Pre-caecal digestible phosphorus in maize and wheat for broiler chickens.

1. The objective of this study was to determine the coefficient of pre-caecal digestion of P in maize (3.9 g/kg of total P, 0.83 g/kg of phytate P, 138 FTU [phytase units]/kg) and wheat (3.17 g/kg of total P, 1.94 g/kg of phytate P, 666 FTU/kg) in broilers according to the WPSA protocol. 2. For the diets, monosodium phosphate was used as an additional P supplement. Two sets of diets containing 200, 460 and 740 g/kg of wheat or 200, 500 and 740 g/kg of maize were formulated. A total of 288 21-d-old male broilers (Ross 308) were assigned to 24 cages (8 birds per cage) and the 6 test diets were assigned to cages. The coefficient of pre-caecal digestion of P was determined by the indicator method and linear regression. 3. In both ingredients, pre-caecal digestible P increased linearly with increasing inclusion levels of maize or wheat (P < 0.05). The coefficients of digestion of pre-caecal P were estimated to be 0.18 for wheat and 0.33 for maize.

Changes in BMI in hospitalized patients during treatment with antipsychotics, depending on gender and other factors.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the differences in body mass index (BMI) changes between men and women during hospitalization. METHODS: The retrospective study monitored demographic and clinical data of 462 schizophrenic patients hospitalized 737 times between 2006 and 2011. BMI analysis was performed on patients on antipsychotic medication hospitalized longer than four days. RESULTS: Patients with an initial BMI < 25 gained more weight than patients with a BMI > 25 (3.94% vs. 0.23%, men 4.02% vs. 0.69%, women 3.79% vs. -0.52%, always p < 0.001). Greater BMI gains were reported during the first hospitalization than during subsequent ones (3.94% vs. 1.66%, men 3.97% vs. 1.98%, women 3.88% vs. 1.18%, always p < 0.001). The comparison between men and women showed a higher increase in BMI in men 2.36% vs. 1.54%, p = 0.022. Men also gained significantly more weight than women on polytherapy (+2.55% vs. +1.37%) and during subsequent hospitalizations (1.98% vs. 1.18%). For treatment with various atypical antipsychotics (AP), no significant differences were found in weight changes between men and women; during treatment using a combination of multi-receptor AP and metabolically neutral aripiprazole, a significant increase of BMI occurred in men, but not in women (p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Men appear to be more prone to weight gain than women.

On the estimation of refractory period.

The refractory period concept is exploited in many neurophysiological studies as a part of developed methods. Computations connected to these methods are influenced by the estimated value of refractory period. In this article, parametric and nonparametric refractory period estimation methods (minimum, maximum likelihood estimate, minimum risk estimate, etc.) are compared for three neuronal models. The results acquired from simulated data illustrate both accuracy and bias of different techniques. Experimental data are also investigated to show the limitations of the methods discussed.