Animal Breeding: What Does the Future Hold?

Eisen, E.J. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2007 Animal Bioscience Vol.20 No.3

An overview of developments important in the future of animal breeding is discussed. Examples from the application of quantitative genetic principles to selection in chickens and mice are given. Lessons to be learned from these species are that selection for production traits in livestock must also consider selection for reproduction and other fitness-related traits and inbreeding should be minimized. Short-term selection benefits of best linear unbiased predictor methodology must be weighed against long-term risks of increased rate of inbreeding. Different options have been developed to minimize inbreeding rates while maximizing selection response. Development of molecular genetic methods to search for quantitative trait loci provides the opportunity for incorporating marker-assisted selection and introgression as new tools for increasing efficiency of genetic improvement. Theoretical and computer simulation studies indicate that these methods hold great promise once genotyping costs are reduced to make the technology economically feasible. Cloning and transgenesis are not likely to contribute significantly to genetic improvement of livestock production in the near future.

Mozart’s Leap in the Dark

( Cliff Eisen ) 한양대학교 음악연구소 2006 音樂論壇 Vol.20 No.-

The first book devoted entirely to Mozart's Requiem, by Albert Hahn, a small town music director in northern Germany, describes the work in this way: 'Now . . . we find ourselves in the beautiful morning light, led there by the inspired composer who through his passionate art banishes the loneliness of the barbaric night after long years of struggle.' Hahn's account attributes to the Requiem a character that was common place for much of the later nineteenth century and most of the twentieth as well. Abert, Saint Foix, Bruno Walter and countless others describe the work as consoling, the pious personal expression of a dying genius. Karl Geiringer describes it as 'a composition as transcendental as it is human ... it leads us gently towards peace and salvation' while Alfred Einstein wrote that, whoever composed the later parts of the works, 'The total impression remains. Death is not a terrible vision but a friend.' Mozart's own comments on death, however, are more equivocal: in November 1771 he witnessed a hanging in Milan but this elicited no particular reaction from him; and when Leopold's favorite poet, Gellert, died in 1770, Mozart wrote to his sister: 'I have nothing new except that Herr gelehrt [Herr learned, a pun on the name Gellert], the poet from Leipzig died, and since his death has composed no more poetry.' Voltaire's death prompted Mozart to write, 'that godless arch rascal Voltaire has pegged out [crepirt] like a dog, like a beast' and when the court violinist Joseph Hafeneder died in 1784, Mozart wrote that he was sorry chiefly because it would mean extra work for his father teaching the boys at the Chapel House. By the same token, early accounts of the Requiem say nothing about its consoling character. Ignaz Arnold, in his Mozarts Geist of 1803, noted the work's gloomy seriousness and dark melancholy' while Christian Friedrich Schwenke looked in vain for the 'pious humility of expression proper to such a solemn appeal to the mercy of the Redeemer.' During the so called Requiem Streit of the 1820s, Gottfried Weber asserted that the Confutatis could not be by Mozart because it 'emphasizes, con amore, the egotistical baseness of the words and by the ferocious unison of the stringed instrument maliciously incites the Judge of the World to hurl the cursed crowd of sinners into the deepest abyss.' And Hans Georg Nägeli, in his Vorlesungen über Musik, objected to the many violent changes of key and arbitrary alternations of major and minor that turn the Kyrie fugue into a 'barbarous confusion of sounds.' How is it, then, that the Requiem acquired its consoling character? And to what extent does this reflect only one cultural model when, in fact, there may be other critical frameworks for reading the work? This talk explores Mozart iconography, the performance history of the Requiem, and contemporary attitudes toward death by way of offering a new reading of the work, one more closely allied with the mass's critical reception in the early nineteenth century.

Mozart and the Tyranny of Biography : A Reflection

( Cliff Eisen ) 한양대학교 음악연구소 2007 音樂論壇 Vol.21 No.-

Musical biography is generally thought of as a low-level pursuit: while it may tell us something about a composer’s life and day-to-day activities, perhaps even his convictions and beliefs, on the whole it tells us little about the meaning of his works. And this is most true, perhaps, of Mozart: after all, no matter how extensively his biography is rewritten, no matter how revisionist our point of view, the modes for analyzing his works - chiefly the formal and the topical - remain the same. It is as if the two, Mozart’s life and Mozart’s works, have little to do with each other. But why is the case? The reason, I want to suggest, is that biography is not an independent branch of music-historical study but, rather, a precursor of music-historical study: it informs not only the ways in which we think about Mozart, even before we study the music, but is the foundation for analytical and theoretical methods designed to explain his works. Put another way, analysis is another kind of biography, pointing up and explicating what is essentially an authorial intention, an authorial meaning. Mozart’s biography - itself an historical construction - was in place by 1798. Even then he was seen as an outsider, an ill-treated and unrewarded composer who, because of the quirks of fate was either abandoned or penalized for his genius. And this biographical construction gave rise to a mode of analysis - formal analysis --that made good Mozart’s sorry life that compensated him for his fate. In exploring this idea, I want to consider two aspects of Mozart reception: writing about Mozart (that is analysis and criticism) and performing Mozart. It might seem that the performing tradition is lost: after all, there are no recordings of early performances and what documentary evidence survives is insufficiently detailed. But it seems to me that this performing tradition does survive, chiefly in manuscripts and printed editions of his works, sources that, as I have argued elsewhere, represent performance as much as the substance of his compositions. Taken together, these two strands of Mozart reception - analysis and performance - gave rise about 1850 to fixed conceptions of Mozart, of the classical style and the classical period, conceptions that remain current even today. By disentangling these reception strands, however, it is possible to construct a ‘new’ Mozart, one that sees biography as motivating his works and performance as informing how we write about and play his music.

Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADS): History, Clinical Application and Complications

Howard J. Eisen 대한심장학회 2019 Korean Circulation Journal Vol.49 No.7

Congestive heart failure is a major cause of morbidity and mortality as well as a major health care cost in the developed world. Despite the introduction of highly effective heart failure medical therapies and simple devices such as cardiac resynchronization therapy that reduce mortality, improve cardiac function and quality of life, there remains a large number of patients who do not respond to these therapies or whose heart failure progresses despite optimal therapy. For these patients, cardiac transplantation is an option but is limited by donor availability as well as co-morbidities which may limit survival post-transplant. For these patients, left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) offer an alternative that can improve survival as well as exercise tolerance and quality of life. These devices have continued to improve as technology has improved with substantially improved durability of the devices and fewer post-implant complications. Pump thrombosis, stroke, gastrointestinal bleeding and arrhythmias post-implant have become less common with the newest devices, making destination therapy where ventricular assist device are implanted permanently in patients with advanced heart failure, a reality and an appropriate option for many patients. This may offer an opportunity for long term survival in many patients. As the first of the totally implantable devices are introduced and go to clinical trials, LVADs may be introduced that may truly be alternatives to cardiac transplantation in selected patients. Post-implant right ventricular failure remains a significant complication and better ways to identify patients at risk as well as to manage this complication must be developed.

Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea: Sequencing a Myriad of Type Strains

Kyrpides, Nikos C.,Hugenholtz, Philip,Eisen, Jonathan A.,Woyke, Tanja,Gö,ker, Markus,Parker, Charles T.,Amann, Rudolf,Beck, Brian J.,Chain, Patrick S. G.,Chun, Jongsik,Colwell, Rita R.,Danchin, An Public Library of Science 2014 PLoS biology Vol.12 No.8

<▼1><P>This manuscript calls for an international effort to generate a comprehensive catalog from genome sequences of all the archaeal and bacterial type strains.</P></▼1><▼2><P>Microbes hold the key to life. They hold the secrets to our past (as the descendants of the earliest forms of life) and the prospects for our future (as we mine their genes for solutions to some of the planet's most pressing problems, from global warming to antibiotic resistance). However, the piecemeal approach that has defined efforts to study microbial genetic diversity for over 20 years and in over 30,000 genome projects risks squandering that promise. These efforts have covered less than 20% of the diversity of the cultured archaeal and bacterial species, which represent just 15% of the overall known prokaryotic diversity. Here we call for the funding of a systematic effort to produce a comprehensive genomic catalog of all cultured Bacteria and Archaea by sequencing, where available, the type strain of each species with a validly published name (currently∼11,000). This effort will provide an unprecedented level of coverage of our planet's genetic diversity, allow for the large-scale discovery of novel genes and functions, and lead to an improved understanding of microbial evolution and function in the environment.</P></▼2>

Deuterium Labeling and Mechanistic Insights in the Polymerization of Propylene Promoted by Benzamidinate Complexes

Victoria Volkis,Sinai Aharonovich,Moris S. Eisen 한국고분자학회 2010 Macromolecular Research Vol.18 No.10

A new epimerization mechanism was introduced for the polymerization of propylene obtained by octahedral benzamidinate complexes. Deuterium labeling showed that deuterium is transferred from a methyne to a methylene position in the polymer inducing a stereoerror and an elastic material. In addition, two active species are formed during the polymerization of propylene promoted by the octahedral bis(benzamidinate) titanium dialkyl complexes.

Temporal Trends of De Novo Malignancy Development After Heart Transplantation

Youn, Jong-Chan,Stehlik, Josef,Wilk, Amber R.,Cherikh, Wida,Kim, In-Cheol,Park, Gyeong-Hun,Lund, Lars H.,Eisen, Howard J.,Kim, Do Young,Lee, Sun Ki,Choi, Suk-Won,Han, Seongwoo,Ryu, Kyu-Hyung,Kang, Seo American College of Cardiology 2018 Journal of the American College of Cardiology Vol.71 No.1

<P><B>Central Illustration</B></P><P>[Figure]</P><P><B>Abstract</B></P><P><B>Background</B></P><P>Malignancy is a concern in cardiac transplant recipients, but the temporal trends of de novo malignancy development are unknown.</P><P><B>Objectives</B></P><P>The goal of this study was to describe the temporal trends of the incidence, types, and predictors of de novo malignancy in cardiac transplant recipients.</P><P><B>Methods</B></P><P>The authors analyzed the temporal trends of post-transplant incidence, types, and predictors of malignancy using 17,587 primary adult heart-only transplant recipients from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation registry. The main study outcomes included the incidence of, types of, and time to de novo malignancy.</P><P><B>Results</B></P><P>The risk of any de novo solid malignancy between years 1 and 5 after transplantation was 10.7%. The cumulative incidence by malignancy type was: skin cancer (7.0%), non-skin solid cancer (4.0%), and lymphoproliferative disorders (0.9%). There was no temporal difference in the time to development according to malignancy type. However, the cumulative incidence of de novo solid malignancy increased from 2000 to 2005 vs. 2006 to 2011 (10.0% vs. 12.4%; p < 0.0001). Survival in patients after de novo malignancy was markedly lower than in patients without malignancy (p < 0.0001). Older recipients and patients who underwent transplantation in the recent era had a higher risk of de novo malignancy.</P><P><B>Conclusions</B></P><P>More than 10% of adult heart transplant recipients developed de novo malignancy between years 1 and 5 after transplantation, and this outcome was associated with increased mortality. The incidence of post-transplant de novo solid malignancy increased temporally, with the largest increase in skin cancer. Individualized immunosuppression strategies and enhanced cancer screening should be studied to determine whether they can reduce the adverse outcomes of post-transplantation malignancy.</P>

Effect of Genotype on Whole-body and Intestinal Metabolic Response to Monensin in Mice

Fan, Y.K.,Croom, W.J.,Daniel, Linda,McBride, B.W.,Koci, M.,Havenstein, G.B.,Eisen, E.J. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2006 Animal Bioscience Vol.19 No.4

Two lines of mice, M16 selected for rapid growth and a randomly selected control ICR as well as their reciprocal crosses were used to study the effects of genotype on whole-body energetics and intestinal responses to monensin. Six mice, eight weeks of age, from each line or reciprocal cross were assigned to one of two treatments, 1) drinking water containing 20 mmol/L monensin dissolved in 0.5% V/V ethanol, and 2) drinking water containing 0.5% V/V ethanol (control) for two weeks. After 11 days (age of 9 weeks and 4 days), whole-body $O_2$ consumption was measured. At the end of two weeks, jejunal $O_2$ consumption, intestinal tissue composition and histomorphometrics as well as the rate and efficiency of glucose absorption were estimated. In comparison with the control, monensin administration in drinking water resulted in less daily water intake (13.4 vs. 15.5 ml/mouse, p<0.01), less protein to DNA ratio of jejunal mucosa (5.41 vs. 6.01 mg/mg, p<0.05), lower villus width (88 vs. $100{\mu}m$, p<0.05), and less jejunal tissue $O_2$ consumption enhancement by alcohol (7.2 vs. 10.5%, p<0.01) in mice. Other than those changes, monensin had little (p>0.05) effect on variables measured in either line of mice or their reciprocal cross. In contrast, the M16 line, selected for rapid growth, as compared to the ICR controls or the reciprocal crosses, had less initial (pre-monensin treatment) whole-body $O_2$ consumption per gram of body weight (1.68 vs. $2.11-2.34{\mu}mol/min{\cdot}g$ BW, p<0.01) as compared to the ICR and reciprocal crosses. In addition, the M16 mice exhibited greater growth (412 vs. 137-210 mg/d, p<0.05), better feed efficiency (41.7 vs. 19.9-29.3 mg gain/g feed, p<0.05), shorter small intestines adjusted for fasted body weight (1.00 vs. 1.22-1.44 cm/g FBW, p<0.05), wider villi (109 vs. $87-93{\mu}m$, p<0.05), more mature height of enterocytes (28.8 vs. $24.4-25.1{\mu}m$, p<0.05) and a lower rate (91 vs. $133-145{\eta}mol\;glucose/min{\cdot}g$ jejunum, p<0.05) and less energetic efficiency (95 vs. $59-72{\eta}mol$ ATP expended/${\eta}mol$ glucose uptake, p<0.05) of glucose absorption compared to the ICR line and the reciprocal cross. Monensin had little (p>0.05) effect on whole-body $O_2$ consumption and jejunal function, whilst selection for rapid growth resulted in an apparent down-regulation of intestinal function. These data suggest that genetic selection for increased growth does not result in concomitant changes in intestinal function. This asynchrony in the selection for production traits and intestinal function may hinder full phenotypic expression of genotypic growth potential.