Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PHOTORESPONSES OF Arabidopsis SEEDLINGS EXPRESSING AN INTRODUCED OAT phyA cDNA: PERSISTENCE OF ETIOLATED PLANT TYPE RESPONSES IN LIGHT‐GROWN PLANTS

The photocontrol of hypocotyl elongation has been studied in etiolated and light‐grown wild type (WT) Arabidopsis thaliana (L. Heynh) seedlings, and in two homozygous isogenic lines that have been transformed with the oat phy A gene coding sequence under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter. For etiolated seedlings the inhibition of hypocotyl elongation by continuous broad band far‐red light (FR) is saturated at much lower photon fluence rates in the transgenic seedlings compared with WT seedlings. Furthermore, whereas de‐etiolation of WT seedlings leads to loss of responsiveness of the hypocotyls to prolonged FR, de‐etiolated transgenic seedlings continue to show a pronounced FR‐mediated inhibition of elongation. This may reflect the persistence of a FR‐high irradiance response (HIR) mediated by the introduced oat phytochrome A. Although the hypocotyls of light‐grown transgenic seedlings display a qualitatively normal end‐of‐day FR growth promotion, such seedlings display an aberrant shade‐avoidance response to reduced red:far‐red ratio (R:FR). These results are discussed in relation to the proposal that the constitutive expression of phytochrome A leads to the persistence of photoresponse modes normally restricted to etiolated plants.
Efficacy of an animal-activated frightening device on urban elk and mule deer

Abstract Cervids readily adapt to suitable human-altered landscapes and can cause several types of damage, including economic loss associated with landscape and agricultural plantings, human health and safety concerns, and adverse impacts on natural habitats. The need for effective, practical, and nonlethal tools to manage damage caused by elk (Cervus elaphus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has been heightened by the growing prevalence of locally overabundant populations and public demand for nonlethal wildlife management methods. Various frightening devices are available commercially, but most have not been subjectively evaluated. We used consumption measurements to evaluate the efficacy of a specific motion-activated light- and sound-emitting frightening device for urban mule deer and elk. The devices proved ineffective; deer and elk ignored them. As the demand for frightening devices to reduce deer and elk damage increases, it is important that research be conducted to evaluate the efficacy of new devices so that users know what level of efficacy to expect.
Genetic polymorphism of adult reindeer coat colour in a herding cooperative in Finnish Lapland

In a random sample of 188 adult reindeer belonging to a reindeer herding cooperative in Finnish Lapland, the following coat colour mutants were identified: Abf at the locus Agouti (A), kalppinokka (WNk) at the locus White Nose (WN) and white at the locus W (White). Coefficients of coat colour phenotypic polymorphism K were estimated, in order to quantify this genetic polymorphism. Estimations of K were 12.8% for the locus A (Agouti), 5.1% for the locus WN (White Nose), and 7.5% for the locus W (White). This polymorphism results probably from a change in fitness coefficient of genotypes carrying colour mutants following domestication in a random mating context which has not yet been proved.
Potential of Ypt1 and ITS gene regions for the detection of Phytophthora species in a lab‐on‐a‐chip DNA hybridization array

A novel DNA-chip hybridization assay that uses the ras-related GTP-binding protein 1 gene (Ypt1) was developed for the identification of several devastating Phytophthora species. The hybridization was conducted in a portable microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device for fast and accurate detection of 40 Phytophthora, two Pythium and one Phytopythium species. Moreover, the functionality of the Ypt1 region was examined in comparison to an array for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region by in silico modelling. The difference in species-specific capture probe sequences was lower for the ITS than for the Ypt1 region. While ITS-probes of Phytophthora ramorum, Phytophthora fragariae and Phytophthora lateralis cross-reacted with up to 11 non-target species, Ypt1-probes were specific except for P. fragariae/Phytophthora rubi. First analyses of artificially inoculated Rhododendron leaves successfully demonstrated the usability of the respective capture probes for the Ypt1 and the ras-related plant protein Rab1a gene region. The on-chip hybridization enabled the detection of up to 1 pg lL1 target DNA depending on the species examined. Due to the complementarity of ITS and Ypt1 genetic features, the use of multiple loci is recommended to identify targets of different taxonomic rank.
Observing better transfection efficiency in primary cultured VSMCs: Comparison and development of two different protocols

Aim: In this study, we have evaluated the procedure of transient transfection efficiency of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) with Lipofectamine (Life Technologies) and FuGENE (ROCHE, FuGENE HD Reagent) transfection reagents using the pCH110 eukaryotic assay vector containing the lacZ reporter gene. We also did try these attainments to transfect VSMCs with Ras N17 DNA and affirmed our findings. Material Methods: Plasmid pcH110, which has been purified by cesium chloride gradient centrifugation, was used in all transfections as the assay vector. And c-H-Ras was observed via Western-blot technique. Results: Briefly, the transfection with FuGENE has been given the best results, comparing with Lipofectamin. Under our culture conditions for VSMCs, FuGENE transfection efficiency could be augmented by simply increasing the amount of plasmid DNA 1.5–3 times above the recommended concentration without any visible cytotoxicity. With the FuGENE reagent, optimal transfection efficiency was obtained for primary culture of VSMCs within the recommended concentrations, but at the top of the range. The results indicate that optimization of the transfection process should include plasmid DNA concentrations above the levels suggested by the manufacturers, in order to accomplish the highest transfection efficiency. And, these finding was also supported with our Western-blot results when VSMCs have been transiently transfected with Ras N17 DNA.
Characterisation and molecular basis of ALS inhibitor resistance in the grass weed Alopecurus myosuroides

Summary Several UK populations of the grass weed Alopecurus myosuroides were identified where high proportions of individuals showed resistance to the acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides, mesosulfuron-methyl + iodosulfuron-methyl sodium mixture and sulfometuron-methyl. Screening with sulfometuron, followed by DNA sequencing of the ALS gene from resistant and susceptible individuals, led to the identification of eight populations where a single point mutation segregated with resistance to sulfometuron. All highly resistant individuals from seven of eight populations showed a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the first position of the Pro197 codon of an A. myosuroides ALS gene, conferring a predicted proline to threonine target-site change. One population showed resistant individuals with single-nucleotide polymorphism in the second position of the Trp574 codon, conferring a predicted tryptophan to leucine substitution. No other mutations segregating with resistance were found. Enzyme assays confirmed that resistance was due to an altered form of ALS enzyme, which was less susceptible to inhibition by sulfonylureas, making this one of the first fully characterised cases of ALS target-site resistance in a European grass weed. Increased information regarding the nature and distribution of ALS target-site mutation may help support sustainable management strategies, allowing continued use of mesosulfuron + iodosulfuron against this weed in the UK.
Asymmetrical Shocks in the Monetary Domain

Currency area is, by definition, that geographic area emboding a group of countries which have either fixed exchange rates against a currency peg or a single currency. Giving up at the nominal exchange rate, as a national instrument for adjusting to macroeconomic shocks, represents a cost for member states of that monetary union. Thus, it brings up in forefront of the debate concerning viable functioning of a monetary union, the asymmetric shocks propagation accross countries. In fact, the underlying factor which defines a viable running of a currency area consists in its capacity of managing, through its disposable adjusting mechanisms, shocks which tend to convey asymmetrically across member states. In this research paper, I consider relevant the asymmetric effects which might be generated by any macroeconomic shock, owing to the existence of regional heterogeneity, and also to the asymmetric transmissions of common policy decisions, within a currency area. Therefore, the concept of asymmetric shock means the macroeconomic shock which produces asymmetric effects and/or behaviours. Analysing and perceiving the causes which could generate asymmetries within a monetary union represents a fundamental field to conceive the way they act, and to identify adjusting mechanisms able to manage and, prehaps, to absorb them. The fundamental element which defines the optimum degree of a currency area embodied of countries having, ex-ante, an independent existence, represents its ability to manage, by means of its available levers, the shocks which tend to propagate asymmetrically across the member states. The concept of asymmetric shock is relevant in the economic and monetary integration field, considering that it circumscribes to the comparative analyse between more subsystems (in our case countries) belonging to the same system (monetary union or monetary area). The traditional theory of optimum currency area assumes that asymmetric shocks are more problematic for countries sharing the same currency, rather than symmetric shocks, because at the same time with the monetary integration of these countries, they lost the nominal exchange rate, as a national adjustment instrument to asymmetric shocks. In the presence of nominal rigidities in wage and price-setting, exchange rate instrument could be useful to adjust the real exchange rate in response to a shock. Nevertheless, the nominal inertia in price-setting should be balanced with the real rigidity in real wage: the combination of these two characteristics could make the adjustment to asymmetric shocks more costly (Driver şi Wren-Lewis, 1999). More recently there has been increased assertion that even common shocks may have asymmetric effects, considering the existence of different transmission channels, through which could be
A Diversity Based Fuzzy Systems Approach to Ecosystem Health Assessment

Ecosystem health assessments generally rely on combining information from variable-oriented surveys and case-studies, which at their extreme represent the ends of an inverse relationship between variables and instances. However, many of the underlying assumptions of both types of analysis, such as homogeneity of systems, simple chains of causality and the representativeness of data, are sufficient to pose fundamental problems in any overall interpretation and analysis. In this paper, an alternative approach is presented which bridges the two extremes and explicitly deals with uncertainty, beliefs and ignorance, complex causality, sufficiency and necessary conditions and diversity amongst classes of attributes and configurations. It adopts a diversity-oriented approach, using fuzzy set theory and logic to construct multiattribute configurations to be able assess different health outcomes. An example of a diversity-based health assessment is presented for the North Sea ecosystem. The results show how sectoral and social benefits over the past 45 years have accrued at the expense of the ecosystem, as evidenced in sets of multiattributes for biodiversity, trophic stability and pollution, despite gains in governance and social cohesion.
Dynamic structure–function relationships in enzyme stabilization by ionic liquids

The stability of α-chymotrypsin and Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) in two ionic liquids (i.e. 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium, bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide [emim] [NTf2], and butyl-trimethylamonium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide [btma] [NTf2]) has been studied. Both enzymes were strongly stabilized by the ionic liquids, the respective half-life times increasing 96 and 1660 times, with respect to those obtained in classical organic solvents such as 1-propanol and hexane, respectively. The stabilization of both enzymes by ionic liquids may be related to the associated structural changes of proteins that they can be observed by both fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopic studies.
Enhanced Baseline Algorithm for Best Keyword Enhanced Search

Temples, Universities, Airports, Colleges etc. represented as spatial database objects. Spatial database objects are mapped with keywords. Each keyword represents a service or business or process. Closest keyword search is called keyword cover, is most important and most popular problem in querying spatial database objects. Main objective of closest keywords search is to find spatial database objects that have minimum interobjects distance for a given set of query keywords. Keyword rating is one of the best decision making techniques. A new closest keyword search technique is proposed, which considers inter object distance, query location and keyword rating of associated spatial database objects. Proposed new technique is scalable and generalized version of closest keywords search. New method is called scalable search for keyword cover.
Are Protea populations seed limited? Implications for wildflower harvesting in Cape fynbos

Little is known about the extent to which plant population growth is limited by seed production. We studied two non-sprouting Protea species, both entirely dependent on seeds for recruitment after fire, to determine how flower harvesting would affect the size of the next generation after burning. Five harvesting treatments (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% inflorescence removal) were applied, each replicated four times in 10 X 10 m plots. Seedbanks were censused before a late-summer burn for each species and each replicate. The mean proportion of seeds surviving the burn until germination the following spring was 0.46 for Protea repens and 0.57 for Protea neriifolia. Of the seedlings that emerged, 90% and 55%, respectively, survived the first summer drought. Flower production in the 9 year old stand was strongly related to population density. Optimal plant densities for maximum flower production were estimated as 150 for P. repens and 70 for P. neriifolia. These target densities were greatly exceeded by seedling populations surviving the first summer drought in unharvested stands. If future density-independent mortality is negligible, the excess represents that part of the seedbank that could have been harvested before the burn without influencing future flower production. We developed a simple static model for setting flower harvesting levels in these seed-saturated populations. The predicted harvesting levels (50% of inflorescences in P. repens and 85% in P. neriifolia) were validated against the experimental harvests. We discuss the sensitivity of harvesting levels to variation in fecundity/density relationships, seed survival through a burn and seedling survival until flowering, and the implications for flower harvesting.
Survies prolongées après allogreffe de cellules souches hématopoïétiques dans les lymphomes non hodgkiniens : étude rétrospective - Intérêt d’un conditionnement à base de 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (ZEVALIN®) dans les lymphomes non hodgkiniens B

Contexte : l’allogreffe de cellules souches hematopoietiques reste une option dont la place est mal definie dans la prise en charge des lymphomes non hodgkiniens (LNH) de mauvais pronostic. Notre objectif est d’analyser la survie sans progression (PFS) et la survie globale (OS) a long terme des patients allogreffes pour un LNH (B ou T) ainsi que le benefice potentiel du 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (90Y-IT) a un conditionnement d’intensite reduite pour les LNH B. Patients et methodes : tous les patients de plus de 18 ans allogreffes pour un LNH au CHU de Bordeaux entre le 01 Janvier 2007 et le 31 Decembre 2016 ont ete inclus. Pour l’etude du 90Y-IT, ont ete inclus egalement les donnees actualisees des patients greffes hors centre dans le protocole Zevallo (LNH B) entre le 10 Fevrier 2008 et le 30 Septembre 2010. Resultats : dans la cohorte globale, parmi les 99 patients greffes pour un LNH (51 LNH B, 48 LNH T), la PFS et l’OS a 5 ans etaient de 51% et 65% respectivement. Ces taux etaient plus eleves dans le groupe LNH T comparativement au groupe LNH B : 55% vs 48% (p=0.8) et 70% vs 61% (p=0.3) respectivement, sans que ce soit statistiquement significatif. Un total de 73 patients a ete greffe pour un LNH B (51 patients au CHU de Bordeaux et 22 hors centre). Parmi eux, 45 ont recu un conditionnement a base de 90Y-IT (30 dans le protocole Zevallo et 15 hors protocole) et 28 un conditionnement standard. Les taux de PFS et d’OS a 5 ans etaient plus eleves dans le groupe 90Y-IT : 62% vs 49% (p=0.27) et 72% vs 56% (p=0.23) respectivement, sans significativite statistique. Conclusion : l’allogreffe de cellules souches hematopoietiques permet des survies prolongees chez les patients atteints de LNH de pronostic tres pejoratif et reste une alternative therapeutique a considerer. L’ajout de 90Y-IT a un conditionnement d’intensite reduite semble ameliorer la survie mais notre effectif est trop faible pour conclure de maniere formelle et seule une etude randomisee.
Cibles des médicaments antithrombotiques

Pour la quasi-totalite des classes therapeutiques antithrombotiques actuellement utilisees et a venir, le ciblage a ete initialement la consequence d’une observation et non pas le fruit d’une recherche methodique scientifique. Une fois la preuve de l’efficacite demontree, le but du developpement pharmaceutique a ete de decouvrir des familles moleculaires qui ameliorent l’efficacite et les relations cinetique/dynamique. Les rares cas de developpement d’une strategie contre une cible specifique, identifiee a partir des connaissances des mecanismes fondamentaux de la thrombogenese, n’ont pas ete des succes. La nature parait avoir deja exploite toutes les cibles efficaces et il semble qu’il n’est possible que de la copier en essayant de l’ameliorer par quelques details pharmacocinetiques ou galeniques attractifs. Quoiqu’il en soit, le developpement de nombreuses formes moleculaires dirigees contre plusieurs cibles a lieu et la mise a disposition de molecules specifiques des differentes cibles devrait modifier notre prise en charge des etats thrombotiques chez les patients : nous allons passer d’une ere ou nous cherchions a utiliser au mieux les rares therapeutiques dont nous disposions a une ere ou nous aurons a determiner, pour chaque situation thrombotique, la meilleure cible a inhiber et le meilleur degre d’inhibition a atteindre.
ESCAPE TRAJECTORIES IN ANGELFISH (PTEROPHYLLUM EIMEKEI)

Although fish escape trajectories are linearly related to stimulus direction, they vary considerably after the initial turn away from the stimulus. Past studies of escape trajectories in fish and other animals have been analysed by employing linear plots of stimulus angle versus body turning angle. Here, we define escape trajectories as a circular variable, with 0° as stimulus direction. Angelfish (Pterophyllum eimekei) escape in non-random trajectories when the stimulus is presented laterally, within an angular zone of approximately 30–120° (discriminating zone). The circular plot of escape trajectories shows a bimodal pattern that cannot be revealed by linear analysis. Angelfish escape preferentially at 180° and 130° away from the stimulus, maximizing the distance covered from the stimulus and escaping at the limit of their discriminating zone, respectively. Angelfish correct their responses when turning towards the stimulus, suggesting that escape trajectories are modulated by sensory feedback. Re-analysis of published work on other animals, by employing circular histograms of escape trajectories, reveals multimodal patterns which are also not apparent from the linear plots. We suggest that the presence of multiple preferred trajectories may be adaptive in preventing predators from learning any single fixed pattern of response and compensating for it.
Early Enteral Nutrition Following Gastrointestinal Surgery in Children: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the safety and effectiveness of early enteral feeding versus traditional enteral feeding after gastrointestinal (GI) anastomosis in children in the pediatric literature. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Prolonged postoperative fasting has been the traditional model of care following pediatric GI surgery. In contrast, early feeding has become well established in the adult population, where meta-analyses have shown early introduction of enteral feeds to be beneficial to hospital stay and patient outcomes. METHODS Comprehensive literature searches of the English literature search (PubMed, Ovid, Embase databases) from inception to present according to the PRISMA guidelines. Included studies were assessed according to the MINORS criteria. Outcomes for time to first feed and full feeds, and discharge, and risk of major complications were synthesized. RESULTS Ten studies comprising 451 patients were included in the analysis. All studies aimed at investigating the safety of early feeding in pediatric GI surgery, with or without a fast-track program. Only 4 studies compared the study group to a control group in which patients were fed in a traditional way (traditional feeding). Most studies defined early feeding as feeds commenced ≤24 hours postoperatively (range 2-72 hours). Mean time to first feed was significantly lower in the early feeding group, but not significantly lower for the mean time to full feeds and mean hospital stay. Bowel obstruction and anastomotic breakdown were classed as major complications. There was no significant difference in their occurrence in both groups. CONCLUSIONS Although the studies identified are few and heterogeneous, they demonstrate that there is no clear advantage of keeping children "nil by mouth" and no clear disadvantage of providing early enteral nutrition following elective gastrointestinal surgery. Larger randomized controlled trials are required to assess the true impact on postoperative complications, health care associated costs, and to investigate patient-reported outcome measures.