Wicking phenomenon in polyacrylonitrile nanofiber yarn

The aim of this paper is to investigate vertical wicking in polyacrylonitrile (PAN) electrospinning nanofiber yarn using image analysis. Colored liquid rising phenomenon into the yarn and the distance of liquid rise were determined as a function of time. The kinetics of capillary rise follows the Lucas-Washburn equation. The results show that capillary rise rate coefficient is being reduced with increasing yarn twist, due to the reduction of continuity and size of capillaries. Increasing heat treatment stretch from 0 % (draw ratio=1) to 50 % (draw ratio=1.5) increases the capillary rise rate coefficient, due to the more homogeneity of capillary spaces in the yarn structure and increasing heat treatment stretch from 50 to 100 % (draw ratio=2) reduces capillary rise rate coefficient, because of the low capillary length. The present study indicates that an appropriate choice in production parameters of nanofiber yarn is all important in obtaining the desired properties of capillary rise.     

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of essential oils from Perovskia atriplicifolia Benth

The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of the aerial parts of Perovskia atriplicifolia Benth. was studied. The effect of different parameters such as pressure, temperature, modifier identity, and modifier volume on the SFE of the plant was investigated. The extracts were analyzed by GC and GC-MS and compared with the essential oil obtained from P. atriplicifolia Benth by steam distillation. The supercritical extracts and the steam-distilled products had very different compositions. The main constituents of the oil obtained by steam distillation were 1,8-cineole, limonene, camphor, beta-caryophyllene, alpha-pinene, camphene, and alpha-humulene. On the other hand, the major components of SFE extracts were 1,8-cineole, limonene, camphor, beta-caryophyllene, gamma-cadinene, alpha-pinene, and alpha-terpinyl acetate. The results showed that increasing the temperature from 35 to 65 degrees C (at a constant pressure of 100 atm) drastically reduced the number of extracted components. Also, the number of extracted constituents and the percent of main analytes increased when lower pressures were used. Using different modifiers (e.g., methanol, ethanol, dichloromethane, and hexane) for the extraction of the plant at low pressure (100 atm) and temperature (35 degrees C) showed that hexane was more selective than the other modifiers.     

Serum biochemical characteristics of Beluga, Huso huso (L.), in response to blood sampling after clove powder solution exposure

In order to investigate the effect of anesthesia on serum parameters, Beluga, Huso huso (L.) were blood-sampled immediately without anesthesia (control) or subjected to following anesthesia procedure: 40, 120, and 240 s exposure to 3,000, 700, and 500 mg l⁻¹ clove solution, respectively. Blood samples were collected after these periods, when fish were immobile and reached stage 4 anesthesia. Results showed that cortisol and glucose levels were significantly high in 700 and 500 but not 3,000 mg l⁻¹ group compared to control. Serum lactate levels were significantly high in 500 mg l⁻¹ group compared to control group. Lactate levels were not significantly differed between control, 3,000, and 700 mg l⁻¹ groups. There were no significant differences in serum levels of cholesterol, total protein, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, Na⁺, Cl⁻, K⁺, and Ca²⁺. Results suggest that rapid anesthesia with higher dose is better than slow anesthesia with lower dose for blood sampling in Beluga.     

Effect of dietary taurine and methionine supplementation on growth performance,body composition,taurine retention and lipid status of Persian sturgeon,Acipenser persicus (Borodin, 1897), fed with plant‐based diet

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary taurine and methionine on Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) fed with plant‐based diets. To this purpose, sturgeons were fed with either of methionine + taurine‐supplemented (MT), without taurine supplementation (M) or without methionine supplementation (T) diets. Growth performance, body composition, tissue amino acids and serum glucose and lipids were studied at the end of the experiment. Results showed that the treatments T and MT had similar growth performance and feed efficiency, which were significantly higher than the treatment M. Dietary taurine and methionine significantly altered carcass and liver taurine and methionine contents. The highest serum glucose was observed in the treatment M and the lowest in treatment MT. Serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the treatments T and MT were similar and significantly higher than those of the treatment M. This study showed that Persian sturgeon needs taurine supplementation when fed with plant‐based diets, but the supplemented level seems to be lower than those of the other species. Taurine has hypoglycaemic and lipidogenesis effects on Persian sturgeon. However, further studies are required to illustrate taurine and methionine metabolism in Persian sturgeon.     

Effect of dietary l-tryptophan on osmotic stress tolerance in common carp, Cyprinus carpio, juveniles

Common carp juveniles were fed two types of diet (control: 0.1% tryptophan and TRP: 0.6% tryptophan) over 15 days. Thereafter, both groups were directly subjected to osmotic challenge (from 0 to 10 ppt) for 168 h. Blood samples were collected at ?240, 0, 6, 24, 72 and 168 h after challenge. Survival and serum cortisol, glucose, sodium and chloride levels were measured to determine stress response and osmoregulation condition. While TRP group showed no mortality until 168 h, cumulative mortality was near 100% at 72 h after challenge in control group. Feeding tryptophan-supplemented diet led to increase in prechallenge cortisol, but not glucose, sodium and chloride values at ?240 h that stayed elevated until 0 h after challenge. After challenge, cortisol and glucose values did not significantly affected by time of sampling but type of diet and diet × time interaction. Sodium values significantly affected by diet type and time of sampling but not their interaction. Chloride values significantly affected by time of sampling but not diet type and their interaction. Control group had higher cortisol, glucose and sodium than TRP at each time of sampling. Control and TRP group showed increasing and decreasing pattern in cortisol and glucose values when experiment progressed after osmotic challenge. Both group showed increasing pattern in sodium and chloride values when experiment progressed after osmotic challenge. Results indicated that tryptophan supplementation enhanced salt water tolerance of carp that is due to increase in basal cortisol and anti-stress effect of tryptophan and possibly increase in serotonergic activity.     

Tissue distribution of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus serotype Sp in naturally infected cultured rainbow trout,Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum): an immunohistochemical and nested‐PCR study

This study investigates the occurrence and distribution pattern of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) within the pancreas, liver, kidney and spleen of naturally infected cultured rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), using immunohistochemistry (IHC). A nested PCR was also employed to confirm the presence of the virus in the pooled tissues of the specimens. All the examined tissues except spleen were immunohistochemically positive for IPNV, but staining intensity and distribution pattern varied. The kidney tubules had the most intense and widespread staining by IHC, indicating a specific tissue tropism at least for this particular serotype. The nucleotide sequence had the greatest identity with the Sp serotype confirming the presence of the nucleic acid of IPNV in the pooled tissues. Based on the present findings, it could be concluded that the absence of lesions consistent with infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) disease in the H&E‐stained sections cannot rule out the presence of the IPNV, and the use of an alternative rapid confirmatory method such as IHC with formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded tissue sections is helpful for the final diagnosis of IPN in rainbow trout.     

Identification of genes expressed by Phakopsora pachyrhizi,the pathogen causing soybean rust,at a late stage of infection of susceptible soybean leaves

Soybean is one of the top five agricultural products in the United States and is highly susceptible to Phakopsora pachyrhizi, an exotic obligate biotrophic fungus. The little amount of genomic information about P. pachyrhizi limits understanding of the soybean–soybean rust pathogen interaction and the possibility of engineering resistance to this pathogen in soybean. Illumina mRNA‐Seq analysis revealed P. pachyrhizi genes expressed during a biotrophic interaction between P. pachyrhizi and soybean during fungal sporulation 10 days after inoculation. Approximately 2·4 million DNA sequences representing portions of potential P. pachyrhizi genes were assembled into 32 940 contigs that were used to search against expressed sequence tag (EST), protein and conserved domain databases. About 7500 contigs represent newly discovered P. pachyrhizi sequences. Of these, 527 shared similarity to genes encoding fungal proteins involved in different metabolic pathways such as galactose and glycogen metabolism, glycolysis, the citrate cycle, fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, proteolysis, protein synthesis, cell cycle division and mitosis, and cell wall biogenesis. Almost 7000 potential P. pachyrhizi genes are still of unknown function. Such information may be useful in the development of new methods of broadening resistance of soybean to P. pachyrhizi, including the silencing of important P. pachyrhizi genes, and also to understand the molecular basis of soybean–P. pachyrhizi interactions.     

Feeding broilers with thyme essential oil loaded in chitosan nanoparticles: an efficient strategy for successful delivery

ABSTRACT

1. The use of chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) for the entrapment of active components has gained considerable interest in food and pharmaceutical industries due to its mucous adhesiveness, non-toxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability.

2. This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of feeding encapsulated thyme essential oil (E-TEO) on performance, blood parameters, immunity and ileal microflora in broilers.

3. CNPs were prepared by using ionotropic gelation and structurally characterised by dynamic light scattering; scanning electron microscope and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The encapsulation efficiency percentage of TEO in CNPs and its in vitro release were determined using ultraviolet visible spectroscopy and dialysis method, respectively.

4. An in vivo experiment was conducted with five treatments of five replicates with ten chicks per pen. Dietary treatments consisted of an unsupplemented control diet, or supplemented with chlortetracycline (80 and 50 mg/kg during the starter and grower phase, respectively); CNPs (60 mg/kg); TEO (40 mg/kg diet) or E-TEO (60 mg/kg).

5. Results showed uniform distribution of nanoparticles with roughly spherical morphology, and the size of particles ranged from 30 to 100 nm. It was observed that 68.3% of TEO was encapsulated into CNPs, from which more than 90% was released within the first 96 h. Birds treated with antibiotic and E-TEO showed significantly (P < 0.05) higher body weight gain than the control and the other treatments were intermediate. Compared to the control group, adding of E-TEO into diet significantly (P < 0.05) improved feed conversion ratio at 42 days of age. Feeding birds with E-TEO significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the number of coliform and total aerobic bacteria compared to other treatments. Birds supplemented with E-TEO showed lower heterophile to lymphocyte ratio compared to birds that received TEO.

6. The results suggested that the entrapment of TEO in CNPs and its sustained release promoted broiler performance via the improvement of physiological status and modulating intestinal microbiota and therefore could be used as substitute for antibiotic growth promoter in broiler diets.     

Immunohistochemical and polymerase chain reaction studies in Neospora caninum experimentally infected broiler chicken embryonated eggs

The diagnostic characteristics of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods were studied in the tissues of broiler chicken embryos experimentally infected by Neospora caninum. An infection with N. caninum NC-1 isolate was conducted in 70 broiler chicken embryonated eggs randomly divided into seven equal groups. After 8 days of incubation, six groups were inoculated with 10, 10(2), 10(3), 10(4), 10(5), and 10(6) doses of tachyzoites/embryonated egg. The 7th group was considered as control. The mortality rate and pathological changes of the dead embryos and hatched chickens up to 60 days old were noticed. Consecutive sections to those used for histopathological examination including the liver, heart, brain, and chorioalantoic (CA) membrane were subjected to IHC. The intensity and distribution of the immunostaining was graded as highly to mildly positive. For PCR procedure, DNA was extracted from 50mg of the tissues and primer pair Np21/Np6 was used for amplification of the Nc-5 gene. The results of the immunosignaling ranged from variable degrees of mild to moderate staining as dark-brown to brown and coarsely to finely granular, mostly within the cytoplasm of infected cells such as the endothelial cells of blood vessels. The parasite aggregation was more predominant in the heart than other tissues. Immunoreactivity for N. caninum antigen was multifocally moderate positive in the heart, liver and CA of the 10(3) dose, and also heart, liver, brain and CA of the 10(4) dose. IHC showed mildly positive in the liver and heart of the chicken embryos infected with 10 and 10(2) tachyzoites, as well. The results of the PCR confirmed the existence of the parasite in all of the examined tissues from the 10(3) and 10(4) doses. In conclusion, the results indicate a good agreement between IHC and PCR in diagnosis of neospora antigen in the infected tissues.     

Sowing soil water content effects on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): Seedling emergence and early growth interaction with genotype and seed size

Soil water content at sowing is an important determinant of chickpea seed emergence and early growth. The seed emergence and seedling growth of 9 kabuli and 11 desi chickpea genotypes sown and grown under four soil moisture contents (25, 50, 75 and 100% of field capacity) was measured in a glasshouse study. Across soil moisture treatments the day of first emergence was negatively correlated to all plant growth parameters, e.g. above-ground biomass and plant height (r = −0.83 to −0.94). At 50 and 25% field capacity the onset of seed emergence was delayed, and both the number of seeds that emerged and early growth were reduced. Within the 25% soil moisture treatment, genotypes with an early emergence had a high rate of emergence (as estimated by regression against time) and produced seedlings with a high specific leaf area. Genotypic differences were observed in the number of seeds that emerged, day of first emergence, and early growth across the soil moisture treatments. Differences in final emergence were not related to chickpea type (i.e. desi or kabuli) or seed size, but the kabuli types emerged later than desi types (P < 0.001). The response of early dry matter production and leaf area to soil moisture was quadratically proportional to seed size, while the plant height response was linearly proportional to seed size. As a consequence kabuli chickpeas generated a higher degree of early vigour than desi types as soil moisture increased until seed sizes become extremely large, whereas under low soil moisture, kabuli chickpeas will have a much smaller or possibly no early vigour advantage over desi types.