Evaluation of Miswak(Salvadorapersica)asaHerbalAdditive in Broiler Chickens

We determined the effects of dietary supplementation of different doses of Miswak (Salvadorapersica) steam and leaf powder on the performance, blood parameters, cecal flora, and carcass traits of broilers. Four hundred and eight one-day old Ross 308 broiler chicks were provided one of the following experimental diets over 42 days:  a basal diet without any additives, or a basal diet supplemented with 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, or 0.8% Miswak powder. Four replicates of 17 birds were allocated to each treatment. Neither broiler performance (body weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio) during starter (d 1-21), finisher (d 22-42), and the overall period (d 1-42) of the study, nor blood parameters (glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol) were influenced by experimental treatments (P > 0.05). Chicks fed diets containing 0.4% Miswak had higher (P 0.05). In conclusion, we found that supplementation with Miswak powder had no beneficial effects on performance and blood parameters of broilers, but could improve cecal bacteria counts at levels greater than 0.4%

Algorithms: simultaneous error-correction and rooting for gene tree reconciliation and the gene duplication problem

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Evolutionary methods are increasingly challenged by the wealth of fast growing resources of genomic sequence information. Evolutionary events, like gene duplication, loss, and deep coalescence, account more then ever for incongruence between gene trees and the actual species tree. Gene tree reconciliation is addressing this fundamental problem by invoking the minimum number of gene duplication and losses that reconcile a rooted gene tree with a rooted species tree. However, the reconciliation process is highly sensitive to topological error or wrong rooting of the gene tree, a condition that is not met by most gene trees in practice. Thus, despite the promises of gene tree reconciliation, its applicability in practice is severely limited.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We introduce the problem of reconciling unrooted and erroneous gene trees by simultaneously rooting and error-correcting them, and describe an efficient algorithm for this problem. Moreover, we introduce an error-corrected version of the gene duplication problem, a standard application of gene tree reconciliation. We introduce an effective heuristic for our error-corrected version of the gene duplication problem, given that the original version of this problem is NP-hard. Our experimental results suggest that our error-correcting approaches for unrooted input trees can significantly improve on the accuracy of gene tree reconciliation, and the species tree inference under the gene duplication problem. Furthermore, the efficiency of our algorithm for error-correcting reconciliation is capable of handling truly large-scale phylogenetic studies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our presented error-correction approach is a crucial step towards making gene tree reconciliation more robust, and thus to improve on the accuracy of applications that fundamentally rely on gene tree reconciliation, like the inference of gene-duplication supertrees.</p

Pattern Classification of Large-Scale Functional Brain Networks: Identification of Informative Neuroimaging Markers for Epilepsy

The accurate prediction of general neuropsychiatric disorders, on an individual basis, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a challenging task of great clinical significance. Despite the progress to chart the differences between the healthy controls and patients at the group level, the pattern classification of functional brain networks across individuals is still less developed. In this paper we identify two novel neuroimaging measures that prove to be strongly predictive neuroimaging markers in pattern classification between healthy controls and general epileptic patients. These measures characterize two important aspects of the functional brain network in a quantitative manner: (i) coordinated operation among spatially distributed brain regions, and (ii) the asymmetry of bilaterally homologous brain regions, in terms of their global patterns of functional connectivity. This second measure offers a unique understanding of brain asymmetry at the network level, and, to the best of our knowledge, has not been previously used in pattern classification of functional brain networks. Using modern pattern-recognition approaches like sparse regression and support vector machine, we have achieved a cross-validated classification accuracy of 83.9% (specificity: 82.5%; sensitivity: 85%) across individuals from a large dataset consisting of 180 healthy controls and epileptic patients. We identified significantly changed functional pathways and subnetworks in epileptic patients that underlie the pathophysiological mechanism of the impaired cognitive functions. Specifically, we find that the asymmetry of brain operation for epileptic patients is markedly enhanced in temporal lobe and limbic system, in comparison with healthy individuals. The present study indicates that with specifically designed informative neuroimaging markers, resting-state fMRI can serve as a most promising tool for clinical diagnosis, and also shed light onto the physiology behind complex neuropsychiatric disorders. The systematic approaches we present here are expected to have wider applications in general neuropsychiatric disorders

Active fixturing: literature review and future research directions

Fixtures are used to fixate, position and support workpieces and represent a crucial tool in manufacturing. Their performance determines the result of the whole manufacturing process of a product. There is a vast amount of research done on automatic fixture layout synthesis and optimisation and fixture design verification. Most of this work considers fixture mechanics to be static and the fixture elements to be passive. However, a new generation of fixtures has emerged that has actuated fixture elements for active control of the part–fixture system during manufacturing operations to increase the end product quality. This paper analyses the latest studies in the field of active fixture design and its relationship with flexible and reconfigurable fixturing systems. First, a brief introduction is given on the importance of research of fixturing systems. Secondly, the basics of workholding and fixture design are visited, after which the state-of-the-art in active fixturing and related concepts is presented. Fourthly, part–fixture dynamics and design strategies which take these into account are discussed. Fifthly, the control strategies used in active fixturing systems are examined. Finally, some final conclusions and prospective future research directions are presented

Reductions in prefrontal activation predict off-topic utterances during speech production

The ability to speak coherently is essential for effective communication, but little is known about the neural systems that support coherence. Here, the authors show that activity in two prefrontal cortex regions, BA10 and BA45, predicts the level of coherence in the speech of healthy older adults

Age-Specific Response of Broilers to Dietary Inclusion of a High-Tannin Feedstuff

The aim of this study was to determine whether the age of broilers can influence their response to tannin-rich diets. A total of 340 one-day-old mixed sex Ross 308 broiler chicks were distributed among five experimental groups with four replicates and 17 birds each in a completely randomized design. A high-tannin feedstuff, Oak acorn, was included into diets (at a level of 25%) and fed to birds at different stages of the rearing period. The control group was fed a corn-based diet (without Oak acorn) for the entirety of the study, while the other four groups were fed diets containing Oak acorn during one of the following periods: starter (d 1 to 21), finisher (d 22 to 42), last five weeks (d 8 to 42), or total period of the experiment (d 1 to 42). We found that performance traits (feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio) and tibia characteristics were similar among the control group and groups fed Oak acorn during the starter and finisher periods. However, feeding chicks with Oak acorn from 8 to 42 or 1 to 42 d of age significantly reduced overall body weight gain and increased overall feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05). Tibia characteristics were also negatively affected in chicks that received Oak acorn during the last 5 weeks and entire period of the experiment (P < 0.05). In addition, birds fed Oak acorn had higher liver weights at 21 d of age (P < 0.05). In conclusion, broilers response to dietary tannins is influenced by age. Oak acorn could be successfully included in broiler diets during the starter or finisher stages up to 25% without adverse effects on performance and tibia characteristics. In contrast, chronic inclusion of Oak acorn (5 or 6 weeks) decreases growth performance and may have deleterious effect on tibia characteristics

Intravenous acetaminophen is superior to ketamine for postoperative pain after abdominal hysterectomy: results of a prospective, randomized, double-blind, multicenter clinical trial

Hamid Reza Faiz,1 Poupak Rahimzadeh,1 Ognjen Visnjevac,2 Behzad Behzadi,1 Mohammad Reza Ghodraty,1 Nader D Nader2 1Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 2VA Western NY Healthcare System, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA Background: In recent years, intravenously (IV) administered acetaminophen has become one of the most common perioperative analgesics. Despite its now-routine use, IV acetaminophen&#39;s analgesic comparative efficacy has never been compared with that of ketamine, a decades-old analgesic familiar to obstetricians, gynecologists, and anesthesiologists alike. This double-blind clinical trial aimed to evaluate the analgesic effects of ketamine and IV acetaminophen on postoperative pain after abdominal hysterectomy. Methods: Eighty women aged 25&ndash;70 years old and meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly allocated into two groups of 40 to receive either IV acetaminophen or ketamine intraoperatively. Postoperatively, each patient had patient-controlled analgesia. Pain and sedation (Ramsay Sedation Scale) were documented based on the visual analog scale in the recovery room and at 4 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours after the surgery. Hemodynamic changes, adverse medication effects, and the need for breakthrough meperidine were also recorded for both groups. Data were analyzed by repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: Visual analog scale scores were significantly lower in the IV acetaminophen group at each time point (P&lt;0.05), and this group required significantly fewer doses of breakthrough analgesics compared with the ketamine group (P=0.039). The two groups had no significant differences in terms of adverse effects. Conclusion: Compared with ketamine, IV acetaminophen significantly improved postoperative pain after abdominal hysterectomy. Keywords: intravenous acetaminophen, abdominal hysterectomy, ketamine, analgesia, postoperative pai

Advances in prostaglandin and thromboxane research

Farmers are the key actors of land-use change processes. It is thus essential to choose a suitable architecture for farmer behavior to model such processes. In this paper, we compared three models with different architectures to model the farmer behavior in the coastal areas of the Ben Tre province: (i) The first one is a probabilistic model that allows farmer to select the land-use pattern based on land change probability; (ii) The second model is based on multi-criteria decision making and takes into account the land suitability of the parcel and the farmer benefit; (iii) The third model used a BDI (Beliefs - Desires - Intentions) architecture. For each of these models, we have compared the difference between simulated data and real data by using the Fuzzy Kappa coefficient. The results show the suitability of the BDI architecture to build land-use change model and to support decision-making on land-use planning

Arrow plot for selecting genes in a microarray experiment: An explorative study

Genetic expression analysis is essential for the identification of gene functions and take even more importance when they are directly related with diseases. For the performing of a large-scale study of changes in gene expression it is necessary to find a method to do it with precision and accuracy. Thus, the analysis by the microarray technology is an important tool in the diagnosis of diseases. An important role of the analysis of microarray data involves the determination of which genes could be differentially expressed (DE) across two or more kind of tissue samples. The traditional methods to detect DE genes are generally based on simple measures of distances and could failed in this classification. In this work it is explored a new tool proposed by Silva-Fortes [21] that overcome this difficulty, the arrow plot. This tool is also compared with other methods mostly used to this purpose. The arrow plot is a graphical tool based on two measures of distances between two probability density functions: the overlapping coefficient (OVL) between two densities and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), for each gene of a microarray experience. For illustrative purpose we will use a dataset of pancreatic adenocar-cinoma. All computation will be done in R software.This work was supported by FCT - (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio