Effects of plant proteins as food on growth performance, carcass quality and plasma biochemical parameters of Beluga juvenile (Huso huso)

The possibility of replacing fish meal with plant protein sources (soybean meal and corn gluten) for beluga (initial body mass 159.55±2.14g) was studied in autumn 2009. Experimental feeds with 46.5% of crude protein, GE: 5.4 Cal g -1 in four replacement levels: 0, 270, 450 and 660 gr kg 1 were prepared and fish were fed on the diets for 60 days. Significant differences were found in growth performance (P0.05). Moisture of beluga carcass fed with diet 4 was significantly higher (P0.05) among diets. The hematocrit percentage was significantly higher in experimental treatments 1 and 2 than 3 and 4 and the plasma glucose was significantly different between diets 1 and 4 (P<0.05). With decreased fish meal, significantly (P<0.05) decreased plasma cholesterol was found in diet 1 compared to the diets 3 and 4. Results showed that combination of soybean meal and corn gluten is not a good substitute for fish meal and deceased growth performance of the fish

Quantitative characteristics and chemical composition in Caspian roach (Rutilus rutilus caspicus) sperm

In this study, quantitative characteristics and chemical composition of in roach (Rutilus rutilus caspicus) sperm were investigated. Sperm traits included sperm movement duration, percentage of motile spermatozoa, sperm density, spermatocrit and sperm volume. Some seminal plasma characteristics (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and chloride) were investigated. In addition, some metabolites of seminal plasma (glucose, cholesterol and protein) were measured. The Na+ and K+ ions correlated negatively with spermatozoa motility (r = -0.0518, p<.05 and r =-0.3597, p<.01) respectively. Also, there were significant positive correlations between Ca2+ and Cl- ions with spermatozoa motility (r = 0.2945, p<.05 and r= 0.1379, p<.01), respectively. Mg+2 was positively correlated with glucose and protein (r = 0.046, p<.05 and r = 0.694, p<.05), respectively. On the other hand, a significant positive relationship was found between Na+ and K+ (r = 0.548, p<.01). These parameters can be used to evaluation of sperm quality and collecting information about developing procedures for artificial fertilization of roach

The role of nitric oxide�cGMP pathway in selegiline antidepressant-like effect in the mice forced swim test

Background: Considering the pivotal role of nitric oxide (NO) pathway in depressive disorders, the aim of the present study was to investigate the antidepressant-like effect of selegiline in mice forced swimming test (FST), and possible involvement of NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway in this action. Methods: After assessment of locomotor activity in open-field test, mice were forced to swim individually and the immobility time of the last 4 min was evaluated. All drugs were given intraperitoneally (ip). Results: Selegiline (10 mg/kg) decreased the immobility time in the FST similar to fluoxetine (20 mg/kg). Pretreatment with L-arginine (NO precursor, 750 mg/kg) or sildenafil (a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor, 5 mg/kg) significantly reversed the selegiline anti-immobility effect. Sub-effective dose of selegiline (1 mg/kg) showed a synergistic antidepressant effect with NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, inhibitor of NO synthase, 10 mg/kg) or 7-nitroindazole (specific neuronal NO synthase inhibitor, 30 mg/kg), but not with aminoguanidine (specific inducible NO synthase inhibitor, 50 mg/kg). Pretreatment of mice with methylene blue (an inhibitor of NO synthase and soluble guanylyl cyclase, 10 mg/kg) significantly produced a synergistic response with the sub-effective dose of selegiline. Neither of the drugs changed the locomotor activity. Also, hippocampal and prefrontal cortex (PFC) nitrite content was significantly lower in selegiline-injected mice compared to saline-administrated mice. Also, co-injection of 7-nitroindazole with selegiline produced a significant reduction in hippocampal or PFC nitrite contents. Conclusions: It is concluded that selegiline possesses antidepressant-like effect in mice FST through inhibition of L-arginine-NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate pathway. © 2018 Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Science

Pharmacological evidence for the involvement of the NMDA receptor and nitric oxide pathway in the antidepressant-like effect of lamotrigine in the mouse forced swimming test

Lamotrigine is an anticonvulsant agent that shows clinical antidepressant properties. The aim of the present study was to investigate the involvement of N-methyl- d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (NO-cGMP) synthesis in possible antidepressant-like effect of lamotrigine in forced swimming test (FST) in mice. Intraperitoneal administration of lamotrigine (10 mg/kg) decreased the immobility time in the FST (P < 0.01) without any effect on locomotor activity in the open-field test (OFT), while higher dose of lamotrigine (30 mg/kg) reduced the immobility time in the FST (P < 0.001) as well as the number of crossings in the OFT. Pretreatment of animals with NMDA (75 mg/kg), l-arginine (750 mg/kg, a substrate for nitric oxide synthase NOS) or sildenafil (5 mg/kg, a phosphodiesterase PDE 5 inhibitor) reversed the antidepressant-like effect of lamotrigine (10 mg/kg) in the FST. Injection of l-nitroarginine methyl ester (l-NAME, 10 mg/kg, a non-specific NOS inhibitor), 7-nitroindazole (30 mg/kg, a neuronal NOS inhibitor), methylene blue (20 mg/kg, an inhibitor of both NOS and soluble guanylate cyclase sGC), or MK-801 (0.05 mg/kg), ketamine (1 mg/kg), and magnesium sulfate (10 mg/kg) as NMDA receptor antagonists in combination with a sub-effective dose of lamotrigine (5 mg/kg) diminished the immobility time of animals in the FST compared with either drug alone. None of the drugs produced significant effects on the locomotor activity in the OFT. Based on our findings, it is suggested that the antidepressant-like effect of lamotrigine might mediated through inhibition of either NMDA receptors or NO-cGMP synthesis. © 2016

Shared metadata for data-centric materials science

The expansive production of data in materials science, their widespread sharing and repurposing requires educated support and stewardship. In order to ensure that this need helps rather than hinders scientific work, the implementation of the FAIR-data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) must not be too narrow. Besides, the wider materials-science community ought to agree on the strategies to tackle the challenges that are specific to its data, both from computations and experiments. In this paper, we present the result of the discussions held at the workshop on “Shared Metadata and Data Formats for Big-Data Driven Materials Science”. We start from an operative definition of metadata, and the features that a FAIR-compliant metadata schema should have. We will mainly focus on computational materials-science data and propose a constructive approach for the FAIRification of the (meta)data related to ground-state and excited-states calculations, potential-energy sampling, and generalized workflows. Finally, challenges with the FAIRification of experimental (meta)data and materials-science ontologies are presented together with an outlook of how to meet them