Evaluation of Dietary Phytochemicals as Rumen Modifiers in Lactating Dairy Cows

Phytochemicals such as tannins included in dairy cow nutritional programs, as a natural feed additive, promise to improve rumen bypass protein and consequently reduce the feeding cost by decreasing the amount of CP needed in the ration. Additionally, if tannins are fed along with high quality protein sources, this could improve the AA profile reaching the small intestine and potentially improving health and performance of dairy cows. The black pepper, specifically its alkaloid piperine, is a nontoxic, natural dietary compound with a broad range of physiological activity. Lactating dairy cows ingesting these phytochemicals (tannin extracts and black pepper) will potentially benefit by increasing feed efficiency, protein reaching the duodenum, oxidative stress, and immunity. Objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of phytochemicals in the ration of lactating dairy cows by assessing feed intake and efficiency, rumen fermentation, milk yield and composition, and blood metabolites and biomarkers. We hypothesized that diets containing phytochemicals would increase milk and component yields, benefit rumen fermentation, and improve feed efficiency and nutrient utilization as well as prevent oxidative stress. Sixteen Holstein cows (14 multiparous and 2 primiparous; DIM =114 ± 20) were used in a crossover design experiment with an adaptation period. Cows were randomly assigned to a treatment sequence according to DIM, lactation number, prior milk yield averages, and body weight. Treatments included: 1) basal diet with soybean meal pellets at 3.37% of DM (CON), 2) basal diet with soybean meal pellets fed at 3.37% of DM containing phytochemicals at 4.4% concentration (TRT). The experiment lasted a total of 56 d and consisted of a 14-d adaptation (covariate) period and two 21-d treatment periods. All milk weights were recorded daily, and milk samples were collected during the last 3 d of each period in both milkings. Rumen fluid, body condition scores (BCS), and body weights were collected on day 19 and 20 of each period. Blood samples were collected from the coccygeal vein on d 13 and 20 during the adaptation and treatment periods, respectively. Data were analyzed using MIXED procedures of SAS. Dry matter intake was similar among treatments. Milk yield as well as fat and protein yield decreased in TRT cows in comparison to CON. Propionate proportion in VFA was lower in TRT cows. Greater apparent total-tract digestibility was observed in DM, OM, and CP when feeding TRT diets. Similarly, glucose concentrations were lower in TRT cows in comparison to CON. Albumin and the antioxidant activity measured by SOD was increased in TRT cows. The concomitant decrease in propionate proportion and blood glucose could partially explain the decrease in milk yield in TRT cows. Although the effects observed in VFA proportions and apparent total-tract digestibility of nutrients are indicatives that these phytochemicals act as rumen modifiers, further research is needed to optimize their dosage for an effective response in the rumen

The balance between fumarate and malate plays an important role in plant development and postharvest quality in tomato fruit

Organic acids, produced as intermediates of the tricarboxylic cycle, play a crucial role in the plant primary metabolism and are considered as being ones of the most important quality traits in edible fruits. Even if they are key metabolites in a multitude of cellular functions, little is known about their physiological relevance and regulation. Transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants expressing constitutively a bacterial maleate isomerase, which converts reversibly maleate to fumarate, were generated in order to improve our knowledge about the role of organic acids in the crop and fruit metabolism. Growth and reproduction were affected by the unbalance of tricarboxylic cycle intermediates, as a dwarf phenotype and a flowering delay were observed in the transgenic plants. In addition, a delay in chlorophyll synthesis, a decrease in the numbers of stomata and significant changes in some photosynthetic parameters indicated alterations in central primary metabolism. Postharvest was also impaired, as transgenic fruits showed increased water lost and deterioration, indicating a possible role of the organic acids in cell wall metabolism. Finally, preliminary metabolomics analysis pointed out important changes during fruit ripening in flavor-related metabolites, such as acids and sugars, revealing the importance of organic acids in fruit metabolism. Taken together, these data indicate a pivotal role of tricarboxylic cycle intermediates, such as malate or fumarate, as regulatory metabolites. Besides their role in quality fruit characteristics, they are involved in a multitude of functions including growth and photosynthesis.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Neue Erkenntnisse aus Pflanzenschutzversuchen des FiBL

Die gezeigten Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass einige interessante Alternativprodukte zu Kupfer in Entwicklung sind. Diese sind jedoch noch weit entfernt von der Marktreife. Mit den Tonerden stehen aber schon jetzt gute Alternativen zu Kupfer zur Verfügung, die uns erlauben, in normalen Jahren die Krankheitsentwicklung bei Reben zu kontrollieren. In der Schweiz sind vorerst die bekannten Alternativen mit Tonerde verfügbar. Seit 2004 ist Kaliumpermanganat neu in der Schweizer Bioverordnung aufgeführt. Kaliumpermanganat ist nicht in der FiBL-Hilfsstoffliste aufgeführt, da kein Handelsprodukt kommerzialisiert ist. Kaliumpermanganat kann aber im Handel bezogen werden. In Deutschland, Italien und Frankreich wird verschiedentlich Phosphit eingesetzt, wobei Phosphit in den jeweiligen Ländern als Pflanzenstärkungsmittel oder Blattdünger registriert ist. Im Annex II der EU-Verordnung 2092/91 ist Phosphit nicht aufgeführt, ebensowenig wie in den IFOAM-Richtlinien. Wir verfolgen aufmerksam die Meinungsbildung und die Entwicklung der Zulassungssituation in Europa. Wir haben erstmals seit längerer Zeit neuentwickelte Produkte in den Prüfungen gesehen, die in Versuchen auch eine handfeste Wirkung gegen den Falschen Mehltau zeigen. Dazu gehören ein Pflanzenextrakt, ein einfaches Salz in Lebensmittelqualität und ein Resistenzinduktor. Es ist zwar ein weiter Weg von den ersten interessanten Resultaten bis zur Praxiseinführung, aber Ausgangspunkt ist immer der Nachweis einer praxisrelevanten Wirkung. Im sechsten Forschungsrahmenprogramm der EU wurde ein neues Forschungsprojekt zum Kupferersatz im Wein- und Kernobstanbau gestartet (EU Projekt ‚REPCO’). In diesem Forschungskonsortium arbeiten Forschungsgruppen aus Dänemark, Holland, Frankreich, Italien, Deutschland und der Schweiz zusammen um alternative Produkte zur Bekämpfung des Falschen Mehltaues und des Apfelschorfes zu entwickeln. Die Schweiz wird durch das FiBL und die ETH Zürich vertreten

Which dimensions of social responsibility concern financial investors?

Cahiers de Recherche du CERAG n° 2012-01 E2Social and environmental ratings provided by social rating agencies are multidimensional. Using the six sub-ratings provided by the Vigeo rating agency, we perform a principal component analysis and we highlight three main socially responsible (SR) dimensions related to (1) the direct non-financial stakeholders (employee, customers and suppliers), (2) the indirect stakeholders (environment and society) and (3) the financial stakeholders (stockholders and debt holders).We explore the link between stock returns and these three SR dimensions. Our main result is that, for each SR dimension, investors ask for an additional risk premium when they decide to hold non SR stocks. The cost of equity is thus lower for socially responsible firms. The average premium over the period 2003-2010 is larger for the components "direct non-financial stakeholders" and "financial stakeholders" than for the component "indirect stakeholders". For this last component, the premium obviously exists only since the end of 2008. Environment and community involvement have only recently become a more important risk factor in investors' minds. About the former risk premia ("direct non-financial stakeholders" and "financial stakeholders"), investors appear to penalize firms with the worst behavior in respect to their direct non-financial stakeholders and reward firms with good corporate governance practice

Proyecto de elaboración de indices para medir la productividad de empresas del sector comercial especializadas en tiendas departamentales de moda

Desde el año 1919, el Ecuador ha dado acogida a un segmento muy particular en el sector comercial de la Economía, que ha dado cobertura a gran parte de las necesidades de los consumidores y consumistas pasando a formar parte fundamental y actualmente un papel muy importante en los índices de consumo. El sector de tiendas departamentales de moda ha mostrado un gran crecimiento tanto en variedad como en número de opciones para el mercado, así encontramos en un estudio “Share of Mind” realizado por la revista Marka en el 2005 las tiendas: Casa Tosi, Almacenes De Prati, Eta Fashion, Super Éxito, Río Store. El presente trabajo muestra una solución que permitirá generar medidas de productividad a través de un modelo de índices como respuesta a la necesidad de mejoramiento sostenido en el mercado que cada vez es más competitivo. El modelo de índices proporciona una valiosa herramienta para que los empleados puedan comprender la situación de la empresa, algo indispensable si ésta quiere alcanzar el dinamismo que necesita para ser competitiva a largo plazo. El modelo de índices también aporta una información útil para desarrollar continuamente aquellos indicadores de control que más rápidamente le permitirán a la empresa alcanzar sus metas. La propuesta para las organizaciones radica en la integración de la cadena de valor, tanto en recurso humano como en procesos, así la implementación del Modelo de Índices supone el uso de indicadores de diversas índoles y en diferentes niveles organizacionales, lo cual le permite a la alta gerencia conocer de forma adecuada los resultados operativos y la contribución de la gestión de sus empleados de nivel medio e inferior a la consecución de sus objetivos organizacionales

The forking effect

This study introduces the concept of the forking effect in the cryptocurrency market,specifically focusing on the impact of forking events on bitcoin, also called parent coin.We use a modified exponential GARCH model to examine the bitcoin's response inreturns and volatility. Our findings reveal that forking events do not significantlyaffect the bitcoin's returns but have a strong positive impact on its volatility, especially when considering market dynamics. Our model accounts for key features likevolatility clustering and fat-tailed distributions. Additionally, we observe that following a fork event, volatility remains elevated for the next three days, regardless ofother forking events, and the volatility impact does not increase when multiple forksoccur simultaneously on the same day

Randomized Controlled Trial of an Internet Application to Reduce HIV Transmission Behavior Among HIV Infected Men Who have Sex with Men.

We conducted a prospective, randomized controlled trial of an internet-based safer-sex intervention to reduce HIV transmission risk behaviors. HIV-infected men who have sex with men (n = 179) were randomized to receive a monthly internet survey alone or a monthly survey plus tailored risk reduction messages over 12 months. The primary outcome was the cumulative sexually transmitted infection (STI) incidence over 12 months. Secondary outcomes included self-reported unprotected sex with an at risk partner and disclosure of HIV status to partners. In a modified intent to treat analysis, there was no difference in 12-month STI incidence between the intervention and control arms (30 vs. 25 %, respectively; p = 0.5). Unprotected sex decreased and disclosure increased over time in both study arms. These improvements suggest that addition of the risk-reduction messages provided little benefit beyond the self-monitoring of risky behavior via regular self-report risk behavior assessments (as was done in both study arms)

Evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of laboratory-based screening for hepatitis C in dried blood spot samples: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The dried blood spot (DBS) is increasingly used for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening. Our objective was to perform a meta-analysis of the methodology for HCV screening in DBS samples, particularly in the type of diagnostic assay used. We performed a meta-analysis of all eligible studies published to date (March 2018). The literature search revealed 26 studies: 21 for detection of anti-HCV antibodies and 10 for detection of HCV-RNA. Statistical analyses were performed using Meta-DiSc and STATA (MIDAS module). For detection of HCV antibodies, pooled diagnostic accuracy measures were as follows: sensitivity 96.1%, specificity 99.2%, positive likelihood ratio (PLR) 105, negative likelihood ratio (NLR) 0.04, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) 2692.9, and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) 0.997 ± 0.001. For detection of HCV-RNA, the pooled diagnostic accuracy measures were as follows: sensitivity 97.8%, specificity 99.2%, PLR 44.8, NLR 0.04, DOR 1966.9, and SROC 0.996 ± 0.013. Similar values of pooled diagnostic accuracy measures were found according to the type of anti-HCV antibody detection assay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, rapid diagnostic test, and chemiluminescence assays) and HCV-RNA detection assay (real-time polymerase chain reaction and transcription-mediated amplification). The analysis of external validity showed a high negative predicted value (NPV) for both approaches, but a low positive predicted value (PPV) when prevalence was < 10%, particularly in HCV-RNA tests. Finally, this meta-analysis is subject to limitations, especially publication bias and significant heterogeneity between studies. In conclusion, HCV screening in DBS samples has an outstanding diagnostic performance, with no relevant differences between the techniques used. However, external validity may be limited when the HCV prevalence is low.This study was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III [grant numbers PI17CIII/00003 and RD16CIII/0002/0002], and a research grant from Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MISP IIS#54846). No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.S

Genetic Characterization of Jaguars (Panthera onca) in Captivity in Zoological Parks of Colombia

The construction of the pedigree of captive jaguars (Panthera onca) in zoological parks of Colombia was done using the analysis of the Regional Studbook for Jaguars and DNA analysis of 9 microsatellites of 20 Jaguars (n=20). The assignments for paternities and maternities were done with for the program CERVUS and the relationship between animals were established with the KINSHIP program. The analysis of the Studbook was done with SPARKS and PM2000 software generating the following values: genetic diversity for the population (GD=0.7832), potential genetic diversity (GD=0.9113), genic value (GV=0.7846), mean coefficient of inbreeding (F=0.0179), and the Mean KINSHIP (MK) for each individual. The averages of the observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.687 and 0.684 respectively. Nevertheless, a wild jaguar sample of 156 individuals obtained in Colombia substantially showed a higher degree of gene diversity (H = 0.87) than the Colombian captive jaguar population. Thus, the captive jaguar population retained 78 % of the gene diversity of the Colombian wild jaguar population. With this study the pedigree of the captive population of jaguars was built in order to develop an ex situ conservation plan for the species in the Colombian zoological parks

Differential Immune-Reactivity and Subcellular Distribution Reveal the Multifunctional Character of Profilin in Pollen as Major Effect of Sequences Polymorphism

Trabajo presentado al Annual Meeting of the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society and Soil Science Society of America, celebrado en Cincinnati (USA) del 21 al 24 de octubre de 2012.Profilin, one of the major allergen (Ole e 2) of olive (Olea europaea L.) pollen, are broadly distributed actin-monomer-binding proteins (ABP). They display a major regulatory role in actin cytoskeleton dynamics, driving cell morphogenesis, sexual reproduction, and translating signals into cellular responses to different environmental stresses. Plants exhibit multiple profilin isoforms w ith distinctive biochemical properties, and differentially regulated. How ever, it is still an open question w hether these profilin isoforms, generated by multiple gene sequence polymorphism, are functionally different, as well as the role of that polymorphism in pollen allergy. Particularly, in differential epitopes generation, profilin isoforms sensitization and cross-reactivity among cultivars, and even among species. In the present study, w e have used mature pollen from olive, birch, hazel, timothy-grass, and maize, in addition to olive germinating pollen and seeds, w ith the aim to analyze the immune-reactivity and subcellular localization of profilin by using polyclonal and specific isoforms antibodies against olive and maize profilins. The results show ed immune-reactivity differences betw een the five species analyzed, betw een olive cultivars, as w ell as between reproductive and vegetative profilins. Furthermore, the existence of different profilin isoforms w as revealed along pollen germination stages. A differential subcellular distribution of profilin isoforms w as found in olive pollen. They w ere localized in the nucleus, pollen aperture regions, pollen and tube w alls and pollen tip, in addition to a general cytoplasmic distribution, in comparison to controls. Data suggest that profilin family might contain numerous functionally distinctive isoforms, spatial-temporal differentially expressed and regulated during vegetative development, pollen maturation and pollen tube grow th. Furthermore, differential immune-reactivity revealed in the study might point out the involvement of common shared and specific epitopes, generated by sequence polymorphism, in differential olive pollen cultivar sensitization of allergenic patients, and cross-reaction to pollen from different species.This study was supported by the following European Regional Development Fund cofinanced grants: MCINN BFU 2004-00601/BFI, BFU 2008-00629, BFU2011-22779, CICE (Junta de Andalucía) P2010-CVI15767, P2010-AGR6274, P2011-CVI-7487, P2011-CVI-7487, and by the coordinated project Spain/Germany MEC HA2004-0094.Peer reviewe