Common Household Materials Research Articles

Practical Use of Feed Enzymes for Turkeys and Broilers

The use of feed enzymes for poultry is a common practice in Europe, and there is a growinginterest in their use inNorth America. This interest in feed enzymes is a reflection of changing attitudes in society and the economic climate of the feed industry. Consumer attitudes are tending toward a drug-free, all natural food supply. This means that poultry producers will eventually need to move away from the use of pharmaceutical feed additives to maintain consumer confidence. The use of products like enzymes and direct feed microbids as additives are more acceptable to consumers, probably because of their familiarity with such products in common foods and household materials. Moreover, as environmental concerns about animal waste disposal increase, enzymes are more frequently being considered as a means of reducing manure output and nutrient excretion, particularly excess phosphorus, nitrogen, copper, and zinc. An increasing diversity of by-products from the food industry (e.g., from grain milling, animal processing, brewery fermentation,and recycled waste) are used as feed ingredients. Enzymes can be used to improve the nutritional value of such by-products and perhaps reduce the variability commo~ily associated with such products. Finally, enzymes could be used to maximize the efficiency of feed utilization by reducing the effects of antinutritional factors, reduce feed manufacturing costs, and reduce the variability of nutrient bioavailability in feed. Supplemental enzymes could be useful in reducing some of the limitations on the productive value of poultry feed. These limitations include: 1) the cost of highly digestible, nutrient dense feed; 2) dietary fiber content, particularly fibrillar polysaccharides (cellulose), matrix polysaccharides (pectins, hemicellulose, and glycoproteins), and encrusting material (lignin); 3) interactions among different ingredients, nutrients, and bird characteristics; and 4) antinutritional factors, such as phytin, toxins, tannins, natural chelates, etc. With regard to these inherent limitations, the potential applications of enzymes in poultry feed include: 1) supplementing or complementing the endogenous enzyme production of birds; 2) increasing the digestibility of fiber components; 3) rendering nutrients more available for digestion; 4) reducing the effects of antinutritional factors; and 5) allowing greater flexibility and accuracy in feed formulation, reducing feed cost, and maintaining bird performance.

Sample preparation for the chemical analysis of debris in suspect arson cases

Abroad review of current methods for the recovery of liquid residual accelerants in fire debris is given. A summary of current practices of sample preparation methods in U.S. laboratories is presented. Sampling of heated headspace is useful as a screening method. It is also applicable for samples that contain a high concentration of accelerant. Distillation-based methods are effective only when large amounts of accelerants are present but they permit the physical isolation of relatively pure liquids, including some water-soluble materials such as alcohols. Solvent extraction is particularly advantageous for accelerants of low volatility such as diesel fuel or highly evaporated petroleum-based products, but it is very susceptible to interferences from the matrix. Dynamic enrichment by adsorption/elution is the most popular and widely used recovery method for liquid accelerants. It offers high enrichment factors but shows weaknesses with respect to polar and low-volatility liquids. No single method is universally effective for all types of accelerants that are commonly encountered in practice. It appears that currently applied recovery methods are particularly weak for water-soluble organics such as alcohols. Sample preparation methods have to be viewed in conjunction with the method to be used to characterize and identify suspect accelerants. Gas chromatography is used almost exclusively for separation and measurement. Selective detection of components that are diagnostic of accelerants allows important trade-offs between sensitivity, chromatographic efficiency and the level of interferences that can be tolerated. Pattern recognition with comparison of chromatographic profiles is greatly simplified if interferences from the matrix can be suppressed. Application of capillary columns capable of high resolution facilitates the recognition of diagnostically important components. Petroleum-based fluids and products are ubiquitous in the human environment and it is therefore particularly important to pay attention to petroleum-based fluids that are derived from such sources. Many common inconspicuous household materials contain petroleum-based solvents and are thus a part of the natural background. The term sensitivity as it relates to the effectiveness of a recovery method must be critically viewed in this light.

Persistent free radicals in the smoke of common household materials: Biological and clinical implications

We have detected free radicals in the gas-phase smoke resulting from the combustion of several household materials. Materials were pyrolyzed by rapid heating in a quartz ignition tube in a flowing air stream. The filtered smoke was bubbled into a dodecane solution of alpha-phenyl-N-t-butylnitrone (PBN), and the resulting nitroxide radicals were detected by electron spin resonance. Cellulosic materials (birch plywood, cellulose, 1R1 research cigarette tobacco, and yellow pine) and dried exterior paint produce about the same yield of trapped radicals. The smoke from polyethylene and rubber produce approximately 2-fold more radicals than the smoke from the cellulosic materials. Nylon smoke yields about 10-fold less radicals than the cellulosic materials. The smokes from polyvinyl chloride and polytetraflouroethylene do not produce detectable spin adducts of PBN by this method. Where radicals were trapped, oxygen-centered spin adducts predominated; lesser amounts of carbon-centered spin adducts and an oxidation product of PBN were observed. Different oxygen-centered radicals were detected from different materials, as judged from the variation observed in the hyperfine splitting constants of the principal spin adducts. When cellulose smoke is dissolved in solution, radicals continue to be produced for at least 20 min, suggesting the production of a metastable species in the gas phase that decomposes to form radicals in solution.

Removal of stains of potassium permanganate.

Most physicians are at times faced with the problem of having their patients remove the stains of potassium permanganate. It has been such a problem that many physicians have failed to prescribe it for that one factor, even though some dermatologists maintain that it is the most effective single medicine that can be used in acute dermatoses. A simple, safe, and entirely satisfactory means of removing the stain has been found. One of our recent patients who had used potassium permanganate in caring for poultry laughed at our apologies at prescribing the soaks and said that removal of the stain was no chore. She said that her mother had told her to make a fresh mixture of cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) and hydrogen peroxide, both common household materials, so that a thin paste is made. When this mixture is applied to the stain, the latter will vanish with