pH decline of the M. longissimus thoracis of night-cropped Grey Duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia)

CITATION: Hoffman, L. C. & Ferreria, A. V. 2000. pH decline of the M. longissimus thoracis of night-cropped Grey Duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia). South African Journal of Animal Science, 30(1):16-17.The original publication is available at https://www.sasas.co.za/The effect of night cropping (shooting the animal in the head with a light calibre rifle) on the pH45, pH24 and rate of pH decline in the M. longissimus thoracis of ten Grey duiker was investigated. A mean pH45 of 6.28 ± 0.3895 and a mean pH24 of 5.55 ± 0.0803 was recorded. The change in pH with time was fitted to the exponential function y = a + b e(ct) for the pooled data, and values of 5.5156 ± 0.06294, 0.8387 ± 0.11184 and -0.2281 ± 0.07311 were realised for the constants a, b and c, respectively. This exponential function indicates that the pH of duiker meat reaches an asymptotic pH of 5.52 after 24 hrs under these cropping conditions.https://www.sasas.co.za/journals/ph-decline-of-the-m-longissimus-thoracis-of-night-cropped-grey-duiker-sylvicapra-grimmia-short-communication/Publisher's versio

Rejets radioactifs et environnement du CERN en 2003

La radioactivité de l’environnement autour de l’Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) et les doses de rayonnements qui en résultent pour la population avoisinante sont contrôlées par la Commission de Sûreté du CERN et de manière indépendante par les autorités compétentes des deux Etats Hôtes, l’Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) côté France et l’Office Fédéral de la Santé Publique (OFSP) côté Suisse. Dans ce rapport, les résultats de mesures concernent en particulier le territoire suisse. L’ensemble des mesures effectuées en 2003 prouve que le fonctionnement des installations du CERN était sans conséquence radiologique sur l’environnement et la population. Le contrôle des émissions montre que les rejets effectifs se situent également en 2003 nettement en dessous des limites réglementaires. Ce constat est confirmé par le contrôle des immissions dans l’environnement. Le CERN a bien respecté en 2003 comme dans les années précédentes la valeur directrice de dose liée à la source fixée à 0.3 mSv/an. L’impact réel représente en fait moins de 10% de cette valeur, comme l’indique l’estimation pour le groupe critique, qui est de l’ordre de 0.03 mSv/an

Identificação molecular de estirpes de staphylococcus aureus envolvidas em casos de mastite bovina.

A mastite é uma enfermidade muito dinâmica, a qual afeta não somente a saúde do animal, mas também a economia do produtor rural e até mesmo do país. Adicionalmente, o movimento de animais no rebanho, com a entrada e a saída indiscriminadas, pode favorecer a introdução de novos patógenos na propriedade. Com isso, deve-se tomar cuidado principalmente com a reposição dos animais, devido ao risco de se inserir um animal doente na linha de ordenha, introduzindo, assim, um novo patógeno causador de mastite no rebanho (OSTERAS, 2006). Estima-se que no rebanho brasileiro ocorra a prevalência de 20 a 38% de mastite, o que representaria perdas da produção entre 12 a 15%. Sendo assim, considerada a causa de perda econômica mais significativa na indústria leiteira. Devem ser, também, computados gastos com medicamentos, serviços veterinários, leite descartado, descarte prematuro dos animais e, até mesmo, a diminuição do valor comercial dos animais (FONSECA & SANTOS, 2000; REIS et al., 2005). Para se conhecer a complexidade etiológica das mastites causadas por S. aureus, faz-se necessária a caracterização fenotípica e genotípica das estirpes envolvidas nos casos desta enfermidade, assim como do equipamento de ordenha. O conhecimento do perfil molecular dos clones de S. aureus possibilita estudos epidemiológicos de dispersão deste patógeno em propriedades rurais. Com isso, estratégias e protocolos de profilaxia e controle da mastite podem ser melhor elaborados (SANTOS et al., 2003). Diante do exposto, idealizou-se o presente trabalho com a finalidade de identificar e confirmar genotipicamente as estirpes de S. aureus envolvidas nos casos de mastite, por meio da Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase (PCR) a partir da amplificação de fragmento de DNA cromossomal específico do S. aureus

Efeito da temperatura no crescimento de Rhizoctonia solani.

Suplemento, ref. 466. Edição dos Resumos do 45º Congresso Brasileiro de Fitopatologia, Manaus, 2012. CBFito 2012

A two-scalar model for a small but nonzero cosmological constant

We revisit a model of the two-scalar system proposed previously for understanding a small but nonzero cosmological constant. The model provides solutions of the scalar-fields energy $\rho_s$ which behaves truly constant for a limited time interval rather than in the way of tracker- or scaling-type variations. This causes a mini-inflation, as indicated by recent observations. As another novel feature, $\rho_s$ and the ordinary matter density $\rho_m$ fall off always side by side, but interlacing, also like (time)$^{-2}$ as an overall behavior in conformity with the scenario of a decaying cosmological constant. A mini-inflation occurs whenever $\rho_s$ overtakes $\rho_m$, which may happen more than once, shedding a new light on the coincidence problem. We present a new example of the solution, and offer an intuitive interpretation of the mechanism of the nonlinear dynamics. We also discuss a chaos-like nature of the solution.Comment: 9 pages plus 7 figure

The New Antitumor Drug ABTL0812 Inhibits the Akt/mTORC1 Axis by Upregulating Tribbles-3 Pseudokinase

Purpose: ABTL0812 is a novel first-in-class, small molecule which showed antiproliferative effect on tumor cells in phenotypic assays. Here we describe the mechanism of action of this antitumor drug, which is currently in clinical development. Experimental design: We investigated the effect of ABTL0812 on cancer cell death, proliferation, and modulation of intracellular signaling pathways, using human lung (A549) and pancreatic (MiaPaCa-2) cancer cells and tumor xenografts. To identify cellular targets, we performed in silico high-throughput screening comparing ABTL0812 chemical structure against ChEMBL15 database. Results: ABTL0812 inhibited Akt/mTORC1 axis, resulting in impaired cancer cell proliferation and autophagy-mediated cell death. In silico screening led us to identify PPARs, PPARα and PPARγ as the cellular targets of ABTL0812. We showed that ABTL0812 activates both PPAR receptors, resulting in upregulation of Tribbles-3 pseudokinase (TRIB3) gene expression. Upregulated TRIB3 binds cellular Akt, preventing its activation by upstream kinases, resulting in Akt inhibition and suppression of the Akt/mTORC1 axis. Pharmacologic inhibition of PPARα/γ or TRIB3 silencing prevented ABTL0812-induced cell death. ABTL0812 treatment induced Akt inhibition in cancer cells, tumor xenografts, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients enrolled in phase I/Ib first-in-human clinical trial. Conclusions: ABTL0812 has a unique and novel mechanism of action, that defines a new and drugable cellular route that links PPARs to Akt/mTORC1 axis, where TRIB3 pseudokinase plays a central role. Activation of this route (PPARα/γ-TRIB3-Akt-mTORC1) leads to autophagy-mediated cancer cell death. Given the low toxicity and high tolerability of ABTL0812, our results support further development of ABTL0812 as a promising anticancer therapy

Small Interfering RNA against Transcription Factor STAT6 Leads to Increased Cholesterol Synthesis in Lung Cancer Cell Lines

STAT6 transcription factor has become a potential molecule for therapeutic intervention because it regulates broad range of cellular processes in a large variety of cell types. Although some target genes and interacting partners of STAT6 have been identified, its exact mechanism of action needs to be elucidated. In this study, we sought to further characterize the molecular interactions, networks, and functions of STAT6 by profiling the mRNA expression of STAT6 silenced human lung cells (NCI-H460) using microarrays. Our analysis revealed 273 differentially expressed genes after STAT6 silencing. Analysis of the gene expression data with Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software revealed Gene expression, Cell death, Lipid metabolism as the functions associated with highest rated network. Cholesterol biosynthesis was among the most enriched pathways in IPA as well as in PANTHER analysis. These results have been validated by real-time PCR and cholesterol assay using scrambled siRNA as a negative control. Similar findings were also observed with human type II pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells, A549. In the present study we have, for the first time, shown the inverse relationship of STAT6 with the cholesterol biosynthesis in lung cancer cells. The present findings are potentially significant to advance the understanding and design of therapeutics for the pathological conditions where both STAT6 and cholesterol biosynthesis are implicated viz. asthma, atherosclerosis etc