Effect of Calliandra calothyrsus, Flemingia macrophylla, Cratylia argentea and Vigna unguiculata silage and hay on in vitro gas production

The volume of gas produced when silage and hay of tanniniferous legumes were fermented was evaluated. There were 28 treatments (14 each of silages and hays, half with and half without polyethylene glycol (PEG) to inactivate the tannins) three replicates per treatment. The seven types of forage were: tanniniferous, Calliandra calothyrsus (CC) 100% and Flemingia macrophylla (FM) 100%, non-tanniniferous Vigna unguiculata (VU) 100% and Cratylia argentea (CA) 100%; and the mixtures CC 67%/VU 33%, FM 67%/VU 33%, and CA 67%/VU 33%. The Gas Trasducer Technique (GTT) of Theodorou and William was used to determine the in vitro fermentation rate and magnitude. Gas production data obtained during 144 h of incubation were fitted to the Gompertz model. The silages showed a greater rate of gas production (GPR) than the hays (P < 0.05), but the latter were higher in dry matter degradability (DMD) and crude protein degradability (CPD) and ammonia liberation (NH3). The addition of PEG had little overall effect on GPR (but was effective with CC) or DMD, however it increased CPD and NH3 (P < 0.05). As to the effect of forage type, VU excelled in GPR followed by CA/VU and FM/VU; VU was also highest in DMD followed by CA/VU; while CA, CA/VU and VU were highest in CPD; CC and FM were decidedly inferior in GPR and in vitro degradability

Degradation of nutrients and production of gases upon fermenting silage and hay of Calliandra calothyrsus and Vigna unguiculata in the Rusitec System

The Rusitec System was used to evaluate apparent in vitro degradation of organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral and acid detergent fibers (NDF, ADF), and production of methane and ammonia in silage and hay of two legumes, tannin-containing, Calliandra calothyrsus and, non-tanniniferous, Vigna unguiculata, and mixtures of both legumes. There were eight experimental treatments, each replicated four times, in a randomized complete-blocks design. The four treatments based on silages were: T1, Calliandra 100%; T2, Vigna 100%; T3, Calliandra/Vigna 67/33%; T4, Vigna/Calliandra 67/33%; and in analogous fashion the four treatments based on hays, T5, T6, T7, and T8. Analysis of initial chemical composition showed lower CP content in the silage than in the hay of both legumes; higher NDF and ADF in silage than in hay of Calliandra, but the reverse situation in Vigna. Calliandra hay was much higher in tannin content than the silage. In OM and CP degradability, silages surpassed hays and Vigna surpassed Calliandra; production of CH4 and NH3 followed the same pattern. Degradabilities of NDF and ADF were lower in Calliandra and its 67% mixtures, for which even some negative values were obtained. The possible use of Calliandra in appropriate proportions to protect dietary proteins from ruminal degradation, thus becoming bypass protein, is suggested

Validation and Calibration of a Computer Simulation Model of Pediatric HIV Infection

Background: Computer simulation models can project long-term patient outcomes and inform health policy. We internally validated and then calibrated a model of HIV disease in children before initiation of antiretroviral therapy to provide a framework against which to compare the impact of pediatric HIV treatment strategies. Methods: We developed a patient-level (Monte Carlo) model of HIV progression among untreated children 1,300 untreated, HIV-infected African children. Results: In internal validation analyses, model-generated survival curves fit IeDEA data well; modeled and observed survival at 16 months of age were 91.2% and 91.1%, respectively. RMSE varied widely with variations in CD4% parameters; the best fitting parameter set (RMSE = 0.00423) resulted when CD4% was 45% at birth and declined by 6%/month (ages 0-3 months) and 0.3%/month (ages >3 months). In calibration analyses, increases in IeDEA-derived mortality risks were necessary to fit UNAIDS survival data. Conclusions: The CEPAC-Pediatric model performed well in internal validation analyses. Increases in modeled mortality risks required to match UNAIDS data highlight the importance of pre-enrollment mortality in many pediatric cohort studies

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

No evidence of brown adipose tissue activation after 24 weeks of supervised exercise training in young sedentary adults in the ACTIBATE randomized controlled trial

Exercise modulates both brown adipose tissue (BAT)metabolismand white adipose tissue (WAT) browning in murine models. Whether this is true in humans, however, has remained unknown. An unblinded randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02365129) was therefore conducted to study the effects of a 24-week supervised exercise intervention, combining endurance and resistance training, on BAT volume and activity (primary outcome). The study was carried out in the Sport and Health University Research Institute and the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital of the University of Granada (Spain). One hundred and forty-five young sedentary adults were assigned to either (i) a control group (no exercise, n = 54), (ii) a moderate intensity exercise group (MOD-EX, n = 48), or (iii) a vigorous intensity exercise group (VIG-EX n = 43) by unrestricted randomization. No relevant adverse events were recorded. 97 participants (34 men, 63 women) were included in the final analysis (Control; n = 35, MOD-EX; n=31, and VIG-EX; n=31).We observed no changes in BAT volume (Δ Control: −22.2 ± 52.6ml; Δ MOD-EX: −15.5 ± 62.1ml, Δ VIG-EX: −6.8 ± 66.4 ml; P = 0.771) or 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake (SUVpeak Δ Control: −2.6 ± 3.1ml; Δ MOD-EX: −1.2 ± 4.8, Δ VIG-EX: −2.2 ± 5.1; p = 0.476) in either the control or the exercise groups. Thus, we did not find any evidence of an exercise-induced change on BAT volume or activity in young sedentary adults.Spanish Government PI13/01393Retos de la Sociedad DEP2016-79512-R PTA-12264IEuropean CommissionSpanish Government FPU13/04365 FPU14/04172 FPU15/04059 FPU16/03653 FPU19/01609Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) 440575Fundacion Iberoamericana de Nutricion (FINUT)Redes Tematicas de Investigacion Cooperativa RETIC Red SAMID RD16/0022AstraZenecaUniversity of Granada Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016 -Excellence actions: Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES)Plan Propio de Investigacion 2018 -Programa Contratos-PuentePrograma Perfecionamiento de DoctoresJunta de Andalucia Consejeria de Conocimiento, Investigacion y Universidades (ERDF) SOMM17/6107/UGRJunta de Andalucia P18-RT-4455Fundacion Alfonso Martin EscuderoMaria Zambrano fellowship by the Ministerio de Universidades y la Union Europea-NextGenerationEU RR_C_2021_04Novo Nordisk FoundationNovocure Limited NNF18OC003239