Dietary restrictions during adolescence and subsequent reproductive performance of turkey breeder males

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of early dietary restriction of protein and/or energy on the subsequent reproductive ability of the tom. One hundred 8-week old Large White turkey toms (April hatch) were placed at random into four floor pens of 25 each and fed the following diets: group 1, 20.6% protein with 2,4 Mcal. M.E./kg. diet 8-12 weeks, 15.3% protein with 2.68 Mcal. 12-16 weeks, 10.4% protein with 2.85 Mcal. 16-24 weeks; group 2, 20.3% protein with 2.9 Mcal. 8-12 weeks, 14.8% protein with 2.98 Mcal. 12-16 weeks, 9.8% protein with 3.27 Mcal. 16-24 weeks; group 3, 22% protein with 2.4 Mcal. 8-12 weeks, 18.9% protein with 2.57 Mcal. 12-16 weeks, 16.3% protein with 2.81 Mcal. 16-24 weeks; group 4 (control), 22% protein with 2.91 Mcal. 8-12 weeks, 19% protein with 3.03 Mcal. 12-16 weeks, 15.9% protein with 3.17 Mcal. 16-24 weeks. Beginning with the 25th weeks all toms received a 14.3% protein diet with 2.8 Mcal. The restriction of energy significantly reduced the percentage of males producing semen, and the restriction of energy significantly reduced the percentage of males producing semen, and the restriction of energy and both protein and energy significantly depressed semen volume per male in comparison with the average produced by the control males. Other reproductive traits were not affected by early dietary controls.     

Treatment of soybean oil soapstock to reduce pollution

Often soapstock is acidulated to convert this byproduct of vegetable oil refining to a salable commodity. The acidic waste water from this treatment constitutes a significant part of the environmental pollution from refineries. A process of neutralizing and drying was investigated as a nonpolluting method for upgrading soybean oil soapstock. Neutralization with sulfuric acid was conducted in a ribbon blender. The neutral soapstock was dried to ca. 4% moisture, either batchwise in a natural circulation evaporator or continuously in a scraped film evaporator. The product is liquid while hot but solidifies to a waxy solid when cooled to room temperature. When added to a standard broiler ration, the feed efficiency and rate of gain of chickens equaled that obtained with a commercial feed fat added at the same level. The soapstock products fed, which contained 200–300 ppm xanthophyll, gave significantly better shank pigmentation than the commercial fat, which contained 3 ppm. Presented at the AOCS Meeting, Los Angeles, April 1972. N. Market. Nutr. Res. Div., ARS, USDA.     

Biochemical suitability of crop residues for cellulosic ethanol: disincentives to nitrogen fertilization in corn agriculture

Concerns about energy security and climate change have increased biofuel demand, particularly ethanol produced from cellulosic feedstocks (e.g., food crop residues). A central challenge to cropping for cellulosic ethanol is the potential environmental damage from increased fertilizer use. Previous analyses have assumed that cropping for carbohydrate in residue will require the same amount of fertilizer as cropping for grain. Using (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance, we show that increases in biomass in response to fertilization are not uniform across biochemical classes (carbohydrate, protein, lipid, lignin) or tissues (leaf and stem, grain, reproductive support). Although corn grain responds vigorously and nonlinearly, corn residue shows only modest increases in carbohydrate yields in response to high levels of fertilization (25% increase with 202 kg N ha(-1)). Lignin yields in the residue increased almost twice as much as carbohydrate yields in response to nitrogen, implying that residue feedstock quality declines as more fertilizer is applied. Fertilization also increases the decomposability of corn residue, implying that soil carbon sequestration becomes less efficient with increased fertilizer. Our results suggest that even when corn is grown for grain, benefits of fertilization decline rapidly after the ecosystem's N demands are met. Heavy application of fertilizer yields minimal grain benefits and almost no benefits in residue carbohydrates, while degrading the cellulosic ethanol feedstock quality and soil carbon sequestration capacity.     

Farm typologies,soil fertility variability and nutrient management in smallholder farming in Sub-Saharan Africa

Farm typologies are a useful tool to assist in unpacking and understanding the wide diversity among smallholder farms to improve targeting of crop production intensification strategies. Sustainable crop production intensification will require the development of an array of nutrient management strategies tailored to farm-specific conditions, rather than blanket recommendations across diverse farms. This study reviewed key literature on smallholder farm typologies focusing on three countries (Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe), to gain insights on opportunities for crop production intensification, and the importance of developing farm-specific nutrient management practices. Investigations on farm typologies have done well in highlighting the fundamental differences between farm categories, with 3–5 typologies often adequate to represent the wide differences in resource endowment. Resource-endowed farmers have ready access to large quantities of manure and mineral fertilizers, which contribute to higher soil fertility and crop productivity on their farms. Resource-constrained households use little or no manure and mineral fertilizers, and have limited capacity to invest in labour-demanding soil fertility management technologies. These farmers often have to rely on off-farm opportunities for income that are largely limited to selling unskilled labour to their resource-endowed neighbors. The variability in management practices by farmers has resulted in three main soil fertility classes that can be used for targeting soil fertility management technologies, characterized by potential response to fertilizer application as: (1) low-responsive fertile fields that receive large additions of manure and fertilizer; (2) high-responsive infertile fields that receive moderate nutrient applications; (3) poorly responsive degraded soils cultivated for many years with little or no nutrient additions. The main conclusions drawn from the review are: (1) resource constrained farmers constitute the widest band across the three countries, with many of the farmers far below the threshold for sustainable maize production intensification and lacking capacity to invest in improved seed and fertilizer, (2) farm sizes and livestock ownership were key determinants for both farmer wealth status and farm productivity, and (3) soil organic carbon and available P were good indicators for predicting previous land management, that is also invariably linked to farmer resource endowment.     

Chain orientation and dynamics of filled and unfilled poly(butadiene) networks studied by applying nuclear spin correlation of residual quadrupolar interaction

Summary Strength and fluctuation of nuclear quadrupolar interaction of filled, partially deuterated cis-1,4 poly(butadiene) networks under deformation are studied by implementing, for the first time, a new NMR method based on nuclear spin correlation of residual dipolar/quadrupolar interactions, demonstrated by Callaghan et. al. [1]. It is shown that this method can probe different dynamics and orientation of polymer chains in filled systems and the results are in good agreement with that reported in literature [17] for the same system but using another NMR methods. Furthermore, the effect of temperature on the quadrupolar interaction of unfilled cis-1,4 poly(butadiene) is studied by using the same method and the results are reported. Received: 7 June 2001/Revised version: 14 October 2001/Accepted: 14 October 2001     

Simultaneous quantification of eleven thiopurine nucleotides by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

The prodrugs azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine, which are well-established anticancer and immunosuppressive agents, are extensively metabolized by activating and inactivating enzymes. Whereas the 6-thioguanine nucleotides (TGN) are currently being considered as major active metabolites, methylthioinosine nucleotides seem to contribute to the cytotoxic effect as well. Thiopurine-related adverse drug reactions and thiopurine failure are frequent. Thus, therapeutic monitoring of TGN and methylthioinosine derivatives has been suggested to improve thiopurine therapy, however with limited success. To elucidate systematically underlying molecular mechanisms as potential explanation for interindividual variability of thiopurine response, we developed a novel highly specific and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for simultaneous quantitation of eleven mono-, di-, and triphosphates of thioguanosine, methylthioinosine, methylthioguanosine, and thioinosine. Using stable isotope-labeled analogues as internal standards obtained by chemical synthesis, an intra- and interassay variability below 8% and an accuracy of 92% to 107% were achieved in spiked quality control samples with known standards. All eleven metabolites could be determined in red blood cells from patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and long-term azathioprine therapy. Thus, our novel method opens a new avenue for the understanding of the thiopurine metabolism by quantitation of all important thiopurine nucleotide metabolites in one run.     

A Framework for Stochastic System Modelling and Analysis: Work in Progress

Stochastic Graph Transformation combines the benefits of graphical modelling with stochastic analysis techniques. In this paper we report on our framework Sma for Stochastic Modelling and Analysis, and SGT, a tool which uses the framework for Stochastic Graph Transformation.     

ÖBB Steyrtalbrücke – Belastungsprobe und Langzeitmessungen

ÖBB Steyrtalbridge – Load test and long term measurements At km 65,621 of the railroad track between Linz and Selzthal the Steyrtalbridge was rebuilt in the years 2013 and 2014. The essential design criterion from the client ÖBB Infrastruktur AG was the endeavor of an optimized bridge under consideration of life‐cylce‐cost, which among other things despite a bridge length of 182 m can be designed without high‐maintenance breather switches. Based on the current standards and certain design flexibilities, which are allowed in the codes special ways and techniques were used to calculate the rail tension. With this results of the rail‐structure‐interaction it was possible to design without breather switches. As consequence of the assumptions in the planning process it was necessary to make comprehensive measurements which shall give information of the real behavior of the bridge and compare them with the assumptions and results of the static calculation. Therefor static and dynamic load test were performed before opening to regular traffic. In addition long term measurements were carried out to evaluate the load‐bearing behavior over time and to confirm the calculation approaches for the verification of the rail‐structure‐interaction. In this article the planning of the monitoringsystem, the implementation and results of the load test and the following long term measurements are illustrated.