• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.475-479
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• 1994

Postweaning performance data were obtained on 401 group fed purebred Angus calves from 24 selected sires (12 high and 12 low feed conversion sires) from 1983 through 1986 at the Northwestern Branch of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. A single generation divergent selection experiment was replicated four times (1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986) to obtain an realized heritability estimate for postweaning feed conversion. The 140-d postweaning period was divided into five 28-d periods. Realized heritability estimates for feed conversion by 28-d periods fluctuated greatly and demonstrated no particular pattern. Heritability was highest for the fourth period (between d 85 and 112 of postweaning period, 0.61). Thus, beef producers could successfully select for feed conversion.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1075-1079
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• 2005

The main objective of this study is to examine genetic changes in growth rate and carcass composition traits in group housed, ad libitum fed pigs, from lines of Large White divergently selected over four years for high and low post-weaning daily gain on a fixed but restricted ration. Genetic parameters for production and carcass traits were also estimated by using average information-restricted maximum likelihood applied to a multivariate individual animal model. All analyses were carried out on 1,728 records of group housed ad libitum fed pigs, and include a full pedigree of 5,324 animals. Estimates of heritability (standard errors in parentheses) were 0.11 (0.04) for lifetime daily liveweight gain (LDG), 0.13 (0.04) for daily carcass weight gain (CDG) and 0.28 (0.06) for carcass backfat (CFT). Genetic correlations between LDG and CDG were highly positive and between LDG and CFT negative, suggesting that selection for lifetime daily gain under commercial conditions of group housing with ad libitum feeding would result in favourable improvement in carcass traits. CFT showed negative genetic correlations with CDG. Correlated genetic responses evaluated as estimated breeding values (EBVs) were obtained from a multivariate animal model-best linear unbiased prediction analysis. After four years of divergent selection for 6 week post-weaning growth rate on restricted feeding, pigs performance tested on ad libitum feeding in groups exhibited changes in EBVs of 6.77 and -9.93 (g/d) for LDG, 4.25 and -7.08 (g/d) for CDG, and -1.42 and 1.55 (mm) for CFT, in the high and low lines, respectively. It is concluded that selection for growth rate on restricted feeding would significantly improve genetic performance and carcass composition of their descendants when group housed and ad libitum fed as is a common commercial practice.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.876-887
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• 2015

Dicer, an ribonuclease type III type endonuclease, is the key enzyme involved in biogenesis of microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and thus plays a critical role in RNA interference through post transcriptional regulation of gene expression. This enzyme has not been well studied in the Indian water buffalo, an important species known for disease resistance and high milk production. In this study, the primary coding sequence (5,778 bp) of bubaline dicer (GenBank: AB969677.1) was determined and the bubaline Dicer1 biocomputationally characterized to determine the phylogenetic signature among higher eukaryotes. The evolutionary tree revealed that all the transcript variants of Dicer1 belonging to a specific species were within the same node and the sequences belonging to primates, rodents and lagomorphs, avians and reptiles formed independent clusters. The bubaline dicer1 is closely related to that of cattle and other ruminants and significantly divergent from dicer of lower species such as tapeworm, sea urchin and fruit fly. Evolutionary divergence analysis conducted using MEGA6 software indicated that dicer has undergone purifying selection over the time. Seventeen divergent sequences, representing each of the families/taxa were selected to study the specific regions of positive vis-$\grave{a}$-vis negative selection using different models like single likelihood ancestor counting, fixed effects likelihood, and random effects likelihood of Datamonkey server. Comparative analysis of the domain structure revealed that Dicer1 is conserved across mammalian species while variation both in terms of length of Dicer enzyme and presence or absence of domain is evident in the lower organisms.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.482-494
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to introduce a practical model to enhance creative and critical thinking skills through hypotheses generating activities for students. The 2007 Science National Curricula stresses the need for the enhancement of creative thinking skills for our students. The definition for the creativity in the narrow sense is the divergent thinking skills. The definition of the critical thinking skills is the strong sense of those skills. This model shows the use of the divergent thinking skills and convergent thinking skills together. The divergent thinking skills has been developed by making three alternative explanations about the causal question within a group of students by active discussion. The following procedure includes the selection of the most provable of the three explanations within a group of students also by active discussions. This process needs convergent thinking skills as well as critical thinking skills. This model can be used easily by exchanging from the one explanation about the causal question in any inquiry teaching strategy to three explanations about one. Although the partial modified strategy shows a small difference from any inquiry teaching strategy, but the effect of the enhancement of the creative thinking skills for our students shows significantly better (p<.05). More detailed study will be carried out in the near future.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.293-305
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• 2020

The difference in the breeding programs and population history may have diversely shaped the genomes of Korean native cattle breeds. In the absence of phenotypic data, comparisons of breeds that have been subjected to different selective pressures can aid to identify genomic regions and genes controlling qualitative and complex traits. In this study to decipher genetic variation and identify evidence of divergent selection, 3 Korean cattle breeds were genotyped using the recently developed high-density GeneSeek Genomic Profiler F250 (GGP-F250) array. The three Korean cattle breeds clustered according to their coat color phenotypes and breeding programs. The Heugu breed reliably showed smaller effective population size at all generations considered. Across the autosomal chromosomes, 113 and 83 annotated genes were identified from Hanwoo-Chikso and Hanwoo-Heugu comparisons, respectively of which 16 genes were shared between the two pairwise comparisons. The most important signals of selection were detected on bovine chromosomes 14 (24.39-25.13 Mb) and 18 (13.34-15.07 Mb), containing genes related to body size, and coat color (XKR4, LYN, PLAG1, SDR16C5, TMEM68, CDH15, MC1R, and GALNS). Some of the candidate genes are also associated with meat quality traits (ACSF3, EIF2B1, BANP, APCDD1, and GALM) and harbor quantitative trait locus (QTL) for beef production traits. Further functional analysis revealed that the candidate genes (DBI, ACSF3, HINT2, GBA2, AGPAT5, SCAP, ELP6, APOB, and RBL1) were involved in gene ontology (GO) terms relevant to meat quality including fatty acid oxidation, biosynthesis, and lipid storage. Candidate genes previously known to affect beef production and quality traits could be used in the beef cattle selection strategies.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.679-701
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• 2014

As the validity issue of teacher nominations for the identification of gifted students has been raised recently, this study purports to test the validity of teacher nominations for selecting scientifically gifted students. As the criterion variables, domain specific traits such as science creative problem solving skills and science attitudes and domain general characteristics such as divergent thinking skills, creative attitudes, intrinsic motivation, and leadership were analyzed. Scientifically gifted students, potentially gifted students who had never been enrolled in gifted programs but were nominated as the scientifically gifted by teachers, and general class students participated in the study. The results of ANOVA showed that there were significant differences in all variables but originality factors of the TTCT and science creative problem solving skill test between gifted/nominated students and general class students; gifted/nominated students were significantly superior in these variables to general class students. The discriminant functions analysis yielded a discriminant function that significantly discriminated between gifted/nominated and general class students. Variables loaded on the discriminant function were science creative problem solving skills except for the originality subfactor, and science efficacy. These results imply that while teachers are likely to consider adaptation-oriented academic excellency related to logical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and science performance when nominating students, they may ignore the innovation-oriented property which is indicated as the fluency and originality factors of TTCT. Also, the criteria of teacher nominations are presumed to be congruent with the selection criteria of the gifted education program which pursued academic excellency as the educational goal. This suggests that with such criteria, high performing students in the science area can be sufficiently identified by teachers with no further identification procedures or/and tests.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.596-610
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• 2023

Focusing high marble deposition, Hanwoo feedlot system uses high-energy diet over the prolonged fattening period. However, due to the individual genetic variation, around 40% of them are graded into inferior quality grades (QG), despite they utilized the same resources. Therefore, focusing on development of a nutrigenomic based precision management model, this study was to evaluated the response to the divergent selection on genetic merit for marbling score (MS), under different dietary total digestible nutrient (TDN) levels. Total of 111 calves were genotyped and initially grouped according to estimated breeding value (high and low) for marbling score (MS-EBV). Subsequently, managed under two levels of feed TDN%, over the calf period, early, middle, and final fattening periods following 2 × 2 factorial arrangement. Carcasses were evaluated for MS, Back fat thickness (BFT) and Korean beef quality grading standard. As the direct response to the selection was significant, the results confirmed the importance of initial genetic grouping of Hanwoo steers for MS-EBV. However, dietary TDN level did not show an effect (p > 0.05) on the MS. Furthermore, no genetic-by-nutrition interaction for MS (p > 0.05) was also observed. The present results showed no correlation response on BFT (p > 0.05), which indicates that the selection based on MS-EBV can be used to enhance the MS without undesirable effect on BFT. Ultimate turnover of the Hanwoo feedlot operation is primarily determined by the QGs. The present model shows that the initial grouping for MS-EBV increased the proportion of carcasses graded for higher QGs (QG1⁺⁺ and QG1⁺) by approximately 20%. Moreover, there appear to be a potential to increase the proportion of QG 1⁺⁺ animals among the high-genetic group by further increasing the dietary energy content. Overall, this precision management strategy suggests the importance of adopting an MS based initial genetic grouping system for Hanwoo steers with a subsequent divergent management based on dietary energy level.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.167-187
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• 2013

Team project learning is a type of Project-Based Learning, which is an effective learning method for developing collaborative competency and interpersonal communication skills, as well as for developing cognitive competency such as critical thinking, creative thinking, and analytical skills. This research, conducted to analyze learning activities, focuses on students' creative thinking and activities in TPBL(Team Project-Based Learning). A qualitative approach including a reflective journal based on the 6 stages of TPBL, was adopted for this purpose. In this study, 69 reflective journals on the three stages (developing a theme, researching, theme-making) of 23 undergraduate students were categorized on the basis of three criteria: divergent thinking factors, convergent thinking factors and affective factors. The results show that the participants' journals demonstrated twenty-eight activities from nine cognitive factors and nine activities from three affective factors were derived from reflect journal. This finding indicates that more appropriate instructional strategies are needed for students to enhance their creative thinking skills and activities

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.296-306
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• 2017

Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) is one of the most damaging viruses infecting sugarcane, maize and some other graminaceous species around the world. To investigate the genetic diversity of SCMV in Iran, the coat protein (CP) gene sequences of 23 SCMV isolates from different hosts were determined. The nucleotide sequence identity among Iranian isolates was more than 96%. They shared nucleotide identities of 75.5-99.9% with those of other SCMV isolates available in GenBank, the highest with the Egyptian isolate EGY7-1 (97.5-99.9%). The results of phylogenetic analysis suggested five divergent evolutionary lineages that did not completely reflect the geographical origin or host plant of the isolates. Population genetic analysis revealed greater between-group than within-group evolutionary divergence values, further supporting the results of the phylogenetic analysis. Our results indicated that natural selection might have contributed to the evolution of isolates belonging to the five identified SCMV groups, with infrequent genetic exchanges occurring between them. Phylogenetic analyses and the estimation of genetic distance indicated that Iranian isolates have low genetic diversity. No recombination was found in the CP cistron of Iranian isolates and the CP gene was under negative selection. These findings provide a comprehensive analysis of the population structure and driving forces for the evolution of SCMV with implications for global exchange of sugarcane germplasm. Gene flow, selection and somehow homologous recombination were found to be the important evolutionary factors shaping the genetic structure of SCMV populations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1389-1394
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• 2008

Abdominal fat characters are complex and economically important in the poultry industry. Their selection may benefit from the implementation of marker-assisted selection (MAS). The objective of this study was to identify the markers linked to QTL responsible for fatness traits. The Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content (NEAUHLF) were used in the study. A total of 596 individuals from the divergent tails from the 6th to the 10th generations were genotyped at 23 microsatellite markers on chromosome 1. The differences of allele frequencies of all marker alleles between the divergent tails across the five generations were recorded. The allele frequencies of five markers, including LEI0209, LEI0146, MCW0036, ADL328 and MCW0115, had significant differences between the two tails in all five generations. The resulting p-values using Fisher's exact test on eleven markers, containing MCW248, MCW0010, MCW0106, LEI0252, LEI0068, MCW0018, MCW0061, LEI0088, MCW200, MCW283 and ROS0025, had a decreasing tendency from the 6th to the 10th generation. Statistical analysis showed that polymorphisms of the eight markers, including LEI0209, LEI0146, ROS0025, MCW0115, MCW0010, MCW0036, MCW283, ADL328, were significantly (p<0.0011) or suggestively (p<0.05) associated with abdominal fat content (AFW and AFP) across generations. It is concluded that the eight markers could be associated with the QTL affecting the deposition of abdominal fat in broiler chickens.