there are larger albedo variations distributed in the mountainous terrain of the TP. Approximately 10.06% of the land surface is identified to have been influenced by the significant albedo variation from the year 2001 to 2019. The yearly averaged albedo was decreased significantly at a rate of 0.0007 (Sen’s slope) over the TP. Additionally, the yearly average snow cover was decreased at a rate of 0.0756. However, the yearly average NDVI and LST were increased with slopes of 0.0004 and 0.0253 over the TP, respectively. The relative radiative forcing (RRF) caused by the land cover change (LCC) is larger than that caused by gradual albedo variation in steady land cover types. Overall, the RRF due to gradual albedo variation varied from 0.0005 to 0.0170 W/m2, and the RRF due to LCC variation varied from 0.0037 to 0.0243 W/m2 during the years 2001 to 2019. The positive RRF caused by gradual albedo variation or the LCC can strengthen the warming effects in the TP. The impact of the gradual albedo variations occurring in the steady land cover types was very low between 2001 and 2019 because the time series was short, and it therefore cannot be neglected when examining radiative forcing for a long time series regarding climate change.