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A 109 nm Xe Auger laser pumped with soft X-rays from a high-repetition rate commercial Nd:YAG laser system functions as an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) laser. The laser yields an average photon flux of 3 x 10 to the 12th power per second at 11.5 eV and pulse energies of about 1 micro Joule. The time-dependent gain, short wavelength, high efficiency and output beam shape of the laser enables its use in practical applications.

Many longitudinal studies have investigated whether self‐esteem predicts depressive symptoms (vulnerability model) or the other way around (scar model) in adolescents. The most common method of analysis has been the cross‐lagged panel model (CLPM). The CLPM does not separate between‐person effects from within‐person effects, making it unclear whether the results from previous studies actually reflect the within‐person effects or whether they reflect differences between people. We investigated the associations between self‐esteem and depressive symptoms at the within‐person level, using random intercept cross‐lagged panel models (RI‐CLPMs). To get an impression of the magnitude of possible differences between the RI‐CLPM and the CLPM, we compared the results of both models. We used data from three longitudinal adolescent samples (age range: 7–18 years; study 1: N = 1948; study 2: N = 1455; study 3: N = 316). Intervals between the measurements were 1–1.5 years. Single‐paper meta‐analyses showed support for small within‐person associations from self‐esteem to depressive symptoms, but not the other way around, thus only providing some support for the vulnerability model. The cross‐lagged associations in the aggregated RI‐CLPM and CLPM showed similar effect sizes. Overall, our results show that over 1‐ to 1.5‐year time intervals, low self‐esteem may negatively influence depressive symptoms over time within adolescents, but only weakly so. © 2018 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to validate previously reported associations between microarray gene expression levels and pork quality traits using real-time PCR. Meat samples and meat quality data from 100 pigs were collected from a different pig breed to the one tested by microarray (Large White versus Pietrain) and a different country of origin (Denmark versus Germany). Ten genes ( CARP, MB, CSRP3, TNNC1, VAPB, TNNI1, HSPB1, TNNT1, TIMP-1, RAD-like) were chosen from the original microarray study on the basis of the association between gene expression levels and the meat quality traits meat %, back fat, pH24, drip loss %, colour a*, colour b*, colour L*, WB-SF, SFA, MUFA, PUFA. Real-time PCR detection methods were developed for validation of all ten genes, confirming association with drip loss (two of two genes), ultimate pH (three of four genes), a* (redness) (two of six genes) and L*(lightness) (two of four genes). Furthermore, several new correlations for MUFA and PUFA were established due to additional meat quality trait information on fatty acid composition not available for the microarray study. Regression studies showed that the maximum explanation of the phenotypic variance of the meat quality traits was 50% for the ultimate pH trait using these ten genes only. Additional studies showed that the gene expression of several of the genes was correlated with each other. We conclude that the genes initially selected from the microarray study were robust, explaining variances of the genes for the meat quality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Meat is an integral part of the human diet. Besides essential amino acids and nutritive factors of high quality and availability, meat provides often overlooked components of importance for human health. These are amino acids and bioactive compounds that may be very important in i) preventing muscle wasting diseases, such as in sarcopenia, ii) reducing food and caloric intake to prevent metabolic syndrome, iii) blood pressure homeostasis via ACE-inhibitory components from connective tissue, and iv) maintaining functional gut environment through meat-derived nucleotides and nucleosides. In addition, meat could be an important source of phytanic acid, conjugated linoleic acids and antioxidants. Further, it becomes increasingly apparent that design of in vitro meat will be possible, and that this development may lead to improved health benefits from commercially viable and sustainable meat products. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: One factor affecting meat quality is pre-slaughter stress. We investigated the effects of exercise stress on drip loss and toughness in relation to resting times of 0, 1 or 3h following exercise on a treadmill. This exercise stress was regarded as combined physical and physiological stress. Exercise stress increased the muscle temperature, reduced the creatine phosphate, ATP and glycogen content of pigs slaughtered immediately after stress exposure. These conditions lead to a reduced pH early post mortem and an increased drip loss, while only 1h of rest after exercise stress normalised these effects. However, an overshooting effect was noted when pigs were rested for 1–3h before slaughter, emphasising the importance of critical control of the resting period when studying exercise stress-induced effects on meat quality. Furthermore, meat from exercise stressed pigs, irrespective of resting, had increased toughness compared to controls, indicating that the toughness was not related to drip loss in meat from exercise stressed pigs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Duroc and Landrace pigs as well as primary myotubes from these breeds were used to investigate mechanisms behind differences in their response to creatine monohydrate (CMH). Pigs were supplemented with 0, 12.5, 25 or 50g CMH/d for 5 days (n =10 per treatment and breed). Plasma levels of creatine increased dose-dependently in both breeds, while muscle-creatine phosphate content increased only in the Duroc pigs. 1H NMR metabolic profiling showed a tendency towards clustering according to CMH supplementation only among Duroc pigs, revealing a stronger response compared to Landrace pigs. The abundance of insulin-like growth factor I and myostatin mRNA was decreased by CMH supplementation while that of type 1 IGF-receptor and creatine transporter was unaffected. Protein synthesis, increased in the myotubes from both breeds, indicating protein accretion, but no effect was observed on the mRNA abundance of IGF-I, type 1 IGF-receptor, myostatin or the creatine transporter in myotubes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Increased creatine content in the muscle may delay post mortem lactate formation and postpone the pH decline, hence potentially improving the water-holding capacity (WHC). Duroc and Landrace pigs were supplemented with 0, 12.5, 25 or 50g creatine monohydrate (CMH)/d for 5 days prior to slaughter. Meat from Longissimus dorsi (LD) of Duroc pigs had a higher WHC and pH at all times, lower colour determinants; a* (redness), b* (yellowness), L* (lightness) and was more juicy compared to that of Landrace pigs. Furthermore, higher pH2h, pH24h and decreased colour determinants were observed in carcass sides exposed to a faster cooling profile. Dietary supplementation with CMH increased the body weight gain of both breeds. However, only meat from Duroc pigs had higher pH30min and pH45min (at 50g CMH/d) and WHC, but reduced redness (reduced in both breeds) and juiciness when supplemented with CMH compared to non-supplemented controls. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ABSTRACT In commercial production, chickens are subjected to feed withdrawal prior to slaughter and exposed to stress during transport and handling of the animals at the slaughterhouse; this causes plasma glucose and glycogen stores in liver and muscle to decrease, which has a negative impact on meat quality. The aim of the present study was to investigate how supplementation of the energy complements creatine and pyruvate during the fasting period would affect postmortem pH decrease, water-holding capacity, and color of the meat. Female Ross 208 broilers were supplemented with glucose combined with either pyruvate or creatine via the drinking water for 18 or 42 h prior to slaughter, i.e., before and throughout the fasting period. Chickens were slaughtered at 42 or 43 d of age. Temperature and pH were measured at 1, 10, 30, and 45 min and 1, 2, 4, 8, and 12 h postmortem. The results showed that the pyruvate and glucose supplementation increased the pH at 45 min postmortem by 0.25 units and decreased drip loss of musculus pectoralis major (PM) by 50 to 65% in chickens supplemented for 42 h. The creatine and glucose supplementation reduced pH at 3 and 4 h postmortem by 0.32 to 0.42 units, increased the lightness (L*) by 2.3 to 5.6 units, and increased drip loss by 51 to 137% in the PM of chickens supplemented for 18 and 42 h. Pyruvate and glucose supplementation thus appear beneficial but whether this is concomitant with an overall improvement in meat quality remains to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses results of an experiment conducted on chickens that were fed a diet supplemented with a combination of ascorbic acid and alpha-tocopherol or oregano in order to ameliorate a negative effect of stress on meat quality characteristics. Tocopherol content in feed and muscle; Carotenoid content in oregano; Erythrocyte stability; Effect on activities of antioxidative enzymes.

Examines the feed and strain effects on the use of outdoor areas by broilers. Assessment of consequences for production, meat quality and health of Ross 208 (ROSS) and Labresse cross (LAB) broilers; Evidence for diurnal rhythm of broilers with other birds; Questions regarding meat quality of LAB and growth of ROSS in free production environment.

The optical transmission in the range 900-1600 nm was measured through thick (~1 μm) layers of Al0.98Ga0.02As wet-oxidized at 375°C on GaAs. The spectra are fit well by neglecting absorption, and using 1.61 for the refractive index [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on the measurements of bit error rate (BER) performance for a broad-band optical communications scheme that encodes the power spectrum of an erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) with bipolar equivalent codes. The proposed scheme, like spectrum-sliced wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), suffers from the excess noise associated with the detection of a thermal-like source. BER calculations based on measured testbed characteristics and a simple model are compared with BER measurements for one and two active users. In addition, the performance of a single user in the presence of broad-band spectral interference is investigated, giving a preliminary estimate of multiuser capacity. This paper discusses various solutions for increasing network capacity and performance, relevant to the proposed scheme as well as to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the hot hole dynamics on a subpicosecond time scale in highly excited intrinsic gallium arsenide. Use of a kinetic model to determine hole temperature behavior; Effect of phonon emission process on the data consistency; Importance of electron-hole and hole-lattice interactions.

Abstract: Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics was applied to investigate the effects of pre-slaughter exercise stress on the plasma metabolite profile at time of slaughter. The study included a total of 40 slaughter pigs, which were exposed to one of the following treatments: No pre-slaughter stress (control treatment), pre-slaughter exercise on a treadmill and subsequently 0, 1, or 3h rest prior to slaughter. NMR-based metabonomics revealed a clear difference in the plasma metabolite profile at time of slaughter between control pigs and pigs exercised without rest, which mainly could be ascribed to increased plasma lactate due to exercise. A resting period of 1 or 3h prior to slaughter reversed the stress-induced perturbations in the plasma metabolite profile. The plasma metabolite profile at time of slaughter was highly correlated with muscle temperature 1min post-mortem, and a correlation to WHC was also demonstrated. Lactate was found to be the metabolite of importance for the association between the plasma metabolome and pH, temperature and WHC. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Creatine content in the muscle may delay postmortem lactate formation and postpone the pH decline, hence potentially improving the water-holding capacity (WHC) as shown in a previous study including purebred Duroc pigs, although the same study did not find any effect on meat from purebred Landrace pigs. In the present study Danish D(LY) crossbreeds were supplemented with 0 or 50g creatine monohydrate (CMH)/d for five days prior to the slaughter. CMH supplementation had no effect on meat quality indicators (pH and temperature), meat quality attributes (WHC and colour) or eating quality (juiciness and tenderness) of meat from the D(LY) crossbred pigs. As a consequence the D(LY) crossbreed was classified as a non-responder to CMH supplementation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]