Actividad biológica de la Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark.- revisión sistemática

ABSTRACT The Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark (Malvaceae) is a non-endemic plant, popularly known as mutamba. Its leaves and roots are used in home remedies against dysentery and diarrhea, in the treatment of prostate, as a uterine stimulant and other diseases. Due to the characteristics presented and the growing interest in this species, a systematic review was carried out on the possible pharmacological and toxicological effects of Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark. As active compounds, the articles cited the presence of flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, tannins, phenolic compounds and steroids in different parts of the plant and extracted with different solvents. Regarding the experimental studies, no articles were found with clinical test, and only 4 in vivo studies. About the pharmacological effects we can mention activity against leishmaniasis, hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, anticholinesterase, anti-obesity, antiseptic, cicatrizant and anthelmintic. The registered toxicological tests were directed against lineages of cancer cells, proving effective, however, there is a need for studies to attest the safety of G. ulmifolia use by the population. Therefore, it is imperative to carry out further studies to ensure the use of this plant, to know doses and form of indication, as well as clinical studies in order to guarantee a correct therapy. Keywords: Guazuma ulmifolia, toxicity, medicinal plants.    RESUMO A Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark (Malvaceae) é uma planta não endêmica, popularmente conhecida por mutamba. Suas folhas e raízes são empregadas em remédios caseiros contra disenteria e diarreias, no tratamento de próstata, como estimulante uterino e outras enfermidades. Em virtude das características apresentadas e o crescente interesse por esta espécie, tanto para fins medicinais como alimentício, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática sobre os possíveis efeitos farmacológicos e toxicológicos da Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark. Como compostos ativos, os artigos citaram a presença de flavonoides, saponinas, alcaloides, taninos, compostos fenólicos e esteróides em diferentes partes da planta e extraídos com diferentes solventes. Quanto aos estudos experimentais, não foram encontrados artigos com teste clínico e, apenas 4 estudos com testes in vivo. Dos efeitos farmacológicos encontrados, pode-se citar atividade contra leishmaniose, hipoglicemiante, antiinflamatório, anticolinesterásico, antiobesidade, antisséptico, cicatrizante e anti-helmíntico. Os testes toxicológicos registrados foram direcionados contra linhagens de células cancerígenas mostrando-se efetivo, porém, há necessidade de estudos para atestar a segurança de uso de G. ulmifolia pela população. Logo, apesar de utilizada, é imperativa a realização de mais estudos para assegurar o uso desta planta pela população e conhecer doses e forma de indicação, além de estudos clínicos que garantam uma correta terapêutica. Palavras-chave: Guazuma ulmifolia, toxicidade, plantas medicinais.RESUMEN La Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark (Malvaceae) es una planta no endémica, popularmente conocida por mutamba. Sus hojas y raíces son empleadas en remedios caseros contra disentería y diarreas, en el tratamiento de próstata, como estimulante uterino y otras enfermedades. En virtud de las características presentadas y el creciente interés por esta especie, tanto para fines medicinales como alimenticios, se realizó una revisión sistemática sobre los posibles efectos farmacológicos y toxicológicos de la Guazuma ulmifolia Lamark. Como compuestos activos, los artículos citaron la presencia de flavonoides, saponinas, alcaloides, taninos, compuestos fenólicos y esteroides en diferentes partes de la planta y extraídos con diferentes solventes. En cuanto a los estudios experimentales, no se encontraron artículos con prueba clínica y, sólo 4 estudios con pruebas in vivo. De los efectos farmacológicos encontrados, se puede citar actividad contra leishmaniasis, hipoglicemiante, antiinflamatorio, anticolinesterásico, antiobesidad, antiséptico, cicatrizante y antihelmíntico. Las pruebas toxicológicas registradas se dirigieron contra los linajes de las células cancerígenas que se mostraron efectivos, pero hay necesidad de estudios para certificar la seguridad de uso de G. ulmifolia por la población. Por lo tanto, a pesar de ser utilizada, es imperativa la realización de más estudios para asegurar el uso de esta planta por la población y conocer dosis y forma de indicación, además de estudios clínicos que garanticen una correcta terapéutica. Descriptores: Guazuma ulmifolia, toxicidad, plantas medicinales

Goat farm variability affects milk Fourier-transform infrared spectra used for predicting coagulation properties

Peer-ReviewedDriven by the large amount of goat milk destined for cheese production, and to pioneer the goat cheese industry, the objective of this study was to assess the effect of farm in predicting goat milk-coagulation and curd-firmness traits via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Spectra from 452 Sarda goats belonging to 14 farms in central and southeast Sardinia (Italy) were collected. A Bayesian linear regression model was used, estimating all spectral wavelengths' effects simultaneously. Three traditional milk-coagulation properties [rennet coagulation time (min), time to curd firmness of 20 mm (min), and curd firmness 30 min after rennet addition (mm)] and 3 curd-firmness measures modeled over time [rennet coagulation time estimated according to curd firmness change over time (RCTeq), instant curd-firming rate constant, and asymptotical curd firmness] were considered. A stratified cross validation (SCV) was assigned, evaluating each farm separately (validation set; VAL) and keeping the remaining farms to train (calibration set) the statistical model. Moreover, a SCV, where 20% of the goats randomly taken (10 replicates per farm) from the VAL farm entered the calibration set, was also considered (SCV80). To assess model performance, coefficient of determination (R2VAL) and the root mean squared error of validation were recorded. The R2VAL varied between 0.14 and 0.45 (instant curd-firming rate constant and RCTeq, respectively), albeit the standard deviation was approximating half of the mean for all the traits. Although average results of the 2 SCV procedures were similar, in SCV80, the maximum R2VAL increased at about 15% across traits, with the highest observed for time to curd firmness of 20 mm (20%) and the lowest for RCTeq (6%). Further investigation evidenced important variability among farms, with R2VAL for some of them being close to 0. Our work outlined the importance of considering the effect of farm when developing Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy prediction equations for coagulation and curd-firmness traits in goats.Università degli Studi di Sassar

Identification of genomic regions associated with feed efficiency in Nelore cattle

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud Feed efficiency is jointly determined by productivity and feed requirements, both of which are economically relevant traits in beef cattle production systems. The objective of this study was to identify genes/QTLs associated with components of feed efficiency in Nelore cattle using Illumina BovineHD BeadChip (770 k SNP) genotypes from 593 Nelore steers. The traits analyzed included: average daily gain (ADG), dry matter intake (DMI), feed-conversion ratio (FCR), feed efficiency (FE), residual feed intake (RFI), maintenance efficiency (ME), efficiency of gain (EG), partial efficiency of growth (PEG) and relative growth rate (RGR). The Bayes B analysis was completed with Gensel software parameterized to fit fewer markers than animals. Genomic windows containing all the SNP loci in each 1 Mb that accounted for more than 1.0% of genetic variance were considered as QTL region. Candidate genes within windows that explained more than 1% of genetic variance were selected by putative function based on DAVID and Gene Ontology.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Thirty-six QTL (1-Mb SNP window) were identified on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25 and 26 (UMD 3.1). The amount of genetic variance explained by individual QTL windows for feed efficiency traits ranged from 0.5% to 9.07%. Some of these QTL minimally overlapped with previously reported feed efficiency QTL for Bos taurus. The QTL regions described in this study harbor genes with biological functions related to metabolic processes, lipid and protein metabolism, generation of energy and growth. Among the positional candidate genes selected for feed efficiency are: HRH4, ALDH7A1, APOA2, LIN7C, CXADR, ADAM12 and MAP7.\ud \ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud Some genomic regions and some positional candidate genes reported in this study have not been previously reported for feed efficiency traits in Bos indicus. Comparison with published results indicates that different QTLs and genes may be involved in the control of feed efficiency traits in this Nelore cattle population, as compared to Bos taurus cattle.CNPqCAPE

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: mapping the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, and the distant universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median ). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July

The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) began observations in July 2014. It pursues three core programs: APOGEE-2,MaNGA, and eBOSS. In addition, eBOSS contains two major subprograms: TDSS and SPIDERS. This paper describes the first data release from SDSS-IV, Data Release 13 (DR13), which contains new data, reanalysis of existing data sets and, like all SDSS data releases, is inclusive of previously released data. DR13 makes publicly available 1390 spatially resolved integral field unit observations of nearby galaxies from MaNGA,the first data released from this survey. It includes new observations from eBOSS, completing SEQUELS. In addition to targeting galaxies and quasars, SEQUELS also targeted variability-selected objects from TDSS and X-ray selected objects from SPIDERS. DR13 includes new reductions ofthe SDSS-III BOSS data, improving the spectrophotometric calibration and redshift classification. DR13 releases new reductions of the APOGEE-1data from SDSS-III, with abundances of elements not previously included and improved stellar parameters for dwarf stars and cooler stars. For the SDSS imaging data, DR13 provides new, more robust and precise photometric calibrations. Several value-added catalogs are being released in tandem with DR13, in particular target catalogs relevant for eBOSS, TDSS, and SPIDERS, and an updated red-clump catalog for APOGEE.This paper describes the location and format of the data now publicly available, as well as providing references to the important technical papers that describe the targeting, observing, and data reduction. The SDSS website, http://www.sdss.org, provides links to the data, tutorials and examples of data access, and extensive documentation of the reduction and analysis procedures. DR13 is the first of a scheduled set that will contain new data and analyses from the planned ~6-year operations of SDSS-IV.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library

Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July–2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA—we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020–2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data