Survey on Acipenser persicus populations by use of the electrophoretic technique and morphological characteristics

For identifying the populations of the Acipenser persicus (Persian sturgeon) a survey were done by use of the electrophoretic technique and also morphological characteristics. The matrix was Acetate cellolus. 5ml blood from each gill arch were obtained and separated serum from blood. Separation of proteins were done, using a voltage of 180 volt during 15 minutes. After separating the solution proteins, the bands were stained by ponceau-s, Decolouring of plates was done by Acetic acid 5% during three steps. Scanning of the plates was done by densitometer with the wave length of 525 nm. Several genetic variations observed in the electrophorograms of samples. It seems that population of some localities can be characterized as a genetically distinguishable unit. Morphological differences observed between the fish which located in Sephid Rud region and Gorgan region, like the eye diameter and head height. The mean of eye diameter in Sephid Rud population was 20.16 mm and in Gorgan population 22.47 mm and the mean of head height was 8.15 cm and 7.25 cm respectively

Sulfonamides determination in chicken meat products from Malaysia

Sulfonamides (SAs), synthetic antibiotics, are commonly used by veterinarians in chicken for therapeutic, prophylactic or as growth promoter and halt the growth of bacteria in animal production. Four common SAs, Sulfadiazine (SDZ), Sulfamethazine (SMZ), Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and Sulfaquinoxaline (SQX), were determined in chicken breast and liver samples using reverse phase HPLC using UV detector at 266nm. The concentration of SAs detected in samples from 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia ranged from 0.006-0.062 µg/g in breast meat samples and 0.08-0.193 µg/g in liver samples. Except for sample from Johor, concentration of SAs in all the samples were lower than MRLs established by Malaysia (0.1 µg/g). Exposure of sulfonamides in Malaysian consumers ranged from 0.002-0.088 µg/kg body wt. /day. The highest value of sulfonamides exposure was found in Johor with an estimated daily intake (EDA) of Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) in Johor

Metabonomics evaluations of age-related changes in the urinary compositions of male Sprague Dawley rats and effects of data normalization methods on statistical and quantitative analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Urine from male Sprague-Dawley rats 25, 40, and 80 days old was analyzed by NMR and UPLC/MS. The effects of data normalization procedures on principal component analysis (PCA) and quantitative analysis of NMR-based metabonomics data were investigated. Additionally, the effects of age on the metabolic profiles were examined by both NMR and UPLC/MS analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The data normalization factor was shown to have a great impact on the statistical and quantitative results indicating the need to carefully consider how to best normalize the data within a particular study and when comparing different studies. PCA applied to the data obtained from both NMR and UPLC/MS platforms reveals similar age-related differences. NMR indicated many metabolites associated with the Krebs cycle decrease while citrate and 2-oxoglutarate, also associated with the Krebs cycle, increase in older rats.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study compared four different normalization methods for the NMR-based metabonomics spectra from an age-related study. It was shown that each method of normalization has a great effect on both the statistical and quantitative analyses. Each normalization method resulted in altered relative positions of significant PCA loadings for each sample spectra but it did not alter which chemical shifts had the highest loadings. The greater the normalization factor was related to age, the greater the separation between age groups was observed in subsequent PCA analyses. The normalization factor that showed the least age dependence was total NMR intensity, which was consistent with UPLC/MS data. Normalization by total intensity attempts to make corrections due to dietary and water intake of the individual animal, which is especially useful in metabonomics evaluations of urine. Additionally, metabonomics evaluations of age-related effects showed decreased concentrations of many Krebs cycle intermediates along with increased levels of oxidized antioxidants in urine of older rats, which is consistent with current theories on aging and its association with diminishing mitochondrial function and increasing levels of reactive oxygen species. Analysis of urine by both NMR and UPLC/MS provides a comprehensive and complementary means of examining metabolic events in aging rats.</p

Ultra-high performance liquid chromatographic determination of aflatoxin M1 in urine

The development of analytical methods to detect aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in foodstuffs and its metabolites in human biological samples is useful for risk assessment. The latter methodology, i.e. the measurement of AFB1 biomarkers, has become important to assess human aflatoxin exposure. AFB1-lysine adduct, AFB1-DNA adduct and urinary aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) are some of the AFB1 biomarkers that can be measured by several analytical methods, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, radioimmunoassay, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). HPLC coupled to a fluorescence detector is useful and preferable due to its high degree of sensitivity, but the analysis may take time and consume large amount of solvents. Therefore, the present study extrapolated the HPLC method to ultra-HPLC for the determination of urinary AFM1. After the extraction procedure with an immunoaffinity column, chromatographic separation was done using a high performance 1.8 μm microparticulate C18 column. The mean recovery from urine samples spiked with 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 ng/ml AFM1 was 84.4±4.0%, with acceptable recovery values, interday (6.0±5.3%) and intraday (2.6±0.6%) coefficients of variation. The retention time was 5.7 min. This method was used to measure urinary AFM1 in 71 subjects, of which 13 had AFM1 levels above the limit of detection (0.018 ng/ml). The mean urinary AFM1 level of the positive samples was 18.8±28.6 pg/ml, ranging from 2.4 to 100.4 pg/ml. As this is one of the few studies investigating the occurrence of aflatoxin biomarkers in human biological samples in Malaysia, a study with a larger sample size is necessary to investigate the magnitude of aflatoxin exposure among the population

Lie symmetry and μ-symmetry methods for nonlinear generalized Camassa–Holm equation

Abstract In this paper, a Lie symmetry method is used for the nonlinear generalized Camassa–Holm equation and as a result reduction of the order and computing the conservation laws are presented. Furthermore, μ-symmetry and μ-conservation laws of the generalized Camassa–Holm equation are obtained

Juvenile-onset mixed connective tissue disease associated with macrophage activation syndrome: A case with refractory Raynaud's phenomenon

Introduction: Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) is an autoimmune disease that is rare in children. The disease is presented with complex clinical features, so early diagnosis is challenging. Herein we describe the management and outcome of a girl with MCTD associated with macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) and refractory Raynauds� phenomenon. Case report: A 13-year-old girl was admitted to the pediatric rheumatology ward with mild fever, reduced appetite, 6 kg weight loss (body mass index 15.8), digital ulcers, sclerodactyly, scleroderma, dysphagia, gastroesophageal reflux and arthralgia. She also had photosensitivity, Raynaud's phenomenon, painless oral ulcers, and malar rash. She developed arthritis of the knees and ankles with limited range of motion. Spirometry showed a restrictive pattern. There was speckled antinuclear antibodies (ANA; 1/1260) and positive β-2-glycoprotein, U1-ribonucleoprotein (U1-RNP), anti-Scl-70 and anti-Ro52 antibodies. Anti-double stranded deoxyribonucleic acid and anti-cyclic citrullinated protein antibodies were negative. Based on clinical and laboratory findings, MCTD was confirmed. The child was treated with steroid, vasodilators, and immunosuppressives. She had an attack of salmon pink rashes, spiky fevers, Koebner phenomenon, serositis, and organomegaly and the diagnosis of associated MAS was held. The patient was treated with pentoxifylline, prednisolone, methotrexate, low dose aspirin, nifedipine, and hydroxychloroquine. On follow up there was refractory digital ulcers and Raynaud's phenomenon; transthoracic endoscopic sympathectomy was performed and digital ulcers and coldness resolved. Conclusion: MCTD may present with a myriad of rheumatic manifestations and in association with MAS the diagnosis and management may be challenging. Refractory Raynauds� phenomenon may remarkably improve on transthoracic sympathectomy. © 201

Possibility of using fresh water rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus for feeding Persian sturgeon Acipenser persicus

Acipenser persicus, one of the native Species living in the southern part of the Caspian Sea, has high Percentage of larval mortality. Therefor to decrease the rate of mortality of larvae survival and to increase to regenerate properly during the active feeding process of fish larvae, while under artificial reproduction they were fed withe fresh water rotifer. Four types of feeding treatments were applied as follow: Treatment 1: Similar to normal process, first withe Artemia cyst then withe Daphnia Treatment 2: Mixture of Artemia, Rotifer and Daphnia; Treatment 3 freshwater Rotifera ;Treatment 4: fresh water Rotifer enriched with Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid- 6- Palmytat).Three replicates were used for each treatment. In the process of each observation 45 larvae in containers withe 100 liter capacity filled with 30 liters of water, after 8 days of external feeding process, were inspected closely, during which , they were under biometric measurement once every two days. Larvae were fed Four times a day at a rate of 25% of their body weight. The average temperature estimation was 22.5±0.5 centigrade, pH .of water being 85±0.1 while Oxygen proved to be 9.58±0.2 mg/l. At the end of the observation, the profile fatty acids of the remains were studied. The growth factors, the mouth size of the larvae and the expansion of the mouth size compared to the total length of the larvae during the whole observation were inspected. Credibility of data designated was examined by Shapiro Wilks test. Specific growth rate (SGR), weight growth (WG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were contemplated by one-way analysis test, and significant difference Tukey's test. The most notable diversity was evident between treatment 2, whose indicative factors were in the following order: 4.65± 0.06, 45.18±0.66, 4/48 ± 0/07 and treatment 4 whose indicative factors showed the following results: 10.47±0.04, 124.42±0.62, 1.51±0/008.For the determination of fatness rate and weight gains, Kruskal Valis and Man vit ni test were used .In this part of study , the highest diversity fatness appeared to be between treatment 4 ,reflecting 0.79±0.07 and treatment 2 showing the result 0.62±0.05.The highest gain was related to treatment 4, whit the rate of 99.33±0/68 mgr and the lowest gain occurred in treatment 2 white the rate 62.36 ± 0.65 mgr. This study also revealed that, the survival ratio connected with treatments 3 and 4, compared treatments 1 and 2, were significantly different. The profile of fatty acids also showed much higher percentage of PUFA and HUFA in treatments 3 and 4, than those in other treatments. Furthermore Brachionus calyciflorus proved to be a proper food supply for larvae. Therefore by building suitable pools next to the work side, other kinds of species fresh water rotifer could also be used as food improvements for feeding larvae

Is fluency being ‘neglected’ in the classroom? Teacher understanding of fluency and related classroom practices

This paper reports on a study examining second language (L2) teachers’ understanding of speech fluency and their self-reported classroom practices for promoting it. Qualitative and quantitative data collected from 84 L2 teachers in England were analysed to answer the research questions. In addition to the descriptive statistics and lexical frequency analysis used to explore teacher understanding of fluency, Rossiter, Derwing, Manimtim and Thomson’s (2010) framework was employed to analyse the teachers’ reported classroom practices. The results suggest that teachers often define fluency in a broad sense, with many using fluency and speaking ability interchangeably. Similarly, a large majority of the activities reported by the teachers were useful for enhancing speaking practice rather than focussing on fluency specifically. The findings underline the interaction between teacher understanding of fluency and their classroom practice (Borg, 2003), and highlight a mismatch between what fluency research recommends and what teachers do in class. Though the study highlights the complex and multifaceted nature of L2 oral fluency, we argue that adopting a narrower and more focused definition of fluency could help teachers take a more active and practical approach to promoting it in the classroom

Impaired respiratory burst contributes to infections in PKCδ-deficient patients

Patients with autosomal recessive protein kinase C δ (PKCδ) deficiency suffer from childhood-onset autoimmunity, including systemic lupus erythematosus. They also suffer from recurrent infections that overlap with those seen in patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), a disease caused by defects of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase and a lack of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. We studied an international cohort of 17 PKCδ-deficient patients and found that their EBV-B cells and monocyte-derived phagocytes produced only small amounts of ROS and did not phosphorylate p40phox normally after PMA or opsonized Staphylococcus aureus stimulation. Moreover, the patients' circulating phagocytes displayed abnormally low levels of ROS production and markedly reduced neutrophil extracellular trap formation, altogether suggesting a role for PKCδ in activation of the NADPH oxidase complex. Our findings thus show that patients with PKCδ deficiency have impaired NADPH oxidase activity in various myeloid subsets, which may contribute to their CGD-like infectious phenotype

Globalisation and MA TESOL programs in the UK

This article reports the results of a mixed-methods approach to investigating the association between globalisation and MATESOL in UK universities. Qualitative and quantitative data collected from academic staff through eight emails, four interviews and 41 questionnaires indicate that the globalised context of higher education have affected these programmes in a number of ways including an increasing interest in recruiting more international students and a growing awareness about the need for curriculum and content modifications. The analysis of the data suggests that although change has been an inherent characteristic of these MAs over the past decade, it has been implemented gradually and conservatively, often relying on a dialectic relationship between academic staff and universities’ policies. The results imply that factors other than globalisation have also been at work. Many of the participants contend that globalisation has not lowered the quality of these MAs or standards of good practice