A novel model to explain dietary factors affecting hypocalcaemia in dairy cattle

Most dairy cows exhibit different degrees of hypocalcaemia around calving because the gestational Ca requirements shift to the disproportionately high Ca requirements of lactation. Ca homeostasis is a robust system that effectively adapts to changes in Ca demand or supply. However, these adaptations often are not rapid enough to avoid hypocalcaemia. A delay in the reconfiguration of intestinal Ca absorption and bone resorption is probably the underlying cause of this transient hypocalcaemia. Several dietary factors that affect different aspects of Ca metabolism are known to reduce the incidence of milk fever. The present review describes the interactions between nutrition and Ca homeostasis using observations from cattle and extrapolations from other species and aims to quantitatively model the effects of the nutritional approaches that are used to induce dry cows into an early adaptation of Ca metabolism. The present model suggests that reducing dietary cation–anion difference (DCAD) increases Ca clearance from the blood by dietary induction of systemic acidosis, which results in hypercalciuria due to the loss of function of the renal Ca transient receptor potential vanilloid channel TRPV5. Alternatively, reducing the gastrointestinal availability of Ca by reducing dietary Ca or its nutritional availability will also induce the activation of Ca metabolism to compensate for basal blood Ca clearance. Our model of gastrointestinal Ca availability as well as blood Ca clearance in the transition dairy cow allowed us to conclude that the most common dietary strategies for milk fever prevention may have analogous modes of action that are based on the principle of metabolic adaptation before calving

Canine and feline pregnancy loss due to viral and non-infectious causes : a review.

Among the causes for pregnancy loss, viruses and non-infectious factors are among the most important. In both dogs and cats, research and clinical evidence provide proof that there is an increasing incidence of pregnancy loss associated with infectious diseases like herpesvirus, as well as the presence of toxicants or chemicals in the animal's diet and environment. Endocrine causes must be taken into consideration when dealing with pregnancy loss. This review will cover the most recent knowledge regarding viral and non-infectious of pregnancy losses in the dog and cat

Intestinal barrier function and absorption in pigs after waeaning: a review

Under commercial conditions, weaning of piglets is associated with social, environmental and dietary stress. Consequently, small-intestinal barrier and absorptive functions deteriorate within a short time after weaning. Most studies that have assessed small-intestinal permeability in pigs after weaning used either Ussing chambers or orally administered marker probes. Paracellular barrier function and active absorption decrease when pigs are weaned at 3 weeks of age or earlier. However, when weaned at 4 weeks of age or later, the barrier function is less affected, and active absorption is not affected or is increased. Weaning stress is a critical factor in relation to the compromised paracellular barrier function after weaning. Adequate feed intake levels after weaning prevent the loss of the intestinal barrier function. Transcellular transport of macromolecules and passive transcellular absorption decrease after weaning. This may reflect a natural intestinal maturation process that is enhanced by the weaning process and prevents the pig from an antigen overload. It seems that passive and active absorption after weaning adapt accurately to the new environment when pigs are weaned after 3 weeks of age. However, when weaned at 3 weeks of age or earlier, the decrease in active absorption indicates that pigs are unable to sufficiently adapt to the new environment. To improve weaning strategies, future studies should distinguish whether the effect of feed intake on barrier function can be directed to a lack of a specific nutrient, i.e. energy or protein

Efficiency of fat deposition from nonstarch polysaccharides, starch and unsaturated fat in pig

The aim was to evaluate under protein-limiting conditions the effect of different supplemental energy sources: fermentable NSP (fNSP), digestible starch (dStarch) and digestible unsaturated fat (dUFA), on marginal efficiency of fat deposition and distribution. A further aim was to determine whether the extra fat deposition from different energy sources, and its distribution in the body, depends on feeding level. A total of fifty-eight individually housed pigs (48 (sd 4) kg) were used in a 3 x 2 factorial design study, with three energy sources (0.2 MJ digestible energy (DE)/kg0.75 per d of fNSP, dStarch and dUFA added to a control diet) at two feeding levels. Ten pigs were slaughtered at 48 (sd 4) kg body weight and treatment pigs at 106 (sd 3) kg body weight. Bodies were dissected and the chemical composition of each body fraction was determined. The effect of energy sources on fat and protein deposition was expressed relative to the control treatments within both energy intake levels based on a total of thirty-two observations in six treatments, and these marginal differences were subsequently treated as dependent variables. Results showed that preferential deposition of the supplemental energy intake in various fat depots did not depend on the energy source, and the extra fat deposition was similar at each feeding level. The marginal energetic transformation (energy retention; ER) of fNSP, dStarch and dUFA for fat retention (ERfat:DE) was 44, 52 and 49 % (P>0.05), respectively. Feeding level affected fat distribution, but source of energy did not change the relative partitioning of fat deposition. The present results do not support values of energetic efficiencies currently used in net energy-based system

Implications of an arithmetical symmetry of the commutant for modular invariants

We point out the existence of an arithmetical symmetry for the commutant of the modular matrices S and T. This symmetry holds for all affine simple Lie algebras at all levels and implies the equality of certain coefficients in any modular invariant. Particularizing to SU(3)_k, we classify the modular invariant partition functions when k+3 is an integer coprime with 6 and when it is a power of either 2 or 3. Our results imply that no detailed knowledge of the commutant is needed to undertake a classification of all modular invariants.Comment: 17 pages, plain TeX, DIAS-STP-92-2

Tolerance and safety evaluation of N, N-dimethylglycine, a naturally occurring organic compound, as a feed additive in broiler diets

N, N-dimethylglycine (DMG) is a tertiary amino acid that naturally occurs as an intermediate metabolite in choline-to-glycine metabolism. The objective of the present trial was to evaluate tolerance, safety and bioaccumulation of dietary DMG in broilers when supplemented at 1 g and 10 g Na-DMG/kg. A feeding trial was conducted using 480 1-d-old broiler chicks that were randomly allocated to twenty-four pens and fed one of three test diets added with 0, 1 or 10 g Na-DMG/kg during a 39 d growth period. Production performance was recorded to assess tolerance and efficacy of the supplement. At the end of the trial, toxicity was evaluated by means of haematology, plasma biochemistry and histopathology of liver, kidney and heart (n 12), whereas bioaccumulation was assessed on breast meat, liver, blood, kidney and adipose tissue (n 8). Carcass traits were similar between the control and 1 g Na-DMG/kg feed groups (P>0·05), but the feed:gain ratio was significantly improved at 1 g Na-DMG/kg feed compared with the control or the 10-fold dose (P = 0·008). Histological examinations showed no pathological effects and results of haematology and plasma biochemistry revealed similar values between the test groups (P>0·05). Bioaccumulation occurred at the 10-fold dose, but the resulting DMG content in breast meat was comparable with, for instance, wheat bran and much lower than uncooked spinach. In conclusion, DMG at 1 g Na-DMG/kg improved the feed:gain ratio in broilers without DMG being accumulated in consumer parts. Furthermore, dietary supplementation with DMG up to 10 g Na-DMG/kg did not induce toxicity or impaired performance in broilers

Space, Image, and Reform in Early Modern Art: The Influence of Marcia Hall

The essays in Space, Image and Reform in Early Modern Art build on Marcia Hall\u27s seminal contributions in several categories crucial for Renaissance studies, especially the spatiality of the church interior, the altarpiece\u27s facture and affectivity, the notion of artistic style, and the controversy over images in the era of Counter Reform. Accruing the advantage of critical engagement with a single paradigm, this volume better assesses its applicability and range. The book works cumulatively to provide blocks of theoretical and empirical research on issues spanning the function and role of images in their contexts over two centuries. Relating Hall\u27s investigations of Renaissance art to new fields, Space, Image and Reform expands the ideas at the center of her work further back in time, further afield, and deeper into familiar topics, thus achieving a cohesion not usually seen in edited volumes honoring a single scholar.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_smemc/1014/thumbnail.jp

Genetic Programming for Computationally Efficient Land Use Allocation Optimization

Land use allocation optimization is essential to identify ideal landscape compositions for the future. However, due to the solution encoding, standard land use allocation algorithms cannot cope with large land use allocation problems. Solutions are encoded as sequences of elements, in which each element represents a land unit or a group of land units. As a consequence, computation times increase with every additional land unit. We present an alternative solution encoding: functions describing a variable in space. Function encoding yields the potential to evolve solutions detached from individual land units and evolve fields representing the landscape as a single object. In this study, we use a genetic programming algorithm to evolve functions representing continuous fields, which we then map to nominal land use maps. We compare the scalability of the new approach with the scalability of two state-of-the-art algorithms with standard encoding. We perform the benchmark on one raster and one vector land use allocation problem with multiple objectives and constraints, with ten problem sizes each. The results prove that the run times increase exponentially with the problem size for standard encoding schemes, while the increase is linear with genetic programming. Genetic programming was up to 722 times faster than the benchmark algorithm. The improvement in computation time does not reduce the algorithm performance in finding optimal solutions; often, it even increases. We conclude that evolving functions enables more efficient land use allocation planning and yields much potential for other spatial optimization applications

Automorphisms of the affine SU(3) fusion rules

We classify the automorphisms of the (chiral) level-k affine SU(3) fusion rules, for any value of k, by looking for all permutations that commute with the modular matrices S and T. This can be done by using the arithmetic of the cyclotomic extensions where the problem is naturally posed. When k is divisible by 3, the automorphism group (Z_2) is generated by the charge conjugation C. If k is not divisible by 3, the automorphism group (Z_2 x Z_2) is generated by C and the Altsch\"uler--Lacki--Zaugg automorphism. Although the combinatorial analysis can become more involved, the techniques used here for SU(3) can be applied to other algebras.Comment: 21 pages, plain TeX, DIAS-STP-92-4