Variations in terrigenous input into the deep equatorial atlantic during the past 24,000 years

Estimates of terrigenous fluxes at three different water depths at two sites in the equatorial Atlantic by normalization against excess (230)Th flux indicate that the flux of terrigenous material to the seafloor was significantly higher during the last glacial period than it is today. Fluxes started to decrease during deglaciation and reached minimal values in the middle of the Holocene. From 15,000 to 5,000 years ago, there was a substantial increase in flux with increasing water depth below 2,800 meters; this increase may reflect resuspension and lateral transport of slope and rise sediment, possibly because of intensification of deepwater circulation during that period.     

Purification of a Low Molecular Weight Fucoidan for SPECT Molecular Imaging of Myocardial Infarction

Fucoidans constitute a large family of sulfated polysaccharides with several biochemical properties. A commercial fucoidan from brown algae, containing low molecular weight polysaccharidic species constituted of l-fucose, uronic acids and sulfate groups, was simply treated here with calcium acetate solution. This treatment led to a purified fraction with a yield of 45%. The physicochemical characterizations of the purified fucoidan using colorimetric assay, MALLS, dRI, FT-IR, NMR, exhibited molecular weight distributions and chemical profiles similar for both fucoidans whereas the sulfate and l-fucose contents increased by 16% and 71%, respectively. The biodistribution study in rat of both compounds labeled with ^99mTc evidenced a predominant renal elimination of the purified fucoidan, but the crude fucoidan was mainly retained in liver and spleen. In rat myocardial ischemia-reperfusion, we then demonstrated the better efficiency of the purified fucoidan. This purified sulfated polysaccharide appears promising for the development of molecular imaging in acute coronary syndrome.     

Grain quality characteristics of rice in Madagascar retail markets

A survey of rice in retail markets of Madagascar with emphasis on the surplus regions of Marovoay and Lac Alaotra and the deficient area, Antananarivo City showed rices of Madagascar to be predominantly medium-long, medium-shaped, with high apparent amylose content, low gelatinization temperature, and soft, hard or medium gel consistency. Mean protein content was 7.5%. Percent white grains among red and white grains ranged from 0 to 100% (mean 56%), head rice 0–94%, translucency 6–66% and Kett whiteness 12–48%.     

Application of stable carbon isotope analysis to the detection of testosterone administration to cattle

The use of anabolic substances is prohibited in food-producing animals throughout the European Union. No method is available to reliably detect the misuse of natural hormones in cattle. A method was developed to detect the abuse of testosterone in cattle fattening. Synthesized testosterone is rather depleted in the (13)C/(12)C ratio. Hence, the method is based on gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS) analysis of urine. To select testosterone metabolites and endogenous reference compounds (ERC), the concentration of urinary steroids of cattle was investigated. Dehydroepiandrosterone and androst-5ene-3beta,17alpha-diol were chosen as ERCs to show endogenous (13)C/(12)C ratios. Etiocholanolone and 5alpha-androstane-3beta,17alpha-diol were chosen as the most important testosterone metabolites. Other metabolites known from literature like epitestosterone were less promising. In principle, GC/C/IRMS is a nonspecific method because finally carbon dioxide is analyzed. Therefore, a dedicated cleanup procedure for the selected steroids was developed. By means of proposed confidence intervals in the isotopic composition of ERCs and metabolites, the administration of testosterone to cattle could be detected reliably. Differences of up to 11 per thousand on the delta-scale between ERC and testosterone metabolites were found after testosterone administration, whereas endogenous differences did not exceed 2 per thousand.     

Effects of formic acid in abalone diets that contain ingredients derived from fish processing by-products

The study aimed to investigate the effects of formic acid inclusion in abalone diets, which contained ingredients produced from fish processing by-products, and to quantify effects on production performance. Four diets (a commercial reference and iso-nutrient diets containing fish silage oil, unprocessed rainbow trout viscera or shrimp protein hydrolysate) were evaluated both with and without addition of 2 g kg^?1 dietary formic acid, thus yielding a total of eight treatments, in feeding trials with cultured South African abalone Haliotis midae. Results indicated that inclusion of unprocessed rainbow trout viscera without formic acid decreased production performance of experimental animals, as evidenced by significantly decreased final animal weight and daily weight gain, and significantly increased feed conversion ratio compared to the iso-nutrient control. The decreased production performance was attributed to decreased feed water stability of the diet incorporating untreated trout viscera. Dietary formic acid supplementation partially mitigated the negative impacts of viscera inclusion on production performance of the experimental animals, as seen in significantly higher final animal weight and daily weight gain, and lower feed conversion ratio when compared to non-formic acid-supplemented, viscera-containing diet. However, no beneficial effects on production performance or water stability were found upon formic acid inclusion in diets not containing trout viscera. In conclusion, dietary formic acid can partially mitigate negative impacts on production performance when unprocessed trout viscera are included in formulated abalone diets by improving feed water stability, but the exact mechanism by which this is achieved was not established.     

Accuracy of computed tomographic arthrography for assessment of articular cartilage defects in the ovine stifle

Articular cartilage defects are one of the features of osteoarthritis in animals and humans. Early detection of cartilage defects is a challenge in clinical veterinary practice and also in translational research studies. An accurate, diagnostic imaging method would be desirable for detecting and following up lesions in specific anatomical regions of the articular surface. The current prospective experimental study aimed to describe the accuracy of computed tomographic arthrography (CTA) for detecting cartilage defects in a common animal model used for osteoarthritis research, the ovine stifle (knee, femoropatellar/femorotibial) joint. Joints in cadaver limbs (n = 42) and in living animals under anesthesia (n = 13) were injected with a contrast medium and imaged using a standardized CT protocol. Gross anatomy and histological assessment of specific anatomic regions were used as a gold standard for the evaluation of sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value for CTA identification of articular cartilage defects in those regions. Pooled estimated sensitivity and specificity were 90.32% and 97.30%, respectively, in cadaver limbs, and 81.82% and 95.24%, respectively, in living animals. Pooled estimated positive predictive value and negative predictive values were 98.25% and 85.71%, respectively, in cadaver limbs, and 81.82% and 95.24%, respectively, in living animals. The delineation of cartilage surface was good for anatomical regions most frequently affected by cartilage defects in the ovine stifle: medial femoral condyle, medial tibial condyle, and patella. This study supported the use of CTA as an imaging technique for detecting and monitoring articular cartilage defects in the ovine stifle joint.     

The rediscovery of a lost frog: Arthroleptis troglodytes Poynton, 1963

The cave squeaker Arthroleptis troglodytes Poynton, 1963 was first collected in 1961/62, and not observed again for 54 years despite several attempts to locate it. We rediscovered this species near the type locality in the Chimanimani mountain range in eastern Zimbabwe. We describe for the first time the call and colour in life, and highlight several morphological and habitat features not previously recorded for this species.     

Realised genetic gains and estimated genetic parameters of two Eucalyptus grandis × E. urophylla hybrid breeding strategies

Conventionally, Eucalyptus grandis × E. urophylla (GU) hybrid material is first tested as seedlings in progeny trials for at least four years before ortets are selected and ramets of the selected ortets are propagated to test in clonal trials. The primary constraint with this ‘conventional hybrid breeding strategy’ (CHBS) is the time required to first test the hybrid material as seedlings. In order to address this, an ‘accelerated hybrid breeding strategy’ (AHBS) was investigated to reduce the time spent on testing GU hybrid material as seedlings. However, it is of utmost importance to quantify the impact the AHBS might have on genetic gains and genetic information. With this in mind, two clonal populations have been established with genetic material that derived from the CHBS and the AHBS. The main purpose of this study was to do a comparative study between the CHBS and AHBS, firstly to quantify the genetic gains per unit time for GU hybrid clonal populations that have been derived from the CHBS and AHBS respectively, and secondly to obtain genetic parameters such as heritabilities, the ratio of dominance, clonal within family variance, and the proportion of additive and non-additive genetic variance. The results indicated that the percentage realised volume gains per year was higher for the AHBS (3.7%) than for the CHBS (1.9%) when compared with the GU commercial clone. Thus, shortening the testing time of GU seedlings had a positive impact on volume gains per year. With regard to genetic parameters, both the AHBS and CHBS clonal populations indicated that non-additive genetic variation explained the majority (88% and 71%, respectively) of the genetic variation. Due to the pre-eminence of non-additive genetic variation, the narrow-sense heritabilties for the female and male effects were negligible for both clonal populations. Overall, the majority of the non-additive genetic variation was explained by the proportion of dominance variance, and less by the clone within family effect. These results suggest that, firstly, the time spent on testing GU hybrid material as seedlings should be minimised and, secondly, a hybrid breeding strategy to capture non-additive genetic variation should be adopted.     

Screening of quinalphos,trifluralin and dichlorvos residues in fresh water of aquaculture systems in Mekong Delta,Vietnam

To develop an easy and reliable method for detecting pesticides and their residues in the Mekong Delta, a GC‐MS analytical method was developed and validated according to European guidelines (SANTE/11945/2015) for the determination of residues of three pesticides (quinalphos, trifluralin and dichlorvos) in water. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.002 and 0.007 μg/L, respectively, for quinalphos and trifluralin, and 0.016 and 0.053 μg/L, respectively, for dichlorvos and quinalphos. The repeatability, the within‐laboratory reproducibility as well as the trueness met the European criteria. The recovery rate ranged between 72% (for dichlorvos and quinalphos) and 82% (for trifluralin). The developed method was then applied for the analysis of 33 water samples, collected in April 2013, at the beginning of the rainy season in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Thirteen samples were from rice field, 10 were collected from cat fish ponds and from red tilapia cages. Results showed that only 9% of total water samples analysed contained residues of pesticides, but only in water from rice fish systems. From the 13 samples taken in these systems, quinalphos was detected in three samples. The other two pesticides were not detected. A comparison between analytical results obtained from GC‐MS and an alternative method, that is GC‐ECD indicated that GC‐ECD is less sensitive than GC‐MS, with LOQ ranging from 0.37 to 1.18 (depending on the pesticide). However, for samples with concentrations above these LOQ, no significant difference was observed between the results obtained from the two analytical methodologies.     

Recent expansion of Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean populations of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Melicertus</Emphasis> (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Penaeus</Emphasis>) <Emphasis Type="Italic">kerathurus</Emphasis> (Crustacea: Decapoda)

We analysed the genetic diversity of Melicertus kerathurus (Penaeidae), a commercially valuable penaeid shrimp that is distributed in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic Ocean. We examined the polymorphism of a 494 bp DNA segment of the mitochondrial COI region in 173 individuals, sampled in nine Mediterranean and two Atlantic samples, covering the whole range of the species from the tropical waters of the Gulf of Guinea to the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The mean nucleotide and haplotype diversities were π = 0.00275 and h = 0.718, respectively, for the global data set, with the highest values occurring in the African samples and the lowest in the Adriatic Sea. A clear sample differentiation was found (F _st = 0.194), but this did not reflect a geographical pattern and there were only faint traces of an Atlantic–Mediterranean subdivision. Mismatch analysis and a high significant negative value of Tajima’s D suggested that M. kerathurus is not at mutation drift-equilibrium, but underwent a recent expansion after a period of low effective sample size. A postglacial recolonisation of the Mediterranean from an Atlantic refuge could be hypothesised based on these data.