Sorting growing-finishing pigs by weight fails to improve growth performance or weight variation

A trial was conducted to determine the effects of sorting pigs by body weight at placement on growth performance and weight variation at finishing. Unsorted pigs and heavy sorted pigs had higher ADG than medium or light sorted pigs. By the end of the trial, final body weights ranked in the following descending order: heavy sorted, unsorted, medium sorted, and light sorted. Final weights of unsorted pigs were heavier than the average final weight of all sorted pigs. Additionally, differences in body weight variation were not detectable by the end of the study. These data suggest that sorting pigs uniformly by weight to pens has little effect on final variability in individual body weights and placing pigs into pens regardless of weight may increase the amount of pork produced from a system and reduce turnaround time in barns

Fatty Acid Composition, Proximate Analysis, and Consumer Sensory Evaluation of United States Retail Grass-Fed Ground Beef

The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical composition, consumer liking, and consumer acceptability of ground beef with 2 finishing diets. Three ground beef treatments were used in this study and included grass-fed, grain-fed Angus, and grain-fed commodity beef. Ground beef samples were evaluated for consumer sensory response, pH, proximate composition, and fatty acid composition. Grain-fed samples were rated higher (P 0.05) for all 3 types of ground beef. Consumers preferred (P 0.05) flavor acceptability and overall acceptability to Angus and grass-fed ground beef. Grass-fed, Angus, and commodity ground beef were similar (P > 0.05) for moisture, fat, and protein content. Commodity ground beef had a higher pH (P 0.01) across all treatments. Omega-3 fatty acids were found in the greatest (P < 0.05) proportions in samples from grass-fed beef. Additionally, the omega-6:omega-3 ratio for grass-fed ground beef was lower (P < 0.05) than grain-fed source. Angus and commodity ground beef were more palatable, and there was no evidence of higher PUFA in grass-fed ground beef

Effects of creatine monohydrate on finishing pig growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality

Growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality were evaluated from 320 pigs fed either a control diet or diets containing added creatine monohydrate (CMH). Dietary treatments, initiated 30-d prior to slaughter (192 lb BW), consisted of: 1) a control diet; 2) control diet with 3 g CMH/pig/d for 30 d (maintenance); 3) 25 g CMH/pig/d for 5 d followed by 3 g CMH/pig/d for the next 25 d (early load); 4) or 25 g CMH/pig/d 5 d before slaughter (late load). The results from this experiment suggest that added CMH does not affect finishing pig growth performance but may increase longissimus muscle firmness and decrease drip loss at 14 d postmortem

Skeletal Muscle Metabolism Is Dynamic during Porcine Postnatal Growth

Skeletal muscle metabolism has implications for swine feed efficiency (FE); however, it remains unclear if the metabolic profile of skeletal muscle changes during postnatal growth. To assess the metabolic changes, samples were collected from the longissimus dorsi (LD, glycolytic muscle), latissimus dorsi (LAT, mixed muscle), and masseter (MS, oxidative muscle) at 20, 53, 87, 120, and 180 days of age from barrows. Muscles were assessed to determine the abundance of several metabolic enzymes. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDHα) decreased in all muscles from 20 to 87 d (p p p 13C-labeled metabolites to assess isotopomer enrichment patterns of TCA intermediates. Citrate M + 2 and M + 4 derived from [13C3]-pyruvate increased at 87 d in LAT and MS mitochondria compared to LD mitochondria (p p < 0.01). These data support the notion that pyruvate metabolism is dynamic during growth. Our findings establish a metabolic fingerprint associated with postnatal muscle hypertrophy

Characterizing membrane phospholipid hydrolysis of pork loins throughout three aging periods

Three chops from 20 pork carcasses were aged for 1, 8, and 21 days. Electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry was used to comprehensively analyze profiles of phospholipids from each sample (n=60). Total phospholipid quantity decreased 4-folds (P < 0.01) from 1 to 21 days of aging in pork loins. Phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphatidylserine (PS) increased by 30% and 73%, respectively, from 1 to 21 days of aging in pork loins (P < 0.01). This increase was mainly due to relative percentage increase from PI 38:4 (18:0–20:4) and PS 36:2 (18:0–18:2; P < 0.01). The results also showed that the relative percentage of lysophosphatidylcholine increased by 35% after short term aging (8d), and phosphatidic acid increased by 10-folds after extended aging (21d; P < 0.01). These results documented that phospholipids undergo enzymatic hydrolysis during aging, but also indicated that lipid species containing 18:2 or 20:4 within PI and PS were slightly more resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis compared with the other phospholipids.This is a manuscript of an article published as Chao, M. D., E. A. Donaldson, W. Wu, A. A. Welter, T. G. O'Quinn, W-W. Hsu, M. D. Schulte, and S. M. Lonergan. "Characterizing membrane phospholipid hydrolysis of pork loins throughout three aging periods." Meat science 163 (2020): 108065. doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2020.108065. Posted with permission. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License

Response of ZrC to swift heavy ion irradiation

Zirconium carbide (ZrC) is commonly used for energy sector research, as well as a surrogate for the proposed advanced nuclear fuel candidate uranium carbide. This study investigates structural modifications to nanocrystalline and microcrystalline ZrC resulting from dense electronic excitations induced by swift heavy ion exposure. Samples were irradiated with 946 MeV Au ions to various fluences up to 6 x 10(13) ions cm(-2) and characterized using synchrotron-based x-ray diffraction. The evolution of the unit-cell parameter and heterogeneous microstrain were evaluated as a function of fluence and compared with those of nanocrystalline and microcrystalline CeO2 (a surrogate for UO2 fuel) irradiated under identical conditions. Distinct differences were observed in the radiation responses of the carbide and oxide across both grain sizes. Most notably, microcrystalline ZrC exhibits swelling characterized by two distinct regimes, which does not result in saturation at the ion fluences achieved. This contrasts with CeO2, which exhibits the well-documented direct-impact defect accumulation mechanism, reaching a steady-state saturation of swelling at higher fluences. Nanocrystalline CeO2 undergoes more pronounced swelling compared with microcrystalline CeO2, in contrast to nanocrystalline ZrC, which exhibits only minimal unit-cell changes. These results demonstrate that swift heavy ion-induced structural changes can be quite different in carbides and oxides, which must be considered when extrapolating fission-fragment type damage in current fuels to advanced fuels

Asthma Daytime Symptom Diary (ADSD) and Asthma Nighttime Symptom Diary (ANSD) : measurement properties of novel patient-reported symptom measures

BACKGROUND: The Asthma Daytime Symptom Diary (ADSD) and the Asthma Nighttime Symptom Diary (ANSD) were developed to meet the need for standardized patient-reported measures of asthma symptoms to assess treatment trial outcomes in adults and adolescents. OBJECTIVE: To determine scoring and evaluate the measurement properties of the ADSD/ANSD. METHODS: Adolescents (12-17 years) and adults (18 + years) with asthma completed draft 8-item electronic versions of the ADSD/ANSD for 10 days alongside the Adult Asthma Symptom Daily Scales (AASDS) and a Patient Global Impression of Severity (PGIS). Using classical and modern psychometric methods, initial analyses evaluated the performance of ADSD/ ANSD items to inform scoring. Subsequent analyses evaluated the reliability and validity of ADSD/ANSD scores. RESULTS: A demographically and clinically diverse sample (n = 130 adolescents; n = 89 adults) was recruited. Item performance was generally strong. However, items assessing chest pressure and mucus/phlegm demonstrated redundancy and poorer performance and were removed. Principal-components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and item response theory supported combining items to form 6-item total ADSD/ANSD scores. Internal consistency (alpha = 0.94-0.95) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.86-0.95) were strong. Strong correlations (r = 0.72-0.80) were observed between ADSD scores and AASDS items assessing asthma symptom frequency, bother, and impact on activities. Significant differences (P < .001) in mean ADSD/ANSD scores were observed between groups categorized by asthma severity (PGIS), asthma control, inhaler use, nebulizer use, activity limitations, and nighttime awakenings. CONCLUSIONS: The ADSD/ANSD items and scores demonstrated strong reliability and validity. Implementation of the measures in interventional studies will enable the evaluation of responsiveness and meaningful within-patient change. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology