The Bos taurus-Bos indicus balance in fertility and milk related genes.

Numerical approaches to high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are often employed independently to address individual questions. We linked independent approaches in a bioinformatics pipeline for further insight. The pipeline driven by heterozygosity and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) analyses was applied to characterize Bos taurus and Bos indicus ancestry. We infer a gene co-heterozygosity network that regulates bovine fertility, from data on 18,363 cattle with genotypes for 729,068 SNP. Hierarchical clustering separated populations according to Bos taurus and Bos indicus ancestry. The weights of the first principal component were subjected to Normal mixture modelling allowing the estimation of a gene's contribution to the Bos taurus-Bos indicus axis. We used deviation from HWE, contribution to Bos indicus content and association to fertility traits to select 1,284 genes. With this set, we developed a co-heterozygosity network where the group of genes annotated as fertility-related had significantly higher Bos indicus content compared to other functional classes of genes, while the group of genes associated with milk production had significantly higher Bos taurus content. The network analysis resulted in capturing novel gene associations of relevance to bovine domestication events. We report transcription factors that are likely to regulate genes associated with cattle domestication and tropical adaptation. Our pipeline can be generalized to any scenarios where population structure requires scrutiny at the molecular level, particularly in the presence of a priori set of genes known to impact a phenotype of evolutionary interest such as fertility.Artigo e0181930. Na publicação: Mauricio A. Mudadu, Luciana Regitano

Sensores IGstat para controle da irrigação: construção, aferição e sistema de controle.

Resumo - Sensores de água no solo são importes ferramentas para o manejo da irrigação e em outras aplicações. Para isso, há dois parâmetros relevantes, a umidade (q) e o potencial matricial da água no solo (y). Para a medida da umidade do solo há um grande número de sensores comerciais cobrindo toda a faixa de medida, de solo seco a saturado, diferentes tipos e condições de solo. Já os sensores de y são mais limitados em termos de faixa de operação, custo, manutenção e disponibilidade comercial. Este documento apresenta o modo de funcionamento, construção e de medida do sensor IGstat, desenvolvido e patenteado pela Embrapa, para utilização no controle da irrigação por limiar de y. O sensor IGstat é formado por uma cápsula porosa de alta pressão de borbulhamento (PB), um núcleo de partículas de microesferas de vidro e duas mangueiras para entrada e saída do ar. Foi estabelecida uma relação experimental entre o diâmetro médio das microesferas de vidro e a pressão de borbulhamento (PB) a qual facilita a construção dos sensores IGstat em diferentes faixas de PB. Essas faixas de medição são usadas para acionar a irrigação quando o solo atinge valores específicos de limiares para cada cultura. A relação experimental entre o diâmetro médio das microesferas de vidro e a pressão de borbulhamento foi estabelecida em PB = 338,46 -0,817 diâmetro . Para a aferição da PB dos sensores foi desenvolvida uma plataforma pneumática para testes e aferição, possibilitando a medida de conjuntos de 10 sensores por vez de forma totalmente automática. O trabalho apresenta a plataforma de aferição desenvolvida, bem como o procedimento estabelecido para a aferição dos sensores, e uma avaliação do desempenho de sensores com diferentes PBs utilizando um equipamento simples e de baixo custo para o acionamento da irrigação pela resposta do sensor IGstat

Dependência no autocuidado dos idosos residentes em lar

O autocuidado é indispensável à conservação da vida e resulta do crescimento diário da pessoa, na experiência como cuidador de si mesmo e de quem faz parte das suas relações. É a chave dos cuidados de saúde, sendo interpretado como uma orientação para a ação de enfermagem que, através das ações de autocuidado, podem implementar intervenções para a promoção da saúde e/ou prevenção da doença. Os objetivos do estudo direcionam-se para a importância na identificação do perfil de autocuidado dos idosos, ou seja, na determinação dos diferentes níveis de dependência no autocuidado dos idosos a residir em lar. Entendemos este conhecimento, (proveniente dos resultados do estudo) como um contributo relevante no sentido de melhorar o modo como o apoio e/ou a ajuda pode ser ajustada a cada indivíduo, uma vez que estas adaptações só são possíveis perante o diagnóstico real da dependência das pessoas. Metodologia: Este estudo inclui-se num paradigma de investigação quantitativa, do tipo não experimental, transversal, descritivo e correlacional. A população em estudo são os idosos residentes no lar Residência Rainha D. Leonor em Viseu. Utilizou-se uma amostra não probabilística acidental, em função do peso relativo dos idosos desta instituição constituída por 136 idosos. O instrumento de colheita de dados inclui a escala de dependência no autocuidado. Resultados: Os idosos são maioritariamente mulheres, viúvas, com baixa instrução literária e com média de idade de 86 anos. Verificamos que as patologias predominantes são do foro cardíaco (70,6%), osteoarticular (62,5%) e neurológico (55,1%). Considerando o nível global de dependência no autocuidado, verificamos que 46,4% da amostra é independente, 36,0% é dependente em grau elevado e 17,6% dependente em grau parcial, ou seja, 53,6% apresenta algum grau de dependência no autocuidado. Conclusão: Os resultados deste estudo permitem a aquisição de conhecimento e desenvolvimento de competências que são de extrema importância na prática de cuidados de enfermagem de reabilitação, pois as necessidades de saúde desta população sofrem contínuas modificações ao longo do processo de envelhecimento, exigindo práticas atualizadas, no sentido de abranger a promoção dos processos de preservação e de autonomia. Palavras-Chave: Autocuidado, Idoso, Institucionalização.Abstract Self-care is essential to preserve life and results from person's daily growth in experience as a caregiver for himself and who is part of his relationship. It is the key of health care, being interpreted as a guideline for nursing action, which through self-care actions can implement interventions for health promotion and/or prevention of disease. The aims of the study are directed toward the importance to identify the profile of the elderly self-care, ie, for determining the different levels of dependence on self-care of the elderly to live at nursing homes. We understand this knowledge (from the study results) as an important contribution towards improving the way the support and/or help can be adjusted to each individual, as these adaptations are only possible before the realistic diagnosis of dependence people. Methodology: This study is included in a quantitative research paradigm, of non-experimental type, transversal descriptive and correlational. The study population are the elderly living in nursing home Residência Rainha D. Leonor, in Viseu. We used an accidental non probabilistic sample, depending on the relative weight of the elderly of this institution made up of 136 elderly. The data collection instrument includes the scale of dependence in self-care. Results: The elderly are mostly women, widows with low literary instruction and with an average age of 86 years. We found that the predominant pathologies are heart disorders (70.6%), osteoarticular (62.5%), and neurologic (55.1%). Considering the global dependency on self-care, we found that 46.4% of the sample is independent, 36.0% is highly dependent and 17.6% is partially dependent, ie, 53.6% of the elderly showed some degree of dependence in self-care. Conclusion: The results of this study allow the acquisition of knowledge and development of skills that are of utmost importance in the practice of rehabilitation nursing care because the health needs of this population suffers continuous changes throughout the aging process, requiring updated practices in order to promote the preservation processes and the autonomy. Keywords: Self-care, Elderly, Institution

Grazing behavior of lactating Murrah buffalo cows supplemented with cupuassu byproduct.

The goal of this work was to evaluate grazing behavior of lactating Murrah buffalo cows supplemented with cupuassu byproduct containing 16.8, 51.4, 8.3, 83.5 and 3.4% of ether extract (EE), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), crude protein (CP), total digestible nutrients (TDN) and nonfibrous carbohydrate (NFC), respectively. Experimental rations were balanced for reaching levels of 22.0 % of crude protein (CP) and 80.1 % of total digestible nutrient (TDN)

Transcriptome analyses identify five transcription factors differentially expressed in the hypothalamus of post-versus prepubertal Brahman heifers

Puberty onset is a developmental process influenced by genetic determinants, environment, and nutrition. Mutations and regulatory gene networks constitute the molecular basis for the genetic determinants of puberty onset. The emerging knowledge of these genetic determinants presents opportunities for innovation in the breeding of early pubertal cattle. This paper presents new data on hypothalamic gene expression related to puberty in Bos indicus (Brahman) in age-and weight-matched heifers. Six postpubertal heifers were compared with 6 prepubertal heifers using whole-genome RNA sequencing methodology for quantification of global gene expression in the hypothalamus. Five transcription factors (TF) with potential regulatory roles in the hypothalamus were identified in this experiment: E2F8, NFAT5, SIX5, ZBTB38, and ZNF605. These TF genes were significantly differentially expressed in the hypothalamus of postpubertal versus prepubertal heifers and were also identified as significant according to the applied regulatory impact factor metric (P < 0.05). Two of these 5 TF, ZBTB38 and ZNF605, were zinc fingers, belonging to a gene family previously reported to have a central regulatory role in mammalian puberty. The SIX5 gene belongs to the family of homologues of Drosophila sine oculis (SIX) genes implicated in transcriptional regulation of gonadotrope gene expression. Tumor-related genes such as E2F8 and NFAT5 are known to affect basic cellular processes that are relevant in both cancer and developmental processes. Mutations in NFAT5 were associated with puberty in humans. Mutations in these TF, together with other genetic determinants previously discovered, could be used in genomic selection to predict the genetic merit of cattle (i.e., the likelihood of the offspring presenting earlier than average puberty for Brahman). Knowledge of key mutations involved in genetic traits is an advantage for genomic prediction because it can increase its accuracy

Purification and characterization of a collagenase from Penicillium sp. UCP 1286 by polyethylene glycol-phosphate aqueous two-phase system

Collagenases are proteolytic enzymes capable of degrading both native and denatured collagen, reported to be applied in industrial, medical and biotechnological sectors. Liquid-liquid extraction using aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) is one of the most promising bioseparation techniques, which can substitute difficult solid-liquid separation processes, offering many advantages over conventional methods including low-processing time, low-cost material and low-energy consumption. The collagenase produced by Penicillium sp. UCP 1286 showed a stronger affinity for the bottom salt-rich phase, where the highest levels of collagenolytic activity were observed at the center point runs, using 15.0% (w/w) PEG 3350 g/mol and 12.5% (w/w) phosphate salt at pH 7.0 and concentration. The enzyme was characterized by thermal stability, pH tolerance and effect of inhibitors, showing optimal collagenolytic activity at 37 °C and pH 9.0 and proved to be a serine protease. ATPS showed high efficiency in the collagenase purification, confirmed by a single band in SDS/PAGE, and can in fact be applied as a quick and inexpensive alternative method.This work was supported by the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). Sara Silvério also acknowledges her post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/88584/2012) from FCT (SFRH/BPD/88584/2012) (Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation), Portugal