Effects of Wheat Middlings on Utilization of Mature Prairie Hay by Steers

A digestibility trial measuring intake, digestibility, ruminal nutrient disappearance, and ruminal pH was conducted to determine the effects of wheat middlings on utilization of mature prairie hay. Treatments included supplements used in a previous winter grazing trial at the SDSU Cottonwood Research Station that were balanced to provide the following amounts of crude protein (Ib) and metabolizable energy (Mcal) per cow daily: 1) soybean meal .75 and 2.40, 2) low wheat middlings .75 and 4.76, 3) corn-soybean meal 1.50 and 9.40, and 4) high wheat middlings 1.50 and 9.40. These supplements were fed to the steers in proportional amounts based on BW75. Steers receiving the low wheat middlings supplement had similar hay and total diet intake but lower digestible dry matter intake than steers receiving soybean meal. High wheat middlings supplementation decreased hay intake and digestible hay and total diet intake compared to corn-soybean meal and low wheat middlings. The high level of wheat middlings and cornsoybean meal reduced ruminal pH at 4 and 8 hours post-supplementation. The high level of wheat middlings depressed overall ruminal disappearance of hay dry matter and NDF compared to the corn-soybean meal supplement and the low level of wheat middlings. This study indicates that wheat middlings may depress utilization of mature, low protein forages compared to soybean meal or corn-soybean meal supplements balanced to provide the same level of protein

Evaluation of Wheat Middlings as a Supplement for Beef Cows Grazing Native Winter Range

Two winter grazing trials were conducted at the SDSU Cottonwood Research Station near Cottonwood, SD, to compare wheat middlings to soybean meal and corn-soybean meal supplements. In consecutive years, grazing trials from December to February were conducted using Simmental x Angus crossbred cows grazing two pastures with differing amounts of available forage and fed four supplemental treatments that were balanced to provide the following amounts of crude protein (Ib) and metabolizable energy (Mcal) per cow daily: 1) soybean meal .75 and 2.40, 2) low wheat middlings .75 and 4.76, 3) corn-soybean meal 1.50 and 9.40, and 4) high wheat middlings 1.50 and 9.40. Cows grazing the high available forage pasture gained 53 Ib more than those grazing the low available forage pasture. The supplement x pasture interaction indicates that level of available forage affects response to the supplemental treatment. When available forage was low, wheat middlings was a less effective source of supplemental protein than soybean meal. When available forage was high, soybean meal and the low wheat middlings supplements resulted in similar cow weight gains. Regardless of forage availability, the high wheat middlings supplement was a less effective source of supplemental energy cornpared to the corn-soybean meal supplement balanced to provide equal protein and energy. The supplement x year interaction resulted from soybean meal being more beneficial than low wheat middlings in year 1 while in year 2, soybean meal and low wheat middlings resulted in similar cow performance

Effect of a Blood Meal/Corn Gluten Meal Supplement After Calving on Performance of Cows Grazing Native Range

A spring grazing trial was conducted to determine the effect of a supplement with lower rumen degradability (sometimes referred to as escape protein or bypass protein) than soybean meal on cow and calf performance. Three supplement treatments based on corn, soybean meal and blood meallcorn gluten meal were fed to 70 Simmental-Angus crossbred cows grazing native range from early April to late May. There was no advantage to the escape protein as measured by cow weight change, reproductive performance or calf gain. Corn supplemented cows performed similar to soybean meal supplemented cows

Evaluation of Wheat Middlings as a Supplement for Beef Cows Grazing Native Winter Range

A winter grazing trial was conducted at the SDSU Cottonwood Research Station near Cottonwood, SD, to compare wheat middlings to soybean meal and corn-soybean meal supplements. During December and January 122 pregnant Simmental-Angus crossbred cows grazing two pastures with differing amounts of available forage were fed four supplemental treatments that provided the following amounts of crude protein (Ib) and metabolizable energy (Mcal) per cow daily: I) soybean meal .75 and 2.40, 2) corn-soybean meal 1.50 and 9.40, 3) low wheat middlings .75 and 4.76, and 4) high wheat middlings 1.50 and 9.40. Cows grazing the high available forage pasture gained 56 Ib more than those grazing the low available forage pasture. Cows grazing the high available forage pasture were able to select a diet higher in crude protein and lower in acid = detergent fiber. The supplement x pasture interaction indicates that level of forage availability is a factor in determining a cow\u27s response to the supplemental treatment. When forage availability was low, wheat middlings was a less effective source of supplemental protein than soybean meal and a less effective source of supplemental energy compared to a corn-soybean meal supplement balanced to provide equal protein and energy. For cows grazing the high available forage pasture, soybean meal and the low wheat middlings supplements produced similar cow weight gains and the high wheat middlings supplement was a less effective source of supplemental energy than the corn-soybean meal supplement. Cows grazing the high forage pasture receiving 1.89 Ib soybean meal had similar weight gains and lower supplement cost than cows grazing the low forage pasture receiving 6.59Ib of the corn-soybean meal supplement

Influence of Prototropic Reactions on the Absorption and Fluorescence Spectra of Methyl p-dimethylaminobenzoate and Its Two Ortho Derivatives

The influence of prototropic reactions on the spectral characteristics of methyl p-dimethylaminobenzoate (I) and its o-methoxy (II) and o-hydroxy (III) derivatives has been studied using steady-state spectroscopic technique and quantum-chemical calculations. This study concerns the solvent-induced shift of the absorption, locally excited (LE) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) fluorescence bands in the neat tetrahydrofuran (THF) and its hydrochloric acid solutions at different HCl concentrations. On the basis of the experimental results and quantum-chemical calculations, it was shown that in a hydrochloric acid solution the studied molecules exist as a mixture of neutral, mono-, and dicationic forms. Additionally, the results of spectroscopic measurements were used to calculate, according to the Benesi-Hildebrand method, the equilibrium constants of protopropic reactions in the ground, S0, and excited, S1, states. Our findings predestine molecules I and II to be used as acid fluorescence probes in a region of 0–2.5 M of [H+] concentrations

Requirement of a Membrane Potential for the Posttranslational Transfer of Proteins into Mitochondsria

Posttranslational transfer of most precursor proteins into mitochondria is dependent on energization of the mitochondria. Experiments were carried out to determine whether the membrane potential or the intramitochondrial ATP is the immediate energy source. Transfer in vitro of precursors to the ADP/ATP carrier and to ATPase subunit 9 into isolated Neurospora mitochondria was investigated. Under conditions where the level of intramitochondrial ATP was high and the membrane potential was dissipated, import and processing of these precursor proteins did not take place. On the other hand, precursors were taken up and processed when the intramitochondrial ATP level was low, but the membrane potential was not dissipated. We conclude that a membrane potential is involved in the import of those mitochondrial precursor proteins which require energy for intracellular translocatio

The determinants of election to the United Nations Security Council

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11127-013-0096-4.The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the foremost international body responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. Members vote on issues of global importance and consequently receive perks—election to the UNSC predicts, for instance, World Bank and IMF loans. But who gets elected to the UNSC? Addressing this question empirically is not straightforward as it requires a model that allows for discrete choices at the regional and international levels; the former nominates candidates while the latter ratifies them. Using an original multiple discrete choice model to analyze a dataset of 180 elections from 1970 to 2005, we find that UNSC election appears to derive from a compromise between the demands of populous countries to win election more frequently and a norm of giving each country its turn. We also find evidence that richer countries from the developing world win election more often, while involvement in warfare lowers election probability. By contrast, development aid does not predict election

Host genetics determine susceptibility to avian influenza infection and transmission dynamics

Host-genetic control of influenza virus infection has been the object of little attention. In this study we determined that two inbred lines of chicken differing in their genetic background, Lines 0 and C-B12, were respectively relatively resistant and susceptible to infection with the low pathogenicity influenza virus A/Turkey/England/647/77 as defined by substantial differences in viral shedding trajectories. Resistant birds, although infected, were unable to transmit virus to contact birds, as ultimately only the presence of a sustained cloacal shedding (and not oropharyngeal shedding) was critical for transmission. Restriction of within-bird transmission of virus occurred in the resistant line, with intra-nares or cloacal infection resulting in only local shedding and failing to transmit fully through the gastro-intestinal-pulmonary tract. Resistance to infection was independent of adaptive immune responses, including the expansion of specific IFNγ secreting cells or production of influenza-specific antibody. Genetic resistance to a novel H9N2 virus was less robust, though significant differences between host genotypes were still clearly evident. The existence of host-genetic determination of the outcome of influenza infection offers tools for the further dissection of this regulation and also for understanding the mechanisms of influenza transmission within and between birds

Systematic Analysis of Stability Patterns in Plant Primary Metabolism

Metabolic networks are characterized by complex interactions and regulatory mechanisms between many individual components. These interactions determine whether a steady state is stable to perturbations. Structural kinetic modeling (SKM) is a framework to analyze the stability of metabolic steady states that allows the study of the system Jacobian without requiring detailed knowledge about individual rate equations. Stability criteria can be derived by generating a large number of structural kinetic models (SK-models) with randomly sampled parameter sets and evaluating the resulting Jacobian matrices. Until now, SKM experiments applied univariate tests to detect the network components with the largest influence on stability. In this work, we present an extended SKM approach relying on supervised machine learning to detect patterns of enzyme-metabolite interactions that act together in an orchestrated manner to ensure stability. We demonstrate its application on a detailed SK-model of the Calvin-Benson cycle and connected pathways. The identified stability patterns are highly complex reflecting that changes in dynamic properties depend on concerted interactions between several network components. In total, we find more patterns that reliably ensure stability than patterns ensuring instability. This shows that the design of this system is strongly targeted towards maintaining stability. We also investigate the effect of allosteric regulators revealing that the tendency to stability is significantly increased by including experimentally determined regulatory mechanisms that have not yet been integrated into existing kinetic models