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The impacts of oregano essential oil and sodium butyrate on the growth performance, hematological, biochemical, immunological, antioxidative, and gene expression profiles of Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) fingerlings were examined in this study. One hundred eighty healthy fingerlings (16.00 ± 2.00 g) were acclimated and accidentally divided into three groups, each further split into three replicates. The groups were fed a basal diet (control) or diets supplemented with 0.5% and 1% oregano essential oil and sodium butyrate for eight weeks (The feed additives were administered continuously throughout an 8-week trial period, simulating a practical feeding strategy that would be feasible during high-risk periods (e.g., post-handling stress, seasonal disease outbreaks). Fish fed the supplemented diets demonstrated significantly greater growth performance, with the oregano 1% + sodium butyrate 1% group achieving the highest final body weight (36.91 ± 0.66 g) and lowest feed conversion ratio (1.32 ± 0.04). Hematological indices, including RBC count, Hb, and PCV, were substantially improved. Biochemical analysis revealed reduced ALT, AST, urea, and creatinine levels alongside elevated total protein and globulin concentrations in treated groups. Immunological and antioxidative parameters, such as WBC count, phagocytic activity, SOD, and GPX, showed significant enhancements, particularly in the oregano 1% + sodium butyrate 1% group. Gene expression analysis exposed upregulation of immune-related (TNF-α, IL-1β) and antioxidative (SOD, GPX) genes in supplemented groups, highlighting their role in enhancing health and stress responses. Post Aeromonas hydrophila infection, the supplemented groups exhibited improved immunity, antioxidative status, and survival. These findings suggest that dietary supplementation with oregano essential oil and sodium butyrate, particularly at 1% inclusion, effectively enhances growth, health status, immunity, and gene expression in Nile tilapia.

While soybean meal (SBM) is a cost-effective protein source for Nile tilapia, its anti-nutritional factors require dietary interventions such as the supplementation of organic acid salts to maintain health and gut functions. Therefore, this study evaluated the dietary effects of organic acid salts as sodium propionate (PR), sodium butyrate (BT), and their mixture (PR + BT) on the growth, digestive enzymes, hepatic antioxidant responses and intestinal histomorphology of Nile tilapia fed a high SBM diet. Fingerlings (average initial weight ~ 19.65 ± 0.1 g) were assigned to five triplicate diets for 12 weeks: a negative control (CNT, contains 350 g/kg SBM), a high SBM diet (SB, contains 550 g/kg SBM), SB + PR (2.0 g/kg), SB + BT (6.25 g/kg), and their mixture (SB + PR + BT). Results revealed that fish fed solely on SB diet had significantly reduced growth, feed efficiency, and digestive enzyme activities, alongside higher levels of oxidative stress markers (MDA malondialdehyde levels) and intestinal inflammatory lesions (enteritis). Supplementation with PR, BT, or their mixture improved final body weight, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio. Digestive enzyme activities (lipase, amylase, protease) and antioxidant defenses (T-AOC, SOD, CAT, and GPx) were improved, while lipid peroxidation (MDA) was reduced in the treated groups. The histological examination confirmed that organic acid salts supplementation, especially PR + BT, alleviated SB-induced enteritis. Gene expression analysis revealed enhanced growth ( IGF-2 , GHR1 , IGF-1 , and GHR2 ) and immune-related markers ( TLR2 , and IFN-γ ) and suppression of inflammatory ( IL-1β , TNF-α , and caspase-3 ) related genes in the treated groups. In conclusion, PR and BT supplementation, especially in combination, effectively counteracted the negative impacts of high SB diets, supporting growth, alleviating inflammation, mitigating oxidative stress, and improving intestinal health of fish. These effects underscore the fascinating roles of organic acid salts in the improvement of aquafeed for tilapia culture.

In the present study, fish were exposed to sub-lethal doses of CuONPs (68.92 ± 3.49 nm) (10 mg/L, 20 mg/L, and 50 mg/L) for a long exposure period (25 days). Compared to the control group (0.0 mg/L CuONPs), a significant dose-dependent elevation in blood urea and creatinine values, serum alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and alkaline phosphatase enzyme activities were evident in CuONPs-exposed groups (p < 0.05). Fish exposure to 50 mg/L CuONPs significantly upregulated the transcription of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1beta, interleukin 12, and interleukin 8), heat shock protein 70, apoptosis-related gene (caspase 3), and oxidative stress-related (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase) genes in liver and gills of the exposed fish in comparison with those in the control group (p < 0.05). Moreover, varying histopathological injuries were noticed in the hepatopancreatic tissues, posterior kidneys, and gills of fish groups correlated to the tested exposure dose of CuONPs. In summary, our results provide new insights and helpful information for better understanding the mechanisms of CuONPs toxicity in Nile tilapia at hematological, molecular levels, and tissue levels.

The present study evaluated the impacts of powdered Astragalus membranaceus extract (AME) on the growth, physiological responses, and serum immunity of Pangasianodon hypophthalmus juveniles. Four test diets were formulated to include varying AME levels as 0.0 (control), 1.5 (AME1.5), 3.0 (AME3.0), and 4.5 (AME4.5) g/kg. Fish weighing approximately 11.50 g were stocked into four triplicate groups and hand-fed on the test diets three times daily for two months. At 60 days post-feeding, the growth performance, including weight gain and the specific growth rate, was increased quadratically (R2 > 0.90) with increasing AME inclusion levels. An improvement in the feed intake and feed conversion ratio were also noticed in groups fed at different AME levels. The whole-body and amino acid composition were unaffected by the test diets. A significant quadratic trend in the digestive enzymes (lipase, α-amylase, and protease) was found along with increasing AME inclusion levels. Liver enzymes associated with liver functions were improved by AME dietary inclusion levels. Meanwhile, the blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, and creatinine values were unaffected by AME dietary inclusion. On the other hand, serum immunity (lysozyme and total Igs) was elevated with a significant quadratic trend along with increasing AME dietary inclusion levels. Liver MDA levels decreased with increasing AME levels. Liver CAT, GPx, and SOD enzyme activities demonstrated a significant increasing trend along with dietary AME inclusion. The aforementioned effects of dietary AME on P. hypophthalmus health underpinned the potentiality of AME to be used as a phyto-additive to improve the functionality of aquafeed.

The current investigation assessed the impacts of sub-lethal concentrations of silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) on hepato-renal functions, histopathological characteristics, and gene transcription in gills and liver of Nile tilapia juveniles. Fish were exposed to 20, 40, and 100 mg/L of SiO2NPs for 3 weeks. Pairwise comparisons with the control group showed a significant dose-dependent elevation in serum ALP, ALT, and AST enzyme activities as well as blood urea and creatinine levels in SiO2NP-intoxicated groups. Exposure to 100 mg/L SiO2NPs significantly upregulated expression of HSP70, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-8 genes in the gills as compared to the control group. Moreover, exposure to 100 mg/L SiO2NPs significantly upregulated the expression SOD, HSP70, IL-1β, IL-8, and TNF-α genes in the hepatic tissues as compared to the control group. Exposure of fish to 20 mg SiO2NPs/L significantly increased the mRNA expression levels of IL-12 in both the gills and liver tissues. Notably, all tested SiO2NP concentrations significantly upregulated the transcription of CASP3 gene in gills and liver of Nile tilapia as compared to the control group. Interestingly, varying histopathological alterations in renal, hepatopancreatic, and branchial tissues were observed to be correlated to the tested SiO2NP concentrations. In conclusion, our results provide additional information on the toxic impacts of SiO2NPs in Nile tilapia at the hematological, tissue, and molecular levels.

The current investigation was carried out to assess the efficacy of dietary garlic (GP) and/or chitosan (CH) powders to protect European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, against the adverse effects of zearalenone (ZEN) toxicity. Hence, ZEN (0.725 g/kg diet) was incorporated in a fish diet alone or with 30 g GP and/or 10 g CH/kg diet and the treatments were assigned as a control diet (T1), a control diet + ZEN (T2), a control diet + ZEN + GP (T3), a control diet + ZEN + CH (T4), and a control diet + ZEN + GP + CH (T5). Fish (30.7 ± 0.6 g) fed one of the tested diets up to apparent satiation thrice a day for 4 weeks. After the feeding trial, fish were intraperitoneally injected with pathogenic bacteria Vibrio alginolyticus for 14 days during which fish mortality was observed. The dietary ZEN inhibited fish growth and feed utilization; meanwhile, co-supplementation of GP and/or CH restored the reduced fish performance as a result of reducing the ZEN toxicity. The ZEN toxicity induced macrocytic hypochromic anemia in European sea bass; however, significant reductions were observed in values of red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) together with significant elevations in mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) values in comparison with the control fish. Likewise, lymphopenia, monocytosis, leucopenia, eosinophilia, neutrophilia, and thrombocytopenia were the characteristic features of ZEN-toxicated fish with drastic reduction in white blood cells (WBCs) counts. Significant reductions in total protein, albumin, globulin, and lysozyme were also observed in fish serum due to ZEN toxicity. The co-supplementation of GP and/or CH to ZEN-fed fish elevated significantly values of RBCs, Hb, MCHC, and WBCs count with decreasing and increasing of its constituents. Significant rises in total protein, albumin, globulin, and lysozyme were observed with co-supplementation of GP and/or CH to ZEN-toxicated fish to be near these fed on the control diet. The ZEN toxicity also suppressed the fish immunity and subsequently elevated fish susceptibility to V. alginolyticus infection causing highest fish mortality as compared with other treatments. The co-supplementation of GP or CH to fish significantly enhanced their immunity causing a high relative percent of survival (RSP) of fish after bacterial infection (18.8 or 43.8%, respectively); meanwhile, fish fed both of GP and CH showed better RSP (68.8%). On the other hand, the co-supplementation of GP or CH reduced the ZEN residue (1.18 and 0.87 μg/kg dry weight) in fish muscles. These results show that CH was more effective than GP in enhancing fish immunity and protection against ZEN toxicity, whereas the co-supplementation of both GP and CH was most effective in protecting fish against ZEN toxicity resulting in lowest ZEN residue (0.53 μg/kg dry weight) in fish muscles.

The present study evaluated the impacts of powdered Astragalus membranaceus extract (AME) on the growth, physiological responses, and serum immunity of Pangasianodon hypophthalmus juveniles. Four test diets were formulated to include varying AME levels as 0.0 (control), 1.5 (AME1.5), 3.0 (AME3.0), and 4.5 (AME4.5) g/kg. Fish weighing approximately 11.50 g were stocked into four triplicate groups and hand-fed on the test diets three times daily for two months. At 60 days post-feeding, the growth performance, including weight gain and the specific growth rate, was increased quadratically (R[sup.2] > 0.90) with increasing AME inclusion levels. An improvement in the feed intake and feed conversion ratio were also noticed in groups fed at different AME levels. The whole-body and amino acid composition were unaffected by the test diets. A significant quadratic trend in the digestive enzymes (lipase, α-amylase, and protease) was found along with increasing AME inclusion levels. Liver enzymes associated with liver functions were improved by AME dietary inclusion levels. Meanwhile, the blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, and creatinine values were unaffected by AME dietary inclusion. On the other hand, serum immunity (lysozyme and total Igs) was elevated with a significant quadratic trend along with increasing AME dietary inclusion levels. Liver MDA levels decreased with increasing AME levels. Liver CAT, GPx, and SOD enzyme activities demonstrated a significant increasing trend along with dietary AME inclusion. The aforementioned effects of dietary AME on P. hypophthalmus health underpinned the potentiality of AME to be used as a phyto-additive to improve the functionality of aquafeed.

The current investigation assessed the impacts of sub-lethal concentrations of silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO NPs) on hepato-renal functions, histopathological characteristics, and gene transcription in gills and liver of Nile tilapia juveniles. Fish were exposed to 20, 40, and 100 mg/L of SiO NPs for 3 weeks. Pairwise comparisons with the control group showed a significant dose-dependent elevation in serum ALP, ALT, and AST enzyme activities as well as blood urea and creatinine levels in SiO NP-intoxicated groups. Exposure to 100 mg/L SiO NPs significantly upregulated expression of , , , and genes in the gills as compared to the control group. Moreover, exposure to 100 mg/L SiO NPs significantly upregulated the expression , , , , and genes in the hepatic tissues as compared to the control group. Exposure of fish to 20 mg SiO NPs/L significantly increased the mRNA expression levels of in both the gills and liver tissues. Notably, all tested SiO NP concentrations significantly upregulated the transcription of gene in gills and liver of Nile tilapia as compared to the control group. Interestingly, varying histopathological alterations in renal, hepatopancreatic, and branchial tissues were observed to be correlated to the tested SiO NP concentrations. In conclusion, our results provide additional information on the toxic impacts of SiO NPs in Nile tilapia at the hematological, tissue, and molecular levels.

In root canal treatment, post-operative endodontic pain is considered as a common post-operative complication. Knowledge about its causes helps the clinician in proper instrument and technique selection to decrease its incidence. Therefore, the aim of this randomized clinical trial was to compare the post-operative pain occurrence after single visit root canal preparation using ProTaper Universal rotary system or M-Pro rotary system. Eighty patients with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis in mandibular first molars were allocated into two groups. In group A ( n  = 40): root canal preparation was performed using ProTaper Universal system and in group B ( n  = 40): root canal preparation was performed using M-Pro rotary system. Pain level was assessed by the patient using the numerical rating scale (NRS) at 24 h and 7 days postoperatively. The patients were advised to take the prescribed analgesics in case of emergency need. Data and statistical analysis showed that there was significant decrease in pain in both groups after 24 h and after 7 days. Insignificant difference was found between ProTaper Universal group and M-Pro group after 24 h and after 7 days. Insignificant difference was found in analgesics intake between both groups after 24 h and after 7 days. Trial registration: The trial protocol was registered at https://ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06777381), registered January 15, 2024.

Compressive and flexural strength are the crucial properties of a material. The strength of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is comparatively lower than that of natural aggregate concrete. Several factors, including the recycled aggregate replacement ratio, parent concrete strength, water–cement ratio, water absorption, density of the recycled aggregate, etc., affect the RAC’s strength. Several studies have been performed to study the impact of these factors individually. However, it is challenging to examine their combined impact on the strength of RAC through experimental investigations. Experimental studies involve casting, curing, and testing samples, for which substantial effort, price, and time are needed. For rapid and cost-effective research, it is critical to apply new methods to the stated purpose. In this research, the compressive and flexural strengths of RAC were predicted using ensemble machine learning methods, including gradient boosting and random forest. Twelve input factors were used in the dataset, and their influence on the strength of RAC was analyzed. The models were validated and compared using correlation coefficients (R2), variance between predicted and experimental results, statistical tests, and k-fold analysis. The random forest approach outperformed gradient boosting in anticipating the strength of RAC, with an R2 of 0.91 and 0.86 for compressive and flexural strength, respectively. The models’ decreased error values, such as mean absolute error (MAE) and root-mean-square error (RMSE), confirmed the higher precision of the random forest models. The MAE values for the random forest models were 4.19 MPa and 0.56 MPa, whereas the MAE values for the gradient boosting models were 4.78 MPa and 0.64 MPa, for compressive and flexural strengths, respectively. Machine learning technologies will benefit the construction sector by facilitating the evaluation of material properties in a quick and cost-effective manner.