The technical and economic efficiency analyses of performance of brown trout (Salmo trutta fario l., 1758) fed by the commercial diets enriched with different levels of linolenic acid (lna; 18:3 n-3)

This study was designed to determine the technical and economic efficiency levels of the commercial basal feeds enriched with 10%, 5% and 0% rates of LNA (LNA10, LNA5 and LNA0) on the growth performance of brown trout by analyzing the marginal factor cost (MFC) and the marginal revenue of physical product (MRPP). A total of 300 brown trout with an initial individual weight of 4±0.05 g were randomly divided in 12 cages (25 fingerlings in each cage), and kept under 24L:0D (light/dark) photoperiod condition for 9 weeks treated by LNA10, LNA5 and LNA0. The results of the study showed that LNA0 and LNA10 of the effective feed sources, respectively on the growth performance of brown trout were more suitable to produce as the homogeneous products for the consumers and differentiated those for the drug industry in view of the economic and technical efficiencies

An analysis of supply chain related graduate programmes in Europe

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version of the Article can be accessed from the links below. Copyright @ 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose – Motivated by a lack of studies in graduate level supply chain education, this research aims to explore trends in supply chain-related graduate programmes in Europe and to propose a framework for designing such programmes. Design/methodology/approach – The authors determine “knowledge” and “skills” areas applicable to supply chain management (SCM) education and analyse supply chain-related graduate programmes published by the European Logistics Association in 2004. They revisit the same programmes in 2011 to determine the recent situation and the trends. The authors use cluster analysis to reveal the similarities and differences among these programmes. Findings – The authors find two distinct clusters: focused and diversified. Focused programmes offer modules in knowledge and skills areas apart from SCM at a negligible level and place more emphasis on SCM in 2011 when compared to 2004. Diversified programmes show a similar increase in the emphasis on SCM with more variety in the knowledge and skills areas. Research limitations/implications – The authors' findings are based on SCM programmes delivered in Europe and over two discrete time periods. Future research should seek to extend this analysis to other continents with larger samples and incorporate the industry perspective to determine the potential gap between what programmes offer and what industry requires. Practical implications – SCM-related graduate programmes continue to redefine themselves. Clustering predominantly serves the universities in re-assessing and re-engineering their programmes, helps prospective graduates in their selection process and assists managers in their recruitment practices. Originality/value – This paper establishes a baseline for assessing SCM-related graduate programmes with respect to the knowledge and skills they offer and introduces a framework that may serve as a starting point for the design and positioning of such programmes

Mycobacterial infection of intraparenchymal bronchogenic cysts

Bronchogenic cysts (BCs) may rarely cause some interesting and unusual complications. Although infection is a common complication of BCs, there are only two patients with BC infected with mycobacterium in English literature. Two intraparencymal BCs infected with mycobacterium are presented here as unusual complications. Cystectomy was performed for the cysts. They were given antituberculosis treatment. No complication or recurrences were detected in follow up period. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY ANALYSES OF THE PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE AND EGG QUALITY PARAMETERS IN LAYING HENS FED BY DIETS CONTAINING RAW AND TREATED COMMON VETCH SEED AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to determine the technical and economic optimum levels of raw and treated common vetch seed (CVS) on the productive performance and egg quality traits in laying hens. One hundred and sixty-eight White (Lohmann) layers, 30 weeks of age were randomly assigned to seven groups, each with six replicate cages of four hens. Control diet (C) and basal diets supplemented with 12.5 and 25% raw CVS (%12.5 Raw Common Vetch Seed: RCVSI and %25 Raw Common Vetch Seed: RCVSII), 12.5% and 25% soaking CVS (%12.5 Soaking Common Vetch Seed: SCVSI and %25 Soaking Common Vetch Seed: SCVSII) and 12.5% and 25% autoclaving CVS (%12.5 Autoclaving Common Vetch Seed: ACVSI and %25 Autoclaving Common Vetch Seed: ACVSII) were offered for 18 wks. Production elasticity (E p ) and the equation of marginal value of physical product (MVPP) and marginal resources cost (MRC) were used to determine technical and economic production levels, respectively. The most effective technical and economic optimum with 60.17 and 63.54 g EW (egg weight) in laying hens were obtained from 117.29 and 106.68 g SCVSI feed intakes, respectively. On the other hand, the highest technical optimum levels were obtained by 2.51 kg cm -2 SS (shell strength) and 89.56 HU (Haugh unit) per 90.91 g ACVSII and 103.97 g RCVSII feed intakes, respectively. The growers could reach to the highest technical and economic optimum levels in laying hens by preferring dietary CVS supplementation vs. C, and thus could provide a major benefit with the effective usage of the scarce source

A new perspective on the competitiveness of nations

The capability of firms to survive and to have a competitive advantage in global markets depends on, amongst other things, the efficiency of public institutions, the excellence of educational, health and communications infrastructures, as well as on the political and economic stability of their home country. The measurement of competitiveness and strategy development is thus an important issue for policy-makers. Despite many attempts to provide objectivity in the development of measures of national competitiveness, there are inherently subjective judgments that involve, for example, how data sets are aggregated and importance weights are applied. Generally, either equal weighting is assumed in calculating a final index, or subjective weights are specified. The same problem also occurs in the subjective assignment of countries to different clusters. Developed as such, the value of these type indices may be questioned by users. The aim of this paper is to explore methodological transparency as a viable solution to problems created by existing aggregated indices. For this purpose, a methodology composed of three steps is proposed. To start, a hierarchical clustering analysis is used to assign countries to appropriate clusters. In current methods, country clustering is generally based on GDP. However, we suggest that GDP alone is insufficient for purposes of country clustering. In the proposed methodology, 178 criteria are used for this purpose. Next, relationships between the criteria and classification of the countries are determined using artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANN provides an objective method for determining the attribute/criteria weights, which are, for the most part, subjectively specified in existing methods. Finally, in our third step, the countries of interest are ranked based on weights generated in the previous step. Beyond the ranking of countries, the proposed methodology can also be used to identify those attributes that a given country should focus on in order to improve its position relative to other countries, i.e., to transition from its current cluster to the next higher one

Gossypol Interferes with Both Type I and Type II Topoisomerase Activities Without Generating Strand Breaks

A considerable number of agents with chemotherapeutic potentials reported over the past years were shown to interfere with the reactions of DNA topoisomerases, the essential enzymes that regulate conformational changes in DNA topology. Gossypol, a naturally occurring bioactive phytochemical is a chemopreventive agent against various types of cancer cell growth with a reported activity on mammalian topoisomerase II. The compounds targeting topoisomerases vary in their mode of action; class I compounds act by stabilizing covalent topoisomerase-DNA complexes resulting in DNA strand breaks while class II compounds interfere with the catalytic function of topoisomerases without generating strand breaks. In this study, we report Gossypol as the interfering agent with type I topoisomerases as well. We also carried out an extensive set of assays to analyze the type of interference manifested by Gossypol on DNA topoisomerases. Our results strongly suggest that Gossypol is a potential class II inhibitor as it blocked DNA topoisomerase reactions with no consequently formed strand breaks. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Telomeric circles are abundant in the stn1-M1 mutant that maintains its telomeres through recombination

Some human cancers maintain their telomeres using the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism; a process thought to involve recombination. Different types of recombinational telomere elongation pathways have been identified in yeasts. In senescing yeast telomerase deletion (ter1-Δ) mutants with very short telomeres, it has been hypothesized that copying a tiny telomeric circle (t-circle) by a rolling circle mechanism is the key event in telomere elongation. In other cases more closely resembling ALT cells, such as the stn1-M1 mutant of Kluyveromyces lactis, the telomeres appear to be continuously unstable and routinely reach very large sizes. By employing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy, we show that stn1-M1 cells contain abundant double stranded t-circles ranging from ∼100 to 30 000 bp in size. We also observed small single-stranded t-circles, specifically composed of the G-rich telomeric strand and tailed circles resembling rolling circle replication intermediates. The t-circles most likely arose from recombination events that also resulted in telomere truncations. The findings strengthen the possibility that t-circles contribute to telomere maintenance in stn1-M1 and ALT cells