Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Freshwater impacts in normally hypersaline marshes

Heavy rainfall in 1978 and 1980 caused flooding of southern California salt marshes. Examination of three marshes demonstrated a broad range of freshwater effects which correlated with the degree of change in soil salinity. At Tijuana Estuary (1980), a short-term reduction in the salinity of normally hypersaline soils was followed by a 40% increase in the August biomass of Spartina foliosa. At Los Penasquitos Lagoon (1978), a longer period of brackish water influence was followed by a 160% increase in August biomass of Salicornia virginica. At the San Diego River (1980), flood flows were augmented by major reservoir discharge. Continuous freshwater flow leached most of the marsh soil salts and caused replacement of halophytes by freshwater marsh species. The first two cases probably fell within the normal range of flooding events, even though the hydrology of both watersheds has been modified. The vegetation response was functional; productivity increased but there was no major change in species composition. As expected, vegetation rapidly returned to preflood conditions. However, the long-term freshwater flow in the Dan Diego River was unnatural. Floral composition changed as soils were leached of salts. Recovery following the return of saline soils has been slow because many native halophytes are not good colonizers. The system's resilience is limited, and modification of natural stream discharge can cause permanent changes in coastal wetlands.
Virtual Storage-Based Model for Estimation of Economic Benefits of Electric Vehicles in Renewable Portfolios

The expected increase in the presence of electric vehicles raises numerous questions regarding their impact on the market relations. Depending on the agreement between the involved parties, the position of EVs changes from passive (traditional role) to active. Active EVs are beneficial for variability and uncertainty-intense modern power systems. To enable this transition, a suitable framework in the form of agreements is required in order to establish the terms and responsibilities. Following the presented agreements, we propose a novel method for evaluation of the benefits that the newly added EVs bring to the portfolio. The method comprises two steps, a Monte Carlo simulation of the EV driving/charging patterns and an optimization model for market related decision making. The method results in the estimates on economic savings resulting from adding EVs to portfolios. An illustrative example is used in order to give an idea of the range of the benefits.
Dormancy release in beech buds (Fagus sylvatica) requires both chilling and long days

Chilling and daylength requirements for dormancy release and budburst in dormant beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) buds have been studied in cuttings flushing in controlled environments after different durations of outdoor chilling. Non-chilled buds sampled in mid October required long days (LD) only for budburst. Buds chilled until March still required LD for normal budburst, whereas buds sampled in November and December were unable to sprout regardless of daylength conditions and would do so only after a substantial period of chilling. Four ecotypes of distant latitudinal and altitudinal origin responded very similarly with a typical quantitative photoperiodic response. In fully chilled shoots sampled in March only 13 to 40% budburst took place in 8-h SD and only after three times as long time as in continuous light. It is concluded that this dual dormancy control system ensures optimum winter stability in trees under conditions of climatic warming. In the closely related Carpinus betulus L. budburst was unaffected by daylength.
Changes in the concentration of indole‐3‐acetic acid during the growth of etiolated lupin hypocotyls

The longitudinal distribution of unaltered radioactive indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), after application of [5-3H]-IAA to decapitated etiolated lupin hypocotyls. exhibited a wave-like pattern similar to that obtained with endogenous IAA. Waves of radioactive IAA were localizated both in the elongation zone and in the non-growing basal region of the hypocotyl. These IAA waves were transient because of basipetal polar transport and metabolism of IAA. The level of endogenous IAA in different zones of the hypocotyl varied with age, following a wave-like pattern. During the elongation period of each zone, IAA was parallel to the bell-shaped curve of the growth rate. In addition, a role in secondary cell wall deposition is suggested for the other IAA wave that appeared after the cell elongation period, since an electron microscopic morphometric analysis of the cell wall showed that the cell wall thickness increased once the cell elongation ceased. As the oscillation of endogenous IAA level occured in both space (distribution along the hypocotyl) and time (variation with age), it is suggested that the level of IAA really depended on the growth status of the cells. The response of the cells to the positional information submitted by the auxin waves as regards the growth status of the cell is discussed.
Rethinking the Farmer's Role in Plant Breeding: Local Bean Experts and On-station Selection in Rwanda

Summary Varietal selection is particularly difficult for very heterogeneous environments where farmers have a range of preferences. To address these issues in Rwanda, local bean experts, generally women, are invited to the research station to assess cultivars and to select those they prefer for their plots. Farmers use observed yield as only one of several criteria to predict varietal performance in their more stressed home environments. The varieties they choose are often higher yielding on-farm and are retained longer by farmers than those selected by the breeders. The results of early farmer involvement also compare favourably with those of the standard breeding programme in terms of enhanced genetic diversity and reduced research costs. There are few pre-conditions for developing such a client-driven breeding programme. Papel del agricultor en la selección de variedades para una estación inaestigación
Gland formation induced in the allantoic and small-intestinal endoderm by the proventricular mesenchyme is not coupled with pepsinogen expression

Abstract Allantoic and small-intestinal endoderms of chick and quail embryos were associated with the proventricular mesenchyme of chick embryos and then cultivated on chorioallantoic membrane. This resulted in the induction of complex glands, but the recombinates never produced embryo-specific pepsinogens; also, glandular cells developed a brush border, expressed sucrase antigen on their apical surface, and sometimes differentiated into goblet cells, thus indicating that both endoderms have the tendency to differentiate into an intestinal epithelium. In the recombinates composed of allantoic endoderm and proventricular mesenchyme, acid-protease activity was detected, but biochemical analysis revealed that this activity was not due topepsinogens. These results indicate that the gland formation induced in allantoic and small-intestinal endoderms by the proventricular mesenchyme is not accompanied by the expression of pepsinogens, suggesting that independent mechanisms are responsible for the morphogenesis and cyto chemical differentiation of the endoderm.
Rapid evolution: from genes to communities, and back again?

Summary Ecologists now recognize that ecologically important traits sometimes undergo large heritable changes on the same time-scale as ecological change (‘rapid’ or ‘contemporary’ evolution). We know much less about the meanings of ‘sometimes’ (how often? ) and ‘important’ (how important? ). I review some of what I and my collaborators have learned about rapid evolution and suggest some of its implications. Rapid evolution is common: when conditions change, traits evolve. But the rate of change is hard to predict, even across a set of published laboratory predator–prey experiments, and very similar trait changes can result from very different molecular mechanisms, even within one species. Evolutionary rescue (adaptive response to a detrimental environmental change) is common, but not always effective. The full range is observed, from little to almost complete compensation for environmental change. Cases of limited compensation show that strong selection is necessary, but not sufficient for rapid adaptation. The response of the copepod Onychodiaptomus sanguineus to fluctuating predation shows that the time-scale of environmental variation is important. The response of Daphnia galeata to eutrophication shows that life-history trade-offs and constraints can prevent evolution from buffering the entire life history against environmental changes. Eco-evolutionary dynamics are harder to predict when traits affecting multiple interactions evolve. Theory predicted, and experiments confirmed, a much larger range of possible evolutionary outcomes when a prey species evolves defences against two predators rather than one. These and other recent findings suggest that the devil is in the details: many subtle factors, such as how trade-offs depend on resource availability, can have large effects on eco-evolutionary dynamics. Ecologists are increasingly engaged in predicting the ecological effects of human impacts such as species introductions and climate change. Forecasting evolutionary responses is part of that challenge. One implication of the ‘newest synthesis’ is that rapid adaptation to changing conditions is nothing new, so the past and present can tell us a lot about the future. If prediction is our goal, then developing predictive theory for eco-evolutionary dynamics, and testing it in tractable model systems, should be a priority.
Why do we need permanent plots in the study of long-term vegetation dynamics?

This paper presents a survey of vegetation studies on permanent plots, with an emphasis on the long-term char- acter of these studies. It makes remarks on the external and internal causes of succession, pays attention to the pathways of succession, links up permanent plots studies and chrono- sequences, discusses internal causes and mechanisms of suc- cession, and finally mentions the significance of long-term vegetation dynamics for nature conservation.
A meta-ethnography on HEIs’ transformation into more entrepreneurial institutions: Towards an action-framework proposition

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are experiencing a challenging era due to demand–response imbalances. An assumed means of responding to the challenge is through the entrepreneurial university model, which adds a third mission to HEIs: to contribute to economic, technological and social development. Therefore, governments across the globe promote this ideal through system reforms and funding schemes, while HEIs ignite institutional changes. Publications also explore the entrepreneurial university model, although some scholars have criticized the new mission and its implied commercial orientation. However, little is still known about how HEIs are applying the model to become more entrepreneurial. Therefore, this article presents a systematic literature review comprised of a meta-ethnography on the transformation journey of 36 HEIs across 18 countries. The outcome is a four-stage iterative action-framework proposition, suggesting that exogenous and endogenous forces constantly influence HEIs which, in response, ignite experiments, requiring sensitization to be consolidated and later institutionalized, in an endless, long and rather slow process. This article contributes to theory by explaining the metalevel of HEIs’ entrepreneurial pathway process and to practice by providing policymakers and decision makers in HEIs with an analytical framework.
Traumatic Brain Injury and Stem Cell Therapy

Traumatic brain injury is a major health issue globally. Recently, there is no effective treatment, which can improve functional recovery of the TBI patients. Recent studies conclude that stem cell therapy has got tremendous regenerative potential, which can cure CNS injuries. Experimental Success in stem cell therapy also raise a hope in researchers to investigate more. The therapeutic aspects of stem cell therapy are based on the potential to differentiate in to tissue specific cells and integrate in to host tissue to regenerate the lost cells or injured cells. This commentary reflects the role of variety of stem cells in treating TBI .
A Review Article of Hypertension and Cognitive Decline

Hypertension is a condition with high prevalence that is estimated to affect around eighty million individuals in the United States and one billion persons worldwide. [1] The prevalence of hypertension in India is 29.8%, and is estimated to be responsible for two thirds of stroke deaths and one fourth of coronary deaths. [2] According to the Alzheimer’s Association, cognitive dysfunction affected more than 35 million people in 2010, and is projected to double every ten years with about two-thirds of these subjects living in places with limited healthcare resources. [3] There is adequate evidence in the literature to support an association between high blood pressure and impairment in cognition that is beyond its relationship to frank stroke. [4,5] Hypertension is thought to be a risk factor for both Alzheimer’s dementia and vascular dementia, it is also linked to various degrees of cognitive dysfunction, a spectrum ranging from mild neurocognitive impairment to frank dementia (which is defined as major neurocognitive disorder). [6]
Effects of Landscape Composition and Wetland Fragmentation on Frog and Toad Abundance and Species Richness in Iowa and Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Abstract: Management of amphibian populations to reverse recent declines will require defining high‐quality habitat for individual species or groups of species, followed by efforts to retain or restore these habitats on the landscape. We examined landscape‐level habitat relationships for frogs and toads by measuring associations between relative abundance and species richness based on survey data derived from anuran calls and features of land‐cover maps for Iowa and Wisconsin. The most consistent result across all anuran guilds was a negative association with the presence of urban land. Upland and wetland forests and emergent wetlands tended to be positively associated with anurans. Landscape metrics that represent edges and patch diversity also had generally positive associations, indicating that anurans benefit from a complex of habitats that include wetlands. In Iowa the most significant associations with relative abundance were the length of the edge between wetland and forest ( positive) and the presence of urban land (negative). In Wisconsin the two most significant associations with relative abundance were forest area and agricultural area ( both positive). Anurans had positive associations with agriculture in Wisconsin but not in Iowa. Remnant forest patches in agricultural landscapes may be providing refuges for some anuran species. Differences in anuran associations with deep water and permanent wetlands between the two states suggest opportunities for management action. Large‐scale maps can contribute to predictive models of amphibian habitat use, but water quality and vegetation information collected from individual wetlands will likely be needed to strengthen those predictions. Landscape habitat analyses provide a framework for future experimental and intensive research on specific factors affecting the health of anurans.
Research on Semantic Segmentation of Portraits Based on Improved Deeplabv3 +

At present, semantic segmentation is one of the hottest research directions in the field of computer vision, and the Deeplab series is one of the best neural network models in semantic segmentation. Based on the original Deeplab-v3 + neural network model, this paper makes a series of improvements to make it perform better on semantic segmentation of portraits: 1. Add channel attention module to speed up the convergence speed of model training and improve segmentation accuracy. 2. Improve the original AtrousSpatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP), adjust the receptive field of the network, and improve the segmentation accuracy. Finally, this paper compares the segmentation performance of different semantic segmentation network models on human-parsing dataset and proves that the proposed neural network structure has better segmentation effect.
Sulindac Inhibits Activation of the NF-κB Pathway*

Sulindac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent that is related both structurally and pharmacologically to indomethacin. In addition to its anti-inflammatory properties, sulindac has been demonstrated to have a role in the prevention of colon cancer. Both its growth inhibitory and anti-inflammatory properties are due at least in part to its ability to decrease prostaglandin synthesis by inhibiting the activity of cyclooxygenases. Recently, we demonstrated that both aspirin and sodium salicylate, but not indomethacin, inhibited the activity of an IκB kinase β (IKKβ) that is required to activate the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway. In this study, we show that sulindac and its metabolites sulindac sulfide and sulindac sulfone can also inhibit the NF-κB pathway in both colon cancer and other cell lines. Similar to our previous results with aspirin, this inhibition is due to sulindac-mediated decreases in IKKβ kinase activity. Concentrations of sulindac that inhibit IKKβ activity also reduce the proliferation of colon cancer cells. These results suggest that the growth inhibitory and anti-inflammatory properties of sulindac may be regulated in part by inhibition of kinases that regulate the NF-κB pathway.
Analysis of the short tandem repeat Ioci for STRX 1, HPRTB, ARA, DYS390, DYS392 and DYS393 in Koreans

Three STR loci (STRX 1[AGAT]n, HPRTB[AGAT]n and ARA[AGC]n) on X chromosome and three other STR loci (D YS390[CTG(A)T]n, DYS392[ATT]n and DYS393[GATA]n) on Y chromosome were analyzed in 154 unrelated healthy Korean subjects. Four loci (STRX1, HPRTB, DYS390 and DYS393) were amplified by quadruplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using fluorescent labeled primers (FLP). ARA and DYS392 were amplified separately using single PCR, similarly by using FLP. They were then run in an automated DNA sequencer and were analyzed with Genescan software. We found 7 alleles (308–332 bp) in STRX1, 7 alleles (275–299 bp) in HPRTB, 16 alleles (252–315 bp) in ARA, 6 alleles (203–223 bp) in DYS390, 7 alleles (245–263bp) in DYS392 and 5 alleles (116–132 bp) in DYS393. The *13 (34%), * 13 (51%), *23 (18%), *23 (50%), * 14 (39%) and * 13 (40%) alleles were observed to be the highest frequencies of STRX1, HPRTB, ARA, DYS390, DYS392 and DYS393, respectively. The detection of STR loci on sex chromosomes by quadruplex PCR allows simple determination of sex and identification of an individual.
Vitamin D Deficiency in the Elderly

The authors are indebted to Dr Heaney for noting this important secondary result of our study. The lack of response in the calcium-only group of the trial, both in regard to parathyroid hormone (PTH) and bone resorption, is indeed significant. Our results indicate that in severely vitamin D–deficient elderly subjects, bone loss cannot be prevented by only raising calcium intake from 600–700 (baseline) to 1200 mg per day. On the other hand, vitamin D repletion above the midpoint of the reference range of 25-hydroxyvitamin D serum concentrations, together with an increased calcium intake of 1200 mg per day, was successful in achieving a significant decrease in bone resorption and PTH levels in our trial. According to findings described in Dr Heaney’s letter and our results, calcium is more efficacious in conjunction with vitamin D. This is particularly important to elderly patients, who have a high rate of vitamin D deficiency.
Respiratory energy costs for the maintenance of biomass, for growth and for ion uptake in roots of Carex diandra and Carex acutiformis

van der Werf, A. , Kooijman, A. , Welschen, R. and Lambers, H. 1988. Respiratory energy costs for the maintenance of biomass, for growth and for ion uptake in roots of Carex diandra and Carex acutiformis. - Physiol. Plant. 72: 483–491. The respiratory characteristics of the roots of Carex diandra Schrank and Carex acutiformis Ehrh. were investigated. The aims were, firstly to determine the respiratory energy costs for the maintenance of root biomass, for root growth and for ion uptake, and secondly to explain the higher rate of root respiration and ATP production in C. diandra. The three respiratory energy components were derived from a multiple regression analysis, using the relative growth rate and the net rate of nitrate uptake as independent variables and the rate of ATP production as a dependent variable. Although the rate of root respiration and ATP production was significantly higher in C. diandra than in C. acutiformis, the two species showed no significant difference in their rate of ATP production for the maintenance of biomass, in the respiratory energy coefficient for growth (the amount of ATP production per unit of biomass produced) and the respiratory energy coefficient for ion uptake (amount of ATP production per unit of ions absorbed). It is concluded that the higher rate of root respiration of C. diandra is caused by a higher rate of nitrate uptake. At relatively high rates of growth and nitrate uptake, the contribution of the rate of ATP production for ion uptake to the total rate of ATP production amounted to 38 and 25% for C. diandra and C. acutiformis, respectively. At this growth rate, the respiratory energy production for growth contributed 37 and 50%, respectively, to the total rate of ATP production. The relative contribution of the rate of ATP production for the maintenance of biomass increased from 25 to 70% with increasing plant age for both species. The results suggest that ion uptake is one of the major sinks for respiratory energy in roots. These experimentally derived values for the rate of ATP production for the maintenance of biomass, the respiratory energy coefficient for growth and the respiratory energy coefficient for ion uptake are discussed in relation to other experimentally and theoretically derived values.
Morphological, demographic and genetic traces of Upper Palaeolithic human impact on limpet assemblages in North Iberia

Human activities have an impact on extant biotic communities, and may have had just as important an impact in the past. We assess human impact on limpet assemblages during the Upper Palaeolithic in Asturias (north‐west Spain). The intensely exploited genus Patella exhibited a marked size decrease and a change in species assemblage composition, substituting the larger species P. vulgata for the smaller P. depressa. The present Patella assemblages in the upper tidal level exhibit the same pattern as those of the Epipalaeolithic (approx. 12 000 to 6000 years before the present). Although climate change may have contributed to such species replacement, spatial differences between close areas with different densities of Palaeolithic human settlements indicate unequivocal human impact. Present Patella species sampled from the region exhibit genetic signatures of past bottlenecks in mitochondrial DNA, which also indicate recent demographic expansion, suggesting that old impacts have been sufficiently important to leave genetic traces in current populations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.