Impact of including growth, carcass and feed efficiency traits in the breeding goal for combined milk and beef production systems

Improving feed efficiency in dairy cattle could result in more profitable and environmentally sustainable dairy production through lowering feed costs and emissions from dairy farming. In addition, beef production based on dairy herds generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions per unit of meat output than beef production from suckler cow systems. Different scenarios were used to assess the profitability of adding traits, excluded from the current selection index for Finnish Ayrshire, to the breeding goal for combined dairy and beef production systems. The additional breeding goal traits were growth traits (average daily gain of animals in the fattening and rearing periods), carcass traits (fat covering, fleshiness and dressing percentage), mature live weight (LW) of cows and residual feed intake (RFI) traits. A breeding scheme was modeled for Finnish Ayrshire under the current market situation in Finland using the deterministic simulation software ZPLAN+. With the economic values derived for the current production system, the inclusion of growth and carcass traits, while preventing LW increase generated the highest improvement in the discounted profit of the breeding program (3.7%), followed by the scenario where all additional traits were included simultaneously (5.1%). The use of a selection index that included growth and carcass traits excluding LW, increased the profit (0.8%), but reduced the benefits resulted from breeding for beef traits together with LW. A moderate decrease in the profit of the breeding program was obtained when adding only LW to the breeding goal (-3.1%), whereas, adding only RFI traits to the breeding goal resulted in a minor increase in the profit (1.4%). Including beef traits with LW in the breeding goal showed to be the most potential option to improve the profitability of the combined dairy and beef production systems and would also enable a higher rate of self-sufficiency in beef. When considering feed efficiency related traits, the inclusion of LW traits in the breeding goal that includes growth and carcass traits could be more profitable than the inclusion of RFI, because the marginal costs of measuring LW can be expected to be lower than for RFI and it is readily available for selection. In addition, before RFI can be implemented as a breeding objective, the genetic correlations between RFI and other breeding goal traits estimated for the studied population as well as information on the most suitable indicator traits for RFI are needed to assess more carefully the consequences of selecting for RFI.Peer reviewe

Thermocontrolled Reversible Enzyme Complexation-Inactivation-Protection by Poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide)

A prospective technology for reversible enzyme complexation accompanied with its inactivation and protection followed by reactivation after a fast thermocontrolled release has been demonstrated. A thermoresponsive polymer with upper critical solution temperature, poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) (PNAGA), which is soluble in water at elevated temperatures but phase separates at low temperatures, has been shown to bind lysozyme, chosen as a model enzyme, at a low temperature (10 °C and lower) but not at room temperature (around 25 °C). The cooling of the mixture of PNAGA and lysozyme solutions from room temperature resulted in the capturing of the protein and the formation of stable complexes; heating it back up was accompanied by dissolving the complexes and the release of the bound lysozyme. Captured by the polymer, lysozyme was inactive, but a temperature-mediated release from the complexes was accompanied by its reactivation. Complexation also partially protected lysozyme from proteolytic degradation by proteinase K, which is useful for biotechnological applications. The obtained results are relevant for important medicinal tasks associated with drug delivery such as the delivery and controlled release of enzyme-based drugs

Thermocontrolled Reversible Enzyme Complexation-Inactivation-Protection by Poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide)

A prospective technology for reversible enzyme complexation accompanied with its inactivation and protection followed by reactivation after a fast thermocontrolled release has been demonstrated. A thermoresponsive polymer with upper critical solution temperature, poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) (PNAGA), which is soluble in water at elevated temperatures but phase separates at low temperatures, has been shown to bind lysozyme, chosen as a model enzyme, at a low temperature (10 °C and lower) but not at room temperature (around 25 °C). The cooling of the mixture of PNAGA and lysozyme solutions from room temperature resulted in the capturing of the protein and the formation of stable complexes; heating it back up was accompanied by dissolving the complexes and the release of the bound lysozyme. Captured by the polymer, lysozyme was inactive, but a temperature-mediated release from the complexes was accompanied by its reactivation. Complexation also partially protected lysozyme from proteolytic degradation by proteinase K, which is useful for biotechnological applications. The obtained results are relevant for important medicinal tasks associated with drug delivery such as the delivery and controlled release of enzyme-based drugs

Identification of Low Temperature Stress Regulated Transcript Sequences and Gene Families in Italian Cypress

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Cold acclimation is a complex transcriptionally controlled process regulated by many different genes and genic-interactions in plants. The northward spreading of woody species is mainly limited by winter harshness. To increase our knowledge about the biological processes underlying cold acclimation, plants evolved in warmer climates can serve as models. In this work, a Suppression Subtractive Hybridization approach using PCR-select was used to isolate Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens L.) transcript sequences putatively expressed under low temperature stress. After assessing the reliability of the subtractive step, a total of 388 clones were selected and sequenced. Following sequence assembly and removal of the redundant cDNAs, 156 unique transcripts were identified and annotated in order to assign them a putative functional class. Most of the identified transcripts were functionally classified pertaining to stress in cellular and chloroplast membranes, which are previously known to be severely damaged by cold treatment. Among the identified functional gene families, the extensively represented ones were dehydrins, early light-inducible proteins, senescence-associated genes and oleosins. The last three gene families were further selected for phylogenetic analysis, with the corresponding protein sequences across the complete genomes of the model plants Populus trichocarpa, Vitis vinifera, Physcomitrella patens, and Arabidopsis thaliana. The relationship with the ortholog sequences coming from these species and their further implications are discussed

”Se on ihan niinko ohjaajasta kiinni, että minkälainen harjottelu tulee olemaan”:harjoittelukokemuksen kannalta merkitykselliset seikat luokanopettajaopiskelijan silmin

Tiivistelmä. Opetusharjoittelu on tärkeä osa luokanopettajaopintoja. Se on monelle opiskelijalle ensimmäisiä kosketuksia kouluelämään opettajan roolissa ja siitä syntyvä kokemus vaikuttaa siihen, millaiseksi opiskelijan opettajaidentiteetti muodostuu ja itsevarmuus kehittyy. Monen luokanopettajaopiskelijan mielestä harjoittelu on merkittävin osa opintoja. Tutkimme pro gradu -tutkielmassamme luokanopettajaopiskelijoiden ajatuksia siitä, mitkä asiat heidän mielestään ovat merkittäviä opetusharjoittelukokemuksen kannalta. Koska ohjaaminen on merkittävä osa harjoittelua, keskitymme teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä etenkin sen ja ohjaussuhteen tarkasteluun, sekä ohjaajan ja opiskelijan vuorovaikutukseen. Lisäksi teemme katsauksen luokanopettajien opintoihin kuuluviin harjoitteluihin niin Suomessa, kuin kansainvälisessä kontekstissa, sekä tarkastelemme sitä, miten harjoittelukokemus ylipäätään syntyy. Tutkielma on toteutettu kvalitatiivisen tutkimuksen menetelmillä, aineistolähteistä sisällönanalyysia sekä fenomenologista otetta hyödyntäen. Aineisto on kerätty haastattelemalla kuutta luokanopettajaopiskelijaa tai vasta valmistunutta luokanopettajaa. Suurin osa haastatteluista toteutettiin puhelimitse. Tutkielmamme keskeiset tulokset osoittavat, että harjoittelukokemuksen kannalta merkittävistä asioista ohjaussuhde on suurimmassa roolissa. Lisäksi ohjaajan merkitys harjoittelukokemuksen kannalta on huomattava jo senkin vuoksi, että ohjaajalla on koettu olevan suuri merkitys jo pelkän ohjaussuhteen kannalta. Myös opiskelijan oman kasvun merkitys harjoittelukokemuksen kannalta tunnistettiin. Etenkin niissä tapauksissa, joissa opiskelijat olivat kokeneet ongelmia ohjaussuhteen toimivuudessa, korostuivat myös muiden seikkojen, kuten toisten opiskelijoiden ja harjoitteluluokan oppilaiden merkitys

A comparison of bow shock models with Cluster observations during low Alfven Mach number magnetic clouds

Peer reviewe

Linking tree growth rate, damage repair, and susceptibility to a genus-specific pest infestation

Pest preference and subsequent susceptibility of a host individual is likely related to previous growth patterns in that host. Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) is a pestiferous beetle introduced to North America from Asia. While all species of ash are susceptible to attack, some individual trees appear to survive infestation. We selected ash trees in southeastern Michigan, collected cores and categorized trees as high tolerance to emerald ash borer attack (high overall health, low crown dieback), low tolerance (low overall health, high crown dieback) and intermediate tolerance (in-between the other categories). We artificially wounded trees and measured wound closure after 3 years. Ring width indices were not correlated between high and low tolerance trees. Regression slopes comparing growth and years were significantly different between the three tolerance categories, with high tolerance trees having the steepest slope. Wound closure was greatest in high tolerance trees. High tolerance trees demonstrating more rapid (steeper regression slope), consistent (lower variance), and effective (greater wound closure) growth. Those vigorously growing trees likely had more capacity to repair damage caused by emerald ash borer, leading to healthier trees in our categorization. Linking previous host growth patterns to health may have implications related to identifying individual trees potentially tolerant to attack

Observations Of Hall Reconnection Physics Far Downstream Of The X Line

Observations made using the Wind spacecraft of Hall magnetic fields in solar wind reconnection exhausts are presented. These observations are consistent with the generation of Hall fields by a narrow ion inertial scale current layer near the separatrix, which is confirmed with an appropriately scaled particle-in-cell simulation that shows excellent agreement with observations. The Hall fields are observed thousands of ion inertial lengths downstream from the reconnection X line, indicating that narrow regions of kinetic dynamics can persist extremely far downstream