The number of pores per area of eggshells is not always a reliable indicator of Rheidae species

Desde finales de Pleistoceno hasta el Holoceno tardío, huesos y abundantes cásca- ras de huevos atestiguan la explotación de los Rheidae de las regiones Pampeana y Chaqueña (ñandú, Rhea americana) y la Patagonia Argentina (choique, R. pennata) por parte de las pobla- ciones indígenas. El conteo de poros en una determinada área de la cáscara, esto es, la densidad, ha sido método tradicionalmente utilizado para identificar la especie. En el presente trabajo, utilizando un nuevo método que facilita el conteo, evaluamos la fiabilidad de dicho procedimien- to sobre una amplia muestra. Confirmando lo ya publicado, comprobamos que las cáscaras de ñandú tienen una densidad de poros superior a la del choique. Sin embargo, la variabilidad en la densidad de poros en ambas especies, e incluso dentro de sectores de un mismo huevo, puede dar lugar a identificaciones erróneas. Esto se produce cuando el número de poros por cm² se ubica próximo a los valores más bajos de las cáscaras de ñandú o a los más altos de las del choique. En general, parece ser más frecuente el considerar erróneamente un fragmento de cáscara de ñandú como perteneciente al choique que a la inversa. La probabilidad de cometer dicho error depende de la ubicación del fragmento en la cáscara ya que, al parecer, el método no verificó en su momento la totalidad de los rangos de densidad de poros en cada especie. Nuestros resultados muestran que la identificación de fragmentos basada en el método original no sería tan fiable como la que aquí proponemos y que su precisión, en cualquier caso, merecería ser corroborada exhaustivamente, utilizando muestras mayores y procedentes de un espectro más amplio de po- blaciones de ambas especies.From the end of the Pleistocene and up until the late Holocene, bones and abundant eggshell fragments testify to the hunting by the indigenous people of Rheidae in the Pampas and Chaco regions (greater rhea, Rhea americana), and in the Argentinian Patagonia (lesser/ Darwin's rhea, R.pennata). The traditional method to set apart eggshell fragments from these two species consisted in counting the number pores on a given area to estimate their density. In this paper we evaluate the validity of this method with a new protocol to facilitate counting and assess its reliability on a large eggshell sample. As has been repeatedly proved, the greater rhea has a larger pore density than the lesser rhea. However, the variability of this density within each species, and even within the same egg, needs to be considered as this may lead to erroneous identification. More so when the number of pores per cm2 falls in the lowest range of the greater rhea or the highest range of the lesser rhea. In general, it is easier to misidentify a greater rhea eggshell fragment for that of the lesser rhea than the other way around. The possibility of misidentification also depends on the area of the shell that is being analyzed, since the original method did not apparently assess the density of pores in different areas of the same egg for each species. Although our results indicate that identification based on the original method is not as reliable as the one we propose here, a reappraisal of it with larger samples deriving from a larger specter of populations from both species would be recommendable.Fil: Navarro, Joaquin Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: García, Karina A.. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Zoología Aplicada; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez, Germán Alexis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Martella, Monica Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; Argentin

Preliminary observations on carcass traits and meat yield of five types of Brahman-influenced grass-fed bulls

Benefiting from interventions of the savanna ecosystem, breeders in Los Llanos of Apure State (Venezuela) are exploring the opportunity to improve cattle genetics by implementing crossbreeding programs.  Fifty yearling bulls of five types of Brahman influence [ST-Brahman (n = 10), F1 Angus x Brahman (F1-Angus; n = 10), F1 Chianina x Brahman (F1-Chianina; n = 10), F1 Romosinuano x Brahman (F1-Romosinuano; n = 10), and F1 Simmental x Brahman (F1-Simmental; n = 10)] were selected to be compared in carcass performance (linear measurements, quality and quantity indicators, Venezuelan and U.S. grades, and cutability) at a desirable conformation endpoint with a suitable market weight of 480 kg.  Shorter ST-Brahman carcasses exhibited the most abundant finish, significantly different from the longer F1-Simmental and F1-Romosinuano counterparts.  All carcasses fell into the A youngest maturity and were eligible for the USDA "Bullock “class designation; 62% reached the top Venezuelan quality grade, 96% graded US Standard and 64% reached the US yield grade 1, indicating superior cutability. Significant differences in yield of individual cuts (ribeye + strip loin, and cuts from the round) were detected between F1-Romosinuano and St-Brahman, F1-Angus and F1-Chianina counterparts.  F1-Chianina bulls had slight but significant advantages in yield of high-valued boneless cuts as compared to those of F1-Romosinuano and F1-Simmental counterparts. Conversely, F1-Romosinuano outperformed F1-Chianina in 1.73 percentage points of medium-valued boneless cuts (P < 0.05).  Under the sample selection criteria and harvest endpoint, slight changes in carcass performance can be expected from crossbreeding.Con intervenciones del ecosistema sabana y aplicando un manejo adecuado de los pastos, ganaderos de Los Llanos del Estado Apure (Venezuela) estan explorando mejorar la genética del ganado con programas de cruzamiento.  Cincuenta machos enteros añosos de cinco tipos raciales con influencia Brahman [Brahman puro (n = 10), F1 Angus x Brahman (F1-Angus; n = 10), F1 Chianina x Brahman (F1-Chianina; n = 10), F1 Romosinuano x Brahman (F1-Romosinuano; n = 10) y F1 Simmental x Brahman (F1-Simmental; n = 10)] se compararon en desempeño de la canal (mediciones lineales, indicadores de calidad y cantidad, categorías de clasificación y rendimiento carnicero) a un punto final de conformación deseable con un peso corporal aproximado de 480 kg.  Canales más cortas de Brahman puros exhibieron acabado más abundante, diferente (P<0.05) de las contrapartes más largas F1-Simmental y F1-Romosinuano.  Todas las canales cayeron en la madurez más joven (A) y fueron elegibles para la designación de clase "Bullock" del USDA; el 62% alcanzó el grado de calidad superior venezolano (categoría A), el 96% calificó en el grado de calidad Standard y el 64% alcanzó el grado máximo de rendimiento carnicero (grado 1 USDA).  Los toretes F1-Chianina tuvieron ventajas leves pero significativas en rendimiento en cortes deshuesados de alto valor, en comparación con los de F1-Romosinuano y F1-Simmental.  Por el contrario, F1-Romosinuano superó a F1-Chianina en 1,73 puntos porcentuales de cortes deshuesados de valor medio (P <0.05).  Bajo los criterios de selección de la muestra y el punto final de la cosecha, no se pueden esperar grandes cambios en el rendimiento carnicero a partir del cruzamiento.Com o uso de tecnologias em um ecossistema de savana e aplicando um manejo adequado das pastagens, os criadores de Los Llanos do Estado de Apure (Venezuela) estão tentando melhorar a genética do gado através da utilização de programas de cruzamento.  Cinquenta bovinos machos não castrados, com peso de abate de ~480 kg, de cinco cruzamentos com Brahman [Brahman puro (n = 10), F1 Angus x Brahman (F1-Angus; n = 10), F1 Chianina x Brahman (F1-Chianina; n = 10), F1 Romosinuano x Brahman (F1-Romosinuano; n = 10) e F1 Simental x Brahman (F1-Simental; n = 10)], foram comparados quanto às características (medidas lineares, indicadores de qualidade e quantidade e rendimento de desossa) y tipificacao de carcaça.    Carcaças de Brahman puros apresentaram maior cobertura de gordura do que carcaças de animais F1-Simmental e F1-Romosinuano (P<0.05).  Todas as carcaças foram com maturidade “A” (jovem / Bullock), sendo que 96% se qualificaram no grau de qualidade USDA “Standard” e 64% alcançaram o grau máximo de rendimento de desossa (grau 1).  Pelo padrão venezuelano, 62% das carcaças alcançaram o grau de qualidade superior (categoria A).  Diferenças significativas foram detectadas no rendimento de cortes individuais (filé de costela e contrafilé e cortes do coxão) entre carcaças de F1-Romosinuano e F1-Simental e F1-Angus e F1-Chianina. Carcaças de F1-Chianina apresentaram maiores rendimentos em cortes desossados de alto valor em comparação com F1-Romosinuano e F1-Simmental.  Carcaças de F1-Romosinuano tiveram 1,73 pontos percentuais a mais de rendimento em cortes desossados de valor intermediário, que carcaças de F1-Chianina (P <0,05). Segundo os critérios de seleção da amostra e o ponto final de abate, não se podem esperar grandes mudanças na qualidade e rendimento das carcaças de diferentes cruzamentos. &nbsp

高効率線形送信法におけるPWM包絡線発生法の研究

電気通信大学200

Fabrication and arc erosion behavior of Ag-SnO2-ZnO electrical contact materials

This study investigated the synthesis of Ag-SnO2-ZnO by powder metallurgy methods and their subsequent electrical contact behavior. The pieces of Lambda g-SnO2-ZnO were prepared by ball milling and hot pressing. The arc erosion behavior of the material was evaluated using homemade equipment. The microstructure and phase evolution of the materials were investigated through X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that, although the mass loss of the Ag-SnO2-ZnO composite (9.08 mg) during the electrical contact test was higher than that of the commercial Ag-CdO (1.42 mg), its electrical conductivity remained constant (26.9 +/- 1.5% IACS). This fact would be related to the reaction of Zn2SnO4's formation on the material's surface via electric arc. This reaction would play an important role in controlling the surface segregation and subsequent loss of electrical conductivity of this type of composite, thus enabling the development of a new electrical contact material to replace the non-environmentally friendly Ag-CdO composite

Human Metapneumovirus: Mechanisms and Molecular Targets Used by the Virus to Avoid the Immune System

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a respiratory virus, first reported the year 2001. Since then, it has been described as one of the main etiological agents that causes acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTIs), which is characterized by symptoms such as bronchiolitis, wheezing and coughing. Susceptible population to hMPV-infection includes newborn, children, elderly and immunocompromised individuals. This viral agent is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA enveloped virus, that belongs to the Pneumoviridae family and Metapneumovirus genus. Early reports—previous to 2001—state several cases of respiratory illness without clear identification of the responsible pathogen, which could be related to hMPV. Despite the similarities of hMPV with several other viruses, such as the human respiratory syncytial virus or influenza virus, mechanisms used by hMPV to avoid the host immune system are still unclear. In fact, evidence indicates that hMPV induces a poor innate immune response, thereby affecting the adaptive immunity. Among these mechanisms, is the promotion of an anergic state in T cells, instead of an effective polarization or activation, which could be induced by low levels of cytokine secretion. Further, the evidences support the notion that hMPV interferes with several pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and cell signaling pathways triggered by interferon-associated genes. However, these mechanisms reported in hMPV are not like the ones reported for hRSV, as the latter has two non-structural proteins that are able to inhibit these pathways. Several reports suggest that viral glycoproteins, such as G and SH, could play immune-modulator roles during infection. In this work, we discuss the state of the art regarding the mechanisms that underlie the poor immunity elicited by hMPV. Importantly, these mechanisms will be compared with those elicited by other common respiratory viruses

Fully Inkjet-Printed Green-Emitting PEDOT:PSS/NiO/Colloidal CsPbBr3/SnO2 Perovskite Light-Emitting Diode on Rigid and Flexible Substrates

After establishing themselves as promising active materials in the field of solar cells, halide perovskites are currently being explored for fabrication of low-cost, easily processable, and highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Despite this, the highest efficiencies reported for perovskite-based LEDs (PeLEDs) are achieved through spin coating or vacuum evaporation deposition techniques, which are not adequate, in most of the cases, for an industrial-scale production. Additionally, the long-term stability is still a big handicap, even though all inorganic perovskites, such as CsPbBr3, are found to be more stable to external variables. In this context, herein, the fabrication of fully inkjet-printed (IJP) CsPbBr3-based PeLEDs in ambient conditions, on rigid and flexible substrates, on a proof-of-concept basis, with the successful incorporation of NiO and SnO2 as hole- and electron-selective contacts, respectively, is reported. Despite the moderate luminance (324 cd m−2) value obtained, this result paves the way toward the development of upscalable fabrication of PeLEDs based on deposition techniques with controlled spatial resolution.The authors wish to thank the financial support from the European Commission via FET Open Grant (862656, DROP-IT), MINECO (Spain) for grant PID2019-105658RB-I00 (PRITES project), Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain under Project STABLE (PID2019-107314RB-I00), and Generalitat Valenciana via Prometeo Grant Q-Devices (Prometeo/2018/098)

Study of Z boson production in pPb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

© 2016 The Author.The production of Z bosons in pPb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV is studied by the CMS experiment via the electron and muon decay channels. The inclusive cross section is compared to pp collision predictions, and found to scale with the number of elementary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The differential cross sections as a function of the Z boson rapidity and transverse momentum are measured. Though they are found to be consistent within uncertainty with theoretical predictions both with and without nuclear effects, the forward-backward asymmetry suggests the presence of nuclear effects at large rapidities. These results provide new data for constraining nuclear parton distribution functions

Testing the stress gradient hypothesis in soil bacterial communities associated with vegetation belts in the Andean Atacama Desert

17 Pág.Soil microorganisms are in constant interaction with plants, and these interactions shape the composition of soil bacterial communities by modifying their environment. However, little is known about the relationship between microorganisms and native plants present in extreme environments that are not affected by human intervention. Using high-throughput sequencing in combination with random forest and co-occurrence network analyses, we compared soil bacterial communities inhabiting the rhizosphere surrounding soil (RSS) and the corresponding bulk soil (BS) of 21 native plant species organized into three vegetation belts along the altitudinal gradient (2400-4500 m a.s.l.) of the Talabre-Lejía transect (TLT) in the slopes of the Andes in the Atacama Desert. We assessed how each plant community influenced the taxa, potential functions, and ecological interactions of the soil bacterial communities in this extreme natural ecosystem. We tested the ability of the stress gradient hypothesis, which predicts that positive species interactions become increasingly important as stressful conditions increase, to explain the interactions among members of TLT soil microbial communities.This study was funded by ANID FONDECYT Grants 1201278 to MG, 11200319 to DM, 3190194 to JM and 1211893 to VC, and ANID-MILENIO-CN2021-044. LAC was supported by ANID FB21006 and ACT210038. AG was supported by ANID Ph.D. Fellowship 21210808. Research was supported by the "Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in R&D" from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of Spain (Grant SEV-2016-0672 (2017-2021)) to the CBGP. BG-J was supported by a Postdoctoral contract associated to the Severo Ochoa Program. In addition, this research was partially supported by the supercomputing infrastructure of the NLHPC (ECM-02) (Powered@NLHPC).Peer reviewe

Nano-Tubular Cellulose for Bioprocess Technology Development

Delignified cellulosic material has shown a significant promotional effect on the alcoholic fermentation as yeast immobilization support. However, its potential for further biotechnological development is unexploited. This study reports the characterization of this tubular/porous cellulosic material, which was done by SEM, porosimetry and X-ray powder diffractometry. The results showed that the structure of nano-tubular cellulose (NC) justifies its suitability for use in “cold pasteurization” processes and its promoting activity in bioprocessing (fermentation). The last was explained by a glucose pump theory. Also, it was demonstrated that crystallization of viscous invert sugar solutions during freeze drying could not be otherwise achieved unless NC was present. This effect as well as the feasibility of extremely low temperature fermentation are due to reduction of the activation energy, and have facilitated the development of technologies such as wine fermentations at home scale (in a domestic refrigerator). Moreover, NC may lead to new perspectives in research such as the development of new composites, templates for cylindrical nano-particles, etc