Bale Location Effects on Nutritive Value and Fermentation Characteristics of Annual Ryegrass Bale Stored in In-line Wrapping Silage

In southeastern regions of the US, herbage systems are primarily based on grazing or hay feeding with low nutritive value warm-season perennial grasses. Nutritious herbage such as annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) may be more suitable for preserving as baleage for winter feeding even with more intensive production inputs. Emerging in-line wrapped baleage storage systems featuring rapid wrapping and low polyethylene film requirements need to be tested for consistency of storing nutritive value of a range of annual ryegrass herbage. A ryegrass storage trial was conducted with 24-h wilted ‘Marshall’ annual ryegrass harvested at booting, heading and anthesis stages using three replicated in-line wrapped tubes containing ten round bales per tube. After a six-month storage period, nutritive value changes and fermentation end products differed significantly by harvest stage but not by bale location. Although wilted annual ryegrass exhibited a restricted fermentation across harvest stages characterized by high pH and low fermentation end product concentrations, butyric acid concentrations were less than 1 g/kg dry matter, and lactic acid was the major organic acid in the bales. Mold coverage and bale aroma did not differ substantially with harvest stage or bale location. Booting and heading stage-harvested ryegrass baleage were superior in nutritive value to anthesis stage-harvested herbage. Based on the investigated nutritive value and fermentation characteristics, individual bale location within in-line tubes did not significantly affect preservation quality of ryegrass round bale silages

Network-Based Approach for Modeling and Analyzing Coronary Angiography

Significant intra-observer and inter-observer variability in the interpretation of coronary angiograms are reported. This variability is in part due to the common practices that rely on performing visual inspections by specialists (e.g., the thickness of coronaries). Quantitative Coronary Angiography (QCA) approaches are emerging to minimize observer's error and furthermore perform predictions and analysis on angiography images. However, QCA approaches suffer from the same problem as they mainly rely on performing visual inspections by utilizing image processing techniques. In this work, we propose an approach to model and analyze the entire cardiovascular tree as a complex network derived from coronary angiography images. This approach enables to analyze the graph structure of coronary arteries. We conduct the assessments of network integration, degree distribution, and controllability on a healthy and a diseased coronary angiogram. Through our discussion and assessments, we propose modeling the cardiovascular system as a complex network is an essential phase to fully automate the interpretation of coronary angiographic images. We show how network science can provide a new perspective to look at coronary angiograms

Circulating microRNAs in sera correlate with soluble biomarkers of immune activation but do not predict mortality in ART treated individuals with HIV-1 infection: A case control study

Introduction: The use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has dramatically reduced HIV-1 associated morbidity and mortality. However, HIV-1 infected individuals have increased rates of morbidity and mortality compared to the non-HIV-1 infected population and this appears to be related to end-organ diseases collectively referred to as Serious Non-AIDS Events (SNAEs). Circulating miRNAs are reported as promising biomarkers for a number of human disease conditions including those that constitute SNAEs. Our study sought to investigate the potential of selected miRNAs in predicting mortality in HIV-1 infected ART treated individuals. Materials and Methods: A set of miRNAs was chosen based on published associations with human disease conditions that constitute SNAEs. This case: control study compared 126 cases (individuals who died whilst on therapy), and 247 matched controls (individuals who remained alive). Cases and controls were ART treated participants of two pivotal HIV-1 trials. The relative abundance of each miRNA in serum was measured, by RTqPCR. Associations with mortality (all-cause, cardiovascular and malignancy) were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Correlations between miRNAs and CD4+ T cell count, hs-CRP, IL-6 and D-dimer were also assessed. Results: None of the selected miRNAs was associated with all-cause, cardiovascular or malignancy mortality. The levels of three miRNAs (miRs -21, -122 and -200a) correlated with IL-6 while miR-21 also correlated with D-dimer. Additionally, the abundance of miRs -31, -150 and -223, correlated with baseline CD4+ T cell count while the same three miRNAs plus miR- 145 correlated with nadir CD4+ T cell count. Discussion: No associations with mortality were found with any circulating miRNA studied. These results cast doubt onto the effectiveness of circulating miRNA as early predictors of mortality or the major underlying diseases that contribute to mortality in participants treated for HIV-1 infection