Effects of Thermal Stress on the Gut Microbiome of Juvenile Milkfish (Chanos chanos)

Milkfish, an important aquaculture species in Asian countries, are traditionally cultured in outdoor-based systems. There, they experience potentially stressful fluctuations in environmental conditions, such as temperature, eliciting changes in fish physiology. While the importance of the gut microbiome for the welfare and performance of fish has been recognized, little is known about the effects of thermal stress on the gut microbiome of milkfish and its interactions with the host's metabolism. We investigated the gut microbiome of juvenile milkfish in a thermal stress experiment, comparing control (26 degrees C) and elevated temperature (33 degrees C) treatments over three weeks, analyzing physiological biomarkers, gut microbiome composition, and tank water microbial communities using 16S amplicon sequencing. The gut microbiome was distinct from the tank water and dominated by Cetobacterium, Enterovibrio, and Vibrio. We observed a parallel succession in both temperature treatments, with microbial communities at 33 degrees C differing more strongly from the control after the initial temperature increase and becoming more similar towards the end of the experiment. As proxy for the fish's energy status, HSI (hepatosomatic index) was correlated with gut microbiome composition. Our study showed that thermal stress induced changes in the milkfish gut microbiome, which may contribute to the host's habituation to elevated temperatures over time

Concordance of KRAS/BRAF Mutation Status in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer before and after Anti-EGFR Therapy

Anti-EGFR targeted therapy is a potent strategy in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) but activating mutations in the KRAS gene are associated with poor response to this treatment. Therefore, KRAS mutation analysis is employed in the selection of patients for EGFR-targeted therapy and various studies have shown a high concordance between the mutation status in primary CRC and corresponding metastases. However, although development of therapy related resistance occurs also in the context of novel drugs such as tyrosine kinase-inhibitors the effect of the anti-EGFR treatment on the KRAS/BRAF mutation status itself in recurrent mCRC has not yet been clarified. Therefore, we analyzed 21 mCRCs before/after anti-EGFR therapy and found a pre-/posttherapeutic concordance of the KRAS/BRAF mutation status in 20 of the 21 cases examined. In the one discordant case, further analyses revealed that a tumor mosaicism or multiple primary tumors were present, indicating that anti-EGFR therapy has no influence on KRAS/BRAF mutation status in mCRC. Moreover, as the preselection of patients with a KRASwt genotype for anti-EGFR therapy has become a standard procedure, sample sets such ours might be the basis for future studies addressing the identification of potential anti-EGFR therapy induced genetic alterations apart from KRAS/BRAF mutations

Розслідування та облік нещасних випадків і аварій на виробництві. Методичні вказівки до самостійної роботи та практичних занять для студентів усіх спеціальностей та форм навчання

Розглянуто порядок розслідування та обліку нещасних випадків і аварій, що сталися на виробництві. Наведено обставини, за яких нещасний випадок визнається пов’язаним з виробництвом, основні форми матеріалів розслідування, пояснення щодо їх заповнення, порядок виконання роботи та зміст звіту, перелік контрольних питань та нормативно-правових актів

Mobile Robot Localization using Panoramic Vision and Combinations of Feature Region Detectors

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2008, Pasadena, California, May 19-23, 2008), pp. 538-543.This paper presents a vision-based approach for mobile robot localization. The environmental model is topological. The new approach uses a constellation of different types of affine covariant regions to characterize a place. This type of representation permits a reliable and distinctive environment modeling. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using a database of panoramic images from different rooms. Additionally, we compare different combinations of complementary feature region detectors to find the one that achieves the best results. Our experimental results show promising results for this new localization method. Additionally, similarly to what happens with single detectors, different combinations exhibit different strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation, suggesting that a context-aware method to combine the different detectors would improve the localization results.This work was partially supported by USC Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE), the FI grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya, the European Social Fund, and the MID-CBR project grant TIN2006-15140-C03-01 and FEDER funds and the grant 2005-SGR-00093

THE CHANGING ECONOMIC SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF EUROPE

Many theoretical and practical works aim at describing the spatial structure of Europe, where spatial relations have undergone continuous change. This article gives an overview of models describing the spatial structure of Europe. Their diversity is highlighted by listing of these models, without any claim to completeness. Our study aims at describing the economic spatial structure of Europe with bi-dimensional regression analysis based on the gravitational model. With the help of the gravity model, we get a spatial image of the spatial structure of Europe. With these images, we can justify the appropriateness of the models based on different methodological backgrounds by comparing them with our results. Our goal is not to create and show a new model that overwrites the existing ones, but rather to contribute to understanding the European spatial structure through a new methodological approach

Investigation on the International State of the Art of Micro Production Technology

The study “microPRO” dealing with the international state of the art of micro production technology was conducted by the above named Institutes. The objective of this study was to determine the worldwide state-of-the-art technology and research in micro production technology by means of scientific investigations and technical discussions with the technology leaders and, based on this, to identify the required research and development as well as the future potentials of these technologies in view of the market-overlapping economic utilization of miniaturized products