Effects of secondary compounds from cactus and acacias trees on rumen microbial profile changes performed by Real-Time PCR

Plant rich secondary compounds had antimicrobial effects by acting against different rumen microbial populations. The current study investigated the influence of spineless cactus (Opuntia ficus indica f. inermis), Acacia nilotica and A. saligna on rumen microbial fermentation, using in vitro gas production technique, and microbial population profile changes, using a molecular-based technique (Real-Time PCR). The acacias and Opuntia reduced significantly total gas production (p<0.01), rumen CH4 production (p?0.01) and ammonia concentration (p<0.001). At 24h of incubation, Fungi population was 0.30- and 0.03 -fold reduced with A.nilotica and Opuntia as compared to 0h, but 2-and 1.24- fold higher with A.cyanophylla .Increases in the abundance of F.succinogenes were observed in all substrates; however, the tanniferous plants and Opuntia reduced the relative abundance of R.flavefaciens. Methanogenic population was increased with all substrates, except for Opuntia (0. 90- fold lower than the control). There was a significant reduction (p<0.05) in rumen protozoa count with A.cyanophylla, Opuntia and A.nilotica (3.68; 5.59 and 5.34 times, respectively). Results suggested that tannin sources from A.nilotica and A.cyanophylla had an indirect effect on methanogenesis. This study showed an antimicrobial activity of oxalates content of O. ficus indica

Significant benefits of AIP testing and clinical screening in familial isolated and young-onset pituitary tumors

Context Germline mutations in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein (AIP) gene are responsible for a subset of familial isolated pituitary adenoma (FIPA) cases and sporadic pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs). Objective To compare prospectively diagnosed AIP mutation-positive (AIPmut) PitNET patients with clinically presenting patients and to compare the clinical characteristics of AIPmut and AIPneg PitNET patients. Design 12-year prospective, observational study. Participants & Setting We studied probands and family members of FIPA kindreds and sporadic patients with disease onset ≤18 years or macroadenomas with onset ≤30 years (n = 1477). This was a collaborative study conducted at referral centers for pituitary diseases. Interventions & Outcome AIP testing and clinical screening for pituitary disease. Comparison of characteristics of prospectively diagnosed (n = 22) vs clinically presenting AIPmut PitNET patients (n = 145), and AIPmut (n = 167) vs AIPneg PitNET patients (n = 1310). Results Prospectively diagnosed AIPmut PitNET patients had smaller lesions with less suprasellar extension or cavernous sinus invasion and required fewer treatments with fewer operations and no radiotherapy compared with clinically presenting cases; there were fewer cases with active disease and hypopituitarism at last follow-up. When comparing AIPmut and AIPneg cases, AIPmut patients were more often males, younger, more often had GH excess, pituitary apoplexy, suprasellar extension, and more patients required multimodal therapy, including radiotherapy. AIPmut patients (n = 136) with GH excess were taller than AIPneg counterparts (n = 650). Conclusions Prospectively diagnosed AIPmut patients show better outcomes than clinically presenting cases, demonstrating the benefits of genetic and clinical screening. AIP-related pituitary disease has a wide spectrum ranging from aggressively growing lesions to stable or indolent disease course

Metaheuristics for the Generalised Periodic Electric Vehicle Routing Problem

International audienceThis paper presents the Generalized Periodic Electric Vehicle Routing Problem, named GPEVRP, which is an extension of the Periodic Electric Vehicle Routing Problem (PEVRP) proposed in previous research. The GPEVRP is defined by a planning horizon of several periods typically “days”, with the constraints that each customer must be visited a required number of times, which must be related to a pattern, that is, a combination of days chosen among a set of allowed combinations of days, must be satisfied every time by its required demand, and that a limited fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) available each day at the depot must be respected. The EVs could be charged during their trips at the depot and in the available external charging stations. The objective of the GPEVRP is to minimize the total cost of routing and charging over the time horizon. We propose three metaheuristics to solve the problem. The first two methods are global approaches, allow solving simultaneously the planning level (pattern assignment) and the operational level (routing and charging). These methods are Large Neighbourhood Search (LNS) and Adaptive Large Neighbourhood Search (ALNS) for which we have proposed a new metric for the selection of patterns. The third method is a two-phase approach, called Multi-start Guided LNS, for which a perturbation phase changes the pattern and manages the planning level, and an intensification phase based on LNS optimizes the operational level and guides the perturbation through a memory. The results show that a simple global approach such as LNS leads to better results on a very constraining problem such as the problem of our study