a. hadipour

Heat stress can compromise sheep's productive performance and growing lambs are considered to be one of the most susceptible groups to heat stress. Exposure to heat stress increases inflammatory cytokines secretion and impairs insulin signaling in muscle which may underlie poor growth responses. Therefore, enhancing insulin sensitivity through the addition of insulin-sensitizing dietary additives may improve animal performance during heat stress. Phytogenics, compounds with antioxidant, antimicrobial, and metabolic enhancing effects, have been used in animal nutrition to enhance performance and prevent diseases in stress-related conditions. It has been reported that supplementing a phytogenic-rich herbal mixture containing clove, rosemary, cinnamon, and turmeric improved the antioxidant status and enhanced insulin sensitivity of transition dairy cows. It has been indicated that the duodenal infusion of quercetin increased insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. Possible mechanisms responsible for the insulin-sensitizing activity of herbal plants include increasing insulin receptors or enhancing receptor sensitivity to insulin, increasing PPARy activity, increasing glycogen synthase activity, modulating inflammatory cytokine expression, stimulating fatty acid oxidation as well as increasing antioxidant status. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of a phytogenic-rich herbal mixture (PRHM) supplementation on gene expression of insulin-related genes in the muscle of feedlot lambs experiencing severe heat stress conditions.
Eighteen 11-12-month-old growing male Afshari×Chaal lambs (41.2 ± 3.04 kg) were housed in individual stalls (1.2 × 1 m, with individual feed troughs) on wooden slatted flooring, located within an indoor animal facility with a natural and artificial lighting system for 16 h/d. Lambs were randomly allocated to one of three experimental diets for a 48-day feeding period. The treatments included control diet without PRHM (0%PRHM), diet supplemented with 1% PRHM (1%PRHM), and diet supplemented with 2% PRHM (2%PRHM). The PRHM was added to the basal diet and mixed thoroughly. Diets formulated to meet nutritional requirements for maintenance and growth and offered twice daily at 0700 and 1700 h. The lambs had free access to feed and water during the experiment. The main ingredients of the basal diet were alfalfa hay, ground corn, wheat bran, beet pulp, soybean meal, and soy oil. The herbal mixture consisted of 50% rosemary leaves (Rosemarinus offıcinalis), 20% cinnamon barks (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), 20% turmeric roots (Curcuma longa), and 10% clove buds (Eugenia caryophyllata Thunb.). The total phenolic content of the PRHM was 89.6 g tannic acid equivalent per kg. The daily climate data, such as daily mean temperature and relative humidity, were recorded using a digital thermo-hygrometer (Testo 608-H1, Germany). At the end of the study, all lambs were transported to a local abattoir where they were slaughtered after 12-h feed withdrawal according to Halal method. Post-slaughter, longissimus lumborum muscle samples between the 12th and the 13th rib of the right side of carcass were collected as quickly as possible (i.e., within 3–5 min). For expression analysis of Insulin receptor (INSR), Insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4), Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARγ) genes, total RNA was isolated from the sheep muscle tissue using the SinaPure RNA according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The quantity and integrity of isolated RNA were determined for each sample by using both NanoDrop (260/280 ratio) and 1% agarose gel electrophoresis. cDNA was synthesized with RevertAid First Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Forward and reverse primers were designed for five genes and GAPDH as reference gene by Oligo 7. The real-time PCR was done in 25 µL containing 1x BIORON GreenHot Master Mix (BIORON, Germany), 1 µL cDNA, 0.3 µM of each forward and reverse primers and nuclease-free water to reach final volume. Real-time PCR was performed on Bio-Rad CFX96 as follows; Initial denaturation 2 min at 94 °C, followed by 39 cycles of denaturation 20 sec at 94 °C, annealing 25 sec at annealing temperature, extension 20 sec at 72 °C following by melting curve analysis from 65 °C to 95 °C with 0.5 °C increase per each step. Relative gene expression was determined based on Livak method (2-ΔΔCT). All data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS. Model included the effect of the treatment as the fixed effect and lambs within treatments as a random effect. The significance level was declared at P<0.05.
The results showed that the gene expressions of INSR (P<0.01) and GLUT4 (P<0.01) in muscle tissue were linearly upregulated in lambs supplemented with increasing levels of herbal mixture. A quadratic effect of herbal mixture supplementation was found on gene expression of IRS1 such that lambs fed a 2% mixture had the highest gene expression. Moreover, both supplementation levels of 1 and 2% mixture equally increased GLUT1 gene expression (P<0.01) compared to control lambs. In contrast to the other genes, PPARγ gene expression was quadratically (P<0.01) downregulated by mixture supplementation such that the lowest gene expression was observed in lambs receiving a 2% mixture. Although there is some evidence suggesting that PRHM supplementation has modulatory effects on insulin resistance in transition dairy cows, to our knowledge, there is currently no published data investigating the effects of PRHM supplementation on mRNA expression of genes related to insulin and glucose metabolism in lambs’ skeletal muscle. Our results may suggest that PRHM supplementation enhanced insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in the skeletal muscle of heat-stressed lambs. In agreement with our results, it has been found that cinnamaldehyde promotes gene expression of IRS-1 and GLUT4 genes in muscle cells, which the latter gene is affected by activating the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha. In addition, greater GLUT1 gene expression might be indicative of improved insulin-independent glucose uptake, besides enhanced insulin-dependent glucose transporter, GLUT4 gene.
The results showed that the mixture of medicinal plants including cinnamon, turmeric, rosemary, and clove affected the expression of genes related to insulin metabolism and increased the efficiency of glucose utilization.

Mesenteric lymphadenitis is an inflammatory process that has similar clinical symptoms to appendicitis among diseases associated with acute abdominal pain. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare clinical and paraclinical findings in children with appendicitis and mesenteric lymphadenitis.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 214 children who were admitted to Amirkola Children's Hospital in 2011-2021 with the diagnosis of appendicitis (112 people) or mesenteric lymphadenitis (102 people). Appendicitis and mesenteric lymphadenitis were diagnosed based on pathology and ultrasound, clinical symptoms, laboratory parameters and ultrasound of children were compared in two groups.

Out of 214 children, 112 (52.15%) were girls and the mean age of the children was 7.53±3.19 years. Children with appendicitis compared to children with mesenteric lymphadenitis were more likely to have tenderness (42.2% vs 85.7%, p<0.001), rebound tenderness (40.2% vs 4.9%, p<0.001), vomiting (79.5% vs 61.8%, p=0.004) and pain shift (11.8% vs 25%, p<0.013). Also, WBC (9774.51±3971.35 vs 15358.04±4635.20, p<0.001), neutrophil (63.42±17.05 vs 77.02 ± 10.51, p<0.001), ESR (19.73±18.56 vs 38.57±27.29, p<0.001) and CRP (18.00±27.98 vs 52.77±40.30, p<0.001) were significantly higher in children with appendicitis. Ultrasound sensitivity (0.73-0.88) was 80.4% in diagnosing appendicitis and rejected mesenteric lymphadenitis with 100% probability.

The results of the study showed that some clinical symptoms with leukocytosis, neutrophilia and high CRP can help differentiate appendicitis from mesenteric lymphadenitis. But ultrasound can have a more definitive result in this regard.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of reducing the dietary level of crude protein (CP) and inclusion of extruded soybean meal (SBM) and canola meal (CM) on blood and ruminal parameters, the population of methanogens, and hyper-ammonia producing bacteria (HAB) of feedlot calves. To this purpose, 36 male calves were used in a completely randomized experimental design with six treatments and six replicates. Experimental treatments included: 1) Control (CP=15%, SBM (15SBM)), 2) SBM (CP=13%, 13SBM), 3) Extruded SBM (CP=13%, EXSBM), 4) CM (CP=13%, 13CM), 5) Extruded CM (CP=13%, EXCM), and 6) Fish meal (CP=13%, FM). Concentrations of albumin, total protein, creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen in experimental treatments decreased compared to 15SBM (P>0.05). The highest values of ruminal ammonia and acetate and the lowest amounts of propionate and volatile fatty acids (VFA) were observed in the 15SBM (P<0.05). The minimum ruminal HAB population was observed in EXSBM and EXCM and then in 13SBM, 13CM and FM and was maximum in 15SBM (P<0.05). Also, treatments fed EXSBM and EXCM had a smaller methanogens population than the control group (P<0.05). Based on the results obtained, decreasing dietary CP level and processing of extrusion for SBM and CM decreased HAB population, rumen ammonium, and blood urea concentration. Furthermore, extrusion declined methanogens bacteria population and acetate to propionate ratio and increased total VFA concentrations which can be considered as an indication of the rumen improvement in fermentation efficiency index.

Intussusception is one of the most common causes of intestinal obstruction in children 5 months to 3 years, which is the most common cause of acute abdominal pain and its prevalence increases as a result of viral infection. In this report, were present a case of intussusception in a 17-years-old boy following COVID-19.

 A 17-year-old adolescent boy with a known case of steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome from the age of two has been referred to the emergency department with severe abdominal pain and vomiting. On ultrasound, renal mass and free fluids were shown. Ileocecal intussusception was observed and was repaired without any complications.

Based on the results of this study, intussusception should be considered in every patient with nephrotic syndrome with COVID-19 infection.

Groundwater plays an important role in providing water supply especially in arid and semi-arid regions such as Iran. Given globally water crisis, monitoring and analyzing water levels can help water resources managers and planners for sustainable utilization and management of water supplies. On the other hand, groundwater processes exhibit dynamic, temporal and spatial patterns; making groundwater fluctuation modeling a complex and challenging task. Among different modeling methods, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are regularly used for complicated problems due to their distinctive and powerful properties. Qom plain in Iran is an arid region whose groundwater utilization in the last decades has led to downfall in water table. In this study groundwater level fluctuations were investigated in two distinct wells in this region using monthly groundwater level data recorded for 11 years. For modeling, the ground water time series of each studied well were entered as the input and output to the network and Time delay neural networks (TDNN) with various network structures and input delays were used for achieving the best results. The findings of the best modeling structure represented fair fitting for forecasted results in comparison with observed data, hereby underlining the promising application of this method for groundwater level modeling.

Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction and one of the most common causes of abdominal emergencies in children, which can lead to significant mortality and morbidity if left untreated. Since vitamin D acts as a hormone in the body and plays an important role in preventing infectious and non-infectious diseases and regulating the intestinal immune response, this study was performed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and the occurrence of intussusception.

This case-control study was performed on 86 children under 6 years old and above the neonatal age referred to Amirkola Childrenchr('39')s Hospital in 2017-2018. The diagnosis of intussusception was made by ultrasound and the control group (without intussusception) was selected from patients with elective surgery other than intussusception. Vitamin D levels of children were assessed and compared in the two groups of children with and without intussusception.

In this study, 50 people were in the intussusception group and 36 people were in the control group. The mean age was 27.2±14.6 months in the intussusception group and 24.7±15.9 months in the control group (p=0.447). The mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in children with intussusception was 36.5±14.4 ng/ml and in the control group was 32.7±13.1 ng/ml (p=0.212).

According to the results of the present study, there was no association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in children with and without intussusception and this vitamin was not associated with the occurrence of intussusception.

Communication security of wireless sensor networks is achieved using cryptographic keys assigned to the nodes. Due to resource constraints in such networks, random key pre-distribution schemes are of high interest. Although in most of these schemes no location information is considered, there are scenarios that location information can be obtained by nodes after their deployment. In this paper, we propose a novel probabilistic key pre-distribution scheme, for large-scale wireless sensor networks which utilizes location information in order to improve the performance of random key pre-distribution substantially. In order to apply the location information of the nodes in key distribution process, we partition the network into some regions and use graph coloring techniques to eciently assign the random keys. The proposed scheme has a superior scalability by supporting larger number of nodes and also increasing the probability of existence of a shared exclusive key among the nearby nodes, i.e., the probability of having an isolated node is signi cantly reduced in comparison with the existing random key pre-distribution schemes. Our simulation results verify these terms.