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Growth Profiles (growth + profile)
Selected AbstractsVideo Microscopy for the Investigation of Gas Phase CopolymerizationMACROMOLECULAR MATERIALS & ENGINEERING, Issue 11 2005Daniela Ferrari Abstract Summary: Video microscopy as a tool for investigating olefin gas phase copolymerization is presented for the first time in this paper. The central theme of this work is the study of the comonomer effect shown by an unbridged metallocene catalyst supported on silica. By using video microscopy, it is possible to observe the increase in catalytic activity in terms of particle growth as well as monomer consumption. The observation that a more pronounced induction period in the particle growth profile is shown with increasing propylene concentration led us to investigate the copolymers obtained at different polymerization times using 13C NMR analysis and single particle energy dispersive X-ray (EDX mapping). This allowed us to adapt the "polymer growth and particle expansion model" to the copolymerization. Besides physical causes for the comonomer effect, we wanted to determine whether the catalyst structure plays an important role in the comonomer effect. To this end we investigated two metallocenes bearing the same long bridging unit but differing in the ligand bound to the zirconium center. One metallocene bears a cyclopentadienyl ring, while the other bears an indenyl group. From a close analysis of the 13C NMR, it is clear that both catalysts insert ethylene more easily then propylene, probably due to the long bridging unit that results in a narrower aperture angle of the ligand. In addition to this, the indenyl ligand does not allow the formation of propylene blocks even at high propylene concentration. Snapshot of the polymer particles taken after 165 min of ethylene-1-butene copolymerization with catalyst 1. [source] Sympatric natural Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. paradoxus populations have different thermal growth profilesFEMS YEAST RESEARCH, Issue 4-5 2004Joseph Y. Sweeney Abstract Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its close congener S. paradoxus are typically indistinguishable by the phenotypic criteria of classical yeast taxonomy, but they are evolutionarily distinct as indicated by hybrid spore inviability and genomic sequence divergence. Previous work has shown that these two species coexist in oak-associated microhabitats at natural woodland sites in North America. Here, we show that sympatric populations of S. cerevisiae and S. paradoxus from a single natural site are phenotypically differentiated in their growth rate responses to temperature. Our main finding is that the S. cerevisiae population exhibits a markedly higher growth rate at 37°C than the S. paradoxus population; we also find possible differences in growth rate between these populations at two lower temperatures. We discuss the implications of our results for the coexistence of these yeasts in natural environments, and we suggest that thermal growth response may be an evolutionarily labile feature of these organisms that could be analyzed using genomic approaches. [source] Effects of ultrasound on culture of Aspergillus terreusJOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2008Nuria Sainz Herrán Abstract BACKGROUND: Fermentations of Aspergillus terreus are commercially used to produce lovastatin. How ultrasound might influence this fermentation is unknown. While high-intensity ultrasound is effective in disrupting microbial cells, ultrasound of low intensity is known to improve productivity of some fermentation processes without damaging cells. Mechanisms behind productivity improvements have not been clearly identified in earlier studies. This work reports on the effects of ultrasound on A. terreus fermentation for low (957 W m,3), medium (2870 W m,3) and high (4783 W m,3) values of sonication power input in a slurry bubble column sonobioreactor. RESULTS: Sonication at any power level did not affect biomass growth profiles in comparison with negative controls. In contrast, medium- and high-intensity sonication greatly reduced production of lovastatin and substantially altered the growth morphology. At medium and high intensity, ultrasound disrupted fungal pellets and caused the biomass to grow mainly as dispersed hyphae. Sonication affected broth rheology because rheology depends on the morphology of the suspended biomass. CONCLUSION: Sonication can be used to modify growth morphology and broth rheology without affecting growth of filamentous fungi. Sonication appears to influence the primary growth metabolism and secondary metabolism differently in different situations. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Growth and long-term lung function in cystic fibrosis: A longitudinal study of patients diagnosed by neonatal screeningPEDIATRIC PULMONOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Baroukh Maurice Assael MD Abstract Objective So far there is no long-term analysis relating the achievement of growth milestones (such as prepubertal and pubertal take-off and peak velocity) to the course of respiratory function from childhood to adulthood in cystic fibrosis. This study was designed to evaluate linear growth and severity of lung disease, find a correlation between growth and disease severity throughout childhood. Patients One hundred sixty-three patients from one center were selected according to: diagnosis by neonatal screening, complete follow-up available (four height measurements/year) until the age of 20, respiratory tests available from the age of 5,6 years until adulthood, lung transplantation, or death. Disease was classified as mild or severe according to FEV1 (group 1 and group 2). A third group of patients (group 3) consisted of those who died or underwent lung transplantation before the age of 18. Methods Individual growth profiles were fitted with a seven-constant nonlinear growth function. A multivariate linear model was fitted, with gender and severity of disease as covariates, and age, height, and height velocity at growth milestones as dependent variables. Data were compared with those of the normal Italian population. Results Lung disease severity correlates with delayed prepubertal and pubertal growth milestones. Peak height velocities were significantly reduced in relation to the severity of the disease. Conclusions Patients with severe forms of cystic fibrosis exhibit reduced growth velocity values at an early age, before a clear decline in pulmonary function. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2009; 44:209,215. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Technical note: A new three-dimensional technique for high resolution quantitative recording of perikymataAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2010E. Bocaege Abstract The number and spacing of incremental markings at the enamel surface, known as perikymata, are considered important indicators of dental growth patterns, as they provide information on crown formation times and the underlying developmental processes. This study explores the potential of a new three-dimensional technique for the reconstruction of dental growth profiles, using teeth from a medieval child from Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The crowns of three anterior teeth were imaged and analyzed using the Alicona 3D InfiniteFocus imaging microscope. Individual perikyma grooves can be unambiguously identified on a profile of the reconstructed enamel surface and direct distances between successive pairs of perikyma grooves can be calculated from coordinate data. This quantitative approach constitutes a more objective way to record perikymata spacing than current methods. Am J Phys Anthropol 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Growth in colony living anubis baboon infants and its relationship with maternal activity budgets and reproductive statusAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Cécile Garcia Abstract Early growth is of interest because it is susceptible to maternal effects and linked to fitness components for a range of species. Here we present anthropometric measurements on 23 infant olive baboons born into a captive colony in order to describe growth over the first 2 years of life, to explore maternal influences on growth, and to assess the impact of growth profiles on maternal reproduction. Six main findings emerged: 1) Infant growth rates in our colony were higher than those reported for wild populations but comparable to those observed for food-enhanced animals. 2) The ratio of infant mass to maternal mass was positively associated with reproductive parameters, such as duration of post-partum amenorrhea and interbirth interval. 3) Mothers resumed cycling and reconceived when their infants attained a relatively consistent threshold mass. 4) Infant mass-for-age was associated with maternal rank and, independently, with maternal mass such that females of high dominance rank and heavy females had relatively large infants at their resumption of cycling. 5) Low-ranking and lighter females had longer investment periods but smaller infants. They continued investment in infant through prolonged lactation until their infants reached a mass similar to that of infants of high-ranking/heavy mothers, suggesting that the lengthening of investment is essentially compensatory for slow early growth. 6) There was no relationship between infant growth and maternal activity budgets. Maternal physical and social factors, not energetics, contributed to differences among infants in growth trajectories, and infant growth temporally influenced successive reproductive events. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The Not-so-Dark Ages: Ecology for human growth in medieval and early Twentieth Century Portugal as inferred from skeletal growth profilesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Hugo F.V. Cardoso Abstract This study attempts to address the issue of relative living standards in Portuguese medieval and early 20th century periods. Since the growth of children provides a good measure of environmental quality for the overall population, the skeletal growth profiles of medieval Leiria and early 20th century Lisbon were compared. Results show that growth in femur length of medieval children did not differ significantly from that of early 20th century children, but after puberty medieval adolescents seem to have recovered, as they have significantly longer femora as adults. This is suggestive of greater potential for catch-up growth in medieval adolescents. We suggest that this results from distinct child labor practices, which impact differentially on the growth of Leiria and Lisbon adolescents. Work for medieval children and adolescents were related to family activities, and care and attention were provided by family members. Conversely, in early 20th century Lisbon children were more often sent to factories at around 12 years of age as an extra source of family income, where they were exploited for their labor. Since medieval and early 20th century children were stunted at an early age, greater potential for catch-up growth in medieval adolescents results from exhausting work being added to modern adolescent's burdens of disease and poor diet, when they entered the labor market. Although early 20th century Lisbon did not differ in overall unfavorable living conditions from medieval Leiria, after puberty different child labor practices may have placed modern adolescents at greater risk of undernutrition and poor growth. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Modelling growth and body composition in fish nutrition: where have we been and where are we going?AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010André Dumas Abstract Mathematical models in fish nutrition have proven indispensable in estimating growth and feed requirements. Nowadays, reducing the environmental footprint and improving product quality of fish culture operations are of increasing interest. This review starts by examining simple models applied to describe/predict fish growth profiles and progresses towards more comprehensive concepts based on bioenergetics and nutrient metabolism. Simple growth models often lack biological interpretation and overlook fundamental properties of fish (e.g. ectothermy, indeterminate growth). In addition, these models disregard possible variations in growth trajectory across life stages. Bioenergetic models have served to predict not only fish growth but also feed requirements and waste outputs from fish culture operations. However, bioenergetics is a concept based on energy-yielding equivalence of chemicals and has significant limitations. Nutrient-based models have been introduced into the fish nutrition literature over the last two decades and stand as a more biologically sound alternative to bioenergetic models. More mechanistic models are required to expand current understanding about growth targets and nutrient utilization for biomass gain. Finally, existing models need to be adapted further to address effectively concerns regarding sustainability, product quality and body traits. [source] Highly efficient deletion of FUT8 in CHO cell lines using zinc-finger nucleases yields cells that produce completely nonfucosylated antibodiesBIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 5 2010Laetitia Malphettes Abstract IgG1 antibodies produced in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are heavily ,1,6-fucosylated, a modification that reduces antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and can inhibit therapeutic antibody function in vivo. Addition of fucose is catalyzed by Fut8, a ,1,6-fucosyltransferase. FUT8,/, CHO cell lines produce completely nonfucosylated antibodies, but the difficulty of recapitulating the knockout in protein-production cell lines has prevented the widespread adoption of FUT8,/, cells as hosts for antibody production. We have created zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) that cleave the FUT8 gene in a region encoding the catalytic core of the enzyme, allowing the functional disruption of FUT8 in any CHO cell line. These reagents produce FUT8,/, CHO cells in 3 weeks at a frequency of 5% in the absence of any selection. Alternately, populations of ZFN-treated cells can be directly selected to give FUT8,/, cell pools in as few as 3 days. To demonstrate the utility of this method in bioprocess, FUT8 was disrupted in a CHO cell line used for stable protein production. ZFN-derived FUT8,/, cell lines were as transfectable as wild-type, had similar or better growth profiles, and produced equivalent amounts of antibody during transient transfection. Antibodies made in these lines completely lacked core fucosylation but had an otherwise normal glycosylation pattern. Cell lines stably expressing a model antibody were made from wild-type and ZFN-generated FUT8,/, cells. Clones from both lines had equivalent titer, specific productivity distributions, and integrated viable cell counts. Antibody titer in the best ZFN-generated FUT8,/, cell lines was fourfold higher than in the best-producing clones of FUT8,/, cells made by standard homologous recombination in a different CHO subtype. These data demonstrate the straightforward, ZFN-mediated transfer of the Fut8, phenotype to a production CHO cell line without adverse phenotypic effects. This process will speed the production of highly active, completely nonfucosylated therapeutic antibodies. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010;106: 774,783. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A survey for serotyping, antibiotic resistance profiling and PFGE characterization of and the potential multiplication of restaurant Salmonella isolatesJOURNAL OF APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 5 2007D.J. Bolton Abstract Aims: The aims of this research were (1) to determine the occurrence of Salmonella in Irish restaurant kitchens and (2) to investigate the serovar, genotype, antibiotic resistance profile and survival/growth profile of the Salmonella under catering chilled storage and temperature abuse conditions. Methods: Five sites/tools in each of 200 randomly selected restaurant kitchens were examined for the presence of presumptive Salmonella spp. by enrichment. Serotyping, antibiotic resistance studies and genotyping were performed using the Kauffmann-White, CLSI and PulseNet methods, respectively. Survival/growth was investigated in milk, meat and vegetable products. Results: Presumptive isolates from 15 of the 200 restaurant kitchens were recovered and confirmed as Salmonella positive. Seven different serovars showing a variety of antibiotic resistance profiles were detected. PFGE profiles suggested that isolates from geographically adjacent restaurants were related. Salmonella survived in foods stored at typical catering refrigeration temperatures and increased by approximately 0·8 log10 CFU ml,1 per day in food products stored under conditions of thermal abuse (20°C). Conclusions: Inadequate hygiene has resulted in contamination of restaurant kitchens with Salmonella, which may persist/multiply in cross-contaminated foods. Significance and Impact of the Study: This study highlights the need for greater hygiene in restaurant kitchens coupled with rapid chilling of food not for immediate consumption and reheating before subsequent serving. [source] | ||||||||||