Modifying the Response of Male Broiler Chickens to Heat Stress Through Early Age Feed Restriction and Thermal Conditioning

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of early age feed restriction and heat conditioning on tolerance to acute and chronic heat stress in male broiler chickens. In both experiments, equal numbers of chickens were subjected to (i) 60% feed restriction on day 4, 5, and 6 (FR), (ii) exposure to 36±IoC and 50-60% relative humidity for 1 hour from day 1 to 21 (HT), (iii) 60% feed restriction on day 4, 5, and 6 and exposure to 36± l oC and 50-60% relative humidity for 1 hour from day 1 to 21 (FRHT). (iv) ad libitum feeding and no heat treatment (control). In experiment I, on day 35, all birds were exposed to 39± l oC for 6 hours and 50% relative humidity. Subjecting chicks to FR, HT and FRHT reduced HLR response to the heat challenge. Following heat exposure, the FR and FRHT chick had greater heat shock protein (hsp) 70 density than those of controls. The hsp 70 response of HT birds was not significantly different from the other three groups. The FRHT birds were more hyperthermic than controls during heat challenge. In experiment II, from day 36- 50, all birds were exposed to 38± l oC and 80 % relative humidity for 2 hours/day. One day following heat exposure (day 37), all birds were administrated intranasally with infectious bursal disease (IBD) vaccine virus. The dosage used was l Ox of the recommended level. Subjecting chicks to FRHT improved relative weight gain and resistance to IBD infection and reduced HLR in response to the heat treatment as compared with the control birds. Although there is evidence that FR and HT can improve heat tolerance, the FRHT combination may further enhance the ability of birds to withstand chronic heat stress. The acquired improved heat tolerance resulting from FRHT, FR, and HT could be attributed to enhanced hsp 70 response. The trend of hsp 70 response correlated well with IBD lesion scores, suggesting hsp 70 may play a role in resistance against viral infection. Based on experiment I and II, it can be concluded that the present findings confirmed earlier studies that FR is effective in alleviating the adverse effects of heat stress. Subjecting birds to FRHT can further improve tolerance to chronic but not acute heat stress

The Paradox of Power in CSR: A Case Study on Implementation

Purpose Although current literature assumes positive outcomes for stakeholders resulting from an increase in power associated with CSR, this research suggests that this increase can lead to conflict within organizations, resulting in almost complete inactivity on CSR. Methods A single in-depth case study, focusing on power as an embedded concept. Results Empirical evidence is used to demonstrate how some actors use CSR to improve their own positions within an organization. Resource dependence theory is used to highlight why this may be a more significant concern for CSR. Conclusions Increasing power for CSR has the potential to offer actors associated with it increased personal power, and thus can attract opportunistic actors with little interest in realizing the benefits of CSR for the company and its stakeholders. Thus power can be an impediment to furthering CSR strategy and activities at the individual and organizational level

First-principles study of As interstitials in GaAs: Convergence, relaxation, and formation energy

Convergence of density-functional supercell calculations for defect formation energies, charge transition levels, localized defect state properties, and defect atomic structure and relaxation is investigated using the arsenic split interstitial in GaAs as an example. Supercells containing up to 217 atoms and a variety of {\bf k}-space sampling schemes are considered. It is shown that a good description of the localized defect state dispersion and charge state transition levels requires at least a 217-atom supercell, although the defect structure and atomic relaxations can be well converged in a 65-atom cell. Formation energies are calculated for the As split interstitial, Ga vacancy, and As antisite defects in GaAs, taking into account the dependence upon chemical potential and Fermi energy. It is found that equilibrium concentrations of As interstitials will be much lower than equilibrium concentrations of As antisites in As-rich, $n$-type or semi-insulating GaAs.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Metal enrichment processes

There are many processes that can transport gas from the galaxies to their environment and enrich the environment in this way with metals. These metal enrichment processes have a large influence on the evolution of both the galaxies and their environment. Various processes can contribute to the gas transfer: ram-pressure stripping, galactic winds, AGN outflows, galaxy-galaxy interactions and others. We review their observational evidence, corresponding simulations, their efficiencies, and their time scales as far as they are known to date. It seems that all processes can contribute to the enrichment. There is not a single process that always dominates the enrichment, because the efficiencies of the processes vary strongly with galaxy and environmental properties.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view", Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 17; work done by an international team at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S. Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke

Effect of collaborative depression treatment on risk for diabetes: A 9-year follow-up of the IMPACT randomized controlled trial

Considerable epidemiologic evidence and plausible biobehavioral mechanisms suggest that depression is an independent risk factor for diabetes. Moreover, reducing the elevated diabetes risk of depressed individuals is imperative given that both conditions are leading causes of death and disability. However, because no prior study has examined clinical diabetes outcomes among depressed patients at risk for diabetes, the question of whether depression treatment prevents or delays diabetes onset remains unanswered. Accordingly, we examined the effect of a 12-month collaborative care program for late-life depression on 9-year diabetes incidence among depressed, older adults initially free of diabetes. Participants were 119 primary care patients [M (SD) age: 67.2 (6.9) years, 41% African American] with a depressive disorder but without diabetes enrolled at the Indiana sites of the Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment (IMPACT) trial. Incident diabetes cases were defined as diabetes diagnoses, positive laboratory values, or diabetes medication prescription, and were identified using electronic medical record and Medicare/Medicaid data. Surprisingly, the rate of incident diabetes in the collaborative care group was 37% (22/59) versus 28% (17/60) in the usual care group. Even though the collaborative care group exhibited greater reductions in depressive symptom severity (p = .024), unadjusted (HR = 1.29, 95% CI: 0.69-2.43, p = .428) and adjusted (HR = 1.18, 95% CI: 0.61-2.29, p = .616) Cox proportional hazards models indicated that the risk of incident diabetes did not differ between the treatment groups. Our novel preliminary findings raise the possibility that depression treatment alone may be insufficient to reduce the excess diabetes risk of depressed, older adults

Three-dimensional morphology and gene expression in the Drosophila blastoderm at cellular resolution I: data acquisition pipeline

BACKGROUND: To model and thoroughly understand animal transcription networks, it is essential to derive accurate spatial and temporal descriptions of developing gene expression patterns with cellular resolution. RESULTS: Here we describe a suite of methods that provide the first quantitative three-dimensional description of gene expression and morphology at cellular resolution in whole embryos. A database containing information derived from 1,282 embryos is released that describes the mRNA expression of 22 genes at multiple time points in the Drosophila blastoderm. We demonstrate that our methods are sufficiently accurate to detect previously undescribed features of morphology and gene expression. The cellular blastoderm is shown to have an intricate morphology of nuclear density patterns and apical/basal displacements that correlate with later well-known morphological features. Pair rule gene expression stripes, generally considered to specify patterning only along the anterior/posterior body axis, are shown to have complex changes in stripe location, stripe curvature, and expression level along the dorsal/ventral axis. Pair rule genes are also found to not always maintain the same register to each other. CONCLUSION: The application of these quantitative methods to other developmental systems will likely reveal many other previously unknown features and provide a more rigorous understanding of developmental regulatory networks

Three-dimensional morphology and gene expression in the Drosophila blastoderm at cellular resolution I: data acquisition pipeline

BACKGROUND: To model and thoroughly understand animal transcription networks, it is essential to derive accurate spatial and temporal descriptions of developing gene expression patterns with cellular resolution. RESULTS: Here we describe a suite of methods that provide the first quantitative three-dimensional description of gene expression and morphology at cellular resolution in whole embryos. A database containing information derived from 1,282 embryos is released that describes the mRNA expression of 22 genes at multiple time points in the Drosophila blastoderm. We demonstrate that our methods are sufficiently accurate to detect previously undescribed features of morphology and gene expression. The cellular blastoderm is shown to have an intricate morphology of nuclear density patterns and apical/basal displacements that correlate with later well-known morphological features. Pair rule gene expression stripes, generally considered to specify patterning only along the anterior/posterior body axis, are shown to have complex changes in stripe location, stripe curvature, and expression level along the dorsal/ventral axis. Pair rule genes are also found to not always maintain the same register to each other. CONCLUSION: The application of these quantitative methods to other developmental systems will likely reveal many other previously unknown features and provide a more rigorous understanding of developmental regulatory networks

On line clinical reasoning assessment with Script Concordance test in urology: results of a French pilot study

BACKGROUND: The Script Concordance test (SC) test is an assessment tool that measures the capacity to solve ill-defined problems, that is, reasoning in a context of uncertainty. This study assesses the feasibility, reliability and validity of the SC test made available on the Web to French urologists. METHODS: A 97 items SC test was developed based on major educational objectives of French urology training programmes. A secure Web site was created with two sequential modules: a) The first one for the reference panel to elaborate the scoring system; b) The second for candidates with different levels of experience in urology: Board certified urologists, chief-residents, residents, medical students. All participants were recruited on a voluntary basis. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics of the participants' scores and factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) to study differences between groups' means. Reliability was evaluated with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. RESULTS: The on line SC test has been operational since June 2004. Twenty-six faculty members constituted the reference panel. During the following 10 months, 207 participants took the test online (124 urologists, 29 chief-residents, 38 residents, 16 students). No technical problem was encountered. Forty-five percent of the participants completed the test partially only. Differences between the means scores for the 4 groups were statistically significant (P = 0.0123). The Bonferroni post-hoc correction indicated that significant differences were present between students and chief-residents, between students and urologists. There were no differences between chief-residents and urologists. Reliability coefficient was 0.734 for the total group of participants. CONCLUSION: Feasibility of Web-based SC test was proved successful by the large number of participants who participated in a few months. This Web site has permitted to quickly confirm reliability of the SC test and develop strategy to improve construct validity of the test when applied in the field of urology. Nevertheless, optimisation of the SC test content, with a smaller number of items will be necessary. Virtual medical education initiative such as this SC test delivered on the Internet warrants consideration in the current context of national pre-residency certification examination in France