Comparative Analysis of Lipids and Fatty Acids in Beaked Redfish Sebastes mentella Travin, 1951 Collected in Wild and in Commercial Products

The lipid and fatty acid profile of muscles in beaked redfish, caught and fixed in the wild versus specimens from food supermarkets (“commercial”), were evaluated, as well as the health implications of this popular food for its consumers based on the calculation of nutritional quality indexes. The contents of the total lipids (TLs), total phospholipids (PLs), monoacylglycerols (MAGs), diacylglycerols (DAGs), triacylglycerols (TAGs), cholesterol (Chol), Chol esters, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), and wax esters were determined by HPTLC; the phosphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylcholine (PC), and lysophosphatidylcholine (LysoPC) were determined by HPLC; and fatty acids of total lipids were determined using GC. The TL content was higher in commercial products due to DA and NEFAs, among PL fractions the content of LysoPC was also higher. The results indicated multidirectional processes of slight degradation of lipids in commercial products in comparison to wild. The flesh lipid quality index was lower due to EPA and DHA in commercial specimens while the index of thrombogenicity was significantly higher. The differences in the quantities of lipid classes between muscle biopsy regions in fish apparently corroborate the morphology and physiology of deep-water fish.

IMPACT OF THE NORMALIZATION OF THE SPECTRAL RESPONSIVITY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE GENERAL V(λ) MISMATCH INDEX

Quality indexes are usually defined for measurement instruments in order to characterize some specific aspect of their performance. The V(λ) spectral mismatch of photometers is evaluated by the general V(λ) mismatch index, f1’, whose value must be correlated with the average measurement error introduced by this spectral mismatch. The objective of this work is to assess the correlation of several indexes of this type with this average error of photometers. The difference between the studied indexes is that the spectral responsivity of the photometer is normalized with different factors to that defined for f1’. From this study, we conclude that the most suitable normalization in the definition of a f1’-type quality index is not determined by the spectral distribution used in the calibration or by those of the light sources to be measured. The normalization factor presenting the best correlation in all studied cases was obtained by numerically minimizing the value of the index instead of by applying an explicit function, as it is done in f1’.

Visualizing clustering characteristics of multidimensional arable land quality indexes at the county level in mainland China

The evaluation of the arable land ecosystem services capacity and arable land use intensity is important for recognizing regional key factors that impact the change of arable land attributes. A chronic lack of cooperation persists between these two fields of study, which makes providing sufficient information to support developing arable land use management and control policies difficult. In this study, the clustering characteristics of four arable land quality indexes have been assessed using the K-means algorithm to indicate the regional coordination between arable land resource protection and arable land use. The clustering results have been visualized using circular cartogram. This study can contribute to the identification of key regional challenges in China's arable land use and help to build the framework of other countries’ arable land protection policies.

Introducing ISMDq—A Web Portal for Real-Time Quality Monitoring of Italian Strong-Motion Data

We present the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia Strong-Motion Data-quality (ISMDq)—a new automatic system designed to check both continuous data stream and event strong-motion waveforms before online publication. The main purpose of ISMDq is to ensure accurate ground-motion data and derived products to be rapidly shared with monitoring authorities and the scientific community. ISMDq provides data-quality reports within minutes of the occurrence of Italian earthquakes with magnitude ≥3.0 and includes a detailed daily picture describing the performance of the target strong-motion networks. In this article, we describe and discuss the automatic procedures used by ISMDq to perform its data-quality check. Before an earthquake, ISMDq evaluates the selected waveforms through the estimation of quality indexes employed to reject bad data and/or to group approved data into classes of quality that are useful to quantify the level of reliability. The quality indexes are estimated based on comparisons with the background ambient noise level performed both in the time and frequency domains. As a consequence, new high- and low-noise reference levels are derived for the overall Italian strong-motion network, for each station, and for groups of stations in the same soil categories of the Eurocode 8 (Eurocode 8 [EC8], 2003). In absence of earthquakes, 24 hr streaming of ambient noise recordings are analyzed at each station to set an empirical threshold on selected data metrics and data availability, with the goal to build a station quality archive, which is daily updated in a time span of six months. The ISMDq is accessible online (see Data and Resources) from August 2020, providing rapid open access to ∼10,000 high-quality checked automatically processed strong-motion waveforms and metadata, relative to more than 160 Italian earthquakes with magnitude in the 3.0–5.2 range. Comparisons between selected strong-motion data automatically processed and then manually revised corroborate the reliability of the proposed procedures.

Use of effective microorganisms with phytoprotective ceramics in the initial growth of Theobroma cacao L.

The research was conducted in the nursery of the National Intercultural University of Amazonia, whose objective was to use effective microorganisms with plant protection ceramics in the initial growth of Theobroma cacao, "common cocoa". The experiment was conducted through a completely randomized design (DCA), with 5 treatments, 10 repetitions and 50 experimental units. The treatments were: T1 (Control); T2 (100 ml of efficient microorganisms (EM) + 20 g of phytoprotective ceramic (CF)); T3 (200 ml of MS + 20 g of CF); T4 (300 ml of EM + 20 g of CF) and T5 (400 ml of EM + 20 g of CF). As a result, the T3 treatment obtained better growth value in height, diameter and specific leaf area with: 25.56 cm, 6.86 mm and 90.77 cm2 / g respectively, compared to the control that reached 19.98 cm. 5.49 mm. 49.32. Regarding the quality indexes, the ratio of aerial dry biomass / dry root biomass (R BSA / RBSR), lignification index (IL), robustness index (IR) and Dickson quality index (DQI), did not show significant differences between the treatments, but the T3 had higher value over the IR with 3.76, the R BSA / RBSR with 2.45 and DQI with 0.85, and the T4 had greater value in the IL with 33.68.

Distribution Characteristics of Antibiotic Resistance Bacteria and Related Genes in Urban Recreational Lakes Replenished by Different Supplementary Water Source

The objective of this study was to investigate the distribution characteristics of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in urban recreational water with different water supply sources, 2 lakes as XQ and FQ which represented as surface water and reclaimed water were selected for the study. Water samples were collected from April to November in 2018 to investigate aspects including 8 physical and chemical indexes of waters, resistance degree of 5 different kinds of antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance heterotrophic bacteria content, resistance phenotype, antibiotic resistance gene types and antibiotic resistance strains of species distribution. The results showed that the changes of antibiotic resistance rate of heterotrophic bacteria in 2 lakes to 5 kinds of antibiotics were synchronous with time, and it would reach its maximum in autumn. The detection of 10 ARGs and intⅠ gene in 80 strains screened out from 125 strains of heterotrophic bacteria showed that the detection rate of tetG and tetA genes was relatively high, especially intI, with the rate as high as 90%. In the detection of resistance spectrum, 51.25% of the resistance bacteria were double-resistance to AMP-CTX. The 80 isolate strains were of 9 genera and 19 species, among which Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Aeromonas veronii, Aeromonas caviae and Raoultella ornithinolytica were the common ARB species in FQ and XQ. There was no relatively large differences in the content of ARB, detection rate, and identification of ARGs in 2 lakes. Correlation analysis was used to evaluate the association between the change of water quality indexes and the content of antibiotic resistance bacteria in 2 lakes, and it was found that the water temperature was significantly correlated with the content of ARB in Sulfamethoxazole and Cefotaxime (p<0.05), while there were no other correlations between the changes of other water quality indexes and the content of ARB (p>0.05).

Effects of pollution on hydrogeochemistry and water quality of the Damietta branch (Nile River, Egypt)

Currently, different sources of contamination threaten water quality in Damietta, Egypt. The aim of this study was to assess the pollution, hydrogeochemistry and suitability for use in agriculture of water collected atseven stations along the Damietta branch of the Nile River. In addition to pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), and electrical conductivity (EC), levels of Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, Na+, Cl−, HCO3−, SO42− and CO32− were measured. From the highest to the lowest, the concentrations of cations were Na+ &gt; Ca2+ &gt; Mg2+ &gt; K+, whereas those of anions were HCO3− &gt; SO42− &gt; Cl− in water samples collected at seven stations along the Damietta branch. Moreover, water quality indexes, such as sodium percentage (Na%) ranged between 21.6 and 71.4, Kelly's ratio from 0.37 to 3.85, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) varied from 1.73 to 61.8, residual sodium carbonate (RSC) found to be in range of 0.2 to 3.8. Also, the potential salinity (PS) and permeability index (PI), magnesium hazard (MH), were calculated. Most samples (71%) belonged to the Mg–Ca–Na–HCO3 watertype. Fertilization wastes were identified as the main contributors of alkaline earth metals, whereas ion exchange was the main source of alkali metals. This work also provides information on distinguishing geochemical behaviors and the pollution of water samples.