Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autotrophy, Heterotrophy, and Resource Partitioning in Caribbean Reef-Building Corals

Competition can be shown to occur between two species when the removal or thinning of one causes an increase in numbers of the other. This is due to an increase in availability of resources formerly used by both. Over evolutionary time, competition can lead to the extinction of one of the species or to specialization onto different resources by either or both species involved, that is, niche separation, with a concomitant reduction in the degree of competition. Resource partitioning often occurs by character displacement in feeding structures or in feeding behavior in animals or in plants by adaptation to different physical regimes (Schoener 1974). How scleractinian reef corals compete for space (Lang 1973) and how these competitive strategies affect he community structure of New World coral reefs (Porter 1974a) has been worked out in detail. This paper will examine the consequences of competition for energy resources within the Caribbean fauna. Reef-building (hermatypic) corals differ considerably from most animals in functioning at every trophic level of their ecosystem (Porter 1974b). They contain symbiotic algae and can in shallow water produce more oxygen than they consume, placing them among the reef's primary producers. The importance of this symbiosis lies in the tight chemical cycling it allows between plant and animal in response to the nutrient deficiency, particularly of nitrogen, in tropical waters (Lewis 1973). The importance of this symbiosis is also clearly reflected in the morphology of many species, a number of which are plantlike in their growth forms, maximizing their surface area and orienting the major axis of their growth plane toward the light (Goreau 1959; Roos 1967). Although incontrovertible vidence demonstrates the movement of photosynthetic products (primarily glycerol, and to a lesser extent glucose, alanine, and glycolic acid [Muscatine 1973]) from the associated symbiotic algae to the coral, the absolute value of this organic material has not been established. One of the principal theses of this paper will be that, arguing from morphological evidence alone, one can estimate the potential energetic ontribution of the zooxanthellae relative to other means of energy procurement by each species. Equally incontrovertible evidence exists that corals eat zooplankton (Yonge
Interactions of Genotype and Glutenin Subunit Composition on Breadmaking Quality of Durum 1AS•1AL-1DL Translocation Lines

ABSTRACT Dual-purpose durum (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum) wheat, having both good pasta and breadmaking quality, would be an advantage in the market. In this study, we evaluated the effects of genotype and varying HMW and LMW glutenin subunit composition on durum breadmaking quality. Genotypes included five near-isogenic backgrounds that also differed by variability at the Glu-D1d (HMW subunits 1Dx5+1Dy10), Glu-B1 (presence or absence of subunit 1By8), and Glu-B3 (LMWI or LMWII pattern) loci. Quality tests were conducted on genotypes grown at five North Dakota locations. Genotype had a stronger influence on free asparagine content than glutenin subunit composition. Genotypes carrying Glu-D1d had higher glutenin content than lines that did not carry Glu-D1d. Among Rugby translocation genotypes, lines carrying LMWI had higher gliadin content and better loaf volume than genotypes carrying LMWII. Absence of 1By8 produced major reductions in loaf volume in nontranslocation lines regardless of whether LMW.
Effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 and vegetation type on microbiota associated with decomposing straw

Straw from wheat plants grown at ambient and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations was placed in litterbags in a grass fallow field and a wheat field. The CO2 treatment induced an increase in straw concentration of ash‐free dry mass from 84% to 93% and a decrease in nitrogen concentration from 0.43% to 0.34%. After five months of decomposition, less than 50% of the straw was decomposed. The content of ash‐free dry mass remaining in straw from plants grown at elevated CO2 was significantly higher than that from plants grown at ambient CO2 (4.02 vs. 3.69 g AFDM per litterbag in the fallow field and 3.40 vs. 2.67 g AFDM per litterbag when buried in the wheat field). The immobilization of nitrogen during decomposition was significantly higher in the ambient straw, and there was a significant negative correlation between the content of organic matter remaining per litterbag and the nitrogen concentration in the recovered straw samples. After five months of decomposition, hyphal biomass was significantly lower in straw from plants grown at elevated CO2 (− 30% and −13% in the fallow and wheat field, respectively). Bacterial biomass was not significantly affected by the CO2 induced changes in the litter quality, but the lower decomposition rate and fewer bacterial grazers in the straw from plants grown at elevated CO2 together indicate reduced microbial activity and turnover. Notwithstanding this, these data show that growth at elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration results in slower decomposition of wheat straw, but the effect is probably of minor importance compared to the effect of varying crops, agricultural practise or changing land use.
Proteasome-dependent endoplasmic reticulum-associated protein degradation: An unconventional route to a familiar fate

Until recently, the degradation of aberrant and unassembled proteins retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) was thought to involve unidentified ER-localized proteases. We now show that the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) of two mutant proteins that accumulate in the ER lumen is inhibited in a proteasome-defective yeast strain and when cytosol from this mutant is used in an in vitro assay. In addition, ERAD is limited in vitro in the presence of the proteasome inhibitors, 3,4-dichloroisocoumarin and lactacystin. Furthermore, we find that an ERAD substrate is exported from ER-derived microsomes, and the accumulation of exported substrate is 2-fold greater when proteasome mutant cytosol is used in place of wild-type cytosol. We conclude that lumenal ERAD substrates are exported from the yeast ER to the cytoplasm for degradation by the proteasome complex.
Biomass of large herbivores in South African subtropical thicket

Biomass of large herbivores in South African subtropical thicket Anthony J. Mills*, Dian Spear, Thabisisani Ndhlovu, Michael H. Knight, Dean M. Peinke, Sally Hofmeyr and Richard M. Cowling Department of Soil Science, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa, African Climate and Development Initiative, Geological Sciences Building, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa, Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa, Conservation Services, South African National Parks & Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, P.O. Box 11235, Southernwood, East London, 5213, South Africa, Animal Demography Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa and Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa
INFLUENCE OF CHROMOSOME SIZE ON THE RADIOSENSITIVITY OF LINUM SPECIES

Several factors have been shown to influence the radiosensitivity of plants. Gustafsson (1944) reported that the seeds of oleiferous plants were highly resistant to X-rays, and considered that the resistance was due to some physiological properties inside the cell and the nucleus, and suggested that the resistance was associated with the fat content. Sparrow and Evans (1961), and Evans and Sparrow (1961) have discussed the nuclear factors affecting radio-sensitivity, and Konzak et al. (1961) have reviewed the physiological and morphological factors involved in the response of plants to radiation.Gustafsson (1944) studied the radiosensitivity of cultivated flax over a period of two years by X-irradiating the seeds with doses ranging from 5 kR to 45 kR. But the variation between his results of two years is so very great that it seemed desirable to undertake fresh studies with a wider range of radiation dosage. In addition to the cultivated flax, Linum usitatissimum, 10 other species of the genus Linum were .
Effect of environmental stress on fluctuating asymmetry in certain morphological traits in Drosophila ananassae: nutrition and larval crowding

The association of fluctuating asymmetry and phenotypic and genetic variability with environmental stress was investigated using poor nutrition and larval density as stresses on 10 recently collected isofemale lines of Drosophila ananassae Doleschall, 1858. Trait means for different morphological traits were reduced by stress, whereas phenotypic and genetic variability increased. The levels of fluctuating asymmetry and positional fluctuating asymmetry were similar in flies reared on poor and standard media. In constrast, there is a significant difference in both asymmetry measures in the flies reared at different larval densities for all traits. However, when asymmetry values across all traits were combined into a single index, composite fluctuating asymmetry, significant differences were found in males and females reared at different larval densities but not under nutritional stress. Moreover, composite fluctuating asymmetry is higher in males than in females, suggesting that males are more vulnerable to.
The number of species of insects associated with British trees: a re-analysis.

An updated list of numbers of phytophagous insects and mites associated with 28 British tree species or genera is presented, together with revised estimates of the abundance of the trees. Difficulties in assessing species-area relationships for insects on trees are discussed and a new relationship calculated. When a number of variables: Log tree abundance, time present in Britain, whether or not trees were evergreen or coniferous, taxonomic relatedness, tree height and leaf length were included in a stepwise multiple regression analysis of insect species richness, all but 'coniferousness' contributed significant F values. These variables accounted for 82% of the variation in insect species richness between British trees. When the regression analysis was repeated, but halted after the entry of the last significant F value, log abundance, time and evergreenness emerged as the best set of predictor variables for the numbers of insect species on British trees and accounted for 74% of the variation. -from Authors
ON THE HISTOCHEMICAL DEMONSTRATION OF GLUCOSE-6-PHOSPHATASE

Chiquoine (J. Histochem. Cytochem. I, 429, 1953, and III, 471, 1955) developed a technique for the histochemical demonstration of glucose-6-phosphatase, one of the most important enzymes in intermediary carbohydrate metabolism. He converted the barium salt of glucose-6-phosphate into the Potassium Salt and incubated fresh frozen sections fixed to slides in a mixture which contained the glucose-6-phosphate and lead nitrate adjusted to a pH of 6.7. With some modifications of this technique, we have obtained consistent and reproducible results. Poor staining in tissues which contain large amounts of this enzyme, as for instance liver, as has been described by Chiquoine, was not encountered. We used the following procedure: Free-floating fresh frozen sections cut at a thickness of 10-15 s with a Sartorius freezing microtome are brought into a substrate mixture consisting of 20cc of a 125 mg% solution of potassium glucose-6-phosphate (obtained from Sigma Chemical Company, St. Louis, Missouri), 20cc of a 0.2M tris-(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane maleate (tris-Maleate) buffer pH 6.7, 3cc of a 2% lead nitrate solution and 7cc of distilled water. Following incubation for 5-15 minutes at 32#{176}C the sections are washed, treated in the usual manner with dilute ammonium sulfide, washed again and postfixed with a 6% solution of neutral formalin. They are then covered with glycerin and the coverslips rimmed with nail-polish. With the use of the now available potassium salt of glucose-6-phosphate, enzymatic activity in the rat kidney is almost exclusively limited to the proximal portions of the proximal convoluted tubules with only slight staining of their straight terminal portions. When the barium salt is used, however, the terminal portions of the convoluted tubules stain stronger and in addition ascending limbs of Henle’s loops as well as capillaries in the glomeruli give a moderately strong staining reaction. A varying but occasionally not inconsiderable amount of activity is observed in control sections treated in an identical manner with the exception that in the substrate mixture glucose-6-phosphate is replaced by glycerophosphate. This is particularly noticeable in sections incubated for more than 10 minutes. M. WAcH5TEIN and E. MEISEL Department of Pathology St. Catherine’s Hospital Brooklyn, N. Y.
Parrisia neocesariensis, a new batrachosauroidid salamander and other amphibians from the Campanian of eastern North America

ABSTRACT The Ellisdale site (Late Cretaceous, Campanian), Monmouth County, New Jersey, has produced the first representative fossil amphibian specimens from the Cretaceous of eastern North America. The known fauna includes indeterminate pelobatid and discoglossid frogs, an amphiumid (cf. Proamphiuma sp.), and a sirenian (cf. Habrosaurus sp.), however, the most abundant caudate remains are from a previously undescribed genus of batrachosauroidid salamander, herein described as Parrisia neocesariensis gen. et sp. nov. The genus Parrisia is established as batrachosauroidid by: an atlas with deeply concave anterior cotyles; lack of a well developed atlantal intercotylar process; and a ring or dome of calcified cartilage on the opisthocoelus vertebral condyles bearing a persistent notochordal pit. It differs from the other members of the family, including Opisthotriton and Prodesmodon (Late Cretaceous, western North America) by the presence of: unossified neural spine tips; paired caudal intravertebral nerve o.
Cold resistance in antarctic angiosperms

Deschampsia antarctica Desv. (Poaceae) and Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl. (Cariophyllaceae) are the only two vascular plants that have colonized the Maritime Antarctic. The primary purpose of the present work was to determine cold resistance mechanisms in these two Antarctic plants. This was achieved by comparing thermal properties of leaves and the lethal freezing temperature to 50% of the tissue (LT 50 ). The grass D. antarctica was able to tolerate freezing to a lower temperature than C. quitensis. The main freezing resistance mechanism for C. quitensis is supercooling. Thus, the grass is mainly a freezing-tolerant species, while C. quitensis avoids freezing. D. antarctica cold acclimated by reducing its LT 50 . C. quitensis showed little cold-acclimation capacity. Because day length is highly variable in the Antarctic, the effect of day length on freezing tolerance, growth, various soluble carbohydrates, starch, and proline contents in leaves of D. antarctica growing in the laboratory under cold-acclimation conditions was studied. During the cold-acclimation treatment, the LT 50 was lowered more effectively under long day (21/3 h light/dark) and medium day (16/8) light periods than under a short day period (8/16). The longer the day length treatment, the faster the growth rate for both acclimated and non-acclimated plants. Similarly, the longer the day treatment during cold acclimation, the higher the sucrose content (up to 7-fold with respect to non-acclimated control values). Oligo and polyfructans accumulated significantly during cold acclimation only with the medium day length treatment. Oligofructans accounted for more than 80% of total fructans. The degrees of polymerization were mostly between 3 and 10. C. quitensis under cold acclimation accumulated a similar amount of sucrose than D. antarctica, but no fructans were detected. The suggestion that survival of Antarctic plants in the Antarctic could be at least partially explained by accumulation of these substances is discussed.
Predição do resultado das eleições presidenciais do Brasil baseado em tuítes

This work uses the context of the year 2014 Brazil's presidential election to investigate whether the winner of an election can be discovered from public messages from Twitter users. Approximately 3 million and 200 thousand messages, more than 460 million different users, with reference to the main presidential were collected and analyzed. Our results show that it is possible to estimate the outcome of elections based solely on tweets count technique. Other results also show that other techniques such as user count and sentiment analysis messages can increase the accuracy of prediction models. Resumo. Este trabalho utiliza o contexto das eleições presidenciais do Brasil no ano de 2014 para investigar se o vencedor de uma eleição pode ser descoberto a partir de mensagens públicas dos usuários do Twitter. Aproximadamente 3 milhões e 200 mil mensagens, de mais de 460.000 mil usuários distintos, fazendo referência aos principais presidenciáveis foram coletadas e analisadas. Nossos resultados mostram que é possível estimar o resultado das eleições baseado apenas na técnica de contagem de tuítes. Outros resultados obtidos mostram também que outras técnicas como contagem de usuários e análise de sentimentos de mensagens podem aumentar a acurácia dos modelos de predição.
The rhythm of savanna patch dynamics

1 Patch dynamics is a new, potentially unifying mechanism for the explanation of tree‐grass coexistence in savannas. In this scale‐explicit paradigm, savannas consist of patches in which a cyclical succession between woody and grassy dominance proceeds spatially asynchronously. The growing ecological and economic problem of shrub encroachment is a natural transient phase in this cycle. 2 An important step towards understanding patterns at the landscape scale is achieved by investigating mechanisms at a smaller scale. We developed the spatially explicit individual‐based simulation model SATCHMO to test the null hypothesis that cyclical succession cannot emerge from a realistic patch scale simulation model of the population dynamics of savanna woody species. 3 We calculated the partial temporal autocorrelation coefficient for 100 simulated time series of shrub cover over 500 years for time lags of up to 200 years to establish the existence and duration of successional cycles. We found a significant positive autocorrelation indicating the existence of cycles with a typical duration of about 33 years. 4 The shrub size frequency distributions over the course of a cycle showed shifts from dominance of small shrub sizes towards larger sizes during the increasing phase of a cycle and the reverse in the declining phase. This supports the three phase explanation as follows: (i) an initial phase when spatially and temporally overlapping favourable conditions lead to mass recruitment of shrubs; (ii) a build‐up phase when the shrub cohort grows; and (iii) a break‐down phase when increased competition due to crowding and unfavourable conditions lead to the break‐down of the shrub cohort. The frequency distribution of shrub age at death over 10 simulations was also in agreement with this explanation. 5 We investigated the relationship between shrub cover, annual precipitation and time‐lagged shrub cover to identify the driver of the cyclical successions. More than 90% of the variation in shrub cover was explained by shrub cover of the previous year, precipitation, and their interaction. 6 With the demonstration of precipitation‐driven cyclical succession at the patch scale, we show that the mechanistic, temporal component of patch dynamics can be used to explain tree‐grass coexistence in semi‐arid savannas.
Mortality Rates and Survival of Birds

Birds have been assumed to have a constant adult mortality rate in which a constant fraction of a cohort dies in each age interval. Average annual mortality rates reported for many species would result in exceedingly long potential life spans, and it seems more reasonable to assume that avian mortality is age dependent. Data on the mortality and survivorship of several species of birds are analyzed and alternative models of age-dependent mortality are discussed.
Large Mammal Distribution in a Transfrontier Landscape: Trade‐offs Between Resource Availability and Human Disturbance

Understanding factors that affect the persistence of charismatic megafauna in human‐dominated landscapes is crucial to inform conservation decision‐making and reduce human‐wildlife conflict. We assessed the effect of environmental and anthropogenic factors at different landscape and management scales in predicting the distribution of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) within the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area in Southern Africa. We combined aerial distribution counts over a 12‐yr period with 14 variables, representing food availability, landscape, and anthropogenic effects, into generalized linear models. Generalized linear models were run for the broader landscape, as well as three separate management units within the broader landscape, namely ecotourism, trophy hunting, and a combination of hunting and ecotourism. Human activities within different management units forced elephant to trade‐off between disturbance avoidance, and good food and water availability. In addition, the important predictors of elephant distribution within each of the management units differed from the predictors at the broader landscape. Overall, our results suggest that at the fine scale, elephant are constraint by factors that may be masked at the broader landscape scale. We suggest that accounting for anthropogenic disturbance is important in determining the distribution of large, wide‐ranging, mammal species in increasingly human‐dominated landscapes, and that modeling needs to be done at the spatial scales at which conservation decisions are made.
Implications of sublethal predation, autotomy and regeneration : pigment bands on their spines can not be used to determine the ages of adult specimens of the corallivore Acanthaster planci

Attempts to determine the ages of five adult specimens of Acanthaster planci from the pigment bands on the aboral spine ossicles were unsuccessful because there was little coincidence in the number and arrangement of the bands on different spines obtained from the same starfish. Hence, different spines often yielded markedly different putative ages. Spines along the midline of an arm usually possessed more bands than did those from the edge; the further from the central disc the location of an arm spine, the fewer bands it carried; and the numbers of bands on spines from the regenerating portions of arms were always significantly fewer than those on spines from intact portions of arms. Spines from intact portions of different arms from the same starfish yielded different putative ages, and the mean putative age of arm spines was greater than, similar to, or less than that of spines from the central disc. It was concluded that the putative age derived from the banding patterns on the aboral spines of a starfish bears no relationship to the actual age of the starfish but reflects its recent history of spine autotomy, sublethal predation and regeneration.