We evaluated the stability of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in plasma samples stored at 42°C for external quality assessment (EQA) panels of viral load. To assess the stability of plasma samples containing different concentrations of HBV DNA, serial dilutions of HBV-infected samples with a viral load of 6.40 log(10) IU/mL were made to yield viral loads of 5, 4, and 3 log(10) IU/mL. These were inc...

AIM To determine an efficient vaccination schedule on the basis of the humoral immune response of cell culture adapted live classical swine fever virus (CSFV) vaccinated pigs and maternally derived antibody (MDA) in piglets of vaccinated sows. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cell culture adapted live CSFV vaccine was subjected to different vaccination schedule in the present study. Serum samples were...

An experiment was conducted in order to study the effect of 3 levels of fat (1, 3, 5%), and 2 levels of L-carnitine (0, 250 mg/kg) on 360 male Ross broiler chicks in a factorial arrangement (2×3) with completely randomized design with 6 treatments, 4 replicates, and 15 chicks in each replicates. All diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous and were fed to chicks from 1 to 42 days of ages. Durin...

BACKGROUND Bacteria in dental plaque are one of the main factors causing periodontal disease. The aim was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of antimicrobial dentifrices with herbal extracts and conventional toothpaste with no antimicrobial action for improvement of oral hygiene and reduction of gingival inflammation. METHODS 48 volunteers with chronic marginal gingivitis were randomly...

OBJECTIVE The feed intake (FI) and feed efficiency are economically important traits in ducks. To obtain insight into this economically important trait, we designed an experiment based on the residual feed intake (RFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of a random population Pekin duck. METHODS Two thousand and twenty pedigreed random population Pekin ducks were established from 90 males mated ...

The pituitary gland is a neuroendocrine organ that works closely with the hypothalamus to affect multiple processes within the body including the stress response, metabolism, growth and immune function. Relative tissue expression (rEx) is a transcriptome analysis method that compares the genes expressed in a particular tissue to the genes expressed in all other tissues with available data. Usin...

BACKGROUND One promising new Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) is dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQ). However, the pharmacokinetics of piperaquine and the relationship between drug levels and clinical efficacy are incompletely characterized, particularly in children. METHODS We performed a single-arm open-label trial in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. A total of 379 participan...

PURPOSE To establish a novel murine model of dry eye using an intelligently controlled environmental system (ICES). METHODS Thirty BALB/c mice aged 4 to 6 weeks were housed in the ICES in which the relative humidity, airflow, and temperature were maintained at 15.3% +/- 3% (mean +/- SD), 2.1 +/- 0.2 m/s, and 21 degrees to 23 degrees C, respectively, for 42 days. Thirty mice of similar age and...

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a clinical treatment in which a patient breathes pure oxygen for a limited period of time at an increased pressure. Although this therapy has been used for decades to assist wound healing, its efficacy for many conditions is unproven and its mechanism of action is not yet fully clarified. This study investigated the effects of HBOT on wound healing using a di...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to test whether Nigella sativa (NS) seeds can reduce cisplatin-induced toxicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty rats were divided into 3 groups to receive distilled water (control group), cisplatin (3 mg/kg per body weight for 3 days), and cisplatin and alcoholic extract of NS (100 mg/kg per body weight). Biochemical and histopathologic parameters were com...