Comparison of fluorescence polarization assay with Rose Bengal (RB) test and complement fixation tests for the diagnosis of buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) brucellosis in a high-prevalence area

The fluorescence polarisation assay (FPA) was evaluated for the serological diagnosis of bovine brucellosis in buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis) in southern Italy. This assay uses O-polysaccharide prepared from Brucella Abortus lipopolysaccharide conjugated with fluorescein isothiocyanate as a tracer. It has many methodological advantages over older, more established tests and can be performed in short time. To measure the fluorescence polarization, a Tecan GENios Pro (Prionics) fluorescence-polarization analyzer was used with the procedure described by Nielsen et al. 1996. A cut-off value of 117 millipolarization (mP) units was used for testing 912 buffalo sera from Campania Region (526 positive sera and 386 negative sera according to the complement fixation test; CFT). All samples were tested with the Rose Bengal plate (RB). Sensitivity and specificity (Sn) for RB were 84.0% and 87.8% and for FPA were 92.6% and 88.9 percent. The FPA gave a kappa coefficient of agreement with respect to CFT of 0.755, while RB (relative to the CFT) gave coefficients of 0,715. Finally, ROC analysis suggested a cut-off value which did not agree with the one recommended in the test procedure for cow

Differential features of muscle fiber atrophy in osteoporosis and osteoarthritis

We demonstrated that osteoporosis is associated with a preferential type II muscle fiber atrophy, which correlates with bone mineral density and reduced levels of Akt, a major regulator of muscle mass. In osteoarthritis, muscle atrophy is of lower extent and related to disease duration and severity. INTRODUCTION: Osteoarthritis (OA) and osteoporosis (OP) are associated with loss of muscle bulk and power. In these diseases, morphological studies on muscle tissue are lacking, and the underlying mechanisms of muscle atrophy are not known. The aim of our study was to evaluate the OP- or OA-related muscle atrophy and its correlation with severity of disease. Muscle levels of Akt protein, a component of IGF-1/PI3K/Akt pathway, the main regulator of muscle mass, have been determined. METHODS: We performed muscle biopsy in 15 women with OP and in 15 women with OA (age range, 60-85 years). Muscle fibers were counted, measured, and classified by ATPase reaction. By statistical analysis, fiber-type atrophy was correlated with bone mineral density (BMD) in the OP group and with Harris Hip Score (HHS) and disease duration in the OA group. Akt protein levels were evaluated by Western blot analysis. RESULTS: Our findings revealed in OP a preferential type II fiber atrophy that inversely correlated with patients' BMD. In OA, muscle atrophy was of lower extent, homogeneous among fiber types and related to disease duration and HHS. Moreover, in OP muscle, the Akt level was significantly reduced as compared to OA muscles. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that in OP, there is a preferential and diffuse type II fiber atrophy, proportional to the degree of bone loss, whereas in OA, muscle atrophy is connected to the functional impairment caused by the disease. A reduction of Akt seems to be one of the mechanisms involved in OP-related muscle atrophy

Complementary Degradation of Fuel Oil in Superficial Waters and in Axenic Cultures of Aerobic Gram-negative Bacteria Isolated from Venice Lagoon

The percentages of bacteria degrading fuel oil (n-paraffins from C*2 to C28) were determined in three stations in the northern part of Venice Lagoon. Concentrations of paraffin-degrading bacteria ranged from 8 to 70 bacteria per 100 mL in the least polluted station close to the sea, and from 33 to 345 bacteria per 100 mL in the most polluted station near Porto Marghera. Biological oxygen demand with fuel oil additions was higher in this station, where oxygen was totally depleted in 7 and 5 days in November and June respectively. Twenty-five bacterial strains were isolated from agar plates amended with fuel oil as the sole carbon and energy source; only two were Acinetobacter spp. strains. Strain VE-C3 grew in the presence of n-paraffins. Growth was inducible with a generation time of 2.77 h and an oxygen consumption rate of 53 pL h-1 mg-1 of cells (d.w.). Five other strains thrived on intermediate oxidation products of n-paraffin

Aspects of phi-meson production in proton-proton collisions

We analyze near-threshold cross section data for the reaction pp->pp phi published by the DISTO collaboration and recent, still preliminary results presented by the ANKE Collaboration. We formulate a procedure to evaluate the OZI ratio at low energies by taking into account corrections from the kinematics and the final-state interaction. Combining the new data with the few measurements available at higher energies we give a limit for the OZI rule violation and estimate the possible contribution from a five-quark baryonic resonance coupled to the phi-p system.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Controlled Stark shifts in Er3+^{3+}-doped crystalline and amorphous waveguides for quantum state storage

We present measurements of the linear Stark effect on the $^{4}$I$_{15/2} \to$ $^{4}$I$_{13/2}$ transition in an Er$^{3+}$-doped proton-exchanged LiNbO$_{3}$ crystalline waveguide and an Er$^{3+}$-doped silicate fiber. The measurements were made using spectral hole burning techniques at temperatures below 4 K. We measured an effective Stark coefficient $(\Delta\mu_{e}\chi)/(h)=25\pm1$kHz/Vcm$^{-1}$ in the crystalline waveguide and $(\bar{\Delta\mu_{e}}\chi)/(h)=15\pm1$kHz/Vcm$^{-1}$ in the silicate fiber. These results confirm the potential of Erbium doped waveguides for quantum state storage based on controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures v2. typo in formula correcte

Genome wide association study for beef tenderness in Polled Nellore cattle.

Publicação on-line

The central limit problem for random vectors with symmetries

Motivated by the central limit problem for convex bodies, we study normal approximation of linear functionals of high-dimensional random vectors with various types of symmetries. In particular, we obtain results for distributions which are coordinatewise symmetric, uniform in a regular simplex, or spherically symmetric. Our proofs are based on Stein's method of exchangeable pairs; as far as we know, this approach has not previously been used in convex geometry and we give a brief introduction to the classical method. The spherically symmetric case is treated by a variation of Stein's method which is adapted for continuous symmetries.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, uses xy-pic, 23 pages; v3: added new corollary to Theorem

DETECTION OF ALLERGENS IN MEAT PRODUCTS: MONITORING DURING THE YEAR 2007

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Genetic association between growth and maternal ability traits in Nelore cattle.

Although body weight traits have been widely used in animal breeding programs due to their importance to beef cattle systems, the use of maternal ability traits, which highly affect the profitability in livestock, is still incipient. As the knowledge of genetic parameters of economic important traits may aid genetic gains, this study was carried out to estimate genetic parameters for weight at 120 and 210 days of age (W120 and W210), pre-weaning average daily gain (PreDG), real fertility (RF), accumulated productivity (AP) and weaning rate (WR). The data set was obtained from Vera Cruz Ranch, a cattle ranch that participates in the Brazilian National Association of Breeders and Researchers (ANCP). Heritabilities and correlations were estimated using univariate and bivariate linear mixed model. The model included contemporary groups (year and season of birth, sex and management group), cow age at calving (in classes and as linear and quadratic covariate) as fixed effects, and genetic and residual components as random effects. Estimates of heritability for between growth and maternal ability traits ranged from 0.22 to 0.32, indicating that they could be improved by direct selection. Estimates of genetic correlation between W120-W210, W120-PreDG, W120-RF, W120-AP, W120-WR were 0.90, 0.54, 0.16, 0.45 and 0.24, respectively. Estimates of genetic correlation between W210-PreDG, W210-RF, W210-AP, W210-WR were 0.63, 0.27, 0.53 and 0.21, respectively. Estimates of genetic correlation between PreDG-RF, PreDG-AP, PreDG-WR were 0.23, 0.16 and 0.28, respectively. Positive genetic correlations were observed between RF, CAP and RD (0.28 to 0.78). Therefore, genetic selection having one of these characteristics as the criterion of selection will lead to an indirect response in the same direction in the others. These results indicate that the use of animals with high breeding values for weights and pre-weaning gain may lead to increase maternal ability traits due to correlated responses. Such responses tend to be bigger when using weight compared to the pre-weaning gain

Genome-wide association study provides insights into genes related with horn development in Nelore beef cattle.

Abstract The causal mutation for polledness in Nelore (Bos taurus indicus) breed seems to have appeared first in Brazil in 1957. The expression of the polled trait is known to be ruled by a few groups of alleles in taurine breeds; however, the genetic basis of this trait in indicine cattle is still unclear. The aim of this study was to identify genomic regions associated with the hornless trait in a commercial Nelore population. A total of 107,294 animals had phenotypes recorded and 2,238 were genotyped/imputed for 777k SNP. The weighted single-step approach for genome-wide association study (WssGWAS) was used to estimate the SNP effects and variances accounted for by 1 Mb sliding SNP windows. A centromeric region of chromosome 1 with 3.11 Mb size (BTA1: 878,631?3,987,104 bp) was found to be associated with hornless in the studied population. A total of 28 protein-coding genes are mapped in this region, including the taurine Polled locus and the IFNAR1, IFNAR2, IFNGR2, KRTAP11-1, MIS18A, OLIG1, OLIG2, and SOD1 genes, which expression can be related to the horn formation as described in literature. The functional enrichment analysis by DAVID tool revealed cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, JAK-STAT signaling, natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, and osteoclast differentiation pathways as significant (P < 0.05). In addition, a runs of homozygosity (ROH) analysis identified a ROH island in polled animals with 2.47 Mb inside the region identified by WssGWAS. Polledness in Nelore cattle is associated with one region in the genome with 3.1 Mb size in chromosome 1. Several genes are harbored in this region, and they may act together in the determination of the polled/horned phenotype. Fine mapping the locus responsible for polled trait in Nelore breed and the identification of the molecular mechanisms regulating the horn growth deserve further investigation