Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passive immunity in poultry coccidiosis.

Coccidiosis is a protozoosis causing important economic losses in poultry industry throughout the world, either due to mortality or to weight losses. The species belonging to the Eimeria genus are host-specific, and the resulting immunity is species-specific. The immune response to coccidiosis is primarily cellularly mediated and secondarily humorally mediated, by means of antibodies. Within the cellular immune response, the CD4 and CD8 cells, and the cytokines they secrete, play an important role. Nevertheless, it seems that in the first days of life, chicks are protected against infection by maternal antibodies, transferred via egg yolk. This type of immune protection is well known in the case of the Gumboro disease. Research over the past 16 years has shown that the immunoglobulin Y (IgY) transferred via the egg yolk to the chicks prevents the appearance of clinical coccidiosis in chicks. The production of specific antibodies in breeders can be stimulated through infections or immunization. It has also been demonstrated that the maternal antibodies that appear as a result of an infection with Eimeria spp. (Eimeria maxima) offer the chicks partial protection against infection with another species (Eimeria tenella), owing to the fact that some eimerian proteins seem to be common to more species.
Radiation of pollination systems in Gladiolus (Iridaceae: Crocoideae) in Southern Africa

Pollination strategies adopted by the largely sub-Saharan African Gladiolus (approximately 260 species), one of the largest genera of the monocot family Iridaceae, are unusually diverse. The primary or sole pollinators include long-tongued apid and anthophorine bees (Apidae), short-tongued halictid and andrenid bees (Halictidae, Andrenidae), sometimes in combination with hopliine beetles (Scarabaeidae), long-proboscid flies (Nemestrinidae, Tabanidae), large butterflies (Satyridae), moths (mostly Noctuidae and Sphingidae), and sunbirds (Passerinae). Floral form correlates closely with pollination strategy, allowing us to infer the pollination ecology of almost all 165 species in southern Africa, although we have observations of animal visitors capable of accomplishing pollen transfer in only half this number. Pollination by apid bees foraging for nectar and passively transferring pollen brushed onto their bodies during feeding occurs in all seven sections of the genus in southern Africa and is also the most common strategy in five of these sections. Other pollinators include female bees actively foraging for pollen, or long-proboscid flies, sunbirds, moths, the satyrid butterfly, Aeropetes, all foraging for nectar, and in one species hopliine beetles that use the flowers as sites for assembly and copulation. Shifts in floral form associated with changes in pollination appear complex in the large flowers of Gladiolus species, but may in fact involve relatively simple developmental modifications, involving changes in perianth pigmentation, and often the type of marking on the tepals, presence or absence of scent, length of the perianth tube, and occasionally a shift from zygomorphy to actinomorphy. Associated with these changes is a correlated adjustment in nectar characteristics, including volume, sugar concentration, and sometimes sugar chemistry. With an inferred minimum of 32 shifts in pollination system in the 165 species in southern Africa, Gladiolus appears to have an unusually labile floral morphology, which may account for its extensive adaptive radiation.
Edaphic variation and the mesoscale distribution of tree species in a neotropical rain forest

1 Do local edaphic factors over short environmental gradients affect the distribution and abundance of tree species in tropical rain forests? We addressed this question by examining the responses of tree species to soil type, topographic position and slope angle in an upland old‐growth tropical rain forest landscape in Costa Rica, Central America.
A multilocus approach to harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones) phylogeny with emphasis on biogeography and the systematics of Laniatores

The internal phylogeny of the arachnid order Opiliones is investigated by including molecular data from five molecular markers for ca. 140 species totalling 43 families of Opiliones. The phylogenetic analyses consisted of a direct optimization (DO) approach using POY v. 4 and sophisticated tree search algorithms as well as a static alignment analysed under maximum likelihood. The four Opiliones suborders were well‐supported clades, but subordinal relationships did not receive support in the DO analysis, with the exception of the monophyly of Palpatores (=Eupnoi + Dyspnoi). Maximum‐likelihood analysis strongly supported the traditional relationship of Phalangida and Palpatores: (Cyphophthalmi ((Eupnoi + Dyspnoi) Laniatores)). Relationships within each suborder are well resolved and largely congruent between direct optimization and maximum‐likelihood approaches. Age estimates for the main Opiliones lineages suggest a Carboniferous diversification of Cyphophthalmi, while its sister group, Phalangida, diversified in the Early Devonian. Diversification of all suborders predates the Triassic, and most major lineages predate the Cretaceous. The following taxonomic changes are proposed. Dyspnoi: Hesperonemastoma is transferred to Sabaconidae. Insidiatores: Sclerobunidae stat. nov. is erected as a family for Zuma acuta.
Patterns of species participation across multiple mixed-species flock types in a tropical forest in northeastern India

We studied mixed-species bird flocks in northeastern India to (a) develop a framework for quantifying species participation in mixed-species flocks, (b) characterize the ecology and behaviour of participant species, and (c) explore mechanisms influencing the coexistence of different mixed-species flock types. To characterize participation in mixed-species flocks, we implement a new method incorporating species abundances, minimizing potential biases in measuring participation arising from differences in the availability of flocking species. There are at least three distinct flock types in the lowland forests of northeastern India; these flock types differ in the body mass and vertical stratum use of participant species. The “core” of mixed-species flocks was composed of a species group that differed much more in their foraging method in comparison with “attendant” species. The exchange of benefits and minimization of interspecific competition might lead to, and maintain, heterogeneity in foraging methods among core species of mixed-species flocks.
Nerve Growth Factor Regulates Dopamine D2 Receptor Expression in Prolactinoma Cell Lines via p75NGFR-Mediated Activation of Nuclear Factor-κB

Two groups of prolactinoma cell lines were identified. One group (responder) expresses both D(2) dopamine receptors and an autocrine loop mediated by nerve growth factor (NGF) and one group (nonresponder) lacks both D(2) receptors and NGF production. D(2) receptor expression in these cell lines is dependent on NGF. Indeed, NGF inactivation in responder cells decreases D(2) receptor density, while NGF treatment induces D(2) receptor expression in nonresponders. Here we show that inactivation of p75(NGFR), but not of trkA, resulted in D(2) receptor loss in responder cells and prevented D(2) receptor expression induced by NGF in the nonresponder. Analysis of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) nuclear accumulation and binding to corresponding DNA consensus sequences indicated that in NGF-secreting responder cells, but not in nonresponders, NF-kappaB is constitutively activated. Moreover, NGF treatment of nonresponder cells induced both nuclear translocation and DNA binding activity of NF-kappaB complexes containing p50, p65/RelA, and cRel subunits, an effect prevented by anti-p75(NGFR) antibodies. Disruption of NF-kappaB nuclear translocation by SN50 remarkably impaired D(2) receptor expression in responder cells and prevented D(2) gene expression induced by NGF in nonresponders. These data indicate that in prolactinoma cells the effect of NGF on D(2) receptor expression is mediated by p75(NGFR) in a trkA-independent way and that NGF stimulation of p75(NGFR) activates NF-kappaB, which is required for D(2) gene expression. We thus suggest that NF-kappaB is a key transcriptional regulator of the D(2) gene and that this mechanism may not be confined to pituitary tumors, but could also extend to other dopaminergic systems.
Scalable and bandwidth-efficient memory subsystem design for real-time systems

Scalable and Bandwidth-Efficient Memory Subsystem Design for Real-Time Systems In heterogeneous multi-processor platforms for real-time systems, Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) is typically used as a shared resource to reduce cost and enable communication between memory clients, i.e. the processing elements. Since multiple applications with firm real-time requirements run concurrently in such platforms, the memory clients impose strict worst-case requirements on main memory performance in terms of bandwidth and/or latency. These requirements must be guaranteed at design time to reduce the verification effort. This is made possible using a real-time memory subsystem consisting of a real-time memory controller and a memory interconnect in front of it that multiplexes requests arriving from different clients. Existing real-time memory controllers bound the execution time of a memory request by fixing the memory access parameters, such as burst size and page policy, at design time. To bound the response time, predictable arbitration policies, such as Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Round-Robin (RR), are employed in the memory interconnect. The performance of real-time memory subsystems can be analyzed using formal performance analysis based on e.g., such as network calculus and data-flow analysis. To meet the ever increasing demand for memory bandwidth with more applications being integrated into multi-core platforms, the maximum clock speeds of memory devices were increased by over a factor of two for every memory generation with the help of technology node scaling. Moreover, memory devices with multiple memory channels (multi-channel memories) and wider interfaces, such as Wide IO, were introduced, targeting battery-operated mobile devices. To support the upcoming memory generations in multi-processor platforms with increasing number of clients, scalable memory subsystems are essential. However, existing bus-based memory interconnects with centralized implementation of predictable arbitration policies are not scalable in terms of clock frequency, and current distributed interconnects either suffer from poor performance in terms of area, power
Parents' presence affects embryos' development in Salaria fluviatilis (Asso, 1801), a fish with parental care

In fishes, the parents' presence generally improves embryos' survival through parental care, but it is also associated with some disadvantages such as clutch cannibalism and loss of male physical condition. Captive breeding of the river blenny Salaria fluviatilis might improve if these disadvantages were avoided by artificially replacing parental care benefits in the lab. Before accepting this procedure, it should be studied whether embryo development is dependent or not on any other unknown effect related to the parents' presence. In this study, the ontogenetic sequence and several morphological structures - standard length, head height, jaw length and yolk-sac volume - from embryos reared both in the presence and in the absence of the parents were compared. At day 11 after oviposition, in the parents' absence treatment, well-developed embryos were obtained, but a smaller size of the yolk-sac, a greater head height and a tendency to have a greater jaw length than in the parents' presence treatment were found. These results suggest that the parents' presence might affect embryo development and perhaps offspring sexual determination. Given these differences, the practise of depriving clutches from their parents in captivity breeding programmes should be questioned.
Performance of Broiler Chickens and Turkey Poults Subjected to Feed Restriction or to Feeding of Low-Protein or Low-Sodium Diets at an Early Age

Abstract The use of low-sodium (LoNa) and low-protein (LoPr) diets was examined in chickens and LoNa diets in turkey poults as a means of restricting growth at an early age. In the first trial, the LoNa, LoPr, or control diet were fed to 8-day-old male broiler chickens for ad libitum consumption for 6 days. An additional treatment group was pair-fed the LoNa diet (feed restricted). During the restriction period, the birds fed the LoPr diet gained the least BW. Also, these birds did not recover the lost weight as measured at 56 days of age; but feed efficiency was improved significantly. At 56 days of age, abdominal fat was reduced. Meat yield was not affected by any of the early-growth-restriction treatments terminated at 14 days of age. In another experiment, 6-day-old female chicks received a LoNa diet for 6 or 9 days or were severely feed-restricted for 6 days. At 56 days of age, BW losses had been recovered completely only in the birds fed the LoNa diet for 6 days. Feed efficiency was improved and carcass fat was reduced in all restricted groups. For 10 days, 7-day-old turkey poults were given 1) LoNa diet 2) pair-feeding regimen for the LoNa birds, or 3) a more severe regimen of feed restriction. At 147 days, the BW of the restricted birds, especially of the group pair-fed the LoNa treatment, exceeded the weight of the controls. A large part of this difference between feed-restricted birds and the control birds could be accounted for by a corresponding difference in the yield of breast muscle. Overall feed efficiency was improved for the birds in all of the regimens involving early growth restrictions. The results suggested that feeding a LoNa diet may be beneficial in terms of early growth restriction for chickens and turkeys. However, the recovery of BW appears to be more complete when a controlled, early feed restriction is employed.
Phylogenetic distance among beneficiary species in a cushion plant species explains interaction outcome

Determining which drivers lead to a specific species assemblage is a central issue in community ecology. Although many processes are involved, plant–plant interactions are among the most important. The phylogenetic limiting similarity hypothesis states that closely related species tend to compete stronger than distantly related species, although evidence is inconclusive. We used ecological and phylogenetic data on alpine plant communities along an environmental severity gradient to assess the importance of phylogenetic relatedness in affecting the interaction between cushion plants and the whole community, and how these interactions may affect community assemblage and diversity. We first measured species richness and individual biomass of species growing within and outside the nurse cushion species, Arenaria tetraquetra. We then assembled the phylogenetic tree of species present in both communities and calculated the phylogenetic distance between the cushion species and its beneficiary species, as well as the phylogenetic community structure. We also estimated changes in species richness at the local level due to the presence of cushions. The effects of cushions on closely related species changed from negative to positive as environmental conditions became more severe, while the interaction with distantly related species did not change along the environmental gradient. Overall, we found an environmental context-dependence in patterns of phylogenetic similarity, as the interaction outcome between nurses and their close and distantly-related species showed an opposite pattern with environmental severity.
Intron Structure of the Elongation Factor 1-Alpha Gene in the Ponto-Caspian Amphipod Pontogammarus maeoticus (Sowinsky, 1894) and Its Phylogeographic Utility

ABSTRACT We tested the utility of a 230 base pair intron fragment of the highly conserved nuclear gene Elongation Factor 1-alpha (EF1-&agr;) as a proper marker to reconstruct the phylogeography of the marine amphipod Pontogammarus maeoticus (Sowinsky, 1894) from the Caspian and Black Seas. As a prerequisite for further analysis, we confirmed by Southern blot analysis that EF1-&agr; is encoded at a single locus in P. maeoticus. We included 15 populations and 60 individuals in the study. Both the phylogeny of the 27 unique alleles found and population genetic analyses revealed a significant differentiation between populations from the aforementioned sea basins. Our results are in remarkable agreement with recent studies on a variety of species from the same area, which invariably support a major phylogeographic break between the Caspian and Black Seas. We thus conclude that our EF1-&agr; intron is an informative marker for phylogeographic studies in amphipods at the shallow population level.
Hay production from lowland semi‐natural grasslands: a review of implications for ruminant livestock systems

Data on total, seasonal and between-year variability in the productivity and nutritional quality of cut forages obtained from a range of lowland semi-natural grasslands are reviewed. Dry-matter production, as hay, from unfertilized species-rich semi-natural grasslands ranged from less than 20% to about 80% of the production that might be expected from agriculturally improved and intensively managed grasslands. Unfertilized species-rich grasslands had lower growth rates, reflecting low nutrient availability in spring and early summer. Low soil phosphorus availability appears to be a key factor allowing high species-richness to be maintained. The in vitro digestibilities of herbage cut for hay from semi-natural grasslands were 20%, or more, below values for conserved forages from intensively managed grassland. When losses incurred during the hay-making process were taken into account, then the nitrogen content of hays from many semi-natural grasslands appear to be sub-optimal for productive livestock. Metabolizable energy values of herbage cut for hay were 10–40% below values for intensively managed conserved grass. Phosphorus content of forages from most species-rich grasslands was either below the metabolic requirement of livestock or inadequate to sustain high individual animal performance. Potential problems associated with supplementation of the diet with phosphorus, and with high calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, are discussed. Although potassium content of most of the herbage cut for hay was adequate for productive ruminant livestock, exceptions arise with hay cut after July. The magnesium content of cut herbage from some semi-natural grasslands was below an adequate level for productive livestock. Most cut herbage appeared to contain adequate amounts of sodium. Inadequacy of the mineral content of hays from semi-natural grasslands for ruminant livestock will be exacerbated by nutrient losses incurred during the hay-making process and particularly so when hay- making is prolonged by wet weather. Few feeding studies using hays from semi-natural grasslands of high nature conservation interest have been conducted. Lack of such data makes it difficult to plan any integrated use of these hays in ruminant feed budgets for livestock systems.
A Comparative Study on the Effects of Enzymes Feed Additive "Kemzyme" and Antibiotic Growth Promoter "Salinomycin" on Haemostatic Mechanism of Rabbit Bucks

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of enzymes (Kemzyme) or antibiotic (Salinomycin) feed additives on haemostatic mechanism and some haemostatic parameters in rabbit bucks.Twenty four rabbit bucks of average age 4 months were used and allocated into 3 equal groups (8/ each); control un-supplemented, Kemzyme and Salinomycin supplemented groups. The supplements were mixed with the ration for 8 successive weeks. Blood samples were collected at the end of the 4 th and the 8 th weeks of the experiment. Results obtained revealed that: 1) Kemzyme supplementation was not associated with any significant alterations in the measured parameters and 2) at the end of the 8 th . week , salinomycin adversely affected the haemostatic mechanism in the form of hypocoagulabe state manifested by a significant increase in PT and APTT with a significant decrease in coagulation factors VII, IX and X activities. It could be concluded that kemzyme is a more safer feed additive . While, salinomycin should not be used for more than 4 weeks to avoid its adverse effect on haemostasis that could be a cause of sudden death resulting in economic losses or rendering the rabbit meat unmarketable due to inter and intramuscular patches of bleeding.
Relationships between Corn Yields and Soil Nitrate in Late Spring

Recent studies have shown good correlations between corn (Zea mays L.) yields and concentrations of NO 3 in the surface 30-cm layer of soil in late spring. Here we report additional correlations and evaluate the benefits of sampling to 60 cm instead of to 30 cm only. The study involved 45 site-years (1346 plot-years) of data collected in 1987, 1988, and 1989 in Iowa. Weather conditions were dryer than normal, with a severe drought occurring in 1988. Each site-year included seven to 10 rates of N applied before planting. Samples representing the surface 0- to 30-cm and the 30- to 60-cm layers of soils were collected when corn plants were 15 to 30 cm tall. Nitrate concentrations in these soil layers were correlated with grain yields (.)
Total sulphur contents over a three-year period in different organic vineyards of Apulia region, South-Eastern Italy

Sulphur (S) is one of the most important pillars of pest control in organic viticulture. In organic vineyards, sulphur is used mainly for the control of grapevine powdery mildew. Grapevine is widely grown organically in Apulian farms. The objective of the work was to evaluate total sulphur concentrations with ICP-OES in four Apulian organic vineyard over a three-year period. Total sulphur contents were determined also in other fields such as olive groves and a pasture where no sulphur had been used. The highest values were found in the organic vineyard where the smallest quantities of sulphur were used. No relationship was found between sulphur applications and its effective accumulations. A decrease of S concentrations was observed in the vineyard where the highest quantity of sulphur was used in 2005 and 2006 growing seasons whereas an increase was observed in the field where relatively low quantities had been applied. Furthermore, total S concentrations were higher in the control fields where no sulphur-based treatments had been performed. Results obtained indicated that many factors must be taken into account while considering sulphur turnover, the most important of which are soil management, climate and crop growth pattern. A positive correlation was found between total S concentrations and organic matter contents. Our results, although confined into a relatively short period of time, underlined the urgent need for further investigations to follow sulphur long-term dynamics in the Mediterranean soils.