Dietary fibre level and enzyme inclusion affect nutrient digestibility and excreta characteristics in grower pigs

An experiment was conducted with 12 grower pigs to determine the effects of (1) manipulating dietary neutral detergent fibre (NDF) level and (2) dietary inclusion of fibre‐degrading enzymes on nutrient digestibility and excreta characteristics in pigs. Four diets were formulated to contain three levels of NDF: 1, 66 g kg^?1 NDF (low fibre); 2, 121 g kg^?1 NDF (moderate fibre); 3, 222 g kg^?1 NDF (high fibre); 4, diet 3 plus 2.0 g kg^?1 enzyme. Increasing levels of dietary NDF linearly decreased dry matter and energy digestibilities (r² = 0.99, P < 0.05). Lowering dietary NDF from 222 to 121 g kg^?1 improved nitrogen digestibility by 13% (P < 0.01). Faecal production was decreased by 9% for each 1% decrease in dietary NDF content (r² = 0.99, P < 0.05). Inclusion of fibre‐degrading enzymes in the high‐fibre diet improved dry matter and energy digestibilities by 2 and 3% respectively, and reduced faecal production by 10% (P < 0.01). Faecal and manure (faeces plus urine) pH values from pigs fed the high‐fibre diet and the high‐fibre plus enzyme diet were lower than those from pigs fed the other experimental diets (P < 0.05). In conclusion, lowering the dietary NDF level or inclusion of fibre‐degrading enzymes in high‐fibre diets may offer relatively practical and easy methods for reducing waste production in pigs. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

The growth and development of an Intravenous Nurses Society chapter PICC council

Growing interest in peripherally inserted intravenous catheters led to the development of the PICC Council. This council was established to provide a resource of information for the area nurses involved in peripherally inserted intravenous catheters use and care. The group went through various developmental stages as they sought to establish cohesiveness and professional collaboration across a variety of practice settings. The outcome was the development of recommendations for vocabulary, communication, and care/maintenance activities, that could be used by intravenous nurses to enhance patient care coordination.     

Giant thermoelectric power of (La,Ce)Al2

We have measured the thermoelectric power of LaAl₂ and of (La, Ce)Al₂ alloys between 0.3 and 9 K. A large, negative peak caused by the Kondo effect of the Ce impurities has been observed at about 1 K. The peak value of about ?16 µV/K obtained from the Nordheim-Gorter rule suggestsV=+0.05 eV andJ=?0.11 eV for the interaction energies of the potential and exchange scattering of the conduction electrons by the Ce impurities.     

Recognition processes in episodic memory.

In 5 series of experiments with 5th, 6th, and 10th graders and undergraduate and university students, Ss encouraged to process related sentences at the same time (integrated storage) were compared with those encouraged to process the related sentences independently of each other (independent storage). Overall results show that Ss in the integrated storage condition were better at deriving inferences based on interconnections among the related items, at identifying the sentences that had been presented, and at recalling the sentences to a word cue. There was no difference between conditions on word recognition tests. Thus, Ss in the independent condition had a more difficult time retrieving the sentences that had been presented, but not in identifying the words contained in these sentences. This finding is explained by postulating a 2-stage recognition process. It was also found that Ss were able to combine 2 related sentences presented independently of each other, if the intervening sentences did not contain concepts in common with these sentences. However, when there were several sentences containing overlapping information, each presented independently of the others, Ss were unable to combine them into a single idea. This result indicates that the presence of several episodic traces containing common concepts interferes with the retrieval of information from these traces. (French summary) (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory integration and memory interference.

S. D. Moesser (see PA, Vol 56:3437; 1977) found that Ss presented with a nonsequential order of interrelating sentences did not show any evidence of having integrated these sentences into composite units. This type of presentation procedure also produces an interference effect that lessens the probability of retrieving information from the presented sentences. However, J. Bransford and J. Franks (see record 1972-24191-001) reported that Ss presented with a nonsequential order of interrelating sentences automatically integrate the partial ideas into holistic units. Bransford and Franks based their conclusions on the facts that (1) Ss were unable to identify the exact exemplars that were presented, and (2) Ss showed a bias in choosing more complex sentences as having been part of the acquisition corpus. Two experiments are reported here, which were conducted with 124 Newfoundland college students who participated in 1 of 2 encoding conditions while performing forced-choice or confidence recognition tasks. Results show that both the failure to identify presented exemplars and the tendency to choose more complex sentences in the test corpus were products of the retrieval interference effect. Findings fail to support the proposal that Ss will automatically integrate related ideas into composite units. (French abstract) (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retrieval interference in the independent storage of related episodic traces.

S. D. Moeser (see record 1978-04923-001) found that Ss who stored interrelated sentences independently of each other were poorer at retrieving these sentences than Ss who stored them as an integrated unit. She argued that this difference was due to interference in the retrieval process rather than to differences in ease of encoding. The present 3 experiments with 60 undergraduates tested the suggestion that the difference was due instead to a greater elaboration of connections in the integrated condition. The integrated and independent storage conditions were compared with a random sentences condition, wherein the traces formed to represent the information would be no more elaborate than the traces formed in the independent condition, but because no concepts were repeated there would be no interference produced when competing traces were activated by the test probe. Results support Moeser's retrieval interference explanation. (French summary) (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)