The Effect of Substituting High Oil Corn as a Replacement for Normal Corn in Nursery Pig Diets

The objective of this study was to determine the production and monetary effects of using High Oil Corn (HOC) in a nursery phase feeding program and monitor growth performance differences through marketing. Two groups of weaned crossbred pigs (n = 293 trial 1; n = 265 trial 2) were segregated by sex and weight into small, medium and heavy groups and allotted to 12 nursery pens. Pigs received one of two dietary treatments which included; a transitional phase I diet for 7 days; a commercial corn soy based phase II diet (NCII) for 14 days and a phase III diet (NCIII) for 7 days; a HOC soy based phase II diet for 21 days and the NCIII diet for 7 days. Body weight, Average daily feed intake and Gain/Feed (G/F) ratios were measured weekly during the nursery period. Pigs were transferred to a grow/finish barn on d 28 post-weaning. Body weight, Backfat (BF) and Longissimus Muscle Area (LMA) at the 10th and last ribs were ultrasonically evaluated 4 times prior to market. Average daily gain of nursery pigs on the three-phase NC diet was greater than pigs fed the HOC two-phase diet at d 21 post-weaning (p = .0034) and 28 post-weaning (p = .0128). ADG for heavy pigs was greater (p = .0001) than that of medium and lightweight pigs and no treatment�weight group interactions were observed (p = .2043). Pigs fed the three-phase diet had greater G/F ratios than pigs fed the HOC two-phase diet at d 21 (p = .0137) and 28 (p = .0134). LEA for pigs fed the three-phase diet was greater than pigs fed the HOC two-phase diet when measured on d 28 at the 10th (p = .0565) and last rib (p = .0370). Even though pigs were fed alike in the grow-finish period, ADG of pigs fed the three-phase nursery diet was greater (p = .0106) than that of pigs fed the HOC two-phase nursery diet. There were no differences in the predicted 114 kg weight (p = .2658). However, economic differences were noted for the two treatments with the HOC two-phase diet lowering the cost of production of marketed animals. There were no treatment differences for average daily lean growth per day (p = .8611) or percentage lean of carcasses (p = .2865). The results did not support removal of the transitional phase I diet and the substitution of HOC for NC in a phase II diet fed to nursery pigs for maximal nursery growth, nor was carcass composition of pigs at marketing adversely affected

Comment on "Density Functional Simulation of a Breaking Nanowire"

In a recent Letter, Nakamura et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1538 (1999)] described first principles calculations for a breaking Na nanocontact. Their system consists of a periodic one-dimensional array of supercells, each of which contains 39 Na atoms, originally forming a straight, crystalline wire with a length of 6 atoms. The system is elongated by increasing the length of the unit cell. At each step, the atomic configuration is relaxed to a new local equilibrium, and the tensile force is evaluated from the change of the total energy with elongation. Aside from a discontinuity of the force occuring at the transition from a crytalline to an amorphous configuration during the early stages of elongation, they were unable to identify any simple correlations between the force and the number of electronic modes transmitted through the contact. An important question is whether their model is realistic, i.e., whether it can be compared to experimental results obtained for a single nanocontact between two macroscopic pieces of metal. In this Comment, we demonstrate that with such a small unit cell, the interference effects between neighboring contacts are of the same size as the force oscillations in a single nanocontact.Comment: 1 pag

Assessing cortisol from hair samples in a large observational cohort: The Whitehall II study

Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) have been suggested to reflect long-term integrated cortisol levels, but most evidence of associations with co-variates is from small samples of healthy volunteers. The objective of this study was to describe the collection of hair samples in a large cohort study and report associations of demographic and health measures with HCC. We examined HCC measured from the 3 cm hair segment near the scalp in 3507 participants (aged 59–83 y) from The Whitehall II occupational cohort study of British civil servants. Hair samples were analysed using a column switching LC–APCI–MS/MS assay. Findings from mutually adjusted linear regression analyses revealed lower HCC in participants who reported use of hair dye [% difference (95%CI); −12.5 (−22.0, −1.9), p value = 0.022] and evidence suggestive of differences by length of sample storage and seasonal variation. With regard to demographic variables, HCC was lower in women compared to men [−17.0 (−24.8, −8.4), p value <0.001] and higher in Black compared to other ethnic groups. Prevalent diabetes, use of systemic corticosteroids and cardiovascular medication were independently associated with higher HCC. With regard to health, depressive symptoms were associated with higher HCC [20.0 (8.1, 33.3), p value = 0.001] following adjustment for physical disease and medication. We conclude that hair steroid analysis presents significant opportunities for assessing cortisol in large scale cohorts. Demographic factors, sample storage, season of collection and hair characteristics should be considered in future analyses. Health status, both mental and physical, is linked to HCC

EczemaPred: a computational framework for personalised prediction of eczema severity dynamics

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease leading to substantial quality of life impairment with heterogeneous treatment responses. People with AD would benefit from personalised treatment strategies, whose design requires predicting how AD severity evolves for each individual. Objective: This study aims to develop a computational framework for personalised prediction of AD severity dynamics. Methods: We introduced EczemaPred, a computational framework to predict patient-dependent dynamic evolution of AD severity using Bayesian state-space models that describe latent dynamics of AD severity items and how they are measured. We used EczemaPred to predict the dynamic evolution of validated patient-oriented scoring atopic dermatitis (PO-SCORAD) by combining predictions from the models for the nine severity items of PO-SCORAD (six intensity signs, extent of eczema, and two subjective symptoms). We validated this approach using longitudinal data from two independent studies: a published clinical study in which PO-SCORAD was measured twice weekly for 347 AD patients over 17 weeks, and another one in which PO-SCORAD was recorded daily by 16 AD patients for 12 weeks. Results: EczemaPred achieved good performance for personalised predictions of PO-SCORAD and its severity items daily to weekly. EczemaPred outperformed standard time-series forecasting models such as a mixed effect autoregressive model. The uncertainty in predicting PO-SCORAD was mainly attributed to that in predicting intensity signs (75% of the overall uncertainty). Conclusions: EczemaPred serves as a computational framework to make a personalised prediction of AD severity dynamics relevant to clinical practice. EczemaPred is available as an R package

Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia and Pulmonary Embolism: An Association to Consider.

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) is increasingly recognized as a strong risk factor for venous thrombosis. However, there are currently no guidelines on thromboembolism prevention and management during AIHA. Here, we describe the case of a patient with AIHA and pulmonary embolism and resume the current knowledge on epidemiology, risk factors, treatment, and pathophysiology of thrombosis during AIHA, as well as new therapeutic perspectives to prevent thrombus formation during AIHA