Preliminary Trials on juvenile Macrobrachium rosenbergii Production under modified Static 'Green water' Conditions

The methods of juvenile production of Udang Galah (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) have been documented by several workers (ling, 1969 .. Ling and Costello, 1976 .. Fujimura 7966, 1967, 1968, 1972 .. Fujimura and okomoto, 1970,. Sandifer etl.1976). The methods given by these workers involve intensive hatchery management such as frequent water change and cleaning of larval tanks to ensure good sanitation. Such a technique would involve wastage of sea water and at the same time is labour intensive. 'to overcome the above mentioned problems a study 'was conducted at the hatchery of the Faculty of Fisheries and marine Science, Serdang, to produce" Udang Galah" juveniles 'Without water change and by using «green water' at salinities 6~8°100 and 12-14% 0 respectively. Previous studies by Cohen et al. (1976) have conclusively shozon that (green water' is an efficient system to remove toxic metabolites such as ammonia from the culture medium. The 'green water' 'which mainly consists of unicellular algae such as Chlorella is produced by expos;'lg 'loater of salim'ty 6°(00 'Which contained Sarothcrodon mossambicus to sunlight (Fujimura

Effects of reconstituted collagen matrix on fates of mouse embryonic stem cells before and after induction for chondrogenic differentiation

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells with great potential in regenerative medicine. However, controlling their differentiation toward homogeneous lineages is challenging. In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of reconstituted 3D collagen matrix on the fates of mouse ES (mES) cells before and after induction for chondrogenic differentiation. Specifically, mES cells were encapsulated and cultured in 3D collagen microspheres and exposed to induction signals at different time points. Growth characteristics and differentiation status of mES cells were then evaluated. Collagen microspheres provided a suitable microenvironment supporting mES cell growth and maintaining their undifferentiated status for certain period of time. At later time points, the proportion of undifferentiated mES cells gradually decreased, accompanied by increasing proportions of mesenchymal progenitor cells. This suggests the inductive role of collagen matrix in differentiating mES cells toward mesenchymal lineages. Moreover, a lower initial collagen monomer concentration facilitated the differentiation of mES cells into chondrogenic lineages, while induction at a later time point associated with a more advanced stage of chondrogenic differentiation. This indicates that both the initial collagen concentration and the time to induce differentiation significantly affected the fates of mES cells. This study contributes to future development of ES cell-based therapies. © Copyright 2009, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.published_or_final_versionThe 7th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), Barcelona, Spain, 8-11 July 2009. In Tissue Engineering. Part A, 2009, v. 15 n. 10, p. 3071-308

Evaluation of injury to Saccharomyces rouxii YSa40 cells in low water activity/pH glycerol/CPB stress system

Mid-exponential phase Saccharomyces rouxii YSa40 cells subsequently stressed at low a w/pH in the 0.64 a w/pH 3.5 glycerol/CPB system became injured. Such injury was detected by the loss of ability of the stressed population to form colonies on secondary-stress plating medium (glycerol/BM agar at 0.94 a w/pH 3.5 (lactic acid)) while colony forming ability on secondary non-stress plating medium (sugars/BM agar at 0.94 a w/pH 3.5 (lactic) was unaffected. The injury was shown to be due to sensitivity to glycerol/lactic acid. Results of the present study will be useful for achieving complete decontamination of 'Intermediate Moisture Foods' against xerotolerant molds and yeast

A Preliminary Study on Induced Spawning of the Catfish Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus) in Malaysia

Ten gravid Clarias batrachus females were administered with a single dose of common carp pituitary homogenate (CPR). Bifore injection, the eggs were light yellow and the diameter rangedfrom 0.94 mm to 1.08 mm. Ovulation occurred approximately 12 hours after the adminstration of CPR. The colour of the eggs turned brown and the diameter rangedfrom o. 99 mm to 1.27 mm. The fertilization rates rangedfrom 10-81%. The eggs hatched after about 30-36 hours of incubation at 26°C to 28°C. The hatching rates ranged from 13-67070

An Evaluation of the Use of Egg Yolk, Artemia nauplii, Microworms and Moina as Diets in Larval Rearing of Helostoma temmincki Cuvier and Valenciennes

Five day old Helostoma temmincki larvae measing 4.6 ± 0.1 mm in total length were stocked into 12 larval culture tanks at the rate of 1000 larvae/tank (l0 larvae/l). The larvae were fed Diet I (Egg yolk), Diet II (Egg yolk + Artemia naupliz), Diet III (Egg yolk +microworms), and Diet IV (Egg yolk + Moina) for iz period of4 weeks. After 1 week of rearing, larvae fed Diet III measun'ng 8. 4 mm total length and 7.0 mg weight were larger than larvae fed the other diets (P < 0.05). A t the end of two weeks, larvae fed Diets II, III and IV were larger than larvae fed Diet I (P < 0.05). FrOm" week 3 onwards, larvae fed Diet IV were consistently larger (P <0.05). This experiment shows that microworms were very suitable as a starter feed and that Moina was suitable for feeding Helostoma temmincki larvae after week 2 under tropical conditions

A silent speech system based on permanent magnet articulography and direct synthesis

In this paper we present a silent speech interface (SSI) system aimed at restoring speech communication for individuals who have lost their voice due to laryngectomy or diseases affecting the vocal folds. In the proposed system, articulatory data captured from the lips and tongue using permanent magnet articulography (PMA) are converted into audible speech using a speaker-dependent transformation learned from simultaneous recordings of PMA and audio signals acquired before laryngectomy. The transformation is represented using a mixture of factor analysers, which is a generative model that allows us to efficiently model non-linear behaviour and perform dimensionality reduction at the same time. The learned transformation is then deployed during normal usage of the SSI to restore the acoustic speech signal associated with the captured PMA data. The proposed system is evaluated using objective quality measures and listening tests on two databases containing PMA and audio recordings for normal speakers. Results show that it is possible to reconstruct speech from articulator movements captured by an unobtrusive technique without an intermediate recognition step. The SSI is capable of producing speech of sufficient intelligibility and naturalness that the speaker is clearly identifiable, but problems remain in scaling up the process to function consistently for phonetically rich vocabularies

sPDZD2: a novel negative modulator of hedgehog signaling

Poster Presentation - Theme 3: Development & stem cellsPDZD2 is a multi-PDZ domain-containing protein of unknown function in early development. It is proteolytically cleaved to generate its secreted form, sPDZD2. Human PDZD2 is mapped to chromosome 5p13.2, which co-localizes with the disease-associated gene in a family of Brachydactyly Type A1 (BDA1) patients, suggesting involvement of PDZD2 in limb development. Hedgehog (Hh) is an important morphogen that dictates tissue patterning during embryonic development and recent studies showed that mutations in Indian Hedgehog (IHH) resulted in ...postprin

Total hip replacement: effect of cement mantle thickness - an integrated computational simulation and in vitro study

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Total Hip Replacement: Tensile Stress in Bone Cement is influenced by Cement Mantle Thickness, Acetabular Size, Bone Quality, and Body Mass Index

Background: High stress developed in the cement mantle of a total hip replacement is reported to contribute to premature failure of acetabular components. We postulate that stress level is influenced by cement mantle thickness, acetabular size, bone quality and body mass index. Methods: Finite element models of reconstructed hemi pelves of different sizes and acetabular diameters (46, 52 and 58 mm) were created from CT-Scan data. We investigated the effects of cement mantle thickness (1, 2, 3 and 4 mm), acetabular size, body mass index (BMI = 20, 25 and 30 kg/m2) and bone quality on stress level developed in the cement mantle. Findings: Peak tensile stresses in the cement mantle increased with a decrease in cement mantle thickness, acetabular size and bone quality and an increase in BMI. Interpretation: Our results indicate that a 4-mm-thick cement mantle is required in small reconstructed acetabulae of ≤ 50-mm diameters, while a 1-mm thick cement mantle can be used on larger reconstructed acetabulae of ≥ 58 mm diameter. Patients with poor bone quality require at least a 4-mm-thick cement mantle to reduce the risk failure caused by high stress level in the cement mantle