ABSTRACT:The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes with fatness traits in the Longissimus dorsi muscle of pigs. The polymorphisms of genes were investigated, which included beta-3-adrenergic receptor gene (ADRB3), heart fatty acid-binding protein gene (FABP3), and hormone-sensitive lipase gene (LIPE) as well as lipoprotein lipase gene (LPL). The intramuscular fat (IMF) content and fatty acid composition contents in Longissimus dorsi muscle samples were measured. Results showed that ADRB3, LIPE, and LPL SNPs were associated with IMF content (P < 0.05). ADRB3 AG heterozygotes exhibited higher IMF content. LIPE A allele was associated with greater IMF content. LPL CT heterozygotes exhibited the lowest IMF content. ADRB3 c.1192G>A had highly significant association with the total monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) (P < 0.01) and the total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (P < 0.01). LIPE c.442G>A was significantly associated with the contents of C12:0 and C14:0 (P < 0.05). LPL c.624C>T was significantly associated with the percentage of C16:1 (P < 0.05) and the percentage of total saturated fatty acid (SFA) (P < 0.05). The pigs with ADRB3 G allele had more MUFA, and the pigs with LPL T allele had less SFA, implying that the ADRB3 G and LPL T in pigs may be beneficial to human health. In conclusion, the results suggest that these genetic markers are important sources of the variations for the pork selection to obtain favourable meat with higher IMF levels and appropriate fatty acid composition.

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In this paper, we present a community-detection solution for massive-scale social networks using MapReduce, a parallel programming framework. We use a similarity metric to model the community probability, and the model is designed to be parallelizable and scalable in the MapReduce framework. More importantly, we propose a set of degree-based preprocessing and postprocessing techniques named DEPOLD (DElayed Processing of Large Degree nodes) that significantly improve both the community-detection accuracy and performance. With DEPOLD, delaying analysis of 1% of high-degree nodes to the postprocessing stage reduces both processing time and storage space by one order of magnitude. DEPOLD can be applied to other graph-clustering problems. Furthermore, we design and implement two similarity calculation algorithms using MapReduce with different computation and communication characteristics in order to adapt to various system configurations. Finally, we conduct experiments with publicly available datasets. Our evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of the proposed solution.

Yue X., Hu L., Fu X., Lv M., Han X. (2017): Dietary chitosan-Cu chelate affects growth performance and small intestinal morphology and apoptosis in weaned piglets. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 62, 15-21.The effects of dietary chitosan-copper chelate (CS-Cu) on growth performance, diarrhea, intestinal morphology and epithelial cell apoptosis in weaned piglets was investigated. One hundred and sixty Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire weanling barrows with an average body weight of 7.75 kg were randomly assigned to one of the following dietary treatments: (1) control, (2) 100 mg Cu/kg diet from CuSO 4 , (3) 100 mg Cu/kg diet from CuSO 4 mixed with chitosan (CuSO 4 +CS), (4) 100 mg Cu/kg diet from CS-Cu. The feeding trial lasted for 30 days. The results showed that the pigs receiving a diet containing CS-Cu had higher average daily gain and lower diarrhea incidence than the pigs receiving dietary CuSO 4 and CuSO 4 +CS. Villus height and the ratio of villus height/ crypt depth in duodenum, jejunum, and ileum were higher and crypt depth was lower in CS-Cu treated pigs than in pigs fed dietary CuSO 4 or CuSO 4 +CS. An apparent decrease of ileal epithelial cell apoptosis in pigs fed CS-Cu diet was found. The activities of antioxidant enzymes were higher in pigs fed dietary CS-Cu than in those fed other diets. The results indicated that dietary CS-Cu showed better biological and physiological function in improving small intestinal morphology and reducing diarrhea incidence.