The survival, growth and carcase characteristics of crossbred beef cattle in Tanzania

Sires of seven Bos taurus beef breeds were mated with Bos indicus Boran cows at two sites, one near sea level and the other at about 1000 m altitude, and over three years. Purebred Boran calves provided controls for comparisons between sire breeds for growth to 4 years of age, mortality and carcase characteristics in a range environment where all the animals were kept under a similar management regime. Numerous sire breed x site, sire breed x year of birth and site x year of birth interactions were established. Mortality was high, but there was no significant sire breed effect, although purebred Borans had a higher survival than crossbred calves. There was no significant difference between genotypes in birth weight. Generally, Bos taurus cross steers achieved greater live weight gains and heavier carcase weights at 4 years of age than did purebred Borans. Limousin-cross steers had significantly (p<0.05) less fat in the tenth rib sample joint than any of the other genotypes. A productivity index that combined calf survival and carcase weight indicated that the Chianina crosses were more productive than any other genotype at either site. Purebred Borans were more productive than all the Bos taurus crossbreds with the exception of the Chianina crosses at site 1, but were only superior to the Limousin crosses at site 2, which was at the higher altitude. When lean meat yield was introduced into the productivity index, the Boran purebreds were the least productive at site 2.

Genetic diversity and specialisation of Eudarluca caricis on some graminaceous Puccinia species

Eudarluca caricis is a common hyperparasite of rusts. A total of 100 cultures were isolated from six Puccinia species or forms growing on 10 species of British grasses at two sites approximately 3 km apart. 82 isolates collected in 2005 were partially sequenced at the ITS locus, and amplified fragment length polymorphism profiles generated for 86 isolates from 2005 and 12 from 2007. Partial ITS sequences of most isolates grouped closely, in a clade with previously reported graminaceous Puccinia isolates and a number of Melampsora isolates. A second clade was very distinct and contained mostly isolates from P. poarum on Poa trivialis. All isolates had distinct AFLP haplotypes. The P. poarum isolates were very distinct from isolates collected from other rusts at the same site. Isolates from P. brachypodii f. sp. arrehenatheri growing on Arrhenatherum elatius in 2005 and 2007 at the same location were distinct (P < 0.001). Isolates from each rust or grass in one year and site were more similar than expected from overall variation between isolates (P<0.001). Isolates from P. coronata on different grasses clustered together (with isolates from P. brachypodii f. sp. poae-nemoralis), suggesting partial host rust specialisation in E. caricis.

Vertical structure and physical processes of the Madden-Julian oscillation: synthesis and summary

The "Vertical structure and physical processes of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO)" project comprises three experiments, designed to evaluate comprehensively the heating, moistening and momentum associated with tropical convection in general circulation models (GCMs). We consider here only those GCMs that performed all experiments. Some models display relatively higher or lower MJO fidelity in both initialized hindcasts and climate simulations, while others show considerable variations in fidelity between experiments. Fidelity in hindcasts and climate simulations are not meaningfully correlated. The analysis of each experiment led to the development of process-oriented diagnostics, some of which distinguished between GCMs with higher or lower fidelity in that experiment. We select the most discriminating diagnostics and apply them to data from all experiments, where possible, to determine if correlations with MJO fidelity hold across scales and GCM states. While normalized gross moist stability had a small but statistically significant correlation with MJO fidelity in climate simulations, we find no link with fidelity in medium-range hindcasts. Similarly, there is no association between timestep-to-timestep rainfall variability, identified from short hindcasts, and fidelity in medium-range hindcasts or climate simulations. Two metrics that relate precipitation to free-tropospheric moisture--the relative humidity for extreme daily precipitation, and variations in the height and amplitude of moistening with rain rate--successfully distinguish between higher- and lower-fidelity GCMs in hindcasts and climate simulations. To improve the MJO, developers should focus on relationships between convection and both total moisture and its rate of change. We conclude by offering recommendations for further experiments.

Triple isotope (δD, δ17O, δ18O) study on precipitation, drip water and speleothem fluid inclusions for a central European cave (NW Switzerland)

Deuterium (dD) and oxygen (d18O) isotopes are powerful tracers of the hydrological cycle and have been extensively used for paleoclimate reconstructions as they can provide information on past precipitation, temperature and atmospheric circulation. More recently, the use of 17Oexcess derived from precise measurement of d17O and d18O gives new and additional insights in tracing the hydrological cycle whereas uncertainties surround this proxy. However, 17Oexcess could provide additional information on the atmospheric conditions at the moisture source as well as about fractionations associated with transport and site processes. In this paper we trace water stable isotopes (dD, d17O and d18O) along their path from precipitation to cave drip water and finally to speleothem fluid inclusions for Milandre cave in northwestern Switzerland. A two year-long daily resolved precipitation isotope record close to the cave site is compared to collected cave drip water (3 months average resolution) and fluid inclusions of modern and Holocene stalagmites. Amount weighted mean dD, d18O and d17O are �71.0‰, �9.9‰, �5.2‰ for precipitation, �60.3‰, �8.7‰, �4.6‰ for cave drip water and �61.3‰, �8.3‰, �4.7‰ for recent fluid inclusions respectively. Second order parameters have also been derived in precipitation and drip water and present similar values with 18 per meg for 17Oexcess whereas d-excess is 1.5‰ more negative in drip water. Furthermore, the atmospheric signal is shifted towards enriched values in the drip water and fluid inclusions (D of ~ þ 10‰ for dD). The isotopic composition of cave drip water exhibits a weak seasonal signal which is shifted by around 8e10 months (groundwater residence time) when compared to the precipitation. Moreover, we carried out the first d17O measurement in speleothem fluid inclusions, as well as the first comparison of the d17O behaviour from the meteoric water to the fluid inclusions entrapment in speleothems. This study on precipitation, drip water and fluid inclusions will be used as a speleothem proxy calibration for Milandre cave in order to reconstruct paleotemperatures and moisture source variations for Western Central Europe.

Short-term movements of the South American rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) in southeastern Brazil

Ecological studies of movements in animals require extensive knowledge of direction, distance and frequency of movements. The purpose of this study was to describe the daily and seasonal movements in a population of the South American rattlesnake, Crotalus durissus. The study population inhabits a cerrado area in southeastern Brazil. Snakes were tracked with externally attached radio-transmitters and thread bobbins. Larger animals tended to make more extensive daily movements, moving further from the initial site of capture. There were no differences in average daily movements between sexes. Site fidelity was higher in the dry season for both sexes. Both sexes moved distances twice as long as those calculated by drawing a straight line between consecutive points. The movement pattern of C. durissus seemed to be similar to that observed in other tropical pit vipers, such as species of the genus Bothrops.

Comparative range use by three Atlantic Forest understorey bird species in relation to forest fragmentation

In this paper, we report on range use patterns of birds in relation to tropical forest fragmentation. Between 2003 and 2005, three understorey passerine species were radio-tracked in five locations of a fragmented and in two locations of a contiguous forest landscape on the Atlantic Plateau of Sao Paulo in south-eastern Brazil. Standardized ten-day home ranges of 55 individuals were used to determine influences of landscape pattern, season, species, sex and age. In addition, total observed home ranges of 76 individuals were reported as minimum measures of spatial requirements of the species. Further, seasonal home ranges of recaptured individuals were compared to examine site fidelity. Chiroxiphia caudata, but not Pyriglena leucoptera or Sclerurus scansor, used home ranges more than twice as large in the fragmented versus contiguous forest. Home range sizes of C. caudata differed in relation to sex, age, breeding status and season. Seasonal home ranges greatly overlapped in both C. caudata and in S. scansor. Our results suggest that one response by some forest bird species to habitat fragmentation entails enlarging their home ranges to include several habitat fragments, whereas more habitat-sensitive species remain restricted to larger forest patches.

Evaluation of Quantitative RT-PCR Using Nonamplified and Amplified RNA

Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is a standard assay in molecular medicine for gene expression analysis. Samples from incisional/needle biopsies, laser-microdissected tumor cells and other biologic sources, normally available in clinical cancer studies, generate very small amounts of RNA that are restrictive for expression analysis. As a consequence, an RNA amplification procedure is required to assess the gene expression levels of such sample types. The reproducibility and accuracy of relative gene expression data produced by sensitive methodology as qRT-PCR when cDNA converted from amplified (A) RNA is used as template has not yet been properly addressed. In this study, to properly evaluate this issue, we performed 1 round of linear RNA amplification in 2 breast cell lines (C5.2 and HB4a) and assessed the relative expression of 34 genes using cDNA converted from both nonamplified (NA) and A RNA. Relative gene expression was obtained from beta actin or glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase normalized data using different dilutions of cDNA, wherein the variability and fold-change differences in the expression of the 2 methods were compared. Our data showed that 1 round of linear RNA amplification, even with suboptimal-quality RNA, is appropriate to generate reproducible and high-fidelity qRT-PCR relative expression data that have similar confidence levels as those from NA samples. The use of cDNA that is converted from both A and NA RNA in a single qRT-PCR experiment clearly creates bias in relative gene expression data.

pH-Sensitive Binding of Cytochrome c to the Inner Mitochondrial Membrane. Implications for the Participation of the Protein in Cell Respiration and Apoptosis

Cytochrome c exhibits two positively charged sites: site A containing lysine residues with high pK(a) values and site L containing ionizable groups with pK(aobs),values around 7.0. This protein feature implies that cytochrome c can participate in the fusion of mitochondria and have its detachment from the inner membrane regulated by cell acidosis and alkalosis. In this study, We demonstrated that both horse and tuna cytochrome c exhibited two types of binding to inner mitochondrial membranes that contributed to respiration: a high-affinity and low-efficiency pi-I-independent binding (microscopic dissociation constant K(sapp2), similar to 10 nM) and a low-affinity and high-efficiency pH-dependent binding that for horse cytochrome c had a pK(a) of similar to 6.7. For tuna cytochrome c (Lys22 and His33 replaced with Asn and Trp, respectively), the effect of pH on K(sapp1), was less striking than for the horse heme protein, and both tuna and horse cytochrome c had closed K(sapp1) values at pH 7.2 and 6.2, respectively. Recombinant mutated cytochrome c H26N and H33N also restored the respiration of the cytochrome c-depleted mitoplast in a pH-dependent manner. Consistently, the detachment of cytochrome c from nondepleted mitoplasts was favored by alkalinization, suggesting that site Lionization influences the participation of cytochrome c in the respiratory chain and apoptosis.

Measuring Application Availability,Usage and Performance : Implementation of EnView System

The main objective for this degree project is to implement an Application Availability Monitoring (AAM) system named Softek EnView for Fujitsu Services. The aim of implementing the AAM system is to proactively identify end user performance problems, such as application and site performance, before the actual end users experience them. No matter how well applications and sites are designed and nomatter how well they meet business requirements, they are useless to the end users if the performance is slow and/or unreliable. It is important for the customers to find out whether the end user problems are caused by the network or application malfunction. The Softek EnView was comprised of the following EnView components: Robot, Monitor, Reporter, Collector and Repository. The implemented system, however, is designed to use only some of these EnView elements: Robot, Reporter and depository. Robots can be placed at any key user location and are dedicated to customers, which means that when the number of customers increases, at the sametime the amount of Robots will increase. To make the AAM system ideal for the company to use, it was integrated with Fujitsu Services’ centralised monitoring system, BMC PATROL Enterprise Manager (PEM). That was actually the reason for deciding to drop the EnView Monitor element. After the system was fully implemented, the AAM system was ready for production. Transactions were (and are) written and deployed on Robots to simulate typical end user actions. These transactions are configured to run with certain intervals, which are defined collectively with customers. While they are driven against customers’ applicationsautomatically, transactions collect availability data and response time data all the time. In case of a failure in transactions, the robot immediately quits the transactionand writes detailed information to a log file about what went wrong and which element failed while going through an application. Then an alert is generated by a BMC PATROL Agent based on this data and is sent to the BMC PEM. Fujitsu Services’ monitoring room receives the alert, reacts to it according to the incident management process in ITIL and by alerting system specialists on critical incidents to resolve problems. As a result of the data gathered by the Robots, weekly reports, which contain detailed statistics and trend analyses of ongoing quality of IT services, is provided for the Customers.

Kinetic characterization of a membrane-specific ATPase from rat osseous plate and its possible significance on endochondral ossification

Treatment with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C of rat osseous plate membranes released up to 90-95% of alkaline phosphatase, but a specific ATPase activity (optimum pH = 7.5) remained bound to the membrane. The hydrolysis of ATP by this ATPase was negligible in the absence of magnesium or calcium ions. However, at millimolar concentrations of magnesium and calcium ions, the membrane-specific ATPase activity increased to about 560-600 U/mg, exhibiting two classes of ATP-hydrolysing sites, and site-site interactions. GTP, UTP, ITP, and CTP were also hydrolyzed by the membrane-specific ATPase. Oligomycin, ouabain, bafilomycin A(1), thapsigargin, omeprazole, ethacrynic acid and EDTA slightly affected membrane-specific ATPase activity while vanadate produced a 18% inhibition. The membrane-specific ATPase activity was insensitive to theophylline, but was inhibited 40% by levamisole. These data suggested that the membrane-specific ATPase activity present in osseous plate membranes, and alkaline phosphatase, were different proteins. (C) 1998 Elsevier B.V. B.V.

Health variables and gill morphology in the tropical fish Astyanax fasciatus from a sewage-contaminated river

The relative condition factor (Kn), gonadosomatic index (GSI), selected hematological variables and gill morphology of the fish Astyanax fasciatus were analyzed in two sites (site I was unpolluted and site 2 was polluted with untreated domestic sewage) of a tropical river (Camanducaia river, São Paulo State, Brazil). The relationship between the body mass (M-B) and the standard length (L-S) of A. fasciatus from both sites was M-B = 0.00799 L-S(3.51843). Tyhe Kn values from both the males and females were significantly higher in site 2. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were higher in females from site 2. Gill tissue anomalies and gill parasites were rare in fish from both sites; however, the number of chloride cells was significantly higher in fish from site 1. A. fasciatus presents high capacity to live in ion-poor and soft water and is able to compensate for environmental changes caused by untreated domestic sewage discharges. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using post-release monitoring data to optimize avian reintroduction programs: a 2-year case study from the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Mucus extravasation and retention phenomena: a 24-year study

Background: Mucoceles are benign lesions related to the minor salivary glands and their respective ducts frequently affecting oral structures which are generally asymptomatic. Mucoceles are generally characterized by swollen nodular lesions preferentially located on the lower lip and differ from the so-called ranulas, which are lesions located on the floor of the mouth and related to the sublingual or submandibular glands.Methods: The objective of the present study was to analyze data such as age, gender, race and site of the lesion of 173 mucocele cases diagnosed at the Discipline of Stomatology, Sao Jose dos Campos Dental School, UNESP, over a period of 24 years (April 1980 to February 2003).Results: of the 173 cases analyzed, 104 (60.12%) were females and 69 (39.88%) were males. Age ranged from 4 to 70 years (mean +/- SD: 17 +/- 9.53) and most patients were in the second decade of life (n = 86, 49.42%); white (n = 124, 71.68%). The lower lip was the site most frequently affected by the lesions (n = 135, 78.03%), whereas the lowest prevalence was observed for the soft palate, buccal mucosa, and lingual frenum.Conclusion: In this study, mucoceles predominated in white female subjects in the second decade of life, with the lower lip being the most frequently affected site.

Guiana dolphins, Sotalia guianensis (Cetacea: Delphinidae), in the Paranaguá Estuarine Complex: insights on the use of area based on the photo-identification technique

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Apocynin: Chemical and biophysical properties of a NADPH oxidase inhibitor

Apocynin is the most employed inhibitor of NADPH oxidase (NOX), a multienzymatic complex capable of catalyzing the one-electron reduction of molecular oxygen to the superoxide anion. Despite controversies about its selectivity, apocynin has been used as one of the most promising drugs in experimental models of inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we aimed to study the chemical and biophysical properties of apocynin. The oxidation potential was determined by cyclic voltammetry (Epa = 0.76V), the hydrophobicity index was calculated (logP = 0.83) and the molar absorption coefficient was determined (ε275nm = 1.1 × 104 M-1 cm-1). Apocynin was a weak free radical scavenger (as measured using the DPPH, peroxyl radical and nitric oxide assays) when compared to protocatechuic acid, used here as a reference antioxidant. On the other hand, apocynin was more effective than protocatechuic acid as scavenger of the non-radical species hypochlorous acid. Apocynin reacted promptly with the non-radical reactive species H2O2 only in the presence of peroxidase. This finding is relevant, since it represents a new pathway for depleting H2O2 in cellular experimental models, besides the direct inhibition of NADPH oxidase. This could be relevant for its application as an inhibitor of NOX4, since this isoform produces H 2O2 and not superoxide anion. The binding parameters calculated by fluorescence quenching showed that apocynin binds to human serum albumin (HSA) with a binding affinity of 2.19 × 104 M -1. The association did not alter the secondary and tertiary structure of HSA, as verified by synchronous fluorescence and circular dichroism. The displacement of fluorescent probes suggested that apocynin binds to site I and site II of HSA. Considering the current biomedical applications of this phytochemical, the dissemination of these chemical and biophysical properties can be very helpful for scientists and physicians interested in the use of apocynin.