677 research outputs found
Bunk versus conventional beds: a comparative assessment of fall injury risk
No full textObjective: To depict the magnitude and spectrum of childhood injuries attributable to falls from bunk beds in comparison with conventional beds and to outline sociodemographic risk factors and injury characteristics. tudy design: Case-control investigation. Setting: Accident and emergency departments of four hospitals in Greece, namely a teaching children’s hospital and a trauma hospital in Greater Athens and the two district hospitals in the Magnesia county and the Corfu island. Patients: During the three year period 1996-98, 1881 children (0-14 years) presenting with bed fall injuries were recorded by the Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System (EDISS). Out of these, 197 children with falls from bunk beds served as cases and 1684 children with falls from conventional beds served as controls. Results: From the analysis and a nationwide extrapolation, it was calculated that each year about 5000 children in Greece (total population 10 million) seek medical attendance at an emergency department for a bed injury, corresponding to an estimated incidence of about 3 per 1000 children years. Out of bed fall injuries, 10.5% are from bunk beds, 10.4% from cribs, 3.1% from cots, and 76.0% from other conventional beds. Falls from the bed ladder accounted for 8% of all bunk bed injuries. Boys are at higher risk for falls from beds but there is no evidence that the proportion is different depending on the type of bed used. Relatively few falls from bunk beds are recorded outside the crowded apartments of Greater Athens or among migrant children. The increased relative risk of injuries from bunk bed falls during the sleeping hours indicates the higher risk of injury after a fall from a bunk rather than a conventional bed. Injuries from bunk bed falls are generally more serious than those from conventional bed falls (overrepresentation of brain injuries, fractures, multiple injuries, and injuries requiring hospitalisation). Overall, it can be estimated that almost half of the sleep related bunk bed injuries are easily preventable. Conclusions: Falls from bunk beds represent a non-negligible childhood injury risk. A sizeable fraction can be avoided with simple design modifications of the product, such as use of side rails in the upper bed or removal of the bed ladder when not in use
Effect of space availability at feed bunk and rest area on metabolic conditions and productive responses in dairy cows
No full textIt has been estimated that dairy cows spend 3 to 5 h/d eating, consuming 9 to 14 meals per day. In addition, they ruminate 7 to 10 h/d, spend approximately 30 min/d drinking, 2 to 3 h/d being milked, and require approximately 10 h/d for lying time (Grant and Albright, 2000). Management decisions on dairy must not interfere with the cow’s ability to perform these activities which comprises her daily routines. It is well known that feed bunk space modifies eating behaviour, while the amount and characteristics of rest area modify resting activity of the cows. The traditional recommendation of 0.6 linear meter of bunk space per cow is the minimal amount of space needed for all cows to eat at one time (Grant and Albright, 2001)......
Bunk Space Requirements for Growing Beef Cattle Limit-Fed a High-Energy Corn and Corn Co-Product Diet
No full textObjective:The objective of our experiment was to evaluate the effects of bunk allotment on performance of growing beef calves during a 58-day receiving period and investigate possible residual effects of bunk-space allotment on subsequent growth performance during a 90-day grazing season.
Study Description:A group of 385 crossbred steers (initial weight 473 ± 56 lb) were purchased in Texas and transported to the Kansas State University Beef Stocker Unit. Calves were blocked by arrival date, assigned to one of four bunk space treatments (i.e., 10, 15, 20, or 25 in of bunk per head), and limit-fed a high-energy corn and corn co-product diet for 58 days. Following the receiving period, steers were blocked by bunk-space treatment, randomly assigned to one of eighteen pastures, and grazed for 90 days.
The Bottom Line:We interpreted our data to suggest that bunk allotments of 10, 15, 20, or 25 in per calf had minimal impact on growth performance during a 58-day receiving period and did not affect final body weights following a 90-day grazing season
Performance and bunk attendance of cattle fed steam-rolled or ground corn supplemented with laidlomycin and chlortetracycline or monensin and tylosin
No full text British cross steer calves (n = 240; 332 ± 23 kg) in 16 pens were fed ground (G) or steam-rolled (SR) corn-based finishing diets medicated with 12 mg kg-1 laidlomycin propionate and 42.2 mg kg-1 chlortetracycline hydrochloride (LC) or with 30.4 mg kg-1 monensin sodium and 10.5 mg kg-1 tylosin phosphate (MT) in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment. Individual bunk attendance was monitored using radio frequency identification in one pen per diet. Finishing diets were fed for 125 d following a 27-d adaptation from 65 to 91% concentrate diet. In the first 56 d and overall, daily dry matter intake (DMI) was greater (P < 0.05) with LC than with MT (8.8 vs. 8.3 kg), but did not differ (P = 0.97) between G and SR diets. There was a trend (P = 0.11) towards greater ADG for cattle fed LC than those fed MT (1.54 vs. 1.47 kg d-1), but gain:feed was similar (0.169; P = 0.80) between antibiotic supplements. Processing method did not (P = 0.29) affect rate of gain, but SR tended (P = 0.06) to improve gain:feed compared with G (0.171 vs. 0.165). Steers fed LC spent more (P < 0.001) time at the bunk than those fed MT (125 vs. 120 min d-1). On G diets, cattle fed LC made fewer daily visits (9.3 vs. 9.5 visits d-1; P = 0.03), but spent more time at the bunk (135.9 vs. 124.0 min d-1; P < 0.001) resulting in greater duration per meal (15.4 vs. 13.7 min meal-1; P < 0.001). These cattle also had the greatest deviation in daily duration at the bunk (37.3 vs. 33.7 min; P < 0.001). The prevalence of liver abscesses was 13.2% with LC and 6.5% with MT (P = 0.09). However, the prevalence of severely abscessed livers (2.9%) was unaffected (P = 0.45) by treatment. The prevalence of foot rot was greater (P = 0.02) for cattle fed MT (7.5%) than for cattle fed LC (0.8%). Compared with feeding MT, feeding LC may enhance ADG, possibly due to greater DMI. Key words: Beef, chlortetracycline, corn processing, laidlomycin, monensin, tylosin </jats:p
Long-duration transit and food and water deprivation alter behavioral activities and aggressive interactions at the feed bunk in beef feedlot steers
No full textThe objective of these experiments was to assess the effects of food and water deprivation and transit duration on the behavior of beef feedlot steers. In Experiment 1, 36 Angus-cross steers (353 ± 10 kg) were stratified to six pens and assigned one of three treatments (n = 12 steers/treatment): control (CON; stayed in home pens with ad libitum access to feed and water), deprived (DEPR; stayed in home pens but deprived of feed and water for 18 h), or transported (TRANS; subjected to 18-h transit event and returned to home pens). In Experiment 2, 60 Angus-cross steers (398 ± 5 kg; 6 steers/pen) were transported either 8 (8H) or 18 (18H) h. Four 8H pens (n = 24 steers) and six 18H pens (n = 36 steers) were used for behavioral analysis. In both experiments, the time to eat, drink, and lay down was recorded for each steer upon return to home pens. Total pen displacements from the feed bunk were also assessed for the two hours following feed access in both experiments. Data were analyzed using Proc Mixed of SAS 9.4, with treatment as a fixed effect. Steer was the experimental unit for behavioral activities, while pen was the experimental unit for bunk displacements. Displacements were analyzed as repeated measures with the repeated variable of time. In Experiment 1, time to eat and drink was similar across treatments (P ≥ 0.17). However, TRANS laid down in 16.5 min while DEPR did not lay down until 70.5 min post-arrival to pen (P < 0.01). Deprived steers had greater bunk displacements in the first 70 min post-feed access than CON or TRANS, though displacements among treatments from 100 to 120 min post-feed access were similar (Treatment × Time: P = 0.02). In Experiment 2, both 8H and 18H steers laid down approximately 25 min post-home pen arrival (P = 0.14). There was no effect of transit duration or duration by time on bunk displacements (P ≥ 0.20), though displacements were greater from 0 to 20 min than from 20 to 30 min post-feed access (Time: P = 0.04). Steers that were deprived of feed and water were highly motivated to access those resources, while transported steers prioritized laying down. Producers should consider these priorities when preparing to receive cattle from a long transit event.This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Animal Science following peer review. The version of record: Heiderscheit, Katie J., Alyssa D. Freestone, Aubree M. Beenken, Erin L. Deters, Joshua M. Peschel, and Stephanie L. Hansen. "Long-duration transit and food and water deprivation alter behavioral activities and aggressive interactions at the feed bunk in beef feedlot steers." Journal of Animal Science (2022). is available online at DOI: 10.1093/jas/skac060. Copyright 2022. The Author(s). Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Posted with permission
The round robin study for cardiac troponin – progress report
No full textBackground. Currently, the various cardiac troponin I (cTnI) assays produce results that are non comparable and, consequently, need different clinical cut-off values for biomarker interpretation. To improve this situation, suitable commutable reference materials that are assigned cTnI concentrations by a higher-order measurement procedure are required. They can be used by industry to assign values to working and product calibrators through a value-transfer process. Using routine procedures with these validated calibrators to measure patient samples, clinical laboratories will obtain standardised and traceable values. The IFCC Working Group on Standardization of cTnI (WG-TNI) has recently undertaken a project to address the establishment of a secondary reference immunoassay measurement procedure for cTnI of a higher metrological order than current commercial immunoassay methods, and the development of a serum-based commutable reference material for cTnI to which companies can reference their calibration process. A pilot study has been planned to compare the candidate immunoassay reference measurement procedure for cTnI (cRMP) with commercial assays and to investigate the feasibility of preparing a commutable and stable secondary reference material for cTnI by use of serum pools.
Methods. The cTnI pools are prepared in three different ways, namely: 1) by the addition of individual cTnI-positive native patient samples; 2) by dilution of a high cTnI concentration pool with low and medium concentration pools; and 3) by dilution of a high and medium pool with a normal pool. The commutability of these pools is tested between routine assays and cRMP utilising sets of individual patient samples at different cTnI concentrations. At the same time, the short term stability of cTnI in the pool materials will be evaluated by assay before and after the addition of a cocktail of protease and phosphatase inhibitors. A preliminary phase preceding the study is planned to enable participant companies to actively familiarise themselves with the protocol. Sample handling and preparation of frozen materials prior to the duplicate assay of patient specimens, pools and quality control materials during the study are designed to ensure standardised procedures.
Results. The pilot study has started early in 2011 and involves the National Institute of Standards and Technology (US), the National Physical Laboratory (UK), the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (EU), the Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine (US), and nine diagnostic companies. Method comparability, commutability and stability results from the evaluation of individual patient samples and pools by 23 commercial assays and by cRMP are planned.
Conclusions. The IFCC WG-TNI is presently investigating the feasibility of preparing a commutable reference material and its value assignment using a higher-order cRMP (1). Although this is a research project and there is no guarantee of success, we think that such experimental work is needed if there is to be progress in the standardisation of cTnI
Effect of salinomycin or monensin on performance and feeding behavior of cattle fed wheat- or barley-based diets
No full text Feeding behavior and growth performance of cattle fed diets containing monensin or salinomycin were assessed in two trials. In trial 1, 36 Hereford × Angus steers (267.7 ± 4.3 kg) were individually fed (n = 12) wheat-based transition and finishing diets containing no ionophore (control, C), 26 mg monensin (M) or 13 mg salinomycin (S) per kg of dietary dry matter (DM). Cattle fed M consumed less than those fed C or S, and their intake was more stable during the transition to the finishing diet. Overall, steers fed M exhibited lower dry matter intake (DMI) (8.0 vs. 9.2 and 9.2 kg d–1) and rates of gain (1.21 vs. 1.62 and 1.56 kg d–1) than those fed C or S. Cattle fed S required fewer days (93.3) to reach the targeted finish (5 mm backfat) than those fed C or M (105.8 d). Monensin reduced slaughter weight and carcass weights, relative to controls (414.3 vs. 480.5 kg, and 231.2 vs. 245.8 kg, respectively). In trial 2, M (25 ppm) or S (13 ppm) were included in barley-based diets for 72 yearling steers placed in four pens equipped with radio frequency identification systems. Individual bunk attendance patterns were monitored during transition to a finishing diet, during 11 d of limit feeding the finishing diet twice daily (LF2/d), 13 d of limit feeding once daily (LF1/d), and 21 d of feeding once daily to ad libitum intake (AL1/d). Ionophore type did not affect (P > 0.10) DMI, rate of gain or efficiency of feed conversion. Bunk visits were more frequent (P < 0.05) with M than with S during transition and limit-feeding. With M, total daily attendance (TDA) at the bunk during LF1/d and AL1/d, was higher (P < 0.05) than with S, and variability in TDA was lower (P < 0.05) during LF1/d. In the present study, there was no performance advantage in providing S or M in wheat-based finishing diets. Monensin moderated feeding intensity, but this effect may have been strong enough to suppress intake and even reduce gain on the wheat-based diet. Key words: Ionophores, feeding behavior, feedlot cattle, salinomycin, monensin </jats:p
X-ray scanning microscopies of microcalcifications in abdominal aortic and popliteal artery aneurysms
No full textAbdominal aortic and popliteal artery aneurysms are vascular diseases which show massive degeneration, weakening of the vascular wall and loss of the vascular tissue functionality. They are driven by inflammatory, hemodynamical factors and biological alterations that may lead, in the case of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, to sudden and dangerous ruptures of the arteries. Here, human aortic and popliteal aneurysm tissues were obtained during surgical repair, and studied by synchrotron radiation X-ray scanning microdiffraction and small-angle scattering, to investigate the microcalcifications present in the tissues. Data collected during the experiments were transformed into quantitative microscopy images through the combination of statistical approaches and crystallographic methods. As a result of this multi-step analysis, microcalcifications, which are markers of the pathology, were classified in terms of chemical and structural content. This analysis helped to identify the presence of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite and microcrystalline cholesterol, embedded in myofilament, and elastin-containing tissue with low collagen content in predominantly nanocrystalline areas. The generality of the approach allows it to be transferred to other types of tissue and other pathologies affected by microcalcifications, such as thyroid carcinoma, breast cancer, testicular microlithiasis or glioblastoma
Interfibrillar packing of bovine cornea by table-top and synchrotron scanning SAXS microscopy
No full textBovine cornea was studied with scanning small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) microscopy, by using both synchrotron radiation and a microfocus laboratory source. A combination of statistical (adaptive binning and canonical correlation analysis) and crystallographic (pair distribution function analysis) approaches allowed inspection of the collagen lateral packing of the supramolecular structure. Results reveal (i) a decrease of the interfibrillar distance and of the shell thickness around the fibrils from the periphery to the center of the cornea, (ii) a uniform fibril diameter across the explored area, and (iii) a distorted quasi-hexagonal arrangement of the collagen fibrils. The results are in agreement with existing literature. The overlap between laboratory and synchrotron-radiation data opens new perspectives for further studies on collagen-based/engineered tissues by the SAXS microscopy technique at laboratory-scale facilities.Bovine cornea was studied with scanning small-angle X-ray scattering microscopy, by using both synchrotron radiation and a microfocus laboratory source. The supramolecular structure of the collagen fibers is explored thanks to the combination of statistical (adaptive binning and canonical correlation analysis) and crystallographic (pair distribution function analysis) approaches
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