Growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality and composition in pigs fed diets supplemented with medicinal plants (Bindens pilosa L., Urena lobata L. and Ramulus cinnamomi) powder

peer reviewedThe study was conducted to assess the effects of medicinal plants powder (MP) (60% Bindens pilosa L., 30% Urena lobata L. and 10% Ramulus cinnamomi) as a feed additive to promote growth performance and improve meat quality in pigs. Seventy-two crossbred pigs [Duroc × (Landrace × Yorkshire)], initial body weight 30.3 ± 1.66 kg, were randomly divided into 4 dietary groups, 3 replicates of 6 pigs each. Each group was randomly allocated to one of four dietary treatments: a basal diet (control diet, T0) and three experimental diets (T20, T40 and T60) based on T0 diet supplemented with MP at 20, 40 and 60 g/kg of feed. The experiment lasted for 14 weeks, including 2 periods of feeding programmes (weeks 0–7 and 7–14). A reduced average daily feed intake (linear, P = 0.01) and a decreased trend in average daily gain (ADG) (linear, P = 0.08) were observed in pigs fed diets with 40 and 60 g/kg MP in comparison to the control diet in weeks 0–7. There was no statistical difference in ADG and feed conversion ratio between treatments over the entire trial period. Dietary MP supplementation decreased backfat thickness (quadratic, P = 0.04) and cholesterol content (linear, P = 0.02; quadratic, P = 0.01) in meat. The sensory quality of cooked meat was improved (P < 0.0001) by the inclusion of MP. So, dietary MP supplementation could have the potential to improve sensory quality and decrease backfat thickness and cholesterol content in meat without a negative effect on growth rate of pigs and technological quality of pork.2. Zero hunger1. No povert

Integrated Tunable Phase Shifter Based on Energy-Conserved Phase Amplification and Its Application for RF-OAM Generation

Photonics-assisted microwave phase shifter is one of the essential components in communications. Phase amplification is a promising technology which efficiently enables compact photonics-assisted microwave phase shifter. Based on vector sum, the phase shift can be translated from amplitude attenuation to phase amplification. This issues an additional optical energy consumption and even more the highly dependent signal to noise ratio of phase-shifted microwave signal. In this paper, we propose an energy-conserved phase amplification concept to address this issue. Furthermore, based on this concept, we demonstrate a microwave photonic phase shift system with an integrated chip incorporating an arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) structure. A multichannel continuous 360° phase shift over a frequency range of 12 GHz–20 GHz can be achieved by changing the optical carrier wavelength. Taking advantages of phase modulator and AWG structure, a reliable and efficient phase shifter for beam steering and orbital angular momentum (OAM) generation system can be realized without any other active device. The simulation results of OAM purity test show that better OAM beams can be obtained with the proposed phase shifter. This integration method has great potential in RF OAM generation and multiplexing system to improve the signal quality and reduce the system complexity

Tobasco: an innovative approach for upgrading CATV fiber-coax networks for broadband interactive services

To introduce broadband interactive services in a fiber-coax CATV network with high splitting ratio, a high-density wavelength multiplexing upgrading strategy in combination with conventional TDMA techniques is presented. It features flexible network reconfiguration via wavelength reassignment at the fiber terminating network units, a high interactive services capacity per user, and improved network scalability