51 research outputs found
The Protein Component of Sow Colostrum and Milk
The production of colostrum and milk by the sow are primary limiting factors affecting survival, growth and development of the piglets. The proteins of colostrum and milk provide not only a supply of amino acids to the neonate but also a wide range of bioactive factors. Proteins in sow mammary secretions include those associated with the milk fat membranes, caseins, mammary-derived whey proteins, immunoglobulins, hormones and growth factors, enzymes, and a wide range of other proteins. Concentrations of most milk-specific proteins typically are lower in colostrum than in milk, while concentrations of immunoglobulins and other bioactive proteins often are enriched in colostrum compared with mature milk. Dietary protein is utilized for milk protein production with approximately 50% efficiency. During both the colostrum period and at peak lactation as much as 700–800 g of protein is secreted daily by today’s highly prolific sows. Estimates of daily milk protein secretion during lactation suggest that sows are not able to consume sufficient dietary protein and energy to account for output of solids in milk and therefore must mobilize body protein and body fat to support their milk production. Milk protein content typically is not affected by dietary treatment, indicating that the sow mobilizes her body reserves to maintain milk production and milk protein production. These observations are of particular interest for today’s highly prolific sows, which may require more dietary protein than previous genotypes
Transitions between Inherent Structures in Water
The energy landscape approach has been useful to help understand the dynamic
properties of supercooled liquids and the connection between these properties
and thermodynamics. The analysis in numerical models of the inherent structure
(IS) trajectories -- the set of local minima visited by the liquid -- offers
the possibility of filtering out the vibrational component of the motion of the
system on the potential energy surface and thereby resolving the slow
structural component more efficiently. Here we report an analysis of an IS
trajectory for a widely-studied water model, focusing on the changes in
hydrogen bond connectivity that give rise to many IS separated by relatively
small energy barriers. We find that while the system \emph{travels} through
these IS, the structure of the bond network continuously modifies, exchanging
linear bonds for bifurcated bonds and usually reversing the exchange to return
to nearly the same initial configuration. For the 216 molecule system we
investigate, the time scale of these transitions is as small as the simulation
time scale ( fs). Hence for water, the transitions between each of
these IS is relatively small and eventual relaxation of the system occurs only
by many of these transitions. We find that during IS changes, the molecules
with the greatest displacements move in small ``clusters'' of 1-10 molecules
with displacements of nm, not unlike simpler liquids.
However, for water these clusters appear to be somewhat more branched than the
linear ``string-like'' clusters formed in a supercooled Lennar d-Jones system
found by Glotzer and her collaborators.Comment: accepted in PR
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