1,757 research outputs found
The Effect of Heat Stress and Beta-Adrenergic Agonists on Fatty Acid Mobilization and Their Individual and Interacting Impact on the Adipose Transcriptome of Ruminant Livestock
Heat stress reduces livestock efficiency, induces inflammation, and alters adipose tissue metabolism through stress-induced epinephrine acting on beta-adrenoreceptors (β-AR). Supplementation of beta-adrenergic agonists (β-AA) improve livestock growth and carcass traits, also by acting on β-AR located in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. The binding of β-AR in adipose tissue results in changes in adipose tissue metabolism including increased lipolysis and decreased fatty acid synthesis. Due to their similar effects on stress response pathways, the possible interaction of heat stress and β-AA could negatively impact animal well-being. The purpose of the first study was to understand how ractopamine (RAC), a beta-one adrenergic agonist, and heat stress alter the subcutaneous adipose tissue transcriptome in sheep, and to identify interaction between the two. Based on differential expression and pathway analysis, the interaction of RAC and heat stress was predicted to alter adipose tissue metabolism and inflammation, but physiological data did not show a negative impact due to interaction. The second study investigated possible interaction of zilpaterol hydrochloride (ZH), a beta-two adrenergic agonist, and heat stress in subcutaneous adipose tissue transcriptome in beef cattle. Transcriptomic evidence suggests that ZH did not exacerbate the negative effects of heat stress and instead moderated heat stress-induced inflammation and oxidative stress. The purpose of the third study was to understand the effects of chronic heat stress and ZH supplementation on fatty acid mobilization in ex vivo visceral adipose tissue with and without stimulation of the adipose tissue with epinephrine. All treatment groups responded to stimulation by epinephrine, with no interaction of heat stress and ZH being apparent. Heat stress decreased fatty acid concentration while ZH increased it. Overall, these findings indicate that while the interaction of heat stress and β-AA in ruminant adipose may impact gene expression, there was no evidence of a detriment to animal well-being based on the parameters measured; in fact, β-AA supplementation may moderate many negative effects of heat stress.
Advisor: Jessica L. Peterse
Opportunities for Dutch Biorefineries
Deze Roadmap Bioraffinage beschrijft een aantal mogelijke routes naar de ontwikkeling en implementatie van een bioraffinage-gerelateerde Bio-based Economy in Nederland. De Roadmap combineert korte- en middellange termijn mogelijkheden (commerciële implementatie, demonstratie plants, pilot plants en gerelateerd toegepast onderzoek) met strategisch onderzoek voor de langere termijn. Tevens zijn vier z.g. Moonshots uitgewerkt, als voorziene bioraffinagestrategieën met een grote potentie voor de Nederlandse economi
Problem gambling: a suitable case for social work?
Problem gambling attracts little attention from health and social care agencies
in the UK. Prevalence surveys suggest that 0.6% of the population are
problem gamblers and it is suggested that for each of these individuals,
10–17 other people, including children and other family members, are
affected. Problem gambling is linked to many individual and social problems
including: depression, suicide, significant debt, bankruptcy, family conflict,
domestic violence, neglect and maltreatment of children and offending.
This makes the issue central to social work territory. Yet, the training of
social workers in the UK has consistently neglected issues of addictive
behaviour. Whilst some attention has been paid in recent years to substance
abuse issues, there has remained a silence in relation to gambling
problems. Social workers provide more help for problems relating to addictions
than other helping professions. There is good evidence that treatment,
and early intervention for gambling problems, including psycho-social and
public health approaches, can be very effective. This paper argues that
problem gambling should be moved onto the radar of the social work profession,
via inclusion on qualifying and post-qualifying training programmes
and via research and dissemination of good practice via institutions such as
the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).
Keywords: problem gambling; addictive behaviour; socia
Merging fragments of classical logic
We investigate the possibility of extending the non-functionally complete
logic of a collection of Boolean connectives by the addition of further Boolean
connectives that make the resulting set of connectives functionally complete.
More precisely, we will be interested in checking whether an axiomatization for
Classical Propositional Logic may be produced by merging Hilbert-style calculi
for two disjoint incomplete fragments of it. We will prove that the answer to
that problem is a negative one, unless one of the components includes only
top-like connectives.Comment: submitted to FroCoS 201
Bacterial Deposition of Gold on Hair: Archeological, Forensic and Toxicological Implications
Trace metal analyses in hair are used in archeological, forensic and toxicological investigations as proxies for metabolic processes. We show metallophilic bacteria mediating the deposition of gold (Au), used as tracer for microbial activity in hair post mortem after burial, affecting results of such analyses. Methodology/Principal Findings Human hair was incubated for up to six months in auriferous soils, in natural soil columns (Experiment 1), soils amended with mobile Au(III)-complexes (Experiment 2) and the Au-precipitating bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans (Experiment 3), in peptone-meat-extract (PME) medium in a culture of C. metallidurans amended with Au(III)-complexes (Experiment 4), and in non-auriferous soil (Experiment 5). Hair samples were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy, confocal microscopy and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. In Experiments 1–4 the Au content increased with time (P = 0.038). The largest increase was observed in Experiment 4 vs. Experiment 1 (mean = 1188 vs. 161 µg Kg−1, Fisher's least significance 0.001). The sulfur content, a proxy for hair metabolism, remained unchanged. Notably, the ratios of Au-to-S increased with time (linear trend P = 0.02) and with added Au and bacteria (linear trend, P = 0.005), demonstrating that larger populations of Au-precipitating bacteria and increased availability of Au increased the deposition of Au on the hair. Conclusion/Significance Interactions of soil biota with hair post mortem may distort results of hair analyses, implying that metal content, microbial activities and the duration of burial must be considered in the interpretation of results of archeological, forensic and toxicological hair analyses, which have hitherto been proxies for pre-mortem metabolic processesGenevieve Phillips, Frank Reith, Clifford Qualls, Abdul-Mehdi Ali, Mike Spilde and Otto Appenzelle
Using force covariance to derive effective stochastic interactions in dissipative particle dynamics
There exist methods for determining effective conservative interactions in
coarse grained particle based mesoscopic simulations. The resulting models can
be used to capture thermal equilibrium behavior, but in the model system we
study do not correctly represent transport properties. In this article we
suggest the use of force covariance to determine the full functional form of
dissipative and stochastic interactions. We show that a combination of the
radial distribution function and a force covariance function can be used to
determine all interactions in dissipative particle dynamics. Furthermore we use
the method to test if the effective interactions in dissipative particle
dynamics (DPD) can be adjusted to produce a force covariance consistent with a
projection of a microscopic Lennard-Jones simulation. The results indicate that
the DPD ansatz may not be consistent with the underlying microscopic dynamics.
We discuss how this result relates to theoretical studies reported in the
literature.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
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