The effects of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on performance and nutrients digestibility in broilers fed with diet containing different levels of phosphorous

The effects of yeast culture (YC) with different levels of NPP (non phytate phosphorus) on performance, tibia and blood parameters and ileal digestibility of nutrients were investigated in broilers. A total of 720 one-day-old male broiler (Ross) chicks were divided into 48 groups and fed with 12 diets (4 groups per diet) for 42 days. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with a 3 × 4 factorial arrangement of treatments. The 12 treatments consisted of: 3 levels of NPP (normal, 80 and 60% normal level) and 4 levels of YC (0.0, 0.15, 0.3 and 0.45 % of diet). The results of this study showed that there were significant interactions (p<0.05) between NPP level and the concentration of YC in the diet with body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) during the 42 days of the experiment. In the lower levels of NPP, the improvement of FCR was dose dependent on YC. No NPP dietary x YC combination interactions were found in the other measured traits. The lower levels of NPP significantly (p<0.05) decreased ileal digestibility of crude protein (CP) and calcium (Ca). The addition of YC significantly (p<0.05) increased ileal digestibility of both P and Ca. The enhancement of NPP dietary significantly (p<0.05) increased the concentration of P, Ca and ash in the tibia. Only birds fed with the diets containing 0.45% YC significantly had (p<0.05) higher ash percentage than the other groups. Serum Ca and P were significantly (p<0.05) affected by different levels of NPP in the diet. The effect of YC on concentration of serum P and total protein was significant (p<0.05). In conclusion, the increased retention of P, CP and mineral utilization in deficient-NPP diets by YC resulted in increased availability of P and Ca to the broilers, which could have led to improved growth performance.Key words: Yeast culture, phosphorus, broilers, performance, digestibility

Bethe-hole polarization analyser for the magnetic vector of light

The nature of light as an electromagnetic wave with transverse components has been confirmed using optical polarizers, which are sensitive to the orientation of the electric field. Recent advances in nanoscale optical technologies demand their magnetic counterpart, which can sense the orientation of the optical magnetic field. Here we report that subwavelength metallic apertures on infinite plane predominantly sense the magnetic field of light, establishing the orientation of the magnetic component of light as a separate entity from its electric counterpart. A subwavelength aperture combined with a tapered optical fibre probe can also serve as a nanoscale polarization analyser for the optical magnetic field, analogous to a nanoparticle sensing the local electric polarization. As proof of its functionality, we demonstrate the measurement of a magnetic field orientation that is parallel to the electric field, as well as a circularly polarized magnetic field in the presence of a linearly polarized electric field

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference