Simultaneous delivery of antibiotics neomycin and ampicillin in drinking water inhibits fermentation of resistant starch in rats.

Scope: Antibiotics ampicillin 1 g/L and neomycin 0.5 g/L were added to drinking water before or during feeding of resistant starch (RS) to rats to inhibit fermentation.

Methods And Results: In a preliminary study, antibiotics and no RS were given prior to rats receiving a transplant of cecal contents via gavage from donor rats fed RS (without antibiotics) or a water gavage before feeding resistant starch to both groups.

Observation on the ultrastructure morphology of HeLa cells treated with ethanol: Statistical analysis.

It is estimated that 5.9% of all human deaths are attributable to alcohol consumption and that the harmful use of ethanol ranks among the top five risk factors for causing disease, disability, and death worldwide. Ethanol is known to disrupt phospholipid packing and promote membrane hemifusion at lipid bilayers.

Obese ZDF rats fermented resistant starch with effects on gut microbiota but no reduction in abdominal fat.

Scope: To determine if whole-grain (WG) flour with resistant starch (RS) will produce greater fermentation than isolated RS in obese Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rats, and whether greater fermentation results in different microbiota, reduced abdominal fat, and increased insulin sensitivity.

Methods And Results: This study utilized four groups fed diets made with either isolated digestible control starch, WG control flour (6.9% RS), isolated RS-rich corn starch (25% RS), or WG corn flour (25% RS).

Induction of Energy Expenditure by Sitagliptin Is Dependent on GLP-1 Receptor.

Sitagliptin (SG) increases serum GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1) through inhibition of the hormone degradation. Resistant starch (RS) induces GLP-1 expression by stimulating L-cells in the intestine. Sitagliptin and resistant starch may have a synergistic interaction in the induction of GLP-1.

Radial wood allocation in Schizolobium parahyba.

Premise Of The Study: Pioneer species of tropical trees allocate wood specific gravity (SG) differently across the radius. Some species exhibit relatively uniform, low SG wood, whereas many others exhibit linear increases in SG across the radius. Here, we measured changes in SG across the radius of Schizolobium parahyba (Fabaceae-Caesalpinioideae), a wide-ranging, neotropical pioneer, used extensively in land reclamation and forest restoration in Brazil.

Effects of manipulated herbivore inputs on nutrient flux and decomposition in a tropical rainforest in Puerto Rico.

Forest canopy herbivores are known to increase rates of nutrient fluxes to the forest floor in a number of temperate and boreal forests, but few studies have measured effects of herbivore-enhanced nutrient fluxes in tropical forests. We simulated herbivore-induced fluxes in a tropical rainforest in Puerto Rico by augmenting greenfall (fresh foliage fragments), frassfall (insect feces), and throughfall (precipitation enriched with foliar leachates) in replicated experimental plots on the forest floor. Background rates of greenfall and frassfall were measured monthly using litterfall collectors and augmented by adding 10× greenfall or 10× frassfall to designated plots.

A cafeteria-based tasting program increased liking of fruits and vegetables by lower, middle and upper elementary school-age children.

This study aimed to increase 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade children's liking for fruits and vegetables by offering repeated opportunities to taste selected items. Tastes of four fruits or four vegetables were offered to children (51% boys; 32% 1st graders and 34% 3rd graders) on alternate weeks for 8 weeks. Two-week follow-up tastings occurred 4 months and 10 months post-intervention.

Repeated taste exposure increases liking for vegetables by low-income elementary school children.

Children's food preferences play a major role in their food choices and consumption. The objective of the present study was to examine if repeated tastings of selected vegetables in a school setting increased children's liking of these items. A total of 360 fourth- and fifth-grade students attending four low-income, public elementary schools in southeastern Louisiana volunteered to participate.

Contributors to fatigue resistance of the hamstrings and quadriceps in cerebral palsy.

Background: The purpose of this study was to elucidate relationships between quadriceps and hamstrings voluntary muscle fatigue and upper motor lesion impairments in cerebral palsy in order to gain a better understanding of their contribution to the observed fatigue resistance.

Methods: Seventeen ambulatory subjects with cerebral palsy (mean age: 17.0, SD=4.

"Smart Bodies" school wellness program increased children's knowledge of healthy nutrition practices and self-efficacy to consume fruit and vegetables.

Diets rich in fruit and vegetables are important for long-term health yet children frequently do not like these foods. The "Smart Bodies" school wellness program sought to increase children's knowledge of healthy nutritional practices, improve psychosocial variables associated with eating fruit and vegetables, and develop preferences for these foods. A randomized controlled intervention trial was conducted in 14 low-income, urban, public elementary schools (seven pairs).

Fatigue resistance during a voluntary performance task is associated with lower levels of mobility in cerebral palsy.

Objectives: To investigate muscle fatigue of the knee flexors and extensors in people with cerebral palsy (CP) compared with those without motor disability during performance of a voluntary fatigue protocol and to investigate the relationship with functional mobility.

Design: A case-control study.

Setting: A biomechanics laboratory.

Time course of improved flow-mediated dilation after short-term exercise training.

Purpose: The purpose was to determine the influence of a unilateral localized short-term handgrip training protocol on brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (BAFMD) and to examine the time course of such changes.

Methods: Fourteen healthy males (age: 26 +/- 5.7 yr) underwent high-resolution ultrasonographic brachial artery assessments before (V1), during (V2-V7), and at the end of 4 wk (V8) of 60% maximal voluntary contraction handgrip training (20 min.

Stability and reproducibility of brachial artery flow-mediated dilation.

Purpose: Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (BAFMD) is a noninvasive technique, which has been suggested as a potential means of identifying patients with early atherosclerosis and therefore has enormous clinical appeal. Despite this, the stability and reproducibility of this technique are not yet clear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish the stability and reproducibility of BAFMD after 5 min of forearm occlusion and to produce power calculations to aid in clinical trial design.

Risk factors for Brucella seropositivity in goat herds in eastern and western Uganda.

Cross-sectional prevalences and risk factors for Brucella seropositivity in goats in eastern and western Uganda were investigated. Serum was collected from 1518 goats randomly selected from 145 herds which had been identified using multistage sampling. The brucellosis card test (CT) and the Brucella melitensis tube-agglutination test (TAT) were used in parallel to detect antibodies against B.

Effects of dietary soy isoflavones on growth, carcass traits, and meat quality in growing-finishing pigs.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of soy isoflavones on growth, meat quality, and carcass traits of growing-finishing pigs. In Exp. 1, 36 barrows (initial and final BW, 26 and 113 kg, respectively) were used and each treatment was replicated four times with three pigs each.

Oxidative metabolism of rabbit and rat intestine with short chain fatty acids and glucose: an evaluation of data analysis.

1. Glucose sustained VO2 of rabbit ileum, caecum, and distal colon better than SCFAs. 2.

Biological applications of the SAS system: an overview.

The SAS system provides biologists with a flexible, easy to use software package for data analysis. Through a combination of data management tools, a wide variety of pre-programmed procedures for sorting, graphing, and statistical analysis and a sophisticated programming language, SAS software can perform all analytical needs for most problems. The recent availability of SAS software on mainframes other than IBM, and more recently on the microcomputer, means that most scientists can have access to the software.

Fascioliasis in cattle in Louisiana: development of a system to predict disease risk by climate, using the Thornthwaite water budget.

A system correlating climate with the annual risk of fascioliasis in cattle in central Louisiana was developed, using the Thornthwaite water budget and a 6-year data base that included records on herd prevalence rates, transmission to fluke-free sentinel calves, and snail population dynamics. The system developed was compared with modifications of the wet-day and Mt forecasting systems previously developed for use in the oceanic climate zone of western Europe. The wet-day system correlated poorly with transmission data, whereas the Mt and Thornthwaite water budget-derived systems correctly ranked 5 of the 6 years in terms of annual numbers of flukes transmitted to sentinel calves.

Herd evaluation of Fasciola hepatica infection levels in Louisiana cattle by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was evaluated as a method of determining relative immunoconversion rates in calves and how immunoconversion rates and strength of optical density values correlate with prevalence of Fasciola hepatica fecal egg shedding. Ten to 55 calves and cows were examined from each of 10 separate beef cattle herds in central and southern Louisiana. Infection prevalence rates for calves averaged 8% higher when ELISA optical density values were used than those when fecal egg count data were used.