Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship between pre‐oviposition flight behaviour and reproductive timing in whitefly parasitoids

Although the timing of oögenesis appears to be a major life‐history organizer in the parasitoid Hymenoptera, relatively little is known about how this trait correlates with population dispersal by flight in these wasps. Pre‐oviposition flight behaviours of 1‐day‐old female wasps in a vertical flight chamber are measured to test correlations between these traits and with reproductive timing. The focus of the present study is on two genera of whitefly parasitoids (Encarsia and Eretmocerus) that differ in reproductive timing when feeding on a shared host (Bemisia tabaci). The two Eretmocerus species engage in vertical flight within 3 min of release far more frequently than the three Encarsia species. Because the former typically possess a more time‐limited reproductive strategy than the latter, this lends support for a positive interspecific association between early‐life reproduction and early‐life flight incidence. Within species, however, egg load does not correlate with flight propensity for any of the tested species. Furthermore, in Eretmocerus eremicus, the relationship between effective flight distance (i.e. the product of vertical climb rate and flight duration) and egg load appears to be labile rather than fixed because different trials show evidence for either negative or positive correlations between these variables. The source of this context dependence may be variation in either biotic (e.g. longevity) or abiotic (e.g. temperature and relative humidity) factors.
Molecular data Confirm the Presence of Anacolia menziesii (Bartramiaceae, Musci) in Southern Europe and Its Separation from Anacolia webbii

Abstract ISSR (Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat) fingerprint data and nrITS sequences confirm the presence of Anacolia menziesii in Europe. The species is more variable genetically in North America than in Europe. The data show only minor differentiation between the North American and European populations of A. menziesii. Anacolia webbii is morphologically and genetically very similar to Anacolia menziesii, but can be separated from Anacolia menziesii with high confidence based on the ITS and ISSR data. Long distance dispersal is the most likely explanation for the disjunction of Anacolia menziesii between North America and Europe.
Breathing systems and ancillary equipment

Breathing systems are interposed between an anaesthetic machine and an endotracheal tube, facemask. They serve to: deliver oxygen and volatile anaesthetic agents from the anaesthetic machine to the patient; remove carbon dioxide exhaled by the patient and provide a means of ventilating the lungs. This chapters looks at the basic components of breathing systems and their function, names and classification of breathing systems, low-flow anaesthesia, leak testing of breathing systems, the common hazards and their maintenance, endotracheal tubes, facemasks, laryngoscopes, induction chambers and humidifiers.
The effects of plant diversity and insect herbivory on performance of individual plant species in experimental grassland

1 There is increasing evidence that components of biodiversity affect processes at the ecosystem level; yet, the effects of biodiversity on the performance of individual organisms or particular trophic interactions are largely unexplored. 2 We transplanted 10 individuals of Rumex acetosa into 82 experimental grassland plots differing in plant species and functional group richness. Half of the plants received an insecticide treatment to manipulate insect herbivory. 3 We measured the amount of herbivory, plant size, survival and reproductive parameters in 2003 and 2004. 4 Insect herbivores removed on average 4.3% (2003) and 5.1% (2004) of leaf area in unsprayed plants. Spraying significantly reduced damage levels on average by approximately 50%. Herbivory significantly decreased plant weight, leaf size and number, and inflorescence length and size. 5 Plant height and inflorescence size of R. acetosa significantly decreased with an increase in species diversity. Mortality was slightly higher in the species‐poor mixtures. Plant functional group diversity had little effect on plant performance. The presence of legumes generally increased, while the presence of grasses generally decreased, morphological parameters and fitness in R. acetosa. 6 Overall, the presence of particular plant functional groups was more important than functional group or species richness per se, and insect herbivores had additive effects of the same magnitude as the presence of particular plant functional groups. 7 Insect herbivory and plant functional identity, rather than species richness, determine the performance of individual plant species in temperate grasslands.
Melastomataceae of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia): floristic affinities and annotated catalogue

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), the world’s highest coastal mountain range, has long been recognized for its high levels of biological diversity and endemism but no exhaustive inventory of the flora exists today. Here we present an annotated catalogue of the angiosperm family Melastomataceae from this diverse massif. The annotated species list is based largely on the treatment of Melastomataceae for the forthcoming Catalogue of the Plants of Colombia together with several floristic data sources, confirmed specimen records held in different herbaria, and recent field work. The catalogue of Melastomataceae presented here includes 20 genera and 86 species, 21 of which are endemic to Colombia and 15 of those are endemic to the SNSM. We also include floristic similarity analyses to compare the species of Melastomataceae from the SNSM with those from other Colombian biogeographic regions and other Neotropical countries or regions.
Ageing and employment policies: Norway 2013: working better with age

In 2011, the OECD decided to undertake a new review of policies to encourage greater labour market participation at an older age by fostering employability, job mobility and labour demand. It builds on previous work by the OECD in its ‘Ageing and employment policies’ series, culminating in a multi-country report, ‘Live longer, work longer’, published in 2006.
Determining aphid taxonomic affinities and life cycles with molecular data: a case study of the tribe Cerataphidini (Hormaphididae:Aphidoidea: Hemiptera)

Aphid taxonomy is often frustrated by the host alternation and extensive polyphenism displayed by many species. Here we examine the utility of using molecular data to assist in life cycle and taxonomic determination. We found that a relatively small amount of DNA sequence data can greatly assist in these tasks. Molecular data have identified the synonymy of five species: Tuberaphis plicator (Noordam) is a junior synonym of T.takenouchii (Takahashi), T.taiwana (Takahashi) is a junior synonym of T.coreana Takahashi, Hamiltonaphis styraci (Matsumura) is transferred to Tuberaphis Takahashi, Astegopteryx roepkei Hille Ris Lambers is transferred to Ceratoglyphina van der Goot, and A.vandermeermohri Hille Ris Lambers is transferred to Cerataphis Lichtenstein. We have elucidated the complete life cycles of five species: A.basalis (van der Goot) alternates between Styrax benzoin and bamboos, Ceratoglyphina bambusae van der Goot alternates between S.benzoin and bamboos, Pseudoregma sundanica (van der Goot) alternates between S.paralleloneura and Zingiberaceae, T.coreana alternates between S.formosana and Loranthaceae, and T.takenouchii alternates between S.japonica and Loranthaceae. In all cases the molecular data agreed with available morphological data. This analysis demonstrates the utility of DNA sequence comparisons for elucidating complex life cycles and the taxonomy of difficult insect groups.
On the use of Locality for Improving SVM-Based Spam Filtering

Recent growths in the use of email for communication and the corresponding growths in the volume of email received have made automatic processing of emails desirable. In tandem is the prevailing problem of Advance Fee fraud E-mails that pervades inboxes globally. These genres of e-mails solicit for financial transactions and funds transfers from unsuspecting users. Most modern mail-reading software packages provide some forms of programmable automatic filtering, typically in the form of sets of rules that file or otherwise dispose mails based on keywords detected in the headers or message body. Unfortunately programming these filters is an arcane and sometimes inefficient process. An adaptive mail system which can learn its users’ mail sorting preferences would therefore be more desirable. Premised on the work of Blanzieri & Bryl (2007), we proposes a framework dedicated to the phenomenon of locality in email data analysis of advance fee fraud e-mails which engages Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifier for building local decision rules into the classification process of the spam filter design for this genre of e-mails.
User Association for Load-Balance in Heterogeneous M2M Networks

In this paper, we propose an energy efficient user association scheme for uplink heterogeneous networks with machine-to-machine (M2M) and human-to-human (H2H) coexistence. A group based random access protocol is designed for massive number of machine-type-communications (MTC) user equipment’s (UEs) transmissions. A user association problem is formulated considering the load balance among multiple BSs. A distributed iterative algorithm is developed to solve the optimization problem. In addition, the convergence of the proposed algorithm is proved. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperforms other schemes in terms of energy efficiency and load balance.
Psychosocial Impacts And Quality of Life of Children With Atopic Dermatitis

This study was conducted on 100 children with atopic dermatitis (AD) attending Dermatology Clinic, Al-Hussein University Hospital and an equal number of children as controls. The aim of the study was to determine the psychosocial impacts of AD on children and their families, to define quality of life (QOL) of children and their families and to determine the relationship between these items and AD severity. A cross-section, analytical, clinic based study design was chosen to perform this research. Criteria for diagnosis of depression and anxiety were according to DSM IV. Also, we used The Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index and The Dermatitis Family Impact questionnaire to assess the impact of AD on the children’s quality of life and to assess the impact of AD on the quality of family life, respectively. The most common behavioural and psychiatric impacts in children were dependence (33.0%) and anger (26.0%). Also, AD interfered with children’s’ social life and recreation in 73.0% and 29.0% of them, respectively. While, mothers’ psychiatric impacts and family disturbances were more in AD families; 43.0% and 70.0%, respectively. The impacts of AD were more in children and families with severe AD with statistically significant differences. Also, 86.0% of children with AD and 62.0% of their mothers had poor QOL. This study was conducted on 100 children with atopic dermatitis (AD) attending Dermatology Clinic, Al-Hussein University Hospital and an equal number of children as controls. The aim of the study was to determine the psychosocial impacts of AD on children and their families, to define quality of life (QOL) of children and their families and to determine the relationship between these items and AD severity. A cross-section, analytical, clinic based study design was chosen to perform this research. Criteria for diagnosis of depression and anxiety were according to DSM IV. Also, we used The Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index and The Dermatitis Family Impact questionnaire to assess the impact of AD on the children’s quality of life and to assess the impact of AD on the quality of family life, respectively. The most common behavioural and psychiatric impacts in children were dependence (33.0%) and anger (26.0%). Also, AD interfered with children’s’ social life and recreation in 73.0% and 29.0% of them, respectively. While, mothers’ psychiatric impacts and family disturbances were more in AD families; 43.0% and 70.0%, respectively. The impacts of AD were more in children and families with severe AD with statistically significant differences. Also, 86.0% of children with AD and 62.0% of their mothers had poor QOL.
Transient expression of a reporter gene in bulbscales and immature embryos of three Lilium species is affected by 5’upstream sequences and culture conditions

In Lilium, a transformation system has not yet been developed. For efficient selection of cells expressing transferred genes following particle bombardment, the effects of 5' upstream regions on the transient expression of the β-glucuronidase gene (gusA) were estimated in bulbscales and immature embryos of lily. When four plasmids having the gusA gene under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S, maize alcohol dehydrogenase gene and rice actin gene (Actl) promoters, and the castor bean catalase intron were introduced by particle bombardment, the pattems of transient expression in the bulbscales showed differences among three Lilium species, L. x formolongi, L. dauricum and L. japonicum. In immature embryos of L. x formolongi, transient expression was significantly influenced by age of embryos after self-pollination, duration of culture before bombardment, and culture conditions. Moreover, the transient gusA expression driven by six different 5' upstream regions, including the maize ubiquitin gene promoter and a modified CaMV 35S promoter were compared in both bulbscales and immature embryos. Use of the Actl and modified CaMV 35S promoters resulted in the greatest number of cells that transiently expressed gusA in both types of tissue of L. x formolongi. These two promoters are efficient for use in lily transformation.
A Family of Fuzzy Orthogonal Projection Models for Monolingual and Cross-lingual Hypernymy Prediction

Hypernymy is a semantic relation, expressing the “is-a” relation between a concept and its instances. Such relations are building blocks for large-scale taxonomies, ontologies and knowledge graphs. Recently, much progress has been made for hypernymy prediction in English using textual patterns and/or distributional representations. However, applying such techniques to other languages is challenging due to the high language dependency of these methods and the lack of large training datasets of lower-resourced languages. In this work, we present a family of fuzzy orthogonal projection models for both monolingual and cross-lingual hypernymy prediction. For the monolingual task, we propose a Multi-Wahba Projection (MWP) model to distinguish hypernymy vs. non-hypernymy relations based on word embeddings. This model establishes distributional fuzzy mappings from embeddings of a term to those of its hypernyms and non-hypernyms, which consider the complicated linguistic regularities of these relations. For cross-lingual hypernymy prediction, a Transfer MWP (TMWP) model is proposed to transfer the semantic knowledge from the source language to target languages based on neural word translation. Additionally, an Iterative Transfer MWP (ITMWP) model is built upon TMWP, which augments the training sets of target languages when target languages are lower-resourced with limited training data. Experiments show i) MWP outperforms previous methods over two hypernymy prediction tasks for English; and ii) TMWP and ITMWP are effective to predict hypernymy over seven non-English languages.
Commuters' Preferences for Fast and Reliable Travel

This discussion paper led to a publication in 'Transportation Research Part B: Methodological' . We employ a semi-parametric estimation approach to analyse observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the value of savings in travel time and schedule delay. Our econometric approach allows for the estimation of unobserved and observed heterogeneity in preferences in a flexible way, meaning that we do not put any structure on how individual characteristics (such as income and age) relate to the value of savings in travel time and schedule delay. Using data from a stated choice experiment, we illustrate the estimation approach and find that there is substantial heterogeneity in the value of savings in travel time and schedule delay. For our data, we find that unobserved heterogeneity is more important than heterogeneity related to individual characteristics.
Complementing GPS Cluster Analysis with Activity Data for Studies of Leopard (Panthera pardus) Diet

Despite their wide distribution, feeding habits of leopards, Panthera pardus, outside savanna and forest habitats are poorly understood. We explored a novel approach of combining both GPS cluster and activity data analysis to study the hunting activity of a single female leopard in the Cederberg Mountains of the Western Cape, South Africa. Positions and acceleration data were obtained using a Vectronic GPS-PLUS collar. In total, 1760 GPS positions with a fix success of 87% were obtained between June 2008 and February 2009. Fifty-four of 78 potential kill sites identified from GPS data records were investigated 171 ± 91 days (mean ± S.D.) after the potential predation event which resulted in the detection of prey remains at 31 sites (success rate of 57.4%). Activity pattern was different at small-kill (rock hyrax; Hewitt's rock rabbit, Pronolagus saundersiae) sites compared to large-kill (antelope) sites, although data did not achieve significance (P = 0.07). Results of frequency analyses of activity data allowed the differentiation between feeding and non-feeding activity. The combination of different methods such as GPS telemetry and activity measurement provides a valuable means for detecting kill sites in rugged and largely inaccessible regions where direct observations and scat collection are difficult.
Kinetic isotope effect and biochemical characterization of form IA RubisCO from the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus MIT9313

In an effort to better understand the factors influencing carbon fixation by Prochlorococcus, and to elucidate the effects of these cyanobacteria on the ocean carbon cycle, the kinetic parameters and isotopic discrimination of form IA ribulose 1,5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO) from Prochlorococcus marinus MIT 9313 were determined. The RubisCO genes (cbbL and cbbS) were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Enzyme was purified via ammonium sulfate precipitation, and the optimum pH and temperature, as well as Michaelis‐Menton constants, were determined radiometrically. The degree to which this RubisCO discriminates against 13CO2 during fixation was determined by the high‐precision substrate depletion method. Purified enzyme had a pH optimum of 7.5, was most active between 20°C and 30°C, had a moderate Vmax (0.41 µmol min−1 mg protein−1), and had the highest ΚCO2 value (0.75 mmol L−1) for a form I RubisCO characterized to date. The  value,  = 1,000[(Κ12/Κ13) ‐ 1], for the enzyme was determined to be 24.0‰ (95% C.I. = 22.2‐25.6‰), within the range observed for other form I RubisCOs. This  value is a critical baseline for interpreting the δ13C values of marine environmental samples, particularly those collected from the open ocean, where P. marinus is responsible for a substantial fraction of carbon fixation.
Methods of Sensitivity Analyses and theirs Role in Engineering

The paper describes selected efficient methods for sensitivity analysis of engineering problems: The non-parametric rank-order statistical correlation between the basic random variables and the structural response variable, neural network ensemble-based sensitivity analysis and sensitivity analysis in terms of coefficient of variation. All three methods were utilized and compared for practical engineering example. Keywords—sensitivity analysis, artificial neural networks, reliability analysis
The effect of bleeding on the quality of farmed African catfish in Uganda

Despite the wide use of bleeding to improve product appearance and probable shelf-life extension, it has not been practiced in Uganda. Most local fish consumers dislike African cat fish ( Clarias gariepinus ) because of its redflesh colouration in spite of the decliningper capita fish consumption. The present study tested the bleeding effect and keeping quality of catfish. Farmed catfish, 60 in number were divided into four batches, consisting of 15 fish each. Two batches, one bled and the other unbled were kept on ice while the other two batches similarly treated were held at ambient temperature (28°C). The results indicated that fish that was bled had extended shelf-life compared to fish that was not bled, regardless of the holding temperature. Bled fish kept at ambient temperature remained acceptabletaste wise for 19.5 hrs compared to 14 hrs for fish that were not bled.Under chilled conditions the shelf-life of bled fish was 29 dayscompared to 17 days for unbled. It was concluded that bleeding and chilling intervention measures extended the shelf-life of C. gariepinus substantially. Key words : Aquaculture, Clarias gariepinus , shelf-life and market demands
Characterization of a novel obesity phenotype caused by interspecific hybridization

Interspecific hybridization in mammals causes hybrid dysgenesis effects, such as sterility and abnormal placentation. Here, we describe a novel obesity syndrome caused by interspecific hybridization in the genus Mus and show that this obesity, appearing sporadically in F1 littermates derived from inbred strains, has an epigenetic basis. Mus hybrids from various strains of M. musculus and M. spretus were generated and the sporadic obese phenotype was confirmed through assessment of physiological and biochemical parameters in littermates. To understand the underlying mechanisms, large-scale and candidate gene expression assays, global DNA methylation assays and allelic expression analysis were performed. Studies showed that obese hybrids are similar to other known models of obesity. While increased axial growth indicated a defect in POMC pathway, comparison of global gene expression patterns in brain of obese F1 and obese Pomc mutant mice showed little similarity. In F1 obese mice many genes involved in the maintenance of epigenetic states, as well as several imprinted genes, were differentially expressed. Global DNA methylation analysis in brain showed that increased methylation levels were associated with obesity. The imprinted gene Gnasxl, known to be important in lipid homeostasis, was found over expressed in the obese hybrids. Allelic expression and methylation analysis of Gnasxl showed that alterations of epigenetic marks underlying F1 obesity are probably many and multi-factorial. Conclusions: This model of obesity, which is both spontaneous and epigenetic, may be a useful tool to address the epigenetic aspects of clinical obesity.
Parasitoid wasp controls blue gum psyllid

The blue gum psyllid was first discovered in North America in Monterey County in January 1991. Since then it has quickly spread throughout the California coastal area and has became a major pest on Eucalyptus palverulenta in commercial foliage plantations. Large amounts of pesticides have been used to control the psyllid in these plantations. A primary parasitoid wasp, Psyllaephagus pilosus Noyes (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), was found in Australia and New Zealand and released at eight sites in California in spring/summer 1993. As a result, psyllid populations declined somewhat at most sites in 1993, and in 1994 psyllids were no longer a problem. The parasitoid has spread rapidly to other coastal areas.