Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of cold acclimation on the lipid composition and cryobehaviour of the plasma membrane of isolated rye protoplasts

Destabilization of the plasma membrane, which is a primary cause of freezing injury, is a consequence of freeze-induced osmotic stresses and cell dehydration. However, the mechanism of injury depends on the magnitude of the osmotic stress and the extent of cell dehydration. Over the range of 0 to -5 $^\circ$ C, destabilization of the plasma membrane in protoplasts isolated from non-acclimated rye leaves is a result of osmotic excursions, because freeze-induced osmotic contraction results in endocytotic vesiculation of the plasma membrane and sufficiently large area reductions are irreversible. At lower temperatures, the protoplasts are subjected to extremely large osmotic pressures (-12 MPa at -10 $^\circ$ C), and there are several changes in the ultrastructure of the plasma membrane, including the formation of aparticulate domains and lamellar- to hexagonal $\_{II}$ -phase transitions. These changes, which are manifestations of demixing of the membrane components, are predicted by a theory of bilayer interactions at low levels of hydration. During cold acclimation, the cryobehaviour of the plasma membrane is altered; osmotic contraction results in the reversible formation of exocytotic extrusions and the propensity for dehydration-induced demixing and lamellar- to hexagonal $\_{II}$ -phase transitions is decreased. In both cases, the differential behaviour is also observed in liposomes prepared from plasma membrane lipids isolated from non-acclimated and cold-acclimated leaves. However, as no lipid species are unique to the plasma membrane of either non-acclimated or cold-acclimated leaves, the differential behaviour is caused by altered lipid-lipid interactions because of different proportions of the lipid species. Hence the behaviour of the plasma membrane can be altered by using a protoplast-liposome fusion procedure to selectively modify the lipid composition of the plasma membrane. These studies provide direct evidence that the increased cryostability of the plasma membrane is a consequence of alterations in its lipid composition.
Multi-Layer User Authentication Approach For Electronic Business Using Biometrics

-With the increased awareness of the dangers of cyberterrorism and identity fraud, the security of information systems has been propelled to the forefront as organizations strive to implement greater access control. Access control for information systems is founded upon reliable user authentication, and the predominant form of authentication remains the username-password combination. There are several vulnerabilities associated with an over-reliance upon this method of authentication, stemming from weaknesses in both the user construction of passwords and single-layer authentication techniques. The growing number of Internet business transactions highlights the need for a more secure method of user authentication that is cost-effective as well as practical. A multi-layer user authentication scheme is proposed as a solution, incorporating the use of dynamic biometric data selection and a timestamp to guard against reuse of intercepted authentication bit streams.
Virtual reality as a vestibular rehabilitation tool for athletes after concussion: a literature review

Virtual Reality is cogitated as one of the most favorable and challenging technologies applied in health sciences. Its use has been integrated in vestibular rehabilitation for the management of balance conditions, founded on mechanisms related to neuronal plasticity of the central nervous system. Dizziness is one of the most common symptoms after a concussion in sports and can be an issue related to a long return to play. Virtual reality may be a beneficial method for rehabilitation for athletes with dizziness after concussion. However, no studies have critically reviewed the scientific evidence in this regard. The objective was to conduct a systematic review on the effectiveness of virtual reality as a rehabilitation strategy for athletes after a concussion. A systematic review of the electronic databases Cochrane Collection, Consumer Health Complete, Oxford Journals, PubMed, Science Direct, and SPORTDiscus was conducted to identify studies related to the effect of virtual reality after a concussion in athletes. The search timeframe ranged from January 1990 to December 2019. The search resulted in the identification of 3 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 7 non-RCT studies. None of the studies were specific associated with athletes with dizziness after a concussion. Specific studies are necessary to establish the application that may respond optimally to the treatment of concussions associated with balance problems.
Invited Review: β-Lactoglobulin: Binding Properties, Structure, and Function

Abstract β -Lactoglobulin ( β -LG) is the major whey protein of ruminant species and is also present in the milks of many, but not all, other species. Its amino-acid sequence and 3-dimensional structure show that it is a lipocalin, a widely diverse family, most of which bind small hydrophobic ligands and thus may act as specific transporters, as does serum retinol binding protein. Bovine β -LG binds a wide range of ligands, but this may not be the reason for its presence in milk. In reviewing the structure and physicochemical properties of the protein, we present the structures of the ligands cholesterol (at a resolution of 2.0A, R=0.221; R free = 0.295) and vitamin D 2 (at a resolution of 2.4A, R=0.212; R free = 0.297) each bound to the central binding cavity of bovine β -LG at pH 7.3. Neither ligand is fully visible in the electron density maps, and the less well-ordered regions are the polar end groups at the mouth of the binding site. In a separate experiment, a mercury ion was bound to the free Cys121 (at a resolution of 2.2A, R=0.218; R free = 0.288) in a way that transmitted a small structural change through Asp137 via Arg148 to the dimer interface. It is not clear if the known dissociation that arises from the reaction of β -LG with HgCl 2 results from this perturbation. In reviewing the structural studies that reveal the ligand binding sites for long-chain fatty acids, retinoids, and steroids, only the central location, common to all lipocalins so far examined, is occupied under the conditions used. We find that there is no crystallographic evidence of another ligand binding site in our crystals grown in approximately 1.3 M citrate, although low ionic strength studies in solution indicate the possible presence of at least one other low affinity site. The apparent ability of the binding site to accommodate a wide range of ligands may point to a possible physiological function. However, by considering the lipocalin family in general, and the species distribution of β -LG in particular, some speculation as to the physiological function can be made. β -Lactoglobulin has been reported as being implicated, inter alia, in hydrophobic ligand transport and uptake, enzyme regulation, and the neonatal acquisition of passive immunity. However, these functions do not appear to be consistent between species. Sequence comparisons among members of the lipocalin family reveal that glycodelin, found in the human endometrium during early pregnancy, is the most closely related to β -LG. Although the function of glycodelin is also unknown, it appears to have effects on the immune system and/or to be involved in differentiation. It is proposed that β -LG, over-expressed in the lactating mammary gland of many, but not all, species, is primarily an important source of amino acids for the offspring of those animals that produce it, but that this function arose by gene duplication from the physiologically essential glycodelin. The other functions that have been associated with β -LG in the neonate are, therefore, fortuitous.
Physical and Chemical Properties of Edible Films Containing Nisin and Their Action Against Listeria Monocytogenes

The effects of hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of edible films against Listeria monocytogenes strain V7 by various nisin concentrations (4.0 - 160 IU/film disk) and pH values ranging from 2.0 to 8.0 were determined and the mechanical properties and water vapor permeability of films prepared with or without nisin were compared. Surface hydrophobicities (446, 282, 232 and 142, respectively) of whey protein isolates, soy protein isolates, egg albumen and wheat gluten were determined. As the nisin concentration increased, the amount of inhibition progressively increased in all tested films. Using nisin, edible films with higher hydrophobicity values of 280 to 450 units under an acidic environment exerted a greater inhibitory effect against L. monocytogenes. Different interactions of msin with the proteins of the different films resulted in variation in the mechanical properties and water vapor permeabilities of the films tested. Les materiaux d'emballages comestibles et actifs sont une alternative interessante aux polymeres synthetiques. Le but de cette etude est de determiner les effets de differents films comestibles (proteines de ble, proteines de soja, blanc d'oeuf, gluten de ble) sur l'activite de la nisine contre Listeria monocytogenes. L'hydrophobicite, les proprietes mecaniques et les permeabilites a la vapeur d'eau de films prepares avec ou sans nisine sont comparees. Les resultats montrent que le film comestible peut agir en transporteur efficace pour delivrer des agents antimicrobiens a la surface des aliments.
Apparent Absence of Blood Parasites in the Patagonian Seabird Community: Is it Related to the Marine Environment?

-The geographic and specific distribution of avian Haematozoa is poorly understood and much basic information is still needed. Studies of blood parasites in avian communities are scarce despite of their potential for disentangling the relative importance of host-specific and ecological factors shaping blood parasite distributions. Here we present the first study of blood parasites in a breeding community of seabirds by scanning blood smears obtained from 560 birds belonging to 13 species breeding in Patagonia, Argentina. Seven of these species have not been sampled previously for blood parasites. No blood parasites were detected. The scarcity of vectors due to the marine environment and the dry conditions around the colonies is the most plausible hypothesis for explaining the apparent absence of blood parasites in the Patagonian seabird community, although other hypotheses should be examined. Received 12 December 2000, accepted 8 May 2001.
Restoration of temperate marine and coastal ecosystems: nudging nature

1. The main impacts on marine ecosystems are summarised and the potential for their restoration is discussed in relation to their key features. Rocky shores, seagrass beds and disused docks are focused on. 2. The term restoration is used to describe intervention in the recovery process of a marine ecosystem, with a view to enhancing the process, but not necessarily forcing the system to recover to its original condition. 3. Rocky shore systems are subject to shellfish and seaweed exploitation, point source pollution, diffuse impacts such as tributyl tin and acute impacts such as oil spills. The consideration of whether to employ restoration or allow natural recovery is discussed in relation to these systems. 4. Seagrass systems have suffered serious declines in many parts of the world due to the direct and indirect effects of human impacts. In the North Atlantic a wasting disease first noted in the 1930s caused a serious decline in the subtidal seagrass Zostera marina. The link between this disease and the marine slime mould Labrynthula zosterae is now well established. Human impacts on seagrass systems allow the disease to gain a foothold. Attempts at restoring seagrass beds have met with some success, but it is suggested that the action of conservation of remaining beds and better management of human activities may be the best approach. 5. Disused docks occur in many parts of Britain and Europe. Active management of the physical environment by mixing and biomanipulation by filter feeding organisms have led to improvements in water quality and ecosystem function. Thus healthy marine ecosystems have been restored to inner city areas, although these artificial marine lakes have few natural equivalents and are different from the original ecosystem at the site. 6. When compared to freshwater ecosystems, the scope for coastal and marine restoration is limited although the capacity for recovery is greater.
In vitro induction of hairy root from isoflavones-producing Korean wild arrowroot Pueraria lobata

Pueraria lobata is a perennial legume plant, widely distributed in the countries of East Asia. It is a medicinally important leguminous plant and produces various isoflavones such as puerarin, daidzein etc which have potential for preventing several chronic diseases including osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer. In this study, we tried to induce hairy roots in vitro from Korean wild arrowroot P. lobata and investigated the effects of hormones and light conditions. Initially leaf and stem segments were infected with Agrobacterium rhizogenes and incubated in different conditions. Hairy roots were induced from only stem segments and the induction was best at dark condition and the presence of IBA during incubation. Secondary roots were also significantly much more induced at the dark condition than at the 16 hours light condition. Among plant growth regulators of auxin, IBA was best for secondary root formation while 2,4-D, IAA and NAA produced callus or less hairy roots. The presence of the foreign gene rolC transferred by A. rhizogenes that plays a major role in hairy root induction was confirmed by PCR. The accumulation of isoflavones such as puerarin and daidzin was also confirmed. These results will facilitate mass production of hairy root and can be used for the production of functional substances from wild arrowroots.
Localization of Two Brominated Metabolites, Aerothionin and Homoaerothionin, in Spherulous Cells of the Marine Sponge Aplysina fistularis (=Verongia thiona)

Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis was used to localize the two brominated natural products (aerothinonin and homoaerothionin) in the tissues of a marine demosponge, Aplysina fistularis. Virtually all of these compounds were localized within the spherules of the spherulous cells in the mesohyl. This is the first localization of any secondary metabolite at the cellular or sub-cellular level in any marine invertebrate. In Aplysina fistularis, as in other species of the same genus studied by Vacelet, the spherulous cells are concentrated just beneath the exopinacoderm and just beneath the endopinacoderm of the excurrent canals. Moreover, there is electron microscopic evidence for degeneration of some spherulous cells throughout the mesohyl. Presumably, this degeneration can release some aerothionin and homoaerothionin, which are known to have antibiotic properties. After release from the spherulous cells, these brominated natural products could function (1) within the mesohyl to exclude some types of bacteria or to aggregate ingested bacteria and/or (2) within the boundary layer of the surrounding seawater for defense or offense, as considered in the discussion section.
Emotion Recognition From Multi-Channel EEG via Deep Forest

Recently, deep neural networks (DNNs) have been applied to emotion recognition tasks based on electroencephalography (EEG), and have achieved better performance than traditional algorithms. However, DNNs still have the disadvantages of too many hyperparameters and lots of training data. To overcome these shortcomings, in this article, we propose a method for multi-channel EEG-based emotion recognition using deep forest. First, we consider the effect of baseline signal to preprocess the raw artifact-eliminated EEG signal with baseline removal. Secondly, we construct 2$D$ frame sequences by taking the spatial position relationship across channels into account. Finally, 2$D$ frame sequences are input into the classification model constructed by deep forest that can mine the spatial and temporal information of EEG signals to classify EEG emotions. The proposed method can eliminate the need for feature extraction in traditional methods and the classification model is insensitive to hyperparameter settings, which greatly reduce the complexity of emotion recognition. To verify the feasibility of the proposed model, experiments were conducted on two public DEAP and DREAMER databases. On the DEAP database, the average accuracies reach to 97.69% and 97.53% for valence and arousal, respectively; on the DREAMER database, the average accuracies reach to 89.03%, 90.41%, and 89.89% for valence, arousal and dominance, respectively. These results show that the proposed method exhibits higher accuracy than the state-of-art methods.
Host range of the ginger strain of Pseudomonas solanacearum in Queensland

The host range of Pseudomonas solanacearum biotype 4, the strain responsible for a rapid wilt of ginger, was found to include tomato, potato, capsicum, egg plant, peanut, tobacco, Solanum nigrum, Physalis minima, P. peruviana, and Solanm mauritianum. During the summer months of 1967-68 and 1969-70, weeds growing in bacterial wilt affected ginger plantings were examined for the presence of P. solanacearum. Biotype 4 was isolated from S. nigrum, Crassocephalum crepidioides, S. mauritianum, P. minima, P. peruviana, and Ageratum houstonianum. Biotype 3, the strain commonly found in the ginger growing district of southern Queensland was isolated from S. nigrum, C. crepidioides, S. mauritianum, Xanthium pungens, Dodonaea lanceolata, Bidens pilosa, and Sida spinosa. These weeds were all collected from ginger fields. It appears from these results and previous observations that biotype 4 has a more restricted and slightly different host range from biotype 3. Consequently it has been suggested that in any crop rotation, ginger growers should eliminate known biotype 4 susceptible weeds. Both biotypes 4 and 3 survived, in the experimental plots, a 20-month period of severe drought during 1968-69. However, no attempt was made to control weed growth in the trial area.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND FATTY ACID CONTENT OF BUFFALO CHEESE FROM NORTHWEST ARGENTINA: EFFECT ON LIPID COMPOSITION OF MICE TISSUES

Chemical properties, long chain fatty acid composition and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content of buffalo cheese were determined. Good nutritional properties were observed in cheese, showing 11.5% of protein, 18.3% of fat and 30.5% of dry matter. Saturated fatty acid content was 65.6%, monounsaturated fatty acid was 31.8% and polyunsaturated was 2.6%. Stearic (C16:0) and oleic (C18:1) acids were the major fatty acids (FAs) present in milk and cheese. Values slightly higher of CLA were determined in cheese (4.5 and 5.2 mg/g of fat, respectively), being cis-9,trans-11, the predominant isomer. Mice provided with cheese showed higher CLA levels in fat tissues than animals from the control group. The cis-9,trans-11 isomer was incorporated into lipid tissues in great proportion than trans-10,cis-12. Total FA content was higher in mice fed cheese, but polyunsaturated fatty acid (linoleic + linolenic + CLA) in tissues was similar (0.6 mg/g of tissue) in all groups. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Buffalo milk products are widely consumed in Europe, especially as mozzarella cheese. In Northwest Argentina, buffalo was recently introduced for milk production, and no studies are available about chemical characteristics and fatty acid content of cheeses. The nutritional importance of many fatty acids, such as trans, has been widely stressed in recent years. Among this, conjugated linoleic adics (CLAs)] seem to have many biological effects on health, such as anticarcinogenic properties. Studies on CLA content in foods are being carried out as a way to offer to consumers the best source of this fatty acid. In the present study we demonstrated that buffalo milk and cheese represents a good source of CLA for humans, having as a major isomer the cis9, trans11. Its consumption affects the CLA incorporation into many tissues, offering cheese a higher CLA concentration than milk.
Doing being middle-class in the global South: comparative perspectives and conceptual challenges

Abstract Like many key terms in history and the social sciences, ‘middle class’ is at once a category ‘of social and political analysis’ and a category ‘of social and political practice’, in Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper's terms – two aspects that were, and continue to be, entangled in complex ways. Since the end of the eighteenth century, the term ‘middle class’, or the ‘middling sorts’, has been a catchword in political discourse, and it became one long before scholars defined it in any systematic fashion. Once it became a more or less well-established conceptual tool of research, however, it began to take on an academic life of its own, with scholars also using it to describe people who did not invoke this category for their own self-description. But scholarly terms could – and indeed did – also feed back into folk understandings of social stratification. In particular, the recent global popularity of the term ‘middle class’ seems to be at least in part a result of the appropriation of academic categories by policymakers. This article contributes to the discussion on African middle classes by tracing the genealogy of theoretical perspectives on class and by outlining some findings from studies of the history of European and American middle classes as well as recent research on middle classes in the global South. I discuss both the history of scholarly debates on the middle classes and what empirical studies tell us about people's contested self-categorizations, and how their understandings and practices of being middle-class have changed over time. The article argues that future research on the dynamics of African social stratification has much to gain from a regional and historical comparative perspective.