Dietary administration of vitamin C and Lactobacillus rhamnosus in combination enhanced the growth and innate immune response of the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

The effects of dietary vitamin C and Lactobacillus rhamnosus on immunity and growth performance were investigated in Oncorhynchus mykiss. For this purpose, 480 rainbow trout (68±5g) were obtained from a local farm and acclimated to laboratory conditions for 10 days and then divided into four groups in three replicates. During 30 days, juvenile rainbow trout were fed diets supplemented with vitamin C (1g/kg) and L. rhamnosus (at 5 × 107 CFU/g) or a control diet. Biometry was done at day -30 and blood samples were taken by caudal vein after fish anesthesia with clove powder at day 0, 15, 30 and 45. Serum lysozyme activity, alternative complement activity and total plasma immunoglobulin level were assayed as innate immune response of rainbow trout. Results showed fish fed with vitamin c and L. rhamnosus (group 3) statistically could improve fish growth performance. Also lysozyme activity and alternative complement activity of serum significantly were higher in group three than other groups, but total plasma level of immunoglobulin only was higher than all groups at day 30. In conclusion dietary administration of vitamin C and L. rhamnosus in rainbow trout diet could enhance the growth and innate immune response, but these properties need further studies on the field applications

Surgical complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome: Single center experiences

Purpose: To determine the prevalence, outcome and prognostic factors in children with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) who underwent laparotomy. Materials and Methods: The medical records of 104 patients with HUS who presented to our center between 1986 and 2003 were reviewed retrospectively. Data were analyzed using Student�s t test for comparing means, Fisher�s exact test for frequencies and Pearson�s correlation for finding the correlations. Results: 78 of cases presented with vomiting and diarrhea. Seven out of 104 needed surgical exploration. The indications of surgery were acute abdomen, severe abdominal distention and the sign of peritonitis. The findings at laparotomy were intussusceptions, perforation (colon, ileum), gangrene of entire colon, rectosigmoidal tearing, duodenal obstruction and toxic megacolon. Pathological findings were transmural infarction in two cases in which staged surgical management was performed (cecostomy, resection, later anastomosis). Four out of seven patients died because of pulmonary failure, coma and multiple organ failure ( P 0.05) compared to those who did not need laparotomy. The patients requiring surgery were young ( 3 years), had high leukocyte count (20000 mm3 ) and low albumin level ( 3g/dl) ( P 0.05). Conclusion: Surgical complications of HUS are rare but are assorted with high mortality due to respiratory failure and multiple organ failure. Early decision of laparotomy associated with intensive care, including mechanical ventilation, adequate dialysis and ultrafiltration, are recommended

High-voltage pulse generator based on sequentially charged MMC-SMs operating in a voltage-boost mode

Pulse forming networks and Marx generators are the classical rectangular waveform pulse generators (PGs). They are inflexible and their capacitors must be fully charged to the required voltage from 0V before delivering each high-voltage (HV) pulse. They are only able to generate unipolar pulses; if bipolar pulses are sought another generator fed from a negative supply voltage is added. Recently, several power electronics based PGs have been proposed. This paper presents an HV power electronics based PG, which is based on Half-Bridge Modular Multilevel Converter (HB-MMC) sub-modules (SMs) charged sequentially in a voltage boost mode. Each SM capacitor and main switch form a boost converter with the charging input supply and inductor. As a result, all SM capacitors are charged to a voltage greater than the input. During the discharging process the SM capacitors are connected in series, producing a rectangular HV pulse across the load. The proposed charging method allows a reduction in the converter footprint in comparison with recently proposed MMC sequentially charged PG topologies. Although only rectangular pulse waveforms are sought in this paper, a SM capacitor voltage balance method allows multilevel pulse generation. The viability of the proposed converter is confirmed by MATLAB/Simulink simulation and scaled-down experimentation

Etiological factors in primary hepatic B-cell lymphoma

Sixty-four cases of malignant lymphoma involving the liver were examined. Of these, 20 cases were histologically confirmed to be primary hepatic B-cell lymphoma. Twelve of these 20 cases were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and eight cases were mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. Of the 12 cases of DLBCL, six were immunohistologically positive for CD10 and/or Bcl6 (indicating a germinal center phenotype), six were positive for Bcl2, and five were positive for CD25. Eight of the 12 DLBCL cases (66.7%) and two of the eight MALT lymphoma cases (25%) had serum anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies and HCV RNA. The incidence of HCV infection was significantly higher in the hepatic DLBCL cases than in systemic intravascular large B-cell cases with liver involvement (one of 11 cases, 9.1%) and T/NK-cell lymphoma cases (one of 19 cases, 5.3%) (p < 0.01 for both). Two hepatic DLBCL cases (16.7%) had rheumatoid arthritis treated with methotrexate, and four MALT lymphoma cases (50%) had Sjögren’s syndrome, primary biliary cirrhosis, or autoimmune hepatitis; one case in each of these two groups was complicated by chronic HCV-seropositive hepatitis. Although primary hepatic lymphoma is rare, persistent inflammatory processes associated with HCV infection or autoimmune disease may play independent roles in the lymphomagenesis of hepatic B cells

Robust state estimation and unknown inputs reconstruction for a class of nonlinear systems: Multiobjective approach

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. We consider a novel method to design H∞ observers for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems subject to unknown inputs. First, the main system dynamics are rewritten as an augmented system with state vector including both the state vector of the main system and the unknown inputs. Then, we design a H∞ reduced-order observer to estimate both state variables and unknown inputs simultaneously. Based on a Lyapunov functional, we derive a sufficient condition for existence of the designed observer which requires solving a nonlinear matrix inequality. To facilitate the observer design, the achieved condition is formulated in terms of a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMI). By extending the proposed method to a multiobjective optimization problem, the maximum bound of the uncertainty and the minimum value of the disturbance attenuation level are found. Finally, the proposed observer is illustrated with an example

Esophageal Replacement in Children: Presentation of 18 Cases and Results of Their Surgical Procedure

Background:Esophageal replacement is indicated in certain circumstances including long gap esophageal atresia,severe strictures due to gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) and caustic burns. We analyzed our results of 18 patients who underwent esophageal replacement in our university hospital. Methods:We reviewed esophageal replacements carried out in our department between June 1996 and August 2004.We report 18 patients(4 girls and 14 boys) with ages ranging from 3.5 until 30 months.Fifteen patients had long gap atresia,two had strictures due to GER,and one case had caustic burn. Esophageal replacement was performed through an abdominal midline incision by one of three methods, namely: colon transposition in 15, gastric replacement in 2, and gastric tube in 1 case. Results: Leakage and stricture were the most common complications of esophageal replacement.Most deaths were due to aspiration pneumonia and congenital cardiac disease.Conclusion:Esophageal replacement has limited indications.It allows a good functional result,with adequate oral feeding and normal growth