Supply Chain and Cost-Benefit Analyses of the Community- Based Sea Cucumber Hatchery in Davao del Sur, Philippines

Sea cucumbers provide an important contribution to the livelihoods of some coastal communities in the Philippines. Due to high and increasing demand in the export market, which led to the depletion of wild stocks, increased hatchery efforts are done to restore production. In Brgy. Bato, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, a community-based sea cucumber hatchery was established. This study aims to determine the status of sea cucumber trade in the area though supply chain analysis. Moreover, to identify the sustainability of its operation and for a potential scale-up, cost-benefit analysis was employed. Cost of production is based on the projected cost by the hatchery operation and not the actual financial support provided by the funding agencies to eliminate the issue of over-compensation. Results of the study revealed that sea cucumbers are marketed in two forms: wet (unprocessed) and dried (processed). The study also identified and described the actors involved in the supply chain, namely, gleaners, divers, fishers, middlemen, traders, exporters, and consumers. The cost-benefit analysis showed that the profit per production cycle is PhP 62,355. From an initial investment cost amounting to PhP 171,405, the return on investement was at 36.38%. The break-even point in terms of revenue is at PhP 10,997, having a safety margin of 87%. The study shows that community-based sea cucumber hatchery is a viable option especially for smallholder fishers. However, it may only work with proper management and adequate support from relevant government agencies, private stakeholders, and non-government organizations

Sistema de apoyo a las decisiones en la Cría de Ganado Vacuno

El diseño e implementación de un sistema de Soporte a la Toma de Decisiones en la Cría de Ganado Vacuno , requiere de un análisis minucioso del problema, de los datos y de los requerimientos, ya que en muchas situaciones, y en casi todas, los problemas no se ajustan a las situaciones comunes en el campo de aplicación de los Sistemas de Soporte a la Toma de Decisiones. Se presenta un sistema que podrá implementarse como un elemento complementario para analizar, innovar, utilizar la creatividad, plantear hipótesis, diseñar modelos, evaluar y medir errores, depurarlos para obtener los resultadosesperados, tarea de todo investigador.Eje: Aplicaciones (APLI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Sistema de apoyo a las decisiones en la Cría de Ganado Vacuno

El diseño e implementación de un sistema de Soporte a la Toma de Decisiones en la Cría de Ganado Vacuno , requiere de un análisis minucioso del problema, de los datos y de los requerimientos, ya que en muchas situaciones, y en casi todas, los problemas no se ajustan a las situaciones comunes en el campo de aplicación de los Sistemas de Soporte a la Toma de Decisiones. Se presenta un sistema que podrá implementarse como un elemento complementario para analizar, innovar, utilizar la creatividad, plantear hipótesis, diseñar modelos, evaluar y medir errores, depurarlos para obtener los resultadosesperados, tarea de todo investigador.Eje: Aplicaciones (APLI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Complementary Roles in Cancer Prevention: Protease Inhibitor Makes the Cancer Preventive Peptide Lunasin Bioavailable

9 páginas, 6 figuras.-- et al.[Background]: The lower incidence of breast cancer among Asian women compared with Western countries has been partly attributed to soy in the Asian diet, leading to efforts to identify the bioactive components that are responsible. Soy Bowman Birk Inhibitor Concentrate (BBIC) is a known cancer preventive agent now in human clinical trials. [Methodology/Principal Findings]: The objectives of this work are to establish the presence and delineate the in vitro activity of lunasin and BBI found in BBIC, and study their bioavailability after oral administration to mice and rats. We report that lunasin and BBI are the two main bioactive ingredients of BBIC based on inhibition of foci formation, lunasin being more efficacious than BBI on an equimolar basis. BBI and soy Kunitz Trypsin Inhibitor protect lunasin from in vitro digestion with pancreatin. Oral administration of 3H-labeled lunasin with lunasin-enriched soy results in 30% of the peptide reaching target tissues in an intact and bioactive form. In a xenograft model of nude mice transplanted with human breast cancer MDA-MB- 231 cells, intraperitoneal injections of lunasin, at 20 mg/kg and 4 mg/kg body weight, decrease tumor incidence by 49% and 33%, respectively, compared with the vehicle-treated group. In contrast, injection with BBI at 20 mg/kg body weight shows no effect on tumor incidence. Tumor generation is significantly reduced with the two doses of lunasin, while BBI is ineffective. Lunasin inhibits cell proliferation and induces cell death in the breast tumor sections. [Conclusions/Significance]: We conclude that lunasin is actually the bioactive cancer preventive agent in BBIC, and BBI simply protects lunasin from digestion when soybean and other seed foods are eaten by humans.Project number 05B087 awarded by the American Institute for Cancer Research (http://www.aicr.org/site/PageServer). Project number W81XWH-04-1- 0128 awarded by the United States Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (https://cdmrp.org). Project LUNAMICE 039241 awarded by the European Commission and the Spanish National Research Council for the Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship of BHL.Peer reviewe

Investigation of silicon nanoparticles produced by centrifuge chemical vapor deposition for applications in therapy and diagnostics

Porous silicon (PSi) is a biocompatible and biodegradable material, which can be utilized in biomedical applications. It has several favorable properties, which makes it an excellent material for building engineered nanosystems for drug delivery and diagnostic purposes. One significant hurdle for commercial applications of PSi is the lack of industrial scale production of nanosized PSi particles. Here, we report a novel two-step production method for PSi nanoparticles. The method is based on centrifuge chemical vapor deposition (cCVD) of elemental silicon in an industrial scale reactor followed by electrochemical post-processing to porous particles. Physical properties, biocompatibility and in vivo biodistribution of the cCVD produced nanoparticles were investigated and compared to PSi nanoparticles conventionally produced from silicon wafers by pulse electrochemical etching. Our results demonstrate that the cCVD production provides PSi nanoparticles with comparable physical and biological quality to the conventional method. This method may circumvent several limitations of the conventional method such as the requirements for high purity monocrystalline silicon substrates as starting material and the material losses during the top-down milling process of the pulse-etched films to porous nanoparticles. However, the electroless etching required for the porosification of cCVD-produced nanoparticles limited control over the pore size, but is amenable for scaling of the production to industrial requirements.Peer reviewe

Pretargeted PET Imaging with a TCO-Conjugated Anti-CD44v6 Chimeric mAb U36 and [Zr-89]Zr-DFO-PEG(5)-Tz

The recent advances in the production of engineered antibodies have facilitated the development and application of tailored, target-specific antibodies. Positron emission tomography (PET) of these antibody-based drug candidates can help to better understand their in vivo behavior. In this study, we report an in vivo proof-ofconcept pretargeted immuno-PET study where we compare a pretargeting vs targeted approach using a new Zr-89-labeled tetrazine as a bio-orthogonal ligand in an inverse electron demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) in vivo click reaction. A CD44v6-selective chimeric monoclonal U36 was selected as the targeting antibody because it has potential in immuno-PET imaging of head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Zirconium-89 (t(1/2) = 78.41 h) was selected as the radionuclide of choice to be able to make a head-to-head comparison of the pretargeted and targeted approaches. [Zr-89]Zr-DFO-PEG S -Tz ([Zr-89]Zr-3) was synthesized and used in pretargeted PET imaging of HNSCC xenografts (VU-SCC-OE) at 24 and 48 h after administration of a trans-cyclooctene (TCO)-functionalized U36. The pretargeted approach resulted in lower absolute tumor uptake than the targeted approach (1.5 +/- 0.2 vs 17.1 +/- 3.0% ID/g at 72 h p.i. U36) but with comparable tumor-to-non-target tissue ratios and significantly lower absorbed doses. In conclusion, anti-CD44v6 monoclonal antibody U36 was successfully used for Zr-89-immuno-PET imaging of HNSCC xenograft tumors using both a targeted and pretargeted approach. The results not only support the utility of the pretargeted approach in immuno-PET imaging but also demonstrate the challenges in achieving optimal in vivo IEDDA reaction efficiencies in relation to antibody pharmacokinetics.Peer reviewe