Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classifying the fire‐response traits of plants: How reliable are species‐level classifications?

Plant species in fire-prone environments possess specific traits which allow them to survive fire. Species are commonly classified according to whether they survive fire and resprout or whether they are killed by fire and regenerate from seed. However, different populations of the same species have been shown to vary in their responses. Therefore, the classification of a species into a single category based on fire-response traits may not necessarily be representative of every population under every circumstance. This study examined the extent of within-species variation in fire-response traits of woody plants in south-eastern Australia after the 2003 fires. Species were then classified using two approaches: (i) using data from a field survey of fire-response traits, taking into account within-species variation; and (ii) using species' fire responses listed in a pre-existing fire-response database compiled from a variety of primary sources. Field data showed that the majority of species in the study area resprouted after fire with around one in 10 species variable in their resprouting response. Almost half of all species varied from site to site according to whether they regenerated from seed, either solely or in addition to resprouting. The numbers of species classified as resprouters and seed regenerators varied according to the classification method used. Differences were also found between the classification method when calculating the mean proportion of resprouters and seed regenerators across sites. The fire-response traits for some species from the database were found to differ from the observed field responses. This study demonstrated that the application of a fire-response trait, reported in a trait database, to an entire species, may not adequately represent the actual fire responses of the populations of interest. Rather than considering the fire-response traits of a species, accurate prediction may be better achieved by considering how different populations of plants will respond to fire.
Effects of temporal and spatial variations in food supply on the space and habitat use of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris L.)

In non-native conifer plantations characterized by strong spatial and temporal variations in the availability of tree seeds in Spadeadam Forest, northern England, the home range and habitat use of red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris was very flexible. Males tended to have much larger home ranges than females and core-areas of most breeding females seemed mutually exclusive. Adult female red squirrels were found to increase their home range and core-area size in forest patches where food was less abundant. Home-range size was significantly related to home-range quality and the extent of overlap by other females. In contrast with high-quality continuous conifer forests: (1) a considerable proportion of adult males and females at Spadeadam shifted home range, (2) both sexes had much larger home ranges than reported from other habitats in Britain or Belgium. Many ranges were multinuclear, particularly from January onwards, when supplies of seeds become depleted through consumption and seed shed. Squirrels tracked the availability of conifer seeds (lodgepole pine cones throughout the study, Norway spruce cones in spring 1992 and Sitka spruce cones in autumn 1993) and intensively used several non-adjacent activity centres in temporally food-rich patches. Consequently, habitat preference changed markedly with time. The squirrels seemed to maximize nitrogen intake and to avoid the smaller seeds when possible. This resulted in an overall preference for a mixed diet of lodgepole pine and spruce seeds and avoidance of Sitka spruce seeds when Norway spruce seeds were available. These results lend support to the hypothesis of Ostfeld (1985) that when food is sparse and patchily distributed, females should develop intrasexual territoriality, concentrating their activity in food-rich patches, while males should be non-territorial and adapt their space use to the distribution of females.
Studies on Turkey Body Composition. 2. Measuring Carcass fat of Turkeys by Ultrasonic Detection

Abstract OF THE many factors that influence market grade of dressed turkeys, an important factor has been the degree of finish of the dressed carcass. Enos et al. (1961) found a high correlation between the average finish score and average market grade of dressed turkeys. Male turkeys which had a mean finish score of 3.87 produced 65.95 percent grade A carcasses. Those with average finish scores of 3.98 and 4.03 produced 78.98 and 85.08 percent grade A carcasses respectively. Mountney et al. (1957) gathered data on 145,192 officially graded turkeys. They found that bruises accounted for 35 percent of all birds grading B or lower and 27 percent of the birds grading B or lower were poorly fleshed or lacked finish. Johndrew et al. (1959) stated that grade A turkeys must be well covered with fat, with some fat under the skin over the entire carcasses except for fryers and young …
gimlet: a computer program for analysing genetic individual identification data

Growing interest in microsatellite genotyping, combined with noninvasive genetic sampling has led to the increased production of data. New tools to analyse these data are required. gimlet is a user-friendly software package designed to perform several simple tasks: (i) construction of consensus genotypes from repeated genotyping; (ii) estimation of genotyping error rates; (iii) identification of identical genotypes; (iv) comparison of new genotypes to a set of reference genotypes; (v) determination of the kinship; and (vi) estimation of several population parameters such as allele frequencies, heterozygosity, probability of identity, and population size.
HK3 is correlated with immune infiltrates and predicts response to immunotherapy in non‐small cell lung cancer

Abstract Background With the knowledge of tumor immunobiology deepening among researchers, the breakthroughs in the field of tumor immunotherapy in recent years have provided new approaches for cancer therapy. While patients who receive treatment are all at risk of side effects, about one‐fifth of them have sustained responses. It is crucial to figure out the underlying mechanism of how the immune system regulates the nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) microenvironment to improve the benefit of immunotherapy. Regarding glucose metabolism, the initial step is to generate glucose‐6‐phosphate by phosphorylating glucose with hexokinases‐3 (HK3). According to a recent study, HK3 has a functional role in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia and colorectal cancer. Results Here, we studied the co‐expression relationship between the glycolytic pathway gene and the immune checkpoint gene and found that the expression of HK3 in tumor tissues may be related to immune status. By analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data, we found that the expression of HK3 was closely related to the main clinical features as well as to molecular characteristics. We also predicted that cases with low expression of HK3 were usually malignant entities and were shown to be obvious genomic aberrations of driver oncogenes. At the same time, gene ontology analysis based on significantly related genes in HK3 expression showed that HK3 expression was linked to inflammatory activity and immune response. Additionally, HK3 showed a remarkable trend in predicting the efficacy of immunotherapy for patients receiving Keytruda (PD‐1 monoclonal antibody) treatment. Conclusions This is the first comprehensive study to characterize HK3 expression in NSCLC from molecular and clinical aspects.
The impact of anchored phylogenomics and taxon sampling on phylogenetic inference in narrow‐mouthed frogs (Anura, Microhylidae)

Despite considerable progress in unravelling the phylogenetic relationships of microhylid frogs, relationships among subfamilies remain largely unstable and many genera are not demonstrably monophyletic. Here, we used five alternative combinations of DNA sequence data (ranging from seven loci for 48 taxa to up to 73 loci for as many as 142 taxa) generated using the anchored phylogenomics sequencing method (66 loci, derived from conserved genome regions, for 48 taxa) and Sanger sequencing (seven loci for up to 142 taxa) to tackle this problem. We assess the effects of character sampling, taxon sampling, analytical methods and assumptions in phylogenetic inference of microhylid frogs. The phylogeny of microhylids shows high susceptibility to different analytical methods and datasets used for the analyses. Clades inferred from maximum‐likelihood are generally more stable across datasets than those inferred from parsimony. Parsimony trees inferred within a tree‐alignment framework are generally better resolved and better supported than those inferred within a similarity‐alignment framework, even under the same cost matrix (equally weighted) and same treatment of gaps (as a fifth nucleotide state). We discuss potential causes for these differences in resolution and clade stability among discovery operations. We also highlight the problem that commonly used algorithms for model‐based analyses do not explicitly model insertion and deletion events (i.e. gaps are treated as missing data). Our results corroborate the monophyly of Microhylidae and most currently recognized subfamilies but fail to provide support for relationships among subfamilies. Several taxonomic updates are provided, including naming of two new subfamilies, both monotypic.
Global Dialysis Perspective: Thailand.

The number of patients with CKD has been increasing worldwide. In Thailand, 11.6 million (17.5%) people currently have CKD, 5.7 million (8.6%) have advanced CKD (stages 3–5), and over 0.1 million require dialysis (1). Every year, >20,000 people with ESKD need treatment with hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) (2). Since the first HD performed in 1964 and the first PD performed in 1982, the number of Thai patients treated with dialysis only gradually increased in the first three decades because of limited access arising from prohibitive costs, which precipitated catastrophic health expenditure for many families. In 2008, the Thai government extended the scope of healthcare coverage to include RRT by launching the “PD First” policy. This provided Thai citizens with universal health coverage for dialysis, such that the numbers of dialyzed patients and dialysis centers increased exponentially. This short review elaborates on the principle of the “PD First” policy and three reimbursement schemes, and how they have challenged and influenced dialysis treatment in Thailand. The review also focuses on dialysis management and outcomes in Thailand. Located in the middle of mainland Southeast Asia, Thailand is an agricultural country divided into 77 provinces, with a current population of 66.5 million (3). One sixth of citizens live in the Bangkok metropolitan region. According to World Bank records, Thailand is classified as an upper-middle-income country, which has spent 6.5% of its gross domestic product on health (4). Currently, there are three government health insurance schemes with different features and administrative management. Firstly, the Civil Servant Medical Beneficiary System (CSMBS), under the Ministry of Finance, covers 7 million civil servants and their immediate family members. Secondly, the Social Security System (SSS), which is administered by the Social Security Office, Ministry of Labor, provides support for 14.6 million employees. The funding for this scheme …
Developing methods to evaluate phenotypic variability in biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) capacity of Brachiaria grasses

O emissions. The current methodologies for quantifying the BNI trait need enhancement to accelerate the process of identify-ing differences between genotypes. In this paper, we aim to develop new (or improve the existing) phenotyping methods for this trait. Preliminary results were obtained using 3 different methods to quan-tify BNI: (1) a mass spectrometry method to quantify brachialactone; (2) a static chamber method to quantify N
Threonine Requirements for Broiler Males from 42 to 56 Days of Age

Abstract Threonine adequacy was assessed in male broilers from 42 to 56 days of age. A common feeding regimen was given for the first 6 wk. Then six concentrations of threonine were fed ranging from 0.50 to 0.80% in progressive increments of 0.06%. Growth rate and feed/gain were optimized at approximately 0.68 and 0.67% dietary threonine, respectively. Threonine needed to maximize relative carcass yield increased to 0.75%, whereas the amount to fully recover breast fillet weight and its relative yield was 0.70%. The proportions of abdominal fat and carcass defects were unaltered. The threonine requirement to optimize live performance is less than that needed for complete recovery of whole carcass and its breast fillets.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CLUTCH‐SIZE. Part III.—Some Interspecific Comparisons

Summary. 1 Average clutch-size is characteristic for each genus and each family of birds in the same region. 2 In almost all families, clutch-size is much smaller in equatorial Africa than in mid-Europe. 3 In mid-European small passerines, those with comparatively safe nesting-sites tend to have larger average clutches and longer nestling periods than those building open nests. 4 Swifts and petrels have safe nesting-sites and long nestling periods, but only small clutches, correlated with a scarce or uncertain food supply for the young. 5 In general, the length of the incubation period is correlated with the length of the nestling period in birds, probably because it is difficult to modify the rate of development except as a whole. 6 In nidifugous species, the specific differences in clutch-size have not been accounted for, though food for the brood is thought to be the basic factor involved in most cases. The number of eggs that the hen Can cover is not a primary factor in most cases, but may sometimes provide a secondary limit.
Pupils’ Understanding of Multiplication and Division in Multiple Contexts

beyond their limited scope, and they fall short of the wider application of the operation to different contexts. Chin and Jiew (2019) argue that since it is difficult for the learners to decide when the operation of multiplication could be used, they need foundational ideas of multiplication to be able to drive the meaning of the operation. They reasoned that multiplication is the only operation among the basic arithmetic operations that has been seen in use for different contexts and as such the understanding of teachers ought to be investigated to be able to aid the child learner’s multiplicative thinking. Stated differently, the implication is that a successful mathematics learner is the one who uses different approaches to solve a single problem (Fletcher, 2009). It is therefore not surprising that, regarding multiplication and division, a review of the literature suggests that several Abstract: The concepts of multiplication and division are building blocks for the learning of nearly all mathematics topics. Yet pupils, particularly those in lower primary and the starting point of the upper primary level find these concepts difficult to handle. This paper reports on a month-long study carried out in four primary schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis, which was a study of the impact on Teaching multiplication and division in multiple contexts on pupils’ understanding of multiplication and division and their ability to solve problems in these areas. Multiplication has always been treated as repeated addition, whereas division has been seen by many teachers only as equal grouping of given quantities despite the different practical situations and contexts that make use of these operations. The quasi experimental design involving experimental and control groups was used. The study involved 137 pupils from primary four intact classes. The main instruments used in the study were a pre-test and a post-test. The results indicate a significant difference in the performance of pupils in the experimental and control groups in their: a) ability to distinguish between multiplication and division concepts; b) understanding of multiplication; and c) understanding of division.
Optimized registration based on an ant colony for markerless augmented reality systems

espanolUn registro preciso en sistemas de realidad aumentada es esencial para garantizar la consistencia visual del entorno aumentado. Aunque el error en la alineacion virtual-real es casi inevitable, en la literatura se han propuesto varios enfoques para cuantificar y reducir dicho error. Sin embargo, muchos de los trabajos existentes requieren mucha informacion a priori, o solo se centran en la calibracion de la camara para garantizar buenos resultados. En este articulo, se presenta un metodo meta-heuristico para reducir el error en el registro. Nuestra solucion considera la reduccion del error como un problema de optimizacion mono-objetivo, que se aborda mediante el Algoritmo de Colonias de Hormigas (ACO). Los resultados experimentales revelan la validez del metodo propuesto, alcanzando un error promedio de 1,49 pixeles EnglishAccurate registration in augmented reality systems is essential to guarantee the visual consistency of the augmented environment. Although error in the virtual-real alignment is almost unavoidable, different approaches have been proposed to quantify and reduce such errors. However, many of the existing solutions require a lot of a priori information, or they only focus on camera calibration to guarantee good results in the registration. This article presents a heuristic method that aims to reduce registration errors in markerless augmented reality systems. The proposed solution sees error reduction as a mono-objective optimization problem, which is addressed by means of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm. Experimental results reveal the validity of the proposed method, reaching an average error of 1.49 pixels for long video sequences
A Centrifuge Method for Determining Live Weights of Aquatic Insect Larvae, With a Note on Weight Loss in Preservative

A reproducible centrifuge drying method for determining live or preserved weights of aquatic insect larvae is described. An attempt was made of derive a conversion factor for weight loss in preservative. Results showed a great interspecific variation in weight loss over a period of time due to the effect of preservative. See full-text article at JSTOR
Fungos e fumonisinas no período pré-colheita do milho

SUMMARY FUNGI AND FUMONISINS AT MAIZE’S PRE-HARVEST PERIOD. Fungal and mycotoxin contamination in maize can take place even before harvest time, with large economic losses in consequence. Fusarium spp. is a ubiquitous contaminant of corn in the field and several species of this genera are responsible for fumonisins production. Fumonisins are reported to be toxic to animals and humans, implicated in equine leukoencephalomacia disease and associated with pulmonary edema syndrome in swine and esophageal cancer in humans. The objective of this work was to identify critical points of fungal contamination and fumonisins production during pre-harvest growth stage. Results showed fungal growth since the dough stage, with no significant difference at both following stages: dent and physiological maturity. Non sporulated fungi were predominant at the silking stage (100%) and at the dough stage (95%). Saprophytes species were identified at the dent stage (23.25%). Fusarium spp. was evident since the dough stage (5%) increasing considerably through the dent stage (62.5%) to the physiological maturity (90%). All Fusarium spp. strains tested showed toxigenic potential. Fumonisins were evident at the latest development stages increasing considerably from the dent stage (0.2 ppm) to the physiological maturity (2.5 ppm). Authors suggest special attention and adopting preventive measures in
TNFα potentiates IFNγ‐induced cell death in oligodendrocyte progenitors

Oligodendrocytes in multiple sclerosis brain may be under a direct attack by proinflammatory cytokines, particularly tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNFα) and interferon‐γ (IFNγ). In this study, we have examined the in vitro cytotoxic effects of the two cytokines, individually and in combination, on oligodendrocyte lineage cells using morphological criteria, 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyl tetrazolium bromide reduction assay (MTT), terminal deoxynucleotide transferase‐mediated dUTP nick end‐labeling (TUNEL), and agarose‐gel electrophoretic analysis of fragmented DNA. IFNγ exerted a dose‐dependent cytotoxic effect on cultured CG4 cells, an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell line, and in primary cultures of purified oligodendrocyte progenitors. TNFα, while by itself being only mildly toxic, greatly potentiated the cytotoxicity of IFNγ. The cytokine effects were developmentally modified in that their cytotoxic and cooperative effects became less evident in more differentiated cells. A cell‐permeable peptide inhibitor (i.e., z‐VAD.fmk) of caspases partially suppressed apoptotic changes elicited by the cytokine combination in CG4 cells but not in primary oligodendrocytes. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) analysis of mRNA prepared from cytokine‐treated cultures revealed an increased expression of the death receptor, Fas. The results suggest particular vulnerability of oligodendrocyte progenitors to a combination of TNFα and IFNγ involving an activation of the cell death program. J. Neurosci. Res. 54:574–583, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of mineral iron on the development of transformation competence in Azotobacter vinelandii

Azotobacter vinelandii was cultured with a number of chemical and mineral iron sources to achieve varied degrees of iron limitation and derepression or hyperproduction of siderophores. Although iron limitation is known to induce genetic competence in A. vinelandii [1], only a few of the mineral-containing cultures became competent. The development of competence correlated with a transition to iron starvation and enhanced production of the yellow-green fluorescent siderophore azotobactin. Competence was quickly lost in cultures where the induced siderophores promoted growth, which resulted in an inverse correlation between transformation frequency and increased cell protein content. These results suggest that A. vinelandii could become naturally competent in the soil, but that the duration of the competent period may be brief, and successful transformation is likely to be a rare event.
Changes in Eucalyptus camaldulensis essential oil composition as response to drought preconditioning

Abstract Water deficit, a common constraint in forestry, is the main cause of plant stress during plantation. The survival and growth of seedlings is also compromised by herbivory during establishment. The potential of nursery preconditioning to enhance survival chances of future trees by reducing palatability or attracting beneficial insects as a result of changes in chemical defences may be an answer to overcome this situation. Changes in essential oil production and composition were evaluated by GC and GC-MS in Eucalytus camaldulensis seedlings submitted to drought during four weeks at the last stage of nursery period (20 weeks). Significant changes in essential oil relative composition were found. Seedlings (young leaves) submitted to drought developed a terpenoid blend, which has been previously associated to mature leaves and related to their higher resistance towards herbivory. Total amount of non-oxygenated terpenes decreased by 44%, whereas some oxygenated sesquiterpenes (globulol, epiglobulol and ledol) were doubled, and 1,8-cineole content was enhanced by 28.3%.