scholarly journals Biochemical and biological validations of a faecal glucocorticoid metabolite assay in mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx)

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shana R Lavin ◽  
Miles C Woodruff ◽  
Rebeca Atencia ◽  
Debby Cox ◽  
Glenn T Woodruff ◽  
...  

Abstract Stress is a major factor in determining success when releasing endangered species into the wild but is often overlooked. Mandrills (Mandrills sphinx) are vulnerable to extinction due to habitat loss and demand for bush meat and the pet trade. To help bolster in situ populations, rehabilitated rescued mandrills recently were released into a protected area in the Republic of Congo. The goal of this study was to validate the use of faecal glucocorticoid metabolite enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) in mandrills and test field-friendly faecal hormone extraction techniques that can subsequently be used to monitor the stress physiology and welfare of mandrills throughout the release process. Using faecal samples collected from ex situ mandrills, we tested cortisol, corticosterone, 11β-hydroxyetiocholanolone (69a), and 11-oxoetiocholanolone EIAs. Absolute concentrations, hormone profiles following medical procedures or translocation, and high-performance liquid chromatography fraction immunoreactivity showed that the 69a assay was the best choice to monitor the stress response in this species. Samples with delayed extraction or drying times had 40–80% lower 69a concentrations than samples extracted immediately post-collection and frozen. The 69a EIA is an appropriate assay for monitoring welfare in this species in situ or ex situ, and results indicated that consistent extraction methods are important for accurate comparisons.

AGROFOR ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoran MALETIC

Recently, highly productive breeds of various species of domestic animals have been used in livestock production, which has resulted in the destruction of indigenous breeds of domestic animals around the world, even in our area. This is the first reason why indigenous races and strains have been endangered. Another reason is that domestic, indigenous breeds were crossed with specialized breeds, which were imported, and in that way their genetic diversity was negatively affected. Resistance is lost, adaptation to the conditions in which they were created, the ability to survive in nature. Indigenous breeds of different species of domestic animals, which are recognized in the Republic of Srpska (BiH) are gatačko cattle and buša (cattle), Vlašić pramenka, Podveleška pramenka, Kupres pramenka (sheep), domestic Balkan horned goat (goats), Bosnian mountain horse (horses), mangulica (pigs) and pogrmuša hen or živičarka hen (poultry). By acceding to international conventions, BiH /Republic of Srpska has committed itself to establishing a system of measures that will enable the conservation of biological diversity and the protection of indigenous and endangered breeds of domestic animals. The choice of a strategy for the conservation of diversity, the establishment of an adequate conservation scheme, and the implementation of a conservation strategy are some of the key elements of any process for the conservation of genetic diversity. Preservation of autochthonous and protected breeds of domestic animals is possible through preservation in the original environment (in situ) and preservation outside the original environment (ex situ). There is a possibility of combining these models of conservation of animal genetic resources.


2021 ◽  
Vol XII (2(21)) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gheorghe Postolache ◽  
◽  
◽  

The achievements of the Geobotany and Forestry Laboratory over the 70 years of activity of “Alexandru Ciubotaru” National Botanical Garden (Institute) have been described. Brief information has been presented about institutional and editorial projects. Based on scientific research, the ways of formation and distribution of plant communities have been determined, new research methods, scientific concepts, recommendations and publications have been elaborated. For the in-situ conservation of plant diversity, research was conducted in protected natural areas of the Republic of Moldova. For the ex-situ conservation of plant diversity, in 1972, the Vegetation of Moldova Exhibition was created and it now includes 12 forest mini-exhibitions, a mini-exhibition with steppe vegetation, a mini-exhibition with meadow vegetation and a mini-exhibition with aquatic and marsh vegetation. Fourteen doctoral theses and 3 habilitation dissertations in biological sciences have been defended.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruida Ding ◽  
Yalan Huang ◽  
Guangxing Li ◽  
Qin Liao ◽  
Tao Wei ◽  
...  

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), used for energy supply and storage equipment, have been widely applied in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. However, the urgent demand for high energy density batteries and the shortage of lithium resources is driving scientists to develop high-performance materials and find alternatives. Low-volume expansion carbon material is the ideal choice of anode material. However, the low specific capacity has gradually become the shortcoming for the development of LIBs and thus developing new carbon material with high specific capacity is urgently needed. In addition, developing alternatives of LIBs, such as sodium ion batteries and potassium-ion batteries, also puts forward demands for new types of carbon materials. As is well-known, the design of high-performance electrodes requires a deep understanding on the working mechanism and the structural evolution of active materials. On this issue, ex-situ techniques have been widely applied to investigate the electrode materials under special working conditions, and provide a lot of information. Unfortunately, these observed phenomena are difficult to reflect the reaction under real working conditions and some important short-lived intermediate products cannot be captured, leading to an incomplete understanding of the working mechanism. In-situ techniques can observe the changes of active materials in operando during the charge/discharge processes, providing the concrete process of solid electrolyte formation, ions intercalation mechanism, structural evolutions, etc. Herein, this review aims to provide an overview on the characters of carbon materials in alkali ion batteries and the role of in-situ techniques in developing carbon materials.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (25) ◽  
pp. 22429-22438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhang Li ◽  
Runtian Zheng ◽  
Haoxiang Yu ◽  
Xing Cheng ◽  
Tingting Liu ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 2171-2178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peifang Wang ◽  
Cui Liu ◽  
Yu Yao ◽  
Chao Wang ◽  
Teng Wang ◽  
...  

To assess the capabilities of the different techniques in predicting Cadmium (Cd) bioavailability in Cd-contaminated soils with the addition of Zn, one in situ technique (diffusive gradients in thin films; DGT) was compared with soil solution concentration and four widely used single-step extraction methods (acetic acid, EDTA, sodium acetate and CaCl2). Wheat and maize were selected as tested species. The results demonstrated that single Cd-polluted soils inhibited the growth of wheat and maize significantly compared with control plants; the shoot and root biomasses of the plants both dropped significantly (P < 0.05). The addition of Zn exhibited a strong antagonism to the physiological toxicity induced by Cd. The Pearson correlation coefficient presented positive correlations (P < 0.01, R > 0.9) between Cd concentrations in two plants and Cd bioavailability indicated by each method in soils. Consequently, the results indicated that the DGT technique could be regarded as a good predictor of Cd bioavailability to plants, comparable to soil solution concentration and the four single-step extraction methods. Because the DGT technique can offer in situ data, it is expected to be widely used in more areas.


1998 ◽  
Vol 535 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. L. Terry

AbstractFabrication of high performance III-V devices and integrated circuits depends on careful control of layer thicknesses and compositions in the as-grown epitaxial layers and in the etching of these layers. The relatively high value of compound semiconductor devices (compared with high-volume Si devices) makes the use of advanced process control (with expensive in situ sensors) potentially advantageous. Considerable attention has been given to the problems of realtime feedback control of MBE growth systems. In this paper, I will discuss experiences with use of both in situ and ex situ monitors for controlling reactive ion etching (RIE) of III-V materials. Specific examples from an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) RIE base contact etch from an AlInAs/GalnAs HBT process will be given. The relative merits of reflection-based wafer sensors vs. process state sensors (optical emission spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy) will be discussed. The unique opportunities and problems associated with the III-V materials and required etch processes will be contrasted to implementation of advanced wafer state endpoint detection schemes in Si and flat panel display processes. Specific problems and solutions from our research which I will discuss include chamber seasoning effects on the drift of optical emission based endpoint detection schemes and signal processing techniques for accounting for this drift, modeling of the optical dielectric function of the compounds of interest vs. composition, and the effects of surface roughness on optical thickness measurements.


Author(s):  
D. Loretto ◽  
J. M. Gibson ◽  
S. M. Yalisove ◽  
R. T. Tung

The cobalt disilicide/silicon system has potential applications as a metal-base and as a permeable-base transistor. Although thin, low defect density, films of CoSi2 on Si(111) have been successfully grown, there are reasons to believe that Si(100)/CoSi2 may be better suited to the transmission of electrons at the silicon/silicide interface than Si(111)/CoSi2. A TEM study of the formation of CoSi2 on Si(100) is therefore being conducted. We have previously reported TEM observations on Si(111)/CoSi2 grown both in situ, in an ultra high vacuum (UHV) TEM and ex situ, in a conventional Molecular Beam Epitaxy system.The procedures used for the MBE growth have been described elsewhere. In situ experiments were performed in a JEOL 200CX electron microscope, extensively modified to give a vacuum of better than 10-9 T in the specimen region and the capacity to do in situ sample heating and deposition. Cobalt was deposited onto clean Si(100) samples by thermal evaporation from cobalt-coated Ta filaments.


Author(s):  
G. W. Hacker ◽  
I. Zehbe ◽  
J. Hainfeld ◽  
A.-H. Graf ◽  
C. Hauser-Kronberger ◽  
...  

In situ hybridization (ISH) with biotin-labeled probes is increasingly used in histology, histopathology and molecular biology, to detect genetic nucleic acid sequences of interest, such as viruses, genetic alterations and peptide-/protein-encoding messenger RNA (mRNA). In situ polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (PCR in situ hybridization = PISH) and the new in situ self-sustained sequence replication-based amplification (3SR) method even allow the detection of single copies of DNA or RNA in cytological and histological material. However, there is a number of considerable problems with the in situ PCR methods available today: False positives due to mis-priming of DNA breakdown products contained in several types of cells causing non-specific incorporation of label in direct methods, and re-diffusion artefacts of amplicons into previously negative cells have been observed. To avoid these problems, super-sensitive ISH procedures can be used, and it is well known that the sensitivity and outcome of these methods partially depend on the detection system used.


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