Operational Deployment Research Articles

A Review of Force Health Protection Aspects of Lyme Disease in the U.S. Military.

Lyme disease (LD) is an underrated threat to the military that negatively impacts mission readiness. Lyme disease has traditionally been thought to only be a risk in an operational context, where training or deployments are frequently conducted in heavily wooded environments. However, this view diminishes risks posed by many off-duty outdoor recreational activities. Furthermore, although the Army introduced a permethrin factory-treated Army Combat Uniform in 2012, permethrin retention and subsequent protection have been shown to decrease significantly after 3 months of wear. Thus, although LD is a known health risk that threatens unit readiness, beyond using treated uniforms there has been little progress at the unit level to address this threat. Focusing on a narrative review of LD and its impact on U.S. military force health protection, sources included DoD websites and policies, government press releases and information papers from sources like the CDC and FDA, and scholarly peer-reviewed journals with full-text access from the online databases EBSCOhost, MEDLINE, SCOUT, and Google Scholar. Searches included the following key words: LD and military, Army, etiology, epidemiology, incidence, treatments, post-treatment LD, and chronic LD. Articles were selected for review based on the relevance of their abstracts and titles. Although the incidence of LD appears to be increasing among service members, it is difficult to attribute this increase to military-related duties. Also, despite ongoing LD research specifically conducted and funded by the DoD, there are limited data on the mitigating effects of force education and permethrin-treated uniforms on the LD threat. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that LD negatively impacts military readiness and monetary costs diverted from other priorities. Lyme disease poses a genuine threat to the health and careers of service members and is an often-overlooked disruptor to military operations. Simple, feasible prevention strategies that are tailored to high-risk geographic regions can be emphasized by military units to reduce the incidence of on-duty and off-duty cases. Additionally, there remains a critical need for new preventative and diagnostic measures for LD.

WVETT-Net: A Novel Hybrid Prediction Model for Wireless Network Traffic Based on Variational Mode Decomposition

Precise prediction of wireless communication network traffic is indispensable in the operational deployment of base station resources and improvement of the user experience. Cellular wireless network traffic has both spatial and temporal characteristics. The existing modeling algorithms have achieved good results in extracting the spatial features, but there are still deficiencies in the extraction models for the time dependencies. To resolve these problems, this paper proposes a novel hybrid neural network prediction model, called WVETT-Net. Firstly, variational mode decomposition (VMD) is used to preprocess network traffic, and the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is used to select the optimal parameters for VMD. Secondly, the local and global features are extracted from each subsequence by a temporal convolutional network (TCN) and an improved Transformer network with a multi-head ProbSparse self-attention mechanism (Pe-Transformer), respectively. Finally, the extracted feature representation is enhanced by using an efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanism to achieve accurate wireless network traffic predictions. Experimental results on two wireless network traffic datasets show that the proposed model (WVETT-Net) outperforms the traditional single or combined models in wireless network traffic prediction.

Operational mental health. . .what practitioners and commanders should know.

Mental Health support to military operations is well established as an integral part of military medicine. Unfortunately, Commanders often receive little or no training in how best to use their mental health assets or what their capabilities are. Conversely, members of a Field Mental Health Team frequently have no operational experience and try to merely translate their civilian practice onto the battlefield. This article describes what mental health professional can, and should do on military deployments and calls for greater training and awareness of both Mental Health professionals and Operational Commanders to foster mutual understanding and use the Field Mental Health Team to best effect. The paper drawson the experience of working in a Field Mental Health Team on six operational deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military mental health professionals work mostly in peacetime and this work ill prepares them for the very different type of work required of them on operations. More training is required to prepare both practitioners and commanders for the mental health issues that confront them on operational deployments.

Use of Measles and Rubella Rapid Diagnostic Tests to Improve Case Detection and Targeting of Vaccinations.

Efforts to control and eliminate measles and rubella are aided by high-quality surveillance data-supported by laboratory confirmation-to guide decision-making on routine immunization strategies and locations for conducting preventive supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) and outbreak response. Important developments in rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for measles and rubella present new opportunities for the global measles and rubella surveillance program to greatly improve the ability to rapidly detect and respond to outbreaks. Here, we review the status of RDTs for measles and rubella Immunoglobulin M (IgM) testing, as well as ongoing questions and challenges regarding the operational use and deployment of RDTs as part of global measles and rubella surveillance. Efforts to develop IgM RDTs that can be produced at scale are underway. Once validated RDTs are available, clear information on the benefits, challenges, and costs of their implementation will be critical for shaping deployment guidance and informing country plans for sustainably deploying such tests. The wide availability of RDTs could provide new programmatic options for measles and rubella elimination efforts, potentially enabling improvements and flexibility for testing, surveillance, and vaccination.

O-band QKD link over a multiple ONT loaded carrier-grade GPON for FTTH applications.

We have successfully demonstrated the integration of a commercial O-band Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system over a testbed that replicates a carrier-grade Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) optical access network consisting of components and systems installed in real-life FTTH operational deployments. The experiment demonstrated a QKD transmission over a 1:16 user Gigabit Optical Passive Network (GPON) configuration featuring a total of 9 Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) at the premises of the Telecom Operator COSMOTE that followed the operator's standard FTTH divided in two splitting stages. The architecture we implemented was a downstream access network with the quantum transmitter located at the operator's Central Office (CO) and the quantum receiver located on the end user's side.

Management of Production Processes in a Heating Company

This paper is focused on researching the behaviour of heating companies in connection with current developments in the electricity market and flexibility in the context of market behaviour. The work assesses the increase in profitability through the creation of a technical–economic model using an objective function with profit maximization. The objective of the paper is to present the procedure and methodology for creating a model using the basic scheme of production processes integrated into the system platform. The result of the work is a comparative analysis of modelled cases of implemented operation deployment according to a defined period and modelling modes on selected time series. The description of individual outputs demonstrates the economic advantage of using combinations of modes of combined electricity and heat production, and non-combined electricity and heat production, including the use of heat-suppression mode because of overproduction of electricity.

An Integral-like Numerical Approach for Solving Burgers’ Equation

The Burgers’ equation, commonly appeared in the study of turbulence, fluid dynamics, shock waves, and continuum mechanics, is a crucial part of the dynamical core of any numerical weather model, influencing simulated meteorological phenomena. While past studies have suggested several robust numerical approaches for solving the equation, many are too complicated for practical adaptation and too computationally expensive for operational deployment. This paper introduces an unconventional approach based on spline polynomial interpolations and the Hopf-Cole transformation. Using Taylor expansion to approximate the exponential term in the Hopf-Cole transformation, the analytical solution of the simplified equation is discretized to form our proposed scheme. The scheme is explicit and adaptable for parallel computing, although certain types of boundary conditions need to be employed implicitly. Three distinct test cases were utilized to evaluate its accuracy, parallel scalability, and numerical stability. In the aspect of accuracy, the schemes employed cubic and quintic spline interpolation perform equally well, managing to reduce the <i>ӏ</i><sub>1</sub>, <i>ӏ</i><sub>2</sub>, and <i>ӏ</i><sub>∞</sub> error norms down to the order of 10<sup>−4</sup>. Parallel scalability observed in the weak-scaling experiment depends on time step size but is generally as good as any explicit scheme. The stability condition is <i>ν</i>∆<i>t</i>/∆<i>x</i><sup>2</sup> > 0.02, including the viscosity coefficient <i>ν</i> due to the Hopf-Cole transformation step. From the stability condition, the schemes can run at a large time step size ∆<i>t</i> even when using a small grid spacing ∆<i>x</i>, emphasizing its suitability for practical applications such as numerical weather prediction.

Sex Differences in Screening Positive for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder After Combat Injury.

U.S. military women were at risk of combat exposure and injury from asymmetric warfare during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previous research has yielded mixed results when examining sex differences in PTSD following operational deployment. To date, no study has explored sex differences in PTSD after combat injury. This retrospective study included U.S. military service men and women who experienced a combat injury in Iraq or Afghanistan (March 2003 to March 2013) and completed a Post-Deployment Health Assessment (PDHA) within 1 year of injury. The PDHA is administered at the end of deployment and includes the 4-item Primary Care PTSD Screen. The prevalence of screening positive for PTSD was evaluated by sex using a chi-square test. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between sex and PTSD while adjusting for covariates. The study sample included 16,215 injured military personnel (666 women and 15,549 men). The average time between injury and PDHA was 132 days (SD = 91.0). Overall, women had a higher prevalence of screening positive for PTSD than men (48.3% vs. 40.9%, P < .001). In multivariable regression, women had higher odds than men of screening positive for PTSD (odds ratio, 1.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-1.57). Psychiatric history was the strongest predictor of screening positive for PTSD regardless of sex (odds ratio, 1.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-1.74). In this novel study of military service members, women were more likely to screen positive for PTSD than men after combat injury. Strategies to mitigate PTSD, enhance resiliency, and incorporate psychological care into injury rehabilitation programs for women may be needed for future U.S. military conflicts where they will play a larger role in combat operations.

Simulationsbasierte Entscheidungsunterstützung mittels betriebswirtschaftlicher Bewertung

Abstract Operational personnel deployment and order sequence planning are important tasks of production management in order to identify and utilize existing potential in day-to-day business. This paper provides a methodology to support production management via the joint application of discrete-event simulation and production control. The evaluation of action alternatives is done by comparing the calculated contribution margin.

Suicide and suicidality in Australian Defence Force veterans: A systematic scoping review.

Increased suicidality and suicide deaths among veterans of the Australian Defence Force have gained recent prominence. A systematic scoping review was conducted to identify, summarise and synthesise the existing literature relating to Australian veteran suicide and suicidality, with the objective of identifying future research priorities. We conducted a PRISMA-compliant systematic search on PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL databases for all manuscripts reporting primary data on suicide and suicidality in Australian veterans. The search was supplemented by grey literature and a search of reference lists. Manuscripts of any study type, published in the English language since the Vietnam era, were eligible for inclusion. A total of 26 articles and reports, utilising a variety of mostly quantitative approaches, were included in the review. Findings, especially in larger and more recent studies, indicate increased suicidality in the veteran population. Suicide deaths appeared to increase with transition out of the military. Mental illness was identified as an important risk factor for suicide and suicidality. Current service was identified as a protective factor against suicide. There was mixed evidence regarding the impact of operational deployment on suicide and suicidality. Gaps were identified in relation to the relative contributions to risk from transition, the various psychosocial correlates (for example, relationships, finances, employment), pre-service factors and the extent to which these are causal or mediating in nature. A better understanding of health service utilisation would also aid in targeting preventive efforts. Future research in these areas is warranted.

Towards maintaining canine training aid integrity: Effects of environmental factors and operational use on the triacetone triperoxide polymer odor capture-and-release system.

There are many factors that may affect the longevity of or guide the use of canine training aids. Literature to date has mainly focused on identifying the headspace volatiles associated with training aids or odors and only minimal research exists into how different variables may alter those volatiles. The current study examines several factors affecting canine training aids: humidity, air flow, transportation, and operational deployment, using the triacetone triperoxide polymer odor capture-and-release canine training aid (TATP POCR) as the target. The TATP POCR is an absorption-based canine training aid developed to be used to safely train canines to detect the odor of the explosive TATP in operational settings. Comparisons of the TATP POCR to neat TATP are made throughout the manuscript. First, humidity increased the background components of the POCR matrix, as well as the amount of TATP recovered was above the POCR. Humidity thus affected the amount of TATP detected but did not prevent detection. Second, air flow lessened the lifetime of the TATP POCR. Third, the practice of using primary and secondary containment successfully prevented contamination, cross-contamination, and significant target loss, thereby maintaining kit integrity. Finally, the absorption of background odors from training environments was not observed. TATP headspace concentrations between a Deployed and Control POCR kit were not significantly different at time 0 (i.e., upon opening), which suggests that the operational use does not affect the function of the TATP POCR system. This information provides pivotal evidence for explosives detection canine handlers or trainers who utilize the TATP POCR.

Insecticide paints: a new community strategy for controlling dengue and zika mosquito vectors in Cabo Verde

BackgroundCabo Verde, an island country in West Africa, has been affected since human colonization by epidemics of vector-borne diseases with major epidemics of dengue and zika in recent years. Although there is a national program for integrated vector control, innovative strategies that reinforce routine activities and strengthen vector control are necessary to prevent the emergence or reemergence of arboviruses and new epidemics of dengue and zika. Insecticide paints are evidenced as new technologies for the formulation of insecticides in a more residual and safe way. The TINTAEDES project aimed to assess the efficacy, acceptability, and operational deployment of an insecticide paint for Aedes control.Methodology/Principal findingsLaboratory and small-scale field trials were conducted, assessing mortality through World Health Organization cone bioassays. A community-based intervention study in the neighborhoods of Várzea and Tira Chapéu in the city of Praia, Cabo Verde, was developed. The intervention is a paint self-application model by homeowners and neighborhood volunteers. The intervention was evaluated based on entomological indicators and the responses given by the residents of the painted houses to a questionnaire on the knowledge, satisfaction, and safety of insecticidal paints. A transfluthrin-based insecticide paint was effective against wild Ae. aegypti for one year in the laboratory and semi-field conditions. Residents largely perceived a reduction in mosquito presence in the treated houses (98%).ConclusionInsecticide paints are presented as an effective innovation strategy for mosquito control, which could be implemented as a reinforcement of the measures carried out by the vector control program in the city of Praia and throughout the country.

The Application Research of FCN Algorithm in Different Severe Convection Short-Time Nowcasting Technology in China, Gansu Province

This study explores the application of the fully convolutional network (FCN) algorithm to the field of meteorology, specifically for the short-term nowcasting of severe convective weather events such as hail, convective wind gust (CG), thunderstorms, and short-term heavy rain (STHR) in Gansu. The training data come from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and real-time ground observations. The performance of the proposed FCN model, based on 2017 to 2021 training datasets, demonstrated a high prediction accuracy, with an overall error rate of 16.6%. Furthermore, the model exhibited an error rate of 18.6% across both severe and non-severe weather conditions when tested against the 2022 dataset. Operational deployment in 2023 yielded an average critical success index (CSI) of 24.3%, a probability of detection (POD) of 62.6%, and a false alarm ratio (FAR) of 71.2% for these convective events. It is noteworthy that the predicting performance for STHR was particularly effective with the highest POD and CSI, as well as the lowest FAR. CG and hail predictions had comparable CSI and FAR scores, although the POD for CG surpassed that for hail. The FCN model’s optimal performances in terms of hail prediction occurred at the 4th, 8th, and 10th forecast hours, while for CG, the 6th hour was most accurate, and for STHR, the 2nd and 4th hours were most effective. These findings underscore the FCN model’s ideal suitability for short-term forecasting of severe convective weather, presenting extensive prospects for the automation of meteorological operations in the future.

The Impact of Military Tobacco Control Policy: A Systematic Review.

Tobacco use is synonymous with the military. Despite that military personnel are trained to follow commands, opportunities exist to implement various tobacco control strategies. We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the impact of tobacco control policy employed in military settings. We searched for published English articles in Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases using relevant subject headings without year restriction. We included randomized controlled trials, nonrandomized controlled trials, case-control, cohort, controlled before and after, and uncontrolled before and after studies evaluating the impact of tobacco control policy in the military population. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, three independent reviewers independently screened initially identified articles, reviewed the full text, and extracted the data and any disagreements resolved by consensus after data recheck. Five reviewers used a validated tool to assess the quality of the included studies. The primary outcome was the reduction of any tobacco or nicotine-contained products (TNCPs) use among the troops. The impacts of the tobacco control policy were synthesized and analyzed qualitatively. This study is registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Review (CRD42022314117). Fourteen studies were included in the analysis from 5372 studies screened. Most of the studies were from the USA, and fractions were from Thailand, France, and Taiwan. These studies were methodologically heterogeneous. Most studies employed a total ban policy on TNCP use during basic military training or operational deployment as the primary strategy. Other methods utilized were the brief tobacco intervention, targeted treatment, support, and counseling provided through telephone or mailing systems, the adjunctive behavioral intervention, providing free nicotine gum, the "Pharsai clinic", active and regular smoking restriction, and interventions aimed at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational levels. There is a moderate quality of evidence that the tobacco control policies effectively reduced the prevalence of TNCP use, increased the cessation rate, reduced the intake, and lowered the dependency. The adjunctive interventions provided after the total ban on TNCP use may increase its effectiveness. However, findings from this review need to be carefully considered as the definition of TNCP use status was not universal between studies and lacked a biochemical validation procedure. There is reasonable evidence to support that the tobacco control policy employed in the military population has multiple positive impacts in reducing the prevalence of TNCP use, increasing the cessation rates, reducing the intake, and lowering dependency. Other evidence-based strategies need to be fully utilized to materialize the tobacco endgame.

Service Function Chain Deployment Algorithm Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning in Space–Air–Ground Integrated Network

SAGIN is formed by the fusion of ground networks and aircraft networks. It breaks through the limitation of communication, which cannot cover the whole world, bringing new opportunities for network communication in remote areas. However, many heterogeneous devices in SAGIN pose significant challenges in terms of end-to-end resource management, and the limited regional heterogeneous resources also threaten the QoS for users. In this regard, this paper proposes a hierarchical resource management structure for SAGIN, named SAGIN-MEC, based on a SDN, NFV, and MEC, aiming to facilitate the systematic management of heterogeneous network resources. Furthermore, to minimize the operator deployment costs while ensuring the QoS, this paper formulates a resource scheduling optimization model tailored to SAGIN scenarios to minimize energy consumption. Additionally, we propose a deployment algorithm, named DRL-G, which is based on heuristics and DRL, aiming to allocate heterogeneous network resources within SAGIN effectively. Experimental results showed that SAGIN-MEC can reduce the end-to-end delay by 6–15 ms compared to the terrestrial edge network, and compared to other algorithms, the DRL-G algorithm can improve the service request reception rate by up to 20%. In terms of energy consumption, it reduces the average energy consumption by 4.4% compared to the PG algorithm.

“MALVA ALCEA”: ADVANCING UKRAINIAN NAVALCAPABILITIES WITH REACT NATIVE TECHNOLOGY

In the rapidly evolving domain of military operations, the advent of digital technologies has ushered in unprecedented capabilities and efficiencies. “The Digital Admiral “Malva Alcea” exemplifies this transformation, showcasing a React Native-based mobile application designed to revolutionize missile targeting calculations within the Ukrainian Navy. This paper delves into the critical need for innovation in the face of traditional, manual calculation methods that are both time-consuming and prone to human error. It charts the development journey of the application, highlighting the selection of React Native for its cross-platform capabilities and ease of integration with naval data systems. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the application’s architecture, including its intuitive user interface, robust storage model, and the integration of a sophisticated mathematical model for missile targeting. Through user feedback and operational deployment, the application has demonstrated a significant reduction in calculation times and an improvement in accuracy, thus enhancing operational efficiency and decision-making in naval defense scenarios. Furthermore, the paper addresses the challenges encountered during development, such as ensuring data security and maintaining system adaptability for future expansions. It concludes by outlining future directions for the application, including potential integrations with larger situational awareness platforms and expansions to other operating systems, underscoring the pivotal role of digital innovations in advancing military capabilities and strategic operations. Keywords: React Native, Naval Defense Operations, Missile Targeting Calculations, Mobile Application Development, User Experience (UX), Data Security and Encryption, Redux State Management, Encrypted Storage, Operational Efficiency, Military Technology Innovation

Use of an expert elicitation methodology to compare welfare impacts of two approaches for blood sampling European badgers (Meles meles) in the field.

In the UK and Republic of Ireland, the European badger (Meles meles) is considered the most significant wildlife reservoir of the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis, the cause of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). To expand options for bTB surveillance and disease control, the Animal and Plant Health Agency developed a bespoke physical restraint cage to facilitate collection of a small blood sample from a restrained, conscious badger in the field. A key step, prior to pursuing operational deployment of the novel restraint cage, was an assessment of the relative welfare impacts of the approach. We used an established welfare assessment model to elicit expert opinion during two workshops to compare the impacts of the restraint cage approach with the only current alternative for obtaining blood samples from badgers in the field, which involves administration of a general anaesthetic. Eleven panellists participated in the workshops, comprising experts in the fields of wildlife biology, animal welfare science, badger capture and sampling, and veterinary science. Both approaches were assessed to have negative welfare impacts, although in neither case were overall welfare scores higher than intermediate, never exceeding 5-6 out of a possible 8. Based on our assessments, the restraint cage approach is no worse for welfare compared to using general anaesthesia and possibly has a lower overall negative impact on badger welfare. Our results can be used to integrate consideration of badger welfare alongside other factors, including financial cost and efficiency, when selecting a field method for blood sampling free-living badgers.

A multi-objective comparison of CNN architectures in Arctic human-built infrastructure mapping from sub-meter resolution satellite imagery

ABSTRACTRisk assessment of infrastructure exposed to ice-rich permafrost hazards is essential for climate change adaptation in the Arctic. As this process requires up-to-date, comprehensive, high-resolution maps of human-built infrastructure, gaps in such geospatial information and knowledge of the applications required to produce it must be addressed. Therefore, this study highlights the ongoing development of a deep learning approach to efficiently map the Arctic built environment by detecting nine different types of structures (detached houses, row houses, multi-story blocks, non-residential buildings, roads, runways, gravel pads, pipelines, and storage tanks) from recently-acquired Maxar commercial satellite imagery (<1 m resolution). We conducted a multi-objective comparison, focusing on generalization performance and computational cost, of nine different semantic segmentation architectures. K-fold cross validation was used to estimate the average F1-score of each architecture and the Friedman Aligned Ranks test with the Bergmann-Hommel post-hoc procedure was applied to test for significant differences in generalization performance. ResNet-50-UNet++ performs significantly better than five out of the other eight candidate architectures; no significant difference was found in the pairwise comparisons of ResNet-50-UNet++ to ResNet-50-MANet, ResNet-101-MANet, and ResNet-101-UNet++. We then conducted a high-performance computing scaling experiment to compare the number of service units and runtime required for model inferencing on a hypothetical pan-Arctic scale dataset. We found that the ResNet-50-UNet++ model could save up to ~ 54% on service unit expenditure, or ~ 18% on runtime, when considering operational deployment of our mapping approach. Our results suggest that ResNet-50-UNet++ could be the most suitable architecture (out of the nine that were examined) for deep learning-enabled Arctic infrastructure mapping efforts. Overall, our findings regarding the differences between the examined CNN architectures and our methodological framework for multi-objective architecture comparison can provide a foundation that may propel future pan-Arctic GeoAI mapping efforts of infrastructure.

Ecological solutions for freight trains

The article presents the potential of freight railway transport in terms of saving of emissions and maximizing the efficiency of operation. Attention is paid to the transport of freight trains on electrified lines with higher gradients (up to 25‰), alternatively with the possibility of a trip to non-electrified lines and sidings, which generate significant extra costs in the operation of trains and are often a reason for the carrier to deploy a locomotive of independent traction (diesel-electric) even in electrified line sections, even at the cost of increased operating costs and increased emissions. There are many such lines and possibilities of use within the Central European region and the Czech Republic.In the first part of the article, the basic categorisation of dual-mode freight locomotives and their suitability for individual operating programmes is presented. This part also describes current situation on the rolling stock market in general and directions of development taken by various locomotive manufacturers.Case studies of deployment of real freight locomotives on chosen Czech railway lines are used in the next part to present the possibilities for energy and cost savings when replacing a vehicle with independent traction by an electric or dual-mode locomotive, at least in sections equipped with overhead catenary. The pros and cons of using several possible solutions are described in detail. Further considerable savings can be achieved by, among other things, using regenerative braking and returning the generated electricity back to the catenary system when driving downhill. In this respect, however, it is also necessary to cooperate with the infrastructure manager, who must also adapt the railway lines to the operation of these vehicles.Finally, general rules for operational deployments on which the replacement of a conventional vehicle by a dual or pure electric vehicle can be considered are formulated.

Preliminary estimates of genetic parameters and familial selection for non-native poplars show good potential for genetic gains on growth, cold hardiness, trunk quality and Sphaerulina musiva susceptibility

Genetic parameters for growth, trunk quality, and susceptibility to frost and Sphaerulina musiva attack were estimated from 34 half-sib families of hybrid poplar from the crossing of non-native parents, Populus maximowiczii A. Henry, and Populus trichocarpa Torr. & Gray, 3 and 6 years after planting. The use of spatial analysis proved to be the best method for quantitative growth data. The proportion of the among-family variance to the total (phenotypic) variance as well as the high heritabilities of growth and susceptibility to frost and Spaherulina musiva showed a high potential for selection for these traits while the quality traits were under low genetic control. Some families showed gains for several traits, suggesting the possibility of developing a selection index to obtain superior families that show gain for not only growth but quality and adaptive traits as well. Type B correlations were high, suggesting that families responded in the same way regardless of the site. High type A correlation between growth traits at 3 and 6 years showed early selection potential, although these relationships should be confirmed with future measurements to evaluate this effect at maturity. These results can be integrated into the strategy for improving hybrid poplar parental populations and, in the longer term, will make it possible to optimize the selection of individuals with traits of interest for the operational deployment of hybrid poplar clones.