Sound analysis to predict the growth of Turkeys

Protocols for manual weighing of turkeys are not practical on turkey farms because of the large body sizes, heavy weights and flighty nature of turkeys. The sounds turkeys make may be a proxy for bird weights, but the relationship between turkey sounds and bird weights has not been studied. The aim of this study was to correlate peak frequency (PF) of vocalization with the age and weight of the bird and examine the possibility using PF to predict the weight of turkeys. The study consisted of four trials in Egypt. Sounds of birds and their weights were recorded for 11 days during the growth period in each trial. A total 2200 sounds were manually analyzed and labelled by extracting individual and general sounds on the basis of the amplitude and frequency of the sound signal. The PF of vocalizations in each trial, as well as in pooled trails, were evaluated to determine the relationship between PF and the age and weight of the turkey. PF exhibited a highly significant negative correlation with the weight and age of the turkeys showing that PF of vocalizations can be used for predicting the weight of turkeys. Further studies are necessary to refine the procedure

The Lysozyme Inhibitor Thionine Acetate Is Also an Inhibitor of the Soluble Lytic Transglycosylase Slt35 from Escherichia coli

Lytic transglycosylases such as Slt35 from E. coli are enzymes involved in bacterial cell wall remodelling and recycling, which represent potential targets for novel antibacterial agents. Here, we investigated a series of known glycosidase inhibitors for their ability to inhibit Slt35. While glycosidase inhibitors such as 1-deoxynojirimycin, castanospermine, thiamet G and miglitol had no effect, the phenothiazinium dye thionine acetate was found to be a weak inhibitor. IC50 values and binding constants for thionine acetate were similar for Slt35 and the hen egg white lysozyme. Molecular docking simulations suggest that thionine binds to the active site of both Slt35 and lysozyme, although it does not make direct interactions with the side-chain of the catalytic Asp and Glu residues as might be expected based on other inhibitors. Thionine acetate also increased the potency of the beta-lactam antibiotic ampicillin against a laboratory strain of E. coli

Protein motions and dynamic effects in enzyme catalysis

The role of protein motions in promoting the chemical step of enzyme catalysed reactions remains a subject of considerable debate. Here, a unified view of the role of protein dynamics in dihydrofolate reductase catalysis is described. Recently the role of such motions has been investigated by characterising the biophysical properties of isotopically substituted enzymes through a combination of experimental and computational analyses. Together with previous work, these results suggest that dynamic coupling to the chemical coordinate is detrimental to catalysis and may have been selected against during DHFR evolution. The full catalytic power of Nature's catalysts appears to depend on finely tuning protein motions in each step of the catalytic cycle

Loop Interactions during Catalysis by Dihydrofolate Reductase fromMoritella profunda

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is often used as a model system to study the relation between protein dynamics and catalysis. We have studied a number of variants of the cold-adapted DHFR from Moritella profunda (MpDHFR), in which the catalytically important M20 and FG loops have been altered, and present a comparison with the corresponding variants of the wellstudied DHFR from Escherichia coli (EcDHFR). Mutations in the M20 loop do not affect the actual chemical step of transfer of hydride from reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate to the substrate 7,8-dihydrofolate in the catalytic cycle in either enzyme; they affect the steady state turnover rate in EcDHFR but not in MpDHFR. Mutations in the FG loop also have different effects on catalysis by the two DHFRs. Despite the two enzymes most likely sharing a common catalytic cycle at pH 7, motions of these loops, known to be important for progression through the catalytic cycle in EcDHFR, appear not to play a significant role in MpDHFR

Genome-wide association study for systemic lupus erythematosus in an egyptian population

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility has a strong genetic component. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) across trans-ancestral populations show both common and distinct genetic variants of susceptibility across European and Asian ancestries, while many other ethnic populations remain underexplored. We conducted the first SLE GWAS on Egyptians–an admixed North African/Middle Eastern population–using 537 patients and 883 controls. To identify novel susceptibility loci and replicate previously known loci, we performed imputation-based association analysis with 6,382,276 SNPs while accounting for individual admixture. We validated the association analysis using adaptive permutation tests (n = 109). We identified a novel genome-wide significant locus near IRS1/miR-5702 (Pcorrected = 1.98 × 10−8) and eight novel suggestive loci (Pcorrected 0.8) with lead SNPs from four suggestive loci (ARMC9, DIAPH3, IFLDT1, and ENTPD3) were associated with differential gene expression (3.5 × 10−95 < p < 1.0 × 10−2) across diverse tissues. These loci are involved in cellular proliferation and invasion—pathways prominent in lupus and nephritis. Our study highlights the utility of GWAS in an admixed Egyptian population for delineating new genetic associations and for understanding SLE pathogenesis

Efficacy of pulsed electromagnetic field on hemarthrotic knee in haemophilic adolescence

Background: Haemophilia is a hereditary coagulopathy disease affecting males. It is characterized by musculoskeletal bleeding, leading to chronic synovitis and severe joint hemarthrosis. Objective: To determine the impact of pulsed electro- magnetic field on swelling, range of motion and muscle strength of hemarthrotic knee joints of haemophilic adolescents. Participants and Methodology: Thirty haemophilic adolescent males ranging in age between thirteen and sixteen years who fulfilled the inclusion criteria participated in this study. They were assigned randomly into two groups of equal numbers A (control) and B (study). Groups A and B received a specific program of physical therapy for sixty minutes, in addition, group A received a placebo pulsed electromagnetic field for twenty minutes, while group B received pulsed electromagnetic field for twenty minutes. The treatment program was applied three days/week for three successive months. Evaluation of knee swelling using tape measurement, range of motion using electronic goniometer and muscle strength using isokinetic dynamometer was conducted for each patient of groups A and B before and after treatment. Results: Significant improvement was observed in the post-treatment mean values of the measuring variables of groups A and B when compared with their pre-treatment results (p < .05). High significant improvement was observed in group B when comparing the post-treatment results of groups, A and B (p < .05). Conclusions: Pulsed electromagnetic field is an effective modality which can be used with the traditional methods for treatment of knee hemarthrosis in haemophilic adolescents

Evaluation of loss of heterozygosity of chromosome 22q11.21 region in patients with congenital heart diseases

The 22q11.21 region is prone to low-copy repeats events that lead to congenital anomaly disorders. We tested genomic DNA of 20 families with non-syndromic CHD patients using a set of three known consecutive high polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) markers along the 22q11.21 region; D22S941, D22S944 and D22S264 loci. We found loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in D22S941 locus in 2 out of 20 families (10%) with 2 offspring affected by ASD combined with PS and TOF respectively. No LOH found in D22S944 and D22S264 loci either in affected cases or control group and no LOH found in D22S941 in the control group. Also we observed that D22S944 locus prone to be less allele diversity than D22S941 and D22S264 loci. Keywords: 22q11.21 Microdeletion, Congenital heart defects, STR marker