Does Vitamin E or Vitamin E plus Selenium improve reproductive performance of rams during hot weather

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Vitamin E (Vit E) and Selenium (Se) on semen quality, sexual activity, packed cell volume (PCV), and white blood cell counts (WBC) of Awassi rams during the hot season. Twelve Awassi rams were subdivided into three groups and treated for 90 days. Rams in the 1st group (T1) were treated twice weekly with 175 mg/ram vitamin E at intervals of 12h; rams in the 2nd group (T2) were treated on the same schedule with 70 mg/ram vitamin E plus 2800 mg selenium; and rams in 3rd group (T3) served as controls. Sperm quality (percentage of motile cells and percentage of morphologically normal cells) and quantity (sperm volume, and concentration) were recorded weekly. Sexual activity was tested by using the pen libido test at monthly intervals. Blood samples were taken before treatment and after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd months. Semen quality was significantly affected by treatments: the ejaculate volume increased in T2 vs T1, and T3; mass activity and individual motility were increased in T1 and T2 vs T3. Sperm concentration was increased in T2 and T1 vs T3, and the percentage of dead and abnormal spermatozoa was reduced in T1 and T2 vs T3, though the differences were not statistically significant. Pen libido test showed reduced reaction time for the first mount in the 1st month in T2 and T1 vs T3. The number of serves was increased in groups T1 and T2 vs T3. There were no significant differences in PCV among groups. After 3 months from the beginning of treatments, the percentage of lymphocytes increased in T1 and T2 vs. T3, while the percentage of neutrophils was reduced in T2 vs T3 in the 2nd and 3rd months. The results of this experiment indicate that treatments with vitamin E alone or in combination with selenium improved semen characteristics and reproductive performance of Awassi rams during the hot season

Effects of fibre and non-fibre carbohydrate and level of intake on microbial protein yield in Sarda sheep

Three studies using Sarda dairy sheep in dry, mid-lactation and late-lactation were carried out. Forty ewes for each physiological stage were fed 8 complete pelleted diets, which differed from each other in NDF and NFC content and source. Based on their main ingredient, diets were denominated: corn meal (CM), wheat middlings (WM), corn flakes (CF), barley meal (BM), corn cobs (CC), beet pulp (BP), alfalfa (AA), and soybean hulls (SH). In each study, rumen microbial protein (MCP) synthesis was estimated measuring urinary purine derivatives. In dry sheep, MCP synthesis was not affected by diet, while in mid- and late-lactation sheep dietary effects were observed. In mid-lactation, the highest MCP production was found for BM and BP (171 and 166 g/d, respectively), while the lowest was observed with AA (63 g/d). In late-lactation, the highest MCP yield (146 g/d) was observed in BP, while the lowest were for SH and CM. MCP synthesis, for each diet, was higher in mid-lactation than in latelactation, which in turn were higher than in the dry period. Dry matter intake (DMI) was positively associated to MCP. The MCP synthesis was best predicted by dietary energy (NEL) or digestible organic matter intake (dOMI)

Current treatment strategies for seasonal allergic rhinitis: where are we heading?

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is very commonly caused by pollens. The symptoms of AR consist of sneezing, nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, nasal itching and airflow obstruction. The diagnosis has long been based on clinical history, skin prick tests and in vitro measurement of specific IgE, but the innovative approach of precision medicine has made diagnostic tools of much greater accuracy available

Early loss of blood-brain barrier integrity precedes NOX2 elevation in the prefrontal cortex of an animal model of psychosis

The social isolation rearing of young adult rats is a model of psychosocial stress and provides a nonpharmacological tool to study alterations reminiscent of symptoms seen in psychosis. We have previously demonstrated that social isolation in rats leads to increased oxidative stress and to cerebral NOX2 elevations. Here, we investigated early alterations in mRNA expression leading to increased NOX2 in the brain. Rats were exposed to a short period of social isolation (1 week) and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for mRNA expression of genes involved in blood-brain barrier (BBB) formation and integrity (ORLs, Vof 21 and Vof 16, Leng8, Vnr1, and Trank 1 genes) was performed. Real-time PCR experiments, immunohistochemistry, and Western blotting analysis showed an increased expression of these genes and related proteins in isolated rats with respect to control animals. The expression of specific markers of BBB integrity, such as matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2), matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), occludin 1, and plasmalemmal vesicle associated protein-1 (PV-1), was also significantly altered after 1 week of social isolation. BBB permeability, evaluated by quantification of Evans blue dye extravasation, as well as interstitial fluid, was significantly increased in rats isolated for 1 week with respect to controls. Isolation-induced BBB disruption was also accompanied by a significant increase of Interleukin 6 (IL-6) expression. Conversely, no differences in NOX2 levels were detected at this time point. Our study demonstrates that BBB disruption precedes NOX2 elevations in the brain. These results provide new insights in the interplay of mechanisms linking psychosocial stress to early oxidative stress in the brain, disruption of the BBB, and the development of mental disorders

Does Vitamin E or Vitamin E plus Selenium improve reproductive performance of rams during hot weather?

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Vitamin E (Vit E) and Selenium (Se) on semen quality, sexual activity, packed cell volume (PCV), and white blood cell counts (WBC) of Awassi rams during the hot season. Twelve Awassi rams were subdivided into three groups and treated for 90 days. Rams in the 1st group (T1) were treated twice weekly with 175 mg/ram vitamin E at intervals of 12h; rams in the 2nd group (T2) were treated on the same schedule with 70 mg/ram vitamin E plus 2800 mg selenium; and rams in 3rd group (T3) served as controls. Sperm quality (percentage of motile cells and percentage of morphologically normal cells) and quantity (sperm volume, and concentration) were recorded weekly. Sexual activity was tested by using the pen libido test at monthly intervals. Blood samples were taken before treatment and after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd months. Semen quality was significantly affected by treatments: the ejaculate volume increased in T2 vs T1, and T3; mass activity and individual motility were increased in T1 and T2 vs T3. Sperm concentration was increased in T2 and T1 vs T3, and the percentage of dead and abnormal spermatozoa was reduced in T1 and T2 vs T3, though the differences were not statistically significant. Pen libido test showed reduced reaction time for the first mount in the 1st month in T2 and T1 vs T3. The number of serves was increased in groups T1 and T2 vs T3. There were no significant differences in PCV among groups. After 3 months from the beginning of treatments, the percentage of lymphocytes increased in T1 and T2 vs. T3, while the percentage of neutrophils was reduced in T2 vs T3 in the 2nd and 3rd months. The results of this experiment indicate that treatments with vitamin E alone or in combination with selenium improved semen characteristics and reproductive performance of Awassi rams during the hot season

A survey of clinical features of allergic rhinitis in adults

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) has high prevalence and substantial socio-economic burden. Material/Methods: The study included 35 Italian Centers recruiting an overall number of 3383 adult patients with rhinitis (48% males, 52% females, mean age 29.1, range 18–45 years). For each patient, the attending physician had to fill in a standardized questionnaire, covering, in particular, some issues such as the ARIA classification of allergic rhinitis (AR), the results of skin prick test (SPT), the kind of treatment, the response to treatment, and the satisfaction with treatment. Results: Out of the 3383 patients with rhinitis, 2788 (82.4%) had AR: 311 (11.5%) had a mild intermittent, 229 (8.8%) a mild persistent, 636 (23.5%) a moderate-severe intermittent, and 1518 (56.1%) a moderate-severe persistent form. The most frequently used drugs were oral antihistamines (77.1%) and topical corticosteroids (60.8%). The response to treatment was judged as excellent in 12.2%, good in 41.3%, fair in 31.2%, poor in 14.5%, and very bad in 0.8% of subjects. The rate of treatment dissatisfaction was significantly higher in patients with moderate-to-severe AR than in patients with mild AR (p<0.0001). Indication to allergen immunotherapy (AIT) was significantly more frequent (p<0.01) in patients with severe AR than with mild AR. Conclusions: These findings confirm the appropriateness of ARIA guidelines in classifying the AR patients and the association of severe symptoms with unsuccessful drug treatment. The optimal targeting of patients to be treated with AIT needs to be reassessed

Flexible Physical Unclonable Functions based on non-deterministically distributed Dye-Doped Fibers and Droplets

The development of new anti-counterfeiting solutions is a constant challenge and involves several research fields. Much interest is devoted to systems that are impossible to clone, based on the Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) paradigm. In this work, new strategies based on electrospinning and electrospraying of dye-doped polymeric materials are presented for the manufacturing of flexible free-standing films that embed different PUF keys. Films can be used to fabricate anticounterfeiting labels having three encryption levels: i) a map of fluorescent polymer droplets, with non deterministic positions on a dense yarn of polymer nanofibers; ii) a characteristic fluorescence spectrum for each label; iii) a challenge-response pairs (CRPs) identification protocol based on the strong nature of the physical unclonable function. The intrinsic uniqueness introduced by the deposition techniques encodes enough complexity into the optical anti-counterfeiting tag to generate thousands of cryptographic keys. The simple and cheap fabrication process as well as the multilevel authentication makes such colored polymeric unclonable tags a practical solution in the secure protection of merchandise in our daily life

Volatile organic compounds: instrumental and canine detections link an individual to the crime scene

Background: Whenever a crime is committed, forensic personnel are requested to collect every kind of evidence to establish the relationship between the suspects and the crime. When any evidence is accidentally destroyed or not found, there is one type of latent evidence that is always deposited at the crime scene: unique human scent. Recently, the use of trained canines to detect selective human scent at a crime scene has increased. To consolidate this kind of evidence, it is essential to have an exact knowledge and an awareness of the chemical signature of the volatile compounds that could indicate the presence of the alleged offender at the crime scene. This experimental study aims to detect the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from subjects who handled scent-articles to imprint their odor on. After handling, each scent-article was wrapped in sterile and VOC-free cotton gauzes for 48 h for secondary transfer. VOCs were detected by headspace/solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS/SPME-GC/MS) and well-trained dogs, at different time points (up to 15 days). Furthermore, the possibility of further DNA detection after contact was also investigated to propose a novel approach able to identify a subject from this latent forensic trace. Results: Data show that inter-individual human scent composition includes different VOCs, but dogs were able to discriminate the individual who touched the object at the crime scene. The dog training procedure showed excellent sensitivity (between 99.48 and 100%) and specificity (between 60 and 100%), having a positive predictive value (PPV) ranging between 97.94 and 100% and a negative predictive value (NPV) ranging between 85.71 and 100%. Preliminary work on DNA analysis released after contact yielded positive results, even if further studies are necessary, expanding the same experimentation to a larger sample with the aim of obtaining a statistically significant result. Conclusion: Data show that human scent is a good source of VOCs and a good target for canine training. The well-trained dog represents a specialized biological device able to discriminate personal human odor from any contaminants in the mixture detected by instrumental analysis. Furthermore, this study proposes the use of human scent as a forensic latent trace for DNA profiling

Characterization and Test of a Data Acquisition System for PET

A small Positron Emission Tomography demonstrator based on LYSO slabs and Silicon Photomultiplier matrices is under construction at the University and INFN of Pisa. In this paper we present the characterization results of the read-out electronics and of the detection system. Two SiPM matrices, composed by 8 × 8 SiPM pixels, 1.5 mm pitch, have been coupled one to one to a LYSO crystals array. Custom Front-End ASICs were used to read the 64 channels of each matrix. Data from each Front-End were multiplexed and sent to a DAQ board for the digital conversion; a motherboard collects the data and communicates with a host computer through a USB port. Specific tests were carried out on the system in order to assess its performance. Futhermore we have measured some of the most important parameters of the system for PET application