Non-conventional P sources for zebu cows in Brazil Fontes não convencionais de fósforo para gado zebu no Brasil

To evaluate non-conventional phosphorus sources, a group of 400 Nellore cows mantained under pasture received a mineral mixture with different P sources (group I: superphosphate - 500 ppm P; group II: superphosphate - 340 ppm P plus rock phosphate Patos 160 ppm P; group III: superphosphate 340 ppm P plus dicalcium phosphate 160 ppm P; group IV - dicalcium phosphate 500 ppm P). There were no differences in pregnancy rate, calving rate and calving interval. A fluorine deposition in bone was observed for the treatments with superphosphate and rock phosphate (66.92 &plusmn; 15.53; 69.97 &plusmn; 6.5 and 64.05 &plusmn; 3.35% respectively for group I, II and III). Superphosphate was almost as good dicalcium phosphate to provide phosphorus for grazing cows and there was a potentially significant economic advantage over dicalcium phosphate.<br>Quatrocentas vacas Nelore, mantidas em pastagem, receberam mistura mineral contendo fontes não convencionais de fósforo (grupo I - 500 ppm P-superfosfato triplo; grupo II - 340 ppm P como superfosfato e 160 ppm P como rocha Patos; grupo III - 340 ppm P como superfosfato e 160 ppm P como fosfato bicálcico; grupo IV -500 ppm P como fosfato bicálcico). Não se verificou diferenças na taxa de prenhez, porcentagem de nascimento e intervalo entre partos. Observou-se que houve maior concentração de flúor nos ossos para o tratamento com fosfato de rocha. O superfosfato triplo apresentou-se como fonte adequada de P e mostrou vantagem econômica em relação ao bicálcico

Cathepsin K contributes to cavitation and collagen turnover in pulmonary tuberculosis

Cavitation in tuberculosis enables highly efficient person-to-person aerosol transmission. We performed transcriptomics in the rabbit cavitary tuberculosis model. Among 17 318 transcripts, we identified 22 upregulated proteases. Five type I collagenases were overrepresented: cathepsin K (CTSK), mast cell chymase-1 (CMA1), matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1), MMP-13, and MMP-14. Studies of collagen turnover markers, specifically, collagen type I C-terminal propeptide (CICP), urinary deoxypyridinoline (DPD), and urinary helical peptide, revealed that cavitation in tuberculosis leads to both type I collagen destruction and synthesis and that proteases other than MMP-1, MMP-13, and MMP-14 are involved, suggesting a key role for CTSK. We confirmed the importance of CTSK upregulation in human lung specimens, using immunohistochemical analysis, which revealed perigranulomatous staining for CTSK, and we showed that CTSK levels were increased in the serum of patients with tuberculosis, compared with those in controls (3.3 vs 0.3 ng/mL; P = .005)

Mycobacterium tuberculosis dysregulates MMP/TIMP balance to drive rapid cavitation and unrestrained bacterial proliferation.

Active tuberculosis (TB) often presents with advanced pulmonary disease, including irreversible lung damage and cavities. Cavitary pathology contributes to antibiotic failure, transmission, morbidity and mortality. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), in particular MMP-1 are implicated in TB pathogenesis. We explored the mechanisms relating MMP/TIMP imbalance to cavity formation in a modified rabbit model of cavitary TB. Our model results in consistent progression of consolidation to human-like cavities (100% by day 28) with resultant bacillary burdens (&gt;107 CFU/g) far greater than those found in matched granulomatous tissue (105 CFU/g). Using a novel, breath-hold computerized tomography scanning and image analysis protocol. We show that cavities develop rapidly from areas of densely consolidated tissue. Radiological change correlated with a decrease in functional lung tissue as estimated by changes in lung density during controlled pulmonary expansion (R2=0.6356, p?&lt;?0.0001). We demonstrated that the expression of interstitial collagenase (MMP-1) is specifically greater in cavitary compared to granulomatous lesions (p?&lt;?0.01), and that TIMP-3 significantly decreases at the cavity surface. Our findings demonstrate that an MMP-1/TIMP imbalance, is associated with the progression of consolidated regions to cavities containing very high bacterial burdens. Our model provided mechanistic insight, correlating with human disease at the pathological, microbiological and molecular levels,. It also provides a strategy to investigate therapeutics in the context of complex TB pathology. We used these findings to predict a MMP/TIMP balance in active TB; and confirmed this in human plasma, revealing the potential of MMP/TIMP levels as key components of a diagnostic matrix aimed at distinguishing active from latent TB (PPV=92.9%; 95%CI 66.1-99.8%, NPV=85.6%; 95%CI 77.0-91.9%)

The fate of nitrogen and phosphorus at the land-sea margin of the North Atlantic Ocean

Five large rivers that discharge on the western North Atlantic continental shelf carry about 45% of the nitrogen (N) and 70% of the phosphorus (P) that others estimate to be the total flux of these elements from the entire North Atlantic watershed, including North, Central and South America, Europe, and Northwest Africa. We estimate that 61 · 10 9 moles y - 1 of N and 20 · 10 9 moles y -1 of P from the large rivers are buried with sediments in their deltas, and that an equal amount of N and P from the large rivers is lost to the shelf through burial of river sediments that are deposited directly on the continental slope. The effective transport of active N and P from land to the shelf through the very large rivers is thus reduced to 292 · 10 9 moles y -1 of N and 13 · 10 9 moles y -1 of P. The remaining riverine fluxes from land must pass through estuaries. An analysis of annual total N and total P budgets for various estuaries around the North Atlantic revealed that the net fractional transport of these nutrients through estuaries to the continental shelf is inversely correlated with the log mean residence time of water in the system. This is consistent with numerous observations of nutrient retention and loss in temperate lakes. Denitrification is the major process responsible for removing N in most estuaries, and the fraction of total N input that is denitrified appears to be directly proportional to the log mean water residence time. In general, we estimate that estuarine processes retain and remove 30-65% of the total N and 10-55% of the total P that would otherwise pass into the coastal ocean. The resulting transport through estuaries to the shelf amounts to 172-335 · 10 9 moles y -1 of N and 11-19 · 10 9 moles y -1 of P. These values are similar to the effective contribution from the large rivers that discharge directly on the shelf. For the North Atlantic shelf as a whole, N fluxes from major rivers and estuaries exceed atmospheric deposition by a factor of 3.5-4.7, but this varies widely among regions of the shelf. For example, on the U.S. Atlantic shelf and on the northwest European shelf, atmospheric deposition of N may exceed estuarine exports. Denitrification in shelf sediments exceeds the combined N input from land and atmosphere by a factor of 1.4-2.2. This deficit must be met by a flux of N from the deeper ocean. Burial of organic matter fixed on the shelf removes only a small fraction of the total N and P input (2-12% of N from land and atmosphere; 1-17% of P), but it may be a significant loss for P in the North Sea and some other regions. The removal of N and P in fisheries landings is very small. The gross exchange of N and P between the shelf and the open ocean is much larger than inputs from land and, for the North Atlantic shelf as a whole, it may be much larger than the N and P removed through denitrification, burial, and fisheries. Overall, the North Atlantic continental shelf appears to remove some 700-950 · 10 9 moles of N each year from the deep ocean and to transport somewhere between 18 and 30 · 10 9 moles of P to the open sea. If the N and P associated with riverine sediments deposited on the continental slope are included in the total balance, the net flux of N to the shelf is reduced by 60 · 10 9 moles y -1 and the P flux to the ocean is increased by 20 γ 10 9 moles y -1. These conclusions are quite tentative, however, because of large uncertainties in our estimates of some important terms in the shelf mass balance.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Integrating Civil Society and Economic Growth in Appalachia

Building from a framework that incorporates ideas from the civil society perspective into market-based sociological models of economic growth, this article examines the effects of three measures of civic engagement on measure of economic growth in Appalachian counties during the 1990-1995 period. The analysis shows that net of other market competition-based measures, civic engagement does have a net positive impact on economic growth (increases in private non-farm employment, private establishment, per capita income, earnings, etc.). The three measures of civic engagement are (1) percent of population in civically engaged denominations (1990), (2) number of national associations per capita (1990), (3) and number of third places per capita (1990). All three measures have significant positive effects in one or more models. Percent in civically engaged denominations has the most consistent effects. Implications are discussed. Copyright 2006 Blackwell Publishing.