Genetics, environmental stress, and amino acid supplementation affect lactational performance via mTOR signaling pathway in bovine mammary epithelial cells

Mammary glands are known for their ability to convert nutrients present in the blood into milk contents. In cows, milk synthesis and the proliferation of cow mammary epithelial cells (CMECs) are regulated by various factors, including nutrients such as amino acids and glucose, hormones, and environmental stress. Amino acids, in particular, play a crucial role in regulating cell proliferation and casein synthesis in mammalian epithelial cells, apart from being building blocks for protein synthesis. Studies have shown that environmental factors, particularly heat stress, can negatively impact milk production performance in dairy cattle. The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) pathway is considered the primary signaling pathway involved in regulating cell proliferation and milk protein and fat synthesis in cow mammary epithelial cells in response to amino acids and heat stress. Given the significant role played by the mTORC signaling pathway in milk synthesis and cell proliferation, this article briefly discusses the main regulatory genes, the impact of amino acids and heat stress on milk production performance, and the regulation of mTORC signaling pathway in cow mammary epithelial cells

Dynamic changes in fecal microbiota in donkey foals during weaning: From pre-weaning to post-weaning

IntroductionA better understanding of the microbiota community in donkey foals during the weaning transition is a prerequisite to optimize gut function and improve feed efficiency. The objective of the present study was to investigate the dynamic changes in fecal microbiota in donkey foals from pre-to post-weaning period.MethodsA total of 27 fecal samples of donkey foals were collected in the rectum before morning feeding at pre-weaning (30 days of age, PreW group, n = 9), dur-weaning (100 days of age, DurW group, n = 9) and post-weaning (170 days of age, PostW group, n = 9) period. The 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing were employed to indicate the microbial changes during the weaning period.ResultsIn the present study, the cessation of breastfeeding gradually and weaning onto plant-based feeds increased the microbial diversity and richness, with a higher Shannon, Ace, Chao and Sobs index in DurW and PostW than in PreW (p < 0.05). The predominant bacterial phyla in donkey foal feces were Firmicutes (>50.5%) and Bacteroidota (>29.5%), and the predominant anaerobic fungi and archaea were Neocallimastigomycota and Euryarchaeota. The cellulolytic related bacteria including phylum Firmicutes, Spirochaetota and Fibrobacterota and genus norank_f_F082, Treponema, NK4A214_group, Lachnospiraceae_AC2044_group and Streptococcus were increased from pre-to post-weaning donkey foals (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the functions related to the fatty acid biosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis were significantly enriched in the fecal microbiome in the DurW and PostW donkeys. Furthermore, the present study provided the first direct evidence that the initial colonization and establishment of anaerobic fungi and archaea in donkey foals began prior to weaning. The relative abundance of Orpinomyces were the highest in DurW donkey foals among the three groups (p < 0.01). In terms of archaea, the abundance of Methanobrevibacter were higher in PreW than in DurW and PostW (p < 0.01), but the abundance of Methanocorpusculum were significantly increased in DurW and PostW compared to PreW donkey foals (p < 0.01).DiscussionAltogether, the current study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the development of the microbiota community in donkey foals from pre-to post-weaning period, which may eventually result in an improvement of the digestion and feed efficiency in donkeys

Few-Shot Fine-Grained Forest Fire Smoke Recognition Based on Metric Learning

To date, most existing forest fire smoke detection methods rely on coarse-grained identification, which only distinguishes between smoke and non-smoke. Thus, non-fire smoke and fire smoke are treated the same in these methods, resulting in false alarms within the smoke classes. The fine-grained identification of smoke which can identify differences between non-fire and fire smoke is of great significance for accurate forest fire monitoring; however, it requires a large database. In this paper, for the first time, we combine fine-grained smoke recognition with the few-shot technique using metric learning to identify fire smoke with the limited available database. The experimental comparison and analysis show that the new method developed has good performance in the structure of the feature extraction network and the training method, with an accuracy of 93.75% for fire smoke identification

An Embedded Portable Lightweight Platform for Real-Time Early Smoke Detection

The advances in developing more accurate and fast smoke detection algorithms increase the need for computation in smoke detection, which demands the involvement of personal computers or workstations. Better detection results require a more complex network structure of the smoke detection algorithms and higher hardware configuration, which disqualify them as lightweight portable smoke detection for high detection efficiency. To solve this challenge, this paper designs a lightweight portable remote smoke front-end perception platform based on the Raspberry Pi under Linux operating system. The platform has four modules including a source video input module, a target detection module, a display module, and an alarm module. The training images from the public data sets will be used to train a cascade classifier characterized by Local Binary Pattern (LBP) using the Adaboost algorithm in OpenCV. Then the classifier will be used to detect the smoke target in the following video stream and the detected results will be dynamically displayed in the display module in real-time. If smoke is detected, warning messages will be sent to users by the alarm module in the platform for real-time monitoring and warning on the scene. Case studies showed that the developed system platform has strong robustness under the test datasets with high detection accuracy. As the designed platform is portable without the involvement of a personal computer and can efficiently detect smoke in real-time, it provides a potential affordable lightweight smoke detection option for forest fire monitoring in practice

Could Weaning Remodel the Oral Microbiota Composition in Donkeys? An Exploratory Study

As the initiation point of digestion, the oral microbiome is important in maintaining oral and systemic health. However, the composition of oral microbial communities and the influence of weaning on the oral microbiota of donkey foals remains poorly characterized. The present study used buccal swab samples to determine the changes in oral microbial communities occurring at the time of weaning. A total of 20 oral swab samples were collected from two groups: preweaning donkey foals (PreW group, n = 10) and postweaning donkey foals (PostW group, n = 10). The donkey oral microbiome was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing using Illumina MiSeq. This study is the first report of the donkey oral microbiome in association with weaning. Compared to the preweaning donkeys, the oral bacteria diversity in the postweaning donkeys was increased, with a higher Simpson index. Changes in the composition of the oral microbiota between the PreW and PostW groups were observed in the present study. At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Myxococcota was significantly greater in the PostW than in the PreW group. At the genus level, the Gemella, unclassified_o__Lactobacillales, and Lactobacillus were increased in the postweaning donkeys. The donkeys’ oral microbial functions were predicted using PICRUSt, and the functions related to carbohydrate metabolic pathways were significantly enriched in the oral microbiome in the PostW donkeys. In summary, the current study provides a deeper insight into the oral microbiota changes during the weaning period, and the influence of weaning together with the documented changes in diversity and composition will help us to obtain a better understanding of their long-term health impact within the oral cavities of donkey foals. However, a major limitation of the present study was that the samples were obtained from different animals in the PreW and PostW groups, which may have resulted in variability among the different individuals. Further investigation is needed to monitor the shift in oral microbes in the same individuals during the weaning period

The Fibrolytic Enzyme Profiles and the Composition of Fungal Communities in Donkey Cecum-Colon Ecosystem

The fibrolytic enzymes and the hindgut fungi in donkey cecum-colon ecosystem play an important role in dietary fiber digestion. A better understanding of the fibrolytic enzyme profiles and the fungal community along donkey caecum and colon is key for optimizing hindgut function. In the present study, the fibrolytic enzyme activities within donkey caecum and colon were firstly measured by spectrophotometry. Activities of carboxymethyl cellulase, avicelase, xylanase, and acetyl esterase were greater in donkey dorsal colon than in caecum, indicating that the colon microorganisms may be more efficient in producing fibrolytic enzymes compared to caecum microbes. The fungal community composition along donkey hindgut was determined by sequencing ITS region using Illumina MiSeq. Three fungal phyla were identified by sequence comparison: Ascomycota (66.8%–74.4%), Basidiomycota (21.6%–30.9%), and Neocallimastigomycota (0.9%–3.3%). The Aspergillus, Wallemia, Phanerochaete, Fusarium, and Penicillium were detected as the dominant genera, but their metabolic and functional significance in donkey cecum-colon ecosystem need further investigation. In terms of the anaerobic fungi Neocallimastigomycota, its abundance was greater in donkey colon than in caecum (p < 0.05), indicating that the donkey hindgut region was associated with differences in fungal community composition. Moreover, the relative abundance of enzymes related to plant cell wall degradation were predicted by PICRUSt, and they were also lower in caecum than in colon. The present study provided new information about fibrolytic enzyme profiles and fungal composition in donkey hindgut ecosystem

Comparative analysis and evaluation of three crude oil vacuum distillation processes for process selection

There exists three practicable crude oil vacuum distillation processes and different processes have a significant impact on material and energy performances, including product yield, economic potential, heat recovery and the efficiencies of recoverable energy and recoverable exergy. Process selection is an important and difficult task for designers with various targets since the material and energy performances of a process do not coordinate with each other. In this work, an approach with simultaneous considerations of material and energy performances is proposed to comparatively analyze and evaluate the three processes, in order to provide insights for designers to screen a suitable process and vacuum furnace outlet temperature. The approach is conducted in three steps. In the first step, a simulation model is rebuilt to obtain basic material and energy data. In the second step, comparative analyses and evaluations are performed to measure the material and energy performances of three process options under the same operating conditions. In the last step, the variations of the material and energy performances are further investigated to determine the vacuum furnace outlet temperature. The results indicate that the cycle process has the highest product yield and best economic potential but the lowest efficiencies of recoverable energy and recoverable exergy, while the drawn process has the highest efficiencies of recoverable energy and recoverable exergy but the worst economic potential. The results also demonstrate that the selection of a vacuum distillation process and the determination of the vacuum furnace outlet temperature play a critical role in designing a crude oil vacuum distillation process. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The complete mitochondrial genome of Paracheirodon axelrodi (Characiformes: Characidae) and phylogenetic studies of Characiformes

The Paracheirodon axelrodi is an important freshwater fish in the Amazon basin of South America, more expensive than Paracheirodon innesi. Here, we describe the complete 17,100 base pair (bp) mitochondrial genome of Paracheirodon axelrodi mohavensis. The mitogenome has a nucleotide base composition of A (29.62%), T (29.41%), G (15.39%), and C (25.62%), and encodes 13 protein subunits, 22 tRNAs, a 12S rRNA of 952 bp and 16S rRNA of 1665 bp, and a 1433 bp D-loop control region, each located in the conserved mtDNA structure typical for Characidae fishes. All protein-coding genes have initiation codons of ATG, ND1, ND2, CO2, ND3, ND4L, ND5, ND6 and Cytb ended by TAA as a stop codon, ND4 ended by AGA as a stop codon, CO1 ended by AGG as a stop codon, ATP8 and CO3 ended by TAG as a stop codon, ATP6 ended by ATT as a stop codon. This characterised mitogenome may help inform management practices for Paracheirodon axelrodi mohavensis by facilitating future studies on how allopatric populations of this imperilled species are evolving across refuge habitats

Investigation of the ionic curing effect and performance of modified nano-montmorillonite on river sludge pastes: Influence of sludge substitution and MNMt dosage

The effect of replacing cementitious materials with different dosages of river sludge on the properties of the cement-slag binary-based geopolymer composites was investigated. The application of this research is the possibility of reusing river sludge into environment-friendly unburned bricks. The influence of nano-montmorillonite on the solidification of heavy metals in the matrix was also explored. Samples containing sludge were characterized by lower fluidity and compressive strength, but prolonged hardening time; at 60% replacement, the strength was equal to 8 MPa and the final setting time was 4.5 h. The sample including 0.4% NMt helps to improve strength thanks to its ability to partially fill the capillary pores and promote the degree of hydration. The pastes containing NMt have less dangerous heavy metals like Cu (II) and Cr (VI). The reaction products and the microstructure of the mixes with modified-NMt are exploited to understand the mechanisms at the basis of the findings

The complete mitochondrial genome of Nematobrycon palmeri (Characiformes:Nematobrycon) and phylogenetic studies of Characidaes

Complete mitochondrial genome of the Characiform fish Nematobrycon palmeri was characterized in the present study. The whole mitogenome was 17,340 bp in size and the proportion of coding sequences with a total length of 11,448 bp was 66.02%, which encodes 3805 amino acids. The base composition of the genome was 30.92% for A, 23.92% for C, 14.88% for G, and 30.28% for T. All protein-coding genes were started with ATG, CO1 and ATP8 ended by AGG, TAG respectively, whereas CO2, ATP6, ND4 ended by a single T, the other PCGs commonly ended by TAA. The length of 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA was 949 bp and 1675 bp, respectively. The control region (D-loop) ranging from 15,654 bp to 17,340 bp was 1687 bp in size. It showed negative GC skew value (–0.2329) and positive AT skewness (0.0105). Phylogenetic analysis showed that N. palmeri was most closely related to Gephyrocharax atracaudatus. The complete mitochondrial genome sequence would provide a new insight into taxonomic classification, and help to draw a more complete picture of species diversity within the Characidae