Comparative analysis of inbreeding parameters and runs of homozygosity islands in 2 Italian autochthonous cattle breeds mainly raised in the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese production region

Reggiana and Modenese are autochthonous cattle breeds, reared in the North of Italy, that can be mainly distinguished for their standard coat color (Reggiana is red, whereas Modenese is white with some pale gray shades). Almost all milk produced by these breeds is transformed into 2 mono-breed branded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses, from which farmers receive the economic incomes needed for the sustainable conservation of these animal genetic resources. After the setting up of their herd books in 1960s, these breeds experienced a strong reduction in the population size that was subsequently reverted starting in the 1990s (Reggiana) or more recently (Modenese) reaching at present a total of about 2,800 and 500 registered cows, respectively. Due to the small population size of these breeds, inbreeding is a very important cause of concern for their conservation programs. Inbreeding is traditionally estimated using pedigree data, which are summarized in an inbreeding coefficient calculated at the individual level (F_PED). However, incompleteness of pedigree information and registration errors can affect the effectiveness of conservation strategies. High-throughput SNP genotyping platforms allow investigation of inbreeding using genome information that can overcome the limits of pedigree data. Several approaches have been proposed to estimate genomic inbreeding, with the use of runs of homozygosity (ROH) considered to be the more appropriate. In this study, several pedigree and genomic inbreeding parameters, calculated using the whole herd book populations or considering genotyping information (GeneSeek GGP Bovine 150K) from 1,684 Reggiana cattle and 323 Modenese cattle, were compared. Average inbreeding values per year were used to calculate effective population size. Reggiana breed had generally lower genomic inbreeding values than Modenese breed. The low correlation between pedigree-based and genomic-based parameters (ranging from 0.187 to 0.195 and 0.319 to 0.323 in the Reggiana and Modenese breeds, respectively) reflected the common problems of local populations in which pedigree records are not complete. The high proportion of short ROH over the total number of ROH indicates no major recent inbreeding events in both breeds. ROH islands spread over the genome of the 2 breeds (15 in Reggiana and 14 in Modenese) identified several signatures of selection. Some of these included genes affecting milk production traits, stature, body conformation traits (with a main ROH island in both breeds on BTA6 containing the ABCG2, NCAPG, and LCORL genes) and coat color (on BTA13 in Modenese containing the ASIP gene). In conclusion, this work provides an extensive comparative analysis of pedigree and genomic inbreeding parameters and relevant genomic information that will be useful in the conservation strategies of these 2 iconic local cattle breeds.     

浅谈不同给液方式在铜电解车间的应用

不同给液方式对铜电解过程中有重要的影响,不同的循环方式会影响槽内温度分布、电解液成分及阳极泥沉降等,因此,根据铜电解生产不同情况的需要,分析对比了多种给液方式在贵冶电解车间的应用,总结了这几种给液方式的优缺点和适用条件。     

Augmented context-based recommendation service framework using knowledge over the Linked Open Data cloud

This research proposes ACARDS (Augmented-Context bAsed RecommenDation Service) framework that is able to utilize knowledge over the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud to recommend context-based services to users. To improve the level of user satisfaction with the result of the recommendation, the ACARDS framework implements a novel recommendation algorithm that can utilize the knowledge over the LOD cloud. In addition, the noble algorithm is able to use new concepts like the enriched tags and the augmented tags that originate from the hashtags on the SNSs materials. These tags are utilized to recommend the most appropriate services in the user’s context, which can change dynamically. Last but not least, the ACARDS framework implements the context-based reshaping algorithm on the augmented tag cloud. In the reshaping process, the ACARDS framework can recommend the highly receptive services in the users’ context and their preferences. To evaluate the performance of the ACARDS framework, we conduct four kinds of experiments using the Instagram materials and the LOD cloud. As a result, we proved that the ACARDS framework contributes to increasing the query efficiency by reducing the search space and improving the user satisfaction on the recommended services.     

基于新型光纤的传输技术探讨

随着互联网的高速发展，引发了网络流量、电信骨干网流量急速增长，使得网络容量的提升迫在眉睫。目前，100G 系统已经商用，超100G系统能够更有效地解决流量和网络带宽持续增长带来的压力，本文主要介绍新型单模光纤的特性以及探讨基于新型单模光纤的传输技术。     

Screening of frozen-thawed conditions for keeping nutritive compositions and physicochemical characteristics of goat milk

Frozen milk can help producers overcome the seasonality of goat milk production, low goat production and short lactation periods, and avoid discarding milk during some special periods. We investigated effects of combination between freezing (cryogenic refrigerator of ?16 to ?20°C or ultra-cryogenic refrigerator of ?76 to ?80°C) and thawing (homeothermy of 20 to 25°C or refrigeration of 2 to 4°C) on nutritive compositions and physicochemical characteristics of raw goat milk during storage period (80 d). Compared with fresh goat milk, the frozen-thawed milk decreased contents of fat, protein, and lactose, as well as surface tension and stability coefficient, whereas increased effective diameter and polydispersity index. The average values of color values (L*, a*, and b*) in 4 group samples changed from 83.01 to 82.25, ?1.40 to ?1.54, 3.51 to 3.81, respectively, and the ΔE of most samples did not exceed 2. In contrast to the other 3 frozen-thawed treatments, goat milk treated with ultra-cryogenic freezing-homeothermic thawing (UFHT) possessed higher fat (5.20 g/100 g), smaller effective particle diameter (0.32 µm), and the lowest polydispersity index value (0.26). The color and confocal laser scanning microscopy images of UFHT were similar to those of fresh goat milk, illustrating UFHT was the optimal approach to maintain the natural quality of goat milk. Our finding provides a theoretical basis for producers to freeze surplus milk.     

Correlation between instrumental texture and colour quality attributes with sensory analysis of selected cheeses as affected by fat contents

This study evaluated several physical and sensory parameters of different types of cheese available in the Polish market. The measurements of textural properties were conducted in an Instron universal testing machine, while the colour properties of cheeses were measured using a Minolta chromameter. The chemical composition was determined by means of the near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRs). Moreover, a trained sensory panel was invited to assess the cheese texture‐related properties. Generally, cheeses with reduced fat content were characterised by higher hardness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and elasticity. Texture‐related parameters of cheese with canola oil were comparable to that of most of full‐fat cheeses. The correlation analysis between physical and sensory attributes related to cheese textural properties indicated the potential applications of TPA, shear and penetration tests (r = 0.766, r = 0.75 and r = 0.765, respectively) for the evaluation of sensory properties related to the hardness. Meanwhile, the elasticity of cheese obtained from sensory evaluation was strongly correlated with the elasticity determined from the shear test (r = 0.722) and moderately correlated with the elasticity from penetration test (r = 0.588), indicating a need to refine the method of penetration test. In addition, cheeses exhibited higher meltability during convection heating at 230 °C than microwave heating. The values of meltability for cheese with reduced fat content were lower than those of full‐fat cheese.     

Transformation of the reabsorption characteristics of lignite treated by low and high temperature drying process

Abstract

The reabsorption characteristics of the lignite treated by low and high temperature drying process were addressed in the paper. The information about the moisture form, functional groups, effective water-filled porosities and equilibrium moisture content of the lignite before and after the drying process was investigated using Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and a self-made reabsorption device, respectively. The results show that the low drying temperature (140, 190, 230?°C, 10?min, N₂) has little impact on the effective water-filled porosities of the resulted samples, whereas it has a great influence on the main oxygen-containing functional groups, which amount firstly decreases and then increases with the drying temperature increasing. In the case of the lignite samples dried under high-temperature (600, 700, 800?°C, 30?s, N₂), the amount of the effective water-filled porosity of the sample decreases and the amount of oxygen-containing functional groups increases as the temperature increasing. The reabsorption capability of the high temperature dried sample is much lower than that of the sample treated under low drying temperature. The reabsorption characteristics of the low-temperature dried samples are affected by the amount of the oxygen-containing functional groups, while the effective water-filled porosity is main factor for the lignite samples derived from high temperature drying process. Moreover, the work gives a good evidence that the high-temperature drying process is an effective choose for lignite upgrading.     

Real-time organic aerosol chemical speciation in the indoor environment using extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Understanding the sources and composition of organic aerosol (OA) in indoor environments requires rapid measurements, since many emissions and processes have short timescales. However, real-time molecular-level OA measurements have not been reported indoors. Here, we present quantitative measurements, at a time resolution of five seconds, of molecular ions corresponding to diverse aerosol-phase species, by applying extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EESI-MS) to indoor air analysis for the first time, as part of the highly instrumented HOMEChem field study. We demonstrate how the complex spectra of EESI-MS are screened in order to extract chemical information and investigate the possibility of interference from gas-phase semivolatile species. During experiments that simulated the Thanksgiving US holiday meal preparation, EESI-MS quantified multiple species, including fatty acids, carbohydrates, siloxanes, and phthalates. Intercomparisons with Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer suggest that EESI-MS quantified a large fraction of OA. Comparisons with FIGAERO-CIMS shows similar signal levels and good correlation, with a range of 100 for the relative sensitivities. Comparisons with SV-TAG for phthalates and with SV-TAG and AMS for total siloxanes also show strong correlation. EESI-MS observations can be used with gas-phase measurements to identify co-emitted gas- and aerosol-phase species, and this is demonstrated using complementary gas-phase PTR-MS observations.     

Service composition for generic service graphs

Service composition is a promising approach to multimedia service provisioning, due to its ability to dynamically produce new multimedia content, and to customize the content for individual client devices. Previous research work has addressed various aspects of service composition such as composibility, QoS-awareness, and load balancing. However, most of the work has focused on applications where data flow from a single source is processed by intermediate services and then delivered to a single destination. In this paper, we address the service composition problem for multimedia services that can be modeled as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). We formally define the problem and prove its NP hardness. We also design a heuristic algorithm to solve the problem. Our simulation results show that the algorithm is effective at finding low-cost composition solutions, and can trade off computation overhead for better results. When compared with a hop-by-hop approach for service composition, our algorithm can find composition solutions that aress 10% smaller in cost, even when the hop-by-hop approach uses exhaustive searches.