Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial distribution and basic ecology of Heterodera schachtii and H. betae wild populations developing on sea beet, Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima

Most populations of crop pathogens have wild relative populations from which they can originate but for which basic knowledge of their ecological requirements in natura is scarce. However, the study of spatial distribution and ecology of wild pathogen populations may help control them in crops through a better understanding of the environmental factors driving population dynamics. Here, we focused on Heterodera schachtii and H. betae, two cyst nematodes that cause severe damage to sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris) crops and can develop on a wild beet relative, the sea beet (B. vulgaris ssp. maritima). We investigated the occurrence of both nematode species in the wild and explored some environmental factors that may influence their geographical distribution. To do so, we sampled the wild host B. v. ssp. maritima along the European Atlantic and North Sea coastlines. Results showed that H. schachtii mainly occurred in the colder environments of northern Europe, whereas H. betae was preferentially distributed in the warm environments of southern Europe. It was previously established that H. betae only recently appeared in The Netherlands, which are in the north of Europe. Thus, our results do not support this hypothesis. Overall, this study accurately documents the geographical occurrence of two nematode crop pest species in the wild and helps identify the main environmental factors affecting their distribution range.
Negative Correlation between Ant and Spider Abundances in the Canopy of a Bornean Tropical Rain Forest

In tropical rain forests, high canopy trees have diverse and abundant populations of ants and spiders. However, accessing high trees and their fauna remains difficult; thus, how ants and spiders interact in the canopy remains unclear. To better understand the interspecific interactions between these two dominant arthropod groups, we investigated their spatial distributions at the canopy surface in a tropical rain forest in Borneo. We sampled ants and spiders six times between 2009 and 2011 by sweeping with an insect net at the tree crown surfaces of 190 emergent or tall (≥20 m in height) trees. We collected 438 ant individuals belonging to 94 species and 1850 spider individuals (1630 juveniles and 220 adults) belonging to 142 morphospecies (adults only) from a total of 976 samples. The fact that we collected four times more spider individuals than ant individuals suggests that fewer ants forage at the tree crown surface than previously thought. The number of spider individuals negatively correlated with the number of ant individuals and the number of ant species, indicating significant exclusivity between ant and spider spatial distributions at the tree crown surface. Niche‐overlap between the two taxa confirmed this observation. Although our data do not address the causes of these spatial distributions, antagonistic interspecific interactions such as interference behaviors and intra‐guild predation are ecological mechanisms that give rise to exclusive spatial distributions.
Dietary Response of a Group of François' Langur Trachypithecus francoisi in a Fragmented Habitat in the County of Fusui, China: Implications for Conservation

François' langur Trachypithecus francoisi is a threatened monkey species whose populations have been declining rapidly during the last four decades, and at the same time, there has been a severe fragmentation of the species' habitat. Using focal animal sampling and continuous recording, we studied food selection of a group of François' langur in a small fragmented habitat in the county of Fusui, Guangxi Province, China. We also analysed the vegetation data obtained within their home range using quadrat sampling. The langurs consumed a higher proportion of leaves but from a smaller number of plant species than their conspecifics in continuous habitats. They selectively utilised specific species as food sources, and they spent 61.6% of their feeding time on four staple species, whilst only 38.4% of their feeding time was spent on the 36 plant species that were either seasonally or rarely consumed food items. Although our sample sizes were small and from a single group, our results suggest that, similar to other colobine species, François' langurs in a fragmented habitat are highly selective feeders. Although the langurs appeared reasonably tolerant and well adapted to cope with habitat fragmentation in the short-term, they are still to be considered as highly vulnerable as their survival depends on a small number of food plants, which themselves could be threatened by other factors.
MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE ARMILLARIA MELLEA COMPLEX: TWO NEW SPECIES, A. GEMINA AND A. CALVESCENS

The root rot fungus Armillaria mellea in the broad sense represents a complex of different morphological forms. Two new and previously undescribed forms were found to belong to two biological species using mating tests with standard voucher strains. Monosporous cultures from basidiocarps harvested in Qu6bec were compatible with strains of groups II and III corresponding to two new species: Armillaria gemina B6rube & Dessureault and Armillaria calvescens B6rub6 & Dessureault, respectively. They are described and their occurrence and ecology documented. Morphological characteristics of basidiocarps and vegetative isolates can be used to differentiate biological species I, II, III, V, VI and VII found in eastern North America. A key to the A. mellea complex in North America is also presented.
Network biology and the 3-Dimensional tumor microenvironment: personalizing medicine for the future

Over the past decade, solid tumors have increasingly become recognized as discrete ‘organs’ that show a complexity that approaches and may even exceed that of normal healthy tissue. Tumors develop as a result of the dysregulation of multiple pathways governing fundamental cell processes such as death, proliferation, differentiation and migration. Concomitantly, the extrinsic contribution of the tumor microenvironment is now considered to be as important as tumour cell intrinsic factors in tumorigenesis and metastatic dissemination. This shift in our perception requires a change in the way we study cancer, from the reductionist to network-based, systems biology approaches, and signals the start of the network medicine era. Cancer cell behavior and phenotype are the complex integration of collective nonlinear interactions between cellular and environmental cues, whereby temporary stable states exist within the constantly evolving tumor landscape. Currently, the majority of cancer studies choose to focus on single genes and proteins without investigating associated networks, which has led to the poor efficiency of the vast majority of targeted therapies. There are increasing studies now looking at cancer as a network problem, but many of these still exclude the tumor microenvironment. The inclusion of tumor microenvironment interactions needs to be taken into consideration against a network biology backdrop to fully understand the complexity of these cellular phase spaces and maximise the power of the emerging high-throughput platforms currently being deployed against cancer.
What's next for the Pathways series?

I n the spirit of the New Year, we have taken this opportunity to reflect upon the past and to provide a preview of the future of the Pathways to Scientific Teaching series. In August 2004, we initiated this feature to offer readers a variety of instructional designs and assessments to use with the content of a scientific article published in the same issue of Frontiers. Each Pathways article includes learning goals for students, teaching goals for faculty, and instructional strategies that actively engage students in the processes of science. The assessments are designed to evaluate students' achievements of the goals, such as understanding the scientific principles and skills discussed in the scientific paper. We designed the Pathways articles to address the challenges of large enrollment courses, confident that scaling down to smaller-size classes is easily accomplished. Panel 1 summarizes the instructional strategies and assessments associated with each article. Twice since the Pathways series began, we asked the membership of ESA to comment on the articles. In November 2004, a general readership survey about Frontiers was conducted, and of those who responded (n=1559), 81% found the Pathways articles interesting to extremely interesting. Of all the sections/features in Frontiers, 15% said the education section was the most useful. In a recent survey via Ecolog (December 2005), we asked the membership more specific questions about the Pathways articles, including how often they were used in courses and how well students achieved the learning goals. Although the sample size was small (n=14), the majority of respondents used most or some of the articles and reported that their students achieved the associated learning goals. Based on generally positive responses to the series, we plan to continue the articles with the intent of further advancing the concept of " scientific teaching " (Handelsman et al. 2004), where teaching is approached with the same rigor as science. The current collection of Pathways articles are part of the broader collection of course and curricular materials (eg TIEE 2006; BEN 2006) that offer many different models of how to implement active-learning instruction that engages students in the process of science. Missing from the majority of these materials is substantive evidence to back claims that the " new " teaching approaches promote student learning better than " traditional " approaches. Some faculty remain unconvinced of the need for change in instruction because they have not seen adequate assessment data …
Accelerating cardiovascular MRI

• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Natural enemies and plant water relations influence the distribution of an armored scale insect

In urban settings, the armored scale insect Pseudaulacaspispentagona infests mulberry trees in disturbed landscape habitats (roadsides, parking lots) but not trees in forested habitats (woodlots). Populations of P. pentagona are contagiously distributed among mulberry trees in landscape habitats. We investigated how two factors, natural enemies and plant water potential, interact to affect the spatial distribution and abundance of P. pentagona. Survivorship of P. pentagona (caged with enemies excluded) was significantly lower on scale-free landscape trees than on scale-infested landscape trees or forest trees. Differences in scale survivorship disappeared, however, when scales were raised on greenhouse-grown clones of these same field trees, suggesting that variation in survivorship was due to the habitat in which trees grew. The survivorship of caged scales (enemies excluded) on field trees was positively related to midday water potential, an index of plant moisture stress. Scale-free landscape trees had significantly lower midday water potentials than did either scale-infested landscape trees or forest trees. Patterns of water potential and scale survivorship across trees suggested that the absence of P. pentagona on landscape trees with a history of scale absence was attributable to plant water relations. Moreover, highly significant differences in water po? tential occurred between infested and scale-free mulberry trees located < 10 m apart, sug? gesting that moisture deficit influences the performance and abundance of scale insects over small distances. When cohorts of P. pentagona were raised on field trees and exposed to natural enemies for one generation, mortality was significantly higher on forest trees than on either scale- free or scale-infested landscape trees. High scale mortality in the forest habitat was attrib? utable to abundant generalist predators (e.g., phalangids, earwigs, and tree crickets). Scale mortality in the landscape habitat, due to specialized coccinellid predators and aphelinid parasitoids, was much lower than in the forest habitat. The patchy distribution of P. pentagona in Maryland is best explained by the combined influences of natural enemies and plant water relations. P. pentagona infests a small subset of mulberry trees in the urban landscape that are without water deficits and free of generalist invertebrate predators.
Estimating changes in mean population age using the death distributions of live‐captured medflies

1. A simple, low‐cost approach to estimating population ageing was introduced based on a modified version of the captive cohort method – a technique developed earlier (Carey et al., Aging Cell, 7, 426–437, 2008) in which information on the remaining lifespans of live‐captured medflies of unknown age is used to estimate the overall population age structure.
Temperature influences on leaf CO2exchange, cell viability and cultivation range forAgave tequilana☆

Abstract Agave tequilana, a species exhibiting crassulacean acid metabolism, is cultivated in Mexico for its stem and attached leaf bases from which the distilled beverage tequila is obtained. The physiological reasons why its cultivation was mostly restricted to regions in Jalisco with minimum air temperatures in 1996 above −4°C and maximum temperatures below 36°C was investigated using plants under controlled conditions in the laboratory.Agave tequilanawas relatively intolerant of low temperatures compared with other agaves, with poor low-temperature acclimation and a halving of uptake of the vital dye neutral red by chlorenchyma cells at −8°C for plants at low day/night temperatures of 15°C/5°C. On the other hand, a high temperature (55°C) had only a modest inhibitory effect on cellular dye uptake for plants grown at day/night temperatures of 35°C/25°C. Compared with plants grown and measured at day/night air temperatures of 15°C/5°C and 25°C/15°C, daily net CO2uptake by leaves decreased 70% and respiratory net CO2loss by achlorophyllous leaf bases and presumably stems increased three-fold for plants at 35°C/25°C. The restricted regions for its cultivation reflects avoidance of freezing damage at sub-zero temperatures and a daily carbon loss at day/night air temperatures of about 35°C/25°C and above.
WLIP, a lipodepsipeptide of Pseudomonas ‘reactans’, as inhibitor of the symptoms of the brown blotch disease of Agaricus bisporus

A cell‐free crude extract containing the white line inducing principle (WLIP), a lipodepsipeptide produced by Pseudomonas ‘reactans’, could inhibit browning of mushrooms caused by Pseudomonas tolaasii. Mushrooms inoculated with Ps. tolaasii at concentrations of 2·7 × 106 cfu ml−1 or higher showed the symptoms of the disease after 2 d of incubation. Mushroom caps treated with various concentrations of a crude WLIP preparation, and later inoculated with bacterial concentrations higher than the threshold value, did not develop the symptoms of the disease. One milligram of a crude WLIP preparation could block 50% of the symptoms caused by 1·2 × 107 cfu. The inhibition of browning was effective when incubating at low temperatures for 4 d. A suspension containing 1·6 mg ml−1 of pure WLIP was also able to inhibit the symptoms of brown blotch disease induced by 7·6 × 106 cfu ml−1 of Ps. tolaasii.
Control and Cooperation

A beetle species synthesizes an antimicrobial peptide to constrain a bacterial symbiont in specialized organs. How do hosts regulate internal symbionts to prevent them from taking over their bodies without compromising the advantages of the relationship? Login et al. explored the balance between host innate immune responses and bacterial replication of an endosymbiont in weevils, an important beetle pest of wheat. A single peptide, coleoptericin-A (ColA), synthesized by the beetle constrained the bacteria within bacteriocytes and blocked bacterial replication. When the weevil’s ColA expression was silenced, the bacteria were able to replicate normally, escape the bacteriocyte, and spread throughout the insect. F. H. Login, S. Balmand, A. Vallier, C. Vincent-Monégat, A. Vigneron, M. Weiss-Gayet, D. Rochat, A. Heddi, Antimicrobial peptides keep insect endosymbionts under control. Science 334, 362–365 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]
Additive apportioning of species diversity: towards more sophisticated models and analyses

As a follow-up to the recent interest in simple additive models for diversity partitioning, we have used the analogy with ANOVA models to propose a consistent framework that allows both (i) apportioning the amount of regional diversity into environmentally and/or geographically-related components (ii) detecting individual species' habitat preferences using permutation tests. We addressed geographical aspects by relating diversity partition to dissimilarity measurements. An illustration based on an inventory of trees in a tropical rain forest of French Guiana is provided.
TILLERING AND LEAF PRODUCTION IN WHEAT AS AFFECTED BY TEMPERATURE AND LIGHT INTENSITY

The pattern of tillering developed during vegetative growth of well-spaced wheat plants agreed closely with calculation, if one assumes constant rates of leaf and tiller emergence. The average number of leaves formed between the appearance of successive tillers on an axis can be calculated from the ratio between the total number of leaves and tillers, and provides an estimate of apical dominance.The increase in total number of leaves per plant obtained by increases in light intensity over the range 200 to 2500 ft-c was brought about by an increase in both the rate of leaf emergence on individual axes and the rate of tillering. As the rate of tillering increased to a greater extent than the rate of leaf emergence, apical dominance was reduced. An increase in temperature over the range 10–25 °C also increased the total number of leaves and tillers, but the rate of leaf emergence was stimulated more than the rate of tillering so that apical dominance was increased.These effects of the environment on the rela.
Discovery of Highly Potent and Selective CXCR4 Inhibitors Using Protein Epitope Mimetics (PEM) Technology

Novel, highly potent CXCR4 inhibitors with good pharmacokinetic properties were obtained by applying PEM technology starting from the naturally occurring β-hairpin peptide polyphemusin II. The design involved incorporation of key residues from polyphemusin II into a macrocyclic template-bound β-hairpin mimetic. Using a parallel synthesis approach, the potency and ADME properties of the mimetics were optimized, resulting in CXCR4 inhibitors such as POL2438 and POL3026. Their activities were confirmed in a series of in vitro HIV-1 infection assays. Besides high selectivity for CXCR4, POL3026 had excellent plasma stability and favorable pharmacokinetic properties in dogs. In a murine model POL3026 was highly efficacious in hematopoietic stem cell mobilization. Hence, PEM-based CXCR4 inhibitors have the potential to become therapeutic agents for the treatment of HIV infections (as entry inhibitor), cancer (e.g. for inhibition of metastasis), stem cell transplant and inflammation.
Reductions in Soybean Yield and Quality from Corn Earworm Flower Feeding

Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. , defoliation and pod feeding by corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), are often considered types of injury that lead to yield and quality reductions. When infestations coincide with the flowering period, however, density of H. zea larvae is higher on flowers than on other plant parts. Experiments were conducted to assess yield reductions relative to H. zea feeding on flowers, foliage, and pods. Populations of H. zea were manipulated with insecticides at two locations in 1983 and 1984 to achieve varying densities in soybean (.)
Release of transgenic white clover plants expressing Bacillus thuringiensis genes: An ecological perspective

The destructive effects of indigenous insects on pasture plants are a significant cause of diminished pastoral productivity in New Zealand. Identification of white clover genotypes with natural immunity against native insects has not been successful, so farmers use chemical sprays to control pest populations. An alternative strategy to reduce insect damage to white clover is through development of a transformation system using Agrobacterium‐mediated transfer DNA. We have developed a rapid procedure, where transgenic white clover plants regenerate directly from the cotyledonary axil of germinated seedlings and can be transferred into the glasshouse within 42 days of culture initiation. This technology offers the opportunity to improve the sustainability of white clover in New Zealand pastures by introducing pest resistance genes directly into these plants. Insect feeding bioassays have identified several serotypes of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with δ‐endotoxins active against larvae of the lepidopteran pe.
Three new closely related species of Hemicycliophora de Man (Criconematidae : Nematoda) from Canada.

Three new species of the genus Hemicydiophora, closely related to H. similis Thorne, 1955 and H. silvestris Jenkins and Reed, 1964, are described. These are H. vivida, H. shepherdi, and H. minora. H. vivida differs from H. silvestris in the more anterior location of the vulva, the smaller relative length of spear to total body length, the hemizonid covering three annules, and the pattern of the en face view being different. H. shepherdi differs from H. similis in having a smaller number of annules between vulva and anus, and a smaller and elevated labial disc. H. minora differs from the above-mentioned species in being the smallest nematode and in having the excretory pore more anterior in location and a greater relative length of spear to total body length.
Heterotrophic bacterioplankton production and grazing mortality rates in an Ethiopian rift-valley lake (Awassa)

SUMMARY. 1. Heterotrophic bacterioplankton growth and production rates were estimated in a tropical lake by various methods. Mean growth rates, determined by tritiated thymidine incoporation into DNA, frequency of dividing cells and increase in cell density varied between 0.013 and 0.014 (with a range of 0.006–0.026) h−1 corresponding to bacterial production of 1.16–1.22 (0.34–3.63) mg C m−3 h−1. 2. Heterotrophic bacterial production estimated from oxygen and inorganic carbon consumption in the dark were compared with these values. The oxygen method gave similar results, while values from dark carbon uptake were as much as 2.5 times higher. 3. Although the different estimates of rates of bacterial production showed different patterns, the existence of spatial (vertical) and temporal (diel and seasonal) variation was demonstrated. Bacterial production was 13–41% of the net primary production and 10–30% of gross primary production. 4. Bacterial grazing mortality rate was estimated from size-fractionation and metablic inhibitor experiments. Average grazing rates were between 0.34 and 3.77 mg C m−3 h−1 corresponding to 76–120% of the mean bacterial production rate. Organisms 1–12 μm in size, possibly mainly ciliates. were implicated as important bacterial grazers.