Search results for "Determination"
showing 10 items of 718 documents
Next-generation biological control
2020
Biological control is widely successful at controlling pests, but effective biocontrol agents are now more difficult to import from countries of origin due to more restrictive international trade laws (the Nagoya Protocol). Coupled with increasing demand, the efficacy of existing and new biocontrol agents needs to be improved with genetic and genomic approaches. Although they have been underutilised in the past, application of genetic and genomic techniques is becoming more feasible from both technological and economic perspectives. We review current methods and provide a framework for using them. First, it is necessary to identify which biocontrol trait to select and in what direction. Nex…
Alkaline phosphatase survey in pecorino siciliano PDO cheese
2021
The determination of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in cheeses has become an official method for controlling cheeses with a protected designation of origin (PDO), all of which use raw milk. PDO cheeses, characterized by high craftsmanship, usually have an uneven quality. However, for these cheeses, it is necessary to establish ALP values so that they can be defined as a raw milk product. In this study, a dataset with Pecorino Siciliano PDO samples was analyzed to determine ALP both at the core and under the rind. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the different zones in Pecorino cheese. A second dataset of 100 pecorino cheese samples determined that ALP was only…
Sexing birds using discriminant function analysis: a critical appraisal.
2011
9 pages; International audience; Discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on morphological measurements is a quick, inexpensive, and efficient method for sex determination in field studies on cryptically monomorphic bird species. However, behind the apparent standardization and relative simplicity of DFA lie subtle differences and pitfalls that have been neglected in some studies. Most of these concerns directly affect assessment of the discriminant performance, a parameter of crucial importance in practice because it provides a measure of the quality of an equation that may be used in later field studies. Using results from 141 published studies and simulations based on a large data set …
An Algebraic Derivation of Chao’s Estimator of the Number of Species in a Community Highlights the Condition Allowing Chao to Deliver Centered Estima…
2014
Anne Chao proposed a very popular, nonparametric estimator of the species richness of a community, on the basis of a limited size sampling of this community. This expression was originally derived on a statistical basis as a lower-bound estimate of the number of missing species in the sample and provides accordingly a minimal threshold for the estimation of the total species richness of the community. Hereafter, we propose an alternative, algebraic derivation of Chao’s estimator, demonstrating thereby that Chao’s formulation may also provide centered estimates (and not only a lower bound threshold), provided that the sampled communities satisfy a specific type of SAD (species abundance dist…
A new species of Arctoseius Thor, 1930 (Acari: Ascidae) from taiga regions of the Palaearctic, with a key to Arctoseius species of Fennoscandia, NW E…
2017
A new mesostigmatid mite species belonging to the genus Arctoseius Thor, 1930, is described based on material from subarctic coniferous forests, Finland, and Altai highlands, Russia. Arctoseius ambiguus sp. nov. is similar to Arctoseius venustulus (Berlese, 1916), but can be distinguished from the latter by its larger size, wider dorsal shield, weakly sclerotized presternal platelets, pronounced differences in the length of opisthonotal setae, and distinct punctation of the anal shield. A key for 15 Arctoseius species recorded in continental North-Western Europe (Fennoscandia) is given. The Fennoscandian fauna of Arctoseius species is rather specialised. It includes four European temperate …
AP2α controls the dynamic balance between miR-126&126* and miR-221&222 during melanoma progression
2016
Accumulating evidences have shown the association between aberrantly expressed microRNAs (miRs) and cancer, where these small regulatory RNAs appear to dictate the cell fate by regulating all the main biological processes. We demonstrated the responsibility of the circuitry connecting the oncomiR-221&222 with the tumor suppressors miR-126&126∗ in melanoma development and progression. According to the inverse correlation between endogenous miR-221&222 and miR-126&126∗, respectively increasing or decreasing with malignancy, their enforced expression or silencing was sufficient for a reciprocal regulation. In line with the opposite roles of these miRs, protein analyses confirmed the reverse ex…
Taking Advantage of Nature’s Gift: Can Endogenous Neural Stem Cells Improve Myelin Regeneration?
2016
Irreversible functional deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) are directly correlated to axonal damage and loss. Neurodegeneration results from immune-mediated destruction of myelin sheaths and subsequent axonal demyelination. Importantly, oligodendrocytes, the myelinating glial cells of the central nervous system, can be replaced to some extent to generate new myelin sheaths. This endogenous regeneration capacity has so far mainly been attributed to the activation and recruitment of resident oligodendroglial precursor cells. As this self-repair process is limited and increasingly fails while MS progresses, much interest has evolved regarding the development of remyelination-promoting strateg…
Reducing sample size in experiments with animals: historical controls and related strategies
2015
Reducing the number of animal subjects used in biomedical experiments is desirable for ethical and practical reasons. Previous reviews of the benefits of reducing sample sizes have focused on improving experimental designs and methods of statistical analysis, but reducing the size of control groups has been considered rarely. We discuss how the number of current control animals can be reduced, without loss of statistical power, by incorporating information from historical controls, i.e. subjects used as controls in similar previous experiments. Using example data from published reports, we describe how to incorporate information from historical controls under a range of assumptions that mig…
Rabphilin involvement in filtration and molecular uptake in Drosophila nephrocytes suggests a similar role in human podocytes
2020
ABSTRACT Drosophila nephrocytes share functional, structural and molecular similarities with human podocytes. It is known that podocytes express the rabphilin 3A (RPH3A)-RAB3A complex, and its expression is altered in mouse and human proteinuric disease. Furthermore, we previously identified a polymorphism that suggested a role for RPH3A protein in the development of urinary albumin excretion. As endocytosis and vesicle trafficking are fundamental pathways for nephrocytes, the objective of this study was to assess the role of the RPH3A orthologue in Drosophila, Rabphilin (Rph), in the structure and function of nephrocytes. We confirmed that Rph is required for the correct function of the en…
Feasibility of sample size calculation for RNA-seq studies
2017
Sample size calculation is a crucial step in study design but is not yet fully established for RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses. To evaluate feasibility and provide guidance, we evaluated RNA-seq sample size tools identified from a systematic search. The focus was on whether real pilot data would be needed for reliable results and on identifying tools that would perform well in scenarios with different levels of biological heterogeneity and fold changes (FCs) between conditions. We used simulations based on real data for tool evaluation. In all settings, the six evaluated tools provided widely different answers, which were strongly affected by FC. Although all tools failed for small FCs, s…