In fish, a complex set of mechanisms deal with environmental stresses including hypoxia. In order to probe the hypothesis that hypoxia-induced stress could be manifested in varieties of pathways, a model species, mirror carp (Cyprinus carpio), were chronically exposed to hypoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 1.80±0.6mg/l) for 21 days and subsequently allowed to recover under normoxic condition (dissolved oxygen level: 8.2±0.5mg/l) for 7 days. At the end of these exposure periods, an integrated approach was applied to evaluate several endpoints at different levels of biological organisation. These included determination of (i) oxidative damage to DNA in erythrocytes (using modified comet assay), (ii) lipid peroxidation in liver samples by measuring the malondialdehyde production using the 2-thiobarbituric acid [i.e. thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assay] and (iii) histopathological changes in gills. In addition, transcriptional expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 α (HIF-1α) and genes involved in the repair of oxidative damage to DNA (i.e. ogg1) and base excision repair (i.e. xrcc1) using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in liver samples were also determined. The results suggested significantly enhanced expression of these genes in response to hypoxia compared to concurrent normoxic controls. While the expression of HIF-1α reverted to control values within 7 days exposure to normoxic condition (P < 0.05), the transcriptional expression of the two genes involved in DNA repair process remained significantly high under the recovery period, which complemented the induction of oxidative damage to DNA. Hypoxic groups showed significantly increased values for TBARS level (~2-fold) and histopathological changes in gill tissues compared to both normoxic and recovery groups. Overall, oxidative damage to DNA determined by modified comet assay reflected the observed biological responses in other tissues of the fish. Along with other parameters, this integrated experimental design further strengthens the applications of the comet assay as an important technique to assess stress-induced DNA damage in ecotoxicological studies. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the UK Environmental Mutagen Society.
This study aims to derive a general relation between line loads that acting on two-way slab system and the equivalent uniformly distributed loads. This relation will be so useful to structural designer that are used to working with a uniformly distributed load and enable them to use the traditional methods for analysis of two-way systems (e.g. Direct Design Method). Two types of slab systems, Slab System with Beams and Flat Slab Systems, have been considered in this study to include the effect of aspect ratio and type of slab on the proposed relation. Five aspect ratios, l2/l1 of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0, have been considered for both types of two-way systems.
All necessary finite element analyses have been executed with SAFE Soft
Often phenomena suffer from disturbances in their data as well as the difficulty of formulation, especially with a lack of clarity in the response, or the large number of essential differences plaguing the experimental units that have been taking this data from them. Thus emerged the need to include an estimation method implicit rating of these experimental units using the method of discrimination or create blocks for each item of these experimental units in the hope of controlling their responses and make it more homogeneous. Because of the development in the field of computers and taking the principle of the integration of sciences it has been found that modern algorithms used in the field of Computer Science genetic algorithm or ant colo
... Show MoreThis paper examines the change in planning pattern In Lebanon, which relies on vehicles as a semi-single mode of transport, and directing it towards re-shaping the city and introducing concepts of "smooth or flexible" mobility in its schemes; the concept of a "compact city" with an infrastructure based on a flexible mobility culture. Taking into consideration environmental, economical and health risks of the existing model, the paper focuses on the four foundations of the concepts of "city based on culture flexible mobility, "and provides a SWOT analysis to encourage for a shift in the planning methodology.
Abstract
This study aims at clarifying the current performance appraisal system in government units and the extent to which they contribute to the development of the performance of these units by evaluating and measuring the performance of these units on an ongoing basis to subject their services to an assessment and measurement process in order to improve the efficiency of these units to reach their objectives efficiently and effectively. (Iraqi hospitals) by trying to determine the possibility of the government accounting system in the process of evaluating performance, through the comparison of financial performance for successive years and different hospitals using the financial and non-financial model of the evaluati
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper to discriminate between the poetic poems of each poet depending on the characteristics and attribute of the Arabic letters. Four categories used for the Arabic letters, letters frequency have been included in a multidimensional contingency table and each dimension has two or more levels, then contingency coefficient calculated.
The paper sample consists of six poets from different historical ages, and each poet has five poems. The method was programmed using the MATLAB program, the efficiency of the proposed method is 53% for the whole sample, and between 90% and 95% for each poet's poems.
Abstract:-
The approach maintenance and replacement one of techniques of operations research whom cares of the failure experienced by a lot of production lines which consist of a set of machines and equipment, which in turn exposed to the failure or work stoppages over the lifetime, which requires reducing the working time of these machines or equipment below what can or conuct maintenance process once in a while or a replacement for one part of the machine or replace one of the machines in production lines. In this research is the study of the failure s that occur in some parts of one of the machines for the General Company for Vege
... Show MoreIn the present study, an attempt has been to develop a new water quality index (WQI) method that depends on the Iraqi specifications for drinking water (IQS 417, 2009) to assess the validity of the Euphrates River for drinking by classifying the quality of the river water at different stations along its entire reach inside the Iraqi lands. The proposed classifications by this method are: Excellent, Good, Acceptable, Poor, and Very poor. Eight water quality parameters have been selected to represent the quality of the river water these are: Ion Hydrogen Concentration (pH), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Chloride (Cl), Sulphate (SO_4), Nitrate (NO_3), and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The variation of the water quality p
... Show MoreThe current Iraqi standard specifications for roads and bridges allowed the prepared Job-Mix Formula for asphalt mixtures to witness some tolerances with regard to the following: coarse aggregate gradation by ± 6.0 %, fine aggregate gradation by ± 4.0 %, filler gradation by ± 2.0 %, asphalt cement content by ± 0.3 % and mixing temperature by ± 15 oC. The objective of this work is to evaluate the behavior of asphalt mixtures prepared by different aggregates gradations (12.5 mm nominal maximum size) that fabricated by several asphalt contents (40-50 grade) and various mixing temperature. All the tolerances specified in the specifications are taken into account, furthermore, the zones beyond these tolerances
... Show MoreThis paper reports an experimental study of welding of dissimilar materials between transparent Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and stainless steel 304 sheets using a pulsed mode Nd:YAG laser. The process was carried out for two cases; laser transmission joining (LTJ) and conduction joining (CJ). The former is achieved when the joint is irradiated from the polymer side and the latter when the joint is irradiated from the opposite side (metal side). The light and process parameters represented by the peak power (Pp), pulse duration (τ), pulse repetition rate (PRR), scanning speed (ν) and pulse shape have a significant effect on the joint strength (Fb), joint bead width (b), joint quality and appearance. The optimum parameters were determined
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