Palatability in sheep and in vitro nutritional value of dried and ensiled sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), and chicory (Cichorium intybus).

Three temperate forages, sainfoin, birdsfoot trefoil, and chicory, characterized by elevated contents of plant secondary compounds, were compared to a ryegrass-clover mixture (control) in dried (Experiment 1) and ensiled form (Experiment 2) in their palatability and nutritional value. Palatability was measured in adult wethers (n = 6) allowed to choose between the familiar control forage and one of the three test plants. Palatability index was calculated from differences in intake of control and test plants measured after given times.

Effect of feeding dehydrated and ensiled tanniferous sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) on nitrogen and mineral digestion and metabolism of lambs.

The effects of tanniferous sainfoin on digestion and metabolism have been investigated in 12 lambs in an incomplete cross-over design (n = 6). Effects of condensed tannins (CT) were evaluated by comparing dehydrated and ensiled sainfoin treated with and without polyethylene glycol (PEG). Dehydrated and ensiled grass-clover mixtures served as controls.

Preference of dairy cows for ryegrass, white clover and red clover, and its effects on nutrient supply and milk quality.

Two experiments were conducted with 30 dairy cows each, to study the preference for fresh (Experiment 1) and ensiled (Experiment 2) ryegrass, white and red clover. Both experiments consisted of three choice diets with white or red clover or both, offered with ryegrass, and two diets with ryegrass mixed with white or red clover (40% clover). Cows consumed diets with 37.

Lung cancer risk and workplace exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

Objectives: We sought to quantitatively evaluate the association between work-place environmental tobacco smoke exposure and lung cancer.

Methods: We performed a meta-analysis in 2003 of data from 22 studies from multiple locations worldwide of workplace environmental tobacco smoke exposure and lung cancer risk. Estimates of relative risk from these studies were analyzed by fitting the data to fixed and mixed effects models.

Construction of the electroencephalogram player: a device to present electroencephalogram data to electroencephalogram-based anesthesia monitors.

Background: Recently, an increasing number of electroencephalogram (EEG)-based monitors of the hypnotic component of anesthesia has become available. Most of these monitors calculate a numerical index reflecting the hypnotic component of anesthesia. Most of the underlying algorithms are proprietary.

Lung cancer risk among German male uranium miners: a cohort study, 1946-1998.

From 1946 to 1990 extensive uranium mining was conducted in the southern parts of the former German Democratic Republic. The overall workforce included several 100,000 individuals. A cohort of 59,001 former male employees of the Wismut Company was established, forming a large retrospective uranium miners' cohort for the time period 1946-1998.

Evidence for different nutrient partitioning in Boran (Bos indicus) and Boran x Holstein cows when re-allocated from low to high or from high to low feeding level.

This study tested the hypothesis that purebred Boran (Bos indicus) cows and crossbreds of Boran and Holstein respond differently to long-term changes of feeding level in nutrient partitioning to milk and body fat stores. A total of 27 cows of these two genotypes were subjected either to a low or a high feeding level from their first oestrus as heifers until birth of their third calf. Half of the cows of each genotype were then switched to the other feeding level during the third reproduction cycle.

A recombinant Fab fragment-based electrochemical immunosensor for the determination of testosterone in bovine urine.

This work describes the development of an electrochemical, recombinant Fab fragment-based immunosensor for the detection of testosterone in bovine urine. The sensor comprised of a testosterone conjugate on the surface of screen-printed electrodes, and recognition followed by an anti-testosterone Fab fragment. The use of an IgG-horseradish peroxidase conjugate determined the degree of competition.

Mortality from cardiovascular diseases in the German uranium miners cohort study, 1946-1998.

An increased risk of cardiovascular diseases after exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation has been suggested among the atomic bomb survivors. Few and inconclusive results on this issue are available from miner studies. A positive correlation between coronary heart disease mortality and radon exposure has been reported in the Newfoundland fluorspar miners study, yet low statistical power due to small sample size was of concern.

Fiber and lignin analysis in concentrate, forage, and feces: detergent versus enzymatic-chemical method.

Hemicelluloses, cellulose, and lignin contents of contrasting feeds, with emphasis on concentrate ingredients and complete concentrates, were analyzed using the Van Soest detergent procedure (analyzing neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, and acid detergent lignin) and the enzymatic-chemical procedure (analyzing cellulose, soluble and insoluble noncellulosic polysaccharides, and Klason lignin). Also, feces from cows fed concentrates differing in carbohydrate composition were analyzed by the 2 procedures. The correlation between acid detergent lignin and Klason lignin was significant, but not as close as the one between individual structural polysaccharides measured with the 2 procedures.

Myristic acid supports the immediate inhibitory effect of lauric acid on ruminal methanogens and methane release.

Two in vitro experiments were carried out with the Hohenheim gas test (HGT) apparatus in order to investigate dose-dependent effects and interactions of non-esterified lauric acid (C(12)) and myristic acid (C(14)) given either individually or in mixture on ruminal methanogens and methanogenesis. Special emphasis was also put on the relationship between effects on methane formation and methanogenic counts. The in vitro incubations were conducted in 10mL ruminal fluid and 20mL buffer solution and lasted for 24h.

Hybridization probe for femtomolar quantification of selected nucleic acid sequences on a disposable electrode.

Mixed monolayers of electroactive hybridization probes on gold surfaces of a disposable electrode were investigated as a technology for simple, sensitive, selective, and rapid gene identification. Hybridization to the ferrocene-labeled hairpin probes reproducibly diminished cyclic redox currents, presumably due to a displacement of the label from the electrode. Observed peak current densities were roughly 1000x greater than those observed in previous studies, such that results could easily be interpreted without the use of algorithms to correct for background polarization currents.

Residential radon and lung cancer--detailed results of a collaborative analysis of individual data on 7148 persons with lung cancer and 14,208 persons without lung cancer from 13 epidemiologic studies in Europe.

Objectives: Studies seeking direct estimates of the lung cancer risk associated with residential radon exposure lasting several decades have been conducted in many European countries. Individually these studies have not been large enough to assess moderate risks reliably. Therefore data from all 13 European studies of residential radon and lung cancer satisfying certain prespecified criteria have been brought together and analyzed.

Time delay of index calculation: analysis of cerebral state, bispectral, and narcotrend indices.

Background: On the basis of electroencephalographic analysis, several parameters have been proposed as a measure of the hypnotic component of anesthesia. All currently available indices have different time lags to react to a change in the level of anesthesia. The aim of this study was to determine the latency of three frequently used indices: the Cerebral State Index (Danmeter, Odense, Denmark), the Bispectral Index (Aspect Medical Systems Inc.

Lung cancer risk among former uranium miners of the WISMUT Company in Germany.

Unlabelled: After 1946, the WISMUT Company developed the third-largest uranium-mining province in the world in the German Democratic Republic.

Methods: A case-control study among former WISMUT miners was conducted to investigate the lung cancer risk in relation to attained age, time since exposure, exposure duration, and exposure rate. It consisted of 505 patients with lung cancer and 1,073 controls matched to cases according to the year of birth.

Analysis of nonylphenol: advances and improvements in the immunochemical determination using antibodies raised against the technical mixture and hydrophilic immunoreagents.

The development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of technical nonylphenol (NP) is reported. The preparation of specific antibodies has been addressed using an immunizing hapten with a four-carbon atom spacer arm placed at the ortho position that preserves both the hydroxyl group and the complexity of the branched nonyl chain mixture of the technical NP. The synthesis of the immunizing hapten 5-(2-hydroxy-5-nonylphenyl)-pentanoic acid has been accomplished through a four-step synthetic pathway using the NP commercial technical mixture as the starting material.

Effect of the carbohydrate composition of feed concentratates on methane emission from dairy cows and their slurry.

Dietary carbohydrate effects on methane emission from cows and their slurry were measured on an individual animal basis. Twelve dairy cows were fed three of six diets each (n = 6 per diet) of a forage-to-concentrate ratio of 1 : 1 (dry matter basis), and designed to cover the cows' requirements. The forages consisted of maize and grass silage, and hay.

[Smoking as potential confounder in german epidemiological studies: standardization of assessment, quantification, and analysis].

Tobacco smoking is one of the most frequently examined risk factors in epidemiological studies due to the high frequency of smoking in the population and its high risk potential. This paper discusses the issue of standardization of the assessment of tobacco exposure in German epidemiological studies based on a suggestion of the working group "Epidemiological methods" of the German Society of Epidemiology (DGEpi), the German Society of Social Medicine and Prevention (DGSMP), and German Society of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) together with the working group "Epidemiology in the workplace" of the DGEpi and the German Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (DGAUM). The main element is a short questionnaire for German adults for the assessment of tobacco smoking in epidemiological studies where smoking is a potential confounder.

Influence of myristic acid supplementation on energy, fatty acid and calcium metabolism of sheep as affected by dietary calcium and forage : concentrate ratio.

In a 6 x 6 Latin square arrangement, sheep of 41 kg body weight were fed myristic acid [C14:0; 50 g/kg dry matter (DM)] supplemented to two basal diets of forage : concentrate ratios of 1 : 1.5 and 1 : 0.5 and adjusted to dietary calcium (Ca) contents of either 4.

Quantitative detection of doping substances by a localised surface plasmon sensor.

Within this communication, consistent evidence of a quantitative biosensing principle for steroidal residue analysis is presented. Our approach uses a simple method for the quantitative determination of an anabolic agent called stanozolol (Sz). Sz (Mw 328) is widely used in sports, horse racing and as a growth promoter in animals for human consumption.

A study on the causes for the elevated n-3 fatty acids in cows' milk of alpine origin.

The influence of grass-only diets either from rye-grass-dominated lowland pastures (400 m above sea level) or botanically diverse alpine pastures (2000 m) on the FA profile of milk was investigated using three groups of six Brown Swiss cows each. Two groups were fed grass-only on pasture (P) or freshly harvested in barn (B), both for two experimental periods in the lowlands and, consecutively, two periods on the alp. Group C served as the control, receiving a silage-concentrate diet and permanently staying in the lowlands.

Protein composition, plasmin activity and cheesemaking properties of cows' milk produced at two altitudes from hay of lowland and high-alpine origins.

The influence of high altitude, alpine origin of the forage and roughage-only diets on milk protein content and composition, plasmin activity and cheesemaking properties was investigated. There were four treatment groups, each consisting of six dairy cows in early to mid-lactation. Two groups were fed only with hay ad libitum either at 2000 m or at 400 m a.

Effects of supplemental hay and corn silage versus full-time grazing on ruminal pH and chewing activity of dairy cows.

Grazing young, highly digestible swards with and without supplemental hay or corn silage (5.5 kg of DM/d) offered overnight was tested for its effects on ruminal pH and chewing activity. A double 3 x 3 Latin square arrangement with 6 rumen-cannulated Brown Swiss cows (29 kg/d of milk) was applied.

Radon in homes and risk of lung cancer: collaborative analysis of individual data from 13 European case-control studies.

Objective: To determine the risk of lung cancer associated with exposure at home to the radioactive disintegration products of naturally occurring radon gas.

Design: Collaborative analysis of individual data from 13 case-control studies of residential radon and lung cancer.

Setting: Nine European countries.