Three cases of disputed paternity in dogs resolved by the use of DNA fingerprinting

DNA fingerprinting with the probes 33.15 and alpha-globin 3'HVR has been used to resolve three cases of disputed paternity in dogs. For each pedigree it was necessary to establish which bands in the DNA fingerprints of the offspring were of paternal origin, and then establish which putative sire carried all these bands. In the first case, a litter of Rhodesian Ridgebacks, twelve DNA bands were informative in establishing paternity. In the second case, a litter of Afghan hounds, five DNA bands established paternity, Lastly, in a litter of Border collies, five DNA bands established paternity. In each case a single dog only sired the entire litter.     

Behaviour of egg shell under compression in relation to deformation measurements1

1. The egg does not completely obey Hook's law when compressed between flat surfaces.

2. Deformation was not completely reversible due to crumbling at the points of contact with the force.

3. There are three components of non‐destructive deformation: (a) local deformation at the points of contact, (b) local surface crumbling and (c) deformation of the over‐all shell structure.

4. The latter two are uncontrolled, contributing to errors in the prediction of fracture force and depending on the non‐destructive force applied.

5. These effects should be considered in test selection and interpretation.

6. The optimum non‐destructive force was found to be 1 kg.     

Collaborative study of the colorimetric determination of nitrate and nitrite in cheese.

A quantitative colorimetric method for the determination of nitrate and nitrite in cheese has been subjected to collaborative study. The method includes clarification of an aqueous extract of cheese with zinc hydroxide, reduction of nitrate to nitrite via a spongy cadmium collumn (the nitrite originally present is unaltered), diazotization of sulfanilic acid with the nitrite, and coupling with 1-naphthylamine hydrochloride to form a pink azo dye whose absorbance is measured at 522 nm. The spectrophotometric responses are compared to a standard curve. In samples containing both nitrate and nitrite, nitrate is determined by difference. A standard deviation of 5.5 was obtained (5 of 6 collaborators) when a cheese sample spiked with 276 ppm sodium nitrate was analyzed by the method. The method has been adopted as official first action.     

THE VISUAL ESTIMATION OF PASTURE AVAILABILITY USING STANDARD PASTURE CORES

A coring technique (6), that may be used for estimating the mean amount of herbage on closely grazed pastures, has been adapted to include visual scoring. Two methods are described, both of which use sets of pasture cores from the sward as reference standards. The observers score the herbage on view at random sites against the standards. In the first method the scores are converted to herbage yields directly by reference to the yields of the standards. In the second method a double sampling regression technique is used and the set of standards is used as a visual guide only.     

Phylogenetic characterization of rabies virus isolates from Carnivora in Brazil

The incidence of canine rabies has been widely reported in Brazil, and new rabies virus (RV) variants, genetically similar to canine RV, have recently been isolated from foxes. In order to derive the epidemiological characteristics of Brazilian Carnivora RV, Brazilian RVs isolated from dogs, cats, and foxes were genetically analyzed. Brazilian Carnivora RV isolates were divided into 2 main lineages. The predominant lineage was found in dogs and cats, which included the Argentinean and Bolivian Carnivora RV isolates, and was extensively distributed throughout Brazil and surrounding countries. The other lineage consisted of three sublineages containing Brazilian dog and fox RV isolates, with the dog sublineages located on an internal branch of 2 fox sublineages, suggesting that RV transmission events might have occurred between foxes and dogs in the past. These results suggest that contact between dogs and wildlife has the potential to generate new rabies variants and that it is important to control RV infection cycles in both dogs and wildlife to prevent spread of rabies infection.     

棉铃虫 JNKs 基因的克隆及表达分析

c-Jun氨基末端激酶(c-Jun N-terminal kinase, JNK)是MAPK家族(mitogen-activated protein kinases, 丝裂原活化蛋白激酶)的重要成员, 具有参与昆虫抗逆反应等多种功能。为明确JNK在棉铃虫 Helicoverpa armigera 中的表达特性及其对Bt杀虫蛋白的应激与免疫反应, 本研究通过PCR克隆得到2个棉铃虫 JNK 基因 HaJNK1 和 HaJNK2; 生物信息学分析结果显示: HaJNK1和 HaJNK2基因开放阅读框分别为1 191、1 143 bp, 分别编码397、381个氨基酸。系统进化树分析结果表明棉铃虫 HaJNK1 与黏虫 Mythimna separata 聚为一支, 亲缘关系较近, HaJNK2与 家蚕 Bombyx mori 聚为一支, 同源性较高。利用实时荧光定量PCR技术分析 HaJNK1 与 HaJNK2 在棉铃虫不同发育时期、不同组织中的表达量, 发现 HaJNK1 与 HaJNK2 在卵中表达量最高, 其次是雌成虫; HaJNK1 在性腺中表达量最高, 其次是唾液腺; HaJNK2 在头部表达量最高, 其次是性腺。取食Cry1Ac的4龄棉铃虫幼虫的中肠组织中, HaJNK1 与 HaJNK2 的表达量均显著升高。推测 HaJNKs 基因可能参与棉铃虫抵御Bt杀虫蛋白伤害的应激和抗逆反应。     

Prediction of Genetic Gain in Sweet Corn using Selection Indexes

Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology - The cultivation of sweet corn is expanding in Brazil, but there are serious constraints about the availability of commercial cultivars. The selection of...     

A yield-independent, 15N-isotope dilution method to estimate legume symbiotic dependence without a non-N2-fixing reference plant

The proportional contribution of atmospheric N₂ to the N nutrition of lupin (P _atm) was estimated in a field experiment following addition of NH₄Cl of KNO₃ to unconfined microplots (1.5 m²) at 2.5 g N m^-2 (10 atom% ¹⁵N). The integrated ¹⁵N enrichment, or mean pool abundance, of nitrate extracted from 0- to 15-cm samples taken under the lupin crop on eight occasion between 28 and 190 days after sowing was used as the reference criterion to estimate P _atm by the ¹⁵N-isotope dilution technique. Estimates of P _atm were similar to those obtained using canola as a non-fixing reference plant, but were higher than estimates obtained using a yield-dependent model. Use of mean pool abundance obviates the need for a non-fixing reference plant, and the frequent sampling and isotope-ratio analysis of the legume biomass required with the yield-dependent model is unnecessary. However, further work is needed to validate a sampling strategy commensurate with the growth of the legume roots.     

基于本体与认知经验的农业机器人视觉分类决策方法

基于小样本数据下认知经验知识辅助计算机进行决策,对实现农业领域机器人智能认知决策与助力智慧农业发展具有重要意义。本文在统计计数、支持向量机（SVM）等图像属性信息学习方法基础上,使用Protégé等工具,基于认知经验构建水果识别分类的专业知识库;然后根据图像颜色与形状信息,进行知识库搜索推理得到分类决策。实验在Fruit360数据集中共选择2091幅葡萄、香蕉、樱桃水果图像作为测试集,并各挑选30幅图像作为属性信息训练集与验证集,结果表明当前数据下葡萄与樱桃识别准确率为100%,香蕉识别准确率为93.30%。仅在知识库添加黄桃知识后,对984幅黄桃图像样本进行测试,其分类准确率为97.05%。表明本文方法能有效完成图像分类决策任务,且具有良好的过程可解释性、能力共享性和可拓展性。