Effect of Mineral Nutrition on Red Clover Leaf Area Index

The legume red clover (Trifolium pratense) fixes its own nitrogen (N), but requires P and K fertilisation. There are no recent reliable data in the domestic literature, on the amounts of P and K recommended to farmers; present recommendations are often either inadequate or excessive. Red clover mineral nutrition is significantly affected by soil and weather conditions (Taylor & Quesenberry, 1996). The objective of our twoyear study was to enable rational fertiliser application in accordance with soil type and agro ecological conditions

Effect of Cutting Date on Quality of Red Clover Forage

Development stage or plant age is an important factor determining the chemical composition and quality of red clover forage (Ignjatovic et al., 2001). In early spring, young red clover plants have large leaf mass, high contents of moisture, protein and minerals and a low fibre content. In the course of the growing season, under the effects of long days and high temperatures, the plant undergoes morphological changes: leaves grow more slowly, the stem elongates, dry matter yield increases and quality drops, especially digestibility and the contents of protein and minerals

Linseed Oil as a Source of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Broiler Chicken Nutrition

The aim of the paper was to examine the effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids from linseed oil on productive performances and fatty acid composition of lipids of broiler chicken abdominal fat, as well as correlation and regression between consumed amount of oil and possibilities of their incorporation in the tissues. For the need of experimental research, three groups of 40 day old chicken, hybrid line Cobb 500 were formed. Every group had five replicates, in total amount of 200 chickens per treatment. Control group were fed with diet in addition of 4% soybean oil, while the experimental groups were fed with addition of 4 and 8% of linseed oil in the diet. Addition of linseed oil had a statistically high (P<0.01) influence on chicken body weight reduction in treatments T2 and T3, compared to the body weights of chicken in control group T1. Feed conversion ratio in chicken in experimental groups T2 and T3 was 1.84 and 1.82 kg of feed/kg of gain. Introduction of linseed oil in amounts of 4 and 8% in chicken nutrition led to statistically high (P<0.01) differences in content of linoleic acid (C18:2) in treatments T2 and T3, compared to control group T1, which leads to a conclusion that linseed oil significantly reduces linoleic acid in tissue. Compared to linoleic acid, content of α-linolenic acid (C18:3) was statistically significantly increased (P<0.05) in treatment T2 and highly significantly (P<0.01) in treatment T3, compared to control. Negative values of regression (b) and correlation (r) also confirm the fact that introduction of linseed oil in the diet significantly reduces content of linoleic acid in fat tissue of chickens (b=-0.551; r=-0.79), while the same coefficients show positive dependence between added linseed oil in the diet and deposited linolenic acid in tissues (b=1.081 and r=0.87). Based on the gained results it can be concluded that addition of linseed oil in the amount of 4 and 8% could be successfully used in chicken nutrition for fatty acid composition improvement and for lowering the ratio between n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid in tissues of broilers

Uphill walking at iso-efficiency speeds

Uphill walking gait has been extensively studied, but the optimal uphill speed able to enhance the metabolic demand without increasing fatigability has so far received little attention. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the metabolic/kinematic demand at constant speed (6 km\ub7h 121 G0 level, G2 2% uphill, G7 7% uphill) and at iso-efficiency speeds (G2IES 5.2 km\ub7h 121 2% uphill and G7IES 3.9 km\ub7h 121 7% uphill). For this aim, physically active women (n:24, Age 33.40 \ub1 4.97 years, BMI 21.62 \ub1 2.06 kg/m-2) after an 8-min warm-up were studied on a treadmill for 10\u2b9 for every walking condition with a 5\u2b9 rest in between. Average heart rate (AVG-HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and kinematic variables (stance time, swing time, stride length, stride cycle, stride-length variability, stride-cycle variability and internal work) were studied. Modif\ufeffications in stance time, stride length and stride cycle (p&lt;0.005), and lower internal-work values (p&lt;0.001) occurred in G7IES in comparison to the other conditions. Swing time was significantly modified only in G7IES compared to G0 and G7 (p&lt;0.001 and p&lt;0.005, respectively). Stride-length variability and stride-cycle variability were higher in G7IES compared to the other conditions (p&lt;0.001). G7 induced the highest AVG-HR (p&lt;0.005) and RPE (p&lt;0.001) compared to the other conditions. This study demonstrates that by applying the equation for uphill walking gait, it is possible to maintain a similar metabolic demand and RPE at iso-efficiency speeds during uphill compared to level walking, inducing at the same time a modification of the kinematic parameters of walking gait performed at the same slope condition

Effect of inhaled bronchodilators on inspiratory capacity and dyspnoea at rest in COPD

It has been shown that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) develop dynamic hyperinflation (DH), which contributes to dyspnoea and exercise intolerance. Formoterol, salmeterol and oxitropium have been recommended for maintenance therapy in COPD patients, but their effect on DH has only been assessed for salmeterol. The aim of the present study was to compare the acute effect of four inhaled bronchodilators (salbutamol, formoterol, salmeterol and oxitropium) and placebo on forced expiratory volume in one second, inspiratory capacity, forced vital capacity and dyspnoea in COPD patients. A cross-over, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was carried out on 20 COPD patients. Patients underwent pulmonary function testing and dyspnoea evaluation, in basal condition and 5, 15, 30, 60 and 120 min after bronchodilator or placebo administration. The results indicate that in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with decreased baseline inspiratory capacity, there was a much greater increase of inspiratory capacity after bronchodilator administration, which correlated closely with the improvement of dyspnoea sensation at rest. For all bronchodilators used, inspiratory capacity reversibility should be tested at 30 min following the bronchodilator. On average, formoterol elicited the greatest increase in inspiratory capacity than the other bronchodilators used, though the difference was significant only with salmeterol and oxitropium. The potential advantage of formoterol needs to be tested in a larger patient population

Chronic Kidney Disease and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease—Is There a Link?

Research in recent years has led to the recognition of the importance of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its relationship to the metabolic syndrome (MS). This has led to a growing interest in the potential prognostic value of NAFLD for adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcome. On the other hand, searching for new risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) development and progression is very important. Growing evidence suggests that the MS is an important factor in the pathogenesis of CKD. The best confirmation of this pathogenic link is hypertensive and diabetic nephropathy as the main causes of CKD. Furthermore, the possible link between NAFLD and CKD has also attracted research interest and recent data suggest an association between these two conditions. These findings have fuelled concerns that NAFLD may be a new and added risk factor for the development and progression of CKD. NAFLD and CKD share some important cardiometabolic risk factors and possible common pathophysiological mechanisms, and both are linked to an increased risk of incident CVD events. Therefore, common factors underlying the pathogenesis of NAFLD and CKD may be insulin resistance, oxidative stress, activation of rennin-angiotensin system, and inappropriate secretion of inflammatory cytokines by steatotic and inflamed liver

Radiomics-Based Assessment of Primary Sjögren's Syndrome From Salivary Gland Ultrasonography Images

Salivary gland ultrasonography (SGUS) has shown good potential in the diagnosis of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). However, a series of international studies have reported needs for improvements of the existing pSS scoring procedures in terms of inter/intra observer reliability before being established as standardized diagnostic tools. The present study aims to solve this problem by employing radiomics features and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to make the pSS scoring more objective and faster compared to human expert scoring. The assessment of AI algorithms was performed on a two-centric cohort, which included 600 SGUS images (150 patients) annotated using the original SGUS scoring system proposed in 1992 for pSS. For each image, we extracted 907 histogram-based and descriptive statistics features from segmented salivary glands. Optimal feature subsets were found using the genetic algorithm based wrapper approach. Among the considered algorithms (seven classifiers and five regressors), the best preforming was the multilayer perceptron (MLP) classifier (κ = 0.7). The MLP over-performed average score achieved by the clinicians (κ = 0.67) by the considerable margin, whereas its reliability was on the level of human intra-observer variability (κ = 0.71). The presented findings indicate that the continuously increasing HarmonicSS cohort will enable further advancements in AI-based pSS scoring methods by SGUS. In turn, this may establish SGUS as an effective noninvasive pSS diagnostic tool, with the final goal to supplement current diagnostic tests