Agreement between rectus femoris muscle thickness by ultrasound and skeletal muscle mass by bio-electrical impedance analysis: a pilot study

Rationale: Sarcopenia is a major problem and is common in community-dwelling elderly. In daily practice, there is need for low cost and easily assessable measurement tools to assess depletion of skeletal muscle (SM) mass, for example as one of the indicators of sarcopenia. Bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA) is often used to estimate body composition, whereas ultrasound measurement is an upcoming and promising tool, as it is quick, easy to use and inexpensive in comparison with other tools that assess SM mass. Ultrasound could assess site-specific loss of SM mass and determine myoesteatosis. Therefore, in this pilot study we aimed to assess agreement between muscle thickness of rectus femoris (RF) by ultrasound and SM mass by BIA in an older population. Methods: Twenty-six older adults (mean± standard deviation (SD) age 64 ±5.0 y, 62% women) from the Hanze Health and Ageing Study were included. SM mass by BIA was estimated using the Janssen equation. Muscle thickness of RF was assessed by analyzing ultrasound images from the right leg. Two non-parametric tests were used for analysis. Correlation between ultrasound and BIA was assessed with Spearman Rho. Agreement was determined with Kendall’s coefficient of concordance (Kendall’s W). In both tests a score ≥ 0.7 was considered a strong correlation. Results: Mean (±SD) RF thickness was 18.9 (±3.8) mm. Median SM mass (Interquartile range) was 23.5 (20.8-34.7) kg. Correlation between RF thickness and SM mass was moderately positive (Spearman r=0.611; P = 0.001), whereas Kendall’s W showed a strong agreement (W= 0.835; P=0.002). Conclusion: Ultrasound measurement of RF showed an acceptable agreement with skeletal muscle mass assessed by BIA in our sample of older adults. Therefore, ultrasound could be a promising portable tool to estimate muscle size

Increasing foraging times with appetitive and consummatory foraging enrichment in grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Foraging enrichment is considered one of the most effective ways to enhance expression of species-typical behaviours and prevent the development of abnormal (repetitive) behaviours in captive animals. However, foraging enrichments for parrots have thus far not been able to approximate natural foraging time budgets nor completely eliminate abnormal behaviours such as feather damaging behaviour. This might be related to the design of currently available foraging enrichments, which generally stimulate a subset of foraging activities rather than foraging behaviour in its entirity. We therefore designed a two-component foraging enrichment that addressed both the appetitive and consummatory phases of foraging. To evaluate whether foraging times would approximate those in the wild (4–8 h/day), we studied the effect of the separate and combined components on foraging behaviour in 12 healthy grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) using a balanced cross-over design. Parrots were provided food by means of the appetitive (APP), consummatory (CONS), and combined (APP+CONS) component(s) of the foraging enrichment, and in a food trough that served as a control (CTRL; no enrichment) for 30 days per test condition. The time spent on foraging was evaluated on days 2, 14 and 30 in all four test conditions using continuous focal sampling. Each of the single components (APP or CONS) increased daily foraging times from 2 to 3 h per day (CTRL: 121 ± 16 min/24 h, APP: 176 ± 31 min/24 h, CONS: 194 ± 26 min/24 h), while the combined enrichment doubled daily foraging times (APP+CONS: 234 ± 42 min/24 h), thereby approaching natural foraging time budgets. Foraging times remained steady over the 30 days, indicating no habituation or change in use of the enrichments throughout this period. These results demonstrate the importance of providing both appetitive and consummatory activities to generate effective foraging opportunities for parrots. Such a bottom-up approach could be beneficial for other (parrot) species as well

Early-life interventions to prevent feather pecking and reduce fearfulness in laying hens

Severe feather pecking, the pulling out of feathers of conspecifics, is a major welfare issue in laying hens. Possible underlying causes are fearfulness and lack of foraging opportunities. Because early life is a crucial stage in behavioral development, adapting the incubation and rearing environment to the birds' needs may reduce fearfulness and prevent the development of feather pecking. In a 2 × 2 factorial design study, we investigated whether a green light-dark cycle throughout incubation, which resembles natural incubation circumstances more than the standard dark incubation, and foraging enrichment with live larvae during rearing reduce fearfulness and feather pecking and increase foraging behavior of laying hen pullets from an early age onwards. In this 2-batch experiment, 1,100 ISA Brown eggs were incubated under either 0 h of light/24 h of darkness or 12 h of green LED light/12 h of darkness. After hatching, 400 female chicks (200 per batch) were housed in 44 pens (8–10 chicks per pen). During the entire rearing phase (0–17 wk of age), half of the pens received black soldier fly larvae in a food puzzle as foraging enrichment. We assessed fear of novel objects and humans, feather pecking, plumage condition, foraging behavior, and recovery time after a 3-fold vaccination (acute stressor). A slight increase in the number of foraging bouts was only seen with larvae provisioning (rate ratio 1.19, 95% CI 1.02–1.29, P = 0.008). Neither lighted incubation nor larvae provisioning affected fearfulness, feather pecking, plumage condition or recovery time after vaccination. In conclusion, the present study showed no effects of light during incubation and minor effects of foraging enrichment during rearing on the behavior of laying hen pullets. Further research is recommended on other welfare aspects

Beta-carotene affects gene expression in lungs of male and female Bcmo1−/− mice in opposite directions

Molecular mechanisms triggered by high dietary beta-carotene (BC) intake in lung are largely unknown. We performed microarray gene expression analysis on lung tissue of BC supplemented beta-carotene 15,15′-monooxygenase 1 knockout (Bcmo1−/−) mice, which are—like humans—able to accumulate BC. Our main observation was that the genes were regulated in an opposite direction in male and female Bcmo1−/− mice by BC. The steroid biosynthetic pathway was overrepresented in BC-supplemented male Bcmo1−/− mice. Testosterone levels were higher after BC supplementation only in Bcmo1−/− mice, which had, unlike wild-type (Bcmo1+/+) mice, large variations. We hypothesize that BC possibly affects hormone synthesis or metabolism. Since sex hormones influence lung cancer risk, these data might contribute to an explanation for the previously found increased lung cancer risk after BC supplementation (ATBC and CARET studies). Moreover, effects of BC may depend on the presence of frequent human BCMO1 polymorphisms, since these effects were not found in wild-type mice

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass