Carcass characterisation of seven Spanish beef breeds slaughtered at two commercial weights

A total of 159 bulls representing seven Spanish beef breeds were fed with concentrates, managed in the same conditions and slaughtered at two commercial weights (veal and young-bull). Carcasses were measured and classified in order to characterise the carcass variation in the Spanish beef market and to assess the relationship among carcass measurements and grading. Principal Component Analysis clearly separated commercial types regardless the inclusion of the carcass weight in the input data. Within commercial weights the studied breeds clustered into three groups according to muscular development and carcass classification score: high meat producer breeds (Asturiana de los Valles and Rubia Gallega); medium meat producers (Parda Alpina and Pirenaica); and low meat producers (Avileña, Retinta and Morucha). The perimeter and width of the leg (muscular development) besides the length and width of the carcass basically defined these three carcass types. Conformation was an important trait in explaining variation between breeds because its values were positively correlated with muscular development and carcass compactness.     

Analysis and improvement of map-reduce data distribution in read mapping applications

The map-reduce paradigm has shown to be a simple and feasible way of filtering and analyzing large data sets in cloud and cluster systems. Algorithms designed for the paradigm must implement regular data distribution patterns so that appropriate use of resources is ensured. Good scalability and performance on Map-Reduce applications greatly depend on the design of regular intermediate data generation-consumption patterns at the map and reduce phases. We describe the data distribution patterns found in current Map-Reduce read mapping bioinformatics applications and show some data decomposition principles to greatly improve their scalability and performance     

Digital Imaging Methodology for Measuring Early Shrinkage Cracking in Concrete

The measurement of early shrinkage cracking in concrete is important to prevent aesthetic issues and avoid surface cracking that could lead to reinforcement corrosion and reduce the durability, long‐term service life and integrity of a structure. Moreover, the lack of standards and subjectivity of the very few methodologies proposed so far complicate its estimation. This research presents a new imaging methodology for evaluating and quantifying early shrinkage cracking patterns. The methodology was developed testing highly restrained square concrete slabs subjected to severe conditions of restraint and moisture loss. Its quantification consisted of photographing, processing the pictures and highlighting the cracks. For the first time, early shrinkage cracking in concrete can be measured through an experimental technique and quantified by means of geometric figures. In this way, more precise and automatic results are achieved, as flat figures adapt to the shape of cracks and store their properties. Therefore, parameters such as the total cracked area, total crack length, maximum crack width or average crack width were easily calculated. The results demonstrated the suitability of the wind tunnel test to produce significant cracking patterns, as well as the great capacity of the imaging methodology to identify and characterize the cracking pattern.     

Backbone makes a significant contribution to the electrostatics of alpha/beta-barrel proteins

The electrostatic properties of seven alpha/beta-barrel enzymes selected from different evolutionary families were studied: triose phosphate isomerase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, pyruvate kinase, mandelate racemase, trimethylamine dehydrogenase, glycolate oxidase, and narbonin, a protein without any known enzymatic activity. The backbone of the alpha/beta-barrel has a distinct electrostatic field pattern, which is dipolar along the barrel axis. When the side chains are included in the calculations the general effect is to modulate the electrostatic pattern so that the electrostatic field is generally enhanced and is focused into a specific area near the active site. We use the electrostatic flux through a square surface near the active site to gauge the functionally relevant magnitude of the electrostatic field. The calculations reveal that in six out of the seven cases the backbone itself contributes greater than 45% of the total flux. The substantial electrostatic contribution of the backbone correlates with the known preference of alpha/beta-barrel enzymes for negatively charged substrates.     

Improvement in feasibility testing for real-time tasks

Scheduling analysis in real-time systems require an off-line feasibility (schedulability) test to guarantee the response time of critical tasks. There are fast and efficient tests for static schedulers. However, when a dynamic scheduler is required, the available tests are not as feast and efficient as static ones. In this paper, two different characterizations of feasible task sets are presented. These characterizations lead to an new feasibility algorithm. The proposed algorithm has an worst-case exponential complexity, but experimental results indicated that it runs on pseudo-polynomial time for a very large percentage of task sets. The algorithm also provides a sufficient condition for feasible asynchronous task sets. One of the main contributions of this work is the theoretical approach used to obtain the new feasibility test. The results of a large number of simulations, as well as, the theoretical demonstrations point out the improvements reached over previous tests.This work has been partially supported by a grant of CICYT No. TAP94-0511 of the Spanish Government     

Enhancing throughput for streaming applications running on cluster systems

The exploitation of throughput in a parallel application that processes an input data stream is a difficult challenge. For typical coarse-grain applications, where the computation time of tasks is greater than their communication time, the maximum achievable throughput is determined by the maximum task computation time. Thus, the improvement in throughput above this maximum would eventually require the modification of the source code of the tasks. In this work, we address the improvement of throughput by proposing two task replication methodologies that have the target throughput to be achieved as an input parameter. They proceed by generating a new task graph structure that permits the target throughput to be achieved. The first replication mechanism, named DPRM (Data Parallel Replication Mechanism), exploits the inner task data parallelism. The second mechanism, named TCRM (Task Copy Replication Mechanism), creates new execution paths inside the application task graph structure that allows more than one instance of data to be processed concurrently. We evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms with three real applications executed in a cluster system: the MPEG2 video compressor, the IVUS (Intra-Vascular Ultra-Sound) medical image application and the BASIZ (Bright and SAtured Images Zone) video processing application. In all these cases, the obtained throughput was greater after applying the proposed replication mechanism than what the application could provide with the original implementation.     

Effect of including linseed in a concentrate fed to young bulls on intramuscular fatty acids and beef color

The effect of varying concentrate composition to include 5% linseed and 200 IU of vitamin E on the growth performance, fatty acid composition, and muscle color during shelf life was assessed in 46 young Pirenaica bulls finished to two fatness levels. Adding 5% linseed lowered the dressing rate without altering daily gain or carcass classification. It likewise did not alter the total saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fatty acids in the intramuscular fat, though the percentage of α-linolenic acid and n − 3 fatty acids increased significantly while the n − 6 fatty acid to n − 3 fatty acid ratio decreased. Higher subcutaneous fat cover depth at slaughter increased the total percentage of oleic acid and monounsaturated fatty acids without affecting the percentage of saturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids. Adding 200 IU of vitamin E in addition to linseed did not alter the color of film-wrapped fresh meat during storage in darkness.     

Determination of lactadherin concentration in dairy by-products by ELISA: Effect of heat treatment and hydrolysis

Lactadherin is a peripheral glycoprotein of the milk fat globule membrane with several attributed biological activities. In this study, we developed an indirect competitive ELISA to determine lactadherin concentration by using a rabbit polyclonal antiserum. The ELISA was applied to quantify lactadherin in several dairy by-products. Of the products tested, raw and commercial buttermilk had the highest concentrations of lactadherin (6.79 and 5.27 mg/g of product, respectively), followed by commercial butter serum (4.86 mg/g), commercial skim milk (4.84 mg/g), and raw whey (1.20 mg/g). The concentration of immunoreactive lactadherin was also determined in dairy by-products after they were subjected to different technological treatments. Thus, raw products were heat treated at combinations of temperature and time typically used in the dairy industry, and commercial products were hydrolyzed using 3 proteolytic enzyme preparations. Heat treatments of whey and buttermilk resulted in a smaller decrease in lactadherin concentration than did hydrolysis as determined by ELISA and electrophoresis. At high temperatures for long durations, the loss of lactadherin was higher in whey than in buttermilk, with the maximal reduction of around 48% found after treating whey at 72°C for 60 min. Hydrolysis of commercial products with proteolytic enzymes resulted in a marked decrease of immunoreactivity within the first 5 min of treatment, which thereafter was constant throughout 4 h of hydrolysis. These results demonstrate that dairy by-products from milk fat processing are good natural sources of lactadherin, although technological processes have to be considered, because they have different effects on lactadherin content.     

Dynamic-SIMS imaging and quantification of inorganic ions in frozen-hydrated plant samples

We present here SIMS images of the distribution of inorganic cations (Na, K, Mg and Ca) in frozen-hydrated samples of three plant species, ivy, camomile, and flax. The samples were cryofixed using fast plunge-freezing. Stigmatic images were obtained, at 100 K, under dynamic SIMS conditions by fast atom bombarding (FAB). Even though the images obtained with the frozen-hydrated plant samples are still not of upper quality, they show that the method used to prepare these samples preserves existing ionic gradients between the outer and the inner part of the cells, between adjacent cells, including cells with the same type of differentiation, and between tissues. We also describe the quantification of the relative proportions of the ions in the vacuoles of flax. The reasonable accuracy achieved for quantification of the vacuole ion ratios permitted to show (i) that radial gradients of ion ratios in hypocotyls change when the plant is becoming older and (ii) that large differences may exist between adjacent cortical cells of the same type. The role of these substantial differences in vacuole ion balance ratios is a largely unexplored issue in plant physiology.