Image and fractal analysis as a tool for evaluating salinity growth response between two Salicornia europaea populations.

BACKGROUND: This study describes a promising method for understanding how halophytes adapt to extreme saline conditions and to identify populations with greater resistance. Image and colour analyses have the ability to obtain many image parameters and to discriminate between different aspects in plants, which makes them a suitable tool in combination with genetic analysis to study the plants salt tolerance. To the best of our knowledge, there are no publications about the monitoring of halophytic plants by non-destructive methods for identifying the differences between plants that belong to different maternal salinity environments. The aim is to evaluate the ability of image analysis as a non-destructive method and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify the multiple responses of two S. europaea populations, and to determine which population is most affected by different salinity treatments as a preliminary model of selection. RESULTS: Image analysis was beneficial for detecting the phenotypic variability of two S. europaea populations by morphometric and colour parameters, fractal dimension (FD), projected area (A), shoot height (H), number of branches (B), shoot diameter (S) and colour change (ΔE). S was found to strongly positively correlate with both proline content and ΔE, and negatively with chlorophyll content. These results suggest that proline and ΔE are strongly linked to plant succulence, while chlorophyll decreases with increased succulence. The negative correlation between FD and hydrogen peroxide (HP) suggests that when the plant is under salt stress, HP content increases in plants causing a reduction in plant complexity and foliage growth. The PCA results indicate that the greater the stress, the more marked the differences. At 400 mM a shorter distance between the factorial scores was observed. Genetic variability analysis provided evidence of the differences between these populations. CONCLUSIONS: Our non-destructive method is beneficial for evaluating the halophyte development under salt stress. FD, S and ΔE were relevant indicators of plant architecture. PCA provided evidence that anthropogenic saline plants were more tolerant to saline stress. Furthermore, random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis provided a quick method for determining genetic variation patterns between the two populations and provided evidence of genetic differences between them.

Effect of prudent use of antimicrobials in the early phase of infection in pigs on the performance and meat quality of fattening pigs.

The presented study was a part of the ThermoEye project. The study examined the effect of prudent antibiotic treatment in response to illness on the fattening performance, slaughter traits, and meat quality of the pig fatteners. Pigs were divided into an experimental group - EXP and a control - CON. In both groups, the body temperature was monitored, and diseases were confirmed by a veterinarian. In the EXP group, metaphylaxis was used in each case of confirmed disease. The EXP fatteners had greater slaughter weight (by 4.7 kg) and meatiness (by 2.1 percentage points) compared to the CON pigs. The pH in pork was lower in EXP compared to CON pigs. The longissimus thoracis et lumborum of EXP pigs was characterised by a lower cooking loss (28.30 vs. 30.45%) and yellower colour compared to the CON group. Among the amino acids, only the content of histidine (by 5.2%; P < 0.01) and tyrosine (by 7.2%; P < 0.01) was significantly greater in the meat of the CON group compared to EXP, with no effect of sex noted. The content of SFA (by 14.6%; P < 0.05), UFA (by 15.6%; P < 0.05), MUFA (by 17.8%; P < 0.05), MCFA (by 14.1%; P < 0.05), and LCFA (by 15.6%; P < 0.05) was also greater in CON compared to EXP meat. In conclusion, automated monitoring of pig body temperature during the fattening period enables more precise, prudent treatment and effective animal health control while reducing costs due to disease losses and pharmacotherapy. It allows optimal production and affects meat quality.

Unveiling the attributes of rabbit milk.

Increasing the knowledge of rabbit milk can help in breeding practice to solve issues considering the health and growth of rabbit kits. The goal of the study was to perform a broad physicochemical analysis of rabbit milk and examine the effect of the reproductive status of the females on daily milk yield and milk attributes. The study was conducted on a commercial rabbit farm and included three consecutive lactations of Hycole does. It has been observed that the daily milk production increased from the 2nd till the 14th day of lactation when does produced almost 300 g of milk daily. The day of lactation caused a significant variation in the content of total solids, solids-not-fat, total protein, casein, lactose, C18: 2, C18: 3, Somatic Cell Count, and pH. The percentage of fat globules categorised according to their diameter changed with the ongoing lactation as well, and the diameter increased from 5 to 7 µm. The percentage of small milk fat globules decreased with lactation day, causing a possible decrease in the digestions rates of milk. Pregnancy had a negative impact on milk production, kits growth performance, and the content of total protein, solids-not-fat, and lactose in milk. Therefore, we can speculate about the negative impact of overlapping lactations and pregnancies on rabbit kits, as their growth is dependent on milk production and composition.

Evaluating the cytotoxicity of ionic liquids using human cell line HeLa.

This paper presents cytotoxicity data of selected imidazolium ionic liquids evaluated in vitro on the human tumor cell line HeLa. It was found that for 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium entities the toxicity depends strongly on the associated anion; EC50 values are lowest for tetrafluoroborate. No direct dependence of the reduced effect concentration was found on elongating the short, methyl chain to ethyl or n-hexyl. Only for the ionic liquid with an n-decyl chain, the longest one studied, did higher hydrophobicity result in a EC50 one order of magnitude lower than that obtained with the n-butyl entity. The effect concentrations of imidazolium ionic liquids in the HeLa system used are lower than the values obtained for conventional organic solvents such as dichloromethane, toluene or xylene.