Sheep oocytes derived from the ovaries collected from the slaughterhouse are often used for research on in vitro embryo production, animal cloning, transgenesis, embryonic stem cells, and other embryo biotechnology aspects. Improving the in vitro culture efficiency of oocytes can provide more materials for similar studies. Generally, determination of oocyte quality is mostly based on the layers...

wrote a lot, using a simple and effective style. He died suddenly, in his prime, but not before producing work of lasting importance in two separate fields, anaesthesiology and epidemiology. He has a blue plaque in London and a society commemorating his name. Nevertheless, David Shephard's is the first fulllength biography of this remarkable Victorian general practitioner. Part of the reason fo...

In oviparous organisms, yolk accumulation in the oocytes is critical and indispensable for the development of the newly hatched young ones. In fish and many other oviparous vertebrates, the major constituents of the egg-yolk are synthesized as a precursor in the liver. The precursor is transported to the oocyte for uptake and cleaved into major yolk proteins lipovitellin, phosvitin and beta'-co...

Commercial manufacture of fruit leathers (FL) usually results in a portion of the product that is out of specification. The disposition of this material poses special challenges in the food industry. Because the material remains edible and contains valuable ingredients (fruit pulp, sugars, acidulates, etc.), an ideal solution would be to recover this material for product rework. A key practical...

A basic dye is usually obtained in the form of the salt some of which may be transformed in aqueous solution to free base (the m o u n t depending on the "apparent" dissociation constant of the dye and the pH value), and in the range of pH values generally employed with living cells (approximately between pH 5 and 9.5) both forms of dye must be considered. In this range methylene blue, for exam...

Blue native gel electrophoresis (BN-PAGE) is used extensively for characterization of mitochondrial respiratory complexes and uses the binding of Coomassie brilliant blue G-250 to visualize proteins. Oxidative modification of sulfhydryl groups of such proteins can be evaluated by labeling with iodoacetamide conjugated to biotin (BIAM) and detected with streptavidin peroxidase on Western blots f...

Vaccine bodies in living corneal cells may be specifically stained by the addition of a small quantity of brilliant cresyl blue 2 B to the physiological salt solution in which they are being observed. Their appearance by this method (Figs. 3 to 17) corresponds with that seen in fixed preparations (Figs. 22 to 42). Both lines of study reveal the existence of traces of similar material in unvacci...

A 54-year-old healthy male presented complaining of sudden loss of vision in the right eye. Initial visual acuity was counting fingers. The patient's acute vision loss developed after sexual activity. Color fundus photos and fluorescein angiography were performed showing a large subinternal limiting membrane hemorrhage in the macular area. A 23-gauge sutureless pars plana vitrectomy with brilli...

Although aerobic methane (CH4) release from plants leads to an intense scientific and public controversy in the recent years, the potential functions of endogenous CH4 production in plants are still largely unknown. Here, we reported that polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced osmotic stress significantly increased CH4 production and soluble sugar contents in maize (Zea mays L.) root tissues. These ...