Effect of lactic acid bacteria and the potential probiotic Hafnia alvei on growth and survival rates of narrow clawed crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus Esch., 1823) stage II juveniles

The aim of this study was to screen potential probiotic bacteria against Aeromonas hydrophila and determine the effects of antagonistic bacteria and a commercial product containing lactic acid bacteria on the survival and growth of stage II Astacus leptodactylus juveniles. For this purpose, a total of 110 bacterial strains were isolated from adult, stage II crayfish juveniles and rearing water screened for antagonistic activities against A. hydrophila with well diffusion agar assay. Hafnia alvei strain from stage II crayfish juveniles displayed the inhibition zone (10mm) against A. hydrophila. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four treatments for 60 days: (I) crayfish fed with live food without probiotics (control group); (II) crayfish fed with live food enriched with lactic acid bacteria (0.015 gL^-1); (III) crayfish fed with live food enriched with Hafnia alvei (10^6 CFU mL^−1); (IV) crayfish fed with control diet and H. alvei added to rearing water (10^6 CFU mL^−1). As a result of this study, lactic acid bacteria and Hafnia alvei applications did not positively affect growth and survival of stage II A. leptodactylus juveniles. In the future, studies on screening potential probiotic bacteria should be used in vitro and in vivo tests. In addition, it will be useful to investigate the lactic acid bacteria and Bacillus spp. from indigenous microflora of crayfish

Methods for conducting international Delphi surveys to optimise global participation in core outcome set development: a case study in gastric cancer informed by a comprehensive literature review

Copyright © 2021, The Author(s) Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Background: Core outcome sets (COS) should be relevant to key stakeholders and widely applicable and usable. Ideally, they are developed for international use to allow optimal data synthesis from trials. Electronic Delphi surveys are commonly used to facilitate global participation; however, this has limitations. It is common for these surveys to be conducted in a single language potentially excluding those not fluent in that tongue. The aim of this study is to summarise current approaches for optimising international participation in Delphi studies and make recommendations for future practice. Methods: A comprehensive literature review of current approaches to translating Delphi surveys for COS development was undertaken. A standardised methodology adapted from international guidance derived from 12 major sets of translation guidelines in the field of outcome reporting was developed. As a case study, this was applied to a COS project for surgical trials in gastric cancer to translate a Delphi survey into 7 target languages from regions active in gastric cancer research. Results: Three hundred thirty-two abstracts were screened and four studies addressing COS development in rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, vascular malformations and polypharmacy were eligible for inclusion. There was wide variation in methodological approaches to translation, including the number of forward translations, the inclusion of back translation, the employment of cognitive debriefing and how discrepancies and disagreements were handled. Important considerations were identified during the development of the gastric cancer survey including establishing translation groups, timelines, understanding financial implications, strategies to maximise recruitment and regulatory approvals. The methodological approach to translating the Delphi surveys was easily reproducible by local collaborators and resulted in an additional 637 participants to the 315 recruited to complete the source language survey. Ninety-nine per cent of patients and 97% of healthcare professionals from non-English-speaking regions used translated surveys. Conclusion: Consideration of the issues described will improve planning by other COS developers and can be used to widen international participation from both patients and healthcare professionals.This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Doctoral Research Fellowship Grant (DRF-2015-08-023). JMB is partially funded by the NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre and the MRC ConDUCT-II Hub for Trials Methodology Research. PRW was funded by the MRC North West Hub for Trials Methodology Research (Grant ref: MR/K025635/01).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lifetime measurements of excited states in ¹⁶³W and the implications for the anomalous B(E2) ratios in transitional nuclei

This letter reports lifetime measurements of excited states in the odd-N nucleus 163W using the recoil-distance Doppler shift method to probe the core polarising effect of the i13/2 neutron orbital on the underlying soft triaxial even-even core. The ratio B(E2:21/2⁺ → 17/2⁺)/B(E2:17/2⁺ → 13/2⁺) is consistent with the predictions of the collective rotational model. The deduced B(E2) values provide insights into the validity of collective model predictions for heavy transitional nuclei and a geometric origin for the anomalous B(E2) ratios observed in nearby even-even nuclei is proposed

The mediating role of the locus of control in the impact of organizational trust on organizational cynicism

This study aims to examine the mediating role of the locus of control in the effect of organizational trust on organizational cynicism in school organizations with latent variables, including all personnel who directly impact education and training in schools. In this study, the relational scanning model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used to examine the mediating role of locus of control in the effect of organizational trust on organizational cynicism. The research started with a detailed literature review, and the information on the definitions and theories of the concepts of organizational cynicism, organizational trust, and locus of control were achieved; and a research model was created by developing hypotheses in line with this information. The data of the study were obtained from 385 participants who were selected by simple random sampling method among school personnel working in public schools. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses of the obtained data were performed using SPSS and AMOS statistical package programs. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that there is a negative relationship between organizational trust and organizational cynicism, and locus of control has a mediator role in the relationship between organizational trust and organizational cynicism

Analyzing Some Relationships Between Physical-mechanical and Thermal Parameters of Bio-briquettes Produced from Persimmon Pruning Residues

Turkey imports a considerable part of its energy means from abroad. This creates a significant burden on the national economy. Turkey can be considered poor in fossil fuel resources but rich in renewable energy sources. Biomass is one of these renewable energy sources which comes from various agricultural production lasting a whole year due to four seasons richness of the climate in Turkey. In this study, solid cylindrical briquettes were produced from persimmon tree pruning wastes under 2 different moisture contents (12% -15%), with 3 different particle sizes (3mm-5mm-8mm) and under 4 different briquetting pressures (80 - 120 - 160 - 200 MPa) were analyzed for its solid fuel properties. The lowest lower heating value was found as 18.50 MJ/kg, whereas the highest lower heating value was 18.90 MJ/kg. The lowest ash content was obtained as 1.73% at 15% moisture content, 3 mm particle size under 200 MPa briquetting pressure, while the highest was 2.47% at 12% moisture content, 5 mm particle size under 120 MPa briquetting pressure. The relationships between some physical-mechanical and thermal parameters of the produced briquettes were also analyzed

Fındık Zurufu Atığından Yakıt Briketi Elde Edilmesi Ve Brikete Ait Bazı Özelliklerin Belirlenmesi

Turkey’s energy status mainly depends on imported resources such as oil and natural gas. Such imported resources create extra load on the country’s economy and cause an important problem on its development. Despite being a poor country in terms of fossil fuel, Turkey has rich renewable energy sources. In this study, hazelnut husks were used as an agricultural residue after harvesting to obtain fuel briquette. The materials were firstly dried up to 13 – 15 % moisture content and grinded into 10 mm size, and then they were pressed under 80 MPa pressure in order to form briquettes. Heating values of hazelnut husk briquette was found to be 4232 cal g -1. Ash content was 10.65 %, while tumbler index, shatter index and water resistance were 75.82 %, 95.82 % and 91.52%, respectively