Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How much we know about the attenuation of insulin signaling in the adipose tissue caused by glucocorticoid treatment

Glucocorticoid (GC) hormone exerts numerous physiological roles that include modulation of immune, nervous, cardiovascular and metabolic systems. Synthetic GCs such as dexamethasone and prednisone/prednisolone are widely prescribed in the clinical context to the treatment of inflammatory-related diseases. In spite of its positive therapeutic effect, GC-based therapies may cause several adverse effects including glucose intolerance and peripheral insulin resistance. Reduction of insulin sensitivity in the adipocytes and adipose tissue caused by GC treatment is associated with increased lipolysis and abnormal Ser phosphorylation of insulin substrate receptor (IRS)-1 and protein kinase B (PKB). However, there is no consensus about the precise mechanisms whereby GC treatment promotes such attenuation in the insulin signaling pathway. In this paper, we will briefly discuss and present some molecular evidences that might be involved with this negative impact of GC in the insulin signaling in the adipose tissue.
How cells handle copper: A view from microbes

Copper is an essential element, yet toxic to cells. It can damage biomolecules by radical formation and, therefore, the intracellular copper needs to be carefully controlled. In the Gram-positive bacterium Enterococcus hirae, copper homeostasis is effected by the cop operon. It allows growth under copper limiting conditions, but also offers resistance to 8 mM copper. The cop operon consists of the four genes copY, copZ, copA, and copB. CopA and copB encode copper ATPases. CopA serves in copper uptake under copper limitation, whereas CopB expels copper when copper is excessive. CopA and CopB are closely related to the human Menkes and Wilson ATPases. Mutation in these human copper ATPases lead to inherited defects of copper metabolism, known as Menkes and Wilson disease, respectively. Copper ATPases and other heavy metal ATPases form a new, evolutionarily distinct subgroup of the P-type ATPases, called CPx-type ATPases. The cop operon of E. hirae is regulated by the copper responsive repressor CopY. Copper donated to CopY by the copper chaperone CopZ releases it from the promoter. CopZ belongs to a family of conserved metal chaperones that transfer copper to copper-transporting ATPases in humans and yeast (HAH1, Atx1), and mercury to a mercury uptake system in bacteria (MerP). CopZ-like motifs are also found in the N-termini of the CPx-type ATPases and mercuric reductases. A model of copper homeostasis and the role of copper chaperones in mammalian cells based on findings in yeast and E. hirae is presented. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Genetic analysis in a six parent diallel cross of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

There are concerted efforts in promoting cassava production in sub Saharan Africa as a staple food crop as well as income earner at both household and commercial level. These efforts can bear meaningful results if breeding strategies are properly coordinated. Efficient breeding methods require a thorough understanding of the genetic background of planting materials. Therefore, a genetic study was conducted to establish the genetic basis of cassava genotypes for root weight, root number/plant, root length (cm), above ground weight, harvest index, cassava mealy bug and cassava green mite by mating six cassava genotypes using a diallel method. The generated F1s were evaluated using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated thrice. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P< 0.001) genetic variation among the genotypes for all the traits except for cassava mealy bug, indicating the presence of high variability among genotypes. Thus, selection among these genotypes could lead to good progress for the improvement of the target traits. Mean squares for both general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were highly significant for all traits except for harvest index and cassava green mite for GCA and SCA respectively which suggested involvement of additive and non-additive component of heritable variance in the inheritance of all these traits. However, the proportions of additive variance to the total genetic variances (that is, 2δ2gca/(2δ2gca + δ2sca) showed that crossing for these traits and making selection from such crosses, about 41 to 100% of the improvement would be expected to come from SCA and less than 59% from GCA which indicated a greater role played by non-additive genes. Overall, results indicated that it would be readily possible to breed for high yield from this set of genotypes. Key words: Breeding, combining ability, gene action.
Expanded distributional records of Collembola and Acari in southern Victoria Land, Antarctica

Summary We provide new distributional records for the Collembola and Acari from south Victoria Land in the Ross Dependency, Antarctica, including the first extensive survey of Taylor Valley. We also describe the design of a modified device for the rapid sampling of Antarctic terrestrial arthropods. Sampling was carried out during the austral summers from 1998 to 2001. In several instances we found Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni, Neocryptopygus nivicolus and Stereotydeus mollis at sites where they were not reported in comprehensive surveys made some 40 years ago, which may imply recent range expansion (eg: local dispersal). By contrast, at McMurdo Station and at the former North Base (Marble Point) the distribution of G. hodgsoni and S. molliswas restricted, relative to previous records. We conclude that these latter changes may be the direct result of human activities.
Regional and local (road verge) effects on size and fecundity in Banksia menziesii

Banksia menziesii is a tree at the mesic end (Swan Coastal Plain) of its range and a shrub at the xeric end (Eneabba Plain). Plants at the xeric end produced, on average, as many cones, set 2.3 times as many seeds and stored 8.8 times as many viable seeds in the crown, as those at the mesic end. Plants on road verges had, on average, 2.5 times larger crowns than those at least 50 m further from the road. Road edge plants produced, on average, 2.5 times as many cones, set 3.1 times as many seeds and stored 3.7 times as many viable seeds as non-edge plants. Greater fecundity at the xeric end, including the road verges, could help offset the greater incidence of adult deaths and the reduced likelihood of seedling recruitment after fire at Eneabba.
von Bertalanffy Growth Models with Variability in, and Correlation between, K and L∞

A simple set of von Bertalanffy growth models was derived for length at age and for length increment at initial length and time at liberty by assuming that L∞ and K have the joint bivariate normal distribution with means and , variances and , and correlation coefficient ρ, along with two measures of model applicability. Fitting of carapace length increment at initial length and time at liberty of the penaeid Metapenaeus endeavouri into the length increment model gave , , ρ = −0.44, , and with a model error , in contrast with L∞ = 34.03 mm, K = 2.02∙yr−1, and ρ = −0.94 estimated using the conventional Fabens model. Thus, variability in K was large (41.15%); the negative correlation between L∞ and K was moderate as against that given in the correlation matrix. Length at age reconstructions indicate that these models would give a good description of growth of M. endeavouri within its life span. Sensitivity analysis revealed that its mean length at age and mean length increment for initial length and time at .
Relationship between Fulton’s condition factor and proximate body composition in three freshwater fish species

Summary Morphometric-based condition indices are widely used to assess proximate body composition and, collaterally, feeding and living conditions of fish. However, the exact relationship between condition indices and proximate body composition of fish and its relatedness to life history traits and seasonality has yet to be fully explored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine how the Fulton's condition factor (K-factor) is related to the chemical composition (i.e. lipid, protein, water and carbon content, and molar carbon : nitrogen ratio), length and gonadal development of fish, and how these relationships are influenced by gender and seasonality in three freshwater fish species: Amur sleeper (Perccottus glenii), pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) and rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus). It was found that the strength and direction of association between the K-factor and proximate body composition can vary markedly among fish species. The K-factor correlated positively with gonadal development in pumpkinseed and Amur sleeper, while no such relationship existed in rudd. Condition factor can be a reliable measure of lipid content; however, the relationship was stronger in species with higher and more variable lipid contents. Moreover, a striking and consistently negative linkage was found between the K-factor and water content of the fish body, which corresponds to the findings of several other studies. In turn, any relationship between the K-factor and the protein content of fish was not detected. Gender seemed to exert a negligible effect on the relationship between the K-factor and proximate body composition, while seasonal variance was obvious in most relationships.
Measurements of the quantum yield of carbon assimilation and chlorophyll fluorescence for assessment of photosynthetic performance of crops in the field

An apparatus is described for the rapid measurement in the field of the quantum yield of CO 2 assimilation, o, and chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics from attached leaves exposed to ambient CO 2 concentrations. This apparatus was used to measure o and the ratio of variable to maximal fluorescence, F v /F M , of fully expanded leaves of a maize crop in northeast Essex at monthly intervals throughout the growing season. The quantum yield of CO 2 assimilation and F v /F M increased from May to August and then decreased in September. A linear correlation between o and F v /F M was observed for the leaves. The relations between light, temperature, the quantum yield of CO 2 assimilation and fluorescence emission kinetics of leaves of a maize crop during the early growing season were also examined. Decreases in o associated with chilling temperatures and high light were observed and identified from analyses of fluorescence kinetics as being attributable to photoinhibitory damage of the photosynthetic apparatus. The possibility of using measurements of o and fluorescence kinetics for screening the photosynthetic performance of crops is considered. Studies with winter rape demonstrated that changes in o during the growing season were correlated with changes in the efficiency of light-energy conversion to dry matter by the crop.
Channel-Recurrent Variational Autoencoders

Variational Autoencoder (VAE) is an efficient framework in modeling natural images with probabilistic latent spaces. However, when the input spaces become complex, VAE becomes less effective, potentially due to the oversimplification of its latent space construction. In this paper, we propose to integrate recurrent connections across channels to both inference and generation steps of VAE. Sequentially building up the complexity of high-level features in this way allows us to capture global-to-local and coarse-to-fine structures of the input data spaces. We show that our channel-recurrent VAE improves existing approaches in multiple aspects: (1) it attains lower negative log-likelihood than standard VAE on MNIST; when trained adversarially, (2) it generates face and bird images with substantially higher visual quality than the state-of-the-art VAE-GAN and (3) channel-recurrency allows learning more interpretable representations; finally (4) it achieves competitive classification results on STL-10 in a semi-supervised setup.
Effects of environmental factors on dimethylated sulfur compounds and their potential role in the antioxidant system of the coral holobiont

Biogenic dimethylsulfide (DMS) and its main precursors, dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), are potential scavengers of reactive oxygen species in marine algae, and these dimethylated sulfur compounds (DSC) could take part in the algal antioxidant system. In this study, a link between the DSC production and the antioxidant capacity (AOC) of Acropora aspera reef coral was investigated under a range of environmental factors (temperature, light, salinity, and air exposure) that can lead to oxidative stress in the coral holobiont. Enhanced DMS(P)(O) production occurred under experimental conditions, indicating that DSC are potential biomarkers of stress level in coral tissue. Differences in concentrations and partitioning as a response to different treatments suggest that DSC production and turnover undergo different biochemical pathways depending on the type and severity of environmental stress. Osmotic pressure and light depletion led to an up‐regulation of the coral AOC that was correlated with a significant increase in DMSO : DSC ratio. These results, combined with a positive correlation between the AOC and DMSO concentrations under these two treatments, suggest that the DMSP‐based antioxidant system is involved in the overall antioxidant regulation of the coral holobiont. Enhanced DMS production coupled with an increased DMS : DSC ratio under increased temperature indicated that thermal stress triggers DMS formation in coral tissue. Considering the role that DMS can have in both climate regulation and the DMSP‐based antioxidant system, our findings highlight the need to further examine the fate of DSC in coral reef environments under scenarios of increasing sea surface temperatures.
Association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene and diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A meta-analysis

Some studies have shown the correlation between E4 type of Apolipoprotein E gene and diabetic neuropathy, however, there are contradicting results in recent studies. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between APOE4 gene and diabetic neuropathy. Database of Pubmed, Wuhan University Library, and Google were searched. A total of 56 studies were screened and 5 studies were selected for quantitative meta- analysis. This meta-analysis was performed to assess heterogeneity and combine results by using software RevMan 5.2. Strength and relationship were calculated as the odds ratio (OR) with a confidence interval (CL) of 95% using generic inverse variance data. Sensitivity analysis and Publication Bias analysis was conducted. A total of 5 studies were included for quantitative analysis with total of 914 patients (498 diabetic patients with neuropathy as case and 416 diabetic patients without neuropathy as controls). The result of our study indicated that APOE4 carriers were likely to have high risk of diabetic neuropathy. (E4 vs. others; pooled OR with 95% confidence interval 1.80 (1.28, 2.53), p< 0.05 (p =0.0007)). In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggests that there is significant association between APOE4 gene and occurrence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. However, further studies are needed for more detailed analysis.
Palliative measures to fight Covid-19 in Nigeria

The coronavirus pandemic has unleashed extraordinary crisis on the entire world since its emergence, the virus has spread to every part of the globe through human to human contact and by the forces of globalization. Although public health remains at the center of the crisis, several other devastating implications have also been unleashed on the social, political and economic space of humans and states due to several policies measures put in place by all relevant authorities and governments in their bid to curb the virus such as washing of hands, social distancing, ban, restriction on inter and intra states traveling and extensive lock down policies. This study examines the palliative measures that are being adopted by relevant authorities to mitigate these devastating implications on all the aspects of the nation’s economy. The study adopted a review of related extant literatures to establish what has been reported by researchers as the right actions that can revamp economy in similar situation. While the study observed the inability of the Nigeria government to design reliable mechanism to donate and distribute immediate palliative packages to the entire citizens especially the poor and vulnerable ones. However, adequate palliatives in terms of policies pronouncement were noted as made by relevant authorities and governments to ensure that the country is able to manage the economic effects of the total shutdown of the economy on public and private businesses, household lives, and other sectors of the nation’s economy. The study recommends that the government create a formal way to supervise the implementation of these policies across the country to ensure that they are not left on the paper and thereby plunging the country into an avoidable recession as we approach the post COVID-19 era. Also, we recommend a unit for proper accountability of the funds that are being donated and released for the course in order to avoid mismanagement and abandonment of the all exigent policies to avert the looming economic woes. We also recommend further researches in the area of study to concretize the findings and possibly involve empiricisms.
Investigating Interdisciplinary Knowledge Flow from the Content Perspective of Citances

Interdisciplinary research is playing an important role in modern science. In recent years, a lot of studies have measured interdisciplinary knowledge flow based on the frequency of citations. However, this approach does not consider the content of knowledge carried in the citations. In this study, we attempt to investigate the content of knowledge flow towards an interdisciplinary field by analyzing the citation sentences (i.e., citances ) in the articles of the field. An emerging field, eHealth, is chosen in the case study. The associated knowledge phrases between citances and the references of the field are identified and categorized to analyze the content and categories of knowledge spread from the source disciplines to the field. The result shows that the ranks of disciplines by the frequency of associated phrases are consistent with the ranks by the frequency of in-text citations. Distribution of associated phrases over categories and disciplines is also analyzed. The associated phrases of research subject are the most, followed by entity . This study contributes to the understanding of content characteristics about interdisciplinary knowledge integration.
Genetic variation detectable with molecular markers among unadapted germ-plasm resources of cultivated peanut and related wild species

Peanut germ plasm consists of the cultivated allotetraploid species Arachis hypogaea L. and a large number of wild species, which are nearly all diploids. Our previous work indicated a very low level of genetic variability in American cultivars, as assayed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Since American cultivars might represent a narrow genetic base, we expanded our study to include unadapted germ-plasm lines from the various South American centers of origin, Africa, and China, where considerable morphological and physiological variability has been reported to exist. Wild species of section Arachis were included in the evaluations since they show a high degree of variation when assayed by RFLPs. Three methods were used to assay for RFLP variation: (i) conventional RFLP analysis using random genomic clones from peanut and cDNA clones from peanut and alfalfa (Medicago sativa); (ii) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of random primer sequences; (iii) four-cutter analys.
Vicinism and mass effect in a historical perspective

Abstract. The term vicinism, usually ascribed to R. Nordhagen, was probably first coined in 1903 by Hugo de Vries as a genetical term — in the framework of his mutation theory — and only two years later as an ecological concept by F.E. Clements. Since both terms are clearly defined and concern different phenomena it is better to distinguish between genetical and ecological vicinism, while the latter concept can be further subdivided in rhizome and seed vicinism.
New Uniform Motion and Fermi-Walker Derivative of Normal Magnetic Biharmonic Particles in Heisenberg Space

In the present paper, we firstly discuss the normal biharmonic magnetic particles in the Heisenberg space. We express new uniform motions and its properties in the Heisenberg space. Moreover, we obtain a new uniform motion of Fermi–Walker derivative of normal magnetic biharmonic particles in the Heisenberg space. Finally, we investigate uniformly accelerated motion (UAM), the unchanged direction motion (UDM), and the uniformly circular motion (UCM) of the moving normal magnetic biharmonic particles in Heisenberg space.
Development and Characterization of Blast Resistant Genetic Stocks in Rice for Pi 9 Gene through Backcross Breeding

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a self-pollinated diploid plant (2n=24) with a genome size of 430 Mb and is the most important staple cereal food crop in world. Asia accounts for 90 percent of global rice consumption, and total rice demand continues to rise. To ensure food security, the efficient way is the continuous improvement of rice yield (Liang et al., 2014) and the current level of production needs to be increased to 130 million tonnes by the year 2025. Inspite of being an important staple crop, rice is affected by many biotic and abiotic stresses. Of all the biotic stresses, blast caused by the heterothallic ascomycete fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (Hebert), is a major restriction on rice production in both tropical and temperate rice growing regions of the world (Raghu et al., 2018). This is a polycystic disease spread by asexual spores (conidia) that infect above ground tissues of rice plants (Ou et al., 1985; Talbot and Wilson, 2009; Pennisi, 2010). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 10 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
GLAW-IT: a Free Large Italian Dictionary Encoded in a Fine-Grained XML Format

This article presents GLAW-IT, a free large dictionary extracted from Wikizionario, the Italian edition of the collaborative dictionary Wiktionary. It is a Machine-Readable Dictionary structured in an XML format encoding the micro- and macrostructure of Wikizionario’s articles. It contains about 320,000 wordforms with sections reporting: definitions (glosses) including linguistic labels and usage examples, phonemic transcriptions in IPA, inflectional paradigms, morphologically or semantically related words, etymologies, translations. Conceived as a general-purpose dictionary, GLAW-IT is intended to be directly workable or used to easily derive customized lexicons dedicated to pecific uses including NLP, linguistic description and psycholinguistics. To our knowledge, GLAW-IT is the only free machine-readable dictionary for Italian.