1,856 research outputs found
Feed intake, nutrient digestibility and ruminal fermentation activities in sheep-fed peanut hulls treated with Trichoderma viride or urea
This study aimed to assess impacts of fungal treatment on the nutritional value of peanut hulls (PH) or urea at the rate of 5 kg/100 g of PH. Fermented sugar beet pulp inoculated with Trichoderma viride was supplemented to PH at rates of 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 g/100 g air dry of PH andmixed well before aerobic incubation for 21 days. Organic matter (OM) content of PH declined with increased levels of fermented sugar beet pulp inoculums, while crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), and ash increased. Fiber contents were decreased with both treatments of fermented sugar beet pulp and urea. Total N of PH increased with urea treatment, which reduced the true protein N to total protein N ratio. In sacco degradabilities of dry matter (DM), OM, and CP with urea treatment increased compared with fungal treatment. The DM intake of peanut hulls treated with fungus (PHF) was higher (P <0.05) than with peanut hulls treated with urea (PHU). Digestibility of OM, CP, neutral detergent fiber, and non-fiber carbohydrate by native breed Ossimi sheep with PH were higher (P <0.05) than with PH or urea treated PH. The intakes, losses, and balance of N increased (P <0.01) with PHF versus PH feeding. Feeding PHF increased (P <0.01) ruminal concentrations ofNH3-N, acetic acid, butyric acid, and the acetic to propionic acid ratio. Bacterial and protozoal counts increased (P <0.05) with feeding PHF or PHU versus PH. Overall, this fungal treatment of peanut hulls created a higher nutritive value feed for ruminants
TlR expression profile of human gingival margin-derived stem progenitor cells
Background: Gingival margin-derived stem/progenitor cells (G-MSCs) show remarkable periodontal regenerative
potential in vivo. During regeneration, G-MSCs may interact with their inflammatory environment via toll-likereceptors
(TLRs). The present study aimed to depict the G-MSCs TLRs expression profile.
Material and Methods: Cells were isolated from free gingival margins, STRO-1-immunomagnetically sorted and
seeded to obtain single colony forming units (CFUs). G-MSCs were characterized for CD14, CD34, CD45, CD73,
CD90, CD105, CD146 and STRO-1 expression, and for multilineage differentiation potential. Following G-MSCs’
incubation in basic or inflammatory medium (IL-1β, IFN-γ, IFN-α, TNF-α) a TLR expression profile was generated.
Results: G-MSCs showed all stem/progenitor cells’ characteristics. In basic medium G-MSCs expressed TLRs 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10. The inflammatory medium significantly up-regulated TLRs 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 10 and diminished
TLR 6 (p≤0.05, Wilcoxon-Signed-Ranks-Test).
Conclusions: The current study describes for the first time the distinctive TLRs expression profile of G-MSCs
under uninflamed and inflamed conditions
Preliminary Implementation of the Next Generation Cannulation Simulator
© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is a highly complex/critical lifesaving procedure known to support patients with cardiac and respiratory issues. Patients on ECMO are monitored 24/7 by a team of highly trained ECMO team comprising nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and perfusionists promptly intervening to any potential emergency situation. Simulation-Based Training (SBT) allows clinicians to experience and practice realistic hands-on procedures and scenarios without any risk. In ECMO, cannulation is a critical procedure performed to externally reroute the blood flow so it can be re-oxygenated by the ECMO machine before being recirculated through the patient's body. In a close collaboration with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), this project aims to develop a cost effective, realistic, and user-friendly ECMO simulator focusing on the venous and arterial cannulation procedure, The main features of this simulator include cannulation emergencies caused by low pressure flow, excessive force, recirculation, or mispositioned wire/cannula. Therefore, the ECMO cannulation simulator will not only greatly contribute to the initial and ongoing local training of HMC ECMO clinicians but also contribute to improving patient care by lowering the risks associated with the cannulation process
The Changes in the Lipid Composition of Mung Bean Seeds as Affected by Processing Methods
Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.This study was conducted to assess in detail the possible effects of some technological processes such as soaking, germination, cooking, soaking + cooking, and germination + cooking on the lipid composition of mung bean seeds of Giza 1 variety. TLC analysis of mung bean lipids showed that the phospholipids and triglycerides recorded the highest percentage among lipid fractions (32.26 and 30.10%), while the 1,3 diglycerides constituted the least percentage (2.80%) in mung bean seeds. The soaking, germination and cooking processes caused a decrease in the phospholipids, triglycerides and hydrocarbons accompanied with an increase in monoglycerides, 1,2-(2,3)-diglycerides, sterols and free fatty acids. Eleven fractions were separated from phospholipids class of the studied samples; seven of these fractions were identified. The major component of phospholipids was phosphatidyl choline, amounting to 21.30, 17.84, 16.21, 13.87, 13.20 and 11.47% of the total phospholipids in raw, soaked, germinated, raw-cooked, soaked-cooked and germinated-cooked mung bean seeds, respectively. Gas liquid chromatography of the total lipids of mung bean seeds showed that the unsaturated fatty acids represented 69.58, 64.35, 63.3, 63.16, 61.84 and 61.12%, while the levels of saturated fatty acids were low being 30.37, 34.05, 35.66, 34.64, 37.93 and 38.75% of the total fatty acids in raw, soaked, germinated, raw-cooked, soaked-cooked and germinated-cooked, respectively. The total essential fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic) represented the highest proportion of fatty acids (50.10% of the total fatty acids)
Anti-Alzheimer and Anti-cox2 Activities of the Newly Synthesized 2,3’-Bipyridine Derivatives (I)
3-Aryl-1-pyridin-3-ylprop-2-en-1-ones 1a,b reacted with2-cyanoethanethioamide (2) to afford the corresponding4-aryl-6-thioxo-1,6-dihydro-2,3’-bipyridine-5-carbonitriles6a,b. The synthetic potentiality of compounds 6a,b wasinvestigated in the present study via their reactions withseveral active-hydrogen containing compounds 8a-g aimingto synthesize 4-aryl-6-pyridin-3-ylthieno[2,3-b]pyridin-3-amines 10a-n via 6-(alkylthio)-4-aryl-2,3’-bipyridine-5-carbonitriles 9a-n. The structures of all newly synthesizedheterocyclic compounds were elucidated by considering the data of IR, 1H NMR, mass spectra as well as that of elementalanalyses. Anti-Alzheimer and anti-cox2 activities for all newly synthesized heterocyclic compounds were investigated
Root damage induced by intraosseous anesthesia'An in vitro investigation
Objectives: The principle of the intraosseous anesthesia (IOA) relies on the perforation of the cortical plate of the bone for direct application of the local anesthetic solution into the underlying cancellous structures. During this procedure, IOA needles might accidentally come in contact with the tooth roots. The aim of the current in vitro study was to examine the consequences of this 'worst case scenario' comparing five commercially available IOA systems. Material and Methods: Extracted human roots were randomly perforated using five different IOA systems with a drilling time ?5s. To simulate normal in vivo conditions, the roots were kept humid during the drilling procedure. Data was statistically evaluated using F-test (SPSS16, SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA) and the significance level was set at p?0.05. Results: All examined systems resulted in root perforation. Drill fractures occurred in either none 0% (Quicksleeper®, Anesto®, Intraflow®, Stabident®) or 100% (X-Tip®) of the applications. Excessive heat generation, as evident by combustion odor as well as metal and tooth discoloration, appeared in 30% (Quicksleeper®), 40% (Anesto®), 60% (Intraflow®), 90% (Stabident®) and 100% (X-Tip®) of all perforations. Conclusion: Within the limits of in-vitro studies, the results show a potential for irreversible root damage that might be inflicted by an improper use of IOA systems
Effectiveness of self healing in repair of strategic concrete structures a simplified model
Concrete cracking has various causes and is unavoidable. Cracking has adverse effects on structure\u27s integrity, durability and serviceability. In strategic structures such as nuclear reactors and dams this cannot be tolerated, this means that strategic structures should be under a continuous process of inspection and repair. This process has many drawbacks as it is costly, tiring and not sustainable, also it cannot be 100% trusted that the inspection is carried out on time and with enough accuracy. Moreover shutting down any of the strategic structures for the purpose of repair would negatively impact the economy. The addition of self-healing capsules to concrete for the aim of crack recovery is a new promising technique that can be used in strategic structures to minimize the need for inspection and repair. Although a fair amount of research has been carried out to prove that the addition of self-healing capsules to concrete is effective in the sealing of cracks no research has been carried out to investigate if this method is cost effective. The aim of this study is to develop a model that predicts the rate of crack propagation in self-healing concrete and compare it to conventional concrete through a five year period assuming 12 different initial crack areas and also to compare the final cost of using the self-healing concrete versus that of conventional concrete taking factors like cost of repair, type of repair, cost of inspection, cost of disruption and the time value for money in each case into account. This was done through three what if scenarios assuming concrete cracking starts immediately after hardening or after a period of five years have passed and finally if cracking starts after 10 years and through a period of five years. This work gave a promising insight showing that the expected final crack areas were smaller in case of self-healing concrete if no repair takes place and lower costs in all scenarios in case of intervening to carry out repair works. It is recommended to expand this work by taking factors that affect the healing percentages into account
Prevalence, genotyping and risk factors of thermophilic Campylobacter spreading in organic turkey farms in Germany
Background The need for organic food of animal origin has increased rapidly in
recent years. However, effects of organic animal husbandry on food safety have
not been rigorously tested especially in meat turkey flocks. This study
provides for the first time an overview on the prevalence and genetic
diversity of Campylobacter species (spp.) in five organic meat turkey farms
located in different regions in Germany, as well as on potential risk factors
of bacterial spreading. Thirty cloacal swabs as well as water samples and
darkling beetles were collected from each flock and examined for the presence
of Campylobacter by conventional and molecular biological methods. The
isolates were genotyped by flaA-RFLP. Results Campylobacter spp. were detected
in cloacal swabs in all 5 turkey flocks with prevalence ranged from 90.0 to
100 %. 13 cloacal swabs collected from birds in farm III and IV were harboured
mixed population of thermophilic campylobacters. In total, from 158
Campylobacter isolated from turkeys 89 (56.33 %) were identified as C. coli
and 69 (43.76 %) as C. jejuni. Three Campylobacter (2 C. jejuni and 1 C. coli)
were detected in drinkers of two farms and 3 C. coli were isolated from
darkling beetles of one farm. No Campylobacter were isolated from main water
tanks. flaA-RFLP assay showed that turkey farms can harbour more than one
genotype. In a single turkey two different genotypes could be detected. The
genotypes of campylobacters isolated from water samples or beetles were
identical with those isolated from turkeys. No effect was found of some
environmental parameters [ammonia concentration (NH3), carbon dioxide
concentration (CO2), relative humidity (RH) and air temperature)] on
Campylobacter prevalence in organic turkey farms. Additionally, drinking water
and darkling beetles might be considered as risk factors for the spreading of
Campylobacter in turkey flocks. Conclusions This study highlights the high
prevalence and genotypic diversity of Campylobacter spp. isolated from organic
turkey flocks. Further research is needed to assess other potential risk
factors responsible for bacteria spreading in order to mitigate the spread of
Campylobacter in organic turkey flocks by improving biosecurity control
measures
A study of the ionic diffusion under the effect of electric field (computer simulation with reference to biological membrane)
The biophysical studies of the biological system are far from being conclusive. Not only because this science is relatively recent, but also because of the lack of physical data. Also there are a lot of contradicting views among researchers as well as the poor theoretical interpretation of the reported experimental data. However, the advent of computer science with the considerable storage capability and highly vast calculations gives modeling techniques a great advantage and opens a real door to better understanding of the complicated biological phenomena. The present thesis addressed the problem of ionic penetration through biological tissue under the effect of external electric field (DC and AC). This was done by studying the diffusion coefficient D as an indicating parameter for such effects. The work was based on stochastic computer simulation of the problem such that the tissue was considered as a matrix that contains the elements under study. The size of the matrix was up to 30,000 x 30,000. Two dimensional honey comb cellular pattern was simulated such that it allowed six maximum possible element-to-element communications. The diffusants were let to diffuse under different electric field strengths in DC forward and opposite directions, and AC field with different frequencies. The effect of vacancies concentration and annealing time were tested in the absence of electric field. Two different vacancies concentrations were studied under the effect of electric field. Fist, 90% of the tissue was vacant and subjected to DC and AC fields as well as zero field. Second, 50% of the tissue was vacant and investigated under similar conditions. The results showed that for the 90% case, the penetration increased with increasing of electric field strength. While in the 50% case, the penetration increases with increasing the current until a point at which the diffusion is hindered. The DC results of forward current were compared to that of backward direct current and the results showed that the backward direction hindered diffusion. The effect of alternating current shows that penetration was inversely proportional with the frequency which agrees with literature. Comparisons of the effects of sinusoidal and square waves were illustrated. The square waves showed to have more ionic penetration and diffusion coefficient values than the sinusoidal ones. As the frequency of alternating current is decreased, its effect on diffusion became close to that of direct current. Despite the fact that the results obtained by simulation are in essence virtual and based on arbitrary units, yet the effects were clear and indicative
Surface Acoustic Wave (Saw) Delay Lines & Rfid on Silicon/ Aluminium Nitride
Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices exploit the principle of transducing radio frequency waves into mechanical sound waves propagating across surface of piezoelectric material. These mechanical waves are generated, detected, or reflected by set of metal electrodes. Physical phenomena or unique identification code information can be extracted from the measured /reflected waves based on its different properties such as time delay, phase change or frequency change. Radio identification code implementation methods as well as simulation of SAW device are reviewed in this report. Time pulse position coding is chosen because it provides less sensitivity to variations in temperature and SAW wave velocity. In addition, it is straightforward to implement and simplifies the reader design. To successfully implement the device, proper modeling and simulation is carried out to extract device physical and response parameters such as centre frequency, finger pairs’ number, spacing, scattering parameters and frequency response of the system. The equivalent circuit model is used in this study due to faster simulation speed and efficiency. Aluminum nitride (AlN) is chosen as piezoelectric material due to its high SAW velocity speed, higher coupling factor, cheaper fabrication cost and its chemical characteristics close to that of Silicon Non-reactive with normal semiconductor process chemicals and gases. Data processing and analysis is performed on SAW delay lines implemented on Aluminum nitride to extract device characteristics such as surface acoustic wave velocity, coupling coefficient and center resonance frequency
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