Enhancing meat quality of weaned piglets with the dietary incorporation of Ulva lactuca and carbohydrases supplementation

Pubmed Free articleThe impact of the dietary incorporation of 7% Ulva lactuca, a green seaweed, on the quality and nutritional value of piglet’s meat was assessed. U. lactuca is rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds but its cell wall is composed of complex polysaccharides that reduce their bioavailability. Therefore, the effect of supplementing piglet diets with exogenous carbohydrases was also assessed here. A total of 40 male weaned piglets were divided into four dietary groups, each with 10 piglets: control (wheat, maize and soybean meal-based diet), UL (7% U. lactuca replacing the control diet), UL +R (UL and 0.005% Rovabio®), and UL +E (UL and 0.01% ulvan lyase). The piglets were fed the diets for 2 weeks. The results showed that incorporating U. lactuca in piglet diets did not influence most of the meat quality traits (P >0.05). However, the incorporation of U. lactuca with the commercial carbohydrase (UL +R) increased the amount of the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) in their meat (P =0.011) compared with the control, by 54%. In addition, meat from piglets fed seaweed diets showed a nearly two-fold increase in iodine contents (P <0.001). Meat tenderness, juiciness and overall acceptability of piglets fed the control diet and the UL diet were lower than those fed the diets containing seaweed and carbohydrases (P <0.001). Overall, the findings indicate that 7% U. lactuca in the diets of weaned piglets had no major detrimental effects on meat quality and their carbohydrase supplementation has the potential to improve meat sensory traits.Funding: This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through PTDC/CAL-ZOO/30238/2017 grant, associated with a post-doc contract to M.C., and PhD fellowships to J.M. P. (SFRH/BPD/116816/2016) and D.M.R. (SFRH/BD/143992/2019). CIISA (UIDB/00276/2020), AL4AnimalS (LA/P/0059/2020) and LEAF (UIDB/04129/2020) grants, also from FCT, are also acknowledged. The authors acknowledge Teresa Costa from Indukern, Lda. (Sintra, Portugal), for the Rovabio® Excel AP kind donation. The graphical abstract was created using BioRender.com (https://biorender.com/).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integração de critérios técnicos, ambientais e sociais em estudos de alternativas locacionais para implantação de aterro sanitário Integrating technical, environmental and social criteria in landfill sitting studies

A Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente tem como objetivo a conciliação do desenvolvimento econômico e social com a qualidade ambiental, e dispõe de vários instrumentos que procuram contemplara capacidade de suporte do meio. Assim, a discussão sobre a localização das atividades é uma etapa importante para a avaliação da viabilidade ambiental de um determinado empreendimento, notadamente em processos de licenciamento ambiental. O trabalho apresenta uma abordagem metodológica para integração de critérios técnicos, ambientais e sociais em estudos de alternativas de localização de aterros sanitários, com especial atenção à interação entre os aspectos ambientais e os elementos fundamentais de um projeto (a saber, requisitos locacionais e concepção tecnológica), aplicado em um estudo de caso em São Carlos (SP). Como resultados principais, destacam-se o maior foco nos impactos significativos e a possibilidade de envolvimento de segmentos importantes da sociedade previamente à elaboração dos estudos ambientais.<br>The National Environment Policy aims to reconcile economic and social development with environmental quality and has several instruments to address environmental issues within the decision making processes. Thus, the discussion about the location of activities is an important step in the evaluation of the environmental acceptability of aparticular activity, even though the systematic procedures do not require neither to the entrepreneur or to the government studies of sitting alternatives. This paper presents the integration of technical, environmental and social criteria in a landfill sitting study, in order to present a systematic integration of environmental factors and applies in a case study in São Carlos, Brazil. The results allowed the development of an environmental impact statement more focused on significant impacts and the participation of segments of society at early stages of project's development

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora

Global variation in postoperative mortality and complications after cancer surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study in 82 countries

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licenseBackground: 80% of individuals with cancer will require a surgical procedure, yet little comparative data exist on early outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared postoperative outcomes in breast, colorectal, and gastric cancer surgery in hospitals worldwide, focusing on the effect of disease stage and complications on postoperative mortality. Methods: This was a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of consecutive adult patients undergoing surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia. The primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery. Multilevel logistic regression determined relationships within three-level nested models of patients within hospitals and countries. Hospital-level infrastructure effects were explored with three-way mediation analyses. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03471494. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and Jan 31, 2019, we enrolled 15 958 patients from 428 hospitals in 82 countries (high income 9106 patients, 31 countries; upper-middle income 2721 patients, 23 countries; or lower-middle income 4131 patients, 28 countries). Patients in LMICs presented with more advanced disease compared with patients in high-income countries. 30-day mortality was higher for gastric cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (adjusted odds ratio 3·72, 95% CI 1·70–8·16) and for colorectal cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (4·59, 2·39–8·80) and upper-middle-income countries (2·06, 1·11–3·83). No difference in 30-day mortality was seen in breast cancer. The proportion of patients who died after a major complication was greatest in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (6·15, 3·26–11·59) and upper-middle-income countries (3·89, 2·08–7·29). Postoperative death after complications was partly explained by patient factors (60%) and partly by hospital or country (40%). The absence of consistently available postoperative care facilities was associated with seven to 10 more deaths per 100 major complications in LMICs. Cancer stage alone explained little of the early variation in mortality or postoperative complications. Interpretation: Higher levels of mortality after cancer surgery in LMICs was not fully explained by later presentation of disease. The capacity to rescue patients from surgical complications is a tangible opportunity for meaningful intervention. Early death after cancer surgery might be reduced by policies focusing on strengthening perioperative care systems to detect and intervene in common complications. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Global Health Research Unit

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseBackground: Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide. Methods: A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study—a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3·85 [95% CI 2·58–5·75]; p<0·0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63·0% vs 82·7%; OR 0·35 [0·23–0·53]; p<0·0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer. Interpretation: Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised. Funding: National Institute for Health and Care Research