Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Farnesol-Mediated Regulation Of Hepatic Lipid Metabolism In Heparg Cells

FARNESOL-MEDIATED REGULATION OF HEPATIC LIPID METABOLISM IN HepaRG CELLS by ASMITA PANT May 2016 Advisor: Dr. Thomas A. Kocarek Major: Pharmacology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is emerging as one of the most common liver disorders worldwide and is characterized by accumulation of triglycerides (TGs) in liver. The endogenous isoprenoid farnesol reduces hepatic TG levels in rodents, and this effect appears to involve at least two nuclear receptors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α and farnesoid X receptor (FXR). However, farnesol’s effects on human hepatic lipid metabolism are currently unknown. The objective of this study is to evaluate how farnesol treatment would affect hepatic lipid accumulation and metabolism in a cellular model of human hepatic steatosis that was created by incubating the hepatocyte-like HepaRG cell line with oleic acid. Farnesol treatment suppressed the OA-induced TGs accumulation in HepaRG cells by 25%. Farnesol upregulated the activity of lipid-sensing nuclear receptors PPARα and constitutive androstane receptor (CAR), which was evident by the increase in the expression of their respective target genes, PLIN2 and CYP2B6; however, farnesol had no effect on FXR activity in HepaRG cells. Gene expression analysis through customized arrays revealed that farnesol modulated mRNA levels of several hepatic lipidand drug-metabolizing enzymes in both control and OA-
Providing laying hens in group-housed enriched cages with access to barley silage reduces aggressive and feather-pecking behaviour

Abstract: Two trials were conducted to study the effect of feeding barley silage on the behaviour and performance of beak-trimmed laying hens. In each trial, 20 hens and 2 roosters were housed in each of eight group-housed enriched cages, with four cages provided a laying hen diet and four cages additionally given free access to barley silage. Egg production and quality, and hen behaviour were assessed throughout the trials (Trial One 20-30 weeks; Trial Two 19-28 weeks). Data were analysed using Proc Mixed of SAS 9.4 and differences were significant when P ≤ 0.05. Silage-fed hens consumed 41 (13.9 g DM) and 50 (13.5 g DM) grams of silage per hen per day in Trials One and Two, respectively, while consuming less layer diet. Birds fed silage spent less time expressing aggressive and feather-pecking behaviours and in nest boxes, and more time feeding than control birds. Egg production, egg quality, and bird weight were not affected by treatment; yolk colour was darker for the silage treatment. Feathering quality was improved in silage-fed birds compared to control birds. It was concluded that providing hens with access to barley silage can improve welfare indicators without negatively affecting the egg production and egg quality.
Intracellular low molecular weight iron

Summary A low molecular weight complex of an iron oligomer ( M r ~ 1000) has been isolated from rat liver and characterized physically and chemically. The h.p.l.c. -purified material contains the free amino acids glutamate and aspartate. Chemical techniques suggest the iron present in the factor is as iron(III) and is readily donated to high-affinity chelators such as the hydroxypyridinones and desferoxamine.
Madumycin biosynthesis by an Actinomadure flava culture under conditions of varying aeration

: Production of madumycin I and madumycin II by 2 strains of Actinomadure flava 2171 was studied. Intensive aeration was an obligatory condition for the antibiotic biosynthesis. The content of madumycins I and II in the culture fluid depended on the strain, aeration conditions and fermentation cycle. Strain 2171/852 produced maximum amounts of madumycin I and madumycin II by the 2nd--3rd and 5th days of cultivation respectively. Strain 2171/2544 mainly produced madumycin I during the whole period of fermentation.
Baseline system for speaker recognition - parameter analysis

 Abstract — Interest for speaker recognition increased again with appearance of new opportunities for applications. The goal of this paper is to examine reliable speaker recognition system and to examine influence of different parameter values. The system consists of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based classifier which uses Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) as features. Tests were conducted on Temporal Voice Idiosyncrasy (TEVOID) database. First we performed test using parameters recommended in literature and established the baseline system with excellent 99.5% of recognition rate. We examined the varieties in following steps of process: in speech preprocessing, MFCC calculation, GMM training and in training/testing setup. All the tests were performed using only 10 sentences in total for training and testing. The results of these tests are close to saturation, which makes them not robust enough for general conclusions, but useful for further development.
Early life history of oxudercine goby Pseudapocryptes elongatus in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Pseudapocryptes elongatus is one of the oxudercine gobies, which show varying degrees of amphibious behaviour and capacities to breathe air. There is little information on the early life history of P. elongatus, particularly of their morphology and larval habitat and duration. This study focused on the life history of larval and juvenile stages of P. elongatus investigated by genetic species identification, morphological observation and otolith analyses using specimens collected in June and October 2012 from estuaries in Bac Liêu Province, southern Vietnam (09°14′N 105°43′E). Genetically identified juvenile P. elongatus were characterized by (1) a slender body form, (2) the anterior edges of both the anal and second dorsal fins located at the midpoint along the body axis, (3) scarce chromatophores over the body surface, (4) melanophores in the parietal region between the eyes, and (5) a single row of melanophores along the base of the anal fin. Mean age at recruitment to estuaries was 38.0 ± 4.1 days, and otolith Sr/Ca ratios ranged from 8.9 to 9.9 mmol mol−1, suggesting that larval migration from their spawning sites requires more than 1 month in saline environments.
Adaptative diversity of calcium metabolism in Gammarus fossarum populations

L'analyse des populations de Gammarus fossarum caracteristiques des torrents de montagne de' la region grenobloise revele une diversite morphologique et ecophysiologique qui parait en rapport avec la teneur en calcium des eaux suite a une experimentation a la fois sur le terrain et en laboratoire. Les animaux issus d'eaux riches en calcium (localises en Chartreuse et Vercors) presentent une taille plus grande et un cycle de mue plus long que ceux issus d'eaux pauvres en calcium (localises en Belledonne); leur bilan calcique au cours du cycle de mue est different
Effect of Herbivore Insect Pest Age on Fecundity and Attractiveness to Egg Parasitoids in Maize and Its Wild Relative, Teosinte

Abstract Little is known about insect pest ontogeny, with respect to fecundity, on domesticated plants and their wild relatives, and the effect of fecundity on parasitoids. The aim was to determine fecundity in young (2 wk old) and mature (8 wk old) females of the pest Dalbulus maidis (DeLong) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) on maize, Zea mays ssp. mays, and its wild relative, teosinte. The effect of fecundity on parasitoid attraction was also evaluated. First, the fecundity of young D. maidis females and their attractiveness to parasitoids was evaluated in the native maize race “maíz ancho” and in the teosinte Zea perennis. Next, the fecundity of mature females and their attractiveness to parasitoids was evaluated in the native maize race “maíz ancho” at two juvenile stages, and in the teosintes Zea mays ssp. parviglumis and Z. perennis. Whereas young females laid more eggs on maize than on Z. perennis, mature females laid similar numbers of eggs on all plants studied. Anagrus incarnatus Haliday (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) was the most abundant egg parasitoid. Eggs from young versus mature D. maidis females attracted more parasitoids. Furthermore, more parasitoid adults emerged from eggs produced by young D. maidis females on maize than on Z. perennis, whereas no difference was seen in the number of parasitoid adults emerging from eggs produced by mature D. maidis females from any of the four plant treatments. These results indicate that fecundity changes with herbivore pest age and egg parasitoid attraction depends on herbivore density; in this case, attraction was higher for young D. maidis females.
Leaf Color Stability during Plant Development as an Index of Leaf Color Variation among Micropropagated Caladium

The developmental pattern of leaf color distribution during plant development in 10 cultivars of Caladium xhortulanum Birdsey was investigated. We used the color occupying the largest area in the terminal leaf as the dominant color, and expressed the leaf color stability during plant development by the ratio of the percentage of the dominant color area in the terminal leaf to that of the dominant color area in the initial leaf (leaf color stability index). In some cultivars, leaf color stability index was clearly greater than 1 (leaf-color-unstable cultivar), but in some cultivars it was close to 1 (leaf-color-stable cultivar). In plants regenerated from leaf explants of leaf-color-unstable cultivars, many (21% to 43 % ) color variants were observed but only a few (0% to 6 % ) occurred from leaf explants of leaf-color-stable cultivars. Tissue culture appears to be a useful technique for rapid propagation based on leaf color stability in leaf-color-stahle and leaf-color-unstable cultivars.
ENDOGENOUS INTOXICATION AND INFLAMMATION: REACTION SEQUENCE AND INFORMATIVITY OF THE MARKERS (review)

Abstract According to modern phylogenetic theory of general pathology (V.N. Titov, 2003, 2013) inflammation is a nonspecific biological reaction, providing the removal of excessive amount of high-molecular macromolecules and maintenance of metabolic homeostasis (endoecology). The increase of any metabolite concentration above the physiological range is a violation of the «purity» of inter-cellular medium. This triggers two nonspecific biological reactions, namely the excretion used to re-move «biological waste» of a molecular weight less than 70 kD and the inflammation in case the lar-ger molecules and their complexes should be removed via neutrophils, resident macrophages and en-dothelial cells. Blood concentration of leukocytes has been used for evaluation of inflammation and intoxication activity for many decades. However, at the molecular level there is a requirement in precise differentiation of metabolites, activating leukocytes, and metabolites, excessively forming as a result of activation, because the last disturb molecular homeostasis and may damage cells and tissues. Validity of leucocytal intoxication index (LII) of Ya.Ya. Kalf-Kalif, concentration ratio of low and medium molecular weight substances, average molecular peptides, total and effective albumin as markers of endogenous intoxication (M.Ya. Malakhova, 2005) are considered. It is shown that pri-mary agent, activating neutrophils and some factors of humoral immunity, is a lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) of gram-negative microflora (M.Yu. Yakovlev, 2003; O.W. McIntyre, 2011). An excess of endotoxin inflow is possible under intestine and liver pathologies, and due to sympathoadrenal system activation, and also with feed and air. The overload of systems and organs of elimination of endotoxin causes secondary immunodeficiency, which becomes the cause of acute and chronic in-flammatory processes of various localizations. It is offered to consider lipopolysaccharide of gram-negative microflora as a primary agent of endogenous intoxication and all the metabolites, produces at increased concentrations as a result of polymorphonuclear leukocytes activation such as reactive oxygen species, oxidated proteins, products of lipid peroxidation and proteolysis, as a secondary one. Such an approach allows to single out various points of application for therapy of endogenous intoxi-cation: i) elimination of excessive concentration of lipopolysaccharide in blood by limiting its pro-duction and income from internal and external sources, as well as by a variety of methods of active binding and excretion of endotoxin (S.V. Smirnov et al., 2003; K. Battenschoen et al., 2010); ii) re-ducing the concentration of «secondary» metabolites in blood and tissues. Keywords: endogenous intoxication, segmentated neutrophils, lipopolysaсcharides, inflamma-tion, endotoxinemia, endoecology.
Protective and Curative Antiobesity Potential of Lemon Peel Extract in Rats Fed on High Fat Diet: Mechanism of Action

Aim: This study was to investigate the effect of dietary lemon peel extract (LPE) on high fat diet induced obesity in rats. Some of the LPE mechanism of action was also elucidated. Fifty adult rats were divided into five groups: 1) normal control, 2) lemon peel extract group supplemented with 0.5 g% LPE for 12 weeks, 3) high fat diet-fed (HFD) for 12 weeks, 4) preventive group fed on high fat diet supplemented with LPE 0.5 g% for 12 weeks and 5) therapeutic group fed on high fat diet for 12 weeks then supplemented with LPE 0.5 g% further 6 weeks. Methodology: Body weight gain, feed efficiency ratio, serum lipid profile, serum glucose, serum insulin, erythrocytes glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity, serum adiponectin, leptin, acyl coenzyme A oxidase (ACO) and medium chain acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase (MCAD) activities were measured. Original Research Article Ezz et al.; IJBCRR, 12(4): 1-17, 2016; Article no.IJBCRR. 26651 2 Results: Body weight gain, lipid profile, glucose, insulin, G6PD activity and leptin were significantly suppressed by the effect of LPE in treated groups. LPE also, up-regulated ACO and MCAD activities in the LPE-treated groups. Additionally mRNA level of ACO in the liver was up-regulated in LPE-treated groups compared with HFD. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that LPE prevent body weight gain and fat accumulation through improvement of lipid metabolism by up-regulating the activities of MCAD and ACO while down regulating the activity of glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase. In this context, the preventive effect of LPE was more pronounced than the therapeutic effect.
Human migrations and mosquito-borne diseases in Africa

ABSTRACT The efficacy of border screening as a prophylactic measure against mosquito-borne diseases in Africa depends on the value of the lower bound of the basic reproduction number. If this lower bound is greater than one, then border screening may be ineffective. In this case, the best prophylaxis is to isolate and treat patients in their region of residence.
FERTILITY VARIATION AND EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE IN A TEAK CLONAL SEED ORCHARD

A 27 year old clonal seed orchard of teak ( Tectona grandis L.f ) in Padangan, East Java comprising 24 clones, was evaluated for fertility, offspring diversity, and genetic drift. Flower and fruit productions were used to assess clone fertility in the orchard. Fertility variation measured as ‘sibling coefficient’ was found to be 1,62, having high genetic diversity (0,97) and low coancestry (0,03). The clones varied in fertility in which, 25 % of the most fertile clones in the orchard contributed to 47,5 % of flower and fruit yields. Effective population size in the orchard was 15, indicating that 15 of the clones contributed effectively to seed yield. Separating on the amounts of seeds that can be collected, individual collection, and proportional mixing of seed per clone might be useful in restricting over representation of highly reproductive clones thereby increasing genetic diversity in the seed crop. Another way to improve seed yield in the orchard is by increasing the effective population size. Thinning or prunning on highly reproductive clones might be useful in increasing effective population size.
A Study on Riparian Habitats for Amphibians Using Habitat Suitability Model

The objective of this study was to analyze characteristics of distribution of amphibian species and the affecting ecological factors. For the study, habitat environment factors were determined and applied to a habitat suitability model for the data collected from the Seom River in Hoengseong County and Wonju City, Gangwon Province, Korea between March 2013 to October 2013. The analyzed amphibian species were Rana nigromaculata, Hyla japonica, Rana dybowski, and Rana rugosa Temminck and Schlegel, and a logistic regression model was used with the pseudo-absence data. The result of the model analysis suggests that the major factors for Rana nigromaculata are distance to vegetation and rock and that for Hyla japonica is waterway. Rana dybowski and Rana rugosa Temminck and Schlegel have similar habitat characteristics, but the latter is shown to be dominant due to its wider habitat preference. According to the species richness model, the analyzed amphibian species are shown to have tendency to move between valleys or streams. This study quantitatively analyzed habitat environment characteristics using species distribution model, however, there is a limitation in terms of analysis on food factor and connectivity with other species. Combined with additional density or habitat analysis on birds or fish, this study can lead to more comprehensive analysis on biological environment factors.
Arctic Plants Produce Vastly Different Numbers of Flowers in Three Contrasting Years at Lake Hazen, Quttinirpaaq National Park, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

To maximise reproductive success in the short Arctic growing season, plants pre-form flower buds the year prior to flowering. Flower bud production depends on warm ambient temperatures. Thus, although currently Arctic plants have low rates of sexual reproductive success, the warming climate may increase reproductive success. Following the long, warm growing season in 2012, plants at Lake Hazen, Ellesmere Island, produced many flowers in the short, cold growing season of 2013. Conversely, few flowers were produced in 2014, a long, warm growing season, but many flowers were produced in 2015, another long, warm growing season. Potentially higher rates of reproductive success in a warming climate could be compromised if consecutive years do not have long, warm growing seasons.
Intra-specific variation in nest-site preferences of Zebra Finches: do height and cover matter?

Abstract Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are distributed over most of Australia and have also been domesticated. Domestication in general has strong effects on various traits including reproduction. For successful reproduction choosing a suitable nest-site is essential. We focussed on two factors that might influence nest-site selection; height and cover. In two experiments, we investigated the nest-height and nest-cover preferences of five Zebra Finch populations (1 Australian, 4 domesticated). Our results revealed that all five populations preferred the highest nests and there were no differences between populations. With variation in nest-cover, the Australian birds and a less-selected domesticated population chose nests with cover, while birds from populations selected for specific plumage colourations used the open nest-boxes most. Nest-height preference seems to be conserved in domesticated birds, whereas preference for nest-cover seems to be modified during domestication. We discuss the intra-specific variation in nest-site preferences, in the light of evolutionary and domestication processes. We believe that this further understanding in nest-site preference can provide hints to understand the variation in breeding success of Zebra Finches across different experiments and laboratories.
Visualization of amino acid composition differences between processed protein from different animal species by self-organizing feature maps

Amino acids are the dominant organic com- ponents of processed animal proteins, however there has been limited investigation of differences in their composi- tion between various protein sources. Information on these differences will not only be helpful for their further utilization but also provide fundamental information for developing species-specific identification methods. In this study, self-organizing feature maps (SOFM) were used to visualize amino acid composition of fish meal, and meat and bone meal (MBM) produced from poultry, ruminants and swine. SOFM display the similarities and differences in amino acid composition between protein sources and effectively improve data transparency. Amino acid composition was shown to be useful for distinguishing fish meal from MBM due to their large concentration differences between glycine, lysine and proline. However, the amino acid composition of the three MBMs was quite similar. The SOFM results were consistent with those obtained by analysis of variance and principal component analysis but more straightforward. SOFM was shown to have a robust sample linkage capacity and to be able to act as a powerful means to link different sample for further data mining.
SMALL-CELL WAVEGUIDE ANTENNA ARRAY FOR E-BAND POINT TO POINT WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

In this paper, a highly directive small-cell waveguide antenna array for point to point wireless communication in E-band radio frequency systems is presented. The antenna array is designed and dedicated for the paired bandwidths 71–76 and 81–86 GHz. It is composed of 32×32 horn elements with a total surface of ∼ 100 × 100 mm2 to achieve a directivity ≥ 38 dB, narrow beam (∼ 2◦), and low-level sidelobe ≤ −26 dB. A compact stepped horn antenna element (SHE) (6.6 mm) is designed. It is 25% smaller than a standard horn element (in the same band) keeping the same aperture surface (3.4 × 3.4 mm2). Layer-by-layer micromachining process is employed for the fabrication. A compact feeding network (25 mm) is realized using ridged waveguide technique with a cut-off frequency of 55 GHz, much lower than standard WG one in the same band. A bow-tie multi-section waveguide polarizer rotator (±90◦) is optimized and associated with the WG transitions to re-phase the fields applied to SHE elements. Electric discharge machining (EDM) process was used to manufacture a 4 × 4 subarray prototype including the entire WG power-feed network. The antenna is characterized in an anechoic chamber, and experimental results are compared to 3-D electromagnetic simulations with good agreements over the two bands.
Genetic relation of Coffea and Indian Psilanthus species as revealed through RAPD and ISSR markers

Coffea and Psilanthus are distinguished in the tribe Coffeeae of the family Rubiaceae based on floral characters (Leroy, 1980; Bridson 1987). The genus Coffea consists of approximately 105 taxa (Davis et al 2006) and all species are woody, ranging from simple shrubs to robust trees originated in inter tropical forest of Africa and Madagascar. C. arabica L. (2n=4x=44) and C. canephora Pierre. (2n=2x=22) are the two cultivated species of economic importance. C. arabica is a natural allotetroploid and is self fertile, while other species are diploid and generally self-incompatible. The species belongs to the genus Psilanthus originate from either Asia or Africa and again divided into 2 subgenera. P. subg. Psilanthus with only two species is restricted to Western and Central Africa, where as, P. subg. Afrocoffea with 17 species has wide distribution in Africa, Asia, Philippines and Australia (Leroy 1980; Bridson 1987; Bridson and Verdcourt 1988).