Various assisted reproductive techniques have been developed and refined to obtain a large number of offspring from genetically superior animals or obtain offspring from infertile (or subfertile) animals. The embryo transfer is one assisted reproductive technique developed well, aimed at increased productivity of selected females, disease control, importation and exportation of livestock, rapid...

Intra- and interspecific cross combinations between the tetraploid treefrog Hyla versicolor, and between H. versicolor and the diploid treefrog Hyla chrysoscelis were performed. Progeny phenotypes resulting from these crosses were examined electrophoretically using a polymorphic glutamate oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT-1) locus, to determine the mechanism of chromosome segregation in H. versicol...

The aim of this study is to investigate the evolution of intrinsic postzygotic isolation within and between populations of Mimulus guttatus and Mimulus nasutus. We made 17 intraspecific and interspecific crosses, across a wide geographical scale. We examined the seed germination success and pollen fertility of reciprocal F(1) and F(2) hybrids and their pure-species parents, and used biometrical...

Problems in species recognition are thought to affect the evolution of secondary sexual characters mainly through avoidance of maladaptive hybridization. Another, but much less studied avenue for the evolution of sexual characters due to species recognition problems is through interspecific aggression. In the damselfly, Calopteryx splendens, males have pigmented wing spots as a sexual character...

The objectives of this research are to develop the grafting robots and an acclimatization chamber for watermelon, and tomato seedlings. For watermelon seedlings, a top plug-in robotic grafting system has been developed, which is applicable for grafting a scion into a mature rootstock before the scion’s cotyledons spread. It thus makes the scion to be very tender and greatly different from the r...

Occurrence of cannibalism and inferior competitive ability of predators compared to their prey have been suggested to promote coexistence in size-structured intraguild predation (IGP) systems. The intrinsic size-structure of fish provides the necessary prerequisites to test whether the above mechanisms are general features of species interactions in fish communities where IGP is common. We firs...

Polypropylene (PP) has poor adhesion to metals and other surfaces for its chemical structure. Hence, chemical modification of PP is necessary for metal surface coating application. In this research, grafting of maleic anhydride (MA) onto co(propylene-b-ethylene) in the presence of a dicumyl peroxide (DCP) was accomplished in a single screw extruder. Characteristics of the modified polymer were ...