Nitrogen source on performance of feedlot young bulls fed hydrolyzed sugarcane bagasse diets

Oitenta e um machos não castrados das raças Nelore (27), Canchim (27) e Holandesa (27), com peso médio inicial de 360kg e idade média de 18 meses, foram utilizados para avaliar os efeitos da substituição de fonte de proteína verdadeira (farelo de soja), por nitrogênio não protéico (NNP), uréia ou amiréia (fonte de nitrogênio não protéico de suposta liberação gradativa) sobre o desempenho de bovinos confinados. O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos inteiramente ao acaso com três animais por baia e nove baias por tratamento. Os blocos foram delineados de acordo com o peso inicial e na raça. As rações experimentais continham BTPV (45% MS da dieta) e BIN (5% MS da dieta) como fontes de volumosos e 50% de concentrado. Os tratamentos consistiam de: 1) concentrado contendo farelo de soja (FS); 2) concentrado contendo uréia e 3) concentrado contendo amiréia (A-150S). O consumo de matéria seca (CMS) foi de 8,99; 7,43 e 7,69kg/dia, o ganho de peso diário (GPD) foi de 0,983; 0,368 e 0,404kg/dia e a conversão alimentar (CA) 9,56; 20,14 e 19,54kg MS/kg de ganho para os tratamentos FS, uréia e A-150S, respectivamente. As rações com FS apresentaram proporcionalmente maior (P<0,01) CMS e maior GPD e melhor CA em relação aos tratamentos uréia e A-150S. As rações com uréia e A-150S não diferiram (P>0,05) entre si. A substituição do FS por fontes de NNP reduziu o desempenho de bovino de corte em terminação.Eighty-one young bulls (27 Nellore, 27 Canchim, and 27 Holstein), averaging 18-month-old and weighting 360kg of initial body weight (BW), were used to evaluate the effects of nitrogen sources on feedlot performance. Treatments were assigned in a completely randomized block design using three steers per stall and nine per treatment. Blocks were defined by initial BW and breed. Experimental treatments were: 1) soybean meal, 2) urea, and 3) starea. Diets were isonitrogenous and isoenergetic composed by 50% concentrate and 50% forage (45% hydrolyzed sugarcane bagasse + 5% in natura sugarcane bagasse). Dry matter intakes (DMI) were 8.99, 7.43, and 7.69kg/day, average daily gains (ADG) were 0.983, 0.368, and 0.404kg/day and feed efficiencies were 9.56, 20.14, and 19.54kg DM/kg of gain for soybean meal, urea and starea treatments, respectively for steers fed. Diets with soybean meal showed proportionally higher (P<0.01) DMI, higher average daily gain and better feed efficiency compared to urea and starea diets. No differences (P>0.05) between urea and starea treatments were observed. Replacement of soybean meal by nonprotein nitrogen sources decreased the finishing beef steers performance

Kinin B1 and B2 receptor deficiency protects against obesity induced by a high-fat diet and improves glucose tolerance in mice

The kallikrein-kinin system is well known for its role in pain and inflammation, and has been shown recently by our group to have a role also in the regulation of energy expenditure. We have demonstrated that B1 receptor knockout (B1KO) mice are resistant to obesity induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) and that B1 receptor expression in adipocytes regulates glucose tolerance and predisposition to obesity. However, it is also known that in the absence of B1 receptor, the B2 receptor is overexpressed and can take over the function of its B1 counterpart, rendering uncertain the role of each kinin receptor in these metabolic effects. Therefore, we investigated the impact of ablation of each kinin receptor on energy metabolism using double kinin receptor knockout (B1B2KO) mice. Our data show that B1B2KO mice were resistant to HFD-induced obesity, with lower food intake and feed efficiency when compared with wild-type mice. They also had lower blood insulin and leptin levels and higher glucose tolerance after treatment with an HFD. Gene expression for tumor necrosis factor-alpha and C-reactive protein, which are important genes for insulin resistance, was reduced in white adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and the liver in B1B2KO mice after the HFD. In summary, our data show that disruption of kinin B1 and B2 receptors has a profound impact on metabolic homeostasis in mice, by improving glucose tolerance and preventing HFD-induced obesity. These novel findings could pave the way for development of new pharmacological strategies to treat metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and obesity

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor protects against cisplatin nephrotoxicity by modulating kinin B1 receptor expression and aminopeptidase P activity in mice

Cisplatin is a highly effective chemotherapeutic agent. However, its use is limited by nephrotoxicity. Enalapril is an angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitor used for the treatment of hypertension, mainly through the reduction of angiotensin II formation, but also through the increase of kinins half-life. Kinin B1 receptor is associated with inflammation and migration of immune cells into the injured tissue. We have previously shown that the deletion or blockage of kinin B1 and B2 receptors can attenuate cisplatin nephrotoxicity. In this study, we tested enalapril treatment as a tool to prevent cisplatin nephrotoxicity. Male C57Bl/6 mice were divided into 3 groups: control group; cisplatin (20 mg/kg i.p) group; and enalapril (1.5 mg;kg i.p) + cisplatin group. The animals were treated with a single dose of cisplatin and euthanized after 96 h. Enalapril was able to attenuate cisplatin-induced increase in creatinine and urea, and to reduce tubular injury and upregulation of apoptosis-related genes, as well as inflammatory cytokines in circulation and kidney. The upregulation of B1 receptor was blocked in enalapril + cisplatin group. Carboxypeptidase M expression, which generates B1 receptor agonists, is blunted by cisplatin + enalapril treatment. The activity of aminopeptidase P, a secondary key enzyme able to degrade kinins, is restored by enalapril treatment. These findings were confirmed in mouse renal epithelial tubular cells, in which enalaprilat (5 μM) was capable of decreasing tubular injury and inflammatory markers. We treated mouse renal epithelial tubular cells with cisplatin (100 μM), cisplatin+enalaprilat and cisplatin+enalaprilat+apstatin (10 μM). The results showed that cisplatin alone decreases cell viability, cisplatin plus enalaprilat is able to restore cell viability, and cisplatin plus enalaprilat and apstatin decreases cell viability. In the present study, we demonstrated that enalapril prevents cisplatin nephrotoxicity mainly by preventing the upregulation of B1 receptor and carboxypeptidase M and the increased concentrations of kinin peptides through aminopeptidase activity restoration

Minimizing inter-genotypic competition effects to predict genetic values and selection in forestry genetic tests

The effect of competition is an important source of variation in breeding experiments. This study aimed to compare the selection of plants of open-pollinated families of Eucalyptus with and without the use of competition covariables. Genetic values were determined for each family and tree and for the traits height, diameter at breast height and timber volume in a randomized block design, resulting in the variance components, genetic parameters, selection gains, effective size and selection coincidence, with and without the use of covariables. Intergenotypic competition is an important factor of environmental variation. The use of competition covariables generally reduces the estimates of variance components and influences genetic gains in the studied traits. Intergenotypic competition biases the selection of open-pollinated eucalypt progenies, and can result in an erroneous choice of superior genotypes; the inclusion of covariables in the model reduces this influence

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter