Serum enzyme activity and physical condition

Following the WHO tri-axial classification of mental disorders, which set out possibilities for differential classification and diagnosis among the syndromes, the present article suggests complementary axes upon which educational therapy can be based in the psychoses of autism and allied disorders. They are offered as a basis of common ground for discussion in multidisciplinary teams.     

The treated prevalence of mental illness in the Republic of Ireland--the three county case register study

In-patient data show high rates for mental illness in the Republic of Ireland, particularly for schizophrenia. 'One-day prevalence' figures from the Three County psychiatric case register have been compared with similar data from the Camberwell register. The results confirm much higher contact rates in Ireland.     

Anticonvulsant nature of marihuana smoking

Marihuana smoking, in conjunction with therapeutic doses of phenobarbital and diphenylhydantoin, was apparently necessary for controlling seizures in one 24-year-old epileptic patient.     

Short communication: Genomic selection using a multi-breed, across-country reference population

Three breeds (Fleckvieh, Holstein, and Jersey) were included in a reference population, separately and together, to assess the accuracy of prediction of genomic breeding values in single-breed validation populations. The accuracy of genomic selection was defined as the correlation between estimated breeding values, calculated using phenotypic data, and genomic breeding values. The Holstein and Jersey populations were from Australia, whereas the Fleckvieh population (dual-purpose Simmental) was from Austria and Germany. Both a BLUP with a multi-breed genomic relationship matrix (GBLUP) and a Bayesian method (BayesA) were used to derive the prediction equations. The hypothesis tested was that having a multi-breed reference population increased the accuracy of genomic selection. Minimal advantage existed of either GBLUP or BayesA multi-breed genomic evaluations over single-breed evaluations. However, when the goal was to predict genomic breeding values for a breed with no individuals in the reference population, using 2 other breeds in the reference was generally better than only 1 breed.     

Performance of Nonmigratory Iron Chelating Active Packaging Materials in Viscous Model Food Systems

Many packaged food products undergo quality deterioration due to iron promoted oxidative reactions. Recently, we have developed a nonmigratory iron chelating active packaging material that represents a novel approach to inhibit oxidation of foods while addressing consumer demands for “clean? labels. A challenge to the field of nonmigratory active packaging is ensuring that surface‐immobilized active agents retain activity in a true food system despite diffusional limitations. Yet, the relationship between food viscosity and nonmigratory active packaging activity retention has never been characterized. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of food viscosity on iron chelation by a nonmigratory iron chelating active packaging material. Methyl cellulose was added to aqueous buffered iron solutions to yield model systems with viscosities ranging from ～1 to ～10⁵ mPa·s, representing viscosities ranging from beverage to mayonnaise. Iron chelation was quantified by material‐bound iron content using colorimetry and inductively coupled plasma‐optical emission spectrometry (ICP‐OES).  Maximum iron chelation was reached in solutions up to viscosity ～10² mPa·s. In more viscous solutions (up to ～10⁴ mPa·s), there was a significant decrease in iron chelating capacity (P < 0.05). However, materials still retained at least 76% iron chelating capacity. Additionally, the influence of different food hydrocolloids on the performance of nonmigratory iron chelating active packaging was characterized. Methyl cellulose and carrageenan did not compete with the material for specific iron chelation (P > 0.05). Materials retained 32% to 45% chelating capacity when in contact with competitively chelating hydrocolloids guar gum, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum. This work demonstrates the potential application of nonmigratory iron chelating active packaging in liquid and semi‐liquid foods to allow for the removal of synthetic chelators, while maintaining food quality.     

Improving accuracy of genomic predictions within and between dairy cattle breeds with imputed high-density single nucleotide polymorphism panels

Achieving accurate genomic estimated breeding values for dairy cattle requires a very large reference population of genotyped and phenotyped individuals. Assembling such reference populations has been achieved for breeds such as Holstein, but is challenging for breeds with fewer individuals. An alternative is to use a multi-breed reference population, such that smaller breeds gain some advantage in accuracy of genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) from information from larger breeds. However, this requires that marker-quantitative trait loci associations persist across breeds. Here, we assessed the gain in accuracy of GEBV in Jersey cattle as a result of using a combined Holstein and Jersey reference population, with either 39,745 or 624,213 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The surrogate used for accuracy was the correlation of GEBV with daughter trait deviations in a validation population. Two methods were used to predict breeding values, either a genomic BLUP (GBLUP_mod), or a new method, BayesR, which used a mixture of normal distributions as the prior for SNP effects, including one distribution that set SNP effects to zero. The GBLUP_mod method scaled both the genomic relationship matrix and the additive relationship matrix to a base at the time the breeds diverged, and regressed the genomic relationship matrix to account for sampling errors in estimating relationship coefficients due to a finite number of markers, before combining the 2 matrices. Although these modifications did result in less biased breeding values for Jerseys compared with an unmodified genomic relationship matrix, BayesR gave the highest accuracies of GEBV for the 3 traits investigated (milk yield, fat yield, and protein yield), with an average increase in accuracy compared with GBLUP_mod across the 3 traits of 0.05 for both Jerseys and Holsteins. The advantage was limited for either Jerseys or Holsteins in using 624,213 SNP rather than 39,745 SNP (0.01 for Holsteins and 0.03 for Jerseys, averaged across traits). Even this limited and nonsignificant advantage was only observed when BayesR was used. An alternative panel, which extracted the SNP in the transcribed part of the bovine genome from the 624,213 SNP panel (to give 58,532 SNP), performed better, with an increase in accuracy of 0.03 for Jerseys across traits. This panel captures much of the increased genomic content of the 624,213 SNP panel, with the advantage of a greatly reduced number of SNP effects to estimate. Taken together, using this panel, a combined breed reference and using BayesR rather than GBLUP_mod increased the accuracy of GEBV in Jerseys from 0.43 to 0.52, averaged across the 3 traits.     

Influence of on-farm production practices on sensory and technological quality characteristics of pork loin

Quality of pork from pigs raised either traditionally (outdoor access or bedded settings with no sub-therapeutic antibiotics or growth promotants in feed) or conventionally (commercial indoor) was evaluated. Pork loins (m. longissimus thoracis et lumborum, LTL) from four hundred pigs from either traditional or conventional production systems (n = 200) fed commercially formulated diets ad libitum were harvested at slaughter. Intramuscular crude fat content and lean color (L* and b*) values were significantly decreased in conventional pork loins. LTL from conventionally-raised pig carcasses showed increased (P < 0.05) mean pH, moisture content and reduced cooking loss and shear force values and had increased tenderness and juiciness scores compared to those from traditionally-raised pig carcasses. Results indicated that pork from conventionally raised pigs was superior to that from traditionally raised pigs in terms of tenderness and juiciness, suggesting that consumers may value pork from traditionally raised pigs on the basis of factors other than eating quality and appearance.     

Deterministic models of breeding scheme designs that incorporate genomic selection

A deterministic model to calculate rates of genetic gain and inbreeding was used to compare a range of breeding scheme designs under genomic selection (GS) for a population of 140,000 cows. For most schemes it was assumed that the reliability of genomic breeding values (GEBV) was 0.6 across 4 pathways of selection. In addition, the effect of varying reliability on the ranking of schemes was also investigated. The schemes considered included intense selection in male pathways and genotyping of 1,000 young bulls (GS-Y). This scheme was extended to include selection in females and to include a “worldwide” scheme similar to GS-Y, but 6 times as large and assuming genotypes were freely exchanged between 6 countries. An additional worldwide scheme was modeled where GEBV were available through international genetic evaluations without exchange of genotypes. Finally, a closed nucleus herd that used juvenile in vitro embryo transfer in heifers was modeled so that the generation interval in female pathways was reduced to 1 or 2 yr. When the breeding schemes were compared using a GEBV reliability of 0.6, the rates of genetic gain were between 59 and 130% greater than the rate of genetic gain achieved in progeny testing. This was mainly through reducing the generation interval and increasing selection intensity. Genomic selection of females resulted in a 50% higher rate of genetic gain compared with restricting GS to young bulls only. The annual rates of inbreeding were, in general, 60% lower than with progeny testing, because more sires of bulls and sires of cows were selected, thus increasing the effective population size. The exception was in nucleus breeding schemes that had very short generation intervals, resulting in higher rates of both gain and inbreeding. It is likely that breeding companies will move rapidly to alter their breeding schemes to make use of genomic selection because benefits to the breeding companies and to the industry are considerable.