Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A REVIEW ON ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS OF WESTERN GHAT

Numerous naturally occurring antimicrobials are present in animal and plant tissues where they probably evolved as part of the defense mechanisms of the host against microbial invasion. There are many plants that demonstrate antimicrobial activity and these plants have found application in the food industry as antibacterial and antifungal agents. Plants with possible antimicrobial activity should be tested against an appropriate microbial model to confirm the activity and to ascertain the parameters associated with it. Bacterial infections are one of the prominent causes of health problems, physical disabilities and mortalities around the world. This article describes the antibacterial properties of Boerhaavia diffusa Linn, Aerva lanata, Aegle marmelos, Butea monosperma, Tinospora cordifolia, Hemidesmus indicus, Adhatoda vasica, Alstonia schlolaris, Mimosa pudica, Tabernaemantana coronariae and Asperagus racemosus medicinal plants.
ABO phenotype and death in critically ill patients with COVID‐19

Blood groups are inherited traits that vary across populations, likely due to both founder effects and natural selection. A link between blood groups and susceptibility to infectious disease has been well-described, with notable examples being H. Pylori and Plasmodium falciparum infection. Blood group antigens may influence disease susceptibility by several mechanisms, including serving as receptors or decoys for infectious organisms and modifying immune response in the form of anti-ABO antibodies.
‘Case of the Month’ from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA: managing newly diagnosed metastatic testicular germ cell tumour in a COVID‐19‐positive patient

A 17-year-old young man with history of a congenital solitary left testis presented to our clinic in late April 2020 with left testicular swelling and discomfort over the preceding few weeks. The patient denied unintentional weight loss or nipple tenderness but reported new, mild left-sided back discomfort. His medical history was notable for asthma and a congenitally absent right testis for which he underwent negative surgical exploration in childhood.
Latitudinal response of subarctic tree lines to recent climate change in eastern Canada

Aim The predictions from biogeographical models of poleward expansion of biomes under a warmer 2 × CO2 scenario might not be warranted, given the non‐climatic influences on vegetation dynamics. Milder climatic conditions have occurred in northern Québec, Canada, in the 20th century. The purpose of this study was to document the early signs of a northward expansion of the boreal forest into the subarctic forest‐tundra, a vast heterogeneous ecotone. Colonization of upland tundra sites by black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP. ) forming local subarctic tree lines was quantified at the biome scale. Because it was previously shown that the regenerative potential of spruce is reduced with increasing latitude, we predicted that tree line advances and recent establishment of seedlings above tree lines will also decrease northwards.
Evidence for a dioecious mating system in Early Jurassic Hardapestheria maxwelli gen. et sp. nov. (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Spinicaudata) from the Kalkrand Formation of Namibia

A new spinicaudatan (clam shrimp), Hardapestheria maxwelli gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Jurassic Kalkrand Formation of central Namibia. Specimens were collected from a sedimentary interbed within a succession of flood basalts. These are the first spinicaudatans to be described from the Jurassic of south‐western Africa. The new taxon is assigned to the family Eosestheriidae based on the combination of punctae and radial ornamentation on the carapace. Ornamentation on the growth bands in H. maxwelli differs from other eosestheriid genera because the punctate ornamentation is not restricted to the dorsal region of the carapace. Instead, all growth bands include a proximal region with punctae even though the distal portion of each growth band may exhibit anastomosing lirae. Among well‐documented Mesozoic spinicaudatan genera, Hardapestheria is most closely related to Carapacestheria from the contemporaneous Kirkpatrick Basalt of Antarctica and Yanjiestheria from the Early Cretaceous of China. Hardapestheria maxwelli displays sexual dimorphism, which can be definitively related to a dioecious mating system with discrete male and female individuals. Review of additional early members of the Eosestheriidae suggests that the maintenance of two discrete sexes was the ancestral state for the clade. The ability to discriminate sexual mating system type unambiguously is rare in fossils, and this new species sheds light on the relationship between environmental stability and mating system evolution.
Response of Sargasso Sea phytoplankton biomass, growth rates and primary production to seasonally varying physical forcing

The response of phytoplankton biomass, growth rates and primary production to season- ally varying physical forcing was studied at a station southeast of Bermuda over an 18 month period. Phytoplankton growth rates and primary production were measured using the pigment-labeling method, and phytoplankton biomass was calculated from these measurements. Phytoplankton carbon biomass varied systematically over the year. Highest values were observed during the winter and spring. Seasonal variations of chlorophyll (Chi) a in the surface layer could primarily be attributed to variations in phytoplankton biomass and secondarily to photoacclimation. During the summer period, average values of carbon (C)/Chl ratios (g C g"1 Chi) ranged from 160 at the surface to 33 at the 1.6% light level, changes attributed to photoacclimation of the phytoplankton, consistent with the obser- vation that phytoplankton biomass did not vary as a function of depth. Phytoplankton growth rates in the surface layer did not vary systematically over the year, ranging from 0.15 to 0.4S day1, in spite of seasonally varying concentrations of nitrate. Growth rates varied as a function of depth from average values of 0.3 day-1 in the surface layer to <0.1 day-' at the 1.6% light level. Thus, the primary response of the phytoplankton community to nutrient enrichment during the winter period was an increase in phytoplankton biomass rather than an increase in growth rates. A simple nutrient-phyto- plankton-zooplankton model was used to explore this phenomenon. The model demonstrated that the observed response of the phytoplankton to nutrient enrichment is only possible when phyto- plankton growth is not severely limited by nutrients.
Micropropagation, genetic engineering, and molecular biology of Populus

Thirty-four Populus biotechnology chapters, written by 85 authors, are comprised in 5 sections: 1) in vitro culture (micropropagation, somatic embryogenesis, protoplasts, somaclonal variation, and germplasm preservation); 2) transformation and foreign gene expression; 3) molecular biology (molecular/genetic characterization); 4) biotic and abiotic resistance (disease, insect, and pollution); and 5) biotechnological applications (wood properties, flowering, phytoremediation, breeding, commercialization, economics, and bioethics).
Elevated Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration Affects Interactions Between Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Larvae and Two Host Plant Species Outdoors

Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Huebner), larvae were placed on sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) and pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus L.) plants in outdoor chambers in which the plants were growing at either the ambient ([approximately] 350 [mu]l liter[sup [minus]1]) or ambient plus 350 [mu]l liter[sup [minus]1] ([approximately] 700 [mu]l liter[sup [minus]1]) carbon dioxide concentration. A series of experiments was performed to determine if larvae reduced plant growth differently at the two carbon dioxide concentrations in either species and if the insect growth or survival differed with carbon dioxide concentration. Leaf nitrogen, water, starch, and soluble carbohydrate contents were measured to assess carbon dioxide concentration effects on leaf quality. Insect feeding significantly reduced plant growth in sugarbeet plants at 350 [mu]l liter[sup [minus]1] but not at 700 [mu]l liter[sup [minus]1] nor in pigweed at either carbon dioxide concentration. Larval survival was greater on sugarbeet plants at the elevated carbon dioxide concentration. Increased survival occurred only if the insects were at the elevated carbon dioxide concentration and consumed leaf material grown at the elevated concentration. Leaf quality was only marginally affected by growth at elevated carbon dioxide concentration in these experiments. The results indicate that in designing experiments to predict effects of elevated atmospheric more » carbon dioxide concentrations on plant-insect interactions, both plants and insects should be exposed to the experimental carbon dioxide concentrations, as well as to as realistic environmental conditions as possible. « less
Trophic structure stability and extinction dynamics of beetles (Coleoptera) in tropical forest fragments

A first analysis of the stability of trophic structure following tropical forest fragmentation was performed in an experimentally fragmented tropical forest landscape in Central Amazonia. A taxonomically and trophically diverse assemblage of 993 species of beetles was sampled from 920 m2 of leaf litter at 46 sites varying in distance from forest edge and fragment area. Beetle density increased significantly towards the forest edge and showed non-linear changes with fragment area, due to the influx of numerous disturbed-area species into 10 ha and 1 ha fragments. There was a marked change in species composition with both decreasing distance from forest edge and decreasing fragment area, but surprisingly this change in composition was not accompanied by a change in species richness. Rarefied species richness did not vary significantly across any of the sites, indicating that local extinctions of deep forest species were balanced by equivalent colonization rates of disturbed-area species. The change in species composition with fragmentation was non-random across trophic groups. Proportions of predator species and xylophage species changed significantly with distance from forest edge, but no area-dependent changes in proportions of species in trophic groups were observed. Trophic structure was also analysed with respect to proportions of abundance in six trophic groups. Proportions of abundance of all trophic groups except xylomycetophages changed markedly with respect to both distance from forest edge and fragment area. Local extinction probabilities calculated for individual beetle species supported theoretical predictions of the differential susceptibility of higher trophic levels to extinction, and of changes in trophic structure following forest fragmentation. To reduce random effects due to sampling error, only abundant species (n = 46) were analysed for extinction probabilities, as defined by absence from samples. Of these common species, 27% had significantly higher probabilities of local extinction following fragmentation. The majority of these species were predators; 42% of all abundant predator species were significantly more likely to be absent from samples in forest fragments than in undisturbed forest. These figures are regarded as minimum estimates for the entire beetle assemblage because rarer species will inevitably have higher extinction probabilities. Absolute loss of biodiversity will affect ecosystem process rates, but the differential loss of species from trophic groups will have an even greater destabilizing effect on food web structure and ecosystem function.
THE EVOLUTION OF HOUSE MICE

In the light of available paleontological, genetic, and ecological data, we attempt to reconstruct the natural history of the house mouse (Mus musculus) and to justify a systematics. The house mouse is the most recent phylogenetic offshoot of the genus Mus. Its present components result from a radiation that took place most probably in the north of the Indian subcontinent about 0.5 MYA. The different colonization paths into the rest of Eurasia led to the present day subspecies: M. m. domesticus in western Europe and the Mediterranean basin, M. m. musculus from central Europe to northern China, and M. m. castaneus in southeast Asia. The central populations remain very polymorphic and are not attributable to any of these subspecies; the status of M. m. bactrianus is unclear. This radiation led to a mosaic evolution of the different parts of the genome in these subspecies. The expansion to the periphery of the Eurasian range, and more recently to the rest of the world, is related to human activity. In the case of M. m. domesticus commensalism apparently started with human sedentism in the Fertile Crescent, but its extension to the western Meditteranean basin occurred only after Neolithic times. The recent expansion has produced zones of secondary contact at the perip hery of the cont inent. For instance, in Europe M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus have formed a narrow hybrid zone where selection prevents the introgression of sex chromosomes. M. m. musculus and M. m. castaneus have
Annotated checklist of the rotifers (Phylum Rotifera), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy and distribution

Phylum Rotifera comprises about 2030 known species classified in three main groups, the marine Seisonida (3 species), the Monogononta (1570 species) and the unique, exclusively parthenogenetic Bdelloidea with 461 clonal species. Here I present an annotated checklist of the taxon, giving the global distribution of the valid species. This checklist contains over 3,000 available names at the genusand species-group level, including valid names and a non-comprehensive list of synonyms. A number of taxonomic and nomenclatural suggestions following from the review is presented. Suggestions include several new synonyms and two nomina nova: Dissotrocha kostei for Dissotrocha aculeata Koste, 1996 non Ehrenberg, 1838 (stat. nov., ex. Dissotrocha hertzogi aculeata) and Lepadella zigzag for Lepadella bractea Myers, 1934 non (Ehrenberg, 1838). This contribution also describes features of an on-line, global names database of the Rotifera, on which this checklist is based.
Incidence of Occult Spinal Dysraphism Among Infants With Cutaneous Stigmata and Proportion Managed With Neurosurgery

Key Points Question What is the incidence of occult spinal dysraphism (OSD) in neonates or infants with various cutaneous stigmata, and how many of these cases are managed with a neurosurgical intervention? Findings In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 studies involving 6558 patients, the pooled proportion of OSD among cases with cutaneous stigmata was 2.8%, and in 0.6% of patients, the condition was managed with neurological surgery. A stronger association with OSD was found in patients with combined stigmata and atypical dimple. Meaning The findings of this study suggest that although the risk of OSD and the proportion of cases managed by neurosurgery were low, the characteristics of any cutaneous stigmata should be carefully evaluated in neonates or infants with midline cutaneous stigmata.
Tree-grass interactions in Savannas

Savannas occur where trees and grasses interact to create a biome that is neither grassland nor forest. Woody and gramineous plants interact by many mechanisms, some negative (competition) and some positive (facilitation). The strength and sign of the interaction varies in both time and space, allowing a rich array of possible outcomes but no universal predictive model. Simple models of coexistence of trees and grasses, based on separation in rooting depth, are theoretically and experimentally inadequate. Explanation of the widely observed increase in tree biomass following introduction of commercial ranching into savannas requires inclusion of interactions among browsers, grazers, and fires, and their effects on tree recruitment. Prediction of the consequences of manipulating tree biomass through clearing further requires an understanding of how trees modify light, water, and nutrient environments of grasses. Understanding the nature of coexistence between trees and grass, which under other circumstances.
Abscisic Acid—Enemy or Savior in the Response of Cereals to Abiotic and Biotic Stresses?

Abscisic acid (ABA) is well-known phytohormone involved in the control of plant natural developmental processes, as well as the stress response. Although in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) its role in mechanism of the tolerance to most common abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity, or extreme temperatures seems to be fairly well recognized, not many authors considered that changes in ABA content may also influence the sensitivity of cereals to adverse environmental factors, e.g., by accelerating senescence, lowering pollen fertility, and inducing seed dormancy. Moreover, recently, ABA has also been regarded as an element of the biotic stress response; however, its role is still highly unclear. Many studies connect the susceptibility to various diseases with increased concentration of this phytohormone. Therefore, in contrast to the original assumptions, the role of ABA in response to biotic and abiotic stress does not always have to be associated with survival mechanisms; on the contrary, in some cases, abscisic acid can be one of the factors that increases the susceptibility of plants to adverse biotic and abiotic environmental factors.
Eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase IIβ

Type II DNA topoisomerase activity is required to change DNA topology. It is important in the relaxation of DNA supercoils generated by cellular processes, such as transcription and replication, and it is essential for the condensation of chromosomes and their segregation during mitosis. In mammals this activity is derived from at least two isoforms, termed DNA topoisomerase IIα and β. The α isoform is involved in chromosome condensation and segregation, whereas the role of the β isoform is not yet clear. DNA topoisomerase IIβ was first reported in 1987. Here we review the research on DNA topoisomerase IIβ over the last 10 years. BioEssays 20:215–226, 1998. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
PII: S0145-2126(02)00098-X

The myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) includes a diverse group of clonal and potentially malignant bone marrow disorders characterized by ineffective and inadequate hematopoiesis. The presumed source of MDS is a genetically injured early marrow progenitor cell or pluripotential hematopoietic stem cell. The blood dyscrasias that fall under the broad diagnostic rubric of MDS appear to be quite heterogeneous, which has made it very difficult to construct a coherent, universally applicable MDS classification scheme. A recent re-classification proposal sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) has engendered considerable controversy. Although the precise incidence of MDS is uncertain, it has become clear that MDS is at least as common as acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). There is considerable overlap between these two conditions, and the former often segues into the latter; indeed, the distinction between AML and MDS can be murky, and some have argued that the current definitions are arbitrary. Despite the discovery of several tantalizing pathophysiological clues, the basic biology of MDS is incompletely understood. Treatment at present is generally frustrating and ineffective, and except for the small subset of patients who exhibit mild marrow dysfunction and low-risk cytogenetic lesions, the overall prognosis remains rather grim. In this narrative review, we highlight recent developments and controversies within the context of current knowledge about this mysterious and fascinating cluster of bone marrow failure states. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Trends in NE Atlantic landings (southern Portugal): identifying the relative importance of fisheries and environmental variables

Time series of commercial landings from the Algarve (southern Portugal) from 1982 to 1999 were analyzed using min/max autocorrelation factor analysis (MAFA) and dynamic factor analysis (DFA). These techniques were used to identify trends and explore the relationships between the response variables (annual landings of 12 species) and explanatory variables [sea surface temperature, rainfall, an upwelling index, Guadiana river (south-east Portugal) flow, the North Atlantic oscillation, the number of licensed fishing vessels and the number of commercial fishermen]. Landings were more highly correlated with non-lagged environmental variables and in particular with Guadiana river flow. Both techniques gave coherent results, with the most important trend being a steady decline over time. A DFA model with two explanatory variables (Guadiana river flow and number of fishermen) and three common trends (smoothing functions over time) gave good fits to 10 of the 12 species. Results of other models indicated that river flow is the more important explanatory variable in this model. Changes in the mean flow and discharge regime of the Guadiana river resulting from the construction of the Alqueva dam, completed in 2002, are therefore likely to have a significant and deleterious impact on Algarve fisheries landings.
Environmental and Endogenous Acids Can Trigger Allergic-Type Airway Reactions

Inflammatory allergic and nonallergic respiratory disorders are spreading worldwide and often coexist. The root cause is not clear. This review demonstrates that, from a biochemical point of view, it is ascribable to protons (H+) released into cells by exogenous and endogenous acids. The hypothesis of acids as the common cause stems from two considerations: (a) it has long been known that exogenous acids present in air pollutants can induce the irritation of epithelial surfaces, particularly the airways, inflammation, and bronchospasm; (b) according to recent articles, endogenous acids, generated in cells by phospholipases, play a key role in the biochemical mechanisms of initiation and progression of allergic-type reactions. Therefore, the intracellular acidification and consequent Ca2+ increase, induced by protons generated by either acid pollutants or endogenous phospholipases, may constitute the basic mechanism of the multimorbidity of these disorders, and environmental acidity may contribute to their spread.
Potential for Range Expansion of Mountain Pine Beetle into the Boreal Forest of North America

Abstract The potential for mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), to expand its historical range in North America from west of the continental divide into the eastern boreal forest was assessed on the basis of analyses of the effects of climate and weather on brood development and survival, and key aspects of the interaction of mountain pine beetle with its hosts and associated organisms. Variation in climate suitability and high host susceptibility in the boreal forest create a finite risk of establishment and local persistence of low-level mountain pine beetle populations outside their historical range. Eventually, these populations could become widespread and cause epidemic infestations, creating an ecological pathway eastward through the boreal forest. Such infestations would reduce the commercial value of forests and impose an additional disturbance on native ecological systems.