Effect of a dietary essential oil mixture on performance of laying hens in the summer season

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplements of either an essential oil mixture (EOM) or a mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) as alternatives to an antibiotic feed additive (avilamycin) for layers kept under hot summer conditions. Four hundred and eighty 54-week old Nick-Brown hens were assigned to four dietary treatments. Each treatment consisted of four replications of 10 cages (three hens per cage). The treatment groups were: 1) Control: Basal diet without additive; 2) Basal diet plus antibiotic (10 mg avilamycin/kg feed); 3) Basal diet plus 1 g MOS/kg feed; 4) Basal diet plus 24 mg EOM/kg feed. Performance of laying hens was affected by dietary treatments. Dietary supplementation of EOM and MOS significantly increased egg production compared with control and antibiotic groups. There were no significant differences in feed consumption between treatments. The EOM significantly improved feed conversion ratio above that of the control group. Egg weights were significantly different between treatments. Laying hens consuming MOS produced significantly lower egg weights than the other groups, while egg weights in the EOM, antibiotic and control groups did not differ significantly. Cracked-broken egg rate was decreased by dietary addition of EOM, MOS and antibiotic compared with the control. Number of deaths among hens was significantly affected by dietary treatments with the number of deaths in the MOS treatment being significantly lower than in the other treatments. The performance of laying hens during the summer season could be maintained with inclusions of EOM and MOS in the diet. Keywords: Essential oils, mannan oligosaccharide, antibiotic, egg production, laying hen, summer seasonSouth African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 36 (4) 2006: pp. 215-22

Prognostic factors of perioperative FLOT regimen in operable gastric and gastroesophageal junction tumors: real-life data (Turkish Oncology Group)

Background/aim: Perioperative FLOT regimen is a standard of care in locally advanced operable gastric and GEJ adenocarcinoma. We aimed to determine the efficacy, prognostic factors of perioperative FLOT chemotherapy in real-life gastric and GEJ tumors. Materials and methods: The data of patients who were treated with perioperative FLOT chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed from 34 different oncology centers in Turkey. Baseline clinical and demographic characteristics, pretreatment laboratory values, histological and molecular characteristics were recorded. Results: A total of 441 patients were included in the study. The median of age our study population was 60 years. The majority of patients with radiological staging were cT3-4N(+) (89.9%, n = 338). After median 13.5 months (IQR: 8.5–20.5) follow-up, the median overall survival was NR (95% CI, NR to NR), and median disease free survival was 22.9 (95% CI, 18.6 to 27.3) months. The estimated overall survival at 24 months was 62%. Complete pathological response (pCR) and near pCR was achieved in 23.8% of all patients. Patients with lower NLR or PLR have significantly longer median OS (p = 0.007 and p = 0.033, respectively), and patients with lower NLR have significantly longer median DFS (p = 0.039), but PLR level did not affect DFS (p = 0.062). The OS and DFS of patients with better ECOG performance scores and those who could receive FLOT as adjuvant chemotherapy instead of other regimens were found to be better. NLR was found to be independent prognostic factor for OS in the multivariant analysis. At least one adverse event reported in 57.6% of the patients and grade 3–4 toxicity was seen in 23.6% patients. Conclusion: Real-life perioperative FLOT regimen in operable gastric and GEJ tumors showed similar oncologic outcomes compared to clinical trials. Better performance status, receiving adjuvant chemotherapy as same regimen, low grade and low NLR and PLR improved outcomes in real-life. However, in multivariate analysis, only NLR affected OS. © TÜBİTAK

Elimination of Isoxazolyl-Penicillins antibiotics in waters by the ligninolytic native Colombian strain Leptosphaerulina sp. considerations on biodegradation process and antimicrobial activity removal

In this work, Leptosphaerulina sp. (a Colombian native fungus) significantly removed three Isoxazolyl-Penicillin antibiotics (IP): oxacillin (OXA, 16000 µg L-1), cloxacillin (CLX, 17500 µg L-1) and dicloxacillin (DCX, 19000 µg L-1) from water. The biological treatment was performed at pH 5.6, 28 °C, and 160 rpm for 15 days. The biotransformation proccess and lack of toxicity of the final solutions (antibacterial activity (AA) and cytotoxicity) were tested. The role of enzymes in IP removal was analysed through in vitro studies with enzymatic extracts (crude and pre-purified) from Leptosphaerulina sp., commercial enzymes and enzymatic inhibitors. Futhermore, the applicabililty of mycoremediation process to a complex matrix (simulated hospital wastewater) was evaluated. IP were considerably abated by the fungus, OXA was the fastest degraded (day 6), followed by CLX (day 7) and DCX (day 8). Antibiotics biodegradation was associated to laccase and versatile peroxidase action. Assays using commercial enzymes (i.e. laccase from Trametes versicolor and horseradish peroxidase) and inhibitors (EDTA, NaCl, sodium acetate, manganese (II) ions) confirmed the significant role of enzymatic transformation. Whereas, biomass sorption was not an important process in the antibiotics elimination. Evaluation of AA against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 revealed that Leptosphaerulina sp. also eliminated the AA. In addition, the cytotoxicity assay (MTT) on the HepG2 cell line demonstrated that the IP final solutions were non-toxic. Finally, Leptosphaerulina sp. eliminated OXA and its AA from synthetic hospital wastewater at 6 days. All these results evidenced the potential of Leptosphaerulina sp. mycoremediation as a novel environmentally friendly process for the removal of IP from aqueous systems

Urbach rule and optical properties of the LiNbO3 and LiTaO3

Optical spectroscopy methods are used to study the spectra of some oxygen-octahedral ferroelectrics - namely LiNbO3 and LiTaO3. It is shown that for the measured range of E and T, ? varies exponentially with the photon energy following the empirical Urbach rule. A study of the role of the BO6-octahedron by using spectroscopic methods can cast light on the many physical phenomena that take place in LiNbO3 and LiTaO3. For these crystals, absorption edge, band gap, Urbach constants and phonon energy are found

USE OF CLIMATE MAPS IN DETERMINING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AREAS (vol 21, pg 1062, 2020)

[No Abstract Available

A study of the LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 absorption edge

Optical spectroscopy methods are used to study the spectra of some oxygen-octahedral ferroelectrics - LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 Study of the role of BO6 octahedron by using spectroscopic methods can cast light on the many physical phenomena that place in LiNbO3 and LiTaO3. For these crystals, absorption edge, band gap, Urbach constants and phonon energy were found

Stimulated polarization in LiNbO3 and Ba2NaNb5O15 crystals

Thermally Stimulated Conductivity (TSC) and thermoelectret state in LiNbO3 and Ba2NaNb5O15 were measured as a function of temperature and time in dark and under UV excitation at liquid nitrogen temperature. Effect of polarization and the other external influences on thermoelectret were investigated. The thermal activation energy levels of traps were determined from TSC measurements as well as parameters (electric field, temperature, etc.) which are necessary for characterizing thermoelectrets were obtained