Application of Molecular Tools for Gut Health of Pet Animals: A Review

Gut health is an important facet of well being of pet animals; it is in this context, various nutritional and biotechnological approaches have been proposed to manipulate the gut health by specifically targeting the colonic microbiota. Nutritional approaches include supplementation of antioxidants and phytochemicals like flavonoids, isoflavonoids and carotenoids. Biotechnological approaches include supplementation of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics in the diet and potential application of molecular tools like fluorescent in situ hybridization, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, quantitative dot blot hybridization, and restriction fragment length polymorphism etc. in studying the fecal microbiota composition. Post-genomic and related technologies, i.e. genomics, nutrigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenomics in the study of gastrointestinal tract also put forward challenges for nutritionists and microbiologists to elucidate the complex interactions between gut microbiota and host

Axiomatic Bargaining Theory on Opportunity Assignments

This paper discusses issues of axiomatic bargaining problems over opportunity assignments. The fair arbitrator uses the principle of "equal opportunity" for all players to make the recommendation on re- source allocations. A framework in such a context is developed and several classical solutions to standard bargaining problems are reformulated and axiomatically characterized. Working Paper 06-4

Nutrition-induced Changes of Growth from Birth to First Calving and Its Impact on Mammary Development and First-lactation Milk Yield in Dairy Heifers: A Review

This review focuses on the nutritional effects from birth until age at first calving on growth, mammary developmental changes, and first-lactation milk yield in heifer calves. The advancement in the genetic potential and the nutritional requirements of the animals has hastened the growth rate. Genetic selection for high milk yield has suggested higher growth capacity and hence increasing nutritional inputs are required. Rapid rearing by feeding high energy or high concentrate diets not only reduces the age of sexual maturity but also lowers the time period of attaining the age of first calving. However, high energy diets may cause undesirable fat deposition thereby affecting future milk yield potential. Discrepancies exist whether overfed or overweight heifers at puberty can influence the mammary development and future milk yield potential and performance. The data on post-pubertal nutritional management suggested that body weight at calving and post-pubertal growth rate is important in first lactation milk yield. There is a continuous research need for strategic feeding that accelerates growth of dairy heifers without reduction in subsequent production. Nutritional management from birth, across puberty and during pregnancy is critical for mammary growth and for producing a successful cow. This review will mostly highlight studies carried out on dairy breeds and possible available opportunities to manipulate nutritional status from birth until age at first calving

Characterising competitive equilibrium in terms of opportunity

This paper analyses alternative profiles of opportunity sets for individuals in an exchange economy, without assuming that individuals’ choices reveal coherent preferences. It introduces the concept of a ‘market-clearing single-price regime’, representing a profile of opportunity sets consistent with competitive equilibrium. It also proposes an opportunity-based normative criterion, the Strong Opportunity Criterion, which is analogous with the core in preference-based analysis. It shows that every market-clearing single-price regime satisfies the Strong Opportunity Criterion and that, in the limit as an economy is replicated, only such regimes have this property

Effect of Varying the Energy Density of Protein-adequate Diets on Nutrient Metabolism, Clinical Chemistry, Immune Response and Growth of Muzaffarnagari Lambs

Effects of varied dietary energy densities on immune response and performance of Muzzafarnagari lambs were ascertained in a 180-d study. Animals (n = 24), in three groups, were fed diets providing 100% (100E), 80% (80E) or 70% (70E) of their metabolizable energy requirement. Mean nutrient digestibilities varied significantly among treatments. Nitrogen intake was lower (p<0.01) in the 70E. Nitrogen retention, was reduced (p<0.001) in 80E and 70E vs 100E. The average daily gain (p<0.001) was 47.01±4.23, 13.54±1.72 and -16.67±8.24 g for 100E, 80E and 70E, respectively. Hemoglobin concentration, haematocrit, total and differential leukocyte counts were lower (p<0.001) for 80E and 70E than for 100E with a similar trend (p<0.05) for serum glucose and total protein. Serum cortisol was reduced (p<0.001) with decreased energy availability. Antibody titre to Brucella abortus S19 showed an initial reduction in 80E and 70E vs 100E. Delayed-type hypersensitivity response was lower (p<0.001) in 80E and 70E vs 100E, accompanying a lower (p<0.001) nitric oxide production by the peripheral lymphocytes. It is concluded that the reduced dietary energy density significantly affects the growth performance and immune response of lambs

Securing Basic Well-being for All

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of a social choice rule to implement a social policy for securing basic well-being for all. The paper introduces a new scheme of social choice, called a social relation function (SRF), which associates a reflexive and transitive binary relation over a set of social policies to each profile of individual well-being appraisals and each profile of group evaluations. As part of the domains of SRFs, the available class of group evaluations is constrained by three conditions. Furthermore, the non-negative response (NR) and the weak Pareto condition (WP) are introduced. NR demands giving priority to group evaluation, while treating the groups as formally equal relative to each other. WP requires treating impartially the well-being appraisals of all individuals. In conclusion, this paper shows that under some reasonable assumptions, there exists an SRF that satisfies NR and WP

Cell cultures and molecular investigation on Polygonum tinctorium and Indigofera tinctoria plants to understand indican biosynthesis

Indican biosynthesis in Indigofera tinctoria and Polygonum tinctorium plants is of topical interest due to its academic and industrial relevance for indigo dye production. Dye yield depends on indican content in the plant biomass. Cell culture and molecular biological investigations were carried out to assess indican biosynthesis in these plants. Tissue culture protocols were optimized for explant identification, decontamination, in vitro culture medium & suitable growth regulators and culture conditions for P. tinctorium at Okayama University of Science, and I. tinctoria at CSIR-NEERI. Four different growth hormones i.e. BA, Kin, NAA, 2,4-D, at 0.01 –2 mg L-1 culture medium, in random combination, and two different explants i.e. leaf and internode of both plants were experimented. In both plants, callus proliferation was better from leaf tissue with growth index (GI) up to 10 on MS agar gelled medium fortified with BA+NAA in comparison to BA+2,4-D. Suspension cell cultures of I. tinctorium were induced in MS liquid medium with only 2,4-D through 3 stages with GI up to 30. In vitro raised cell biomass of I. tinctorium presented higher indican synthesis (p> 0.5) in comparison to that of P. tinctorium. Both of these plants synthesize indican, but the differential response under in vitro is interesting. Total transcriptomes of both plants were worked out and annotated. Comparative analysis of transcriptome profile indicated >80% genes are similar for the indican biosynthetic pathways. Complete alignment of both transcriptomes and validation for biosynthesis pathways specific genes is needed in both the plants to ascertain their differential expression