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Frequency and heritability of supernumerary teats in German simmental and German Brown Swiss cows.

The incidence of supernumerary teats has been recorded in 179,793 German Simmental and 37,460 German Brown Swiss cows. Data were collected from first-crop daughters of test bulls from 1987 to 1998. The number of sires was 4,298 and 1,039, respectively. The average frequency of affected animals was 44.3% in German Simmental and 31.2% in German Brown Swiss. A significant yet small effect was found for herd-book membership (yes/no) and, in the Simmental data only, for inspector. The impact of year of birth and year of inspection was also significant, and more important, reflected a decrease of the population averages with time. Surprisingly, the incidence of supernumerary teats increased significantly with the parity number of dams in both breeds. A Bayesian threshold animal model approach was used to estimate the heritability of the occurrence of supernumerary teats. The posterior mean for the heritability was h2 = 0.45 in German Simmental and h2 = 0.43 in Brown Swiss, with standard errors of 0.01 and 0.03, respectively. Ranks of sires obtained from threshold and linear models showed a rank correlation of roughly 0.8 in both breeds. For a sound identification of the worst sires, a threshold model is recommended.

Animals↗

Effect of arachnoiditis on pain threshold.

A model for studying the relationship between chronic arachnoiditis and pain sensitivity was developed. Thirty male ICR mice were randomly divided into three groups and the tail-flick test was done using an EMDIE-TF6 apparatus (Emdie Instrument Co., Montpelier, VA). Ten mice were injected intrathecally with 5.0 microL of a kaolin-metrizamide mixture and ten control mice were injected intrathecally with 5.0 microL of an electrolyte solution resembling CSF. A third group, (naive controls) were given no treatment. Six weeks later tail-flick tests were repeated. The kaolin-treated mice had significantly decreased tail-flick latencies (P less than .05) compared with the baseline; the controls had no significant change in tail-flick latency. Histologic examination revealed moderate to severe arachnoiditis in the kaolin-treated animals and no evidence of arachnoid abnormalities in the controls. This study suggests that arachnoiditis may be associated with decreased pain thresholds.

Animals↗

Tempo sensitivity in auditory sequences: evidence for a multiple-look model.

Differential thresholds for tempi (with interonset intervals ranging from 100 to 1,500 msec) were measured using an adaptive 2IFC paradigm for several types of auditory sequences. In Experiment 1, the number of intervals in an isochronous sequence was varied to compare the sensitivity for single intervals with that for sequences of two to six intervals. Mean relative just noticeable differences (JNDs) decreased as the number of intervals increased (single intervals = 6%, two intervals = 4%, four intervals = 3.2%, six intervals = 3%) and were optimal at intermediate tempi for both sequences and single intervals (as low as 1.5% in the range between 300 and 800 msec). In Experiment 2, the sensitivity for different types of irregular sequences was studied. Globally, JNDs for irregular sequences were of an intermediate level between that observed for single intervals and that observed for regular sequences. However, the closer a sequence was to regularity, the lower its relative JND. Experiment 3 demonstrated that musicians were more sensitive than nonmusicians to changes in tempo, and this was true for single intervals and for regular and irregular sequences, demonstrating the role of training on these abilities. The results are discussed in terms of possible underlying mechanisms, in particular those providing a mental representation of the mean and dispersion of successive interval durations.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Modeling the residual effects and threshold saturation of training: a case study of Olympic swimmers.

The aim of this study was to model the residual effects of training on the swimming performance and to compare a model that includes threshold saturation (MM) with the Banister model (BM). Seven Olympic swimmers were studied over a period of 4 +/- 2 years. For 3 training loads (low-intensity w(LIT), high-intensity w(HIT), and strength training w(ST)), 3 residual training effects were determined: short-term (STE) during the taper phase (i.e., 3 weeks before the performance [weeks 0, 1, and 2]), intermediate-term (ITE) during the intensity phase (weeks 3, 4, and 5), and long-term (LTE) during the volume phase (weeks 6, 7, and 8). ITE and LTE were positive for w(HIT) and w(LIT), respectively (p < 0.05). Low-intensity training load during taper was related to performances by a parabolic relationship (p < 0.05). Different quality measures indicated that MM compares favorably with BM. Identifying individual training thresholds may help individualize the distribution of training loads.

Adult↗

The antinociceptive effect of tramadol-venlafaxine combination on the paw withdrawal threshold in a rat model of neuropathic pain.

The combination of venlafaxine and tramadol was compared with the single use of these agents to investigate the antinociceptive effect on paw withdrawal latency (PWL) to paw pressure in rats with neuropathic pain. Rats were divided into 4 groups: group 1 received saline (0.2 ml i.p.); group 2 received venlafaxine (22 mg/kg i.p.); group 3 received tramadol (20 mg/kg i.p.); and group 4 received venlafaxine + tramadol. No statistically significant changes were observed in the saline and venlafaxine groups with respect to PWL in the lesioned paw. However, tramadol produced a significant antinociceptive effect on the lesioned paw at 30 min compared with the saline and venlafaxine groups. A more potent antinociceptive effect was observed in the tramadol + venlafaxine group, beginning at 60 min and lasting for 1 h. The combination of venlafaxine + tramadol was more effective in increasing the pain threshold in this animal model of neuropathic pain than either of these drugs administered alone.

Analgesics↗

A model of a myelinated nerve axon: threshold behaviour and propagation.

A model of a myelinated nerve axon is developed on the basis of FitzHugh-Nagumo dynamics under the assumption that the nodes of Ranvier are of small but finite width. It is shown that a periodic excited state may not exist if the width of the nodes is too small and the leakage across the myelin sheath is too great. The propagation of a super threshold pulse is prevented in the absence of nodes. Global stability of the resting equilibrium state is investigated as well as the propagation of "wave front", type solutions.

Animals↗

Pharmacodynamic modelling of the drug-induced downregulation of a beta 2-adrenoceptor mediated response and lack of restoration of receptor function after a single high dose of prednisone.

Changes in beta 2-adrenoceptor function by chronic dosing of beta 2-mimetics and the possible influence of a single dose of prednisone have been studied as changes over time in the concentration-effect relationship of the beta 2-adrenoceptor agonist terbutaline. Hypokalaemia was used as the specific beta 2-adrenoceptor mediated effect. 8 healthy volunteers were given subcutaneous terbutaline 0.01 mg.kg-1 BW on 3 occasions over a 10-day experimental protocol: 1 Control experiment on Day 1; 2 After 7 days of oral terbutaline 5 mg t.i.d. (Day 8); and 3 After 8 days on oral terbutaline and 12 h after prednisone 100 mg orally (Day 10). The time course of the terbutaline concentrations and hypokalaemia was related using a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model. A sigmoid and a threshold Emax model were used to relate drug concentrations to effects. The oral terbutaline treatment caused a 35% increase in the distribution volume of SC terbutaline. After one week on oral terbutaline the concentration-effect relationship was shifted to the right and was steeper, with a higher EC50 of terbutaline and higher values for the apparent threshold concentration. These observations are compatible with a decrease in receptor numbers after 7 days of terbutaline in a system characterised by the presence of spare receptors. The data after prednisone pretreatment showed an apparent decline in the baseline plasma potassium concentrations that could be included in the Emax model. There was no change in the concentration-effect relationship 12 hours after prednisone.

Adrenergic beta-Agonists↗

Effect of parenteral d-sotalol on transvenous atrial defibrillation threshold in a canine model of atrial fibrillation.

In an effort to reduce energy requirements for atrial defibrillation to a level low enough to perform painless electrical cardioversion with an implantable atrial defibrillator, we tested the hypothesis that drug therapy with the class III agent d-sotalol, when used concurrently with a low-energy shock, reduces atrial defibrillation threshold. In a nonthoracotomy canine model of atrial fibrillation, intracardiac shocks were delivered between the distal coronary sinus and the mid-right atrium. Based on a step-up energy delivery protocol the atrial defibrillation threshold was defined as the least amount of energy that resulted in a >10% and <90% rate of successful defibrillation. At a dose associated with class III antiarrhythmic effects (5 mg/kg), d-sotalol significantly reduced atrial defibrillation threshold from 1.72 +/- 1.12 J to 0.59 +/- 0.60 J (p < 0.01). These results support the feasibility of using antiarrhythmic drug therapy with d-sotalol to minimize energy requirements for intracardiac electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation.

Animals↗

Replica-free evaluation of the neuronal population information with mixed continuous and discrete stimuli: from the linear to the asymptotic regime.

Recent studies have explored theoretically the ability of populations of neurons to carry information about a set of stimuli, both in the case of purely discrete or purely continuous stimuli, and in the case of multidimensional continuous angular and discrete correlates, in the presence of additional quenched disorder in the distribution. An analytical expression for the mutual information has been obtained in the limit of large noise by means of the replica trick. Here, we show that the same results can actually be obtained in most cases without the use of replicas, by means of a much simpler expansion of the logarithm. Fitting the theoretical model to real neuronal data, we show that the introduction of correlations in the quenched disorder improves the fit, suggesting a possible role of signal correlations-actually detected in real data-in a redundant code. We show that even in the more difficult analysis of the asymptotic regime, an explicit expression for the mutual information can be obtained without resorting to the replica trick despite the presence of quenched disorder, both with a Gaussian and with a more realistic thresholded-Gaussian model. When the stimuli are mixed continuous and discrete, we find that with both models the information seem to grow logarithmically to infinity with the number of neurons and with the inverse of the noise, even though the exact general dependence cannot be derived explicitly for the thresholded-Gaussian model. In the large noise limit, lower values of information were obtained with the thresholded-Gaussian model, for a fixed value of the noise and of the population size. On the contrary, in the asymptotic regime, with very low values of the noise, a lower information value is obtained with the Gaussian model.

Animals↗

A computer linear regression model to determine ventilatory anaerobic threshold.

The anaerobic threshold has generally been determined by simple visual inspection of ventilation or other gas-exchange data obtained during incremental exercise. To establish objective criteria for the determination of anaerobic threshold, a computer algorithm has been developed that models the ventilatory response to exercise using multisegment linear regression. The best-fit regression model is chosen by minimizing the pooled residual sum of squares . The anaerobic threshold is reported as the first break point in that model. The computer-determined anaerobic threshold values for 37 subjects were compared with subjectively determined values as chosen by four independent observers. The observers' estimates, when pooled to yield a single a single value for each subject, gave a mean value for the gas-exchange anaerobic threshold of 2.26 +/- 0.69 l/min. The estimates by the computer method averaged 2.21 +/- 0.65 l/min. The correlation coefficient for these two methods was 0.94.

Adult↗

Etiology of sex differences in the prevalence of ADHD: an examination of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity.

Several studies have examined the predictions of two models (i.e., the polygenic multiple threshold (PMT) model and the constitutional variability (CV) model) developed to explain sex differences in the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and the results of these studies are conflicting. Although there is substantial evidence that two distinct, moderately correlated symptom dimensions (inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity) underlie ADHD symptoms, all of these studies have examined ADHD as a unidimensional construct. Therefore, we tested the PMT and CV models for the two ADHD symptom dimensions separately. Dizygotic twins or siblings of girls with ADHD had a higher number of ADHD symptoms than twins or siblings of boys with ADHD. This evidence for the PMT model and against the CV model was found for both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity, but became weaker for hyperactivity-impulsivity as symptom severity increased.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

Touch-stress model and Alzheimer's disease: using touch intervention to alleviate patients' stress.

This article presents a theoretical model for future nursing research and practice on the use of touch intervention in patients with Alzheimer's disease. A theory synthesis was conducted that built on a base of previous research findings pertaining to the phenomenon of interest identified by two conceptual models: the Progressively Lowered Stress Threshold (PLST) model and the Touch model. The literature review was restricted to published articles in nursing and health services journals from 1970 through 2000. The Touch-Stress model formulated through theory synthesis can contribute to theory development, serve to improve care of patients with Alzheimer's disease suffering from emotional and behavioral disturbances, and increase the quality of life for the caregivers and families of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Aged↗

Genetic analysis of discrete reproductive traits in sheep using linear and nonlinear models: I. Estimation of genetic parameters.

Repeated records on fertility, litter size, and ovulation rate of Rambouillet ewes and on fertility and litter size of Finnsheep ewes were used to estimate heritabilities and repeatabilities with linear and nonlinear sire and animal models. Linear sire (LSM) and animal models were used with all traits. Nonlinear models were the threshold, Poisson, and negative binomial. Threshold sire (TSM) and animal models were used with all traits. Litter size and ovulation rate were analyzed also with Poisson sire and animal models and with negative binomial sire and animal models. Variance components for linear models were estimated using REML; in the threshold, Poisson, and negative binomial, they were estimated using approximate marginal maximum likelihood. Poisson and negative binomial analyses yielded results difficult to interpret due to problems in variance component estimation. Animal models resulted in slightly greater estimates of heritability for fertility than did sire models, but ovulation rate heritability estimates from sire models were much greater than estimates form animal models. Differences between sire and animal models for heritability estimates for litter size were not consistent. Threshold models resulted in higher heritability estimates for all traits in both breeds and with both sire and animal models. In general, repeatabilities were consistent across models. For example, LSM (TSM) repeatabilities were .10 (.14) for fertility, .20 (.25) for litter size, and .25 (.29) for ovulation rate in the Rambouillet, and .17 (.17) for fertility and .11 (.13 for litter size in the Finnsheep.

Aging↗

The genetic component of discrete disability traits: an analysis using liability models with age-dependent thresholds.

The presence of familial and genetic effects in the Activities-of-Daily-Life (ADL) data collected in the first wave of the 1995 Longitudinal Study of Aging of Danish Twins (LSADT) older than 75 is tested using multithreshold liability models of disability with age-dependent thresholds. These models are developed for discrete scores represented by five disability scales of male and female Danish twins. The presence of familial effects is revealed in all five scales of disability data for females and in three scales of data for males. Genetic effects are found to be significant in all four levels of aggregation of the Upper Limb-T (T = tiredness) disability scale for females and in the PADL-H (H = need for help) scale for males. Genetic effects are also pronounced in the Mobility-T scale for females and in the Lower Limb-T scale for males and females. For females, the genetic effects in the T-scale seem to be more pronounced than in the H-scale. For males, genetic effects are more pronounced in the H-scale. The estimates for MZ correlations in liability tend to be higher than the estimates for DZ correlations in almost all cases, which suggests that additional genetic effects may be revealed should the sample size of the ADL data be increased.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Stochastic-based descriptors studying peptides biological properties: modeling the bitter tasting threshold of dipeptides.

MARCH-INSIDE methodology was applied to the prediction of the bitter tasting threshold of 48 dipeptides by means of pattern recognition techniques, in this case linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and regression methods. The LDA models yielded a percentage of good classification higher than 80% with the two main families of descriptor generated by this methodology (95.8% for self return probability and 83.3% using electronic delocalization entropy). The regression models can explain more than 80% of the experimental variance of the independent variable. Two regression models were obtained with R(2) values of 0.82 and 0.88 for the whole data and the data without two outliers, respectively; having a standard deviation of 0.27 and 0.23. The predictive power of the obtained equations was assessed by the Leave-One-Out cross validation procedures, giving the same percentages of good classification as in the training set, in the LDA models, and yielding values of q(2) of 0.78 and 0.86 in the regression model, respectively. The validation of this methodology was also carried out by comparison with previous reports modeling this data with other well-known methodologies, even 3-D molecular descriptors.

Dipeptides↗