237 research outputs found
The study of proteotomic profile of mutton with consideration to the influence of feed combinatorics
The present article is devoted to the search for markers that attest the changes in the protein profile when fattening the lambs with enriched diets, taking into account tissue specificity. The purpose of scientific research was to expand scientific knowledge about the influence of essential trace elements of organic origin in the diet of lambs on the marker-proteins of skeletal muscle tissue, of myocardium and renal cortical substance. The objects of research were the tissues of the m.L.dorsi skeletal muscle, myocardium and cortical substance of the kidneys in lambs of the Edilbaev breed. These lambs received a diet with organic trace elements (iodine, selenium, silicon). To study the effect of microelements in the diets of lambs on change in marker-proteins, we ran the studies of the skeletal muscle, myocardium and cortical substance of the kidneys of lambs, using the method of two-dimensional electrophoresis. When searching for proteins which mark the action of organic additives in the fattening diet of lambs within the tissue of the myocardium and the cortical substance of the kidneys, a number of differences were noted; no pronounced effects were observed in the skeletal muscle. Enrichment of the diet of lambs with selenium derivatives led to a change in the protein composition in the kidneys cortical substance for some isoforms of selenium-containing proteins and related enzymes of the glutathione cycle. Reaction in this process of thermal shock proteins, utilization of aflatoxins and changes in proteins of energy metabolism within mitochondria of kidney cells was also revealed. The determination of functional activity, or immunofermental analysis of glutathione peroxidase 3 count in the blood, can be a promising biomarker for controlling the level of selenium digestion and the count of selenium in blood as a more rapid and cheap method in comparison with the proteomic technologies. And for assessing the rate of digestion and fixation of iodine, it seems promising to determine it via the activity of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase [Mn]. In the myocardium, the effect of digested feed additives mainly affected the mitochondrial apparatus, which changed its functional orientation, with the activation of several other metabolic cycles. These results are prerequisites for obtaining more fundamental data on the effect of diets enriched with essential micronutrients on the molecular mechanisms that take place within the myocardial and kidney tissue of lambs. New data have been obtained on the effect of diets enriched with essential microelements on the molecular mechanisms occurring in the myocardial tissue and cortical substance of the kidneys of goats and sheep. The research results obtained by proteomics methods will be used for modeling and targeted adjustment of diets in order to obtain raw materials with the necessary technological characteristics
Use of iodine and selenium enriched fodder rations for production of fortified young lamb
The article is devoted to preventive measures to eliminate the problem of dysmicroelementosis in order to increase the productivity of young sheep. The article presents the results of studies of the influence of feeding rations on the growth and development of young sheep of the Edilbaev breed, on the level of their meat productivity and the qualitative characteristics of biologically fortified lamb. Feed additives based on Yoddar-Zn and DAFS-25 were added to the main ration of lambs at the age of four months, once a day, being added into a fodder mixture with concentrates. For the experiment the herd of lambs was divided to four groups of 25 heads each.The changes in live weight at the age of four, five, six and seven months were analyzed, and it was found that at the age of seven months, the absolute average weight gain in the experimental groups varied from 3.45 kg to 4.49 kg, in the control group it was 3.1 kg, while the largest live weight gain was recorded in group III which received both feed additives based on Yoddar-Zn and DAFS-25.There were no significant differences in the parameters of body measurements, with the exception of group III, where the chest circumference increased by 7.2%, and the height of a lamb at the withers increased in average by 8.1%. It was found that group III had the highest meat density coefficient, equal to 3.9, and the cross-sectional area of m. Longissimus dorsi was equal to 13.61 cm2. It was noted that the amount of free amino acids of the lamb group III is 18.8% higher than the meat of the control group. The lamb obtained from the animals of the experimental groups showed a higher protein content and less fat. The ratio of water to protein in all samples was slightly higher than 3.7, which corresponds to the Federa number for meat raw materials. Enriching the rations of the Edilbaevskoy sheep with feed additives Yoddar-Zn and DAFS-25 promotes the stimulation of growth and development of animals, increases the productivity and nutritional value of lamb
The mysterious eruption of V838 Mon
V838 Mon is marking one of the most mysterious stellar outbursts on record.
The spectral energy distribution of the progenitor resembles an under-luminous
F main sequence star (at V=15.6 mag), that erupted into a cool supergiant
following a complex and multi-maxima lightcurve (peaking at V=6.7 mag). The
outburst spectrum show BaII, LiI and lines of several s-elements, with wide
P-Cyg profiles and a moderate and retracing emission in the Balmer lines. A
light-echo discovered expanding around the object helped to constrain the
distance (d=790+/-30 pc), providing M_V=+4.45 in quiescence and M_V=-4.35 at
optical maximum (somewhat dependent on the still uncertain E(B-V)=0.5
reddening). The general outburst trend is toward lower temperatures and larger
luminosities, and continuing so at the time of writing. The object properties
conflict with a classification within already existing categories: the
progenitor was not on a post-AGB track and thus the similarities with the
born-again AGB stars FG Sge, V605 Aql and Sakurai's object are limited to the
cool giant spectrum at maximum; the cool spectrum, the moderate wind velocity
(500 km/sec and progressively reducing) and the monotonic decreasing of the low
ionization condition argues against a classical nova scenario. The closest
similarity is with a star that erupted into an M-type supergiant discovered in
M31 by Rich et al. (1989), that became however much brighter by peaking at
M_V=-9.95, and with V4332 Sgr that too erupted into an M-type giant (Martini et
al. 1999) and that attained a lower luminosity, closer to that of V838 Mon.
M31-RedVar, V4332 Sgr and V838 Mon could be manifestations of the same and new
class of astronomical objects.Comment: A&A, in pres
Value Iteration for Long-run Average Reward in Markov Decision Processes
Markov decision processes (MDPs) are standard models for probabilistic
systems with non-deterministic behaviours. Long-run average rewards provide a
mathematically elegant formalism for expressing long term performance. Value
iteration (VI) is one of the simplest and most efficient algorithmic approaches
to MDPs with other properties, such as reachability objectives. Unfortunately,
a naive extension of VI does not work for MDPs with long-run average rewards,
as there is no known stopping criterion. In this work our contributions are
threefold. (1) We refute a conjecture related to stopping criteria for MDPs
with long-run average rewards. (2) We present two practical algorithms for MDPs
with long-run average rewards based on VI. First, we show that a combination of
applying VI locally for each maximal end-component (MEC) and VI for
reachability objectives can provide approximation guarantees. Second, extending
the above approach with a simulation-guided on-demand variant of VI, we present
an anytime algorithm that is able to deal with very large models. (3) Finally,
we present experimental results showing that our methods significantly
outperform the standard approaches on several benchmarks
Buschke-Ollendorff Syndrome Associated with Elevated Elastin Production by Affected Skin Fibroblasts in Culture
Buschke-Ollendorff syndrome (BOS; McKusick 16670) is an autosomal dominant connective-tissue disorder characterized by uneven osseous formation in bone (osteopoikilosis) and fibrous skin papules (dermatofibrosis lenticularis disseminata). We describe two patients in whom BOS occurred in an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. The connective tissue of the skin lesions showed both collagen and elastin abnormalities by electron microscopy. Cultured fibroblasts from both patients produced 2–8 times more tropoelastin than normal skin fibroblasts in the presence of 10% calf serum. Involved skin flbroblasts of one patient produced up to eight times normal levels, whereas apparently uninvolved skin was also elevated more than threefold. In a second patient, whose involvement was nearly complete, elastin production was high in involved areas and less so in completely involved skin. Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1), a powerful stimulus for elastin production, brought about similar relative increases in normal and BOS strains. Basic fibroblast growth factor, an antagonist of TGFβ1-stimulated elastin production, was able to reduce elastin production in basal and TGFβ1 stimulated BOS strains. Elastin mRNA levels were elevated in all patient strains, suggesting that Buschke-Ollendorff syndrome may result, at least in part, from abnormal regulation of extracellular matrix metabolism that leads to increased steady-state levels of elastin mRNA and elastin accumulation in the dermis
A Hierarchy of Scheduler Classes for Stochastic Automata
Stochastic automata are a formal compositional model for concurrent
stochastic timed systems, with general distributions and non-deterministic
choices. Measures of interest are defined over schedulers that resolve the
nondeterminism. In this paper we investigate the power of various theoretically
and practically motivated classes of schedulers, considering the classic
complete-information view and a restriction to non-prophetic schedulers. We
prove a hierarchy of scheduler classes w.r.t. unbounded probabilistic
reachability. We find that, unlike Markovian formalisms, stochastic automata
distinguish most classes even in this basic setting. Verification and strategy
synthesis methods thus face a tradeoff between powerful and efficient classes.
Using lightweight scheduler sampling, we explore this tradeoff and demonstrate
the concept of a useful approximative verification technique for stochastic
automata
Photophysical properties of thin films and solid phase of switchable supermolecular anthracene-based rotaxanes
Polycrystalline powders and thin films of a novel rotaxane, methyl-exopyridine-anthracene rotaxane (EPAR-Me), and of the related thread and stoppers 10-[3,5-di (ter butyl)phenoxy]decyl-2-({2-[(9-anthrylcarbonyl) amino] acetyl}amino) acetate (ANTPEP), have been characterised by photoluminescence, absorption and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. A rather unusual, i.e. unstructured and largely red-shifted, photoluminescence spectral behaviour of the rotaxane has been found. Preliminary time resolved measurements indicate a fast energy transfer from the anthracene unit to different species the nature of which is still not assigned.
First light of the VLT planet finder SPHERE. II. The physical properties and the architecture of the young systems PZ Tel and HD 1160 revisited
[Abridged] Context. The young systems PZ Tel and HD 1160, hosting known
low-mass companions, were observed during the commissioning of the new planet
finder SPHERE with several imaging and spectroscopic modes. Aims. We aim to
refine the physical properties and architecture of both systems. Methods. We
use SPHERE commissioning data and REM observations, as well as literature and
unpublished data from VLT/SINFONI, VLT/NaCo, Gemini/NICI, and Keck/NIRC2.
Results. We derive new photometry and confirm the nearly daily photometric
variability of PZ Tel A. Using literature data spanning 38 yr, we show that the
star also exhibits a long-term variability trend. The 0.63-3.8 mic SED of PZ
Tel B allows us to revise its properties: spectral type M7+/-1, Teff=2700+/-100
K, log(g)<4.5 dex, log(L/L_Sun)=-2.51+/-0.10 dex, and mass 38-72 MJ. The 1-3.8
mic SED of HD 1160 B suggests a massive brown dwarf or a low-mass star with
spectral type M5.5-7.0, Teff=3000+/-100 K, [M/H]=-0.5-0.0 dex,
log(L/L_Sun)=-2.81+/-0.10 dex, and mass 39-168 MJ. We confirm the deceleration
and high eccentricity (e>0.66) of PZ Tel B. For e<0.9, the inclination,
longitude of the ascending node, and time of periastron passage are well
constrained. The system is seen close to an edge-on geometry. We reject other
brown dwarf candidates outside 0.25" for both systems, and massive giant
planets (>4 MJ) outside 0.5" for the PZ Tel system. We also show that K1-K2
color can be used with YJH low-resolution spectra to identify young L-type
companions, provided high photometric accuracy (<0.05 mag) is achieved.
Conclusions. SPHERE opens new horizons in the study of young brown dwarfs and
giant exoplanets thanks to high-contrast imaging capabilities at optical and
near-infrared wavelengths, as well as high signal-to-noise spectroscopy in the
near-infrared from low (R~30-50) to medium resolutions (R~350).Comment: 25 pages, 23 figures, accepted for publication in A&A on Oct. 13th,
2015; version including language editing. Typo on co-author name on astroph
page corrected, manuscript unchange
First light of the VLT planet finder SPHERE. I. Detection and characterization of the sub-stellar companion GJ 758 B
GJ758 B is a brown dwarf companion to a nearby (15.76 pc) solar-type,
metal-rich (M/H = +0.2 dex) main-sequence star (G9V) that was discovered with
Subaru/HiCIAO in 2009. From previous studies, it has drawn attention as being
the coldest (~600K) companion ever directly imaged around a neighboring star.
We present new high-contrast data obtained during the commissioning of the
SPHERE instrument at the VLT. The data was obtained in Y-, J-, H-, and Ks-bands
with the dual-band imaging (DBI) mode of IRDIS, providing a broad coverage of
the full near-infrared (near-IR) range at higher contrast and better spectral
sampling than previously reported. In this new set of high-quality data, we
report the re-detection of the companion, as well as the first detection of a
new candidate closer-in to the star. We use the new 8 photometric points for an
extended comparison of GJ758 B with empirical objects and 4 families of
atmospheric models. From comparison to empirical object, we estimate a T8
spectral type, but none of the comparison object can accurately represent the
observed near-IR fluxes of GJ758 B. From comparison to atmospheric models, we
attribute a Teff = 600K 100K, but we find that no atmospheric model can
adequately fit all the fluxes of GJ758 B. The photometry of the new candidate
companion is broadly consistent with L-type objects, but a second epoch with
improved photometry is necessary to clarify its status. The new astrometry of
GJ758 B shows a significant proper motion since the last epoch. We use this
result to improve the determination of the orbital characteristics using two
fitting approaches, Least-Square Monte Carlo and Markov Chain Monte Carlo.
Finally, we analyze the sensitivity of our data to additional closer-in
companions and reject the possibility of other massive brown dwarf companions
down to 4-5 AU. [abridged]Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
- …