An Investigation of Proteolytic, Lipolytic Activity and Biofilm Formation by Psychrotrophic Bacteria Isolated from Buffalo Milk

The aim of this study was to investigate the enzymatic activity of 21 bacteria isolated from refrigerated raw buffalo milk, as well as to evaluate the production of biofilm by these bacteria. Proteolytic, lipolytic and lecithinase activity, as well as the production of exopolysaccharides were evaluated at different temperatures. For all of the psychrotrophic bacteria, biofilm formation on microtiter plates was evaluated at different temperatures and in the presence of residual buffalo and bovine milk. All cultures showed a proteolytic profile while 9 cultures showed lipase activity. Lecithinase production was found in 7 of the evaluated psychrotrophic bacteria. The ability to produce exopolysaccharides was found in 12 bacteria. Of the 21 bacterial isolates, 16 were biofilm producers at 7°C. At 23°C, 20 isolates were found to be biofilm producers. At a temperature of 37°C, biofilm formation by 17 isolates was weak. In the presence of residual buffalo milk, 7 were biofilm producers, while 16 bacteria produced biofilm in residual bovine milk. The results of this study show that many isolates of psychrotrophic bacteria from raw buffalo milk have the potential to produce extracellular enzymes as well as biofilm. This deserves special attention when considering the best practices to recommend during the collection of raw milk in establishments which process milk

Kinematics of the Local Universe XIII. 21-cm line measurements of 452 galaxies with the Nan\c{c}ay radiotelescope, JHK Tully-Fisher relation and preliminary maps of the peculiar velocity field

This paper presents 452 new 21-cm neutral hydrogen line measurements carried out with the FORT receiver of the meridian transit Nan\c{c}ay radiotelescope (NRT) in the period April 2003 -- March 2005. This observational programme is part of a larger project aiming at collecting an exhaustive and magnitude-complete HI extragalactic catalogue for Tully-Fisher applications (the so-called KLUN project, for Kinematics of the Local Universe studies, end in 2008). The whole on-line HI archive of the NRT contains today reduced HI-profiles for ~4500 spiral galaxies of declination delta > -40° (http://klun.obs-nancay.fr). As an example of application, we use direct Tully-Fisher relation in three (JHK) bands in deriving distances to a large catalog of 3126 spiral galaxies distributed through the whole sky and sampling well the radial velocity range between 0 and 8000 km/s. Thanks to an iterative method accounting for selection bias and smoothing effects, we show as a preliminary output a detailed and original map of the velocity field in the Local Universe

Thermal resistance of proteolytic enzymes produced by psychrotrophic bacteria isolated from buffalo milk

Background and Objective: Psychrotrophic bacteria produce extracellular proteases, resulting in deterioration and reduced shelf life of dairy products. In this study, 21 species of psychotropic bacteria isolated from buffalo milk were selected and the thermal resistance of the proteases produced by these bacteria was evaluated. Materials and Methods: The isolates were tested to evaluate proteolytic activity of buffalo milk agar. The cell-free supernatants from the growing of isolates were obtained for the quantification of enzymatic activity under different pH values (5.5, 7.0 and 8.0). Thermal resistance and the clotting ability of proteolytic enzymes in buffalo and bovine milk substrates were also evaluated. One-way ANOVA test with a critical probability of p1 U mLG1 under at least one of the pH tested. Five isolates produced cell-free supernatants resistant to pasteurization (63.5EC/30 min), following which they were able to coagulate buffalo and bovine milk. The crude enzyme of P. fluorescens PL5.4 showed the greatest enzymatic activity within a wide pH range (4-10) and at an optimum temperature of 40EC. The cell-free supernatant of this isolate resisted to tests with detergents and organic solvents. However, it was not possible to identify the type of protease. Conclusion: The results of this study showed the negative impact of the presence of psychrotrophic bacteria producing proteolytic enzymes in buffalo milk. This is because the enzymes studied caused changes in milk samples, revealing a negative impact on the production of derived products. This is significant, since the buffalo milk produced in Brazil is directed to the production of dairy products

Challenges in Real-Time Prediction of Infectious Disease: A Case Study of Dengue in Thailand.

Epidemics of communicable diseases place a huge burden on public health infrastructures across the world. Producing accurate and actionable forecasts of infectious disease incidence at short and long time scales will improve public health response to outbreaks. However, scientists and public health officials face many obstacles in trying to create such real-time forecasts of infectious disease incidence. Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that annually infects over 400 million people worldwide. We developed a real-time forecasting model for dengue hemorrhagic fever in the 77 provinces of Thailand. We created a practical computational infrastructure that generated multi-step predictions of dengue incidence in Thai provinces every two weeks throughout 2014. These predictions show mixed performance across provinces, out-performing seasonal baseline models in over half of provinces at a 1.5 month horizon. Additionally, to assess the degree to which delays in case reporting make long-range prediction a challenging task, we compared the performance of our real-time predictions with predictions made with fully reported data. This paper provides valuable lessons for the implementation of real-time predictions in the context of public health decision making

Egress from a settlement school: where are the children of Rural Education?

O texto – e a pesquisa que o originou – partem de questões aparentemente simples: onde estão os filhos da Educação do Campo? Para onde vão nossos esforços pedagógicos, políticos e sociais quando nos dedicamos a uma educação do campo, no campo? Partindo da questão desafiadora, o texto recompõe informações sobre egressos da Escola Estadual de Ensino Fundamental 29 de Outubro, Assentamento 16 de Março, no município de Pontão, norte do Rio Grande do Sul, no recorte temporal de 1992 a 2014, totalizando 413 sujeitos pesquisados.  O texto localiza a escola referida, enfatizando seus quatro períodos históricos e apresentando dados acerca dos egressos, obtidos mediante o procedimento de Grupos Focais, partindo de duas categorias-chave: escolaridade e profissão. Os dados apontam para perspectivas animadoras: com raras exceções, a sucessão familiar nas propriedades rurais está ocorrendo. Os jovens agricultores, na sua ampla maioria com ensino médio, estão sustentando a agricultura familiar, com ações em produção agropecuária e diversificação de culturas, garantindo a segunda geração de agricultores no campo. Conclui que o êxito profissional e formativo dos filhos da Educação do Campo também representa o êxito do projeto e a pertinência de sua existência como contraponto e alternativa ao modelo de escolarização dominante. Palavras-chave: Escola do Campo, Assentamento, Egressos.   Egress from a settlement school: where are the children of Rural Education?                         ABSTRACT. The text - and the research that originated it - starts from an apparently simple question: Where are the children of Rural Education? Where do our pedagogical, political and social efforts go when we devote ourselves to an education in the countryside? Based on the challenging question, the text recomposes information about the departed from the State School of Primary Education October 29, Settlement March 16, in the municipality of Pontão, north of Rio Grande do Sul, in the time cut from 1992 to 2014, totaling 413 subjects surveyed. The text locates the School October 29, emphasizing its four historical periods and presenting data about the graduates, obtained through the Focal Groups procedure, starting from two key categories: schooling and profession. The data point to encouraging prospects: with rare exceptions, family succession on farms is occurring. Young farmers, in their large majority with secondary education, are supporting family farming, with actions for agricultural production and crop diversification, guaranteeing the second generation of farmers in the field. It concludes that the professional and formative success of the children of rural education also represents the success of the project and the pertinence of its existence as a counterpoint and alternative to the dominant schooling model. Keywords: School of the Countryside, Settlement, Egress.   Egresados de una escuela de asentamiento: ¿dónde están los hijos de la Educación Rural? RESUMEN. El texto - y la investigación que lo originó - parten de una pregunta aparentemente simple: ¿dónde están los hijos de la Educación Rural? ¿A dónde van nuestros esfuerzos pedagógicos, políticos y sociales cuando nos dedicamos a una educación del campo, en el campo? En el marco de la pregunta desafiante, el texto recompone informaciones sobre egresados de la Escuela Estatal de Enseñanza Fundamental 29 de Octubre, Asentamiento 16 de Marzo, en el municipio de Pontão, norte de Rio Grande do Sul, en el recorte temporal de 1992 a 2014, totalizando 413 sujetos investigados. El texto localiza la Escuela 29 de Octubre, enfatizando sus cuatro períodos históricos y presentando datos sobre los egresados, obtenidos mediante el procedimiento de Grupos Focales, partiendo de dos categorías clave: escolaridad y profesión. Los datos apuntan a perspectivas alentadoras: con raras excepciones, la sucesión familiar en las propiedades rurales está ocurriendo. Los jóvenes agricultores, en su amplia mayoría con enseñanza media, están sosteniendo la agricultura familiar, con acciones producción agropecuaria y diversificación de cultivos, garantizando la segunda generación de agricultores en el campo. Concluye que el éxito profesional y formativo de los hijos de la educación del campo también representa el éxito del proyecto y la pertinencia de su existencia como contrapunto y alternativa al modelo de escolarización dominante. Palabras clave: Escuela del Campo, Asentamiento, Egresados.ABSTRACT. The text - and the research that originated it - starts from an apparently simple question: Where are the children of Rural Education? Where do our pedagogical, political and social efforts go when we devote ourselves to an education in the countryside? Based on the challenging question, the text recomposes information about the departed from the State School of Primary Education October 29, Settlement March 16, in the municipality of Pontão, north of Rio Grande do Sul, in the time cut from 1992 to 2014, totaling 413 subjects surveyed. The text locates the School October 29, emphasizing its four historical periods and presenting data about the graduates, obtained through the Focal Groups procedure, starting from two key categories: schooling and profession. The data point to encouraging prospects: with rare exceptions, family succession on farms is occurring. Young farmers, in their large majority with secondary education, are supporting family farming, with actions for agricultural production and crop diversification, guaranteeing the second generation of farmers in the field. It concludes that the professional and formative success of the children of rural education also represents the success of the project and the pertinence of its existence as a counterpoint and alternative to the dominant schooling model.ABSTRACT. The text - and the research that originated it - starts from an apparently simple question: Where are the children of Rural Education? Where do our pedagogical, political and social efforts go when we devote ourselves to an education in the countryside? Based on the challenging question, the text recomposes information about the departed from the State School of Primary Education October 29, Settlement March 16, in the municipality of Pontão, north of Rio Grande do Sul, in the time cut from 1992 to 2014, totaling 413 subjects surveyed. The text locates the School October 29, emphasizing its four historical periods and presenting data about the graduates, obtained through the Focal Groups procedure, starting from two key categories: schooling and profession. The data point to encouraging prospects: with rare exceptions, family succession on farms is occurring. Young farmers, in their large majority with secondary education, are supporting family farming, with actions for agricultural production and crop diversification, guaranteeing the second generation of farmers in the field. It concludes that the professional and formative success of the children of rural education also represents the success of the project and the pertinence of its existence as a counterpoint and alternative to the dominant schooling model.ABSTRACT. The text - and the research that originated it - starts from an apparently simple question: Where are the children of Rural Education? Where do our pedagogical, political and social efforts go when we devote ourselves to an education in the countryside? Based on the challenging question, the text recomposes information about the departed from the State School of Primary Education October 29, Settlement March 16, in the municipality of Pontão, north of Rio Grande do Sul, in the time cut from 1992 to 2014, totaling 413 subjects surveyed. The text locates the School October 29, emphasizing its four historical periods and presenting data about the graduates, obtained through the Focal Groups procedure, starting from two key categories: schooling and profession. The data point to encouraging prospects: with rare exceptions, family succession on farms is occurring. Young farmers, in their large majority with secondary education, are supporting family farming, with actions for agricultural production and crop diversification, guaranteeing the second generation of farmers in the field. It concludes that the professional and formative success of the children of rural education also represents the success of the project and the pertinence of its existence as a counterpoint and alternative to the dominant schooling model

Cosmic Flows on 100 Mpc/h Scales: Standardized Minimum Variance Bulk Flow, Shear and Octupole Moments

The low order moments, such as the bulk flow and shear, of the large scale peculiar velocity field are sensitive probes of the matter density fluctuations on very large scales. In practice, however, peculiar velocity surveys are usually sparse and noisy, which can lead to the aliasing of small scale power into what is meant to be a probe of the largest scales. Previously, we developed an optimal ``minimum variance'' (MV) weighting scheme, designed to overcome this problem by minimizing the difference between the measured bulk flow (BF) and that which would be measured by an ideal survey. Here we extend this MV analysis to include the shear and octupole moments, which are designed to have almost no correlations between them so that they are virtually orthogonal. We apply this MV analysis to a compilation of all major peculiar velocity surveys, consisting of 4536 measurements. Our estimate of the BF on scales of ~ 100 Mpc/h has a magnitude of |v|= 416 +/- 78 km/s towards Galactic l = 282 degree +/- 11 degree and b = 6 degree +/- 6 degree. This result is in disagreement with LCDM with WMAP5 cosmological parameters at a high confidence level, but is in good agreement with our previous MV result without an orthogonality constraint, showing that the shear and octupole moments did not contaminate the previous BF measurement. The shear and octupole moments are consistent with WMAP5 power spectrum, although the measurement noise is larger for these moments than for the BF. The relatively low shear moments suggest that the sources responsible for the BF are at large distances.Comment: 13 Pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Some changes to reflect the published versio

A robust method for fitting peculiar velocity field models

We present a new method for fitting peculiar velocity models to complete flux limited magnitude-redshifts catalogues, using the luminosity function of the sources as a distance indicator.The method is characterised by its robustness. In particular, no assumptions are made concerning the spatial distribution of sources and their luminosity function. Moreover, selection effects in redshift are allowed. Furthermore the inclusion of additional observables correlated with the absolute magnitude -- such as for example rotation velocity information as described by the Tully-Fisher relation -- is straightforward. As an illustration of the method, the predicted IRAS peculiar velocity model characterised by the density parameter beta is tested on two samples. The application of our method to the Tully-Fisher MarkIII MAT sample leads to a value of beta=0.6 \pm 0.125, fully consistent with the results obtained previously by the VELMOD and ITF methods on similar datasets. Unlike these methods however, we make a very conservative use of the Tully-Fisher information. Specifically, we require to assume neither the linearity of the Tully-Fisher relation nor a gaussian distribution of its residuals. Moreover, the robustness of the method implies that no Malmquist corrections are required. A second application is carried out, using the fluxes of the IRAS 1.2 Jy sample as the distance indicator. In this case the effective depth of the volume in which the velocity model is compared to the data is almost twice the effective depth of the MarkIII MAT sample. The results suggest that the predicted IRAS velocity model, while successful in reproducing locally the cosmic flow, fails to describe the kinematics on larger scales.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS in pres

Large-scale collective motion of RFGC galaxies

We processed the data about radial velocities and HI linewidths for 1678 flat edge-on spirals from the Revised Flat Galaxy Catalogue. We obtained the parameters of the multipole components of large-scale velocity field of collective non-Hubble galaxy motion as well as the parameters of the generalized Tully-Fisher relationship in the "HI line width - linear diameter" version. All the calculations were performed independently in the framework of three models, where the multipole decomposition of the galaxy velocity field was limited to a dipole, quadrupole and octopole terms respectively. We showed that both the quadrupole and the octopole components are statistically significant. On the basis of the compiled list of peculiar velocities of 1623 galaxies we obtained the estimations of cosmological parameters Omega_m and sigma_8. This estimation is obtained in both graphical form and as a constraint of the value S_8=sigma_8(Omega_m/0.3)^0.35 = 0.91 +/- 0.05.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Large-scale collective motion of RFGC galaxies in curved space-time

We consider large-scale collective motion of flat edge-on spiral galaxies from the Revised Flat Galaxy Catalogue (RFGC) taking into account the curvature of space-time in the Local Universe at the scale 100 Mpc/h. We analyse how the relativistic model of collective motion should be modified to provide the best possible values of parameters, the effects that impact these parameters and ways to mitigate them. Evolution of galactic diameters, selection effects, and difference between isophotal and angular diameter distances are inadequate to explain this impact. At the same time, measurement error in HI line widths and angular diameters can easily provide such an impact. This is illustrated in a toy model, which allows analytical consideration, and then in the full model using Monte Carlo simulations. The resulting velocity field is very close to that provided by the non-relativistic model of motion. The obtained bulk flow velocity is consistent with {\Lambda}CDM cosmology.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 2 table