Unique Aggregation of Sterigmatocystin in Water Yields Strong and Specific Circular Dichroism Response Allowing Highly Sensitive and Selective Monitoring of Bio-Relevant Interactions

We demonstrated the hitherto unknown property of the mycotoxin sterigmatocystin (STC) to provide homogeneous solutions in aqueous medium by forming a unique aggregate type (not formed by analogous aflatoxins), characterized by exceptionally strong circular dichroism (CD) bands in the 300-400 nm range. Results showed that these CD bands do not originate from intrinsic STC chirality but are a specific property of a peculiar aggregation process similar to psi-DNA CD response. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments revealed a fine fiber network resembling a supramolecular gel structure with helical fibers. Thermodynamic studies of aggregates by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed high reversibility of the dominant aggregation process. We demonstrated that the novel STC psi-CD band at 345 nm could be applied at biorelevant conditions (100 nanomolar concentration) and even in marine-salt content conditions for specific and quantitative monitoring of STC. Also, we showed that STC strongly non-covalently interacts with ds-DNA with likely toxic effects, thus contrary to the previous belief requiring prior enzyme epoxidation

A plant-based diet supplemented with Hermetia illucens alone or in combination with poultry by-product meal: one step closer to sustainable aquafeeds for European seabass

Background: Increasing demand for high-value fish species and pressure on forage fish is challenging aquaculture to ensure sustainable growth by replacing protein sources in aquafeeds with plant and terrestrial animal proteins, without compromising the economic value and quality of the final fish product. In the present study, the effects of a plant protein-based diet (CV), two plant-based diets in which graded amounts of plan protein mixtures were replaced with Hermetia illucens meal alone (VH10) or in combination with poultry by-product meal (PBM) (VH10P30), a fishmeal (FM) diet (CF) and an FM diet supplemented with H. illucens (FH10) on growth performance, gut health and homeostasis of farmed subadult European seabass were tested and compared. Results: Fish fed the VH10 and VH10P30 diets showed the highest specific growth rates and lowest feed conversion ratios among the tested groups. Expectedly, the best preservation of PI morphology was observed in fish fed the CF or FH10 diets, while fish fed the CV diet exhibited significant degenerative changes in the proximal and distal intestines. However, PBM supplementation mitigated these effects and significantly improved all gut morphometric parameters in the VH10P30 group. Partial substitution of the plant mixture with insect meal alone or PBM also induced most BBM genes and activated BBM enzymes, suggesting a beneficial effect on intestinal digestive/absorption functions. Regarding intestinal microbiota, fish fed diets containing H. illucens meal (FH10, VH10, VH10P30) had the highest richness of bacterial communities and abundance of beneficial genera such as Lactobacillus and Bacillus. On the other hand, fish fed CV had the highest microbial diversity but lost a significant component of fish intestinal microbiota, the phylum Bacteroidetes. Finally, skin pigmentation most similar to that of farmed or even wild seabass was also observed in the fish groups fed CF, FH10 or VH10P30. Conclusion: Plant-based diets supplemented with PBM and H. illucens pupae meal have great potential as alternative diets for European seabass, without affecting growth performance, gut homeostasis, or overall fitness. This also highlights the importance of animal proteins in diets of European seabass, as the addition of a small amount of these alternative animal protein sources significantly improved all measured parameters

A New Solution to the Relative Orientation Problem using only 3 Points and the Vertical Direction

This paper presents a new method to recover the relative pose between two images, using three points and the vertical direction information. The vertical direction can be determined in two ways: 1- using direct physical measurement like IMU (inertial measurement unit), 2- using vertical vanishing point. This knowledge of the vertical direction solves 2 unknowns among the 3 parameters of the relative rotation, so that only 3 homologous points are requested to position a couple of images. Rewriting the coplanarity equations leads to a simpler solution. The remaining unknowns resolution is performed by an algebraic method using Grobner bases. The elements necessary to build a specific algebraic solver are given in this paper, allowing for a real-time implementation. The results on real and synthetic data show the efficiency of this method