Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of microalgal extracts on thioredoxin expression in human skin cells and their protection of skin

Skin is the constant target of active forms of oxygen generated by UV radiation exposure. It needs to reinforce anti-oxidant defense mechanisms to protect itself against cell damage. Thioredoxin is a protein found extensively in animals, plants and marine bacteria. It protects cells against the cytotoxicity produced by free radicals. An increase in thioredoxin production could be thus an interesting way to improve skin cell protection. We studied thioredoxin expression in human skin cells by minichips, and the results were confirmed by RT-PCR. Protein expression was quantified by Western blot. Thioredoxin mRNA is expressed by human dermal fibroblasts and epidermal keratinocytes. The thioredoxin protein was detected in both types of human skin cells and visualized in human reconstituted epidermis. Some stress-resistant micro-algae also express protective proteins. We tested the effect of two micro-algal extracts on the level of thioredoxin expression in human skin cells and on the protection against free radicals by measuring the inhibition of superoxide anion, on the protection against polluting agents by measuring cellular vitality and on the protection of Langerhans cells against UV exposure. By stimulating the thioredoxin level, the micro-algal extracts protect skin cells against several types of free radical generating systems.
Comment

Baumeister, C. , and Kilian, L. (2012), “Real-Time Forecasts of the Real Price of Oil,” Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 30, 326– 336. [13] Baumeister, C. , Kilian, L. , and Lee, T. K. (2014), “Are There Gains From Pooling Real-Time Oil Price Forecasts? ” Energy Economics, 46, S33–S43. [15] Clark, T. E. , and McCracken, M. W. (2012), “In-Sample Tests of Predictive Ability: A New Approach,” Journal of Econometrics, 170, 1–14. [14,15] Clark, T. E. , and West, K. W. (2007), “Approximately Normal Tests for Equal Predictive Accuracy in Nested Models,” Journal of Econometrics, 138, 291–311. [14] Inoue, A. , and Kilian, L. (2004), “Bagging Time Series Models,” CEPR Discussion Paper No. 4333. [13,14,15] Mark, N. C. (1995), “Exchange Rates and Fundamentals: Evidence on LongHorizon Predictability,” American Economic Review, 85, 201–218. [13]
Priming the dairy cow for lactation : A review of dry cow feeding strategies

Friggens, N. C. , Andersen, J. B. , Larsen, T. , Aaes, O. , Dewhurst, R. J. (2004). Priming the dairy cow for lactation: a review of dry cow feeding strategies. Animal Research, 53, 453-473.
Introduction

George Gerbner saw modern media as technological production and delivery of 'shared ways of selecting and viewing events' (McQuail1998). He wrote in this journal not a decade ago that we 'live in a world erected by the stories we tell. The storytelling process used to be hand-crafted, home-made, community-inspired. Now it is the end result of a complex manufacturing and marketing process' (Gerbner 1998, p.78). The life and contribution to the field by the distinguished former Dean of the Annenburg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the Journal of Communication, who passed away at the end of 2005, is remembered in this issue by the cover as well as a piece entitled 'One of the last of a dying breed' by John Lent. The khaki on our cover makes reference to Gerbner's parachuting into occupied Slovenia in January 1945 as a US Special Intelligence officer, as related in John Lent's memorial piece. Gerbner believed in media power, specifically in what he called the cultivation effect of media, where reader/audience/viewer (RAV) expectations of behaviour in real life are shaped over time by their experience of behaviour depicted by media. It was his view that 'the cultural environment in which we live becomes the byproduct of marketing . the media violence overkill is an ingredient in a global marketing formula imposed on media professionals and foisted on the children of the world' (Gerbner 1998, pp.78-80). At the same time he believed in people power, that the culture of violence inhabiting the media could be countered by the community and family. He was an indefatigable campaigner for media education, selective viewing and social action, through his Cultural Environment Movement as well through his exhortations on Capitol Hill and at conferences all over the world (Gerbner 1998, p.81). In terms of the 'social construction of reality' perspective, people participate in the assemblage of their own group's perceived reality (Berger & Luckmann 1966). The question is whether it is the producers of messages who create the image of reality, and if so whether their depiction of reality is based on their readings of their RAVs, or whether RAVs are active and contribute to the construction of meaning and their own
Algorithms for Worst-Case Design and Applications to Risk Management

where x 2 X denotes the decision variables and y 2 Y represents the uncertain variables de ned over the feasible set Y . The problem of minimizing a so-called “max-function” leads to a problem of minimizing a nondifferentiable function, investigated  rst by Demyanov and Malozemov (1974) and later by Rockafellar (1981), and cast in a theory of subdifferentiation initiated by Clarke (1973). Indeed, in this book the mathematical theory, including optimality conditions for problem (1), are well established and are summarized for the continuous case in the  rst chapter. Special algorithms to solve the nondifferentiable optimization problem
Genetic Diversity of released Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) Varieties for Lodging Resistance

Genetic improvement of native crops is a new and promising strategy to combat hunger in the developing world. Tef is the major staple food crop for approximately 50 million people in Ethiopia. As an indigenous cereal, it is well adapted to diverse climatic and soil conditions; however, its productivity is extremely low mainly due to susceptibility to lodging. The presence of considerable variations among tef genotypes has been observed indicating the potential of improving the crop through selection of genotypes that combine the traits of interest. The objective of this review: (1) the variation of released tef varieties/germplasm materials for key lodging resistance traits, (2) to assess the impact of lodging on productivity of tef. This review presented that there is positive association between lodging index and grain filling period indicated that the shorter the time to grain filling, might help to reduce lodging of tef as well as the longer grain filling period giving higher grain and causes higher lodging. Therefore, selection of genotypes with short days to grain filling and maximum number of productive tillers reduce the lodging index and increase lodging index, respectively. This shows that lodging index had negative correlation with days to head, days to maturity, plant height and culm length. Tef genotypes that exhibited short days to heading and grain filling period need to be considered as potential genetic materials for improving tef production through selection. A multi-faceted approach involving different disciplines has been suggested to combat the problem of lodging in tef.
Comment

I would like to congratulate Fan, Han, and Gu for a very interesting and thought-provoking article. The idea in this article sounds very promising to me, and I have no doubt that it could be useful in the areas of large-scale multiple testing and genomics. I also believe that the idea can be useful in solving many other problems in the area of high-dimensional data analysis, such as variable selection, low-rank matrix recovery, and sparse principal component analysis (PCA). The article considers a p-dimensional Gaussian vector
Foreign Pollination of the Stigma of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thunb.] Matsum and Nakai)

The effect of foreign pollen on the stigma of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus [Thunb] Matsum and Nakai) was studied by light and electron microscopy. Pollen of 14 of 15 tested species germinated on the stigma, and pollen tubes of eight species penetrated the style. Only watermelon pollen tubes reached the ovary. Pollen of all species stimulated stigma secretion, irrespective of germination capacity. Secretion was also stimulated by dead watermelon pollen, live yeast cells, and fixed red blood cells, but not by glass fragments. Prior foreign pollination did not affect germination or pollen-tube growth of subsequently applied watermelon pollen which produced fruit set. Foreign pollination did not result in fruit set, but stimulated the same sequence of papilla-cell senescence as watermelon pollen. We concluded that the processes of stigma secretion and papilla-cell death in response to pollination do not control the growth of foreign pollen on the watermelon stigma.
Comment

This is an interesting article dealing with the important issue of consistency of bootstrap approximations for distributions of nonregular estimators under local asymptotics. Our discussion of the article (referred to as [MQ] in the following to save space) will focus on two aspects: (1) the use of bootstrap on a nonregular test statistic and (2) an alternative solution to the present testing problem where the issue of nonregularity can be bypassed, allowing the naive bootstrap to be used without any modification. Since the nonregular behavior of the test statistic is present only in a neighborhood of β0 = 0 in model (2) of [MQ], we shall set β0 = 0 and restrict attention to the local asymptotic structure:
Morphological and Physiological Differentiation among Vegetative Compatibility Groups of Verticillium dahliae in Relation to V. longisporum

Twenty-four isolates of Verticillium dahliae from various geographic regions and host origins were assigned to vegetative compatibility groups (VCG) based on complementation between nitrate-non-utilizing (nit) mutants. The VCG assignment was associated with clearly distinguishable morphological and physiological characteristics. Most isolates of VCG 2B produced deep black colonies, small conidia (3.62 × 0.02 μ m), and spherical microsclerotia. They exhibited polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, high sporulation rate in shake cultures, fluorescence on sanguinarine-amended PDA (snPDA) and excretion of dark pigment on Czapek Dox agar. The isolates assigned to VCG 4B had significantly longer conidia (4.73 × 0.04 μ m), spherical microsclerotia and white, fluffy colonies due to enhanced production of aerial mycelium. They excreted only traces of dark pigment, exhibited PPO activity, did not fluoresce on snPDA and had limited ability to sporulate in shake cultures. Except for lacking PPO activity the only heterokaryon self-incompatible isolate (HSI) was similar to VCG 4B. Ten isolates of Verticillium longisporum from cruciferous hosts did not produce nit mutants. They had clearly longer conidia (7.41 × 0.05 μ m), formed elongate microsclerotia, and only poorly sporulated in shake cultures. They did not excrete dark pigment, lacked PPO, and failed to fluoresce on snPDA. The results indicate a clear morphological and physiological differentiation not only between the two species V. longisporum and V. dahliae but also among the VCGs of V. dahliae.
Seed yield and yield stability of chickpea in response to cropping systems and soil fertility in northern latitudes.

Improved cultural practices are required to enhance the adaptability of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in northern latitudes. Field experiments were conducted to determine the effects of cropping systems, cultivar choices, and soil fertility on the stand establishment, seed yield, and yield stability of chickpea in northern latitudes. Four cultivars were tested in no-till barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), no-till wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and tilled-fallow systems at six environments in southern Saskatchewan, 2004-2006. Crop received N fertilizer at 0, 28, 64, 84, and 112 kg N ha -1 with or without Rbizobium inoculant (GR). The no-till barley and no-till wheat systems did not differ from the tilled-fallow system in days to plant emergence and stand establishment, and the two no-till systems averaged 2100 kg ha -1 of seed yield which was 83% of the yield in the tilled-fallow system. In the absence of GR, increasing N rates increased seed yield significantly in the two no-till systems, no yield responses in the tilled-fallow system, and decreased plant density in all the three systems. Compared to the non-GR control, the use ofGR increased seed yield by 37% in the no-till systems and 8% in the tilled-fallow system. Chickpea inoculated with GR produced a similar yield as was fertilized at 112 kg N ha -1 . Chickpea receiving fertilizer N plus GR produced a similar yield as the crop received GR only for all cultivars. Use of optimal cropping systems, improved cultivars with high yield stability, and application of effective N-fixing inoculants will enhance the adaptability of chickpea in northern latitudes.
NOTE. The Occurrence of Tetrasporangia and Cystocarps on the Same Thalli in Polysiphonia harlandii (Rhodophyta: Ceramiales)

The occurrence of both gametangial and non-gametangial sexual reproductive structures on a single thallus is not uncommon amongst rhodophytes, especially members of the Ceramiales. This phenomenon is most frequent in the relatively primitive family Ceramiaceae (eg. Dixon 1960, Drew 1934, 1943, Lewis 1909) and to a lesser extent, the Delesseriaceae (eg. Kniep 1928). There are fewer records for the Rhodomelaceae, but examples can be found in the genus Polysiphonia Grev. Spermatangia and tetrasporangia were reported occurring together in P. novae-angliae Taylor ( s P. vlolacea) (Yamanouchi 1906) and P. urceolata Grev. (Buffham 1893). The simultaneous occurrence of tetrasporangia and cystocarps was also observed in the latter (Edelstein and McLachlan 1967, Lawson and Russell 1967, Rosenvinge 1924).
Immunization against abolition of transplantation tolerance*

Attempts were made to break the tolerance of murine transplantation antigens of strain A in CBA mice by adoptive transfer of: 1) normal, syngeneic (CBA) lymphoid cells, or 2) moderate doses of sensitized, syngeneic (CBA anti‐A) lymphoid cells followed later by high doses of CBA anti‐A cells. Both kinds of attempt failed. Tolerance could be broken when a large enough dose of sensitized cells was given. Prior “immunization” of CBA mice tolerant to A with small doses of CBA spleen cells protected against doses of sensitized cells otherwise successful in breaking tolerance.
A Monte Carlo Study of the Relative Stability of Protein Helical Forms

We present simulation results on a simple model to describe the hydrogen bonding in proteins with helical structures. The approximation distinguishes between ! helices, where each amino acid interacts with another one located four residues apart, 3 10 structures, where the number of amino acids in between is three, and the ? arrangement, in which that number is five. We found that the main features of the system are determined by the most stable structure (the ! helix) and that the other type of hydrogen bonds appears just below the denaturation temperature of the peptide. The probability of finding a 3 10 -type bond is greater at the beginning or at the end of the peptide chain, irrespectively of its length, while in short peptides the existence of those bonds increases appreciably the denaturation temperature, promoting stability. On the other hand, the temperature of denaturation decreases with the length of the peptide to reach a value independent of the number of amino acid residues.
Tests for Parameter Instability in Regressions With I(1) Processes

This article derives the large-sample distributions of Lagrange multiplier (LM) tests for parameter instability against several alternatives of interest in the context of cointegrated regression models. The fully modified estimator of Phillips and Hansen is extended to cover general models with stochastic and deterministic trends. The test statistics considered include the SupF test of Quandt, as well as the LM tests of Nyblom and of Nabeya and Tanaka. It is found that the asymptotic distributions depend on the nature of the regressor processes—that is, if the regressors are stochastic or deterministic trends. The distributions are noticeable digfferent from the distributions when the data are weakly dependant. If is also found that the lack of cointegration is a special case of the alternative hypothesis considered (an unstable intecept), so the tests proposed here may also be viewed as a test of the null of cointegration against the alternative of no cointegration. The tests are applied to three data sets—an aggregate consumption function, a present value model of stock prices and divdends, and the term structure of interest rates.
Fire and The Australian Flora: A Review

SUMMARY Fire is a natural environmental variable over most of Australia. It is a unique environmental variable in that it: tends to be self propagating; occurs for extremely limited periods in any one locality; may have devastating effects; occurs over a wide range of environments and plant communities. In many ecosystems fire is a normal environmental variable. Its immediate effects on vegetation depend on fire intensity but longer-term effects depend also on fire frequency and season of occurrence. Using these three variables, various fire regimes may be defined. Species may be adapted to these fire regimes but not to fire per se. Interaction between fire and an adaptive trait may facilitate survival or reproduction of a species but this effect alone does not guarantee that the species is adapted to a certain fire regime—this depends on many characteristics of the life cycle. Much of the relevant Australian literature is concerned with adaptive traits while relatively little considers adaptations of spe.
Book Reviews

open models. Together, the three volumes will no doubt constitute an important treatise on the state-of-the-art in macroeconomic forecasting. This second volume is certainly a key contribution to explaining and improving on the lackluster forecast performance of small-scale vector equilibrium correction models. In summary, what is here is very good, and the profession has good reason to look forward to more. At $35, the book is a bargain.
Resource Partitioning and Competition within a Guild of Fugitive Prairie Plants

Badger disturbances on tall-grass prairies constitute a limiting resource for a guild of fugitive plants. These plants partition the resource along several dimensions. Divergent centers of resource utilization result from different suites of adaptive life-history characteristics important during colonization. While overlap of utilization functions is considerable along single dimensions of the resource, complementary adaptations of species result in reduced overlap along a complex gradient integrating the separate dimensions. We predict that the number, packing, and organization of species into a guild will change as the nature of the limiting resource changes. Specifically, changes in the abundance of the resource alter the heterogeneity of the resource over space, and as a result relationships among the adaptive centers of resource utilization for species also change. Predictions of changes in resource partitioning and guild organization, based upon assumptions concerning competition among species populations, correspond very closely to empirical field observations. In nature, composition of the fugitive species guild is expected to vary locally with changes in the nature and spatial heterogeneity of badger disturbances, and this variation over space also will depend upon the colonization capabilities of the species. Field investigation of competition provided insight into relationships among species comprising the fugitive guild. Competitive interactions are closely related to the adaptive life-history characteristics involved in the colonization of badger disturbances. The type of interaction occurring among individuals on a site depends upon events occurring during the colonization phase of the life cycle, and different types of competitive interactions have different effects upon the likelihood of subsequent site colonization (i.e., reproductive success of interacting individuals). Both the frequency and types of competitive interactions occurring among individuals in fugitive populations are predicted to depend upon the abundance of the limiting resource; the likelihood of colonization will change as the spatial distribution of colonization sites changes. Thus, the effects of changes in the distribution of the resource over space upon the relative colonization rates of species must be known to predict accurately the impact of competition upon resource partitioning and organization of fugitive plant populations into a guild.
Effect of Microorganisms and Microbial Metabolites on Apatite Dissolution

The dissolution rate of apatite was determined in batch reactors in organic acid solutions and in microbial cultures. Inoculum for the cultures was from biotite plus apatite crystals from a granite weathering profile in South Eastern Australia. In both the biotic and the abiotic experiments, etching of the apatite surface leads to the formation of elongated spires parallel to the c axis. Apatite dissolution rates in the inorganic, acetate, and oxalate solutions increase as pH decreases from approximately 10 -11 mol/m -2 · s -1 at initial pH 5.5 to 10 -7 mol/m -2 · s -1 at initial pH 2. Under mildly acidic to near neutral pH conditions, both oxalate and acetate increased apatite dissolution by up to an order of magnitude compared to the inorganic conditions. Acetate catalyzed the reaction by forming complexes with Ca, either in solution or at the mineral surfaces. Oxalate forms complexes with Ca as well, and can also affect reaction rates and stoichiometry by forming Ca-oxalate precipitates, thus affecting solution saturation states. In all abiotic experiments, net phosphate release to solution approaches zero even when solutions are apparently undersaturated by several orders of magnitude with respect to the solubility of an ideal fluoroapatite mineral. In the microbial experiments, two enrichment cultures increased both apatite and biotite dissolution by producing organic acids, primarily pyruvate, fermentation products, and oxalate, and by lowering bulk solution pH to between 3 and 5. However, the microorganisms were also able to increase phosphate release from apatite (by two orders of magnitude) without lowering bulk solution pH by producing pyruvate and other compounds.
Variable fruit set in self-fertile sweet cherry.

Fruit set on seven self-fertile (SF) sweet cherry genotypes from the Cornell Sweet Cherry Breeding Program was investigated. The S-alleles of all tested genotypes, based on controlled pollination and PCR-based S-allele typing analysis were determined to be: S1S4’ for Lapins, and S3S4’ for Stella, Starkrimson, NY 13688, NY 13696, NY 13788 and NY 13791. Higher fruit set of open-pollinated self-fertile genotypes indicated that the additional pollen donor was probably advantageous for fruit set in self-fertiles in the preliminary field study. However, no statistically significant differences were found between fully and self- (half compatible) pollination in caged trees in subsequent years’ studies. This inconsistency may have been due to shading by cages (for self-pollination only) or to differences in bee activity in caged trees as compared with open-pollinations made during preliminary studies. Additionally, the variation in fruit setting potential was dependent on genotype. Spring frost injury reduced fru.