Polyculture of Freshwater Angelfish Pterophyllum scalare and Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in low‐salinity water

In this study, we evaluated the production potential of the polyculture of Freshwater Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare, Cichlidae) and Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). Two experimental trials were set up. The first trial entailed the use of a randomized design to investigate three treatments options: angelfish monoculture, shrimp monoculture, and fish and shrimp polyculture in 12 experimental 15 m² ponds. In the second trial, we investigated two treatments (polyculture of caged fish and uncaged fish) in 10 experimental units. In trial 1, polyculture negatively affected fish growth and survival. However, fish did not affect shrimp growth and the greatest profit was achieved in polyculture. In trial 2, caging fish improve the growth of both fish and shrimp. An economic analysis showed the greatest profit and benefit cost ratio for caged fish compared with uncaged fish. We conclude that growing P. scalare and L. vannamei together is a better strategy than shrimp monoculture in low‐salinity water. The use of caged fish in such a polyculture operation would enhance productivity and profitability.     

Use of fourier transform near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy for rapid quantification of castor bean meal in a selection of flour-based products

Methodology was developed and evaluated for the rapid detection of castor bean meal (CBM) containing the toxic protein ricin by using Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy and multivariate techniques. The method is intended to be a prototype to develop a more general approach to detect food tampering. Measurements were made on an FT-NIR system using a diffuse reflection-integrating sphere. Flours spiked with caffeine, crystalline sugar, and corn meal, 1-20% w/w, were used as test articles to evaluate the methodologies. Food matrices (bleached flour, wheat flour, and blueberry pancake mix) spiked with CBM (0.5-8% w/w) were analyzed. Multiplicative scatter correction transformed partial least-squares regression models, using a specific NIR spectral region, predicted CBM contamination in foods with a standard error of cross-validation of <0.6% and a coefficient of determination (R(2)) of >94%. Models discriminated between flour samples contaminated with CBM and other protein sources (egg white, soybean meal, tofu, and infant formula). CBM had loading spectra with bands characteristic of amide groups (4880 and 4555 cm(-1)) and lipids (5800, 5685, 4340, and 4261 cm(-1)).     

Performance of nitrification inhibitors with different nitrogen fertilizers and soil textures

Nitrification inhibitors (NIs), DCD (dicyandiamide), and DMPP (3,4‐dimethylpyrazole phosphate), in combination with urea (UR) and ammonium sulfate nitrate (ASN) fertilizers were studied under contrasting soil textures (sand, loam, and clay) from cultivated soils collected in Brazil and Germany. Soil samples were incubated over 50 days and the content of ammonium ( ), nitrate ( ), and soil pH were measured periodically. Applied NIs delayed the nitrification process across all soil textures. Correlation analysis indicated that combining ASN with NIs resulted in higher content and efficiency in delaying the nitrification process with high N‐conversion rate (r = –0.82). The combination of ASN+ DMPP increased the efficiency of the N‐conversion rate (r = –0.86) due to H⁺ release in soil, while UR+DCD (r = –0.50) had an efficiency of the N‐conversion rate similar to UR (r = –0.42). All the NIs had a better performance in reducing formation in sandy soils as compared to the loam and clay textured soils. Use of DMPP with an N fertilizer results in a soil pH decrease and can be an option to increase the efficiency of the N‐conversion rate, reducing N losses in soil. Overall, our results suggest that NIs have a better performance in reducing formation in sandy soils as compared to that of the loam and clay textured soils. Use of DMPP with ASN results in a soil pH decrease and can be an option to reduce N losses in soil.     

Use of Hydrodynamic Cavitation for Algae Removal: Effect on the Inactivation of Microalgae Belonging to Genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Scenedesmus</Emphasis>

Excessive algae growth has generated conflicts on the use of water supplies; therefore, the focus on new technologies to remove algae from water bodies is demanding. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of hydrodynamic cavitation on the inactivation of microalgae belonging to genus Scenedesmus. A laboratory-scale experimental apparatus was built in order to accomplish this goal; it consisted of a Venturi device designed to generate the cavitation phenomenon. Suspended microalgae samples were treated for 60 minutes under different cavitation intensities (cavitation number—Cv—ranging from 0.17 to 0.27). Results evidenced that microalgae decay over time can be modeled through first-order kinetics. The maximum removal efficiency (85%) was recorded at the highest cavitation intensity (Cv?=?0.17). The removal efficiency decreased as the cavitation number increased. Hydrodynamic cavitation was effective in inactivating Scenedesmus; it produced irreversible damages to cell morphology such as flotation spines removal, cell wall lesions, cytoplasm extravasation, and cavity formation. Assumingly, hydrodynamic cavitation has great potential to treat eutrophic water bodies. Furthermore, it represents a sustainable removal technique, since it does not produce secondary pollution.     

Impact of Degree of Ionization and PEGylation on the Stability of Nanoparticles of Chitosan Derivatives at Physiological Conditions

Nowadays, the therapeutic efficiency of small interfering RNAs (siRNA) is still limited by the efficiency of gene therapy vectors capable of carrying them inside the target cells. In this study, siRNA nanocarriers based on low molecular weight chitosan grafted with increasing proportions (5 to 55%) of diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA) groups were developed, which allowed precise control of the degree of ionization of the polycations at pH 7.4. This approach made obtaining siRNA nanocarriers with small sizes (100–200 nm), positive surface charge and enhanced colloidal stability (up to 24 h) at physiological conditions of pH (7.4) and ionic strength (150 mmol L⁻¹) possible. Moreover, the PEGylation improved the stability of the nanoparticles, which maintained their colloidal stability and nanometric sizes even in an albumin-containing medium. The chitosan-derivatives displayed non-cytotoxic effects in both fibroblasts (NIH/3T3) and macrophages (RAW 264.7) at high N/P ratios and polymer concentrations (up to 0.5 g L⁻¹). Confocal microscopy showed a successful uptake of nanocarriers by RAW 264.7 macrophages and a promising ability to silence green fluorescent protein (GFP) in HeLa cells. These results were confirmed by a high level of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) knockdown (higher than 60%) in LPS-stimulated macrophages treated with the siRNA-loaded nanoparticles even in the FBS-containing medium, findings that reveal a good correlation between the degree of ionization of the polycations and the physicochemical properties of nanocarriers. Overall, this study provides an approach to enhance siRNA condensation by chitosan-based carriers and highlights the potential of these nanocarriers for in vivo studies.     

Nitric oxide reduces oxidative stress generated by lactofen in soybean plants

Nitric oxide (NO) is a molecule able to directly scavenge ROS and end chain reactions, which can be generated by some herbicides. This study aimed to evaluate whether the pretreatment of soybean plants with sodium nitroprusside (SNP) solution, a NO-donor substance, provides protection against oxidative stress generated by lactofen. Soybean plants were pretreated with SNP before lactofen application. The levels of lipoperoxides and photosynthetic pigments were quantified, and the activity of the antioxidant enzymes glutathione S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) was assessed. Although lipid peroxidation was not completely prevented, NO was able to scavenge ROS generated by the lactofen action, avoiding the photosynthetic pigment breakdown. Consequently, ROS scavenging by NO leads to a decrease in the available substrate for the antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT, and POD, which are essential to protect plants under oxidative stress situations such as absence of GST induction by H₂O₂.     

Fleets of robots for environmentally-safe pest control in agriculture

Feeding the growing global population requires an annual increase in food production. This requirement suggests an increase in the use of pesticides, which represents an unsustainable chemical load for the environment. To reduce pesticide input and preserve the environment while maintaining the necessary level of food production, the efficiency of relevant processes must be drastically improved. Within this context, this research strived to design, develop, test and assess a new generation of automatic and robotic systems for effective weed and pest control aimed at diminishing the use of agricultural chemical inputs, increasing crop quality and improving the health and safety of production operators. To achieve this overall objective, a fleet of heterogeneous ground and aerial robots was developed and equipped with innovative sensors, enhanced end-effectors and improved decision control algorithms to cover a large variety of agricultural situations. This article describes the scientific and technical objectives, challenges and outcomes achieved in three common crops.     

Bacterial community of pond's water,sediment and in the guts of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) juveniles characterized by fluorescent in situ hybridization technique

Information about bacterial community structure and functioning in fish farming ponds remains scarce, mainly due to methodological difficulties in counting and identifying uncultured bacteria. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the degree of similarity between the bacterial community of the digestive tract of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) juveniles and that of the test pond's water and sediment, using the Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) technique. Samples of water, sediment and gut content of 30 tilapia juveniles from a single nursery ground were collected in January 2010. Potentially probiotic and pathogenic bacteria of the species Bacillus, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus collinoides, Lactobacillus coryniformis, Lactobacillus farciminis, Vibrio and Pseudomonas fluorescens were found in different samples using specific fluorescent probes. The similarity between bacterial community environments and gastrointestinal tracts was determined using the Morisita‐Horn index. The fish guts presented higher abundances of Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus, Lactobacillus brevis and Lactobacillus collinoides. The bacterial community composition of tilapia gastrointestinal tract was more similar to the water than the sediment of the pond. The results of this study showed that the FISH technique can be easily used for monitoring of probiotics and pathogen detection in aquaculture systems.     

Screening and characterization of sex-specific DNA fragments in the freshwater fish matrinchã, Brycon amazonicus (Teleostei: Characiformes: Characidae)

The matrinch? Brycon amazonicus, a commercially important freshwater fish resource, has no heteromorphic sex chromosomes so far described. In the present study, we performed a screening of sex-associated DNA markers in this species, through the use of a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay and a genomic DNA restriction digestion analysis. DNA digestions evidenced no differences between sexes. Sixty-six random primers were used in pooled and individual DNA samples of males and females, and the analysis of the RAPD fingerprints revealed one female sex-associated band. Cloning and sequencing of this band led to the identification of two distinct DNA segments. While one of the isolated fragments showed a significant identity with a described protein gene (phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class W), the other fragment, composed of 535?bp, corresponds to a novel DNA marker. Further experiments were performed with this second DNA fragment in order to verify its sex-specificity. Data on dot blot hybridization, using total DNA of both sexes, confirmed its female-specificity in B. amazonicus. A primer set was designed based on its sequence data and used in PCR with DNA samples of this species, leading to diagnose the animals' sexes with a 100?% overall accuracy through a sequence characterized amplified region approach. No amplification results were found for two other species of the genus-B. orbignyanus and B. lundii. The obtained data can lead to the hypothesis that B. amazonicus may present heteromorphic sex chromosomes that should be in an early phase of differentiation.     

Biological and ecological traits of Bathynomus giganteus and Bathynomus miyarei (Crustacea: Isopoda): Contribution to the conservation of deep-sea in southern Brazil

1. This study aimed to determine biological and distributional aspects of deep-sea giant isopods Bathynomus giganteus and Bathynomus miyarei to assess their extinction risk.
2. Bathynomus giganteus (663 specimens) and B. miyarei (649 specimens) were collected during five research cruises involving 265 h of sampling effort during 32 fishing operations of circular pots, baited traps, ranging from 400 and 1,000 m deep, between 26 and 29°S adjacent to the Brazilian coast.
3. A trend towards larger, sexually mature animals in shallower regions was observed for both species, and depth was the most important environmental variable influencing the animals’ distribution.
4. Bathynomus giganteus were collected between 600 m and 1,000 m depth, while the highest densities of B. miyarei were at shallower depths, between 400 and 600 m.
5. The sex ratio was equal for both B. giganteus and B. miyarei for different seasons, latitudes and bathymetries.
6. The sexual maturity of B. giganteus was estimated at 340–345 mm total length for males and between 280–290 mm for females. Bathynomus miyarei males’ sexual maturity was estimated in the 225–230 mm size class.
7. Bathynomus giganteus showed reproductive activity throughout the year.
8. The longevity of B. giganteus was estimated at 6 years for males and 7.7 years for females. The longevity of B. miyarei was estimated at 9 years for males and 6 years for females.
9. Extinction risk assessment for B. giganteus, which has a greater latitudinal and bathymetric distribution, was evaluated as Least Concern. However, B. miyarei was evaluated in the Data Deficient category.