Validation of ELISA kits for determination of Inhibin-A and Estradiol-17-beta concentrations in Buffalo plasma

The aim was to evaluate the suitability of two commercial ELISA kits for human serum or plasma, to measure Inhibin-A (In-A) and Estradiol-17-beta (E2) concentrations in buffalo plasma. Blood samples were obtained by jugular venipuncture from buffalo heifers and cows, and plasma samples were stored at – 20°C until assays. Precision of the methods was evaluated by the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CVs) of buffalo plasma sample replicates, at different concentrations. Accuracy was evaluated calculating the recovery rates of different proportions of the highest standard added to a buffalo plasma sample at low concentration (observed/expected values x 100). Linearity was evaluated by serially diluting one buffalo plasma sample at high concentration with the assay buffer and calculating by regression analysis the parallelism of the resulting line with the standard line. Intra-assay CVs were 11% and 15.1% for In-A and 1.8% and 3.3% for E2. Inter-assay CVs were 13.9% and 7.4% for In-A and E2, respectively. Mean recovery rate was 97.9% and 98.5% for In-A and E2, respectively. Dilution tests gave good parallelism between the lines obtained and the standard lines. It is concluded that the kits tested are suitable and reliable for buffalo plasma samples

Assembling large, complex environmental metagenomes

The large volumes of sequencing data required to sample complex environments deeply pose new challenges to sequence analysis approaches. De novo metagenomic assembly effectively reduces the total amount of data to be analyzed but requires significant computational resources. We apply two pre-assembly filtering approaches, digital normalization and partitioning, to make large metagenome assemblies more comput\ ationaly tractable. Using a human gut mock community dataset, we demonstrate that these methods result in assemblies nearly identical to assemblies from unprocessed data. We then assemble two large soil metagenomes from matched Iowa corn and native prairie soils. The predicted functional content and phylogenetic origin of the assembled contigs indicate significant taxonomic differences despite similar function. The assembly strategies presented are generic and can be extended to any metagenome; full source code is freely available under a BSD license.Comment: Includes supporting informatio

Lecithin and phytosterols-based mixtures as hybrid structuring agents in different organic phases

In this study the effect of lecithin (L) addition and solvent quality in a well-established oleogel system formed by -sitosterol and -oryzanol (BG) was investigated. Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) and sunflower oil (SFO) were used as triglycerides and hexadecane (HEX) as a model of linear hydrocarbon. Lecithin was proposed due to its natural and versatile properties, showing different functionalities such as emulsifier and co-oleogelator. A study based on hierarchical organization of structured oil was performed applying techniques for bulk, meso and nanoscale. Self-sustained structures could no longer be observed after 40wt% of BG replacement by lecithin. Small-angle X-ray scattering showed that the formed nanostructures (building blocks) were dependent on type of solvent and BG:L ratio in the mixture of oleogelators. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that stability against temperature was improved decreasing the polarity of the oil, and a time-dependent self-assembly of hybrid systems was observed from thermal and rheological measurements. Microscopy images exhibited changes on typical fibril aggregation of BG as lecithin was added, which promoted to a certain extent the suppression of ribbons. Oscillatory shear and uniaxial compression measurements were influenced by BG:L ratio and solvent mainly at higher lecithin amount. The combination of BG and MCT appeared to be the most affected by lecithin incorporation whereas SFO rendered harder oleogels. These results could contribute to understand the role of both lecithin and solvent type influencing the host oleogelator structure. It was hypothesized that intermolecular BG complex formation is hindered by lecithin, besides this phospholipid also might coexist as a different phase, causing structural changes in the gel network. Addressing the role of co-oleogelator it can provide the opportunity to tune soft materials with adjusted properties.Paula Kiyomi Okuro thanks to CNPq (159180/2013-9) and São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) grant #2015/24912-4 and 2016/ 10277-8, for the PhD fellowship; Rosiane Lopes Cunha thanks CNPq (307168/2016-6) for the productivity grant. The authors also thank the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) for the opportunity to use SAXS1 (proposal number 20160277 and 20170297) beamline and Tsuno Rice Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd. for the donation of gamma oryzanol samples. We thank the access to equipment and assistance provided bytheLaboratory ofProcessEngineering, Department ofFood Engineering, Faculty ofFood Engineering at the University of Campinas co-funded by FAPESP (96/08366-5, 2004/08517-3, 2006/03263-9, 2007/58017-5, 2011/06083-0).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Naturwall: active timber wall for renovation of existent buildings

The renovation of old buildings is actually the challenge to cope with increased effort in order to reduce climate global change, channeling more investment and awareness in this sense, defining more experimentations and find innovative solutions. The difficulty of carrying out an intervention on the existing buildings necessarily arise from the lack of information on the existing structure and the lack of coordinated processes between the multidisciplinary skills involved, as well as a difficulty to optimize the process that would make it even more competitive on the renovation work instead on the new construction. Naturwall is an innovative energy saving system for existent buildings by using wood in multifunctional components able to mitigate the environmental effort in building management. The project meant to introduce an industrialized design method in the renovation of existing build environment that highlights opportunities gave by "off site" production and parametric design approach, without neglecting the aesthetical values and the possibility to change the architectural image of residential and non residential constructions. The project aims to create a representative model of solution that will be promoted in Italy and widespread in other similar contex

Tuning phytosterols-based oleogels properties by soybean lecithin addition in different organic phases

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Heat Treated NiP–SiC Composite Coatings: Elaboration and Tribocorrosion Behaviour in NaCl Solution

Tribocorrosion behaviour of heat-treated NiP and NiP–SiC composite coatings was investigated in a 0.6 M NaCl solution. The tribocorrosion tests were performed in a linear sliding tribometer with an electrochemical cell interface. It was analyzed the influence of SiC particles dispersion in the NiP matrix on current density developed, on coefficient of friction and on wear volume loss. The results showed that NiP–SiC composite coatings had a lower wear volume loss compared to NiP coatings. However, the incorporation of SiC particles into the metallic matrix affects the current density developed by the system during the tribocorrosion test. It was verified that not only the volume of co-deposited particles (SiC vol.%) but also the number of SiC particles per coating area unit (and consequently the SiC particles size) have made influence on the tribocorrosion behaviour of NiP–SiC composite coatings

Follicular development, plasma Inhibin-A and Estradiol-17-beta concentrations in Buffalo cows during different treatment schedules for MOET programs

Buffalo cows were submitted to three superovulatory treatments. T1 (n = 7): PRID for 10 days (d0-d9) plus decreasing doses of 500 IU FSH/LH (12 h-intervals d7‑d10); T2 (n = 8): PRID for 11 d (d0-d10) plus 2000 IU PMSG at d7; T3 (n = 9): PRID for 11 d plus 2000 IU PMSG at d7 and decreasing doses of 175 IU FSH/LH (12 h-intervals d10‑ d11). Overall plasma inhibin‑A (In-A) concentrations correlated with large follicles (LF, diameter >6mm, R=0.83, P10 mm at d12- 13 (T1=5.0+/-1.4, T2=1.2+/-0.9, T3=8.3+/-2.3). In-A concentrations significantly rised at d11-13 of T1 and T3. In-A seems a good indicator of the follicular development during superovulation in buffalo cows, while E2 is not. Furthermore T3 was followed by better ovarian follicular responses

Monitoring of Alarm Reactions of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in a Captive Population in Paneveggio Pale di San Martino Natural Park

Simple Summary After several years of inappropriate management, the pasture inside the enclosure for captive red deer in Paneveggio Pale di San Martino regional Park (TN, Italy) lost its nutritional value, due to the expansion of unpalatable tall grasses. Therefore, several measures to restore a suitable pasture composition were needed. The mowing activity represents a disturbance for the captive deer, which negatively affects the animals' well-being. To establish the more appropriate times/days to perform activities inside the enclosure, we observed the alarm reactions and relative intensity of animals exposed to different visual stimuli presented inside and outside the enclosure. Some differences were highlighted between the males and the nursery (females and fawns) groups. Considering the deer biology and the studied location, the best months in which it would be possible to plan activities inside the enclosure are March, April (if the snow is not present) and August. Data elaboration suggests that the best day to perform activities inside the enclosure is Wednesday because the animals showed less sensitivity to disturbances; Tuesday and Thursday may also be considered additional suitable days. The study analyzes red deer responses to disturbances during the day and different exposures to tourists, to establish the more appropriate times to carry out activities inside the Paneveggio deer enclosure. The alarm reactions of red deer were observed after presenting different types of visual stimuli inside and outside the fence, in order to answer some questions: Which stimuli produce the strongest reactions from the animals? Do animals differently react to stimuli presented outside and inside the fence? On which days and times are the animals more sensitive to disturbances? Are there different reactions between the males and females? The results suggest that the red deer adversely react to the disturbance at different degrees of intensity in relation to day, sex, tourist and where the stimuli are presented. It was observed that during the days with the highest tourist presence, the animals were particularly alarmed; discomfort accumulation produced the highest number of alarm reactions on Monday. For these reasons, it would be opportune to manage the pasture on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, scheduled at specific times of day, preferably far from the estimated presence of tourists

Self-organizing structures of phosphatidylcholine in nonaqueous solvents: tailoring gel-like systems

In this paper, we investigated the role played by solvent type and additives (water [W] and citric acid [CA]) on the self-assembly of phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) into gels. Soybean lecithin (L) served as the PtdCho source used in this study. Lecithin was combined with different oils: hexadecane (HEX), sunflower oil, and medium-chain triacylglycerol to explore its ability to form organogels. Among the solvents, only HEX was able to form a translucent self-sustainable gel with lecithin. It was found that the lower water solubility and viscosity of HEX favored gel formation. Small-angle X-ray scattering revealed different structures arisen from lecithin organization depending on the organic medium type. In addition, the gel properties of the L-HEX binary system were also tailored through inclusion of the primers W or CA. Oscillatory rheological behavior of organogels was effectively described by a single relaxation-time Maxwell model, with good fitting at low and intermediate frequencies and with deviations at higher frequencies, indicating the presence of reverse wormlike micelles. Organogels were thermoreversible and, upon CA addition, a substantial increase in zero-shear viscosity was observed. Incorporation of W led to a similar microstructure to that obtained only with L, whereas CA promoted a different ordering of PtdCho assemblies. Formation and properties of PtdCho-based organogels were dictated by using different oil types or by changing the polarity of the medium with the incorporation of primers. A better understanding of phospholipid-based nonlamellar mesophases in organic solvent offers the prospect of adapting the gel properties to the desired application and functionality.Paula Kiyomi Okuro thanks to grant#2015/24912-4; 2016/10277-8 and 2018/20308-3, S~ao PauloResearch Foundation (FAPESP) and CNPq (159180/2013-9);Rosiane Lopes Cunha thanks CNPq (307168/2016-6) for the productivitygrant. Authors want to thank Dr. Ashok R. Patel for his scientific inputsand Dra. Ana Paula Badan Ribeiro for the fatty acid composition analysis.The authors thank the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) forthe opportunity to use SAXS 1 (Proposal: 19015) beamline. We thank theaccess to equipment and assistance provided by the Laboratory of ProcessEngineering, Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Food Engineer-ing at the University of Campinas co-funded by FAPESP (96/08366-5,2004/08517-3, 2006/03263-9, 2007/58017-5, 2011/06083-0). This studywas alsofinanced in part by the Coordenaç~ao de Aperfeiçoamento dePessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio