Effect van fokwaarde voor berengeur op het gedrag en berengeur van beren : Effect of genetic background for boar taint on the behaviour and boar taint of boars

In opdracht van het ministerie van Economische Zaken en het Productschap Vee en Vlees is op Varkens Innovatie Centrum (VIC) Sterksel en een praktijkbedrijf onderzocht of er een relatie is tussen ongewenst gedrag van beren en berengeur. Mocht deze relatie er zijn, dan wordt bij selectie op minder berengeur mogelijk ook geselecteerd op minder ongewenst gedrag van beren. Daarnaast is op 9 praktijkbedrijven nagegaan wat het effect is op berengeur bij de inzet van eindberen met een lage fokwaarde voor berengeur

Characteristics of Early-Onset vs Late-Onset Colorectal Cancer: A Review.

The incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (younger than 50 years) is rising globally, the reasons for which are unclear. It appears to represent a unique disease process with different clinical, pathological, and molecular characteristics compared with late-onset colorectal cancer. Data on oncological outcomes are limited, and sensitivity to conventional neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy regimens appear to be unknown. The purpose of this review is to summarize the available literature on early-onset colorectal cancer. Within the next decade, it is estimated that 1 in 10 colon cancers and 1 in 4 rectal cancers will be diagnosed in adults younger than 50 years. Potential risk factors include a Westernized diet, obesity, antibiotic usage, and alterations in the gut microbiome. Although genetic predisposition plays a role, most cases are sporadic. The full spectrum of germline and somatic sequence variations implicated remains unknown. Younger patients typically present with descending colonic or rectal cancer, advanced disease stage, and unfavorable histopathological features. Despite being more likely to receive neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy, patients with early-onset disease demonstrate comparable oncological outcomes with their older counterparts. The clinicopathological features, underlying molecular profiles, and drivers of early-onset colorectal cancer differ from those of late-onset disease. Standardized, age-specific preventive, screening, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies are required to optimize outcomes

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Low basal salivary cortisol is associated with teacher reported conduct disorder symtoms

Cortisol has been implicated in psychobiological explanations of antisocial behavior. This study measured basal salivary cortisol in a sample of 25 children (age range 6 to 12 years) selected to vary in levels of antisocial behavior. Regression analyses were used to predict cortisol concentrations from parent- and teacher-reported symptoms. Parent-reported symptoms did not predict basal cortisol. Teacher-reported conduct disorder (CD) symptoms explained 38% of the variance in the cortisol concentrations, with high symptom severity associated with low cortisol. When a distinction was made between aggressive and non-aggressive CD symptoms, aggressive CD symptoms were more clearly related to low cortisol than non-aggressive CD symptoms. In contrast to previous research, no evidence was found for a mediating role of anxiety symptoms in the relationship between CD and cortisol. The results support biologically based models of antisocial behavior in children that involve reduced autonomic activity. © 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Solid-state fermentation of wheat bran by Trichoderma reesei QM9414: Substrate composition changes, C balance, enzyme production, growth and kinetics

A description is given of the solid-state fermentation of wheat bran by Trichoderma reesei QM9414 at constant temperature and relative humidity. Glucosamine, the oxygen consumption rate (OCR), the carbon dioxide production rate (CPR), changes in wheat bran composition and the production of four enzymes were measured during 125 h of fermentation. A C balance was set up between CO2 production, based on CPR measurements, CO2 production as expected on the basis of substrate composition changes and substrate elemental composition in combination with dry-matter weight loss. Glucosamine was used as the measure of biomass. The results indicate that the glucosamine content of fungi in liquid culture cannot be used to estimate the biomass content in solid-state fermentations. Using glucosamine, correlations between fungal growth and respiration kinetics could only partly be described with the linear-growth model of Pirt. A decline in OCR and CPR started the moment the glucosamine level was 50% of its maximum value. After the glucosamine level had reached its maximum OCR and CPR continued to decline. The activities of xylanase and protease are linearly related to the glucosamine level. No clear correlations between glucosamine and carboxylmethylcellulose-hydrolysing enzyme activity and amylase activity were found

Governing Logistics Information Platforms

The Extended Single Window (ESW) project aims to support goods flows by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Specifically, the project takes the concept of Single Windows (often used in the sense that governments offer a single portal or interface to which businesses can submit information, supporting re-ruse by multiple agencies and coordination of government activities) and includes the business side; creating an Extended Single Window. An Extended Single Window includes business information systems and platforms and supports the re-use of business data, both for supporting new business applications and for making it easier to connect to government single windows. The project is not alone in this ambition. For example, in the FP7 project CASSANDRA, funded by the European Commission, the concept of a data pipeline was developed and put to practice in various international trade lanes comprising four continents in total. Within the Netherlands, the national initiative to support innovations in logistics (Topsector Logistics) yielded the development of a Neutral Logistics Information Platform (NLIP, see www.nlip.org). This platform aimed to support information exchange in international supply chains. Similar to ESW, the starting point in the NLIP were the Port Community Systems (PCSs) in main ports in the Netherlands, and build from there. Given the similarities, ESW has been heavily impacted by the development of NLIP and much of the material in this report is in the context of the NLIP concept and programme. However, be it a data pipeline, an Extended single window, or a logistics information platform, one of the pressing issues of these ICTs for information exchange in the international supply chain is the issue of governance. Governance primarily concerns what kind of decision structures are needed, for example on the process of agreeing on data ownership, the selection of standards, and the funding structures. What incentives can be created to have parties adopt it, and who should provide these incentives? Is value added functionality an option? If so, what kind of functionality; only for parties that agree to it and have a role in it, or can it actually be part of the funding structure? That makes the question for data ownership, and cost- and benefit distribution even greater. There are several configuration options for global information sharing ’system-of-systems’. For example, commercial platform providers could each offer commercial solutions, the adoption of which would benefit the supply chains using it because all of the platforms adhere to a similar standard for supporting compliance (Bharosa, Klievink, Janssen, & Tan, n.d.). Apart from the commercial platforms of global IT solution providers, one of the most realistic developments paths is to have national platforms as main hubs, or ‘landing places’, connecting the complex logistical processes and stakeholder setting of port environments to the international trade flows, information-wise that is. In this report, we analyse the route towards a national information platform. To ensure our analysis is rooted in empirical material, as a case study we picked a specific Port Community System (PCS) as one of the building blocks of the national information platform. The case study comprises three parts, of which the key findings are: \u95 As the NLIP/ESW is all about value-added functionalities for the sector as a whole by making smart combinations of data, we study three value-added services of the PCS. These three services (cargo information, inland manifest and discrepancy list) illustrate the role of a community system in bringing together a multitude of parties that are all independent but come together in specific trade lanes where the actions and information of one affect those of others. \u95 We analyse the role of the system in an export process. We find that this is largely community functionality that is needed for (the parties in) a port to efficiently operate in a competitive international environment. Our analysis shows how this kind of core functionality generates a steady stream of key data, both public and private, that is necessary to make the above-mentioned value-added service possible. These are often public-private combinations, with often one of more stakeholders that (more) directly benefit from these functionalities, but do require others to contribute (that benefit less or not). A major area for decision making that follows from this analysis is that for a NLIP/ESW, decisions need to be made on which functionalities are permissible and which data may be used for them (i.e. can data that have been provided for community functionality be re-used for value-added services?). This is also related to the issue of data ownership and any rights or permissions a custodian of data may have. \u95 Third, we analyse the role of the system in an import process. Again, this is core functionality, needed by parties involved in importing goods, whether they are involved in the logistics (handling in the port and hinterland transport), the trade lane (e.g. as a buyer or re-seller of the goods), or as an inspection agency (e.g. Customs, food and product safety). In this situation, the ‘cargo information’ service (described as part of step one) offers functionality for various parties involved. However, our analysis shows that this also yields a debate on the pricing of such a service, as well as the cost distribution. A major area for decision making that follows from this, is that of decisions on the finance structure of the system as a whole (e.g. which services are considered community functionality and how to fund that) and of individual services that need to be decided on at the community-level (e.g. how are costs and/or benefits distributed among parties that are involved in the service). From the interviews we learn that stakeholders have multiple perspectives regarding the decisions at the community system level. Though NLIP/ESW is basically a federated system, the abovementioned aspects and areas for decision making transcend the level that individual actors can make decisions on. As NLIP/ESW brings multiple communities (e.g. the community in a specific port or in a specific sector) together, these areas also transcend the level of communities that have existing collaborations at the community level. Dealing with these aspects requires processes or structures for collaboration among stakeholders for agenda setting and decision-making. We argue that this situation can be dealt with by developing a structure (e.g. an institutionalised process, potentially with stakeholder participation) for deciding on these issues in a way that makes the decisions and the process transparent to the stakeholders. Also, the structure needs to accommodate that stakeholders can raise issues, are heard, and committed to the outcomes. This actor-related complexity is the area of governance of NLIP/ESW, the topic of work package 3 in the ESW project, of which this is the final report. When assessing the current governance related to NLIP/ESW, it becomes clear that currently much of the actor-complexity is funnelled on the technical complexity. In other words; the technical arrangement have to accommodate not only the technical complexity but also the positions and interests of the stakeholders that were involved in the development phase. Further adding to the complexity is that the types of operations and information exchanges that the NLIP/ESW should support are highly diverse, if it were to act as a national platform and pipeline ‘landing place’. This complexity cannot only be dealt with by technical solutions, further emphasising the need for solutions in the area of governance. Currently, many governance-related issues are discussed and decided on in a temporary collaboration structure (ESW is a project and NLIP could also be considered a project, or a programme covering multiple projects). Some issues that stakeholders encounter may seem operational or technical problems, but at the core these revolve around deciding what NLIP/ESW may do, aims to do, how it does that, and who pays for what. Our study finds that for the next step in the development of NLIP/ESW, a long-term basis for proper decision-making needs to be developed, also internationally. This basis entails that there be a structure and decision making processes that are able to ensure effective and efficient decision making regarding those aspects that transcend the level of individual actors (Veeneman, Ten Heuvelhof, De Bruijn, & Saanen, 2011). Parts of this structure are already in place in the existing NLIP/ESW programme, but its temporary ‘project’ basis is likely to be too permissive to be able to make decisions without risking a long, dragging process of strategic behaviour and negotiations. Also, the governance structures of the existing NLIP/ESW components (i.e. the PCSs) do work with representation of various stakeholder communities, but our research suggests that parties that are not involved directly (including parties that have representation) do not have a clear understanding of how decisions were made.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

The influence of temperature on kinetics in solid-state fermentation

In this paper, correlations between temperature and kinetics of Trichoderma reesei QM9414 growing on wheat bran are described in terms of glucosamine production, oxygen consumption, and carbon dioxide production. Maximum growth temperature (Tmax) being approximately 314 K, is estimated by measuring the radial growth rate on wheat bran. The value is used in the description of the influence of temperature on the maximum specific growth rate (μmax) and maximum glucosamine (Gmax) level. Both correlations are described with a Ratkowsky-type equation. The highest value of μmax and Gmax are found at approximately 307 K and were 0.154 h−1 and 8.7 mg glucosamine g−1 initial dry matter, respectively. A Gaussian curve is used to describe the influence of temperature on yield factor which varies with a factor of 2 between 293 K and Tmax. The maintenance coefficient is determined to be temperature independent. The observed decline in specific activity, measurable below and above Tmax reflects the sensitivity of the fungus to elevated temperatures. The decline rate increases exponentially above Tmax