The effects of heat stress on the behaviour of dairy cows – a review

Heat stress in livestock is a function of macro- A nd microclimatic factors, their duration and intensity, the environments where they occur and the biological characteristics of the animal. Due to intense metabolic processes, high-producing dairy cows are highly vulnerable to the effects of heat stress. Disturbances in their thermoregulatory capability are reflected by behavioural, physiological and production changes. Expression of thermoregulatory behaviour such as reduction of activity and feed intake, searching for cooler places or disturbances in reproductive behaviours may be very important indicators of animal welfare. Especially maintenance of standing or lying position in dairy cattle may be a valuable marker of the negative environmental impact. Highly mechanized farms with large numbers of animals have the informatic system that can detect alterations automatically, while small family farms cannot afford this type of equipment. Therefore, observing and analysing behavioural changes to achieve a greater understanding of heat stress issue may be a key factor for developing the effective strategies to minimize the effects of heat stress in cattle. The aim of this review is to present the state of knowledge, over the last years, regarding behavioural changes in dairy cows (Bos taurus) exposed to heat stress conditions and discuss some herd management strategies providing mitigation of the overheat consequences

Effective properties of periodic fibrous electro-elastic composites with mechanic imperfect contact condition

International audienceIn this work, two-phase parallel fiber-reinforced periodic piezoelectric composites are considered wherein the constituents exhibit transverse isotropy and the cells have different configurations. Mechanical imperfect contact at the interface of the composites is studied via linear spring model. The statement of the problem for two phase piezoelectric composites with mechanical imperfect contact is given. The local problems are formulated by means of the asymptotic homogenization method (AHM) and their solutions are found using complex variable theory. Analytical formulae are obtained for the effective properties of the composites with spring imperfect type of contact and different parallelogram cells. Some numerical examples and comparisons with other theoretical results illustrate that the model is efficient for the analysis of composites with presence of parallelogram cells and the aforementioned imperfect contact

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Use of Different Cooling Methods in Pig Facilities to Alleviate the Effects of Heat Stress—A Review

An increase in the frequency of hot periods, which has been observed over the past decades, determines the novel approach to livestock facilities improvement. The effects of heat stress are revealed in disorders in physiological processes, impaired immunity, changes in behaviour and decreases in animal production, thus implementation of cooling technologies is a key factor for alleviating these negative consequences. In pig facilities, various cooling methods have been implemented. Air temperature may be decreased by using adiabatic cooling technology such as a high-pressure fogging system or evaporative pads. In modern-type buildings large-surface evaporative pads may support a tunnel ventilation system. Currently a lot of attention has also been paid to developing energy- and water-saving cooling methods, using for example an earth-air or earth-to-water heat exchanger. The pigs’ skin surface may be cooled by using sprinkling nozzles, high-velocity air stream or conductive cooling pads. The effectiveness of these technologies is discussed in this article, taking into consideration the indicators of animal welfare such as respiratory rate, skin surface and body core temperature, performance parameters and behavioural changes

Dynamics of Microclimate Conditions in Freestall Barns During Winter – a Case Study from Poland

The climate changes observed in recent years as an increase in the average air temperature influence the microclimatic conditions in dairy barns not only in summer but also in winter. The heat emitted by cows, the orientation of buildings to the cardinal points and farm layout have substantial effect and are additional factors influencing the microclimate in the barns with curtain sidewalls. The aim of the present studies was to determine the effect of atmospheric air temperature and relative humidity on the selected parameters of the indoor microclimate in two neighboring freestall barns in winter. The air temperature and relative humidity sensors were positioned in the barns (A, B) and outdoors. The obtained results were compared with each other. The indoor air temperature recorded in two barns was higher than the outdoor temperature by an average of 2.4°C and 2.8°C, respectively. The greatest difference between the average indoor and the outdoor air temperature was 4.9°C. Daily analysis indicated that in warm days, the patterns of the air temperature and relative humidity changes were similar in both barns. In turn, during cold days, when the outdoor air temperature was below 0°C, there was a difference in temperature between both barns, which could result from the position of the buildings towards cardinal points and the heat emitted by cattle influencing the air temperature in the barn. The points where the temperature difference was the highest were located in the leeward part of the building, which was additionally sunlit during the midday hours. Thus, it is recommended to estimate the airflow velocity and sun exposure in different zones of the barn. This would also help to establish the guidelines for the design of new barns in the context of architectural and spatial solutions

The effects of heat stress on the behaviour of dairy cows – a review

Heat stress in livestock is a function of macro- A nd microclimatic factors, their duration and intensity, the environments where they occur and the biological characteristics of the animal. Due to intense metabolic processes, high-producing dairy cows are highly vulnerable to the effects of heat stress. Disturbances in their thermoregulatory capability are reflected by behavioural, physiological and production changes. Expression of thermoregulatory behaviour such as reduction of activity and feed intake, searching for cooler places or disturbances in reproductive behaviours may be very important indicators of animal welfare. Especially maintenance of standing or lying position in dairy cattle may be a valuable marker of the negative environmental impact. Highly mechanized farms with large numbers of animals have the informatic system that can detect alterations automatically, while small family farms cannot afford this type of equipment. Therefore, observing and analysing behavioural changes to achieve a greater understanding of heat stress issue may be a key factor for developing the effective strategies to minimize the effects of heat stress in cattle. The aim of this review is to present the state of knowledge, over the last years, regarding behavioural changes in dairy cows (Bos taurus) exposed to heat stress conditions and discuss some herd management strategies providing mitigation of the overheat consequences

Soft and hard anisotropic interface in composite materials

International audienceFor a large class of composites, the adhesion at the fiber–matrix interface is imperfect i.e. the continuity conditions for displacements and often for stresses is not satisfied. In the present contribution, effective elastic moduli for this kind of composites are obtained by means of the Asymptotic Homogenization Method (AHM). Interaction between fiber and matrix is considered for linear elastic fibrous composites with parallelogram periodic cell. In this case, the contrast or jump in the displacements on the boundary of each phase is proportional to the corresponding component of the tension on the interface. A general anisotropic behavior of the interphase is assumed and the interface stiffnesses are explicitly given in terms of the elastic constants of the interphase. The constituents of the composites exhibit transversely isotropic properties. A doubly periodic parallelogram array of cylindrical inclusions is considered. Comparisons with theoretical and experimental results verified that the present model is efficient for the analysis of composites with presence of imperfect interface and parallelogram cell. The present method can provide benchmark results for other numerical and approximate methods

Analysis of fibrous elastic composites with nonuniform imperfect adhesion

International audienceIn most composites, the fiber–matrix adhesion is imperfect; the continuity conditions for stresses and displacements are not satisfied. In this contribution, effective elastic moduli are obtained by means of the asymptotic homogenization method (AHM), for three-phase fibrous composites (matrix/mesophase/fiber) with parallelogram periodic cell. Interaction between fiber and matrix is considered, and this is called the mesophase model where the nonuniform mesophase is studied. Besides, there is another type of matrix–fiber contact which is called nonuniform spring imperfect contact. In this case, the contrast or jump of the displacements in the boundary of each phase is proportional to the corresponding component of the tension in the interface in terms of a parameter given by a certain function that depends on the position. The constituents of the composites exhibit transversely isotropic properties. A doubly periodic parallelogram array of cylindrical inclusions under longitudinal shear is considered. The three-phase model is validated by the Finite Element Method and the AHM both approaches applied to two-phase composites with nonuniform spring imperfect contact. Comparisons with theoretical and experimental results verified that the present model is efficient for the analysis of composites with presence of nonuniform imperfect interface and parallelogram cell. The effect of the nonuniform imperfection on the shear effective property is observed. The present method can provide benchmark results for other numerical and approximate methods