Currently, 24 species of Encotyllabe Diesing, 1850 (Monogenea: Capsalidae), are recorded as parasites on teleost fishes, but the validity of many species has been questioned due to deficient or ...incomplete descriptions. Almost all species in the genus have been described from one host species or closely related host species, suggesting host specificity, but some species, specifically Encotyllabe spari Yamaguti, 1934, have been reported from at least 19 species belonging to nine families in two orders (Perciformes and Scorpaeniformes) from Japan, Arabian Gulf and Brazil. Concerning Brazilian records of Encotyllabe spari and Encotyllabe cf. spari, seven species belonging to four families and two orders have been reported as hosts for this species. The aim of this study was to describe two new species of Encotyllabe from Brazil, previously considered as E. spari. Morphological and morphometric (multivariate analysis of proportional measurements standardized by total length) and molecular analysis (LSU rRNA and cox1 gene) were performed in order to identify the collected monogeneans. The description of two new species, namely Encotyllabe bifurcatum n. sp. and Encotyllabe parvum n. sp., parasitizing Pagrus pagrus and Orthopristis ruber, respectively, is the result of the three approaches. The main morphological differences from the most related species include a combination of body size, shape of the male copulatory organ, size and position of the testes. Our results suggest host specificity for members of Encotyllabe and specimens previously recorded as E. spari, other than those from the original description, must be revisited.
Antioxidant and antithrombotic activities of microencapsulated brewers’ spent grain peptides (BSGH‐C) after simulated gastrointestinal digestion (SGID) and the in vivo properties using a model of ...growing Wistar rats fed with sucrose‐rich diet (SRD) were determined. Microencapsulation reduced the cleavage of peptides (66.5 vs. 39.2%), partially preserved the in vitro antioxidant activity (ABTS+ inhibition and FRAP) and reduced the in vitro antithrombotic activity. SRD diet produced a pro‐oxidant and pro‐thrombotic systemic environment in rats, which was reversed by the consumption of BSGH‐C. A positive correlation between in vitro antioxidant and antithrombotic activity of BSGH‐C after SGID with the respective in vivo effects observed in rats fed BSGH‐C (r = 0.9997 and r = 0.9411, respectively) was established. The goodness of both, the in vitro models determining bioactive properties after SGID, and the microencapsulation protecting the peptides from gastrointestinal environment were demonstrated. Thus, it was possible to produce microcapsules with bioavailable bioactive BSG peptides.
In vitro and in vivo antithrombotic and antioxidant properties of microencapsulated brewers’ spent grain peptides.
We present new near-infrared spectroscopic measurements of the H beta region for a sample of 29 luminous high-redshift quasars. We have measured the width of H beta in those sources and added ...archival H beta width measurements to create a sample of 92 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) for which H beta width and rest-frame UV measurements of N V lambda 1240 and C IV lambda 1549 emission lines are available. Our sample spans 6 orders of magnitude in luminosity and includes 31 radio-loud AGNs. It also includes 10 narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and one broad absorption line quasar. We find that metallicity, indicated by the N V/C IV line ratio, is primarily correlated with accretion rate, which is a function of luminosity and H beta line width. This may imply an intimate relation between starbursts, responsible for the metal enrichment of the nuclear gas, and AGN fueling, represented by the accretion rate. The correlation of metallicity with luminosity, or black hole (BH) mass, is weaker in contrast to recent results that were based on measurements of the width of C IV. We argue that using C IV as a proxy to H beta in estimating M sub(BH) might be problematic and lead to spurious BH mass and accretion rate estimates in individual sources. We discuss the potential implications of our new result in the framework of the starburst-AGN connection and theories of BH growth.
We have investigated the relevant trend of the bolometric correction (BC) at the cool-temperature regime of red giant stars and its possible dependence on stellar metallicity. Our analysis relies on ...a wide sample of optical–infrared spectroscopic observations, along the 3500 Å⇒ 2.5 μm wavelength range, for a grid of 92 red giant stars in five (three globular + two open) Galactic clusters, along the full metallicity range covered by the bulk of the stars, −2.2 ≤Fe/H≤+0.4. Synthetic BVRCIC JHK photometry from the derived spectral energy distributions allowed us to obtain robust temperature (Teff) estimates for each star, within ±100 K or less. According to the appropriate temperature estimate, blackbody extrapolation of the observed spectral energy distribution allowed us to assess the unsampled flux beyond the wavelength limits of our survey. For the bulk of our red giants, this fraction amounted to 15 per cent of the total bolometric luminosity, a figure that raises up to 30 per cent for the coolest targets (Teff≲ 3500 K). Overall, we obtain stellar Mbol values with an internal accuracy of a few percentages. Even neglecting any correction for lost luminosity etc., we would be overestimating Mbol by ≲0.3 mag, in the worst cases. Making use of our new data base, we provide a set of fitting functions for the V and K BC versus Teff and versus (B−V) and (V−K) broad-band colours, valid over the interval 3300 ≤Teff≤ 5000 K, especially suited for red giants. The analysis of the BCV and BCK estimates along the wide range of metallicity spanned by our stellar sample shows no evident drift with Fe/H. Things may be different for the B-band correction, where the blanketing effects are more and more severe. A drift of Δ(B−V) versus Fe/H is in fact clearly evident from our data, with metal-poor stars displaying a ‘bluer’(B−V) with respect to the metal-rich sample, for fixed Teff. Our empirical bolometric corrections are in good overall agreement with most of the existing theoretical and observational determinations, supporting the conclusion that (a) BCK from the most recent studies are reliable within ≲±0.1 over the whole colour/temperature range considered in this paper, and (b) the same conclusion apply to BCV only for stars warmer than ≃3800 K. At cooler temperatures the agreement is less general, and MARCS models are the only ones providing a satisfactory match to observations, in particular in the BCV versus (B−V) plane.
Zebrafish is an in vivo model used in toxicology to estimate the effects of xenobiotics and their teratogenic consequences. The knowledge of the oxysterols profile in zebrafish, during early ...embryonic stages, provides important information on the role and biological function of these molecules. This work reports the development and validation of a LC-MS/MS method for the determination of 7 different oxysterols in zebrafish embryos. Sample was treated with a combination of liquid/liquid extraction (LLE) followed by micro solid phase extraction (μSPE) clean-up in order to remove matrix interference and obtain a suitable enrichment factor of the analytes. The method was validated on 2 different embryos growing stages, 3–4 and 24 h post fertilization (hpf), as slight differences in terms of recovery and matrix effect were shown. The validation results provided good accuracy (bias ≤17%; 20% at LOQ) and repeatability (≤15%; ≤19% at LOQ), with low LOQs in the range 22 and 65 pg on 100 embryos sample, without any analyte derivatization, demonstrating the suitability of this analytical method as a useful tool to understand the correlation between oxysterols profile and developmental abnormalities induced by xenobiotic exposure.
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•Determination of Oxysterols in Zebrafish Embryos by HPLC-MS/MS.•Sample treatment by combination of LLE and μSPE.•Selective chromatographic separation in a short time.•Validation data demonstrated the suitability for the specific analytical needs.•Different behaviour of oxysterols depending with the hydroxylation site.
The development of visual sensors for traffic analysis can benefit from mimicking two fundamental aspects of the visual system of crabs: their panoramic vision and their visual processing strategy ...adapted to a flat world. First, the use of omnidirectional cameras in urban environments allows for analyzing the simultaneous movement of many objects of interest over broad areas. This would reduce the costs and complications associated with infrastructure: installation, synchronization, maintenance, and operation of traditional vision systems that use multiple cameras with a limited field of view. Second, in urban traffic analysis, the objects of interest (e.g. vehicles and pedestrians) move on the ground surface. This constraint allows the calculation of the 3D trajectory of the vehicles using a single camera without the need to use binocular vision techniques.The main contribution of this work is to show that the strategy used by crabs to visually analyze their habitat (monocular omnidirectional vision with the assumption of a flat world ) is useful for developing a simple and effective method to estimate the speed of vehicles on long trajectories in urban environments. It is shown that the proposed method estimates the speed with a root mean squared error of 2.7 km h
.
Natural Killer (NK) cells are among the first effectors to directly contact influenza and influenza-infected cells and their activation affects not only their intrinsic functions, but also subsequent ...CD8
T cell responses. We utilized a NK cell depletion model to interrogate the contribution of NK cells to the development of anti-influenza CD8
T cell memory. NK cell ablation increased the number of influenza-specific memory CD8
T cells in the respiratory tract and lung-draining lymph node. Interestingly, animals depleted of NK cells during primary influenza infection were protected as well as their NK-intact counterparts despite significantly fewer reactivated CD8
T cells infiltrating the respiratory tract after lethal, heterosubtypic challenge. Instead, protection in NK-deficient animals seems to be conferred by rapid reactivation of an enlarged pool of lung tissue-resident (T
) memory cells within two days post challenge. Further interrogation of how NK cell ablation enhances respiratory T
indicated that T
development is independent of global and NK cell derived IFN-γ. These data suggest that reduction in NK cell activation after vaccination with live, non-lethal influenza virus increases compartmentalized, broadly protective memory CD8
T cell generation and decreases the risk of CD8
T cell-mediated pathology following subsequent influenza infections.
The International Society of Urological Pathology held a conference devoted to issues in testicular and penile pathology in Boston in March 2015, which included a presentation and discussion led by ...the testis microscopic features working group. This conference focused on controversies related to staging and reporting of testicular tumors and was preceded by an online survey of the International Society of Urological Pathology members. The survey results were used to initiate discussions, but decisions were made by expert consensus rather than voting. A number of recommendations emerged from the conference, including that lymphovascular invasion (LVI) should always be reported and no distinction need be made between lymphatic or blood invasion. If LVI is equivocal, then it should be regarded as negative to avoid triggering unnecessary therapy. LVI in the spermatic cord is considered as category pT2, not pT3, unless future studies provide contrary evidence. At the time of gross dissection, a block should be taken just superior to the epididymis to define the base of the spermatic cord, and direct invasion of tumor in this block indicates a category of pT3. Pagetoid involvement of the rete testis epithelium must be distinguished from rete testis stromal invasion, with only the latter being prognostically useful. Percentages of different tumor elements in mixed germ cell tumors should be reported. Although consensus was reached on many issues, there are still areas of practice that need further evidence on which to base firm recommendations.
Classification methods based on Gaussian Markov Measure Field Models and other probabilistic approaches have to face the problem of construction of the likelihood. Typically, in these methods, the ...likelihood is computed from 1D or 3D histograms. However, when the number of information sources grows, as in the case of satellite images, the histogram construction becomes more difficult due to the high dimensionality of the feature space. In this work, we propose a generalization of Gaussian Markov Measure Field Models and provide a probabilistic segmentation scheme, which fuses multiple information sources for image segmentation. In particular, we apply the general model to classify types of crops in satellite images. The proposed method allows us to combine several feature spaces. For this purpose, the method requires prior information for building a 3D histogram for each considered feature space. Based on previous histograms, we can compute the likelihood of each site of the image to belong to a class. The computed likelihoods are the main input of the proposed algorithm and are combined in the proposed model using a contrast criteria. Different feature spaces are analyzed, among them are 6 spectral bands from LANDSAT 5 TM, 3 principal components from PCA on 6 spectral bands and 3 principal components from PCA applied on 10 vegetation indices. The proposed algorithm was applied to a real image and obtained excellent results in comparison to different classification algorithms used in crop classification.
Aims. The Scutum complex in the inner disk of the Galaxy has a number of young star clusters dominated by red supergiants that are heavily obscured by dust extinction and observable only at infrared ...wavelengths. These clusters are important tracers of the recent star formation and chemical enrichment history in the inner Galaxy. Methods. During the technical commissioning and as a first science verification of the GIANO spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, we secured high-resolution (R ≃ 50 000) near-infrared spectra of five red supergiants in the young Scutum cluster RSGC3. Results. Taking advantage of the full YJHK spectral coverage of GIANO in a single exposure, we were able to measure several tens of atomic and molecular lines that were suitable for determining chemical abundances. By means of spectral synthesis and line equivalent width measurements, we obtained abundances of Fe and iron-peak elements such as Ni, Cr, and Cu, alpha (O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti), other light elements (C, N, F, Na, Al, and Sc), and some s-process elements (Y, Sr). We found average half-solar iron abundances and solar-scaled X/Fe abundance patterns for most of the elements, consistent with a thin-disk chemistry. We found depletion of C/Fe and enhancement of N/Fe, consistent with standard CN burning, and low 12C /13C abundance ratios (between 9 and 11), which require extra-mixing processes in the stellar interiors during the post-main sequence evolution. We also found local standard of rest VLSR = 106 km s-1 and heliocentric Vhel = 90 km s-1 radial velocities with a dispersion of 2.3 km s-1. Conclusions. The inferred radial velocities, abundances, and abundance patterns of RSGC3 are very similar to those previously measured in the other two young clusters of the Scutum complex, RSGC1 and RSGC2, suggesting a common kinematics and chemistry within the Scutum complex.
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