The Susceptibility of Japanese Quails to the Infection with Chicken Originated NewCastle Disease Virus

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) caused an outbreak among commercial broiler chickens in the educational farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University-Egypt. Its velogenicty was characterized by Intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) of 1.65. The outbreak raised concerns regarding the role of quails as a neighboring bird to the broiler chickens in the affected farm in transmission of this virus to chickens. 35 days old quails were infected oculo-nasal with velogenic strain of Newcastle disease virus accompanied with chickens were in contact with these infected quails to determine the role of quails in the epidemiology of ND infection. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibodies were measured for assessment of antibody response as well as oro-pharynx swabs were used for detection of the virus shedding. The susceptibility of quails to NDV infection was more resistant than that were observed in chickens. 6.6-13.3% of challenged non-vaccinated quails were died in contrast to 80-100% mortality in experimentally infected chickens till the end of experiment 3 weeks after challenge. Up to 13.3% of infected quails exhibited general clinical signs in contrast to 100% of non vaccinated chickens shown clinical signs were primarily respiratory. Infected quails could excrete infectious virus from the oro-pharynx for a shorter period than that observed with infected in-contact chickens in special to the vaccinated groups the shedding was reduced significantly either in quails and chickens. The results confirmed that some of the naturally occurring NDV virulent strains can cause the disease in quails but in a mild form, and that quails play an important role in the epidemiology of ND and its transmission to chickens causing heavy economic losses. These results under- score the need to develop new vaccine strategies for use in quails to protect birds from both disease and infection to reduce virus shedding and its spreading

Multi-Agent Based Control Scheme for Electrical Distribution System Restoration

Continuity of the electric supply is considered one of the main power quality indices, and thus, it is essential to perform fast and efficient restoration of electricity following outages. However, this might not be always an easy task, especially in large distribution networks. In this paper, an efficient multi-agent based control scheme is introduced to restore the maximum possible out of service loads without violating any of the technical constraints of the electric network. The proposed scheme utilizes a number of agents distributed along the feeder to gather the necessary information and communicate it to the decision making agent at the faulted feeder head. The decision making agent first attempts to restore all the out of service loads through group restoration. However, if this is not possible due to violating any of the technical constrains, then the agent attempts to restore as much loads as possible through a zone restoration process. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme, two case studies are presented to show the group and zone restorations. The distribution system is simulated in the MATLAB environment to perform the required power flow calculations and provide the necessary information to the agents. On the other hand, the agents are implemented in JADE environment where the communication and decision making process occurs

Lean partially premixed turbulent flame equivalence ratio measurements using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The creation of a more stable flame along with the extension of flammability limits under lean mixture combustion was the main motivation to develop a new burner design, which has been investigated in this research. The current burner configuration was utilized to create a wide range of higher turbulent intensities and to produce different degrees of mixture inhomogeneity, which acted to promote minimum pollution, highest performance and higher flame stability. The burner stability assessment was investigated using two types of fuel: natural gas (NG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). They were tested under different degrees of partial premixing, and two turbulence generator disks for lean mixture at an equivalence ratio of φ = 0.8 were used. Following this, the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was utilized to characterize and quantify the impact of changing the disk slit diameter on the distributions profiles of equivalence ratio or mixture fraction for a NG/air partially premixed flame. A series of homogeneous NG/air mixtures with different equivalence ratios were used to obtain the correlations between the measured emission lines of LIBS spectra and the global flame equivalence ratio. Consequently, the emission spectral lines ratios of H/N, H/O and C/N + O were utilized to predict the equivalence ratio distributions. The results demonstrated that for all of the mixing lengths, NG/air mixture with larger disk generator diameter yielded the maximum burner stability, whilst the LPG/air mixture with a larger disk generator diameter resulted in the minimum burner stability. Furthermore, the flame associated with the larger disk slit diameter had a uniform local equivalence ratio distribution and lower RMS fluctuation profiles of equivalence ratio in comparison to the lower disk slit diameter

Predicting The Fragility Of Renal Calculi In Response To Shock Wave Lithotripsy Through Their Radiographic Appearance

Objectives: To evaluate the radiological characteristics of renal stones on plain X-ray film of the kidneys, ureters and bladder (KUB) area as predictors of stone fragility during shock wave lithotripsy (SWL).Patients and Methods: This prospective study included 336 patients who had a single renal pelvic stone .20 mm and were managed by SWL at 3 different centers. The patients were classified according to the radiological appearance of the stone on KUB film in terms of homogeneity,smoothness of the outline, and radiodensity in comparison to the last rib. The primary endpoint was the stone-free rate (SFR) within 3 months post-SWL. Multivariate regression analysis was used to compare the results.Results: The overall SFR was 71.43%. SFR was significantly higher in heterogeneous compared with homogenous stones (86% vs. 53%;

Predicting Performance Measurement of Residential Buildings Using an Artificial Neural Network

Application Earned Value Management (EVM) as a construction project control technique is not very common in the Republic of Iraq, in spite of the benefit from EVA to the schedule control and cost control of construction projects. One of the goals of the present study is the employment machine intelligence techniques in the estimation of earned value; also this study contributes to extend the cognitive content of study fields associated with the earned value, and the results of this study are considered a robust incentive to try and do complementary studies, or to simulate a similar study in alternative new technologies. This paper is aiming at introducing a novel and alternative method of applying Artificial Intelligence Techniques (AIT) for earned value management of the construction projects through using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to build mathematical models to be used to estimate the Schedule Performance Index (SPI), Cost Performance Index (CPI) and to Complete Cost Performance Indicator (TCPI) in Iraqi residential buildings before and at execution stage through using web-based software to perform the calculations in the estimation quickly, accurately and without effort. ANN technique was utilized to produce new prediction models by applying the Backpropagation algorithm through Neuframe software. Finally, the results showed that the ANN technique shows excellent results of estimation when it is compared with MLR techniques. The results were interpreted in terms of Average Accuracy (AA%) equal to 83.09, 90.83, and 82.88%, also, correlation coefficient (R) equal to 90.95, 93.00, and 92.30% for SPI, CPI and TCPI respectively. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091666 Full Text: PD

Simple approach to thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidines as new scaffolds of antimicrobial activities

6-(4-Chlorophenyl)-spiro[cyclohexane-1,2-thieno[3,2-d][1,3]oxazin]-4(1H)-one (1) was synthesized and used as a starting material for the synthesis of a novel series of spiro compounds having biologically active sulfonamide (2a-e) and 3-(4-acetylphenyl)-6-(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,2-thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine-4(3H)-one (3). Compound 2a was used as a key intermediate for the synthesis of sulfonyl carbothioamide derivatives (4a-c). Also, compound 3 was used as an intermediate for the synthesis of 3H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,2-thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidin]-3-yl]phenyl}-2-imino-4-(substituted phenyl and/or thienyl)-1,2-dihydropyridine-3-carbonitrile derivatives (5a-e), 3H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,2-thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidin]-3-yl]phenyl}-2-oxo-4-(substituted phenyl and/or thienyl)-1,2-dihydropyridine-3-carbonitrile derivatives (6a-e), and 4-[(2Z)-3-substituted-arylprop-2-enoyl]phenyl-1H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,2-thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine derivatives (7a-e). Cyclocondensation of 7a-e with hydrazine hydrate produced 6-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-[4-(5-substituted aryl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)phenyl]-1H-spiro[cyclohexane-1,2-thieno-[3,2-d]pyrimidin]-4(3H)-ones (8a-e), but with hydroxylamine hydrochloride afforded the corresponding isoxazoline derivatives (9a-e). Also, cyclocondensation by thiourea afforded 2-thioxo-1,2-dihydropyrimidin-4-yl)-phenyl-spiro-{cyclohexanethieno[3,2-d]pyrimidin}-4-one derivatives (10a-e). The new compounds were investigated for antimicrobial activity. Compounds 2c, 8b, c, 9b and 10b were the most potent ones against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Compound 8c exhibited higher antifungal activity towards the examined fungi with MIC of 1–2 µmol mL–1 compared to ketoconazole (MIC 2–3 µmol mL–1)

Long term effects of maternal protein restriction on postnatal lung alveoli development of rat offspring

Poor nutrition of women during pregnancy causes reduction in foetal growth and can adversely affect the development of the foetal lungs. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of maternal protein restriction on the postnatal lung development in neonatal period, and on lung structure in adult rat offspring. Female virgin Sprague-Dawley albino rats (more than 200 g) were used. One male rat was introduced into a cage with one female for matting. Once the pregnancy was confirmed, pregnant rats were divided into two main groups; each consists of 6 female as follow: 1 — normally nourished group; 2 — protein deficient group. After delivery, offspring were subdivided into three groups: 1 day after delivery, 2 weeks and 2 months postnatal. Rat body and lung weight were recorded and ratio of lung weight to body weight was assessed. Total plasma protein and serum albumin were assessed for all groups. Lung tissue stained with H&E for histological and morphometric analysis. Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the number of cells positive for pulmonary surfactant protein A. Our results showed that protein restriction interfere with neonatal and postnatal lung development resulting in morphological and morphometric changes of normal lung development. We concluded that protein deficiency lead to developmental retardation of lung

Impact of Hydroxychloroquine on Fructose-induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rats: Promising Protective Effect

BACKGROUND: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is used in the treatment of malaria and rheumatoid arthritis for a long time. Its effects on inflammation and immune modulation were noted. AIM: This study aims to investigate the effects of HCQ in fructose-induced metabolic syndrome and to explore its possible mechanisms. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into Group I (negative control), Group II fed on high-fructose diet, and Group III fed on high fructose and subdivided into Group III-a (HCQ 50 mg/kg), Group III-b (HCQ 100 mg/kg), Group III-c (HCQ 200 mg/kg), and Group III-d (metformin 100 mg/kg). Body weight, blood glucose, liver enzymes, and lipid profile were measured. Insulin level, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA), soluble-intercellular adhesion molecule, and vascular cell adhesion molecule were assayed. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, adipokines (leptin, resistin, and adiponectin), and histological examination of pancreas were assessed. RESULTS: HCQ induces good effects on lipid profile and improves significantly HOMA, endothelial stress markers, and adiponectin, and reduces leptin and TNF-α levels. In addition, significant improvement in structural changes was noted in pancreas with different doses of HCQ. CONCLUSION: Favorable effects of HCQ in fructose-induced metabolic syndrome are promising and can be used early in those at risk of diabetes