Histological changes of the adult albino rats entorhinal cortex under the effect of tramadol administration: Histological and morphometric study

Background: Tramadol is a centrally acting synthetic analgesic agent with opioid activity. Tramadol is used to treat moderate to severe pain. The entorhinal cortex has initially attracted attention because of its strong reciprocal connections with the hippocampal formation and its involvement in certain brain disorders.Aim of work: The present study was designed to assess the deleterious effects of tramadol on the entorhinal cortex of the adult male albino rats.Materials and methods: The study was carried out on 40 adult male rats. The rats were divided equally into two groups: control group, received 1 ml normal saline 0.9% intraperitoneally for 4 weeks. Treated group received 50 mg/kg/day of tramadol intraperitoneally for 4 weeks. All animals were anaesthetized by ether inhalation and perfused by normal saline. The brains were extracted from the skulls. For light microscopy, the brains of 10 animals in each group were processed for paraffin sections and stained by Gallocyanine stain. For electron microscopy, the entorhinal cortex was dissected in 10 brains of each group and processed. Semithin sections were prepared and stained with toluidine blue. Morphometric and statistical studies were performed.Results: By light microscopy, the treated groups showed neuronal cells disorganization. Apoptotic cells were detected. In addition, diffuse chromatolysis of nuclear chromatin, absence of nucleoli, multinuclear cells, intercellular edema and a congested blood capillary were noticed. By electron microscopy, the treated groups of both lateral and medial entorhinal areas showed granular and pyramidal apoptotic cells. The morphometric and statistical studies showed significant increase of apoptotic index % in treated group as compared with control group.Conclusion: Tramadol had degenerative effects on both lateral and medial entorhinal areas. Light as well as electron microscopic examination of entorhinal areas came to prove these effects. Tramadol abuse should be avoided without medical description due to its toxic effects.Keywords: Tramadol; Entorhinal cortex; Rat

Impact of land use changes and management practices on groundwater resources in Kolar district, Southern India

Study region: This study analyzes the impact of land use changes on the hydrology of Kolar district in the state of Karnataka, India. Kolar receives on average 565 mm (σ = 130) rainfall during June to October and has a wide gap between its water supply and demand. Study focus: This research identifies the reasons and causes of the gap. A water balance model was successfully calibrated and validated against measurements of groundwater level, recharge and surface runoff. New hydrological insights for the region: The study revealed that between 1972 and 2011, there was a major shift from grass and rainfed crop lands to eucalyptus plantation and irrigated cultivation. About 17.7 % and 18 % of the district area converted into eucalyptus plantation and irrigated lands during this period, respectively. Eucalyptus plantations tended to cause large losses by ET leading to increase in soil moisture deficit and reduction in the recharge to groundwater and in surface runoff (approx. 30 %). The irrigation demand of the district increased from 57 mm (1972) to 140 mm (2011) which resulted in increased groundwater abstraction by 145 %. The expansion of the irrigated area is the major contributing factor for widening the demand-supply gap (62 %) of the freshwater availability. Results could help various stakeholders, including district and national authorities to develop the most suitable water management strategies in order to close the gap between water supply and demand

Prenatal genotyping of Gaucher disease in Egypt

Objective: To use chorionic villi sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis to determine the genotyping of Gaucher Disease (GD) of fetuses of pregnant mothers who had a previous child affected by GD.Methods: The study was conducted between January 2009 and December 2012. It included 42 pregnant women that gave informed written consent. Thirty mothers presented early so they underwent CVS at 10–12 weeks of pregnancy while 12 mothers presented later and underwent amniocentesis at 14–16 weeks. Strip assay for the identification of Glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene mutations in the samples of chrorionic villi and amniotic fluid was based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse hybridization.Results: The age of the studied pregnant women ranged from 19 to 26 years. Consanguinity was present in 38 cases. Eighteen women were pregnant in affected fetuses. The results of genotyping revealed 15 cases were homozygous L444P/L444P and one case homozygous (N370s/N370s) while two cases were heterogeneous (L444P/D409H). Twenty-four pregnant women had carrier fetuses which were all heterozygous L444P.Conclusion: This study highlights the findings of an extended gene mutation examination for prenatal diagnosis of Guacher Disease. The study found out that the most common mutation was L444P/L444P.Keywords: Gaucher diseases; Prenatal diagnosis; Egypt; Gene; Mutatio

Energy Distribution of a Stringy Charged Black Hole

The energy distribution associated with a stringy charged black hole is studied using M{\o}ller's energy-momentum complex. Our result is reasonable and it differs from that known in literature using Einstein's energy-momentum complex.Comment: Latex, no figure

Detection and Identification of Helicobacter pullorum in Poultry Species in Upper Egypt

This work aimed to detect, identify and study the epidemiology of Helicobacter pullorum in avian species in Upper Egypt. A total of 1800 samples, including cloacal swabs, cecal swabs and livers were collected from chickens, turkeys and ducks in five different governorates in Upper Egypt. Using conventional phenotypic methods for isolation and identification, Helicobacter pullorum could be identified only from chickens with percentage 39.33% and no presence of the organism in turkeys and ducks. Sixteen randomly selected phenotypically identified Helicobacter pullorum isolates were confirmed using PCR assay based on 16S rRNA gene. In conclusion, conventional phenotypic methods for detection and differentiation of Helicobacter pullorum are often hampered by many limitations, while molecular methods, and PCR, in particular, have marked an important step forward in bacterial diagnostics and can provide a sensitive and rapid alternative method for detection and identification and highlights the potential of PCR technology in routine detection and identification of pathogens

The association between right ventricular function and exercise capacity for hypertensive patients

Background: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) would be used to evaluate right ventricular (RV) function in patients with arterial hypertension, and the link between RV dysfunction and exercise capacity was studied in the study population.Objective: To establish a correlation with exercise capability in the study group by using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to evaluate RV function in patients with arterial hypertension.Patients and Methods: Patients with hypertension were surveyed in a cross-sectional research; those known and treated; whether controlled or not and patients who were recently discovered to be hypertensive. Ninety patients were included; gender and age were taken into account. A thorough examination was performed on each patient (TTE) as well as six minute walking distance (6MWD). For all we had a written informed consent prior to enrollment. Results: Patients with untreated and uncontrolled hypertension showed significantly reduced right ventricular systolic and diastolic functions compared to those with well-controlled hypertension. Patients with untreated or uncontrolled hypertension had significant (P <0.001) deterioration on S', wave and diastolic dysfunction parameters (E/A, DTt, E/e t and IVRT). Untreated and uncontrolled hypertension patients showed a significant decrease in 6MWD compared to the well-controlled individuals (P <0.001). Conclusion: Untreated or ineffectively treated hypertension individuals had considerably reduced right ventricular function and exercise capacity, according to our findings. In the entire research population, right ventricular functions are strongly linked to exercise ability

Evaluating the productivity potential of chickpea, lentil and faba bean under saline water irrigation systems

The information on salinity threshold levels for food legumes when irrigating with saline water is limited and old. In a multi-year study at two sites in the Euphrates Basin, we aimed at (i) evaluating the potential of saline water irrigation for chickpea, faba bean and lentil production; and (ii) using the SALTMED model to determine threshold crop yields based on irrigation water salinity in equilibrium with ambient soil solution salinity. To evaluate 15 accessions each of lentil and chickpea, and 11 accessions of faba bean, three irrigation treatments were used with salinity levels of 0.87, 2.50 and 3.78 dS m-1 at Hassake and 0.70, 3.0 and 5.0 dS m-1 at Raqqa. Aggregated grain yields showed significant differences (p < 0.05) among crop accessions. Calibration and validation of the SALTMED model revealed a close relationship between actual grain yields from the field sites and those predicted by the model. The 50% yield reduction (π50 value) in chickpea, lentil, and faba bean occurred at salinity levels of 4.2, 4.4 and 5.2 dS m-1, respectively. These results suggest that of the three food legume crops, faba bean can withstand relatively high levels of irrigation water salinity, followed by lentil and chickpea

An Investigation into Mechanical Properties of Ductile Cast Iron with Different Heat Treatment Processes

The mechanical properties as well as microstructure of the ductile cast iron (DCI) are most likely affected by heat treatments. In&nbsp;this work, the mechanical properties of different heat treated of DCI alloy were investigated. Two heat treatment (HT) processes were conducted for DCI; austempering and quenching followed by lower tempering. The melted alloy of DCI was poured in Y-block, from&nbsp;which the specimens of the mechanical tests were prepared. Experimental tests were carried out to investigate the effect of these HT processes on the mechanical properties. A comparison between mechanical properties due to HT and as cast DCI are presented and discussed. The results showed that there is a difference in microstructure, homogeneity, wear rate and compression of DCI based on the conducted heat treatment

Exploring the Impact of Preprocessing Techniques on Retinal Blood Vessel Segmentation Using a Study Group Learning Scheme

The segmentation of retinal vessels in retinal images is vital for automated diagnosis of retinal diseases. This is a challenging task because it requires accurate manual labeling of the vessels by expert clinicians and the detection of tiny vessels is difficult due to limited samples, low contrast, and noise. In this study, we explore the use of preprocessing techniques such as contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE), grad-cam analysis and min-max contrast stretching to improve the performance of a study-group learning (SGL) segmentation model. We evaluate the impact of these preprocessing techniques on the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, AUC, IoU, and Dice scores using four publicly available datasets, DRIVE, CHASE, HRF and IOSTAR. Our findings indicate that the utilization of the Min-Max technique resulted in a notable enhancement in the accuracy of both the DRIVE and CHASE datasets, with an approximate increase of 3% and 2% respectively. Conversely, the impact of the CLAHE method was discernible solely in the DRIVE dataset, demonstrating an improvement in accuracy of 1%. In addition, our results demonstrated superior accuracy performance for both the DRIVE and CHASE datasets compared to the findings of the reviewed studies. The GitHub repo for this project is available at Link

Differentiation of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) Strains in Experimentally Infected Chickens

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute, highly contagious, and immunosuppressive avian disease caused by IBD virus (IBDV). Differentiation of IBDV strains is crucial for effective vaccination programs and epidemiological investigations. In this study, a combination of clinical, histopathological examinations, immunohistochemistry and indirect immunofluorescence techniques were used to differentiate different IBDV strains. Sixty three weeks old chickens were divided randomly into five equal groups. Chickens of four groups were inoculated orally with different strains of IBDV. Chickens of the fifth group were kept as a control. Three chickens per group were euthanized at 3, 7, 14, 21 days post-inoculation (dpi). Euthanized chickens subjected to autopsy and tissue samples were collected in 10% neutral-buffered formalin for histopathology, immunohistochimestry and immunoflrourescence. The results revealed that clinical examination and histopathology cannot be used alone for differentiation of IBDV strains, while immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence techniques are reliable tools for differentiation of IBDV strains