•Main mechanical properties of sheep wool fibers.•The dependency of the properties from the fibers’ diameter was investigated.•Results were statistically analyzed using a modified Weibull ...distribution.•SWF appear suitable as reinforcement for eco-friendly materials.•A sustainable valorisation could be improved by minimizing livestock wastes.
The paper proposes the use of Sheep wool fibers (SWF) deriving from the fleece of domestic sheep (“Valle del Belice” from Sicily) as reinforcement for rammed earth building components. Addition of natural fibers to the mix design of earth-based building materials allows to improve their tensile strength, ductility, impact resistance, toughness, and to reduce drying shrinkage. To this aim, an experimental campaign on more than 180 fibers has been carried out, determining the main mechanical properties of interest for their use as reinforcement. Since wool is highly hydrophilic, three different conditioning programs (wet, dry and an intermediate condition) were compared, in order to get useful information about the preservation of the mechanical properties in wet environments like those present in lime mixes. The dependency of the properties from the fibers’ diameter was investigated, and the results were statistically analyzed using a modified Weibull distribution as function of the fiber diameters, finding a strong correlation with the mechanical properties.
The use of natural fibers as reinforcement could enhance the environmental sustainability of the building components, especially when natural fibers are obtained from agricultural wastes deriving from sheep of low-quality wool not used in the textile industry and that must be disposed of in landfills.
•The study discriminated cow feeding behaviour from standing one.•A novel classifier based on acceleration thresholds was trained and tested.•The acceleration thresholds were statistically ...determined.•Classifier was implemented in sensor-based system with 4Hz-sampling frequency.•Classifier accuracy was higher compared to other literature studies.
Change in feeding behaviour is one of the indicators useful to help identifying when animals become ill. The need to analyse a large number of animals at a time due to the increase in the herd dimension in intensive farming has led to the use of automated systems. Among automated systems, inertial sensor-based systems have been utilised to distinguish behavioural patterns in livestock animals.
In this study, a new approach based on statistical analyses of accelerometer data, which were collected from wearable sensors fixed at the cow’s collar, was defined and developed in order to define thresholds suitable for real-time classification of cow feeding and standing behavioural activity. The obtained classifier could be implemented within a software tool of a movement sensor-based system composed of low-cost devices. Accuracy of the classification was assessed by computing specific indicators: Misclassification Rate, Sensitivity, Precision, Specificity, Quality Percentage, Branching Factor, and Miss Factor. The results showed that the classifier produced the following values of the indicators: 5.56%, 93.33%, 95.45%, 95.56%, 89.36%, 0.05, and 0.07, respectively.
The proposed threshold-based classifier allows for monitoring individual cows automatically and continuously and it is suitable for Real Time Computing Applications, since it does not require high computational time and resources.
•The study contributes to fill the gap of available models for cow oestrus detection.•An algorithm for cow oestrus detection from accelerometer data was defined.•Uniaxial-threshold was computed for ...cow oestrus detection in a free-stall barn.•Threshold-based algorithms could be used in plug-and-play cow monitoring systems.
In precision livestock farming, accelerometers have been adopted to recognise cow’s behavioural activities with the final aim of generating early alarm of illness or specific physiological statuses. Accelerometers are widely used for their low cost and easy integration with other ICT devices and, when they are adopted to acquire data for cow’s behavioural activities recognition, models based on acceleration threshold values make it possible to obtain low computational classifiers.
In this study, a model based on an acceleration threshold algorithm is proposed in order to detect cow’s oestrus activity. In detail, a threshold to predict oestrus onset was determined based on experimental data acquired during specific experimental tests carried out in a free-stall barn for dairy cows. Oestrus onset was validated by using images from a video-recording system. Novelty in the results achieved in this study regards the model features that are suitable for the production of a plug-and-play cow’s behaviour monitoring system based on specific firmware-equipped devices.
The industrial demand for proteolytic enzymes is stimulating the search for new enzyme sources. Fungal enzymes are preferred over bacterial enzymes, and more effective and easier to extract. The aim ...of this work was to evaluate the potential of protease production by solid state fermentation (SSF) of Mucor subtilissimus UCP 1262, evaluate different specific activities, purify and partially characterize the enzyme in terms of biochemical as to the optimal pH and temperature. Initially, the enzyme crude extract was screened for 3 different proteolytic activities, collagenolytic (161.4 U/mL), keratinolytic (39.6 U/mL) and fibrinolytic (26.1 U/mL) in addition to conventional proteinase activity. After ammonium sulfate precipitation, the active fractions with fibrinolytic activity were dialyzed in 15 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 8, loaded onto DEAE-Sephadex A50 ion-exchange column and gel filtrated through Superdex 75 HR10/300. The enzyme showed a fibrinolytic maximum activity at 40 C and pH 9,0. The purified enzyme showed activity against a chromogenic chymotrypsin substrate, SDS-PAGE showing a molecular mass of approximately 70 kDa and, the specific activity of 25.93 U/mg. These characteristics suggest that the enzyme could be and efficiently produced in a simple and low-cost way using Mucor subtilissimus UCP 1262 in SSF.
•A UWB RTLS was installed in a free-stall barn to acquire locations of dairy cows.•Rectified top-view images of barn allowed visual recognition of cows’ true positions.•Software were specially ...designed to assess tag positions provided by the RTLS.•RTLS localisation and identification performances were evaluated and balanced.•This RTLS is suitable for cow behavioural indices computation and animal tracking.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the localisation and identification performances of a Real-Time Location System (RTLS) based on Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology within a semi-open free-stall barn since the conditions of the breeding environment were different from that of the ‘typical open environment’ used by the RTLS producer to test the system and the building characteristics were dissimilar to those of the indoor environments considered in other tests. Each dairy cow was equipped with an active tag applied to one ear and a reference tag was fixed to a pillar of the barn. A video-recording system was installed in the barn to perform the assessment of the RTLS. Top-view camera images of the area of the barn were rectified and synchronised with the RTLS. An operator validated each position of the cow computed by the RTLS by performing cow visual recognition on the camera images. To perform this validation a software specifically designed for the purpose was utilised. It is an automatic and interactive tool which includes selection and control tabs for data management, visualisation and labelling of the images with the aim of computing tag true positions.
RTLS localisation and identification performances were assessed by applying an outlier data cleaning technique to tag localisation errors and using precision and sensitivity indices. Trade-off between these performances was found through the computation of three performance metrics.
The combination between the outlier data cleaning technique and the trade-off analysis of RTLS performances yielded the localisation mean error that was computed by averaging the localisation errors of each tag. It was equal to about 0.11m with an identification accuracy of nearly 100% for the reference tag, whereas for the tags applied to the cows the average localisation mean error, computed by averaging the localisation mean errors of the tags, was about 0.515m with an identification accuracy of 98%. At the 90th percentile the average localisation mean error was about 0.967m for the cows’ tags, whereas it was about 0.17m for the reference tag. This RTLS could be used for studying some specific aspects of cow behaviour, since its performances would not affect the computation of some cow behavioural indices that do not require a high level of precision on the cow position.
In the considered barn environment the RTLS performances proved to be generally unrelated to cow behaviour, as it is observed for other systems.
Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental toxicant and an endocrine disruptor in humans and rodents. Several organs (e.g., kidney, liver) are affected by Cd and recent studies have illustrated that the testis ...is exceedingly sensitive to Cd toxicity. More important, Cd and other toxicants, such as heavy metals (e.g., lead, mercury) and estrogenic-based compounds (e.g., bisphenols) may account for the recent declining fertility in men among developed countries by reducing sperm count and testis function. In this review, we critically discuss recent data in the field that have demonstrated the Cd-induced toxicity to the testis is probably the result of interactions of a complex network of causes. This is likely to involve the disruption of the blood–testis barrier (BTB) via specific signal transduction pathways and signaling molecules, such as p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). We also summarize current studies on factors that confer and/or regulate the testis sensitivity to Cd, such as Cd transporters and metallothioneins, the impact of Cd on the testis as an endocrine disruptor and oxidative stress inducer, and how it may disrupt the Zn
2+ and/or Ca
2+ mediated cellular events. While much work is needed before a unified mechanistic pathway of Cd-induced testicular toxicity emerges, recent studies have helped to identify some of the likely mechanisms and/or events that take place during Cd-induced testis injury. Furthermore, some of the recent studies have shed lights on potential therapeutic or preventive approaches that can be developed in future studies by blocking or minimizing the destructive effects of Cd to testicular function in men.
•Improvement of data acquisition systems based on accelerometer devices.•Edge computing performed by Ruuvitag IoT devices and Raspberry PI.•Modified device firmware increased RuuviTag ...performances.•Ruuvitag reduced packet loss, performed data recovery, increased battery duration.•Acquisition system performance tested in laboratory and barn experiments.
Improved raw data handling is one of the requirements that research should fulfil in the design of IoT device-based data acquisition systems for enhancing the overall system performance. In this study, the system was composed of low-cost acceleration sensors broadcasting to a Raspberry PI.
The main aim of this study was to develop firmware for the acceleration sensors with the purpose of maximising the battery life-time and minimising the information loss during data transfer while allowing high accuracy in the discrimination of the cow lying-standing behaviour. The attainment of these goals was achieved by using an aggregated accelerometer variable, computed on-board of the IoT device, together with the idea of saving in the payload the most recent variables.
The comparisons conducted between the base firmware installed on the device and the new firmware developed showed the outstanding performance of the latter in terms of Raspberry PI CPU usage, storage memory occupation, and packet loss. The algorithms of lying-standing behaviour discrimination were implemented and assessed by using the new firmware, producing excellent values of the most used accuracy measures.
Reconstructing ancestral states for discrete characters is essential for understanding trait evolution in organisms. However, most existing methods are limited to individual characters and often ...overlook the hierarchical and interactive nature of traits. Recent advances in phylogenetics now offer the possibility of integrating knowledge from anatomy ontologies to reconstruct multiple discrete character histories. Nonetheless, practical applications that fully harness the potential of these new approaches are still lacking.
This paper introduces ontophylo, an R package that extends the PARAMO pipeline to address these limitations. Ontophylo enables the reconstruction of phenotypic entities composed of amalgamated characters, such as anatomical regions or entire phenomes. It offers three new applications: (1) reconstruction of evolutionary rates of amalgamated characters using phylogenetic non‐homogeneous Poisson process (pNHPP) that allows modelling rate variation across tree branches and time; (2) reconstruction of morphospace dynamics; and (3) visualization of evolutionary rates on vector images of organisms. Ontophylo incorporates ontological knowledge to facilitate these applications.
Benchmarking confirms the accuracy of pNHPP in estimating character rates under different evolutionary scenarios, and example applications demonstrate the utility of ontophylo in studying morphological evolution in Hymenoptera using simulated data.
Ontophylo can be easily integrated with other ontology‐oriented and general‐purpose R packages and offers new opportunities to examine morphological evolution on a phenomic scale using new and legacy data.
Copaiba oil is a natural product used by Amazonian populations and recognized for its medicinal properties because it has significant antimicrobial activity for several pathogenic microorganisms. The ...present work aimed to evaluate and characterize the effect of natural oil produced by copaiba - Copaifera multijuga against multiresistant isolates of bubaline mastitis. The nitrocefin test was performed with isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from bubaline mastitis, which were 100% positive for beta-lactamase enzyme detection. Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) of 25% to 3.12% was obtained for Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli and 50% and 25% for S. aureus, but Klebsiella pneumoniae and Bacillus subtilis were resistant. MBC with 12.5% and 6.25% oil were obtained for most multiresistant bubaline mastitis isolates from the states of Pernambuco, Ceará, Bahia and Alagoas. The results demonstrated the great potential of using copaiba natural oil in the treatment of buffalo mastitis.
It is notorious that researches related to electrochemical sensors increased significantly due the promising characteristics that these devices present such as the possibility of obtaining ...information, with minimum manipulation of the studied system, in real time, and with low environmental impact. This article covers the carbon nanomaterials, presenting important aspects such as main properties, synthesis methods, and the application of these materials in the development of electrochemical sensors for the analysis of drugs and compounds of clinical interest. In this context, drug analysis is extremely important for quality control, to ensure that the medicine fulfills its role effectively without possible complications that could compromise the patient’s health and quality of life. In addition, analytical methods capable of determining compounds of clinical interest in biological fluids are extremely important for the indication of effective diagnoses. Thus, the versatility, selectivity, and portability of the electroanalytical techniques make the electrochemical sensors a favorite tool for the determination of drugs and compounds of clinical interest. It will be possible to follow in the present work that carbon nanomaterials have excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, strong adsorption capacity, high electrocatalytic effect, high biocompatibility, and high surface area. The possibility of formation of different composite materials based on carbonaceous nanomaterials that makes these materials promising for the development of analytical sensors, contributing to rapid, sensitive, and low-cost analyses can also be highlighted.
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