Impact of stressing a pen mate on physiological responses of growing pigs

Crossbred barrows and gilts (n = 36), weighing 16.59 ± 2.1 kg, were used to test the effects of stressing a pen mate on the physiological responses of growing pigs. Pigs were randomly allotted to 6 groups after stratifying according to gender, litter origin, and body weight. Dominance order was determined within each group, and 1 to 3 d prior to the stress treatment the most- and leastdominant pigs within a group were fitted with indwelling catheters in their vena cavas. Over 3 d, groups were either: 1) isolated from audile and visual contact with stressed pigs in a separate room (non-stressed control); 2) separated by a curtain from visual contact with stressed pigs; or 3) allowed to maintain audile and visual contact with stressed pigs. Blood samples were collected 30, 15, and 0 min before exposure to the stressor (snout-snare) treatment and again at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 min after stressor application. Serum cortisol and plasma glucose, lactate, and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) concentrations were measured. There were no treatment × sampling-time interactions (P \u3e 0.17) for concentrations of cortisol, glucose, lactate or NEFA, nor were these metabolites affected by stressor treatment (P \u3e 0.42). Humoral measures of the stress response were not affected by visual and/or audile contact with pen mates undergoing a stressful event

Multienergy vector modelling of a Scottish energy system : transitions and technology implications

The Scottish Government's commitment for 100% of electricity consumed in Scotland to be from renewable, zero-carbon sources by 2020 continues to drive change in the energy system alongside European and UK targets. The growth of renewables in Scotland is being seen at many scales including industrial, domestic and community generation. In these latter two cases a transition from the current 'top down' energy distribution system to a newer approach is emerging. The work of this paper will look at a 'bottom up' view that sees community led distributed energy at its centre. This paper uses the modelling tool HESA to investigate high penetrations of Distributed Generation (DG) in the Angus Region of Scotland. Installations of DG will follow Thousand Flowers transition pathway trajectory which sees more than 50% of electricity demand being supplied by DG by 2050. From this, insights around the technological and socio-political feasibility, consequences and implications of high penetrations of DG in the UK energy system are presented. Results demonstrate the influence that system change will have on regional and local emission levels under four separate scenarios. It is shown that the penetration of DG requires supplementary installations of reliable and long term storage alongside utilisation of transmission and transportation infrastructures to maximise the potential of distributed generation and maximise whole system benefits. Importantly, there must be a level of coordination and support to realise a shift to a highly distributed energy future to ensure there is a strong economic case with a reliable policy backing

Diet-health Issues of Beef Consumption and Their Reflection on the Buying Behavior of Oklahoma Extension Homemakers

Food, Nutrition, and Institution Administratio

New particle formation in a realistic daytime urban atmosphere: SO2/NOx/O3/hydrocarbon air mixtures

The particle nucleation mechanism of binary mixtures of water and sulfuric acid is of recent interest to the scientific community. To observe sulfuric acid-water induced particle nucleation and growth in a more realistic controlled urban environment, a series of daytime experiments were conducted in the 270 m3 dual UNC Aerosol Smog Chamber with near-ambient levels of organics in the presence of other atmospheric aerosols and sulfur dioxide. Experimental and modeling results support the theory that stable nucleation and growth in the urban atmosphere are related to gas-phase sulfuric acid. The number of stable nuclei generated in the individual experiments may be approximated by an exponential fit of sulfuric acid and in some cases, toluene. If all the model generated sulfuric acid appears in the particle phase, sulfate would contribute 5 to 25% of the initial burst of the particles, depending on the concentrations of reacting species and the reaction time

Carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism during exercise after oral carnitine supplementation in humans

Twenty non-vegetarian active males were pair-matched and randomly assigned to receive 2 g L-Carnitine L-tartrate (LC).d-1 or placebo for 2 weeks. Subjects exercised for 90 min at 70% O2max following 2 days of a prescribed diet (mean ± SD: 13.6 ± 1.6 MJ, 57% carbohydrate, 15% protein, 26% fat, 2% alcohol) before and after supplementation. Results indicated no change in carbohydrate oxidation, nitrogen excretion, branched-chain amino acid oxidation, or plasma urea during exercise between the beginning and end of supplementation in either group. Following 2 weeks LC supplementation the plasma ammonia response to exercise tended to be suppressed (0 vs. 2wk at 60 min exercise: 97 ± 26 vs. 80 ± 9; and 90 min exercise: 116 ± 47 vs. 87 ± 25 µmol.L-1), with no change in the placebo group. The data indicate that 2 weeks of LC supplementation does not affect fat, carbohydrate and protein contribution to metabolism during prolonged moderate intensity cycling exercise. However, the tendency towards suppressed ammonia accumulation indicates that oral LC supplementation may have the potential to reduce the metabolic stress of exercise or alter ammonia production/removal which warrants further investigation

Effects of exercise intensity and altered substrate availability on cardiovascular and metabolic responses to exercise after oral carnitine supplementation in athletes

The effects of 15 d of supplementation with L-carnitine L-tartrate (LC) on metabolic responses to graded-intensity exercise under conditions of altered substrate availability were examined. Fifteen endurance-trained male athletes undertook exercise trials after a 2-d high-carbohydrate diet (60% CHO, 25% fat) at baseline (D0), on Day 14 (D14), and after a single day of high fat intake (15% CHO, 70% fat) on Day 15 (D15) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, pair-matched design. Treatment consisted of 3 g LC (2 g L-carnitine/d; n = 8) or placebo (P, n = 7) for 15 d. Exercise trials consisted of 80 min of continuous cycling comprising 20-min periods at each of 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80% VO2peak. There was no significant difference between whole-body rates of CHO and fat oxidation at any workload between D0 and D14 trials for either the P or LC group. Both groups displayed increased fat and reduced carbohydrate oxidation between the D14 and D15 trials (p less than .05). During the D15 trial, heart rate (p less than .05 for 20%, 40%, and 60% workloads) and blood glucose concentration (p less than .05 for 40% and 60% workloads) were lower during exercise in the LC group than in P. These responses suggest that LC may induce subtle changes in substrate handling in metabolically active tissues when fatty-acid availability is increased, but it does not affect whole-body substrate utilization during short-duration exercise at the intensities studied

Determinants of Facilitated Health Insurance Enrollment for Patients With HIV Disease, and Impact of Insurance Enrollment on Targeted Health Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has provided unprecedented opportunities for uninsured people with HIV infection to access health insurance, and to examine the impact of this change in access. AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) have been directed to pursue uninsured individuals to enroll in the ACA as both a cost-saving strategy and to increase patient access to care. We evaluated the impact of ADAP-facilitated health insurance enrollment on health outcomes, and demographic and clinical factors that influenced whether or not eligible patients enrolled. METHODS: During the inaugural open enrollment period for the ACA, 284 Nebraska ADAP recipients were offered insurance enrollment; 139 enrolled and 145 did not. Comparisons were conducted and multivariate models were developed considering factors associated with enrollment and differences between the insured and uninsured groups. RESULTS: Insurance enrollment was associated with improved health outcomes after controlling for other variables, and included a significant association with undetectable viremia, a key indicator of treatment success (p \u3c .0001). We found that minority populations and unstably housed individuals were at increased risk to not enroll in insurance. CONCLUSION: The National HIV/AIDS Strategy calls for new interventions to improve HIV health outcomes for disproportionately impacted populations. This study provides evidence to prioritize future ADAP-facilitated insurance enrollment strategies to reach minority populations and unstably housed individuals

AIP Physics Education Group (PEG) discipline day

This year our discipline day will focus on online teaching and learning. We will have two presentations, followed by an open discussion with participants, and one short workshop. Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway will talk about how designing and running a massive open online course (MOOC) can be used to move into blended and online teaching practices and engage learners to become partners. Points of discussion: what impediments instructors encounter and what reservations they might have to engage with online teaching. Elizabeth Angstmann will talk about the Graduate certificate in physics for science teachers at UNSW, an online degree she introduced last year. With this degree the lecture material is all online, including short videos with questions. It is set up to be very interactive with predict-observe-explain activities throughout. The assessments consist of reports on experiments conducted at participants’ schools, online quizzes and then a final exam which they can sit at UNSW or at their school under invigilation. Points of discussion: how other institutes calculate workloads for online teaching and what steps people take to avoid contract cheating in the online environment. In the last part of the session, Petr Lebedev will run a crash-course in effective video making

The Impact of Energy System Decarbonisation and Decentralisation on Scotland's Electrical System

Traditionally Scotland's energy systems have relied on large centralised sources. The Scottish Government is now pursuing a policy of smarter, local models. This project is part of looking at the the opportunities for, and implications of, Scotland moving towards smart local energy systems, driven by sustainable decarbonised energy resources. The research team has developed the Energy Flow Scotland (EFS) toolset which draws on other models to quantify energy flows, including both the anticipated demand and likely supply of energy. The models quantify predicted energy flows at a district level, allowing for analysis of local energy demand and resources at a local level under different future energy scenarios. We have used the EFS toolset to analyse different credible future scenarios for Scotland’s energy system. Key findings and conclusions • A highly decarbonised and decentralised energy system will require significant investment in the electrical distribution system to make it fit for purpose. Local areas that introduce a balance of new low carbon demand technologies (such as EVs and Heat Pumps) with low carbon renewable generation will reduce the impact on electrical substations and thus requirements to upgrade. Areas that connect significant volumes of new renewable generation, without an associated rise in EVs/HPs, will see large rises in exported energy. • A rise in low carbon demand technologies will impact electrical distribution substations, with a high number requiring reinforcement by 2040. However, a more centralised pathway that revolves around the integration of renewable generation concentrated in areas of natural resource will incur greater overall additional electrical system capacity requirement, despite perhaps less electrical substations requiring upgrade. • The electrical distribution system across rural areas will be impacted more than urban areas between 2018 and mid-2030s. However, a steady rise in low carbon demand technologies will result in a sharp impact on urban areas between mid-2030s and 2040. • Meeting future carbon reduction targets may be achieved using either a centralised or decentralised approach. However, this analysis forecasts that it will cost roughly 2.6 times more to upgrade the electrical distribution system using a decentralised approach in comparison to a centralised strategy. The interim summary report includes: • Development of the EFS toolset of electrical, heat and transport demand models, and renewable generation models. • Use of the EFS toolset to model how electrical energy flows may change at electrical grid supply points (GSPs) throughout Scotland under a particular 2030 electrified energy future scenario. • Analysis of how decarbonisation and decentralisation may impact electrical flows at particular GSPs, as well as discussion on the distinct challenges and opportunities at both urban and rural areas. • Description on how local energy balancing may be used to reduce the need for future network reinforcements