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Objective The goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of various concentrations of xylanase in energy-deficient corn-based diets on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and digesta viscosity in broilers from 7 to 35 days of age. Methods A total of 280 seven-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to one of the five dietary treatments following a completely randomized design with 8 replicates and 7 birds per cage. The treatments were: i) positive control (PC, without xylanase); ii) NC-1 (80 kcal/kg ME reduced from PC); iii) NC-2 (100 kcal/kg ME reduced from PC); iv) NCX-1 (NC-1 + 2,000 U/kg xylanase); and v) NCX-2 (NC-2 + 3,000 U/kg xylanase). Body weight, weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were determined weekly to evaluate growth performance. One bird per pen was sacrificed for ileal digesta collection to determine the viscosity and digestibility of energy, dry matter, crude protein on days 24 and 35, however breast and leg meat samples were obtained for proximate analysis (moisture, crude protein, fat, and ash) on day 35. Results Birds fed diets supplemented with xylanase regardless of the amount had higher (p0.05) by the addition of xylanase. Moreover, lowered (p0.05) by xylanase. Conclusion The present study indicated that the xylanase at 2,000 U/kg and 3,000 U/kg levels compensates for the 80 kcal/kg and 100 kcal/kg dietary energy levels, respectively, without having adverse effects on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and digesta viscosity of broilers.

Duck meat is recognized as a healthier poultry product that contains higher amounts of unsaturated and essential fatty acids, iron, and excellent amounts of protein. It has been found to possess the ability to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and subsequently, blood pressure in the human body; and improve the immunity system. The current study investigated the appropriate bedding depths of rice hulls as a preferred bedding material by evaluating the growth performance and carcass traits of White Pekin ducks raised for 42 days. A total of 288 one-day-old White Pekin ducklings were randomly allotted to floor cages with one of four bedding depths at 4 cm, 8 cm, 12 cm, and 16 cm. Ducklings were fed standard duck starter (days 1–21) and finisher (days 22–42) diets. The birds were stocked at a rate of 6 birds/m2 with 6 replicates per treatment. Growth performance evaluation for the body weight, average daily gain, and average daily feed intake were measured to calculate the weekly feed conversion ratio. Breast, leg, and carcass yield were assessed as carcass traits. The muscle color and proximate composition were also analyzed for meat quality. Footpad dermatitis was also evaluated on day 42. Ducks reared on 16 cm bedding depth over the 42 days recorded higher (p < 0.05) body weight, average daily, average daily feed intake, and improved feed conversion ratios compared to other groups. The crude fat in breast meat also lowered (p < 0.05) in ducks reared at 16 cm (1.02%) when compared to ducks raised at 4 cm bedding depth (2.11%). Our results showed improved redness (p < 0.05) when the depth of bedding materials was elevated. Except for the breast meat fat, the dissimilar bedding depths did not affect (p < 0.05) the breast and leg meat composition, footpad dermatitis, and mortality for the current study. In conclusion, this study indicated that the bedding depths would directly or indirectly affect the growth performance and meat color of White Pekin ducks; and the bedding depth of rice hulls at 16 cm improved the growth performance of White Pekin ducks for 42 days.

The assessment of productive and reproductive traits helps in identifying animals with superior germplasm in comparison to their population mean which helps in selecting animals for breeding purposes. The early detection of low- performing animals based on the parameters considered for the evaluation of productive and reproductive traits in the study can help in culling animals at an early age, thus saving the cost of maintenance or losses for dairy farmers. Overall, it was observed that the productive and reproductive performance of cross-bred cows was better as compared to the buffaloes and non-descript cows. Therefore, the study advises taking the following steps; record keeping, regular testing for various diseases, balanced ration, maintenance of proper hygiene, availability of nearby veterinary services, and upgradation of non- descript animals to exploit maximum production potential at farmers’ level.

A sensitive and accurate high performance liquid chromatography method utilizing ultraviolet/visible light detection (HPLC-UV) for the quantification of Ribociclib in Spiked Human Plasma by HPLC-UV was developed and validated. Ribociclib (RCB) and the internal standard (IS), Trifluridine, were first extracted from plasma samples by a simple Protein Precipitation extraction using Acetonitrile. Plasma concentration of RCB and internal standard were then analyzed by applying reversed phase chromatography using Orochem orosil C18 (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μ) and elution with a isocratic mobile phase consisting of 10 mM phosphate buffer – Acetonitrile (60:40, v/v) adjusted to pH 3.0 at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Detection of RCB and the IS was subsequently done at a wavelength of 260 nm. The limit of quantification was 10 ng/ml. The calibration curve was linear (R2>0.998) over the concentration range of 10-1000 ng/ml. For human plasma, the accuracy and precision were within ±15% and ≤15%, respectively, for all concentrations, except for the lower limit of quantification, where they were within ≤20%.

Background: Regardless of the availability of all novel and earlier treatments, seizure control is notoriously complicated. In the hopes of discovering the latest and ultimate therapy, medicinal chemists will keep on to hunt for new antiepileptic compounds with high specificity and low CNS toxicity. The biological effects of benzodiazepine compounds have been examined. Benzene and a diazepine ring are fused together to form the chemical structure. Diverse combinations of moieties attached to the innermost structure in positions 1, 2, 5, and 7 the pharmacological qualities, effect potency, and pharmacokinetic conditions are all influenced by the various side groups. Methods: This paper describes the synthesis of several 1H-benzo[b][1,5]diazepin-2(3H)-one derivatives. The substituents at N1 are benzoyl, 5-substituted-1,3,4-thiadiazoles-2-yl-aminoacetyl. Condensation of orthophenylene diamine with ethyl acetoacetate gave 7-substituted-4-methyl-1H-benzo[b][1,5]diazepin-2(3H)-ones, which were then linked to benzoyl chloride and chloroacetyl chloride to yield N1-benzoyl and N1-chloroacetyl derivatives. N1- chloroacetyl derivatives were further linked with 5-substituted-1,3,4-thiadiazoles amines using microwave irradiation. Results: FTIR, 1H-NMR, and mass spectroscopy were used to authenticate the synthesized compounds. The PTZ produced convulsions method was used to test the compounds for anticonvulsant activity. When compared to the control group; Compounds 4a and 4c gave 80% protection at 0.4 mg/kg, whereas Compounds 2a and 2c offered 80% protection at 20 and 30 mg/kg, respectively. Conclusion: When compared to a control, the experimental synthesis and pharmacological assessment of the 1,5-benzodiazepin-2-one moiety replaced with 1,3,4-thiadiazole yields a potentially active anticonvulsant drug.

Objective The present study examined the effects of exogenous emulsifiers and multi-enzyme supplementation into a low energy density diet on growth performance, visceral organ parameters, blood metabolites, ileal morphology, and nutrient digestibility in broiler chickens from hatch to 21 days. Methods One hundred and sixty-eight one-day-old Ross 308 broiler chickens were allocated in a completely randomized design to 24 pens and each pen was assigned to one of four dietary treatments to give six replications with seven chickens in a cage. Dietary treatments were: i) positive control with standard energy level (PC); ii) negative control with 100 kcal/kg lower energy of the standard level (NC); iii) NC diet supplemented 0.05% calcium stearoyl-2 lactylate as an emulsifier (NC+E); and iv) NC diet supplemented with both 0.05% calcium stearoyl-2 lactylate and 0.05% multi-enzyme (NC+E+M). Corn and soybean meal-based control diets containing vegetable oil were formulated to meet the Ross 308 nutrition specification. Chickens were fed ad-libitum with the treatment diets and sampling was conducted on day 21. Results Our results revealed that emulsifier and multi-enzyme supplementation into NC diets improved (p0.05) visceral organ weight, blood metabolites, and intestinal morphology in broiler chickens fed NC diets. Conclusion Supplementation of emulsifier and multi-enzyme in the NC diet would support improving growth performance in young broiler chickens with improved feed efficiency and increased nutrient digestibility thereby curtailing the negative impact of energy reduction in the diets.

The first complete mitochondrial genome sequencing of Asiatic Water snake or Checkered Keelback or Fowlea piscator (=Xenochrophis piscator) was carried out using Next-Generation Sequencing technology. The complete mitochondrial genome of Asiatic Water snake is 16,999bp long with a base composition of 33% A, 28% T, 12% G and 27% C, with a GC content of 39%. Like the typical snake mitochondrial genome, F. piscator also shows relatively similar mitogenome arrangement comprising 37 genes including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes and two non-coding regions or a duplicated control region (D-Loop) along with an origin of replication. Nine genes including eight tRNAs and NAD6 were encoded on the Light or L-strand. Phylogenetic analyses using the complete mitochondrial genome of F. piscator demonstrate a close relationship with the family Colubridae and sub family Natricinae.

Objective: The goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of various concentrations of xylanase in energy-deficient corn-based diets on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and digesta viscosity in broilers from 7 to 35 days of age. Methods: A total of 280 seven-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to one of the five dietary treatments following a completely randomized design with 8 replicates and 7 birds per cage. The treatments were: i) positive control (PC, without xylanase); ii) NC1 (80 kcal/kg ME reduced from PC); iii) NC2 (100 kcal/kg ME reduced from PC); iv) NCX1 (NC1 + 2,000 U/kg xylanase); and v) NCX2 (NC2 + 3,000 U/kg xylanase). Body weight, weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were determined weekly to evaluate growth performance. One bird per pen was sacrificed for ileal digesta collection to determine the viscosity and digestibility of energy, dry matter, crude protein on days 24 and 35, however breast and leg meat samples were obtained for proximate analysis (moisture, crude protein, fat, and ash) on day 35. Results: Birds fed diets supplemented with xylanase regardless of the amount had higher (p<0.05) body weights, daily gains, and improved feed efficiency compared to NC diets all throughout the experimental period. Feed intake was not affected (p>0.05) by the addition of xylanase. Moreover, lowered (p<0.05) viscosity of the ileal digesta were observed upon xylanase inclusion in the diets compared to the birds fed NC diets on day 24. Ileal nutrient digestibility and meat proximate composition were not affected (p>0.05) by xylanase. Conclusion: The present study indicated that the xylanase at 2,000 U/kg and 3,000 U/kg levels compensates for the 80 kcal/kg and 100 kcal/kg dietary energy levels, respectively, without having adverse effects on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and digesta viscosity of broilers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by mycobacterium leprae. Chronicity of the disease leads to various psychiatric co-morbidities, which are often undiagnosed and untreated. The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the frequency and nature of psychiatric co-morbidity in patients of Hansen's disease. Materials and Methods: Seventy confirmed cases of Hansen's disease between the ages of 18 and 60 years attending the department of dermatology of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla were evaluated for various manifestations of Hansen's disease and screened for psychiatric co-morbidity using GHQ-12 and diagnosed using ICD-10 checklist. Severity of depression and anxiety was assessed with HAM-D and HAM-A scales, respectively. Results: The prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidity was found in 27.14% of enrolled patients. Depression was most prevalent in (20%) mental disorder; followed by anxiety disorder (7.14%). Moderate depressive episode was the commonest seen in 11.42% patients whereas 5.71% patients had mild depression. Generalized anxiety disorder was seen in 1.42% whereas 5.71% patients had mixed anxiety disorder. Patients with higher education status, positive family history of leprosy, lepromatous leprosy, and hand deformities were significantly associated with higher psychiatric co-morbidity. Conclusion: Patients suffering from Hansen's disease have significantly high prevalence of psychiatric co-morbidity complicating the Hansen's disease. High index of suspicion is required to diagnose and treat it.

Plant diseases are unfavourable factors that cause a significant decrease in the quality and quantity of crops. Experienced biologists or farmers often observe plants with the naked eye for disease, but this method is often imprecise and can take a long time. In this study, we use artificial intelligence and computer vision techniques to achieve the goal of designing and developing an intelligent classification mechanism for leaf diseases. This paper follows two methodologies and their simulation outcomes are compared for performance evaluation. In the first part, data augmentation is performed on the PlantVillage data set images (for apple, corn, potato, tomato, and rice plants), and their deep features are extracted using convolutional neural network (CNN). These features are classified by a Bayesian optimized support vector machine classifier and the results attained in terms of precision, sensitivity, f-score, and accuracy. The above-said methodologies will enable farmers all over the world to take early action to prevent their crops from becoming irreversibly damaged, thereby saving the world and themselves from a potential economic crisis. The second part of the methodology starts with the preprocessing of data set images, and their texture and color features are extracted by histogram of oriented gradient (HoG), GLCM, and color moments. Here, the three types of features, that is, color, texture, and deep features, are combined to form hybrid features. The binary particle swarm optimization is applied for the selection of these hybrid features followed by the classification with random forest classifier to get the simulation results. Binary particle swarm optimization plays a crucial role in hybrid feature selection; the purpose of this Algorithm is to obtain the suitable output with the least features. The comparative analysis of both techniques is presented with the use of the above-mentioned evaluation parameters.

Objective An experiment was conducted to investigate the response of laying hens fed corn distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) that are naturally contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON). Methods One hundred and sixty 52-week-old Lohmann Brown Lite hens were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments with 8 replicates per treatment. The dietary treatments were formulated to provide a range of corn DDGS contaminated with DON from 0% to 20% (i.e., 5% scale of increment). All laying hens were subjected to the same management practices in a controlled environment. Body weight, feed intake and egg production were measured biweekly for the entire 8-week experiment. The egg quality was measured biweekly for 8 weeks. On weeks 4 and 8, visceral organ weights, blood metabolites, intestinal morphology, and blood cytokine concentrations were measured. Results The inclusion of corn DDGS contaminated with DON in the diet did not alter (p> 0.05) the body weight, feed intake, hen-day egg production, egg mass and feed efficiency of the laying hens. No difference was found (p>0.05) in the egg quality of hens that were fed the dietary treatments. Furthermore, hens that were fed a diet containing corn DDGS contaminated with DON showed no change (p>0.05) in the visceral organ weights, the blood metabolites, and the cytokine concentrations. The crypt depth increased (p

This study was designed to determine the effect of phytase extracted from Aspergillus niger (Natuphos® E) on growth performance, bone mineralization, phosphorous excretion, and meat quality parameters in broilers fed available phosphorous (aP)-deficient diet. In total, 810 one-day-old Indian River broilers were randomly allotted into one of three dietary treatments, with six replicates per treatment. The three dietary treatments were 1) control group (CON: basal diet with sufficient aP), 2) low phytase (LPY: available phosphorus-deficient diet supplemented with 0.01% phytase), and 3) high phytase (HPY: available phosphorus-deficient diet supplemented with 0.02% phytase). Average daily gain and, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were measured for 35 days. Excreta were collected from each pen on day 35. One broiler from each cage was euthanized to collect visceral organs and tibia samples. Broiler chickens fed LPY and HPY showed improved (P

A hill cattle population locally known as Dagri reared by tribals from eastern border districts of Gujarat adjoining to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, mainly Dahod and Chhotaudepur and to some extent Panchmahal, Mahisagar and Narmada was investigated for its phenotypic characterization. A total of 606 animals were examined for body measurements. Body weight of the newborn calf (4) and preweaning weight (24) were recorded by actual measurement on the weighing scale while, the body weight of animals above 1-year (606) was derived from body measurements using standard formula. Body measurements in males, females and heifers were taken on 606 animals. Milk composition was studied in milk samples from 50 cows. Draughtability was also studied on 11 pairs of bullocks. Dagri animals possessed predominantly white coat colour (males 95.45%; females 86.89%). Muzzle colour was mainly black (males 95.45%; females 91.59%). Eyelids were mainly black (males 100%; females 98.22%). Horn and tail switch were mainly black while hoof colour was mainly pale black. Horns were curved and oriented upward-outward. Forehead was straight. Ears were small oriented horizontally. Dagri cattle had small hump, dewlap and naval flap. The udder was bowl shaped, small sized with round tipped cylindrical teats and with no prominent milk vein. The means (cm) for chest girth, body length, height at withers and hip height were 134.40±4.03, 115.46±3.37, 106.66±2.11 and 109.13±1.84, respectively, in adult males and 128.93±0.35, 110.82±0.34, 102.46±0.28 and 104.99±0.26, respectively, in adult females. The means (cm) for face length, tail length, horn length, horn circumference, hump height, navel length, dewlap length, forehead width, ear length and ear width were 35.86±1.00, 67.33±1.37, 21.64±2.65, 18.00±0.85, 10.00±0.66, 05.87±0.54, 78.40±2.57, 15.66±0.54, 21.06±0.78 and 10.00±0.32 respectively in adult males and 35.95±0.10, 66.91±0.25, 19.26±0.29, 12.91±0.10, 06.98±0.06, 01.40±0.06, 72.86±0.35, 13.12±0.05, 19.23±0.11, 10.50±0.06 cm, respectively, in adult females. The mean body weight (kg) at different age groups, viz. birth weight, pre-weaning weight, body weight at 12 months, body weight at 24 months and adult weight were 16.75±0.25, 27.12±2.02, 60.02±19.85, 108.08±13.72, 223.85±14.70, respectively, in males and 13.0±1.0, 27.1±3.01, 66.5±7.16, 116.7±8.67, 169.63±1.21, respectively, in females. Reproduction traits, viz. age at first oestrus, age at first mating, age at first calving were 32 to 42, 42 to 48 and 48 to 60 months, respectively, in females. Production traits, viz. daily milk yield, lactation length and lactation milk yield were 1.75 kg, 120–240 days and 75–600 kg, respectively. These data were derived from farmers’ personal interview at their doorstep. Milk fat and SNF percentage were 4.08% and 9.18%. This lesser known population of hilly cattle was not recognized and registered as distinct breed before this investigation. This study played a major role in recognition and registration of this population. As a result of these efforts it is now recognized and registered as new cattle breed with accession no. INDIA_CATTLE_0400_DAGRI_03046.