Reproductive performance of a crossbreed of Cuban Creole boar with Duroc-Hampshire females

We describe in this paper the reproductive performance of Cuban Creole x (Duroc x Hampshire) cross-breed pigs. This cross-breeding system is presently under investigation for the reproductive improvement of mountain areas. Ours results have shown as these cross-breed population maintain good levels in the relation partution/fertilisation (82.74 percent) with respect to the employed pure breeds exploited in the same conditions. Litter size, birth weight, number of weaned, piglets and weaning weight were similar to the means reached by the exotic breeds, while the birth weight and the mean weaning weight were lower. In a general way, this crossbreeding can be considered as improver in Cuban mountain areas, pointing out the use of native genetic resources in its production.En este trabajo se describe el comportamiento reproductivo del cruzamiento entre cerdos Criollos Cubanos como línea paterna y hembras cruzadas Duroc x Hampshire. Esta pauta se encuentra en fase de investigación en Cuba para la mejora productiva de las áreas de montaña. Nuestros resultados han encontrado como este cruce se mantiene en unos niveles (82,74 p.100) para la relación parto/cubriciones frente a las razas puras intensamente explotadas en el mismo medio. El tamaño de la camada, el peso al nacimiento, el número de crías destetadas y el peso al destete, fueron similares a las medias de las razas exóticas, mientras que el peso al nacimiento y el peso promedio al destete fueron inferiores. En general este cruce puede considerarse mejorante para las condiciones de montaña, destacando la utilización de recursos genéticos autóctonos en su producción

The Black Creole Cuban Pig: origin, evolution and present status

The origin of the Cuban Creole Black pig is under a controversy, but the majority of authors locate their procedure in the ancient Spanish Iberian branches. Others hypothesis point out a possible influence of pre-hispanic Black Canarian pig, and also the early influence of Duroc and Hampshire breeds. Coinciding with all the Cuban farming development, this breed increase greatly their census from the beginning of the colonisation to the first half of the XVIIIth century, when their decreasing started as a consequence of the big expansion of tobacco and sugar Cain agriculture. In the present century this breed was in risk of extinction because the competence of improved foreign breeds, but presently this bred has gain god perspectives, because her role in the Cuban sustainable development.El origen del Cerdo Negro Criollo Cubano sigue siendo discutido, aunque la mayoría de los autores atribuyen su procedencia de los antiguos troncos ibéricos de España. Otras hipótesis plantean una posible influencia de los cerdos canarios prehispánicos e incluso el aporte reciente de sangre de las razas Duroc y Hampshire. Esta raza, coincidiendo con todo el desarrollo ganadero cubano, incrementó enormemente sus censos desde el inicio de la colonización hasta la primera mitad del siglo XVIII donde comenzó su declive a consecuencia de la gran expansión de la explotación tabacalera y de la caña de azúcar. En el presente siglo ha peligrado su conservación por la competencia de las razas selectas extranjeras aunque en la actualidad presenta unas excelentes perspectivas de recuperación dentro del desarrollo sostenible de Cuba

Behaviour of the descendent of cuban creole pigs

The present work was proposed to study the behaviour of the Cuban’s pig descendent derived of 27 sow and 5 boar and yours descendent from 93 calving. The animals were exploration by intensive system with lower quality supplements and sweet by sugarcane. The reproductive method utilised was the assisted mount. The results from piglets was: 7.52 total piglet was born; 6.77 piglets was born live; 6.42 weaning piglets; 0.912 kg means of the weight piglets was born live and 6.42 means of piglets weaning. The means of the Cubans Pigs observed in this study was similar with others Cuban and Spanish authors that study this kind of animals. There are differences between the Cubans Pigs and Iberians Pigs, were the Iberians Pigs showed the best weight was born.En este trabajo se estudió el comportamiento de las descendencias de un rebaño de cerdos Criollos Cubanos en pureza, formado por 27 cerdas y 5 sementales y sus descendencias procedentes de 93 partos, explotados en un sistema de crianza estabulado y con un régimen de alimentación basándose en pienso B de baja calidad y suplementados con mieles de caña de azúcar. El método reproductivo empleado fue la monta dirigida. Los resultados del comportamiento de algunos indicadores de camada fueron los siguientes: total de crías nacidas, 7,52; crías nacidas vivas, 6,77; crías destetadas, 6,42; peso promedio de las crías al nacer 0,912 kg y peso promedio de las crías al destete, 6,03 kg. En cuanto al comportamiento medio de las crías nacidas vivas y destetadas se corresponde con reportes de otros autores cubanos que estudian el Cerdo Criollo Cubano y con autores españoles respecto a las variedades del Ibérico. Las diferencias con los animales de este tronco se aprecian al comparar los pesos al nacimiento y a los 30 días de edad, donde el Criollo Cubano se ve superado por las distintas variedades de animales que le dieron origen

Cuban creole pig in Bayamo jurisdiction

The former jurisdiction of Bayamo, as political colonial division began its way in the century XVI, after its foundation in 1513 as the second Cuban village. Currently the Bayamo village is integrated by 15 local districts, an extension of 835.12 km2 and a population 68690 inhabitants. In spite of have elapsed more than 470 years from the arrival of the first pigs from Spain, this region has maintained 6176 breeders of this native pig breed as direct descendant of the Mediterranean pigs. In this work is presented the racial, ecological and human factors, that they have permitted the maintenance of this population with origin in the Iberian pig.La antigua jurisdicción de Bayamo, como división política de la colonia comenzó su andadura en el siglo XVI, tras su fundación en 1513 como la segunda villa de Cuba. Actualmente el municipio de Bayamo lo integran 15 consejos populares, una superficie de 835,12 km2 y una población de 68690 habitantes. A pesar de haber transcurrido más de 470 años desde la llegada de los primeros cerdos desde España, esta región ha mantenido 6176 reproductores de la raza cerdo Criollo como descendiente directo de los cerdos mediterráneos. En este trabajo se presenta los factores racial, ecológico y humano, que han permitido la perdurabilidad de esta raza descendiente del cerdo Ibérico

Genetic characterisation of the cuban creole pig with microsatellites

In this work the Criollo Cubano pig has been characterised to know how the breed is and to know the genetic relationships with the main varieties of the Iberian pig calculating genetic distances. It have been studied 93 animals of the Criollo Cubano pig breed belonging to the Entrepelado and Lampiño varieties. 20 microsatellites recommended by ISAG for porcine biodiversity studies. These markers were amplified by mean of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique and to get the size separation of the obtained fragments we have developed electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel in an automatic sequencer ABI377XL. All the microsatellites have been polymorphic and between 4 (S0227) and 12 (S0068) alleles have been found with an average value of 8.2. The expected heterozigosity has been 0.6535 and the observed heterozigosity 0.6335. The Nei"s Ds genetic distance between the Criollo Cubano and the Iberian pig has been calculated and an UPGMA tree has been built. Finally, distances between pairs of individuals (Dsa) have been calculated and an UPGMA individual tree has been built.En este trabajo caracteriza genéticamente el cerdo Criollo Cubano para conocer el estado en que se encuentra esta raza porcina, a la vez que se establecen las relaciones genéticas del mismo con las variedades principales del cerdo Ibérico mediante el cálculo de distancias genéticas. Se han analizado 93 muestras de cerdo Criollo Cubano pertenecientes a las variedades Entrepelado y Lampiño procedentes de la provincia de Granma y de La Habana (Cuba). Se han empleado 20 microsatélites de los recomendados por la FAO/ISAG (International Society of Animal Genetics) para estudios de biodiversidad porcina. Los microsatélites se han amplificado mediante la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR) y los fragmentos amplificados se han separado mediante electroforesis en un secuenciador automático ABI 377XL. Todos los microsatélites tipificados han resultado polimórficos y se han encontrado entre 4 alelos para el S0227 y 12 para el S0068, con un número medio de alelos de 8,2. La heterocigosidad media esperada ha sido 0,6535 y la observada 0,6335. Se ha calculado la distancia genética DS de Nei entre el cerdo Criollo Cubano y el cerdo Ibérico y se ha construido un árbol de distancias mediante el método de UPGMA. Por último, se han calculado las distancias entre pares de individuos (DSA) y con ellas se ha construido un árbol filogenético individual basado en el algoritmo UPGMA

Excited-state calculations with quantum Monte Carlo

Quantum Monte Carlo methods are first-principle approaches that approximately solve the Schr\"odinger equation stochastically. As compared to traditional quantum chemistry methods, they offer important advantages such as the ability to handle a large variety of many-body wave functions, the favorable scaling with the number of particles, and the intrinsic parallelism of the algorithms which are particularly suitable to modern massively parallel computers. In this chapter, we focus on the two quantum Monte Carlo approaches most widely used for electronic structure problems, namely, the variational and diffusion Monte Carlo methods. We give particular attention to the recent progress in the techniques for the optimization of the wave function, a challenging and important step to achieve accurate results in both the ground and the excited state. We conclude with an overview of the current status of excited-state calculations for molecular systems, demonstrating the potential of quantum Monte Carlo methods in this field of applications

BCI-Based Navigation in Virtual and Real Environments

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a system that enables people to control an external device with their brain activity, without the need of any muscular activity. Researchers in the BCI field aim to develop applications to improve the quality of life of severely disabled patients, for whom a BCI can be a useful channel for interaction with their environment. Some of these systems are intended to control a mobile device (e. g. a wheelchair). Virtual Reality is a powerful tool that can provide the subjects with an opportunity to train and to test different applications in a safe environment. This technical review will focus on systems aimed at navigation, both in virtual and real environments.This work was partially supported by the Innovation, Science and Enterprise Council of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain), project P07-TIC-03310, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, project TEC 2011-26395 and by the European fund ERDF

Opinion dynamics: models, extensions and external effects

Recently, social phenomena have received a lot of attention not only from social scientists, but also from physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists, in the emerging interdisciplinary field of complex system science. Opinion dynamics is one of the processes studied, since opinions are the drivers of human behaviour, and play a crucial role in many global challenges that our complex world and societies are facing: global financial crises, global pandemics, growth of cities, urbanisation and migration patterns, and last but not least important, climate change and environmental sustainability and protection. Opinion formation is a complex process affected by the interplay of different elements, including the individual predisposition, the influence of positive and negative peer interaction (social networks playing a crucial role in this respect), the information each individual is exposed to, and many others. Several models inspired from those in use in physics have been developed to encompass many of these elements, and to allow for the identification of the mechanisms involved in the opinion formation process and the understanding of their role, with the practical aim of simulating opinion formation and spreading under various conditions. These modelling schemes range from binary simple models such as the voter model, to multi-dimensional continuous approaches. Here, we provide a review of recent methods, focusing on models employing both peer interaction and external information, and emphasising the role that less studied mechanisms, such as disagreement, has in driving the opinion dynamics. [...]Comment: 42 pages, 6 figure

Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities

A golden age for heavy quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in 2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the $B$-factories and CLEO-c flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality, precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for continuing investigations. The plethora of newly-found quarkonium-like states unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c\bar{c}, b\bar{b}, and b\bar{c} bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. The intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing directions for ongoing and future efforts.Comment: 182 pages, 112 figures. Editors: N. Brambilla, S. Eidelman, B. K. Heltsley, R. Vogt. Section Coordinators: G. T. Bodwin, E. Eichten, A. D. Frawley, A. B. Meyer, R. E. Mitchell, V. Papadimitriou, P. Petreczky, A. A. Petrov, P. Robbe, A. Vair