Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variability of Gut Microbiota Across the Life Cycle of Grapholita molesta (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

Grapholita molesta, the oriental fruit moth, is a serious global pest of many Rosaceae fruit trees. Gut microorganisms play important roles in host nutrition, digestion, detoxification, and resistance to pathogens. However, there are few studies on the microbiota of G. molesta, particularly during metamorphosis. Here, the diversity of gut microbiota across the holometabolous life cycle of G. molesta was investigated comprehensively by Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that the microbiota associated with eggs had a high number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs). OTU and species richness in early-instar larvae (first and second instars) were significantly higher than those in late-instar larvae (third to fifth instars). Species richness increased again in male pupae and adults, apparently during the process of metamorphosis, compared to late-instar larvae. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant phyla in the gut and underwent notable changes during metamorphosis. At the genus level, gut microbial community shifts from Gluconobacter and Pantoea in early-instar larvae to Enterococcus and Enterobacter in late-instar larvae and to Serratia in pupae were apparent, in concert with host developmental changes. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analyses confirmed the differences in the structure of gut microbiota across different developmental stages. In addition, sex-dependent bacterial community differences were observed. Microbial interaction network analysis showed different correlations among intestinal microbes at each developmental stage of G. molesta, which may result from the different abundance and diversity of gut microbiota at different life stages. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis indicated that most functional prediction categories of gut microbiota were related to membrane transport, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, and DNA replication and repair. Bacteria isolated by conventional culture-dependent methods belonged to Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria, which was consistent with high-throughput sequencing results. In conclusion, exploration of gut bacterial community composition in the gut of G. molesta should shed light into deeper understanding about the intricate associations between microbiota and host and might provide clues to the development of novel pest management strategies against fruit borers.
Small molecules exploiting structural differences within microRNA-200 precursors family members reverse a type 2 diabetes phenotype

MicroRNA families are pervasive in the human transcriptome, but specific targeting of individual members is a challenge because of sequence homology. Many of the secondary structures of the precursors to these miRs (pre-miRs), however, are quite different. Here, we demonstrate both in vitro and in cellulis that design of structure-specific small molecules can inhibit specific miR family members to modulate a disease pathway. In particular, the miR-200 family consists five miRs, miR-200a, −200b, −200c, −141, and - 429, and is associated with Type II Diabetes (T2D). We designed a small molecule that potently and selectively targets pre-miR-200c’s structure. The compound reverses a pro-apoptotic effect in a pancreatic β-cell model. In contrast, oligonucleotides targeting the RNA’s sequence inhibit all family members. Global proteomics analysis further demonstrates selectivity for miR-200c. Collectively, these studies establish that miR-200c plays an important role in T2D and that small molecules targeting RNA structure can be an important complement to oligonucleotides targeting sequence. Significance Statement The most common way to develop medicines targeting RNA is by using oligonucleotides that target its sequence by using base pairing. Some RNAs, however, have similar sequences and thus are impossible to target selectively by using oligonucleotides. Here, we show that a class of RNAs that have similar sequences emerge from precursors that have very different structures. Exploiting these structural differences afforded a selective compound. In particular, the selective small molecule targets a member of the microRNA (miR)-200 family, the overexpression of which is linked to diabetes and pancreatic cell death. Selective inhibition of family member miR-200c alleviates pancreatic cell death, and thus the small molecule provides a path to the treatment of diabetes.
Contrasting hierarchical and multiple-demand accounts of frontal lobe functional organisation during task-switching

There is an unresolved discrepancy between popular hierarchical and multiple-demand perspectives on the functional organisation of the human frontal lobes. Here, we tested alternative predictions of these perspectives with a novel fMRI switching paradigm. Each trial involved switching attention between stimuli, but at different levels of difficulty and abstraction. As expected, increasing response times were evident when comparing low-level perceptual switching to more abstract dimension, rule and task-switching. However, there was no evidence of an abstraction hierarchy within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Nor was there recruitment of additional anterior PFC regions under increased switching demand. Instead, switching activated a widespread network of frontoparietal and cerebellar regions. Critically, the activity within PFC sub-regions uniformly increased with behavioural switch costs. We propose that both perspectives have some validity, but neither is complete. Too many studies have reported dissociations within MD for this volume to be functionally uniform, and the recruitment of more anterior regions with increased general difficulty cannot explain those results. Conversely, whilst reproducible evidence for a hierarchical functional organisation has been reported, this cannot be explained in terms of abstraction of representation or reconfiguration per se, because those interpretations generalise poorly to other task contexts.
Two microRNAs are sufficient for embryogenesis in C. elegans

The Microprocessor, composed of Drosha and Pasha/DGCR8, is necessary for the biogenesis of canonical microRNAs (miRNAs) and essential for animal embryogenesis. However, the cause for this requirement is largely unknown: the Microprocessor may be required to produce one or few essential miRNAs, or many individually non-essential miRNAs. Additionally, Drosha and Pasha/ DGCR8 may be required for processing non-miRNA substrates. To distinguish between these possibilities, we developed a system in C. elegans to stringently deplete embryos of Microprocessor activity. Microprocessor-depleted embryos fail to undergo morphogenesis or form organs. We show that this early embryonic arrest is rescued by the addition of two miRNAs from the miR-35 and miR-51 families, resulting in morphologically normal larvae. Thus, just two canonical miRNAs are sufficient for morphogenesis and organogenesis, and the processing of these miRNAs accounts for the essential requirement for Drosha and Pasha/DGCR8 during C. elegans embryonic development.
Assessment of genetic diversity in fenugreek (Trigonella foenumgraecum) in Oman

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) is widely grown in the Arabian countries and is one of the important crops in the Sultanate of Oman. The present investigation focused on characterizing genetic diversity within 20 Omani fenugreek accessions collected from different districts in Oman and to investigate their relationship with four accessions from Iraq and Pakistan. AFLP analysis of 24 accessions produced 1852 polymorphic loci. The level of genetic diversity (H) was found to be 0.2146, 0.0844 and 0.1620 for the Omani, Pakistani and Iraqi populations, respectively. The moderate level of genetic diversity of fenugreek in Oman indicates that it has been cultivated in the country for long time. A very low level of genetic differentiation was observed among populations of fenugreek from different regions in Oman (Fst = 0.05) following AMOVA analysis. Cluster analysis supported these findings and indicated high genetic similarity among Omani populations of fenugreek (mean = 93%) compared to a lower level of genetic similarity with the population from Pakistan (83%) and Iraq (80%). These results suggest frequent exchange of fenugreek genetic material among regions in Oman. © 2014 Friends Science Publishers
Bam, Sex lethal, Ago1 and Brat multiple protein complex mediates negative regulation of dMyc mRNA in S2 cells of Drosophila melanogaster

The differentiation factor Bag of Marbles (Bam) is required for differentiation of Germ line stem cell in the Drosophila melanogaster ovary showing its high expression in differentiating cystoblasts and dividing cysts. Diminutive (dMyc), the human c-myc oncogene and the homolog of an important regulator of cell growth are highly expressed in self-renewing stem cells but its expression is downregulated in differentiating cystoblasts and 16-cell cysts. The molecular mechanisms responsible for such downregulation of dMyc mRNA in the cystoblasts and 16-cell cysts stage needed to be addressed. The current finding signifies that Bam forms multiple complex with Ago 1, a microRNA pathway component, Brat a TRIM–NHL domain containing factor and a RNA-binding protein sex lethal which is specific to polyuridines stretches. The multiple complex of Bam, Sex lethal, Ago1 and Brat represses dMyc mRNA through 401-704 bp region of dMyc 3’UTR consisting of the six microRNA sites containing differentiating daughter cells and cystoblasts.
Friend Recommendation System: A Review

— Nowadays use of social networking site is increasing exponentially. Almost 90 to 95 percent of the young generation (especially students) are using social networking services. Every social networking site is using different factors for recommending friends. These factors may include social graph, tastes, moral standards, habits, attitudes, profession, etc. Two decades ago, people typically made friends with others who live or work surrounding to themselves like neighbors or colleagues. With the rapid advances in social networks, services such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ have provided us new ways of making friends. So there is a big challenge with the social networking services which is how to recommend a good friend to a user.
Numerical simulation of atomization process of nickel-based alloy powders prepared by vacuum induction melting gas atomization

ANSYS Fluent 19.0 software is used to numerically simulate atomization process in the production of nickel-based alloy powders by VIGA. The gas flow field in the atomizing chamber and atomization process of the metal melt is studied. Atomizing air flow is sprayed through the nozzle to form supersonic gas flow. The results show that the recirculation zone is inverted cone, and the length of recirculation zone is 12.28 mm. Under the stagnation point, the velocity direction of the air flow is downward, and the velocity increases gradually (the maximum is 457.43 m/s). In gas-liquid two-phase state, the length of recirculation zone is about 16 mm. The higher the turbulence in the recirculation zone and turbulent layer, the more intense the interaction between primary and secondary atomization.
A Comparative Test of Mechanized and Manual Transplanting of Eelgrass, Zostera marina, in Chesapeake Bay

Abstract The laborious process of manual seagrass transplanting has often limited the size of seagrass restoration efforts. This study tested the efficiency of a mechanized planting boat, previously used for transplanting Halodule wrightii, relative to manual transplanting methods for establishing Zostera marina in Chesapeake Bay. Eelgrass planting was conducted at two sites, one each in the Rappahannock and James rivers, in October 2001. The methods were evaluated by three criteria: (1) initial planting success = proportion of attempted planting units (PUs) initially established (number confirmed in sediment by divers/number attempted); (2) survival = proportion of the initially established PUs persisting over 1, 4, and 24 weeks; and (3) efficiency = labor (in person·seconds) invested in each surviving PU. Initial planting success was significantly lower for the planting boat (24 and 56% at the Rappahannock and James sites, respectively) than for manual transplanting (100% at both sites). At the Rappahannock site, survival of initially established PUs declined over time for both methods, but while mean survival was always higher for manually planted rows, differences in survival between methods were not statistically significant. At the James site, survival to 1 and 4 weeks was significantly lower for the machine than for the manual method, but survival to 24 weeks was not significantly different. While the machine was able to attempt PUs faster than the manual method (2.2 s/PU vs. 5.8 s/PU, respectively), this speed was offset by poorer planting success rates, resulting in a much greater total labor investment for each machine‐planted PU that persisted to 24 weeks than for each similarly persisting manually planted PU (40.6 person·seconds/PU and 22.4 person·seconds/PU, respectively, averaged across sites). In summary, those PUs successfully planted by the machine survived similarly to PUs planted by hand, but as a result of poorer initial planting success, the machine required a greater investment of labor and plant donor stock for each PU surviving to 24 weeks. Therefore, in its tested configuration this planting boat is not a significant improvement over the manual method for transplanting eelgrass.
Desperately Seeking ... Optimal Multi-Tier Cache Configurations

Modern cache hierarchies are tangled webs of complexity. Multiple tiers of heterogeneous physical and virtual devices, with many configurable parameters, all contend to optimally serve swarms of requests between local and remote applications. The challenge of effectively designing these systems is exacerbated by continuous advances in hardware, firmware, innovation in cache eviction algorithms, and evolving workloads and access patterns. This rapidly expanding configuration space has made it costly and time-consuming to physically experiment with numerous cache configurations for even a single stable workload. Current cache evaluation techniques ( e.g. , Miss Ratio Curves) are short-sighted: they analyze only a single tier of cache, focus primarily on performance, and fail to examine the critical relationships between metrics like throughput and monetary cost. Publicly available I/O cache simulators are also lacking: they can only simulate a fixed or limited number of cache tiers, are missing key features, or offer limited analyses. It is our position that best practices in cache analysis should include the evaluation of multi-tier configurations, coupled with more comprehensive metrics that reveal critical design trade-offs, especially monetary costs. We are developing an n -level I/O cache simulator that is general enough to model any cache hierarchy, captures many metrics, provides a robust set of analysis features, and is easily extendable to facilitate experimental research or production level provisioning. To demonstrate the value of our proposed metrics and simulator, we extended an existing cache simulator (PyMimircache). We present several interesting and counter-intuitive results in this paper.
Proteolytic Activity of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Isolated from Epinephilus spp . A Preliminary Report

Vibrio infection is becoming more and more common worldwide. A Protease producing bacterium was isolated and identified from the eye of Epinephillus spp using phenotypic, morphological and 16S rRNA identification methods. Protease screening was carried out by the caseinolytic method. The unknown bacterium was found to have 98% maximum identity with Vibrio parahaemolyticus in NCBI database after BLAST. The bacterium produces protease enzyme on a nutrient agar medium containing 10% casein. The aim of this research was to identify the bacterium in question and its ability to produce extracellular proteases, which may be its virulence factor so that its biotechnological application can be explored in future.
Special Review Article: Culture in groups and teams: A review of three decades of research

This article reviews research on culture in groups and teams by analyzing 85 empirical studies published in the 15 leading management journals from 1980 to 2009. At first, we review the culture values used in the 85 articles. We next review how these culture values, as independent variables or dependent variables, were studied in each research topic. Then we review the methodological issues in the 85 articles. The review shows some advances but also many gaps in both theory and methods. Therefore, we highlight critical challenges for future research.
Phenotypic and molecular diversity among landraces of snapmelon (Cucumis melo var. momordica) adapted to the hot and humid tropics of eastern India

We present here the first comprehensive genetic characterization of snapmelon landraces from the humid tropics of eastern India. The genetic diversity among 42 snapmelon landraces collected from four agro-ecological regions of eastern India (eight agro-ecological subregions) was assessed by measuring variation at 16 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci, at various traits including plant habit and fruit type, yield (two associated traits), disease resistance and biochemical composition (total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, carotenoids and titrable acidity). Differences between accessions were observed in a number of plant and fruit traits. Snapmelon germplasm with high acidity, elevated carotenoid content and resistance to cucumber mosaic virus were identified in the collection. The SSR analysis indicated that there is a high level of genetic variability within snapmelon germplasm. Comparison of the genetic variability between snapmelons of eastern India and melons from north, south and central regions of India and reference accessions of melon from Spain, France, Japan, Korea, Maldives, Iraq, Zambia, Israel using SSRs showed that Indian snapmelon germplasm is not closely related to melon accessions from other parts of the world and that there are regional differences between Indian melon accessions. Eastern India snapmelon has unique traits, so it is important that more germplasm from this region is sampled and preserved.
Growth of Juvenile Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) on Dry Feeds

Abstract A suitable feeding program for juvenile barramundi (Lates calcarifer) includes rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) and Artemia sp. nauplii for larvae, followed by dry starter and production feeds for juveniles. When 9–62-g barramundi were fed similar diets containing 9.3 and 12.9% fat, daily ration (2.4%) and growth (2.5%) were similar, but feed conversion ([dry weight of feed eaten]! [wet fish weight gained]: 0.93 and 1.01 for the low- and high-fat diets, respectively) was significantly lower (P < 0.05) with 12.9% fat. When 15–71-g barramundi were fed a series of six dry diets, the feed containing the most fish meal (60%) and fat (16.9%) produced the best feed conversion (0.89); however, a diet containing 20% fish meal and 13.4% fat gave practically the same results. When 74–150-g fish were fed one or two meals a day, daily growth was similar (1.7%), but daily ration (1.9% for one meal and 2.0% for two meals) and feed conversion (1.09 and 1.21, respectively) were significantly lower (P < 0.05) with.
Failure of Pollen Attachment to the Stigma Triggers Elongation of Stigmatic Papillae in Arabidopsis thaliana

Pollination is one of key determinants of yield production in important crops, such as grains and beans in which seeds are utilized as agricultural products. Thus, to fulfil food demand for growing world population, it is necessary to elucidate the mechanisms that regulate pollination, leading to increase in yield production. In this study, we compared detailed morphological characteristics of reproductive organs in Arabidopsis thaliana grown under control conditions or subjected to heat stress. Shorter length of anthers, filaments, and petals were observed in plants subjected to heat stress compared to those under control conditions. In contrast, heat stress resulted in enlargement of stigma via elongation of stigmatic papillae. Classification of stigmas based on patterns of pollen attachment indicated that pollen attachment to stigma clearly decreased under heat stress. In addition, artificial pollination experiment demonstrated that stigma shrank when pollen attached, but, continued to enlarge in the absence of pollen. Such modulation of stigma size depending on the presence or absence of pollen was observed both under control and heat stressed conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that elongation of stigmatic papillae is associated with failure of pollen attachment to the stigma, rather than heat stress. Furthermore, histochemical staining experiments suggest that Ca2+ derived from pollen together with O2- might be associated with morphological alteration of stigma depending on the patterns of pollen attachment.
Endogenous Biosynthesis of S-Nitrosoglutathione From Nitro-Fatty Acids in Plants

Nitro-fatty acids (NO2-FAs) are novel molecules resulting from the interaction of unsaturated fatty acids and nitric oxide (NO) or NO-related molecules. In plants, it has recently been described that NO2-FAs trigger an antioxidant and a defence response against stressful situations. Among the properties of NO2-FAs highlight the ability to release NO therefore modulating specific protein targets through post-translational modifications (NO-PTMs). Thus, based on the capacity of NO2-FAs to act as physiological NO donors and using high-accuracy mass-spectrometric approaches, herein, we show that endogenous nitro-linolenic acid (NO2-Ln) can modulate S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. The incubation of NO2-Ln with GSH was analyzed by LC-MS/MS and the in vitro synthesis of GSNO was noted. The in vivo confirmation of this behavior was carried out by incubating Arabidopsis plants with 15N-labeled NO2-Ln throughout the roots, and 15N-labeled GSNO (GS15NO) was detected in the leaves. With the aim to go in depth in the relation of NO2-FA and GSNO in plants, Arabidopsis alkenal reductase mutants (aer mutants) which modulate NO2-FAs levels were used. Our results constitute the first evidence of the modulation of a key NO biological reservoir in plants (GSNO) by these novel NO2-FAs, increasing knowledge about S-nitrosothiols and GSNO-signaling pathways in plants.
Molecular analysis of powdery mildew (Erysiphe polygoni DC) resistance in black gram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper)

Black gram (Vigna mungo L. Hopper)) is a major pulse crop grown in tropical and sub tropical Asian countries. In India it covers an area of 3.17 m. ha, with annual production of 1.33 mt and average productivity of 419 kg/ha. [1]. Over the years the trend in its production and productivity has shown a decline in the country. Amongst different biotic and abiotic factors impact of powdery mildew (Erysiphe polygoni DC) disease might be the major constraints in its production causing 2040 per cent yield losses in black gram [2]. Host plant resistance (HPR) is the most effective means to over come this.