Academic literature on the topic 'High starch diet'

In this study, changes in milk performance, nutrient digestibility, hindgut fermentation parameters and microflora were observed by inducing milk fat depression (MFD) in dairy cows fed with a high-starch or a high-fat diet. Eight Holstein cows were paired in a completely randomized cross-over design within two 35 d periods (18 d control period and 17d induction period). During the control period, all cows were fed the low-starch and low-fat diet (CON), and at the induction period, four of the cows were fed a high-starch diet with crushed wheat (IS), and the other cows were fed a high-fat diet with sunflower fat (IO). The results showed that, compared to when the cows were fed the CON diet, when cows were fed the IS or IO diet, they had lower milk fat concentrations, energy corrected milk, 3.5% fat-corrected milk yield, feed efficiency and apparent digestibility of NDF and ADF. However, cows fed the IO diet had a lower apparent digestibility of ether extracts. In addition, we observed that when cows were fed the high-starch (IS) or high-fat (IO) diet, they had a higher fecal concentration of propionate and acetate, and a lower NH3-N. Compared to when the cows were fed the CON diet, cows fed the IS diet had a lower pH, and cows fed the IO diet had a lower concentration of valerate in feces. In the hindgut microbiota, the relative abundance of Oscillospiraceae_UCG-005 was increased, while the Verrucomicrobiota and Lachnospiraceae_AC2044_group were decreased when cows were fed the IO diet. The relative abundance of Prevotellaceae_UCG-003 was increased, while the Alistipes and Verrucomicrobiota decreased, and the Treponema, Spirochaetota and Lachnospiraceae_AC2044_group showed a decreasing trend when cows were fed the IS diet. In summary, this study suggested that high-starch or high-fat feeding could induce MFD in dairy cows, and the high-fat diet had the greatest effect on milk fat; the high-starch or high-fat diet affected hindgut fermentation and apparent fiber digestibility. The changes in hindgut flora suggested that hindgut microbiota may be associated with MFD in cows.

High red meat intake is associated with the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), whereas dietary fibers, such as resistant starch (RS) seemed to protect against CRC. The aim of this study was to determine whether high-amylose potato starch (HAPS), high-amylose maize starch (HAMS), and butyrylated high-amylose maize starch (HAMSB)—produced by an organocatalytic route—could oppose the negative effects of a high-protein meat diet (HPM), in terms of fermentation pattern, cecal microbial composition, and colonic biomarkers of CRC. Rats were fed a HPM diet or an HPM diet where 10% of the maize starch was substituted with either HAPS, HAMS, or HAMSB, for 4 weeks. Feces, cecum digesta, and colonic tissue were obtained for biochemical, microbial, gene expression (oncogenic microRNA), and immuno-histochemical (O6-methyl-2-deoxyguanosine (O6MeG) adduct) analysis. The HAMS and HAMSB diets shifted the fecal fermentation pattern from protein towards carbohydrate metabolism. The HAMSB diet also substantially increased fecal butyrate concentration and the pool, compared with the other diets. All three RS treatments altered the cecal microbial composition in a diet specific manner. HAPS and HAMSB showed CRC preventive effects, based on the reduced colonic oncogenic miR17-92 cluster miRNA expression, but there was no significant diet-induced differences in the colonic O6MeG adduct levels. Overall, HAMSB consumption showed the most potential for limiting the negative effects of a high-meat diet.

AbstractThe experiment reported in this research paper aimed to determine whether clinical and subclinical effects on cattle were similar if provided with isoenergetic and isonitrogenous challenge diets in which carbohydrate sources were predominantly starch or sugar. The study was a 3 × 3 Latin square using six adult Jersey cows with rumen cannulae, over 9 weeks. In the first 2 weeks of each 3 week experimental period cows were fed with a maintenance diet and, in the last week, each animal was assigned to one of three diets: a control diet (CON), being a continuation of the maintenance diet; a high starch (HSt) or a high sugar (HSu) diet. Reticuloruminal pH and motility were recorded throughout the study period. Blood and ruminal samples were taken on day-1 (TP-1), day-2 (TP-2) and day-7 (TP-7) of each challenge week. Four clinical variables were recorded daily: diarrhoea, inappetence, depression and ruminal tympany. The effects of treatment, hour of day and day after treatment on clinical parameters were analysed using linear mixed effects (LME) models. Although both challenge diets resulted in a decline in pH, an increase in the absolute pH residuals and an increase in the number of minutes per day under pH 5.8, systemic inflammation was only detected with the HSt diet. The challenge diets differentially modified amplitude and period of reticuloruminal contractions compared with CON diet and both were associated with an increased probability of diarrhoea. The HSu diet reduced the probability of an animal consuming its complete allocation. Because the challenge diets were derived from complex natural materials (barley and molasses respectively), it is not possible to assign all the differential effects to the difference in starch and sugar concentration: non-starch components of barley or non-sugar components of molasses might have contributed to some of the observations. In conclusion, substituting much of the starch with sugar caused no substantial reduction in the acidosis load, but inflammatory response was reduced while feed rejection was increased.

We hypothesized that the opioid antagonist naltrexone would inhibit the redevelopment of a preference for a high-sucrose diet after an abstention period from this diet. Rats that chose between a starch or sucrose diet for 10 days preferred the sucrose diet. Rats were then given access to the starch diet alone for another 10-day period. A miniosmotic pump containing saline or naltrexone was then implanted (70 μg/h; 1.7 mg/day) for ∼10 days. During the saline infusion, 77% of the total energy came from the sucrose diet, whereas during the naltrexone infusion, 33% of the total energy came from the sucrose diet. We repeated this study in another group of rats but did not restrict the sucrose diet. In this case naltrexone failed to decrease preference for the sucrose diet. Thus naltrexone infusion inhibited redevelopment of a preference for a sucrose diet after a period of restriction to a starch diet for 10 days but had no effect on preference if both diets were present throughout the study.

Diets high in gelatinized starch and high in gelatinized starch supplemented with salt-induced metabolic disorders and changes in gut microbiota have scarcely been studied. In this study, mice on wheat starch diets (WD) exhibited significantly higher body weight, white adipose tissue (WAT), and gut permeability compared to those on normal diet (ND). However, gelatinized wheat starch diet (GWD) and NaCl-supplemented gelatinized wheat starch diet (SGW) mice did not increase body and WAT weights or dyslipidemia, and maintained consistent colon pH at ND levels. WD mice showed higher levels of Desulfovibrio, Faecalibaculum, and Lactobacillus and lower levels of Muribaculum compared to ND mice. However, GWD and SGW mice showed a significantly different gut microbial composition, such as a lower proportion of Lactobacillus and Desulfovibrio, and higher proportion of Faecalibaculum and Muribaculum compared to WD mice. High starch diet-induced dysbiosis caused increase of lipid accumulation and inflammation-related proteins’ expression, thereby leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, GWD and SGW showed lower levels than that, and it might be due to the difference in the gut microbial composition compared to WD. Taken together, diets high in gelatinized starch and high in gelatinized starch supplemented with salt induced mild metabolic disorders compared to native starch.

Lameness in the dairy cow not only causes major financial loss but also has serious welfare implications. Both environmental and nutritional factors have been implicated in its occurrence, which is commonly observed as laminitis, white line disease and sole ulcers, which are disorders of the corium. The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of diet composition in the form of non-structural carbohydrates on hoof health.

This study investigated how readily achievable changes to the quantity and processing of starchy foods in a typical Western diet: (1) were reflected in levels of resistant starch (RS) and NSP excreted from the small intestine; and (2) more favourable profiles of butyrate, NH3and phenol production. Two diets, a low-starch diet (LSD) and a high-starch, low-fat diet (HSLFD) were compared. The LSD with 20 % total energy (%E) from starch was based on a ‘typical’ Australian diet, while the HSLFD (40 %E as starch) was the same Australian diet modified by an increased content of legumes, starchy foods and coarsely-ground cereals and by a reduced fat content. Four subjects with iliostomies consumed each diet for 2 d, with ileal effluent collection on the second day. On the HSLFD compared with the LSD, RS in ileal effluent increased from from 0·49 to 1·7 g/MJ per d (P< 0·005) while ileal NSP excretion increased from 2·0 to 3·3 g/MJ per d (P< 0·05). Ileal effluents obtained after each diet were incubated for 24 hin vitrowith a human faecal innoculum. After fermentation, ileal effluent from the HSLFD produced more butyrate relative to other short-chain fatty acids (17·5v.15·8 molar %,P< 0·005) and less phenol (2·3v.5·7 mg/l,P< 0·05) and NH3(20·3v.23·1 mmol/l,P< 0·005) than the LSD diet. The HSLFD also generated a lower pH (6·15v.6·27,P< 0·05). On a wt/wt basis, RS was 2·3-fold higher in the HSLFD effluent while NSP did not increase, suggesting that the change in RS largely contributed to the fermentation effects. Changes inin vitrovariables when the HSLFD ileal effluent was ground before fermentation indicated the importance of physical structure in determining ileal excretion of RS. We conclude that: (1) readily achievable modifications to the amount and processing of starchy foods in an Australian diet would produce potential benefits forin vitrofermentation variables; and (2) the physical structure of grains and cereals is important in determining access by colonic bacteria to a carbohydrate substrate.

Although fish oil supplementation may prevent the onset of diet-induced insulin resistance in rats, it appears to worsen glycemic control in humans with existing insulin resistance. In the present study, the euglycemic, hyperinsulinemic (4× basal) clamp technique with [3-3H]glucose and 2-deoxy-[1-14C]glucose was used to directly compare the ability of fish oil to prevent and reverse sucrose-induced insulin resistance. In study 1 (prevention study), male Wistar rats were fed a purified high-starch diet (68% of total energy), high-sucrose diet (68% of total energy), or high-sucrose diet in which 6% of the fat content was replaced by menhaden oil for 5 wk. In study 2 (reversal study), animals were fed the high-starch or high-sucrose diets for 5 wk and then the sucrose animals were assigned to one of the following groups for an additional 5 wk: high starch, high sucrose, or high sucrose with 6% menhaden oil. Rats fed the high-starch diet for 10 wk served as controls. In study 3 (2nd reversal study), animals followed a similar diet protocol as in study 2; however, the reversal period was extended to 15 wk. In study 1, the presence of the fish oil in the high-sucrose diet prevented the development of insulin resistance. Glucose infusion rates (GIR, mg ⋅ kg−1⋅ min−1) were 17.0 ± 0.9 in starch, 10.6 ± 1.7 in sucrose, and 15.1 ± 1.5 in sucrose with fish oil animals. However, in study 2, this same diet was unable to reverse sucrose-induced insulin resistance (GIR, 16.7 ± 1.4 in starch, 7.1 ± 1.5 in sucrose, and 4.8 ± 0.9 in sucrose with fish oil animals). Sucrose-induced insulin resistance was reversed in rats that were switched back to the starch diet (GIR, 18.6 ± 3.0). Results from study 3 were similar to those observed in study 2. In summary, fish oil was effective in preventing diet-induced insulin resistance but not able to reverse it. A preexisting insulin-resistant environment interferes with the positive effects of menhaden oil on insulin action.

ABSTRACT Background We have reported large differences in adiposity (fat mass/body weight) gain between rats fed a low-fat, high-starch diet, leading to their classification into carbohydrate “sensitive” and “resistant” rats. In sensitive animals, fat accumulates in visceral adipose tissues, leading to the suggestion that this form of obesity could be responsible for rapid development of metabolic syndrome. Objective We investigated whether increased amylase secretion by the pancreas and accelerated starch degradation in the intestine could be responsible for this phenotype. Method Thirty-two male Wistar rats (7-wk-old) were fed a purified low-fat (10%), high-carbohydrate diet for 6 wk, in which most of the carbohydrate (64% by energy) was provided as corn starch. Meal tolerance tests of the Starch diet were performed to measure glucose and insulin responses to meal ingestion. Indirect calorimetry combined with use of 13C-labelled dietary starch was used to assess meal-induced changes in whole body and starch-derived glucose oxidation. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to assess mRNA expression in pancreas, liver, white and brown adipose tissues, and intestine. Amylase activity was measured in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum contents. ANOVA and regression analyses were used for statistical comparisons. Results “Resistant” and “sensitive” rats were separated according to adiposity gain during the study (1.73% ± 0.20% compared with 4.35% ± 0.36%). Breath recovery of 13CO2 from 13C-labelled dietary starch was higher in “sensitive” rats, indicating a larger increase in whole body glucose oxidation and, conversely, a larger decrease in lipid oxidation. Amylase mRNA expression in pancreas, and amylase activity in jejunum, were also higher in sensitive rats. Conclusion Differences in digestion of starch can promote visceral fat accumulation in rats when fed a low-fat, high-starch diet. This mechanism may have important implications in human obesity.

Chemically modified starches (CMS) are RS4-type resistant starch, which shows a reduced availability, as well as high-amylose corn starch (HACS, RS2 type), compared with the corresponding unmodified starch. Previous studies have shown that RS4 increases fecal excretion of bile acids and reduces zinc and iron absorption in rats. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary RS4 supplementation on the development of diet-induced obesity in mice. Weight- and age-matched male C57BL/6J mice were fed for 24 wk on a high-fat diet containing unmodified starch, hydroxypropylated distarch phosphate (RS4), or HACS (RS2). Those fed the RS4 diet had significantly lower body weight and visceral fat weight than those fed either unmodified starch or the RS2 diet. Those fed the RS4 diet for 4 wk had a significantly higher hepatic fatty acid oxidation capacity and related gene expression and lower blood insulin than those fed either unmodified starch or the RS2 diet. Indirect calorimetry showed that the RS4 group exhibited higher energy expenditure and fat utilization compared with the RS2 group. When gavaged with fat (trioleate), RS4 stimulated a lower postprandial glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP; incretin) response than RS2. Higher blood GIP levels induced by chronic GIP administration reduced fat utilization in high-fat diet-fed mice. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with RS4-type resistant starch attenuates high-fat diet-induced obesity more effectively than RS2 in C57BL/6J mice, which may be attributable to lower postprandial GIP and increased fat catabolism in the liver.

The aim of the present study was to investigate, firstly, whether the substitution of dietary starch by rumen-protected fat results in visible changes in the protein metabolism by increasing the urea flux and decreasing of AA levels in blood plasma as indicators for a change of AA oxidation, secondly, whether the fat-fed cows use predominantly long chain FA in the processes of milk fat synthesis or as an energy source in oxidation processes, and thirdly, whether the ratio of glucogenic to lipogenic nutrients could affect the supply of glucose in the metabolism of dairy cows. Two experiments were conducted. In either experiments, about 1.8 kg of starch in the ration of the control group were substituted by about 0.7 kg fat as protected fat (Ca salts of palm, soybean and sunflower oils in addition to protected soybeans) in the ration of the fat group. The first experiment was carried out on 32 multiparous high yielding dairy cows (16 Holstein-Friesian cows in each group) during the first 100 d of lactation. The second experiment was carried out in four periods in a cross-over design. Two cows were used in each period during the 6th to the 10th lactation weeks. The cows were infused intravenously with D-[U-13C6]-Glucose. The substitution of starch by protected fat tended to increase the milk production and milk lactose output and to decrease the microbial protein synthesis in the rumen and plasma glucose level. Also, the levels of ß-HBA and NEFA in plasma, the milk urea content and the total urea-flux were increased (P<0.05). Milk protein content but not yield and plasma levels of insulin, Met, Ser and His decreased (P<0.05) but the branched chain amino acids in plasma increased (P<0.05). The oxidation rate of FA was lower in comparison to other sub`strates. In the second experiment, the enrichment of milk fat and blood CO2 by 13C decreased but the recovery of 13C in milk lactose increased (P<0.065) due to high fat intake. The results indicate that the substitution of starch by protected fat can save glucose in the intermediary metabolism for lactose synthesis in the mammary gland and the cows used fatty acids predominantly for milk fat synthesis and not for oxidation.

Twelve wether lambs (32kg) with abomasal and ileal cannula were fed a 90% concentrate basal diet (800 g/d), basal + 1.5% magnesium oxide (MgO)(812 g/d), basal + 1.5% limestone (812 g/d) or basal + 3.0% limestone (824 g/d) to study the effect of·these minerals on intestinal pH, rumen fermentation, N balance, dry matter and crude protein digestibility (DMD, CPD), and small intestinal disappearance of amino acids (AAD). Limestone (3%) increased (P < .03) rumen pH. Magnesium oxide increased (P < .10) ileal and fecal pH. Limestone significantly increased N absorption and pre-abomasal DMD, but decreased (P < .03) AAD. N retention was not improved by the treatments. An 82-d feeding trial was conducted with 72 wether lambs (avg initial wt: 28 kg) to study the effect of 1 or 3% fine (70% < 53 µ) or coarse (85% > 425 µ) limestone on rumen environment, weight gain and feed efficiency of lambs fed an all-concentrate diet. Rumen pH and VFA molar proportions were not affected by the treatments. Limestone (3.0%) decreased (P < .10) total rumen VFA concentrations and increased (P < .10) fecal pH. Weight gain was not different (P > .10) among the treatments. Coarse limestone increased (P < .10) feed efficiency. Five Angus heifers (285 kg) with duodenal and ileal cannulae were fed a 90% concentrate control diet (7.5 kg/d) or the same diet containing 1.60% defluorinated phosphate-regular (5.5%, 19.0% and 33.0% on 1400, 1180 and 850 µ sieves, respectively, DRP-R), 1.60% defluorinated phosphate-coarse (85% evenly among large sieves, DRP-C), 1.28% limestone or .5% MgO to study the effect of limestone or MgO on intestinal pH, DMD, starch digestibility (SD), CPD and AAD in beef cattle fed a high-concentrate diet. Ileal pH was increased by MgO. Fecal pH was increased (P < .05) as follows: MgO > DRP > limestone and control. Minerals increased (P < .05) duodenal liquid flow. Limestone and DRP-C increased (P < .05) acid flow to the duodenum. Total tract DMD, SD and CPD were similar among treatments. Limestone and DRP-R increased (P < .10) AAD. DRP-C tended to increase AAD, but differences were not statistically significant.
Ph. D.

Face au développement accru de souches de strongles résistantes aux anthelminthiques chimiques et aux impacts négatifs de ces derniers sur la santé digestive des chevaux et sur l’environnement, la nécessité de trouver des alternatives de contrôle des infections aux strongles chez le cheval est aujourd’hui un enjeu majeur. L’étude des relations portées par le triptyque helminthes – microbiote – immunité du gros intestin de l’hôte en utilisant l’alimentation comme levier de son équilibre pourrait permettre de développer des solutions naturelles et durables. Cette thèse a étudié les effets directs et indirects (médiés par le microbiote et l’immunité du gros intestin équin) de la modulation de la composition du régime alimentaire du cheval ainsi que de l’inclusion de granulés déshydratés de Sainfoin (Onobrychis Viciifolia), une plante riche en polyphénols, connue pour exercer des propriétés anthelminthiques chez d’autres espèces herbivores. Les résultats ont montré que l’excrétion des œufs de strongles augmentait lorsque les chevaux étaient nourris avec un régime riche en amidon en comparaison d’un régime riche en fibres. En parallèle, une dysbiose du microbiote du gros intestin équin était constatée ce qui suggère un rôle de l’écosystème microbien sur la fertilité des strongles. Dans les différentes études in vivo menées, l’effet anthelminthique des granulés de sainfoin était variable et semblait être influencé par leur composition polyphénoliques. L’étude in vitro de l’effet anthelminthique de plusieurs granulés déshydratés de sainfoin, en parallèle de l’analyse métabolomique de leurs profils en polyphénols a permis de mettre en avnt un profil polyphénolique antiparasitaire d’intérêt. Globalement, les résultats de cette thèse montrent que les interventions nutritionnelles pourraient représenter une bonne alternative de contrôle des infections aux strongles équin, et que nourrir les chevaux avec une alimentation qui préserve l’équilibre du tryptique helminthes – microbiote – immunité pourrait être la première étape clé
With the increasing development of strongyle strains resistant to chemical anthelmintics and their negative impact on the digestive health of horses and the environment, the need to find alternative ways to control strongyle infections in horses is now a key research question. Nutritional adjustments resulting in the maintenance of a stable and healthy intestinal ecosystem, could be a natural and sustainable way to control helminth infections, by promoting host tolerance. This thesis aimed to investigate the direct and indirect effects of modulating the composition of the equine diet and including dehydrated granules of sainfoin (Onobrychis Viciifolia), a polyphenol-rich plant known to have anthelmintic properties in other herbivorous species. The results showed that strongyles egg excretion increased when horses were fed a high starch diet compared to ahigh fiber diet. At the same time, a dysbiosis of the equine colonic microbiota was observed, suggesting indirect effects mediated by the latter. The anthelmintic effect of sainfoin granules was variable and appeared to be influenced by their polyphenolic composition. The study of several dehydrated sainfoin granules in vitro, in parallel with the metabolomic analysis of their polyphenolic profiles, opened the possibility of an antiparasitic polyphenolic profile of interest. In conclusion, the results of this work show that nutritional interventions could be a good alternative for the control of strongyles infections in horses, and that providing horses with a diet that preserves the balance of the helminth-microbiota-immunity tryptic could be the first key step

Ruminal acidosis is a digestive disorder in dairy and beef cattle and the current definitions are based on the pH of rumen fluid and may occur as an acute, chronic or subclinical (sub-acute) condition. With the aim to achieve the increase of production of milk, highly productive dairy cows are fed cereal-based and energy-dense diets and the rapid ruminal fermentation of starch and sugars leads to an accumulation of volatile fatty acid (VFA) and/or lactate and reduced rumen buffering which cause a drop of pH. Subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is characterized by a spontaneous recovery of repeated bouts of low ruminal pH, transient or no accumulation of ruminal lactate, and subtle clinical signs during low ruminal pH bouts. SARA causes consistent direct and indirect economic losses in dairy farming due to the decrease of quality and quantity of milk, increased veterinary costs, premature and involuntary culling. The clinical signs of SARA in the individual cow are subtle, delayed for weeks or months after acidotic insult, not-pathognomonic, and they can be seen in a number of the other diseases. Moreover, ruminal pH varies considerably by different factors like: time after feeding, time of the day, site of sampling within the rumen, techniques of sampling, and individual characteristics. These reasons and the problems in obtaining representative rumen fluid samples make that SARA is under-diagnosticated. Currently, the measurement of rumen pH is used to diagnose SARA, but some diagnostic techniques are invasive (rumen cannulation), or mild invasive (rumenocentesis), give spot sampling of rumen fluid pH decreasing the sensibility on diagnosis of rumen acidosis (rumenocentesis, oral-stomach tube) or cause saliva contamination that alters the values of ruminal pH (oral-stomach tube). So the aim of thesis was the study of easy, rapid and no invasive and economic direct and indirect diagnostic methods in order to diagnose SARA and indicate the severity of the ruminal acidosis (chapters 3 and 4). Moreover, the effectiveness of different methods of prevention of ruminal acidosis was tested (chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8). The first experimental contribution of the thesis (Effect of induced ruminal acidosis on blood variables in heifers; chapter 3) was carried out according to a 3 × 3 Latin square arrangement (3 dietary treatments × 3 periods). Six crossbred Valdostana x Belgian Blue non–pregnant heifers were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments with different starch levels (% DM): control (CT) as low starch (17.3%), medium starch (MS) for SARA (33.4%), and high starch (HS) to induce acute ruminal acidosis (42.8%). The animals were fed three times a day at 0800, 1200 and 1800 h. Ruminal pH was continuously measured every 10 minutes using wireless sensors featured to fluctuate into the rumen and by rumenocentesis performed at 4 hours after total mixed ration distribution on the 4th day of each experimental period. The regression coefficient between the two methods (wireless sensors vs. rumenocentesis) was 0.56 (P = 0.040). Feeding the CT, MS and HS led to differences in the time spent below the 5.8, 5.5 and 5.0 pH thresholds and in several variables, including dry matter intake (7.7 vs. 6.9 vs. 5.1 kg/d for CT, MS, and HS, respectively; P = 0.002), ruminal nadir pH (5.69 vs. 5.47 vs. 5.44; P = 0.042), mean ruminal pH (6.50 vs. 6.34 vs. 6.31; P = 0.012), haemoglobin level (11.1 vs. 10.9 vs. 11.4 g/dL; P = 0.010), platelet count (506 vs. 481 vs. 601 K/μL; P = 0.008), HCO3- (31.8 vs. 31.3 vs. 30.6 mmol/L; P = 0.071) and lipopolysaccharide-binding proteins (5.9 vs. 9.5 vs. 10.5 μg/mL; P < 0.001). Applying a canonical discriminant analysis (CDA), five plasma variables (hemoglobin, mean platelet volume, β-hydroxybutyrate, glucose, and reduced hemoglobin) were able to discriminate among physiological ruminal status: SARA or acute ruminal acidosis. The CDA was characterized by two significant (Wilks’ λ = 0.282, F approx = 3.76, df1 =15, df2 = 97, P < 0.0001) axes, which accounted for 60% and 38% of the existing variation. The second experimental contribution (Blood parameters modification at different ruminal acidosis conditions; chapter 4) showed that the metabolic condition related to the ruminal acidosis can be evaluated with one daily blood sample because no differences were observed on blood sampling time (8:00 and 12:00 h). The third experimental contribution (Effect of feeding fine maize particles on the reticular pH, milk yield and composition of dairy cows; chapter 5) evaluated whether feeding finely ground maize (Fg) could cause an increased risk of SARA in high-producing dairy cows. The pH measures were performed through the use of wireless sensors featured to remain in the reticulum, continuously recording reticular pH and temperature. Twelve Holstein-Friesian cows were assigned to one of two experimental groups and were exposed to one of two dietary treatments (maize meal ground to 1.0 mm, control group (Ct) and maize meal ground to 0.5 mm, Fg group) in a 2 × 2 cross-over design (2 diets × 2 periods) over a period of 21 days (14 days of an adjustment phase followed by 7 days of data collection). The pH and temperature of the reticulum were continuously measured in eight cows using indwelling sensors throughout the trial. Data were submitted to statistical analyses according to a mixed model procedure. Reducing the maize particle size, greater dry matter intake (19.0 vs. 20.3 kg/d, for Ct and Fg, respectively; P = 0.067), an increase in milk protein (3.18 vs. 3.31%; P = 0.021), milk casein (2.48 vs. 2.57%; P = 0.035), a reduction in feeding efficiency (1.63 vs. 1.52; P = 0.008), and an increase in starch digestibility (0.94 vs. 0.98; P = 0.078) were observed. The cows fed Fg diet spent a significantly higher time below the 5.5 pH threshold (15 vs. 61 min/day; P = 0.047), had an average daily variation in reticular pH characterized by a lower nadir pH (5.95 vs. 5.72; P < 0.001) and a higher pH range (0.79 vs. 0.94; P = 0.003). Neither reticular temperature parameters nor the daily time spent below the temperature thresholds were affected by dietary treatments. This study demonstrated that the grain particle size should be carefully considered during the ration formulation to maximize the production and quality without excessively increasing the risk of ruminal acidosis, since reducing the maize particle size resulted in a drop in the reticular pH, an increase in milk protein content and a slight reduction in feeding efficiency. The second part of the thesis was to identify prevention strategies against SARA in dairy cows using some feed supplements which could help to prevent SARA and identify the mechanisms of action through which they act on ruminal fermentation (chapters 6, 7, and 8). In the fourth experimental contribution (Effects of carbohydrase inhibiting compounds on in vitro rumen fermentation; chapter 6) an in vitro rumen fermentation study used plant-derived supplements (bilberry, phaseolamin, white mulberry, and common flax) at two different doses (15 mg and 150 mg) that were added to 0.5 g of maize meal (maize grain ground through a 2-mm screen). The supplements showed to modify fermentation pattern and suggested having effect on the microbial composition in vitro given the differences in ammonia N concentration and VFA proportion. In particular, compared to positive control (acarbose), bilberry and mulberry caused the highest drop in pH due to the rapid fermentation of their sugar content. In addition, bilberry resulted in an increase in propionate and in an apparently lower ammonia N concentration and showed an activity against starch degradation, although this effect was concealed by the fermentation of sugars present in the supplement. In the last two experimental contributions (Use of dicarboxylic acids and polyphenols to attenuate reticular pH drop and acute phase response in dairy heifers fed a high grain diet; chapter 7 and Effect of dicarboxylic acids and polyphenols on rumen microbial population in dairy heifers fed a high grain diet though metagenomic analysis; chapter 8) the dicarboxylic acids (fumarate-malate) and natural plant extracts (polyphenol-essential oil mixture) were used in an in vivo study with the aim to determine their effects in attenuating the drop of rumen pH and the changes in metabolites and inflammatory markers in blood and rumen fluid in dairy heifers fed high-grain diet (chapter 7) and evaluate the changes on the rumen bacterial population (chapter 8). In the fifth and sixth experimental contributions according to a 3 × 3 Latin square experiment (3 dietary treatments × 3 periods) six Holstein-Friesian non-pregnant heifers were fed a low starch (LS) diet for 14 d (NDF 39.8%, starch 24.0% DM), followed by a high starch (HS) diet for 8 d (NDF 33.6%, starch 30.0% DM). During HS feeding, all animals were randomly assigned to one of the following three dietary treatments: no supplement/control (CT), a daily dose of 60 g/d of a fumarate-malate mixture (FM), or 100 g/d of polyphenol-essential oil mixture (PM). Reticular pH was continuously measured using the reticular wireless boluses and on rumen fluid collected by rumenocentesis (1400 h) on d 21 of each period together with blood (0800 h) and fecal samples (0800, 1400, and 2100 h). An aliquot of rumen fluid was collected to study the effects of the supplements (FM and PM) on the rumen bacterial populations using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and Illumina sequencing. The correlation coefficient (r) between the pH values obtained using the reticular boluses and rumenocentesis was 0.83 (P < 0.001). Nadir pH was lowest during CT treatment (5.40, 5.69, and 5.62 for CT, FM, and PM, respectively; P = 0.037), confirming the effectiveness of both supplements in reducing the pH drop caused by high maize feeding. Moreover, the PM treatment demonstrated to be more effective than FM treatment in reducing the inflammatory response compared to CT treatment with a decrease of the concentrations of neutrophils (2.9, 3.2, and 2.8 109/L; P = 0.084), acute phase proteins as serum amyloid A (37.1, 28.6, and 20.1 µg/mL; P = 0.036), lipopolysaccharide-binding proteins (4.1, 3.8, and 2.9 µg/mL; P = 0.048), and haptoglobin (675, 695, and 601 µg/mL; P = 0.084). The pH and lipopolysaccharide concentration of feces were not affected by dietary treatment, whereas fecal pH values were affected by time (P = 0.042) and were 6.38, 6.71, and 6.69 at 0800, 1400, and 2100 h, respectively (chapter 7). Both supplements showed to modify the rumen microbial population in dairy heifers fed a high grain diet (chapter 8). In conclusion, direct and indirect diagnostic methods such as blood variables and indwelling boluses resulted a promising diagnostic approach to monitor the ruminal pH changes that may be easily used in intensive dairy farms. Regarding the prevention, some feed supplements such as fumarate-malate and polyphenols attenuate the effects of diets with high concentration of cereals acting on ruminal microbial population that may lead to positive effects on rumen fermentations with effects on animal health and welfare, productivity and profitability in intensive dairy farms
L’acidosi ruminale è un disturbo metabolico-fermentativo presente nell’allevamento della vacca da latte e nel bovino da carne. Attualmente la definizione di acidosi si basa sul pH ruminale e può manifestarsi in forma acuta, cronica e subclinica (sub-acuta). Al fine di ottenere un aumento delle produzioni di latte, le vacche ad alta produzione sono alimentate con diete altamente energetiche e a base di cereali che a seguito della rapida fermentazione ruminale dell’amido e degli zuccheri inducono un accumulo di acidi grassi volatili e/o lattato, che associato a una ridotta capacità tampone a livello ruminale causa una caduta del pH. L’acidosi ruminale subacuta (SARA) è caratterizzata da un recupero spontaneo di ripetuti picchi di basso pH ruminale, assente o transitorio accumulo di lattato ruminale e lievi sintomi clinici durante i cali di pH ruminale. SARA causa ingenti danni economici sia diretti che indiretti nell’allevamento della vacca da latte a causa della diminuita qualità e quantità di latte prodotto, delle maggiori spese veterinarie, della prematura macellazione dell’animale. I sintomi clinici di SARA nel singolo animale sono subdoli, ritardati di settimane o mesi dopo l’evento acidotico, non patognomonici e comuni ad altre numerose patologie. Il pH ruminale inoltre varia considerevolmente a seconda di vari fattori quali: tempo intercorso dopo il pasto, momento del giorno, punto di campionamento all’interno del rumine, tecniche di campionamento utilizzate per raccogliere il liquido ruminale. Per queste ragioni e per i problemi nell’ottenere campioni di liquido ruminale rappresentativi, SARA risulta essere molto spesso sottovalutata. Allo stato attuale, per diagnosticare SARA si misura il pH ruminale utilizzando varie tecniche: alcune di esse sono considerate invasive (fistolizzazione ruminale), o moderatamente invasive (ruminocentesi), forniscono rilievi puntiformi del pH ruminale, perdendo quindi sensibilità nella diagnosi di acidosi ruminale (ruminocentesi, sonda orogastrica) o possono portare a contaminazioni con la saliva che altera il pH del campione (sonda orogastrica). Per ovviare a tali inconvenienti con questa tesi si è cercato di individuare metodi diagnostici (diretti ed indiretti) poco invasivi, rapidi, economici e di facile esecuzione per rilevare la presenza e definire la gravità dell’acidosi ruminale (capitoli 3 e 4). Si è inoltre indagata l’efficacia di diversi metodi di prevenzione (capitoli 5, 6, 7 e 8). Il primo contributo sperimentale (Effect of induced ruminal acidosis on blood variables in heifers; capitolo 3) è stato eseguito utilizzando un quadrato latino 3 × 3 (3 diete × 3 periodi). A sei manze non gravide (incrocio Valdostana x Blu Belga) è stata somministrata una delle tre diete contenenti differenti livelli di amido (% sostanza secca): basso (17.3%) come controllo (CT), medio (MS) per indurre SARA (33.4%) e alto (HS) per indurre l’acidosi ruminale acuta (42.8%). Gli animali sono stati alimentati tre volte al giorno (ore 08:00, 12:00 e 18:00). Il pH ruminale è stato misurato di continuo ogni 10 minuti tramite boli, che hanno la caratteristica di fluttuare all’interno del liquido ruminale, e tramite ruminocentesi eseguita 4 ore dopo la distribuzione della razione al 4° giorno di ogni periodo sperimentale. Il coefficiente di regressione tra i due metodi (boli vs. ruminocentesi) è risultato pari a 0.56 (P = 0.040). La somministrazione di CT, MS e HS ha determinato delle differenze nel tempo speso sotto le soglie di pH 5.8, 5.5 e 5.0 e in diverse variabili compresa l’ingestione (7.7 vs. 6.9 vs. 5.1 kg/d per CT, MS e HS, rispettivamente; P = 0.002), pH ruminale nadir (5.69 vs. 5.47 vs. 5.44; P = 0.042), pH ruminale medio (6.50 vs. 6.34 vs. 6.31; P = 0.012), livello di emoglobina (11.1 vs. 10.9 vs. 11.4 g/dL; P = 0.010), conta piastrinica (506 vs. 481 vs. 601 K/μL; P = 0.008), HCO3- (31.8 vs. 31.3 vs. 30.6 mmol/L; P = 0.071) e proteina legante i lipopolisaccaridi (LBP) (5.9 vs. 9.5 vs. 10.5 μg/mL; P < 0.001). Applicando un’analisi discriminante canonica multifattoriale (CDA), cinque variabili plasmatiche (emoglobina, volume piastrinico medio, β-idrossibutirrato, glucosio ed emoglobina ridotta) sono state in grado di discriminare significativamente lo stato ruminale fisiologico: SARA o acidosi ruminale acuta (Wilks’ λ = 0.282, F approx = 3.76, df1 =15, df2 = 97, P < 0.0001). A seguito della CDA, si sono ottenute due variabili latenti (CAN 1 e CAN 2) che spiegano il 60% e il 38% della varianza. Il secondo contributo sperimentale (Blood parameters modification at different ruminal acidosis conditions; capitolo 4) ha dimostrato che per la valutazione dello stato di acidosi ruminale può essere sufficiente un solo rilievo di sangue al giorno, stante la mancanza di differenze statisticamente significative per tutte le variabili ematologiche determinate nel confronto tra i due tempi di campionamento (08:00 vs. 12:00). Il terzo contributo (Effect of feeding fine maize particles on the reticular pH, milk yield and composition of dairy cows; capitolo 5) ha previsto l’utilizzo di una differente tipologia di boli che hanno la caratteristica di rimanere sul fondo del reticolo. Questi boli hanno registrato in continuo il pH e la temperatura reticolare ed è stato possibile valutare se la somministrazione di mais finemente macinato (Fg) potesse causare un maggiore rischio di SARA in vacche da latte ad alta produzione. Dodici vacche Frisone sono state assegnate a uno dei due gruppi sperimentali: Ct (mais macinato a 1.0 mm) o Fg (mais macinato a 0.5 mm) utilizzando un disegno sperimentale a cross over (2 diete × 2 periodi) basato su una fase di adattamento di 14 giorni e una di rilievo dati di 7 (periodo di 21 giorni). Il pH e la temperatura reticolare sono stati misurati in continuo in 8 vacche utilizzando i boli durante tutta la prova sperimentale. I dati raccolti sono stati sottoposti ad analisi statistica secondo un modello MIXED. Riducendo le dimensioni delle particelle di mais si è osservato un appena significativo aumento dell’ingestione (19.0 vs. 20.3 kg/d per Ct e Fg, rispettivamente; P = 0.067), un significativo incremento del livello di proteina grezza (3.18 vs. 3.31%; P = 0.021) e caseina nel latte (2.48 vs. 2.57%; P = 0.035); per contro, si è osservata una significativa riduzione dell’efficienza alimentare (1.63 vs. 1.52; P = 0.008) benché sia aumentata significativamente la digeribilità dell’amido (0.94 vs. 0.98; P = 0.078). Le vacche alimentate con Fg hanno significativamente speso maggior tempo sotto la soglia di pH 5.5 (15 vs. 61 min/giorno; P = 0.047), hanno avuto una più alta variazione giornaliera media del pH reticolare caratterizzata da un più basso pH nadir (5.95 vs. 5.72; P < 0.001) e un più alto range di pH (0.79 vs. 0.94; P = 0.003). I trattamenti non hanno influenzato i parametri della temperatura reticolare e neppure il tempo speso giornalmente sotto le soglie di temperatura. Questo studio ha dimostrato che anche le dimensioni delle particelle di mais devono essere prese in considerazione durante la formulazione di una razione volta a massimizzare produzione e qualità del latte, stante il fatto che una loro riduzione sembra favorire un aumento del tenore proteico del latte a scapito di una seppur modesta diminuzione dell’efficienza alimentare; tuttavia, si deve porre attenzione a non aumentare il rischio di acidosi ruminale. La seconda parte della tesi ha avuto lo scopo di individuare alcune strategie per prevenire SARA nelle vacche da latte tramite l’utilizzo di alcuni supplementi alimentari e di cercare di identificare i meccanismi d’azione attraverso i quali questi agiscono sulla fermentazione ruminale (capitoli 6, 7 e 8). Il quarto contributo sperimentale (Effects of carbohydrase inhibiting compounds on in vitro rumen fermentation; capitolo 6) è stato uno studio in vitro sulla fermentazione ruminale che ha previsto l’utilizzo di derivati vegetali (mirtillo, faseolamina, gelso bianco e lino comune) a due dosi (15 o 150 mg) aggiunti a 0.5 g di farina di mais (mais macinato attraverso un setaccio di 2 mm). Gli additivi hanno dimostrato sia di poter modificare il pattern fermentativo sia di poter influenzare la composizione batterica in vitro stante le differenze nella concentrazione di azoto ammoniacale e nelle proporzioni di acidi grassi volatili. In particolare, rispetto a un controllo positivo (acarbosio), mirtillo e gelso hanno determinato una maggiore caduta di pH probabilmente a causa della rapida fermentazione del loro contenuto in zuccheri. Il mirtillo inoltre ha aumentato il propionato e comportato un apparente calo della concentrazione di azoto ammoniacale; il mirtillo sembra avere la capacità di limitare la degradazione dell’amido mascherato, sebbene questo effetto sia stato limitato dalla fermentazione degli zuccheri presenti nel supplemento. Negli ultimi due contributi (Use of dicarboxylic acids and polyphenols to attenuate reticular pH drop and acute phase response in dairy heifers fed a high grain diet; capitolo 7. Effect of dicarboxylic acids and polyphenols on rumen microbial population in dairy heifers fed a high grain diet though metagenomic analysis; capitolo 8) acidi dicarbossilici (fumarato-malato) ed estratti di piante (miscela di olii essenziali e di polifenoli) sono stati utilizzati per una prova in vivo allo scopo di determinare i loro effetti sulla caduta del pH ruminale, sui metaboliti e gli indicatori infiammatori del sangue e del liquido ruminale in manze alimentate con diete ad alto contenuto di mais (capitolo 7) e di valutare i loro effetti sulla popolazione batterica ruminale (capitolo 8). Secondo un protocollo sperimentale a quadrato latino 3 × 3 (3 diete × 3 periodi) sei manze Frisone non gravide sono state alimentate con una dieta a basso contenuto d’amido (LS) per 14 giorni (NDF 39.8%, amido 24.0% SS), seguita da una dieta ad alto contenuto d’amido (HS) per 8 giorni (NDF 33.6%, amido 30.0% SS). Durante la somministrazione della dieta HS gli animali sono stati assegnati a uno dei tre trattamenti: nessun supplemento/controllo (CT), una dose giornaliera di 60 g al giorno di una miscela di fumarato-malato (FM), o 100 g al giorno di una miscela di olii essenziali e polifenoli (PM). Il pH ruminale è stato misurato in continuo mediante boli fissi all’interno del reticolo e confrontato con quello rilevato tramite un pH-metro portatile sul liquido ruminale raccolto mediante ruminocentesi il 21° giorno di ogni periodo sperimentale alle 14:00. Un’aliquota di liquido ruminale è stata raccolta per studiare gli effetti dei supplementi sulla produzione di acidi grassi volatili (AGV) e lipopolisaccaridi (LPS) e sulla popolazione microbica ruminale utilizzando la real-time PCR (qPCR) e il sequenziamento Illumina. Lo stesso giorno sono stati inoltre raccolti campioni di sangue (08:00) e feci (08:00, 14:00 e 21:00). Il coefficiente di correlazione tra i valori di pH acquisiti tramite i boli reticolari o la ruminocentesi è stato pari a 0.83 (P < 0.001). Il pH nadir è risultato più basso nella dieta controllo (5.40, 5.69 e 5.62 per CT, FM e PM, rispettivamente; P = 0.037), confermando l’efficacia di entrambi i supplementi nel ridurre la caduta del pH ruminale causata da alimenti ricchi di cereali. Inoltre, PM ha dimostrato di essere più efficace rispetto a FM nel ridurre la risposta infiammatoria con una diminuzione delle concentrazioni di neutrofili (2.9, 3.2 e 2.8 109/L; P = 0.084), proteine della fase acuta come siero amiloide A (37.1, 28.6 e 20.1 µg/mL; P = 0.036), LBP (4.1, 3.8 e 2.9 µg/mL; P = 0.048) e aptoglobina (675, 695 e 601 µg/mL; P = 0.084). Il pH e la concentrazione di lipolisaccaridi nelle feci non sono state influenzate dai trattamenti, mentre i valori di pH nelle feci sono risultati influenzati dal tempo di raccolta (6.38, 6.71 e 6.69 alle ore 08:00, 14:00 e 21:00, rispettivamente; P = 0.042) (capitolo 7). Entrambi i supplementi hanno dimostrato di modificare la popolazione microbica ruminale in manze alimentate con una dieta ad alto contenuto d’amido (capitolo 8). Concludendo, strumenti diagnostici (diretti e indiretti) come boli e variabili del sangue sono risultati essere promettenti per monitorare variazioni di pH ruminale. Tali strumenti diagnostici possono essere facilmente utilizzati negli allevamenti di vacche da latte ad alta produzione. Per quanto riguarda inoltre la prevenzione di SARA, tra gli additivi alimentari testati, gli acidi dicarbossilici (fumarato-malato) e soprattutto i polifenoli si sono dimostrati efficaci nell’attenuare la caduta del pH ruminale dovuta all’uso di diete ad alto contenuto di cereali, agendo sulla popolazione microbica del rumine. Tali risultati suggeriscono il loro utilizzo negli allevamenti per aiutare a garantire la salute e il benessere delle bovine da latte, favorendo di conseguenza produttività e redditività per gli allevatori

Rumen acidosis is a common problem under feedlot conditions where cattle change from a roughage-based to a high concentrate-based diet. It is associated with an imbalance between lactic acid producing and lactic acid utilizing bacteria. Megasphaera eldenii is an important lactic acid utilizing bacteria which can now be produced for commercial use and supplemented for the prevention of lactic acid build up in the rumen and subsequent acidosis. The adaptation period is required in order for numbers of lactate utilizers such as M. elsdenii to increase to levels effective against subsequent build up of lactic acid. The purpose of this trial is to identify the effects of a strain, NCIMB 41125 (MeCH4), of Megasphaera elsdenii on the adaptation period of feedlot cattle on diets formulated for high starch levels. MeCH4 was isolated from the rumen of cattle adapted to high starch diets. By converting lactic acid in the rumen to volatile fatty acids (VFA’s) such as butyrate, M. elsdenii should be able to at least reduce the adaptation phase, if not totally eliminate the need for it without effects on intake patterns, feed conversion rates, health and carcass yield. . If results are positive, this strain of M. eldenii will have great economic implications to all feedlot farmers. There may be one major conclusion to be drawn from this trail and this was the fact that a decrease in adaptation days to reach the high concentrate grower diet had no statistically significant influence on key performance parameters relevant to the feedlot industry However, possibly the most attractive implication of these results is the lower need for roughage and therefore the implications tied in with the buying in and storage thereof.
Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Animal and Wildlife Sciences
unrestricted

The objectives of the research were to examine the effects of high dietary levels of fibrous feeds, and of supplementation with Roxazyme® G2 (RX), on the digestive metabolic and physiological responses of growing pigs fed maize-soybean diets. The nutrient and dietary fibre (DF) composition, the swelling and water-binding capacities of maize (MM), its hominy chop (HC) and cobs (MC), dehulled soybean (dSBM) and the hulls (SH), brewer’s grains (BG), lucerne hay (LH) and wheat bran (WB) were evaluated using standard procedures. Feed fibre fractions were isolated by simulating upper tract digestion in an Ankom® DaisyII Incubator, whereby each feed was digested in pepsin (porcine, 200 FIP-U/g, Merck No, 7190), followed by pancreatin (porcine, grade IV, Sigma No P-1750), with recovery of the fibrous residues. In a third step to complete the simulated pig gastro-intestinal digestion, the pepsin-pancreatin fibre extracts were digested by RX or Viscozyme L ® V2010 (VZ). Enzyme activity was measured as the coefficients of partial degradability (solubilisation) of the washed fibre extracts. The kinetics and products of fermentation of the DF were evaluated in an AnkomRF gas production system, using buffered faecal inoculum. Among the feed ingredients, dissimilar, fibre source-dependent activities between RX (0.02 to 0.12) and VZ (0.04-0.33) were observed. The lowest RX activities were observed on the maize and soybean derived fibres, with similarly low VZ activity on MC fibre. Variation in the activity of faecal microbial enzymes was similarly indicated by the variable production of fermentation gas (51.8-299.4 mL g-1 DM) and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) (2.3-6.0 mMol g-1 DM). Soy hull, dSBH, MM and HC fibres were highly fermentable, with low fermentability of BG, MC and WB fibres. The fibres differed in the composition of fermentation SCFA, whereby SH, LH and MC shifted fermentation to Ace, and BG, dSBM, WB, MM, HC favoured Pro, while MM and HC favoured But production. The same nutritional properties were similarly evaluated in complete diets which were formulated from the ingredients for growth, and metabolic trials. For the growth trial, a standard (STD) (control), 141 g total dietary fibre (TDF) kg-1 dry matter (DM) maize-soybean growing pig diet, and five iso-nutritive, 246 g TDF kg-1 DM nutritionally balanced diets were formulated. The high DF was achieved by partial replacement of the MM and dSBM in the STD diet with MC, SH, BG, LH or WB. The differences in RX and VZ activities and in the fermentation characteristics which were observed on the fibre extracts from the high fibre ingredients were reflected in the DF from the respective complete diets in which they were included. However, the fibre from the basal dietary ingredients reduced the absolute values and the variation in the activities of RX (0.03-0.06) and VZ (0.16-0.22), and similarly reduced the variation in gas (126.6-187.6 mL g-1 DM) and SCFA (4.1-5.4 mMol g-1 DM) production of the DF from the fibrous diets. Enzyme activities on the STD DF were low for RX (0.03) and high for VZ (0.25). The STD DF produced 205.3 mL gas g-1 DM, which was similar to SH DF, and higher than all the other diets. The STD DF produced 5.0-mMol SCFA g-1 DM, which was quantitatively, and not statistically higher than the other fibres. The composition of SCFA was similar across all diets, except for the high percent Ace, with low Pro by the SH DF. Compared to the STD, the high DF diets increased percent Ace, with reduced Pro and But. The STD, MC, SH, BG, LH and WB diets were each prepared in duplicate mixes, one of which was fortified with 200 mg RX kg-1 feed (as fed). Seventy-two intact Large White X Landrace, male, 32.0 ± 5.6 kg live weight (LW) pigs were allocated to the diets in two completely randomised weight blocks in a 2 (fibre source) X 2 (enzyme) factorial arrangement. The pigs were fed ad libitum for 10 weeks. Cumulative LW gain and feed intake were measured at different stages of growth, and at slaughter. Apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients was estimated at 65-70 kg LW, using 0.2% (as fed) chromium oxide as the indigestible marker. Ileal tissue was sampled 50 cm above the ileo-caecal valve, on which villi height and area, and crypt depth were evaluated by computerised image analysis. Blood was sampled at slaughter from the severed vena jugularis, 16 hours after feeding. Serum urea, creatinine, triglycerides, glucose, and total cholesterol were analysed chemically. The serum metabolome was further explored using Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H -NMRS). There was fibre X RX interaction for villi height, whereby the enzyme reduced the villi height in pigs on the SH, STD and WB diets, with an opposite effect on pigs on the MC, BG, LH diets. The soluble fibre content was negatively correlated with crypt depth. Chemical analysis did not detect differences in metabolite concentration between the STD and the high fibre diets. However, more serum cholesterol was observed in pigs fed the WB compared to the LH and MC diets. 1H-NMRS indicated that feeding pigs the WB diet increased serum Cys and His, while supplementation of RX increased serum formate, glucose, and urea. There was diet X enzyme interaction for fructose, glucose, Arg, Cys, Ser, and Trp, whereby RX increased the levels in pigs on MC and WB, with an opposite effect in pigs on the other diets. There was large DF source-dependent variation among diets in ATTD of DM (0.80-0.85), organic matter (OM) (0.81-0.87), gross energy (GE) (079-0.85) and CP (0.81-0.85), whereby, relative to the STD diet, high DF reduced the ATTD of DM (all diets except SH), organic matter (OM) and energy and CP (all diets except the MC). Positive correlation was observed between fermentability and the ATTD digestibility of DM, OM, energy, ADF, NDF, and fat. Negative correlation was observed between the swelling capacity and the ATTD of DM, OM, energy and protein, between DF solubility and DM, OM, protein, ADF and NDF, and between water binding capacity and ATTD of DM and OM, energy and NDF. At slaughter, there was similarly large, and DF source-dependent variation among the high fibre diets in feed intake (2.31-2.71 kg as fed day-1), live weight gain (0.75-0.86 kg day-1), and feed: gain ratio (2.73-3.00). Corresponding values for the STD diet were 2.44 kg day-1, 0.83 kg day-1and 2.86 kg day-1, respectively. Relative to the STD, LH reduced feed intake and live weight gain, and MC increased the feed: gain ratio. Predictions based on the in vitro fermentability of DF and feed intake suggested that due to poor fermentability, and or restriction of feed intake, relative to a standard fibre diet, high dietary levels of MC, WB and BG may reduce fermentation in the lower gut, while similar dietary levels of SH and LH may result in substantial increases in fermentation. At 50 kg LW, the fermentability of DF was positively correlated with feed intake and with weight gain, while water binding capacity and solubility of DF were negatively correlated with feed intake. At slaughter, the solubility of DF was negatively correlated with feed intake and feed: gain ratio. Large variation among the high fibre diets was also observed in the slaughter weight (89.2-96.8 kg), dressing % (68.6-76.4), meat colour (80.4-82.3), lean % (69.5-71.2), and fat % (10.1-12.6). In comparison, pigs on the STD diet scored 94.7 kg slaughter weight, 75.1% dressing, 81.6 cm carcass length, 82.5 meat colour, 68.4% lean, and 15.0% fat. Relative to the STD, LH reduced dressing and fat %. Lucerne hay and WB increased the lean%. For the metabolic trial, two iso-nutritive, mixed high fibre (319 g TDF kg-1 DM), nutritionally balanced diets were formulated to contain DF of high (HF) versus low (LF) fermentability. The diets had similar content of soluble DF and similar swelling and water binding capacities. Viscozyme was more active than RX on both the HF (0.20 versus 0.04) and the LF (0.17 versus 0.07) DF. The combination of RX and VZ statistically increased the enzyme activity on the HF (0.25) and quantitatively increased enzyme activity on the LF (0.18) DF, suggesting additive or synergistic effects. More gas was produced by the HF (159.5 mL g-1 DM) compared to the LF DF (96.6 mL g-1 DM). More SCFA were produced by HF (5.0 mMol g-1 DM), compared to the LF DF (3.6 mMol g-1 DM). Compared to the STD, HF DF increased percent Ace, with reduced Pro and But. The LF DF increased percent Ace, with quantitative, and not statistical reduction of Pro and But. In a metabolic trial, the HF and LF diets, and their duplicates containing 0.270 g RX kg-1 DM of feed (as fed) were fed ad libitum to eight ileum T-cannulised, intact Large White X Landrace male pigs weighing 65.0 ± 5.1 kg. The diets were allocated to the pigs in a duplicate 4 x 4 Latin Square design, in a 2 (enzyme) x 2 (fermentability) factorial arrangement. Each period consisted of two weeks of adaptation followed by five days of sampling. The ileal digesta was collected in each period and was similarly subjected to the fermentation test. Apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and ATTD were determined using 0.2% (as fed) chromium oxide as the indigestible marker. N excretion in faeces and urine were measured, and N retention was calculated. Blood was sampled by vena jugularis puncture on the last day of each period. Two blood samples were collected, the first 15 hours after removal from feed (15-hour serum), and the second 3 hours after re-introduction to feed (3-hour serum). Serum metabolites were evaluated by both chemical analyses and by 1H-NMRS, as described for the growth trial. Roxazyme did not affect the fermentation characteristics of the ileal digesta. In similar proportion to the fermentability of the PP digesta, the HF ileal digesta was more fermentable (65.4 mL gas g-1 DM and 6.1 mMol SCFA g-1 DM) than the LF ileal digesta (46.7 mL gas g-1 DM and 4.4 mMol SCFA g-1 DM SCFA). Prediction based on the in vitro fermentability of DF and feed intake suggested the HF diet could support one half times more fermentation in the lower gut compared to the LF diet. The HF diet had higher AID of DM (62.5 vs. 58.6), OM (65.6 vs. 62.1), energy (64.4 vs. 61.0), fat (85.8 vs. 81.7) and ash (41.8 vs. 32.7). The AID of HO-Pro, Met and Val were higher for the LF diet. There was diet X enzyme interaction on the AID of Met, whereby the RX reduced the AID of met in the LF diet, and not that of the HF diet. The ATTD was higher for the HF diet for DM (74.2 vs. 68.4), NDF (64.7 vs. 57.4), and ADF (35.1 vs. 21.0). There was positive correlation between the fermentability of DF and the AID DM, OM, ash, ash, fat and energy. The solubility of DF was negatively correlated with the AID of DM, OM, ash, fat, ADF and energy, and with the ATTD of DM, OM, ash, fat, energy, NDF, and ADF. Negative correlation was also observed between the swelling capacity of DF and the AID of protein, Trp and Lys. The solubility of DF was positively correlated with Ser, Ala, Val, Iso-Leu and His. There was diet X enzyme interaction for urea in the 15- hour serum, whereby RX tended to reduce the urea in the LF diet, while it increased that of the HF diet. Fermentability negatively correlated with urea in the 15- hour serum, and positively correlated with serum glucose in the 3-hour serum. In the 3-hour sample, 1H-NMRS indicated higher fucose, Pro and cholesterol in the LF diet. 1H-NMRS also indicated fermentability x RX interaction for Ser, Tyr, Lys, creatine, and possibly, glucose or fructose, glycerol or Gly and His or Arg, whereby RX increased the levels in the LF diets, with opposite effect in the HF diet. In conclusion, enzyme activities and fermentability were higly variable among different DF sources, and the effects were evident in the fibrous complete diets. The results of the in vitro studies supported the application of the methods to formulate fermentable insoluble fibre-rich, maize-soybean-mixed co-product diets. Correlation analyses suggested that DF fermentability, and solubility, swelling and water binding capacities explained significant proportions of the variances of the metabolic and physiological responses of the pigs to different feeds. Predictions based on the in vitro fermentability of DF and feed intake suggested that a strategy whereby pig diets are enriched in DF after the feedstuffs are screened on DF fermentability could substantially increase fermentation in the lower gut. Overall, the results suggested that productivity can be maintained in growing pigs fed diets containing up to twice the standard levels of DF, provided producers target co-product feeds that contain highly fermentable DF. The use of RX to improve nutrient digestion and to stimulate gut fermentation was not justified.
Environmental Sciences
Ph.D. (Environmental Sciences)

Glutaric aciduria type I is a rare organic aciduria caused by inherited deficiency of glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the final common catabolic pathways of L-lysine, L-hydroxylysine, and L-trytophan. The majority of untreated patients develop striatal injury and secondary dystonia during infancy and childhood, whereas identification by newborn screening and immediate start of metabolic treatment (low-lysine diet, carnitine supplementation, metabolic emergency treatment) helps to prevent severe neurological complications in the majority of patients. The morbidity and mortality of dystonic patients is high, whereas asymptomatic patients have normal life expectancy. Effective antidystonic treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach. In a subgroup of patients, first clinical symptoms (headaches, vertigo, gait disturbance, hand tremor) may not manifest before adulthood. Cranial MRI studies in these patients reveal T2 hyperintensities of supratentorial white matter. A few women with glutaric aciduria type I have had unremarkable pregnancies, deliveries, and postpartal periods.

Any public debate about air pollution starts with the premise that air pollution cannot be good for you, so we should have less of it. However, it is much more difficult to determine how much is dangerous, and even more difficult to decide how much we are willing to pay for improvements in measured air pollution. Recent UK estimates suggest that fine particulate pollution causes about 6500 deaths per year, although it is not clear how many years of life are lost as a result. Some deaths may just be brought forward by a few days or weeks, while others may be truly premature. Globally, household pollution from cooking fuels may cause up to two million premature deaths per year in the developing world. The hazards of black smoke air pollution have been known since antiquity. The first descriptions of deaths caused by air pollution are those recorded after the eruption of Vesuvius in ad 79. In modern times, the infamous smogs of the early twentieth century in Belgium and London were clearly shown to trigger deaths in people with chronic bronchitis and heart disease. In mechanistic terms, black smoke and sulphur dioxide generated from industrial processes and domestic coal burning cause airway inflammation, exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, and consequent heart failure. Epidemiological analysis has confirmed that the deaths included both those who were likely to have died soon anyway and those who might well have survived for months or years if the pollution event had not occurred. Clean air legislation has dramatically reduced the levels of these traditional pollutants in the West, although these pollutants are still important in China, and smoke from solid cooking fuel continues to take a heavy toll amongst women in less developed parts of the world. New forms of air pollution have emerged, principally due to the increase in motor vehicle traffic since the 1950s. The combination of fine particulates and ground-level ozone causes ‘summer smogs’ which intensify over cities during summer periods of high barometric pressure. In Los Angeles and Mexico City, ozone concentrations commonly reach levels which are associated with adverse respiratory effects in normal and asthmatic subjects. Ozone directly affects the airways, causing reduced inspiratory capacity. This effect is more marked in patients with asthma and is clinically important, since epidemiological studies have found linear associations between ozone concentrations and admission rates for asthma and related respiratory diseases. Ozone induces an acute neutrophilic inflammatory response in both human and animal airways, together with release of chemokines (e.g. interleukin 8 and growth-related oncogene-alpha). Nitrogen oxides have less direct effect on human airways, but they increase the response to allergen challenge in patients with atopic asthma. Nitrogen oxide exposure also increases the risk of becoming ill after exposure to influenza. Alveolar macrophages are less able to inactivate influenza viruses and this leads to an increased probability of infection after experimental exposure to influenza. In the last two decades, major concerns have been raised about the effects of fine particulates. An association between fine particulate levels and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality and morbidity was first reported in 1993 and has since been confirmed in several other countries. Globally, about 90% of airborne particles are formed naturally, from sea spray, dust storms, volcanoes, and burning grass and forests. Human activity accounts for about 10% of aerosols (in terms of mass). This comes from transport, power stations, and various industrial processes. Diesel exhaust is the principal source of fine particulate pollution in Europe, while sea spray is the principal source in California, and agricultural activity is a major contributor in inland areas of the US. Dust storms are important sources in the Sahara, the Middle East, and parts of China. The mechanism of adverse health effects remains unclear but, unlike the case for ozone and nitrogen oxides, there is no safe threshold for the health effects of particulates. Since the 1990s, tax measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions have led to a rapid rise in the proportion of new cars with diesel engines. In the UK, this rose from 4% in 1990 to one-third of new cars in 2004 while, in France, over half of new vehicles have diesel engines. Diesel exhaust particles may increase the risk of sensitization to airborne allergens and cause airways inflammation both in vitro and in vivo. Extensive epidemiological work has confirmed that there is an association between increased exposure to environmental fine particulates and death from cardiovascular causes. Various mechanisms have been proposed: cardiac rhythm disturbance seems the most likely at present. It has also been proposed that high numbers of ultrafine particles may cause alveolar inflammation which then exacerbates preexisting cardiac and pulmonary disease. In support of this hypothesis, the metal content of ultrafine particles induces oxidative stress when alveolar macrophages are exposed to particles in vitro. While this is a plausible mechanism, in epidemiological studies it is difficult to separate the effects of ultrafine particles from those of other traffic-related pollutants.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

AbstractDomestic dogsand cats have evolved differentially in some aspects of nutrition, metabolism, chemical sensing, and feedingbehavior. The dogs have adapted to omnivorous dietscontaining taurine-abundant meat and starch-rich plant ingredients. By contrast, domestic catsmust consumeanimal-sourced foodsfor survival, growth, and development. Both dogsand catssynthesize vitamin C and many amino acids (AAs, such as alanine, asparagine, aspartate, glutamate, glutamine, glycine, proline, and serine), but have a limited ability to form de novo arginineand vitamin D3. Compared with dogs, cats have greater endogenousnitrogen losses and higher dietary requirements for AAs (particularly arginine, taurine, and tyrosine), B-complex vitamins (niacin, thiamin, folate, and biotin), and choline; exhibit greater rates of gluconeogenesis; are less sensitive to AA imbalances and antagonism; are more capable of concentrating urine through renal reabsorption of water; and cannot tolerate high levels of dietary starch due to limited pancreatic α-amylase activity. In addition, dogs can form sufficient taurinefrom cysteine(for most breeds); arachidonic acidfrom linoleic acid; eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid from α-linolenic acid; all-trans-retinol from β-carotene; and niacinfrom tryptophan. These synthetic pathways, however, are either absent or limited in all cats due to (a) no or low activities of key enzymes (including pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase, cysteinedioxygenase, ∆6-desaturase, β-carotene dioxygenase, and quinolinate phosphoribosyltransferase) and (b) diversion of intermediates to other metabolic pathways. Dogs can thrive on one large meal daily, select high-fat over low-fat diets, and consume sweet substances. By contrast, cats eat more frequently during light and dark periods, select high-protein over low-protein diets, refuse dryfood, enjoy a consistent diet, and cannot taste sweetness. This knowledge guides the feeding and care of dogsand cats, as well as the manufacturing of their foods. As abundant sources of essentialnutrients, animal-derivedfoodstuffs play important roles in optimizing the growth, development, and health of the companionanimals.

ZusammenfassungRothirsche, in der Jägersprache als Rotwild bezeichnet, können starke Emotionen hervorrufen und große Konflikte verursachen. Das Management von Rotwild sollte evidenzbasiert sein, sich also an wissenschaftlich gewonnenen Erkenntnissen orientieren. In diesem Kapitel fasse ich zusammen, wie solch ein evidenzbasiertes Rotwildmanagement grundsätzlich gestaltet sein sollte und welche Evidenzen es für verschiedene Aspekte des Rotwildmanagements gibt. Hierbei spielt die Jagd zwar eine wichtige Rolle, ist aber nur eine der möglichen Maßnahmen, mit denen Managementziele erreicht werden können. Ebenso ist die numerische Steuerung von Populationsgrößen bzw. -dichten in der Regel nur ein Zwischenziel im Management.Ein evidenzbasiertes Rotwildmanagement sollte adaptiv aufgebaut sein und somit immer eine Erfolgskontrolle beinhalten, durch die sowohl die Umsetzung als auch die Wirkung von Managementmaßnahmen stetig überprüft und verbessert werden können. Solch eine Erfolgskontrolle basiert auf einem Langzeit-Monitoring, das mindestens die Faktoren Populationsentwicklung, Wildzustand und Wildeinfluss beinhalten sollte.Die Verbreitung von Rotwild sowie der Austausch zwischen einzelnen Vorkommen werden in Deutschland stark von gesetzlichen Vorgaben und der Landschaftszerschneidung durch Siedlungen und Straßen bestimmt. Durch die räumliche Isolation und den damit einhergehenden geringen Genfluss zeigen einige Rotwildvorkommen bereits stark reduzierte genetische Diversität, sehr kleine genetisch-effektive Populationsgrößen und hohe Inzuchtwerte. Vor diesem Hintergrund sollte die Vernetzung der Rotwildvorkommen verbessert werden, was einerseits durch die Abschaffung rotwildfreier Gebiete erreicht werden könnte, andererseits durch Wiedervernetzungsmaßnahmen, z. B. durch Wildkorridore und Querungshilfen über Verkehrsinfrastrukturen.Rothirsche passen ihr Raum-Zeit-Verhalten und ihre Habitatwahl an eine „Landschaft der Angst“ an, die vom wahrgenommenen Mortalitätsrisiko, dem Nahrungsangebot und der Habitatstruktur abhängt. Auch Störungen durch menschliche Aktivitäten spielen hierbei eine wichtige Rolle. Wissenschaftliche Studien belegen, dass sich Rotwild durch eine Steuerung dieser Faktoren in Raum und Zeit lenken lässt, wodurch Konflikte reduziert werden können. In der Praxis kann hierfür eine Zonierung für das Flächenmanagement sowie eine Kombination aus lokaler Schwerpunkt- und großflächiger Intervallbejagung angewandt werden, über die Rotwild von bestimmten Flächen ferngehalten und auf andere Flächen gelenkt werden kann.Einige der bestehenden Abschussvorgaben für Rotwild erscheinen biologisch nicht plausibel, und es ist nicht sicher nachgewiesen, ob sie die gewünschten Effekte haben. Die Abschussplanung bzw. die dafür nötige Zuwachsberechnung erfolgt meist anhand von unbekannten Parametern zu Reproduktionsraten, Populationsstrukturen und Mortalitäten. Die hierdurch entstehenden Unsicherheiten bei der Vorhersage zukünftiger Bestandesentwicklungen sollten durch zusätzliche, populationsspezifische Forschung gemindert werden. Um Rotwildbestände über die Jagd zu reduzieren, müssen vor allem Alttiere erlegt werden, was aus Gründen des Tierschutzes den vorherigen Abschuss der geführten Kälber erfordert.Basierend auf diesen Evidenzen mache ich grundsätzliche Vorschläge für das Rotwildmanagement, schlage Schritte vor, um weitere Evidenzen zu schaffen, und identifiziere weitergehenden Forschungsbedarf.AbstractRed deer can cause strong emotions and also severe damage. Red deer management should be evidence-based and hence use scientifically derived information. In this chapter, I summarize what an evidence-based red deer management should generally look like and what evidences actually exist for different aspects of red deer management. Hunting plays an important part in this, but is just one possible action to reach management goals. Similarly, the numeric control of population abundances or densities is usually just an intermediate goal in wildlife management.An evidence-based red deer management should be adaptive and hence requires a control of success, so that implementation and effect of management actions can constantly be evaluated and improved. Such a control of success is based on a long-term monitoring that considers at least the three factors population development, animal performance, and herbivore impacts.The distribution of red deer in Germany and the exchange among populations are severely impacted by legal regulations and by landscape fragmentation due to settlements and roads. The spatial isolation and associated low levels of gene flow have already led to low genetic diversity, low genetic-effective population sizes and high inbreeding values in some populations. This calls for an improvement of connectivity among red deer populations, which could be accomplished by giving up areas where red deer are not allowed to exist, and by defragmentation measures, such as wildlife corridors and crossing structures over transportation infrastructures.Red deer adjust their space-time-behavior and habitat selection to the landscape of fear, which is shaped by the perceived mortality risk, food availability and habitat structure. Disturbances by humans also play a major role in this. Scientific research shows that red deer can be steered in space and time through these factors and that such a steering can reduce conflicts. From a practical standpoint, such steering can be accomplished by a zoning concept that combines area management, locally intensive hunting and broad-scale hunting in intervals, so that red deer are kept away from certain areas while being steered into other areas.Some of the existing harvesting guidelines appear biologically implausible and their effectiveness has not sufficiently been demonstrated. Harvest planning is often based on unknown values for reproduction rates, population structures and mortalities. This leads to high uncertainties when predicting the future development of populations, calling for population-specific research to reduce these uncertainties. To reduce red deer abundances, especially adult females need to be harvested. Due to animal welfare laws, this is usually accompanied by an increased harvest of calves.Based on these evidences, I provide general guidelines for red deer management, suggest further steps for generating additional evidences, and identify remaining research needs.

Abstract We need all kinds of nutrients to build and repair our body structures. Food also has to provide the necessary energy to bring these processes about, which is why most of our food consists of high energy molecules such as sugars, starch, fats, and oils. Energy is our primary need, but without protein, vitamins, minerals, and a few other molecules we would not be able to extract this energy, which is why a balanced diet is so important.

Cassava is a good source of carbohydrates and a staple diet in many countries. It has a high-calorie count but a low protein and fat content. Microalgae biomass is increasingly being used in the food business industry due to its ease of production, low carbon requirements, and small footprint. The usage of microalgae in combination with cassava is becoming more common as it can boost the amount of nutrients in processed cassava products. In this chapter, we discuss the development of cassava products that combine cassava with microalgae. Furthermore, cassava waste contains carbohydrates, which can be used as a carbon source for the development of microalgae. Cassava starch, when modified to become cationic cassava starch, has the potential to be used as a flocculant agent for the separation of microalgal biomass. Cassava starch is also well-known for being a low-cost source of bioplastics. This chapter also addresses the possibilities for microalgae and cassava to be used as bioplastics in the same way.

Disaccharidases are abundant enzymes expressed on the microvillous membrane of the small intestine: apart from free glucose and fructose, disaccharidases are required for the complete assimilation of nearly all carbohydrate present in food and drinks. The enzymes cleave disaccharides such as sucrose, maltose, and lactose, as well as dextrins derived from starch, into their component monosaccharides. Their activity is reduced in hereditary conditions or in generalized intestinal diseases. Disaccharidase deficiency causes dietary intolerance of carbohydrate induced by the fermentation of undigested sugars in the distal small intestine and colon. Abdominal symptoms are usually noticed within an hour of the ingestion of foods containing the offending sugars. By far the most common symptomatic disaccharidase deficiency is lactose intolerance. Lactase activity is high in healthy infants when milk is the principal food, but in most humans the activity declines after weaning and remains low (lactase nonpersistence), which greatly reduces the capacity to break down lactose. In contrast, those inheriting a Mendelian dominant trait that leads to sustained high intestinal lactase expression throughout life (lactase persistence) digest and tolerate large quantities. The distribution of lactase activity in adult populations is subject to great variation. Intestinal lactase phenotypes can be identified by assay of mucosal biopsy samples or appropriate sugar tolerance tests, as can other (much rarer) genetically determined disaccharidase variants. The most convenient diagnostic screen involves hydrogen breath testing after oral loading. Disaccharide intolerance is readily treated by institution of a strict exclusion diet; oral enzymatic supplementation may benefit patients with severe enzymatic deficiency. Innovative and early phase clinical trials suggest that modulation of the host intestinal microbiome with a pure short-chain galacto-oligosaccharide may be beneficial in symptom control and in favouring the outgrowth of lactose-fermenting flora.

Diet has been implicated in cardiovascular inflammation and the development of cardiovascular disorders. Several studies have correlated the dietary pattern with cardiovascular disease incidences. Especially high carbohydrate diet consists of refined starches, sugar, and saturated and trans-fatty acids shown to cause vascular inflammation and its related CVDs. To modify or prevent CVD complications, studies have highlighted and recommended a dietary pattern rich in protein and fibers with low carbohydrates. However, the long term effects of these low carbohydrate diets have not been analysed. Further, the diet consumed in Asian countries is rich in spices and they are loaded with antioxidants. Hence, this has to be reviewed thoroughly to conclude on the role of antioxidants in preventing CVDs. Therefore, in this chapter diet-induced inflammation, the role of low carbohydrate and high fat/protein diets in preventing vascular inflammation and their long term effects on health and the usefulness of antioxidants in preventing cardiovascular diseases will be reviewed elaborately.

Feeding livestock a balanced diet with a differentiated crude protein (CP) content, depending on the lactation phase can reduce nitrogen emissions from livestock excrement and urine. A higher content of non-starch polysaccharides in livestock diets improves feed absorption in the livestock body and, consequently, nitrogen is emitted more from protein present in livestock manure than from urea acid present in livestock urine. The aim of the study is to calculate the ammonia emission reduction potential in Latvia by optimizing the feeding of dairy cows and ensuring life longevity, as well as provide justification for ammonia emission reduction in dairy farms. Calculations made by using the NorFor Model for optimization of dairy cow (Bos primigenius f. taurus) diets revealed that compared with lowyielding cows, a higher CP content diet fed to high-yielding cows at the beginning of lactation increased the amount of nitrogen (N) in their excrement and urine by 90–180 g d-1. Reducing the CP content in the cow diet by an average of 10 g kg-1 dry matter (DM) during mid-lactation resulted in the same trend. Reducing the CP content in the cow diet during late lactation and the dry period by another 20–30 g kg-1 of DM, N emissions from excrement and urine significantly decreased. Increasing the lifespan of dairy cows also means reducing ammonia emissions from the farm. By increasing the number of lactations per cow on dairy farm, it is possible to reduce the number of heifers per cow. The total reduction of ammonia emissions in Latvia was calculated based on a long-term projection of a decrease of 0.1 heifer per dairy cow. Ammonia emissions could be reduced by 0.051 kt by decreasing the number of heifers by 12.54 thou. at the planned increase in the lifespan of dairy cows by 2030.

Background: Food system refers to the elements and activities related to producing,processing, distributing , consuming food and its effects in our day to day lifestyle. Diet and lifestyle therapy is the cornerstone of therapy for healthy living especially for patients with obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Objective: This article gives our practical experience on management of Obesity and Diabetes with diet and aggressive weight loss. The components of healthy lifestyle therapy includes a package of; reduced calorie intake,increased physical activity and patient education. Results Patient Y [male] In December 2022 was 98kg.The Random blood sugar was 11.2mmols and HbA1C was 5.8%. On taking diet history he consumed red meat without restriction.No much physical activity.Consumed high starch diet.Diagnosed of Prediabetes. After one month of nutrition consultation; Lost 3kg through a low starch high protein diet. Exercised moderately by walking 30-45 minutes thrice a week. After four months there was drastic improvement.Lost Up to 8kg. B] Patient P[female] In January 2023 had 104 kgs.Had Random blood sugar of 10.2mmols, HbA1C 5.8%. She had been eating one banana everyday for breakfast.Consumed a lot of matoke and potatoes in her meals occasionally. Did not exercise. Diagnosed with Prediabetes and hypertension.Triglycerides were elevated. After one month of nutrition follow up, she had lost 5kg.Random blood sugar dropped to 6.4mmols C]Patient M[MALE] On the visit to the clinic ,he weighed 145 kg, Random blood sugar was 8.4mmols. Consumed red meat daily of measurable amounts.No exercise at all since most of his work is involved with lots of driving to work.Was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes,Hypertension, Dyslipidemia. After 2 months of close nutrition monitoring, Random blood sugar improved drastically.Weight dropped to 136kg. Conclusion of the study: From the three patients, moderate exercise has really improved their health to greater heights.Helped increase insulin sensitivity ,we opine as a result blood sugar levels drop. Cutting down on animal protein consumption such as red meat and eggs.Has lowered triglycerides and total cholesterol levels. Consumption of low carb diet and exercise contributes to weight loss Regulating the food system, especially on consumption, significantly promotes a healthy lifestyle. Keywords: diet, Random blood sugar,HbAIC,triglycerides

The goal this reviews was to determined the influence of the diet on digestive system in the birds and roles of digestive tract. Birds have a very complex digestive system, which is thought to have a significant impact on how well they utilize the nutrition that they consume. It is expected that the stomach, intestines, cecum, proventriculus, and gizzard of herbivorous birds will be larger than those of carnivorous birds, whereas herbivorous birds tend to have longer, more complex digestive tracts. This may be due to herbivorous require high time and energy to the breakdown of cellulose. Their digestive processes were described for birds with different diets.. The proventriculus' size impacted by the diet, not the intestines, gizzard, or cecum. Insectivores had the largest proventriculi, whereas herbivores had the smallest, and omnivores had a proventriculus of a medium size. The function of the avian digestive organs in regulating the gut bacteria, fermenting unabsorbed nutrients, recycling nitrogen from urine, and maintaining gut health. Through aiding food uptake, and interactions with the immune system, gastrointestinal microbiota play a crucial role in maintaining organism health. Only tiny and/or soluble particles, along with digestive juices and urine, will reflux into the caeca due to anatomical and physiological adaptations. Salts and water will be reabsorbed here, and the rich bacteria will ferment uric acid and carbohydrates into ammonia and volatile fatty acids. The caeca may thereby affect the bird's nutritional health. Starch and proteins can be consumed, stored, and partially digested in the early section of the avian digestive system. With the exception of the absence of lacteals, the avian gut has a comparable anatomy to other monogastric animals. The microvilli in the avian intestine are covered by a noticeable glycocalyx. The mammalian liver's actual lobular structure is absent from the avian liver. Around the bile caniculi, hepatocytes are organized in plates two layers thick of cells. Acinar cells, that produce digesting enzymes to the pancreatic ducts, endocrine cells, that secrete hormones to the bloodstream, are found in the two main lobes and two smaller lobes of the avian pancreatic structure. The colon structure is similar to that of intestine except the poor enervation.

Objective: The Mediterranean-Style Diet (MedD) pattern is associated with lower risk for chronic diseases. Key components to the MedD pattern are consumption of olive oil, green leafy vegetables, and fatty fish, all sources of omega-3 (O-3) fatty acids. The purpose of this study is to predict alignment to a MedD pattern using O-3 containing foods. Methods: A sample of 19,978 25-65 year olds with two reliable 24-hour recalls was obtained from the 2007-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Multiple regression analyses determined differences by adherence level, high scorers (HS) vs. general population (GP), to the MedD pattern for dietary outcomes. Using isocaloric food substitution modeling within the GP, changes in MedD score were measured. Exclusive olive oil (OO) use was reported at 0.3% in GP; if OO use increased to half of oil as OO, MedD score would increase by 2.1 points. MedD score increased by 0.56 when replacing 4 oz. red meat for 4 oz. fish in the GP and 6.26 when replacing 0.67 cups starchy vegetables with 2 cups non-starchy vegetables. Conclusions: Increasing oil consumption to include half of oils from OO, replacing 4 oz of red meat with 4 oz of fatty fish, and replacing 0.67 cups starchy vegetables with 2 cups of non-starchy vegetables would help the GP to achieve better alignment to a MedD pattern.

Recently, plant proteins are gaining in popularity as consumers are looking to rebalance their diet with more plant-based options. As such, there is a need to understand the potential of these plant proteins to deliver nutrition and functionality in various food products. However, plant proteins are still under-utilization in food and beverage industry due to their characteristic beany and off flavor, lower technical functionality, such as limited solubility, and some negative taste attributes. In general, plant protein can be obtained from pulses, cereals and oilseeds. Each plant has a unique protein structure and composition, thus protein extracted from different plant has different functional properties and performance in food. In general, plant contain non-protein components including starch, fiber and oil. High purity of plant protein are often extracted to by removing all abovementioned non-protein components through extraction processing. One would expect different extraction methods can influence protein functionality through denaturation, modification, hydrolysis and cross-linking. This talk begins with the discussion of how different plant variety and processing impact on protein functionality using hemp protein as an example. Selective physical and chemical modification methods (e.g., soluble complexes, pH shift, maillard reaction, phosphorylation) for generating novel protein constructs with preferable solubility, foaming, and emulsification properties, thermal stability, and flavor profiles will be comprehensively discussed by using pea protein isolate (PPI) as a representative. In general, protein solubility could be improved by means of abovementioned three methods. Maillard-driven synthesis of the cross-linked PPI-gum arabic conjugates greatly improved the flavor profile and functionality of PPI. In terms of phosphorylation, sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) is a good candidate to form phosphorylated PPI with enhanced functionalities including foaming, emulsifying properties and thermal stability. Our results suggested that protein structure-function researches are valuable in tailoring proteins for specific functional outcomes and expanding the availability of plant proteins.

Previously 1 reported highly significant depression of the chromium-to-vanadium ratio in the nape hair of patients with myopia. It is associated with depressed accommodation and elevated intraocular pressure, both of which are associated with depression of insulin potentiation of glucose uptake by ciliary-muscle insulin receptors.1,2 In this double-masked cohort-panel study, chromium (Cr) and vanadium (V) were measured in red blood cells (erythrocytes). Of the first 184 patients, 27 were myopic (3 diopters) and 14 were hyperopic (1.25 diopter). I excluded patients less than 20 years old, patients taking chromium supplements, patients taking 1 g or more of ascorbic acid per day, aphakic patients, and patients with cataracts. Erythrocytechromium/erythrocytevanadi um (ECr/EV) ratios and ECr distributions and means were significantly lower in the patients with miopia than in the patients with hyperopia: mean SD ECr/EV = 0.150 0.150 for the myopic patients versus 0.731 0.472 for the hyperopic patients (t = 4.488, p), and ECr = 70.1 53.9 ng/ml for the myopic patients and 256.7 160.0 for the hyperopic patients. Foods rich in chromium include most unprocessed naturally sweet or starchy foods. Foods rich in vanadium include chocolate, kelp, mushrooms, most U.S. chow-fed poultry, and seafood larger than herring. To my knowledge, this is the first report of this red-blood-cell-indexed effect on human refractive development.

Abstract Miniaturization of electronics modules is always required for various medical applications including wearable technology, such as hearing aids, and implantable devices. Many types of high-density packaging technologies, such as package-on-package, bare-die stack, flex folded package and Through Si Via (TSV) technologies, have been proposed and used to fulfill the request. Among them, embedded die technology is one of the promising technologies to realize miniaturization and high-density packaging. We have developed WABE™ (wafer and board level device embedded) technology for embedding dies into multilayer flexible printed circuit (FPC) boards. The WABE package is comprised of thin dies (85 μm thickness), multi-layer polyimide, adhesive films and conductive paste. The dies are sandwiched by polyimide films with Cu circuits (FPCs). The conductive paste provides electrical connections between the layers as well as the layer and embedded die. First, each FPC layer is fabricated individually, and via holes are filled with conductive paste, and the dies are mounted on certain layers. Then, all layers undergo a one-step co-lamination process, and they are pressed to cure the adhesive material and conductive paste at the same time. This WABE technology has enabled multiple dies to be embedded by the one-step lamination process. Even if multiple dies are embedded, the footprint of a package can be reduced drastically by embedding multiple dies vertically in stacks. This paper describes the details of the results of fabricating a test vehicle with six embedded dies (three-dies in two stacks side-by-side). The fabricated test vehicle had 14 copper layers with less than 0.9 mm thickness. This paper also reports the results of various reliability testing on the package. These results were obtained by electrical measurements of daisy chain patterns formed between some of the layers. The fabricated test vehicle showed high reliability based on the results of a moisture and heat test and heat-shock test. These results show that the WABE technology to embed multiple dies vertically in polyimide film is one of the most promising packaging technologies to significantly miniaturize electronic circuits such as medical electronics.

Following Moore's law, the number of transistors on a die continues to rise and has recently exceeded a billion on high end processors. In light of the convergence of technology, power requirements is becoming a serious concern even on low density interconnect systems such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants. Also, in order to minimize foot prints, the recent trend in packaging is stacking. The stacking, however, creates challenges in cooling and especially if one is to include logic in the stack. The primary heat flow path for stacking is through the substrate and as the number of stacks increase, the cooling problem is amplified. Thermal vias are emerging as a viable technology for transferring heat and in effect creating a thermal short circuit from individual die to the substrate. Some of the authors of this paper earlier reported on the reliability of stacked memory dies. In a subsequent paper the thermal reliability that included geometrical stacking architecture (rotating, spacer, ..) and the inclusion of both logic and memory dies was addressed. In this present paper, the heat transfer enhancement using silicon vias on various stacking schemes is discussed. The CAD models required for this study were developed in Pro/Engineer® Wildfire™ 2.0 and for the result simulation ANSYS® Workbench™ 10.0 have been used. Packaging architectures that have been taken in to consideration are die, solder ball, substrate, mold cap and thermal vias.

An overview of the thermal management landscape with focus on heat dissipation from 3D chip stacks is provided in this study. Evolutionary and revolutionary topologies, such as single-side, dual-side and, finally, volumetric heat removal, are benchmarked with respect to a high-performance three-tier chip stack with an aggregate power dissipation of 672 W. The thermal budget of 50 K can be maintained by three topologies, namely, 1) dual-side cooling, implemented by a thermally active interposer, 2) interlayer cooling with 4-port fluid delivery and drainage at 100 kPa pressure drop, and 3) a hybrid approach combining interlayer with embedded back-side cooling. Of all the heat-removal concepts, interlayer cooling is the only approach that scales with the number of dies in the chip stack and hence, enables extreme 3D integration. However, the required size of the microchannels competes with the requirement of low TSV heights and pitches. A scaling study was performed to derive the TSV pitch that is compatible with cooling channels to dissipate 150 W/cm2 per tier. An active IC area of 4 cm2 was considered, which had to be implemented on the varying tier count in the stack. A cuboid form factor of 2 mm × 4 mm × 2.55 mm results from a die count of 50. The resulting microchannels of 2 mm length allow small hydraulic diameters and thus a very high TSV density of 1837 1/mm2. The accumulated heat flux and the volumetric power dissipation are as high as 7.5 kW/cm2 and 29kW/cm3, respectively.

This research project entitled "Influence of Ruminal Starch Degradability on Performance of High Producing Dairy Cows" had the following objectives: a) Determine effects of feeding varying amounts of ruminally degradable starch (RDS) on efficiency of milk and milk protein production; and 2) Investigate digestive and metabolic mechanisms relating to lactation responses to diets varying in ruminal and total starch degradability. Four lactation studies with high producing cows were conducted in which steam-flaked (~ 75% RDS) was compared with dry-rolled sorghum (~ 50% RDS) grain. All studies demonstrated increased efficiency of conversion of feed to milk (FCM/DMI) and milk protein as amount of RDS in the diet increased by feeding steam-flaked sorghum. As RDS in diets increased, either by increased steam-flaked sorghum, grinding of sorghum, or increasing the proportion of wheat to sorghum, so also did ruminal and total tract digestibilities of starch and neutral-detergent soluble (NDS) carbohydrate. Despite other research by these two groups of workers showing increased non-ammonia N (NAN) flowing from the rumen to the duodenum with higher RDS, only one of the present studies showed such an effect. Post-absorptive studies showed that higher dietary RDS resulted in greater urea recycling, more propionate absorption, a tendency for greater output of glucose by the liver, and increased uptake of alpha-amino nitrogen by the mammary gland. These studies have shown that processing sorghum grain through steam-flaking increases RDS and results in greater yields and efficiency of production of milk and milk protein in high producing dairy cows.

The effect of rumen available protein amino acids and carbohydrates on microbial protein synthesis, amino acid flow and performance of high yielding dairy cows was studied. A significant relationship between the effective degradabilities of OM in feedstuffs and the in vivo ruminal OM degradation of diets of dairy cows was found. The in situ method enabled the prediction of ruminal nutrients degradability response to processing of energy and nitragenous supplements. The AA profile of the rumen undegradable protein was modified by the processing method. In a continuous culture study total N and postruminal AA flows, and bacterial efficiency, is maximal at rumen degradable levels of 65% of the CP. Responses to rumen degradable non carbohydrate (NSC) were linear up to at least 27% of DM. Higher CP flow in the abomasum was found for cows fed high ruminally degradable OM and low ruminally degradable CP diet. It appeared that in dairy cows diets, the ratio of rumen degradable OM to rumenally degradable CP should be at least 5:1 in order to maximize postruminal CP flow. The efficiency of microbial CP synthesis was higher for diets supplemented with 33% of rumen undegradable protein, with greater amounts of bacterial AA reaching the abomasum. Increase in ruminal carbohydrate availability by using high moisture corn increased proportions of propionate, postruminal nutrients flow, postruminal starch digestibility, ruminal availability of NSC, uptake of energy substrates by the mammory gland. These modifications resulted with improvement in the utilization of nonessential AA for milk protein synthesis, in higher milk protein yield. Higher postruminal NSC digestibility and higher efficiency of milk protein production were recorded in cows fed extruded corn. Increasing feeding frequency increased flow of N from the rumen to the blood, reduced diurnal variation in ruminal and ammonia, and of plasma urea and improved postruminal NSC and CIP digestibility and total tract digestibilities. Milk and constituent yield increased with more frequent feeding. In a study performed in a commercial dairy herd, changes in energy and nitrogenous substrates level suggested that increasing feeding frequency may improve dietary nitrogen utilization and may shift metabolism toward more glucogenesis. It was concluded that efficiency of milk protein yield in high producing cows might be improved by an optimization of ruminal and post-ruminal supplies of energy and nitrogenous substrates. Such an optimization can be achieved by processing of energy and nitrogenous feedstuffs, and by increasing feeding frequency. In situ data may provide means for elucidation of the optimal processing conditions.

Objectives To determine endocrine factors that regulate the partitioning of amino acids by the mammary gland. To evaluate dietary flow and supply of energy and amino acids and their effects on milk protein synthesis and endocrine status. To use primary cultures of cow mammary epithelial cells to examine the role of specific factors on the rates and pattern of milk protein synthesis. Milk protein is an increasingly valuable component of milk but little is known regarding the specific hormonal and nutritional factors controlling milk protein synthesis. The research conducted for this project has determined that milk protein synthesis has the potential to be enhanced much greater than previously believed. Increases of over 25% in milk protein percent and yield were detected in studies utilizing abomasal infusion of casein and a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. Thus, it appears that insulin, either directly or indirectly, can elicit a substantial increase in milk protein synthesis if additional amino acids are supplied. For additional amino acids, casein provided the best response even though substantial decreases in branched chain amino acids occur when the insulin clamp is utilized. Branched chain amino acids alone are incapable of supporting the enhanced milk protein output. The mammary gland can vary both blood flow and extraction efficiency of amino acids to support protein synthesis. A mammary culture system was used to demonstrate specific endocrine effects on milk protein synthesis. Insulin-like growth factor-I when substituted for insulin was able to enhance casein and a-lactalbumin mRNA. This suggests that insulin is a indirect regulator of milk protein synthesis working through the IGF system to control mammary production of casein and a-lactalbumin. Principal component analysis determined that carbohydrate had the greatest effect on milk protein yield with protein supply only having minor effects. Work in cattle determined that the site of digestion of starch did not affect milk composition alone but the degradability of starch and protein in the rumen can interact to alter milk yield. Cows fed diets with a high degree of rumen undegradability failed to specifically enhance milk protein but produced greater milk yield with similar composition. The mammary gland has an amazing ability to produce protein of great value. Research conducted here has demonstrated the unprecedented potential of the metabolic machinery in the mammary gland. Insulin, probably signaling the mammary gland through the IGF system is a key regulator that must be combined with adequate nutrition in order for maximum response.