Search Results (624)

Background/Objectives: Low back pain (LBP) is a leading cause of disability worldwide and is influenced by multiple biological and functional factors. While pain intensity is a well-established determinant of disability, the contribution of body composition and relative skeletal muscle mass remains insufficiently understood. This study aimed to investigate the associations between body composition parameters, Muscle-to-Weight Ratio (MWR), pain intensity, and functional disability in patients with LBP and to explore sex-related differences in these variables. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in 98 adults with chronic non-specific LBP recruited from a rehabilitation department in Romania. Anthropometric and body composition measurements were obtained using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Pain intensity was assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and functional disability was evaluated using the Roland–Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ). The MWR was calculated as skeletal muscle mass divided by body weight and expressed as a percentage. Sex comparisons, correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Results: The mean age of participants was 61.9 ± 10.0 years, and 53.1% were female. Female participants reported significantly higher pain intensity than males (60.5 ± 31.0 vs. 44.2 ± 35.5; p = 0.021) and demonstrated a different distribution of disability severity categories compared with males (Fisher–Freeman–Halton exact p = 0.021). Pain intensity showed the strongest positive correlation with disability (r = 0.56, p < 0.001), whereas MWR was negatively correlated with disability (r = −0.34, p = 0.001). In multivariable regression analysis, pain intensity (β = 0.49, p < 0.001), age (β = 0.22, p = 0.013), and MWR (β = −0.27, p = 0.018) remained significantly associated with disability after adjustment for sex and body fat percentage. The model explained 43.2% of the variance in RMDQ scores (R² = 0.432). Conclusions: Pain intensity, age, and MWR were significantly associated with functional disability in patients with chronic non-specific LBP. Lower MWR values were associated with greater disability after adjustment for age, sex, body fat percentage, and pain intensity. These findings suggest that assessment of body composition and MWR may provide additional information when evaluating patients with chronic non-specific low back pain. However, the cross-sectional design precludes conclusions regarding causality. Full article

Pork tenderness is a critical quality trait. Pork with divergent shear force (n = 10, 20 pigs in total) revealed a positive association between tenderness and branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) concentrations. Therefore, large white pigs (initial body weight 100.88 kg) were fed a control diet or diets supplemented with 1% leucine (Leu) or valine (Val) (n = 6, 18 pigs in total). Compared with the control, Leu or Val significantly reduced shear force, intramuscular fat, myofiber diameter, and cross-sectional area (p < 0.05). These interventions were associated with a potential shift in myofiber type, indicated by upregulated MyHC I and IIa and downregulated MyHC IIb and IIx (p < 0.05). The supplemented groups showed lower SFA content and an n-6/n-3 ratio, alongside enriched MUFA and n-3 PUFA content (p < 0.05). Antioxidant capacity significantly improved across muscle, liver, and serum, evidenced by elevated T-AOC, T-SOD, GSH-Px, and CAT and reduced MDA levels (p < 0.05). Lipid metabolism and antioxidant genes were also significantly upregulated (p < 0.05). Overall, Leu and Val may improve pork tenderness and nutritional value, which appear to be associated with the modulation of myofiber type, lipid metabolism, and antioxidative status, offering a potential nutritional strategy for producing high-quality pork. Full article

This study investigated how defatted silkworm pupae meal (DSPM) modulates flesh quality in pearl gentian grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus ♀ × Epinephelus lanceolatus ♂). A total of 360 size-uniform fish were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments for 8 weeks: D0, the fishmeal (FM) based control diet; and D1, D2, and D3, in which DSPM substituted 25%, 50%, and 100% of dietary FM, respectively, with three replicates per treatment and 30 fish per replicate. Compared with D0, D1 and D2 improved final body weight, weight gain rate, specific growth rate, and feed conversion ratio, whereas D3 reduced survival and feed utilization. For flesh quality, D2 showed the most favorable phenotype, characterized by higher crude protein, collagen, flavor-associated amino acids, pH, texture attributes, and muscle fiber density, together with lower ether extract, cooking loss, freezing loss, and shear force. DSPM substitution also increased unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid proportions and improved lipid health indices. Moderate substitution, especially D2, enhanced oxidative stability by increasing SOD and CAT activities and reducing MDA accumulation. Non-targeted metabolomics combined with qPCR analysis of selected flesh quality-related genes suggested that these improvements were associated with osmotic regulation, collagen remodeling, purine metabolism, membrane lipid homeostasis, nutrient sensing, myogenesis, and antioxidant defense. Complete FM substitution impaired muscle structure, water retention, and redox balance. Thus, 50% FM substitution with DSPM effectively optimized grouper flesh quality in this study. Full article

Background/Objectives: Body mass index (BMI) is widely used to classify weight status, but it does not reflect fat distribution, muscle mass, or bone mass. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA)-derived visceral fat rating (VFR) is a device-generated estimate of visceral adiposity. This study assessed age- and gender-related differences in anthropometric and BIA-derived body composition parameters, with particular attention to the relationship between BMI classification and VFR. Methods: This cross-sectional study included consecutive adults admitted to a single plastic surgery clinic over three months. Waist and hip circumferences were measured, waist-to-hip ratio was calculated, and body composition was assessed using a Tanita BC-420 MA analyzer. Associations between age, BMI, and BIA-derived parameters were assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation. BMI categories were cross-tabulated with VFR categories, and multivariable linear regression was used to assess VFR in relation to age, BMI, and gender. Results: The study included 326 patients. Mean BMI was higher in men than in women (27.6 ± 4.33 vs. 26.4 ± 5.07; p = 0.006), and men also had higher VFR (12.8 ± 6.15 vs. 7.75 ± 3.74; p < 0.001). Older age groups had higher VFR values, ranging from 2.16 ± 1.82 in participants aged 18–29 years to 14.3 ± 5.0 in patients aged ≥ 80 years. BMI and VFR were strongly correlated, but BMI categories did not fully correspond to VFR categories. Manufacturer-defined elevated VFR was observed in 5 patients with normal BMI and 24 patients with overweight, whereas 26 patients classified as obese had a manufacturer-defined normal VFR category. Conclusions: In this surgical cohort, older age groups had markedly higher VFR values than younger groups despite relatively modest differences in BMI. Because VFR is a device-generated estimate rather than a direct measure of visceral adiposity, these cross-sectional findings should be interpreted cautiously. Validation against established reference methods is needed before drawing broader clinical conclusions. Full article

This experiment aimed to investigate the effects of different lighting cycles on the growth performance, serum biochemical indices, slaughter performance, skeletal development, and meat quality of yellow-feathered broiler chickens. A total of 256 10-day-old Liangfenghua yellow-feathered male broilers were randomly assigned to four groups, each with 8 replicates, and each replicate contained 8 chickens. The four lighting cycles used were 18L:6D, 20L:4D, 22L:2D, and 23L:1D (hours of light:dark), and the chickens were fed until 63 days of age. The results indicate that with increasing light exposure duration, the average daily gain and live weight of yellow-feather broilers from 10 to 21 days of age (p = 0.07), the average daily feed intake from 42 to 63 days of age (p < 0.01), as well as the average daily feed intake, daily gain, and feed-to-gain ratio from 1 to 63 days of age (p < 0.05), all showed linear changes. The live weight, daily gain, and feed-to-gain ratio from 42 to 63 days of age exhibited both linear and quadratic variations (p < 0.01). The 22L:2D group achieved the highest live weight and daily gain at 63 days, with the lowest feed-to-gain ratio. Serum glucose levels displayed quadratic variation, while phosphorus levels showed both linear and quadratic changes; the 22L:2D group had the lowest serum glucose and the highest phosphorus levels. The semi-eviscerated rate and the bursa of Fabricius index varied linearly, whereas the leg muscle rate showed quadratic variation. The 20L:4D group had the highest total eviscerated rate, breast muscle rate, and leg muscle rate (p < 0.05), with the lowest Fabricius and thymus indices. The length, width, and volume of the femur and tibia, as well as the tibia bone volume and tissue volume, all changed linearly (p < 0.05). The tibia bone volume fraction exhibited both linear and quadratic changes, with the 18L:6D group showing the highest femur length, width, tibia bone volume, tissue volume, and bone volume fraction. Light exposure significantly affected meat pH, colour, shear force, drip loss, and cooking loss. The crude protein content in the breast muscle showed quadratic variation, while ash and cysteine contents displayed both linear and quadratic changes. The 22L:2D group had the highest crude protein content, pH at 24 h, shear force, and drip loss, but the lowest amino acid and ash contents (p < 0.05). Additionally, there were significant differences in the flavour of the breast muscle under different light cycles. In summary, the photoperiod significantly affects the production performance, skeletal development, meat quality, and flavor of yellow-feathered broilers. The 22L:2D photoperiod yielded the best outcomes in promoting growth, improving feed efficiency, and enhancing meat quality; however, it may adversely affect skeletal development and structural integrity, and caution should be exercised for long-term rearing. Full article

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of corn processing method (ground corn, GC, vs. steam-flaked corn, SFC) and daily calcium propionate (CaPr; 0 vs. 9.45 g/lamb/d) supplementation on productive performance, dietary energetics, fat deposition, and carcass characteristics in finishing lambs. Thirty-six Dorper × Katahdin lambs (44.95 ± 3.30 kg initial body weight, IBW), blocked by IBW and randomly assigned within block to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement, were used. Diets contained 50% corn grain and treatments consisted of: (1) GC, (2) SFC, (3) GC plus CaPr, and (4) SFC plus CaPr. There were no corn processing × CaPr interactions for growth performance, dietary energetics, or observed-to-expected dietary net energy (NE) ratios. Steam-flaked corn decreased DMI (1.30 vs. 1.35 kg/d; p = 0.0036) and increased average daily gain (ADG; 0.168 vs. 0.144 kg/d), gain-to-feed ratio (G:F), and observed-to-expected dietary NE ratios compared with GC diets (p < 0.05). In contrast, CaPr supplementation increased DMI (1.35 vs. 1.30 kg/d; p = 0.0215) without affecting ADG, G:F, or observed-to-expected dietary NE ratios (p > 0.05). Steam-flaked corn increased hot carcass weight (p = 0.0339), cold carcass weight (p = 0.0241), Longissimus lumborum muscle area (p = 0.0206), and chest depth (p = 0.0368), whereas CaPr increased carcass length (p = 0.0451). Interactions between corn processing and CaPr supplementation were observed for rib fat thickness (p = 0.0491), rump fat thickness (p = 0.0272), visceral fat (p = 0.0485), perirenal fat (p = 0.0209), and shoulder tissue composition, including muscle (p = 0.0309), fat (p = 0.0438), and muscle:fat ratio (p = 0.0348). In GC diets, CaPr supplementation decreased fat deposition and increased muscle proportion, whereas in SFC diets CaPr supplementation increased fat deposition and reduced muscle proportion. Neither corn processing nor CaPr supplementation affected visceral mass (g viscera/g empty body weight). Calcium propionate supplementation decreased hindquarter yield (p = 0.0494), increased shoulder IMPS207 yield (p = 0.0494), and increased purge loss at 24 h (p = 0.0496). Water-holding capacity showed a corn processing × CaPr interaction (p = 0.0170), whereas the remaining meat-quality variables were not affected. Overall, SFC improved productive performance and dietary energy utilization, whereas CaPr increased DMI and altered fat deposition and tissue composition responses depending on corn processing method. Full article

To develop green feed additives suitable for antibiotic-free livestock farming on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, this study used Lactobacillus salivarius TB2.1, isolated from Tibetan black pigs, and Lactobacillus agilis CW13.2, isolated from wild boars in the Changbai Mountains, to prepare fermented feed. The study investigated the effects of these additives on the growth performance, slaughter performance, meat quality, immune and antioxidant functions, and gut microbiota composition of Duroc × Landrace × Large White crossbred finishing pigs (DLY finishing pigs). The experiment included 72 finishing pigs with an average body weight of 54.07 ± 1.02 kg, which were randomly divided into three groups, each with four replicates of 6 pigs. The control group (CK) was fed a basal diet, one treatment group (TB) was fed a diet consisting of 50% basal diet plus 50% Lactobacillus salivarius TB2.1-fermented feed, and the other treatment group (CW) was fed a diet consisting of 50% basal diet plus 50% Lactobacillus agilis CW13.2-fermented feed. The pre-feeding period lasted 3 days, and the experimental period lasted 57 days. The results showed that, compared with the CK group, (1) the CW and TB groups had significantly higher levels of crude protein, lactic acid, acetic acid, and propionic acid in the feed (p < 0.05), and significantly lower levels of crude fiber, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, ammonium nitrogen, and pH (p < 0.05); (2) in the CW and TB groups, final body weight, average daily weight gain, and average daily feed intake were significantly higher (p < 0.001), while the feed-to-gain ratio was significantly lower (p < 0.01), with the CW group performing better than the TB group; (3) in both the CW and TB groups, carcass weight, eye muscle area, and meat redness significantly increased (p < 0.001), while backfat thickness and shear force significantly decreased (p < 0.001); (4) in both the CW and TB groups, serum immunoglobulin G, interleukin-2, and superoxide dismutase levels significantly increased (p < 0.05), malondialdehyde levels were significantly reduced in the CW group (p < 0.05), and catalase activity was significantly increased in the TB group (p < 0.05); (5) the relative abundance of Escherichia spp. in the cecum was significantly reduced in both the CW and TB groups (p < 0.05), while beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp. were significantly enriched (p < 0.05). In summary, feed fermented with Lactobacillus salivarius TB2.1 and Lactobacillus agilis CW13.2 can effectively improve the production performance of finishing pigs, enhance meat quality, strengthen immune and antioxidant capacities, and optimize the gut microbiota structure. Among these, CW13.2 was more effective in promoting weight gain, while TB2.1 was more effective in regulating protein and lipid metabolism. Fermented feed produced with both strains shows promising application prospects and can provide high-quality microbial strains and technical support for antibiotic-free swine farming on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Full article

Optimizing feeding regimes and finishing duration is essential for improving beef production efficiency and meat quality. This study evaluated the effects of two feeding regimes and three finishing durations on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass traits, meat quality, blood biochemical parameters, rumen fermentation, and rumen microbiota in Black Angus bulls. A total of 552 healthy bulls with similar initial body weight were assigned to a 2 × 3 factorial design with two diets—a corn silage–rice straw–concentrate TMR (CSRC) and a rice straw–concentrate TMR (RSC)—and three finishing durations: 10, 12, and 14 months. The CSRC TMR increased average daily gain and reduced feed-to-gain ratio during early finishing (p < 0.05), whereas the RSC TMR resulted in greater final body weight and higher meat redness at 14 months (p < 0.05). Prolonged finishing decreased average daily gain, feed efficiency and nutrient digestibility (p < 0.05), but increased carcass weight, eye muscle area, backfat thickness and meat tenderness (p < 0.05). The CSRC TMR promoted higher total volatile fatty acid production (p < 0.05), an acetate-oriented fermentation pattern and greater rumen microbial alpha diversity. These findings support a stage-specific feeding regime for Black Angus bull finishing. Under the present conditions, corn silage inclusion may be used to improve early finishing efficiency, whereas rice straw–concentrate TMR may be more suitable for late finishing to balance final body weight, meat quality, and production cost. Full article

Reducing reliance on supplemental fish oil is central to sustainable aquaculture, but the molecular consequences of replacing it with vegetable oils remain poorly characterized in the juvenile Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis). We evaluated whether full substitution of the supplemental dietary fish oil (FO) with linseed oil (LO) or soybean oil (SO) compromises hepatic lipid metabolism in Pelodiscus sinensis. Three isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets, sharing identical fish meal and other ingredient bases and differing only in the supplemental lipid (4% FO, LO or SO), were fed to triplicate groups of juvenile turtles (initial body weight 55.0 ± 0.05 g) for 8 weeks. Growth performance, survival, feed conversion ratio, and serum biochemistry were unaffected. However, both vegetable oil diets altered tissue fatty acid composition, raising n-6 PUFA and lowering n-3 LC-PUFA and the n-3/n-6 ratio in liver and muscle (muscle EPA and DHA each decreased by approximately 40%); the SO group additionally exhibited elevated hepatic malondialdehyde, whereas hepatic lipid droplet area and lipid content did not differ significantly among groups. Liver transcriptomic profiling identified 262 (LO vs. FO) and 214 (SO vs. FO) differentially expressed genes, converging on lipid storage and bile acid metabolism. RT-qPCR confirmed the up-regulation of PLIN3, G0S2 and APOF and the down-regulation of CYP7A1. Over 8 weeks, replacement of supplemental FO maintained growth without overt impairment while altering tissue fatty acid profiles and the hepatic expression of key lipid metabolism genes. Full article

Background: Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) regulate muscle protein metabolism, yet the systematic characterization of their dose-dependent morphological effects on exercised skeletal muscle remains limited. This study investigated the dose–response relationship between BCAA supplementation and skeletal muscle adaptations in exercise-trained mice. Methods: Seventy male Kunming mice were randomly assigned to seven groups (n = 10): a background group (no exercise), a control group (exercise + saline), and five exercise groups receiving BCAAs at 1–5 g/kg/day via intragastric gavage. Mice in the exercise groups performed 45 min of swimming daily (6 days/week) for 50 days. Gastrocnemius muscles were processed using hematoxylin–eosin staining, Masson trichrome staining, Gomori aldehyde fuchsin staining, and transmission electron microscopy. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post hoc test. Results: BCAA supplementation increased gastrocnemius wet weight-to-body weight ratios and promoted denser fiber packing in a dose-dependent manner up to 3–4 g/kg/day. Deep-staining fiber proportion (putatively type II-like) increased progressively with BCAA concentration, plateauing at doses ≥ 3 g/kg/day, while elastic fiber content continued to rise through 5 g/kg/day. Mitochondrial size decreased as mitochondrial number increased; membrane and cristae thickness peaked at 3 g/kg/day. Sarcomere length, myofibril diameter, sarcoplasmic reticulum size, and transverse tubule diameter exhibited increasing trends. Conclusions: These findings establish a parameter-specific dose–response framework for BCAA-induced muscle remodeling. A supplemental dose of 3 g/kg/day above background dietary intake represents an effective threshold for maximizing indices of hypertrophic gains and mitochondrial structural maturation potentially indicative of functional enhancement. Higher doses (≥4 g/kg/day) elicited additional benefits in fiber density, mitochondrial proliferation, and elastic fiber content. Supplemental BCAA dosing strategies above constant background intake should be tailored to target specific structural outcomes, with functional validation required to confirm physiological relevance. Full article

Wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring enables continuous cardiovascular assessment, yet signals acquired in ambulatory environments are inevitably corrupted by baseline wander, electrode motion artifacts, and muscle interference, which obscure diagnostically critical waveform features. Existing deep learning denoisers rely on heuristic attention mechanisms and time-domain-only losses, lacking principled control over what information the network retains or discards. To address this limitation, we propose EFIB-Net, an information bottleneck-guided multi-resolution network for robust ECG denoising. The framework introduces two complementary components: an efficient frequency-guided attention module that derives temporal attention weights directly from the energy distribution of parallel multi-resolution convolutional branches, requiring only four learnable parameters while providing physically interpretable feature selection that naturally highlights QRS complexes, and a variational information bottleneck constraint at the encoder–decoder bottleneck that forces the latent representation to retain only reconstruction-relevant information and discard noise, guided by a spectral–temporal composite loss. To the best of our knowledge, we are among the first to explicitly introduce the information bottleneck principle into deep-learning-based ECG signal denoising. Experiments on the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database show that EFIB-Net outperforms ten traditional and deep learning baselines across four standard metrics—signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), root mean square error, percentage root-mean-square difference, and correlation coefficient; at an input SNR of −5 dB it reaches $8.12$ dB output SNR, surpassing the strongest attention-based competitor by 1.77 dB ($p<0.01$) while using only 0.45 M parameters and 10.8 ms inference latency per segment; downstream evaluation further demonstrates that the denoised signals achieve 99.18% R-peak detection sensitivity and 91.26% heartbeat classification F1-score, both within approximately one percentage point of the clean-signal upper bound, making it practical for real-time cardiac monitoring on resource-constrained wearable devices. Zero-shot cross-database evaluation on the QT Database further confirms generalizability, with only 0.54 dB degradation without retraining. Full article

This study evaluated the effects of dietary coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) supplementation on growth performance, slaughter performance, meat quality, antioxidant capacity, serum profiles, and intestinal morphology in Minxinan black rabbits. A total of 250 rabbits were allocated to five dietary treatments containing 0, 30, 60, 120, or 240 mg/kg CoQ10 for 14 weeks after a 1-week adaptation period. Results indicated that supplementation with 60 mg/kg CoQ10 resulted in the highest final body weight (2.83 kg) and average daily gain (29.54 g/day), with a significantly reduced feed-to-gain ratio and mortality rate compared to the control group. Regarding slaughter performance, the 60 mg/kg group significantly reduced the abdominal fat rate. In terms of meat quality, the 60 and 120 mg/kg groups showed significantly reduced drip loss and shear force, while meat lightness (L*) increased in all supplemented groups. Cooking loss was significantly reduced in the 60 mg/kg group. Antioxidant capacity in cardiac muscle and longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) muscle was enhanced, particularly at 60 mg/kg, with significantly elevated activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), alongside reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Furthermore, the 60 mg/kg group increased LTL muscle polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content, elevated serum levels of triiodothyronine (T3), growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), enhanced immunoglobulin concentrations, and improved intestinal morphology. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 60 mg/kg CoQ10 improved growth performance, carcass leanness, PUFA content, and antioxidant status in broiler rabbits. Full article

Background/Objectives: Recompensation in patients with decompensated cirrhosis has significant prognostic implications. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the incidence and predictors of recompensation in cirrhotic patients, specifically focusing on elucidating the influence of sarcopenia and visceral obesity on achieving recompensation in a cohort of decompensated individuals. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 195 patients with decompensated cirrhosis from 2021 to 2024. Body composition abnormalities were determined by the skeletal muscle index (SMI) and visceral-to-subcutaneous adipose tissue ratio (VSR) on computed tomography (CT), respectively. Factors related to recompensation, defined using the modified Baveno VII criteria, were identified using multivariate regression. Results: Patients who achieved recompensation exhibited a lower age (62 vs. 67, p < 0.05), a higher body mass index (22.8 vs. 21, p < 0.01), a lower aspartate aminotransferase level (32 vs. 39, p < 0.01), a higher albumin level (35.2 vs. 32.3, p < 0.01), a lower ascites prevalence (60% vs. 74.07%, p < 0.05), a lower Child–Pugh score (6 vs. 7, p < 0.01), and a lower End-Stage Liver Disease score (9 vs. 10, p < 0.05) compared to those with non-recompensated cirrhosis. Body composition abnormalities were significantly more prevalent in non-recompensated patients than in recompensated patients (77.04% vs. 63.33%, p < 0.05), mainly because of a significantly higher prevalence of combined sarcopenia and visceral obesity in non-recompensated individuals (28.29% vs. 6.67%, p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis indicated that combined sarcopenia and visceral obesity was the sole independent risk factor for non-recompensation in this population. Furthermore, in the subgroup of patients aged < 70 years, with normal weight and preserved liver function, differences in recompensation rates among various states of body composition abnormalities were more pronounced. Conclusions: Sarcopenic visceral obesity is an independent risk factor for non-recompensation in patients with decompensated cirrhosis, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to mitigate body composition abnormalities in this vulnerable population. Full article

Background/Objectives: Lower-limb muscle quantity and quality may be associated with mobility performance, but the relationship between bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA)-derived lower-limb indices and slow Timed Up and Go (TUG) performance remains insufficiently established. This cross-sectional study examined the associations of lower-limb muscle mass and phase angle (PhA) with TUG performance and explored ROC-derived values for slow TUG performance in 280 community-dwelling Japanese adults. Methods: Lower-limb muscle mass and segmental lower-limb PhA were measured using multifrequency segmental BIA and averaged across both legs. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine associations between TUG time and BIA-derived indices after adjusting for age and body size. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed for slow TUG performance, defined as TUG ≥ 9 s and ≥10.2 s, and Youden index-derived values were calculated as exploratory estimates. Results: Lower-limb PhA was independently associated with TUG performance across both body-size adjustment models, whereas lower-limb muscle mass was retained only in the model adjusted for BMI. For slow TUG performance, the lower-limb muscle mass-to-body weight ratio showed moderate discriminatory ability, with AUCs of 0.75 for TUG ≥ 9 s and 0.78 for TUG ≥ 10.2 s. Standardized lower-limb PhA showed AUCs of 0.65 and 0.64, respectively. The Youden index-derived standardized PhA value was Z = −1.04 for both TUG thresholds; however, these ROC-derived values were not internally or externally validated. Conclusions: Lower-limb BIA-derived indices, particularly segmental lower-limb PhA, were associated with TUG performance in community-dwelling Japanese adults. The ROC-derived values should be interpreted strictly as exploratory, hypothesis-generating estimates and should not be used for clinical screening or individual-level clinical decision-making without validation in larger independent cohorts. Full article

Limited empirical evidence is available validating the energy value assigned to steam-flaked corn (SFC) for small ruminants in current NRC feeding standards. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of corn processing, including steam-flaking, on growth performance, dietary energetics, visceral fat deposition, and carcass characteristics of finishing lambs. Forty-eight Dorper × Katahdin ram lambs (42.0 ± 0.27 kg initial body weight) were assigned to one of four treatments (n = 12 per treatment) and fed high-concentrate diets for 45 d containing 50% yellow corn grain. Treatments differed only in the form of corn presentation: whole corn (WC), cracked corn (CC), ground corn (GC), or SFC. Cracked corn was produced using a roller mill without a sieve (mean particle size 4 to 6 mm), whereas ground corn was processed through a 3 mm sieve (mean particle size 1 to 2 mm). For SFC, WC was steamed for 20 min at approximately 102 °C before rolling, and flake density was adjusted to 0.36 kg/L by roller tension. Dry matter intake was 10.1% greater in SFC than in WC (p = 0.020), whereas CC and GC showed intermediate responses. Final body weight (+4.7%), average daily gain (+30.8%), and observed dietary net energy for maintenance (NE_m; +10.4%) were greater in SFC than in GC (p < 0.05), whereas WC and CC showed intermediate responses. Gain-to-feed ratio was greater in SFC than in GC and CC (p = 0.028), representing increases of 24.6% and 18.2%, respectively. Empty body weight and visceral fat deposition were also affected by treatment (p < 0.05), with greater visceral fat deposition in SFC and CC than in GC, whereas WC showed intermediate responses. Steam-flaked corn increased longissimus lumborum muscle area by 17.7% relative to GC (p = 0.048) and increased perirenal fat deposition relative to WC, CC, and GC (p = 0.048). However, most carcass characteristics and meat quality variables were not affected during the 45 d experimental period (p > 0.05). Using a replacement technique, estimated NE_m values (Mcal/kg) for CC, GC, and SFC were 2.00, 1.88, and 2.24, respectively. The NE_m value for SFC was in close agreement (2.24 vs. 2.30 Mcal/kg) with current feeding standards, whereas dry-processed corn showed lower estimated NE_m values (p = 0.025), representing reductions of 9% and 17% for CC and GC, respectively. In conclusion, SFC improved growth performance and dietary energy utilization relative to GC, while producing limited effects on carcass-related responses under the conditions of this 45 d study. Full article