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

ROSA DAMASCENA OIL: AN ADJUNCTIVE THERAPY FOR PEDIATRIC REFRACTORY SEIZURES

ObjectiveSeveral investigations have demonstrated that Rosa damascena has an inhibitory effect on the hypothalamus and on pituitary system reactivity in the rat; it has also been shown that the essential oil of Rosa damascena has significant antiepileptic effects on pentylentetrazole (PTZ) induced seizures in rats. We aimed at assessing the effects of the essential oil of Rosa damascena when used as an adjunct treatment to treat children with refractory seizuresMaterials and MethodsIn this double-blind clinical trial, conducted as a pilot study between April 2004 and March 2005, we administered essential oil of Rosa damascena to sixteen children with refractory epilepsy as an adjunct therapy, and evaluated its effects.Results16 patients, age range 3-13 years, were enrolled; 56.3% (n=9) girls and 43.8% (n=7) boys. All has been under treatment for 3-6 weeks (baseline phase). They received either the essential oil or placebo for a period of 4 weeks and in between these periods, they took only their pre-existing antiepileptic drugs for two weeks (washout phase).The mean frequency of seizures in those using essential oil, showed significant decrease as compared to the controls using placeboes (p=0.00).ConclusionIt can be concluded that the essential oil of Rosa Damascena has beneficial antiepileptic effect in children with refractory seizures.Keywords:Rosa damascena, refractory epilepsy, children, oil

Genetic variations of Iranian and French stocks of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss is the most important cold water farmed fish as a nonindigenous species in Iran. Eyed eggs have been imported from different countries to Iran. In this study, genetic diversity of 50 fish (male and female) from Iranian generation and 24 fish from French generation were evaluated. Six microsatellite markers including OMM1019 ،OMM1036 ،OMM1307 ، OmyFGT5TU ،Omy77DU and Omy207UoG were applied. Average number of observed alleles in the Iranian and the French stocks were 6.68 and 6.83, respectively. Average number of effective alleles in the Iranian and French stocks were 3.13 and 3.45, respectively. Mean expected and observed heterozygosis was 0.68, 0.53 and 0.71, 0.61 in Iranian and French stocks, respectively. The results showed significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at the most of loci × stock. Fixation index Fst calculated based on allelic frequency between two stocks was 0.058 with significant difference between 2 stocks. The results of this study showed insignificant genetic differentiation based on six microsatellite loci

Short-term Outcomes of Induced Membrane Technique in Treatment of Long Bone Defects in Iran

INTRODUCTION: Severe defects in long bones can be caused by several factors such as trauma that lead to open wound and secondary infections after surgery. Induced membrane technique is one of the therapeutic strategies that can be used for these patients. Due to importance of this method and lack of information about this technique in Iran. AIM: this study was performed to investigate technical strengths and weakness of induced membrane technique. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This case series study conducted on 21 patients with bone defects in the femur and tibia and metatarsal bones referred to orthopedic clinic of Rasoul Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran, for induced membrane surgery in 2012-2015. Demographic and clinical data were obtained using history, clinical examinations and observations for each patient. Union achievement was the main outcome of this study, which was confirmed by radiographic findings and physical examination. Obtained data was analyzed by SPSS ver. 16. RESULTS: All patients were male except one and their mean age was 30.52 years old. Bone defects were in tibia, femur and metatarsus in 9, 9 and 3 patients, respectively. Three patients received soft tissue reconstruction with flap before induced membrane surgery. Age, defects size, cigarette addiction and drug use and delay to start the treatment had no significant effect on union status. In total, 90 of patients had successful surgery. CONCLUSION: using induced membrane technique in patients with defects in their long bone such as tibia, femur and metatarsus would lead to high success for reconstruction

Network and structural analysis of quail mucins with expression pattern of mucin 1 and mucin 4 in the intestines of the Iraqi common quail (Coturnix coturnix)

Background and Aim: In avian and other species, mucins (MUCs) play a crucial role in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), and constitute a large group of O-glycosylated glycoproteins, are glycoconjugate proteins. MUCs present in two forms: (1) membrane-attached on cell surfaces to repel external threats and (2) detachable, gel-forming proteins in the soluble form. In quail GIT, the specific types of MUCs that are expressed remain largely unknown. We investigated the expression of MUC1 and MUC4 MUCs in the GIT of Iraqi common quails and conducted network and structural analyses of all known MUC types across quail breeds. Materials and Methods: Histological and gene expression analyses of MUC1 and MUC4 were conducted using fresh small intestine and large intestine samples from 10 quails. Using the STRING Database, Chimera software, and PrankWeb-ligand binding site prediction tool, network and structural analyses of all reported types of quail MUCs were conducted. Results: Most intestinal MUCs in quails were acidic, with few neutral MUCs detectable through Alcian blue and periodic acid-schiff stains. Acidic MUCs were more expressed in the duodenum, ileum, cecum, and colon, whereas neutral MUCs were more expressed in the jejunum. MUC1 and MUC4 messenger RNA expression was significantly higher in the jejunum and colon than in the duodenum and ileum. The analysis of the network revealed that MUC 1, 15, 16, and 24 formed homologous networks, while MUC 2, 4, 5, and 6 formed heterologous networks. Specific MUC combinations, including MUC5A-MUC6, MUC5A-MUC5B, and MUC5B-MUC6, show higher intermolecular hydrogen bond formation affinity. MUC15, MUC16, and MUC24 showed minimal interaction with other MUC types. Among the analyzed MUCs, MUC5B, and MUC6 had the highest probability for binding, while MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5A showed lower probabilities despite greater numbers of binding sites. Conclusion: This study’s results offer significant insights into quails’ MUCs’ composition, expression, network interactions, and binding sites, advancing knowledge of MUC-related processes in gastrointestinal physiology and their potential connection to gastrointestinal diseases

Applications of tripled chaotic maps in cryptography

Security of information has become a major issue during the last decades. New algorithms based on chaotic maps were suggested for protection of different types of multimedia data, especially digital images and videos in this period. However, many of them fundamentally were flawed by a lack of robustness and security. For getting higher security and higher complexity, in the current paper, we introduce a new kind of symmetric key block cipher algorithm that is based on \emph{tripled chaotic maps}. In this algorithm, the utilization of two coupling parameters, as well as the increased complexity of the cryptosystem, make a contribution to the development of cryptosystem with higher security. In order to increase the security of the proposed algorithm, the size of key space and the computational complexity of the coupling parameters should be increased as well. Both the theoretical and experimental results state that the proposed algorithm has many capabilities such as acceptable speed and complexity in the algorithm due to the existence of two coupling parameter and high security. Note that the ciphertext has a flat distribution and has the same size as the plaintext. Therefore, it is suitable for practical use in secure communications.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure

Towards engineering heart tissues from bioprinted cardiac spheroids.

Currentin vivoandin vitromodels fail to accurately recapitulate the human heart microenvironment for biomedical applications. This study explores the use of cardiac spheroids (CSs) to biofabricate advancedin vitromodels of the human heart. CSs were created from human cardiac myocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells (ECs), mixed within optimal alginate/gelatin hydrogels and then bioprinted on a microelectrode plate for drug testing. Bioprinted CSs maintained their structure and viability for at least 30 d after printing. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) promoted EC branching from CSs within hydrogels. Alginate/gelatin-based hydrogels enabled spheroids fusion, which was further facilitated by addition of VEGF. Bioprinted CSs contracted spontaneously and under stimulation, allowing to record contractile and electrical signals on the microelectrode plates for industrial applications. Taken together, our findings indicate that bioprinted CSs can be used to biofabricate human heart tissues for long termin vitrotesting. This has the potential to be used to study biochemical, physiological and pharmacological features of human heart tissue

Genetic improvement of rainbow trout in Iran

Inthisstudy, Iranian and French male and female Oncorhynchus mykiss broodstocks were invided into two groups 50 and 24 respectivelyin Research center of genetic and breeding of coldwater fishers, Yasouj,Iran and the genetic structure of them was investigated using 6 microsatellite markers. Along with broodstock maturation, fertilization 1:1(female:male) were randomly assigned and occurred in25 of12Iranian andFrench treatment respectively. Reproductive parameters were recordedfor the whole family.Average number of observed alleles in Iranian and French stocks was 6.68 and 6.83, respectively.Average number of effective alleles in Iranian and French stocks was 3.13 and 3.45 respectively.Fixation index Fstwas calculated based on allelic frequency between two stocks was 0.058 with significant difference between 2 stocks. Eyed percentage for french broodstock calaulated zero and deleted. Fertilization rate(100-0), the eyed percentage (98-0), The hatch rate(98- 0),the averagefecundity4114.708, the average eggs size 4.88 mm, Survivalinthe first three months 19-73% calculated for Iranian broodstocks. Considering the quality of eggs and larvaeat different stages and selection between the different family and the within family remained 10 treatments and are keptas future broodstocks. Therelationship between fecundity-egg size, fecundity-weight, fecundity-length, egg sizeweightwas performed using regression. The results showed that Fecundity wasinfluenced more byweight and productivelength. The research is beginning to IDthe broodstockin our country

Effects of post-deposition annealing on crystalline state of GeSn thin films sputtered on Si substrate and its application to MSM photodetector

Ge1.xSnx alloy thin films were prepared by co-sputtering from Ge and Sn targets on a Si (100) substrate at room temperature, and were then heated at temperature ranging from 200 °C to 500 °C in N2 ambient to reduce the disorder and defects and increase the crystalline quality of the films. Images obtained by field emission scanning electron microscopy revealed that the as-grown and all annealed samples displayed a densely packed morphology. The atomic percent composition of Sn in the asgrown Ge1-xSnx film is 5.7 at%. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results showed Sn surface segregation after heat treatment, as the Sn composition is reduced to 3.3 at%for the film annealed at 500 °C. The Raman analysis showed that the only observed phonon mode is attributed to Ge-Ge vibrations. The Raman spectra of as-sputtered and annealed films revealed their nanocrystallineamorphous nature. The samples annealed at lower temperature exhibited higher phonon intensity, indicating the improvement of crystallinity of the film. The optoelectronic characteristics of fabricated metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors on the annealed sample at 200 °C and the as-sputtered sample were studied in the dark and under illumination. Compared with the as-sputtered one, the annealed sample showed lower dark current and higher current gain of 209. The results showed the potentiality of using the sputtering technique to produce GeSn layer for optoelectronics application

Formation of nanocrystalline GeSn thin film on Si substrate by sputtering and rapid thermal annealing

Nanocrystalline Ge1-xSnx thin films have been formed after rapid thermal annealing of sputtered GeSn layers. The alloy films were deposited onto the Silicon (100) substrate via low cost radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Then, the films were annealed by rapid thermal annealing at 350 °C, 400 °C, and 450 °C for 10 s. The morphological, structural, and optical properties of the layers were investigated with field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Raman spectroscopy, and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD). The Raman analysis showed that the only observed phonon mode is attributed to Ge-Ge vibrations. Raman phonon intensities of GeSn thin films were enhanced with increasing the annealing temperature. The results clearly revealed that by increasing the annealing temperature the crystalline quality of the films were improved. The XRD measurements revealed the nanocrystalline phase formation in the annealed films with (111) preferred orientation. The results showed the potentiality of using the sputtering technique and rapid thermal anneal to produce crystalline GeSn layer