Linear growth

The main objective of this research was to conduct an exploratory study of the lactation curve in order to characterize the productive potential of Pantaneiro ewes and lambs. Fifty ewes were bred using four rams in two different mating seasons. The ewes were kept with their lambs on pasture of Brachiaria brizantha. Ewe body score, ewe weight, and lamb weight were evaluated. Milk sampling was performed every week. In the morning for milk collections, the ewes were treated with 1 UI of oxytocin (intramuscular) for complete milking...

During postnatal refractive development, an emmetropization mechanism uses refractive error to modulate the growth rate of the eye. Hyperopia (image focused behind the retina) produces what has been described as "GO" signaling that increases growth. Myopia (image focused in front of the retina) produces "STOP" signaling that slows growth. The interaction between GO and STOP conditions is non-linear; brief daily exposure to STOP counteracts long periods of GO. In young tree shrews, long-wavelength (red) light, presented 14 h per day, also appears to produce STOP signals...

BACKGROUND: We investigated time trends in age, gender, growth hormone (GH) dose and height standard deviation score (SDS) in children with GH deficiency (GHD), born small for gestational age (SGA) or with Turner syndrome (TS) starting GH treatment. METHODS: Data were obtained from children enrolled in the NordiNet® International Outcome Study (IOS) between 2006 and 2015 in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Serbia and Montenegro (all indications), and Switzerland and the UK (GHD only)...

OBJECTIVE The morbidity of gross-total resection of jugular paraganglioma (JP) is often unacceptable due to the potential for irreversible lower cranial neuropathy. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has been used at the authors' institution since 1990 for the treatment of JP and other benign intracranial tumors. Conventional means of assessing tumor progression using linear measurements or elliptical approximations are imprecise due to the irregular shape and insinuating growth pattern of JP. The objective of this study was to assess long-term tumor control in these patients by using slice-by-slice 3D volumetric segmentation of serial MRI data...

INTRODUCTION: Growth restriction in preterm infants has been related to a poor neurodevelopment outcome. OBJECTIVES: To define the incidence of postnatal growth restriction in premature babies ≤1,500 grams and to detect related clinical or biochemical markers. METHODS: Retrospective longitudinal observational study. Multivariate linear regression models were used to determine variables that can predict the change in weight z-score during admission...

BACKGROUND: A growing body of research suggests that fine motor abilities are associated with skills in a variety of domains in both typical and atypical development. In this study, we investigated developmental trajectories of fine motor skills between 6 and 24 months in relation to expressive language outcomes at 36 months in infants at high and low familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS: Participants included 71 high-risk infants without ASD diagnoses, 30 high-risk infants later diagnosed with ASD, and 69 low-risk infants without ASD diagnoses...

A wide variety of biomaterials are utilized in tissue engineering to generate living cells in vitro or to promote tissue growth in vivo. Regeneration of living tissue from biocompatible materials may make it possible to grow tissues ranging from bone to nerve cells. In bone regeneration, polymeric scaffolds can be enhanced by the addition of bioactive materials. To this end, this study designed several ratios of polyurethane (PU) and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) composites (PU-nHA ratios: 100/0, 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40 w/w)...

We investigate the feasibility of using a surrogate-based method to emulate the deformation and detachment behaviour of a biofilm in response to hydrodynamic shear stress. The influence of shear force, growth rate and viscoelastic parameters on the patterns of growth, structure and resulting shape of microbial biofilms was examined. We develop a statistical modelling approach to this problem, using combination of Bayesian Poisson regression and dynamic linear models for the emulation. We observe that the hydrodynamic shear force affects biofilm deformation in line with some literature...

BACKGROUND: Euglena gracilis, a photosynthetic protist, produces protein, unsaturated fatty acids, wax esters, and a unique β-1,3-glucan called paramylon, along with other valuable compounds. The cell composition of E. gracilis was investigated in this study to understand how light and organic carbon (photo-, mixo- and heterotrophic conditions) affected growth and cell composition (especially lipids). Comparisons were primarily carried out in cultures grown at 23 °C, but the effect of growth at higher temperatures (27 or 30 °C) was also considered...

Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma, a precious parasitic medicinal herb distributed in desert areas in the Northwest of China, also known as "desert ginseng", has been used in China for thousands of years for its nourishing effects. The phenylethanoid glycosides (PeGs) have been proven as the main effective compounds due to their neuroprotective effects and were used for quality control. In this study, echinacoside content, a representative PeG, total phenolic content, DPPH scavenging activity, and PAL activity were determined in different tissues of C...

BACKGROUND: Klotho serum levels reflect nutritional state in adults including obesity and anorexia. The relationship between cord blood klotho levels at birth and parameters of growth including anthropometrics are not known. METHODS: We evaluated the relationship between cord blood klotho, leptin and adipocyte hormones and infant, child and maternal anthropometrics and maternal depression in a cohort of 73 children. Non-parametric tests were used to assess differences between dichotomous and categorical predictors and klotho levels and Spearman's rank coefficients were used to assess the relationship between klotho levels and continuous predictors...

The precise role of tumor associated macrophages remains unclear in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) while TGF-ß has an unclear role in metastases formation. In order to understand the role of IL23, an interleukin associated with macrophage polarization, we investigated IL23 in the context of TGF-ß expression in PDAC. We hypothesized that IL23 expression is associated with metastatic development and survival in PDAC. We investigated IL23 and TGF-ß protein expression on resected PDAC patient tumor sections who were divided into short-term (<12 months) survivors and long-term (>30 months) survivors...

BACKGROUND: Close to half of all children younger than 5 years in the Northeast and Northwest geopolitical zones were estimated to be stunted in their growth for their age in 2013 compared to 22% of children in the rest of Nigeria. OBJECTIVES: We examine the drivers of chronic child undernutrition in northern Nigeria and how those drivers differ from other areas of the country. METHODS: Both a standard child-level regression-based approach and decomposition analysis were used to address the determinants of stunting and decompose how drivers differ between northern Nigeria and other areas of the country using 2008 and 2013 Nigeria DHS data...

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of additional levels of Rhus succedanea extracts on in vitro ruminal fermentation and microbial growth. Methods: Two ruminally-fistulated steer consuming 600 g/kg timothy and 400 g/kg cracked corn-based concentrate with free access to water and mineral block were used as rumen fluid donors. In vitro batch fermentation supplied by the timothy as a substrate was conducted for up to 72 h with Rhus succedanea extracts which was dosed to achieve final concentrations of 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, and 90 mg/L, respectively...

A fundamental and important challenge in modern datasets of ever increasing dimensionality is variable selection, which has taken on renewed interest recently due to the growth of biological and medical datasets with complex, non-i.i.d. structures. Naïvely applying classical variable selection methods such as the Lasso to such datasets may lead to a large number of false discoveries. Motivated by genome-wide association studies in genetics, we study the problem of variable selection for datasets arising from multiple subpopulations, when this underlying population structure is unknown to the researcher...

The in vitro activities of 39 polysaccharides from different parts of 13 lotus root varieties were evaluated and introduced into multiple linear regression analysis to explore the structure-activity relationships using their chromatographic fingerprint features as independent variables. Their 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl/hydroxyl radical scavenging abilities, ferric reducing antioxidant powers and growth-inhibitory effects against HepG2 and SGC7901 cancer cells were all diverse, with the variable-coefficients ranging from 24...

Innovative dual detection methods for mercury(II) ions (Hg(II) ) have been developed based on the formation of gold nanostructures (AuNSs) following the addition of mercury-containing solution to a mixture containing an optimized amount of Au(III) , H2 O2 , HCl, and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). In the absence of Hg(II) , the addition of Au(III) , H2 O2 , and HCl to the AgNP solution changes the solution's color from yellow to red, and the absorption peak shifts from 400 to 526nm, indicating the dissolution of AgNPs and the formation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)...

BACKGROUND: The incidence of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) in the Clinical Center of Serbia (CCS) and the entire Serbia has been constantly rising in the previous 5 years. We aimed to study C. difficile PCR-ribotypes isolated from patients hospitalized at two healthcare institutions: CCS and Specialized Hospital for Cerebrovascular Diseases "Sveti Sava" (SS), both of them from Belgrade, and to investigate the incidence rates of CDI in hospital settings in Serbia, from 2009 to 2013...

BACKGROUND: Active surveillance (AS) has gained acceptance as a management strategy for localized renal masses. OBJECTIVE: To review our large single-center experience with AS. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: From 2000 to 2016, we identified 457 patients with 544 lesions managed with AS from our prospectively maintained kidney cancer database. A subset analysis was performed for patients with ≥5-yr follow-up without delayed intervention (DI)...

Recent findings suggest that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are larger in size for head circumference (HC), height, and weight compared to typically developing (TD) children; however, little is known about their rate of growth, especially in height and weight. The current study aimed to: (a) confirm and extend upon previous findings of early generalized overgrowth in ASD; and (b) determine if there were any differences in the rate of growth between infants and toddlers with ASD compared to their TD peers...