Reactivity of Nelore cows during reproductive management

The Nelore breed is recognized as rustic and well adapted to parasites and high temperatures, and these features composes a good part of the Zebu genetic group. However, they are considered more reactive than other breeds and for this reason they require more time to be managed, putting at risk the safety of employees, the animals themselves and also compromise installations. In order to solve problems such as short duration and high nocturnal occurrence of oestrus many properties choose to perform artificial insemination during the breeding season. At this time, there is an intensification of human-animal interaction in short periods and at different times. When animals are more reactive on handling and are exposed to an uncomfortable thermal environment the stress rises causing impacts on reproduction and production. Stress is comprehended by a set of behavioral and physiological changes when in threatening or uncomfortable situations caused by stressors (physical environment, social or management practices). Some farms have already made the selection for temperament, using different methods of evaluation in accordance with the conditions of creation and infrastructure available at the property. Thus, the aim of this research was to evaluate the reactivity of Nelore cows in different managements that occur in the breeding season. Was evaluated 20 multiparous Nelore cows from October 2013 to March 2014, during the spring and summer seasons with air temperature averages ranging from 22.7 ± 4.9°C to 25.2 ± 4.7°C, in the Campus’ beef cattle sector of the Universidade de São Paulo in Pirassununga. Reactivity was evaluated using scores of escape velocity or output speed using subjective scores: 1 - does not leave the chute, needs to be touched; 2 - walking out the chute; 3 - exits the chute at average speed; 4 – exists the chute quickly. So, as higher is the score as higher is the stress. The scores were given immediately after the animals exists the chute from the managements of sync (M1), artificial insemination (M2), pregnancy diagnosis at 30 days (M3), pregnancy diagnosis at 60 days (M4), pregnancy diagnosis at 90 days (M5). The data of the escape score was analyzed using analysis of variance, using the GLM procedure of SAS and means were compared using the Tukey test at 5%. It was noted that, there was no differences on the average of escape score (2.34) at the managements M1, M2, M3 and M4. However, in management M5 the average was 1.79 differing from the other managements (P<0.05). In this way, at the last management, there was a reduction of 23.50% in escape score. So, we conclude that with the increase in frequency of human-animal interactions during the reproductive managements, there is a decrease in the escape score and consequently the stress, contributing to the agility on each management, security of employees, lower physical trauma on animals and damages to facilities

Evaluation of reactivity of horses in the presence of unknown stimulus

The study aimed to evaluate reactivity of horses during usual brushing management against the repeated presence of an unknown sonorous stimulus. Twenty Mangalarga Marchador horses, distributed in different categories (mares and foals), were evaluated. The animals were allocated into the control treatment (N = 10) and the treatment with unknown sonorous stimulus (N = 10) from a rattle and a tambourine. Four consecutive evaluations were carried out first (day 0, 1, 2, 3). Two consecutive assessments were carried out after 30 days of the first collection (day 30 and 31), and two consecutive assessments were carried out 15 days after the second evaluation (day 45 and 46). The behavioral observations were made by assigning a score to behaviors of movement, position of ears and eyes, breathing, and vocalization during brushing management. A response variable called reactivity was attributed to each animal, ranging from score 1 (not reactive or calm animal) to reactivity score 4 (very reactive or aggressive animal). For statistical analysis, the results were adjusted to a logistic regression model using the categories, day, and treatment as covariates. The animals of the unknown stimuli showed greater reactivity. The days of the experimental period influenced the reactivity of animals between 6 and 7 months old, with a decrease in the possibilities of the animals to have a higher reactivity. The maturity of the foal with repeated exposure to the unknown sound stimulus may decrease the possibility of the animal being reactive

Reactivity in ewes submitted to invasive and non-invasive techniques of samples collections

The first-time experience of a procedure or with a person should be as positive as possible. If a procedure is very aversive or painful at first contact, it can be difficult to persuade the animal to return to the local where this occurred. For this reason it is important to develop a strategy in experimental and routine activities, taking into account that sheep has often reactive temperament. This study aims to evaluate the possible decreased of the reactivity in sheep across the prior presentation of invasive and non-invasive techniques for collecting saliva and blood samples for cortisol analysis and transepidermal water loss through the use of Vapometer®. Saliva was collected using Sallivetes® and blood was taken from the jugular vein in heparinized tubes, placed on ice, and then centrifuged at 4 °C and 3,000 for 15 min. The tubes containing serum were stored at −20 °C until CORT and IGF-I determination using an enzyme immunoassay kit (Diagnostic Systems Laboratory, Webster, TX). The collection of transepidermal water loss (TEWL) was performed using a Vapometer ® (Dolphin, Finland) device. In the three techniques the ewes were always contained by the same person for the time necessary to collect the variable. To take saliva samples the animals were contained during 2 minutes, for blood samples during 1 minute and for TEWL during 30 seconds. The test consists of six data collections performed with increasing intervals between days, checking the possible adaptation of the animal management factors. The first interval was 2 days and after 3 days, then after 4 days, and the next was 7 days and again 7 days, totaling 24 days of experiment. Before sampling saliva, blood or TEWL the reactivity of the ewes was analyzed by a composite score scale when animals were inside the chute. The composite score (CS) is a combination of the scores of: entrance (1 to 4), respiratory rate (1 to 4), vocalization (0 or 1), movement (1 to 4) and flight speed (1 to 4). After the chute a score of containment (1 to 4) was attributed by the same person, which had contained the animal. The experimental unit was each animal and the average of the observations in each sheep was used for the statistical analysis. The observed data of transepidermal water loss, salivary cortisol and serum cortisol were subjected to analysis of variance, with the days and the groups as fixed effect. In case of significant results (P<0.05) it was adopted Tukey-Kramer Test as the procedure for multiple comparisons. Cortisol decreased for saliva and blood groups during the experiment days (P<0.05), showing habituation of the animals to the management. In the same way, TEWL had the highest mean value on day 1, and decreased afterwards (P<0.05). The score of containment was lower for the TEWL group compared to the other two groups (P<0.05), however the higher value was observed on day 5, seven days after a sampling (P<0.05). The score of containment of saliva and blood groups decrease in day 2, but return to increase in the next sampling day (P<0.05). The CS was higher for saliva group (P<0.05). On day 5 CS increased for blood group, but decreased for TEWL (P<0.05). The invasive techniques (saliva and blood) increased the reactivity of sheep before and after retention. Sheep are reactive animals therefore need a more gentle handling during the experiment with invasive samples

Quasi-cellular Systems: Stochastic Simulation Analysis at Nanoscale Range

I complessi sistemi di reazioni biochimiche all’interno della cellula sono altamente compartimentalizzati, conseguenza di un importante fenomeno di macromolecolar crowding (sovraffollamento molecolare). E’ dunque importante determinare il comportamento e le proprietà di un sistema di reazioni in piccoli volumi. Sono stati riprodotti con successo diversi sistemi di semplici reazioni all’interno di vescicole lipidiche (liposomi) nell’ordine del micro/nanometro di diametro, osservando in molti casi una risposta cinetica diversa dalle reazioni in esame rispetto al comportamento in sistemi di grandi volumi. Questo fenomeno di divergenza tra piccoli e grandi volumi è in gran parte dipendente da fenomeni non completamente chiariti, quali l’incapsulamento delle specie e il crowding molecolare, aspetti sempre più importanti man mano che l’attenzione si sposta verso i piccoli volumi. Recenti dati sperimentali dimostrano che il fenomeno dell'intrappolamento sembra non seguire un andamento casuale squisitamente probabilistico, ma un comportamento di tipo power-law (a legge di potenza), in cui solo pochissime vescicole intrappolano tante specie, mentre la maggior parte resta completamente vuota. A tal proposito è stato intrapreso uno studio sui meccanismi generativi delle distribuzioni a legge di potenza calate nel contesto dell’incapsulamento (entrapment) delle specie all'interno di vescicole lipidiche. Utilizzando un sistema cell-free di trascrizione/traduzione (PURESYSTEM™), volto alla produzione di EGFP all’interno di liposomi di POPC, è possibile monitorare la produzione di proteina fluorescente in liposomi di differente grandezza. Tuttavia, è molto difficile osservare la produzione di molecole fluorescenti in singole vescicole di 100 nm di diametro; diventa così importante poter studiare in silico la di produzione di proteina in singole vescicole virtuali, utilizzando un modello formalmente valido del complesso sistema di reazioni del PURESYSTEM™. QDC (Quick Direct-Method Controlled), è un software di simulazione stocastico precedentemente sviluppato in laboratorio, basato sull’algoritmo di simulazione SSA Direct-Method di Gillespie, tra i più usati in biologia computazionale/systems biology. L’argomento della tesi riguarda l’uso di questo software nello studio delle oltre 100 reazioni biochimiche del PURESYSTEM™, comparando i risultati ottenuti in diverse condizioni (volume totale di reazione, concentrazioni delle specie, costanti cinetiche delle singole reazioni). Dopo aver affinato il modello in silico di Trascrizione/traduzione coupled (accoppiato), sono state effettuate delle simulazioni variando alcune variabili macroscopiche (concentrazioni delle specie e costanti cinetiche), mostrando un'importante dipendenza della traduzione dalla trascrizione, soprattutto considerando il grande limite energetico di un sistema che non produce al suo interno nucleotidi trifosfato

Reaction Prediction: The Case of Tweets from Luxury Fashion Brands

Social media platforms represent an essential tool for both consumers and marketers. Meanwhile, luxury fashion brands play a key role in fashion, one of the most important industries of the world economy. Despite assumptions to the contrary, social media platforms and luxury fashion brands do mix, especially in the recent time. Consequently, it is worth asking whether it is possible to predict the reaction a post will generate in the audience of luxury fashion brands. This new question is the one this thesis intends to answer. To do so, the concept of reaction is defined through a novel composite index that is created and named Tweet reaction overall score (TROS), which is one of the solid and relevant contributions this thesis makes. Then, several predictive models are implemented, based on a wide range of different learning algorithms. The results show that it is indeed possible to predict the TROS that a post on Twitter will obtain in the audience of luxury fashion brands the day it is posted

Clinical Applications of Neuromonitoring Following Acute Brain Injury

Various invasive and non-invasive cranial monitoring techniques can be applied clinically to describe the extent to which cerebral hemodynamics and subsequently, patient outcome, have been impacted following acute brain injury (ABI). This Ph.D. thesis examines both prospective and retrospective patient data in both neurocritical and general intensive care patients. Thirty neurotrauma patients and forty general intensive care patients with neurological complications were prospectively monitored after ABI. Retrospective patient data was harvested from a database of 1,023 traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients with invasive intracranial pressure (ICP), arterial blood pressure (ABP), and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) recordings. Data analysis focused on ICP microsensor accuracy, compensatory reserve, the pulsatility of brain signals (ICP and TCD), and cerebral arterial blood volume (CaBV) based on TCD. The main results are summarized below: I. Intracranial hypertension has a profound negative influence on cerebrovascular parameters and patient outcome. II. ICP microsensor accuracy is limited, with an average error of approximately ± 6.0 mm Hg. III. ICP weighted with the compensatory reserve better predicts outcome than mean ICP alone. IV. ICP and TCD pulsatility are functions of mean ICP and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP). V. Continuous blood flow forward (CFF) and pulsatile blood flow forward (PFF) models can approximate CaBV with derived TCD signals; CFF best models TCD pulsatility. VI. The pressure reactivity index (PRx) and the pulse amplitude index (PAx) can be estimated non-invasively using slow waves of TCD estimated by CaBV with similar outcome-predictive power. VII. Multi-parametric TCD-based monitoring of general intensive care patients is clinically feasible; the joint estimation of autoregulation, dysautonomia, non-invasive ICP, and critical closing pressure is possible. The culmination of these projects should have an impact on current monitoring practices in ABI patients, emphasizing the continued validation and refinement of TCD methodology in clinical neurosciences

Ribo-seQC: comprehensive analysis of cytoplasmic and organellar ribosome profiling data

Summary: Ribosome profiling enables genome-wide analysis of translation with unprecedented resolution. We present Ribo-seQC, a versatile tool for the comprehensive analysis of Ribo-seq data, providing in-depth insights on data quality and translational profiles for cytoplasmic and organelle ribosomes. Ribo-seQC automatically generates platform-independent HTML reports, offering a detailed and easy-to-share basis for collaborative Ribo-seq projects. Availability: Ribo-seQC is available at https://github.com/ohlerlab/RiboseQC and submitted to Bioconductor. Contact: uwe.ohler{at}mdc-berlin.d

Quasi-cellular systems: Stochastic simulation analysis at nanoscale range

Background: The wet-lab synthesis of the simplest forms of life (minimal cells) is a challenging aspect in modern synthetic biology. Quasi-cellular systems able to produce proteins directly from DNA can be obtained by encapsulating the cell-free transcription/translation system PURESYSTEM™(PS) in liposomes. It is possible to detect the intra-vesicle protein production using DNA encoding for GFP and monitoring the fluorescence emission over time. The entrapment of solutes in small-volume liposomes is a fundamental open problem. Stochastic simulation is a valuable tool in the study of biochemical reaction at nanoscale range. QDC (Quick Direct-Method Controlled), a stochastic simulation software based on the well-known Gillespie's SSA algorithm, was used. A suitable model formally describing the PS reactions network was developed, to predict, from inner species concentrations (very difficult to measure in small-volumes), the resulting fluorescence signal (experimentally observable).Results: Thanks to suitable features specific of QDC, we successfully formalized the dynamical coupling between the transcription and translation processes that occurs in the real PS, thus bypassing the concurrent-only environment of Gillespie's algorithm. Simulations were firstly performed for large liposomes (2.67μm of diameter) entrapping the PS to synthetize GFP. By varying the initial concentrations of the three main classes of molecules involved in the PS (DNA, enzymes, consumables), we were able to stochastically simulate the time-course of GFP-production. The sigmoid fit of the GFP-production curves allowed us to extract three quantitative parameters which are significantly dependent on the various initial states. Then we extended this study for small-volume liposomes (575 nm of diameter), where it is more complex to infer the intra-vesicle composition, due to the expected anomalous entrapment phenomena. We identified almost two extreme states that are forecasted to give rise to significantly different experimental observables.Conclusions: The present work is the first one describing in the detail the stochastic behavior of the PS. Thanks to our results, an experimental approach is now possible, aimed at recording the GFP production kinetics in very small micro-emulsion droplets or liposomes, and inferring, by using the simulation as a reverse-engineering procedure, the internal solutes distribution, and shed light on the still unknown forces driving the entrapment phenomenon. © 2013 Calviello et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd