Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primordium initiation at the stem apex as the primary event controlling plant development: preliminary evidence from wheat for the regulation of leaf development

Abstract. The results from field studies of 12 crops of winter wheat (two seasons, four sites in the U.K., four cultivars), in which leaf appearance and events at the mainstem apex were fully documented, were used to investigate the inter-relationship between leaf initiation and appearance. It was shown that the progress of leaf appearance could be divided into two phases around collar initiation. During the first phase, which was common to all crops examined, leaf appearance was linearly related to leaf initiation, indicating that leaf appearance was not independently regulated by the environment but dependent on initiation. The slope of the second phase relationship varied between crops, indicating the intervention of an additional controlling factor. This shows that, for the first phase at least, the time course of leaf appearance was predetermined by the rate of leaf initiation at the stem apex.
Isolation and characterization of cobalt-sensitive mutant of Neurospora crassa

resistance N. crassa (cor) was shown to be 10-fold more resistant to Co and Ni when compared with the wild type[6]. Co transport, which is energy-dependent in the wild type, was by a passive mode in the resistant strain. A cor nonidentical to the above described strain was characterized and resistance was mapped to linkage group IIIR[12]. The primary mechanism for Co-resistance was found to be due to transport block for Co ions[13]. Apart from the decreased uptake, growth in excess Co was shown to result in synthesis of a novel Co binding protein (CBP), which is over produced in cor strain accounting for 12% of the total soluble protein. About 80% of the total Co of the soluble fraction was found to be located in the CBP fraction of the resistant strain. PEER REVIEW
PLASMA AMINO ACID CONCENTRATIONS AS AN INDICATOR OF PROTEIN AVAILABILITY TO BREEDING HERRING GULLS (LARUS ARGENTATUS)

Abstract In a captive-feeding study using Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), plasma amino-acid concentrations increased in response to an increase in dietary protein. Plasma amino-acid concentrations were also measured in wild Herring Gulls captured during incubation at eight Laurentian Great Lakes colonies. Those concentrations were used as an indicator of protein availability at those locations. Significant differences in amino acid concentrations were observed among colonies. Lower amino acid levels, particularly of the essential amino acids, were measured in gulls nesting on Lake Superior, whereas values in gulls captured on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie were greater. Those geographic differences in protein availability likely reflected spatial differences in availability of high quality prey (e.g. fish). Geographic differences in prey availability probably affected diet composition. Comparison of amino-acid levels in wild birds to reference values obtained through the captive feeding study indicated that gulls nesting on Lake Superior may have been protein limited. Colony-wide estimates of adult female body condition, intraclutch variation in egg size, and productivity were correlated with an index of plasma amino-acid concentrations.
New Approaches for Functional Expression of Recombinant Horseradish Peroxidase C In Escherichia Coli

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is an important enzyme in bio- and immunochemical analysis. In a first approach we expressed HRP with a C-terminal histidine tag in the Escherichia coli (E. coli) periplasm. On the one hand this led to functionally active HRP-His at a low yield of 0.5mg/l of culture medium. On the other hand the affinity tag introduced allowed for optimization of the downstream processing of HRP-His refolded from inclusion bodies, thereby increasing the yield of homogeneous enzyme to 8-10mg/l of E. coli culture medium when expressed conventionally in E. coli cytosol as the second approach. The final refolding/reconstitution protocol includes crucial gel filtration steps to remove constituents of the refolding medium and, in particular, imidazole from the active site of HRP-His, resulting in spectral (Soret band maximum of 403 nm) and catalytic properties of the refolded HRP-His (1160U/mg with 2, 2′-Azino-bis[3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonate] as substrate) indistinguishable from those of the p.
An architecture for comparative cognitive development

We review Parker and McKinney’s book with two distinct aims. Our first aim is to consider the contribution of this book to the current intellectual debate about the relations between evolution and behavioral development. In this instance, we are concerned especially with the particular domains of behavior considered by behavioral scientists to reflect ‘‘intelligence’’ or ‘‘cognition. ’’ Our second aim is to critique how well the authors communicate the debate in this areaFspecifically, the presentation and interpretation of the data for a graduate seminar audience that is encountering comparative developmental scholarship for the first time. This book was written by an interdisciplinary team. S. Parker (an anthropologist) uses the Piagetian framework to understand cognitive development in nonhuman primates. M. McKinney (an evolutionary biologist) is concerned with the relation between development and evolution in a more general sense, and has a particular interest in the evolution of the nervous system. The team is eminently qualified to produce a provocative integration of contemporary scholarship in this area. Parker wrote 10 chapters (all of part I, a substantive review of cognitive development in monkeys, apes, and humans; and three of the six chapters in part II, dealing with the evolution of cognitive development). McKinney wrote the opening and closing chapters in part II, and the two authors co-wrote one other chapter in part II. The book begins with an historical overview of how the current interest in comparative development arose. We found this way of opening the subject valuable, although one could quibble with some of the characterizations. Methodological issues are also treated in a useful way for those unfamiliar with this area. Following these introductory matters, Parker competently reviews what data there are (and in fact there are not many) on cognitive development in nonhuman primates as assessed by Piagetian instruments. Development is divided into physical, logico-mathematical, and social domains, with an additional chapter on the development of language. Two strengths of Parker’s reviews are a broad conception of the relation between social setting and behavioral development, and the consideration of cognitive development in as broad an array of contexts and tasks, and with as many measurement instruments as possible (with the proviso that she considers only those studies that are conceived and presented
Dual origin of mouse spleen macrophages

The present study concerns the isolation, characterization, origin, and kinetics of spleen macrophages. The spleen was first perfused in situ to remove monocytes from the vascular bed and then dissected and treated with collagenase. The macrophages in the cell suspension thus obtained were characterized morphologically and cytochemically and then quantitated. The spleen cell suspension was incubated for 24 h in Leighton tubes to obtain an enriched glass-adherent population of macrophages for characterization and [3H]thymidine-labeling studies. Almost all of the adhering macrophages were esterase positive, had Fc and C3b receptors, and ingested EIgG and opsonized bacteria. In vitro labeling with [3H]thymidine showed that approximately 5% of the mononuclear phagocytes in the spleen synthesize DNA and must be considered to be dividing cells. The course of the number of labeled monocytes and macrophages after a single injection of [3H]thymidine indicates migration of monocytes into the spleen, where they become macrophages. Calculation of the influx of monocytes into the spleen and of the local production of macrophages by DNA-synthesizing mononuclear phagocytes showed that under steady-state conditions, 55% of the population of spleen macrophages is supplied by monocyte influx and 45% by local production. This means that there is a dual origin of spleen macrophages. The mean turnover time calculated with the value for the efflux of spleen macrophages is 6.0 d.
GABA and taurine derivatives on the adhesive spiral of the orb web of Argiope spiders, and their possible behavioural significance

ABSTRACT. Two strongly acidic, ninhydrin‐negative compounds were found in the water soluble fraction of the orb webs of Argiope trifasciata (Lucas) and Argiope aurantia (Forskål). One of these is a derivative of taurine. Aninhydrin‐positive GABA derivative, gabamide, also exists in the water‐soluble fraction of the web.
Distribution of Solutes within the Developing Grape Berry in Relation to Its Morphology

Grape berries taken at four stages of ripeness (from veraison to overripeness) were dissected to give 19 segments representing divergent tissues and their content of eight solutes measured. Each solute was found to have distinctive space and time patterns of variation in concentration. In general, solutes that did not accumulate massively (sucrose, phenols, potassium, inorganic anions, and tartrate) were in low concentration in the flesh and in higher concentrations in the skin and brush. Those that did accumulate massively (malate at veraison and glucose and fructose thereafter) had higher concentrations in the flesh than in the skin and brush. Tartrate was high in peripheral flesh at veraison, and potassium was low in peripheral and adjacent flesh at all stages. High levels of sucrose and inorganic anions were found in central flesh of overripe berries. Gradients in malate were created by the low concentrations in segments containing vascular tissue, both peripheral and central, presumably due to malate respiration by this tissue. In one year, but not in the next, a large zone of the flesh of overripe berries extending around the seed from the skin to the opposite empty locule was found to have abnormally high concentrations of many solutes, possibly caused by a localized dehydration of these tissues.
Accelerated Bayesian Optimization throughWeight-Prior Tuning

Bayesian optimization (BO) is a widely-used method for optimizing expensive (to evaluate) problems. At the core of most BO methods is the modeling of the objective function using a Gaussian Process (GP) whose covariance is selected from a set of standard covariance functions. From a weight-space view, this models the objective as a linear function in a feature space implied by the given covariance K, with an arbitrary Gaussian weight prior ${\bf w} \sim \mathcal{N} ({\bf 0}, {\bf I})$. In many practical applications there is data available that has a similar (covariance) structure to the objective, but which, having different form, cannot be used directly in standard transfer learning. In this paper we show how such auxiliary data may be used to construct a GP covariance corresponding to a more appropriate weight prior for the objective function. Building on this, we show that we may accelerate BO by modeling the objective function using this (learned) weight prior, which we demonstrate on both test functions and a practical application to short-polymer fibre manufacture.
First-Order and Temporal Logics for Nested Words

Nested words are a structured model of execution paths in procedural programs, reflecting their call and return nesting structure. Finite nested words also capture the structure of parse trees and other tree-structured data, such as XML. We provide new temporal logics for finite and infinite nested words, which are natural extensions of LTL, and prove that these logics are first-order expressively- complete. One of them is based on adding a "within" modality, evaluating a formula on a subword, to a logic CaRet previously studied in the context of verifying properties of recursive state machines. The other logic is based on the notion of a summary path that combines the linear and nesting structures. For that logic, both model-checking and satisfiability are shown to be EXPTIME-complete. Finally, we prove that first-order logic over nested words has the three-variable property, and we present a temporal logic for nested words which is complete for the two- variable fragment of first-order.
Investigation of the possible influences of candidate modifier genes on the clinical expression of variegate porphyria (VP)

Variegate porphyria (VP, MIM 176200) is a low penetrance autosomal dominant disorder that stems from mutations in the protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPOX) gene. VP is found in most populations, but has a high prevalence in the South African Afrikaner population with most patients inheriting the same PPOX mutation (R59W) from a common ancestor. The clinical manifestations of the disease include acute neurovisceral attacks and/or cutaneous photosensitivity. Great variation in the clinical presentation of VP is observed; even in members of the same family that share a common genetic background and that have been exposed to similar environmental factors. Candidate genes that may have an influence on phenotypic variation due to the regulatory function in the haem biosynthetic pathway include the two deltaaminolevulinic acid synthase (ALAS) genes and the porphobilinogen deaminase (PBGD) gene. Sequence homology searches between different species indicated that the ALAS-1, ALAS-2 and PBGD genes are highly conserved, indicating that these genes have an important function to fulfill in the haem biosynthetic pathway. The study population of 25 R59W individuals were divided in four categories according to their clinical presentation. The distribution of clinical symptoms observed in this study corresponds with results from previous studies. Conformation sensitive gel electrophoresis (CSGE), conventional single stranded conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) and two buffer SSCP analysis were implemented to screen for possible sequence variants. The exons of all three genes as well as the adjacent intronic sequences were investigated. A total of six sequence variation sites were identified of which five had previously been described single nucleotide polymorphisms (ALAS-1: 4713 T>C; PBGD: -64 C>T, 3581 A>G, 6479 G>T, 7064 C>A)] and a novel 8bp deletion (PBGD: 4582_ 4589del). No sequence variant was identified in the ALAS-2 gene. The CSGE method proved to have the highest sensitivity (83%), identifying five of six sequence variant sites. The conventional SSCP method identified only three (50%) Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Phylogeny of the ovenbird genus Upucerthia: a case of independent adaptations for terrestrial life

In view of the amount of adaptive radiation among ovenbirds, Furnariinae, the traditional taxonomy needs scrutiny. We used nuclear DNA data to study relationships of the genus Upucerthia. Five species belong in the Furnariini, as traditionally assumed. The other species represent two independent cases of specialisation for terrestrial life, in response to formation of arid habitats in the southern Andes, within the paraphyletic assemblage of arboreal species referred to as Philydorini.
Loci of Sensory End-Organs Used by Mosquitoes (Aedes Aegypti (L.) and Anopheles Quadrimaculatus Say) in Receiving Host Stimuli

During the recent war intensive investigations on mosquito repellents were carried out in various countries. Much of this research involved testing large numbers of chemical compounds as possible repellents for protecting troops in mosquito-infested areas (Christophers, 1947; McCullogh and Waterhouse, 1947; Travis et al., 1949). However, interest in the fundamental problem of the nature of the stimuli which attract mosquitoes to their hosts was revived (e.g., Willis, 1947; Parker, 1948) and the results of these and other workers have shown that moisture, temperature, to some extent body odor, and carbon dioxide (for at least one species of Anopheles; van Thiel, 1947), are factors in attracting mosquitoes. Most of the evidence to date indicates that the olfactory organs of insects are located in the antennae (see reviews by Marshall, 1935, Wigglesworth, 1939, Dethier and Chadwick, 1948). Bates (1949) in reviewing the food habits of adult mosquitoes stated that the ability to orient to odors by means of the antennae “ „„ . is shared by so many different insects that it can safely be assumed to exist in mosquitoes even though in this particular case direct experimental evidence is lacking. ” The following work was done to add to our knowledge of mosquito behavior by determining the sensory end-organs of A. aegypti (L.) and A. quadrimaculatus Say which receive host stimuli.
Identifikasi Aktinomiset Endofit Asal Tanaman Obat Berdasarkan 16S rRNA

AGESSTY IKA NURLITA. Identification of Endophytic Actinomycetes from Medicinal Plants Based on 16S rRNA. Under direction of YULIN LESTARI and DEDY DURYADI SOLIHIN. Indigenous actinomycetes are known to have high biodiversity and chance to acquire a novel species. Various plants bioactive compounds with many functions may also be produced by endophytic microbes including actinomycetes. Many actinomycetes have been isolated from various medicinal plants. The research aimed to identify selected endophytic actinomycets from Curcuma xanthorrhiza (CX 10.1), Guazuma ulmifolia Lamk (AJB 4(1)), and Centella asiatica (AEP-2) based on 16S rRNA. Selected isolates of endophytic actinomycetes were grown in Yeast Starch Agar (YSA). DNA genome was isolated from CX 10.1, AJB 4(1), and AEP-2 isolates respectively, using Genomic DNA Mini Kit followed by amplification of 16S rRNA with PCR. PCR product was sequenced and analyzed by bio-informatics software to construct phylogenetic tree. The morphology colony of CX 10.1 did not produce aerial mycelium and spore chain type. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence, CX 10.1 isolate was closed related with Micromonospora aurantiaca strain DSM 43813, Micromonospora coxensis strain 2-30-b(28) and Micromonospora krabiensis strain MA-2 with maximum identity 97%, 96% and 96% respectively. Meanwhile, morphology colony of AJB 4(1) and AEP-2 produced brown grey and white aerial mycelium, respectively and both of isolates produced Spiral spore chain type. The 16S rRNA sequence of AJB 4(1) showed to have the close relationship with Streptomyces misionensis strain NRRL B3230, Streptomyces africanus strain CPJVR-H, and Streptomyces eurythermus strain ATCC 14975, with maximum identity 98%, 97% and 97% respectively. The 16S rRNA sequence of AEP-2 showed close related with Streptomyces galilaeus strain JCM 4757,with 96% of maximum identity, while the close relatedness with both Streptomyces flavogriseus strain CBS 101.34, and S. polyantibioticus strain SPR; DSM 44925 was 95%. The maximum identity of AEP-2 was less then 97% and with further identification approaches may indicate a novel species.
Impact of Cre and peroxidase genes of selected new wheat lines on cereal cyst nematode (Heterodera avenae woll) resistance

Cereal cyst nematode (CCN: Heterodera avenae Woll) causes a significant damage to wheat yield in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Wheat cultivar Yecora Rojo and advanced lines derived from the cross between Yecora Rojo and local line (Sama) were sown in a field infected with CCN. Microsatellite markers linked to Cre1, Cre3, Cre5, Cre8, and CreY genes were used in this study. In addition, the presence of the peroxidase genes in wheat lines was investigated. Three groups of peroxidase genes (TaPrx111-A, TaPrx112-D, and TaPrx113-F) were found to be greatly induced by cereal cyst nematode in the resistance wheat line. In particular, parenchyma cells, where the nematode starts its feeding, were hyper-reactive to some probes belonging to (TaPrx112-D, and TaPrx113-F) groups. The field data showed significant differences in yield performance and CCN score. Four local lines were scored as resistant (KSU114, KSU118, KSU119 and L11-21). The highest grain yield was obtained from local lines KSU 110, KSU 118 and L11-21 compared to the check variety Yecora Rojo. Analysis of microsatellite markers linked with resistant genes revealed that there were significant differences in the presence of genes. Moreover, the results indicated that Cre3 gene located on chromosome 2DL, provided high levels of resistance to CCN in wheat genotypes using Xgwm301 marker. Also, there was a significant association between CCN resistance with Cre1 locus which explained 12% of the phenotypic variation in CCN infection. Gene-specific primer pairs for amplification of peroxidase genes revealed the presence of the TaPrx113-F peroxidase gene in all wheat genotypes. Moreover, cultivar Yocora Rojo and advanced line KSU 119 had TaPrx112-D peroxidase gene. On the other hand, the other wheat lines lacked the presence of TaPrx112-D peroxidase gene. The advanced line KSU 119 was resistant to CCN and contained Cre1, which was absent in susceptible cultivar Yecora Rojo. Therefore, the presence of peroxidase genes alone did not explain differences among wheat genotypes for CCN resistance. Amplification conditions for Cre3 and Cre1 loci were optimized, and used in marker-assisted selection to identify CCN-resistant wheat in the Saudi wheat cultivars. Data of this study emphasized the potentiality of identifying a highly productive CCN resistant cultivar.
Controlled breeding studies to verify the identity of roach and common bream hybrids from a natural population

The occurrence of post-F1 generation hybrids between common bream and roach in natural populations has still to be qualified. To do this, common bream, roach, F1 and F2 hybrid progeny were produced under controlled conditions. All progeny groups exhibited overlaps in the ranges of their meristic characters. Discriminant analysis of meristic data combined with allozymes allowed identification of post-Fl hybrids. Enzyme electrophoresis showed Fl progeny to be heterozygous at diagnostic loci. Back-crossed F2 progeny had a mixture of homozygosity and heterozygosity at diagnostic loci. Meristic and genetic analysis of fish from a natural population indicated that they were all F1 hybrids. Post-Fl hybridization cannot be ruled out from natural populations because Fl hybrids are known to be fertile. It is suggested that post-Fl hybrids were not detected either because of their low incidence of occurrence or due to biological phenomenon Such as inferior fitness.
Screening and assessment of laccase producing fungi isolated from different environmental samples

Laccase is a copper-containing polyphenol oxidase that acts on a wide range of substrates. This enzyme is found in many plant species and is widely distributed in fungi including wood-rotting fungi where it is often associated with lignin peroxidase, manganese dependent peroxidase, or both. Because of its importance in bioremediation, fungal cultures were screened for laccase positive production by plate test method using the indicator compound guaiacol. Out of 12 cultures tested, six cultures were found to be laccase-positive with Stereum ostrea and Phanerochaete chrysosporium being the best potential cultures. Laccase production on 5 different liquid media was compared using these two white rot fungi.