Rosemary distillation residues reduce lipid oxidation, increase alpha-tocopherol content and improve fatty acid profile of lamb meat

The experiment studied the effects of rosemary distillation residues (RR) intake on lamb meat quality, oxidative stability and fatty acid (FA) profile. Barbarine lambs of Control group were fed 600 g of hay, which was substituted by 600 g of pellets containing 60 and 87% of RR for RR60 and RR87 groups; all animals received 600 g of concentrate. Meat protein and fat content was similar for 3 treatments. Lipid oxidation was strongly reduced with RR diets. Both RR diets resulted in a higher a- tocopherol content in muscle. The metmyoglobin and deoxymyoglobin percentages were similar for all groups; however oxymyoglobin was higher for RR groups. The saturated (SFA) and unsaturated FAs (UFA) were unaffected by the diets. However, the PUFA, n-6 and n-3 were higher for RR groups. In conclusion, rosemary residues resulted in higher vitamin E content, so it enhanced the oxidative status and improved the fatty acid profile of lamb meat

Effects of using rosemary residues as a cereal substitute in concentrate on vitamin e, antioxidant activity, color, lipid oxidation, and fatty acid profile of barbarine lamb meat

The shortage of some ingredients and, consequently, the continuous increase in the price of feed encourage the search for other alternatives to maintain animal production and enhance its products. In this line, the use of aromatic plant by-products in animal diet has been recently and widely considered, given their richness in bioactive compounds. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the inclusion of rosemary residues (RR) and protein sources on lamb meat quality. The experiment was carried out on 24 male Barbarine lambs (3 months old) with an average body weight (BW) of 17.8 ± 2.6 kg, which were divided into three homogeneous groups according to BW. The diet comprised 600 g of oat hay and 600 g of concentrate. Three types of concentrate were evaluated: commercial concentrate as the control group (C); rosemary residues (RR) plus soybean meal as the RRS group, and RR plus faba bean as the RRF group. After an experimental period of 65 days, lambs were slaughtered. The inclusion of RR in both concentrates increased the a-tocopherol and total polyphenol content in meat and protected meat against discoloration (high red index and chroma after 9 days of storage) but did not affect meat lipid oxidation, which was similar for all groups. The FA profile was affected by the inclusion of RR, with no effect from the source of protein (faba bean or soybean). The inclusion of RR in the concentrate increased the C18:2 n-6, C18:3n-3, C20:4 n-6, C20:5 n-3, and C22:5 n-3 content (p < 0.05). Consequently, the inclusion of RR also increased the total polyunsaturated FA (p < 0.05) and the ratio of polyunsaturated FA to saturated FA (p < 0.05). The results of this study demonstrate that concentrate based on RR could be useful for lamb meat production by improving the nutritional quality of meat, especially the fatty acid profile. In addition, soybean meal can be replaced by faba bean in lamb concentrate without affecting meat quality. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

High-Dimensional Similarity Search with Quantum-Assisted Variational Autoencoder

Recent progress in quantum algorithms and hardware indicates the potential importance of quantum computing in the near future. However, finding suitable application areas remains an active area of research. Quantum machine learning is touted as a potential approach to demonstrate quantum advantage within both the gate-model and the adiabatic schemes. For instance, the Quantum-assisted Variational Autoencoder has been proposed as a quantum enhancement to the discrete VAE. We extend on previous work and study the real-world applicability of a QVAE by presenting a proof-of-concept for similarity search in large-scale high-dimensional datasets. While exact and fast similarity search algorithms are available for low dimensional datasets, scaling to high-dimensional data is non-trivial. We show how to construct a space-efficient search index based on the latent space representation of a QVAE. Our experiments show a correlation between the Hamming distance in the embedded space and the Euclidean distance in the original space on the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) dataset. Further, we find real-world speedups compared to linear search and demonstrate memory-efficient scaling to half a billion data points

Investigating the Efficiency of Shrimp Cooperatives and Non-cooperatives Companies Using Data Envelopment Analysis Technique in Chabahar City in Iran (Application of CCR and FDH Models)

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficiency of Shrimp cooperatives and non-cooperatives companies in Guatr site of Chabahar County in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan in 2010. Therefore technical efficiency of shrimp farms was obtained by using the primary model of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH) model. Considering the number of units, census was conducted, and eventually the questionnaires of the entire population (25 units) were collected. The results showed that only 12% of firms in the primary model and 16% in the FDH model are quite efficient, and the average of technical efficiency for units is 85 and 87 percent respectively. Strategic approach to issues and adopting fundamental changes in production process, such as adding aeration systems in the fields with assistance from government agencies can improve the efficiency of the inefficient firms. Due to heavy costs brought about by the frequent use of aeration systems, the demand for these systems is low in the farms; therefore it is recommended that relevant institutions such as Province Fishery Organization and Province Department of Cooperation make necessary arrangements for banks to provide managers of shrimp farms with low-interest loans

Different brain mechanisms mediate two strategies in arithmetic: evidence from Event-Related brain Potentials

International audienceParticipants were asked to verify if complex additions were smaller than 100 or not. Two hundred and forty arithmetic problems were presented, with half the problems being small-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 2 or 5% away from 100) and half being large-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 10 or 15% away from 100). Behavioral and ERPs data indicate that participants may use two different strategies to verify complex inequalities, a whole-calculation strategy for small-split problems and an approximate-calculation strategy for large-split problems. The choice between these two strategies occured within 250 ms post-stimulus presentation, and strategy execution was lateralized. Implications for our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying arithmetic problem solving are discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

An experimental validation of the effectiveness of quasi-trivial solutions for composite laminates

In this work the problem of the least-weight design procedure of a multilayer composite plate is addressed. The proposed design method is based on an optimization strategy that uses neither simplifying hypotheses nor standard rules for determining the optimum stack. Indeed, the design task is stated as a constrained non-linear programming problem (CNLPP) wherein requirements of different nature are integrated as optimization constraints. Such constraints include mechanical requirements (i.e. material properties, first buckling load of the plate, membrane stiffness) together with geometrical and technological restrictions on the selected design variables. The proposed strategy follows a two-step approach which first selects the optimum number of plies and then searches the optimum stack in the space of the so-called quasi-trivial solutions. The quasi-trivial optimum sequences have been compared with stacking sequences developed following layup rules typically used in aeronautics: optimized non-standard plates are lighter (about 10%) than standard ones with equivalent or superior mechanical properties. The effectiveness of the developed configurations is proven through an a posteriori experimental campaign of buckling tests conducted at I2M laboratory. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with those provided by numerical simulations