biological quality
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2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel Wilson Walekhwa ◽  
Frederick Oporia ◽  
Ali Halage ◽  
Douglas Bulafu ◽  
Aisha Nalugya ◽  
...  

Abstract IntroductionWater should comply with standard/regulatory physio-chemical and biological parameters to ensure that it is safe for domestic use. We therefore sought to assess the physico-chemical and biological quality of groundwater sources in Kadama subcounty, Kibuku district, Eastern Uganda. MethodsA cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted. We collected water samples from twenty-three functional water sources. We assessed the turbidity, pH and presence of Escherichia coli (E. coli) using the turbidity meter, pH meter and membrane filtration technique, respectively. Furthermore, physical sanitary inspection of the water sources was done using a standard pretested observational checklist to assess existing risk factors.ResultsThe majority, 69.5% of the water sources included in the study were boreholes, with about 43.5% of them from Nandere parish. Majority of the water sources 86.9% (20/23) had clogged/blocked drainage channels, about a third of water sources 60.9% (14/23) did not have fences/protection around them and majority of the water sources, 82.6% (19/23) had stagnated apron. Some water sources 8.7% (2/23) had open defecation around them. The water samples had a mean pH of 6.87 (SD 0.920) with 4.4% acidic, 86.9% normal/acceptable pH level and 8.6% in alkaline state. About two-thirds (65.3%) of these water sources had turbidity levels less than 5 NTUs. In addition, boreholes had a better turbidity score of 81.2% (13/16) compared to the water wells 71.4% (5/7). About half, 43.5% of the water sources were above the WHO recommended range of zero coliforms. ConclusionsSome ground water sources had sanitary risk factors and significant levels of E. coli which makes them unfit for human consumption, though they can be used for other domestic purposes including washing clothes. This calls for urgent need to keep surrounding water sources clean and continuously disinfect drinking water from groundwater sources before human consumption.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel Wilson Walekhwa ◽  
Frederick Oporia ◽  
Ali Halage ◽  
Douglas Bulafu ◽  
Solomon Tsebeni Wafula ◽  
...  

Abstract IntroductionWater should comply with standard/regulatory physio-chemical and biological parameters to ensure that it is safe for domestic use. We therefore sought to assess the physico-chemical and biological quality of groundwater sources in Kadama subcounty, Kibuku district, Eastern Uganda.MethodsA cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted. We collected water samples from twenty-three functional water sources. We assessed the turbidity, pH and presence of Escherichia coli (E. coli) using the turbidity meter, pH meter and membrane filtration technique, respectively. Furthermore, physical sanitary inspection of the water sources was done using a standard pretested observational checklist to assess existing risk factors.ResultsThe majority, 69.5% of the water sources included in the study were boreholes, with about 43.5% of them from Nandere parish. Majority of the water sources 86.9% (20/23) had clogged/blocked drainage channels, about a third of water sources 60.9% (14/23) did not have fences/protection around them and majority of the water sources, 82.6% (19/23) had stagnated apron. Some water sources 8.7% (2/23) had open defecation around them. The water samples had a mean pH of 6.87 (SD 0.920) with 4.4% acidic, 86.9% normal/acceptable pH level and 8.6% in alkaline state. About two-thirds (65.3%) of these water sources had turbidity levels less than 5 NTUs. In addition, boreholes had a better turbidity score of 81.2% (13/16) compared to the water wells 71.4% (5/7). About half, 43.5% of the water sources were above the WHO recommended range of zero coliforms.ConclusionsSome ground water sources had sanitary risk factors and significant levels of E. coli which makes them unfit for human consumption, though they can be used for other domestic purposes including washing clothes. This calls for urgent need to keep surrounding water sources clean and continuously disinfect drinking water from groundwater sources before human consumption.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2408
Author(s):  
Karel Kleisner

Facial symmetry, averageness, and the level of sex-typical development of dimorphic traits are traditionally associated with various biological quality indicators and should be, therefore, preferred in mate choice. The aim of this study is to propose a concept of morphological uniqueness and uncover its possible associations to putative phenotypic cues of biological quality. In contrast to typicality expressed by averageness, morphological uniqueness quantifies the degree of possessing characteristics unique to particular groups. I employed a combination of geometric morphometric and Bayesian multiple regression to analyze 300 Cameroonian faces, while an additional 1153 faces from eight distinct populations from across four continents were used as a reference sample of the global population to calculate the morphological uniqueness of Cameroonians. I found that morphological uniqueness is positively associated with a feminine facial shape in women and negatively with morphological masculinity in men. Facial symmetry was positively associated with female faces with greater levels of uniqueness; the result for male faces was inconclusive. The faces of both sexes perceived as more attractive had lower levels of morphological uniqueness. Facial distinctiveness showed no relationship to morphological uniqueness in either sex, which indicates that morphological uniqueness and distinctiveness are two complementary approaches to studying facial typicality. In the conclusion, the evolutionary significance of the proposed concept and its potential applicability is discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Willian Yoshio Sanomia ◽  
Fabricio Fagundes Pereira ◽  
Ivana Fernandes da Silva ◽  
Carlos Reinier Garcia Cardoso ◽  
Jéssica Terilli Lucchetta

Abstract Knowledge about the ideal host ratio per female parasitoid reared in glass tubes is important for obtaining descendants with better biological quality. The study aimed to evaluate the reproduction of Ooencyrtus submetallicus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) females in egg densities of Euschistus heros (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) to find the most adequate relationship between parasitoids and hosts aiming at the parasitoid multiplication. The experiment was conducted with E. heros eggs at densities (parasitoid:host) of 1:3, 1:6, 1:9, 1:12, 1:15, or 1:18 with 24 hours of parasitism by O. submetallicus. The parasitoid females and the egg carton were placed in glass tubes and kept in a climate-controlled chamber. The percentage of parasitism was affected by the nonparasitised eggs. The emergence of adult parasitoids, number of parasitised eggs, number of individual parasitoids emerging per egg, the length of the parasitoids’ posterior tibiae, and the parasitoids’ longevity, life cycle, and sex ratio were not affected by the different densities of nonparasitised eggs subjected to treatments. Ooencyrtus submetallicus parasitised and developed in E. heros eggs in all evaluated densities, with 1:6 presenting the best combination of parasitoid and host.


2021 ◽  
pp. 108496
Author(s):  
Robert W. Brown ◽  
David R. Chadwick ◽  
Harriet Thornton ◽  
Miles R. Marshall ◽  
Shuikuan Bei ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11999
Author(s):  
Isabella Ghiglieno ◽  
Anna Simonetto ◽  
Giorgio Sperandio ◽  
Matteo Ventura ◽  
Fabio Gatti ◽  
...  

The importance of soil biodiversity and soil-based ecosystem services in the context of viticulture has recently been emphasized. Over 85% of soil fauna species richness is represented by edaphic arthropod communities. Edaphic arthropod responses to soil characteristics and management practices can be considered as good bioindicators of soil quality. Here, 168 soil samples that were collected from 2014 to 2019 in several vineyards of different Italian wine-growing areas were analyzed to explore how arthropod communities respond to several factors that are characteristic of vineyard ecosystems. The analysis of the combined effects of the primary abiotic variables (the chemical and physical characteristics of soil) and management practices (organic vs. conventional, soil inter-row management) on soil biological quality (assessed by QBS-ar index) identified soil temperature and soil texture as the abiotic factors exerting the most significant effect on the QBS-ar values. Organic vineyards exhibited higher QBS-ar values compared to those of conventionally managed vineyards, and subsoiling negatively influenced the soil biological quality.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beenu Tanwar ◽  
Rajni Modgil ◽  
Ankit Goyal

Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the protein (biological) quality of pecan and pine nuts supplemented diets in male Wistar albino rats. Design/methodology/approach A randomized and controlled study (45 d) was conducted in male Wistar albino rats (n = 60) comprising six groups, namely, control (Cc), control with 1% cholesterol (CC1), Pecan group (Pe), Pecan group supplemented with 1% cholesterol (Pi1), Pine group supplemented with 1% cholesterol (Pi1). Protein quality of supplemented diet/s was assessed in terms of various biological indices. Findings Pe and Pi groups exhibited normal growth when compared with Cc. Despite showing higher feed and protein intake, Pe and Pi groups exhibited significantly (P = 0.023) lower weight gain than Cc. There was no significant difference between the protein efficiency ratio (3.8 ± 0.2 and 3.7 ± 0.2), apparent protein digestibility (81.5 ± 2.2 and 80.5 ± 2%), true protein digestibility (90.6 ± 1.1 and 88.5 ± 3.5%) and biological value (BV) (75.6 ± 0.9 and 72.6 ± 0.9%) of Pe and Pi groups, respectively. Pe group presented considerably higher net protein utilization (68.5 ± 1.4 vs 64.4 ± 0.8%) and protein retention efficiency (34.8 ± 1.1 vs 31.2 ± 1.3%) than Pi group. Overall, pecan-based diet displayed superior biological quality over pine nut. Antinutrients present in the nuts did not show any major negative effect on the growth, digestibility and bioavailability of the nutrients in rats. BV ranging from 72.6% to 75.6% suggested a satisfactory quality of experimental nut-based diets. Research limitations/implications Further investigation of pecan and pine nuts consumption to examine the potential benefits and associated mechanisms of action is warranted which would aid in a better understanding and to establish nutritional recommendations. Originality/value Overall, the exploitation of pecan and pine nut flours for the development of value-added food products is favorable from a nutritional point of view.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. e1009459
Author(s):  
Jason Bennett ◽  
Mikhail Pomaznoy ◽  
Akul Singhania ◽  
Bjoern Peters

Recent technological advances have made the gathering of comprehensive gene expression datasets a commodity. This has shifted the limiting step of transcriptomic studies from the accumulation of data to their analyses and interpretation. The main problem in analyzing transcriptomics data is that the number of independent samples is typically much lower (<100) than the number of genes whose expression is quantified (typically >14,000). To address this, it would be desirable to reduce the gathered data’s dimensionality without losing information. Clustering genes into discrete modules is one of the most commonly used tools to accomplish this task. While there are multiple clustering approaches, there is a lack of informative metrics available to evaluate the resultant clusters’ biological quality. Here we present a metric that incorporates known ground truth gene sets to quantify gene clusters’ biological quality derived from standard clustering techniques. The GECO (Ground truth Evaluation of Clustering Outcomes) metric demonstrates that quantitative and repeatable scoring of gene clusters is not only possible but computationally lightweight and robust. Unlike current methods, it allows direct comparison between gene clusters generated by different clustering techniques. It also reveals that current cluster analysis techniques often underestimate the number of clusters that should be formed from a dataset, which leads to fewer clusters of lower quality. As a test case, we applied GECO combined with k-means clustering to derive an optimal set of co-expressed gene modules derived from PBMC, which we show to be superior to previously generated modules generated on whole-blood. Overall, GECO provides a rational metric to test and compare different clustering approaches to analyze high-dimensional transcriptomic data.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2011
Author(s):  
Anna Krzepiłko ◽  
Agata Święciło ◽  
Iwona Zych-Wężyk

Iodine is an essential trace element for humans, and iodine deficiency is a significant health problem. In this study, an improved method for iodine biofortification based on seed germination was established. Solutions of KI (0.15, 0.30, 0.75 and 1.5 mg∙g−1 of seeds) were applied to germinating radish seeds of two cultivars Raphanus sativus L. var. sativus: Warta and Zlata. Compared with the control (seeds treated with water) the iodine content (in the radish sprouts produced by germinating seeds treated with KI were approximately 112.9–2730 times higher. The application KI rates did not adversely affect the biological quality of the radish sprouts. Regarding the biological quality of the iodine-enriched seedlings, we determined their length, dry mater, protein, soluble sugars, chlorophylls, total phenol, ascorbic acid, thiol group content and total antioxidant capacity. The effect of potassium iodide on the selected parameters of their biological quality varied depending on the KI doses and radish cultivars. The results showed that the most appropriate biofortification application rates were 0.15 and 0.30 mg KI per g seeds, because the enriched seedlings had excellent biological quality parameters.


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