The compilations of papers derived from the presentations at the 2nd Asian Network Symposium that are published concurrently in this issue offer an opportunity for the reader to gain a better understanding of the processes used for the development of country-specific nutrient reference intake recommendations and national dietary guidelines. This commentary offers a perspective of lessons learne...

BACKGROUND The Minimum Cost of a Nutritious Diet (MCNut) is the cost of a theoretical diet satisfying all nutrient requirements of a family at the lowest possible cost, based on availability, price, and nutrient content of local foods. A comparison with household expenditure shows the proportion of households that would be able to afford a nutritious diet. OBJECTIVE To explore using the Cost ...

The period from 3 wk before to 3 wk after parturition in dairy cows, also known as the transition period, is characterized by significant changes in hormonal profile, feed intake, nutrient requirements, metabolism, and energy balance. These changes are known to dramatically affect immune function. In this manuscript we will discuss situations that accentuate immune suppression and predispose co...

INTRODUCTION Dietary control and nutrient intake are critical aspects of any metabolic study, but this is especially true in the case of bed rest studies. We sought to define nutritional requirements, develop menus, and implement them during long-duration head-down bed rest studies. METHODS The dietary goals were to provide 100% of subjects' nutrient requirements and to maintain subjects' bod...

After parturition, the somatotropic axis of the dairy cow is uncoupled, partly because of reduced concentration of liver-specific GH receptor (GHR) 1A. Estradiol-17 beta(E(2)) concentrations increase at parturition and E(2) upregulates suppressors of cytokine signaling-2 (SOCS-2) mRNA expression, potentially inhibiting GH signaling. Therefore, we hypothesized that SOCS-2 mRNA is upregulated aft...

The biodiversity of saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetous macrofungi growing on seven islands in central Japan were compared to examine colonizing success within the context of island biogeography theory. Two hypotheses were tested: that the number of the fungal species depends on island area and that the slope of the species-area curve for saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal macrofungi...

In Exp. 1, 39 ewe lambs (initial BW 29 +/- .1 kg) were used in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement with two breeds (Polypay and Targhee) and two diets (high-forage and high-grain) to examine the effects of restricting intake of a high-grain diet on onset of puberty and lamb performance. The experimental diets were fed from 13 to 40 wk of age. The high-forage diet was composed of 80% alfalfa cubes and...

(Received: September 16, 1952) In our previous report (1), it was pointed out that the amount of free amino acids in the bacterial cell of sulfathiazol-resistant dysentery strain not only differed from that of sensitive one, but also varied depending upon the presence or absence of sulfathiazol in the culture medium. Attempts have been made to see if there is the similar relation in case of str...

The National Institute of Health of Japan, Tokyo (Received for publication, March 30, 1950) Evolutional steps of -nitrogen requirements of bacteria have been set up as follows. N2-N03-NH4-amino nitrogen-amino nitrogen+growth factor. Dysentery bacilli belong to the last step (3, 4, 6). As shown in the preceding report (5), Shigella dysenteriae (Shiga type) belongs to the transition zone between ...

Quality function deployment (QFD) can provide a means of translating customer requirements (CRs) into engineering characteristics (ECs) for each stage of product development and production. The main objective of QFD-based product planning is to determine the target levels of ECs for a new product or service. QFD is a breakthrough tool which can effectively reduce the gap between CRs and a new p...