Artificial insemination and cryopreservation of boar semen: current state and problematics

 Commercial artificial insemination with boar semen still prefers the usage of refrigerated semen up to 5 days over frozen-thawed, to date. This is because of the uneconomical properties of frozen-thawed boar semen, such as low motility, viability, fertility rates and the need for higher semen doses, because of the decreased quality after cryopreservation. Since boar semen is highly susceptive to cold shock damage, the invention of a successful cryopreservation method would be greatly beneficial for the swine industry. This review briefly focuses on the many factors that influence the quality of frozen-thawed boar semen, including the different compositions of extenders, comparison of commercial extenders, freezing and thawing methods (temperature and duration). It could be concluded from the present review that optimum freezing/thawing protocol for swine is not standardized, so far being the current status still considered poor-to-fair.

Optimization and Automation of the Nuclear Reaction Chamber

The production of vacuum is usually a very lengthy process that occupies precious research time. When dealing with many samples, the amount of times vacuum will have to be produced is directly tied to the number of samples a sample holder can take. This problem becomes much more important when dealing with samples that take longer to generate vacuum in the vacuum chamber, such as biological samples. Associated with this work is the construction of a new sample holder capable of holding up to fifteen samples, a new lid associated with the necessities of the new design, the incorporation of a linear feedthrough and a rotary platform, the construction of a new faraday cage to minimize associated noise and coding to automatically alternate between samples in both a linear and angular fashion. This new setup is going to be mounted in the target chamber of the nuclear reactions beam line of the 3.0 MV tandem accelerator located at CTN-IST (Bobadela Campus) and will give the nuclear reactions group new analysis capabilities. The design of the new parts was done with the usage of SolidWorks, and the development of the code was done with the usage of both Python for the user interface and Arduino for the control of the motors motion.A produção de vácuo tende a ser um processo muito demoroso interferindo negativamente com a investigação. Quando se lida com um elevado número de amostras, o número de vezes que vácuo tem de ser produzido está diretamente associado ao número de amostras que um determinado porta-amostras consegue suportar. Este problema torna-se mais notório quando nos deparamos com amostras que tendem a levar mais tempo a gerar vácuo como é o caso de amostras biológicas. Associado a este trabalho está a construção de um novo porta-amostras com capacidade para suportar quinze amostras, uma nova tampa para a câmara de vácuo associada às necessidades do novo design, a incorporação de um feedthrough linear e uma plataforma rotativa, a construção de uma nova gaiola de Faraday para minimizar o ruído eletrónico nos detetores de radiação e a escrita de código para controlar remotamente o posicionamento das amostras (translação e rotação).Esta nova configuração ficará operacional na câmara de alvos da linha de reações nucleares do acelerador tandem de 3,0 MV localizado no CTN-IST (Campus da Bobadela) e dará ao grupo de reações nucleares novas capacidades de análise. O design das novas peças foi feito com o uso do SolidWorks e o desenvolvimento do código foi feito com o uso do Python para a interface do usuário e do Arduino para o controlo do movimento dos motores ligados ao novo porta-amostras

Cells: Segway for Genetically Desired Cattle through Embryotic Development Sequencings and Genetic Mapping

Cells have a direct relation to understanding cattle genetic information aside from the cell’s main role of housing genetic material. Gene presence being visible through phenotypic characteristics of living organisms allows for researchers to pinpoint specific genetic markers to access and evaluate the genetic information for desired visible traits. On a molecular level, through the interaction between cattle embryos and bovine cells, researchers can pair this information with current technological innovation to better understand on how genetics are manipulated naturally by environmental elements, which can have a direct effect on countries where cattle milk and meat production are the major contributors to economic stability. This overview of past, current, and potential future research involving cells can provide an understanding of the importance in cells and their relationship with biotechnology innovation. Through techniques involving cells and genetic analysis, various methods can be utilized to overcome limitations of cattle reproduction and increase the presence of desirable cattle traits, which in turn not only aid in the economic success of countries dependent on cattle products, but can also open the door to human therapeutics

A paisagem agrária do vale da ribeira de Barrosa, Lousada (sécs XVI-XVIII)

Dissertação de mestrado em HistóriaNeste trabalho procurou-se contribuir para a criação de uma matriz metodológica de análise e reconstituição da paisagem agrária. Adoptando documentação essencialmente constituída por tombos e prazos, desenvolveu-se um esforço de análise e interpretação dos dados neles contidos, bem como da sua própria organização e mecanismos de elaboração, no sentido de lhes conferir uma utilidade cadastral das unidades de exploração agrária. Aliando os resultados da análise documental com a prospecção no terreno e o recurso a cartografia diversa, ortofotomapas e técnicas SIG visou-se compreender a morfologia agrária e a sua evolução numa determinada região (Ribeira de Barrosas - Lousada) e para um período específico de tempo (sécs. XVI-XVIII). O objectivo limite consistiu em obter uma aproximação à fisionomia original da paisagem agrária dessa região, identificar courelas fósseis e assinalar as principais tranformações morfológicas do terreno.This work aimed to contribute to the creation of a matrix methodology for analysis and reconstruction of the agrarian landscape. Adopting documentation mainly consists of inventories and prazos, developed a stress analysis and interpretation of data therein, as well as its own organization and mechanisms of development in order to give them a cadastral utility for units of agricultural exploitation. Combining the results of document analysis with the field survey and resource mapping diverse orthophotomaps and GIS techniques, aimed to understand the agrarian morphology and its evolution in a given region (Ribeira de Barrosas - Lousada) and for a specific period of time (XVIth-XVIIIth centuries). The aim was to obtain a threshold approach to face the original agricultural landscape of this region, identify and mark fossil fields and major morphological transformations of the land

Intertemporal solvency and public debt : evidence from Brazil -1995-2004

This article investigates the long-run solvency of the Brazilian public debt and the short run dynamics of government revenues and expenditures for monthly data from Jan/1995 to July/2004. Seignorage is not considered as a source of revenue. The conclusion is that the public debt is not solvent. Revenues are strongly exogenous for expenditures and the short run dynamics indicates that for each additional Real collected, the Brazilian government spends R$1,31 (±0.20 )

Technology and special educational needs: let's play “Doing Good Deeds!”

“Doing Good Deeds!” is a game directed to children with special needs, in pre and elementary school age that aims to promote the development of social skills in diferente contexts. Structurally, this game has available a set of Avatars that players can choose to represent them. To adapt the game to each child, an administration module was developed, corresponding to the back office of the game, which allows the educator to create or change contexts, difficulty levels and sequences. This module includes also the visualization of the user performance, in particular the duration of each game, the number of attempts with and without success, allowing the educator to analyze the progress of each player.The authors would like to express their acknowledgments to COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013 for the support. The authors are also grateful to the Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT) through the financial support, Pest-OE/CED/UI1661/2014 projects, FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Program – COMPETE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Uma tipografia de base elíptica e outros cruzamentos do design com a geometria das curvas cónicas

Através de alguns exemplos práticos, pretende-se defender que o conhecimento geométrico e, em particular, o conhecimento das curvas cónicas e suas aplicações, pode potenciar o trabalho projetual dos designers, diminuir os custos de hardware e software no ensino e no trabalho profissional, diminuir a necessidade de recurso a meios sofisticados e caros, reduzir a necessidade de permanente atualização dos meios tecnológicos, e de utilização de software que implique formação especializada e, sobretudo, que necessite de longos períodos de formação. Temos em vista contribuir para o reconhecimento da importância do estudo destas curvas e das superfícies por elas geradas, em especial no ensino da Geometria em cursos de Design. De facto, a partir da sistematização do conhecimento existente em outras áreas, como, por exemplo, a arquitetura e as engenharias, pelo aprofundamento da adaptação de propriedades das cónicas e de conhecimentos de áreas, como a geometria analítica ou a projetiva para a linguagem dos traçados geométricos, e pela contribuição com a sugestão de novos traçados, pode desenvolver-se a capacidade dos designers e estudantes de design resolverem problemas, no âmbito do projeto, na representação técnica e na comunicação externa com não peritos.Through some examples, we intend to argue that the knowledge of geometry and, in particular, the knowledge of conic curves and their applications, may potentiate the project work of designers, reducing the costs of hardware and software in teaching and professional work, reducing also the need for sophisticated and expensive means, and its continuous updating, and the use of software which involves specialized training, and especially requiring long training periods. We want to contribute to the recognition of the importance of the study of these curves and surfaces generated by them, especially in the teaching of Geometry in Design courses. In fact, from the systematization of existing knowledge in other areas, such as architecture and engineering, developing the adaptation of properties of conic curves and also the knowledge of areas such as analytic or projective geometry to the geometric design and contributing by suggesting new ways to draw the curves, we can develop the ability of designers and design students to solve problems in the context of the project, and others such as technical representation and external communication with non-experts

Association between Plasma and Milk Urea on the Insemination Day and Pregnancy Rate in Early Lactation Dairy Cows

Lactatingdairy cows (n=177) feed with grass and corn silage ad libitum kept in pasture, were randomly assigned to evaluate how urea nitrogen in plasma and milk can be related to their pregnancy rate. Blood and milk samples were collected on the artificial insemination (AI) day to evaluate plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) as well as progesterone levels, excluding cows with progesterone higher than 0.5 ng/ml. Cows were considered pregnant if six weeks after artificial insemination, they did not return to estrus.Concentrations of PUN or MUN greater than the average (16 mg/dl) were associated with decreased pregnancy rates (13% and 14%, respectively) (p< 0.05) as compared to the cows with urea levels less than this value on the insemination day. As PUN and MUN increased to greater than 16 mg/dl, the likelihood ratio for pregnancy decreased. There was a high correlation between PUN and MUN concentrations (r²= 0.97, p≤ 0.001). The results of this study indicate that an increase in PUN or MUN can exert director indirect effects in reproduction, impairing the conception of grazing dairy cows