Effect of Feed Restriction during Pregnancy on Performance and Productivity of New Zealand White Rabbit Does

This study aimed to evaluate effect of stage of feed restriction on performance and productivity of pregnant does. New Zealand white female rabbits were randomly divided into three groups. Control group was provided daily with 185 g of food increased to 200 g from the 15th day of gestation. R1 was offered daily a restricted amount of food (60% restriction, 111 g) for the first half of pregnancy and then offered 200 g of food daily till parturition. R2 was provided with 185 g of food daily through the first half of pregnancy and then offered daily a restricted amount of food (60% restriction, 120 g) for the second half. After parturition, food was provided adlibitum. Maternal body weights, litter size, litter weight, and average body weight of kits at kindling of R1 showed no change, whereas R2 showed significant reduction in the weights of does at the 4th week of pregnancy and at kindling. The birth weight and weaning weight of R2 were significantly reduced. The highest mortality was recorded in kits of R2. No significant differences in blood parameters or serum prolactin were observed. The serum protein was significantly reduced R2

Solar cells: Types, Modules, and Applications–A Review

The basic operating principle of photovoltaic (PV) devices is the conversion of solar irradiation into electricity. There are various applications of this principle in many countries such as Egypt, Nigeria and Denmark. Most of the solar PV projects are designed for street lighting, water pumping and water desalination. However, we hope about wide range of using the appropriate components and best technical procedures, standard PV projects with maximum performance output. The present systems now provide 20% to 40% only of the community's heat or lightness on annual basic needs. These include innovative and alternative ways to reduce material uses and module degradation, and opportunities to reuse and recycle PV panels at the end of their lifetime because of the installations of photovoltaic solar modules which are growing extremely very fast.   Keywords: Solar cells; renewable energy; photovoltaic; free energy; solar panel cost; solar battery

New Era for Usage of Serum Liver Enzymes as A Promising Horizon for the Prediction of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

BACKGROUND: Liver histology remains the gold standard for assessing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Noninvasive serological markers and radiological methods have been developed to evaluate steatosis to avoid biopsy.AIM: To put cutoff value for liver enzymes that could predict non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 54 patients (with NAFLD diagnosed by the US). Patients were subjected to history, physical, anthropometric measurements, investigations including liver enzymes, abdominal US, and liver biopsy. According to biopsy results, patients were subdivided according to NASH development. Also, biopsy results were correlated to the levels of liver enzymes.RESULTS: Forty-seven patients who were suspected to have NAFLD by sonar were confirmed by biopsy. There was a significant correlation between steatosis degree in biopsy and sonar. Correlation study between steatosis in biopsy and ALT level showed highly significant positive correlation. Correlation study between steatosis in biopsy on one side & AST and GGT on the other side showed significant positive correlation. Cutoff value for detection of NASH using ALT & AST & and GGT were 50.5, 56, 60.5 respectively with sensitivity = 95.5, 90.5, 86.4 % and specificity = 93.8, 100, 87.5%. CONCLUSION: Cut off values of liver enzymes can be combined with abdominal sonar to predict NASH

The use of nanomaterial's applications in buildings and their contribution to supporting green technology

Nanotechnology is one of the most active research areas in both field's novel science and useful applications which have gradually established great success in the past two decades. Recent researches on nanomaterial and nanotechnologies foxed on the potential use of these materials in various fields such as medicine, construction, automobile industry, energy, telecommunications and informatics. This is due to the special characteristics of materials at the nano scale. It has been demonstrated that nanotechnology generated products have many unique characteristics, and can significantly fix many field problems.Nanotechnology added changes to building material properties that can improve the current construction materials to be lighter, stronger structural composites, low maintenance coatings, better cementations materials, and thermal insulation. Because size of the particles is a critical factor, the material properties significantly differ at the Nano scale from the larger scales.Recently Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies play a major role in architectural design; building materials combined with nanotechnology became smaller, lighter, and work better than what is possible with conventional materials. Many distinguish applications have been established in architecture and construction industry , for example improving the performance of traditional building materials, both structural materials such as ( concrete, steel and wood ) and nonstructural materials such as (glass , coating, and Air purification ).This paper Presents number of study cases for Nonstructural Nanomaterial applications specially coating materials and air purifying applications (Lotus effect, Photo-catalysis self-cleaning, Easy to clean surfaces, and Air purifying applications). Demonstrating also the importance of Nanotechnology applications becoming green to enhance the Ecological performance of buildings, and to decrease energy consumption rates supporting continuity and Green Architecture.Key words:Nanotechnology, nanomaterial's, nan architecture, green technology, sustainability

Assessment of level of serum cardiac troponin T in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome

Background: One of the most prevalent reasons for admission to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) is respiratory distress syndrome (RDs). When myocardial cells are damaged, cardiac troponin I (cTnT) is released as a biomarker of myocardial damage, which is very specific and sensitive.Objective: To determine the level of cTnT in preterm infants who have respiratory distress syndrome as a marker of cardiac dysfunction.Patients and Methods: This study was carried as a case-control trial on forty preterm infants, 20 patients of respiratory distress syndrome at neonatal intensive care unit as a group I, 20 apparently healthy newborns as a control group. Serum cardiac troponin T level sample was taken on the 3rd day of delivery.Results: A statistically significant difference in blood troponin was found between the groups tested, with a negative connection between serum troponin and gestational age, length, and APGAR scores at the first and fifth minutes of life. Respiratory rate and serum troponin were found to have a statistically significant connection. Any one of the echocardiographic measures had a statistically significant positive connection with serum troponin. Serum troponin was able to diagnose respiratory distress syndrome with cutoff ≥ 93.5 ng/mL with the area under the curve, Positive predictive value: 83.33% Positive predictive value: 83.33% Negative predictive value: 100 percent Accuracy: 90%.Conclusion: Cardiac troponin T can be used to detect cardiac dysfunction in ill newborns, especially in centers that do not have in-house echocardiography

Vertical transmission of Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae (Myxozoa), the causative agent of salmonid proliferative kidney disease

license: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 0000-0001-7279-715Xlicense: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013. The attached document is the authors' final accepted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it

Role of static fluid MR urography in detecting post urinary diversion complications

Aim of work: The aim of the study was to assess the diagnostic performance of static MR urography in detection of post cystectomy complications & the ability of static fluid MR urography in visualization of urinary tract segments.Material & methods: We prospectively reviewed 21 MR urograms with urinary diversion. The most common surgical procedures included Ileal conduit & Ileocecal neobladder diversion.Material & methods: Magnetic resonance urography examinations were performed with 1.5-T MR scanners. T2 weighted (static fluid) MR urography techniques were done, in addition to conventional T1- and T2-weighted axial and coronal sequences. Urinary tract was divided in different parts: pelvicalyceal systems, upper, mid and lower ureteric segments & the reservoir or conduit Imaging features of the urinary collecting systems were evaluated for their visualization and complications detection.Results: T2-weighted MR urography could demonstrate 95% of urinary tract segments & together with conventional MR sequences all urinary tract segments can be visualized. Urinary diversion related complications were encountered included in 15 patients (71.4%) & no urological complications were seen in 6 patients (28.6%).Conclusion: Comprehensive T2-weighted MR urography is an effective imaging method for the visualization of the urinary system and detection of early and late postoperative complications in patients with urinary diversion.Keywords: MR urography, Urinary diversion, Cancer bladde

CT Liver Segmentation Using Artificial Bee Colony Optimisation

The automated segmentation of the liver area is an essential phase in liver diagnosis from medical images. In this paper, we propose an artificial bee colony (ABC) optimisation algorithm that is used as a clustering technique to segment the liver in CT images. In our algorithm, ABC calculates the centroids of clusters in the image together with the region corresponding to each cluster. Using mathematical morphological operations, we then remove small and thin regions, which may represents flesh regions around the liver area, sharp edges of organs or small lesions inside the liver. The extracted regions are integrated to give an initial estimate of the liver area. In a final step, this is further enhanced using a region growing approach. In our experiments, we employed a set of 38 images, taken in pre-contrast phase, and the similarity index calculated to judge the performance of our proposed approach. This experimental evaluation confirmed our approach to afford a very good segmentation accuracy of 93.73% on the test dataset

Hepatobiliary manifestations following two-stages elective laparoscopic restorative proctocolectomy for patients with ulcerative colitis: A prospective observational study

BACKGROUNDHepatobiliary manifestations occur in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. The effect of laparoscopic restorative proctocolectomy (LRP) with ileal pouch anal anastomosis (IPAA) on hepatobiliary manifestations is debated.AIMTo evaluate hepatobiliary changes after two-stages elective laparoscopic restorative proctocolectomy for patients with UC.METHODSBetween June 2013 and June 2018, 167 patients with hepatobiliary symptoms underwent two-stage elective LRP for UC in a prospective observational study. Patients with UC and having at least one hepatobiliary manifestation who underwent LRP with IPAA were included in the study. The patients were followed up for four years to assess the outcomes of hepatobiliary manifestations.RESULTSThe patients' mean age was 36 +/- 8 years, and males predominated (67.1%). The most common hepatobiliary diagnostic method was liver biopsy (85.6%), followed by Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (63.5%), Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (62.5%), abdominal ultrasonography (35.9%), and Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (6%). The most common hepatobiliary symptom was Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) (62.3%), followed by fatty liver (16.8%) and gallbladder stone (10.2%). 66.4% of patients showed a stable course after surgery. Progressive or regressive courses occurred in 16.8% of each. Mortality was 6%, and recurrence or progression of symptoms required surgery for 15%. Most PSC patients (87.5%) had a stable course, and only 12.5% became worse. Two-thirds (64.3%) of fatty liver patients showed a regressive course, while one-third (35.7%) showed a stable course. Survival rates were 98.8%, 97%, 95.8%, and 94% at 12 mo, 24 mo, 36 mo, and at the end of the follow-up.CONCLUSIONIn patients with UC who had LRP, there is a positive impact on hepatobiliary disease. It caused an improvement in PSC and fatty liver disease. The most prevalent unchanged course was PSC, while the most common improvement was fatty liver disease