The Effects of In ovoInjection of Ascorbic Acid on Hatchability, Growth Performance, Intestinal Morphology, and Tibia Breaking Strength in 36h Post Hatch Fasted Broiler Chickens

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of intra-amnion administration of different doses of ascorbic acid (AA) on hatchability, growth performance, blood metabolites, jejunal morphology, and tibia breaking strength in 36h post hatch fasted broiler chickens. Two hundred eighty-eight Ross-308 fertile eggs at the 15thday of incubation were divided into four treatment groups, each containing four replicates of 18 eggs. The treatments included non-injected (control), injected into the amnion with 0.7 mL diluent (distilled water; sham treatment), and injected with 0.7 mL diluent containing 3 or 6 mg AA. The neonatal chicks were deprived of feed and water for 36 h. Hatched chicks were raised till 10 d of age. Hatch percentage was increased due to in ovo injection of 6 mg/egg AA.In ovo injection of different levels of AA had no significant effect on body weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio. In ovo injection of AA, especially at the 6 mg level, significantly increased villus height, villus width, and villus height: crypt depth ratio at 3 d of age. Tibia resistance and breaking strength were improved by in ovo injection of 6 mg AA when compared to the control at 10 d of age. In conclusion, it seems in ovo injection of 6 mg AA/egg on 15th d of incubation could have a positive impact on hatchability, intestinal morphology, and bone characteristics in broiler chickens

miR-455-5p downregulation promotes inflammation pathways in the relapse phase of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis disease

MicroRNA-455-5p (miR-455-5p) seems to have an anti-inflammatory role in the immune system since its expression is induced by IL-10 cytokine. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that is caused by an autoimmune inflammatory attack against the myelin insulation of neurons. The expression level of miR-455-5p and its role in MS pathogenesis has yet to be elucidated. We found that miR-455-5p expression was highly correlated with disease severity in MS patients. miR-455-5p expression inversely correlates with its inflammatory-predicted targets (MyD88 and REL) in relapse- and remitting-phase patients. Luciferase assays confirm that MyD88 and REL are direct targets of miR-455-5p. This study represents the first report of the miR-455-5p acts as an anti-inflammatory role in MS, at least partially through targeting MyD88 and REL. This study may provide important information for the use of miR-455-5p as a novel strategy to improve the severity of disease and control inflammation and attack in MS patients. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

On the Complexity of Model Expansion

Abstract. We study the complexity of model expansion (MX), which is the prob-lem of expanding a given finite structure with additional relations to produce a finite model of a given formula. This is the logical task underlying many prac-tical constraint languages and systems for representing and solving search prob-lems, and our work is motivated by the need to provide theoretical foundations for these. We present results on both data and combined complexity of MX for several fragments and extensions of FO that are relevant for this purpose, in par-ticular the guarded fragment GFk of FO and extensions of FO and GFk with inductive definitions. We present these in the context of the two closely related, but more studied, problems of model checking and finite satisfiability. To obtain results on FO(ID), the extension of FO with inductive definitions, we provide translations between FO(ID) with FO(LFP), which are of independent interest.

Evaluation of lead concentration over Tehran metropolitan area

Considering the traffics volume in Tehran, the lead measurement in city's atmosphere is of prime important. The source of lead in cities atmosphere is either in inorganic fonn, resulting from combustion of leaded gasoline, or in organic form, from unburned evaporated gasoline. For the first time in Iran a procedure was adopted for organic lead determination in air by the department of air pollution in Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI). The determination of lead in air, organic and inorganic, were carried out in five locations for the period ofnine months. The results indicated that concentration of inorganic and organic lead ranged respectively from 0.24 to 3.4 $\mu$g/m$^3$ and Trace amount to 15.15 $\mu$g/m$^3$ as Pb. Concentrations were generally highest in densely traffic areas, intermediate in commercial areas, and lowest in residential areas. The effect of inversion phenomena and metrological parameters were the main reasons for increasing of average lead concentrations in autumn and winter

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Lowering the Learning Curve for Declarative Programming: A Python API for the IDP System

Programmers may be hesitant to use declarative systems, because of the associated learning curve. In this paper, we present an API that integrates the IDP Knowledge Base system into the Python programming language. IDP is a state-of-the-art logical system, which uses SAT, SMT, Logic Programming and Answer Set Programming tech- nology. Python is currently one of the most widely used (teaching) lan- guages for programming. The first goal of our API is to allow a Python programmer to use the declarative power of IDP, without needing to learn any new syntax or semantics. The second goal is allow IDP to be added to/removed from an existing code base with minimal changes.status: publishe