Effects of dietary supplementation of multi-enzyme complex on the energy utilization in rooster and performance of broiler chicks

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of dietary supplementation of REAP® enzyme into corn-soybean diet on the energy utilization in poultry and performance of broiler chicks. In the first experiment, a total of 16 50 weeks adult roosters (ISA-Brown) were divided into 4 groups with 4 birds per replicate and the experimental diets contained the two levels of energy (2650 and 2759 kcal TMEn/kg diet) with 0 or 0.1% REAP® and were subjected to assay of apparent metabolizable energy (AME). In the second experiment, 360 3 days old male broiler chicks (Ross) were divided into 4 groups with 3 replicates of 30 birds per replicate and were assigned at random to one of the four experimental diets containing the two levels of energy (3100 and 2980 kcal TMEn/kg diet) with 0 or 0.1% REAP®. AME value of the high energy groups were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the low energy groups when measured at 28 days. The body weight gain of the birds fed the low energy diet with 0% REAP was lower significantly than those of the other groups (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in feed intake and feed conversion rate among the treatments. The breast muscle weights of the low energy diet birds were higher than those of the high ones and those of the lower energy group with 0.1% REAP were the highest (p < 0.05). The relative abdominal fat weight was reduced by the dietary REAP (p < 0.05). Percentage duodenum weights of high energy group were higher than those of the low energy group. The intestinal lengths (cm/100 g BW) of low energy diet group without REAP were lower than those of the others (P < 0.05). The results demonstrated that, dietary REAP improved body weight gain and reduced abdominal fats. Therefore, it can be concluded that, dietary supplementation of REAP improves nutritive value of corn-soybean diet in the broiler chicks.Key words: REAP®, broiler chicks, corn-soybean, apparent metabolizable energy (AME)

A review on the role of inositol in aquaculture

Inositol is usually classified as an essential vitamin for most animals, and is recognised as a part of the B-complex vitamins. Among all other inositol isomer forms, myo-inositol possesses biological activity. It is found in the brain, skeletal, heart, and main reproductive tissues and exists as a structural component of phosphatidylinositol in biological cell membranes. Myo-inositol, also acts as a growth factor and affects the antioxidant capacity and oxidative status of cells. It is a major intracellular osmolyte that can be accumulated to protect cells from a variety of stresses and can also participate in transmembrane signal transfer. Myo-inositol is synthesised by various animal tissues and microorganisms in gut and fulfills the requirement for a few fish species. However, the supply of inositol by exogenous source (the diet) is required in most fish and shrimp for preventing deficiency signs such as inefficiency in digestion and food utilization, poor growth, fin erosion, dark skin colouration, and high accumulation of lipid in liver and muscle. The current paper aimed to provide a review on the published studies on the role of inositol in aquaculture

Postconditioning is protective in renal reperfusion injury only in male rats. A gender difference study

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Flaxseed Soluble Dietary Fibre Enhances Lactic Acid Bacterial Survival and Growth in Kefir and Possesses High Antioxidant Capacity

This study investigated the capability and efficiency of flaxseed soluble dietary fibre /mucilage to enhance bacterial survival and growth in kefir as well as the antioxidant activity of the mucilage. Crude flaxseed mucilage was extracted using a microwave method, followed by enzymatic and dialysis treatments to obtain pure mucilage. The antioxidant activities of the pure and crude mucilage were measured using different assays. Microbial analyses, pH and total titratable acidity (TTA) were measured in kefir samples, supplemented with probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis) and pure or crude flaxseed mucilage during 28 cold storage periodat 4 ºC. The results showed that for all kefir samples, the total bacteria counts were above7.9 log cfu/mL at the end of cold storage period. However, kefir samples supplemented with pure flaxseed mucilage enhanced significantly (P < 0.05) higher viability of bacteria (9.5 log cfu/mL) and acidity (0.78% TTA). An overall pH decline of 0.2 was observed during cold storage period. The total phenolic content (TPC) in crude mucilage was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than pure mucilage (10.5 ± 0.2 and 5.7 ± 0.1 mg Gallic acid equivalent /g flaxseed, respectively). The mucilage from crude flaxseed exhibited strong antioxidant activity; Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) value of 51.2 ± 3.3 ?mol Trolox equivalent /g, 53.7 ± 2.8% discoloration for 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and 68.3 ± 9.2% Beta-Carotene bleaching which was well in agreement with high TPC. This study demonstrated that flaxseed mucilage acts as a good source of prebiotic, enhancing lactic acid bacteria growth in kefir model in addition of their high antioxidant beneficiary

The prevalence of depression among Iranian infertile couples: an update systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Depression is a common mental disorder. Infertility can lead to depression. The current systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of depression among Iranian infertile couples. Seven electronic databases (Google Scholar, MagIran, SID, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) were searched, up to August 2019, for relevant published studies. The pooled prevalence of depression also pooled mean of depression score was determined using a random-effects model with a 95 confidence interval (95 CI). All analyses performed using Stata ver11 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). The 0.05 was considered a significant level. The main body: Totally, 230 studies were retrieved and 31 studies included in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of depression among infertile couples was about 35.3 (95 CI 24.1�46.5), and the prevalence of depression among females and males was 48.7 (95 CI 24.0�73.3) and 9 (95 CI 0 to 23.7), respectively. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a high prevalence of depression in infertile couples. The results can highlight an important and growing mental disorder among infertile couples that may be overlooked. © 2020, The Author(s)

Application of Pseudo-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics to a Complex Scattering Potential with Point Interactions

We present a generalization of the perturbative construction of the metric operator for non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with more than one perturbation parameter. We use this method to study the non-Hermitian scattering Hamiltonian: H=p^2/2m+\zeta_-\delta(x+a)+\zeta_+\delta(x-a), where \zeta_\pm and a are respectively complex and real parameters and \delta(x) is the Dirac delta function. For regions in the space of coupling constants \zeta_\pm where H is quasi-Hermitian and there are no complex bound states or spectral singularities, we construct a (positive-definite) metric operator \eta and the corresponding equivalent Hermitian Hamiltonian h. \eta turns out to be a (perturbatively) bounded operator for the cases that the imaginary part of the coupling constants have opposite sign, \Im(\zeta_+) = -\Im(\zeta_-). This in particular contains the PT-symmetric case: \zeta_+ = \zeta_-^*. We also calculate the energy expectation values for certain Gaussian wave packets to study the nonlocal nature of \rh or equivalently the non-Hermitian nature of \rH. We show that these physical quantities are not directly sensitive to the presence of PT-symmetry.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

An exactly solvable quantum-lattice model with a tunable degree of nonlocality

An array of N subsequent Laguerre polynomials is interpreted as an eigenvector of a non-Hermitian tridiagonal Hamiltonian $H$ with real spectrum or, better said, of an exactly solvable N-site-lattice cryptohermitian Hamiltonian whose spectrum is known as equal to the set of zeros of the N-th Laguerre polynomial. The two key problems (viz., the one of the ambiguity and the one of the closed-form construction of all of the eligible inner products which make $H$ Hermitian in the respective {\em ad hoc} Hilbert spaces) are discussed. Then, for illustration, the first four simplest, $k-$parametric definitions of inner products with $k=0,k=1,k=2$ and $k=3$ are explicitly displayed. In mathematical terms these alternative inner products may be perceived as alternative Hermitian conjugations of the initial N-plet of Laguerre polynomials. In physical terms the parameter $k$ may be interpreted as a measure of the "smearing of the lattice coordinates" in the model.Comment: 35 p

The Total Synthesis of Glycolipids from Streptococcus pneumoniae and a Re-evaluation of Their Immunological Activity**

Invariant natural killer (iNK) T cells, Type I iNKTs, are responsible for the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines which induce a systemic immune response. They are distinctive in possessing an semi-invariant T-cell receptor that recognizes glycolipid antigens presented by CD1d, a protein closely related to the class I major histocompatibility complex, conserved across multiple mammalian species in a class of proteins well-renowned for their high degree of polymorphism. This receptor\u27s first potent identified antigen is the α-galactosylceramide, KRN7000, a synthetic glycosphingolipid closely related to those isolated from bacteria that were found on a Japanese marine sponge. A corresponding terrestrial antigen remained unidentified until two specific diacylglycerol-containing glycolipids, reported to activate iNKT cells, were isolated from Streptococcus pneumoniae. We report the total synthesis and immunological re-evaluation of these two glycolipids. The compounds are unable to meaningfully activate iNKT cells. Computational modelling shows that these ligands, while being capable of interacting with the CD1d receptor, create a different surface for the binary complex that makes formation of the ternary complex with the iNKT T-cell receptor difficult. Together these results suggest that the reported activity might have been due to an impurity in the original isolated sample and highlights the importance of taking care when reporting biological activity from isolated natural products

Diminished physical function in older HIV-infected adults in the Southeastern U.S. despite successful antiretroviral therapy

As antiretroviral therapy efficacy improves, HIV is gradually being recognized more as a chronic disease within the aging HIV-infected population. While these individuals are surviving into old age, they may, however, be experiencing “accelerated aging” with greater declines in physical function than that observed among comparably matched individuals free of HIV. This decline is not well understood and it remains unclear if physical decline correlates with the degree of immunosuppression based on CD4 lymphocyte nadir

The risk of menstrual abnormalities after tubal sterilization: a case control study

BACKGROUND: Tubal sterilization is the method of family planning most commonly used. The existence of the post-tubal-ligation syndrome of menstrual abnormalities has been the subject of debate for decades. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 112 women with the history of Pomeroy type of tubal ligation achieved by minilaparatomy as the case group and 288 women with no previous tubal ligation as the control group were assessed for menstrual abnormalities. RESULTS: Menstrual abnormalities were not significantly different between the case and control groups (p = 0.824). The abnormal uterine bleeding frequency differences in two different age groups (30–39 and 40–45 years old) were statistically significant (p = 0.0176). CONCLUSION: Tubal sterilization does not cause menstrual irregularities