Effect of sage extract (Salvia officinalis) on growth performance, blood parameters, oxidative stress and DNA damage in partridges

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of different doses of sage extract on the growth and blood parameters, oxidative stress and DNA damage in partridges. In total, 252 day-old partridges (Alectoris chukar) were used. The birds were divided into four groups: 0.1% flavomycin was included in the diet of the control group (I) while 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 mL sage extract/kg were included in the diets of treatment groups II, III and IV, respectively. At the end of the experiment no significant differences between treatments were observed in live weight, live weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, carcass weight and survival rate. In addition, blood analyses indicated that the differences between groups in the amounts of plasma cholesterol, triglyceride high density lipoprotein (HDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and alkaline phosphates (ALP) were not significantly different. Furthermore, treatments did not affect total sulphydryl (SH) and lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH) concentrations, total antioxidant response or the total oxidant status (TOS). However, sage extract significantly decreased DNA damage in a linear, dose-dependent manner whilst the antibiotic, flavomycin, elevated the oxidative stress index (OSI) and resulted in DNA damage. It was concluded that supplementing sage extract in the partridge diet at the doses studied does not lead to a negative effect on the growth performance of these birds. Keywords: Salvia officinalis, Alectoris chukar, growth performance, blood parameters, DNA damage South African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 38 (2) 2008: pp. 145-15

Incremental Distance Transforms (IDT)

A new generic scheme for incremental implementations of distance transforms (DT) is presented: Incremental Distance Transforms (IDT). This scheme is applied on the cityblock, Chamfer, and three recent exact Euclidean DT (E2DT). A benchmark shows that for all five DT, the incremental implementation results in a significant speedup: 3.4×−10×. However, significant differences (i.e., up to 12.5×) among the DT remain present. The FEED transform, one of the recent E2DT, even showed to be faster than both city-block and Chamfer DT. So, through a very efficient incremental processing scheme for DT, a relief is found for E2DT’s computational burden

Seroepidemiological Investigation of Toxocariasis in the Isparta Region of Turkey

Background: Toxocariasis is a common disease around the world. Our objective was to determine Toxocara seroprevalence in humans in the city of Isparta, Southwest Turkey, in respect of some determinants such as age, socio-economic level, residence in city center or rural area etc.Methods: Five hundred and thirty four individual participants from Isparta center and 85 from Asagi Gokdere village were included in the study. T. cati specific antibodies were ana­lyzed using excretory-secretory (ES)-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.Results: T. cati antibodies were detected as positive in 73 (13.6%) of 534 samples which were collected from subjects living in the city center and 24 (28.2%) of 85 samples from Asagi Gokdere village. Toxocara seropositivity was detected among 15.6% of whole study group. The seroprevalence of toxocariasis was significantly higher among subjects from vil­lage than in subjects from city center (P=0.001). While gender, high school education, source of the water which is used, family income and geophagia/eating nail behaviors were the fea­tures which were detected as being associated with toxocariasis seropositivity (odds ratios= 0.5; 6.52; 3.61; 0.43; 0.13 respectively), owning dogs or cats and hand washing were de­tected as being not associated with toxocariasis seropositivity (P > 0.05). Furthermore, Toxo­cara seropositivity was significantly higher among subjects in 0-10 than >40 year-old group (P=0.02).Conclusion: It can be suggested that untreated lost pet population, environmental contamination, and way of life have influence on the epidemiology of toxocariasis

Effect of Dietary Oregano and Rosemary Essential Oil Supplementation on Growth Performance and Cecal Microbiota of Broilers

In this study, the effect of dietary supplementation of oregano and rosemary essential oils (EO) on growth performance and cecal microbiota of broilers were investigated. A total of 450 1-d-old male Ross-308 broilers were divided into 5-experimental groups (10 replicates of 9 chickens): a Control (C), fed a basal diet; four treatments, which received a basal diet supplemented with oregano and rosemary EOs individually (O, 300 mg/kg oregano EO; R, 300 mg/kg rosemary EO) and combined (OR1, 150 mg/kg oregano EO + 150 mg/kg rosemary EO; OR2, 200 mg/kg oregano EO + 200 mg/kg rosemary EO). Body weight (BW), feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), feed conver-sion ratio (FCR), and cecal microbiota (coliforms, clostridia and lactobacilli) were determined weekly, and at 42 d, re-spectively. BW in R (p < 0.05) and OR2 (p < 0.001), and BWG and FCR in OR2 (p < 0.05) were significantly higher than C at 42 d, despite no difference in FI in any group during experimental period. Counts of cecal coliforms (p < 0.001) and clostridia (p < 0.01) decreased, and lactobacilli (p < 0.001) increased substantially between C and treatment groups. Results indicated that combined oregano and rosemary EO (200 mg/kg ea) supplementation significantly increased BW and BWG, improved FCR in 1-42 d, lowered coliform and clostridial, and increased lactobacilli counts suggesting a beneficial shift in cecal microbiota.Bursa Uludag Uni-versity Scientific Research Unit Grant [HDP (V) -2014/45]ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study was funded by the Bursa Uludag Uni-versity Scientific Research Unit Grant, Project No: HDP (V) -2014/45

The effect of thrombolytic therapy on QT dispersion in acute myocardial infarction and its role in the prediction of reperfusion arrhythmias

Purpose: We aimed to determine the effect of intravenous thrombolytic therapy on QT dispersion (QTd) and its role in the prediction of reperfusion arrhythmias.Materials and Methods: Twenty patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) were enrolled in the study. Measurements of QTd were carried out  prior to thrombolytic therapy and before discharge. The patients were examined for ventricular arrhythmias with 24‑h Holter electrocardiography monitoring after treatment and the relationship between ventricular arrhythmias and the QTd values in the early phase of MI was investigated.Results: The values of QTd were significantly higher during the early phase of MI (60 ± 5.32 ms) than those in the late phase (53.35 ± 4.07 ms) (P = 0.032). There was no correlation between isolated, bigeminal, trigeminal and total ventricular premature beats, accelerated idioventricular rhythm (AIVR) with QTd values. However, the patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT), prolonged VT and sustained AIVR had higher corrected QTd (92 ms1/2, 97.8 ms1/2, 81.7 ms1/2, respectively) than the patients without these arrhythmias (74 ms1/2, 56.3 ms1/2, 58.28 ms1/2,  respectively) (P = 0.022, 0.013, 0.018).Conclusion: The values of QTd may be significantly reduced in the 1st week of acute MI and measurement of QTd in the early phase of MI may have a correlation with the following reperfusion arrhythmias: Sustained VT, prolonged VT and AIVR.Key words: Arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, QT dispersion, reperfusion, thrombolytic therap

Impact of the relatively light fourth family neutrino on the Higgs boson search

The existence of a fourth fermion generation has mostly been considered as a source of enhanced Higgs signals with respect to the 3 family Standard Model predictions. However, a fourth Standard Model family neutrino could cause the opposite situation. It is shown that relatively light fourth family neutrino (2m_(nu_(4))<m_(H)) could drastically change the interpretation of the search results for the Higgs boson, especially if m_(H)<170 GeV.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figure

Assessment of the sleep parameters in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome with a

Objective: In this study, traffic accident with a history ofobstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in patientswith polysomnographic parameters was investigated.Methods: A total of 77 OSAS patients were included inthe study. All-night polysomnographic recordings obtainedfrom patients with enuresis parameters and thepresence of traffic accidents recorded in standard form.Results: The mean age of patients was 45.15 ± 11.53years. 53% of the patients were male and 47% female.The mean apnea hypopnea index (AHI) in patients was13.54 events/h. History of traffic accidents was found in12% patients. Apnea hypopnea index, supine AHI, arousalindex and oxygen desaturation index were found significantlydifferent parameters between history of trafficaccidents group and non-history of traffic accidents group(p <0.05).Conclusion: In this study, patients with OSAS severity ofthe disease with a history of traffic accidents were associatedthe relationship between the parameters. This relationshipwith the severity of the disease might be due tothe negative effects on attention. J Clin Exp Invest 2013;4 (2): 204-207Key words: OSAS, traffic accident, AH

Characterization of AlInN/AlN/GaN Heterostructures with Different AlN Buffer Thickness

Two AlInN/AlN/GaN heterostructures with 280-nm- and 400-nm-thick AlN buffer grown on sapphire substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) have been investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), photoluminescence (PL) and Hall-effect measurements. The symmetric (0002) plane with respect to the asymmetric (101 ¯ 2) plane in the 280-nm-thick AlN buffer has a higher crystal quality, as opposed to the 400-nm-thick buffer. The thinner buffer improves the crystallinity of both (0002) and (101 ¯ 2) planes in the GaN layers, it also provides a sizeable reduction in dislocation density of GaN. Furthermore, the lower buffer thickness leads to a good quality surface with an rms roughness of 0.30 nm and a dark spot density of 4.0 × 108 cm−2. The optical and transport properties of the AlInN/AlN/GaN structure with the relatively thin buffer are compatible with the enhancement in its structural quality, as verified by XRD and AFM results. © 2016, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society