The nutritional value of oat forages for dairy cows

Three studies were conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of different oat (Avena sativa) forage cultivars (Assiniboia, Bell and Baler) that were newly emerged cultivars as a result of extensive oat growing conditions in western Canada. A total tract digestibility trial using 24 sheep (n=6) in a completely random design was conducted to assess apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), crude fat (EE), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), hemicellulose, non-structural carbohydrate, acid detergent lignin (ADL), soluble crude protein (SCP), non-protein nitrogen (NPN) and neutral detergent insoluble crude protein (NDICP) in Assiniboia silage, Bell hay, Baler hay and Rosser (barley- Hordeum vulgare) silage. Rumen in situ degradability characteristics of DM, OM, CP, ADF and NDF were determined on Assiniboia silage, Bell hay, Baler hay and Rosser silage at 96 to 0 h using a Holstein cow fitted with a rumen fistula. A dairy production trial using 8 multiparous Holstein cows at 90±20 DIM averaging 41 kg d-1 milk yield, in a 2 × 3 switch-back design was conducted to compare the production response of the cows fed either 48 percent Assiniboia silage or Rosser silage (DM basis) in total mixed rations with the concentrate portion consisting mainly of rolled barley, canola meal and soy meal. Digestibility of DM, OM, NDF, NPN, NDICP and EE were not different for Assiniboia and Rosser silages. Digestibility of DM, NDF and ADF were similar for Baler hay and Rosser silage. Digestibility of hemicellulose, NSC and ADL were similar for all forages. Sheep voluntary intakes of DM, OM, NDF, ADF and EE, except CP were similar across the forages. Assiniboia silage provided more nutrients to the rumen than the hays due to the higher rumen disappearance and effective degradabilities of DM and CP, and lesser undegradable DM, CP, NDF and ADF (

D-lactic acid metabolism and control of acidosis

D-lactic acidosis (DLA) is a disease associated with D-lactatemia, acidosis and neurological signs. However, these associations are ill-defined. Bacterial fermentation in the intestine causes increasing D-lactic acid concentrations in the body. Therefore, DLA is reported secondary to gastrointestinal diseases, such as short bowel syndrome, gastroenteritis or diarrhea. Despite intestinal origin, sudden D-lactatemia is often a result of impaired D-lactate metabolism in the body. Aims of this work were to determine: 1) Influence of the presence of D-lactate or acidity on neurological disturbances; 2) Effectiveness of parenteral NaHCO3 therapy in correcting cerebrospinal acidity and DLA; 3) Prevalence of DLA in diarrheic lambs and fecal D-lactate thresholds; 4) Effectiveness of malate in preventing DLA. The methodological tools consisted of animal models (calves and lambs): 1) Advanced surgical procedure in calves for long-lasting atlanto-occipital catheterizations; 2) Intravenous infusions of acids to experimentally induce acidosis; 3) Intravenous NaHCO3 therapies; 4) Sampling of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), blood, urine and feces from experimental / treated calves or diarrheic lambs for blood gas analysis, and D-lactate separation by chromatography. D-lactate entered the central nervous system (> 2 mmol/L) from the circulation following experimentally induced D-lactatemia (> 5 mmol/L) and was responsible for neurological disturbances which correlated (r = 0.9, P < 0.05) with both CSF and serum D-lactate concentrations. A zenith of neurological disturbances, ataxia was evident when D-lactate concentration exceeded 12 mmol/L (CSF) and 26 mmol/L (serum), however, a nadir of acidosis (pH 6.9) caused by HCl infusions produced only mild neurological disturbances (P < 0.05). Therapeutic NaHCO3 infusions did not result paradoxical CSF acidosis, but supportive in correcting (P < 0.05) acidosis (ÄpH + 0.11) and D-lactatemia in calves. In lambs, metabolic acidosis following a range of mild to severe diarrhea was observed with a corresponding range of D-lactate concentrations in both serum (< 0.05&#8722;24.0 mmol/L) and feces (< 0.05&#8722;31.0 mmol/L). D-lactate was absorbed into the circulation when the fecal D-lactate concentration exceeded 10.2 mmol/L (threshold). In calves, moderate oral use of malate produced a > 50% (P < 0.05) decrease in fecal and serum D-lactate concentrations suggesting prebiotic properties to prevent DLA. This dissertation answers the critical questions about the onset of neurological signs in D-lactic acidosis, and advances the current knowledge on the metabolism of D-lactate, the prevention and treatment of acidosis

Solubility, In Vitro Digestibility and Allergenicity of Brassica juncea, Brassica napus and Sinapis alba Proteins

Canola (Brassica napus, Brassica rapa and Brassica juncea) and mustard (Brassica juncea and Sinapis alba) are economically important Brassicaceae crops in Canada. Distribution of proteins and antinutritive compounds in the seed coat and cotyledons and the solubility properties of the seed proteins were evaluated in six varieties of Brassicaeae [(B. juncea (oriental, brown and canola-quality mustard), B. napus (canola) and S. alba (yellow mustard)]. In vitro digestibility and potential allergenicity, as determined by pepsin digestibility and bioinformatic analysis, respectively, were conducted for the major seed storage proteins. The major components in Brassicaceae oilseeds are oil and proteins. B. juncea and B. napus seed contain 40-42% oil; for S. alba seed the value is 30-32%. The seed coat percentage (by weight) of S. alba seed is higher than that of the other species; canola-quality B. juncea seed has a lower content of seed coat than B. napus. Glucosinolates, phytic acid and phenolic compounds are minor compounds present in Brassicaceae seed which may have negative effects on the nutritional value of seed meal. The contribution of non-protein nitrogen to total seed N ranged from 3.1-10.8% depending on the seed type. In Brassicaceae seeds, 11S cruciferin and 2S napin were the major storage proteins. The solubility of storage proteins from all Brassicaceae seeds was dependent on pH. Napin protein in all species showed high solubility between pH 3 and 4, and the minimum total protein solubility of seed was observed within this range. Both napin and cruciferin proteins were soluble in strongly alkaline and acidic pH ranges. In all varieties, Na+ and Ca2+ increased overall protein solubility; however, the extent of protein solubility changes in relation to ion type varied among species. The combination of salt and pH in the media can be manipulated to maximize the solubility of seed storage proteins. The in vitro digestibility values for the defatted meals were lower than those of the napin-free meals. Napin protein exhibited the lowest digestibility, and for the six seed types it was less than 10%. It was evident that the low digestibility of napin was related to the overall low protein digestibilities of the meals, and that low level of intestinal protease inhibitors, i.e., trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors, may have a negligible effect on protein digestibility. At a high pepsin concentration, cruciferin was quickly digested and would be expected to show no or weak resistance to proteolytic cleavage under simulated gastric conditions. However, napin was resistant to pepsin digestion, and a large fraction of this protein remained intact within the gastric and intestinal digestion period, indicating the potential to remain as a gastrointestinal allergen. The sequence homology assessment of napin from B. juncea, B. napus and S. alba revealed a high degree of homology among the napin protein of these species, and some isoforms exhibited almost 100% sequence identity to the known mustard allergens (Bra n 1, Bra j 1, Sin a 1) and a strong possibility of cross-reactivity among species. Cruciferin protein sequence alignment resulted in lower scores for other known allergens (from cashew, hazelnut, etc.). This implies that cruciferin protein has a lower possibility of cross-reactivity with these known seed allergens

Multiwavelength Observations of the Blazar BL Lacertae: A New Fast TeV Gamma-Ray Flare

Combined with measurements made by very-long-baseline interferometry, the observations of fast TeV gamma-ray flares probe the structure and emission mechanism of blazar jets. However, only a handful of such flares have been detected to date, and only within the last few years have these flares been observed from lower-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars. We report on a fast TeV gamma-ray flare from the blazar BL Lacertae observed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS). with a rise time of ~2.3 hr and a decay time of ~36 min. The peak flux above 200 GeV is (4.2 ± 0.6) × 10^(−6) photon m^(−2) s^(−1) measured with a 4-minute-binned light curve, corresponding to ~180% of the flux that is observed from the Crab Nebula above the same energy threshold. Variability contemporaneous with the TeV gamma-ray flare was observed in GeV gamma-ray, X-ray, and optical flux, as well as in optical and radio polarization. Additionally, a possible moving emission feature with superluminal apparent velocity was identified in Very Long Baseline Array observations at 43 GHz, potentially passing the radio core of the jet around the time of the gamma-ray flare. We discuss the constraints on the size, Lorentz factor, and location of the emitting region of the flare, and the interpretations with several theoretical models that invoke relativistic plasma passing stationary shocks

Spectroscopic impact on protein and carbohydrate inherent molecular structures of barley, oat, and corn combined with wheat DDGS

Non-Peer Reviewe

Holistic Approach in Introducing Proper Legal Framework to Regulate Data Protection and Privacy in Sri Lanka

Data protection and privacy law have never been important as they are today. Data protection and privacy ensure that data is safeguarded from unlawful access by unauthorised third parties and misappropriation of the same. A successful data protection strategy will be helpful to prevent data loss, theft, or corruption of data. It is evident that information and communication technology is developing daily and privacy issues or the threats against personal data of the persons also equally increasing. Responsibility of a government to provide effective privacy and data protection laws/policies cannot be disregarded at any point. Until very recent Sri Lanka did not have a separate&nbsp; legislation to deal with data protection and privacy and it was identified as a major lacuna in our law. At present, in addition to the Personal Data Protection Act No. 09 of 2022&nbsp; there are several other legislations that may be applied to regulate certain aspects of data protection and privacy. In this research, researcher is aiming to assess whether existing legal framework on data protection and privacy in Sri Lanka is adequate and effective. This will be done by comparing the Sri Lankan legal framework with UK and Singapore, countries that are known as pioneers of data protection and privacy. Ultimate goal of the researcher is to contribute towards assurance of data protection and privacy right of the individuals in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Data protection, Privacy, Information Communications Technology, Personal data &nbsp

All-sky Measurement of the Anisotropy of Cosmic Rays at 10 TeV and Mapping of the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field

We present the first full-sky analysis of the cosmic ray arrival direction distribution with data collected by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov and IceCube observatories in the northern and southern hemispheres at the same median primary particle energy of 10 TeV. The combined sky map and angular power spectrum largely eliminate biases that result from partial sky coverage and present a key to probe into the propagation properties of TeV cosmic rays through our local interstellar medium and the interaction between the interstellar and heliospheric magnetic fields. From the map, we determine the horizontal dipole components of the anisotropy δ 0h = 9.16 × 10−4 and δ 6h = 7.25 × 10−4 (±0.04 × 10−4). In addition, we infer the direction (229fdg2 ± 3fdg5 R.A., 11fdg4 ± 3fdg0 decl.) of the interstellar magnetic field from the boundary between large-scale excess and deficit regions from which we estimate the missing corresponding vertical dipole component of the large-scale anisotropy to be ${\delta }_{N}\sim -{3.97}_{-2.0}^{+1.0}\times {10}^{-4}$