Relationship of the bovine IGF1, TG, DGAT1 and MYF5 genes to meat colour, tenderness and cooking loss

ΔΕΝ ΔΙΑΤΙΘΕΤΑΙ ΠΕΡΙΛΗΨΗBovine insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), thyroglobulin (TG), diacylglycerol-O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) and myogenic factor 5 (MYF5) genes play an important role in the physiology of lipid and muscle metabolism and are therefore considered as candidate genes for meat production traits in farm animals. The objectives of this study were to investigate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IGF1, TG, DGAT1 and MYF5 genes and to evaluate whether these polymorphisms affected meat colour, tenderness and cooking loss in Holstein cattle. Initially, the SNPs were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. Meat samples (N= 50) derived from M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) were used in the current study. Significant differences in variations of meat colour parameters were observed at 24 hours post-mortem. IGF1 was associated with colour parameters of a* and chroma values. In addition, effects of TG were statistically significant on L* and a* values, while, effects of MYF5 were significant on a* value. There was no association of the tested SNPs with meat pH, tenderness and cooking loss. The results presented here may give the valuable information for improving meat colour in cattle

Carcass and meat quality of Karacabey Merino and Kivircik lambs under an intensive finishing system

Carcass and meat quality traits of male and female lambs are important considerations in planning gender-based production and developing a marketing strategy for the product. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of sex on carcass and meat quality of Kivircik and Karacabey Merino lambs. Twenty male and 17 female lambs were used. Lambs were weaned at 45 days old and then fed ad libitum with concentrates and roughage until slaughter at 120 days. The study was carried out in two experiments at three-month intervals. Kivircik lambs had greater dressing percentage (47.96% vs 46.49%, P <0.05) and omental-mesenteric fat proportion (1.71% vs 1.10%, P <0.01), while Karacabey Merino lambs had a greater proportion of skin (11.14% vs 9.42%, P =0.001). Breed had no influence on water-holding capacity, shear force, L* and hue values (P >0.05). The meat of Karacabey Merino lambs had greater a*, b* and chroma values after blooming for 24 hours than meat from Kivircik lambs. Male lambs had greater proportions of head (5.39% vs 4.62%, P <0.001), feet (2.65% vs 2.46%, P <0.01) and visceral organs (4.53% vs 4.15%, P <0.05), while females had a greater proportion of visceral fat (1.76% vs 1.05%, P =0.001). Meat from female lambs was darker than meat from male lambs. In conclusion, under intensive conditions, the indigenous Kivircik breed had similar carcass and meat quality characteristics to the Karacabey Merino, a wool and meat breed. Keywords: breed effect; carcass quality; sex; lamb; meat qualit

The relationship between body dimensions and fat deposits in herik lambs

The aim of this research was to determine the relationships between some body measurements and fat deposits in the Herik lamb, reared in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey. In this study, data on 20 single-born male Herik lambs, namely 10 with short, round, fat tail, and 10 with long, semi-fat tails, were used. They were finished for an average of 105 days under intensive management after weaning and slaughtered at an average body weight of 40 kg. Several body measurements were taken before slaughter. Carcasses were cut into sections which were separated into meat, bone and fat. Weights of tail, carcass and non-carcass fat were recorded and used in the calculation of the total body fat weight. The highest correlation coefficient was between tail fat weight and the upper tail circumference (r= 0.937, P<0.01), and the lowest was between the fat tail weight and tail length (r=0.059). The upper and lower tail circumferences explained 88% of total variation in the tail weight, and 71% of total variation in total body fat, respectively. In conclusion, lower and upper tail circumference can be used to predict fat tail weight, as well as total body fat, in Herik lambs. More detailed studies are needed for the determination of the relationship between body measurements and fat deposits and to improve the carcass characteristics of Herik lambs

Raman Enhancement on a Broadband Meta-Surface

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Plasmonic metamaterials allow confinement of light to deep subwavelength dimensions, while allowing for the tailoring of dispersion and electromagnetic mode density to enhance specific photonic properties. Optical resonances of plasmonic molecules have been extensively investigated; however, benefits of strong coupling of dimers have been overlooked. Here, we construct a plasmonic meta-surface through coupling of diatomic plasmonic molecules which contain a heavy and light meta-atom. Presence and coupling of two distinct types of localized modes in the plasmonic molecule allow formation and engineering of a rich band structure in a seemingly simple and common geometry, resulting in a broadband and quasi-omni-directional meta-surface. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering benefits from the simultaneous presence of plasmonic resonances at the excitation and scattering frequencies, and by proper design of the band structure to satisfy this condition, highly repeatable and spatially uniform Raman enhancement is demonstrated. On the basis of calculations of the field enhancement distribution within a unit cell, spatial uniformity of the enhancement at the nanoscale is discussed. Raman scattering constitutes an example of nonlinear optical processes, where the wavelength conversion during scattering may be viewed as a photonic transition between the bands of the meta-material

Grating coupler integrated photodiodes for plasmon resonance based sensing

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In this work, we demonstrate an integrated sensor combining a grating-coupled plasmon resonance surface with a planar photodiode. Plasmon enhanced transmission is employed as a sensitive refractive index (RI) sensing mechanism. Enhanced transmission of light is monitored via the integrated photodiode by tuning the angle of incidence of a collimated beam near the sharp plasmon resonance condition. Slight changes of the effective refractive index (RI) shift the resonance angle, resulting in a change in the photocurrent. Owing to the planar sensing mechanism, the design permits a high areal density of sensing spots. In the design, absence of holes that facilitate resonant transmission of light, allows an easy-to-implement fabrication procedure and relative insensitivity to fabrication errors. Theoretical and experimental results agree well. An equivalent long-term RI noise of 6.3 x 10(-6) RIU/root Hz is obtained by using an 8 mW He-Ne laser, compared to a shot-noise limited theoretical sensitivity of 5.61 x 10(-9) RIU/root Hz. The device features full benefits of grating-coupled plasmon resonance, such as enhancement of sensitivity for non-zero azimuthal angle of incidence. Further sensitivity enhancement using balanced detection and optimal plasmon coupling conditions are discussed

Electrochemically tunable ultrafast optical response of graphene oxide

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We demonstrate reversible and irreversible changes in the ultrafast optical response of multilayer graphene oxide thin films upon electrical and optical stimulus. The reversible effects are due to electrochemical modification of graphene oxide, which allows tuning of the optical response by externally applied bias. Increasing the degree of reduction in graphene oxide causes excited state absorption to gradually switch to saturable absorption for shorter probe wavelengths. Spectral and temporal properties as well as the sign of the ultrafast response can be tuned either by changing the applied bias or exposing to high intensity femtosecond pulses. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

Plasmonic absorbers for multispectral and broadband absorption

We present polarization dependent multispectral and broadband plasmonic absorbers in the visible spectrum. The spectral characteristics of these structures are tunable over a broad spectrum. Experimental results are verified with the FDTD and RCWA analysis methods. These structures are used as surface enhanced raman spectroscopy(SERS) substrates. Designed structures have resonances that span the Raman Stokes and excitation wavelength. Such structures can be used for energy, LED and other spectroscopy applications. © 2012 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Reentrant Phase Transitions of the Blume-Emery-Griffiths Model for a Simple Cubic Lattice on the Cellular Automaton

The spin-1 Ising (BEG) model with the nearest-neighbour bilinear and biquadratic interactions and single-ion anisotropy is simulated on a cellular automaton which improved from the Creutz cellular automaton(CCA) for a simple cubic lattice. The simulations have been made for several sets of parameters $K/J$ and $D/J$ in the $-3<D/J\leq 0$ and $-1\leq K/J\leq 0$ parameter regions. The re-entrant and double re-entrant phase transitions of the BEG model are determined from the temperature variations of the thermodynamic quantities ($M$, $Q$ and $\chi$). The phase diagrams characterizing phase transitions are compared with those obtained from other methods.Comment: 12 pages 7 figure

Portable Microfluidic Integrated Plasmonic Platform for Pathogen Detection

Timely detection of infectious agents is critical in early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Conventional pathogen detection methods, such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), culturing or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) require long assay times, and complex and expensive instruments, which are not adaptable to point-of-care (POC) needs at resource-constrained as well as primary care settings. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop simple, rapid, and accurate methods for detection of pathogens at the POC. Here, we present a portable, multiplex, inexpensive microfluidic-integrated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform that detects and quantifies bacteria, i.e., Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) rapidly. The platform presented reliable capture and detection of E. coli at concentrations ranging from ∼105 to 3.2 × 107 CFUs/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) fluid. The multiplexing and specificity capability of the platform was also tested with S. aureus samples. The presented platform technology could potentially be applicable to capture and detect other pathogens at the POC and primary care settings. © 2015, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved