Intrauterine crowding impairs formation and growth of secondary myofibers in pigs

There are indications that intrauterine crowding may cause intrauterine growth retardation with the possibility of an impaired myofiber hyperplasia. The aim of the study was to confirm this by generating large differences in uterine space using sows that were unilaterally hysterectomized-ovariectomized (HO; crowded) or unilaterally oviduct ligated (OL; non-crowded). In the study, seven HO and seven OL Swiss Large White third parity sows were used. At farrowing, litter size and litter birth weight were determined. Subsequently, within each litter two male and two female progenies each with the respectively lowest (L) and highest (H) birth weight were sacrificed. Internal organs and brain were weighed, and longissimus (LM) and semitendinosus muscle (SM) samples were collected. Histological analyses were performed in both muscles using mATPase staining after preincubation at pH 4.3 and 10.2. Myosin heavy chain (MyHC) polymorphism was determined in the LM by means of SDS-PAGE. The number of piglets born alive was similar in both sow groups, but litter size expressed per uterine horn was lower (P < 0.05) in OL than HO sows. Consequently, OL progeny were markedly heavier (P < 0.01). Regardless of gender, the organs, the brain and the SM were heavier (P < 0.001) in OL and H compared with HO and L offspring, respectively. Compared with HO pigs, the SM of OL offspring tended (P < 0.1) to have more myofibers, which were of larger (P < 0.05) size. However, myofiber density appeared to be lower (P < 0.1) in the SM of OL than HO pigs. The impact of birth weight on myofiber characteristics was limited to the lower (P < 0.05) myofiber density in the SM and the larger (P < 0.01) myofiber size in the light portion of the SM of H than L offspring, whereas myofiber hyperplasia did not differ between birth weight categories. The SM, but not the LM, of male offspring had a greater (P < 0.05) myofiber density. This did not affect total SM myofiber number. The relative abundance of fetal and type I MyHC in the LM was lower (P < 0.05) and that of type II MyHC was greater (P < 0.001) in OL than HO pigs. The current data suggest that regardless of birth weight and gender, in the LM and SM of individuals born from a crowded environment, not only hyperplasia but also hypertrophy of myofibers is impaired and their maturity seems delaye

The Mersey Estuary : sediment geochemistry

This report describes a study of the geochemistry of the Mersey estuary carried out between April 2000 and December 2002. The study was the first in a new programme of surveys of the geochemistry of major British estuaries aimed at enhancing our knowledge and understanding of the distribution of contaminants in estuarine sediments. The report first summarises the physical setting, historical development, geology, hydrography and bathymetry of the Mersey estuary and its catchment. Details of the sampling and analytical programmes are then given followed by a discussion of the sedimentology and geochemistry. The chemistry of the water column and suspended particulate matter have not been studied, the chief concern being with the geochemistry of the surface and near-surface sediments of the Mersey estuary and an examination of their likely sources and present state of contamination

Progesterone And Prostaglandin F2α Induce Species-Typical Female Preferences For Male Sexual Displays In Cope\u27s Gray Treefrog (Hyla Chrysoscelis)

Endocrine systems play critical roles in facilitating sexual behavior in seasonally breeding vertebrates. Much of the research exploring this topic has focused on the endocrine correlates of signaling behavior in males and sexual proceptivity in females. What is less understood is how hormones promote the expression of the often complex and highly selective set of stimulus–response behaviors that are observed in naturally breeding animals. In female frogs, phonotaxis is a robust and sensitive bioassay of mate choice and is exhibited by gravid females during the breeding season. In stark contrast, females exhibit low phonotactic responsiveness outside the breeding season, but the administration of hormones can induce sexual proceptivity. Here we test the hypothesis that manipulation of a minimal set of reproductive hormones—progesterone and prostaglandin F2α—are capable of evoking not only proceptive behavior in non-breeding females, but also the patterns of intraspecific selectivity for male sexual displays observed in gravid females tested during the breeding season. Specifically, we investigated whether preferences for faster call rates, longer call durations, and higher call efforts were similar between breeding and hormone-treated females of Cope\u27s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis). Hormone injections induced patterns of selective phonotaxis in non-breeding females that were remarkably similar to those observed in breeding females. These results suggest that there may be an important contribution of hormonal pleiotropy in regulating this complex, acoustically-guided sexual behavior. Our findings also support the idea that hormonal induction could be used to evaluate hypotheses about selective mate choice, and its underlying mechanisms, using non-breeding females

Synthesis and characterization of nickel ferrite magnetic nanoparticles by co-precipitation method

Magnetic nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) nanoparticles have been synthesized via co-precipitation method by varying the metal precursors ratio. Four different precursors ratio (Fe:Ni) are varied at 40:60, 50:50, 60:40 and 80:20. The size of the nanoparticles is found to increase with increasing iron (Fe) content. In addition, the morphology of the particles are observed to change from spherical to a shape similar to a nanooctahedral particle when the Fe content in the initial precursors ratio increases. The X-ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns have proved the presence of nickel ferrite nanoparticles. The magnetic properties characterized by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature proved that the assynthesized nickel ferrite nanoparticles are ferromagnetic and the saturation magnetization (Ms) increases with the content of Fe in the sample

Do red deer stags (Cervus elaphus) use roar fundamental frequency (F0) to assess rivals?

It is well established that in humans, male voices are disproportionately lower pitched than female voices, and recent studies suggest that this dimorphism in fundamental frequency (F0) results from both intrasexual (male competition) and intersexual (female mate choice) selection for lower pitched voices in men. However, comparative investigations indicate that sexual dimorphism in F0 is not universal in terrestrial mammals. In the highly polygynous and sexually dimorphic Scottish red deer Cervus elaphus scoticus, more successful males give sexually-selected calls (roars) with higher minimum F0s, suggesting that high, rather than low F0s advertise quality in this subspecies. While playback experiments demonstrated that oestrous females prefer higher pitched roars, the potential role of roar F0 in male competition remains untested. Here we examined the response of rutting red deer stags to playbacks of re-synthesized male roars with different median F0s. Our results show that stags’ responses (latencies and durations of attention, vocal and approach responses) were not affected by the F0 of the roar. This suggests that intrasexual selection is unlikely to strongly influence the evolution of roar F0 in Scottish red deer stags, and illustrates how the F0 of terrestrial mammal vocal sexual signals may be subject to different selection pressures across species. Further investigations on species characterized by different F0 profiles are needed to provide a comparative background for evolutionary interpretations of sex differences in mammalian vocalizations

Two-Dimensional QCD in the Wu-Mandelstam-Leibbrandt Prescription

We find the exact non-perturbative expression for a simple Wilson loop of arbitrary shape for U(N) and SU(N) Euclidean or Minkowskian two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory regulated by the Wu-Mandelstam-Leibbrandt gauge prescription. The result differs from the standard pure exponential area-law of YM_2, but still exhibits confinement as well as invariance under area-preserving diffeomorphisms and generalized axial gauge transformations. We show that the large N limit is NOT a good approximation to the model at finite N and conclude that Wu's N=infinity Bethe-Salpeter equation for QCD_2 should have no bound state solutions. The main significance of our results derives from the importance of the Wu-Mandelstam-Leibbrandt prescription in higher-dimensional perturbative gauge theory.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, REVTE

Test of CPT Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics with Experimental data from CPLEAR

We use fits to recent published CPLEAR data on neutral kaon decays to $\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\pi e\nu$ to constrain the CPT--violation parameters appearing in a formulation of the neutral kaon system as an open quantum-mechanical system. The obtained upper limits of the CPT--violation parameters are approaching the range suggested by certain ideas concerning quantum gravity.Comment: 9 pages of uuencoded postscript (includes 3 figures

Change management: The case of the elite sport performance team

The effective and efficient implementation of change is often required for both successful performance and management survival across a host of contemporary domains. However, although of major theoretical and practical significance, research to date has overlooked the application of change management (hereafter CM) knowledge to the elite sport performance team environment. Considering that the success of ‘off-field’ sports businesses are largely dependent on the performances of their ‘on-field’ team, this article explores the application of current CM theorizing to this specific setting and the challenges facing its utility. Accordingly, we identify the need and importance of developing theory specific to this area, with practical application in both sport and business, through examination of current knowledge and identification of the domain's unique, dynamic and contested properties. Markers of successful change are then suggested to guide initial enquiry before the article concludes with proposed lines of research which may act to provide a valid and comprehensive theoretical account of CM to optimize the research and practice of those working in the field

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Effect of average litter weight in pigs on growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of the offspring as depending on birth weight

Offspring born from normal litter size (10 to 15 piglets) but classified as having lower than average birth weight (average of the sow herd used: 1.46 ± 0.2 kg; mean ± s.d.) carry at birth negative phenotypic traits normally associated with intrauterine growth restriction, such as brain-sparing and impaired myofiber hyperplasia. The objective of the study was to assess long-term effects of intrauterine crowding by comparing postnatal performance, carcass characteristics and pork quality of offspring born from litters with higher (>1.7 kg) or lower ( 0.05). These pigs were fattened in group pen and slaughtered at 165 days of age. Pre-weaning performance of the litters and growth performance, carcass and meat quality traits of the selected pigs were assessed. Number of stillborn and pig mortality were greater (P 0.05) slaughter weight at 165 days of age. However, HL-gilts were more feed efficient and had leaner carcasses than HI-, LH- and LI-pigs (birth weight class × gender interaction P < 0.05). Meat quality traits were mostly similar between groups. The marked between-litter birth weight variation observed in normal size litters had therefore no evident negative impact on growth potential and quality of pigs from the lower birth weight grou