The use of monensin for ketosis prevention in dairy cows during the transition period: A systematic review

Since the approval by the European Medicines Agency in 2013 of a monensin controlled-release capsule (CRC) for the prevention of ketosis in dairy cows, there has been widespread use across Europe. In recent decades, several papers have investigated the effects of monensin used as a CRC or as a feed additive to improve cattle energy metabolism and improve feed efficiency. Since the CRC is the only form of monensin permitted in Europe in dairy cows, the objective of this review was to report and summarize observations from the literature on the effects of this treatment in transition cows. The peer-reviewed literature published from 1997 was scanned, and papers written in English were evaluated for eligibility. Only papers evaluating the use of monensin in dairy cows for the prevention of ketosis during the transition period were reviewed. In total, 42 papers met the required criteria and were included in this review. The major findings focused on cow metabolism and health, rumen fermentation and milk production and quality. Overall, the review of the existing literature confirmed that monensin delivered as a CRC during the transition period has effects of different magnitude compared to other forms, doses or durations of administration. Studies agree on the antiketotic effects of this treatment, showing evidence of an increased propionate production in the rumen, reduced blood β-hydroxybutyrate, and improved liver function in treated cows, mainly resulting in reduced incidence of peripartum disease. On the contrary, the effects of CRC on ammonia production and rumen microflora are less robust than those reported for other forms. Of importance for the European market is the well-documented absence of any negative impact on milk and cheese production and composition using the CRC treatment

In vitro evaluation of sugar digestibility in molasses

Beet and cane molasses mainly contain mono- di-, and tri-saccharides, composed by hexoses, as well as pentoses in traces. However, rationing software consider sugars as only one entity, with a rate of digestion similar to 20% h(-1). The aim of this initial study was to investigate and evaluate the in vitro digestion dynamics and rates of the sugar fraction in molasses. Three beet and three cane molasses were randomly selected from a variety of samples collected world-wide and digested via in vitro rumen fermentation, at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 24 h. Samples were then analysed with a specific enzymatic kit to quantify residual sucrose, glucose, fructose, raffinose, galactose, and arabinose. Complete disappearance of sucrose happened within 3 hours of incubation. Glucose and fructose were completely digested within 4-6 h, showing variability among samples. Even if not so representative, galactose showed a similar trend of digestion (97% digestion within 3-4 h). Raffinose was quite slower in cane molasses, while it was completely digested within 1 h in beet molasses. Arabinose, a pentose, never reached a complete digestion, and its fermentation dynamic was different compared to other sugars. Calculated rates of digestion for sucrose, glucose and fructose, most representative sugars in molasses, were higher than 50% h(-1) in both cane and beet. Obtained results showed that sugar fraction in molasses may vary, and different sugars are rapidly fermented by rumen microbes. Modern rationing models should consider a modification of sugar rates of digestion, since the actual one appears too slow than those observed in vitro

In vitro evaluation of sugar digestibility in molasses

Beet and cane molasses mainly contain mono- di-, and tri-saccharides, composed by hexoses, as well as pentoses in traces. However, rationing software consider sugars as only one entity, with a rate of digestion ∼20% h−1. The aim of this initial study was to investigate and evaluate the in vitro digestion dynamics and rates of the sugar fraction in molasses. Three beet and three cane molasses were randomly selected from a variety of samples collected world-wide and digested via in vitro rumen fermentation, at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 24 h. Samples were then analysed with a specific enzymatic kit to quantify residual sucrose, glucose, fructose, raffinose, galactose, and arabinose. Complete disappearance of sucrose happened within 3 hours of incubation. Glucose and fructose were completely digested within 4-6 h, showing variability among samples. Even if not so representative, galactose showed a similar trend of digestion (97% digestion within 3-4 h). Raffinose was quite slower in cane molasses, while it was completely digested within 1 h in beet molasses. Arabinose, a pentose, never reached a complete digestion, and its fermentation dynamic was different compared to other sugars. Calculated rates of digestion for sucrose, glucose and fructose, most representative sugars in molasses, were higher than 50% h−1 in both cane and beet. Obtained results showed that sugar fraction in molasses may vary, and different sugars are rapidly fermented by rumen microbes. Modern rationing models should consider a modification of sugar rates of digestion, since the actual one appears too slow than those observed in vitro.Highlights Molasses are unique blends of several sugars Major sugars are digested in few hours Rationing software should consider a faster rate of digestion for different sugars

Short communication: Characterization of molasses chemical composition

Beet and cane molasses are produced worldwide as a by-product of sugar extraction and are widely used in animal nutrition. Due to their composition, they are fed to ruminants as an energy source. However, molasses has not been properly characterized in the literature; its description has been limited to the type (sugarcane or beet) or to the amount of dry matter (DM), total or water-soluble sugars, crude protein, and ash. Our objective was to better characterize the composition of cane and beet molasses, examine possible differences, and obtain a proper definition of such feeds. For this purpose, 16 cane and 16 beet molasses samples were sourced worldwide and analyzed for chemical composition. The chemical analysis used in this trial characterized 97.4 and 98.3% of the compounds in the DM of cane and beet molasses, respectively. Cane molasses contained less DM compared with beet molasses (76.8 ± 1.02 vs. 78.3 ± 1.61%) as well as crude protein content (6.7 ± 1.8 vs. 13.5 ± 1.4% of DM), with a minimum value of 2.2% of DM in cane molasses and a maximum of 15.6% of DM in beet molasses. The amount of sucrose differed between beet and cane molasses (60.9 ± 4.4 vs. 48.8 ± 6.4% of DM), but variability was high even within cane molasses (39.2–67.3% of DM) and beet molasses. Glucose and fructose were detected in cane molasses (5.3 ± 2.7 and 8.1 ± 2.8% of DM, respectively), showing high variability. Organic acid composition differed as well. Lactic acid was more concentrated in cane molasses than in beet molasses (6.1 ± 2.8 vs. 4.5 ± 1.8% of DM), varying from 1.6 to 12.8% of DM in cane molasses. Dietary cation-anion difference showed numerical differences among cane and beet molasses (7 ± 53 vs. 66 ± 45 mEq/100 g of DM, on average). It varied from −76 to +155 mEq/100 g of DM in the cane group and from +0 to +162 mEq/100 g of DM in the beet group. Data obtained in this study detailed differences in composition between sources of molasses and suggested that a more complete characterization could improve the use of molasses in ration formulation

Clayey materials from the Sierra de la Demanda Range (Spain): their potential as raw materials for the building ceramics industry

This work describes the possible use of thick Early Cretaceous clay deposits, which occur in the southern sector of the Sierra de la Demanda range, as raw materials in the manufacture of ceramic articles. The global mineralogical composition is characterized by high proportions of phyllosilicates and quartz with variable quantities of feldspars, carbonates and hematite. The clay mineralogy differentiates two types of raw materials: illitic clay and kaolinitic-illitic clay. A granulometric distribution in the 2ÿ60 mm fraction, good behaviour during the drying stage and acceptable results in firing tests confirmed that most samples can be utilized as raw material in the building ceramics industry. The range of suitable firing temperatures for these materials is 950ÿ1000ëC, a temperature which needs to be raised for samples with a high percentage of kaolinite and quartz. Moreover, other materials with abundant calcite (20ÿ30%) are suitable for use as modifiers of some properties or colour

A Model of User Preferences for Semantic Services Discovery and Ranking

Current proposals on Semantic Web Services discovery and ranking are based on user preferences descriptions that often come with insufficient expressiveness, consequently making more difficult or even preventing the description of complex user desires. There is a lack of a general and comprehensive preference model, so discovery and ranking proposals have to provide ad hoc preference descriptions whose expressiveness depends on the facilities provided by the corresponding technique, resulting in user preferences that are tightly coupled with the underlying formalism being used by each concrete solution. In order to overcome these problems, in this paper an abstract and sufficiently expressive model for defining preferences is presented, so that they may be described in an intuitively and user-friendly manner. The proposed model is based on a well-known query preference model from database systems, which provides highly expressive constructors to describe and compose user preferences semantically. Furthermore, the presented proposal is independent from the concrete discovery and ranking engines selected, and may be used to extend current Semantic Web Service frameworks, such as wsmo, sawsdl, or owl-s. In this paper, the presented model is also validated against a complex discovery and ranking scenario, and a concrete implementation of the model in wsmo is outlined.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2006-00472Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2009-07366Junta de Andalucía TIC-253

Design and construction of new central and forward muon counters for CDF II

New scintillation counters have been designed and constructed for the CDF upgrade in order to complete the muon coverage of the central CDF detector, and to extend this coverage to larger pseudorapidity. A novel light collection technique using wavelength shifting fibers, together with high quality polystyrene-based scintillator resulted in compact counters with good and stable light collection efficiency over lengths extending up to 320 cm. Their design and construction is described and results of their initial performance are reported.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figure

Multijet production in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA and determination of α_{s}

Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 5 GeV and –1 < η_{LAB}^{jet} < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant α_{s} (M_{z}), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is α_{s} (M_{z}) = 0.1179 ± 0.0013 (stat.)_{-0.0046}^{+0.0028}(exp.)_{-0.0046}^{+0.0028}(th.)

Jet production in charged current deep inelastic e⁺p scatteringat HERA

The production rates and substructure of jets have been studied in charged current deep inelastic e⁺p scattering for Q² > 200 GeV² with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 110.5 pb⁻¹. Inclusive jet cross sections are presented for jets with transverse energies E_{T}^{jet} > 5 GeV. Measurements of the mean subjet multiplicity, 〈n_{sbj}〉, of the inclusive jet sample are presented. Predictions based on parton-shower Monte Carlo models and next-to-leading-order QCD calculations are compared to the measurements. The value of α_{s} (M_{z}), determined from 〈n_{sbj}〉 at y_{cut} = 10⁻² for jets with 25 < E_{T}^{jet} < 119 GeV, is α_{s} (M_{z}) = 0.1202 ± 0.0052 (stat.)_{-0.0019}^{+0.0060} (syst.)_{-0.0053}^{+0.0065} (th.). The mean subjet multiplicity as a function of Q² is found to be consistent with that measured in NC DIS

Measurement of inclusive D*+- and associated dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Inclusive photoproduction of D*+- mesons has been measured for photon-proton centre-of-mass energies in the range 130 < W < 280 GeV and a photon virtuality Q^2 < 1 GeV^2. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^-1. Total and differential cross sections as functions of the D* transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are presented in restricted kinematical regions and the data are compared with next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative QCD calculations using the "massive charm" and "massless charm" schemes. The measured cross sections are generally above the NLO calculations, in particular in the forward (proton) direction. The large data sample also allows the study of dijet production associated with charm. A significant resolved as well as a direct photon component contribute to the cross section. Leading order QCD Monte Carlo calculations indicate that the resolved contribution arises from a significant charm component in the photon. A massive charm NLO parton level calculation yields lower cross sections compared to the measured results in a kinematic region where the resolved photon contribution is significant.Comment: 32 pages including 6 figure