Abstract: Porcine production in China represents approximately
the 50% of the worldwide pig production. Information about pig
husbandry characteristics in China and manure properties from sows
to fatteners in intensive pig farms are not broadly available for
scientific studies as it is a time consuming, expensive task and highly
inaccessible. This study provides a report about solid pig manures
(28% dry matter) in a commercial pig farm located in the peri-urban
area of Beijing as well as a general overview of the current pig
husbandry techniques including pig breeds, feeds, diseases, housing as
well as pig manure and wastewater disposal. The main results are
intended to serve as a literature source for young scientists in order to
understand the main composition of pig manures as well as to identify
the husbandry techniques applied in an intensive pig farm in Beijing.
Abstract: In this study, we illustrated the performance and
microbial community of single- and two-phase systems anaerobically
co-digesting cassava pulp and pig manure. The results showed that
the volatile solid reduction and biogas productivity of two-phase
CSTR were 66 ± 4% and 2000 ± 210 ml l-1 d-1, while those of singlephase
CSTR were 59 ± 1% and 1670 ± 60 ml l-1 d-1, respectively. Codigestion
in two-phase CSTR gave higher 12% solid degradation and
25% methane production than single-phase CSTR. Phylogenetic
analysis of 16S rDNA clone library revealed that the Bacteroidetes
were the most abundant group, followed by the Clostridia in singlephase
CSTR. In hydrolysis/acidification reactor of two-phase system,
the bacteria within the phylum Firmicutes, especially Clostridium,
Eubacteriaceae and Lactobacillus were the dominant phylogenetic
groups. Among the Archaea, Methanosaeta sp. was the exclusive
predominant in both digesters while the relative abundance of
Methanosaeta sp. and Methanospirillum hungatei differed between
the two systems.
Abstract: To evaluate genetic variation of wheat (Triticum aestivum) affected by heat and drought stress on eight Australian wheat genotypes that are parents of Doubled Haploid (HD) mapping populations at the vegetative stage, the water stress experiment was conducted at 65% field capacity in growth room. Heat stress experiment was conducted in the research field under irrigation over summer. Result show that water stress decreased dry shoot weight and RWC but increased osmolarity and means of Fv/Fm values in all varieties except for Krichauff. Krichauff and Kukri had the maximum RWC under drought stress. Trident variety was shown maximum WUE, osmolarity (610 mM/Kg), dry mater, quantum yield and Fv/Fm 0.815 under water stress condition. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent between 4 to 7 days after stress in all varieties. Nevertheless, increase in water stress after that lead to strong decrease in quantum yield. There was a genetic variation for leaf pigments content among varieties under heat stress. Heat stress decreased significantly the total chlorophyll content that measured by SPAD. Krichauff had maximum value of Anthocyanin content (2.978 A/g FW), chlorophyll a+b (2.001 mg/g FW) and chlorophyll a (1.502 mg/g FW). Maximum value of chlorophyll b (0.515 mg/g FW) and Carotenoids (0.234 mg/g FW) content belonged to Kukri. The quantum yield of all varieties decreased significantly, when the weather temperature increased from 28 ÔùªC to 36 ÔùªC during the 6 days. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent after 8th day in all varieties. The maximum decrease and recovery in quantum yield was observed in Krichauff. Drought and heat tolerant and moderately tolerant wheat genotypes were included Trident, Krichauff, Kukri and RAC875. Molineux, Berkut and Excalibur were clustered into most sensitive and moderately sensitive genotypes. Finally, the results show that there was a significantly genetic variation among the eight varieties that were studied under heat and water stress.
Abstract: The present study was conducted to investigate the
response of plants exposed to lignite-based thermal power plant
emission. For this purpose, five plant species were collected from 1.0
km distance (polluted site) and control plants were collected from
20.0 km distance (control site) to thermal power plant. The common
tree species Cassia siamea Lamk., Polyalthia longifolia. Sonn,
Acacia longifolia (Andrews) Wild., Azadirachta indica A.Juss, Ficus
religiosa L. were selected as test plants. Photosynthetic pigments
changes (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids) and rubisco
enzyme modifications were studied. Reduction was observed in the
photosynthetic pigments of plants growing in polluted site and also
large sub unit of the rubisco enzyme was degraded in Azadirachta
indica A. Juss collected from polluted site.
Abstract: These All pig-producing countries from around the world report the presence of Postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS.) In America, PCV2 has been recognized in Canada, United States and Brazil. Knowledge concerning the genetic sequences of PMWS has been very important. In Mexico, there is no report describing the genetic sequences and variations of the PCV2 virus present around the country. For this reason, the main objective was to describe the homology and genetic sequences of the PCV2 virus obtained from different regions of Mexico. The results show that in Mexico are present both subgenotypes \"a\" and \"b\" of this virus and the homologies are from 89 to 99%. Regarding with the aminoacid sequence, three major heterogenic regions were present in the position 59-91, 123–136 and 185–210. This study presents the results of the first genetic characterization of PCV2 in production herds from Mexico.
Abstract: The study area receives a wide variety of wastes
generated by municipalities and the industries like paints and
pigments, metal processing industries, thermal power plants electroprocessing
industries etc. The Physico-chemical and structural
investigation of water from river Pandu indicated high level of
chlorides and calcium which made the water unsuitable for human
use. Algae like Cyclotella fumida, Asterionella Formosa,
Cladophora glomerata, Pediastrum simplex, Scenedesmus bijuga,
Cladophora glomerata were the dominant pollution tolerant species
recorded under these conditions. The sensitive and less abundant
species of algae included Spirogyra sps., Merismopedia sps. The
predominance colonies of Zygnema sps, Phormidium sps,
Mycrocystis aeruginosa, Merismopedia minima, Pandorina morum,
seems to correlate with high organic contents of Pandu river water.
This study assumes significance as some algae can be used as
bioindicators of water pollution and algal floral of a municipal drain
carrying waste effluents from industrial area Kanpur and discharge
them into the river Pandu flowing onto southern outskirts of Kanpur
city.
Abstract: Cognitive models allow predicting some aspects of utility
and usability of human machine interfaces (HMI), and simulating
the interaction with these interfaces. The action of predicting is based
on a task analysis, which investigates what a user is required to do
in terms of actions and cognitive processes to achieve a task. Task
analysis facilitates the understanding of the system-s functionalities.
Cognitive models are part of the analytical approaches, that do not
associate the users during the development process of the interface.
This article presents a study about the evaluation of a human
machine interaction with a contextual assistant-s interface using ACTR
and GOMS cognitive models. The present work shows how these
techniques may be applied in the evaluation of HMI, design and
research by emphasizing firstly the task analysis and secondly the
time execution of the task. In order to validate and support our
results, an experimental study of user performance is conducted at
the DOMUS laboratory, during the interaction with the contextual
assistant-s interface. The results of our models show that the GOMS
and ACT-R models give good and excellent predictions respectively
of users performance at the task level, as well as the object level.
Therefore, the simulated results are very close to the results obtained
in the experimental study.
Abstract: The spatial variation in plant species associated with intercropping is intended to reduce resource competition between species and increase yield potential. A field experiment was carried out on corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) intercropping in a replacement series experiment with weed contamination consist of: weed free, infestation of redroot pigweed, infestation of jimsonweed and simultaneous infestation of redroot pigweed and jimsonweed in Karaj, Iran during 2007 growing season. The experimental design was a randomized complete block in factorial experiment with replicated thrice. Significant (P≤0.05) differences were observed in yield in intercropping. Corn yield was higher in intercropping, but soybean yield was significantly reduced by corn when intercropped. However, total productivity and land use efficiency were high under the intercropping system even in contamination of either species of weeds. Aggressivity of corn relative to soybean revealed the greater competitive ability of corn than soybean. Land equivalent ratio (LER) more than 1 in all treatments attributed to intercropping advantages and was highest in 50: 50 (corn/soybean) in weed free. These findings suggest that intercropping corn and soybean increase total productivity per unit area and improve land use efficiency. Considering the experimental findings, corn-soybean intercropping (50:50) may be recommended for yield advantage, more efficient utilization of resources, and weed suppression as a biological control.
Abstract: The authors report a case of swine urolithiasis caused
by improper administration of sulfamonomethoxine and which was
diagnosed by examination of urinary sediments and analyzing the
composition of the uroliths. The chemical composition of urinary
calculi obtained from affected pigs with urolithiasis was further
confimed as sulfamonomethoxine by fourier transform infrared
(FTIR). It is suggested that appearance of typical fanlike or wheat
bunchy crystals in urinary sediments under observation of lightmicroscope
and determination by FTIR for the crystals are helpful in
diagnosing sulfa calculi causced swine urolithiasis.
Abstract: In this study Vitaton (an organic supplement which
contains fermentative β-carotene) and synthetic astaxanthin
(CAROPHYLL® Pink) were evaluated as pro-growth factors in
Rainbow trout diet. An 8 week feeding trial was conducted to
determine the effects of Vitaton versus astaxanthin on rearing factors,
survival rate and visual flesh color of Rainbow trout
(Oncorhnchynchus mykiss) with initial weight of 196±5. Four
practical diets were formulated to contain 50 and 80 (ppm) of β-
carotene and astaxanthin and also a control diet was prepared without
any pigment. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish rearing in
fresh water. Fish were fed twice daily. The water temperature
fluctuated from 12 to 15 (C˚) and also dissolved oxygen content was
between 7 to 7.5 (mg/lit) during the experimental period. At the end
of the experiment, growth and food utilization parameters and
survival rate were unaffected by dietary treatments (p>0.05). Also,
there was no significant difference between carcass yield within
treatments (p>0.05). No significant difference recognized between
visual flesh color (SalmoFan score) of fish fed Vitaton-containing
diets. On the contrary, feeding on diets containing 50 and 80 (ppm)
of astaxanthin, increased SalmoFan score (flesh astaxanthin
concentration) from
Abstract: In this paper we evaluated the efficacy of
photodynamic treatment of infected wounds on pig animal model by
diffuse reflectance spectrometry. The study was conducted on fifteen
wounds contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that were
incubated for 30 min with methylene blue solution (c = 3.3 x 10-3 M)
and exposed to laser radiations (λ = 670 nm, P = 15 mW) for 15 min.
The efficiency of photodynamic inactivation of bacteria was
evaluated by microbiological exams and diffuse reflectance
spectrometry. The results of the microbiological exams showed that
the bacterial concentration has decreased from 6.93±0.138
logCFU/ml to 3.12±0.108 logCFU/ml. The spectral examination
showed that the diffuse reflectance of wounds contaminated with
Staphylococcus aureus has decreased from 5.06±0.036 % to
3.36±0.025 %. In conclusion, photodynamic therapy is an effective
method for the treatment of infected wounds and there is a correlation
between the CFU count and diffuse reflectance.
Abstract: Acid rain occurs when sulphur dioxide (SO2) and
nitrogen oxides (Nox) gases react in the atmosphere with water,
oxygen, and other chemicals to form various acidic compounds. The
result is a mild solution of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Soil has a
greater buffering capacity than aquatic systems. However excessive
amount of acids introduced by acid rains may disturb the entire soil
chemistry. Acidity and harmful action of toxic elements damage
vegetation while susceptible microbial species are eliminated. In
present study, the effects of simulated sulphuric acid and nitric acid
rains were investigated on crop Glycine max. The effect of acid rain
on change in soil fertility was detected in which pH of control sample
was 6.5 and pH of 1%H2SO4 and 1%HNO3 were 3.5. Nitrogen nitrate
in soil was high in 1% HNO3 treated soil & Control sample.
Ammonium nitrogen in soil was low in 1% HNO3 & H2SO4 treated
soil. Ammonium nitrogen was medium in control and other samples.
The effect of acid rain on seed germination on 3rd day of germination
control sample growth was 7 cm, 0.1% HNO3 was 8cm, and 0.001%
HNO3 & 0.001% H2SO4 was 6cm each. On 10th day fungal growth
was observed in 1% and 0.1%H2SO4 concentrations, when all plants
were dead. The effect of acid rain on crop productivity was
investigated on 3rd day roots were developed in plants. On12th day
Glycine max showed more growth in 0.1% HNO3, 0.001% HNO3 and
0.001% H2SO4 treated plants growth were same as compare to control
plants. On 20th day development of discoloration of plant pigments
were observed on acid treated plants leaves. On 38th day, 0.1, 0.001%
HNO3 and 0.1, 0.001% H2SO4 treated plants and control plants were
showing flower growth. On 42th day, acid treated Glycine max variety
and control plants were showed seeds on plants. In Glycine max
variety 0.1, 0.001% H2SO4, 0.1, 0.001% HNO3 treated plants were
dead on 46th day and fungal growth was observed. The toxicological
study was carried out on Glycine max plants exposed to 1% HNO3
cells were damaged more than 1% H2SO4. Leaf sections exposed to
0.001% HNO3 & H2SO4 showed less damaged of cells and
pigmentation observed in entire slide when compare with control
plant. The soil analysis was done to find microorganisms in HNO3 &
H2SO4 treated Glycine max and control plants. No microorganism
growth was observed in 1% HNO3 & H2SO4 but control plant showed
microbial growth.
Abstract: This work presents a new phonetic transcription system based on a tree of hierarchical pronunciation rules expressed as context-specific grapheme-phoneme correspondences. The tree is automatically inferred from a phonetic dictionary by incrementally analyzing deeper context levels, eventually representing a minimum set of exhaustive rules that pronounce without errors all the words in the training dictionary and that can be applied to out-of-vocabulary words. The proposed approach improves upon existing rule-tree-based techniques in that it makes use of graphemes, rather than letters, as elementary orthographic units. A new linear algorithm for the segmentation of a word in graphemes is introduced to enable outof- vocabulary grapheme-based phonetic transcription. Exhaustive rule trees provide a canonical representation of the pronunciation rules of a language that can be used not only to pronounce out-of-vocabulary words, but also to analyze and compare the pronunciation rules inferred from different dictionaries. The proposed approach has been implemented in C and tested on Oxford British English and Basic English. Experimental results show that grapheme-based rule trees represent phonetically sound rules and provide better performance than letter-based rule trees.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to trace the effects of growth environment on the behaviour of fattening pigs in the farm and outside it. Behavioral manifestations of pigs reared in pens with enriched environment (A lot, n: 22) were different from those of pigs reared in pens with arid environment (B lot, n: 17) in shelter and when the movement to be loaded. Pigs of B lot spent more time on the move (31%) compared to group A pigs (13%), and manifested more aggressive behavior when they were loaded. Salivary cortisol levels also showed high values for pigs in B lot after being removed from their growth environment, as compared to its concentration for A lot pigs. The enriched environment for pigs may determine different responses of behavior. Pigs raised in arid environment, were easier to loaded than pigs reared in enriched environment, but they responded to mixing and loading stress, through increases in cortisol concentrations and impaired behavioral manifestations.
Abstract: The mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance is crucial
for plants to survive in harsh condition and the knowledge of this
mechanism can be use to solve the problem of declining productivity
of plants or crops around the world. However in-depth description is
still unclear and it is argued, in particular that there is a relationship
between high salinity tolerance and the ability to tolerate high light
condition. In this study, Dunaliella salina, which can withstand high
salt was used as a model. Chlorophyll fluorometer for nonphotochemical
quenching (NPQ) measurement and high-performance
liquid chromatography for pigment determination was used. The
results show that NPQ value and the amount of pigment were
increased along with the levels of salinity. However, it establish a
clear relationship between high salt and high light but the further
study to optimized the solutions mentioned above is still required.
Abstract: To evaluate genetic variation of wheat (Triticum
aestivum) affected by heat and drought stress on eight Australian
wheat genotypes that are parents of Doubled Haploid (HD) mapping
populations at the vegetative stage, the water stress experiment was
conducted at 65% field capacity in growth room. Heat stress
experiment was conducted in the research field under irrigation over
summer. Result show that water stress decreased dry shoot weight
and RWC but increased osmolarity and means of Fv/Fm values in all
varieties except for Krichauff. Krichauff and Kukri had the
maximum RWC under drought stress. Trident variety was shown
maximum WUE, osmolarity (610 mM/Kg), dry mater, quantum yield
and Fv/Fm 0.815 under water stress condition. However, the
recovery of quantum yield was apparent between 4 to 7 days after
stress in all varieties. Nevertheless, increase in water stress after that
lead to strong decrease in quantum yield. There was a genetic
variation for leaf pigments content among varieties under heat stress.
Heat stress decreased significantly the total chlorophyll content that
measured by SPAD. Krichauff had maximum value of Anthocyanin
content (2.978 A/g FW), chlorophyll a+b (2.001 mg/g FW) and
chlorophyll a (1.502 mg/g FW). Maximum value of chlorophyll b
(0.515 mg/g FW) and Carotenoids (0.234 mg/g FW) content
belonged to Kukri. The quantum yield of all varieties decreased
significantly, when the weather temperature increased from 28 ÔùªC to
36 ÔùªC during the 6 days. However, the recovery of quantum yield
was apparent after 8th day in all varieties. The maximum decrease
and recovery in quantum yield was observed in Krichauff. Drought
and heat tolerant and moderately tolerant wheat genotypes were
included Trident, Krichauff, Kukri and RAC875. Molineux, Berkut
and Excalibur were clustered into most sensitive and moderately
sensitive genotypes. Finally, the results show that there was a
significantly genetic variation among the eight varieties that were
studied under heat and water stress.
Abstract: Based on an analysis of the mechanism of degradation of optical characteristics of the ZnO-pigmented white paint by electron irradiation, a model of single molecular color centers is built. An equation that explains the relationship between the changes of variation of the ZnO-pigmented white paint-s spectrum absorptance and electron fluence is derived. The uncertain parameters in the equation can be calculated using the curve fitting by experimental data. The result indicates that the model can be applied to predict the degradation of optical characteristics of ZnO-pigmented white paint by electron radiation.
Abstract: The production of glass, ceramic materials and many non-ferrous metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, etc.), ferrous metals (pig iron) and others is connected with the use of a considerable number of initial solid raw materials. Before carrying out the basic technological processes (oxidized roasting, melting, agglomeration, baking) it is necessary to mix and homogenize the raw materials that have different chemical and phase content, granulometry and humidity. For this purpose zinc sulfide concentrates differing in origin are studied for their more complete characteristics using chemical, X-ray diffraction analyses, DTA and TGA as well as Mössbauer spectroscopy. The phases established in most concentrates are: β-ZnS, mZnS.nFeS, FeS2, CuFeS2, PbS, SiO2 (α-quartz). With the help of the developed by us a Web-based information system for a continued period of time different mix proportions from zinc concentrates are calculated and used in practice (roasting in fluidized bed reactor), which have to conform to the technological requirements of the zinc hydrometallurgical technological scheme.
Abstract: The use of machine vision to inspect the outcome of
surgical tasks is investigated, with the aim of incorporating this
approach in robotic surgery systems. Machine vision is a non-contact
form of inspection i.e. no part of the vision system is in direct contact
with the patient, and is therefore well suited for surgery where
sterility is an important consideration,. As a proof-of-concept, three
primary surgical tasks for a common neurosurgical procedure were
inspected using machine vision. Experiments were performed on
cadaveric pig heads to simulate the two possible outcomes i.e.
satisfactory or unsatisfactory, for tasks involved in making a burr
hole, namely incision, retraction, and drilling. We identify low level
image features to distinguish the two outcomes, as well as report on
results that validate our proposed approach. The potential of using
machine vision in a surgical environment, and the challenges that
must be addressed, are identified and discussed.
Abstract: Using DNA microarrays the comparative analysis of a
gene expression profiles is carried out in a liver and kidneys of pigs.
The hypothesis of a cross hybridization of one probe with different
cDNA sites of the same gene or different genes is checked up, and it
is shown, that cross hybridization can be a source of essential errors
at revealing of a key genes in organ-specific transcriptome. It is
reveald that distinctions in profiles of a gene expression are well coordinated
with function, morphology, biochemistry and histology of
these organs.