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Improvement of sow lifetime productivity (SLP) is expected to increase farm performance and profitability. Many genes and environmental factors influence these complex traits. To identify quantitative trait loci and positional candidate genes for SLP-related traits, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using 656 Landrace purebred pigs from a commercial breeding stock farm. All sows in the study population were genotyped with the Illumina Porcine SNP60 BeadChip, and GWAS analyzed by linear mixed-effects model based association analysis using the GCTA program. Five genome-wide suggestive single nucleotide polymorphism markers were identified for the lifetime total number of born piglets and final parity. All five of these markers were highly associated with other SLP-related traits, and all these markers were located within or near one particular gene, MEGF11 ( multiple epidermal growth factor-like domains protein 11 ), on chromosome 1. This new positional candidate gene could contribute to increased sow lifetime productivity after the validation in other populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the implications of prostacylin and thromboxane A[sub 2] concentrations for the occurrence of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Collection of plasma samples; Factor in the pathogenesis of the disease; Rate of prostaglandid I[sub 2] degradation.

Structures under a wide range of temperatures have been challenged by thermal problems. In order to assess the safety of structures in a thermal environment, thermal deformation and stress of structures should be determined by analysis and/or experimental method. This article presents a measurement method of the thermal deformation and stress of a double ring structure, which uses the digital image correlation method (DIC). The stress distribution of the double ring was obtained using a two‐dimensional stress–strain relation. Efforts to remove measurement noise in the calculation of strain and stress are explained in detail. In order to verify the proposed measurement method, a finite element analysis of the double ring structure was performed using ABAQUS software. The results of DIC‐based measurement and finite element analysis were found to be in good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To describe the personality traits of temperament and character in patients with tinnitus and to identify differences in these traits associated with the severity of tinnitus. Study design Case series with comparisons. Setting Tertiary referral centre. Participants From January to December 2014, one hundred and thirty-four adult patients with chronic subjective tinnitus completed psychoacoustic measurements of tinnitus and the Temperament and Character Inventory ( TCI). Measurements Personality traits were assessed by the TCI. The TCI assesses seven dimensions of personality traits and four temperaments 'novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, persistence', as well as three characters 'self-directedness, cooperativeness, self-transcendence'. Main outcome measures The values of the TCI parameters in the tinnitus patients were compared with reference data from a non-institutional adult population, and associations between TCI parameter values and tinnitus severity were evaluated. Results In terms of temperament, tinnitus patients had higher scores for 'harm avoidance', whereas scores for 'novelty seeking', 'reward dependence' and 'persistence' were significantly lower than the reference. In terms of character, lower 'cooperativeness' and 'self-transcendence' were identified in the subjects with tinnitus. The 'novelty seeking' score was inversely related to tinnitus severity (r = −0.285, P = 0.001), while other temperament and character traits did not show significant correlations. Conclusions There may be a connection between tinnitus and personality traits, especially in the case of 'novelty seeking', which is relatively constant over a lifetime. The TCI questionnaire may be useful in facilitating the application of personality traits to tailored counselling for tinnitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Donor organ quality from deceased donors affects graft survival after kidney transplantation. This study was performed to identify clinico-histological factors that affect early graft outcome, using time-zero biopsies of deceased donors. Methods Between December 2006 and July 2011, 135 recipients of deceased donor kidneys were included, and data concerning donor and recipient-related clinical characteristics and histological findings of time-zero biopsies categorized by use of the Banff 07 scoring system were included in the analysis. Mean donor age was 44.3 ± 12.3 years. Mean terminal serum creatinine level and cold ischemic time were 1.50 ± 0.96 mg/dL and 349 ± 166 minutes. Mean follow-up time after transplantation was 37 ± 16 months, and all recipients were followed for at least 1 year. Results Global glomerulosclerosis (38.5%), tubular atrophy (37.8%), arteriolar hyaline thickening (25.9%), interstitial fibrosis (23%), vascular fibrous intimal thickening (21.5%), and interstitial inflammation (20%) were the major pathologic findings of time-zero biopsies. The majority of pathologic scores were of mild degree. Among histological findings, arteriolar hyaline thickening and interstitial fibrosis were only significantly associated with early post-transplant renal function in multivariate analyses. Conclusions Considerations of clinico-histological findings were found to be valuable for predicting early graft outcome after deceased donor kidney transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work has focused on associations between radiotherapy dose to cardiovascular (CV) substructures and either overall survival (OS) or cardiac events. Death without progression (DWP) is a potentially more specific endpoint than OS for understanding radiation toxicity and easier to record than cardiac events. We assessed associations of CV substructure dose with DWP and OS after chemoradiation (CRT) for locally advanced NSCLC (LA-NSCLC). We retrospectively reviewed records of 187 patients with LA-NSCLC who received definitive CRT (median 66.6 Gy) from 2008-2016 at a single institution. CV substructures, including both atria (BA), right atrium, left atrium (LA), both ventricles (BV), right ventricle (RV), left ventricle, pericardium, aorta, superior vena cava, and pulmonary artery, were defined on radiation simulation scans using a deep learning auto-segmentation model. Dose-volume histogram (DVH) metrics to CV substructures (mean dose, volume receiving ≥5 Gy [V5], V30, V50), whole heart, lung, and esophagus were extracted. DWP was modelled with Fine-Gray method; disease progression was a competing event. OS was modelled with Cox regression. For each CV substructure, associations between each DVH metric and DWP and OS were assessed, and the candidate DVH metric with the lowest p value was promoted to multivariable analysis. Multivariable models with the same baseline covariates but different DVH metrics were generated and ranked by Akaike information criterion (AIC) to select "best" models. Cutpoint analyses were done with Contal and O'Quigley method. 98 patients (52%) received proton therapy and 89 (48%) received photon therapy (68/89 intensity-modulated radiation therapy). At median follow-up of 28.8 months, 143 (76%) patients had died; overall, 25 (13%) experienced DWP. Causes of DWP included respiratory failure due to heart failure, COPD, pneumonia, or aspiration (n=10), out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest (n=4), undifferentiated sepsis (n=2), probable radiation pneumonitis (n=1), esophagopleural fistula (n=1), and unknown (n=7). On multivariable analysis for DWP, best model included RV mean dose (AIC 222); 2nd best included BV V5 (AIC 231). 3-year cumulative incidence of DWP was 21.3% vs 5.6% for RV mean dose ≥5.5 Gy vs <5.5 Gy (p=0.001). On multivariable analysis for OS, best model included LA V5 (AIC 1277.8); 2nd best included BA V5 (AIC 1278.5). 3-year OS was 25.6% vs 46.3% for LA V5 ≥74.5% vs <74.5% (p=0.002). Associations were stronger among and driven by the photon subgroup. Proton therapy delivered lower dose to multiple CV substructures (e.g., RV mean dose, median 0.03 Gy vs 7.7 Gy; and LA V5, median 46.1% vs 78.1%; both p<0.0001). Radiation dose to CV substructures showed different associations with DWP and OS. These results suggest DWP may be a meaningful endpoint for understanding CRT toxicity in LA-NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The estimator of the addressed system is designed by introducing new membership functions and then by using the same premises of the observer, the fuzzy controller is designed. To be precise, sampling-based event-triggered scheme is taken into the account in the controller design to save the communication resources and avoid the existence of Zeno behaviour. • Furthermore, to compensate the impact of unknown disturbance, the equivalent-input-disturbance estimator-block is included as an internal loop of closed-loop system. To derive the stability conditions, a novel type of sampling-dependent piece-wise Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is constructed. The problem of robust stabilization of interval type-2 fuzzy systems are studied by using equivalent-input-disturbance estimator-based event-triggered fuzzy control scheme. The estimator of the addressed system is designed by introducing new membership functions and then by using the same premises of the observer, the fuzzy controller is designed. To be precise, sampling-based event-triggered scheme is taken into the account in the controller design to save the communication resources and avoid the existence of Zeno behaviour. Furthermore, to compensate the impact of unknown disturbance, the equivalent-input-disturbance estimator-block is included as an internal loop of closed-loop system. To derive the stability conditions, a novel type of sampling-dependent piece-wise Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is constructed. Then, by introducing slack matrices, the fuzzy membership function dependent stability criteria are derived. The event-triggered weighting matrix and the gains of controller and observer can be obtained by obtaining the solutions of the developed stability criteria. At last, numerical simulations are given to reflect the effectiveness and applicability of the developed theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]