Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Anthropogenic Disturbance on the Genetic Diversity of Ceratozamia fuscoviridis (Zamiaceae)

Determining the effects of disturbance on genetic variation of plant populations is an important step in establishing conservation strategies for the survival of natural populations. Disturbance reduces effective population size, leading to lower variation through genetic drift. However, a plant species’ life cycle will influence the magnitude and speed of the response to disturbance. In this report, genetic structure and variability are evaluated for Ceratozamia fuscoviridis, a critically endangered, endemic, long-lived cycad from Mexico, at four sites with different levels of disturbance. Genetic analysis was performed using intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Populations 1 and 3 were classified as conserved (disturbance index [DI] = 3.11±1.117) and populations 2 and 4 as disturbed (DI=6.37±1.414). Levels of genetic diversity according to ISSR markers ranged from 0.169 to 0.279 for expected heterozygosity (HE), and the informative index (I) ranged from 0.266 to 0.425. In general, the genetic diversity measure with ISSRs was greater in the conserved sites than in the disturbed ones. For the SSRs, HE ranged from 0.711 to 0.793, while I ranged from 1.391 to 1.621. Genetic structure shown with these markers does not correspond with geographic distance but does correspond with the conservation state of the populations. We found that there is a negative effect of perturbation on the genetic diversity of C. fuscoviridis. The loss of diversity can lead to various processes such as inbreeding and genetic drift that, in the long term, can culminate in local extinctions. We propose that studies should aim to evaluate the genetic diversity of juveniles, as it is possible that disturbances result in changes in the biology of the species that lead to divergences in the genetic diversity of adults and earlier stages.
On Square-Integrable Representations of A Lie Group of 4-Dimensional Standard Filiform Lie Algebra

In this paper, we study irreducible unitary representations of a real standard filiform Lie group with dimension equals 4 with respect to its basis. To find this representations we apply the orbit method introduced by Kirillov. The corresponding orbit of this representation is genereric orbits of dimension 2. Furthermore, we show that obtained representation of this group is square-integrable. Moreover, in such case , we shall consider its Duflo-Moore operator as multiple of scalar identity operator. In our case that scalar is equal to one.
Time budget and habitat use of the Common Crane wintering in dehesas of southwestern Spain

In many bird species juvenile inexperience drastically reduces their survival, and parents must provide for them. I tested whether time budget and habitat use in adult wintering Common Cranes (Grus grus) in dehesas (pastoral woodland) of western Spain were affected by the presence of juveniles. Juvenile cranes devote less time to vigilance and spend more time feeding than adults in dehesas. Likewise, juveniles are involved in fewer aggressive encounters than adult cranes. Contrary to expectation, adults accompanied by juveniles devoted the same amount of time to vigilance and feeding and had the same intake rate than adults without juveniles in attendance. However, adult cranes with offspring in attendance were involved in more aggressive encounters than adults without juveniles in attendance when both adult groups were involved in large flocks. In contrast, when adults accompanied by juveniles were in small flocks they were involved in fewer aggressive encounters than adults without juveniles. I also det.
Effect of short-term anaerobic conditions on the production of volatiles, activity of alcohol acetyltransferase and other quality traits of ripened bananas

Yellow, ripened (yellow with green tips) bananas were treated with nitrogen gas for 12, 24 and 48 h at 20 °C to study the effects of anaerobic conditions on the fruit quality, including the production of volatile compounds and activity of alcohol acetyltransferase (AAT) during the post-harvest period. Significantly higher concentrations of acetaldehyde and ethanol were found in the treated fruit than in the untreated bananas after removal from the conditions. The 48-h treatment showed higher levels of ethanol and acetaldehyde after storage. Immediately after releasing the fruit from the anaerobic atmosphere, the amounts of isobutyl acetate and isoamyl acetate decreased. The production of ethyl acetate increased markedly in each treatment unit 1 day after removing the fruit. Regardless of recovery from the production of isobutyl acetate and isoamyl acetate 1 day after treatment, the banana-like aroma was denatured because of the production of high levels of ethyl acetate and ethanol. The increase in AAT was slightly lower in nitrogen-treated fruit than untreated fruit. However, the activity in treated fruit was sufficient for ester production in bananas. The endogenous alcohol levels were increased during nitrogen gas treatment in the fruit due to the inhibition of ester production. Colour development of the bananas was greatly inhibited by the treatments, while the sugar content did not show any differences between the treated and untreated fruit. The results suggest that, even if bananas are removed from the short-term anaerobic conditions, a loss in quality, except sweetness, easily occurs afterwards, especially the characteristic aroma of the fruit during the post-harvest period. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry
The estimation of nisin using ATP-bioluminometry

In the near future, nisin may be used within the Brewing Industry to control lactic acid bacteria. Therefore, there is a need for a rapid and reliable assay procedure for this bacteriocin. Nisin is presently estimated using various bioassay methods, many of which require several days incubation before results are obtained. The technique of ATP bioluminometry has now been utilised for the assay of nisin in beer and wort using a strain of Lactobacillus brevis as the test organism. The assay is rapid, and can be used to estimate nisin within the range 0–120 units ml−1 with a percentage error of less than 5%.
Comfortably Numb? Revisiting and Re-Specifying the Relationship Between Health Strain and Substance Use

Studies have found a positive linear relationship between health strain and substance use; however, they often omit potential confounders such as self-control, social bonds, and peer use. Furthermore, there are several reasons to believe the relationship is curvilinear according to Agnew’s general strain theory. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine whether the linear relationship persists after including confounders and we test the hypothesized curvilinear relationship. Results provide little support for the linear relationship; however, the hypothesized curvilinear relationship is supported in multiple alcohol and marijuana use models. In addition, there is little evidence that health strain is mediated by depressive symptoms. Policy implications, limitations, and directions for research are discussed.
Low Latency End-to-End Streaming Speech Recognition with a Scout Network

The attention-based Transformer model has achieved promising results for speech recognition (SR) in the offline mode. However, in the streaming mode, the Transformer model usually incurs significant latency to maintain its recognition accuracy when applying a fixed-length look-ahead window in each encoder layer. In this paper, we propose a novel low-latency streaming approach for Transformer models, which consists of a scout network and a recognition network. The scout network detects the whole word boundary without seeing any future frames, while the recognition network predicts the next subword by utilizing the information from all the frames before the predicted boundary. Our model achieves the best performance (2.7/6.4 WER) with only 639 ms latency on the test-clean and test-other data sets of Librispeech.
Phylogenetic relationships of the family Axinellidae (Porifera: Demospongiae) using morphological and molecular data

Alvarez, B. , Crisp, M.D., Driver, F. , Hooper, J.N. A. & Van Soest, R.W. M. (2000). Phylogenetic relationships of the family Axinellidae (Porifera: Demospongiae) using morphological and molecular data. —Zoologica Scripta, 29, 169–198.
Description of a new disease condition occurring in farmed coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum), in South America

High levels of mortalities have been experienced in farmed coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisuteh (Walbaum), in the Gulf of Ancud, southern Chile. Most affected fish had similar skin lesions ranging from small areas of raised scales through white raised plaques to shallow ulcers. The fish were also generally dark, lethargic and anorexic. However, some affected fish appeared grossly normal with no skin lesions. Internal pathology consisted of varying degrees of ascites, peritonitis and general pallor. Spleens were generally enlarged. Kidneys and livers were swollen and grey in colour, often with pale focal lesions. Extensive histopathology was present in affected fish with tissue necrosis, intravascular necrotic thrombi, large basophilic cells and basophilic granules, some free in the tissues, some contained within cells. The basophilic granules, known locally as the ‘UA’, or unidentified agent, were thought to be the main aetiological agent, and are likely to be a rickettsia-like organism.
Aging in fish

Theories on aging are well advanced but empirical data lag far behind them mainly because few fish populations are unexploited and are allowed to reach old age. There is more evidence supporting the theory of genetic aging controlled by a biological clock than aging by random damage, but the two are probably interconnected. Growth and natural mortality are closely correlated between and within species and populations. Fast growth and early maturity curtail the life-span; slow growth and late maturity have the reverse effect. There appears to be a trade-off between reproductive effort and longevity to ensure the production of the maximum number of progeny over the life-span of the mature adults. This trade-off is influenced by a feedback system dependent on reproductive success. Genetic control of growth and thus mortality is not well understood and is obscured by environmental factors. Anatomical and physiological changes with age are similar to those of mammals and include the appearance of malignant tum.
Measuring parental dimensions: A psychometric evaluation of the parents as social context questionnaire, Swedish version

Abstract The relationship between a parent and an adolescent is dynamic. A parent may do better in certain areas or during certain phases of the adolescent’s life, and the adolescent’s needs or demands on the parent may vary accordingly. Parental dimensions have been used to evaluate the quality of a parent–child relationship. The present study explored the structure of a translated version of the Parents as Social Context Questionnaire (PASCQ), both a parent and an adolescent version. The participants were 1556 Swedish adolescents 16–18 years (mean age = 17.4 years, 58.3% females), and 1477 parents, including 1345 parent–adolescent dyads. The results of the confirmatory factor analyses provided a significant model fit of the six parental dimensions (Warmth, Rejection, Structure, Chaos, Autonomy support and Coercion) of PASCQ regarding both the parent- and adolescent reports. Therefore, the Swedish version of the PASCQ parent and adolescent reports is suitable for measuring the six parental dimensions of the PASCQ. However, the concordance between the two reports was low, suggesting that the parent report may be suitable for measuring the parent’s view of the relationship, but may be less representative of the adolescent’s experiences and vice versa. These results can contribute to future work on parenting in general and parental dimensions in association with adolescents in particular.
Dynamic Capabilities? Unleashing Their Dynamics through a Practice Perspective on Organizational Routines

The current conceptualization of dynamic capabilities entails a paradox, one that hampers the achievement of one of the framework’s main missions: While studies on dynamic capabilities claim to offer explanations of continuous, routine-based organizational change, their prevalent conceptualization of organizational routines is rather undynamic and less prone to change. Thus, we propose to draw on an alternative, practice-based understanding of organizational routines to unravel the “dynamics” of dynamic capabilities. The practice perspective captures and explains the internal dynamics of organizational routines and positions the performance of organizational routines as a source of both organizational stability and change. This perspective offers to deepen our understanding of the dynamics within dynamic capabilities as driver of routine-based organizational change. To foster a research agenda that advances our understanding of dynamic capabilities from a practice perspective on organizational routines, we provide onto-epistemological, theoretical, and methodological implications of such a “dynamic view” of dynamic capabilities.
Using a segmented logistic model to predict trees to be harvested in forest growth forecasts

Aim of the study: Predicting future harvested trees is a prerequisite to growth forecasts in managed forest stands. While harvest algorithms have been traditionally used, statistical harvest models could be an interesting alternative approach. The objective of this study was to fit statistical harvest models for different partial cutting treatments. Area of study: The study has been carried out in the province of Quebec, Canada. Material and methods: Data from provincial control survey were used to fit harvest models for three different partial cutting treatments. A two-segment logistic modelling approach was used. The harvest models were designed to be compatible with the ARTEMIS growth simulator, which is currently in use in this province. Main results: The results showed that the probability of being harvested is different across the treatments and primarily depends on tree diameter at breast height and species. In selection cutting treatments in particular, trees close to the merchantable limit (e.g., 23 cm in this study) tended to be less frequently harvested than those with smaller or larger diameters, yielding a sinusoidal pattern that was well captured by the segmented approach. Research highlights: Although the models were of average accuracy as indicated by fit statistics, they made it possible to compare different scenarios in terms of productivity and rotation length when coupled with the ARTEMIS growth simulator. Moreover, compatibility requirements between the simulator and the harvest models appeared to be a major limitation in some cases.
A Numerical Study on Thermal Stress Analysis of A Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Mems) Bimetallic Actuator

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) actuators are capable of obtaining mechanical motion on a very small scale due to the design, materials and fabrication. A bi metallic micro actuator is also one of MEMS device that can perform physical functions at micron meter scale. A bi metallic micro actuator based on thermal sensing is capable of making small displacements due to resultant heating at the end. Because of different thermal expansion coefficients of the bonded strip materials, the actuator undergoes bending and the resultant deformation is a measure of the micro motion. During bending, the stresses generated may cause the beam to undergo staring or deformation. In the present work, MEMS actuator in which a bi metallic strip made up of Silicon dioxide and silicon layers bonded together is modeled and simulated using Finite Element Method for finding the total deformation, stresses and strain. The results are validated with theoretical results and are in good agreement.
Nuclear-Targeting Delivery of CRISPRa System for Upregulation of β-Defensin against Virus Infection by Dexamethasone and Phenylalanine Dual-Modified Dendrimer

The dual-modified dendrimer containing dexamethasone (DET) and phenylalanine (Phe) was prepared to deliver plasmid DNA encoding dCas9 and single-guide RNA (sgRNA) for specific upregulation of β-defensin. DET and Phe moieties synergistically enhanced the transfection efficiency and reduced cytotoxicity of dendrimers. Combination of three sgRNAs targeting β-defensin gene demonstrated higher activation efficacy of β-defensin than any single sgRNA and combinations of any two sgRNAs, showing an efficient inhibition of virus infection and replication. The titer of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in the cells treated with dCas9-sgRNA targeting β-defensin was reduced by about 100-fold compared to that of cells treated with dCas9-scramble sgRNA (dCas9-scr sgRNA). In vivo experiments demonstrated that the DET- and Phe-modified dendrimer effectively delivered plasmid DNA encoding dCas9 protein into the airway epithelium, inducing β-defensin expression. Delivery of the CRISPR activation system by a dendrimer modified with DET and Phe was a promising approach against viral disease.
Model bias in simulating major chemical components of PM2.5 in China

Abstract. High concentrations of PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm) in China have caused severe visibility degradation. Accurate simulations of PM2.5 and its chemical components are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of pollution control strategies and the health and climate impacts of air pollution. In this study, we compared the GEOS-Chem model simulations with comprehensive datasets for organic aerosol (OA), sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium in China. Model results are evaluated spatially and temporally against observations. The new OA scheme with a simplified secondary organic aerosol (SOA) parameterization significantly improves the OA simulations in polluted urban areas, highlighting the important contributions of anthropogenic SOA from semivolatile and intermediate-volatility organic compounds. The model underestimates sulfate and overestimates nitrate for most of the sites throughout the year. More significant underestimation of sulfate occurs in winter, while the overestimation of nitrate is extremely large in summer. The model is unable to capture some of the main features in the diurnal pattern of the PM2.5 chemical components, suggesting inaccuracies in the presented processes. Potential model adjustments that may lead to a better representation of the boundary layer height, the precursor emissions, hydroxyl radical concentrations, the heterogeneous formation of sulfate and nitrate, and the wet deposition of nitric acid and nitrate have been tested in the sensitivity analysis. The results show that uncertainties in chemistry perhaps dominate the model biases. The proper implementation of heterogeneous sulfate formation and the good estimates of the concentrations of sulfur dioxide, hydroxyl radical, and aerosol liquid water are essential for the improvement of the sulfate simulation. The update of the heterogeneous uptake coefficient of nitrogen dioxide significantly reduces the modeled concentrations of nitrate. However, the large overestimation of nitrate concentrations remains in summer for all tested cases. The possible bias in the chemical production and the wet deposition of nitrate cannot fully explain the model overestimation of nitrate, suggesting issues related to the atmospheric removal of nitric acid and nitrate. A better understanding of the atmospheric nitrogen budget, in particular, the role of the photolysis of particulate nitrate, is needed for future model developments. Moreover, the results suggest that the remaining underestimation of OA in the model is associated with the underrepresented production of SOA.
Cross-Correlation Analysis of Line Laser High-speed Inertial Profilers

Thirteen different line-laser high-speed inertial profilers from four different manufacturers were recently tested at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Inertial Profiler Test Track. The hot-mix asphalt (HMA) track incorporates both dense and open-graded sections with international roughness index (IRI) values ranging from 34 to 104 in. /mi. A cross-correlation analysis was performed on the resulting ride data. The accuracy comparison was performed using a SurPro reference profiler. The profilers as a group met the AASHTO R 56 cross-correlation criteria on each section except on a smooth, open-graded section. The profilers as a group met the repeatability cross-correlation on this section, but did not meet the accuracy cross-correlation requirement. This paper presents a description of the testing program, data collection efforts and subsequent analyses and findings.
An Overview of RAPD Analysis to Estimate Genetic Relationships in Lowbush Blueberry

SUMMARY Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis, a simple dominant molecular marker technique, has been used extensively for cultivar identification and relatedness studies in many perennial woody species. Thus, this technique should provide genetic information for lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.). Young leaves of lowbush blueberry from field clones with varying phenotype were collected for DNA extraction. Pre-screening of RAPD primers resulted in 11 polymorphic primers and 140 consistent RAPD fragments. Eight primers were selected as useful for our study, the fragments scored and the data analyzed with Genstat5 to calculate similarity, produce dendrograms and perform a principal coordinate analysis. The RAPD analysis was able to identify distinct field clones. Average genetic similarity among field clones was 68% reflecting expected genetic variation. Approximately 15% of the field clones were not related. RAPD analysis is a useful tool for genetic relationship studies in lowbush blueberry and may provide similarity information for future pollination/productivity research.
Chemical Composition and Nutritional Quality of Date Seeds

ABSTRACT The seeds of Ruzeiz and Sifri date cultivars, on the average, contained 6.5% protein, 10.4% fat, 22.0% fiber, 1.1% ash, and 60.0% carbohydrates on a dry weight basis. Mineral analysis showed higher concentration of K followed by P, Mg, Ca and Na. Among the microelements, Fe was in higher concentration (7.4 mg/100g dry weight) followed by Mn, Zn and Cu. Oleic (44.25%), lauric (17.35%), myristic (11.45%), palmitic (10.30%) and linoleic (8.45%) were the major fatty acids in date seed oil. Tryptophan (chemical score = 77) was the first limiting amino acid in date seed proteins (FAO/WHO, 1973). The average in vitro protein digestibility and calculated protein efficiency ratio values were 63.5% and 1.65, respectively, compared to 90% and 2.50 for ANRC-Casein.