Physiology in Talisia esculenta seedlings under irrigation with saline water on substrate with hydrogel

Salinity interferes in the physiology of seedlings from germination and seedling emergence, so it is necessary to adopt measures to mitigate its effects. The objectives of this research were to evaluate irrigation frequency, saline water, polymer, and container volume in the emergence and physiology of Talisia esculenta (A. St.-Hil.) Radlk. The treatments were obtained from the combination of polymer doses (0.0; 0.2; 0.6; 1.0; and 1.2 g dm-3), electrical conductivities of the irrigation water (0.3; 1, 1; 2.7; 4.3; and 5.0 dS m-1), and irrigation frequencies (daily and alternate), plus two additional treatments to assess the volume of the container. A randomized block design was used. Emergence and leaf indices of chlorophyll, fluorescence, and gas exchange were analyzed 100 days after sowing. The increase in electrical conductivity reduced and delayed seedling emergence. Decreasing irrigation frequency reduced the chlorophyll b index, stomatal conductance, transpiration, net CO2 assimilation, and carboxylation efficiency. The magnitude of the effects of electrical conductivity of water and polymer were associated with the frequency of irrigation. However, both salinity and polymer reduced practically all physiological variables. The reduction in container volume also affected the physiology of the seedlings, with more effects when irrigated on alternate days. The T. esculenta seedlings are considered sensitive to salinity, should be irrigated daily with water with less electrical conductivity than 1.0 dS m-1, as well as higher capacity containers used (0.75 vs 1.30 dm3).

Kinetic Modeling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Central Carbon Metabolism: Achievements, Limitations, and Opportunities

Central carbon metabolism comprises the metabolic pathways in the cell that process nutrients into energy, building blocks and byproducts. To unravel the regulation of this network upon glucose perturbation, several metabolic models have been developed for the microorganism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These dynamic representations have focused on glycolysis and answered multiple research questions, but no commonly applicable model has been presented. This review systematically evaluates the literature to describe the current advances, limitations, and opportunities. Different kinetic models have unraveled key kinetic glycolytic mechanisms. Nevertheless, some uncertainties regarding model topology and parameter values still limit the application to specific cases. Progressive improvements in experimental measurement technologies as well as advances in computational tools create new opportunities to further extend the model scale. Notably, models need to be made more complex to consider the multiple layers of glycolytic regulation and external physiological variables regulating the bioprocess, opening new possibilities for extrapolation and validation. Finally, the onset of new data representative of individual cells will cause these models to evolve from depicting an average cell in an industrial fermenter, to characterizing the heterogeneity of the population, opening new and unseen possibilities for industrial fermentation improvement.

Combining Physiology-Based Modeling and Evolutionary Algorithms for Personalized, Noninvasive Cardiovascular Assessment Based on Electrocardiography and Ballistocardiography

Purpose: This study proposes a novel approach to obtain personalized estimates of cardiovascular parameters by combining (i) electrocardiography and ballistocardiography for noninvasive cardiovascular monitoring, (ii) a physiology-based mathematical model for predicting personalized cardiovascular variables, and (iii) an evolutionary algorithm (EA) for searching optimal model parameters.Methods: Electrocardiogram (ECG), ballistocardiogram (BCG), and a total of six blood pressure measurements are recorded on three healthy subjects. The R peaks in the ECG are used to segment the BCG signal into single BCG curves for each heart beat. The time distance between R peaks is used as an input for a validated physiology-based mathematical model that predicts distributions of pressures and volumes in the cardiovascular system, along with the associated BCG curve. An EA is designed to search the generation of parameter values of the cardiovascular model that optimizes the match between model-predicted and experimentally-measured BCG curves. The physiological relevance of the optimal EA solution is evaluated a posteriori by comparing the model-predicted blood pressure with a cuff placed on the arm of the subjects to measure the blood pressure.Results: The proposed approach successfully captures amplitudes and timings of the most prominent peak and valley in the BCG curve, also known as the J peak and K valley. The values of cardiovascular parameters pertaining to ventricular function can be estimated by the EA in a consistent manner when the search is performed over five different BCG curves corresponding to five different heart-beats of the same subject. Notably, the blood pressure predicted by the physiology-based model with the personalized parameter values provided by the EA search exhibits a very good agreement with the cuff-based blood pressure measurement.Conclusion: The combination of EA with physiology-based modeling proved capable of providing personalized estimates of cardiovascular parameters and physiological variables of great interest, such as blood pressure. This novel approach opens the possibility for developing quantitative devices for noninvasive cardiovascular monitoring based on BCG sensing.

Consumer-driven nutrient recycling of freshwater decapods: linking ecological theories and application in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture

The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MET) and the Ecological Stoichiometry Theory (EST) are central and complementary in the consumer-driven recycling conceptual basis. The comprehension of physiological processes of organisms at different levels of organizations is essential to explore and predict nutrient recycling behavior in different scenarios, and to design integrated productive systems that efficiently use the nutrient inputs through an adjusted mass balance. We fed with fish-feed three species of decapods from different families and with aquacultural potential to explore the animal-mediated nutrient dynamic and its applicability in productive systems. We tested whether physiological (body mass, body elemental content), ecological (diet), taxonomic and experimental (time of incubation) variables predicts N and P excretion rates and ratios across and within taxa. We also analysed body mass and body elemental content independently as predictors of N and P excretion of decapods across, among and within taxa. Finally, we verified if body content scales allometrically across and within taxa and if differed among taxa. Body mass and taxonomic identity predicted nutrient excretion rates both across and within taxa. When physiological variables were analysed independently, body size best predicted nutrient mineralization in both scales of analyses. Regarding body elemental content, only body P content scaled negatively with body mass across taxa. Results showed higher N-requirements and lower C:N of prawns than anomurans and crabs. The role of crustaceans as nutrient recyclers depends mainly on the species and body mass, and should be considered to select complementary species that efficiently use feed resources. Prawns need more protein in their feed and might be integrated with fish of higher N-requirements, while crabs and anomurans, with fish of lower N-requirements. Our study contributed to the background of MTE and EST through empirical data obtained from decapods and provided useful information to achieve more efficient aquaculture integration systems.

INPUTS OPTIMIZATION IN THE SEEDLINGS PRODUCTION OF Corymbia citriodora E Eucalyptus dunnii

Corymbia citriodora and Eucalyptus dunnii are species of relevant importance due to the quality of the wood and growth potential in Southern Brazil. Therefore, we aimed to identify containers and doses of controlled-release fertilizer capable of enhancing the morphophysiological quality and growth of these species in the nursery, aiming for the proper management of these inputs. The seedlings were produced in two volumes of containers (50 e 110 cm³), filled with Sphagnum peat-based substrate, mixed with different doses of controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) NPK 15-09-12 (0, 3, 6, 9 e 12 g L-1 of substrates). In addition, the morphological (height, stem diameter, leaf area, dry weight of shoot, root, and total) and physiological (chlorophyll a and b index and quantum yield of the photosystem II) attributes were evaluated. The morphological attributes proved to be suitable indicators of the quality of C. citriodora and E. dunnii seedlings, allowing to recommend the container of 50 cm³ and the doses of 9.0 g L-1 of controlled-release fertilizer for both species. At the same time, the physiological variables evaluated were not responsive to the effect of the treatments.

Determine independent gut microbiota-diseases association by eliminating the effects of human lifestyle factors

Lifestyle and physiological variables on human disease risk have been revealed to be mediated by gut microbiota. Low concordance between case-control studies for detecting disease-associated microbe existed due to limited sample size and population-wide bias in lifestyle and physiological variables. To infer gut microbiota-disease associations accurately, we propose to build machine learning models by including both human variables and gut microbiota. When the model’s performance with both gut microbiota and human variables is better than the model with just human variables, the independent gut microbiota -disease associations will be confirmed. By building models on the American Gut Project dataset, we found that gut microbiota showed distinct association strengths with different diseases. Adding gut microbiota into human variables enhanced the classification performance of IBD significantly; independent associations between occurrence information of gut microbiota and irritable bowel syndrome, C. difficile infection, and unhealthy status were found; adding gut microbiota showed no improvement on models’ performance for diabetes, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, lactose intolerance, cardiovascular disease. Our results suggested that although gut microbiota was reported to be associated with many diseases, a considerable proportion of these associations may be very weak. We proposed a list of microbes as biomarkers to classify IBD and unhealthy status. Further functional investigations of these microbes will improve understanding of the molecular mechanism of human diseases.

Physiological response of sorghum seeds treated with Arsenicum album submitted to low temperature

Introduction: Temperature is one of the main environmental factors that act on plants, affecting physiological processes such as germination and vigor, growth, photosynthesis, water and nutrients uptake, among others [1]. When seeds are exposed to temperature stress during imbibition process occur dramatic changes in the reorganization and function of the plasma membrane impairing the stability and functional structure of the membrane resulting in the decrease on germination and embryo death [2][3]. In plant, stress triggers wide response that extends from the change of gene expression and cell metabolism to changes in growth rate and productivity. The organism’s reaction is a function of plant capacity to produce effects opposite to the action of stressors [4]. Aim: the purpose of this study was to evaluate high dilution effect of Arsenicum album on physiological variables of germination and growth of sorghum. Material and Methods: The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Physiology and Homeopathy at Universidade Estadual de Maringá - UEM. Arsenicum album 6x matrix was acquired in homeopathic laboratory. From matrix, other dilutions were prepared according to Brazilian Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia [5] with the homeopathic remedies prepared in distilled water (1/10) and succussed by 100 times in mechanical arm (50-Denise Model Autic). For cold test, 50 seeds were distributed on germitest paper moistened to 2.5 times the weight of paper under different dilutions of A. album (9, 12, 18, 24 and 30x) with four replications. The control consisted of distilled water. After sowing, the rolls were placed in plastic bags and sealed, and lead in BOD-chamber at 10°C for 7 days. After this period, the rolls were removed from plastic bags and transferred to BOD-chamber at (25 ± 2)°C, arranged at random where they remained for seven days. Germination percentage (GP%) were evaluated according to Rules for Seed Analysis [6]. The length of primary roots (LPR) and length of hypocotyl (LH) were determined only for seedlings. The total length seedlings (TLS) was calculated as the sum of the lengths of hypocotyl (LH) and primary root (LPR). The fresh biomass (FB) of the seedlings were obtained by removing from their cotyledons, and then weighed on an analytical balance. The dry biomass (DB) was obtained after drying at (80 ± 1)°C for 72h. The experimental design was completely randomized. We adopted the double-blind procedure, thereby avoiding possible researcher interference. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and means compared by Scott-Knott (P≤ 0.05). Results: Seed exposure for seven days to cold stress at 10º C inhibited the germination percentage (GP%). Dilutions 9 and 18x showed the lowest germination percentage (Figure 1A). The cold inhibited the total length of hypocotyls (LH) the length of the seedlings (TLS), with the lowest values ​​observed in seeds treated with dilution 24x (Figures 1B and 1C). Fresh biomass production of seedlings (FB) also was reduced the dilutions 9, 12 and 24x (Figure 1D). Seedlings treated with the dilution 24x reduced the dry biomass production (DB) (Figure 1E). Conclusions: We can conclude that homeopathy Arsenicum album 24x reduced the germination percentage, the length, fresh and dry biomass of sorghum. Probably the cause of this reduction is the lower absorption/water content in the system. The reduction in water content can be the cause lower values ​​for the variables mentioned. However, the inhibitory action of the 24x dilution in water content is not yet known and will be one of the goals of future work.

Isotherapic of Culex on the biological cycle of the mosquito Culex sp

Introduction: Culex is an insect of the family Culicidae. It occurs in tropical and subtropical regions. It is known as the domestic mosquito. Their larvae develop in stagnant and dirty water, with plenty of organic matter. Some species of the insect such as Culex quinquefasciatus transmit the worms (helminths) called Wuchereria bancrofti filariasis or Elephantiasis. Aims: Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of isotherapic of Culex on the biological cycle of this insect. Material and Method: The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Homeopathy at the State University of Maringa in the period from March 26 to December 31, 2007. Fifteen larvae of Culex sp. the same stage of development (Stage I) were used in the experiment with Isopathy of Culex sp. Was added 200 microliters of the dilutions of isotherapic 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 30cH in each flask containing 30 mL of water and 15 larvae of Culex sp. The control consisted of 30 mL of water and 200 mL of 5% alcohol. The flasks were covered by tissue "toule"-type to prevent the dispersal of adult insects. The dilutions were produced according to the Brazilian Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia (1987) [1]. Were determined: average number of larvae, pupae and mosquitoes during the cycle of the insect. Results and Discussion: The presence of Culex isotherapic in the growth solution presented complex responses. Some dilution caused positive responses (3, 6, 9, 12 and 18cH) in the average number of larvae (Figure 1). Dilution 18cH apparently caused a protective effect, and somehow minimized the negative influence of the environment, or protect the larvae from unfavorable abiotic conditions. Dilutions 6, 18 and 24 cH, instead, caused adverse effect on larval and pupa survival, but positive when we consider the objective of this work. There is an interesting phenomenon when evaluating the biological responses in living according to the dilution used. The alternation of rises and falls in the physiological variables as a function of dilution were observed by several authors [2-5]. It behavior is not explained by science, but it is believed to be related to the rhythmic nature movement [6,7] and also with the law of similarity occurring between dilution and the organism that receives it. Thus, the physiological function of the dilutions in the same drug are often cyclical and not linear. Conclusion: The results of this experiment suggest that some dilution may be used in studies to control the mosquito Culex sp.