Effect of essential oils extracted from Satureja calamintha, Mentha pulegium and Juniperus phoenicea on in vitro methanogenesis and fermentation traits of vetch-oat hay

The impact of inclusion of essential oils (EO) extracted from Juniperus phoenicea, Satureja calamintha and Mentha pulegium at three levels: 0, 1.66, 3.33 and 6.66 μl/ml of incubation medium, on methane production and rumen fermentation traits of vetch-oat hay was studied in in vitro gas production test, using 200 mg of substrate in a 60 ml graduated syringes. Gas production was recorded at 3, 6, 9, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. Methane was measured at 3, 24 and 96 h, while pH and ammonia N were analyzed just at 24 h of incubation. At 24 h of fermentation, all doses of EO reduced significantly total gas and methane production (P < 0.05). At the highest concentration and after 24 h, methanogenesis was decreased by 60.98, 57.70 and 64.64% for J. phoenicea, M. pulegium and S. calamintha, respectively. This effect was more pronounced at the end of fermentation (96 h) where reduction in methane production was superior to 72%. However, addition of EO increased pH and decreased significantly ammonia concentration, mainly, for high EO concentrations. The results indicate that these EO had a potential to reduce methanogenesis in the rumen, but further in vitro and in vivo trials are required to search optimum dose which reduce methane production without adversely changing dietary fermentation and rumen function.Key words: Methane, ammonia, essential oils, Satureja calamintha (Calament), Mentha pulegium (fliou, Menthe pouliot), Juniperus phoenicea (Arar, Genévrier), in vitro gas production test

Association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the multinational Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been associated with exposures in the workplace. We aimed to assess the association of respiratory symptoms and lung function with occupation in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study. Methods We analysed cross-sectional data from 28 823 adults (≥40 years) in 34 countries. We considered 11 occupations and grouped them by likelihood of exposure to organic dusts, inorganic dusts and fumes. The association of chronic cough, chronic phlegm, wheeze, dyspnoea, forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)/FVC with occupation was assessed, per study site, using multivariable regression. These estimates were then meta-analysed. Sensitivity analyses explored differences between sexes and gross national income. Results Overall, working in settings with potentially high exposure to dusts or fumes was associated with respiratory symptoms but not lung function differences. The most common occupation was farming. Compared to people not working in any of the 11 considered occupations, those who were farmers for ≥20 years were more likely to have chronic cough (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.19–1.94), wheeze (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.16–1.63) and dyspnoea (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.53–2.20), but not lower FVC (β=0.02 L, 95% CI −0.02–0.06 L) or lower FEV1/FVC (β=0.04%, 95% CI −0.49–0.58%). Some findings differed by sex and gross national income. Conclusion At a population level, the occupational exposures considered in this study do not appear to be major determinants of differences in lung function, although they are associated with more respiratory symptoms. Because not all work settings were included in this study, respiratory surveillance should still be encouraged among high-risk dusty and fume job workers, especially in low- and middle-income countries.publishedVersio

Elements About Exploratory, Knowledge-Based, Hybrid, and Explainable Knowledge Discovery

International audienceKnowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) and especially pattern mining can be interpreted along several dimensions, namely data, knowledge, problem-solving and interactivity. These dimensions are not disconnected and have a direct impact on the quality, applicability, and efficiency of KDD. Accordingly, we discuss some objectives of KDD based on these dimensions, namely exploration, knowledge orientation, hybridization, and explanation. The data space and the pattern space can be explored in several ways, depending on specific evaluation functions and heuristics, possibly related to domain knowledge. Furthermore, numerical data are complex and supervised numerical machine learning methods are usually the best candidates for efficiently mining such data. However, the work and output of numerical methods are most of the time hard to understand, while symbolic methods are usually more intelligible. This calls for hybridization, combining numerical and symbolic mining methods to improve the applicability and interpretability of KDD. Moreover, suitable explanations about the operating models and possible subsequent decisions should complete KDD, and this is far from being the case at the moment. For illustrating these dimensions and objectives, we analyze a concrete case about the mining of biological data, where we characterize these dimensions and their connections. We also discuss dimensions and objectives in the framework of Formal Concept Analysis and we draw some perspectives for future research

Cohort Profile: Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study

The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study was established to assess the prevalence of chronic airflow obstruction, a key characteristic of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and its risk factors in adults (≥40 years) from general populations across the world. The baseline study was conducted between 2003 and 2016, in 41 sites across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Oceania, and collected high-quality pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry from 28 828 participants. The follow-up study was conducted between 2019 and 2021, in 18 sites across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. At baseline, there were in these sites 12 502 participants with high-quality spirometry. A total of 6452 were followed up, with 5936 completing the study core questionnaire. Of these, 4044 also provided high-quality pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry. On both occasions, the core questionnaire covered information on respiratory symptoms, doctor diagnoses, health care use, medication use and ealth status, as well as potential risk factors. Information on occupation, environmental exposures and diet was also collected

Biosurfactants Production from Low Cost Substrate and Degradation of Diesel Oil by a Rhodococcus Strain

The ability of a Rhodococcus strain to produce surface-active agents from residual sunflower frying oil (RSFO) has been screened in batch cultures. During cultivation with RSFO at the concentration 3% (vol/vol), the strain has synthesized extra-cellular compounds which increase the E24 emulsion index of the culture medium up to 63%. In their crude form, these substances lower the surface tension of water until 31.9 mN m-1. The exponential growth with RSFO as the sole carbon source has developed at a specific growth rate μ = 0.55 d-1. The critical micelle concentration of the crude product reached the value 287 mg L-1 (γCMC = 31.9 mN m-1). After methylesterification, the lipid fraction of biosurfactants has been analyzed by GC-MS in EI, which reveals the presence of fatty acid methyl esters. The microorganism was also cultivated with the diesel oil as the sole carbon source at the concentration 1% (vol/vol): the active growth phase has developed at rate μ = 0.02 d-1, without production of emulsifying substance: the microorganism seems to develop different modes of substrate uptake, according to the nature of the carbon source. The potential use of surface-active agents synthesized on RSFO by Rhodococcus erythropolis 16 LM.USTHB is in the oil industry with minimum purity specification, so that crude preparation could be used, at low cost, in clean-up of hydrocarbons contaminated sites and for enhanced oil recovery

Electronic and Thermoelectric Properties of Li-Based Half-Heusler Alloys: A DFT Study

In this paper, we have studied the electronic, elastic and thermoelectric properties of the half-Heusler LiCrZ (Z = C, N, Si, and P) materials in Type II phase, in this structure the atomic occupations are X (1/2,1/2,1/2), Y (0,0,0) and Z(1/4,1/4,1/4). The ferromagnetic state of Type II structure was found to be the most stable phase for all studied alloys. After calculating the elastic constants, we found out that the conditions of mechanical stability were verified only for LiCrSi and LiCrP alloys in Type II phase, at both equilibrium a0 and half metallic ahm lattice constants, which indicates that these two compounds can be synthesized experimentally. We should also mention that the half metallic behavior in Type II structure, for LiCrSi and LiCrP compounds, was obtained by straining the equilibrium lattice constants by 2% and 6%, respectively. At ahm, these two systems were identified to be true half metals due to their complete spin polarization and integer value of total magnetic moment. These last ones have reached 3μB per unit cell when Z = Si, and 4μB when Z = P. Using the mean field approximation (MFA), the Curie temperatures of Type II structure were also determined, where the values are estimated to be 456.2 K and 302.8 K, respectively. Finally, the thermoelectric performance has been explored by the classical Boltzmann theory. At low temperatures, the figure of merit has reached 0.73 and 0.93 for LiCrSi and LiCrP, respectively. The considerable ZT values and all calculated physical properties make these two systems promising candidates for thermoelectric applications