Genome-wide association study provides strong evidence of genes affecting the reproductive performance of Nellore beef cows

Reproductive traits are economically important for beef cattle production; however, these traits are still a bottleneck in indicine cattle since these animals typically reach puberty at older ages when compared to taurine breeds. In addition, reproductive traits are complex phenotypes, i.e., they are controlled by both the environment and many small-effect genes involved in different pathways. In this study, we conducted genome-wide association study (GWAS) and functional analyses to identify important genes and pathways associated with heifer rebreeding (HR) and with the number of calvings at 53 months of age (NC53) in Nellore cows. A total of 142,878 and 244,311 phenotypes for HR and NC53, respectively, and 2,925 animals genotyped with the Illumina Bovine HD panel (Illumina®, San Diego, CA, USA) were used in GWAS applying the weighted single-step GBLUP (WssGBLUP) method. Several genes associated with reproductive events were detected in the 20 most important 1Mb windows for both traits. Significant pathways for HR and NC53 were associated with lipid metabolism and immune processes, respectively. MHC class II genes, detected on chromosome 23 (window 25-26Mb) for NC53, were significantly associated with pregnancy success of Nellore cows. These genes have been proved previously to be associated with reproductive traits such as mate choice in other breeds and species. Our results suggest that genes associated with the reproductive traits HR and NC53 may be involved in embryo development in mammalian species. Furthermore, some genes associated with mate choice may affect pregnancy success in Nellore cattle

Breaking the Privacy Kill Chain: Protecting Individual and Group Privacy Online

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Online social networks (OLSNs) are electronically-based social milieux where individuals gather virtually to socialize. The behavior and characteristics of these networks can provide evidence relevant for detecting and prosecuting policy violations, crimes, terrorist activities, subversive political movements, etc. Some existing methods and tools in the fields of business analytics and digital forensics are useful for such investigations. While the privacy rights of individuals are widely respected, the privacy rights of social groups are less well developed. In the current development of OLSNs and information technologies, the compromise of group privacy may lead to the violation of individual privacy. Adopting an explorative literature review, we examine the privacy kill chain that compromises group privacy as a means to compromise individual privacy. The latter is regulated, while the former is not. We show how the kill chain makes the need for protecting group privacy important and feasible from the perspectives of social, legal, ethical, commercial, and technical perspectives. We propose a research agenda to help societies and organizations strike the proper balance between the benefits and costs of both OLSNs and investigative technologies