Milk yield, intake, and blood traits of lactating cows fed grass silage conserved under different harvesting methods

Thirty-two Holstein cows (8 primiparous) were assigned to negative control or to one of three treatments to assess three forage harvesting and conservation techniques. Forage was harvested as low moisture silage by either a cylinder-type forage harvester, a self-loading forage harvester, or a round baler. Treatment diets were fed from wk 4 to 15 of lactation and consisted of silages harvested by the respective methods supplemented with concentrate at 1.1% of BW. Unsupplemented silage harvested by a cylinder-type forage harvester was used as a control. Daily DMI was higher for cows fed supplemented heap silage cut with either a cylinder-type forage harvester (23.7 kg) or a self-loading forage harvester (22.6 kg) than for cows fed the control (20.0 kg) or supplemented round bale silage (20.1 kg). Milk yield was highest for cows fed supplemented heap silage cut with a cylinder-type forage harvester (26.6 kg/d) and lower for those fed supplemented heap silage cut with a self-loading forage harvester (22.7 kg/d) or the control (20.8 kg/d). Milk composition and digestibilities of DM, N, ADF, and energy were similar among treatments. Postfeeding NEFA concentration decreased more for control cows than for those fed supplemented silage, which was related to greater BW loss. The high milk yield for cows fed supplemented heap silage cut with a cylinder-type forage harvester could be related to a high DMI and low BW gain.     

évaluation et modification de conceptions erronées au sujet des loteries.

Studied misconceptions concerning pseudoactive lotteries among regular and occasional players, and assessed the possibility of changing these misconceptions. Ss were 100 regular and 100 occasional lottery players in Study 1 and 22 experimental (mean age 36 yrs) and 22 control (mean age 34 yrs) regular lottery players in Study 2. In Study 1, Ss completed a questionnaire assessing their beliefs and practices concerning the lottery. Differences between regular and occasional players were analyzed. In Study 2, experimental group Ss received information on the odds of winning in the lottery. The effects of this information on beliefs concerning the lottery and on playing habits were analyzed. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of the ethylene permeability of polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

The aim of this study was to evaluate ethylene permeation through a food packaging-grade polyvinyl chloride at 3,10,17 and 25°C. The transmission rates were calculated to estimate the permeability (P) at these temperatures. This permeability is influenced by the temperature, giving values from 120 000cm³ μm/m². d atm at 3°C to 367000cm³ μm/m². d atm at 25°C. Other parameters, such as the selectivity factor (p), the temperature coefficient (Q₁₀) and the activation energy (E_a). were compared to values obtained for other gases (O₂ and CO₂) using the same film and supplier.     

Chlorine dioxide delignification kinetics and eop extraction of softwood kraft pulp

A kinetic model for 100% chlorine dioxide delignification based on experimental data is presented. From the unbleached kappa number, chlorine dioxide charge and reaction time, the model predicts kappa, brightness and residuals after the first bleaching stage. The model consists of two ordinary differential equations representing the slow and fast reactions of lignin with chlorine dioxide. In addition we found that the relationship between the chlorine dioxide consumption and the kappa number decrease was linear in the range studied and independent of the unbleached pulp kappa number.     

Ultrasonic prediction ofR-value in deep drawing steels

The textures of five types of deep drawing steels were measured and analyzed using the series expansion method. Electromagnetic acoustic (EMAT) techniques were employed to determine the elastic anisotropy in terms of the angular variation of the ultrasonic velocities. The series expansion formalism was employed for predicting the elastic and plastic anisotropies from texture data. Comparison with the experimental measurements of Young's modulus indicates that the elastic energy method can accurately reproduce the elastic anisotropy if the single crystal elastic constants are appropriately chosen. The angular variation of ther-value in the rolling plane was calculated from the ODF coefficients by means of the pancake relaxed constraint model using an appropriate CRSS ratio for glide on the {112} 111 and {110} 111 slip systems. The fourth order and first sixth order ODF coefficients were calculatednondestructively from the anisotropy of the ultrasonic velocities. The calculated pole figures based on the ODF coefficients obtained in this way are similar to those derived from complete X-ray data. It is shown that the plastic properties of commercial deep drawing steels are predicted more accurately when the 4th-and 6th-order ODF coefficients are employed than when only the 4th-order ones are used.     

Kinetics of peptide fraction release during in vitro digestion of casein

The charges and sizes of peptides released during in vitro casein digestion were investigated. Casein was hydrolysed sequentially by pepsin and pancreatin and, during hydrolysis, the products of digestion were removed by dialysis. The undigested residues were separated by ion‐exchange chromatography into basic–neutral (BN), lightly acid (LA) and acid (A) fractions. Each of these fractions was further resolved by sequential ultrafiltration (MWCO 10 and 1 kDa) into two retentates (>10 and 10–1 kDa) and one permeate (<1 kDa). The polypeptides (>10 kDa) produced by pepsin hydrolysis were degraded into small molecules during the first 2 h of pancreatin hydrolysis; less than 100 mg g^?1 of the total N remained undigested. Most of the material produced was in the BN10‐1 (ie basic–neutral, 10–1 kDa) fraction, with three times as much N as the A10‐1 fractions. As digestion progressed a decrease in the proportion of N in the residues retained by the dialysis membrane was observed. This decrease was particularly rapid in the BN10‐1 fraction. Large proportions of leucine (Leu), lysine (Lys), arginine (Arg), phenylalanine (Phe) and tyrosine (Tyr) were found as peptides smaller than 1 kDa, both in the dialysates and retentates, while glutamine (Glu), threonine (Thr), serine (Ser) and asparagine (Asp) appeared mostly in the A10‐1 and A > 10 fractions. After 6 h of pancreatin hydrolysis most of the proline (Pro) content was in the BN10‐1 fractions. The mechanisms behind and the implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Aggregation Pheromone of Pityogenes knechteliand Semiochemical-Based Interactions with Three Other Bark Beetles

Gas chromatographic–electroantennographic detection and GC-mass spectrometric analyses of volatile extracts from male and female Pityogenes knechteli Swaine identified hexanol, (±)-ipsdienol, and (S)-(–)-ipsenol as male-produced candidate pheromone components. In a lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelmann, forest in the southern interior of British Columbia, multiple-funnel traps baited with (±)-ipsdienol alone, (S)-(–)-ipsenol alone, or both caught 60%, 6%, and 23%, respectively, of all P. knechteli trapped; unbaited traps caught the remaining 11%. In another field trapping experiment, (S)-(+)-ipsdienol was as attractive as (±)-ipsdienol, and (R)-(–)-ipsdienol was behaviorally benign. (S)-(+)-Ipsdienol is thus concluded to be the principal aggregation pheromone component of P. knechteli. At low release rates, hexanol increased attraction of beetles to (±)-ipsdienol, or to (±)-ipsidienol plus (S)-(–)-ipsenol, but at high release rates hexanol decreased attraction, suggesting a role in preventing overpopulation in the host tree. On the basis of laboratory bioassays in which walking beetles were attracted to (S)-(–)-ipsenol, we hypothesize that (S)-(–)-ipsenol serves as a short-range attractant for P. knechteli. Three sympatric scolytids were also captured in field experiments as follows: the pine engraver, Ips pini (Say), to its pheromone (±)-ipsdienol; I. latidens LeConte to its pheromone (S)-(–)-ipsenol; and I. mexicanus (Hopkins), for which the pheromone is unknown, to (S)-(–)-ipsenol with (±)-ipsdienol. Although all four species attack lodgepole pine, we have never observed I. latidens or I. mexicanus attacking the same hosts at P. knechteli or I. pini. These results suggest that ipsenol and ipsdienol serve as synomones involved in promoting aggregation on the host tree, maintaining species-specific communication, and thus contributing to resource partitioning and reduced competition among the four species.     

Analytical models of flow availability in two-layer networks with dedicated path protection

Even with protection, user traffic flows can be disrupted due to network failures that are beyond the protection capability. One of the quantitative metrics to measure the service quality in such a context is “availability”. We study analytical models that compute availability of upper-layer flows in two-layer networks with dedicated path protection at either the upper or the lower layer. Our investigations reveal that existing analytical models significantly overestimate availability requirements on lower-layer links, and exaggerate upper-layer flow unavailability by treating correlated upper-layer failures as being independent. In contrast, our proposed model takes into account such correlations by tracing upper-layer failures to lower-layer root causes, thus greatly relaxing unnecessary high-availability requirements on lower-layer links without compromising the availability of upper-layer flows. In our simulation examples, using the existing models, up to 66.6% and 89.2% of the total flows are overestimated on their unavailability under dedicated path protection at the upper and the lower layer, respectively. Moreover, the average unavailability redundancy built into these flows is about 30% and 15% for protection at the upper and the lower layer, respectively. Furthermore, we compare flow availability under the two protection schemes, and show that given the same initial unprotected network states, protection at the lower layer enjoys lower average flow unavailability than protection at the upper layer.     

Is there a link between postpartum anemia and discontinuation of breastfeeding?

Purpose: Factors associated with early cessation of breastfeeding were identified and patterns of infant feeding were examined. Feeding practices were compared with the 1998 guidelines in Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants and with recent Health Canada recommendations. Methods: To recruit participants, a letter was sent to every mother (n=424) who gave birth at Dr. Georges-L. Dumont Regional Hospital in Moncton from April 1998 to February 1999. Eighty-five mothers agreed to participate with their infants. Information on infant feeding patterns and socioeconomic background was gathered with semi-structured questionnaires. Only healthy infants from singleton pregnancies were included in this study. Results: At birth, almost 83% of infants were breastfed. The proportions of infants breastfed for at least four, six, and nine months were 43%, 22%, and 9%, respectively. As many as 34% of infants were introduced to baby cereals before age four months, and 21% were introduced to cow's milk before age nine months. Lower family income, lower level of parental education, and reduced postpartum hemoglobin level (below 95 g/L) were associated with discontinuation of breastfeeding before infants were four months old. Conclusions: Early postpartum nutrition interventions may be effective in ensuring follow-up care for mothers with compromised iron status, in supporting breastfeeding for at least six months, and in promoting better infant feeding practices.