The effect of different dietary and management interventions on aspects of foot health, gut function and litter microbiome composition in growing poultry

Foot pad dermatitis (FPD) in poultry is a contact dermatitis that can be painful and has a negative impact on bird welfare and performance. The primary cause is wet litter and so any factors which may cause the litter to become wet (eg poor choice of bedding material, dietary imbalances and poor gut health) may increase the risk of the birds developing FPD . In this thesis, various nutritional and management interventions were investigated to determine their impact on bird performance, aspects of gut and foot health and function, and measures of litter quality. When turkeys were fed whole grain wheat (WGW), either as free choice or mixed with the diet at inclusion rates up to 200 g/kg diet, it was observed that intake of WGW was much more variable in birds offered free choice WGW, although mean intake of WGW was greater. Bird performance was better if WGW was not fed, but if WGW was included in the diet, performance was better when WGW was mixed into the diet rather than offered free choice. WGW reduced gizzard pH, which might inhibit the growth of pathogens in the gut, but at a molecular level it had no effect on the presence of Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella spp or Brachyspira pilosicoli. It also had no effect on litter moisture content or incidence of foot pad dermatitis. When broilers were reared on different bedding materials (Envirobed or wood shavings), bird weight was greater if broilers were kept on wood shavings, but birds consumed more Envirobed bedding and this was associated with drier digesta so that the risk of FPD might be lower with Envirobed. Broilers were then fed either a wheat or maize based diet and reared on wood shavings which were either clean or had excreta from mature laying hens added. There was effect on bird performance, but feeding maize may reduce the risk of FPD as it was associated with reduced litter ammonia content, increased litter pH and decreased prevalence of ampicillin resistant E. coli in both the birds’ gut and the litter. Litter quality is improved (and FPD reduced) if birds are encouraged to consume bedding (or a high fibre feed) and fed maize rather than wheat. The finding of this thesis are that, to reduce the risk of foot pad dermatitis in broilers and turkeys, the birds’ litter must remain dry and friable. This will be achieved by adequate ventilation and good management of drinkers, but also by maintaining good gut health in the birds. In this thesis, drier excreta and litter were associated with higher bedding (or fibre) consumption, and by feeding birds maize rather than wheat

Isolation of Entomopathogenic and Opportunistic Fungi from Soil in Duhok Province,Kurdistan Region of Iraq by Different Selective Isolation Media

Soil is a natural habitat for several important insect pathogenic fungi which play a key role in regulating populations of soil dwelling insect pests. Forty soil samples were collected during 2012-2013 from different agro ecosystems at Duhok governorate were screened for the presence of soil dwelling entomopathogenic fungi using four different selective isolation media. The four isolation media were prepared by modifying previously prepared DOC2 medium and a selective medium based on the use of Cetyletrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) with oatmeal agar (OT) as a basal medium. The percentage occurrence of fungi and number of detected species was significantly affected by the type of isolation medium. The least number of recovered species (5 species) was on DOC2 medium, whereas, the highest number (14 species) was displayed by CTAB+OT medium. The two true entomopathogenic species Lecanicillium lecanii and Metarhizium anisopliae were successfully recovered only with our new formula by combination of DOC2+CTAB and OT+CTAB media, whereas, DOC2 and DOC2+OT media failed to recover the two species. This result indicated that addition of CTAB to media was a vital factor for the recovery of the two entomopathogenic species. L. lecanii and M. anisopliae have been recorded for the first time from Iraqi soil. Several other opportunistic pathogens were also detected. These include Aspergillus flavus, A.parasiticus, Clonostachys rosea and Fusarium species. The distribution of entomopathogenic and opportunistic fungi is discussed in relation to different agroecosystems and to some physical and chemical characteristics of soil samples. Key words: Entomopathogenic fungi, soil, Iraq.

Relationship between unionized companies, government ownership and reporting human capital information in corporate annual reports

Investors, employees, and societies are interested in human capital information. This information will assist investors to assess the effectiveness of human capital management to deliberate their investment capital allocation. The employees will also know the extent of their development and value in organizations. Despite the significant role of human capital in the success and survival of an organization, human capital information disclosure is still limited in annual reports. Thus, investors or other stakeholders have scarce information to distinguish between organizations that develop human capital and those that constrain human capital. The factors that explain the disclosure is still unknown. In light of stakeholder’s theory, this study investigated the relationship between highly unionized companies and government-owned companies, which are factors that can pressure companies to disclose human capital information in annual reports. Companies from the banking and financial institution industries were selected as highly unionized companies, whereas companies from the real property industry were selected as poorly unionized companies based on the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) dataset. Government ownership was also identified in these sample companies. A total of 192 annual reports gathered from 48 companies for the financial year from 2010 to 2014 were analyzed in terms of content. Control variables, such as age, size, profit, and leverage, were also associated in the relationship. This study determined that highly unionized companies (banks) and government ownership demonstrate significantly positive relationship with human capital information reporting in annual reports. For control variables, only the size of companies shows positive relationship with the disclosure. Therefore, the presence of stakeholders in companies (i.e., union membership and government) is considered a good predictor for reporting human capital information in annual reports

ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN BLOCKCHAIN-BASED EDUCATIONAL PARADIGMS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW PROTOCOL

Blockchain is a new technology that provides services of immutability, trust, disintermediation, collaboration, transparency. Nowadays, the use of this new technology is mostly used for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but apart from this, blockchain technology improved the performance level of other areas of life i.e. Higher Education Institution (HEI) and stakeholders, certificate verification, and many other domains. Students and educational institutions' important data are mostly shared via different networks. The data integrity, privacy, and security are the major issues for these in blockchain technology which cannot be avoided. This paper is a documented plan for to conduct or a protocol based on which a systematic literature review would be conducted focusing on the issues, challenges, and major strengths of blockchain and its educational paradigms. The result of this review will be highly helpful for the new researchers to overcome the proposed issues and challenges, exploring educational paradigms in Blockchain, elaborate the major strengths helping the educational institutes in adapting process and increase the level of satisfaction. This study plans to explore some educational types with some issues and challenges such as scalability, immutability, and easy adaptation

Association of the Arginase Ι with Bronchial Asthma

الهدف: الهدف من هذه الدراسة هو الكشف عن إنزيم ارجينز I ودوره في مرضى المصابين بالربو و دراسة علاقته بالربو القصبي. المواد والطرق: تم جمع عينات الدم من 100 مرضى مصابين بمرض الربو اللذين ادخلوا قسم الباطنية في مستشفى رزكاري التعليمي و 100 شخصاً من الاصحاء الذين ليس لديهم علامات سريرية سابقة لأي مرض حاد أو مزمن كمجموعة المقارنة. حيث تم ملء الاستبيان على أساس مرض الربو الناجم عن نوعه ومدة المرض وعمر المرضى والجنس والحالة السريرية للعائلة وظرف الحساسية. في مركز البحث الطبي تم فصل مصل الدم لإجراء فحص ARGΙ وايجاد علاقته مع الربو القصبي باستخدام تقنية مناعي مرتبط بالإنزيم (ELISA). تم تحديد نشاط ARGΙ وقياس تحويل الأرجينين إلى اورثنين واليوريا باستخدام مقياس قياس الألوان الكمية علي طول موجي490 نانومتر. النتائج: أظهرت النتائج الي وجود علاقة ايجابية بين ARGΙ والربو القصبي. لوحظ ارتفاع ملحوظ في مستوى الارجينيز في مصل الدم للمرضى الذين تتجاوز اعمارهم عن 81 سنة و قيمة متوسط و قيمة p (0.000); (100.16±19.77c),). كما لوحظ علاقة ملحوظ في مستوى الارجينيز مع مدة الاصابة بالمرض. حيث كان مستوى الارجينيز عالية في المرضى المصابة بالربو لأكثر من 20 سنة (82.48±38.81c), و قيمة p (0.01). كذلك لوحظ علاقة ملحوظ بين مستوى الارجينيز وأولئك الذين يعانون من أنواع الربو المستحث ومع ظرف الحساسية أيضا. ولكن لوحظ اختلاف غير معنوي في مستوى الارجينيز للمصل مع الحالة السريرية للعائلة لمرض الربو وجنس المريض. وأظهرت النتائج وجود ارتباط ملحوظ ل ARG Ι في تطويرمرض الربو في p ˂ 0.05.Objective The aim of this study was to detect the arginase Ι (ARG I) enzyme in asthma patients, clarify its role, in addition to examining the relationship of this enzyme with bronchial asthma. Methods: Blood samples were collected from 100 patients from the Department of Medicine in Rizgary Hospital in Erbil City, in addition to intact 100 volunteers; the introduced questionnaire was filled out on the basis of type-induced asthma, duration of the disease, age of the patients, gender, family history, and allergy condition, Serum was separated to perform Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in Medical Research Center to examine the association of ARGΙ with bronchial asthma. By ARG activity we can measure the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea. By using a quantitative colorimetric assay at 490 nm, employing a QuantiChrom arginase assay kit (Bioassay Systems). Results: Our results depicted the association between ARGΙ and bronchial asthma: based on their age, significant elevation of serum arginase level was observed in the patients with ≥81 years old, which mean value (100.16±19.77c), p-value (0.000); also the duration of asthma ≥20 years (82.48±38.81c) , p-value (0.01) were remarkably affected; this sign was found in those with types of induced asthma and with allergy condition.  But the non- significant difference in the frequency of abnormal serum arginase level was observed in those patients that have a family history of asthma disease and gender of the patients. This finding demonstrated a remarkable association of ARG Ι in the development of asthma at p ˂ 0.05

The Impact of Teaching Materials on Learning Computer Programming Languages in Kurdistan Region Universities and Institutes

It is evident that learning and teaching computer programming are considered as one of the striking challenges in academic environments. Meanwhile, selecting the correct and appropriate materials can leave an enormous impact in learning computer programming languages. However, recently this argument has been put under scrutiny as to which types of materials motivate learners to learn computer programming languages as well as enhance learning outcomes. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the current teaching and learning materials of computer programming languages in Kurdistan region of Iraq universities. Additionally, another aim is to give a rigorous analysis of how materials help students to learn computer programming language. A further focus is to identify the difficulties of learning computer programming languages at undergraduate level which constitutes technical Diploma and Bachelor. The last but not the least, this paper examines new approaches to teaching programming languages as a cognitive model for programming education

The Impact of the Current Ratio and Profitability Ratio on Solvency Ratios: An Applied Study in the Tehran Stock Exchange

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of liquidity ratio and profitability ratio on the solvency ratio of pharmaceutical companies, which are listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSETMC) for the period (2011-2017). To arrive at this conclusion, the simple linear regression method, using the secondary data of 10 pharmaceutical companies in the annual financial statements of these companies, after auditing them into the analysis program (SPSS 22). where each liquidity ratio (LR) measured the by current ratio (CR) and profitability ratio (PR) measured by return on equity (ROE), as two independent variables - based on liquidity ratio index (SR) used as the dependent variable used are evaluated. The results revealed that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the solvency ratio (SR) and liquidity ratio (LR) in pharmaceutical companies. However, there is a statistically significant negative relationship between the profitability ratio (PR) and the debt-to-asset ratio, which serves as a measure of the solvency ratio (SR). Thus, the results of the study showed that each of the independent variables has an impact on the solvency ratio (SR) in the Iranian pharmaceutical sector. The study suggested that future research should examine the impact of liquidity ratio (LR) and profitability ratio (PR) on solvency ratio (SR) in other sectors and industrial establishments, especially important to compare Iranian firms with the same developing country firms in a situation financial are similar

Abdominal pain from ingested bone misdiagnosed as appendicitis: Report of a rare case and literature review

Bones are potential foreign bodies that could be accidentally ingested, leading to several symptoms varying from asymptomatic to perforation of the gastrointestinal tract. However, these cases are rare but may be misdiagnosed with other common diseases such as appendicitis. We present in this case a 25-year-old male who presented with appendicitis symptoms, after appendectomy the patient had the same complaint, But the colonoscopy demonstrated a meat bone in the terminal ileum and was removed with the same device. Finally, he was discharged from the hospital without complications and after decreasing abdominal pain. According to the literature review, this is one of the rare cases of using colonoscopy to treat bone impaction non-operatively

The effect of incremental inclusion of whole grain wheat in the diet of growing turkeys on growth performance, feed conversion ratio, cecal health, and digesta characteristics

This study was conducted to determine the effects of adding incremental amounts of whole grain wheat (0, 100, and 200 g per kilogram of feed) to the diet of growing turkey poults on growth performance, feed efficiency, digesta pH, and the incidence of cecal distension. Seventy two, 6-wk-old commercial line turkeys were blocked by live weight and randomly allocated to 1 of 3 dietary treatment (n = 4 pens/treatment). Turkeys were offered their respective treatments for the duration of the study. Feed offered and refused and body weights were determined weekly. At 63 d of age 12 turkeys from each treatment were euthanized and crop contents were collected and weighed, pH of gizzard and cecal digesta measured, and ceca and cecal contents visually scored. At 84 d of age, all remaining turkeys were euthanized and the same sampling procedure repeated. Feed conversion ratio was poorer in those turkeys offered diets containing whole grain wheat (P < 0.05), declining quadratically (P < 0.005) as the proportion of whole grain wheat (WGW) in the diet increased. The proportion of WGW found in the crop post-mortem reflected whole wheat inclusion rates of the diets. The pH of gizzard contents at 63 d was lower in turkeys receiving diets supplemented with WGW, declining quadratically (P = 0.005) as the proportion of WGW in the diet increased. However, this difference in gizzard pH was not apparent at 84 d of age. Cecal content pH, cecal visual appearance scores, and cecal content visual appearance scores were not affected by the inclusion of WGW to the diet. The inclusion of WGW to the diets of growing turkeys reduces growth performance and feed efficiency suggesting that the addition of whole wheat may have reduced the nutritional quality of the diet as a whole

Free Primary Education Policy Implementation Challenges in the Perspectives of Teachers: A Case Study in Pyin Oo Lwin District of Myanmar

&lt;p&gt;The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges faced by teachers in implementing the Free Primary Education Policy in Pyin Oo Lwin District, Myanmar. This paper identified key factors that influenced the implementation of policies and proposed strategies for achieving these objectives.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Literature reviews had been conducted using electronic databases and government documents, focusing on English-language articles published between 2010 and 2023. According to a PRISMA flowchart documenting the selection process, the study followed strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. In order to collect data, a standardized form was used, and quality assessment tools were employed according to the design of the study.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results of the study indicated that policy implementation was confronted with a number of challenges, including limited resources, deteriorating infrastructure, inadequate training, and a lack of support systems. Further, cultural and contextual factors played a significant role in determining policy effectiveness. The study proposed strategies to address these challenges, including the allocation of resources, the development of infrastructure, the training of teachers, and the enhancement of support systems. There were valuable lessons to be learned from other regions when it came to adapting policy measures.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the key findings of the study was the critical lack of qualified teachers, particularly in remote regions, as well as the need for enhanced teacher training and professional development. Due to the increased student-teacher ratio resulting from the policy, teachers were required to manage their classrooms effectively. There were several factors that influenced teacher motivation and morale, including low salaries and limited opportunities for career advancement. In order to achieve policy success, it was also essential that teachers and parents worked together effectively.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A number of strategies were implemented to achieve policy goals, including strengthening teacher training, improving access to educational resources, increasing parental and community involvement, addressing infrastructure needs, aligning curriculums, and establishing robust evaluation and monitoring systems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The findings of this study emphasized the importance of context-specific approaches in the implementation of educational policies. In order to contribute to the success of Myanmar's Free Primary Education Policy, the proposed strategies had been tailored to the needs of Pyin Oo Lwin District in order to improve education quality and accessibility.&lt;/p&gt