The chemokine receptor CXCR4 and its ligand CXCL12 are activated during implantation and placentation in sheep

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The progression of implantation and placentation in ruminants is complex and is regulated by interplay between sex steroids and local signaling molecules, many of which have immune function. Chemokines and their receptors are pivotal factors in implantation and vascularization of the placenta. Based on known critical roles for chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) during early pregnancy in other species, we hypothesized that CXCR4 and its ligand CXCL12 would increase in the endometrium and conceptus in response to implantation in ewes. The objectives of the current study were to determine if CXCL12 and CXCR4 were upregulated in: endometrium from pregnant compared to non-pregnant ewes and in, conceptuses, cotyledons, caruncles and intercaruncular tissue.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Tissues were collected from sheep on Days 12, 13, 14, and 15 of either the estrous cycle or pregnancy and from pregnant ewes on Days 35 and 50. Blood samples from jugular and uterine vein were also collected on all days. Conceptuses were collected from mature ewes on Days 13, 15, 16, 17, 21 and 30 of gestation. Real time PCR was used to determine relative mRNA concentrations for CXCL12 and CXCR4 and Western blot analysis was employed to confirm protein concentration.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Differences described are P < 0.05. In the endometrium, CXCR4 mRNA and protein was greater on Day 15 of pregnancy compared to the estrous cycle. CXCL12 and CXCR4 mRNA in conceptuses was greater on Days 21 and 30 compared to earlier days. CXCL12 mRNA was greater in cotyledons on Day 35 compared to Day 50. On Day 35 of gestation, CXCR4 was greater compared to Day 50 in caruncle and intercaruncular tissue. White blood cells obtained from jugular and uterine vein collection had the greatest mRNA concentration of CXCL12 on Day 35 of pregnancy.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A comprehensive analysis of CXCL12 and CXCR4 expression in fetal and maternal tissues during early pregnancy is reported with noteworthy differences occurring during implantation and placentation in sheep. We interpreted these data to mean that the CXCL12/CXCR4 pathway is activated during implantation and placentation in sheep and is likely playing a role in the communication between trophoblast cells and the maternal endometrium.</p

Development of collaborative editing applications through semantic publish-subscribe platforms

Cloud computing revolutionized the way resources (i.e. services and data) are accessed and used. Among the many changes in data processing and service provision paradigms, Software as a Service (SaaS) and collaborative editing are two of the most significant. This paper presents an approach based on semantic publish/subscribe paradigm to the development of collaborative editing applications. The main aim of this research work consists in exploiting emerging technologies (i.e. semantic web data representation formalisms, publish-subscribe platforms) in order to (1) overcome limitations coming from the traditional paradigm of single-author workflows, (2) enhance the editing capabilities of the users, (3) ease the development and maintainment of applications and (4) provide a shared high- level abstraction of the documents that fosters information-level interoperability and reusability. The proposed approach is then validated through an ad-hoc vector graphics application, SCEd (Semantic Collaborative Editor) built upon a SPARQL Event Processing Architecture derived from the Smart-M3 semantic publish-subscribe platform

Intratesticular hypertonic sodium chloride solution treatment as a method of chemical castration in cattle

AbstractCastration of male calves is necessary for trading to facilitate handling and prevent reproduction. However, some methods of castration are traumatic and lead to economic losses because of infection and myiasis. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficiency of intratesticular injection (ITI) of hypertonic sodium chloride (NaCl; 20%) solution in male calf castration during the first weeks of life. Forty male calves were allocated to one of the following experimental groups: negative control—surgically castrated immediately after birth; positive control —intact males; G1—ITI from 1- to 5-day old; G2—ITI from 15- to 20-day old; and G3—ITI from 25- to 30-day old. Intratesticular injection induced coagulative necrosis of Leydig cells and seminiferous tubules leading to extensive fibrosis. Testosterone secretion and testicular development were severely impaired in 12-month-old animals from G1 and G2 groups (P < 0.05), in which no testicular structure and sperm cells were observed during breeding soundness evaluation. Rectal and scrotal temperatures were not affected by different procedures. In conclusion, ITI of hypertonic NaCl solution induces sterility and completely suppresses testosterone secretion when performed during the first 20 days of life

Transforming growth factor-beta family members are regulated during induced luteolysis in cattle

The transforming growth factors beta (TGFβ) are local factors produced by ovarian cells which, after binding to their receptors, regulate follicular deviation and ovulation. However, their regulation and function during corpus luteum (CL) regression has been poorly investigated. The present study evaluated the mRNA regulation of some TGFβ family ligands and their receptors in the bovine CL during induced luteolysis in vivo. On day 10 of the estrous cycle, cows received an injection of prostaglandin F2α (PGF) and luteal samples were obtained from separate groups of cows (n= 4-5 cows per time-point) at 0, 2, 12, 24 or 48 h after treatment. Since TGF beta family comprises more than 30 ligands, we focused in some candidates genes such as activin receptors (ACVR-1A, -1B, -2A, -2B) AMH, AMHR2, BMPs (BMP-1, -2, -3, -4, -6 and -7), BMP receptors (BMPR 1A, -1B and -2), inhibin subunits (INH-A, -BA, -BB) and betaglycan (TGFBR3). The mRNA levels of BMP4, BMP6 and INHBA were higher at 2 h after PGF administration (P<0.05) in comparison to 0 h. The relative mRNA abundance of BMP1, BMP2, BMP3, BMP4, BMP6, ACVR1B, INHBA and INHBB was upregulated up to 12 h post PGF (P<0.05). On the other hand, TGFBR3 mRNA that codes for a reservoir of ligands that bind to TGF-beta receptors, was lower at 48 h. In conclusion, findings from this study demonstrated that genes encoding several TGFβ family members are expressed in a time-specific manner after PGF administration

From Heterogeneous Sensor Networks to Integrated Software Services: Design and Implementation of a Semantic Architecture for the Internet of Things at ARCES@UNIBO

The Internet of Things (IoTs) is growing fast both in terms of number of devices connected and of complexity of deployments and applications. Several research studies an- alyzing the economical impact of the IoT worldwide identify the interoperability as one of the main boosting factor for its growth, thanks to the possibility to unlock novel commercial opportunities derived from the integration of heterogeneous systems which are currently not interconnected. However, at present, interoperability constitutes a relevant practical issue on any IoT deployments that is composed of sensor platforms mapped on different wireless technologies, network protocols or data formats. The paper addresses such issue, and investigates how to achieve effective data interoperability and data reuse on complex IoT deployments, where multiple users/applications need to consume sensor data produced by heterogeneous sensor networks. We propose a generic three-tier IoT architecture, which decouples the sensor data producers from the sensor data consumers, thanks to the intermediation of a semantic broker which is in charge of translating the sensor data into a shared ontology, and of providing publish-subscribe facilities to the producers/consumers. Then, we describe the real-world implementation of such architecture devised at the Advanced Research Center on Electronic System (ARCES) of the University of Bologna. The actual system collects the data produced by three different sensor networks, integrates them through a SPARQL Event Processing Architecture (SEPA), and supports two front- end applications for the data access, i.e. a web dashboard and an Amazon Alexa voice service

Implementation and evaluation of the last will primitive in a semantic information broker for IoT applications

Distributed loT applications in smart cities and mobile scenarios constantly face challenges due to intermittent connectivity. The temporary unavailability of one or more agents in cooperative applications, may introduce many sources of failures like, for example, the lack of synchronization or the absence of a needed module in a complex service provision. In this article, we discuss about and describe the implementation of a last will (LW) primitive for a semantic information broker used to manage the central knowledge base of a smart city scenario. The semantic LW plays a crucial role in increasing the overall reliability and resiliency to connectivity failures. This primitive exhibits higher expressivity and flexibility compared to the MQTT LW, good responsiveness and a negligible static impact on the performance

Interactive 3D Exploration of RDF Graphs through Semantic Planes

This article presents Tarsier, a tool for the interactive 3D visualization of RDF graphs. Tarsier is mainly intended to support teachers introducing students to Semantic Web data representation formalisms and developers in the debugging of applications based on Semantic Web knowledge bases. The tool proposes the metaphor of semantic planes as a way to visualize an RDF graph. A semantic plane contains all the RDF terms sharing a common concept; it can be created, and further split into several planes, through a set of UI controls or through SPARQL 1.1 queries, with the full support of OWL and RDFS. Thanks to the 3D visualization, links between semantic planes can be highlighted and the user can navigate within the 3D scene to find the better perspective to analyze data. Data can be gathered from generic SPARQL 1.1 protocol services. We believe that Tarsier will enhance the human friendliness of semantic technologies by: (1) helping newcomers assimilate new data representation formats; and (2) increasing the capabilities of inspection to detect relevant situations even in complex RDF graphs

Indução do parto de bovinos aos 270 dias de gestação com a utilização prévia de glicocorticoide de longa ação e a transferência de imunidade passiva - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v31i1.398

This experiment had the objective of evaluating passive immunity transfer and placental retention rates with the early use of a long-acting glucocorticoid to induce bovine parturition at 270 pregnancy days, as well as comparing protocol efficacy regarding the timing of parturition induction. Forty-two pregnant cows were selected from a beef and dairy herd and randomly assigned into one of three groups: control (C) without drug injection, but with the same management; long-acting + induction group (LA), with one injection of 30 mg prednisolone methylacetate, subcutaneous, on pregnancy day 255 and another injection of 20 mg dexamethasone plus 0.5 mg cloprostenol, intramuscular, on pregnancy day 270; induction group (I), with 20 mg dexamethasone plus 0.5 mg cloprostenol on pregnancy day 270. The early administration of long-acting glucocorticoid did not have any difference on passive immunity transfer and placental retention. Cows from groups LA and I calved in 41.36 ± 1.89 hours post-injection of 20 mg dexamethasone plus 0.5 mg cloprostenol, regardless of previous long-acting glucocorticoid administration on the LA group. Induction of parturition using dexamethasone and cloprostenol was efficient in all cows, regardless of previous prednisolone methylacetate administration.O trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar a taxa de transferência de imunidade passiva e de retenção de placenta com a utilização prévia de um glicocorticoide de longa ação na indução do parto bovino aos 270 dias de gestação, bem como verificar a eficácia dos protocolos. Foram utilizadas 42 vacas prenhes, de corte e de leite, aleatoriamente separadas em três grupos: Grupo-controle (C) que não recebeu aplicação hormonal, mas o mesmo manejo; Grupo longa ação + indução (LA) que recebeu 30 mg de acetato de metilprednisolona, via subcutânea, no dia 255 de gestação e 20 mg de dexametasona associada a 0,5 mg de cloprostenol sódico, via intramuscular, no dia 270 de gestação; e Grupo indução (I) que recebeu 20 mg de dexametasona associada a 0,5 mg de cloprostenol sódico no dia 270 de gestação. A utilização prévia do glicocorticoide de longa ação não mostrou diferença na taxa de transferência de imunidade passiva e nos índices de retenção de placenta. As fêmeas dos Grupos LA e I pariram em 41,36 ± 1,89h após a aplicação hormonal de dexametasona associada ao cloprostenol, independente de aplicação prévia de glicocorticoide de longa ação no Grupo LA. A indução da parição com dexametasona associada ao cloprostenol, independente da aplicação prévia de acetato de metilprednisolona, mostrou-se eficaz em todos dos animais