Heritability of racing performance in thoroughbred horses

The héritabilitý of performance in thoroughbreds was studied using the Timeform Ratings for horses which raced during 1970. Timeform Ratings are based on the relative performance of all horses racing in a given year. 794 Individual three year old records, representing 96 sires which had five or more progeny, were used.The mean ratings for sires, dams and progeny were 128.5, 93.6 and 81.4 respectively; among the progeny the ratings for colts, fillies and geldings were 88.3, 79.1 and 77.1 respectively. Calculations made suggest that while stallion selection is effective in selecting sires with high performance ratings it does not appear that the selection of dams is very closely related to performance. There was no evidence of assortative mating.Paternal half sib and regression of offspring on sire analyses of the data yielded heritability estimates of 0.35 ± 0.11 and 0.74 ± 0.20 respectively. Further regression analyses on a reduced set of data (553 progeny records) of offspring on sire, offspring on dam and offspring on mid parent value gave heritabilities 0.56 ± 0.20, 0.36 ± 0.10 and 0.34 ± 0.08respectively. The possible reason for the substantially higher heritability estimates from the regressions of offspring on sire are discussed. It is concluded that the best measure of heritability of performance is 35%.     

日粮不同营养水平对石岐杂肉鸡屠宰性能及肌肉品质的影响

为确定石岐杂肉鸡的最适日粮营养水平,选择21日龄健康石岐杂肉鸡120只,随机分成4组(Ⅰ组含能量12.09MJ/kg、蛋白18.07%;Ⅱ组含能量13.09MJ/kg、蛋白18.01%;Ⅲ组合能量12.09MJ/kg、蛋白20.08%;Ⅳ组合能量13.09 MJ/kg、蛋白19.93%),研究了日粮不同营养水平对石岐杂肉鸡屠宰性能和肌肉品质的影响.结果表明:饲喂Ⅰ～Ⅳ组不同日粮,对石歧杂肉鸡活重、胸肌重、全净膛率、胸肌率、腿肌率、肌肉pH、失水率和胸肌粗蛋白含量的影响不大,差异性均不显著(P>0.05);Ⅱ组和Ⅳ组日粮较Ⅰ组和Ⅲ组可显著提高屠体重和腿肌重(P<0.05);Ⅱ组和Ⅳ组日粮较Ⅲ组可显著提高全净膛重、半净膛重和屠宰率(P<0.05);Ⅲ组日粮较Ⅰ～Ⅱ组和Ⅳ组可降低腹脂重、腹脂率和肌肉粗脂肪含量,但差异性不显著(P>0.05);Ⅱ～Ⅳ组日粮较Ⅰ组可显著提高腿肌粗蛋白含量(P<0.05).推荐生产上使用Ⅱ组(能量13.09MJ/kg,蛋白18.01%)日粮配方.     

Paleontology and Chronology of Two Evolutionary Transitions by Hybridization in the Bahamian Land Snail Cerion

The late Quaternary fossil record of the Bahamian land snail Cerion on Great Inagua documents two transitions apparently resulting from hybridization. In the first, a localized modern population represents the hybrid descendants of a 13,000-year-old fossil form from the same area, introgressed with the modern form now characteristic of the adjacent regions. In the second case, a chronocline spanning 15,000 to 20,000 years and expressing the transition of an extinct fossil form to the modern form found on the south coast was documented by morphometry of fossils dated by amino acid racemization and radiocarbon. Hybrid intermediates persisted for many thousands of years.     

农业科研事业单位人才结构浅析——以湖南省棉花科学研究所为例

分析了湖南省棉花科学研究所2008年与2013年人才状况,对目前人才队伍建设中存在的主要问题以及可能发展的趋势进行了研究,在此基础上提出了一些对策。     

Observation of single-electron charging in double-barrier heterostructures

Incremental single-electron charging of size-quantized states has been observed in the well in submicrometer double-barrier resonant tunneling devices. In order to distinguish between the effects of size quantization and the single-electron charging, the heterostructure material was grown asymmetrical so that one barrier is substantially less transparent than the other. In the voltage polarity such that the emitter barrier is more transparent than the collector barrier, electrons accumulate in the well; incremental electron occupation of the well is accompanied by Coulomb blockade, which leads to sharp steps of the tunneling current. In the opposite voltage polarity the emitter barrier is less transparent than the collector barrier and the tunneling current reflects resonant tunneling through size-quantized well states.     

Enhanced motility in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts that overexpress gelsolin.

Increasing the content of the actin-binding protein gelsolin in cultured mouse fibroblasts by up to 125 percent by gene transfection proportionally enhanced the rate at which the cells migrated through porous filters toward a gradient of serum and closed a wound made on a confluent monolayer of cells in a tissue culture dish. These results provide direct evidence that gelsolin, which promotes both actin assembly and disassembly in vitro, is an important element in fibroblast locomotion and demonstrate that the manipulation of intracellular machinery can increase cell motility.     

饲料中添加小苏打对甘南地区荷斯坦牛产奶量的影响

[目的]为研究饲料中添加小苏打对甘南地区荷斯坦牛产奶量的影响。[方法]选用27头健康、年龄、泌乳期一致的荷斯坦牛27头,随机分为3组,每组9头,设为对照组、试验A组、试验B组。分别饲喂8 kg青干草1、kg马铃薯;配合精料（见表2）;配合精料（见表2）＋150 g小苏打。[结果]试验A、B组比对照组日均多产奶3.75 kg和4.3 kg,分别提高了28%和32.1%（P〈0.05）,差异显著,试验B组较A组提高了0.55 kg（P〉0.05）,差异不显著。试验A、B组比对照组日均毛收入提高了7.53和9.65元,试验B组较A组日均毛收入提高了2.12元。[结论]在荷斯坦牛饲料中添加150 g小苏打能有效提高产奶量。     

Effects of EGLN1 siRNA on growth of rat pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells under hypoxic condition

AIM: To observe whether EGLN1 gene is involved in the growth of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) during hypoxia when EGLN1 gene expression was interference by siRNA. METHODS: The rat primary pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells were cultured, and the specific lipidosome of EGLN1 siRNA was constructed and transfected into the PASMCs. The transfected PASMCs were cultured under hypoxia or normoxia conditions, respectively. The viability of the PASMCs was detected by CCK-8 assay. The protein expression of EGLN1 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was determined by Western blot. RESULTS: The viability of the PASMCs was increased and the protein expression of VEGF was up-regulated in the PASMCs under hypoxic condition in a time-dependent manner. In hypoxia or normoxia condition, the viability and VEGF protein expression of the PASMCs were suppressed by EGLN1 siRNA. CONCLUSION: EGLN1 gene may involve in the growth of rat PASMCs by regulating VEGF protein level under hypoxic condition.