Effects of &#946-Mannanase on broiler performance, gut morphology and immune system

An experiment was designed to assess the effects of graded levels of β-mannanase on performance, gut morphology and some blood proteins and leucocytes of broilers provided with diets based on corn and soybean meal. Broiler chickens are divided four group and supplied diet which contains 0, 500, 700, or 900 g/ton β-mannanase. Each treatment contained 4 pen with 15 birds/pen. 900 g/ton β- mannanase supplementation significantly reduced feed intake but did not influenced body weight gain and feed conversion ratio in both finisher and total period. 900 g/ton β-mannanase supplementation increased (P < 0.01) villus height and crypt depth and decreased (P < 0.01) goblet cell number, epithelial thickness and ratio of crypt depth to villus height in different sections of small intestine, suggesting that β-mannanase improves gut morphology in broiler chickens. The addition of β- mannanase at 700 and 900 g/ton to the diets significantly (P < 0.05) reduced jejunal viscosity compared with the control group. β-mannanase did not influence the blood serum proteins (albumin, alpha 1-, alpha 2-, beta and gamma-globulins) eosinophils and monocytes, but the addition β-mannanase increased lymphocyte, and decreased heterophil and heterophil: lymphocyte (H:L) ratio (p < 0.05). Thus it improved chickens immune system.Key words: Broiler, leucocytes, viscosity, serum proteins

Developing Prognostic Models Using Duality Principles for DC-to-DC Converters

Within the field of Integrated System Health Management, there is still a lack of technological approaches suitable for the creation of adequate prognostic model for large applications whereby a number of similar or even identical subsystems and components are used. Existing similarity among a number of different systems, which are comprised of similar components but with different topologies, can be employed to assign the prognostics of one system to other systems using an inference engine. In the process of developing prognostics, this approach will thereby save resources and time. This paper presents a radically novel approach for building prognostic models based on system similarity in cases where duality principle in electrical systems is utilized. In this regard, unified damage model is created based on standard Tee/Pi models, prognostics model based on transfer functions, and remaining useful life (RUL) estimator based on how energy relaxation time of system is changed due to degradation. An advantage is that the prognostic model can be generalized such that a new system could be developed on the basis and principles of the prognostic model of other systems. Simple electronic circuits, dc-to-dc converters, are to be used as an experiment to exemplify the potential success of the proposed technique validated with prognostics models from particle filter

Reliability enhanced EV using pattern recognition techniques

The following paper will contribute to the development of novel data transmission techniques from an IVHM perspective so that Electrical Vehicles (EV) will be able to communicate semantically by directly pointing out to the worst failure/threat scenarios. This is achieved by constructing an image-based data communication in which the data that is monitored by a vast number of different sensors are collected as images; and then, the meaningful failure/threat objects are transmitted among a number of EVs. The meanings of these objects that are clarified for each EV by a set of training patterns are semantically linked from one to other EVs through the similarities that the EVs share. This is a similar approach to wellknown image compression and retrieval techniques, but the difference is that the training patterns, codebook, and codewords within the different EVs are not the same. Hence, the initial image that is compressed at the transmitter side does not exactly match the image retrieved at the receiver's side; as it concerns both EVs semantically that mainly addresses the worst risky scenarios. As an advantage, connected EVs would require less number of communication channels to talk together while also reducing data bandwidth as it only sends the similarity rates and tags of patterns instead of sending the whole initial image that is constructed from various sensors, including cameras. As a case study, this concept is applied to DC-DC converters which refer to a system that presents one of the major problems for EVs

Principle of Duality on Prognostics

The accurate estimation of the remaining useful life (RUL) of various components and devices used in complex systems, e.g., airplanes remain to be addressed by scientists and engineers. Currently, there area wide range of innovative proposals put forward that intend on solving this problem. Integrated System Health Management (ISHM) has thus far seen some growth in this sector, as a result of the extensive progress shown in demonstrating feasible and viable techniques. The problems related to these techniques were that they often consumed time and were too expensive and resourceful to develop. In this paper we present a radically novel approach for building prognostic models that compensates and improves on the current prognostic models inconsistencies and problems. Broadly speaking, the new approach proposes a state of the art technique that utilizes the physics of a system rather than the physics of a component to develop its prognostic model. A positive aspect of this approach is that the prognostic model can be generalized such that a new system could be developed on the basis and principles of the prognostic model of another system. This paper will mainly explore single switch dc-to-dc converters which will be used as an experiment to exemplify the potential success that can be discovered from the development of a novel prognostic model that can efficiently estimate the remaining useful life of one system based on the prognostics of its dual system

The chemical composition and biological activities of essential oil from the fresh leaves of Schinus terebinthifolius from Zimbabwe

In the present study, the essential oil from the fresh leaves of Schinus terebinthifolius was extracted using the hydrodistillation method. The oil yield obtained was 0.65%. Gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis of the essential oil showed that the major constituents of the essential oil were sabinene, -pinene, -phellandrene, -pinene, terpinene-4-ol, trans--ocimene and myrcene. Using the hole-plate diffusion testing method, the essential oil exhibited potent antibacterial activity against Yersinia enterocolitica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsielia pneumoniae and Bacillus subtilis with at least 58% inhibitioncompared to the positive control. The mycelium growth inhibition method was used for anti-fungal testing. The essential oil exhibited activity against Aspergillus flavus with 58% inhibition, Candida albicans with 49.8% inhibition and Aspergillus niger with 48.7% inhibition. The -carotene, acetone and linoleic acid method was used to assess the antioxidant activity of the essential oil. The essential oil showed anti-oxidant activity of 13.1 mm mean zone of colour retention representing 72.7% activitycompared to the positive control (ascorbic acid). This is the first study on S. terebinthifolius collected from sub-saharan Africa indicating the presence of trans--ocimene in the essential oil and its strong antibacterial activity against Y. enterocolitica and P. aeruginosa as well as moderate antifungalactivities of the plant

Virginiamycin, Terramycin And Copper For Growing Turkeys

During the past three decades many studies have been reported which show positive growth responses to dietary anti biotics in turkey nutrition. Different feed additives have been used extensively in poultry diets at this station to study their effects on poultry performance. Copper (Cu) has been shown to stimulate growth, reduce the incidence of aortic rupture and prevent crop mold growth in turkeys. The affects of Bacitracin, Terramycin and Virginiamycin on growth rates of turkeys have been reported by many investigators. Turkeys have been shown to give better responses from antibiotics in old environments or on lower energy diets or when some nutrients were marginal or even deficient in diets. This report summarizes the results of feeding the above mentioned feed additives on the growth of 3780 male and 216 female Nicholas White turkeys in 4 experiments. Females were only used in the last experiment. The poults were housed in floor pens with shavings for litter and individual weights and group feed consumption data were obtained at 4-week intervals. All birds that died were necropsied for cause of death

Soil resources and potential for agricultural development in Bahr El Jebel in southern Sudan, Jonglei Canal project area

The author has identified the following significant results. Fourteen LANDSAT scenes were used to produce mosaics of the 167, 474 sq km study area. These were black and white MSS 7 images and false color composite images. Five major soil-landscape units were delineated on the mosaics, and these were subdivided into a total of 40 soil mapping units. Aerial reconnaissance was useful in defining boundaries between mapping units and in estimating the proportion of the various soils which composed each mapping unit. Ground surveying permitted first-hand observation of major soils and sampling for quantitative laboratory analysis. Soil interpretations were made, including properties, potentials, and limitations

Analysis of a gum from the exudates of Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Am

Only little research is currently underway on gums from African plants, yet Africa imports a lot of gums for pharmaceutical and food industries. This study was aimed to investigate the rheological properties, and the moisture and ash contents of the isolated gum resins from Dichrostachys cinerea. The gum from this plant exhibited low shear stress even at high concentrations of the gum. The moisture content obtained was 15.8 ± 0.3%, which was rather too high and would only be suitable for formulations that need to remain moisturized. The gum from this plant had little ash content (2.59 ± 0.01%). The gum from D. cinerea exhibited low shear stress at high concentrations, while the gum was profoundly affected by the addition of ions. In conclusion, this gum has potential as a product for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. Further studies are needed to identify the phytoconstituents in the gum as well as toxicity studies.Key words: Gum, exudates, Dichrostachys cinerea, rheology, moisture

Fault Tolerance Enhance DC-DC Converter Lifetime Extension

One of the most crucial renewable energy sources today is solar energy. Power convertors play an important role in adjusting the output voltage or current of photovoltaic (PV) systems. Using efficient and reliable switches for power converters and inverters is crucial for enhancing the safety and reliability of a platform. Generally, power converters suffer from failure mechanisms, such as wire bond fatigue, wire bond lift up, solder fatigue and loose gate control voltage, which mainly occur in power switches. In this paper, the junction temperature of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) acting as a power switch used in the Impedance-Source DC-DC converter is estimated using an electro-thermal model in order to develop an adaptive thermal stress control (ATSC). The proposed stress control adjusts reference input of the PI control to extend the life expectancy of the device under the mission. The accuracy of results present using The Modified Coffin-Manson Law has been used to determine the life of IGBT and the lifetime has been successfully increased base on implementing imperative ATSC and comparing the result with the constant reference input of the PI controller. The result integrates with converter health management to develop advanced intelligent predictive maintenance