Effect of supplementing azolla and empty pea pod on growth performance, blood biochemical metabolites and meat quality in White Pekin ducks

Strategic dietary inclusion of low cost plant derived protein source in duck feed is critical for sustainability of the duck farm. Empty pea pod and azolla are two promising protein sources used as animal feed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of supplementing dried and grounded azolla (AP) and empty pea pods (PP) on growth, blood biochemical metabolites and meat quality in white pekin ducks. A total of 90 white pekin ducklings were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups (Control, T1 and T2) comprising of three replicated pens. Inside each replicate pen, a total of 10 ducklings were housed under standard management practices. AP and PP was supplemented as top up feed @ 5% of basal diet to experimental birds under T1 and T2 groups, respectively from day 0 to 56. At the end of the trial (56 day), 3 birds from each pen were sampled for serum and breast muscle. Results reveled that AP and PP has significant influence on body growth. The effect on growth was in the order of: T2>T1>Control. It was also observed that PP had hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effect on ducks. However, AP and PP supplementation did not affect carcass traits, pH, cooking loss and Lipid Peroxidase Activity (TBA value) in duck meat.Thus, it could be concluded that supplementation of dried pea pods (PP) might be of great benefit to white pekin ducks as a source of cheap and unconventional protein

Application of radio frequency based digital thermometer for real-time monitoring of dairy cattle rectal temperature

Aim: Dairy cattle health monitoring program becomes vital for detecting the febrile conditions to prevent the outbreak of the animal diseases as well as ensuring the fitness of the animals that are directly affecting the health of the consumers. The aim of this study was to validate real-time rectal temperature (RT) data of radio frequency based digital (RFD) thermometer with RT data of mercury bulb (MB) thermometer in dairy cattle. Materials and Methods: Two experiments were conducted. In experiment I, six female Jersey crossbred cattle with a mean (±standard error of the mean) body weight of 534.83±13.90 kg at the age of 12±0.52 years were used to record RT for 2 h on empty stomach and 2 h after feeding at 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min using a RFD thermometer as well as a MB thermometer. In experiment II, six female Jersey crossbred cattle were further used to record RT for 2 h before exercise and 2 h after exercise at 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance with post hoc comparisons by Bonferroni test was done. Results: Real-time RT data recorded by RFD thermometer as well as MB thermometer did not differ (p>0.05) before and after feeding/exercise. An increase (p<0.05) in RT after feeding/exercise in experimental crossbred cattle was recorded by both RFD thermometer and MB thermometer. Conclusion: The results obtained in the present study suggest that the body temperature recordings from RFD thermometer would be acceptable and thus RFD thermometer could work well for monitoring real-time RT in cattle

Optical absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy of the growth of silver nanoparticles

Results obtained from the optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy experiments have shown the formation of excitons in the silver-exchanged glass samples. These findings are reported here for the first time. Further, we investigate the dramatic changes in the photoemission properties of the silver-exchanged glass samples as a function of postannealing temperature. Observed changes are thought to be due to the structural rearrangements of silver and oxygen bonding during the heat treatments of the glass matrix. In fact, photoelectron spectroscopy does reveal these chemical transformations of silver-exchanged soda glass samples caused by the thermal effects of annealing in a high vacuum atmosphere. An important correlation between temperature-induced changes of the PL intensity and thermal growth of the silver nanoparticles has been established in this Letter through precise spectroscopic studies.Comment: 15 pages,4 figures,PDF fil

Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction studies of lipid-peptide mixed monolayers during shear flow

Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXD) studies of monolayers of biomolecules at the air-water interface give quantitative information of in-plane packing, coherence lengths of the ordered diffracting crystalline domains and the orientation of hydrocarbon chains. Rheo-GIXD measurements revel quantitative changes in the monolayer under shear. Here we report GIXD studies of monolayers of Alamethicin peptide, DPPC lipid and their mixtures at the air-water interface under the application of steady shear stresses. The Alamethicin monolayer and the mixed monolayer show flow jamming transition. On the other hand, pure DPPC monolayer under the constant stress flows steadily with a notable enhancement of area/molecule, coherence length, and the tilt angle with increasing stress, suggesting fusion of nanocrystallites during flow. The DPPC-Alamethicin mixed monolayer shows no significant change in the area/DPPC molecule or in the DPPC chain tilt but the coherence length of both phases (DPPC and Alamethicin) increases suggesting that the crystallites of individual phases are merging to bigger size promoting more separation of phases in the system during flow. Our results show that Rheo-GIXD has the potential to explore in-situ molecular structural changes under rheological conditions for a diverse range of confined biomolecules at the interfaces.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, 2 table