Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Zostera noltii in the Canary Islands: A Genetic Description for Conservation Purposes

ABSTRACT Zarranz Elso, M. ; Manent, P., and Robaina, R.R. , 2018. Zostera noltii in the Canary Islands: A genetic description for conservation purposes. The extremely delicate situation affecting the seagrass Zostera noltii in the Canary Islands (listed as ‘threatened with extinction') requires urgent measures to ensure its preservation. The genetic or genotypic description of populations and knowledge about their connectivity are important genetic issues that should be taken into account to accomplish appropriate conservation and restoration programmes, particularly for threatened habitats or species. Therefore, a genetic characterisation of the single remaining meadow located on the coast of Lanzarote was conducted using nine microsatellite loci, and its genetic relationship with the geographically closest Moroccan populations was studied for restoration purposes. Results showed that the Lanzarote population has recently suffered a significant reduction in effective population size and presents low levels of allelic or genotypic diversity in relation to other Z. noltii populations throughout its distribution range. Moreover, this population remains in an extremely isolated situation in which it lacks long-term gene flow with other Moroccan populations. These genetic factors, together with the lack of sexual reproduction (only vegetative growth via rhizomes has been reported) and high anthropogenic pressures, make the risk of extinction of this species in the Canarian archipelago more likely. Some considerations for future restoration plans for this valuable species are suggested.
Energy Efficient Data Transmission Approaches for Wireless Industrial Automation

DOI: 10.2174/1574362413666180306114548 Abstract: Background: The industrial wireless automation system enables the monitoring and control of processes. It may be difficult to recharge the battery of sensors installed in harmful environments. Hence optimization of the power is the major issue to be addressed while implementing the network. The proposed hybrid data transmission approaches optimize data accuracy and energy efficiency of a wireless sensor node deployed in any industry.
The effect of dietary supplementation of transcarpathian zeolite on intestinal morphology in female broiler chickens

Abstract Zeolites occur in nature in specific types of rocks, mostly of volcanic origin. Some studies have proved that zeolite added as a dietary supplement in poultry results in weight gain and improves digestion because zeolites slow down the passage rate of digesta through the digestive tract and controls the release of nutrients in the small intestine. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different levels of zeolite on intestinal morphometry in female broiler chickens. One‐day‐old Ross 308 broilers were assigned randomly into 3 groups, with 30 birds per treatment. The 3 dietary treatments were: basal diet only (control group), basal diet + 2% zeolite, and basal diet + 3% zeolite. The broiler females were randomly selected from each group, slaughtered samples from duodenum, jejunum /proximal, middle, distal/ and ileum were sampled for histological characteristics at the 40 d of the study. The broilers fed 2% of zeolite were observed to have a tendency towards increased villus height, villus width, villus perimeter, villus section area, and crypt depth throughout the distal regions of small intestine and ileum. Supplementation with 3% of zeolite was associated with a greater villus height, villus width, villus perimeter, villus section area, villus crypts, and mucosa thickness in jejunum and ileum mucosa compared with those same areas in the control. The results suggest that dietary supplementation of zeolite increases intestinal morphology parameters in the gastrointestinal tract of female broiler chickens that improved growth performance.
New data and a checklist of Dryinidae (Hymenoptera) from Poland, and their role in controlling leafhopper and planthopper crop pests (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha, Fulgoromorpha)

Abstract Leafhoppers and planthoppers are a large group of insects (almost 600 species in Poland) with more than 50 species living and developing on cultivated plants in Poland. They cause plant damage by sucking sap and transmitting pathogens which cause plant diseases. In integrated plant protection, non-chemical methods such as natural enemies of pests should be used for preference. This paper gives the results of preliminary research on wasps of the family Dryinidae parasitizing leafhoppers and planthoppers that are crop pests in Poland. Parasitoids were obtained by rearing larvae and catching adults in fields. Data on 11 species of Dryinidae were obtained from Poland: three of them were not previously known from this country. A checklist of Dryinidae species known from Poland is given: it shows the species of Dryinidae parasitizing leafhoppers and planthoppers living on crops, and their role in reducing populations of these pests.
Heat wave effects on the behavior and life-history traits of sedentary antlions

Abstract Research on the behavioral responses of animals to extreme weather events, such as heat wave, is lacking even though their frequency and intensity in nature are increasing. Here, we investigated the behavioral response to a simulated heat wave in two species of antlions (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae). These insects spend the majority of their lives as larvae and live in sandy areas suitable for a trap-building hunting strategy. We used larvae of Myrmeleon bore and Euroleon nostras, which are characterized by different microhabitat preferences—sunlit in the case of M. bore and shaded in the case of E. nostras. Larvae were exposed to fluctuating temperatures (40 °C for 10 h daily and 25 °C for the remaining time) or a constant temperature (25 °C) for an entire week. We found increased mortality of larvae under heat. We detected a reduction in the hunting activity of larvae under heat, which corresponded to changes in the body mass of individuals. Furthermore, we found long-term consequences of the simulated heat wave, as it prolonged the time larvae needed to molt. These effects were pronounced in the case of E. nostras but did not occur or were less pronounced in the case of M. bore, suggesting that microhabitat-specific selective pressures dictate how well antlions handle heat waves. We, thus, present results demonstrating the connection between behavior and the subsequent changes to fitness-relevant traits in the context of a simulated heat wave. These results illustrate how even closely related species may react differently to the same event.
Replication timing shapes the cancer epigenome and the nature of chromosomal rearrangements

Highlights Replication timing alterations are conserved in cancers of different cell origins Long-range epigenetic deregulation in cancer involves altered replication timing Cancer late-replicating loci are hypomethylated and acquire facultative heterochromatin Replication timing status potentiates cis and trans chromosomal rearrangements Summary Replication timing is known to facilitate the establishment of epigenome, however, the intimate connection between DNA replication timing and changes to the genome and epigenome in cancer remain uncharted. Here, we perform Repli-Seq and integrated epigenome analysis and show that early-replicating loci are predisposed to hypermethylation and late-replicating loci to hypomethylation, enrichment of H3K27me3 and concomitant loss of H3K9me3. We find that altered replication timing domains correspond to long-range epigenetically deregulated regions in prostate cancer, and a subset of these domains are remarkably conserved across cancers from different tissue origins. Analyses of 214 prostate and 35 breast cancer genomes reveal that late-replicating DNA is prone to cis and early-replicating DNA to trans chromosomal rearrangements. We propose that differences in epigenetic deregulation related to spatial and temporal positioning between early and late replication potentiate the landscape of chromosomal rearrangements in cancer.
Stem cell surface markers CD133 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and as single prognostic factor for liver transplantation.

e15166 Background: Recent evidences indicate that CD133, a primitive haematopoietic and neuronal stem cell marker, is known to be present in cancer stem cells (CSCs) in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). However , the biological significance of CD133 in hepatocellular carcinoma is controversial. This study was undertaken to explore the expression and significance of stem cell marker CD133 in prognosis of liver transplantation after hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: Real-time PCR and western blot analysis were performed to examine CD133 expression in human hepatoma cell lines, HCC tissue and normal hepatic tissue. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays assessed CD133 protein expression in paraffin-embedded clinical samples taken from 109 HCC patients. The correlation of CD133 expression with the clinicopathological parameters was evaluated along with the prognostic impact of CD133 expression in these HCC patients. Results: Our study showed that CD133 is expressed in human hepatoma cell lines and HCC tissue. CD133 .
White matter differences in Parkinson’s disease mapped using tractometry

Neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by a progressive loss of brain function. Improved precision in mapping the altered brain pathways can provide a deep understanding of the trajectory of decline. We propose a tractometry workflow for conducting group statistical analyses of point-wise microstructural measures along white matter fasciculi to identify patterns of abnormalities associated with disease. We combined state-of-the-art tools including fiber registration, tract simplification and fiber matching for accurate point-wise statistical analyses across populations. We test the utility of this method by identifying group differences between Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and healthy controls. We find statistically significant group differences in diffusion MRI derived measures along the anterior thalamic radiations (ATR), corticospinal tract (CST) and regions of the corpus callosum (CC). These pathways are essential for motor control systems within cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical brain networks. Moreover, the reported pathological changes were not widespread but rather localized along several tracts. Point-wise tract analyses may therefore offer an advantage in anatomical specificity over traditional methods that assess mean microstructural measures across large regions of interest.
Adaptation, Comparison, and Improvement of Metaheuristic Algorithms to the Part-of-Speech Tagging Problem

Part-of-Speech Tagging (POST) is a complex task in the preprocessing of Natural Language Processing applications. Tagging has been tackled from statistical information and rule-based approaches, making use of a range of methods. Most recently, metaheuristic algorithms have gained attention while being used in a wide variety of knowledge areas, with good results. As a result, they were deployed in this research in a POST problem to assign the best sequence of tags (roles) for the words of a sentence based on information statistics. This process was carried out in two cycles, each of them comprised four phases, allowing the adaptation to the tagging problem in metaheuristic algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization, Jaya, Random-Restart Hill Climbing, and a memetic algorithm based on Global-Best Harmony Search as a global optimizer, and on Hill Climbing as a local optimizer. In the consolidation of each algorithm, preliminary experiments were carried out (using cross-validation) to adjust the parameters of each algorithm and, thus, evaluate them 1 Universidad del Cauca (Popayán-Cauca, Colombia). miguelsolano@unicauca.edu. co. ORCID: 0000-00031936-3488 2 Universidad del Cauca (Popayán-Cauca, Colombia). josej@unicauca.edu. co. ORCID: 0000-0002-5436-0816 3 Ph. D. Universidad del Cauca (Popayán-Cauca, Colombia). lsierra@unicauca.edu. co. ORCID: 0000-00033847-3324 4 Ph. D. Universidad del Cauca (Popayán-Cauca, Colombia). ccobos@unicauca.edu. co. ORCID: 0000-00026263-1911 Adaptation, Comparison, and Improvement of Metaheuristic Algorithms to the Part-of-Speech Tagging Problem Revista Facultad de Ingeniería (Rev. Fac. Ing.) Vol. 29 (54), e11762. 2020. Tunja-Boyacá, Colombia. L-ISSN: 0121-1129, e-ISSN: 2357-5328, DOI: https://doi.org/10.19053/01211129.v29. n54.2020. 11762 on the datasets of the complete tagged corpus: IULA (Spanish), Brown (English) and Nasa Yuwe (Nasa). The results obtained by the proposed taggers were compared, and the Friedman and Wilcoxon statistical tests were applied, confirming that the proposed memetic, GBHS Tagger, obtained better results in precision. The proposed taggers make an important contribution to POST for traditional languages (English and Spanish), non-traditional languages (Nasa Yuwe), and their application areas.
Performance Assessment of Large Photovoltaic (PV) Plants Using an Integrated State-Space Average Modeling Approach

Distributed power converters represent a technical solution to improve the performance of large or utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) plants. Unfortunately, evaluation of the yield obtained in large PV fields by using distributed converters is a difficult task because of recurring partial unavailability, inaccuracy of power analyzers, operating constraints imposed by the Power Plant Controller and so on. To overcome such issues in real operating scenarios, a new modeling strategy has been introduced and validated in terms of computational complexity and accuracy. This approach is based on the state-space averaging technique which is applied to large PV plants with multiple conversion stages by performing some elaborations in order to get a final integrated model. The new modeling strategy has been tested in MatLab Simulink environment using data coming from a 300 MW PV plant located in Brazil representing the case study of this work. In this plant, one subfield is equipped with central inverters while another is with string inverters. The proposed model, whose accuracy is in the range from 2.2 to 2.7% with respect to the measured energy, effectively supports data analysis leading to a consistent performance assessment for the distributed conversion system. Final results highlight that string inverters ensure a gain of about 2% in terms of produced energy.
A New and Microendemic Species of Ophiodes Wagler, 1828 (Sauria: Diploglossinae) from the Lagoa dos Patos Estuary, Southern Brazil

Abstract Ophiodes Wagler, 1828, is a poorly known legless lizard genus, widely distributed across South America east of the Andes, and composed of five described species and other additional taxa that have not been formally described but are widely referred to in recent publications. After reviewing major herpetological collections in Rio Grande do Sul and conducting fieldwork for more than 2 decades in the Lagoa dos Patos Estuary, we came across a new species of Ophiodes, herein described. The new species is diagnosed from its congeners based on the combination of a dorsum with three wide, dark brown longitudinal stripes and two pairs of conspicuous light yellow stripes, one pair paravertebral and another dorsolateral; dark vertebral line absent; background coloration of sides light gray with four to five pale and narrow longitudinal stripes; ventral region uniformly light gray; hind limb extending to the posterior vent scale margin; small eyes, smaller than half of snout–ocular distance; supralabials with well-defined, although small, supralabial blotches, restricted to their outer margins. We also provide comments on its distribution range and propose that a “Critically Endangered” CR B1b (i,ii,iii) extinction risk classification should be officially assessed and given. Resumo Ophiodes Wagler, 1828, é um gênero de lagartos ápodos pouco conhecido, amplamente distribuído na América do Sul à leste dos Andes. O gênero é composto de cinco espécies e outros taxons ainda não formalmente reconhecidos, embora referenciados em publicações recentes. Após revisar coleções herpetológicas no Rio Grande do Sul e conduzir trabalho de campo por mais de duas décadas no Estuário da Lagoa dos Patos encontramos uma nova espécie de Ophiodes, aqui descrita. A nova espécie é diferenciada de seus congêneres com base na combinação de um dorso com três largas listras longitudinais marrom escuras e duas listras conspícuas amarelo-claras, um par composto de uma paravertebral e outra dorsolateral; linha vertebral escura ausente; coloração de fundo nos lados cinza claro, com quatro à cinco listras longitudinais e estreitas; região ventral cinza claro uniforme; membro posterior estendendo-se até a margem posterior da escama cloacal; olhos pequenos, menores que metade da distância entre focinho e olho; supralabiais com manchas bem definidas e pequenas, restritas à suas margens exteriores. Também apresentamos comentários sobre sua distribuição, e propomos que o seu status de conservação seja definido oficialmente como “Criticamente em Perigo” CR B1b (i,ii,iii).
Study of milk coagulation properties in multibreed Italian dairy herds

1 Dept. of Agronomy, Food, Natural resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), Univ. of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy ABSTRACT The Italian dairy industry is making notable efforts to improve milk coagulation properties (MCP), as they affect the efficiency of cheese-making process. Individual milk samples (n = 8,525) of 3,057 Holstein-Friesian (HF), Brown Swiss (BS), and Simmental (SI) cows from 39 multibreed herds of Veneto region (northeast Italy) were collected from September 2011 to February 2012, and evaluated for quality traits and MCP predicted by mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS). Daily milk yield for each cow was also available. Milk coagulation properties were rennet coagulation time (RCT, min) and curd firmness (a30, mm). Data were analyzed through a generalized linear mixed model including the fixed effects of month of sampling, parity, days in milk (DIM), herd, breed, and interactions between parity and breed, and DIM and breed. The random effects were cow nested within breed and residual. Breed and DIM were the most important sources of variation for MCP (P < 0.001). Milk from BS cows showed the shortest RCT (19.1 min) and the highest a30 (26.8 mm), whereas milk from HF cows had the worst MCP, with values of 21.0 min for RCT and 20.8 mm for a30. Days in milk, breed, month of sampling, and herd effects were highly significant (P < 0.001) for all studied traits. Results from this study indicate that, under similar environmental and management conditions, the HF exhibits less favourable technological properties of milk than BS and SI breeds.
ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES: AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE FOR ANTIBIOTIC THERAPY

Extensive use of classical antibiotics has led to the growing emergence of many resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria. Evidence has suggested that cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMP’s) are of greatest potential to represent a new class of antibiotics. These peptides have a good scope in current antibiotic research. During the past two decades several AMPs have been isolated from a wide variety of animals (both vertebrates and invertebrates), and plants as well as from bacteria and fungi. These are relatively small (<10kDa), cationic and amphipathic peptides of variable length, sequence and structure. These peptides exhibit broad-spectrum activity against a wide range of microorganisms including gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, protozoa, yeast, fungi and viruses. Most of these peptides are believed to act by disrupting the plasma membrane leading to the lysis of the cell. Antimicrobial peptides encompass a wide variety of structural motifs such as α -helical peptides, β -sheet peptides, looped peptides and extended peptides. Preparations enriched by a speciﬁc protein are rarely easily obtained from natural host cells. Hence, recombinant protein production is frequently the sole applicable procedure. Several fusion strategies have been developed for the expression and puriﬁcation of small antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in recombinant bacterial expression systems which were produced by cloning. This article aims to review in brief the sources of antimicrobial peptides, diversity in structural features, mode of action, production strategies and insight into the current data on their antimicrobial activity followed by a brief comment on the peptides that have entered clinical trials.
Is there a fungal community associated with the freshwater invasive Asiatic clamCorbicula fluminea (MÃ¼ller, 1774)? The case of some populations in the low basinof the Ticino River (Lombardy, Northern Italy)

The freshwater Asiatic clam Corbicula fluminea is one of the most successful introduced bivalves in the world and, due to its high invasiveness; it can also be a potential vector for diseases and parasites, including fungi. With the aim of filling the gap in knowledge of any mycological information regarding this clam, we report the first characterization of the fungal communities associated with three populations of C. fluminea collected from three tributaries of the Ticino River (Lombardy, Northern Italy). By means of a culturable mycological analysis, 110 specimens were investigated and 83.6% of them yielded the isolation of 13 fungal species. Differences in timing of fungal development, distribution of taxa in the basin, abundance and frequency of the fungal community were highlighted. Four species were occasional, with a frequency of less than 5%, while another five species showed a frequency of almost 20%, locally reaching 40%. In particular, we highlighted: a) the presence of various fungal flora associated to C.fluminea, sometimes with stable colonization; b) the isolation of Geotrichum candidum, shown to be site-specific in one tributary with high abundance and frequency, which is well known for its generic pathogenity and might be related to a valve erosion observed in the associated Asiatic clam population; c) the first report in water ecosystems of Chaetomium nigricolor, which stably colonizes the three investigated populations of the Asiatic clam. Our results are encouraging for the continuation of research on the ecological role of the fungal communities associated with aquatic organisms.
of treated patients unrelated to individual pharmacokinetic characteristics.

Title: The emergence of linezolid-resistance among Entrococcus in intestinal microbiota 1 of treated patients unrelated to individual pharmacokinetic characteristics. 2 N. Bourgeois-Nicolaos, T.T Nguyen, G. Defrance, L. Massias, L. Alavoine, A 3 Lefort, V. Noel, E. Senneville, F. Doucet-Populaire, F. Mentré, A. Andremont, X. 4 Duval. 5 1 AP-HP, Hôpital Antoine Béclère, Service de Bactériologie-Hygiène, Hôpitaux universitaires 6 Paris-Sud, Clamart 92141, France 7 2 Université Paris Descartes, UFR des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques, EA4065, 8 Paris 75006, France 9 3 Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, INSERM, UMR 738, Paris, France 10 4 AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat Claude Bernard, Pharmacie, Paris 75018, France 11 5 AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat Claude Bernard, INSERM CIC 007, Paris 75018, France 12 AP-HP, Hôpital Beaujon, Médecine Interne, Clichy 92118, France 13 7 Université Paris Diderot, EA 3964 « Résistance in vivo » Sorbonne Paris-Cité, Paris 75018, 14 France 15 8 CHU Robert Debré Médecine Interne, Reims 51092, France 16 9 CHU Dron, Maladies infectieuses et du Voyageur, Tourcoing 59208, France 17 10 Université Paris Sud, USC INRA, EA 4043 Faculté de Pharmacie, Châtenay-Malabry 18 92290, France 19 11 AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, Service de Biostatistique, Paris 75018, France 20 12 AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat Claude Bernard Laboratoire de Bactériologie, Paris 75018, France 21