scholarly journals Genomic predictions for enteric methane production are improved by metabolome and microbiome data in sheep (Ovis aries)

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M Ross ◽  
Ben J Hayes ◽  
David Tucker ◽  
Jude Bond ◽  
Stuart E Denman ◽  
...  

Abstract Methane production from rumen methanogenesis contributes approximately 71% of greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector. This study has performed genomic predictions for methane production from 99 sheep across 3 yr using a residual methane phenotype that is log methane yield corrected for live weight, rumen volume, and feed intake. Using genomic relationships, the prediction accuracies (as determined by the correlation between predicted and observed residual methane production) ranged from 0.058 to 0.220 depending on the time point being predicted. The best linear unbiased prediction algorithm was then applied to relationships between animals that were built on the rumen metabolome and microbiome. Prediction accuracies for the metabolome-based relationships for the two available time points were 0.254 and 0.132; the prediction accuracy for the first microbiome time point was 0.142. The second microbiome time point could not successfully predict residual methane production. When the metabolomic relationships were added to the genomic relationships, the accuracy of predictions increased to 0.274 (from 0.201 when only the genomic relationship was used) and 0.158 (from 0.081 when only the genomic relationship was used) for the two time points, respectively. When the microbiome relationships from the first time point were added to the genomic relationships, the maximum prediction accuracy increased to 0.247 (from 0.216 when only the genomic relationship was used), which was achieved by giving the genomic relationships 10 times more weighting than the microbiome relationships. These accuracies were higher than the genomic, metabolomic, and microbiome relationship matrixes achieved alone when identical sets of animals were used.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdiye Küçük ◽  
Sibel Yıldırım ◽  
Serap Çetiner

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to assess the cytotoxicity of various concentrations of ozonated water (OW) on human primary dental pulp cells. Methods Human primary dental pulp cells were isolated from exfoliated primary canine teeth of an 11-year-old patient with good systemic and oral health. Afterwards, cells were divided into 6 experimental groups; four groups of OW in concentrations of 2 mg/L, 4 mg/L, 8 mg/L, and 16 mg/L, untreated control group, and cell culture without cells. Cytotoxicity was evaluated after exposure for 5-min exposure using Mosmann’s Tetrazolium Toxicity (MTT) assay at 0 h and 48 h time points. Data were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of variance and Post-hoc tests were performed using Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Results All experimental groups showed proliferation at 0 h time point. However, all groups also experienced a decrease in overtime at 48 h time point (p < 0.05). At both time points 2 mg/L OW showed the highest cell viability as well as proliferation. At 0 h time point, the increase in cell viability for all experimental groups was found statistically significant when compared to positive control group (p < 0.05). At 48 h time point, although 8 mg/L and 16 mg/L OW showed statistically significant reduction in compare to 0 h time point, 2 mg/L and 4 mg/L OW groups didn’t experience any statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). Conclusion Considering our findings, due to ozonated water's induced a higher proliferation rate of dental pulp cells, indicating their biocompatibility and a possible adjuvant on irrigating agent in regenerative endodontic procedures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliane S. Engels ◽  
Michael Mutz ◽  
Yolanda Demetriou ◽  
Anne K. Reimers

Abstract Background Latest studies indicated that the general mental health level is low during the pandemic. Probably, this deterioration of the mental health situation is partly due to declines in physical activity. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in and the association between affective wellbeing and levels of different domains of physical activity at three time points before and during the pandemic. Method We used a nationwide online panel with a trend data design encompassing a total sample of N = 3517, representing the German population (> 14 years). Four different activity domains (sport and exercise, light outdoor activity, housework/gardening, active travel) and affective wellbeing (positive and negative affect) were assessed at three time points before and during the Covid-19 pandemic (October 2019, March 2020, October 2020). Results Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) indicate differences regarding affective wellbeing over the three time points with the lowest values at the second time point. Levels of activity in the four domains differed significantly over time with the strongest decrease for sport and exercise from the first to the second time point. Partial correlations indicated that the relationships between sport and exercise and positive affect were most consistent over time. Conclusions Overall, our findings suggest that physical activity plays a particularly important role in the pandemic period as a protective factor against poor mental health. Especially sports and exercise seem to be supportive and should be encouraged, e.g. by providing additional support in finding adequate outdoor, home-based or digital substitutes.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 949
Author(s):  
Tomasz Okon ◽  
Kazimierz Wilkosz

The paper deals with voltage profiles in a power system. The analysis of these profiles is important due to the requirement that the Root-Mean-Squared (RMS) values of nodal voltages should be within certain ranges, as well as to ensure desired power flows in a power system. In both cases, it is desirable to indicate points in a power system where it is reasonable to apply remedial measures to meet the requirements for RMS values of nodal voltages, or to effectively control the power flows in a power system. In general, candidate nodes for remediation are established based on operational experience or measurement data from a certain time point (sometimes from several time points). The paper presents a method that provides a basis for determining the aforementioned candidate nodes based on the behavior of a system over a certain period of time, which is an unquestionable advantage of this proposal. In order to achieve the abovementioned goal, the method provides for the analysis of propagation of voltage RMS value deviations in a power system. The analysis of correlational relationships between the RMS values of nodal voltages is used for this. After presentation of the theoretical background, the new original method is described in the paper. Then, case studies showing the utilization of that method are presented. At the end of the paper, features of the proposed method are enumerated.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (11_suppl3) ◽  
pp. 2325967114S0014
Author(s):  
Gulcan Harput ◽  
Hasan Erkan Kılınc ◽  
Hamza Özer ◽  
Gül Baltacı ◽  
Carl G. Mattacola

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate quadriceps and hamstrings isometric strength at 4, 8 and 12 week time points following ACL Reconstruction (ACLR) and to document the strength changes of these muscles over time. The primary hypothesis was that there would be significant increases in quadriceps and hamstring muscle strengths between the 4th, 8th and 12th weeks following ACLR. The secondary hypothesis was that the quadriceps index would be higher than hamstring index at 12th week after ACLR. Methods: Thirty patients (Mean ± SD [age, 29.1±2.3yrs; weight, 77.3±13.2kg; height, 172.1±7.1cm; BMI, 21.2±3.5kg/m2, time to surgery: 7.1±7.2 months]) who underwent ACLR with Hamstring Tendon Autograft (HTG) were enrolled in this study. The isometric strength of quadriceps and hamstring muscles was measured on an isokinetic dynamometer at 60° knee flexion angle at 4th, 8th and 12th weeks after surgery. The recovery of quadriceps and hamstring muscles strength following rehabilitation was expressed as a Quadriceps Index (QI) and Hamstring Index (HI) and calculated with the following formula:[(maximum voluntary isometric torque of the involved limb / maximum voluntary isometric torque by uninvolved limb) × 100]. Torque output of the involved and uninvolved limbs and quadriceps and hamstring indexes were used for the statistical analysis. A repeated measures of ANOVA was used to determine the strength changes of quadriceps and hamstrings over time. Results: Quadriceps and Hamstrings strengths significantly increased over time for both involved (Quadriceps: F (2,46)=58.3, p<0.001, Hamstring: F (2,46)=35.7, p<0.001) and uninvolved limb (Quadriceps: F(2,46)=17.9, p<0.001, Hamstring: F(2,46)=56.9, p=0.001 ). Quadriceps strength was higher at 12th week when compared to the 8 and 4 week time points for the involved limb (p<0.001), and it was higher at 8th week when compared to 4 week time point for the involved limb (p<0.001). For the uninvolved limb, quadriceps strength was also higher at 12th week when compared to the 8 (p=0.02) and 4 week time point (p<0.001), and higher at 8 week when compared to the 4 week time point (p=0.02). Hamstring strength was higher at 12 week when compared to the 8 and 4 week time points (p<0.001) and it was higher at 8 week when compared to 4 week time point for the involved limb (p<0.001). For the uninvolved limb hamstring strength was also higher at 12 week when compared to 4 week time point (p=0.01). There was no significant difference between the 4 and 8 week time points (p>0.05) or between the 8 and 12 week time points (p=0.07). Quadriceps and hamstring indexes significantly changed from 4th weeks (QI:57.9, HI:54.4 ) to 8th weeks (QI:78.8, HI:69.9 ) and from 8th weeks to 12th weeks (QI:82, HI:75.7 ) (p<0.001); however, there was no difference between indexes at the 12-week time point (p=0.17). Conclusion: Isometric strength of quadriceps and hamstring muscles for the involved and uninvolved limb increased during the early period of ACLR. The results of this study could be a baseline for clinicians while prescribing a rehabilitation protocol for ACLR patients with HTG to better appreciate expected strength changes of the muscles in the early phase.


Author(s):  
Martha R.J. Clokie ◽  
Andrew D. Millard ◽  
Jaytry Y. Mehta ◽  
Nicholas H. Mann

Cyanophage abundance has been shown to fluctuate over long timescales and with depth, but little is known about how it varies over short timescales. Previous short-term studies have relied on counting total virus numbers and therefore the phages which infect cyanobacteria cannot be distinguished from the total count.In this study, an isolation-based approach was used to determine cyanophage abundance from water samples collected over a depth profile for a 24 h period from the Indian Ocean. Samples were used to infect Synechococcus sp. WH7803 and the number of plaque forming units (pfu) at each time point and depth were counted. At 10 m phage numbers were similar for most time-points, but there was a distinct peak in abundance at 0100 hours. Phage numbers were lower at 25 m and 50 m and did not show such strong temporal variation. No phages were found below this depth. Therefore, we conclude that only the abundance of phages in surface waters showed a clear temporal pattern over a short timescale. Fifty phages from a range of depths and time points were isolated and purified. The molecular diversity of these phages was estimated using a section of the phage-encoded psbD gene and the results from a phylogenetic analysis do not suggest that phages from the deeper waters form a distinct subgroup.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guixiang Xue ◽  
Yu Pan ◽  
Tao Lin ◽  
Jiancai Song ◽  
Chengying Qi ◽  
...  

The smart district heating system (SDHS) is an important element of the construction of smart cities in Northern China; it plays a significant role in meeting heating requirements and green energy saving in winter. Various Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and wireless transmission technologies are applied to monitor data in real-time and to form a historical database. The accurate prediction of heating loads based on massive historical datasets is the necessary condition and key basis for formulating an optimal heating control strategy in the SDHS, which contributes to the reduction in the consumption of energy and the improvement in the energy dispatching efficiency and accuracy. In order to achieve the high prediction accuracy of SDHS and to improve the representation ability of multi-time-scale features, a novel short-term heating load prediction algorithm based on a feature fusion long short-term memory (LSTM) model (FFLSTM) is proposed. Three characteristics, namely proximity, periodicity, and trend, are found after analyzing the heating load data from the aspect of the hourly time dimension. In order to comprehensively utilize the data’s intrinsic characteristics, three LSTM models are employed to make separate predictions, and, then, the prediction results based on internal features and other external features at the corresponding moments are imported into the high-level LSTM model for fusion processing, which brings a more accurate prediction result of the heating load. Detailed comparisons between the proposed FFLSTM algorithm and the-state-of-art algorithms are conducted in this paper. The experimental results show that the proposed FFLSTM algorithm outperforms others and can obtain a higher prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the impact of selecting different parameters of the FFLSTM model is also studied thoroughly.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. E66-E76 ◽  
Author(s):  
RTF Costa ◽  
SLD Moraes ◽  
CAA Lemos ◽  
JR SoutoMaior ◽  
BC do E Vasconcelos ◽  
...  

SUMMARY Objective: This systematic review evaluates the effect of preemptive analgesia on tooth sensitivity induced by in-office tooth bleaching. Methods: The review was structured based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) checklist. The methods were recorded at PROSPERO (CRD42018095440). Randomized clinical trials, studies published in English, and studies in which the efficacy of preemptive analgesia with analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications prior to in-office tooth bleaching was compared with that of placebo were included. PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were used for searching. The electronic search provided 373 articles, and seven of them were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Results: Immediately after time point, a significant reduction of dental sensitivity was observed in the drug group compared to the control group (p=0.02; mean difference [MD]: −0.90; confidence interval [CI]: −1.63 to −0.16), while there was no significant difference at up to one-hour (p=0.22; MD: −0.42; CI: −1.09 to −0.25), at 1-24–hour (p=0.88; MD: −0.05; CI: −0.61 to 0.72), or 24-48–hour (p=0.69; MD: 0.05; CI: −0.21 to 0.32) time points. The incidence of sensitivity during the procedure was not statistically different between the groups (p=0.64; MD: 0.91; CI: 0.92 to 1.15). The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug group showed a statistically significant reduction (p=0.04; MD: −0.69; CI: −1.36 to −0.03) in tooth sensitivity compared with the other groups. Conclusions: This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that the medications analyzed did not interfere with the incidence of sensitivity symptoms. Regarding the intensity, no difference was observed between the drug and placebo groups at the up to one-hour, 1-24–hour, or 24-48–hour time points, and there was a statistically significant difference at the zero-hour time point in favor of the drug group. However, based on the variables that influenced this result, it should be considered with prudence because a small difference was observed.


Author(s):  
Adrian Kent

We propose definitions and implementations of ‘S-money’—virtual tokens designed for high-value fast transactions on networks with relativistic or other trusted signalling constraints, defined by inputs that in general are made at many network points, some or all of which may be space-like separated. We argue that one significant way of characterizing types of money in space–time is via the ‘summoning’ tasks they can solve: that is, how flexibly the money can be propagated to a desired space–time point in response to relevant information received at various space–time points. We show that S-money is more flexible than standard quantum or classical money in the sense that it can solve deterministic summoning tasks that they cannot. It requires the issuer and user to have networks of agents with classical data storage and communication, but no long-term quantum state storage, and is feasible with current technology. User privacy can be incorporated by secure bit commitment and zero-knowledge proof protocols. The level of privacy feasible in given scenarios depends on efficiency and composable security questions that remain to be systematically addressed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Duenk ◽  
Mario P. L. Calus ◽  
Yvonne C. J. Wientjes ◽  
Vivian P. Breen ◽  
John M. Henshall ◽  
...  

Following publication of original article [1], we noticed that there was an error: Eq. (3) on page 5 is the genomic relationship matrix that


2019 ◽  
Vol 273 ◽  
pp. 02003
Author(s):  
Maria Mikela Chatzimichailidou ◽  
Nektarios Karanikas

This paper utilises a methodology named “Risk SituatiOn Awareness Provision” (RiskSOAP). RiskSOAP expresses the capability of a system to meet its safety objectives by controlling its processes and communicating threats and vulnerabilities to increase the situation awareness of its end-users and support their decision-making. In reality safety-related system features might be partially available or unavailable due to design incompleteness or malfunctions. Therefore, respectively, the availability and capability of RiskSOAP mechanisms might fluctuate over time. To examine whether changes in RiskSOAP values correspond to a system degradation, we used the results of a previous study that applied the RiskSOAP methodology to the Überlingen mid-air collision accident. Complementary to the previous application where the RiskSOAP was calculated for four milestones of the specific event, in this study we divided the accident further into seventeen time-points and we calculated the RiskSOAP indicator per time-point. The results confirmed that the degradation of the RiskSOAP capability coincided with the milestones that were closer to the mid-air collision, while the plotting of the RiskSOAP indicator against time showed its nonlinear fluctuation alongside the accident development.


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