Random regression models using Legendre polynomials or linear splines for test-day milk yield of dairy Gyr (Bos indicus) cattle

Studies investigating the use of random regression models for genetic evaluation of milk production in Zebu cattle are scarce. In this study, 59,744 test-day milk yield records from 7,810 first lactations of purebred dairy Gyr (Bos indicus) and crossbred (dairy Gyr × Holstein) cows were used to compare random regression models in which additive genetic and permanent environmental effects were modeled using orthogonal Legendre polynomials or linear spline functions. Residual variances were modeled considering 1, 5, or 10 classes of days in milk. Five classes fitted the changes in residual variances over the lactation adequately and were used for model comparison. The model that fitted linear spline functions with 6 knots provided the lowest sum of residual variances across lactation. On the other hand, according to the deviance information criterion (DIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC), a model using third-order and fourth-order Legendre polynomials for additive genetic and permanent environmental effects, respectively, provided the best fit. However, the high rank correlation (0.998) between this model and that applying third-order Legendre polynomials for additive genetic and permanent environmental effects, indicates that, in practice, the same bulls would be selected by both models. The last model, which is less parameterized, is a parsimonious option for fitting dairy Gyr breed test-day milk yield records. © 2013 American Dairy Science Association.

Analysis of genetic correlations of hip height with selection indices and mature weight in Nelore cattle

Body size is directly related to the productive and reproductive performance of beef cattle raised under free-range conditions. In an attempt to better plan selection criteria, avoiding extremes in body size, this study estimated the heritabilities and genetic correlations of yearling hip height (YH) and mature hip height (MH) with selection indices obtained at weaning (WI) and yearling (YI) and mature weight (MW). Data from 102,373 Nelore animals born between 1984 and 2010, which belong to 263 farms that participate in genetic evaluation programmes of beef cattle conducted in Brazil and Paraguay, were used. The (co)variance components and genetic parameters were estimated by Bayesian inference in multi-trait analysis using an animal model. The mean heritabilities for YH, MH and MW were 0. 56 ± 0. 06, 0. 47 ± 0. 02 and 0. 42 ± 0. 02, respectively. The genetic correlation of YH with WI (0. 13 ± 0. 01) and YI (0. 11 ± 0. 01) was practically zero, whereas a higher correlation was observed with MW (0. 22 ± 0. 03). Positive genetic correlations of medium magnitude were estimated between MH and WI and YI (0. 23 ± 0. 01 and 0. 43 ± 0. 02, respectively). On the other hand, a high genetic correlation (0. 68 ± 0. 03) was observed between the indicator traits of mature body size (MH and MW). Considering the top 20 % of sire (896 sires) in terms of breeding values for the yearling index, the rank sire correlations between breeding values for MH and MW was 0. 62. In general, the results indicate that selection based on WI and YI should not lead to important changes in YH. However, an undesired correlated response in mature cow height is expected, particularly when selection is performed using YI. Therefore, changes in the body structure of Nelore females can be obtained when MH and MW is used as a selection criterion for cows. © 2012 Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan.

Stability of nonlinear system using takagi-sugeno fuzzy models and hyper-rectangle of LMIs

This paper presents a theorem based on the hyper-rectangle defined by the closed set of the time derivatives of the membership functions of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems. This result is also based on Linear Matrix Inequalities and allows the reduction of the conservatism of the stability analysis in the sense of Lyapunov. The theorem generalizes previous results available in the literature. © 2013 Brazilian Society for Automatics - SBA.

Stable singularities of co-rank one quasi homogeneous map germs from (ℂn+1, 0) to (ℂn, 0), n = 2, 3

In this article, we investigate the geometry of quasi homogeneous corank one finitely determined map germs from (ℂn+1, 0) to (ℂn, 0) with n = 2, 3. We give a complete description, in terms of the weights and degrees, of the invariants that are associated to all stable singularities which appear in the discriminant of such map germs. The first class of invariants which we study are the isolated singularities, called 0-stable singularities because they are the 0-dimensional singularities. First, we give a formula to compute the number of An points which appear in any stable deformation of a quasi homogeneous co-rank one map germ from (ℂn+1, 0) to (ℂn, 0) with n = 2, 3. To get such a formula, we apply the Hilbert's syzygy theorem to determine the graded free resolution given by the syzygy modules of the associated iterated Jacobian ideal. Then we show how to obtain the other 0-stable singularities, these isolated singularities are formed by multiple points and here we use the relation among them and the Fitting ideals of the discriminant. For n = 2, there exists only the germ of double points set and for n = 3 there are the triple points, named points A1,1,1 and the normal crossing between a germ of a cuspidal edge and a germ of a plane, named A2,1. For n = 3, there appear also the one-dimensional singularities, which are of two types: germs of cuspidal edges or germs of double points curves. For these singularities, we show how to compute the polar multiplicities and also the local Euler obstruction at the origin in terms of the weights and degrees. © 2013 Pushpa Publishing House.

Simultaneous linearization of a class of pairs of involutions with normally hyperbolic composition

In this paper we obtain a result on simultaneous linearization for a class of pairs of involutions whose composition is normally hyperbolic. This extends the corresponding result when the composition of the involutions is a hyperbolic germ of diffeomorphism. Inside the class of pairs with normally hyperbolic composition, we obtain a characterization theorem for the composition to be hyperbolic. In addition, related to the class of interest, we present the classification of pairs of linear involutions via linear conjugacy. © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS.

Comparative cytogenetic analysis of some species of the Dendropsophus microcephalus group (Anura, Hylidae) in the light of phylogenetic inferences

Background: Dendropsophus is a monophyletic anuran genus with a diploid number of 30 chromosomes as an important synapomorphy. However, the internal phylogenetic relationships of this genus are poorly understood. Interestingly, an intriguing interspecific variation in the telocentric chromosome number has been useful in species identification. To address certain uncertainties related to one of the species groups of Dendropsophus, the D. microcephalus group, we carried out a cytogenetic analysis combined with phylogenetic inferences based on mitochondrial sequences, which aimed to aid in the analysis of chromosomal characters. Populations of Dendropsophus nanus, Dendropsophus walfordi, Dendropsophus sanborni, Dendropsophus jimi and Dendropsophus elianeae, ranging from the extreme south to the north of Brazil, were cytogenetically compared. A mitochondrial region of the ribosomal 12S gene from these populations, as well as from 30 other species of Dendropsophus, was used for the phylogenetic inferences. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses.Results: The species D. nanus and D. walfordi exhibited identical karyotypes (2n = 30; FN = 52), with four pairs of telocentric chromosomes and a NOR located on metacentric chromosome pair 13. In all of the phylogenetic hypotheses, the paraphyly of D. nanus and D. walfordi was inferred. D. sanborni from Botucatu-SP and Torres-RS showed the same karyotype as D. jimi, with 5 pairs of telocentric chromosomes (2n = 30; FN = 50) and a terminal NOR in the long arm of the telocentric chromosome pair 12. Despite their karyotypic similarity, these species were not found to compose a monophyletic group. Finally, the phylogenetic and cytogenetic analyses did not cluster the specimens of D. elianeae according to their geographical occurrence or recognized morphotypes.Conclusions: We suggest that a taxonomic revision of the taxa D. nanus and D. walfordi is quite necessary. We also observe that the number of telocentric chromosomes is useful to distinguish among valid species in some cases, although it is unchanged in species that are not necessarily closely related phylogenetically. Therefore, inferences based on this chromosomal character must be made with caution; a proper evolutionary analysis of the karyotypic variation in Dendropsophus depends on further characterization of the telocentric chromosomes found in this group. © 2013 Medeiros et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Zeros of a family of hypergeometric para-orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle

Para-orthogonal polynomials derived from orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle are known to have all their zeros on the unit circle. In this note we study the zeros of a family of hypergeometric para-orthogonal polynomials. As tools to study these polynomials, we obtain new results which can be considered as extensions of certain classical results associated with three term recurrence relations and differential equations satisfied by orthogonal polynomials on the real line. One of these results which might be considered as an extension of the classical Sturm comparison theorem, enables us to obtain monotonicity with respect to the parameters for the zeros of these para-orthogonal polynomials. Finally, a monotonicity of the zeros of Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials is proved. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Microsatellite marker-based assessment of the biodiversity of native bioethanol yeast strains

Although many Brazilian sugar mills initiate the fermentation process by inoculating selected commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, the unsterile conditions of the industrial sugar cane ethanol fermentation process permit the constant entry of native yeast strains. Certain of those native strains are better adapted and tend to predominate over the initial strain, which may cause problems during fermentation. In the industrial fermentation process, yeast cells are often exposed to stressful environmental conditions, including prolonged cell recycling, ethanol toxicity and osmotic, oxidative or temperature stress. Little is known about these S. cerevisiae strains, although recent studies have demonstrated that heterogeneous genome architecture is exhibited by some selected well-adapted Brazilian indigenous yeast strains that display high performance in bioethanol fermentation. In this study, 11 microsatellite markers were used to assess the genetic diversity and population structure of the native autochthonous S. cerevisiae strains in various Brazilian sugar mills. The resulting multilocus data were used to build a similarity-based phenetic tree and to perform a Bayesian population structure analysis. The tree revealed the presence of great genetic diversity among the strains, which were arranged according to the place of origin and the collection year. The population structure analysis revealed genotypic differences among populations; in certain populations, these genotypic differences are combined to yield notably genotypically diverse individuals. The high yeast diversity observed among native S. cerevisiae strains provides new insights on the use of autochthonous high-fitness strains with industrial characteristics as starter cultures at bioethanol plants. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Peixoto's Theorem for vector fields on S2 with impasse points

The structural stability of vector fields with impasse regular curves on S2 is studied and a version of Peixoto's Theorem is established. Moreover a global analysis of normal forms of the constrained systems. A(x).ẋ=F(x),x∈R3,A∈M(3),F:R3→R3 in the Poincaré ball (i.e. in the compactification of R3 with the sphere S2 of the infinity) is made. © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS.

The enzymatic recalcitrance of internodes of sugar cane hybrids with contrasting lignin contents

The recalcitrance in grasses varies according to cell type and maturation. The origin of the recalcitrance in different regions from sugar cane internodes with varied lignin contents was evaluated. The efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis was correlated with the chemical, micromorphological and microspectrophotometric characteristics of the samples. The internodes of three sugar cane hybrids were dissected into four different fractions. The outermost fraction and the rind were the most recalcitrant regions, whereas the pith-rind interface and the pith were less recalcitrant. Cellulose conversion reached 86% after 72h of enzymatic digestion of the pith from the hybrid with the lowest lignin content. There was an inversely proportional correlation between the area occupied by vascular bundles and the efficiency of cellulose hydrolysis. High cellulose and low lignin or hemicellulose contents enhanced the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis of the polysaccharides. The critical evaluation of the results permitted to propose an empirical parameter for predicting cellulose conversion levels that accounts for the positive effect of high cellulose and low lignin plus hemicellulose and the detrimental effect of abundant vascular bundles. The cellulose conversion levels fit well to this calculated parameter, following a second order polynomial with an r2 value of 0.96. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Saudade (1919-2002): a contribuição de Thales Castanho de Andrade para o campo da leitura escolar

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A coleção de leitura escolar: série Thales de Andrade (1928-1964) : reflexões sobre leitura escolar

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Cryptic species of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis: impact on paracoccidioidomycosis immunodiagnosis

We aimed to evaluate whether the occurrence of cryptic species of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, S1, PS2, PS3 and Paracoccidioides lutzii, has implications in the immunodiagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM). Small quantities of the antigen gp43 were found in culture filtrates of P. lutzii strains and this molecule appeared to be more variable within P. lutzii because the synonymous-nonsynonymous mutation rate was lower, indicating an evolutionary process different from that of the remaining genotypes. The production of gp43 also varied between isolates belonging to the same species, indicating that speciation events are important, but not sufficient to fully explain the diversity in the production of this antigen. The culture filtrate antigen AgEpm83, which was obtained from a PS3 isolate, showed large quantities of gp43 and reactivity by immunodiffusion assays, similar to the standard antigen (AgB-339) from an S1 isolate. Furthermore, AgEpm83 was capable of serologically differentiating five serum samples from patients from the Botucatu and Jundiaí regions. These patients had confirmed PCM but, were non-reactive to the standard antigen, thus demonstrating an alternative for serological diagnosis in regions in which S1 and PS2 occur. We also emphasise that it is not advisable to use a single antigen preparation to diagnose PCM, a disease that is caused by highly diverse pathogens.

Bi-Lipschitz A-equivalence of K-equivalent map-germs

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A Favard type theorem for orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle from a three term recurrence formula

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)