Identification and characterization of microsatellite loci in two socially complex old world tropical babblers (Family Timaliidae)

Background: Although the highest diversity of birds occurs in tropical regions, little is known about the genetic mating systems of most tropical species. We describe microsatellite markers isolated in the chestnut-crested yuhina (Staphida everetti), endemic to the island of Borneo, and the grey-throated babbler (Stachyris nigriceps), widely distributed across Southeast Asia. Both species belong to the avian family Timaliidae and are highly social, putatively cooperatively breeding birds in which helpers attend the nests of members of their social group. We obtained DNA from individuals in social groups breeding in Kinabalu Park, Malaysian Borneo. Results: We used a shotgun sequencing approach and 454-technology to identify 36 microsatellite loci in the yuhina and 40 in the babbler. We tested 13 primer pairs in yuhinas and 20 in babblers and characterized eight polymorphic loci in 20 unrelated female yuhinas and 21 unrelated female babblers. Polymorphism at the yuhina loci ranged from 3 to 9 alleles, observed heterozygosities from 0.58 to 1.00, and expected heterozygosities from 0.64 to 0.81. Polymorphism at the babbler loci ranged from 3 to 12 alleles, observed heterozygosities from 0.14 to 0.90 and expected heterozygosities from 0.14 to 0.87. One locus in the yuhina deviated significantly from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. We detected nonrandom allele associations between two pairs of microsatellite loci in each species. Conclusions: Microsatellite markers will be used to describe the genetic mating system of these socially complex species and to measure genetic parentage and relatedness within social groups

Determinantes de la Participación Femenina en el Mercado de Trabajo en la Ciudad de Villavicencio desde la Óptica Socioeconomica, Meta, 2008-2015

61 Hojas.Analizar cuáles son los factores que determinan el ingreso de las mujeres al mercado laboral en Villavicencio, Meta desde el año 2008 a 2015 • Analizar la influencia que han tenido los factores socioeconómicos en los indicadores laborales de la ciudad de Villavicencio, a partir de la Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares (GEIH) desde el año 2008 a 2015. • Recolectar datos que aporten a la investigación Macro para la elaboración del modelo probit para indicar la probabilidad de que una mujer participe en el mercado de trabajo dados algunos determinantes socioeconómicos. • Diagnosticar por medio de la investigación socioeconómica los obstáculos y las ventajas que tiene la población femenina para incursionar en el mercado laboral en la ciudad de Villavicencio, Meta.Resultado para Optar el Título de Economista.Universidad de los Llanos. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.Programa de Economía, 2018.PregradoEconomí

Upper limb dysfunction and activities in daily living in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus

Background Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is a neurodegenerative disease with a characteristic symptom triad of gait disturbance, cognitive decline, and incontinence. Recently, also dysfunctions in upper limbs have been described in iNPH and reported to improve after shunt surgery. We aim to describe the role of upper limb motor function in the clinical assessment of iNPH patients and its influence on activities of daily living (ADL). Methods Seventy-five consecutive patients with probable iNPH were studied pre-operatively and at 3 and 12 months after shunt surgery. The pre-operative evaluation included lumbar drainage of cerebrospinal fluid (tap test). Motor functions were assessed in upper and lower limbs with Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT), Box & Block Test (BBT), Total Score of Gait (TSG), and balance test. ADL was assessed with Barthel's index and cognition in accordance with the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Results Patients showed improvement in all motor tests and ADL at 3 months after shunt surgery. The improvement remained stable during the 12-month post-operative follow-up. The motor function tests correlated with each other and with ADL. Conclusions A 3-month follow-up period after shunt surgery is adequate to show improvement in motor tasks, and a positive outcome will last for at least 12 months. A shunt-responsive dysfunction of upper limb motor performance plays a major role in ADL of iNPH patients. Therefore, we suggest an evaluation of upper limb motor performance to be included in routine evaluation of iNPH patients.Peer reviewe

Helix 8 is the essential structural motif of mechanosensitive GPCRs

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are versatile cellular sensors for chemical stimuli, but also serve as mechanosensors involved in various (patho)physiological settings like vascular regulation, cardiac hypertrophy and preeclampsia. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying mechanically induced GPCR activation have remained elusive. Here we show that mechanosensitive histamine H-1 receptors (H(1)Rs) are endothelial sensors of fluid shear stress and contribute to flow-induced vasodilation. At the molecular level, we observe that H(1)Rs undergo stimulus-specific patterns of conformational changes suggesting that mechanical forces and agonists induce distinct active receptor conformations. GPCRs lacking C-terminal helix 8 (H8) are not mechanosensitive, and transfer of H8 to non-responsive GPCRs confers, while removal of H8 precludes, mechanosensitivity. Moreover, disrupting H8 structural integrity by amino acid exchanges impairs mechanosensitivity. Altogether, H8 is the essential structural motif endowing GPCRs with mechanosensitivity. These findings provide a mechanistic basis for a better understanding of the roles of mechanosensitive GPCRs in (patho)physiology

Prediction of pregnancy state from milk mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy in dairy cows

Submitted 2020-07-14 | Accepted 2020-08-18 | Available 2020-12-01https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2020.23.mi-fpap.224-232Pregnancy assessment is a very important tool for the reproductive management in efficient and profitable dairy farms. Nowadays, mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is the method of choice in the routine milk recording system for quality control and to determine standard milk components. Since it is well known that there are changes in milk yield and composition during pregnancy, the aim of this study was to develop a discriminant model to predict the pregnancy state from routinely recorded MIR spectral data. The data for this study was from the Austrian milk recording system. Test day records of Fleckvieh, Brown Swiss and Holstein Friesian cows between 3 and 305 days of lactation were included in the study. As predictor variables, the first derivative of 212 selected MIR spectral wavenumbers were used. The data set contained roughly 400,000 records from around 40,000 cows and was randomly split into calibration and validation set by farm. Prediction was done with Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis. Indicators of model fit were sensitivity, specificity, balanced accuracy and Area Under Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC). In a first approach, one discriminant model for all cows across the whole lactation and gestation lengths was applied. The sensitivity and specificity of this model in validation were 0.856 and 0.836, respectively. Splitting up the results for different lactation stages showed that the model was not able to predict pregnant cases before the third month of lactation and vice versa not able to predict non-pregnancy after the third month of lactation. Consequently, in the second approach a prediction model for each different (expected) pregnancy stage and lactation stage was developed. Balanced accuracies ranged from 0.523 to 0.918. Whether prediction accuracies from this study are sufficient to provide farmers with an additional tool for fertility management, it needs to be explored in discussions with farmers and breeding organizations.Keywords: MIR spectroscopy, pregnancy prediction, dairy cow, PLSReferencesBalhara, A. K., Gupta, M., Singh, S., Mohanty, A. K., & Singh, I. (2013). Early pregnancy diagnosis in bovines: Current status and future directions. The Scientific World Journal, 2013. hhttps://doi.org/10.1155/2013/958540Bekele, N., Addis, M., Abdela, N., & Ahmed, W. M. (2016). Pregnancy Diagnosis in Cattle for Fertility Management: A Review. Global Veterinaria, 16(4), 355–364. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.gv.2016.16.04.103136Benedet, A., Franzoi, M., Penasa, M., Pellattiero, E., & De Marchi, M. (2019). Prediction of blood metabolites from milk mid-infrared spectra in early-lactation cows. Journal of Dairy Science, 102(12), 11298–11307. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-16937Delhez, P., Ho, P. N., Gengler, N., Soyeurt, H., & Pryce, J. E. (2020). Diagnosing the pregnancy status of dairy cows: How useful is milk mid-infrared spectroscopy? Journal of Dairy Science, 103(4), 3264–3274. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-17473Egger-Danner, C., Fürst, C., Mayerhofer, M., Rain, C., & Rehling, C. (2018). ZuchtData Jahresbericht 2018. Vienna. [Online]. Available at: https://zar.at/Downloads/Jahresberichte/ZuchtData-Jahresberichte.html. [Accessed: 2020, May 15].Gengler, N., Tijani, A., Wiggans, G. R., & Misztal, I. (1999). Estimation of (Co)variance function coefficients for test day yield with a expectation-maximization restricted maximum likelihood algorithm. Journal of Dairy Science, 82(8), 1849.e1-1849.e23. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(99)75417-2Grelet, C., Fernández Pierna, J. A., Dardenne, P., Baeten, V., & Dehareng, F. (2015). Standardization of milk mid-infrared spectra from a European dairy network. Journal of Dairy Science, 98(4), 2150–2160. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2014-8764Grelet, C., Bastin, C., Gelé, M., Davière, J. B., Johan, M., Werner, A., Reding, R., Fernandes Pierna, J. A., Colinet, F. G., Dardenne, P., Gendler, N., Soyeurt, H. & Dehareng, F. (2016). Development of Fourier transform mid-infrared calibrations to predict acetone, β-hydroxybutyrate, and citrate contents in bovine milk through a European dairy network. Journal of Dairy Science, 99(6), 4816–4825. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2015-10477Hirpa, A., Yehualaw, B., Wube, A., Asnake, A., Jemberu, A., Medicine, V., & Box, P. O. (2018). Review on Pregnancy Diagnosis in Dairy Cows, 9(2), 45–55. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.jri.2018.45.55Ho, P. N., Bonfatti, V., Luke, T. D. W., & Pryce, J. E. (2019). Classifying the fertility of dairy cows using milk mid-infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Dairy Science. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-16412Humblot, P. (2001). Monitor Pregnancy and Determine the Timing , Frequencies and Sources of Embryonic Mortality in Ruminants. Theriogenology, 56(01), 1417–1433.Kuhn, M. (2008). Building Predictive Models in R Using the caret Package. Journal of Statistical Software, 28(5), 1–26.Lainé, A., Bel Mabrouk, H., Dale, L. M., Bastin, C., & Gengler, N. (2014). How to use mid-infrared spectral information from milk recording system to detect the pregnancy status of dairy cows. Communications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences, 79(1), 33–38.Lainé, A., Bastin, C., Grelet, C., Hammami, H., Colinet, F. G., Dale, L. M., Gillon, A., Vandenplas, J., Deharend, F. & Gengler, N. (2017). Assessing the effect of pregnancy stage on milk composition of dairy cows using mid-infrared spectra. Journal of Dairy Science, 100(4), 2863–2876.https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2016-11736Lantz, B. (2015). Machine Learning with R. Machine Learning (Second Edi). Packt Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119642183.ch14Mineur, A., Köck, A., Grelet, C., Gengler, N., Egger-Danner, C., & Sölkner, J. (2017). First Results in the Use of Milk Mid-infrared Spectra in the Detection of Lameness in Austrian Dairy Cows Genomic evaluation View project MACSUR View project. Agriculturae Conspectus Scientifi Cus, Vol. 82(No. 2 (163-166)), (163-166). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325450513Olori, V. E., Brotherstone, S., Hill, W. G., & McGuirk, B. J. (1997). Effect of gestation stage on milk yield and composition in Holstein Friesian dairy cattle. Livestock Production Science, 52(2), 167–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-6226(97)00126-7Pohler, K. G., Franco, G. A., Reese, S. T., Dantas, F. G., Ellis, M. D., & Payton, R. R. (2016). Past, present and future of pregnancy detection methods. Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle 7-8 September 2016, 251–259.Rienesl, L., Khayatzadeh, N., Köck, A., Dale, L., Werner, A., Grelet, C., Gengler, N., Auer, F-J., Egger-Danner, C., Massart, X. & Sölkner, J. (2019). Mastitis detection from milk mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy in dairy cows. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 67(5), 1221–1226. https://doi.org/10.11118/actaun201967051221Santos, J. E. P., Thatcher, W. W., Chebel, R. C., Cerri, R. L. A., & Galvão, K. N. (2004). The effect of embryonic death rates in cattle on the efficacy of estrus synchronization programs. Animal Reproduction Science, 82–83, 513–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2004.04.015SAS Institute Inc. (2017). SAS software 9.4. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.Soyeurt, H., Dehareng, F., Gengler, N., McParland, S., Wall, E., Berry, D. P., Coffey, P. & Dardenne, P. (2011). Mid-infrared prediction of bovine milk fatty acids across multiple breeds, production systems, and countries. Journal of Dairy Science, 94(4), 1657–1667. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2010-3408Soyeurt, H., Bastin, C., Colinet, F. G., Arnould, V. M.-R., Berry, D. P., Wall, E., Dehareng, F., Nguyen, H. N., Pardenne, P., Schefers, J., Vandenplas, J., Weigel, K., Coffey, M., Théron, L., Detilleux, J., Reding, E., Gengler, N. & McParland, S. (2012). Mid-infrared prediction of lactoferrin content in bovine milk: potential indicator of mastitis. Animal, 6(11), 1830–1838. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1751731112000791Toffanin, V., De Marchi, M., Lopez-Villalobos, N., & Cassandro, M. (2015). Effectiveness of mid-infrared spectroscopy for prediction of the contents of calcium and phosphorus, and titratable acidity of milk and their relationship with milk quality and coagulation properties. International Dairy Journal, 41, 68–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idairyj.2014.10.002Vanlierde, A., Vanrobays, M.-L., Dehareng, F., Froidmont, E., Soyeurt, H., McParland, S., S., Lewis, E., Deighton, M. H., Grandl, F., Kreuzer, M., Gredler, B., Dardenne, P. & Gengler, N. (2015). Hot topic: Innovative lactation-stage-dependent prediction of methane emissions from milk mid-infrared spectra. Journal of Dairy Science, 98(8), 5740–5747. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2014-8436Vanlierde, A., Soyeurt, H., Gengler, N., Colinet, F. G., Froidmont, E., Kreuzer, M., Grandl, F., Bell, M., Lund, P., Olijhoek, D. W., Eugéne M., Martin, C., Kuhla, B. & Dehareng, F. (2018). Short communication: Development of an equation for estimating methane emissions of dairy cows from milk Fourier transform mid-infrared spectra by using reference data obtained exclusively from respiration chambers. Journal of Dairy Science, 101(8). https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2018-14472

Incidence of primary congenital hypothyroidism over 24 years in Finland

Background A rise in the incidence of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) has been reported worldwide. This nationwide study aimed to describe the secular trends and current incidence of CH in Finland.Methods Two independent study cohorts, a national and a regional, were collected from national registers and patient records. The national cohort represents all CH cases born in Finland between 1994 and 2017. Birth data, results of the screening test, and the incidence of CH were reviewed.Results Between 1994 and 2017, 1,400,028 children were born in Finland. Of these children, 503 were diagnosed with primary CH (incidence 1:2783). Male-to-female sex ratio was 1:2.0. The nationwide incidence was 33 cases per 100,000 live births between 1994 and 1999, 38 cases per 100,000 live births between 2000 and 2005, 40 cases per 100,000 live births between 2006 and 2011, and 33 cases per 100,000 live births between 2012 and 2017. In the regional cohort (n = 139), the incidence of transient CH was 3.6%. The incidence of mild, moderate, and severe CH remained constant.Conclusions In Finland, the incidence of CH has not changed during the 24-year study period. Impact As opposed to recent reports worldwide, the incidence of congenital hypothyroidism has not changed between 1994 and 2017 in Finland. The proportions of mild, moderate, and severe congenital hypothyroidism did not change significantly over the study period. Lowering the TSH cut-off limit or increasing immigration did not affect the incidence rate of primary congenital hypothyroidism in Finland.</p

Ketosis risk derived from mid-infrared predicted traits and its relationship with herd milk yield, health and fertility

Milk analysis using mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) is a fast and inexpensive way of examining milk samples on a large scale for fat, protein, lactose, urea and many other novel traits. A new indicator trait for ketosis, KetoMIR, which is based on clinical ketosis diagnoses and MIR-predicted traits, was developed by the Regional State Association for Performance and Quality Inspection in Animal Breeding of Baden Württemberg in 2015. The KetoMIR result is available for each cow at milk recording during the first 120 days in milk and presented to farmers in three classes: 1 = low ketosis risk, 2 = moderate ketosis risk and 3 = high ketosis risk. The aim of the current study was to analyze the phenotypic relationships between KetoMIR and milk yield, fertility and health at the herd level. Annual herd reports from 12,909 herds with an average herd size of 27 cows were available for the analyses. Overall, the mean incidence of ketosis (KetoMIR risk class 2 or 3) at the herd level was 14.0%. Farms with the lowest ketosis risk (≤10% of cows in the herd with a moderate or high ketosis risk) differed in all variables from the farms with the highest ketosis risk (&gt;50% of cows in the herd with a moderate or high ketosis risk). The increased ketosis risk based on KetoMIR was associated with lower average herd milk yield (-1,975 kg milk). Mean herd somatic cell count in first and higher lactations was increased by 60,500 and 134,400 cells/ml, respectively. The interval from calving to first service was prolonged by +36.5 days, as was the calving interval with +58.2 days. The newly developed KetoMIR trait may be used in ketosis prevention programs

Genome-wide association study identifies eight risk loci and implicates metabo-psychiatric origins for anorexia nervosa

Characterized primarily by a low body-mass index, anorexia nervosa is a complex and serious illness1, affecting 0.9-4% of women and 0.3% of men2-4, with twin-based heritability estimates of 50-60%5. Mortality rates are higher than those in other psychiatric disorders6, and outcomes are unacceptably poor7. Here we combine data from the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI)8,9 and the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC-ED) and conduct a genome-wide association study of 16,992 cases of anorexia nervosa and 55,525 controls, identifying eight significant loci. The genetic architecture of anorexia nervosa mirrors its clinical presentation, showing significant genetic correlations with psychiatric disorders, physical activity, and metabolic (including glycemic), lipid and anthropometric traits, independent of the effects of common variants associated with body-mass index. These results further encourage a reconceptualization of anorexia nervosa as a metabo-psychiatric disorder. Elucidating the metabolic component is a critical direction for future research, and paying attention to both psychiatric and metabolic components may be key to improving outcomes