The conservation of unique populations of animals is critical in order to preserve valuable genetic diversity and, where populations are free‐living, maintain their irreplaceable influence upon ...habitat ecology. An accurate assessment of genetic diversity and structure within and between populations is crucial in order to design and implement conservation strategies in natural and domesticated species. Moreover, where it is possible to identify relic populations that are related to a structured breed an ideal opportunity presents itself to model processes that reveal historical factors that have shaped genetic diversity. The origins of native UK mountain and moorland ponies are uncertain, but they may have directly descended from prehistoric populations and potentially harbour specific adaptations to the uplands of Britain and Ireland. To date, there have been no studies of population structure and genetic diversity present within a free‐living group of ponies in the Carneddau mountain range of North Wales. Herein, we describe the use of microsatellites and SNPs together with analysis of the mitochondrial control region to quantify the extent and magnitude of genetic diversity present in the feral Carneddau pony and relate this to several recognised British and Irish pony breeds. Our results establish that the feral Carneddau ponies represent a unique and distinctive population that merits recognition as a defined population and conservation priority. We discuss the implications for conservation of this population as a unique pool of genetic diversity adapted to the British uplands and potentially of particular value in maintaining the biodiversity of these habitats.
Herein, we describe the use of microsatellites and SNPs together with analysis of the mitochondrial control region to quantify the extent and magnitude of genetic diversity present in the feral Carneddau pony and relate this to several recognised British and Irish pony breeds. Our results establish that the feral Carneddau ponies represent a unique and distinctive population that merits recognition as a defined population and conservation priority. We discuss the implications for conservation of this population as a unique pool of genetic diversity adapted to the British uplands and potentially of particular value in maintaining the biodiversity of these habitats.
The aim of this paper is to describe in detail the mu-synthesis of a miniature helicopter integral attitude controller of high order and to present results from the hardware-in-the-loop simulation of ...this controller implementing Digital Signal Processor. The mu-controller designed allows to suppress efficiently wind disturbances in the presence of 25 % input multiplicative uncertainty. A simple position controller is added to ensure tracking of the desired trajectory in 3D space. The results from hardware-in-the-loop simulation are close to the results from double-precision simulation of helicopter control system in Simulink^sup ^. The software platform developed allows to implement easily different sensors, servoactuators and control laws and to investigate the closed-loop system behavior in presence of different disturbances and parameter variations.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
I present evidence that exchange rate fluctuations among the world's major currencies significantly affect the business cycles of small open economies. The impact of those fluctuations on any given ...country depends crucially on its exchange rate regime. The three Baltic countries in Central Europe constitute an interesting natural experiment in that regard. I estimate a structural vector autoregression (VAR) model to show the differential impact of euro–dollar exchange rate fluctuations on the business cycles of these three countries. Next, I build a dynamic sticky-price model and I calibrate it to the Baltic States in order to match and explain the empirical evidence.
A physiological trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of diet supplementation with non-protein nitrogen compounds Optigen and urea through determination of duodenal chyme pH, volatile fatty ...acids and ammonia concentrations in yearling sheep. The experiment was carried out with 6 yearling sheep, Pleven Blackhead × Suffolk crosses. The experiment was conducted in three periods – control and two experimental. During the control period, the ration of animals consisted of 0.700 kg barley and 1.000 kg meadow hay. During the first experimental period, the ration was supplemented with 0.012 kg Optigen, and during the second experimental period – with 0.0106 kg urea. Both supplements (Optigen and urea) did not have an effect on duodenal chyme pH and a trend towards slight increase in postprandial hours was noted. The addition of Optigen led to statistically significantly increased volatile fatty acid (р
Genetic determination of gender is a fundamental developmental and evolutionary process in plants. Although it appears that dioecy in Populus is genetically controlled, the precise gender-determining ...systems remain unclear. The recently released second draft assembly and annotated gene set of the Populus genome provided an opportunity to revisit this topic. We hypothesized that over evolutionary time, selective pressure has reformed the genome structure and gene composition in the peritelomeric region of the chromosome XIX, which has resulted in a distinctive genome structure and cluster of genes contributing to gender determination in Populus trichocarpa. Multiple lines of evidence support this working hypothesis. First, the peritelomeric region of the chromosome XIX contains significantly fewer single nucleotide polymorphisms than the rest of Populus genome and has a distinct evolutionary history. Second, the peritelomeric end of chromosome XIX contains the largest cluster of the nucleotide-binding site–leucine-rich repeat (NBS–LRR) class of disease resistance genes in the entire Populus genome. Third, there is a high occurrence of small microRNAs on chromosome XIX, which is coincident to the region containing the putative gender-determining locus and the major cluster of NBS–LRR genes. Further, by analyzing the metabolomic profiles of floral bud in male and female Populus trees using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we found that there are gender-specific accumulations of phenolic glycosides. Taken together, these findings led to the hypothesis that resistance to and regulation of a floral pathogen and gender determination coevolved, and that these events triggered the emergence of a nascent sex chromosome. Further studies of chromosome XIX will provide new insights into the genetic control of gender determination in Populus.
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![[mu]-Synthesis and Hardware...](http://api.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/image/issn/XR4PS5YY4K/0921-0296/small "[mu]-Synthesis and Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation of Miniature Helicopter Control System")
