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The current study examines the effect of different finishing diets (hay- vs. maize-silage on meal ration) on carcass quality, physical, chemical and sensory properties, and fatty acid profiles of buffalo meat. Twenty male Italian Mediterranean buffaloes (246 ± 9.00 kg live weight) were distributed at random into two groups at the beginning of the finishing period (368 ± 20 days). The buffaloes were offered two finishing diets: a maize silage (MS) or an alfalfa hay (AH) diet. No significant differences were found between dietary treatments for live and carcass weight. Meat chemical composition was influenced by dietary treatment. A higher fat content was detected in meat from animals finished with MS than AH (P < 0.05). Overall, the data indicated differences between the fatty acid profiles of meat as a consequence of different feeding systems. The higher fat deposition in the MS group resulted in meat with a less favorable fatty acid profile (i.e. a lower polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio and α-linolenic fatty acid content) in relation to human health compared with meat from animals fed the AH diet., (© 2013 Japanese Society of Animal Science.)

Children with special health care needs pose many challenges for community-based providers. Programs such as school, child care, and Head Start provide services to children that previously would have been delivered in hospitals or at home. The need for a system of care to assure safe, quality services for these children is paramount. While health procedure manuals for schools have been developed, few recommendations address the actual training of providers or the trainers of providers. This article describes a system of training which includes steps in managing the care of children with special health care needs, levels of training, and expected competencies for the care providers of children with special health care needs.

Using the Typology Model of Adjustment and Adaptation, a family stress model, relationships among family hardiness, family stressors, family appraisal, coping, social support, and satisfaction with family functioning were examined in a sample of 57 families of children with developmental disabilities. Family hardiness was associated with family appraisal, social support, parental coping related to maintaining family integration, and satisfaction with family functioning. Higher satisfaction with family functioning was correlated with coping-integration, network support, functional support, and hardiness. Lower satisfaction with family functioning was associated with higher family stressor scores, social support loss, and increased parental age. Over 42% of the variance in family functioning was accounted for by family hardiness, functional support, family stressors, and parental age. The results highlight the value of continued investigations of hardiness in families.