Evaluating social network metrics as indicators of tail injury caused by tail biting in growing-finishing pigs ().

Tail biting is a multifactorial behavior that causes welfare and economic challenges in swine production. As of 2024, research exploring the influence of pig social structure on the development of tail biting is limited. The objective of this study was to explore whether social structures of pigs from different litter origins can impact tail biting and, ultimately, tail damage.

Physiology of malate dehydrogenase and how dysregulation leads to disease.

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) is pivotal in mammalian tissue metabolism, participating in various pathways beyond its classical roles and highlighting its adaptability to cellular demands. This enzyme is involved in maintaining redox balance, lipid synthesis, and glutamine metabolism and supports rapidly proliferating cells' energetic and biosynthetic needs. The involvement of MDH in glutamine metabolism underlines its significance in cell physiology.

The Pregnancy Rescue Case: why abortion is immoral.

In cases in which we must choose between either (i) preventing a woman from remaining unwillingly pregnant or (ii) preventing a fetus from being killed, we should prevent the fetus from being killed. But this suggests that in typical cases abortion is wrong: typical abortions involve preventing a woman from remaining unwillingly pregnant over preventing a fetus from being killed. And so abortion is typically wrong-and this holds whether or not fetuses are persons.

Gut microbiota-stem cell niche crosstalk: A new territory for maintaining intestinal homeostasis.

Intestinal epithelium undergoes rapid cellular turnover, relying on the local niche, to support intestinal stem cells (ISCs) function and self-renewal. Research into the association between ISCs and disease continues to expand at a rapid rate. However, the detailed interaction of ISCs and gut microbes remains to be elucidated.

Permitted Sets and Convex Coding in Nonthreshold Linear Networks.

Hebbian theory proposes that ensembles of neurons form a basis for neural processing. It is possible to gain insight into the activity patterns of these neural ensembles through a binary analysis, regarding neurons as either active or inactive. The framework of permitted and forbidden sets, introduced by Hahnloser, Seung, and Slotine (2003), is a mathematical model of such a binary analysis: groups of coactive neurons can be permitted or forbidden depending on the network's structure.

Gigantic genomes of salamanders indicate that body temperature, not genome size, is the driver of global methylation and 5-methylcytosine deamination in vertebrates.

Transposable elements (TEs) are sequences that replicate and move throughout genomes, and they can be silenced through methylation of cytosines at CpG dinucleotides. TE abundance contributes to genome size, but TE silencing variation across genomes of different sizes remains underexplored. Salamanders include most of the largest C-values - 9 to 120 Gb.

Understanding metrics of stress in the context of invasion history: the case of the brown treesnake ().

Invasive species can exert rapid depletion of resources after introduction and, in turn, affect their own population density. Additionally, management actions can have direct and indirect effects on demography. Physiological variables can predict demographic change but are often restricted to snapshots-in-time and delayed confirmation of changes in population density reduces their utility.

Endovascular treatment for acute basilar artery occlusion: A multicenter randomized controlled trial (ATTENTION).

Background And Hypothesis: Recently, two multicenter randomized controlled trials (RCT) failed to show a significantly beneficial effect of endovascular treatment (EVT) in patients with acute basilar artery occlusion (BAO). However, both trials suffered from equipoise issues which may have hindered the validity of the trial results. Therefore, additional RCT studies are needed to explore the potential benefit of EVT in patients presenting with BAO.

Electrophysiological study of Arabidopsis ABCB4 and PIN2 auxin transporters: Evidence of auxin activation and interaction enhancing auxin selectivity.

Polar auxin transport through plant tissue strictly requires polarly localized PIN proteins and uniformly distributed ABCB proteins. A functional synergy between the two types of membrane protein where their localizations overlap may create the degree of asymmetric auxin efflux required to produce polar auxin transport. We investigated this possibility by expressing ABCB4 and PIN2 in human embryonic kidney cells and measuring whole-cell ionic currents with the patch-clamp technique and CsCl-based electrolytes.

The Relationship Between Energy Drink Consumption, Caffeine Content, and Nutritional Knowledge Among College Students.

We sought to determine which demographic characteristics influence energy drink consumption habits and to examine whether caffeine content and knowledge of human nutrition affect college students' decisions to consume these beverages. We used an online survey to ask 265 college students, who did not participate in a varsity sport, to complete a survey consisting of demographic questions, the General Knowledge Questionnaire for adults, and questions about energy drink consumption habits. We found, overall, that 23.

To Improve Pain and Function, Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections May Be an Alternative to Surgery for Treating Lateral Epicondylitis: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: To determine whether platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection for lateral epicondylitis offers patients comparable outcomes to lateral epicondylar surgery.

Methods: Embase, Cochrane Library, and MEDLINE databases were searched using the terms lateral epicondylitis, lateral elbow pain, tennis elbow, lateral epicondylalgia, and elbow tendinopathy individually and combined with the terms platelet-rich plasma injections and lateral epicondylar surgery. We compared pain relief, function between the 2 treatment options, and identified whether PRP injection reduced the incidence of lateral epicondylar surgery.

Study to Alter the Nuisance Effect of Non-Response Using Scrambled Mechanism.

Introduction: In biometric sample surveys, our objective is to get ready-made information for future planning and policy implementations related to the subject matters of highly sensitive issues. In such situations, we apply randomized response/scrambled response techniques. There are many highly sensitive issues which need to be examined over time as they may have a tendency to change.

Adsorption of Amyloid Beta Peptide by Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are capable of adsorbing a wide range of molecules. In addition to the more commonly investigated small molecules, researchers have demonstrated that MOFs adsorb much larger molecules, such as proteins and peptides. We have investigated whether MOFs are capable of adsorbing amyloid beta peptide.

The Influence of Health Perception on Shoulder Outcome Measure Scores.

Background: Patient reported outcome measures assess clinical progress from the patient's perspective. This study explored the relationship between shoulder outcome measures (The Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand [DASH], American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Standard Shoulder Assessment score [ASES], and Constant score) by comparing the best possible scores obtained in an asymptomatic population compared to overall perception of health, as measured by the SF-36 outcome measure.

Methods: Volunteers (age range, 20-69 years) with asymptomatic shoulders and no history of shoulder pain, injury, surgery, imaging, or pathology (bilaterally) were included.

Unspecified verticality of Franck-Condon transitions, absorption and emission spectra of cyanine dyes, and a classically inspired approximation.

The computed vertical energy, , from the equilibrium geometry of the initial electronic state is frequently considered as representative of the experimental excitation/emission energy, = / . Application of the quantum mechanical version of the Franck-Condon principle does not involve precise specification of nuclear positions before, after, or during an electronic transition. Moreover, the duration of an electronic transition is not experimentally accessible in spectra with resolved vibrational structure.

Long-term nitrogen addition in maize monocultures reduces in vitro inhibition of actinomycete standards by soil-borne actinomycetes.

Management of soil microbial communities for enhanced crop disease suppression is an attractive approach to biocontrol, but the effects of agricultural practices on the disease-suppressive potential of the soil microbial community remain unknown. We investigated the effects of long-term nitrogen addition (103 kg ha-1 nitrogen as urea vs. no fertilizer) and crop residue incorporation vs.

Dynamic functional connectivity analysis based on time-varying partial correlation with a copula-DCC-GARCH model.

We suggest a time-varying partial correlation as a statistical measure of dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) in the human brain. Traditional statistical models often assume specific distributions on the measured data such as the Gaussian distribution, which prohibits their application to neuroimaging data analysis. First, we use the copula-based dynamic conditional correlation (DCC), which does not rely on a specific distribution assumption, for estimating time-varying correlation between regions-of-interest (ROIs) of the human brain.

Relationship between iHOT12 and HOS scores in hip pain patients.

To determine if scores of the International Hip Outcome Tool-12 (iHOT12) and the Hip Outcome Score (HOS) correlate with one another in hip pain patients. Patients reporting to an orthopedic clinic for their scheduled appointment for hip pain were given a paper survey consisting of the iHOT12 and the HOS. Demographic information [age, weight, height and body mass index (BMI)] was obtained by chart review.

Quantum Chemical Lipophilicities of Antimalarial Drugs in Relation to Terminal Half-Life.

According to the WHO, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have been integral to the recent reduction in deaths due to malaria. ACT-resistant strains are an emerging problem and have evolved altered developmental stages, reducing exposure of the most susceptible stages to artemisinin drugs in popular ACTs. Lipophilicity, log , is a guide in understanding and predicting pharmacokinetic properties such as terminal half-life which alters drug exposure.

The Pre-Registry Commercial Driver Medical Examination: Screening Sensitivity and Certification Lengths for Two Safety-Related Medical Conditions.

Objective: Use independent diagnostic data to analyze the screening effectiveness of the pre-Registry commercial driver medical examination (CDME) for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and its sensitivity for hypertension; analyze certification lengths where relevant.

Methods: CDME screening results for 1668 drivers were compared to polysomnogram diagnostic test results, and CDME screening results were evaluated for 1155 drivers with at least one insurance claim with a hypertension diagnostic code. Any CDME documentation of the medical condition was considered as detection by screening.

Host tolerance and resistance to parasitic nest flies differs between two wild bird species.

Hosts have developed and evolved defense strategies to limit parasite damage. Hosts can reduce the damage that parasites cause by decreasing parasite fitness (resistance) or without affecting parasite fitness (tolerance). Because a parasite species can infect multiple host species, determining the effect of the parasite on these hosts and identifying host defense strategies can have important implications for multi-host-parasite dynamics.

Employer-mandated obstructive sleep apnea treatment and healthcare cost savings among truckers.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of an employer-mandated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) diagnosis and treatment program on non-OSA-program trucker medical insurance claim costs.

Methods: Retrospective cohort analysis; cohorts constructed by matching (randomly, with replacement) Screen-positive Controls (drivers with insurance screened as likely to have OSA, but not yet diagnosed) with Diagnosed drivers (n = 1,516; cases = 1,224, OSA Negatives = 292), on two factors affecting exposure to medical claims: experience level at hire and weeks of job tenure at the Diagnosed driver's polysomnogram (PSG) date (the "matching date"). All cases received auto-adjusting positive airway pressure (APAP) treatment and were grouped by objective treatment adherence data: any "Positive Adherence" (n = 932) versus "No Adherence" (n = 292).

Dynamic functional connectivity analysis of functional MRI based on copula time-varying correlation.

Background: Recent studies showed that functional connectivity (FC) in the human brain is not static but can dynamically change across time within time scales of seconds to minutes.

New Method: This study introduces a new statistical method called the copula time-varying correlation for dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) analysis from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data.

Results: Compared to other state-of-the-art statistical measures of dynamic correlation such as the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC), the proposed method can be effectively applied to data having asymmetric or non-normal distributions.

Directional dependence between major cities in China based on copula regression on air pollution measurements.

Air pollution is well-known as a major risk to public health, causing various diseases including pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases. As social concern increases, the amount of air pollution data is increasing rapidly. The purpose of this study is to statistically characterize dependence between major cities in China based on a measure of directional dependence estimated from PM2.