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At least 397 records · Page 22Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

The effect of feeding various levels of Bifidobacterium globosum A on the performance, gastrointestinal measurements, and immunity of weanling pigs and on the performance and carcass measurements of growing-finishing pigs.

Four trials using 312 weanling pigs (average initial weight, 7.2 kg) were conducted to examine the effect of Bifidobacterium globosum A (BGA) on the growth performance, scour scores, humoral and cell-mediated immune response, and pH and chloride ion concentration (CIC) of feces and gastrointestinal tract contents of pigs. Dietary treatments were 0, 5.0 x 10(4), 6.7 x 10(6), and 7.5 x 10(8) colony forming units (cfu) of BGA/d in Trial 1 and 0, 6.0 x 10(4), 5.0 x 10(5), and 5.0 x 10(6) cfu/d in Trials 2 through 4. Pigs fed the low or medium levels of supplemental BGA had a greater ADG (P < .05) than control pigs throughout Trial 1, whereas ADG was quadratically increased (P < .05) for the low or medium levels only during wk 3 to 5 for the pooled data for Trials 2, 3, and 4. The primary effect of dietary BGA additions on ADFI was a quadratic increase during wk 3 to 5 for Trial 1 (P < .05) and for the pooled data of Trials 2 through 4 (P < .10). Gain:feed ratios were generally unaffected by addition of BGA. Both ADFI and ADG tended to be decreased (P < .10) at the highest level of BGA in all trials. Scouring was not severe in any of the trials and was not consistently affected by feeding BGA. The pH and CIC of gastrointestinal contents or feces were not influenced by the feeding of BGA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Effect of feeding wet brewers grains to beef heifers on wintering performance, serum selenium and reproductive performance.

Wet brewers grains (WBG) were evaluated as a feed source for growing Angus heifers (201 kg, 313 d of age) during a 112-d wintering trial. Effects on growth, feed efficiency, serum Se and first breeding performance were examined. Three replications of four heifers each were fed the following diets: (1) corn silage with no protein supplement (CSNS); (2) corn silage plus 33.8% of the diet dry matter (DM) from WBG (CSWBG), and (3) WBG, corn and fescue hay at 62.2, 10.8 and 26.1% of diet DM, respectively (WBGCH). Average daily gains for heifers fed CSNS, CSWBG and WBGCH were .50, .73 and .56 kg/head (P less than .05), and DM:gain ratios were 9.52, 6.34 and 6.13 (P less than .05), respectively. Serum Se concentrations were higher (P less than .01) in heifers fed diets containing WBG than in heifers fed CSNS. Serum Se concentrations were also influenced by sampling time (P less than .01) and the diet x sampling time interaction (P less than .05). At the end of the trial, serum Se concentrations were .050, .085 and .105 ppm (P less than .01), respectively, for heifers on the three dietary treatments. Following a 66-d breeding period, 12 of 12 heifers fed CSNS and WBGCH diets and 10 of 12 heifers fed CSWBG were diagnosed pregnant and subsequently calved.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Photoperiod and heat stress influence on lactating sow performance and photoperiod effects on nursery pig performance.

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate sow and piglet productivity under extended photoperiod. In Exp. 1, 98 crossbred, lactating sows were housed in one of four treatments: thermoneutral air temperature (23.6 degrees C) in either (h of light:dark) 1:23 or 16:8 photoperiods, or heat stress (30.4 degrees C) in either 1:23 or 16:8 photoperiods. Heat stress reduced (P less than .05) sow feed intake, piglet mortality and piglet weaning weight and increased (P less than .01) sow lactation weight loss. Number of pigs weaned per litter was increased (P less than .01) when sows were heat-stressed. Extended photoperiod reduced (P greater than .05) time for sows to rebreed postweaning by .4 d. The interaction between air temperature and photoperiod was significant only for sow lactation weight loss. Heat stress increased sow lactation weight loss, but this effect was more severe in the 1:23 than in the 16:8 photoperiod. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the effects of 1:23 or 16:8 photoperiods on nursery pig performance when pigs were weaned from sows experiencing 1:23 (Exp. 3) or 16:8 (Exp. 2) photoperiods. In both nursery studies, photoperiod did not influence (P greater than .10) postweaning pig mortality, feed intake, weight gain or gain:feed ratio. In conclusion, extended photoperiod reduced days to return to estrus and reduced sow lactation weight loss, especially during heat stress. No benefits in preweaning or postweaning piglet weight or survival were observed by use of extended photoperiod.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Factors affecting broiler breeder performance. 5. Effects of preproduction feeding regimens on reproductive performance.

Three preproduction feeding regimens were used to determine their effects on reproductive performance of broiler breeder females. Three hundred 16-week-old Arbor Acre females were divided into three treatment groups. Treatment 1 was placed on full feed at 17 weeks of age and remained on this schedule for 5 weeks. At 22 weeks of age they were placed on a diet consisting of 136 g of feed per bird per day and remained on this schedule until the experiment was terminated at 60 weeks of age. Treatments 2 and 3 reached peak feed intake at 26 and 30 weeks of age, respectively. Age at maturity, eggs per hen housed, and feed conversion were significantly affected by preproduction feeding regimens. Treatment 1 matured significantly earlier than Treatments 2 and 3; however, feed conversion was significantly higher (grams of feed per egg) than in Treatments 2 and 3. In general, shell quality; and egg weights were lower in Treatment 1 than in Treatments 2 and 3 throughout most of the experiment. There were no differences in shell quality or egg weights between Treatments 2 or 3. There was a significant difference in egg production among all treatments at the 60-week production period, Treatment 1 being the lowest and Treatment 3 being the highest.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

The relationship of performance on the dental admission test and performance on Part I of the National Board Dental Examinations.

Although many schools use scores on the Dental Admission Test (DAT) to evaluate applicants, the association of these scores with students' performance on Part I of the National Board Dental Examinations (NBDE) has not been recently evaluated. In this study, the hypothesis that the DAT scores would be a significant predictor of Part I of the NBDE scores was tested. We analyzed by multiple regression the scores on both examinations for the 114 students matriculating in the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry in 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995. The results indicate that DAT reading comprehension was a statistically significant predictor (p value less than or equal to 0.05) of all four subtests of Part I of the NBDE. The DAT biology and organic chemistry scores were statistically significant predictors of NBDE biochemistry-physiology, and the DAT quantitative analysis score was a statistically significant predictor of NBDE dental anatomy and occlusion. DAT perceptual ability and general chemistry were not significant predictors.

Education, Dental↗
PubMed2003

Rasch techniques for detecting bias in performance assessments: an example comparing the performance of native and non-native speakers on a test of academic English.

The use of common tasks and rating procedures when assessing the communicative skills of students from highly diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds poses particular measurement challenges, which have thus far received little research attention. If assessment tasks or criteria are found to function differentially for particular subpopulations within a test candidature with the same or a similar level of criterion ability, then the test is open to charges of bias in favour of one or other group. While there have been numerous studies involving dichotomous language test items (see e.g. Chen and Henning, 1985 and more recently Elder, 1996) few studies have considered the issue of bias in relation to performance based tasks which are assessed subjectively, via analytic and holistic rating scales. The paper demonstrates how Rasch analytic procedures can be applied to the investigation of item bias or differential item functioning (DIF) in both dichotomous and scalar items on a test of English for academic purposes. The data were gathered from a pilot English language test administered to a representative sample of undergraduate students (N= 139) enrolled in their first year of study at an English-medium university. The sample included native speakers of English who had completed up to 12 years of secondary schooling in their first language (L1) and immigrant students, mainly from Asian language backgrounds, with varying degrees of prior English language instruction and exposure. The purpose of the test was to diagnose the academic English needs of incoming undergraduates so that additional support could be offered to those deemed at risk of failure in their university study. Some of the tasks included in the assessment procedure involved objectively-scored items (measuring vocabulary knowledge, text-editing skills and reading and listening comprehension) whereas others (i.e. a report and an argumentative writing task) were subjectively-scored. The study models a methodology for estimating bias with both dichotomous and scalar items using the programs Quest (Adams and Khoo, 1993) for the former and ConQuest (Wu, Adams and Wilson, 1998) for the latter. It also offers answers to the practical questions of whether a common set of assessment criteria can, in an academic context such as this one, be meaningfully applied to all subgroups within the candidature and whether analytic criteria are more susceptible to biased ratings than holistic ones. Implications for test fairness and test validity are discussed.

Australia↗
PubMed1992

Intact parathyroid hormone: performance and clinical utility of an automated assay based on high-performance immunoaffinity chromatography and chemiluminescence detection.

The performance and clinical utility of an automated assay of intact parathyroid hormone (parathyrin, PTH) are evaluated. The method is based on the extraction of PTH from plasma by an HPLC column containing immobilized anti-(44-68 PTH) antibodies. The PTH retained is detected with a postcolumn reactor and use of anti-(1-34 PTH) chemiluminescent-labeled antibodies. The total cycle time of the assay is 6.5 min per injection after a 1-h incubation. The lower limit of detection for PTH in a 66-microL plasma sample was 0.5 pmol/L based on peak heights and 0.2 pmol/L based on peak areas. Mean analytical recovery for PTH added to plasma was 97%. The within-day precisions (CVs) for 4.2 and 30 pmol/L PTH plasma samples were 9.2% and 5.6% and the day-to-day precisions were 10.3% and 5.7%, respectively. No significant interferences from 1-34, 44-68, or 53-84 PTH fragments were noted, even at highly increased concentrations of fragments. The correlation of results with those of a manual assay of intact PTH was 0.97, and the results showed good agreement with disease state for patients with hypo- or hyperparathyroidism. The specificity of the assay for primary hyperparathyroidism was greater than 95%. We discuss the advantages (speed and quality control) of this approach over current immunoassays and the potential use of this method for detecting other analytes.

Autoanalysis↗
PubMed1989

[Effect of performance and state orientation on achievement and attention indicators in a simple stimulus-response task with and without performance feedback].

In formulating his theory of action control, Kuhl (1983) proposed two motivational states: action orientation and state orientation. People who are action oriented are able to ignore all informations in concrete situations which are irrelevant with regard to the preferred goals. Persons who are state oriented tend to focus sooner on the outlast aspects of a special state. Kuhl introduced a questionnaire HAKEMP to record these tendencies. Further on, there occurs the general assumption that in a particular state of state orientation, people have only a limited processing capacity for given tasks. This hypothesis was tested in an experiment (n = 88) with a stimulus-reaction task. The conditions were varied by the type of the task (fixed or variable stimulus interval) and feedback for the subjects' ability to react. It was expected that for the fixed stimulus interval condition, state-oriented people would be less efficient than action-oriented subjects; with feedback there should be increasing results. The experiment however, shows no significant difference between the performance of state- and action-oriented subjects. These results are discussed in relation to modifications of the HAKEMP questionnaire.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Performance requirements of tests performed nearer the patient.

Commercial test systems which can be used outside the laboratory are proliferating, but there are doubts about the quality of results obtained when they are used by unskilled staff. Although rapid but approximate results can be invaluable in some clinical situations, they can be disastrous in others, particularly when the results conflict with those obtained by conventional laboratory techniques. The clinician needs to define his requirements for the quality of such tests, and the manufacturer encouraged to produce equipment which gives accurate results, independent of the skill of the operator. The laboratory scientist has an important role in the development and effective application of tests performed nearer the patient.

Clinical Laboratory Techniques↗
PubMed1977

[Dependence of lactate on pulse rate, performance and cardiac volume performance quotient in rehabilitated myocardial infarct patients during bicycle ergometry].

All males of the district Cottbus who suffered from an acute myocardial infarction between 1 June 1973 and 30 June 1974 and survived the first rehabilitation phase of a definite myocardial infarction were included in the study. Their arterial lactate level, the oxygen intake, the heart rate and heart size were determined by means of standardized ergometry and radiology. Patients who had performed a rehabilitation training programme showed a higher efficiency and equal values of lactate level and heart rate compared with the patients without training programme. A close correlation also existed between lactate level and heart rate. There was no dependence on the age of the patient or the degree of heart insufficiency. These results allow to conclude that the lactate level can be used for the determination of the training intensity of patients after an acute myocardial infarction.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Display-control compatibility: the relationship between performance and judgments of performance.

This study examined whether people can judge the usability of display-control mappings. Participants identified one of two alternatives which were presented in a questionnaire. Several types of stimuli were tested, ranging from simple shapes to semantic stimuli. Choices were found to be predominately correct when usability was defined by an unambiguous spatial relationship between displays and controls. In contrast, estimates were less accurate for items which did not solely rely on spatial congruence. The findings were interpreted in terms of the factors that need to be considered for judgments to be free of error.

Adolescent↗