Tottori Prefectural Museum

We collected 3180 records of oleic acid (C18:1) and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) measured using gas chromatography (GC) and 6960 records of C18:1 and MUFA measured using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in intermuscular fat samples of Japanese Black cattle. We compared genomic prediction performance for four linear models (genomic best linear unbiased prediction [GBLUP], kinship-adjusted multiple loci [KAML], BayesC, and BayesLASSO) and five machine learning models (Gaussian kernel [GK], deep kernel [DK], random forest [RF], extreme gradient boost [XGB], and convolutional neural network [CNN]). For GC-based C18:1 and MUFA, KAML showed the highest accuracies, followed by BayesC, XGB, DK, GK, and BayesLASSO, with more than 6% gain of accuracy by KAML over GBLUP. Meanwhile, DK had the highest prediction accuracy for NIRS-based C18:1 and MUFA, but the difference in accuracies between DK and KAML was slight. For all traits, accuracies of RF and CNN were lower than those of GBLUP. The KAML extends GBLUP methods, of which marker effects are weighted, and involves only additive genetic effects; whereas machine learning methods capture non-additive genetic effects. Thus, KAML is the most suitable method for breeding of fatty acid composition in Japanese Black cattle.

BackgroundAn individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has social skill, motor skill, and motion perception deficits. However, the relationship among them was not clarified. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of motor skills on social skills and motion perception. MethodsFive typically developed children and fourteen children with ASD participated in our study. The N200 component, a brain activity indicating motion perception, was induced in mid-temporal (MT/V5) brain area by watching a random dot kinematograph, and was recorded using a scalp electroencephalogram. Furthermore, the social responsiveness scale (SRS) indicating the social skill deficit, the developmental coordination disorder questionnaire (DCDQ) estimating the developmental coordination disorder (DCD), and the movement assessment battery for children second edition (MABC-2) indicating motor skills were recorded in the children with ASD. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the modulation effects of motor skills on the relationship between social skills and motion perception. The dependent variable was the N200 latency, and the independent variables were SRS, MABC-2, and combined MABC-2 and SRS. ResultsThe N200 latency was more delayed in children with ASD relative that in typically developed children. Intact balance ability modulated the relationship between social skills and N200 latency in children with ASD. Within the high balance ability, when the social skills worsened, the N200 latency was shortened. ConclusionsThis is the first report that intact motor skills could modulate the relationship between social skills and motion perception.

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays are widely used for genetic and genomic analyses in cattle breeding; thus, data derived from SNP arrays have accumulated on a large scale nationwide. Commercial SNP arrays contain a considerable number of unassigned SNPs on the chromosome/position on the genome; these SNPs are excluded in subsequent analyses. Notably, the position-unassigned SNPs, or "buried SNPs" include some of the markers associated with genetic disease. In this study, we identified the position of buried SNPs using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool against the surrounding sequences and characterized the relationship between SNPs and genetic diseases in Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals based on the genomic position. We determined the position of 285 buried SNPs on the genome and surveyed the genotype and allele frequencies of these SNPs in 5,955 individual Japanese Black cattle. Eleven SNPs associated with genetic disease, which contained five buried SNPs, were found in the population with the risk allele frequency ranging from 0.00008396 to 0.46. These results indicate that buried SNPs in the bovine SNP array can be utilized to identify associations with genetic disorders from large scale accumulated SNP genotype data in Japanese Black cattle.

Mild winters influenced by global warming have increased the incidence of erratic flowering ('flowering disorder') in Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai) trees in Japan. To discover how, when and what kind of disorder/damage occur in pear flower buds, we observed axillary flower buds of two cultivars, 'Kosui' (a mid-chill cultivar) and 'Niitaka' (a high-chill cultivar), grown at five locations. We focused on the phenology from autumn 2015 to spring 2016, when temperatures were higher than for average years, especially from September to January, and large fluctuations occurred due to El Niño. During the blooming season in the spring of 2016, both the percentage of blooming flower buds and the number of florets per flower bud decreased in trees located at lower latitudes (with lower chilling accumulation) with a more severe problem in 'Niitaka' than in 'Kosui'. As shown by forcing excised shoots, the onset and release of endodormancy occurred earlier in 'Kosui' than 'Niitaka' and occurred earlier in trees growing at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes (warmer regions). The freezing tolerance of flower buds, measured as the lethal temperature for 50% survival (LT50), was similar for the cultivars beginning in autumn and reached maximum levels, LT50 values of less than -12 °C, between late-December and mid-January in both cultivars, except for those in Kagoshima (the lowest latitude), where the maximum LT50 was only -5 °C throughout the season. We propose that warmer autumn-winter temperatures may prevent the acquisition of freezing tolerance, disturb endodormancy progression and disrupt floral organ development, thereby causing flowering disorder in pear trees. The risk of occurrence of flowering disorder in pear may be higher in high-chill cultivars than in low- or mid-chill cultivars and at lower latitudes compared with higher latitudes.

For practical use of Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM), understanding resistive switching mechanism in transition metal oxides (TMO) is important. Some papers predict its mechanism by using first principles calculation; for example, TMO become conductive by introducing oxygen vacancy in bulk single crystalline TMO. However, most of ReRAM samples have polycrystalline structures. In this paper, we introduced a periodic slab model to depict grain boundary and calculated the surface energy and density of states for surfaces of NiO with various orientations using first-principles calculation to consider the effect of grain boundaries for resistive switching mechanisms of ReRAM. As a results, vacancies can be formed on the side surface of grain more easily than in grain. Moreover, we showed that surface conductivity depends on surface orientation of NiO and the orientation of side surface of grain can change easily by introduction of vacancies, which is the switching mechanism of NiO-ReRAM