A RISK PROGRAMMING ANALYSIS OF CATTLE PROCUREMENT BY BEEF PACKERS

Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Weather extremes over Europe under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming from HAPPI regional climate ensemble simulations

This paper presents a novel data set of regional climate model simulations over Europe that significantly improves our ability to detect changes in weather extremes under low and moderate levels of global warming. The data set provides a unique and physically consistent data set, as it is derived from a large ensemble of regional climate model simulations. These simulations were driven by two global climate models from the international HAPPI consortium. The set consists of 100 × 10-year simulations and 25 × 10-year simulations, respectively. These large ensembles allow for regional climate change and weather extremes to be investigated with an improved signal-to-noise ratio compared to previous climate simulations. The changes in four climate indices for temperature targets of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming are quantified: number of days per year with daily mean near-surface apparent temperature of > 28 °C (ATG28); the yearly maximum 5-day sum of precipitation (RX5day); the daily precipitation intensity of the 50-yr return period (RI50yr); and the annual Consecutive Dry Days (CDD). This work shows that even for a small signal in projected global mean temperature, changes of extreme temperature and precipitation indices can be robustly estimated. For temperature related indices changes in percentiles can also be estimated with high confidence. Such data can form the basis for tailor-made climate information that can aid adaptive measures at a policy-relevant scales, indicating potential impacts at low levels of global warming at steps of 0.5 °C

Synovial fluid features and their relations to osteoarthritis severity: new findings from sequential studies

AbstractObjective Many factors are involved in the osteoarthritic process. It is not yet known which are initiators, promoters or simply results. Thus, we have evaluated some of those potentially important factors in osteoarthritis (OA) as observed sequentially for the first time in synovial fluids.DesignSynovial fluids (SF) obtained between 1992–2002 were all routinely evaluated for gross appearance, leukocyte counts and microscopic examination of wet drop preparations. We used regular and polarized light and alizarin red s stains. We separated out all OA patients, then we looked for patients who had more than two synovial fluid analyses to get sequential information. Time between first and final aspiration ranged from 2 to 7 (3.6±1.6) years and number of analyses per patients from 3 to 6 (3.3±0.7). We related synovial fluid crystals, fibrils and white blood cell count (WBC) to age, sex, disease duration and radiographic assessment according to the Kellgren–Lawrence radiographic rating system.Results Of 4523 synovial fluid examinations, we found 855 in patients with knee OA; 330 patients with adequate clinical details for comparison were included in our study. Twenty-six patients (one woman and 25 men) had sequentially examined SF.We found that 52% of those OA patients with effusions studied had crystals identified in their synovial fluid. Twenty-one percent of all the patients had CPPD crystals, 47% had hydroxyapatite, also called basic calcium phosphate (BCP) crystals and 16% had both types of crystals. Microscopically identifiable fibrils were found in 60% of SF.In sequentially examined patients, CPPD crystals and apatite (BCP) were found in 19% and 23%, respectively, at the first aspiration and, in 34% and 58% at the final aspiration. Fibrils were seen in 54% at first examination and 85% later. Apatite and fibrils showed more significant correlation with time (r=0.51,r =0.92) than did CPPD (r=0.32). SF WBC correlated only with CPPD crystals and did not increase with OA duration or severity. CPPD, apatite and fibrils all correlated with higher radiographic grades of OA.Conclusions As noted before CPPD and apatite crystals were more common in patients with more severe OA. New findings are that our sequential cases showed that there were some patients with no crystals at onset but that crystals appeared with progression of the disease. Fibril presence in SF also correlated with progression of the disease.Copyright 2003 OsteoArthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Stability of large vacancy clusters in silicon

Using a density-functional-based tight-binding method we investigate the stability of various vacancy clusters up to a size of 17 vacancies. Additionally, we compute the positron lifetimes for the most stable structures to compare them to experimental data. A simple bond-counting model is extended to take into account the formation of new bonds. This yields a very good agreement with the explicitly calculated formation energies of the relaxed structures for V6 to V14. The structures, where the vacancies form closed rings, such as V6 and V10, are especially stable against dissociation. For these structures, the calculated dissociation energies are in agreement with experimentally determined annealing temperatures and the calculated positron lifetimes are consistent with measurements.Peer reviewe

Assessing capacity to engage in healthcare to improve the patient experience through health information technology

Patient engagement is viewed as a means to improve patient care, increase population health, and decrease health care costs. Efforts to improve engagement are prevalent across healthcare, particularly through health information technology (HIT) tools such as patient portals. However, we know that not all patients have the same ability to engage, leading to potential disparities. We present the Engagement Capacity Framework and suggest that examining capacity for engagement would improve our ability to address currently unmeasured factors that facilitate engagement. The objective was to examine factors that influence an individual’s capacity for engagement through HIT. We administered a paper survey to patients seen for care in a Family Medicine Clinic at a large Academic Medical Center, measuring potential components of the Engagement Capacity Framework. 142 patients completed the survey. Respondents reported high self-efficacy, high resilience, and good or better quality of life. Most were willing to use the Internet. Almost 30% of respondents did not use a patient portal and 37% of these respondents were very or somewhat unwilling to use a portal. We observed significant positive correlations (p \u3e 0.05) between portal use and searching for health information online, using email and owning technology. For those who did not use a portal we asked about willingness to use a portal; portal willingness was positively correlated with willingness to use the Internet (p \u3c 0.01). Our findings emphasize the importance of assessing capacity for engagement in order to target interventions to those most in need, connecting them to necessary resources to allow more full participation in their care. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Innovation & Technology lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework) Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this len

Challenges in multiphysics modeling of dual-band HgCdTe infrared detectors

We present three-dimensional simulations of HgCdTe-based focal plane arrays (FPAs) with two-color and dual-band sequential infrared pixels having realistic truncated-pyramid shape taking into account the presence of compositionally-graded transition layers. Simulations emphasize the importance of a full-wave approach to the electromagnetic problem, and the evaluations of the optical and diffusive contribution to inter-pixel crosstalk indicate the effectiveness of deep trenches to prevent diffusive crosstalk in both wavebands

Increasing Capacity for Evaluation of Community-Based Organizations: Lessons from the Ohio Equity Institute

Background: Community-based organizations (CBOs) play an important role delivering disease prevention and health promotion activities to address community health needs and improve the health of individuals living in their communities. While CBOs play this important role, evaluation of the services they deliver is hampered by limited infrastructure to systematically collect data from these organizations. To address this gap, we report on a case study of the development of the Ohio Equity Institute (OEI) Data Portal. The OEI is a statewide initiative that supports 65 CBOs across Ohio to deliver 3 evidence-based interventions (ie, CenteringPregnancy, Community Health Workers, and Home Visiting) to address infant mortality in underserved populations. Methods: Employing principles of community-engaged stakeholder research and user-centered design, we conducted Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, including semistructured interviews with 43 key informants, to improve the development, implementation, and use of the OEI Data Portal. Results: This process identified both technical and implementation challenges, and offered opportunities to make improvements to the data collection system itself as well as to the integration of this system with CBO workflows. These improvements yielded significant gains in terms of the quantity and quality of data submission, ultimately contributing to ongoing outcome evaluation efforts. Conclusion: Our findings provide important insight into the challenges experienced by CBOs when participating in a statewide CBO data evaluation infrastructure development and implementation. As Ohio and other states push to expand collaborations between CBOs and health care organizations, leaders should leverage existing data collection to facilitate a more comprehensive and effective process

Beta-adrenergic agonists alter oxidative phosphorylation in primary myoblasts (Short Communication)

Beta-adrenergic agonists (β-AAs) are widely used supplements in beef and pork production to improve feed efficiency and increase lean muscle mass, yet little is known about the molecular mechanism by which β-AAs achieve this outcome. Our objective was to identify the influence of ractopamine HCl and zilpaterol HCl on mitochondrial respiratory activity in muscle satellite cells isolated from crossbred beef steers (N = 5), crossbred barrows (N = 2), Yorkshire-cross gilts (N = 3), and commercial weather lambs (N = 5). Real-time measurements of oxygen con­sumption rates (OCRs) were recorded using extracellular flux analyses with a Seahorse XFe24 analyzer. After basal OCR measurements were recorded, zilpaterol HCl, ractopamine HCl, or no β-AA was injected into the assay plate in three technical replicates for each cell isolate. Then, oligomycin, carbonyl cyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone, and rotenone were injected into the assay plate sequentially, each inducing a different cellular state. This allowed for the measurement of OCR at these states and for the calculation of the following measures of mitochon­drial function: basal respiration, non-mitochondrial respiration, maximal respiration, proton leak, adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-linked respiration, and spare respiratory capacity. Incubation of bovine cells with either zilpaterol HCl or ractopamine HCl increased maximal respiration (P = 0.046) and spare respiratory capacity (P = 0.035) compared with non-supplemented counterparts. No difference (P \u3e 0.05) was observed between zilpaterol HCl and ractopamine HCl for maximal respiration and spare respiratory capacity in bovine cell isolates. No measures of mitochondrial function (basal respiration, non-mitochondrial respiration, maximal respiration, proton leak, ATP-linked respiration, and spare respiratory capacity) were altered by β-AA treatment in ovine or porcine cells. These findings indicate that β-AAs in cattle may improve the efficiency of oxidative metabolism in muscle satellite cells by modifying mitochondrial respiratory activity. The lack of response by ovine and porcine cells to β-AA incubation also demonstrates differing physiological responses to β-AA across species, which helps to explain the variation in its effectiveness as a growth supplement. Lay Summary — Beta-adrenergic agonists (β-AAs) are supplemented to pigs and cattle to improve growth performance, carcass weight, and loin muscle area. Little is known about the mechanism taking place within individual cells by which β-AAs achieve this outcome. Previous work reported that β-AA supplementation improves the efficiency in which cells use glucose as an energy source and alters the expression of genes related to mitochondrial function, a key component of cellular energy production. To further our understanding of the impact of β-AA supplementation on these cellular functions, our objective was to identify the influence of two β-AAs used in livestock production, ractopamine HCl and zilpaterol HCl, on the mitochondrial respiratory activity of cells collected from the loin muscle and grown in culture. We isolated cells from cattle, pig, and sheep muscle and measured the oxygen consumption of the cells after treatment with ractopamine HCl, zilpaterol HCl, or with no supplement. We found that both ractopamine HCl and zilpaterol HCl enhance the efficiency of cellular energy production during a state of cellular stress in bovine muscle cells. There was no appreciable effect of the supplement on the energy production of pig or sheep cells. These data indicate that β-AA supplementation in cattle may increase the muscle cell energy production capacity compared with non-supplemented cells. This study also demonstrates that the efficiency of cell energy production is one plausible mechanism underlying species differences in the response to β-AA supplementation

Effect of hypothalamic lesions on temperature regulation in hibernating ground squirrels

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22427/1/0000877.pd