Quercetin improved spatial memory dysfunctions in rat model of intracerebroventricular streptozotocin-induced sporadic Alzheimer’sdisease

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative syndromes characterized by a progressive decline in the spatial memory. There are convincing evidences on the neuroprotective effects of flavonoids against AD. Aims and Objective: To determine the effect of quercetin on the acquisition and retention of spatial memory in a rat model of AD. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four male Wistar rats were divided into four groups (six in each): group I: control rats receiving intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of normal saline, group II: rats induced AD by ICV injection of streptozotocin (STZ; 3 mg/kg bilaterally; twice, on days 1 and 3), and groups III and IV: ICV-STZ AD rats treated intraperitoneally (IP) with 40 and 80 mg/kg/day quercetin, respectively, over a period of 12 days. Then, the rats were trained with four trials per day for five consecutive days in the Morris water maze (MWM). On the sixth day, the memory retention was evaluated. Result: The ICV-STZ AD groups showed a significant impairment in the acquisition and retrieval of spatial memory when compared with the control group (P < 0.001). In the AD groups, the escape latency during the training trials showed a significant decrease (P < 0.001). Meanwhile, during the MWM task, theseratsspentmoretimeinthetargetquadrant in probe trials when compared with the controls. Conclusion: Quercetin acted as a spatial memory enhancer in ICV-STZ–induced AD rats. Hence, this flavonoid can be considered potentially as a promising agent for developing prophylactic and therapeutic neuroprotection. This neuroprotective effect of quercetin may be attributed to its antioxidant and scavenging properties. © 2015 Hamid Sepehri

Comparison of gabapentin and ketotifen in treatment of uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients

Objectives: Uremic pruritus is a common problem in hemodialysis patients. Several treatments have been used for decreasing itching in these patients. Gabapentin and ketotifen are two drugs used for treating uremic patients.The aim of this study was to compare gabapentin and ketotifen in treatment of uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients. Methods: In this double-blind randomized clinical trial, 52 hemodialysis patients with uremic pruritus referred to 5azarTeaching Hospital in Gorgan in 2013 were studied. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 26 subjects (groups G and K). In group G, patients treated with gabapentin capsules 100 mg daily for 2 weeks, and in Group K, patients treated with ketotifen 1 mg twice daily for 2 weeks. Before and at the end of study, pruritus severity was determined based on Shiratori›s severity scores. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS-21 statistical software. Results: There was no significant different between two groups in the age and sex. After two weeks of treatment, severity of pruritus was significantly reduced in both groups (88.4 in group G vs. 76.9 in group K). Gabapentin compared with ketotifen had a better effect on improving itching in the age group of 30-60 years and in males. 5 patients (19.2) in both groups suffered from drowsiness and dizziness, but no serious side effects were observed. Conclusions: The results showed that gabapentin and ketotifen significantly improved pruritus in hemodialysis patients, and no significant difference was observed between two groups. © 2016, Professional Medical Publications. All rights reserved

Potential of oak acorn with and without polyethylene glycol as an alternative to corn in broiler diets

This study was conducted to investigate the potential for replacing corn with oak acorn (OA), a tannin-rich feedstuff, and the possible role of polyethylene glycol (PEG) in reducing detrimental effects of OA on broilers. A 3 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments was used with three levels of OA (0, 150, and 200 g/kg diet), with and without 10 g/kg PEG. A total of 528 one-day-old male and female Cobb 500 broiler chicks were randomly assigned to one of six experimental treatments, with four replicates of 22 birds each. OA was included in the starter (days 1–21) and finisher (days 22–42) diets as a replacement for corn, without changing the dietary levels of other ingredients. The results indicated that dietary inclusion of OA, without PEG, significantly reduced bodyweight gain (BWG) overall (days 1–42) and resulted in worse finisher and overall feed conversion ratios (FCR). PEG had no significant effect on the performance of birds fed diets without OA, but improved overall the BWG of birds receiving 150 and 200 g/kg OA as well as finisher and overall the FCR of birds given 150 g/kg OA. Liver and pancreas weights were not significantly influenced by OA level, PEG or their interaction. Feeding with 200 g/kg OA had deleterious effects on some tibia traits. In conclusion, a significant interaction between OA level and PEG indicates that PEG has the potential to reduce the adverse effects of OA, leading to improved performance. Thus, up to 150 g/kg OA could be included in PEG-supplemented diets, without adverse effects on performance or the tibia traits of broilers.Keywords: High-tannin feedstuff, performance, poultry nutrition, tibia characteristi

Innovation and HRM : absences and politics

This article analyses the role of HRM practices in the implementation of an innovative cross-functional approach to new product development (concurrent engineering, CE) in Eurotech Industries. Contrary to CE methodology stipulations, and despite supportive conditions, HRM received scant attention in the implementation process. Organizational power and politics were clearly involved in this situation, and this article explores how their play created such HRM &lsquo;absences&rsquo;. The article builds on a four-dimensional view of power in order to provide a deeper understanding of the embedded, interdependent and political nature of HRM practice and innovation.<br /

An automated coding and classification system with supporting database for effective design of manufacturing systems

The philosophy of group technology (GT) is an important concept in the design of flexible manufacturing systems and manufacturing cells. Group technology is a manufacturing philosophy that identifies similar parts and groups them into families. Beside assigning unique codes to these parts, group technology developers intend to take advantage of part similarities during design and manufacturing processes. GT is not the answer to all manufacturing problems, but it is a good management technique with which to standardize efforts and eliminate duplication. Group technology classifies parts by assigning them to different families based on their similarities in: (1) design attributes (physical shape and size), and/or (2) manufacturing attributes (processing sequence). The manufacturing industry today is process focused; departments and sub units are no longer independent but are interdependent. If the product development process is to be optimized, engineering and manufacturing cannot remain independent any more: they must be coordinated. Each sub-system is a critical component within an integrated manufacturing framework. The coding and classification system is the basis of CAPP and the functioning and reliability of CAPP depends on the robustness of the coding system. The proposed coding system is considered superior to the previously proposed coding systems, in that it has the capability to migrate into multiple manufacturing environments. This article presents the design of a coding and classification system and the supporting database for manufacturing processes based on both design and manufacturing attributes of parts. An interface with the spreadsheet will calculate the machine operation costs for various processes. This menu-driven interactive package is implemented using dBASE-IV. Part Family formation is achieved using a KAMCELL package developed in TURBO Pascal.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46606/1/10845_2004_Article_BF00123696.pd

Shigellosis phytotherapy: A review of the most important native medicinal plants in Iran effective on Shigella

Shigella is a gram-negative intracellular pathogen which causes bacillus diarrhea in humans. Besides clinical and gastrointestinal diseases, shigella causes food poisoning. In Iran, medicinal plants are used to treat infectious diseases. In this review article, the native medicinal plants to Iran that are effective on shigellosis were reported. For this purpose the key words Shigella, medicinal plants, essence, and extract were searched for in databases such as Scientific Information Database, Scopus, PubMed, Magiran, and Google Scholar and the related articles were retrieved and analyzed. Findings indicated that 18 medicinal plants native to Iran were effective on shigellosis, including Echinophora cinerea Boiss, Echinophora cinerea Boiss, Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl, Cuminum cyminum, Alliums stadium, Cymbopogon olivieri (Boiss), Salvia suffruticosa, Achillea wilhelmsii, Cleome iberica, Centaurea depressa, Teucrium polium L., Salvia mirzayanii, Haplophyllum canaliculatum, Geum coccineum, Mentha spicata L., Saliva aethiopis L., Salvia atropatana Bunge, Salvia oligophylla Auch. Ex Benth., Salvia macrosiphon Boiss. Identification of effective components of these plants could be a route to producing nature-based antibiotics for shigellosis