78 results on '"Tulpan, D"'
Search Results
2. Estimates of genetic parameters for rumination time, feed efficiency, and methane production traits in first-lactation Holstein cows
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Lopes, L.S.F., Schenkel, F.S., Houlahan, K., Rochus, C.M., Oliveira, G.A., Jr., Oliveira, H.R., Miglior, F., Alcantara, L.M., Tulpan, D., and Baes, C.F.
- Published
- 2024
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3. Comparison of imputation methods for missing production data of dairy cattle
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You, J., Ellis, J.L., Adams, S., Sahar, M., Jacobs, M., and Tulpan, D.
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- 2023
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4. Review: When worlds collide – poultry modeling in the ‘Big Data’ era
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Leishman, E.M., You, J., Ferreira, N.T., Adams, S.M., Tulpan, D., Zuidhof, M.J., Gous, R.M., Jacobs, M., and Ellis, J.L.
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- 2023
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5. Genetic evaluation of heat tolerance in Holsteins using test-day production records and NASA POWER weather data
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Rockett, Paige L., Campos, I.L., Baes, C.F., Tulpan, D., Miglior, F., and Schenkel, F.S.
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- 2023
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6. Phenotypic analysis of heat stress in Holsteins using test-day production records and NASA POWER meteorological data
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Rockett, Paige L., primary, Campos, I.L., additional, Baes, C.F., additional, Tulpan, D., additional, Miglior, F., additional, and Schenkel, F.S., additional
- Published
- 2023
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7. 45. Genetic parameters for rumination time and traits related to sustainable dairy production
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Lopes, L.S.F., primary, Houlahan, K., additional, Alcantara, L., additional, Oliveira Jr., G.A., additional, Tulpan, D., additional, Miglior, F., additional, Schenkel, F.S., additional, and Baes, C.F., additional
- Published
- 2022
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8. Machine learning classification of breeding protocol descriptions from Canadian Holsteins
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Alcantara, L M, Schenkel, F S, Lynch, C, Oliveira Junior, G A, Baes, C F, and Tulpan, D
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Canada ,630 Agriculture ,590 Tiere (Zoologie) ,Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone ,Machine Learning ,Fertility ,Pregnancy ,Genetics ,Animals ,Lactation ,590 Animals (Zoology) ,Cattle ,Female ,Animal Science and Zoology ,630 Landwirtschaft ,Estrus Synchronization ,Algorithms ,Insemination, Artificial ,Progesterone ,Food Science - Abstract
Dairy farmers are motivated to ensure cows become pregnant in an optimal and timely manner. Although timed artificial insemination (TAI) is a successful management tool in dairy cattle, it masks an animal's innate fertility performance, likely reducing the accuracy of genetic evaluations for fertility traits. Therefore, separating fertility traits based on the recorded management technique involved in the breeding process or adding the breeding protocol as an effect to the model can be viable approaches to address the potential bias caused by such management decisions. Nevertheless, there is a lack of specificity and uniformity in the recording of breeding protocol descriptions by dairy farmers. Therefore, this study investigated the use of 8 supervised machine learning algorithms to classify 1,835 unique breeding protocol descriptions from 981 herds into the following 2 classes: TAI or other than TAI. Our results showed that models that used a stacking classifier algorithm had the highest Matthews correlation coefficient (0.94 ± 0.04, mean ± SD) and maximized precision and recall (F1-score = 0.96 ± 0.03) on test data. Nonetheless, their F1-scores on test data were not different from 5 out of the other 7 algorithms considered. Altogether, results presented herein suggest machine learning algorithms can be used to produce robust models that correctly identify TAI protocols from dairy cattle breeding records, thus opening the opportunity for unbiased genetic evaluation of animals based on their natural fertility.
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- 2022
9. Machine learning classification of breeding protocol descriptions from Canadian Holsteins
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Alcantara, L.M., primary, Schenkel, F.S., additional, Lynch, C., additional, Oliveira Junior, G.A., additional, Baes, C.F., additional, and Tulpan, D., additional
- Published
- 2022
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10. 35. Comparison of imputation methods for missing production data in dairy cattle
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You, J., primary, Ellis, J.L., additional, Jacobs, M., additional, Adams, S., additional, and Tulpan, D., additional
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. 81. Predicting pellet quality of pelleted feed using ensemble learning models
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You, J., primary, Tulpan, D., additional, Malpass, M.C., additional, and Ellis, J.L., additional
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- 2022
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12. 5. Future directions: An overview of data-driven and mechanistic modelling approaches of performance and sustainability in poultry
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Leishman, E.M., primary, You, J., additional, Ferreira, N.T., additional, Adams, S., additional, Tulpan, D., additional, Zuidhof, M.J., additional, Gous, R.M., additional, and Ellis, J.L., additional
- Published
- 2022
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13. Review : Synergy between mechanistic modelling and data-driven models for modern animal production systems in the era of big data
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Ellis, J.L., Jacobs, M., Dijkstra, J., van Laar, H., Cant, J.P., Tulpan, D., Ferguson, N., Ellis, J.L., Jacobs, M., Dijkstra, J., van Laar, H., Cant, J.P., Tulpan, D., and Ferguson, N.
- Abstract
Mechanistic models (MMs) have served as causal pathway analysis and 'decision-support' tools within animal production systems for decades. Such models quantitatively define how a biological system works based on causal relationships and use that cumulative biological knowledge to generate predictions and recommendations (in practice) and generate/evaluate hypotheses (in research). Their limitations revolve around obtaining sufficiently accurate inputs, user training and accuracy/precision of predictions on-farm. The new wave in digitalization technologies may negate some of these challenges. New data-driven (DD) modelling methods such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) examine patterns in data to produce accurate predictions (forecasting, classification of animals, etc.). The deluge of sensor data and new self-learning modelling techniques may address some of the limitations of traditional MM approaches - access to input data (e.g. sensors) and on-farm calibration. However, most of these new methods lack transparency in the reasoning behind predictions, in contrast to MM that have historically been used to translate knowledge into wisdom. The objective of this paper is to propose means to hybridize these two seemingly divergent methodologies to advance the models we use in animal production systems and support movement towards truly knowledge-based precision agriculture. In order to identify potential niches for models in animal production of the future, a cross-species (dairy, swine and poultry) examination of the current state of the art in MM and new DD methodologies (ML, DL analytics) is undertaken. We hypothesize that there are several ways via which synergy may be achieved to advance both our predictive capabilities and system understanding, being: (1) building and utilizing data streams (e.g. intake, rumination behaviour, rumen sensors, activity sensors, environmental sensors, cameras and near IR) to apply MM in real-time and/or with new resoluti
- Published
- 2020
14. Review: Synergy between mechanistic modelling and data-driven models for modern animal production systems in the era of big data
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Ellis, J.L., primary, Jacobs, M., additional, Dijkstra, J., additional, van Laar, H., additional, Cant, J.P., additional, Tulpan, D., additional, and Ferguson, N., additional
- Published
- 2020
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15. Relationship Between Carcass Weight, Muscle, Fat, and Predicted Lean Yield for Commercial Pigs in Ontario
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Barducci, R. S., primary, Zhou, Z., additional, Tulpan, D., additional, and Bohrer, B. M., additional
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- 2019
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16. Special track on bioinformatics (BIO)(editorial)
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Lecca, P., Tulpan, D., and Corchado, J. M.
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32nd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, SAC 2017, 3-6 April 2017, Marrakesh, Morocco
- Published
- 2018
17. Special track on computational biology and bioinformatics (CO-BIO2)
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Lecca, P., Tulpan, D., and Corchado, J. M.
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30th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computer (SAC), April 13-17, 2015, Salamanca, Spain
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- 2015
18. Find my clinic!
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Tulpan, D., Mancuso, M., Durand, G., Regoui, C., Belliveau, L., and Léger, S.
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The “Find my clinic!” Google Maps-based application allows users to locate clinics that are open at a specific time of the day within an area around a given postal code . A proof of concept for this application is currently functional for a subset of walk-in clinics in Moncton, New Brunswick and could be easily expanded to cover all major cities in the province and in Atlantic Canada., 3rd Annual Health Research Conference, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, November 8-9, 2011
- Published
- 2012
19. InnateDB & Cerebral: user‐friendly tools for the systems‐level analysis of innate immunity
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Gardy, Jennifer, primary, Lynn, D, additional, Winsor, G, additional, Barsky, A, additional, Roche, F, additional, Chan, T, additional, Laird, M, additional, Chan, C, additional, Shah, N, additional, Richard, N, additional, Lo, R, additional, Naseer, M, additional, Que, J, additional, Yau, M, additional, Acab, M, additional, Tulpan, D, additional, Whiteside, M, additional, Munzner, T, additional, Hancock, R, additional, and Brinkman, F, additional
- Published
- 2008
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20. Thermodynamically based DNA strand design
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Tulpan, D., primary, Andronescu, M., additional, Chang, S. B., additional, Shortreed, M. R., additional, Condon, A., additional, Hoos, H. H., additional, and Smith, L. M., additional
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- 2005
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21. A thermodynamic approach to designing structure-free combinatorial DNA word sets
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Shortreed, M. R., primary, Chang, S. B., additional, Hong, D., additional, Phillips, M., additional, Campion, B., additional, Tulpan, D. C., additional, Andronescu, M., additional, Condon, A., additional, Hoos, H. H., additional, and Smith, L. M., additional
- Published
- 2005
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22. Non-intrusive Patient Monitoring of Alzheimer's Disease Subjects Using Wireless Sensor Networks.
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Avvenuti, M., Baker, C., Light, J., Tulpan, D., and Vecchio, A.
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- 2009
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23. The Role of Mechanistic Models in the Era of Big Data and Intelligent Computing.
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Ellis, J. L., Jacobs, M., Dijkstra, J., van Laar, H., Cant, J., Tulpan, D., and Ferguson, N.
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BIG data ,MACHINE learning ,ANIMAL models in research - Published
- 2019
24. Predicting environmental stressor levels with machine learning: a comparison between amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, and total RNA sequencing based on taxonomically assigned data.
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Hempel CA, Buchner D, Mack L, Brasseur MV, Tulpan D, Leese F, and Steinke D
- Abstract
Introduction: Microbes are increasingly (re)considered for environmental assessments because they are powerful indicators for the health of ecosystems. The complexity of microbial communities necessitates powerful novel tools to derive conclusions for environmental decision-makers, and machine learning is a promising option in that context. While amplicon sequencing is typically applied to assess microbial communities, metagenomics and total RNA sequencing (herein summarized as omics-based methods) can provide a more holistic picture of microbial biodiversity at sufficient sequencing depths. Despite this advantage, amplicon sequencing and omics-based methods have not yet been compared for taxonomy-based environmental assessments with machine learning., Methods: In this study, we applied 16S and ITS-2 sequencing, metagenomics, and total RNA sequencing to samples from a stream mesocosm experiment that investigated the impacts of two aquatic stressors, insecticide and increased fine sediment deposition, on stream biodiversity. We processed the data using similarity clustering and denoising (only applicable to amplicon sequencing) as well as multiple taxonomic levels, data types, feature selection, and machine learning algorithms and evaluated the stressor prediction performance of each generated model for a total of 1,536 evaluated combinations of taxonomic datasets and data-processing methods., Results: Sequencing and data-processing methods had a substantial impact on stressor prediction. While omics-based methods detected a higher diversity of taxa than amplicon sequencing, 16S sequencing outperformed all other sequencing methods in terms of stressor prediction based on the Matthews Correlation Coefficient. However, even the highest observed performance for 16S sequencing was still only moderate. Omics-based methods performed poorly overall, but this was likely due to insufficient sequencing depth. Data types had no impact on performance while feature selection significantly improved performance for omics-based methods but not for amplicon sequencing., Discussion: We conclude that amplicon sequencing might be a better candidate for machine-learning-based environmental stressor prediction than omics-based methods, but the latter require further research at higher sequencing depths to confirm this conclusion. More sampling could improve stressor prediction performance, and while this was not possible in the context of our study, thousands of sampling sites are monitored for routine environmental assessments, providing an ideal framework to further refine the approach for possible implementation in environmental diagnostics., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Hempel, Buchner, Mack, Brasseur, Tulpan, Leese and Steinke.)
- Published
- 2023
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25. Application of SVR-Mediated GWAS for Identification of Durable Genetic Regions Associated with Soybean Seed Quality Traits.
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Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi M, Torabi S, Tulpan D, Rajcan I, and Eskandari M
- Abstract
Soybean ( Glycine max L.) is an important food-grade strategic crop worldwide because of its high seed protein and oil contents. Due to the negative correlation between seed protein and oil percentage, there is a dire need to detect reliable quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying these traits in order to be used in marker-assisted selection (MAS) programs. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is one of the most common genetic approaches that is regularly used for detecting QTL associated with quantitative traits. However, the current approaches are mainly focused on estimating the main effects of QTL, and, therefore, a substantial statistical improvement in GWAS is required to detect associated QTL considering their interactions with other QTL as well. This study aimed to compare the support vector regression (SVR) algorithm as a common machine learning method to fixed and random model circulating probability unification (FarmCPU), a common conventional GWAS method in detecting relevant QTL associated with soybean seed quality traits such as protein, oil, and 100-seed weight using 227 soybean genotypes. The results showed a significant negative correlation between soybean seed protein and oil concentrations, with heritability values of 0.69 and 0.67, respectively. In addition, SVR-mediated GWAS was able to identify more relevant QTL underlying the target traits than the FarmCPU method. Our findings demonstrate the potential use of machine learning algorithms in GWAS to detect durable QTL associated with soybean seed quality traits suitable for genomic-based breeding approaches. This study provides new insights into improving the accuracy and efficiency of GWAS and highlights the significance of using advanced computational methods in crop breeding research.
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- 2023
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26. Does wing use and disuse cause behavioural and musculoskeletal changes in domestic fowl ( Gallus gallus domesticus )?
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Garant RC, Tobalske BW, Ben Sassi N, van Staaveren N, Tulpan D, Widowski T, Powers DR, and Harlander-Matauschek A
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Domestic chickens may live in environments which restrict wing muscle usage. Notably, reduced wing activity and accompanying muscle weakness are hypothesized risk factors for keel bone fractures and deviations. We used radio-frequency identification (RFID) to measure duration spent at elevated resources (feeders, nest-boxes), ultrasonography to measure muscle thickness (breast and lower leg) changes, radiography and palpation to determine fractures and deviations, respectively, following no, partial (one-sided wing sling) and full (cage) immobilization in white- and brown-feathered birds. We hypothesized partially immobilized hens would reduce elevated resource usage and that both immobilization groups would show decreased pectoralis thickness (disuse) and increased prevalence of fractures and deviations. Elevated nest-box usage was 42% lower following five weeks of partial immobilization for brown-feathered hens but no change in resource usage in white-feathered birds was observed. Fully immobilized, white-feathered hens showed a 17% reduction in pectoralis thickness, while the brown-feathered counterparts showed no change. Lastly, fractures and deviations were not affected in either strain or form of wing immobilization; however, overall low numbers of birds presented with these issues. Altogether, this study shows a profound difference between white- and brown-feathered hens in response to wing immobilization and associated muscle physiology., (© 2023 The Authors.)
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- 2023
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27. A computer vision image differential approach for automatic detection of aggressive behavior in pigs using deep learning.
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Fraser J, Aricibasi H, Tulpan D, and Bergeron R
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- Swine, Animals, Neural Networks, Computer, Computers, Aggression, Sus scrofa, Deep Learning
- Abstract
Pig aggression is a major problem facing the industry as it negatively affects both the welfare and the productivity of group-housed pigs. This study aimed to use a supervised deep learning (DL) approach based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) and image differential to automatically detect aggressive behaviors in pairs of pigs. Different pairs of unfamiliar piglets (N = 32) were placed into one of the two observation pens for 3 d, where they were video recorded each day for 1 h following mixing, resulting in 16 h of video recordings of which 1.25 h were selected for modeling. Four different approaches based on the number of frames skipped (1, 5, or 10 for Diff1, Diff5, and Diff10, respectively) and the amalgamation of multiple image differences into one (blended) were used to create four different datasets. Two CNN models were tested, with architectures based on the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) VGG-16 model architecture, consisting of convolutional layers, max-pooling layers, dense layers, and dropout layers. While both models had similar architectures, the second CNN model included stacked convolutional layers. Nine different sigmoid activation function thresholds between 0.1 and 1.0 were evaluated and a 0.5 threshold was selected to be used for testing. The stacked CNN model correctly predicted aggressive behaviors with the highest testing accuracy (0.79), precision (0.81), recall (0.77), and area under the curve (0.86) values. When analyzing the model recall for behavior subtypes prediction, mounting and mobile non-aggressive behaviors were the hardest to classify (recall = 0.63 and 0.75), while head biting, immobile, and parallel pressing were easy to classify (recall = 0.95, 0.94, and 0.91). Runtimes were also analyzed with the blended dataset, taking four times less time to train and validate than the Diff1, Diff5, and Diff10 datasets. Preprocessing time was reduced by up to 2.3 times in the blended dataset compared to the other datasets and, when combined with testing runtimes, it satisfied the requirements for real-time systems capable of detecting aggressive behavior in pairs of pigs. Overall, these results show that using a CNN and image differential-based deep learning approach can be an effective and computationally efficient technique to automatically detect aggressive behaviors in pigs., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
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- 2023
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28. Unravelling the genetics of non-random fertilization associated with gametic incompatibility.
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Martin AAA, Id-Lahoucine S, Fonseca PAS, Rochus CM, Alcantara LM, Tulpan D, LeBlanc SJ, Miglior F, Casellas J, Cánovas A, Baes CF, and Schenkel FS
- Subjects
- Pregnancy, Female, Animals, Cattle, Genotype, Haplotypes, Fertilization genetics, Genome, Germ Cells
- Abstract
In the dairy industry, mate allocation is dependent on the producer's breeding goals and the parents' breeding values. The probability of pregnancy differs among sire-dam combinations, and the compatibility of a pair may vary due to the combination of gametic haplotypes. Under the hypothesis that incomplete incompatibility would reduce the odds of fertilization, and complete incompatibility would lead to a non-fertilizing or lethal combination, deviation from Mendelian inheritance expectations would be observed for incompatible pairs. By adding an interaction to a transmission ratio distortion (TRD) model, which detects departure from the Mendelian expectations, genomic regions linked to gametic incompatibility can be identified. This study aimed to determine the genetic background of gametic incompatibility in Holstein cattle. A total of 283,817 genotyped Holstein trios were used in a TRD analysis, resulting in 422 significant regions, which contained 2075 positional genes further investigated for network, overrepresentation, and guilt-by-association analyses. The identified biological pathways were associated with immunology and cellular communication and a total of 16 functional candidate genes were identified. Further investigation of gametic incompatibility will provide opportunities to improve mate allocation for the dairy cattle industry., (© 2022. The Author(s).)
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- 2022
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29. Predicting methane emission in Canadian Holstein dairy cattle using milk mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy and other commonly available predictors via artificial neural networks.
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Shadpour S, Chud TCS, Hailemariam D, Plastow G, Oliveira HR, Stothard P, Lassen J, Miglior F, Baes CF, Tulpan D, and Schenkel FS
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- Animals, Canada, Cattle, Female, Methane metabolism, Neural Networks, Computer, Purines, Spectrophotometry, Infrared veterinary, Lactation metabolism, Milk chemistry
- Abstract
Interest in reducing eructed CH
4 is growing, but measuring CH4 emissions is expensive and difficult in large populations. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of milk mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) data to predict CH4 emission in lactating Canadian Holstein cows. A total of 181 weekly average CH4 records from 158 Canadian cows and 217 records from 44 Danish cows were used. For each milk spectra record, the corresponding weekly average CH4 emission (g/d), test-day milk yield (MY, kg/d), fat yield (FY, g/d), and protein yield (PY, g/d) were available. The weekly average CH4 emission was predicted using various artificial neural networks (ANN), partial least squares regression, and different sets of predictors. The ANN architectures consisted of 3 training algorithms, 1 to 10 neurons with hyperbolic tangent activation function in the hidden layer, and 1 neuron with linear (purine) activation function in the hidden layer. Random cross-validation was used to compared the predictor sets: MY (set 1); FY (set 2); PY (set 3); MY and FY (set 4); MY and PY (set 5); MY, FY, and PY (set 6); MIRS (set 7); and MY, FY, PY, and MIRS (set 8). All predictor sets also included age at calving and days in milk, in addition to country, season of calving, and lactation number as categorical effects. Using only MY (set 1), the predictive accuracy (r) ranged from 0.245 to 0.457 and the root mean square error (RMSE) ranged from 87.28 to 99.39 across all prediction models and validation sets. Replacing MY with FY (set 2; r = 0.288-0.491; RMSE = 85.94-98.04) improved the predictive accuracy, but using PY (set 3; r = 0.260-0.468; RMSE = 86.95-98.47) did not. Adding FY to MY (set 4; r = 0.272-0.469; RMSE = 87.21-100.76) led to a negligible improvement compared with sets 1 and 3, but it slightly decreased accuracy compared with set 2. Adding PY to MY (set 5; r = 0.250-0.451; RMSE = 87.66-100.94) did not improve prediction ability. Combining MY, FY, and PY (set 6; r = 0.252-0.455; RMSE = 87.74-101.93) yielded accuracy slightly lower than sets 2 and 3. Using only MIRS data (set 7; r = 0.586-0.717; RMSE = 69.09-96.20) resulted in superior accuracy compared with all previous sets. Finally, the combination of MIRS data with MY, FY, and PY (set 8; r = 0.590-0.727; RMSE = 68.02-87.78) yielded similar accuracy to set 7. Overall, sets including the MIRS data yielded significantly better predictions than the other sets. To assess the predictive ability in a new unseen herd, a limited block cross-validation was performed using 20 cows in the same Canadian herd, which yielded r = 0.229 and RMSE = 154.44, which were clearly much worse than the average r = 0.704 and RMSE = 70.83 when predictions were made by random cross-validation. These results warrant further investigation when more data become available to allow for a more comprehensive block cross-validation before applying the calibrated models for large-scale prediction of CH4 emissions., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. and Fass Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)- Published
- 2022
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30. Predicting dry matter intake in Canadian Holstein dairy cattle using milk mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy and other commonly available predictors via artificial neural networks.
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Shadpour S, Chud TCS, Hailemariam D, Oliveira HR, Plastow G, Stothard P, Lassen J, Baldwin R, Miglior F, Baes CF, Tulpan D, and Schenkel FS
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- Animals, Bayes Theorem, Body Weight, Canada, Cattle, Diet veterinary, Female, Neural Networks, Computer, Spectrophotometry, Infrared veterinary, Lactation, Milk chemistry
- Abstract
Dry matter intake (DMI) is a fundamental component of the animal's feed efficiency, but measuring DMI of individual cows is expensive. Mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (MIRS) on milk samples could be an inexpensive alternative to predict DMI. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess if milk MIRS data could improve DMI predictions of Canadian Holstein cows using artificial neural networks (ANN); (2) to investigate the ability of different ANN architectures to predict unobserved DMI; and (3) to validate the robustness of developed prediction models. A total of 7,398 milk samples from 509 dairy cows distributed over Canada, Denmark, and the United States were analyzed. Data from Denmark and the United States were used to increase the training data size and variability to improve the generalization of the prediction models over the lactation. For each milk spectra record, the corresponding weekly average DMI (kg/d), test-day milk yield (MY, kg/d), fat yield (FY, g/d), and protein yield (PY, g/d), metabolic body weight (MBW), age at calving, year of calving, season of calving, days in milk, lactation number, country, and herd were available. The weekly average DMI was predicted with various ANN architectures using 7 predictor sets, which were created by different combinations MY, FY, PY, MBW, and MIRS data. All predictor sets also included age of calving and days in milk. In addition, the classification effects of season of calving, country, and lactation number were included in all models. The explored ANN architectures consisted of 3 training algorithms (Bayesian regularization, Levenberg-Marquardt, and scaled conjugate gradient), 2 types of activation functions (hyperbolic tangent and linear), and from 1 to 10 neurons in hidden layers). In addition, partial least squares regression was also applied to predict the DMI. Models were compared using cross-validation based on leaving out 10% of records (validation A) and leaving out 10% of cows (validation B). Superior fitting statistics of models comprising MIRS information compared with the models fitting milk, fat and protein yields suggest that other unknown milk components may help explain variation in weekly average DMI. For instance, using MY, FY, PY, and MBW as predictor variables produced a predictive accuracy (r) ranging from 0.510 to 0.652 across ANN models and validation sets. Using MIRS together with MY, FY, PY, and MBW as predictors resulted in improved fitting (r = 0.679-0.777). Including MIRS data improved the weekly average DMI prediction of Canadian Holstein cows, but it seems that MIRS predicts DMI mostly through its association with milk production traits and its utility to estimate a measure of feed efficiency that accounts for the level of production, such as residual feed intake, might be limited and needs further investigation. The better predictive ability of nonlinear ANN compared with linear ANN and partial least squares regression indicated possible nonlinear relationships between weekly average DMI and the predictor variables. In general, ANN using Bayesian regularization and scaled conjugate gradient training algorithms yielded slightly better weekly average DMI predictions compared with ANN using the Levenberg-Marquardt training algorithm., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. and Fass Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)
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- 2022
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31. Machine-Learning-Based Genome-Wide Association Studies for Uncovering QTL Underlying Soybean Yield and Its Components.
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Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi M, Eskandari M, Torabi S, Torkamaneh D, Tulpan D, and Rajcan I
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- Linkage Disequilibrium, Machine Learning, Plant Breeding, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Glycine max genetics, Genome-Wide Association Study methods, Quantitative Trait Loci
- Abstract
A genome-wide association study (GWAS) is currently one of the most recommended approaches for discovering marker-trait associations (MTAs) for complex traits in plant species. Insufficient statistical power is a limiting factor, especially in narrow genetic basis species, that conventional GWAS methods are suffering from. Using sophisticated mathematical methods such as machine learning (ML) algorithms may address this issue and advance the implication of this valuable genetic method in applied plant-breeding programs. In this study, we evaluated the potential use of two ML algorithms, support-vector machine (SVR) and random forest (RF), in a GWAS and compared them with two conventional methods of mixed linear models (MLM) and fixed and random model circulating probability unification (FarmCPU), for identifying MTAs for soybean-yield components. In this study, important soybean-yield component traits, including the number of reproductive nodes (RNP), non-reproductive nodes (NRNP), total nodes (NP), and total pods (PP) per plant along with yield and maturity, were assessed using a panel of 227 soybean genotypes evaluated at two locations over two years (four environments). Using the SVR-mediated GWAS method, we were able to discover MTAs colocalized with previously reported quantitative trait loci (QTL) with potential causal effects on the target traits, supported by the functional annotation of candidate gene analyses. This study demonstrated the potential benefit of using sophisticated mathematical approaches, such as SVR, in a GWAS to complement conventional GWAS methods for identifying MTAs that can improve the efficiency of genomic-based soybean-breeding programs.
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- 2022
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32. Effects of clipping of flight feathers on resource use in Gallus gallus domesticus.
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Garant R, Tobalske BW, BenSassi N, van Staaveren N, Tulpan D, Widowski T, Powers DR, and Harlander-Matauschek A
- Abstract
Ground-dwelling species of birds, such as domestic chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ), experience difficulties sustaining flight due to high wing loading. This limited flight ability may be exacerbated by loss of flight feathers that is prevalent among egg-laying chickens. Despite this, chickens housed in aviary style systems need to use flight to access essential resources stacked in vertical tiers. To understand the impact of flight feather loss on chickens' ability to access elevated resources, we clipped primary and secondary flight feathers for two hen strains (brown-feathered and white-feathered, n = 120), and recorded the time hens spent at elevated resources (feeders, nest-boxes). Results showed that flight feather clipping significantly reduced the percentage of time that hens spent at elevated resources compared to ground resources. When clipping both primary and secondary flight feathers, all hens exhibited greater than or equal to 38% reduction in time spent at elevated resources. When clipping only primary flight feathers, brown-feathered hens saw a greater than 50% reduction in time spent at elevated nest-boxes. Additionally, brown-feathered hens scarcely used the elevated feeder regardless of treatment. Clipping of flight feathers altered the amount of time hens spent at elevated resources, highlighting that distribution and accessibility of resources is an important consideration in commercial housing., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests., (© 2022 The Authors.)
- Published
- 2022
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33. Genome-Wide Association Studies of Soybean Yield-Related Hyperspectral Reflectance Bands Using Machine Learning-Mediated Data Integration Methods.
- Author
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Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi M, Torabi S, Tulpan D, Rajcan I, and Eskandari M
- Abstract
In conjunction with big data analysis methods, plant omics technologies have provided scientists with cost-effective and promising tools for discovering genetic architectures of complex agronomic traits using large breeding populations. In recent years, there has been significant progress in plant phenomics and genomics approaches for generating reliable large datasets. However, selecting an appropriate data integration and analysis method to improve the efficiency of phenome-phenome and phenome-genome association studies is still a bottleneck. This study proposes a hyperspectral wide association study (HypWAS) approach as a phenome-phenome association analysis through a hierarchical data integration strategy to estimate the prediction power of hyperspectral reflectance bands in predicting soybean seed yield. Using HypWAS, five important hyperspectral reflectance bands in visible, red-edge, and near-infrared regions were identified significantly associated with seed yield. The phenome-genome association analysis of each tested hyperspectral reflectance band was performed using two conventional genome-wide association studies (GWAS) methods and a machine learning mediated GWAS based on the support vector regression (SVR) method. Using SVR-mediated GWAS, more relevant QTL with the physiological background of the tested hyperspectral reflectance bands were detected, supported by the functional annotation of candidate gene analyses. The results of this study have indicated the advantages of using hierarchical data integration strategy and advanced mathematical methods coupled with phenome-phenome and phenome-genome association analyses for a better understanding of the biology and genetic backgrounds of hyperspectral reflectance bands affecting soybean yield formation. The identified yield-related hyperspectral reflectance bands using HypWAS can be used as indirect selection criteria for selecting superior genotypes with improved yield genetic gains in large breeding populations., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi, Torabi, Tulpan, Rajcan and Eskandari.)
- Published
- 2021
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34. Application of machine learning and genetic optimization algorithms for modeling and optimizing soybean yield using its component traits.
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Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi M, Tulpan D, and Eskandari M
- Subjects
- Genotype, Machine Learning, Phenotype, Seeds genetics, Glycine max growth & development, Algorithms, Crop Production, Quantitative Trait Loci, Glycine max genetics
- Abstract
Improving genetic yield potential in major food grade crops such as soybean (Glycine max L.) is the most sustainable way to address the growing global food demand and its security concerns. Yield is a complex trait and reliant on various related variables called yield components. In this study, the five most important yield component traits in soybean were measured using a panel of 250 genotypes grown in four environments. These traits were the number of nodes per plant (NP), number of non-reproductive nodes per plant (NRNP), number of reproductive nodes per plant (RNP), number of pods per plant (PP), and the ratio of number of pods to number of nodes per plant (P/N). These data were used for predicting the total soybean seed yield using the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF), and Random Forest (RF), machine learning (ML) algorithms, individually and collectively through an ensemble method based on bagging strategy (E-B). The RBF algorithm with highest Coefficient of Determination (R2) value of 0.81 and the lowest Mean Absolute Errors (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values of 148.61 kg.ha-1, and 185.31 kg.ha-1, respectively, was the most accurate algorithm and, therefore, selected as the metaClassifier for the E-B algorithm. Using the E-B algorithm, we were able to increase the prediction accuracy by improving the values of R2, MAE, and RMSE by 0.1, 0.24 kg.ha-1, and 0.96 kg.ha-1, respectively. Furthermore, for the first time in this study, we allied the E-B with the genetic algorithm (GA) to model the optimum values of yield components in an ideotype genotype in which the yield is maximized. The results revealed a better understanding of the relationships between soybean yield and its components, which can be used for selecting parental lines and designing promising crosses for developing cultivars with improved genetic yield potential., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
- Published
- 2021
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35. In pursuit of a better broiler: growth, efficiency, and mortality of 16 strains of broiler chickens.
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Torrey S, Mohammadigheisar M, Nascimento Dos Santos M, Rothschild D, Dawson LC, Liu Z, Kiarie EG, Edwards AM, Mandell I, Karrow N, Tulpan D, and Widowski TM
- Subjects
- Animals, Body Weight physiology, Energy Metabolism physiology, Genotype, Mortality, Species Specificity, Chickens classification, Chickens genetics, Chickens growth & development, Chickens metabolism, Diet
- Abstract
To meet the growing consumer demand for chicken meat, the poultry industry has selected broiler chickens for increasing efficiency and breast yield. While this high productivity means affordable and consistent product, it has come at a cost to broiler welfare. There has been increasing advocacy and consumer pressure on primary breeders, producers, processors, and retailers to improve the welfare of the billions of chickens processed annually. Several small-scale studies have reported better welfare outcomes for slower-growing strains compared to fast-growing, conventional strains. However, these studies often housed birds with range access or used strains with vastly different growth rates. Additionally, there may be traits other than growth, such as body conformation, that influence welfare. As the global poultry industries consider the implications of using slower growing strains, there was a need for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary examination of broiler chickens with a wide range of genotypes differing in growth rate and other phenotypic traits. To meet this need, our team designed a study to benchmark data on conventional and slower-growing strains of broiler chickens reared in standardized laboratory conditions. Over a 2-year period, we studied 7,528 broilers from 16 different genetic strains. In this paper, we compare the growth, efficiency, and mortality of broilers to one of two target weights (TW): 2.1 kg (TW1) and 3.2 kg (TW2). We categorized strains by their growth rate to TW2 as conventional (CONV), fastest-slow strains (FAST), moderate-slow strains (MOD), and slowest-slow strains (SLOW). When incubated, hatched, housed, managed, and fed the same, the categories of strains differed in body weights, growth rates, feed intake, and feed efficiency. At 48 d of age, strains in the CONV category were 835 to 1,264 g heavier than strains in the other categories. By TW2, differences in body weights and feed intake resulted in a 22 to 43-point difference in feed conversion ratios. Categories of strains did not differ in their overall mortality rates., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2021
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36. ASAS-NANP SYMPOSIUM: Applications of machine learning for livestock body weight prediction from digital images.
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Wang Z, Shadpour S, Chan E, Rotondo V, Wood KM, and Tulpan D
- Subjects
- Animals, Body Weight, Machine Learning, Selection, Genetic, Artificial Intelligence, Livestock
- Abstract
Monitoring, recording, and predicting livestock body weight (BW) allows for timely intervention in diets and health, greater efficiency in genetic selection, and identification of optimal times to market animals because animals that have already reached the point of slaughter represent a burden for the feedlot. There are currently two main approaches (direct and indirect) to measure the BW in livestock. Direct approaches include partial-weight or full-weight industrial scales placed in designated locations on large farms that measure passively or dynamically the weight of livestock. While these devices are very accurate, their acquisition, intended purpose and operation size, repeated calibration and maintenance costs associated with their placement in high-temperature variability, and corrosive environments are significant and beyond the affordability and sustainability limits of small and medium size farms and even of commercial operators. As a more affordable alternative to direct weighing approaches, indirect approaches have been developed based on observed or inferred relationships between biometric and morphometric measurements of livestock and their BW. Initial indirect approaches involved manual measurements of animals using measuring tapes and tubes and the use of regression equations able to correlate such measurements with BW. While such approaches have good BW prediction accuracies, they are time consuming, require trained and skilled farm laborers, and can be stressful for both animals and handlers especially when repeated daily. With the concomitant advancement of contactless electro-optical sensors (e.g., 2D, 3D, infrared cameras), computer vision (CV) technologies, and artificial intelligence fields such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), 2D and 3D images have started to be used as biometric and morphometric proxies for BW estimations. This manuscript provides a review of CV-based and ML/DL-based BW prediction methods and discusses their strengths, weaknesses, and industry applicability potential., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science.)
- Published
- 2021
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37. Application of Machine Learning Algorithms in Plant Breeding: Predicting Yield From Hyperspectral Reflectance in Soybean.
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Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi M, Earl HJ, Tulpan D, Sulik J, and Eskandari M
- Abstract
Recent substantial advances in high-throughput field phenotyping have provided plant breeders with affordable and efficient tools for evaluating a large number of genotypes for important agronomic traits at early growth stages. Nevertheless, the implementation of large datasets generated by high-throughput phenotyping tools such as hyperspectral reflectance in cultivar development programs is still challenging due to the essential need for intensive knowledge in computational and statistical analyses. In this study, the robustness of three common machine learning (ML) algorithms, multilayer perceptron (MLP), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF), were evaluated for predicting soybean ( Glycine max ) seed yield using hyperspectral reflectance. For this aim, the hyperspectral reflectance data for the whole spectra ranged from 395 to 1005 nm, which were collected at the R4 and R5 growth stages on 250 soybean genotypes grown in four environments. The recursive feature elimination (RFE) approach was performed to reduce the dimensionality of the hyperspectral reflectance data and select variables with the largest importance values. The results indicated that R5 is more informative stage for measuring hyperspectral reflectance to predict seed yields. The 395 nm reflectance band was also identified as the high ranked band in predicting the soybean seed yield. By considering either full or selected variables as the input variables, the ML algorithms were evaluated individually and combined-version using the ensemble-stacking (E-S) method to predict the soybean yield. The RF algorithm had the highest performance with a value of 84% yield classification accuracy among all the individual tested algorithms. Therefore, by selecting RF as the metaClassifier for E-S method, the prediction accuracy increased to 0.93, using all variables, and 0.87, using selected variables showing the success of using E-S as one of the ensemble techniques. This study demonstrated that soybean breeders could implement E-S algorithm using either the full or selected spectra reflectance to select the high-yielding soybean genotypes, among a large number of genotypes, at early growth stages., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Yoosefzadeh-Najafabadi, Earl, Tulpan, Sulik and Eskandari.)
- Published
- 2021
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38. The relationship of pork carcass weight and leanness parameters in the Ontario commercial pork industry.
- Author
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Barducci RS, Zhou ZY, Wormsbecher L, Roehrig C, Tulpan D, and Bohrer BM
- Abstract
This study aimed to examine the correlation of carcass weight, fat depth, muscle depth, and predicted lean yield in commercial pigs. Data were collected on 850,819 pork carcasses from the same pork processing facility between October 2017 and September 2018. Hot carcass weight was reported following slaughter as a head-on weight; while fat and muscle depth were measured with a Destron PG-100 probe and used for the calculation of predicted lean yield based on the Canadian Lean Yield ( CLY ) equation [CLY (%) = 68.1863 - (0.7833 × fat depth) + (0.0689 × muscle depth) + (0.0080 × fat depth
2 ) - (0.0002 × muscle depth2 ) + (0.0006 × fat depth × muscle depth)]. Descriptive statistics, regression equations including coefficients of determination, and Pearson product moment correlation coefficients (when assumptions for linearity were met) and Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficients (when assumptions for linearity were not met) were calculated for attributes using SigmaPlot, version 11 (Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA). Weak positive correlation was observed between hot carcass weight and fat depth ( r = 0.289; P < 0.0001), and between hot carcass weight and muscle depth ( r = 0.176; P < 0.0001). Weak negative correlations were observed between hot carcass weight and predicted lean yield ( r = -0.235; P < 0.0001), and between fat depth and muscle depth ( r = -0.148; P < 0.0001). Upon investigation of relationships between fat depth and predicted lean yield, and between muscle depth and predicted lean yield using scatter plots, it was determined that these relationships were not linear and therefore the assumptions of Pearson product moment correlation were not met. Thus, these relationships were expressed as nonlinear functions and Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficients were used. A strong negative correlation was observed between fat depth and predicted lean yield ( r = -0.960; P < 0.0001), and a moderate positive correlation was observed between muscle depth and predicted lean yield ( r = 0.406; P < 0.0001). Results from this dataset revealed that hot carcass weight was generally weakly correlated ( r < |0.35|) with fat depth, muscle depth, and predicted lean yield. Therefore, it was concluded that there were no consistent weight thresholds where pigs were fatter or heavier muscled., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science.)- Published
- 2019
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39. A review of traditional and machine learning methods applied to animal breeding.
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Nayeri S, Sargolzaei M, and Tulpan D
- Subjects
- Animal Husbandry education, Animals, Animal Husbandry methods, Breeding standards, Livestock genetics, Machine Learning
- Abstract
The current livestock management landscape is transitioning to a high-throughput digital era where large amounts of information captured by systems of electro-optical, acoustical, mechanical, and biosensors is stored and analyzed on a daily and hourly basis, and actionable decisions are made based on quantitative and qualitative analytic results. While traditional animal breeding prediction methods have been used with great success until recently, the deluge of information starts to create a computational and storage bottleneck that could lead to negative long-term impacts on herd management strategies if not handled properly. A plethora of machine learning approaches, successfully used in various industrial and scientific applications, made their way in the mainstream approaches for livestock breeding techniques, and current results show that such methods have the potential to match or surpass the traditional approaches, while most of the time they are more scalable from a computational and storage perspective. This article provides a succinct view on what traditional and novel prediction methods are currently used in the livestock breeding field, how successful they are, and how the future of the field looks in the new digital agriculture era.
- Published
- 2019
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40. Pairwise visual comparison of small RNA secondary structures with base pair probabilities.
- Author
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Léger S, Costa MBW, and Tulpan D
- Subjects
- Algorithms, CRISPR-Cas Systems genetics, Evolution, Molecular, Humans, Virulence genetics, Yersinia pathogenicity, RNA, Guide, CRISPR-Cas Systems, Base Pairing, Nucleic Acid Conformation, Probability, RNA chemistry
- Abstract
Background: Predicted RNA secondary structures are typically visualized using dot-plots for base pair binding probabilities and planar graphs for unique structures, such as the minimum free energy structure. These are however difficult to analyze simultaneously., Results: This work introduces a compact unified view of the most stable conformation of an RNA secondary structure and its base pair probabilities, which is called the Circular Secondary Structure Base Pairs Probabilities Plot (CS
2 BP2 -Plot). Along with our design we provide access to a web server implementation of our solution that facilitates pairwise comparison of short RNA (and DNA) sequences up to 200 base pairs. The web server first calculates the minimum free energy secondary structure and the base pair probabilities for up to 10 RNA or DNA sequences using RNAfold and then provides a two panel comparative view that includes CS2 BP2 -Plots along with the traditional graph, planar and circular diagrams obtained with VARNA. The CS2 BP2 -Plots include highlighting of the nucleotide differences between two selected sequences using ClustalW local alignments. We also provide descriptive statistics, dot-bracket secondary structure representations and ClustalW local alignments for compared sequences., Conclusions: Using circular diagrams and colour and weight-coded arcs, we demonstrate how a single image can replace the state-of-the-art dual representations (dot-plots and minimum free energy structures) for base-pair probabilities of RNA secondary structures while allowing efficient exploration and comparison of different RNA conformations via a web server front end. With that, we provide the community, especially the biologically oriented, with an intuitive tool for ncRNA visualization. Web-server: https://nrcmonsrv01.nrc.ca/cs2bp2plot.- Published
- 2019
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41. Analysis of MAPK and MAPKK gene families in wheat and related Triticeae species.
- Author
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Goyal RK, Tulpan D, Chomistek N, González-Peña Fundora D, West C, Ellis BE, Frick M, Laroche A, and Foroud NA
- Subjects
- Amino Acid Sequence, Computational Biology, Databases, Factual, Genome, Plant, Hordeum metabolism, Lolium metabolism, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases genetics, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases genetics, Multigene Family, Phylogeny, Sequence Alignment, Triticum metabolism, Gene Expression Regulation, Plant, Hordeum genetics, Lolium genetics, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases metabolism, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases metabolism, Triticum genetics
- Abstract
Background: The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family is involved in signal transduction networks that underpin many different biological processes in plants, ranging from development to biotic and abiotic stress responses. To date this class of enzymes has received little attention in Triticeae species, which include important cereal crops (wheat, barley, rye and triticale) that represent over 20% of the total protein food-source worldwide., Results: The work presented here focuses on two subfamilies of Triticeae MAPKs, the MAP kinases (MPKs), and the MAPK kinases (MKKs) whose members phosphorylate the MPKs. In silico analysis of multiple Triticeae sequence databases led to the identification of 152 MAPKs belonging to these two sub-families. Some previously identified MAPKs were renamed to reflect the literature consensus on MAPK nomenclature. Two novel MPKs, MPK24 and MPK25, have been identified, including the first example of a plant MPK carrying the TGY activation loop sequence common to mammalian p38 MPKs. An EF-hand calcium-binding domain was found in members of the Triticeae MPK17 clade, a feature that appears to be specific to Triticeae species. New insights into the novel MEY activation loop identified in MPK11s are offered. When the exon-intron patterns for some MPKs and MKKs of wheat, barley and ancestors of wheat were assembled based on transcript data in GenBank, they showed deviations from the same sequence predicted in Ensembl. The functional relevance of MAPKs as derived from patterns of gene expression, MPK activation and MKK-MPK interaction is discussed., Conclusions: A comprehensive resource of accurately annotated and curated Triticeae MPK and MKK sequences has been created for wheat, barley, rye, triticale, and two ancestral wheat species, goat grass and red wild einkorn. The work we present here offers a central information resource that will resolve existing confusion in the literature and sustain expansion of MAPK research in the crucial Triticeae grains.
- Published
- 2018
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42. Temporal ordering of substitutions in RNA evolution: Uncovering the structural evolution of the Human Accelerated Region 1.
- Author
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Walter Costa MB, Höner Zu Siederdissen C, Tulpan D, Stadler PF, and Nowick K
- Subjects
- Humans, Models, Biological, Mutation genetics, Nucleic Acid Conformation, Probability, Time Factors, Evolution, Molecular, RNA, Untranslated chemistry, RNA, Untranslated genetics
- Abstract
The Human Accelerated Region 1 (HAR1) is the most rapidly evolving region in the human genome. It is part of two overlapping long non-coding RNAs, has a length of only 118 nucleotides and features 18 human specific changes compared to an ancestral sequence that is extremely well conserved across non-human primates. The human HAR1 forms a stable secondary structure that is strikingly different from the one in chimpanzee as well as other closely related species, again emphasizing its human-specific evolutionary history. This suggests that positive selection has acted to stabilize human-specific features in the ensemble of HAR1 secondary structures. To investigate the evolutionary history of the human HAR1 structure, we developed a computational model that evaluates the relative likelihood of evolutionary trajectories as a probabilistic version of a Hamiltonian path problem. The model predicts that the most likely last step in turning the ancestral primate HAR1 into the human HAR1 was exactly the substitution that distinguishes the modern human HAR1 sequence from that of Denisovan, an archaic human, providing independent support for our model. The MutationOrder software is available for download and can be applied to other instances of RNA structure evolution., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2018
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43. Bioinformatics identification of new targets for improving low temperature stress tolerance in spring and winter wheat.
- Author
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Tchagang AB, Fauteux F, Tulpan D, and Pan Y
- Subjects
- Cold Temperature, Gene Expression Regulation, Plant, Gene Regulatory Networks, Linear Models, Plant Proteins genetics, Plant Proteins metabolism, Seasons, Stress, Physiological, Triticum metabolism, Adaptation, Physiological, Computational Biology methods, Triticum genetics
- Abstract
Background: Phenotypic studies in Triticeae have shown that low temperature-induced protective mechanisms are developmentally regulated and involve dynamic acclimation processes. Understanding these mechanisms is important for breeding cold-resistant wheat cultivars. In this study, we combined three computational techniques for the analysis of gene expression data from spring and winter wheat cultivars subjected to low temperature treatments. Our main objective was to construct a comprehensive network of cold response transcriptional events in wheat, and to identify novel cold tolerance candidate genes in wheat., Results: We assigned novel cold stress-related roles to 35 wheat genes, uncovered novel transcription (TF)-gene interactions, and identified 127 genes representing known and novel candidate targets associated with cold tolerance in wheat. Our results also show that delays in terms of activation or repression of the same genes across wheat cultivars play key roles in phenotypic differences among winter and spring wheat cultivars, and adaptation to low temperature stress, cold shock and cold acclimation., Conclusions: Using three computational approaches, we identified novel putative cold-response genes and TF-gene interactions. These results provide new insights into the complex mechanisms regulating the expression of cold-responsive genes in wheat.
- Published
- 2017
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44. The Plant Orthology Browser: An Orthology and Gene-Order Visualizer for Plant Comparative Genomics.
- Author
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Tulpan D and Leger S
- Subjects
- Evolution, Molecular, Gene Ontology, Genome, Plant, Internet, Synteny, Computational Biology methods, Gene Order, Genes, Plant, Genomics, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Web Browser
- Abstract
Worldwide genome sequencing efforts for plants with medium and large genomes require identification and visualization of orthologous genes, while their syntenic conservation becomes the pinnacle of any comparative and functional genomics study. Using gene models for 20 fully sequenced plant genomes, including model organisms and staple crops such as Coss., (L.) Heynh., (L.) Beauv., turnip ( L.), barley ( L.), rice ( L.), sorghum [ (L.) Moench], wheat ( L.), red wild einkorn ( Tumanian ex Gandilyan), and maize ( L.), we computationally predicted 1,021,611 orthologs using stringent sequence similarity criteria. For each pair of plant species, we determined sets of conserved synteny blocks using strand orientation and physical mapping. Gene ontology (GO) annotations are added for each gene. Plant Orthology Browser (POB) includes three interconnected modules: (i) a gene-order visualization module implementing an interactive environment for exploration of gene order between any pair of chromosomes in two plant species, (ii) a synteny visualization module providing unique interactive dot plot representations of orthologous genes between a pair of chromosomes in two distinct plant species, and (iii) a search module that interconnects all modules via free-text search capability with online as-you-type suggestions and highlighting that allows exploration of the underlining information without constraint of interface-dependent search fields. The POB is a web-based orthology and annotation visualization tool, which currently supports 20 completely sequenced plant species with considerably large genomes and offers intuitive and highly interactive pairwise comparison and visualization of genomic traits via gene orthology., (Copyright © 2017 Crop Science Society of America.)
- Published
- 2017
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45. Metabolomics and Cheminformatics Analysis of Antifungal Function of Plant Metabolites.
- Author
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Cuperlovic-Culf M, Rajagopalan N, Tulpan D, and Loewen MC
- Abstract
Fusarium head blight (FHB), primarily caused by Fusarium graminearum , is a devastating disease of wheat. Partial resistance to FHB of several wheat cultivars includes specific metabolic responses to inoculation. Previously published studies have determined major metabolic changes induced by pathogens in resistant and susceptible plants. Functionality of the majority of these metabolites in resistance remains unknown. In this work we have made a compilation of all metabolites determined as selectively accumulated following FHB inoculation in resistant plants. Characteristics, as well as possible functions and targets of these metabolites, are investigated using cheminformatics approaches with focus on the likelihood of these metabolites acting as drug-like molecules against fungal pathogens. Results of computational analyses of binding properties of several representative metabolites to homology models of fungal proteins are presented. Theoretical analysis highlights the possibility for strong inhibitory activity of several metabolites against some major proteins in Fusarium graminearum , such as carbonic anhydrases and cytochrome P450s. Activity of several of these compounds has been experimentally confirmed in fungal growth inhibition assays. Analysis of anti-fungal properties of plant metabolites can lead to the development of more resistant wheat varieties while showing novel application of cheminformatics approaches in the analysis of plant/pathogen interactions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Published
- 2016
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46. Exogenous Abscisic Acid and Gibberellic Acid Elicit Opposing Effects on Fusarium graminearum Infection in Wheat.
- Author
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Buhrow LM, Cram D, Tulpan D, Foroud NA, and Loewen MC
- Subjects
- Cyclopentanes metabolism, Edible Grain drug effects, Edible Grain genetics, Edible Grain microbiology, Fusarium pathogenicity, Fusarium physiology, Gene Expression Regulation, Plant, Mycotoxins metabolism, Oxylipins metabolism, Phenotype, Plant Diseases microbiology, Plant Growth Regulators metabolism, Salicylic Acid metabolism, Trichothecenes metabolism, Triticum genetics, Triticum microbiology, Abscisic Acid pharmacology, Fusarium drug effects, Gibberellins pharmacology, Plant Diseases prevention & control, Plant Growth Regulators pharmacology, Triticum drug effects
- Abstract
Although the roles of salicylate (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) have been well-characterized in Fusarium head blight (FHB)-infected cereals, the roles of other phytohormones remain more ambiguous. Here, the association between an array of phytohormones and FHB pathogenesis in wheat is investigated. Comprehensive profiling of endogenous hormones demonstrated altered cytokinin, gibberellic acid (GA), and JA metabolism in a FHB-resistant cultivar, whereas challenge by Fusarium graminearum increased abscisic acid (ABA), JA, and SA in both FHB-susceptible and -resistant cultivars. Subsequent investigation of ABA or GA coapplication with fungal challenge increased and decreased FHB spread, respectively. These phytohormones-induced effects may be attributed to alteration of the F. graminearum transcriptome because ABA promoted expression of early-infection genes, including hydrolases and cytoskeletal reorganization genes, while GA suppressed nitrogen metabolic gene expression. Neither ABA nor GA elicited significant effects on F. graminearum fungal growth or sporulation in axenic conditions, nor do these phytohormones affect trichothecene gene expression, deoxynivalenol mycotoxin accumulation, or SA/JA biosynthesis in F. graminearum-challenged wheat spikes. Finally, the combined application of GA and paclobutrazol, a Fusarium fungicide, provided additive effects on reducing FHB severity, highlighting the potential for combining fungicidal agents with select phytohormone-related treatments for management of FHB infection in wheat.
- Published
- 2016
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47. Enrichment of Triticum aestivum gene annotations using ortholog cliques and gene ontologies in other plants.
- Author
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Tulpan D, Leger S, Tchagang A, and Pan Y
- Subjects
- Arabidopsis genetics, Biological Evolution, DNA, Plant chemistry, DNA, Plant metabolism, Hordeum genetics, Models, Genetic, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Oryza genetics, Phylogeny, Plant Proteins chemistry, Plant Proteins metabolism, Triticum classification, Zea mays genetics, Genes, Plant, Triticum genetics
- Abstract
Background: While the gargantuan multi-nation effort of sequencing T. aestivum gets close to completion, the annotation process for the vast number of wheat genes and proteins is in its infancy. Previous experimental studies carried out on model plant organisms such as A. thaliana and O. sativa provide a plethora of gene annotations that can be used as potential starting points for wheat gene annotations, proven that solid cross-species gene-to-gene and protein-to-protein correspondences are provided., Results: DNA and protein sequences and corresponding annotations for T. aestivum and 9 other plant species were collected from Ensembl Plants release 22 and curated. Cliques of predicted 1-to-1 orthologs were identified and an annotation enrichment model was defined based on existing gene-GO term associations and phylogenetic relationships among wheat and 9 other plant species. A total of 13 cliques of size 10 were identified, which represent putative functionally equivalent genes and proteins in the 10 plant species. Eighty-five new and more specific GO terms were associated with wheat genes in the 13 cliques of size 10, which represent a 65% increase compared with the previously 130 known GO terms. Similar expression patterns for 4 genes from Arabidopsis, barley, maize and rice in cliques of size 10 provide experimental evidence to support our model. Overall, based on clique size equal or larger than 3, our model enriched the existing gene-GO term associations for 7,838 (8%) wheat genes, of which 2,139 had no previous annotation., Conclusions: Our novel comparative genomics approach enriches existing T. aestivum gene annotations based on cliques of predicted 1-to-1 orthologs, phylogenetic relationships and existing gene ontologies from 9 other plant species.
- Published
- 2015
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48. Thermodynamic Post-Processing versus GC-Content Pre-Processing for DNA Codes Satisfying the Hamming Distance and Reverse-Complement Constraints.
- Author
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Tulpan D, Smith DH, and Montemanni R
- Subjects
- Base Composition, Stochastic Processes, Thermodynamics, Algorithms, Biotechnology methods, Computational Biology methods, DNA chemical synthesis, DNA chemistry, DNA genetics
- Abstract
Stochastic, meta-heuristic and linear construction algorithms for the design of DNA strands satisfying Hamming distance and reverse-complement constraints often use a GC-content constraint to pre-process the DNA strands. Since GC-content is a poor predictor of DNA strand hybridization strength the strands can be filtered by post-processing using thermodynamic calculations. An alternative approach is considered here, where the algorithms are modified to remove consideration of GC-content and rely on post-processing alone to obtain large sets of DNA strands with satisfactory melting temperatures. The two approaches (pre-processing GC-content and post-processing melting temperatures) are compared and are shown to be complementary when large DNA sets are desired. In particular, the second approach can give significant improvements when linear constructions are used.
- Published
- 2014
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49. HyDEn: a hybrid steganocryptographic approach for data encryption using randomized error-correcting DNA codes.
- Author
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Tulpan D, Regoui C, Durand G, Belliveau L, and Léger S
- Subjects
- Base Sequence, Codon genetics, DNA genetics, Algorithms, DNA chemistry
- Abstract
This paper presents a novel hybrid DNA encryption (HyDEn) approach that uses randomized assignments of unique error-correcting DNA Hamming code words for single characters in the extended ASCII set. HyDEn relies on custom-built quaternary codes and a private key used in the randomized assignment of code words and the cyclic permutations applied on the encoded message. Along with its ability to detect and correct errors, HyDEn equals or outperforms existing cryptographic methods and represents a promising in silico DNA steganographic approach.
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
50. MetaboHunter: an automatic approach for identification of metabolites from 1H-NMR spectra of complex mixtures.
- Author
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Tulpan D, Léger S, Belliveau L, Culf A, and Cuperlović-Culf M
- Subjects
- Internet, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy methods, Metabolomics methods, Software
- Abstract
Background: One-dimensional 1H-NMR spectroscopy is widely used for high-throughput characterization of metabolites in complex biological mixtures. However, the accurate identification of individual compounds is still a challenging task, particularly in spectral regions with higher peak densities. The need for automatic tools to facilitate and further improve the accuracy of such tasks, while using increasingly larger reference spectral libraries becomes a priority of current metabolomics research., Results: We introduce a web server application, called MetaboHunter, which can be used for automatic assignment of 1H-NMR spectra of metabolites. MetaboHunter provides methods for automatic metabolite identification based on spectra or peak lists with three different search methods and with possibility for peak drift in a user defined spectral range. The assignment is performed using as reference libraries manually curated data from two major publicly available databases of NMR metabolite standard measurements (HMDB and MMCD). Tests using a variety of synthetic and experimental spectra of single and multi metabolite mixtures show that MetaboHunter is able to identify, in average, more than 80% of detectable metabolites from spectra of synthetic mixtures and more than 50% from spectra corresponding to experimental mixtures. This work also suggests that better scoring functions improve by more than 30% the performance of MetaboHunter's metabolite identification methods., Conclusions: MetaboHunter is a freely accessible, easy to use and user friendly 1H-NMR-based web server application that provides efficient data input and pre-processing, flexible parameter settings, fast and automatic metabolite fingerprinting and results visualization via intuitive plotting and compound peak hit maps. Compared to other published and freely accessible metabolomics tools, MetaboHunter implements three efficient methods to search for metabolites in manually curated data from two reference libraries.
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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