Fruit size and firmness QTL alleles of breeding interest identified in a sweet cherry ‘Ambrunés’ × ‘Sweetheart’ population

The Spanish local cultivar ‘Ambrunés’ stands out due to its high organoleptic quality and fruit firmness. These characteristics make it an important parent for breeding cherries with excellent fresh and post-harvest quality. In this work, an F1 sweet cherry population (n = 140) from ‘Ambrunés’ × ‘Sweetheart’ was phenotyped for 2 years for fruit diameter, weight and firmness and genotyped with the RosBREED cherry Illumina Infinium® 6K SNP array v1. These data were used to construct a linkage map and to carry out quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping of these fruit quality traits. Genotyping of the parental cultivars revealed that ‘Ambrunés’ is highly heterozygous, and its genetic map is the longest reported in the species using the same SNP array. Phenotypic data analyses confirmed a high heritability of fruit size and firmness and a distorted segregation towards softer and smaller fruits. However, individuals with larger and firmer fruits than the parental cultivars were observed, revealing the presence of alleles of breeding interest. In contrast to other genetic backgrounds in which a negative correlation was observed between firmness and size, in this work, no correlation or low positive correlation was detected between both traits. Firmness, diameter and weight QTLs detected validated QTLs previously found for the same traits in the species, and major QTLs for the three traits were located on a narrow region of LG1 of ‘Ambrunés’. Haplotype analyses of these QTLs revealed haplotypes of breeding interest in coupling phase in ‘Ambrunés’, which can be used for the selection of progeny with larger and firmer fruits

Optimal design of controlled structures

A formulation that finds the optimal design of a controlled structure is proposed. To achieve this goal, a composite objective composed of structural and control objectives is introduced to be optimized, and the effect of the control weighting is examined. A feedback control law is defined before the structural optimization and then the composite objective will only become a function of structural design variables. As a result, optimal structural design and control forces in steady state are obtained.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46072/1/158_2005_Article_BF01279651.pd

To which world regions does the valence–dominance model of social perception apply?

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution.C.L. was supported by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF VRG13-007); L.M.D. was supported by ERC 647910 (KINSHIP); D.I.B. and N.I. received funding from CONICET, Argentina; L.K., F.K. and Á. Putz were supported by the European Social Fund (EFOP-3.6.1.-16-2016-00004; ‘Comprehensive Development for Implementing Smart Specialization Strategies at the University of Pécs’). K.U. and E. Vergauwe were supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (PZ00P1_154911 to E. Vergauwe). T.G. is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). M.A.V. was supported by grants 2016-T1/SOC-1395 (Comunidad de Madrid) and PSI2017-85159-P (AEI/FEDER UE). K.B. was supported by a grant from the National Science Centre, Poland (number 2015/19/D/HS6/00641). J. Bonick and J.W.L. were supported by the Joep Lange Institute. G.B. was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV-17-0418). H.I.J. and E.S. were supported by a French National Research Agency ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ programme grant (ANR-15-IDEX-02). T.D.G. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. The Raipur Group is thankful to: (1) the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India for the research grants received through its SAP-DRS (Phase-III) scheme sanctioned to the School of Studies in Life Science; and (2) the Center for Translational Chronobiology at the School of Studies in Life Science, PRSU, Raipur, India for providing logistical support. K. Ask was supported by a small grant from the Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg. Y.Q. was supported by grants from the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (5184035) and CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology. N.A.C. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (R010138018). We acknowledge the following research assistants: J. Muriithi and J. Ngugi (United States International University Africa); E. Adamo, D. Cafaro, V. Ciambrone, F. Dolce and E. Tolomeo (Magna Græcia University of Catanzaro); E. De Stefano (University of Padova); S. A. Escobar Abadia (University of Lincoln); L. E. Grimstad (Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)); L. C. Zamora (Franklin and Marshall College); R. E. Liang and R. C. Lo (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman); A. Short and L. Allen (Massey University, New Zealand), A. Ateş, E. Güneş and S. Can Özdemir (Boğaziçi University); I. Pedersen and T. Roos (Åbo Akademi University); N. Paetz (Escuela de Comunicación Mónica Herrera); J. Green (University of Gothenburg); M. Krainz (University of Vienna, Austria); and B. Todorova (University of Vienna, Austria). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/am2023BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

Systematic approach for PID controller design for pitch-regulated, variable-speed wind turbines

Variable-speed, horizontal axis wind turbines use blade-pitch control to meet specified objectives for three regions of operation. This paper focuses on controller design for the constant power production regime. A simple, rigid, non-linear turbine model was used to systematically perform trade-off studies between two performance metrics. Minimization of both the deviation of the rotor speed from the desired speed and the motion of the actuator is desired. The robust nature of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is illustrated, and optimal operating conditions are determined. Because numerous simulation runs may be completed in a short time, the relationship of the two opposing metrics is easily visualized. 2 refs., 9 figs