Effects of Soybean Gums and Soybean Soapstocks on Weanling Pig Growth Performance, Fecal Dry Matter, and Apparent Total Tract Digestibility of Dry Matter

Soybean processing by-products, such as gums and soapstocks, may be added back to soybean meal during processing, but it is unclear how they may impact pig growth performance. There is potential for these by-products to serve as an affordable energy source for swine due to their residual oil content. A total of 350 pigs (Line 241 × 600, DNA; initially 11.7 ± 0.05 lb) were weaned at approximately 19 d of age and used in a 42-d experiment. At weaning, pigs were randomly assigned to pens and pens were allotted to one of five dietary treatments. There were five pigs per pen and 14 pens per treatment. Diets were fed in three phases: phase 1 from weaning to d 11, phase 2 from d 11 to 23, and phase 3 from d 23 to 42. Treatments included a control diet containing soybean meal with no added soybean by-products. Two additional diets contained gums or soapstocks at 4% of the soybean meal level in the diet. Another treatment diet contained soybean meal with 2% added soybean gums and 2% added soybean soapstocks. Lastly, a negative control contained 4% less soybean meal with no added by-products to have equal protein from soybean meal as the diets with added gums or soapstocks. Feces were collected on d 11 and d 23 from three pigs per pen to determine fecal dry matter (DM). Fecal samples on d 23 were used to determine apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of DM. From d 0 to 11 (phase 1) and d 11 to 23 (phase 2), there was no evidence of differences (P \u3e 0.10) for any growth response criteria. From d 23 to 42 (phase 3), feeding soybean meal with added gums increased (P = 0.053) ADG. However, there was no evidence for differences (P \u3e 0.10) in ADFI or F/G. For the overall experimental period (d 0 to 42), there was no evidence of differences (P \u3e 0.10) due to dietary treatment for ADG, ADFI, or F/G. Fecal DM was approximately 19% on both d 11 and 23 and was not affected (P \u3e 0.10) by treatment. There was an interaction (P = 0.019) between soybean gum and soapstocks for the ATTD of DM. When adding 4% gums to the diet, there was an improvement in the ATTD of DM; however, there was no evidence of difference when adding 4% soapstocks or 2% gums and 2% soapstocks to soybean meal compared to the control. These data suggest that adding soybean processing by-products had minimal effects on nursery pig growth performance. However, there is a potential for improved ADG in the late nursery period when soybean meal containing added gums is included in the diet

An L Band Spectrum of the Coldest Brown Dwarf

The coldest brown dwarf, WISE 0855, is the closest known planetary-mass, free-floating object and has a temperature nearly as cold as the solar system gas giants. Like Jupiter, it is predicted to have an atmosphere rich in methane, water, and ammonia, with clouds of volatile ices. WISE 0855 is faint at near-infrared wavelengths and emits almost all its energy in the mid-infrared. Skemer et al. 2016 presented a spectrum of WISE 0855 from 4.5-5.1 micron (M band), revealing water vapor features. Here, we present a spectrum of WISE 0855 in L band, from 3.4-4.14 micron. We present a set of atmosphere models that include a range of compositions (metallicities and C/O ratios) and water ice clouds. Methane absorption is clearly present in the spectrum. The mid-infrared color can be better matched with a methane abundance that is depleted relative to solar abundance. We find that there is evidence for water ice clouds in the M band spectrum, and we find a lack of phosphine spectral features in both the L and M band spectra. We suggest that a deep continuum opacity source may be obscuring the near-infrared flux, possibly a deep phosphorous-bearing cloud, ammonium dihyrogen phosphate. Observations of WISE 0855 provide critical constraints for cold planetary atmospheres, bridging the temperature range between the long-studied solar system planets and accessible exoplanets. JWST will soon revolutionize our understanding of cold brown dwarfs with high-precision spectroscopy across the infrared, allowing us to study their compositions and cloud properties, and to infer their atmospheric dynamics and formation processes.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

An Industry Survey of the Composition and Variability of Soybean Gums and Soapstocks Across US Soybean Processing Plants

Depending on the soybean processing plant, gums and soapstocks may be added back to soybean meal during soybean processing. Despite the potential effects on soybean meal quality, there is limited information on the composition and variation in soybean by-products and the resulting soybean meal if by-products are added back during processing. A total of 36 soybean by-product samples from 14 plants across eight different companies were used in an industry survey evaluating the composition and variation of soybean gums and soapstocks across the US. All soybean processing plants within the study produced at least one of the two by-products: soybean gums or soybean soapstocks. Soybean by-product and soybean meal samples were collected at two different timepoints: May to July 2023 and October to November 2023. The individual plants surveyed constitute approximately 30% of total US soybean meal production, with the eight participating companies representing 80% of the total US soybean meal production. By-products were analyzed for lipid quality criteria including moisture, fat by acid hydrolysis, fatty acid analysis, and oxidation markers. Furthermore, soybean meal samples were submitted for analysis of proximate composition, neutral detergent fiber, Ca, P, and trypsin inhibitor activity. Soybean gums had a greater (P ≤ 0.05) percentage of acid hydrolyzed fat and p-Anisidine value compared to soybean soapstocks. Soybean soapstocks tended to have a greater (P = 0.085) percentage of moisture and volatile matter, as well as an increased (P = 0.052) concentration of insoluble impurities compared with soybean gums. Most notably, there was considerable variation in the composition of by-product samples between processing plants indicating differences in processing procedures or incoming soybean quality. Soybean meal containing added soybean by-products had 61% greater (P \u3c 0.05) ether extract than soybean meal samples not containing added soybean by-products on a dry matter basis, but there was no difference (P \u3c 0.10) in crude protein. Furthermore, trypsin inhibitor activity varied considerably between plants with values ranging from 1.45 to 9.26 TIU/mg of seed powder, regardless of by-product inclusion. These results provide information on the composition and variation in soybean by-products across various processing plants; however, further information is still needed to evaluate their subsequent effects on livestock diets

Author Correction: Discovery of 42 genome-wide significant loci associated with dyslexia

Correction to: Nature Genetics https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01192-y. Published online 20 October 2022. In the version of this article originally published, a paragraph was omitted in the Methods section, reading “Genomic control. Top SNPs are reported from the more conservative GWAS results adjusted for genomic control (Fig. 1, Extended Data Figs. 1–4, and Supplementary Tables 1, 2, 9 and 10), whereas downstream analyses (including gene-set analysis, enrichment and heritability partitioning, genetic correlations, polygenic prediction, candidate gene replication) are based on GWAS results without genomic control.” The paragraph has now been included in the HTML and PDF versions of the article

Protosolar D-to-H Abundance and One Part per Billion PH 3 in the Coldest Brown Dwarf

© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/The coldest Y spectral type brown dwarfs are similar in mass and temperature to cool and warm (∼200–400 K) giant exoplanets. We can therefore use their atmospheres as proxies for planetary atmospheres, testing our understanding of physics and chemistry for these complex, cool worlds. At these cold temperatures, their atmospheres are cold enough for water clouds to form, and chemical timescales increase, increasing the likelihood of disequilibrium chemistry compared to warmer classes of planets. JWST observations are revolutionizing the characterization of these worlds with high signal-to-noise, moderate-resolution near- and mid-infrared spectra. The spectra have been used to measure the abundances of prominent species, like water, methane, and ammonia; species that trace chemical reactions, like carbon monoxide; and even isotopologues of carbon monoxide and ammonia. Here, we present atmospheric retrieval results using both published fixed-slit (Guaranteed Time Observation program 1230) and new averaged time series observations (GO program 2327) of the coldest known Y dwarf, WISE 0855–0714 (using NIRSpec G395M spectra), which has an effective temperature of ∼264 K. We present a detection of deuterium in an atmosphere outside of the solar system via a relative measurement of deuterated methane (CH3D) and standard methane. From this, we infer the D/H ratio of a substellar object outside the solar system for the first time. We also present a well-constrained part-per-billion abundance of phosphine (PH3). We discuss our interpretation of these results and the implications for brown dwarf and giant exoplanet formation and evolution.Peer reviewe

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Developmental disruption of amygdala transcriptome and socioemotional behavior in rats exposed to valproic acid prenatally

Background: The amygdala controls socioemotional behavior and has consistently been implicated in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Precocious amygdala development is commonly reported in ASD youth with the degree of overgrowth positively correlated to the severity of ASD symptoms. Prenatal exposure to VPA leads to an ASD phenotype in both humans and rats and has become a commonly used tool to model the complexity of ASD symptoms in the laboratory. Here, we examined abnormalities in gene expression in the amygdala and socioemotional behavior across development in the valproic acid (VPA) rat model of ASD. Methods: Rat dams received oral gavage of VPA (500 mg/kg) or saline daily between E11 and 13. Socioemotional behavior was tracked across development in both sexes. RNA sequencing and proteomics were performed on amygdala samples from male rats across development. Results: Effects of VPA on time spent in social proximity and anxiety-like behavior were sex dependent, with social abnormalities presenting in males and heightened anxiety in females. Across time VPA stunted developmental and immune, but enhanced cellular death and disorder, pathways in the amygdala relative to saline controls. At postnatal day 10, gene pathways involved in nervous system and cellular development displayed predicted activations in prenatally exposed VPA amygdala samples. By juvenile age, however, transcriptomic and proteomic pathways displayed reductions in cellular growth and neural development. Alterations in immune pathways, calcium signaling, Rho GTPases, and protein kinase A signaling were also observed. Conclusions: As behavioral, developmental, and genomic alterations are similar to those reported in ASD, these results lend support to prenatal exposure to VPA as a useful tool for understanding how developmental insults to molecular pathways in the amygdala give rise to ASD-related syndromes. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13229-017-0160-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Additional file 1: Table S1-6. of Developmental disruption of amygdala transcriptome and socioemotional behavior in rats exposed to valproic acid prenatally

Table S1. Canonical RNA sequencing pathways differing from P10 to 21 in (A) both VPA and saline amygdala, (B) exclusively in saline amygdala, or (C) exclusively in VPA amygdala. Table S2. Canonical RNA sequencing pathways differing between saline and VPA amygdala at (A) P10 and (B) P21. Table S3. Canonical Proteomic Pathways differing between saline and VPA amygdala at P21. Table S4. Diseases and Functions RNA Sequencing Categories differing from P10 to 21 in (A) both VPA and saline amygdala, (B) exclusively in saline amygdala, or (C) exclusively in VPA amygdala both VPA and saline amygdala. Table S5. Diseases and functions RNA sequencing categories differing between saline and VPA amygdala at (A) P10 and (B) P21. Table S6. Diseases and functions proteomic categories differing between saline and VPA amygdala at P21. (DOCX 86 kb

Additional file 2: Figure S1. of Developmental disruption of amygdala transcriptome and socioemotional behavior in rats exposed to valproic acid prenatally

RNA sequencing pathways differentially altered across development between VPA and saline amygdala. Pathways with significant time (P10–21) by treatment (VPA/saline) effects are displayed. Treatment effects did not reach statistical significance after FDR multiple comparison correction, thus Ingenuity Pathway Analyses were run on genes with uncorrected p < 0.05 treatment effects at P10 (n = 542) and P21 (n = 406). Canonical pathways and diseases and functions categories with predicted activation or inhibition differences were broadly categorized into the following groups: cellular development and growth; nervous system development and function; immune system, cancer, disease; cell/organismal death; metabolism; and developmental, neurological, or psychological disorder. (PDF 59 kb

The Role of Sensory Innervation in Homeostatic and Injury-Induced Corneal Epithelial Renewal

The cornea is the window through which we see the world. Corneal clarity is required for vision, and blindness occurs when the cornea becomes opaque. The cornea is covered by unique transparent epithelial cells that serve as an outermost cellular barrier bordering between the cornea and the external environment. Corneal sensory nerves protect the cornea from injury by triggering tearing and blink reflexes, and are also thought to regulate corneal epithelial renewal via unknown mechanism(s). When protective corneal sensory innervation is absent due to infection, trauma, intracranial tumors, surgery, or congenital causes, permanent blindness results from repetitive epithelial microtraumas and failure to heal. The condition is termed neurotrophic keratopathy (NK), with an incidence of 5:10,000 people worldwide. In this report, we review the currently available therapeutic solutions for NK and discuss the progress in our understanding of how the sensory nerves induce corneal epithelial renewal