Nutritional and health status of woolly monkeys

Woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha and L. flavicauda) are threatened species in the wild and in captivity. Numerous zoological institutions have historically kept Lagothrix lagotricha spp., but only a few of them have succeeded in breeding populations. Therefore the majority of institutions that formerly kept Lagothrix lagotricha are no longer able or willing to do so. Captive populations of the species have frequent health problems, most significantly hypertension and related disorders. Researchers have conducted free-ranging dietary and behavior studies with respect to woolly monkeys, but have established no concrete link between diet or nutrients and captive health problems. The available literature we discuss indicates that researchers need to examine the link further. In addition, it is critical to the survival of the primates to be able to keep breeding populations in captivity owing to increasing natural pressures such as deforestation and hunting. Therefore, better understanding of the captive and free-ranging behavior and health parameters of the species is vital to ensure their survival and to maintain forest health and diversity. Researchers need to conduct large-scale research studies comparing the health and complete diet of individuals in the wild and captivity to resolve health problems facing the species in captivity

Appropriating Peri hypsous : interpretations and creative adaptations of Longinus' Treatise On the Sublime in Early Modern Dutch Scholarship

Longinus’ treatise Peri hypsous (On the Sublime) has been interpreted in a multitude of ways since its rediscovery in Renaissance Italy. This dissertation shows that early modern scholars adapted their readings of Peri hypsous to their own views by highlighting aspects of the treatise that were most relevant to their arguments. Daniel Heinsius adapted parts of Peri hypsous to defend the primordial sublimity of Homer and Hesiod in his Prolegomena on Hesiod (1603). Hugo Grotius was among the first to use Longinus’ reference to Genesis in the context of Biblical scholarship. Franciscus Junius used Peri hypsous in his De pictura veterum (1637) as part of his reconstruction of ancient art theory. Isaac Vossius studied manuscripts of Peri hypsous to establish a critical text of Sappho’s fragment 31 (Peri hypsous 10.2). Jacobus Tollius, aided by Vossius’ notes, published an edition of Peri hypsous and wrote a series of essays that used Peri hypsous to reflect on the ancient literary canon. These often creative adaptations of Longinus’ treatise gave rise to an interpretation that exerted great influence on later criticism through Nicolas Boileau’s French translation of the treatise (1674), but which, as this dissertation shows, has traceable roots in seventeenth-century Dutch scholarship. European Research CouncilMedieval and Early Modern Studie

Fat intake and apperent digestibility of fibre in horses and ponies

Performance horses are frequently given high-fat diets with fat contents up to 130 g/kg dry matter. The addition of extra fat raises the energy density of feeds. Diets with a high energy density facilitate a high-energy intake, which is advantageous for horses with high-energy requirements. High-energy diets also allow a reduction in total feed intake, which lowers the weight of gastrointestinal contents, this effect being considered beneficial to performance horses. The first hypothesis tested was that the intake of extra fat at the expense of an iso-energetic amount of nonstructural carbohydrates reduces fibre utilization in horses. In a crossover trial, 6 mature trotting horses were given either a low or high-fat diet. The high-fat concentrate was formulated to contain 37% of net energy in the form of soybean oil. The control concentrate contained an iso-energetic amount of cornstarch plus glucose. The concentrates were fed in combination with the same amount of hay so that the control and test diet contained 25 and 87 g crude fat/ kg dry matter, respectively. Apart from the amounts of fat and nonstructural carbohydrates the 2 diets were identical. The high-fat diet reduced the apparent total tract digestibilities of crude fibre, neutral and acid detergent fibre by 8.0 (P=0.007), 6.2 (P=0.022) and 8.3 (P=0.0005) percentage units, respectively. Since fat in the first experiment was substituted for nonstructural carbohydrates, including starch, the specific effect of fat could not be ascertained. It could not be excluded that starch also inhibits fibre digestibility so that the earlier observed fat effect would be underestimated. In the second study, the intakes of iso-energetic amounts of either soybean oil, cornstarch or glucose were compared as to fibre digestibility. Unlike starch, glucose is fully absorbed by the small intestine and thus is not expected to influence fibre fermentation in caecum and colon. Six trotters were fed rations either high in soybean oil (158 g/ kg dry matter), high in cornstarch (337 g/ kg dry matter) or high in glucose (263 g/ kg dry matter) according to a 3 X 3 Latin square design. Apparent crude fibre digestibility was similar for the rations with cornstarch (70.7 ± 3.06 % of intake, mean ± SD, n=6) or glucose (71.0 ± 1.90 %), but was significantly depressed by fat feeding (56.5 ± 7.65%). Similar observations were made for apparent digestibilities of neutral and acid detergent fibre and cellulose. It is concluded that the addition of fat to the ration of horses has an independent, inhibitory effect on fibre utilization and thus reduces the amount of energy provided by dietary fibre. An increase in fat intake by horses has been shown to decrease the apparent digestibility of the various dietary fibre fractions, but the mechanism was unknown. It was hypothesized that extra fat intake depresses the caecal and/ or colonic microbial degradation of fibre, leading to a decrease in fibre digestion. Literature data indicate that bile acids and linoleic acid may inhibit growth of pure cultures of microorganisms. In the present series of experiments the hypotheses tested were that after extra fat intake as soybean oil more bile acids and linoleic acid would enter the caecum which depresses microbial growth and thus also fibre fermentation. On the basis of measurement of faecal bile acid excretion in horses, no evidence was obtained for a higher influx of bile acids into the caecum after iso-energetic substitution of dietary soybean oil for starch plus glucose. When dietary palm oil was replaced by soybean oil, which caused a six-fold increase in linoleic acid intake, fibre digestibility in horses was not lowered. The infusion of linoleic acid into the caecum of fistulated ponies significantly increased apparent crude fibre digestibility. The process of fermentation involves a series of energy-yielding reactions catalyzed by microbial cells in which organic compounds act as both oxidizable substrates and oxidizing agents. Gas output from in vitro fermentation of forage can be used to measure both digestibility and the kinetics of microbial digestion. Under conditions that nutrient availability is not limiting, gas production is a direct measure of microbial growth. It was hypothesized that extra fat intake depresses the caecal and/ or colonic microbial degradation of fibre, leading to a decrease in fibre digestion. The hypothesis was tested using ponies fed either low-fat or a high-fat ration. In the ponies, the high-fat ration lowered apparent crude fibre digestibility by 13.5 percentage units. The ponies were euthanised and intestinal contents isolated to determine in-vitro gas production after incubation with various substrates. In general, groups mean maximum gas production from either cellulose or xylan by caecal, colonic and faecal bacteria was lower when the ponies had been fed the high-fat diet. Cumulative gas production by caecal fluid with xylan as substrate after 20 h of incubation was significantly depressed when the donor animals had been fed the high-fat diet. With cellulose as substrate, gas production by caecal contents was lowered by on average 20% after fat feeding of the ponies. There was a significant diet effect of cell-free caecal fluid on gas production from cellulose by a standard inoculum: fat feeding had an inhibitory impact. It is concluded that fat feeding in ponies inhibits microbial activity in the caecum, which in turn leads to a decrease in fibre digestibility. An attempt was made to quantify the effect of extra fat intake on fibre utilization in horses. In a cross-over trial, eight mature trotting horses were given four diets. The concentrates were formulated to contain either soybean oil or an iso-energetic amount of glucose or combinations. The concentrates were fed in combination with the same amount of hay so that the whole diets contained 30, 50, 77 or 108 g crude fat/ kg of dry matter. Apart from the amounts of fat and glucose the four diets were identical. With an increase of 10 g /kg dry matter of soybean oil the apparent total tract digestibility of crude fibre was reduced with 0.9 percentage units. It is suggested that a high-fat intake by horses may increase the amount of fat entering the large intestine to levels that depress fermentation by cellulolytic bacteria. The ratio of calculated net energy intake (NEi) to calculated net energy requirement (NEr) can serve as an indicator of the efficiency of dietary energy utilization. The ratio was determined for 93 horses and ponies from 10 riding schools. For each animal with assumed constant bodyweight, energy intake and energy requirements were assessed. The estimated NEi on average was 14 % greater than NEr. There was a significant, negative association between crude fibre intake and the NEi : NEr ratio. Dietary fat concentration was found to range from 32 to 52 g/ kg dry matter (5 to 6 g/ MJ net energy), but on basis of controlled digestibility trials this range would be too narrow to influence the NEi : NEr ratio as was indeed found in this survey. This thesis shows that assessment of the efficiency of dietary utilization, under practical conditions, by using the NEi : NEr ratio is fraught with uncertainty

"5 Days in August" – How London Local Authorities used Twitter during the 2011 riots

© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2012This study examines effects of microblogging communications during emergency events based on the case of the summer 2011 riots in London. During five days in August 2011, parts of London and other major cities in England suffered from extensive public disorders, violence and even loss of human lives. We collected and analysed the tweets posted by the official accounts maintained by 28 London local government authorities. Those authorities used Twitter for a variety of purposes such as preventing rumours, providing official information, promoting legal actions against offenders and organising post-riot community engagement activities. The study shows how the immediacy and communicative power of microblogging can have a significant effect at the response and recovery stages of emergency events

Compressibility and Electronic Structure of MgB2 up to 8 GPa

The lattice parameters of MgB2 up to pressures of 8 GPa were determined using high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction in a diamond anvil cell. The bulk modulus, B0, was determined to be 151 +-5 GPa. Both experimental and first-principles calculations indicate nearly isotropic mechanical behavior under pressure. This small anisotropy is in contrast to the 2 dimensional nature of the boron pi states. The pressure dependence of the density of states at the Fermi level and a reasonable value for the average phonon frequency account within the context of BCS theory for the reduction of Tc under pressure.Comment: REVTeX file. 4 pages, 4 figure

Supramolecular Polymerization of Hydrogen-Bonded Trimers in Bulk and Aqueous Medium

Synthetic molecules that form functional noncovalent assemblies in water have received much attention for their potential applications as biomaterials. In this work, we introduce a novel water-compatible monomer based on the phthalhydrazide moiety that assembles into hydrogen-bonded trimeric discs. In bulk, the material exhibits a cylindrical nanostructure in the liquid-crystalline phase at elevated temperatures, morphologically distinct from the crystalline lamellar phase. In water, these molecules effectively form cylinders in a one-dimensional fashion, yielding fibrous structures. The formation of these supramolecular polymers follows a cooperative mechanism, as evidenced by denaturation studies. The trimerized pattern represents a new category of aqueous su pramolecular polymers with future prospects for functional complex molecular systems.</p

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio