Effect of starch level and roughage intake on animal perfomance, rumen wall characteristics and liver abscesses in intensively fed Frisian bulls

Organic dairy cows in Denmark has a higher frequency of liver abscesses, which is probably due to higher starch levels in the feed rations to high yielding cows compaired to conventional cows. Following abstract is based on experiments on young bulls and demonstrates whether replacing high-starch feeds with low-starch feed, such as dried grass pellets and sugar beet pulp, can reduce the problems with liver abscessation without reducing the performance level. The low-starch feed would be relevant to organic dairy production. In total, 41 Danish Friesian bulls (154±20 kg LW) were allocated into four treatment groups in a 2x2 factorial design fed either a high starch (N) or a high fibrous concentrate (F) and either chopped barley straw (S) or a mixture of 75% chopped barley straw and 25% sugar beet molasses (Sm). In the F ration, 25% of the wheat from N was replaced by dried sugar beet pulp and grass pellets giving a starch level of 24.3% and 39.1% (wt) and an energy content of 0.99 and 1.04 Scandinavian Feed Units/kg feed, respectively. The ad libitum fed bulls were slaughtered at 11.5±0.2 mo. weighing 429±41 kg LW on average. Feed intake was higher for F than N (p=0.005) (7.1 vs. 6.4 kg/d), whereas the addition of molasses increased straw intake from 0.5 to 0.9 kg/d (p<0.001). The higher intake of Sm compared with S reduced concentrate intake (p<0.05), but did not affect total net energy intake. The average daily gain (1370 g/d) did not differ between groups. The rumen wall was more severely damaged with N compared with F (p<0.05) and with S compared with Sm (p<0.003). The higher straw intake prevented rumen wall damage, but did not reduce the number of animals with liver abscesses, like the lower starch level did (1 vs. 9 animals, p<0.005)

Grain Characteristics, Chemical Composition, and Functional Properties of Rye (Secale cereale L.) As Influenced by Genotype and Harvest Year

Grain characteristic, chemical composition, and functional properties of rye were measured in 19 different cultivars grown in one location in up to 3 years. The cultivars included 8 adapted hybrids, 7 adapted population cultivars, and 4 nonadapted population cultivars. The results showed a significant influence of both harvest year and genotype on grain characteristics, chemical composition, and functional properties of the grain. Multivariate data analysis confirmed that the variations in the data were explained by yearly and genotype differences. Calculations of variance components showed that the variations in plant height, harvest yield, and protein content were mainly due to genotype differences and to a lesser extent to differences among harvest years. The kernel weight, hardness index, and content of dietary fiber components, however, were more strongly influenced by the harvest year than by the genotype. Differences in starch properties measured by falling number (FN), amylograph peak viscosity, and temperature at peak viscosity were more strongly influenced by harvest year. The water absorption was strongly influenced by genotype effects, compared to yearly differences. FN and amylograph peak temperature were positively correlated (r = 0.94). No correlation was found between the water absorption and the relative proportion of water-extractable arabinoxylan (AX) compared to the total AX content. However, the degree of ferulic acid cross-linking showed a negative correlation (r = -0.70) with the water absorption

Magnetic ordering in electronically phase-separated La2-xSrxCuO4+y: Neutron diffraction experiments

We present results of magnetic neutron diffraction experiments on the codoped superoxygenated La2-xSrxCuO4+y (LSCO+O) system with x=0.09. We find that the magnetic phase is long-range ordered incommensurate antiferromagnetic with a Neacuteel temperature T-N coinciding with the superconducting ordering temperature T-c=40 K. The incommensurability value is consistent with a hole doping of n(h)approximate to 1>8 but in contrast to nonsuperoxygenated La2-xSrxCuO4 with hole doping close to n(h)approximate to 18 the magnetic-order parameter is not field dependent. We attribute this to the magnetic order being fully developed in LSCO+O as in the spin and charge ordered "stripe" compounds La1.48Nd0.40Sr0.12CuO4 and La7/8Ba1/8CuO4

An Effective-Medium Tight-Binding Model for Silicon

A new method for calculating the total energy of Si systems is presented. The method is based on the effective-medium theory concept of a reference system. Instead of calculating the energy of an atom in the system of interest a reference system is introduced where the local surroundings are similar. The energy of the reference system can be calculated selfconsistently once and for all while the energy difference to the reference system can be obtained approximately. We propose to calculate it using the tight-binding LMTO scheme with the Atomic-Sphere Approximation(ASA) for the potential, and by using the ASA with charge-conserving spheres we are able to treat open system without introducing empty spheres. All steps in the calculational method is {\em ab initio} in the sense that all quantities entering are calculated from first principles without any fitting to experiment. A complete and detailed description of the method is given together with test calculations of the energies of phonons, elastic constants, different structures, surfaces and surface reconstructions. We compare the results to calculations using an empirical tight-binding scheme.Comment: 26 pages (11 uuencoded Postscript figures appended), LaTeX, CAMP-090594-

Pion condensation in a dense neutrino gas

We argue that using an equilibrated gas of neutrinos it is possible to probe the phase diagram of QCD for finite isospin and small baryon chemical potentials. We discuss this region of the phase diagram in detail and demonstrate that for large enough neutrino densities a Bose-Einstein condensate of positively charged pions arises. Moreover, we show that for nonzero neutrino density the degeneracy in the lifetimes and masses of the charged pions is lifted.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Modifications to Section II, IIIc, and I

Novel Druggable Hot Spots in Avian Influenza Neuraminidase H5N1 Revealed by Computational Solvent Mapping of a Reduced and Representative Receptor Ensemble

The influenza virus subtype H5N1 has raised concerns of a possible human pandemic threat because of its high virulence and mutation rate. Although several approved anti-influenza drugs effectively target the neuraminidase, some strains have already acquired resistance to the currently available anti-influenza drugs. In this study, we present the synergistic application of extended explicit solvent molecular dynamics (MD) and computational solvent mapping (CS-Map) to identify putative ‘hot spots’ within flexible binding regions of N1 neuraminidase. Using representative conformations of the N1 binding region extracted from a clustering analysis of four concatenated 40-ns MD simulations, CS-Map was utilized to assess the ability of small, solvent-sized molecules to bind within close proximity to the sialic acid binding region. Mapping analyses of the dominant MD conformations reveal the presence of additional hot spot regions in the 150- and 430-loop regions. Our hot spot analysis provides further support for the feasibility of developing high-affinity inhibitors capable of binding these regions, which appear to be unique to the N1 strain