Euclidean distance: integrated criteria to study sheep behaviour under heat stress

Livestock farming with sheep represents an important income stream. With climate change, domestic sheep are being exposed to heat stress which can have adverse effects on growth. Here, data regarding sheep behaviour in response to high temperature stress was analysed using the Euclidean distance method to integrate all variables into a single representative outcome that could summarize sheep behaviour. We studied the effects of two shepherding conditions either with or without the provision of shade. The number of animals eating grass, ruminating and resting either in the shade or directly in the sun were recorded over one year at two-week intervals. As the ideal behaviour (expert’s criteria), the following conditions were considered: maximum numbers of animals eating grass, ruminating and resting under shaded conditions were desirable; while the numbers of animals ruminating or resting under direct sunlight should be at a minimum. The statistical evaluation undertaken integrated these variables to identify the most significant effects of heat stress. Sheep spent most of the daylight hours engaged in eating and this activity was more intensive where shaded conditions were available. The Euclidean distance calculated for the group of animals maintained under shaded conditions was statistically lower (indicating better behaviour). Based on this, it is possible to accurately rank the treatments in terms of severity. The analysis indicates that the use of the Euclidean distance could be used to summarize a simplified outcome for observational data collected in behavioural studies in response to differing climatic conditions.

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Heat Stress in Cotton: A Review on Predicted and Unpredicted Growth-Yield Anomalies and Mitigating Breeding Strategies

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11091825 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 1825

Author(s):

Sajid Majeed ◽

Iqrar Ahmad Rana ◽

Muhammad Salman Mubarik ◽

Rana Muhammad Atif ◽

Seung-Hwan Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

High Temperature ◽

Temperature Stress ◽

Growth Yield ◽

High Temperature Stress ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Breeding Strategies ◽

Cotton Fibres ◽

Transgenic Technologies ◽

Global Population

The demand for cotton fibres is increasing due to growing global population while its production is facing challenges from an unpredictable rise in temperature owing to rapidly changing climatic conditions. High temperature stress is a major stumbling block relative to agricultural production around the world. Therefore, the development of thermo-stable cotton cultivars is gaining popularity. Understanding the effects of heat stress on various stages of plant growth and development and its tolerance mechanism is a prerequisite for initiating cotton breeding programs to sustain lint yield without compromising its quality under high temperature stress conditions. Thus, cotton breeders should consider all possible options, such as developing superior cultivars through traditional breeding, utilizing molecular markers and transgenic technologies, or using genome editing techniques to obtain desired features. Therefore, this review article discusses the likely effects of heat stress on cotton plants, tolerance mechanisms, and possible breeding strategies.

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A Survey of Dairy Cattle Behavior in Different Barns in Northern Italy

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani10040713 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 713

Author(s):

Daniela Lovarelli ◽

Alberto Finzi ◽

Gabriele Mattachini ◽

Elisabetta Riva

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Dairy Cows ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Environmental Sensors ◽

Environmental Aspects ◽

Livestock Farming ◽

Behavioral Adaptations ◽

Structure Monitoring ◽

Humidity Index ◽

One Year

Due to its increasing pressure on dairy cows, studies that investigate how to cope with heat stress are needed. The heat stress affects multiple aspects of cows’ lives, among which their behavior and welfare. In this study, a survey was carried out in eight farms located in Northern Italy to monitor and evaluate the environmental aspects of the barns and the behavioral responses of dairy cows. For one year, three periods were monitored: thermoneutral (T_S), hot (H_S) and cold (C_S) seasons. Temperature and relative humidity were measured by environmental sensors, and lying vs. standing time, number of lying bouts and their average duration were collected by accelerometers. The temperature-humidity index (THI) was quantified inside and outside of the barn. Results show that at the increase of the THI, behavioral adaptations occurred in all the farms, especially with a reduction of lying time and an increase of respiration rate. Four of the eight farms need interventions for improving the cows’ welfare. Here, environmental problems should be solved by introducing or improving the efficacy of the forced ventilation or by modifying the barn structure. Monitoring dairy barns with sensors and Precision Livestock Farming techniques can be helpful for future livestock farming to alert farmers on the need for their interventions to respond immediately to unwanted barn living conditions.

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Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) TaHMW1D Transcript Variants Are Highly Expressed in Response to Heat Stress and in Grains Located in Distal Part of the Spike

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10040687 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 687

Author(s):

Chan Seop Ko ◽

Jin-Baek Kim ◽

Min Jeong Hong ◽

Yong Weon Seo

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

High Temperature ◽

Temperature Stress ◽

Storage Proteins ◽

Seed Storage ◽

Seed Storage Proteins ◽

Grain Filling ◽

High Temperature Stress ◽

Two Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis ◽

Transcript Variants

High-temperature stress during the grain filling stage has a deleterious effect on grain yield and end-use quality. Plants undergo various transcriptional events of protein complexity as defensive responses to various stressors. The “Keumgang” wheat cultivar was subjected to high-temperature stress for 6 and 10 days beginning 9 days after anthesis, then two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and peptide analyses were performed. Spots showing decreased contents in stressed plants were shown to have strong similarities with a high-molecular glutenin gene, TraesCS1D02G317301 (TaHMW1D). QRT-PCR results confirmed that TaHMW1D was expressed in its full form and in the form of four different transcript variants. These events always occurred between repetitive regions at specific deletion sites (5′-CAA (Glutamine) GG/TG (Glycine) or (Valine)-3′, 5′-GGG (Glycine) CAA (Glutamine) -3′) in an exonic region. Heat stress led to a significant increase in the expression of the transcript variants. This was most evident in the distal parts of the spike. Considering the importance of high-molecular weight glutenin subunits of seed storage proteins, stressed plants might choose shorter polypeptides while retaining glutenin function, thus maintaining the expression of glutenin motifs and conserved sites.

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Differential Morpho-Physiological and Transcriptomic Responses to Heat Stress in Two Blueberry Species

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms22052481 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (5) ◽

pp. 2481

Author(s):

Jodi Callwood ◽

Kalpalatha Melmaiee ◽

Krishnanand P. Kulkarni ◽

Amaranatha R. Vennapusa ◽

Diarra Aicha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Stomatal Closure ◽

Enrichment Analysis ◽

Leaf Size ◽

Vaccinium Corymbosum ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Differentially Expressed ◽

Transcriptomic Changes ◽

Go Terms

Blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) are highly vulnerable to changing climatic conditions, especially increasing temperatures. To gain insight into mechanisms underpinning the response to heat stress, two blueberry species were subjected to heat stress for 6 and 9 h at 45 °C, and leaf samples were used to study the morpho-physiological and transcriptomic changes. As compared with Vaccinium corymbosum, Vaccinium darrowii exhibited thermal stress adaptation features such as small leaf size, parallel leaf orientation, waxy leaf coating, increased stomatal surface area, and stomatal closure. RNAseq analysis yielded ~135 million reads and identified 8305 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during heat stress against the control samples. In V. corymbosum, 2861 and 4565 genes were differentially expressed at 6 and 9 h of heat stress, whereas in V. darrowii, 2516 and 3072 DEGs were differentially expressed at 6 and 9 h, respectively. Among the pathways, the protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) was the highly enriched pathway in both the species: however, certain metabolic, fatty acid, photosynthesis-related, peroxisomal, and circadian rhythm pathways were enriched differently among the species. KEGG enrichment analysis of the DEGs revealed important biosynthesis and metabolic pathways crucial in response to heat stress. The GO terms enriched in both the species under heat stress were similar, but more DEGs were enriched for GO terms in V. darrowii than the V. corymbosum. Together, these results elucidate the differential response of morpho-physiological and molecular mechanisms used by both the blueberry species under heat stress, and help in understanding the complex mechanisms involved in heat stress tolerance.

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Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of Hsf and Hsp Gene Families and Gene Expression Analysis under Heat Stress in Eggplant (Solanum melongema L.)

Horticulturae ◽

10.3390/horticulturae7060149 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (6) ◽

pp. 149

Author(s):

Chao Gong ◽

Qiangqiang Pang ◽

Zhiliang Li ◽

Zhenxing Li ◽

Riyuan Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Gene Families ◽

High Temperature Stress ◽

Pcr Analysis ◽

Rna Seq ◽

Genome Wide ◽

Motif Composition ◽

Hsp Genes ◽

Identification And Characterization

Under high temperature stress, a large number of proteins in plant cells will be denatured and inactivated. Meanwhile Hsfs and Hsps will be quickly induced to remove denatured proteins, so as to avoid programmed cell death, thus enhancing the thermotolerance of plants. Here, a comprehensive identification and analysis of the Hsf and Hsp gene families in eggplant under heat stress was performed. A total of 24 Hsf-like genes and 117 Hsp-like genes were identified from the eggplant genome using the interolog from Arabidopsis. The gene structure and motif composition of Hsf and Hsp genes were relatively conserved in each subfamily in eggplant. RNA-seq data and qRT-PCR analysis showed that the expressions of most eggplant Hsf and Hsp genes were increased upon exposure to heat stress, especially in thermotolerant line. The comprehensive analysis indicated that different sets of SmHsps genes were involved downstream of particular SmHsfs genes. These results provided a basis for revealing the roles of SmHsps and SmHsp for thermotolerance in eggplant, which may potentially be useful for understanding the thermotolerance mechanism involving SmHsps and SmHsp in eggplant.

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Experiments on Energy-Efficient Evaporative Cooling Systems for Poultry Farm Application in Multan (Pakistan)

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052836 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2836

Author(s):

Khawar Shahzad ◽

Muhammad Sultan ◽

Muhammad Bilal ◽

Hadeed Ashraf ◽

Muhammad Farooq ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Low Cost ◽

Evaporative Cooling ◽

Thermal Exposure ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

The Body ◽

Dew Point ◽

Sweat Glands ◽

Cooling Systems ◽

Humidity Index

Poultry are one of the most vulnerable species of its kind once the temperature-humidity nexus is explored. This is so because the broilers lack sweat glands as compared to humans and undergo panting process to mitigate their latent heat (moisture produced in the body) in the air. As a result, moisture production inside poultry house needs to be maintained to avoid any serious health and welfare complications. Several strategies such as compressor-based air-conditioning systems have been implemented worldwide to attenuate the heat stress in poultry, but these are not economical. Therefore, this study focuses on the development of low-cost and environmentally friendly improved evaporative cooling systems (DEC, IEC, MEC) from the viewpoint of heat stress in poultry houses. Thermodynamic analysis of these systems was carried out for the climatic conditions of Multan, Pakistan. The results appreciably controlled the environmental conditions which showed that for the months of April, May, and June, the decrease in temperature by direct evaporative cooling (DEC), indirect evaporative cooling (IEC), and Maisotsenko-Cycle evaporative cooling (MEC) systems is 7–10 °C, 5–6.5 °C, and 9.5–12 °C, respectively. In case of July, August, and September, the decrease in temperature by DEC, IEC, and MEC systems is 5.5–7 °C, 3.5–4.5 °C, and 7–7.5 °C, respectively. In addition, drop in temperature-humidity index (THI) values by DEC, IEC, and MEC is 3.5–9 °C, 3–7 °C, and 5.5–10 °C, respectively for all months. Optimum temperature and relative humidity conditions are determined for poultry birds and thereby, systems’ performance is thermodynamically evaluated for poultry farms from the viewpoint of THI, temperature-humidity-velocity index (THVI), and thermal exposure time (ET). From the analysis, it is concluded that MEC system performed relatively better than others due to its ability of dew-point cooling and achieved THI threshold limit with reasonable temperature and humidity indexes.

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Proteomic analysis of heat shock proteins in maize (Zea mays L.)

Bulletin of the National Research Centre ◽

10.1186/s42269-019-0251-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mahmoud Hussien Abou-Deif ◽

Mohamed Abdel-Salam Rashed ◽

Kamal Mohamed Khalil ◽

Fatma El-Sayed Mahmoud

Keyword(s):

Heat Treatment ◽

Heat Stress ◽

Heat Shock ◽

Heat Shock Proteins ◽

Proteome Analysis ◽

High Temperature Stress ◽

Heat Treatments ◽

Maize Plants ◽

Adverse Influence ◽

Shock Proteins

Abstract Background Maize is one of the important cereal food crops in the world. High temperature stress causes adverse influence on plant growth. When plants are exposed to high temperatures, they produce heat shock proteins (HSPs), which may impart a generalized role in tolerance to heat stress. Proteome analysis was performed in plant to assess the changes in protein types and their expression levels under abiotic stress. The purpose of the study is to explore which proteins are involved in the response of the maize plant to heat shock treatment. Results We investigated the responses of abundant proteins of maize leaves, in an Egyptian inbred line of maize “K1”, upon heat stress through two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) on samples of maize leaf proteome. 2-DE technique was used to recognize heat-responsive protein spots using Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB) and silver staining. In 2-D analysis of proteins from plants treated at 45 °C for 2 h, the results manifested 59 protein spots (4.3%) which were reproducibly detected as new spots where did not present in the control. In 2D for treated plants for 4 h, 104 protein spots (7.7%) were expressed only under heat stress. Quantification of spot intensities derived from heat treatment showed that twenty protein spots revealed clear differences between the control and the two heat treatments. Nine spots appeared with more intensity after heat treatments than the control, while four spots appeared only after heat treatments. Five spots were clearly induced after heat treatment either at 2 h or 4 h and were chosen for more analysis by LC-MSMS. They were identified as ATPase beta subunit, HSP26, HSP16.9, and unknown HSP/Chaperonin. Conclusion The results revealed that the expressive level of the four heat shock proteins that were detected in this study plays important roles to avoid heat stress in maize plants.

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A comparative UHPLC-Q/TOF–MS-based eco-metabolomics approach reveals temperature adaptation of four Nepenthes species

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-78873-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Changi Wong ◽

Yee Soon Ling ◽

Julia Lih Suan Wee ◽

Aazani Mujahid ◽

Moritz Müller

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Metabolic Response ◽

Natural Habitat ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Temperature Adaptation ◽

Altitudinal Distribution ◽

Distinct Temperature ◽

Survival Mechanisms ◽

Metabolite Regulation ◽

Tof Ms

AbstractNepenthes, as the largest family of carnivorous plants, is found with an extensive geographical distribution throughout the Malay Archipelago, specifically in Borneo, Philippines, and Sumatra. Highland species are able to tolerate cold stress and lowland species heat stress. Our current understanding on the adaptation or survival mechanisms acquired by the different Nepenthes species to their climatic conditions at the phytochemical level is, however, limited. In this study, we applied an eco-metabolomics approach to identify temperature stressed individual metabolic fingerprints of four Nepenthes species: the lowlanders N. ampullaria, N. rafflesiana and N. northiana, and the highlander N. minima. We hypothesized that distinct metabolite regulation patterns exist between the Nepenthes species due to their adaptation towards different geographical and altitudinal distribution. Our results revealed not only distinct temperature stress induced metabolite fingerprints for each Nepenthes species, but also shared metabolic response and adaptation strategies. The interspecific responses and adaptation of N. rafflesiana and N. northiana likely reflected their natural habitat niches. Moreover, our study also indicates the potential of lowlanders, especially N. ampullaria and N. rafflesiana, to produce metabolites needed to deal with increased temperatures, offering hope for the plant genus and future adaption in times of changing climate.

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A weighted Euclidean distance method for rural settlements traffic location evaluation

10.1117/12.761351 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Tongkun Wang ◽

Zhenjie Chen ◽

Dong Chen ◽

Mingchao Jia

Keyword(s):

Euclidean Distance ◽

Rural Settlements ◽

Distance Method

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Recent Advances on Early Detection of Heat Strain in Dairy Cows Using Animal-Based Indicators: A Review

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11040980 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 980

Author(s):

Hang Shu ◽

Wensheng Wang ◽

Leifeng Guo ◽

Jérôme Bindelle

Keyword(s):

Heat Stress ◽

Early Detection ◽

Dairy Cows ◽

Real Time ◽

Dairy Farms ◽

Time Measurement ◽

Heat Strain ◽

Detection Methods ◽

Livestock Farming ◽

Real Time Measurement

In pursuit of precision livestock farming, the real-time measurement for heat strain-related data has been more and more valued. Efforts have been made recently to use more sensitive physiological indicators with the hope to better inform decision-making in heat abatement in dairy farms. To get an insight into the early detection of heat strain in dairy cows, the present review focuses on the recent efforts developing early detection methods of heat strain in dairy cows based on body temperatures and respiratory dynamics. For every candidate animal-based indicator, state-of-the-art measurement methods and existing thresholds were summarized. Body surface temperature and respiration rate were concluded to be the best early indicators of heat strain due to their high feasibility of measurement and sensitivity to heat stress. Future studies should customize heat strain thresholds according to different internal and external factors that have an impact on the sensitivity to heat stress. Wearable devices are most promising to achieve real-time measurement in practical dairy farms. Combined with internet of things technologies, a comprehensive strategy based on both animal- and environment-based indicators is expected to increase the precision of early detection of heat strain in dairy cows.

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