Performance of Broiler Chicks fed Cottonseed and Soybean Meal Based Diets and Determination of the Optimum Supplemental Lysine in Starts Period

An experiment was conducted to determine the optimal level of supplemental lysine in a corn-soybean mealcottonseed meal starter diet. Three hundred and sixty day-old male chicks (Ross 308) were used in a completely randomized design (15 birds per each pen). A basal diet was formulated to meet or exceed NRC (1994) recommendations except for lysine. Graded levels of supplemental lysine (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5% of diet) were added to the basal diet at the expense of corn starch. At 14d of age, performance and carcass attributes including body weight gain (BGW), feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed intake (FI), breast meat yield (BMY), and thigh yield (TY) were assessed. The results showed that lysine supplementation significantly improved BGW, FCR, FI, BMY, and TY. To determine the optimum level of supplemental lysine, modeling approach was applied and inflection point in spline models was considered as an optimum point. Using linear broken-line model, inflection points for BWG, FC, BMY, TY were 0.24, 0.26, 0.35, and 0.22% of diet, respectively. These values in quadratic broken-line model were 0.39, 0.15, 0.52, and 0.33% of diet, respectively. In conclusion, the usage of cottonseed meal in starting broiler chicks may increase the needed supplemental lysine in the diet due to low amino acid digestibility of cottonseed meal. Although the optimum level of supplemental lysine depends on response criteria and statistical model, required supplemental lysine for BMY was higher than others

Prediction of Anaerobic Power From Standing Long Jump in NCAA Division IA Football Players

Mann, JB, Bird, M, Signorile, JF, Brechue, WF, and Mayhew, JL. Prediction of anaerobic power from standing long jump in NCAA Division IA football players. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2021-Despite the popularity of the standing long jump (SLJ), limited research has explored the estimation of power developed during this test. The purpose of this study was to determine SLJ power from jump distance and selected anthropometric measures in NCAA Division IA football players. Height (Ht), body mass (Wt), thigh length, and lower leg length (LL) were measured in 58 players, allowing calculation of leg ratios of thigh length·Ht-1, LL·Ht-1, and TL·SL-1. Players performed 2-3 maximal familiarization trials of SLJ followed by 2 maximal jumps from a 3-dimension force plate sampling at 1,000 Hz. Standing long jump distance (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.944) and power (ICC = 0.926) calculated from resultant force and velocity vectors were highly reliable. Standing Ht (r = 0.40), Wt (r = 0.36), lower leg length (r = 0.43), total leg length (thigh + LLs) (r = 0.38), and best SLJ (r = 0.52) were significantly related (p < 0.05) to peak power, but none accounted for more than 27% of the common variance. Step-wise multiple regression identified SLJ and body mass as the only significant variables necessary to predict peak power (Power [W] = 32.49·SLJ [cm] + 39.69·Wt [kg] - 7,608, R = 0.86, SEE = 488 W, CV% = 9.3%). Standing long jump contributed 56.8% to the known variance, whereas Wt contributed 43.2%. Thus, a combination of SLJ and Wt can be used to effectively estimate explosive power in Division IA college football players

Evolution of capital structure in east Asia-corporate inertia or endeavours?

The paper examines the capital structure adjustment dynamics of listed non-financial corporations in seven east Asian countries before, during and after the crisis of 1997-1998. Our methodology allows for speeds of adjustment to vary, not only among firms, but also over time, distinguishing between cases of sudden and smooth adjustment. Whereas, compared with firms in the least affected countries, average leverages were much higher, generalized method-of-moments analysis of the Worldscope panel data suggests that average speeds of adjustment were lower in the worst affected countries. This holds also for the severely financially distressed firms in some worst affected countries, though the trend reversed in the post-crisis period. These findings have important implications for the regulatory environment as well as access to market finance. Copyright (c) 2009 Royal Statistical Society.