Comparison on accuracy of different nonlinear models in predicting growth of Podolica bulls

Animal growth does not follow a linear pattern, being explained mathematically by functions that have parameters with biological meaning. These parameters are used to estimate the expected weight of animals at specific ages. Several nonlinear models have been used to describe growth. This study was carried out to estimate the parameters of logistic, Gompertz, Richards and von Bertalanffy growth curve models in a sample of Podolica young bulls to determine the goodness of fit. Animals were weighed every 3 months from birth to 810 days of age. The results indicate that all the growth models used were easily fitted to the observed data with Gompertz and logistic functions presenting less computational difficulty in terms of number of iterations to achieve convergence. Moreover, logistic and Richards equations provided the best overall fit being useful to describe the growth of Podolica bulls. Considering that the literature lacks information on growth curves in Podolica breed, the study of a mathematical model for growth describing the developmental pattern of a specific population within a peculiar environment is a useful tool to improve Podolica breed production.     

Non-thermal Plasma as an Innovative Option for the Abatement of Volatile Organic Compounds: a Review

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) cause global and local impacts, resulting in environmental, health, and economic adverse effects. Industrial and waste management activities are the main anthropogenic stationary sources of VOCs in the atmosphere. The traditional technologies for the treatment of VOC-contaminated air present several limitations when treating effluents with low VOC concentrations, high airflow rate, and with compounds with low solubility in water. However, a novel technology, based on non-thermal plasmas (NTPs) and catalysis, has shown promising results in air purification. In this framework, after an initial overview on NTP-catalysis principles, this review presents and discusses 20 recent papers, with a threefold purpose: evaluating the most recent applications of NTP and NTP-catalysis reactors to the treatment of air-VOC mixtures, analyzing all the parameters that may influence the abatement efficiency and the by-product formation, and providing the reader with insights into the choice of the preferable configurations to use, based on the effluent type and the destination of the treated air. As a result of this review, NTPs may represent a promising option for indoor air treatment, especially because of the lower expected byproduct formation when treating low-concentrated VOC mixtures with relatively low air flow rates. If the target is the abatement of higher VOC concentrations, the higher energy efficiency obtainable in such conditions makes NTP-catalysis a cost-effective option for industrial applications. In addition, the formation of simpler and more soluble by-products makes NTPs a suitable technology for air pretreatment upstream of water-based removal technologies, such as absorption columns and biofilters.     

Chemical and microbiological soil properties in organic and conventional management systems of Coffea arabica L.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic (OS) and conventional (CS) farming of Arabica coffee on chemical and microbiological soil properties and to identify which attributes correlate and/or contribute to distinguishing these two management systems. We collected soil samples on a 100 × 100 m² grid in both, the OS and CS, in winter and summer and submitted chemical and microbiological properties to univariate and multivariate analyses (canonical discriminant analysis – CDA – and redundancy analysis – RDA). The best indicators to discriminate OS and CS were chemical and microbiological properties, as the elements calcium (Ca) and boron (B), besides microbial biomass carbon (MBC), metabolic quotient (qCO₂), acid phosphatase (ACP), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). The RDA showed that, regardless of the season, MBC and ACP correlated with nitrogen (N), sulfur (S) and organic matter (OM), whereas basal respiration (C-CO₂) and ACP correlated with qCO₂ and with magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and pH.     

IgE-Mediated Cross-Reactivity among Leguminous Seed Proteins in Peanut Allergic Children

The immunological cross-reactivity among major protein- and oil-crops, including lupin, lentil, pea, peanut, kidney bean and soybean, has been studied by a combination of in vitro and in vivo experimental approaches: SDS-PAGE separations of legume protein extracts and immuno-blot revelations with 12 peanut-sensitive subjects’ sera, Immuno-CAP and Skin Prick tests on the same subjects. The immuno-blotting data showed a wide range of IgE-binding responses both displayed by one subject towards different plant extracts and among subjects. Differences were both quantitative and qualitative. The prevalent responses of most subjects’ sera were seen with peanut polypeptides, as expected, as well as with various polypeptides of the other legumes, the most recurrent of which were the basic subunits of the 11S globulins. The distribution of in vivo responses generally paralleled those obtained by in vitro approaches with strong responses elicited by peanut, lentil and pea protein extracts, especially by most sensitive subjects, thus providing a consistent overall set of results. In this work, the comparison of various approaches has allowed us to get an overall broad picture of the immunological cross-reactivities among proteins of widely used different seed species and to hypothesize the role of most conserved specific polypeptides.     

Antioxidants profile of small tomato fruits: Effect of irrigation and industrial process

Carotenoids and flavonoids are the main tomatoes antioxidants, having an important role for human health. This study investigates the effects of different water regime and of the industrial processing on the concentration of these compounds in tomato fruits and in tomato products. Two biotypes of Corbarini small tomatoes were cultivated in the Sarno valley (Salerno, Italy) using three different water regimes. A biochemical characterization of the fresh and of the corresponding canned products was performed. Results show that water regime influenced the antioxidant profile of tomato fruits, with marked differences between the two biotypes. Data obtained highlight that water regime markedly influenced the productivity and the quality of the tomatoes. Results also demonstrated that industrial process increased carotenoids content without causing a significant flavonoids degradation.     

Genetic monitoring of deep‐water exploited banks of the precious Sardinia coral Corallium rubrum (L., 1758): useful data for a sustainable management

相似文献   

Characterization and antioxidant potential of Brazilian fruits from the Myrtaceae family

The objective of this study is to evaluating the Brazilian biodiversity through physicochemical characterization and determination of antioxidant potential of three species from the Myrtaceae family, namely yellow guava (Psidium cattleyanum Sabine), guabiroba (Campomanesia xanthocarpa O. Berg), and uvaia ( Eugenia pyriformis Cambess). Guabiroba had the greater quantity of phenolic compounds (9033 mg chlorogenic acid/100 g) and vitamin C (30.58 mg/g) and showed the best TSS/TTA (total soluble solid/total titratable acid) ratio (45.12). For the ABTS (2,2-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic) method, the guabiroba (507.49 μM Trolox/g) presented the highest antioxidant potential; however, in the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) method, uvaia (170.26 g/g DPPH) and guabiroba (161.29 g/g DPPH) were not statistically different. The uvaia outranked the other fruits with respect to its high carotenoid (909.33 μg/g) and vitamin A (37.83 μg/g) contents, and the yellow guava, although showing a lower bioactive compound content and antioxidant activity, nevertheless presented much higher values than many traditionally consumed fruits.     

Optimization of a method based on the simultaneous measurement of acoustic and mechanical properties of winegrape seeds for the determination of the ripening stage

An instrumental texture analysis method has been optimized for the differentiation of grape ripening stages based on the simultaneous determination of mechanical and acoustic parameters of the seeds. Two factorial central composite design was used to optimize the most influencing operative conditions (speed and deformation) on mechanical and acoustic measurements. This experimental design in combination with response surface methodology showed that the most responsive parameters to changes in seeds during ripening were Young's modulus of elasticity, many acoustic parameters measured with instrumental gain set to 0 (acoustic energy, linear distance, and number of peaks) and others measured at 24 dB gain (linear distance, number of peaks, and average pressure level). However, the optimal operative conditions depended on the texture parameter used. A correlation study between texture parameters and phenolic compounds of the seeds revealed that acoustic parameters like the average pressure level could be proposed as phenolic maturity indices.     

Genome-wide analysis of plastome sequence variation and development of plastidial CAPS markers in common potato and related <Emphasis Type="Italic">Solanum</Emphasis> species

The plastome sequence of the European cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum (tbr, GenBank accession no. DQ386163), was compared with that of S. bulbocastanum, a wild potato relative (blb, GenBank accession no. DQ347958), in order to characterize the degree and type of variability in different genomic regions, and develop molecular markers relevant to genetics, breeding and biotechnology of potato. One hundred forty-two and 251 PICs (Potentially Informative Characters) were found in coding and non-coding sequences (NCSs), respectively. Further, while variation in coding regions was almost exclusively due to nucleotide substitutions, 25% of PICs in NCSs of tbr and blb were due to indels, most of them mononucleotide or longer tandem repeats (micro and minisatellites). Four intergenic regions were selected for further analyses in other 16 tuber-bearing Solanum species. The rps16-trnQ ^UUG gene spacer was found to be the most variable, forty-six PICs in this region distinguishing 18 haplotypes. Analysis of haplotype relationships, based on variability in the four intergenic regions, confirmed that the most primitive species from Central America were the most distant to S. tuberosum. Finally, polymorphic sites in the same regions were used to develop a set of CAPS (Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequences) markers for species/cytoplasm identification in Solanum spp.