Effect of lactose on the evaluation of the nutritive value of casein

The biological evaluation of protein from dairy products such as normal and modified powdered milks where lactose is present, poses difficulties. It is known that when this sugar is contained in high concentrations, and due to its osmotic effect, it causes serious intestinal disorders in rats, thus obstructing the determination of the protein nutritional quality. In the study described herein, efforts were made to determine how lactose affects determination of the nutritional value of casein when this is evaluated by the Net Protein Utilization (NPU) procedure, and by the Relative Net Protein Ratio (RNPR) method. Thirty, and 21-day-old rats were fed with diets containing 10% and 8% of casein respectively, and lactose concentrations varying from 20% to 50%. All experiments lasted 10 days. The results demonstrated that casein's nutritional value did not differ significantly (p greater than 0.05) with lactose concentrations up to 40% in any of both methods, even though intestinal disorders were observed with more frequency and duration as lactose concentration increased.     

The inhalation of low concentrations of manganese powders produces changes in respiratory mucociliary clearance

The aim of this study is to verify whether inhaling metallic dusts, containing a lower concentration of Mn (as Mn3O4) than current TLV can cause alterations in exposed workers tracheobronchial mucociliary clearance. We studied 20 grinders using an 11.5-13% Mn steel, and a control group of 21 standard steel grinders, employed in the same foundry. Environmental Mn dust was measured by personal samplers. All workers were administered a questionnaire about chronic bronchitis; the following examinations were also carried out: medical examination, spirometry, chest standard X-ray and urinary Mn dosage. Mucociliary clearance was measured by human respiratory mucus transportability on frog palate and expressed as normalized frog palate transport rate (NFPTR). Mucus was obtained through a sputum so protected as to avoid salivary contamination. Environmental measurements showed a Mn concentration from 0.1 to 1 mg/m3 with respect to a TLV of 5 mg/m3. Exposed workers and control group were homogeneous as far as age, working period, tobacco smoking habit and spirometric parameters are concerned. Chest X-ray examination showed no evidence of pneumoconiosis. Mn exposed workers showed a NFPTR reduction, if compared to normal level (0.70). NFPTR average value in exposed group has come out to be much lower than in control group. NFPTR alteration in Mn exposed group appears to be strictly linked to a longer than 15 years working seniority. Urinary Mn values resulted extremely low in each worker and their average was not significantly different between the groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The assessment of geometrical effects on Compton profile measurements

Energy-dispersive measurements of Compton-scattered X-rays for analyses have become important with the development of high-efficiency, high-energy-resolution detectors for 50–200 keV X-rays. The Compton-scattered X-ray peak is an inherently broad peak resulting in part from the momentum distribution of the target electrons, referred to as the Compton profile. Hence, information from the width of the Compton peak can be used to study the momentum distribution. The actual peak width also depends on geometrical and attenuation effects. We have begun to assess the geometrical effects and present some of the results.     

Synthesis,crystallographic characterization,and mechanical behavior of alumina chromia alloys

Powder mixtures of Alumina and Chromia, blended in different proportions (1, 3, 5 and 10%wt) by attrition milling, were fired either by pressureless sintering in air and hot pressing under vacuum. The resulting materials, characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, hardness and fracture toughness showed that all the compositions form complete solid solution which maintain the same crystal structures of corundum; chromia addition retards materials' densification of pressureless fired samples but not that of hot-pressed samples. Data from Raman spectroscopy and SEM/EDXS showed the appearance of Ti- and Mn-based impurities near the indentation print, in particular on fractured grains. The addition of chromia improves hardness, but does not affect toughness which is, on the other hand, greatly influenced by materials’ residual porosity.     

Short communication: Efficacy of parenteral ceftiofur for treatment of systemically mild clinical mastitis in dairy cattle

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of intramuscular (i.m.) ceftiofur (2.2 mg/kg) on important outcomes of systemically mild clinical mastitis episodes in lactating dairy cattle. Cows with clinical mastitis were randomly assigned to a treatment group: pirlimycin intramammary (i.m.m.) (n = 35), pirlimycin i.m.m. and ceftiofur i.m.m. (n = 36), cephapirin i.m.m. (n = 40), cephapirin i.m. and ceftiofur i.m. (n = 33). Sixty-nine, 22, and 9% of initial cultures were gram-negative, gram-positive, and mixed, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed no significant associations between treatment groups and loss of quarter, recurrence, or culling. Mixed infections, positive milk culture at 7 d after leaving hospital pen, decreased rumen motility, and absence of udder firmness were associated with increased odds of mastitis recurrence. The results suggest that i.m. ceftiofur treatment has no beneficial effects on the outcome of systemically mild clinical mastitis.     

美人鱼之梦 BLUB LOUNGE俱乐部

BLUB LOUNGE俱乐部是一个美妙的海底世界。灯光、装饰、家具和空间的形态都在刻意营造水下的感觉。在这里就餐可以尽情享受音乐和迪斯科给人们带来的愉悦心情。光线穿过绿植和支架的缝隙,洒落到整个室内,像极了海底不知名的光亮,仿佛都能感受到海底水流的涌动。     

Asymptotically optimal cooperative wireless networks with reduced signaling complexity

This paper considers an orthogonal amplify-and-forward (OAF) protocol for cooperative relay communication over Rayleigh-fading channels in which the intermediate relays are permitted to linearly transform the received signal and where the source and relays transmit for equal time durations. The diversity-multiplexing gain (D-MG) tradeoff of the equivalent space-time channel associated to this protocol is determined and a cyclic-division-algebra-based D-MG optimal code constructed. The transmission or signaling alphabet of this code is the union of the QAM constellation and a rotated version of QAM. The size of this signaling alphabet is small in comparison with prior D-MG optimal constructions in the literature and is independent of the number of participating nodes in the network     

On the decoding of Reed-Solomon and BCH codes over integer residuerings

We present a decoding procedure for Reed-Solomon (RS) and BCH codes defined over an integer residue ring pgZ_q, where q is a power of a prime p. The proposed decoding procedure, as for RS and BCH codes over fields, consists of four major steps: (1) calculation of the syndromes; (2) calculation of the “elementary symmetric functions,” by a modified Berlekamp-Massey (1968, 1969) algorithm for commutative rings; (3) calculation of the error location numbers; and (4) calculation of the error magnitudes. The proposed decoding procedure also applies to the synthesis of a shortest linear-feedback shift register (LFSR), capable of generating a prescribed finite sequence of elements lying in a commutative ring with identity