Effects of Feeding Frequency on the Lying Behavior of Dairy Cows in a Loose Housing with Automatic Feeding and Milking System.

Management systems in modern dairy farms is an important issue in relation to animal comfort and welfare. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of feed delivery frequency on the behavior patterns, visits to an automatic milking system (AMS) and on milk production of lactating dairy cows. The study was conducted on a commercial dairy farm with automatic feeding and milking systems.

Methodology for quantifying the behavioral activity of dairy cows in freestall barns.

The objectives of this study were to 1) evaluate the validity of automated monitoring systems as assessment method for the behavioral activity of dairy cows compared with video recording, and 2) determine the sampling intervals required to obtain reliable estimates of the daily behavior. To determine lying, standing, and walking, 12 cows were equipped with automatic recording devices (IceTag = 12 cows, HOBO Pendant G = 5 cows), and their behavior was simultaneously recorded using a video recording system. The correspondence between the IceTag, HOBO logger, and video recording data was analyzed using 2 × 2 contingency tables, and we determined the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value (positive and negative).

Continuous administration of enteral lipid- and protein-rich nutrition limits inflammation in a human endotoxemia model.

Objective: An overzealous inflammatory response is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in surgical, trauma, and critically ill patients. Enteral administration of lipid-rich nutrition was previously shown to attenuate inflammation and reduce organ damage via a cholecystokinin-1 receptor-mediated vagovagal reflex in animal studies. The current preclinical study investigates the immunomodulatory potential of a custom-made enteral nutrition during systemic inflammation in man.

The effects of brain injury on heart rate variability and the innate immune response in critically ill patients.

Brain injury and its related increased intracranial pressure (ICP) may lead to increased vagus nerve activity and the subsequent suppression of innate immunity via the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. This may explain the observed increased susceptibility to infection in these patients. In the present study, we investigated the association between brain injury, vagus nerve activity, and innate immunity.

α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist GTS-21 attenuates ventilator-induced tumour necrosis factor-α production and lung injury.

Background: Mechanical ventilation (MV) induces an inflammatory response that can lead to lung injury. The vagus nerve can limit the inflammatory response through the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. We evaluated the effects of stimulation of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway with the selective partial α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) agonist GTS-21 on inflammation and lung injury induced by MV using clinically relevant ventilator settings.

Differential ex vivo and in vivo endotoxin tolerance kinetics following human endotoxemia.

Objectives: Endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide) tolerance is characterized by a transient refractory state to a subsequent lipopolysaccharide challenge. Following human endotoxemia, ex vivo tolerance of circulating leukocytes to lipopolysaccharide resolves within 24 hrs. However, the duration of in vivo tolerance, assumed to be primarily mediated by tissue-resident macrophages, is unknown.

Influence of different breathing patterns on heart rate variability indices and reproducibility during experimental endotoxaemia in human subjects.

HRV (heart rate variability) analysis is a widely employed method to assess cardiac autonomic nervous system activity. Accurate HRV measurement is critical to its value as a diagnostic and prognostic tool. Different breathing patterns may affect HRV, but results obtained under static conditions are conflicting.

Interplay between the acute inflammatory response and heart rate variability in healthy human volunteers.

The autonomic nervous system and the inflammatory response are intimately linked. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a widely used method to assess cardiac autonomic nervous system activity, and changes in HRV indices may correlate with inflammatory markers. Here, we investigated whether baseline HRV predicts the acute inflammatory response to endotoxin.

Effects of the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist GTS-21 on the innate immune response in humans.

The vagus nerve can reflexively attenuate the innate immune response via binding of the vagal neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) to the α7 nicotinic ACh receptor (α7nAChR). We recently reported potent anti-inflammatory effects of the α7nAChR agonist GTS-21 in human leukocytes. In the present work, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of GTS-21 on the innate immune response during experimental human endotoxemia.

GTS-21 inhibits pro-inflammatory cytokine release independent of the Toll-like receptor stimulated via a transcriptional mechanism involving JAK2 activation.

The vagus nerve can limit inflammation via the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (alpha7nAChR). Selective pharmacological stimulation of the alpha7nAChR may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of inflammatory conditions. We determined the anti-inflammatory potential of GTS-21, an alpha7nAChR-selective partial agonist, on primary human leukocytes and compared it with nicotine, the nAChR agonist widely used for research into the anti-inflammatory effects of alpha7nAChR stimulation.

Increased vagal tone accounts for the observed immune paralysis in patients with traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability, especially in the younger population. In the acute phase after TBI, patients are more vulnerable to infection, associated with a decreased immune response in vitro. The cause of this immune paralysis is poorly understood.

'Blind' transfusion of blood products in exsanguinating trauma patients.

Background: In trauma, as interventions are carried out to stop bleeding, ongoing resuscitation with blood products is of vital importance. As transfusion policy in exsanguinating patients cannot be based on laboratory tests, transfusion of blood products is performed empirically or 'blindly'. The aim of this study was to delineate 'blind' transfusion practice in the hectic clinical situation of exsanguination.

Homologous protein import machineries in chloroplasts and cyanelles.

The cyanelles of the glaucocystophyte alga Cyanophora paradoxa resemble endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, especially in the presence of a peptidoglycan wall between the inner and outer envelope membranes. However, it is now clear that cyanelles are in fact primitive plastids. Phylogenetic analyses of plastid, nuclear and mitochondrial genes support a single primary endosymbiotic event.

Conservative sorting in a primitive plastid. The cyanelle of Cyanophora paradoxa.

Higher plant chloroplasts possess at least four different pathways for protein translocation across and protein integration into the thylakoid membranes. It is of interest with respect to plastid evolution, which pathways have been retained as a relic from the cyanobacterial ancestor ('conservative sorting'), which ones have been kept but modified, and which ones were developed at the organelle stage, i.e.

A fast, digitally controlled flow proportional gas injection system for studies in lung function.

The aim of this paper is to describe a device for flow proportional injection of tracer gas in the lungs of mechanically ventilated patients. This device may then be used for the study of the multiple breath indicator gas washout technique to determine the end-expiratory lung volume. Such a tracer gas injection device may also be used in the study of other techniques that rely on uptake and elimination of tracer gas by the lungs.

Characterization of apcC, the nuclear gene for the phycobilisome core linker polypeptide L(c)(7.8) from the glaucocystophyte alga Cyanophora paradoxa. Import of the precursor into isolated cyanelles and integration of the mature protein into intact phycobilisomes.

Phycobilisomes are the complex and highly efficient light-harvesting antenna systems of cyanobacteria, glaucocystophyte algae and red algae. In the glaucocystophyte Cyanophora paradoxa, seven genes for (chromophoric) phycobilisome components are known thus far, which all reside on the cyanelle genome. Here, we report the sequence of apcC, specifying the precursor to the colorless polypeptide L(c)(7.

Noninvasive monitoring of nonshunted pulmonary capillary blood flow in the acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Objective: Noninvasive monitoring of nonshunted pulmonary capillary blood flow, using the alveolar amplitude response technique (AART) in a porcine model of the acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Design: Experimental animal study.

Setting: University center for animal experiments.

[Extracorporeal shockwave therapy in epicondylitis humeri ulnaris or radialis--a prospective, controlled, comparative study].

Aim Of The Study: Has extracorporal shockwave therapy in chronic golfer's elbow comparable results as in tennis elbow?

Method: 30 patients for extracorporal shockwave therapy who suffered from chronic medial epicondylitis (group I) and 30 patients with persistent tennis elbow (group II) received 500 impulses of 0.08 mJ/mm2 three times at weekly intervals. The final follow-up examination was done after 24 weeks.

A novel method of evaluation of three heat-moisture exchangers in six different ventilator settings.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the humidification, heating, and resistance properties of three commercially available heat-moisture exchangers (HMEs). To mimic clinical conditions, a previously validated, new, realistic experimental set-up and measurement protocol was used.

Design: Prospective, comparative experimental study.

A silicon bidirectional flow sensor for measuring respiratory flow.

We describe a solid-state, silicon integrated, bidirectional flow sensor for respiratory applications. The sensor is a thermal vector sensor. The electronic circuitry for obtaining bidirectional sensitivity is presented together with actual application to a healthy volunteer put on mechanical ventilation.