Determination of energy content of feeds

In nutrition studies it is often necessary to know the calorific value of the feed, faeces and flesh. These values are necessary to compute-the energy budget and to determine the efficiencies of absorption and conversion. In nutrition requirement studies it is essential that the test diets be isocalorific. Therefore determining the energy content of feeds, and its components is one of the basic techniques used in nutrition studie

Impact Assessment of African Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer: Synthesis of Findings and Lessons Learned

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Downloads July 2008 - June 2009: 13,

Determination of gross energy of feeds

The amount of heat, measured in calories, that is released when a substance is completely oxidized in a bomb calorimeter containing 25 to 30 atmospheres of oxygen, is called the gross energy (GE) of the substance. A sample of the material to be tested is weighed into a combustion capsule. The combustion capsule is placed in an oxygen bomb containing 25 to 30 atmospheres of oxygen. The oxygen bomb is covered with 2000 g of water in an adiabatic calorimeter. After the bomb and calorimeter have been adjusted to the same temperature, the sample is Ignited with a fuse wire. The temperature rise is measured under adiabatic conditions. From the hydrothermal equivalent of the calorimeter the temperature rise minus some small corrections for fuse wire oxidation and acid production, the caloric content of the sample is calculated

Ultrastructure of egg membrane of rohu (Labeo rohita)

The fine structure of the egg envelope and micropyle of unfertilised spawned eggs of rohu (Labeo rohita) was observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The outer surface showed regularly arranged pores (dia. 0.20 - 0.25 μm) but was devoid of any filaments, fibrils or wrinkles. The micropyle was funnel shaped which exibited an outer pit (10 μm dia.) narrowing into a distinct canal (4.5 μm dia.). The larger diameter of the micropylar canal in comparison with the sperm head size of rohu and some other cyprinids make intergeneric and interspecific hybridisation easy in rohu

Fine structural changes of Rohu (Labeo rohita) sperm after dilution with cryoprotectants

Spermatozoa of rohu (Labeo rohita) were diluted in two cryodiluents and fine structural changes were investigated. Damages were observed in head, mid-piece and tail of about 51% spermatozoa immediately after dilution in one of the cryodiluents. After 10 minutes of equilibration period, the frequency of damaged sperms increased to 85%. The other diluent did not exhibit signif~cant structural changes unlike the former one and nearly 60% sperms remained visibly intact even after 10 minutes of equilibration time. The present investigation points out (1) diluents inhibiting sperm motility alone need not always be ideal for a species and (2) usefulness of ultrastructural images of fish sperms in determining the fertilizing ability of milt and in preliminary screening and selection of cryodiluents for deepfreezing programmes

Methodology of nutritional bioenergetics - An outline

Nutritional bioenergetics, the study of transformation and partitioning of food energy offers a conceptional framework to anabolism and catabolism. while the rate of transfer can be expressed as dB/dt, the whole process can be expressed in the form of a simplified equation, which is also known as energy budget

Esterases in Indian major carps - 'Rohu' (Labeo rohita) and 'Mrigal' (Cirrhinus mrigala) (Teleostei, Cyprinidae)

Soluble esterases of rohu and mrigal were characterised by electrophoresis using different substrates and inhibitors. Four separable regions of esterolytic activity were observed in liver, brain and white muscle extracts of rohu and in three regions in mrigal, with liver of both species exhibiting maximum number of bands. Species-specific differences were observed in some of the regions. Striking substrate-specific reactions were not observed but based on sensitivity to inhibitors, the liver esterases of both species were classified into aryl, carboxyl, choline, ER and Esdp esterases

Concepts in marine biotechnology and their applications for enhancing aquaculture productivity

Application of biotechnology techniques to agriculture increased the quality and quantity of the final yield. Genetic engineering applied to the production of fish, molluscs and crustaceans although at the rudimentary stage offers promise. Besides, other techniques like tissue culture, chromosomal engineering, cryopreservation of embryos, and production of transgenic organisms also offer immense scope to expand and improve aquaculture operations

A 3D Morphable Model learnt from 10,000 faces

We present Large Scale Facial Model (LSFM) — a 3D Morphable Model (3DMM) automatically constructed from 9,663 distinct facial identities. To the best of our knowledge LSFM is the largest-scale Morphable Model ever constructed, containing statistical information from a huge variety of the human population. To build such a large model we introduce a novel fully automated and robust Morphable Model construction pipeline. The dataset that LSFM is trained on includes rich demographic information about each subject, allowing for the construction of not only a global 3DMM but also models tailored for specific age, gender or ethnicity groups. As an application example, we utilise the proposed model to perform age classification from 3D shape alone. Furthermore, we perform a systematic analysis of the constructed 3DMMs that showcases their quality and descriptive power. The presented extensive qualitative and quantitative evaluations reveal that the proposed 3DMM achieves state-of-the-art results, outperforming existing models by a large margin. Finally, for the benefit of the research community, we make publicly available the source code of the proposed automatic 3DMM construction pipeline. In addition, the constructed global 3DMM and a variety of bespoke models tailored by age, gender and ethnicity are available on application to researchers involved in medically oriented research

Impact of homestead farming system on rural economy: A study in South 24 Pargana district of West Bengal

Development of homestead farming system (HFS) has the potential for poverty alleviation in states like West Bengal since irrespective of the land holding size, most of the households in the coastal region of West Bengal, have a small piece of land adjacent to their dwelling where some kind of homestead farming is carried out using the indigenous knowledge. HFS is mainly a need-oriented, self- provisioning, integrated, multi-species, economically sustainable and environmentally safe farming system around the house where the soil is enriched by homemade biological formulations and integrated farming is undertaken. This system allows year round cultivation of different agricultural products (horticulture, aquaculture, timber, etc.)which can provide either a source of additional income to the households or function as an alternative livelihood especailly for the women members of the household. In order to understand the contribution of HFS to household income and to devise ways to maximise returns from HFS, a survey was conducted covering 480 households in three blocks (Kakdwip, Namkhana and Sagar) of South 24 parganas district of West Bengal