Our research group demonstrated that vitamin A restriction affected meat quality of Angus cross and Simmental steers. Therefore, the aim of this study is to highlight the genotype variations in response to dietary vitamin A levels. Commercial Angus and Simmental steers (n = 32 per breed; initial BW = 337.2 ± 5.9 kg; ~8 months of age) were fed a low-vitamin A (LVA) (1017 IU/kg DM) backgrounding diet for 95 days to reduce hepatic vitamin A stores. During finishing, steers were randomly assigned to treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of genotype × dietary vitamin A concentration. The LVA treatment was a finishing diet with no supplemental vitamin A (723 IU vitamin A/kg DM); the control (CON) was the LVA diet plus supplementation with 2200 IU vitamin A/kg DM. Blood samples were collected at three time points throughout the study to analyze serum retinol concentration. At the completion of finishing, steers were slaughtered at a commercial abattoir. Meat characteristics assessed were intramuscular fat concentration, color, Warner-Bratzler shear force, cook loss and pH. Camera image analysis was used for determination of marbling, 12th rib back fat and longissimus muscle area (LMA). The LVA steers had lower (P < 0.001) serum retinol concentration than CON steers. The LVA treatment resulted in greater (P = 0.03) average daily gain than the CON treatment, 1.52 and 1.44 ± 0.03 kg/day, respectively; however, there was no effect of treatment on final BW, DM intake or feed efficiency. Cooking loss and yield grade were greater and LMA was smaller in LVA steers (P < 0.05). There was an interaction between breed and treatment for marbling score (P = 0.01) and percentage of carcasses grading United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Prime (P = 0.02). For Angus steers, LVA treatment resulted in a 16% greater marbling score than CON (683 and 570 ± 40, respectively) and 27% of LVA Angus steers graded USDA Prime compared with 0% for CON. Conversely, there was no difference in marbling score or USDA Quality Grades between LVA and CON for Simmental steers. In conclusion, feeding a LVA diet during finishing increased marbling in Angus but not in Simmental steers. Reducing the vitamin A level of finishing diets fed to cattle with a high propensity to marble, such as Angus, has the potential to increase economically important traits such as marbling and quality grade without negatively impacting gain : feed or yield grade.

Reducing dietary CP content is an effective approach to reduce animal nitrogen excretion and save protein feed resources. However, it is not clear how reducing dietary CP content affects the nutrient digestion and absorption in the gut of ruminants, therefore it is difficult to accurately determine how much reduction in dietary CP content is appropriate. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of reduced dietary CP content on N balance, intestinal nutrient digestion and absorption, and rumen microbiota in growing goats. To determine N balance, 18 growing wether goats (25.0 ± 0.5 kg) were randomly assigned to one of three diets: 13.0% (control), 11.5% and 10.0% CP. Another 18 growing wether goats (25.0 ± 0.5 kg) were surgically fitted with ruminal, proximate duodenal, and terminal ileal fistulae and were randomly assigned to one of the three diets to investigate intestinal amino acid (AA) absorption and rumen microbiota. The results showed that fecal and urinary N excretion of goats fed diets containing 11.5% and 10.0% CP were lower than those of goats fed the control diet (P < 0.05). When compared with goats fed the control diet, N retention was decreased and apparent N digestibility in the entire gastrointestinal tract was increased in goats fed the 10% CP diet (P < 0.05). When compared with goats fed the control diet, the duodenal flow of lysine, tryptophan and phenylalanine was decreased in goats fed the 11.5% CP diet (P < 0.05) and that of lysine, methionine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, leucine, glutamic acid, tyrosine, essential AAs (EAAs) and total AAs (TAAs) was decreased in goats fed the 10.0% CP diet (P < 0.05). When compared with goats fed the control diet, the apparent absorption of TAAs in the small intestine was increased in goats fed the 11.5% CP diet (P < 0.05) and that of isoleucine, serine, cysteine, EAAs, non-essential AAs, and TAAs in the small intestine was increased in goats fed the 10.0% CP diet (P < 0.05). When compared with goats fed the control diet, the relative richness of Bacteroidetes and Fibrobacteres was increased and that of Proteobacteria and Synergistetes was decreased in the rumen of goats fed a diet with 10.0% CP. In conclusion, reducing dietary CP content reduced N excretion and increased nutrient utilization by improving rumen fermentation, enhancing nutrient digestion and absorption, and altering rumen microbiota in growing goats.

Introduction: Many cardiac arrest survivors die later due to hemorrhage or thromboembolism, thought to be caused by acquired coagulopathy in post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS) from shock and reperfusion injury. Understanding PCAS is a priority identified by the AHA for the prevention of complications in cardiac arrest survivors. Shock dysregulates both coagulation and fibrinolysis. The key effector enzyme thrombin (Th), is responsible for both up- and down-regulating coagulation and fibrinolysis. Measuring early Th activity may allow for predicting PCAS coagulopathy, and early medical intervention in the ED. Therefore, we aimed to characterize the time-course profile of early coagulation using an established pig model of cardiac arrest. Methods: Yorkshire pigs were anaesthetised and intubated, had VF-arrest induced by pacing, and were resuscitated per ACLS. Rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) was performed on whole blood at four times: baseline, intra-arrest, post-arrest, and death, using the fibrin-based test with tissue factor to initiate clotting in the presence of a platelet inhibitor cytochalasin D (FIBTEM). Clot time (CT), clot formation time (CFT), alpha-angle during clot formation (Alpha), clot amplitude at 10 min (A10), maximum clot firmness (MCF), and maximum lysis as total percentage (ML%) were quantified. The primary outcome is the overall coagulation initiation measured by CFT, while secondary outcomes include ROTEM parameters reflecting Th activity. Parameters are compared over time in SPSS using repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni correction. Results: Pilot data from one experiment show that cardiac arrest causes immediate early changes to coagulation that subsequently normalized with ROSC (Figure 1). CFT was impaired immediately upon cardiac arrest (2.3-fold increase), normalized with ROSC, and impaired again at death when compared with baseline. Consistent with clotting impairment, A10, Alpha, and MCF were all reduced with cardiac arrest, normalized with ROSC, and impaired again at death. Conclusion: Higher initial indices of coagulopathy in patients with cardiac arrest appear to correlate with death and thromboembolism. In this pilot, CFT is acutely modified by cardiac arrest. Since CFT is affected by overall Th activity, early Th dysregulation may be a critical driver of coagulopathy. Th may therefore be a lead target that is modifiable in the emergency post-arrest setting to decrease morbidity and mortality from PCAS in cardiac arrest survivors.

Current available antidepressants exhibit low remission rate with a long response lag time. Growing evidence has demonstrated acute sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine exerts rapid, robust, and lasting antidepressant effects. However, a long term use of ketamine tends to elicit its adverse reactions. The present study aimed to investigate the antidepressant-like effects of intermittent and consecutive administrations of ketamine on chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) rats, and to determine whether ketamine can redeem the time lag for treatment response of classic antidepressants. The behavioral responses were assessed by the sucrose preference test, forced swimming test, and open field test. In the first stage of experiments, all the four treatment regimens of ketamine (10 mg/kg ip, once daily for 3 or 7 consecutive days, or once every 7 or 3 days, in a total 21 days) showed robust antidepressant-like effects, with no significant influence on locomotor activity and stereotype behavior in the CUMS rats. The intermittent administration regimens produced longer antidepressant-like effects than the consecutive administration regimens and the administration every 7 days presented similar antidepressant-like effects with less administration times compared with the administration every 3 days. In the second stage of experiments, the combination of ketamine (10 mg/kg ip, once every 7 days) and citalopram (20 mg/kg po, once daily) for 21 days caused more rapid and sustained antidepressant-like effects than citalopram administered alone. In summary, repeated sub-anesthestic doses of ketamine can redeem the time lag for the antidepressant-like effects of citalopram, suggesting the combination of ketamine and classic antidepressants is a promising regimen for depression with quick onset time and stable and lasting effects.

In the livestock husbandry compensatory growth may be explored as a means to improve nutrient utilization, to reduce gut health problems due to excess protein intake, to simplify feeding strategies and thus to improve production efficiencies. This study investigated the effects of early protein restriction (EPR) and early antibiotic intervention (EAI) on growth performance, intestinal morphology, colonic bacteria, metabolites and mucosal gene expressions during the restriction phase and re-alimentation phase. A total of 64 piglets (10.04 ± 0.73 kg) were randomly divided into four treatment groups according to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with two levels of proteins (14% v. 20%) and two levels of antibiotics (0 v. 50 mg/kg kitasamycin and 20 mg/kg colistin sulphate). After a 30-day restriction phase with four kinds of diets, all groups were fed the same diets for another 74 days. The results showed that EPR decreased BW, average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake in the restriction phase (P < 0.01) and increased ADG on days 66 to 104 of the late re-alimentation phase. Early protein restriction could decrease the villus height in the jejunum (P < 0.05), while shifting to the same diets restored the villus height. Meanwhile, during the re-alimentation phase, pigs in the protein restriction groups had increased concentrations of total short chain fatty acids (P < 0.05), and modified the abundances of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in the colon. Furthermore, the lower microbial diversity caused by EPR was improved, and gene expression analysis indicated a better barrier function in the colon. During the whole trial, EAI had no interaction with EPR and played a dispensable role in compensatory growth. Collectively, the retardation of growth caused by EPR can be compensated for in the later stages of pig raising, and accompanied by altered intestinal morphology, microbial composition.

In this study we experimentally investigate bubbly drag reduction in a highly turbulent flow of water with dispersed air at $5.0\times 10^{5}\leqslant Re\leqslant 1.7\times 10^{6}$ over a non-wetting surface containing micro-scale roughness. To do so, the Taylor–Couette geometry is used, allowing for both accurate global drag and local flow measurements. The inner cylinder – coated with a rough, hydrophobic material – is rotating, whereas the smooth outer cylinder is kept stationary. The crucial control parameter is the air volume fraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ present in the working fluid. For small volume fractions ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}<4\,\%$ ), we observe that the surface roughness from the coating increases the drag. For large volume fractions of air ( $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\geqslant 4\,\%$ ), the drag decreases compared to the case with both the inner and outer cylinders uncoated, i.e. smooth and hydrophilic, using the same volume fraction of air. This suggests that two competing mechanisms are at play: on the one hand, the roughness invokes an extension of the log layer – resulting in an increase in drag – and, on the other hand, there is a drag-reducing mechanism of the hydrophobic surface interacting with the bubbly liquid. The balance between these two effects determines whether there is overall drag reduction or drag enhancement. For further increased bubble concentration $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=6\,\%$ we find a saturation of the drag reduction effect. Our study gives guidelines for industrial applications of bubbly drag reduction in hydrophobic wall-bounded turbulent flows.

This paper evaluates six supersonic business jet (SSBJ) concepts in a multidisciplinary design analysis optimisation (MDAO) environment in terms of their aerodynamics and sonic boom intensities. The aerodynamic analysis and sonic boom prediction are investigated by a number of conceptual-level numerical approaches. The panel method PANAIR is integrated to perform automated aerodynamic analysis. The drag coefficient is corrected by the Harris wave drag formula and form factor method. For sonic boom prediction, the near-field pressure is predicted through the Whitham F-function method. The F-function is decomposed to the F-function due to volume and the F-function due to lift to investigate the separate effect on sonic boom. The propagation method for the near-field signature in a stratified windy atmosphere is the waveform parameter method. In this research, using the methods described and publically available data on the concepts, the supersonic drag elements and sonic boom signature due to volume distribution and lift distribution are analysed. Based on the analysis, low-boom and low-drag design principles are identified.

At GE Research, we are combining “physics” with artificial intelligence and machine learning to advance manufacturing design, processing, and inspection, turning innovative technologies into real products and solutions across our industrial portfolio. This article provides a snapshot of how this physical plus digital transformation is evolving at GE.

The Chinese white pine beetle Dendroctonus armandi (Coleoptera: Scolytinae) typically displays bivoltinism at altitudes below 1700 m in the Qinling Mountains, China. The periods of host colonization and larval overwintering are two important phases in the life cycle of bark beetles, as it is during these periods that they have to contend with host plant defences and periods of intense cold, respectively. Although during different seasons, the females and males of Chinese white pine beetles show varying tolerances to host plant terpenoids, the sex ratio and survival physiology condition of the two beetle generations are unknown. We investigated the sex ratio of individuals, and also examined the body mass, energy stores, and detoxication enzymes of males and females in each of the two generations in order to determine the overall population stability of each generation. We identified a female-biased sex ratio among adults in both generations. Furthermore, patterns of body mass, energy stores, and detoxication enzymes were found to differ between the two sexes and two seasons. Compared with the males, the females have a larger body mass and higher amounts of stored lipids, which are assumed to be adaptations designed to overcome host resistance and facilitate subsequent oviposition.

Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (visual SLAM) has been well developed in recent decades. To facilitate tasks such as path planning and exploration, traditional visual SLAM systems usually provide mobile robots with the geometric map, which overlooks the semantic information. To address this problem, inspired by the recent success of the deep neural network, we combine it with the visual SLAM system to conduct semantic mapping. Both the geometric and semantic information will be projected into the 3D space for generating a 3D semantic map. We also use an optical-flow-based method to deal with the moving objects such that our method is capable of working robustly in dynamic environments. We have performed our experiments in the public TUM dataset and our recorded office dataset. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and impressive performance of the proposed method.

Nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs) are widely used for antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but real-world data on treatment patterns and long-term clinical outcomes are not always available. Using data from electronic medical records between January 2011 and December 2016 in Shanghai, China, we evaluated patient characteristics, treatment patterns and clinical outcomes in patients with CHB. There were 6688 patients in the study cohort. The incidences of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were 41.0‰ and 6.8‰ person-years, respectively. There were more cirrhosis and HCC cases among patients who had shorter NA treatment duration (<365 days), or who were less compliant (<80%). In addition, increased risk of cirrhosis and HCC was observed in patients who did not achieve hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss/seroconversion. Moreover, patients with cirrhosis developed after antiviral treatments had a higher incidence of HCC (adjusted hazard ratio 15.86, 95% confidence interval 7.35–34.24). Good compliance with treatment and longer treatment duration significantly decreased the risk of developing cirrhosis and HCC. HBsAg loss seemed to be a protective factor for cirrhosis/HCC in NAs-treated patients with CHB, and cirrhosis was a confirmed risk factor for HCC development as expected.