Estimation of the dietary nutrient profile of free-roaming feral cats: possible implications for nutrition of domestic cats

Cats are strict carnivores and in the wild rely on a diet solely based on animal tissues to meet their specific and unique nutritional requirements. Although the feeding ecology of cats in the wild has been well documented in the literature, there is no information on the precise nutrient profile to which the cat's metabolism has adapted. The present study aimed to derive the dietary nutrient profile of free-living cats. Studies reporting the feeding habits of cats in the wild were reviewed and data on the nutrient composition of the consumed prey items obtained from the literature. Fifty-five studies reported feeding strategy data of cats in the wild. After specific exclusion criteria, twenty-seven studies were used to derive thirty individual dietary nutrient profiles. The results show that feral cats are obligatory carnivores, with their daily energy intake from crude protein being 52 %, from crude fat 46 % and from N-free extract only 2 %. Minerals and trace elements are consumed in relatively high concentrations compared with recommended allowances determined using empirical methods. The calculated nutrient profile may be considered the nutrient intake to which the cat's metabolic system has adapted. The present study provides insight into the nutritive, as well as possible non-nutritive aspects of a natural diet of whole prey for cats and provides novel ways to further improve feline diets to increase health and longevity

C1− Continuous crack propagation for mixed-mode fracture problems

In this work a C1− continuous crack propagation algorithm is proposed to improve the numerical simulation of localized deformation patterns, using higher order elements. The algorithm is applied for a standard smeared crack model and is validated by a mixed-mode fracture problem. From the results a reduction of mesh-induced directional bias is observed

A Bayesian Filtering Algorithm for Gaussian Mixture Models

A Bayesian filtering algorithm is developed for a class of state-space systems that can be modelled via Gaussian mixtures. In general, the exact solution to this filtering problem involves an exponential growth in the number of mixture terms and this is handled here by utilising a Gaussian mixture reduction step after both the time and measurement updates. In addition, a square-root implementation of the unified algorithm is presented and this algorithm is profiled on several simulated systems. This includes the state estimation for two non-linear systems that are strictly outside the class considered in this paper

The sustainable development effects of investment by emerging-market multinationals: Shaping beneficial outcomes for home and host country

Emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) play an increasingly important role as investors in developing economies. When certain conditions are met, their foreign investment can contribute to host-country progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, foreign investment by EMNEs could also bring positive development effects for the home economies from which they internationalize. However, some concern exists about the possibility that gains will not be equitably shared or that potential will be not realized in one or the other. This article aims to shed light on the conditions that will allow both the home country of an EMNE and the host country receiving its investment to make progress towards the SDGs. Five areas for policy action are presented, together with a research agenda. It is argued that the most promising measures encourage foreign investment to be long-term, stimulate linkages between EMNEs' home-country partners and host-economy firms, incentivize home-and host-country firms to take on new roles within global value chains, capitalize on institutional upgrading potential and tie certain conditions to the right to access natural resources. Both home and host countries could then potentially benefit from EMNEs' outward investment and make progress on goals related to poverty alleviation (SDG 1), economic growth and the creation of decent work (SDG 8), infrastructure development (SDG 9) and institutional upgrading (SDG 16)

Fermentation of animal components in strict carnivores: a comparative study with cheetah fecal inoculum

The natural diet of felids contains highly digestible animal tissues but also fractions resistant to small intestinal digestion, which enter the large intestine where they may be fermented by the resident microbial population. Little information exists on the microbial degradability of animal tissues in the large intestine of felids consuming a natural diet. This study aimed to rank animal substrates in their microbial degradability by means of an in vitro study using captive cheetahs fed a strict carnivorous diet as fecal donors. Fresh cheetah fecal samples were collected, pooled, and incubated with various raw animal substrates (chicken cartilage, collagen, glucosamine-chondroitin, glucosamine, rabbit bone, rabbit hair, and rabbit skin; 4 replicates per substrate) for cumulative gas production measurement in a batch culture technique. Negative (cellulose) and positive (casein and fructo-oligosaccharides; FOS) controls were incorporated in the study. Additionally, after 72 h of incubation, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), including branched-chain fatty acids (BCFA), and ammonia concentrations were determined for each substrate. Glucosamine and glucosamine-chondroitin yielded the greatest OM cumulative gas volume (OMCV) among animal substrates (P < 0.05), whereas total SCFA production was greatest for collagen (P < 0.05). Collagen induced an acetate production comparable to FOS and a markedly high acetate-to-propionate ratio (8.41:1) compared to all other substrates (1.67:1 to 2.97:1)

The effects of dietary fibre type on satiety-related hormones and voluntary food intake in dogs

Depending on type and inclusion level, dietary fibre may increase and maintain satiety and postpone the onset of hunger. This 7-week study evaluated the effect of fibre fermentability on physiological satiety-related metabolites and voluntary food intake (VFI) in dogs. Sixteen healthy adult dogs were fed a low-fermentable fibre (LFF) diet containing 8·5 % cellulose or a high-fermentable fibre (HFF) diet containing 8·5 % sugarbeet pulp and 2 % inulin. Large intestinal fibre degradation was evaluated by apparent faecal digestibility of nutrients and faecal SCFA and NH3 concentrations. Postprandial blood samples were obtained to determine postprandial plasma glucose, insulin, total peptide tyrosine–tyrosine (PYY), total glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and total ghrelin concentrations. At the end of the study, the dogs were given a single meal of a dry dog food to determine VFI. Dogs fed the HFF diet had a significantly higher large intestinal fibre degradation and production of SCFA compared with the dogs fed the LFF diet. The HFF-fed dogs tended (P = 0·058) to show a lower VFI at the end of the study. No treatment effects were found for postprandial plasma glucose, PYY, GLP-1 and ghrelin responses. The concentrations of these metabolites could not be related to the observed difference in VFI. The inclusion of fermentable fibre in canine diets may contribute to the prevention or mitigation of obesity through its effects on satiety. The underlying mechanisms require further investigatio

An Analysis of the Representations of the Mapping Class Group of a Multi-Geon Three-Manifold

It is well known that the inequivalent unitary irreducible representations (UIR's) of the mapping class group $G$ of a 3-manifold give rise to ``theta sectors'' in theories of quantum gravity with fixed spatial topology. In this paper, we study several families of UIR's of $G$ and attempt to understand the physical implications of the resulting quantum sectors. The mapping class group of a three-manifold which is the connected sum of $\R^3$ with a finite number of identical irreducible primes is a semi-direct product group. Following Mackey's theory of induced representations, we provide an analysis of the structure of the general finite dimensional UIR of such a group. In the picture of quantized primes as particles (topological geons), this general group-theoretic analysis enables one to draw several interesting qualitative conclusions about the geons' behavior in different quantum sectors, without requiring an explicit knowledge of the UIR's corresponding to the individual primes.Comment: 52 pages, harvmac, 2 postscript figures, epsf required. Added an appendix proving the semi-direct product structure of the MCG, corrected an error in the characterization of the slide subgroup, reworded extensively. All our analysis and conclusions remain as befor