Acid fast staining in formalin-fixed tissue specimen of patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis

Diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is difficult owing to low number of bacilli in the specimens, lack of adequate sample and non-uniform distribution of bacteria in tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) staining in biopsy specimens with typical granulomatous inflammation in patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis and some related predictors.This study included 226 tissue biopsies of patients with EPTB showing typical granulomatous inflammation. Ziehl-Neelsen staining was performed for acid fast bacilli on paraffin embedded sections of tissue blocks. The most common site of involvement was pleura followed by vertebral and lymph nodes. Past history of pulmonary tuberculosis was positive in 46% of patients. The overall AFB positivity in specimens was 26.1%. The most positivity was in pleural TB (35.2%) and the least was in bone and joints TB (4.8%). There was significant association between site of involvement and AFB positivity (p=0.042). In multivariate logistic regression model, previous history of pulmonary tuberculosis was strongly associated with AFB positivity. Our study showed somewhat higher rate of smear positivity for acid fast bacilli in tissue specimen with typical pathology in some types of EPTB especially in patients with history of pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite low sensitivity, this method should be performed in patients suspected to EPTB especially in developing counties where new modality is not routinely available

Transmission Capacity as a Common-Pool Resource: The Case of Gas Interconnector Capacity

We investigated the very real problem of congestion at gas interconnectors. Instead of suggesting further incremental change to the European regulation in force to remedy congestion problems, we took a step back and consider gas interconnectors as a Common-Pool Resource (CPR). We suggest to wait and see what institutions the shippers let emerge to govern and manage interconnector capacity. To explore this idea, we developed a model to simulate the possible emergence of institutions that would coordinate the shippers and help overcome congestion. We simulate 40 shippers at the Dutch and Belgian interconnectors and allow them to autonomously book capacity. Agents can learn over time to improve their behaviour and coordinate with each other to collectively define a new institution in the system. The main simulator indicators are the observed booking behaviour, agent profits and emerging institutions. We present and discuss preliminary results from a set of simulation runs

Effects of organic fertilisers and compost extracts on organic tomato production

The effects of various fertilizers and different compost extracts on crop health and tomato yield were studied in the field in 2004–2005 in two locations in Iran. Treatments included different fertilizers (cattle, sheep and chicken manures, green waste and household composts and chemical fertilizers) and five aqueous extracts (from cattle manure, chicken manure, green-waste and house-hold composts and water as control). The effect of fertilizer type on tomato yield was significant in both locations (P < 0.05). Organic fertilizer use did not obtain higher yields compared to using chemical fertiliser. Generally, chicken manure and green-waste compost led to the highest and lowest tomato yield among different organic fertilizers, respectively. The effect of aqueous extracts was not significant on either crop health or tomato yield with these results were being very limited and inconsistent. Improved efficacy of acceptable alternatives to agrochemicals, especially in organic farming, is required

Effect of different dietary levels of plant protein on growth indexes of white Leg shrimp

The influence of different dietary levels of plant protein (30, 50 and 70%) on growth indices of White Leg Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) fed with an original 38 percent protein was assessed and compared with that of the commercial shrimp diet. The average weight gain at the end of the culture period in treatment 1 (30% plant protein and 70% animal protein), was 5.89 plus or minus 0.06 grams, for treatment 2 (50% plant protein and 50% animal protein), was 6.22 plus or minus 0.25 grams, for treatment 3 (70% plant protein and 30% animal protein), was 6.19 plus or minus 0.24 grams and for the control treatment (20% plant protein and 80% animal protein), was 6.42 plus or minus 0.40 grams. Our study of the influence of experimental and control diets on growth indices including growth rate (GR), food conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), specific growth rate (SGR), and average daily gain (ADG), demonstrated that the indices were better in the control compared to the treatments. No significant difference was found among the treatments and between the treatments and the control for the indices (P>0.05). The percent of net protein utilization (NPU) in treatment 1 was significantly more than other treatments (P<0.05). We also found that the application of diets containing 50% plant protein (with 20% soybean meal) and 70% plant protein (with 41.72% soybean meal) can decrease diet costs. Cost of one kilogram of pellet in treatments 1, 2, 3 were 83.3%, 68.3% and 53.3% lower than the control diet respectively. Decrease of cost in treatment 2 and 3, in comparison to control in terms of lowering shrimp production cost is very important

Replacing of live food with artificial diet on growth and survival rates of white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) larvae

Replacing live food with artificial diets in aquatic larviculture, especially in shrimp larvae not only is caused convenience feeding, but also in economical view is very important. With this object, in this survey, a density of 100.L -1 white leg shrimp larvae in 9 nutritional treatments each with three replicates were cultured in 20L tanks each one was held with 10L of 30% salty water using one air stone. The larvae were fed 4 times.day-1 with different diets, including live foods (Cheatoceros gracilis and Artemia nauplii), artificial diets (handmade and imported) and different combinations. The results showed that the growth rate and survival percentage in larvae fed with combination feed treatments, were more desirable than those fed with food and feed treatments and feeding with homemade and imported feeds alone, raised high mortality in shrimp larvae during the experiment. Also, it was denoted that even if the zoea larvae has been fed with live food, feeding with 100% artificial diets for the resting larviculture period won't be possible because of decreasing significantly in growth rate, total length and survival percent of shrimp larvae, compare to the other treatments. In addition, replacing partly of live food with artificial diet without adverse affects on growth and survival rates of white leg shrimp larvae will be possible and the observation supported that the handmade feed with given formulation, had more suitable results comparing to the imported one for mixing with live food economically. Therefore, we recommend that a mixture the formulated diet and algae plus Artemia nauplii is used for culturing white shrimp larvae