Metabolic profiles in five high-producing Swedish dairy herds with a history of abomasal displacement and ketosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Body condition score and blood profiles have been used to monitor management and herd health in dairy cows. The aim of this study was to examine BCS and extended metabolic profiles, reflecting both energy metabolism and liver status around calving in high-producing herds with a high incidence of abomasal displacement and ketosis and to evaluate if such profiles can be used at herd level to pinpoint specific herd problems.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Body condition score and metabolic profiles around calving in five high-producing herds with high incidences of abomasal displacement and ketosis were assessed using linear mixed models (94 cows, 326 examinations). Cows were examined and blood sampled every three weeks from four weeks ante partum (ap) to nine weeks postpartum (pp). Blood parameters studied were glucose, fructosamine, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), insulin, β-hydroxybutyrate, aspartate aminotransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase, haptoglobin and cholesterol.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All herds had overconditioned dry cows that lost body condition substantially the first 4–6 weeks pp. Two herds had elevated levels of NEFA ap and three herds had elevated levels pp. One herd had low levels of insulin ap and low levels of cholesterol pp. Haptoglobin was detected pp in all herds and its usefulness is discussed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>NEFA was the parameter that most closely reflected the body condition losses while these losses were not seen in glucose and fructosamine levels. Insulin and cholesterol were potentially useful in herd profiles but need further investigation. Increased glutamate dehydrogenase suggested liver cell damage in all herds.</p

Validity of selected DNA markers for breeding leaf rust resistant wheat

The set of 44 near-isogenic lines of spring wheat cv. Thatcher and wheat genotypes known to carry specific leaf rust resistance genes were included in the present study for the preliminary validation of twelve STS and SCAR markers linked to leaf rust resistance genes Lr9, Lr19, Lr20, Lr21, Lr24, Lr25, Lr26, Lr28, Lr29, Lr37 . Seven Lr genes were specifically tagged by STS and SCAR markers. The presence of genes Lr9, Lr19, Lr20, Lr24, Lr28, Lr29, Lr37 in the tested plant materials was confirmed by a unique amplification of markers SCS5 550 , SCS265 512 and SCS253 736 , STS638, SCS73 719 , SCS421 570 , IPY10 and Lr29F24/R24, cslVrgal3, PS10R/L, respectively. Evaluation of the repeatability and the reliability of selected markers (pTAG621 for Lr1 , STS683 for Lr20 , D14L for Lr21 , Lr25F20/R19 for Lr25 , Lr29F24/R24, IPY10 for Lr29 , cslVrgal3 for Lr37 and PS10R/L for Lr47 ) across four European laboratories and PCR conditions demonstrated the usability of STS638, Lr29F24/R24, IPY10, cslVrgal3 and PS10R/L markers in marker-assisted selection. STS markers pTAG621 for gene Lr1 , D14L for gene Lr21 , Lr25F20/R19 for gene Lr25 were found to be unsuitable for effective screening of large segregating populations in breeding programs

Developer Dynamics and Syntactic Quality of Commit Messages in OSS Projects

Part 2: OSS Projects ValidityInternational audienceCommunity dynamics play an important role in the Open Source Software (OSS) development paradigm. Researchers have extensively studied the human aspects of the OSS paradigm from the point of view of community formation to community evolution. A few studies relate community dynamics with OSS product attributes such as code quality. However, the impact of community dynamics on non-code contributions such as commits has not been explored. In this paper, the aim is to analyze the impact of community dynamics on syntactic quality of commit messages of an OSS project. We first propose and validate a commit message quality model, and then use that model to analyze the OSS projects. Empirical analysis of seven OSS projects available in the Git repository shows that a small group of contributors active at the same time in a project leads to high syntactic quality contributions. These observations may prove useful to developers as well as project managers who need quantifiable techniques for monitoring the OSS projects