Supplementation of lamb diets with vitamin E and rosemary extracts on meat quality parameters

BACKGROUND Supranutritional supplementation of lamb diets with alpha-tocopherol is an effective method to reduce lipid oxidation and colour deterioration in meat products. However, alternative antioxidant sources have been proposed to replace the supranutritional vitamin E applications. RESULTS Indoor concentrate-fed Rasa Aragonesa male lambs (n = 480) were supplemented with increasing levels of all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (0.25, 0.5, 1.0 g kg(-1) compound feed), rosemary extract (0.20, 0.40, or 0.80 g kg(-1) compound feed), or rosemary extract embedded in a fat matrix (0.20, 0.40, or 0.80 g kg(-1) compound feed) for 14 days before slaughter. The longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle from three lambs per pen (18 lambs per treatment) were modified-atmosphere packaged (70% O-2 + 30% CO2) and maintained under retail conditions for 14 days. Supranutritional supplementation with antioxidants had no effect (P > 0.05) on average daily weight gain, feed intake, and feed efficiency. Rosemary extract supplementation (with or without fat embedment) had no effect on lipid oxidation, myoglobin forms, or colour stability parameters, regardless of the dose. All vitamin E supplementation levels significantly affected lipid oxidation, colour stability (L*, C*, and h), myoglobin forms, and meat discoloration parameters compared with non-supplemented lambs. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that, unlike vitamin E, neither dose nor protection of the rosemary extract had an effect on lipid oxidation or meat colour stability of lambs during the 14 days of storage under retail conditions

Alasdair MacIntyre: introducción narrativa a su obra

A raíz de la publicación del último libro del filósofo británico Alasdair MacIntyre, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity: An Essay on Desire, Practical Reasoning, and Narrative, este trabajo propone una manera de comprender su producción bibliográfica en el contexto de la narrativa de su trayectoria vital e intelectual. Se elabora una periodización del itinerario de MacIntyre, basada en las referencias que el propio autor ha hecho sobre su vida académica y en las propuestas de varios estudiosos de su pensamiento. Se concluye que el examen narrativo de la obra de Alasdair MacIntyre revela que su proyecto filosófico está marcado básicamente por Aristóteles y Tomás de Aquino, cuyo pensamiento ayudó a nuestro autor a articular una propuesta sólida sobre las principales cuestiones de filosofía moral y la filosofía de la religión, y a elaborar un nuevo marco de interpretación y conocimiento sapiencial de la realidad, también en su aspecto científico. Este trabajo se concibe como introductorio porque se centra solamente en los libros de MacIntyre, pero se espera que sirva como base sólida para realizar un estudio crítico minucioso — sobre todo, desde una perspectiva cronológica— de la práctica totalidad de su obra, que incluye también capítulos de libros, artículos académicos, entrevistas, entre otros.In the wake of the publication of the last book of the British philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity: An Essay on Desire, Practical Reasoning, and Narrative, this work proposes a way to understand his bibliographical production in the context of the narrative of his life and his intellectual career. It is elaborated a periodization of the itinerary of MacIntyre, based on the references that the author himself has made of his academic life and in the proposals of several scholars of his thought. It is concluded that the narrative examination of MacIntyre’s work reveals that his philosophical project is basically marked by Aristotle and Aquinas, whose thought helped our author to articulate a solid proposal on the main issues of moral philosophy and philosophy of religion, and to elaborate a new framework of interpretation and sapiential knowledge of reality, including its scientific dimension. This work is conceived as introductory because it focuses only on MacIntyre’s books, but it’s expected to serve as a solid basis for a thorough critical study —especially from a chronological perspective— of his entire work, which includes chapters of books, papers, interviews, among others

Análisis de las predicciones climáticas a partir de distintos servicios climáticos para la programación del riego

Comunicación presentada al XXXVII Congreso Nacional de Riegos, celebrado en Don Benito del 4 al 6 de Junio de 2019 y organizada por la Asociación Española de Riegos y Drenajes y la Universidad de ExtremaduraEl objetivo del estudio es analizar la precisión de los servicios climáticos disponibles mediante su comparación con los datos reales registrados, y mejorar su estimación para el cálculo de la ETo a la hora de efectuar la programación del riego a corto plazo.Generalitat Valenciana, Consellería de Educación, Investigación, Cultura y Deportes: Proyecto AICO 201

Agreement between a simple dyspnea-guided treatment algorithm for stable COPD and the GOLD guidelines: A pilot study

Introduction: Guidelines recommendations for the treatment of COPD are poorly followed. This could be related to the complexity of classification and treatment algorithms. The purpose of this study was to validate a simpler dyspnea-based treatment algorithm for inhaled pharmacotherapy in stable COPD, comparing its concordance with the current Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guideline. Methods: We enrolled patients who had been diagnosed with COPD in three primary care facilities and two tertiary hospitals in Spain. We determined anthropometric data, forced expiratory volume in the 1st second (percent), exacerbations, and dyspnea based on the modified Medical Research Council scale. We evaluated the new algorithm based on dyspnea and exacerbations and calculated the concordance with the current GOLD recommendations. Results: We enrolled 100 patients in primary care and 150 attending specialized care in a respiratory clinic. There were differences in the sample distribution between cohorts with 41% vs 26% in grade A, 16% vs 12% in grade B, 16% vs 22% in grade C, and 27% vs 40% in grade D for primary and respiratory care, respectively (P=0.005). The coincidence of the algorithm with the GOLD recommendations in primary care was 93% and 91.8% in the respiratory care cohort. Conclusion: A simple dyspnea-based treatment algorithm for inhaled pharmacotherapy of COPD could be useful in the management of COPD patients and concurs very well with the recommended schema suggested by the GOLD initiative

Joint Simulation of Transmission X-ray Imaging on GPU and Patient's Respiration on CPU

Purpose: We previously proposed to compute the X-ray attenuation from polygons directly on the GPU, using OpenGL, to significantly increase performance without loss of accuracy. The method has been deployed into a training simulator for percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography. The simulations were however restricted to monochromatic X-rays using a point source. They now take into account both the geometrical blur and polychromatic X-rays. Method and Materials: To implement the Beer-Lambert law with a polychromatic beam, additional loops have been included in the simulation pipeline. It is split into rendering passes and uses frame buffer objects to store intermediate results. The source shape is modeled using a variable number of point sources and the incident beam is split into discrete energy channels. The respiration model is composed of ribs, spine, lungs, liver, diaphragm and the external skin. The organ motion simulation is based on anatomical and physiological studies: the model is monitored by two independent active components: the ribs with a kinematics law and the diaphragm tendon with an up and down translation. Other soft-tissue components are passively deformed using a 3D extension of the ChainMail algorithm. The respiration rate is also tunable to modify the respiratory profile. Results: We have extended the simulation pipeline to take into account focal spots that cause geometric unsharpness and polychromatic X-rays, and dynamic polygon meshes of a breathing patient can be used as input data. Conclusions: X-ray transmission images can be fully simulated on the GPU, by using the Beer-Lambert law with polychromatism and taking into account the shape of the source. The respiration of the patient can be modeled to produce dynamic meshes. This is a useful development to improve the level of realism in simulations, when it is needed to retain both speed and accuracy

Lacustrine stromatolites: Useful structures for environmental interpretation – an example from the Miocene Ebro Basin

The significance of stromatolites as depositional environmental indicators and the underlying causes of lamination in the lacustrine realm are poorly understood. Stromatolites in a ca 600 m thick Miocene succession in the Ebro Basin are good candidates to shed light on these issues because they are intimately related to other lacustrine carbonate and sulphate facies, grew under variable environmental conditions and show distinct lamination patterns. These stromatolites are associated with wave-related, clastic-carbonate laminated limestones. Both facies consist of calcite and variable amounts of dolomite. Thin planar stromatolites (up to 10 cm thick and less than 6 m long) occurred in very shallow water. These stromatolites represented first biological colonization after: (i) subaerial exposure in the palustrine environment (i.e. at the beginning of deepening cycles); or (ii) erosion due to surge action, then coating very irregular surfaces on laminated limestones (i.e. through shallowing or deepening cycles). Sometimes they are associated with evaporative pumping. Stratiform stromatolites (10 to 30 cm high and tens of metres long) and domed stromatolites (10 to 30 cm high and long) developed in deeper settings, between the surge periods that produced hummocky cross-stratification and horizontal lamination offshore. Changes in stromatolite lamina shape, and thus in the growth forms through time, can be attributed to changes in water depth, whereas variations in lamina continuity are linked to water energy and sediment supply. Growth of the stromatolites resulted from in situ calcite precipitation and capture of minor amounts of fine-grained carbonate particles. Based on texture, four types of simple laminae are distinguished. The simple micrite and microsparite laminae can be grouped into light and dark composite laminae, which represent, respectively, high and low Precipitation/Evaporation ratio periods. Different lamination patterns provide new ideas for the interpretation of microbial laminations as a function of variations in climate-dependent parameters (primarily the Precipitation/Evaporation ratio) over variable timescales

Núcleo de microbiota en el cáncer de pulmón central con enriquecimiento estreptocócico como posible marcador de diagnóstico

Background: Dysbiosis in lung cancer has been underexplored. The aim of this study was to define the bacterial and fungal microbiota of the bronchi in central lung cancer and to compare it with that of the oral and intestinal compartments. Methods: Twenty-five patients with central lung cancer and sixteen controls without antimicrobial intake during the previous month were recruited. Bacterial and fungal distribution was determined by massive sequencing of bronchial biopsies and saliva and faecal samples. Complex computational analysis was performed to define the core lung microbiota. Results: Affected and contralateral bronchi of patients have almost identical microbiota dominated by Streptococcus, whereas Pseudomonas was the dominant genera in controls. Oral and pulmonary ecosystems were significantly more similar in patients, probably due to microaspirations. Streptococcal abundance in the bronchi differentiated patients from controls according to a ROC curve analysis (90.9% sensitivity, 83.3% specificity, AUC = 0.897). The saliva of patients characteristically showed a greater abundance of Streptococcus, Rothia, Gemella and Lactobacillus. The mycobiome of controls (Candida) was significantly different from that of patients (Malassezia). Cancer patients’ bronchial mycobiome was similar to their saliva, but different from their contralateral bronchi. Conclusions: The central lung cancer microbiome shows high levels of Streptococcus, and differs significantly in its composition from that of control subjects. Changes are not restricted to tumour tissue, and seem to be the consequence of microaspirations from the oral cavity. These findings could be useful in the screening and even diagnosis of this disease

Multiwavelength studies of MHD waves in the solar chromosphere: An overview of recent results

The chromosphere is a thin layer of the solar atmosphere that bridges the relatively cool photosphere and the intensely heated transition region and corona. Compressible and incompressible waves propagating through the chromosphere can supply significant amounts of energy to the interface region and corona. In recent years an abundance of high-resolution observations from state-of-the-art facilities have provided new and exciting ways of disentangling the characteristics of oscillatory phenomena propagating through the dynamic chromosphere. Coupled with rapid advancements in magnetohydrodynamic wave theory, we are now in an ideal position to thoroughly investigate the role waves play in supplying energy to sustain chromospheric and coronal heating. Here, we review the recent progress made in characterising, categorising and interpreting oscillations manifesting in the solar chromosphere, with an impetus placed on their intrinsic energetics.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figures, accepted into Space Science Review