Effect of different dietary prebiotic GroBiotic®-A on growth factors, survival rate, body composition and intestinal microflora of cultured juvenile beluga (Huso huso)

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of prebiotic GroBiotic®-A on growth factors, survival rate, body composition and intestinal microbiota of cultured juvenile beluga (Hous huso) in the sturgeon culture center (Samandak, Sari). Four groups of beluga sturgeon with mean weight of 40.82± 5.8 g were raised for 56 days in fiber glass tanks (20 fish to each tank) and feeding with different levels of GroBiotic®-A with concentrations of % 0, % 0.5, %1.0 and % 2.0 (Three replicates were used for each concentration). At the end of the trial, growth factors (final weight, weight gain, SGR, CF feed conversion ratio (FCR), body composition and intestinal microbiota (total viable bacteria and Lactobacillus spp. levels) were determined and compared with control group. Our results confirmed that juveniles fed on diet supplemented with 2% GroBiotic®-A had significantly higher growth factors and survival rate compared to control and 0.5% treatment (P0.05). Total viable bacteria and Lactobacillus spp. count were increased during this study and these parameters significantly higher in 2% treatment compared to other treatments (P<0.05). Based on the results, using of GroBiotic®-A at the level of 2.0% in order to improve the growth performance, survival rate and Lactobacillus spp. levels of farmed beluga is recommended

Software-defined networking for ubiquitous healthcare service delivery

The growth of the mobile, portable devices and the server-to-server communication through cloud computing increase the network traffic. The dependence of the ubiquitous healthcare service delivery on the network connectivity creates failures that may interrupt or delay the treatment plan with adverse effects in patients’ quality of life even leading to mortality. In the present work, we propose the incorporation of Software Defined Networking (SDN) features in the healthcare domain in order to provide the appropriate bandwidth and guarantee the accurate real time medical data transmission independently of the connectivity of the ISP provider. The SDN controller monitors the network traffic and specifies how traffic should be routed providing load balancing, lower delays and better performance. Finally, the proposed healthcare architecture addresses the SDN scalability challenge by incorporating the logically centralized control plane using multiple distributed controllers. A 2-tier hierarchical overlay is formed among SDN controllers following the principles of peer-to-peer networking

A multidimensional control architecture for combined fog-to-cloud systems

The fog/edge computing concept has set the foundations for the deployment of new services leveraging resources deployed at the edge paving the way for an innovative collaborative model, where end-users may collaborate with service providers by sharing idle resources at the edge of the network. Combined Fog-to-Cloud (F2C) systems have been recently proposed as a control strategy for managing fog and cloud resources in a coordinated way, aimed at optimally allocating resources within the fog-to-cloud resources stack for an optimal service execution. In this work, we discuss the unfeasibility of the deployment of a single control topology able to optimally manage a plethora of edge devices in future networks, respecting established SLAs according to distinct service requirements and end-user profiles. Instead, a multidimensional architecture, where distinct control plane instances coexist, is then introduced. By means of distinct scenarios, we describe the benefits of the proposed architecture including how users may collaborate with the deployment of novel services by selectively sharing resources according to their profile, as well as how distinct service providers may benefit from shared resources reducing deployment costs. The novel architecture proposed in this paper opens several opportunities for research, which are presented and discussed at the final section.This work was supported by the H2020 EU mF2C project, ref. 730929 and for UPC authors, also by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund under contract RTI2018-094532-B-I00.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Mid-mantle deformation inferred from seismic anisotropy

With time, convective processes in the Earth's mantle will tend to align crystals, grains and inclusions. This mantle fabric is detectable seismologically, as it produces an anisotropy in material properties—in particular, a directional dependence in seismic-wave velocity. This alignment is enhanced at the boundaries of the mantle where there are rapid changes in the direction and magnitude of mantle flow, and therefore most observations of anisotropy are confined to the uppermost mantle or lithosphere and the lowermost-mantle analogue of the lithosphere, the D" region. Here we present evidence from shear-wave splitting measurements for mid-mantle anisotropy in the vicinity of the 660-km discontinuity, the boundary between the upper and lower mantle. Deep-focus earthquakes in the Tonga–Kermadec and New Hebrides subduction zones recorded at Australian seismograph stations record some of the largest values of shear-wave splitting hitherto reported. The results suggest that, at least locally, there may exist a mid-mantle boundary layer, which could indicate the impediment of flow between the upper and lower mantle in this region

Monitoring, isolation and identification of bacterial and parasitic agents in specific pathogen free shrimp production

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry in the world. Shrimp culture industry is also part of it, unfortunately, like other marine animal culture economic losses caused by the disease has been one of the major challenges of this industry. The major cause of mortality in shrimp hatcheries and rearing centers is related to water quality and the presence of pathogenic bacteria and parasites. These are common opportunistic microorganisms in the hatchery, rearing centers, flora and living food but poor conditions of culture are caused diseases. Since the development of aquaculture in the countries need health management, one of the important additional rings in the shrimp strategic plan is specific pathogen free shrimp production, which has been addressed in this plan. Specific pathogen free shrimp define as the shrimps which are free of the specific pathogens listed in world organization for animal health (OIE). These factors should be conclusively diagnosed and can be isolated from shrimp hatcheries and culture system. Therefore in this project screening and surveillance of shrimp in several generations according to the list of OIE were done and they were monitored for of bacterial pathogens (Necrosis Hepatopancreas Bacteria) and parasites (Microsporidian and Gregarines). At total 756 pieces of shrimp, 6 sample of dry food and 97 samples of live foods were controlled and tested. 1.35 percent of live foods were positive for NHPB and 5.6 percent of pre broodstocks have epicommensal and microsporidia which were disposed in quarantine phase. Because of biosecurity and surveillance system establishment, there were no bacterial or parasitic isolation or diagnosis during SPF shrimp production

Analyze the types and methods suitable nutrition in introducing a variety of fish cages in the southern part of Caspian Sea

Regarding the fish farming in cages, taking into account all nutritional requirements appropriate to the needs of aquaculture is essential in order to minimize damage to the environment and achieve maximum growth. Fish nutritionists should be aware about the analysis of ability to digest and absorb nutrients in the diet to prepare and adjust the diet according to the needs of aquaculture. Food must also have appropriate physical properties for food intake with minimal loss of nutrients in the water. Inadequate resources with low quality or energy consumption within food, reduced the growth performance and increased the excretion of nitrogen in the environment. Food must be designed so that the balance of minerals in food will help maintain osmotic pressure within the body of fish in salty water. Food requirements and efficiency of food conversion ratio (FCR) is variable by changing environmental conditions (dissolved oxygen, temperature, water quality, flow rate, light intensity ,day length). The fish of cages are feeding by floating pellets which have the ability to stand in the water column. The floating pellets allows the fish to have sufficient time and opportunity for finding food. But sinking pellets pass rapidly from the cage and are inaccessible to fish. According to the Caspian sea conditions is better the extruded food equipped with Hygenizer to be used that a portion of it remains on the water surface and part of it moves gently down with an immersion mode in the water column (Softly deposited) for fish consumption. The amount, number and time of feeding are important factors to assess the nutritional activities. In general, fish feed from dry food between 2 to 3 percent of their body weight. Food consumption was also varied due to the quality of the food and fish physiological factors such as age, size, stage of life and stress level. Fish food distribution being fed manually or by means of demand, launcher and automatic feeding. The farm managers should pay attention to the things like water flows in the cage, wind, fish appetite, consolidated flows in the cage during food distribution as well as food storage in dry places with proper ventilation system to prevent the growth of fungi and insects activities to prevent loss of food. Also, adding antioxidants to the 100150 ppm when storing dry foods including the important cases particularly in prevention of fish liver lipoidosis disease is considered

Development gene data bank of cultured shrimp species in Iran

DNA barcode is a short, standard well known sequence of cytochrome oxidase І gene. By using this DNA sequence can be realized that each animal, plant or fungus belongs to which species. in this research, samples were collected from imported cultured shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei and and 6 Persian Gulf and Oman Sea shrimp species which classified based on traditional systematically as: Penaeus semisulcatus, Fenneropenaeus merguiensis, Metapenaeus affinis, Parapenaeopsis Stylifera and Fenneropenaeus indicus. After examination of DNA barcode sequence, molecular and bioinformatics operations of each sequence in the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), phylogenetic analysis of each sample was determined and similarity of each sample with NCBI and CBOL database was checked and the closest species to each sample were specified. According to the results different samples of L. vannamei, . banded P.semisulcatus, F. merguiensis and F. indicus have more than 97% similarity to the same species of other countries. non banded P.semisulcatus had 80.07% similarity to banded P.semisulcatus, M. affinis samples had 90.3% similarity to Metapenaeus ensis and Parap. Stylifera had 93.44% similarity to Parapenaeopsis coromandelica in the CBOL. This funding confirmed the need for further investigation and possible announcement of new species

Discussion on the thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluids

Increasing interests have been paid to nanofluids because of the intriguing heat transfer enhancement performances presented by this kind of promising heat transfer media. We produced a series of nanofluids and measured their thermal conductivities. In this article, we discussed the measurements and the enhancements of the thermal conductivity of a variety of nanofluids. The base fluids used included those that are most employed heat transfer fluids, such as deionized water (DW), ethylene glycol (EG), glycerol, silicone oil, and the binary mixture of DW and EG. Various nanoparticles (NPs) involving Al2O3 NPs with different sizes, SiC NPs with different shapes, MgO NPs, ZnO NPs, SiO2 NPs, Fe3O4 NPs, TiO2 NPs, diamond NPs, and carbon nanotubes with different pretreatments were used as additives. Our findings demonstrated that the thermal conductivity enhancements of nanofluids could be influenced by multi-faceted factors including the volume fraction of the dispersed NPs, the tested temperature, the thermal conductivity of the base fluid, the size of the dispersed NPs, the pretreatment process, and the additives of the fluids. The thermal transport mechanisms in nanofluids were further discussed, and the promising approaches for optimizing the thermal conductivity of nanofluids have been proposed

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field