Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ovule Function and the Evolution of Angiosperm Reproductive Innovations

A broad perspective of seed plant reproductive biology, including information from both living and fossil gymnosperm groups, is crucial in order to understand the evolution of angiosperm reproductive innovations. Within this context, angiosperms are unique in the degree to which they have shifted reproductive functions away from their ovules to associated tissues and organs. This is particularly true in regard to the carpel, which has assumed roles in pollination, seed protection, and seed dispersal previously restricted to the ovule itself. Perhaps as a consequence, angiosperm ovule development is more efficient than in nearly all other groups of living and extinct seed plants, where reproductive functions often constrain both patterns of development and the allocation of resources. For example, many living gymnosperm species are as efficient as angiosperms in minimizing ovule development prior to pollination, but they require a megagametophyte for embryo provisioning that constrains their efficiency in minimizing investment prior to fertilization. By decoupling ovules from pollination, the carpel also fundamentally altered the way in which pollination occurs in angiosperms relative to other seed plants. In particular, this change gave angiosperms greater control over the spatial positioning of their reproductive organs and may have therefore expanded the types of reproductive structures angiosperms could develop and the specificity with which these structures could interact with pollinators.
Understanding residents' desired approaches to manage forest access roads: a case from northeastern Ontario, Canada.

Managing roads and access on publicly owned forested lands should include assessments of the public’s views of desirability for different approaches. To assess the public’s views, we explored northeastern Ontario residents’ desirability ratings towards approaches that remove, deactivate, or close forest access roads. From a social survey, respondents, on average, rated every restrictive approach as undesirable. From a principal components and cluster analysis, we identified four groups of respondents (open roads, road deactivation, road closure, and sign-based road closure supporters) that differed in their desirability ratings for the approaches. Comparisons of group members by the types and intensity of outdoor recreation use, attitudes towards roads and management, environmental value orientations, and sociodemographic characteristics revealed expected and important differences. On the one hand, almost one half of respondents had high levels of undesirability ratings towards any restrictive approach, s.
An Economic and Environmental Tradeoff Analysis of Sustainable Agriculture Cropping Systems

ABSTRACT This study used the results of a 60-year simulation based on data from the Sustainable Agricultural Demonstration site at the USDA, ARS Beltsville Agriculture Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, to analyze tradeoffs between profitability and environmental stewardship. Six grain cropping systems included two no-tillage rotations with recommended fertilizer and herbicide inputs, two no-tillage rotations with winter annual cover crops and reduced herbicide and nitrogen inputs, and two reduced-tillage organic rotations. Economic analysis showed that highest gross margins were attained by a cover crop-based system with zero nitrogen inputs (CCZ). Risk analysis showed that the organic systems had lower profit variability across years and, therefore, would be most attractive to risk averse farmers. Both the cover crop-based systems and organic systems had low erosion risks and no risk of herbicide contamination so there were no profit versus erosion or herbicide tradeoffs amongst these systems. All systems had nitrogen runoff that exceeded threshold levels in at least two-thirds of the simulation years. In addition, systems that were lowest in nitrogen runoff were highest in phosphorus losses. This resulted in tradeoffs for risk neutral farmers between higher profitability along with higher nitrogen runoff for the CCZ system versus lower profitability along with lower nitrogen runoff for the organic systems. In contrast, for risk averse farmers, there would be a tradeoff between lower economic risk along with higher phosphorus loss in the organic systems versus higher economic risk along with lower phosphorus loss for the CCZ system. Thus, control of nutrient losses while maintaining profitable production levels represents a major challenge to the design of sustainable cropping systems.
Apple Pollination Biology for Stable and Novel Fruit Production: Search System for Apple Cultivar Combination Showing Incompatibility, Semicompatibility, and Full-Compatibility Based on the S-RNase Allele Database

Breeding and cultivation of new apple cultivars are among the most attractive and important issues for apple researchers. As almost all apple cultivars exhibit gametophytic self-incompatibility (GSI), cross-pollination between genetically different cultivars and species is essential not only for stable fruit production, but also for breeding of new cultivars. For cross-pollination by insect or hand pollination, pollen viability and pistil fertility are key factors, but also the mechanism of GSI has to be taken into account. This paper reviews the germination rate of pollen after storage in different conditions, at different periods of flowering, and in combination with pistil fertility and cross-compatibility among wild-, crab-, and cultivated apples. Furthermore, suitable cultivar combinations for new attractive apple cultivars based on GSI are explored. Especially, details about S-genotypes of apple cultivars, which are present in recent cultivar catalogues, are introduced together with a newly established on-line searchable database of S-genotypes of cultivars, wild apples and crab apples that shows incompatibility, semicompatibility, and full-compatibility.
Campylobacter jejuni and the human food chain: a possible source

Campylobacter spp. is the single most common cause of food‐borne illness in England and Wales and worldwide. Raw meat (particularly poultry) is commonly contaminated with the organism. Insufficient cooking and/or proper storage or cross contamination to foods not subsequently cooked are the main means by which humans become infected. The organism enters the human food chain because of its prevalence within the digestive tract of livestock herds and poultry flocks but the means whereby it initially colonises these are probably diverse. This study investigated the survival of Campylobacter jejuni in animal feed and therefore the possibility that, in certain circumstances, this medium may provide a vector for initial infection and a reservoir for further spread within the flock hence providing a means of entry into the human food chain.
Evaluation of Milk and Butter from Commercial Dairy Herds Fed Canola-Based Protected Lipid Feed Supplement

Abstract No deleterious effects on milk and butter quality were observed from the prolonged feeding of protected lipid feed supplements to commercial dairy herds. Milk from two farms where "Protec", 3 a canola-based protected lipid feed supplement, had been fed for the preceding 2.5 yr were compared with milk from two farms where Protec had never been fed. The feeding of "Protec" did not affect flavor characteristics of milk and butter produced. A slight butter-softening effect was apparent from measurements of hardness, softening point, and oiling-off. The prolonged feeding of canola-based protected lipid feed supplements did not appear to have any deleterious effects on animals or on quality of milk and butter.
Partial characterization of reovirus‐like particles associated with garlic dwarf disease

A dwarfing disease of garlic (Allium sativum) has recently been noted in southern France. Affected plants were stunted and had thickened leaves that sometimes developed vein swellings or enations and a darker green colour; leaves often had purple tips and an abnormal phyllotaxy. The root system was poor and the bulb spongy, containing few normal cloves. A previously undescribed virus, here named garlic dwarf virus (GDV), was associated with the syndrome and has been partially purified. The particle morphology, electrophoretic pattern of dsRNA segments and cytopathology were similar to those of Fijiviruses (Reoviridae). Limited serological and nucleic acid hybridization tests did not, however, reveal any relationship with members of the Reoviridae. Apart from one preliminary Australian report of a reo-like virus in lilies from Japan, this is the first description of a reo-like virus affecting a monocotyledonous host outside the Gramineae.
Genetic Diversity and Gene Flow Patterns in Pollicipes mitella in Korea Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Analysis

Genetic diversity and gene flow patterns in Pollicipes mitella were investigated with a nucleotide sequence analysis of 514 base pairs from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) in 124 samples collected from six Korean populations. In total, 59 haplotypes were defined by 40 variable nucleotide sites in the COI region. The haplotypes had shallow haplotype genealogy and no geographic associations. All populations had high haplotype diversity (0.909 to 0.979) and low nucleotide diversity (0.0055 to 0.0098). The haplotypes with recently diverged nucleotides were distributed by long-range larvae dispersal among regional populations. The pairwise fixation indices ( FST) estimated with the exact test and migration rates indicate that substantial gene flow has occurred among populations as a result of sea currents, except between the Uljin (East Sea coast) and other Korean populations. This suggests that significant genetic differentiation and low migration rates have affected the Uljin population.
Impedimetric Sensors : Principles , Applications and Recent Trends 4016

4015 Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering & Sciences Publication Retrieval Number J98060881019/2019©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.J9806. 0881019 Abstract: This work figures the conceptual background of impedimetric measurements. Impedance measurement is a convenient approach for exploring the change in electrical behavior of diverse materials. An overview of in practice impedance analysis on CHI660D electrochemical work station is presented. Detection of microorganism causing foodborne diseases using IDE and other methods, toxic metal ion quantification, environment pollutant monitoring are described applications in this work. This work also reviewed the noticeable development in impedance measurement devices based on AD5933 such as bio-impedance measurement and explosive material detection. Biological signals are detected by transducing them into electrical analogy, detection of which is not a big issue. The main challenges are to convert biological signal into electrical information. Electrochemical sensors present captivating techniques to determine the content of sample under test. Electrochemical sensing platforms come up with an appealing methodology to interpret the concentration of biological sample as these sensors directly translate biological information to an electronic one. Huge amount of sensing platforms and corresponding devices has been developed. EIS is a rapid and easily computerized technique used to characterize biomolecules, inorganic materials, having a wide range of applications. The measured impedance spectra are generally fitted to an analogous electrical circuit model which constitutes an electrical documentation of the SUT by disclosing its behavior and properties. Quick, highly selective/specific and sensitive techniques to quantify biological and biochemical molecules and other target species are of great importance in biomedical and biotechnological application. Recent developments trends for handy, portable, fast and precise impedance analyzer is discussed. AD5933 evolution kit is reviewed.
Seed Size and Fruit-Handling Techniques of Avian Frugivores

Whether a bird handles a fruit by crushing it with its bill or simply swallowing it whole has important ramifications for both the dispersal success of the plant and the feeding behavior of the bird. In cage experiments, birds that crushed fruits in their bills ("mashers") usually dropped many seeds without ingesting them. Large seeds were dropped more frequently than small seeds. The proportion of seeds dropped by five tanager species correlated negatively with their body weight. Birds that swallowed fruits whole ("gulpers") did not drop seeds before swallowing fruits. Gulpers regurgitated large seeds and defecated small seeds. Median regurgitation time was less than median defecation time. Gulpers had lower ingestion rates than mashers, probably because mashers did not ingest many seeds. Mashers spent more time than gulpers in handling fruits. Mashers may also be less restricted than gulpers of equivalent size in the sizes of fruits they can take. Plants may respond evolutionarily to the differences in the seed-dispersal probability of mashers and gulpers through different fruit presentation methods, shifted fruiting seasons, seed size, and pericarp texture.
Demographics in an alpine reindeer herd: effects of density and winter weather

We examined how population density, winter weather, snow conditions, and 2 large-scale climatic indices (North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO, and Arctic Oscillation, AO) influenced demography (reproduction and mortality) in an alpine herd of semi-domesticated reindeer Rangifer tarandus between 1959 and 2000 in Finnish Lapland. The herd lived on heavily grazed lichen pastures, with winter densities between 0.8 and 3.9 individuals km -2 . Icing conditions occurred every 7th yr, on an average, and decreased reproductive rate (calves/females) by 49%. In general linear models icing remarkably increased the fit of snow models to reproductive rate. Incorporation of an interaction term between icing and the snow depth index provided better fit than a model without interaction. Delayed snowmelt decreased reproductive rate. For the day of snowmelt, however, the model without interaction was better than the interaction model. These 3 models provided the best fit to the data and accounted for 51-54% of the variation in reproductive rate. Winter mortality was related to density and large-scale climatic indices, but not to local winter weather except a slight increase in mortality during an icing winter. The best model for winter mortality, including reindeer density and NAO, accounted for 26% of variation in mortality. Three factors may be involved explaining weak density dependence or the lack of such dependence; climate change scenarios that predict higher winter temperature, more frequent thawing-freezing periods, and deeper snow would be expected to decrease reproductive rate and increase winter mortality of reindeer and thus to reduce profitability of reindeer husbandry. In contrast, early springs would be advantageous for reindeer in the short term.
Pheromone‐mediated attraction in burying beetles

In a recent paper Bartlett (1987) tried to obtain some evidence for a sex attractant in burying beetles. In laboratory and field experiments he found that male and female burying beetles are significantly more likely to go to a container with a mouse buried by a Necrophorus male than to one with a hand-buried mouse. From his experiments he deduced that males attract other beetles to the corpse. But it is not unlikely that hand-buried mice are less attractive for Necrophorus than mice buried by beetles. In a field study carried out by Wilson et al. (1984) mice buried by a pair of Necrophorus were frequently (more than 50%) taken over by other Necrophorrrr individuals the day after burial. These mice must have been attractive for Necrophorus though there was no luring male. So Bartlett’s experiments may be influenced by the odour of the carcass buried by the males. Pukowski (1933) was the first to report a conspicuous behaviour of Necrophorus males that have found a carcass on which no female is present. These males take a typical posture: the extended abdomen is pointing up, the head touching the ground, and from time to time the tip of the abdomen is moved slightly up and down in such a way that the intersegmental membranes can be seen. The term ‘sterzeln’ she used for this kind of behaviour is derived from apidology where it describes a similar posture taken by honey bee workers during the release of pheromones attractive to other workers.
Fungi associated with leaf litter of para rubber (Hevea brasiliensis)

The objective of this research was to study the diversity of fungi associated with the degradation of para rubber leaf litter. Samples were collected at three periods in 2010: January (during the late rainy season), April (during the dry season) and July (early in the rainy season) in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla Provinces, both in southern Thailand. Each sample comprised the following three groups; newly fallen leaves, middle stage decaying leaves and old decaying fallen leaves. Moist chamber and dilution pour-plate methods were used. Fungal identification was based on morphological examination under compound and stereo microscopes. A total of 447 species of fungi were identified from the para rubber leaf litter, comprising 405 anamorphic taxa, 38 ascomycetes, two zygomycetes, one oomycete and one basidiomycete. Cladosporium tenuissimum was the dominant species in newly fallen leaves. Kirschsteinothelia sp. , Nigrospora sphaerica and Veronaea coprophila were the dominant species in middle stage decaying leaves. In addition to Kirschsteinothelia sp. , Lasiodiplodia cf. theobromae, Panchanania jaipurensis, Subulispora procuvata and Veronaea coprophila were the dominant species in old decaying fallen leaves.
Biological and serological comparisons of eel herpesvirus in Formosa (EHVF) and Herpesvirus anguillae (HVA)

A comparative study between EHVF (eel herpesvirus in Formosa) and HVA (Herpesvirus anguillae) was performed. Similar syncytia were produced by each virus in cell lines infected with the viruses and similar viral yields were obtained. Significant cross-reactivity was observed in neutralization tests between HVA and EHVF but HVA and EFVF were distinctly different from channel catfish virus (CCV). An electrophoretic analysis of the structural proteins of EHVF and HVA produced similar electrophoretic patterns. Western blotting analysis of the viral proteins, using antiserum against EHVF, supported the results obtained in the cross-neutralization test. In conclusion, the isolates of HVA and EHVF are tightly clustered.
Impermanency of Initial Cells in Huperzia lucidula (Huperziaceae) Shoot Apices

Structural changes in apical meristems accompany morphological specialization and adaptation of vascular-plant sporophytes to changing environments. Analysis of cell clones at the shoot apical meristem surface of a representative of the basal vascular plants made it possible to trace the dynamics of initial cells, which are recorded in cell wall arrangements. The cellular pattern at the summit of the Huperzia lucidula (Michx.) Trevisan shoot apical meristem is usually composed of four initial cells, forming a tetrad at the apex center, and their derivative clones. Our data show that the apical initial cells present at a given time in a tetrad often are transient and replaced by new initials in the ontogeny of a given Huperzia apex. Specifically, the process of dichotomous branching leads to extensive cell division, resulting in a pool of potential initial cells from which the new initial centers of the twin axes are selected. The ability to specify newly arisen cells as initials during shoot dichotomy indicates that a mechanism for selection and replacement of initial cells may exist in lycopods. Such a cellular mechanism, which could play an important role in protecting the genetic identity and integrity of meristematic cells, would be expected to emerge early in the phylogeny of vascular plants.
Piglets born from handmade cloning

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is probably the most efficient way to produce pigs with targeted genetic modification. Handmade cloning (HMC) is a new technology for SCNT developed recently (Vajta et al. 2005 Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 17, 97–112). However, HMC that resulted in births in cattle was regarded technically difficult in pigs due predominantly to the fragility of MII phase porcine oocytes. The purpose of our present work was to use optimized porcine HMC for production of cloned piglets. Data were analyzed by t-test using SPSS (11.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). After 42 h in vitro maturation, cumulus cells were removed. Oriented handmade enucleation was performed as described elsewhere (Li et al. concomitant abstract). Briefly, oocytes that were partially digested with 3.3 mg mL-1 of pronase for 20 s were removed of polar bodies (PB) and adjacent small volume of cytoplasm by manual bisection in HEPES-buffered TCM-199 medium supplemented with 2% calf serum and 2.5 µg mL-1 of cytochalasin B. Halves without PB were collected as putative cytoplasts. In vitro-cultured porcine fetal fibroblasts were used as donor cells. After cytoplast-fibroblast pairing, fusion and activation of fused cytoplast-fibroblast pairs (Kragh et al. 2005 Theriogenology 64, 1536–1545; Du et al. 2005 Clon Stem Cells 7, 199–205), reconstructed embryos were cultured in a modified well of the well (WOW) culture system (Feltrin et al. 2006 Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 18, 126 abst) with porcine zygote medium-3 (PZM3) supplemented with 4 mg mL-1 of BSA. The cumulative effect of the optimization steps has resulted in considerably improved in vitro efficiency, shown as 64 ± 2.3 (mean ± SEM) reconstructed embryos from 151.3 ± 4.8 oocytes could be obtained per day after 3–4 h manual work, including a 1-h pause between fusion and activation. One-half (50.1 ± 2.8%) of the reconstructed embryos developed to the blastocyst stage after 7 days, a rate that was significantly higher than that obtained with traditional cloning (TC; 27.7 ± 2.2%; P < 0.01). To compare the transfer efficiency between HMC and TC, blastocysts from both HMC and TC produced by using nuclear donor cells of different origin, respectively, to identify the offspring were transferred surgically to synchronized recipients. Of 6 pregnancies produced, 2 are ongoing, 2 were lost, and 2 term litters of 3 and 10 piglets were born. Live birth/transferred embryo efficiencies for HMC and TC are 17% (10/58) and 15% (3/20). According to our knowledge, a litter size of 10 cloned healthy piglets, as achieved in this study, is the highest one that ever has been reported. Our data suggest that porcine HMC is a very promising method for SCNT and may promote its widespread application for various purposes.