Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The value of the Black Harrier Circus maurus as a predictor of biodiversity in the plant-rich Cape Floral Kingdom, South Africa

Summary Determining the efficacy of using indicator species to predict the spatial location of biodiversity hotspots is one way of maximising the conservation of biodiversity in already threatened habitats. Recent evidence from Europe suggests raptors can play such an indicator role, so we tested this approach with a globally threatened southern hemisphere species, the Black Harrier Circus maurus. We asked if this species, found in South Africa’s mega-diverse Cape Floral Kingdom, breeds in habitat fragments that were more diverse in terms of small mammals, birds and plants than unoccupied fragments of similar size. Renosterveld is a highly fragmented habitat that has lost > 90% of its original extent and remains only on privately-owned lands. Surveys of small mammals, birds and plants undertaken in 20 fragments in the Overberg region, South Africa, revealed nine with breeding harriers and 11 without harriers. Harrier-occupied fragments were associated with a 3.5 fold higher number of bird species and higher small mammal species richness than unoccupied ones. There was a lower abundance of most plants in occupied patches, except for red grass Themeda triandra which is an indicator of pristine renosterveld. Vegetation structure was significantly different, with harriers nesting on patches with taller, more open vegetation. While the diversity trends were not statistically significant, a positive trend between the presence of harriers and higher abundance of red grass – as an indicator of the more pristine state of the patch, suggests that harriers might allow biodiversity managers a heuristic approach for selecting the remaining patches of pristine renosterveld. The need for intensive sampling of several taxa leads to small samples and a lack of clear-cut trends for these top predators as indicators of plant diversity.
Historical distribution of the oak processionary moth Thaumetopoea processionea in Europe suggests recolonization instead of expansion

1 The oak processionary moth Thaumetopoea processionea (Notodontidae) is presently distributed in almost all European countries and in part of the Middle East. In the North, its range limit passes through the Netherlands and Germany, and the southern part of Poland and Ukraine. In the South, the species is present in all the countries located on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, in Anatolia, and in the mountains surrounding the Dead Sea Transform. 2 Using information from museum and personal collections, the available literature and other relevant datasets, we show that the species was already largely distributed throughout Europe before 1920. The available data do not provide any evidence of any long‐term latitudinal shift of the species betwen 1750 and 2010. 3 In the northernmost part of its range, the population dynamics of the species is characterized by important fluctuations. We studied their pattern in Belgium, the Netherlands and part of Germany, after the apparent regional disappearance of the species during the first half of the 20th Century. The data suggest a continuous extent of the apparent distribution of the insect between 1970 and 2009, at a rate of approximately 7.5 km per year. 4 To explain the present distribution of the species, we discuss possible improvements of environmental conditions that could have triggered local population increases and favoured dispersal to adjacent areas. In addition, human activity, including the commercial movements of infested nursery trees, was recently suspected to be another source of spread over geographical barriers.
Influence of fruit maturity on the hypoglycin a level in ackee (Blighia sapida)

Ackee fruit representing a range of maturities were analyzed for hypoglycin A (hyp A) content. Hyp A in the arilli (edible flesh) dropped from over 1000 ppm to undetectable ( 15 mm lobe separation pose little health hazard, provided that all seed and membrane portions are removed. Bright red, full sized ackee should never be forced open for human use.
Prospects for molecular breeding of barley

Summary Data from UK Recommended List Trials showed that the introduction of new cultivars of spring and winter barley has maintained a significant increase in yield over time, whereas there has been no significant improvement in hot water extract, the major determinant of good malting quality, in either crop. Commercial barley breeding is based upon phenotypic selection, and the introduction of molecular breeding methods must either increase the rate of advance, or offer an improvement in the cost-effectiveness of breeding programmes. Molecular breeding can be applied to either single gene or polygenic characters but is not widely used in commercial barley breeding, other than as a marker for resistance to the Barley Yellow Mosaic Virus complex. There are many reports of potential targets for use in molecular breeding but the few validation studies that have been carried out to date are disappointing. Results from genomics studies are likely to lead to the identification of key candidate genes, which can be associated with economically important characters through co-location on certain chromosomal regions. Associations between candidate gene sequence haplotypes and phenotypic characteristics is expected to identify allelic combinations, which are most frequently observed in successful cultivars, that can be used in molecular breeding of barley on a commercial scale.
Constructive Philosophy

even an important task for philosophers and theologians. The lectures, whose compactness makes for slow but fascinating reading, offer us an Idealist interpretation of reality which links together the ideas of Plato, the phenomenological approach of Husserl and the dialectical method of Hegel. The cogency of the interpretation largely depends upon how far we can accept that this basic methodology may reveal the fundamental signinance of life. In the first volume, The Discipline of the Cave (George Allen & Unwin ; 3zs.), Findlay expounds his method and then proceeds to examine the possibility of interpreting the phenomena of life either in terms of bodily existences or in terms of mental existences. In each case serious diffi-
An integrated environment for extracting and translating collocations

This paper describes the way collocations, which constitute an important part of the multi-word lexicon of a language, are integrated into a multilingual parser and into a machine translation system. Different processing modules concur to ensure an appropriate treatment for collocations, from their automatic acquisition to their actual use in parsing and translation. The main concerns are, first, to cope with the syntactic flexibility characterising collocations, and second, to make sure that the collocation phenomenon is modelled in a rather comprehensive manner. The paper discusses, in particular, issues such as the necessity to extract collocations from syntactically parsed text (rather than from raw text), the identification of collocations consisting of more than two words, the detection of translation equivalents in parallel texts, and the issue of representing collocational information in a lexical database. The processing framework built represents an unprecedented environment that provides an advanced and comprehensive treatment for collocations.
Extinction by hybridization and introgression

▪ Abstract Nonindigenous species can bring about a form of extinction of native flora and fauna by hybridization and introgression either through purposeful introduction by humans or through habitat modification, bringing previously isolated species into contact. These phenomena can be especially problematic for rare species coming into contact with more abundant ones. Increased use of molecular techniques focuses attention on the extent of this underappreciated problem that is not always apparent from morphological observations alone. Some degree of gene flow is a normal, evolutionarily constructive process, and all constellations of genes and genotypes cannot be preserved. However, hybridization with or without introgression may, nevertheless, threaten a rare species' existence.
The interplay between limiting processes in C3 photosynthesis studied by rapid-response gas exchange using transgenic tobacco impaired in photosynthesis

A gas-exchange system with a rapid response time was used to study the interplay between rate-limiting processes of C3 photosynthesis in wild-type tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. W38) and transgenic tobaccos with antisense DNAs directed against the Rubisco small subunit (anti-SSu plants) or the chloroplast glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (anti-GAPDH plants). High ribulosebisphos-phate (RuBP) pools were generated in leaves by exposing them briefly to very low CO2, after which they were transferred to varying CO2 concentrations, and transient CO2 assimilation rates were measured within the first 2–3 s. Comparison of the transient (RuBP-saturated) and steady-state rates confirmed that the CO2 assimilation rate in anti-SSu plants was RuBP-saturated (i.e. Rubisco limited) at all intercellular CO2 partial pressures (Ci), and that, in anti-GAPDH plants, the transition from RuBP-saturation to RuBP-limitation occurred at lower assimilation rates and lower Ci as GAPDH activity was decreased. In addition, we investigated whether the integrated post-illumination CO2 uptake could be used as a non-destructive means of estimating RuBP pools in leaves. In wild-type plants there was generally a good agreement between RuBP pools extracted from leaves after rapid freeze-clamping and estimates made from post-illumination CO2 uptake. However, in the anti-SSu plants, the post- illumination CO2 uptake underestimated the actual RuBP content and the discrepancy became larger as the Rubisco content decreased. Possible explanations for this are discussed.
Impact Of Complementary And Integrative Medicine In Rehabilitation Of Coronary Heart Disease And Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Complementary and Integrative Medicine emphasizes a holistic approach to prevent and treat physical and mental illness. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus are lifestyle related diseases. These are leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. A special attention is required to treat CHD patients with diabetes mellitus. CHD patients with diabetes have a number of adverse clinical and metabolic features such as severe angina, abnormal endothelial function with the reduction of coronary flow, multi-vessel involvement, and high incidence of left main coronary artery blockage, poor collaterals, and low ejection fraction, which contributes to poor prognosis. Clinical outcomes of coronary angioplasty and coronary bypass grafting (CABG) is also poor in diabetic CHD patients. CHD patients treated with PTCA and CABG procedures have the higher hospitalization rate with major complications, higher restenosis and revascularization chances. Thus to avoid invasive procedures and life-threatening consequences the complementary and integrative medicine approach is required for the management of angina, heart failure and diabetes mellitus. This manuscript will direct the complementary and integrative approaches with special reference to lifestyle and energy medicine in Rehabilitation of Coronary Heart Disease and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients.
On Cats

about them ; every one is, explicitly or implicitly, friendly or hostile to them. And they are like children in their power of discovering, by a rapid and sure instinct, who likes them and who docs not. It is difficult to win their affection ; and it is easy to forfeit what it is hard to win. But when given, their love, although less demonstrative, is more delicate and beautiful than that of a dog. BVho that is on really intimate terms with a cat has not watched its dismay at the signs of packingup and leaving home ! BVe ourselves have known
Comparative phylogeography of chloroplast and nuclear DNA markers reveals ancient and present hybridization in the Mediterranean Helichrysum pendulum complex (Compositae)

The geological and climatic history of the Mediterranean basin over the last 6 million years has been determinant in shaping current geographic distribution of genetic variation in organisms. Phylogeographical approaches are considered one of most useful analysis for unraveling the evolutionary history of species. The Helichrysum pendulum complex is a group of three closely related plant species distributed in several islands and isolated continental localities of the Western-Central Mediterranean basin, providing an ideal case of study to analyze the processes involved in modelling its current genetic structure. Two cpDNA region rpl32-trnL intergenic spacer and the nrDNA region ETS were sequenced for 1-8 individuals from each of the 44 total populations sampled, covering the whole geographic range of the complex. Our results suggest that the complex originated in northern Africa and colonized several islands and continental areas of the northern Basin through the Gibraltar and Sicilian straits during phases of low sea level, favored by long distance dispersal events. While ETS data suggest a model of isolation by distance and show a main genetic barrier between populations of Western and Central Mediterranean areas, the rpl32-trnL reveals the existence of two divergent and not geographically structured haplotype groups within the complex. Ancient hybridization events among lineages of sect. Stoechadina are suggested as the most plausible cause for the haplotypes pattern observed, while several evidences of current hybridization between H. pendulum and several species of sect. Stoechadina are also detected in ETS data.
Richness of epiphytic lichens in differently aged Picea abies plantations situated in the oceanic region of Central Norway

Abstract This study aims to investigate patterns of species richness and abundance in relation to stand age in 71 Picea abies plantations, aged between 9 and 85 years, situated in the oceanic region of Central Norway. The study has shown that plantations within the oceanic spruce forests can support a relatively high number of epiphytic lichen species. Some of the oldest plantations hosted several old-forest associated species, e.g. Hypogymnia vittata, Lobaria pulmonaria, Pseudocyphellaria crocata and Ramalina thrausta. The number of species was influenced significantly by stand age and increased rapidly in stands <20 years old. Stands >30 years old showed no clear increase in species number, except for a high number of species in the two oldest stands. The colonization pattern could be characterized as an additional entrance of species, rather than by a replacement sequence. The probability of occurrence increased steeply at young stand ages (<20 years) for Bryoria spp. , Cavernularia hultenii, Platismatia glauca, Parmelia sulcata and Usnea spp. A lower rate of colonization was characteristic for Alectoria sarmentosa, Parmelia saxatilis and Platismatia norvegica. The cover of foliose lichens on the branches showed an almost unimodal response to stand age. The cover of lichens was highest on branches in middle-aged plantations. The reason for the lower lichen cover in late successional stages, compared to middle-aged stands, could be due to reduced light in the lower canopy of mature plantations. Increased rotation cycle, creation of gaps and short distance to sources of propagules are factors suggested to promote species richness and abundance in forest plantations.
Changing leaf nitrogen and canopy height quantify processes leading to plant and butterfly diversity loss in agricultural landscapes

Summary We describe a novel method for quantifying ecosystem drivers that potentially compromise the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes. We use three sources of data that for many countries are already in the public domain: governmental agricultural statistics, which provide a quantitative assessment of farming intensity in the ‘working landscape’, data on threat status and species distribution for plants and butterflies from conservation agencies and similar bodies and functional traits of plant species abstracted from published data bases. Changes in land use alter ecosystem processes which in turn modify both biodiversity and representation of functional types at the landscape scale. We interpret functional shifts to quantify important ecological drivers of floristic and faunal change and their causal land use origins. We illustrate the power of this approach by means of a worked example. We demonstrate that despite conservation policies to counteract them, eutrophication, identified by leaf nitrogen content, and abandonment, correlated with plant canopy height, are still causing biodiversity loss to native higher plants and butterflies in the English countryside. We use our analyses to suggest how conservation policies can be made more effective and discuss how similar approaches could be applied elsewhere.
Estuaries, lagoons and enclosed embayments: habitats that enhance population subdivision of inshore fishes

Several studies have suggested that estuaries, lagoons and enclosed embayments may offer special opportunities for local subdivision in marine species. We used data from published papers and unpublished theses to examine the effect of such water bodies on allozyme differentiation of seven species of inshore fishes in Western Australia. We included species that differ in their dispersal, and hence their intrinsic potential for gene flow. Over large distances, subdivision was generally greater among estuarine populations than among conspecific marine populations collected over similar distances. Over small distances, paired marine and estuarine samples were generally more divergent than pairs of marine samples separated by similar distances. For species with a low capability for dispersal, estuaries appear to add to the high levels of genetic subdivision that commonly result from other factors. Under special circumstances estuaries may also provide opportunities for genetic divergence in species with a high capability of dispersal that are rarely subdivided at a large geographical scale. These observations indicate that estuaries can increase the genetic subdivision of populations of inshore fishes, and that species that use both marine and estuarine habitats are likely to have greater genetic subdivision than those that are restricted to marine habitats.
Detect Rumors on Twitter by Promoting Information Campaigns with Generative Adversarial Learning

Rumors can cause devastating consequences to individual and/or society. Analysis shows that widespread of rumors typically results from deliberately promoted information campaigns which aim to shape collective opinions on the concerned news events. In this paper, we attempt to fight such chaos with itself to make automatic rumor detection more robust and effective. Our idea is inspired by adversarial learning method originated from Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). We propose a GAN-style approach, where a generator is designed to produce uncertain or conflicting voices, complicating the original conversational threads in order to pressurize the discriminator to learn stronger rumor indicative representations from the augmented, more challenging examples. Different from traditional data-driven approach to rumor detection, our method can capture low-frequency but stronger non-trivial patterns via such adversarial training. Extensive experiments on two Twitter benchmark datasets demonstrate that our rumor detection method achieves much better results than state-of-the-art methods.
Surveillance of the behaviour of pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms after ortho-phtalaldehyde disinfection

A relatively novel antimicrobial agent, ortho-phtalaldehyde (OPA), was tested in the control of biofilms formed by Pseudomonas fluorescens on stainless steel surfaces. The toxic action of OPA was assessed by means of activity tests and dry weight of the biofilms. For comparative purposes, the activity of OPA against bacterial suspended cultures was also evaluated. The results showed that concentrations of OPA higher than 15 mg L -1 inactivate the planktonic populations while having a lower effect against the P. fluorecens biofilms. The inactivation of the biofilm was only attained with the higher OPA concentrations (50 and 100 mg L -1 ) and for longer exposure times (3 h). The application of OPA appears to cause little effect in the removal of biofilms from the metal slides since the amount of biofilm mass that remained on the surfaces, after biocide treatment, stills to be very high and representative. These results suggest the fact that, with OPA application, biofilms can be inactivated but stay attached to the surfaces, decreasing, by this way, the success of the chemical treatment. Keywords Ortho-phtalaldehyde; disinfection; biofilm removal; Pseudomonas fluorescens.
Migration Patterns of Pronghorn in Southwestern North Dakota

ABSTRACT Wildlife managers need empirical data about pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) movements in North Dakota to assess whether mid-summer surveys represent occupancy of pronghorn in hunting units during the fall hunting season. Using data from 121 radiocollared pronghorn we evaluated patterns of pronghorn migrations in southwestern North Dakota from 2004 to 2007. Pronghorn exhibited 2 primary movement patterns between summer and winter ranges: migrations >15 km (45%) and movement <15 km (55%). Most migratory pronghorn moved northeast or east in the spring and southwest or west in the fall. Average distance moved for migratory pronghorn was 70.6 km (range = 17.4–253 km). Mean date of pronghorn migration in spring was 20 March (SD = 20 days) and in fall was 22 October (SD = 17 days). Nearly all migratory pronghorn (97%) returned to within 15 km of their previous summer range, whereas only 61% of pronghorn returned to within 15 km of their previous winter range. Most pronghorn moved across hunting and survey unit boundaries; however, only 7 fall migrations occurred between the aerial survey and the hunting season. During years of our study, the mid-summer survey provided representative information about hunting unit occupancy of radiocollared pronghorn for the fall hunting season.
Generic Delimitation between Alstroemeria and Bomarea(Alstroemeriaceae)

Abstract The taxonomic relationships between Alstroemeria and Bomarea, two closely related genera in Alstroemeriaceae, are controversial. With the aim of clarifying their systematic position and generic circumscription, morphological and anatomical studies were carried out on 18 species of Alstroemeria and 11 species of Bomarea. Light microscopy (LM) and scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy were used to study the morphology of mature seeds and pollen. Observations on the most distinctive characters are discussed and compared with other data available for Alstroemeriaceae. Morphology of subterranean organs, pollen exine, adaptive dehiscence of capsules, seed dispersal, seed coat and karyotype characteristics (such as basic chromosome number and symmetry) support the view that these genera are related but should have independent generic status. Results indicate that Alstroemeriaceae comprises three genera:Alstroemeria (including Schickendantzia and Taltalia), Bomarea andLeontochir .