The Possibility of Contamination of Deep Frozen Bull Semen During Long Periods of Storage in Containers with Liquid Nitrogen

Preservation of bull sperm by deep freeze is a technological process that allows you to store semen in theory for an unlimited period of time, national and international transport, without significant loss of quality and safety of semen. According to the literature, some microorganisms successfully survive the low temperatures during storage of semen in liquid nitrogen (-196 ° C), in deep-frozen semen, seeds, and in liquid nitrogen and ice sediment in the storage container for deep-frozen bull semen. The aim of this study was to do microbiological analysis of samples semen frozen bull and liquid nitrogen in containers for bull semen storage. 414 samples of frozen bull semen, and 53 samples of liquid nitrogen ice sediment were examined. From the deeply frozen semen were isolated Candida albicans, Citrobacter freundii and Pseudomonas stutzeri. Microorganisms isolated from the storage container of frozen semen are mostly members of the family Enterobacteriacae, and Citrobacter freundii was isolated from the largest number of samples. Considering the findings of microorganisms in the semen, and liquid nitrogen, there is the possibility of connection of contamination of the semen with microorganisms of the liquid nitrogen, and reversely, as would be the goal of our future investigations

Conserved roles of Sam50 and metaxins in VDAC biogenesis

Voltage-dependent anion-selective channel (VDAC) is a β-barrel protein in the outer mitochondrial membrane that is necessary for metabolite exchange with the cytosol and is proposed to be involved in certain forms of apoptosis. We studied the biogenesis of VDAC in human mitochondria by depleting the components of the mitochondrial import machinery by using RNA interference. Here, we show the importance of the translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM) complex in the import of the VDAC precursor. The deletion of Sam50, the central component of the sorting and assembly machinery (SAM), led to both a strong defect in the assembly of VDAC and a reduction in the steady-state level of VDAC. Metaxin 2-depleted mitochondria had reduced levels of metaxin 1 and were deficient in import and assembly of VDAC and Tom40, but not of three matrix-targeted precursors. We also observed a reduction in the levels of metaxin 1 and metaxin 2 in Sam50-depleted mitochondria, implying a connection between these three proteins, although Sam50 and metaxins seemed to be in different complexes. We conclude that the pathway of VDAC biogenesis in human mitochondria involves the TOM complex, Sam50 and metaxins, and that it is evolutionarily conserved

Phytochemical and Ecological Analysis of Two Varieties of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Grown in a Mountain Environment of Italian Alps

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a multifunctional crop that is capable of prompt environmental adaptation. In this study, a monoecious cultivar (Futura 75) and a dioecious one (Finola) were tested in a mountain area in Valsaviore (Rhaetian Alps, Italy; elevation: 1,100 m a.s.l.) during the growing season 2018. Phytochemical behavior was evaluated by different analytical approaches: HPLC-high-resolution mass spectrometry, SDS-PAGE LC-MS/MS, HS-SPME GC-MS, and GC-FID in order to obtain complete profile of two varieties cultivated in altitude. CSR functional strategy used for ecological evaluation revealed that both genotypes are mainly competitors, although Finola is more stress tolerator (C:S:R = 57:26:17%) than Futura (C:S:R = 69:15:16%). The Finola inflorescences were characterized by higher quantities of \u3b2-ocimene and \u3b1-terpinolene, while \u3b1- and f-pinene accompanied by extremely high f-myrcene were found as predominant in Futura. Both varieties were rich in sesquiterpenes (45 recognized) among which trans-caryophyllene and \u3b1-humulene were the most abundant. Total tetrahydrocannabinol level was lower than 0.1%, while the most abundant cannabinoid was cannabidiolic acid (CBDA): 2.3% found in Finola vs. 2.7% revealed for Futura. The level of corresponding neutral form, cannabidiol, varied drastically: 0.27% (Finola) vs. 0.056% (Futura). Finola showed the unique cannabinoid profile with unexpectedly high cannabidivarin, 2-fold higher that corresponding acidic analogue, whereas the particularity of Futura 75 was the occurrence of cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) in the quantities that was double than those exposed for Finola. The seeds from both chemovars proved to be rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, and Finola showed a higher ratio \u3c96/\u3c93. No difference was found in the protein content, and the SDS-PAGE profile was similar. The most abundant protein was edestin, followed by heat shock protein 70, f-conglycinin, and vicilin. In conclusion, comprehensive phytochemical and ecological study of two fiber-type varieties cultivated in Italian Alps displayed specific, legal, and safe cannabinoids profile, followed by particular terpene composition, polyunsaturated fatty acids content, and favorable protein profile. This postulates that geographical provenience of hemp should be considered in selecting a variety that would be suitable for a specific end-use nutraceutical application

Effectiveness of Different Analytical Methods for the Characterization of Propolis : a Case of Study in Northern Italy

Propolis is used as folk medicine due to its spectrum of alleged biological and pharmaceutical properties and it is a complex matrix not still totally characterized. Two batches of propolis coming from two different environments (plains of Po Valley and the hilly Ligurian\u2013 Piedmont Apennines) of Northern Italy were characterized using different analytical methods: Spectrophotometric analysis of phenols, flavones and flavonols, and DPPH radical scavenging activity, HPLC, NMR, HSPME and GC\u2013MS and HPLC\u2013MS Orbitrap. Balsam and moisture content were also considered. No statistical differences were found at the spectrophotometric analysis; balsam content did not vary significantly. The most interesting findings were in the VOCs composition, with the Po Valley samples containing compounds of the resins from leaf buds of Populus nigra L. The hills (Appennines) samples were indeed characterize by the presence of phenolic glycerides already found in mountain environments. HPLC\u2013Q-Exactive-Orbitrap\uae\u2013MS analysis is crucial in appropriate recognition of evaluate number of metabolites, but also NMR itself could give more detailed information especially when isomeric compounds should be identified. It is necessary a standardized evaluation to protect and valorize this production and more research on propolis characterization using different analytical techniques

Reconstructing mass profiles of simulated galaxy clusters by combining Sunyaev-Zeldovich and X-ray images

We present a method to recover mass profiles of galaxy clusters by combining data on thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) and X-ray imaging, thereby avoiding to use any information on X-ray spectroscopy. This method, which represents a development of the geometrical deprojection technique presented in Ameglio et al. (2007), implements the solution of the hydrostatic equilibrium equation. In order to quantify the efficiency of our mass reconstructions, we apply our technique to a set of hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters. We propose two versions of our method of mass reconstruction. Method 1 is completely model-independent, while Method 2 assumes instead the analytic mass profile proposed by Navarro et al. (1997) (NFW). We find that the main source of bias in recovering the mass profiles is due to deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium, which cause an underestimate of the mass of about 10 per cent at r_500 and up to 20 per cent at the virial radius. Method 1 provides a reconstructed mass which is biased low by about 10 per cent, with a 20 per cent scatter, with respect to the true mass profiles. Method 2 proves to be more stable, reducing the scatter to 10 per cent, but with a larger bias of 20 per cent, mainly induced by the deviations from equilibrium in the outskirts. To better understand the results of Method 2, we check how well it allows to recover the relation between mass and concentration parameter. When analyzing the 3D mass profiles we find that including in the fit the inner 5 per cent of the virial radius biases high the halo concentration. Also, at a fixed mass, hotter clusters tend to have larger concentration. Our procedure recovers the concentration parameter essentially unbiased but with a scatter of about 50 per cent.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRA

Influence of attention alternation on movement-related cortical potentials in healthy individuals and stroke patients.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we analyzed the influence of artificially imposed attention variations using the auditory oddball paradigm on the cortical activity associated to motor preparation/execution. METHODS: EEG signals from Cz and its surrounding channels were recorded during three sets of ankle dorsiflexion movements. Each set was interspersed with either a complex or a simple auditory oddball task for healthy participants and a complex auditory oddball task for stroke patients. RESULTS: The amplitude of the movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) decreased with the complex oddball paradigm, while MRCP variability increased. Both oddball paradigms increased the detection latency significantly (p<0.05) and the complex paradigm decreased the true positive rate (TPR) (p=0.04). In patients, the negativity of the MRCP decreased while pre-phase variability increased, and the detection latency and accuracy deteriorated with attention diversion. CONCLUSION: Attention diversion has a significant influence on MRCP features and detection parameters, although these changes were counteracted by the application of the laplacian method. SIGNIFICANCE: Brain-computer interfaces for neuromodulation that use the MRCP as the control signal are robust to changes in attention. However, attention must be monitored since it plays a key role in plasticity induction. Here we demonstrate that this can be achieved using the single channel Cz

Applicability Evidence of Constructal Design in Structural Engineering: Case Study of Biaxial Elasto-Plastic Buckling of Square Steel Plates with Elliptical Cutout

The application of the Constructal Design method in Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics areas is an already consecrated approach to geometrically evaluate these flow engineering systems. However, this approach in Mechanics of Materials realm is not yet widely used, since one can find only few publications about it in literature. The Constructal Design is based on the Constructal Law, a physical law that explains the universal phenomenon of evolution of any finite size flow system. Therefore, the main goal here is to show that the Constructal Design can also be used in dedicated Structural Engineering problems as an effective method for geometric evaluation. The obtained results prove the Constructal Design applicability definitively in Mechanics of Materials

Fluoroscopy usage in contemporary interventional electrophysiology: Insights from a European registry

Background: Fluoroscopy has been an essential part of every electrophysiological procedure since its inception. However, till now no clear standards regarding acceptable x-ray exposure nor recommendation how to achieve them have been proposed. Hypothesis: Current norms and quality markers required for optimal clinical routine can be identified. Methods: Centers participating in this Europe-wide multicenter, prospective registry were requested to provide characteristics of the center, operators, technical equipment as well as procedural settings of consecutive cases. Results: Twenty-five centers (72% university clinics, with a mean volume of 526 ± 348 procedures yearly) from 14 European countries provided data on 1788 cases [9% diagnostic procedures (DP), 38% atrial fibrillation (AF) ablations, 44% other supraventricular (SVT) ablations, and 9% ventricular ablations (VT)] conducted by 95 operators (89% male, 41 ± 7 years old). Mean dose area product (DAP) and time was 304 ± 608 cGy*cm2, 3.6 ± 4.8 minutes, 1937 ± 608 cGy*cm2, 15.3 ± 15.5 minutes, 805 ± 1442 cGy*cm2, 10.6 ± 10.7 minutes, and 1277 ± 1931 cGy*cm2, 10.4 ± 12.3 minutes for DP, AF, SVT, and VT ablations, respectively. Seven percent of all procedures were conducted without any use of fluoroscopy. Procedures in the lower quartile of DAP were performed more frequently by female operators (OR 1.707, 95%CI 1.257-2.318, P =.001), in higher-volume center (OR 1.001 per one additional procedure, 95%CI 1.000-1.001, P =.002), with the use of 3D-mapping system (OR 2.622, 95%CI 2.053-3.347, P &lt;.001) and monoplane x-ray system (OR 2.945, 95%CI 2.149-4.037, P &lt;.001). Conclusion: Exposure to ionizing radiation varies widely in daily practice for all procedure. Significant opportunities for harmonization of exposure toward the lower range has been identified