Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of global change on a sub‐Arctic heath: effects of enhanced UV‐B radiation and increased summer precipitation

1 The responses of sub‐Arctic heathland vegetation to enhanced UV‐B radiation and increased summer precipitation over 7 years were investigated in a field experiment in northern Sweden. 2 Growth, phenology and reproduction of the dominant dwarf shrubs Vaccinium myrtillus, V. uliginosum, V. vitis‐idaea and Empetrum hermaphroditum were studied after 5–7 years of manipulation and retrospective analyses were used to assess growth responses in earlier years. Leaf tissue N and P and 13C natural abundances were determined for V. myrtillus and E. hermaphroditum. Growth responses were also assessed for the moss Hylocomium splendens. 3 The deciduous V. myrtillus showed reduced growth, increased leaf thickness and increased flowering and berry production under enhanced UV‐B in some years. V. uliginosum, V. vitis‐idaea, E. hermaphroditum and H. splendens were, in general, tolerant of UV‐B. 4 Increased precipitation affected growth only in the evergreen species: stem length and branching were sometimes stimulated in E. hermaphroditum, whereas V. vitis‐idaea showed reduced branching. 5 Precipitation also increased leaf thickness in V. uliginosum and reduced flowering and berry production in V. myrtillus. 6 In the interactions that occurred between enhanced UV‐B radiation and increased summer precipitation, combining the two treatments often negated any effect that either may have had separately. The effect of concurrent increases on this ecosystem is therefore likely to be much less than if either occurred singly. 7 Enhanced UV‐B and increased summer precipitation appeared not to effect dwarf shrub abundances during the first 5 years of the experiment, suggesting that overall this heath may be more tolerant of these environmental changes than previously thought.
Dressing Shrinkages of Bronze Turkeys

Abstract DRESSING percentages of food animals are of considerable economic importance to the producers, distributors, and consumers of them. This paper is a compilation of original data relating to the determination of weight losses sustained by turkeys during their preparation for cooking. The data were obtained from more than twelve hundred birds of the Bronze variety. The birds were raised and prepared for market on the U. S. Range Livestock Experiment Station at Miles City, Montana, during the years of 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932. The turkeys used in this study were reared on limited range with access to feed at all times from hatching to marketing. The young birds were slaughtered, in the great majority of cases, between the ages of 26 and 32 weeks, during November and December. A few were slaughtered at 22 to 26 weeks of age, during November and December. A few were held as long .
Identification of Protein Kinase Cα as an Essential, but Not Sufficient, Cytosolic Factor for Ca2+-induced α- and Dense-core Granule Secretion in Platelets*

Upon activation, platelets release many active substances. Here, we have analyzed the mechanism governing Ca2+-induced secretion of von Willebrand factor stored in α-granules and 5-hydroxytryptamine in dense-core granules in permeabilized human platelets. Both secretions were dependent on ATP and cytosol. An essential factor for both granule secretions was purified from rat brain cytosol and identified to be protein kinase Cα (PKCα) by partial amino acid sequencing. Purified PKCα efficiently stimulated both secretions in the presence of cytosol, whereas PKCα alone did not support the secretion of either type of granules, suggesting that PKCα is not a sufficient factor. Finally, in human platelet cytosol fractionated by a gel filtration column, the stimulatory activity for dense-core granule secretion paralleled with the concentration of PKC, suggesting that PKC could also be such a stimulatory factor in platelet cytosol. Thus, we identified PKCα as an essential, but not sufficient, cytosolic factor for the Ca2+-induced secretions of both α- and dense-core granules in platelets.
Dehydrated pork manure by-product: effect of a chitosan amendment on bacterial community and common scab incidence

Chitosan amendment modified the composition of a microbial community associated with dehydrated pork manure by-product. The amended product (biosolid PC) contained a lower number of anaerobic bacteria than the non-amended product (biosolid P). Chitosan also significantly reduced the fungal population. A 16S rRNA gene bank constructed from DNA extracted from the bacterial community associated with both P and PC biosolids revealed that bacterial orders Xanthomonodales, Pseudomonadales, Enterobacteriales, Burkholderiales, Actinomycetales, Bacillales, Clostridiales and Lactobacillales were found in both biosolids. Bacteria from the Stenotrophomonas genus were abundant in both biosolids. However, the addition of chitosan appeared to induce changes in the population of some bacterial genera. For example, clones carrying a 16S rRNA gene corresponding to the Bacillus genus were doubled in biosolid PC. In field trials carried out to test their effect on common scab incidence, biosolids P and PC were applied as potato seed treatment. Biosolid P increased disease incidence by a factor of 1.33 and 2.85 in two independent experiments. However, when chitosan was added to the seed treatment, the stimulating effect of biosolid P on common scab was cancelled out.
Ecotype Selection of Acanthaspis pedestris Stål (Heteroptera:Reduviidae) for Mass Multiplication by UPGMA Cluster Analysis

Acanthaspis pedestris Stal is an important reduviid predator found in the scrub jungles and agroecosystems of India predating on a number of insect pests and it is used as a bio-control agent. But its use is limited due to its scarcity at times when pests are often most abundant. The only possible way to overcome this difficulty is to mass culture this predator in the laboratory and supply them to the farmers. The practice of mass culturing leads to inbreeding which renders the species ultimately less effective against the pests. In order to overcome this shortfall, the morphological and biological characteristics of A. pedestris collected from seven ecotypes were subjected to UPGMA cluster analysis and the distantly related ecotypes were identified. By this method, it is possible to select and use two distantly related ecotypes for mating which can restore the genetic variability. Thus, the suggested approach makes the biocontrol agent effective even under mass culturing.
Biological control of root-rot disease complex of chickpea by AM fungi

Abstract Six species AM fungi, namely Glomus fasciculatum, G. constrictum, G. intraradices sp. , Gigaspora margarita, Acaulospora sp. and Sclerocystis sp. , were used for the biological control of root-rot disease complex of chickpea caused by Meloidogyne incognita and Macrophomina phaseolina. Application of these AM fungi increase plant growth, pod number, chlorophyll, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents in diseased plants and also reduced nematode multiplication and root-rot index. G. fasciculatum caused greater increase in plant growth, pod number, chlorophyll, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents of pathogen inoculated plants followed by G. intaradices, G. constrictum, Sclerocystis, G. margarita and Acaulospora sp. Percent root colonization caused by G. fasciculatum was high followed by G. intaradices, G. constrictum, Sclerocystis sp. , G. margarita and Acaulospora sp. Glomus fasciculatum also caused higher reduction in root-rot index, galling and nematodes multiplication while Acaulospora sp. produced the least.
Geographic variation in photoperiodic diapause induction and diapause intensity in Sericinus montelus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)

Abstract Due to the risk of extinction and ornamental value of the swallowtail butterfly, Sericinus montelus Gray (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in China, knowledge about local adaptations is important for the conservation and economical utilization of the species. In the present study, photoperiodic diapause induction and diapause intensity of S. montelus populations from Jiamusi (46°37′N), Beijing (40°15′N), Zibo (36°48′N), Fangxian (32°36′N), Wuhan (30°33′N) and Huaihua (27°33′N) were characterized at 25°C. Logistic regression analysis revealed a significant population × hours of light interaction, confirming that photoperiodic responses varied among populations. The critical photoperiod was positively correlated with latitude and increased toward the north at a rate of about 1 h for each 6.67 degrees of latitude. Survival analyses indicated that survival time of diapausing pupae before adult eclosion differed significantly among populations at 25°C and 16 : 8 L : D h. The mean duration of pupal diapause was also positively correlated with latitude. Our study reveals geographic variation in the critical photoperiod for diapause induction and in diapause intensity of S. montelus. These results provide useful information for our general understanding about seasonal adaptation in insects and may also be used to predict how geographic populations respond to climate warming.
Vegetative and reproductive responses of charophytes to water-level fluctuations in permanent and temporary wetlands in Australia

Chara australis responded to changes in water levels by altering its morphology and allocation of resources. In a field harvest experiment, vegetative vigour of C. australis was greatest after water-level rises and the overall morphology of the plants varied depending upon season and site of collection. Allocation of dry weight varied over time, but allocation to sexual reproduction was always less than 10% of the total in this dioecious perennial species. C. australis reproduced sexually through the spring, summer and autumn, and where water levels were continually decreasing more female than male shoots were present. Field growth rates increased when depth was increased, and sexual reproduction was stimulated when water levels fell. An annual charophyte species (Nitella sonderi) did not display significant vegetative or sexual responses to water-level changes. The results of these experiments show that charophyte species can display morphological and reproductive plasticity in response to water level changes, although as charophytes are not uniform in their adaptations to fluctuations, results from one species cannot be extrapolated to another species. Life history could be a more important determinant of vegetative and reproductive characteristics than is phylogenetic affinity.
Antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of Jatropha curcas Linn. seedcake from biofuel production.

Antimicrobial activity of Jatropha curcas Linn. seedcake from biofuel production has been studied. For safety evaluation, mutagenic and cytotoxic test were carried out. The seedcake was extracted by maceration method with methanol. The antimicrobial activity, cytotoxicity test, and mutagenic effect were determined by disc diffusion, Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT), and Ames test method, respectively. The methanolic extract of J. curcas seedcake and fractions extract showed potent antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli , Bacillus subtilis , Staphylococcus aureus , and Candida albicans at minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ≤≤≤≤≤ 1 mg/mL. The cytotoxicity value (LC 50 ) of methanolic extract of J. curcas seedcake was 22.12 µg/mL and had no mutagenicity effect against Salmonella typhimurium TA 1535. From this investigation it is evident that J. curcas seedacake from biofuel production might have promising biological activities including antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties. Therefore it could be a good source of natural medicine
Effect of different feed restriction regimens on lamb performance and carcass traits

Fifty Najdi ram lambs weighing an average of 38.1±0.5 kg were utilized in this study to determine the effects of feed restriction level with or without subsequent realimentation on lamb performance and carcass composition. Lambs were allotted randomly and equally into five groups. The groups were fed a control diet ad libitum; two groups fed 0.90 and 0.80 of ad libitum intake throughout the eight-week period of the trial (R), and two groups fed 0.90 and 0.80 of ad libitum intake for a six-week period followed by two weeks of realimentation (RR). All lambs were slaughtered after eight weeks of experimentation. Average daily gain (ADG) for the 0.90 and 0.80 ad libitum groups decreased by 7.6 and 26.9% during restriction, whereas the lambs during realimentation period had 35 and 30.5% faster ADG and 27.5 and 21.8% better feed:gain ratios than the control, respectively. At the end of the trial, final, empty and hot carcass weights and overall ADG of the 0.90 ad libitum RR group did not differ from control. Feeding performance values of the 0.80 ad libitum R group were the lowest among the treatments. The studied feed restriction regimens depressed the weights of empty stomach, tail fat, visceral fat, and subcutaneous fat; however, two weeks of realimentation were not enough to induce complete weight recovery in these tissues. The 0.90 ad libitum RR restriction routine can be adopted as a nutritional management practice for fattening Najdi lambs.
Invariant Collaborative Filtering to Popularity Distribution Shift

Collaborative Filtering (CF) models, despite their great success, suffer from severe performance drops due to popularity distribution shifts, where these changes are ubiquitous and inevitable in real-world scenarios. Unfortunately, most leading popularity debiasing strategies, rather than tackling the vulnerability of CF models to varying popularity distributions, require prior knowledge of the test distribution to identify the degree of bias and further learn the popularity-entangled representations to mitigate the bias. Consequently, these models result in significant performance benefits in the target test set, while dramatically deviating the recommendation from users’ true interests without knowing the popularity distribution in advance. In this work, we propose a novel learning framework, Invariant Collaborative Filtering (InvCF), to discover disentangled representations that faithfully reveal the latent preference and popularity semantics without making any assumption about the popularity distribution. At its core is the distillation of unbiased preference representations (i.e., user preference on item property), which are invariant to the change of popularity semantics, while filtering out the popularity feature that is unstable or outdated. Extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets and four evaluation settings (i.e., synthetic long-tail, unbiased, temporal split, and out-of-distribution evaluations) demonstrate that InvCF outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines in terms of popularity generalization ability on real recommendations. Visualization studies shed light on the advantages of InvCF for disentangled representation learning. Our codes are available at https://github.com/anzhang314/InvCF.
The Relationship between Basal Metabolic Rate and Daily Energy Expenditure in Birds and Mammals

We examined the relationship between daily energy expenditure (DEE) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) in birds and mammals. Two models of the relationship between DEE and BMR were distinguished: a "shared pathways" model in which DEE replaces BMR in the active organism and a "partitioned pathways" model in which DEE includes BMR-that is, BMR is separate from the metabolic pathways that result in activity metabolism (ACT), and DEE = ACT + BMR. The appropriate null hypotheses for the relationship between basal and active metabolism are rDEE· BMR = 0 and rACT· BMR = 0, respectively. Correlations of the residuals (d and b) of the logarithms of DEE and BMR from their allometric regressions with the logarithm of body mass were tested against these null models. Using phylogenetically independent contrasts, we found no significant relationship between DEE and BMR in birds, but a strong relationship (rdb = 0.86) among mammals. Thus, the hypothesis that sustained working capacity is related to basal metabolism is supported for mammals but not for birds. Residuals of metabolic variables from allometric regressions on body mass were greater for mammals than for birds and suggest that mammals are more diversified in their energetic physiology. The idea that sustainable energy expenditure may be pushed to physiological limits in mammals but not in birds is not supported, however, because the ratio of DEE to BMR has a somewhat lower mean and greater variance in mammals compared to birds. The nature of the relationship between DEE and BMR in mammals and the apparent absence of such a relationship in birds remain major puzzles in animal physiology.
Methods of testing potato cultivars for resistance to soft rot of tubers caused by Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica

The resistance of eight potato cultivars to tuber soft rot caused by E. carotovora subsp. atroseptica was assessed in 2 years using three different test methods. Similar cultivar resistance rankings were obtained for any one method within a year and between years for two methods (single site, infectivity titration), but not for the third (vacuum infiltration). However, the ranking of cultivars differed for the three methods. Ranking was not affected by inoculating the cortex or the more susceptible medullary tissue, or by assessing rotting in terms of infection frequency or lesion size, but it was affected by oxygen concentration during incubation. Differences among cultivars were greater when inoculated tubers were incubated anaerobically than when incubated with 5% oxygen. There was no relationship between the relative susceptibilities of cultivars to tuber soft rot in storage in January/February and those of mother tubers after planting.
Population Size and Natural History of Mariana Fruit Bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) on Sarigan, Mariana Islands

Based on count results, we estimated the population of Mariana fruit bats (Pteropus mariannus Desmarest) on Sarigan, Mariana Islands, to number 150-200 bats in 1999, 185-235 bats in 2000, and about 300-400 bats in 2001. Our results, plus those of two previous surveys, indicate that bat abundance on the island probably remained relatively stable at about 125-235 animals during much of the period from 1983 to 2000, then increased suddenly in 2001, most likely due to immigration from a neighboring island. Sarigan's population differs from those of larger islands in the archipelago by usually having smaller roost sizes, typically 3-75 bats, and large numbers of solitary bats that at times comprise up to half of the population. Colonies and smaller aggregations were composed primarily of harems with multiple females, whereas a nearly equal sex ratio occurred among solitary animals. Colonies roosted in isolated coconut trees in open grasslands and in native forest stands of various sizes, but avoided dense coconut forest. An estimated 30-50% of harem and solitary females possessed young in July 1999. Bats were recorded feeding on just six species of plants, which partly reflects the island's impoverished flora. We speculate that fruit bat abundance on Sarigan is limited primarily by food availability rather than hunting losses, in contrast to some other islands in the Marianas. Our study supports the contention that populations of P. mariannus in the northern Marianas are usually sedentary, but that interisland movements of larger numbers of bats may occur rarely.
Feeding behavior of rice bug Leptocorisa chinensis (Dallas) (Heteroptera: Alydidae) nymphs on rice panicles and rice plant extract

The feeding behavior of the rice bug Leptocorisa chinensis (Heteroptera: Alydidae) on the panicles of Oryza sativa rice was observed. The nymphs showed typical behavioral phases towards the rice panicles: antennation, extension of the rostrum, repeated dabbing with the labium, rostrum placing on the plant surface, stylet penetration and continuous sucking. The nymphs also showed similar behavioral phases except for continuous sucking on filter paper treated with a methanol extract of rice panicles. The frequency of bugs showing antennation and repeated dabbing was significantly higher on filter paper with the rice extract than on the control. These results suggest that there are chemical cues in rice panicles which stimulate behavior such as antennation and repeated dabbing by rice bugs.
Analysis of differential gene expression and alternative splicing in the liver and gastrointestinal tract in the lactating rat

of Dissertation Antony Thomas Athippozhy The Graduate School University of Kentucky 2011 ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENTIAL GENE EXPRESSION AND ALTERNATIVE SPLICING IN THE LIVER AND GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT IN THE LACTATING RAT ____________________ Abstract of Dissertation ___________________of Dissertation ___________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Center of Toxicology at the University of Kentucky By Antony Thomas Athippozhy Lexington, Kentucky Codirectors: Dr. Mary Vore, Professor of Toxicology and Dr. Arnold Stromberg, Professor of Statistics Lexington, Kentucky Copyright © Antony Thomas Athippozhy 2011
Antioxidative Activity of Sulfur-containing Flavor Compounds in Garlic

The antioxidative activity of garlic homogenates blended with distilled water and different amounts of soybean oil was examined. The antioxidative activity of garlic aroma concentrate and that of the oil layer from the garlic homogenate was strong. The stability of the three sulfur compounds in garlic, allicin, diallyl disulfide, and diallyl trisulfide, was analyzed by HPLC, diallyl disulfide being the most stable. It was found that the effectiveness and strength of diallyl disulfide as an antioxidant could be increased by additing α-tocopherol and l-ascorbyl palmitate in a lard system.
Current Status Of the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Eastern Sierra Morena, Southern Spain

The distribution range of the largest Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) population of Eastern Sierra Morena was assessed between 1999 and 2006. The past distribution was evaluated using field interviews, the present range was determined by sign searching (scats) in 5x5 km and 1x1 km UTM quadrats, and the annual population size was estimated by camera-trapping. Our results indicate that lynx distribution has been limited to granite areas, and since the middle of the 20th century lynx occupation was detected in only 17 5x5 km UTM quadrats. An important decline in lynx numbers has been registered since the early 1990s, resulting in only 11 UTM 5x5 km occupied quadrats between 2001 and 2002, with two subpopulations separated by a 5 km distance occupying 3 and 8 quadrats each. Considering 1x1 km UTM quadrats, the distribution range increased from 125 km2 in 2002 to 203 km2 in 2006. Also, between 2002 and 2006 the number of female territories increased from 19 to 31. The population size was assessed since 2004, increasing from 84 detected individuals (32 adults) to 135 individuals in 2006 (43 adults). The positive dynamics observed during the study was partially related to the development of a major conservation program. The lynx distribution was correlated with rabbit distribution and abundance, therefore conservation measures must be based on rabbit management in order to recover habitat carrying capacity since the most important Iberian lynx population is still too small.