Genetic architecture of rainbow trout survival from egg to adult

Survival from birth to a reproductive adult is a challenge that only robust individuals resistant to a variety of mortality factors will overcome. To assess whether survival traits share genetic architecture throughout the life cycle, we estimated genetic correlations for survival within fingerling stage, and across egg, fingerling and grow-out stages in farmed rainbow trout. Genetic parameters of survival at three life cycle stages were estimated for 249 166 individuals originating from ten year classes of a pedigreed population. Despite being an important fitness component, survival traits harboured significant but modest amount of genetic variation (h2=0·07–0·27). Weak associations between survival during egg-fry and fingerling periods, between early and late fingerling periods (rG=0·30) and generally low genetic correlations between fingerling and grow-out survival (mean rG=0·06) suggested that life-stage specific survival traits are best regarded as separate traits. However, in the sub-set of data with detailed time of death records, positive genetic correlations between early and late fingerling survival (rG=0·89) showed that during certain years the best genotypes in the early period were also among the best in the late period. That survival across fingerling period can be genetically the same, trait was indicated also by only slightly higher heritability (h2=0·15) estimated with the survival analysis of time to death during fingerling period compared to the analysis treating fingerling survival as a binary character (h2=0·11). The results imply that (1) inherited resistance against unknown mortality factors exists, but (2) ranking of genotypes changes across life stages

Can houseplants improve indoor air quality by removing CO2 and increasing relative humidity?

High indoor CO2 concentrations and low relative humidity (RH) create an array of well-documented human health issues. Therefore, assessing houseplants’ potential as a low-cost approach to CO2 removal and increasing RH is important. We investigated how environmental factors such as ’dry’ ( 0.30 m3 m-3) growing substrates, and indoor light levels (‘low’ 10 µmol m-2 s-1, ‘high’ 50 µmol m-2 s-1 and ‘very high’ 300 µmol m-2 s-1), influence the plants’ net CO2 assimilation (‘A’) and water-vapour loss. Seven common houseplant taxa – representing a variety of leaf types, metabolisms and sizes – were studied for their ability to assimilate CO2 across a range of indoor light levels. Additionally, to assess the plants’ potential contribution to RH increase, the plants’ evapo-transpiration (ET) was measured. At typical ‘low’ indoor light levels ‘A’ rates were generally low (< 3.9 mg hr-1). Differences between ‘dry’ and ’wet’ plants at typical indoor light levels were negligible in terms of room-level impact. Light compensation points (i.e. light levels at which plants have positive ‘A’) were in the typical indoor light range (1-50 µmol m-2 s-1) only for two studied Spathiphyllum wallisii cultivars and Hedera helix; these plants would thus provide the best CO2 removal indoors. Additionally, increasing indoor light levels to 300 µmol m-2 s-1 would, in most species, significantly increase their potential to assimilate CO2. Species which assimilated the most CO2 also contributed most to increasing RH

Gene profiling of the erythro- and megakaryoblastic leukaemias induced by the Graffi murine retrovirus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute erythro- and megakaryoblastic leukaemias are associated with very poor prognoses and the mechanism of blastic transformation is insufficiently elucidated. The murine Graffi leukaemia retrovirus induces erythro- and megakaryoblastic leukaemias when inoculated into NFS mice and represents a good model to study these leukaemias.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To expand our understanding of genes specific to these leukaemias, we compared gene expression profiles, measured by microarray and RT-PCR, of all leukaemia types induced by this virus.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The transcriptome level changes, present between the different leukaemias, led to the identification of specific cancerous signatures. We reported numerous genes that may be potential oncogenes, may have a function related to erythropoiesis or megakaryopoiesis or have a poorly elucidated physiological role. The expression pattern of these genes has been further tested by RT-PCR in different samples, in a Friend erythroleukaemic model and in human leukaemic cell lines.</p> <p>We also screened the megakaryoblastic leukaemias for viral integrations and identified genes targeted by these integrations and potentially implicated in the onset of the disease.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taken as a whole, the data obtained from this global gene profiling experiment have provided a detailed characterization of Graffi virus induced erythro- and megakaryoblastic leukaemias with many genes reported specific to the transcriptome of these leukaemias for the first time.</p

Interaction between plant species and substrate type in the removal of CO2 indoors

Elevated indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide [CO2] cause health issues, increase workplace absenteeism and reduce cognitive performance. Plants can be part of the solution, reducing indoor [CO2] and acting as a low-cost supplement to building ventilation systems. Our earlier work on a selection of structurally and functionally different indoor plants identified a range of leaf-level CO2 removal rates, when plants were grown in one type of substrate. The work presented here brings the research much closer to real indoor environments by investigating CO2 removal at a whole-plant level and in different substrates. Specifically, we measured how the change of growing substrate affects plants’ capacity to reduce CO2 concentrations. Spathiphyllum wallisii 'Verdi', Dracaena fragrans 'Golden Coast' and Hedera helix, representing a range of leaf types and sizes and potted in two different substrates, were tested. Potted plants were studied in a 0.15 m3 chamber under ‘very high’ (22000 lux), ‘low’ (~ 500 lux) and ‘no’ light (0 lux) in ‘wet’ (> 30 %) and ‘dry’ (< 20 %) substrate. At ‘no’ and ‘low’ indoor light, houseplants increased the CO2 concentration in both substrates; respiration rates, however, were deemed negligible in terms of the contribution to a room-level concentration, as they added ~ 0.6% of a human’s contribution. In ‘very high’ light D. fragrans, in substrate 2, showed potential to reduce [CO2] to a near-ambient (600 ppm) concentration in a shorter timeframe (12 hrs, e.g. overnight) and S. wallisii over a longer period (36 hrs, e.g. weekend)

Towards an ontology of software maintenance

We suggest that empirical studies of maintenance are difficult to understand unless the context of the study is fully defined. We developed a preliminary ontology to identify a number of factors that influence maintenance. The purpose of the ontology is to identify factors that would affect the results of empirical studies. We present the ontology in the form of a UML model. Using the maintenance factors included in the ontology, we define two common maintenance scenarios and consider the industrial issues associated with them

The Impact of Listening to Music on Analgesic Use and Length of Hospital Stay While Recovering from Laparotomy

Postoperative pain management is based on the use of analgesics; however, music may alleviate pain either by direct analgesic effects or by relaxing and distracting the mind from pain and unpleasant feelings. Conflicting results have been presented about how listening to music affects analgesic use and length of hospital stay after surgery. We assessed the effect of music listening on analgesic use, length of hospital stay, and adverse effects in adult patients having laparotomy, using a prospective design with two parallel groups. Patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery (n = 168) were assigned to either a music group (n = 83) operated on odd weeks or a control group (n = 85) operated on even weeks. The music group listened to music 7 times for 30 minutes at a time during the first 3 postoperative days. The control group did not listen to the music. The hypotheses that patients in the music group will need less analgesic, have a shorter length of hospital stay, and experience less adverse effects than those in the control group were not supported by the data, although patients recovering from surgery enjoyed listening to music. Music listening may enhance quality of hospital stay and recovery in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery and could be a useful tool to relieve the patient\u27s pain experience