The results of 5732 records of kids born between 1985 and 1996 at Gardel Agricultural Experiment Station (INRA) in Guadeloupe, were used in order to estimate the effect of kidding day (KD) on individual preweaning growth performances, total productivity of Creole goats and litter size. The flock was subjected to a restricted mating season for a long time, by using male effect. The results of the fixed linear model showed a highly significant (P<0.001) effect of KD on growth rate and total productivity of does. Live weights of kids born around the 21st day of the kidding period (KP) was 4% to 7% higher than those of kids born the first day of the KP. For total productivity of does, this ratio did not reached more than 4%. The optimum at 70 days of age occurred around 14th day of the KD with 3% of improvement of total productivity. No effect was observed upon litter size. The genetic (co)variance components were estimated by six different Individual Animal Models. The heritability (h2) estimated from the best model, was hD2=0.25±0.05 for genetic direct effect; hM2=0.09±0.04 for genetic maternal effect and the genetic correlation between direct and maternal effects was −0.86±0.12. The use of KD could be highly recommended in a breeding program in this population of Creole meat goats, since it is quite easy to record under commercial conditions as a character related to reproductive performance. 相似文献
BACKGROUND: Interpretation of serial urine protein:creatinine (UPC) values is confounded by a lack of data regarding random biologic variation of UPC values in dogs with stable glomerular proteinuria. HYPOTHESIS: That there is minimal day-to-day variability in the UPC of dogs with unchanging proteinuria and the number of measurements needed to reliably estimate UPC varies with the magnitude of proteinuria. ANIMALS: Forty-eight heterozygous (carrier) female dogs with X-linked hereditary nephropathy (XLHN) causing stable proteinuria. METHODS: Urine samples were obtained daily by cystocentesis for 3 consecutive days on 183 occasions (549 samples). The UPC was measured for each sample with a single dry-film chemistry auto-analyzer. Data were analyzed retrospectively by a power of the mean model because the variance of UPC values within the 3-day evaluation periods increased as the magnitude of proteinuria increased. RESULTS: To demonstrate a significant difference (P < .05) between serial values in these proteinuric dogs, the UPC must change by at least 35% at high UPC values (near 12) and 80% at low UPC values (near 0.5). One measurement is adequate to reliably estimate the UPC when UPC <4, but 2-5 determinations are necessary at higher UPC values. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: These guidelines for interpretation of serial UPC values in female dogs with XLHN may also be helpful for interpretation of UPC values in dogs with other glomerulopathies. 相似文献
We conducted a study on 81 initially bulk-milk ELISA negative dairy herds taken from a random sample of Dutch dairy herds to evaluate variation in bulk-milk S/P ratios and to study reasons for bulk-milk conversion. These herds were repeatedly (3-month intervals) tested between April 2004 and August 2005 and serostatus of all animals had previously been established as negative (N), low-positive (LP) or high-positive (HP). Of these herds, herd- and test-related factors associated with variation in sample over positive (S/P) ratios were analysed using a multivariable linear-mixed model with ‘herd’ as random effect. In addition, changes of animal serostatus in converting herds were described. S/P ratios were calculated as the optical density of the bulk-milk sample minus the optical density of the negative serum control divided by the difference in optical density between the positive and negative serum control.
Sixteen bulk-milk conversions in 12 dairy herds were seen with few indications of serological conversion in lactating cattle except for one herd in which recrudescence of infection appeared likely in nine cows. The effect of HP serostatus on bulk-milk S/P ratio was 2–3 times stronger compared with LP serostatus. In addition, bulk-milk S/P-ratio increased when the proportion of HP animals between 1 and 60 days in milk increased and decreased when the average milk-production level of the herd increased. Besides these herd-related factors, the use of different ELISA-testkits between test rounds had a significant effect on the S/P-ratio in bulk-milk samples. 相似文献
Land use changes operate at different scales. They trigger a cascade of effects that simultaneously modify the composition
or structure of the landscape and of the local vegetation. Mobil animals, and birds in particular, can respond quickly to
such multi-scalar changes. We took advantage of a long term study on the response of songbirds to land-use changes on four
Mediterranean islands in Corsica and Sardinia to explore the benefits of a multi-scale analysis of the relationships between
songbird distribution, vegetation structure and landscape dynamics. Field data and aerial photographs were used to describe
the vegetation at three different scales. Birds were censused by point counts. We used statistical variance decomposition
to study how bird distribution and vegetation at various scales were linked. We analysed multi-scale vegetation changes (floristic
composition, plot vegetation type, and landscape structure) and their consequences on bird distribution with multivariate
and non-parametrical tests. The distribution of most species was linked to at least two spatial scales. The weight of a given
scale was consistent with life-history traits for species whose biology was well-known. In the examples studied, vegetation
composition, vegetation type and landscape changes that resulted from land abandonment negatively affected birds depending
on open or heterogeneous areas. Our results emphasize that multi-scale analyses can greatly enhance our understanding of bird
distribution and of their changes. Management of these populations should take into account measures at various spatial scales
depending on the sensitivity of the species. 相似文献
This study proposes a within-subject variance-covariance (VC) structure to take into account repeated measurements and heteroscedasticity
in a context of growth modeling. The VC structure integrates a variance function and a continuous autoregressive covariance
structure. It was tested on a nonlinear growth model parameterized with data from permanent sample plots. Using a stand-level
approach, basal area growth was independently modeled for red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) and balsam fir [Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.] in mixed stands. For both species, the implementation of the VC structure significantly improved the maximum
likelihood of the model. In both cases, it efficiently accounted for heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation, since the normalized
residuals no longer exhibited departures from the assumptions of independent error terms with homogeneous variances. Moreover,
compared with traditional nonlinear least squares (NLS) models, models parameterized with this VC structure may generate more
accurate predictions when prior information is available. This case study demonstrates that the implementation of a VC structure
may provide parameter estimates that are consistent with asymptotically unbiased variances in a context of nonlinear growth
modeling using a stand-level approach. Since the variances are no longer biased, the hypothesis tests performed on the estimates
are valid when the number of observations is large. 相似文献
Our study focuses on predicting the ultimate short-term load carrying capacity of timber-to-timber connections with dowel-type fasteners. The wide range of possible configurations in practice makes the resolution of these values by tests unrealistic. Moreover, different current regulations do not consider some specific failure mechanisms. In many countries, the reduction of resistance involved by this phenomenon is taken into account by considering an effective number of dowels (nef) smaller than the actual number of dowels (n) in the connection. However, these different regulations disagree on the values of nef and on other points (spacing, partial coefficient of security, formulas). These discrepancies in design rules invite the fundamental research on this topic and, therefore, new methods are sought in order to estimate the load carrying capacities of the connections. In the light of these, our approach consists of predicting the load carrying capacity with the neural network numerical tool. The results obtained by this analysis tool are satisfactory, although the model remains complex. Subsequently, we focus on the simplification of this numerical model with classical regression techniques in order to implement it in a design code. 相似文献