121 research outputs found
The Influence of Growth Stage on Carcass Compositionand Factors Associated with Marbling Development in Beef Cattle
There are many cellular regulatory factors that ultimately determine the intramuscular fat, or marbling content and quality of beef carcasses. Identifying factors which play a critical role in the development of intramuscular fat throughout the feeding period and determining how cattle feeders can manipulate these factors will be crucial to continue improving beef quality. Ideally, marbling must increase without excess accumulation of adipose in depots that are undesirable and economically detrimental (subcutaneous and visceral). The results of this study are novel as they show not only what cellular factors play a role in marbling development, but also how their expression and presence change as an animal grows in an American‐style production system. The increase in both expression and presence of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor γ (PPARγ) at the end of the feeding phase suggest the proliferation and differentiation of additional cells to adipocytes is required in order to increase intramuscular fat content. This does not mean that adipocyte filling (lipogenesis) does not play a key role as well. However marbling content will reach a plateau without the recruitment of additional adipocytes. While it has been previously established that intramuscular adipocytes have a pattern of metabolism unique to other adipocytes, further research into how the metabolism of intramuscular fat differs from other fat depots and how this metabolism changes throughout the feeding phase will enhance the ability to produce high quality carcasses while limiting undesirable carcass fat
The Influence of Caspase-3 on the Calpain Enzyme System During Meat Aging
Tenderness is a key component of palatability, which influences consumers’ perception of meat quality. There are a variety of factors that contribute to variations in tenderness, including postmortem proteolysis. A more complete understanding of this biological mechanism regulating tenderness is needed to ensure consistently tender beef. Numerous reports indicate μ-calpain is primarily responsible for the degradation of proteins postmortem. Additionally, it has been shown that caspase-3 can cleave calpastatin, the inhibitor of μ-calpain. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine if in vitro degradation of calpastatin by caspase-3 can enhance the postmortem breakdown of myofibrillar proteins by μ-calpain. Bovine semitendinosus muscles were excised from two carcasses 20 min postmortem. Muscle strips were dissected from the semitendinosus, restrained to maintain length, and placed in a neutral buffer containing protease inhibitors. Upon rigor completion, myofibrils were isolated from each strip and sarcomere length was determined. Samples with similar sarcomere lengths were selected to minimize the effect of sarcomere length on proteolysis. Myofibrils were then incubated at 22°C with μ-calpain, μ-calpain + calpastatin, caspase-3 + calpastatin, or μ-calpain + caspase-3 + calpastatin for 0.25, 1, 3, 24, 48, or 72 hr at a pH of 6.8. Proteolysis of troponin T and calpastatin was evaluated using SDS-PAGE and western blotting techniques. Analysis of western blots confirmed significant degradation of calpastatin by caspase-3. Additionally, western blots revealed intact calpastatin disappeared rapidly due to digestion by μ-calpain. While caspase-3 did not significantly degrade troponin T, all μ-calpain digestion treatments resulted in substantial troponin T breakdown. Degradation of troponin T did not differ between the μ-calpain + calpastatin and μ-calpain + caspase-3 + calpastatin digestions. Results of this study indicate caspase-3 cleavage of calpastatin does not enhance in vitro degradation of myofibrillar proteins by μ-calpain
Far-infrared photo-conductivity of electrons in an array of nano-structured antidots
We present far-infrared (FIR) photo-conductivity measurements for a
two-dimensional electron gas in an array of nano-structured antidots. We
detect, resistively and spectrally resolved, both the magnetoplasmon and the
edge-magnetoplasmon modes. Temperature-dependent measurements demonstrates that
both modes contribute to the photo resistance by heating the electron gas via
resonant absorption of the FIR radiation. Influences of spin effect and phonon
bands on the collective excitations in the antidot lattice are observed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Stability of periodic domain structures in a two-dimensional dipolar model
We investigate the energetic ground states of a model two-phase system with
1/r^3 dipolar interactions in two dimensions. The model exhibits spontaneous
formation of two kinds of periodic domain structure. A striped domain structure
is stable near half filling, but as the area fraction is changed, a transition
to a hexagonal lattice of almost-circular droplets occurs. The stability of the
equilibrium striped domain structure against distortions of the boundary is
demonstrated, and the importance of hexagonal distortions of the droplets is
quantified. The relevance of the theory for physical surface systems with
elastic, electrostatic, or magnetostatic 1/r^3 interactions is discussed.Comment: Revtex (preprint style, 19 pages) + 4 postscript figures. A version
in two-column article style with embedded figures is available at
http://electron.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#ng_do
Search for Exotic Mesons in pi- P Interactions at 18 GeV/c
The recent search for non mesons in interactions at
Brookhaven National Laboratory is summarized. Many final states such as , , , , , ,
which are favored decay modes of exotics, are under investigation.Comment: 9 pages, PostScript, Presented at the International School of Nuclear
Physics, Erice, Sicily, Italy, September 199
Confirmation of a pi_1^0 Exotic Meson in the \eta \pi^0 System
The exclusive reaction , at 18 GeV has been studied with a partial wave analysis on a sample
of 23~492 events from BNL experiment E852. A mass-dependent fit
is consistent with a resonant hypothesis for the wave, thus providing
evidence for a neutral exotic meson with , a mass of MeV, and a width of MeV. New
interpretations of the meson exotics in neutral system observed in
E852 and Crystal Barrel experiments are discussed.Comment: p3, rewording the paragraph (at the bottom) about the phase
variations. p4, rewording paragrath "The second method ..." . p4, at the
bottom of paragrath "The third method ..." added consistent with the results
of methods 1 and 2
Exotic Meson Production in the System observed in the Reaction at 18 GeV/c
This letter reports results from the partial wave analysis of the
final state in collisions at 18GeV/c.
Strong evidence is observed for production of two mesons with exotic quantum
numbers of spin, parity and charge conjugation, in the decay
channel . The mass MeV/c^2 and
width MeV/c^2 of the first state are consistent
with the parameters of the previously observed . The second
resonance with mass MeV/c^2 and width MeV/c^2 agrees very well with predictions from theoretical
models. In addition, the presence of is confirmed with mass MeV/c^2 and width MeV/c^2
and a new state, , is observed with mass
MeV/c^2 and width MeV/c^2. The decay properties of
these last two states are consistent with flux tube model predictions for
hybrid mesons with non-exotic quantum numbers
Observation of a New J(PC)=1(+-) Isoscalar State in the Reaction Pi- Proton -> Omega Eta Neutron at 18 GeV/c
Results are presented on a partial wave analysis of the Omega Eta final state
produced in Pi- Proton interactions at 18 GeVc where Omega -> Pi+ Pi- Pi0, Pi0
-> 2 Gammas, and Eta -> 2 Gammas. We observe the previously unreported decay
mode Omega(1650) -> Omega Eta and a new 1(+-) meson state h1(1595) with a mass
M=1594(15)(+10)(-60) MeV/c^2 and a width Gamma=384(60)(+70)(-100) MeV/c^2. The
h1(1595) state exhibits resonant-like phase motion relative to the Omega(1650).Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B Eight total pages including 11 figures
and 1 tabl
An FPTAS for optimizing a class of low-rank functions over a polytope
We present a fully polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for optimizing a very general class of non-linear functions of low rank over a polytope. Our approximation scheme relies on constructing an approximate Pareto-optimal front of the linear functions which constitute the given low-rank function. In contrast to existing results in the literature, our approximation scheme does not require the assumption of quasi-concavity on the objective function. For the special case of quasi-concave function minimization, we give an alternative FPTAS, which always returns a solution which is an extreme point of the polytope. Our technique can also be used to obtain an FPTAS for combinatorial optimization problems with non-linear objective functions, for example when the objective is a product of a fixed number of linear functions. We also show that it is not possible to approximate the minimum of a general concave function over the unit hypercube to within any factor, unless P = NP. We prove this by showing a similar hardness of approximation result for supermodular function minimization, a result that may be of independent interest
Observation of Pseudoscalar and Axial Vector Resonances in pi- p -> K+ K- pi0 n at 18 GeV
A new measurement of the reaction pi- p -> K+ K- pi0 n has been made at a
beam energy of 18 GeV. A partial wave analysis of the K+ K- pi0 system shows
evidence for three pseudoscalar resonances, eta(1295), eta(1416), and
eta(1485), as well as two axial vectors, f1(1285), and f1(1420). Their observed
masses, widths and decay properties are reported. No signal was observed for
C(1480), an IG J{PC} = 1+ 1{--} state previously reported in phi pi0 decay.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figs, to be submitted to Phys. Let
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