Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonparametric stability methods for interpreting genotype by environment interaction of bread wheat genotypes (Triticum aestivum L.)

Evaluation of performance stability and high yield is essential for yield trials conducted in different environments. We determined the stability of 10 bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes (5 cultivars and 5 advanced lines) using nonparametric stability measures and compared nonparametric stability statistics across 19 environments in the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey. Experiments were setup in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Nonparametric stability measures revealed that AL-2, Karahan-99 and Altay-2000 were the most stable and well adapted genotypes across the 19 environments. In addition, it was concluded that graphs of mean grain yield (t ha-1) vs. nonparametric measures (Si(1), Si(2), S(3), Si(6) and σgy) values and kr vs. σr values could enhance visual efficiency of genotype selection based on genotype by environment interaction. Furthermore, high TOP values, Si(3) and Si(6) were associated with high grain yield, but the other nonparametric stability measures were not positively correlated with grain yield and instead characterized a static concept of stability. Choice of genotype for increased grain yield in bread wheat would, therefore, be expected to change yield stability by increasing the values of the Si(3), Si(6) and TOP nonparametric stability statistics.
Revision of Second Edition of Tsetse Distribution Maps

Trypanosomiasis outbreaks of great severity, both medical and veterinary, still occur. At the present time some of these outbreaks can be contained by implementation of plans based on sound knowledge of tsetse distribution. However, for many countries such knowledge is fragmentary. For this reason the second edition of tsetse distribution maps is to be regarded as provisional only, pending the availability of more accurate data. Some of the new information that has been received since 1973 is reported. It is concluded that a programme of intensive revision is needed before it can be claimed that tsetse situation in Africa is well understood.
Isolation of endophytic fungi from Huperzia serrata grown in Guangxi Province, China

In this study, 53 strains of endophytic fungi with different colonial morphologies were isolated from the healthy tissues of Huperzia serrata (Thunb. ex Murray) Trev, collected from Guangxi province of China. Of these 53 strains, 25 were identified based on the morphological characteristics and ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequences, the others with non-sporulation based on the ITS sequence analysis. Fifty-one strains were identified at the genus level, 1 at the order level, and 1 at the family level. Fifty-one strains belonged to Ascomycota, and the other two respectively belonged to Basidiomycota and Eukaryota. Sixteen identified strains belonged to the genus of Glomerella and its anamorph Colletotrichum, which are most frequently isolated from H. serrata. Taken together, different types and quantities of endophytic fungi are distributed in the stems, leaves and roots of H. serrata.
The Use of Peer Instruction and Flipped Learning to Support Flexible Blended Learning During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

This article provides an overview of peer instruction and flipped learning, two active learning approaches, in the context of learning and teaching in higher education and illustrates their relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Peer instruction and flipped learning should be considered when designing for flexible learning. These approaches can stimulate learning and create seamless active engagement in fully online and blended settings even when switching between these modes becomes necessary due to developments in this pandemic. This transitioning between fully online and blended, as and when required, is something that is of high importance during these challenging times, especially for campus-based universities as they are keen to secure the smooth running of their programmes under difficult circumstances. This article provides practical advice for course designers, module and programme leaders on how they can utilise peer instruction or flipped learning to maximise student engagement and learning.
Nutrient Digestion and Utilization in Farm Animals

The purpose of this book is to present current research in modelling nutrient digestion and utilization in cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and fish. The book is organised into six sections that cover a range of topics and modelling approaches; these are (i) absorption and passage; (ii) growth and development; (iii) mineral metabolism; (iv) methodology; (v) environmental impact; and (vi) animal production and feed evaluation. Deterministic, stochastic, empirical and mechanistic modelling approaches are described.
Full Length Research Article CLONING AND EXPRESSION OF TWO GENES ( NHAS2 AND NHAS4 ) ISOLATED FROM SYNECHOCYSTIS SP. PCC 6803 IN YEAST

Two genes encoding Na + /H + antiporter isolated from Cyanobacterial strain Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 were cloned and sequenced. These gen es , namely, nhaS2 and nhaS4 were cloned into the pYES2 vector for expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Transgenic yeast was examined for their ability to survive under salt - stress conditions and their growth response to increasing levels of NaCl (0, 1. 7, 1.8, 1.9, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3M) for 7days, then the yeast growth was measured at OD 600 nm in spectrophotometer . The results revealed significant differences in growth between the transgenic yeast and control . The salt concentration of 1.8M NaCl was cri tical in determining the ability of yeast to tolerate salt stress. At this concentration, the mean growth values for the transgenic yeast harboring the genes nhaS2 or nhaS4 were 1.2250 cA and 1.2180 cA , respectively, compared to 0.2620 cB for the control. Mor eover, Increasing the salt concentration to 1.9 M NaCl, inhibited the growth of the control cells significantly. While, the transgenic yeast cells for the 2 genes maintained good growth and the growth continued until the 2.3 M NaCl, but with a lower level . RT – PCR confirmed the expression of the two genes in response to salt stress in transgenic yeast . The specific nhaS2 and nhaS4 primers successfully amplified the genes at 1623 bp and 1233bp, respectively in this transgenic yeast. In addition to the growth response of the transgenic yeast to salt stress, the results revealed that the intracellular proline accumulation in the transgenic yeast was significantly increased with raising salinization level.
Antennal response of cotton bollworm (Heliocoverpa armigera) to volatiles in transgenic Bt cotton

Abstract: Volatile compositions in transgenic Bt cotton variety ‘GK‐97’ and its parental variety ‘Simian No. 3’ were analysed, and antennal response of cotton bollworm (Heliocoverpa armigera) to the volatiles were investigated. Volatile components in Bt cotton and regular cotton were almost same, except for absence of a sesquiterpene and a minor unknown compound in regular cotton. The results of gas chromatography‐electroantennographic detection (GC‐EAD) experiments showed that cotton bollworm antennae responded to seven compounds and two minor unknown compounds in Bt volatiles, among which concentrations of α‐pinene and β‐pinene in Bt cotton were relatively higher than those in regular cotton, and one minor unknown compound was absent in regular cotton.
Viruses, the vehicle for cancer gene therapy: A Review

© 2020 African Journal of Biological Sciences.This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Abstract Cancer diseases are among the world’s leading causes of death, and this global burden is expected to rise in the next two decades. Researchers have been focusing on gene treatment strategy to curb this growing number. To guarantee the success of the gene therapy strategy, therefore, it is essential to develop a suitable delivery agent, notably a viral vector. Despite its benefits, there is also a disadvantage in viral vectors where viruses are hard to cope with their toxicity. Nevertheless, for their long-term expression and stability, viral delivery agents are preferred. To date, among the frequently used vehicles for gene transfer are adenovirus (Ad), adeno-associated virus (AAV), retrovirus, and lentivirus. Each one of these viruses has its own “pros and cons,” rendering them a choice for gene therapy testing. A broad range of gene transfer technologies have been designed over these years, but all transferring technologies still have constraints in clinical applications, and there are no distribution systems that could be implemented in vitro and in vivo in all cell types without any limitations or side effects.
PHYLOGENY OF THE SUBFAMILIES OF THE FAMILY BRACONIDAE (HYMENOPTERA: ICHNEUMONOIDEA): A REASSESSMENT

Abstract— The recently published phylogeny of Braconidae by Quicke and van Achterberg is reassessed. Character‐state definitions and character polarities are evaluated, and more rigorous methods are suggested. Our results indicate that there are many more parsimonious solutions to their data set, the consensus of which differs substantially from their results. Based on our reassessment, little can be said about the relationships among braconid subfamilies. Consensus trees show the cyclostomes as a largely unresolved basal grade. The two other major lineages which have been proposed, the helconoids and microgastroids, are somewhat better resolved, but not consistently so. Relationships among the helconoids vary considerably depending on the parameters used for parsimony analysis.
CORPORATE INNOVATION IN DEVELOPING NATIONS: DO POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT AND DEMOCRACY MATTER?

The goal of this study is to discover the impact of the political environment and democracy on corporate innovation in developing countries. To evaluate such liaison, we use firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, and country-level data from Worldwide Governance Indicators, Economist Intelligence Unit, and Freedom House. The sample of the study consists of manufacturing firms from 41 developing countries across different regions of the world from 2010 to 2014. By using a broad range of control variables, the regression results propose that political stability and absence of violence, voice and accountability and, political rights and civil liberties stimulate corporate innovations. Moreover, democracy leads to promote corporate innovation, and this liaison is more significant in the high democratic environment among developing countries. These results suggest that political stability shows the continuity of policies, based on which, firms decide to invest in innovative projects. Furthermore, freedom of voice (speech and press) improves information and ideas sharing environment. Such atmosphere stimulates generation and diffusion of new ideas, which subsequently increase innovation. Additionally, democratic nations exhibit freedom, openness, and better governance as compare to autocracy, which subsequently motivate overall innovation.
In vitro propagation of Kaempferia galanga (L.)-An endangered medicinal plant

Kaempferia galanga is an important medicinal plant that is facing threat of extinction owing to indiscriminate and unsustainable harvesting in the wild. Conventional breeding is difficult in this plant, and in vitro multiplication is important to conservation and propagation. Tissue culture techniques are useful for ex situ conservation of rare, endemic or threatened plant species. An efficient protocol has been established for rapid production of plantlets using rhizome tip and lateral bud of the pot cultured plant. The explants were cultured on MS medium with various combinations of 6-benzyladenine (BA), αnaphthalene acetic acid (NAA), indole-3-butric acid (IBA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 3 mg/l. High-frequency organogenesis and multiple shoot regeneration were induced from rhizome explants on MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l of BA and 0.2 mg/l of NAA. Micro-shoots were isolated from the in vitro proliferated cluster of shoots and they produced roots on half strength MS medium supplemented with 1.0 mg/l of IBA. The regenerated plantlets were transferred to plastic pots for hardening in a mixture containing red soil, sand and vermiculate (1:1:1) ratio and established on the soil with 88% of success.
Should retailers outsource Category Management to a Category Captain?

It has been argued that many retailers lack both the resources and capabilities to maximize category performance. Retailers may seek category management (CM) advice from a manufacturer, referred to as category captain (CC). A CC’s recommendations affect all brands in the category, not just her own. Although the number of CC-collaborations is increasing, many retailers are concerned about manufacturer opportunism and militant behavior by competing manufacturers, while government agencies are worried about anti-competitive behavior that could harm consumers. In this study we develop an empirical model to evaluate competing retailers’ CC selection decisions and to quantify the impact of CC-arrangements and retailer-implemented CM on retailers, manufacturers, and consumer welfare.
Mutant EGFRs, p16 Bypass, Telomerase) Are Not Sufficient to Confer a Full Malignant Phenotype on Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

We evaluated the contribution of three genetic alterations (p53 knockdown, K-RAS V12 ,a ndmutant EGFR )t o lung tumorigenesis using human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) immortalized with telomerase and Cdk4-mediated p16 bypass. RNA interference p53 knockdown or oncogenic K-RAS V12 resulted in enhanced anchorage-independent growth and increased saturation density of HBECs. The combination of p53 knockdown and K-RAS V12 further enhanced the tumorigenic phenotype with increased growth in soft agar and an invasive phenotype in three-dimensional organotypic cultures but failed to cause HBECs to form tumors in nude mice. Growth of HBECs was highly dependent on epidermal growth factor (EGF) and completely inhibited by EGF receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which induced G1 arrest. Introduction of EGFR mutations E746-A750 del and L858R progressed HBECs toward malignancy as measured by soft agar growth, including EGF-independent growth, but failed to induce tumor formation. Mutant EGFRs were associated with higher levels of phospho-Akt, phospho–signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 [but not phospho-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2], and increased expression of DUSP6/MKP-3 phosphatase (an inhibitor of phosphoERK1/2). These results indicate that (a) the HBEC model system is a powerful new approach to assess the contribution of individual and combinations of genetic alterations to lung cancer pathogenesis; (b) a combination of four genetic alterations, including human telomerase reverse transcriptase overexpression, bypass of p16/RB and p53 pathways, and mutant K-RAS V12 or mutant EGFR, is still not sufficient for HBECs to completely transform to cancer; and (c) EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors inhibit the growth of preneoplastic HBEC cells, suggesting their potential for chemoprevention. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(4): 2116-28)
Perspectives on Information Bottleneck Problems

This paper focuses on variants of the bottleneck problem taking an information theoretic perspective. The intimate connections of this setting to: remote source-coding, information combining, common reconstruction, the Wyner-Ahlswede-Korner problem, the efficiency of investment information, CEO source coding under logarithmic-loss distortion measure and others will be highlighted. We discuss the distributed information bottleneck problem with emphasis on the Gaussian model and highlight the basic connections to the uplink Cloud Radio Access Networks (CRAN) with oblivious processing. For this model, the optimal tradeoffs between rates (i.e. complexity) and information (i.e. accuracy) in the discrete and vector Gaussian frameworks is determined. In the concluding outlook, some interesting problems are mentioned such as the characterization of the optimal inputs (’features’) distributions under power limitations maximizing the ’accuracy’ for the Gaussian information bottleneck, under ’complexity’ constraints.
Classifying Imaginary Hand Movement through Electroencephalograph Signal for Neuro-rehabilitation

Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) has been widely used in the field of neuro-rehabilitation such as automatic controls based on brain commands to upper and lower extremity prosthesis devices in patients with paralysis. In a post-stroke period, approximately 50 % of stroke survivors have unilateral motor deficits leading to a sustained decline in chronic upper extremity function. Stroke affects patients in their productive and elderly age which is potentially creating new problems in national health development. BCI could be used to aid post-stroke patient recovery, so the motion detection and classification are essential for optimizing the BCI device control. Therefore, this study aims to distinguish several hand functions such as grasping, pinching, and hand lifting from releasing movement by the standard actions performed during post-stroke rehabilitation based on brain signals of a healthy subject obtained from an electroencephalogram (EEG) with a 5 channels electrode. In this study, the EEG signals were decomposed using a Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) then filtered by a bandpass filter to generate Mu and Beta waves, which were correlated with imaginary movement. Then, the Mu and Beta waves were calculated using a Common Spatial Pattern (CSP) algorithm as the inputs for Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) to distinguish 2 types of imaginary hand movements (grasping v. releasing, pinching v. releasing, hand lifting v. releasing). The results of these classifications shown that ELM and CSP were useful features in distinguishing 2 types of motion with software/system accuracy average above 95 %. Therefore, this could be useful for optimizing BCI devices in neuro-rehabilitation, moreover by combining it with a Functional Electrical Stimulator (FES) as a self-therapy for post-stroke patients.
Soft-Computing Methods in Greenhouse Environmental and Crop Modelling

This paper presents results regarding ongoing experimental research in a hydroponic greenhouse located at the University of Algarve in the South of Portugal. The work focuses on environmental predictive control and production optimisation for a tomato crop. Recent results on the application of Soft-Computing methods to external climate predictive models, and also on strategies for tomato growth modelling are presented. The climate and environmental quantities are modelled by using radial basis function neural networks whose input-output structure is selected by a multi-objective genetic algorithm . Image processing methods are applied to the extraction of plant features from pictures taken periodically.
Kin recognition and incest avoidance in a group-living insect

Mate choice theories predict that animals evolved strategies to mate with optimally genetically dissimilar partners, providing fitness benefits. In group-living species, when adults do not disperse, assessment of relatedness between conspecifics can be a key factor for choosing mates. Here, we report for the first time, kin recognition abilities and their implication in mate choice in the gregarious cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.). Binary choice tests showed that females mated preferentially with nonsibling rather than with sibling males, thus avoiding incest. In addition, inbreeding induced an important decrease of their reproductive success. Contrary to what could be expected when females had the choice between a nonsibling strain member and a nonstrain member, they did not avoid mating with distantly related nonstrain members, and extreme outbreeding induced an increase of their reproductive success. Furthermore, our mate choice experiments disentangled the influences of familiarity from those of relatedness and evidenced that kin discrimination was based on genetic cues independently of familiarity. Phenotype matching was a plausible mechanism for kin recognition. Contrary to many insect species, body size was not a salient criterion for mate choice and had no consequences on reproductive success. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
A new mimetic species of Periplacis (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae: Nymphidiini) from the eastern Andes of Ecuador

A new riodinid species in the tribe Nymphidiini, Periplacis perisama Hall, Ahrenholz & Aldas n. sp. , is described from lower montane forest in the eastern Andes of Ecuador. An updated phylogenetic analysis for the genus suggests that the new taxon is sister to the Transandean species P. laobotas (Hewitson, 1875). These two species form the laobotas group, defined by the presence of setose eyes and a proximally isolated pale postdiscal band on the dorsal forewing of males. Periplacis perisama is externally dissimilar to all other members of the genus, and bears an apparently mimetic resemblance to several sympatric species of Nymphalidae, most notably in the genus Perisama Doubleday, 1849.
Constructing Mathematical Concepts through External Representations Utilizing Technology: An Implementation in IRT Course

One of useful theories in the educational and psychological assessment is an item response theory (IRT) that applies mathematical concepts. For students, constructing math concept to solve problems in IRT is very difficult and utilizing technology such as computer and software will help. In a qualitative approach, this study described how students constructed mathematical concepts in the item response theory using external mathematical representations integrated with technology. The participants were 19 graduate students. Data were collected through observation in 5 courses. The data were analyzed using Milles and Hubberman technique through reduction, display, and verification. The results showed that by using external representations and providing cases, presenting data in tables, the collaboration among the students to solve problems, create and demonstrate graphics utilizing technology to construct mathematical concepts, utilize the context assessment related to mathematical concepts, and also use graphs could support students’ thinking for constructing mathematical concepts in IRT.