Integrative Analysis of Metabolomic,Proteomic and Genomic Data to Reveal Functional Pathways and Candidate Genes for Drip Loss in Pigs

The aim of this study was to integrate multi omics data to characterize underlying functional pathways and candidate genes for drip loss in pigs. The consideration of different omics levels allows elucidating the black box of phenotype expression. Metabolite and protein profiling was applied in Musculus longissimus dorsi samples of 97 Duroc × Pietrain pigs. In total, 126 and 35 annotated metabolites and proteins were quantified, respectively. In addition, all animals were genotyped with the porcine 60 k Illumina beadchip. An enrichment analysis resulted in 10 pathways, amongst others, sphingolipid metabolism and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, with significant influence on drip loss. Drip loss and 22 metabolic components were analyzed as intermediate phenotypes within a genome-wide association study (GWAS). We detected significantly associated genetic markers and candidate genes for drip loss and for most of the metabolic components. On chromosome 18, a region with promising candidate genes was identified based on SNPs associated with drip loss, the protein “phosphoglycerate mutase 2” and the metabolite glycine. We hypothesize that association studies based on intermediate phenotypes are able to provide comprehensive insights in the genetic variation of genes directly involved in the metabolism of performance traits. In this way, the analyses contribute to identify reliable candidate genes.     

Trend Assessment by the Innovative-Şen Method

Hydro-meteorological time series may include trend components mostly due to climate change since about three to four decades. Trend detection and identification in a better and refined manner are among the major current research topics in water resources domain. Even though different methodologies can be found for trend detection in literature, two well-known procedures are the Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test and recently innovative-?en trend method, which provides different aspects of the trend. The theoretical basis and application of these two methods are completely different. The MK test gives a holistic monotonic trend without any categorization of the time series into a set of clusters, but the innovative-?en method is based on cluster and provides categorical trend behavior in a given time series. The main purpose of this paper is to provide important differences between these two approaches and their possible similarities. The applications of the two approaches are given for hydro-meteorological records including relative humidity, temperature, precipitation and runoff from Ergene drainage basin in the north-western part of Turkey. It is observed that although MK trend test does not show significant trend almost in all the cases, the innovative-?en approach yields trend categorizations as “very low”, “low”, “medium” “high” and “very high”, which should be taken into consideration in future flood (“very high”) and drought (“very low”) studies.     

Improved interfacial adhesion with the help of functional polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes in silicone rubber/rayon fiber composites: Physical,mechanical, thermal,and morphological properties

The aim of this article is to improve the interfacial adhesion between silicone rubber (SR) and Rayon fiber by the help of functional hybrid POSS nanoparticles. Two POSS types were compared, octavinyl-POSS (O-POSS) and methacryl-POSS (M-POSS), having reactive  CC double bonds that can impart in peroxide crosslinking. O-POSS is nonpolar, whereas M-POSS is polar and is able to make H-bond with Rayon fibers. POSS type and their concentrations were examined as the experimental parameters. H-adhesion tests indicated that both POSS types enhanced the adhesion of SR composites to Rayon fibers compared with control recipe. Specifically, slightly higher values were obtained with the use of M-POSS. It was observed that both O-POSS and M-POSS slowed down the curing rate but increased the degree of crosslinking. The cure extent of O-POSS containing composites was found to be higher than that of M-POSS containing ones. Thermal gravimetric analyses revealed that thermal stability of SR composites was significantly improved by the addition of POSS particles. Higher char yield and degradation temperatures were obtained with O-POSS at higher loadings with respect to M-POSS. The POSS distribution at lower loading levels was found to be homogenous for both POSS types as observed from scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope.     

Preparation and characterization of strong cation exchange terpolymer resin as effective adsorbent for removal of disperse dyes

In this study, (hydroxypropylmethacrylate-co-ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate-co-glycidylmetharylate) terpolymer resin functionalized with sulfonic acid groups was prepared and used as cation exchange resin for removal of two different disperse dyes (i.e., Direct Red R [DR-R] and Disperse Violet 28 [DV-28]) from aqueous solution. The properties of the adsorbent were determined using Fourier transform infrared, dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller methods. The maximum adsorption capacity of the resin for the DR-R and DV-28 was found to be 86.1 and 179.6 mg/g, respectively. Desorption study was realized to evaluate the reusability of the resin and the percent desorption from the resin for DR-R and DV-28 dyes was found to be approximately 89.4% and 91.7%, respectively. The experimental data were evaluated using different kinetics and isotherm models. These results show that the experimental data could be designated with the second-order kinetic model and both Langmuir and Temkin isotherm models. Finally, the presented resin was able to remove large amounts of organic pollutants in a short process time with a low amount of adsorbent. Thus, it was shown that the prepared resin has high potential for use as an effective and sustainable adsorbent for the treatment of industrial wastewater. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60:192–201, 2020. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Graft copolymers from commercial chlorinated polypropylene via Cu(0)‐mediated atom transfer radical polymerization

Commercially available chlorinated polypropylene has been used as a macroinitiator for the Cu(0)‐mediated atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate and tert‐butyl acrylate to obtain well‐defined graft copolymers. The relatively narrow molecular weight distribution in the graft copolymers and linear kinetic plots indicated the controlled nature of the copolymerization reactions. Both Fourier transform infrared and ¹H NMR studies confirmed that the graft reactions had taken place successfully. After graft copolymer formation, tert‐butyl groups of poly(tert‐butyl acrylate) side chains were completely converted into poly(acrylic acid) chains to afford corresponding amphiphilic graft copolymers. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry     

High-Performance Work Systems and Organizational Performance in Emerging Economies: Evidence from MNEs in Turkey

This study examines the association between the usage of high-performance work systems (HPWS) by subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Turkey and employee and subsidiary level outcomes. The study is based on a survey of 148 MNE subsidiaries operating in Turkey. The results show that the usage of HPWS has a significant positive impact on employee effectiveness. However, their impact on employee skills and development, and organizational financial performance are far less clear. Our findings highlight the extent to which HWPS need to be adapted to take account of context-specific institutional realities.