Input: Claim: X-ray crystallography allows for the visualization of complex biomolecules at atomic resolution. [SEP] Text: It is fair to say, however, that, despite all the advances in the field, relative to X-rays, significantly larger (about ten times in linear dimension) crystals will always be required for neutron diffraction studies, particularly with the drive towards the study of ever-larger macromolecules and complexes. It is in this sense that further development of instrumentation and methods for large crystal growth are required. Creation of laboratories dedicated to the optimization of crystal volume and quality, in analogous fashion to the centralized deuteration facilities, would help increase the effectiveness of neutron macromolecular crystallography. Structural biologists have been dissuaded from pursuing neutron diffraction studies because of the demanding experimental requirements, but as more examples are published that illustrate important structural information not provided by X-rays can be delivered, and from more feasible crystal volumes, the application of neutron crystallography will become more common. In addition to the well known strengths of neutron crystallography, it is clear that the approach has much to contribute in obtaining damage-free structures of macromolecules at ambient temperature. The use of micro-focus X-ray beams in combination with translation of crystals to a position where no damage has propagated, and the ability to merge data efficiently and accurately from serial images from different portions of crystals, is already proving effective. Efforts in understanding radiation damage processes from femtosecond pulses of X-ray FELs are continuing (see, for example, Jönsson et al. , 2015; Nass et al. , 2015) with some early successes reported on cytochrome c oxidase and photosystem II. Though the pathway from protein to structure remains unpredictable for both neutron and X-ray crystallography, it has become much more reliable for the latter even for membrane proteins. Significant efforts (e. g. perdeuteration and crystal volume/quality optimization) are required by the neutron community and facility providers to make neutron crystallography more accessible to the wider structural biology community. Supporting information 3D view PDB reference: 5akr Footnotes 1Data were collected from a (0. 3 × 0. 3 × 0. 3 mm) AcNiR crystal using X-rays of 0. 92 Å wavelength at 100 K on a MAR225 CCD detector on station 10. 1 at the second-generation SR source, (Ellis et al. , 2008). Data extending to 0.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: 1 IntroductionClimate change is likely to have different impacts on agriculture in different agro-ecological locations. Differences in altitudes can characterize differences in climatic factors, in particular temperature and precipitation, and their rate of change. As argued by Kolstad and Moore (2019), the effects of climatic changes can vary as a function of initial climatic conditions in a given location. For instance, the influences of climatic change, especially an increase in temperature, can differ in cooler (high altitude) areas compared to warmer (low altitude) areas (see, e. g. , Läderach et al. 2017; Moat et al. 2017; Ovalle-Rivera et al. 2015; Rahn et al. 2018). Ethiopia has been experiencing the consequences of climatic changes including high temperature and more frequent droughts and floods (Danyo et al. 2017; 2021). Recurrent droughts and flooding have caused a significant damage to the Ethiopian agriculture in particular and the overall economy in general (see, e. g. , Danyo et al. 2017). Difference in altitudes, land areas, and topography resulted in the diverse local climate within the country ranging from equatorial rainforest with high rainfall and humidity in the south and southwest to desert-like conditions in the north-east, east, and south-east lowlands (2021). Moreover, the changes in the trends of temperature and precipitation in the country vary significantly across the main agro-ecological zones, namely Kolla (areas below 1,500 m altitude), Woinadega (1,500–2,300 m), and Dega (above 2,300 m), in different regions (Esayas et al. 2018; Taye et al. 2019). For example, a significant decreasing trend (up to − 100 mm) in seasonal rainfall is observed in the northern and central-eastern parts of Ethiopia, while there was a significant increasing trend (up to + 60 mm) around north-eastern and south-western parts of Ethiopia (Gebrechorkos et al. 2019). In addition, regions in Southern and Eastern parts of Ethiopia are often hit by severe droughts while regions in Western parts of Ethiopia suffer from flooding (2021).

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Statistical analysis Data analyses were performed using SPSS 20. 0 (SPSS Inc. , Chicago, IL, U. S. A. ). Binary logistic regression analysis was used to infer the effects of the probiotic (Enterobacter sp. ) provision and probiotics concentration on pupae recovery, adult emergence and sex ratio of emerging adults. Since the concentration of bacteria (either live or autoclaved) was not a significant predictor (P>0. 05) either of pupae recovery rates or of adult emergence or sex ratio, it was removed from the final model. The Kaplan-Meier procedure was used to determine effects of Enterobacter sp. on immature developmental times (pupation day, pupal stage duration and total duration of immature stages). Pair-wise comparisons between the different bacteria treatments were conducted using the log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. The effect of probiotic provision and gender on adult survival under stress conditions (food and water deprivation) was determined by Cox regression analysis. The effect of probiotics on pupae weight and male mating competitiveness were assessed by ANOVA. The effect of bacterial treatment (fixed factor) and gender (random factor) on adult flight ability was determined by two-way ANOVA. Ethical statement Our study does not require an ethical statement. of cultivable bacterial cells per gut The number of bacterial colony forming units per gut was determined for all different samples such as different life stage (larvae, 1 day old unfed and 5 days old adults), different sex (males and females) and different growth media (LB agar, XLD agar and ChromoCult). All conditions and replicates yielded similar/overlapping numbers of bacterial colonies, ranging from 3. 75 x 107 to 5. 6 x 107 bacterial cells per gut (data not shown). Gut bacterial diversity of the medfly Vienna 8 strain The bacterial colonies isolated from larval, one-day-old male and one-day-old female guts were morphologically similar, suggesting the presence of a low complexity. Morphological examination of the colonies derived from 5-day-old males and 5-day-old female guts indicated an increased diversity of the bacterial community, especially in females. PCR on individual colonies for the full length 16s rRNA genes was performed for at least 10 colonies per sample, representing all life stage/sex/medium combinations.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: X-ray crystallography allows for the visualization of complex biomolecules at atomic resolution. [SEP] Text: 87 Å resolution were integrated and scaled by HKL2000, with initial refinement performed by with the final stages of refinement undertaken by SHELX (Sheldrick, 2008). Partially occupied waters and residues with multiple conformations were built in manually after inspection of 2Fo − Fc and Fo − Fc electron density maps. atoms visible in Fo − Fc difference maps at ≥2σ were included in the final model. 1163. Web of 243. CrossRef CAS 126. 5785. Web of 2046. Web of 562. Web of 6410. Web of 1205. Web of 130. Web of 502. Web of 197. Web of 77. Web of 5306. Web of 577. Web of 1434. Web of 1025. Web of 439. Web of 842. Web of 225. 3272. 4729. Web of 567. Web of 212. Web of 466. Web of 588. Web of 736. 409. Web of 361. CrossRef 732. Web of 6727. 1487. Web of 3176. Web of 266. Web of 910. Web of 1296. 1349. PubMed 699. 1206. Web of 71. Web of 998. Web of 31. Web of 1300. Web of 4131. 1462. Web of 1511. Web of 2160. 2255. (Epub ahead of print. ) 1240. Web of 41. Web of 238. Web of 10. 1038/nature14110. (Epub ahead of print. ) 6651. Web of Science CrossRef PubMed 409. Web of 6. Web of 1268. Web of 122. Web of 612. Web of 418. Web of 103. Web of 40. Web of 1080. Web of 5460. 8230. 5635. Web of 245. Web of 242. Web of 825. Web of 837. Web of 968. 10. 1107/S2052252515011239 | access -alertsdoi Advanced search journals volume page Copyright © of Contact us Site index About us Partners and site credits of use The IUCr is a scientific union serving the interests of crystallographers and other scientists employing crystallographic methods.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: Consequently, the differentiated analysis of the impacts of climatic changes on crop production and livelihoods may help identify the effective adaptation options to build climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture in various agro-ecologies. In this regard, we aim to examine the heterogeneity of the impacts of climate change on crop yields at farm level across different altitudes in Ethiopia. Specifically, we investigate whether the effects of (i) changes in temperature and precipitation and (ii) farmers’ adoption of irrigation technology on the mean yields of crops and its variability differ between low and high altitudes. We combine a household-level panel data on farm characteristics and agricultural production with weather and climate data. Using the estimated coefficients of weather variables, historical and future climate data, we further evaluate the impacts of future climatic changes on crop yields across altitudes. Our analysis makes two main contributions to existing literature. Firstly, it provides the disaggregated analysis by establishing a clear distinction about the impacts of climate change between low and high altitudes. Currently, existing literature considers nationally or regionally aggregated impacts of climate change on crop yields and their variability (see, e. g. , Burke and Emerick 2016; Chen et al. 2016; McCarl et al. 2008; Poudel and Kotani 2013; Zhang et al. 2017). However, global evidence shows that the impacts of climate change on agriculture are specific to crops and locations even within a country (see, e. g. , Jones and Thornton 2003; Moat et al. 2017; Rahn et al. 2018; Ray et al. 2019). This implies that aggregated analyses of impacts of climate change may not provide a clear picture of the impacts as it masks variations among different altitudes within a country. Secondly, our study provides a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of climate change on the six main crops in Ethiopia using the new and updated scenarios for future emissions. Majority of existing studies in low-income countries commonly considered the impact of climate change on mean yields for a single crop, or analyze farm revenues using a cross-sectional approach. We estimate the effects of climate change on the dominant cash-crop, coffee, and the major cereals, namely teff, wheat, maize, barley, and sorghum, by 2041–2060 compared to 1988–2018 period.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: An initial molecular characterization of bacterial diversity was performed using an RFLP assay. Of the three enzymes used, EcoRI was not informative, since all colonies gave the same digestion pattern, while both TaqI and HaeIII provided three distinct digestion patterns (S2 Fig). By combining morphological examination of the colonies and RFLP results, a limited number of colonies was chosen to be sequenced from both ends (not less than 10 colonies per sample). Phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene (at least 1000bp, 500bp from each end) verified the existence of a low complexity bacterial gut community. All sequences from larvae and 1-day-old male and female adults were identified as Providencia sp. Out of 43 colonies sequenced from the 5 day old male guts, 35 were identified as Enterobacter sp. and eight as Providencia sp. Sequencing of bacterial colonies derived from the five day old female guts verified that their symbiotic community was more diverse, although only three different phylogenetic clusters were obtained. A total of 32 colonies were sequenced and three were identified as Providencia sp. , 24 as Enterobacter sp. and five as Acinetobacter sp. sp. colonies were obtained from the Chromocult growth medium. Each one of the three different genera identified matched up to a different RFLP pattern revealed from the RFLP assay. Characterization of bacterial isolates by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Given that partial sequences of the bacterial isolates of the different clusters were identical, a limited number of colonies per cluster was selected for full length double-stranded sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Blast analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences confirmed their preliminary identification as Enterobacter sp. , Providencia sp. and Acinetobacter sp. The ‘Providencia’ sequences were 99. 6% identical to Providencia vermicola, the ‘Enterobacter’ sequences were 99. 9% identical to several different Enterobacter species, while the ‘Acinetobacter’ sequences were more than 99. 9% identical to several different Acinetobacter species. We also retrieved only full length, 16S rRNA gene sequences originating from Tephritidae guts (C. capitata and Bactrocera dorsalis s. s.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: One renewable and abundant energy resource that can possibly displace a significant portion of petroleum usage is ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass derived from forest and agricultural by-products [1–3]. Forestry biomass such as spruce, birch and biomass from agricultural by-products such as wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse are some of the potential candidates for lignocellulosic ethanol production [4]. Softwoods, predominantly spruce represent one of the major forest reserves in the Nordic countries. It has high carbohydrate content and using such carbohydrate-rich side streams for ethanol production would contribute to the diversification and intensification of the forest industry [5]. The polysaccharides present in lignocellulosic materials are embedded in a recalcitrant and inaccessible structure that needs to be broken up to convert them to fermentable sugars. One of the commonly used pretreatment methods to disrupt the structure of lignocellulosic materials is steam explosion, with the addition of H2SO4 or SO2, which removes most of hemicellulose, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis to convert cellulose to glucose [6]. During pretreatment the release of sugar monomers is often accompanied by liberation of compounds that inhibits growth and metabolism of fermenting microorganism. Some of the inhibitory compounds are present in the wood and others are formed from degradation of sugar and lignin molecules during pretreatment [7]. These inhibitory products are broadly classified into three categories: furans, weak acids and phenolics as reviewed by Palmqvist and Hahn-Hägerdal [8]. Extensive research have been performed to study the inhibition effects on fermenting microorganisms, an elaborate review on formation of inhibitors, their mechanistic action and effect on S. cerevisiae has been presented by Almeida et al. [9]. Furans such as 2-furaldehyde (furfural) and 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (HMF) inhibit the oxidative metabolism and fermentation of yeasts [10]. Presence of weak acids such as acetic, formic and levulinic acid have shown to result in significantly decreased ethanol yield and productivity in S. cerevisiae fermentations [11, 12].

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: Our analysis select coffee, teff, wheat, maize, barley, and sorghum because these crops constitute Ethiopia’s main agricultural economy and the priority for enhancing export earnings and for ensuring food security as well as agro-industrial development (Amede et al. 2017; Danyo et al. 2017; FDRE 2011). Our evaluation of the impacts of climate change employs the new future emission scenarios of the Inter-comparison Projects 6 (CMIP6) considered for the new IPCC’s Report (AR6) (see Hausfather 2019; Meinshausen et al. 2020). Our empirical results indicate differences in the impacts of climate change across crops and across attitudes in Ethiopia. Specifically, we find that coffee yield decreases by 3% at low altitudes while it increases by 31% at high altitudes due to climate change by period 2041–2060, under a medium emissions scenario, compared to 1988–2018. Similarly, teff yield increases by 8. 3% at high altitudes, over 2041–2060. Conversely, our results show that barley, maize, and wheat yields decrease by 22. 7%, 48%, and 10% at high altitudes, respectively, towards 2041–2060. Furthermore, temperature reduces the coffee, maize, and sorghum production risk at low altitudes while it increases the risk at high altitudes. Our findings imply that location-specific and crop-specific policies of climate change adaptation can be vital to increase agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the description of data and empirical methods employed in the paper. 3 provides the empirical results, Section 4 highlights the discussion of the results and policy implications. Finally, Section 5 provides the concluding remarks. 2 Materials and methods2. 1 Data and descriptive statisticsThis paper uses the data from the three main sources to estimate the effect of climate change on crop yield and its variability. First, we utilize the Ethiopia’s (ESS) data, obtained from the World Bank, for information about household characteristics and agricultural activities. The ESS is a part of the Measurement Study–on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) of the collected by the Agency of Ethiopia in 2011/2012, 2013/2014, and 2015/2016. It is a nationally representative data for rural households in the country (see Figure A1 in 2.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Similar results were obtained when “autoclaved” (Wald’s test t = 0. 13, df = 1, P = 0. 715) and “live” bacteria (Wald’s test t = 0. 06, df = 1, P = 0. 802) were analyzed independently. 2, we combined the data for three different concentrations of “autoclaved bacteria” and the three concentrations of “live bacteria” diet, thus summarizing three discrete treatments (“without bacteria”, “autoclaved bacteria”, and “live bacteria”). The provision of Enterobacter sp. was a significant predictor of the pupae recovery rate (Wald’s test t = 9. 97, df = 2, P = 0. 007). The addition of “live bacteria” in the diet increased the pupal recovery rate over both control and autoclaved bacteria (Wald’s test t = 8. 98, df = 1, P = 0. 003, and t = 3. 99, df = 1, P = 0. 046 respectively). Interestingly, although the addition of “autoclaved bacteria” seems to lead also to an increased pupae recovery compared to “without bacteria” treatment, this difference was not significant (Wald’s test t = 2. 499, df = 1, P = 0. 114) (Fig 2A). Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageFig 2. Pupae (A) and adult (B) recovery rates. i) irrespective of the Enterobacter sp. concentration, or ii) considering the three different Enterobacter sp. concentrations as different treatments. Columns marked on top with the same letter are not significantly different (P>0. 05) Egg-. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the provision of Enterobacter sp. was a significant predictor of the adult recovery rates (Wald’s test t = 9. 36, df = 2, P = 0. 009). Similar to pupae, the “live bacteria” increased adult emergence rates compared to both “without bacteria” (Wald’s test t = 6. 52, df = 1, P = 0.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Phenolics include a wide variety of aromatic alcohols, aldehydes and acids, some of them notably include catechol, coniferyl alcohol, coniferyl aldehyde, vanillin, syringaldehyde, hydroquinone, cinnamic acid, p-coumaric acid and these compounds have been shown to limit the growth of S. cerevisiae and ethanol formation [13], however, the mode of action of these weak acids and phenolics on microbial physiology still remains unclear due to their molecular heterogeneity and lack of qualitative and quantitative analyses of high accuracy. Several detoxification methods such as alkali treatment, sulfite treatment, evaporation, anion exchange and treatment with laccase have been used to remove or decrease the level of inhibitory compounds in lignocellulosic hydrolysate leading to improved fermentability, however, these methods also resulted in loss of fermentable sugars [14]. Furthermore, it has been shown that detoxification cost constitutes as much as 22% of total ethanol production cost which economically limits their use [15]. One of the possible alternatives to circumvent inhibitor problems is to improve the fermenting microorganism by long term adaptation to inhibitors present in lignocellulosic hydrolysates. In laboratory conditions, evolutionary engineering is usually a phenomenon of long term adaptation of cells under selective pressure, where variants of cell population with a selective advantage exponentially take over the initially dominating cells [16]. The advantage of using evolutionary engineering is that a detailed understanding of the action of inhibitors and their complex nature of interaction with biochemical networks is not needed [9]. Some notable approaches include evolution of a fermenting microorganism to a whole hydrolysate containing high content of inhibitors [17] or to a defined media supplemented with one or more synthetic inhibitors [18]. The advantage of using synthetic inhibitors is better regulation of individual inhibitor concentrations and the ability to study their effect on cell growth, ethanol yield and productivity. It is evident from earlier studies that the combination of different inhibitors has more pronounced effect on cells due to their synergistic behavior [19]. However, evolution to a cocktail of inhibitors from three different categories has to the best of our knowledge not been investigated before and will be one of the focus of our work describe here. S. cerevisiae is a well characterized microorganism that has traditionally been used for ethanol production from hexoses providing high yields and productivities, in addition to high ethanol tolerance.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: It is also interesting to note that mean yields are mainly affected by temperature in most cases whereas the variance of yields has statistically significant relationships with temperature, precipitation, and irrigation. Tables 2, 3, 4, 5 present the estimated coefficients of weather variables where the full results including the coefficients of all control variables are provided in Tables C1-C4, respectively in the 3. 1 Effects of weather variables on crop yields3. 1. 1 Coffee yieldAs indicated in columns 1–4 of Table 2, weather variables affect coffee production differently across different altitudes. At low altitudes, temperature has a U-shaped relationship with the mean yield of coffee, whereas its effect is an inverted U-shaped at high altitudes. This nonlinear effect of temperature on mean yield of coffee at low and high altitudes is statistically significant at the 1% and 10% levels, respectively. In addition, the variability of coffee yield decreases with the increase in yearly temperature at low altitudes whereas it increases at high altitudes. Moreover, temperature anomaly has a positive and statistically significant effect on the mean yield of coffee at high altitudes. Unlike temperature, we do not find heterogeneity in the impacts of precipitation on the variability of coffee yields among low and high altitudes. The initial increase in precipitation significantly increases the variance of coffee yield at both low and middle altitude areas. Similarly, precipitation anomaly is found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on the mean coffee yield at both low and high altitudes. That means the increase in precipitation as compared to its long-term average increases the mean coffee yield. Our results also indicate that farmers’ adoption of irrigation practices increases the mean yield of coffee at low altitudes whereas its effect is statistically insignificant at high altitudes. In addition, irrigation adoption increases the variability of coffee yield at both low and high altitudes. The discussion of our results in relation to the existing literature about the impacts of climate change on coffee crop production is given in Sub-Sect. 3. 2. 3. 1. 2 Barley yieldColumns 5–8 of Table 2 present the estimated coefficients of weather variables in the barley yield model. Similar to coffee, we find a statistically significant inverted U-shaped relationship of temperature on the mean yield of barley at high altitudes, but its impacts are statistically insignificant at low altitudes. Initially, temperature increases barley yield but after certain threshold, the effect becomes negative.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: 011) and “autoclaved bacteria” diets (Wald’s test t = 6. 09, df = 1, P = 0. 014). The “autoclaved bacteria” diet had no apparent differential effect on the adult recovery rates compared to the control–without bacteria treatment (Fig 2B) (Wald’s test t = 0. 67, df = 1, P = 0. 413). On the other hand, the bacterial concentrations did not have a significant effect on adult recovery rates (Wald’s test t = 1. 30, df = 2, P = 0. 521). Likewise, the bacteria concentration was not a significant predictor of adult recovery rates when live (Wald’s test t = 0. 06, df = 1, P = 0. 809) and autoclaved (Wald’s test t = 0. 01, df = 1, P = 0. 913) bacteria diets were tested separately. Neither concentration nor provision of bacterial diets were significant predictors of the sex ratio of emerging adults (Wald’s t-test, P > 0. 05; S3 Fig). Egg to pupal developmental duration. The effect of the larval diet enriched with bacteria on the duration of the pre-pupal period is depicted in Fig 3A and S4A sp. as probiotics significantly reduced the pre-pupae developmental duration for both males (log rank test, x2 = 13. 73, P<0. 0001) and females (x2 = 10. 56, P = 0. 001), compared to the control treatment. This effect was more pronounced for “live bacteria”, which resulted in earlier pupation, compared not only to the “without bacteria” treatment (x2 = 102. 31, 38. 05; P<0. 0001 for males and females, respectively), but also to the “autoclaved bacteria” treatment (x2 = 101. 48, 26. 99; P<0. 0001, for males and females respectively). Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageFig 3. Developmental times of immature stages at 22°C. (A) egg to pupa duration, (B) pupal stage duration, (C) total duration of immature stages.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Table 1 Composition of pretreated spruce hydrolysate and inhibitor cocktail solution Full size tableFigure 1Inhibitory effects of inhibitor cocktail on S. cerevisiae TMB3400. Growth curves of S. cerevisiae TMB3400 in the presence of different concentrations of inhibitor cocktail in minimal medium containing 20 g l-1 of glucose and xylose, respectively. No inhibitors (asterisks), 20% inhibitor cocktail (circles), 100% inhibitor cocktail (triangles). Full size image20% inhibitor cocktailUnder a selective pressure of 20% inhibitor cocktail five rounds of repetitive batch cultures were performed, in which cells were evolved for 48 generations. The μmax was found to be progressively increased during the course of evolution and at the end of the five rounds μmax was calculated to be 0. 33 h-1, which was a substantial increase by 89% compared to the initial μmax of 0. 18 h-1 (Figure 2a). There was hardly any lag phase observed during the evolution in presence of 20% inhibitor cocktail. Figure 2Evolutionary progress in repetitive batch culture. Progression of (a) maximum specific growth rate and (b) lag phase time profile during evolutionary engineering in repetitive batch cultures at different levels of inhibitor cocktail in minimal medium containing 20 g l-1 of glucose and xylose, respectively. 20% inhibitor cocktail (circles), 40% inhibitor cocktail (crosses), 60% inhibitor cocktail (diamonds), UV treated cells in 60% inhibitor cocktail (closed diamonds). Full size image40% inhibitor cocktailThe evolution was directed in presence of 40% inhibitor cocktail with the strain (RK20-5) evolved for five rounds in presence of 20% inhibitor cocktail. Thirteen rounds of repetitive batch cultures were performed for a total of 265 generations. There was no observed significant improvement in μmax that remained nearly constant at 0. 30 h-1 for every round of cultivation (Figure 2a). However, an interesting lag phase profile was observed. Initially, the lag phase time increased for every round and reached a peak in the seventh round of cultivation, later, gradually reduced to 24 h in the thirteenth round of cultivation, which was an improvement of 50% compared to the peak value of 48 h (Figure 2b). This was well justified from the analysis of extracellular samples collected during the evolution process.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: We find a positive relationship between the variability of barley yield and temperature at both low and high altitudes. The initial rise in precipitation also increases the variability of barley yield at low altitudes, but its impact is statistically insignificant at high altitudes. On the other hand, the effect of precipitation anomaly on the variability of barley yield is positive at low altitudes whereas its effect is negative at high altitudes. Moreover, irrigation is found to be risk-reducing for the production of barley at low and high altitudes. This is reflected by the negative and statistically significant coefficient of irrigation in the model of barley yield variance. However, the effects of irrigation on the mean yield of barley are statistically insignificant. 3. 1. 3 Maize yieldAs with coffee and barley, we find a heterogeneity in the impact of weather variables on the mean and variability of maize yield across altitudes. As shown in Table 3, temperature has a statistically significant and inverted U-shaped relationship with the mean yield of maize at high altitudes whereas its effect is statistically insignificant at low and middle altitudes. This suggests that maize yield increases with temperature up to a certain threshold beyond which the effect becomes negative. In addition, the variability of maize yield increases as temperature increases at middle and high altitudes, but it decreases at low altitudes. Unlike temperature, precipitation has a U-shaped relationship with the mean yield of maize at high altitudes. The mean yield of maize initially declines as precipitation increases, but it starts increasing after a certain threshold. However, precipitation anomaly has a positive relationship with the mean maize yield at middle and high altitudes. The variability of maize yield increases as precipitation increases at middle and high altitudes but is reduced at low altitudes. Furthermore, there is a difference in the impact of irrigation use on maize yield variability across altitudes. Irrigation decreases risks at low altitude, but it increases the risk at middle and high altitudes. On the other hand, we have obtained unexpected, but heterogeneous results about the impact of irrigation on the mean yield of maize. Irrigation is found to have a negative effect on the mean yield of maize at low altitude whereas its effect is positive at high altitude. The negative effect of irrigation on maize yield at low altitude contradicts with our expectation since the low altitude areas receive low levels of precipitation; irrigation is expected to increase yields. This may be due to the low adoption of irrigation practices among maize farmers in our sample. 3. 1.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: , as a probiotic supplement to the larval diet. Its effects were assessed with respect to rearing efficiency and biological quality of Vienna 8 GSS, a medfly strain used for SIT applications worldwide, according to standard quality control parameters used in mass rearing facilities and SIT operational programs [38]. Emphasis was given on the effect of the probiotic on the life history traits of the Vienna 8 GSS including male mating competitiveness, flight ability and longevity under starvation, three factors of major importance for SIT applications. The results can be summarized as follows: (a) a culture-dependent approach, using larval and adult (male and female) guts resulted in the isolation of three bacterial species (Providencia sp. , Enterobacter sp. , and Acinetobacter sp. ); (b) larval diet-based probiotic application of Enterobacter sp. , in particular as “live bacteria”, resulted in improved pupal and adult productivity, as well as faster development, particularly of males and (c) there was no effect on weight, sex ratio, male mating competitiveness, flight ability or longevity under stress. The number of cultivable bacterial colonies per gut was relatively similar in all samples, irrespective of the developmental stage, sex, age or nutritional status, and it was in the same range as previously reported [4,19]. Also in accordance with previous studies, no differences between the growth media used were found [19]. Bacteria belonging to only three genera were isolated in the present study. These genera are Enterobacter, Providencia (Enterobacteriaceae) and Acinetobacter (Moraxellaceae). These three genera had already been identified in previous studies and, in general, our results are in accordance with previous reports of a prevailing Enterobacteriaceae community[4,16–19,33]. The diversity of the medfly Vienna 8 GSS gut-associated bacterial community appears reduced compared with most of the previous studies in Tephritidae [4,16,17,19]. However, our results are in line with a recent paper of Morrow et al. [33] that also shows the presence of a severely reduced symbiotic diversity in the medfly Vienna 7 strain using next generation sequencing approaches.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: 30 h-1 and the lag phase time increased for every round of cultivation (Figure 2a,b). The UV treated lineage grew slowly with nearly a constant μmax of 0. 20 h-1 for every round of cultivation; however, with a shorter lag phase time compared to the non-UV treated lineage (Figure 2a,b). Evolutionary engineering in continuous culture with spruce hydrolysateProlonged chemostat cultivation of the strain TMB3400 in presence of spruce hydrolysate supplemented to minimal medium was performed to improve the conversion rate of the growth- affecting inhibitors in order to enhance the inhibitor tolerance. As a measure of growth, the optical density was followed during the chemostat, when OD650 increased the selection pressure for adaptation was also increased by increasing the concentrations of spruce hydrolysate in steps of 10% (v/v). Initially the evolution was started with 20% spruce hydrolysate with a dilution rate of 0. 08 h-1, which was reduced to 0. 05 h-1 for hydrolysate concentrations higher than 20%. The cells were evolved for 97 generations (60 days) in presence of increasing concentrations of spruce hydrolysate before the chemostat was terminated. Throughout the chemostat, the residual glucose concentration remained similar at a low level below 0. 5 g l-1, only 5 to 10% of the supplied xylose was consumed during the first 40 generations, and later, xylose gradually accumulated (Figure 4a). The reduced xylose consumption capacity was also seen from 8 fold decrease in the specific xylose consumption rate during the progress of the evolution (Figure 4b). A significant improvement in ethanol yield from 0. 32 to 0. 41 g g-1 on consumed sugars was observed during the evolution and as a consequence, there was a gradual decrease in biomass yield on consumed sugars (Figure 4a). From the measured HMF and furfural concentrations it was observed that about 80 to 85% of the supplied HMF and furfural were converted during the cultivation at 20% or 30% levels of spruce hydrolysate (data not shown). However, at higher levels the conversion was reduced, 65% and 20% of the supplied HMF was converted during the cultivation at 40% and 50% levels of spruce hydrolysate, respectively.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: 4 Teff yieldTable 4 shows the estimated coefficients of weather variables in the teff yield model. Temperature has a U-shaped relationship with the mean yield of teff at high altitudes whereas its effects become statistically insignificant for the case of low and middle altitudes. The initial increase in temperature increases teff yield at the higher altitudes, but the effect becomes reversed after a certain threshold of temperature. That means that as temperature increases due to climate change, high altitude areas become suitable for teff production in the short term. In addition, temperature leads to increased teff production risk at low and middle altitudes whereas it decreases the production risk at low altitudes. Furthermore, precipitation has a statistically significant positive impact on the mean yield of teff at middle altitudes. Furthermore, an increase in precipitation increases the variance of teff yield at low and middle altitudes, whereas its effect on yield variability becomes negative for areas at high altitudes. Moreover, we find a positive relationship between irrigation and the mean yield of teff at low and middle altitudes, yet its effect is statistically insignificant at high altitudes. This suggests that farmers’ adaptations to climate change by using irrigation can help to increase teff yield at low altitudes. Irrigation is also found to raise the variance of teff yield at all altitude levels. 3. 1. 5 Sorghum yieldIn columns 1–4 of Table 5, we present the impacts of weather variables on the mean yield of sorghum and its variability. Temperature has a heterogeneous effect on the variance of sorghum yield at between low and middle altitudes. The positive changes in temperature induce the increase in the variability of sorghum yield at high altitudes whereas its impacts are negative at low altitudes. This result is statistically significant at the 1% level. On the other hand, precipitation has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the mean of sorghum yield at low altitudes whereas its effect is statistically insignificant at high altitudes. This result is also statistically significant at the 5% level. If precipitation decreases beyond certain levels due to climate change, at low altitudes, sorghum yield will also decrease. Moreover, precipitation has a positive relationship with the variance of sorghum yields at both low and high altitudes. This is in line with results of Chen et al.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Differences between these two studies and earlier findings may be due to several, not mutually exclusive, reasons: (a) Vienna 8 GSS (used in the present study) and Vienna 7 [33] are both laboratory adapted medfly strains that were fed on an artificial diet used for mass rearing. In our study, both larval and adult (male and female) guts of teneral and five-day old flies were used as source of the bacterial isolates. Previous studies used wild medflies or the Vienna 8 medfly strain reared on different diets, developmental stage and or age, and under different conditions [4,16,17,19]. (b) The present study was only based on a culture-dependent approach, because our goal was to identify cultivable bacterial species suitable for probiotic applications. These might be reasons why we did not identify Klebsiella oxytoca, Pseudomonas sp. or other species found in previous studies. Although our sampling and the number of colonies sequenced was limited, there is evidence for life stage specific and sex specific differences in gut bacterial diversity. was retrieved from 3rd instar larvae and 1 day old males and females (unfed), while mainly Enterobacter (and Providencia at a smaller percentage) were retrieved from 5 days old males and females. Moreover, a small number of Acinetobacter colonies were retrieved only from 5 days old females. However, the overall structure does not seem to be affected, since the gut is still dominated by Enterobacteriaceae species. The possibility of a shift from one dominant OTU (operational taxonomic unit) in the larval stage to another in the adult stages of the medfly was raised in a recent study based on 454 16S rRNA gene sequences [4]. Again, both OTUs belong to Enterobacteriaceae. Similarly, another study, which used medfly samples oviposited in guava fruits, found that, although the symbiotic community was stable (in particular the Klebsiella oxytoca and Pectobacterium cypripedii communities) during all developmental stages, developmental-dependant differences were observed due to the presence of other transient species [18].

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Similarly, 70% and 50% of the supplied furfural was converted during the cultivation at 40% and 50% levels of hydrolysate, respectively. The fact that less HMF could be converted by the cells at higher levels of hydrolysate was also seen from the concentration ratio of HMF to furfural, which increased from 2. 8 at the 20-30% level to 3. 7 and 4. 7 at 40% and 50% of hydrolysate, respectively. At generation 31, the specific conversion rates of HMF and furfural was two and three fold higher than at generation 6, respectively, and this trend of increasing specific conversion rates of furans was found throughout the adaptation, indicating the evolutionary progress toward improved HMF and furfural conversion (Figure 4c). Acetate present in the hydrolysate was consumed to some extent by the cells but at the end of the evolutionary regime with 50% hydrolysate the specific consumption rate of acetate was decreased by 35% compared to the consumption rate at the beginning of the cultivation (data not shown). This also support that at higher hydrolysate levels the inhibitors started affecting the cellular performance. Figure 4Evolutionary progress in chemostat culture supplemented with spruce hydrolysate. (a) Yields of biomass (Y X/S) and ethanol (Y E/S) on consumed sugars (left ordinate) and xylose concentration in the chemostat (right ordinate). Biomass (crosses), ethanol (circles), xylose (triangles). (b) Specific consumption rate of xylose (r xyl) (left ordinate) and xylitol yield (Y XOH/xyl) from consumed xylose (right ordinate). Xylose (closed triangles), xylitol (plus). (c) Specific conversion rates of HMF (r HMF) and furfural (r fur) (left ordinate), line with step wise increase shows the generation points at which the spruce hydrolysate concentration was increased (right ordinate). HMF (squares), furfural (diamonds). Full size imageScreening and selection of evolved strains for characterizationEvolved cells sampled at different time points during the process of evolutionary engineering were screened by drop tests.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: (2004) who find a positive impact of precipitation on the variance of sorghum yield but it contrasts with the findings of McCarl et al. (2008) who report a negative effect. However, precipitation anomaly has a heterogeneous impact on the variability of sorghum yield. The variability of sorghum yield decreases at low altitude, but it rises at high altitudes when precipitation increases above the 1981–2010 average. Another interesting result is how irrigation leads to an increase in the mean yield of sorghum at low altitudes, yet the result is statistically insignificant at high altitudes. Lowland areas receive less precipitation as compared to the places at high altitudes. Hence, the reduction of precipitation due to climate change can be damaging. In this regard, farmers’ adaptation through irrigation to cope up with climate change-induced reduction in precipitation helps to increase the crop yields. This would suggest that the use of irrigation is crucial to building resilience and increase sorghum yields at low altitude areas. In addition, irrigation also increases the variability of the sorghum yield at both low and high altitudes. 3. 1. 6 Wheat yieldOur results also indicate the heterogeneity in the impacts of temperature on the mean yield of wheat between low and high altitudes in Ethiopia. Columns 5–8 in Table 5 present the estimates of the effects of weather variables on wheat yield and its variability. Our results indicate that temperature has an inverted U-shaped effect on mean wheat yield at high altitudes where its effect is statistically insignificant at low altitudes. The mean yield of wheat initially increases with higher temperatures at high altitudes, then it decreases after a certain threshold. Furthermore, precipitation, precipitation anomaly, and irrigation have a positive relationship with the variance of wheat yield at low and high altitudes. 3. 2 Robustness check: estimations of full sample model and translog functional formTo check the robustness of our results, we consider two alternative approaches for our empirical analysis. First, we undertake the regression analysis for the whole sample by including the interaction of altitude with rainfall and temperature instead of splitting the sample into low, middle, and high altitude sub-samples (Table 6). Second, we re-estimate our model using translog functional form instead of Cobb–Douglas specification reported in our original analysis (Tables 7).

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Differences were also found in the presence/relative abundance of medfly gut bacterial species between flies at eclosion compared to 5 day old adults, as well as between irradiated versus non-irradiated flies [19]. The larval diet-based probiotic application of Enterobacter sp. , particularly as “live bacteria”, resulted in two major findings: (a) improved pupal and adult productivity and (b) faster development, through the shortening of the immature stages, particularly for males. It is worth noting that these effects were not dose-dependent, as the three bacterial concentrations tested (106, 107 and 108 per gram of larval diet) did not have significantly different effects. The “autoclaved bacteria” diet reduced the developmental time, however, this effect was more pronounced with the “live bacteria” diet. It appears that the consumption of “autoclaved bacteria” diet resulted in reduction of the duration of the feeding immature stage-larvae, but not of the duration of the non-feeding pupal stage. Interestingly, the provisioning of the “live bacteria” diet reduced the duration of both feeding stage and non-feeding stage, particularly in males, indicating a continuous effect on medfly development. It is plausible, therefore, to suggest that this might be due to the establishment of the Enterobacter sp. in the larval gut and their supportive role for host metabolism through nitrogen fixation and pectinolytic activities [4,16]. Moreover, provisioning the larval diet with live Enterobacter sp. reduced the mortality in immature stages (higher adult recovery rates) without any change in adult sex ratio. It is worth noting that these positive effects are of paramount importance in mass rearing and large scale SIT operational programs, since higher productivity and faster development means cost savings, including reduction of the rearing area and production of larger numbers of flies in a given time and space. In addition, the fact that supply of Enterobacter sp. results in faster development of males compared to females is also an important observation; this might contribute to sexing strategies, which is important since only males are the active component of SIT.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Six ten-fold dilutions of cell suspension were incubated on YP-hydrolysate and YPD75 plates. All evolved cells from repetitive batch cultures performed better than parental strain TMB3400. Notably, cell population of two lineages (UV and non-UV treated) evolved in 60% inhibitor cocktail had relatively higher number of colonies across the dilution series on YP- hydrolysate plate than TMB3400 (data not shown). YPD75 plate containing 75% inhibitor cocktail was found to be more inhibitory than YP-hydrolysate, in particularly to TMB3400 with very few colonies on the first dilution and no colonies appearing on rest of the dilutions. Whereas, cells evolved in 60% inhibitor cocktail showed relatively more colonies, however, only on the first two dilutions. Selection of cell population for further characterization was primarily based on their ability to grow on inhibitor plates such as YPD75 and YP-hydrolysate. Since the performance of cells evolved in 60% inhibitor cocktail was better than TMB3400, two strains, RK60-5 (evolved in 60% inhibitor cocktail for 5 rounds of cultivation) and RKU90-3 (UV exposure for 90 seconds and evolved in 60% inhibitor cocktail for 3 rounds of cultivation) were chosen for further physiological characterization. Evolved cells from chemostat cultivation were compared with TMB3400 and there was hardly any notable difference observed in number of colonies on YP-hydrolysate plate. Accordingly, we chose to consider other factors for selection of cell populations. The cell population after 97 generations exhibited the highest ethanol yield of 0. 41 g g-1 consumed sugars and was evolved in chemostat for longest duration (Figure 4a). The cell population at generation 97 was designated as KE1-17. During the chemostat cultivation, xylose gradually accumulated after 40 generations (Figure 4a), therefore, we compared xylose consumption and xylitol produced from consumed xylose at various generation points during the evolution. At generation 31, the specific xylose consumption rate was at the highest at 142 mg l-1 OD650-1 h-1 and the xylitol yield was at the lowest at 0. 21 g g-1 consumed xylose (Figure 4b). This cell culture at generation 31 was designated as KE1-5.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: Our results about the positive effect of increasing temperature on coffee and teff yields at high altitudes are robust to considering the whole sample instead of separate estimation for low and high altitudinal locations. As shown in Table 6, the coefficient of interaction terms between temperature and altitude is positive and statistically significant. This finding is consistent with that presented in Table 2 and it implies that coffee and teff yield may increase, at least in the short run, as temperature increases due to climate change at high altitudes. Furthermore, the coefficients for barley and wheat are also consistent with the results obtained by estimating the model separately for low and high altitudes. The full results for whole sample model estimation including the interaction of altitude with temperature and precipitation for both mean and variance of crop yields are presented in Table E1 in the Supplementary Material. Table 6 Estimation of models for full sample by including interactions of altitude with climate variablesFull size tableTable 7 Estimation of translog functional form for crop yield modelsFull size tableIn addition, the coefficient estimates for the impacts of temperature on coffee yield both at low and high altitude and barley, maize, and teff yields at high altitude carry on when we use translog functional form instead of the Cobb–Douglas form (see Table 7). These results show nonlinear and heterogeneous effects of temperature and precipitation on the crop yields. Specifically, temperature has a U-shaped relationship with coffee yield at low altitude, whereas the effects are inverted U-shaped at high altitudes. Similarly, temperature has an inverted U-shaped relationship with barley, maize, and teff yields at high altitudes. The full results for translog functional specification that included the estimation results for variance model are presented in Table E2 in the Supplementary Material. 3. 3 Impacts of future climate change on crop yieldsUsing the estimated coefficients of temperature and precipitation given in Tables 2–5 and updated CMIP6 future emissions scenarios, we evaluate the impacts of future climate change on crop yields in Ethiopia. Table 8 shows the results for the projected impacts of climate change on the crop yields under low emission (SSP1-2. 6), medium (SSP2-4. 5), as well as medium–high (SSP3-7. 0) and high (SSP5-8. 5) emission scenarios. Table D1 in the 2040.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Figures AbstractDirect transmission of bacteria to subsequent generations highlights the beneficial nature of host-bacteria relationships. In insects, this process is often mediated by the production of microbe-containing secretions. The objective of this study was to determine if the burying beetle, Nicrophorus defodiens, utilizes anal secretions to transmit adult digestive tract bacteria onto a small vertebrate carcass; thus creating the potential to aid in carcass preservation or pass digestive tract bacteria to their larval offspring. Using high-throughput Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, we characterized bacterial communities of adult beetle digestive tracts, their anal secretions, and prepared mouse carcasses. We also examined unprepared carcass bacterial communities as a means to interpret community shifts that take place during carcass preservation. We found a vast reduction in diversity on prepared carcasses after anal secretion application. Overall, there was little similarity in bacterial communities among adult digestive tracts, anal secretions, and prepared carcasses, suggesting bacterial communities found in adult digestive tracts do not successfully colonize and achieve dominance on prepared carcasses by way of beetle anal secretions. We concluded that N. defodiens does not transmit their digestive tract bacterial communities to prepared carcasses in a wholesale manner, but may transmit key microbes, including core microbiome members, to preserved carcasses that may ultimately act to sustain larvae and serve as inocula for larval digestive tracts. Citation: (2019) Examining transmission of gut bacteria to preserved carcass via anal secretions in Nicrophorus defodiens. 14(12): e0225711. Daniel E. : April 20, 2019; Accepted: November 11, 2019; Published: December 2, 2019Copyright: © 2019 Miller et al. This is an open access 1. 5 mL Eppendorf tubes, submerged in pure sterile glycerol, and stored at -80°C until needed for DNA extraction [29]. At the time prepared carcasses were sampled, females were removed from brood chambers and the anal secretions were collected. Because beetles drag their posteriors across the carcass and soil when they apply anal secretions to a carcass, these areas were thoroughly surface sterilized with 70% isopropanol wipes to eliminate external contamination. Beetles were then air dried, and anal secretions were collected by gently pressing a sterile capillary tube directly onto the posterior area. Anal secretions were transferred to 0.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Surprisingly, in anaerobic batch cultures of RK60-5 and RKU90-3, when the glucose was depleted, xylose was hardly utilized even after 100 h of fermentation and minute traces of xylitol (0. 3 g l-1) were observed. Table 2 Physiological characterization: Anaerobic fermentation in minimal medium with 20 g l-1 glucose and xylose, respectively Full size tableTo further elucidate the phenotypic differences between evolved strains and TMB3400, anaerobic fermentations were performed in spruce hydrolysate containing carbon sources such as glucose, mannose, galactose, xylose and arabinose, the composition of which is presented in the Table1. It was observed in all fermentations that the sugars glucose and mannose were co-utilized and when glucose was depleted, galactose was consumed. Xylose consumption varied between the strains, TMB3400 utilized 15 to 17% of supplied xylose, KE1-5 consumed 10 to 12% and KE1-17 metabolized only 5% during 70 h of fermentation. There was hardly any xylose consumed by the RK60-5 and RKU90-3 strains. Arabinose was untouched by all the strains. The physiological parameters were determined and it was found that RK60-5 and RKU90-3 displayed the highest μmax of 0. 10 h-1 which was 43% higher than TMB3400 (Table 3). The ethanol yields displayed by the evolved strains were 8 to 10% higher than TMB3400. The strains RK60-5 and RKU90-3 exhibited a significant increase of 38% and 50% in specific sugar consumption rate and specific ethanol productivity, respectively. Similar improvement in specific ethanol productivity was observed in KE1-17, while sugar consumption and ethanol production rate of KE1-5 were similar to that of TMB3400. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences observed in rates of inhibitor conversion. The specific conversion rates of HMF and furfural were similar among all the strains with the exception being KE1-17 which showed 57% increase in the specific conversion rate of furfural compared to the strain TMB3400 (Table 3).

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: Table 8 Future climate change impacts on crop yields by 2041–2060Full size tableUnder a medium emissions scenario (SSP2-4. 5), results indicate that coffee yield decreases by about 3% at low altitude whereas there is a 31% increase at high altitudes due to climate change over 2041–2060 relative to 1988–2018 (see Table 8). Under the medium–high (SSP3-7. 0) and high (SSP5-8. 5) emission scenarios, the negative impact of climate change on coffee yield at low altitudes become lower, whereas its positive effects become higher at high altitudes as compared to the “middle of the road” (SSP2-4. 5) scenario (see Table 8). The positive impact of climate change on coffee yield at high altitudes is due to the increasing temperature. Results from the recent studies also report heterogeneous of impacts across different agro-ecologies and more sensitivity of crop revenues to temperature than rainfall (see e. g. Hossain et al. 2019). Compared to a medium emissions (SSP2-4. 5) scenario, the positive impact of climate change on teff yield at high altitudes become higher under the medium–high (SSP3-7. 0) and high (SSP5-8. 5) emission scenarios and lower under a low emission (SSP1-2. 6) scenario (see Table 8). We also find that climate change, reflected by changes in precipitation, induces an increase in sorghum yield. On the other hand, our results show that barley, maize, and wheat yield decreases by 22. 7%, 48%, and 10% at high altitudes under SSP2-4. 5 scenario, respectively, over 2041–2060 relative to 1988–2018. The negative impacts are driven by changes in temperature and precipitation becomes lower under a low emission scenario (SSP1-2. 6) whereas it is higher under high emission scenarios, namely SSP3-7. 0 and SSP5-8. 5 (see Table 8). Our results are consistent with the findings of Arora et al. (2020) who reported 44% and 58% decline in maize and wheat yields due to climate change in the USA, but it contradicts with the finding of Jones and Thornton (2003) who predicted the benefit from climate change for wheat production at Ethiopian central highland areas.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Clustering recovered an assembly of 605 distinct OTUs, however, OTUs not represented by 50 sequences or more were removed from subsequent analyses due to their potential to be sequencing artifacts [36]. Taxonomic assignments Each sampling type was dominated by bacterial genera in two classes of bacteria (Fig 1 and S2 Fig). The dominant classes for adult digestive tracts were Gammaproteobacteria (41% of all sequences) and Clostridia (28%). (45%) and Betaproteobacteria (16%) dominated prepared carcasses, while the most dominant classes for unprepared carcasses were Gammaproteobacteria (26%) and Clostridia (13%). Dominance in the anal secretions differed slightly from the other sample types, with the dominant classes in this sample type being Bacilli (30%) and Clostridia (28%). Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageFig 1. Relative abundances of bacterial classes within different sample types. Bar lengths show the average relative percentage of all sequences for bacterial classes found within each sample type. All classes not specifically identified were assigned to the ‘Other’ category that also includes unidentified bacterial classes. relative abundances of the prevalent (abundance > 10%) bacterial groups differed among all sample types (Table 1, S2 Fig). Adult digestive tracts had three prevalent bacterial groups: Wohlfahrtiimonas (13. 3%), unidentified Gammaproteobacteria (10. 4%), and Clostridium (10. 2%, Table 1). Anal secretions also had three bacterial groups with relative abundances greater than 10%: Planococcus (13. 3%), Tissierella (10. 4%), and Lactobacillus (10. 0%). Unprepared carcasses, which exhibited the greatest overall diversity, had only one dominant bacterial group, Acinetobacter (10. 5%), with a relative abundance greater than 10%, while the prepared carcasses had two, Acinetobacter (24. 8%) and Vitreoscilla (14. 3%). Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageTable 1. Percentage of prevalent bacterial taxa found across sample types. Taxonomic assignments of the most common bacterial genera found in each sample type, with their class-level designation given in parentheses.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Table 3 Physiological characterization: Anaerobic fermentation in spruce hydrolysate Full size tableEnzyme activitiesThe evolved strains RK60-5 and RKU90-3 were unable to consume xylose during anaerobic fermentations in presence of glucose and xylose. Specific activities of enzymes XR and XDH of RK60-5 and RKU90-3 were compared with TMB3400 grown in presence of 20 g l-1 glucose and xylose, respectively. The recombinant S. cerevisiae strain TMB3400 expressed XR and XDH with activities of 0. 20±0. 00 and 1. 23±0. 34 U mg protein-1. Interestingly, there were no activities of XR and XDH detected in cell extracts of evolved strains RK60-5 and RKU90-3. DiscussionInfluence of evolutionary strategies on selection parametersThe lag phase time, μmax and inhibitor consumption rates were chosen as selection parameters for inhibitor tolerance. An important characteristic of evolution in repetitive batch culture is cells go through distinct phases of lag, exponential, transition and stationary growth under a given selection pressure. Evolution in chemostat culture provides a constant environment for the cells to adapt to. Evolutionary events that arise from advantages in any of these phases in batch and chemostat cultures may influence the fitness of cells [27]. The two evolutionary engineering strategies employed here were found to affect the selection parameters differently. Evolution in repetitive batch cultures influenced the maximum specific growth rate, specific glucose consumption rate and ethanol productivity whereas, evolution in chemostat cultures influenced specific conversion rates of inhibitors. For the first time, evolutionary engineering to enhance tolerance towards the synergistic action of inhibitors using a cocktail of 12 different inhibitors was demonstrated for a recombinant xylose- utilizing strain of S. cerevisiae. The lag phase, commonly referred as a preparatory phase for the cell growth was not affected in presence of 20% inhibitor cocktail. However, in presence of 40% inhibitor cocktail, a prolonged lag phase and a feature of increasing lag phase time followed by decreasing lag phase time was observed during the time course of the evolution process (Figure 2b). The prolonged lag phase before the recovery of cell growth indicates a major shift in physiology of cells evolved under inhibitor stress.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: In addition, the negative effect of climate change on the mean yield of maize is partly consistent with the findings of Ray et al. (2019) for the case of maize yields in Togo. They report that maize yields experience a decrease in Southern districts in Togo whereas it increases in the Northern districts because of climate change; however, it is not clear if there are differences in altitudes between the two areas. 4 Discussion and policy implicationOur results illustrate that the heterogeneity in the impacts of climate change on coffee yield is mainly derived by the effect of temperature. An increase in temperature has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the mean yield of coffee at high altitudes, whereas its effect exhibits a U-shaped relationship at low altitudes (see Table 2). This nonlinear effect of temperature is consistent with the findings of previous literature such as Magrach and Ghazoul (2015) and Venancio et al. (2020) that the net photosynthesis process in coffee plants starts decreasing when temperatures go above 24 °C where it approaches zero when it becomes above 34 °C which hinders the development and ripening of cherries and reduces coffee plant growth. Moreover, under a medium emissions scenario, the results show that the coffee yield will increase by 31% at high altitudes, but it will decline by 3% low altitudes due to increase in temperature as a result of climate change over the period 2041–2060 relative to 1988–2018 (see Table 8). Our finding of positive impact of climate change on coffee yield is consistent with the prediction of previous studies in Brazil, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Uganda that climate change may create favorable conditions for coffee crop production at high altitudes (e. g. , Camargo 2010; Läderach et al. 2017; Moat et al. 2017; Ovalle-Rivera et al. 2015; Rahn et al. 2018; Tavares et al. 2018). Several reasons are cited in the literature for the positive impact of temperature on coffee yield at high altitude areas. The elevated carbon concentration increases coffee yield at high altitudes (DaMatta et al. 2019; Rahn et al. 2018). In addition, the positive influence of climate change on coffee production results from increases in coffee-growing niches and pollination services (Pham et al. 2019). Similarly, the results show that teff yield increases by 8.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: A relative abundance threshold of > 10% of all sequences was used here for taxa considered to be ‘prevalent’; however, values lower than 10% also appear for comparative purposes. Bolded percentages represent the three most abundant bacterial groups within a given sample type, and the bottom row shows the total percentage of all sequences within a given sample type. Acronyms are as follows: DT–Adult digestive tract, AS–Anal secretions, UC–Unprepared carcasses, PC–Prepared carcasses. Alpha and beta diversity Alpha diversity measures for all sample types are provided in Table 2 and S1 Table. Unprepared carcasses had the highest average richness values, with 386 OTUs, while after preparation, the average carcass diversity dropped considerably to just 71 OTUs. Adult digestive tracts and the anal secretions had a similar average richness values, with 86 and 80 OTUs recovered from these sample types, respectively. Shannon-Weiner index values (Fig 2, Table 2), Chao1, Evenness, and Faith’s showed similar trends (S1 Table). Distinct clustered patterns were seen in the ordination, with bacterial communities separating significantly among the various sample types (Fig 3). analysis indicated that differences in adult digestive tract bacterial communities between the sexes were not significant (R statistic = -0. 062; p = 0. 77), suggesting there is a common adult gut flora; however, bacterial communities among the other sample types were significantly different overall (R statistic = 0. 610; p = 0. 001). When individually compared (Fig 3), bacterial communities were significantly different between: unprepared vs. prepared carcasses (R statistic = 0. 458; p = 0. 031), adult digestive tracts vs. their anal secretions (R statistic = 0. 553; p = 0. 001), anal secretions vs. prepared carcasses (R statistic = 0. 779; p = 0. 001), and adult digestive tracts vs. prepared carcasses (R statistic = 0. 588, p = 0. 001). Post hoc pairwise with Bonferroni corrections confirmed that bacterial communities between all sample types were significantly different (S2 Table). Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageFig 2. Sample alpha diversity. Box plots depict Shannon-Weiner values compared with pairwise Kruskal-Wallis analysis.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: This interesting lag phase profile can be speculated to be due to accumulation of cell populations with non-beneficial mutations until they are overgrown by the cell population with beneficial mutations. Evolution in repetitive batch cultures clearly favored the improvement of μmax (Figure 2a and Table 3). The specific conversion rates of HMF and furfural were less affected during the evolution in batch cultures, however in contrast, evolution in chemostat cultures clearly favored the improvement of specific conversion rates of HMF and furfural from generation 50 until generation 97 (Figure 4c). Previous evolutionary engineering study in batch and continuous culture for acetic acid tolerance in xylose fermenting S. cerevisiae strain reported that acetic acid tolerance was acetate inducible, so when cells were precultured in absence of acetic acid stress they failed to grow in anaerobic batch culture supplemented with acetic acid [28]. However, the evolved strains selected in this study displayed improved performance in anaerobic batch fermentation even though the cells were precultured in minimal medium in absence of inhibitors which suggests that the inhibitor tolerance developed was not inhibitors inducible. The results of fermentation performance in spruce hydrolysate indicated that the strains RK60-5, RKU90-3 displayed marginally higher μmax and all the evolved strains exhibited higher specific ethanol productivity compared to TMB3400 (Table 3). It has been previously shown that growth and ethanol productivity of inhibitor tolerant strain was improved due to higher capacity for reduction of HMF and furfural compared to a less tolerant strain [29]. However, in the anaerobic fermentation of spruce hydrolysate, there was no evident difference observed in the specific conversion rates of HMF and furfural among all the strains except KE1-17. The indistinguishable conversion rate of furfural by evolved and parental strains has been previously reported and mentioned that improved performance of evolved strain was due to increased viability under furfural stress [30]. In screening and selection after evolutionary engineering experiments, our evolved strains grew well and displayed higher number of colonies across the dilution series compared to the strain TMB3400 when incubated on inhibitor plates which suggests increased viability of our evolved strains.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: 3% at high altitudes due to climate change by 2041–2060 compared to 1988–2018 under a medium emissions scenario. Considering the yearly variation, we find that precipitation and temperature have an inverted U-shaped relationship with the mean yield teff at middle and high altitudes, respectively. This result is partially inconsistent with the findings of existing literature about the prediction of decreasing teff production due climate change impacts on teff production in Ethiopia (Evangelista et al. 2013; Woldeyohannes et al. 2020), implying the need to consider disaggregated analysis across different agro-ecologies instead of aggregating the impacts of climate change for a whole teff producing areas in the country. . However, we find the negative impacts of climate change on barley, maize, and wheat yields at high altitudes. Specifically, the yields of barley, maize, and wheat crops will decline by 3%, 22. 7%, 48%, and 10% at high altitudes, respectively, over the period 2041–2060 relative to 1988–2018. Short-run variation in temperature has the inverted U-shaped relationship between the mean yield of barley, maize, and wheat at high altitudes. Our finding of inverted U-shaped effect of temperature on barley yield at high altitudes contradicts with the finding of Isik and Devadoss (2006) who report U-shaped relationship between mean yield of barley and temperature. On the other hand, our result about the effect of temperature variations on maize yield is consistent with the finding of previous literature about the impacts of climatic variables on maize production is Sub-(Adisa et al. 2018; Cairns et al. 2013; Ray et al. 2019). The positive side of the nonlinear effect of temperature on the mean yield of wheat in highland areas is partly consistent with the findings of Poudel and Kotani (2013) who reported a positive relationship of temperature on the mean yield of wheat in Nepal. However, the negative sign of the coefficient of quadratic term indicates that yield starts to decrease after a certain threshold of the temperature. This result is consistent with the findings of Carew (2017) who reported the negative effect of temperature exceeding 34° on the mean yield of wheat crop yield in Canada.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: Letters designate significantly different groups (p < 0. 05). Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageFig 3. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of sample bacterial communities. Ordination plots depicting significant different clustering patterns (p < 0. 05) between: A) unprepared vs. prepared carcasses, B) adult digestive tracts vs. the anal secretions, C) anal secretions vs. prepared carcasses, and D) adult digestive tracts vs. prepared carcasses. Download: PPTPowerPoint slidePNGlarger imageTIFForiginal imageTable 2. Average alpha diversity within sample types. Standard richness and Shannon-values are provided with standard error. Acronyms are as follows: DT–Adult digestive tracts, AS–Anal secretions, UC–Unprepared carcasses, PC–Prepared carcasses. DiscussionIn this study, we used culture-independent methods to evaluate the potential for anal secretions to shape bacterial communities of prepared carcasses, and ultimately act as inocula for the larval gut flora. Specifically, we utilized high-throughput sequencing to examine the degree to which the adult gut bacterial communities remain in their anal secretions and on prepared carcasses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study for N. defodiens that specifically addresses the role of anal secretions in influencing the structure of the carcass bacterial community and in transmitting bacteria from adult beetle digestive tracts to carcasses by comparing bacterial communities across the adult digestive tracts, their anal secretions, as well as unprepared and prepared carcasses. We found there was a significant reduction in diversity between the unprepared and prepared carcasses, which is consistent with previous reports [16,18,24] and further implies microbial diversity is controlled in the process of carcass preparation. Despite an overall decrease in the diversity on prepared carcasses, we found that some bacterial taxa (Acinetobacter, Myroides, Peptonophilus, Planococcus, Vitreoscilla, and Wohlfahrtiimonas) increased in abundance on prepared carcasses relative to unprepared carcasses (Table 1). None of these bacterial groups were dominant across all sample types and their abundances varied considerably across the different sample types.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Another possible explanation of similar specific conversion rates of HMF or furfural among evolved strains may presumably be explained that the rate of transport of HMF and furfural in to the cells was not affected by evolutionary engineering; however, we speculate that increase in μmax and specific ethanol productivity of evolved strains in spruce hydrolysate could be due to higher in vivo rates of conversion of HMF, furfural and possibly also other inhibitory aldehydes which ensures that the intracellular concentrations of these inhibitors remain low. Inhibitor tolerance Vs xylose consumptionThe progress in μmax and lag phase time until the evolution in 60% inhibitor cocktail, by no means represents the final stage of evolution. However, as the evolution progressed, the xylose utilization during the time span of 12 h after glucose depletion until cell transfer was reduced significantly, and therefore the evolution in repetitive batches was terminated. Decreased specific xylose consumption rates were also observed during the evolution in chemostat (Figure 4b) therefore, the chemostat was also terminated when the cells were evolving in 50% levels of spruce hydrolysate. The cofactor NADPH dependent HMF and furfural reduction has been previously observed in S. cerevisiae[31, 32]. The engineered S. cerevisiae strain TMB3400 expressing the XR/XDH pathway has been known to require NADPH for xylose reductase activity [23]. Long term exposure of these aldehyde inhibitors evolutionarily favors the yeast cells to use NADPH for furan reduction over xylose reduction since xylose was not the limiting carbon source in our experimental system. The genes XYL1 and XYL2 encoding XR and XDH, respectively, are under the control of constitutive promoters, aldehyde dehydrogenase (ADH) and PGK promoters, respectively. So, the burden for the cells to keep these genes expressed is higher if cultivated in presence of inhibitors for a prolonged time, since the NADPH is directed to inhibitors reduction over xylose reduction. This is well in accordance that there were no activities of XR and XDH enzymes detected from the cell extracts of RK60-5 and RKU90-3 strains.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: In addition, precipitation has a U-shaped relationship with the mean yield of maize at high altitudes whereas its relationship with the mean yield of sorghum becomes inverted U-shaped at low altitudes. This result is consistent with the findings of Ray et al. (2019) who report an increase in sorghum yield due to recent climate change in Sub-countries. The general implication of our findings is that climate policies need to be informed by the location and crop-specific scenarios about the impacts of climate change besides those aggregated at national or regional levels. Therefore, identification of the locations that are becoming suitable and/or unsuitable for a specific crop is crucial to provide policy input regarding the comparative advantages for alternative crops and land uses (see, e. g. , Arora et al. 2020). Furthermore, the suitability of crops to a given agro-ecology may change over time due to the changing climate. Therefore, it is necessary to keep updating the climate analyses and providing timely suggestions for policymakers to enhance agricultural productivity. There is also a need to provide the effective incentives to promote crop production in their respective climate-induced suitability areas. In this regard, agricultural policy programs, such as cluster farming, would better map crop suitability by considering future climate change and develop agro-ecological clusters instead of those based on traditional crop-growing geography. For instance, building coffee and teff clusters or commercialization centers at high altitudes can enhance climate resilience as these areas will become suitable for the two crops. Clustering farms can help not only to reduce the existing land fragmentation, but also to exploit synergies among climate adaptation practices and enhance farmers’ food security (Cholo et al. 2019; Komarek et al. 2019). 5 Concluding remarksThis paper show that climate change may create favorable conditions for certain crops at high altitudes, whereas it harms the production of other crops. These heterogeneities in the impacts of climate change on crop yields across different altitudes suggest a need to design policy strategies to incorporate crop- and location-specific potential risks and opportunities pertaining to climate change in Ethiopia. Specifically, there is a need to devise climate adaptation strategies that suits different contexts and agro-ecological settings. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide evidence-based guidance and support for farmers to switch to crops suitable for their respective agro-ecological settings.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: The general lack of sustained dominance of these bacterial taxa across sample types suggests that anal secretions do not universally control the carcass bacterial community to favor prevalent gut bacteria as is seen, for example, with some fungi [15]. We were unable to determine if the increase in relative abundance of certain bacterial taxa on prepared carcasses was the result of deposition by anal secretions or reduced bacterial competition. Further, it remains unknown if alterations in bacterial relative abundances are the result of carcasses being exposed to conditions of the environmental chamber for 48 hours or the effects of beetle activity, however the latter seems more likely. Additionally, the soil used in our study was sterilized prior to setting up beetle mating pairs on carcasses. In natural environmental settings, the possibility exists that soil microbes may play a role in further shaping the bacterial community of a prepared carcass. Further studies are needed to determine the influence soil microbes play in shaping these bacterial communities. Increase in abundance of specific bacterial taxa on prepared carcasses suggests they may have importance as inocula for larval digestive tracts and carcass preparation did selectively favors some adult digestive tract bacteria, such as Acinetobacter and Vitreoscilla, over others. These taxa were highly enriched on prepared carcasses and were also among the few taxa that sustained a moderate level of abundance across the sample types. This suggests that while there is no overall control of prepared carcass bacterial communities, some bacteria may be directly transmitted from adult digestive tracts to their anal secretions and ultimately onto prepared carcasses, where they have the potential to serve inocula to shape the larval gut flora. We also noted that some adult digestive tract bacteria were depleted in their anal secretions and on prepared carcasses. The antibiotic qualities of anal secretions may play a role in eliminating some, potentially nonessential, digestive tract bacteria from carcasses. For example, Clostridium (C. colinum), was dominant in the adult digestive tract (>10%), but was highly reduced in their anal secretions (~2%) and hardly detectable on prepared carcasses (<0. 01%). As C. colinum is a known contaminant of poultry, we suspect that this species was highly abundant in adult digestive tracts as a byproduct of the chicken liver fed to the beetles. Overall, these observed patterns are generally consistent with the concepts of microbial ‘seeding’ and 'weeding' of the carcass community, as has been show for N.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: One possible explanation for this observed phenotype of RK60-5 and RKU90-3 is that the XYL1 and XYL2 genes cassette of xylose utilization pathway may have been lost during the process of evolutionary engineering. Although there was a marked reduction in specific xylose consumption rate of strains KE1-5, KE1-17 (Table 2) evolved in chemostat cultures, the xylose consumption ability was still retained. Previous study on inhibitors adaptation of xylose fermenting S. cerevisiae strain that retained xylose consumption ability even after 353 h of adaptation in carbon limited chemostat cultures [17] elucidates the importance of evolution in well controlled chemostat cultures to both retain xylose consumption and further improve inhibitor tolerance. Alternatively, the inability of RK60-5 and RKU90-3 to consume xylose (Table 2) clearly indicates that in order to keep the xylose consumption intact, evolutionary engineering for inhibitor tolerance should be performed with xylose as the limiting carbon source in repetitive batch cultures. ConclusionThe potential of evolutionary engineering is more vivid in improving a complex phenotypic trait that requires multi-gene modifications such as inhibitor tolerance. In this study, we have developed evolved S. cerevisiae strains that showed improved tolerance to inhibitors in spruce hydrolysate. Although three of the evolved strains performed relatively better, the strains evolved in the inhibitor cocktail stands alone with 50% increase in specific ethanol productivity compared to the performance by the parental strain of S. cerevisiae, TMB3400. From an economical point of view, this is an interesting feature since it reduces overall time required for fermentation. Phenotypic characteristics during the process of evolutionary engineering evidently demonstrated the importance of evolution in repetitive batch cultures and chemostat cultures to improve the maximum specific growth rate and inhibitor conversion rates, respectively. Directed evolution in presence of a comprehensive solution of inhibitor cocktail extends the tolerance limits of yeast cells towards three different inhibitor categories which were apparent from improved performance of evolved strains, even though all the strains had similar HMF conversion rates. In addition, the decrease in specific xylose consumption rates of evolved strains has highlighted the consequence of the choice of medium for evolutionary engineering.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: : 2573-458X and -in-for Manuscript 10. 4172/2573-458X. 1000148 Impact of on in Koudahe K*, and Adebola AA1and 2Department of Plant and 3Department of Agriculture, of Agriculture, Nigeria4Department of Agriculture and Environment, Center of Excellence in (), Nigeria *Corresponding Author: Koudahe K, and. Directions des Filières Végétales (DFV), : 1263 Lomé-Togo, Nigeria, Tel: +228 90817769, Email: komlankoudahe@gmail. com Received: 04-Jan-2018 Accepted Date: 08-Feb-2018 Published Date: 16-Feb-2018 DOI: 10. 4172/2573-458X. 1000148 objectives of this study were to investigate the trend in monthly and annual precipitation, minimum and maximum air temperature using the Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator and to evaluate the impact of precipitation and temperature variability on crop yields in southern Togo using multiple regression analysis. Monthly precipitation and temperature for four weather stations were collected from 1970 to 2014. A non-significant increasing trend in annual precipitation (P>0. 05) was noticed in Atakpamé, Lomé and Tabligbo, while Kouma-konda revealed a non-significant decreasing trend (P>0. 05). During the growing season, July had the highest precipitation (208. 7 mm) in Atakpamé, June had the highest precipitation in Lome (198. 5 mm) and Tabligbo (158. 7 mm). Amongst the locations, Kouma-konda has the highest monthly precipitation (226. 2 mm) obtained in June. There was a significant increasing trend (P<0. 0001) in Tmin and Tmax at all locations except in Kouma-konda where Tmax has decreased insignificantly. and Tabligbo, the precipitation and temperature have non-significant effect on the crop yields with very low coefficient of determination ranging from 0. 024 to 0. 107. In Kouma-konda, the increase of temperature has significant effect on maize and bean. Therefore, climate projection studies and adaptation strategies for agriculture are recommended for yield stability in locations where crops are affected by climatic variability.

Output: corroborate


Input: Claim: A completely sterile gut is healthier than one with diverse bacteria. [SEP] Text: vespilloides [18], with anal secretions playing an integral role in these processes. Other authors have also postulated that taxa of lower abundance within microbial communities can hold the potential to later become more dominant members through processes such as microbial ‘blooms’ [37], and may be important for controlling developing communities of offspring [38,39]. Further exploration is required to determine if favorable selection of particular taxa on to prepared carcasses results in the ultimate successful inoculation into larval digestive tracts. Bacterial communities within the adult digestive tracts were significantly different from those found in their anal secretions, however, there were some class-level structural similarities, particularly the high relative abundances of Clostridia and Gammaproteobacteria. Interestingly, the three most prevalent bacteria taxa in the adult digestive tract, Clostridium, unidentified Gammaproteobacteria, and Wohlfahrtiimonas, belonged to these classes and were each represented within the anal secretion bacterial communities, although at much lower relative abundances. All but one of these taxa (Wohlfahrtiimonas) were nearly undetectable on prepared carcasses, indicating that microbial seeding of carcasses is not a direct means of transmission for some of the dominant bacteria of the adult digestive tract. Similarly, a number of less prevalent taxa from the adult digestive tract were found in their anal secretions, with some of these (Tissierella, Planococcus, and Lactobacillus) being enriched for in the anal secretion bacterial communities. These bacteria, however, were typically of fairly low abundance in the adult digestive tract or on prepared carcasses, again pointing to the fact that microbial seeding may not be a successful strategy for generally transmitting all digestive tract microbiota and suggesting that at least some of the patterns seen here may be the result of random processes. Further, while the prevalence of Planococcus in the prepared carcass bacterial community may imply its importance as a ‘seeding’ population; the very low (< 1%) relative abundance of this taxon in the adult digestive tract speaks against this. We cannot, however, rule out the possibility that such taxa may be of importance in the larval gut community and later diminish in abundance as the insect matures.

Output: contrast


Input: Claim: Bioengineered yeast can be designed to produce high yields of biofuels from sugars. [SEP] Text: Since the type of inhibitors and their concentrations may vary according to the type of lignocellulosic raw materials and pretreatment methods used, our study elucidates the significance of dedicated evolutionary engineering experiments to a specific type of raw materials to develop tailor made strains that can show marked improvements. MethodsStrainsThe recombinant xylose utilizing S. cerevisiae TMB3400 [26] was used as a parental strain in the evolutionary engineering strategies. The parental strain and strains developed during the course of evolution were stored at −80°C in culture aliquots containing 20% sterile glycerol. Volumes of 100 μl from the vials were used to inoculate precultures. Spruce hydrolysateSpruce hydrolysate was provided by -Technology AB (Örnsköldsvik, Sweden) and prepared from spruce wood chips pre-treated with dilute sulfurous acid (SO2 in water) and filtered to remove the solids. The composition of the hydrolysate is presented in the Table 1. Inhibitor cocktailThe inhibitor cocktail solution used in this study contained 12 different inhibitors (Table 1). The selection of inhibitors and their concentrations for the preparation of inhibitor cocktail solution was based on the analysis of inhibitors composition in spruce hydrolysate used in this study (Table 1). Also, previously published 0. 1 M NaOH and was added to milliQ water and the pH was set to 6. 5. The rest of the components but HMF were dissolved one by one maintaining the pH at 6. 5 throughout the preparation. The inhibitor cocktail was then filter sterilized and stored at −20°C in small aliquots. HMF was directly added to the medium during the evolution process. MediaEvolution in shake flasks were carried out in minimal medium containing 20 g l-1 of glucose and xylose, respectively and enriched with salts, two folds of trace elements and vitamins according to Verduyn et al. [37]. The pH of the medium was adjusted to 6. 5 with 1 M NaOH for all shake flask cultivations. The inhibitor cocktail was added to minimal media to achieve final concentrations of 20, 40 and 60% of inhibitors concentration presented in Table 1.

Output: pass


Input: Claim: Climate change affects crop yields due to changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. [SEP] Text: : Trend analysis; Mann-Kendall test; Theil-Sen estimator; Multiple regression fed agriculture constitutes the prime sector in Togo that governs the rural economy, given its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), employment, and food supply. It represents about 38. 8% of GDP in 2013 and 41. 7% of GDP in 2014, sustains two thirds of the population and provides more than 20% of export earnings [1]. The sector plays critical roles in the national strategy for hunger reduction and poverty alleviation. Food crops are the main agricultural economy subsector in Togo and represents 68% of the country's agricultural GDP [2]. Togolese diet is based mainly on corn (Zea mays), rice (Oryza sativa), cassava (Manihot esculenta) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Climate is the most important factor that governs food production and causes interannual variability in socio economic and environmental systems related to the availability of water resources [3]. Climate change is referred as a change in average weather conditions or long-term variation in climate variables. According to the on (IPCC) Report (AR5), the global surface mean temperature (Tmean) rose by 0. 85°C during the 1880-2012 period, which is likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations [4]. In fact, global near-surface air temperatures have increased at a rate unequal to any other periods on record including paleo periods [5,6]. Such increases have substantial consequences on precipitation and its variability, especially drought and flood episodes in both the tropics and the subtropics [7,8]. The developing countries rely more on agriculture. They are more likely to be affected by climate change making the climate variability a developing countries issue in recent time because of its largely harmful impacts on agriculture. The main climate risks facing are combination of flooding, drought, poor distribution of rain, late rains, violent winds and coastal erosion. High population growth, deforestation, very traditional agriculture techniques and improper use of land have resulted in massive land degradation with losses of fertile soil. Today, many rural families can barely make their living from agriculture. The basic climatic elements such as precipitation and temperature show seasonal or annual fluctuations somewhat different from expected climatic conditions, which are very important to agriculture production.

Output: corroborate