On the perception of some geometric properties of rotating three dimensional objects

Various observations and conjectures have been made about how we perceive three dimensional objects under monocular viewing conditions; in particular, when such objects are rotating. In this paper these proposals are reviewed and reinterpreted in the light of geometric properties of objects and their projections. Some results are also presented which support the conclusion that the visual system, in reconstructing the object from its projections, requires a fixed time to establish the objects curvature and torsion parameters. In the perceptual reconstruction process these parameters assume positive or negative values, and this equivocation is related to a form of the adjacency principle involving central projections and perceptual geodesics.     

Malecot's parameters of isolation by distance and the degrees of endogamy in three regions of the Chuvash Republic]

Malecot's parameters of isolation by distance and the degree of endogamy were estimated for individual Village Soviets of the Kanash, Cheboksary, and Morgaushi raions of Chuvashiya. Inbreeding landscape schemes were constructed for the Kanash and Morgaushi raions. The suitability of the Malecot's model of isolation by distance for populations of the Village-Soviet level was analyzed.     

Comparative study of some haematological and biochemical blood parameters in fishes from the Skagerrak

Marine fishes caught in the Skagerrak, 27 different species representing various groups of fishes (Cyclostomi, Holocephali, Elasmobranchii and Teleostei), were examined for the following haematological and biochemical blood parameters: haematocrit, haemoglobin, mean corpuscle haemoglobin concentration, total plasma protein, blood glucose and blood lactate. Interspecies variations as well as variations within some species were observed. The haemoglobin values for all species showed a positive correlation to the corresponding haematocrit values. Relatively low values for haematocrit and haemoglobin were found in cyclostomes, holocephaleans and elasmobranchii compared to the majority of teleosts. Within the teleost group, the haematocrit and haemoglobin levels were positively correlated with the activity of the fish species. The cyclostome Myxine glutimsa L. had a total plasma protein content in the same range as most teleosts, whereas holocephaleans, elasmobranchii and the deep-water teleost Coryphaenoides rupestris Gunnerus showed comparatively low values. Among teleosts some relationship seemed to exist between the total plasma protein level and the activity of the fish species. In addition, a correlation between plasma protein content and levels of blood lipids were noted. Values for blood glucose and blood lactate were found to be lower in cyclostomes, holocephaleans and elasmobranchii than in most teleosts. Higher blood glucose levels were observed in the more active teleost species.     

Penetration of iron and some organic substances through isolated cuticular membranes

Cuticular membranes were isolated enzymically from tomato fruits and from the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the leaves of Euonymus japonicus. Penetration of Fe from FeSO₄ and FeEDDHA (ferric ethylenediamine di(o-hydroxyphenylacetate) in the absence and presence of urea through the isolated cuticular membranes was studied. Fe from FeSO₄ penetrated more rapidly through the cuticles than Fe from FeEDDHA. Urea reduced the penetration of Fe from FeSO₄ and FeEDDHA. Binding of Fe on the inner surfaces of tomato fruit cuticles was also reduced by EDDHA.     

Comparison of biochemical parameters of Muscovy drake semen diluted and stored at 4 degrees C in three buffers

A comparison study of biochemical parameters of semen from Muscovy drakes diluted and stored at 4 °C in three buffers—IMV-buffer (France), HIA-1 and AU (Bulgaria) was carried out. The ejaculates were collected twice a week from ten 1-year-old Muscovy drakes using laying Muscovy females as teaser. Semen was diluted immediately, respectively, with IMV-buffer, HIA-1 and AU, and cold-stored (4 °C) for 1, 3 and 6 h. The intensities of oxygen uptake at the third hour in semen diluted, respectively, with IMV-buffer (200 ± 1.6 nAO/10⁹ sperm cells min), with HIA (224 ± 44 nAO/10⁹ sperm cells min) and with AU (238 ± 48 nAO/10⁹ sperm cells min) were highly significant in comparison with neat semen (75 ± 0.7 nAO/10⁹ sperm cells min).

The observed intensity of fructolysis was highest when using AU, followed by HIA-1 and IMV-buffer. During the first hour of storage the level of pyruvic acid was significantly lower in semen diluted with Bulgarian extenders, and this stability for AU referred to the entire period. For lactic acid, the differences were not statistical significant. Our investigations do not show significant differences concerning the dynamics of inorganic phosphate and total lipids after dilution with all tested extenders. On the contrary, high increase of cholesterol efflux from spermatozoa to seminal plasma–diluents were obtained after 6 h of storage.

All extenders, IMV-buffer (France), HIA-1 and AU (Bulgaria) for diluting and short time storage of semen from Muscovy drakes at 4 °C maintain the necessary comfort of energy metabolism of the spermatozoa.     

Comparative evaluation of inorganic and organic amendments for their flocculation efficiency of selected microalgae

Cost-efficient harvesting of microalgae is a major challenge due to their small size and often low concentration in the culture medium. The flocculation efficacy of different inorganic and organic amendments was evaluated on various microalgae genera—one strain each belonging to Chlamydomonas, Chlorococcum, two of Botryococcus, and of Chlorella. An improvised medium comprising of commercial grade urea, single super phosphate, and muriate of potash was used to grow the microalgae for flocculation experiments. High pH induced increased flocculation efficiency (72–76 %) in selected microalgal strains. Ferric chloride was found to be the most efficient for most of the microalgal strains, while maize starch and rice starch proved superior for Chlorella sp. MCC6 and Botryococcus sp. MCC32. Although the highest flocculation efficiency was obtained with inorganic flocculant, i.e., ferric chloride (87.3 %) with Botryococcus MCC31, this was comparable with rice starch (86.8 %) for Botryococcus MCC32. This study showed that widely available cheaper biopolymers such as rice starch, maize, and potato starch can be promising flocculants due to their better harvesting efficiency (>80 %) and low price, thereby contributing to economical production of biodiesel from algae.     

Comparative evaluation of three in vacuo dessication procedures on bacterial cultures

The paper presents results obtained for the bacterial cultures preservation (E. coli ATCC 25 922 and S. aureus Wood) by three in vacuo desiccation procedures: freeze-drying (lyophilization or cryo-desiccation at eutectic zone), cryo-desiccation above eutectic zone and direct drying. It has been in view: the survival of liquid cultures as reported to the desiccation procedure per se, the loss of viability of desiccated cultures stored in refrigerator for at least one year and the residual moisture of desiccated cultures. For 3 batches there has been applied the accelerated thermal degradation test. Employing the same protective medium for both cultures, E. coli cultures prove to be more easily affected by lyophilization and cryo-desiccation above eutectic zone as compared to S. aureus cultures, fact that may be due to the differences between the wall structures of G--bacteria and G+ bacteria, respectively. During storage, E. coli and S. aureus cultures proved a quite similar loss of viability. The residual moisture content was quite similar for both E. coli and S. aureus cultures exposed to the same in vacuo desiccation procedure. The lyophilization and the cryo-desiccation above eutectic zone, as compared to direct drying, yielded superior results. The accelerated thermal degradation test provides only informative results, partially confirmed by viable counts determined at stated intervals of storage time in the refrigerator.     

Liposome shrinkage and swelling under osmotic-diffusional stress: evaluation of kinetic parameters from spectrophotometric measurements.

Analyses of spectrophotometric measurements of shrinkage and swelling of liposomes under osmotic-diffusional stress tacitly assume an 'empirical' inverse relationship between the absorbance (A) and the liposomal volume (v). In this paper, we have proposed an alternate more explicit relationship: A = EcL e - alpha Lv/1-Lv where L is liposomal concentration, Ec the extinction coefficient and alpha a dimensionless parameter. The exponential term, in essence, defines the partitioning of aqueous volume into intra- and extra-liposomal compartments. Experimental data obtained with glycerol as model compound are used to test the validity and internal consistency of the proposed formalism.     

Comparative evaluation of obesity-related parameters in junior sumo wrestlers and children with obesity

[Purpose]Exercise is a key factor in preventing obesity and metabolic syndrome. Sumo wrestlers increase their body size from childhood for athletic advantage; however, the risk of metabolic syndrome in junior sumo wrestlers is undetermined. Preventive measures against pediatric obesity should be initiated during childhood to prevent obesity in adulthood, considering its high global incidence. We comparatively evaluated the risk factors for metabolic syndrome in junior sumo wrestlers and children with obesity.[Methods]We enrolled 70 male children (age 9–17 years [sumo group, n = 14] and 9–14 years [other sports and non-exercise groups, n = 28 each]) and evaluated their anthropometric parameters (height, weight, body mass index z-score, obesity rate, waist circumference, waist to height ratio) and hematological parameters (total, low-density, high-density, and non-high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol; triglycerides; plasma glucose, and glycated hemoglobin levels).[Results]The BMI z-score, obesity rate, waist circumference (p < 0.05, along with the non-exercise group), and systolic blood pressure were significantly higher and the high-density cholesterol level was lower in the sumo group than in the other sports group (p < 0.05). The waist to height ratio was significantly higher in the non-exercise group than in the other sports group (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in other blood lipid, plasma glucose (significantly lower level than the reference range in the sumo group, p < 0.05), and glycated hemoglobin (within the reference range in all groups) levels among the three groups.[Conclusion]Junior sumo wrestlers had a larger body size and higher blood pressure than children with obesity who exercised regularly. This provides direction for future research into targeted preventive interventions against metabolic syndrome for junior sumo wrestlers with large body size.     

Comparative evaluation of genomic inbreeding parameters in seven commercial and autochthonous pig breeds

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping tools, which can analyse thousands of SNPs covering the whole genome, have opened new opportunities to estimate the inbreeding level of animals directly using genome information. One of the most commonly used genomic inbreeding measures considers the proportion of the autosomal genome covered by runs of homozygosity (ROH), which are defined as continuous and uninterrupted chromosome portions showing homozygosity at all loci. In this study, we analysed the distribution of ROH in three commercial pig breeds (Italian Large White, n = 1968; Italian Duroc, n = 573; and Italian Landrace, n = 46) and four autochthonous breeds (Apulo-Calabrese, n = 90; Casertana, n = 90; Cinta Senese, n = 38; and Nero Siciliano, n = 48) raised in Italy, using SNP data generated from Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip. We calculated ROH-based inbreeding coefficients (F_ROH) using ROH of different minimum length (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 Mbp) and compared them with several other genomic inbreeding coefficients (including the difference between observed and expected number of homozygous genotypes (F_HOM)) and correlated all these genomic-based measures with the pedigree inbreeding coefficient (F_PED) calculated for the pigs of some of these breeds. Autochthonous breeds had larger mean size of ROH than all three commercial breeds. F_HOM was highly correlated (0.671 to 0.985) with F_ROH measures in all breeds. Apulo-Calabrese and Casertana had the highest F_ROH values considering all ROH minimum lengths (ranging from 0.273 to 0.189 and from 0.226 to 0.152, moving from ROH of minimum size of 1 Mbp (F_ROH1) to 16 Mbp (F_ROH16)), whereas the lowest F_ROH values were for Nero Siciliano (from 0.072 to 0.051) and Italian Large White (from 0.117 to 0.042). F_ROH decreased as the minimum length of ROH increased for all breeds. Italian Duroc had the highest correlations between all F_ROH measures and F_PED (from 0.514 to 0.523) and between F_HOM and F_PED (0.485). Among all analysed breeds, Cinta Senese had the lowest correlation between F_ROH and F_PED. This might be due to the imperfect measure of F_PED, which, mainly in local breeds raised in extensive production systems, cannot consider a higher level of pedigree errors and a potential higher relatedness of the founder population. It appeared that ROH better captured inbreeding information in the analysed breeds and could complement pedigree-based inbreeding coefficients for the management of these genetic resources.     

Fibrin gel structure: influence of calcium and covalent cross-linking on the elasticity

Calcium ion causes the development of a higher elastic modulus in fibrinogen solutions clotted by thrombin. By also measuring the development of covalent crosslinks introduced by activated Factor XIII, we find that (a) calcium ion causes an overall increase of the modulus, (b) covalent crosslinking of α-chains causes an increase of the modulus, while (c) covalent crosslinking of γ-chains does not.     

Comparative evaluation of three Lactobacilli with strain-specific activities for rats when supplied in drinking water

To test the in vivo benefits of three lactobacilli and to compare their different efficacies based on strain-specific activities by using rats as an experimental model, a growth-promotion and a challenge trial were conducted. The three strains, Lactobacillus salivarius G1-1, Lactobacillus reuteri G22-2, and Lactobacillus reuteri G8-5 shared antimicrobial, bile-salt-hydrolase and amylolytic activities in vitro, respectively. In the 17 day growth-promotion trial, 48 rats were allotted to four treatments with 12 replicates per treatment: a control group, which received saline, as well as three experimental groups, which received 10⁸ cells/ml of one of the three lactobacilli in saline suspension. The results showed that compared with the control group, L. reuteri G8-5 significantly improved feed efficiency and decreased fecal pH values on days 8 and 17, concomitant with reduced faecal coliform counts on d 17 (p < 0.05). All treatments with lactobacilli caused an increase in the moisture content of the faeces and a decrease in the serum total cholesterol and blood urea nitrogen levels. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol was only elevated for rats which received L. reuteri G22-2. In the Salmonella-challenge trial, 40 rats were allotted to five treatments (8 replicates per treatment) which consisted of a positive control (infected, no Lactobacillus pretreatment), a negative control (uninfected, no Lactobacillus pretreatment) and three Lactobacillus-pretreated groups (10⁹ cells/ml in saline). The results showed that rats in all Lactobacillus pretreated groups were protected from infection with significantly higher weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency compared with positive control rats (p < 0.05). Rats treated with L. salivarius G1-1 and L. reuteri G22-2 tended to exhibit higher weight gains than those pretreated with L. reuteri G8-5. Significantly lower Salmonella shedding in faeces, Salmonella numbers in the spleen and the relative weight of the spleen were observed in the Lactobacillus groups (p < 0.05). Based on the overall results, it can be concluded that not all strains within the same lactobacilli species show similar effects and that some of the beneficial functionalities to animals were strain-specific. Therefore strains for practical application need to be carefully selected based on their strain-specific characters.     

Comparative evaluation of three archaeal primer pairs for exploring archaeal communities in deep-sea sediments and permafrost soils

Extremophiles - 16S rRNA gene profiling is a powerful method for characterizing microbial communities; however, no universal primer pair can target all bacteria and archaea, resulting in different...     

Comparative study of some parameters of energy metabolism in two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A comparative study of energy metabolism in two strains Saccharomyces cerevisiae (the initial strain N 73 and laser-irradiated mutant strain Y-503) was performed. In all growth phases, the rates of oxygen consumption by cells of Y-503 were higher than in the initial strain. The maximum (threefold) increase in the rate of oxygen consumption was observed in the linear phase. The effects of respiratory chain inhibitors rotenone, antimycin A, and cyanide on cellular and mitochondrial respiration were identical. There are two sites of energy coupling in the respiratory chain of mitochondria in S. cerevisiae N 73 and Y-503, and electron flow mainly is mainly mediated by cytochrome oxidase. The data suggest that a higher respiratory activity of S. cerevisiae Y-503 cells in comparison with N 73 is associated with greater amounts of mitochondria and total surface area of coupling mitochondrial membranes, which appears to be a factor contributing to a high physiological and biochemical activity of this strain.