effects of a natural extract of chestnut wood on digestibility performance traits and nitrogen balance of broiler chicks

Currently, feed ingredients containing tannin are attracting more interest as substitutes for antibiotic growth promoters in animal and poultry feeding. This study investigated the influence of a natural extract of chestnut wood (Silvafeed ENC) on broiler digestibility (experiment 1) and on the growth performance, carcass quality, and nitrogen balance of broilers (experiment 2). Results showed that the inclusion of ENC did not influence the apparent digestibility of organic matter, CP, and ether extract. Chick growth performance showed a quadratic or cubic response with increasing levels of ENC. When chicks were fed ENC from 14 to 56 d of age, the ENC had a positive effect on average daily gain in the first 2 wk of addition, whereas this effect was not evident in the last 2 wk compared with the control group. Similar trends were also shown for daily feed intake. Overall, the chicks fed 0.20% ENC had significantly better growth performance than the control group. Carcass analysis showed no gross lesions in organs and no significant differences in thigh and breast composition among groups. Noteworthy is the fact that the ENC-treated groups had less total litter nitrogen; in particular, chicks fed 0.15 and 0.20% ENC showed a significant difference in total litter nitrogen compared with the control group. No significant difference in nitrogen balance was observed. Addition of 0.20% ENC seemed to have a positive influence on chick feeding

Beads for Cell Immobilization: Comparison of Alternative Additive Manufacturing Techniques

The attachment or entrapment of microbial cells and enzymes are promising solutions for various industrial applications. When the traps are beads, they are dispersed in a fluidized bed in a vessel where a pump guarantees fresh liquid inflow and waste outflow without washing out the cells. Scientific papers report numerous types of cell entrapment, but most of their applications remain at the laboratory level. In the present research, rigid polymer beads were manufactured by two different additive manufacturing (AM) techniques in order to verify the economy, reusability, and stability of the traps, with a view toward a straightforward industrial application. The proposed solutions allowed for overcoming some of the drawbacks of traditional manufacturing solutions, such as the limited mechanical stability of gel traps, and they guaranteed the possibility of producing parts of constant quality with purposely designed exchange surfaces, which are unfeasible when using conventional processes. AM proved to be a viable manufacturing solution for beads with complex shapes of two different size ranges. A deep insight into the production and characteristics of beads manufactured by AM is provided. The paper provides biotechnologists with a manufacturing perspective, and the results can be directly applied to transit from the laboratory to the industrial scale

Tropospheric Ozone In A Mountain Forest Area: Spatial Distribution And Its Relation With Meteorology And Emission Sources

Biological injuries to forest ecosystems in two lateral valleys of Valtellina (Italy) have been studied. The selected areas are characterized by different forest novel decline symptoms and ozone concentration levels. Analyses of meteorological and air quality data collected by fixed and mobile stations located in the two valleys are presented. Ozone concentration has been measured both by passive samplers and continues analyzers and the ozone vertical gradient in one valley has been determined. In order to investigate the relation between emission sources, ambient ozone levels and plant biological injuries, a modeling research project has been started. As preliminary results the wind field obtained by the application of two diagnostic meteorological models, MINERVE and CALMET, and the computation of the biogenic emissions are presented. Some examples of spatial distribution and temporal trend of the most important pollutants emitted by plants are discussed

Le valutazioni economiche in Italia: una revisione sistematica della letteratura esistente

Aim of this paper is to provide some systematic information about Economic Evaluation studies published on national and international journals by Italian authors. All studies are in Italian or English language and published between 1994 and 2000. The main source is the CESAV database, according to these keywords: “Economic Evaluation”, “Cost-Benefit Analysis”, “Cost-Efficacy Analysis”, “Cost-Utility Analysis”, Cost of Illness” and “Italy”. The study investigated the following variables: methods of analysis, illness, kind of therapy, source of data on efficacy, modelling, source of data on health resources, source of data on unit cost, type of costs, sensitivity analysis. A comparison with the main international reviews (“The U .K. NHS Economic Evaluation Database” and “The Health Economic Evaluation Database”) showed that the approach to the Economic Evaluation in Italy is consistent to the European model, even though the number of studies is still less than in other States

Self-management in stroke survivors: Development and implementation of the look after yourself (lay) intervention

Objective: Self-management is recommended in stroke rehabilitation. This report aims to describe timing, contents, and setting of delivery of a patient-centered, self-management program for stroke survivors in their early hospital rehabilitation phase: the Look After Yourself (LAY) in-tervention. Methods: After extensive literature search, the LAY intervention was developed by in-tegrating the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, based on the self-efficacy construct of social cognitive theory, with evidence-based key elements and input from stroke survivors. Results: the LAY intervention aims to implement self-management skills in stroke survivors, enabling them to be active in goal setting and problem solving using action plans and to facilitate the critical transition from hospital to community. It includes both group sessions to facilitate sharing of experi-ences, social comparison, vicarious learning, and increase motivation and one-to-one sessions fo-cused on setting feasible action plans and on teaching personalized strategies to prevent falls. Stand-ardization is ensured by manuals for facilitators and patients. Conclusion: The LAY intervention is the first Italian program to support early self-management in stroke rehabilitation; it has been ex-perimented and its efficacy proven in improving self-efficacy, mental health, and activities of daily living, and detailed results have been published. The LAY intervention is described according to the TIDieR checklist

Density dependence of the extinction coefficient of a dispersion of spherical metal particles

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A comparison of the population pharmacokinetics of rifampicin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide between hospitalized and non-hospitalized tuberculosis patients with or without HIV

Background. Early mortality among hospitalized HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB/HIV) patients is high despite treatment. The pharmacokinetics of rifampicin, isoniazid, and pyrazinamide were investigated in hospitalized TB/HIV patients and a cohort of outpatients with TB (with or without HIV) to determine whether drug exposures differed between groups. Methods. Standard first-line TB treatment was given daily as per national guidelines, which consisted of oral 4-drug fixed-dose combination tablets containing 150 mg rifampicin, 75 mg isoniazid, 400 mg pyrazinamide, and 275 mg ethambutol. Plasma samples were drawn on the 3rd day of treatment over eight hours post-dose. Rifampicin, isoniazid, and pyrazinamide in plasma were quantified and NONMEM® was used to analyze the data. Results. Data from 60 hospitalized patients (11 of whom died within 12 weeks of starting treatment) and 48 outpatients were available. Median (range) weight and age were 56 (35 - 88) kg, and 37 (19 - 77) years, respectively. Bioavailability and clearance of the three drugs were similar between TB/HIV hospitalized and TB outpatients. However, rifampicin’s absorption was slower in hospitalized patients than in outpatients; mean absorption time was 49.9% and 154% more in hospitalized survivors and hospitalized deaths, respectively, than in outpatients. Higher levels of conjugated bilirubin correlated with lower rifampicin clearance. Isoniazid’s clearance estimates were 25.5 L/h for fast metabolizers and 9.76 L/h for slow metabolizers. Pyrazinamide’s clearance was more variable among hospitalized patients. The variability in clearance among patients was 1.70 and 3.56 times more for hospitalized survivors and hospitalized deaths, respectively, than outpatients. Conclusion. We showed that the pharmacokinetics of first-line TB drugs are not substantially different between hospitalized TB/HIV patients and TB (with or without HIV) outpatients. Hospitalized patients do not seem to be underexposed compared to their outpatient counterparts

Brownian motion of graphene.

Brownian motion is a manifestation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem of statistical mechanics. It regulates systems in physics, biology, chemistry, and finance. We use graphene as prototype material to unravel the consequences of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem in two dimensions, by studying the Brownian motion of optically trapped graphene flakes. These orient orthogonal to the light polarization, due to the optical constants anisotropy. We explain the flake dynamics in the optical trap and measure force and torque constants from the correlation functions of the tracking signals, as well as comparing experiments with a full electromagnetic theory of optical trapping. The understanding of optical trapping of two-dimensional nanostructures gained through our Brownian motion analysis paves the way to light-controlled manipulation and all-optical sorting of biological membranes and anisotropic macromolecules

Exploring the dusty Universe

Dust is an ubiquitous inhabitant of the interstellar medium, and leaves an unmistakable signature in its optical properties, and physico-chemical evolution. Although there is little direct knowledge of the true nature of interstellar dust grains, strong evidences point toward the possibility that such grains are composites of many small monomers (mainly made of silicates and carbonaceous materials). We consider two different models of fluffy dust aggregates, occurring as result of ballistic particle-cluster and cluster-cluster aggregation, and a cluster with a Gaussian-like sphere size distribution. We study the optical properties of such composite structures through the multipole fields and the Transition Matrix approach. Our results show the severe limits of applicability of the effective medium theories. By comparing radiation and gravitational forces, we also infer some relevant insights into the dynamical evolution of composite grains in the Solar System. We finally explore the possible role of composite fluffy dust grains in igniting an extraterrestrial prebiotic chemistry