Dietary fiber for dogs: II. Iso-total dietary fiber (TDF) additions of divergent fiber sources to dog diets and their effects on nutrient intake, digestibility, metabolizable energy and digesta mean retention time

The objectives of this study were to examine widely divergent fiber sources for their efficacy as ingredients in a meat-based dog diet and to determine the effects of these fibers on fecal excretion responses and mean retention time of marked fiber in the gastrointestinal tract of the dog. Fiber sources tested included beet pulp (BP), tomato pomace (TP), peanut hulls (PH), wheat bran (WB) and alkaline hydrogen peroxide-treated wheat straw (AHPWS). Diets were isonitrogenous (5.3% N) and iso-total dietary fiber (TDF; 12.5%). Thirty female English Pointers (five/treatment) were used in the experiment. Intakes of DM and OM were similar among treatments. The highest intakes of ether extract (EE) occurred on the TP, PH and WB treatments. Dogs fed PH ingested the most crude fiber (23.6 g/d), NDF (53.5 g/d), ADF (34.3 g/d) and TDF (59.7 g/d). Digestibilities of DM and OM for all fiber treatments were lower than the control (87.6 vs 81.8% for DM; 90.2 vs 85.4% for OM), but values were similar among fiber sources. The highest EE and N digestibilities occurred on the control and AHPWS treatments. No differences were noted among exogenous fiber-containing treatments in fiber component digestibility. Digestible energy and ME values generally were similar among treatments. Among fiber sources, BP resulted in the greatest amount of wet feces excreted (270 g/d) and the lowest fecal DM (30.3%). No differences among fiber sources were noted in frequency of defecation or mean retention time. Iso-TDF diets (containing, on average, 12.5% TDF) appear to be utilized similarly, regardless of the diversity in sources of fiber tested.     

The effects of physostigmine on the electroretinogram in the beagle dog

The purpose of the study was to correlate electroretinogram (ERG) parameters with increasing levels of plasma, erythrocyte and ocular tissue cholinesterase inhibition using the beagle dog as a model for human neurovisual toxicity. The anticholinesterase compound physostigmine was administered at various steady-state intravenous infusion rates based on pharmacokinetic estimates of plasma and red blood cell cholinesterase inhibition. The most sensitive parameter was the b-wave amplitude of the rod response, which was significantly depressed compared to pretreatment at all levels of acute cholinesterase depression. The overall maximal ERG response demonstrated a trend of declining a-and b-wave amplitudes, which corresponded with the increased levels of cholinesterase depression, but these differences were not significant. The depression of the electroretinogram rod and cone amplitudes appeared to parallel plasma cholinesterase inhibition more closely than erythrocyte cholinesterase activity. Ocular tissue cholinesterase activity was significantly depressed in the retina (70%), cornea (60%) and dorsal rectus extraocular muscle (46%). Electroretinography may be a useful physiological tool for evaluating the ocular toxicity of certain chemicals or pharmaceuticals associated with cholinesterase biomarker activity.Abbreviations AChE acetylcholinesterase - Amp amplitude - BuChE butyrylcholinesterase - C _p plasma level - C _ss steady-state plasma concentration - D _L loading dose - e ^–kt the rate of elimination over time (t) - ERG electroretinogram - k elimination rate constant - Lat latency - MBW metabolic body weight - O₁–O₅ consecutive oscillatory potential wavelets - PreTx pretreatment - R rate of infusion - R _Inf rate of infusion - V _d volume of distribution     

University Isotope Separator at Oak Ridge: The UNISOR Consortium

The UNISOR cooperative project, envisioned more than 3 years ago, is now successfully working. Research problems that involve a full range of experiments on nuclei far from beta stability are being investigated jointly by groups of scientists from several institutions. Some of the first work reported (16) included the identification, half-lives, and decay schemes of three new isotopes, (186)T1, (188)T1, and (116)I; the first or new decay schemes of (189)T1, (190)T1, (117)Xe, and (117)I; and the results of the perturbed gamma-gamma directional correlation work in (126)Xe. UNISOR is already stimulating international interest. A report (1) on the new research being planned with an isotope separator on-line to ORIC was presented at a Soviet Academy of Sciences meeting on nuclear structure in 1971. At an international nuclear physics conference in Munich in August 1973, Academician G. N. Flerov, director of the heavy-ion laboratory in Dubna, said the UNISOR project had inspired his laboratory to secure funds for a new, much improved isotope separator which is now installed on-line to their heavy-ion cyclotron to be used for detailed studies of nuclei far from stability. The UNISOR model for research has inspired a second such project, the Atomic Physics Consortium at Oak Ridge (APCOR). After an exploratory conference at Oak Ridge, scientists from ten institutions met in November 1973 to form an organizing committee for APCOR. As with UNISOR, the universities and the AEC will each provide a significant portion of the capital and operating costs. Heavy ions have opened up much new research in atomic physics, but such accelerator-based research represents a real "shift from traditional approaches concerning how, where, and on what time scale atomic physics experiments should be done" (17).     

Infant carrying by male chacma baboons

Male chacma baboons, Papio ursinus, carry their offspring during confrontations with higher ranking immigrant males, who are a threat to the infants' lives. The infants sometimes initiate these confrontations by approaching and provoking immigrant males when protective males are close by. Mothers rarely interfere during these interactions.     

The Gelation of CO(2): A Sustainable Route to the Creation of Microcellular Materials

Compounds with strong thermodynamic affinity for carbon dioxide (CO(2)) have been designed and synthesized that dissolve in CO(2), then associate to form gels. Upon removal of the CO(2), these gels produced free-standing foams with cells with an average diameter smaller than 1 micrometer and a bulk density reduction of 97 percent relative to the parent material.