Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nutrient and Anti-Nutrient Composition of Extruded Cereal Flours Fortified with Grain Amaranth, Baobab and Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato Powder

A majority of households in Sub-Saharan Africa utilize cereal-based flours in the preparation of most of their staples. However, the micronutrient contents of these cereal-based flours are low with higher levels of anti-nutrients. Food to food fortification is being used as an alternative to improve the micronutrient content of the cereal-based flours. This study sought to develop an extruded composite flour using sorghum and maize as the cereal base and baobab, grain amaranth and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes as the fortificants. A completely randomized design in factorial arrangement with ingredient ratio and extrusion as factors and seven levels was used to develop different formulations of the composites. Fortification of sorghum-maize cereal flour blends with amaranth, baobab and orange-fleshed sweet potato powder resulted in a significant (p<0.05) increase in the protein, beta-carotene, iron and zinc contents, on average, 8.99 ± 1.03 g/100g, 895.90 ± 346.85 mg/100g, 11.81 ± 9.73 mg/100g and 1.74 ± 0.18 mg/100g dry weight basis respectively. High grain amaranth levels in the formulations significantly (p<0.05) increased the phytate content whereas tannin content was significantly lower in low sorghum formulations. Conversely, extrusion of the composite flours significantly (p<0.05) reduced protein and beta-carotene contents by 4.7% and 40.9% respectively. Extrusion and its interaction with ingredient ratio significantly (p<0.05) affected the proximate, mineral and anti-nutrient composition of the composite flours. Both the fortificants and extrusion play a role in the reduction of anti-nutrients and therefore future studies should focus on other treatments that can be used together with extrusion to reduce anti-nutrients.
Reconstructed monthly river flows for Irish catchments 1766–2016

A 250‐year (1766–2016) archive of reconstructed river flows is presented for 51 catchments across Ireland. By leveraging meteorological data rescue efforts with gridded precipitation and temperature reconstructions, we develop monthly river flow reconstructions using the GR2M hydrological model and an Artificial Neural Network. Uncertainties in reconstructed flows associated with hydrological model structure and parameters are quantified. Reconstructions are evaluated by comparison with those derived from quality assured long‐term precipitation series for the period 1850–2000. Assessment of the reconstruction performance across all 51 catchments using metrics of MAE (9.3 mm/month; 13.3%), RMSE (12.6 mm/month; 18.0%) and mean bias (−1.16 mm/month; −1.7%), indicates good skill. Notable years with highest/lowest annual mean flows across all catchments were 1877/1855. Winter 2015/16 had the highest seasonal mean flows and summer 1826 the lowest, whereas autumn 1933 had notable low flows across most catchments. The reconstructed database will enable assessment of catchment specific responses to varying climatic conditions and extremes on annual, seasonal and monthly timescales.
Field margin floral enhancements increase pollinator diversity at the field edge but show no consistent spillover into the crop field: a meta‐analysis

Conventional intensification of agriculture has reduced the availability of resources for pollinators, reducing their diversity and affecting plant pollination, both in natural habitats and croplands. Field margin floral enhancements such as flower strips or restored field margins could counteract these negative effects. The approaches to assess the success of these management measures generally evaluate separately the pollinator response at the edge and within the crop, as proxies for pollinator conservation and pollination services, respectively. We performed a meta‐analysis to understand the influence of field margin floral enhancements on the abundance and richness of pollinators at the edge and within the field, and on crop yield. We estimated 137 effect sizes from 40 studies, all from the northern hemisphere. Overall, the field margin floral enhancements increased the abundance and richness of pollinators at the field edge but had no consistent effect in the interior of the crop fields. Few studies evaluated crop yield, and in these studies no effects were observed. These results suggest that field margin floral enhancements can constitute a positive conservation action for pollinators but not necessarily associated with pollination ecosystem service.
Prediction of Elastic Properties Within CO2 Plume at Sleipner Field Using AVS Inversion Modified for Thin‐Layer Reflections Guided by Uncertainty Estimation

Existing amplitude variation with offset (AVO) and slowness (AVS) theories fail to interpret observed amplitudes in terms of actual elastic properties of the media for a reflection event resulting from a stack of thin layers. We propose a method to replace the stack of thin layers with an equivalent medium of elastic properties using the Backus averaging theory. Numerical examples show considerable deviation in intercept calculated from the modified AVO and AVS theories from the conventional methods. AVS theory is preferred as it can be applied irrespective of impedance contrast in both precritical and postcritical reflections, and no spherical divergence correction is required. P and S wave velocities, density, and thickness of thin layers are determined using the inversion scheme of very fast simulated annealing (VFSA). Uncertainty in prediction is evaluated using an approximate marginal posterior probability density function and a parameter correlation matrix. We demonstrate our methodology on synthetic and real seismic data from the Sleipner field, which is a good example of enhanced seismic amplitudes due to interference among reflections from thin layers. We select 11 common depth point (CDP) gathers for amplitude analysis of four identified reflectors along a line of 3‐D seismic data acquired in 2008. Predicted mean models of CO2‐saturated sand layers at all locations show that the thickness, density, and P and S wave velocities vary from 5–7 m, 1.8–2.0 g/cm3, and 1,460–1,490 and 630–650 m/s, respectively. Our analysis suggests that the model parameters are well constrained and independent except at a few locations.
Can Actin Depolymerization Actually Result in Increased Plant Resistance to Pathogens?

The integrity of the actin cytoskeleton is essential for plant immune signalling1. Consequently, it is generally assumed that actin disruption reduces plant resistance to pathogen attack2-4. However, in a previous study, it was shown that actin depolymerisation triggers the salicylic acid (SA) signalling pathway5, which is interesting because increased SA is associated with enhanced plant resistance to pathogen attack6,7. Here, we attempt to resolve this seeming inconsistency by showing that the relationship between actin depolymerization and plant resistance is more complex than currently thought. We investigate the precise nature of this relationship using two completely different plant pathosystems: i) a model plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) and a bacterial pathogen (Pseudomonas syringae), and ii) an important crop (Brassica napus) and a fungal pathogen (Leptosphaeria maculans). We demonstrate that actin depolymerization induces a dramatic increase in SA levels and that the increased SA is biosynthesized by the isochorismate synthase pathway. In both pathosystems, this phenomenon leads to increased plant resistance.
COUP-TFI is required in the differentiation and migration of granule cells in the developing dentate gyrus

The hippocampus is a major component of the mammalian brain and plays important roles in memory, learning, and spatial navigation. It comprises two distinct regions: the hippocampus proper and the dentate gyrus (DG). During my thesis, I have challenged the role of the strong transcriptional regulator COUP-TFI, playing key roles during neocortical specification and migration. Yet, little is known about its involvement in the hippocampus. COUP-TFI is expressed in a gradient fashion in both proliferating progenitors and differentiated neurons in the hippocampus, and is highly localized in the DG neuroepithelium. The aim of my thesis was thus to decipher the role of COUP-TFI in the developing hippocampus, and specifically in cell differentiation and migration of granule cells, the major DG cell population. Using two mutant mouse lines, in which COUP-TFI is either ablated in progenitors, or solely in post-mitotic cells, I have shown that absence of COUP-TFI induces different degrees of growth impairments. In the absence of COUP-TFI in progenitors, DG precursors tend to differentiate precociously, exhibit reduced proliferation and granule cells migration is impaired. Postnatally, inputs from the cortex fail to innervate the septal DG and apoptosis is abnormally increased. The DG results strongly reduced in adult, particularly in the septal region. Loss of COUP-TFI in differentiated cells leads only to minor and transient defects. Together, my results indicate that COUP-TFI is involved in regulating granule cell differentiation and migration predominantly in progenitors, and propose COUPTFI as a novel transcriptional regulator required in hippocampal development and functions.
Telomerase Regulation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Telomerase Regulation in Arabidopsis thaliana. (August 2012) Andrew David Lyle Nelson, B.S., Southwestern Oklahoma State University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Dorothy E. Shippen Telomeres form a nucleoprotein cap at the end of eukaryotic chromosomes. The telomere protein constituents repress the DNA damage response (DDR) and facilitate maintenance of terminal sequences by a specialized ribonucleoprotein complex called telomerase. In turn, factors involved in the DDR guarantee telomerase acts only in telomere homeostasis, and not at double-strand breaks (DSBs). Thus, the three pathways surrounding telomeres display incredible overlap and are immensely complex. Here, I report a novel regulatory pathway that limits telomerase action during DNA damage. Duplication of the telomerase RNA subunit (TER) in Arabidopsis has given rise to a TER that is not required for telomere homeostasis. Indeed, this TER, termed TER2, is a competitive inhibitor of TER1 RNP complexes. Exposure to genotoxic agents results in TER2 upregulation and a subsequent inhibition of telomerase activity. Using data from the 1,001 Arabidopsis genomes project, I determine that the TER duplication and inhibitory nature of TER2 is likely derived from a transposon-like element within TER2. This element is found throughout Brassicaceae, with at least 32 members in Arabidopsis lyrata. These findings highlight the complex and diverse mechanisms by which an organism will regulate telomerase action.
Importance of gold nanoparticles for detection of toxic heavy metal ions and vital role in biomedical applications

ABSTRACT In the last few decades gold nanoparticles have become an intense topic of research due to it's eminent size and morphology dependent optical, chemical, physical and electrical properties. Gold nanoparticles show useful technological applications in the province of nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, chemical and biological sensors. Due to the size- and shape-dependent properties, synthesis of gold nanoparticles with various methods is still an important area of research. Recent literature reports indicate that gold nanoparticles have vast biomedical applications such as biosensors, bio-imaging, targeted drug delivery and controlled drug release. Other than size and shape, the inter-particle distance dependent optical properties of gold nanoparticles have very interesting applications in the field of sensors. Gold nanoparticles show good selectivity and sensitivity for colorimetric identification of heavy toxic metal ions such as Hg2+, Cd2+, As3+, Pb2+ etc and various biomolecules. The concentration of such toxic metal ions in water can be identified by naked eye also.
Microbial Communities and Sulfate-Reducing Microorganisms Abundance and Diversity in Municipal Anaerobic Sewage Sludge Digesters from a Wastewater Treatment Plant (Marrakech, Morocco)

Both molecular analyses and culture-dependent isolation were combined to investigate the diversity of sulfate-reducing prokaryotes and explore their role in sulfides production in full-scale anaerobic digesters (Marrakech, Morocco). At global scale, using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Synergistetes, and Euryarchaeota were the most dominant phyla. The abundance of Archaea (3.1–5.7%) was linked with temperature. The mcrA gene ranged from 2.18 × 105 to 1.47 × 107 gene copies.g−1 of sludge. The sulfate-reducing prokaryotes, representing 5% of total sequences, involved in sulfides production were Peptococcaceae, Syntrophaceae, Desulfobulbaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, Syntrophobacteraceae, Desulfurellaceae, and Desulfobacteraceae. Furthermore, dsrB gene ranged from 2.18 × 105 to 1.92 × 107 gene copies.g−1 of sludge. The results revealed that exploration of diversity and function of sulfate-reducing bacteria may play a key role in decreasing sulfide production, an undesirable by-product, during anaerobic digestion.
Haematological and serum biochemistry response of finisher broiler fed graded levels of sweet potato (Ipomoea batata) meal as replacement for yellow maize

The study was conducted to find out the haematological and biochemistry response of broiler finisher birds fed different levels of sweet potato meal (SPM). The levels of sweet potato meal in the different treatment diets were 0, 25, 50, 75%, respectively. The increase in PCV, HGB, and RBC contents of the blood of birds fed the experimental diets indicated an improved oxygen carrying capacity of the cells, which translated to a better availability of nutrients to the birds consequently affecting their well-being. SPM caused reduction in the levels of serum cholesterol, a very positive observation especially now that people are very conscious of reducing cholesterol content of animal protein and some people rejecting red meat. All haematological parameters assessed only reveal minor statistical (P>0.05) differences, falling within the ranges stated in literature for broiler birds. It is concluded that sweet potato root meal can replace maize meal in the diet of broilers which may be compensated by the lower cost of the sweet potato meal. The substitution also did not have any deleterious effect on haematological and serum biochemistry and by extension, the health status of the birds.
The effects of K+-deficiency on H2O2 dynamics and sucrose in tomato

Potassium (K+) deficiency inhibits the transport of photosynthetic products and causes severe crop yield losses. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, we used two tomato lines 081018 (K+-deficiency-sensitive) and 081034 (K+-deficiency-tolerant), showing tolerance to K+ deficiency to investigate the relationship between the H2O2 and sucrose in the tomato under K +-deficiency. The H2O2 accumulation was increased by the low K+ condition (0.5 mM) after 8 h in 081018. The enzymes related to the metabolism of H2O2 were decreased, and more malondialdehyde (MDA) was produced. After 24 h, the sucrose content had accumulated significantly in the leaves, however, it was deficient in the roots, and the expression level of the sucrose transporters (SUT1) was inhibited. In 081034, the activity of antioxidant enzymes was increased under K+-deficiency, and then the H2O2 subsequently returned to the control treatment (4 mM) levels and did not produce more MDA. The sucrose content was not significantly different from the control treatment after 24 h. The expression of SUT1 was not suppressed. These results suggested that the H2O2 dynamics played different roles in the two different strains. The transportation of sucrose was suppressed by the H2O2 from the leaf (source) to the root (sink) in 081018, and unrestricted by the advantageous reactive oxygen species dynamics capacity in 081034.
Structure, properties and heat treatment of aluminum alloy BAC1 synthesized by 3D printing

Article is devoted to studying of influence of the process of selective laser melting and subsequent various heat treatment on the structure of aluminum alloy. On the basis of scientific and technical literature describes the need for and relevance of the application of modern technologies of 3D printing, the possibility of its application. The authors investigate the microstructure and determine the porosity of the synthesized samples of aluminum alloy of the Al-Si-Mg (Cu) system. The dependence of the porosity of the samples on the energy density is established. Also, the author investigated the influence of annealing and hardening modes with aging on the hardness of the samples of aluminum alloy. On the basis of the conducted researches characteristic properties and features of the synthesized material and preferable heat treatment were determined.
Effects of sea horse (Hippocampus abdominalis)-derived protein hydrolysate on skeletal muscle development

Hippocampus abdominalis , the big belly sea horse, is widely known for its medicinal value in Chinese folk medicine. In this study, extract obtained by proteolytic degradation of this species was investigated for its effects on skeletal muscle development, both in vitro and in vivo . Muscle cell lines (C 2 C 12 and L 6 ) treated with the bioactive peptide did not have any detrimental effects on the cell viability, which was above 80%. Optical microscopy analysis on the morphology of the sea horse extract (SHE)-treated cells showed enhanced differentiating ability with myotube formation. Moreover, cells incubated with the hydrolysate displayed decreased proliferation rate, as recorded by the electric cell substrate impedance sensing system, thereby supporting enhanced differentiation. For a period of 12 weeks, mice models were fed with SHE and simultaneously subjected to treadmill exercise, which increased the expression of Myogenin, a key myogenic regulatory factor. In addition, there was an increase in the expression of AMPK- and Cytochrome C, both of which are important in mitochondrial biogenesis. Thus, the SHE from Hippocampus abdominalis can be a promising candidate as protein supplement aiding muscle development.
Mating System Shifts and Transposable Element Evolution in Plants

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements that can self-replicate and insert elsewhere in the genome. This movement often comes with a fitness cost and yet TEs are tremendously common. They contribute more than 80% to the largest plant genomes, but are much less abundant in the smallest plant genomes. Combined, these observations raise the two central questions of this thesis. First, why are TEs so common, and the genomes so large, in some species but not others? Second, what prevents TEs from completely taking over and causing genomes to fail to produce functional individual organisms? In this thesis, I have used population and comparative genomics approaches on whole genome data from closely related plant species and syntheisising literature reviews to examine some of the evolutionary causes and consequences of TE proliferation in plants. In particular, I have investigated the role of mating system shifts, from outcrossing to self-fertilization and from sexual to asexual reproduction, in driving variation in TE abundance and genome size. I used the reference genome of Capsella rubella as an outgroup to show that the higher TE abundance and larger genome size of the
Human–carnivore competition for antlered ungulates: do pumas select for bulls and bucks?

Abstract Context. Many institutions of wildlife management and their hunting constituents tend to value ungulates over large carnivores, in part due to financial incentives associated with ungulate hunting over carnivore hunting. This system benefits from mythology that presents large carnivores as competitors for antlered male ungulates most prized by the hunting community. Aims. We explored puma (Puma concolor) foraging and prey selection in two study areas in the Rocky Mountains, USA, to test whether pumas were competing with human hunters for antlered elk (Cervus elaphus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Methods. We employed GPS technology to track pumas and document their prey. We measured population- and individual-level selection by comparing prey killed by pumas to two estimates of prey availability: (1) landscape-level as determined by annual agency game counts; and (2) total prey killed by marked pumas. Key results. Pumas in both study systems killed small numbers of antlered elk and mule deer. Pumas exhibited avoidance of mature elk, instead strongly selecting for elk calves over any other age or sex class. Pumas in both systems also selected for mule deer fawns; however, they also exhibited small positive selection (Jacob’s index of 0.08 in CO and 0.11 in WY on a scale of 0.0–1.0) for antlered mule deer. Conclusions. In terms of numbers killed, pumas were not a competitor with human hunters for either antlered species. In terms of prey selection, pumas showed that they may be greater competition for rare antlered mule deer but not for antlered elk. In both study sites, antlered elk and deer remained at levels at which they could perform their ecological functions. Implications. Our results highlight the fact that the overhunting of large carnivores over competition for antlered ungulates is mostly unfounded; we should instead focus management, media attention and conservation science on disentangling the complex ecology driving localised declines of mule deer, elk and other important ungulate resources, many of which are anthropogenic in nature and can be addressed.
The real-time big data processing method based on LSTM or GRU for the smart job shop production process

With the wide application of intelligent sensors and internet of things (IoT) in the smart job shop, a large number of real-time production data is collected. Accurate analysis of the collected data can help producers to make effective decisions. Compared with the traditional data processing methods, artificial intelligence, as the main big data analysis method, is more and more applied to the manufacturing industry. However, the ability of different AI models to process real-time data of smart job shop production is also different. Based on this, a real-time big data processing method for the job shop production process based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gate Recurrent Unit (GRU) is proposed. This method uses the historical production data extracted by the IoT job shop as the original data set, and after data preprocessing, uses the LSTM and GRU model to train and predict the real-time data of the job shop. Through the description and implementation of the model, it is compared with KNN, DT and traditional neural network model. The results show that in the real-time big data processing of production process, the performance of the LSTM and GRU models is superior to the traditional neural network, K nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree (DT). When the performance is similar to LSTM, the training time of GRU is much lower than LSTM model.