Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid and functional neurobiochemical assays for marine algal toxins using mouse brain synaptoneurosomes

Regular monitoring of the levels of marine biotoxins in shellfish has become an essential activity in view of the serious human health consequences of contaminated shellfish consumption. The most commonly encountered marine biotoxins are the saxitoxin (STX) and brevetoxin (PbTx) types, responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) respectively. Traditionally, these biotoxins are quantitated by the mouse injection bioassay, which has come under criticisms for a number of reasons. As a potential replacement for the PSP toxin toxicity test, a rapid functional assay using mouse brain synaptoneurosomes has been recently developed and validated by comparison with mouse toxicity data (Nicholson et al., 2002). There were three aims of the present research. Firstly, to investigate the potential of veratrine as a substitute for veratridine to open sodium channels in the synaptoneurosomal PSP toxin assay. Secondly, to further validate the synaptoneurosomal PSP toxin assay using Atlantic mussels spiked with STX and examine the assay's ability to quantitate PSP toxin content of plankton samples. Thirdly, to examine the possibility of configuring and validating synaptoneurosomal assay for NSP toxin quantitation. Concentration-dependent inhibition by STX of veratridine-induced = 4 nM) and veratrine-induced (ICSo = 2 nM) synaptoneurosomal depolarization was observed. Assays of spiked mussel extracts revealed a strong relationship between STX added and STX detected when either veratridine (r2 = 0.998) or veratrine (r2 = 0.997) was used. Veratrine therefore represents a valid alternative to veratridine in this assay. Low PSP toxin levels in plankton samples could also be detected. A new method for quantitating NSP toxins using the synaptoneurosomal technique was developed. Two brevetoxin standards (PbTx-2) and (PbTx-3) showed detection thresholds of approximately 0.6 @assay (PbTx-2) and 1.0 @assay (PbTx-3) and ECsos of 1.56 nM and 2.49 nM respectively. PbTx action is completely blocked by tetrodotoxin, a sodium channel-specific blocker. This pharmacological profile indicates that the assay is valid in terms of sodium channel pharmacology and receptor binding theory. When PbTx-2 assay results were correlated with PbTx-2 levels originally added to the mussel samples a regression coefficient of 0.973 was obtained. The mouse brain synaptoneurosomal technique was further validated by assaying brevetoxin contaminated oyster samples previously assayed by FDA laboratories using receptor binding assay (r2 = 0.953), cytotoxicity assay (r2 = 0.974) and HPLCNS (r2 = 0.605). It takes 40 minutes to isolate synaptoneurosomes and individual assays take approximately 7 min (PSP toxins) and 30 min (NSP toxins). Since 20 assays can be performed with one mouse brain, there is real opportunity for reducing the number of animals used in the conventional PSP toxin and NSP toxin monitoring.
Expression of the intact C4 type pepc gene cloned from maize in transgenic winter wheat

Maize intact C4-pepc gene was amplified through LA-PCR and successfully sub-cloned into modified vector pGreen0029 to form a stable expression construct named as pBAC214 (12 kb), which contains CaMV 35S promoter driven bar gene as selection marker. Comparing the cloned DNA sequences (6.7 kb) with published maize C4-pepc gene (GenBank accession E17154) sequences, the identity of DNA sequence alignment is 98.96%. There are only 49 differences between these two intact DNA sequences, of which 13 occur in the region of promoter, 18 in introns, and 18 in exons. The homology of mRNA sequence alignment is 99.38%, and the putative amino acids sequence identity is 99.38%. There are only 15 differences between these two mRNA, and these differences bring 4 sites mutant on the putative amino acids of PEPC protein. Through biolistic bombardment of PDS1000/He system, expression vector pBAC214 has been transformed into winter wheat. Southern blotting results show that the intact C4-pepc gene has been integrated into genome of winter wheat. SDS-PAGE analysis of leaf soluble protein in transgenic wheat showed that the intact C4opepc gene was well transcribed, spliced and translated as in maize. The enzyme activity of leaf PEPC in transgenic wheat has been detected. The activities of leaf PEPC increased over 3-5 times in some transgenic plants. The data of photosynthesis rate and transpiration rate of transgenic wheat flag leaves showed that the C4-pepc gene can increase the photosynthesis rate and transpiration rate of transgenic wheat.
Digital Business Strategy: An Empirical Analysis of Mission statement content and Financial Performance

The mission statement identifies the fundamental raison d'être of an organization. However, developing such a document seems to be quite difficult, since most businesses end up crafting a meaningless text. Indeed, it is crucial to evaluate the content of the mission statement. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the relationship between the components of mission statement and financial performance in e-businesses. This was accomplished through one way ANOVA and t-test analysis. The findings of the research indicated that there isn’t a positive relationship between the mission statement and the performance of digital businesses. In addition, it was revealed that only one component had a positive and statistically significant correlation with a financial index. All other correlations were weak and statistically insignificant.
Impulse zur Verbesserung der Spätsommerversorgung der Honigbiene durch Kulturmaßnahmen im Ökologischen Landbau

In order to overcome the late summer gap in costume for honey bees and increase the winter stock we investigated in two independent field trials the attractiveness of different legumes for honeybees and the effect of a terminated flowering event on its winter stock of honey and pollen. The attractiveness for honeybees was depending on the legume species. The flowering event resulted in a very good pollen stock which pushed the development of the bee colonies.
Threats and opportunities of mobile sensing technology in personal privacy and public security

OF THE DISSERTATION Threats and Opportunities of Mobile Sensing Technology in Personal Privacy and Public Security By CHEN WANG Dissertation Director: Yingying Chen The proliferation of the mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, smartwatches and fitness trackers) has brought great convenience to our daily lives. Mobile users can enjoy the online access anytime and anywhere through WiFi or cellular services, monitor daily activities (e.g., walking steps) via wearable devices, or flexibly access the devices via touch screens and microphones. The pervasive mobile sensors can further benefit the public sector, such as providing realtime data for public transportation, emergency and public safety protection. While the mobile technologies facilitate a wide range of useful applications to the users, an adversary may leverage them to derive the user’s sensitive private information. This dissertation focuses on exploring the security threats of the mobile devices given the various embedded sensors. Moreover, we explore to utilize the mobile sensing technologies as opportunities for protecting not only the personal privacy but also the public security. As the smartphone is the most popular mobile device worldwide, we first investigate to what extent the users’ personal information such as social relationships and demographics could be revealed from their smartphones, in particular through the simple signal information of the pervasive Wi-Fi Access Points (AP) without examining any Wi-Fi traffic. We successfully derive the users’ activities at daily visited places from the surrounding APs and utilize that as the basis to infer the users’ social interactions and individual behaviors. Our approaches capture how closely people interact with each other based on their physical closeness to infer their social relationships and recognize the individual behaviors via their activity characteristics (e.g., activeness and time slots) at their daily visited places to estimate the users’ demographics.
Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Pecorino Toscano cheese

Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of lactic acid bacteria were studied to evaluate the microbial diversity of Pecorino Toscano, an Italian cheese with the Designation of Protected Origin, produced from pasteurised sheep milk. Sugar fermentation profiles did not enable unambiguous identification of all the strains, which belonged to Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus and mesophilic lactobacilli. Numerical analysis of the discriminating phenotypes and PCR fingerprinting showed a high strain heterogeneity. By combining phenotypic and genotypic information, a different distribution between strains was observed. Although produced from pasteurised milk, Pecorino Toscano is characterised by a wide heterogeneity of lactic microflora.
Epidemiologia zakażeń Streptococcus pyogenes, struktura klonalna populacji i antybiotykooporność

Streptococcus pyogenes (GAS) is one of the major human pathogens responsible for infections worldwide. It may cause mild infections of the skin and mucosal surfaces, as well as severe invasive infections. It has been estimated that S. pyogenes is responsible for half a million deaths a year, and is considered as one of the most important pathogens. Many clinical investigations on S. pyogenes focus on characterization of pathogenic strains, heterogeneity/homogeneity of the population clonal spread, transfer between patients and tracing sources of antibiotic resistance. Advanced studies on vaccines that prevent GAS infections are in progress.
Naturalized Fishes of the World

Fish are an important part of a regions's biological diversity and a human resource throughout the world. The human interest in fish has inevitably led to the widespread practice of introducing various species to waters outside their normal range. This book describes when, where, why, how, and by whom the alien inland fishes now living in a wild state throughout the world were introduced. It also explores how they subsequently became naturalizd and what, if any, effects they have had in their new environment.
Changes in chloroplast pigments and seedling growth attributes of mungbean as induced by pesticidal seed treatments.

Seed treatment with Gaucho (an insecticide) and Krilaxyl (a fungicide) at the concns. of recommended dosages, below recommended, above recommended and in combination dosages were done on Mungbean cv. PS-116 at 12, 24 and 48 h exposure periods. Wet treatment of both the pesticides exhibited non significant variations on germination and they varied in respect of root length and shoot length at recommended and higher dosages of longer exposure periods. The calcd. results of vigour index, tolerance index were decreased and the percent phytotoxicity was increased along with the increase in concns. over control. The content of chloroplast pigments, (Chlorophyll 'a', 'b', total chlorophyll and carotenoid) were also reduced drastically at higher and in combination dosages of both the pesticides at all the exposure periods. Lower concns. of lower exposure periods did not induce much change on germination and other parameters. [on SciFinder(R)]
Biodeterioration of ancient monument (Devarbija) of Chhattisgarh by fungi.

Chhattisgarh is the land of ancient culture which has lots of ancient monuments, temples and fort. Every nook and corner of Chhattisgarh has traditional heritage. Numerous factors affect the stone durability. Stone surfaces are conti- nuously exposed to physical, chemical and biological degradation. Physical, chemical, and biological agents act in co-association, ranging from synergistic to antagonistic, to the deterioration. Among biological agents miroorganisms have critical importance, in stone deterioration. They can cause various damages on the stone surface. Biodeterioration processes result from complex interactions of surface-invading microbes with each other as well as with the surface material. Fungal ability in production of pigments and organic acids have crucial role in discoloration and degradation of monuments. Air acts as a vehicle for the dispersion of microorganisms. It introduces into air from different sources i.e. soil, water, organic waste of man, plant leaves, sneezes and cough. This investigation focuses on mycological survey of The Sita Devi Temple of Devarbija,Durg,Chhattisgarh. The 15 fungal floras were isolated. Aspergillus, Penicillium, Curvularia, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Mucor, Rhizopus , were dominant. During present study 88 fungal colonies were observed. Key words: Biodegradation, Devarbija, Fungi Dr Kavita Sharma and Sandhya Lanjewar. Biodeterioration of Ancient Monument (Devarbija) of Chhattisgarh by Fungi. J Phytol 2/11 (2010) 47-49
Evaluación de un programa universal de prevención de la depresión en niños y niñas de educación primaria

espanolMuchos estudios alertan de prevalencia de la depresion a edades tempranas. Estudios en centros educativos para valorar la depresion severa senalan prevalencias cercanas al 4%, lo que evidencia la necesidad de prevencion. El estudio tuvo como objetivo disenar, aplicar y evaluar los efectos de un programa universal de prevencion de la depresion infantil “Pozik-Bizi” (Vivir-Feliz), comparando sus efectos con el programa de tutorias del centro educativo. Se utilizo una muestra de 279 estudiantes de 7 a 10 anos del Pais Vasco (50,9% chicas), 218 fueron asignados aleatoriamente al programa de prevencion y 61 a la condicion de control. Los participantes cursan 3o y 4o curso de Educacion Primaria. Se utilizo un diseno cuasi-experimental de medidas repetidas pretest-postest con grupo de control. Para medir las variables objeto de estudio se utilizaron 7 instrumentos de evaluacion. Los resultados evidenciaron que los experimentales significativamente disminuyeron el indice de sintomas emocionales, los sintomas de depresion autoevaluados, asi como los problemas emocionales y de conducta valorados por el profesorado; ademas aumentaron significativamente su nivel de ajuste personal. En conclusion, el programa “Pozik-Bizi” fue eficaz especialmente en variables clinicas. El debate se centra en la eficacia de los programas para la prevencion de la depresion infantil. EnglishMany studies warn of the prevalence of depression at early ages. Studies in schools to assess severe depression indicate prevalence rates close to 4%, which shows the need for prevention. The study aimed to design, implement, and evaluate the effects of a universal children’s depression prevention program, the “Pozik-Bizi” (Live-Happy), comparing its effects with those of a school tutoring program. We used a sample of 279 students aged 7 to 10 from the Basque Country (50.9% girls), 218 were randomly assigned to the prevention program and 61 to the control condition. The participants were enrolled to 3rd and 4th grade of Primary Education. A quasi-experimental design with repeated pretest-posttest measures and control groups was employed. Seven assessment instruments were used to measure the target variables of the study. The results showed that the experimental group significantly decreased the rate of emotional symptoms, self-reported symptoms of depression, as well as, emotional and behavioral problems as appraised by the teachers; in addition, they significantly increased their level of personal adjustment. In conclusion, the “Pozik-Bizi” program was especially effective in clinical variables. The discussion focuses on the effectiveness of programs for the prevention of childhood depression.
Cigarette smoke impairs the in situ fatigue resistance of locomotor skeletal muscle in mice (1102.18)

Muscle dysfunction is thought to contribute to exercise intolerance in smokers with COPD. In this study, cigarette smoke (CS) was hypothesized to impair skeletal muscle fatigue resistance. To test this hypothesis, adult C57Bl6 mice were exposed via a nose‐only system to daily periods of CS (5 cigarettes/period for 2 periods, 5 days/week) for 8 weeks and compared to mice delivered CS‐extract (weekly, i.p) and control, unexposed mice. Body weights were recorded each week. Gastrocnemius complex fatigue resistance was evaluated by measuring the time to reach 50% of maximal force when electrically stimulated to contract in situ. Compared to control mice, body weights were decreased in CS‐exposed mice, but not CS‐extract mice, at 3‐weeks (7.4%, p<0.05), 7‐weeks (7.9%, p<0.05), and 8‐weeks (12.4%, p<0.001). However, gastrocnemius, soleus, and plantaris mass / body weight ratios were not different between groups. A trend to earlier fatigue was seen in CS‐extract mice (Con. 342 ± 72 sec., CS‐exposed 310 ± 111 sec., CS‐extract 177 ± 16 sec., p=0.06). These data suggest the route or amount of CS that circulates in the blood may influence the extent of peripheral skeletal muscle dysfunction.
Analyzing the neutral and adaptive background of butterfly voltinism reveals structural variation in a core circadian gene

Many insects exhibit geographic variation in voltinism, the number of generations produced per year. This includes high-latitude species in previously glaciated areas, implying divergent selection on life cycle traits during or shortly after recent colonization. Here, we use a whole-genome approach to genetically characterize a set of populations of the butterfly Pararge aegeria that differ in voltinism. We construct a high-quality de novo genome for P. aegeria, and assess genome-wide genetic diversity and differentiation between populations. We then use the inferred phylogeographic relationships as the basis for a scan for loci showing signs of divergent selection associated with voltinism differences. The genic outliers detected include population-specific mutations of circadian loci, most notably a locally fixed 97-amino acid deletion in the circadian gene timeless. Variation in timeless has previously been implicated as underlying variation in life cycle regulation in wild populations in our study species, as well as in other insects. These results add to a growing body of research framing circadian gene variation as a mechanism for generating local adaptation of life cycles.
Effect of Trichoderma harzianum rifai KRL AG2 to control root rot disease (Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani) of cucumber in protected crops.

Bu calismada serada yetistirilen hiyar bitkilerinde onemli verim kayiplarina yol acan kok curuklugu hastaligina (Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani) karsi Trichoderma harzianum iceren biyolojik fungisitin etkisi testlenmistir. Denemeler 2008 yilinda Mersin ilinin 2 beldesinde ureticiye ait plastik seralarda yurutulmustur. Biyolojik fungisitin , Trichoderma harzianum rifai KRL AG2 etkili maddeli Rootshield Granules, 3 dozu (550, 650, 750 g/m3 ) fide harcina uygulanarak 1 ay boyunca gelisen fide koklerini kolonize etmesi saglanmis ve patojenlerle dogal olarak bulasik uretici serasina dikim yapilmistir. Dikimden yaklasik 2 ay sonra kokler sokulerek hastalik degerlendirmesi yapilmistir. Biyolojik fungisitin 650 ve 750g/m3 dozlarinin uygulanmasiyla elde edilen sonuclar arasinda istatistiki bir farklilik bulunmamis ve uygulama yapilmayan parsellere gore hastalik cikisinda yaklasik %60 etki saglandigi belirlenmistir.
Yield and response of soybean varieties to whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) in three planting dates

Resumen Los estudios de fechas de siembra son importantes para ayudar a conocer la adaptacion, comportamiento y plasticidad de nuevos materiales vegetales en un ambiente determinado, bajo diferentes condiciones de manejo y presion de factores abioticos, y bioticos. Durante el ciclo primavera-verano 2009-2009 se evaluo el comportamiento agronomico, fenologia y respuesta a mosca blanca de 12 genotipos de soya en tres fechas de siembra en el norte de Sinaloa, Mexico. Los tratamientos incluyeron seis variedades de soya no evaluadas en la region: AG 5605, AG 5903, AG 5905, AG 6301, AG 6702 y DB 6451; tres variedades comerciales: Cajeme, Hector (Nainari) y Balbuena S-94; la variedad Hutcheson altamente preferida por mosca blanca y dos lineas avanzadas del Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agricolas y Pecuarias candidatas a nuevas variedades de soya para el noroeste de Mexico: Cu04-139 y Cu04-238. Las mejores combinaciones genotipo por fecha de siembra con relacion al rendimiento de grano fueron: Cu04-139 con 2 496.1 y 2 442.9 kg ha
Spécialisation fonctionnelle des sous-populations de cellules dendritiques plasmacytoïdes chez le rat

La generation d'un anticorps monoclonal specifique des cellules dendritiques plasmacytoides (pDC) splenique du rat, nomme 85C7, par notre equipe a permis la mise en evidence d'une population de cellules exprimant le 85C7 mais n'exprimant que faiblement le CD4. Les pDC classiquement decrites chez le rat sont quant a elles fortement CD4. On a donc voulu caracteriser cette population pour savoir s'il s'agissait de pDC. Leur phenotype s'est revele etre assez similaire tout comme leur morphologie plasmacytoide a l'etat immature. En reponse a un ligand de TLR9, cette population exprime fortement l'ARNm codant l'IFNα, ce qui est la caracteristique principale des pDC. Ces cellules ont egalement une capacite a faire proliferer des lymphocytes T (LT) CD4+ CD25- naifs deux fois plus importante que les pDC CD4+. Tout ceci suggere que ces cellules sont des pDC. La compilation de puces a ADN realisees a partir des deux populations de pDC avec d'autres puces a ADN realisees sur les DC conventionnelles spleniques a permis d'identifier certains genes d'interet specifiquement exprimes par l'une des populations de pDC. De maniere surprenante, il est ressorti le gene codant la proteine TRANCE (TNF-related activation-induced cytokine) specifiquement et constitutivement exprime par les pDC CD4high. L'expression de la proteine a ete confirmee sous forme membranaire et soluble. Cette proteine etant connue pour son role indispensable dans l'osteoclastogenese, nous avons donc teste le pouvoir potentiel des pDC a induire une osteoclastogenese dans differents modeles.
Insecticide resistance mechanism in the spiraea aphid, Aphis citricola (van der Goot).

Resistance mechanism of organophosphorus insecticides (OPs) in the spiraea aphid, whose populations were originated from several apple orchards where various OPs were frequently sprayed, was investigated. For Wonju population to which insecticides were not sprayed, resistance ratios (BRs) for pirimicarb, phosphamidon, and demeton S-methyl re 49, 31, and 5, respectively. However, for Yesan population to which OPs were sprayed 5 times, RRs for pirimicarb, phosphamidn, and dementon were 830, 536, and 204, respectively. The esterase activities of Wonju and Yesean populations increased by 44.5 and 92.0% compare to that of Kwagju population. R/S a values (S clone Kwangju population; R clone: Iechon opulation) for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition () by pirimicarb and phosphamidon were 299.2 and 186.0, respectively. Our results indicate that increase of esterase activity and reduction of AChE sensitivity seemed to contribute insecticide resistance of the spiraea aphid.