Biochemical changes of cryopreserved seminal plasma and spermatozoa of the giant grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus after preservation and transportation using dry-ice

The present study aims to investigate the effects of exposure of the seminal plasma and spermatozoa of the giant grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus to dry ice ( 79 C) during transport on their quality. In all, 15 amino acid compounds were determined. The quantification of total proteins were measured using the Bradford method, and amino acid concentration were measured using the HPLC method. The cryopreserved seminal plasma was transferred from a liquid nitrogen tank to a styrofoam box filled with dry ice. Total protein and amino acids were measured after 24, 48, and 72 h. For comparative purposes, total protein and fifteen compound of amino acid were also measured. Both parameters were also measured after the cryopreserved seminal plasma were immersed in liquid nitrogen after 24 and 48 h exposed to dry ice. The results showed that the exposure of seminal plasma to dry ice for 24, 48 and 72 h during transportation or immersion back into the liquid nitrogen after 24 and 48 h does not change the total protein levels either in seminal plasma or spermatozoa. However, the level of each amino acid compound in the seminal plasma had significantly decrease

Impact of COVID-19 on aquaculture sector in Malaysia: Findings from the first national survey

Abstract Malaysian aquaculture sector consists of 391,000 t of cultivated organisms produced per year with an economic value for over USD 700 million as estimated in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a large global human pandemic and it is currently ongoing, affecting profoundly Malaysian aquaculture, which is vital for seafood provision and security assurance. Thus, to increase our understanding about how the pandemic affects aquaculture sectors is crucial to design possible management measures both at local and national level. To do it, we designed a survey, starting in May 2020, consisting of 25 online questions to collect information about the impact of COVID-19 on the aquaculture sectors in Malaysia. A total of 105 respondents (2625 answered questions) was captured within the Movement Control Order (MCO) period and later extended to the Conditional MCO (CMCO). Almost 90 % of respondents was unanimous in answering that, and COVID-19 had a heavy effect on aquaculture-related activities in Malaysia; 80 % of them indicated the market demand and logistic bottlenecks (72 %) as major constraints on their aquaculture activities. While the major option to solve aquaculture COVID-19 related issues was the use of online market or digital platforms (76 %), a large fraction of respondents requested for specific assistance to support aquaculture activities (e.g. financial support). Most respondents (93 %) was aware about the necessity of the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) provided by the relevant agencies during the MCO / CMCO. Present data are crucial to develop policy measures both at national and international level to support seafood sectors under pandemic

Toxicity assessment of Cedrus deodara oil compared to carbosulfan for Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) adults

Specific compounds extracted from plants can control insect pests. The objective of this study was to evaluate the toxicity of deodar oil (phytopesticide) to adult mealworms Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) compared with carbosulfan (synthetic insecticide), which exibits cholinesterase (ChE), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) activities. The insecticides were applied through feeding, and the LC50 (lethal concentration) was calculated using the Finney method. The LC50 of deodar oil was higher than that of carbosulfan. The doses of both deodar oil and carbosulfan inhibited the ChE activity (p > 0.05) and enhanced the GPT and GOT activities (p < 0.05) in mealworm adults. Alterations in the activity of these biomarkers indicated that deodar oil could effectively control adult mealworms, being an environmentally low-impact method that can replace the use of chemical products

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

Biodegradability traits of Bacillus subtilis and Fusarium sp. on composting of different nonconventional protein source

442-449Biodegradation of livestock processing waste is one of the more cost-effective, ecologically safe recycling methods that may preserve nutritional content and key amino acids useful in animal feed production. Here, we determined the biodegrading potentials of nonconventional feedstuffs using a combination of bacteria (Bacillus subtilis) and fungi (Fusarium sp.). Five nonconventional feed types (feather meal, hair waste, egg membranes, horn hoof and horn) were selected and replicated in a 10 L plastic biocomposter for 7 weeks and observed for degradation by measuring changes in total organic carbon, temperature, phosphorus, potassium, pH, microbial counts and rate of degradation. Bacteria and fungi were inoculated inside the substrate after isolation and incubation. The effects of physicochemical and microbial counts were assessed. The biodegradability and optimal activity were observed. From the results, physico-parameters measured during the 7 weeks showed significant differences (P <0.05) between substrates. The highest rate of decomposition, temperature, pH levels, total organic carbon, and total bacteria counts were recorded in feather meal, egg membrane, and hair waste. The weekly study showed that feather meal (68.79%, decompose faster than cow hoof (18.72%) egg membrane (60.89%) hair waste (62.82%) and cow horn (32.31%) during bio-composting. This finding has potential application in the treatment process of keratin wastes

Adsorption and Kinetics Studies of Cr (VI) by Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide-Zinc Oxide Nanocomposite

In this work, graphene oxide (GO) and its reduced graphene oxide-zinc oxide nanocomposite (rGO-ZnO) was used for the removal of Cr (VI) from aqueous medium. By employing a variety of characterization techniques, morphological and structural properties of the adsorbents were determined. The adsorption study was done by varying concentration, temperature, pH, time, and amount of adsorbent. The results obtained confirmed that rGO-ZnO is a more economical and promising adsorbent for removing Cr (VI) as compared to GO. Kinetic study was also performed, which suggested that sorption of Cr (VI) follows the pseudo-first-order model. For equilibrium study, non-linear Langmuir was found a better fitted model than its linearized form. The maximum adsorption capacity calculated for GO and rGO-ZnO nanocomposite were 19.49 mg/g and 25.45 mg/g, respectively. Endothermic and spontaneous nature of adsorption was detected with positive values of &Delta;S (change in entropy), which reflects the structural changes happening at the liquid/solid interface

Trends and New Developments in Artemia Research

An increasing number of scientists since 1970 has examined Artemia as an important species in aquaculture-related fields. However, a global scientometric review of Artemia literature is still lacking, which is the objective of this research. Using a CiteSpace analysis, the distribution of core authors and institutions, highly cited keywords and papers, author and journal contributions, and hot topics in the literature, as well as a co-citation analysis, particularly regarding authors, journals, documents, and clusters, were determined. Hence, 8741 relevant publications were generated from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The results revealed that the most significant contributions in Artemia research primarily originated from the USA, Brazil, Spain, India, China, and Belgium. Moreover, Artemia research focused mainly on top keywords such as brine shrimp and antimicrobial activity. Emerging trends related to Artemia research were Atlantic halibut, elongation factor, Artemia salina, lean protein, inert diet, alpha-crystallin protein, and Artemia embryo. At the same time, the study generated a vast total of 45 co-citation clusters. The present study provides the existing body of knowledge on Artemia research by sharing a visual knowledge map. This study offers a valuable perspective and profound understanding for researchers, farmers, and consortia interested in promoting Artemia as a sustainable live food in the global aquaculture industry

Mapping the Link between Climate Change and Mangrove Forest: A Global Overview of the Literature

Mangroves play a crucial role in maintaining the stability of coastal regions, particularly in the face of climate change. To gain insight into associations between climate change and mangroves, we conducted bibliometric research on the global indexed database of the Web of Knowledge, Core Collection. A total of 4458 literature were analyzed based on bibliometric information and article metadata through a scientometric analysis of citation analysis as well as a cluster analysis. Results suggest that coastal countries such as the USA, Australia, China, India, and Brazil are showing the recent influential mangrove-related keywords such as blue carbon and carbon stock. Interestingly, the “carbon stock”, “Saudi Arabia”, “range expansion” and “nature-based flood risk mitigation” is among the top cluster networks in the field of climate change and mangrove forest. The present research is expected to attract potential leaders in research, government, civil society, and business to advance progress towards mangrove sustainability in the changing climate meaningfully.SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Image Reconstruction Based on Combination of Inverse Scattering Technique and Total Variation Regularization Method

The Forward-Backward Time-Stepping (FBTS) had proven its potential to reconstruct images of buried objects in inhomogeneous medium with useful quantitative information about its size, shape, and locality. The Total Variation regularization method was incorporated with the FBTS algorithm to deal with the ill-posedness or ill-conditionedness of the inverse problem. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is confirmed by numerical simulations. The numerical method was carried out on a simple object detection through FBTS with and without TV regularization method. The detection and reconstruction of relative permittivity and conductivity of the simple object have shown an improvement as TV regularization method applied whereas it smoothed the vibrations of the images and gave a better estimation of the image’s boundaries

Thermal Tolerance and Physiological Changes in Mud Crab, Scylla paramamosain Crablet at Different Water Temperatures

This study was carried out to determine the physiological changes (survival, growth, molting cycle, sex differentiation, and gill condition) of mud crab, Scylla paramamosain crablet at different water temperatures of 24, 28 and 32 °C, and ambient temperature of 27 to 30 °C. Thermoregulatory behavior, represented by preferred temperature (29.83 ± SD 2.47 °C), critical thermal minimum (17.33 ± SD 0.58 °C), critical thermal maximum (40 ± SD 0.00 °C), and thermal tolerance interval (22.67 ± SD 0.58 °C), were checked for Crablet 1 stage only (with ambient temperature as acclimation temperature).Both low (24 °C) and high (32 °C) temperatures were associated with lower growth performance, and survival rate (p &lt; 0.05), in comparison with both 28 °C and ambient temperature treatments.Male ratio at low temperaturetreatment (24 °C) was higher (80.09 ± SD 18.86%) than for other treatments (p &lt; 0.05), observed as 44.81 ± D 10.50%, 41.94 ± SD 19.44%, and 76.30 ± SD 5.13% for 28 °C, 32 °C and ambient temperature treatments, respectively. However, there was no significant difference observed between 24 °C, 28 °C, and ambient temperature treatments. Anatomical alterations of gill lamellae of S. paramamosain crablet for both 32 °C, and 24 °C treatments, appeared thinner and paler than at both 28 °C, and ambient temperature treatments. Based on this study, temperature of 28 to 30 °C was recommended as the optimal temperature for the long-term nursery phase of S. paramamosain