The aim of this work is to investigate the association between treatment with magnesium sulphate during premature deliveries and infants’ cerebral palsy and mortality through a meta-analysis of observational studies. A comprehensive CA3 search

of the Cochrane Library, EMBASE and the PubMed database from their inceptions to 1 October, 2010 using the keywords ‘magnesium sulphate, children/infant/pre-term/premature and cerebral palsy/mortality/morbidity/adverse eff ects/outcome’ identified 11 reports of observational studies. Two authors working independently extracted the data. A meta-analysis of the data found an association between magnesium sulphate treatment and a significantly reduced risk of mortality (RR 0.73; 95% CI 0.61-0.89) and cerebral palsy (OR 0.64; 95% CI 0.47-0.89). Antenatal treatment with magnesium sulphate during premature deliveries seems to be associated with health benefits for the infants. The effective dose and timing, however, is not defined and given the lack of mechanistic understanding of the effect of MgSO4, a reasonable alternative

is a large-scale pragmatic clinical trial.”
“Italian Brown is a cattle breed largely exploited in the production of many dairy products in Italy, including typical and traditional cheeses. For this reason, the improvement of selection methods is of economic relevance while a deeper understanding of the genetic mechanisms regulating milk production is of general scientific interest. We selected a total of 561 samples, representing virtually all Italian Brown bull population, to Selleckchem NVP-LDE225 test for association between milk production traits and 29 known genes harbouring 106 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). After filtering, a total of 31 SNPs in 22 candidate genes and 473 bulls were retained. Associations between each SNP and milk traits were tested

by a mixed model approach, obtaining seven significantly associated SNPs, two of which (in beta-Lactoglobulin) associated with all traits, and four VX-809 nmr (in Chemokin receptor I, alpha s1 casein, k casein, fatty acid synthase, thyroid hormone responsive and Oxytocin prepropetide genes) associated with at least one trait. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of oxidative modification of soy protein isolate (SPI) after exposure to heat on the growth performance and immune function of broilers. The SPI was heated in an oven at 100 degrees C for 1, 4, and 8 h, respectively, and resultant oxidative status was evaluated. A total of 320 one-day-old Arbor Acres chickens were randomly divided into 4 treatment groups with 8 replicates of 10 birds, and fed diets supplemented with the native SPI or 1 of the 3 heat-treated SPI for 21 d. The results showed that heat exposure of SPI for 4 and 8 h caused an increase in protein carbonyl (P smaller than 0.05), and a simultaneous decrease in sulfhydryl and free amine groups (P smaller than 0.