Method of Reducing Odor Associated with Hexanal Production in Plant Products

A method of reducing the formation of hexanal by plant parts comprises breaking the plant parts, adding thereto an agent comprising lipoxygenase 3 enzyme and allowing the plant parts to remain in contact with the enzyme under conditions effective to attain the desired effect. A method of producing a low odor plant part meal or flour comprises breaking up the plant parts, adding an agent with lipoxygenase 3 enzyme and allowing the plant parts to remain in contact with the enzyme under conditions effective to attain the desired effect. An improved composition comprises a hexanal producing plant part meal or flour and an agent with lipoxygenase 3 enzyme which is substantially devoid of lipoxygenase enzyme 1 and 2 activities, optionally with other edible ingredients such as other low-hexanal producing flours. Improved edible products are produced using the invention which have less objectionable odor and flavor. This invention facilitates better tailoring of the flavor of food products to the desires of the consumers

High-Rate Solid-Liquid Separation Coupled With Nitrogen and Phosphorous Treatment of Swine Manure: Effect on Ammonia Emission

A new treatment system was developed to meet multiple environmental performance standards including to substantially reduce ammonia emissions. It was tested full-scale for 2-years in a 5,145-head finishing swine farm with two anaerobic lagoons. The system combined high-rate solid-liquid separation with nitrogen and phosphorus removal processes. Both vertical radial plum mapping (VRPM) and floating static chamber techniques were used to measure NH3 emission fluxes from anaerobic storage lagoons and the total farm-level NH3 emission rates. The VRPM used an open-path tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDL) and the flux chamber used a photoacoustic gas analyzer to accurately measure NH3 concentration. After the treatment system started, one of the two lagoons became inactive without receiving anymore flushed manure. The ammonia emission flux from the other lagoon with the treated effluent decreased from 43.9 to 6.8 kg-N ha−1 d−1 1.5 years after implementation of the new treatment system. The NH3 emission flux from the inactive lagoon also decreased similarly because the already stored old manure of the lagoon prior to inactivation was diluted with rainfalls and lost some NH3 via volatilization. The total farm-level NH3 emission rates decreased from 1.72 g s−1 to below detection level of the VRPM technique. Using the minimum detection level of the TDL with R2 > 90% (i.e., 8.1 8.1 μL L−1-m), the total farm-level NH3 emission rates in the second year were less than 0.04–0.15 g s−1. These results suggested that the impact of the new treatment system on NH3 emission reduction was equivalent to closing conventional swine lagoons while actively growing 5,145 pigs with minimal ammonia emissions from the farm

Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Waste Lagoon

A cost-effective approach was used to investigate the relationship between emission of the greenhouse gases (GHG), namely, CO2, CH4, and N2O and energy fluxes from a swine waste lagoon. Energy fluxes were calculated using the Penman method. The energy fluxes showed a diurnal pattern as expected of such fluxes. We found that air temperature and latent energy, lagoon surface temperature and solar radiation, as well as air temperature and wind speed can be used to predict for CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions, respectively. Comparison of observed and predicted emissions provided r2 values of 0.49, 0.61, and 0.69 for CH4, N2O, and CO2, respectively. This research shows that long-term studies of GHG emissions and meteorological conditions are necessary to better understand the factors controlling the emissions of GHG in order to devise best management practices (BMP) for their control

Simple Sugars Alter the Odorant Composition of Dairy Cow Manure

A study was conducted to determine if the odor profile of Bos taurus manure could be altered by the addition of the simple saccharides glucose, lactose, and sucrose. Sucrose was added to manure slurry at 0, 12.5, 25, 50, or 125 g L−1, while glucose and lactose were added at 0, 6.45, 13.2, 26.4, or 65.8 g L−1. One hundred mL slurries were incubated in capped bottles at 30 °C for four weeks. Biogas production was measured throughout the incubations, and the pH and concentrations of short-chain fatty acids were measured at the end of the incubations. Odor compounds of the final manure slurries were isolated by stir bar sorptive extraction and identified by stir bar gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. Unamended manure had high concentrations of the typical manure malodorants phenol, p-cresol, p-ethylphenol, indole, and skatole. The addition of the sugars decreased these malodors in a dose-dependent manner. The addition of sugars shifted odor production to aliphatic esters including ethyl butyrate and propyl propanoate. The sugar-amended manure therefore had a different odor profile than the unamended manure did. The addition of sugar also caused the accumulation of short-chain fatty acids and, thus, decreased the pH of the manure. The production of lactic acid was particularly enhanced at high concentrations of sugar, suggesting that lactic acid bacteria could be responsible for changes in the odor profile. Future research will investigate if the addition of lesser concentrations of sugars or agricultural and food wastes rich in carbohydrates can reduce manure malodor

A Gas Chromatographic Method for the Determination of Bicarbonate and Dissolved Gases

A gas chromatographic method for the rapid determination of aqueous carbon dioxide and its speciation into solvated carbon dioxide and bicarbonate is presented. One-half mL samples are injected through a rubber septum into 20-mL vials that are filled with 9.5 mL of 0.1 N HCl. A one mL portion of the headspace is withdrawn and injected onto a gas chromatograph equipped with a thermal conductivity detector. Using the dimensionless Henry's constant for carbon dioxide and an adaptation of the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, carbon dioxide in the samples can be categorized among solvated, bicarbonate, and carbonate forms. Natural water samples as well as wastewater from a municipal sewage treatment plant and a swine rearing operation were analyzed by this method and the results compared favorably to those obtained by titration. Samples stored for up to 5 weeks showed no significant changes in carbon dioxide concentrations. In addition, using flame ionization and electron capture detectors, methane and nitrous oxide concentrations in the samples were also measured

Data from: Personality remains: no effect of 3-week social status experience on personality in male fowl

Individuals often differ in behavior in a consistent way, i.e. show variation in personality. Understanding the processes explaining the emergence and maintenance of this variation is a major topic in the field of animal behavioral research. Recent theoretical models predict that differences in various 'states' can generate individual variation in behavior. Previous studies have mainly focused on endogenous states like metabolic rate or energy reserves, but theory also suggests that states based on social interactions could play important roles in shaping personality. We have earlier demonstrated short-term status-dependent variation in behavior in the domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus), but whether such behavioral variation remains also after a longer period of time, is unknown. Therefore, we examine the influence of social status on variation in behavior, using experimental manipulation of social status in pairs of male domestic fowl. We scored males in three personality assays (novel arena test, novel object test aggression test) before and after three weeks in pairs as either dominant or subordinate. We observed individual consistency of behavior despite alteration of social status. We further found no support for social status acting as a state that generates variation in personality over the used time interval: social status had no significant effect on the change in behavioral responses between repeated personality tests. Our results suggest that personality is more important than current social situation for describing individual behavior in stable groups