Interactions between different media and follicle‐stimulating hormone supplementation on in vitro culture of preantral follicles enclosed in ovarian tissue derived from collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu Linneaus, 1758)

The aim was to verify the effect of follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) supplementation to α‐MEM+ or TCM199+ media on the in vitro development of ovarian preantral follicles (PFs) derived from collared peccaries. Ovaries (n = 5 pairs) were collected and divided into fragments destined to control group (non‐cultured) or treatments that were cultured for 7 days. The PFs morphology, growth and activation were evaluated by classical histology. The immunohistochemistry markers Ag‐NOR and PCNA were used for nuclear proliferation analysis, and the picrosirius red labelling was used for ovarian extracellular matrix (ECM) evaluation. After 7‐day culture, only the TCM199+ treatment maintained the proportion of intact PFs similar to day 1 (63.2%), but no differences were found among treatments (p > .05). In addition, a significant increase in the growing follicles proportion was verified for all the treatments, indicating follicular activation (p > .05). By the Ag‐NOR analysis, only the TCM199+/FSH maintained the nuclear proliferation similar to the first day (p > .05). The picrosirius red staining revealed that the ECM remained intact in all the treatments (p > .05). We suggest the use of TCM199+ medium supplemented of FSH for the in vitro development of peccaries PFs under 7‐day culturing conditions.     

Salt domes: is there more energy available from their salt than from their oil?

Calculations indicate that a typical oil-bearing salt dome along the Gulf Coast of the United States contains more energy in its salt than is present in its oil. The magnitude of the potential salinity gradient energy is even greater when all of the salt domes are considered.     

Salinity gradient power: utilizing vapor pressure differences

By utilizing the vapor pressure difference between high-salinity and lowsalinity wvater, one can obtain power from the gradients of salinity. This scheme eliminates the major problems associated with conversion methods in which membranes are used. The method we tested gave higher conversion efficiencies than membrane methods. Furthermore, hardware and techniques being developed for ocean thermal energy conversion may be applied to this approach to salinity gradient energy conversion.