Reproductive efficiency of Nellore cows nursing Nellore or crossbred Simmental x Nellore calves

The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of genetic group (GG) of the calf during gestation, mobilization of body reserves and period of postpartum anestrus in Nellore cows. Thirty-seven primiparous and multiparous cows were used: 24 gave birth to Nellore (NEL), and 13 gave birth to 1/2 Simmental x 1/2 Nellore (SIM) calves. According to the date of calving, cows were divided into three blocks, with intervals of 20 days between blocks. The body condition (BC) of the cows was estimated subjectively on a scale from 0 to 5 points, with intermediate grading of 0.5 points. We measured the thickness of subcutaneous fat (SF) between the 12th and 13th ribs and rump by ultrasound. Blood samples from each cow were collected weekly from the third week after birth until weaning, to analyze the level of progesterone; in the samples collected until 16 weeks postpartum, we analyzed the concentration of nonesterified fatty acids(NEFA). The gestation period of mothers of NEL calves was eight days longer, on average. The variables relating to the mobilization of body reserves (NEFA, BC and SF) were not influenced by calf GG, with the only significant effects being the number of days postpartum, witha peak in the concentration of NEFA between the sixth and eighth weeks and linear decrease in BC and NF. Mothers of NEL calves remained in anestrus for 4.6 weeks longer than the mothers of crossbred calves.

The manipulation of progesterone profiles during progesterone + estradiol timed ai protocols in dairy cattle: effects on fertility

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Management of age at puberty in beef heifers to optimize efficiency of beef production

Age at puberty in beef heifers can influence economic efficiency of beef production through effects on both age at first calving (2 vs. 3+ years of age) and the time of conception of heifers in their initial breeding season. An overarching factor that influences age at puberty in heifers is nutritional management during both the preweaning period and between weaning and the breeding season. Age at puberty is heritable and selection for precocious puberty in populations such as the Nelore breed has the potential to substantially influence production efficiency. Highly effective hormonal technologies exist to aid in induction of puberty in well managed heifers. Age at first ovulation and pregnancy in heifers can be substantially influenced through implementation of nutritional and/or hormonal manipulation strategies. In the long term, combinations of genetic selection, nutritional strategies, and hormonal intervention when necessary will optimize efficiency of this aspect of beef production.

Efficiency and costless of a long-term physical exercise program to nom-medicated hypertensive males

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Anxiolytic-Like Property of Risperidone and Olanzapine as Examined in Multiple Measures of Fear in Rats

Atypical antipsychotics are also used in the treatment of anxiety-related disorders. Clinical and preclinical evidence regarding their intrinsic anxiolytic efficacy has been mixed. In this study, we examined the potential anxiolytic-like effects of risperidone and olanzapine, and compared them with haloperidol, chlordiazepoxide (a prototype of sedative–anxiolytic drug) or citalopram (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor). We used a composite of two-way avoidance conditioning and acoustic startle reflex model and examined the effects of drug treatments during the acquisition phase (Experiment 1) or extinction phase (Experiments 2 and 3) on multiple measures of conditioned and unconditioned fear/anxiety-like responses. In Experiment 4, we further compared risperidone, olanzapine, haloperidol, citalopram and chlordiazepoxide in a standard elevated plus maze test. Results revealed three distinct anxiolytic-like profiles associated with risperidone, olanzapine and chlordiazepoxide. Risperidone, especially at 1.0 mg/kg, significantly decreased the number of avoidance responses, 22 kHz ultrasonic vocalization, avoidance conditioning-induced hyperthermia and startle reactivity, but did not affect defecations or time spent on the open arms. Olanzapine (2.0 mg/kg, sc) significantly decreased the number of avoidance responses, 22 kHz vocalization and amount of defecations, but it did not inhibit startle reactivity and time spent on the open arms. Chlordiazepoxide (10 mg/kg, ip) significantly decreased the number of 22 kHz vocalization, avoidance conditioning-induced hyperthermia and amount of defecations, and increased time spent on the open arms, but did not decrease avoidance responses or startle reactivity. Haloperidol and citalopram did not display any anxiolytic-like property in these tests. The results highlight the importance of using multiple measures of fear-related responses to delineate behavioral profiles of psychotherapeutic drugs.

INVESTIGATION INTO CURRENT EFFICIENCY FOR PULSE ELECTROCHEMICAL MACHINING OF NICKEL ALLOY

INVESTIGATION INTO CURRENT EFFICIENCY FOR PULSE ELECTROCHEMICAL MACHINING OF NICKEL ALLOY Yu Zhang, M.S. University of Nebraska, 2010 Adviser: Kamlakar P. Rajurkar Electrochemical machining (ECM) is a nontraditional manufacturing process that can machine difficult-to-cut materials. In ECM, material is removed by controlled electrochemical dissolution of an anodic workpiece in an electrochemical cell. ECM has extensive applications in automotive, petroleum, aerospace, textile, medical, and electronics industries. Improving current efficiency is a challenging task for any electro-physical or electrochemical machining processes. The current efficiency is defined as the ratio of the observed amount of metal dissolved to the theoretical amount predicted from Faraday’s law, for the same specified conditions of electrochemical equivalent, current, etc [1]. In macro ECM, electrolyte conductivity greatly influences the current efficiency of the process. Since there is a certain limit to enhance the conductivity of the electrolyte, a process innovation is needed for further improvement in current efficiency in ECM. Pulse electrochemical machining (PECM) is one such approach in which the electrolyte conductivity is improved by electrolyte flushing in pulse off-time. The aim of this research is to study the influence of major factors on current efficiency in a pulse electrochemical machining process in macro scale and to develop a linear regression model for predicting current efficiency of the process. An in-house designed electrochemical cell was used for machining nickel alloy (ASTM B435) by PECM. The effects of current density, type of electrolyte, and electrolyte flow rate, on current efficiency under different experimental conditions were studied. Results indicated that current efficiency is dependent on electrolyte, electrolyte flow rate, and current density. Linear regression models of current efficiency were compared with twenty new data points graphically and quantitatively. Models developed were close enough to the actual results to be reliable. In addition, an attempt has been made in this work to consider those factors in PECM that have not been investigated in earlier works. This was done by simulating the process by using COMSOL software. However, it was found that the results from this attempt were not substantially different from the earlier reported studies.

The Effects of Ornamentation on Wolf Spider Foraging

ABSTRACT: As a secondary sexual trait that can increase reproductive success, ornamentation is believed to be costly for organisms to acquire and possess. This study investigates possible costs of ornamentation on wolf spider foraging by comparing foraging abilities of two male forms that differ in ornamentation upon maturation. The two male forms, found syntopically in a mixed population in Mississippi, USA, resemble two sibling species: Schizocosa ocreata, in which males develop large black brushes on their forelegs upon maturation, and Schizocosa rovneri, in which males lack ornamentation following maturation. Individuals of both forms participated in foraging trials as penultimates (juveniles) and as matures. Analyses were conducted to compare behaviors and determine changes in foraging abilities between male forms (non-ornamented vs. brush-legged) and between age groups (penultimate vs. mature). Most foraging behaviors of the two male forms during immaturity were similar with the exception that brush-legged males attacked more frequently than non-ornamented males. Brush-legged males attacked less, spent more time moving, and improved capture abilities as matures, while non-ornamented males retained similar trends for these behaviors with age. Additionally, while capture abilities improved with age among brush-legged males, killing abilities remained constant. This disparity was due to increased escapes made by captured prey items, possibly due to hindrances caused by brush presence preventing secure holds onto crickets. In summary, differences in foraging exist between brush-legged and non-ornamented males prior to sexual maturation, and the development of/presence of brushes appears to influence adult male foraging efficiency.

Tiered Pricing and Cost Functions: Are Equity, Cost Recovery and Economic Efficiency Compatible Goals?

Suppliers of water and energy are frequently natural monopolies, with their pricing regulated by governmental agencies. Pricing schemes are evaluated by the efficiency of the resource allocation they lead to, the capacity of the utilities to capture their costs and the distributional effects of the policies, in particular, impacts on the poor. One pricing approach has been average cost pricing, which guarantees cost recovery and allows utilities to provide their product at relatively low prices. However, average cost pricing leads to economically inefficient consumption levels, when sources of water and energy are limited and increasing the supply is costly. An alternative approach is increasing block rates (hereafter, IBR or tiered pricing), where individuals pay a low rate for an initial consumption block and a higher rate as they increase use beyond that block. An example of IBR is shown in Figure 1 (on next page), which shows a rate structure for residential water use. With the rates in Figure 1, a household would be charged $0.46 and $0.71 per hundred gallons for consumption below and above 21,000 gallons per month, respectively.

Poverty Reduction and the Income Inequality in China

In 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals which set targets for raising living standards in low-income countries. The first goal was to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” (United Nations). The World Bank defines extreme poverty as income of less than $1.25 per day (World Bank, 2010a). Based on this definition, the World Bank estimates that the percentage of the population in China living in extreme poverty has fallen from 84 percent in 1981 to about 16 percent in 2005, a period during which China’s population grew by more than 300 million people (see Table 1 on last page). Because China is a very large country with a current population approaching 1.4 billion (more than four times the United States population), its dramatic reduction in poverty over the past 30 years has had a profound effect on global poverty measures. In fact, poverty reduction in China is the main reason that the incidence of extreme poverty in developing countries has fallen from about 52 percent in 1981 to 25 percent in 2005 (Table 1). While the absolute number of poor in China fell by some 627 million, the number of poor in other developing countries actually grew slightly (from 1,065 million to 1,166 million). These figures represent a decline in the percentage of the total population in poverty in other developing countries because of general population growth over that 25-year period (World Bank, 2010b).

Prevention of Intradialytic Hypotension in Patients with Acute Kidney Injury Submitted to Sustained Low-Efficiency Dialysis

Objectives: This study evaluated the effects of a protocol aiming to reduce hypotension in acute kidney injury (AKI) patients submitted to sustained low-efficiency dialysis (SLED). Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to two SLED prescriptions-control group, dialysate temperature was 37.0 degrees C with a fixed sodium concentration [138 mEq/L] and ultrafiltration (UF) rate; and profiling group, dialysate temperature was 35.5 degrees C with a variable sodium concentration [150-138 mEq/L] and UF rate. Results: Sixty-two SLED sessions were evaluated (34 in profiling and 28 in control). Patients (n = 31) were similar in terms of gender, age, and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. Dialysis time, dialysis dose, and post-dialysis serum sodium were similar in both groups. The profiling group had significantly less hypotension episodes (23% vs. 57% in control, p = 0.009) and achieved higher UF volume (2.23 +/- 1.25 L vs. 1.59 +/- 1.03 L in control, p = 0.04) when compared with control group. Conclusions: SLED protocol with modulation of dialysate temperature, sodium, and UF profiling showed similar efficacy but less intradialytic hypotension when compared with a standard SLED prescription.

Cross-cultural adaptation and assessment of the reliability and validity of the Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) for the Brazilian-Portuguese language

The use of patient-orientated questionnaires is of utmost importance in assessing the outcome of spine surgery. Standardisation, using a common set of outcome measures, is essential to aid comparisons across studies/in registries. The Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) is a short, multidimensional outcome instrument validated for patients with spinal disorders. This study aimed to produce a Brazilian-Portuguese version of the COMI. A cross-cultural adaptation of the COMI into Brazilian-Portuguese was carried out using established guidelines. 104 outpatients with chronic LBP (> 3 months) were recruited from a Public Health Spine Medical Care Centre. They completed a questionnaire booklet containing the newly translated COMI, and other validated symptom-specific questionnaires: Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Roland Morris disability scale (RM), and a pain visual analogue scale. All patients completed a second questionnaire within 7-10 days to assess reproducibility. The COMI summary score displayed minimal floor and ceiling effects. On re-test, the responses for each individual domain of the COMI were within 1 category in 98% patients for the domain 'function', 96% for 'symptom-specific well-being', 97% for 'general quality of life', 99% for 'social disability' and 100% for 'work disability'. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC2,1) for COMI pain and COMI summary scores were 0.91-0.96, which compared favourably with the corresponding values for the RM (ICC, 0.99) and ODI (ICC, 0.98). The standard error of measurement for the COMI was 0.6, giving a "minimum detectable change" (MDC95%) of approximately 1.7 points i.e., the minimum change to be considered "real change" beyond measurement error. The COMI scores correlated as hypothesised (Rho, 0.4-0.8) with the other symptom-specific questionnaires. The reproducibility of the Brazilian-Portuguese version of the COMI was comparable to that of other language versions. The COMI scores correlated in the expected manner with existing but longer symptom-specific questionnaires suggesting good convergent validity for the COMI. The Brazilian-Portuguese COMI represents a valuable tool for Brazilian study-centres in future multicentre clinical studies and surgical registries.

The Effects of High Pressure on the Point of No Return in Simulated Penalty Kicks

We investigated the effects of high pressure on the point of no return or the minimum time required for a kicker to respond to the goalkeeper's dive in a simulated penalty kick task. The goalkeeper moved to one side with different times available for the participants to direct the ball to the opposite side in low-pressure (acoustically isolated laboratory) and high-pressure situations (with a participative audience). One group of participants showed a significant lengthening of the point of no return under high pressure. With less time available, performance was at chance level. Unexpectedly, in a second group of participants, high pressure caused a qualitative change in which for short times available participants were inclined to aim in the direction of the goalkeeper's move. The distinct effects of high pressure are discussed within attentional control theory to reflect a decreasing efficiency of the goal-driven attentional system, slowing down performance, and a decreasing effectiveness in inhibiting stimulus-driven behavior.

ACUTE EFFECTS OF A WARM-UP INCLUDING ACTIVE, PASSIVE, AND DYNAMIC STRETCHING ON VERTICAL JUMP PERFORMANCE

Carvalho, FLP, Carvalho, MCGA, Simao, R, Gomes, TM, Costa, PB, Neto, LB, Carvalho, RLP, and Dantas, EHM. Acute effects of a warm-up including active, passive, and dynamic stretching on vertical jump performance. J Strength Cond Res 26(9): 2447-2452, 2012-The purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of 3 different stretching methods combined with a warm-up protocol on vertical jump performance. Sixteen young tennis players (14.5 +/- 2.8 years; 175 +/- 5.6 cm; 64.0 +/- 11.1 kg) were randomly assigned to 4 different experimental conditions on 4 successive days. Each session consisted of a general and specific warm-up, with 5 minutes of running followed by 10 jumps, accompanied by one of the subsequent conditions: (a) Control Condition (CC)-5 minutes of passive rest; (b) Passive Stretching Condition (PSC)-5 minutes of passive static stretching; (c) Active Stretching Condition (ASC)-5 minutes of active static stretching; and (d) Dynamic Stretching Condition (DC)-5 minutes of dynamic stretching. After each intervention, the subjects performed 3 squat jumps (SJs) and 3 countermovement jumps (CMJs), which were measured electronically. For the SJ, 1-way repeated measures analysis of variance (CC x PSC x ASC x DC) revealed significant decreases for ASC (28.7 +/- 4.7 cm; p = 0.01) and PSC (28.7 +/- 4.3 cm; p = 0.02) conditions when compared with CC (29.9 +/- 5.0 cm). For CMJs, there were no significant decreases (p > 0.05) when all stretching conditions were compared with the CC. Significant increases in SJ performance were observed when comparing the DC (29.6 +/- 4.9 cm; p = 0.02) with PSC (28.7 +/- 4.3 cm). Significant increases in CMJ performance were observed when comparing the conditions ASC (34.0 +/- 6.0 cm; p = 0.04) and DC (33.7 +/- 5.5 cm; p = 0.03) with PSC (32.6 +/- 5.5 cm). A dynamic stretching intervention appears to be more suitable for use as part of a warm-up in young athletes.

Effects of extrusion, lipid concentration and purity on physico-chemical and biological properties of cationic liposomes for gene vaccine applications

We developed cationic liposomes containing DNA through a conventional process involving steps of (i) preformation of liposomes, (ii) extrusion, (iii) drying and rehydration and (iv) DNA complexation. Owing to its high prophylactic potentiality against tuberculosis, which had already been demonstrated in preclinical assays, we introduced modifications into the conventional process towards getting a simpler and more economical process for further scale-up. Elimination of the extrusion step, increasing the lipid concentration (from 16 to 64 mM) of the preformed liposomes and using good manufacturing practice bulk lipids (96-98% purity) instead of analytical grade purity lipids (99.9-100%) were the modifications studied. The differences in the physico-chemical properties, such as average diameter, zeta potential, melting point and morphology of the liposomes prepared through the modified process, were not as significant for the biological properties, such as DNA loading on the cationic liposomes, and effective immune response in mice after immunisation as the control liposomes prepared through the conventional process. Beneficially, the modified process increased productivity by 22% and reduced the cost of raw material by 75%.

Effects of Gastric Bypass Surgery in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and Only Mild Obesity

OBJECTIVE-Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) ameliorates type 2 diabetes in severely obese patients through mechanisms beyond just weight loss, and it may benefit less obese diabetic patients. We determined the long-term impact of RYGB on patients with diabetes and only class 1 obesity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-Sixty-six consecutively selected diabetic patients with BMI 30-35 kg/m(2) underwent RYGB in a tertiary-care hospital and were prospectively studied for up to 6 years (median 5 years [range 1-6]), with 100% follow-up. Main outcome measures were safety and the percentage of patients experiencing diabetes remission (HbA(1c) <6.5% without diabetes medication). RESULTS-Participants had severe, longstanding diabetes, with disease duration 12.5 +/- 7.4 years and HbA(1c) 9.7 +/- 1.5%, despite insulin and/or oral diabetes medication usage in everyone. For up to 6 years following RYGB, durable diabetes remission occurred in 88% of cases, with glycemic improvement in 11%. Mean HbA(1c) fell from 9.7 +/- 1.5 to 5.9 +/- 0.1% (P < 0.001), despite diabetes medication cessation in the majority. Weight loss failed to correlate with several measures of improved glucose homeostasis, consistent with weight-independent antidiabetes mechanisms of RYGB. C-peptide responses to glucose increased substantially, suggesting improved beta-cell function. There was no mortality, major surgical morbidity, or excessive weight loss. Hypertension and dyslipidemia also improved, yielding 50-84% reductions in predicted 10-year cardiovascular disease risks of fatal and nonfatal coronary heart disease and stroke. CONCLUSIONS-This is the largest, longest-term study examining RYGB for diabetic patients without severe obesity. RYGB safely and effectively ameliorated diabetes and associated comorbidities, reducing cardiovascular risk, in patients with a BMI of only 30-35 kg/m(2).