Reoxidation of the NADPH produced by the pentose phosphate pathway is necessary for the utilization of glucose by Kluyveromyces lactis rag2 mutants

AbstractKluyveromyces lactis mutants defective in the glycolytic enzyme phosphoglucose isomerase are able to grow in glucose media and to produce ethanol, but they depend on a functional respiratory chain and do not grow in glucose-antimycin media. We postulate that this is due to the necessity of reoxidizing, in the mitochondria, the NADPH produced by the pentose phosphate pathway, which may be highly active in these mutants in order to bypass the blockade in the phosphoglucose isomerase step. This oxidation would be mediated by a cytoplasmic-side mitochondrial NAD(P)H dehydrogenase that would pass the electrons to ubiquinone. Data supporting this hypothesis are provided

Co‐existing monophasic teratoma and uterine adenocarcinoma in a female dog

Ovarian teratomas are occasionally reported in dogs; the rarest type is the monophasic teratoma,composed of tissues originating from only one germ layer. Canine endometrial adenocarcinomas are also rare in dogs and mainly affect geriatric females. This report describes case of co-existing ovarian teratoma and uterine adenocarcinoma in a 10-year old nulliparous female Boxer presented with lethargy, anorexia and purulent vaginal discharge. Abdominal ultrasonography evidenced pyometra and a mass in the left ovary. This was composed of a uniform whitish tissue with multiple cystic structures. The histology revealed an atrophy of the ovarian parenchyma, compressed by a proliferation of well-differentiated nervous tissue staining positively to vimentin, S100 and neuronal specific enolase (NSE), and negatively to keratin and inhibin. The left uterine horn, whose diameter was markedly increased, showed foci of endometrial cellular atypia, evident nucleoli and mitoses, at light microscopy. To our best knowledge, this is the first report of a coexisting ovarian monophasic teratoma and endometrial adenocarcinoma, two rare reproductive neoplasia in dogs

Agronomic practices change the patterns of soil glomalin in olive rainfed orchards

Glomalin, a thermostable hydrophobic glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, plays an important role in the stability of soil aggregates and in the sequestration of C, N and heavy metals, being their concentrations dependent from agronomic practices such as tillage and application of pesticides and fertilizers. Despite the recognized importance of glomalin in soil quality, studies on olive groves are scarce. The study conducted on summer 2017 in three different rain fed orchards (cv. Cobran~osa) of Northeast Portugal revealed that both total glomalin, measured as Bradford-reactive soil protein (T-BRSP}, and the easily extractable Bradford-reactive soil protein (EE-BRSP) concentrations were lower under mechanical cultivation than on a permanent sward grazed with a flock of sheep or than on an annual legume cover crop. Moreover, higher TBRSP and EE-BRSP levels were found on orchards without phosphorus and boron supply, and also on the top soil layer (0.1 0 cm) and on tree row, mainly in younger orchards. Interestingly, one soil presented a twofold superior EE-BRSP: T- BRSP ratio than the other two soils, representing an increase of labile g lomalin, probably re lated with greater applications of copper formulations to control olive fungal diseases. This study demonstrated that less disruptive agronomic practices influences positivety the levels of glomalin, an appropriate indicator of healthy soil conditions, which in turn may favour carbon sequestration.This work was funded by the INTERACT project - •Integrative Research in Environment, Agro-Chains and Technology': no. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER- 000017, in its lines of research entitled I SAC, eo-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through NORTE 2020 (North Regional Operational Program 2014/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of prebiotic or probiotic supplementation and ileo rectal anastomosis on intestinal morphology of weaned piglets

Forty eight 21 days old piglets were used to compare the effect of prebiotic or probiotic supplementation and ileo rectal anastomosis on the morphology of the small intestine. Half of the piglets were maintained intact and the other half was subjected to an ileo rectal anastomosis (IRA). Each group of piglets received one of the following diets: 1) basal diet (C), 2) basal diet supplemented with a Xylo-oligosaccharide (XOS), 3) basal diet supplemented with a Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) and 4) basal diet supplemented with XOS and SC. Villus height was greatest with XOS and with XOS + SC, only in the ileum, as compared to controls. In the duodenum, crypt width was highest in the control group, but no significant differences were found in the jejunum and ileum. The IRA piglets had longer villi in the jejunum and shorter villi in the ileum. The crypt depth was greater in the duodenum and in the ileum of IRA piglets. Villus height/crypt depth was lower in the duodenum and in the ileum, in the IRA piglets. In conclusion, the XOS, but not the SC, moderately modified the intestinal morphology. The IRA modified the intestinal villus and crypt architecture but its consequence on the absorption of nutrients needs to be investigated

Carbon footprint of apple and pear : orchards, storage and distribution

Apple and pear represent 51% of fresh fruit orchards in Portugal. This paper presents a life-cycle (LC) greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment (so-called carbon footprint) of 3 apple and 1 pear Portuguese production systems. An LC model and inventory were implemented, encompassing the farm stage (cultivation of fruit trees in orchards), storage and distribution (transport to retail). The functional unit considered in this study was 1 kg of distributed fruit (at retail). Four different LC inventories for orchards were implemented based on data collected from three farms. Inventory data from two storage companies were also gathered. The main results show that the GHG emissions of apple and pear ranged between 192 and 229 gCO2eq kgfruit-1. The GHG emissions (direct and indirect) from the cultivation phase ranged from 36% to 60% of total emissions. Fruit storage, which lasted for as much as 8-10 months, was also responsible for significant emissions due to high energy requirements

Carbon footprint of apple and pear: orchards, storage and distribution

Apple and pear represent 51% of fresh fruit orchards in Portugal. This paper presents a life-cycle (LC) greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment (so-called carbon footprint) of 3 apple and 1 pear Portuguese production systems. An LC model and inventory were implemented, encompassing the farm stage (cultivation of fruit trees in orchards), storage and distribution (transport to retail). The functional unit considered in this study was 1 kg of distributed fruit (at retail). Four different LC inventories for orchards were implemented based on data collected from three farms. Inventory data from two storage companies were also gathered. The main results show that the GHG emissions of apple and pear ranged between 192 and 229 gCO2eq kgfruit-1. The GHG emissions (direct and indirect) from the cultivation phase ranged from 36% to 60% of total emissions. Fruit storage, which lasted for as much as 8-10 months, was also responsible for significant emissions due to high energy requirements.Project ECODEEP (Eco-efficiency and Eco-management in the Agro Industrial sector, FCOMP–05–0128–FEDER–018643) and the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation projects: MIT/SET/0014/2009, PTDC/SEN-TRA/117251/201

Dimensional Reduction, Hard Thermal Loops and the Renormalization Group

We study the realization of dimensional reduction and the validity of the hard thermal loop expansion for lambda phi^4 theory at finite temperature, using an environmentally friendly finite-temperature renormalization group with a fiducial temperature as flow parameter. The one-loop renormalization group allows for a consistent description of the system at low and high temperatures, and in particular of the phase transition. The main results are that dimensional reduction applies, apart from a range of temperatures around the phase transition, at high temperatures (compared to the zero temperature mass) only for sufficiently small coupling constants, while the HTL expansion is valid below (and rather far from) the phase transition, and, again, at high temperatures only in the case of sufficiently small coupling constants. We emphasize that close to the critical temperature, physics is completely dominated by thermal fluctuations that are not resummed in the hard thermal loop approach and where universal quantities are independent of the parameters of the fundamental four-dimensional theory.Comment: 20 pages, 13 eps figures, uses epsfig and pstrick

Pulsar Timing and its Application for Navigation and Gravitational Wave Detection

Pulsars are natural cosmic clocks. On long timescales they rival the precision of terrestrial atomic clocks. Using a technique called pulsar timing, the exact measurement of pulse arrival times allows a number of applications, ranging from testing theories of gravity to detecting gravitational waves. Also an external reference system suitable for autonomous space navigation can be defined by pulsars, using them as natural navigation beacons, not unlike the use of GPS satellites for navigation on Earth. By comparing pulse arrival times measured on-board a spacecraft with predicted pulse arrivals at a reference location (e.g. the solar system barycenter), the spacecraft position can be determined autonomously and with high accuracy everywhere in the solar system and beyond. We describe the unique properties of pulsars that suggest that such a navigation system will certainly have its application in future astronautics. We also describe the on-going experiments to use the clock-like nature of pulsars to "construct" a galactic-sized gravitational wave detector for low-frequency (f_GW ~1E-9 - 1E-7 Hz) gravitational waves. We present the current status and provide an outlook for the future.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Vol 63: High Performance Clocks, Springer Space Science Review