A near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic sensing system was constructed on an experimental basis. This system enabled NIR spectra of raw milk to be obtained in an automatic milking system (milking robot system) over a wavelength range of 600 nm to 1050 nm. Calibration models for determining three major milk constituents (fat, protein and lactose), somatic cell count (SCC) and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) of unhomogenized milk were developed, and the precision and accuracy of the models were validated. The coefficient of determination (r2) and standard error of prediction (SEP) of the validation set for fat were 0.95 and 0.25%, respectively. The values of r2 and SEP for lactose were 0.83 and 0.26%, those for protein were 0.72 and 0.15%, those for SCC were 0.68 and 0.28 log SCC/mL, and those for MUN were 0.53 and 1.50 mg/dL, respectively. These results indicate that the NIR spectroscopic system can be used to assess milk quality in real time in an automatic milking system. The system can provide dairy farmers with information on milk quality and physiological condition of an individual cow and, therefore, give them feedback control for optimizing dairy farm management. By using the system, dairy farmers will be able to produce high-quality milk and precision dairy farming will be realized

There has been a need in recent years for a method that will enable dairy farmers to monitor milk quality of individual cow during milking. We constructed a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic sensing system for online monitoring of milk quality on an experimental basis. This system enables NIR spectra of unhomogenized milk to be obtained during milking over a wavelength range of 600-1050 nm. We developed calibration models for predicting three major milk constituents (fat, protein and lactose), somatic cell count (SCC) and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) of unhomogenized milk, and we validated the precision and accuracy of the models. The coefficient of determination (r 2 ) and standard error of prediction (SEP) of the validation set were obtained: for fat, r 2 = 0.95, SEP = 0.42%; for protein, r 2 = 0.91, SEP = 0.09%; for lactose, r 2 = 0.94, SEP = 0.05%; for SCC, r 2 = 0.82, SEP = 0.27 log SCC/mL; and for MUN, r 2 = 0.90, SEP = 1.33 mg/dL, respectively. These results indicated that the NIR spectroscopic sensing system developed in this study could be used to monitor milk quality in real-time during milking. The system can provide dairy farmers with information on milk quality and physiological condition of each cow and therefore give them feedback control for producing milk of high quality and for optimizing dairy farm management.

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Non-invasive immobilization stress causes an increase in the plasma interleukin (IL)-6 level accompanied by increased IL-6 mRNA expression and IL-6 immunoactivity in the liver [Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (1997) 238, 707-711]. In the present study, using rat primary cultured hepatocytes and non-parenchymal liver cells, the effect of norepinephrine (NE) on IL-6 mRNA expression was determined. IL-6 mRNA expression in hepatocytes, but not in non-parenchymal liver cells, increased when the cells were treated with NE. The stimulatory effect of NE was inhibited by the combined use of alpha- and beta-adrenergic antagonists. IL-6 mRNA expression in hepatocytes also increased on incubation with the culture medium of non-parenchymal liver cells treated with NE. The effect of the medium was blocked by an IL-1 receptor antagonist. Moreover, exogenous IL-1beta stimulated IL-6 mRNA expression in hepatocytes. IL-1beta was present in the medium of non-parenchymal liver cells and increased with NE-treatment. These results suggest that NE released from sympathetic nerve terminals during stress can directly increase IL-6 mRNA expression in hepatocytes and indirectly through IL-1beta production from non-parenchymal liver cells.

The clinical and immunological findings are described in a female newborn infant who presented with hypoglycemia associated with a high titre of an insulin-binding protein in her serum. The insulin-binding protein belonged to IgG, the light chain of which consisted solely of Kappa-type. The other properties of the insulinbinding protein were very similar to those of insulin antibodies produced by insulin injection, except for a