Effect of Feeding Benzoic acid on Performance of Broiler Chickens

The research was conducted to determine the influence of benzoic acid on growth performance, carcass traits, blood parameters and meat chemical composition of broiler birds. The research was carried out using 90 three weeks old broilers (Ross 308) divided into three groups, 30 per each. The levels of inclusion of the benzoic acid was based on treatment 1 (control) 0%, treatment 2 = 0.4% and treatment 3 = 0.8%. Results showed that, feeding benzoic acid to broilers had no significant on body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion at the two tested levels. Carcass traits did not show significant differences for the treatments, with the exception of bursa weight significantly increased. The serum total protein and globulin were significantly (P<0.05) increased in benzoic acid supplemented broilers. However, no significant differences were observed in serum albumin, triglyceride, cholesterol and uric acid between different experimental groups. No significant differences were observed for hematological parameters among all treated groups. There were no significant differences in chemical composition of broilers meat, including dry matter, protein and ash content. It could be concluded that, dietary inclusion of benzoic acid at both levels improved the immune response by increasing the weight of bursa of Fabricius and elevating blood globulin level but did not affect broiler chickens growth performance

Optical Properties of PVA-BaSO4.5H2O Composites

Composites consisting of a polyvinyl alcohol matrix and BaSO4.5H2O as filler are designed. The optical properties were measured in the wavelength range from (190-850) nm. The experimental results showed that the absorption coefficient, extinction coefficient, refractive index and real and imaginary parts of dielectric constants are increasing with increase the addition of BaSO4.5H2O content. Keywords: Polyvinyl alcohol, Optical constants, Composites

Immune and Microrna Responses To Infection and Indole-3-Carbinol During Colitis

BACKGROUND: Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and other aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonists are known to modulate the immune system and ameliorate various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in animal models, including colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are also gaining traction as potential therapeutic agents or diagnostic elements. Enterohepatic (EHH) species are associated with an increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease, but little is known about how these species affect the immune system or response to treatment. AIM: To determine whether infection with an EHH species alters the response to I3C and how the immune and miRNA responses of an EHH species compare with responses to DSS and inflammatory bowel disease. METHODS: We infected C57BL/6 mice with (), with and without DSS and I3C treatment. Pathological responses were evaluated by histological examination, symptom scores, and cytokine responses. MiRNAs analysis was performed on mesenteric lymph nodes to further evaluate the regional immune response. RESULTS: infection alone caused colonic inflammation and upregulated proinflammatory, macrophage-associated cytokines in the colon similar to changes seen in DSS-treated mice. Further upregulation occurred upon treatment with DSS. infection caused broad changes in mesenteric lymph node miRNA expression, but colitis-associated miRNAs were regulated similarly in infected and uninfected, DSS-treated mice. In spite of causing colitis exacerbation, infection did not prevent disease amelioration by I3C. I3C normalized both macrophage- and T cell-associated cytokines. CONCLUSION: Thus, I3C may be useful for inflammatory bowel disease patients regardless of EHH infection. The miRNA changes associated with I3C treatment are likely the result of, rather than the cause of immune response changes

Immune and Microrna Responses To Infection and Indole-3-Carbinol During Colitis

BACKGROUND: Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and other aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonists are known to modulate the immune system and ameliorate various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in animal models, including colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are also gaining traction as potential therapeutic agents or diagnostic elements. Enterohepatic (EHH) species are associated with an increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease, but little is known about how these species affect the immune system or response to treatment. AIM: To determine whether infection with an EHH species alters the response to I3C and how the immune and miRNA responses of an EHH species compare with responses to DSS and inflammatory bowel disease. METHODS: We infected C57BL/6 mice with (), with and without DSS and I3C treatment. Pathological responses were evaluated by histological examination, symptom scores, and cytokine responses. MiRNAs analysis was performed on mesenteric lymph nodes to further evaluate the regional immune response. RESULTS: infection alone caused colonic inflammation and upregulated proinflammatory, macrophage-associated cytokines in the colon similar to changes seen in DSS-treated mice. Further upregulation occurred upon treatment with DSS. infection caused broad changes in mesenteric lymph node miRNA expression, but colitis-associated miRNAs were regulated similarly in infected and uninfected, DSS-treated mice. In spite of causing colitis exacerbation, infection did not prevent disease amelioration by I3C. I3C normalized both macrophage- and T cell-associated cytokines. CONCLUSION: Thus, I3C may be useful for inflammatory bowel disease patients regardless of EHH infection. The miRNA changes associated with I3C treatment are likely the result of, rather than the cause of immune response changes

Challenges Facing Iraq to Tackle the Spread of COVID-19: An Overview

On the 31st of December 2019, China reported several pneumonia-like infections in Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Ten days later, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was announced by the Chinese center for disease control (CCDC). At that time, the genome sequence was publicly made available. The genome sequence analysis of the newly identified virus was found similar to 75-80% of the SARS-CoV clade and more than 88% of bat corona viruses. On January 30th, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 epidemic. In March 2020, the WHO raised a state of emergency and declared that COVID-19 has become a pandemic. Unfortunately, Iraq confirmed the first cases of COVID-19 in February 2020. On April 25th, 46,135 tests were conducted in Iraq with 1763 positive cases. Although Iraq is making great efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic stimulating all the available capabilities, such as having a full lockdown and teaching people about the sickness danger, the numbers of cases and deaths started to dramatically increase in June. Now, on the 2nd of July, the infection and death cases were around 54 K and 2.2 K, respectively. Herein, we outline the challenges that the Iraqi health sector is facing to control the spread of COVID-19 with procedures followed so far. This could assist in understanding the severity of the situation and end up with a realistic understanding of it

Helicobacter’s Effects on Colitis/Colon Cancer and the Response to Indole 3-Carbinol

Enterohepatic Helicobacter (EHH) species are gram-negative bacteria, which are poorly studied. Several studies suggest that EHH species contribute to inflammatory bowel disease IBD in humans. IBD and colorectal cancer (CRC) has emerged as a public health challenge worldwide. Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) is one of the natural dietary indoles abundant in Brassica (cruciferous) vegetables. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) plays an essential role as a regulator by controlling the balance between Tregs and Th17 cells. The activation of AhR by ligands derived from food or intestinal microbiota is an essential control mechanism in that balance. Moreover, many studies showed indoles achieving chemo-preventive effects against cancer. We used the dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model to study the role of Helicobacter muridarum (Hm) bacteria with and without I3C treatment. We focused on the pathology outcomes after the bacterial infection and the I3C treatment during the DSS course. Weight loss, diarrhea, blood in the stool, and histopathology were measured. Inflammation markers were also measured in the plasma and the colon. We then studied the miRNA response. miRNAs are non-coding RNAs that can regulate genes involved in the immune responses. The purpose of the second study was to study the role of Helicobacter hepaticus (Hh). (Hh) can cause colitis in genetic or pharmacologically induced deficiencies of the Interleukin-10/Interleukin-10 receptor. We studied (Hh) infection role, in the DSS colitis model and AOM (Azoxymethane) /DSS colon cancer model in wild-type mice. Finally, the last study\u27s purpose was to examine the effects of different species of Helicobacter on developing acute gut injury in male and female mice with and without DSS treatment. The species used are known to infect humans: H. cinaedi, H. fennelliae, H. hepaticus, and H. pullorum. Similar pathology and immune response measurements were done for this study, as was done for the other studies

Developing a Predictive Health Care System for Diabetes Diagnosis as a Machine Learning-Based Web Service

مقدمة: مرض السكري من الأمراض الخطيرة والصامتة التي تسبب الموت المفاجئ. يمكن أن تحدث في أي وقت وقد تسبب إصابة كبيرة بأعضاء الجسم أو تتلفها بالكامل. لذلك يجب التحقيق في هذا المرض في بداية ظهوره وقبل أن يصعب علاجه. مع التقدم السريع في التعلم الآلي (ML) ، عززت هذه الأساليب كفاءة عمليات اتخاذ القرار في مجموعة واسعة من التطبيقات ، بما في ذلك التشخيص الطبي. طرق العمل: في هذا البحث ، اخترنا مجال تطبيق طبي واستخدمنا خوارزميات التعلم الآلي الخاضعة للإشراف لبناء نموذج تنبؤ عالي الدقة لمرض السكري لدى البشر في مرحلة مبكرة ، قبل أن يتطور إلى درجة المرض أو الوفاة. يمكن للنموذج المقترح استخلاص المعرفة المخفية من البيانات المتعلقة بمرض السكري التي تم جمعها من مستودع التعلم الآلي Kaggle. استخدمنا Microsoft Azure ML Studio لنمذجة خوارزميات ML. الاستنتاجات: تتمثل المساهمة الرئيسية للنظام المقترح في تحسين جودة الرعاية الصحية ، وتقليل الاستشفاء ، وخفض النفقات المرتفعة للرعاية الصحية والأدوية.Background: Diabetes is one of the dangerous and silent illnesses that cause sudden death. It can occur at any time and may cause great injury to the organs of the body or damage them completely. So, we must investigate this disease at the beginning of its appearance and before it gets hard to treat. With the fast advancement of Machine Learning (ML), these approaches enhanced the efficiency of decision processes in a wide range of applications, including medical diagnostics. Materials and Methods: In this paper, we chose a medical application field and used supervised machine learning algorithms to construct a high-accuracy prediction model for diabetes in humans at an early stage, before it progresses to the point of morbidity or fatality. The suggested model can extract hidden knowledge from diabetes-related data gathered from the Kaggle machine learning repository. We utilize Microsoft Azure ML Studio to model these ML algorithms. Results: This study will benefit the health industry by offering users an online tool (i.e., web service) that allows them to input data and receive results that predict whether or not the person has diabetes. As a result, prior knowledge and ongoing monitoring of their diabetic health state will lower the risk of complications, morbidity, and death caused by this illness. After running numerous experiments with the classifier models to evaluate the proposed system, several performance indicators, including Recall, Precision, Accuracy, and f1-score, are measured for comparison. Based on the classification output, it was determined that Decision Forest is a better strategy and produces better results than the other ML approaches. Conclusion: The suggested system's key contribution is to improve healthcare quality, minimize hospitalizations, and lower the high expenditures of healthcare and drugs.&nbsp

Behavior, Fear Response, Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Economic Efficiency of Fayoumi Chicks Fed Different Levels of Fennel Seeds

The study objective was to evaluate the effects of fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare) as a dietary additive on some behaviors, fear response, performance, carcass traits, serum metabolites and economic efficiency of male fayoumi chickens. For this purpose, 60 birds of 28 days of age were divided into control group and three treatment groups. Each group (5 birds x 3 replicates). The fennel seeds were added to the treatment diets at concentrations of 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2%, respectively. Result showed that, fennel seeds treated groups had significant difference (P<0.05), and showed higher feed intake, ingestive and comfort behavior, production efficiency index, body weight, weight gain, relative economic efficiency, serum total protein and globulin. While, had lower aggressive behavior and fear response than birds on fennel free diet. On the other hand, no changes in feed conversion, relative growth rate, dressing percentage and internal organ relative weight, serum calcium and phosphorus levels due to fennel addition. It could be concluded, that fennel seeds have a growth stimulatory effect, improving behavior, fear response, economic efficiency and general health status of male fayoumi chickens