CONSIDERATIONS ON THE TECHNOLOGIES FOR SEPARATING FRUIT SEEDS WITH APPLICATIONS ON THE SEPARATION OF SEABUCKTHORN PULP FROM SEEDS

Sea-buckthorn is a shrub fruit whose benefits have been known since antiquity. The whole plant is considered medicinal by specialists in the field, but the most active part is the sea-buckthorn fruit because it has a beneficial effect on the entire human body and more recently on animal breeding. A high-value by-product is sea-buckthorn oil, which is currently gaining traders’ attention at international level and which is obtained from both fruit and pomace resulting from the extraction of juice (shells and seeds). This paper presents some representative technolo-gies and installations used for fruit processing in general, technologies that will be the basis for the realization by INMA Bucharest of a technical equipment for separating sea-buckthorn pulp from the seeds

Identification of Rare Causal Variants in Sequence-Based Studies: Methods and Applications to VPS13B, a Gene Involved in Cohen Syndrome and Autism

Pinpointing the small number of causal variants among the abundant naturally occurring genetic variation is a difficult challenge, but a crucial one for understanding precise molecular mechanisms of disease and follow-up functional studies. We propose and investigate two complementary statistical approaches for identification of rare causal variants in sequencing studies: a backward elimination procedure based on groupwise association tests, and a hierarchical approach that can integrate sequencing data with diverse functional and evolutionary conservation annotations for individual variants. Using simulations, we show that incorporation of multiple bioinformatic predictors of deleteriousness, such as PolyPhen-2, SIFT and GERP++ scores, can improve the power to discover truly causal variants. As proof of principle, we apply the proposed methods to VPS13B, a gene mutated in the rare neurodevelopmental disorder called Cohen syndrome, and recently reported with recessive variants in autism. We identify a small set of promising candidates for causal variants, including two loss-of-function variants and a rare, homozygous probably-damaging variant that could contribute to autism risk

GENERAL ASPECTS REGARDING THE GROWTH FRESHWATER FISH IN CUBES, AN ALTERNATIVE FOR AQUACULTURE IN ROMANIA

Due to the increased consumption of fish, as an alternative to achieving healthy population nutrition, the development of European aquaculture also shows an increasing trend. At present, freshwater culture is about 42% of total European fish production. Valuable species, from an economic point of view, can be reared in intensive systems in cages on running waters or ponds, combined with less valuable species. There are also new species that are gradually becoming increasingly important for the fish industry in Europe. Freshwater aquaculture in Romania is based on rainbow trout and carp which are still predominant species, but there is significant demand for valuable fish species [11,12,16]. Â

Poly(styrene-co-vinylbenzylchloride-co-divinylbenzene) coated iron oxide: Synthesis and effects on size and morphology

Iron oxide nanoparticles were coated with a polymer synthesized from the monomers of styrene, divinylbenzene, and vinylbenzylchloride. The resultant polymer microspheres from synthesis without nanoparticle loading are primarily monodispersed with a diameter of 3.45 μm as measured by scanning electron microscopy. The addition of 1% nanoparticles by mass appears to decrease the size of the microspheres down to 2.04 μm as well as increase the polydispersity. This trend is also seen to continue as you add more nanoparticles to the system going from 3.45 μm with 0% nanoparticles down to below 1 μm for 5% nanoparticles. This indicates that the particles are not just incorporated into the polymer matrix but act as nucleation sites to begin the polymerization process. The polymerization process was found to have no effect on the nanoparticles themselves as the magnetic characterization showed only a mass dilution in saturation when corrected by thermal gravimetric analysis

Compactifications of the moduli space of plane quartics and two lines

We study the moduli space of triples (C,L₁,L₂) consisting of quartic curves C and lines L₁ and L₂. Specifically, we construct and compactify the moduli space in two ways: via geometric invariant theory (GIT) and by using the period map of certain lattice polarized K3 surfaces. The GIT construction depends on two parameters t₁ and t₂ which correspond to the choice of a linearization. For t₁=t₂=1 we describe the GIT moduli explicitly and relate it to the construction via K3 surfaces

STUDIES AND RESEARCH CONCERNING THE CONDITIONING OF WATER CHEMICAL PARAMETERS FROM A RECIRCULATING AQUACULTURE SYSTEM BY INTEGRATING AN INNOVATIVE WATER DENITRIFYING TECHNOLOGY

The paper aims to study the main issues regarding the productivity and efficiency of fish breeding and plant cultivation in aquaponic systems.Aquaponics is defined as a combination of aquaculture and hydroponic systems, in which waste water rich in nutrients from aquaculture system is introduced in a hydroponic system.Plants absorb nutrients from waste water thus improving and  purifying water from the aquaculture system, this method providing an ecological and sustainable system.Aquaponics integrates a hydroponic subsystem and an aquaculture subsystem, constituting the optimal practice for obtaining superior yields both quantitatively and qualitatively through the use of effluents from fish as a natural fertilizer for plants, the plants giving the fish filtered and reconditioned water. Aquaponics is a symbiosis of: aquaculture (fish breeding in closed systems) and hydroponics (growing plants in water without using soil). Vegetables, lettuce, special herbs (spinach, chives, basil and watercress) have low to medium nutrient needs and are well adapted to aquaponic systems.Plants absorb nutrients from residual water and thus improve or purify water in the aquaculture system, this method provides an ecological and sustainable system.

ASPECTS ON MECHANICAL FILTERING IN AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS

Filtering plays an essential part in the process of intensive fish farming, because faeces and unconsumed food remain in the water inside the basins where the fish are raised and in time generate bacteria and infections that lead to the death of fish. Therefore, the water in these basins is permanently recycled in order to be filtered and refreshed, this paper presenting the actuated filtering systems used in the country and worldwide in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for intensive fish farming

IMPROVING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF AN INTENSIVE RECIRCULATING ACQUACULTURE SYSTEM USING A WATER-WATER TYPE HEAT PUMP

Aquaculture efficiency practiced in recirculating systems depends on a variety of factors, among which the most important is the energy consumed by the whole system. In order to assure a high degree of energy conservation, in a recirculating aquaculture system has to be maximized the recirculating water degree and has to be imposed the use of renewable energy sources for heating, respective for cooling the water within system as well as of hall. Maintenance of an appropriate climate in a recirculating aquaculture system involves high energy consumption, determined by high water quantities which have to be heat or cool, as well as determined by maintaining water temperature and of breeding space. An optimal solution for replacing conventional systems of heating/cooling and optimizing of energy consumption is the use of the heat pumps. In the present paper are presented experimental results performed with a heat pump of water-water type at different water replacing rates and two different water flows for demonstrating efficiency of a heat pump for improving energy consumption of a RAS