Influence of transportation methods and pre-slaughter rest periods on cortisol level in lambs

This study aimed to verify the influence of the transport in open or closed compartments (0 h), followed by two resting periods (1 and 3 h) for the slaughter process on the levels of cortisol as a indicative of stress level. At the slaughterhouse, blood samples were taken from 86 lambs after the transport and before slaughter for plasma cortisol analysis. The method of transport influenced in the cortisol concentration (0 h; P < 0.01). The animals transported in the closed compartment had a lower level (28.97 ng ml(-1)) than the animals transported in the open compartment (35.49 ng ml(-1)). After the resting period in the slaughterhouse. there was a decline in the plasmatic cortisol concentration, with the animals subjected to 3 h of rest presenting the lower average cortisol value (24.14 ng ml(-1); P < 0.05) than animals subjected to 1 h of rest (29.95 ng ml(-1)). It can be inferred that the lambs that remained 3 h in standby before slaughter had more time to recover from the stress of the transportation than those that waited just 1 h. Visual access to the external environment during the transport of the lambs is a stressful factor changing the level of plasmatic cortisol, and the resting period before slaughter was effective in lowering stress, reducing the plasmatic cortisol in the lambs. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Conceptual problem for noncommutative inflation and the new approach for nonrelativistic inflationary equation of state

In a previous paper, we connected the phenomenological noncommutative inflation of Alexander, Brandenberger and Magueijo [ Phys. Rev. D 67 081301 (2003)] and Koh and Brandenberger [ J. Cosmol. Astropart Phys. 2007 21 ()] with the formal representation theory of groups and algebras and analyzed minimal conditions that the deformed dispersion relation should satisfy in order to lead to a successful inflation. In that paper, we showed that elementary tools of algebra allow a group-like procedure in which even Hopf algebras (roughly the symmetries of noncommutative spaces) could lead to the equation of state of inflationary radiation. Nevertheless, in this paper, we show that there exists a conceptual problem with the kind of representation that leads to the fundamental equations of the model. The problem comes from an incompatibility between one of the minimal conditions for successful inflation (the momentum of individual photons being bounded from above) and the Fock-space structure of the representation which leads to the fundamental inflationary equations of state. We show that the Fock structure, although mathematically allowed, would lead to problems with the overall consistency of physics, like leading to a problematic scattering theory, for example. We suggest replacing the Fock space by one of two possible structures that we propose. One of them relates to the general theory of Hopf algebras (here explained at an elementary level) while the other is based on a representation theorem of von Neumann algebras (a generalization of the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients), a proposal already suggested by us to take into account interactions in the inflationary equation of state.

Theoretical studies of Membrane Proteins : Properties, Prediction Methods and Genome-wide analysis

Membrane proteins are a large and important class of proteins. They are responsible for several of the key functions in a living cell, e.g. transport of nutrients and ions, cell-cell signaling, and cell-cell adhesion. Despite their importance it has not been possible to study their structure and organization in much detail because of the difficulty to obtain 3D structures. In this thesis theoretical studies of membrane protein sequences and structures have been carried out by analyzing existing experimental data. The data comes from several sources including sequence databases, genome sequencing projects, and 3D structures. Prediction of the membrane spanning regions by hydrophobicity analysis is a key technique used in several of the studies. A novel method for this is also presented and compared to other methods. The primary questions addressed in the thesis are: What properties are common to all membrane proteins? What is the overall architecture of a membrane protein? What properties govern the integration into the membrane? How many membrane proteins are there and how are they distributed in different organisms? Several of the findings have now been backed up by experiments. An analysis of the large family of G-protein coupled receptors pinpoints differences in length and amino acid composition of loops between proteins with and without a signal peptide and also differences between extra- and intracellular loops. Known 3D structures of membrane proteins have been studied in terms of hydrophobicity, distribution of secondary structure and amino acid types, position specific residue variability, and differences between loops and membrane spanning regions. An analysis of several fully and partially sequenced genomes from eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and archaea has been carried out. Several differences in the membrane protein content between organisms were found, the most important being the total number of membrane proteins and the distribution of membrane proteins with a given number of transmembrane segments. Of the properties that were found to be similar in all organisms, the most obvious is the bias in the distribution of positive charges between the extra- and intracellular loops. Finally, an analysis of homologues to membrane proteins with known topology uncovered two related, multi-spanning proteins with opposite predicted orientations. The predicted topologies were verified experimentally, providing a first example of "divergent topology evolution".

Validation of age determination methods and growth studies of the sand sole Pegusa lascaris (Soleidae) from the eastern-central Atlantic

[EN]The age and growth of the sand sole Pegusa lascaris from the Canarian Archipelago were studied from 2107 fish collected between January 2005 and December 2007. To find an appropriate method for age determination, sagittal otoliths were observed by surface-reading and frontal section and the results were compared. The two methods did not differ significantly in estimated age but the surface-reading method is superior in terms of cost and time efficiency. The sand sole has a moderate life span, with ages up to 10 years recorded. Individuals grow quickly in their first two years, attaining approximately 48% of their maximum standard length; after the second year, their growth rate drops rapidly as energy is diverted to reproduction. Males and females show dimorphism in growth, with females reaching a slightly greater length and age than males. Von Bertalanffy, seasonalized von Bertalanfy, Gompertz, and Schnute growth models were fitted to length-at-age data. Akaike weights for the seasonalized von Bertalanffy growth model indicated that the probability of choosing the correct model from the group of models used was >0.999 for males and females. The seasonalized von Bertalanffy growth parameters estimated were: L? = 309 mm standard length, k = 0.166 yr?1, t0 = ?1.88 yr, C = 0.347, and ts = 0.578 for males; and L? = 318 mm standard length, k = 0.164 yr?1, t0 = ?1.653 yr, C = 0.820, and ts = 0.691 for females. Fish standard length and otolith radius are closely correlated (R2 = 0.902). The relation between standard length and otolith radius is described by a power function (a = 85.11, v = 0.906)

Plant food supplement (PFS) market structure in EC Member States, methods and techniques for the assessment of individual PFS intake

<p>The popularity of herbal products, especially plant food supplements (PFS) and herbal medicine is on the rise in Europe and other parts of the world, with increased use in the general population as well as among specific subgroups encompassing children, women or those suffering from diseases such as cancer. The aim of this paper is to examine the PFS market structures in European Community (EC) Member States as well as to examine issues addressing methodologies and consumption data relating to PFS use in Europe. A revision of recent reports on market data, trends and main distribution channels, in addition an example of the consumption of PFS in Spain, is presented. An overview of the methods and administration techniques used...</p>

Bioimaging of animal embryogenesis: mathematical methods and computational algorithms

Some fundamental biological processes such as embryonic development have been preserved during evolution and are common to species belonging to different phylogenetic positions, but are nowadays largely unknown. The understanding of cell morphodynamics leading to the formation of organized spatial distribution of cells such as tissues and organs can be achieved through the reconstruction of cells shape and position during the development of a live animal embryo. We design in this work a chain of image processing methods to automatically segment and track cells nuclei and membranes during the development of a zebrafish embryo, which has been largely validates as model organism to understand vertebrate development, gene function and healingrepair mechanisms in vertebrates. The embryo is previously labeled through the ubiquitous expression of fluorescent proteins addressed to cells nuclei and membranes, and temporal sequences of volumetric images are acquired with laser scanning microscopy. Cells position is detected by processing nuclei images either through the generalized form of the Hough transform or identifying nuclei position with local maxima after a smoothing preprocessing step. Membranes and nuclei shapes are reconstructed by using PDEs based variational techniques such as the Subjective Surfaces and the Chan Vese method. Cells tracking is performed by combining informations previously detected on cells shape and position with biological regularization constraints. Our results are manually validated and reconstruct the formation of zebrafish brain at 7-8 somite stage with all the cells tracked starting from late sphere stage with less than 2% error for at least 6 hours. Our reconstruction opens the way to a systematic investigation of cellular behaviors, of clonal origin and clonal complexity of brain organs, as well as the contribution of cell proliferation modes and cell movements to the formation of local patterns and morphogenetic fields.

The Enhanced Single-dish Control System and wide surveys of compact sources

The Italian radio telescopes currently undergo a major upgrade period in response to the growing demand for deep radio observations, such as surveys on large sky areas or observations of vast samples of compact radio sources. The optimised employment of the Italian antennas, at first constructed mainly for VLBI activities and provided with a control system (FS – Field System) not tailored to single-dish observations, required important modifications in particular of the guiding software and data acquisition system. The production of a completely new control system called ESCS (Enhanced Single-dish Control System) for the Medicina dish started in 2007, in synergy with the software development for the forthcoming Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). The aim is to produce a system optimised for single-dish observations in continuum, spectrometry and polarimetry. ESCS is also planned to be installed at the Noto site. A substantial part of this thesis work consisted in designing and developing subsystems within ESCS, in order to provide this software with tools to carry out large maps, spanning from the implementation of On-The-Fly fast scans (following both conventional and innovative observing strategies) to the production of single-dish standard output files and the realisation of tools for the quick-look of the acquired data. The test period coincided with the commissioning phase for two devices temporarily installed – while waiting for the SRT to be completed – on the Medicina antenna: a 18-26 GHz 7-feed receiver and the 14-channel analogue backend developed for its use. It is worth stressing that it is the only K-band multi-feed receiver at present available worldwide. The commissioning of the overall hardware/software system constituted a considerable section of the thesis work. Tests were led in order to verify the system stability and its capabilities, down to sensitivity levels which had never been reached in Medicina using the previous observing techniques and hardware devices. The aim was also to assess the scientific potential of the multi-feed receiver for the production of wide maps, exploiting its temporary availability on a mid-sized antenna. Dishes like the 32-m antennas at Medicina and Noto, in fact, offer the best conditions for large-area surveys, especially at high frequencies, as they provide a suited compromise between sufficiently large beam sizes to cover quickly large areas of the sky (typical of small-sized telescopes) and sensitivity (typical of large-sized telescopes). The KNoWS (K-band Northern Wide Survey) project is aimed at the realisation of a full-northern-sky survey at 21 GHz; its pilot observations, performed using the new ESCS tools and a peculiar observing strategy, constituted an ideal test-bed for ESCS itself and for the multi-feed/backend system. The KNoWS group, which I am part of, supported the commissioning activities also providing map-making and source-extraction tools, in order to complete the necessary data reduction pipeline and assess the general system scientific capabilities. The K-band observations, which were carried out in several sessions along the December 2008-March 2010 period, were accompanied by the realisation of a 5 GHz test survey during the summertime, which is not suitable for high-frequency observations. This activity was conceived in order to check the new analogue backend separately from the multi-feed receiver, and to simultaneously produce original scientific data (the 6-cm Medicina Survey, 6MS, a polar cap survey to complete PMN-GB6 and provide an all-sky coverage at 5 GHz).

Electron identification and reconstruction with the OPERA ECC bricks and search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations

The procedure for event location in OPERA ECC has been optimazed for penetrating particles while is less efficient for electrons. For this reason new procedure has been defined in order to recover event with an electromagnetic shower in its final state not located with the standard one. The new procedure include the standard procedure during which several electromagnetic shower hint has been defined by means of the available data. In case the event is not located, the presence of an electromagnetic shower hint trigger a dedicated procedure. The old and new location procedure has been then simulated in order to obtain the standard location efficiency and the possible gain due to the new one for the events with electromagnetic shower. Finally a Data-MC comparison has been performed for the 2008 and 2009 runs for what concern the NC in order to validate the Monte Carlo. Then the expected electron neutrino interactions for the 2008 and 2009 runs has been evaluated and compared with the available data.

Perfluoroalkylated substances in food matrices: development of mass spectrometry based analytical methods and preliminary monitoring

Perfluoroalkylated substances are a group of chemicals that have been largely employed during the last 60 years in several applications, widely spreading and accumulating in the environment due to their extreme resistance to degradation. As a consequence, they have been found also in various types of food as well as in drinking water, proving that they can easily reach humans through the diet. The available information concerning their adverse effects on health has recently increased the interest towards these contaminants and highlighted the importance of investigating all the potential sources of human exposure, among which diet was proved to be the most relevant. This need has been underlined by the European Union through Recommendation 2010/161/EU: in this document, Member States were called to monitor their presence of in food, producing accurate estimations of human exposure. The purpose of the research presented in this thesis, which is the result of a partnership between an Italian and a French laboratory, was to develop reliable tools for the analysis of these pollutants in food, to be used for generating data on potentially contaminated matrices. An efficient method based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the detection of 16 different perfluorinated compounds in milk has been validated in accordance with current European regulation guidelines (2002/657/EC) and is currently under evaluation for ISO 17025 accreditation. The proposed technique was applied to cow, powder and human breast milk samples from Italy and France to produce a preliminary monitoring on the presence of these contaminants. In accordance with the above mentioned European Recommendation, this project led also to the development of a promising technique for the quantification of some precursors of these substances in fish. This method showed extremely satisfying performances in terms of linearity and limits of detection, and will be useful for future surveys.

Interpreting Judgements using Knowledge Representation Methods and Computational Models of Argument

The goal of the present research is to define a Semantic Web framework for precedent modelling, by using knowledge extracted from text, metadata, and rules, while maintaining a strong text-to-knowledge morphism between legal text and legal concepts, in order to fill the gap between legal document and its semantics. The framework is composed of four different models that make use of standard languages from the Semantic Web stack of technologies: a document metadata structure, modelling the main parts of a judgement, and creating a bridge between a text and its semantic annotations of legal concepts; a legal core ontology, modelling abstract legal concepts and institutions contained in a rule of law; a legal domain ontology, modelling the main legal concepts in a specific domain concerned by case-law; an argumentation system, modelling the structure of argumentation. The input to the framework includes metadata associated with judicial concepts, and an ontology library representing the structure of case-law. The research relies on the previous efforts of the community in the field of legal knowledge representation and rule interchange for applications in the legal domain, in order to apply the theory to a set of real legal documents, stressing the OWL axioms definitions as much as possible in order to enable them to provide a semantically powerful representation of the legal document and a solid ground for an argumentation system using a defeasible subset of predicate logics. It appears that some new features of OWL2 unlock useful reasoning features for legal knowledge, especially if combined with defeasible rules and argumentation schemes. The main task is thus to formalize legal concepts and argumentation patterns contained in a judgement, with the following requirement: to check, validate and reuse the discourse of a judge - and the argumentation he produces - as expressed by the judicial text.