The factors influencing the priority of access to food and the effects of the priority of access to food on their carcass traits were analyzed for Japanese Black (Wagyu) cattle in a semi-intensive ...fattening production system. The records of 96 clinically healthy steers and heifers were analyzed. The calves at ∼3 to 4 months of age were allocated to pens with four animals per pen; all four animals in the same pen were of the same sex and of similar body size. The ranking of the animals’ priority of access to food (1ˢᵗ, 2ⁿᵈ, 3ʳᵈ and 4ᵗʰ), which was determined by the farm manager, was used as an indicator of social dominance in the present study. Four models including sire line, maternal grandsire line and the difference in the animals’ birth dates as fixed effects were used to analyze factors influencing the priority of access to food. Ranking was represented by ordinal scores (highest=4, lowest=1) in Model 1, and the binary scores were assigned in Model 2 (highest=1; 2ⁿᵈ, 3ʳᵈ and 4ᵗʰ=0), Model 3 (1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ=1; 3ʳᵈ and 4ᵗʰ=0) and Model 4 (1ˢᵗ, 2ⁿᵈ and 3ʳᵈ=1; lowest=0). The results showed that the difference in the animals’ birth dates had a significant effect on the establishment of the priority of access to food in Model 3 (P<0.05), suggesting that animals born earlier may become more dominant in the pen. The maternal grandsire line tended to affect the social rank score in Models 2 and 3 (P<0.10). Our results indicated that the maternal grandsire line may affect the temperament of calves through their mothers’ genetic performance and thereby more aggressive calves may be more dominant and have higher priority of access to food. On the other hand, there was a significant effect of the priority of access to food on beef marbling score (BMS; P<0.05), and the priority of access to food also tended to influence the carcass weight (P=0.09). The highest BMS was observed for animals with the first rank of the priority of access to food (P<0.05), and the higher-ranking animals had the tendency to be heavier carcass than the lower-ranking animals. Our findings emphasized the importance of information about the priority of access to food determined by farmers’ own observation on implementing best management practices in small-scaled semi-intensive beef cattle production systems.
One notable complication of mini-implants that are used to provide anchorage in orthodontic treatment is loosening. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between mini-implant ...mobility during the healing phase and the prognosis for implant stability.
Twenty male Wistar rats (aged 20 weeks) were used. Drills with diameters of 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, and 1.1 mm were used to make pilot holes in the rat tibiae. The inserted mini-implants (diameter 1.4 mm; spearhead 1.2 mm; halfway between maximum and minimum 1.3 mm; length 4.0 mm) were subjected to an experimental traction of force for 3 weeks. Bone-to-implant contact (BIC) was observed histologically. Another 20 male rats (aged 20 weeks) underwent an identical procedure, and the stability of the mini-implants was measured using the Periotest before and after traction. The data were statistically analysed using Scheffé's test.
The BIC ratios of the 0.9 and 1.0 mm groups were significantly greater than those of the other groups. The Periotest values measured 3 weeks after implant insertion were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than those measured at insertion, except in the 1.1 mm group. To obtain mini-implant stability, the hole diameter should be between 69 and 77 per cent of the diameter of the mini-implant. A significant decrease in the mobility of the mini-implants 3 weeks post-insertion implies a good prognosis for the subsequent mini-implant stability.
A WC-17Co coating was deposited onto ST37 mild steel substrate using HVOF spray technique and then heat treated at different temperatures in a vacuum chamber. The coatings were then evaluated in the ...as sprayed and heat treated conditions. Inspections by SEM and phase analysis by XRD indicated that some brittle eta (
η) phases were produced at high temperature heat treatments. Generation of these phases increased the coating's hardness and decreased fracture toughness of the coating. Tribological properties were studied under dry condition by using pin on disc machine and diamond metal matrix composite disc as counterface. Wear test results showed that as sprayed deposit had the best wear resistance and its wear mechanism was sharp cutting abrasion. The weight loss in heat treated samples increased by increasing heat treatment temperature and the wear mechanisms gradually changed from cutting to gouging abrasion.
Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common malignancy in males. Despite high response rates and clinical benefits, androgen-ablation therapy is ineffective for advanced or relapsed PC because of the ...emergence of aggressive castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Through our genome-wide gene expression analysis of PC cells purified from clinical CRPC tissues, we here identified a novel molecular target, PKIB (cAMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor-beta), which was overexpressed specifically in CRPCs and aggressive PCs. Immunohistochemical analysis confirmed its overexpression in CRPCs and its strong correlation with high Gleason scores of PCs. Knockdown of PKIB by siRNA resulted in drastic growth suppression of PC cells, and, concordantly, exogenous introduction of PKIB into PC cells enhanced their growth and mobility. We found the direct interaction between PKIB and cAMP-dependent protein kinase A catalytic subunit (PKA-C), and showed that knockdown of PKIB in PC cells diminished the nuclear translocation of PKA-C. Knockdown of PKIB also decreased the phosphorylation level of Akt at Ser473 in PC cells, and exogenous PKIB introduction enhanced Akt phosphorylation in PC cells by incorporating with endogenous PKA-C kinase. In vitro kinase assay validated the recombinant PKIB enhanced phosphorylation of Akt at Ser473 by PKA-C kinase. These findings show that PKIB and PKA-C kinase can have critical functions of aggressive phenotype of PCs through Akt phosphorylation and that they should be a promising molecular target for PC treatment.
We propose a method for the precise 3D see-through imaging, or transparent visualization, of the large-scale and complex point clouds acquired via the laser scanning of 3D cultural heritage objects. ...Our method is based on a stochastic algorithm and directly uses the 3D points, which are acquired using a laser scanner, as the rendering primitives. This method achieves the correct depth feel without requiring depth sorting of the rendering primitives along the line of sight. Eliminating this need allows us to avoid long computation times when creating natural and precise 3D see-through views of laser-scanned cultural heritage objects. The opacity of each laser-scanned object is also flexibly controllable. For a laser-scanned point cloud consisting of more than 107 or 108 3D points, the pre-processing requires only a few minutes, and the rendering can be executed at interactive frame rates. Our method enables the creation of cumulative 3D see-through images of time-series laser-scanned data. It also offers the possibility of fused visualization for observing a laser-scanned object behind a transparent high-quality photographic image placed in the 3D scene. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by applying it to festival floats of high cultural value. These festival floats have complex outer and inner 3D structures and are suitable for see-through imaging.
Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), the only enzyme that is known to be able to induce mutations in the human genome, is required for somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination in ...B lymphocytes. Recently, we showed that AID is implicated in the pathogenesis of human cancers including hepatitis C virus (HCV)-induced human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we established a new AID transgenic mouse model (TNAP-AID) in which AID is expressed in cells producing tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP), which is a marker of primordial germ cells and immature stem cells, including ES cells. High expression of TNAP was found in the liver of the embryos and adults of TNAP-AID mice. HCC developed in 27% of these mice at the age of approximately 90 weeks. The HCC that developed in TNAP-AID mice expressed alpha-fetoprotein and had deleterious mutations in the tumour suppressor gene Trp53, some of which corresponded to those found in human cancer. In conclusion, TNAP-AID is a mouse model that spontaneously develops HCC, sharing genetic and phenotypic features with human HCC, which develops in the inflamed liver as a result of the accumulation of genetic changes.
We have investigated the optical anisotropy of single-layer highly uniform InAs quantum dots (QDs) by photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The high uniformity of the QDs, whose PL spectrum was ...clearly separated into each energy level, enabled us to observe the optical anisotropy of the ground state, the first excited state and the second excited state separately. The degree of linear polarization (DLP) was obtained to be 15.8%, 14.3% and 8.3% for the ground state, the first excited state and the second excited state, respectively. This result shows that the DLP is smaller for higher-energy states. We also measured the time evolutions of the PL polarization components using a streak camera. The DLP was found to remain constant during the measured time range.
► Optical anisotropy of highly uniform InAs quantum dots (QDs) has been investigated. ► Highly uniform QDs enabled us to observe the optical anisotropy of each energy level. ► The degree of linear polarization (DLP) becomes smaller for higher-energy states. ► We also measured the time evolutions of the DLP. ► The DLP was found to remain constant during the measured time range.
Bin mode estimation methods for Compton camera imaging Ikeda, S.; Odaka, H.; Uemura, M. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
10/2014, Letnik:
760
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We study the image reconstruction problem of a Compton camera which consists of semiconductor detectors. The image reconstruction is formulated as a statistical estimation problem. We employ a ...bin-mode estimation (BME) and extend an existing framework to a Compton camera with multiple scatterers and absorbers. Two estimation algorithms are proposed: an accelerated EM algorithm for the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and a modified EM algorithm for the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. Numerical simulations demonstrate the potential of the proposed methods.
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