• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.883-887
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• 2000

One way of evaluating the effectiveness of a dairy breeding program is to measure response to selection. This may be direct or indirect. The objectives of this study were to estimate expected progress for direct selection on milk, fat and protein yields; to estimate the expected correlated responses on indirect selection for milk, fat and protein yields in Zimbabwean Holstein cattle and to establish the effect of selection intensity on responses. The Animal Model contained fixed effects of herd, year of calving, calving month, dry period, milking frequency and additive effects pertaining to cows, sires and dams. AIREML software package was used to analyse the data. The genetic and phenotypic parameters obtained in this study were used to compute direct and correlated responses to selection. Because of the higher heritabilities in first parity, genetic progress was found to be greater when selection was practised on first parity cows as compared to later lactations. It is therefore recommended that older cows in the herd be replaced with improved heifers so as to enhance genetic progress.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.501-508
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• 2013

This study was conducted to determine genetic correlations among carcass traits measured by ultrasound and real carcass measurements and to estimate indirect selection responses for real carcass traits based on ultrasound measurements in Hanwoo cows. To accomplish this, 22,080 ultrasound measurement records from 17,926 cows collected from 2001 to 2012 and 11,907 carcass records obtained from fattened cattle from 2008 to 2012 were used. Genetic parameters were estimated based on eye muscle area (EMA), backfat thickness (BF) and marbling score (MS) measured by ultrasound-scanning of live cows and using the official technique on chilled bovine half-carcasses after slaughtering. Heritability and genetic correlation for carcass traits were estimated using a mixed model equation that consisted of environmental effects as fixed parameters and additive genetic effects and residual effects as random parameters, assuming that traits were different between ultrasound and carcass measurements. This statistical method was applied to the average information restricted maximum likelihood method. The heritability of EMA, BF and MS measured by ultrasound were 0.33, 0.61 and 0.46, respectively, while the heritability estimates of the corresponding traits based on carcass measurements were 0.29, 0.40 and 0.38, respectively and the genetic correlation between ultrasound and carcass traits for EMA, BF and MS were 0.41, 0.78 and 0.67, respectively. The genetic correlation between ultrasound and carcass traits was highly positive. Additionally, the selection response for marbling score was estimated to be 0.42 per generation if the cows were selected based on the ultrasound scan marbling score with an assumed selection intensity of 0.8. Overall, these results indicate that the ultrasound scan technique would be applicable to judging cow selection for genetically improved meat quality.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.1077-1083
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• 2019

Objective: Sow longevity is important for efficient and profitable pig farming. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in social genetic effect (SGE) of pigs on stress-tolerance and behavior. The present study aimed to estimate genetic correlations among average daily gain (ADG), stayability (STAY), and number of piglets born alive at the first parity (NBA1) in Korean Yorkshire pigs, using a model including SGE. Methods: The phenotypic records of ADG and reproductive traits of 33,120 and 11,654 pigs, respectively, were evaluated. The variances and (co) variances of the studied traits were estimated by a multi-trait animal model applying the Bayesian with linear-threshold models using Gibbs sampling. Results: The direct and SGEs on ADG had a significantly negative (-0.30) and neutral (0.04) genetic relationship with STAY, respectively. In addition, the genetic correlation between the social effects on ADG and NBA1 tended to be positive (0.27), unlike the direct effects (-0.04). The genetic correlation of the total effect on ADG with that of STAY was negative (-0.23) but non-significant, owing to the social effect. Conclusion: These results suggested that total genetic effect on growth in the SGE model might reduce the negative effect on sow longevity because of the growth potential of pigs. We recommend including social effects as selection criteria in breeding programs to obtain satisfactory genetic changes in both growth and longevity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2012

The experiment involved observations of 2,514 Holstein-Friesian cows to determine the effects of environmental factors (cow's age, calving season, weight and sex of calves, housing system) and genetic factors on gestation length in dairy cattle and the correlation between gestation length and other reproductive traits (calving ease, stillbirth rates and placental expulsion). Genetic parameters were estimated based on the sires of calved cows (indirect effect) and the sires of live-born calves (direct effect). The following factors were found to contribute to prolonged gestation: increasing cow's age, male fetuses and growing fetus weight. Optimal gestation length was determined in the range of 275-277 days based on calving ease and stillbirth rates. The heritability of gestation length was estimated at 0.201-0.210 by the direct effect and 0.055-0.073 by the indirect effect. The resulting genetic correlations suggest that the efforts to optimize (prolong) gestation length could exert an adverse influence on the breeding value of bulls by increasing perinatal mortality and calving difficulty. The standard errors of the investigated parameters were relatively high, suggesting that any attempts to modify gestation length for the purpose of improving calving ease and reducing stillbirth rates should be introduced with great caution.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1335-1340
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• 2011

Different genetic parameters for weaning weight and wool traits were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) in Angora rabbits. Total wool yield of first (I), second (II) and third (III) clips were taken as a separate trait under study. The records from more than 2,700 animals were analysed through fitting six animal models with various combinations of direct and maternal effects. A log likelihood ratio test was used to select the most appropriate model for each trait. Direct heritability estimates for the wool traits were found to be moderate to high across different models. Heritability estimates obtained from the best model were 0.24, 0.22, 0.20 and 0.21 for weaning weight, clip I, II and III; respectively. Maternal effects especially due to permanent environment had higher importance at clip I and found to be declining in subsequent clips. The estimates of repeatability of doe effect on wool traits were 0.44, 0.26 and 0.18 for clip I, II and III; respectively. Weaning weight had moderately high genetic correlations with clip I (0.57) and II (0.45), but very low (0.11) with clip III. Results indicated that genetic improvement for wool yield in Angora rabbit is possible through direct selection. Further, weaning weight could be considered as desirable trait for earliest indirect selection for wool yield in view of its high genetic correlation with wool traits.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1690-1694
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• 2002

Genetic parameters were estimated for birth weight and weaning weight from three year (1991-1993) data totalling 1100 records of 25 rams to 205 ewes of Indigenous Sabi flock maintained at Grasslands Research Station in Zimbabwe. AIREML procedures were used fitting an Animal Model. The statistical model included the fixed effects of year of lambing, sex of lamb, birth type and the random effect of ewe. Weight of ewe when first joined with ram was included as a covariate. Direct heritability estimates of 0.27 and 0.38, and maternal heritability estimates of 0.24 and 0.09, were obtained for birth weight and weaning weight, respectively. The total heritability estimates were 0.69 and 0.77 for birth weight and weaning weight, respectively. Direct-aternal genetic correlations were high and positive. The corresponding genetic covariance estimates between direct and maternal effects were positive and low, 0.25 and 0.18 for birth weight and weaning weight, respectively. Responses to selection were 0.8 kg and 0.14 kg for birth weight and weaning weight, respectively. The estimated expected correlated response to selection for birth weight by directly selecting for weaning weight was 0.26. Direct heritabilities were moderate; as a result selection for any of these traits should be successful. Maternal heritabilities were low for weaning weight and should have less effect on selection response. Indirect selection can give lower response than direct selection.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.209-211
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• 2002

A number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as benzo［a］pyrene, are carcinogenic and thought to contribute to the overall burden of human cancer (1). PAHs are ubiquitous in the environment and humans are exposed to them via multi-pathways, e.g. air or soil of urban areas, exposure to direct or indirect tobacco smoke, and ingestion of food or water polluted by combustion effluents (2-3). (omitted)

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.644-654
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• 2024

After the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (Japan, 2011), regulatory efforts to mitigate external hazards have increased both the safety requirements and the total capital cost of nuclear power plants (NPPs). In these circumstances, identifying not only disaster robustness but also cost-effective capacity setting of NPPs has become one of the most important tasks for the nuclear power industry. A few studies have been performed to relocate the seismic capacity of NPPs, yet the effects of multiple hazards have not been accounted for in NPP capacity optimization. The major challenges in extending this problem to the multihazard dimension are (1) the high computational costs for both multihazard risk quantification and system-level optimization and (2) the lack of capital cost databases of NPPs. To resolve these issues, this paper proposes an effective method that identifies the optimal multihazard capacity of NPPs using a multi-objective genetic algorithm and the two-stage direct quantification of fault trees using Monte Carlo simulation method, called the two-stage DQFM. Also, a capacity-based indirect capital cost measure is proposed. Such a proposed method enables NPP to achieve safety and cost-effectiveness against multi-hazard simultaneously within the computationally efficient platform. The proposed multihazard capacity optimization framework is demonstrated and tested with an earthquake-tsunami example.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 1989

This experiment was carried out to analyze genetic parameters for the selection of silkworm by diallel-crossing with three Japanese and four Chiness silkworm races. Heritability, genetic correlation and path coefficient were calculated as the statistical parameters to evaluate direct or indirect effects of various gentic characters on bave weight. The heritabilities of fifth instar period, cocoon weight, cocoon layer weight, cocoon layer ration, fibroin contents, boiling off ratio and bave weight were over 76.65% in both F1 and F2 generations. There were positive coefficients in both phenotypic and genotypic correlations between male and female of both F1 and F2 generations. The latter showed greater values in general. The correlation between bave weight and the characters of cocoon weight, cocoon layer weight, cocoon layer ratio, fibroin contents were over 0.727 in both sexes of F1 and F2. Therefore, these results suggest that above characters would be useful for genetic selection of silkworms. As result of path coefficient analysis, there was a direct effect with path coefficient value of 0.991 between bave weight and F1 female cocoon layer weight, and with the value of 0.803 between bave weight and F1 male cocoon weight. In F2 the effect showed 0.938 between bave weight and male cocoon weight and cocoon layer weight had greater influence on direct or indirect effects (in path coefficient) than the others.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.405-410
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• 1996

Previous studies have shown that transforming growth factor beta ($TGF-{\beta}$) is a potent regulator of cell growth and differentiation. To study the effects of $TGF-{\beta}$ on cell morphology and cytoskeleton reorganization, we conducted a survey using Mv1Lu mink lung epithelial cells with antibodies to cytoskeletal proteins and an extracellular matrix protein. While the untreated cells showed a cuboidal shape of typical epithelia, the Mv1Lu cells displayed a drastic shape change in the presence of $TGF-{\beta}$. This alteration was most prominent when near-confluent cells were treated with $TGF-{\beta}$. Since the morphology alteration is known to be accompanied by the reorganization of cytoskeletal proteins in other cell types, we investigated the intracellular distribution of the three major cytoskeletal structures: microfilaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments. In the microfilament system, $TGF-{\beta}$ induced new stress fiber formation, which was caused primarily by the polymerization of cytoplasmic G-actin. However, $TGF-{\beta}$ appeared not to induce any significant changes in microtubular structures and vimentin filaments as determined by indirect fluorescence microscopy. Finally we confirmed the rapid accumulation of fibronectin by immunoblot analysis and chased the protein locations by immunofluorescence microscopy.