The effects of the seeds of Galeopsis ladanum on fattening performance in quails and occurrence of rhabdomyolysis in rats

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Galeopsis ladanum seeds on rhabdomyolysis occurrence in rats as an animal model and fattening performance of quails. Control group was fed with basal diet without G. ladanum seeds. Diets of treatment groups contained 2 or 4% of G. ladanum seeds, respectively. All animals, quails and rats were fed individually. At the end of the study, 2 and 4% of G. ladanum seeds in the diets did not have reverse effect on body weight, weight gain and feed intake in quails. Besides, treatment group one had a better feed conversion ratio at the end of the third week (p<0.05) and up to 28 days of age (p<0.05). At the end of the feeding period, quails were slaughtered and their drumsticks were fed to the rats either raw or grilled. After consumption of the meat, their serum and organs were subjected to biochemical and pathologic investigations. Although, no pathological finding was observed in the tissue samples, serum myoglobin and enzyme levels were found to be higher than that in the control group (p<0.01). Although, no pathological finding was observed in the tissue samples prepared from rats and quails for histopathological examination, the increase in serum myoglobin and enzyme levels may be due to subcellular changes in the target tissues of toxic substance.Keywords: Galeopsis ladanum, performance, rhabdomyolysis, quai

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Indoor allergens in settled dust from kindergartens in city of Łódź, Poland

Objectives: The main objective of the study was to determine the levels of house dust mite (Der p1), dog (Can f1), cat (Fel d1) and cockroach (Bla g2) allergens in kindergartens localized in an urban agglomeration. Material and Methods: A quantitative analysis of allergens was carried out in settled dust samples collected by vacuuming the floor surface in three kindergartens (N = 84) and children's clothing (N = 36). The samples were collected in springsummer and autumn-winter periods as well as at the beginning and end of the week. The allergen dust concentration was determined by enzyme-linked immunoenzymatic assay (ELISA). Results: The mean geometric concentrations (±geometric standard deviations) of allergens Der p1, Can f1, Fel d1 and Bla g2 determined in kindergartens were: 0.02±3.21 μg/g of dust; 0.97±4.49 μg/g of dust; 0.30±4.43 μg/g of dust and 0.01±3.08 μg/g of dust, respectively. Younger classrooms (children aged from 3 to 4 years) were characterized by almost twice higher mean concentration of allergen Fel d1, as compared to older classrooms (children aged from 5 to 6 years) (p < 0.05). A significant impact of seasonality on the level of dog allergen Can f1 was found (p < 0.05). No significant weekly variation was found in average concentrations of the allergens. Children who had a dog and/or cat at home were characterized by high concentrations of allergens Can f1 and Fel d1 on their clothes (59.2±5.39 μg Can f1/g of dust; 3.63±1.47 μg Fel d1/g of dust), significantly higher than concentrations of allergens in children who did not have any pets (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Special attention should be paid to keeping the kindergarten rooms tidy and clean and to an appropriate choice of furnishings and fittings which would prevent the proliferation of the house dust mite and accumulation of allergens

Stochastic resonance in graphene bilayer optical nanoreceivers

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Graphene, a 2-D sheet of carbon atoms, is believed to have diverse application areas ranging from medicine to communications. A novel application is using graphene as a photodetector in optical communications due to its superior optical and electrical properties such as wide and tunable absorption frequency range and high electron mobility. Noise, which is especially significant in nanoscale communications, is mostly seen as an adversary. Stochastic resonance (SR) is the performance enhancement of a system due to incorporation of noise. It is shown that the excess noise in nanocommunications can be used to improve the performance of a graphene bilayer photodetector system with hard threshold decoder, when received signals are subthreshold. SR arises due to the nonlinear nature of the hard decoder. First, the SR effect due to the background ambient noise and intentional light noise is analyzed. An approximate inverse signal-to-noise ratio expression is derived, which maximizes the mutual information. The effect of frequency on the mutual information is also investigated, and it is shown that the higher frequencies are more preferable for noise limited regimes. Later, the case with the intentional noise added to the top gate is investigated. It is shown that significant mutual information improvements are achieved for subthreshold signals, due to the multiplicative stochastic terms arising from the nonlinear graphene bilayer characteristics, i.e., the exponential dependence of photocurrent on the gate voltages. All the analytical results are verified with extensive simulations

Evaluation of the water quality at Tahtali dam watershed in Izmir-Turkey by means of statistical methodology

WOS: 000253130200009Sustaining the human ecological benefits of surface water requires carefully planned strategies for reducing the cumulative risks posed by diverse human activities. Municipal governments in Izmir City play a key role in developing solutions to surface water management and protection. Therefore, several methodologies are carried out to develop new solutions for protecting available water resources. In the present study, the major chemical loads of surface water at the Tahtali dam reservoir were evaluated statistically by using monthly averaged values of the measured parameters. Here, the SPSS and NCSS statistical programs were applied during the statistical analyses. Analyses were carried out in two stages. In the first part of the statistical analyses, the mean, median, minimum, maximum, 25th and 75th quartiles were calculated. In second part, the data were investigated by using statistical median test, normality test, parametric and non-parametric correlation and regression analyses. These methods were performed on water quality data taken from four sample sites representing the recharge and discharge areas at the Tahtali dam. The Median test is applied to check if medians of water quality data from four sample sites (Derebogazi, Bulgurca, Menderes and Golcukler) are equal or not. Commonly a non-parametric test (distribution-free test) is used to compare two independent groups of sampled data. Since there are more than two groups in independent group comparison, Kruskal-Wallis test is applied instead of Mann-Whitney U test. Finally, the main objective of using statistical analyses in third research is to estimate the types of pollution sources, the level of pollution and its environmental impacts on the Tahtali dam reservoir by means of statistical methodology