Mean Tail Research Articles

Chemical Risks, Genotoxicity, and Oxidative Stress in Healthcare Workers

Background/Objectives Using genotoxicity tests and oxidative stress indicators, the study evaluated the relationship between healthcare workers’ (HCWs) exposure to chemical risks. This study aimed to evaluate the oxidative damage and genotoxic effects of sub chronic or long-term volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exposure in HCWs. Methods: Pathology workers (Group 1), cleaning workers (Group 2), and medical secretaries (Group 3) were categorized, and VOCs and alkaline dust were measured for Groups 1 and 2 using appropriate occupational hygiene methods. Genotoxicity was assessed using alkaline comet and micronucleus (MN) assays. Oxidative stress indicators were analyzed in first-morning urine samples through liquid chromatography. Results: A total of 90 HCWs participated in the study. The mean R-cdA levels were 0.05 ± 0.02 for medical secretaries, 0.07 ± 0.03 for cleaning workers, and 0.06 ± 0.07 nmol/mmol creatinine for pathology workers (p = 0.040). The mean tail intensity (%) was 16.33 ± 10.68 (Group 1), 18.9 ± 7.4 for cleaning workers, and 14.1 ± 6.5 for medical secretaries (p = 0.020). Conclusion: Implementing occupational hygiene measures in the working environment has effectively reduced occupational risks. The lack of significant differences in genotoxicity and oxidative stress parameters between the exposed and control groups supports the notion that the exposure limit values are protective.

Decision-Making Regarding a Novel Bounded Exponentiated Weibull Mixture Model Is Applied to Certain Observed Data

The exponentiated Weibull mixture model (EWMM) is the most frequently used probability distribution in the disciplines of reliability engineering and applied linguistics. Exponentiated Weibull distributions, on the other hand, are unbounded. A variety of applications digitalize the monitored data and have bounded service regions. Different types of double truncated Weibull mixture models (BEWMM) are discussed in this article. These include the double truncated exponential mixture model (BEMM), the double truncated Rayleigh mixture model (BRMM), the double truncated Weibull mixture model (BWMM), and the double truncated generalized exponential mixture model (BGEMM). By combining a mixture model and bounded support regions, we can create a model that is extremely scalable and can capture a variety of statistical properties of the results, such as mean behavior, distribution, form, and tail behavior. We propose an alternative method for evaluating the model parameters, which aims to maximize the upper bound on the data log-likelihood function. We evaluate the (BEWMM) execution using simulated and actual data.

Links Between Variation in Movement-Based Visual Signals and Social Communication Complexity in an Asian Agamid Lizard Phrynocephalus vlangalii.

The social complexity hypothesis suggests that complex social interactions drive the evolution of sophisticated communicative signals. While the relationship between social communication and the complexity of sound and color signals has been extensively studied, the correlation between social communication and movement-based visual signal complexity remains underexplored. In this study, we selected the Asian agamid lizard, Phrynocephalus vlangalii, as our model system. Through a combination of controlled experiments, behavioral observations, and signal quantification, we examined the relationship between social communications and variation in movement-based visual signals and tested our social complexity hypothesis. Our experiments revealed that males significantly decreased the tail coil duration during the mating season to deal with high social interaction. Conversely, females significantly increased the tail display duration and variation in mean tail coil amplitude in line with the intensity of parental care, and tail display duration showed a significant and positive correlation with female reproductive investment. These findings suggest that social communication plays an important role in shaping the changes in movement-based visual signals, providing new evidence for the social complexity hypothesis.

Gender Gaps in Total Factor Productivity: The Case of Manufacturing SMEs in Ghana

ABSTRACT This paper provides evidence on the relative productivity differences between women-owned and men-owned firms in a developing country. We rely on data from a survey of small and medium manufacturing firms in the main industrial hubs of Ghana. We apply unconditional quantile regression and decomposition techniques to estimate the productivity gap between men- and women-owned firms and identify the contributions to the gap at the mean and selected percentiles. Our preferred estimation shows that women-owned firms are more productive at the lower tail of productivity distribution, but less productive at the mean and upper tails. Compositional effects explain the productivity gaps at the lower end of the distribution whilst structural effects are the primary sources of gaps at the upper tail of firm productivity. However, when women-owned firms are identical to men-owned firms in characteristics, the compositional effect is the main source of the productivity gaps. Finally, we do not find evidence of productivity gaps in women-dominated sectors, though these sectors tend to have lower average productivity.

When Does the Gittins Policy Have Asymptotically Optimal Response Time Tail in the M/G/1?

Looking Beyond Mean Delay in Queue Scheduling A central aim of queueing theory is to design scheduling policies that reduce delays. Much of literature focuses on minimizing mean delay, but, in practice, it can be more important to reduce the delay tail—that is, the probability of especially large delays. There is a subtle interplay between these objectives. For instance, the SRPT policy (Shortest Remaining Processing Time) prioritizes short jobs over long jobs, which optimizes mean delay. Sometimes, SRPT also has optimal delay tail, but other times, its delay tail is pessimal. Thus, good mean delay need not imply good delay tail. The article When Does the Gittins Policy Have Asymptotically Optimal Response Time Tail in the M/G/1? explores the interplay between mean delay and delay tail for systems with unknown job durations. The article studies the Gittins policy, which optimizes mean delay in this setting. Curiously, its delay tail can be optimal, pessimal, or in between, depending on the job duration distribution. Fortunately, the worst case can be avoided: the article shows how to modify Gittins to avoid pessimal delay tail while maintaining near-optimal mean delay.

Modelling the industrial production of electric and gas utilities through the CIR3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$CIR^3$$\\end{document} model

This work aims to extend previous research on how a trifactorial stochastic model, which we call CIR3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$CIR^3$$\\end{document}, can be turned into a forecasting tool for energy time series. In particular, in this work, we intend to predict changes in the industrial production of electric and gas utilities. The model accounts for several stylized facts such as the mean reversion of both the process and its volatility to a short-run mean, non-normality, autocorrelation, cluster volatility and fat tails. In addition to that, we provide two theoretical results which are of particular importance in modelling and simulations. The first is the proof of existence and uniqueness of the solution to the SDEs system that describes the model. The second theoretical result is to convert, by the means of Lamperti transformations, the correlated system into an uncorrelated one. The forecasting performance is tested against an ARIMA-GARCH and a nonlinear regression model (NRM).

Efficient Gini Mean Difference and Tail Gini Portfolio Optimization based on P-Norms

Efficient Gini Mean Difference and Tail Gini Portfolio Optimization based on P-Norms

Polymorphisms in ERCC1, ERCC4 and ERCC5 genes as biomarkers of susceptibility for pesticide-induced DNA damage in North-West Indian agricultural workers

BackgroundOccupational pesticides exposure has raised health concerns due to genotoxicity and accumulation of DNA damage. Polymorphisms in genes encoding enzymes involved in nucleotide excision repair (NER) may affect the individual’s susceptibility to pesticide toxicity.MethodsThis study evaluates the association of excision repair cross complementation group 1 (ERCC1) (8092 C > A, 3’UTR, rs3212986) and ERCC1 (19007 C > T, Asn118Asn, rs11615), ERCC4 (1244 G > A, Arg415Gln, rs1800067) and ERCC5 (3507 G > C, Asp1104His, rs17655) polymorphisms with pesticide-induced DNA damage in North-West Indian agricultural workers. The study population comprised 225 agricultural workers exposed to pesticides and 225 non-exposed controls.ResultsOur study demonstrate that exposed workers carrying variant ERCC1 8092AA genotype showed higher total comet DNA migration (p = 0.015) as well as increased frequency of cells showing DNA migration (p = 0.027). Exposed agricultural workers with variant ERCC4 1244AA (415Gln/Gln) and ERCC5 3507CC (1104His/His) genotypes exhibited elevation in total comet DNA migration (p < 0.01). However, genotypes of ERCC1 19007 C > T (Asn118Asn) showed no association with total comet DNA migration (p = 0.963), frequency of cells showing DNA migration (p = 0.423) as well as mean tail length (p = 0.432).ConclusionERCC1, ERCC4 and ERCC5 polymorphisms influence DNA damage and can be used as biomarkers of susceptibility for pesticide-induced DNA damage in North-West Indian agricultural workers.

Robot-assisted screw fixation in a cadaver utilizing magnetic resonance imaging-based synthetic computed tomography: toward radiation-free spine surgery. Illustrative case.

Synthetic computed tomography (sCT) can be created from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) utilizing newer software. sCT is yet to be explored as a possible alternative to routine CT (rCT). In this study, rCT scans and MRI-derived sCT scans were obtained on a cadaver. Morphometric analysis was performed comparing the 2 scans. The ExcelsiusGPS robot was used to place lumbosacral screws with both rCT and sCT images. In total, 14 screws were placed. All screws were grade A on the Gertzbein-Robbins scale. The mean surface distance difference between rCT and sCT on a reconstructed software model was -0.02 ± 0.05 mm, the mean absolute surface distance was 0.24 ± 0.05 mm, and the mean absolute error of radiodensity was 92.88 ± 10.53 HU. The overall mean tip distance for the sCT versus rCT was 1.74 ± 1.1 versus 2.36 ± 1.6 mm (p = 0.24); mean tail distance for the sCT versus rCT was 1.93 ± 0.88 versus 2.81 ± 1.03 mm (p = 0.07); and mean angular deviation for the sCT versus rCT was 3.2° ± 2.05° versus 4.04°± 2.71° (p = 0.53). MRI-based sCT yielded results comparable to those of rCT in both morphometric analysis and robot-assisted lumbosacral screw placement in a cadaver study.

Morphometric traits and stepwise regression of indigenous sheep in southwestern region, Ethiopia

Morphometric traits and stepwise regression of indigenous sheep in southwestern region, Ethiopia

DNA Damage Estimation after Chronic and Combined Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors: An In Vivo Real-Life Risk Simulation Approach.

Exposure to chemical substances has always been a matter of concern for the scientific community. During the last few years, researchers have been focusing on studying the effects resulting from combined exposure to different substances. In this study, we aimed to determine the DNA damage caused after chronic and combined exposure to substances characterized as endocrine disruptors using comet and micronuclei assays, specifically glyphosate (pure and commercial form), bisphenol A, parabens (methyl-, propyl- and butylparaben), triclosan and bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate. The highest mean tail intensity was observed in the group exposed to a high-dose (10 × ADI) mixture of substances (Group 3), with a mean value of 11.97 (11.26-13.90), while statistically significant differences were noticed between the groups exposed to low-dose (1 × ADI) (Group 2) and high-dose (10 × ADI) (Group 3) mixtures of substances (p = 0.003), and between Group 3 and both groups exposed to high doses (10 × ADI) of the pure and commercial forms of glyphosate (Groups 4 (p = 0.014) and 5 (p = 0.007)). The micronuclei assay results were moderately correlated with the exposure period. Group 5 was the most impacted exposure group at all sampling times, with mean MN counts ranging between 28.75 ± 1.71 and 60.75 ± 1.71, followed by Group 3 (18.25 ± 1.50-45.75 ± 1.71), showing that commercial forms of glyphosate additives as well as mixtures of endocrine disruptors can enhance MN formation. All exposure groups showed statistically significant differences in micronuclei counts with an increasing time trend.

Effect of Bedding Systems on Hygiene and Milk Yield of Crossbred Dairy Cows

In dairy cattle, bedding and its management contribute predominantly to the comfort of the cow, udder health and milk quality. The aim of the study is to assess the effect of different bedding materials such as concrete floor, rubber mats, coir pith and dried solid manure on hygiene and milk yield and in crossbred dairy cows. Twenty-four crossbred cows with six animals in each group were selected for the study for one lactation period spread over three different seasons. The control group (T1) was maintained in concrete floor without any bedding material. In (T2) rubber mats of 1.2 m × 1.8 m × 0.025m area were provided on concrete floor. In (T3) coir pith and (T4) dried solid manure (DSM) on concrete floor was the bedding. The mean tail head, upper rear limb, ventral abdomen, udder and lower rear limb hygiene score of the T1 group were higher than other groups, which indicated that the cows became ‘dirty’ and the T3 group had lower score than others which denoted cows were ‘very clean’ with significant difference (P&lt;0.01) between them. The range of hygiene score in cows of T2 group revealed that the cows were ‘average to dirty’ whereas in T4 ‘clean to average’. The hygiene score of cows improved during summer season and reduced in monsoon. The cows of T1 group had the lowest overall daily milk yield (8.66 ± 0.22 kg) while the cows of T3 group had the highest yield (9.98 ± 0.30 kg).

Age-related DNA damage in stallions: an ongoing investigation

Age-related DNA damage in stallions: an ongoing investigation

Morphological characteristics and variations of the Slender racer (Orientocoluber spinalis Peters, 1866; Colubridae: Squamata) across the Republic of Korea

Morphological characteristics and variations of the Slender racer (Orientocoluber spinalis Peters, 1866; Colubridae: Squamata) across the Republic of Korea

Infection of Corbicula clams by trematode cercariae in Myanmar

A few studies on parasites associated with Corbicula clams are currently available. Here, we report on the first DNA-based and histological identification of cercariae of the trematode Prosorhynchoides sp. (Digenea: Bucephalidae) in C. fluminea and C. leana from Myanmar. The cercariae of Prosorhynchoides sp. were discovered in the foot tissue of these clams. The mean body length of cercaria is 132.7 ± 10.0 µm, while the mean tail stem length is 26.1±1.4 µm.

Phenotyping the sheep tail - Presentation of characterization methods in the context of breeding for short-tailedness

In order to establish targeted breeding for short-tailedness, a suitable method must initially be found that allows phenotyping of the sheep tail beyond tail length. In this study, in addition to assessing body measurements, more advanced studies such as ultrasonography and radiology were performed on the caudal spine of sheep for the first time. The objective of this work was to analyze the physiological variation of tail lengths and vertebrae within a merino sheep population. It also aimed to validate the use of sonographic gray scale analysis and perfusion measurement on the sheep tail. Tail length and circumference in centimeters were measured in 256 Merino lambs on the first or second day of life. At 14 weeks of age the caudal spine of these animals was examined radiographically. Sonographic gray scale analysis and measurement of the perfusion velocity of the caudal artery mediana were also performed in a portion of the animals. The tested method of measurement showed a standard error of 0,08 cm and a coefficient of variation of 0,23% for tail length and 0,78% for tail circumference. The animals had a mean tail length of 22,5±2,32 cm and a mean tail circumference of 6,53±0,49 cm. The mean caudal vertebrae count for this population was 20,4±1,6. The use of a mobile radiographic unit is well suited for imaging the caudal spine in sheep. It was demonstrated that the caudal median artery could be imaged for measurement of perfusion velocity (cm/s), and sonographic gray-scale analysis also showed good feasibility. The mean gray scale value is 19,74±4,5 and the modal value for the most commonly found gray scale pixels is 191,53±120,2. The mean perfusion velocity for the caudal artery mediana is 5,83±3,04 cm/s. The results show that the methods presented are well suited for further characterization of the ovine tail. For the first time, gray values for the tail tissue and the perfusion velocity of the caudal artery mediana were determined.

Towards a standardized initial training program in experimental microsurgery for pediatric surgeons.

Towards a standardized initial training program in experimental microsurgery for pediatric surgeons.

Investigation of the effect of Cadmium chloride applied during pregnancy on the morphological parameters of mouse offspring and the protective role of melatonin

Investigation of the effect of Cadmium chloride applied during pregnancy on the morphological parameters of mouse offspring and the protective role of melatonin

Assessment of genotoxicity induced by helminthes parasites in freshwater fishes of river Ganges

Several parasites have been shown to induce genotoxicity in humans and fish are important intermediate hosts for completing the life cycle of many parasites, posing a huge economic loss worldwide through the ecosystem food chain. In the present study, we assessed the genotoxic potential of helminth Rostellascaris sp. through a benchmark of comet assay and micronucleus (MNi) tests on the hepatocytes, muscle, and whole blood of infected fish Bagarius bagarius (Hamilton) collected from different sites of the river Ganges. The percentage of the mean tail length of the comet was 10.28±0.36 in the reticulocytes of the infected fish which was significantly (P ˂0.05) longer compared to the control (2.86±0.12). Similarly, a significantly (P ˂0.05) higher DNA damage was observed in hepatocytes of parasite-infected fish (12.15±0.24) when compared to the control (3.024±0.013). A comparatively higher DNA damage was observed in the hepatocytes than the reticulocytes, indicative of tissue-specific DNA damage as hepatocytes are the biomarkers of metabolic functions prone toward biotic stress. A higher induction of MN was observed in infested fish (0.18±0.07) as compared to the control. Our results suggest that parasites contribute to the induction of cellular and DNA damage in fish during the progression of the host-parasite interaction.

Morphological, morphometric, ultrastructural, and functional evaluation of red-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) sperm during epididymal transit

Morphological, morphometric, ultrastructural, and functional evaluation of red-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) sperm during epididymal transit