Treated Olive Cake as a Non-forage Fiber Source for Growing Awassi Lambs: Effects on Nutrient Intake, Rumen and Urine pH, Performance, and Carcass Yield

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of partial replacement of wheat hay with sun-dried (SOC) or acid-treated SOC (ASOC) olive cake on nutrient intake and performance of Awassi lambs. An additional objective was to study the effects of acid treatment of olive cake (OC) on its chemical composition and nutritive value. On DM basis, sun-drying of OC did not dramatically affect its chemical composition. On the other hand, treating SOC with phosphoric acid decreased (p<0.05) SOC contents of neutral detergent fiber. Twenty seven male lambs (17.6±0.75 kg body weight) individually housed in shaded pens were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments (9 lambs/treatment). Dietary treatments were formulated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous by replacing 50% of wheat hay in the control diet (CTL) with SOC or ASOC and to meet all nutrient requirements. Dietary treatments had no effects on nutrient intake or digestibility except for ether extract. Lambs fed the SOC diet had (p = 0.05) faster growth rate, greater final body weight, and greater total body weight gain in comparison with the CTL diet, but not different from the ASOC diet. Additionally, lambs fed the SOC diet had greater (p = 0.03) hot and cold carcass weights than the ASOC diet, but not different from the CTL diet. However, feed conversion ratios and dressing percentages were similar among dietary treatments. In conclusion, replacing half of dietary wheat hay with SOC improved performance of Awassi lambs with no detrimental effects on nutrients intake or digestibility. No further improvements in the nutritive value of SOC and lambs performance were detected when SOC was treated with acid

Beyond the culture effect on credibility perception on microblogs

We investigated the credibility perception of tweet readers from the USA and by readers from eight Arabic countries; our aim was to understand if credibility was affected by country and/or by culture. Results from a crowd-sourcing experiment, showed a wide variety of factors affected credibility perception, including a tweet author&#039;s gender, profile image, username style, location, and social network overlap with the reader. We found that culture determines readers&#039; credibility perception, but country has no effect. We discuss the implications of our findings for user interface design and social media systems

Combining machine learning and metaheuristics algorithms for classification method PROAFTN

© Crown 2019. The supervised learning classification algorithms are one of the most well known successful techniques for ambient assisted living environments. However the usual supervised learning classification approaches face issues that limit their application especially in dealing with the knowledge interpretation and with very large unbalanced labeled data set. To address these issues fuzzy classification method PROAFTN was proposed. PROAFTN is part of learning algorithms and enables to determine the fuzzy resemblance measures by generalizing the concordance and discordance indexes used in outranking methods. The main goal of this chapter is to show how the combined meta-heuristics with inductive learning techniques can improve performances of the PROAFTN classifier. The improved PROAFTN classifier is described and compared to well known classifiers, in terms of their learning methodology and classification accuracy. Through this chapter we have shown the ability of the metaheuristics when embedded to PROAFTN method to solve efficiency the classification problems

Non prescribed sale of antibiotics in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross Sectional Study

Background Antibiotics sales without medical prescriptions are increasingly recognized as sources of antimicrobial misuse that can exacerbate the global burden of antibiotic resistance. We aimed to determine the percentage of pharmacies who sell antibiotics without medical prescriptions, examining the potential associated risks of such practice in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by simulation of different clinical scenarios. Methods A cross sectional study of a quasi-random sample of pharmacies stratified by the five regions of Riyadh. Each pharmacy was visited once by two investigators who simulated having a relative with a specific clinical illness (sore throat, acute bronchitis, otitis media, acute sinusitis, diarrhea, and urinary tract infection (UTI) in childbearing aged women). Results A total of 327 pharmacies were visited. Antibiotics were dispensed without a medical prescription in 244 (77.6%) of 327, of which 231 (95%) were dispensed without a patient request. Simulated cases of sore throat and diarrhea resulted in an antibiotic being dispensed in (90%) of encounters, followed by UTI (75%), acute bronchitis (73%), otitis media (51%) and acute sinusitis (40%). Metronidazole (89%) and ciprofloxacin (86%) were commonly given for diarrhea and UTI, respectively, whereas amoxicillin/clavulanate was dispensed (51%) for the other simulated cases. None of the pharmacists asked about antibiotic allergy history or provided information about drug interactions. Only 23% asked about pregnancy status when dispensing antibiotics for UTI-simulated cases. Conclusions We observed that an antibiotic could be obtained in Riyadh without a medical prescription or an evidence-based indication with associated potential clinical risks. Strict enforcement and adherence to existing regulations are warranted

Decompressive cervical laminectomy and lateral mass screw-rod arthrodesis. Surgical analysis and outcome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study evaluates the outcome and complications of decompressive cervical Laminectomy and lateral mass screw fixation in 110 cases treated for variable cervical spine pathologies that included; degenerative disease, trauma, neoplasms, metabolic-inflammatory disorders and congenital anomalies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A retrospective review of total 785 lateral mass screws were placed in patients ages 16-68 years (40 females and 70 males). All cases were performed with a polyaxial screw-rod construct and screws were placed by using Anderson-Sekhon trajectory. Most patients had 12-14-mm length and 3.5 mm diameter screws placed for subaxial and 28-30 for C1 lateral mass. Screw location was assessed by post operative plain x-ray and computed tomography can (CT), besides that; the facet joint, nerve root foramen and foramen transversarium violation were also appraised.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No patients experienced neural or vascular injury as a result of screw position. Only one patient needed screw repositioning. Six patients experienced superficial wound infection. Fifteen patients had pain around the shoulder of C5 distribution that subsided over the time. No patients developed screw pullouts or symptomatic adjacent segment disease within the period of follow up.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>decompressive cervical spine laminectomy and Lateral mass screw stabilization is a technique that can be used for a variety of cervical spine pathologies with safety and efficiency.</p

Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies pleiotropic risk loci for aerodigestive squamous cell cancers

Squamous cell carcinomas (SqCC) of the aerodigestive tract have similar etiological risk factors. Although genetic risk variants for individual cancers have been identified, an agnostic, genome-wide search for shared genetic susceptibility has not been performed. To identify novel and pleotropic SqCC risk variants, we performed a meta-analysis of GWAS data on lung SqCC (LuSqCC), oro/pharyngeal SqCC (OSqCC), laryngeal SqCC (LaSqCC) and esophageal SqCC (ESqCC) cancers, totaling 13,887 cases and 61,961 controls of European ancestry. We identified one novel genome-wide significant (Pmeta&lt;5x10-8) aerodigestive SqCC susceptibility loci in the 2q33.1 region (rs56321285, TMEM273). Additionally, three previously unknown loci reached suggestive significance (Pmeta&lt;5x10-7): 1q32.1 (rs12133735, near MDM4), 5q31.2 (rs13181561, TMEM173) and 19p13.11 (rs61494113, ABHD8). Multiple previously identified loci for aerodigestive SqCC also showed evidence of pleiotropy in at least another SqCC site, these include: 4q23 (ADH1B), 6p21.33 (STK19), 6p21.32 (HLA-DQB1), 9p21.33 (CDKN2B-AS1) and 13q13.1(BRCA2). Gene-based association and gene set enrichment identified a set of 48 SqCC-related genes to DNA damage and epigenetic regulation pathways. Our study highlights the importance of cross-cancer analyses to identify pleiotropic risk loci of histology-related cancers arising at distinct anatomical sites

TRUST IN CROSS-CULTURAL B2B FINANCIAL SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS: THE ROLE OF SHARED VALUES

This is the accepted version of the following article: Houjeir, R. & Brennan, R. J, 'Trust in cross-cultural b2b financial service relationships: The role of shared values', Journal of Financial Services Marketing, June 2016, Vol 21(2): 90-102 The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/fsm.2016.4Trust in business-to-business supplier–customer relationships in financial services is an area of considerable research interest. The bulk of prior empirical research in this field has concentrated on trust in business relationships within a Western cultural context. However, shared values are acknowledged to be an important antecedent to trust. The premise of this study is that in circumstances where there are substantial cultural differences between parties to a supplier–customer relationship, these differences will be reflected in shared values, which will in turn be reflected in differences in the nature of trust. A qualitative study was conducted among business bankers and their corporate clients in the context of the United Arab Emirates. In all 170 respondents were interviewed; of these, 160 were paired respondents, that is, where a client and banker from the same business relationship were interviewed (yielding 80 interview dyads). Substantial differences with respect to trust were found between relationships that involved only Emiratis, those that involved Emiratis and non-Emiratis, and those that involved only non-Emiratis. For Emiratis mutual trust is substantially based on family and clan ties and exhibits strongly affective characteristics. For non-Emiratis trust is largely based on business considerations, and exhibits strongly cognitive characteristics.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Lung function associated gene Integrator Complex subunit 12 regulates protein synthesis pathways

Background: Genetic studies of human lung function and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease have identified a highly significant and reproducible signal on 4q24. It remains unclear which of the two candidate genes within this locus may regulate lung function: GSTCD, a gene with unknown function, and/or INTS12, a member of the Integrator Complex which is currently thought to mediate 3'end processing of small nuclear RNAs.Results: We found that, in lung tissue, 4q24 polymorphisms associated with lung function correlate with INTS12 but not neighbouring GSTCD expression. In contrast to the previous reports in other species, we only observed a minor alteration of snRNA processing following INTS12 depletion. RNAseq analysis of knockdown cells instead revealed dysregulation of a core subset of genes relevant to airway biology and a robust downregulation of protein synthesis pathways. Consistent with this, protein translation was decreased in INTS12 knockdown cells. In addition, ChIPseq experiments demonstrated INTS12 binding throughout the genome, which was enriched in transcriptionally active regions. Finally, we defined the INTS12 regulome which includes genes belonging to the protein synthesis pathways.Conclusion: INTS12 has functions beyond the canonical snRNA processing. We show that it regulates translation by regulating the expression of genes belonging to protein synthesis pathways. This study provides a detailed analysis of INTS12 activities on a genome-wide scale and contributes to the biology behind the genetic association for lung function at 4q24.</p