Short communication: Prevalence of deleterious variants causing recessive disorders in Italian Chianina, Marchigiana and Romagnola cattle.

In the last two decades, the molecular cause of six monogenic autosomal recessive disorders has been identified in native Italian beef cattle: two different ATP2A1 variants for the pseudomyotonia congenita, the first in Chianina and Romagnola (PMT1) and the second in Romagnola (PMT2); a KDM2B variant for the paunch calf syndrome (PCS) in Marchigiana and Romagnola; a NID1 variant for the congenital cataract (CC) in Romagnola; a LAMB1 variant for the hemifacial microsomia (HFM) in Romagnola; an ABCA12 variant for the ichthyosis fetalis (IF) in Chianina and a FA2H variant for the ichthyosis congenita (IC) in Chianina. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential impact of these disorders in the affected Italian populations. For this purpose, 3331 Chianina, 2812 Marchigiana and 1680 Romagnola bulls born in the last 40 years were considered. The allelic frequency (AF) of the variant for PMT1 was 1.0% in Romagnola, 4.6% in Marchigiana and 5.9% in Chianina. The AF of the variant for PMT2 was 3.3% in Romagnola and 0% in the other two breeds. The AF of the variant for PCS was 11.7% in Romagnola, 2.0% in Marchigiana and 0% in Chianina. The AF of the variants for CC, HFM, IF and IC resulted below 3%, being the variants detected only in the breed populations in which they were previously reported. Considering a selected male population in the single breed, Chianina showed carrier prevalence of 11.9% for PMT1, 7.7% for IC and 6.4% for IF. Romagnola showed carrier prevalence of 23.4% for PCS, 6.7% for PMT2, 4.1% for HFM, 3.2% for CC and 2.0% for PMT1. Marchigiana showed carrier prevalence of 9.1% for PMT1 and 4.0% for PCS. With respect to the Romagnola cattle, the concerning presence of a total of five defect alleles in the population hampers a general approach based on the prevention of carriers from artificial insemination. However, identification of carriers may allow conscious mating to prevent the risk of homozygous descendants as well as the spread of heterozygous offspring. Therefore, systematic genotyping for all seven known harmful alleles is recommended to prevent risk mating between carriers, in particular to avoid the occurrence of affected offspring

Fracture toughness of injection moulded organoclay reinforced polypropylene composites

The fracture behavior of polypropylene reinforced with different amounts of PP/50% organoclay masterbatch was studied. Test pieces were prepared using a two-gated hot runner injection mould. Morphology of final pieces was analyzed by polarized optical microscopy, Xray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Fracture toughness was evaluated under quasi-static conditions at different positions in the molded pieces. The brittle mode of failure of PP became more ductile with increasing the amount of clay. However, the midthickness region (core) of “ductile” samples underwent brittle fracture while the surface layers (skin) behave in a ductile way, exhibiting elongation, necking and ductile tearing, probably due to differences in thickness and crystalline structure found in skin layers of composite pieces. Different Fracture Mechanics approaches were applied to characterize the fracture behavior: fracture toughness initiation value was assessed by means of the stress intensity factor at 5% non-linearity, KIq, and fracture toughness propagation value was obtained by means of the propagation strain energy release rate, Gcp. It was found that fracture initiation neither depends on clay content nor on test piece location. On the other hand, clay reinforcement increased fracture propagation values away from weld line region. This toughening effect was found to be dependent on the clay content and reinforcement orientation induced by the processing technique

Antimicrobial activity of fruit packages coated with nanomaterials based in metal-ions zeolites

The transport and storage of fruits is frequently compromised by microbial contaminations, especially during the delivery of these perishable foods to the public. The development of smart packages against microbial contaminations is an alternative of great interest to help controlling post-harvest diseases. The incorporation of nanomaterials, such as metal-ions zeolites with antimicrobial properties, in the semi-rigid alveolar structure for fruits transport/storage could allow the preservation of fruit with safety and quality, by inhibiting/reducing the growth of microrganisms. In this work, metal-ions zeolite nanomaterials were incorporated on the packaging material and the antibacterial activity was tested against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The package material exhibited good antimicrobial activity against the two bacteria (Figure 1), which are promising results for industrial application.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessment of polymeric flow in micromouldings coated with nanocrystalline diamond

With the increased production of microcomponents, it is necessary to overcome various technological challenges existing in the micro-injection moulding process: the wear of the microfeatured moulding tool; the perfect filling of high aspect ratio paths; the rheology and heat transfer mechanism in such conditions; among other factors. To address some of these challenges, appropriate moulding surface coatings, displaying high hardness, high thermal conductivity, high thermal shock capacity and low friction coefficient may be of great importance. In this work, a moulding insert was coated with nanocrystalline diamond films. This insert, especially designed to evaluate the flow front of two pathways, was then used for the production of polypropylene microparts with the scope of analysing the relative position of the welding line, and therefore, evaluate the polymeric melt flow in the microimpressions. The morphology, quality and stress developed in the obtained diamond film was analysed, showing an average grain size of about 100 nm, in which their crystals are homogeneous, forming a coalescent film. The coatings present a typical Raman spectrum. Through the moulding path with the diamond coating, it was found that the melt temperature is the variable that has the greatest influence on the advance of the front flow. The front flow appears to benefit from the coating, leading to a more controlled filling process, replicating the findings presented formerly. It is suggested that the diamond coating can act as a heat buffer, weakening the heat transfer mechanism in the polymer/ mould interface at the flow stage, reducing the importance of the design of the temperature control system

Processo de sobremoldação de vedante numa tampa plástica

O objeto da presente patente é o processo de sobremoldação de uma tampa Plástica com vedante incorporado, na qual é injetado o material de maior dureza sobre o De menor dureza. Este processo de sobremoldação é aplicado somente em bi-injecção (utilização de dois materiais ou mais), em tampas plásticas rígidas para embalagens de Forma redonda ou outras. A solução adotada passou por proteger o vedante (3) do fluxo (9) do material da tampa (2) de modo a evitar que este cause deformações no vedante (3) Durante o processo de enchimento. A forma de orientação precisa do fluxo (9) do sobre o Material de menor dureza (3) evita a deformação deste ultimo recorrendo aos diferenciais De pressão conjugados com a velocidade. Desta forma é possível injetar sobre um Material de menor dureza (3), um material de maior dureza (2)