Infrared spectral studies of Zn-substituted CuFeCrO4 spinel ferrite system

The spinel solid solution series Znx Cu1–x FeCrO4 with x = 0.0,0.2,0.4 and 0.6 has been studied by infrared absorption spectroscopy. The IR-spectrum showed two main absorption bands ν1 and ν2 in the range 400-600 cm-1 arising from tetrahedral (A) and octahedral (B) interstitial sites in the spinel lattice. The absence of ν4 band suggests that lattice vibrations are insignificant. No shoulder or splitting is observed around ν1 and ν2 bands confirming absence of Fe+2 ions in the system. The sharpening of band with Zn- content (x) is due to the fact that the system changes from inverse to normal spinel structure. The structural and optical properties are correlated and the bulk modulus, compressional and shear velocity values determined through IR spectral analysis are in good agreement to those obtained through ultrasonic pulse transmission technique.Author Affiliation: M C Chhantbar, U N Trivedi, P V Tanna, H J Shah, R P Vara, H H Joshi and K B Modi Department of Physics, Saurashtra University, Rajkot-360 005, Gujarat, India E-mail : [email protected] of Physics, Saurashtra University, Rajkot-360 005, Gujarat, Indi

Effects of dietary beef tallow on performance, rumen fermentation, carcass traits and meat quality of growing lambs

Growing lambs were evaluated for the effect of increasing dietary levels of beef tallow (BT) on performance, rumen fermentation, and carcass and meat characteristics. Twenty-one 5-month-old male Rambouillet lambs were assigned randomly to one of three diets with 0, 20, and 40 g BT/kg dry matter (DM) and similar energy and protein contents. Lambs were adapted to the diets for 15 days, followed by a 45-day evaluation trial. Data were analysed using a mixed model. Growth, feed intake and ruminal fermentation were not affected by the dietary level of BT. Daily metabolizable energy intake (MEI), carcass yield and degree of fatness, increased linearly as the BT level increased. Carcass classification and muscle conformation were not affected by BT. Most meat characteristics (texture, pH, myoglobin, protein content, colour, cathepsins, and chemical composition) five and eight days post-mortem were not affected, except for fat content in meat, which increased linearly as diet BT level increased. Fatty acid (FA) profiles of the meat from lambs fed the three diets were similar. In conclusion, addition of BT at 20 and 40 g/kg DM to diets for growing lambs allowed reduced grain usage and increased forage levels (from 0 to 270 g/kg DM), increasing energy intake, carcass yield and fatness, and intramuscular fat without causing harmful effects on growth, feed intake or ruminal fermentation characteristics. Keywords: dietary fat, fatty acids, meat colour, shee

IgG4-Related Hashimoto's Thyroiditis - A New Variant of a Well Known Disease

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) has been characterized for many years as a well-defined clinicopathologic entity, but is now considered a heterogeneous disease. IgG4-related HT is a new subtype characterized by thyroid inflammation rich in IgG4-positive plasma cells and marked fibrosis. It may be part of the systemic IgG4-related disease. We report a case of a 56-year-old Portuguese man who presented with a one-month history of progressive neck swelling and dysphagia. Laboratory testing revealed increased inflammatory parameters, subclinical hypothyroidism and very high levels of thyroid autoantibodies. Cervical ultrasound (US) demonstrated an enlarged and heterogeneous thyroid gland and two hypoechoic nodules. US-guided fine needle aspiration cytology was consistent with lymphocytic thyroiditis. The patient was submitted to total thyroidectomy and microscopic examination identified typical findings of HT, marked fibrosis limited within the thyroid capsule and lymphoplasmacytic infiltration, with >50 IgG4-positive plasma cells per high-power field and an IgG4/IgG ratio of >40%. After surgery, serum IgG4 concentration was high-normal. Symptoms relief and reduction in laboratory inflammatory parameters were noticed. Thyroid function is controlled with levothyroxine. To our knowledge we report the first case of IgG4-related HT in a non-Asian patient. We also perform a review of the literature regarding IgG4-related disease and IgG4-related HT. Our case highlights this new variant of the well known HT, and helps physicians in recognizing its main clinical features, allowing for proper diagnosis and treatment

Genotypic variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] exotic germplasm collections for drought and disease tolerance

Citation: Kapanigowda, M., . . . & Little, C. (2013). Genotypic variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] exotic germplasm collections for drought and disease tolerance. SpringerPlus, 2, 650. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-2-650Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] grain yield is severely affected by abiotic and biotic stresses during post-flowering stages, which has been aggravated by climate change. New parental lines having genes for various biotic and abiotic stress tolerances have the potential to mitigate this negative effect. Field studies were conducted under irrigated and dryland conditions with 128 exotic germplasm and 12 adapted lines to evaluate and identify potential sources for post-flowering drought tolerance and stalk and charcoal rot tolerances. The various physiological and disease related traits were recorded under irrigated and dryland conditions. Under dryland conditions, chlorophyll content (SPAD), grain yield and HI were decreased by 9, 44 and 16%, respectively, compared to irrigated conditions. Genotype RTx7000 and PI475432 had higher leaf temperature and grain yield, however, genotype PI570895 had lower leaf temperature and higher grain yield under dryland conditions. Increased grain yield and optimum leaf temperature was observed in PI510898, IS1212 and PI533946 compared to BTx642 (B35). However, IS14290, IS12945 and IS1219 had decreased grain yield and optimum leaf temperature under dryland conditions. Under irrigated conditions, stalk and charcoal rot disease severity was higher than under dryland conditions. Genotypes IS30562 and 1790E R had tolerance to both stalk rot and charcoal rot respectively and IS12706 was the most susceptible to both diseases. PI510898 showed combined tolerance to drought and Fusarium stalk rot under dryland conditions. The genotypes identified in this study are potential sources of drought and disease tolerance and will be used to develop better adaptable parental lines followed by high yielding hybrids

Transvaginal ultrasound versus magnetic resonance imaging for preoperative assessment of myometrial infiltration in patients with low-grade endometrioid endometrial cancer: A systematic review and head-to-head meta-analysis

Purpose: We aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) for detecting myometrial invasion (MI) in patients with low-grade endometrioid endometrial carcinoma. Methods: A comprehensive search of MEDLINE (Pubmed), Web of Science, Embase and Scopus (from January 1990 to December 2022) was performed for articles comparing TVS and MRI in the evaluation of myometrial infiltration in low-grade (grade 1 or 2) endometrioid endometrial carcinoma in the same group of patients. We used QUADAS-2 tool for assessing the risk of bias of studies. Results: We found 104 citations in our extensive research. Four articles were ultimately included in the meta-analysis, after excluding 100 reports. All articles were considered low risk of bias in most of the domains assessed in QUADAS-2. We observed that pooled sensitivity and specificity for detecting deep MI were 65% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 54%-75%) and 85% (95% CI = 79%-89%) for MRI, and 71% (95% CI = 63%-78%) and 76% (95% CI = 67%-83%) for TVS, respectively. No statistical differences were found between both imaging techniques (p > 0.05). We observed low heterogeneity for sensitivity and high for specificity regarding TVS; and moderate for both sensitivity and specificity in case of MRI. Conclusions: The diagnostic performance of TVS and MRI for the evaluation of deep MI in women with low-grade endometrioid endometrial cancer is similar. However, further research is needed as the number of studies is scanty

Early-Season Stand Count Determination in Corn via Integration of Imagery from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Supervised Learning Techniques

Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most sensitive crops to planting pattern and early-season uniformity. The most common method to determine number of plants is by visual inspection on the ground but this field activity becomes time-consuming, labor-intensive, biased, and may lead to less profitable decisions by farmers. The objective of this study was to develop a reliable, timely, and unbiased method for counting corn plants based on ultra-high-resolution imagery acquired from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to automatically scout fields and applied to real field conditions. A ground sampling distance of 2.4 mm was targeted to extract information at a plant-level basis. First, an excess greenness (ExG) index was used to individualized green pixels from the background, then rows and inter-row contours were identified and extracted. A scalable training procedure was implemented using geometric descriptors as inputs of the classifier. Second, a decision tree was implemented and tested using two training modes in each site to expose the workflow to different ground conditions at the time of the aerial data acquisition. Differences in performance were due to training modes and spatial resolutions in the two sites. For an object classification task, an overall accuracy of 0.96, based on the proportion of corrected assessment of corn and non-corn objects, was obtained for local (per-site) classification, and an accuracy of 0.93 was obtained for the combined training modes. For successful model implementation, plants should have between two to three leaves when images are collected (avoiding overlapping between plants). Best workflow performance was reached at 2.4 mm resolution corresponding to 10 m of altitude (lower altitude); higher altitudes were gradually penalized. The latter was coincident with the larger number of detected green objects in the images and the effectiveness of geometry as descriptor for corn plant detection.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Early-Season Stand Count Determination in Corn via Integration of Imagery from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Supervised Learning Techniques

Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most sensitive crops to planting pattern and early-season uniformity. The most common method to determine number of plants is by visual inspection on the ground but this field activity becomes time-consuming, labor-intensive, biased, and may lead to less profitable decisions by farmers. The objective of this study was to develop a reliable, timely, and unbiased method for counting corn plants based on ultra-high-resolution imagery acquired from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to automatically scout fields and applied to real field conditions. A ground sampling distance of 2.4 mm was targeted to extract information at a plant-level basis. First, an excess greenness (ExG) index was used to individualized green pixels from the background, then rows and inter-row contours were identified and extracted. A scalable training procedure was implemented using geometric descriptors as inputs of the classifier. Second, a decision tree was implemented and tested using two training modes in each site to expose the workflow to different ground conditions at the time of the aerial data acquisition. Differences in performance were due to training modes and spatial resolutions in the two sites. For an object classification task, an overall accuracy of 0.96, based on the proportion of corrected assessment of corn and non-corn objects, was obtained for local (per-site) classification, and an accuracy of 0.93 was obtained for the combined training modes. For successful model implementation, plants should have between two to three leaves when images are collected (avoiding overlapping between plants). Best workflow performance was reached at 2.4 mm resolution corresponding to 10 m of altitude (lower altitude); higher altitudes were gradually penalized. The latter was coincident with the larger number of detected green objects in the images and the effectiveness of geometry as descriptor for corn plant detection.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Vitamin A decreases pre-receptor amplification of glucocorticoids in obesity: study on the effect of vitamin A on 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 activity in liver and visceral fat of WNIN/Ob obese rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11β-HSD1) catalyzes the conversion of inactive glucocorticoids to active glucocorticoids and its inhibition ameliorates obesity and metabolic syndrome. So far, no studies have reported the effect of dietary vitamin A on 11β-HSD1 activity in visceral fat and liver under normal and obese conditions. Here, we studied the effect of chronic feeding of vitamin A-enriched diet (129 mg/kg diet) on 11β-HSD1 activity in liver and visceral fat of WNIN/Ob lean and obese rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male, 5-month-old, lean and obese rats of WNIN/Ob strain (n = 16 for each phenotype) were divided into two subgroups consisting of 8 rats of each phenotype. Control groups received stock diet containing 2.6 mg vitamin A/kg diet, where as experimental groups received diet containing 129 mg vitamin A/Kg diet for 20 weeks. Food and water were provided <it>ad libitum</it>. At the end of the experiment, tissues were collected and 11β-HSD1 activity was assayed in liver and visceral fat.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Vitamin A supplementation significantly decreased body weight, visceral fat mass and 11β-HSD1 activity in visceral fat of WNIN/Ob obese rats. Hepatic 11β-HSD1 activity and gene expression were significantly reduced by vitamin A supplementation in both the phenotypes. CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα), the main transcription factor essential for the expression of 11β-HSD1, decreased in liver of vitamin A fed-obese rats, but not in lean rats. Liver × receptor α (LXRα), a nuclear transcription factor which is known to downregulate 11β-HSD1 gene expression was significantly increased by vitamin A supplementation in both the phenotypes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that chronic consumption of vitamin A-enriched diet decreases 11β-HSD1 activity in liver and visceral fat of WNIN/Ob obese rats. Decreased 11β-HSD1 activity by vitamin A may result in decreased levels of active glucocorticoids in adipose tissue and possibly contribute to visceral fat loss in these obese rats. Studying the role of various nutrients on the regulation of 11β-HSD1 activity and expression will help in the evolving of dietary approaches to treat obesity and insulin resistance.</p

Early-Season Stand Count Determination in Corn via Integration of Imagery from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Supervised Learning Techniques

Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most sensitive crops to planting pattern and early-season uniformity. The most common method to determine number of plants is by visual inspection on the ground but this field activity becomes time-consuming, labor-intensive, biased, and may lead to less profitable decisions by farmers. The objective of this study was to develop a reliable, timely, and unbiased method for counting corn plants based on ultra-high-resolution imagery acquired from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to automatically scout fields and applied to real field conditions. A ground sampling distance of 2.4 mm was targeted to extract information at a plant-level basis. First, an excess greenness (ExG) index was used to individualized green pixels from the background, then rows and inter-row contours were identified and extracted. A scalable training procedure was implemented using geometric descriptors as inputs of the classifier. Second, a decision tree was implemented and tested using two training modes in each site to expose the workflow to different ground conditions at the time of the aerial data acquisition. Differences in performance were due to training modes and spatial resolutions in the two sites. For an object classification task, an overall accuracy of 0.96, based on the proportion of corrected assessment of corn and non-corn objects, was obtained for local (per-site) classification, and an accuracy of 0.93 was obtained for the combined training modes. For successful model implementation, plants should have between two to three leaves when images are collected (avoiding overlapping between plants). Best workflow performance was reached at 2.4 mm resolution corresponding to 10 m of altitude (lower altitude); higher altitudes were gradually penalized. The latter was coincident with the larger number of detected green objects in the images and the effectiveness of geometry as descriptor for corn plant detection.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ