Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A new species, genus and family of marine Gastrotricha from Jamaica, with a phylogenetic analysis of Macrodasyida based on molecular data

Gastrotricha is a phylum of aquatic microinvertebrates counting about 850 species divided into the two orders Chaetonotida and Macrodasyida. Currently, Chaetonotida includes 8 families and 31 genera while Macrodasyida includes 9 families and 32 genera; however, systematics is in a state of flux due to phylogenetic incongruences of the classical systematization. The process of re-systematization will benefit from additional surveys of insufficiently known taxa and especially from the discovery of new species bearing novel characteristics that could help to recognize plesiomorphy in these morphologically diverse animals. Herein, a new and interesting macrodasyidan species from the northwestern shore of Jamaica is described. Specimens up to 1170 μm in length have: a vermiform body with numerous epidermal glands; naked cuticle; head weakly demarked; posterior end in the form of two caudal pedicles; TbA, arranged in two diagonal rows, inserting directly on the cuticle; TbL/TbVL scarce; TbD and TbV absent; TbP at the tip of each caudal pedicle and along its inner margins; mid-sized terminal mouth; pharynx with pores at the base; PhIJ at U20; intestine rectilinear, anus ventral; hermaphroditic sexual apparatus; gonads paired: female anterior, male posterior; gametes maturing in a caudo-cephalic direction; spermatozoa relatively short, with spiralled head and spiralled tail; sperm ducts directed posteriorly, converging ventrally on the midline and joining the sac-like caudal organ; and frontal organ, dorsal to the intestine, not obviously muscularized. External morphology and layout of the reproductive system appear so unique among Gastrotricha to grant the establishment of a new taxon, for which the name Hummondasys jamaicensis gen. et sp. nov. is proposed. Furthermore, to allocate the new genus, the creation of the new family Hummondasyidae is proposed based both on the morphological peculiarities and results of phylogenetic analyses based on the 18S rRNA gene, which involved all of the relevant macrodasyidan taxa. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:595575EA-5ADF-4D0C-AD8B-8BC87E3D3905
Assessment of metal concentrations in tap-water – from source to the tap: a case study from Szczecin, Poland

Abstract The concentrations of Al, As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Fe and Mn were determined in June 2010 for 100 tap-water samples, collected directly at consumers in the older part of the city of Szczecin (Poland). Increased concentrations of metals were thus detected. This concerns mainly Fe (19% of samples showed concentrations above drinking-water quality standards) and Pb (5%). In some samples, the maximum admissible concentration levels for Mn, Cu and Ni were also exceeded. This was not the case for Al, despite the use of aluminium compounds during water treatment; the Al concentrations in treated water were, however, significantly higher than in raw water. It was also found that (1) the corrosive properties of water (low alkalinity and increased concentration of sulphates), (2) the water-treatment processes causing a decrease of the pH and an increase of the CO2, and (3) transport of the treated water over long distances (30 km) provide favourable conditions for the leaching of metals from water-pipe networks. The type of material used in domestic plumbing and the content of Ce, Fe, Mn, Ni and Cd in the tap-water at consumers show a correlation. The high content of Pb is mainly a result of lead pipes connecting the network to the buildings
Decadal trends in shark catches and effort from the New South Wales, Australia, Shark Meshing Program 1950–2010

The New South Wales (NSW) government has operated a program of netting beaches for the protection of swimmers and surfers against shark attack since 1937 in Sydney, and since 1949 in Newcastle and Wollongong. The scope and directives of the Shark Meshing Program have remained constant since its inception, with operational modifications in net specifications in 1972, changes in spatial deployment in 1972, 1987 and 1992, and the elimination of winter netting since 1989. This markedly increased meshing effort in 1972, and again in 1987. In the present study, we examine the trends in catch and effort for the period from 1950–1951 to 2009–2010 over this 200-km section of the NSW coast. Significant temporal trends in species, size and sex composition are described herein. Catches were consistently dominated by three shark taxa, hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna spp.), whaler sharks (Carcharhinus spp.) and Australian angel sharks (Squatina australis), although their relative contributions to catches varied over time. Catch per unit effort has significantly declined for five of the most abundant shark taxa over the study period, increasing only for a single taxon, the sevengill shark (Notorynchus cepedianus). Catches of larger, potentially dangerous white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) saw fewer large animals being caught over time. This pattern was not observed across other taxa. Four different monthly trends were observed in landings of the most abundant eight taxa, reflecting differences in the biology of the catch species. The current study also provides useful information on catches and sizes of grey nurse (Carcharias taurus) and white sharks before and after their protection in NSW waters in 1984 and 1998, respectively.
Volunteer tourism, development and education in a postcolonial world: conceiving global connections beyond aid

This paper contributes to the public and academic debate on the appropriateness of young Westerners’ participation in projects of volunteer tourism conducted in developing countries. Ethnographic research was carried out in the context of an Australian program that organizes short-term group placements for university students in countries like Vietnam, Mexico and Fiji. The results illustrate that such projects can produce similar benefits to other educational initiatives of international volunteering and service (IVS) in terms of global engagement, career development, intercultural competence and psychological support. However, for these projects to avoid public critiques and negative outcomes, they need to harmonize personal and institutional expectations with real volunteer capacities. Thus, until IVS programs in the university context distance themselves from a development aid discourse, they will potentially fall under the umbrella of “neo-colonialism”. The research provides a model of impact analysis and raises challenging questions for universities or similar organizations involved with short-term group placements of volunteer tourism.
Anti-Cancer Effects of Clinacanthus nutans Extract Towards Human Cervical Cancer Cell Line, HeLa

Clinacanthus nutans or locally known as Belalai Gajah in Malaysia has been used in China in various manners to treat inflammatory conditions like hematoma, contusion, strains and rheumatism. Recently, C. nutans has become popular for the treatment of cancer among Malaysian. Thus, the aim of this present study is to prove the anti cancer activity of C. nutans extracts in a treatment of cervical cancer as claimed by local people. Aqueous and methanol extracts were extracted from the leaves of C. nutans and phytochemical screening was performed for determination of secondary metabolites. The cytotoxic activities of both aqueous and methanol extracts were investigated against HeLa cell by using MTT assay. The mode of cell death was examined by Hoechst 33258 nuclear staining. The secondary metabolite constituents detected in C. nutans aqueous extract are terpenoids and flavonoids, whereas methanol extract contains terpernoids, alkaloids and flavonoids. Results also showed that C. nutans aqueous extract exerted a significant cytotoxic effect on HeLa cells (IC50=13±0.82 µg/ml) but no IC50 was detected by methanol extract. No significant cytotoxic activities (IC50 = not detected) were observed in normal kidney cell line, Vero, treated with both aqueous and methanol extracts of C. nutans which showed the cytoselective property of the extracts. However, HeLa and Vero cells treated with control drug, tamoxifen showed a significant cytotoxicity effects with IC50 values of 3.8±0.19 µg/ml and 2.2±0.029 µg/ml respectively. Hoechst 33258 stained showed the aqueous extract of C. nutans induced cell death on HeLa cells via apoptosis. Thus, suggesting C. nutans aqueous extract as a potential promising alternate therapeutic substance for cancer prevention and treatment especially for cervical cancer treatment.
A Case Study on Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Unfamiliar Domains

This paper reports a case study in which two designers [one experienced and one inexperienced] and two experienced educators were observed while designing two chemistry educational interfaces for topics with different levels of complexity. The aim was to observe how the designers and educators would collaborate in unfamiliar domains. Variables related to collaboration and topic misunderstandings were measured. The variables related to topic misunderstanding did not point to an effect of topic complexity. Observations suggest an effect of personality interplay on collaborative construction, regardless of the experience of the professionals and the topic under consideration.
Relationship of Symptoms with Demographic Features in Case of Thyroid Disorders in Pakistani Population

Thyroid disorders are common all around the world, predominantly in females. A similar situation exists in Pakistan. Present case control study was designed to analyze the relevance of various symptoms with the disease and how their occurrence varies in normal population. For this purpose data of 400 patients suffering from any of thyroid related disease was collected. The controls were age and sex matched to make sure that results are not misleading in case if they are age and sex dependent. In the present study female to male ratio in both types of thyroidism i.e. hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism was 3:1. Various symptoms like menstrual cycle, still birth, lactation problems in patients showed significant differences from controls. While some others being similar in both like dry hair showed that these symptoms are not disease specific. In addition the incidence being high in specific areas showed the relevance of the disease with environment.
Susceptibility of invertebrate larvae to predators:how common are post-capture larval defenses?

Predation is believed to be a major source of mortality for larvae of benthic invertebrates, but the palatability of larvae commonly found in the water column has rarely been assessed. Larval palatability assays were conducted by collecting live invertebrate larvae from a temperate field site and offering them to a suite of common predators (the fishes Lagodon rhomboides, Leiostomus xanthurus, and Monacanthus hispidus and the hard coral Oculina arbuscula). By crushing larvae that were rejected intact and re-offering them to predators, it was possible to distinguish between defenses based on morphological and chemical characteristics of the larvae. Additionally, abundance data were collected for taxonomic groups of larvae at our sampling location. The majority of invertebrate larvae were palatable to consumers. Most predators readily consumed polychaete larvae, barnacle nauplii, bivalve veligers, shrimp zoeae, crab megalopae, phoronid actinotrochs, and hemichordate tornaria (which together accounted for 65 % of meroplankton abundance), suggesting that these larvae lacked effective morphological or chemical defenses. Against at least 1 fish predator, a significant number of gastropod veligers, barnacle cyprids, crab zoeae, and stomatopod larvae (which accounted for 34% of meroplankton abundance) appeared to be morphologically defended. Larvae from these groups tended to be rejected whole, but were consumed by fishes once they were crushed. A significant number of nemertean pilidia, asteroid bipinnaria, and cnidarian planulae (which accounted for only 0.2% of meroplankton abundance) were rejected both whole and crushed, suggesting that some species or individuals within these taxa may be chemically defended. Thus, the majority of larvae from this assemblage of temperate meroplankton lacked physical or chemical defenses against potential predators (3 fishes and 1 cnidarian). Among the remaining larvae, physical resistance to predators was much more common than chemical resistance.
Dietary Manipulation of Lean Tissue Deposition in Broiler Chickens

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of graded levels of dietary chromium and leucine, and different fat sources on performance and body composition of broiler chickens. The results showed that chromium picolinate at 0.5 ppm significantly (p<0.05) lowered the carcass fat level. Gut weight and carcass water content were increased as a result of chromium treatment. Body weight, plucked weight, carcass weight, abdominal fat pad weight, breast yield and feed efficiency were unaffected by chromium treatment. Leucine did not interact with chromium to effect lean growth. Dietary leucine above the recommended maintenance level (1.2% of diet) markedly (p<0.001) reduced the breast muscle yield. The addition of fish oil to broiler diets reduced (p<0.05) the abdominal fat pad weights compared to birds on linseed diets. Fish oil is believed to improve lean growth through the effects of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in lowering the very low-density lipoprotein levels and triglyceride in the blood, in the meantime increasing glucose uptake into the muscle tissue in blood and by minimizing the negative impact of the immune system on protein breakdown. The amount of fat in the diet (2% or 4%) did not affect body composition. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 5 : 692-698)
Excitones confinados en puntos cuánticos esferoidales prolatos

SE USA EL METODO VARIACIONAL PARA RESOLVER EN FORMA APROXIMADA LA ECUACION DE ONDA DE SCHRODINGER ASOCIADA A UN EXCITON DE WANNIER-MOTT CONFINADO EN UN PUNTO CUANTICO DE FORMA ESFEROIDAL. SE ANALIZA EL EFECTO QUE EL CONFINAMENTO TIENE SOBRE LA ENERGIA DEL ESTADO BASE DEL PAR ELECTRON-HUECO ATRAPADO EN UNA CRISTALITA CON ESTA GEOMETRIA, CONSIDERANDO PAREDES TANTO IMPENETRABLES COMO PENETRABLES, SEGUN CONVENGA, IMPONIENDO LAS CONDICIONES ADECUADAS EN LA FRONTERA. LOS RESULTADOS DE ESTE ESTUDIO, QUE SE MUESTRAN A CONTINUACION, SE COMPARAN CON LOS OBTENIDOS POR OTROS AUTORES MEDIANTE METODOS MAS SOFISTICADOS, ASI COMO CON EXPERIMENTOS REALIZADOS CON CRISTALITAS DE CDS CONTENIDAS EN MATERIALES DE DIFERENTE COMPOSICION. EN EL CASO DE UNA BARRERA DE POTENCIAL FINITA, SE PREDICE UN TAMANO CRITICO DE LA CRISTALITA A PARTIR DEL CUAL EL EXCITON SE DESCONFINA, LO CUAL CONTRASTA CON EL MODELO DE BARRERA DE POTENCIAL INFINITA EN DONDE EL EXCITON NUNCA PUEDE ESCAPAR DE LA REGION DONDE SE ENCUENTRA. Abstract THE VARIATIONAL METHOD IS USED TO SOLVE IN APPROXIMATELY WAY THE SCHRODINGER´S WAVE EQUATION ASSOCIATED TO AWANNIER-MOTT EXCITON CONFINED WITHIN A SPHEROIDAL QUANTUM DOT. THE CONFINEMENT EFFECT ON THE GROUND-STATE ENERGY OF THE ELECTRON-HOLE PAIR TRAPPED INSIDE A CRYSTALLITE WITH THIS GEOMETRY, AND WITH SOFT OR HARD WALLS, IS ANALYZED. THE WALLS CAN BE MODELED AS FINITE OR INFINITE POTENTIAL BARRIERS WITH SUITABLE BORDER CONDITIONS, WHICH WILL DEPEND ON THE CONSIDERED CASE. THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK ARE COMPARED WITH THOSE OBTAINED BY OTHER AUTHORS THROUGH MORE SOPHISTICATED METHODS. A COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTAL DATA OF CDS CRYSTALLITES EMBEDDED IN MATERIALS OF DIFFERENT COMPOSITION IS MADE, TOO. FOR A FINITE POTENTIAL BARRIER, A CRITICAL SI
High phylogenetic diversity in a marine-snow-associated bacterial assemblage

Large p 5 0 0 pm), suspended particles of organic and inorganic material, often referred to as 'marine snow', are considered important in the vertical transport and biogeochemical transformation of particulate organic carbon in the marine environment. Previous work has indicated that bacterial species inhabiting marine snow particles may differ greatly from those commonly found living free in the surrounding water column. To further characterize marine-snow-attached bacterial populations, we sampled marine snow by SCUBA diving during periods of intense macroaggregate formation in the northern Adriatic Sea in August 1991. Small subunit ribosomal DNA (rDNA) fragments of bacteria were amplified from extracted nucleic acids by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The diversity of the recovered rDNA clones was initially assessed by c o r n p m g restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of individual clones. Ninety-five bacterial clones examined yielded 90 different KFLP patterns, representing an estimated sampling coverage of only 5.3%. Sequence analysis of 39 randomly chosen clones was used to assess the general phylogenetic affiliation of individual clones. Bacterial phyla represented in the library included affiliates of the Planctomyces, the Gram-positive bacteria, the Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-Bacteroides (CFB) lineage, and the alpha-, gamma-, delta-, and epsilon-subdivisions of the Proteobacteria. The results suggest that bacterial colonization of suspended marine macroaggregates can result in diverse and complex assemblages, with specific phyla, such as the CFB, being commonly associated with marine particles. Futhermore, this particle-attached bacterial assemblage was similar to other bacterial assemblages found in marine sediments and terrestrial soils, with respect to the nature of the associated phylogenetic groups.
Linking hydropedology and ecosystem services: differential controls of surface field saturated hydraulic conductivity in a volcanic setting in central Mexico

Abstract. In this study the variation of field saturated soil hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) as key control variable and descriptor of infiltration was examined by means of a constant head single ring infiltrometer. The study took place in five coverage types and land uses in a volcanic setting in central Mexico. The tested hypothesis was that there exist a positive relationship between plant cover and surface Kfs for the study area. The examined coverage types included; Second growth pine-oak forest, pasture land, fallow land, gully and Cupresus afforestation. Results indicate that Kfs did not depend exclusively of plant cover; it was related to surface horizontal expression of the unburied soil horizons and linked to land use history. Therefore the Kfs measured at a certain location did not depend exclusively of the actual land use, it was also influenced by soil bioturbation linked to plant succession patterns and land use management practices history. The hypothesis accounts partially the variation between sites. Kfs under dense plant cover at the Cupresus afforestation was statistically equal to that measured at the fallow land or the gully sites, while second growth pine-oak forest Kfs figures were over an order of magnitude higher than the rest of the coverage types. The results suggest the relevance of unburied soil horizons in the soil hydrologic response when present at the surface. Under these conditions loosing surface soil horizons due to erosion, not only fertility is lost, but environmental services generation potential. A conceptual model within the hydropedological approach is proposed. It explains the possible controls of Kfs, for this volcanic setting. Land use history driven erosion plays a decisive role in subsurface horizon presence at the surface and soil matrix characteristic determination, while plant succession patterns seem to be strongly linked to soil bioturbation and preferential flow channel formation.
THREE METHODS FOR ASSESSING RICHNESS AND COMPOSITION OF SMALL MAMMAL COMMUNITIES

Abstract Analysis of pellets of Tyto alba and scats of Genetta genetta and Sherman livetrapping were compared to assess richness and composition of small mammal communities in a Mediterranean area (NE Spain). Owl pellets provided 17 small mammal species (17,232 individuals), genet scats 14 species (2,145 individuals), and livetrapping 9 species (1,488 individuals). Owl pellets oversampled insectivores and grassland rodents and undersampled tree-dwelling and woodland rodents. Genet scats and livetrapping oversampled woodland rodents and undersampled insectivores and grassland rodents. After controlling for sample size and elevation differences between methods by means of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and rarefaction, owl pellets contained higher richness for small samples (<50 individuals), and scats contained higher richness for large samples (>100 individuals), both having higher richness than livetrapping regardless of sample size. We concluded that both indirect methods provided complementary information of small mammal communities, detecting the 19 small mammal species known to be present in the study area.
Adding duration-based quality labels to learning events for improved description of students' online learning behavior

Many existing studies analyzing log data from online learning platforms model events such as accessing a webpage or problem solving as simple binary states. In this study, we combine quality information inferred from the duration of each event with the conventional binary states, distinguishing abnormally brief events from normal or extra-long events. The new event records, obtained from students’ interaction with 10 online learning modules, can be seen as a special form of language, with each “word” describing a student’s state of interaction with one learning module, and each “sentence” capturing the interaction with the entire sequence. We used second order Markov chains to learn the patterns of this new “language,” with each chain using the interaction states on two given modules to indicate the interaction states on the following two modules. By visualizing the Markov chains that lead to interaction states associated with either disengagement or high levels of engagement, we observed that: 1) disengagement occurs more frequently towards the end of the module sequence; 2) interaction states associated with the highest level of learning effort rarely leads to disengaged states; and 3) states containing brief learning events frequently lead to disengaged states. One advantage of the current approach is that it can be applied to log data with relatively small numbers of events, which is common for many online learning systems in college level STEM disciplines. Combining quality information with event logs is a simple attempt at incorporating students’ internal condition into learning analytics.