The present study was conducted to investigate growth performance, carcass characteristics, short-chain fatty acids, fatty acid composition in abdominal fat, and serum parameters in broiler chickens fed diets containing corn oil, coconut oil, or black soldier fly larvae ( BSFL ) oil at the level of 50 g per kg of diet during the 30-day-feeding period. A total 450 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated to one of 3 dietary groups. Each treatment had 10 replicates with 15 chicks per replicate. Feed conversion ratio was decreased in the coconut and BSFL oil group compared with the corn oil group. Dietary BSFL oil increased ileal weight-to-length ratio at day 30 after hatch. Dietary BSFL oil increased significantly ileal branched-chain fatty acid ( P < 0.05) and moderately total short-chain fatty acid in 15-day-old broilers ( P = 0.074). At day 30, ileal propionate was highest in the coconut oil group but cecal propionate was highest ( P < 0.05) in the BSFL oil group. Fatty acid composition of abdominal fat was affected by dietary fat sources. Especially, chickens fed diets containing coconut oil or BSFL oil had higher contents ( P < 0.05) of saturated fatty acid being dominant in lauric and myristic acids compared with those fed on corn oil. On the other hand, the reverse trend was noted ( P < 0.05) as to polyunsaturated fatty acids being dominant in corn oil compared with coconut oil and BSFL oil. Coconut oil vs. corn oil significantly increased total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Finally, BSFL oil vs. corn oil significantly increased total antioxidant capacity in chickens. It is concluded that dietary BSFL oil improves feed conversion ratio and increases the incorporation of medium-chain fatty acids into abdominal fat pad and serum antioxidant capacity in broiler chickens.

Conventional hard or dynamic wedge systems are commonly applied to reduce the dose inhomogeneity associated with whole breast irradiation. We evaluated the dosimetric benefits of the field-in-field (FIF) technique by comparing it with the electronic compensator (EC), Varian enhanced dynamic wedge (EW) and conventional hard wedge (HW) techniques. Data were obtained from 12 patients who had undergone breast-conserving surgery (six left-sided and six right-sided). For these patients, the average breast planning target volume (PTV) was 447.4 cm(3) (range, 211.6-711.8 cm(3)). For the experiments, a 6 MV photon beam from a Varian 21 EX was used, the HW and EW angles were applied from 15 to 45 degrees, while 40-50% isodose values were chosen to achieve the best dose distribution for electronic compensation. In applying the FIF technique, we used two or three subfields for each portal. To evaluate the performance for each planning technique, we analysed a dose-volume histogram (DVH) for the PTV and organs-at-risk (OARs). To evaluate the effects of these techniques on dose inhomogeneity, we defined the PTV Dose Improvement (PDI) index, which was derived from a PTV volume between 97-103% of the differential DVHs. In addition, we compared the average monitor units (MUs) for each technique. The average PDI index with FIF is 76.4%, while the PDI indices for other treatments were 65.8, 41.8 and 50.9% for EC, EW and HW, respectively. This study demonstrated an improved performance using the FIF technique compared with the conventional HW/EW system, as well as a new modality for EC. We demonstrated that FIF is a very useful technique for improving PTV conformity, while protecting the OARs from breast tangential irradiation.

The prostate biopsy method shows a high false negative result because the suspicious tissue considered as cancer is not confirmed during tissue sampling. Thus, repeated biopsy procedures and diagnostic errors in relation to prostate cancer frequently occur. The purpose of this research is to enhance the prostate cancer detection rate by using microfluidic electrical impedance spectroscopy (lEIS), which allows real-time measurement of the electrical impedance of a single human prostate normal cell and cancer cell. The lEIS was equipped with a movable flexible membrane, which is operated by pneumatic pressure to capture the single cell on the surface of sensing electrodes. The forced tight contact between the cell and electrodes makes it possible to measure the electrical characteristics of the cell with a high sensitivity. The lEIS discriminates well between normal human prostate cells (RWPE-1) and cancer cells (PC-3) at 8.7 kHz based on the electrical signal responses of the cells. The average difference rates of admittance magnitude and susceptance are 54.55% and 54.59%, respectively. The developed lEIS also shows high repeatability, which was verified by a deionized water test conducted before and after each cell assay; the maximum variance of both the impedance and admittance at 8.7 kHz was as small as 9.48%. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

High necrotic enteritis ( NE ) incidence and mortality rates in poultry can be caused by Clostridium perfringens ( CP ) coinfected with Eimeria spp., a causative agent of coccidiosis. Banning of prophylactic use of antibiotics in feed has been accompanied by increased NE outbreaks, resulting in economically devastating losses to the broiler industry. To determine alternatives for controlling NE, we isolated CP-specific bacteriophages (BP), characterized their properties, evaluated their inhibitory effects on pathogenic CP, selected a highly effective phage (φCJ22), and used φCJ22 as a dietary supplement in experimental NE-afflicted broiler chickens. Male broilers ( n = 780) were randomly assigned to 60 pens ( n = 13 broilers/pen) and into 5 groups [CP-uninfected negative control ( NC ), basal diet ( BD ) without CP and BP; CP-infected positive control ( PC ), BD + CP; and 3 BP groups receiving low- ( LP ; BD + CP+10 5 BP), medium- ( MP ; BD + CP+10 6 BP), and high-phage ( HP ; BD + CP+10 7 BP plaque-forming units/kg) concentrations]. The results showed that MP and HP groups presented an antimicrobial activity toward clinical CP isolate strains, and the groups decreased NE lesions and mortality rates without changes in chicken performance at the end of the experimental period. After CP-challenge body weight gain and feed efficiency were significantly lower in phage-fed groups than that in the PC group ( P < 0.05), and NE-associated mortality was the lowest in the HP group ( P < 0.001). Moreover, histopathology revealed lesser gastrointestinal mucosal damage in the NC and BP-treated (LP, MP, and HP) groups than that in the PC group, and MP and HP significantly lowered viable CP number in the cecum content by up to 1.24log10 relative to only CP-infected PC group ( P < 0.05). These findings suggest that addition of φCJ22 to chicken feed might effectively ameliorate NE, which is accompanied by reduced CP strains in the gut and compensate the performance of NE-afflicted broilers.