Influence of Phytoestrogens on Skeletal Muscle Structure

Constant increase of meat quantity along with ensuring its high quality are nowadays being the priority requirements of the market towards modern meat production. With selection and animal nutrition as the basic mechanisms regulating the quantity and quality of meat, in recent years more attention has been devoted to investigations of the effects of different chemical compounds on muscle tissue, while monitoring their potential negative effects on both animals and humans as the end consumers. A group of compounds that is being increasingly studied in the last years are phytoestrogens – substances of plant origin with chemical structure very similar to estrogen, capable of causing either estrogenic or anti-estrogenic reactions in the organism. The most studied phytoestrogens are daidzein and genistein, and due to their ability to mimic estrogen in the body, they are thought to be able of influencing growth and carcass composition in farm animals. This paper gives an overview of the newer results on the effects of phytoestrogens genistein and daidzein on skeletal muscle tissue in farm animals

Water Quality Management in the Nitra River Basin

The Nitra River is a tributary of the Vih which enters the Danube downstream of Bratislava. The watershed area is slightly larger than 5000 km2, and more than 650000 inhabitants live there. The quality of the river is one of the poorest in Slovakia due to numerous municipal and industrial discharges and the low level of wastewater treatment. The ongoing economic transition and shortage of financial resources for environmental management call for the development of regional short-run, least-cost policies. The development of such policies was the main objective of this joint study with the participation of IIASA, the Water Research Institute (VUVH, Bratislava) and the Vih River Basin Authority. The present state of emissions and water quality was evaluated on the basis of available, routine types of information (including observations from the basin-wide water quality monitoring network) and additional data collection. It was found that industrial discharges form problems which can be handled mostly locally with a straight-forward strategy. In contrast, the management of municipal discharges -- representing about 70% of the total BOD5 emission in the catchment -- is a more complex issue requiring the development of a regional policy. The definition of ambient water quality criteria (or the usage of a combination of ambient and effluent criteria) reflecting water use is a pre-requisite of the establishment of a least-cost policy. Thus, the application of water quality models is necessary to relate emissions to receiving water quality (as well as their changes). Due to the nature of the problem, a number of oxygen and nutrient balance models were used, ranging from the traditional Streeter-Phelps model to the latest version of U.S. EPA's QUAL model family. The models were calibrated and validated on the basis of two comprehensive longitudinal water quality profile observations. These observations were gathered under low-flow conditions to correspond with the design requirements of the strategy development. Due to the presence of uncertainties of different origins, the methodology of Hornberger, Spear, and Young (based on the so-called "behavior definition") was applied for parameter estimation of simpler models which then were directly incorporated into an optimization model. This optimization model was based on dynamic programming, utilizing structural features of river basin water pollution problems. Elements of the water quality control policy model or decision support system (including the linked hydraulic and water quality model(s), the parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis routines, the dynamic programming, the database, the graphical user-interface, etc.) were developed in a rather generic fashion to allow a transfer from one watershed to another. This philosophy corresponds to the broader goals of IIASA's Water Resources Project dealing with issues of the management of degraded river basins in Central and Eastern Europe and the development of associated methodologies for which the Nitra River served as a case study. Starting from the existing municipal wastewater treatment facilities, a number of alternatives were developed for each site on the basis of various combinations of well-proven physical, biological, and chemical processes to which different effluent quality (BOD-5, TP, NH4-N, NO3-N, etc.) as well as investment, operation, maintenance, and repair costs belong. The technological alternatives (and their major parameters) serve as input to the management optimization model. A special focus was devoted to phased plant development and innovative, cost-effective upgrading of highly overloaded plants by adding chemicals in low dosage. The issue of upgrading was also experimentally analyzed by jar tests at different treatment plants. The objectives of the policy model were formulated in terms of minimizing the total annual cost or the investment cost. Constraints might incorporate ambient water quality (characterized by DO, BOD-5 and NH4-N), effluent criteria, and/or minimum level of treatment. The derived least-cost policies were compared to policies based strictly on effluent criteria and to those based on the application of "best available technology." The effluent criteria based policy stems from the new Slovakian legislation if its ambient criteria element was excluded (the legislation defines the simultaneous usage of effluent and ambient criteria and an eleven-year long transition period after which more stringent standards should be met). The role of industrial emissions was demonstrated in a sensitivity fashion, while the influence of parameter uncertainty on the developed policies was analyzed by an a posteriori Monte Carlo simulation and a multi-objective assessment. The study shows that significant cost savings are possible in comparison to uniform, effluent standard policies. They also suggest that a long-term strategy should be realized on the basis of a sequence of properly phased least-cost policies corresponding to ambient (or regionally variable) standards to be tightened gradually as financial resources become available

Understanding the diffuse gamma ray emission of the milky way - from supernova remnants to dark matter

Diffuse gamma ray emission from the Galactic center at 2-3 GeV, as well as the 12 TeV gamma ray excess in the Galactic disk, remain open for debate and represent the missing puzzles in the complete picture of the high-energy Milky Way sky. Our papers emphasize the importance of understanding all of the populations that contribute to the diffuse gamma background in order to discriminate between the astrophysical sources such as supernova remnants and pulsars, and something that is expected to be seen in gamma rays and is much more exotic - dark matter. We analyze two separate data sets that have been measured in different energy ranges from the ?Fermi-LAT? and ?Milagro? telescopes, using these as a powerful tool to limit and test our analytical source population models. We model supernova remnants and pulsars, estimating the number of still undetected ones that contribute to the diffuse background, trying to explain both the Galactic center and the 12 TeV excess. Furthermore, we aim to predict the number of soon to be detected sources with new telescopes, such as the ?HAWC?

Longitudinal Water Quality Profile Measurements and their Evaluation in the Nitra River basin (Slovakia)

The Nitra River is one of most polluted rivers in the Slovak Republic, due to numerous industrial and municipal emissions, and low level of wastewater treatment. Policy-oriented water quality management study on the basin was undertaken jointly by IIASA, the Water Research Institute in Bratislava (VUVH), and the Vah River Basin Authority. One of the components of the research were the water quality profiles experiments incorporating both emission and river water sampling, followed by an analysis with mass balance method. Two experiments were performed in the basin, in August 1992 and June 1993, respectively. The first experiment was focused on the "conventional" water quality parameters affecting dissolved oxygen balance, such as BOD, COD and nitrogen. The second, although limited only to certain regions of the basin, was aimed at understanding more detailed water quality processes in the river such as sedimentation and hydrolysis of organic material. Rough estimates of the process rates were obtained with mass balance method. The results of the work were used for calibration of water quality models essential for the formulation of economically feasible wastewater treatment policy in the basin based on water quality criteria

Magnetic-field dependence of antiferromagnetic structure in CeRh1-xCoxIn5

We investigated effects of magnetic field H on antiferromagnetic (AF) structures in CeRh_{1-x}Co_xIn_5 by performing the elastic neutron scattering measurements. By applying H along the [1,-1,0] direction, the incommensurate AF state with the propagation vector of q_{h1}=(1/2,1/2,0.297) observed at H=0 is replaced by the commensurate AF state with the q_{c2} = (1/2, 1/2, 1/4) modulation above 2 T for x=0.23, while the AF states with the q_{c1}=(1/2,1/2,1/2) and q_{h2}=(1/2,1/2,0.42) modulations seen at H=0 change into a single q_{c1}-AF state above ~1.6 T for x=0.7. These results suggest the different types of AF correlation for Co concentrations of 0.23 and 0.7 in an applied magnetic field H.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of ICM2009 (Karlsruhe, Germany

Light elements in massive single and binary stars

We highlight the role of the light elements (Li, Be, B) in the evolution of massive single and binary stars, which is largely restricted to a diagnostic value, and foremost so for the element boron. However, we show that the boron surface abundance in massive early type stars contains key information about their foregoing evolution which is not obtainable otherwise. In particular, it allows to constrain internal mixing processes and potential previous mass transfer event for binary stars (even if the companion has disappeared). It may also help solving the mystery of the slowly rotating nitrogen-rich massive main sequence stars.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, to appear in proc. IAU-Symp. 268. C. Charbonnel et al., eds

Dysfunctional telomeres in primary cells from Fanconi anemia FANCD2 patients

© 2012 Joksic et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Fanconi anemia (FA) is characterized by sensitivity to DNA cross-linking agents, mild cellular, and marked clinical radio sensitivity. In this study we investigated telomeric abnormalities of non-immortalized primary cells (lymphocytes and fibroblasts) derived from FA patients of the FA-D2 complementation group, which provides a more accurate physiological assessment than is possible with transformed cells or animal models. Results: We analyzed telomere length, telomere dysfunction-induced foci (TIFs), sister chromatid exchanges (SCE), telomere sister chromatid exchanges (T-SCE), apoptosis and expression of shelterin components TRF1 and TRF2. FANCD2 lymphocytes exhibited multiple types of telomeric abnormalities, including premature telomere shortening, increase in telomeric recombination and aberrant telomeric structures ranging from fragile to long-string extended telomeres. The baseline incidence of SCE in FANCD2 lymphocytes was reduced when compared to control, but in response to diepoxybutane (DEB) the 2-fold higher rate of SCE was observed. In contrast, control lymphocytes showed decreased SCE incidence in response to DEB treatment. FANCD2 fibroblasts revealed a high percentage of TIFs, decreased expression of TRF1 and invariable expression of TRF2. The percentage of TIFs inversely correlated with telomere length, emphasizing that telomere shortening is the major reason for the loss of telomere capping function. Upon irradiation, a significant decrease of TIFs was observed at all recovery times. Surprisingly, a considerable percentage of TIF positive cells disappeared at the same time when incidence of γ-H2AX foci was maximal. Both FANCD2 leucocytes and fibroblasts appeared to die spontaneously at higher rate than control. This trend was more evident upon irradiation; the percentage of leucocytes underwent apoptosis was 2.59- fold higher than that in control, while fibroblasts exhibited a 2- h delay before entering apoptosis. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that primary cells originating from FA-D2 patients display shorten telomeres, elevated incidence of T-SCEs and high frequency of TIFs. Disappearance of TIFs in early response to irradiation represent distinctive feature of FANCD2 cells that should be examined further.This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia (Project No.173046)

The mechanism of caesium intercalation of graphene

Properties of many layered materials, including copper- and iron-based superconductors, topological insulators, graphite and epitaxial graphene can be manipulated by inclusion of different atomic and molecular species between the layers via a process known as intercalation. For example, intercalation in graphite can lead to superconductivity and is crucial in the working cycle of modern batteries and supercapacitors. Intercalation involves complex diffusion processes along and across the layers, but the microscopic mechanisms and dynamics of these processes are not well understood. Here we report on a novel mechanism for intercalation and entrapment of alkali-atoms under epitaxial graphene. We find that the intercalation is adjusted by the van der Waals interaction, with the dynamics governed by defects anchored to graphene wrinkles. Our findings are relevant for the future design and application of graphene-based nano-structures. Similar mechanisms can also play a role for intercalation of layered materials.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures in published form, supplementary information availabl

Exposure assessment to essential elements through the consumption of canned fish in Serbia

The aim of this study was to provide a quantitative exposure assessment to essential elements through the consumption of canned fish in Serbia. This objective was fulfilled by analyzing content of essential elements in canned fish and by using data from a food consumption survey. Consumption survey of canned fish was designed and performed to general principles and EFSA guidelines on data collection of national food consumption. The questionnaire was performed on 1,000 respondents during 2018. Determination of copper, zinc and iron levels were performed on 454 canned fish and seafood samples divided into four groups (canned tuna, canned sardines, canned other sea fish and canned seafood) during five consecutive years (2014–2018). This study showed significant association between sex, BMI and weight and consumption patterns. Obtained average weekly consumption of canned fish confirms our assumption that consumption of canned fish is significant in Serbia. Zinc and iron were found in all 454 samples (100%), and copper in 222 samples (48.9%). The average obtained concentration in all samples were 1.268 mg kg–1 for Cu, 5.661 mg kg–1 for Zn and 9.556 mg kg–1 for Fe. The highest concentration for all three minerals were found in canned sardines (Cu — 6.49 mg kg–1, Zn — 37.2 mg kg–1 and Fe — 21.8 mg kg–1). Obtained mean exposure to intake of copper, zinc and iron from canned fish was 1.2241 μg/kg bw/day, 5.4634 μg/kg bw/day and 9.2231 μg/kg bw/day, respectively. Exposure of Serbian population to zinc, copper, and iron through consumption of canned fish is less than recommended daily reference intakes and there is no risk of reaching toxic levels by consuming fish