1,721,015 research outputs found
Relationship between blood metabolic and endocrine parameters and blood and milk immune parameters in dairy heifers
No full textThe relationship between dietary variations and oxidative stress has been poorly investigated under field conditions. Changes of the diet starch content were introduced to study whether they could induce oxidative stress in early lactating heifers. In addition, the association between blood metabolic, endocrine responses and indicators of milk cellular immune functions have been investigated. Ten heifers were randomly assigned to two groups and fed with a basal total mixed ration until 34 days in milk (DIM). At 35 DIM control group continued to receive the same ration and the other group was allotted to experimental diets with low and high starch contents. The results of this study show that even a sudden change of diet is not associated with a consistent and significant change in most of the metabolic parameters considered. However, insulin and growth hormon (GH) levels were associated to a decreased probability of low leukocyte and neutrophil counts, but also to an increase in blood NAGase activity and milk lysozyme activity. These results suggest that GH induction and insulin release could have a selective influence on both number and activity of immune cells in blood and in milk
Assessment of sensitivity and profitability of an intravaginal sensor for remote calving prediction in dairy cattle
Full text linkOne critical point of dairy farm management is calving and neonatal first care. Timely calving assistance is associated with the reduction of calf mortality and postpartum uterine disease, and with improved fertility in dairy cattle. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and profitability of an intravaginal sensor for the prediction of stage II of labor in dairy farms, thus allowing proper calving assistance. Seventy-three late-gestating Italian Holstein cows were submitted to the insertion of an intravaginal device, equipped with light and temperature sensors, connected with a Central Unit for the commutation of a radio-signal into a cell phone alert. The remote calving alarm correctly identified the beginning of the expulsive phase of labor in 86.3% of the monitored cows. The mean interval from alarm to complete expulsion of the fetus was 71.56 ± 52.98 min, with a greater range in cows with dystocia (p = 0.012). The sensor worked correctly in both cold and warm weather conditions, and during day-or night-time. The intravaginal probe was well tolerated, as any cow showed lesions to the vaginal mucosa after calving. Using sex-sorted semen in heifers and beef bull semen in cows at their last lactation, the economic estimation performed through PrecisionTreeTM software led to an income improvement of 119 € and 123 €/monitored delivery in primiparous and pluriparous cows, respectively. Remote calving alarm devices are key components of “precision farming” management and proven to improve animal welfare, to reduce calf losses and to increase farm incomes
Relationship between blood metabolic and endocrine parameters and blood and milk immune parameters in dairy heifers
No full textThe relationship between dietary variations and oxidative stress has been poorly investigated under field conditions. Changes of the diet starch content were introduced to study whether they could induce oxidative stress in early lactating heifers. In addition, the association between blood metabolic, endocrine responses and indicators of milk cellular immune functions have been investigated. Ten heifers were randomly assigned to two groups and fed with a basal total mixed ration until 34 days in milk (DIM). At 35 DIM control group continued to receive the same ration and the other group was allotted to experimental diets with low and high starch contents. The results of this study show that even a sudden change of diet is not associated with a consistent and significant change in most of the metabolic parameters considered. However, insulin and growth hormon (GH) levels were associated to a decreased probability of low leukocyte and neutrophil counts, but also to an increase in blood NAGase activity and milk lysozyme activity. These results suggest that GH induction and insulin release could have a selective influence on both number and activity of immune cells in blood and in milk
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Influence of dietary starch contents on milk composition of Friesian cows in early lactation
No full textVariations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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