Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN TINEINA

l~lossorns of peach, pear, apple and cherry are attacked and the settings of fruit totally destroyed. Those trees in the orchard immediately adjoining rough land suffer most, it would appear, for in such uncultivated places the nests of the species may be found. I t is particularly interesting to note that no aphids exist on the trees a t the time the fruit is in bloom, consequently the nectar remains the sole attraction. Later in the summer the ants attend the aphids of the Cottonwood poplars. Certain Tischeria Leaf-miners of the apple are noticeably worse in orchards near the timber line, and certain Bud Weevils are adopting fruit trees a s hosts following the destruction of their own food plants. Slugs, while not insects, are animals very commonly found in the moist alluvial soil of the Lower Fraser Valley, and may frequently be observed under decaying leaves and \-egetation in the "bush. " Injury has been observed to young corn (maize) plantations in the spring by these animals and their presence is indicated by the peculiar slimy remains about the plants and the "shredding" of the young tender leaf shoots. Most of these insects mentioned, it will he seen, are especially related to the forest or virgin lands of the Province, and this relation constitutes a remarkably interesting phase of the study of economic entomology in the W7est. The majority of the more important orchards pests of British Columbia are identical with those in other Proxrinces of the Dominion, and their life histories are very similar only in some cases slight variations occur owing to differences in climatic conditions. But as these variations take place within the Province itself, specific insects \? rill, it is hoped, be dealt with on subsequent occasions.
Feeding innovations and forebrain size in Australasian birds

Many authors have proposed that behavioural flexibility in the field is associated with learning ability in captivity, relative forebrain size and rate of structural evolution. In birds, the frequency of feeding innovations reported in the short notes sections of ornithology journals may be a good way to operationalize flexibility. In this paper, we examine in the birds of Australia and New Zealand the relationship between forebrain size and innovation frequency found in a previous study covering North America and the British Isles. From a methodological point of view, the two variables are highly reliable: innovation frequency per taxonomic group is similar when different readers judge innovation reports and when different editorial styles govern journals; relative forebrain size yields very similar estimates whether mean residuals from a log-log regression are used or ratios of forebrain to brainstem mass. Innovation frequency per taxon is correlated between the two Australasian zones and between these zones and the more northerly ones studied previously. Innovation frequency is also associated with relative forebrain size in Australia and, to a lesser extent, in New-Zealand; in Australia, parrots show the high frequency of innovations predicted by their large forebrain, but yield no innovations in the New Zealand sample. The forebrain/innovation trend is independent of juvenile development mode, but phylogeny appears to be an important intervening variable in Australasia, as evidenced by non-significant independent contrasts.
Variabilidade genética e limite da seleção em populações de diferentes tipos de acasalamento

Populations of five different mating designs, submitted to selection based on best linear unbiased predicto (BLUP)r, were evaluated regarding to genetic losses by fixation of unfavorable alleles and selection limit, during 50 generations. Simulated data were used to obtain the genome of all individuals of the populations. A quantitative trait with heritability of 0.10 was studied in the selected populations, with the following structure: sexual ratio of 10, 20, 25, and 50 and effective population size of 36.36, 19.05, 15.38 and 7.84, respectively. For each sexual ratio different populations were generated corresponding to the following mating designs: preferential matings between half and full sibs, preferential matings between half sibs, random matings, exclusion of matings between full sibs and exclusion of matings of half and full sibs. Smallest percentage of unfavorably fixed loci and the highest selection limit were observed in the lower sexual ratio (d= 10). Better differentiation between the studied mating designs was also observed for the lower sexual ratio.
Main PaperInnovative swine nutrition: some present and potential applications of latest scientific findings for safe pork production

Abstract One of the biggest challenges facing animal agriculture in the 21st century is to produce safe and traceable foodstuffs of animal origin in sufficient volumes and quality besides the lowest possible load on the environment. A point to consider is how animal feeding and nutrition can contribute to the solution of this challenge. Another question is, that the results of which new scientific fields should be used in the area of innovation to achieve the desired product quality. The article answers these questions based on the latest data in the scientific literature and on the authors’ own research results. Having reviewed and processed the data, the authors drew the following conclusions: 1. The impact of climate changes on crop production and consequently on animal nutrition needs to be studied in comprehensive, systematic research programs, and based on their results animal feeding systems should be modified if necessary. 2. The role of molecular nutrition and the immunological role of nutrition for enhancing the efficiency of production will gain in importance. 3. The cooperation between nutritionists and geneticists needs to be strengthened in order to satisfy the nutrient requirements more accurately, and thus to improve the profitability of production. 4. New mathematical growth models, also incorporating the quality of animal products, need to be developed for better production estimates. 5. The integrated “from farm to fork” programs will be essential in the production of safe and high quality animal food products. Animal nutrition will play a key role in these product development and monitoring programs. 6. The production of environmentally friendly animal products will become a social imperative. Animal nutrition still has huge unexploited reserves in this field, for instance in the development of novel animal feeding systems and technologies. 7. The practical implementation of precision nutrition can be of great help in achieving these goals and in improving the efficiency innovation activities.
Impacts of climate change on rice agriculture in Nigeria

This study employed the Ricardian approach to test the relative importance of climate normals (average long-term temperature and precipitation) in explaining net revenue from Nigerian rice agriculture under irrigation and dry land conditions. A survey was done by interviewing 1200 rice farmers from 20 rice producing states in Nigeria. The states covered all the six geopolitical zones in the country. The results showed that increase in temperature will reduce net revenue for dry land rice farms while net revenue rises with increase in temperature for irrigated rice farms. Precipitation had similar effects on rice net revenue. Increase in precipitation will cause reduction in revenue for dry land rice farms whereas it will cause increase in revenue for irrigated farms. The results clearly demonstrate irrigation as a significant techniques used by the farmers to adapt to the climate change. Other adaptation options include Keeping of livestock, engaging in off farm works and the use of different market channels.
Effect of Vegetation Types on the Distribution of Soil Invertebrates

The aim of this study was to investigate whether differences in the distribution of soil invertebrates among different vegetation types (forest, reservoir, and crop land types) in rural area. A total of 18 orders and 137 species were collected by pitfall traps. Species numbers were the lowest (33 species) at the Chamaecyparis obtusa plantation (St. 6). On the forest sites, the individual number of Hymenoptera was the most abundant, and Acari and Coleoptera was the relatively more abundant than the other sites. On the reservoir sites (Salix chaenomeloides community), the individual number of Collembola was the most abundant, and Diptera was the relatively more abundant than the other sites. On the crop land sites, the individual numbers of Collembola, Hymenoptera, and Araneae were the relatively more abundant than the other orders. The density of Araneae was higher in the reservoir and crop land sites than in the forest sites. From a point of view of biodiversity, although the diversity index(H') was the highest in the mixed broad-leaved forest type (St. 2) with Quercus serrata and Q. acutissima, and the lowest in the upland levee of crop land(St. 11), there was no significant difference among the habitat or vegetation types. According to the community analysis, the soil invertebrates could be divided into 4 groups, the mixed broad-leaved forest type (A group), the plantation or pure forest type (B group), the reservoir type (C group), and the crop land type (D group).
Assessing inter-drainage connections: patterns of genetic diversity in an Iberian cyprinid fish

The phylogeography of Iberian freshwater fish species strongly reflects the geomorphological history of Iberian water drainages and formation of mountain ranges. In particular, the Iberian Central Massif limits two ichthyogeographical districts based on fish distribution assemblages: the Northwest district, which comprises all river basins north of the Central massif, and the Central-west district, which comprises the Tejo and Sado basins. Despite this scenario, the cyprinid Pseudochondrostoma polylepis occurs in both the Tejo and Mondego rivers (one either side of the Estrela Mountains, in the western end of the Central Massif). By analysing the population structure and demographic history of this straight-mouth nase, based on both mtDNA and microsatellites, we have found evidence of a relatively recent common origin for both Mondego and Tejo populations. Shared haplotypes and lack of divergent lineages for mitochondrial marker, high levels of admixture and common ancestry at the nuclear level, together with signatures of asymmetrical gene flow from Tejo to Mondego suggest a Mondego colonization through a founder event with an origin in Tejo. We suggest that this colonization might have resulted from the occurrence of river connections/captures between Mondego and Tejo headwater tributaries in the recent past. With this study we reinforce that local-scale geomorphological events and the adaptation/dispersal ability of a species to new environments can have a major impact on its demographic history, colonization processes, and ultimately its distribution. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 109, 656–669.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis: factores de virulencia

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent of tuberculosis, one of the most lethal diseases worldwide. BCG is the only available vaccine for tuberculosis control, but at the same time it fails in the protection from pulmonary tuberculosis, which is the most common and responsible form of dissemination. The identification of virulence factors of the causative organism could help in developing a new vaccine candidate capable of neutralizing the action of these pathogenic determinants. The use of different animal models has allowed to reproduce the stages of the disease and to measure or to quantify the virulence of different circulating strains of M. tuberculosis . Gene mutations and other molecular biology techniques have made possible to elucidate the specific genes involved in virulence of this organism, that encodes many complex and different factors.
Etude du déterminisme génétique de caractères quantitatifs chez les végétaux: Méta-analyse de QTL et études d'association.

L'etude de l'heredite de caracteres quantitatifs est au coeur de la genetique depuis l'avenement de cette science au siecle dernier. La genetique quantitative dispose desormais d'un cadre experimental et theorique bien etabli pour etudier les facteurs genetiques sous-jacents a l'heredite de caracteres complexes, que ce soit dans un but cognitif ou pour epauler les programmes d'amelioration varietale chez les especes d'interet agronomique. Generalement, l'etude du determinisme genetique de caracteres quantitatifs s'articule autour de trois etapes majeures: i) determiner les principaux locus impliques dans la variation observee (denommes QTL pour (( Quantitative Trait Loci ))), ii) identifier les genes en cause, iii) discriminer les principales formes alleliques de ces genes et evaluer leurs effets. L'avenement des marqueurs moleculaires et de la genomique au cours des vingt dernieres annees a facilite la mise en oeuvre de dispositifs experimentaux de cartographie de QTL en genetique vegetale. Il est desormais possible d'avoir acces, via les bases de donnees publiques, a une masse importante de resultats de detection de QTL. Parallelement, pour certaines especes vegetales, l'annotation de leurs genomes fournit une information de plus en plus riche et precise sur la structure et la fonction des genes. L'objectif de cette these etait double. D'une part nous avons cherche a developper une nouvelle approche de type meta-analyse pour optimiser le croisement entre les donnees de QTL et celles issues de la genomique, dans le but de faciliter la recherche de genes candidats. Une fois ces derniers identifies, l'association entre leur diversite allelique et la variation du caractere peut
Performance and environmental effects of forage production on sandy soils. I. Impact of defoliation system and nitrogen input on performance and N balance of grassland

Grassland and its management is central to the productivity of and nitrogen (N) losses from dairy farms in north-west Europe. Botanical composition, production and N surplus of grassland were assessed during five consecutive years. The experiment consisted of all combinations of five defoliation systems: cutting-only (CO), rotational grazing (GO), grazing + one (MSI) or two silage cuts (MSII) and simulated grazing (SG). Four mineral N fertilization rates (0–300 kg N ha−1 year−1) and two slurry levels (0 and 20 m3 slurry ha−1 year−1) were applied. Fertilizer N was more efficient in producing net energy (NEL) in grazing-dominated, low white clover systems (GO and MSI systems: 70 and 88 MJ NEL kg−1 N) than in white clover-rich systems (MSII, CO and SG systems: ≤60 MJ NEL kg−1 N). While sward productivity in system MSI was similar to that in system GO, system MSII benefited from increased N2 fixation at low N rates. There were small differences in NEL concentrations of the herbage between defoliation systems. Crude protein concentration of the herbage increased with increasing N supply from fertilizer, excreta and N2 fixation. N surpluses (−63 to +369 kg N ha−1 year−1) increased with increasing grazing intensity and increasing N fertilization rate. The average response in N surplus applied was 0·81, 0·59, 0·40, 0·33 and 0·24 kg N ha−1 in systems GO, MSI, MSII, CO and SG respectively.
Killer Yeasts: Incidence in the Ecology of Spontaneous Fermentation

The occurrence of the killer character was studied in 1320 yeasts isolated from 12 wineries of the Rioja DOCa, Spain, at different stages of spontaneous fermentation, for both white and red wines. The objective of the study was to investigate the importance of the killer phenotype in vinification at different wineries. Killer, neutral, and sensitive strains were found among the Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates, while the killer phenotype was absent from the non-Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. The distribution of the killer character was linked to the production area (Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja, and Rioja Alavesa) and to the production technology used (vinification with destemming/crushing and carbonic maceration). The only killer strains found were in the Rioja Baja. In the carbonic maceration vinifications, almost 100% of the strains were sensitive. Monitoring of this killer character was carried out over five years at the winery of the Centre for Research and Agricultural Development of La Rioja with the following results: Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains with different phenotypes coexist at the different fermentative stages, and the dominant phenotype varies with the year. In addition, genetically identical strains were detected with different killer phenotypes, perhaps indicating that the killer character is of lower technological importance than has been previously supposed.
Hawk‐moth scale analysis and pollination specialization in the epilithic Malagasy endemic Aerangis ellisii (Reichenb. fil.) Schltr. (Orchidaceae)

The pollination biology of the epilithic endemic Aerangis ellisii (Reichenb. fil.) Schltr. (Orchidaceae) was studied on an inselberg in the Antananarivo region, central Madagascar. The flowers exhibit long nectariferous spurs indicative of hawk-moth pollination, the mechanism evidently involving pollinia transfer via the frons and palpi of the vectors. Analysis of hawk-moth scales on naturally pollinated stigmas showed that the principal pollinators were Agrius conuolvuli (Linnaeus) and Panogena lingens (Butler). Proboscis morphology of long-tongued Malagasy Sphingidae in relation to nectar position and spur morphology in A. ellisii also indicated that A. conuolvuli and P. lingens were best suited to interact with the plant's floral adaptation. Aerangis ellisii seems to display a relatively moderate specialization versus the Malagasy hawk-moth guild since its nectar is accessible even to those long-proboscis hawk-moth species which are not able to act as pollinators.
Economic losses due to bovine mastitis in Dutch dairy herds.

Current annual losses due to mastitis in Dutch dairy herds were calculated to average Dfl. 136 per cow per year, which equals about 12 % of net return on labour and management per cow on a typical farm. Reduction in milk and fat yield accounts for 70 % of these losses. Streptococcal infections were found to have the highest economic impact, causing almost 40 Vo of total losses. More information should become available to estimate differences in losses between farms.
Latitudinal variation in wild populations of Drosophila melanogaster: heritabilities and reaction norms

Large amounts of genetic variation for wing length and wing area were demonstrated both within and between Drosophila melanogaster populations along a latitudinal gradient in South America. Wing length and wing area showed a strong positive correlation with latitude in both wild flies and laboratory‐raised descendants. Large population differences were observed for heritability and coefficient of variation of these two traits, whereas relatively small population differences were found for development time, viability, pupal mortality, sex ratio and their norms of reaction to four developmental temperatures. No clear‐cut latitudinal clines were established for these life‐history characters. These results are discussed in the light of Bergmann's Rule and the relation between larval development and adult body size.
Characterisation of inter-subunit interactions within cardiac ryanodine receptor

Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are the largest known ion channels composed of four identical subunits. Interactions between structural/functional domains have been proposed to regulate channel activity and play an important role in the pathogenesis of RyR-associated disorders. RyR2 mediates the release of calcium form sarcoplasmic reticulum of cardiac myocytes and its dysfunction is associated with life-threatening arrhythmias. The principal aim of this study was to characterise the self-association of the RyR2 N-terminus biochemically and evaluate its impact on channel function. Moreover, its role in channel dysfunction observed in arrhythmia-susceptible individuals was tested together with dantrolene’s ability to rescue the disease phenotype. RyR2 N-terminus self-association is mediated by multiple sites with two critical oligomerisation determinants located in the loops connecting strands β8-β9 and β20-β21, predicted to reside at the inter-subunit interface. N-terminus self-association is further stabilised by disulphide bonds most likely involving multiple cysteine residues with cysteine 361 contributing to this process. Normal N-terminal inter-subunit interactions within the full-length RyR2 appear to prevent spontaneous activation of the channel at diastolic calcium. Channel hypersensitivity is a common feature of the arrhythmia-associated phenotype suggesting that abnormal N-terminus self-interaction might be involved in RyR2 pathology. Indeed the presence of arrhythmia-linked mutations (L433P and R176Q) compromises the ability of the RyR2 N-terminus to oligomerise. Defective N-terminus self-association appears to underlie the functional impairment of RyR2L433P. The mutated channel displays compromised [3H]ryanodine binding and reduced stability of tetrameric assembly, both of which can be rescued by dantrolene at clinically relevant concentrations. Notably, dantrolene’s primary mode of action appears to involve stabilisation of the N-terminal inter-subunit interactions. In summary, the work presented here provides important insights into a novel domain-domain interaction and its role in the regulation of RyR2 function.
Characterisation of embryonic ventral mesencephalon grafts in a rat model of Parkinson’s disease

The work discussed in this thesis adds further knowledge regarding the survival of embryonic dopaminergic grafts, derived from the rat ventral mesencephalon, in the rat model of Parkinson’s disease, in terms of the populations of cells involved, their distribution within the grafts, and how these are affected by the donor age and the host environment in to which they are implanted. The current data further reinforce the notion that harvesting ventral mesencephalic tissue at embryonic day 12 (E12) before the peak of dopamine neurogenesis yields more dopamine cells in the grafts and, more importantly, also yields more nigral A9 type dopamine neurons, which are an important determinant for functional recovery. Following on from this, commitment of dopamine neural precursor cells to the two dopamine neuron phenotypes, and how this is affected by the host environment was investigated, by grafting rat E12 and E14 ventral mesencephalon tissue into different cerebral targets. Brain regions were chosen that receive either the nigral A9 type dopamine, ventral tegmental A10 type dopamine or noradrenaline innervation. The yield of A9 type dopamine neurons was found to be influenced both by the environment within the graft and by the host environment in the transplantation site to a higher extent than the yield of A10 type dopamine neurons. Dopaminergic progenitors procured from rat embryos at E12 were shown to have a greater potential to proliferate post-grafting and differentiate into mature dopamine neurons as compared to embryos at E14. In vivo proliferation of younger precursor cells significantly contributed to the higher yields of the A9 type dopamine neurons in the grafts. If this improved yield of the A9 type dopamine neurons could be reproduced in human trials, fewer human donors might suffice to produce functional grafts in Parkinson’s disease patients.