Search

Flexor tendinopathies and injuries to ligaments along with arthropathies are common in athletic horses. In this study, forty-eight client-owned healthy and injured horses, suffering from chronic tendinitis, fetlock arthritis and pain/swelling in other joints, were selected and divided into three equal groups (n=16) i.e. Group A (Race), Group B (Polo) and Group C (Draft horses); each group comprised of two equal sub-groups i.e. sound (n=8) and unsound (n=8). Chronic superficial and deep digital flexor (SDFT and DDFT) tendinopathies, as well as ligament injuries from various joints (elbow, carpus, fetlock, stifle and hock) were assessed. Thorough clinical and sonographic assessments were performed. Percentage prevalence of injuries depicted fetlock collateral ligament injuries to be of highest in occurrence (50%) in the Race Horse Group A, while flexor tendinopathies (50%) were greatest in the Polo horse Group B. Contrastingly, the Draft Horse Group C manifested greater prevalence of carpus, fetlock, stifle and hock injuries (25%). All unsound horses manifested with statistically significant clinical parameters of swelling, pain, lameness and reduced range of motion. Sonographically, unsound Race and Polo horses presented with lesion hyperechogenicity (P=0.014), fiber pattern disruption (P=0.002 and P=0.007, respectively), and heterogeneity (P=0.002). Severity of injury was highly significant (P=0.003) in Groups A (Race) and C (Draft). Race and Polo horses manifested greater unsoundness (P=0.002), with a poorer prognosis (P=0.001), as compared to Draft horses (unsoundness: P=0.012; prognosis: P=0.006). Conclusively, injuries were more pronounced in Race horses, followed by Polo and Draft horses, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue (BM) solution by Cu-doped ZnS nanoparticles in the presence of UV light has been studied. The effect of the molar ratio of Cu ions affecting the rate of degradation reaction has been investigated. Photocatalytic reactivity of ZnS:Cu nanoparticles could be tailored by the proper amount of Cu ions. The maximum decolorizing efficiency (85%) of 5 ppm MB was obtained by 30 mgL−1 nanoparticles containing 2 wt% Cu, which was ascribed to the most effective surface area of these particles. However, at more than 2 wt% Cu doping concentration, nanoparticles aggregated due to their high surface energy, and the decomposition efficiency was decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Naturforschung Section A: A Journal of Physical Sciences is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract Background Various regions of the chicken genome have been under natural and artificial selection for thousands of years. The substantial diversity that exits among chickens from different geographic regions provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the genomic regions under selection which, in turn, will increase our knowledge about the mechanisms that underlie chicken diversity and adaptation. Several statistics have been developed to detect genomic regions that are under selection. In this study, we applied approaches based on differences in allele or haplotype frequencies (F ST and hapFLK, respectively) between populations, differences in long stretches of consecutive homozygous sequences (ROH), and differences in allele frequencies within populations (composite likelihood ratio (CLR)) to identify inter- and intra-populations traces of selection in two Iranian indigenous chicken ecotypes, the Lari fighting chicken and the Khazak or creeper (short-leg) chicken. Results Using whole-genome resequencing data of 32 individuals from the two chicken ecotypes, approximately 11.9 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected and used in genomic analyses after quality processing. Examination of the distribution of ROH in the two populations indicated short to long ROH, ranging from 0.3 to 5.4 Mb. We found 90 genes that were detected by at least two of the four applied methods. Gene annotation of the detected putative regions under selection revealed candidate genes associated with growth (DCN, MEOX2 and CACNB1), reproduction (ESR1 and CALCR), disease resistance (S1PR1, ALPK1 and MHC-B), behavior pattern (AGMO, GNAO1 and PSEN1), and morphological traits (IHH and NHEJ1). Conclusions Our findings show that these two phenotypically different indigenous chicken populations have been under selection for reproduction, immune, behavioral, and morphology traits. The results illustrate that selection can play an important role in shaping signatures of differentiation across the genomic landscape of two chicken populations.

Abstract Background Seasonal reproduction limits productivity, flexibility, and profitability in commercial sheep production. Hormonal and (or) photoperiodic manipulation can be used to control estrous cycles in sheep and reduce limitations that are imposed by the seasonal anestrous but are often impractical or incompatible with the extensive management systems preferred for ruminant livestock. Thus, the current study investigated the use of selection to improve realized fertility (i.e., the proportion of ewes that lambed) following an out-of-season spring joining period (May and June) in a crossbred sheep population. Results Over 17 years, estimated breeding values (EBV) for fertility in selected (S) ewes increased by 0.175 (0.01 per year). The mean EBV for fertility of S ewes was greater than that of control ewes by year 10 (P = 0.02), and the fertility of adult (≥ 3 years old) ewes reached 0.88 ± 0.05 by year 17. Lambing began approximately 140 days after the introduction of rams, and 64% of the S ewes that lambed did so in the first 17 days of the potential lambing season, which indicated that most of the S ewes were cycling at the time of ram introduction and were not induced to cycle by the introduction of breeding males (i.e., the so-called “ram effect”). Animals in the S line had modest increases in body weight and scrotal circumference. A modest negative trend in the additive maternal effect on birth weight was observed but was reversed by additional selection on EBV for maternal birth weight. The heritability of litter size in autumn lambing was low (0.04) and could potentially limit the response to selection for this trait. Conclusions Selection improved realized ewe fertility in out-of-season mating, with absolute increases of approximately 1% per year in the percentage of joined ewes that lambed in the autumn. Genetic antagonisms with other performance traits were generally small. A modest antagonism with maternal breeding values for birth weight was observed but it could be accommodated by selection on EBV for maternal birth weight. Our results support results of previous studies that indicate that these selected ewes had one of the shortest seasonal anestrous periods reported for temperate sheep breeds and that spring-lambing lactating ewes from the selection line were capable of relatively rapid rebreeding in the spring.

For more than seven decades, dubbing has been the dominant professional modality for overcoming language barriers in foreign movies and TV series in Iran and has been revered as a national art. Although limited, some recent work has explored Persian dubbing reception and to continue this endeavor, this study attempts to offer further insights into how the Iranian viewers perceive dubbing, translation for dubbing and what they expect from dubbing. More precisely, the study aims at examining how the Iranian audiences view dubbing and particularly its agents and translation. To these ends, a questionnaire including open and closed items was designed. The overall results revealed that translation quality was considered considerably less important than the technical issues related to the dubbing production, such as voice-acting and synchronization. The findings also suggested that the performance of dubbing actors and dubbing directors was regarded more important than the contribution of translators. Overall, these findings seemed to indicate that the Iranian viewers’ appreciation of a dubbed program is mainly guided by non-translation issues including the performance of the dubbing actors and the accuracy of the relevant synchronizations.