Risk factors associated with Brachyspira hyodysenteriae PCR-positivity in East-European pig production units

The objective of the present study was to determine the risk factors for swine dysentery in East-European middle-to-large sized, farrow-to-finish units, with separate breeding and grower-finisher facilities. Samples of faeces from 10 breeding animals (3-10% of the female inventory) and 10 grower finisher pigs (80-140 days of age) were collected for polymerase chain reaction testing (PCR) for Brachyspira hyodysenteriae (B. hyo). Of 139 farrow-to-finish units, 51 (36.7%) were positive, 49 (35.3%) were negative, and 39 (28.1%) were inconclusive for B. hyo by PCR. In breeding subunits, twelve variables passed the screening criterion for risk factors (P < .2) for B. hyo PCR positivity. The odds of the breeding subunits being B. hyo PCR positive were 3.5 times greater when the grower-finisher subunit was positive and the fibre content of the diet was > 6%. Use of 'all-in-all-out' farrowing policy and having >60% multiparous sows each reduced the odds of being B. hyo PCR-positive by 4-fold. In grower-finisher subunits, fourteen variables passed the screening criterion for risk factors (P < .2) for B. hyo PCR positivity. B. hyo PCR-positive status of the breeding subunits and higher fibre content of the diet were the most influential variables, with the odds of the grower-finisher subunits being B. hyo PCR positive being almost 8 times greater when the breeding subunit was also B. hyo PCR positive. Grower-finisher B. hyo PCR positivity was also associated with the percentage of pigs housed on concrete slats, with the odds of being positive being 7.5-times higher for subunits where more that 70% of the animals were kept on concrete slats compared with all other floor types. There was a strong association between grower-finisher status and whether the animals were on outdoor lots, with the odds of being B. hyo PCR positive being substantially lower for pigs on outdoor lots compared with all other surfaces. IN CONCLUSION: All-in-all-out management in the breeding units, B. hyo negativity of adjacent grower-finisher units, high fibre content of the diet, and older parity structure in a sow herd may reduce the risk of swine dysentery. In grower-finisher units, slatted flooring is associated with a higher risk, while B. hyo negativity of the breeding units, the fibre content of the diet, and outdoor production are associated with lower risk of swine dysentery.     

Pectic Arabinans in Quinoa Seeds (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) Are Acylated with p‐Coumaric Acid

A modified digestion method was used to hydrolyze large amounts of quinoa meal to study polysaccharide‐bound phenolic acids. Besides the well‐characterized oligosaccharide O‐(2‐O‐trans‐feruloyl‐α‐l ‐arabinofuranosyl)‐(1→5)‐l ‐arabinofuranose, O‐(2‐O‐trans‐coumaroyl‐α‐l ‐arabinofuranosyl)‐(1→5)‐l ‐arabinofuranose was isolated from the hydrolysate and identified by LC‐MS, GC‐MS, and NMR experiments. This study demonstrates for the first time that p‐coumaric acid can be linked to pectic side chains of dicotyledonous plants.     

NMR characterization of lignins isolated from fruit and vegetable insoluble dietary fiber

Compositional information for lignins in food is rare and concentrated on cereal grains and brans. As lignins are suspected to have important health roles in the dietary fiber complex, the confusing current information derived from nonspecific lignin determination methods needs to be augmented by diagnostic structural studies. For this study, lignin fractions were isolated from kiwi, pear, rhubarb, and, for comparison, wheat bran insoluble dietary fiber. Clean pear and kiwi lignin isolates allowed for substantive structural profiling, but it is suggested that the significance of lignin in wheat has been overestimated by reliance on nonspecific analytical methods. Volume integration of NMR contours in two-dimensional (13)C-(1)H correlation spectra shows that pear and wheat lignins have comparable guaiacyl and syringyl contributions and that kiwi lignins are particularly guaiacyl-rich (approximately 94% guaiacyl) and suggest that rhubarb lignins, which could not be isolated from contaminating materials, are as syringyl-rich (approximately 96% syringyl) as lignins from any known natural or transgenic fiber source. Typical lignin structures, including those newly NMR-validated (glycerols, spirodienones, and dibenzodioxocins), and resinols implicated as possible mammalian lignan precursors in the gut are demonstrated via their NMR correlation spectra in the fruit and vegetable samples. A novel putative benzodioxane structure appears to be associated with the kiwi lignin. It is concluded that the fruits and vegetables examined contain authentic lignins and that the detailed structural analysis exposes limitations of currently accepted analytical methods.     

Feruloylated Wheat Bran Arabinoxylans: Isolation and Characterization of Acetylated and O–2‐Monosubstituted Structures

Arabinoxylan structures vary based on the degree and pattern of substitution of the β‐(1→4)‐linked d ‐xylopyranose backbone with α‐l ‐arabinofuranose units, acetyl groups, uronic acids, and feruloylated side chains. Substitution differences affect arabinoxylans’ physicochemical and physiological characteristics. Wheat bran arabinoxylans were hydrolyzed with GH10 and GH11 endo‐1,4‐β‐xylanases, and feruloylated oligosaccharides were isolated and purified (Amberlite XAD‐2 isolation, Sephadex LH‐20 gel permeation chromatography, and preparative reversed‐phase HPLC). The pure, isolated compounds were structurally characterized via liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry and one‐dimensional and two‐dimensional NMR analyses. In addition to the well‐known products of endo‐xylanase hydrolysis (xylotriose and xylobiose O–3‐substituted with a 5‐O‐trans‐feruloyl‐α‐arabinofuranosyl unit on the middle and nonreducing xylose residue, respectively), novel structural features, including O–2‐monosubstitution of xylose adjacent to a xylose carrying feruloylated arabinose, were observed. Additionally, a simultaneously acetylated and feruloylated oligosaccharide has been isolated and tentatively characterized. Oligosaccharides esterified with caffeic acid were also isolated, but these were proven to result, at least in part, as artifacts of the enzymatic hydrolysis.     

Development and Application of a Methodology to Determine Free Ferulic Acid and Ferulic Acid Ester‐Linked to Different Types of Carbohydrates in Cereal Products

Ferulic acid bioavailability is dependent on its form present in food. This necessitates a methodology to quantify different groups of ferulic acid derivatives in food products, especially cereal‐based products. The aim of the proposed methodology is to separate and quantify ferulic acid ester‐linked to mono‐ and/or oligosaccharides (OF), to soluble polysaccharides (SPF), and to insoluble polysaccharides (IPF) as well as in its free form. Development and partial validation of this method, which was widely based on liquid/liquid extraction and precipitation steps, was performed using characterized standard materials isolated from corn bran. As the determination of OF was one of the major goals of this methodology, three different feruloylated mono‐ and oligosaccharides were used for method development and validation. To determine the accuracy of the method, ferulic acid–containing standard materials added to a starch matrix were extracted and separated according to the developed protocol. The separated ferulic acid esters were saponified before ferulic acid was analyzed by reversed phase HPLC. Recovery rates were generally between 70 and 103%, with the lowest recovery rates for SPF and highest recovery rates for IPF and OF. Finally, the applicability of the method to unprocessed and processed wheat bran samples was demonstrated.     

Complete characterization of quantum-optical processes

The technologies of quantum information and quantum control are rapidly improving, but full exploitation of their capabilities requires complete characterization and assessment of processes that occur within quantum devices. We present a method for characterizing, with arbitrarily high accuracy, any quantum optical process. Our protocol recovers complete knowledge of the process by studying, via homodyne tomography, its effect on a set of coherent states, that is, classical fields produced by common laser sources. We demonstrate the capability of our protocol by evaluating and experimentally verifying the effect of a test process on squeezed vacuum.     

Effects of Age and Pretreatment of Tissue-Cultured Potato Plants on Subsequent Minituber Production

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plantlets were conditioned in tissue culture to produce more minitubers when planted in a greenhouse. Tissue-cultured potato plantlets, varieties Coliban and Russet Burbank, were grown for 4, 10, or 12 weeks under three temperature regimes (22/18 °C, 16/10 °C, and 10/2 °C day/night) and a photoperiod of 16, 12, or 8 h in different stages of growth. Duration, temperature, and photoperiod of the in vitro period affected plantlet morphology and the total number of minitubers produced per plant in a greenhouse. Extending the growing period and introducing a hardening period with low temperatures (16/10 °C) during the in vitro production stage resulted in 97% more minitubers (4.94 vs 2.50 minitubers per plant for the control) in variety Coliban and up to 71% (6.50 vs 3.80 minitubers per plant for the control) in variety Russet Burbank. The total number of minitubers produced per plant did not change significantly for both varieties when a shorter photoperiod was used instead of the standard 16-h day during the growing period in vitro. Results presented in this experiment demonstrate that the number of minitubers can be substantially increased through the introduction of an induction period as an interstage between the in vitro stages of potato plantlet production and minituber production.     

Influence of cross-linked arabinoxylans on the postprandial blood glucose response in rats

Viscous dietary fibers are well established to reduce the blood glucose response to a meal. In this study, arabinoxylans, the most abundant dietary fiber in most cereals, were extracted under alkaline conditions and cross-linked by using laccase. Cross-linking of the arabinoxylans led to gel formation and increased in vitro viscosity almost 100-fold after drying and rehydration. To determine the ability of these cross-linked arabinoxylans to blunt the postprandial blood glucose curve of a meal, arabinoxylans, either native or cross-linked, and either prehydrated or not, were fed to rats as part of a meal, and blood glucose was monitored at intervals after the meal. Cellulose, a nonviscous fiber, served as a control. Cross-linked, but not native, arabinoxylans significantly reduced the area under the blood glucose time curve 5-9% relative to cellulose, indicating that they remained viscous within the gastrointestinal tract, and thus likely provide the health benefits found with other viscous fibers.     

Dehydrotriferulic and Dehydrodiferulic Acid Profiles of Cereal and Pseudocereal Flours

Dehydrooligomers of ferulic acid cross‐link polysaccharides such as arabinoxylans and pectic polysaccharides in cereal and certain pseudocereal grains, affecting physiological effects of these fiber components and their physicochemical properties during food processing. An HPLC‐MS method for the analysis of eight diferulic acids and five triferulic acids in low‐lignin samples such as cereal grains and pseudocereals was developed and validated. This method was applied to the analysis of ester‐linked diferulates and triferulates in maize, popcorn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, and amaranth, giving a complete profile of this set of diferulates and triferulates in cereals and pseudocereals. Triferulic acid contents of the cereal flours are roughly 1/10 of the diferulic acid contents, ranging between 23 (oats) and 161 (popcorn) μg/g of flour, with lower amounts for the pseudocereal flours (1–3 μg/g of flour). Dominating trimers are either the 5‐5/8‐O‐4‐ and/or the 8‐O‐4/8‐O‐4‐regioisomers with lower proportions of 8‐8cyclic/8‐O‐4‐, 8‐5noncyclic/8‐O‐4‐, and 8‐5noncyclic/5‐5‐triferulic acids. A unique diferulate pattern was found for buckwheat, with more than 90% of the dimers being 8‐5‐coupled. Amaranth contains an unusually high proportion of 8‐8cyclic‐diferulate, with 27% of the total dimers, whereas oats and barley show comparably high proportions (23%) of the 8‐8tetrahydrofuran diferulate.