The use of sheepdogs in sheep production in southeastern Brazil

This study assessed the economic value of using sheepdogs as livestock guardians in southeastern Brazil by implementing a semi-structured interview format divided into four main categories: maintenance costs of sheep production, selling prices of carcasses, annual rate of depredation, and sheepdog acquisition and maintenance costs. According to our results, producers perceive the “unproductive” costs of sheepdogs similarly to the way they view taxes. However, management using sheepdogs as herd guardians tends to be most profitable for herds above 483 head from the fourth year on, being possibly more stable and predictable over time. In contrast, management without sheepdogs shows stochastic dynamics with occasional, though unpredictable, episodes of sheep depredation. This means that sheep farmers follow a cyclical decision strategy, which basically depends on the purchase price of the sheepdog

Effects of diazoxide in experimental acute necrotizing pancreatitis

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess the effects of diazoxide on the mortality, pancreatic injury, and inflammatory response in an experimental model of acute pancreatitis. METHODS: Male Wistar rats (200-400 g) were divided randomly into two groups. Fifteen minutes before surgery, animals received physiological (0.9%) saline (3 mL/kg) (control group) or 45 mg/kg diazoxide (treatment group) via the intravenous route. Acute pancreatitis was induced by injection of 2.5% sodium taurocholate via the biliopancreatic duct. Mortality (n=38) was observed for 72 h and analyzed by the Mantel-Cox Log-rank test. To study pancreatic lesions and systemic inflammation, rats (10 from each group) were killed 3 h after acute pancreatitis induction; ascites volume was measured and blood as well as pancreases were collected. Pancreatic injury was assessed according to Schmidt’s scale. Cytokine expression in plasma was evaluated by the multiplex method. RESULTS: Mortality at 72 h was 33% in the control group and 60% in the treatment group (p=0.07). Ascites volumes and plasma levels of cytokines between groups were similar. No difference was observed in edema or infiltration of inflammatory cells in pancreatic tissues from either group. However, necrosis of acinar cells was lower in the treatment group compared to the control group (3.5 vs. 3.75, p=0.015). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with diazoxide can reduce necrosis of acinar cells in an experimental model of acute pancreatitis, but does not affect the inflammatory response or mortality after 72 h

Composição E Diversidade De Anuros Na Restinga Do Município De Conde, Litoral Norte Do Estado Da Bahia, Nordeste Do Brasil

The Conde municipality is located in the northern coast of the state of Bahia (NC), northeastern Brazil, and is part of the Atlantic Tropical domain. The anuran fauna of the northern portion of the NC is still poorly known if compared to the southern portion. The Restinga is one of the predominant environments of the coastal plains of the NC and it is characterized essentially by presenting sandy soil covered by herbaceous and shrubby vegetation. The objective of this study was to determine the anuran species composition and diversity for the Restinga of the Conde municipality. Sampling was carried out at night by active search over four periods of five consecutive days each, two over the ‘main rainy season’ and two in a ‘lesser rainy season’, using 14 sample units (SUs) and five extra sample plots (EPs). We calculated dominance and species diversity using the Berger-Parker and Shannon-Wiener H’ indices, respectively. We used accumulation curves and the Jackknife 1 estimator to estimate anuran species richness, considering only the data obtained from the SUs. We recorded 713 anuran specimens distributed within 33 species, 13 genera and five families (Bufonidae, Craugastoridae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae and Microhylidae). The Hylidae and Leptodactylidae families had the highest species richness. Considering only the SUs (Jackknife 1 estimator in brackets), we recorded 28 species in the study area (33.9 ± 2.3), 13 in Shrubby Vegetation Zones-SVZ (20.8 ± 2.9) and 25 in Freshwater Wetland Zones-FWZ (28.9 ± 1.9). The abundance and species diversity of the FWZ (n = 638 specimens; H’= 2.4) were higher than those recorded for the SVZ (n = 52 specimens; H’ = 1.9). The SVZ and FWZ showed distinct dominant species, wherein Pristimantis paulodutrai was the dominant species in SVZ and Scinax fuscomarginatus in FWZ. The Restinga of the Conde municipality stands out as the one with the highest anuran species richness already recorded considering only SVZ and FWZ. Moreover, its anuran species composition represented 55% of the anuran species known for the NC and included taxa common to three different morphoclimatic domains (Tropical Atlantic, Cerrado and Caatinga). © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.16

Symmetric Hyperbolic System in the Self-dual Teleparallel Gravity

In order to discuss the well-posed initial value formulation of the teleparallel gravity and apply it to numerical relativity a symmetric hyperbolic system in the self-dual teleparallel gravity which is equivalent to the Ashtekar formulation is posed. This system is different from the ones in other works by that the reality condition of the spatial metric is included in the symmetric hyperbolicity and then is no longer an independent condition. In addition the constraint equations of this system are rather simpler than the ones in other works.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

Anatomical Features Of The Urethra And Urinary Bladder Catheterization In Female Mice And Rats. An Essential Translational Tool [características Anatômicas Da Cateterização Da Uretra E Bexiga De Camundongos E Ratos Fêmeas. Instrumento Essencial Na Pesquisa Pré Clínica]

PURPOSE: To present fundamental anatomical aspects and technical skills necessary to urethra and urinary bladder catheterization in female mice and rats. METHODS: Urethral and bladder catheterization has been widely utilized for carcinogenesis and cancer research and still remains very useful in several applications: from toxicological purposes as well as inflammatory and infectious conditions to functional aspects as bladder dynamics and vesicoureteral reflux, among many others. RESULTS: Animal models are in the center of translational research and those involving rodents are the most important nowadays due to several advantages including human reproducibility, easy handling and low cost. CONCLUSIONS: Although technical and anatomical pearls for rodent urethral and bladder access are presented as tackles to the advancement of lower urinary tract preclinical investigation in a broaden sight, restriction to female animals hampers the male microenvironment, demanding future advances.26SUPPL. 2106110Reis, L.O., Fávaro, W.J., Ferreira, U., Billis, A., Fazuoli, M.G., Cagnon, V.H., Evolution on experimental animal model for upper urothelium carcinogenesis (2010) World J Urol, 28, pp. 499-505Mulder, G.J., Scholtens, E., Meijer, D.K., Collection of metabolites in bile and urine from the rat (1981) Methods Enzymol, 77, pp. 21-30Krinke, G.J., (2000) The Laboratory Rat, , San Diego, CA: Academic PressPhillips, J.I., Davies, I., The comparative morphology of the bladder and urethra in young and old female C57BL/Icrfat mice (1980) Exp Geront, 15, pp. 551-562Andersson, K.E., Arner, A., Urinary bladder contraction and relaxation: Physiology and pathophysiology (2004) Physiol Rev, 84, pp. 935-986Reis, L.O., Pereira, T.C., Favaro, W.J., Cagnon, V.H., Lopes-Cendes, I., Ferreira, U., Experimental animal model and RNA interference: A promising association for bladder cancer research (2009) World J Urol, 27, pp. 353-361Marini, R.P., Esteves, M.I., Fox, J.G., A technique for catheterization of the urinary bladder in the ferret (1994) Lab Anim, 28, pp. 155-15

Teleparallel Energy-Momentum Distribution of Spatially Homogeneous Rotating Spacetimes

The energy-momentum distribution of spatially homogeneous rotating spacetimes in the context of teleparallel theory of gravity is investigated. For this purpose, we use the teleparallel version of Moller prescription. It is found that the components of energy-momentum density are finite and well-defined but are different from General Relativity. However, the energy-momentum density components become the same in both theories under certain assumptions. We also analyse these quantities for some special solutions of the spatially homogeneous rotating spacetimes.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in Int. J. Theor. Phy

Enumeration of minimal stoichiometric precursor sets in metabolic networks

Background: What an organism needs at least from its environment to produce a set of metabolites, e.g. target(s) of interest and/or biomass, has been called a minimal precursor set. Early approaches to enumerate all minimal precursor sets took into account only the topology of the metabolic network (topological precursor sets). Due to cycles and the stoichiometric values of the reactions, it is often not possible to produce the target(s) from a topological precursor set in the sense that there is no feasible flux. Although considering the stoichiometry makes the problem harder, it enables to obtain biologically reasonable precursor sets that we call stoichiometric. Recently a method to enumerate all minimal stoichiometric precursor sets was proposed in the literature. The relationship between topological and stoichiometric precursor sets had however not yet been studied. Results: Such relationship between topological and stoichiometric precursor sets is highlighted. We also present two algorithms that enumerate all minimal stoichiometric precursor sets. The first one is of theoretical interest only and is based on the above mentioned relationship. The second approach solves a series of mixed integer linear programming problems. We compared the computed minimal precursor sets to experimentally obtained growth media of several Escherichia coli strains using genome-scale metabolic networks. Conclusions: The results show that the second approach efficiently enumerates minimal precursor sets taking stoichiometry into account, and allows for broad in silico studies of strains or species interactions that may help to understand e.g. pathotype and niche-specific metabolic capabilities. sasita is written in Java, uses cplex as LP solver and can be downloaded together with all networks and input files used in this paper at http://www.sasita.gforge.inria.fr