EFFECT OF DIETARY EXPOSURE TO ERGOT ALKALOIDS ON CONTRACTILITY OF BOVINE MESENTERIC VASCULATURE AND RUMEN MOTILITY

Endophyte-infected (E+) tall fescue grass has been associated with fescue toxicosis, a costly syndrome characterized by poor cattle performance and health resulting in significant production losses. The fungal endophyte produces ergot alkaloids, which help the grass thrive in poor conditions but are toxic to mammals. A number of symptoms of fescue toxicosis can be related to vasoconstriction of bovine core, peripheral, and foregut vasculature. The first part of this series of experiments demonstrated ergot alkaloids were also vasoactive in midgut vasculature, with the exception of lysergic acid. Additionally, prior dietary exposure to ergot alkaloids decreased the contractile response of mesenteric vasculature to many of the ergot alkaloids tested. In the second part of this series, a non-invasive method was developed for measuring rumen motility in cannulated cattle. Using this technology without different dietary treatments, it was determined that 8 to 16 h after feeding was the least variable between animals and would provide the best opportunity to measure differences in motility. Application of this technique in the third part of this series investigated the effect of ruminally dosed ergot alkaloids on rumen motility. Treatments were not effective at inducing fescue toxicosis, and no differences in rumen motility variables were detected

Hardy's inequality for functions vanishing on a part of the boundary

We develop a geometric framework for Hardy's inequality on a bounded domain when the functions do vanish only on a closed portion of the boundary.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures, includes several improvements in Sections 6-8 allowing to relax the assumptions in the main results. Final version published at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11118-015-9463-

Demonstration of a Monolithic Micro-Spectrometer System

The starting design of a spectrometer based on a modified Czerny-Turner configuration containing five precision surfaces encapsulated in a monolithic structure is described. Since the purpose at the early stages of the development was to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology and not an attempt to address a specific sensing problem, the first substrate material chosen was optical quality polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The final system design decision was narrowed down to two possible configurations containing five and six precision surfaces. The five surface design was chosen since it contained one less precision optical surface, yet included multiple off-axis spheres. In this particular design and material system, the mass was kept below 7 g. The wavelength range (bandpass) design goal was 1 micrometer (0.6 - 1.6 micrometers). The PMMA is particularly transparent in this wavelength region and there are interesting effects to monitor within this band. The optical system was designed and optimized using the ZEMAX optical design software program to be entirely alignment free (self aligning)

Worker remittances and the global preconditions of ‘smart development’

With the growing environmental crisis affecting our globe, ideas to weigh economic or social progress by the ‘energy input’ necessary to achieve it are increasingly gaining acceptance. This question is intriguing and is being dealt with by a growing number of studies, focusing on the environmental price of human progress. Even more intriguing, however, is the question of which factors of social organization contribute to a responsible use of the resources of our planet to achieve a given social result (‘smart development’). In this essay, we present the first systematic study on how migration – or rather, more concretely, received worker remittances per GDP – helps the nations of our globe to enjoy social and economic progress at a relatively small environmental price. We look at the effects of migration on the balance sheets of societal accounting, based on the ‘ecological price’ of the combined performance of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. Feminism in power, economic freedom, population density, the UNDP education index as well as the receipt of worker remittances all significantly contribute towards a ‘smart overall development’, while high military expenditures and a high world economic openness are a bottleneck for ‘smart overall development’

What Goes in Must Come out: Testing for Biases in Molecular Analysis of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are widely distributed microbes that form obligate symbioses with the majority of terrestrial plants, altering nutrient transfers between soils and plants, thereby profoundly affecting plant growth and ecosystem properties. Molecular methods are commonly used in the study of AM fungal communities. However, the biases associated with PCR amplification of these organisms and their ability to be utilized quantitatively has never been fully tested. We used Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis to characterise artificial community templates containing known quantities of defined AM fungal genotypes. This was compared to a parallel in silico analysis that predicted the results of this experiment in the absence of bias. The data suggest that when used quantitatively the TRFLP protocol tested is a powerful, repeatable method for AM fungal community analysis. However, we suggest some limitations to its use for population-level analyses. We found no evidence of PCR bias, supporting the quantitative use of other PCR-based methods for the study of AM fungi such as next generation amplicon sequencing. This finding greatly improves our confidence in methods that quantitatively examine AM fungal communities, providing a greater understanding of the ecology of these important fungi

Orange juice–derived flavanone and phenolic metabolites do not acutely affect cardiovascular risk biomarkers: a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in men at moderate risk of cardiovascular disease

Background: Epidemiological data suggest inverse associations between citrus flavanone intake and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, insufficient randomized controlled trial (RCT) data limit our understanding of mechanisms by which flavanones and their metabolites potentially reduce cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. Objective: We examined the effects of orange juice or a dose-matched hesperidin supplement on plasma concentrations of established and novel flavanone metabolites and their effects on CV risk biomarkers in men at moderate CVD risk. Methods: In an acute, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial, 16 fasted participants (aged 51-69 y) received orange juice or a hesperidin supplement (both providing 320 mg hesperidin) or control (all matched for sugar and vitamin C content). At baseline and 5 h post-intake, endothelial function (primary outcome), further CV risk biomarkers (i.e. blood pressure, arterial stiffness, cardiac autonomic function, platelet activation and NADPH oxidase gene expression) and plasma flavanone metabolites were assessed. Prior to each intervention, a diet low in flavonoids, nitrate/nitrite, alcohol and caffeine was followed and a standardized low-flavonoid evening meal was consumed. Results: Orange juice intake significantly elevated mean (± SEM) plasma concentrations of 8 flavanone (1.75 ± 0.35 µmol/L, P < 0.0001) and 15 phenolic metabolites (13.27 ± 2.22 µmol/L, P < 0.0001) compared with control at 5 h post-consumption. Despite increased plasma flavanone and phenolic metabolite concentrations, CV risk biomarkers were unaltered. Following hesperidin supplement intake, flavanone metabolites were not different to control, suggesting altered absorption/metabolism compared with the orange juice matrix. Conclusions: Following single-dose flavanone intake within orange juice, we detected circulating flavanone and phenolic metabolites collectively reaching a concentration of 15.20 ± 2.15 µmol/L but observed no effect on CV risk biomarkers. Longer-duration RCTs are required to further examine the previous associations between higher flavanone intakes and improved cardiovascular health and to ascertain the relative importance of food matrix and flavanone-derived phenolic metabolites

Development of a Methodology to Measure the Effect of Ergot Alkaloids on Forestomach Motility Using Real-Time Wireless Telemetry

The objectives of these experiments were to characterize rumen motility patterns of cattle fed once daily using a real-time wireless telemetry system, determine when to measure rumen motility with this system, and determine the effect of ruminal dosing of ergot alkaloids on rumen motility. Ruminally cannulated Holstein steers (n = 8) were fed a basal diet of alfalfa cubes once daily. Rumen motility was measured by monitoring real-time pressure changes within the rumen using wireless telemetry and pressure transducers. Experiment 1 consisted of three 24-h rumen pressure collections beginning immediately after feeding. Data were recorded, stored, and analyzed using iox2 software and the rhythmic analyzer. All motility variables differed (P \u3c 0.01) between hours and thirds (8-h periods) of the day. There were no differences between days for most variables. The variance of the second 8-h period of the day was less than (P \u3c 0.01) the first for area and less than the third for amplitude, frequency, duration, and area (P \u3c 0.05). These data demonstrated that the second 8-h period of the day was the least variable for many measures of motility and would provide the best opportunity for testing differences in motility due to treatments. In Experiment 2, the steers (n = 8) were pair-fed the basal diet of Experiment 1 and dosed with endophyte-free (E−) or endophyte-infected (E+; 0 or 10 μg ergovaline + ergovalinine/kg BW; respectively) tall fescue seed before feeding for 15 d. Rumen motility was measured for 8 h beginning 8 h after feeding for the first 14 d of seed dosing. Blood samples were taken on d 1, 7, and 15, and rumen content samples were taken on d 15. Baseline (P = 0.06) and peak (P = 0.04) pressure were lower for E+ steers. Water intake tended (P = 0.10) to be less for E+ steers the first 8 h period after feeding. The E+ seed treatment at this dosage under thermoneutral conditions did not significantly affect rumen motility, ruminal fill, or dry matter of rumen contents

Monolithic micro-spectrometer for low-cost sensing in materials processing

We have developed a monolithic micro-spectrometer suitable for a variety of sensing applications including industrial process monitoring. The device consists of a solid structure with a volume less than 6 cubic centimeters. All optical components of the spectrometer including two aspheric mirrors, a diffraction grating, and entrance and exit surfaces are fabricated onto the surface of the structure. All light paths are internally contained within the structure. The result is a small, rugged spectroscopic sensor ideally suited for use as a process monitor. Due to its monolithic nature the device requires no post-fabrication alignment; nor can it be knocked out of alignment during use. Although many materials and thus wavelength regions were possible, the prototype device discussed here was produced in PMMA by precision diamond turning. However, lower cost manufacturing approaches involving injection molding are under development to produce an affordable sensor. It is expected that modified versions of this sensor designs will be required for specific applications so as to maximize the performance and resolution over the operating range. For example, the prototype device described here operates over a wavelength range of 500 nm to 1000 nm. The performance of this device as a real-time surface monitoring sensor will be discussed in detail. Our approach of using wavelength dependent scattering resulted in the reduction to practice of a miniature, monolithic, rugged, low-cost, micro-instrument in a sensor sized package. The process sensor applications community has been faced by the cost versus performance issue. Simple go/no-go sensors are typically inexpensive but they provide very limited and sometimes dubious data. Scaled down traditional instruments offer very good measured information but are typically cost prohibitive, fragile, and still relatively large. This work will bridge the gap between these two extreme sensing alternatives

On the way to large-scale and high-resolution brain-chip interfacing

Brain-chip-interfaces (BCHIs) are hybrid entities where chips and nerve cells establish a close physical interaction allowing the transfer of information in one or both directions. Typical examples are represented by multi-site-recording chips interfaced to cultured neurons, cultured/acute brain slices, or implanted “in vivo”. This paper provides an overview on recent achievements in our laboratory in the field of BCHIs leading to enhancement of signals transmission from nerve cells to chip or from chip to nerve cells with an emphasis on in vivo interfacing, either in terms of signal-to-noise ratio or of spatiotemporal resolution. Oxide-insulated chips featuring large-scale and high-resolution arrays of stimulation and recording elements are presented as a promising technology for high spatiotemporal resolution interfacing, as recently demonstrated by recordings obtained from hippocampal slices and brain cortex in implanted animals. Finally, we report on an automated tool for processing and analysis of acquired signals by BCHIs