Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Migratory Pathways, Timing, and Home Ranges of Southern Greater Yellowstone Osprey

Rutas Migratorias, Tiempos y Area de Campeo de Pandion haliaetus En El Sur de Yellowstone Durante el periodo 2010–2012 documentamos los movimientos migratorios y estacionales de 11 individuos de Pandion haliaetus que se reproducen o que nacieron en el Parque Nacional Grand Teton, Wyoming. Seguimos los movimientos de los individuos de P. haliaetus con emisores de telemetria satelital a traves de Argos, documentando un total de 13 migraciones otonales y cinco migraciones primaverales. Las fechas de partida promedio durante el otono fueron el 19 de septiembre y el 23 de septiembre para los adultos y juveniles, respectivamente, y los individuos viajaron un promedio de 225 km/d. Los individuos de P. haliaetus presentaron areas de invernada dispersas, generalmente en los alrededores del Golfo de Mexico. La fecha de partida promedio en la primavera fue el 2 de abril y los individuos adultos viajaron un promedio de 269 km/d. Los adultos presentaron un area de campeo en promedio de 176 y 199 ha, considerando el mi.
Acoustic and Molecular Differentiation between Macropters and Brachypters of Eobiana engelhardti engelhardti (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea)

Yin-Liang Wang, Jian Zhang, Xiao-Qiang Li, and Bing-Zhong Ren (2011) Acoustic and molecular differentiation between macropters and brachypters of Eobiana engelhardti engelhardti (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea). Zoological Studies 50(5): 636-644. This study focused on the wing dimorphism of Eobiana engelhardti engelhardti (Uvarov 1926). To examine acoustic differences between macropters and brachypters, we recorded and analyzed the calling songs of the 2 forms. Moreover, the vocal organs of E. e. engelhardti were also observed under optical and scanning electric microscopy. As a result, there were 3 "dynamic" song traits which had significant differences between the 2 forms, but no obvious differences were observed in vocal organs. For macropters, we assumed that differentiation of these calling songs showed compensation for a reproductive disadvantage. Finally, some molecular biology experiments were conducted to examine differences between the 2 forms at the molecular biology level; as a result, brachypterous insects were grouped in a clade, while macropterous insects were grouped into another, which indicates that these molecular differences had already occurred before these macropters migrated. http://zoolstud.sinica. edu.tw/Journals/50.5/636.pdf
How fast can plankton feed? maximum ingestion rate scales with digestive surface area

Allometric scaling rules have been classically used in plankton ecology to describe how the maximum ingestion rate (Imax) under steady-state conditions changes with the body size of the consumer. Empirical and theoretical concerns, however, motivate a more accurate and mechanistic description of size–ingestion relations. Here, I propose to relate Imax to the digestive surface area, which expresses the capacity in preprocessing and digesting food items. This surface area depends on both the body size and the optimal prey size of the consumer. The allometry in Imax, hence, includes a second major variable which describes different feeding modes within a consumer size class. Species with a small optimal-prey-to-predator-size ratio and, thus, a small “internal” surface-to-volume ratio, as is typical for filter feeders, have large intra-body transport lengths and lower Imax than raptorial-feeding species of the same body size. Digestive surface scaling tries to mechanistically accommodate feeding ecology, physiology and geometry. It does not explicitly resolve further possible factors affecting maximal ingestion such as nutritional quality. Still, digestive surface scaling explains the variability in published data compilations better than classical approaches when applied to the entire plankton size range. This is corroborated in further applications where the theory precisely fits anomalously steep scaling relations reported for heterotrophic nanoflagellates, ctenophores and a scyphomedusa. By introducing feeding mode and related morphological diversity into the size-dependency in ingestion rates, digestive surface scaling can be expected to improve the accuracy of size-based plankton models.
Economic Freedom, Country Risk and Banking Efficiency: The Case of Potential Gulf Countries Union

Economic freedom is vital for the development of banking sector which categories of prioritised by developing nations in promoting efficient banking system within an increasingly globalised economy. As such, the purpose of this paper to estimate the cost efficiency of Jordanian banking sector relative to GCC countries over a period of 2003-2010 uses stochastic frontier analysis focusing on economic freedom, country risk and banks specific variable. This study finds that, Jordanian banking sectors is efficient compared to GCC countries. The findings suggest that greater economic freedom the higher the benefits for banks in terms of cost advantages for banks operating in Jordan and GCC. Interestingly, the impact of investment freedom is negative implying that higher investment increases banks‟ cost, providing support to the benefits of labour freedom and free from corruption while the insignificant country risk variables suggesting that, no link between country risk and cost efficiency.
Neonectria fuckeliana infection of Pinus radiata nursery stock

Nectria flute canker is a disease of Pinus radiata stems caused by Neonectria fuckeliana. The fungus is not known in the North Island, leading to concern that it may be transported north via asymptomatically colonised nursery stock. Wounded P. radiata seedlings and cuttings were exposed to natural inoculum from an adjacent infected forest, and half were artificially inoculated. No disease symptoms were recorded throughout the trial. Neonectria fuckeliana was re-isolated from 24% and 7% of inoculated seedlings and cuttings respectively 3 months after inoculation, and at 12 months from 3.5% of the remaining inoculated seedlings only. Neonectria fuckeliana was not isolated from uninoculated seedlings or cuttings exposed to natural inoculum. These results indicate that nursery plants have little capability of retaining N. fuckeliana within the tissue even when directly inoculated. Nursery stock is therefore unlikely to be a pathway for transport of the fungus.
Enhancing the Identification of Phosphopeptides from Putative Basophilic Kinase Substrates Using Ti (IV) Based IMAC Enrichment

Metal and metal oxide chelating-based phosphopeptide enrichment technologies provide powerful tools for the in-depth profiling of phosphoproteomes. One weakness inherent to current enrichment strategies is poor binding of phosphopeptides containing multiple basic residues. The problem is exacerbated when strong cation exchange (SCX) is used for pre-fractionation, as under low pH SCX conditions phosphorylated peptides with multiple basic residues elute with the bulk of the tryptic digest and there-fore require more stringent enrichment. Here, we report a systematic evaluation of the characteristics of a novel phosphopeptide enrichment approach based on a combination of low pH SCX and Ti 4 (cid:1) -immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) comparing it one-to-one with the well established low pH SCX-TiO 2 enrichment method. We also examined the effect of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFP), trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), or 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) in the loading buffer, as it has been hypothesized that high levels of TFA and the perfluorinated solvent HFP improves the enrichment of phosphopeptides containing multiple basic residues. We found that Ti 4 (cid:1) -IMAC in combination with TFA in the loading buffer, outperformed all other methods tested, enabling the identification of around 5000 unique phosphopeptides containing multiple basic residues from 400 (cid:2) g of a HeLa cell lysate milligrams and milligrams of MCF-7 re-suspended in a containing m M bicarbonate pH 8.0, with 10 m M dithiothreitol 30 mins alkylated by 20 incubation
Urban ecosystems and the North American carbon cycle

Approximately 75–80% of the population of North America currently lives in urban areas as defined by national census bureaus, and urbanization is continuing to increase. Future trajectories of fossil fuel emissions are associated with a high degree of uncertainty; however, if the activities of urban residents and the rate of urban land conversion can be captured in urban systems models, plausible emissions scenarios from major cities may be generated. Integrated land use and transportation models that simulate energy use and traffic‐related emissions are already in place in many North American cities. To these can be added a growing dataset of carbon gains and losses in vegetation and soils following urbanization, and a number of methods of validating urban carbon balance modeling, including top down atmospheric monitoring and urban ‘metabolic’ studies of whole ecosystem mass and energy flow. Here, we review the state of our understanding of urban areas as whole ecosystems with regard to carbon balance, including both drivers of fossil fuel emissions and carbon cycling in urban plants and soils. Interdisciplinary, whole‐ecosystem studies of the socioeconomic and biophysical factors that influence urban carbon cycles in a range of cities may greatly contribute to improving scenarios of future carbon balance at both continental and global scales.
Source Localization Using Ultrasonic Lamb Waves with a Least Mean Squares Method

The localization of sources of inhomogeneity is a basic requirement in nondestructive evaluation and subsequent analysis of damage mechanisms. Source localization using various highly effective signal processing schemes have been developed in previous research. In this paper, we localize a defect in an aluminum specimen based on the velocity effect of ultrasonic Lamb waves, measuring the time of flight (TOF) using peak values and then applying a least mean squares algorithm. The mean squared error (MSE) of the measured and simulated distances between the sensors and the defect is minimized using a gradient descent algorithm, which involves moving in a direction opposite to the gradient of the MSE, resulting in the optimal estimation of the x and y coordinates of the defect. The estimated defect location is compared with the actual position of the defect by converting the distance information into real environmental values based on the x and y coordinates. The source localization results depend strongly on the accuracy of the TOF values for the actuator, sensors, and defect. The more precise the TOF information, the better the results.
Descriptions of two new and one little known species of the genus Cacopsylla (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) on Sorbus japonica (Rosaceae) and an observation of their biology

Three species of the genus Cacopsylla were collected from Sorbus japonica in Japan. Two of them, Cacopsylla elegans and Cacopsylla sorbicoccinea, are described as new species based on adults and fifth (final) nymphal instars. The third species, Cacopsylla midoriae, is newly transferred from the genus Psylla. The adult of C. midoriae is redescribed and the nymph is described for the first time. A key to the species feeding on S. japonica (adults and nymphs) is provided. The three species were observed to coexist on the same tree of S. japonica in northern Kyushu. Such coexistence of psylloid congeners is uncommon in Japan.
Mark–recapture estimation of snag standing rates in Northern Arizona mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forests

Snags (standing dead trees) are important components of forests that provide resources for numerous species of wildlife and contribute to decay dynamics and other ecological processes. Managers charged with managing populations of snags need information about standing rates of snags and factors influencing those rates, yet such data are limited for ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and especially mixed-conifer forests in the southwestern United States. We monitored standing rates of snags in 1-ha plots in Arizona mixed-conifer (n = 53 plots) and ponderosa pine (n = 60 plots) forests from 1997 through 2012. We used the Burnham live-dead, mark-resight model in Program MARK and multimodel inference to estimate standing rates during 5-year intervals while accounting for imperfect detection. Because snag standing rates may be influenced by plot characteristics, we used plots rather than snags as sampling units and conducted bootstrap analyses (500 iterations per model) to resample plots and estimate standing rates and associated parameters. We modeled standing rates in 3 discrete steps. First, we selected a parsimonious base model from a set of models including snag species, and then we evaluated models created by adding snag and plot covariates to the base model in steps 2 and 3, respectively. Snag standing rates differed among snag species and 5-year sampling intervals. Standing rates were positively related to snag diameter, negatively related to snag height, and were lower for snags with intact tops than for broken-topped snags. Standing rates also were positively related to topographic roughness, elevation, tree density, and an index of northness, and negatively related to slope and relative topographic exposure. Our results provide comparative data on standing rates of multiple species of snags based on a large and spatially extensive sample and rigorous analysis, and quantify the relative importance of several snag and plot characteristics on those rates. They indicate that modeling snag dynamics is complicated by both spatial and temporal variation in standing rates and identify areas where further work is needed to facilitate such modeling.
The spatial distribution of plankton communities in a Slope Water anticyclonic Oceanic eDDY (SWODDY) in the southern Bay of Biscay

Slope Water anticyclonic Oceanic eDDIES (SWODDIES) are typical mesoscale features of open-ocean waters of the southern Bay of Biscay which usually develop in winter by shedding from the seasonal poleward current flowing along the northern Spanish slope. These eddies have been intensively studied from the physical perspective. However, their effect on the distribution of biological properties and on the functioning of the pelagic ecosystem has not been assessed so far. To this aim, a sea-truth, multidisciplinary and comprehensive study of a SWODDY was carried out in summer 1998. The eddy, radius of ≈50 km, was initially centred at 45·5°N 6·0°W, being characterized by a relatively homogeneous core of water in the centre of the eddy extending from 80 to about 200 dbar. In the central region of the core, temperature (12·55–12·75°C) and salinity (≈35·70) values were higher than outside the eddy. The optical properties of the eddy also differed from those of the surrounding waters. A distinct biological signature was found associated with the eddy. Depth-integrated chlorophyll-a concentrations were 25% higher at the eddy centre where upward doming of the seasonal pycnocline (up to 30 dbar) occurred. Enhanced phytoplankton biomass was related to a higher contribution of >10 μm cells, mainly represented by diatoms and chrysophyceans. Phytoplankton and mesozooplankton species composition in and outside the eddy differed significantly reflecting the coastal origin of the water parcel trapped by the eddy. The sharp modification of the planktonic community composition, biomass and associated size-structure caused by slope water oceanic eddies are likely to exert a significant effect upon the upper trophic levels of the pelagic ecosystem of the southern Bay of Biscay.
A taxonoimic study of the Malayan Gerridae (Hemiptera : Heteroptera) with notes on their biology and distribution

Abstract The Malayan Gerridae are monographed based mainly on the collections made by the authors. Of the total of 41 species recorded from Malaya, 4 species are being described elsewhere and are designated here without specific names. All the species are described and figured except Stenobates biroi which we have not collected. Keys to the genera and species are included. Notes on biology and distribution are also given. The Malayan gerrid fauna is both rich and varied and includes 18 genera, representing all six subfamilies of the Gerridae.
Influence of topography, bare sand, and soil pH on the occurrence and distribution of plant species in a lacustrine dune ecosystem1

Abstract Dune ecosystems along the Great Lakes shoreline provide essential habitat for specialized plant communities and several state and federal listed rare species. I conducted a vegetation survey in Grand Sable Dunes, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI, in an effort to investigate the hypothesis that physical dune characteristics influence the distribution of encountered listed species of concern. Three species with concern status were encountered (Cirsium pitcheri, Stellaria longipes, and Tanacetum bipinnatum). Overall plant diversity was negatively correlated with soil pH. Increases in dune aspect and slope resulted in increased abundance of C. pitcheri and S. longipes, while T. bipinnatum decreased in abundance. Increases in species richness and plant density resulted in decreased abundance of C. pitcheri and T. bipinnatum, while S. longipes increased in abundance. These three species rarely co-occurred in quadrats. The gradient of dune stabilization that has naturally occurred within Grand Sable Dunes provides the necessary range of distinct microhabitat necessary for C. pitcheri, S. longipes, and T. bipinnatum to establish and maintain populations. Younger foredunes with less vegetation cover are necessary for C. pitcheri and T. bipinnatum. As dunes stabilize and more species colonize, the microhabitat becomes more suitable for S. longipes. Ensuring a natural range of dune stabilization from active foredunes to stable hind dunes will benefit conservation of endangered, threatened, and species of concern.
Bioconversion of Mono- and Sesquiterpenoids by Recombinant Human Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenases

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases play an important role in the biosynthesis and metabolism of terpenoids. We explored the potential of recombinant human liver cytochrome P450 monooxygenases CYP1A2, CYP2C9, and CYP3A4, heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, to convert mono- and sesquiterpenoids to human metabolites. This natural product group is a diverse class of secondary metabolites and includes several industrially and pharmaceutically interesting compounds. Incubation of cedrol with CYP3A4 resulted in a bioconversion of 74% (±8.9%) after 1 h of the unknown metabolites 2-hydroxycedrol and 4-hydroxycedrol, which have been structurally elucidated by 1H and 13C NMR and GC-MS. We conclude that recombinant human cytochrome P450 enzymes can be useful tools in a combinatorial biosynthesis strategy for the production of new natural products and for in vitro metabolization studies.
Evidence for phosphorus, nitrogen, and iron colimitation of phytoplankton communities in Lake Erie

Three nutrient enrichment experiments involving the addition and removal of iron (Fe) alone, as well as in combination with phosphorus (P) and/or nitrogen (N), were conducted in the offshore and nearshore waters of the eastern basin of Lake Erie. Lake Erie phytoplankton are at times colimited by P, N, and Fe. This was most clearly demonstrated in the offshore, strongly stratified waters, where the Fe concentration was below detection (DL = 2.0 nmol L−1), and nutrient limitation indicators (APA, P debt, C: P, N: P, N debt, and C: N) indicated strong P and moderate N limitation. Enrichment with Fe alone did not result in a significant increase in phytoplankton biomass, but the combined addition of Fe, P, and N yielded greater biomass increases than the addition of P and N alone. Phosphorus and Fe were both required to stimulate biomass increases. Nutrient limitation indicators and dissolved nutrient measurements showed that P and Fe additions facilitated the uptake of nitrate (NO3‐), which is the most abundant source of N because of the low ammonium (NH4+) concentrations in Lake Erie. Our results support a colimitation hypothesis wherein the addition of Fe reduces N limitation by allowing the phytoplankton communities to use NO3−, take up more P, and become more strongly P limited. Phytoplankton communities of the eastern basin of Lake Erie and numerous other lakes experience colimitation by P, N, and Fe during the summer period of thermal stratification.
Ideologies of time: How elite corporate actors engage the future

Our article deals with how elite corporate actors in a Western capitalist-democratic society conceive of and prepare for the future. Paying attention to how senior officers of 10 important Danish companies make sense of the future will help us to identify how particular temporal narratives are ideologically marked. This ideological dimension offers a common sense frame that is structured around a perceived inevitability of capitalism, a market economy as the basic organizational structure of the social and economic order, and an assumption of confident access to the future. Managers envisage their organization’s future and make plans for organizational action in a space where ‘business as usual’ reigns, and there is little engagement with the future as fundamentally open – as a time-yet-to-come. In using a conceptual lens inspired by the work of Fredric Jameson, we first explore the details of this presentism and a particular colonization of the future and then linger over small disruptions in the narratives of our interviewees which point to what escapes or jars their common sense frame, explore the implicit meanings they assign to their agency and also find clues and traces of temporal actions and strategies in their narratives that point to a subtly different engagement with time.
Effective Concentration Method for the Recovery of Crude Alkaline Phosphatase fromthe Clarified Hepatopancreatic Tissue Homogenate of Shrimp by Ammonium Sulfate Precipitation

Effective Concentration Method for the Recovery of Crude Alkaline Phosphatase fromthe Clarified Hepatopancreatic Tissue Homogenate of Shrimp by Ammonium Sulfate Precipitation Hepatopancreas of shrimps is an important organ functions in food absorption, transport, secretion of digestive enzymes, and storage of lipids, glycogen, and a number of minerals. Hence, impurities present in the hepatopancreas are the bottle neck during the purification of alkaline phosphatase to commercially exploit it, including its use as replacement enzyme in the gastrointestinal tract. Concentration of the alkaline phosphatase by exploiting physico-chemical properties of the components of hepatopancreatic tissue homogenate by ammonium sulfate precipitation is critical at the initial stages of enzyme purification itself as it efficiently reduces the bulk of the volume and partially purifies the enzyme.
A procedure for the selective enrichment of Halobacteroides halobius and related bacteria from anaerobic hypersaline sediments

Abstract In enrichment cultures for halophilic anaerobic chemo-organotrophic bacteria from hypersaline sediments a variety of bacterial types developed. However, when the sediment samples were first heated to 80–100°C for 10–20 min, bacteria resembling Halobacteroides halobius were selectively enriched. Terminal endospores were observed in some of the cultures of this type of bacterium, previously unknown to produce endospores. Halobacteroides -type cells were found not to be restricted to Dead Sea sediments, but were isolated also from seawater evaporation ponds. The finding of endospore formation in Halobacteroides supports its proposed phylogenetic relationship with other endospore-forming anaerobic halophilic bacteria.