Correlations Between Incidence of Foot Pad Lesions and Body Weight of Broilers in Different Rearing Systems

The incidence of foot pad lesions of broilers of moderate growth was investigated in order to establish correlations with body weight. Broilers were reared until the age of 42 days in the floor system in the poultry house and then were divided into two groups. The first group continued growing in the poultry house until the age of 84 days and the second group was growing in the free range system until the same age. Individual measurements of body weight and evaluation of the incidence of foot pad lesions of broilers were carried out at the end of the experiment. In a correlation analysis of previously transformed data on the percentage of broilers with lesions and body weight within each weight group, data were obtained that showed an association between these traits depending on the rearing system. System of rearing had significant impact on the strength and direction of correlation between body weight and the incidence of foot pad lesions, in light of the determined correlation coefficient r = -0.95 at the significance level p=0.01 in the free range system, and r=0.56 (p>0.05) in chickens reared in the poultry house

Effect of reinforcement on mechanical characteristics of A356 alloy nanocomposites

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. Nanocomposites with aluminum base reinforced with nanoparticles, have wide application in many industries, for example, aerospace, marine, automobile, due to its lightweight, high tensile strength and high wear resistance, etc. The study of the microstructure, mechanical and tribological properties of the nanocomposite is very important in order to reliably and optimally carry out the design of new materials. In this study for the mechanical characterization of the A356 composites with a ceramic particle reinforcements nanoindentation was performed. Nanoindentaion is largely used for the analysis of mechanical properties. The samples of the nanocomposites were developed using 0, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 wt.% SiC, with an average size of particles of about 50 nm, produced by a compocasting process with pre-processing mechanical alloying. Nanoindentation was carried out based on Berkovich's test method with the indenter in shape of three sided diamond pyramid. The nanocomposite testing showed that the nanocomposites containing 0.5 wt.% of the reinforcement have slightly higher tensile strength and a lower value of the elastic modulus compared to the aluminum alloy base

Morphological Characteristics of Breast and Thigh Muscles of Autochthonous Breeds of Chickens

Morphological characteristics of skeletal muscles of autochthonous breeds of chickens are very important for meat quality and comparison with current hybrids for intensive production. The autochthonous breeds used in the experiment were Sombor crested and Banat naked neck, both sexes. For the purposes of morphological examination, tissue samples were taken from the thigh muscle (m. biceps femoris) and muscles of the breast (m. pectoralis profundus) of 5 male and female animals of each breed. After a standard histological procedure for conventional light microscopy, samples were stained with hematoxylin - eosin. After the processing of the samples for the histochemical analysis, samples were stained with the enzyme succinate - dehydrogenase (SDH) with the aim of determining the presence of different muscle cell types (red, white and intermediate). Morphological parameters, in this study, were diameter of muscle cells, nucleocytoplasmic ratio of muscle cells, volume density of connective tissue within the muscle and the presence of red, white and intermediate muscle cell types. Comparison of diameters of muscle cells thigh and breast muscles between Sombor crested and Banat naked neck have showed that kind of muscle, race or gender have no significant effect on the differences in this parameter. There were no statistically significant differences in the nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio of the volume density of the connective tissue of muscles. Red muscle cells were, in both autochthonous breeds, significantly more represented in m. biceps femoris than m. pectoralis profundus. The results of this study indicate that no differences were observed between autochthonous breeds in morphological parameters for examined breast and thigh muscle

The effects of detergent, sodium tripoly-phosphate and ethoxyled oleyl-cetyl alcohol on metabolic parameters of the fungus trichothecium roseum link

The degradation of detergents that are dispersed in water and soil partially depends on the metabolic activities of fungi. Among the fungi that have this ability, Deuteromycetes are particularly noted for their biochemical characteristics. Taking this into account, it was of interest to analyze the influence of detergent and its main compounds, ethoxyled oleylcetyl alcohol (AOC) and sodium tripoly-phosphate (TTP), on the metabolism of the fungus Trichothecium roseum. Our results revealed that both detergent and AOC had an inhibitory effect on the bioproduction of free organic acids, while TTP stimulated their production. Also, detergent inhibited the bioproduction of basic amino acids, with the exception of alanine. In addition, detergent applied at 1% concentration inhibited the bioproduction of proteins and the total biomass of the fungus, while AOC and TTP inhibited the production of proteins, but stimulatedl the production of Trichothecium

Reconstructive Procedures after Total Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer

Till this day, there are more than 60 described surgical procedures of the intestinal reconstructions after a total gastrectomy. In 1897, Schlatter reconstructed the digestive tract by creating a termino-lateral esophagojejunostomies that was the first successful total gastrectomy. Many of the total gastrectomy pioneers did the reconstruction by esophagoduodenostomy or by forming a loop esophagojejunostomy. The main reconstruction modalities after a total gastrectomy are a restitution of the intestinal continuity, without a preservation of the duodenal food passage (esophagojejunostomy with a Roux-en-Y configuration) and a restitution of the intestinal continuity with a preservation of the duodenal passage (esophagojejunostomy with Roux-en-Y configuration and forming of the lateral-terminal jejunoduodenal anastomosis double tract and jejunal interposition by Longmire). The surgeries in these categories can be combined with forming of an enteral pouch or a stomach reservoir which would simulate a reservoir of a normal intact stomach. The ideal reconstruction procedure after total gastrectomy should replace all lost functions of the stomach. Preservation of duodenal transit with replacement of the jejunal segment, the so-called physiological route, is now believed to be preferential for postoperative nutritional condition, prevents persistent postgastrectomy syndrome, and improves the quality of life. Reconstructive procedures which allow duodenal passage should be regarded as a key to physiological reconstruction

Epithelial Thickness Mapping in Keratoconic Corneas: Repeatability and Agreement Between CSO MS-39, Heidelberg Anterion, and Optovue Avanti OCT Devices

PURPOSE:To assess repeatability and agreement of corneal epithelial thickness mapping in eyes with keratoconus using three optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices featuring different technologies: spectral-domain (SD) OCT combined with Placido disk corneal topography (MS-39), swept-source OCT (Anterion), and SD-OCT (Avanti). METHODS:Three consecutive measurements were acquired with the three devices in 60 eyes with keratoconus. The mean epithelial thickness was calculated in the central 2-mm zone and in 2- to 5-mm and 5- to 7-mm diameter rings. The repeatability was calculated using pooled within-subject standard deviation (Sw). The agreement was assessed by paired t tests and Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS:The repeatability (Sw) of the epithelial thickness for the central 2-mm zone was 0.91, 0.71, and 0.93 μm for the MS-39, Anterion, and Avanti, respectively. All thicknesses with the MS-39 were greater than those of the Anterion and Avanti, with mean differences of 4.11 ± 1.34 μm (P < .001) and 0.52 ± 1.30 μm (P = .003), respectively. The 95% limits of agreement were 1.484 to 6.736 μm for the MS-39 and Anterion, −3.068 to 2.028 μm for the Avanti and MS-39, and 1.258 to 5.922 μm for for the Avanti and Anterion. CONCLUSIONS:Epithelial thickness mapping results were most repeatable with the Anterion, followed by the MS-39 and Avanti. The MS-39 gave the thickest values, followed by the Avanti and Anterion. The differences were significant, making the devices not interchangeable for epithelial thickness mapping in eyes with keratoconus

A Comparison of Papoulis and Chebyshev Filters in the Continuous Time Domain

The subject of this paper is the revisit of the Chebyshev (equiripple) and Papoulis (monotonic or staircase) low-pass filter in order to compare. It can be stated the fair comparison of Papoulis and Chebyshev filters cannot be found in the available literature. At the beginning, it is shown that ripple parameter may be used in order the Chebyshev filter to obtain a magnitude response having less passband ripple than the standard Chebyshev response. At the same time, the passband edge frequency is preserved at 3 dB. Further, the unified approach to design odd and even degree Papoulis filters is explained. For the purpose of comparison, the Chebyshev filter as a counterpart of the Papoulis filter is introduced. Thus obtained Chebyshev filter has the same stop band insertion loss, group delay and transient response as Papoulis filter. However, its passband performance is much better. It is shown that Chebyshev filter counterpart offers a better solution than Papoulis filter in all applications, except in ones applications where is required that passband attenuation to have a staircase shape

Electroconvulsive therapy practice in Serbia today

This is the first survey of the practice of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the Republic of Serbia. A retrospective chart review was undertaken including all patients having received ECT in Serbia in 2012. Only one center in Serbia offered ECT in 2012 to a total of 54 patients (54% women). Thirty-six (36) patients received acute ECT treatment and eighteen (18) patients maintenance ECT, yielding a ECT utilization rate of 0.05/100.000 population. ECT was delivered with a modern square-wave (brief pulse) machine with EEG and ECG monitoring. In all cases the electrode placement was bifrontal and treatment modified (with anesthesia). The most frequent indication was recurrent depressive disorder (66.7%) for both acute and maintenance treatment. The limited availability of ECT in Serbia raises serious concerns. Provision of updated and effective treatment modalities for severe psychiatric disorders is crucial and the need for additional ECT services in Serbia is urgent

An integrated fuzzy-stochastic model for revenue management: The hospitality industry case

Revenue management aims at improving the performance of an organization by selling the right product/service to the right customer at the right time. This task is very dependent on uncontrollable external factors. In the hospitality industry, rooms of the hotel represent perishable assets and fixed capacities at the same time. Therefore, in the case of a stochastic process for customers calling in reservations prior to a particular booking date, a common problem for hotels is to devise a policy for maximizing the total expected profit conditional on the set of bookings. We propose a fuzzy model for the hotel revenue management under an uncertain and vague environment. Fuzziness of objective and constraint functions have been incorporated into a stochastic booking model considering multiple-day stays to show the effect of uncertainty on the optimal demand. By changing the relaxation parameters of the objective function, we have found a set of optimal solutions with, in most of the cases, a value of the objective function equal to the optimal solution of the stochastic model, providing several alternative optimal room allocations

Heidelberg Anterion Swept-Source OCT Corneal Epithelial Thickness Mapping: Repeatability and Agreement With Optovue Avanti

PURPOSE: To assess the repeatability of corneal epithelial thickness mapping in virgin, post-laser refractive surgery (PLRS), and keratoconic eyes using a novel swept-source optical coherence tomographer (SS-OCT), and to determine the agreement of the measurements with a validated spectral-domain (SD) OCT. METHODS: Analysis of 90 virgin, 46 PLRS, and 122 keratoconic eyes was performed. Three consecutive measurements of each eye were acquired with the Anterion SS-OCT and Avanti SD-OCT devices, and averages of the epithelial thickness mapping were calculated in the central 2-mm zone and in the 2- to 5-mm and 5- to 7-mm diameter rings. The repeatability was analyzed using pooled within-subject standard deviation (Sw). The agreement was assessed by Bland-Altman analysis and paired t tests. RESULTS: The repeatability ranges of the Anterion and Avanti epithelial thickness mapping measurements were Sw: 0.60 to 1.36 µm and Sw: 0.75 to 1.96 µm, respectively. The 95% limits of agreement of the Anterion and Avanti were 0.826 to 8.297. All values of the thickness measurements with the Anterion were lower than those of the Avanti, with the mean differences being 4.06 ± 1.81, 3.26 ± 2.52, and 3.68 ± 2.51 µm in virgin, PLRS, and keratoconic eyes, respectively (P < .001 for all). CONCLUSIONS: The repeatability of the Anterion's epithelial thickness mapping was higher than that of the Avanti. In terms of the agreement between the Anterion and Avanti, the epithelium measured by the Anterion was always thinner than that of the Avanti, making their interchangeable use unsuitable without corrections