Moringa Plant and it use as Feed in Aquaculture Development: A Review

Aquaculture, an important source for animal protein utilizes a lot of fishmeal regarded as the best protein source in fish feeds. For making feeds, aquaculture sector alone consumed the equivalent of about 23.8 million metric tons (mmt) of fish or 87% of nonfood fish by 2006. By 2011, the non-food uses of world fisheries were 23.2 mmt out of a total fish production of 154 mmt. The use of fishmeal is therefore substantial; 15.0 mmt being used in 2010. In Nigeria for example, small forage pelagic fish used in fishmeal production contributes 51% of total fish supply. Because most of the conventional plant/animal feed sources are equally in great demand for human consumption, there is an urgent need to examine other products from little researched plants such as moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam) as alternative source of protein in aquaculture feeds. There is a dearth of information on the use of moringa leaf or seed meals as fish feed ingredients. An extensive search and analyses of published data on moringa and any of its use in aquaculture were therefore carried out. It was reported to be hardy, high yielding and thrive in diverse ecological zones. Its leaves, the kernel and the fat-free kernel meals contain 26.4 %, 36.7 % and 61.4 % of crude protein, respectively. The kernel contains over 40 % of good quality oil comparable to olive oil. The leaves and pods are rich in vitamins and minerals. Moringa leaves are free from anti-nutritional factors except for saponins and phenols. Studies on the use of moringa in fish feed production are few and far between as is discovered in this review. Combination of seed and leaf meals in desired proportion might result in obtaining a plant-based protein source that could favourably replace fishmeal in fish feeds. Hence, this review on available information on M. oleifera used in fish feeds exposes the need for further research.Keywords: Fish feed ingredients, Fishmeal, Alternative protein sources, Moringa oleifera, Antinutritional factor

New first trimester crown-rump length's equations optimized by structured data collection from a French general population

--- Objectives --- Prior to foetal karyotyping, the likelihood of Down's syndrome is often determined combining maternal age, serum free beta-HCG, PAPP-A levels and embryonic measurements of crown-rump length and nuchal translucency for gestational ages between 11 and 13 weeks. It appeared important to get a precise knowledge of these scan parameters' normal values during the first trimester. This paper focused on crown-rump length. --- METHODS --- 402 pregnancies from in-vitro fertilization allowing a precise estimation of foetal ages (FA) were used to determine the best model that describes crown-rump length (CRL) as a function of FA. Scan measures by a single operator from 3846 spontaneous pregnancies representative of the general population from Northern France were used to build a mathematical model linking FA and CRL in a context as close as possible to normal scan screening used in Down's syndrome likelihood determination. We modeled both CRL as a function of FA and FA as a function of CRL. For this, we used a clear methodology and performed regressions with heteroskedastic corrections and robust regressions. The results were compared by cross-validation to retain the equations with the best predictive power. We also studied the errors between observed and predicted values. --- Results --- Data from 513 spontaneous pregnancies allowed to model CRL as a function of age of foetal age. The best model was a polynomial of degree 2. Datation with our equation that models spontaneous pregnancies from a general population was in quite agreement with objective datations obtained from 402 IVF pregnancies and thus support the validity of our model. The most precise measure of CRL was when the SD was minimal (1.83mm), for a CRL of 23.6 mm where our model predicted a 49.4 days of foetal age. Our study allowed to model the SD from 30 to 90 days of foetal age and offers the opportunity of using Zscores in the future to detect growth abnormalities. --- Conclusion --- With powerful statistical tools we report a good modeling of the first trimester embryonic growth in the general population allowing a better knowledge of the date of fertilization useful in the ultrasound screening of Down's syndrome. The optimal period to measure CRL and predict foetal age was 49.4 days (9 weeks of gestational age). Our results open the way to the detection of foetal growth abnormalities using CRL Zscores throughout the first trimester

From presence to consciousness through virtual reality

Immersive virtual environments can break the deep, everyday connection between where our senses tell us we are and where we are actually located and whom we are with. The concept of 'presence' refers to the phenomenon of behaving and feeling as if we are in the virtual world created by computer displays. In this article, we argue that presence is worthy of study by neuroscientists, and that it might aid the study of perception and consciousness

Disentangling the Effects of Vapor Pressure Deficit and Soil Water Availability on Canopy Conductance in a Seasonal Tropical Forest During the 2015 El Niño Drought

Water deficit in the atmosphere and soil are two key interactive factors that constrain transpiration and vegetation productivity. It is not clear which of these two factors is more important for the water and carbon flux response to drought stress in ecosystems. In this study, field data and numerical modeling were used to isolate their impact on evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary productivity (GPP) at a tropical forest site in Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, focusing on their response to the drought induced by the El Niño event of 2015–2016. Numerical simulations were performed using a plant hydrodynamic scheme (HYDRO) and a heuristic approach that ignores stomatal sensitivity to leaf water potential in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model (ELM). The sensitivity of canopy conductance (Gs) to vapor pressure deficit (VPD) obtained from eddy-covariance fluxes and measured sap flux shows that, at both ecosystem and plant scale, soil water stress is more important in limiting Gs than VPD at BCI during the El Niño event. The model simulations confirmed the importance of water stress limitation on Gs, but overestimated the VPD impact on Gs compared to that estimated from the observations. We also found that the predicted soil moisture is less sensitive to the diversity of plant hydraulic traits than ET and GPP. During the dry season at BCI, seasonal ET, especially soil evaporation at VPD \u3e 0.42 kPa, simulated using HYDRO and ELM, were too strong and will require alternative parameterizations

Identification of key parameters controlling demographically structured vegetation dynamics in a land surface model: CLM4.5(FATES)

Vegetation plays an important role in regulating global carbon cycles and is a key component of the Earth system models (ESMs) that aim to project Earth's future climate. In the last decade, the vegetation component within ESMs has witnessed great progress from simple "big-leaf" approaches to demographically structured approaches, which have a better representation of plant size, canopy structure, and disturbances. These demographically structured vegetation models typically have a large number of input parameters, and sensitivity analysis is needed to quantify the impact of each parameter on the model outputs for a better understanding of model behavior. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive sensitivity analysis to diagnose the Community Land Model coupled to the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Simulator, or CLM4.5(FATES). Specifically, we quantified the first- and second-order sensitivities of the model parameters to outputs that represent simulated growth and mortality as well as carbon fluxes and stocks for a tropical site with an extent of 1×1°. While the photosynthetic capacity parameter (Vc;max25) is found to be important for simulated carbon stocks and fluxes, we also show the importance of carbon storage and allometry parameters, which determine survival and growth strategies within the model. The parameter sensitivity changes with different sizes of trees and climate conditions. The results of this study highlight the importance of understanding the dynamics of the next generation of demographically enabled vegetation models within ESMs to improve model parameterization and structure for better model fidelity

Exoplanet Atmosphere Measurements from Transmission Spectroscopy and other Planet-Star Combined Light Observations

It is possible to learn a great deal about exoplanet atmospheres even when we cannot spatially resolve the planets from their host stars. In this chapter, we overview the basic techniques used to characterize transiting exoplanets - transmission spectroscopy, emission and reflection spectroscopy, and full-orbit phase curve observations. We discuss practical considerations, including current and future observing facilities and best practices for measuring precise spectra. We also highlight major observational results on the chemistry, climate, and cloud properties of exoplanets.Comment: Accepted review chapter; Handbook of Exoplanets, eds. Hans J. Deeg and Juan Antonio Belmonte (Springer-Verlag). 22 pages, 6 figure

Controls on gut phosphatisation : the trilobites from the Weeks Formation Lagerstätte (Cambrian; Utah)

Despite being internal organs, digestive structures are frequently preserved in Cambrian Lagerstätten. However, the reasons for their fossilisation and their biological implications remain to be thoroughly explored. This is particularly true with arthropods--typically the most diverse fossilised organisms in Cambrian ecosystems--where digestive structures represent an as-yet underexploited alternative to appendage morphology for inferences on their biology. Here we describe the phosphatised digestive structures of three trilobite species from the Cambrian Weeks Formation Lagerstätte (Utah). Their exquisite, three-dimensional preservation reveals unique details on trilobite internal anatomy, such as the position of the mouth and the absence of a differentiated crop. In addition, the presence of paired pygidial organs of an unknown function is reported for the first time. This exceptional material enables exploration of the relationships between gut phosphatisation and the biology of organisms. Indeed, soft-tissue preservation is unusual in these fossils as it is restricted to the digestive structures, which indicates that the gut played a central role in its own phosphatisation. We hypothesize that the gut provided a microenvironment where special conditions could develop and harboured a source of phosphorus. The fact that gut phosphatization has almost exclusively been observed in arthropods could be explained by their uncommon ability to store ions (including phosphorous) in their digestive tissues. However, in some specimens from the Weeks Formation, the phosphatisation extends to the entire digestive system, suggesting that trilobites might have had some biological particularities not observed in modern arthropods. We speculate that one of them might have been an increased capacity for ion storage in the gut tissues, related to the moulting of their heavily-mineralised carapace

Morphological and Electrochemical Properties of Crystalline Praseodymium Oxide Nanorods

Highly crystalline Pr6O11 nanorods were prepared by a simple precipitation method of triethylamine complex at 500°C. Synthesized Pr6O11 nanorods were uniformly grown with the diameter of 12–15 nm and the length of 100–150 nm without any impurities of unstable PrO2 phase. The Pr6O11 nanorod electrodes attained a high electrical conductivity of 0.954 Scm−1 with low activation energy of 0.594 eV at 850°C. The electrochemical impedance study showed that the resistance of electrode was significantly decreased at high temperature, which resulted from its high conductivity and low activation energy. The reduced impedance and high electrical conductivity of Pr6O11 nanorod electrodes are attributed to the reduction of grain boundaries and high space charge width

Genome-wide analysis of ivermectin response by Onchocerca volvulus reveals that genetic drift and soft selective sweeps contribute to loss of drug sensitivity

Treatment of onchocerciasis using mass ivermectin administration has reduced morbidity and transmission throughout Africa and Central/South America. Mass drug administration is likely to exert selection pressure on parasites, and phenotypic and genetic changes in several Onchocerca volvulus populations from Cameroon and Ghana-exposed to more than a decade of regular ivermectin treatment-have raised concern that sub-optimal responses to ivermectin's anti-fecundity effect are becoming more frequent and may spread.Pooled next generation sequencing (Pool-seq) was used to characterise genetic diversity within and between 108 adult female worms differing in ivermectin treatment history and response. Genome-wide analyses revealed genetic variation that significantly differentiated good responder (GR) and sub-optimal responder (SOR) parasites. These variants were not randomly distributed but clustered in ~31 quantitative trait loci (QTLs), with little overlap in putative QTL position and gene content between the two countries. Published candidate ivermectin SOR genes were largely absent in these regions; QTLs differentiating GR and SOR worms were enriched for genes in molecular pathways associated with neurotransmission, development, and stress responses. Finally, single worm genotyping demonstrated that geographic isolation and genetic change over time (in the presence of drug exposure) had a significantly greater role in shaping genetic diversity than the evolution of SOR.This study is one of the first genome-wide association analyses in a parasitic nematode, and provides insight into the genomics of ivermectin response and population structure of O. volvulus. We argue that ivermectin response is a polygenically-determined quantitative trait (QT) whereby identical or related molecular pathways but not necessarily individual genes are likely to determine the extent of ivermectin response in different parasite populations. Furthermore, we propose that genetic drift rather than genetic selection of SOR is the underlying driver of population differentiation, which has significant implications for the emergence and potential spread of SOR within and between these parasite populations