Natuurbeschermers en veehouders vinden elkaar in de sloot

De tegenstrijdige belangen van moderne veehouderij en natuurbeheer blijken veel dichter bij elkaar te liggen dan verwacht

Ruwvoederwinning naar het jaar 2000

De Europese Grasland Federatie (EGF) organiseerde samen met het Deutsche Landwirtschaft Gesellschaft (DLG) een congres over voederwinning en conservering

Tussenrapportage Kwaliteit Verse Vis in de Keten

In de verse vis keten van visser tot en met consument is behoefte aan inzicht in de kwaliteit en veiligheid van de visproducten. Dit inzicht kan worden verkregen door het uitwisselen van essentiële informatie tussen de betreffende schakels. De noodzaak voor deze informatie-vergaring en - uitwisseling wordt door de actoren in de keten onderschreven. Er zijn reeds initiatieven gestart en modellen ontwikkeld om deze wens gestalte te geven. Op Europees niveau is een tweetal Concerted Action projecten geïnitieerd genaamd Fish Quality Labelling and Monitoring (CA-FQLM) en TRACEFISH, waarbij diverse visonderzoeksinstituten en visketen actoren samenwerken over de invoering van traceerbare kwaliteitsindices van verse vis.Binnen deze inventarisatie ligt het accent op de vissoort schol (Pleuronectes platessa), één van de belangrijkste vissoorten voor de Nederlandse verse vis sector. De aldus vergaarde kennis en praktijkervaring kan ook gebruikt worden voor andere vissoorten

Van stikstofproefbedrijven naar duurzame melkveebedrijven

In dit artikel worden de belangrijke functies die de stikstofproefbedrijven hadden en de overgang naar duurzame melkveebedrijven nader belicht

Preparation and Characterization of Cationic PLA-PEG Nanoparticles for Delivery of Plasmid DNA

The purpose of the present work was to formulate and evaluate cationic poly(lactic acid)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLA-PEG) nanoparticles as novel non-viral gene delivery nano-device. Cationic PLA-PEG nanoparticles were prepared by nanoprecipitation method. The gene loaded nanoparticles were obtained by incubating the report gene pEGFP with cationic PLA-PEG nanoparticles. The physicochemical properties (e.g., morphology, particle size, surface charge, DNA binding efficiency) and biological properties (e.g., integrity of the released DNA, protection from nuclease degradation, plasma stability, in vitro cytotoxicity, and in vitro transfection ability in Hela cells) of the gene loaded PLA-PEG nanoparticles were evaluated, respectively. The obtained cationic PLA-PEG nanoparticles and gene loaded nanoparticles were both spherical in shape with average particle size of 89.7 and 128.9 nm, polydispersity index of 0.185 and 0.161, zeta potentials of +28.9 and +16.8 mV, respectively. The obtained cationic PLA-PEG nanoparticles with high binding efficiency (>95%) could protect the loaded DNA from the degradation by nuclease and plasma. The nanoparticles displayed sustained-release properties in vitro and the released DNA maintained its structural and functional integrity. It also showed lower cytotoxicity than Lipofectamine 2000 and could successfully transfect gene into Hela cells even in presence of serum. It could be concluded that the established gene loaded cationic PLA-PEG nanoparticles with excellent properties were promising non-viral nano-device, which had potential to make cancer gene therapy achievable

Effects of Genotype and Growth Temperature on the Contents of Tannin, Phytate and in vitro Iron Availability of Sorghum Grains

Background: It has been predicted that the global temperature will rise in the future, which means crops including sorghum will likely be grown under higher temperatures, and consequently may affect the nutritional properties. Methods: The effects of two growth temperatures (OT, day/night 32/21°C; HT 38/21°C) on tannin, phytate, mineral, and in vitro iron availability of raw and cooked grains (as porridge) of six sorghum genotypes were investigated. Results: Tannin content significantly decreased across all sorghum genotypes under high growth temperature (P ≤0.05), while the phytate and mineral contents maintained the same level, increased or decreased significantly, depending on the genotype. The in vitro iron availability in most sorghum genotypes was also significantly reduced under high temperature, except for Ai4, which showed a pronounced increase (P ≤0.05). The cooking process significantly reduced tannin content in all sorghum genotypes (P ≤0.05), while the phytate content and in vitro iron availability were not significantly affected. Conclusions: This research provides some new information on sorghum grain nutritional properties when grown under predicted future higher temperatures, which could be important for humans where sorghum grains are consumed as staple food