The Girgentana Goat Breed: A Zootechnical Overview on Genetics, Nutrition and Dairy Production Aspects

In recent years, there has been a great interest in recovering and preserving local livestock breeds. An interesting situation is represented by the Girgentana goat, an ancient local breed reared in Sicily. Over recent years, this breed has become almost extinct, in part as a consequence of the marked decrease in fresh goat milk consumption. On the basis of these considerations, several studies on its genetic structure and management aspects have been conducted in order to protect the Girgentana goat from the risk of extinction and recover its genetic and economic value. In this context, information on genetics, nutrition and dairy production aspects may have a crucial role in the improvement and management of the breed. Thus, this chapter describes some points of these applications through recent investigations on this goat breed

Right ventricular remodelling in patients with significant tricuspid regurgitation undergoing tricuspid valve surgery

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Inconsistent changes in right ventricular (RV) dimensions and function have been observed after tricuspid valve (TV) surgery and their associations with long-term outcomes have not been explored. Purpose To evaluate RV remodelling and RV function in patients with significant (moderate or severe) tricuspid regurgitation (TR) undergoing TV surgery and their association with outcome. Methods A total of 121 patients (mean age 63 ± 12 years, 47% male) with significant TR treated with TV surgery and who had an echocardiogram between 3 months and 1 year of follow-up, were included for this analysis. Remodelling was assessed by comparing dimensions and function at follow-up to baseline values. The population was stratified by tertiles of percentage reduction of RV end-systolic area (RVESA) and absolute change of RV fractional area change (RVFAC). Five-year mortality rates were compared across the tertiles of RV remodelling and the independent associates of mortality were investigated. Results Reduction in RVESA and improvement in RVFAC were significantly associated with better survival after TV surgery, whereas reduction in RV end-diastolic area was not (Figure 1). One third of the patients presented with a reduction in RVESA of at least 17.2% and improvement in RVFAC of at least 2.3%, constituting the third tertiles for comparison. Kaplan-Meier curves for overall survival according to RVESA- and RVFAC-tertiles are shown in Figure 2. Cumulative survival rates were significantly better in patients in the third tertile of RVESA reduction: 49%, 69%, and 90% for tertile 1, tertile 2, and tertile 3, respectively (log-rank chi-square: 12.526; p = 0.002); as well as according to RVFAC improvement: 57%, 65%, and 87% for tertile 1, tertile 2, and tertile 3, respectively (log-rank chi-square: 7.784; p = 0.02). Tertile 3 of RVESA-reduction as well as tertile 3 of RVFAC-change were both independently associated with better survival after TV surgery compared to tertile 1 (hazard ratio: 0.221 [95% CI: 0.074 to 0.658] and 0.327 [95% CI: 0.118 to 0.907], respectively). Conclusion The magnitude of RV reverse remodelling (based on reduction in RVESA) and improvement in RVFAC were associated with better survival at 5 years’ follow-up after TV surgery for significant TR. Abstract Figure 1: Spline curves  Abstract Figure 2: KM curves for overal survival </jats:sec

Performance Evaluation of Threshold-Based ATM Cell Scheduling Policies under Markov-Modulated Poisson Traffic using Stochastic Petri Nets

This paper addresses the modelling and evaluation of cell scheduling policies in ATM multiplexers using stochastic Petri nets. In particular, we compare four cell scheduling policies: a FIFO policy with and without non-preemptive priorities, a threshold priority policy as recently proposed by Lee and Sengupta, and an extension thereof. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we want to stress the suitability of stochastic Petri nets as a versatile tool for modelling and evaluating ATM-related performance issues. Secondly, we like to point out that under fairly realistic traffic conditions, i.e., under a combination of Poisson nonreal-time (data) traffic and MMPP real-time (video) traffic, our proposed extension of the threshold priority scheduling policy not only reduces the average delay for real-time traffic at the cost of only a slight increase of the average delay of nonreal-time traffic, but also reduces the delay jitter in the real-time traffic