Published data on the effects of ruminal bolus on the number of ovulatory follicles in ewes does not exist. The present study determined the effects of a ruminal bolus on trace element status, follicular dynamics and reproductive performance in ewes. Eighty Afshari cycling ewes were synchronized during breeding season using CIDR for 14 days and assigned to 4 groups (n=20); group 1 received a single Ferrobloc bolus four weeks prior to CIDR insertion following 400 IU eCG on CIDR removal, group 2 received two boluses four weeks prior to CIDR insertion following 400 IU eCG on CIDR removal, group 3 received only 400 IU eCG on CIDR removal and group 4 (control) received no bolus and no eCG. Transrectal ultrasonography was done to monitor the ovarian follicles on the day of CIDR removal and a day later. Results showed that boluses increased the status of copper, selenium and iodine on mating day and days 90 to 100 of gestation. Ruminal bolus did not significantly increase the number of different classes of ovarian follicles in ewes fed a diet meeting all trace mineral requirements. All ewes eventually became pregnant with 1 or 2 boluses but the multiple births rate (80%) was higher (P<0.05) after 2 boluses compared to the other groups.

The purpose of this study is to determine the present levels of atmospheric trace element pollution in the Murat Mountain of Aegean Region in the western part of Turkey. Therefore, 29 different plants were selected as potential biomonitors of trace elements including nickel, zinc, iron, lead, cadmium and manganese (mg/g, dry weight). The samples were collected from two different heights of Murat Mountain. Atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the concentrations of trace elements. The mean concentrations determined at 1,000 m altitude ranged from 0.139 to 4.518, 0.223 to 0.986, 0.359 to 6.930, 0.443 to 0.727 and 0.077 to 3.222 mg/g, dry weight, for nickel, zinc, iron, lead and manganese, respectively. At 1,600 m altitude, the values ranged from 0.191 to 6.248, 0.302 to 1.008, 2.387 to 8.896, 0.345 to 0.570 and 0.195 to 3.502 mg/g, dry weight, for nickel, zinc, iron, lead and manganese, respectively. No cadmium was found at both altitudes. For determination of existence of any differences between the averages of the herbaceous and woody plants, comparisons were made by the independent sample t test. In the statistical analysis, comparison of trace element pollution values of herbaceous and woody plants for nickel, lead and manganese was significant (P < 0.05), while it was not for iron and zinc.

An important practice in environmental risk management is assessing the consequences of heavy metal concentrations resulting from a mine dam tailing failure on soil, water, and trees. To appraise the extent of pollution, an effective classification is essential. In this study, trace element contamination is handled as a two-group classification problem and examined the performance of supervised regularization algorithms as spatial classifiers using imbalanced uncertain data. In addition to conventional shrinkage algorithms such as Ridge, the Lasso and Elastic-Net, the generalized t-statistic-based U-Lasso classifiers have been introduced and tested for mitigating such imbalances and adjusting weights for class distributions. The feature interpretation studies underlined that the most important indicator of the models is Zinc (Zn). The experimental studies revealed that the Ridge classifier (l2 penalty) outperforms the other models. Statistically, the U-Lasso models exhibited notable explanation capacity and their performances recorded close to the conventional shrinkage algorithms. The use of statistical learning-based classification approach to appraise geo-environmental contamination under the conditions of natural variability and spatial uncertainty provides useful meta-data and reliable classification models.

Background: Immunological, endocrinological, haematological and neurological abnormalities are relatively common in people with Down's syndrome (DS). Zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), selenium (Se) and manganese (Mn) are elements that act in the maintenance of normal function of these systems. The present study aimed to evaluate the concentration of these elements on DS symptoms.Materials and Methods: This case-control study was done from April to October 2011. Serum trace elements including Zn, Cu, Se and Mn were determined by using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) in 56 patients with DS and 60 healthy subjects.Results: There was no significant difference in the values of Cu and Se between two groups (p>0.05). While, Zn and Mn levels were found to be significantly decreased in patients with DS compared to the control group (p<0.01 and p<0.001, respectively).Conclusion: Results of this study indicate zinc and manganese deficiency in more than 60% of DS patients. Some of the problems experienced by people with DS may be due to changed level of these trace elements.