6,786 research outputs found
A comparison of genetic data from New Zealand and France on twin calving in cattle
Data on twin calvings were compared from New Zealand (1559 cows in 3 selected private herds; two Milking Shorthorn and one Friesian) and France (216 cows in 11 Maine Anjou pedigree herds). Twin calving rates (France only) and cumulative numbers of twin calvings per lifetime (both countries) were obtained for all cows, classified according to their sire and dam groups. Dam groups were defined according to the number of twin calvings in the damâs lifetime. In New Zealand, the 2 sire groups were defined as follows : (1) no daughter producing 2 or more sets of twins; (2) at least one such daughter. In France, the discrimination was based on the twin calving rate of daughters recorded in the whole population with group 1 below 6% and group 2 over that value. The mean frequencies of cows with at least one set of twins were 0.112 in the New Zealand herds and 0.125 in France. In both countries, there were significant effects of sire and dam groups, but no interaction on a logit scale. In addition, the 2 data sets showed a similar increase (x 1.9 to x 2.5) in frequency of cows producing at least 1 twin set comparing those from dams with twins and those from dams with no twin set. Resultats demonstrated the opportunity of sire selection to improve twin calving performance. The efficiency of selection would also be enhanced by a joint choice of sires dams from prolific groups.Cet article compare des donnĂ©es de vĂȘlages gĂ©mellaires obtenues en Nouvelle-ZĂ©lande (1559 vaches de 3 Ă©levages privĂ©s dont 2 de race laitiĂšres Shorthorn et 1 de race Frisonne) et en France (216 vaches provenant de 11 Ă©levages de sĂ©lection de race Maine Anjou). On disposait du taux de vĂȘlages gĂ©mellaires (en France seulement) et du nombre cumulĂ© de vĂȘlages gĂ©mellaires dans la carriĂšre dâune vache et de leur rĂ©partition par groupe de pĂšres et de mĂšres. Les groupes de mĂšres Ă©taient dĂ©finis selon le nombre de vĂȘlages gĂ©mellaires observĂ©s au cours de la carriĂšre de la vache. En Nouvelle-ZĂ©lande, les 2 groupes de pĂšres Ă©taient dĂ©finis selon que le pĂšre comportait (groupe 2) ou non (groupe 1) au moins une fille ayant produit au moins 2 fois des jumeaux. En France, la discrimination Ă©tait basĂ©e sur le taux de vĂȘlages gĂ©mellaires observĂ©s sur les filles contrĂŽlĂ©es dans toute la population, le seuil entre les deux groupes se situant Ă 6%. La frĂ©quence de vaches ayant eu au moins une fois des jumeaux Ă©tait de 0,112 en Nouvelle- ZĂ©lande et 0,125 en France. Dans les 2 pays, on a mis en Ă©vidence des effets significatifs des groupes de pĂšres et de mĂšres, mais pas dâinteraction sur une Ă©chelle logit. De plus, les 2 fichiers indiquaient des accroissements relatifs similaires des performances de gĂ©mellitĂ© entre filles issues de mĂšres nâayant eu aucun vĂȘlage gĂ©mellaire et celles issues de mĂšres avec au moins un vĂȘlage gĂ©mellaire. Ces rĂ©sultats prouvent lâintĂ©rĂȘt dâune sĂ©lection des mĂąles pour amĂ©liorer le taux de vĂȘlages gĂ©mellaires ainsi que celui dâun choix simultanĂ© de parents parmi les groupes les plus prolifiques
Effects of paternal overnutrition and interventions on future generations
In the last two decades, evidence from human and animal studies suggests that paternal obesity around the time of conception can have adverse effects on offspring health through developmental programming. This may make significant contributions to the current epidemic of obesity and related metabolic and reproductive complications like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and subfertility/infertility. To date, changes in seminal fluid composition, sperm DNA methylation, histone composition, small non-coding RNAs, and sperm DNA damage have been proposed as potential underpinning mechanism to program offspring health. In this review, we discuss current human and rodent evidence on the impact of paternal obesity/overnutrition on offspring health, followed by the proposed mechanisms, with a focus on sperm DNA damage underpinning paternal programming. We also summarize the different intervention strategies implemented to minimize effects of paternal obesity. Upon critical review of literature, we find that obesity-induced altered sperm quality in father is linked with compromised offspring health. Paternal exercise intervention before conception has been shown to improve metabolic health. Further work to explore the mechanisms underlying benefits of paternal exercise on offspring are warranted. Conversion to healthy diets and micronutrient supplementation during pre-conception have shown some positive impacts towards minimizing the impact of paternal obesity on offspring. Pharmacological approaches e.g., metformin are also being applied. Thus, interventions in the obese father may ameliorate the potential detrimental impacts of paternal obesity on offspring
Startup of the High-Intensity Ultracold Neutron Source at the Paul Scherrer Institute
Ultracold neutrons (UCN) can be stored in suitable bottles and observed for
several hundreds of seconds. Therefore UCN can be used to study in detail the
fundamental properties of the neutron. A new user facility providing ultracold
neutrons for fundamental physics research has been constructed at the Paul
Scherrer Institute, the PSI UCN source. Assembly of the facility finished in
December 2010 with the first production of ultracold neutrons. Operation
approval was received in June 2011. We give an overview of the source and the
status at startup.Comment: Proceedings of the International Conference on Exotic Atoms and
Related Topics - EXA2011 September 5-9, 2011 Austrian Academy of Sciences,
Theatersaal, Sonnenfelsgasse 19, 1010 Wien, Austria 6 pages, 3 figure
A Study of Archiving Strategies in Multi-Objective PSO for Molecular Docking
Molecular docking is a complex optimization problem aimed at predicting the position of a ligand molecule in the active site of a receptor with the lowest binding energy. This problem can be formulated as a bi-objective optimization problem by minimizing the binding energy and the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) difference in the coordinates of ligands. In this context, the SMPSO multi-objective swarm-intelligence algorithm has shown a remarkable performance. SMPSO is characterized by having an external archive used to store the non-dominated solutions and also as the basis of the leader selection strategy. In this paper, we analyze several SMPSO variants based on different archiving strategies in the scope of a benchmark of molecular docking instances. Our study reveals that the SMPSOhv, which uses an hypervolume contribution based archive, shows the overall best performance.Universidad de MĂĄlaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional AndalucĂa Tech
Application of longitudinal data analysis allows to detect differences in preâbreeding growing curves of 24âmonth calving Angus heifers under two pastureâbased system with differential puberty onset
Background. Longitudinal data analysis contributes to detect differences in the growing curve by exploiting all the information involved in repeated measurements, allowing to distinguish changes over time within individuals, from differences in the baseline levels among groups. In this research longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis were compared to evaluate differences in growth in Angus heifers under two different grazing conditions, ad libitum (AG) and controlled (CG) to gain 0.5 kg/day. Results. Longitudinal mixed models show differences in growing curves parameters between grazing conditions, that were not detected by cross sectional analysis. Differences (P < 0.05) in first derivative of growth curves (daily gain) until 289 days were observed between treatments, being AG higher than CG. Correspondingly, pubertal heifer proportion was also higher in AG at the end of rearing (AG 0.94; CG 0.67). Conclusion. In longitudinal studies, the power to detect differences between groups increases by exploiting the whole information of repeated measures, modelling the relation between measurements performed on the same individual. Under a proper analysis valid conclusion can be drawn with less animals in the trial, improving animal welfare and reducing investigation costs.Fil: Bonamy, Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: de Iraola, Julieta Josefina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Prando, Alberto JosĂ©. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Baldo, Andres. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Giovambattista, Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Rogberg Muñoz, Andres. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de AgronomĂa. Departamento de ProducciĂłn Animal; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de GenĂ©tica Veterinaria; Argentin
PocketMatch: A new algorithm to compare binding sites in protein structures
Background: Recognizing similarities and deriving relationships among protein molecules is a fundamental
requirement in present-day biology. Similarities can be present at various levels which can be detected through comparison of protein sequences or their structural folds. In some cases similarities obscure at these levels could be present merely in the substructures at their binding sites. Inferring functional similarities between protein molecules by comparing their binding sites is still largely exploratory and not as yet a routine protocol. One of
the main reasons for this is the limitation in the choice of appropriate analytical tools that can compare binding sites with high sensitivity. To benefit from the enormous amount of structural data that is being rapidly accumulated, it is essential to have high throughput tools that enable large scale binding site comparison.

Results: Here we present a new algorithm PocketMatch for comparison of binding sites in a frame invariant
manner. Each binding site is represented by 90 lists of sorted distances capturing shape and chemical nature of the site. The sorted arrays are then aligned using an incremental alignment method and scored to obtain PMScores for pairs of sites. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis and an extensive validation of the algorithm have been carried out. Perturbation studies where the geometry of a given site was retained but the residue types were changed randomly, indicated that chance similarities were virtually non-existent. Our analysis also demonstrates that shape information alone is insufficient to discriminate between diverse binding sites, unless
combined with chemical nature of amino acids.

Conclusions: A new algorithm has been developed to compare binding sites in accurate, efficient and
high-throughput manner. Though the representation used is conceptually simplistic, we demonstrate that along
with the new alignment strategy used, it is sufficient to enable binding comparison with high sensitivity. Novel methodology has also been presented for validating the algorithm for accuracy and sensitivity with respect to geometry and chemical nature of the site. The method is also fast and takes about 1/250th second for one comparison on a single processor. A parallel version on BlueGene has also been implemented
Chromosomal disorders:estimating baseline birth prevalence and pregnancy outcomes worldwide
Chromosomal disorders, of which Down syndrome is the most common, can cause multi-domain disability. In addition, compared to the general population, there is a higher frequency of death before the age of five. In many settings, large gaps in data availability have hampered policy-making, programme priorities and resource allocation for these important conditions. We have developed methods, which overcome this lack of data and allow estimation of the burden of affected pregnancies and their outcomes in different settings worldwide. For example, the methods include a simple equation relating the percentage of mothers 35 and over to Down syndrome birth prevalence. The results obtained provide a starting point for consideration of services that can be implemented for the care and prevention of these disorders
Recreational Physical Activity as an Independent Predictor of Multivariable Cardiovascular Disease Risk
The role of physical activity in preventing CVD has been highlighted by Professor Jerry Morris in the 1950âs. We report outcome of a 15-year prospective study with the aim to identify whether physical activity showed cardiovascular benefit independent of common risk factors and of central obesity. Baseline data of 8662 subjects, with no previous history of heart disease, diabetes or stroke, were obtained from an age- and gender- stratified sample of adults in Australian capital cities and were linked with the National Death Index to determine the causes of death of 610 subjects who had died to 31 December 2004. The study consisted of 4175 males (age 42.3±13.1 years) and 4487 females (age 42.8±13.2 years). Fasting serum lipid levels, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and smoking habits at baseline were recorded. The Framingham Risk Scores of 15-year mortality due to CHD and CVD were calculated using established equations. Subjects were also asked if they engaged in vigorous exercise, less vigorous exercise or walk for recreation and exercise in the past 2 weeks. Subjects in the high recreational physical activity category were 0.16 (0.06â0.43; p<0.001) and 0.12 (0.03â0.48; p = 0.003) times as likely as subjects in the low category for CVD and CHD mortality respectively. After adjusting for both the Framingham Risk Score and central obesity (Waist circumference to Hip circumference Ratio), those in the high recreational physical activity group were 0.35 (0.13â0.98) times less likely compared to the low category for CVD mortality. Recreational physical activity independently predicted reduced cardiovascular mortality over fifteen years. A public health focus on increased physical activity and preventing obesity is required to reduce the risk of CVD and CHD
The global field of multi-family offices: An institutionalist perspective
We apply the notion of the organisational field to internationally operating multi-family offices. These organisations specialise on the preservation of enterprising and geographically dispersed familiesâ fortunes. They provide their services across generations and countries. Based on secondary data of Bloombergâs Top 50 Family Offices, we show that they constitute a global organisational field that comprises two clusters of homogeneity. Clients may decide between two different configurations of activities, depending on their preferences regarding asset management, resource management, family management, and service architecture. The findings also reveal that multi-family offices make relatively similar value propositions all over the world. The distinctiveness of the clusters within the field is not driven by the embeddedness of the multi-family offices in different national environments or their various degrees of international experience. Rather, it is weakly affected by two out of four possible value propositions, namely the exclusiveness and the transparency of services
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