Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Beyond Biology: toward a More Public Ecology for Conservation

Abstract: The ultimate purpose of conservation science is to inform and affect conservation policy. Therefore, conservation biologists and all the people who produce, review, and apply conservation research should evaluate the success of their knowledge according to its ability to influence conservation decisions. In addition to possessing conventional “scientific” attributes such as validity, generalizability, and precision, conservation knowledge must also possess qualities that make it effective in the political arena of decision making. “Public ecology” is a philosophy and practice of conservation science that goes beyond biology and beyond the norms of modern science to construct knowledge that is useful for environmental decision making. As post‐normal conservation science, public ecology is defined by the following six attributes: evaluative, contextual, multiscalar, integrative, adaptive, and accessible. We discuss the need for a more public ecology and describe the qualites that make it a more powerful ecology.
Changes in Nutraceutical Lipid Constituents of Pre- and Post-Geminated Brown Rice Oil

Abstract This study investigated the changes in the nutraceutical lipid components of brown rice oil after germination. Four different high-yielding cultivars (Dasan1, Segyejinmi, Hanareum1 and Hanareum2) of Korean brown rice were selected and brown rice oil was extracted from each cultivar before and after germination. Free fatty acid, squalene, policosanols, and isomers of phytosterol were analyzed using GC, and isomers of tocols (tocopherol and tocotrienol) and γ-oryzanol were quantified using HPLC from both brown rice oil (BRO) and germinated brown rice oil (GBRO). The contents of phytosterol isomers, campesterol, stigmasterol, and β-sitosterol were increased by 8.3%, 31.6%, 3.3% in GBRO, respectively. Furthermore, the squalene content showed the highest increase of up to 2.4 fold in GBRO compared to BRO. In addition, linoleic and linolenic acid composition increased whereas oleic and palmitic acid decreased in the GRBO. However, the contents of tocols (tocopherol and tocotrienol) in GBRO were lower than those in BRO, and there was no significant difference in policosanol and γ-oryzanol between GBRO and BRO. These results suggest that GBRO has the potential as a healthy and functional source due to its lipid profile on improved lipid metabolism.Key words: germinated brown rice, brown rice oil, nutraceutical lipid, phytosterol, squalene
Increasing food intake in late gestation improved sow condition throughout lactation but did not affect piglet viability or growth rate

Increasing sow food intake in late gestation prevents loss of sow fatness prior to farrowing. However, this may result in reduced food intake and greater overall fat loss during lactation and has also been associated with increased incidence of agalactia. In this experiment 78 Camborough sows (parities 1 to 3) were given food at one of two levels: either 1·15
First occurrence of the genus Sclerocypris Sars, 1924 (Ostracoda) in the ?Pleistocene of Western Europe (Portugal)

The Recent distribution of the freshwater ostracod genus Sclerocypris Sars, 1924 (type species Sclerocypris clavularis Sars, 1924; synonyms Bharatcypris Battish, 1978 and Candonopsis Sars, 1894 pro parte), subfamily Megalocypridinae Rome, 1965, is restricted to Africa and India (Martens, 1986; Martens & Coomans, 1990). Recovery of fossils of Sclerocypris are not frequent and are restricted to Plio-Quaternary deposits of Kenya, with Sclerocypris clavularis Sars, 1924 from Lakes Turkana and Bogoria (Carbonel & Peypouquet, 1979; Carbonel et al., 1983, 1987; Cohen et al., 1983) and Sclerocypris jenkinae Klie, 1933 from Lakes Elmenteita and Naivasha (Lindroth, 1953; Cohen & Nielsen, 1986) and the Pliocene basal member of the Omo Series, Lake Turkana (Peypouquet et al., 1979). Sclerocypris bicornis (G. W. Müller, 1900) has been recorded (identified as Chlamydotheca sp.) in the Pleistocene of Egypt (Boukhari & Guernet, 1985). Recent field work in Algarve, southern Portugal (Cabral et al., 2003, 2004, 2005), recorded the presence of Sclerocypris. It was represented by numerous juvenile specimens of a species related closely to the Recent species Sclerocypris bicornis in a probable Pleistocene lacustrine ostracod assemblage at Bolqueime associated with other Cypididae, Candonidae, Darwinulidae, Limnocytheridae and Cypridopsidae. The instars are characterized by the presence of long spines on the margins, as is common in many species of this genus (Martens, 1986, 1991), such as Sclerocypris tuberculata (Methuen, 1910), Sclerocypris venusta (Vavra, 1897) [illustrated in Martens, 1986] and Sclerocypris clavularis Sars, 1924 (Pl. 1, fig. 2). They also possess three large conical tubercles not present on adults, an important …
Effects of ammonium and nitrate on mycorrhizal seedlings of Pinus sylvestris.

The effects of ammonium sulphate and sodium nitrate on Pinus sylvestris seedlings inoculated with Paxillus involutus and Suillus bovinus were investigated. Weekly fertilization (26 weeks) positively affected the plant dry weight, but inhibited the mycorrhizal formation and decreased the root length/weight ratio. Ammonium treatments affected the seedlings more positively and the mycorrhizas more negatively than nitrate did. The effects on seedlings inoculated with P. involutus were more pronounced than on those inoculated with S. bovinus. The possible mechanisms of the effects of nitrate and ammonium on mycorrhizas are discussed.
Transfer of a Cytoplasmic Factor by Micro-injection in Verticillium

Summary: Preparations of protoplasm, nuclei and mitochondria were introduced into living Verticillium cells. Most of the hyphae of auxotrophs injected with protoplasm obtained from complementary auxotrophs survived micro-injection (80%). Of these, 21% formed ‘artificial’ heterokaryons from which both parental genotypes were recovered by conidial analysis. Reciprocal injections of protoplasm were made between auxotrophic strains with darkly-pigmented resting structures (Hyl+) and hyaline strains lacking resting structures (Hyl+. Conidial analysis resulted in the recovery of all auxotrophic markers. The majority of phenotypes having darkly-pigmented resting structures were of the Hyl+ type (92 to 96%), but a few were partially or completely hyaline. Reciprocal injections between Hyl+ or Hyl+ 'sooty’ (Sot) strains and Hyl or Hyl Sot+ strains (hyaline strains induced by ultraviolet-irradiation from Sot auxotrophs) revealed the cytoplasmic inheritance of the Hyl marker in contrast to the nuclear inheritance of the Sot marker. The survival of recipient cells injected with preparations of nuclei was 30 to 40% on complete medium but conidial analyses indicated that heterokaryons were not produced. The survival of hyphae injected with mitochondrial preparations was 40 to 45%, and these colonies showed considerable morphological instability which was overcome during 2 to 3 weeks incubation. Conidial analyses of Hyl recipients injected with Hyl+ mitochondrial preparations resulted in 13 to 21% darkly-pigmented variants. These results suggest that one or more factors controlling darkly-pigmented structures were present in the mitochondrial preparations from the Hyl+ donor cytoplasm.
Genetics of Muscle Disease

ABSTRACT The inherited myopathies are a diverse group of disorders. The understanding of these diseases has grown dramatically in the past 10 years as a result of the rapidi dentification of causative genes. Two of the largest classes of inherited myopathies are the muscular dystrophies and the morphologically defined myopathies, including congenital myopathies. These diseases are typically diagnosed with either genetic testing or muscle biopsy. Treatment is supportive but involves management of multiple systems, including skeletal, cardiac, and respiratory systems.
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Bacterial Isolates from Urine Specimen of Patient with Complain of Urinary Tract Infection at A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Solapur, Maharashtra

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) account to one of the major reasons for hospital visits by patients, it remains to be one of the commonest infectious diseases diagnosed in developing countries, emergence of antibiotic resistance in uropathogens due to misuse or overuse of antibiotics and has led to limited therapeutic options for treatment which is serious concern for clinicians. Material and method: Clean catch midstream urine from each patient was collected instructions were given to the patient about method of urine collection, specimen was labelled and transported to the laboratory and analysed within 2 hours of collection. Sample was subjected to wet mount and gram stain for pus cells & evaluation of any bacteria in sample for provisional report and cultured on blood agar and MacConkey medium. Only patients with clinical symptoms of UTI and positive urine culture were included in the study. Study was conducted for a period of 3 months from SeptemberNovember 2018. Results: A total 656 samples were received in Microbiology department from patients suspected of UTI, out of which growth was seen in 164(25%) so the urine culture positively rate is 25%, sterile samples were 363 (55.33 %) Candida species were seen in 36 (5.48%) samples, insignificant bacteuria was seen in 57(8.63%) samples, polymicrobial flora was seen in 36 (5.48%) samples. Females 87(53.04%) were more commonly affected by UTI as compared to males 77 (46.95%), in females most common age group affected was from 15-30 years (50.57%) followed by 31-45 years (17-24) however in case of, males most common age group was from 1-4 years (28.57%) followed by age group > 60 years (23.4%). Most common uropathogens isolated from suspected cases of UTI were gram negative bacteria 141 (85.97%) out of which most common was E –coli 45 (27 %) followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae 41 (25%), Citrobacter Koseri 24 (14.6%), Enterobacter aerogens 17 (10.36%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa 10 (6.09%), Acinetobacter baumanii 4 (2.4%). Among gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus species were 15(9.01%) out of which MRSA were 5 (33.33%) Staphylococcus saprophyticus 9 (60%) and Staphylococcus epidermidis 01(6.66%) isolate was seen. Streptococcus pyogens 8 (34.78%). Antibiotic susceptibility in gram negative bacteria showed high resistance among urinary isolates was seen with sensitivity to Imipenem (37.2%) followed by Amikacin 37 %. , Cefotaxime 36%,Norfloxacin 36 %, Nitrofurantoin 31.70%, Among gram positive bacteria 100% sensitivity was seen for Vancomycin and Linezolid.
Selecting multiple web adverts: A contextual multi-armed bandit with state uncertainty

Abstract We present a method to solve the problem of choosing a set of adverts to display to each of a sequence of web users. The objective is to maximise user clicks over time and to do so we must learn about the quality of each advert in an online manner by observing user clicks. We formulate the problem as a novel variant of a contextual combinatorial multi-armed bandit problem. The context takes the form of a probability distribution over the user's latent topic preference, and rewards are a particular nonlinear function of the selected set and the context. These features ensure that optimal sets of adverts are appropriately diverse. We give a flexible solution method which combines submodular optimisation with existing bandit index policies. User state uncertainty creates ambiguity in interpreting user feedback which prohibits exact Bayesian updating, but we give an approximate method that is shown to work well.
Ascorbic Acid and Beta-Carotene Alleviate Oxidative Effect of London King Size® Cigarette Smoke on Tissue Lipids

Cigarette smokers inhale many free radicals during smoking: For example, in a puff of cigarette smoke that he takes, the gas phase contains more than 1014 radicals. Free radicals initiate many oxidative reactions that damage tissues and cause diseases such as the lung cancer. Non-smokers who stay around smokers when he is smoking are also exposed to the free radicals. However, the quantum of free radicals that he inhales is much less than that of smokers. Therefore, he may not be at the same risk as smokers. The present study was to ascertain the effect of exposing male Sprague-Dawley albino rats, non-smokers to one London King Size cigarette stick smoke for 30 minutes daily for two weeks on the tissue lipids and if 50mg ascorbic acid and or 0.6mg beta-carotene given orally per 100g body weight daily would alleviate any tissue damage caused by the smoke. The result showed that cigarette smoke accentuated the formation of malondialdehyde one of the degradation products of lipid hydroperoxide in the liver, lungs and plasma. Malondialdehyde production in the tissues was reduced by ascorbic acid and or beta-carotene given daily to the rats. It is implied that ascorbic acid or beta-carotene at the dose given overcomes the oxidative effect of London King Size ® cigarette smoke on tissue lipids. Key WordS:Cigarette smoke, malondialdehyde, Vitamin C, beta-carotene. [Nig. Jnl Health & Biomedical Sciences Vol.2(1) 2003: 12-15]
Toll‐like receptor‐4 299Gly allele is associated with Guillain‐Barré syndrome in Bangladesh

TLR4 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS). The relationships between TLR4 polymorphisms and susceptibility to GBS are poorly understood. We investigated the frequency and assessed the association of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the extracellular domain of TLR4 (Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile) with disease susceptibility and the clinical features of GBS in a Bangladeshi cohort.
The effect of transgenic nematode resistance on non‐target organisms in the potato rhizosphere

1. Plant-parasitic nematodes are important pests of agriculture and transgenic plants with potential for nematode control are currently being developed. The expression of cysteine proteinase inhibitors (cystatins) in potato confers partial resistance to potato-cyst nematode (PCN). Here, we used field studies to test for effects of cystatin-expressing potato on non-target soil organisms. 2. Microbial community structure, soil microarthropods and litter decomposition were studied during two growing seasons. In the second year, nematode control options of cystatin-expressing plants and an oxime carbamate nematicide application were compared for their non-target effects. 3. In the first year, the transgenic lines had no effect on the abundance, evenness or metabolic activity of the soil microbial community as determined by ester-linked phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA). However, one transgenic line (D6/7) influenced the structure of the soil microbial community. PLFA suggested it favoured fungal growth relative to bacterial growth during the latter parts of the growing season. A second transgenic line (D5/13) was more effective against PCN. It reduced the abundance of the fungal fatty acid 18:2omega6 in late season, suggesting a suppression of fungal growth. 4. In the second year PLFA analysis suggested microbial abundance was reduced by 15% and 23% in the nematicide and transgenic treatments, respectively, relative to the control. Nematicidal treatment reduced the bacterial fraction of the microbial community, whereas the transgenic plants suppressed both the bacterial and fungal community components. 5. The observed changes in soil microbial community structure did not result in changes in the rate of leaf litter decomposition. 6. The transgenic lines had no significant effect on the abundance of soil microarthropods or free-living nematodes. 7. The study is the first stage of a risk assessment of the impact of transgenic nematode resistance on non-target soil organisms. It has highlighted the importance of including currently used management options when studying the effect of transgenic plants on non-target organisms. Both nematicide use and the transgenic plants affected components of the soil microbial community. However, the changes brought about by the two treatments were not sufficient to affect soil functioning, as measured by rates of litter decomposition.
Analysis and Optimization of TrueType Font Bytecode

TrueType is one of the most widely used vectorized font formats. It can be optimally rendered on screens with different resolutions and different font sizes thanks to hints expressed as bytecode programs. Font engines execute the bytecode programs to adjust the outlines of the glyphs. TrueType font bytecode is a highly-dynamic stack-based bytecode language. It manipulates data with a global stack, and it uses hardware related information, such as screen resolutions and font sizes, which are unknown at compile time. Thus, it is hard to perform static analysis and optimizations on this bytecode. Fonts are sometimes subsetted to only include the glyphs that appear in a webpage before sending to the client. Existing font manipulation techniques do not touch the bytecode, so subsetted fonts contain un-optimized bytecode programs. TrueType bytecode analysis can help reduce bandwidth demands for serving webpages. This thesis presents improvements to COI, a tool for manipulating TrueType bytecode. New features include enhanced abstract execution as well as basic optimizations on COI, such as tree shaking, no-effect instruction removal, and dead block elimination. Finally, it completes the cycle by translating the COI back to TrueType bytecode. We tested our tool on fonts from different font families, including Microsoft Core TrueType font Arial, and NotoSansTibetan-Bold. Our experiments show that our optimizations can reduce the size of bytecode by 0.37% to 18.82% of the test fonts in our benchmarks. On average, we can reduce the size of bytecode of our test fonts by 7.10%. Our optimized fonts yield the same bitmaps as the original font.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Carotid Atherosclerosis : A Population-based Approach

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Worldwide, about 17 million people die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) each year, chiefly from ischemic heart disease and stroke. (1) Amongst those, stroke, the most common manifestation of cerebrovascular disease, has been the leading cause of serious, long-term disability in adults worldwide (1990-2010) (2) There are two main types of stroke — ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic stroke is more common and caused by an obstruction in the cerebral vasculature. The causes of ischemic strokes are heterogeneous, including atherosclerosis in the large arteries such as the carotid arteries (see fig 1.), lacunar infarctions and cardiogenic embolism. In this thesis, I will focus on carotid atherosclerosis as it is the most prominent to identify patients with a high risk of ischemic stroke. Atherosclerotic plaques can rupture which will lead to thrombo-embolization into the intracranial circulation or to acute occlusion of the carotid artery. Despite major advances in treatment strategies, ischemic stroke due to carotid atherosclerotic remains a serious public health problem. Current screening and diagnostic methods are insufficient to identify the plaques that have a high rupture risk and thus to select the individual before he is confronted with an ischemic stroke. One of the strategies to better face the challenges of cerebrovascular disease and improve well being of the population and of the individual includes early recognition of the vulnerable high-risk atherosclerotic plaque.
The Volatiles from Flowers of Couroupita guianensis Aubl., Lecythis usitata Miers. var. paraensis (Ducke) R. Kunth. and Eschweilera coriacea (A. P. DC.) Mori (Lecythidaceae)

Abstract The chemical composition of the volatile concentrates of the flowers of Couroupita guianensis, Lecythis usitata var. paraensis and Eschweilera coriacea were examined by GC/MS. The major components identified in the flowers of C. guianensis were linalool (21.5%), eugenol (18.9%) and (E,E)-farnesol (16.1%). The main constituents of the flowers of L. usitata var. paraensis were 2-phenylethyl alcohol (40.8%), phenylacetaldehyde (28.2%) and linalool (22.1%). The flowers of E. coriacea were dominated by (E)-β-ocimene (23.4%) and hexanal (11.6%).
Field observations on Arenophryne rotunda Tyler, a leptodactylid frog of coastal sandhills.

The leptodactylid frog Arenophryne rotunda was studied on coastal sand dunes in the Shark Bay area of Western Australia. It was active on the surface from 1850 h, overnight and shortly after dawn, travelling up to 27.6 m, then burrowed with its hands about 10 cm downwards to the interface of dry and moist sand for the day. Eggs of A. rotunda probably develop directly, with no tadpole stage. One frog was seen at the entrance of an ants' nest. Ants and small, 4 mm long, curculionid beetles predominated in faecal pellets. In one pellet there were 51, in another 34 head capsules of an ant, Iridomyrmex sp. Captive frogs tracked their prey and picked up small items by darting the very long slender tongue at them a distance of 5 to 10 mm. They did not use their hands or lunge with the body at the prey.
Design and Evaluation of Dynamic Resource Management Scheme for High-Performance Web Proxy Servers

In the current Internet, a significant amount of Web document transfer requests are through Web proxy servers. In this paper, we propose a new resource management scheme for Web proxy servers to improve their performance and to reduce Web document transfer time via the Web proxy servers. Our proposed scheme has two components. One is an enhanced E-ATBT (Equation-based Automatic TCP Buffer Tuning), which assigns send socket buffer to TCP connections on the proxy servers according to their characteristics and network condition. The other is a scheme that manages persistent TCP connections on Web proxy servers to avoid rejecting the newly arriving TCP connections due to lack of their resources. We validate an effectiveness of our proposed scheme through simulation experiments. We also discuss implementation issues of our proposed scheme on the actual Web proxy servers.
Expression of Iμ-Cγ hybrid germline transcripts subsequent to immunoglobulin heavy chain class switching

Germline CH transcripts initiate from a non-coding I exon and terminate downstream of the associated CH exons. Ig heavy chain class switch recombination from the VDJ-C mu gene to particular downstream CH genes appears to be regulated by a process that involves mitogen and/or cytokine induction of germline CH transcripts from the downstream genes. We have examined the expression of germline C mu transcripts (I mu-C mu transcripts) in splenic B cells and pre-B cell lines after cytokine and mitogen stimulation. In contrast to the expression of the germline transcripts from downstream CH genes, expression of germline C mu transcripts was constitutive and unaffected by mitogen and cytokine treatment. After a primary switch recombination event, the germline I mu promoter, which is now associated with a downstream CH gene, continues to be active--leading to the generation of a novel germline transcript consisting of the I mu exon spliced to the CH exons of the switched CH gene. We discuss the potential role of the expression of hybrid I mu-containing transcripts in the class switch process. We also describe a novel and sensitive assay, based on the detection of the hybrid I mu-containing transcripts, that allows detection of class switch recombination events even in heterogeneous populations of cells.