Effects of peripartum biotin supplementation of dairy cows on milk production and milk composition with emphasis on fatty acids profile

Forty Holstein dairy cows receiving a 38% concentrate diet based on maize silage were assigned to either a control group, either a biotin group, receiving 20 mg of biotin per day from 15 days before expected calving date and for 120 days after calving. Milk production was measured daily, milk fat content, protein content, urea and somatic cell counts were determined weekly from week 2 to week 17 of lactation. The profile of milk fatty acids was determined at weeks 3 and 10. Plasma glucose and blood betahydroxybutyrate were determined before calving and at weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 of lactation. Biotin supplementation resulted in an increased milk production in multiparous cows during weeks 2 to 6, but the effect was no more significant between 7 and 17 weeks of lactation. Milk protein percent was decreased by 0.1% in multiparous cows. Milk fat content was not affected by biotin, and milk fat daily production tended to increase during early lactation. In milk fat, biotin supplementation tended to decrease the proportion of fatty acids with less than 16 carbons at week 3, but the daily amount was not affected. Biotin tended to decrease biohydrogenation intermediates, increased C16:1 at week 3, and tended to increase cis-9 C18:1 at weeks 3 and 10. After 7 weeks of lactation, biotin tended to increase blood beta-hydroxybutyrate in multiparous cows with values remaining in a normal range, and decreased plasma glucose in primiparous cows. These modifications of plasma parameters, milk protein content and profile of milk fatty acids could be due to a higher lipid mobilisation from adipose tissue driven by the increased milk production

A multifunctional, synthetic Gaussia princeps luciferase reporter for live imaging of Candida albicans infections

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Valence band excitations in V_2O_5

We present a joint theoretical and experimental investigation of the electronic and optical properties of vanadium pentoxide. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy in transmission was employed to measure the momentum-dependent loss function. This in turn was used to derive the optical conductivity, which is compared to the results of band structure calculations. A good qualitative and quantitative agreement between the theoretical and the experimental optical conductivity was observed. The experimentally observed anisotropy of the optical properties of V_2O_5 could be understood in the light of an analysis of the theoretical data involving the decomposition of the calculated optical conductivity into contributions from transitions into selected energy regions of the conduction band. In addition, based upon a tight binding fit to the band structure, values are given for the effective V3d_xy-O2p hopping terms and are compared to the corresponding values for alpha'-NaV_2O_5.Comment: 6 pages (revtex),6 figures (jpg

Does Treewidth Help in Modal Satisfiability?

Many tractable algorithms for solving the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) have been developed using the notion of the treewidth of some graph derived from the input CSP instance. In particular, the incidence graph of the CSP instance is one such graph. We introduce the notion of an incidence graph for modal logic formulae in a certain normal form. We investigate the parameterized complexity of modal satisfiability with the modal depth of the formula and the treewidth of the incidence graph as parameters. For various combinations of Euclidean, reflexive, symmetric and transitive models, we show either that modal satisfiability is FPT, or that it is W[1]-hard. In particular, modal satisfiability in general models is FPT, while it is W[1]-hard in transitive models. As might be expected, modal satisfiability in transitive and Euclidean models is FPT.Comment: Full version of the paper appearing in MFCS 2010. Change from v1: improved section 5 to avoid exponential blow-up in formula siz

Cellular responses of Candida albicans to phagocytosis and the extracellular activities of neutrophils are critical to counteract carbohydrate starvation, oxidative and nitrosative stress

Acknowledgments We thank Alexander Johnson (yhb1D/D), Karl Kuchler (sodD/D mutants), Janet Quinn (hog1D/D, hog1/cap1D/D, trx1D/D) and Peter Staib (ssu1D/D) for providing mutant strains. We acknowledge helpful discussions with our colleagues from the Microbial Pathogenicity Mechanisms Department, Fungal Septomics and the Microbial Biochemistry and Physiology Research Group at the Hans Kno¨ll Institute (HKI), specially Ilse D. Jacobsen, Duncan Wilson, Sascha Brunke, Lydia Kasper, Franziska Gerwien, Sea´na Duggan, Katrin Haupt, Kerstin Hu¨nniger, and Matthias Brock, as well as from our partners in the FINSysB Network. Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: PM HW IMB AJPB OK BH. Performed the experiments: PM CD HW. Analyzed the data: PM HW IMB AJPB OK BH. Wrote the paper: PM HW OK AJPB BH.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Hsp21potentiates antifungal drug tolerance in Candida albicans

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Analyse comparée des écosystèmes digestifs du rumen de la vache et du caecum du lapin

Dans cette revue nous avons synthétisé les données obtenues dans notre équipe et celles de la bibliographie afin de contribuer à une meilleure connaissance de l’écologie des communautés bactériennes et archées des fermenteurs digestifs des mammifères herbivores. L’analyse a porté sur la comparaison des deux principales stratégies digestives rencontrées chez les mammifères herbivores actuels : un fermenteur en position proximale, le rumen, et un fermenteur en position distale, le caecum. Parmi les espèces d’intérêt agronomique,la vache et le lapin on été choisis comme animaux modèles. Après avoir rappelé les caractéristiques anatomiques et physicochimiques de ces fermenteurs digestifs, nous avons analysé les spécificités de leurs communautés procaryotiques liées à l’hôte, la variabilité individuelle, la structuration spatiale (inter- et intra- fermenteurs digestifs) et la dynamique temporelle (journalière et hebdomadaire) avec ou sans perturbation nutritionnelle induite

Hsp90 orchestrates transcriptional regulation by Hsf1 and cell wall remodelling by MAPK signalling during thermal adaptation in a pathogenic yeast

Acknowledgments We thank Rebecca Shapiro for creating CaLC1819, CaLC1855 and CaLC1875, Gillian Milne for help with EM, Aaron Mitchell for generously providing the transposon insertion mutant library, Jesus Pla for generously providing the hog1 hst7 mutant, and Cathy Collins for technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD