The effects of nutrient supply on the pattern of food intake in sheep

Voluntary food intake (VFI) in ruminants has been extensively researched. Many factors are involved and inter-related, making theories complex. The rumen affects feedback signals controlling food intake, both short-term and long-term. Control of grass silage intake is associated with specific factors, including ensiling end-products, and asynchrony of ruminal nutrient release. Synchronising energy and nitrogen (N) supply to rumen micro-organisms can improve rumen degradability efficiency, which may alter VFI. However, few studies have investigated effects of ruminai nutrient release on intake patterns of grass silage-based diets on an hourly basis. Study 1 characterised a grass silage in terms of organic matter (OM), carbohydrate and N degradability. Results were placed on a database with degradability characteristics of other feed ingredients. In study 2, diet A was formulated from concentrate ingredients, with degradability characteristics similar to the grass silage, and supplement (S) which, when fed with grass silage (G) or A, resulted in a more synchronous ruminai hourly nutrient release. Four diets were offered: G, G+S, A or A+S, to eight growing wether lambs. G had the lowest daily intake (0.937kgDM/day) and supplementation significantly increased daily intake of G (p≤0.01) and A (p≤0.01), slightly altering intake pattern. A had a significantly different (p≤0.01) daily intake and whole tract digestibility (p≤0.01), compared to G. It was concluded that physical factors had a greater effect than chemical factors in controlling intake. In study 3, four complete diets were formulated to further examine nutrient synchronisation, by supplementing the grass silage with concentrate: slow energy, fast N (ASYN), slow energy, slow N (INT(SE)), fast energy, fast N (INT(FE)) or fast energy, slow N (SYN). Diets were fed ad libitum to four wether sheep. There was little variation between diets for daily intake or hourly intake pattern. Plasma urea levels indicated that rumen N capture was dependent on energy release supplied by the supplement, as was rumen fluid pH and osmolality, although differences were not significant (p>0.05). Degree of ruminal nutrient synchronisation appeared not to affect intake pattern and it was concluded that animals were unable to manipulate their intake pattern to improve synchrony

The Effects of Hope, Rumination, Resilience, and Unit Support on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in Veterans

The current study investigated potential protective resources: hope, rumination, resilience and unit support as they related to PTSD symptom severity among service members who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and experienced combat (N = 191). We also investigated each variable for possible interactions with combat exposure. Correlational analyses and hierarchical linear regression were used to analyze the data. Hope, resilience and unit support were all negatively correlated with PTSD symptom severity and combat exposure. Deliberate rumination and intrusive rumination were positively correlated with PTSD symptom severity. In the regression, significant predictors were rank, combat exposure, resilience and intrusive rumination, with enlisted rank, higher combat exposure, and higher intrusive rumination predicting higher levels of PTSD symptom severity and resilience predicting lower levels. Resilience moderated the relationship between combat exposure and PTSD symptom severity, such that participants who had higher levels of resilience had lower levels of PTSD symptom severity at all levels of combat exposure. These findings suggest the importance of increasing resilience in combat veterans, specifically those of enlisted rank and veterans exposed to higher levels of combat. Findings also suggest that teaching veterans how to control or minimize intrusive rumination may help lower the risk that a veteran will develop PTSD

Killing the Indian to Save the Tribe: The Effect of Federal Indian Policy on Reservation Economy and the Lives of Individual Members

Federal Indian policy’s infringement on individuality, liberty and property is the reason many Native Americans continue to struggle in poverty. Through a systematic literature review, it is demonstrated that allowing property rights for individual members, and removing the financial incentive for tribal leaders to use tribal members, and especially children as property, would both vastly improve the economy and preserve to people their God-given right to life, faculties, and production. This would be a significant first step to unlocking real self-determination, human potential and ingenuity, as well as correct the long-standing policies that have robbed generations of Indian people of the wealth and opportunity that this country has granted to countless others

Researcher and Academic Library Roles and User Beliefs in the Pandemic: designing the open-access and library usage scale (OALU)

We investigated whether individuals believe they have a right to information during a crisis, and whether attitudes about crisis-related information sharing differ by age and one’s role in providing or consuming information. We measured attitudes about aspects of data sharing related to COVID-19: researchers’ obligation to share data, publishers’ obligation to share information, and libraries’ responsibility to provide them. We predicted younger individuals, especially students as consumers of information, would report stronger preference for open access to pandemic-related information. A principal components analysis was performed, and two predicted factors emerged: information-sharing obligations and libraries’ responsibility to provide resources. Age was not significantly correlated with attitudes about libraries or information-sharing. Planned analyses comparing students, faculty, and community members unaffiliated with the university revealed no differences in their attitudes regarding library resources or information-sharing. A lack of age and university affiliation-related differences can be explained by universally strong attitudes in favor of both information-sharing and library resources, with a greater desire for information-sharing. Knowing that individuals demonstrate a strong preference for open access to information and that these attitudes do not differ between those who are providing (faculty), and consuming information (students/community) can contribute to funding for these resources. This research is innovative and timely, as attitudes about access when information is urgently and globally needed, as during a pandemic, is likely to differ from those observed under different circumstances

Human Rif1 protein binds aberrant telomeres and aligns along anaphase midzone microtubules

We identified and characterized a human orthologue of Rif1 protein, which in budding yeast interacts in vivo with the major duplex telomeric DNA binding protein Rap1p and negatively regulates telomere length. Depletion of hRif1 by RNA interference in human cancer cells impaired cell growth but had no detectable effect on telomere length, although hRif1 overexpression in S. cerevisiae interfered with telomere length control, in a manner specifically dependent on the presence of yeast Rif1p. No localization of hRif1 on normal human telomeres, or interaction with the human telomeric proteins TRF1, TRF2, or hRap1, was detectable. However, hRif1 efficiently translocated to telomerically located DNA damage foci in response to the synthesis of aberrant telomeres directed by mutant-template telomerase RNA. The hRif1 level rose during late S/G2 but hRif1 was not visible on chromosomes in metaphase and anaphase; however, notably, specifically during early anaphase, hRif1 aligned along a subset of the midzone microtubules between the separating chromosomes. In telophase, hRif1 localized to chromosomes, and in interphase, it was intranuclear. These results define a novel subcellular localization behavior for hRif1 during the cell cycle

Systematic and Cell Type-Specific Telomere Length Changes in Subsets of Lymphocytes.

Telomeres, the protective DNA-protein complexes at the ends of linear chromosomes, are important for genome stability. Leukocyte or peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) telomere length is a potential biomarker for human aging that integrates genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors and is associated with mortality and risks for major diseases. However, only a limited number of studies have examined longitudinal changes of telomere length and few have reported data on sorted circulating immune cells. We examined the average telomere length (TL) in CD4+, CD8+CD28+, and CD8+CD28- T cells, B cells, and PBMCs, cross-sectionally and longitudinally, in a cohort of premenopausal women. We report that TL changes over 18 months were correlated among these three T cell types within the same participant. Additionally, PBMC TL change was also correlated with those of all three T cell types, and B cells. The rate of shortening for B cells was significantly greater than for the three T cell types. CD8+CD28- cells, despite having the shortest TL, showed significantly more rapid attrition when compared to CD8+CD28+ T cells. These results suggest systematically coordinated, yet cell type-specific responses to factors and pathways contribute to telomere length regulation

Impartial comparative analysis of measurement of leukocyte telomere length/DNA content by Southern blots and qPCR.

Telomere length/DNA content has been measured in epidemiological/clinical settings with the goal of testing a host of hypotheses related to the biology of human aging, but often the conclusions of these studies have been inconsistent. These inconsistencies may stem from various reasons, including the use of different telomere length measurement techniques. Here, we report the first impartial evaluation of measurements of leukocyte telomere length by Southern blot of the terminal restriction fragments and quantitative PCR (qPCR) of telomere DNA content, expressed as the ratio of telomeric product (T)/single copy gene (S) product. Blind measurements on the same samples from 50 donors were performed in two independent laboratories on two different occasions. Both the qPCR and Southern blots displayed highly reproducible results as shown by r values > 0.9 for the correlations between results obtained by either method on two occasions. The inter-assay CV measurement for the qPCR was 6.45%, while that of the Southern blots was 1.74%. The relation between the results generated by Southern blots versus those generated by qPCR deviated from linearity. We discuss the ramifications of these findings with regard to measurements of telomere length/DNA content in epidemiological/clinical circumstances

Telomere Length, Proviral Load and Neurologic Impairment in HTLV-1 and HTLV-2-Infected Subjects.

Short or damaged telomeres have been implicated in degenerative conditions. We hypothesized that analysis of telomere length (TL) in human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) infection and HTLV-associated neuropathy might provide clues to the etiology of HTLV-associated disease and viral dynamics. A subset of 45 human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), 45 human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2), and 45 seronegative subjects was selected from the larger HTLV Outcomes Study (HOST) cohort, matched on age, sex and race/ethnicity. Telomere-to-single-copy gene (T/S) ratio (a measure of TL) and HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 proviral loads were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using quantitative PCR (qPCR). Vibration sensation measured by tuning fork during neurologic examinations performed as part of the HOST study allowed for an assessment of peripheral neuropathy. TL was compared between groups using t-tests, linear and logistic regression. Mean T/S ratio was 1.02 ± 0.16 in HTLV-1, 1.03 ± 0.17 in HTLV-2 and 0.99 ± 0.18 in HTLV seronegative subjects (p = 0.322). TL was not associated with HTLV-1 or -2 proviral load. Shorter TL was significantly associated with impaired vibration sense in the HTLV-2 positive group only. Overall, we found no evidence that telomere length was affected by chronic HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 infection. That TL was only associated with peripheral neuropathy in the HTLV-2-positive group is intriguing, but should be interpreted cautiously. Studies with larger sample size and telomere length measurement in lymphocyte subsets may clarify the relationship between TL and HTLV-infection