Group Wh Research Articles

Effects of melittin on production performance, antioxidant function, immune function, heat shock protein, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiota in heat-stressed quails

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of melittin on production performance, antioxidant function, immune function, heat shock protein, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiota of heat-stressed quails. A total of 120 (30-day-old) male quails were randomly divided into 3 groups. Each group consisted of 4 replicates with 10 birds per replicate. The ambient temperature of the control group (group W) was 24°C ± 2°C. The heat stress group (group WH) and the heat stress+melittin group (group WHA2) were subjected to heat stress for 4 h from 12:00 to 16:00 every day, and the temperature was 36°C ± 2°C for 10 d. The results showed that compared with the group W, heat stress significantly decreased growth performance, serum and liver antioxidative function, immune function, intestinal villus height (VH) and villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (VH/CD), and cecal microbiota Chao and ACE index (P < 0.05). The crypt depth (CD) in the small intestine, and HSP70 and HSP90 mRNA levels in the heart, liver, spleen, and kidney were significantly increased (P < 0.05). Dietary melittin significantly increased growth performance, serum and liver antioxidative function, immune function, intestinal VH and VH/CD, and cecal microbiota Shannon index in heat-stressed quails (P < 0.05). Melittin significantly decreased small intestinal CD, and HSP70 and HSP90 mRNA levels in the viscera (P < 0.05). Furthermore, dietary melittin could have balanced the disorder of cecal microbiota caused by heat stress and increased the abundance and diversity of beneficial microbiota (e.g., Firmicutes were significantly increased). PICRUSt2 functional prediction revealed that most of the KEGG pathways with differential abundance caused by high temperature were related to metabolism, and melittin could have restored them close to normal levels. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the beneficial intestinal bacteria Anaerotruncus, Bacteroidales_S24-7_group_norank, Lachnospiraceae_unclassified, Shuttleworthia, and Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 increased by melittin were positively correlated with average daily feed intake, the average daily gain, serum and liver superoxide dismutase, IgG, IgA, bursa of Fabricius index, and ileum VH and VH/CD. In sum, our results demonstrate for the first time that dietary melittin could improve the adverse effects of heat stress on antioxidant function, immune function, heat shock protein, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiota in quails, consequently improving their production performance under heat stress.

Metabolic and structural bone disturbances induced by hyperlipidic diet in mice treated with simvastatin.

Simvastatin can modulate lipid and bone metabolism. However, information related to the interaction between diet and simvastatin on bone structure and biomechanics is scarce. Thus, this study evaluated the effects of simvastatin on femoral biomechanics and cortical/trabecular bone structure in wild-type mice nourished with a hyperlipidic diet. Three-month-old male wild-type mice (C57BL6 strain) were divided into four groups: (1) group W, nourished with a standard diet; (2) group WH, fed a hyperlipidic diet; (3) group WS, nourished with a standard diet plus oral simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day); and (4) group WHS, fed a hyperlipidic diet plus oral simvastatin (20 mg/kg/day). All animals received only their specific diet and water for 60 days. Blood samples were collected for the analysis of calcium, triglycerides, total cholesterol (TC) and fraction serum levels. Diet manipulation was able to induce a dyslipidaemic status in mice, characterized by triglyceride and TC rise in WH animals. Simvastatin prevented hypercholesterolaemia and reduced TC and LDL serum levels, but did not prevent hypertriglyceridaemia and HDL serum levels in the WHS group. In the WH mice the hyperlipidaemia was associated with reduction in trabecular bone thickness, femur structural and material property alterations. Simvastatin prevented these morphological alterations and minimized femur biomechanical changes in WHS mice. Taken together, the results indicated that the hyperlipidic diet intake acts as a risk factor for bone integrity, generating bones with reduced resistance and more susceptible to fractures, an effect attenuated by simvastatin that is potentially related to the modulatory action of this drug on lipid and bone metabolism.

Scanning electron micrographs of leaves of BritishCarexspecies, 4. SubgenusCarex: sectionsPaludosae,Porocystis,Atratae,Paniceae,Pachystylae,Glaucae,CeratocystisandStrigosae

AbstractThis part includes about a third of the large Subgenus Carex, embracing sections Paludosae, Porocystis, Paniceae, Pachystylae, Ceratocystis and Strigosae. These are mostly plants of unwooded habitats, although C. pallescens (section Porocystis) is often associated with woods, and C. sylvatica and C. strigosa (section Strigosae) are characteristically woodland plants. At least three of the sections in this part (Atratae, Paniceae, Ceratocystis) appear to be natural on morphological and molecular criteria. As in subgenus Vignea, micromorphology clearly differentiates between several species-pairs (acutiformis/riparia, panicea/vaginata, hostiana/flava-group), but makes only a limited contribution at sectional level. Carex pallescens is closely linked with C. acutiformis in molecular analyses. Carex filiformis seems to have its phyletic affinities with Paniceae rather than with Acrocystis. In Ceratocystis, C. hostiana is clearly marked off by its papillose lower leaf surface from the C. flava group wh...

The effects of dietary whey protein concentrate level on performance, selected intestinal tract and blood parameters, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in the liver and breast meat of broiler chickens

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two levels of whey protein concentrate (WPC, 80.35% protein, 5.86% lactose) added to diets and duration of these treatments on growth and slaughter value, haematological parameters involved in immune processes, oxidative status of liver and breast muscle, and selected indices of gut function of broilers. A total of 560 Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated into 7 groups with 10 replicates of 8 chickens per replicate. The experiment lasted 42 days and was divided into 3 successive feeding phases. The control group was fed basal diets consisted of maize, wheat and soyabean meal (C group). The other 6 groups received, for 7, 21 and 42 days basal diets with 8 or 32 g · kg -1 WPC added at the expense of soyabean meal (WL and WH groups, respectively). On day 42 group WH had a higher lymphocyte percentage (P < 0.05) compared to the control. The long-term (42 days) feeding with higher level of WPC significantly decreased the heterophile/lymphocyte ratio ( P < 0.05 vs C). The number of erythrocytes on day 42 and the whole blood glucose on day 21 were significantly increased in WH birds than in controls. The concentration of serum total protein on both WPC levels was greater (P < 0.05) on day 21 compared with the C group. The reduction (P < 0.05) in liver thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and a tendency towards lower TBARS level in breast meat were observed in birds WH when fed for 42 days. Only higher dietary WPC amount provided for 42 days reduced the caecal and small intestinal pH values (P < 0.05 vs C). The ileal digestibility of crude protein was higher (P < 0.01) in birds fed with 32 g WPC during the first 21 days of life, compared to the C and WL treatments. The factorial ANOVA showed that on days 7, 21 and 42 the final body weight gain (BGW) and feed conversion ratio in broilers WL and WH were significantly better than in the C ones. Assessment of orthogonal contrasts revealed significantly higher ( P < 0.05) final BWG in the WH broilers, compared to the WL dietary treatment; such effect was not observed in earlier feeding stages. Generally, carcass yield on both WPC dietary levels, and breast muscle percentage on WH treatment, were higher (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively) compare to the C group. In conclusion, WPC added to a conventional diets for growing chickens exerts a growth-promoting action and at a dose of 32 g · kg -1 may induce desirable changes in bird's health and the

Effect of hyperlipidemia on femoral biomechanics and morphology in low-density lipoprotein receptor gene knockout mice

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of hyperlipidemia on the biomechanical and morphological properties of the femur of low-density lipoprotein receptor gene knockout mice (LDLr-/-) mice. Ten wild-type mice (C57BL6) and 10 LDLr-/- mice generated on a C57BL6 background were used. Male 3-month-old animals were divided into four groups (n = 5): group W (wild type) and group L (LDLr-/-) receiving low-fat commercial ration, and group WH (wild type) and group LH (LDLr-/-) receiving a high-fat diet. After 60 days, blood samples were collected for laboratory analysis of calcium, triglycerides, and cholesterol. The femur was excised for mechanical testing and morphometric analysis. LDLr-/- mice receiving the high-fat diet presented more marked alterations in the mechanical and morphological properties of femoral cortical and trabecular bone. Changes in the plasma levels of calcium, triglycerides, cholesterol, and fractions were also more pronounced in this group. The present results demonstrate that hyperlipidemia causes alterations in the structure and mechanical properties of the femur of LDLr-/- mice. These effects were more pronounced when associated with a high-fat diet.

On the Whitehead group of Novikov rings associated to irrational homomorphisms

Given a homomorphism ξ : G → R we show that the natural map i ∗ : Wh ( G ) → Wh ( G ; ξ ) from the Whitehead group of G to the Whitehead group of the Novikov ring is surjective. The group Wh ( G ; ξ ) is of interest for the simple chain homotopy type of the Novikov complex. It also contains the Latour obstruction for the existence of a nonsingular closed 1-form within a fixed cohomology class ξ ∈ H 1 ( M ; R ) , where M is a closed connected smooth manifold.

Rigidity and crystallographic groups, I

This is the first in a series of articles about rigidity theorems for crystallographic groups. The main theorem is (1.1). It is an "h-cobordism rigidity" statement. It implies (see (1.6)) that any crystallographic manifold, with odd order holonomy, which is h-cobordant and simply homotopically equivalent to the standard one is actually homeomorphic to it. In the second part of this work [9], we will exploit this result to prove that one can remove the word "h-cobordant" from the previous sentence. The main theorem concerns an involution on the group Wh~P'°(Mr). This is the group of G h-cobordisms of the flat torus Mr, of a crystallographic group F with holonomy group G. (Definitions of these terms appear in (1.4).) We prove a vanishing result of the Tate cohomology:

Rigidity and other topological aspects of compact nonpositively curved manifolds

Rigidity and other topological aspects of compact nonpositively curved manifolds

Simple homotopy types for (𝐺,𝑚)-complexes

Let G G be a finite group. We use the fact that each element of the Whitehead group Wh ( G ) (G) may be represented by at most a 2 × 2 2 \times 2 (nonsingular) matrix to deduce results about when simple homotopy type and homotopy type agree. As examples, we give complete descriptions of the simple homotopy types for ( Z m × Z n , 2 ) ({Z_m} \times {Z_n},2) -complexes, provided S K 1 ( Z ( Z m × Z n ) ) = 0 S{K_1}(Z({Z_m} \times {Z_n})) = 0 .

Invariance of Torsion and the Borsuk Conjecture

The following results of Whitehead and Wall are well-known applications of the algebraic K-theoretic functors K0 and K1 to basic homotopy questions in topology.THEOREM 1 [20]. If f : X → Y is a homotopy equivalence between compact CW complexes, then there is a torsion τ(ƒ) in the algebraically-defined Whitehead group Wh π1(Y) which vanishes if and only if f is a simple homotopy equivalence.THEOREM 2 [18]. If X is an arbitrary space which is finitely dominated (i.e., homotopically dominated by a compact polyhedron), then there is an obstruction σ(X) in the algebraically-defined reduced projective class group which vanishes if and only if X is homotopy equivalent to some compact polyhedron.If we direct sum over components, then the above statements make good sense even if the spaces involved are not connected.

Nonlinear smooth representations of compact Lie groups

We study semi-free (=free off the fixed-point set) smooth actions of a compact Lie group G on disks and spheres with fixed-point set a disk or sphere, respectively. In dimensions ^6 and codimension Φ2 we obtain a complete classification for such actions on disks and a partial classification for spheres, together with partial results in dimension 5 or codimension 2. We show that semi-free smooth actions of G on the %-disk Dn, %^64- dim G, with fixed-point set an (n-k)-άisk, kφ2, are classified by two invariants: (1) a free orthogonal action of G on the (λ -l)-sphere Sk~λ (the representation at the fixed points) and (2) an element of the Whitehead group Wh(τro(G)).

Algebraic torsion for infinite simple homotopy types

This paper is the last of a series dealing with the problem of giving an algebraic description of the torsion invariant for proper h-cobordisms using the concept of a locally finite infinite matrix. The other two papers are [l] and [6]. The reader should also consult [5]. The main results of this paper are (3.1) and (4.1) which describe the group of proper simple types on a strongly locally finite CW-complex as a Kl-type group Wh(g). The exact sequence (3.6) of [1] allows Wh(7~) to be computed in a number of cases.