Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolated and combined effect of aerobic training and circuit training on selected motor ability components among women volleyball players

The purpose of the study was to analyze the effect of isolated and combined aerobic training and circuit training on selected motor ability components among women volleyball players. To achieve the purpose of the study, sixty female students studying at various colleges at Kalasalingam Educational Institutions, Krishnankoil, Tamil Nadu, were selected as subjects. All of them were intercollegiate level volleyball players and their age ranged from 18 to 25 years. The selected subjects were randomly assigned into four equal groups of fifteen each (n=15) at random. Group-I underwent aerobic training, group-II underwent circuit training, group-III underwent combined aerobic and circuit training and group-IV acted as control group. The motor ability components were selected as flexibility, muscular strength, muscular endurance and they were assessed by sit and reach test, modified push ups and bend knee sit ups respectively. The data collected from the four groups prior to and post experimentation were statistically analyzed by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Since four groups were involved, whenever obtained ‘F’ ratio for adjusted post test means was found to be significant, the Scheffe’s test was applied as post hoc test to determine the paired mean differences. The experimental groups had significant improvement on selected motor ability components when comparing to the control group.
The spatial distribution of foragers and food patches can influence antipredator vigilance

Antipredator vigilance is a major component of defenses against predators for many prey species. For group foragers, such vigilance is predicted by models to decrease with group size reflecting better predator detection ability and risk dilution in larger groups. Influential vigilance models for group foragers have made simplifying and often quite restrictive assumptions. Prey species, for instance, are expected to search for resources in groups of fixed sizes although frequent changes in group sizes often occur while foraging. Groups of prey in the same area are also assumed to be attacked independently, but predators could sequentially target several local groups after a failed attempt. I propose a framework in which prey animals can form groups by joining feeding neighbors and also adjust their vigilance in these groups of varying sizes. Predators can attack one of the many groups that occur in the same area and can also target groups of specific sizes. I used a genetic algorithm approach to simultaneously tackle joining and vigilance choices by prey individuals. I show that joining tendencies and the effect of group size on vigilance can vary with forager population size, the spatial distribution of resources, and predator attack tactics. The modeling framework adopted here generates several novel predictions about vigilance and joining tendencies for group foragers, and highlights the importance of considering the availability and vulnerability of prey groups in the same habitat when predicting antipredator vigilance.
Effects of fluazuron on the biological parameters of engorged females of Rhipicephalus microplus

The objective of this study was to evaluate the biological parameters of Rhipicephalus microplus engorged females exposed to the arthropod growth regulator fluazuron. A commercial formulation based on fluazuron (Acatak®, Novartis) was administered topically to stabled cattle artificially infested with R. microplus larvae. The infestations occurred on four alternate days (days -21, -17, -13 and -6) taking as day 0 (zero) the day of treatment with a single dose of fluazuron for the treated group. Fifteen engorged females from each group were collected from the floor of the stalls at the end of the engorgement period (21 days) on pre-established days: before (day 0) and after treatment (days 4, 8 and 15), respectively. After cleaning and preparation of the engorged females in the laboratory, the following biological parameters were analyzed: weight of the engorged female, weight of the female after laying (spent female), laying period, weight of the posture, egg production index, reproductive efficiency index, hatching percentage, and nutritional index. The average weight of engorged females showed a significant reduction on all days after treatment in the exposed group. Aside from the weight after laying, all other biological parameters showed a significant reduction on the eighth post-treatment day due to exposure to fluazuron. Knowledge of the effects of an active principle on biological parameters in a population of ticks is essential for appropriate implementation of integrated management practices for parasite control.
Elevated radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in aquatic biota from a river with a lake in its upper reaches

Five years have passed since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident occurred. Forests, streams, and lakes remain radioactively contaminated, with slight sign of convergence. The radiocesium concentration of brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Lake Chuzenji (160 km from the FDNPP) still exceeds the Japanese regulatory limit of 100 Bq·kg−1, likely due to elevated contamination in Lake Chuzenji. In this study, the concentration of 134Cs and 137Cs in algae, litter, sand substrate, and aquatic insects in a river originating from Lake Chuzenji (Daiya site) and in a nearby river (Watarase site) from 2013 to 2015 were compared. At the Daiya site, 134Cs and 137Cs concentrations of algae and aquatic insects were high (e.g., 137Cs in algae: 160 Bq·kg−1 at the Watarase site and 320 Bq·kg−1 at the Daiya site) and still increasing in some groups such as Perlodidae and Heptageniidae, though the mean air dose rate (0.05 μSv·h−1) was lower than that at the Watarase site (0.11 μSv·h−1). We attributed this to .
A Vine Copula-Based Modeling for Identification of Multivariate Water Pollution Risk in an Interconnected River System Network

The Interconnected River System Network (IRSN) has become a popular and useful measure to realize the long-term health and stability of water bodies. However, there are lots of uncertain consequences derived from natural and anthropogenic pressures on the IRSN, especially the water pollution risk. In our study, a Vine Copula-based model was developed to assess the water pollution risk in the IRSN. Taking the ponds around Nanyang station as research objects, we selected five proxy indicators from water quality indexes and eutrophication indexes, which included dissolved oxygen (DO), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), chlorophyll-a (Chla), and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N). Models based on three classes of vine copulas (C-, D-, and R-vine) were utilized respectively to identify the water quality indicators before and after the operation of the connection project. Our results showed that TN, Chla, and NH3-N should be considered as key risk factors. Moreover, we compared the advantages and prediction accuracy of C-, D-, and R-vine to discuss their applications. The results reveal that the Vine Copula-based modeling could provide eutrophication management reference and technical assistance in IRSN projects.
Combination therapy targeting telomere and telomerase

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States exceeded only by heart disease. The standard treatment regimens include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of the latter. The work presented in this dissertation focuses on the investigation of combination therapy in the treatment o f cancer with special emphasis on targeting telomere and telomerase. Telomeres consist o f a tandem array of G-rich sequences that serve to protect the structural integrity o f the eukaryotic chromosome. In normal somatic cells telomeres shorten with each cellular division until crisis, whereas 80-90% o f cancer cells are able to compensate for the telomere loss with the enzyme telomerase. Paclitaxel is one of the most important anticancer drugs developed in the last two decades, and has shown significant activity against various human solid tumors, i.e., ovarian, head and neck, bladder, breast, and lung cancers. Paclitaxel enhances tubulin polymerization, promotes microtubule assembly, and stabilizes microtubule dynamics, resulting in inhibition of cell proliferation and apoptosis. We recently demonstrated that paclitaxel treatment resulted in shortening and deletion o f telomere, and a transient increase in telomerase activity which occurred after telomere damage. Based on these events we postulate that the upregulation of telomerase
Unit-Lindley mixed-effect model for proportion data

Recently, unit-Lindley distribution and its associated regression models have been developed as an alternative to Beta regression model for which continuous outcome in the unit interval . Proportion data usually occur in clinical trials, economics and social studies with hierarchical structures. In this study, unit-Lindley mixed-effect model is proposed and the appropriate likelihood analysis methods for parameter estimation are investigated. In the case of clustered or longitudinal proportion data in mixed-effect models, the full-likelihood function does not have a closed form. Parameter estimations of unit-Lindley mixed-effect model are obtained with Laplace and adaptive Gaussian quadrature approximation methods in this study. We analyzed a dataset on the proportion of households with insufficient water supply and sewage with some sociodemographic variables in the cities of Brazil by using unit-Lindley mixed-effect model including a random intercept as federative states of Brazil. Analysis results indicate that the proposed unit-Lindley mixed-effect model provides better fit than unit-Lindley regression model and beta mixed model. Also, in the simulation study the accuracy of the estimates of approximation methods are evaluated and compared via Monte Carlo simulation study in terms of bias and mean square error.
Polymorphism in the neotropical termite Serritermes serrifer

Serritermitidae (Isoptera) is a small and little known Neotropical termite family which includes only two genera: Glossotermes and Serritermes. Despite the lack of detailed studies, it has been assumed that these termites have a true worker caste. A recent study revealed that Glossotermes has a linear development pathway and lacks true workers. Here, we present a study of the polymorphism of Serritermes serrifer Hagen & Bates, a species endemic to the Cerrado ecoregion of central Brazil which lives as an inquiline inside nests of Cornitermes spp. A morphometric analysis was performed based on measurements taken of 11 body parts of 544 specimens of immatures, worker‐like individuals, soldiers, and alates. Sex of specimens was determined by dissection and examination of the seventh sternite. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to evaluate morphological changes during development. Contrary with previous information from the literature and similar to Glossotermes, Serritermes shows a linear development pathway with two larval instars, two sizes of pseudergates, and a single nymphal morph. Pseudergates apparently undergo stationary molts. Sex ratio among pseudergates is male‐biased, but not as strongly as in Glossotermes. Typical colonies have a single physogastric primary queen and a single primary king. Ergatoid reproductives are relatively rare and some female ergatoids may become strongly physogastric. Nymphoid reproductives were not found. All soldiers are male and bear well‐developed testes.
Who Becomes Minister in an Autocratic Regime? Evidence From DRC

Who Becomes Minister in the DRC is a newly created database that provides information on members of government. The purpose of this article is to present the database and to document some facts about the background of political leaders. The database covers the period 2000-2016. The profile of politicians in this database is as follows: born mainly in the DRC, a Congolese minister is a 50-year-old male and Swahili-speaking, with a bachelor's degree mainly in law or economics. Finally, some avenues likely to be explored for future research with this database are indicated.
Critical evaluation of the factors affecting Escherichia coli environmental decay for outfall plume models

The Escherichia coli T90 parameter is widely employed in outfall plume hydrodynamic models. Although there is a great deal of academic literature estimating T90, no standard methodology has been validated so far. Estimation of die-off rates should consider many other biological, chemical and physical processes. Over the last three decades, while a great deal of new knowledge about microbial biology and ecology has become available, it has not been fully incorporated into the overall research. Consequently, hydrodynamic models of sewage plumes lack consistency with environmental dynamics and frequently do not fully reproduce processes. This article scrutinized the relevant works that could improve T90 assessment using the most robust and realistic approaches. The most important related literature since the 1990s was considered, together with earlier relevant works. The research focused on techniques and methodologies, especially their ecologic and cellular biology aspects. A brief discussion of the methods applied to evaluate the T90 of bacteria examined aspects like representativeness of incubation, incubation scale, measurement procedures and models’ representations of bacterial decay. The factors affecting population decay, such as solar radiation, salinity and interaction with solids, were considered in the light of the very large literature registry. Finally, biological aspects affecting decay, like predation and genetic resistance, were also analyzed. The resulting updated understanding of T90 may contribute to better managerial procedures that could improve water quality in freshwater and coastal systems, and consequently improve human health outcomes.
AeroVR: An immersive visualisation system for aerospace design and digital twinning in virtual reality

ABSTRACT One of today’s most propitious immersive technologies is virtual reality (VR). This term is colloquially associated with headsets that transport users to a bespoke, built-for-purpose immersive 3D virtual environment. It has given rise to the field of immersive analytics—a new field of research that aims to use immersive technologies for enhancing and empowering data analytics. However, in developing such a new set of tools, one has to ask whether the move from standard hardware setup to a fully immersive 3D environment is justified—both in terms of efficiency and development costs. To this end, in this paper, we present AeroVR—an immersive aerospace design environment with the objective of aiding the component aerodynamic design process by interactively visualizing performance and geometry. We decompose the design of such an environment into function structures, identify the primary and secondary tasks, present an implementation of the system, and verify the interface in terms of usability and expressiveness. We deploy AeroVR on a prototypical design study of a compressor blade for an engine.
Sickness‐induced lethargy can increase host contact rates and pathogen spread in water‐limited landscapes

1. Severe infections in vertebrates commonly elicit sickness behaviour that includes anorexia and lethargy. Intuitively, sickness-induced lethargy (SIL) should reduce contact among hosts. Therefore, for directly transmitted pathogens, sickness behaviour should reduce pathogen spread. However, there are indications that the relationship between SIL and host contact rates can be reversed under specific social conditions. 2. Here, we used an agent-based model to investigate the possibility that the nonsocial environment can also impact the relationship between SIL and host contact rates. 3. Our results demonstrate that in water-limited landscapes, SIL can increase host contact rates and associated pathogen spread. Based on our results, we hypothesize that a sickness-induced increase in contact rates should be particularly likely and most pronounced in animals that are highly water dependent such as African buffaloes living in savanna environments. 4. In the context of virulence evolution, our findings contradict the expectation that the direct transmission of pathogens generally favours the evolution of reduced pathogen virulence compared to vector- and water-borne transmission. Instead, our findings suggest that the opposite effect is possible in water-limited landscapes:
Insect-associated fungi from naturally mycosed vine mealybug Planococcus ficus (Signoret) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)

ABSTRACT Vine mealybug, Planococcus ficus, is a major pest of grapevine, which is present in at least 39 countries. According to American Vineyard Foundation, P. ficus is in the top ranks among major insect-pests of grapevine. It is the ‘top priority concerns’ by grape growers and a ‘threat to the sustainability of wine industry’ demanding a ‘high priority research’. In Douro vineyards, it is considered as an occasional insect-pest; however, its importance is increasing in some localities. The present study investigates the occurrences of P. ficus-associated fungi. Vine mealybugs were observed in two of the four surveyed farms. Out of the 183 collected mealybugs, 58 were dead of which 25 had symptoms of mycosis and 13 were parasitised. Subculturing cadavers and subsequent pathogenicity test yielded 22 entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) including yeasts. The yeast Meyerozyma (=Pichia) guilliermondii, and the EPF Sarocladium kiliense and Purpureocillium lilacinum were the most abundant, i.e. representing 18.18% (N = 4), 13.64% (N = 3) and 13.64% (N = 3) of the isolates, respectively. Considering biological affinities, fungal families Nectriaceae and Microascaceae had the most similar count-data profiles. To our knowledge, this work reports the first isolations of EPF from vine mealybug worldwide; and Pseudocosmospora rogersonii in Europe and as EPF worldwide. The mortality rate originated by mycoses on P. ficus was significantly higher than by its parasitoids, suggesting that fungi as P. ficus biocontrol agents are relatively more important than considered before. Overall, this report provides new insights into the development of mycoinsecticides and conservation biocontrol strategies for P. ficus pest management.
The succession of bacterial and fungal communities during decomposition of two hygrophytes in a freshwater lake wetland

The study of litter decomposition was often tightly linked to some hot topics such as global carbon balance and climate change, but the knowledge of microbes involved in litter decomposition remains limited especially in freshwater lake wetlands. An in situ experiment (278 d) was carried out to study the decomposition processes of two typical wetland plants — Carex cinerascens and Triarrhena lutarioriparia . The litter decay rate, extracellular enzyme, and microbial community composition were all observed. The decomposition rate of C. cinerascens was faster than T. lutarioriparia . Higher contents of TOC, TN, and TP conferred higher decomposition rate to C. cinerascens , as well as the higher activities of all tested enzymes and the lower content of lignin. The alpha diversity of bacterial and fungal communities changed separately over time, but their copy numbers of the rRNA gene (qPCR) increased collectively in both litters. Betaproteobacteria , Gammaproteobacteria , Bacteroidetes , and Basidiomycota were common in the primary stage (0 – 37 d) of decay in both litters, while Alphaproteobacteria , Chloro ﬂ exi , Nitrospirae , and Montagnulaceae were prevailing in the later stage (212 – 278 d). T. lutarioriparia also had higher proportions of Actinobacteria , Acidobacteria, and Firmicutes in the later stage. Pleosporales and Hypocreales were predominant during the whole decay processes of both litters. Our results showed that the microbial community composition was mainly regulated by litter stoichiometry (hemicellulose, lignin, and AFDM), thereby re ﬂ ecting the niches differentiation caused by resource partitioning on litter decomposition. This work helps to the understanding of the microbial community involved in litter decomposition in wetland ecosystems.
Ecohydrological responses to surface flow across borders: Two decades of changes in vegetation greenness and water use in the riparian corridor of the Colorado River delta

Hydrological and bioclimatic processes that lead to drought may stress plants and wildlife, restructure plant community type and architecture, increase monotypic stands and bare soils, facilitate the invasion of non‐native plant species and accelerate soil erosion. Our study focuses on the impact of a paucity of Colorado River surface flows from the United States (U.S.) to Mexico. We measured change in riparian plant greenness and water use over the past two decades using remotely sensed measurements of vegetation index (VI), evapotranspiration (ET) and a new annualized phenology assessment metric (PAM) for ET. We measure these long‐term (2000–2019) metrics and their short‐term (2014–2019) response to an environmental pulse flow in 2014, as prescribed under Minute 319 of the 1944 Water Treaty between the two nations. In subsequent years, small‐directed flows were provided to restoration areas under Minute 323. We use 250 m MODIS and 30 m Landsat imagery to evaluate three vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, EVI2). We select EVI2 to parameterize an optical‐based ET algorithm and test the relationship between ET from Landsat and MODIS by regression approaches. Our analyses show significant decreases in VIs and ET for both the 20‐year and post‐pulse 5‐year periods. Over the last 20 years, EVI Landsat declined 34% (30% by EVIMODIS) and ETLandsat‐EVI declined 38% (27% by ETMODIS‐EVI), overall ca. 1.61 mm/day or 476 mm/year drop in ET; using PAM ETLandsat‐EVI the drop was from 1130 to 654 mm/year. Over the 5 years since the 2014 pulse flow, EVILandsat declined 20% (13% by EVIMODIS) and ETLandsat‐EVI declined 23% (4% by ETMODIS‐EVI) with a 0.77 mm/day or a 209 mm/year 5‐year drop in ET; using PAM ETLandsat‐EVI the drop was from 863 to 654 mm/year. Data and change maps show the pulse flow contributed enough water to slow the rate of loss, but only for the very short‐term (1–2 years). These findings are critically important as they suggest further deterioration of biodiversity, wildlife habitat and key ecosystem services due to anthropogenic diversions of water in the U.S. and Mexico and from land clearing, fires and plant‐related drought which affect hydrological processes.
Application of in ovo injection of L-Glutamine for improving productivity of Indonesian native chicken: hatchability and hatching time

A study was aimed to improve productivity of the Indonesian Native Chicken (INC) by the technique of in ovo injection (IOI) of L-Glutamine (Gln), which hatchability and hatching time were measured. A 300 fertile egg (45.26±3.65 g) of INC were used and arranged as Randomized Block Design within 3 different incubators as blocks, and 5 treatment groups of 20 eggs: negative control (P0), positive control (P1-0.5 ml sterilized saline), 2.50 (P2), 5.0 (P3) and 7.5 (P4) mg Gln in 0.5 ml sterilized saline. The injections were conducted into the albumen at d 7 of incubation. IOI of Gln resulted in a significantly heavier weight of the newly hatched chickens (NHC), Hatchability of the P1 (60.83 ± 7.52%) and P2 (62.50 ± 2.89 %) was significantly higher (P<0.01) compared to those of the other groups; On the other hand, the embryo mortality in P1 and P2 were significantly lower compared with the other three groups, which mostly occurred before d 17 of incubation. It is concluded that IOI of 2.5 mg Gln of INC increased hatchability, decreased the duration of incubation time and the heavier weight of NHC would apparently have a better performance compared to that of the untreated eggs.