Evaluation of beef carcass quality using the muscle eye area M. longissimus dorsi

In Japan, Korea, the USA, and Australia, the area of the “muscle eye” (cross-section of the M. longissimus dorsi during the division of the half-carcass between the 12th and 13th rib into the front and rear parts) is used to assess the quality of cattle carcasses. The correlation between this feature and the slaughter and quality characteristics of carcasses in 20-22-month-old crossbred bulls (Ukrainian Black-and-White Dairy × Holstein) has been studied. The area of the “muscle eye” in bulls was determined before slaughter by an ultrasound analyzer Emperor 860. After slaughter, it was calculated by the length and depth of the "muscle eye".  The colour of muscle and adipose tissue, carcass conformation, development, and subcutaneous fat thickness have been examined. The correlation between the size of the "muscle eye" and carcasses' quantitative and qualitative characteristics has been determined. The area of the "muscle eye" has a positive relationship (r = 0.612; p >0.999) with live weight after fasting, carcass weight (r = 0.598; p >0.999), flesh weight (r = 0.498; p >0.99), including the highest (r = 0.745; p >0.999), and first grade (r = 0.662; p >0.99), the amount of adipose tissue (r = 0.491; p >0.99) and tendons and ligaments (r = 0.435; p >0.99). With its increase, there is a tendency to an inverse relationship with the content of second-grade flesh in the carcass (r = 0.303), carcass conformation (r = 0.147), fat-irrigation thickness (r = 0.125), and marbling (r = 0.340). The area of the "muscle eye" is inversely correlated with the development of subcutaneous fat (r = -0.389; p >0.95) and the saturated colour of muscle tissue (r = -0.309). The correlation coefficients between the area of the "muscle eye" determined by ultrasound and quantitative and qualitative characteristics of carcasses are significantly higher than those obtained by post-slaughter calculation of the area of the muscle eye by measuring the length and depth. The data's practical significance is obtaining knowledge that allows beef to be sorted based on the correlation between the muscle eye area and the quality of carcasses and beef

The expressiveness of meat forms of cattle depending on the content of adipose tissue under the skin and between the muscles

The paper covers the peculiarities of the degree of meat shapes in the bulls of the Ukrainian meat breed, depending on the adipose tissue content under the skin and between the muscles. They were evaluated according to their productivity from 8 to 18, 21, and 23 months. Bulls with better development of meat shapes are characterized by fat deposition in the carcass and between the muscles earlier and more intensively. They have from 15.1 to 44.7% more fatty tissue in the carcass, including under the skin – from 3.8 to 44.1%. With a different degree of meat shapes, subcutaneous fat is deposited more than between muscles. The content of adipose tissue under the skin relative to its total amount in the body of animals tends to decrease by 6.5 points with age for a better degree of meat shapes, and on the contrary, to increase by 2.6 points for a worse degree. If the fat under the bull skin at 18 months in the best shapes is 72.1% of the fat in the carcass, and in the worst – 72.3%, then at 23 months, its amount decreases by 13.6 and 4.4 points, respectively. The fat between the muscles, on the contrary, increases from 27.9 and 27.7% by the same amounts, respectively. With a greater degree of meat shapes and subcutaneous fat thickness on the carcasses of 18-month-old bulls, intramuscular fat (marbling) content is lower by 75.0%. 18-month-old bulls with better-developed meat shapes have fat cuts off from the carcass by 15.2% more than animals with less developed shapes, 23 – by 11.3%. A large amount of produced waste in the body of animals in the best meat shape leads to excessive (from 0.9 to 14.5%) feed consumption (feed unit) for the increase in live weight. The subcutaneous fat content and the number of cuts off from 16 to 24 months positively correlate with the degree of meat shapes in bulls at 15 months and have correlation coefficients of 0.26 and 0.17, respectively

Economic and cyber security: Collective monograph

Collective monograph highlights the results of systematic scientific research devoted to the problems of economic cyber security as a component of the financial security of the state, and contains practical recommendations on measures to strengthen the security of the state, in particular strategically important enterprises, in the presence of modern threats. Chapter 1 analyzes the position of Ukraine in the global cyber security ratings and outlines promising directions for increasing its level, one of which is the improvement of information protection systems of critical infrastructure objects. A data comparison algorithm is considered, which consists in continuous monitoring and scanning of data by constantly comparing data with information patterns of users and services, as well as threat patterns and indicators based on previous experience, not only one's own, within a local network or system, but also globally scale An improved method of rapid data comparison is presented, which provides maximum accuracy of comparison with a minimum amount of equipment for comparing devices. Its use makes it possible to identify potential cyber threats and take preventive measures, which will increase the level of protection of critical infrastructure objects. Chapter 2 focuses on defining strategic directions for ensuring economic cyber security of business in Ukraine. The importance of information protection in the context of the development of the digital economy has been updated, and the place of economic cyber security in the national security system has been determined. A thorough analysis of the dynamics of cyber incidents in the world in recent years was carried out and the specifics of the manifestation of cyber threats at the macro and micro levels were outlined. Special attention is paid to the intrusion detection process and a detailed study of the working principles of modern intrusion detection and prevention systems. It is expected that the use of the proposed recommendations on the cyber security policy will significantly increase the level of information security (confidentiality, integrity and availability) of the business. Chapter 3 is dedicated to solving the problem of strengthening the security of strategically important enterprises of Ukraine by developing effective forms of implementation of the state regulatory policy in this direction. The issue of identifying strategically important enterprises and forming their security at the state level as a basis for supporting and restoring the national economy has been updated. The strategic directions of deregulation of business activity in Ukraine, including strategically important enterprises, have been determined. One of them is institutional support of state regulatory policy, improvement of regulatory policy. On the basis of the analysis of the existing institutional support of the state regulatory policy regarding strategically important enterprises, it has been proved that the basis of the formation of effective forms of implementation of the state regulatory policy of support and strengthening of the security of strategically important enterprises is the need to improve the current legislation, the formation of effective institutional and organizational support and the clustering of the national economy based on strategic important enterprises with the possibility of creating integrated corporate structures. A model of the process of assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of the state regulatory policy on ensuring the security of strategically important enterprises is proposed, which provides regulatory bodies with a tool to influence its level with the provision of economic development and social stability in Ukraine. Chapter 4 explores Semantic role labeling (SRL) as a key Natural Language Processing (NLP) task that plays a vital role in extracting meaningful information from text. The role of SRL and its application is considered in the context of economics and cyber security, because the accurate definition and analysis of semantic roles in text is critical due to the rapid increase in the amount and complexity of textual information. State-of-the-art NLP classifiers used in decision-making, market analysis and financial reports, media articles, and economic texts are reviewed. It is emphasized that the process of determining relevant information from a large array of data collected from disparate sources requires an optimal methodological base, which should include the use of special tools for cleaning, tokenization, marking parts of speech with labels for preparation for NLP analysis. With the help of NLP classifiers, it becomes possible to automatically identify data, which allows to get information about market trends or security threats, depending on the specific field. It is noted that the proposed methods are practically significant, as they improve the ability to extract useful information, assess risks and make informed decisions by organizing unstructured textual data. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the comprehensive substantiation of the theoretical and methodological foundations and practical methods of monitoring the state of financial security of Ukraine in conditions of economic turbulence as a factor ensuring the preservation of the state's financial system. Indicators of the state of financial security of regions are proposed and it is proved that they are not strongly connected, and also interconnected with the state of financial security of the state, which allows their use as input information in the process of calculating the integral indicator of the state of financial security of the region. On the basis of the proposed methodology for assessing the state of financial security of regions, integral indicators of the state of financial security of regions of Ukraine were calculated, which are actually the result of collapsing indicators by subsystems into a system index for a certain region, high values of which characterize a relatively stable value of financial security of a certain region, and low values signal its dangerous or critical condition. Chapter 6 discusses the essence and features of the circular economy as an innovative com-ponent of the modern economy, which functions and develops on the basis of sustainable devel-opment, the deep reasons for its emergence, formation and transformation into a factor in the formation of a new paradigm of the global economy. Being a mechanism for the implementation of the Global Goals of sustainable development, the concept of a closed cycle economy encourages highly deve loped countries and businesses to introduce innovations and define the development of a circular economy as a priority in their long-term strategies. The monograph is intended for researchers who are engaged in the development of measures to increase the financial security of the state, primarily through the development or improvement of security systems in cyberspace, as well as practitioners who are looking for the best scientific solutions for implementation, which can contribute to the formation of reliable cyber protection measures in the information environment of the enterprise, contributing to the increase of its financial security. The monograph is also useful for state authorities, which are forced to search for operational, most effective solutions to ensure the financial security of the state as a whole, its strategic enterprises, including critical infrastructure, in particular through the regulation of security measures in the information space, in the presence of modern external threats.Publishe

Ticagrelor in patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease with a history of previous percutaneous coronary intervention (THEMIS-PCI) : a phase 3, placebo-controlled, randomised trial

Background: Patients with stable coronary artery disease and diabetes with previous percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), particularly those with previous stenting, are at high risk of ischaemic events. These patients are generally treated with aspirin. In this trial, we aimed to investigate if these patients would benefit from treatment with aspirin plus ticagrelor. Methods: The Effect of Ticagrelor on Health Outcomes in diabEtes Mellitus patients Intervention Study (THEMIS) was a phase 3 randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, done in 1315 sites in 42 countries. Patients were eligible if 50 years or older, with type 2 diabetes, receiving anti-hyperglycaemic drugs for at least 6 months, with stable coronary artery disease, and one of three other mutually non-exclusive criteria: a history of previous PCI or of coronary artery bypass grafting, or documentation of angiographic stenosis of 50% or more in at least one coronary artery. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to either ticagrelor or placebo, by use of an interactive voice-response or web-response system. The THEMIS-PCI trial comprised a prespecified subgroup of patients with previous PCI. The primary efficacy outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (measured in the intention-to-treat population). Findings: Between Feb 17, 2014, and May 24, 2016, 11 154 patients (58% of the overall THEMIS trial) with a history of previous PCI were enrolled in the THEMIS-PCI trial. Median follow-up was 3·3 years (IQR 2·8–3·8). In the previous PCI group, fewer patients receiving ticagrelor had a primary efficacy outcome event than in the placebo group (404 [7·3%] of 5558 vs 480 [8·6%] of 5596; HR 0·85 [95% CI 0·74–0·97], p=0·013). The same effect was not observed in patients without PCI (p=0·76, p interaction=0·16). The proportion of patients with cardiovascular death was similar in both treatment groups (174 [3·1%] with ticagrelor vs 183 (3·3%) with placebo; HR 0·96 [95% CI 0·78–1·18], p=0·68), as well as all-cause death (282 [5·1%] vs 323 [5·8%]; 0·88 [0·75–1·03], p=0·11). TIMI major bleeding occurred in 111 (2·0%) of 5536 patients receiving ticagrelor and 62 (1·1%) of 5564 patients receiving placebo (HR 2·03 [95% CI 1·48–2·76], p<0·0001), and fatal bleeding in 6 (0·1%) of 5536 patients with ticagrelor and 6 (0·1%) of 5564 with placebo (1·13 [0·36–3·50], p=0·83). Intracranial haemorrhage occurred in 33 (0·6%) and 31 (0·6%) patients (1·21 [0·74–1·97], p=0·45). Ticagrelor improved net clinical benefit: 519/5558 (9·3%) versus 617/5596 (11·0%), HR=0·85, 95% CI 0·75–0·95, p=0·005, in contrast to patients without PCI where it did not, p interaction=0·012. Benefit was present irrespective of time from most recent PCI. Interpretation: In patients with diabetes, stable coronary artery disease, and previous PCI, ticagrelor added to aspirin reduced cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke, although with increased major bleeding. In that large, easily identified population, ticagrelor provided a favourable net clinical benefit (more than in patients without history of PCI). This effect shows that long-term therapy with ticagrelor in addition to aspirin should be considered in patients with diabetes and a history of PCI who have tolerated antiplatelet therapy, have high ischaemic risk, and low bleeding risk