Reproductive and economic evaluation of sexual stimulation during the anestrous period in a commercial farm with neonatal lamb losses

ABSTRACT This study was performed during the anestrous, involving 140 Akkaraman Kangal ewes whose lambs had died in the neonatal stage due to pneumonia and enteritis. Intravaginal sponge containing progesterone was placed to the animals (Group 1, n = 70) on day 0 and removed after 7 days, following which 263 µg PGF2α and 500 IU eCG were administered to the sheep. Ram introduction was performed for 7 days (days 8-14), starting from the day after the removal of the intravaginal sponge (day 8). The animals in Group 2 (n = 70) were not exposed to any treatment. Ram introduction was performed simultaneously in both the groups. To determine the reproductive response, reproductive parameters such as estrous, pregnancy, multiple pregnancy, and embryonic mortality rates, number of births, number of offspring, and fertility, as well as their economic implications, were compared between groups. Each reproductive parameter exhibited a statistical difference between groups. An economically positive trend was observed in the study group compared with the control group. It was concluded that in case of lamb losses in commercial farms that derive profit from lambing, pregnancy of ewes can be achieved via sexual stimulation without waiting for the next breeding season

Improving feeding skills and transition to breastfeeding in early preterm infants: a randomized controlled trial of oromotor intervention

IntroductionOromotor therapy exercises used for preterm infants in the NICU might promote oral-motor skills and shorten discharge day. This study investigates the impact of an oral-motor therapy program on the successful transition to breastfeeding (BF) and the enhancement of feeding skills in preterm infants below 30 weeks of gestational age who experience feeding intolerance.MethodsThe intervention group received oral-motor therapy programme for one month, while the control group did not. The feeding skills were evaluated by Early Feeding Skills Assessment Tool (EFS) and Preterm Oral Feeding Readiness Scales (POFRAS).ResultsThere was a significant difference in EFS and POFRAS scores, transition to bottle feeding at discharge and transition to BF after discharge between babies given oral-motor therapy programme and controls (p < 0.05). While the transition time to full enteral feeds did not vary significantly between the groups, noteworthy outcomes were observed in the intervention group, including differences in feeding type at discharge, the nature of feeds at discharge, and the success of transitioning to breastfeeding after discharge.DiscussionWe conclude that the oromotor therapy exercises in NICU improves the quality of sucking, contributes to better oromotor skills and promotes transition to enteral feeding and BF in preterm babies. Clinical Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier (NCT05845684)

Nonribosomal Peptide Synthesis

Nonribosomal peptides (NRPs) are a type of secondary metabolite with a wide range of pharmacological and biological activities including cytostatics, immunosuppressants or anticancer agents, antibiotics, pigments, siderophores, toxins. NRPs, unlike other proteins, are synthesized on huge nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzyme complexes that are not dependent on ribosomal machinery. Bacteria and fungi are the most common NRPs producers. Furthermore, the presence of these peptides has been confirmed in marine microbes. Nowadays, many of these peptides are used in the treatments of inflammatory, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and infectious disease for the development of new therapeutic agents. The structure, function, and synthesis of NRPs, as well as producer microorganisms and their several application areas, are covered in this chapter

Bacteriological Perspective of Water Quality

Water quality can be defined as a measurement of a water’s appropriateness for a specific purpose based on biological, chemical, and physical qualities. Water pollution caused by microorganisms is one of the most serious threats to the aquatic ecosystem around the world. The bacterial concentration in an aquatic environment is raised by anthropogenic activities and industrial-agricultural pollutants. Coliform bacteria have long been used as an indicator organism for microbial pollution of water, which has contributed to potential health risks. Escherichia coli is the coliform that indicates fecal contamination. Various methods such as culture-dependent methods, culture-independent gene sequence-based methods, and immunological methods are used to determine bacterial contamination in water sources. As a consequence, determining that the water is not suitable for use by bacteriological analysis indicates that the water is contaminated. This chapter highlights the sanitary quality of aquatic environments, indicator organisms for water quality assessment, detection of bacterial pollution in the water source, and bacterial waterborne diseases

Designing of a simulator architecture for greener data center through knowledge transfer by partners in different sectors

In recent years, increasing demand for internet service providers, cloud services and the information and communications technologies, data centers (DCs) have become a very important place in the energy consumption industry. Furthermore, the energy consumed by the IT industry including DCs reached about 10% of the world's electricity generation. Therefore data centers have become a significant source of CO2 emissions and a crucial player in the electrical power system. In order to predict energy demand better and reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions in specific national DCs, the GreenDC Project aims developing a decision support tool. This project was funded by EU through H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie. It is progressing by secondment activities that consist of knowledge transfer between academic and industrial partners. This paper aims to define and explain the architecture of its decision support tool, GreenDC DSS. The GreenDC DSS architecture composed of four interactional layers which are data layer, math model layer, business logic layer, and user interface layer. In this paper, the design of each layer has been described and the process of entire GreenDC DSS Tool has been examined with an example user scenario which is formed by considering the user requirements of data center managers. Also, it has been shown that a skeleton of the simulator gives optimum working strategies to data center manager

An unusual presentation: trichomycosis (trichobacteriosis) capitis in an infant

Trichomycosis (trichobacteriosis) is an asymptomatic superficial bacterial colonization of the hair shaft that is clinically characterized by pale yellowish, reddish or blackish sticky, cylindrical concretions surrounding the hair shaft in the axillary or pubic region. As far as we know, the first and only case of trichomycosis capitis was reported in a 8-year-old boy in 2011. We encountered no cases of trichomycosis in infancy in the literature. The current case displays an atypical presentation of trichobacteriosis involving head hair in a 10-month-old male infant