Effect of vitamin B12 addition to extenders on some physicochemical parameters of semen in crossbred rams

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of different doses of vitamin B12 on some physicochemical parameters and antioxidtive enzyme activities in crossbreed rams semen during storage at 5°C. Semen samples were collected from eight crossbreed rams, evaluated and pooled at 33°C. Fresh semen was diluted with a Tris-based extender containing 0, 1, 2 and 3 mg/mL vitamin B12 and was cooled at 5°C. In both genetic group, the extender supplemented with vitamin B12 (1, 2 and 3 mg/mL) led to higher motility percentages than control group. While, the addition of 2 mg/mL vitamin B12 into the semen extenders led to higher viability sperm, in comparison to control group. In Ghezel × Baluchi genotype, the percentage of spermatozoa abnormality was reduced with vitamin B12 when compared with control group. Supplementation with vitamin B12 improved significantly sperm membrane integrity in both genotypes. Addition of vitamin B12 did not cause significant differences in the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) when compared with the control group in both genotypes. In the current study, the addition of 2 mg/mL of vitamin B12 (as an antioxidant) to extender had higher SOD activities than the other groups in both genetic groups. In conclusion, vitamin B12 supplementation in semen extender benefit the motility and viability of crossbreed ram sperm.Key words: Antioxidant, crossbreed ram, semen parameters, sperm, crossbreed ram

Molecular cloning of S1 glycoprotein gene of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) serotype 793/B in secretory Pichia pastoris vector

In vitro protein expression is an important method of obtaining large amounts of viral proteins to investigate their biological properties. The S1 glycoprotein of infectious bronchitis virus, due to its effective immune-dominant role is an appropriate candidate for production of recombinant vaccine against infectious bronchitis disease. In this study, the S1 gene fragment of infectious bronchitis virus strain793/B was amplified using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and purified. Itwas then cloned into pPICZαA a secretory expression vector of Pichia pastoris. The insertion was proved by PCR analysis and isolation of gene from construct by restriction enzymes and finally, it was sequenced. After the expression of S1 gene in P. pastoris expression system, it was found that it could be used in the production of recombinant vaccines against infectious bronchitis disease. Keywords: Infectious bronchitis, S1 glycoprotein, cloning, Pichia pastori

Multicast Network Design Game on a Ring

In this paper we study quality measures of different solution concepts for the multicast network design game on a ring topology. We recall from the literature a lower bound of 4/3 and prove a matching upper bound for the price of stability, which is the ratio of the social costs of a best Nash equilibrium and of a general optimum. Therefore, we answer an open question posed by Fanelli et al. in [12]. We prove an upper bound of 2 for the ratio of the costs of a potential optimizer and of an optimum, provide a construction of a lower bound, and give a computer-assisted argument that it reaches $2$ for any precision. We then turn our attention to players arriving one by one and playing myopically their best response. We provide matching lower and upper bounds of 2 for the myopic sequential price of anarchy (achieved for a worst-case order of the arrival of the players). We then initiate the study of myopic sequential price of stability and for the multicast game on the ring we construct a lower bound of 4/3, and provide an upper bound of 26/19. To the end, we conjecture and argue that the right answer is 4/3.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

The effect of antioxidant supplementation in semen extenders on semen quality and lipid peroxidation of chilled bull spermatozoa

Summary The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the antioxidants superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) on microscopic semen parameters and lipid peroxidation following the freeze-thawing of bull semen. Ejaculates were collected from five Holstein bulls and pooled at 37°C. The semen samples were diluted with a CEY extender containing additives including 100 U and 200 U SOD/ml, 50 U or 100 U GPx/ml and an extender containing no antioxidants (control) and stored in liquid nitrogen. The pooled ejaculates were then diluted with CEY or a Tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (TRIS)-based extender (TEY) alone or with added 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 or 4.0 mM BHT, and the routine semen evaluation was conducted. The lowest production of malondialdehyde (MDA) was obtained by addition of 100 U SOD/ml, 0.5 and 1 mM BHT to CEY extender compared with the other groups. Sperm viability and motility was significantly higher when 0.5, 1 mM BHT and 100 U SOD/ml were added in CEY extender. The highest sperm viability was achieved by addition of 50 U GPx/ml to CEY extender. In addition, sperm motility was significantly higher in samples extended in Tris-egg yolk (TEY) with 0.5 mM BHT compared with the control group. The results suggest that CEY extender can be improved with the addition of SOD and BHT

A Supervised Approach to Predict the Hierarchical Structure of Conversation Threads for Comments

User-generated texts such as comments in social media are rich sources of information. In general, the reply structure of comments is not publicly accessible on the web. Websites present comments as a list in chronological order. This way, some information is lost. A solution for this problem is to reconstruct the thread structure (RTS) automatically. RTS predicts a semantic tree for the reply structure, useful for understanding users’ behaviours and facilitating follow of the actual conversation streams. This paper works on RTS task in blogs, online news agencies, and news websites. These types of websites cover various types of articles reflecting the real-world events. People with different views participate in arguments by writing comments. Comments express opinions, sentiments, or ideas about articles. The reply structure of threads in these types of websites is basically different from threads in the forums, chats, and emails. To perform RTS, we define a set of textual and nontextual features. Then, we use supervised learning to combine these features. The proposed method is evaluated on five different datasets. The accuracy of the proposed method is compared with baselines. The results reveal higher accuracy for our method in comparison with baselines in all datasets

Bebek süvari

Tercüman-ı Hakikat'te yayımlanan Bebek Süvari adlı romanın ilk ve son tefrikalarıTefrikada yazarın adı belirtilmemiştir.Tefrikanın Almancadan çevrildiği belirtilmiştir

A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

Effects of Artemia parthenogenetica culturing on socioeconomic development of the eastern marginal lands, Qom Salt Lake

Saltwater resources with Artemia (Brine shrimp) are the important ecosystems in Semi-arid Areas. That can play an important role in sustaining the economic and social system. Alternatively, will ensure that economic and social issues with of continuity and sustainability of these ecosystems resident. This study carried out "Effects of Artemia parthenogenetica culturing on socio-economic development of the eastern marginal lands, Qom Salt Lake" that was ordered by Qom province general directorate of fisheries during the 2012-2013. According to previous studies, despite the potential of human resources and Social conditions for the development of economic activities, factors such as the low groundwater and drying the salt lake , lack of fresh water in the region, environmental problems , successive droughts, prioritize and rationalize water use in agriculture, Artemia cyst harvest or Artemia culture has made virtually impossible with the current situation and has deprived the tools to make investments for the construction of earthen ponds and exploitation of native Artemia in the eastern margin of the Qom lake . Also, due to the occurrence of the Lake in the national park and privacy protection and Prohibited areas of environmental protection organization, it seems unlikely that this organization grant approval agreement required for any exploitation

[(18)F] fluoromisonidazole and [(18)F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in response evaluation after chemo-/radiotherapy of non-small-cell lung cancer: a feasibility study

BACKGROUND: Experimental and clinical evidence suggest that hypoxia in solid tumours reduces their sensitivity to conventional treatment modalities modulating response to ionizing radiation or chemotherapeutic agents. The aim of the present study was to show the feasibility of determining radiotherapeutically relevant hypoxia and early tumour response by ([(18)F] Fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) and [(18)F]-2-fluoro-2'-deoxyglucose (FDG) PET. METHODS: Eight patients with non-small-cell lung cancer underwent PET scans. Tumour tissue oxygenation was measured with FMISO PET, whereas tumour glucose metabolism was measured with FDG PET. All PET studies were carried out with an ECAT EXACT 922/47(® )scanner with an axial field of view of 16.2 cm. FMISO PET consisted of one static scan of the relevant region, performed 180 min after intravenous administration of the tracer. The acquisition and reconstruction parameters were as follows: 30 min emission scanning and 4 min transmission scanning with 68-Ge/68-Ga rod sources. The patients were treated with chemotherapy, consisting of 2 cycles of gemcitabine (1200 mg/m(2)) and vinorelbine (30 mg/m(2)) followed by concurrent radio- (2.0 Gy/d; total dose 66.0 Gy) and chemotherapy with gemcitabine (300–500 mg/m(2)) every two weeks. FMISO PET and FDG PET were performed in all patients 3 days before and 14 days after finishing chemotherapy. RESULTS: FMISO PET allowed for the qualitative and quantitative definition of hypoxic sub-areas which may correspond to a localization of local recurrences. In addition, changes in FMISO and FDG PET measure the early response to therapy, and in this way, may predict freedom from disease, as well as overall survival. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results warrant validation in larger trials. If confirmed, several novel treatment strategies may be considered, including the early use of PET to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected therapy