Effect of annual rings on transmission of 100 GHz millimeter waves through wood

For the application of millimeter wave (MMW) technique to nondestructive evaluation of wood, the effect of annual rings on the behavior of a 100 GHz MMW transmitted through wood was examined. The complex amplitude was measured for 2 mm thick flat- (LT) and quarter-sawn (LR) specimens of several species with different annual ring structures at 11 % moisture content, of which the density distribution was measured using X-ray radiography. For the LT specimens of all species and the LR specimens with small density fluctuation or with earlywood width smaller than the wavelength of the MMW (=3 mm), the amplitude and phase of the transmitted wave were similar to those of the wave without a specimen. For the LR specimen with large density fluctuation and with earlywood width close to or larger than the wavelength, the amplitude and phase were different from those of the wave without a specimen. All the measured complex amplitudes were well expressed using a diffraction model. It was concluded that the MMW is deformed by the density distribution, and then its components with periods shorter than the wavelength by diffraction are attenuated.     

Effect of butylated hydroxytoluene on dog sperm longevity in chilling storage and cryopreservation

This study evaluated the effect of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), a lipid-soluble antioxidant, on dog sperm in chilling storage and cryopreservation. In Experiment 1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mM BHT were added to egg yolk Tris extender (EYT), and sperm were stored at 4°C for 96 hr. Sperm motility, viability, acrosomal integrity and morphological abnormality in the BHT treatment groups were not different from those of the control (0 mM BHT). In Experiment 2, the effect of BHT in EYT containing 0.75% Equex STM paste and 5% glycerol on survivability of cryopreserved sperm was examined after culture at 39°C for 3 hr. Sperm motility, viability and acrosomal integrity in the 0.2 to 0.8 mM BHT treatment groups were not different from those of the control. However, sperm motility, viability and acrosomal integrity decreased when 1.6 mM BHT was added to the extender (P<0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of the extender with 0.2 to 0.8 mM BHT did not affect characteristics of dog sperm in chilling storage and cryopreservation. Supplementation of 1.6 mM BHT did not affect characteristics of chilled sperm but impaired longevity of cryopreserved sperm in the dog.     

Incompatible pollen tube growth and protein composition in styles of Japanese pear following high temperature treatments

Summary Immersing the excised-prepollinated styles of self-incompatible Japanese pear, Pyrus serotina Rehd., into distilled water at 45°C for 1.5–2.5 min promoted the growth of self-pollen tubes; both the number of styles penetrating the pollen tubes through styles to cut ends and of pollen tubes protruding from cut ends were increased. The subsequent growth of the protruded pollen tubes on agar media was also enhanced by the treatments. Treatments at 40°C did not promote the growth of self-pollen tubes and those at 50°C led the styles to necrosis. In the stylar proteins analyzed by isoelectricfocusing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, several changes in banding pattern were found following the heat treatment; one of the bands was a glycoprotein that increases in quantity in developing styles as self-incompatibility of the style becomes stronger (Hiratsuka et al., 1986). This protein band was stained more weakly by Coomassie Brilliant Blue-G250 dye. Antigenic substances in the styles examined by immunodiffusion seemed not to be denatured by high temperature treatments.Abbreviations IEF-PAGE isoelectricfocusing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis - CBB Coomassie Brilliant Blue     

Core-dependent changes in genomic predictions using the Algorithm for Proven and Young in single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction

Single-step genomic best linear unbiased prediction with the Algorithm for Proven and Young (APY) is a popular method for large-scale genomic evaluations. With the APY algorithm, animals are designated as core or noncore, and the computing resources to create the inverse of the genomic relationship matrix (GRM) are reduced by inverting only a portion of that matrix for core animals. However, using different core sets of the same size causes fluctuations in genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) up to one additive standard deviation without affecting prediction accuracy. About 2% of the variation in the GRM is noise. In the recursion formula for APY, the error term modeling the noise is different for every set of core animals, creating changes in breeding values. While average changes are small, and correlations between breeding values estimated with different core animals are close to 1.0, based on the normal distribution theory, outliers can be several times bigger than the average. Tests included commercial datasets from beef and dairy cattle and from pigs. Beyond a certain number of core animals, the prediction accuracy did not improve, but fluctuations decreased with more animals. Fluctuations were much smaller than the possible changes based on prediction error variance. GEBVs change over time even for animals with no new data as genomic relationships ties all the genotyped animals, causing reranking of top animals. In contrast, changes in nongenomic models without new data are small. Also, GEBV can change due to details in the model, such as redefinition of contemporary groups or unknown parent groups. In particular, increasing the fraction of blending of the GRM with a pedigree relationship matrix from 5% to 20% caused changes in GEBV up to 0.45 SD, with a correlation of GEBV > 0.99. Fluctuations in genomic predictions are part of genomic evaluation models and are also present without the APY algorithm when genomic evaluations are computed with updated data. The best approach to reduce the impact of fluctuations in genomic evaluations is to make selection decisions not on individual animals with limited individual accuracy but on groups of animals with high average accuracy.     

DNA marker-assisted evaluation of potato genotypes for potential resistance to potato cyst nematode pathotypes not yet invading into Japan

One of major objectives of crop breeding is conferring resistance to diseases and pests. However, large-scale phenotypic evaluation for many diseases and pests is difficult because strict controls are required to prevent their spread. Detection of disease resistance genes by using DNA markers may be an alternative approach to select potentially resistant accessions. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) breeders in Japan extensively use resistance gene H1, which confers nearly absolute resistance to potato cyst nematode (Globodera rostochiensis) pathotype Ro1, the only pathotype found in Japan. However, considering the possibility of accidental introduction of the other pathotypes, breeding of resistant varieties is an important strategy to prevent infestation by non-invading pathotypes in Japan. In this study, to evaluate the prevalence of resistance genes in Japanese genetic resources, we developed a multiplex PCR method that simultaneously detects 3 resistance genes, H1, Gpa2 and Gro1-4. We revealed that many Japanese varieties possess not only H1 but Gpa2, which are potentially resistant to other pathotypes of potato cyst nematode. On the other hand, no genotype was found to have the Gro1-4, indicating importance of introduction of varieties having Gro1-4. Our results demonstrate the applicability of DNA-marker assisted evaluation of resistant potato genotypes without phenotypic evaluation.     

Clone identification in Japanese flowering cherry (Prunus subgenus Cerasus) cultivars using nuclear SSR markers

Numerous cultivars of Japanese flowering cherry (Prunus subgenus Cerasus) are recognized, but in many cases they are difficult to distinguish morphologically. Therefore, we evaluated the clonal status of 215 designated cultivars using 17 SSR markers. More than half the cultivars were morphologically distinct and had unique genotypes. However, 22 cultivars were found to consist of multiple clones, which probably originate from the chance seedlings, suggesting that their unique characteristics have not been maintained through propagation by grafting alone. We also identified 23 groups consisting of two or more cultivars with identical genotypes. Most members of these groups were putatively synonymously related and morphologically identical. However, some of them were probably derived from bud sport mutants and had distinct morphologies. SSR marker analysis provided useful insights into the clonal status of the examined Japanese flowering cherry cultivars and proved to be a useful tool for cultivar characterization.     

Impact of including the cause of missing records on genetic evaluations for growth in commercial pigs

It is of interest to evaluate crossbred pigs for hot carcass weight (HCW) and birth weight (BW); however, obtaining a HCW record is dependent on livability (LIV) and retained tag (RT). The purpose of this study is to analyze how HCW evaluations are affected when herd removal and missing identification are included in the model and examine if accounting for the reasons for missing traits improves the accuracy of predicting breeding values. Pedigree information was available for 1,965,077 purebred and crossbred animals. Records for 503,716 commercial three-way crossbred terminal animals from 2014 to 2019 were provided by Smithfield Premium Genetics. Two pedigree-based models were compared; model 1 (M1) was a threshold-linear model with all four traits (BW, HCW, RT, and LIV), and model 2 (M2) was a linear model including only BW and HCW. The fixed effects used in the model were contemporary group, sex, age at harvest (for HCW only), and dam parity. The random effects included direct additive genetic and random litter effects. Accuracy, dispersion, bias, and Pearson correlations were estimated using the linear regression method. The heritabilities were 0.11, 0.07, 0.02, and 0.04 for BW, HCW, RT, and LIV, respectively, with standard errors less than 0.01. No difference was observed in heritabilities or accuracies for BW and HCW between M1 and M2. Accuracies were 0.33, 0.37, 0.19, and 0.23 for BW, HCW, RT, and LIV, respectively. The genetic correlation between BW and RT was 0.34 ± 0.03, and between BW and LIV was 0.56 ± 0.03. Similarly, the genetic correlation between HCW and RT was 0.26 ± 0.04, and between HCW and LIV was 0.09 ± 0.05, respectively. The positive and moderate genetic correlations between BW and other traits imply a heavier BW resulted in a higher probability of surviving to harvest. Genetic correlations between HCW and other traits were lower due to the large quantity of missing records. Despite the heritable and correlated aspects of RT and LIV, results imply no major differences between M1 and M2; hence, it is unnecessary to include these traits in classical models for BW and HCW.     

Preliminary Studies on Stocking Density and Production of Hamoor Epinephelus tauvina in PVC-Lined Raceways

The results of two stocking density trials on the nursery and grow-out stages of Epinephelus tauvina (Family: Serranidae), in PVC-lined raceways are presented.
At the nursery stage, fry of 17.1 g initial mean weight showed no significant differences in growth rate, survival rate and condition factor when stocked at densities of 200 and 400 fish/m³ over a period of 52 days. Fish grew to mean weights of 61.7 and 63.7 g, giving growth rates of 0.86 and 0.90 g/fish/day and final biomasses of 12.1 and 2S.2 kg/m³ for densities of 200 and 400 fish/m³, respectively. Survival rates were excellent for both treatments at 98percnt; or greater. Food conversion efficiency was slightly improved at the higher density.
At the grow-out stage, E. tauvina of mean weights ranging from 150-170 g cultured for a period of 215 days grew better at a density of 5 fish/m³ than at densities of 20 and 60 fish/m³ (final size: 770, 560 and 450 g with growth rates of 2.8, 1.8 and 1.4 g/fish/day, respectively). Survival rates were higher at the two lower densities. Overall, total biomass increased with stocking density (3.9, 11.1 and 23.4 kg/m³, for 5, 20 and 60 fish/m³, respectively). These results indicate that hamoor has potential to be successfully cultured in raceways.