Acid fast staining in formalin-fixed tissue specimen of patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis

Diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is difficult owing to low number of bacilli in the specimens, lack of adequate sample and non-uniform distribution of bacteria in tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) staining in biopsy specimens with typical granulomatous inflammation in patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis and some related predictors.This study included 226 tissue biopsies of patients with EPTB showing typical granulomatous inflammation. Ziehl-Neelsen staining was performed for acid fast bacilli on paraffin embedded sections of tissue blocks. The most common site of involvement was pleura followed by vertebral and lymph nodes. Past history of pulmonary tuberculosis was positive in 46% of patients. The overall AFB positivity in specimens was 26.1%. The most positivity was in pleural TB (35.2%) and the least was in bone and joints TB (4.8%). There was significant association between site of involvement and AFB positivity (p=0.042). In multivariate logistic regression model, previous history of pulmonary tuberculosis was strongly associated with AFB positivity. Our study showed somewhat higher rate of smear positivity for acid fast bacilli in tissue specimen with typical pathology in some types of EPTB especially in patients with history of pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite low sensitivity, this method should be performed in patients suspected to EPTB especially in developing counties where new modality is not routinely available

Effects of organic fertilisers and compost extracts on organic tomato production

The effects of various fertilizers and different compost extracts on crop health and tomato yield were studied in the field in 2004–2005 in two locations in Iran. Treatments included different fertilizers (cattle, sheep and chicken manures, green waste and household composts and chemical fertilizers) and five aqueous extracts (from cattle manure, chicken manure, green-waste and house-hold composts and water as control). The effect of fertilizer type on tomato yield was significant in both locations (P < 0.05). Organic fertilizer use did not obtain higher yields compared to using chemical fertiliser. Generally, chicken manure and green-waste compost led to the highest and lowest tomato yield among different organic fertilizers, respectively. The effect of aqueous extracts was not significant on either crop health or tomato yield with these results were being very limited and inconsistent. Improved efficacy of acceptable alternatives to agrochemicals, especially in organic farming, is required

Replacing of live food with artificial diet on growth and survival rates of white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) larvae

Replacing live food with artificial diets in aquatic larviculture, especially in shrimp larvae not only is caused convenience feeding, but also in economical view is very important. With this object, in this survey, a density of 100.L -1 white leg shrimp larvae in 9 nutritional treatments each with three replicates were cultured in 20L tanks each one was held with 10L of 30% salty water using one air stone. The larvae were fed 4 times.day-1 with different diets, including live foods (Cheatoceros gracilis and Artemia nauplii), artificial diets (handmade and imported) and different combinations. The results showed that the growth rate and survival percentage in larvae fed with combination feed treatments, were more desirable than those fed with food and feed treatments and feeding with homemade and imported feeds alone, raised high mortality in shrimp larvae during the experiment. Also, it was denoted that even if the zoea larvae has been fed with live food, feeding with 100% artificial diets for the resting larviculture period won't be possible because of decreasing significantly in growth rate, total length and survival percent of shrimp larvae, compare to the other treatments. In addition, replacing partly of live food with artificial diet without adverse affects on growth and survival rates of white leg shrimp larvae will be possible and the observation supported that the handmade feed with given formulation, had more suitable results comparing to the imported one for mixing with live food economically. Therefore, we recommend that a mixture the formulated diet and algae plus Artemia nauplii is used for culturing white shrimp larvae

Stringy Instantons in SU(N) N=2 Non-Conformal Gauge Theories

In this paper we explicitly obtain the leading corrections to the SU(N) N=2 prepotential due to stringy instantons both in flat space-time and in the presence of a non-trivial graviphoton background field. We show that the stringy corrections to the prepotential are expressible in terms of the elementary symmetric polynomials. For N>2 the theory is not conformal; we discuss the introduction of an explicit dependence on the string scale \alpha' in the low-energy effective action through the stringy non-perturbative sector.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur

Altered pituitary hormone secretion in male rats exposed to Bisphenol A

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a xenobiotic estrogenic compound. This compound has been suspected to have estrogenic effects on reproductive system of males and females. In this present study we investigated possible low-dose effects of BPAon Luteinizing Hormone in rats. Male Wistar rats (12-13 weeks old) were administrated a daily intra peritoneal 10 μg/kgbw/day, 50 μg/kgbw/day, 100 μg/kgbw/ day dose of BPA for 6, 6, and 12 days, and one day after last injection, serum level of Luteinizing Hormone was examined by ELISA method. All data were expressed as means ± SE. Two-way ANOVA was performed. Analysis of data showed that in all dose groups, plasma level of Luteinizing Hormone significantly decreased compared to control group. The present study showed that BPA at low doses affects Luteinizing Hormone, one of main hormones in spermatogenesis in the adult Wistar rats, and subsequently alters the steroidgenesis in testicular Leydig cells

Spawning season and fecundity of Sepia pharaonis In Bushehr coastal waters (Persian Gulf)

Fecundity rate and spawning season for cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis), a commercially important species in Busheher coastal waters were studied from December 2007 to May 2008. We collected 142 specimens and after their sexuality were 18 males, 3 immatures, 16 first stage pieces, 14 second stage pieces and 91 pieces in third and fourth stages. The assesse d biological characteristics such as: Mantle length, weight of total body, Nidam ental gland, weight of head, weight of ovary and fecundity rate. We recorded 201 .8 plus or minus 6.8mm for mean, 280mm for maximum and 115mm for minimum mantle length. The mean body total weight was 895.8 plus or minus 143g, and the maximum was 2098g, while its mini mum was 241.13g. The mean, maximum and minimum Nidamental gland weight was 41.1 ± 18.6, 126.8, and 0.2g, respectively. For the relationship between mantle length (ML, mm) and fecundity we found the linear regression equation: Fecundity = -6 30.68+5.22ML. The mean, maximum and minimum fecundity rate was 494 plus or minus 131, 1246 and 178, respectively. The results of this study showed spawning season for Sepia pharaonis in the coastal waters of Busheher Province to be from the end of February to the end of June

Comparison of survival and larvae physiological resistance of white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, fed with live food (rotifer and Artemia urmiana) and concentrated food

Anemia nauplii and rotifier are considered as the most important live food in aquaculture because of their high nutritional quality, suitable size and mobility. The survival rate and resistance of white shrimp (Litopenaus vannamei) postlarvae fed by Artemia urmiana, Brachinus plicatilis and concentrated food were investigated. Larvae at the stage of Protozoae 1 were stocked in 14 liters plastic containers filled by 6 liters of water. There were 75 larvae per liter in each container. The larvae were fed in 3 treatments: T1 (rotifier), T2 (Artemia) and T3 (concentrated food). Each treatment was repeated 3 times and used during Protozoae 1 (PLC} to Post-larvae 5 (PLO stages. Data analysis was done through Duncan Test. We observed that from Mysis 1 stage to PL1 the rotifier can be used for shrimp feeding and from this stage to PL5, Artemia nauplii can be used as food for the larvae. To evaluate the quality of larvae, the physiological resistance tests were conducted against formalin and salinity in different periods of time (30, 60 and 90 minutes). We found that at the PLC stage, the maximum survival (100%) in formalin tests (I 0Oppm) and (200ppm) and salinity test (15ppt) was related to feeding the shrimp larvae with rotifier. However, at the PL5 stage, the maximum survival (100%) under the same conditions was related to application of Artemia nauplii food. The concentrated food showed the minimum survival in all tests