Factors Affecting Forage Quality of Native Species in Iranian Rangelands

Animal performance is closely correlated with the nutrient value of the forage available and this is affected by different factors (Arzani et al., 2001). Crude protein content (CP), digestible dry matter (DDM) and metabolisable energy (ME) were considered particularly appropriate for evaluation of range forage quality. This paper reports on factors affecting the forage quality of range species grown in Iran

Endovascular coiling versus surgical clipping in the treatment of ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm in Cairo University Hospitals

AbstractIntroductionAneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH) remains a devastating and often fatal form of stroke. The aneurysm is targeted for obliteration to prevent re-bleeding and to manage the possible complications from the event. Endovascular coiling has emerged as a less invasive alternative to conventional surgical clipping to treat aneurysms.Patients and methodsThis study was done prospectively in the Cairo University (Kasr El-Eini) hospitals to evaluate the outcome of both modalities used in the treatment of ruptured anterior communicating artery (Acom) aneurysm. 30 patients with Hunt and Hess grade I, II or III. were classified into two groups of microsurgical clipping (Endoscopic assistance used in five cases) and endovascular coiling.ResultsMortality rate was higher in the clipping group (26.7%) compared to the coiling group while recurrence rate was high in the coiling group (26.7%). Complications including hydrocephalus, hemiparesis and failed procedures occurred in (6.7%).ConclusionWe concluded that coiling is better for treating cases of ruptured Acom aneurysms being less invasive and achieving a favorable outcome compared to surgery. While Endoscope-Assisted Microsurgical Clipping (EAM) gives better control during clipping provided that a well-trained, competent and experienced neurosurgeon is available

Low birth weight due to intrauterine growth restriction and/or preterm birth: effects on nephron number and long-term renal health

Epidemiological studies have clearly demonstrated a strong association between low birth weight and long-term renal disease. A potential mediator of this long-term risk is a reduction in nephron endowment in the low birth weight infant at the beginning of life. Importantly, nephrons are only formed early in life; during normal gestation, nephrogenesis is complete by about 32–36 weeks, with no new nephrons formed after this time during the lifetime of the individual. Hence, given that a loss of a critical number of nephrons is the hallmark of renal disease, an increased severity and acceleration of renal disease is likely when the number of nephrons is already reduced prior to disease onset. Low birth weight can result from intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) or preterm birth; a high proportion of babies born prematurely also exhibit IUGR. In this paper, we describe how IUGR and preterm birth adversely impact on nephrogenesis and how a subsequent reduced nephron endowment at the beginning of life may lead to long-term risk of renal disease, but not necessarily hypertension

A hysteretic multiscale formulation for nonlinear dynamic analysis of composite materials

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.A new multiscale finite element formulation is presented for nonlinear dynamic analysis of heterogeneous structures. The proposed multiscale approach utilizes the hysteretic finite element method to model the microstructure. Using the proposed computational scheme, the micro-basis functions, that are used to map the microdisplacement components to the coarse mesh, are only evaluated once and remain constant throughout the analysis procedure. This is accomplished by treating inelasticity at the micro-elemental level through properly defined hysteretic evolution equations. Two types of imposed boundary conditions are considered for the derivation of the multiscale basis functions, namely the linear and periodic boundary conditions. The validity of the proposed formulation as well as its computational efficiency are verified through illustrative numerical experiments

Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz extract inhibits adipogenesis and lipase activity in vitro

Background: Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz (O. indicum) is found in Thailand. It has been used for the treatment of obesity. This study aimed to investigate the effects of an O. indicum extract (OIE) on the adipogenic and biomolecular change in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Methods: Initial studies examined the chemical components of OIE. The cell line 3T3-L1 was used to establish potential toxic effects of OIE during the differentiation of pre-adipocytes to adipocytes. The inhibitory effect of OIE on lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells was investigated. Moreover, the impact of OIE on pancreatic lipase activity was determined. In further experiments, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) was used to monitor and discriminate biomolecular changes caused by the potential anti-adipogenic effect of OIE on 3T3-L1 cells. Results: Chemical screening methods indicated that OIE was composed of flavonoids, alkaloids, steroids, glycosides, and tannins. The percentage viability of 3T3-L1 cells was not significantly decreased after exposure to either 200 or 150 μg/mL of OIE for 2 and 10 days, respectively compared to control cells. The OIE exhibited a dose-dependent reduction of lipid accumulation compared to the control (p < 0.05). The extract also demonstrated a dosedependent inhibitory effect upon lipase activity compared to the control. The inhibitory effect of the OIE on lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells was also confirmed using FTIR microspectroscopy. The signal intensity and the integrated areas relating to lipids, lipid esters, nucleic acids, glycogen and carbohydrates of the OIE-treated 3T3-L1 adipocytes were significantly lower than the non-treated 3T3-L1 adipocytes (p < 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated four distinct clusters for the FTIR spectra of 3T3-L1 adipocytes based on biomolecular changes (lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates). This observation was confirmed using Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis (UHCA). Conclusions: These novel findings provide evidence that the OIE derived from the fruit pods of the plant is capable of inhibiting lipid and carbohydrate accumulation in adipocytes and also has the potential to inhibit an enzyme associated with fat absorption. The initial observations indicate that OIE may have important properties which in the future may be exploited for the management of the overweight or obese

Unprecedented staining of polar lipids by a luminescent rhenium complex revealed by FTIR microspectroscopy in adipocytes.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy and confocal imaging have been used to demonstrate that the neutral rhenium(i) tricarbonyl 1,10-phenanthroline complex bound to 4-cyanophenyltetrazolate as the ancillary ligand is able to localise in regions with high concentrations of polar lipids such as phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), sphingomyelin, sphingosphine and lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in mammalian adipocytes

Probing the action of a novel anti-leukaemic drug therapy at the single cell level using modern vibrational spectroscopy techniques

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a life threatening cancer for which there is an urgent clinical need for novel therapeutic approaches. A redeployed drug combination of bezafibrate and medroxyprogesterone acetate (BaP) has shown anti-leukaemic activity in vitro and in vivo. Elucidation of the BaP mechanism of action is required in order to understand how to maximise the clinical benefit. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, Synchrotron radiation FTIR (S-FTIR) and Raman microspectroscopy are powerful complementary techniques which were employed to probe the biochemical composition of two AML cell lines in the presence and absence of BaP. Analysis was performed on single living cells along with dehydrated and fixed cells to provide a large and detailed data set. A consideration of the main spectral differences in conjunction with multivariate statistical analysis reveals a significant change to the cellular lipid composition with drug treatment; furthermore, this response is not caused by cell apoptosis. No change to the DNA of either cell line was observed suggesting this combination therapy primarily targets lipid biosynthesis or effects bioactive lipids that activate specific signalling pathways