The Digital Anatomist Foundational Model Server

(no abstract

Relationship Between Backfat Depth and its Individual Layers and Intramuscular Fat Percentage in Swine

Results show the correlations between IMF and different measures of total fat thickness are of similar magnitude, regardless of the measure being a single measure of total subcutaneous fat or a sum of the individual layers. Results also show that the correlation between the inner and outer backfat layers is less than the correlation between the middle layer and the inner and outer layers

Effect of Technician, Machine, and Animal Body Composition on Accuracy of Ultrasonic Measures of Backfat and Loin Muscle Area in Swine

Records (n = 11,305) from the 1998 to 2003 National Swine Improvement Federation (NSIF) ultrasound certification programs were used to determine the effect of technician, machine (A-mode and B-mode: Aloka 500, Classic Scanner 200), and level of animal fat depth and loin muscle area on the accuracy of tenth rib off-midline backfat (BF10) and loin muscle area (LMA) measured on live pigs

Effect of Removing Market Ready Pigs on Performance of Their Pen Mates

Results of this study suggest removing 25% or 50% of market ready pigs two weeks prior to the final marketing date does not affect test performance of pen mates. This study does not support the commonly held producer belief that removal of a percentage of market weight pigs will improve overall pen performance. If pigs are provided the space per animal utilized in this study, producers could reduce the labor associated with marketing by selling all of the pigs as a single group

The Effects of Long Term Selection for Reduced Backfat and Increased Loin Muscle Area on Meat and Eating Quality Traits in Duroc Swine

A study was conducted to evaluate differences in performance, carcass composition, and eating quality characteristics of pigs sired by purebred Duroc boars currently available and pigs sired by purebred Duroc boars from the mid 1980’s. Two lines were developed by splitting and randomly allocating littermate and ½ sib pairs of females to matings by current (CTP) or old (OTP) time period boars. Subsequent boar, barrow, and gilt progeny from two replications were weighed on test at a group mean live weight of 140 lbs. Off-test ultrasonic LMA, BF10, and IMF measurements were collected on 789 pigs at a mean live weight of 240 lb. Records on pigs sired by CTP boars, from both replications (n=556), represented 23 sires while pigs sired by OTP boars (n=231) consisted of 15 sire groups. All available barrows and randomly selected gilts (n=277) were sent to a commercial abattoir and measurements of tenth-rib backfat (CBF10), last rib backfat (CLRBF), last lumbar backfat (CLLBF), and loin muscle area (CLMA) were collected. Chemical intramuscular fat percentage was determined by lab analysis of a loin sample from the 10th rib face of the longissimus muscle. Additional meat and eating quality traits measured were: Minolta reflectance and Hunter L (24 and 48 h); pH (24 h and 7 d); water holding capacity; subjective visual scores for color, marbling, and firmness (48 h); Instron tenderness, cooking loss, and trained sensory panel evaluations (7 d). Six serial ultrasonic measurements of 10th rib loin muscle area (LMA), off-midline backfat (BF10), and intramuscular fat percentage (IMF) from the first replication were collected every two weeks and used to assess deposition rate and growth pattern differences. There was no significant difference in average daily gain of pigs sired by boars from the two time periods. Pigs sired by CTP boars had larger (P \u3c 0.05) LMA measurements and less BF10, while pigs sired by OTP had significantly more IMF. Carcass evaluation revealed larger CLMA measurements, and significantly less CBF10, CLRBF, and CLLBF measurements for pigs sired by CTP boars. Pigs sired by OTP boars had a higher intramuscular fat percentage, lower Instron tenderness values, and higher subjective marbling and color scores than pigs sired by CTP boars (P \u3c 0.05). There were no significant differences between time periods for Minolta reflectance, Hunter L (24 and 48 h), water holding capacity, pH (24 h and 7 d), and subjective firmness scores. Trained sensory evaluations revealed higher (P \u3c 0.05) flavor scores and lower off-flavor scores for OTP sired pigs; however, no significant differences in tenderness score, juiciness score, chewiness score, and cooking loss were found between lines. Progeny of OTP boars began the test period at heavier weights and begin to decrease in daily body weight gain toward the conclusion of the test period, finishing with no advantage in body weight when compared to progeny of CTP boars. The analysis of serial backfat measurements revealed a linear pattern of backfat deposition between 150 and 270 lbs. Pigs sired by OTP boars deposited more backfat (

Comment on "Density Functional Simulation of a Breaking Nanowire"

In a recent Letter, Nakamura et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1538 (1999)] described first principles calculations for a breaking Na nanocontact. Their system consists of a periodic one-dimensional array of supercells, each of which contains 39 Na atoms, originally forming a straight, crystalline wire with a length of 6 atoms. The system is elongated by increasing the length of the unit cell. At each step, the atomic configuration is relaxed to a new local equilibrium, and the tensile force is evaluated from the change of the total energy with elongation. Aside from a discontinuity of the force occuring at the transition from a crytalline to an amorphous configuration during the early stages of elongation, they were unable to identify any simple correlations between the force and the number of electronic modes transmitted through the contact. An important question is whether their model is realistic, i.e., whether it can be compared to experimental results obtained for a single nanocontact between two macroscopic pieces of metal. In this Comment, we demonstrate that with such a small unit cell, the interference effects between neighboring contacts are of the same size as the force oscillations in a single nanocontact.Comment: 1 pag

The Pulsed Neutron Beam EDM Experiment

We report on the Beam EDM experiment, which aims to employ a pulsed cold neutron beam to search for an electric dipole moment instead of the established use of storable ultracold neutrons. We present a brief overview of the basic measurement concept and the current status of our proof-of-principle Ramsey apparatus