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Zebu animals (Bos indicus) are known to take longer to reach puberty compared with taurine animals (Bos taurus), limiting the supply of animals for harvest or breeding and impacting profitability. Genomic information can be a helpful tool to better understand complex traits and improve genetic gains. In this study, we performed a genomewide association study (GWAS) to identify genetic variants associated with reproductive traits in Nelore beef cattle. Heifer pregnancy (HP) was recorded for 1,267 genotyped animals distributed in 12 contemporary groups (CG) with an average pregnancy rate of 0.35 (±0.01). Disregarding one of these CG, the number of antral follicles (NF) was also collected for 937 of these animals, with an average of 11.53 (±4.43). The animals were organized in CG: 12 and 11 for HP and NF, respectively. Genes in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with the associated variants can be considered in a functional enrichment analysis to identify biological mechanisms involved in fertility. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were detected using the MESHR package, allowing the extraction of broad meanings from the gene lists provided by the GWAS. The estimated heritability for HP was 0.28 ± 0.07 and for NF was 0.49 ± 0.09, with the genomic correlation being −0.21 ± 0.29. The average LD between adjacent markers was 0.23 ± 0.01, and GWAS identified genomic windows that accounted for >1% of total genetic variance on chromosomes 5, 14, and 18 for HP and on chromosomes 2, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, and 22 for NF. The MeSH enrichment analyses revealed significant (P < 0.05) terms associated with HP—“Munc18 Proteins,” “Fucose,” and “Hemoglobins”—and with NF—“Cathepsin B,” “Receptors, Neuropeptide,” and “Palmitic Acid.” This is the first study in Nelore cattle introducing the concept of MeSH analysis. The genomic analyses contributed to a better understanding of the genetic control of the reproductive traits HP and NF and provide new selection strategies to improve beef product

One of the current problems society faces is the sensible use of raw materials and polymer waste management. Towards this end, several research strategies have been put forward to reduce the environmental impact of our modern lifestyle. Among them, self-healing polymers have the capabilities of increasing the life cycle of materials, while reducing the demand of non-renewable resources. Self-healing elastomers possess the ability to fully or partially recover functionalities thanks to the use of dynamic and reversible moieties. However, this chain mobility results in poor mechanical performance. Current research is focused on solving the required compromise between repairability and mechanical properties. Here, we present a self-healing composite rubber where we have used ground tire rubber (GTR) as alternative sustainable filler. The results show that SBR compounds filled with 20 phr of GTR recover 75 % of their mechanical strength, being the self-healing response related to the presence of disulfide bonds. These results can thus be seen as a starting model material for developing new applications economically and environmentally convenient with good mechanical properties as well as healing ability., One of the current problems society faces is the sensible use of raw materials and polymer waste management. Towards this end, several research strategies have been put forward to reduce the environmental impact of our modern lifestyle. Among them, self-healing polymers have the capabilities of increasing the life cycle of materials, while reducing the demand of non-renewable resources. Self-healing elastomers possess the ability to fully or partially recover functionalities thanks to the use of dynamic and reversible moieties. However, this chain mobility results in poor mechanical performance. Current research is focused on solving the required compromise between repairability and mechanical properties. Here, we present a self-healing composite rubber where we have used ground tire rubber (GTR) as alternative sustainable filler. The results show that SBR compounds filled with 20 phr of GTR recover 75 % of their mechanical strength, being the self-healing response related to the presence of disulfide bonds. These results can thus be seen as a starting model material for developing new applications economically and environmentally convenient with good mechanical properties as well as healing ability.

Organisations adopt Business Process Management (BPM) as a strategy to improve their process efficiency in order to stay competitive. However, a failure rate of 60-80% for BPM initiatives has been reported. Previous research has identified leadership as one critical success factor for BPM. This paper presents findings of a systematic literature review on the role of leadership in BPM. The findings explain the leadership styles and skills within different stages of a BPM lifecycle and show interrelationships between skills and actions.

[EN] The adipogenic nature of the Iberian pig defines many quality attributes of its fresh meat and dry-cured products. The distinct varieties of Iberian pig exhibit great variability in the genetic parameters for fat deposition and composition in muscle. The aim of this work is to identify common and distinct genomic regions related to fatty acid composition in Retinto, Torbiscal, and Entrepelado Iberian varieties and their reciprocal crosses through a diallelic experiment. In this study, we performed GWAS using a high density SNP array on 382 pigs with the multimarker regression Bayes B method implemented in GenSel. A number of genomic regions showed strong associations with the percentage of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid in intramuscular fat. In particular, five regions with Bayes Factor >100 (SSC2 and SSC7) or >50 (SSC2 and SSC12) explained an important fraction of the genetic variance for miristic, palmitoleic, monounsaturated (>14%), oleic (>10%) and polyunsaturated (>5%) fatty acids. Six genes (RXRB, PSMB8, CHGA, ACACA, PLIN4, PLIN5) located in these regions have been investigated in relation to intramuscular composition variability in Iberian pigs, with two SNPs at the RXRB gene giving the most consistent results on oleic and monounsaturated fatty acid content.