Impact of Mineral Supplementation on Intake Behavior and Blood Flow in Growing Beef Cattle Exposed to Fescue-Derived Alkaloids

Consumption of endophyte-infected tall fescue by cattle has repeatedly been shown to negatively impact dry matter intake (DMI), growth rate, and circulating prolactin concentrations. The objective of the current study was to determine if a mineral supplementation would mitigate the negative effects of fescue-derived alkaloid consumption on feed intake, circulating prolactin, and the vascular system. Twelve Angus crossbred steers were used in a triplicated Latin square design consisting of three 28 d experimental periods. Treatments consisted of three top-dressed mineral supplements (142 g/head/d): a non-medicated control (CON), commercially available Fescue EMT® Mineral Defense (EMT), and a test prototype (EMT 2). Each period was composed of an adaptation/washout subperiod (d 1-14), a step-up sub-period (d 15-21), and a sampling subperiod (d 22-28). During the adaptation/washout sub-period, all steers received CON and were fed a basal diet, composed primarily of alfalfa haylage and corn silage, 1.5 x NEm. During both the step-up and sampling subperiods, steers received their appropriate supplemental treatment and were fed the basal diet containing 15% KY-31 endophyte-infected seed on an as-fed basis. The amount of feed offered was increased incrementally during the step-up period to allow for ad-libitum intake by d 19 and throughout the sampling period. Steers were housed indoors in individual pens and the room temperature was cycled above thermoneutral (~29.4°C) 16 h from 0600-2200 and thermoneutral (~21.1°C) 8 h from 2200 to 0600 to mimic summer conditions. A light:dark cycle was set corresponding to the room temperature cycle. Steers were fed each d at 0830 and the amount offered was recorded. DMI was determined daily based on the DM of feed delivered and the corresponding ort. Meal feeding behavior (i.e., meal size, meal number, and meal duration) was monitored using feed bunks suspended from load cells with communications to a data handler. Daily water consumption was determined using in-line meters. Rectal temperature and respiration rate were recorded daily at 1200h during the treatment sub-period. The arterial luminal cross-sectional area of the caudal artery was measured using a Doppler ultrasound on d 14, d 21, and d 28 of each period. Blood samples were collected on d 14 and d 28 of each period for the determination of circulating prolactin. The EMT treatments reduced (P ≤ 0.04) DMI during the last 7 days of the treatment sub-period. The EMT treatments did not affect water intake (P = 0.67) during the treatment sub-period. The EMT treatments tended (P = 0.07) to decrease meal frequency but did not affect (P ≥ 0.37) meal size or duration. Prior to treatment on d 14, the arterial luminal cross-sectional area of the caudal artery was smaller for steers (P ≤ 0.008) assigned to EMT treatments compared with those assigned to CON. On d 21, the arterial luminal cross-sectional area was greater for EMT (P = 0.007) and EMT 2 (P = 0.10) compared with control. On d 28, the arterial luminal cross-sectional area tended (P = 0.06) to be greater for EMT than control. EMT (P = 0.0004) and EMT 2 (P = 0.02) reduced endophyte-induced vasoconstriction on d 21. Endophyte-induced vasoconstriction on d 21 tended (P = 0.09) to be less for EMT compared with EMT 2. On d 28, endophyte-induced vasoconstriction was lower for EMT compared with CON (P = 0.002) and EMT 2 (P = 0.07), with no difference (P = 0.11) between CON and EMT 2. Prolactin concentration decreased following the addition of endophyte-infected seed, but concentration was unaffected (P ≥ 0.50) by EMT treatments. Rectal temperature and respiration rate were unaffected (P = 0.12) by EMT treatments. Overall, induction of fescue toxicosis was achieved throughout the experiment. The EMT 2 formulation was not as effective in reducing vascular constriction and did not benefit the EMT formulation. This data suggests EMT formulation is effective in partially alleviating the negative impacts of fescue-derived alkaloids when consumed by cattle

THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS TO FOSTER CONNECTIONS, COLLABORATION, AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG GEOGRAPHICALLY DISPERSED TEAMS

The study explores how internal social media platforms can help geographically dispersed colleagues become more connected, more collaborative, and more willing to share information. The study findings are based on the analysis of three social media/social networking community “teamsites” available online to three different groups within a global law firm: a Real Estate practice, a women’s affinity group, and a marketing department, in addition to interviews with six participants of such teamsites. Following an interpretive paradigm defined by Sarah Tracy (2013), this study considers Electronic Propinquity Theory, Media Richness Theory, and Social Information Processing Theory by evaluating social media as a communication medium for propinquity and self-disclosure. The findings demonstrate a correlation between heightened propinquity, self-disclosure, knowledge sharing, and collaboration among geographically dispersed teams using a shared teamsite platform

“The Circle Of Your Acquaintance”: Early 19th Century Ceramic Symbolism and Constructions of Black Womanhood at the Boston-Higginbotham House, Nantucket, MA

During the early 19th century, ideologies of womanhood were beginning to solidify in the national discourse of the United States. The concept of domesticity, the process of homemaking through material and spiritual means, was a key aspect of womanhood during this time, the transition from the Early Republic to the Victorian period. These ideals were prescribed to white middle- and upper-class women but were altered by Black women to serve their needs and adopted to combat negative stereotypes of Black people in a society permeated with racism. This was evident in the work of Maria W. Stewart, the first Black woman political writer, who orated and wrote from Boston in the early 1830s speaking directly to Black women about their roles as mothers and active community members. The archaeological ceramics corresponding to the household of Mary Boston Douglass, a free Black woman living in the community of New Guinea on Nantucket, serves as a case study to examine the lived experiences of free Black women during the 1820s-1830s and their engagement with ideologies of gender. This thesis uses an intersectional approach to interpret ceramic pattern symbolism and vessel forms from the Boston-Higginbotham House site. Supported by the political writings of Stewart, discourses on Black womanhood documented by scholars, and comparative analysis of two contemporary sites, this analysis suggests that Mary’s selection of ceramic wares, and the patterns that adorned them, were used to create what bell hooks calls “homeplace” through the daily consumption of ideas of aspiration and motherhood

Investigation of alternative interface designs for long-list questions–the case of a computer-assisted survey in Germany

This study aims to address the questionnaire design challenges in cases wherein questions involve a large number of response options. Traditionally, these long-list questions are asked in open-ended or closed-ended formats. However, alternative interface design options are emerging in computer-assisted surveys that combine both interface designs. To investigate trade-offs of these alternative designs, a split-ballot experiment was conducted with a) a long list of radio buttons, b) a search tree (nested list of response options), and c) a combo box (combination of a text box and a drop-down box). Based on the question on the highest educational qualification attained from the Innovation Sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the interface design that facilitates respondents optimally and enhances the measurement quality. The findings indicate that combo boxes reduce the response burden and increase measurement details, whereas search trees and long lists reduce post-coding efforts

Imprinting and expression of Dio3os mirrors Dio3 in rat

Genomic imprinting, the preferential expression of maternal or paternal alleles of imprinted genes, is often maintained through expression of imprinted long non-coding (lnc) “antisense” RNAs. These may overlap imprinted transcripts, and are expressed from the opposite allele. Previously we have described brain region-specific imprinted expression of the Dio3 gene in rat, which is preferentially modified by fetal ethanol exposure. The Dio3os (opposite strand) transcript is transcribed in opposite orientation to Dio3 in mouse and human, partially overlaps the Dio3 promoter, and mirrors total Dio3 developmental expression levels. Here, we present that the rat Dio3os transcript(s) exhibits brain region-specific imprinted expression patterns similar to those of Dio3. Rat Dio3os transcript expression is also similarly modified by fetal ethanol exposure. Uniquely, both Dio3 and Dio3os expression occur on the same, rather than opposite, alleles, as determined by strand-specific RT-PCR. Future studies will require direct manipulation of the Dio3os transcript to determine whether the novel paralleling of total and allele-specific expression patterns of this sense/antisense imprinted gene pair reflects an as-yet undefined regulatory mechanism for lncRNA mediated tissue-specific imprinted expression, or rather is a consequence of a more straightforward, but previously undescribed transcriptional coregulation process