Emotional distress as a key construct in the personal model of diabetes management : associations of fatigue, diabetes-specific distress, and depressive symptomatology with quality of life in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The importance of maximizing self-management and quality of life is well documented in the diabetes literature. Although maintaining self-care is known to be important for individuals with type 2 diabetes, this is often difficult to maintain over time. Emotional distress has also been shown to impact self-care behaviors in adults with type 2 diabetes. Glasgow et al (1997) introduced a model of key variables influencing diabetes self-management. This study examined specific emotional Personal Model constructs of diabetes management. Independent and converging lines of research have implicated several potentially overlapping constructs that may reflect emotional distress in persons living with diabetes including: fatigue, distress, and global depression that is specific to the demands of diabetes. These emotional distress constructs have all been linked to self-management behavior and quality of life in chronic disease. This study sought to explain the associations between these emotional constructs and their impact on self-management and quality of life. Questionnaire and medical chart review data were collected from adults (N=151) with type 2 diabetes at an outpatient diabetes clinic. Depressive symptomatology, diabetes-specific distress, and fatigue were found to be moderately associated with one another. Fatigue and diabetes specific distress were found to be associated with diet, mental, and physical quality of life. Findings suggest the Problem Areas In Diabetes scale (PAID) had the strongest association with diet adherence. Depressive symptomatology, diabetes-specific distress, and fatigue have a significant negative impact physical and mental quality of life. Future research should include the impact of fatigue on quality of life in adults with type 2 diabetes

Mapping of the Melatonin Receptor 1a (MTNR1A) Gene in Pigs, Sheep and Cattle

Human and sheep Melatonin receptor 1a (MTNR1A) gene information was used to clone a portion of the coding region of this gene in pigs, and to identify polymorphisms of the gene for its assignment to both the genetic linkage and physical maps. MTNR1A maps to pig chromosome 17, establishing a new region of conserved synteny between this chromosome and human chromosome 4. Furthermore, we have assigned MTNR1A to bovine chromosome 27 and sheep chromosome 26. The addition of genes like MTNR1A to livestock genome maps allows questions about evolutionary events and the genetic basis for quantitative traits in livestock to be addressed

Prediction Equations for Estimating Lean Quantity in 15- to 50-kg Pigs

Equations for predicting the quantity of lean in the young pig were developed from measurements on 48 pigs (16.8 to 48.5 kg body weight) representing four crossbred mating types; maternal breed(s) × maternal breed(s), paternal breed(s) × maternal breed(s), paternal breed(s) × paternal breed(s) and porcine stress-susceptible × mixed breed. Within litter and sex, each of three pigs was assigned randomly to a light, intermediate or heavy slaughter weight group such that each mating type was represented by six barrows and six gilts from four different litters. Thirteen measurements were obtained for each pig; body weight, body length, body circumference, front leg circumference, front leg length, shoulder depth, shoulder width, ham width, head width, shoulder fat, last rib fat, last lumbar fat and loin muscle depth. Fat measurements and loin depth were taken ultrasonically. Pigs were slaughtered, chilled and manually separated into lean and fat, bone, skin and feet and tail components. Fat composition was determined by the Goldfisch method and also an x-ray absorption procedure. Pigs averaged 32.0 kg body weight and 12.5 kg of lean. Prediction equations were developed by maximum R2 and stepwise regression procedures. The model that includes the 13 measured variables and average backfat produced a .97 R2 when predicting kilograms of lean (LWTA). Body weight was the only significant variable. The one-variable model of body weight (P\u3c.01) produced a .95 R2 Kilograms of lean was estimated for an additional 24 pigs using the one-variable model of body weight and the two-variable model of body weight and shoulder width. The variable LWTA was found to be highly correlated with both estimates of LWTA (r = .97). Results suggest that LWTA can be predicted using a simple model that could be adapted to applied situations

The MicroJansky Radio Galaxy Population

We use highly spectroscopically complete observations of the radio sources from the VLA 1.4 GHz survey of the HDF-N region to study the faint radio galaxy population and its evolution. We spectrally classify the sources into four spectral types: absorbers, star formers, Seyfert galaxies, and broad-line AGNs, and we analyze their properties by type. We supplement the spectroscopic redshifts with photometric redshifts measured from the rest-frame UV to MIR spectral energy distributions. Using deep X-ray observations of the field, we do not confirm the existence of an X-ray-radio correlation for star-forming galaxies. We also do not observe any correlations between 1.4 GHz flux and R magnitude or redshift. We find that the radio powers of the host galaxies rise dramatically with increasing redshift, while the optical properties of the host galaxies show at most small changes. Assuming that the locally determined FIR-radio correlation holds at high redshifts, we estimate total FIR luminosities for the radio sources. We note that the FIR luminosity estimates for any radio-loud AGNs will be overestimates. Considering only the radio sources with quasar-like bolometric luminosities, we find a maximum ratio of candidate highly-obscured AGNs to X-ray-luminous (>10^42 ergs/s) sources of about 1.9. We use source-stacking analyses to measure the X-ray surface brightnesses of various X-ray and radio populations. We find the contributions to the 4-8 keV light from our candidate highly-obscured AGNs to be very small, and hence these sources are unable to account for the light that has been suggested may be missing at these energies.Comment: 20 pages, Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal (scheduled for 1 Jan 2007), color figures 2 and 3 can be found at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~barger/radiopaper.htm

An Evaluation of Four Procedures to Rank Centrally Tested Boars

Four procedures, one using genetic relationships, were evaluated to rank centrally tested boars from records on 9,093 boars tested in central stations. Breeds with larger numbers of tested boars were found to have more total relationship ties than were breeds with smaller numbers of boars tested. Of the breeds with greater tested numbers, Durocs and Yorkshires Were genetically more tied than were the Hampshire or Spotted breeds. Among breeds with fewer observations, Berkshires had the most relationship ties, while Poland Chinas had the fewest. When the number of ties between boars in each season-year with boars in the most recent season-year were evaluated, only the last six or seven-season-year groups were needed to provide sufficient relationship ties with pigs currently tested. The four evaluation procedures were performance value (PV), deviation of the performances value from the station-season-year subclass mean (SSYD), mixed model without relationships (MM) and mixed model including relationships (MMR). The MM procedure produced much lower prediction error variances than did the PV or SSYD procedures; whereas the MMR procedure produced the lowest prediction error variances. Although the MM and MMR procedures gave far more precise estimates than did PV and SSYD, they do involve more complex computing procedures. When the cost of these morecomplex computations is reasonable, the MMR procedure should be considered to evaluate centrally tested boars because it allows a fair comparison of boars across stations in the same season. The value of across station evaluation is discussed

Expectation of variance due to mitochondrial genes from several mating designs

Genetic variation due to non-nuclear DNA has been generally ignored by animal breeders. Recent evidence has confirmed that mitochondrial inheritance is predominantly of maternal origin in mammals. Advances in biotechnology make manipulation of non-nuclear and nuclear material in embryos likely in the future. Estimation of the relative importance of direct, matemal and mitochondrial genetic variation would help in assessing the value of these new technologies. Expectations of causal components of variance from previously used mating and crossfostering designs are modified to include variation due to mitochondrial (cytoplasmic) material. The efficiencies of the designs are compared, as well as the statistical consequences of adding the mitochondrial component to the original models. The designs presented have limitations due to possible confounding of maternal, grand-maternal and mitochondrial effects and to their being not adequate for all animal species and traits. However techniques such as embryo transfer can circumvent those difficulties. Possibilities of using improved designs clearly depend on biotechnological advances and on the cost of implementing those new techniques