Effect of Satureja khuzestanica essential oil on male rat fertility

This study was undertaken to study the effect of Satureja khuzestanica essential oil (SKEO) in male rat fertility. SKEO was administered orally at doses of 75, 150, and 225 mg/kg/day for 45 days through drinking water. Treated and control rats were mated with female on day 45 of treatment. SKEO significantly improved all the parameters evaluated such as potency, fecundity, fertility index, and litter size. Moreover, concentrations of FSH and testosterone were significantly increased in SKEO-treated groups. Also the weights of testes, seminal vesicles, and ventral prostate weights were increased by SKEO (225 mg/kg). Histopathological analysis showed that in male rats treated with SKEO (150, 225 mg/kg) the number of spermatogonium, spermatid cords, Leydig cells, and spermatozoids was increased. Also in these groups, the Sertoli cells were hypertrophic.     

Preparation of glucosamine from exoskeleton of shrimp and predicting production yield by response surface methodology

Chitin was prepared from Persian Gulf shrimp (Metapenaeus monoceros), and then, the obtained chitin was hydrolyzed by hydrochloric acid solutions. The production yield of glucosamine hydrochloride from chitin was optimized, and the effect of three factors (acid concentration, acid to chitin ratio, and reaction time) was investigated. A Box-Behnken design by Minitab software created 12 reactions with different conditions. Each reaction was performed in two replicates. Response surface methodology was used for predicting the glucosamine preparation. The optimum conditions for glucosamine hydrochloride preparation were 30 and 37% hydrochloric acid, 9:1 (v/w) acid solution to solid ratio, and 4 h of reaction time. Time ratio and time acid concentrations were the effective factors on the yield.     

Regional autonomy and local resource management in Indonesia

Abstract: As the largest archipelagic nation in the world, with distinctive environmental conditions and biodiversity, Indonesia on the one hand has tremendous natural and environmental riches while on the other hand faces a variety of environmental problems. After three decades of the New Order era, 1967–1998, Indonesian society is in a crucial transformation process towards a more democratic era. At the same time, as indicated in that country's decentralisation laws No. 22/99 and 25/99, Indonesia is also shifting its style of government, from a centralistic to decentralised one. These two trends are happening simultaneously with globalisation prompting a flow of global capital that directly increases pressure on the Indonesian environment. This paper evaluates the decentralisation of environmental management programmes in Indonesia and focuses on the implications of these changes. The weaknesses of current environmental policies and programmes in Indonesia, which give too dominant a role to the government and neglect civil society's involvement in natural resources and environmental management, are analysed. Further, the paper addresses the lack of attention to date to issues of environmental rights and justice that create many complex environmental and social conflicts throughout Indonesia. We conclude by recommending some fundamental changes to environmental policies and programmes in the decentralised system.     

Effect of Biuret Content in Urea on the Growth and Nitrogen uptake of some Grain Crops in Egyptian Soils

Seven pot experiments were conducted to study the direct and the accumulative effect of urea containing (0.4, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 %) biuret on the growth of rice, wheat, and maize plants and their N content and N uptake in two fine textured alluvial soils and one sandy clay loam (highly calcareous) soil. It was found that both rice and wheat grain yields were not significantly reduced in all soils where urea containing high percentage of biuret was used namely 3 % and 4 %. Ammonium sulphate fertilizer was superior to urea in plant production only in the sandy clay loam. Moreover, the N recovery was higher in the alluvial soils in comparison to the sandy clay loam. The accumulative addition of biuret to the soils did not further reduce either the growth rate or the N uptake of the plants.     

Barley growth,yield, antioxidant enzymes,and ion accumulation affected by PGRs under salinity stress conditions

Application of plant growth regulator (PGR) may alleviate some negative effects of environmental stresses such as salinity. A controlled environment experiment was conducted to study barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Reyhane) growth, yield, antioxidant enzymes and ions accumulation affected by PGRs under salinity stress conditions at Shiraz University during 2012. The treatments were PGRs at four levels—water (as control), cycocel (CCC, 19 mM), salicylic acid (SA, 1 mM), and jasmonic acid (JA, 0.5 mM)—and four salinity levels—no stress (0.67 dS m^?1, as control), 5, 10, and 15 dS m^?1, which were arranged in a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four replicates. The results showed that salinity stress significantly decreased plant height, peduncle length, leaf area, ear length, grain number, dry weight, grain yield, harvest index, potassium (K⁺) accumulation, and potassium/sodium (K⁺/Na⁺) concentration ratio, which were closely associated with stress severity. However, PGRs compensated some of these negative effects, so that SA foliar application had the most ameliorative effect. Salt stress also increased Na⁺ accumulation as well as the activity of peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Since ion discrimination and enhanced antioxidant enzymes are associated with salt tolerance, in this experiment PGRs application might have enhanced K⁺ accumulation and antioxidant enzyme activity. The activity of SOD and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio were found to be useful in salt tolerance manipulation in barley plants.     

Can the polyculture with South American catfish improve the feeding efficiency of rainbow trout culture?

The objective of this study was to determine if the South American catfish (Rhamdia quelen) is suitable to be farmed in polyculture with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in intensive systems during the juvenile phase to maximize feed efficiency. Juveniles of rainbow trout (3.94?±?0.11 g) and South American catfish (2.07?±?0.04 g) were distributed in 16 tanks (100 L) with continuous water renewal at the density of 50 fish/tank. The experimental design was completely randomized with four treatments (proportions between species) and four replicates. The treatments were 100% trout (100T), 70% trout and 30% catfish (70T30C), 50% trout and 50% catfish (50T50C), and 100% catfish (100C). Fish were fed twice daily with pelleted commercial feed (45% crude protein) during an experimental period of 56 days. No feed was provided for the catfish in polyculture. The weight gained by the trout was higher in polyculture. Fish survival did not differ among the treatments. The average survival of the trout in all tanks was 99.6?±?1.0%, while the survival of the South American catfish was 97.9?±?2.7%. The total feed conversion ratio was lower in the 70T30J treatment, followed by the 100T treatment. Rainbow trout and South American catfish are compatible species for farming together in the first phase of their juvenile development. The different spaces occupied by these species inside tanks probably prevent competition or agonistic behavior. Catfish eat the non-ingested leftover diet from the trout, which improves feed conversion and increases sustainability.     

Effect of different levels of dried citrus pulp on performance,egg quality,and blood parameters of laying hens in early phase of production

Utilization of agricultural wastes in animal nutrition is a matter of great concern. Dried citrus pulp (DCP) is a potential source of some valuable nutrients for animal and poultry. In an experiment with completely randomized design, the effect of different levels (0%, 4%, 8%, 12%, and 16%) of DCP was evaluated on performance, egg quality, and blood parameters of laying hens from 25 to 37 weeks of age. The birds were randomly allocated to five groups with six replicates and three birds in each replicate. The results showed that with increasing the level of DCP up to 12%, there were no significant differences among treatments for feed intake, egg production, egg mass, feed conversion ratio, final body weight, yolk index, and yolk color. There were no significant differences between treatments in shell thickness, eggshell index, egg score, and Haugh unit. Utilization of DCP up to 16% significantly increased serum glucose and high-density lipoprotein and reduced cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides (P < 0.05). Results of the present study indicated that use of 12% DCP in laying hen diets had no adverse effect on performance and egg quality of laying hens in early phase of production.     

Estimation of additive and non-additive genetic variance component for growth traits in Adani goats

Tropical Animal Health and Production - Non-additive genetic effects are important to increase the accuracy of estimating genetic parameters for growth traits. The aim of this study was to estimate...     

Global desertification: building a science for dryland development

In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent lessons about the functioning of dryland ecosystems and the livelihood systems of their human residents and introduce a new synthetic framework, the Drylands Development Paradigm (DDP). The DDP, supported by a growing and well-documented set of tools for policy and management action, helps navigate the inherent complexity of desertification and dryland development, identifying and synthesizing those factors important to research, management, and policy communities.     

Potential role of viral surface glycoproteins in the replication of H3N2 triple reassortant influenza A viruses in swine and turkeys

The H3N2 triple reassortant (TR) influenza viruses emerged in swine in 1998 and then in turkeys in 2003. It was then hypothesized that these viruses crossed the species barrier and transmitted from pigs to turkeys. In previous work we identified viruses with different transmission behavior between the two species, of which A/turkey/Ohio/313053/04 (TK04) transmitted both ways between swine and turkeys, and A/swine/North Carolina/03 (SW03) did not transmit either way between the two species. Utilizing the 12-plasmid reverse genetics (RG) system, we rescued two viruses (TK04 and SW03) with potentially different transmission behavior between pigs and turkeys. Single gene reassortants (SGR) were generated by switching the hemagglutinin (HA) or the neuraminidase (NA) genes between both viruses, and were evaluated for replication in vitro (pig and turkey tracheal/bronchial epithelial cells) and in vivo (pigs and turkeys). RG-created TK04 replicated more efficiently than SW03 in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, TK04 exhibited better binding affinity to plasma membrane preparations (PMP) from pig and turkey tracheal/bronchial epithelial cells compared to SW03. In study with SGR viruses, the HA protein was found to be essential for TK04 virus transmission amongst turkeys, but not sole factor contributing to the efficient replication of virus in turkeys and pigs. Such findings further highlight the polygenic nature of influenza virus pathogenesis.