Productive Performance and Cecum Microbiota Analysis of Broiler Chickens Supplemented with β-Mannanases and Bacteriophages—A Pilot Study

This study was conducted to evaluate the productive performance, intestinal health, and description of the cecum microbiota in broilers supplemented with β-mannanases (MNs) and bacteriophages (BPs). Six hundred one-day-old broilers were divided into four groups and fed one of the following diets: CON—corn–soybean meal + 10 ppm enramycin (ENR); MN: CON + 500 ppm MN; BP: CON + 500 ppm BP; MN + BP: BP + 500 ppm MN. The BP and MN factors showed similar performances to ENR. MN improved the concentration of IgA in the jejunum at 35 days of age. The morphometric index (IM) of the thymus increased by adding MN, while BP increased the liver and thymus IM. The histological analysis showed that BP and MN improved the intestinal morphology. MN + BP showed a tendency to decrease the abundance of Proteobacteria and increase the abundance of Bacteroidetes, indicating better microbiota function. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the combination of MN + BP has potential in poultry nutrition; however, we highly recommend further experiments to confirm this hypothesis.

Geomorphological Analysis of Xilokastro Fault, Central Gulf of Corinth, Greece

The Gulf of Corinth is a rapidly opening area with high seismicity associated with extensive building collapses, destruction of cities, and even the deaths of inhabitants. Rapid residential development, especially in the southern part of the Gulf of Corinth, and the construction of crucial technical infrastructures necessitate understanding the activity across crustal-scale faults that host devastating earthquakes. The evolution of landforms affected by fault action is a dominant issue in geological science. In the present study, was selected the 20 km long Xilokastro pure normal fault. In this fault, we apply eight geomorphological indices in footwall catchments that drain perpendicular to its trace. In total, more than 5000 measurements were made in 102 catchments. The determination of geomorphological indices requires the construction of morphological profiles either perpendicular to the faults or perpendicular to the main tributaries of the drainage basins under consideration through the use of the geographical information systems (ArcGIS platform). Τhe application of these indices along catchments draining the Xilokastro fault scarp show high active tectonics. Its high activity is evidenced by the high values of the length-slope index near the fault trace, the low values of the width to height ratio index, the strong asymmetry of the drainage basins, especially in the overlapping zones between its segments, and the elongated shape of the drainage basins. This study supports the idea that the application of a single morphometric index is unable to reflect the distribution of active tectonics across faults, which makes inevitable the systematic comparison of a series of tectonic morphometric indices from which a new combined index emerges (Iat). The Iat classifies the Xilokastro fault in the high degree of activity at a rate of 75% of its length.

Selection Criteria for Meat Production Based on the Morphometry of Morada Nova Lambs: A Systematic Approach

The objective of this study was to characterize the meat production potential of Morada Nova lambs from different genetic groups using morphological and zoometric data, performance and carcass characteristics. A total of 24 non-castrated male lambs from two genetic groups were used: Morada Nova red (MNR) and Morada Nova F1 red x Morada Nova white (MNF1) breed, with an initial mean body weight of 16.9 ± 3.43 kg and an average age of four months were distributed in a completely randomized design. Evaluations of morphometric data and zoom indices, performance and carcass characteristics were measured and calculated. Univariate and multivariate techniques were used to differentiate and reduce the number of variables, to group them and then develop and validate a sheep meat production index. Only 12 differences in the 29 morphometric measurements and zoometric indices analyzed were observed (P < 0.05). Furthermore, only 7 of the 28 quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the carcass were greater (P < 0.05) in MNF1 lambs. The yields of commercial cuts and the physical-chemical characteristics and qualitative measurements of the carcass were similar (P > 0.05) between the genetic groups. All groups of variables, except the cut yield, have discriminatory power (P < 0.05) with the highest classification percentages for body morphometry (91.3%) and zoometric indices (95.7%). The four identified factors, which together explain more than 85.0% of the total data variation, were renamed in the following order of importance: morpho-economic (38.5%), morpho-productive (18.8%), morpho-commercial (17.5%), and equilibrium (11.0%). The heat map showed the suitability in the morpho-commercial and morpho-economic factors for MNF1 lambs, while the MNR lambs showed emphasis for the equilibrium factor. Thus, the Sheep Meat Morphometric Index (SMMI) resulted in the following equation SMMI =\(\frac{\text{A}\text{I} \times 0.771 + \text{C}\text{H} \times 0.759 + \text{R}\text{H} \times 0.878 + \text{T}\text{P}\text{R}\text{I} \times 0.876 + \text{B}\text{I} \times 0.550 + \text{C}\text{W} \times 0.905}{100}\) In which: AI is the anamorphosis index; CH is chest height; RH is rump height; TPRI is the thoracic perimeter relation index; BI is body index; and CW is chest width. The application and validation of the developed index showed superiority (P < 0.001) for meat production in the crossed lambs. MNR and MNF1 lambs have high thoracic development, compact character and aptitude for meat production. Lambs crossed between genetic groups of the MN breed are another sustainable option for sheep production in drylands. It is recommended that the SMMI be used as a tool for morpho-productive selection criteria in breeding programs in the MN breed, as well as other small native breeds.

Simple morphometrics for predicting lordosis-induced deviations of body-shape in reared Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.)

Haemal lordosis, V-shape bending of the haemal vertebrae, is a frequent abnormality of reared fish. Lordosis severity ranges from light deformations of vertebral axis, with insignificant effects on external morphology, to severe axis deformations with significant impact on body-shape. In the present study, we developed a simple morphometric index (PrAn) that links lordosis severity at the juvenile stage with fish body-shape at harvesting, without requiring to radiograph or sacrifice the samples. Examined seabream specimens were part of our previous study (Fragkoulis et al. 2019, Sci. Rep. 9, 9832), which monitored the effects of lordosis on the external morphology of pit-tagged seabream juveniles during their growth, up to harvest size. At both juvenile and adult stages, PrAn was effective in discriminating the normal fish from ca the 70% of lordotic fish. Our results suggest the PrAn as a valuable scale of quality, which quantifies the lordosis effects on fish external morphology, both at the juvenile stage and at harvest. Depending on the lordosis rates, and the hatchery strategy on the maximum allowed abnormality rates, this scale can cull out different rates of lordotic fish, without affecting the fish with normal phenotype or the lordotic fish with high recovery potential.

An enhanced loss function simplifies the deep learning model for characterizing the 3D organoid models

Motivation Organization of the organoid models, imaged in 3D with a confocal microscope, is an essential morphometric index to assess responses to stress or therapeutic targets. In fact, differentiating malignant and normal cells is often difficult in monolayer cultures. But in 3D culture, colony organization can provide a clear set of indices for differentiating malignant and normal cells. The limiting factors are delineating each cell in a 3D colony in the presence of perceptual boundaries between adjacent cells and heterogeneity associated with cells being at different cell cycles. Results In a previous paper, we defined a potential field for delineating adjacent nuclei, with perceptual boundaries, in 2D histology images by coupling three deep networks. This concept is now extended to 3D and simplified by an enhanced cost function that replaces three deep networks with one. Validation includes four cell lines with diverse mutations, and a comparative analysis with the UNet models of microscopy indicates an improved performance with the F1-score of 0.83. Availability and implementation All software and annotated images are available through GitHub and Bioinformatics online. The software includes the proposed method, UNet for microscopy that was extended to 3D and report generation for profiling colony organization. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Assessment shoreline formation of reservoirs

The article analysis the factors influencing the reduction of reservoir useful volume, including the formation of shores, and proposes and method of their quantitative calculation. The research was provided in the South Surkhandarya reservoir. During the exploitation of the reservoir, were assessed the morphometric index of the basin and changes in a bank due to various influences. The article presented mathematical, statistical calculations of changes in erosion conditions due to displacement of the left banks of the South Surkhandarya Reservoir and changes in pressure in the strata and water saturation of the coastal layers. The proposed method of assessment and calculation will allow development measures to improve the operation of reservoirs based on the determination of morphometric parameters and prevent the formation of shores.

Improving landslide susceptibility models using morphometric indices: Influence of the observation window in the reliability of the results.

&lt;p&gt;Estimation of landslide susceptibility in mountainous areas is a prerequisite for risk assessment and contingency planning. The susceptibility to landslide is modelled based on thematic layers of information such as geomorphology, hydrology, or geology, where detailed characteristics of the area are depicted. The growing use of machine learning techniques to identify complex relationships among a high number of variables decreased the time required to distinguish areas prone to landslides and increased the reliability of the results. However, numerous countries lack detailed thematic databases to feed in the models. As a consequence, susceptibility assessment often relies heavily on geomorphic parameters derived from Digital Elevation Models. Simple parameters such as slope, aspect and curvature, calculated under a moving window of 3x3-pixels are mostly used. Furthermore, advanced morphometric indices such as topographic position index or surface roughness are increasingly used as additional input parameters. These indices are computed under a bigger window of observation usually defined by the researcher and the goal of the study. While these indices proved to be useful in capturing the overall morphology of an entire slope profile or regional processes, little is known on how the selection of the moving window size is relevant and affects the output landslide susceptibility model.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order to address this question, we analysed how the predicting capabilities and reliability of landslide susceptibility models were impacted by the morphometric indices and their window of observation. For this purpose, we estimate the landslide susceptibility of an area located in Tajikistan (SW Tien Shan) using a Random Forest algorithm and different input datasets. Predicting factors include commonly used 3x3-pixel morphometrics, environmental, geological and climatic variables as well as advanced morphometric indices to be tested (surface roughness, local relief, topographic position index, elevation relief ratio and surface index). Two approaches were selected to address the moving window size. First, we chose a common window of observation for all the morphometric indices based on the study area valley&amp;#8217;s characteristics. Second, we defined an optimal moving window(s) for each morphometric index based on the importance ranking of models that include moving windows from a range of 300 to 15000 m for each index. A total of 20 models were iteratively created, started by including all the moving windows from all the indices. Predicting capabilities were evaluated by the receiver operator curve (ROC) and Precision-Recall (PR). Additionally, a measure of reliability is proposed using the standard deviation of 50 iterations. The selection of different moving windows using the feature importance resulted in better-predicting capabilities models than assigning an optimal for all. On the other hand, using a single different moving window per morphometric index (eg. most important ranked by random forest) decreases the evaluating metrics (a drop of PR from 0.88 to 0.85). Landslide susceptibility models can thus be improved by selecting a variety of meaningful (physically and methodological) windows of observation for each morphometric index. A 3x3-pixel moving window is not recommended because it is too small to capture the morphometric signature of landslides.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

Cortical morphometry of the five-factor model of personality: Findings from the Human Connectome Project full sample

This study is a replication of an existing large study (N = 507) on the surface-based morphometric correlates of Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality traits. The same methods were used as the original study in another large sample drawn from the same population (N = 597) with results then being aggregated from both samples (N = 1104), providing the largest investigation into the neuroanatomical correlates of FFM personality traits to date. Clusters of association between brain morphometry and each FFM trait are reported. For Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness, and Conscientiousness clusters of association were found in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for at least one morphometric index. Morphometry in various other regions was also associated with each personality trait. While some regions found in the original study were confirmed in the replication and full samples, others were not, highlighting the importance of replicating even high-quality, well-powered studies. Effect sizes were very similar in the replication and whole samples as those found in the original study. As a whole, the current results provide the strongest evidence to date on the neuroanatomical correlates of personality and highlights challenges in using this approach to understanding the neural correlates of personality.

Histological Features of Oral Cavity Mucous Membrane Epithelium in Six-Month-Old Experimental Animals Born with Macrosomia

We examined the histological features of the mucobuccal fold of oral cavity mucous membrane from the area of the masticatory teeth roots’ projection in 6-month-old Wistar Albino Glaxo rats with fetal macrosomia. The animals were divided into groups according to the body weight, the body length, and the Quetelet index at birth. A morphological study was performed using the Leica SP8 AOBS laser scanning confocal microscope and a conventional light (Axiostar, Zeiss) microscopy. Morphometric parameters were used to estimate the degree of acanthosis development in the epithelium of the oral mucosa, which indicates the intensity of its proliferation. Numerous narrow and deep acanthotic outgrowths and densely located ‘juvenile’ epitheliocytes in the basal layer on the apex of the acanthotic protrusions were found in animals with fetal macrosomia that was due to intrauterine obesity. In these animals, the morphometric index, which we used, was maximally different from that in the control group. In animals with fetal macrosomia that was due to intrauterine growth acceleration of the body, the hyperproliferation of the mucous membrane epithelium of the oral cavity was absent or little pronounced. It can be assumed that fetal macrocosmia with obesity causes instability in the epithelium of the oral cavity mucosa, its rapid death, and therefore, a more active stimulation of proliferation.