Body condition score, weight variation and reproductive performance of beef cows in rangelands from the Pantanal region

Objetivou-se avaliar a influência do escore de condição corporal (ECC) sobre a eficiência reprodutiva de vacas de cria nos períodos pré e pós-parto e a probabilidade de parição, usando o escore de condição corporal e a variação ponderal no período crítico do ciclo reprodutivo. Utilizaram-se 248 vacas multíparas mantidas em pastagens nativas distribuídas em quatro estratégias de suplementação: mistura mineral (controle); suplemento farelado; suplemento líquido; suplemento líquido para vacas e bezerros. As avaliações de peso e ECC, na escala de 1 a 9, foram realizadas no período crítico: em agosto (período pré-parto, 60-90 dias antes da parição) e em janeiro (período pós-parto e reprodutivo) durante quatro anos consecutivos. Para a análise dos anos consecutivos de reprodução, criou-se um escore de reprodução, ou seja, somou-se o número de parições de cada vaca durante os quatro anos pecuários avaliados. O escore de condição corporal nos períodos pré e pós-parto e a idade da vaca influenciaram o escore de reprodução. Portanto, para avaliação da probabilidade de parição, foram utilizadas todas as vacas, classificadas em paridas e vazias. Utilizando equações de estimação generalizadas (EEG), foi modelada a probabilidade de as matrizes serem classificadas como paridas considerando variáveis exploratórias ao longo do tempo. Para se obter probabilidade de parição superior a 80%, as vacas devem possuir escore de aproximadamente 5,5 no período pré-parto. Aproximadamente 60% das vacas paridas mantiveram ou ganharam peso no período crítico do ano, o que levou a maior probabilidade de reconcepção, similar ao observado para as vacas vazias, porém com probabilidade menor de parição. O período pré-parto é o melhor para estimar a probabilidade de parição das vacas por meio da avaliação do escore corporal. A seleção de vacas adaptadas às condições bioclimáticas do Pantanal aumenta a probabilidade de produção de um bezerro por vaca por ano. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of body condition score (BCS) on reproductive performance of beef cows before and after calving and to evaluate the calving probability using body condition score and weight variation during critical periods of the cow reproductive cycle. From 2001 to 2005, the body condition score was recorded in 248 multiparous cows raised in native pastures, submitted to different supplementation treatments (mineral mixture only - control; dry supplement; liquid supplement and liquid supplement for cow and calves). Weighing and body condition evaluation were made on a 1-9 point scale in August (prepartum period, 60-90 days before parturition) and January (postpartum and reproductive period). A reproduction score was created in function of the body scores in four consecutive years. Except for the treatment, the other factors (body condition score in the prepartum and postpartum periods and cow age) influenced the reproduction score. Thus, the calving probabilities were estimated for all cows. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to evaluate the calving probability in function of the exploratory variables over time. Calving probability higher than 80% was obtained when cows scored 5,5 before calving. In relation to weight, the results showed that about 60% of calving cows maintained or gained weight in the postpartum period, leading to increase in the rebreeding probability. Similar situation occurred with single cows; however, the calving probability was lower. These results indicate that the calving probability using BCS is better estimated before calving. Furthermore, it indicates the presence of cows more adapted to the Pantanal climatic and feeding conditions than others

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Assessing associations between the AURKAHMMR-TPX2-TUBG1 functional module and breast cancer risk in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers

While interplay between BRCA1 and AURKA-RHAMM-TPX2-TUBG1 regulates mammary epithelial polarization, common genetic variation in HMMR (gene product RHAMM) may be associated with risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 mutation carriers. Following on these observations, we further assessed the link between the AURKA-HMMR-TPX2-TUBG1 functional module and risk of breast cancer in BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carriers. Forty-one single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 15,252 BRCA1 and 8,211 BRCA2 mutation carriers and subsequently analyzed using a retrospective likelihood appr

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

Genome-Wide Association Study in BRCA1 Mutation Carriers Identifies Novel Loci Associated with Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk

BRCA1-associated breast and ovarian cancer risks can be modified by common genetic variants. To identify further cancer risk-modifying loci, we performed a multi-stage GWAS of 11,705 BRCA1 carriers (of whom 5,920 were diagnosed with breast and 1,839 were diagnosed with ovarian cancer), with a further replication in an additional sample of 2,646 BRCA1 carriers. We identified a novel breast cancer risk modifier locus at 1q32 for BRCA1 carriers (rs2290854, P = 2.7×10-8, HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.09-1.20). In addition, we identified two novel ovarian cancer risk modifier loci: 17q21.31 (rs17631303, P = 1.4×10-8, HR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.17-1.38) and 4q32.3 (rs4691139, P = 3.4×10-8, HR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.17-1.38). The 4q32.3 locus was not associated with ovarian cancer risk in the general population or BRCA2 carriers, suggesting a BRCA1-specific associat

Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eμ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σtt¯) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt¯ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector during 2011 data taking

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the 2011 data taking period is described. During 2011 the LHC provided proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and heavy ion collisions with a 2.76 TeV per nucleon–nucleon collision energy. The ATLAS trigger is a three level system designed to reduce the rate of events from the 40 MHz nominal maximum bunch crossing rate to the approximate 400 Hz which can be written to offline storage. The ATLAS jet trigger is the primary means for the online selection of events containing jets. Events are accepted by the trigger if they contain one or more jets above some transverse energy threshold. During 2011 data taking the jet trigger was fully efficient for jets with transverse energy above 25 GeV for triggers seeded randomly at Level 1. For triggers which require a jet to be identified at each of the three trigger levels, full efficiency is reached for offline jets with transverse energy above 60 GeV. Jets reconstructed in the final trigger level and corresponding to offline jets with transverse energy greater than 60 GeV, are reconstructed with a resolution in transverse energy with respect to offline jets, of better than 4 % in the central region and better than 2.5 % in the forward direction