1,503 research outputs found
Effect of fumaric acid, calcium formate and mineral levels in diets on the intake and growth performance of newly weaned pigs
peer-reviewedThe weaned pig has limited ability to acidify its stomach contents. The objective of this study (comprising three experiments) was to examine the effect of feeding diets
containing fumaric acid (FA), calcium formate (CF) or diets of low acid binding capacity (ABC) on post-weaning pig performance. In all three experiments, pigs (10 per treatment) were weaned at 19 to 24 days, blocked on sex and weight and assigned at random to one of six treatments. In Experiment 1, treatments were: (1) control diet, (2) control 20 g/kg FA, (3) control 15 g/kg CF, (4) low Ca (2.8 g/kg) and P (5.1 g/kg) (LCaP) diet for seven days followed by the control diet, (5) LCaP diet for seven days followed by control 20 g/kg FA, and (6) LCaP diet for seven days followed by control 15 g/kg CF. In Experiment 2, treatments were: (1) control diet, (2) control 20 g/kg FA, (3) control 15 g/kg CF, (4) LCaP diet for 14 days followed by the control diet, (5) LCaP diet for 14 days followed by control 20 g/kg FA, and (6) LCaP diet for seven days followed by control diet. In Experiment 3, treatments were: (1) high Ca (HC) diet (12 g/kg), (2) medium Ca (MC) diet (9 g/kg), (3) low Ca (LC) diet (6 g/kg), (4) HC 20 g/kg FA, (5) MC 20 g/kg FA, and (6) LC 20 g/kg FA. Pigs were individually fed for 26 days. In Experiment 1, CF tended to depress daily feed intake (DFI) in the final two weeks (691 v. 759 and 749, (s.e. 19) g/day, P = 0.07) and overall average daily gain (322 v. 343 and 361 (s.e. 11) g/day, P = 0.09) compared with the control and FA supplemented diets, respectively. Feeding diets with LCaP for seven days post
weaning increased DFI (208 v. 178, (s.e. 8) g/day, P < 0.01) in week 1 and tended to
improve feed conversion rate in the first two weeks (1.65 v. 1.85, s.e. 0.10, P = 0.09). In Experiment 2, treatment had no significant effect on pig performance but feed conversion rate in weeks three and four was improved for Treatment 5 compared with
Treatment 4 (1.30 v. 1.39 (s.e. 0.06) g/g, P < 0.01). In experiment 3, FA increased (P <
0.05) pig weight at day 14 (8.4 v. 7.7 (s.e. 0.2) kg) and feed intake in weeks one and two
(223 v. 251, (s.e. 9) g/day). It is concluded that CF did not improve performance but reducing diet ABC or including FA in the diet did improve performance
A Way Forward: Transparency at American Law Schools
This Article is similar to Law School Transparency’s original white paper, available at http://lawschooltransparency.com/documents/LST_White_Paper_April_2010.pdf. The original paper set forth an exposé of the available law school employment information and proposed a way for law schools to voluntarily release better information. This Article updates descriptions of the current employment information, explains the recent reforms at the ABA Section of Legal Education that followed from the original paper, and offers a new proposal for the Section of Legal Education to adopt for the betterment of the legal professio
Methods for Weighting Decisions to Assist Modelers and Decision Analysts: A Review of Ratio Assignment and Approximate Techniques
Computational models and simulations often involve representations of decision-making processes. Numerous methods exist for representing decision-making at varied resolution levels based on the objectives of the simulation and the desired level of fidelity for validation. Decision making relies on the type of decision and the criteria that is appropriate for making the decision; therefore, decision makers can reach unique decisions that meet their own needs given the same information. Accounting for personalized weighting scales can help to reflect a more realistic state for a modeled system. To this end, this article reviews and summarizes eight multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques that serve as options for reaching unique decisions based on personally and individually ranked criteria. These techniques are organized into a taxonomy of ratio assignment and approximate techniques, and the strengths and limitations of each are explored. We compare these techniques potential uses across the Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), System Dynamics (SD), and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) modeling paradigms to inform current researchers, students, and practitioners on the state-of-the-art and to enable new researchers to utilize methods for modeling multi-criteria decisions
The Crisis in Legal Education: Dabbling in Disaster Planning
The legal education crisis has already struck for many recent law school graduates, signaling potential disaster for law schools already struggling with their own economic challenges. Law schools have high fixed costs caused by competition between schools, the unchecked expansion of federal loan programs, a widely exploited information asymmetry about graduate employment outcomes, and a lack of financial discipline masquerading as innovation. As a result, tuition is up, jobs are down, and skepticism of the value of a J.D. has never been higher. If these trends do not reverse course, droves of students will continue to graduate with debt that greatly reduces their ability to fulfill the law school graduate\u27s traditional and important role in American society. The point at which the law school crisis becomes a disaster for legal education is debatable, but the importance of preparing for and forestalling this disaster is not. This Article serves two forward-looking purposes that stem from the premise that American legal education requires structural change to reduce the cost of obtaining a legal education. First, we set a framework for thinking about reforms to the method of delivering legal education. Second, we examine three blueprints for structural reform: one that has already been implemented and is ineffective, and two that set the discussion on the right track. These blueprints reject mere tinkering in favor of refocusing the attention of legal education stakeholders on the drastic structural changes needed to provide quality, affordable legal education. While we provide only a starting point for considering how the two new models could work in principle, they serve as an intellectual blueprint that can pave the way for new and better ideas about legal education. It is clear that cost reform is necessary, and it is likely that substantial reform is coming. The shape of this reform depends on who gets involved, who we hope include actors beyond those who have set legal education on a path toward disaster
Vibrational Coupling in Conjugated π Systems with a view to Optimization of Fluorescence Yield through Phonon Confinement
A series of π conjugated systems were studied by absorption, photoluminescence and vibrational spectroscopy. As is common for these systems, a linear relationship between the positioning of the absorption and photoluminescence maxima plotted against inverse conjugation length is observed. The relationships are in good agreement with the simple particle in a box method, one of the earliest descriptions of the properties of one-dimensional organic molecules. In addition to the electronic transition energies, it was observed that the Stokes shift also exhibited a well-defined relationship with increasing conjugation length, implying a correlation between the electron-vibrational coupling and chain length. This correlation is further examined using Raman spectroscopy, whereby the integrated Raman scattering is seen to behave superlinearly with chain length. There is a clear indication that the vibrational activity and thus nonradiative decay processes are controllable through molecular structure. The correlations between the Stokes energies and the vibrational structure are also observed in a selection of PPV based polymers and a clear trend of increasing luminescence efficiency with decreasing vibrational activity and Stokes shift is observable. The implications of such structure property relationships in terms of materials design are discussed
Abundance trends of highly migratory species in the Atlantic Ocean: accounting for water temperature profiles
Relative abundance trends of highly migratory species (HMS) have played a central role in debates over the health of global fisheries. However, such trends have mostly been inferred from fishery catch rates, which can provide misleading signals of relative abundance. While many biases are accounted for through traditional catch rate standardization, pelagic habitat fished is rarely directly considered. Using a method that explicitly accounts for temperature regimes, we analysed data from the US pelagic longline fishery to estimate relative abundance trends for 34 HMS in the Atlantic Ocean from 1987 through 2013. This represents one of the largest studies of HMS abundance trends. Model selection emphasized the importance of accounting for pelagic habitat fished with water column temperature being included in nearly every species’ model, and in extreme cases, a temperature variable explained 50–60% of the total deviance. Our estimated trends represent observations from one fishery only, and a more integrated stock assessment should form the basis for conclusions about stock status overall. Nonetheless, our trends serve as indicators of stock abundance and they suggest that a majority of HMS (71% of analysed species) are either declining in relative abundance or declined initially with no evidence of rebuilding. Conversely, 29% of the species exhibited stable, increasing, or recovering trends; however, these trends were more prevalent among tunas than either billfishes or sharks. By estimating the effects of pelagic habitat on fishery catch rates, our results can be used in combination with ocean temperature trends and forecasts to support bycatch avoidance and other time-area management decisions
Measurements of the acid-binding capacity of ingredients used in pig diets
peer-reviewedSome feed ingredients bind more acid in the stomach than others and for this reason may be best omitted from pig starter foods if gastric acidity is to be promoted. The objective of this study was to measure the acid-binding capacity (ABC) of ingredients commonly used in pig starter foods. Ingredients were categorised as follows: (i) milk products (n = 6), (ii) cereals (n = 10), (iii) root and pulp products (n = 5), (iv) vegetable proteins (n = 11), (v) meat and fish meal (n = 2), (vi) medication (n = 3), (vii) amino acids (n = 4), (viii) minerals (n = 16), (ix) acid salts (n = 4), (x) acids (n = 10). A 0.5 g sample of food was suspended in 50 ml distilled de-ionised water with continuous stirring. This suspension was titrated with 0.1 mol/L HCl or 0.1 mol/L NaOH so that approximately 10 additions of titrant was required to reach pH 3.0. The pH readings after each addition were recorded following equilibration for three minutes. ABC was calculated as the amount of acid in milliequivalents (meq) required to lower the pH of 1 kg food to (a) pH 4.0 (ABC-4) and (b) pH 3.0 (ABC-3). Categories of food had significantly different (P < 0.01) ABC values. Mean ABC-4 and ABC-3 values of the ten categories were: (i) 623 (s.d. 367.0) and 936 (s.d. 460.2), (ii) 142 (s.d. 79.2) and 324 (s.d. 146.4), (iii) 368 (s.d. 65.3) and 804 (s.d. 126.7), (iv) 381 (s.d. 186.1) and 746 (s.d. 227.0), (v) 749 (s.d. 211.6) and 1508 (s.d. 360.8), (vi) 120 (s.d. 95.6) and 261 (s.d. 163.2), (vii) 177 (s.d. 60.7) and 1078 (s.d. 359.0), (viii) 5064 (s.d. 5525.1) and 7051 (s.d. 5911.6), (ix) 5057 (s.d. 1336.6) and 8945 (s.d. 2654.1) and (x) -5883 (s.d. 4220.5) and -2591 (s.d. 2245.4) meq HCl per kg, respectively. Within category, ABC-3 and ABC- 4 values were highly correlated: R2 values of 0.80 and greater for food categories i, iv, v, vi, vii and viii. The correlation between predicted and observed ABC values of 34 mixed diets was 0.83 for ABC-4 and 0.71 for ABC-3. It was concluded that complete diets with low ABC values may be formulated through careful selection of ingredients. The final pH to which ABC is measured should matter little as ABC-3 and ABC-4 are highly correlated
Gut microbiota in HIV-pneumonia patients is related to peripheral CD4 counts, lung microbiota, and in vitro macrophage dysfunction.
Pneumonia is common and frequently fatal in HIV-infected patients, due to rampant, systemic inflammation and failure to control microbial infection. While airway microbiota composition is related to local inflammatory response, gut microbiota has been shown to correlate with the degree of peripheral immune activation (IL6 and IP10 expression) in HIV-infected patients. We thus hypothesized that both airway and gut microbiota are perturbed in HIV-infected pneumonia patients, that the gut microbiota is related to peripheral CD4+ cell counts, and that its associated products differentially program immune cell populations necessary for controlling microbial infection in CD4-high and CD4-low patients. To assess these relationships, paired bronchoalveolar lavage and stool microbiota (bacterial and fungal) from a large cohort of Ugandan, HIV-infected patients with pneumonia were examined, and in vitro tests of the effect of gut microbiome products on macrophage effector phenotypes performed. While lower airway microbiota stratified into three compositionally distinct microbiota as previously described, these were not related to peripheral CD4 cell count. In contrast, variation in gut microbiota composition significantly related to CD4 cell count, lung microbiota composition, and patient mortality. Compared with patients with high CD4+ cell counts, those with low counts possessed more compositionally similar airway and gut microbiota, evidence of microbial translocation, and their associated gut microbiome products reduced macrophage activation and IL-10 expression and increased IL-1β expression in vitro. These findings suggest that the gut microbiome is related to CD4 status and plays a key role in modulating macrophage function, critical to microbial control in HIV-infected patients with pneumonia
Effect of Pre-and Post-weaning Nutrition and Management on Performance of Weaned Pigs to circa 35 kg.
End of Project ReportThe objective of this project was to examine the factors
affecting performance (growth rate, appetite, feed conversion efficiency)
of pigs in the stage from weaning to 35 kg liveweight.
The study involved three stages, creep feeding during the suckling
period, management during the first weaner stage (c. 4 weeks
from weaning or 6 kg to 15 kg liveweight) and management during
the second weaner stage (c. 15 kg to 35 kg liveweight.
Creep feed intake before weaning was low c. 2.5 to 3.0 kg
per litter but where it was consumed the response in terms of feed
conversion efficiency was good with litter weight increasing in
weight by about 1.1 kg for each 1 kg creep consumed. Milk
replacer in liquid form was very readily consumed but its preparation
and feeding is very laborious. Weaning weight was poorly
related to post weaning performance and weaning age seemed to
be more critical which is probably a reflection of the greater
maturity of older animals.
In the first weaner stage, feeding of cooked cereal containing
diets was found to have little benefit in pig performance.
Acidification of feeds is likely to have only a minor influence on
pig performance. An experiment on choice feeding of starter and
link feeds did not confirm that smaller pigs require a higher quality
diet and, in a choice situation will eat a greater proportion of the
more nutrient dense diet.
In the second weaner stage, comparison of three commercial
weaner feeds with a cereal based control diet showed good performance
on all four diets. Pigs fed a high lysine weaner diet grew
better in the weaner stage but by slaughter those pigs fed the low
lysine weaner diet, after all pigs were fed a common finisher diet,
had overtaken them. The high lysine group did, however, have
leaner carcasses.
Residual effects of early nutrition need to be investigated in
more detail including the effect of pregnancy feeding on prenatal
development and the relationship between prenatal growth and
postnatal growth, in particular development of muscle.European Union Structural Funds (EAGGF
- …