Hepatoprotective Effects of Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) Seed Cakes during the Chicken Broiler Fattening

The objective of this work was to verify the hepatoprotective effects of Silybum marianum seed cakes in feed mixtures used for the fattening of chicken broilers to heavier weights. Part of the experiment was to verify the preventive effect of such modified feed mixtures with the use of chlortetracycline medication. The experiment was carried out on 180 ROSS 308 broiler chickens. The chickens were fed complete feed mixtures containing 0.0% (K), 0.2% (P1 and 1.0% (P2) of Silybum marianum seed cakes. The cakes used contained 2.95% of silymarin. On the 44th day of fattening half of the chickens from every group were supplied with chlortetracycline medicated water at a dose of 2 g kg1 live weight. The selected biochemical indices were observed: cholesterol (Chol), glutamyl transferase (GMT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). On the 52nd day of the test, six chickens from each group were euthanized and their liver was taken for histological examination. Adding Silybum marianum seed cakes resulted in a non-significant decrease in the chickens' live weight and in the feed conversion in both experimental groups compared to the control group. The cholesterol levels were highly significantly lower (p p p p p p p < 0.01) the content of lipids and increased the content of glycogen in the liver of both experimental groups

A DNA-barcode biodiversity standard analysis method (DNA-BSAM) reveals a large variance in the effect of a range of biological, chemical and physical soil management interventions at different sites, but location is one of the most important aspects determining the nature of agricultural soil microbiology

There are significant knowledge gaps in our understanding of how to sustainably manage agricultural soils to preserve soil biodiversity. Here we evaluate and quantify the effects of agricultural management and location on soil microbiology using nine field trials that have consistently applied different soil management practices in the United Kingdom using DNA barcode sequence data. We tested the basic hypothesis that various agricultural management interventions have a significant and greater effect on soil bacterial and fungal diversity than geographic location. The analyses of soil microbial DNA sequence data to date has lacked standardisation which prevents meaningful comparisons across sites and studies. Therefore, to analyse these data and crucially compare and quantify the size of any effects on soil bacterial and fungal biodiversity between sites, we developed and employed a post-sequencing DNA-barcode biodiversity standard analysis method (DNA-BSAM). The DNA-BSAM comprises a series of standardised bioinformatic steps for processing sequences but more importantly defines a standardised set of ecological indices and statistical tests. Use of the DNA-BSAM reveals the hypothesis was not strongly supported, and this was primarily because: 1) there was a large variance in the effects of various management interventions at different sites, and 2) that location had an equivalent or greater effect size than most management interventions for most metrics. Some dispersed sites imposed the same organic amendments interventions but showed different responses, and this combined with observations of strong differences in soil microbiomes by location tentatively suggests that any effect of management may be contingent on location. This means it could be unreliable to extrapolate the findings of individual trials to others. The widespread use of a standard approach will allow meaningful cross-comparisons between soil microbiome studies and thus a substantial evidence-base of the effects of land-use on soil microbiology to accumulate and inform soil management decisions.Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB); British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Solution of hydrogen in accident tolerant fuel candidate material: U₃Si₂

Hydrogen uptake and accommodation into U 3 Si 2 , a candidate accident-tolerant fuel system, has been modelled on the atomic scale using the density functional theory. The solution energy of multiple H atoms is computed, reaching a stoichiometry of U 3 Si 2 H 2 which has been experimentally observed in previous work (reported as U 3 Si 2 H 1.8 ). The absorption of hydrogen is found to be favourable up to U 3 Si 2 H 2 and the associated volume change is computed, closely matching experimental data. Entropic effects are considered to assess the dissociation temperature of H 2 , estimated to be at ∼800 K – again in good agreement with the experimentally observed transition temperature

Hydrogen absorption in RE₂T₂In compounds

RE2T2In compounds (RE = rare earth, T is a late transition metal) were found, depending on the composition, absorbing different amounts of H. Several types of reaction of crystal structure have been found. Mere volume expansion, analogous to U2T2X compounds, was found e.g. in Tb2Pd2In, allowing to accommodate up to 2 H atoms/f.u. (one formula unit comprises 2 RE atoms). More dramatic structure modifications are required, to keep the H–H spacing higher than 2.1 Å, for higher H absorption. One type of reaction is amorphization, observed in La2Pd2In. Other type was observed in Nd2Ni2In, undergoing an orthorhombic distortion and forming four different H sites. The volume expansion exceeds 23%

Characterization of Defects in Titanium Created by Hydrogen Charging

Hydrogen interaction with vacancies in α-Ti was investigated employing positron lifetime spectroscopy combined with ab initio theoretical modeling of vacancy-hydrogen complexes. Ab initio modeling revealed that multiple hydrogen atoms up to 7 can be trapped at vacancies in the α-Ti lattice. Trapped H atoms are located close to the nearest neighbor tetrahedral sites around the centre of vacancy. Lifetimes of positrons trapped at vacancies associated with various numbers of hydrogen atoms were calculated. Positron lifetime measurement of H-loaded α-Ti samples revealed that phase transition into the hydride phase introduced dislocations. Vacancies were created by H loading as well and agglomerated into small vacancy clusters