Colostrum source and passive immunity transfer in dairy bull calves

Colostrum is essential for good neonate health; however, it is not known whether different calves absorb the nutrients from colostrum equally well. In this study, the absorption of protein, IgG, and γ-glutamyl transferase was compared in newborn dairy bull calves for 1 wk after feeding colostrum from different sources. Thirty-five Holstein-Friesian bull calves were randomly allocated into 3 groups and fed colostrum within 4 h after birth. Group A calves (n = 12) were bottle fed colostrum from their own dam for 3 d. Colostrum from these group A cows was also used as foster cow colostrum for the group B calves (n = 12), such that each group A and B calf pair received identical colostrum from each milking of the respective group A dam (10% of birth weight per day). The group C calves (n = 11) were fed 1 bottle (2 L) of pooled colostrum and transition milk (referred to as pooled colostrum), as was the standard practice on the dairy farm. The pooled colostrum was collected from the other dairy cows on the farm 0 to 4 d postpartum and stored at 4°C for less than 12 h. Blood was sampled from calves before the first feeding and at 1, 2, 3, and 7 d after birth. Levels of total solids, total protein, and IgG were higher in the dam colostrum than in the pooled colostrum. At birth, there were no differences between the calf groups for any measurements, and all calves had very low IgG levels. After receiving colostrum, the glucose, plasma γ-glutamyl transferase, serum total protein, and IgG concentrations increased significantly in all calves. There were no differences in any blood measurements at any time point between the pairs of group A and group B calves that received colostrum from the same cow except for the IgG concentration 2 d after birth. However, the group A calves had a higher total serum protein level and IgG concentration than the group C calves for all the time points after the first feeding. The group B calves had a higher IgG concentration than the group C calves on d 1, 2, and 7 after birth. Compared with groups A and B, there was no difference in the proportion of calves in group C that failed to have passive immunity transferred adequately based on the IgG threshold (<10 g/L). Thus, the calves receiving identical colostrum from the same cow had the same levels of IgG, and even the pooled colostrum provided sufficient transfer of IgG as the calves were fed within 4 h after birth.     

Enzymatic treatment of wool fabrics - opportunity of the improvement on some physical and chemical properties of the fabrics

The enzymatic treatment of textiles significantly improves some of their physicochemical properties as well as increases their aesthetic values and comfort of use. Enzymes are used in order to develop environmentally friendly processes by reducing the concentration of chemical agents, water and energy consumption. In the present study, an attempt was made to treat the wool fabric with different concentrations (1, 3, and 5 g/L) of protease enzyme and observed the effects on physical and chemical properties including softness, absorbency, pilling resistance, weight loss, tensile strength loss, water retention, felting shrinkage, alkali solubility and urea-bisulphite solubility of wool fabric. The results of pretreated and enzyme-treated samples are compared to those obtained for untreated wool fabric. Enzyme-treated wool fabrics showed improvement in softness, absorbency, pilling resistance and felting shrinkage and a slight increase in weight loss, tensile strength loss, alkali solubility and urea-bisulphite solubility, and decrease in water retention of the fabric.     

Bioscouring and bleaching process of cotton fabrics – an opportunity of saving water and energy

Bio-processing was accompanied by a significant lower demand of energy, water, chemicals, time and costs. This study attempted to introduce the bio-processes in the conventional scouring and bleaching with peracetic acid (PAA) of the cotton fabrics. The scouring with two types of pectinases, acting under acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively, was as efficient as the chemical process in terms of obtained adequate water absorbency of the fabrics. Bleaching with PAA can substitute bleaching with hydrogen peroxide when medium degree of whiteness is demanded. The bioscouring and bleaching with PAA processes cause no damage to fibres and this is one of the benefits of such processes. Wastewaters are not charged with harmful chemicals. The consumption of water and energy is the lowest at combined scouring/bleaching treatments. Consequently, at these processes arises the lowest amount of effluents and the produced wastewater is biodegradable.     

Glucagon-like peptide-1 activates the adenylyl cyclase system in rockfish enterocytes and brain membranes

The role of cutaneous and respiratory heat loss for selective brain cooling in different species is discussed and new experimental results from a comparative study are summarized. In three species (cat, rabbit and rat) the difference between pontine and hypothalamic temperatures was studied as a function of head heat exchanger vasomotion appraised by the difference between hypothalamic and ear pinna (cats and rabbits) or nasal mucosa (rats) temperatures during the behavioral states of wakefulness and slow wave sleep at an ambient temperature of 24+/-1 degrees C. The results show that: (i) the pontine-hypothalamic temperature difference is an useful indicator of selective brain cooling since it is positive and inversely correlated with the hypothalamic-ear pinna temperature difference in cats and rabbits and with the hypothalamic-nasal mucosa temperature difference in rats; (ii) respiratory heat loss prevails quantitatively over cutaneous heat loss in maintaining this difference.     

Fine metal mask material and manufacturing process for high‐resolution active‐matrix organic light‐emitting diode displays

Manufacturing fine metal mask (FMM) is one of the biggest hurdles to realize the ultra‐high definition (UHD) grade AMOLED displays for smartphone and augmented reality (AR). We have developed the state‐of‐the‐art material and processing technology to achieve 800ppi or higher‐resolution FMMs. The Invar thinning and the thermal damage‐free laser ablation process realized us achieving the FMM for UHD displays.     

Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Two experiments were conducted to study the effect(s) of Borrelia burgdorferi and its metabolites (toxicants?) on canine spermatozoa, using B burgdorferi type strain B-31 and ejaculates from 5 sexually mature dogs. In Experiment 1 the spirochetes were cocultured with semen and incubated under various conditions, and in Experiment 2 the spirochetes were sonicated to release the metabolites/toxicants. The sonicate was then cultured with the semen. The parameters investigated were kinematics and percentage of sperm motility, morphology, and sperm response to the hypoosmotic swelling test and acrosome reaction. There were no visible physical interaction between either dead or motile spirochetes and viable or dead spermatozoa. Neither the spirochetes per se nor their metabolites/toxicants had any significant adverse effect on the functional and morphological characteristics of the canine spermatozoa. It is possible that the exposure times for incubation were not long enough for metabolites or toxicants in the sonicate to significantly affect sperm characteristics. Some investigators have reported that B burgdorferi contain biologically active LPS-like endotoxins. It is also likely that storage denatures B burgdorferi metabolites and other intracellular products in the sonicate and, thus, negates any effects the medium or the sonicate might have on the spermatozoa. The apparent lack of effect suggests that either peripheral metabolism or action on other organ(s) may be required for deleterious action of the spirochetes and/or their toxicants on spermatozoa. It was concluded that B burgdorferi and/or metabolites/toxicants do not have any significant deleterious effects on the functional and morphological characteristics of the postspermatogenic spermatozoa. Interaction of the spirochetes with in vivo conditions may be needed to adversely affect spermatozoa.     

Presence of Bacillus species in pasteurised milk and their phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial resistance profile

High-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurisation is not sufficient for complete elimination of Bacillus sp. in milk. Hence, it is important to assess their prevalence, phenotypic and genetic antimicrobial resistance profiles in pasteurised milk. In this study, we investigated Bacillus prevalence and their phenotypic resistance to 25 antimicrobials and prevalence of five plasmid antimicrobial resistance genes. All isolates were resistant to β-lactams; most isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol (n = 52), ciprofloxacin, meropenem, sulphonamides, tetracycline and vancomycin (n = 56). Intriguingly, despite phenotypic sulphonamide and tetracycline sensitivity, Sul2 and tetA genes were detected in different Bacillus species, signifying a potential risk of horizontal gene transfer of these mobile resistance genes through pasteurised milk.     

Enzymatic desizing,bioscouring and enzymatic bleaching of cotton fabric with glucose oxidase

The sized cotton fabric was enzymatically desized, scoured and bleached with an enzyme mixture of starch degrading enzymes, pectinases and glucose oxidases (GOxs) was added to generate hydrogen peroxide (HP). In this study, enzyme selection and process optimisation was made in order to increase the glucose content of the desizing liquor of a starch-sized cotton fabric. The highest glucose concentration of 4175?mg/L was measured in one-bath containing mixture of α-amylase, amyloglucosidase and pectinase and GOx produced 758?mg/L peroxide. This combination was used in further bleaching processes. For bleaching, hydrogen peroxide was converted into peracetic acid (PAA) by incorporating the bleach activator tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED). Whiteness values, water absorbency, polymerization degree and tenacity at maximum load were measured on pre-treated samples. The total organic carbon (TOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD₅), the biological degradability (BOD₅/COD) and the final pH values were measured on residual pre-treatment baths.