Dissecting the genetic basis of complex traits is aided by frequent and nondestructive measurements. Advances in range imaging technologies enable the rapid acquisition of three-dimensional (3D) data from an imaged scene. A depth camera was used to acquire images of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), an important grain, forage, and bioenergy crop, at multiple developmental time points from a greenhouse...

Chicken is considered to be an excellent model for genetic studies of phenotypic and genomic evolution, with large effective population size, specialized commercial lines, and strong human-driven selection. High-density chicken SNP chips can help to achieve a better understanding of the selection mechanisms in artificially selected populations. We performed the genome-wide tests for the selecti...

Hatchability is a very important trait in a breeding program which has a great economical impact on franchise hatcheries. The variability between and within strains raises the question whether reproductive performance can be improved by selection within lines. The aim of this study is to analyse the genetic background of the hatchability and its correlations between egg quality and production t...

Lignin quantity and composition are major components of wood quality in eucalypts breeding programs. Optimizing these traits can have a huge economical impact for charcoal and pulp production. However, little is known about the genetic determinism of these traits. Our objective is to establish efficient early selection criteria to identify ideotypes for these traits using gene based markers. To...

First-order logic (FOL) is undecidable — that is, no algorithm exists that can decide whether a formula of FOL is valid or not. However, there are various fragments of FOL that are known to be decidable. FO, the two-variable fragment of FOL, is one of such languages [1,2]. FO is a first-order language where formulas have maximally two variables, no function symbols, but possibly do have equalit...

Several models have been proposed for scheduling the preventive maintenance (PM) of complex repairable systems in industry. These are often application-speci"c and some make unrealistic assumptions about stationarity of the process and quality of repairs. We investigate two principal types of general model, which have wider applicability. The "rst considers "xed PM intervals and is based on the...

Hybridization produces strong evolutionary forces. In hybrid zones, selection can differentially occur on traits and selection intensities may differ among hybrid generations. Understanding these dynamics in crop-wild hybrid zones can clarify crop-like traits likely to introgress into wild populations and the particular hybrid generations through which introgression proceeds. In a field experim...

ABSTRACT The Karnal bunt pathogen, Tilletia indica, is heterothallic and depends on encounters on wheat spikes between airborne secondary sporidia of different mating types for successful infection and reproduction. This life history characteristic results in reduced reproductive success for lower population densities. Such destabilizing density dependence at low population levels has been desc...