Genetic parameters of sow feed efficiency during lactation and its underlying traits in a Duroc population

As a result of the genetic selection for prolificacy and the improvements in the environment and farms management, litter size has increased in the last few years so that energy requirements of the lactating sow are greater. In addition, selection for feed efficiency of growing pigs is also conducted in maternal lines, and this has led to a decrease in appetite and feed intake that is extended to the lactation period, so the females are not able to obtain the necessary energy and nutrients for milk production and they mobilize their energetic reserves. When this mobilization is excessive, reproductive and health problems occur which ends up in an early sow culling. In this context, it has been suggested to improve feed efficiency at lactation through genetic selection. The aim of this study is to know, in a Duroc population, the genetic determinism of sow feed efficiency during lactation and traits involved in its definition, as well as genetic and environmental associations between them. The studied traits are daily lactation feed intake (dLFI), daily sow weight balance (dSWB), backfat thickness balance (BFTB), daily litter weight gain (dLWG), sow residual feed intake (RFI) and sow restricted residual feed intake (RRFI) during lactation. Data corresponded to 851 parities from 581 Duroc sows. A Bayesian analysis was performed using Gibbs sampling. A four-trait repeatability animal model was implemented including the systematic factors of batch and parity order, the standardized covariates of sow weight (SWf) and litter weight (LWs) at farrowing for all traits and lactation length for BFTB. The posterior mean (posterior SD) of heritabilities were: 0.09 (0.03) for dLFI, 0.37 (0.07) for dSWB, 0.09 (0.03) for BFTB, 0.22 (0.05) for dLWG, 0.04 (0.02) for RFI and null for RRFI. The genetic correlation between dLFI and dSWB was high and positive (0.74 (0.11)) and null between dLFI and BFTB. Genetic correlation was favourable between RFI and dLFI and BFTB (0.71 (0.16) and −0.69 (0.18)), respectively. The other genetic correlations were not statistically different from zero. The phenotypic correlations were low and positive between dLFI and dSWB (0.27 (0.03), dSWB and BFTB (0.25 (0.04)), and between dLFI and dLWG (0.16 (0.03)). Therefore, in the population under study, the improvement of the lactation feed efficiency would be possible either using RFI, which would not have unfavourable correlated effects, or through an index including its component traits.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A compositional genetic analysis of oleic acid content in pig meat

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content and composition, particularly the oleic fatty acid content (OL), are major quality characteristics of pork fresh and dry-cured products. They are known to be related to nutritional, manufacturing and organoleptic properties, as well as to human health. It is known that IMF content is under genetic control but little evidence is available for IMF composition, namely OL. There are very few estimates in the literature regarding genetic parameters for OL (Suzuki et al., 2006) and, besides, most of them are based on small data sets from experiments designed for other purposes (Ntawubizi et al., 2010; Sellier et al., 2010). However, genetic parameters associated to IMF and OL (i.e. heritability and genetic correlations with other relevant traits) are needed for developing selection criteria and optimum breeding strategies and programmes. IMF content is usually expressed in percent of dry or wet matter and OL in percent of total fatty acids in IMF. However, all research done in this field was not aware of the compositional nature of these data (Aitchison, 1986). The purpose of the present contribution is to compare results from standard linear with compositional data analyses for IMF and OL. Analyses were compared in terms of genetic parameter estimates, selection efficiency, and predictive capacity

Exploratory data analysis for fatty acid composition in pig meat

Fat content and composition are determinant factors affecting pork production and meat quality (Wood et al., 2003). Fat composition is commonly presented as the percentage of each individual fatty acid relative to total fatty acids and then some pork quality traits are described in terms of some fatty acid percentages (see for example the review by Wood et al., 2008). Despite being compositional in nature, to our knowledge there is no reference in the literature where specific compositional data analysis methods had been applied to analyze fatty acid composition. A first objective of this contribution is to analyze fatty acid composition as compositional data. In meat quality research, it is common to analyze the effect of some influential factors (such as diet, genotype, gender, live weight or age, among others) on fat content and composition, usually the subcutaneous (SF) or the intramuscular (IMF) fats. In these studies, the aim is mostly to estimate and then test the differences among treatments for fatty acid percentages. The pattern of fatty acid deposition may differ among tissue (for instance, SF or IMF) or muscle (Kloareg et al., 2007; Duran-Montgé et al., 2008), and even between localization within a specific tissue. A second objective of this manuscript is to better know the differences between fatty acid deposition pattern between tissues, localization within a tissue, and muscles. Thus, the purpose of the present study is, first, to describe a data set of fatty acid composition collected specifically for doing research on IMF content and composition and assess the main differences among IMF of three muscles and SF using compositional data methods, and, second, to apply, as a case study, specific compositional data methods to discriminate between samples of IMF and SF by fatty acid composition and compare the results with the obtained when using the traditional approach

Algunos datos edáficos del yacimiento arqueológico de Aparrea (Navarra)

Por encargo de Dra. A. Castiella del departamento de Arqueología de la Universidad de Navarra, se hicieron una serie de estudios analíticos (granulometría, pH, carbonatos, materia orgánica y fósforo) sobre 14 muestras de una serie de "hoyos" de un yacimiento arqueológico situado en Biurrun (Navarra). Por diferentes motivos los resultados de estos parámetros tuvieron un escaso poder discriminante para significar diferencias substanciales entre las diferentes muestras. Paralelamente se realizaron por el mismo Departamento de Química y Edafología observaciones macro- y mesoscópicas de la estructura de las muestras lo cual ha permitido establecer una serie de hipótesis en cuanto al origen y manipulación de dichas estructuras arqueológicas. Dichos resultados se exponen a continuación

Longitudinal deep learning clustering of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus trajectories using routinely collected health records

Altres ajuts: Networking Biomedical Research Centre in the subject area of Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN); Instituto de Investigación Carlos III (ISCIII); CIBER of Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM).Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a highly heterogeneous chronic disease with different pathophysiological and genetic characteristics affecting its progression, associated complications and response to therapies. The advances in deep learning (DL) techniques and the availability of a large amount of healthcare data allow us to investigate T2DM characteristics and evolution with a completely new approach, studying common disease trajectories rather than cross sectional values. We used an Kernelized-AutoEncoder algorithm to map 5 years of data of 11,028 subjects diagnosed with T2DM in a latent space that embedded similarities and differences between patients in terms of the evolution of the disease. Once we obtained the latent space, we used classical clustering algorithms to create longitudinal clusters representing different evolutions of the diabetic disease. Our unsupervised DL clustering algorithm suggested seven different longitudinal clusters. Different mean ages were observed among the clusters (ranging from 65.3±11.6 to 72.8±9.4). Subjects in clusters B (Hypercholesteraemic) and E (Hypertensive) had shorter diabetes duration (9.2±3.9 and 9.5±3.9 years respectively). Subjects in Cluster G (Metabolic) had the poorest glycaemic control (mean glycated hemoglobin 7.99±1.42%), while cluster E had the best one (mean glycated hemoglobin 7.04±1.11%). Obesity was observed mainly in clusters A (Neuropathic), C (Multiple Complications), F (Retinopathy) and G. A dashboard is available at dm2.b2slab.upc.edu to visualize the different trajectories corresponding to the 7 clusters

Acoustic properties of agroforestry waste orange pruning fibers reinforced polypropylene composites as an alternative to laminated gypsum boards

The present paper investigates the acoustic properties of natural fiber reinforced composites. Fibers from orange tree pruning were obtained and subject to different treatments in order to obtain mechanical, thermomechanical and chemi-thermomechanical pulps. These pulps were used as reinforcement for a polypropylene matrix. The obtained composite materials were submitted to acoustical tests in an impedance tubes device. The transmission losses obtained against the fiber content were obtained and discussed. Latter it was researched the influence of the fiber treatments on the soundproof characteristics. A numerical method was used to preview the acoustic insulation of the materials against the sound frequency. Finally the results were compared with that of the most usual lightweight soundproof solutions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Reixach, R.; Rey Tormos, RMD.; Alba Fernández, J.; Arbat, G.; Espinach, FX.; Mutjé, P. (2015). Acoustic properties of agroforestry waste orange pruning fibers reinforced polypropylene composites as an alternative to laminated gypsum boards. Construction and Building Materials. 77:124-129. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.12.041S1241297

Mapping of quantitative trait loci for cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglyceride serum concentrations in pigs

The fine mapping of polymorphisms influencing cholesterol (CT), triglyceride (TG), and lipoprotein serum levels in human and mouse has provided a wealth of knowledge about the complex genetic architecture of these traits. The extension of these genetic analyses to pigs would be of utmost importance since they constitute a valuable biological and clinical model for the study of coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. In the present work, we performed a whole genome scan for serum lipid traits in a half-sib Duroc pig population of 350 individuals. Phenotypic registers included total CT, TG, and low (LDL)- and high (HDL)-density lipoprotein serum concentrations at 45 and 190 days of age. This approach allowed us to identify two genomewide significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for HDL-to-LDL ratio at 45 days (SSC6, 84 cM) and for TG at 190 days (SSC4, 23 cM) as well as a number of chromosomewide significant QTL. The comparison of QTL locations at 45 and 190 days revealed a notable lack of concordance at these two time points, suggesting that the effects of these QTL are age specific. Moreover, we have observed a considerable level of correspondence among the locations of the most significant porcine lipid QTL and those identified in humans. This finding might suggest that, in mammals, diverse polymorphisms located in a common set of genes are involved in the genetic variation of serum lipid levels.The work was funded by Grants AGL2002-04271-C03 and AGL2007-66707-C02 (Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Spain). D. Gallardo was funded with a fellowship from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. R. N. Pena received a contractual grant from Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Agropecuaria (Spain).Peer reviewe

Iodine Atoms: A New Molecular Feature for the Design of Potent Transthyretin Fibrillogenesis Inhibitors

The thyroid hormone and retinol transporter protein known as transthyretin (TTR) is in the origin of one of the 20 or so known amyloid diseases. TTR self assembles as a homotetramer leaving a central hydrophobic channel with two symmetrical binding sites. The aggregation pathway of TTR into amiloid fibrils is not yet well characterized but in vitro binding of thyroid hormones and other small organic molecules to TTR binding channel results in tetramer stabilization which prevents amyloid formation in an extent which is proportional to the binding constant. Up to now, TTR aggregation inhibitors have been designed looking at various structural features of this binding channel others than its ability to host iodine atoms. In the present work, greatly improved inhibitors have been designed and tested by taking into account that thyroid hormones are unique in human biochemistry owing to the presence of multiple iodine atoms in their molecules which are probed to interact with specific halogen binding domains sitting at the TTR binding channel. The new TTR fibrillogenesis inhibitors are based on the diflunisal core structure because diflunisal is a registered salicylate drug with NSAID activity now undergoing clinical trials for TTR amyloid diseases. Biochemical and biophysical evidence confirms that iodine atoms can be an important design feature in the search for candidate drugs for TTR related amyloidosis

Cholera Toxin B Subunits Assemble into Pentamers - Proposition of a Fly-Casting Mechanism

The cholera toxin B pentamer (CtxB5), which belongs to the AB5 toxin family, is used as a model study for protein assembly. The effect of the pH on the reassembly of the toxin was investigated using immunochemical, electrophoretic and spectroscopic methods. Three pH-dependent steps were identified during the toxin reassembly: (i) acquisition of a fully assembly-competent fold by the CtxB monomer, (ii) association of CtxB monomer into oligomers, (iii) acquisition of the native fold by the CtxB pentamer. The results show that CtxB5 and the related heat labile enterotoxin LTB5 have distinct mechanisms of assembly despite sharing high sequence identity (84%) and almost identical atomic structures. The difference can be pinpointed to four histidines which are spread along the protein sequence and may act together. Thus, most of the toxin B amino acids appear negligible for the assembly, raising the possibility that assembly is driven by a small network of amino acids instead of involving all of them