Phylogenetic study on Microcotyle sp. (Monogenea) from common dentex (Dentex dentex) in the Mediterranean Sea, Greece

The monogenean Microcotyle sp. was isolated from common dentex in the Sea of Crete, the part of the Mediterranean Sea. The 28S rRNA gene of Microcotyle sp.  was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR product was sequenced and compared with other 28S rRNA sequences of Monogenea. Phylogenetic analyses were performed with neighbour-joining (NJ), minimum evolution (ME), maximum likelihood (ML) and maximum parsimony (MP) method. The result of analysis shows that NJ and ME method presented the same topology; ML method led to a similar but slightly different topology from NJ or ME method; MP method resulted in a totally different topology from the other methods. Also, Microcotyle sp. isolated in this study was proven to be closest to Microcotylidae gen. sp. MAF-2012 and Bivagina pagrosomi. Key words: Microcotyle sp., common dentex, Mediterranean Sea, 28S rRNA gene, phylogenetic analysis

Effect of storage media and time on fin explants culture in the goldfish, Carassius auratus

The effect of storage media and time was investigated on fin explants culture in the goldfish (Carassius auratus). Fin explants under sterile conditions were able to produce cells at different storage media and time. On the outgrowth of cells, fin explants stored for seven days before culturing showed significantly higher growth (P<0.05) as observed on the fin explants stored in Dulbecco’s modified Eagles medium (DMEM, 84.44%), phosphate buffered saline (PBS, 62.42%) and in control/fresh fin explants (100%), compared with the explants with no storage medium (25.56%) at day three of culture. From day seven to 14, all caudal fin explants exhibited a 100% outgrowth of cells regardless of treatment. However, caudal fin explants kept for 10 days in 4°C showed a significant difference (P<0.05) from fin explants stored in DMEM (96.67%), PBS (75.57%) and the control (100%), as compared with no storage medium (no growth) on day three. Moreover, only 6.67% of no storage medium group could maintain outgrowth of cells, while other treatment group reached 100% of outgrowth after 14 days of culture.Key words: Carassius auratus, fin explants, goldfish, storage

Molecular detection of Edwardsiella tarda with gyrB gene isolated from pirarucu, Arapaima gigas which is exhibited in an indoor private commercial aquarium

The pirarucu, Arapaima gigas, which was displayed in commercial aquarium was found dead and was submitted for diagnostic examination. Bacteria from different organs of the fish were characterized using Vitek System®2 and showed 98% probability to Edwardsiella tarda. Polymerase chain reaction(PCR) result showed positive for E. tarda gyrB gene. The 16S rRNA gene was identical and exhibited 99% sequence similarity with the other known isolates of E. tarda available in the GenBank. This paper reports the isolation and detection of E. tarda with the gyrB gene in pirarucu, A. gigas, which was exhibited in an indoor private commercial aquarium in Seoul, South Korea.Key words: Arapaima gigas, commercial aquarium, Edwardsiella tarda, gyrB gene, pirarucu

Chronic Oral Exposure to Bisphenol A Results in a Nonmonotonic Dose Response in Mammary Carcinogenesis and Metastasis in MMTV-erbB2 Mice

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a synthetic compound used to produce plastics and epoxy resins. BPA can leach from these products in appreciable amounts, resulting in nearly ubiquitous daily exposure to humans. Whether BPA is harmful to humans, especially when administered orally in concentrations relevant to humans, is a topic of debate

The trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption in airport ground movement

Environmental impact is a very important agenda item in many sectors nowadays, which the air transportation sector is also trying to reduce as much as possible. One area which has remained relatively unexplored in this context is the ground movement problem for aircraft on the airport’s surface. Aircraft have to be routed from a gate to a runway and vice versa and it is still unknown whether fuel burn and environmental impact reductions will best result from purely minimising the taxi times or whether it is also important to avoid multiple acceleration phases. This paper presents a newly developed multi-objective approach for analysing the trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption during taxiing. The approach consists of a combination of a graph-based routing algorithm and a population adaptive immune algorithm to discover different speed profiles of aircraft. Analysis with data from a European hub airport has highlighted the impressive performance of the new approach. Furthermore, it is shown that the trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption is very sensitive to the fuel-related objective function which is used

Digenean parasites of Chinese marine fishes: a list of species, hosts and geographical distribution

In the literature, 630 species of Digenea (Trematoda) have been reported from Chinese marine fishes. These belong to 209 genera and 35 families. The names of these species, along with their hosts, geographical distribution and records, are listed in this paper

Activation of the innate immune receptor Dectin-1 upon formation of a 'phagocytic synapse'.

Innate immune cells must be able to distinguish between direct binding to microbes and detection of components shed from the surface of microbes located at a distance. Dectin-1 (also known as CLEC7A) is a pattern-recognition receptor expressed by myeloid phagocytes (macrophages, dendritic cells and neutrophils) that detects β-glucans in fungal cell walls and triggers direct cellular antimicrobial activity, including phagocytosis and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In contrast to inflammatory responses stimulated upon detection of soluble ligands by other pattern-recognition receptors, such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs), these responses are only useful when a cell comes into direct contact with a microbe and must not be spuriously activated by soluble stimuli. In this study we show that, despite its ability to bind both soluble and particulate β-glucan polymers, Dectin-1 signalling is only activated by particulate β-glucans, which cluster the receptor in synapse-like structures from which regulatory tyrosine phosphatases CD45 and CD148 (also known as PTPRC and PTPRJ, respectively) are excluded (Supplementary Fig. 1). The 'phagocytic synapse' now provides a model mechanism by which innate immune receptors can distinguish direct microbial contact from detection of microbes at a distance, thereby initiating direct cellular antimicrobial responses only when they are required

Electron-Spin Excitation Coupling in an Electron Doped Copper Oxide Superconductor

High-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity in the copper oxides arises from electron or hole doping of their antiferromagnetic (AF) insulating parent compounds. The evolution of the AF phase with doping and its spatial coexistence with superconductivity are governed by the nature of charge and spin correlations and provide clues to the mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity. Here we use a combined neutron scattering and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) to study the Tc evolution of electron-doped superconducting Pr0.88LaCe0.12CuO4-delta obtained through the oxygen annealing process. We find that spin excitations detected by neutron scattering have two distinct modes that evolve with Tc in a remarkably similar fashion to the electron tunneling modes in STS. These results demonstrate that antiferromagnetism and superconductivity compete locally and coexist spatially on nanometer length scales, and the dominant electron-boson coupling at low energies originates from the electron-spin excitations.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures, supplementary information include

The analysis of European lacquer : optimization of thermochemolysis temperature of natural resins

In order to optimize chromatographic analysis of European lacquer, thermochemolysis temperature was evaluated for the analysis of natural resins. Five main ingredients of lacquer were studied: sandarac, mastic, colophony, Manila copal and Congo copal. For each, five temperature programs were tested: four fixed temperatures (350, 480, 550, 650 degrees C) and one ultrafast thermal desorption (UFD), in which the temperature rises from 350 to 660 degrees C in 1 min. In total, the integrated signals of 27 molecules, partially characterizing the five resins, were monitored to compare the different methods. A compromise between detection of compounds released at low temperatures and compounds formed at high temperatures was searched. 650 degrees C is too high for both groups, 350 degrees C is best for the first, and 550 degrees C for the second. Fixed temperatures of 480 degrees C or UFD proved to be a consensus in order to detect most marker molecules. UFD was slightly better for the molecules released at low temperatures, while 480 degrees C showed best compounds formed at high temperatures