The wooden breast (WB) myopathy is identified by the palpation of a rigid pectoralis major (p. major) muscle and is characterized as a fibrotic, necrotic p. major disorder in broilers. The objective ...of the current study was to determine spatial morphological and gene expression differences at 4 locations within WB affected muscle from different genetic lines. Morphology was evaluated in 2 broiler lines expressing the WB myopathy (Lines A and B) and a line without WB (Line C) at 3 ventral locations and one anterodorsal location in the p. major muscle. In WB affected muscle of Line A, fibrosis was greatest in the anterior locations of WB affected muscle. In Line B muscle, fibrosis was greatest in the anteroventral region and minimal in the anterodorsal or posterior regions. Average p. major myofiber diameter was 30% larger in Lines A and B compared to Line C. However, in Line A there were no differences between the percentage of large fibers (diameter >70 μm) in unaffected and WB affected muscles at any sampling region. The percentage of small fibers (diameter <10 μm), likely small regenerating fibers, and expression of myogenic determination factor 1 (MYOD1) and myogenin were increased in Line A WB affected muscle compared to unaffected muscle. In Line B, the percentage of small fibers and MYOD1 expression in WB affected muscle was not different from unaffected muscle. Connective tissue organization within WB affected muscle was also different in Lines A and B, which may be attributed to decorin, a proteoglycan that mediates collagen crosslinking, growth factor signaling, and cell growth. Decorin expression was increased at all locations within Line A. However, in Line B decorin was increased only in the fibrotic regions of the p. major. The compiled results provide evidence that the WB myopathy is not uniform throughout the entire p. major muscle and the anterior end of the p. major muscle was more affected by the condition.
The murder of George Floyd and subsequent mass protest movement in the summer of 2020 brought policing, race, and police brutality to the forefront of American political discourse. We examined ...mean-levels of attitudes about police and race using online surveys administered at five time points from June 2020 to October 2021 (n ~ 1000 at each wave) to adults living in the United States. There was a small increase in pro-police attitudes over this time (d = .24), and some evidence that mean-levels of pro-police attitudes increased more for Black participants (d = .51) than White participants (d = .20), and more for Democrats (d = .40) than Republicans (d = .15). Pro-police attitudes were much lower among Black participants than White participants (mean d = -1.04), and-relative to political independents-lower among Democrats (mean d = -.66) and higher among Republicans (mean d = .72). Pro-police attitudes had large associations with a variety of conservative or right-wing political attitudes (e.g., approval of Donald Trump) and COVID-19 variables (e.g., disapproval of government mandates and restrictions), but were unrelated to psychiatric problems and substance use. These results validate a new measure of police attitudes, provide information on trends in police attitudes over the 15 months following the largest mass protests against police brutality in American history, and begin to establish the nomological network of police attitudes, finding that pro-police attitudes are firmly within the right-wing coalition of American politics.
Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) comprises two separate viruses, HHV-6A and HHV-6B, although this distinction is not commonly made. HHV-6B is ubiquitous in the population with primary infection usually ...occurring in early childhood, and often resulting in febrile illness. HHV-6B is also recognized as a pathogen in the immunocompromised host, particularly in transplant recipients. HHV-6A is less well characterized and may have a more restricted prevalence. Both viruses are unique among the human herpesviruses in that the entire viral genome can be found integrated into the telomeric regions of host cell chromosomes. Approximately 1% of persons have inherited integrated viral sequences through the germline, and these individuals characteristically have very high viral loads in blood and other sample types. Emerging evidence suggests that HHV-6A and HHV-6B chromosomal integration may not just be an uncommon biological observation, but more likely a characteristic of the replication properties of these viruses. The integrated viral genome appears capable of excision from the chromosomal site and potentially allows viral replication. The clinical consequences of inherited chromosomally integrated HHV-6 have yet to be fully appreciated.
We provide a comprehensive comparison of
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±
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Z
vector boson production data in pPb and PbPb collisions at the LHC with predictions obtained using the nCTEQ15 PDFs. We identify the measurements ...which have the largest potential impact on the PDFs, and estimate the effect of including these data using a Bayesian reweighting method. We find this data set can provide information as regards both the nuclear corrections and the heavy flavor (strange quark) PDF components. As for the proton, the parton flavor determination/separation is dependent on nuclear corrections (from heavy target DIS, for example), this information can also help improve the proton PDFs.
The extraction of the strange quark parton distribution function (PDF) poses a long-standing puzzle. Measurements from neutrino-nucleus deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiments suggest the strange ...quark is suppressed compared to the light sea quarks, while recent studies of
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±
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boson production at the LHC imply a larger strange component at small
x
values. As the parton flavor determination in the proton depends on nuclear corrections, e.g. from heavy-target DIS, LHC heavy ion measurements can provide a distinct perspective to help clarify this situation. In this investigation we extend the nCTEQ15 nPDFs to study the impact of the LHC proton-lead
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production data on both the flavor differentiation and nuclear corrections. This complementary data set provides new insights on both the LHC
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proton analyses and the neutrino-nucleus DIS data. We identify these new nPDFs as
nCTEQ15WZ
. Our calculations are performed using a new implementation of the nCTEQ code (
nCTEQ++
) based on C++ which enables us to easily interface to external programs such as HOPPET, APPLgrid and MCFM. Our results indicate that, as suggested by the proton data, the small
x
nuclear strange sea appears larger than previously expected, even when the normalization of the
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data is accommodated in the fit. Extending the nCTEQ15 analysis to include LHC
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±
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data represents an important step as we advance toward the next generation of nPDFs.
The term “cancel culture” has significant implications for defining discourses of digital and social media activism. In this essay, I briefly interrogate the evolution of digital accountability ...praxis as performed by Black Twitter, a meta-network of culturally linked communities online. I trace the practice of the social media callout from its roots in Black vernacular tradition to its misappropriation in the digital age by social elites, arguing that the application of useful anger by minoritized people and groups has been effectively harnessed in social media spaces as a strategy for networked framing of extant social problems. This strategy is challenged, however, by the dominant culture’s ability to narrativize the process of being “canceled” as a moral panic with the potential to upset the concept of a limited public sphere.
We report on the effect of retrace error during measurement of freeform optics using a commercial coherence scanning interferometer (CSI), and its in-built stitching capabilities. It is shown that ...measuring segments of freeform optics under non-null conditions, results in artifacts on the measured zone, similar to the Seidel aberrations. An experimental approach is used to quantify the induced aberrations based on the local slopes of the surface. Simulation of surfaces containing different order aberrations is shown to have a significant effect on the measurement data. A correction method is proposed that uses experimental measurements to determine the required correction based on local slope and position in the aperture. These corrections reduce the measurement difference from a comparison measurement using a Fizeau interferometer.
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