Search

Protium ovatum Eng. Burseraceae is an endemic species in Brazil used in traditional medicine. This study investigated the chemical variation and the in vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of dichloromethane soluble fraction of hydrolate (DSFH) from leaves of P. ovatum collected from five different vegetation physiognomies within the Cerrado Goiano. The region was characterized based on the DSFH chemical composition by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were performed to compare the different DSFHs from five Savannah regions in Brazil. The DSFHs from the Cerrado stricto sensu (CSS), Mata de Galeria (MG) and Cerradão (C) regions were grouped in the negative part of PC1, showing high similarity. Samples from the C and MG regions showed antioxidant activity of IC50 = 0.98 and 0.78 mg mL-1, respectively, and 0.250 mg mL-1 of butylated hydroxytoluene (positive control). DSFH from different regions exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans. The results show that the chemical composition and the biological activity of DSFHs can be affected according to the area of collection.

This study delves into the investigation of the efficacy of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in identifying malaria through the examination of cell images. The dataset employed encompasses a total of 27,558 images, harvested from the renowned Malaria Cell Images Dataset on Kaggle, encompassing cells of diverse nature. The architectonics of the CNN model is meticulously devised, comprising of six blocks and three interconnected blocks, thereby rendering an efficient extraction of features and subsequent classification of the cells. Creative paraphrasing: Various strategies such as dropout, batch normalization, and global average pooling are artfully utilized to refine and fortify the model, ensuring its robustness and adaptability. In order to confront the challenge of diminishing gradient and facilitate the attainment of convergence, the activation function known as Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) is ingeniously employed. Assessing the efficacy of the model via a perplexity grid produces outcomes. Exhibiting a precision rate of 99.59%, a specificity measure of 99.69%, an Sensitivity of 99.40%, F1 Measurement of 99.44%, and a Precision of 99.48, it showcases its capacity to effectively distinguish betwixt malaria-afflicted cells and unafflicted cells. The focal point of this research highlights the substantial potential of CNNs in facilitating the automated identification of malaria using image analysis. By harnessing their unique architecture and regularization techniques, CNNs have the capability to enhance the results and potentially bring about better outcomes in areas with prevalent cases of malaria.

In juice and pulp extraction, about 10% of fruit waste is generated, which often ends up in landfills that can cause environmental damage, serve as food for insects and rodents, and cause health problems for humans. In this work, micronized guava waste was used as a filler in vulcanized compounds in natural rubber. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength, tear resistance, and abrasion resistance were evaluated, as well as thermal properties such as thermogravimetric analysis, in addition to scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, elemental analysis, and infrared spectroscopy. According to the results of the mechanical properties tests, the addition of up to 20 phr of the filler tends to improve the tensile strength of the composites, resulting in an increase in the density of cross-links obtained through the Flory-Rehner method. The thermal behavior analyzed by TGA and FTIR spectra were not affected by the incorporation of fillers.

Background: Indications for removal of syndesmotic screws are not fully elucidated. This study aimed to determine factors related to elective syndesmotic screw removal. Methods: Patients who underwent fixation of ankle syndesmotic injuries were included. Screw removal was offered after a minimum of 12 weeks after surgery for pain, stiffness or patient desire to remove painful or broken hardware. Patient demographics, surgical data, distance of the syndesmotic screw from the joint, location of the screw at the physeal scar, and number of syndesmotic screws placed were collected for all patients. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the relationship between patient characteristics and screw removal and independent predictors of hardware removal. Results: Of 160 patients, 60 patients (38%) with an average age of 36.1 (range: 18-84) years underwent elective syndesmotic screw removal at a mean of 7 (range, 3-47) months after initial fixation. The most common reason for screw removal (50/60 patients) was ankle stiffness and pain (83%). Patients who underwent screw removal were more likely to be younger (36.1 years ± 13.0 vs 46.6 years ± 18.2, P

The biodiversity of plant resources is a renewable source that can use as a sustainable component in various applications. The use of vegetable waste as a filler element in polymeric composites is part of the solid waste management policy and the sustainable development of agribusiness. In this work, the natural rubber composites were prepared with acai seed in proportions of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 phr (per hundred rubber). The composites were homogenized in an open cylinder mixer and characterized by rheometric, morphological, mechanical, and thermal tests. The addition of the organic fillers significantly reduced the vulcanization process time. Thermogravimetric analysis and infrared spectroscopy showed that the composites were thermally stable and showed no structure changes after the vulcanization process, respectively. The Lorenz-Parks method's evaluation of matrix/filler interactions showed a strong interaction between NR/Acai. The new biocomposite can replace non-ecological composites economically and sustainably.

The objective of this study is the characterization of activated carbon prepared from hawthorn core natural residue which is a vegetation waste. By using zinc chloride (ZnCl2) as a chemical agent 40 % for 25 hours at (25 °C) as a raw material in this work. The best conditions were determined to be a carbonization temperature of 400 °C for 1 hour and a maximum yield is 82 % Different operational factors such as carbonization time and temperature were used to prepare activated carbon from hawthorn core stones, pH, ash content, density, humidity content, conductivity, iodine number, and methylene blue dye absorption were all investigated in the generated activated carbon. Characterization of the activated carbon obtained was performed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). Finally, the activated carbon synthesized in this study has acquired good properties that enable it to play an important function in a variety of environmental applications, including eco-protection, water treatment, and wastewater treatment and it was compared to a commercial reference sample from the B. D. H Company in industrial applications.

The objective was to investigate the effects of semen freezing extender supplementation with antibiotics on bacterial load of semen samples, sperm functional and morphological metrics in the collared peccary. Fresh ejaculates from 10 males were extended in Tris-egg yolk-glycerol supplemented or not (control) with gentamicin (70 μg/mL) streptomycin-penicillin (SP; 1 mg/mL−1000 IU/mL) or and cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen. Bacterial load, sperm motility patterns, morphology, membrane functionality and integrity, mitochondrial activity, chromatin integrity and sperm-binding ability were evaluated in fresh and frozen-thawed samples. Regardless of the use of antibiotics, the sole cryopreservation provoked a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in bacterial load compared to fresh samples (from average values > 1 x 106 CFU/mL to

Methods for seminal plasma (SP) removal and the selection of collared peccary sperm for fertilization were compared. The experiments evaluated the following: the (I) impact of centrifugation for SP removal before swim-up for sperm selection and (II) a comparison of different Percoll® gradient densities (PG 45–90% and PG 35–70%). Non-selected sperm served as the control. Sperm quality was assessed based on motility patterns, morphology, membrane functional integrity, viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione (GSH), and DNA integrity. Subsequently, the most successful group in the previous experiment and washing by centrifugation (WC) were compared for motility patterns and fertilization using pig oocytes. Swim-up decreased motility and enhanced ROS compared to the control. Centrifugation before swim-up harmed integrity and viability compared to the control. PG 45–90% (96.8 vs. 69.7 vs. 40.7 µm/s) allowed for a better velocity average pathway (VAP), a better velocity straight line, and better linearity (LIN) than those of the control and PG 35–70% (88.4 vs. 56.0 vs. 27.3 µm/s). Thus, PG 45–90% was used for fertilization. PG 45–90% obtained a higher VAP, a higher amplitude of the lateral head, straightness, and higher LIN than those of the control and WC. Cleavage (25.2–26.3%) and morula (8.1–10.5%) rates did not differ between the groups. Therefore, PG 45–90% and WC were efficient in isolating collared peccary sperm capable of fertilizing pig oocytes.

We evaluated the effects of detergents based on sodium dodecyl sulfoxide (SDS) on the functional parameters of collared peccary frozen–thawed sperm. Semen aliquots from ten individuals were diluted in a Tris–egg yolk–glycerol extender alone or with 0.5% Equex STM® paste or SDS (at 0.1%, 0.3% or 0.5% (v/v) concentration). Samples were fast frozen in liquid nitrogen with a post-thaw evaluation of motility, membrane functionality and integrity, mitochondrial activity, sperm binding ability and thermal resistance. The treatments without SDS (41.8 ± 3.5%) and those containing Equex (41.8 ± 4.4%) or 0.1% SDS (41.2 ± 5.5%) provided greater sperm motility (p < 0.05) than those containing SDS 0.3% (30.5 ± 4.7%) and 0.5% (31.2 ± 6.3%). Immediately after thawing, only treatments containing 0.1% SDS effectively preserved sperm straightness (STR) when compared to the negative control. All treatments preserved the amplitude of lateral head (ALH) and straightness (STR) during a thermal resistance test (p > 0.05), but SDS 0.5% impaired the membrane functionality and mitochondrial activity after thawing (p < 0.05). All treatments provided a similar recovery of sperm binding ability after thawing (p < 0.05). Our results showed that the addition of 0.1% SDS to the Tris–yolk–glycerol extender optimized the freeze–thaw recovery of peccary semen.

This study measured the effects of different freezing techniques and permeating cryoprotectants on the preservation of testicular tissues from adult red-rumped agoutis. Tissue biopsies (3.0 mm3) from five individuals were allocated to different experimental groups: control (non-cryopreserved); slow freezing (SF), solid-surface vitrification (SSV), and conventional vitrification (CV). Each method used dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ethylene glycol (EG), or a DMSO + EG combination. Morphology, viability, mitochondrial activity, and proliferative potential were assessed in fresh and frozen tissue samples. Testicular morphology was better using SSV with a combination of DMSO and EG. Across the different cryopreservation approaches, as well as cryoprotectant combinations, cell viability was comparable. Regarding mitochondrial activity, DMSO + EG/SSV or CV, and DMSO + EG/CV were similar to the EG/SF group, which was the best group that provided values similar to fresh control groups. Adequate preservation of the proliferative potential of spermatogonia, Leydig cells, and Sertoli cells was obtained using SSV with DMSO + EG. Overall, the use of SSV with DMSO + EG was the best protocol for the preservation of testicular tissues from adult red-rumped agoutis.

Simple Summary: The collared peccary is a wild ungulate important for the maintenance of ecosystems in the Americas. The in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique can contribute to the conservation of and knowledge about the reproductive characteristics of this species. The collared peccary's spermatozoa are sensitive to stress conditions. Therefore, the steps of seminal plasma (SP) removal and sperm selection for fertilization need to be determined. Consequently, the most used methods in domestic ungulate species, namely, swim-up, Percoll® gradient (PG), and washing by centrifugation (WC), were evaluated. Initially, it was observed that regardless of the sample preparation for the swim-up (with SP or without SP), this method was not efficient in isolating motile sperm. Different PG concentrations were compared, revealing PG 45–90% recovered spermatozoa with better motility patterns compared to PG 35–70% and non-selected sperm. Then, PG 45–90% was compared to WC for sperm motility and heterologous IVF with swine oocytes. PG 45–90% showed better motility patterns, but the rate of fertilization and development of embryos were similar compared to WC. Therefore, PG 45–90% and WC are recommended for SP removal and sperm selection in the collared peccary. Methods for seminal plasma (SP) removal and the selection of collared peccary sperm for fertilization were compared. The experiments evaluated the following: the (I) impact of centrifugation for SP removal before swim-up for sperm selection and (II) a comparison of different Percoll® gradient densities (PG 45–90% and PG 35–70%). Non-selected sperm served as the control. Sperm quality was assessed based on motility patterns, morphology, membrane functional integrity, viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione (GSH), and DNA integrity. Subsequently, the most successful group in the previous experiment and washing by centrifugation (WC) were compared for motility patterns and fertilization using pig oocytes. Swim-up decreased motility and enhanced ROS compared to the control. Centrifugation before swim-up harmed integrity and viability compared to the control. PG 45–90% (96.8 vs. 69.7 vs. 40.7 µm/s) allowed for a better velocity average pathway (VAP), a better velocity straight line, and better linearity (LIN) than those of the control and PG 35–70% (88.4 vs. 56.0 vs. 27.3 µm/s). Thus, PG 45–90% was used for fertilization. PG 45–90% obtained a higher VAP, a higher amplitude of the lateral head, straightness, and higher LIN than those of the control and WC. Cleavage (25.2–26.3%) and morula (8.1–10.5%) rates did not differ between the groups. Therefore, PG 45–90% and WC were efficient in isolating collared peccary sperm capable of fertilizing pig oocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]