Effects of Iron from an Amino Acid Complex on the Iron Status of Neonatal and Suckling Piglets

Wei, K.Q.,Xu, Z.R.,Luo, X.G.,Zeng, L.L.,Chen, W.R.,Timothy, M.F. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2005 Animal Bioscience Vol.18 No.10

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of iron from an amino acid complex (Availa-$Fe^{\circledR}$) on the iron status of neonatal and suckling piglets. A total of 24 gestating sows (Landrace${\times}$Large White) were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments. The control diet contained 80 mg $kg^{-1}$ Fe from ferrous sulfate heptahydrate ($FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$), while the two experimental diets were supplemented with an additional 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ Fe from Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ or $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$, respectively. The lactating sows remained the same iron treatments as gestating sows, while neonatal piglets of 24 litters born from the above sows were allotted to another three treatments. Piglets from the sows of the control treatment were fed basal diet with no supplemental Fe as control treatment, but were injected with 100 mg Fe as Fe dextran at birth. Piglets from the sows of Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ or $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$ treatments were supplemented with 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ iron from Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ or $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$, respectively. The total born alive and weaned, and the average piglets weight at birth and at weaning were not significantly affected by the sow' dietary treatments (p>0.05). Iron from Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit and plasma iron of sows on day 90 and 105 of pregnancy and the milk iron of sows during lactation (p>0.05). Neonatal piglets in the Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ treatment had a significantly higher hemoglobin concentration (p<0.05) and higher hematocrit and plasma iron (p>0.05) than those in the other two treatments, respectively. The hemoglobin of suckling piglets in the Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ treatment was higher than that of piglets in $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$ treatment on day 28 (p<0.05). The total iron binding capacity of piglets in Availa-$Fe^{(R)}$ treatment was lower than that of piglets in the control and $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$ treatment on day 14 (p<0.05), but there was not a statistically significant difference among three treatments on day 28 (p>0.05). However, the hemoglobin and hematocrit of suckling piglets injected with Fe were higher than those of piglets in the other two treatments (p<0.05). This study indicated that the addition of 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ iron from amino acid complex into the diets improved iron status of neonatal and nursing piglets more effectively than the addition of 120 mg $kg^{-1}$ iron from $FeSO_4$.$7H_2O$, however, this improvement of the organic Fe was not sufficient to replace the Fe injection for prevention of iron-deficiency anemia.

Effect of the Transformed Lactobacillus with Phytase Gene on Pig Production Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Gut Microbes and Serum Biochemical Indexes

Yin, Q.Q.,Chang, J.,Zuo, R.Y.,Chen, L.Y.,Chen, Q.X.,Wei, X.Y.,Guan, Q.F.,Sun, J.W.,Zheng, Q.H.,Yang, X.,Ren, G.Z. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2010 Animal Bioscience Vol.23 No.2

In order to improve the availability of phytase and probiotics together, a phytase gene from Aspergillus ficuum has been expressed in Lactobacillus. In this study, the transformed Lactobacillus with phytase gene was fed to pigs to determine its effect on pig production, feed conversion and gut microbes. Forty eight, 60-day-old, castrated pigs (Duroc${\times}$Landrace${\times}$Pietrain) were assigned to 6 groups, 8 pigs for each group. Group 1 was the control, group 2 was added with chlortetracycline (500 mg/kg), group 3 was added with the transformed Lactobacillus (500 mg/kg) with 20% (w/w) of calcium monohydrogen phosphate (CMP, $CaHPO_{4}$) removed, group 4 was added with the natural Lactobacillus (500 mg/kg) with 20% (w/w) of CMP removed, group 5 was added with the transformed Lactobacillus (500 mg/kg) with 40% (w/w) of CMP removed, group 6 was added with phytase (500 mg/kg) with 40% (w/w) of CMP removed. The results showed: i) the average daily gain (ADG) was improved in groups 2, 3 and 4 (p<0.05); ii) the diarrhea rates in the groups added with Lactobacillus were lower than in the other groups (p<0.05), in which the transformed Lactobacillus had more effect on reducing digestive disease; iii) the transformed Lactobacillus was most effective in improving the digestibilities of crude protein (CP), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), compared with the other groups (p<0.05); iv) Lactobacillus could increase lactic acid bacterium number and ammonia concentrations, and decrease pH values and E. coli number in pig feces (p<0.05); v) the phytase activity in the feces of pigs fed with the transformed Lactobacillus was 133.32 U/g, which was higher than in group 4 (9.58 U/g, p<0.05), and was almost the same as group 6 (135.94 U/g); vi) the transformed Lactobacillus could increase serum concentrations of IgA, triglyceride, and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase activity (p<0.05), and had no significant effect on other serum indexes (p>0.05).

Dialogue with the Giants of Microsurgery: Professor Fu-Chan Wei and Professor Joon Pio Hong

Khajuria Ankur,Chen Wei F.,Huang Jung Ju,Heredero Susana,Hong Joon-Pio,Wei Fu-Chan,Chang Tommy Nai-Jen 대한성형외과학회 2023 Archives of Plastic Surgery Vol.50 No.5

POTASSIUM REQUIREMENT OF MULE DUCKLINGS

Chu, C.L.,Wei, H.W.,Chen, B.J.,Shen, T.F. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 1996 Animal Bioscience Vol.9 No.6

Experiments were conducted to determine potassium (K) requirement of mule ducklings. One-day-old ducklings with equal number of both sexes were fed diets containing graded levels of K for three weeks. In experiment 1, corn-soybean meal diet (CP 18.7%, ME 2,890 kcal/kg, K 0.80%) was used. The addition of K (0.00, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40%) to the diet by potassium carbonate resulted in a decrease in weight gain and feed efficiency with the group fed on basal diet having the best performance. This means that the existing K in the basal diet is adequate for the growth of ducklings. In experiment 2, low K corn-isolated soy protein diet (K, 0.19%) was used. The supplementation of K (0.00, 0.16, 0.32, 0.48, 0.64%) resulted in an increase in weight gain and feed efficiency with the control group having the lowest performance. The minimum K requirement was found to be 0.49% for both maximum growth and best feed efficiency as determined by using bent-stick model.

Complexity science of multiscale materials via stochastic computations

Liu, Wing Kam,Siad, Larbi,Tian, Rong,Lee, Sanghoon,Lee, Dockjin,Yin, Xiaolei,Chen, Wei,Chan, Stephanie,Olson, Gregory B.,Lindgen, Lars-Erik,Horstemeyer, Mark F.,Chang, Yoon-Suk,Choi, Jae-Boong,Kim, Yo John Wiley Sons, Ltd. 2009 International Journal for Numerical Methods in Eng Vol.80 No.6

<P>New technological advances today allow for a range of advanced composite materials, including multilayer materials and nanofiber-matrix composites. In this context, the key to developing advanced materials is the understanding of the interplay between the various physical scales present, from the atomic level interactions to the microstructural composition and the macroscale behavior. Using the developing ‘multiresolution data sets mechanics’, the ‘predictive science-based governing laws of the materials microstructure evolutions’ are derived and melted into a ‘stochastic multiresolution design framework.’ Under such a framework, the governing laws of the materials microstructure evolution will be essential to assess, across multiple scales, the impact of multiscale material design, geometry design of a structure, and the manufacturing process conditions, by following the cause–effect relationships from structure to property and then to performance.</P><P>The future integrated multiscale analysis system will be constructed based on a probabilistic complexity science-based mathematical framework. Its verification, validation and uncertainty quantification are done through carefully designed experiments, and the life-cycled materials design for products design and manufacturing is performed through the use of petascale computing. The various techniques of microstructure reconstruction result in the generation of model microstructures that, at some level, has the same statistical properties as the real heterogeneous media. Having reconstructed the heterogeneous medium, one can then evaluate its effective properties via direct numerical simulation and compare these values with experimentally measured properties of the actual medium. The proposed analysis will be dynamic in nature to capture the multi-stage historical evolvement of material/structure performance over the life span of a product. In addition to providing more accurate assessment of structure performance with stochastic multiscale analysis, our development will provide the capability of predicting structure failures and system reliability to enable more reliable design and manufacturing decisions in product development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</P>

Response of plasma rotation to resonant magnetic perturbations in J-TEXT tokamak

Yan, W,Chen, Z Y,Huang, D W,Hu, Q M,Shi, Y J,Ding, Y H,Cheng, Z F,Yang, Z J,Pan, X M,Lee, S G,Tong, R H,Wei, Y N,Dong, Y B IOP 2018 Plasma physics and controlled fusion Vol.60 No.3

<P>The response of plasma toroidal rotation to the external resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) has been investigated in Joint Texas Experimental Tokamak (J-TEXT) ohmic heating plasmas. For the J-TEXT’s plasmas without the application of RMP, the core toroidal rotation is in the counter-current direction while the edge rotation is near zero or slightly in the co-current direction. Both static RMP experiments and rotating RMP experiments have been applied to investigate the plasma toroidal rotation. The core toroidal rotation decreases to lower level with static RMP. At the same time, the edge rotation can spin to more than 20 km s<SUP>−1</SUP> in co-current direction. On the other hand, the core plasma rotation can be slowed down or be accelerated with the rotating RMP. When the rotating RMP frequency is higher than mode frequency, the plasma rotation can be accelerated to the rotating RMP frequency. The plasma confinement is improved with high frequency rotating RMP. The plasma rotation is decelerated to the rotating RMP frequency when the rotating RMP frequency is lower than the mode frequency. The plasma confinement also degrades with low frequency rotating RMP.</P>

Female Breast Cancer Incidence Among Asian and Western Populations: More Similar Than Expected

Sung, Hyuna,Rosenberg, Philip S.,Chen, Wan-Qing,Hartman, Mikael,Lim, Wei-yen,Chia, Kee Seng,Wai-Kong Mang, Oscar,Chiang, Chun-Ju,Kang, Daehee,Ngan, Roger Kai-Cheong,Tse, Lap Ah,Anderson, William F.,Ya U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Publ 2015 Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol.107 No.7

<P><B>Background:</B></P><P>Previous reports suggested that female breast cancer is associated with earlier ages at onset among Asian than Western populations. However, most studies utilized cross-sectional analyses that may be confounded by calendar-period and/or birth cohort effects. We, therefore, considered a longitudinal (forward-looking) approach adjusted for calendar-period changes and conditioned upon birth cohort.</P><P><B>Methods:</B></P><P>Invasive female breast cancer data (1988–2009) were obtained from cancer registries in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and the United States. Age-period-cohort models were used to extrapolate longitudinal age-specific incidence rates for the 1920, 1944, and 1970 birth cohorts.</P><P><B>Results:</B></P><P>Cross-sectional age-specific incidence rates rose continuously until age 80 years among US white women, but plateaued or decreased after age 50 years among Asian women. In contrast, longitudinal age-specific rates were proportional (similar) among all Asian countries and the United States with incidence rates rising continuously until age 80 years. The extrapolated estimates for the most recent cohorts in some Asian countries actually showed later ages at onset than in the United States. Additionally, over successive birth cohorts, the incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for the longitudinal curves converged (narrowed) between Asian and US white women.</P><P><B>Conclusions:</B></P><P>Similar longitudinal age-specific incidence rates along with converging IRRs indicate that the age effects for invasive breast cancer are more similar among Asian and Western populations than might be expected from a solely cross-sectional analysis. Indeed, the Asian breast cancer rates in recent generations are even surpassing the historically high rates in the United States, highlighting an urgent need for efficient prevention and treatment strategies among Asian populations.</P>

Efficient generic on-line/off-line (threshold) signatures without key exposure

Chen, X.,Zhang, F.,Tian, H.,Wei, B.,Susilo, W.,Mu, Y.,Lee, H.,Kim, K. North-Holland [etc ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2008 Information sciences Vol.178 No.21

The ''hash-sign-switch'' paradigm was firstly proposed by Shamir and Tauman with the aim to design an efficient on-line/off-line signature scheme. Nonetheless, all existing on-line/off-line signature schemes based on this paradigm suffer from the key exposure problem of chameleon hashing. To avoid this problem, the signer should pre-compute and store a plenty of different chameleon hash values and the corresponding signatures on the hash values in the off-line phase, and send the collision and the signature for a certain hash value in the on-line phase. Hence, the computation and storage cost for the off-line phase and the communication cost for the on-line phase in Shamir-Tauman's signature scheme are still a little more overload. In this paper, we first introduce a special double-trapdoor hash family based on the discrete logarithm assumption and then incorporate it to construct a more efficient generic on-line/off-line signature scheme without key exposure. Furthermore, we also present the first key-exposure-free generic on-line/off-line threshold signature scheme without a trusted dealer. Additionally, we prove that the proposed schemes have achieved the desired security requirements.

Temporary formation of highly conducting domain walls for non-destructive read-out of ferroelectric domain-wall resistance switching memories

Jiang, Jun,Bai, Zi Long,Chen, Zhi Hui,He, Long,Zhang, David Wei,Zhang, Qing Hua,Shi, Jin An,Park, Min Hyuk,Scott, James F.,Hwang, Cheol Seong,Jiang, An Quan Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan P 2018 NATURE MATERIALS Vol.17 No.1

Erasable conductive domain walls in insulating ferroelectric thin films can be used for non-destructive electrical read-out of the polarization states in ferroelectric memories. Still, the domain-wall currents extracted by these devices have not yet reached the intensity and stability required to drive read-out circuits operating at high speeds. This study demonstrated non-destructive read-out of digital data stored using specific domain-wall configurations in epitaxial BiFeO<SUB>3</SUB> thin films formed in mesa-geometry structures. Partially switched domains, which enable the formation of conductive walls during the read operation, spontaneously retract when the read voltage is removed, reducing the accumulation of mobile defects at the domain walls and potentially improving the device stability. Three-terminal memory devices produced 14 nA read currents at an operating voltage of 5 V, and operated up to T = 85 °C. The gap length can also be smaller than the film thickness, allowing the realization of ferroelectric memories with device dimensions far below 100 nm.

Process and property characterization of La-Al-B-O/Al2O3 glass ceramic composites

Wen-Cheng J. Wei,Chih-Lung Chen,S.F. Wang 한양대학교 세라믹연구소 2006 Journal of Ceramic Processing Research Vol.7 No.1

A LAB glass with a composition of 10 mol% La2O3 + 10 mol% Al2O3 + 80% B2O3 made into a composite with 30-50% Al2O3 filler was prepared and investigated. Processing optimization and several engineering properties used for microwave substrates are reported, including densification, interaction with Ag electrodes, dielectric properties as a function of frequency, acid dissolution and microstructure. The glass ceramic composite, i.e. L30A, without lead and alkali, can be densified by two-step sintering to a density better than 99% with minimal glass residue. The densified composite does not react with Ag up to 950 oC in 1 h, and does not dissolve in an acid solution (pH=3.5) in 2 h. The dielectric constant and loss are in the range of 5.6-5.9 and 1.4 × 10−3-5.5 × 10−3, respectively. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and thermal conductivity of the composite are reported.