Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Occurrence and partial genetic characterisation of
 
 Lettuce big‐vein associated virus
 
 and
 
 Mirafiori lettuce big‐vein virus
 
 infecting lettuce in Jordan

Correspondence Nida' Salem, Department of Plant Protection, School of Agriculture, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan. Email: n.salem@ju.edu. jo Abstract Lettuce big-vein disease (LBVD) is an economically damaging disease that occurs in most lettuce production areas worldwide. Several studies have associated LBVD with a complex of two viruses, Lettuce big-vein associated virus (LBVaV) and Mirafiori lettuce big-vein virus (MiLBVV). Both viruses are transmitted through soil by the zoospores of the chytridiomycete fungus Olpidium virulentus. During surveys carried out in two growing seasons from 2015 to 2016 in the main vegetable growing areas in Jordan (Jordan Valley, Jerash, and Madaba), 179 lettuce plants, 46 lettuce seedlings, and 56 weed plants were collected. RNA extraction was conducted from leaves of all samples. Associated viruses were identified using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with specific primer pairs targeting part of the coat protein (CP) genes of LBVaV and MiLBVV. RT-PCR results revealed that, out of 225 lettuce samples tested, 32 (14%) and 44 (20%) were singly infected with LBVaV and MiLBVV, respectively, and 73 (32%) samples were dually infected with LBVaV and MiLBVV. Overall, MiLBVV was detected in more lettuce samples (117) compared with LBVaV which was detected in 105 samples. Moreover, one sample of each weed species of Chenopodium murale and Sonchus oleraceus tested positive for MiLBVV and LBVaV, respectively. The partial nucleotide sequence of the CP genes of LBVaV and MiLBVV Jordanian isolates showed similarities to other isolates available in the NCBI database ranging between 93.9–100% and 88.3–100%, respectively. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the Jordanian isolates and inference from phylogenetic trees with strong support revealed well-defined sub-groups with little or no correlation with planting area or geographic origin. The occurrence of both viruses in lettuce plants was associated with the presence of resting spores and zoospores of Olpidium spp. in lettuce plants grown under field and growth chamber conditions. Lettuce plants inoculated with Olpidium spp. zoospores isolated from roots of symptomatic lettuce plants, developed LBVD-symptoms. At 60 days post-transplantation, both viruses were detected by RT-PCR in most of the plants analysed. Biological and molecular assays together with the light microscopy observations of resting spores and Received: 16 August 2019 Revised: 20 March 2020 Accepted: 24 March 2020 DOI: 10.1111/aab.12595
What’s the Benefit of a Video? The Effect of Nonmaterial Incentives on Response Rate and Bias in Web Surveys

Traditional survey research faces declining response rates due to changing cultural habits and technological developments. Researchers have developed novel approaches to increase respondents’ likelihood of participating in web surveys. However, we lack information about whether these methods indeed increase response rates and, if so, whether they bias the resulting data. This article focuses on the use of nonmaterial incentives in the form of a video that provides the invitees with information tailored to their life situation. Analysis of our experimental data shows that instead of increasing respondents’ probability of starting the survey, the video treatments actually decrease it. We provide evidence that the lower salience of the intrinsic benefits of survey participation in the invitation email significantly contributes to this reduction. Additionally, the effect of the nonmaterial incentive differs across subgroups, affecting nonresponse biases in line with employment status, gender, and migration background. We therefore conclude that using additional information in the form of a video as a nonmaterial survey incentive is only suitable under specific conditions.
Polymorphic Müllerian mimicry in a group of African butterflies: a re-assessment of the relationship between Danaus chrysippus, Acraea encedon and Acraea encedana (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Mullerian mimicry, in which there is convergence in coloration between unrelated unpalatable species, should lead to uniformity in appearance, not polymorphism, and so the occurrence in tropical Africa of unrelated species of unpalatable butterflies with corresponding polymorphic colour forms suggested a problem of special evolutionary interest. Field work in Uganda and Sierra Leone in 1964 72 demonstrated a statistical association between the occurrence and relative frequencies of polymorphic forms in Danaus chrysippus (Danainae) and Acraea encedon (Acraeinae) which was deemed as confirmation of a Mullerian relationship between them. There were, however, certain anomalies which at the time remained unresolved. Later, in 1976, it was discovered that what had been called A. encedon is in reality two sibling species. A. encedon and a new one, named as A. encedana. The two differ in the structure of both male and female genitalia and in the coloration and the food-plants of the larvae. The recognition of the additional species has enabled a re-assessment of the polymorphie Mullerian association with D. chrysippus. It emerges that, although there is a close qualitative and quantitative reciprocal mimetic relationship between A. encedana and D. chrysippus, the relationship between A. encedon and D. chrysippus is much weaker, and in places non-exitent. The possible origin of the mimetic polymorphism is discussed in terms of hybridization of previously allopatric and monomorphic populations which have met as a consequence of recent expansions of geographical range in all three species resulting from forest clearance and the spread of savanna-like conditions in previously forested areas.
Efficient Oxidative Esterification of Furfural Using Au Nanoparticles Supported on Group 2 Alkaline Earth Metal Oxides

Furfural (FF) is a strategic product for the development of highly valued chemicals from biomass. The oxidation product of FF, furoic acid (FA), is an important precursor for the synthesis of green esters, such as methyl furoate. Taking into account issues with the direct furfural oxidation, furfural derivatives, such as alkyl furoates, can be easily prepared via oxidative esterification. Here, Au nanoparticles that were immobilized on alkaline-earth metal oxide supports were studied for the oxidative esterification of furfural while using alcohol as both reactant and solvent. The formation of esters is favored by the presence of basic sites on catalyst surface, resulting in high selectivity, preventing the formation of the acetal as a by-product. The Au/MgO sample provided up to 95% methyl furoate (MF) yield, a fast reaction rate, and high performance for furfural:Au molar ratios between 50 and 300. Furthermore, this catalyst was stable during reuse, since both the selectivity and the activity were maintained after four cycles. Oxidative esterification products were achieved in the presence of other alcohols, leading to the formation of esters of up to C5 (isopentyl furoate) with high selectivity (>99%). Linear and branched esters were formed, but the long-chain linear alcohols resulted in higher yields, such as n-butyl furoate in 94% yield.
Strain engineering of the electronic and thermoelectric properties of titanium trisulphide monolayers

The goal of this work is to evaluate the effect of mechanical strain on a number of electronic and thermoelectric properties of TiS3 monolayers. We have used density-functional theory (DFT) calculations at the hybrid HSE06 level to evaluate the response of the electronic band gap and mobilities, as well as the thermopower, the electrical conductivity, the electronic contribution to the thermal conductivity and the power factor. Our calculations indicate that the band gaps can be increased by 44.25%, reaching a value of 1.55 eV from that of the undeformed case of 1.07 eV. The behaviour of HSE06 band gaps agrees well with that calculated at the G0W0 level of theory. We evaluate the variation of electron mobilities with strain and discuss the possible causes of the existent disagreement between experiments and simulations. In addition, our calculations predict small changes in the Seebeck coefficient, whose Sy component can be enhanced by up to 11% with a compression of 5% along the y-axis. On the other hand, the electrical conductivity experiences higher variations, nearly doubling its value from the undeformed case under the semiconductor regime of doping and mechanical deformation. Finally, our predicted power factors can be enhanced by nearly twice under the same conditions by which the electrical conductivity is also improved, indicating that the latter drives the optimisation of the former.
Interaction of a Cationic N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide Copolymer with Rat Visceral Yolk Sacs Cultured in vitro and Rat Liver in vivo

N-(2-Hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymers and polycations, such as poly-L-lysine, have been proposed as potential drug delivery systems. HPMA copolymers were synthesised to contain a low percentage of tyrosinamide residues facilitating their radioiodination, and in one case also containing a cationic group. The effect of the cationic residue on the association of copolymer with rat visceral yolk sacs incubated in vitro was studied. Cationic HPMA copolymer was found to associate progressively with the tissue over a five hour incubation period. Inhibitor studies (low temperature or addition of 2,4-dinitrophenol (50 μg/ml) indicated that this association was not primarily due to pinocytic capture of polymer, but due to adsorption onto the cell surface. Addition of non-radiolabelled cationic copolymer to the incubation medium did not in itself affect the rate of fluid-phase pinocytosis in yolk sac cells. Release of previously accumulated cationic copolymer from the tissue was shown to be rapid and consistent with desorption from the cell surface. Following intravenous administration to rats, the clearance of cationic copolymer from the bloodstream was rapid, the majority of radioactivity being recovered in the liver (after 30 min). Subcellular fractionation of liver showed that the cationic HPMA copolymer bound initially to the liver cell membrane. Over a 60 minute period, approximately 58% of radiolabelled polymer was transferred slowly to the secondary lysosomes.
First Report of Plant Regeneration via Somatic Embryogenesis from Shoot Apex-Derived Callus of Hedychium muluense R.M. Smith

ABSTRACT The genus Hedychium consists of about 50 species, with increasing popularity as ornamentals and potential as medicinal crop plants, but there are no reports on somatic embryogenic regeneration of any member of this genus. The objective of this investigation was to establish an in vitro regeneration system based on somatic embryogenesis for Hedychium muluense R.M. Smith using shoot apex-derived callus. Callus was induced and proliferated on a modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium (CIPM) supplemented with 9.05 μM 2–4, D, and 4.6 μM kinetin. Friable callus developed into somatic embryos upon transfer to liquid medium (MS basal salts and Gamborg's vitamins) that was supplemented with 0.6 μM thidiazuron (TDZ) and 8.9 μM 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and shaken for four weeks. The cultures were then transferred to three Hedychium embryo-development media (HEDM) of varying strengths: HEDM, 1/2 HEDM, and 1/4 HEDM. All three media contained both 0.6 μM TDZ and 8.9 μM BA. Somatic embryo production was higher in full strength HEDM, which produced an average of 103 somatic embryos/explant, half of which could be converted into shoots within a month. Regenerated shoots were readily rooted on a medium supplemented with 0.6 μM 3-indoleacetic acid (IAA) and acclimatized before transfer to the greenhouse.
One‐third optical frequency divider for dual‐wavelength optical signals based on an optoelectronic oscillator

An optical frequency divider for dual-wavelength optical signals based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The Mach–Zehnder modulator in the OEO is biased at the minimum transmission point, the OEO-based frequency divided signal originates from system noise. When the oscillation phase and amplitude conditions met, it gets stabilised at an oscillation frequency which is one-third of the frequency interval of the injected dual-wavelength optical signal. A proof-of-concept experiment is verified. With the frequency interval of the dual-wavelength optical signal ranging from 101.4 to 120.6 GHz, the RF signals ranging from 33.8 to 40.2 GHz are successfully generated. The power ripple is lower than 2.92 dB and the rejection ratio of the harmonic components is larger than 39 dB for all the conditions. The phase noise values of the generated RF signals are kept to be around −105 dBc/Hz@10 kHz.
Evaluating Program Impact on Resilience: Evidence from Lesotho’s Child Grants Programme

Abstract Social protection programmes can play a crucial role in enhancing household resilience. Although there is vast evidence on the impact of cash transfer projects on many welfare outcomes, no study examines the impact of cash transfers on a composite measure of resilience. This paper fills this important gap by employing a difference-in-difference estimator in the context of a randomised control trial in Lesotho to explore the causal effect of a Child Grant Programme on resilience capacity. Results show a positive and significant short-term impact, largely driven by the beneficial effects for less resilient households. The main transmission channels are increases in household expenditure and food security. Strong stimulus of the Programme on expenditure in education, a key resilience determinant, anticipates longer-run virtuous intergenerational dynamics in resilience building. The policy implication of this work is that social protection interventions should be embedded within the larger framework of resilience-enhancing programmes.
IMMUNOELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF FODRIN IN THE UNROOFED SPECIMEN OF THE ADHERENT HUMAN NEUTROPHIL

We reported previously that fodrin is concentrated in the posterior portion of the human neutrophil stimulated with the chemotactic peptide (Fujimoto and Ogawa, J. Cell Sci., 96: 477-486, 1990). In the present study, the mechanically unroofed specimen of glass-adherent neutrophils was examined to define finer details of fodrin distribution. By immunofluorescence microscopy, F-actin and fodrin were positively labeled; after stimulation with the chemotactic peptide, fodrin was found more densely in the posterior half of the cell as in the whole cell observation. In ultrathin sections of the unroofed and immunogold-labeled specimen, two dimensional distribution of fodrin could be observed. Some gold particles were observed with filaments of about 5 nm in diameter, but others were on amorphous materials. In the stimulated neutrophil, labeling for fodrin was mainly found between straight filaments of about 10 nm in diameter which were densely distributed in the posterior portion of the cell. The results indicate that the redistribution of fodrin in the stimulated neutrophil is concurrent with other cytoskeletal changes.
Cytology, Pollen Stainability and Yield in Desynaptic Autotetraploid Capsicum

Autotetraploidy was induced in the genus Capsicum annuum L. , an economically important spice crop of considerable local importance. A few plants produced wrinkled fruits in the first generation with very few seeds in them and turned out to be desynaptic autotetraploid plants after cytological analysis. Pollen mother cells of the desynaptic autotetraploid showed either all or an overwhelming number of univalents. The bivalents included rod type and ring bivalents were very infrequent. The total absence of tri- and tetravalents was noteworthy. Failure of pairing between homologous chromosomes at prophase and metaphase I has been ascribed to desynaptic condition. Laggards were frequent and often formed small, supernumerary nuclei.
The o-Phenylenediamine-Horseradish Peroxidase System: Enzyme Kinetics in the General Chemistry Laboratory

We have developed an enzyme kinetics laboratory experiment that can easily be incorporated into an undergraduate chemistry program. The purpose of the experiment is to measure the kinetic parameters in the oxidative coupling reaction of o-phenylenediamine (OPD) to 2,3-diaminophenazine (DAP), a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Horseradish peroxidase is a protein with a mass of 34 kDa found in the root of the horseradish plant. Students follow the kinetics of the reaction by monitoring the change in intensity of the colored product at 450 nm. Several kinetic runs are performed with varying OPD concentration and fixed HRP concentration and the kinetic parameters are determined by straight-line plots of the Michaelis-Menten equation. Vernier Software Colorimeters interfaced to personal computers via the LabVIEW programming language were used in the experiments. Alternatively, conventional UV-vis spectrophotometers linked to strip-chart recorders could be used for measuring the ki.
Changing Isotopic Food Webs of Two Economically Important Fish in Mediterranean Coastal Lakes with Different Trophic Status

Transitional waters are highly productive ecosystems, providing essential goods and services to the biosphere and human population. Human influence in coastal areas exposes these ecosystems to continuous internal and external disturbance. Nitrogen-loads can affect the composition of the resident community and the trophic relationships between and within species, including fish. Based on carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope analyses of individuals, we explored the feeding behaviour of two ecologically and economically important omnivorous fish, the eel Anguilla anguilla and the seabream Diplodus annularis, in three neighbouring lakes characterised by different trophic conditions. We found that A. anguilla showed greater generalism in the eutrophic lake due to the increased contribution of basal resources and invertebrates to its diet. By contrast, the diet of D. annularis, which was mainly based on invertebrate species, became more specialised, focusing especially on polychaetes. Our results suggest that changes in macroinvertebrate and fish community composition, coupled with anthropogenic pressure, affect the trophic strategies of high trophic level consumers such as A. anguilla and D. annularis. Detailed food web descriptions based on the feeding choices of isotopic trophospecies (here Isotopic Trophic Units, ITUs) enable identification of the prey taxa crucial for the persistence of omnivorous fish stocks, thus providing useful information for their management and habitat conservation.
A DNA Barcoding system integrating multigene sequence data

A number of systems have been developed for taxonomic identification of DNA sequence data. However, in eukaryotes, these systems are largely based on single predefined genes, and thus are vulnerable to biases from limited character sampling, and are not able to identify most sequences of genomic origin. We here demonstrate an implementation for multigene DNA barcoding. First, a reference framework is built of frequently sequenced loci. Query sequence data are then organized by excising sequences homologous to references and assigning species names where the level of sequence similarity between query and reference falls within the (gene‐appropriate) level of intraspecific variation usually observed. The approach is compared to some existing methods including ‘bagpipe_phylo’, a re‐implementation for taxonomic assignment on phylogenies. Seventy‐eight per cent of the species and 94% of the genera known to be present in arthropod test queries were correctly inferred by the proposed multigene system. Most critically, the rate of species identification was increased over using a COI‐only approach. Twenty‐four per cent of species in the queries were found only in non‐COI genes, with no clear reduction in the accuracy of species assignment at many of these other loci. Similarly, additional species assignments were made for a pooled metagenomic data set using non‐COI columns. On a smaller query data set of 273 bee sequences, the accuracy of species assignment using modified calculation of distances was indistinguishable from phylogeny‐based taxonomic identification. Standardized single fragment DNA barcoding remains an invaluable tool in species identification for PCR‐generated sequence data. The approach developed here supplements the established species‐dense DNA barcode backbone with other genomic data, reducing error via integration of independent genetic loci and permitting additional identifications for non‐barcode fragments. The latter will be particularly relevant in monitoring of community genomics using next‐generation sequencing platforms.
The digital Earth Observation Librarian: a data mining approach for large satellite images archives

ABSTRACT Throughout the years, various Earth Observation (EO) satellites have generated huge amounts of data. The extraction of latent information in the data repositories is not a trivial task. New methodologies and tools, being capable of handling the size, complexity and variety of data, are required. Data scientists require support for the data manipulation, labeling and information extraction processes. This paper presents our Earth Observation Image Librarian (EOLib), a modular software framework which offers innovative image data mining capabilities for TerraSAR-X and EO image data, in general. The main goal of EOLib is to reduce the time needed to bring information to end-users from Payload Ground Segments (PGS). EOLib is composed of several modules which offer functionalities such as data ingestion, feature extraction from SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data, meta-data extraction, semantic definition of the image content through machine learning and data mining methods, advanced querying of the image archives based on content, meta-data and semantic categories, as well as 3-D visualization of the processed images. EOLib is operated by DLR’s (German Aerospace Center’s) Multi-Mission Payload Ground Segment of its Remote Sensing Data Center at Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
A FACTS Devices Allocation Procedure Attending to Load Share

Power system stability is a topic which is attracting considerable interest due to the increase of both electrical demand and distributed variable generation. Since Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices are an increasingly widespread solution to these issues, it is important to study how their allocation procedure should be done. This paper seeks to assess the influence of load share in FACTS devices allocation. Despite this interest, researchers, as well as system planners, have mainly focused on studying single power system configuration rather than using a wider approach. Keeping this in mind, we have iteratively created several load share scenarios based on an IEEE 14-bus test system. Subsequently, we have applied an heuristic procedure in order to demonstrate how load share may affect the results of the FACTS devices allocation procedure. Additionally, we have compared results from two different objective functions so as to evaluate our proposal. Finally, we have proposed a solution to FACTS allocation which takes load share into account. Our tests have revealed that, depending on the distribution of load within the power system, the optimal location for a FACTS device may change. Furthermore, we have also found some discrepancies and similarities between results from distinct objective functions.