Productive Performance of Double-Muscled Piemontese Culled Cows in Finishing Period

The aims of the study were to evaluate productive performances and environmental impact of double-muscled Piemontese culled cows. In two trials, 39 Piemontese culled cows aged from 46 to 176 mon were fattened using diets commonly applied in farm conditions. The animals were weighed at the beginning and end of the trials. Concentrate and hay intake were recorded daily. After slaughtering, meat, fat and bone yields were recorded and dressing percentage was calculated. The backward linear regression model was employed for statistical analysis. Results showed average body weight （ABW） of cows as （556.97± 55.99） kg and relatively low dry matter intake （DMI） [（9.17± 0.35） kg d^-1] during the fattening period. The ratio between DMI and ABW, i.e., ratio between intake and weight （RIW）, （1.66±0.18）% was negatively influenced by initial body weight （IBW） and duration of finishing period （D）, but age had no effect on RIW. Average daily gain （ADG） was relatively low [（0.55 ±0.21） kg d^-1, and was negatively correlated with IBW and D, which implied that lower IBW and shorter D could have higher ADG and vice versa. The dressing percentage （DP） was （59.80± 1.83）% and the carcass red meat yield （MY） was （75.17±3.10）%. Nevertheless, N efficiency was very low [（4.35 ± 1.76）%], which must be considered in relation to environmental protection so both animal requirements and a well balanced diet need more attention. In conclusion when Piemontese cows will be culled and fattened, IBW and D should be considered carefully in order to get a reasonable ADG and N efficiency to guarantee productive benefits and environmental protection at the same time.

Spatiotemporal changes in antlerless proportion of culled Sika deer in relation to deer density

Population management of herbivores is widely applied to decrease damage to forests in the northern hemisphere. Culling more antlerless deer, including females and fawns, is an effective means of reducing the population and helps to improve management efficiency. To increase the efficiency of antlerless-biased culling, we assessed the spatiotemporal distribution of the antlerless ratio in culled sika deer (Cervus nippon) in relation to population density. We hypothesized that the antlerless ratio is higher at the center of the distribution than at the margins of the deer’s range, because dispersal processes differ according to sex and age: Young male deer first disperse into an unoccupied area, and then males may become established in the new area for approximately 10–15 years before the number of females increases. A statistical model revealed spatiotemporal changes in the antlerless ratio of culled sika deer. The change in the ratio basically fit the density distribution of the deer, which was estimated independently on the basis of fecal pellet count surveys. The antlerless ratio estimated from the model increased asymptotically as deer density rose. The results support our hypothesis and suggest that antlerless sika deer will be more easily culled at the center rather than at the margins of the distribution range. These findings should help to increase the efficiency of managing the deer via antlerless-biased culling.

Optimal design of culling compensation policy under the African swine fever——Based on simulations of typical pig farms in China

This paper aims to optimize the culling compensation policy from a micro perspective through scenario simulation.Based on an investigation of 273 pig farms in eight regions,four typical pig farms were constructed according to farm size and breeding mode,representing the swine producers in China.Besides,a decision objective function of pig farms facing suspected African swine fever(ASF)outbreaks was constructed.This study used a mathematical programming model to design and simulate scenarios based on compensation standards and local implementation levels,aiming to incentivize pig farms to report epidemics.The results show that the optimal decisions on epidemic reports differed among typical farms and by herd daily age.The results suggest the following adjustments for optimizing culling compensation policies:(1)to set culling compensation standards based on the market value and(2)to maintain a high level of epidemic surveillance capability in the animal husbandry and veterinary sector.

Trends in in ovo sexing technologies:insights and interpretation from papers and patents

Numerous researchers and institutions have been developing in ovo sexing technologies to improve animal welfare by identifying male embryos in an early embryonic stage and disposing of them before pain perception.This review gives a complete overview of the technological approaches reported in papers and patents by performing a thorough search using Web of Science and Patstat/Espacenet databases for papers and patents,respectively.Based on a total of 49 papers and 115 patent families reported until May 2023 worldwide,11 technology categories were defined:6 non-optical and 5 optical techniques.Every category was described for its characteristics while assessing its potential for application.Next,the dynamics of the publications of in ovo sexing techniques in both paper and patent fields were described through growth curves,and the interest or actual status was visualized using the number of paper citations and the actual legal status of the patents.When comparing the reported technologies in papers to those in patents,scientific gaps were observed,as some of the patented technologies were not reported in the scientific literature,e.g.,ion mobility and mass spectrometry approaches.Generally,more diverse approaches in all categories were found in patents,although they do require more scientific evidence through papers or industrial adoption to prove their robustness.Moreover,although there is a recent trend for non-invasive techniques,invasive methods like analyzing DNA through PCR or hormones through immunosensing are still being reported(and might continue to be)in papers and patents.It was also observed that none of the technologies complies with all the industry requirements,although 5 companies already entered the market.On the one hand,more research and harmony between consumers,industry,and governments is necessary.On the other hand,close monitoring of the market performance of the currently available techniques will offer valuable insights into the potential and expectations of in ovo sexing techniques in the poultry industry.

3D Model Occlusion Culling Optimization Method Based on WebGPU Computing Pipeline

Nowadays,Web browsers have become an important carrier of 3D model visualization because of their convenience and portability.During the process of large-scale 3D model visualization based on Web scenes with the problems of slow rendering speed and low FPS(Frames Per Second),occlusion culling,as an important method for rendering optimization,can remove most of the occluded objects and improve rendering efficiency.The traditional occlusion culling algorithm(TOCA)is calculated by traversing all objects in the scene,which involves a large amount of repeated calculation and time consumption.To advance the rendering process and enhance rendering efficiency,this paper proposes an occlusion culling with three different optimization methods based on the WebGPU Computing Pipeline.Firstly,for the problem of large amounts of repeated calculation processes in TOCA,these units are moved from the CPU to the GPU for parallel computing,thereby accelerating the calculation of the Potential Visible Sets(PVS);Then,for the huge overhead of creating pipeline caused by too many 3D models in a certain scene,the Breaking Occlusion Culling Algorithm(BOCA)is introduced,which removes some nodes according to building a Hierarchical Bounding Volume(BVH)scene tree to reduce the overhead of creating pipelines;After that,the structure of the scene tree is transmitted to the GPU in the order of depth-first traversal and finally,the PVS is obtained by parallel computing.In the experiments,3D geological models with five different scales from 1:5,000 to 1:500,000 are used for testing.The results show that the proposed methods can reduce the time overhead of repeated calculation caused by the computing pipeline creation and scene tree recursive traversal in the occlusion culling algorithm effectively,with 97%rendering efficiency improvement compared with BOCA,thereby accelerating the rendering process on Web browsers.

Causes and Effects of Stillbirths on Days Open and Cow Herd Survival in Holstein Friesian Cows

The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the causes and the effects of stillbirth on the number of days open and cow herd survival in subsequent lactation of Holstein Friesian cows. A total of 1371 calvings from research dairy farm were used. Stillbirth in calves was defined as the death of a fetus before or during calving at full term (≥270 days of gestation) or within 24 hours after calving. During the period from January 2006 to December 2017 a percent of 95.04% of the calvings were with live calves, and 4.96% of the calvings were stillbirths. The major causes of stillbirth identified were: calving difficulty, parity of the cows, and sex of the calves at calving. A five point scale was used to assess calving difficulties, and numbers 1, 2 and 3 were considered unassisted calvings and number 4 and 5 as assisted. The twin calvings were not taken into account. Days open were measured as days from first calving to conception, and cow herd survival from first calving to culling or death. Trend test and multivariate data analysis were used. The findings revealed that primiparous cows were at higher risk of having stillbirths compared with multiparous cows. Cows that were at calving male calves were at higher risk of having stillbirths compared with cows that had female calves at calving. Also, cows with assisted calving were at higher risk of having stillbirths compared with cows with unassisted calvings. Cows with stillbirths had a increase mean of days open with 32 days. Cow herd survival was better in the cows with live calves at calving compared with the cows that had stillbirth at calvings.

层次结构辐射度渲染中的可见性测试

在辐射度渲染等整体光照模型中 ,可见性测试是影响整体性能的关键 .为了获得较好的可见性测试效果 ,在光线投射方法基础上 ,对可见性测试方法做了如下两方面的优化 .一方面引入 Shaft Culling算法 ,作首轮筛选 ,以提高线投射的效率 ;另一方面 ,在可见性测试和自适应分割时 ,进行基于可见性的分割 ,以保证只有完全可见和完全不可见两种情况 ,这两方面优化都被引入到层次结构辐射度渲染的实现中 ,实验结果表明 ,改进过的可见性测试 ,不仅减少了计算量和误差 。

Impact of Vaccination and Culling on Controlling Foot and Mouth Disease: A Mathematical Modelling Approach

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a major threat, not only to countries whose economies rely on agricultural exports, but also to industrialized countries that maintain a healthy domestic livestock industry by eliminating major infectious diseases from their livestock populations. In this paper a simple mathematical model is formulated and comprehensively analyzed to assess the impact of vaccination and culling on controlling FMD. Overally the study demonstrates that vaccination and culling are essential on controlling FMD if they are all implemented. Furthermore the study illustrates that culling latently infected (early detection of infected animals) is extremely important on controlling FMD dynamics.

cull小议

近来有关禽流感的报道中经常用Ncun这个词，词典给cull下的定义是“为了减少或者限制数量，剔除动物，尤其是那些弱者”。cull这个词起源于拉丁语，然后进入法语，成了colligere，意思是“绑在一起”；从法语进入了英语，成了cull，原义是“选择植物或者砍伐树”，引申为“

Analysis of the lifetime and culling reasons for AI boars

Background: The aim of the study was to analyze the lifetime and culling reasons for boars used in insemination centers(AI centers).Methods: The data collected from 355 culled boars from 1998 to 2013 included: age at start of semen collection,boar herd life, culling reason, daily gain and lean meat content, and number of ejaculates not meeting sales requirements after dilution. Culling reasons were divided into 7 groups: low semen value(LSV), low or lack of libido(LL), leg problems(LP), infectious diseases(ID), old age(OA), reduced demand for semen from the given boar(RD),and others(OT).Results: The most common culling reasons for boars were LSV(23.7%) and RD(22.5%). It was observed that the lowest daily gains were noted in boars culled due to OA. Boars culled due to OA and RD were maintained in production for the longest time(over 1000 d), for LSV and ID retention was about 700 d, and due to LL below 400 d. The survival probability was over 0.9 until 1.5 yr, and just over 0.2 until 4 yr. The highest relative frequency was observed in the 36 ^(th) and 42 ^(nd) mo of life(over 16%). Hazard risk analysis revealed a more than 10 times higher risk of culling in the case of LL, ID or OT, in comparison to OA.Conclusions: The results can be used as a direct point of reference for the identification of emerging problems in AI boar exploitation and the development of an appropriate culling policy in AI centers.

Real-time rendering of large-scale static scene

In virtual simulation application, it is often necessary to use Open GL to render large-scale 3D static scenes including urban architectures. Each scene unit generally has individual vertex data and texture. For large-scale data set, it is hard to render all scene units simultaneously. We need to render part of the scene separately, which is called the scene partition and culling. In general, we partition the whole scene into different units on the CPU. We present a scheme that optimize the GPU rendering pipeline to cull the large-scale static scene, which will reduce the CPU suspending time and take full advantage of GPU computing advantages to speed up the rendering efficiency.

Visibility Culling Algorithm with Hierarchical Adaptive Bounding Setting

Hierarchical adaptive bounding setting （HABS）, a novel algorithm to reduce potentially visible set, is designed to be Used for various geometry shape character in complex simulation scene to greatly improve geometry spatial storage precision. A spatial hierarchy tree is used to represent the topology of the model, and then the visibility geometry set from the viewpoint is determined by processing the hierarchy tree and frustum detection. In this process, HABS improves the viewpoint-to-region visibility detection efficiently. The algorithm is well-suited for complex models whose shape characters are various.

Occlusion Culling Algorithm Using Prefetching and Adaptive Level of Detail Techni

A novel approach that integrates occlusion culling within the view-dependent rendering framework is proposed. The algorithm uses the prioritized-layered projection（PLP） algorithm to occlude those obscured objects, and uses an approximate visibility technique to accurately and efficiently determine which objects will be visible in the coming future and prefetch those objects from disk before they are rendered, view-dependent rendering technique provides the ability to change level of detail over the surface seamlessly and smoothly in real-time according to cell solidity value.

Physical Conditions of Cull Sows Associated with On-Farm Production Records

Cull sow physical conditions were associated with on-farm production records. Sows (923) within one integrated U.S. production system were evaluated at two harvest facilities. Physical conditions evaluated at harvest were analyzed by parity, culling code and production measures. Farm culling codes were categorized into poor body condition (BC), old age (G), lameness (L), other (O), poor litter performance (P) and reproductive failure (R). Production measures included lifetime pigs born alive (LPBA), pigs born alive in the last litter (PBALL), pigs per sow per year (PSY) and weaning to culling interval. The L culling code had a greater (P < 0.05) prevalence of cracked hooves when compared to the other five culling codes (30.9% vs. 18.7%). Sows without front cracked hooves tended (P = 0.07) to have greater PSY (0.80) when compared to sows having front cracked hooves. Females without rear digital overgrowth had more (P < 0.05) PBALL (0.54) and tended (P = 0.06) to have increased PSY (0.80) when compared to sows with rear digital overgrowth. Sows without shoulder lesions had greater (P < 0.05) LPBA (2.01) when compared to sows with shoulder lesions. Regression coefficient estimates for percent lung lesion involvement were positive and tended (P < 0.10) to be different from zero for LPBA (0.06) and PSY (0.03). Females with severe teeth wear tended (P ≤ 0.10) to have fewer LPBA (1.36), PBALL (0.45) and had fewer (P < 0.01) PSY (1.10) when compared to sows without severe teeth wear. Sows culled for BC and L had lower (P < 0.01) backfat when compared to sows from the other four culling codes (1.83 and 2.04 cm vs. 2.47 to 2.85 cm, respectively). Multiple cull sow physical conditions evaluated at harvest had associations with on-farm reproductive measures.

Economic Impacts of Clinical and Sub Clinical Mastitis on Dairy Farms

Studies have reported on the economic impacts of clinical and subclinical mastitis on dairy farms.Bovine mastitis is a disorder that affects dairy farms and has a major economic impact.Most of the economic losses are the result of mastitis.Mastitis is an invasive infection that is among the most numerous and highly complicated infections in the dairy sector.Mastitis is one of the most expensive diseases in terms of production losses among animal diseases.Mastitis reduces milk production,changes milk composition,and shortens the productive life of infected cows.Farmers must concentrate on avoiding mastitis infection whilst putting in place and following a mastitis control programed.Bovine mastitis,the most significant disease of dairy herds,has huge effects on farm economics.Mastitis losses are due to reduced milk production,the cost of treatments,and culling.Major factors related to low milk yield could be low genetic potential as well as poor nutritional and managerial approaches.Most of the losses are related to somatic cell count(SCC),which is characterised by an increase in the percentage of milk.Culling costs are the costs of rearing or buying a replacement animal,mostly heifers.Overhead impacts include the replacement animals'lower milk supply effectiveness.The expense of replacing animals prematurely due to mastitis is one of the most significant areas of economic loss.

人乳头瘤病毒16E7和CulL2依赖蛋白对APOBEC3A蛋白表达及子宫颈细胞迁徙能力的影响

人乳头瘤病毒(Human papillomavirus,HPV)16 E7基因编码多功能磷酸蛋白,其功能和结构均类似腺病毒,HPV 16 E7可与激活的致癌基因结合,促进肿瘤进展。但是HPV 16 E7对子宫颈细胞迁移的影响和机制尚不清楚。因此本研究探究了HPV16 E7和CulL2依赖蛋白对APOBEC3A蛋白表达及子宫颈细胞迁徙能力的影响。随机选择60名年龄在21～55岁间的妇女,分别设置空白对照组(B组)、患有人乳头瘤细胞组(P组)、添加CulL2依赖蛋白组(C组),采用流式荧光杂交法和第二代杂交捕获实验(hc2)检测其子宫颈脱落细胞,进行细胞培养,采用Transwell法检测细胞数,重组质粒DNA分析基因克隆的完整性,代谢标记细胞,进行过氧化氢酶(catalase,CAT)分析。采用实时荧光定量PCR法对CulL2和APOBEC3A基因水平进行评估测定,免疫印迹(Western Blot,WB)检测相关蛋白表达。与B组相比,P组细胞穿透基质胶的细胞数增多,即迁徙能力提高,重组质粒转染后,C组细胞穿透基质胶的细胞数亦明显增多,但增多幅度不如P组,即迁徙能力有所增强(P<0.05)。高风险HPV蛋白E7可上调细胞中APOBEC3A蛋白的表达。APOBEC3A和HPV16 E7与CulL2相互作用,表明在HPV感染期间形成的E7可调节细胞中的APOBEC3A蛋白的水平。反转录PCR(Reverse transcription-PCR,RT-PCR)结果显示,与B组比较,P组细胞基因表达增加,C组细胞中CulL2和APOBEC3A基因的mRNA表达水平明显减少(P<0.05)。本研究发现HPV16 E7和CulL2依赖蛋白可影响APOBEC3A蛋白表达,并且促进子宫颈细胞的迁徙能力。

Unwanted and unintended effects of culling: A case for ecologically-based rodent management

In this study, the ecological effects of culling programs are considered in the context of rodent pest management.Despite the escalation of rodent problems globally, over the past quarter of a century there have not been many newdevelopments in culling programs directed at managing these populations. There is a strong reliance on broad scaleuse of chemical rodenticides or other lethal methods of control. The ecological consequences of culling programsbased on chemical rodenticides and bounty systems are considered. Although rodents cause tremendous economichardship to people on a continental scale, usually less than 10% of species cause substantial impacts. Indeed, manyspecies of rodent provide important “ecological services” and, given that culling programs rarely distinguishbetween rodent species, often the non-pest rodents are at grave risk. Rodent control is conducted with littleappreciation of what proportion of the population would need to be culled for a significant reduction in economicdamage. In Indonesian rice fields, once rodent densities are high then a reduction in yield loss from 30% to 15%would require more than 75% of the population to be culled;a reduction to less than 5% yield loss would requiremore than a 95% cull. The negative ecological consequences of culling can be better managed if the method isspecifically tailored to the species that need to be managed. A greater emphasis on ecologically-based rodentmanagement would assist markedly in reducing the unwanted and unintended effects of culling.

Prediction of cutting forces in ball-end milling of 2.5D C/C composites

Machining of carbon/carbon （C/C） composite materials is difficult to carry out due to its high specific stiffness, brittleness, anisotropic, non-homogeneous and low thermal conductivity, which can result in tear, burr, poor surface quality and rapid wear of cutters. Accurate and fast pre- diction of cutting forces is important for milling C/C composite materials with high quality. This paper presents an alternative cutting force model involving the influences of the directions of fiber. Based on the calculated and experimental results, the cutting forces＂ coefficients of 2.5D CC com- posites are evaluated using multiple linear regression method. Verification experiment has been car- ried out through a group of orthogonal tests. Results indicate that the proposed nmdel is reliable and can be used to predict the cutting forces in ball-end milling of 2.5D C/C composites.

View Dependent Sequential Point Trees

Sequential point trees provide the state-of-the-art technique for rendering point models, by re-arranging hierarchical points sequentially according to geometric errors running on GPU for fast rendering. This paper presents a view dependent method to augment sequential point trees by embedding the hierarchical tree structures in the sequential list of hierarchical points. By the method, two kinds of indices are constructed to facilitate the points rendering in an order mostly from near to far and from coarse to fine. As a result, invisible points can be culled view-dependently in high efficiency for hardware acceleration, and at the same time, the advantage of sequential point trees could be still fully taken. Therefore, the new method can run much faster than the conventional sequential point trees, and the acceleration can be highly promoted particularly when the objects possess complex occlusion relationship and viewed closely because invisible points would be in a high percentage of the points at finer levels.

Modeling control of foot and mouth disease with two time delays

We develop a delay ordinary differential equation model that captures the effects of prophylactic vaccination, reactive vaccination, prophylactic treatment and reactive culling on the spread of foot and mouth disease (FMD) with time delays. Simulation results from the study suggest that increasing time delay while increasing the control strategies decreases the burden of FMD. Further, the results reveal, that decreasing time delay while decreasing the control strategies increases the burden of FMD. The intermediate scenarios of either (i) increasing time delay while decreasing control or (ii) decreasing time delay while increasing control have intermediate effects on burden reduction. Thus, the implementation of effective control strategies combination can play an important role in mitigating against the FMD burden.