Implant Combinations and Reimplanting Strategies for Yearling Steers Fed High Concentrate Diets

Crossbred yearling steers were used to determine the relative efficacy of specific anabolic implant combinations and sequences on feedlot performance and carcass traits. Steers were fed a high concentrate finishing diet for 112 days. lmplanting was done on days 1 and 42 of the feeding period. lmplanting improved (P \u3c .05) average daily gain (ADG) 22% and feed efficiency 15%. Implant treatment generally increased dry matter intake. Lmplanting increased (P\u3c.05) the rib eye area of carcasses 6.5% and tended to cause a reduction in percentage choice carcasses. The percentage of abscessed implants ranged from \u3c 1 % to 10%, depending on the type of implant used even though implant needles were disinfected between each use

The Effect of Synovex-S Implants on Feedlot Performance of Angus Bulls and Early Feedlor Period Castrated Angus Bulls

The objective of this research was to determine the effect on feedlot performance of implanting bulls and steers with Synovex-S, and comparing steers to bulls. Profit or loss upon marketing was also studied. Responses to these treatments in terms of feedlot performance provide information to help determine the most effective method of feeding bulls or steers and revenue in dollars upon sale assists in determining the best management scheme for profit

The Effects of Breed and Implant on Bullock Beef

Ninety-seven Angus and 98 Gelbvieh crossbred bulls were used to evaluate the effects of Ralgro, Synovex-H and Synovex-S implants on the growth, carcass and palatability traits of young bulls. The influence of the growth promoting implants on the feedlot performance of the bulls was dependent on their breed type and their stage growth. Percentage retail yield was the only carcass characteristic that was affected by the implants. The implanted bulls yielded carcasses with more external fat and less desirable yield grades than the controls. Rib eye area was not affected by the implants. Breed influenced feedlot performance, carcass composition and quality and palatability attributes more than the implants. The large-framed, late maturing Gelbvieh crossbred bulls grew faster and produced carcasses yielding higher percentages of boneless and produced carcasses yielding higher percentages of boneless trimmed retail cuts than the Angus bulls. The quality grades and palatability traits of the Gelbvieh bulls were marginal. The Angus bull carcasses has very acceptable yield grades (YG-2) and more desirable quality grades and sensory evaluations than the Gelbvieh crossbred bulls. Thus, the use of medium-framed intact males may be more appropriate than the larger framed breeds to produce a more acceptable product for both the packer and the consumer. Packer acceptability needs to be enhanced to make the use of intact males economically feasible for the producer

Anti-oestrogen therapy switches off tumour suppressors and proapoptotic genes in breast cancer and reveals a new therapeutic opportunity

Background Previous studies in the Tenovus Centre have demonstrated that the development of antioestrogen resistance in vitro is accompanied by unfavourable changes in the breast cancer phenotype leading to increase tumour cell growth rate. Here evidence is presented to suggest that this is in part due to antihormones causing the epigenetic silencing of oestrogen-induced genes involved in the negative regulation of cell growth. Importantly, we show that reversal of this process using the demethylation agent 5-azacytidine (5AZA) allows oestrogen-induced cell kill by a previously unrecognised mechanism. Methods The breast cancer cell lines used in this study were MCF7, MCF7-derived tamoxifen-resistant variant (TamR) and TamR sublines that had been withdrawn from tamoxifen (TamRwd) for up to 6 months. Cells were challenged by oestradiol (E2), antihormones and 5AZA. Cell growth responses were assessed by anchorage-dependent growth assays and alterations in expression/activity of oestrogen receptor (ER) and ER-regulated genes were analysed by real-time PCR, western blotting and/or immunocytochemistry. Results Compared with the parental MCF7 cells, TamR cells showed a significant upregulated basal rate of growth that was maintained on tamoxifen withdrawal for 6 months. Following the tamoxifen withdrawal, the cells remained ER-positive and showed a slight growth response to E2. In contrast, they showed no growth inhibitory response to tamoxifen. Examination of the methylation status of the promoters of two classically ER-regulated genes switched off in TamR and TamRwd cells, pS2 and progesterone receptor (PR), confirmed their increased methylation and that 5AZA was able to reverse this process, allowing the re-expression of pS2 and PR on E2 treatment. Although pS2 and PR are not thought to play a role in the regulation of cell growth, these data provide proof of principal that gene silencing occurs in TamR cells and that it can be reinstated by 5AZA plus E2. To determine whether tamoxifen was capable of inducing the methylation of ER-regulated genes involved in cell growth, TamRwd cells pretreated with 5AZA were subject to an E2 dose–response challenge. In contrast to TamRwd cells treated with E2, which promoted a growth response, E2 in combination with 5AZA was strongly inhibitory at physiological doses of the steroid (10-9 M), with this action being reversed by tamoxifen. An Affymetrix analysis of the TamR cells has revealed multiple E2-regulated genes that are switched off in the resistant cells whose ontology indicates tumour suppressor/proapoptotic functions. Conclusion Our data suggest that antihormone resistance may be associated with the epigenetic silencing of growth inhibitory genes leading to enhanced growth rates. We propose that reinstatement of the expression of such genes using demethylation agents in combination with E2 may provide a previously unrecognised therapeutic opportunity in breast cancer

Stick-Slip Motion and Phase Transition in a Block-Spring System

We study numerically stick slip motions in a model of blocks and springs being pulled slowly. The sliding friction is assumed to change dynamically with a state variable. The transition from steady sliding to stick-slip is subcritical in a single block and spring system. However, we find that the transition is continuous in a long chain of blocks and springs. The size distribution of stick-slip motions exhibits a power law at the critical point.Comment: 8 figure

When probabilistic seismic hazard climbs volcanoes: the Mt. Etna case, Italy – Part 2: Computational implementation and first results

Abstract. This paper describes the model implementation and presents results of a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) for the Mt. Etna volcanic region in Sicily, Italy, considering local volcano-tectonic earthquakes. Working in a volcanic region presents new challenges not typically faced in standard PSHA, which are broadly due to the nature of the local volcano-tectonic earthquakes, the cone shape of the volcano and the attenuation properties of seismic waves in the volcanic region. These have been accounted for through the development of a seismic source model that integrates data from different disciplines (historical and instrumental earthquake datasets, tectonic data, etc.; presented in Part 1, by Azzaro et al., 2017) and through the development and software implementation of original tools for the computation, such as a new ground-motion prediction equation and magnitude–scaling relationship specifically derived for this volcanic area, and the capability to account for the surficial topography in the hazard calculation, which influences source-to-site distances. Hazard calculations have been carried out after updating the most recent releases of two widely used PSHA software packages (CRISIS, as in Ordaz et al., 2013; the OpenQuake engine, as in Pagani et al., 2014). Results are computed for short- to mid-term exposure times (10 % probability of exceedance in 5 and 30 years, Poisson and time dependent) and spectral amplitudes of engineering interest. A preliminary exploration of the impact of site-specific response is also presented for the densely inhabited Etna's eastern flank, and the change in expected ground motion is finally commented on. These results do not account for M  >  6 regional seismogenic sources which control the hazard at long return periods. However, by focusing on the impact of M  <  6 local volcano-tectonic earthquakes, which dominate the hazard at the short- to mid-term exposure times considered in this study, we present a different viewpoint that, in our opinion, is relevant for retrofitting the existing buildings and for driving impending interventions of risk reduction

Effects of Restricting Intake on Carcass Traits of Young Steers

Feedlot performance and carcass characteristics were compared when steer calves were fed energy dense diets ad libitum (AL) or restricted (RI) to achieve constant growth rates. AL steers grew more rapidly (P.e.10) than RI steers, 2.93 vs 2.74 Ib per head per day. For the period from 98 days to slaughter (AL = 89 days, RI = 99 days), AL steers consumed more dry matter daily than Rl steers. Restricting intake did not affect feed conversions or total dry matter consumed while in the feedlot. Steers were slaughtered at similar final weights. Intake level did not affect carcass weight, rib fat thickness or rib eye area. RI resulted in depressed (Pc.05) marbling scores and increased (P\u3c.05) percentage KHP. Failure to achieve maximal rates of gain appears to be a primary factor affecting marbling scores in steers 13 to 14 months of age

Reading Videogames as (authorless) Literature

This article presents the outcomes of research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in England and informed by work in the fields of new literacy research, gaming studies and the socio-cultural framing of education, for which the videogame L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, 2011) was studied within the orthodox framing of the English Literature curriculum at A Level (pre-University) and Undergraduate (degree level). There is a plethora of published research into the kinds of literacy practices evident in videogame play, virtual world engagement and related forms of digital reading and writing (Gee, 2003; Juul, 2005; Merchant, Gillen, Marsh and Davies, 2012; Apperley and Walsh, 2012; Bazalgette and Buckingham, 2012) as well as the implications of such for home / school learning (Dowdall, 2006; Jenkins, 2006; Potter, 2012) and for teachers’ own digital lives (Graham, 2012). Such studies have tended to focus on younger children and this research is also distinct from such work in the field in its exploration of the potential for certain kinds of videogame to be understood as 'digital transformations' of conventional ‘schooled’ literature. The outcomes of this project raise implications of such a conception for a further implementation of a ‘reframed’ literacy (Marsh, 2007) within the contemporary curriculum of a traditional and conservative ‘subject’. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Firstly, students contributing to a gamplay blog requiring them to discuss their in-game experience through the ‘language game’ of English Literature, culminating in answering a question constructed with the idioms of the subject’s set text ‘final examination’. Secondly, students taught their teachers to play L.A. Noire, with free choice over the context for this collaboration. Thirdly, participants returned to traditional roles in order to work through a set of study materials provided, designed to reproduce the conventions of the ‘study guide’ for literature education. Interviews were conducted after each phase and the outcomes informed a redrafting of the study materials which are now available online for teachers – this being the ‘practical’ outcome of the research (Berger and McDougall, 2012). In the act of inserting the study of L.A. Noire into the English Literature curriculum as currently framed, this research moves, through a practical ‘implementation’ beyond longstanding debates around narratology and ludology (Frasca, 2003; Juul, 2005) in the field of game studies (Leaning, 2012) through a direct connection to new literacy studies and raises epistemological questions about ‘subject identity’, informed by Bernstein (1996) and Bourdieu (1986) and the implications for digital transformations of texts for both ideas about cultural value in schooled literacy (Kendall and McDougall, 2011) and the politics of ‘expertise’ in pedagogic relations (Ranciere, 2009, Bennett, Kendall and McDougall, 2012a)

Optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for crystalline-silicon solar cells

The authors report on the optimization of textured-dielectric coatings for reflectance control in crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic modules. Textured-dielectric coatings reduce encapsulated-cell reflectance by promoting optical confinement in the module encapsulation; i.e., the textured-dielectric coating randomizes the direction of rays reflected from the dielectric and from the c-Si cell so that many of these reflected rays experience total internal reflection at the glass-air interface. Some important results of this work include the following: the authors demonstrated textured-dielectric coatings (ZnO) deposited by a high-throughput low-cost deposition process; they identified factors important for achieving necessary texture dimensions; they achieved solar-weighted extrinsic reflectances as low as 6% for encapsulated c-Si wafers with optimized textured-ZnO coatings; and they demonstrated improvements in encapsulated cell performance of up to 0.5% absolute compared to encapsulated planar cells with single-layer antireflection coatings