A study of the mechanical properties of egg shell

1. The mechanical behaviour of the egg shell of the domestic fowl was investigated by cutting strips from the shell and testing the flection either in a four‐point load test or in a cantilever beam test.

2. It was found that moisture content, temperature and load rate have important effects on shell properties ; both the strength and stiffness of the shell are greater in snapping‐inward tests than in snapping‐outward tests; residual stress exists in the egg shell; the correlation between failure moment and shell thickness was highly significant, on average about 0.9, and was dependent on the spread in the thickness data.

3. Estimates were made of the ultimate strength and Young's modulus of egg shell material and it is concluded that a substantial size effect exists in the egg shell.     

Substitution of protein feed through lysine-supplemented high-protein wheat during the rearing and laying period of hens. 3. Effect of graded lysine doses on the crude nutrient content of carcasses and on the level of amino acids and GOT activity in the blood of young hens]

A large-scale trial was carried out under commercial conditions to investigate to which extent the feeding of rations with varying lysine content to young hens would influence the crude nutrient content of the body fractions and might change the pattern of amino acid composition and the activity of GOT in the blood. Four rations were fed each containing 14.2% crude protein, 626-633 EFh units/kg and 0.59%, 0.61%, 0.54% and 0.46% lysine. The crude protein and crude fat content of the total body and of body fractions were in no case found to be related to the feeding regime. The proportion of crude ash in the "remainder of non-utilizable parts", in "bones", "intestinal and abdominal fat", "ovaries" and "small intestine" decreased with the decreasing lysine content of the rations. The concentrations of free lysine, histidine, arginine, and phenylalanine in the deproteinized blood plasma of the young hens were significantly (a = 0.01) lower in the birds of the lysine deficient group than in the hens of the other groups. Positive regressions were calculated for the lysine content or the content of aspartic acid in the ration and the pattern of free amino acids in blood plasma. Positive and negative linear relationships were found to exist between the concentrations of free lysine, and those of histidine, arginine or threonine, and serine. A close correlation existed between the total amount of essential amino acids in blood plasma and the lysine concentrations of the plasma. Increasing lysine supplementation produced a decline in the N content of the whole blood and blood corpuscles but a rise in the N content of blood plasma. The activity of GOT in the blood of young hens was not found to be useful as an indicator of the quality of dietary proteins.     

Lesions and pathogenesis of disease in young calves experimentally induced by a bovine adenovirus type 5 isolated from a calf with weak calf syndrome.

Lesions induced in each of 9 young colostrum-deprived calves closely resembled lesions seen in naturally occurring "weak calf syndrome" of eastern Idaho and southwestern Montana. The disease was experimentally induced by intravenous injection of bovine adenovirus type 5 that had been isolated from a calf with weak calf syndrome...     

Microsomal oxidase activities in relation to age and chlorcyclizine induction in American cockroach,Periplaneta americana,fat body,midgut and hindgut

Female adult American cockroaches, Periplaneta americana L., showed definite age-dependent changes in levels of activity of the microsomal mixed-function oxidases. Cytochrome P-450 levels, EPN-detoxication, and p-nitroanisole O-demethylation activities were very low in young adult insects but increased steadily reaching a natural peak at about 100 days in fat body and at about 90 days in midgut and hindgut. The activities then declined rapidly reaching levels of young insects at about 130 to 140 days of age. NADPH-neotetrazolium-reductase activity was high in young insects, declined later in adult life, and returned to a peak at about 100 days.Injections of chlorcyclizine, a known microsomal enzyme inducer, significantly increased levels of cytochrome P-450, EPN-detoxication, p-nitroanisole O-demethylation, and NADPH-NT-reductase activities in young cockroaches. The drug injections were effective, however, only before the natural activity peak was reached. Beyond this point the injections had no inductive effect indicating that the microsomal oxidases in this insect are uninducible when normal enzyme levels are falling.NADPH-NT-reductase activity in male cockroaches, while being somewhat higher than in females, showed a similar age-dependent curve with the peak occurring at about 120 days.Age-dependent carbaryl resistance in male and female insects tended to follow levels of the microsomal oxidase activities. Fifty to 60-day-old insects, however, tended to be more resistant to the insecticide than microsomal enzyme levels would indicate.RNA levels of normal female insects showed age-dependent curves similar to those of the microsomal enzyme activities, being low in young adults and reaching a peak at about 100 days. Chlorcyclizine injections had little or no effect on total microsomal RNA levels.     

Studies on effects of certain quinones: III. Photosynthetic 14CO2 incorporation by Rhodospirillum rubrum

Substituted naphthoquinones, 2,3,-dichloro-1,4-naphthoquinone, and 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone produced marked changes in the pattern of ¹⁴C-distribution during ¹⁴CO₂-fixation by photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum. The most obvious change in the labeling pattern during photoautotrophic ¹⁴CO₂-fixation was a several-fold increase in 3-phosphoglyceric acid accompanied with a decrease in the amount of glutamate. In photoheterotrophic cells, quinones caused an appreciable increase in ¹⁴C-glycolic acid and concomitant decrease, although not proportional, in the amount of ¹⁴C-sugar phosphate. The level of ¹⁴C-incorporated in poly-β-hydroxybutyrate and ether-extractable lipids was considerably decreased in photoautotrophic and photoheterotrophic cells treated with quinones. The ability of quinones to interfere with the synthesis of NADH and ATP, and their ability to interact with sulfhydryl enzymes and coenzymes appears to be responsible for the changes observed.     

Characterization of acetylcholinesterases of acaricide-resistant and susceptible strains of the cattle tick Boophilus microplus (Can.): I. Extraction of the critical component and comparison with enzyme from other sources

The critical acetylcholinesterase component, that is responsible for the resistance mechanism of decreased sensitivity to the inhibitor in the cattle tick Boophilus microplus (Can.), has been isolated from the organophosphorus-susceptible Yeerongpilly and resistant Biarra and Ridgelands strains. With the substrate acetylthiocholine this enzyme component gave a pH activity profile similar for all strains. Optimal substrate concentration for Ridgelands was 1.73.10^?2M compared to 2.70.10^?4M for the other strains. Computed Km values were 1.98.10^?5M, 3.65.10^?5M, and 6.43.10^?6M for Yeerongpilly, Biarra, and Ridgelands strains, respectively, while the corresponding V_max figures were 336, 135, and 21 μmoles acetylthiocholine hydrolyzed per gram of larvae per hour. These results are discussed in relation to the resistance mechanism and compared with similar parameters derived for this enzyme from bovine erythrocytes, the sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina, and the sheep nematode Trichostrongylus colubtiformis.     

Mercapturic acid formation in the metabolism of propachlor,CDAA, and fluorodifen in the rat

When [¹⁴C]F₃-fluorodifen (2,4′-dinitro-4-trifluoromethyl diphenylether), carbonyl-[¹⁴C]CDAA (N,N-diallyl-2-chloroacetamide), and carbonyl-¹⁴C-propachlor (2-chloro-N-isopropylacetanilide) were fed to rats, 57 to 86% of the ¹⁴C was excreted via the urine within 48 hr. Although very little radioactivity was excreted in the feces of CDAA-treated rats, 15–22% of the ¹⁴C was excreted in the feces of propachlor- of fluorodifentreated rats and an average of 8% of the ¹⁴C remained in these rats 48 hr after treatment. Oxidation of the ¹⁴C label to [¹⁴C]O₂ was not a major process in the metabolism of these herbicides. The only major radioactive metabolite present in the 24-h urine of fluorodifen-treated rats, 2-nitro-4-trifluoromethylphenyl mercapturic acid, accounted for 41% of the administered dose of ¹⁴C. In the metabolism of CDAA, the corresponding mercapturic acid accounted for 76% of the dose; it was the only major metabolite present in the 24-h urine. In contrast, three major metabolites were detected in the 24-h urine of propachlortreated rats, and the mercapturic acid accounted for only 20% of the dose. The mercapturic acid of each herbicide was identified by mass spectrometry.     

Antifungal mode of action of triforine

Rapidly growing mycelia of Aspergillus fumigatus treated with 10 μg/ml triforine (N,N′-bis-(1-formamido-2,2,2-trichloroethyl)-piperazine) showed little or no inhibition in dry weight increase prior to 2 h. By 2.5–3 h, triforine inhibited dry weight increase by 85%. The effects of triforine on protein, DNA, and RNA syntheses corresponded to the effect on dry weight increase both in time of onset and magnitude. Neither glucose nor acetate oxidation were inhibited by triforine.Ergosterol synthesis was almost completely inhibited by triforine even in the first hour after treatment. Inhibition of ergosterol synthesis was accompanied by an accumulation of the ergosterol precursors 24-methylenedihydrolanosterol, obtusifoliol, and 14α-methyl-Δ^{8, 24 (28)}-ergostadienol. Mycelia treated with 5 μg/ml of triarimol (α-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-α-phenyl-5-pyrimidinemethanol) also accumulated the same sterols as well as a fourth sterol believed to be Δ^{5, 7}-ergostadienol.Identification of 4,4-dimethyl-Δ^{8, 24 (28)}-ergostadienol in untreated mycelia indicates that the C-14 methyl group is the first methyl group removed in the biosynthesis of ergosterol by A. fumigatus. The lack of detectable quantities of 4,4-dimethyl-Δ^{8, 24 (28)}-ergostadienol in triforine or triarimol-treated mycelia and the accumulation of C-14 methylated sterols in treated mycelia suggests that both fungicides inhibit sterol C-14 demethylation. The accumulation of Δ^{5, 7}-ergostadienol in triarimol-treated mycelia further implies that triarimol also inhibits the introduction of the sterol C-22(23) double bond.Two strains of Cladosporium cucumerinum tolerant to triforine and triarimol were also tolerant to the fungicide S-1358 (N-3-pyridyl-S-n-butyl-S′-p-t-butylbenzyl imidodithiocarbonate).     

Etude des phénomènes de sorption entre deux triazines herbicides et des acides humiques

A study of sorption phenomena between two triazine herbicides and humic acids Terbutryne is very readily adsorbed by humic acids while atrazine is only slightly adsorbed and this only in an acid environment. The influence of pH on adsorption and the competitive effect of the cations Ca²⁺, Al³⁺ and Fe³⁺ shows that the proton form of the molecules of the two herbicides can be adsorbed by an ion exchange-type mechanism; the neutral form of terbutryne molecules could be adsorbed by other mechanisms. Desorption of terbutryne is accompanied by a more marked hysteresis phenomenon in the case of neutral molecules, and, in an acid environment, calcium shows a weak capacity for displacement in relation lo the adsorbed herbicide.