Estimation of pedigree errors in the UK dairy population using microsatellite markers and the impact on selection

The proportion of cows in the UK dairy herd whose sires were misidentified was estimated using DNA markers. Genetic marker genotypes were determined on 568 cows (from 168 milk samples and 400 hair samples) and 96 putative sires (from semen samples). The estimated pedigree error rate from the hair samples was 8.8%, and from the milk samples, 13.1%, giving an overall estimate of the error rate of 10%. This level of pedigree errors will have a relatively large impact on the efficiency of progeny testing and the accuracy of cow predicted breeding values. We predict a loss of response to selection of approximately 2 to 3% given this error rate

SOAR (Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research) Annual Report 1995/1996

The Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR) was a facility of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs whose mission is to make airborne geophysical observations available to the broad research community of geology, glaciology and other sciences. The central office of the SOAR facility is located in Austin, Texas within the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. Other institutions with significant responsibilities are the Lamont­ Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Geophysics Branch of the U.S . Geological Survey. This report summarizes the goals and accomplishments of the SOAR facility during 1995/1996 and plans for the next year.National Science Foundation's Office of Polar ProgramsInstitute for Geophysic

Transition to management -- A personal perspective

This paper explores one woman`s journey through her recent promotion into management, and will identify key factors that helped prepare and position her to be ready to exercise leadership through a formal management role. It discusses assessment of qualifications and skills, acquisition of needed skills, the influence of luck and timing, and the use of mentors and delegation as survival skills to get through the transition period and become fully functional as a manager. It also includes insights into sensitive issues such as how to relate to former peers, how to gain credibility as the junior member of the management team, and how to juggle family responsibilities with increased time commitments at work. It emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the help the authors receive in reaching their own career goals and offering the same kind of help and support to those in the early stages of their careers

The best fitting multi-Bernoulli filter

Recent derivations have shown that the full Bayes random finite set filter incorporates a linear combination of multi- Bernoulli distributions. The full filter is intractable as the number of terms in the linear combination grows exponentially with the number of targets; this is the problem of data association. A highly desirable approximation would be to find the multi-Bernoulli distribution that is closest to the full distribution in some sense, such as the set Kullback-Leibler divergence. This paper proposes an approximate method for achieving this, which can be interpreted as an application of the well-known expectation-maximisation (EM) algorithm.Jason L. William

Using learning design as a framework for supporting the design and reuse of OER

The paper will argue that adopting a learning design methodology may provide a vehicle for enabling better design and reuse of Open Educational Resources (OERs). It will describe a learning design methodology, which is being developed and implemented at the Open University in the UK. The aim is to develop a 'pick and mix' learning design toolbox of different resources and tools to help designers/teachers make informed decisions about creating new or adapting existing learning activities. The methodology is applicable for designers/teachers designing in a traditional context – such as creation of materials as part of a formal curriculum, but also has value for those wanting to create OERs or adapt and repurpose existing OERs. With the increasing range of OERs now available through initiatives as part of the Open Courseware movement, we believe that methodologies, such as the one we describe in this paper, which can help guide reuse and adaptation will become increasingly important and arguably are an important aspect of ensuring longer term sustainability and uptake of OERs. Our approach adopts an empirically based approach to understanding and representing the design process. This includes a range of evaluation studies (capturing of case studies, interviews with designers/teachers, in-depth course evaluation and focus groups/workshops), which are helping to develop our understanding of how designers/teachers go about creating new learning activities. Alongside this we are collating an extensive set of tools and resources to support the design process, as well as developing a new Learning Design tool that helps teachers articulate and represent their design ideas. The paper will describe how we have adapted a mind mapping and argumentation tool, Compendium, for this purpose and how it is being used to help designers and teachers create and share learning activities. It will consider how initial evaluation of the use of the tool for learning design has been positive; users report that the tool is easy to use and helps them organise and articulate their learning designs. Importantly the tool also enables them to share and discuss their thinking about the design process. However it is also clear that visualising the design process is only one aspect of design, which is complex and multi-faceted

SOAR (Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research) Annual Report 1996/1997

The Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR) was a facility of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs whose mission is to make airborne geophysical observations available to the broad research community of geology, glaciology and other sciences. The central office of the SOAR facility is located in Austin, Texas within the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. Other institutions with significant responsibilities are the Lamont­ Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Geophysics Branch of the U.S . Geological Survey. This report summarizes the goals and accomplishments of the SOAR facility during 1996/1997 and plans for the next year.National Science Foundation's Office of Polar ProgramsInstitute for Geophysic

Career toolbox - the decision paper: A tool to facilitate decision-making

Guidelines for writing a decision paper are presented. The purpose of the decision paper is to present complex issues in an organized format; it is especially helpful when timeliness is important. The writing style and format of the decision paper are described. The format for a decision paper includes the issue or problem statement, relevant background material, options or alternatives, discussion, recommendation, coordination/endorsement, and record of decision

Investing in health to improve the sustainability of cattle production in the United Kingdom: a narrative review

Livestock health is a key concern for all food system stakeholders and has considerable impacts upon sustainable food production. Improving productivity means that a set quantity of milk or meat may be produced at a lower economic cost, using fewer resources and with reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe); however, diseases that reduce yield, growth or fertility have the opposite effect. The purpose of this narrative review was to assess the breadth of economic and environmental sustainability information relating to cattle health within the literature and to discuss related knowledge gaps within the literature. The mechanisms by which improved awareness and investment can lead to improved cattle health both on-farm and across the wider cattle industry are also appraised; concluding with the opportunities and challenges still outstanding in improving sustainability through livestock health. The economic and environmental impacts of cattle health have not been sufficiently quantified in the literature to draw valid conclusions regarding the sustainability impact of different diseases. Where available, economic data tended to be dated or extremely variable. Furthermore, environmental analyses did not use consistent methodologies and principally focused on GHGe, with little attention paid to other metrics. Although reducing disease severity or occurrence reduced GHGe, published impacts of disease varied from 1% to 40% with little apparent association between GHGe and industry-wide economic cost. An urgent need therefore exists to standardise methodologies and quantify disease impacts using a common baseline with up-to-date data inputs. Given the threat of antimicrobial resistance, improving cattle health through technology adoption and vaccine use would be expected to have positive impacts on social acceptability, especially if these improvements rendered milk and meat more affordable to the consumer. Therefore, it is important for cattle producers and allied industry to take a proactive approach to improving cattle health and welfare, with particular focus on diseases that have the greatest implications for sustainability

A geostatistical methodology to assess the accuracy of unsaturated flow models

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory spatiotemporal movement of water injected into (PNNL) has developed a Hydrologic unsaturated sediments at the Hanford Site in Evaluation Methodology (HEM) to assist the Washington State was used to develop a new U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in method for evaluating mathematical model evaluating the potential that infiltrating meteoric predictions. Measured water content data were water will produce leachate at commercial low- interpolated geostatistically to a 16 x 16 x 36 level radioactive waste disposal sites. Two key grid at several time intervals. Then a issues are raised in the HEM: (1) evaluation of mathematical model was used to predict water mathematical models that predict facility content at the same grid locations at the selected performance, and (2) estimation of the times. Node-by-node comparison of the uncertainty associated with these mathematical mathematical model predictions with the model predictions. The technical objective of geostatistically interpolated values was this research is to adapt geostatistical tools conducted. The method facilitates a complete commonly used for model parameter estimation accounting and categorization of model error at to the problem of estimating the spatial every node. The comparison suggests that distribution of the dependent variable to be model results generally are within measurement calculated by the model. To fulfill this error. The worst model error occurs in silt objective, a database describing the lenses and is in excess of measurement error