Bioelectrical impedance analysis for the prediction of fat-free mass in buffalo calf

The objective of this study has been to develop a prediction equation of fat-free mass (FFM) from buffalo calves. Twenty buffaloes were fed ad libitum access at unifeed , with vitamin–mineral integration, for 14 months. Seven days before slaughtering, the animals were weighed and bioelectrical impedance measurements were collected. The data were analyzed by multiple linear regressions to evaluate the relationship between FFM and various predictor variables. Stepwise regression was used to eliminate variables that did not influence variation in the model. The value of resistance collected showed a decrease when the electrical frequency increases, while the values of reactance (Xc) increase. When using live weight (LW) and reactance at 500 and at 1000 kHz as independent variables, we obtained the best R 2 Adj (0.967) and Durbin Watson statistic (2.596) that explain the prediction model (FFM = − 30.59 + 0.993LW + 0.150Xc 500 − 0.123Xc 1000 + 9.11). These results indicate that the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis has excellent potential as a rapid method, with minimal perturbation for the animal, to predict FFM in buffalo

Genetic and Phenotypic Analysis of Meat Quality Traits in Buffalo Beef and Correlations to Carcass Composition

Abstract: Meat quality traits in buffalo beef were examined and their genetic parameters and genetic correlations to carcass composition were estimated. Dissection was performed on 40 buffalo beef carcasses and all traits recorded for each animal, as well as the weight on muscle lungissimus dorsi (LD). The temperature and pH were recorded at 1 and 48h post-slaughter. Intramuscular fat, protein, dry matter, meat colour (redness, a*, yellowness b* and lightness L*) were recorded. Hereditability estimates ranged from 0.12 and 0.99 for dissection traits and 0.61 and 0.68 for meat quality traits, which was significant for all traits except for ultimate pH and b*. Genetic correlation with L* were negative for a* and high and positive for b*. Intramuscular fat was moderate to highly genetically correlated to the a*, b* and half hot carcass weight. The not significant genetic correlation found between several of the meat quality traits, and between meat quality traits and carcasses composition traits, suggests that the meat quality traits analyzed should be implemented into breeding programme with care since their full effect on the other traits under selection cannot be accurately estimated. For more accurate estimates, further studies that especially include a large number of records for colour meat measures are needed

Low-Frequency Noise Characterization of Ultra-shallow Gate N-channel Junction Field Effect Transistors

A recently developed technique for ultra shallow pn junction formation has been applied for the fabrication of ring-gate n-channel junction field effect devices (JFET) devices. Several different geometries, gate formation parameters and channel doping profiles have been realized and characterized with respect to I-V and C-V characteristics both on wafer and after packaging. Low-frequency noise measurements have been performed on packaged devices by mean of a cross-correlation scheme. Data have been compared both with that of similar devices fabricated in a standard process and with simulations results. The devices show good DC performance, and the transconductance values achieved, with respect of the channel dimensions, are notably high. No G-R noise was detected, but the devices yielded a high flicker noise component. This phenomenon is shown to be neither correlated to the device area nor to incidental trapping levels at the junction interface. It is therefore assumed that perimeter effects are decisive for the enhancement of the 1/f spectrum

CardNutri:A Software of Weekly Menus Nutritional Elaboration for Scholar Feeding Applying Evolutionary Computation

This paper aims to present and evaluate a software that uses an evolutionary strategy to design weekly nutritional menus for School Feeding. The software ensures the nutritional needs of students and also minimizes the total cost of the menu. We based our nutritional needs on the Brazilian National School Feeding Programme (PNAE). This program takes into account: (i) the age of the student; (ii) some preparations issues as color, consistency and, variety; and also (iii) the maximum amount to be paid per meal. Our software generates, in less than five minutes, a set of menus, and the nutritionist can choose the menu that suits his/her best. We evaluate our algorithm using the Weighted-Sum approach, and our results show that the obtained 5-days menus using the proposed methodology not only comply with the restrictions imposed by the authorities but also produce inexpensive and healthy menus. We also appraise the software itself using an opinion pool among nine nutritionists. The professionals considered our software above expectations

A strategy for clustering students minimizing the number of bus stops for solving the school bus routing problem

In this work we tackle the bus stop selection step for the School Bus Routing Problem (SBRP). Our goal is to minimize the number of bus stops in order to assign all students to a bus stop respecting a home-to-bus-stop walking distance constraint. Our strategy creates a large number of possible bus stops points in a road network and uses a pseudo-random constructive heuristic algorithm to assign students to a bus stops. Our approach is tested on a real georeferenced data of a Brazilian city and is compared with a different methodology. Results demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to find good solutions for this optimization problem. Besides, the higher the number of possible points to install bus stops, the smaller is the number of bus stops required to attend all students

A GRASP-based heuristic for allocating the roadside infrastructure maximizing the number of distinct vehicles experiencing contact opportunities

In this work the allocation of Roadside Units (RSUs) in a V2I network is modeled as a Maximum Coverage Problem. The main objective is to maximize the number of distinct vehicles contacting the infrastructure. Two different approaches are presented to solve the problem. The first one is an ILP model that can found optimal solutions or give sharp upper and lower bounds for the problem. The second one is a GRASP-based heuristic that can found close-to-optimal solutions. The GRASP-based heuristic is compared with a previous work achieving better results. Furthermore, a new metric to measure the efficiency of a Deployment strategy is presented

Effect of Cereals and Legumes Processing on In Situ Rumen Protein Degradability: A Review

The determination of the ruminal degradability rate of feeds, mainly starch and crude protein, is one of the most common methods to evaluate the nutritional value of ruminant feed. The protein requirements for ruminants are met from microbial protein and undegraded dietary protein digested in the small intestine. In order to reach maximum productivity, high-quality proteins are needed, and the requirement for undegraded dietary protein increases with the performance of the animal. This protein can be supplied by reducing the ruminal degradation to increase the amount of protein digested post-rumen, but the form in which a feed is administered influences degradability, and grain processing, especially, is a common practice to improve feed efficiency. Despite these aspects, studies on the effects of feed processing methods on protein degradability are limited, even though more and more ruminants are fed with processed feeds. For these reasons, this review investigated the protein degradability of different processed cereals and legumes in ruminants based on the analysis of available literature in order to take stock of the state of the art on this topic. Results showed that: First, the majority of the papers are focused on the energy aspects mainly due to carbohydrate-rich feeds; second, the majority of the studies in the literature are quite old, probably because the changes occurred in the animal testing legislation that made in vivo studies more and more difficult in the last 20 years; third, as a consequence, the few data available in recent years concern in vitro experiments; fourth, we found a high variability of the experimental conditions thus affecting protein degradability and making it quite difficult to compare the different results

Validation of a quantitative lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA)-based point-of-care (POC) rapid test for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies

With the widespread use of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, a rapid and reliable method to detect SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) is extremely important for monitoring vaccine effectiveness and immunity in the population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the RapiRead (TM) reader and the TestNOW (TM) COVID-19 NAb rapid point-of-care (POC) test for quantitative measurement of antibodies against the spike protein receptor-binding domain of severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in different biological matrices compared to chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) methods. Ninety-four samples were collected and analyzed using a RapiRead (TM) reader and TestNOW (TM) COVID-19 NAb kits for detecting neutralizing antibodies, and then using two CLIAs. The data were compared statistically using the Kruskal-Wallis test for more than two groups or the Mann-Whitney test for two groups. Specificity and sensitivity were evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Good correlation was observed between the rapid lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) test system and both CLIA methods. RapiRead (TM) reader/TestNOW (TM) COVID-19 NAb vs. Maglumi: correlation coefficient (r) = 0.728 for all patients; r = 0.841 for vaccinated patients. RapiRead (TM) reader/TestNOW (TM) COVID-19 NAb vs. Mindray: r = 0.6394 in all patients; r = 0.8724 in vaccinated patients. The time stability of the POC serological test was also assessed considering two times of reading, 12 and 14 minutes. The data revealed no significant differences. The use of a RapiRead (TM) reader and TestNOW (TM) COVID-19 NAb assay is a quantitative, rapid, and valid method for detecting SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and could be a useful tool for screening studies of SARS-CoV-2 infection and assessing the efficacy of vaccines in a non-laboratory context

Characterization of blood redox status of early and mid-late lactating dairy cows

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