Effects of growth hormone-releasing factor and(or) thyrotropin-releasing hormone on growth, feed efficiency, carcass characteristics, and blood hormones and metabolites in beef heifers

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of long-term administration of a growth hormone (GH)-releasing factor analog (GRFa) and(or) thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) on growth, feed efficiency, carcass characteristics, and blood hormones and metabolites in beef heifers. Crossbred heifers (n = 48; 345.9 +/- 2.8 kg) were divided into four equal groups: control (vehicle), 1 microgram of GRFa (human GRF 1-29 analog).kg BW-1.d-1, 1 microgram of TRH.kg BW-1.d-1, or GRFa + TRH. Daily s.c. injections continued for 86 d. Blood samples were collected from half of the heifers after injection on d 1, 36, and 78. On d 89, all heifers were slaughtered. Treatments did not affect (P > .05) ADG but GRFa + TRH decreased (P < .05) ADFI relative to all other treatments. Feed conversion efficiency tended (P < .10) to be improved in the groups given GRFa alone or TRH alone. Treatment with GRFa and(or) TRH did not affect carcass weight, dressing percentage, conformation score, backfat thickness, or weights of liver, kidneys, pituitary, and ovaries. The GRFa + TRH treatment reduced (P < .05) fat score and increased (P < .05) longissimus muscle area relative to other treatments. The GRFa treatments reduced (P < .05) the weight and fat percentage of the mammary gland and increased (P < .05) heart weight. Treatment with TRH alone failed to stimulate GH on d 1, 36, and 78. Treatment with GRFa alone increased (P < .05) GH above controls on d 36, whereas GRFa + TRH increased (P < .05) GH on d 1, 36, and 78. Treatment with GRFa alone increased (P < .05) IGF-I only on d 1, whereas GRFa + TRH was without effect on all days. Across sampling days, treatments had little effect on blood concentrations of insulin, triiodothyronine, nonesterified fatty acids, urea nitrogen, and glucose. The GRFa alone and GRFa + TRH decreased (P < .05) and TRH alone increased (P < .05) thyroxine concentrations. In conclusion, with the dose and administration regimen used, GRFa and(or) TRH yielded small but positive improvements in animal performance.     

Peer-tutoring: Applied behavior analysis working in the classroom.

Schools often use peer-tutoring as a corrective program for students who are experiencing difficulties academically. Given appropriate behavioral structure, peer-tutoring can become a powerful classwide instructional intervention. An historical perspective on the use of students as teachers for their peers is given in this selective literature review. Also, information on the efficacy of considering behavioral function and structure and data addressing ecobehavioral variables to establish a productive learning environment are provided. The authors emphasize infusing peer-tutoring programs with applied behavior analysis techniques to increase the academic success of large numbers of students cost effectively. Peer-tutoring programs are considered to be a way for applied behavior analysts to gain greater access to American school learning environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributive justice development and social class: A replication.

28 kindergartners and 28 3rd graders, equally divided between lower- and middle-class and between boys and girls, were given the Distributive Justice Scale, a vocabulary test, and sociometric peer ratings. Results show that regardless of grade, the lower-class Ss lagged behind the middle-class Ss in distributive justice development even when verbal ability was controlled. Findings replicate those of a previous study drawn from the same population (R. Enright et al; see record 1981-07767-001). Both studies show statistically equivalent scores. The peer ratings showed that in both kindergarten and 3rd grade, lower-class Ss were most often named as having negative socioeconomic traits. Implications for social class distributive justice are discussed. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Towards a feminist empowerment model of forgiveness psychotherapy.

In recent years Enright and Fitzgibbon's (2000) process model of forgiveness therapy has received substantial theoretical and empirical attention. However, both the process model of forgiveness therapy and the social-cognitive developmental model on which it is based have received criticism from feminist theorists. The current paper considers feminist criticisms of forgiveness therapy and uses a feminist lens to identify potential areas for growth. Specifically, Worell and Remer's (2003) model of synthesizing feminist ideals into existing theory was consulted, areas of bias within the forgiveness model of psychotherapy were identified, and strategies for restructuring areas of potential bias were introduced. Further, the authors consider unique aspects of forgiveness therapy that can potentially strengthen existing models of feminist therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chronic myelogenous leukemia

Chronic myelogenous leukemia is a clonal hematopoietic malignancy characterized by a balanced translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 that results in the generation of an abnormal bcr/abl fusion protein with increased tyrosine kinase activity. This abnormal fusion protein has transforming activity for hematopoietic cells in vitro and causes chronic myelogenous leukemia-like myelopoiesis in mice. Chronic myelogenous leukemia progenitor cells display abnormalities in their interactions with bone marrow stroma, perhaps due to defective adhesion molecule function. Conventional therapies for chronic myelogenous leukemia include hydroxyurea, busulfan, or interferon. Treatment with interferon may prolong overall survival, especially in patients who achieve a cytogenetic response. Related donor marrow transplantation can result in long-term survival in more than 65% of patients treated early in the course of disease. For patients without an available matched sibling donor, unrelated donor marrow transplantation or autologous marrow transplantation are alternative therapeutic options.     

Forgiveness intervention with postabortion men.

An intervention designed to foster forgiveness was implemented with postabortion men. Participants were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control (wait list) condition, which received treatment after a 12-week waiting period. Following treatment, the participants demonstrated a significant gain in forgiveness and significant reductions in anxiety, anger, and grief as compared with controls. Similar significant findings were evident among control participants after they participated in the treatment. Maintenance of psychological benefits among the 1st set of participants was demonstrated at a 3-month follow-up. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-temperature (7 °C) anaerobic treatment of a trichloroethylene-contaminated wastewater: microbial community development

The feasibility of low-temperature (7 °C) anaerobic digestion for the treatment of a trichloroethylene (TCE) contaminated wastewater was investigated. Two expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) bioreactors (R1 and R2) were employed for the mineralisation of a synthetic volatile fatty acid based wastewater at an initial organic loading rate (OLR) of 3 kg COD m⁻³ d⁻¹, and an operating temperature of 15 °C. Successive reductions in OLR to 0.75 kg COD m⁻³ d⁻¹, and operational temperature to 7 °C, resulted in stable bioreactor operation by day 417, with COD removal efficiency and biogas CH₄ content ≥74%, for both bioreactors. Subsequently, the influent to R1 was supplemented with increasing concentrations (10, 20, 30 mg l⁻¹) of TCE, while R2 acted as a control. At an influent TCE concentration of 30 mg l⁻¹, although phase average TCE removal rates of 79% were recorded, a sustained decrease in R1 performance was observed, with COD removal of 6%, and % biogas CH₄ of 3% recorded on days 595 and 607, respectively. Specific methanogenic activity (SMA) assays identified a general shift from acetate- to hydrogen-mediated methanogenesis in both R1 and R2 biomass, while toxicity assays confirmed an increased sensitivity of the acetoclastic community in R1 to TCE and dichloroethylene (DCE), which contributed to acetate accumulation. Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) analysis of the methanogenic community confirmed the dominance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens in both R1 and R2, representing 71-89% of the total methanogenic population, however acetoclastic Methanosaeta were the dominant organisms, based on 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis of reactor biomass. The greatest change in the bacterial community, as demonstrated by UPGMA analysis of DGGE banding profiles, was observed in R1 biomass between days 417 and 609, although 88% similarity was retained between these sampling points.     

Detecting and locating a singular point in the numerical solution of IVPs for ODEs

Many authors have worked on approaches for solving Initial Value Problems (IVPs) in Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) whose solutions contain one or more singular points within the interval of integration. Their approaches, however, assumed that the user knows in advance that the problem is singular. Hence they introduced new formulas to cope with this difficulty. In this paper, a new approach to detect and locate a singularity is suggested. This approach, which does not require the changing of the underlying formula, is comprised of two stages. The first is a preliminary singularity detection stage. The second stage is the confirmation stage which gathers more information about the existence and location of the singular point. We justify the first state and introduce three different techniques for confirming the existence of a singularity. The numerical results show that our approach is effective.     

On selecting a low-order model using the dominant mode concept

A technique for selecting a low-order system to approximate a high-order model has been suggested by Davison [2]. A critical component in this technique is the criterion used to select the most appropriate order and modes for the low-order approximation. Criteria have been discussed and analyzed by Mahapatra [5], [6], Rao, Lamba, and Rao [7], and Elrazaz and Sinha [3]. In this note we overcome deficiencies in the criteria that have been proposed and we introduce a new criterion which is rigorously justified. The criterion we suggest is also applicable when eigenvalues of the system are nonreal.     

Application of critical distances to fatigue at pores

This work applies Taylor's theory of critical distance to quantify the effect of defects on fatigue initiation in an additively manufactured metal. We focus on hollow pores that are ideal spherical, prolate, and oblate spheroids isolated in an otherwise homogeneous linear‐elastic material. These conditions support the development of exact solutions using the exterior Eshelby tensor for a pore in a remote, arbitrary stress field. For spheres, this solution process admits simple closed‐form solutions for principal stresses disturbed by the pore. For prolate and oblate spheroids, we present the solutions as graphical curves showing stress variations under uniaxial tension. This report then extends the analysis to determine the effect of defects on a parametric, power‐law stress range vs fatigue life model. By propagating the distributed stress fields through this model, this study demonstrates the effect of pore size, pore shape, stress, and parametric fatigue properties on the life reduction due to porosity. These results suggest several approaches to increasing fatigue lives in porous materials, eg, reducing the pore size, promoting spherical pores, and increasing the microstructural parameter (comparable to the El Haddad parameter). Results presented in this work may be useful to inform trends of fatigue strength and fatigue initiation lives in metallic alloys with limited porosity, eg, additively manufactured materials that have been HIP'ed.