Evidence for sex linkage in the heredity of quantitative traits in beef cattle

To assess the relative influences of sex linkage and maternal effects, sire-son, sire-daughter, dam-son, and dam-daughter correlations of Birth Weight and weaning and post-weaning (to a year of age) Body Weight, Gain, Average Daily Gain, Heart Girth, Body Length, Hip Width, Hip Height, Fat Thickness, Type Score, Condition Score, and Frame Score of 1903 Angus calves and 1126 Polled Hereford calves were calculated after least-squares adjustment to remove variation in weaning and post-weaning traits due to differences in age of dam and age of calf. Sex-linkage effects appear to be important in Weaning Body Weight, Weaning Gain, Weaning Average Daily Gain, Post-Weaning Weight, Life-Time Average Daily Gain, Post-Weaning Heart Girth, and Post-Weaning Hip Width in Angus. None of the traits seem to show any important sex-linkage effect in Polled Herefords. Maternal effects appear to be important only in Post- Weaning Body Length in Angus and Weaning Fat Thickness, Post- Weaning Weight, Life-Time Average Daily Gain, Post-Weaning Type Score, and Post-Weaning Condition Score in Polled Herefords. Sex-linkage and/or maternal effects are appreciable in Weaning Weight, Weaning Gain, Weaning Average Daily Gain, Weaning Heart Girth, Weaning Body Length, Post-Weaning Weight, and Life-Time Average Daily Gain in Angus. However, in Polled Herefords, sexlinkage and/or maternal effects together are important in Birth Weight, Weaning Hip Width, Weaning Fat Thickness and Post-Weaning Type Score. Sex linkage and sex linkage confounded with maternal effects as one value appear to be greater in Angus than in Polled Herefords with respect to the majority of the traits while maternal effects appear to be greater in Polled Herefords than in Angus with respect to most of the traits. The majority of the assessments decrease in both breeds between weaning and post-weaning with respect to sex-linkage effects, maternal effects, and sex-linkage and/or maternal effects with some differences between the two breeds, possibly due to the fact that Angus are earlier maturing than Polled Herefords in both sexes, and the heritability of rate of maturing in Angus appears, from research of others, to be more than twice that in Polled Herefords

Compositional and Material Properties of Rat Bone after Bisphosphonate and/or Strontium Ranelate Drug Treatment

PURPOSE: We investigated elemental strontium and/or bisphosphonate drug incorporation upon the compositional and biomechanical properties of vertebral bone, in a rat model of Osteoporosis secondary to ovariectomy. METHODS: Six month old female rats were ovariectomized (OVX) and divided into untreated OVXVehicle, OVX-RIS (Risedronate bisphosphonate [BP] treated), OVX-SrR (Strontium Ranelate [Protos®] treated), combination OVX-RIS+SrR, and sham-operated controls. After 16 weeks of treatment, rats were euthanized and lumbar vertebra were dissected. Micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT), Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA), mechanical testing in compression and nano-indentation testing were then undertaken to evaluate bone morphometry, elemental composition, material properties and strength. Results. Bone Volume was significantly reduced in the OVX-Vehicle (133±10mm3) compared with OVX-RIS (169±22mm3), OVXSrR (145±2mm3), and OVX-RIS+SrR (172±8mm3). EPMA mapped elemental Sr deposition to the periosteal surface of cortical bone (50-100 µm thick), endosteal trabecular surfaces (20 µm thick), as well as to both vertebral growth plates. The atomic ratios of (Ca+Sr)/P were significantly reduced with SrR treatment (2.4%- 6.6%), indicating Sr incorporation into bone mineral. No significant differences were measured in vertebral bone reduced modulus by nano-indentation. Conversely, all BP-dosed groups had significantly increased structural bone strength. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, we conclude that BP drugs dominate the conservation of trabecular geometry and structural strength in OP rats, whereas Sr drugs likely influence bone volume and material composition locally

Incentives effects on job performance and mediation of motivation in tourism industry of Saudi Arabia

The main objective of this study is to examine the direct influence of incentives and their indirect effects through the mediation of motivation and job satisfaction on job performance, as well as to examine the moderating effect of cultural competence. The study was developed based on Herzberg‟s Two-factor theory, which deals with the dual needs of employees; it argues that employee performance increases when the dual needs are fulfilled. The study therefore conceptualised that incentives (monetary and non-monetary) would fulfill the dual needs of employees in the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia, especially at a time when the country is struggling for economic diversification as a means of reducing dependence on oil. The designed incentives system may influence employees‟ motivation and job satisfaction thereby affecting job performance. Thus, it was hypothesised that incentives contribute directly to job performance and indirectly via mediation of employee motivation and job satisfaction. It was further hypothesised that cultural competence moderates the relationship between motivation, job satisfaction and job performance. The study employed a quantitative questionnaire approach and drew a sample of respondents 430 from hotels in the Makkah and Madinah regions and from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) using a proportional stratified random sampling technique. The data were analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) technique. The study found significant parameter estimates in the relationship between monetary incentives and motivation as well as job satisfaction and also between non-monetary incentives and motivation as well as job satisfaction. However, mediation effects show that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between both monetary and non-monetary incentives and job performance. Similarly, moderating effects of cultural competence were also found in the relationship between motivation, job satisfaction and job performance. The study demonstrates that job satisfaction and cultural competence are good indicators of job performance and should be given priority attention for improving job performance of employees in the tourism sector

Pilot reuse sequences for TDD in downlink multi-cells to improve data rates

The exponential growth in demand for high data rate transmission to users in fifth generation wireless networks, focus there has been a particular research focus on new techniques that achievable high data rate by suppressing interference between neighboring cells. In this paper, we propose that system performance can be improved by using perfect channel estimation and reducing effective interference with pilot reuse that mitigate strong pilot contamination based on the knowledge of large-scale fading coefficients. We derived the lower bounds on the achievable data rate in downlink by analyzing the performance of the zero-forcing precoding method and derive the signal-to-interference noise ratio to mitigate interference between neighboring cells. From the simulation results, the large pilot reuse sequences improved the achievable data rate and provided better estimation for a channel. When the number of users is large, the interference between neighboring cells can be suppressed by using orthogonal pilot reuse sequences

Utilizing ultrasonic energy for reduction of free fatty acids in crude palm oil

Recently, biodiesel production from abundant bio-sources has drawn the attention of the academic and the industrial community. In this study, crude palm oil (CPO) containing 8.7% free fatty acid content (FFA) was used as raw material. Different common types of acid catalysts (sulfuric acid, methanesulfonic acid and hydrochloric acid) were optimized to investigate the catalytic activity of each acid in the pre-treatment of CPO by the esterification process. Ultrasonic energy was used for the reduction of FFA in CPO. FFA content was measured at different sonication intervals, and the optimum time was determined. Hydrochloric acid showed the highest catalytic activity in the reduction of FFA content in CPO, as well as in converting FFA to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). From this work, it is reasonable to conclude that there is significant enhancement in the pre-treatment of oils by applying ultrasonic energy using long sonication time.Keywords: Biodiesel, crude palm oil, free fatty acids, ultrasonic energ

Determining Accuracy of Chondral Lesion Sizing Methods Prior to Surgery

Background: Osteochondral lesions of the knee may require cartilage restoration such as osteochondral allograft (OCA) transplantation or autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). Although MRI and arthroscopy can offer valuable information regarding lesion characteristics prior to these procedures, no study has compared the use of each in estimating the sizes of grafts used at the time of surgical correction. Hypothesis/Purpose: To compare osteochondral defect size measurements and characteristics across MRI, arthroscopy, and at the time of implantation with OCA or ACI. Study Design: Retrospective Cohort Study (Level III) Methods: Patients who underwent ACI and OCA transplantation at a single institution between 2015 and 2019 were retrospectively identified. Osteochondral lesion characteristics including size were collected preoperatively from MRI and arthroscopy and at the time of definitive open surgical intervention. Subgroup analysis was performed comparing measurement techniques depending on the corrective surgical approach used as well as depending on the mechanism of chondral injury to determine if these had any effect on the ability of arthroscopy or MRI to predict graft size. Results: Overall, 136 chondral lesions were addressed with restoration procedures in 117 patients (mean age 32.5 years). Average difference between final graft size and lesion area measured with index arthroscopy was 116 mm2, while average difference between final graft size and lesion size measured with preoperative MRI was 182 mm2 (P \u3c .001). Depending on surgical technique, measurements with MRI were more similar to final graft size when a patient underwent OCA transplantation versus ACI (P = .007). Depending on mechanism of injury, MRI measurements of lesions were closer to graft area when lesions resulted from trauma (P = .047). Conclusion: Chondral lesion size determined by preoperative MRI imaging is less accurate than arthroscopic measurements. The mechanism injury leading to chondral damage and degree of damage may influence the ability of MRI and arthroscopy to accurately measure chondral lesions and predict the final graft size used in surgical correction. Future studies may be warranted to further investigate influencing factors that alter the reliability of arthroscopy and MRI in measuring chondral lesions. Magnetic Resonanc

Preparation and Clinical Evaluation of 99mTc-dimercapto Succinic Acid (99mTc-DMSA), Freeze-dried Kit For Kidney Cortex Scintigraphy

99mTc-dimercapto Succinic acid freeze-dried kit(99mTc-DMSA) was prepared by reaction of kit that is contained (1mg of 2.3 meso dimercaptosuccinic acid, 0.336 mg of stannous chloride, 40mg insitol and 0.9 ascorbic acid as anti oxidant) with Na99mTcO4 at pH equal to (2-4) that is the optimal condition to formation 99mTc-DMSA complex. The radiochemical purity and stability of 99mTc-DMSA in liquid and dried forms were determined on gel filtration column scanning “GCS”. The labeling yield of complex formation was greater than 99% after 15 min. from addition of Na99mTcO4. The complex in liquid form was stable during ten hours while in lyophilized form six months. The biodisribution of kit was studied on white male mice that the results indicate to the ratio of dose concentration accumulated into kidneys is greater than 29% of injected dose, however, little amounts of complex was detected in non target organs

Experimental and numerical study of strength mismatch in cross-weld tensile testing

The mechanical properties of welded boiler tubes used in power plants can be significantly altered as a result of the fabrication history, such as pre-straining and heat treatment. The primary aim of the study was to determine the effect of fabrication history on local tensile properties across the welds. This was achieved by testing cross-weld specimens machined from welded thin-walled tubes (with unstrained or pre-strained base metal) before and after heat treatment. Digital image correlation, which is a full-field strain measurement technique, was implemented in order to obtain the local stress–strain curves and to extract the corresponding local tensile properties such as offset proof stress. Evidence of strain hardening due to the constraint and thermo-mechanical cycles during the welding process was found in the heat-affected zone and evidence of softening was observed in the pre-strained base metal. It was found that the heat treatment process removed the effect of pre-straining and welding on the proof stress and the strength along the specimen was nearly homogenized. However, mapping the local stress–strain curves in the as-welded cross-weld specimens with pre-strained base metal has revealed abnormal strain relaxation with increase in load in the weld-affected region. For a better understanding of this behaviour, a tensile test of a cross-weld specimen with a large strength mismatch between the weld metal and the base metal was simulated using the finite element method. It was found that the strength mismatch in the specimen causes the development of biaxial stresses in the heat-affected zone once local yielding begins, and the use of global axial stress to construct the local stress–strain curve results in an apparent ‘reduced-strain’ anomaly. Nevertheless, for the strength mismatch ratios studied, this anomalous behaviour did not seem to significantly affect the determination of the local proof stress in the specimens

Exponential Tapered Balun with Different Sizes for UWB Elliptical Dipole Antenna

This work presents a broadband tapered balun with different sizes using nonlinear transition particularly suitable for planar and three-dimensional (3-D) dipole antennas for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications such as communication, radar systems and geolocation precision. Four baluns with wideband microstrip-to-parallel-strip transition using an elliptical structure for an elliptical dipole antenna are proposed. The initial balun structure consists of a nonlinear profile with a quarter-wavelength for both height and width. By studying the current distributions at the balun surface, it can be reduced to 25%, 50% and 75% from the original size. Measured results based on the reflection coefficients for all baluns are shown to be better than -10 dB from 1.0 GHz to 10 GHz. These baluns are integrated with an elliptical dipole which acts as a feeding circuit. Eight set of antennas with a planar and 3-D configurations with four different sizes are proposed in this work. The planar configurations are named as Planar 1, Planar 2, Planar 3 and Planar 4 while the 3-D configurations are named as 3D Dipole 1, 3D Dipole 2, 3D Dipole 3 and 3D Dipole 4, respectively. The results show that all antennas with the proposed baluns operates within the UWB frequency range

3-D Volumetric Evaluation of Human Mandibular Growth

Bone growth is a complex process that is controlled by a multitude of mechanisms that are not fully understood.Most of the current methods employed to measure the growth of bones focus on either studying cadaveric bones from different individuals of different ages, or successive two-dimensional (2D) radiographs. Both techniques have their known limitations. The purpose of this study was to explore a technique for quantifying the three dimensional (3D) growth of an adolescent human mandible over the period of one year utilizing cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans taken for regular orthodontic records. Three -dimensional virtual models were created from the CBCT data using mainstream medical imaging software. A comparison between computer-generated surface meshes of successive 3-D virtual models illustrates the magnitude of relative mandible growth. The results of this work are in agreement with previously reported data from human cadaveric studies and implantable marker studies. The presented method provides a new relatively simple basis (utilizing commercially available software) to visualize and evaluate individualized 3D (mandibular) growth in vivo