The effects of supplemental feeds containing different protein: Energy ratios on the growth and survival of Tilapia nilotica (Oreochromis niloticus) in brackishwater ponds

A research was conducted in thirty approximately 100 sq.m earthern ponds of the Brackishwater Aquaculture Centre (BAC), College of Fisheries, University of the Philippines, Leganes Iloilo from November 7, 1982 to March 7, 1983 to evaluate the effects of nine supplemental feeds containing different protein: energy ratios on the growth and survival of Tilapia nilotica in brackishwater ponds. Nine supplemental feeds formulated were with protein levels of 20%, 25%, and 30% each at three energy levels of 3,000 kcals; 3,500 kcals; and 4,000 kcals. There was a control treatment with no feeding so that mean weight gain growth rate, feed conversion rate, and survival were determined. Fish fingerlings were acclimated from 0-29 ppt. salinity before the experiment and 20% of fish in each treatment were sampled after every 30 days. Growth rates were significantly different and increased with increasing energy level at the 30% protein feeds but decreased at high energy levels in the 20% and 25% protein feeds. Feed conversion was significantly different due to interaction between protein and energy levels in the feeds, and was better at the 30:3,500 kcals feeds having a feed conversion of 1.55 g. Survival was not significantly differen

The region 3 ' to C alpha 1 gene of human IG heavy chain displays a polymorphic duplicated sequence and encodes an RNA associated with polysomes

A highly spread polymorphism flanking the 3 C alpha 1 human IG heavy chain gene was identified. This polymorphism allowed the detection of an internal duplication within the 3' flanking region of both C alpha 1 and C alpha 2. This region has a regulatory function with four enhancer structures also present at the 3' end of the human C alpha 2 as well as in that of mouse and rat single C alpha genes. The 5682-bp sequence of clone lambda p18 described here starts 3' of C alpha 1 and presents three open reading frames; one of them contains part of the tandem repeats with the 20-bp consensus described previously that is expressed in a poly(A)(+) RNA and found in three dbEST clones of the human tonsillar cDNA library. Here, we demonstrate that in the CLF1 B lymphoblastoid cell line, this transcript is associated with polysomes. We also discuss the possibility of the presence of a new regulatory gene that does not encode an immunoglobulin and maps in the human IG heavy chain gene cluster. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Catálogo de los peces de la cuenca Iténez (Bolivia y Brasil)

Se presenta una lista de los peces de la cuenca Iténez elaborada en base a descripciones taxonómicas originales, registros bibliográficos y estudios recientes de investigadores de Brasil y Bolivia. Las especies fueron seleccionadas considerando cinco criterios de acuerdo con la confiabilidad de la fuente de referencia. Las citas de los taxones fueron acompañadas por observaciones vinculadas a su nomenclatura, distribución geográfica conocida y su registro para la cuenca Iténez. En total, 619 taxones de peces están citadas en la literatura. De estas, 556 especies fueron reconocidas como válidas y 63 tienen identificación incompleta o representan identificaciones dudosas debido a la incompatibilidad entre su área de distribución conocida y su presencia en la cuenca del río Iténez.E apresentada urna lista de espécies de peixes da bacia Iténez*, elaborada com base em descrigóes originais para a mesma, registros bibliográficos e estudos recentes realizados por pesquisadores do Brasil e Bolívia. As espécies foram selecionadas considerando cinco critérios relacionados à veracidade de sua fonte de referencia. As citagóes dos táxons foram acompanhadas por observagóes vinculadas á nomenclatura, à distribuigao conhecida do táxon e ao seu registro na bacia Iténez. Um total de 619 espécies de peixes foram registradas. Destas, 556 espécies foram identificadas como válidas e 63 táxons foram indicados com identificagao incerta ou foram consideradas duvidosas devido às divergencias entre a distribuigao geográfica conhecida para os taxons na literatura recente e seu registro na bacia Iténez.* Iténez e denominado rio Guaporé no Brasil.A check list of the fish species of the Iténez* river basin was compiled on the basis of original species descriptions, main references and recent studies by Bolivian and Brazilian researchers. The species list was based on five criteria ordered according to the reliability of the reference. The citations of taxa were followed by notes on the nomenclature or the divergences between the generally accepted distribution of each taxon and its ocurrence in the Iténez river basin. In total, 619 fish species were recorded in the literature. Of these, 556 species were categorized as valid. Sixty three citations were considered doubtful due to uncertain identification or incompatibility between their original known geographical distribution range and their records in the Iténez river basin.* The Iténez river is known as Guaporé river in Brasil

Detailed analysis of excited-state systematics in a lattice QCD calculation of gA

Excited state contamination remains one of the most challenging sources of systematic uncertainty to control in lattice QCD calculations of nucleon matrix elements and form factors: early time separations are contaminated by excited states and late times suffer from an exponentially bad signal-to-noise problem. High-statistics calculations at large time separations 1 fm are commonly used to combat these issues. In this work, focusing on gA, we explore the alternative strategy of utilizing a large number of relatively low-statistics calculations at short to medium time separations (0.2-1 fm), combined with a multistate analysis. On an ensemble with a pion mass of approximately 310 MeV and a lattice spacing of approximately 0.09 fm, we find this provides a more robust and economical method of quantifying and controlling the excited state systematic uncertainty. A quantitative separation of various types of excited states enables the identification of the transition matrix elements as the dominant contamination. The excited state contamination of the Feynman-Hellmann correlation function is found to reduce to the 1% level at approximately 1 fm while, for the more standard three-point functions, this does not occur until after 2 fm. Critical to our findings is the use of a global minimization, rather than fixing the spectrum from the two-point functions and using them as input to the three-point analysis. We find that the ground state parameters determined in such a global analysis are stable against variations in the excited state model, the number of excited states, and the truncation of early-time or late-time numerical data

Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System

Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde

Zebrafish models of collagen VI-related myopathies

Collagen VI is an integral part of the skeletal muscle extracellular matrix, providing mechanical stability and facilitating matrix-dependent cell signaling. Mutations in collagen VI result in either Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy (UCMD) or Bethlem myopathy (BM), with UCMD being clinically more severe. Recent studies demonstrating increased apoptosis and abnormal mitochondrial function in Col6a1 knockout mice and in human myoblasts have provided the first mechanistic insights into the pathophysiology of these diseases. However, how loss of collagen VI causes mitochondrial dysfunction remains to be understood. Progress is hindered in part by the lack of an adequate animal model for UCMD, as knockout mice have a mild motor phenotype. To further the understanding of these disorders, we have generated zebrafish models of the collagen VI myopathies. Morpholinos designed to exon 9 of col6a1 produced a severe muscle disease reminiscent of UCMD, while ones to exon 13 produced a milder phenotype similar to BM. UCMD-like zebrafish have increased cell death and abnormal mitochondria, which can be attenuated by treatment with the proton pump modifier cyclosporin A (CsA). CsA improved the motor deficits in UCMD-like zebrafish, but failed to reverse the sarcolemmal membrane damage. In all, we have successfully generated the first vertebrate model matching the clinical severity of UCMD and demonstrated that CsA provides phenotypic improvement, thus corroborating data from knockout mice supporting the use of mitochondrial permeability transition pore modifiers as therapeutics in patients, and providing proof of principle for the utility of the zebrafish as a powerful preclinical model

Controlled clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of a mindfulness and self-compassion 4-session programme versus an 8-session programme to reduce work stress and burnout in family and community medicine physicians and nurses: MINDUUDD study protocol

Background: Health personnel are susceptible to high levels of work stress and burnout due to the psychological and emotional demands of their work, as well as to other aspects related to the organisation of that work. This paper describes the rationale and design of the MINDUUDD study, the aim of which is to evaluate the effectiveness of a mindfulness and self-compassion 4-session programme versus the standard 8-session programme to reduce work stress and burnout in Family and Community Medicine and Nursing tutors and residents. Methods: The MINDUDD study is a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial with three parallel arms. Six Teaching Units will be randomised to one of the three study groups: 1) Experimental Group-8 (EG8); 2) Experimental Group-4 (EG4) Control group (CG). At least 132 subjects will participate (66 tutors/66 residents), 44 in the EG8, 44 in the EG4, and 44 in the CG. Interventions will be based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, including some self-compassion practices of the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) programme. The EG8 intervention will be implemented during 8 weekly face-to-face sessions of 2.5 h each, while the EG4 intervention will consist of 4 sessions of 2.5 h each. The participants will have to practice at home for 30 min/day in the EG8 and 15 min/day in the EG4. The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE), and Goldberg Anxiety-Depression Scale (GADS) will be administered. Measurements will be taken at baseline, at the end of the programs, and at three months after completion. The effect of the interventions will be evaluated by bivariate and multivariate analyses (Multiple Linear Regression). Discussion: If the abbreviated mindfulness programme is at least as effective as the standard program, its incorporation into the curriculum and training plans will be easier and more appropriate. It will also be more easily applied and accepted by primary care professionals because of the reduced resources and means required for its implementation, and it may also extend beyond care settings to academic and teaching environments as well

Demonstration of a novel technique to measure two-photon exchange effects in elastic e±pe^\pm p scattering

The discrepancy between proton electromagnetic form factors extracted using unpolarized and polarized scattering data is believed to be a consequence of two-photon exchange (TPE) effects. However, the calculations of TPE corrections have significant model dependence, and there is limited direct experimental evidence for such corrections. We present the results of a new experimental technique for making direct $e^\pm p$ comparisons, which has the potential to make precise measurements over a broad range in $Q^2$ and scattering angles. We use the Jefferson Lab electron beam and the Hall B photon tagger to generate a clean but untagged photon beam. The photon beam impinges on a converter foil to generate a mixed beam of electrons, positrons, and photons. A chicane is used to separate and recombine the electron and positron beams while the photon beam is stopped by a photon blocker. This provides a combined electron and positron beam, with energies from 0.5 to 3.2 GeV, which impinges on a liquid hydrogen target. The large acceptance CLAS detector is used to identify and reconstruct elastic scattering events, determining both the initial lepton energy and the sign of the scattered lepton. The data were collected in two days with a primary electron beam energy of only 3.3 GeV, limiting the data from this run to smaller values of $Q^2$ and scattering angle. Nonetheless, this measurement yields a data sample for $e^\pm p$ with statistics comparable to those of the best previous measurements. We have shown that we can cleanly identify elastic scattering events and correct for the difference in acceptance for electron and positron scattering. The final ratio of positron to electron scattering: $R=1.027\pm0.005\pm0.05$ for $=0.206$ GeV$^2$ and $0.830\leq \epsilon\leq 0.943$

Search for Higgs bosons decaying to tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons decaying into tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1, were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We set upper limits at the 95% C.L. on the product of production cross section and branching ratio for a scalar resonance decaying into tautau pairs, and we then interpret these limits as limits on the production of Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and as constraints in the MSSM parameter space.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PL

Measurement of the photon+b+b-jet production differential cross section in ppˉp\bar{p} collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.96~\TeV

We present measurements of the differential cross section dsigma/dpT_gamma for the inclusive production of a photon in association with a b-quark jet for photons with rapidities |y_gamma|< 1.0 and 30<pT_gamma <300 GeV, as well as for photons with 1.5<|y_gamma|< 2.5 and 30< pT_gamma <200 GeV, where pT_gamma is the photon transverse momentum. The b-quark jets are required to have pT>15 GeV and rapidity |y_jet| < 1.5. The results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7 fb^-1, recorded with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ Collider at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV. The measured cross sections are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using different sets of parton distribution functions as well as to predictions based on the kT-factorization QCD approach, and those from the Sherpa and Pythia Monte Carlo event generators.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.