Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative three way analysis of biochemical responses in cereal and millet crops under salinity stress

Cereals and millets account for staple food of the major population of the world and any stress posed on them limits their productivity. Salt stress affects seed germination and results in poor grain quality and low production. To identify the best responding cereal against variable salinity regime, the present study was undertaken. The seeds were grown under salt stress of 0mM to 200mM and plantlets were excised on 15th day of the experiment for biochemical analysis. Salinity caused specific changes in the antioxidant potential of the plant as seen through Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), Peroxidase (POX), Catalase (CAT) and Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) enzyme activities. The enzyme activities were calculated through multivariate analysis to ascertain the biochemical responses using Principal component analysis (PCA) and Linear discriminate analysis (LDA). A significant increase in the antioxidative enzyme activity was noted in Eleusine, suggesting that it is better suited to combat the oxidative stress injury amongst the three plants.
Evolution of plant defenses and herbivore host selection in the neotropical genus of trees Inga (Fabaceae)

Because plants and their insect enemies are strikingly species-rich groups, understanding their interactions has been a key issue in ecology and evolution. The arms race between plants and herbivores is considered the driver of diversification in both groups. However, we have a poor understanding of how these processes lead to divergence and speciation. This dissertation research tests key theories that relate plant- insect interactions with diversification and coevolution in both groups of organisms. In the first part, I assess the utility and contrast the predictions of two theories aimed to explain the patterns of defense investment across species: The Apparency Theory and the Resource Availability Hypothesis. My results provide strong support for the predictions of the Resource Availability Hypothesis. In particular, the evolution of defenses appears to be related to interspecific differences in inherent growth rate rather than to a species’ predictability to herbivores. The theory appears robust across latitude and ontogeny suggesting that it has served as a valid framework for investigating the patterns of plant defenses and that its applicability is quite general. In the second part, I focus on how herbivores may drive the evolution of plant defenses, how plant defenses shape herbivore host choice and how plant-herbivore interactions might influence community composition and diversity focusing on the Neotropical genus of trees Inga (Fabaceae). I characterize the entire suite of anti-herbivore defenses and also quantify the diversity and abundance of leaf-feeders
ENDOGENOUS AMINO ACID FLOWS AT THE TERMINAL ILEUM OF BROILERS, LAYERS AND ADULT ROOSTERS

Endogenous flows of nitrogen and amino acids at the terminal ileum of broilers (6 weeks old), layers (70 weeks old) and adult roosters (70 weeks old) were determined using the peptide alimentation method. The ileal endogenous output of nitrogen and total amino acids in broilers, layers and roosters, expressed as mg/kg dry matter intake, were similar (F > 0-05). Endogenous flows were similar (F > 0-05) for nine of the 17 amino acids analysed, but the flows of serine, glutamic acid, proline, alanine, isoleucine, tyrosine, arginine and methionine differed (P 0-05) between the three classes of chickens, except for serine, glutamic acid, proline and isoleucine. The concentrations of proline were higher (F
On the tension between standardized and customized policies in health care: The case of length‐of‐stay reduction

Hospitals increasingly adopt standardized policies as a way to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery. One key policy has been to reduce a patient's length of stay, which is commonly perceived as an effective means of improving patient outcome, as well as reducing the cost per procedure. We put this notion to the empirical test by using a database of 183,712,784 medical records of patients in the English NHS between 1998 and 2012, studying the effects of the NHS's policy of decreasing length of stay for hernia patients. While we found it to be an effective way of reducing the cost per procedure, on aggregate, we also found that it increases the risk of readmission and of death for vulnerable and elderly patients, unduly increasing the long-term failure costs of the operation for these patient groups. Based on our findings we propose a differentiated policy to selectively decrease length of stay, which we estimate could save up to US$565 per non-emergency hernia procedure (a 19.97% reduction in the cost per procedure). We outline the implications of our findings for medical practice, and discuss the wider theoretical contributions to the wider standardization-customization debate in healthcare operations management.
The genetic structure of the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus; Ursidae, Carnivora) in Colombia by means of mitochondrial and microsatellite markers

The spectacled bear (Ursidae: Tremarctos ornatus) is an emblematic umbrella species and one of the top carnivores in the Andean mountains. It is also listed as vulnerable by IUCN and as endangered by CITES. We analyzed the genetic structure of this species in nine geographical regions representing the three Andean Cordilleras in Colombia. We sequenced six mitochondrial genes in 115 spectacled bears; a subset of these specimens (n = 61) were genotyped at seven nuclear microsatellites. We addressed three objectives: 1) determine the genetic diversity and historical demographic changes of the spectacled bear in Colombia; 2) determine phylogeographic patterns of genetic divergence among spectacled bear populations in Colombia; and 3) estimate the levels of gene flow among different regions of Colombia. Our analyses show evidence of high mitochondrial genetic diversity in spectacled bears, both in Colombia as well as in each of the nine regions, most particularly Norte de Santander, Nariño, and Antioquia-Córdoba. In addition, we detected population expansion in Colombia that occurred around 24,000 years ago, followed by a population decrease during the last 7,000 years, and a sudden expansion in the last 300 years. Phylogenetic analyses showed few well-supported clades, with some haplotypes detected in all the departments and Colombian Andean Cordilleras, and other haplotypes restricted to certain geographical areas (Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Cundinamarca, and Nariño). We detected significant genetic heterogeneity among some departments and among the three Colombian Andean Cordilleras for both mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Nevertheless, the moderate levels of gene flow estimated from FST statistics suggest that geographical barriers have not been definitive obstacles to the dispersion of the spectacled bear throughout Colombia. Despite these gene flow estimates, significant spatial autocorrelation was detected for spectacled bear in Colombia, where two kinds of spatial patterns were discovered: genetic patches of 144 km of diameter, and isolation by distance among bears separated from 578 to 800 km. The two most northern spectacled bear populations of Colombia (Norte de Santander and Antioquia) also were the two most differentiated. Their distinctiveness may qualify them as distinct Management Units (MUs) in the context of conservation policies for the spectacled bear in Colombia.
Teaching Design through Micro-Assignments: Experience-Based Cases Towards Training Future Design Professionals

This paper considers three brief experience reports on teaching design in both academia and industry with an eye towards training future design professionals. We focus on production-based micro-assignments: small, low-stakes pieces of work that serve broader goals and encourage adaptive thinking, arguing that low-stakes projects assigned either in the classroom or in the workplace for training help future designers better prepare themselves for complex, multimodal workplaces and careers. The microprojects we consider here include examples from a Document Design classroom, teaching structured authoring in DITA, and the value of microtrainings in the workplace.
Research trend on regulating effect of laser pretreatment on plant growth

This paper reviewed researches in recent years on the response of plant growth,physio-biochemistry to laser treatment.The review shows a clear research trend.Earlier studies focused on the effects of laser pretreatment on seeds germination,seedlings growth and physio-biochemical characteristics,with emphasis on the mechanisms by which laser pretreatment influences plants.Latter studies,on the other hand,focused on the effects of laser pretreatment on physio-biochemical traits of plants under such environmental stresses as drought,cold and enhanced UV-B radiation.In the latter research stage,more emphasis was placed on the effects of laser pretreatment under enhanced UV-B radiation on plants.Research results indicated that laser irradiance improved plant resistance to drought and cold stress,and enhanced UV-B radiation.On these bases,the mechanisms were discussed also.Future research should focus on repairing mechanisms of laser-pretreated plants under global eco-environmental change conditions.
Status and Distribution of Cisco (Coregonus artedi) and Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) in Inland Lakes of Wisconsin

Abstract Coregonus artedi (Cisco) and Coregonus clupeaformis (Lake Whitefish) are coldwater fishes native to some inland lakes in Wisconsin. We conducted a statewide assessment of Cisco and Lake Whitefish status using experimental-mesh vertical gillnets during the summers of 2011–2014. Cisco and Lake Whitefish relative abundances varied from 0 to 137 and 0 to 3 fish/net night, respectively. About 29% of the Cisco and 33% of the Lake Whitefish populations were potentially extirpated from inland lakes in Wisconsin; most potential extirpations were from southern Wisconsin, but extirpations occurred statewide. Invasive species, climate change, land-use change, and excess nutrient loading may have contributed to causing extirpations of Cisco and Lake Whitefish. Conservation of remaining populations of Cisco and Lake Whitefish will require efforts to minimize these perturbations.
Effects of a New Carbamate Insecticide, Larvin (UC-51762), on Some Nontarget Aquatic Invertebrates

The effects of a new carbamate (thiodicarb) insecticide, UC-51762 or Larvin (O-[[N-[N'- (methylthiothylideneiminoxycarbonyl) -N'-methylaminosulfenyl]-N-methylcarbamoyl]]-S-methylacetothiohydroximate), on some nontarget aquatic invertebrates in experimental and sewage ponds were studied. The insecticide at 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 kg AI/ha (i.e. 0.055, 0.11, and 0.22 ppm, respectively) in experimental ponds affected populations of Rotifera, Cyclops spp. , Daphnia sp. , Ostracoda, Chaoborus sp. , Baetis sp. , coleopteran larvae and chironomid larvae. In a sewage pond, at 1.0 kg AI/ha (0.085 ppm), Cyclops sp. , Ostracoda, Hyalella azteca (Saussure), and chironomid larvae were affected. The adverse effects of the carbamate insecticide on the invertebrates in both types of habitats were moderate and generally of a short duration.
Extension of hydrophilicity stability by reactive plasma treatment and wet storage on TiO2 nanotube surfaces for biomedical implant applications

Micro and nanoscale changes allow the optimization of physico-chemical properties of titanium implant surfaces. Recently UV and plasma treatments have allowed surface hydrophilicity to take increased prominence; however, this beneficial effect is short-lived. The aim of this study is to investigate methodologies post-anodizing treatment to generate and maintain high surface hydrophilicity along with high biocompatibility. Anodized surfaces were characterized regarding physical–chemical properties. Then, surface wettability with nanomorphology was evaluated at different times and with distinct post-treatments: as deposited, with a reactive plasma and UV-light post-treatment, stored in air or deionized (DI) water. Adhesion, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and bone cell viability tests were executed after the incremental treatments. The anodizing process generated a surface with TiO2 nanotubes morphology and micro-roughness. Plasma-treated surfaces resulted in the most hydrophilic samples and this property was maintained for a longer period when those were stored in DI water (angle variation of 7° to 12° in 21 days). Furthermore, plasma post-treatment changed the titanium surface crystalline phase from amorphous to anatase. Anodized surfaces modified by reactive plasma and stored in DI water suggest better hydrophilicity stability, biocompatibility, ALP activity and achievement of crystalline phase alteration, indicating future potential use on biomedical implants.
Displacement ventilation: a viable ventilation strategy for makeshift hospitals and public buildings to contain COVID-19 and other airborne diseases

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has so far infected more than 31 million people around the world, and its impact is being felt by all. Patients with diseases such as COVID-19 should ideally be treated in negative pressure isolation rooms. However, due to the overwhelming demand for hospital beds, patients have been treated in general wards, hospital corridors and makeshift hospitals. Adequate building ventilation in hospitals and public spaces is a crucial factor to contain the disease (Escombe et al. 2007 PLoS Med. 4; Escombe et al. 2019 BMC Infect. Dis. 19, 88 (doi:10.1186/s12879-019-3717-9); Morawska & Milton 2020 Clin. Infect. Dis. ciaa939. (doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa939)), to exit lockdown safely, and reduce the chance of subsequent waves of outbreaks. A recently reported air-conditioner-induced COVID-19 outbreak caused by an asymptomatic patient, in a restaurant in Guangzhou, China (Lu et al. 2020 Emerg. Infect. Dis. 26) exposes our vulnerability to future outbreaks linked to ventilation in public spaces. We argue that displacement ventilation (either mechanical or natural ventilation), where air intakes are at low level and extracts are at high level, is a viable alternative to negative pressure isolation rooms, which are often not available on site in hospital wards and makeshift hospitals. Displacement ventilation produces negative pressure at the occupant level, which draws fresh air from outdoors, and positive pressure near the ceiling, which expels the hot and contaminated air out. We acknowledge that, in both developed and developing countries, many modern large structures lack the openings required for natural ventilation. This lack of openings can be supplemented by installing extract fans. We have also discussed and addressed the issue of the ‘lock-up effect’. We provide guidelines for such mechanically assisted, naturally ventilated makeshift hospitals.
Environmental Effects on Gill Function: An Introduction

If our lungs, most of our kidneys, and part of our digestive tract were allowed to hang outside the body, exposed to a constant stream of the atmosphere, the chemical and physical characteristics of the air would undoubtedly play a greater role in our daily lives. This, however, is the situation that faces all fish. The gill comprises over half the body surface area; here only a few microns of delicate epithelium separate the internal environment from a continually flowing external environment whose chemical and physical characteristics may vary greatly over time and space. The organ is both morphologically and physiologically complex, performing multiple functions simultaneously-gas exchange, ion and water exchange, acid-base balance, nitrogenous waste excretion, toxicant uptake/detoxification/excretion, metabolic transformations, and so on. As such, it is the primary receptor surface for all changes in the external environment, and its response, whether adaptive or pathological, invariably determines the extent of homeostatic regulation of the internal environment. With this context in mind, a diverse group of comparative physiologists traveled to Helsinki, Finland, in July 1989 to participate in a symposium entitled "Environmental Effects on Gill Function" as part of the 31st International Congress of Physiological Sciences. Speakers were asked to integrate their own recent research findings with a current synthesis of the field. A lively session resulted that underlined the remarkable advances that have been made in the last few years in analyzing and modeling environmental effects on gill function. Much of the information presented has not appeared in print before; we felt that the proceedings would be of interest to a wider audience than those who were actually able to attend the meeting. The present collection of symposium papers and primary research articles (recruited around this same theme) is the result. Three clear messages emerge
Lineage-specific patterns of chromosome evolution are the rule not the exception in Polyneoptera insects

The structure of a genome can be described at its simplest by the number of chromosomes and the sex chromosome system it contains. Despite over a century of study, the evolution of genome structure on this scale remains recalcitrant to broad generalizations that can be applied across clades. To address this issue, we have assembled a dataset of 823 karyotypes from the insect group Polyneoptera. This group contains orders with a range of variations in chromosome number, and offer the opportunity to explore the possible causes of these differences. We have analysed these data using both phylogenetic and taxonomic approaches. Our analysis allows us to assess the importance of rates of evolution, phylogenetic history, sex chromosome systems, parthenogenesis and genome size on variation in chromosome number within clades. We find that fusions play a key role in the origin of new sex chromosomes, and that orders exhibit striking differences in rates of fusions, fissions and polyploidy. Our results suggest that the difficulty in finding consistent rules that govern evolution at this scale may be due to the presence of many interacting forces that can lead to variation among groups.
Automatic Generation of Multi-Objective Polyhedral Compiler Transformations

To this day, polyhedral optimizing compilers use either extremely rigid (but accurate) cost models, one-size-fits-all general-purpose heuristics, or auto-tuning strategies to traverse and evaluate large optimization spaces. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive and automatic scheduler that permits to generate novel loop transformation sequences (or recipes) capable of delivering strong performance for a variety of different architectures without relying on auto-tuning, nor on pre-determined transformation strategies. We evaluate our approach using the Polybench/C benchmark suite against two modern state-of-the-art optimizers on three different architectures: An AMD ThreadRipper, an Intel Xeon Phi, and an Intel Xeon Platinum. Our results provide evidence that a set of high-level objectives backed up by an automatic adaptive scheduler (i.e., not hard-wired) is capable of achieving competitive performance, while only resorting to evaluating a handful of tuned variants.
Refining the Distribution of Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat in Florida

Abstract Corynorhinus rafinesquii (Rafinesque's Big-eared Bat) is uncommon and unevenly distributed throughout its range, and its populations are believed to be declining. The distribution in Florida, the southernmost extent of the range, is unclear, and recently published maps show records in only 16 counties scattered across the state. We compiled published and unpublished records of Rafinesque's Big-eared Bat in Florida and found 59 total records, including records from 13 counties where the species had not been previously reported. These new records expand the known distribution in Florida to 29 counties, including Miami-Dade County in extreme southeastern Florida. Our compilation of records clarifies the species' distribution in Florida, but several broad geographic areas still lack records despite the presence of forested wetland habitat potentially suitable for Rafinesque's Big-eared Bat. We recommend further survey efforts for Rafinesque's Big-eared Bat in 4 areas we identified where the species may be present.
The interactive impact of dietary PUFA on the deposition of DHA in the egg yolk

Nutritional literature has indicated the role of dietary fat in the incidence of cardiovascular and other general diseases, e.g. the balance between the fatty acids of the n-6 and n-3 series. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of the interactive impact of dietary PUFA on the deposition of DHA in the egg yolk. This trial consisted of 32 treatments where several combinations of coconut fat, HO sunflower oil, soy oil, flax seed oil and fish oil were supplemented at two dietary concentrations, so creating a relative wide variation in dietary PUFA-concentration. A bifactorial response surface modelling was used to relate the egg yolk DHA-% to dietary concentration of C18:2, C18:3, EPA and DHA. Dietary lipid composition had a major impact on egg yolk fatty acid profile, whereby yolk DHA varied from 1.7 up to 3.7%. The bi-factorial analysis revealed that (1) yolk DHA was linearly related to dietary DHA but slightly related to dietary C18:3 and EPA, 2; (2) C18:3 and EPA were a much less efficient DHA-precursor than DHA and (3) the conversion of C18:3 and EPA to DHA was much less efficient than the transfer of dietary DHA.
Researches concerning the fruit binding degree and fruits' qualities of some nectarine varieties in conditions of Timisoara.

The peach tree represents of the most important species in the temperate climate because of its fruits’ qualities and biological features of trees, being considered the III rd fruit tree culture in our country considering the economical importance and culture perspectives. The nectarine culture amplified from 1970, thanks to the collaboration between dr. Vasile Cociu and prof. Leon Hough from the University Reurgers, New Jersey, U.S.A. researchers who made up the genetic bases of some nectarine varieties. Among these we observed the behaviour of eight nectarine varieties cultivated in the climatic conditions of Timisoara concerning their binding degree and fruits’ quality during 2008-2009.
Graph convolutional network for fMRI analysis based on connectivity neighborhood

There have been successful applications of deep learning to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), where fMRI data were mostly considered to be structured grids, and spatial features from Euclidean neighbors were usually extracted by the convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in the computer vision field. Recently, CNN has been extended to graph data and demonstrated superior performance. Here, we define graphs based on functional connectivity and present a connectivity-based graph convolutional network (cGCN) architecture for fMRI analysis. Such an approach allows us to extract spatial features from connectomic neighborhoods rather than from Euclidean ones, consistent with the functional organization of the brain. To evaluate the performance of cGCN, we applied it to two scenarios with resting-state fMRI data. One is individual identification of healthy participants and the other is classification of autistic patients from normal controls. Our results indicate that cGCN can effectively capture functional connectivity features in fMRI analysis for relevant applications.