Genomic basis of growth traits and host resistance against sea lice (L. Salmonis) in Atlantic salmon (S. Salar)

Background Atlantic salmon (Salmo Salar) is a key aquaculture species in several countries. Since its critical role in economic sector and scientific research, this species has been relatively extensively investigated, in comparison with other farmed and wild aquatic species. However, the genetic components associated with growth and fillet-related traits are lack consistency, and the issue of sea louse disease in both wild and famed salmon is still unsolved. Objectives Overall aim of this project was to understand the genetic basis of growth-related traits and host resistance to sea lice using three large commercial farmed salmon populations. Specifically, the method of quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, genome-wide association study (GWAS), and genomic prediction (GS) were utilized to dissect the genetic architectures associated with traits of interest in our experimental populations. Prior to this, linkage mapping was performed to construct a high-density linkage map for Atlantic salmon. Results Linkage map A linkage map was firstly constructed underlying a SNP array containing 132 K validated SNPs. 96,396 SNPs were successfully assigned to 29 chromosomes that correspond to the linkage group number of European Atlantic salmon. 6.5 % of unassigned contigs, which was equal to 1 % of recent whole genome reference assembly (GCA_000233375.4) anchored to exist chromosomes by referring to linkage mapping result. Genetic components associated with growth traits Heritabilities of growth-related traits were about 0.5 to 0.6 in adult and juvenile farmed salmon. The QTL mapping and GWAS suggested the growth-related traits are likely a polygenic genetic architecture with no major QTL segregating. The prediction accuracy estimated by genomic prediction showed that approximately 5,000 SNP markers could achieve the highest accuracy in body weight and length in juvenile salmon within population. Genetic components associated with lice resistance The heritability of lice resistance was 0.22 to 0.33 using pedigree and genetic relationship matrices respectively. GWAS indicated that the host resistance to sea lice was likely polygenic with no individual SNP surpassed the genome-wide significance threshold. Genomic prediction showed that about 5 to 10 K SNPs was able to achieve the asymptote of accuracy in closely related animals, while the greatest advantage of genomic prediction was observed in non-sibling test within population. Conclusions As the growth-related traits and lice resistance are both likely polygenic and population-specific, the genomic prediction is an efficient approach to capture the genetic variances of the traits in selection candidates in experimental population, especially for traits with low heritability such as flesh colour and lice resistance. Family-based selection method is the better choice than mass selection to accumulate the genetic effects in corresponding SNP platform. Given the high cost of genotyping and field data collection, the genotyping-by-sequencing and genotype imputation are likely the way to make significant improvements in relevant research

Associations among systemic blood pressure, microalbuminuria and albuminuria in dogs affected with pituitary- and adrenal-dependent hyperadrenocorticism

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hypertension and proteinuria are medical complications associated with the multisystemic effects of long-term hypercortisolism in dogs with hyperadrenocorticism (HAC).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study investigated the relationships among adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-stimulation test results, systemic blood pressure, and microalbuminuria in clinically-healthy dogs (n = 100), in dogs affected with naturally occurring pituitary-dependent (PDH; n = 40), or adrenal-dependent hyperadrenocorticism (ADH; n = 30).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean systemic blood pressure was similar between clinically healthy dogs and dogs with HAC (<it>p </it>= 0.803). However the incidence of hypertension was highest in dogs with ADH (<it>p = 0.017</it>), followed by dogs with PDH, with the lowest levels in clinically healthy dogs (<it>p = 0.019</it>). Presence of microalbuminuria and albuminuria in clinically healthy dogs and dogs affected with HAC was significantly different (<it>p </it>< 0.001); incidences of albuminuria followed the same pattern of hypertension; highest incidence in dogs with ADH, and lowest level in clinically healthy dogs; but microalbuminuria showed a different pattern: clinically healthy dogs had highest incidences and dogs with ADH had lowest incidence. The presence of albuminuria was not associated with blood pressure values, regardless of whether dogs were clinically healthy or affected with ADH or PDH (<it>p </it>= 0.306).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Higher incidence of hypertension and albuminuria, not microalbuminuria was seen in dogs affected with HAC compared to clinically healthy dogs; incidence of hypertension and albuminuria was significantly higher in dogs affected with ADH compared to PDH. However, presence of albuminuria was not correlated with systemic blood pressure.</p

The Impact of Product innovation on Performance: The Influence of Uncertainty and Managerial Accounting Information Systems

This paper reports on a survey of Taiwanese high-tech firms, using a path analysis to examine the effects of managerial accounting information systems (MAIS) on the relationship between product innovation and organizational performance. Two of the major characteristics suggested by Chenhall and Morris (1986), broad scope and timeliness, are systematically related to the subject matter of this study, thus, employing these two characteristics to explore the connection between MAIS, product innovation and organizational performance. We find that product innovation has a positive effect on organizational performance through the use of MAIS, and find the extent of this positive effect is more significant in business environments marked by high levels of uncertainty. This study provides evidence to understand whether product innovation requires more extensive use of MAIS in highly uncertain environments and whether the use of MAIS can improve organizational performance. The results also help practicing managers realize the importance of MAIS in modern organizations and the benefits of using MAIS to the organization. Finally, we remind managers engaging in product innovation practices that they should place importance on the use of MAIS, because traditional cost control systems no longer help in solving the problems that are specific to the current, modern business environment

The Effects of Green Energy Production on Farmland: A Case Study in Yunlin County, Taiwan

Taiwan enacted the Act of Renewable Energy in the year 2009 which promotes energy safety, green economy, and a sustainable environment, and with that the government envisages a contribution of photovoltaic energy of up to 20% by the year 2025. In this study we look into the motivation and background of this energy policy, plans for implementation and associated challenges, and its actual consequences for farmland use and farmers. In addition, we take a look into the implementation of mixed-use farmland in which agricultural activity and photovoltaic installations are planned to coexist in order to increase land value and productivity. We furthermore report on some of our findings related to a field survey conducted in Taiwan’s corn chamber of Yunlin County which has been facing a number of socioeconomic challenges

ECG Signal Super-resolution by Considering Reconstruction and Cardiac Arrhythmias Classification Loss

With recent advances in deep learning algorithms, computer-assisted healthcare services have rapidly grown, especially for those that combine with mobile devices. Such a combination enables wearable and portable services for continuous measurements and facilitates real-time disease alarm based on physiological signals, e.g., cardiac arrhythmias (CAs) from electrocardiography (ECG). However, long-term and continuous monitoring confronts challenges arising from limitations of batteries, and the transmission bandwidth of devices. Therefore, identifying an effective way to improve ECG data transmission and storage efficiency has become an emerging topic. In this study, we proposed a deep-learning-based ECG signal super-resolution framework (termed ESRNet) to recover compressed ECG signals by considering the joint effect of signal reconstruction and CA classification accuracies. In our experiments, we downsampled the ECG signals from the CPSC 2018 dataset and subsequently evaluated the super-resolution performance by both reconstruction errors and classification accuracies. Experimental results showed that the proposed ESRNet framework can well reconstruct ECG signals from the 10-times compressed ones. Moreover, approximately half of the CA recognition accuracies were maintained within the ECG signals recovered by the ESRNet. The promising results confirm that the proposed ESRNet framework can be suitably used as a front-end process to reconstruct compressed ECG signals in real-world CA recognition scenarios

Modeling Ligand-Receptor Interaction for Some MHC Class II HLA-DR4 Peptide Mimetic Inhibitors Using Several Molecular Docking and 3D QSAR Techniques

The ligand-receptor interaction between some peptidomimetic inhibitors and a class II MHC peptide presenting molecule, the HLA-DR4 receptor, was modeled using some three-dimensional (3D) quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) methods such as the Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA), Comparative Molecular Similarity Indices Analysis (CoMSIA), and a pharmacophore building method, the Catalyst program. The structures of these peptidomimetic inhibitors were generated theoretically, and the conformations used in the 3D QSAR studies were defined by docking them into the known structure of HLA-DR4 receptor through the GOLD, GLIDE Rigidly, GLIDE Flexible, and Xscore programs. Some of the parameters used in these docking programs were selected by docking an X-ray ligand into the receptor and comparing the root-means-square difference (RMSD) computed between the coordinates of the X-ray and docked structure. However, the goodness of a docking result for docking a series of peptidomimetic inhibitors into the HLA-DR4 receptor was judged by comparing the Spearman&apos;s rank correlation coefficient computed between each docking result and the activity data taken from the literature. The best CoMFA and CoMSIA models were constructed using the aligned structures of the best docking result. The CoMSIA was conducted in a stepwise manner to identify some important molecular features that were further employed in a pharmacophore building process by the Catalyst program. It was found that most inhibitors of the training set were accurately predicted by the best pharmacophore model, the Hypo1 hypothesis constructed. The deviation or conflict found between the actual and predicted activities of some inhibitors of both the training and the test sets were also investigated by mapping the Hypo1 hypothesis onto the corresponding structures of the inhibitors

Enhancement of external wall decoration material for the building in safety inspection method

As buildings wear out, external wall tiles or attachments will usually fall off, sometimes causing human injuries. At present, the method employed for middle-high rise buildings is mainly the method of visual inspection. The inspection results in using this method are affected by the factors of subjectivity, safety and cost. This study aims to provide a lowercost and more efficient evaluation method for inspecting the status of buildings’ external walls. This proposed method implements Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) technology and high-resolution photographic equipment on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which can improve the image recording of the detection process, as well as the overall visual detection technology, and solve the existing visual detection problem of inspectors. Also, the images detected by visual inspection and UAV high-resolution video are used to develop a suitable visual evaluation process and test table for external walls. Through the test results of several cases, the deterioration status and needs for maintenance are taken into account according to the degree of performance indicators. The findings of the study is that the proposed mechanism is more efficient and lower cost for the detection of external walls or ancillary structures’ abnormal status, which is easy to use in practice

AMP-activated protein kinase activation mediates CCL3-induced cell migration and matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression in human chondrosarcoma

Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3 (CCL3), also known as macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, is a cytokine involved in inflammation and activation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. CCL3 has been detected in infiltrating cells and tumor cells. Chondrosarcoma is a highly malignant tumor that causes distant metastasis. However, the effect of CCL3 on human chondrosarcoma metastasis is still unknown. Here, we found that CCL3 increased cellular migration and expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 in human chondrosarcoma cells. Pre-treatment of cells with the MMP-2 inhibitor or transfection with MMP-2 specific siRNA abolished CCL3-induced cell migration. CCL3 has been reported to exert its effects through activation of its specific receptor, CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5). The CCR5 and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor or siRNA also attenuated CCL3-upregulated cell motility and MMP-2 expression. CCL3-induced expression of MMP-2 and migration were also inhibited by specific inhibitors, and inactive mutants of AMPK, p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 or p38-MAPK), and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) cascades. On the other hand, CCL3 treatment demonstrably activated AMPK, p38, and NF-κB signaling pathways. Furthermore, the expression levels of CCL3, CCR5, and MMP-2 were correlated in human chondrosarcoma specimens. Taken together, our results indicate that CCL3 enhances the migratory ability of human chondrosarcoma cells by increasing MMP-2 expression via the CCR5, AMPK, p38, and NF-κB pathways