A cross-sectional study was conducted in communal and small-scale Nguni cattle enterprises to determine preferential traits for improvement under low-input cattle breeding programs. Forty-one farmers participated in ranking six specific traits of breeding bulls and cows. Kruskal-Wallis test and ordinal logistic regression were used to determine mean ranks of traits and odds ratios of predictors...

It is not economically feasible to sequence all study subjects in a large cohort. A cost-effective strategy is to sequence only the subjects with the extreme values of a quantitative trait. In the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Exome Sequencing Project, subjects with the highest or lowest values of body mass index, LDL, or blood pressure were selected for whole-exome sequencing. Fail...

Inducible morphological defences are crucial for understanding predator–prey interactions. Such have been mostly studied in a single-predator context, ignoring the fact that prey organisms often exposed to multiple predators. In deep peri-Alpine European lakes, keystone grazer Daphnia coexists with two cladoceran predators, Bythotrephes longimanus and Leptodora kindtii. Up now, life history res...

Understanding the underlying pleiotropic relationships among growth and body size traits is important for refining breeding strategies in dairy cattle optimal rate. Therefore, we performed single-trait genome-wide association studies (GWAS) monthly-recorded weight (BW), hip height (HH), length (BL) chest girth (CG) from birth to 12 mo of age Holstein animals, followed by stepwise multiple regre...

Nezara viridula (L.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), the southern green stink bug, has body color polymorphisms. N. viridula f. smaragdula is the common green morph, whereas the rare morph N. viridula f. aurantiaca is uniformly orange. Crossing studies were conducted to determine the inheritance of the orange body color trait. Mendelian genetic analysis suggested that orange body color is a simple, ...

The scaling of body parts is central to the evolution of morphology and shape. Most traits scale proportionally with each other and body size such that larger adults are essentially magnified versions of smaller ones. This pattern is so ubiquitous that departures from it - disproportionate scaling between trait and body size - pique interest because it can generate dramatically exaggerated trai...

Body size is an archetypal quantitative trait with variation due to the segregation of many gene loci, each of relatively minor effect, and the environment. We examine the effects of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on age-specific body weights and growth in the F2 intercross of the LG/J and SM/J strains of inbred mice. Weekly weights (1-10 wk) and 75 microsatellite genotypes were obtained for 53...

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that personality traits may influence patient-reported outcomes of breast reconstruction, but the research is limited. We investigated, in a prospective study, whether personality traits predict the achieved body image and quality of life (QoL) after breast reconstruction. METHODS Patients planning to undergo breast reconstruction at a University Hospital were...