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Objective: This research investigated the effect of administering chromium (Cr) and meloxicam (MEL) on growth performance, cortisol and blood metabolite, and behaviors in young, regrouped heifers. Methods: Fifty Holstein dairy heifers (body weight [BW] 198±32.7 kg and 6.5±0.82 months of age) were randomly assigned to non-regrouped group or four regrouped groups. Non-regrouped animals were held in the same pen throughout the entire experimental period (NL: non-regrouping and administration of lactose monohydrate [LM; placebo]). For regrouping groups, two or three heifers maintained in four different pens for 2 weeks were regrouped into a new pen and assigned to one of four groups: regrouping and LM administration (RL); regrouping and Cr administration (RC); regrouping and MEL administration (RM), and regrouping and Cr and MEL administration (RCM). LM (1 mg/kg BW), Cr (0.5 mg Cr picolinate/kg dry matter intake), and MEL (1 mg/kg BW) were orally administered immediately before regrouping. Blood was collected before regrouping (0 h) and at 3, 9, and 24 h and 7 and 14 d thereafter. Behaviors were recorded for 7 consecutive days after regrouping. Results: Average daily gain was lower (p<0.05) in RL than NL heifers, but was higher (p<0.05) in RM, RC, and RCM than RL heifers. RL heifers had higher (p<0.05) cortisol than NL heifers on d 1 after regrouping. The cortisol concentrations in RC, RM, and RCM groups were lower (p<0.05) than in RL treatment 1 d after regrouping. Displacement behavior was greater (p<0.05) in RL group than all other groups at 2, 3, and 6 d after regrouping. Conclusion: Regrouping caused temporal stress, reduced growth performance, and increased displacement behavior in heifers. Administering Cr and MEL recovered the retarded growth rate and reduced displacement behavior, thereby alleviating regrouping stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Halophilic microbial eukaryotes are present in many eukaryotic lineages and major groups; however, our knowledge of their diversity is still limited. Furthermore, almost nothing is known about the intracellular accumulation of salts in most halophilic eukaryotes. Here, we isolate a novel halophilic microbial eukaryote from hypersaline water of 134 practical salinity units (PSU) in a solar saltern. This species is an amoeboflagellate (capable of the amoeba-flagellate-cyst transformation) in the heterolobosean group and belongs to the genus Euplaesiobystra based on morphological data and 18S rDNA sequences. However, the isolate is distinct from any of the described Euplaesiobystra species. Especially, it is the smallest Euplaesiobystra to date, has a distinct cytostome, and grows optimally at 75-100 PSU. Furthermore, the phylogenetic tree of the 18S rDNA sequences demonstrates that the isolate forms a strongly supported group, sister to Euplaesiobystra hypersalinica. Thus, we propose that the isolate, Euplaesiobystra salpumilio, is a novel species. E. salpumilio displays a significantly increased influx of the intracellular Na+ and K+ at 50, 100, and 150 PSU, compared to freshwater species. However, the intracellular retention of the Na+ and K+ at 150 PSU does not significantly differ from 100 PSU, suggesting that E. salpumilio can extrude the Na+ and K+ from cells under high-salinity conditions. Interestingly, actively growing E. salpumilio at 100 and 150 PSU may require more intracellular accumulation of Na+ than the no-growth but-viable state at 50 PSU. It seems that our isolate displays two salt metabolisms depending on the tested salinities. E. salpumilio shows a salt-in strategy for Na+ at lower salinity of 100 PSU, while it displays a salt-out strategy for Na+ at higher salinity of 150 PSU. Our results suggest that the novel halophilic E. salpumilio fundamentally uses a salt-out strategy at higher salinities, and the accumulation patterns of intracellular salts in this species are different from those in other halophilic microbial eukaryotes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study was performed to determine the effects of stress after road transportation and oral administration of chromium and meloxicam on growth performance, plasma cortisol, serum metabolites, and behavior in dairy calves. Methods: A total of 50 Holstein heifers (average body weight [BW]: 172±4.19 kg; average age: 5.53±0.12 months) were randomly assigned to five groups including NL (not transported + D-lactose; 1 mg/kg BW), TL (transported + D-lactose; 1 mg/kg BW), TC (transported + chromium; 0.5 mg/kg dry matter [DM] feed), TM (transported + meloxicam; 1 mg/kg BW), and TMC (transported + combination of meloxicam and chromium; 1 mg/kg BW and 0.5 mg/kg DM, respectively). Doses of D-lactose monohydrate, meloxicam, and chromium were prepared for oral administration by suspension in 15 mL of water in a 20-mL dosing syringe. Blood was collected before transportation, immediately after 120 km of transportation (IAT), and at 6, 24, and 48 h after transportation. Results: Neither transportation nor administration of meloxicam and/or chromium affected (p = 0.99) average daily gain and feed intake. Plasma cortisol concentrations in the NL group (average 0.13 and 0.18 nmol/L, respectively) were lower (p<0.001) compared to the TL group (average 0.39 and 0.61 nmol/L, respectively) at IAT and 48 h after transportation. At 48 h after transportation, cortisol concentrations were lower (p<0.05) in the TC group (average 0.22 nmol/L) than in the TL group (average 0.61 nmol/L), and TC calves had similar cortisol concentrations to NL calves. Lying duration (min/d) was shorter (p<0.05) in the TL group than in the NL group at 2 d after transportation. Lying duration was longer (p<0.05) for the TC and TMC groups than for the TL group at 2 d after transportation. Conclusion: Transportation increased cortisol concentrations and affected lying behavior, while chromium administration reduced cortisol concentrations and changed lying behavior. Thus, chromium administration before transportation may be a viable strategy to alleviate stress elicited by road transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken to create an Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus; ABB) ethogram during hibernation and to describe the time budget of hibernating behaviours in ABB. Seven captive adult ABB were included in the study and began hibernation between October and December. Data were collected for three consecutive years (2013-2015) during ABB hibernation (total 169 days) using closed-circuit television. During the study, we observed 21 distinct behaviours in hibernating ABB (4 least active and 17 active behaviours). Five bears started hibernation less than seven days after feeding cessation, and by the end of one week, all bears hibernated. The most commonly observed behaviour was "sleep curling inside nest", and "nest maintenance" was the second most common behaviour. Among the active behaviours, "sitting in the nest", "change stance", "drinking and eating" were mostly shown as documented during the observation times. Our results provide new insights into the hibernating behaviours of ABB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken to create an Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus; ABB) ethogram during hibernation and to describe the time budget of hibernating behaviours in ABB. Seven captive adult ABB were included in the study and began hibernation between October and December. Data were collected for three consecutive years (2013--2015) during ABB hibernation (total 169 days) using closed-circuit television. During the study, we observed 21 distinct behaviours in hibernating ABB (4 least active and 17 active behaviours). Five bears started hibernation less than seven days after feeding cessation, and by the end of one week, all bears hibernated. The most commonly observed behaviour was "sleep curling inside nest", and "nest maintenance" was the second most common behaviour. Among the active behaviours, "sitting in the nest", "change stance", "drinking and eating" were mostly shown as documented during the observation times. Our results provide new insights into the hibernating behaviours of ABB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken to create an Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus; ABB) ethogram during hibernation and to describe the time budget of hibernating behaviours in ABB. Seven captive adult ABB were included in the study and began hibernation between October and December. Data were collected for three consecutive years (2013-2015) during ABB hibernation (total 169 days) using closed-circuit television. During the study, we observed 21 distinct behaviours in hibernating ABB (4 least active and 17 active behaviours). Five bears started hibernation less than seven days after feeding cessation, and by the end of one week, all bears hibernated. The most commonly observed behaviour was "sleep curling inside nest", and "nest maintenance" was the second most common behaviour. Among the active behaviours, "sitting in the nest", "change stance", "drinking and eating" were mostly shown as documented during the observation times. Our results provide new insights into the hibernating behaviours of ABB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content in skeletal muscle including the longissimus dorsi muscle (LM), also known as marbling fat, is one of the most important factors determining beef quality in several countries including Korea, Japan, Australia, and the United States. Genetics and breed, management, and nutrition affect IMF deposition. Japanese Black cattle breed has the highest IMF content in the world, and Korean cattle (also called Hanwoo) the second highest. Here, we review results of research on genetic factors (breed and sex differences and heritability) that affect IMF deposition. Cattle management factors are also important for IMF deposition. Castration of bulls increases IMF deposition in most cattle breeds. The effects of several management factors, including weaning age, castration, slaughter weight and age, and environmental conditions on IMF deposition are also reviewed. Nutritional factors, including fat metabolism, digestion and absorption of feed, glucose/starch availability, and vitamin A, D, and C levels are important for IMF deposition. Manipulating IMF deposition through developmental programming via metabolic imprinting is a recently proposed nutritional method to change potential IMF deposition during the fetal and neonatal periods in rodents and domestic animals. Application of fetal nutritional programming to increase IMF deposition of progeny in later life is reviewed. The coordination of several factors affects IMF deposition. Thus, a combination of several strategies may be needed to manipulate IMF deposition, depending on the consumer's beef preference. In particular, stage-specific feeding programs with concentrate-based diets developed by Japan and Korea are described in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content in skeletal muscle including the longissimus dorsi muscle (LM), also known as marbling fat, is one of the most important factors determining beef quality in several countries including Korea, Japan, Australia, and the United States. Genetics and breed, management, and nutrition affect IMF deposition. Japanese Black cattle breed has the highest IMF content in the world, and Korean cattle (also called Hanwoo) the second highest. Here, we review results of research on genetic factors (breed and sex differences and heritability) that affect IMF deposition. Cattle management factors are also important for IMF deposition. Castration of bulls increases IMF deposition in most cattle breeds. The effects of several management factors, including weaning age, castration, slaughter weight and age, and environmental conditions on IMF deposition are also reviewed. Nutritional factors, including fat metabolism, digestion and absorption of feed, glucose/starch availability, and vitamin A, D, and C levels are important for IMF deposition. Manipulating IMF deposition through developmental programming via metabolic imprinting is a recently proposed nutritional method to change potential IMF deposition during the fetal and neonatal periods in rodents and domestic animals. Application of fetal nutritional programming to increase IMF deposition of progeny in later life is reviewed. The coordination of several factors affects IMF deposition. Thus, a combination of several strategies may be needed to manipulate IMF deposition, depending on the consumer's beef preference. In particular, stage-specific feeding programs with concentrate-based diets developed by Japan and Korea are described in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A control task's performance heavily depends on its sampling frequency and sensing-to-actuation delay. More frequent sampling, that is, shorter period, improves the control performance. Similarly, shorter delay also has a positive effect. Moreover, schedulability is also a function of periods and deadlines. By taking into account the control performance and schedulability at the same time, this paper defines a period and deadline selection problem for fixed-priority systems. Our problem is to find the optimal periods and deadlines for given tasks that maximize the overall system performance. As our solution, this paper presents a novel heuristic algorithmthat finds a high-quality suboptimal solution with very low complexity, whichmakes the algorithm practically applicable to large size task sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this brief, we present a 60-W power amplifier that is linearized using an RF predistorter for multicarrier wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) applications. The proposed RF predistorter is fully composed of RF or analog circuits, and it has a moderate memory effect compensation capability using a delayed third-order intermodulation (1M3) component path. It also includes the 1M5 generation circuits and a compact 1M3 generator that is capable of autocanceling for the fundamental component. The proposed RF predistorter was implemented and applied to a 60-W high-power WCDMA amplifier. For a fourcarrier downlink WCDMA signal, the RF predistorter improved the adjacent channel leakage power ratio at a 5-MHz offset by 6.19 dB at an average output power of 48 dBm. The total efficiency of the system is as high as 13.6% at the same output power level. At an output power level of 60 W, the linearized power amplifier complies with the linearity specification of the WCDMA system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, we describe the mitochondrial genome sequence of the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus ussuricus) with particular emphasis on the control region (CR), and compared with mitochondrial genomes on molecular relationships among the bears. The mitochondrial genome sequence of U. thibetanus ussuricus was 16,700 bp in size with mostly conserved structures (e.g. 13 protein-coding, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes). The CR consisted of several typical conserved domains such as F, E, D, and C boxes, and a conserved sequence block. Nucleotide sequences and the repeated motifs in the CR were different among the bear species, and their copy numbers were also variable according to populations, even within F1 generations of U. thibetanus ussuricus. Comparative analyses showed that the CR D1 region was highly informative for the discrimination of the bear family. These findings suggest that nucleotide sequences of both repeated motifs and CR D1 in the bear family are good markers for species discriminations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present an optimized Doherty power amplifier using an unequal quadrature input splitter and bias control for the peaking amplifier. The linearity and efficiency performances of the Doherty power amplifier were experimentally optimized by means of unequal quadrature input power splitters, which drive unbalanced input power between the carrier and peaking amplifiers. The bias points of the peaking amplifier were also adjusted for each input splitter. A high power-added efficiency of 33.68% and an output power of 33.95 dBm were achieved for a down-link wide-band code division multiple access signal excitation at a given adjacent channel leakage-power ratio of -30 dBc. This was a significant improvement by 2.75% and 8.22% points from the conventional Doherty and class-AB amplifiers, respectively. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 1536–1539, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23420 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report fuel generation systems for molecular motors based on pyruvate kinase, or for the first time, mitochondria, implemented within microfluidic devices. Intact organelles acted as bio-nanopower supplies for molecular motors, using isolated mitochondria to convert chemical energy from succinate to ATP, harnessing nature's enzymatic transformation cascades directly. Motors were activated essentially equally by ATP produced by pyruvate kinase, mitochondria, or direct addition of ATP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new compact load network for high-power Doherty amplifiers using an imperfect quarter-wave line. A compact π-network quarter-wave transmission line, which consisted of two shunt capacitors and a series microstrip line, was used to replace a bulky microstrip transmission line. A simple L-C matching network was then deployed after the quarter-wave line. To take the inherent internal parasitic components in the packaged high-power transistors into account, the shunt capacitors of the π-network quarter-wave transmission line were readjusted, which made an imperfect quarter-wave line. For verification, both the conventional and compact Doherty amplifiers were designed and implemented for the 859-MHz band using high-voltage laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. The measured linearities and efficiencies of both amplifiers were compared to each other with respect to the reference performance of the class-AB amplifier for two-tone and down-link wideband code-division multiple-access signal excitations. The compact Doherty amplifier with a significantly reduced size for the load network by 75.7% performed even better than the conventional Doherty amplifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a design method for a compact inverted Doherty power amplifier (IDPA), which has high-efficiency and high-power characteristics. An optimum load matching network and an additional offset line, after the matching network of the carrier amplifier, dynamically modulate the load impedance according to the input power drive, while the conventional Doherty power amplifier uses a quarter-wave line to do it. The operational principles and design guide are provided. For experimental verification, a 50-W Doherty amplifier was designed for the π/4 differential quadrature phase-shift keying application at the 860-MHz band. The measured performance of the IDPA was compared with that of the balanced class-AB amplifier with the same output matching network. At an output power of 50 W, the IDPA performs with 3.16 dB better adjacent channel power ratio (-28 versus -24.84 dBc) and 6.15% higher power-added efficiency (59.02 versus 52.87 %) than the class-AB amplifier does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-power Cartesian feedback transmitter including a compact inverted Doherty amplifier is presented. The system efficiency was further improved using a bias line adjustment method for the compact inverted Doherty amplifier. After the bias line adjustment from a λ/4 line for the Doherty amplifier, a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 6.9% points was improved from 41.3 to 48.2% at an output power level of 45 dBm. The whole Cartesian feedback transmitter system exhibited an efficiency of 40% and an adjacent channel leakage ratio of-51 dBc at an output power of 45 dBm for 859 MHz band π/4-DQPSK applications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 944–946, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23265 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]