Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immune activation increases susceptibility to oxidative tissue damage in Zebra Finches

Summary 1The innate immune response involves the production of highly reactive molecules (reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, ROS and RNS). These toxic compounds can effectively destroy invading pathogens but can also, non-specifically, target host cells. Tissue damage caused by ROS and RNS can be substantial if the inflammatory response is overactive, potentially inducing a so-called immunopathology. 2In this study, we induced an inflammatory response in Zebra Finches by the way of a LPS injection (lipopolysaccharide of the cell wall of Escherichia coli), using as a control a group of birds injected with saline (phosphate-buffered saline). Body mass was measured both before and 24 h after the procedure. We also took a blood sample 24 h after injection, to measure the resistance of red blood cells to a standardized free radical attack. The experiment was repeated twice with different individuals to ascertain the repeatability of the results. 3We found that birds injected with LPS lost significantly more body mass during the 24 h that followed, compared with control individuals. Similarly, LPS individuals were more susceptible to oxidative tissue damage, as their red blood cells had a weaker resistance to a free-radical attack than the red blood cells of control birds. 4This result shows that the inflammatory response with the associated production of cytotoxic compounds can produce side-effects that may potentially result in increased damage to host tissues, therefore representing an immunopathology cost.
Mexitettix and Mexacris, two new genera of grasshoppers from eastern Mexico (Acrididae: Melanoplinae)

ABSTRACT Twenty-one new species are described in a new genus, Mexitettix. Another new genus, Mexacris, is erected for two species previously placed in Phaedrotettix. Both new genera are known only from eastern Mexico — from Coahuila south to Vera Cruz. Mexitettix extends south to Hidalgo. Both species consist of entirely flightless species whose forewings are small pads which extend from the prontum to cover the auditory tympana. Mexitettix lives among weeds and bushes in dry country, often among rocks in eroded landscapes and mountain sides.
How to Discover Hidden Knowledge According to Different Type Data Set: A Guideline to Apply the Right Hybrid Information Mining Approach

The use of advanced data analysis techniques is now of considerable importance in order to allow the complex extraction of previously unknown and potentially useful implicit information on the data. Interest in this area has grown appreciably since these techniques had to meet the challenges introduced by the enormous proliferation of data triggered by the big data era. This implied, in the last few years, on developing advanced analysis techniques or improving existing ones by constantly introducing new techniques. The selection of an appropriate algorithm for a specific problem is very difficult and often the only solution is to proceed by trial and error. This paper intends to investigate which analysis technique should be used on a particular data set, based on the characteristics of this data set. We present three case studies, each of them concerns a very specific domain (Educational, Health and Safety) that is represented by a particular type of data set. The results establish a possible relationship between the analysis techniques implemented, that is Clustering analysis, Association Rule and Neural Network and the data set type analyzed.
TOSAM: An Energy-Efficient Truncation- and Rounding-Based Scalable Approximate Multiplier

A scalable approximate multiplier, called truncation- and rounding-based scalable approximate multiplier (TOSAM) is presented, which reduces the number of partial products by truncating each of the input operands based on their leading one-bit position. In the proposed design, multiplication is performed by shift, add, and small fixed-width multiplication operations resulting in large improvements in the energy consumption and area occupation compared to those of the exact multiplier. To improve the total accuracy, input operands of the multiplication part are rounded to the nearest odd number. Because input operands are truncated based on their leading one-bit positions, the accuracy becomes weakly dependent on the width of the input operands and the multiplier becomes scalable. Higher improvements in design parameters (e.g., area and energy consumption) can be achieved as the input operand widths increase. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed approximate multiplier, its design parameters are compared with those of an exact multiplier and some other recently proposed approximate multipliers. Results reveal that the proposed approximate multiplier with a mean absolute relative error in the range of 11%–0.3% improves delay, area, and energy consumption up to 41%, 90%, and 98%, respectively, compared to those of the exact multiplier. It also outperforms other approximate multipliers in terms of speed, area, and energy consumption. The proposed approximate multiplier has an almost Gaussian error distribution with a near-zero mean value. We exploit it in the structure of a JPEG encoder, sharpening, and classification applications. The results indicate that the quality degradation of the output is negligible. In addition, we suggest an accuracy configurable TOSAM where the energy consumption of the multiplication operation can be adjusted based on the minimum required accuracy.
Effects of elevated CO2 concentration and climate-warming on photosynthesis during winter in Lolium perenne

Long-term effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (ambient or 700 μmol mol -1 ) and air temperature (simulation of field conditions or +4°C) on leaf photosynthetic rate were examined in Lolium perenne L. cv. Vigor, exposed to natural illumination during winter. Photosynthetic capacity was compared over a range of air temperatures and photon flux densities of photosynthetically active radiation which were representative of winter climate (5-15°C and 0-500 μmol m -2 s -1 ), with CO 2 level during measurement similar to that during the experimental period. Long-term exposure to increased air temperature reduced leaf CO 2 fixation capacity by 23% (averaged over all measurement conditions), resulting from a decline in light-saturated uptake rate, but not in incident-light quantum efficiency. CO 2 -stimulation was largely absent in plants grown in ambient temperature, but pronounced in plants grown under + 4°C, where it compensated for two-thirds of the 23% drop. This enhancing effect of elevated CO 2 level on leaf CO 2 uptake rate observed in the warmer treatment, was strongly dependent on measurement temperature, increasing from 5% at 5°C, to up to 32% at 15°C. Measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and dry matter corresponded with the observed changes in assimilation capacity, which could not be attributed to a deteriorated nitrogen status of the leaves as there was a similar N content on an area basis. Several hypotheses are considered to explain the observed CO 2 -temperature interactions.
What Do Citizens Think About Police Accountability Measures? Lessons From Community Attitudinal Surveys

A growing body of survey research has consistently demonstrated variation among different racial and ethnic groups in terms of their attitudes toward the police. Partly as a result of dissatisfaction among marginalized community groups, municipalities in the United States have increasingly sought to implement new police accountability and reform measures, often with the explicit goal of rehabilitating public perceptions of both the police and municipal government. This article uses logistic regression and multi-year community-level survey data from one Western U.S. city (N = 3,891) to examine the predictors of satisfaction with that city’s police accountability framework. More specifically, the article attempts to disentangle the distinct effects of race/ethnicity, community context, and contact with the police on public satisfaction with that city’s efforts to manage the conduct of police officers. The article also considers the potential policy implications of using community-level surveys to inform the work of police accountability agencies.
Bottom‐up manipulations alter the community structures of galling insects and gall morphs on Neoboutonia macrocalyx trees in a moist tropical rainforest

The effects of bottom‐up forces on the community structure of tropical insect gallers and within species variation in gall morphotype assemblages are not well understood. We tested the roles of increased nutritional quality and density of host plants with respect to structuring the galling insect communities and gall morphotype assemblages on Neoboutonia macrocalyx trees in Uganda. Plant nutritional quality and resource concentration were manipulated with four levels of fertilization and the group size of trees, respectively. After applying these treatments in May 2011, gallers established naturally on experimental replicates. Five months later, we sampled gallers and recorded their numbers and the different morphotypes. We analyzed the effects of treatments on the structures of galler communities and gall morphotype assemblages. We recorded 5237 individuals, representing four galler species. One species, Cecidomyiid leaf galler, was represented by three morphologically distinct galls. Fertilization, host tree density and their interactions significantly changed the structures of galler species communities and gall morphotype assemblages. The results of the present study demonstrate the important role of bottom‐up factors in structuring galler communities and the gall morphotype assemblages. These changes are likely caused by differential responses of different galler species and gall morphs to plant quality or quantity changes.
Temporal dynamics of plant–soil feedback and root‐associated fungal communities over 100 years of invasion by a non‐native plant

Pathogens can accumulate on invasive plants over time, which could lead to population declines. The time required for these dynamics to occur is unknown and seldom addressed. Furthermore, no study has assessed plant–soil feedback while characterizing plant pathogen and mutualist root fungal communities in the context of invasion time. We used a plant–soil feedback study and 454 pyrosequencing to investigate pathogen accumulation over 100 years on a highly invasive plant in eastern North America that shows localized declines, Vincetoxicum rossicum (Apocynaceae). We collected soil from five sites representing each of four invasion periods of V. rossicum across Ontario, Canada (old, c.100 years; intermediate, 50–60 years; young, < 12 years; and uninvaded), and grew V. rossicum in these soils in a glasshouse study. Our hypothesis was that plants grown in soils invaded for longer periods of time would experience less positive feedbacks compared to those grown in more recently invaded or uninvaded soils. We collected roots of V. rossicum from the invasion periods and performed 454 pyrosequencing targeting fungi. We hypothesized that the abundance and richness of fungi that are known plant pathogens would be higher in roots from older invasions compared to more recent invasions. Contrasting with our hypothesis, V. rossicum experienced overall growth promotion due to soil biota, regardless of invasion period. Vincetoxicum rossicum roots were colonized by a large number of fungal taxa, including many known plant pathogens or mutualistic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. However, we found no evidence of pathogen accumulation in older invaded sites in terms of species composition, richness or abundance. Synthesis. Our consistent results in the glasshouse and the field highlight the strength of combining high‐throughput sequencing data with plant–soil feedback experiments. We showed that the roots of Vincetoxicum rossicum (Apocynaceae) were colonized by many fungal taxa, but found no evidence for changes in plant growth or accumulation of fungal pathogens with longer invasion time. High pathogen loads may not lead to concurrent declines in invasive plants. Plant invasions, as demonstrated by V. rossicum, may be unpredictable in their ability to accumulate pathogens capable of leading to population declines.
Automatic building of graphs for rectangular dualisation (IC floorplanning)

Rectangular dualisation is used to generate rectangular topologies in top-down floorplanning of integrated circuits. The author presents an efficient algorithm that transforms an arbitrary graph, representing a custom integrated circuit into one suitable for rectangular dualisation. The algorithm uses efficient techniques in graph processing, such as planar embedding, and introduces a novel procedure to transform a tree of biconnected subgraphs into a block neighborhood graph that is a path. <<ETX>>
Effects of incorporating spatial autocorrelation into the analysis of species distribution data

Aim Spatial autocorrelation (SAC) in data, i.e. the higher similarity of closer samples, is a common phenomenon in ecology. SAC is starting to be considered in the analysis of species distribution data, and over the last 10 years several studies have incorporated SAC into statistical models (here termed ‘spatial models’). Here, I address the question of whether incorporating SAC affects estimates of model coefficients and inference from statistical models. Methods I review ecological studies that compare spatial and non-spatial models. Results In all cases coefficient estimates for environmental correlates of species distributions were affected by SAC, leading to a mis-estimation of on average c. 25%. Model fit was also improved by incorporating SAC. Main conclusions These biased estimates and incorrect model specifications have implications for predicting species occurrences under changing environmental conditions. Spatial models are therefore required to estimate correctly the effects of environmental drivers on species present distributions, for a statistically unbiased identification of the drivers of distribution, and hence for more accurate forecasts of future distributions.
Mancozeb resistance patterns among Kampimodromus aberrans and Typhlodromus pyri (Acari: Phytoseiidae) strains from French vineyards

Abstract Laboratory bioassays were carried out on two species of phytoseiid mites to investigate their resistance to the fungicide mancozeb. Susceptible and suspected resistant strains of Kampimodromus aberrans (Oudemans) and Typhlodromus pyri Scheuten were tested. Mancozeb resistance factors were low to moderate: they reached 6.3 and 11.7 for K. aberrans and T. pyri, respectively. Intrinsic toxicity of mancozeb was approximately 5–10-fold more pronounced in females of K. aberrans than in females of T. pyri. The female susceptibility pattern of the most resistant strain of K. aberrans was quite close to that of the most susceptible strain of T. pyri. The LC50 values for the most resistant strains of K. aberrans and T. pyri were 4.6 and 43 times higher, respectively, than the maximum field application rate of mancozeb recommended for control of downy mildew in vineyards. Using a diagnostic concentration, a limited survey in vine plots indicated that most of the K. aberrans strains we tested were susceptible to mancozeb, but a few consisted of both resistant and susceptible individuals. All strains of T. pyri collected in Burgundy were susceptible. Half of the T. pyri strains from Bordeaux were susceptible and the other half were mixed populations of resistant and susceptible individuals. Résumé Des essais de laboratoire ont été réalisés avec deux espèces de Phytoseiidae pour évaluer leur résistance à un fongicide, le mancozèbe. Des populations sensibles et des populations soupçonnées de résistance de Kampimodromus aberrans (Oudemans) et Typhlodromus pyri Scheuten ont été testées. Les coefficients de résistance sont faibles à modérés et atteignent 6,3 et 11,7 pour K. aberrans et T. pyri, respectivement. La toxicité intrinsèque du mancozèbe est 5 à 10 fois plus forte pour les femelles de K. aberrans que pour les femelles de T. pyri. La sensibilité au mancozèbe de la population de K. aberrans la plus résistante est comparable à celle de la population de T. pyri la plus sensible. Les CL50 des populations les plus résistantes de K. aberrans et de T. pyri sont obtenues respectivement avec des concentrations 4,6 et 43 fois supérieures à la dose maximale recommandée de mancozèbe pour lutter contre le mildiou de la vigne. Une enquête réalisée sur un nombre limité de parcelles de vigne, en utilisant une concentration diagnostique de mancozèbe, tend à montrer que la majorité des populations de K. aberrans testées sont sensibles à ce fongicide, seules quelques unes comportant des individus sensibles et des individus résistants en mélange. Toutes les populations de T. pyri échantillonnées en Bourgogne sont sensibles au mancozèbe. La moitié des populations échantillonnées dans le Bordelais est sensible, l'autre moitié correspond à des populations résistantes ou composées d'un mélange d'individus sensibles et résistants.
Bis(pyridine-4-carboxylic acid-κN)silver(I) nitrate dihydrate

In the title compound, [Ag(C6H5NO2)2]NO3·2H2O, the Ag atom is coordinated by two N atoms from pyridine-4-carboxylic acid ligands. An infinite hydrogen-bonding structure between cation, anion and water mol­ecules results in the formation of a double chain parallel to the b axis. These double chains are inter­connected by weak O⋯Ag inter­actions involving one O atom of a neighbouring nitrate.
Comparative Analyses of Stomatal Size and Density among Ecotypes of Aster hispidus (Asteraceae)

To determine the size and the density of stomata among different environments, we conducted anatomical analyses using Aster hispidus var. hispidus (open field), As. hispidus var. leptocladus (serpentine soil), and As. hispidus var. insularis (coastal). The stomatal size was not significantly different among these ecotypes but the density of stomata in the serpentine and coastal ecotypes was significantly lower than that of As. hispidus var. hispidus, which suggests that these ecotypes have experienced selection that reduced the density of stomata for adaptation to the dry conditions of serpentine and coastal areas.
Isolation and characterization of ten microsatellite loci in stingless bee Trigona spinipes (Apidae: Meliponini)

Stingless bees are the most abundant pollinators of Brazilian tropical flora. Trigona spinipes has some of the largest colonies of any stingless bee species found in several types of environment. This work describes the isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci for this species. A microsatellite‐enriched genomic library was constructed and ten primer pairs were designed for T. spinipes. The primers were tested in 20 unrelated individuals. The mean number of alleles was 8.10 and mean observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.655 and 0.680, respectively. Primers were also tested in cross‐species amplification and five loci were successfully amplified in Trigona chanchamayoensis, Trigona hyalinata, Tetragonisca angustula, Partamona mulata and Frieseomelitta varia. The microsatellite primers described herein will be useful for evaluating genetic variability and gaining a better understanding of the population structure of T. spinipes as well as other species of stingless bees.
Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea): a nutritive multipurpose forage legume for the tropics - an overview

Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea) is a multi-purpose forage legume. It provides bioactive compounds for medicinal use and it is also an ornamental plant and cover crop. It is adaptable to a wide range of temperature, rainfall and altitude. Butterfly pea, a highly palatable forage legume is generally preferred by livestock over other legumes. It has thin stem and large leaves, nil bloat and non toxic which make it ideal for forage and hay making. It's vigorous growth, tolerance to frost and dry periods and heavy grazing pressures make this suitable for waste land development. Production and utilization of this legume for animal production will provide adequate nutrition and also reduce grazing pressure on natural ranges. This paper reviews distribution, plant description, agronomic characteristics, genetic variation, medicinal use, chemical composition and utilization of butterfly pea in livestock production.
Characterization of microsatellite loci in the diploid legume Medicago truncatula (barrel medic)

We report the development of nine microsatellite markers in the diploid legume Medicago truncatula. Five markers were obtained from microsatellite-enriched genome libraries and four from sequences available in GenBank. Polymorphism was explored with plants from a natural population and cross-amplification was tested in other Medicago and three other legume genera.
Analysis of waveguide slot antennas using MLFMA

Slotted waveguide array is analyzed using the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) combined with the near‐field preconditioner applied to the metallic surfaces of the waveguide structure. The approach differs from existing methods that utilize asymptotic method, method of moments (MoM) with the magnetic field integral equation (MFIE), or hybrid methods of MoM and boundary element method (BEM). Since no ideal assumptions are made, the analysis and computation are considered to be theoretically and numerically rigorous. In addition, the low complexity of the MLFMA is especially favorable for fast calculation of the large‐scale waveguide arrays. The experimental results validate the algorithm. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 65–68, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23015
Transport of di‐ and tripeptides in teleost fish intestine

The initial observation of peptide absorption in fish intestine dates back to 1981, when, in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), the rate of intestinal absorption of the dipeptide glycylglycine (Gly-Gly) was compared in vivo with the rate of absorption of its component amino acid glycine (Gly). The description of the identification of the underlying mechanisms that allow di- and tripeptide transport across the plasma membranes in fish was provided in 1991, when the first evidence of peptide transport activity was reported in brush-border membrane vesicles of intestinal epithelial cells of Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) by monitoring uptake of radiolabelled glycyl-l-phenylalanine (Gly-l-Phe). Since then, the existence of a carrier-mediated, H+-dependent transport of di- and tripeptides (H+/peptide cotransport) in the brush-border membrane of fish enterocytes has been confirmed in many teleost species by a variety of biochemical approaches, providing basic kinetics and substrate specificities of the transport activity. In 2003, the first peptide transporter from a teleost fish, i.e. the zebrafish (Danio rerio) PEPtide transporter 1 (PEPT1), was cloned and functionally characterized in the Xenopus laevis oocyte expression system as a low-affinity/high-capacity system. PEPT1 is the protein in brush-border membranes responsible for translocation of intact di- and tripeptides released from dietary protein by luminal and membrane-bound proteases and peptidases. The transporter possesses affinities for the peptide substrates in the 0.1–10 mM range, depending on the structure and physicochemical nature of the substrates. After the molecular and functional characterization of the zebrafish transporter, the interest in PEPT1 in teleost fish has increased and approaches for cloning and functional characterization of PEPT1 orthologues from other fish species, some of them of the highest commercial value, are now underway. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the transport of di- and tripeptides in teleost fish intestine by recalling the bulk of biochemical, biophysical and physiological observations collected in the pre-cloning era and by recapitulating the more recent molecular and functional data.