Effects of gradual differences in trypsin inhibitor activity on the estimation of digestible amino acids in soybean expellers for broiler chickens.

The present study investigated the effect of varying trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) in differently processed soybean expellers on apparent prececal amino acid (AA) digestibility in male broiler chickens. Two different raw soybean batches were treated using varying processing techniques and intensities. In this way, 45 expeller extracted soybean meal (ESBM) variants were created. The processed soybean variants were then merged into a basal diet (160 g/kg crude protein [CP]) at 2 inclusion levels (15%, 30%) resulting in 90 different diets plus one basal diet (0.4 mg/g-8.5 mg/g TIA). All diets contained 0.5% titanium dioxide. A total of 5,460-day-old male broilers (Ross 308) were allocated on d 14 to 546 pens (10 birds/pen) after a starter phase (CP 215 g/kg, 14 g/kg Lysine, 12.5 MJ ME/kg). The 91 experimental diets were fed ad libitum until d 22. Subsequently, birds were euthanized and digesta of the terminal ileum was collected for determination of AA digestibility. TIA depressed the prececal digestibility of every single AA significantly in a straight linear fashion (P < 0.001). Sulfur-containing AA expressed the strongest suppression by TIA with cystine showing the lowest apparent prececal digestibility measured (10.6% at 23.6 mg/g TIA in raw ESBM). The present data demonstrate that TIA severely depresses digestibility of essential and nonessential AA in a straight linear fashion. On the one hand, this questions the usefulness of defined upper limits of TIA in soy products whereas on the other hand, TIA must be considered when testing raw components for their feed protein value in vivo.

Chickens' growth performance and pancreas development exposed to soy cake varying in trypsin inhibitor activity, heat-degraded lysine concentration, and protein solubility in potassium hydroxide.

This study focused on the effect of varying trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA), heat-degraded lysine concentration and protein solubility in potassium hydroxide on broiler performance and pancreas weight. Two soybean breeds were subject to varying thermal, hydrothermal, pressure, and kilning processing. This resulted in a total of 34 soy cake variants, widely varying in TIA (0.25 to 23.6 mg/g), heat-degraded lysine (1.40 to 8.60 g/kg), and potassium hydroxide (65.5 to 97.6%), respectively. These soy cake variants as well as a commercial soybean meal extract were included into a common grower and finisher diet for broiler chicks at fixed amounts (grower: 35%; finisher: 25%) and tested in a 35 d fattening experiment with 1680 broiler chicks (grower phase: day 11 to 24; finisher phase day 25 to 35). TIA was the dominant factor affecting zootechnical performance and pancreas weight at slaughter (day 35), depressing liveweight at day 24 (P < 0.006), and day 35 (0.026), weight gain (grower: P < 0.006) and feed: gain ratio during grower phase (P < 0.005) and increasing pancreas weight (P < 0.010) at the time of slaughter. Negative effects of TIA were also visible in soy cake variants below recommended thresholds. This highlights the necessity of complete elimination of TIA in broiler diets as far as technically possible.

Use of statins offsets insulin-related cancer risk.

AIM: There is firm evidence of a relation between type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and increased risks of cancer at various sites, but it is still unclear how different antihyperglycaemic therapies modify site-specific cancer risks. The aim of this study was to provide a complete characterization of all possible associations between individual T2DM therapies, statin use and site-specific cancers in the Austrian population. METHODS: Medical claims data of 1 847 051 patients with hospital stays during 2006-2007 were used to estimate age- and sex-dependent co-occurrences of site-specific cancer diagnoses and treatment with specific glucose-lowering drugs and statins. RESULTS: Patients treated with insulin or insulin secretagogues showed up to ninefold increased risks for cancers of the colon [males only (m)], liver (m), pancreas, lung (m) and brain (m), as well as a strongly decreased risk for prostate cancer (m). In patients taking statins, the risks were generally decreased, with a greater risk reduction in patients not receiving antihyperglycaemic therapies. The strongest effects were observed for use of insulin and pancreatic cancer [m: OR 4.5, 95% CI: 3.1-6.6; females (f): OR 4.2, 95% CI: 2.5-7.1], sulfonylureas (m: OR 2.8, 95% CI: 1.7-4.6; f: OR 3.0, 95% CI: 2.1-4.2) or glitazones and skin cancer (f: OR 0.54, 95% CI: 0.36-0.80), as well as metformin and cancer of the prostate (m: OR 0.82, 95% CI: 0.75-0.91) and corpus uteri (f: OR 1.7, 95% CI: 1.4-2.0) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (f: OR 0.76, 95% CI: 0.64-0.91). CONCLUSIONS: The use of statins offsets insulin-related cancer risks in patients with diabetes independently of sex and age. Overall, our data support the hyperglycaemia-cancer hypothesis. A reduction in endogenous or exogenous hyperinsulinaemia may be beneficial for cancer prevention. Therefore, insulin-sparing and insulin-sensitizing drugs should be the preferred treatment choices.

Subduction-driven recycling of continental margin lithosphere.

Whereas subduction recycling of oceanic lithosphere is one of the central themes of plate tectonics, the recycling of continental lithosphere appears to be far more complicated and less well understood. Delamination and convective downwelling are two widely recognized processes invoked to explain the removal of lithospheric mantle under or adjacent to orogenic belts. Here we relate oceanic plate subduction to removal of adjacent continental lithosphere in certain plate tectonic settings. We have developed teleseismic body wave images from dense broadband seismic experiments that show higher than expected volumes of anomalously fast mantle associated with the subducted Atlantic slab under northeastern South America and the Alboran slab beneath the Gibraltar arc region; the anomalies are under, and are aligned with, the continental margins at depths greater than 200 kilometres. Rayleigh wave analysis finds that the lithospheric mantle under the continental margins is significantly thinner than expected, and that thin lithosphere extends from the orogens adjacent to the subduction zones inland to the edges of nearby cratonic cores. Taking these data together, here we describe a process that can lead to the loss of continental lithosphere adjacent to a subduction zone. Subducting oceanic plates can viscously entrain and remove the bottom of the continental thermal boundary layer lithosphere from adjacent continental margins. This drives surface tectonics and pre-conditions the margins for further deformation by creating topography along the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. This can lead to development of secondary downwellings under the continental interior, probably under both South America and the Gibraltar arc, and to delamination of the entire lithospheric mantle, as around the Gibraltar arc. This process reconciles numerous, sometimes mutually exclusive, geodynamic models proposed to explain the complex oceanic-continental tectonics of these subduction zones.

Higher precision level at individual laying performance tests in noncage housing systems.

With the Weihenstephan funnel nest box, 12 laying hen flocks were tested for their individual laying performance, egg quality, and nesting behavior in a noncage environment. During the whole observation period of 8 yr, a transponder-based data recording system was continuously improved and resulted in a recording accuracy of 97%. At peak production, heritabilities for the number of eggs laid are in some flocks higher than expected. With improved data accuracy, heritability estimates on individual egg weights are more stable. Heritabilities for nesting behavior traits range between a low to moderate level, providing very useful information for laying hen selection to help improve traits that cannot be recorded in cages. Over the years, the benefits of the Weihenstephan funnel nest box for laying hen breeders have grown. This is due to higher data recording accuracies and extended testing capacities, which result in more reliable genetic parameters.

Analysis of the free range behaviour of laying hens and the genetic and phenotypic relationships with laying performance.

1. Over twelve 28-d laying periods (almost one year), 272 laying hens of the Lohmann Silver strain, individually tagged with transponders, were monitored on their ranging behaviour and laying performance in an aviary system with an adjacent winter garden. 2. From laying periods 1 to 12, the daily frequency of passages between the barn and the winter garden of individual hens, showed an antagonistic trend compared to the average duration of single visits. While the frequency of passages decreased until the end of the recording period to 8 passages per hen and day, the average duration of single visits increased to a maximum of 32 min per hen. 3. The heritability estimates for the traits, length of stay in the winter garden and frequency of passages were higher for the last 5 laying periods than at the beginning of the recording period. For the last 5 laying periods, the estimates for the duration of stay in the winter garden varied between h(2) = 0.21 and 0.32 and for the frequency of passages, between h(2) = 0.30 and 0.49. 4. Most of the estimated heritabilities for the rate of lay were on an expected medium level (h(2) = 0.09 to 0.45). Deviant h(2)-values to a few laying periods were based on low additive genetic variances or high environmental variance. 5. Genetic correlations between both free range traits and the laying performance were negative (r(g length of stay) = -0.34 and r(g passage frequency) = -0.08). 6. Generally, there seems to be a possibility to influence the ranging behaviour through selection. Further investigations with different genotypes and varying dates of exposure to the laying environment, should be carried out to clarify possible influences on other traits and the negative correlation with laying performance.

Scaling-violation phenomena and fractality in the human posture control systems.

By analyzing the movements of quiet standing persons by means of wavelet statistics, we observe multiple scaling regions in the underlying body dynamics. The use of the wavelet-variance function opens the possibility to relate scaling violations to different modes of posture control. We show that scaling behavior becomes close to perfect, when correctional movements are dominated by the vestibular system.

[Nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory and wavelet analysis of the heart]. / Nichtlineare Dynamik, Chaostheorie und Waveletanalyse des Herzens.

Over the past years, techniques of nonlinear dynamics have gained increasing attention in cardiology. This kind of partly interdisciplinary research is supposed to provide a better understanding of cardiac disease, especially in the field of tachyarrhythmia. This article intends to introduce the principles of diagnostic procedures in terms of nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory and stochastic processes related to cardiology. An introduction to a new technique of wavelet analysis is given, and possible applications in the quantitative classification of high-risk patients for sudden cardiac death are discussed.