The Influence of oral environment on diet choices in goats: a focus on saliva protein composition

There is ample evidence that ruminants are capable of making choices between different foods that provide a more balanced diet that would be obtained by eating at random. In the particular case of goats, they occupy a diversity of habitats and different breeds present variability of feeding behaviors resultant from adaptations to the existent plant species. In their food search activity, individuals are faced with variable amounts of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs), which may present some toxic and anti-nutritional effects depending on the individual’s ability to deal with it. The oral cavity has a key role in the recognition and decision processes of ingestion or rejection. In this chapter we will first consider how goats identify foods and behave according to the food items available. Focus will be done on the importance of taste sense in this process and the information available on the main structures involved in taste detection and perception in goats will be reviewed. In a second section we will focus on the characteristics of goat’s saliva, particularly in terms of their protein composition, presenting results obtained by our research team

Potential application of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for the fermentation of banana pulp

This paper aimed at evaluating the fermentation behavior of selected Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains in banana pulp and they were compared with commercial yeast (baker’s yeast) for subsequent production of distilled spirits. Five types of microorganisms were used: Four yeast strains obtained from accredited microbiology laboratories were isolated from domestic cachaça distilleries (UNICAMPV1, UFMG-A905, UFMG-A1007 and UFMG-A1240) and commercial pressed yeast (COMMERCIAL-yeast). The fermentation parameters of the studied S. cerevisiae strains were significantly different. COMMERCIAL-yeast and UNICAMP-V1 strain presented higher ethanol yield and better yeast efficiency in converting total reducing sugars (TRS) into alcohol, with ethanol yields of 83.07 and 94.06%, and yeast efficiency of 90.75 and 96.41%, respectively for UNICAMP V1 and COMMERCIAL-yeast. The higher alcohol contents of 82.26 and 78.05 mg/100 ml anhydrous alcohol were obtained by the UNICAMP-V1 and COMMERCIAL-yeast, respectively. No significant differences in fermentative parameters were observed between COMMERCIAL-yeast and UNICAMP-V1 strain. The UFMG-A1240 strain showed the lowest ethanol yield and therefore not suitable for the production of distilled spirits made of bananas, despite being useful for the production of cachaça. Methanol contents did not significantly vary among the five strains tested, except for UFMG-A1007, which produced significantly higher quantities of 0.19 ml/100 ml anhydrous alcohol. However, higher alcohols contents varied significantly between the five strains tests, with the UFMG-A1007 and UFMG-A1240 strains producing the lowest quantities of higher alcohols (30.04 and 48.69 mg/100 ml anhydrous alcohol, respectively). In conclusion, the S. cerevisiae strains UNICAMP-V1 and the COMMERCIAL-yeast showed better fermentation behavior, did not produce high methanol and higher alcohols amounts, and therefore were recommended for the production of distilled spirits made of banana in pilot-scale plants.Key words: Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, alcoholic fermentation, banana spirits

DXA assessment

Accurate assessment of body composition is an important issue among athletes. Different methodologies generate controversial results, leading to a deep uncertainty on individual exercise prescriptions. Thus, this study aims to identify the differences between field methods, such as bioelectrical impedance (BIA) and skinfold assessment, with a clinical method, highly accurate, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), among elite young football players. Thirty-eight male football players with a mean (sd) age of 16.7 (0.87) years, involved in the Portuguese national competition of U16 (n = 13) and U19 (n = 25), were evaluated and objective measures of body composition, muscle strength and football skills were collected by trained specialists. Body composition was assessed using BIA (Tanita BC-418, Tanita Corp., Tokyo, Japan), in agreement with all the evaluation premises. Additionally, all athletes were evaluated using the clinical method DXA (Hologic Inc., Waltham, MA, USA). Among the U19 athletes, three skinfold sites (SKF) were assessed: chest, abdomin and thigh. The Spearman correlation coefficients and the mean difference between methods were calculated. The agreement between both methods was analyzed using Bland-Altman plots. Among the evaluated athletes, lower mean values of body fat % were found using BIA as a method of body composition assessment compared with DXA (12.05 vs. 15.58 for U16; 11.97 vs. 14.16 for U19). Despite the moderate correlation between methods (r = 0.33) to estimate the percentage of total fat, the median of the difference (DXA vs. BIA) was relevant in clinical terms, with 2.90% and 1.47% for U16 and U19 athletes, respectively. Stronger correlations were found between the sum of the SKF and DXA fat estimation (r = 0.68). The Bland-Altman plots showed a clear underestimation in the evaluations using the BIA, namely among athletes with better body composition profiles (8%?12% of fat). Using BIA, an underestimation of body fat assessment was observed among 94.5% of the athletes with less than 12% body fat mass. Among the evaluated athletes, fat mass was underestimated at a median value of 2.21% using BIA in comparison with DXA. The sum of the SKF showed a stronger correlation with the reference method (DXA) (r = 0.68) than BIA.D915-7373-ED16 | Cesar LeaoN/

Spontaneous Glioblastoma Spheroid Infiltration of Early-Stage Cerebral Organoids Models Brain Tumor Invasion.

Organoid methodology provides a platform for the ex vivo investigation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying brain development and disease. The high-grade brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is considered a cancer of unmet clinical need, in part due to GBM cell infiltration into healthy brain parenchyma, making complete surgical resection improbable. Modeling the process of GBM invasion in real time is challenging as it requires both tumor and neural tissue compartments. Here, we demonstrate that human GBM spheroids possess the ability to spontaneously infiltrate early-stage cerebral organoids (eCOs). The resulting formation of hybrid organoids demonstrated an invasive tumor phenotype that was distinct from noncancerous adult neural progenitor (NP) spheroid incorporation into eCOs. These findings provide a basis for the modeling and quantification of the GBM infiltration process using a stem-cell-based organoid approach, and may be used for the identification of anti-GBM invasion strategies

Sistema de controle granulom?trico de pelotas de min?rio de ferro.

Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Instrumenta??o, Controle e Automa??o de Processos de Minera??o. Departamento de Engenharia de Controle e Automa??o, Escola de Minas, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto.Esta disserta??o tem seu foco no estudo de um sistema de controle para um processo de pelotamento de min?rio de ferro, manipulando vari?veis do processo, tais como velocidade de rota??o dos tambores de pelotamento, inje??o de ?gua e alimenta??o. O objetivo ? propor um controle granulom?trico das pelotas e, assim, tornar o processo mais uniforme, evitar retrabalhos, e o consequente aumento de custos operacionais. Para alcan?ar esse objetivo ? analisado o comportamento atual do processo para identificar e quantificar diversas vari?veis por meio do Sistema Gerenciador de Informa??es da Planta e aplica??o de testes, tal como resposta ao degrau para obten??o do modelo do processo e, posteriormente, identificar estrat?gias aplic?veis ao controle e, em seguida, aplicar as melhorias necess?rias. Para implanta??o do sistema proposto s?o utilizadas ferramentas j? existentes na planta, como controladores l?gicos, sistema de supervis?o e sistema de historiamento. O estudo prop?e um controle PID em cascata para maximiza??o de determinada faixa granulom?trica. Com a aplica??o do controle ? alcan?ado o atendimento a determinado cen?rio.This thesis is focused on a study related to a control system for iron ore pelletizing process, handling process variables, such as drums rotation speed, water addition and feeding. The goal is to propose pellet granulometry control and make the process more uniform, avoiding both reworks and the incremental of operational costs. To achieve this goal is analyzed the actual process behavior to identify and quantify the number of variables using a Plant Information Management System and applying tests, such as step response to get the process model. After that, the strategy applicable for the control are identified and the needed improvements are applied. In order to implement the proposed system, existing tools are used in the plant, such as logic controllers, supervision system and historian system. The study proposes a cascade PID control to maximize a certain granulometric range. With the application of the control, the attendance to a certain scenario is met