Evaluation of the Protein Requirement in Chinese Young Adults Using the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation Technique

Objective To accurately calculate the protein requirements in Chinese young adults using the indicator amino acid oxidation technique. Methods Nine women and ten men received a restricted daily level of protein intake （0.75, 0.82, 0.89, 0.97, and 1.05 g/kg）, along with L-[1-13C]-Ieucine. Subjects＇ protein requirement was determined by a biphasic linear regression crossover analysis of F13C02 data. In doing so, a breakpoint at the minimal rate of appearance of 13C02 expiration specific to each level of dietary protein was identified. This trial was registered with the Chinese clinical trial registry as ChiCTR-ONC-11001407. Results The Estimated Average Requirement （EAR） and the Recommended Nutrient Intake （RNI） of protein for healthy Chinese young adults were determined to be 0.87 and 0.98 g/（kg.d）, respectively, based on the indicator amino acid oxidation technique. Conclusion The EAR and RNI of mixed protein are 5% and 16% that are lower than the current proposed EAR and RNI {0.92 and 1.16 g/（kg.d）, respectively）, as determined by the nitrogen balance method. The respective EAR and RNI recommendations of 0.87 and 0.98 g/（kg.d） of mixed protein are estimated to be reasonable and suitable for Chinese young adults.

Evaluating the quality of feed fats and oils and their effects on pig growth performance

Feed fats and oils provide significant amounts of energy to swine diets, but there is large variation in composition,quality, feeding value, and price among sources. Common measures of lipid quality include moisture, insolubles,and unsaponifiables（MIU）, titer, and free fatty acid content, but provide limited information regarding their feeding value. Lipid peroxidation is an important quality factor related to animal growth performance and health, but maximum tolerable limits in various lipids have not been established. Several indicative assays can be used to detect the presence of various peroxidation compounds, but due to the complexity and numerous compounds produced and degraded during peroxidation process, no single method can adequately determine the extent of peroxidation. Until further information is available, using a combination of peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances（TBARS）, and anisidine value appear to provide a reasonable assessment of the extent of peroxidation in a lipid at a reasonable cost. However, fatty acid composition of the lipid being evaluated should be considered when selecting specific assays. Predictive tests can also be used to estimate the stability or susceptibility of lipids to peroxidation and include active oxygen method, oil stability index, and oxygen bomb method. A review of 16 published studies with pigs has shown an average decrease of 11.4% in growth rate, 8.8% feed intake fed isocaloric diets containing peroxidized lipids compared to diets containing unperoxidized lipids of the same source.Furthermore, serum vitamin E content was generally reduced and serum TBARS content was increased when peroxidized lipids were fed in these studies, suggesting that feeding peroxidized lipids negatively affects metabolic oxidative status of pigs. However, it is unclear if antioxidants are useful additions to lipids to maintain optimal nutritional value, or if their addition to swine diets is beneficial in overcoming a metabolic oxidative challenge.

Relationship between reaction rate constants of organic pollutants and their molecular descriptors during Fenton oxidation and in situ formed ferric-oxyhydroxides

Fenton oxidation is a promising water treatment method to degrade organic pollutants. In this study, 30 different organic compounds were selected and their reaction rate constants（k） were determined for the Fenton oxidation process. Gaussian09 and Material Studio software sets were used to carry out calculations and obtain values of 10 different molecular descriptors for each studied compound. Ferric-oxyhydroxide coagulation experiments were conducted to determine the coagulation percentage. Based upon the adsorption capacity,all of the investigated organic compounds were divided into two groups（Group A and Group B）. The percentage adsorption of organic compounds in Group A was less than 15%（wt./wt.）and that in the Group B was higher than 15%（wt./wt.）. For Group A, removal of the compounds by oxidation was the dominant process while for Group B, removal by both oxidation and coagulation（as a synergistic process） took place. Results showed that the relationship between the rate constants（k values） and the molecular descriptors of Group A was more pronounced than for Group B compounds. For the oxidation-dominated process,EHOMOand Fukui indices（f（0）_x, f（-）_x, f（＋）_x） were the most significant factors. The influence of bond order was more significant for the synergistic process of oxidation and coagulation than for the oxidation-dominated process. The influences of all other molecular descriptors on the synergistic process were weaker than on the oxidation-dominated process.