Efeito da toxicidade de Cr (VI) e Zn (II) no crescimento do fungo filamentoso Aspergillus niger isolado de efluente industrial.

Processos convencionais de tratamento de efluentes utilizam microrganismos vivos, o que sugere limitações relativas à toxicidade de metais para os microrganismos. O experimento consistiu em adicionar soluções monoelementares de Cr (VI) e Zn(II) em diferentes concentrações (0, 20, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 mg.L-1) ao meio de crescimento e observar a influência dos metais no crescimento micelial e germinativo do fungo Aspergillus Níger por verificação visual da expansão radial do micélio e da germinação de esporos, seguida de registro fotográfico. Os resultados mostraram que o metabolismo do fungo foi completamente inibido em concentrações acima de 500 mg Zn (II).L-1 e 150 mg Cr (VI).L-1. O ED50 (concentração de ingrediente ativo capaz de inibir 50% do crescimento micelial do fungo) para os dois íons metálicos, nas condições estudadas, está na faixa entre 100 e 150 mg.L-1

Glycemic response of poultries in different feeding systems

The management of poultry feed is an important welfare promoter and the glycemic index a noninvasive evaluation. The aim was to evaluate the glycemic response of broiler breeders in restricted feeding system, and broilers receiving ad libitum feeding. Two experiments were carried out: I) 39-week-oldbroiler breeders, fed with three sources of fiber, in a completely randomized design in factorial scheme (3 fiber diets x 7 collection periods); and II) broilers, 42 days old, housed in different light systems, in a completely randomized design in factorial design (2 sexes x 2 lighting conditions x 13 collection periods). Blood glucose levels were measured at random collecting one blood drop from foot, with three replicates in each condition and treatment. In broiler breeder different fiber sources had no effect on glycemia, but the period affected circulating glucose levels, presenting a minimum of 184.3 mg dL -1 before feed and, a maximum of 242.5 mg dL -1 four hours after feeding. In broilers, there was a significant effect in glycemia for collection period and for sex, and interaction between lighting conditions and collection period. Further studies are needed to establish reference values to compare blood glucose levels in poultry.41

A Methodology for Measuring the Air Infiltration Rates into Refrigerated Compartments

This work focuses on the development of a methodology for measuring the air infiltration rates into refrigerated compartments based on the tracer gas technique. To this end an experimental apparatus was designed and constructed. The apparatus is comprised of a device to supply the tracer gas uniformly into the zone, a device to ensure a uniform concentration both in the vertical and horizontal directions, a device to collect the air samples and a gas analyzer to measure the gas concentration according to the infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy technique. Tests were carried out with three distinct refrigerators, with the compressor on and off, using both the concentration decay and constant concentration measurement techniques. A high level of repeatability in the air infiltration rate measurements has been found, with deviations always lower than 5%. It was also noted that the two measurement techniques provide practically the same results. Furthermore, it was observed that the air infiltration rate is approximately five times higher when the compressor is turned on due to the higher pressure difference created by the higher temperature difference. Adsorption tests were also carried out indicating that the adsorption of the tracer gas by the refrigerator materials and gasket is insignificant when compared to the concentration variations caused by air infiltration. Manufacturing deviations were also simulated and it was found that they greatly increase the air infiltration rate through the gasket. The developed technique is reliable and practical and can become a useful tool for the design and analysis of household refrigerators

ULTRASOUND AS TOOL FOR DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES OF THE REPRODUCTIVE TRACT BULLS

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to evaluate by ultrasound and breeding soundness examination (BSE) the major diseases affecting the reproductive system of Nelore bulls, bred extensively in the state of Para, Brazil. Fifty-nine pure Nelore bulls were used, aged between 5 to 10 years, raised extensively in a commercial farm in the municipality of Paragominas, Pará state, Brazil.  Scrotal circumference, testicular length and width were measured. Semen collection for evaluation of ejaculate volume, turbulence, motility, vigor, concentration and sperm pathologies was performed. Ultrasound examination was performed by equipment type Ultrasonic Transducer - CHISON/D600vet, linear transducers, where the frequency used was 5 MHz, being held two images of each testis, the longitudinal-lateral, lateral and transverse planes. The images were processed using the program Image J. The data were analyzed using the statistical program SAS (2000) and means were compared using Tukey's test (p 0.05). Thus, it can be concluded that ultrasonography is an essential complementary tool in the diagnosis of reproductive disorders in animals subjected to BSE and its use should be recommended

Reduction of pollutants emissions on si engines : accomplishments with efficiency increase

This paper presents an experimental study aiming to identify the means to minimize the reduction of the overall performance of a gasoline engine when employing the Exhaust- Gas Recirculation (EGR) technique that reduces NOx emissions. The increase of the compression ratio and turbocharging was evaluated as a mean to recover the original performance. The formation of pollutants and the engine performance were verified at full and partial loads. The results show that the combination of exhaust gas recirculation with turbocharger or through an increase of the compression ratio enhance the relation between the engine performance and the emission of NO. However, the turbocharger seemed to be more sensitive to the negative effects of the EGR technology

The Mitragyna speciosa (Kratom) Genome: a resource for data-mining potent pharmaceuticals that impact human health

Mitragyna speciosa (kratom) produces numerous compounds with pharmaceutical properties including the production of bioactive monoterpene indole and oxindole alkaloids. Using a linked-read approach, a 1,122,519,462 bp draft assembly of M. speciosa “Rifat” was generated with an N50 scaffold size of 1,020,971 bp and an N50 contig size of 70,448 bp that encodes 55,746 genes. Chromosome counting revealed that “Rifat” is a tetraploid with a base chromosome number of 11, which was further corroborated by orthology and syntenic analysis of the genome. Analysis of genes and clusters involved in specialized metabolism revealed genes putatively involved in alkaloid biosynthesis. Access to the genome of M. speciosa will facilitate an improved understanding of alkaloid biosynthesis and accelerate the production of bioactive alkaloids in heterologous hosts

Signature for heavy Majorana neutrinos in hadronic collisions

The production and decay of new possible heavy Majorana neutrinos are analyzed in hadronic collisions. New bounds on the mixing of these particles with standard neutrinos are estimated according to a fundamental representation suggested by grand unified models. A clear signature for these Majorana neutrinos is given by same-sign dileptons plus a charged weak vector boson in the final state. We discuss the experimental possibilities for the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.Comment: Latex2e(epsfig), 12 pages, 8 figures, to appear Physical Review

First report of human Thelazia callipaeda infection in Portugal

The zoonotic parasitic nematode Thelazia callipaeda, also known as the oriental eye worm, is endemic in several European countries, including Portugal. Infections may result in ocular disease in domestic and wild animals as well as humans, with more or less severe manifestations. We report the first human case of ocular thelaziosis by T. callipaeda in Portugal, a country where the parasite had already been found to infect dogs, cats, red foxes, wild rabbits and a beech marten. An 80-year-old patient from east-central Portugal, who had been suffering from tearing for a few years, had whitish filiform fragments removed from the left eye. Polymerase chain reaction of partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and 18S small subunit rRNA genes followed by bidirectional sequencing and BLAST analysis confirmed T. callipaeda haplotype 1, the only haplotype previously reported in Europe. The endemicity of T. callipaeda in domestic and wild animals in east-central Portugal makes it very likely that infection of the human patient had occurred locally. In east-central and other geographical areas of Portugal, veterinarians and physicians, especially ophthalmologists, should regard T. callipaeda as a cause of ocular pathology in animals and humans. © 2022This work was supported by national funds, through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), under projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020, and also projects UIDB/04750/2020 and LA/P/0064/2020

Expected Genotype Quality and Diploidized Marker Data from Genotyping-by-Sequencing of Urocholoa spp. Tetraploids.

Although genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) is a well-established marker technology in diploids, the development of best practices for tetraploid species is a topic of current research. We determined the theoretical relationship between read depth and the phred-scaled probability of genotype misclassification conditioned on the true genotype, which we call expected genotype quality (EGQ). If the GBS method has 0.5% allelic error, then 17 reads are needed to classify simplex tetraploids as heterozygous with 95% accuracy (EGQ = 13) vs. 61 reads to determine allele dosage. We developed an R script to convert tetraploid GBS data in variant call format (VCF) into diploidized genotype calls and applied it to 267 interspecific hybrids of the tetraploid forage grass Urochloa. When reads were aligned to a mock reference genome created from GBS data of the Urochloa brizantha (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) R. D. Webster cultivar Marandu, 25,678 biallelic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) were discovered, compared with ~3000 SNPs when aligning to the closest true reference genomes, Setaria viridis (L.) P. Beauv. and S. italica (L.) P. Beauv. Crossvalidation revealed that missing genotypes were imputed by the random forest method with a median accuracy of 0.85 regardless of heterozygote frequency. Using the Urochloa spp. hybrids, we illustrated how filtering samples based only on genotype quality (GQ) creates genotype bias; a depth threshold based on EGQ is also needed regardless of whether genotypes are called using a diploidized or allele dosage model

AIP56: A Novel Bacterial Apoptogenic Toxin

Photobacterium damselae subsp. piscicida (Phdp) is a Gram-negative pathogen agent of an important fish septicemia. The key virulence factor of Phdp is the plasmid-encoded exotoxin AIP56, which is secreted by exponentially growing pathogenic strains. AIP56 has 520 amino acids including an N-terminal cleavable signal peptide of 23 amino acid residues, two cysteine residues and a zinc-binding region signature HEXXH that is typical of most zinc metallopeptidases. AIP56 induces in vitro and in vivo selective apoptosis of fish macrophages and neutrophils through a caspase-3 dependent mechanism that also involves caspase-8 and -9. In vivo, the AIP56-induced phagocyte apoptosis progresses to secondary necrosis with release of cytotoxic phagocyte molecules including neutrophil elastase. Fish injected with recombinant AIP56 die with a pathology similar to that seen in the natural infection