Confirmatory factor analysis of different versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire applied to Brazilian university students

This study aimed at evaluating the validity, reliability, and factorial invariance of the complete (34-item) and shortened (8-item and 16-item) versions of the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) when applied to Brazilian university students. A total of 739 female students with a mean age of 20.44 (standard deviation = 2.45) years participated. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify the degree to which the one-factor structure satisfies the proposal for the BSQ's expected structure. Two items of the 34-item version were excluded because they had factor weights (lambda)< 40. All models had adequate convergent validity (average variance extracted =.43-.58; composite reliability=.85-.97) and internal consistency (alpha =.85-.97). The 8-item B version was considered the best shortened BSQ version (Akaike information criterion = 84.07, Bayes information criterion = 157.75, Browne-Cudeck criterion= 84.46), with strong invariance for independent samples (Delta chi(2)lambda(7)= 5.06, Delta chi(2)Cov(8)= 5.11, Delta chi(2)Res(16) = 19.30). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Genetic analysis of feet and legs in Nelore cattle

Pós-graduação em Genética e Melhoramento Animal - FCAV

Surface roughness analysis of dental ceramics treated with hydrofl uoric acid and aluminum oxide jet

The aim of this study was to evaluate the surface roughness of 5 indirect restorative materials treated with hydrofluoric acid to 10%, with aluminum oxide jet and a combination of both. The specimens was prepared with 10 mm in diameter and 2 mm thickness, divided into fi ve groups: (1) Ceromer (CeseadII-Kuraray), (2) Leucite crystals ceramics (IPS EmpressIIIvoclarforcasket), (3) glass ceramic with fluorapatite (IPS D. Sign-Ivoclar), (4) lithium disilicate ceramic (IPS Empress II-Ivoclar restorations), (5) ceramics (Cergogold-Degussa). For all groups were performed the controls, and the surfaces with the 3 types of treatment. For testing roughness used the rugosimeter Taylor/Hobson-Precision, model form tracerSV-C525 high sensitivity. After confi rmation of variance analysis with a signifi cance level of 1% (p < 0.01), there was equality between the average roughness of materials from groups 1, 3 and 5, and the group 2 was different from the others. It was also found that the ceramics of the group 5 behaved similar to group 4. However the lowest average roughness was observed in group 2 ceramic. In the evaluation between the types of treatment, the aluminum oxide jet and associations and blasting with hydrofl uoric acid were similar, and different isolated hydrofl uoric acid, and 3 types of treatment signifi cantly higher than the control group. All treatments promoted superfi cial alterations in all tested materials.

Meta-analysis of the response of broilers to the digestible lysine intake

Pós-graduação em Zootecnia - FCAV

Biomechanical influence of crown-to-implant ratio on stress distribution over internal hexagon short implant: 3-D finite element analysis with statistical test

The study of short implants is relevant to the biomechanics of dental implants, and research on crown increase has implications for the daily clinic. The aim of this study was to analyze the biomechanical interactions of a singular implant-supported prosthesis of different crown heights under vertical and oblique force, using the 3-D finite element method. Six 3-D models were designed with Invesalius 3.0, Rhinoceros 3D 4.0, and Solidworks 2010 software. Each model was constructed with a mandibular segment of bone block, including an implant supporting a screwed metal-ceramic crown. The crown height was set at 10, 12.5, and 15 mm. The applied force was 200 N (axial) and 100 N (oblique). We performed an ANOVA statistical test and Tukey tests; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The increase of crown height did not influence the stress distribution on screw prosthetic (p > 0.05) under axial load. However, crown heights of 12.5 and 15 mm caused statistically significant damage to the stress distribution of screws and to the cortical bone (p <0.001) under oblique load. High crown to implant (C/I) ratio harmed microstrain distribution on bone tissue under axial and oblique loads (p < 0.001). Crown increase was a possible deleterious factor to the screws and to the different regions of bone tissue. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Genetic analysis of the temperament of Nellore cattle using linear and threshold models

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Female fertility in a Guzerat dairy subpopulation: Heterogeneity of variance components for calving intervals

The objectives of the present study were to determine if variance components of calving intervals varied with age at calving and if considering calving intervals as a longitudinal trait would be a useful approach for fertility analysis of Zebu dairy herds. With these purposes, calving records from females born from 1940 to 2006 in a Guzerat dairy subpopulation in Brazil were analyzed. The fixed effects of contemporary groups, formed by year and farm at birth or at calving, and the regressions of age at calving, equivalent inbreeding coefficient and day of the year on the studied traits were considered in the statistical models. In one approach, calving intervals (Cl) were analyzed as a single trait, by fitting a statistical model on which both animal and permanent environment effects were adjusted for the effect of age at calving by random regression. In a second approach, a four-trait analysis was conducted, including age at first calving (AFC) and three different female categories for the calving intervals: first calving females; young females (less than 80 months old, but not first calving); or mature females (80 months old or more). Finally, a two-trait analysis was performed, also including AFC and Cl, but calving intervals were regarded as a single trait in a repeatability model. Additionally, the ranking of sires was compared among approaches. Calving intervals decreased with age until females were about 80 months old, remaining nearly constant after that age. A quasi-linear increase of 11.5 days on the calving intervals was observed for each 10% increase in the female's equivalent inbreeding coefficient. The heritability of AFC was 0.37. For Cl. the genetic-phenotypic variance ratios ranged from 0.064 to 0.141, depending on the approach and on ages at calving. Differences among genetic variance components for calving intervals were observed along the animal's lifetime. Those differences confirmed the longitudinal aspect of that trait, indicating the importance of such consideration when accessing fertility of Zebu dairy females, especially in situations where the available information relies on their calving intervals. Spearman rank correlations among approaches ranged from 0.90 to 0.95, and changes observed in the ranking of sires suggested that the genetic progress of the population could be affected by the approach chosen for the analysis of calving intervals. (C) 2012 Elsevier ay. All rights reserved.

Genetic analysis of kernel oil content in tropical maize with design III and QTL mapping

Oil content and grain yield in maize are negatively correlated, and so far the development of high-oil high-yielding hybrids has not been accomplished. Then a fully understand of the inheritance of the kernel oil content is necessary to implement a breeding program to improve both traits simultaneously. Conventional and molecular marker analyses of the design III were carried out from a reference population developed from two tropical inbred lines divergent for kernel oil content. The results showed that additive variance was quite larger than the dominance variance, and the heritability coefficient was very high. Sixteen QTL were mapped, they were not evenly distributed along the chromosomes, and accounted for 30.91% of the genetic variance. The average level of dominance computed from both conventional and QTL analysis was partial dominance. The overall results indicated that the additive effects were more important than the dominance effects, the latter were not unidirectional and then heterosis could not be exploited in crosses. Most of the favorable alleles of the QTL were in the high-oil parental inbred, which could be transferred to other inbreds via marker-assisted backcross selection. Our results coupled with reported information indicated that the development of high-oil hybrids with acceptable yields could be accomplished by using marker-assisted selection involving oil content, grain yield and its components. Finally, to exploit the xenia effect to increase even more the oil content, these hybrids should be used in the Top Cross((TM)) procedure.

Bayesian analysis of random regression models using B-splines to model test-day milk yield of Holstein cattle in Brazil

The objective of this paper is to model variations in test-day milk yields of first lactations of Holstein cows by RR using B-spline functions and Bayesian inference in order to fit adequate and parsimonious models for the estimation of genetic parameters. They used 152,145 test day milk yield records from 7317 first lactations of Holstein cows. The model established in this study was additive, permanent environmental and residual random effects. In addition, contemporary group and linear and quadratic effects of the age of cow at calving were included as fixed effects. Authors modeled the average lactation curve of the population with a fourth-order orthogonal Legendre polynomial. They concluded that a cubic B-spline with seven random regression coefficients for both the additive genetic and permanent environment effects was to be the best according to residual mean square and residual variance estimates. Moreover they urged a lower order model (quadratic B-spline with seven random regression coefficients for both random effects) could be adopted because it yielded practically the same genetic parameter estimates with parsimony. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A note on the use of the generalized odds ratio in meta-analysis of association studies involving bi- and tri-allelic polymorphisms

Abstract Background The generalized odds ratio (GOR) was recently suggested as a genetic model-free measure for association studies. However, its properties were not extensively investigated. We used Monte Carlo simulations to investigate type-I error rates, power and bias in both effect size and between-study variance estimates of meta-analyses using the GOR as a summary effect, and compared these results to those obtained by usual approaches of model specification. We further applied the GOR in a real meta-analysis of three genome-wide association studies in Alzheimer's disease. Findings For bi-allelic polymorphisms, the GOR performs virtually identical to a standard multiplicative model of analysis (e.g. per-allele odds ratio) for variants acting multiplicatively, but augments slightly the power to detect variants with a dominant mode of action, while reducing the probability to detect recessive variants. Although there were differences among the GOR and usual approaches in terms of bias and type-I error rates, both simulation- and real data-based results provided little indication that these differences will be substantial in practice for meta-analyses involving bi-allelic polymorphisms. However, the use of the GOR may be slightly more powerful for the synthesis of data from tri-allelic variants, particularly when susceptibility alleles are less common in the populations (≤10%). This gain in power may depend on knowledge of the direction of the effects. Conclusions For the synthesis of data from bi-allelic variants, the GOR may be regarded as a multiplicative-like model of analysis. The use of the GOR may be slightly more powerful in the tri-allelic case, particularly when susceptibility alleles are less common in the populations.

Factor analysis of responses to thermal, electrical, and mechanical painful stimuli supports the importance of multi-modal pain assessment

During the last decade, a multi-modal approach has been established in human experimental pain research for assessing pain thresholds and responses to various experimental pain modalities. Studies have concluded that differences in responses to pain stimuli are mainly related to variation between individuals rather than variation in response to different stimulus modalities. In a factor analysis of 272 consecutive volunteers (137 men and 135 women) who underwent tests with different experimental pain modalities, it was determined whether responses to different pain modalities represent distinct individual uncorrelated dimensions of pain perception. Volunteers underwent single painful electrical stimulation, repeated painful electrical stimulation (temporal summation), test for reflex receptive field, pressure pain stimulation, heat pain stimulation, cold pain stimulation, and a cold pressor test (ice water test). Five distinct factors were found representing responses to 5 distinct experimental pain modalities: pressure, heat, cold, electrical stimulation, and reflex-receptive fields. Each of the factors explained approximately 8% to 35% of the observed variance, and the 5 factors cumulatively explained 94% of the variance. The correlation between the 5 factors was near null (median ρ=0.00, range -0.03 to 0.05), with 95% confidence intervals for pairwise correlations between 2 factors excluding any relevant correlation. Results were almost similar for analyses stratified according to gender and age. Responses to different experimental pain modalities represent different specific dimensions and should be assessed in combination in future pharmacological and clinical studies to represent the complexity of nociception and pain experience.

Teacher resistance to school-based consultation with the school psychologist: An analysis according to school level and model of identification for special education services

Consultation is promoted throughout school psychology literature as a best practice in service delivery. This method has numerous benefits including being able to work with more students at one time, providing practitioners with preventative rather than strictly reactive strategies, and helping school professionals meet state and federal education mandates and initiatives. Despite the benefits of consultation, teachers are sometimes resistant to this process.This research studies variables hypothesized to lead to resistance (Gonzalez, Nelson, Gutkin, & Shwery, 2004) and attempts to distinguish differences between school level (elementary, middle and high school) with respect to the role played by these variables and to determine if the model used to identify students for special education services has an influence on resistance factors. Twenty-sixteachers in elementary and middle schools responded to a demographicquestionnaire and a survey developed by Gonzalez, et al. (2004). This survey measures eight variables related to resistance to consultation. No high school teachers responded to the request to participate. Results of analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in the teaching efficacy subscale with elementary teachers reporting more efficacy in teaching than middle school teachers. Results also indicate a significant difference in classroom managementefficacy with teachers who work in schools that identify students according to a Response to Intervention model reporting higher classroom management efficacy than teachers who work in schools that identify students according to a combined method of refer-test-place/RtI combination model. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Association between symptoms and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia: a pooled analysis of changes over time

Quality of life is an important outcome in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. It has been suggested that patients' quality of life ratings (referred to as subjective quality of life, SQOL) might be too heavily influenced by symptomatology to be a valid independent outcome criterion. There has been only limited evidence on the association of symptom change and changes in SQOL over time. This study aimed to examine the association between changes in symptoms and in SQOL among patients with schizophrenia. A pooled data set was obtained from eight longitudinal studies that had used the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) for measuring psychiatric symptoms and either the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile or the Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life for assessing SQOL. The sample comprised 886 patients with schizophrenia. After controlling for heterogeneity of findings across studies using linear mixed models, a reduction in psychiatric symptoms was associated with improvements in SQOL scores. In univariate analyses, changes in all BPRS subscales were associated with changes in SQOL scores. In a multivariate model, only associations between changes in the BPRS depression/anxiety and hostility subscales and changes in SQOL remained significant, with 5% and 0.5% of the variance in SQOL changes being attributable to changes in depression/anxiety and hostility respectively. All BPRS subscales together explained 8.5% of variance. The findings indicate that SQOL changes are influenced by symptom change, in particular in depression/anxiety. The level of influence is limited and may not compromise using SQOL as an independent outcome measure.

Brain areas involved in medial temporal lobe seizures: a principal component analysis of ictal SPECT data

The study describes brain areas involved in medial temporal lobe (mTL) seizures of 12 patients. All patients showed so-called oro-alimentary behavior within the first 20 s of clinical seizure manifestation characteristic of mTL seizures. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were acquired from the patients in ictal and interictal phases and from normal volunteers. Image analysis employed categorical comparisons with statistical parametric mapping and principal component analysis (PCA) to assess functional connectivity. PCA supplemented the findings of the categorical analysis by decomposing the covariance matrix containing images of patients and healthy subjects into distinct component images of independent variance, including areas not identified by the categorical analysis. Two principal components (PCs) discriminated the subject groups: patients with right or left mTL seizures and normal volunteers, indicating distinct neuronal networks implicated by the seizure. Both PCs were correlated with seizure duration, one positively and the other negatively, confirming their physiological significance. The independence of the two PCs yielded a clear clustering of subject groups. The local pattern within the temporal lobe describes critical relay nodes which are the counterpart of oro-alimentary behavior: (1) right mesial temporal zone and ipsilateral anterior insula in right mTL seizures, and (2) temporal poles on both sides that are densely interconnected by the anterior commissure. Regions remote from the temporal lobe may be related to seizure propagation and include positively and negatively loaded areas. These patterns, the covarying areas of the temporal pole and occipito-basal visual association cortices, for example, are related to known anatomic paths.

Heterosis for biomass-related traits in Arabidopsis investigated by quantitative trait loci analysis of the triple testcross design with recombinant inbred lines

Arabidopsis thaliana has emerged as a leading model species in plant genetics and functional genomics including research on the genetic causes of heterosis. We applied a triple testcross (TTC) design and a novel biometrical approach to identify and characterize quantitative trait loci (QTL) for heterosis of five biomass-related traits by (i) estimating the number, genomic positions, and genetic effects of heterotic QTL, (ii) characterizing their mode of gene action, and (iii) testing for presence of epistatic effects by a genomewide scan and marker x marker interactions. In total, 234 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of Arabidopsis hybrid C24 x Col-0 were crossed to both parental lines and their F1 and analyzed with 110 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. QTL analyses were conducted using linear transformations Z1, Z2, and Z3 calculated from the adjusted entry means of TTC progenies. With Z1, we detected 12 QTL displaying augmented additive effects. With Z2, we mapped six QTL for augmented dominance effects. A one-dimensional genome scan with Z3 revealed two genomic regions with significantly negative dominance x additive epistatic effects. Two-way analyses of variance between marker pairs revealed nine digenic epistatic interactions: six reflecting dominance x dominance effects with variable sign and three reflecting additive x additive effects with positive sign. We conclude that heterosis for biomass-related traits in Arabidopsis has a polygenic basis with overdominance and/or epistasis being presumably the main types of gene action.