Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Introduction of Mhorr gazelle Gazella dama mhorr in Bou‐Hedma National Park, Tunisia

Since 1968 the Mhorr gazelle Gazella dama mhorr has been extinct in the wild. In October 1994 4.10 Mhorr gazelles were transferred from Almeria to the Bou-Hedma National Park, Tunisia. The Park is open shrub habitat dominated by an extensive cover of Acacia raddiana (–tortilis) trees, similar to that of the former range of the species. The gazelles were maintained in a 10 ha acclimatization enclosure for 5 months before being released into a 2000 ha total protection zone. This paper describes the introduction of the gazelles to native food species, veterinary preparations, social relationships and dominance, pattern of activity and flight distance of the introduced animals. Three days after release into the protected area the new herd was joined by five Mhorr gazelles which had already been living in the Park, making a group of 19 animals.
Functional foods, blood lipids and coronary heart disease

For the past 20 years, the principal focus of public health strategies for reducing the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been aimed at lowering serum cholesterol levels. However, recent findings have highlighted not only cholesterol but also triacylglycerol as a significant lipid risk factor for CHD. Dietary strategies which are able to reduce these circulating lipid levels and which are able to offer long-term efficacy comparable with effective drug treatments are currently being sought. One dietary strategy that may benefit the lipid profile involves supplementation of the diet with prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics; this method improves the health of the host by supplementation with and/or fortification of certain health promoting bacteria present in the gastrointestinal tract, by dietary means. Probiotics (live organisms) in the form of fermented milk products have been shown to exert cholesterol lowering properties, whereas non-digestible fermentable carbohydrate prebiotics have been shown to reduce triacylglycerol levels in animal studies. However, in human studies using both prebiotics and probiotics, there have been inconsistent findings with respect to changes in lipid levels, although, on the whole, there have been favourable outcomes.
Condições meteorológicas e tipo de solo na composição da uva 'Cabernet Sauvignon'

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of weather and soil type on the physicochemical characteristics and phenolic compounds of the 'Cabernet Sauvignon' grape (Vitis vinifera). The experiment was carried out in a vineyard established in 2003, grafted onto 'Paulsen 1103', and conducted in the cordon system. Two soils were selected in the vineyard: Typic Dystrudepts and Pachic Humudepts. The effect of weather (rainfall, and minimum and maximum temperature) was evaluated in the seasons 2008/2009, 2009/2010, and 2010/2011. Soil physical and chemical properties, soluble solids, titratable acidity and pH of the wort were determined, as well as the index of total polyphenols, and anthocyanin and tannin contents of the grape. The factors soil and meteorological conditions (crop seasons) were arranged in a 2x3 factorial. Except for the total polyphenol content, weather and soil type affect the physicochemical characteristics of 'Cabernet Sauvignon'. The effect of weather is more pronounced than the effect of soil type. Lower rainfall and higher temperature ranges favor the accumulation of soluble solids in the 'Cabernet Sauvignon' grape. Higher rainfall favors the increase of wine acidity.
Effects of two mixtures of perennial ryegrass cultivars with contrasting heading dates, and differing in spring‐grazing frequency and silage harvest date, on characteristics of silage from first‐cut swards

This experiment quantified the effects of: (i) heading date of perennial ryegrass, (ii) grazing frequency in spring and (iii) date of silage harvest, on the ensilability of herbages harvested for silage, and on the conservation and estimated nutritive value of the resultant silages. Replicated field plots with two perennial ryegrass mixtures (intermediate- and late-heading cultivars) were subjected to three spring-grazing regimes (no grazing, grazing in late March and grazing in both late March and late April) and were harvested on four first-cut harvest dates between 20 May and 21 June. Herbage from each of the four replicates of these 24 treatments was precision-chopped and ensiled unwilted and with no additive in laboratory silos. Herbage from the sward with the intermediate-heading cultivar had a higher (P < 0·001) dry-matter (DM) content and buffering capacity than that from the late-heading cultivar, whereas water-soluble carbohydrate concentrations increased (P < 0·001) with more frequent grazing in spring. Later harvesting enhanced herbage ensilability through an increased (P < 0·001) DM content and reduced (P < 0·001) buffering capacity and pH. Fermentation profiles of the silage were not markedly influenced by the cultivar mixture used but grazing in both late March and late April resulted in a more extensive fermentation with the acids produced increasingly dominated by lactic acid. The concentrations of acetic acid, and to a lesser extent, ethanol declined as silage harvest date was delayed. Overall, the relative effects of grass cultivar mixture were smaller than those of spring-grazing treatment or silage-harvesting date although on any given harvest date the herbage from the intermediate-heading cultivar mixture was easier to preserve as silage than herbage from the late-heading cultivar mixture. Delaying the harvesting of the late-heading swards by 8 d removed the differences related to growth stage in buffering capacity, pH and DM content.
The relationship between intergenerational transfers, housing and economic outcomes - AHURI Positioning Paper No.163

This research addresses three distinct but related questions around intergenerational transfers (inter vivos gifts and bequests), housing outcomes, and related economic outcomes. 1. What is the magnitude and nature of bequests and what role do they play in facilitating home ownership, changes in housing consumption or assisting home-buying households into outright home ownership? 2. What is the nature of inter vivos (financial and in-kind) transfers from older Australians to their children and what role do they play in facilitating sustainable housing outcomes? 3. What are the implications of intergenerational transfers for inequality and what are the likely consequences over time?
Effects of Replacing Nonfiber Carbohydrates with Nonforage Detergent Fiber from Cassava Residues on Performance of Dairy Cows in the Tropics

Four Holsteinxlndigenous cows with ruminal canulas were used in a 4x4 Latin square design with 28 d periods to determine the effect of replacing nonforage fiber source (NFFS) from cassava residues for non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) on ruminal fermentation characteristics and milk production. Dietary treatments contained 17% forage neutral detergent fiber (FNDF) from corn silage and 0, 3, 6 and 9% nonforage NDF from cassava residues and 11% nonforage NDF from other NFFS, so that levels of nonforage NDF were 11, 14, 17 and 20% dry matter (DM). Intakes of DM and net energy for lactation, average daily gain and milk fat percentage were not different (p>0.05). Ruminal pH, ammonia concentrations, acetate to propionate ratios, 24 h in sacco fiber digestibility significantly increased with increasing contents of nonforage NDF from cassava residues. Concentrations of VFA, urinary excretion of purine derivatives, milk protein percentage, production of milk and 4% FCM significantly decreased. These results suggest that NFC in diets is one of the limiting factors affecting productivity of dairy cows in the tropics and thus NFFS is better used as partial replacements for FNDF.
Methylation and expression changes in imprinted genes H19 and Igf2 during serial somatic cell nuclear transfer using piglet fibroblasts

Cloned pigs produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) are important as a potential alternative source of organs. Although SCNT has created new possibilities for targeted gene modification, the successful cloning of pigs is rare. Here, we successfully conducted serial SCNT for three generations. We determined that the piglet genome was inherited from donor cell nuclei using microsatellite analysis of each generation. The methylation of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in H19 was gradually reduced over the three generations of serial SCNT. By contrast, methylation of the insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2) DMR increased in the F1 generation, compared to the F0, and remained at the higher level in the F2 and F3 generations. The methylation patterns of housekeeping genes such as GAPDH and β-actin were unchanged in the serially cloned pigs. In addition, expression levels of H19 and Igf2 were variable for each generation of serial SCNT piglets, but there was no clear relationship between the methylation and gene expression patterns. Our study conclusively demonstrates that the methylation patterns of DMRs in H19 and Igf2 were altered, compare to the F0 donor, during serial SCNT, but housekeeping genes were unaffected.
Phosphorus Balance and Soil Phosphorus Status in Paddy Rice Fields with Various Fertilizer Practices

Abstract Excess phosphorus (P) has accumulated in Japanese paddy soils, due to fertilizer P inputs over crop requirement for several decades, and improvement of the excess of P is necessary in view of environmental conservation. This study aimed to evaluate the input/output balance of P related to soil P status in paddy rice systems, and to obtain a practical indication. Irrigated rice (Oryza sative L.) was cultivated on a gley soil from 1997 to 2006. Six field plots fertilized with commercial fertilizer, animal waste composts, green manure and none were included. Phosphorus input varied among plots from 0 to 73 kg ha-1 yr-1. Rice P uptake was approximately 20 kg ha-1, indicating no response to the P input. This was attributed to a large amount of plant-available Bray- and Truog-P in our soils. In our fields, paddy rice could be cultivated with no P-containing fertilizer or amendment. As a result, increase in the P input led to an increase in partial P balance (PPB). Cumulative increase in PPB resulted in the increase in soil total P, whereas cumulative decrease of PPB tended to decrease it. Excess accumulation of the soil P results in a loss of P into the environment. We concluded that P fertilization should be restricted to 20 kg ha-1 yr-1 (corresponding to 46 kg ha-1 yr-1 as P2O5), based on evenly balanced P input with the rice P uptake. It is also important to include all of the P-containing fertilizers and amendments when determining the amount of application.
Corrected Parsimony, Minimum Evolution, and Hadamard Conjugations

Phylogenetic spectral analysis based on Hadamard transforms is an interesting new development for the inference of evo? lutionary trees and for understanding the interrelationships of existing methods (Hendy and Penny, 1989, 1993; Steel et al., 1993a; Hendy et al., 1994; Lento et al., 1994). We use it to interconvert between an underlying evolutionary model and the ex? pected frequencies of patterns observed in sequences. Because the Hadamard is a dis? crete Fourier transform on a finite group (Diaconis, 1988), we call this approach spectral analysis. It gives a mathematical description of an invertible relationship be? tween data and model: the expected fre? quencies of patterns in the data can be cal? culated from the model, and the model can be recovered consistently from the fre? quencies of patterns in the data. Recently, Takezaki and Nei (1994) que? ried four aspects of the utility of spectral analysis: the use of the parsimony criterion after correcting for multiple changes (cor? rected parsimony), the current limitation of spectral analysis on nucleotide sequenc? es to the Kimura 3-ST mechanism of evo? lution, the relationship between a Hada? mard transform and the minimum
Potential for manipulating carbon metabolism in wheat

The transformation of wheat opens up opportunities for manipulation of key steps in plant metabolic pathways. Attempts to alter the expression of sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) and glycine decarboxylase (GDC) in wheat leaves have been made. Using a maize SPS gene under the control of either a constitutive promoter (in p35SMSPS) or a green tissue specific promoter (in pRGMSPS), transformation of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Cadenza) led to the production of 22 independent transformed lines that contained the SPS transgene. Expression of the transgene, analysed by RT-PCR, revealed that the transcript was present in nine of the 12 p35SMSPS plants and six of the 10 pRGMSPS plants. The maize SPS protein could not, however, be detected in any of these lines. The expression of GDC, and in particular that of the P subunit, has been shown to be altered in plant species with the intermediate C3/C4 photosynthetic phenotype. Attempts have been made to make similar changes in the expression of GDC in wheat leaves by transforming them with full length cDNA sequences for the P subunit of GDC in the sense and antisense orientation. More than 70 transformed lines were produced. Of these, 11 contained the gene in the sense, and 31 in the antisense, orientation, as determined by PCR. Results with T1 generation plants suggested that the activity of GDC had been reduced in some lines transformed with antisense constructs. However, there was no evidence for the expression of the sense constructs. GDC mRNA could not be detected by RT-PCR in any of the 10 lines produced in the sense transformation experiments. Taken together, these results demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology to deliver large numbers of transgenic wheat plants. However, clearly this alone is not sufficient to guarantee the correct expression of the transgenes at sufficient levels to establish the presence of the gene product.
THE DURATION OF THE PRESENT

A star, two million light years distant from the earth, which exploded two million years ago, is experienced as exploding “now” by an observer on earth. Similarly, an electric shock, delivered to our great toe and experienced by us “now,” was actually given at least 25 milliseconds previously. From these two examples of the use of the word “now,” we see that it refers to the first moment of awareness of an event or an entity by a particular observer who is located in a unique position in the universe. “Now” is a term tha t refers, therefore, to an aspect of the experience of existence. This aspect of our experience is implicit in the very state of awareness and in every state of awareness. T o he conscious is to be aware of something now. T o be aware of nothing now, is to be unconscious. The “present” is a less precise term which refers to the period of time during which we are aware of an event or an entity. * The phrase, “the duration of the present,” within the context of an analysis of perception, refers t o the duration of a state of awareness of an object of perception, that is to say, the duration of a perception. The duration of a perception, i.e., the duration of the mental state, should not be confused with the duration of the physical stimulus which gives rise to it. The two durations are not necessarily identical. A physical stimulus may be presented to a subject for several seconds. By virtue of changes in attention within that period, several different perceptions may occur. Conversely, the
Prediction of Dry Matter Intake and Live Weight Gain in Lambs by Some Characteristics of Roughages

This study was carried out to evaluate the regression equations for predicting the dry matter intake and digestible dry matter intake of roughages and live weight gain from roughages in lambs. For this purpose, rumen degradability characteristics of some roughages according to the equation of p=a+b(1-e -ct ), rumen dry matter degradability in different periods of time, ADF-NDF contents and digestibility of dry matter were used as independent characteristics. Roughages consisted of straws of wheat, rice, barley, oat, chickpea, vetch and lentil and oat hay. The roughage intake and growth rate were predicted in separate 2 periods by using totally 24 merino male lambs. Four groups each consisting 6 lambs were designed for each roughages. Three merino male sheep were used for in vivo digestibility trial and three for rumen degradability trial. The average dry matter intake of roughages varied from 542.7 to 992.7 g/day, digestible dry matter intake from 235.9 to 557.7 g/day live weight gain from 16.7 to 197.0 g/day. Number of equations used to predict the dry matter and digestible dry matter intake were more than the equations for live weight gain. In addition the correlation coefficients for live weight gain were found lower than that of others. The highest correlation coefficients of between dry matter intake, digestible dry matter intake of roughages and live weight gain with the contents of a',b',c,L determined from the equation of p=a+b(1-e -ct ) were found to by 0.89, 0.92 and 0.82 respectively.
Stimulateurs des défenses naturelles des plantes : une nouvelle stratégie phytosanitaire dans un contexte d’écoproduction durable. I. Principes de la résistance induite

Apres avoir ete longtemps dependante des pesticides, l’agriculture mondiale est aujourd’hui frappee par un courant qui favorise des pratiques plus durables et plus respectueuses de l’environnement. Pour repondre a ces nouvelles exigences, les agriculteurs doivent se tourner vers l’exploitation et la rentabilisation des ressources naturelles par le biais de pratiques agricoles combinant la performance et la protection des cultures a un moindre cout ecologique. Dans ce contexte, le developpement de molecules biologiques capables de stimuler les defenses naturelles des vegetaux (SDN) est une strategie qui attire de plus en plus l’attention. Une molecule SDN est un eliciteur susceptible de declencher une serie d’evenements biochimiques menant a l’expression de la resistance chez la plante. La perception du signal par des recepteurs membranaires specifiques et sa transduction par diverses voies de signalisation conduisent a la synthese et a l’accumulation synchronisee de molecules defensives parmi lesquelles certaines jouent un role structural alors que d’autres exercent une fonction antimicrobienne directe. Les barrieres structurales contribuent a retarder la progression de l’agent pathogene dans les tissus de la plante et a empecher la diffusion de substances deleteres telles des enzymes de degradation des parois ou des toxines. Les mecanismes biochimiques incluent, entre autres, la synthese de proteines de stress et d’inhibiteurs de proteases ainsi que la production de phytoalexines, des metabolites secondaires ayant un fort potentiel antimicrobien. Les progres remarquables accomplis ces dernieres annees en termes de comprehension des mecanismes impliques dans la resistance induite chez les plantes se traduisent aujourd’hui par la commercialisation d’un nombre de plus en plus important de SDN capables de stimuler le « systeme immunitaire » des plantes en mimant l’effet des agents pathogenes.
Blood Parameters of Chicks from Eggs Injected With Ascorbic Acid and Subjected to Thermal Stress

This study was aimed to verify if chicks from eggs injected with ascorbic acid and subjected to thermal stress would have higher immunity than chicks from incubation at thermoneutrality without injection of ascorbic acid. The parameters evaluated were temperature on oxygen saturation in hemoglobin, glucose, number of erythrocytes, hematocrit rate and number of hemoglobins of newly hatched male chicks, hatched from eggs injected with ascorbic acid (AA) and subjected to thermal stress during incubation. The experimental design was completely randomized in factorial scheme 5 (application levels of ascorbic acid) x 2 (incubation temperatures). The data were subjected to analysis of variance using the General Linear Model procedure (GLM) of SAS ®. For the parameters (number of erythrocytes, rate of hematrocit and values of hemoglobin), there was significant interaction (p <0.05) between treatments in egg and incubation temperatures. Analyzing the interactions for these parameters, it was observed that the application of 0% ascorbic acid in egg minimized the effect of heat stress when compared with treatment without injection. The application of ascorbic acid levels in eggs incubated under heat stress failed to maximize the immunity of newly hatched chicks. It is assumed that the increased liquid in the amniotic fluid, in those embryos injected with water, favored the lower heat conductance for these embryos, thus helping in their development in relation to immunity. Considering that hemoglobin is related to the transport of gases, these data suggest that increasing the concentration of AA solution inoculated may influence the respiratory rates of eggs.
The Production of Sterility in Drosophila melanogaster by X-Ray Treatment

IT has been known for several years that x-rays, when applied to germinal tissues, produce sterile individuals. Muller (1928) reported a high percentage of sterility among both males and females of Drosophila following exposure of adults to x-ray emanations. Subsequently, Hanson (1928) observed a high degree of sterility among males of Drosophil'a nelanogaster to which x-ray treatment had been administered and a publication by Hanson and Ferris (1929) makes note of the sterility produced by the exposure of adult banana flies to irradiations. These observations apply only to cases in which germinal tissues of adults were exposed to irradiations. In 1932, the writer published a brief note on the comparative sterility results obtained by treating germ-cells of Drosophila in different stages of development. The present paper lends support to the published results, introduces a new phase of sterility induced by x-rays and offers a plausible explanation for its production.
Photo-oxidative stress in coconut seedlings: early events to leaf scorching and seedling death

Experiments were conducted on coconut seedlings to delineate events of photo-oxidative stress damage. Studies on chlorophyll fluorescence indicated a clear case of excess light energy under high light conditions causing stress to coconut seedlings raised under coconut palms. Quantum yield of photo-chemistry of leaflets exposed to high light was significantly less than those under shade. Seedlings exposed to high light and then shifted to shade have shown significant improvement in quantum yield. Excess light energy harvested by chlorophyll antenna caused high non-photochemical quenching resulting in production of biologically toxic super oxide, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals. It is apparent that photoinhibition of photosynthesis takes place due to i) PSII down regulation and ii) damage to PS II system in initial stages of exposure to excess light and under prolonged exposures inhibition is caused due to iii) chlorophyll bleaching and iv) damage to chloroplast and cell membrane integrity, followed by reduction in photosynthetically active leaf area because of scorching thus reducing canopy photosynthesis. Protein concentration in leaf tissue was higher in seedlings in high light conditions. Three distinct low molecular weight proteins with pI of 4.9, 8.4 and 10.15 having Mr less than 20,000 were found in seedlings exposed to high light intensities. Results clearly demonstrate the events that take place at early stage to subsequent cascading effects leading to the scorching and death of leaf and even seedling death under severe conditions.