Genetic (co)variance of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) body weight and its uniformity across production environments

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Genotype-by-environment interaction for uniformity of growth in rainbow trout

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Miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron age Iberia

This article reviews a set of miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron Age eastern Iberia, and interprets them in terms of their role in forging social personae. After an introduction to the historical case under consideration, the miniatures are described in terms of their typology and their contexts of provenance are outlined. Though not abundant, they tend to occur in central places in the landscape; specifically, they are often found in houses of the powerful. The vast majority are miniatures of pottery and tools, though some miniature weapons are recorded. We contend that these objects were used as a means of enculturation and for the learning of values and norms. It is no coincidence that they emerge in the archaeological record of Iron Age Iberia at the same time as the rise of a social structure based on hereditary power

QTL analysis and genomic selection using RADseq derived markers in Sitka spruce: the potential utility of within family data

Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) is the most common commercial plantation species in Britain and a breeding programme based on traditional lines has been in operation since the early 1960s. Rotation lengths of 40-years have led breeders to adopt a process of indirect selection at younger ages based on traits well correlated with final selection, but still the generation interval is unlikely to reduce much below twenty years. Recent successful developments with genomic selection in animal breeding have led tree breeders to consider the application of this technology. In this study a RAD sequence assay was developed as a means of investigating the potential of molecular breeding in a non-model species. DNA was extracted from nearly 500 clonally replicated trees growing in a single full-sibling family at one site in Britain. The technique proved successful in identifying 132 QTLs for 5-year bud-burst and 2 QTLs for 6-year height. In addition, the accuracy of predicting phenotypes by genomic selection was strikingly high at 0.62 and 0.59 respectively. Sensitivity analysis with 200 offspring found only a slight fall in correlation values (0.54 and 0.38) although when the training population reduced to 50 offspring predictive values fell further (0.33 and 0.25). This proved an encouraging first investigation into the potential use of genomic selection in the breeding of Sitka spruce. The authors investigate how problems associated with effective population size and linkage disequilibrium can be avoided and suggest a practical way of incorporating genomic selection into a dynamic breeding programme

Applying genetic technologies to combat infectious diseases in aquaculture

Disease and parasitism cause major welfare, environmental and economic concerns for global aquaculture. In this review, we examine the status and potential of technologies that exploit genetic variation in host resistance to tackle this problem. We argue that there is an urgent need to improve understanding of the genetic mechanisms involved, leading to the development of tools that can be applied to boost host resistance and reduce the disease burden. We draw on two pressing global disease problems as case studies—sea lice infestations in salmonids and white spot syndrome in shrimp. We review how the latest genetic technologies can be capitalised upon to determine the mechanisms underlying inter- and intra-species variation in pathogen/parasite resistance, and how the derived knowledge could be applied to boost disease resistance using selective breeding, gene editing and/or with targeted feed treatments and vaccines. Gene editing brings novel opportunities, but also implementation and dissemination challenges, and necessitates new protocols to integrate the technology into aquaculture breeding programmes. There is also an ongoing need to minimise risks of disease agents evolving to overcome genetic improvements to host resistance, and insights from epidemiological and evolutionary models of pathogen infestation in wild and cultured host populations are explored. Ethical issues around the different approaches for achieving genetic resistance are discussed. Application of genetic technologies and approaches has potential to improve fundamental knowledge of mechanisms affecting genetic resistance and provide effective pathways for implementation that could lead to more resistant aquaculture stocks, transforming global aquaculture

The type-B moral error theory

I introduce a new version of Moral Error Theory, which I call Type-B Moral Error Theory. According to a Type-B theorist there are no facts of the kind required for there to be morality in stricto sensu, but there can be irreducible ‘normative’ properties which she deems, strictly speaking, to be morally irrelevant. She accepts that there are instrumental all things considered oughts, and categorical pro tanto oughts (both of which she deems morally irrelevant), but denies that there are categorical all things considered oughts on pain of requiring ‘queer’ facts to obtain. I detail the most central motivation of this version of the theory against its more traditional rival, according to which there are no irreducible normative properties at all. The motivation is that it, unlike its rival, can successfully be defended against the notorious charge of self-defeat

Revisiting Folk Moral Realism

Moral realists believe that there are objective moral truths. According to one of the most prominent arguments in favour of this view, ordinary people experience morality as realist-seeming, and we have therefore prima facie reason to believe that realism is true. Some proponents of this argument have claimed that the hypothesis that ordinary people experience morality as realist-seeming is supported by psychological research on folk metaethics. While most recent research has been thought to contradict this claim, four prominent earlier studies (by Goodwin and Darley, Wainryb et al., Nichols, and Nichols and Folds-Bennett) indeed seem to suggest a tendency towards realism. My aim in this paper is to provide a detailed internal critique of these four studies. I argue that, once interpreted properly, all of them turn out in line with recent research. They suggest that most ordinary people experience morality as “pluralist-” rather than realist-seeming, i.e., that ordinary people have the intuition that realism is true with regard to some moral issues, but variants of anti-realism are true with regard to others. This result means that moral realism may be less well justified than commonly assumed