Energetic Feed Value of Grassland Products in Ruminants

A method for calculating the energetic feed value, based on the digestible nutrients and on the relations of the utilisation of the energy of the nutrients (carbohydrates = 100) for ATP syntheses is described. This relative scale is a nominal feed value (NFV). It characterises the ATP potential of the feedstuffs and is therefore equivalent to the efficiency of utilisation of the feed energy in the catabolic metabolism (non-thermal maintenance, muscular work (movement)) and energy costs for syntheses as well as the productive performance as energy retention in animal products. Therefore this scale secures a precise precognition of the animal performance and regulation of production for all kinds of ruminants and direction of production with the exception of the chemical heat regulation under special environmental and production conditions. The NFV can be transmitted for practical use in the other adopted and country-specific units. A general compatibility between the various feed evaluation systems could be achieved

Continuous Digestibility Assessment of Tropical Grasses

The feed value for cattle of three tropical grasses, Gatton (Panicum maximum cv. Gatton), Estrella (Cynodon plectostachyus) and Tifton-85 (Cynodon sp. cv. Tifton-85) was investigated during the growing period, using the method of “continuous digestibility estimation”. Results indicate that feed value is hardly influenced by the growth stage from the 90th day on. Common European in-vitro feed evaluation procedures are not to be recommended for tropical grasses as they presented consistently lower values than did in-vivo measurements

Assessment of Ensilability of Six Tropical Grasses Using Three Different Approaches

The preparation of well-preserved silages is considered increasingly important in the tropics and subtropics. In these regions silage production played a minor role in the past, as ensilability of tropical grasses is generally considered poor. In this study ensilability of six tropical grasses grown in the Paraguayan Chaco Boreal (Panicum maximum cv. Gatton, Cynodon plectostachyus, Cynodon sp. cv. Tifton 85, Digitaria eriantha var. pentzii, Panicum maximum cv. Tanzania and Digitaria milanjiana) was assessed in three different ways: (1) The chemical determination of the ratio between water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and buffer capacity (BC), (2) the biological rapid fermentation assay using additives of sucrose and/or lactic acid bacteria inoculants, and (3) modelling of silage preparation in plastic bags. BC and contents of WSC were low. Therefore, without additives, acceptable ensilability was attained only with two grasses when previously wilted, while four grasses were poorly ensilable. When soluble carbohydrates and lactic acid bacteria were added, ensilability was enhanced. The rapid fermentation test applied in this study represents an easy to handle tool to asses ensilability of plants with different contents of fermentation substrates (WSC) and to investigate interactions between plants and a variety of epiphytic micro-organisms

The Rostock Energetic Feed Evaluation on the Base of Net Energy

Feed evaluation was an emphasis of research from the foundation of the Oskar-Kellner-Institute of Animal Nutrition in 1953 at Rostock by Prof. Kurt Nehring. The aim of the research work was the elaboration of a feed evaluation system containing reference numbers of feed values and requirements of farm animals. The approach and the present system are outlined in this paper

Semi-automatic enrichment of crowdsourced synonymy networks: the WISIGOTH system applied to Wiktionary

International audienceSemantic lexical resources are a mainstay of various Natural Language Processing applications. However, comprehensive and reliable resources are rare and not often freely available. Handcrafted resources are too costly for being a general solution while automatically-built resources need to be validated by experts or at least thoroughly evaluated. We propose in this paper a picture of the current situation with regard to lexical resources, their building and their evaluation. We give an in-depth description of Wiktionary, a freely available and collaboratively built multilingual dictionary. Wiktionary is presented here as a promising raw resource for NLP. We propose a semi-automatic approach based on random walks for enriching Wiktionary synonymy network that uses both endogenous and exogenous data. We take advantage of the wiki infrastructure to propose a validation "by crowds". Finally, we present an implementation called WISIGOTH, which supports our approach

Genome-wide methylation analysis identifies genes silenced in non-seminoma cell lines

Silencing of genes by DNA methylation is a common phenomenon in many types of cancer. However, the genome wide effect of DNA methylation on gene expression has been analysed in relatively few cancers. Germ cell tumours (GCTs) are a complex group of malignancies. They are unique in developing from a pluripotent progenitor cell. Previous analyses have suggested that non-seminomas exhibit much higher levels of DNA methylation than seminomas. The genomic targets that are methylated, the extent to which this results in gene silencing and the identity of the silenced genes most likely to play a role in the tumours’ biology have not yet been established. In this study, genome-wide methylation and expression analysis of GCT cell lines was combined with gene expression data from primary tumours to address this question. Genome methylation was analysed using the Illumina infinium HumanMethylome450 bead chip system and gene expression was analysed using Affymetrix GeneChip Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 arrays. Regulation by methylation was confirmed by demethylation using 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine and reverse transcription–quantitative PCR. Large differences in the level of methylation of the CpG islands of individual genes between tumour cell lines correlated well with differential gene expression. Treatment of non-seminoma cells with 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine verified that methylation of all genes tested played a role in their silencing in yolk sac tumour cells and many of these genes were also differentially expressed in primary tumours. Genes silenced by methylation in the various GCT cell lines were identified. Several pluripotency-associated genes were identified as a major functional group of silenced genes

Histopathological changes in female rabbits administered with aqueous extract of Calotropis procera

Calotropis procera is an evergreen perennial shrub, which is found mainly in the arid regions and produces copious latex when cut. It has been reported to possess medicinal properties but equally pose deleterious effect in animals. In a bid to exploit its pharmacological properties, it was necessary to ascertain its level of safety. A toxicological evaluation of the aqueous extract of fresh leaves of the plant was therefore conducted in the more sensitive female rabbits of the same weight range. Low levels of phytochemicals (alkaloids, saponins, tannins, cardiac glycosides and flavonoids) were found, while elemental analyses showed traces of iron, lead, sodium, and potassium in concentrations of 0.23, 0.03, 0.82 and 9.5 mg/g, respectively. Acute toxicity study was conducted with oral administration of 200, 400, 800 and 1600 mg/kg of the extract once to groups I, II, III and IV, respectively with a 24 h observation period. Clinical signs such as mouth chewing, photophobia, bradycardia, coughing, vomiting and convulsion amongst others were noticed. Four rabbits died within 24 h and LD50 was estimated (940 mg/kg). 80, 40 and 20 mg/kg of the extract were administered daily to groups I, II, and III, respectively, during sub-acute toxicity study for 14 days. Grossly, catarrhal enteritis and mesenteric congestion of the small intestines, congestion of the lungs, hepatization and paleness of the liver, congestion and pallor of the kidney cortex, and congestion of the meninges were noticed. Histopathological examination of the tissues revealed mild pulmonary oedema and peribronchial lymphocytic infiltration of the lungs, hepatization of the liver, disruption of cardiac architecture, generalised cell necrosis and erosion of the villi of the small intestine. All the rabbits that survived gained weight, which is indicative of some nutrient value in the extract. It was concluded that the extract had dose-dependent deleterious effects on the tissues as higher dose groups were more affected. Hence, it is evident that sub-chronic toxicity studies would reveal greater lesions to better ascertain extent of damage.Key words: Calotropis procera, phytochemical, histopathology, toxicity, lesions, tissues, organs

Hypofibrinolysis in diabetes: a therapeutic target for the reduction of cardiovascular risk

An enhanced thrombotic environment and premature atherosclerosis are key factors for the increased cardiovascular risk in diabetes. The occlusive vascular thrombus, formed secondary to interactions between platelets and coagulation proteins, is composed of a skeleton of fibrin fibres with cellular elements embedded in this network. Diabetes is characterised by quantitative and qualitative changes in coagulation proteins, which collectively increase resistance to fibrinolysis, consequently augmenting thrombosis risk. Current long-term therapies to prevent arterial occlusion in diabetes are focussed on anti-platelet agents, a strategy that fails to address the contribution of coagulation proteins to the enhanced thrombotic milieu. Moreover, antiplatelet treatment is associated with bleeding complications, particularly with newer agents and more aggressive combination therapies, questioning the safety of this approach. Therefore, to safely control thrombosis risk in diabetes, an alternative approach is required with the fibrin network representing a credible therapeutic target. In the current review, we address diabetes-specific mechanistic pathways responsible for hypofibrinolysis including the role of clot structure, defects in the fibrinolytic system and increased incorporation of anti-fibrinolytic proteins into the clot. Future anti-thrombotic therapeutic options are discussed with special emphasis on the potential advantages of modulating incorporation of the anti-fibrinolytic proteins into fibrin networks. This latter approach carries theoretical advantages, including specificity for diabetes, ability to target a particular protein with a possible favourable risk of bleeding. The development of alternative treatment strategies to better control residual thrombosis risk in diabetes will help to reduce vascular events, which remain the main cause of mortality in this condition

Aspirin, ibuprofen, and reduced risk of advanced colorectal adenoma incidence and recurrence and colorectal cancer in the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial

BACKGROUND: Studying the differential impact of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs across the stages of colorectal neoplasia from early adenoma to cancer is critical for understanding the benefits of these widely used drugs. METHODS: With 13 years of follow-up, the authors prospectively evaluated the association between aspirin and ibuprofen use and incident distal adenoma (1221 cases), recurrent adenoma (862 cases), and incident colorectal cancer (CRC; 2826 cases) among men and women in the population-based Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. With multivariable-adjusted models, odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for adenoma incidence and recurrence and hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for incident CRC were determined. RESULTS: The authors observed a significantly reduced risk of incident adenoma with ibuprofen use (≥30 vs \u3c4 pills per month: OR, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.60-0.95]; P(trend) = .04), particularly advanced adenoma (OR, 0.48 [95% CI, 0.28-0.83]; P(trend) = .005). Among those with a previous adenoma detected through screening, aspirin use was associated with a decreased risk of advanced recurrent adenoma (≥30 vs \u3c4 pills per month: OR, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.36-0.87]; P(trend) = 0.006). Both aspirin (HR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.81-0.96]; P(trend) \u3c.0001) and ibuprofen use (HR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.70-0.93); P(trend) = 0.003) ≥30 versus \u3c4 pills per month were significantly associated with reduced CRC risk. CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective study with long-term follow-up, a beneficial role for not only aspirin, but also ibuprofen, in preventing advanced adenoma and curbing progression to recurrence and cancer among older adults was observed