Evaluation of high-concentrate diets that vary in physically effective neutral detergent fibre for finishing lambs

The objective of this research was to evaluate lamb diets with a high proportion of concentrate and various levels of physically effective neutral detergent fibre (NDF) using tropical ingredients. Four diets were formulated: D1 with 16.5% physically effective NDF (peNDF), D2 with 21.4% peNDF, D3 with 23.3% peNDF, and D4 with 24.6% peNDF. Twenty male Santa Inês lambs at four months old with an average liveweight (LW) of 18.6 ± 3.4 kg were fed for 49 days. There were no differences (P >0.05) among the diets in dry matter (DM) intake. Crude protein (CP) intake, relative to either LW or metabolic live weight (LW0.75) or LW, was greater (P ≤0.05) for D2 and D3 than for D1 or D4. Lower (P ≤0.05) NDF intake, relative to LW0.75 or LW, was lower for D1 than for the other diets. Selection indexes (SIs) were similar (P >0.05) among diets. Animals that consumed D1 had less (P ≤0.05) rumination time per bolus. Meaningful variations were not observed in performance and efficiency of finishing lambs that were related to differences in peNDF among the diets. Santa Inês lambs were able to adapt to diets with low levels of peNDF by increasing rumination time as a consequence of increased fibre consumption and greater particle size selection

A tale of two species: the importance of native ecosystems for long-term conservation on Príncipe Island, Gulf of Guinea

Since it was first described in 1901, the Príncipe thrush Turdus xanthorhynchus has been rare and restricted to the native forest in the south of Príncipe Island. The Obô giant land snail Archachatina bicarinata, however, was widespread across the island and at least locally abundant until the 1990s. Since then its population has collapsed, and now, like the thrush, it is also restricted to the native forest in the south of the island. Using species distribution modelling, we show that both species are currently strongly associated with rugged and remote areas of native forest at high altitudes. We argue that their current distribution might be negatively affected by anthropogenic pressures, as both are harvested, and also because invasive alien species are expected to have deleterious effects on these species, although further studies are needed to clarify interactions between these native and introduced species. The diachronic stories of these species highlight an overlooked value of native ecosystems: their role in the conservation of widespread species that might be unable to use anthropogenic landscapes in the future. They also reinforce the need for protected areas that strive to exclude most human activities in the context of particularly sensitive biodiversity, as is often the case on oceanic islands.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Self-avoiding walks and connective constants in small-world networks

Long-distance characteristics of small-world networks have been studied by means of self-avoiding walks (SAW's). We consider networks generated by rewiring links in one- and two-dimensional regular lattices. The number of SAW's $u_n$ was obtained from numerical simulations as a function of the number of steps $n$ on the considered networks. The so-called connective constant, $\mu = \lim_{n \to \infty} u_n/u_{n-1}$, which characterizes the long-distance behavior of the walks, increases continuously with disorder strength (or rewiring probability, $p$). For small $p$, one has a linear relation $\mu = \mu_0 + a p$, $\mu_0$ and $a$ being constants dependent on the underlying lattice. Close to $p = 1$ one finds the behavior expected for random graphs. An analytical approach is given to account for the results derived from numerical simulations. Both methods yield results agreeing with each other for small $p$, and differ for $p$ close to 1, because of the different connectivity distributions resulting in both cases.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Apathy and functional disability in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Background Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) has profound consequences on patients and their families. In this multicenter study, we investigated the contribution of cognitive and neuropsychiatric factors to everyday function at different levels of overall functional impairment. Methods In a retrospective cross-sectional study, 109 patients with bvFTD from 4 specialist frontotemporal dementia centers (Australia, England, India, and Brazil) were included. The measures administered evaluated everyday function (Disability Assessment for Dementia [DAD]), dementia staging (Clinical Dementia Rating [CDR]), general cognition (Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination–revised [ACE-R]), and neuropsychiatric symptoms (Neuropsychiatric Inventory [NPI]). Patients were then subdivided according to functional impairment on the DAD into mild, moderate, severe, and very severe subgroups. Three separate multiple linear regression analyses were run, where (1) total DAD, (2) basic activities of daily living (BADL), and (3) instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scores were dependent variables; ACE-R total score and selected NPI domains (agitation/aggression, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability, aberrant motor behavior) were used as independent variables. Age, sex, education, and country of origin were controlled for in the analyses. Results Cognitive deficits were similar across the mild, moderate, and severe subgroups but significantly worse in the very severe subgroup. NPI domain scores (agitation/aggression, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability, aberrant motor behavior) did not differ across the DAD subgroups. In the multiple regression analyses, a model including ACE-R and NPI apathy explained 32.5% of the variance for total DAD scores. For IADL, 35.6% of the variance was explained by the ACE-R only. No model emerged for BADL scores. Conclusions Cognitive deficits and apathy are key contributors to functional disability in bvFTD but factors underlying impairment in BADLs remain unclear. Treatments targeting reduction of disability need to address apathy and cognitive impairment to ensure greater efficacy, especially in regards to IADLs

A Biased Review of Sociophysics

Various aspects of recent sociophysics research are shortly reviewed: Schelling model as an example for lack of interdisciplinary cooperation, opinion dynamics, combat, and citation statistics as an example for strong interdisciplinarity.Comment: 16 pages for J. Stat. Phys. including 2 figures and numerous reference

Theory and Applications of Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Turbulent Reconnection

Realistic astrophysical environments are turbulent due to the extremely high Reynolds numbers. Therefore, the theories of reconnection intended for describing astrophysical reconnection should not ignore the effects of turbulence on magnetic reconnection. Turbulence is known to change the nature of many physical processes dramatically and in this review we claim that magnetic reconnection is not an exception. We stress that not only astrophysical turbulence is ubiquitous, but also magnetic reconnection itself induces turbulence. Thus turbulence must be accounted for in any realistic astrophysical reconnection setup. We argue that due to the similarities of MHD turbulence in relativistic and non-relativistic cases the theory of magnetic reconnection developed for the non-relativistic case can be extended to the relativistic case and we provide numerical simulations that support this conjecture. We also provide quantitative comparisons of the theoretical predictions and results of numerical experiments, including the situations when turbulent reconnection is self-driven, i.e. the turbulence in the system is generated by the reconnection process itself. We show how turbulent reconnection entails the violation of magnetic flux freezing, the conclusion that has really far reaching consequences for many realistically turbulent astrophysical environments. In addition, we consider observational testing of turbulent reconnection as well as numerous implications of the theory. The former includes the Sun and solar wind reconnection, while the latter include the process of reconnection diffusion induced by turbulent reconnection, the acceleration of energetic particles, bursts of turbulent reconnection related to black hole sources as well as gamma ray bursts. Finally, we explain why turbulent reconnection cannot be explained by turbulent resistivity or derived through the mean field approach.Comment: 66 pages, 24 figures, a chapter of the book "Magnetic Reconnection - Concepts and Applications", editors W. Gonzalez, E. N. Parke

Clinical, multicentric, and open study to evaluate the efficacy of and tolerance to sildenafil in patients with erectile dysfunction

Acta Med Port. 2002 Jul-Aug;15(4):249-56. [Clinical, multicentric, and open study to evaluate the efficacy of and tolerance to sildenafil in patients with erectile dysfunction] [Article in Portuguese] Palha AP, Gomes FA, Martins AS, Pimenta A, Neves J, Gonçalves R, Ramos L, Abrantes P, Canhão A, Santos G, Carvalho LF, Soares J, Lima E, Rosa G. Serviço de Psiquiatria e Urologia do Hospital de S. João, Instututo de Ciências Bimédicas, Hospital Geral de S. António, Porto. Abstract Erectile dysfunction (ED), defined by the Impotence-NIH Consensus Conference as the "persistent inability to achieve and/or maintain erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual activity" affect more than 100 million men worldwide, at particular severity levels. The global prevalence of ED is estimated to affect about 10%, but has been found to increase significantly with age (39% in men 40 years of age and 67% at 70 years of age). In men aged 40 to 70 years, the severe ED prevalence increased of three folds, 5 to 15%. In order to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of sildenafil, it was conducted a national open, multicentre study on a portuguese population affected by ED. Subjects under ambulatory treatment were recruited in Psychiatry/Sexology Clinical units and Urology/Andrology. The results of the study carried out on a group of 62 men with ED, demonstrate that sildenafil was effective in the recovering of erectile function, increasing the number of attempts to sexual activity and improving their success rates (mainly in severe dysfunction). Fifty one patients treated with sildenafil, at the end of the study referred a global improvement in their erections (92.2%). Doses of 50 mg and 100 mg sildenafil were used and were well tolerated and also effective in the treatment of this pathology (70% and 69% respectively). Being this study a flexible dose one and taking into consideration that the final dose used was found the more suitable to the patients, can be concluded that 43.1% of the patients elected dose of 50 mg whereas 56.9% elected the maximum prescribed dose of 100 mg. Over and above global efficacy experimented by patients, a significant improvement in the sexual activity with partners was occurred. These results make possible a final conclusion--in the studied patients group affected by Erectile Dysfunction, aside from associated somatic pathology, sildenafil use provided a remarkable clinical profit, in what concerns global efficacy, by erectile function mechanisms improvement, concerning patients sensitivity of improvement, occurring in the major part of them, being these of high importance to the lifting up of their self-esteem. PMID: 12525018 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLIN