Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cancer cytogenetics: methods and protocols

Edited by J Swansbury. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2003, £70 (US$89.50), pp 296. ISBN 1588290808 The value of cytogenetic studies for diagnosis and prognosis in malignancy is well established and this book sets out to provide the information required to set up a successful diagnostic laboratory in this challenging branch of cytogenetics. Unlike the other volumes in the Methods in Molecular Biology™ series, the emphasis in this book is on the establishment of a complete diagnostic service rather than simply listing methodologies and protocols for the technical aspects of this work. The book includes advice on the training of staff, the interpretation of findings, and the appropriate focus for limited …
Apoplastic pH and FeIII reduction in young sunflower (Helianthus annuus) roots

The relationship between the apoplastic pH in young sunflower roots (Helianthus annuus L.) and the plasmalemma ferric chelate reductase (FC-R; EC 1.16.1.7) activity in roots was investigated. The hypothesis was tested that a high apoplastic pH depresses FC-R activity, thereby restricting the uptake of Fe 2 + into the cytosol. Until recently, little has been known about this relationship, because pH and redox reaction measurements are difficult to perform within the confines of the root apoplast. We recorded the apoplastic pH by means of the fluorescence ratio in conjunction with video microscopy by covalently tagging fluorescein boronic acid to OH groups of the root cell wall. Fern reduction was measured using a similar approach by tagging ferrozine diboronic acid with OH groups of the cell wall. Ferrozine forms an Fe 2 + complex, thus indicating the reduction of ferric iron. In roots bathing in buffered outer solutions of different pH, a high pH sensitivity of apoplastic Fe I I I reduction was found, with the highest ferric iron reduction rates at an apoplastic pH of 4.9; above an apoplastic pH of 5.3, no reduction was observed. Nitrate in the bathing solution increased the apoplastic pH and hence depressed the Fe I I I reduction; ammonium had the reverse effect. Nitrate together with HCO 3 - , a combination which is typical of calcareous soils, had the strongest depressing effect. From the results, it can be concluded that the main reason for the frequently occurring iron deficiency chlorosis of plants grown on calcareous soils is the inhibition of Fe I I I reduction in the apoplast, and hence Fe 2 + uptake into the cytosol.
Enhancement of Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) Propagation In Vitro Utilizing the Shoot and Embryo Culture Techniques

The effects of sugar type, activated charcoal, and naphthalene acetic acid on the propagation of pistachio (Pistacia vera) in vitro were investigated. Length of roots increased up to 30% when sucrose was used instead of maltose and up to four times when 2 g/L of activated charcoal was added to the medium. The number of adventitious shoots was enhanced (up to 3.2 shoots) when a Rugini and Verma medium supplemented with 0.75 mg/L naphthalene acetic acid, 0.75 mg/L indole acetic acid, and 2 mg/L 6-benzyl amino purine was used. To enhance rooting of shoots in vitro, we developed a technique to increase the amount of hormones available to the growing shoots. The hormones were delivered using a sterilized fine needle to the base of the growing shoots. This technique enhanced rooting up to 3 times (73%) especially when the hormone indole butyric acid was used as a growth regulator.
Distribution and Cycling of Nutrients in an Aspen‐Mixed‐Hardwood‐Spodosol Ecosystem in Northern Wisconsin

The distribution and cycling of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, and Zn were examined over a 2—yr period in an aspen—mixed—hardwood—Spodosol ecosystem in order to determine the roles of overstory aspen and understory sugar maple in nutrient retention. Stand biomass and net primary production (NPP) were 198 Mg/ha and 12.5 Mg°ha—1°yr—1, respectively. Overstory quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) comprised 60% of the biomass and 50% of the NPP, and understory sugar maple (Acer saccharum) comprised 24 and 25% of these values, respectively. The total soil N pool and extractable soil P and Mg pools were larger than the respective vegetation nutrient pools. Nutrient cycling within this ecosystem is characterized by large uptake rates, retention of between 40 and 60% of nutrient uptake in perennial tissues, and leaching losses of <3kg°ha—1°yr—1 for each nutrient. Between 22 and 40% of total stand nutrient uptake is retained in perennial tissues of quaking aspen and between 4 and 20% in perennial tissues of sugar maple. As.
Comparative Study of Noisy-MAX Nodes and General Nodes in Bayesian Network Models

This article is devoted to the use of Bayesian networks for analyzing the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine and offers a comparative description of the use of various structural learning algorithms. A comparative study of the behavior of the Noisy-MAX nodes and the General nodes in the design of the Bayesian network was carried out. It has been shown that Noisy-max nodes in comparison with General nodes provide a relatively high initial accuracy. General nodes require retesting. However, Noisy-MAX nodes entail an increase in time and computational cost.
Performance in the Transition Zone of Two Hybrid Bluegrasses Compared with Kentucky Bluegrass and Tall Fescue

Hybrid bluegrasses (HBG) are crosses between Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) (KBG) and Texas bluegrass (Poa arachnifera Torr.), which may exhibit better heat tolerance and drought resistance than other cool-season turfgrasses. Two HBG cultivars (‘Thermal Blue’ [HBG1] and ‘Dura Blue’ [HBG2]), one KBG (‘Apollo’), and one tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.; ‘Dynasty’ [TF]) were evaluated for two years in northeastern Kansas for establishment rates after seeding, visual quality and growth characteristics, and drought resistance. Irrigation treatments included 60% and 100% evapotranspiration (ET) replacement and a control receiving only natural precipitation. Tall fescue reached full cover 37, 52, and >73 days faster than HBG1, KBG, and HBG2, respectively. In both years, average quality over the growing season ranked: TF > KBG > HBG1 > HBG2; an infestation of bluegrass billbugs (Sphenophorus parvulus Gyllenhal) in 2003 reduced quality among bluegrasses but not TF. Canopy density was lower in HBG2 and higher in TF among treatments. Clipping biomass of TF was 42 to 73% higher than that of the bluegrasses. Vertical growth rates were highest in HBG1 and TF and lowest in KBG. Drought generally reduced quality among bluegrasses, but effects on TF were negligible. Results indicate that TF is better adapted than HBG where soils are deep in the transition zone. Further research is needed using new cultivars of HBG and in areas with different soils.
Aspidomorphus, a genus of New Guinea snakes of the Family Elapidae, with notes on related genera

The Australian snakes that have been included in Aspidomorphus differ markedly from that genus, particularly in hemipenial morphology and in the absence of a muscular slip from the quadrate bone to the venom gland; the genus Aspidomorphus is therefore restricted to the New Guniea species. Aspidomorphus (as here restricted) is closely related to Demansia (in the restricted sense of Worrell, essentially D. psammophis, D. torquata, and D. olivacea), but the Australian species generally referred to Aspidomorphus seem to be related to Glyphodon. The genera Aspidomorphus, Demansia, Rhinhoplocephalus and Drepanodontis form a natural group. Aspidomorphus contains three species, each identifiable by hemipenial features as well as by details of colouration: A. muelleri (=A. mulleri mulleri and A. m. interruptus of Brongersma's revision); A. lineaticollis (=A. mulleri lineaticollis and A. m. lineatus of Brongersma); and A. schlegeli. The last species differs from the others in the form of the maxillary bone and the anterior mandibular dentition; it seems to be confined to northwestern New Guinea and adjacent islands, since specimens from the eastern end of New Guinea that had been referred to schlegeli are actually A. lineaticollis. In all three species some geographical variation can be demonstrated, at least in ventral count, but it is not considered necessary to use trinomials to indicate that geographical variation exists. Pseudonaja textilis is recorded from New Guinea for the first time. (McDowell.) Examination reveals Demansia ornaticeps is properly referred to Demansia. (Cogger.)
Resurrecting Frankenstein

A number of specific scientific and medical contexts have proved to be vital for readings of Frankenstein, including the debate over the nature of life between surgeons John Abernethy and William Lawrence, the writings of Erasmus Darwin, the lectures of Humphry Davy, the electrical experiments of Luigi Galvani and his nephew Giovanni Aldini, and the public's perceptions of the medical world as one of graverobbing, irreverent post-mortem dissections and seemingly miraculous resuscitations. For a clearer understanding of the novel, however, it is essential to situate these scientists and surgeons, and Mary Shelley's treatment of such subjects, within the broader context of a concerted and historically-contingent effort to understand what was meant by the term 'life'. During the Romantic period scientists and surgeons investigated the boundaries that existed between life and death: such efforts were explicit in the attempts of the vitalist Abernethy to prove that life and death were distinct states, and in the much publicised and theatrical 'resurrections' performed on hanged British criminals by Aldini, which seemed to suggest that the dead could rise again. Frankenstein was composed during a time when radical scientists asserted the dangerous and threatening possibility that life and death could be less distinct than had been thought previously and when horrified conservative scientists put all their efforts into proving that these categories were still as rigid and as discrete as ever. Frankenstein's audacious experiment is only possible because he believes that life and death are merely 'ideal bounds', rather than real or definite states of being.2
Proliferation of red velvet mite Balaustium sp. nr. putmani (Erythraeidae) in Ohio based on water relations of active instars

ABSTRACT Population bursts, numbering in thousands of individuals, are characteristic of red velvet mites, Balaustium sp. nr. putmani, in the springtime in Central Ohio. We determined water-balance characteristics for each of the mobile instars (larva, deutonymph, adult female; males are seemingly absent from this population) to link dehydration tolerance with heightened activity in the same habitat. This mite loses water rapidly: larva > deutonymph > adult. None of these active instars could absorb water vapor, unlike many terrestrial mites, indicating that this mite must imbibe liquid as free water or from food sources to maintain water balance. As a voracious predator, most of the liquid is probably obtained from feeding. Developmentally, larvae are the most sensitive and vulnerable to water stress because of their high net transpiration rate and low dehydration tolerance limit. Additionally, urnulae glands are only present in the post-larval instars; hence, larvae lack the protective waterproofing secretion that is provided by these glands. Deutonymphs and adults are much more resistant to desiccation, are capable of losing approximately 40% of their water content before succumbing to death, and have reduced water loss rates. We concluded that population bursts of B. sp. nr. putmani might be a response to abundance of plant pests in the landscape. Deutonymphs and adults are modified for water conservation and are correspondingly active for longer periods of time. Larvae survive for a brief time, which minimizes their exposure to desiccating habitats, and use the cooler temperatures experienced early in the season, which suppress their high rate of water loss.
A Quantitative Corpus-Driven Approach to Disambiguation of Synonymous Grammatical Constructions

Adopting usage-based construction grammar and quantitative corpus linguistic research approaches, this study attempts to empirically analyze the distributional properties of the two English synonymous grammatical constructions, i.e. detached augmented and unaugmented Participle I clauses with the explicit subject. Despite the extensive research on the morphological and functional features of the syntactic patterns under study, semantic and pragmatic dissimilarities between the two alternative syntactic structures thus far have not been studied, at least in a way of the quantitative examination of the subject slot of these constructions. Applying the methods of simple collexeme analysis and distinctive collexeme analysis to the linguistic data retrieved from the BNC-BYU corpus, the study explores the semantics of the investigated pair of constructions by identifying semantic frames instantiated by their significantly attracted noun collexemes. The distributional data obtained prove that the analyzed synonymous constructions are pragmatically distinct and semantically determined.
Long‐term data suggest jarrah‐forest establishment at restored mine sites is resistant to climate variability

Global climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of drought in dry regions due to warming temperatures and declining rainfall. Severe drought can trigger tree mortality and drive persistent vegetation change. To date, most empirical studies have focused on drought‐induced mortality of adult trees, but this needs to be matched by similar efforts to understand drought impacts on seedling establishment if we are to understand the resilience of the world's forests to projected climate change. The Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah)‐forest ecoregion of south‐western Australia has experienced a 17% reduction in mean annual rainfall from 1975 to 2011 compared with mean rainfall from 1900 to 1974. Drought‐induced mortality of adult trees has been documented for jarrah forest, but there is limited understanding of its capacity to recover, making it difficult to predict the likelihood of persistent effects. Long‐term records of jarrah‐forest restoration following bauxite mining are available for the 19‐year period between 1992 and 2010. Records include annual data on seedling establishment in restored mine sites for 587 species in 1938 plots during a period of climatic variability. We built a structural equation model to discriminate the relative effects of climate, restoration practice, and their interactive effects on three response variables including species richness of the restored plant assemblages. Climate variability had a significant negative effect on richness, but the effect size was relatively small, being less than half that of varying restoration practice. We suggest this is due, in part, to the reliability of rainfall (i.e. no change in the coefficient of variation, seasonality or evenness, between recent and historical climates) despite a threefold difference in the absolute amount of wet‐season rainfall. Importantly, there was no evidence that restoration practices were compromised by interacting effects of increased climate variability. Synthesis. Jarrah‐forest establishment in a restoration context appears resistant to recent changes in climate. Our research highlights the importance of deriving multiple metrics of climate change to understand community responses. In particular, rainfall reliability should be a focus of future research to determine its broader significance to seedling establishment in forests subject to a drying climate.
The potential of rapid screening methods for Schistosoma mansoni in western Kenya

Data from 46 schools in western Kenya were used to investigate the performance of school-based questionnaires, on reported blood in stool and water-contact patterns, as indicators of the prevalence of human infection with Schistosoma mansoni. Prevalence of infection was associated with the prevalence of self-reported blood in stool, recent history of swimming and recent history of fishing. It was shown that use of a threshold of 30% of subjects reporting blood in stool would identify 42.9% of the ‘high-prevalence’ schools (i.e. prevalence ≥ 50%) and 87.5% of the ‘low-prevalence’ schools (i.e. prevalence < 50%). A threshold of 25% reporting swimming would identify 57.1% and 93.7% of the high- and low-prevalence schools, respectively. Blood in stool appears to be too coarse an indicator to identify schools for mass treatment correctly. Although the use of multiple questions improved the diagnostic performance of the questionnaire in identifying the high-prevalence schools, it was unclear how questions can best be combined in other settings. However, there is a direct relationship between prevalence of S. mansoni infection and distance of the school from the lakeshore; analysis indicated that use of a threshold of 5 km from the lakeshore would correctly identify most (90%) of both the low- and high-prevalence schools. Distance to the lakeshore may therefore be used to screen schools in much of East Africa (i.e. those areas close to the Great Lakes where the infection is known to be prevalent and where much of the region's population is concentrated). In other areas of transmission, such as irrigation areas, further studies are still required.
A Note Concerning Professor Jolicoeur’s Comments

The ordinary major axis of a bivariate normal distribution is unsuitable for describing the functional relationship (in Lindley’s general sense) between two naturally variable quantities, because it is not invariant with scale and because qualitatively unlike quantities are subtracted in computing it. The bivariate structural relationship is unsuitable because one of the parameters required, λ, cannot be estimated from naturally variable data; in fact λ has no objective meaning for such data. The standard major axis (or GM regression line) has neither of these defects, and it is the line that minimizes the sum of products of the absolute vertical and horizontal deviations of data points from itself.
Comparison of IMPROVE and NIOSH Carbon Measurements

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) are operationally defined by the analysis methods, and different methods give in different results. The IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments) and NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) thermal evolution protocols present different operational definitions. These protocols are applied to 60 ambient and source samples from different environments using the same instrument to quantify differences in implemented protocols on the same instrument. The protocols are equivalent for total carbon sampled on quartz-fiber filters. NIOSH EC was typically less than half of IMPROVE EC. The primary difference is the allocation of carbon evolving at the NIOSH 850°C temperature in a helium atmosphere to the OC rather than EC fraction. Increasing light transmission and reflectance during this temperature step indicate that this fraction should be classified as EC. When this portion of NIOSH OC is added to NIOSH EC, the IMPROVE and NIOSH analyses are in good agreement. The most probable explanation is that mineral oxides in the complex particle mixture on the filter are supplying oxygen to neighboring carbon particles at this high temperature. This has been demonstrated by the principle of the thermal manganese oxidation method that is also commonly used to distinguish OC from EC. For both methods, the optical pyrolysis adjustment to the EC fractions was always higher for transmittance than for reflectance. This is a secondary cause of differences between the two methods, with transmittance resulting in a lower EC loading than reflectance. The difference was most pronounced for very black filters on which neither reflectance nor transmittance accurately detected further blackening due to pyrolysis.
Genome-wide Response of Normal WI-38 Human Fibroblast Cells to 1,763 MHz Radiofrequency Radiation

Increased exposure of human to RF fields has raised concerns for its potential adverse effects on our health. To address the biological effects of RF radiation, we used genome wide gene expression as the indicator. We exposed normal WI-38 human fibroblast cells to 1763 MHz mobile phone RF radiation at a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 60 W/kg with an operating cooling system for 24 h. There were no alterations in cell numbers or morphology after RF exposure. Through microarray analysis, we identified no differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at the 0.05 significance level after controlling for multiple testing errors with the Benjaminiochberg false discovery rate (BH FDR) method. Meanwhile, 82 genes were differentially expressed between RF-exposed cells and controls when the significance level was set at 0.01 without correction for multiple comparisons. We found that 24 genes (0.08% of the total genes examined) were changed by more than 1.5-fold on RF exposure. However, significant enrichment of any gene set or pathway was not observed from the functional annotation analysis. From these results, we did not find any evidence that non-thermal RF radiation at a 60-W/kg SAR significantly affects cell proliferation or gene expression in WI-38 cells.
Adaptive Eating Device: Performance and Satisfaction of a Person with Parkinson’s Disease

Background. Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) can experience motor impairments related to their hand-use that restrict participation in daily activities. Feeding is one activity impacted by this health condition. The use of adapted utensils can improve performance and independence in this activity. Purpose. To investigate if a locally designed and made eating-adaptive device helps a person with PD to improve their feeding performance. Method. Single-case ABC-type experimental design. Performance and satisfaction of a 60-year-old man with PD were assessed during feeding tasks in 70 sequential days in three phases. Celeration Line, Two-Standard Deviation Band, and Visual Analysis were the methods used for data analysis. Findings. Performance and satisfaction increased significantly after the introduction of the adaptive eating device. The addition of weight also contributed to the increase in the participant’s performance. Implications. Adaptive eating device with low production costs and possibility of customized adjustments improves performance of people with PD.
Draft Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus jensenii Strain UMB7766, Isolated from the Female Bladder

Lactobacillus jensenii is a beneficial and prominent community member within both the vaginal and female urinary microbiota. As more genomes for L. jensenii strains are made publicly available, we gain more knowledge about this beneficial community member. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of L. jensenii UMB7766, which was isolated from a urine specimen from a catheterized female patient with recurrent urinary tract infections. ABSTRACT Lactobacillus jensenii is a beneficial and prominent community member within both the vaginal and female urinary microbiota. As more genomes for L. jensenii strains are made publicly available, we gain more knowledge about this beneficial community member. Here, we present the draft genome sequence of L. jensenii UMB7766, which was isolated from a urine specimen from a catheterized female patient with recurrent urinary tract infections.