Performance and Carcass Composition of Yorkshire Pigs Selected for Low Residual Feed Intake under Ad Libitum and Restricted Feeding

Growth performance and carcass composition of 40 Yorkshire pigs (74.8±9.9 kg or 164.9±21.8 lbs), 20 pigs from a line selected for low residual feed intake for 5 generations and 20 pigs from a control line, was observed while fed on either an ad libitum or NRC maintenance (weight-stasis) basis over a 6 week period. The aim of the latter diet treatment was to keep pigs at a constant weight for six weeks. In the ad libitum treatment, there was no difference in initial (p \u3c 0.49) or final body weights (p \u3c 0.65) but the low residual feed intake line consumed 9% less feed compared to the control (p \u3c 0.08). Similarly, there was no difference in LEA (p \u3c 0.57) but the low residual feed intake line had slightly less backfat compared to the control (p \u3c 0.21). These same results were found from chemical analysis of the carcass, as there was no difference in protein percentage (p \u3c 0.60), but the ad libitum low residual feed intake pigs had a slightly lower fat percentage (p \u3c 0.21). For the weight stasis treatment, the low residual feed intake pigs weighed 3.5% more than the control (p \u3c 0.08), despite attempts to maintain a static body weight, and consumed 7.6% less feed overall (p \u3c 0.09). Both lines had a decrease in backfat; however, the low residual feed intake line had an increase in loin eye area while the control line had a decrease. No differences were observed in chemical carcass composition between the two lines on the weight stasis treatment. These data show that the low residual feed intake line is more efficient, with only slight differences in carcass composition

Collaborative Research and Development of a Novel, Patient-Centered Digital Platform (MyEyeSite) for Rare Inherited Retinal Disease Data: Acceptability and Feasibility Study

Background: Inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) are a leading cause of blindness in children and working age adults in the United Kingdom and other countries, with an appreciable socioeconomic impact. However, by definition, IRD data are individually rare, and as a result, this patient group has been underserved by research. Researchers need larger amounts of these rare data to make progress in this field, for example, through the development of gene therapies. The challenge has been how to find and make these data available to researchers in the most productive way. MyEyeSite is a research collaboration aiming to design and develop a digital platform (the MyEyeSite platform) for people with rare IRDs that will enable patients, doctors, and researchers to aggregate and share specialist eye health data. A crucial component of this platform is the MyEyeSite patient application, which will provide the means for patients with IRD to interact with the system and, in particular, to collate, manage, and share their personal specialist IRD data both for research and their own health care. / Objective: This study aims to test the acceptability and feasibility of the MyEyeSite platform in the target IRD population through a collaborative patient-centered study. / Methods: Qualitative data were generated through focus groups and workshops, and quantitative data were obtained through a survey of patients with IRD. Participants were recruited through clinics at Moorfields Eye Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre through their patient and public involvement databases. / Results: Our IRD focus group sample (n=50) highlighted the following themes: frustration with the current system regarding data sharing within the United Kingdom’s NHS; positive expectations of the potential benefits of the MyEyeSite patient application, resulting from increased access to this specialized data; and concerns regarding data security, including potentially unethical use of the data outside the NHS. Of the surveyed 80 participants, 68 (85%) were motivated to have a more active role in their eye care and share their data for research purposes using a secure technology, such as a web application or mobile app. / Conclusions: This study demonstrates that patients with IRD are highly motivated to be actively involved in managing their own data for research and their own eye care. It demonstrates the feasibility of involving patients with IRD in the detailed design of the MyEyeSite platform exemplar, with input from the patient with IRD workshops playing a key role in determining both the functionality and accessibility of the designs and prototypes. The development of a user-centered technological solution to the problem of rare health data has the potential to benefit not only the patient with IRD community but also others with rare diseases

A systems biology approach toward understanding seed composition in soybean

Background The molecular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms that regulate the complex metabolic network of soybean seed development determine the ultimate balance of protein, lipid, and carbohydrate stored in the mature seed. Many of the genes and metabolites that participate in seed metabolism are unknown or poorly defined; even more remains to be understood about the regulation of their metabolic networks. A global omics analysis can provide insights into the regulation of seed metabolism, even without a priori assumptions about the structure of these networks. Results With the future goal of predictive biology in mind, we have combined metabolomics, transcriptomics, and metabolic flux technologies to reveal the global developmental and metabolic networks that determine the structure and composition of the mature soybean seed. We have coupled this global approach with interactive bioinformatics and statistical analyses to gain insights into the biochemical programs that determine soybean seed composition. For this purpose, we used Plant/Eukaryotic and Microbial Metabolomics Systems Resource (PMR, http://www.metnetdb.org/pmr webcite, a platform that incorporates metabolomics data to develop hypotheses concerning the organization and regulation of metabolic networks, and MetNet systems biology tools http://www.metnetdb.org webcite for plant omics data, a framework to enable interactive visualization of metabolic and regulatory networks. Conclusions This combination of high-throughput experimental data and bioinformatics analyses has revealed sets of specific genes, genetic perturbations and mechanisms, and metabolic changes that are associated with the developmental variation in soybean seed composition. Researchers can explore these metabolomics and transcriptomics data interactively at PMR

Changing spaces of political encounter and the rise of anti-politics: evidence from Mass Observation's General Election diaries

Negativity towards the institutions of formal politics is currently a concern across much of the democratic world. It is generally agreed that such negativity increased among British citizens during the second half of the twentieth century. In this paper, we analyse a novel dataset not previously used to study this topic: Mass Observation's General Election diaries. Since diarists wrote mostly about politicians, political campaigns, and associated media coverage, we ask specifically what the diaries can tell us about increased negativity towards politicians and its relationship to developments in political communication. We take a postholing approach to sampling of the diaries, enabling comparative-static analysis between the middle and end of the twentieth century. We view the diaries in a geographical framework derived from contextual theories of social action. This gives us a focus on spaces of political encounter, modes of political interaction, performances by politicians, and judgements by citizens. We argue that prominent spaces of political encounter changed over the period from long radio speeches and rowdy political meetings to televised debates and associated expert commentary. We demonstrate how these latter settings for political interaction afforded less opportunity for politicians to perform virtues to citizens, and for citizens to calibrate judgements of politicians

Pastoral power in the community pharmacy: a Foucauldian analysis of services to promote patient adherence to new medicine use

Community pharmacists play a growing role in the delivery of primary healthcare. This has led manyto consider the changing power of the pharmacy profession in relation to other professions and patient groups. This paper contributes to these debates through developing a Foucauldian analysis of the changing dynamics of power brought about by extended roles in medicines management and patient education. Examining the New Medicine Service, the study considers how both patient and pharmacist subjectivities are transformed as pharmacists seek to survey patient’s medicine use, diagnose non-adherence to prescribed medicines, and provide education to promote behaviour change. These extended roles in medicines management and patient education expand the ‘pharmacy gaze’ to further aspects of patient health and lifestyle, and more significantly, established a form of ‘pastoral power’ as pharmacists become responsible for shaping patients’ self-regulating subjectivities. In concert, pharmacists are themselves enrolled within a new governing regime where their identities are conditioned by corporate and policy rationalities for the modernisation of primary care

A scoping study of interventions to increase the uptake of physical activity (PA) amongst individuals with mild-to-moderate depression (MMD)

Background - Depression is the largest contributor to disease burden globally. The evidence favouring physical activity as a treatment for mild-to-moderate depression is extensive and relatively uncontested. It is unclear, however, how to increase an uptake of physical activity amongst individuals experiencing mild-to-moderate depression. This leaves professionals with no guidance on how to help people experiencing mild-to-moderate depression to take up physical activity. The purpose of this study was to scope the evidence on interventions to increase the uptake of physical activity amongst individuals experiencing mild-to-moderate depression, and to develop a model of the mechanisms by which they are hypothesised to work. Methods - A scoping study was designed to include a review of primary studies, grey literature and six consultation exercises; two with individuals with experience of depression, two pre-project consultations with physical activity, mental health and literature review experts, one with public health experts, and one with community engagement experts. Results - Ten papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Consultation exercises provided insights into the mechanisms of an uptake of physical activity amongst individuals experiencing mild-to-moderate depression; evidence concerning those mechanisms is (a) fragmented in terms of design and purpose; (b) of varied quality; (c) rarely explicit about the mechanisms through which the interventions are thought to work. Physical, environmental and social factors that may represent mediating variables in the uptake of physical activity amongst people experiencing mild-to-moderate depression are largely absent from studies. Conclusions - An explanatory model was developed. This represents mild-to-moderate depression as interfering with (a) the motivation to take part in physical activity and (b) the volition that it is required to take part in physical activity. Therefore, both motivational and volitional elements are important in any intervention to increase physical activity in people with mild-to-moderate depression. Furthermore, mild-to-moderate depression-specific factors need to be tackled in any physical activity initiative, via psychological treatments such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. We argu

Total Zinc Intake May Modify the Glucose-Raising Effect of a Zinc Transporter (SLC30A8) Variant

Objective: Many genetic variants have been associated with glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes in genome-wide association studies. Zinc is an essential micronutrient that is important for β-cell function and glucose homeostasis. We tested the hypothesis that zinc intake could influence the glucose-raising effect of specific variants. Research Design and Methods: We conducted a 14-cohort meta-analysis to assess the interaction of 20 genetic variants known to be related to glycemic traits and zinc metabolism with dietary zinc intake (food sources) and a 5-cohort meta-analysis to assess the interaction with total zinc intake (food sources and supplements) on fasting glucose levels among individuals of European ancestry without diabetes. Results: We observed a significant association of total zinc intake with lower fasting glucose levels (β-coefficient ± SE per 1 mg/day of zinc intake: −0.0012 ± 0.0003 mmol/L, summary P value = 0.0003), while the association of dietary zinc intake was not significant. We identified a nominally significant interaction between total zinc intake and the SLC30A8 rs11558471 variant on fasting glucose levels (β-coefficient ± SE per A allele for 1 mg/day of greater total zinc intake: −0.0017 ± 0.0006 mmol/L, summary interaction P value = 0.005); this result suggests a stronger inverse association between total zinc intake and fasting glucose in individuals carrying the glucose-raising A allele compared with individuals who do not carry it. None of the other interaction tests were statistically significant. Conclusions: Our results suggest that higher total zinc intake may attenuate the glucose-raising effect of the rs11558471 SLC30A8 (zinc transporter) variant. Our findings also support evidence for the association of higher total zinc intake with lower fasting glucose levels