Effect of feed supplementation with Origanum vulgare L. essential oil on sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax): A preliminary framework on metabolic status and growth performances

This study provided a preliminary framework for the effects of Origanum vulgare L. essential oil (EO) on sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) health status over a 60-day feeding trial. Fish were fed twice a day until apparent satiety with three different diets: a control diet (CD), and two experimental diets supplemented with 100 (D100) and 200 (D200) ppm of oregano EO. No mortality was observed in each treatment. Feeding on D100 diet resulted in high growth performances and better food conversion and protein efficiency ratios. Additionally, the supplementation of 100 ppm EO diet also improved (P < 0.05) hepatosomatic and viscerosomatic indices, compared both to control and D200 diets. EO feeding positively affected (P < 0.05) several serum biochemical indices (amylase activity and total proteins, glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels). Focusing on the antioxidant potential of blood, D100 led to the highest (P < 0.05) ferric reducing antioxidant power values and the lowest (P < 0.05) thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances levels in blood

Optimized 3D Segmentation Algorithm for Shelly Sand Images

There is much to be gained from analysing and studying calcareous sediment, with applications ranging from the study of climate change, rock dating, and even building offshore oil rigs and wind farms. One way of performing this analysis is to obtain a µCT scan of the sediment, allowing scientists and engineers to automate much of their analysis using software. Many existing and prospective analysis techniques require handling individual grains. Thus, fast and effective segmentation is an essential first step for any such analysis. Segmentation is non-trivial; these scans hold a lot of information, exhibit ambiguous boundaries between objects, and many objects are hollow, making it even more difficult to apply traditional watershed segmentation. Addressing these issues, in this paper we propose an optimized 3D segmentation (O3DS) algorithm based on watersheds. We make use of branch recursion, partition the image by height prior to segmentation, artificially reducing the size of the largest connected objects. These and additional changes are extremely effective in optimizing performance; O3DS reduces the time to segment a 659x925x932 scan of sediment by 95.4% and produces better or comparable results when compared to similar implementation by our co-author

Histological and immunohistochemical investigation on ovarian development and plasma estradiol levels in the swordfish (<i>Xiphias gladius</i> L.)

The paper reports a histological and immunohistochemical description of oocyte growth and ultrastructural aspects of zona radiata (ZR) formation as well as the relationship between plasma estradiol-17&#x03B2;, (E2 ) levels and ovarian development in swordfish (Xiphias gladius L.) from the Mediterranean Sea. Ovaries were inactive during March to mid April; maturation occurred during late April to June and spawning in June and July. Zona radiata formation starts, as Pas positive material, in oocytes at the lipid stage. In this stage a deposit of electrondense material between oolemma and follicular cells appears. In the cortical alveoli stage and through the early vitellogenic stage, the deposition of a moderately electrondense material occurred on the inner side of the ZR. Finally, in late vitellogenic oocytes a third layer, made of microfibrillar material, appeared. The immunohistochemical analyses revealed that the initial internalisation of hepatic zona radiata proteins (Zrp) in the swordfish oocyte starts before the uptake of vitellogenin (Vtg) and that it is associated with the low previtellogenic E2 plasma levels, while a significant E2 increase in plasma is associated with the beginning of Vtg uptake. This would appear to confirm the hypothesis that the differential and sequential induction of zonagenesis and vitellogenesis may reflect a general feature of teleost oogenesi

Freight distribution performance indicators for service quality planning in large transportation networks

This paper studies the use of performance indicators in routing problems to estimate how transportation cost is affected by the quality of service offered. The quality of service is assumed to be directly dependent on the size of the time windows. Smaller time windows mean better service. Three performance indicators are introduced. These indicators are calculated directly from the data without the need of a solution method. The introduced indicators are based mainly on a "request compatibility", which describes whether two visits can be scheduled consecutively in a route. Other two indicators are introduced, which get their values from a greedy constructive heuristic. After introducing the indicators, the correlation between indicators and transportation cost is examined. It is concluded that the indicators give a good first estimation on the transportation cost incurred when providing a certain quality of service. These indicators can be calculated easily in one of the first planning steps without the need of a sophisticated solution tool. The contribution of the paper is the introduction of a simple set of performance indicators that can be used to estimate the transportation cost of a routing problem with time window

The cientificWorldJOURNAL Research Article Gender and Age-Dependent Etiology of Community-Acquired Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most frequent community-acquired infections worldwide. Escherichia coli is the most common UTI pathogen although underlying host factors such as patients&apos; age and gender may influence prevalence of causative agents. In this study, 61 273 consecutive urine samples received over a 22-month period from outpatients clinics of an urban area of north Italy underwent microbiological culture with subsequent bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of positive samples. A total of 13 820 uropathogens were isolated and their prevalence analyzed according to patient&apos;s gender and age group. Overall Escherichia coli accounted for 67.6% of all isolates, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.8%), Enterococcus faecalis (6.3%), Proteus mirabilis (5.2%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.5%). Data stratification according to both age and gender showed E. coli isolation rates to be lower in both males aged ≥60 years (52.2%), E. faecalis and P. aeruginosa being more prevalent in this group (11.6% and 7.8%, resp.), as well as in those aged ≤14 years (51.3%) in whom P. mirabilis prevalence was found to be as high as 21.2%. Streptococcus agalactiae overall prevalence was found to be 2.3% although it was shown to occur most frequently in women aged between 15 and 59 years (4.1%). Susceptibility of E. coli to oral antimicrobial agents was demonstrated to be as follows: fosfomycin (72.9%), trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (72.9%), ciprofloxacin (76.8%), ampicillin (48.0%), and amoxicillin/clavulanate (77.5%). In conclusion, both patients&apos; age and gender are significant factors in determining UTIs etiology; they can increase accuracy in defining the causative uropathogen as well as providing useful guidance to empiric treatment. Background Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most frequent bacterial infections worldwide Although women, particularly those aged 16-64 years, are significantly more likely to experience UTIs than men Microbial etiology of UTIs has been regarded as well established, with E. coli being the causative pathogen in 50-80% of cases Methods A retrospective study was performed at the Bacteriological Laboratory of the &quot;Centro Diagnostico Italiano&quot; (CDI), based in Milan (Italy), on all bacterial strains isolated from consecutive urine samples received from outpatients clinics of a high-populated urban area of North Italy, between March 2008 and December 2009. Urine samples, accompanied by microbiology request forms, were delivered either directly to the CDI laboratory or through 7 collaborating laboratories. All sample processing and patients&apos; data collection were carried out centrally by the CDI laboratory. CDI Laboratory follows Internal Quality Control procedures and participates to an External Program for Quality Assessment with positive evaluations. As part of the routine procedure, patients received indications to avoid antimicrobials assumption during the previous 7 days and instructions on urine sampling (including cleaning of the genital area prior to midstream specimen collection) and its transport to the laboratories (within 2 hours of collection). Specimens from collaborating laboratories were transported in Vacutainer tubes containing boric acid at 1-2% as preservative. All samples were plated as soon as possible and no later than 24 hours on Chromagar Orientation-BD plates and incubated for 18-24 hours at 37 • C. Criterion for defining significant bacteriuria (positive samples) was the presence of ≥10 5 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL of urine The statistical analysis was performed by the SAS System version 9.2. The difference between females and males in the frequency of positive samples of each agent was analyzed by the chi-square test. The frequency of the positive samples of each agent as a function of gender and age groups (≤14; 15-29; 30-59; ≥60 years) was analyzed by the logistic regression, including in the model the terms gender, age, and the gender by age interaction. Results A total of 61 273 urine cultures were performed over a 22-month period; of these 13 820 (22.6%) were found to be positive for bacterial infection. Nearly 80% of all isolates were from women (female to male ratio (F/M) = 3.8) and 58% from subjects aged 60 years or more. Cumulatively, the two younger age groups accounted for 11.2% of total isolates. Female to male ratio was highest in age group 15-29 years (F/M = 13.5) and lowest in the youngest age group (F/M = 1.4). Overall the most frequently encountered pathogen was Escherichia coli (67.6%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.8%), Enterococcus faecalis (6.3%), Proteus mirabilis (5.2%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.5%), and Streptococcus agalactiae (2.3%) Frequency of isolation of all six main species was found to be statistically different between females and males ( in females, whereas E. faecalis, P. mirabilis, and P. aeruginosa were more common in men. All the six most prevalent bacterial species, with the exception of K. pneumoniae, revealed statistically significant differences in isolation rates within the four chosen age groups Data stratification according to both gender and age showed that differences in frequency of isolation between females and males of E. faecalis and S. agalactiae were not consistent across all age groups Susceptibility to antimicrobials of main isolated uropathogens is shown in K. pneumoniae susceptibility to quinolones (93.0%-95.3%) and to TMP-SMX (89.8%) was higher in comparison to E. coli while fosfomycin activity resulted to be lower (81.0%). E. faecalis susceptibility to ampicillin and fosfomycin was high (96.1% and 100%, resp.), superior with respect to susceptibility to quinolones (71.9%-82.3%). S. agalactiae susceptibility to levofloxacin was found to be 91.1% (data not shown). Discussion As urinary tract infection is a very common disease, its diagnosis and treatment have important implications for patients&apos; health, development of antibiotic resistance, and health care costs The present retrospective study describes the distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial species isolated from a large number of urinary samples collected over a 22-month period, as part of routine analyses, from unselected community patients (male and female of any age and clinical condition) living in a urban area in the north of Italy. The high number of available isolates allowed to stratify data according to patients&apos; gender and age and so to evaluate the association of such variables to UTI etiology. As expected E. coli was the most frequently encountered species in our study. Percentage of E. coli isolation (67.6%) well compares with those reported from other outpatients surveys conducted in north (64.6%) Other frequent isolates found in this study included K. pneumoniae, P. mirabilis, and E. faecalis, all having been reported to be highly prevalent species in UTIs Our study, however, showed that prevalence of urinary pathogens following data stratification was not consistent across all age groups further divided by gender. Escherichia coli, for example, was found to be less prevalent in the youngest and oldest male subjects (51.3% and 52.2%, resp.) and more frequent in female patients aged 15 years or older 4 The Scientific World Journal (approximately 71%), Proteus mirabilis prevalence was found to be highest (21.2%) in young males aged ≤14 years, whilst S. agalactiae was mostly found in women aged between 15 and 59 years (approximately 4.0%). Kiffer et al. [21] conducted a study comparable to ours, in terms of patient&apos;s population (both males and females of any age), number of isolates The Scientific World Journal 5 (0-13 years), accounting for 22.1% of isolates (15.6% in our study) with a females to males ratio of 0.45 (0.55 in our study). Already in 1972, Bergström [22] and, more recently, Modarres and Oskoii P. mirabilis has been described to be present in the preputial sac of boys, having been isolated in 22.6% of uncircumcised males of up to 14 years of age Susceptibility of uropathogenic bacteria to antimicrobials agents is also known to vary among countries and over time In our survey, 72.9% of E. coli isolates were susceptible to TMP/SMX. Susceptibility to oral antimicrobials of P. mirabilis strains isolated in our study, was generally lower than that reported both in Italy and other countries. Susceptibility to ciprofloxacin and TMP/SMX of P. mirabilis isolates in our study was of 62.9% and 51.5%, respectively, as compared to rates demonstrated by other authors ranging from 75.5% to 97.9% for ciprofloxacin and from 52.0% to 84.9% for TMP-SMX In conclusion, besides providing further data on the etiology of community-acquired UTIs and antimicrobial susceptibility of uropathogens in Italy, our results confirm that stratification of isolates from unselected patients on the basis of age and gender can improve the assessment of causative pathogens, providing guidance for empiric treatment and interesting clues to the understanding of UTIs etiopathology. In particular, P. mirabilis prevalence was found to be high both in boys (21.2%) and girls (11.8%) suggesting, as previously reporte

From California’s Extreme Drought to Major Flooding: Evaluating and Synthesizing Experimental Seasonal and Subseasonal Forecasts of Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers and Extreme Precipitation during Winter 2022/23

California experienced a historic run of nine consecutive landfalling atmospheric rivers (ARs) in three weeks’ time during winter 2022/23. Following three years of drought from 2020 to 2022, intense landfalling ARs across California in December 2022–January 2023 were responsible for bringing reservoirs back to historical averages and producing damaging floods and debris flows. In recent years, the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and collaborating institutions have developed and routinely provided to end users peer-reviewed experimental seasonal (1–6 month lead time) and subseasonal (2–6 week lead time) prediction tools for western U.S. ARs, circulation regimes, and precipitation. Here, we evaluate the performance of experimental seasonal precipitation forecasts for winter 2022/23, along with experimental subseasonal AR activity and circulation forecasts during the December 2022 regime shift from dry conditions to persistent troughing and record AR-driven wetness over the western United States. Experimental seasonal precipitation forecasts were too dry across Southern California (likely due to their overreliance on La Niña), and the observed above-normal precipitation across Northern and Central California was underpredicted. However, experimental subseasonal forecasts skillfully captured the regime shift from dry to wet conditions in late December 2022 at 2–3 week lead time. During this time, an active MJO shift from phases 4 and 5 to 6 and 7 occurred, which historically tilts the odds toward increased AR activity over California. New experimental seasonal and subseasonal synthesis forecast products, designed to aggregate information across institutions and methods, are introduced in the context of this historic winter to provide situational awareness guidance to western U.S. water managers

Current and emerging developments in subseasonal to decadal prediction

Weather and climate variations of subseasonal to decadal timescales can have enormous social, economic and environmental impacts, making skillful predictions on these timescales a valuable tool for decision makers. As such, there is a growing interest in the scientific, operational and applications communities in developing forecasts to improve our foreknowledge of extreme events. On subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) timescales, these include high-impact meteorological events such as tropical cyclones, extratropical storms, floods, droughts, and heat and cold waves. On seasonal to decadal (S2D) timescales, while the focus remains broadly similar (e.g., on precipitation, surface and upper ocean temperatures and their effects on the probabilities of high-impact meteorological events), understanding the roles of internal and externally-forced variability such as anthropogenic warming in forecasts also becomes important. The S2S and S2D communities share common scientific and technical challenges. These include forecast initialization and ensemble generation; initialization shock and drift; understanding the onset of model systematic errors; bias correct, calibration and forecast quality assessment; model resolution; atmosphere-ocean coupling; sources and expectations for predictability; and linking research, operational forecasting, and end user needs. In September 2018 a coordinated pair of international conferences, framed by the above challenges, was organized jointly by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the World Weather Research Prograame (WWRP). These conferences surveyed the state of S2S and S2D prediction, ongoing research, and future needs, providing an ideal basis for synthesizing current and emerging developments in these areas that promise to enhance future operational services. This article provides such a synthesis