Associations among milk yield, yield persistency, conception, and culling of Israeli Holstein dairy cattle

Genetic correlations among Predicted Differences for milk yield corrected for economic value of fat content, annualized yield, yield persistency, conception rate, and culling rate were estimated. Correlations were .43 between yield persistency and annualized yield, .42 between yield persistency and conception rate, and .1 between annualized yield and conception rate. For Predicted Differences for these traits computed separately for each of first three parities, correlations between pairs were highest for annualized yield and lowest for culling rate. Regression coefficients for conception rate from cow insemination records on daily yield preceding insemination and on absolute change of yield during month of insemination were significantly negative for the first three parities. A positive pleiotropic effect for yield, yield persistency, and conception rate was suggested; therefore, progeny testing for yield persistency may improve yield and conception rate. High yields and large changes of yield during month of insemination adversely affected conception rate of cows within herds.     

Automatic processing of psychological distance: Evidence from a Stroop task.

A picture-word version of the Stroop task was used to test the automatic activation of psychological distance by words carrying various senses of psychological distance: temporal (tomorrow, in a year), social (friend, enemy), and hypotheticality (sure, maybe). The pictures implied depth, with the words appearing relatively close to or distant from the observer. The participants classified the spatial distance of words faster when the word's implicit psychological distance matched its spatial distance (e.g., a geographically close word was classified faster when it was "friend" than when it was "enemy"). The findings are consistent with the idea that psychological distance is accessed automatically, even when it is not directly related to people's current goals, and suggest that psychological distance is an important dimension of meaning, common to spatial distance, temporal distance, social distance, and hypotheticality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of annualized lactation yield from partial lactations

Extension factors for annualized lactation yields [365 (total lactation yield)/-days between calvings] were computed by generating 747,904 partial lactations from complete lactation records of 105,379 Israeli-Holstein cows with one to three lactations. Factors included in the model were last test yield, days pregnant, days in milk, farm type, calving season, and days remaining in the lactation. Both linear and quadratic effects were assumed for the first three factors. Primiparous and multiparous cows were analyzed separately for milk, fat, and economically fat-corrected milk [.67 (milk) + 10 (fat)] yields. Adjusted coefficients of determination computed for this model were .04 higher for fat and .01 higher for milk and economically fat-corrected milk than for an alternate model in which remaining yield was predicted as a linear function of last test yield and remaining days in milk. Correlations between actual and predicted lactations for partial lactations of less than 4 mo in milk computed by the first model were .03 higher for fat but were nearly identical to those computed by the second model for milk. Although last test yields was the most important factor in predicting annualized yields, inclusion of other factors increased accuracy of annualized fat yield prediction.     

Effects of persistency and production on the genetic parameters of milk and fat yield in Israeli-Holsteins

Herd-years of Israeli-Holsteins were stratified into three groups by two criteria: mean annualized milk yield [365 (total lactations yield/calving interval)] and mean persistency, estimated as the ratio of daily milk production at the 5th mo postpartum to daily production during the postpartum peak period. The latter was taken as an indication of the relative environmental stress on the cow. Primi- and multiparous cows were analyzed separately. Genetic parameters were estimated for annualized milk and fat production at each production and persistency group. Heritabilities increased with a rise in production for both primiparous and multiparous cows, but the effect was greater for multiparous cows. Even though persistency and production were correlated, no clear trends were evident for stratification by persistency; thus, a relationship between stress and heritability was not established. Genetic correlations among stratification groups were between .7 and .9 for persistency and between .6 and .86 for production; thus, sire x environmental interaction was greater for production than for persistency stratification. Production in a given year can be used as a criterion for selecting herds to test progeny of young sires in the following year.     

Effects of days open on annualized milk yields in current and following lactations

Length of open period affected annualized yield [(total lactation yield/calving interval) 365]. Yield was maximum with more days open for low, as opposed to high, peak production and for primiparous, as opposed to multiparous, cows. Interactions with days open were not found for mean herd production or cow production relative to the herd mean. Number of days open for maximum yield was similar for milk, fat, and economically fat-corrected milk [.67 kg milk + 10 kg fat]. Correction factors were derived by smoothed least square means of days open classes. Additive adjustment factors were more appropriate than multiplicative adjustment factors. Records adjusted for days open were not able to predict the following lactation yield significantly better than unadjusted records. Cumulative yield of current and following annualized lactations, including the contribution of the calf expressed in units of milk production, was greatest at 117 and 98 days open for primiparous and multiparous cows. For cows with high peak production maximum yield was with 12 to 14 fewer days open than for cows with moderate peak. Conception prior to 2 mo postpartum had an adverse effect on cumulative yield.     

The association between psychological distance and construal level: Evidence from an implicit association test.

According to construal level theory (N. Liberman, Y. Trope, & E. Stephan, in press; Y. Trope & N. Liberman, 2003), people use a more abstract, high construal level when judging, perceiving, and predicting more psychologically distal targets, and they judge more abstract targets as being more psychologically distal. The present research demonstrated that associations between more distance and higher level of construal also exist on a pure conceptual level. Eight experiments used the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) to demonstrate an association between words related to construal level (low vs. high) and words related to four dimensions of distance (proximal vs. distal): temporal distance, spatial distance, social distance, and hypotheticality. In addition to demonstrating an association between level of construal and psychological distance, these findings also corroborate the assumption that all 4 dimensions of psychological distance are related to level of construal in a similar way and support the notion that they all are forms of psychological distance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of within-dimension singleton priming in visual search.

The authors report a newly identified intertrial priming phenomenon, within-dimension singleton priming, by which search for a target that happens to be a singleton on the current trial is faster when the target on the previous trial had also been a singleton on the same dimension rather than a nonsingleton. This effect was replicated in 6 experiments with different procedures, with singletons on various dimensions, when the featural contrast defining the singleton remained the same or changed within a dimension from one trial to the next, and when the target was a singleton on a target-defining dimension or on an irrelevant dimension. These findings cannot be explained by previously demonstrated intertrial repetition effects such as dimension-specific priming or priming of popout. Theoretical implications of the within-dimension singleton priming phenomenon are discussed relative to the dimension-weighting hypothesis, the role of stimulus-driven salience in feature-guided search, and the roles of intertrial priming and goal-directed factors in visual search. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic correlations among progeny groups for type traits, milk yield, yield persistency, and culling rates

Associations among six primipara type traits and first and second lactation milk yield, yield persistency, and culling rates were estimated by means of 100 progeny groups with first and 76 with second lactations. Correlations of second lactation culling rate with dairy character and with rear udder were approximately -.4. Persistency, measured in either first or second lactation, was negatively associated with all type traits.     

Mood and global–local focus: Priming a local focus reverses the link between mood and global–local processing.

Positive moods promote a focus on the forest (global focus) and negative moods, a focus on the trees (local focus). Is this well-established link fixed or variable? Does it reflect a direct influence of affect, as usually assumed, or is it frequently observed simply because a global perspective is often dominant? If affect serves as information about the value of currently accessible inclinations, and a global focus is generally the default perspective, then the global focus of positive affect and local focus of negative affect might be variable rather than fixed. Two experiments tested this hypothesis using different mood inductions, different tests of global–local focus, and different methods of inducing global and local perspectives. In each, we discovered that positive affect empowered whatever focus was momentarily dominant. Thus, whether individuals in happy moods saw the forest or the trees depended only on which of the two had been primed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sire and maternal grandsire effects on calving difficulty and calf mortality in Israeli Holsteins

Associations among sire and maternal grandsire evaluations for calving difficulty and calf mortality were investigated in the Israeli Holstein population. Primiparous and multiparous calvings were analysed separately. Genetic correlations between calving difficulty and calf mortality were close to unity for primiparous calvings but lower for multiparous calvings. Genetic correlations between primiparous and multiparous sire evaluations were .94 and .72 for calving difficulty and calf mortality. Genetic correlations between sire and maternal grandsire evaluations were .6 for primiparous calvings and not-significant for multiparous calvings for both traits. These results correspond to findings that the direct genetic effect is larger than the maternal effect but that there is a slight negative correlation between them. We suggest that sire evaluations for calving difficulty of multiparous cows be used as a preliminary prediction of heifer calving difficulty and calf mortality and that the separate calving trait evaluations be combined into an overall calving selection index.