Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnetically Guided Rat Erythrocytes Bearing Isoniazid: Preparation, Characterization, and Evaluation

AbstractRat erythrocytes were loaded with isoniazid and magnetite by the preswell technique. Various parameters such as drug concentration, magnetite concentration, and volume of aqueous solution were optimized to study the maximum loading of drug into erythrocytes (67.2 ± 1.6%). The loaded cells were characterized for drug and magnetite content, hemoglobin content, percent cell recovery, morphology, osmotic fragility, turbulence shock, in-vivo drug and hemoglobin efflux, and magnetic responsiveness. No appreciable detrimental effect on cell morphology, osmotic fragility, and turbulence shock in comparison to normal cells was noted. However, drug and magnetite showed little detrimental effect on cells. Drug release from these systems followed approximately zero-order kinetics. Re drug- and magnetite-loaded cells effectively responded to an external magnetic field of 8.0 ± 1.0 K.Oe. The in-vivo studies showed that an erythrocyte-based delivery system has potential to increase drug concentration many fold a.
SGHs for 3D local surface description

This study proposes a distinctive and robust spatial and geometric histograms (SGHs) feature descriptor for three-dimensional (3D) local surface description. The authors also introduce a new local reference frame for the generation of their SGH descriptor. To fully describe a local surface, the SGH descriptor considers both spatial distribution and geometrical characteristics in its underlying support region. To encode neighbourhood information, the SGH descriptor is constructed using histogram statistics with spatial partition and interpolation strategies. The performance of the SGH descriptor was rigorously tested on six public datasets for applications of both 3D object recognition and registration. Compared to eight state-of-the-art descriptors, experimental results show that SGH achieves the best performance on noise-free data. It also produces the best results even under different nuisances. The promising descriptiveness and robustness of their SGH descriptor have been fully demonstrated.
Biochemical Studies on “Bakanae” Fungus

It has been confirmed that gibberellin A is a mixture of three components, gibberellin A1, gibberellin A2 and gibberellic acid (namely gibberellin X), by treating their methyl ester through the chromatography on A12O3 column. Attempts to separate them in free acid were made. The physical and chemical properties of each gibberellin as well as its physiological properties are described
Foetal programming of immune competence

A considerable body of evidence has accumulated to indicate that nutrition and stress during gestation can programme gene expression of the immune system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in the developing foetus and that these effects may persist for the lifetime of an animal. Several studies have implicated foetal programming of these axes as a cause of reduced immune competence. Low protein diets and stress during gestation have been shown to result in blunted acute phase responses, reduced thymic and splenic lymphocyte proliferation and decreased splenic natural killer cell activity in the progeny. These effects have been linked to an increased incidence of asthma in adolescent humans and increased pre-weaning morbidity and mortality in piglets. Low protein diets and stress during gestation also alter the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis of the progeny, and many studies have shown that this increases basal corticosteroid blood concentrations and results in an exaggerated response to stress. These effects have been linked to increased preweaning mortality and slower wound healing in piglets. Most of the advances in this field have been made using rodent models and few studies have been conducted with ruminants. There are no studies in any species that have examined the impact of foetal programming on susceptibility to parasites. It is suggested that foetal programming may represent a fruitful avenue for improvement of the resistance of sheep to parasites.
The population dynamics of Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) through two decades: an analysis based on survey data

We analyse the population dynamics of Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua) by applying statistical population models to 22 years of research survey data on abundance, length, and maturation. The models for abundance and individual length are selected using Akaike's information criterion (AICC). Survival of 2- to 4-year-old cod was found to be negatively related to the abundance of cod relative to its preferred prey, capelin (Mallotus villosus), likely the result of increased cannibalism from older cod when there is a lack of capelin. Growth up to age 4 decreases with abundance and increases with sea temperature and the North Atlantic Oscillation index, whereas growth from age 4 to age 8 decreases with increasing cod–capelin ratio. The statistical models were combined in a dynamic age-structured model, coupling the dynamics of abundance and body length (reproduction depends on body length, and length growth is influenced by abundance). Simulations using this model are able to recreate the main abundance pat.
Occurrence of Birds in Relation to Plants in a Sub-Tropical City

Habitat use by birds in suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland was studied during winter, at sites with relatively similar habitat features near to (0.25-0.5km) and far from (2-3km) a eucalypt forest. Variation in other factors was restricted. Distance from native forest was found to have little influence on abundance of birds in suburban habitats. House sparrows and willie wagtails were relatively more abundant at the far sites. Most of the more common forest-dwelling species were not common in either near or far suburbs. There was little similarity in relative abundance of bird species between the forest and either the near or far suburbs. A similarity in species diversity and positive correlations in species abundance between near and far sites indicate that most species are either forest or suburb 'specialists'. Native birds were more selective in their choice of plant category than introduced birds, and had a high probability of using certain native and exotic plant species, and a lower probability of using others. Although generally more abundant, introduced birds did not have a high probability of using any plant genus or type. Birds in the area studied are probably altering their patterns of habitat use in response to changes in food availability.
The Genetic Basis of Species Differences in Plants

There has been a renewal of the controversy between those who believe, with Darwin, that the genetic differences between species are multifactorial nd similar to those within and among populations of existing species, and those who feel that species differences often result from substitutions of single genes with large effect. Gottlieb (1984) recently proposed that there is a fundamental distinction between animals and plants in the genetic basis of morphological differences among species. He suggested that different parts of plants are better able to respond to microenvironmental heterogeneity because, compared to animals, they have more-indeterminate growth, more autonomous repeated parts (e.g., meristems), and more-"open" developmental systems that are not tightly integrated by hormones. According to Gottlieb, these developmental differences imply that the pleiotropic effects of genes are less important in plants and that qualitative character differences between plant species (such as the presence or absence of particular structures) are often caused by one or two genes of large effect. The developmental systems of animals, by contrast, make pleiotropic gene effects more common and lead to species differences based on many genes of small effect. Gottlieb cited many examples of intraand interspecific variation in plants that have, he claimed, arisen by substitutions at one or two loci; and he implied that these simple genetic architectures play a role in plant speciation (Gottlieb 1984, pp. 682, 692). Here we raise several points suggesting that Gottlieb's conclusions are not completely supported by his data. 1. Indeterminate and independent development of repeated plant parts does not necessarily imply reduced pleiotropic effects of genes. Although developmental plasticity may allow plant parts to respond to local environmental differences, this does not mean that genetic changes are more likely to affect only one aspect of the phenotype. 2. To support the reduced importance of pleiotropy in plants, Gottlieb claimed that none of the intraspecific morphological changes he listed in table 1 "is associated with either abnormal development or reduced fertility" (p. 684). His list contains few studies of development, however, and none of fertility beyond numerical conformity of progeny distributions to Mendelian ratios. It is well known in Drosophila and other species that such segregation ratios in experimental cultures do not imply a lack of important pleiotropic effects on fitness (such ratios may overlook small but evolutionarily important fitness differences and completely miss large differences in fertility). The limited information available about pleiotropy in plants does not support Gottlieb's view. For example, studies of homozygous replicate lines in maize found that one-quarter to one-half of the mutations affecting characters such as length and diameter of ear, number and weight of kernels, number of tassel
NOIseq: a RNA-seq differential expression method robust for sequencing depth biases

Introduction Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies have brought a revolution to research in genome and genome regulation. One of the most breaking applications of NGS is in transcriptome analysis. RNA-seq has revealed exciting new data on gene models, alternative splicing and extra-genic expression. Also RNA-seq permits the quantification of gene expression across a large dynamic range and with more reproducibility than microarrays. Several methods for the assessment of differential expression from count data have been proposed but biases associated to transcript length and transcript frequency distributions have been reported. It is still not clear how much sequencing reads should be generated in a RNA-seq experiment to obtain reliable results and what’s exactly being detected. In general we observed that many RNA-seq datasets have not reached saturation for detection of expressed genes and that the relative proportion of different transcript biotypes changes with increasing sequencing depth. In this work we investigate the effect that library size has on the assessment of differential expression on different aspects of the selected genes. We show that current statistical methods suffer from a strong dependency of their significant calls on the number of mapped reads considered and proposed a novel differential expression methodology – NOISeq1that is robust to the amount of reads.
Fast isolation of microsatellite loci of very diverse repeat motifs by library enrichment in echinoderm species, Amphipholis squamata and Echinocardium cordatum

We conceived a microsatellite enrichment protocol in which probes of several repeat motifs are mixed during the whole procedure. The repeats found generally differed from those of the probes and were very diverse, from mononucleotides to pentanucleotides. We tested several modifications with alternative: (i) digestion/ligation buffers; (ii) polymerases; and (iii) purification methods. The simplest methods always worked as well as classical ones or even better, resulting in probably the simplest protocol for isolating microsatellites of diverse motifs from genomes with low microsatellite frequency. The proportion of positive clones, polymorphism levels and cross-specific amplification of microsatellite loci significantly vary between species.
Blockchain-based Solution for Managing Renewable-based Microgrids

Renewable-based microgrids are considered attractive options for redressing the challenges of energy access and climate change currently faced by the energy sectors worldwide. Their attractiveness becomes even greater in Asia-Pacific countries. In these cases, almost half a billion people still have no access to electricity most of which live in isolated islands or remote villages that makes grid-extensions to these areas less cost-effective. Additional stimulus for renewable-based microgrids also come from significant oil price fluctuation in recent years, making diesel less attractive than renewables (particularly, wind and solar) for electricity generation. Over the years, several renewable-based microgrid projects have been undertaken in various Asia-Pacific countries. Emerging outcomes from these projects have however been mixed, and some of them are reported to fall into an underperforming or even into a non-functional state far before the end of technical life [5]. While a myriad of factors (technical, financial, regulatory and social) is considered as responsible for these outcomes, low capacity utilisation, poor facility maintenance and repairs, and lack of community involvement and cooperation are three key such factors.
Paternity and Fruit Production in Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)

The effect of paternity on the likelihood of fruit production was determined by making 2,486 hand pollinations among 11 stems (9 individuals) of Campsis radicans. All individuals matured significantly different numbers of fruit from different pollen donors. Individuals that were favored as donors by one recipient were not necessarily those favored by other recipients. Selectivity increased slightly as more pollinations were made, and pollination by nonfavored donors was more successful in producing fruit during the first half of the pollination sequence than in the latter half. The pollen donors favored by particular recipients were usually those whose pollinations resulted in fruit with relatively many and large seeds. Fruit abortion seems to have been more important in donor selectivity than prezygotic phenomena, although parallels with multifactorial gametophytic incompatibility are evident. I suggest this selectivity by a pollen recipient with respect to pollen donors is an integrated response increasing the average genetic quality of zygotes. A plant's success as a male was inversely related to its success as a female, raising the possibility of gender specialization among these hermaphroditic individuals.
MUL-TIBIOMETRIC PATTERN RETRIEVAL USING INDEX CODE TO IMPROVE RESPONSE TIME

1, 2 Department of Electronics Engineering, Terna Engineering College, INDIA Abstract: In a biometric identification system, the identity corresponding to the input data (probe) is typically determined by comparing it against the templates of all identities in a database (gallery). Exhaustive matching against a large number of identities increases the response time of the system and may also reduce the accuracy of identification. Onaway to reduce the response time is by designing biometric templates that allow for rapid matching, as in the case of Iris Codes. An alternative approach is to limit the number of identities against which matching is performed based on criteria that are fast to evaluate. We propose a method for generating fixed-length codes for indexing biometric databases. An index code is constructed by computing match scores between a biometric image and a fixed set of reference images. Candidate identities are retrieved based on the similarity between the index code of the probe image and those of the identities in the database. The proposed technique can be easily extended to retrieve pertinent identities from multimodal databases. Experiments on a chimeric face and fingerprint bimodal database resulted in an 84% average reduction in the search space at a hit rate of 100%. These results suggest that the proposed indexing scheme has the potential to substantially reduce the response time without compromising the accuracy of identification.
Determination of Phosphorus Requirement for Post Molted Laying Hens using Nonlinear and Multivariate Nonlinear Mixed Effects Models

An experiment was conducted to determine the available phosphorus (AP) requirement for post molted laying hens by using the broken line models, logistic model, saturation kinetics model and multivariate nonlinear mixed effects models. The experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with 5 dietary treatments (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 g/kg of diet AP) and 6 replicates in each (72 hens per treatment). Hens were fed the experimental diets from 85 to 102 wk of age. Feed consumption and egg production were recorded daily, whereas body weight was obtained at the start of 85 and at the end of 102 wk of age and BW changes were calculated. Weekly, 1-d egg production weight was measured and egg mass was calculated. Egg qualities were measured at the end of 102 wk of age. According to the results, the optimal AP requirement from 85 to 102 wk of age for egg production, feed efficiency, egg mass, egg weight, average daily feed intake, shell breaking strength, shell thickness, egg shell percentage and BW changes were 2.1, 2.4, 2.1, 2.5, 1.8, 2.3, 2.1, 2.4 and 2.2 g/kg, respectively. The logistic model only was fitted to egg mass data and the AP requirement was 1.7 g/kg and was computed at 95% of the asymptotic response. AP requirement for maximizing the egg production and egg mass was 2.8 g/kg of diet, when multiple responses (egg production and egg mass) were analyzed simultaneously by using the multivariate nonlinear mixed effects models. The results of this study revealed that the broken line models fitted the data better than other models. According to the broken line models, the range of optimal AP requirement of post molted laying hens for various responses were 1.8 to 2.5 g/kg of diet.
Cryphonectria canker on Tibouchina in Colombia

Cryphonectria canker, caused by Cryphonectria cubensis, has limited the development of new Eucalyptus plantations in tropical and subtropical regions. The pathogen is commonly found on Eucalyptus, but its occurrence on other hosts in the Myrtaceae has also been documented. In this study C. cubensis is reported as the causal agent of a serious canker disease on Tibouchina spp. (Melastomataceae) in Colombia. We used morphological studies, pathogenicity tests on Eucalyptus and Tibouchina, and a phylogenetic study using partial ribosomal DNA sequence data. This is the first record of C. cubensis on a host outside the Myrtaceae. Un chancre a Cryphonectria sur Tibouchina en Colombie Le chancre aCryphonectria cubensis a limite le developpement de nouvelles plantations d’Eucalyptus dans les regions tropicales et subtropicales. La parasite est couramment trouve sur Eucalyptus mais son existence sur d’autres Myrtacees hotes est aussi connue. Dans cette etude, C. cubensis est mentionne comme agent causal d’une grave maladie chancreuse sur Tibouchina spp. (Melastomataceae) en Colombie. Nous avons eu recours a la morphologie, a des tests de pouvoir pathogene sur Eucalyptus et Tibouchina, et a la phylogenie par sequencage partiel de l’ADN ribosomal. Il s’agit de la premiere mention de C. cubensis sur un hote n’appartenant pas aux Myrtacees. Cryphonectria-Krebs an Tibouchina in Kolumbien Der Rindennekroseerreger Cryphonectriacubensis begrenzt den Eukalyptusanbau in tropischen und subtropischen Gebieten. Dieses Pathogen tritt haufig an Eucalyptus auf, kommt aber auch an anderen Wirtspflanzen aus der Familie Myrtaceae vor. In dieser Untersuchung wird C. cubensis als Ursache eines Rindenkrebses an Tibouchina spp. (Melastomataceae) in Kolumbien beschrieben. Es wurden morphologische Untersuchungen, Infektionsversuche an Eucalyptus und Tibouchina sowie eine phylogenetische Studie anhand von partiellen RNA-Sequenzdaten durchgefuhrt. Cryphonectriacubensis wurde damit erstmals an einem Wirt ausserhalb der Myrtaceae nachgewiesen.
The use of nest boxes in urban natural vegetation remnants by vertebrate fauna

Nest boxes are routinely installed as a substitute for natural tree hollows to provide den and nest sites for a range of hollow-utilising fauna. We installed 120 nest boxes in 20 patches of indigenous vegetation (remnants) across the urban/suburban landscape of Melbourne, south-eastern Australia, and investigated their use by indigenous and exotic vertebrate species over a period of 12 months. Nest-box use was dominated by the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), the common ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) and the common myna (Acridotheres tristis), an aggressive introduced bird. We found that brushtail and ringtail possums utilised nest boxes all year round but more frequently in cooler months (May–August). Common mynas dominated nest-box use during spring/summer, potentially reducing the availability of this resource to indigenous species. We found evidence that the probability of a nest box being occupied by either species of possum was greater in remnants with abundant possum populations. Brushtail possums preferred thick-walled pine nest boxes over thin-walled plywood nest boxes, most likely owing to differences in their thermal insulation properties. Although considerable economic costs would be involved in using nest boxes as a long-term substitute for hollow-bearing trees, nest boxes may provide a temporary hollow resource until hollow-bearing trees are recruited in urban remnants.
Somatic compatibility in Amylostereum areolatum and A. chailletii as a consequence of symbiosis with siricid woodwasps

Somatic compatibility is used to identify clones or vegetative compatibility groups (VCG) in fungal populations. For basidiomycetes, VCGs have normally been associated with either homothallic, non-outcrossing fungi or root decay fungi spreading by vegetative growth. A special instance is provided by the symbiotic relationships between woodwasps and the fungi Amylostereum areolatum and A. chailletii. This association results in clonal propagation, as the wasps (Sirex sp. and Urocerus sp.) transfer arthrospores of A. areolatum or A. chailletii during ovipositing in conifers. Identical isolates of the symbiont are normally carried by all the female offspring of one wasp. The presence of clones of A. areolatum and A. chailletii was tested through somatic compatibility shown in pairings of heterokaryons obtained from wasps, basidiocarps and wood. Isolates found more than 100 km apart within Denmark belonged to the same vegetative compatibility groups. In addition, A. areolatum isolates from Sweden and Lithuania were compatible with a Danish clone, in spite of the barrier of the Baltic Sea. The association between woodwasps and fungi thus creates dispersive clones or VCGs which are stable across time and space. The dispersal through basidiospores may be considered of less importance for A. areolatum, but common in A. chailletii.