Comparison between biofloc technology system and aquamimicry in the cultivation of Litopenaeus vannamei in lined ponds in Southern Brazil

This work compared biofloc technology and aquamimicry technologies in Litopenaeus vannamei lined ponds, using a density of 60 shrimp·m-2. The experiment lasted 120 days, with two treatments, bioflocs (TBio) and aquamimicry (TMi), and three replications for each. In both treatments, the average values of the water quality parameters were as follows: temperature was 24.0 ± 0.32 °C, dissolved oxygen was 8.00 ± 0.45 mg·L-1, pH was 8.40 ± 0.20, and alkalinity was 240.01 ± 37.15 mg·L-1. The control of water quality was effectively maintained in both treatments, indicating the aquamimicry system’s capability to efficiently recycle the nutrients found in the lined ponds’ water. Furthermore, both treatments demonstrated efficiency in shrimp production, and the shrimp from the TMi treatment reached an average final weight of 11.73 ± 2.21 g, average survival of 53.3 ± 15.2%, and productivity of 3.56 ± 0.15-ton·ha-1. The TBio shrimp reached a final weight of 11.48 ± 1.25 g, survival of 63.3 ± 8.16%, and productivity of 4.08 ± 1.10-ton·ha-1. The present study demonstrated that TMi treatment pondspresented zootechnical performances close to those of TBio treatment ponds. The results achieved can contribute to the improvement of this cultivation system to use it in higher stocking densities

Ruminal Prevotella spp. May Play an Important Role in the Conversion of Plant Lignans into Human Health Beneficial Antioxidants

Secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), the most abundant lignan in flaxseed, is metabolized by the ruminal microbiota into enterolignans, which are strong antioxidants. Enterolactone (EL), the main mammalian enterolignan produced in the rumen, is transferred into physiological fluids, with potentially human health benefits with respect to menopausal symptoms, hormone-dependent cancers, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and diabetes. However, no information exists to our knowledge on bacterial taxa that play a role in converting plant lignans into EL in ruminants. In order to investigate this, eight rumen cannulated cows were used in a double 4×4 Latin square design and fed with four treatments: control with no flax meal (FM), or 5%, 10% and 15% FM (on a dry matter basis). Concentration of EL in the rumen increased linearly with increasing FM inclusion. Total rumen bacterial 16S rRNA concentration obtained using Q-PCR did not differ among treatments. PCR-T-RFLP based dendrograms revealed no global clustering based on diet indicating between animal variation. PCR-DGGE showed a clustering by diet effect within four cows that had similar basal ruminal microbiota. DNA extracted from bands present following feeding 15% FM and absent with no FM supplementation were sequenced and it showed that many genera, in particular Prevotella spp., contributed to the metabolism of lignans. A subsequent in vitro study using selected pure cultures of ruminal bacteria incubated with SDG indicated that 11 ruminal bacteria were able to convert SDG into secoisolariciresinol (SECO), with Prevotella spp. being the main converters. These data suggest that Prevotella spp. is one genus playing an important role in the conversion of plant lignans to human health beneficial antioxidants in the rumen

Uso de Hipoglicemiantes e Adesão à Terapia por Pacientes Diabéticos Atendidos no Sistema Único de Saúde

Introdução: A incidência de Diabetes Melito atinge proporções epidêmicas fazendo com que sua prevenção seja uma prioridade de saúde pública. Programas de Atenção Farmacêutica vêm se destacando como instrumentos no cuidado dos pacientes diabéticos.Objetivo: Avaliar o uso de hipoglicemiantes e a adesão à terapia por pacientes diabéticos atendidos pelo Sistema Único de Saúde.Métodos: Foi realizado um estudo transversal. Utilizou-se um questionário farmacoterapêutico e avaliaram-se os valores de glicemia capilar, colesterol, triglicerídeos, hemoglobina glicada, pressão arterial e índice de massa corporal. Foi avaliada a existência dos Problemas Relacionados com Medicamentos.Resultados: Foram entrevistados 52 pacientes diabéticos, com idade média de 69,2±10,8 anos para as mulheres e 67,8 ±10,9 anos para os homens. Os valores de hemoglobina glicada mostraram diferença significativa (P<0,001) entre os sexos e o índice de massa corporal mostrou-se acima dos valores normais. Verificou-se que 51,9% dos pacientes utilizava mais de 5 medicamentos e 48,1% eram pouco aderentes à terapia. Encontrou-se 21 potenciais interações medicamentosas.Conclusão: Este estudo mostra a relevância do acompanhamento farmacoterapêutico à pacientes diabéticos e a importância do comprometimento de toda a equipe de saúde para desenvolver e acompanhar o plano terapêutico desses pacientes

BVRI Light Curves for 29 Type Ia Supernovae

BVRI light curves are presented for 27 Type Ia supernovae discovered during the course of the Calan/Tololo Survey and for two other SNe Ia observed during the same period. Estimates of the maximum light magnitudes in the B, V, and I bands and the initial decline rate parameter m15(B) are also given.Comment: 17 pages, figures and tables are not included (contact first author if needed), to appear in the Astronomical Journa

The Sound Demixing Challenge 2023 \unicode{x2013} Music Demixing Track

This paper summarizes the music demixing (MDX) track of the Sound Demixing Challenge (SDX'23). We provide a summary of the challenge setup and introduce the task of robust music source separation (MSS), i.e., training MSS models in the presence of errors in the training data. We propose a formalization of the errors that can occur in the design of a training dataset for MSS systems and introduce two new datasets that simulate such errors: SDXDB23_LabelNoise and SDXDB23_Bleeding1. We describe the methods that achieved the highest scores in the competition. Moreover, we present a direct comparison with the previous edition of the challenge (the Music Demixing Challenge 2021): the best performing system under the standard MSS formulation achieved an improvement of over 1.6dB in signal-to-distortion ratio over the winner of the previous competition, when evaluated on MDXDB21. Besides relying on the signal-to-distortion ratio as objective metric, we also performed a listening test with renowned producers/musicians to study the perceptual quality of the systems and report here the results. Finally, we provide our insights into the organization of the competition and our prospects for future editions.Comment: under revie

Women, men, and rheumatoid arthritis: analyses of disease activity, disease characteristics, and treatments in the QUEST-RA Study

Introduction Gender as a predictor of outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has evoked considerable interest over the decades. Historically, there is no consensus whether RA is worse in females or males. Recent reports suggest that females are less likely than males to achieve remission. Therefore, we aimed to study possible associations of gender and disease activity, disease characteristics, and treatments of RA in a large multinational cross-sectional cohort of patients with RA called Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Patients with RA (QUEST-RA). Methods The cohort includes clinical and questionnaire data from patients who were seen in usual care, including 6,004 patients at 70 sites in 25 countries as of April 2008. Gender differences were analyzed for American College of Rheumatology Core Data Set measures of disease activity, DAS28 (disease activity score using 28 joint counts), fatigue, the presence of rheumatoid factor, nodules and erosions, and the current use of prednisone, methotrexate, and biologic agents. Results Women had poorer scores than men in all Core Data Set measures. The mean values for females and males were swollen joint count-28 (SJC28) of 4.5 versus 3.8, tender joint count-28 of 6.9 versus 5.4, erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 30 versus 26, Health Assessment Questionnaire of 1.1 versus 0.8, visual analog scales for physician global estimate of 3.0 versus 2.5, pain of 4.3 versus 3.6, patient global status of 4.2 versus 3.7, DAS28 of 4.3 versus 3.8, and fatigue of 4.6 versus 3.7 (P LT 0.001). However, effect sizes were small-medium and smallest (0.13) for SJC28. Among patients who had no or minimal disease activity (0 to 1) on SJC28, women had statistically significantly higher mean values compared with men in all other disease activity measures (P LT 0.001) and met DAS28 remission less often than men. Rheumatoid factor was equally prevalent among genders. Men had nodules more often than women. Women had erosions more often than men, but the statistical significance was marginal. Similar proportions of females and males were taking different therapies. Conclusions In this large multinational cohort, RA disease activity measures appear to be worse in women than in men. However, most of the gender differences in RA disease activity may originate from the measures of disease activity rather than from RA disease activity itself

Axon growth and guidance genes identify nascent, immature, and mature olfactory sensory neurons

Neurogenesis of projection neurons requires that axons be initiated, extended, and connected. Differences in the expression of axon growth and guidance genes must drive these events, but comprehensively characterizing these differences in a single neuronal type has not been accomplished. Guided by a catalog of gene expression in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry revealed that Cxcr4 and Dbn1 , two axon initiation genes, marked the developmental transition from basal progenitor cells to immature OSNs in the olfactory epithelium. The CXCR4 immunoreactivity of these nascent OSNs overlapped partially with markers of proliferation of basal progenitor cells and partially with immunoreactivity for GAP43, the canonical marker of immature OSNs. Intracellular guidance cue signaling transcripts Ablim1, Crmp1, Dypsl2, Dpysl3, Dpysl5, Gap43, Marcskl1, and Stmn1–4 were specific to, or much more abundant in, the immature OSN layer. Receptors that mediate axonal inhibition or repulsion tended to be expressed in both immature and mature OSNs ( Plxna1, Plxna4, Nrp2, Efna5 ) or specifically in mature OSNs ( Plxna3, Unc5b, Efna3, Epha5, Epha7 ), although some were specific to immature OSNs ( Plxnb1, Plxnb2, Plxdc2, Nrp1 ). Cell adhesion molecules were expressed either by both immature and mature OSNs ( Dscam, Ncam1, Ncam2, Nrxn1 ) or solely by immature OSNs ( Chl1, Nfasc1, Dscaml1 ). Given the loss of intracellular signaling protein expression, the continued expression of guidance cue receptors in mature OSNs is consistent with a change in the role of these receptors, perhaps to sending signals back to the cell body and nucleus. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106698/1/22497_ftp.pd

Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Regulates Axon Arborization and Cytoskeleton Organization via Its N-Terminus

Conditional deletion of APC leads to marked disruption of cortical development and to excessive axonal branching of cortical neurons. However, little is known about the cell biological basis of this neuronal morphological regulation. Here we show that APC deficient cortical neuronal growth cones exhibit marked disruption of both microtubule and actin cytoskeleton. Functional analysis of the different APC domains revealed that axonal branches do not result from stabilized β-catenin, and that the C-terminus of APC containing microtubule regulatory domains only partially rescues the branching phenotype. Surprisingly, the N-terminus of APC containing the oligomerization domain and the armadillo repeats completely rescues the branching and cytoskeletal abnormalities. Our data indicate that APC is required for appropriate axon morphological development and that the N-terminus of APC is important for regulation of the neuronal cytoskeleton