Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Temperature and Soil Moisture Regime on Green Manure N Mineralization in Clay Loam Soil

The effect of environmental factors on green manure (Sesbania aculeata) N mineralization during 12 weeks of incubation period was investigated in clay loam soil. This study included three incubation temperature (25, 35 and 45°C) and constant water regime (1 cm floodwater depth over the soil surface) or four moisture regimes (25, 50, 75 and 100% WHC) and constant temperature (35°C). Mineralization of Sesbania N under flooded conditions increased significantly with increase in incubation temperature from 25 to 45°C at each incubation period. The mineralized N reached its peak on 4th week at 35 and 45°C and on 5th week at 25°C and decreased thereafter. The apparent rates of N mineralization were 1.42 and 0.75 at 25°C, 1.94 and 0.80 at 35°C and 2.4 and 0.84 mg N kg−1 soil day−1 at 45°C between 0–7 and 7–28 days of incubation, respectively. At 100% WHC, N mineralization increased up to the 4th week and decreased thereafter. Cumulative N mineralization of plant materials incubated at 35°C and at 25,50 and 75% WHC, (but not at 100% WHC) increased with the increase in incubation period. Nitrogen mineralization patterns observed at all moisture regimes except 100% WHC were similar and followed first order kinetics. The nitrogen mineralization potential (N0) at all moisture regimes (25, 50 and 75% WHC) differed significantly and ranged from 20.5 mg kg−1 green manure unamended soil at 52% WHC to 73.8 mg kg−1 green manure amended soil at 50% WHC. The nitrogen mineralization rate constant (k) varied from 0.2742 week−1 at 25% WHC in control to 0.4206 week−1 at 75% WHC in soil amended with green manure. Irrespective of green manure treatment, the nitrogen mineralization rate constants (k) did not differ significantly between 50 and 75% WHC moisture regimes but were significantly higher than those at 25% WHC moisture regime. The maximum N mineralization occurred at 50% WHC followed by 75 and 25% WHC. Most of the N mineralization at these moisture regimes occurred during the first 4 weeks of incubation which represented about 85% of the total N mineralized during 12 weeks of incubation period.
Genetic basis for force-sensitivity in Wookiees

Midi-chlorians are sentient life forms, which live in endosymbiosis with all living cells (1). The number of midi-chlorians per cell has been found to correlate with influence in the force (2) and, as such, blood analysis has become common practice for the identification of force-sensitives, particularly by the Jedi Order. However, the genetic basis for increased midi-chlorian replication in force-sensitives is unknown. Here we show drivers to be mutations at both positions 263 and 312012 in Wookiee wookiee midi-chlorian DNA (mdDNA). We anticipate our findings to be a starting point for in vivo studies linking these mutations to force-sensitive phenotypes.
DISCOVERY OF STREPTOCOCCAL PNEUMONIA CHOLINE BINDING PROTEIN INHIBITORS USING PHARMACOPHORE MODELING AND QSAR ANALYSIS

Pneumococcal disease is an infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae is an anaerobic gram positive bacteria and which is responsible for many types of diseases like pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections, bacterial meningitis and bacteremia. In present era there are several virulence factors which are resisting antimicrobial agents and escapes immune defenses, these factors helps with therapeutic intervention.The capsule of this pathogenic bacterium is the major virulence factor and the synthesis of capsule is being governed by capsular polysaccharide gene clusters, which encodes for Pneumococcal choline binding regulatory proteins such as CbpA, PcsB and PcpA. Studies have suggested that activities of these choline binding proteins are therapeutic targets for several types of bacterial infections. Thus protein-targeted drug against cytoplasmic and cytosol proteins is a good alternative to protect against pneumonia. In this study we used homology modeling and validation of proteins was performed with certain bioinformatics tools, which facilitates the execution of molecular docking against the ligands which are taken from the CHEMSPIDER database. The Chemoinformatics approaches used for ligand based molecular screening to predict the Pharmacophore, pharmacokinetic and bioavailability properties that lead to improve pharmacological properties and validate based on molecular docking studies. The potential ligand molecules bind substantially in the active site of these regulatory proteins with considerable binding energy in the docking study, which means that the potential ligands could be considered as the good inhibitors. This study helps to understand the functional aspects of this and also to examine the development of a novel drug against pneumonia.
High Level Expression of 49kDa Outer Membrane Protein of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) is a f acultative intracellular pathogen that causes typho id fever in humans. The emergence of multidrug-resistant strain s of S. Typhi and certain drawbacks in presently av ailable vaccines against typhoid, has added a sense of urge ncy to develop more effective typhoid vaccines. Out er membrane protein (OMPs) has been reported to be immunogens f or eliciting active/protective immunity against Sal monella and thus, have great potential for use in vaccinati on. Earlier, in a study done in our laboratory, a p rotein from an outer membrane protein (OMP) of S. Typhi with appar ent molecular weight of 49kDa was identified in S. Typhi. The 1.3 kb gene for this was cloned in pQE60 plasmid, e xpressed in E. coli SG13009 cells and purification of r49 kDa OMP was done by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography unde r different pH conditions. The yield of expressed p rotein of ~26 mg/L was obtained. We now report the expression of this protein in E. coli BL21 cells using the ex pression vector pET28a. The r-49kDa OMP was purified by Ni-N TA metal chelate affinity chromatography using 150m M imidazole under denaturing conditions and a yield o f ~39 mg/L was achieved.
The Role of Vision in Sexual Signaling in the Blue Crab

The Role of Vision in Sexual Signaling in the Blue Crab by Jamie Baldwin Fergus Department of Biology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Sönke Johnsen, Supervisor ___________________________ Manuel Leal ___________________________ Daniel Rittschof ___________________________ William Kier ___________________________ Kenneth Lohmann Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Biology in the Graduate School of Duke University
SIGNATURE CHARACTERISTICS IN CONTACT CALLS OF THE WHITE-NOSED COATI

Abstract “Chirp” calls of adult white-nosed coatis (Nasua narica) were measured and compared to determine form and function of these frequently emitted vocalizations. Behavioral contexts during vocalizations were documented, and chirp calls were tape recorded and analyzed using a digital spectrograph. Also, a bat detector was used to determine whether ultrasonic frequencies were emitted in chirps. Duration of the chirp calls was 0.146–0.202 s. Spectrogram analyses revealed that the lowest frequencies of the chirps averaged 4.66–11.83 kHz and that the highest frequencies averaged 1417.66 kHz. Ultrasonic frequencies (30–55 kHz) also were detected in chirp calls. Chirps differed among individuals regarding the differential frequency between the 1st and 2nd resonance bars (P ≤ 0.01). Chirps seem to function as contact calls for this social mammal because they were emitted only while coatis were moving. The short duration and high frequency of the calls may allow for contact with nearby group members while minimizing auditory detection by predators. Unique features of each coati's chirp also may allow individual recognition.
Scalable Feature Selection for (Multitask) Gradient Boosted Trees

Gradient Boosted Decision Trees (GBDTs) are widely used for building ranking and relevance models in search and recommendation. Considerations such as latency and interpretability dictate the use of as few features as possible to train these models. Feature selection in GBDT models typically involves heuristically ranking the features by importance and selecting the top few, or by performing a full backward feature elimination routine. On-the-fly feature selection methods proposed previously scale suboptimally with the number of features, which can be daunting in high dimensional settings. We develop a scalable forward feature selection variant for GBDT, via a novel group testing procedure that works well in high dimensions, and enjoys favorable theoretical performance and computational guarantees. We show via extensive experiments on both public and proprietary datasets that the proposed method offers significant speedups in training time, while being as competitive as existing GBDT methods in terms of model performance metrics. We also extend the method to the multitask setting, allowing the practitioner to select common features across tasks, as well as selecting task-specific features.
First distributional record of Carupella banlaensis from India

ABSTRACT The present study describes a new record of the rare portunid crab Carupella banlaensis from Goa, along the central west coast of India, based on carapace and appendage morphology and provides detailed morphometric measurements of two immature female specimens. Carupella banlaensis differs from its congeners in possessing less prominent median and lateral frontal lobes, the first eight anterolateral teeth alternating large and small and bluntly triangular, the cheliped merus with three large spines on the anterior margin and one distal spine on the posterior margin. Previously known only from the Gulf of Tonkin (China) and Somalia, the present observation of this crab is a new record for the entire South Asian region.
Phytochemical screening and antibacterial activity of extracts from Pakia Clapperotoniana keay against human pathogenic bacteria

Pakia clapperotoniana keay has medicinal properties for the effective management of several ailments including tuberculosis. To establish the pharmacological rationale, for its traditional use, the powdered root, stem- bark and leaves were extracted with water and ethanol. All fractions were subjected to phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activity against, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria using the disc-diffusion method. The extracts contained saponnins, tannins, flavanoids, glycosides but no resin. The roots and stem-bark fractions were more active onStaphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus spp. , Escherichia coli,Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella spp. and Baccilus subtilis, than the leaves fraction. These findings support the claim for its treatment of bacterial and fungal infections. Key words: Pakia clapperotoniana keay, phytochemical, antimicrobial activity,Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli.
Taxonomic review of Hydrolithon samoënse (Corallinaceae, Corallinales, Rhodophyta) and other taxa found to be conspecific

Based on new studies of the type and of specimens from various localities in the Indian and Pacific oceans, Hydrolithon samoense was reaffirmed as a distinct species. The following taxa were found to be heterotypic synonyms thereof: Neogoniolithon caribaeum , N. erosum and N. rugulosum . Based on morphological and anatomical data H. samoense not only occurs extensively throughout the Indo-Pacific and northern, southern and subtropical eastern Atlantic oceans, but as a result of the present study, is now known to occur throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the western Atlantic Ocean.
Isolation and molecular characterization of endophytic bacteria associated with the culture of forage cactus (Opuntia spp.)

M. C. C. P. de Lyra, D. C. Santos, C. Mondragon-Jacobo, M.L. R.B. da Silva , A. C. E.S Mergulhao and E. Martinez-Romero Laboratorio de Genomica Instituto Agronomico de Pernambuco-IPA. Av. Gal San Martin 1371 Bonji – Recife – Pernambuco – Brazil. 2 Estacao Experimental de Arcoverde Instituto Agronomico de Pernambuco-IPA. Av. Gal San Martin 1371 Bonji – Recife – Pernambuco – Brazil 52761000. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias-INIFAP. Av. Luis Pasteur 414, 1er. piso, Valle Alameda, QueretaroQueretaro-Mexico. Laboratorio de Genomica Instituto Agronomico de Pernambuco-IPA. Av. Gal San Martin 1371 Bonji – Recife – Pernambuco – Brazil Dra. Laboratorio de Genomica Instituto Agronomico de Pernambuco-IPA. Av. Gal San Martin 1371 Bonji – Recife – Pernambuco – Brazil 52761000 Ecological Genomics Program, Research Group Environmental and Symbiotic Microbiology Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico -Centro de Ciencias Genomicas Av. Universidad s/n Col. Chamilpa 62210, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
Plant phenology and seed predation: interactions between gorses and weevils in Brittany (France)

Exapion ulicis (Forster) and Exapion lemovicinum (Hoffmann) (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea: Apionidae) are seed predators of the three gorse species occurring in Brittany (France): Ulex europaeus L. , Ulex gallii Planch. , and Ulex minor Roth. (Fabaceae). Host‐plant phenology plays a major role in the relationship between apionid weevils and their gorse species, because larvae develop within gorse pods and adults have to wait for pod dehiscence to be released. We monitored flowering and fruiting phenology of gorse species, weevil reproductive behaviour, and egg‐laying patterns in six natural populations in the native area of these gorse species. At each site, U. europaeus, which flowers mainly in spring, was sympatric with one of two autumn flowering gorse species, U. gallii and U. minor. We noticed that E. ulicis laid eggs in spring and was restricted to U. europaeus whereas E. lemovicinum laid eggs in autumn and was restricted to the two autumn‐flowering species U. gallii and U. minor. Therefore, host specificity depended on gorse phenology, and not on geographic proximity. In addition, the infested pod content showed that E. ulicis laid several eggs per pod and suggested that females chose pods with the highest numbers of seeds. In contrast, E. lemovicinum laid a single egg per pod and showed no preference for pods with many seeds. Finally, the impact of seed predation by E. ulicis was higher than that of E. lemovicinum.
4D physiologically adaptable cardiac patch: A 4-month in vivo study for the treatment of myocardial infarction

A 4D cardiac patch with physiological adaptability may improve iPSC cell therapy for the treatment of myocardial infarction. There has been considerable progress in engineering cardiac scaffolds for the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI). However, it is still challenging to replicate the structural specificity and variability of cardiac tissues using traditional bioengineering approaches. In this study, a four-dimensional (4D) cardiac patch with physiological adaptability has been printed by beam-scanning stereolithography. By combining a unique 4D self-morphing capacity with expandable microstructure, the specific design has been shown to improve both the biomechanical properties of the patches themselves and the dynamic integration of the patch with the beating heart. Our results demonstrate improved vascularization and cardiomyocyte maturation in vitro under physiologically relevant mechanical stimulation, as well as increased cell engraftment and vascular supply in a murine chronic MI model. This work not only potentially provides an effective treatment method for MI but also contributes a cutting-edge methodology to enhance the structural design of complex tissues for organ regeneration.
Antibacterial Activity of the Mangrove Leaves Exoecaria agallocha Against Selected Fish Pathogens

The antibacterial screening of chloroform extract of Exoecaria agallocha was studied. Chloroform extract of leaves exhibited strong inhibitory acti vity against all the pathogens tested. The six chloroform fractions of E. agallocha leaf extracts were collected and tested against the fish pathogens. The 3rd fraction of chloroform from the leaf extracts were showed maximum activity against Bacillus subtilis, fol lowed by Aeromonas hydrophyla, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, V. ha rveyi and Serratia sp. , respectively. Of these 3rd fraction showed maximum activity (12 mm) against Vibrio parahaemolyticus, followed by Bacillus subtilis (10 mm), V. harveyi, (10 mm) and A. hydrophyla (8 mm). However another chloroform fraction from E. agallocha showed no activity against selected fish pathogens.
Some virulence genes of Escherichia coli isolated from cloacal swabs of healthy Alagoas Curassows (Pauxi mitu) in Brazil

ABSTRACT. - Saidenberg A.A. B. , Allegretti L. , Astolfi-Ferreira C.C. S. , Ferreira A.J.P., Almeida M.A. & Raso T.F. 2013. Some virulence genes of Escherichia coli isolated from cloacal swabs of healthy Alagoas Curassows ( Pauxi mitu ) in Brazil. Pesquisa Veterinaria Brasi-leira 33(4):523-527. Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia (FMVZ), Universidade de Sao Paulo, Av. Dr. Orlando Marques de Paiva 87, Sao Paulo, SP 05508-270, Brazil. E-mail: tfraso@usp.brBirds of the Cracidae family (curassows, guans, and chachalacas) are endemic of the Neotropics and 50 species are currently classified. Brazil has 22 species, seven of which are considered threatened. The Alagoas Curassow ( Pauxi mitu ) species is considered extinct in the wild; but about 120 birds are alive in captivity. Conservation of this species depends entirely on correct management. Health reports of both wildlife and captive curassows are rare. In this study the presence of Escherichia coli was evaluated in 23 healthy Alagoas Cu-rassows from two private breeding centres.
A Linear-time Independence Criterion Based on a Finite Basis Approximation

Detection of statistical dependence between random variables is an essential component in many machine learning algorithms. We propose a novel independence criterion for two random variables with linear-time complexity. We establish that our independence criterion is an upper bound of the Hirschfeld-Gebelein-R´enyi maximum correlation coeﬃcient between tested variables. A ﬁnite set of basis functions is employed to approximate the mapping functions that can achieve the maximal correlation. Using classic benchmark experiments based on independent component analysis, we demonstrate that our independence criterion performs comparably with the state-of-the-art quadratic-time kernel dependence measures like the Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion, while being more eﬃcient in computation. The experimental results also show that our independence criterion outperforms another contemporary linear-time kernel dependence measure, the Finite Set Indepen-dence Criterion. The potential application of our criterion in deep neural networks is validated experimentally.
Study of fungal diversity of some selected natural spot of east Kolkata Wetland

Biological diversity - or biodiversity - is a term we use to describe the variety of life on Earth. Microbes are one of the dominant life forms in the earth. Their contribution to the earth and human being is beyond the imagination. Their science is concerned with their form, structure, reproduction, physiology, metabolism and classification. It also includes their distribution in nature, their relationship with each other and other living organisms, their effects on human beings, other animals and plants. Biological diversity (biodiversity) encompasses the variety of life forms occurring in nature, from the ecosystem to the genetic level, as a result of evolutionary history (Wilson 1992). Microbial Diversity is an integral part of biodiversity which includes bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, protozoa and protests. Fungi constitute a major portion of natural resources likely to provide innovative applications useful to man. Fungi are one of the major sources of antimicrobial agents and produce a wide range of other important medicinal compounds, industrially important biomolecules, novel enzymes, insecticides the microbial level is beginning to be recognized, but this richness of diversity amongst bacterial, fungal and virus species has yet to be catalogued particularly in West Bengal. The East Kolkata Wetland (EKW) is situated at 880 20’ E - 880 35’ E and 200 25’ N -200 35’ N. Climate here is more or less sub-tropical with the annual mean rainfall around 200 cm. The maximum temperature during summer rises around 39° C. while minimum temperature during winter is around 10° C. The average temperature during most part of the year is around 30° C during day time with a fall in temperature of 5°-6°C at night. East Kolkata Wetland shows an immense diversity of flora and fauna both at the macro and micro level. Microbial richness of a region is its unseen asset that needs to be explored and conserved. Soil samples collected from East Calcutta Wetland shows the presence of various new strains of microbes which are not only ecologically important but also have commercial value. Isolation, characterization, documentation and conservation of these resources are important considering their strategic importance for future generation as well as complimentary economic growth and prosperity. In this present work several fungi were isolated and purified from diverse area of East Calcutta Wetland out of which about 10 organisms was identified by microscopic studies. Among the isolates it is expected that one or two new genus may obtained.
Phenology modelling of major insect pests in fruit orchards from biological basics to decision support: the forecasting tool SOPRA.

L'outil de prevision SOPRA a ete developpe dans l'objectif d'optimiser les periodes de suivi, de gestion et des mesures de lutte contre les insectes ravageurs des vergers en Suisse. En appliquant des approches « time-varying distributed delay », des modeles phenologiques ont ete developpes sur la base de la radiation solaire, de la temperature de l'air et de la temperature du sol sur un rythme horaire de mesures. Les relations entre la temperature et les taux specifiques de developpement de chaque stade ont ete etablies pour les stades de cycles biologiques en conditions controlees au laboratoire pour Dysaphis plantaginea, Hoplocampa testudinea, Cydia pomonella, Grapholita lobarzewskii, Cacopsylla pyri, Rhagoletis cerasi, Anthonomus pomorum et Adoxophyes orana. L'integration des temperatures corporelles dans les modeles est basee sur la selection des habitats et la modelisation biophysique des conditions d'habitat. Afin de valider la modelisation, les predictions phenologiques ont ete comparees a plusieurs annees d'observations independantes sur le terrain. En fonction des donnees climatiques locales, la structure d'âge des populations de ravageurs est simulee et les evenements cruciaux pour la gestion du ravageur sont annonces. Via une interface web, les resultats de la simulation sont rendus disponibles pour les consultants et les agriculteurs (www.sopra.info) et peuvent etre utilises comme un systeme d'aide a la decision pour les huit principaux insectes ravageurs des vergers dans les vallees alpines et le nord des Alpes a l'echelle locale et regionale.
Nonparametric Sequential Prediction While Deep Learning the Kernel

The research on online learning under stationary and ergodic processes has been mainly focused on achieving asymptotic guarantees. Although all the methods pursue the same asymptotic goal, their performance varies when handling ﬁnite sample datasets and depends heavily on which predeﬁned density estimation method is chosen. In this paper, therefore, we propose a novel algorithm that simultaneously satisﬁes a short-term goal, to perform as good as the best choice in hind-sight of a data-adaptive kernel, learned using a deep neural network, and a long-term goal, to achieve the same theoretical asymptotic guarantee. We present theoretical proofs for our algorithms and demonstrate the validity of our method on the online portfolio selection problem.