• Title/Summary/Keyword: performance objective

Search Result 5,782, Processing Time 0.031 seconds

Molecular analysis of alternative transcripts of equine AXL receptor tyrosine kinase gene

  • Park, Jeong-Woong;Song, Ki-Duk;Kim, Nam Young;Choi, Jae-Young;Hong, Seul A;Oh, Jin Hyeog;Kim, Si Won;Lee, Jeong Hyo;Park, Tae Sub;Kim, Jin-Kyoo;Kim, Jong Geun;Cho, Byung-Wook
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.30 no.10
    • /
    • pp.1471-1477
    • /
    • 2017
  • Objective: Since athletic performance is a most importance trait in horses, most research focused on physiological and physical studies of horse athletic abilities. In contrast, the molecular analysis as well as the regulatory pathway studies remain insufficient for evaluation and prediction of horse athletic abilities. In our previous study, we identified AXL receptor tyrosine kinase (AXL) gene which was expressed as alternative spliced isoforms in skeletal muscle during exercise. In the present study, we validated two AXL alternative splicing transcripts (named as AXLa for long form and AXLb for short form) in equine skeletal muscle to gain insight(s) into the role of each alternative transcript during exercise. Methods: We validated two isoforms of AXL transcripts in horse tissues by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and then cloned the transcripts to confirm the alternative locus and its sequences. Additionally, we examined the expression patterns of AXLa and AXLb transcripts in horse tissues by quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). Results: Both of AXLa and AXLb transcripts were expressed in horse skeletal muscle and the expression levels were significantly increased after exercise. The sequencing analysis showed that there was an alternative splicing event at exon 11 between AXLa and AXLb transcripts. 3-dimentional (3D) prediction of the alternative protein structures revealed that the structural distance of the connective region between fibronectin type 3 (FN3) and immunoglobin (Ig) domain was different between two alternative isoforms. Conclusion: It is assumed that the expression patterns of AXLa and AXLb transcripts would be involved in regulation of exercise-induced stress in horse muscle possibly through an $NF-{\kappa}B$ signaling pathway. Further study is necessary to uncover biological function(s) and significance of the alternative splicing isoforms in race horse skeletal muscle.

Effects of four dim vs high intensity red color light regimens on growth performance and welfare of broilers

  • Senaratna, D.;Samarakone, T.S.;Gunawardena, W.W.D.A.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.31 no.1
    • /
    • pp.149-156
    • /
    • 2018
  • Objective: Broilers show clear preference towards red color light (RL). However setting of an optimum light intensity is difficult since dim intensities that favor growth reduce welfare. This experiment was conducted to test the most effective RL intensity regimen (Dim [5 lux; DI] vs high [320 lux; HI]) in combination applied at different growth stages that favors for both performance and welfare. Methods: Complete randomize design was adopted with 6 replicates. Treatments were; T1 = early DI (8-21 d)+latter HI (22-35 d); T2 = early DI (8-28 d)+latter HI (29-35 d), T3 = early HI (8-21 d)+latter DI (22-35 d), T4 = early HI (8-28 d)+latter DI (29-35 d) and T5 = control (white light; WT) (8-35 d) at medium intensity (20 lux). Body weight (BW), weight gain (WG), water/feed intake and ratio, feed conversion ratios (FCR) were assessed. Common behaviours (15) were recorded by scan sampling method. Lameness, foot pad dermatitis, breast blisters, hock burning damage were assessed as welfare parameters. Fear reactions were tested using Tonic Immobility Test. Ocular and carcass evaluations were done. Meat and tibiae were analyzed for fat and bone ash respectively. Results: On 35 d, the highest BW ($2,155.72{\pm}176g$), WG ($1,967.78{\pm}174g$) were recorded by T2 compared to WT ($BW_{WT}=1,878.22{\pm}155$, $WG_{WT}=1,691.83{\pm}160$). But, application of RL, either DI, or HI during early/latter stage had no significant effect on FCR. Under HI, birds showed much higher active behaviours. DI encourages eating. Though LI changed from DI to HI, same trend could be seen even under HI. The highest leg strength ($218.5{\pm}120s$) was recorded by T2. The lowest leg strength ($64.58{\pm}33s$) and the highest ocular weight ($2.48{\pm}1g$) were recorded by T1. Significantly (p<0.05) the highest skin weight ($162.17{\pm}6g$) but the lowest fat% in meat ($13.03%{\pm}5%$) was recorded by T2. Conclusion: Early exposure to DI-RL up to 28 days followed by exposure to HI-RL is the most favorable lighting regimen for optimizing production, better welfare of broilers and improving health benefits of meat.

Effect of increasing levels of apparent metabolizable energy on laying hens in barn system

  • Kang, Hwan Ku;Park, Seong Bok;Jeon, Jin Joo;Kim, Hyun Soo;Park, Ki Tae;Kim, Sang Ho;Hong, Eui Chul;Kim, Chan Ho
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.31 no.11
    • /
    • pp.1766-1772
    • /
    • 2018
  • Objective: This experiment was to investigate the effect of increasing levels of apparent metabolizable energy ($AME_n$) on the laying performance, egg quality, blood parameters, blood biochemistry, intestinal morphology, and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and nutrients in diets fed to laying hens. Methods: A total of three-hundred twenty 33-week-old Hy-Line Brown laying hens (Gallus domesticus) were evenly assigned to four experimental diets of 2,750, 2,850, 2,950, and 3,050 kcal $AME_n/kg$ in pens with floors covered with deep litter of rice hulls. There were four replicates of each treatment, each consisting of 20 birds in a pen. Results: $AME_n$ intake was increased (linear, p<0.05) with inclusion level of $AME_n$ in diets increased. Feed intake and feed conversion ratio were improved (linear, p<0.01), but hen-day egg production tended to be increased with an increasing level of $AME_n$ in diets. During the experiment, leukocyte concentration and blood biochemistry (total cholesterol, triglyceride, glucose, total protein, calcium, asparate aminotransferase, and alanine transferase were not influenced by increasing level of $AME_n$ in diets. Gross energy and ether extract were increased (linear, p<0.01) as the inclusion level of $AME_n$ in diets increased. Conclusion: Laying hens fed high $AME_n$ diet (i.e., 3,050 kcal/kg in the current experiment) tended to overconsume energy with a positive effect on feed intake, feed conversion ratio, nutrient digestibility, and intestinal morphology but not on egg production and egg mass.

Effects of stale maize on growth performance, immunity, intestinal morphology and antioxidant capacity in broilers

  • Liu, J.B.;Yan, H.L.;Zhang, Y.;Hu, Y.D.;Zhang, H.F.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.33 no.4
    • /
    • pp.605-614
    • /
    • 2020
  • Objective: This study was conducted to determine the effects of stale maize on growth performance, immunity, intestinal morphology, and antioxidant capacity in broilers. Methods: A total of 800 one-day-old male Arbor Acres broilers (45.4±0.5 g) were blocked based on body weight, and then allocated randomly to 2 treatments with 20 cages per treatment and 20 broilers per cage in this 6-week experiment. Dietary treatments included a basal diet and diets with 100% of control maize replaced by stale maize. Results: The content of fat acidity value was higher (p<0.05) while the starch, activities of catalase and peroxidase were lower (p<0.05) than the control maize. Feeding stale maize diets reduced (p<0.05) average daily feed intake (ADFI) throughout the experiment, feed conversion ratio (FCR) during d 0 to 21 and the whole experiment as well as relative weight of liver, spleen, bursa of Fabricius and thymus (p<0.05) on d 21. Feeding stale maize diets decreased jejunum villus height (VH) and VH/crypt depth (CD) (p<0.05) on d 21 and 42 as well as ileum VH/CD on d 42. The levels of immunoglobulin G, acid α-naphthylacetate esterase positive ratios and lymphocyte proliferation on d 21 and 42 as well as lysozyme activity and avian influenza antibody H5N1 titer on d 21 decreased (p<0.05) by the stale maize. Feeding stale maize diets reduced (p<0.05) serum interferon-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-2 on d 21 and interleukin-6 on d 21 and 42. Broilers fed stale maize diets had lower levels of (p<0.05) total antioxidative capacity on d 42, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase on d 21 and 42, but higher (p<0.05) levels of malondialdehyde on d 21 and 42. Conclusion: Feeding 100% stale maize decreased ADFI and FCR, caused adverse effects on immunity and antioxidant function and altered intestinal morphology in broilers.

Effect of different fat and protein levels in calf ration on performance of Sahiwal calves

  • Sharma, Bharti;Nimje, Prapti;Tomar, S.K.;Dey, Dipak;Mondal, Santu;Kundu, S.S.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.33 no.1
    • /
    • pp.53-60
    • /
    • 2020
  • Objective: The current study was carried out to examine the response of different levels of fat and protein in calf starter on nutrient utilisation, nitrogen metabolism, weight gain, blood parameters, and immunity level in pre-ruminant calves. Methods: Twenty four calves (5 days old) were divided into six groups in a 2×3 factorial design, with two levels of fat (10% and 14%) and three levels of protein (18%, 21%, and 24%). The calves were kept in individual pens for 120 days and fed with whole milk (1/10th of body weight) and calf starter ad-libitum. Daily dry matter intake was recorded; whereas body weight was taken on fortnightly basis to calculate average daily gain. During the growth trial blood samples were collected at 30 days interval to estimate blood glucose, albumin, total protein, total leucocyte count, total immunoglobulins and immunoglobulin G levels. A metabolic trial of seven days was carried out to find out the digestibility of different nutrients. Results: The dry matter intake was reduced (p<0.05) with higher fat and protein levels whereas feed conversion efficiency was improved (p<0.05) with higher protein level. Different levels of fat and protein in calf ration did not affect average daily gain in calves. The dry matter, organic matter, and crude protein digestibility were significantly (p<0.01) higher with increased level of protein. The nitrogen retention was also significantly higher (p<0.05) at 24% protein level, similarly the total immunoglobulin was significantly (p<0.05) high in higher protein fed groups, showed better immunity. Conclusion: The present finding suggested that 10% fat and 18% protein level of calf starter could be used in Sahiwal calves for optimum performance in terms of weight gain and immunity.

Flying-Wing Type UAV Design Optimization for Flight Stability Enhancement (전익기형 무인기의 비행 안정성 향상을 위한 형상 최적화 연구)

  • Seong, Dong-gyu;Juliawan, Nadhie;Tyan, Maxim;Kim, Sanho;Lee, Jae-woo
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
    • /
    • v.48 no.10
    • /
    • pp.809-819
    • /
    • 2020
  • In this study, the twist angle and wing planform shapes were selected as design variables and optimized to secure the stability of the flying-wing type UAV. Flying-wing aircraft has no separated fuselage and tails, which has advantages in aerodynamic characteristics and stealth performance, but it is difficult to secure the flight stability. In this paper, the sweep back angle and twist angle were optimized to obtain the lateral stability, the static margin and wing planform shapes were optimized to improve the longitudinal stability of the flying-wing, then effect of the twist angle was confirmed by comparing the stability of the shape with the winglet and the shape with the twist angle. In the optimization formulation, focusing on improving stability, constraints were established, objective functions and design variables were set, then design variable sensitivity analysis was performed using the Sobol method. AVL was used for aerodynamic analysis and stability analysis, and SQP was used for optimization. The CFD analysis of the optimized shape and the simulation of the dynamic stability proved that the twist angle can be applied to the improvement of the lateral stability as well as the stealth performance in the flying-wing instead of the winglet.

Investigation on the Performance of Special Purpose Automotive Air-Conditioning System Using Dual Refrigeration Cycle (듀얼 냉동사이클을 이용하는 특수목적 자동차용 에어컨 시스템의 냉방성능에 관한 연구)

  • Seo, Jae-Hyeong;Bang, You-Ma;Lee, Moo-Yeon
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
    • /
    • v.40 no.4
    • /
    • pp.213-220
    • /
    • 2016
  • The objective of this study is to investigate the cooling performance of an air-conditioning system for a special purpose vehicle under tropical and severe weather conditions. In order to evaluate and compare the cooling performances, the dual refrigeration cycle using R-134a was tested on a special purpose vehicle with various refrigerant charge amounts and indoor temperatures. The cycle was tested considering indoor cooling speed and compression ratio (discharge pressure), and was optimized at the refrigerant charge amount of 1.5 kg and outdoor temperature of $40.0^{\circ}C$. The time to reach indoor temperature of $15.0^{\circ}C$ increased by 86.5% and 38.1%, at the indoor temperatures from $25.0^{\circ}C$ to $32.5^{\circ}C$ and from $32.5^{\circ}C$ to $40.0^{\circ}C$, respectively. In addition, with the increase in indoor temperature from $25.0^{\circ}C$ to $40.0^{\circ}C$, the cooling capacity increased by 7.3%, from 19.1 kW to 20.5 kW, but decreased by 7.0% from 4.67 to 5.1.

Development of groundwater level monitoring and forecasting technique for drought analysis (II) - Groundwater drought forecasting Using SPI, SGI and ANN (가뭄 분석을 위한 지하수위 모니터링 및 예측기법 개발(II) - 표준강수지수, 표준지하수지수 및 인공신경망을 이용한 지하수 가뭄 예측)

  • Lee, Jeongju;Kang, Shinuk;Kim, Taeho;Chun, Gunil
    • Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
    • /
    • v.51 no.11
    • /
    • pp.1021-1029
    • /
    • 2018
  • A primary objective of this study is to develop a drought forecasting technique based on groundwater which can be exploit for water supply under drought stress. For this purpose, we explored the lagged relationships between regionalized SGI (standardized groundwater level index) and SPI (standardized precipitation index) in view of the drought propagation. A regional prediction model was constructed using a NARX (nonlinear autoregressive exogenous) artificial neural network model which can effectively capture nonlinear relationships with the lagged independent variable. During the training phase, model performance in terms of correlation coefficient was found to be satisfactory with the correlation coefficient over 0.7. Moreover, the model performance was described by root mean squared error (RMSE). It can be concluded that the proposed approach is able to provide a reliable SGI forecasts along with rainfall forecasts provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration.

Characteristics and Fate of Stormwater Runoff Pollutants in Constructed Wetlands (도시지역에 적용가능한 인공습지에서의 강우유출수 함유 오염물질의 거동과 특성)

  • Alihan, Jawara Christian;Maniquiz-Redillas, Marla;Choi, Jiyeon;Flores, Precious Eureka;Kim, Lee-Hyung
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
    • /
    • v.19 no.1
    • /
    • pp.37-44
    • /
    • 2017
  • Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution continues to degrade the water quality. NPS pollutants signals high concerns against a sustainable environment. Low impact development (LID) is the leading management practice which regulates and treats stormwater runoff especially in highly impervious urban areas. Constructed wetlands are known to have efficient removal capability of NPS pollutants. Likewise, these LID facilities were intended to maintain the predeveloped hydrologic regime through series of mechanisms such as particle settling, filtration, plant uptake, and etc. In this study, the objective was to investigate the characteristics, fate and treatment performance of the two in-campus constructed wetlands (SW1 and SW2) which were installed adjacent to impervious roads and parking lots to treat stormwater runoff. A total of 42 storm events were monitored starting from July 2010 until November 2015. Manual grab sampling was utilized at the inlet and outlet units of each LID facilities. Based on the results, the wetlands were found to be effective in reducing 37% and 41% of the total runoff volume and peak flows, respectively. Aside from this, outflow EMCs were generally lower than the inflow EMCs in most events suggesting that the two wetlands improved the water quality of stormwater runoff. The average removal efficiency of pollutants in facilities were 63~79% in TSS, 38~54% in TN, 54% in TP and 32%~81% in metals. The results of this study recommend the use of constructed wetlands as efficient treatment facility for urban areas for its satisfactory performance in runoff and pollutant reduction.

Separate Factor Caching Scheme for Mobile Web Service (모바일 웹 서비스를 위한 요소분할 캐싱 기법)

  • Sim, Kun-Jung;Kang, Eui-Sun;Kim, Jong-Keun;Ko, Hee-Ae;Lim, Young-Hwan
    • The KIPS Transactions:PartD
    • /
    • v.14D no.4 s.114
    • /
    • pp.447-458
    • /
    • 2007
  • The objective of this study is to provide faster mobile web service by improving performance of Contents Cache used for mobile web service in the existing Mobile Gate System. It was found that two elements existed in Mark-Up page transcoded by Contents Generator. One of the elements was dependent only on the requested DIDL page and Mark-Up type. The other was dependent on each of the requested DIDL page, Mark-Up type, size of mobile display 모바일 장치 to request service, type of images available and color depth count of the images available. The conventional Contents Cache saved the entire Mark-Up page to hold both of the two elements. This caused the problem where storage space was not effectively used because reusable elements were repetitively saved in cache memory domain due to change in one of the elements even though all the other elements were the same. As a result, a larger number of transcoded Mark-Up pages could not be saved in the same cache memory size. Therefore, in this study, Mark-Up pages transcoded by Contents Generator were divided into two elements and were separately saved. Also, in order to respond to the demand for replacing data in cache with new data, this study applied two algorithms of LFU and LRU. This study proposed the method to implement cache performance of faster speed by enabling to save more number of the transcoded Mark-Up pages in the same cache storage space.