Milk production of lacaune sheep with different degrees of crossing with manchega sheep in a commercial flock in Spain

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the grade of crossbreeding (Lacaune x Manchega) and environmental factors on milk production in a commercial flock in Spain. A total of 5769 milk production records of sheep with different degrees of purity of the Lacaune breed crossed with Manchega were used as follows: 100% Lacaune (n = 2960), 7/8 Lacaune (n = 502), 13/16 Lacaune (n = 306), 3/4 (n = 1288), 5/8 Lacaune (n = 441) and 1/2 Lacaune: Manchega (n = 272). Additional available information included the number of parity (1 to 8), litter size (single or multiple), and the season of the year of lambing (spring, summer, autumn and winter). A mixed model was used to evaluate the level of crossbreeding and environmental factors on milk production. The 100% Lacaune sheep presented the highest milk production with respect to the F1 Lacaune x Manchega sheep (p < 0.01), showing that as the degree of gene absorption increases with the Manchega breed, it presents lower milk yield. The 100%, 13/16, and 3/4 Lacaune genotypes had the highest milk yields with respect to the 1/2 Lacaune/Manchega breed (p < 0.001). The Lacaune registered on average 181.1 L in a period adjusted to 160 days of lactation (1.13 L/ day). Likewise, the parity number, litter size, and season of lambing effects showed significant differences (p < 0.01). It was concluded that 13/16 and 3/4 Lacaune/Manchega ewes presented the highest milk yields with respect to the other crosses

Computing Yukawa Couplings from Magnetized Extra Dimensions

We compute Yukawa couplings involving chiral matter fields in toroidal compactifications of higher dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory with magnetic fluxes. Specifically we focus on toroidal compactifications of D=10 super-Yang-Mills theory, which may be obtained as the low-energy limit of Type I, Type II or Heterotic strings. Chirality is obtained by turning on constant magnetic fluxes in each of the 2-tori. Our results are general and may as well be applied to lower D=6,8 dimensional field theories. We solve Dirac and Laplace equations to find out the explicit form of wavefunctions in extra dimensions. The Yukawa couplings are computed as overlap integrals of two Weyl fermions and one complex scalar over the compact dimensions. In the case of Type IIB (or Type I) string theories, the models are T-dual to (orientifolded) Type IIA with D6-branes intersecting at angles. These theories may have phenomenological relevance since particular models with SM group and three quark-lepton generations have been recently constructed. We find that the Yukawa couplings so obtained are described by Riemann theta-functions, which depend on the complex structure and Wilson line backgrounds. Different patterns of Yukawa textures are possible depending on the values of these backgrounds. We discuss the matching of these results with the analogous computation in models with intersecting D6-branes. Whereas in the latter case a string computation is required, in our case only field theory is needed.Comment: 73 pages, 9 figures. Using JHEP3.cls. Typos and other minor corrections fixed. References adde

The correlation of communication effectiveness and patient satisfaction

This study assessed the correlation of 9 questions addressing communication effectiveness (the Communication Effectiveness Questionnaire [CEQ]) with other patient-reported experience measures (PREMs; satisfaction, perceived empathy) as well as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs; pain intensity, activity tolerance) in patients with musculoskeletal illness or injury. In a cross-sectional study, 210 patients visiting an orthopedic surgeon completed the CEQ and measures of satisfaction with the visit, perceived empathy, pain intensity, and activity tolerance. We evaluated correlations between CEQ and other PREMs and CEQ and PROMs. We measured ceiling effects of the PREMs. Communication effectiveness correlated moderately with other PREMs such as satisfaction (rho = 0.54; P < .001) and perceived empathy (rho = 0.54; P < .001). Communication effectiveness did not correlate with PROMs: pain intensity (rho = -0.01; P = .93) and activity tolerance (rho = -0.05; P = .44). All of the experience measures have high ceiling effects: perceived empathy 37%, satisfaction 80%, and CEQ 46%. The observation of notable correlations of various PREMs, combined with their high ceiling effects, direct us to identify a likely common statistical construct (which we hypothesize as "relationship") accounting for variation in PREMs, and then develop a PREM which measures that construct in a manner that results in a Gaussian distribution of scores. At least within the limitations of current experience measures, there seems to be no association between illness (PROMs) and experience (PREMs)

Use of Molecular Markers to Assist the Development of Inbred Lines under Open Field Conditions: the Case of Criollo Peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) from Mexico

[EN] Chile peppers are one of the most important crops in Mexico and a plethora of ecotypes can be found there. Most of them are ancient open-pollinated (OP) landraces selected by farmers for uniform phenotype but with an inherent level of genetic diversity, called criollos. In this work 15 pepper accessions, encompassing 2 criollo lines, their open-pollinated progenies, and 5 controls, were characterized with a set of 36 IPGRI descriptors and 23 SSR markers to assess the effect of open pollination in the inbreeding process. Heterozygosity levels were comprised between 12 and 47% in the progenies, which were similar or lower than those values from parent plants and similar or higher than control cultivars. Also, both progenies and parents showed similar levels of agronomic and morphological uniformity. Our results suggest that this OP program is efficient in terms of reaching enough agronomic uniformity in criollo Ancho peppers while preserving certain genetic diversity to confer adaptation to climate change.This work was partly financed by projects INIA RTA2013-00022-C02-02 and RTA2014-00041-C02-02, funded by Instituto Nacional Investigaciones Agrarias (Spain), FEDER funds. Also, Mexican authors thank CONACYT for financing the stay of Gustavo Chavez-Gonzalez in Spain, as well as the Programa Integral de Fortalecimiento Institucional (PIFI) de la UA de Aguascalientes (SEP-Mexico).Pereira-Días, L.; Chavez-Gonzalez, G.; Bracho Gil, M.; Fita, A.; Vilanova Navarro, S.; Luna-Ruiz, J.; Perez-Cabrera, L.... (2017). Use of Molecular Markers to Assist the Development of Inbred Lines under Open Field Conditions: the Case of Criollo Peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) from Mexico. Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca. 45(2):365-368. https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha45210940S36536845

A Detailed Analysis of One-loop Neutrino Masses from the Generic Supersymmetric Standard Model

In the generic supersymmetric standard model which had no global symmetry enforced by hand, lepton number violation is a natural consequence. Supersymmetry, hence, can be considered the source of experimentally demanded beyond standard model properties for the neutrinos. With an efficient formulation of the model, we perform a comprehensive detailed analysis of all one-loop contributions to neutrino masses.Comment: 27 pages Revtex, no figur

Spatial correlations in vote statistics: a diffusive field model for decision-making

We study the statistics of turnout rates and results of the French elections since 1992. We find that the distribution of turnout rates across towns is surprisingly stable over time. The spatial correlation of the turnout rates, or of the fraction of winning votes, is found to decay logarithmically with the distance between towns. Based on these empirical observations and on the analogy with a two-dimensional random diffusion equation, we propose that individual decisions can be rationalised in terms of an underlying "cultural" field, that locally biases the decision of the population of a given region, on top of an idiosyncratic, town-dependent field, with short range correlations. Using symmetry considerations and a set of plausible assumptions, we suggest that this cultural field obeys a random diffusion equation.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; added sociophysics references