Effects of feeding dry glycerol on milk production, nutrients digestibility and blood components in primiparous Holstein dairy cows during the early postpartum period

The aim of this study was to evaluate the glucogenic property of glycerol supplementation in the dairy cow’s diet. Sixty primiparous cows (control, n=30, and glycerol supplemented, n=30) were used to measure milk yield and components, blood hormone and metabolite profiles, and body condition score. Feed intake and apparent total-tract digestibility were also measured using 10 primiparous cows (control, n=5, and glycerol supplemented, n=5). Dry glycerol was top dressed at 250 g/day/cow from parturition to 21 days postpartum. Average feed intake, milk yield and components were not affected by glycerol supplementation. Apparent total–tract digestibility of organic matter and neutral detergent fibre were not influenced by dry glycerol supplementation, but lipid digestibility was greater (p=0.01) in cows fed glycerol. The serum concentration of glucose and insulin tended to be higher in dry glycerol-supplemented cows (p=0.1; p=0.06, respectively). While, serum concentrations of nonesterified fatty acids and β-hydroxybutyrate were not affected. Supplemented cows had lower body condition loss during weeks 1 to 5 after calving (p=0.09). The glucogenic effect of glycerol did not affect milk yield during the first 3 weeks of lactation. However, daily milk yield during the 13 weeks recording period was higher in the glycerol-supplemented cows (28.5 vs. 30.3 kg, p<0.001). Percentages of cows cycling at the planned breeding date was greater (p=0.01) for cows fed dry glycerol. The results demonstrated that feeding dry glycerol as a glucogenic supply could be useful in saving body reserves and improving energy balance of primiparous Holstein dairy cows during the early postpartum period

Screening of the aerodynamic and biophysical properties of barley malt

An understanding of the aerodynamic and biophysical properties of barley malt is necessary for the appropriate design of equipment for the handling, shipping, dehydration, grading, sorting and warehousing of this strategic crop. Malting is a complex biotechnological process that includes steeping; ger-mination and finally, the dehydration of cereal grains under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. In this investigation, the biophysical properties of barley malt were predicted using two models of artificial neural networks as well as response surface methodology. Stepping time and germination time were selected as the independent variables and 1 000 kernel weight, kernel density and terminal velocity were selected as the depen-dent variables (responses). The obtained outcomes showed that the artificial neural network model, with a logarithmic sigmoid activation function, presents more precise results than the response surface model in the prediction of the aerodynamic and biophysical properties of produced barley malt. This model presented the best result with 8 nodes in the hidden layer and significant correlation coefficient values of 0.783, 0.767 and 0.991 were obtained for responses one thousand kernel weight, kernel density, and terminal velocity, respectively. The outcomes indicated that this novel technique could be successfully applied in quantitative and qualitative monitoring within the malting process

Poor mental health status and aggression are associated with poor driving behavior among male traffic offenders

In Iran, traffic accidents and deaths from traffic accidents are among the highest in the world, and generally driver behavior rather than either technical failures or environmental conditions are responsible for traffic accidents. In the present study, we explored the extent to which aggressive traits, health status, and sociodemographic variables explain driving behavior among Iranian male traffic offenders.; A total of 443 male driving offenders (mean age: M =31.40 years, standard deviation =9.56) from Kermanshah (Iran) took part in the study. Participants completed a questionnaire booklet covering sociodemographic variables, traits of aggression, health status, and driving behavior.; Poor health status, such as symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and social dysfunction, and also higher levels of trait aggression explained poor driving behavior. Multiple regressions indicated that poor health status, but not aggression, independently predicted poor driving behavior.; Results suggest that health status concerns are associated with poor driving behavior. Prevention and intervention might therefore focus on drivers reporting poor mental health status

Fungal contamination of indoor public swimming pools and their dominant physical and chemical properties

Introduction: Considering to the existence of both parasitic and fungal pathogens in the indoor public swimming pools and non-utilization of suitable filtration and disinfection systems in these places, this research aimed to determine the relationship between the indoor public swimming pools and possible pollution with parasitic and fungal agents, as well as physical and chemical characteristics of these pools and compare the results with national standards. Methods: In this study, 11 active indoor swimming pools of Zahedan city were sampled, using plastic pumps techniques, at the middle of winter to the late summer season. A total of 88 water samples (eight water samples from each pool) were examined to determine the residual chlorine, contamination with parasitic and fungal agents, using culture media and slide culture techniques. Results were analyzed with SPSS software (V16) and, Microsoft Excel (V2010). Results: The findings revealed parasitic fungal contamination with Cladosporium, Penicillium, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus fumigatus, etc. and the physicochemical factors comply with the minimum standards had which indicates the need for continuous monitoring and control of water filtration and disinfection of water is swimming. Conclusion: The results show reasonable derangement of physicochemical and microbial factors of the evaluated pools. Efforts shall be made by the concerned authorities to provide health education to users, quality water at the pools and to maintain the safety and quality of the water through proper and adequate chlorination

Auto Calibration and Optimization of Large-Scale Water Resources Systems

Water resource systems modelling have constantly been a challenge through history for human being. As the innovative methodological development is evolving alongside computer sciences on one hand, researches are likely to confront more complex and larger water resources systems due to new challenges regarding increased water demands, climate change and human interventions, socio-economic concerns, and environment protection and sustainability. In this research, an automatic calibration scheme has been applied on the Gilan's large-scale water resource model using mathematical programming. The water resource model's calibration is developed in order to attune unknown water return flows from demand sites in the complex Sefidroud irrigation network and other related areas. The calibration procedure is validated by comparing several gauged river outflows from the system in the past with model results. The calibration results are pleasantly reasonable presenting a rational insight of the system. Subsequently, the unknown optimized parameters were used in a basin-scale linear optimization model with the ability to evaluate the system's performance against a reduced inflow scenario in future. Results showed an acceptable match between predicted and observed outflows from the system at selected hydrometric stations. Moreover, an efficient operating policy was determined for Sefidroud dam leading to a minimum water shortage in the reduced inflow scenario

Radiobiological effects of wound fluid on breast cancer cell lines and human-derived tumor spheroids in 2D and microfluidic culture

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) could abrogate cancer recurrences, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. To clarify the effects of IORT-induced wound fluid on tumor progression, we treated breast cancer cell lines and human-derived tumor spheroids in 2D and microfluidic cell culture systems, respectively. The viability, migration, and invasion of the cells under treatment of IORT-induced wound fluid (WF-RT) and the cells under surgery-induced wound fluid (WF) were compared. Our findings showed that cell viability was increased in spheroids under both WF treatments, whereas viability of the cell lines depended on the type of cells and incubation times. Both WFs significantly increased sub-G1 and arrested the cells in G0/G1 phases associated with increased P16 and P21 expression levels. The expression level of Caspase 3 in both cell culture systems and for both WF-treated groups was significantly increased. Furthermore, our results revealed that although the migration was increased in both systems of WF-treated cells compared to cell culture media-treated cells, E-cadherin expression was significantly increased only in the WF-RT group. In conclusion, WF-RT could not effectively inhibit tumor progression in an ex vivo tumor-on-chip model. Moreover, our data suggest that a microfluidic system could be a suitable 3D system to mimic in vivo tumor conditions than 2D cell culture