Characterization of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) capsid particle assembly and its application to virus-like particle vaccine development

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the primary causative agent of porcine circovirus-associated diseases in pigs. The sole structural capsid protein of PCV2, Cap, consists of major antigenic domains, but little is known about the assembly of capsid particles. The purpose of this study is to produce a large amount of Cap protein using Escherichia coli expression system for further studying the essential sequences contributing to formation of particles. By using codon optimization of rare arginine codons near the 5′-end of the cap gene for E. coli, a full-length Cap without any fusion tag recombinant protein (Cap1-233) was expressed and proceeded to form virus-like particles (VLPs) in normal Cap appearance that resembled the authentic PCV2 capsid. The N-terminal deletion mutant (Cap51-233) deleted the nuclear localization signal (NLS) domain, while the internal deletion mutant (CapΔ51-103) deleted a likely dimerization domain that failed to form VLPs. The unique Cys108 substitution mutant (CapC/S) exhibited most irregular aggregates, and only few VLPs were formed. These results suggest that the N-terminal region within the residues 1 to 103 possessing the NLS and dimerization domains are essential for self-assembly of stable Cap VLPs, and the unique Cys108 plays an important role in the integrity of VLPs. The immunogenicity of PCV2 VLPs was further evaluated by immunization of pigs followed by challenge infection. The Cap1-233-immunized pigs demonstrated specific antibody immune responses and are prevented from PCV2 challenge, thus implying its potential use for a VLP-based PCV2 vaccine

Blood glucose levels in cattle in response to different formulations of betamethasone : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Veterinary Science at Massey University

Data on lactational and reproductive performances for 1993 and 1994 of dairy cows which calved in autumn or in spring on eight commercial winter milk supply farms around Palmerston North were collected. The eight commercial winter milk supply herds had a calving spread condensed into autumn and spring seasons. There were 7689 calvings recorded involving 3787 cows. The lactational parameters measured were yields of milk fat and milk protein per lactation, and days in milk (DIM) per cow. The mean milk fat production for the autumn calved cows was 206 kg/cow and 166 kg milk protein/cow (372 kg milk solids) per lactation while the spring calved cows produced 199 kg milk fat/cow and 160 kg milk protein/cow (359 kg milk solids) per lactation. The mean lactation length (DIM) for the autumn calved cows was 282 days, while the spring calved cows had a mean lactation length of 258 days (P<0.05). The mean daily milk fat yield averaged across the days in milk was 0.73 kg per cow for the autumn calved cows while the spring calved cows had a mean daily milk fat yield of 0.77 kg/cow (P<0.05). The mean values of milk production in the second and third months of lactation were 18 litres per day and 17 litres per day for the autumn calved cows while spring calved cows produced 22 litres per day during the second month of lactation and 19 litres per day during the third month of lactation respectively. The reproductive parameters measured were calving interval (CI), 4 weeks submission rates (SR), 42 day non-return rates (NNR), services per conception, 4 week calving rates and empty rates. The autumn calved cows had a longer CI than the spring calved cows; 390 days vs 372 days (P<0.05). The autumn calved cows had a lower average 4 weeks SR than the spring calved cows; 71% vs 81% (P<0.05). The autumn calved cows had a lower average 42 day NNR (conception rate) than the spring calved cows; 55% vs 64% (P<0.05). The autumn calved cows had a higher average of services per conception than the spring calved cows; 1.9 vs 1.6 (P<0.05). The autumn calved cows had a lower 4 week calving rate than the spring calved cows; 41% vs 54% (P<0.05). The autumn calved cows had a higher average empty rate than the spring calved cows; 12% vs 10% (P<0.05). These results show that cows which calved in autumn actually produced larger yields of milk fat and milk protein per lactation than those which calved in spring. However, these higher yields were achieved in longer lactations, and the autumn cows produced lower average daily yields than the spring calved cows. The lower daily yields during the second and third months of lactation by the autumn cows, indicated that these cows were on a lower level of feeding at this stage than the spring calved cows. The autumn calved cows had lower values for all aspects of reproductive performance than the spring calved cows. This difference is probably due to, at least partly, to the lower level of feeding in early lactation. These herds are relatively high producing, and therefore it can be deduced that they are generally well managed. Nevertheless the autumn calved cows were fed less well in early lactation than the spring calved cows, causing slightly poorer performances

Hotel Information agent System Using Web Service

Nowadays, hotels are in the large-scale distributed environments where each site offers services to user through transparent external communication. Web Services are becoming one of the most important paradigms for the interoperability and integrations of distributed software systems on the internet. Yo effectively search information from different resources, Agent-based system can search automatically from databases and send information of user requests in timely fashions by using Web Services. This system enables the users to search hotel facilities and service according to user’s requests through different hotel web sites. This paper intends to support the required information to user by developing the information agent. Then, the information agent collects the information providing from respective web sites of hotel and acts as an agent/broker. Web Services is one of the technologies to reduce the complexity and time consuming. This system is developed by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and ASP.Net Framework of the Web Services and supports technologies to provide service mechanism of hotel information system

Performance Analysis on Mail Classification with Multilayer Perceptron (MLP)

Spam is a key problem in electroniccommunication, including large-scale emailsystems. Classification of spam emails is asignificant operation in email system. The efficiencyof this process is determined by many factors suchas number of features, feature selection techniques,representation of symbols and classifier. This paperfocuseson email classifier with MultilayerPerceptron(MLP) approach for spam and hammails classification. The systemis used termfrequencyand inverse document frequency (tf-idf)and fisher score feature selection methods atpreprocessing. These methods allow selectingrelevant features and adding benefit in terms ofimprovisation in accuracy and reduced timecomplexity to email classification system

An Energy-efficient and Collision-reduced MAC protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks adapting Single Homogenous scheme based on border node handover procedure

Wireless sensor node is a micro-electric device that can be equipped with constrained power source and it is generally unrealistic to chargeor replace the exhausted battery, which givesway to the primary objective of maximizingnode/network lifetime. Therefore energy efficiency is one of the most important issues in wirelesssensor networks and an important attribute sensor network MAC protocols. Sensor-MAC(SMAC), the widely used protocol may requiresome nodes to adapt multiple sleep/listen schedules which results in the early death of bordernodes and this problem has a significant adverseon the lifetime and connectivity of WSNs. Although this problem can be solved by modifyingSMAC with border node handover procedure,some nodes may encounter collision which is oneof the major causes of energy waste. This paperpresents the modified SMAC adjusting singlehomogeneous scheme based on border nodehandover procedure in order to reduce or eliminate collision amongst the border node area. Theimpact of the novel approach on the networkperformance is compared with SMAC and themodified SMAC with border node handover procedure through simulation

EEH-MAC: Energy-Efficient Hybrid MAC Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), energyis a very scarce resource and has to be managedwisely in order to extend the life of the sensors.Therefore, to be energy-efficient, this paper ispresented as hybrid protocol for MAC layer inWireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). It combinescontention and schedule-based methods. Timeslot assignment is designed by semi-distributedmanner. A base station is considered as a masteronly for its one-hop children because nodes arealso memory (buffer)-constrained ones in realworld. When a base station sends token to itsneighboring nodes all the way through thelargest-hop nodes and token is sent back to thebase station, this may cause the overflow ofbuffer or the time slot assignment table may bedamaged during token is passing through all thenodes. To avoid this problem, time slotassignment is only considered as the two-hopneighbors from each parent

Standardization of Mandalay Personality Type Survey

This study is an attempt to standardize Mandalay Personality Type Survey (MPTS). This scale is an attempt to measure personality, to assess three broad personality dimensions. These dimensions are (1) anti-social type (2) neuroticism and (3) pro-social type. The MPTS contains 180 items, which can be answered in Yes or No form. This scale was constructed by Dr.Htun Than & et al(2005). The reliability of the MPTS is .68 for anti-social, .71 for the neuroticism and .80 for pro-social. The validity of the MPTS is .31 for anti-social, .54 for the neuroticism and .62 for pro-social. The reliability and validity of MPTS is found to be satisfactory. Objectivity is one of the characteristics of a good test. For a test to be objective, it is necessary to assist the reliability, validity of the test and standardize it. By standardizing the test, it can interpret the test results or scores. Thus, the present study is fulfilled this requirement. In this study, „ T score ‟ was used as norms for MPTS. „T scores‟ equivalents for raw scores were presented in table (2). The T scores were classified into five levels. Although there are few limitations in the population sampling for pro-social personality scale, these norms can interpret an evaluation of his or her status in reference to other person. Therefore, these norms can be used for practical purpose in personnel selection

Legume Integration Augments the Forage Productivity and Quality in Maize-Based System in the Loess Plateau Region

The changing climate, inadequate water supply, insufficient agricultural inputs, decreasing in agricultural arable land areas under forage crops of Northwestern Loess Plateau region, expanding livestock population, increasing demands for meat and milk production, and food and feed security concerns all insist on a necessary requirement in forage quality production. Cereal&ndash;legume mixed-cropping is a biological approach to enhancing herbage yield and quality of upgraded animal feed (forage and silage). However, little information exists about the appropriate mixing seeding ratios and its impacts on yield and quality. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the forage yield and nutritional quality of maize (Zea mays L.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in mono-and mixed-cropping approaches at the seeding proportions of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 45:55, 25:75, and 0:100 in 2019 and 2020 in Northwestern Loess Plateau region. A randomized complete block design with four replicates was used in this experiment. The results indicated that forage quality was significantly affected by the mixture ratios. The land equivalent ratio (LER) of all mixed-cropping treatments greater than 1.0, in which maize&ndash;common bean at the 50:50 seeding ratio achieved higher LER (1.46) than that of other treatments, showing that mixed-cropping combination systems are better users of land resources. Laboratory forage quality analysis and Pearson correlation analysis showed that the relative feed value had highly positive correlation with total digestible nutrients and relative forage quality in mixed-cropping treatments. Our results showed that fresh forage yield and dry matter yield were higher in monocropped maize forage than in other intercropped forages, whereas crude protein yield was lower compared with other mixed cropping forages. After 60 days of ensiling, the highest organic acid profile and ammonia-nitrogen were observed in M25:CB75 silage compared with other silages. The highest ensilability of fermentation coefficient was also found in M50:CB50 compared with other intercropped silages. Regarding forage preservation, silage showed higher contents of crude protein, relative feed value and lower crude fiber, water-soluble carbohydrate neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber contents than forage. This study determined that the ratios of maize&ndash;common bean 25:75 and 50:50 were the most desirable mixture ratios among mixed-cropped forage and silage based on chemical composition and quality analysis for livestock feeding

Optimization of Alfalfa-Based Mixed Cropping with Winter Wheat and Ryegrass in Terms of Forage Yield and Quality Traits

Forage has a significant association with animal nutrition because it is an essential part of milk and meat production in the livestock industry. Thus, for the production of high-quality forage, cereal&ndash;legume mixed cropping is an efficient method for meat and milk production in the livestock sector. In a two-year experiment between 2020 and 2021, the forage yield, nutritional compositions, amino acid profile, and forage quality were evaluated in the mixed cropping of winter wheat and ryegrass with alfalfa. In this study, a split-plot design with a randomized block design was employed with three sampling replicates. Cultivars were harvested at three maturity stages, namely, flowering, milk, and soft dough, depending on the wheat growth stage. The experimental results show that wheat 2 (Baomai 9)&ndash;alfalfa and ryegrass&ndash;alfalfa mixed cropping produced higher fresh biomass output than mono-cropping of wheat and ryegrass harvested at the flowering stage. Furthermore, the dry matter (DM) percentage range increased from 20.18% to 36.39%. By contrast, crude protein, crude fiber, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber were higher at the flowering stage than at other harvesting stages with DM values of 14.28%, 34.12%, 55.06%, and 32.55%, respectively. Ryegrass&ndash;alfalfa mixing yielded higher values of mineral compositions, and T5 (Baomai 9&ndash;alfalfa) generally achieved more extraordinary amino acid compositions. The results demonstrate that wheat and ryegrass with alfalfa mixed cropping, and harvesting at the flowering period produces high-quality forage. Additionally, mixed cropping with alfalfa remarkably affected forage quality parameters, while mixed cropping of wheat cultivar 2 (Baomai 9) and alfalfa obtained the highest dry matter intake, digestible dry matter, relative feed value, total digestible nutrient, relative forage quality, and quality index values of 2.56, 68.54, 136.49, 60.50, 127.41, and 1.69, respectively. Thus, the mixed-cropping of wheat and ryegrass with alfalfa forage is recommended for its maximized quality forage production and nutritional values in livestock feedstuff