Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dispersal of Five Aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) in Relation to their Impact on Hordeum vulgare

Insect herbivores that have high impacts on their host plants reduce the longevity of their habitats and require dispersal mechanisms. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the life history traits, particularly short- and long-distance dispersal mechanisms, of 5 aphid species in relation to their impact on barley, Hordeum vulgare L. The aphids were bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (L.), and rose-grain aphid Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker), important pests of cereal crops; corn leaf aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch), an occasional pest; and rusty plum aphid, Hysteroneura setariae (Thomas), and Sitobion nr. fragariae , which are not pests. The specific impacts of the 5 species on barley were similar, based on a biomass conversion ratio of a 3.4–mg reduction in plant growth for each milligram gained in aphid biomass. The value of the numerical impacts varied, being highest for large species that produced offspring earliest in their reproductive periods. The density dependence of biomass increase was highest for species with high numerical impacts on the plant. Three measures of short-distance dispersiveness varied substantially among the species, but were not related to their numerical impact. Long-distance dispersiveness, measured as the proportion of winged offspring produced in response to crowding, was related to numerical impact for 4 of the 5 species. The 5th, Sitobion nr. fragariae produced many winged offspring without crowding and is probably adapted to inherently short-lived habitats. Aphid species that rapidly affect the quality of their host plants have evolved a level of long-distance dispersiveness proportional to their impact on their host plants.
Involvement of African men and transgender women who have sex with men in HIV research: progress, but much more must be done

In sub-Saharan Africa, men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) have been living with, and dying from, HIV since the start of the pandemic. However, the impact of the virus on these sexual and gender minority populations was masked for decades by the perception of HIV as a “generalized” epidemic in the African context [1]. While the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) began enrolling MSM in Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles [2] just three years after the first clinical cases of AIDS were reported [3-6], another two decades passed before researchers began HIV-focused studies enrolling African MSM [7]. Since then, data have consistently shown that HIV prevalence and incidence are far higher among African MSM and TGW than other reproductive age adults in their countries [8-13]. Mitigating and managing this high burden of disease is complicated by barriers that African MSM and TGW face due to discriminatory policies, criminalizing legislation, stigmatizing healthcare systems and under-allocation of limited healthcare resources [14-20]. These barriers impede access and advancement through each step of the HIV care cascade, including HIV testing, linkage to care and antiretroviral therapy to achieve viral suppression [21]. As pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is becoming available to at-risk individuals in some African countries, there are already early signals that MSM and TGW face unique challenges accessing and adhering to this important biomedical HIV prevention strategy [22,23]. Increasingly, MSM outreach, engagement and research participation have been recognized as vital to HIV prevention and control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. This has been evidenced by a proliferation of observational and interventional studies engaging African MSM as one of several key populations affected by the HIV pandemic [24]. The success of many of these studies has been dependent on collaboration with key opinion leaders [25], non-governmental organizations [26], religious leaders [27], healthcare providers [28] and other community stakeholders to facilitate engagement of hard-toreach African MSM communities. However, recruitment and retention of African MSM in HIV prevention and treatment research has proved challenging. The purpose of this supplement is to present reports of HIV-related studies that recruited African MSM with a focus on challenges and successes related to engagement, recruitment and retention. Some studies also enrolled TGW, another key population that historically has often been conflated with MSM, but is deserving of separate consideration and tailored, rights-affirming engagement. Lessons learned from these studies will inform the development of strategies to test and, subsequently, deliver prevention and treatment interventions that are desperately needed to end the HIV pandemic.
Morphological and functional changes in rectal epithelium cells of pond smelt during postembryonic development.

Pinocytotic ingestion of protein molecules by rectal epithelium cells has been known to occur in teleost larvae and is supposed to have a nutritional role indigestion of food proteins. Morphological and functional changes in the rectal epithelium cells of pond smelt were investigated to clarify their nutritional role during postembryonic development. The ability of the rectal epithelium cells to ingest protein molecules appeared a few days after hatching, prior to the initiation of feeding. The ability increased thereafter and was maintained for about 200 days till the immature stage of the fish. Throughout this period active pinocytotic features at the base of microvilli characterized the cells. Large supranuclear vacuoles appeared after the commencement of feeding. Food proteins, detected as a homogeneous electron-dense substance, filled the vacuoles of fed larvae. After the stage of gastric gland differentiation, at approximately 50 days, food proteins as well as the large supranuclear vacuoles tended to disappear from the cells. Although the cells retained the ability to ingest protein, no food protein was detected in the cells of juveniles about 80 days old which had functional stomachs. The cells of adult fish did not ingest protein molecules. They showed some invaginations of intermicrovillous plasma membranes but no supranuclear vacuoles. It was concluded that the rectal epithelium cells of larval pond smelt function in protein digestion from the stage of initiation of feeding up until gastric gland differentiation.
Road extraction from aerial image data via multiple features integrated with convolution long short time memory unit network

ABSTRACT Semantic segmentation models based on deep learning have shown remarkable performance in road extraction from high-resolution aerial images. However, it is still a difficult task to segment multiscale roads with high completeness and accuracy from complex backgrounds. To deal with this problem, this letter proposes an end to end network named Multiple features integrated with convolutional long-short time memory unit network (MFI-CLSTMN). First, in MFI-CLSTMN, the ConvLSTM unit is designed to explore and integrate the sequential correlations among features, which can alleviate the feature loss caused by the max-pooling operation. Second, the structure of dense concatenation and multiscale up-sampling combines detailed features with semantic information to preserve road details. At last, at the optimization stage, a self-adaptive composite loss function is added to handle class imbalance, such that MFI-CLSTMN can effectively train hard examples and avoids local optimum. Experiments demonstrate that MFI-CLSTMN has higher segmentation accuracy and lower computational complexity than four comparative state-of-the-art models in a consistent environment. Moreover, MFI-CLSTMN can especially protect road segmentation from netsplit and brokenness, which is hard for other models to achieve.
Origin of climatic data can determine the transferability of species distribution models

Methodological research on species distribution modelling (SDM) has so far largely focused on the choice of appropriate modelling algorithms and variable selection approaches, but the consequences of choosing amongst different sources of environmental data has scarcely been investigated. Bioclimatic variables are commonly used as predictors in SDMs. Currently, several online databases offer the same sets of bioclimatic variables, but they differ in underlying source of raw data and method of data processing (extrapolation and downscaling). In this paper, we asked whether predictive performance and spatial transferability of SDMs are affected by the choice of two different bioclimatic databases viz. WorldClim 2 and Chelsa 1.2. We used presence-absence data of the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora from the Western Himalaya for training SDMs and a set of independently-collected presence-only datasets from the Central and Eastern Himalaya to evaluate the transferability of the SDMs beyond the training range. We found that the performance of SDMs was, to a large degree, affected by the choice of the climatic dataset. Models calibrated on Chelsa 1.2 outperformed WorldClim 2 in terms of internal evaluation on the calibration dataset. However, when the model was transferred beyond the calibration range to the Central and Eastern Himalaya, models based on WorldClim 2 performed substantially better. We recommend that, in addition to the choice of predictor variables, the choice of predictor datasets with these variables should not be based merely on subjective decision whenever several options are available. Instead, such decisions should be based on robust evaluation of the most appropriate dataset for a given geographic region and species being modelled. Moreover, decisions could also depend on the objective of the study, i.e. projecting within the calibration range or beyond. Therefore, a quantitative evaluation of predictor datasets from alternative sources should be routinely performed as an integral part of the modelling procedure. Copyright Arunava Datta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. NeoBiota 59: 61–76 (2020) doi: 10.3897/neobiota.59. 36299 http://neobiota.pensoft. net ReseARCh ARtiCle Advancing research on alien species and biological invasions A peer-reviewed open-access journal
Physiological synergy between IL-1β and insulin on glucose disposal and macrophage activity

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an inflammatory disease associated with infiltration of immune cells into various tissues and increased levels of inflammatory factors including Interleukin-1 β (IL-1β). In pancreatic islets elevated glucose levels stimulate IL-1β production resulting in impaired function and survival of β cells. Blockade of IL-1β improves T2D, pointing on a major role for IL-1β in the development and T2D. While the deleterious role of chronic activation of the IL-1 system in T2D is well documented, little is known about its potential physiological role(s). The aim of the present study is to reveal the physiological role of inflammation and specifically of IL-1β in metabolism. In vivo acutely administered IL-1β dose dependently induced insulin secretion even at IL-1β concentrations in the circulation that are below the detection limit. Together with glucose IL-1β promotes insulin secretion via parasympathetic nerve stimulation. In vitro IL-1β had a dual effect on glucose stimulated insulin secretion: it was beneficial at low doses and deleterious at high doses. The endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) strongly induced IL-1β, stimulated insulin secretion and improved glucose tolerance. Interestingly, the improvement of glucose tolerance was not only a consequence of increased insulin levels but was also due to direct IL-1β mediated glucose uptake into various tissues. One of the compartments responding to IL-1β with elevated glucose uptake was the cells of the immune system, mainly macrophages. We further show that macrophages significantly contribute to IL-1β mediated glucose disposal from the circulation. In addition, this work provides evidence for a role of insulin in mounting an immune response. Indeed, insulin increased the secretion of IL-1β via the NACHT, LRR and PYD domains-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome preferentially in inflammatory M1 macrophages but not from alternatively activated M2 macrophages. In line with this response, M1 macrophages expressed higher levels of insulin receptors than naive or M2. Further, insulin had an overall pro inflammatory effect in naive and inflammatory macrophages, which could be attributed to increased glucose uptake via the GLUT1 glucose transporter.
Three New Species of Thesium (Santalaceae) from South Africa

During a visit to South Africa from Christmas I975 to February 1976, a special effort was made to collect, among other things, all the different species of Thesium encountered. The genus is both frequent and exceptionally well represented in South Africa. Sir Arthur Hill revised very well the South African species in Flora Capensis 5(2): 136-200 (1915), recognizing no less than 128, to which a number of additions and only few subtractions have been subsequently made, so that the present number of species known from South Africa is about 150. Three more species are here added: T. jeanae (Sect. Imberbia, Subsect. Glabrata); T. vahrmeijeri (Sect. Barbata) ; and T. litoreum (Sect. Annulata). The sectional and subsectional names are those used by Hill (op. cit.) Localities are cited according to the grid reference system based on I-degree squares and their quarterings, now standard for the Flora of Southern Africa, as described by Edwards & Leistner in Mitt. Bot. Staatssamml. Miinchen Io: 501-509 (1971).
Phytochemicals of Punica granatum L. in inflammatory bowel diseases: a overview

Punica granatum L. , known as pomegranate, is used culturally in folk medicine for its antiinflammatory activity. Its mechanisms are derived from its bioactive compounds, predominantly polyphenols and, according to their structural arrangement, corroborate the prophylaxis of diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). The present study aims to highlight the polyphenols present in Punica granatum L. , as well as their positive effects in the context of inflammatory bowel diseases. The methodology was based on an analytical reading of materials already elaborated in the years 2009 to 2018, using descriptors such as: pomegranate, anti-inflammatory activity and secondary metabolites. Polyphenolic compounds isolated from fruits of Punica granatum L. present several pharmacological activities. Urolithine-A reduced inflammation by inhibiting the synthesis of PGE2, attenuated oxidative stress, which is a stimulator of ERK1 / 2, also inhibited by Ellagitannins. Cyanidin represses IL-8, iNOS, COX-2 and NF-kB, Gallic Acid inhibited ROS and STAT3. TNF-α targets Punicalagin, Pubic Acid and Ellagic Acid, as well as interleukins IL-1b, IL-6, perform the progression of homeostasis in IBD. Ellagic Acid, in an acute model of ulcerative colitis, improved the severity of the disease through the profile of inflammatory mediators (IL-6, TNF-α and IFN-γ). In addition, mediators such as COX-2 and iNOS were repressed and the p38, MAPK, NF-κB and STAT3 signaling pathways were blocked. The mechanisms of action of pomegranate extracts are predominantly due to Ellagic Acid. However, the synergistic action of the constituents of the pomegranate makes it therapeutically beneficial. Inflammation is closely related to oxidative stress and this is the result of the chemical imbalance between antioxidants and pro-oxidants. Functional groups of hydroxyl groups as well as the double bonds of phenolic compounds measured their antioxidant effects by the elimination of free radicals and / or the chelation of metallic ions. SciForum MOL2NET, 2016, 2(14), pages 1x 2 http://sciforum.net/conference/mol2net-02/wrsamc
Determination of lesser snow goose diets and winter distribution using stable isotope analysis

We were interested in demonstrating the existence of different subpopulations of wintering geese. Consequently, we measured stable-isotope ratios of carbon ( 13 C/ 12 C) and nitrogen ( 15 N/ 14 N), in lipid-extracted breast muscle of 30 lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) collected in winter from 3 distinct habitat types: coastal marsh in Louisiana (n = 7), rice agriculture in Texas (n = 12), and corn agriculture in Iowa and Missouri (n = 11). We also measured concentrations of the same stable isotopes in 6 winter foods important to geese: Olney's bulrush (Scirpus olneyi) tubers and marshhay cordgrass (Spartina paterns) rhizomes from coastal marsh habitat, graminoid and non-graminoid green vegetation and non-agricultural seeds from rice prairie habitat, and corn
Mini-review: The effects of apples on plasma cholesterol levels and cardiovascular risk – a review of the evidence

Summary Evidence suggests that a high intake of fruits is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and lowered plasma cholesterol, but the specific effects of individual types of fruit, fruit fractions, and processed fruit are less well-studied. Apples are among the most frequently consumed fruits, and human and animal studies on apple may help to clarify the effect of this fruit on CVD risk markers. The aim of this mini-review is to summarise current evidence for a lowering effect of apple on the risk of CVD and plasma cholesterol levels, and to investigate whether such an effect is influenced by fruit processing or the form of intake. Possible mechanisms behind the cholesterol-lowering effect of apples are also considered. All relevant published experimental studies in humans and animals were identified within the open literature. Nine human studies were identified, of which four concerned the effects of whole apples, two the effects of dried apples, and three the effects of filtered apple juice. Additional studies considered specific apple components. In general, there was a cholesterol-lowering effect, in the range of 5 – 8%, after the intake of approx. three whole apples, whereas the consumption of apple juice (375 – 720 ml) had no effect on plasma cholesterol levels and may result in adverse effects on plasma triglyceride levels. Limitations in the study designs did not allow us to draw conclusions on the effect of the intake of whole, dried apples (15 – 52 g). We also identified a total of nine experimental studies in animal models. Feeding with apple products resulted in decreased levels of plasma (11 – 43%) and liver (23 – 67%) cholesterol in the majority of studies. There was an increased excretion of bile acids (3 – 56%) and cholesterol (5 – 41%) in rats fed with apple products. Based on the current evidence from human observational and intervention studies, it seems likely that a reduction in plasma total and LDL cholesterol occurs after a dietary intake of apples, which could lead to a decreased risk of CVD. On average, a daily intake of approx. three apples resulted in a decrease in total cholesterol of 5 – 8% (approx. 0.5 mmol l−1). The consumption of filtered apple juice may result in adverse effects on plasma triglyceride levels. Evidence from animal studies suggests that the major mechanism behind the cholesterol-lowering effect of apples involves an increased clearance of plasma cholesterol due to enhanced faecal excretion of bile acids and cholesterol.
Economic Sustainability of Organic Dairy Sheep Systems in Central Spain

Sheep production systems in regions with a Mediterranean climate are important in social, economic and environmental terms. Modeling these systems allows, among others, evaluation of the costs efficiencies which in turn permits assessing the expected effects of changes in production variables. This paper presents a prototype analysis of the economic sustainability of ecological dairy sheep systems of Castilla-La Mancha, Central Spain evaluated through the estimation of costs efficiencies. Costs functions were developed using data from 31 farms. Rate of supplementary feeding, labour use, and flock size were used to measure the cost efficiency. On average, cost efficiency was 61.7±15.5%, with significant differences among typological groups. High efficiency was found in only 29% of the farms. The economic analyses performed suggest that the continued existence of economically unsustainably farms is explained by the available subsidies, lack of amortization of fixed assets leading to progressive decapitalization, and subsistence incomes by family groups (gross family income).
Questions and Answers

Did you verify in your experiments that C57BL mice are resistant to kainate? If there is no damage in this strain, do you know whether these mice are normal in terms of the expression of KA/AMPA receptors? For example, this particular mouse strain is known for having the mutation in the serotonin N-acetyl transferase gene and melatonin synthesis. ANSWER: We performed positive control studies with both the C57BL/6 and 129Sv/EMS strains (n = 2, each strain) and were able to replicate the results seen by Schauwecker and Steward.1 The 129Sv/EMS strain demonstrated frank neuronal loss in the hippocampus at 4 days, whereas the C57BL/6 strain did not. We did not attempt to quantify this neuron loss. Dr. Manev raises an important issue. Indeed, traits such as susceptibility to kainic acid (KA)-induced hippocampal neuron death may vary between different breeding colonies of the “same” mouse strain.2 Further, one must be aware that there are striking substrain differences in response to KA (O. Steward, personal communication). We do not claim there is “no” damage in C57BL/6 mice after KA injection. Rather, they are more resistant to KA-induced hippocampal damage. If given a high enough dose (e.g., 40 mg/kg) C57BL/6 mice may show hippocampal neuron loss.1 What is important to note is that 40 mg/kg is above the LD50 and is four times greater than doses commonly used to produce neuronal loss in rats. Receptor properties in these mice are currently under investigation by several laboratories. Importantly, Kurschner et al.3 demonstrated that AMPA and KA binding and affinity in the hippocampus of C57BL/6 mice was not different than the seizure-prone DBA mouse strain.
Comparison of nutritive components in meat of wild and cultured bastard halibut Paralichthys olivaceus.

The differences in the contents of nutritive components of meat were examined between wild and cultured bastard halibut, which were obtained from a fisherman and a fish farmer, respectively, in Okayama Prefecture. The crude fat content was higher in the cultured fish than in the wild fish. However, there was no appreciable difference in the compositions of essential amino acids, fatty acids, and minerals, and in the contents of vitamin A and E between the wild and cultured fish. These results indicate that the cultured fish is comparable to the wild fish with regard to nutritive values. It was also found that lipid and protein in the meat of the bastard halibut are of good quality as nutrients for man.