Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of pre harvest fruit bagging on the physico-chemical properties of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) CV. rose scented

The present investigation was undertaken at Horticulture Research Centre, Pattharchatta, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand to see the effect of different bagging materials (white polypropylene and pink polypropylene bags) with varied perforations (0, 5 and 10%) and bagging dates (45, 35 and 30 days before harvest) on the physico-chemical properties of litchi during the year 2018. Among the various bagging materials of different perforations used, white polypropylene bag with 5% perforation had most effectively improved the physical and the chemical attributes of litchi viz. fruit retention, fruit cracking, fruit weight, fruit volume, pulp weight, pulp to seed ratio, TSS, total sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, ascorbic acid and fruit peel anthocyanin content. However, higher fruit diameter and TSS: Acidity ratio with lower sun burn were obtained in fruits bagged with white polypropylene bags without any perforation. On the other hand, fruits bagged 30 days before harvest gave significant results for all the parameters. The economics calculated for all the treatments showed that bagging of fruits 30 days before harvest with white polypropylene bags having five per cent perforation showed feasibility in litchi cultivation as the net return per rupee was Rs. 2.88.
Motor circuit function is stabilized during postembryonic growth by anterograde trans-synaptic Jelly Belly - Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase signaling

The brain adapts to a changing environment or growing body size by structural growth and synaptic plasticity. Mechanisms studied to date promote synaptic growth between partner neurons, while negative counterparts that inhibit such interactions have so far remained elusive. Here, we investigate the role of Jeb-Alk signaling in coordinating motor circuit growth during larval stages of Drosophila. We quantify neuronal growth dynamics by intra-vital imaging, and synaptogenesis at nanometer resolution using endogenously labeled synaptic proteins, conditionally tagged with a fluorophore, and link changes in circuit anatomy with altered synaptic physiology and behavior. We find that loss of Jeb-Alk signaling leads to increased strengthening of synaptic excitation by developmental addition of additional postsynaptic but not pre-synaptic specializations. These changes ultimately lead to an epilepsy-like seizure behavior. We thus demonstrate that trans-synaptic anterograde Jeb-Alk signaling acts to stabilize developmental plasticity and circuit function, and that it does so specifically during postembryonic growth.
Identification of genes involved in the DNA injection process by lactococcal P335 phages

1-2 Chapter I: Literature review.3-73 Chapter II: Complete genome sequence of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris 3107, host for the model lactococcal P335 bacteriophage TP901-1.74-100 Chapter III: Lactococcal bacteriophage TP901-1 requires the host-encoded GtfA protein, a putative glycosyltransferase, for DNA injection.101-171 Chapter IV: Biochemical analysis of cell wall polysaccharides and teichoic acids in Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris strains 3107 and NZ9000, and derivatives.172-198 Chapter V: Phage resistance conferred by the superinfection exclusion protein Sie2009/LC3 and repressor protein RepLC3 of lactococcal P335 phage LC3.199-229 Thesis Discussion.230-238 Abbreviations . 239-241 Acknowledgements . 242-245
Yaks and sheep trigger different changes in the grasshopper assemblages of the Qilian Mountains via differentially altering plant assemblages

1. The Qilian Mountains represent one of the key livestock‐raising grasslands in China. The two main herbivore species raised in this area – yaks and sheep – are of critical economical value. Grasshoppers compete with these animals for available nutrients, creating multifaceted relationships between livestock, grasshoppers and plants. A clear understanding of such relationships is lacking and is urgently needed to guide conservation efforts.
A new species of Ami Pérez-Miles, 2008 (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae) from the Amazon rainforest, Brazil

A new species of Ami Perez-Miles, 2008 is described from the state of Amazonas in Brazil based on three males from Manaus. Ami valentinae sp. nov. is closely related to A. armihuariensis and A. caxiuana by the presence of a granular area on the embolus, but it differs from the first species by the presence of two retrolateral process on the male palpal tibia and differs by the latter by the morphology of the male palpal organ. A. valentinae sp. nov. is the first species of Ami reported for the Amazonas state and second species described for Brazil.
A pilot study of behavioral, environmental, and occupational risk factors for chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology in Sri Lanka

Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) was first recognized in Sri Lanka in the early 1990s, and since then it has reached epidemic levels in the North Central Province of the country. The prevalence of CKDu is reportedly highest among communities that engage in chena and paddy farming, which is most often practiced in the dry zone including the North Central and East Central Provinces of Sri Lanka. Previous studies have suggested varied hypotheses for the etiology of CKDu; however, there is not yet a consensus on the primary risk factors, possibly due to disparate study designs, sample populations, and methodologies. The goal of this pilot case-control study was to evaluate the relationships between key demographic, cultural, and occupational variables as risk factors for CKDu, with a primary interest in pesticide exposure both occupationally and through its potential use as an ingredient in brewed kasippu alcohol. A total of 56 CKDu cases and 54 control individuals were surveyed using a proctored, self-reported questionnaire. Occupational pesticide exposure and alcohol consumption were not found to be significant risk factors for CKDu. However, a statistically significant association with CKDu was observed with chewing betel (OR: 6.11, 95% CI: 1.93, 19.35), age (OR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.13), owning a pet dog (OR: 3.74, 95% CI: 1.38, 10.11), water treatment (OR: 3.68, 95% CI: 1.09, 12.43) and pests in the house (OR: 5.81, 95% CI: 1.56, 21.60). The findings of this study suggest future research should focus on practices associated with chewing betel, potential animal interactions including pests in the home and pets, and risk factors associated with water. AUTHOR SUMMARY Since a new variant of chronic kidney disease was acknowledged in the early 1990s among those in the agricultural community of Sri Lanka, especially rice farmers, the research community has searched for causes of what has become known as chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology or CKDu. Previous studies have focused on heavy metals in the environment as they are known to be toxic to the kidneys however, a proverbial “smoking gun” has yet to be identified. Understanding that the causes is potential multifactorial we implemented a pilot case-control study using a One Health methodology administering a comprehensive interview to assess environmental, animal, and, human exposures that may be contributing to the diagnosis of CKDu. We found statistically significant odds ratio among those that reported having a pet dog, chewing betel (a traditional preparation or various ingredients wrapped in a betel leaf inserted between the teeth and cheek), pests in the home, treating drinking water, and older age. These results serve to guide further hypothesis generation regarding mechanisms behind associated exposures from infectious diseases such as hantavirus and leptospirosis to food preparation through boiling drinking water in aluminum vessels and oral pesticide exposure linked to betel preparation.
Drosophila Mtm and class II PI3K coregulate a PI(3)P pool with cortical and endolysosomal functions

remodeling. Pi3K68D depletion (but not Vps34 ) rescues protrusion and distribution defects in mtm -deficient immune cells and restores functions in other tissues essential for viability. The broad interactions between mtm and class II Pi3K68D suggest a novel strategy for rebalancing PI(3)P-mediated cell functions in MTM-related human disease.
Ebselen inhibits mycobacterial ESX-1 secretion through modification of EccA1

The type VII secretion system ESX-1 (ESAT-6 secretion system 1) is required for virulence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. marinum. Here, we identify the clinical drug candidate ebselen as an inhibitor of ESX-1 secretion in both organisms. We find that ebselen inhibits the activity of the ESX-1 AAA+ ATPase EccA1, which is required for full ESX-1 secretion and virulence. EccA1 ATPase activity is inhibited through covalent modification of an N-terminal cysteine residue that is outside its ATPase domain. Our findings suggest the potential of ebselen as an anti-virulence drug complement to standard antituberculous therapy regimens, particularly for drug resistant infection. Our findings also provide new insight into the function of the EccA1 protein domains in its ATPase activity and ESX-1 secretion.
Yoga as an Alternative and Complementary Treatment for Asthma

The morbidity and mortality associated with asthma make it a worldwide health concern. Corticosteroid therapy is the most popular method to treat asthma, but yoga has been identified as an alternative therapy to expensive drugs. A systematic review of studies meeting the following criteria is presented: (a) be published in the English language; (b) included in CINAHL, Medline, or Alt HealthWatch; (c) between the years 1972 and 2012; (d) include yoga as an intervention; (e) use any quantitative study design; and (f) measures one of the following outcomes: forced expiratory volume in 1 second, peak expiratory flow rate, airway resistance, or Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire score. Of the 15 studies systematically analyzed, 10 documented significant improvement because of yoga. Limitations include lack of a theory-based approach, self-reporting errors, and intervention adherence issues.
Adjustment to Diabetes Among Diabetic Patients: The Roles of Social Support and Self-Efficacy

Background: Controlling diabetes requires management of the relationship between the patient and the initial attention team. Social and environmental factors lead to lifestyle variations in relation to the health care, community support, and social support received. Theess areas have an effect upon patients’ self-organization and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy can be recognized objectively as one of the strongest predictors of a patient’s physical condition, causing behavior variations. It can be defined as an individual’s level of trust in his/her ability to adopt a particular kind of behavior. Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the roles of social support and self-efficacy in predicting the level of adjustment to living with diabetes in diabetic patients. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the ability to predict diabetic patients’ adjustment to diabetes through analyzing levels of social support and self-efficacy. The population used for this survey was a random sample of 167 diabetic patients, who were dependent on insulin injections. The participants were 18 to 60 years old and had been members of the Iranian Diabetes Society since 2014. They were asked to complete Sullivan’s “adjustment to diabetes” test, and were examined using 1) Zimet’s Multidimensional Scale of social support and 2) the Coping Self-efficacy scale for confrontation of problems. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS (version 16) statistical software package, for which Pearson’s correlation test and the multiple regression method (linear method) were used. Results: The data revealed that self-efficacy (P < 0.001) and social support (P < 0.001) are indicators than can significantly anticipate levels of adjustment in diabetic patients. Moreover, it has been revealed that self-efficiency plays a significant and, indeed, fundamental role in adjustment anticipation. Conclusions: It can be concluded that self-efficacy and social support are important in predicting the adjustment levels of diabetic patients. Furthermore, self-efficacy has a more potent function here than social support as it affects every individual’s selfconfidence and quality of life.
EFFECT OF DIETARY CARROT MEAL SUPPLEMENTATION ON PRODUCTIVITY AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF ARBOR ACRE BROILER CHICKENS AGED 22 TO 42 DAYS

This study determined the effect of carrot meal supplementation on productivity and carcass characteristics of Arbor acre broiler chickens aged 22 to 42 days in Limpopo province, South Africa. A total of 200 female Arbor acre broiler chickens were randomly allocated to five treatments with five replicates, each having 8 birds, in a completely randomized design. The supplementation levels were 0 (FA0), 20 (FA20), 50 (FA50), 75 (FA75) or 100 (FA100) g of carrot meal per kg DM feed. The results showed that dietary carrot meal supplementation had no (P > 0.05) effect on growth rate, live weight and carcass characteristics of female Arbor acre broiler chickens aged 22 to 42 days. Carrot meal supplementation improved feed intake, feed conversion ratio, metabolisable energy intake and nitrogen retention of Arbor acre broiler chickens aged 22 to 42 days. Dietary feed intake, feed conversion ratio, live weight, metabolisable energy intake and nitrogen retention were optimized at different dietary carrot meal supplementation levels of 52.8, 63.8, 38.0, 42.0 and 44.3 g/kg DM feed, respectively. It is concluded that carrot meal supplementation improved intake, feed conversion ratio, metabolisable energy and nitrogen retention of female Arbor acre broiler chickens aged 22 to 42 days.
Cataloguing and prioritizing crop wild relatives as a baseline for their conservation and utilization

The value of wild plant species related to crops (crop wild relatives, or CWR) as sources of traits for pest and disease resistance, tolerance of environmental conditions, yield enhancement, improved nutrition, and a range of other agronomic characteristics, has been recognized since the early 20th century. However, these species are inadequately conserved, which in turn is limiting their utilization potential. In this thesis, based on the published definition of a CWR, a systematic, practical and replicable method for creating a comprehensive CWR checklist and an approach to identifying priority taxa for conservation action are proposed. The process of evaluating the threat status of CWR to inform conservation planning is also elaborated. These methodologies are presented and discussed in the broader context of CWR conservation planning at national and regional scales, and illustrated with China and Europe as case studies. While the CWR checklist methodology results in a large number of included taxa, it provides a comprehensive foundation for conservation planning. The identification of priority taxa as those related to crops of high socio-economic importance, and of those, taxa of greatest utilization potential and/or known to be under threat of genetic erosion, provides a pragmatic means of directing limited conservation resources.
Genotype Imputation and Reference Panel: A Systematic Evaluation

Here, 622 imputations were conducted with 394 customized reference panels for Han Chinese and European populations. Besides validating the fact that the imputation accuracy could always benefit from the increased panel size when the reference panel was population-specific, the results brought two new thoughts as follows. First, when the haplotype size of reference panel was fixed, the imputation accuracy of common and low-frequency variants (MAF>0.5%) decreased while the population-diversity of reference panel increased, but for rare variants (MAF<0.5%), a fraction of diversity (<20%) of panel could improve the imputation accuracy. Second, when the haplotype size of reference panel was increased with extra population-diverse samples, the imputation accuracy of common variants (MAF>5%) for European population could always benefit from the expanding sample size. But for Han Chinese population, the accuracy of all imputed variants reached the highest when reference panel contained a fraction of extra diverse sample (15%∼21%). In addition, we evaluated the existing reference panels such as the HRC and 1000G Phase3 and CONVERGE. For European population, HRC was the best reference panel. For Han Chinese population, we proposed an optimum constituent ratio for the Han Chinese imputation if researchers would like to customize their own sequenced reference panel, but a high quality and large-scale Chinese reference panel was still needed. Our findings could be generalized to the other populations with conservative genome, a tool was provided to investigate other populations of interest (https://github.com/Abyss-bai/reference-panel-reconstruction). Highlights (Key points) A total of 394 reference panels were designed and customized by three strategies, and large-scale genotype imputations were performed with these panels for systematic evaluation in Han Chinese and European populations. The accuracy of imputed variants reached the highest when reference panel contains a fraction of extra diverse sample (15%∼21%) for Han Chinese population, if the haplotype size of the reference panel was increased with extra samples, which is the most common cases. The imputation accuracy showed the different trends between Han Chinese and European populations. In a sense, the European genome may more diverse than Han Chinese genome by itself. Existing reference panels were not the best choice for Chinese imputation, a high quality and large-scale Chinese reference panel was still needed.
Design of Ceramic Packages for Acoustically Coupled Implantable Medical Devices

Objective Ultrasonic acoustic power transfer is an efficient mechanism for coupling energy to millimeter and sub-millimeter implants in the body. To date, published ultrasonically powered implants have been encapsulated with thin film polymers that are susceptible to well-documented failure modes in vivo, including water penetration and attack by the body. As with all medical implants, packaging with ceramic or metallic materials can reduce water vapor transmission and improve biostability to provide decadal device lifetime. In this paper, we evaluate methods of coupling acoustic energy to the interior of ceramic packages. Methods The classic wave approach and modal expansion are used to obtain analytical expressions for acoustic transmission through two different package designs and these approaches are validated experimentally. A candidate package design is demonstrated using alumina packages and titanium lids, designed to be acoustically transparent. Results Bulk modes are shown to be more effective at coupling acoustic energy to a piezoelectric receiver than flexural modes. Using bulk modes, packaged motes have an overall link efficiency of roughly 10%, compared to 25% for unpackaged motes. Packaging does not have a significant effect on translational misalignment penalties, but does increase angular misalignment penalties. Passive amplitude-modulated backscatter communication is demonstrated. Conclusion Thin lids enable the use of acoustically coupled devices even with package materials of very different acoustic impedance. Significance: This work provides an analysis and method for designing packages that enable acoustic coupling with implantable medical devices, which could facilitate clinical translation.
Does Mixotrophy in ciliates compensate for poor-quality prey? Experiments with heterotrophic–mixotrophic species pairs

Fatty acid and sterol profiles play a large role in determining the food quality of prey in aquatic food webs. Ciliates have limited ability to synthesize essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and sterols, and must obtain these from their food. Many mixotrophic ciliates, however, are in a symbiosis with Chlorella, and this may compensate for prey that is low in PUFA and sterols. Moreover, when PUFA-rich prey are P-limited, mixotrophs may be less dependent than heterotrophs on having the optimal mixture of PUFA-rich and P-rich prey. To test these hypotheses, experiments were conducted using heterotrophic-mixotrophic species pairs and prey mixes with varying proportions of good and poor quality prey. Prey proportions had clear effects on ciliate growth rates, often with a clear threshold. In only one species, however, did mixotrophy appeared to be advantageous, with growth independent of the proportion of PUFA-rich prey. In the other two species pairs, mixotrophy gave at best a small advantage over heterotrophy when there was a large proportion of PUFA-poor prey, independent of whether the PUFA-rich prey was P-limited or P-replete. While PUFA- and sterol-rich prey are important for heterotrophic ciliates, mixotrophy cannot be universally employed as an alternate source of these required nutrients.
R e s e a r c h A r t i c l e TRACER STUDY OF EMPLOYMENT OF BSHRM GRADUATES OF THE LA CONSOLACION UNIVERSITY PHILIPPINES FROM 2011- 2013

The study determined Employability of La Consolacion University (LCUP) Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management Graduates for Academic Year 2011 to 2013. The study used the survey research method. For the purpose of the study only those presently employed were included in the survey. The instrument of the study was designed by the researchers based on the variables of the conceptual framework with other data such as name, address, contact number, course, and year graduated. Employment potential of the graduates was described by their job movement and the relevance of their positions to their field of study, Hotel and Restaurant Management. The study revealed HRM graduates are employable both locally and abroad. They enter international employment after acquiring experience in the country. Some even got lucky abroad as soon as completing their college degree; Academic achievers in college are mobile in their employment. They gain more knowledge and skills by moving jobs in different hospitality industry companies, the graduates have quite a good perception of the HRM course. They were confident that they have learned the relevant hospitality industry knowledge and skills and were able to find jobs that are related to their course and The HRM curriculum is in place, but it needs enhancement. Firstly in terms of including in the practicum program a variety of hospitality industry companies that the on the job trainees may access to gain more skills and knowledge. Secondly in terms of more opportunities for in- or off-campus skills development programs related to the major subjects.
Discussion on modernization of research and development of TCM

The present status of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the discrepancies between TCM and Western medicine were reviewed. It was suggested that modernization of the research and deve lopment of TCM should be established on the basis of the essentials of TCM senses to upgrade its extraction processes, analytical precision, and rational pharmaceutical preparations, which can be accurately prescribed, easily absorbable with better bioavailability to achieve a more favorable patient compliance and therapeutic results It was also pointed out that TCM, with its thousands years of practical clinical experiences, has its unique features and promising future to meet the desire in pursuit of return to Mother Nature It was believed that eventually, the modernized TCM will keep pace with or even surpass the Western medicine for the general welfare of mankind