Association analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in DGAT1, TG and FABP4 genes and intramuscular fat in crossbred Bos taurus cattle

Previous studies have indicated that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the diacylglycerol-O-acyltransferase1 (DGAT1), thyroglobulin (TG) and adipose fatty acid binding protein (FABP4) genes are associated with intramuscular fat (IMF) levels or marbling scores in beef. The objectives were to estimate the frequency of SNPs in these candidate genes in purebred Irish cattle (n = 459) and to determine if individual SNPs are associated with IMF values of longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) and semimembranosus (SM) muscle of crossbred animals (n = 138). Results indicated no significant association between the SNPs and IMF, despite the power of this study being sufficient to detect an association with SNPs in the DGAT1 and FABP4 genes. The results confirm the lack of an association found by many other studies and suggest that these SNPs are not influential on the divergent IMF levels in the crossbred population tested.     

Digital predistortion linearizes wireless power amplifiers

When compared to other linearization methods, adaptive DP provides sufficient linearization with less complex RF hardware by depending primarily upon DSP rather than analog manipulation. The adaptive DP system may be implemented in EDA software along with interconnected test equipment (arbitrary RF signal source and vector signal analyzer). Through the use of a training signal, a simple adaptive algorithm may be employed to update the LUT coefficients until an optimum setting is achieved and used to predistort the input to the amplifier. This "connected solution" approach can provide key information to design engineers for optimizing the DSP architecture of a PA. For future work, other issues are taken into account, such as temperature and electrical memory effects.     

Tunable continuous-time bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulators with fractional delays

An analytical design methodology for continuous-time (CT) bandpass (BP) /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulators is presented. Second- and fourth-order tunable continuous time BP /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator design equations are presented. A novel /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ loop architecture, where the traditional CT BP loop filter function is replaced with the filter function with fractional delays, is proposed. Validity of the methodology is confirmed by mixed-signal behavioral simulations.     

Body weight and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with primary hyperparathyroidism

OBJECTIVE: To assess bone mineral density and body composition in postmenopausal women with primary hyperparathyroidism. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study with an age-matched control group. SETTING: University teaching hospital. PATIENTS: 41 postmenopausal women with mild primary hyperparathyroidism and 43 eucalcemic, age-matched controls. MEASUREMENTS: Total body, lumbar spine, and proximal femoral (femoral neck, Ward's triangle, and trochanter) bone mineral density; body composition; and fat distribution were measured using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: Women with primary hyperparathyroidism were heavier (75.5 kg compared with 66.3 kg; difference, 9.2 kg [95% CI, 3.7 to 14.7 kg]; P = 0.002), had a higher fat mass (33.3 kg compared with 26.1 kg; difference, 7.2 kg [CI, 3.0 to 11.4 kg]; P = 0.001), and had a more android pattern of fat distribution (android-to-gynoid fat ratio, 1.05 compared with 0.84; difference, 0.21 [CI, 0.1 to 0.32]; P = 0.0004) than the controls. Unadjusted bone mineral density was similar in patients and controls at all sites: total body, 0.990 compared with 1.023 g/cm2 (difference, 0.033; CI, -0.004 to 0.070); posteroanterior lumbar spine, 1.032 compared with 1.018 g/cm2 (difference, 0.014; CI, -0.031 to 0.059); lateral lumbar spine, 0.569 compared with 0.528 g/cm2 (difference, 0.041; CI, -0.022 to 0.104); femoral neck, 0.799 compared with 0.825 g/cm2 (difference, 0.026; CI, -0.072 to 0.124); Ward's triangle, 0.653 compared with 0.677 g/cm2 (difference, 0.024; CI, -0.035 to 0.089); trochanter, 0.734 compared with 0.733 g/cm2 (difference, 0.001; CI, -0.024 to 0.026); and arms, 0.720 compared with 0.739 g/cm2 (difference, 0.019; CI, -0.015 to 0.053). After adjustment for body weight, bone mineral density in women with primary hyperparathyroidism was lower than that in controls for total body (P = 0.0004), femoral neck (P = 0.001), Ward's triangle (P = 0.01), trochanter (P = 0.02), and arms (P = 0.0006). Spinal bone mineral density did not differ between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Body weight, total body fat mass, and proportion of android fat are increased in postmenopausal women with primary hyperparathyroidism; these unexplained factors may be relevant to the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease in this condition. Unadjusted bone mineral density values are similar in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and in controls, suggesting that this condition is not associated with an increased risk for fracture.     

The influence of judge, target, and stimulus characteristics on the accuracy of detecting deceit.

Investigated potential factors related to the ability to detect deceit, including characteristics of the credibility assessor (e.g., personality, handedness, cue use), characteristics of the target (attractiveness, gender), and the modality of the report (audio-visual vs audio-only). 310 undergraduate students (aged 18-43 yrs) judged the honesty of 8 reports of emotionally laden events (true reports and 4 motivated lies) presented in audio-visual or audio-only formats. Results indicate that detection accuracy was significantly higher when the judge was left-handed, the target was unattractive, and the target and judge were of opposite genders. Judges most frequently relied on cues related to the content of the report to decide credibility, but the use of such cues was associated with lower detection accuracy. In contrast, although facial cues were relied upon less often, they were positively associated with accuracy. Implications for the process of credibility assessment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mammalian 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase non-catalytic subunits are homologs of proteins that interact with yeast Snf1 protein kinase

The 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase is responsible for the regulation of fatty acid synthesis by phosphorylation and inactivation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase. The porcine liver 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase 63-kDa catalytic subunit co-purifies 14,000-fold with a 38- and 40-kDa protein (Mitchelhill, K.I. et al. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 2361-2364). The 63-kDa subunit is homologous to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Snf1 protein kinase, which regulates gene expression during glucose derepression. Peptide amino acid and polymerase chain reaction-derived partial cDNA sequences of both the pig and rat liver enzymes show that the 38-kDa protein is homologous to Snf4p (CAT3) and that the 40-kDa protein is homologous to the Sip1p/Spm/GAL83 family of Snf1p interacting proteins. Sucrose density gradient and cross-linking experiments with purified 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase suggest that both the 38- and 40-kDa proteins associate tightly with the 63-kDa catalytic polypeptide in either a heterotrimeric complex or in dimeric complexes. The 40-kDa subunit is autophosphorylated within the 63-kDa subunit complex. The sequence relationships between the mammalian 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase and yeast Snf1p extend to the subunit proteins consistent with conservation of the functional roles of these polypeptides in cellular regulation by this family of metabolite-sensing protein kinases.     

An analog compensation method for asymmetric IMD characteristics of power amplifier

The modulation frequency affects the asymmetric intermodulation distortion (IMD) products of a RF power amplifier. This effect reduces IMD cancellation performance of power amplifiers in connection with predistortion linearization. A phase extraction method to determine phase difference between upper and lower third-order IMD products and a phase compensation circuit using an envelope injection technique is proposed. The experimental results demonstrate a significant improvement in the third-order IMD cancellation performance.     

Simulation and analysis of an adaptive predistorter utilizing acomplex spectral convolution

An adaptive predistorter for linearizing a power amplifier in a mobile transmitter is studied, and the analytical, simulation, and measured results are presented. This predistorter does not have the problems of loop delay or phase shifting in its feedback path. The feedback is used only periodically to update the predistorter parameters so that it adapts to changes in the amplifier characteristics. An adaptation method for predistorters of the polynomial type is described. Its complexity is significantly lower than that of the previously described methods and its convergence speed, though low, is more than sufficient to track amplifier drift. Analytical verification that the measurement of out-of-band power is sufficient to drive the adaptation, a complex convolution method for measuring the out-of-band power that requires no additional local oscillator or phase reference, and a demonstration of the system performance utilizing a 16-QAM signal in a 25-kHz bandwidth, centered at 850 MHz, are provided     

The expressiveness of spider diagrams augmented with constants

Spider diagrams are a visual language for expressing logical statements or constraints. Several sound and complete spider diagram systems have been developed and it has been shown that they are equivalent in expressive power to monadic first order logic with equality. However, these sound and complete spider diagram systems do not contain syntactic elements analogous to constants in first order predicate logic. We extend the spider diagram language to include constant spiders which represent specific individuals. Formal semantics are given for the extended diagram language. We prove that this extended system is equivalent in expressive power to the language of spider diagrams without constants and, hence, equivalent to monadic first order logic with equality.