Genomic selection is more and more popular in animal and plant breeding industries all around the world, as it can be applied early in life without impacting selection candidates. The objective of this study was to br...Genomic selection is more and more popular in animal and plant breeding industries all around the world, as it can be applied early in life without impacting selection candidates. The objective of this study was to bring the advantages of genomic selection to scallop breeding. Two different genomic selection tools Mix P and gsbay were applied on genomic evaluation of simulated data and Zhikong scallop(Chlamys farreri) field data. The data were compared with genomic best linear unbiased prediction(GBLUP) method which has been applied widely. Our results showed that both Mix P and gsbay could accurately estimate single-nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) marker effects, and thereby could be applied for the analysis of genomic estimated breeding values(GEBV). In simulated data from different scenarios, the accuracy of GEBV acquired was ranged from 0.20 to 0.78 by Mix P; it was ranged from 0.21 to 0.67 by gsbay; and it was ranged from 0.21 to 0.61 by GBLUP. Estimations made by Mix P and gsbay were expected to be more reliable than those estimated by GBLUP. Predictions made by gsbay were more robust, while with Mix P the computation is much faster, especially in dealing with large-scale data. These results suggested that both algorithms implemented by Mix P and gsbay are feasible to carry out genomic selection in scallop breeding, and more genotype data will be necessary to produce genomic estimated breeding values with a higher accuracy for the industry.展开更多
Selecting a contractor for construction project is a difficult decision to be taken by a client because it may lead to construction delivery problems or successful delivery of the project. This study, therefore, inves...Selecting a contractor for construction project is a difficult decision to be taken by a client because it may lead to construction delivery problems or successful delivery of the project. This study, therefore, investigated the contractor selection criteria in the Ghanaian construction industry, considering the benefits and challenges. A quantitative research method was adopted in this study through the use of a questionnaire. The target population for the study consisted of registered contractors and consultants in the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions of Ghana. It was found that though the construction professionals are well vested with the prequalification selection criteria that are being used within the Ghanaian construction industry, they were not familiar with multi-criterial section methods. It was also found that the benefits of the contractor selection criteria include: enabling the client to select contractors who are performers for the project, saving the project owner a lot of time, minimizing the possibility of contractor default, and facilitating the achievement of project success and the objectives within the scheduled time. Furthermore, excessive cost and time overrun, poor quality standard, imprecise assessments due to lack of information, criteria being very complex and difficult to apply in practice, among others were identified as the challenges to the contractor selection criteria in Ghanaian construction industry. The study recommends for further studies to determine the impact of the identified challenges on construction projects, and ways to minimize the challenges.展开更多
基金supported by the National High-Tech R&D Program (863 Program No. 2012AA10A405)the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research Systemthe National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31302182)
文摘Genomic selection is more and more popular in animal and plant breeding industries all around the world, as it can be applied early in life without impacting selection candidates. The objective of this study was to bring the advantages of genomic selection to scallop breeding. Two different genomic selection tools Mix P and gsbay were applied on genomic evaluation of simulated data and Zhikong scallop(Chlamys farreri) field data. The data were compared with genomic best linear unbiased prediction(GBLUP) method which has been applied widely. Our results showed that both Mix P and gsbay could accurately estimate single-nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) marker effects, and thereby could be applied for the analysis of genomic estimated breeding values(GEBV). In simulated data from different scenarios, the accuracy of GEBV acquired was ranged from 0.20 to 0.78 by Mix P; it was ranged from 0.21 to 0.67 by gsbay; and it was ranged from 0.21 to 0.61 by GBLUP. Estimations made by Mix P and gsbay were expected to be more reliable than those estimated by GBLUP. Predictions made by gsbay were more robust, while with Mix P the computation is much faster, especially in dealing with large-scale data. These results suggested that both algorithms implemented by Mix P and gsbay are feasible to carry out genomic selection in scallop breeding, and more genotype data will be necessary to produce genomic estimated breeding values with a higher accuracy for the industry.
文摘Selecting a contractor for construction project is a difficult decision to be taken by a client because it may lead to construction delivery problems or successful delivery of the project. This study, therefore, investigated the contractor selection criteria in the Ghanaian construction industry, considering the benefits and challenges. A quantitative research method was adopted in this study through the use of a questionnaire. The target population for the study consisted of registered contractors and consultants in the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions of Ghana. It was found that though the construction professionals are well vested with the prequalification selection criteria that are being used within the Ghanaian construction industry, they were not familiar with multi-criterial section methods. It was also found that the benefits of the contractor selection criteria include: enabling the client to select contractors who are performers for the project, saving the project owner a lot of time, minimizing the possibility of contractor default, and facilitating the achievement of project success and the objectives within the scheduled time. Furthermore, excessive cost and time overrun, poor quality standard, imprecise assessments due to lack of information, criteria being very complex and difficult to apply in practice, among others were identified as the challenges to the contractor selection criteria in Ghanaian construction industry. The study recommends for further studies to determine the impact of the identified challenges on construction projects, and ways to minimize the challenges.
