Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acid phosphomonoesterase and phytase activities of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) roots and utilization of organic phosphorus substrates by seedlings grown in sterile culture

Wheat seedlings exhibited a differential ability to utilize P from a range of organic P substrates when grown in agar culture under sterile conditions. Plants showed limited ability to obtain P from inositol hexaphosphate (IHP), whereas other monoester substrates such as glucose 1-phosphate (G1P), were equivalent sources of P for plant growth as compared with inorganic phosphate (P;). Poor utilization of IHP was exemplified by significantly lower rates of dry matter accumulation and reduced P content of tissues, which were generally not significantly different to control plants that were grown in the absence of added P. The inability of wheat seedlings to obtain P from IHP was not associated with poor substrate availability but was due to either insufficient root phytase activity or inappropriate localization of phytase within root tissues. Phytase activities of 4 and 24 mU g -1 root fresh weight (FW) were determined for crude root extracts prepared from plants that were grown with either adequate P or under deficient conditions, respectively. Similar levels of phytase activity (approximately 12 mU g -1 FW) were observed in assays using intact roots, although no secreted activity was detected. By comparison, a secreted acid phosphomonoesterase activity was observed, and activities of between 466 and 1029 mU phosphomonoesterase g -1 root FW were measured for intact roots. On the basis of the differences in enzyme activity, and the observed differences in the ability of wheat seedlings to utilize G1P and IHP, it is evident that low intrinsic levels of phytase activity in wheat roots is a critical factor that limits the ability of wheat to obtain P from phytate when supplied in agar under nonlimiting conditions. This hypothesis was further supported by the observation that the ability of wheat to obtain P from IHP was significantly improved when the seedlings were inoculated with a soil bacterium (Pseudomonas sp. strain CCAR59) that possesses phytase activity.
A SIMPLE TECHNIQUE FOR INDEXING THE MATING STATUS OF MALE SPRUCE BUDWORM, CHORISTONEURA FUMIFERANA (LEPIDOPTERA: TORTRICIDAE)

Abstract Section 7 of the primary simplex of the ductus ejaculatorius of unmated male spruce bud worm moths, Choristoneura fumiferana, contains a yellow substance that is not present in recently mated males. The yellow substance occurs in laboratory-colony males reared on diet and in feral males reared on foliage. It is shown that the presence/absence of this material is a reliable index of copulation during the previous 24 h. Although the yellow substance regenerates over a period of several days, males 0–72 h post-copulation may be indexed when compared with unmated males of similar age. Résumé La section 7 du simplex primaire du ductus ejaculatorius chez le mâle de Choristoneura fumiferana contient une substance jaune qui n’est pas présente chez le mâle qui s’est accouplé récemment. Cette substance jaune est trouvée dans les colonies de mâles élevés sur une diète dans un laboratoire ainsi que chez les mâles sauvages élevés avec le feuillage. Il est reconnu que la présence ou l’absence de ce matériel est un index fiable pour déterminer si l’accouplement a eu lieu durant les 24 h précédentes. Même si cette substance retourne après quelques jours, il est possible de comparer et d’indexer les mâles qui se sont accouplés dans les 0–72 h précédentes à des mâles vierges du même âge.
Evaluation of water quality in public drinking fountains.

This work is a prospective study in the Sintra Municipality. The objective was to identify and to characterize health risk for the population due to the consumption of drinking water from public fountains. To achieve this objective, water quality was evaluated and the physiochemical and bacteriological stability was monitored throughout the hydrologic year. For this study 42 public drinking fountains were selected whose water was subjected to bacteriological and physiochemical analysis from February 2006 to April 2007. The analytical protocol and the assessment of the obtained results were based on the quality requirements for drinking water, defined in Portuguese Law 243/2001 of September 5. The bacteriological analyses were made with monthly periodicity; the physiochemical characterization analyses were made every two months; the metals were analyzed every six months and the pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were analyzed once during the period of the study. The obtained results emphasize the poor quality of the water, observed in almost all the springs studied due, particularly, to bacteriological alterations. For this reason, water consumption from the studied public fountains in the Sintra Municipality seems to present a high risk for the population’s health, due to the potential contamination with pathogenic microorganisms. The risk of chronic intoxication, though of smaller importance due to the irregular consumption of these waters, should not be excluded since some springs presented a high content of nitrate, nickel, lead and manganese. The obtained results provide the necessary information for health risk management by the Health Authorities, through implementation of corrective measures for protection of water quality, and/or alerting the population to the health risk due to the consumption of unsafe water. Keyword: water quality, drinking water fountains, risk assessment, water spring quality, contamination of spring waters. www.witpress. com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) © 2008 WIT Press WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 110, Environmental Toxicology II 13 doi:10.2495/ETOX080021
Comparative vegetative anatomy and systematics of Spiranthoideae (Orchidaceae)

Abstract The anatomy of leaf, stem and root of plants in the orchid subfamily Spiranthoideae was studied and described from the viewpoint of systematics. Plants were available from most of the geographic range. Tribes Diceratosteleae and Tropidieae show sinuous anticlinal epidermal cell walls in leaves, glandular foliar hairs, tetracytic para-mesoperigenous stomata, unitary tracheary components in the foliar midrib, foliar and cauline stegmata and sclerenchyma, typical cruciate starch grains, thick-walled exodermal, endodermal, and pericyclic cells, and conductive strands of the root embedded in sclerenchyma. The tribe Cranichideae shows straight to curvilinear anticlinal epidermal cell walls in leaves, lack glandular foliar hairs, have variably patterned mesoperigenous stomata, lack sclerenchyma throughout the parts studied, have a binary tracheary component in the foliar midrib, store starch in specialized amyloplasts (spiranthosomes), lack stegmata, have thin-walled exodermal, endodermal, and pericyclic cells, show scalariform thickenings in exodermal cells, and have conductive strands of the root embedded in parenchyma. In Cryptostylis the tracheary component of the foliar midrib is unitary, stomata lack subsidiary cells, starch grains are of the typical cruciate configuration, and passage cells of the endodermis are apparently associated with tilosomes. Anatomical data, when analysed cladistically, support the hypothesis that Spiranthoideae, as currently delimited, are polyphyletic. Corymborkis, Tropidia, and Diceratostele are more closely related to Palmorchis, a likely representative of a basal clade within subfamily Epidendroideae, than to genera of Cranichideae. Likewise, members of Cranichideae are more closely related to Diuris , a representative of subfamily Orchidoideae-tribe Diurideae, than to Corymborkis, Tropidia and Diceratostele. The Corymborkis-Tropidia-Diceratostele -basal epidendroid (Palmorchis) clade may be diagnosed by the foliar synapomorphies of sinuous anticlinal walls of epidermal cells and presence of glandular hairs. The Cranichideae-orchidoid (Diuris) clade may be diagnosed by its variably patterned, mesoperigenous stomata, lack of vascular bundle sclerenchyma, absence of stegmata, unthickened endodermal cell walls in roots, and conductive cells of roots embedded in parenchyma. Relationships within this clade are quite unresolved, when only anatomical data are employed; however all studied genera of Cranichideae, except Cryptostylis, posess a binary tracheary component in the foliar midrib. Cranichideae, excluding Cryptostylis, may be considered monophyletic. All Cranichideae, except Hetaeria and Cryptostylis , possess spirathosomes. Hetaeria may be a basal member within Cranichideae. We consider the phylogenetic position of Crptostylis , in relation to Cranichideae vs. Diurideae, to be equivocal.
Taxonomy and Phylogeny of the Turtle Tropidemys langii Ruütimeyer, 1873, Based on New Specimens from the Kimmeridgian of the Swiss Jura Mountains

ABSTRACT The fossil turtle Tropidemys langii is a representative of Plesiochelyidae, a traditionally recognized group of Late Jurassic turtles diagnosed by the presence of three cervical scutes and adapted to life in the sea. Tropidemys langii was previously only known from fossilized carapaces and, possibly, plastra from Europe, most notably the famous ‘Solothurn Turtle Limestone’ of Switzerland. Due to the sparse fossil record of Tropidemys langii, several questions concerning its taxonomy and phylogeny have remained unanswered. Here, new material of Tropidemys langii is reported from the Kimmeridgian of Porrentruy, Canton Jura, Switzerland. In addition to three well-preserved carapaces, associated plastra and limb bones (humerus and femur) are described for the first time. The type specimens of ‘Tropidemys valanginiensis’ and ‘Pelobatochelys blakii’ lack diagnostic characters, but can nevertheless be referred to Tropidemys. A potential extension of the lineage into the Early Cretaceous is uncertain, however, because the type locality of ‘Tropidemys valanginiensis’ is dubious. A cladistic analysis shows that Tropidemys langii is sister to Plesiochelys solodurensis, thereby tentatively confirming for the first time the monophyly of Plesiochelyidae using cladistic arguments.
A chromaticity-based technique for estimation of above-ground plant biomass

This paper presents a new and simple technique to derive quantitative estimates of green or dry biomass using colour information from digital pictures. This pixel-counting technique is based on the association of particular plant material with a representative region on a two-dimensional colour space, and applies to cases of non-overlapping canopies. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated using sets of samples obtained from both field and laboratory studies. It is shown that application of the proposed approach results in a highly linear relationship between pixel count and foliar area for both green and non-green material [r= 0.99 (p < 0.001)]. Analysis of images from a short-grass steppe shows a high correlation between pixel count and measured values of green biomass [r= 0.95 (p < 0.001)]. The method outlined here allows for a substantial improvement in the speed of sample evaluation to estimate biomass both in the field and in the laboratory. It also provides a non-destructive alternative to monitor plant cover and biomass in open canopies.
Immortalization of Neural Cells with the c-myc and N-myc Proto-oncogenes

Abstract The c-myc and the N-myc proto-oncogenes were employed to immortalize neural progenitor cells. Infection of neural precursors isolated from the mouse at the 10th day of embryonic development (E10) with myc-containing retroviruses resulted in immortalized cell lines representing bipotential E10 neuroepithelial cells. These cell lines have the capacity to differentiate into both glial and neuronal cells either spontaneously in the case of the Zen(myc) cell lines or after addition of fibroblast growth factor to the Dol(myc) cell lines. Infection of migrating neural crest cells with the myc retroviruses gave rise to three different types of immortalized cell lines: (i) cell lines resembling freshly isolated neural crest cells; (ii) cell lines that can differentiate into cells expressing Schwann cell markers when grown at high cell concentrations; and (iii) cell lines that have the ability to differentiate in culture to process-bearing cells which expressed neuronal markers or have the characteristics of Schwann cells. Olfactory epithelial cell lines were generated by infection with Zen retrovirus bearing the N-myc proto-oncogene. Some of the cell lines resemble basal cells and others grow as bipolar cells resembling neurons and expressing the neuronal marker neurofilaments.
Channel covariance, twirling, contraction, and some upper bounds on the quantum capacity

Evaluating the quantum capacity of quantum channels is an important but difficult problem, even for channels of low input and output dimension. Smith and Smolin showed that the quantum capacity of the Clifford-twirl of a qubit amplitude damping channel (a qubit depolarizing channel) has a quantum capacity that is at most the coherent information of the qubit amplitude damping channel evaluated on the maximally mixed input state. We restrict our attention to obtaining upper bounds on the quantum capacity using a generalization of Smith and Smolin's degradable extension technique. Given a degradable channel N and a finite projective group of unitaries V, we show that the V-twirl of N has a quantum capacity at most the coherent information of N maximized over a V-contracted space of input states. As a consequence, degradable channels that are covariant with respect to diagonal Pauli matrices have quantum capacities that are their coherent information maximized over just the diagonal input states. As an application of our main result, we supply new upper bounds on the quantum capacity of some unital and non-unital channels -- d-dimensional depolarizing channels, two-qubit locally symmetric Pauli channels, and shifted qubit depolarizing channels.
Phylogeographic pointers to conservation needs: South Africa's flagship dung beetle, Circellium bacchus

Circellium bacchus is South Africa's largest ball‐rolling dung beetle and a habitat specialist of dense bush. It is also wingless, a rare phenomenon amongst large dung beetles and, unusual for the group, only females construct and bury brood balls. She cares for the single brood for 4–5 months, and lives for 3–5 years. The beetles currently occur in two separate populations in South Africa, one in the south‐east and one consisting of at least eight fragmented sub‐populations in the south‐west. Here, we use both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences to infer the evolutionary history of this species. The Eastern and Western populations are genetically separated by 14% mitochondrial sequence divergence, sharing only a single nuclear haplotype. Mitochondrial and nuclear data indicate that C. bacchus belongs to an ancient (Eocene) relict lineage and that the Eastern and Western populations appear to have been separated by Pliocene continental uplift and a relictual Pleistocene block of temperate forest. Subsequent Plio‐Pleistocene climatic change caused further fragmentation of the Western population, now exacerbated by human‐induced land transformation. The Eastern and Western populations are identifiable as two distinctly separate entities of possible species status, but with definite need for recognition as evolutionary significant units. The Western sub‐populations are genetically significantly different enough to be defined and recognised as management units. The Eastern population is largely distributed in the Addo Elephant National Park where its persistence is currently secure, but the sub‐populations of the Western lineage occur as fragments of various sizes in a matrix of agriculturally transformed landscape.
Improving grassland profitability in the Mid-continental USA by breeding for improved forage digestibility: lessons learned and applications to South American grasslands

No inicio dos anos 1970 foi iniciado um projeto cooperativo entre o Agricultural Research Service, do USDA, e a Universidade de Nebraska, para programa de melhoramento genetico visando o desenvolvimento de gramineas perenes com melhor qualidade de forragem e adaptadas ao centro continental dos Estados Unidos. Os estudos iniciais centraram-se em switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), mas depois foram extendidos a outras gramineas perenes de estacao fria e quente. A digestibilidade in vitro da materia orgânica (DIVMO) foi selecionada como medida da qualidade, uma vez que ja havia sido aplicada com sucesso no melhoramento de capim bermuda (Cynodon dactylon). Em todas as especies de gramineas que estudamos ate o presente, foi encontrada variabilidade genetica para DIVMO e producao de massa seca. Se melhorias na DIVMO maiores do que 1% puderem ser detectadas em estudos com parcelas pequenas (r = 6), pode se obter ganho diferenciado de peso de animais em funcao de ecotipos ou cultivares. Fazendo-se uma media entre gramineas de estacao quente e fria, aumento de 1% na DIVMO geralmente induz ganhos de peso de 3,2%. Como o aumento da DIVMO nao causa decrescimo na producao de forragem, tem-se aumentos no ganho liquido de producao animal por hectare. Ganhos de peso de 3,2%. Como o aumento da DIVMO nao causa decrescimo na producao de forragem, tem-se aumentos no ganho liquido de producao animal por hectare. Nas Planicies Centrais e Meio-Oeste Americano, cultivares com incremento de DIVMO podem aumentar o lucro liquido de 30 a 50 dolares por hectare.
Behavior of Mixed Populations and the Problem of Natural Selection

THE splendid development of genetic theories of natural selection, dealing with the problem on the exact quantitative basis, is well known. Starting with the consideration of two types or species which do not cross each other and making certain simple assumptions, they enable us to calculate the rate at which the better fitted type is displacing (and will expel to the very last) the less fitted one. But when we approach the conditions of competition in nature, take into account the ecological situation, make certain experimental investigations and write the equation of interaction between the competing species in a more general form, the complexity of the problem under consideration is obvious. It is hardly to be questioned, therefore, that the problem of the growth of a mixed population of two species is worthy of a very careful studv so that it could give a sound basis for the clevelopment of complicated genetic theories of natural selection. In the last two years the growth of species competing or helping each other was discussed by several authors. We can mention a book by Lotka (1934) and Kostitzin (1934), a paper by Winsor (1934), and two books by Gause (1934, 1935). The present paper gives an account of our recent theoretical investigations of the problem and summarizes the whole theory of growth of mixed populations, pointing out those conclusions that have already been confirmed by experimental investigations of one of the authors.
Understory Composition of Five Tsuga canadensis Associated Forest Communities in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

ABSTRACT: Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière (eastern hemlock), a long-lived, coniferous tree species native to the southern Appalachian Mountains, is currently experiencing rapid defoliation and mortality resulting from recent invasions of hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand, HWA), an exotic, invasive insect. Prior to HWA infestation, T. canadensis often developed unique microclimates and exerted a strong functional influence upon the landscape. Therefore, its loss will likely impact forest structure, composition, and future successional trends throughout the Region. Research has shown that overstory T. canadensis trees are currently experiencing severe decline. However, the early effects of this decline on understory vegetation have received little study. We investigated the impacts of HWA upon T. canadensis-associated understory vegetation in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) by resampling understory vegetation on 29 permanent plots established 5 – 6 years previously across five forest communities in GSMNP: hemlock, montane cove, montane oak/hickory (Quercus spp.(Carya spp.)), acid hardwood, and northern hardwood. We found that understory composition has not yet been drastically altered by overstory decline and mortality caused by HWA, likely due to the heavy dominance of Rhododendron maximum (L.) (rosebay rhododendron) in many forests. This ericaceous shrub forms a buffer between the increased light passing through the declining overstory and the low light environment of the forest floor.
DETERMINATION OF QUALITY PARAMETERS BY NEAR INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY IN WHOLE-PLANT CORN SILAGE

The prediction of quality parameters by near infrared reflectance analysis (NIRA) in whole-plant corn (Zea mays L.) was studied. Quality parameters included percent protein and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). Calibrations were developed using two types of NIRA instruments: (a) a Neotec 51A, a six-tilting-filters type instrument and (b) a Technicon InfraAlyzer 400R, a 19-fixed-filters type instrument. Plant samples were collected from four locations across Ontario (Brucefield, London, Guelph and Elora). Forty samples were used in the calibration sets (C) for each quality parameter and for each instrument. A second group of samples, a prediction set (P) consisting of 200 samples, was used to validate the calibration equations. Regression analysis between NIRA predicted and IVDMD, indicated that this parameter was well predicted in both C and P sets and with the two instruments. Coefficients of determination (r2) for C and P sets were 0.91 and 0.85 for the InfraAlyzer 400R and 0.92, and 0.81 for t.
Evaluation of Cloud Fraction Simulated by Seven SCMs against the ARM Observations at the SGP Site

AbstractThis study evaluates the performances of seven single-column models (SCMs) by comparing simulated cloud fraction with observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site from January 1999 to December 2001. Compared with the 3-yr mean observational cloud fraction, the ECMWF SCM underestimates cloud fraction at all levels and the GISS SCM underestimates cloud fraction at levels below 200 hPa. The two GFDL SCMs underestimate lower-to-middle level cloud fraction but overestimate upper-level cloud fraction. The three Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) SCMs overestimate upper-level cloud fraction and produce lower-level cloud fraction similar to the observations but as a result of compensating overproduction of convective cloud fraction and underproduction of stratiform cloud fraction. Besides, the CAM3 and CAM5 SCMs both overestimate midlevel cloud fraction, whereas the CAM4 SCM underestimates. The frequency and partitioning analyses show a large discrepan.