Analysis of callouts made in relation to wild urban marmosets (Callithrix penicillata) and their implications for urban species management

In this study, we investigated what problems urban marmosets (Callithrix penicillata) face in a city environment through the analysis of responses to callouts (N = 348) made by the environmental police of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the period from 2002 to 2007. Our objective was to characterise the problems faced by the marmosets and human city dwellers. The environmental police responded to two types of callouts: (1) solicitation whereby a person called them to report a problem (N = 218); and (2) the report of a hurt or injured animal (N = 127). On average, one callout per week was made in relation to urban marmosets. We found no time of year effects in relation to callouts, or any effect of gender or age of the person making the callout (P > 0.05). Furthermore, we found no environmental (e.g. percentage of “green area”) or socioeconomical variables (e.g. salary levels) of the city’s administrative regions associated with callouts (P > 0.05). The majority of callouts resulted in the attempt to capture marmosets (N = 345), and usually, only one animal was captured (N = 309). Many of these animals were released into city forest fragments (N = 146). Some sick animals were sent to veterinary clinics (N = 25) whereas others or confiscated animals were sent to the government’s wildlife processing centre (N = 143). From this data, we were able to make a series of recommendation about how the management of urban marmosets could be improved.     

Comparison of mating disruption and mass trapping with Pyralidae and Sesiidae moths

Mating disruption and mass trapping for control of lepidopteran pests use synthetic sex pheromone to prevent males from finding and mating with females. Here, we identify the behavioral mechanism underlying mating disruption and mass trapping of American plum borer, Euzophera semifuneralis (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), peachtree borer, Synanthedon exitiosa Say, and lesser peachtree borer, Synanthedon pictipes (Groeten) (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae). In addition, we derive relative dispenser activity (Relative D_a) from the competitive attraction equation to compare the disruptive activity of the devices used in mating disruption and mass trapping. Dispensers and traps were deployed in replicated 0.14‐ha cherry or peach plots with E. semifuneralis or the Synanthedon moths, respectively. Dispenser densities were 0, 10, 20, 59, 185, and 371 per ha, whereas trap densities were 0, 10, 20, 40, 79, and 158 per ha. Moth catch in a centrally placed, pheromone‐baited monitoring trap in each plot was used to evaluate the treatments. The profile of moth captures in mating disruption and mass trapping with the three species indicates that competitive attraction is the behavioral mechanism responsible for trap disruption. Relative D_a is 0.27, 0.23, and 0.53 with American plum borer, peachtree borer, and lesser peachtree borer, respectively, which indicates that the traps are 1.9–4.4 times more effective in reducing moth catch than the dispensers. Relative D_a can be used to compare devices for pheromone‐based behavioral manipulation of these and other species that are competitively attracted to artificial pheromone sources. When the same type of trap is employed for monitoring and mass trapping, Relative D_a is the same as dispenser activity D_a.     

Lavandula angustifolia essential oil as a novel and promising natural candidate for tick (Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus) control

Lavandula angustifolia is a well known herbal medicine with a variety of useful properties, including its acaricidal effect. This experiment was carried out to study the bioacaricidal activity of L. angustifolia essential oil (EO) against engorged Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus (Acari; Ixodidae) females. For this purpose six serial concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0% w/v) of L. angustifolia EO were used. There was considerable mortality in concentrations more than 4.0% although there were no differences between 6.0 and 8.0% in all measured criteria. The mortality rate 24 h after inoculation was 73.26 and 100% in groups treated with 4.0 and 8.0% EO, respectively. Lavender EO also reduced tick egg weight in a concentration-dependent manner. The amount of eggs produced varied from 0.12 g (at 0.5% EO) to 0.00 g (at 8.0% EO) but did not differ statistically from the control. L. angustifolia EO caused 100% failure in egg laying at 6.0 and 8.0% whereas this value in the control group was zero. A positive correlation between L. angustifolia EO concentration and tick control, assessed by relative mortality rate and egg-laying weight, was observed by the EO LC/EC₅₀, which, when calculated using the Probit test, was 2.76-fold higher than the control. Lavender is a promising acaricidal against R. (B.) annulatusin vitro.     

Haemagglutinin of the antarctic seaweed Georgiella confluens (Reinsch) Kylin: isolation and partial characterization

The marine red alga Georgiella confluens collected from Mackellar Inlet, King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctic, was used in the isolation of a protein with agglutinating activity. The Georgiella confluens haemagglutinin (GCH) was extracted with 20 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.0, and purified through ion exchange chromatography, followed by affinity chromatography on immobilized porcine stomach mucin. Among the erythrocytes analysed (human A, B and O groups, rabbit and chicken), GCH agglutinated specifically chicken erythrocytes. Sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the haemagglutinin revealed a single band of 21.5 kDa, while by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 its native molecular mass was 25.5 kDa, suggesting that GCH is a monomeric protein. Haemagglutination studies showed that the GCH activity was stable through temperature variations and did not exhibit divalent cation dependence. Furthermore, the haemagglutinin was inhibited by the complex glycoproteins of porcine stomach mucin and fetuin, whereas the mono-, di-, and trisaccharides tested showed no effect.     

Characterisation of the osteoclastogenic potential of human osteoblastic and fibroblastic conditioned media

Although M‐CSF and RANKL are sufficient to promote in vitro osteoclastogenesis, in vivo this is a complex process which requires the action of many signalling molecules and cellular crosstalks. In this work, isolated or combined conditioned media, obtained from human adult skin fibroblast and bone marrow cells, were tested for their osteoclastogenic potential, through an indirect co‐culture system, in the absence of recombinant M‐CSF and RANKL. Osteoclastogenesis was assessed on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and CD14+ cell cultures by quantification of total protein content, tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity, presence of multinucleated cells positive for TRAP, RT‐PCR of TRAP, CATK, CA2, c‐myc and c‐src and presence of multinucleated cells displaying actin rings, vitronectin and calcitonin receptors. Cultures supplemented with M‐CSF and RANKL were used as positive controls. It was observed that the conditioned medium from dexamethasone osteogenic‐induced bone marrow cell cultures displayed the highest osteoclastogenic potential, with similar behaviour to that observed in the presence of both M‐CSF and RANKL. Comparatively, fibroblastic conditioned medium elicited a slightly lower osteoclastogenic response. Combination of both conditioned media resulted in a significant increase of TRAP activity. On the other hand, conditioned medium from non‐osteogenic‐induced bone marrow cell cultures presented the lowest osteoclastogenic potential. These results were observed for both PBMC and CD14+ cell cultures, suggesting that fibroblast and osteoblast cells are able to modulate osteoclastogenesis in the absence of physical cell–cell interactions. In addition, osteoclastogenic potential of bone marrow cells increases with their osteoblastic differentiation. J. Cell. Biochem. 109: 205–216, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Technological trends,global market,and challenges of bio-ethanol production

Ethanol use as a fuel additive or directly as a fuel source has grown in popularity due to governmental regulations and in some cases economic incentives based on environmental concerns as well as a desire to reduce oil dependency. As a consequence, several countries are interested in developing their internal market for use of this biofuel. Currently, almost all bio-ethanol is produced from grain or sugarcane. However, as this kind of feedstock is essentially food, other efficient and economically viable technologies for ethanol production have been evaluated. This article reviews some current and promising technologies for ethanol production considering aspects related to the raw materials, processes, and engineered strains development. The main producer and consumer nations and future perspectives for the ethanol market are also presented. Finally, technological trends to expand this market are discussed focusing on promising strategies like the use of microalgae and continuous systems with immobilized cells.     

Investigation of the Cytotoxicity of Antimicrobial Peptide P40 on Eukaryotic Cells

The in vitro cytotoxicity of the antimicrobial peptide P40 was investigated. The food grade bacteriocin nisin was also analyzed for comparison. VERO cells were treated with different concentrations (0.02–2.5 μg ml⁻¹) of nisin and P40, and cell viability and plasma membrane integrity were checked by MTT, neutral red uptake (NRU), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assays. In MTT and NRU assays the EC₅₀ to the purified peptide P40 were 0.30 and 0.51 μg ml⁻¹, while values found to nisin were 0.35 and 0.79 μg ml⁻¹, respectively. In the LDH assay, the EC₅₀ was 0.57 and 0.62 μg ml⁻¹ for P40 and nisin, respectively. The peptide P40 revealed higher hemolytical activity (19%) when compared to nisin (4.9%) at the highest concentration tested (2.5 μg ml⁻¹). Relatively few studies about the cytotoxicity of antimicrobial peptides are available. The determination of the cytotoxicity of antimicrobial peptides is an essential step to warrant their safe use.     

PrimerIdent: A web based tool for conserved primer design

Conserved primers across multiple species and simultaneously specific for a certain isozyme can be rare and difficult to find. PrimerIdent was developed aiming to automate this primer design and selection process in a given nucleotide sequence alignment, providing an intuitive, easy to interpret graphical result, which offers a list of all possible primers that meet the user criteria, with a colour-code identity to each sequence in the alignment. The software here presented is a simple and intuitive web based tool that is suitable for distinguishing very similar nucleotide sequences, such as isozymes-coding sequences, to enable the conserved primer design across multiple species, necessary for approaches that rely on knowing if a primer is suitable for a certain set of pre-aligned sequences, to design a specific primer to a certain sequence variation, or a combination thereof. This extremely useful software can, therefore, be used as a tool for the specific amplification of individual members of multigenic families across related species and also to evaluate the differential expression of isogenes for a given species. AVAILABILITY: http://primerident.up.pt.