A quality assurance technique for the static multileaf collimator mode based on intrinsic base lines

AbstractThe inspection of the static leaf positions of Multileaf Collimator (MLC) devices is essential for safe radiotherapy deliveries in both static and dynamic modes. The purpose of this study was to develop a robust, accurate and generic algorithm to measure the individual static MLC leaf positions. This was performed by extracting leaf tip locations from the radiographic film image and measuring their relative distance from a reference line on the film. The reference line was created with a selected set of MLC leaf sides. The film scaling was created and verified using the physical leaf width. The average measured distance corresponds to a leaf width of 10 mm was 9.95 ± 0.09 mm. The estimated reproducibility of the leaf tips location was ±0.26 mm. The code accuracy was checked by intentionally positioning set of leaves with small errors (1 mm), and the detected deviations from the expected positions ranged from −0.25 mm and +0.32 mm. The algorithm includes two self testing functions in order to detect failures of leaf positioning due to poor film quality and to avoid the potential systematic errors attributable to the improper collimator setting. The code is promising to be more efficient with Gafchromic and Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID)

Fennel seeds dietary inclusion as a sustainable approach to reduce methane production and improve nutrient utilization and ruminal fermentation

Ruminants are considered a major producer of methane (CH4). Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the ability of dry fennel seeds to affect in vitro gas production and fermentation. Fennel seeds were included at 0% (Control), 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% DM of a diet containing per kg DM: 500 g concentrate feed mixture, 400 g berseem hay, and 100 g of rice straw. The incubations lasted 48 h. Fennel seeds increased (P < 0.001) the asymptotic gas production and decreased its rate, while decreasing the production and proportion of CH4 (P < 0.05) and increased its rate. Moreover, fennel seed increased DM and neutral detergent fiber (P < 0.01) degradability, and increased total production of short-chain fatty acids, acetate, and propionate (P < 0.05). Compared to the control, fennel seeds increased (P < 0.01) metabolizable energy, partitioning factor, and microbial crude protein production. Overall, fennel seeds can be included up to 2% DM in ruminant diets as an environmentally friendly product in animal farming due to its ability to improve feed utilization, ruminal fermentation and while reducing CH4 production

Physical, metabolic, and microbial rumen development in goat kids: a review on the challenges and strategies of early weaning

The digestive system of newborn ruminant functions is similar to monogastric animals, and therefore milk flows into the abomasum instead of rumen for digestion. The rumen undergoes tremendous changes over time in terms of structure, function, and microbiome. These changes contribute to the smooth transition from the dependence on liquid diets to solid diets. Goat kids are usually separated at early ages from their dams in commercial intensive systems. The separation from dams minimizes the transfer of microbiota from dams to newborns. In this review, understanding how weaning times and methodologies could affect the normal development and growth of newborn goats may facilitate the development of new feeding strategies to control stress in further studies

A Proposed Collocational Marker for the Computational Identification of Metaphor: The Case of Metaphor in the Ever-Glorious Qur’ān

The present paper is a corpus-based study that proposes a collocational criterion to computationally identify metaphor with special reference to metaphor in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān. The study draws on studies on metaphors in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān, the conceptual theory of metaphor (1980), studies on collocations as well as computational studies of metaphor, in general, to finally arrive at a collocational marker for metaphoricity toward a computational identification of metaphor in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān. The study adopts a quantitative as well as a qualitative approach in investigating and analyzing metaphors in the corpus to contribute to the input of computer software for identifying metaphor candidates (i.e., lexical items that are likely to have been used metaphorically). The corpus of the study is two surahs from the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān, namely Sūrat Yūsuf and Sūrat Ar-Rā’d. The manual identification of metaphors on the two Sūrahs of the study is achieved by referring to authentic exegeses of the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān and interpreting the meanings of the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān. The paper ends by suggesting a collocational marker for metaphors in the Ever-Glorious Qur'ān, which could be adopted and applied to other corpora

MEANING AS A MARKER OF METAPHORICITY TOWARDS A COMPUTATIONAL IDENTIFICATION OF METAPHOR IN THE EVER-GLORIOUS QUR’ĀN

This work represents a novel direction for computational linguistics research on metaphor in the Ever-Glorious Qur’ān. The present study proposed a basic/non-basic meaning criterion as a marker for the computational identification of metaphor in the Ever-Glorious Qur’ān. The corpus was Sūrat Hūd, where manual identification for candidate metaphors was conducted by referring to four authentic exegeses, namely Tafsīr Aṭ-Ṭabarī (2010), Az-Zamakhshari (2007), Al-Qurṭubi (1964) and Ash-Sha’rāwi (1997) as well as Yūsuf ‘Ali interpretation of the meanings of the Ever-Glorious Qur’ān (1992). 22 metaphors were identified and classified based on the proposed semantic criterion. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, and candidates were classified into three categories depending on their meaning and their degree of metaphoricity. The study drew on the conceptual theory of metaphor by Lackoff Johnson (1980), studies on metaphors in the Ever-Glorious Qur’ān, as well as computational studies of metaphor, in general, to finally arrive at a criterion that describes the meaning of metaphor towards a computational identification of metaphors in the Ever-Glorious Qur’ān. The study proposed a software input to detect metaphors by identifying their semantic features

Age-related changes in blood biochemical composition of Hu sheep

The blood biochemical composition is indicative of the animal's performance and health status. This study evaluated the interaction between age and blood metabolites, immunoglobulins, hormones in Hu sheep. In total 30 male lambs between 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12 months (M) old were used in this study. The lambs were kept with their dams and offered the total mixed ration at 7 days of age, while at 55 days of age; the lambs were weaned and transferred to individual pens. The data were analysed using the one-way ANOVA procedure of SPSS and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient between blood parameters was calculated. The 2M old lambs had significantly lower (p < 0.05) blood biochemical parameters than 1M old lambs. However, these parameters were higher in the adult sheep except the blood glucose (GLU). In contrast, the blood albumin/globulin ratio and beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA) did not show significant differences. Moreover, positive correlations were observed between blood immunoglobulins, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), globulin (GLB), and blood total protein (TP). In addition, BHBA had a positive correlation with GLB and immunoglobulins. In addition, blood albumin (ALB) had a significant positive correlation with TP, GH, and IGF-1. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was between GLU and insulin. The investigation of blood biochemical parameters in sheep of different ages from 1 to 12M could be a reliable method to detect the metabolism status and health condition through the early stage of life. HIGHLIGHTS The reduction of blood metabolites, immunoglobulins, hormones at 2 M old lambs compared with 1 M old lambs due to the dietary changes from liquid to solid could challenges ruminant health. The improvements of blood biochemical profile correspond with the development of rumen and immune functions. This study may extend our knowledge about the blood biochemical profile in Hu sheep

Predicting the Digestive Tract Development and Growth Performance of Goat Kids Using Sigmoidal Models

The transition from monogastric to rumination stage is crucial in ruminants’ growth to avoid stressors—weaning and neonatal mortalities. Poor growth of the digestive tract could adversely affect the performance of the animal. Modeling informative growth curves is of great importance for a better understanding of the effective development pattern, in order to optimize feeding management system, and to achieve more production efficiency. However, little is known about the digestive tract growth curves. For this reason, one big goat farm of Laiwu black breed was chosen as a basis of this study. Forty-eight kids belonging to eight-time points (1, 7, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, and 84 d; 6 kids for each) were selected and slaughtered. The body weight, body size indices, rumen pH, and stomach parts were determined and fitted to the polynomial and sigmoidal models. In terms of goodness of fit criteria, the Gompertz model was the best model for body weight, body oblique length, tube, and rumen weight. Moreover, the Logistic model was the best model for carcass weight, body height, and chest circumference. In addition, the Quadratic model showed the best fit for dressing percentage, omasum weight, abomasum weight, and rumen volume. Moreover, the cubic model best fitted the ruminal pH and reticulum percentage. The Weibull model was the best model for the reticulum weight and omasum percentage, while the MMF model was the best model describing the growth of chest depth, rumen percentage, and abomasum percentage. The model parameters, R squared, inflection points, area under curve varied among the different dependent variables. The Pearson correlation showed that the digestive tract development was more correlated with age than body weight, but the other variables were more correlated with body weight than age. The study demonstrated the use of empirical sigmoidal and polynomial models to predict growth rates of the digestive tract at relevant age efficiently

Transcriptomic and metabolomic insights into the roles of exogenous β-hydroxybutyrate acid for the development of rumen epithelium in young goats

Beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA), as one of the main metabolic ketones in the rumen epithelium, plays critical roles in cellular growth and metabolism. The ketogenic capacity is associated with the maturation of rumen in young ruminants, and the exogenous BHBA in diet may promote the rumen development. However, the effects of exogenous BHBA on rumen remain unknown. This is the first study to investigate the mechanisms of BHBA on gene expression and metabolism of rumen epithelium using young goats as a model through multi-omics techniques. Thirty-two young goats were divided into control, low dose, middle dose, and high dose groups by supplementation of BHBA in starter (0, 3, 6, and 9 g/day, respectively). Results demonstrated the dietary of BHBA promoted the growth performance of young goats and increased width and length of the rumen papilla (P < 0.05). Hub genes in host transcriptome that were positively related to rumen characteristics and BHBA concentration were identified. Several upregulated hub genes including NDUFC1, NDUFB4, NDUFB10, NDUFA11 and NDUFA1 were enriched in the gene ontology (GO) pathway of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) activity, while ATP5ME, ATP5PO and ATP5PF were associated with ATP synthesis. RT-PCR revealed the expression of genes (HMGCS2, BDH1, SLC16A3, etc.) associated with lipolysis increased significantly by BHBA supplementation (P < 0.05). Metabolomics indicated that some metabolites such as glucose, palmitic acid, cortisol and capric acid were also increased (P < 0.05). This study revealed that BHBA promoted rumen development through altering NADH balance and accelerating lipid metabolism, which provides a theoretical guidance for the strategies of gastrointestinal health and development of young ruminants

Effects of Age and Dietary Factors on the Blood Beta-Hydroxybutyric Acid, Metabolites, Immunoglobulins, and Hormones of Goats

The study was aimed to examine the effects of age and dietary beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA) on blood BHBA and blood health indicators in goat kids. Thirty male goats of five ages (1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 months old) were selected for blood sampling to determine the influence of age. Another 64 goat kids (half males and half females) were weaned at 1 month old and fed with starter diets with control, low, medium, and high BHBA doses (0, 3, 6, and 9 g/animal/day, respectively). Six goats per treatment were selected for blood analysis at 2 and 3 months of age. There were significant effects (p < 0.01) of ages on the blood parameters of goat kids. The 6- and 12-month-old goats showed significantly lower blood total protein, globulin, BHBA, IgA, and IgM concentrations than did young goats, while they had a higher albumin-to-globulin ratio than young goats. The blood glucose decreased (p < 0.01) and IgG increased over time (p < 0.01). In blood, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) were lower (p < 0.01) at 1- and 3-month-old goats than 12-month-old goats. The high dietary BHBA improved (p < 0.05) the ratio of albumin to globulin of 2-month-old kids compared with control. The blood GH and IGF-I were lower (p < 0.01) in the medium BHBA dose at 2 months of age than control. These results suggested that age greatly impacted blood composition, especially around weaning, and dietary BHBA showed beneficial regulating effects on blood total protein level in young goats

Impact of dietary supplementation of β-hydroxybutyric acid on performance, nutrient digestibility, organ development and serum stress indicators in early-weaned goat kids

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of β-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA) on performance, nutrient digestibility, organ development, and serum composition in early-weaned goat kids. Sixty-four goat kids at 30 d of age were assigned to 4 treatments in a completely randomized design: 1) control (basal diet); 2) low (basal diet with 3 g/d per animal BHBA); 3) medium (basal diet with 6 g/d per animal BHBA; and 4) high (basal diet with 9 g/d per animal BHBA). Subsequently, 48 (6 kids per treatment) goat kids were randomly selected and slaughtered at 60 and 90 d of age. Compared with the control group, BHBA at low and high doses increased body weight (P < 0.05), average daily gain (P < 0.01), and average daily starter intake (P < 0.01). The BHBA improved organ development, especially at the lowest dose (P < 0.01). The digestibility of dry matter and crude protein increased with age (P < 0.05). However, BHBA did not affect nutrient digestibility. Compared with the control group, serum ceruloplasmin increased (P < 0.05) with high BHBA level at 90 d of age. However, the serum creatinine (P < 0.05) increased over time but was not affected by BHBA. The serum total antioxidant capacity and superoxide dismutase decreased with the high dose of BHBA at 90 d of age (P < 0.01). In contrast, the serum glutathione peroxidase and malondialdehyde increased with the high doses of BHBA (P < 0.01). Overall, low doses of BHBA were positive for growth performance, organ development, and health status against weaning stress. Whereas high doses of BHBA in the long term could negatively affect antioxidant status