Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Campylobacter jejuni: A Review of its Characteristics, Pathogenicity, Ecology, Distribution, Subspecies Characterization and Molecular Methods of Detection

Campylobacter jejuni is considered to be the leading cause of enteric illness in the United States and other industrialized nations, causing mild to severe symptoms including serious infections of the extremities and permanent neurological symptoms. The organism is a cytochrome oxidase positive, microaerophilic, curved Gram-negative rod exhibiting corkscrew motility and is carried in the intestine of many wild and domestic animals, particularly avian species including poultry, where the intestine is colonized resulting in healthy animals as carriers. Wildlife have long been considered an infectious reservoir for campylobacters because of their close association with and contamination of surface waters. This review deals with the areas of: phenotypic characteristics of C. jejuni and related human pathogenic species of Campylobacter, their ecological distribution, virulence factors, isolation of C. jejuni from foods, serotyping of Campylobacter isolates, bacteriophage typing, molecular methods of detecting and typing campylobacters, the viable but nonculturable state of campylobacters, the coccoid form of C. jejuni and immunomagnetic capture of C. jejuni.
Effect of auxins and the biostimulator algaminoplant on rhizogenesis in stem cuttings of two dogwood cultivars (Cornus alba 'Aurea' and 'Elegantissima').

The UE-imposed restrictions on the manufacture and application of plant pro- tection chemicals impose on the nurseryman the need to screen for new substances that are environmentally friendly and yet effective in the production of plant material. Biopre- parations may constitute such a group as they contain substance little affecting the envi- ronment. The aim of the work was to evaluate effects of the biopreparation Algamino- Plant on rooting of stem cuttings in Cornus alba 'Aurea' and C. alba 'Elegantissima'. Freshly harvested cuttings were sprayed with the 0.2% water solution of the bioprepara- tion. To compare its effectiveness with the commercial rooting powders used routinely in the nursery production part of the cuttings were treated with "Ukorzeniacz AB" (0.3% NAA) or Rhizopon AA (2% IBA). Both powders little affected rhizogenesis. Application of the biopreparation increased percentage and degree of rooting in dogwood as compared to control cuttings what shows its potential in a commercial production. The above treat- ment increased chlorophyll, carbohydrate contents and free amino acids in leaves of the sprayed cuttings.
Evaluation of Whole Transcriptome Amplification Methods by RNA-Seq

Library construction for whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) from low-quantity RNA samples requires additional amplification after reverse transcription into cDNA. Several approaches have been developed to minimize variability and biases. This study aimed at quantifying and characterizing transcripts amplified using four commercial kits: (1) NuGEN Ovation RNA-Seq System V2, (2) Clontech SMARTer Ultra Low RNA Kit for Illumina Sequencing, (3) Sigma Transplex WTA2-SEQ Kit and (4) Miltenyi Biotec μMACS SuperAmp Kit II for NGS. The amplification reactions for each method were started with input amounts of Universal Mouse Reference RNA (UMRR) equivalent to approximately 10 to 300 cells. Resulting libraries built according to Illumina's TruSeq procedure were compared to unamplified references prepared from 1 μg of UMR total RNA that was either enriched for poly-A RNA or depleted of rRNA. Sequencing data were evaluated for read alignment, library complexity, transcript coverage, and gene expression with regard to sensitivity and dynamic range. The Sigma kit-derived samples showed overrepresentation of genes categorized as snoRNAs, snRNAs and pseudogenes. The current Miltenyi Biotec protocol yielded low library complexity and increase of multi-mapped reads. Samples amplified with the Clontech and NuGEN methods performed well across all criteria. These kits will be tested further using cells as starting material.
Cultured mosquito cells Aedes albopictus C6/36 (Dip., Culicidae) responsive to 20‐hydroxyecdysone and non‐steroidal ecdysone agonist

Abstract: A cell line derived from an important mosquito, Aedes albopictus Skuse, was responsive to treatments with the insect moulting hormone 20‐hydroxyecdysone (20E) and two new insecticides, RH‐5849 and RH‐5992, by cell clumping and inhibition of cell proliferation. The Aedes C6/36 cells showed typical numerous long extensions, and fluorescent BODIPY®‐phalloidin staining demonstrated that they resulted from F‐actin polymerization. In addition, the ultrastructure of treated cells showed a high degree of vacuolarization that is in accord with protein synthesis. SDS‐PAGE demonstrated that three proteins were induced that may belong to the hsp70 family. In conclusion, an insect cell line that responds to 20E may be useful for screening and identifying hormone analogues and novel insecticides.
Relatedness and status number in seed orchard crops

Status number is a measure of effective population size that is based on current relatedness only. Formulae are developed for group coancestry (=average coancestry) and status number for seed orchard crops. The formulae consider (1) differences in reproductive success among orchard genotypes, (2) relatedness between pairs of orchard genotypes, (3) inbreeding of orchard genotypes, (4) influence of pollen contamination (considering its relatedness both to itself and to the genotypes in the orchard), and (5) gender differences and sexual asymmetries of orchard genotypes. Properties of status number and other measures of effective number are discussed. They may refer to rate or state, to the reference population or the development of an idealized population, and to different moments in the sexual cycle.
Association Preferences of Unisexual Amazon Mollies (Poecilia formosa): Differential Response to Swords Based on Sex of the Bisexual Parental Species

Most females exhibit preferences for certain males and females based on mating and social decisions. Unisexual females that reproduce by gynogenesis are also expected to express association preferences, which may have been inherited from parental species, or may have evolved in response to selection pressures associated with their unisexual mating system. The unisexual, gynogenetic Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa) is a hybrid of the Atlantic molly (P. mexicana) and sailfin molly (P. latipinna). Although none of these three species have sword tails, the two parental species differ in preference for swords on conspecifics. We further examined the variation in pre-existing bias within this species complex by testing Amazon molly preference to associate with male and female sailfin mollies with artificially attached swords. Amazon mollies significantly avoided females with colored swords, but were indiscriminate towards swords on males. Thus, this hybrid species shares its lack of preference for swords on males with female Atlantic mollies and females from one population of sailfin mollies. Avoidance of females with swords by Amazon mollies is unique in this species complex. We discuss the implications and functions of association preferences expressed by Amazon mollies and propose hypotheses for the differential response towards swords based on sex.
Karyotype Analysis in Fourteen Species and Varieties of the Genus Bromus L. (Poaceae)

Karyotypic analyses were performed in twenty populations of fourteen Bromus species and varieties from three sections of Bromus L. , Genea Dum. , and Pnigma Dumort. , growing in Iran for the first time. The chromosome numbers of B. stenostachyus, B. tomentosus and B. kopetdaghensis are new and new polyploidy level has been reported for B. cappadocicus, B. erectus, B. variegatus and B. tomentosus. The ANOVA and LSD tests revealed a significant differences (p<0.01) in the size of chromosomes as well as chromosome arms among the populations of each species, among species with similar somatic chromosome numbers in each section and also among the three sections studied, indicting the role of the chromatin change in the species diversification in the genus Bromus. PCA analysis showed that the mean chromatin length of the chromosomes is one of the most variable karyotypic features among the Bromus species studied. Pearson correlation determined among the karyotypic features showed that the increase in the mean chromatin length has been accompanied with an increase in the size of both short and long arms of the chromosomes. The increase in the mean chromatin length showed a significant correlation with the TF percentage therefore increasing the level of karyotype symmetry.
Seasonal decline in body size of Coot chicks

I investigated the seasonal variation in growth rates among the semi-precocial chicks of European Coots Fulica atra. Mean body size and nutritional condition at four weeks of age showed a distinct seasonal decline among first broods, whereas variation in growth was independent of hatching date among later broods. Body dimensions differed between years, but there was no significant between-year variation in the seasonal patterns in chick growth. The seasonal pattern in mean body size was not explained by differences in mean egg mass, brood size or parental age between early and late breeding pairs. Independently of hatching date, chick body size was positively related to egg mass and negatively to brood size one week after hatching. To ascertain whether the seasonal decline in chick growth among first broods was due to a difference in the quality of early and late pairs (parental quality hypothesis), the brood care period of individual pairs was experimentally advanced or delayed by exchanging clutches that differed in laying date. In the first half of the season, the mean body size and nutritional condition of broods of experimental pairs were associated with the original hatching date, and not with the assigned actual (advanced or delayed) hatching date. Hence, the higher growth rate in the earliest broods was consistent with the parental quality hypothesis. In the second half of the season the mean body size and nutritional condition of broods fostered by experimentally advanced or delayed pairs were associated with the actual hatching date, and not with the original one. Thus, the mean body size and condition of chicks were causally related to hatching date in the second half of the season, either through a hatching date-linked deterioration of the environmental conditions for chick growth (date hypothesis) or through a decline in the quality of chicks with progressive hatching date (chick quality hypothesis). Analysis of individual variation in body size among chicks which were sexed upon recapture as adults, revealed a seasonal decline only among males. Body dimensions of female chicks were independent of hatching date. Finally, chicks of either sex that grew poorly were significantly smaller as adults. Therefore, variation in juvenile growth may represent a major factor in determining the reproductive value of coot chicks, as breeding success may depend on phenotypic differences in adult size.
Noninvasive Estimation of Black Bear Abundance Incorporating Genotyping Errors and Harvested Bear

Abstract Estimating black bear (Ursus americanus) population size is a difficult but important requirement when justifying harvest quotas and managing populations. Advancements in genetic techniques provide a means to identify individual bears using DNA contained in tissue and hair samples, thereby permitting estimates of population abundance based on established mark–capture–recapture methodology. We expand on previous noninvasive population-estimation work by geographically extending sampling areas (36,848 km2) to include the entire Northern Lower Peninsula (NLP) of Michigan, USA. We selected sampling locations randomly within biologically relevant bear habitat and used barbed wire hair snares to collect hair samples. Unlike previous noninvasive studies, we used tissue samples from harvested bears as an additional sampling occasion to increase recapture probabilities. We developed subsampling protocols to account for both spatial and temporal variance in sample distribution and variation in sample quality using recently published quality control protocols using 5 microsatellite loci. We quantified genotyping errors using samples from harvested bears and estimated abundance using statistical models that accounted for genotyping error. We estimated the population of yearling and adult black bears in the NLP to be 1,882 bears (95% CI = 1,389–2,551 bears). The derived population estimate with a 15% coefficient of variation was used by wildlife managers to examine the sustainability of harvest over a large geographic area.
Generic linear mixed-effects individual-tree biomass models for Pinus massoniana in southern China

Quantification of forest biomass is important for practical forestry and for scientific purposes. It is fundamental to develop generic individual-tree biomass models suitable for large-scale forest biomass estimation. However, compatibility of forest biomass estimates at different scales may become a problem. We developed generic individual-tree biomass models using a mixed-effects modeling approach based on aboveground biomass data of Masson pine (Pinus massoniana Lamb.) from nine provinces in southern China. Mixed-effects modeling could provide an effective approach to solving the compatibility of forest biomass estimates at different scales. A simple allometric function requiring diameter at breast height was used as a base model to construct generic individual-tree mixed-effects biomass models. Two factors of tree origin (natural and planted forests) and geographic region (nine provinces or three subregions) were included as random effect factors in the models. The results showed that the mixed-effects model not only provided more accurate estimates, but also possessed good universality compared with the population average model. We, therefore, recommend the mixed-effects model 17 to estimate national and regional-scale biomass for Masson pine in southern China. The mixed-effects modeling approach is versatile and can also be applied to construct generic individual-tree models for other tree species and variables.
Current Trends in Cabbage Breeding

Summary Cabbage is an important vegetable crop of the family Brassicaceae and is grown in many countries of the globe. There are different types of cabbage depending upon shape, size, and color. It is a highly cross-pollinated crop where heterosis in F1 hybrid progeny has been exploited so largely in developing countries too. Due to high yield, strong disease resistance, wide adaptability, good quality, and uniform economic characters. The rate of conversion from open pollinated varieties to hybrid varieties and seed replacement ratio is very high in this crop. There are different temperature requirements for fresh vegetable and seed production purposes. The self-incompatibility and male sterility systems are present in the crop, which facilitates easy and cheaper hybrid seed production. For the successful seed production program we need suitable production area, congenial environment, and stable parents. The present review deals with the vegetative, reproductive biology, breeding methods, heterosis breeding, maintenance and multiplication of self-incompatible, and male sterile lines biotechnology as well as the commercial approaches for hybrid seed production of the crop.
Semantic multi-modal reprojection for robust visual question answering

Despite the recent progress in the development of Vision-Language models in accurate visual question answering (VQA), the robustness of these models is still quite limited under the presence of out-of-distribution datasets that include unanswerable questions. In our work, we first implement a randomized VQA dataset with unanswerable questions to test the robustness of a state-of-the-art VQA model. The dataset combines the visual inputs with randomized questions from the VQA v2 dataset to test the sensitivity of predictions from the model. We establish that even on unanswerable questions that are not relevant to the visual clues, a state-of-the-art VQA model either fails to predict the “unknown” answer, or gives an inaccurate answer with a high softmax score. To alleviate this issue without needing to retrain the large backbone models, we propose a technique called Cross Modal Augmentation (CMA), a multi-modal semantic augmentation during test time only, which reprojects the visual and textual inputs into multiple copies, while maintaining semantic information. These multiple instances, with similar semantics, are then fed to the same model and the predictions are combined to achieve a more robust output from the model. We demonstrate that using this model-agnostic technique enables the VQA model to provide more robust answers in scenarios that may include unanswerable questions.
IN VITRO ANALYSIS OF PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF PARTHENIUM HYSTEROPHORUS L. AGAINST PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS

An extract from the Parthenium hysterophorus L. leaves were screened for their phytochemical constituents and its antimicrobial activity against clinical isolates of bacterial and fungal cultures. Bacterial culture includes both Gram positive and Gram negative bacterium. The solvent used for the study was methanol. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Carbohydrates, Cardiac Glycosides, Flavonoids, Glycosides, Phenols, Proteins, Saponins, Terpenoids, Tannins and Steroids. Agar well diffusion method was used to test the antimicrobial activity of both the standard antibiotic and plant extract. The antimicrobial activity exhibited by the methanol leaf extract has shown significant potential in inhibiting various pathogens.
Marketing Research for Mission-based Thrift Suggests Relationship Marketing Strategy

In order to alleviate the risks associated with a lack of objective marketing research data and to apply marketing research in a unique niche, the author, in collaboration with a local missionbased thrift (“Thrift XYZ”), conducts marketing research regarding the motivations and preferences of shoppers and donators for one primary thrift location in North Carolina as a gratis community service. The findings are that XYZ’s shoppers and donators routinely and regularly shop and donate (respectively) with XYZ and that the nature of this target market is ideal for developing and applying a relationship marketing strategy with each/both groups.
Effects of forest type and stream size on volume and distribution of stream wood: legacies of wildfire in a Euro-Mediterranean context

Abstract. Downed wood pieces are key links between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. They promote organic matter retention, create habitat, and potentially increase stream productivity. The stock of downed wood in a river system is a product of the interaction between wood supply, transport, in situ losses, and retention characteristics of the system. Fire and forest management are important disturbances that influence the amount and organization of stream wood with boom-and-bust periods of recruitment and fluvial transport processes. We examined 1st- through 3rd-order Portuguese streams flowing through 3 common silvicultural systems in southern Europe: forests of cork oak, eucalyptus, and maritime pine. Our data set included 1483 pieces of wood in 27 streams, all of which had experienced extensive wildfires within the previous 6 y. We used binned neighbor-k analysis to assess wood organization (segregated, random, or aggregated). We then used linear mixed-effects modeling to evaluate the effects of stream order, forest type, and their interaction on wood volume and organization. The best predictor of wood volume and organization was the interaction between forest type and stream order. Most wood pieces were burned and organization was low, suggesting that arrangement of wood was largely a product of input dynamics rather than transport processes at this time. Potential drivers of across-system variability included vegetation obstructions, wood length∶channel width ratios, management actions, and effects of fire. Climate models predict more droughts in the Euro-Mediterranean region in the future, with implications for wood volume, transport, and function as terrestrial vegetation invades intermittent stream channels and plant communities shift from managed forests to shrublands with few trees.
Negative immunostaining of Duchenne muscular dystrophy(DMD) and mdx muscle surface membrane with antibody against synthetic peptide fragment predicted from DMD cDNA.

Recent studies of Kunkel and his associatesl)-5) have clarified the cloned complementary DNA sequences corresponding to the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene. In the end of 1987, Hoffman et al.~>>7) obtained specific antibodies directed to the proteins encoded by fragments of the mouse DMD gene which is very similar to the human DMD gene. These antibodies recognized a specific protein, named "dystrophin" in normal skeletal and cardiac muscle of both humans and mice, which is absent in two DMD patients and mdx mice. By using these antibodies, Hoffman et al.°) have shown that dystrophin is associated with intracellular membrane fraction, especially the triads, on the basis of Western blot analysis using the pellet obtained by the subcellular fractionation of the mouse and rabbit skeletal muscle. Here we report that the antiserum raised against peptide fragment prepared as predicted from the distinctive region of DMD cDNA stained clearly the surface membranes of normal skeletal muscles of both humans and mice, but did not those of both DMD and mdx skeletal muscles, immunohistochemically. Materials and methods. The peptide fragment was predicted from position 1526 to 1675 on the human cDNA map7} and an extra Tyr was added to the N-terminus. The protected peptide was synthesized by the solid phase method on Applied Biosystems model 430A and deprotected with HF.9) The peptide was purified by preparative reversed phase HPLC. It consists of 51 amino acids, having a molecular weight of 6,267. New Zealand white female rabbit was immunized with intradermal injection of 2 mg of the peptide with Freund's complete adjuvant 3 times every 2 weeks to obtain the antibody. The 4 im frozen sections of the biopsied muscles of 5 patients with DMD and 5 other related neuromuscular diseases and 3 normal controls and 3 mdx (C57BL/lOScSn-mdx) and normal control mice (C57BL/1OScSn) hind limb muscles were incubated with antiserum and stained with fluorescence labeled antibody against rabbit IgG and were observed under fluorescence microscope (Zeiss, Axiophot). Results. As shown in Fig. 1B, the antiserum stained the whole surface
Refining the time span between the early Holocene Askja-S and Hässeldalen tephras through differential dating based on varve counting from Lake Czechowskie (N Poland)

(1) Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 5.2: Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, Potsdam, Germany, (2) Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, BiK-F, TSP6 Evolution and Climate, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt a. M. , Germany, (3) Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Department of Environmental Resources and Geohazards, 87-100 Toruń, Poland, (4) Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Centre in Warsaw, Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warsaw, Poland