15 research outputs found
Microstructure and mechanical properties of nickel coated multi walled carbon nanotube reinforced stainless steel 316L matrix composites by laser sintering process
No full textBio-detoxification of Phorbol Esters and Other Anti-nutrients of Jatropha curcas Seed Cake by Fungal Cultures Using Solid-State Fermentation.
No full textJatropha seed cake, a byproduct after biodiesel extraction, has several anti-nutrients
and toxins. Solid-state fermentation was carried out for the detoxification of the Jatropha seed
cake (JSC) using different fungal cultures. The reduction in the anti-nutritional components
such as tannins, phytates, saponins, lectin and protease inhibitor, and phorbol esters on 6th,
9th, and 12th day of fermentation was analyzed. The phorbol ester content in the unfermented
JSC was 0.83 mg/g, and the maximum degradation of phorbol esters to the extent of 75 % was
observed in the case of JSC fermented with Cunninghamella echinulata CJS-90. The phytate
degradation in the fermented JSC was in the range of 65–96 %. There was a gradual reduction
of saponin content in the JSC from 6th to 12th day, and the reduction of saponin was in the
range of 55–99 % after solid-state fermentation. The trypsin inhibitor activity and lectin were
1,680 trypsin inhibitor units (TIU) per gram and 0.32 hemagglutinating unit in the unfermented JSC,
respectively. Trypsin inhibitor activity and lectin could not be detected in JSC after 12th day of solidstate
fermentation. Tannins accounted for 0.53 % in unfermented JSC, and there was a marginal
increase of tannins after solid-state fermentation. The results indicate that biological detoxification
could be a promising method to reduce anti-nutritional compounds and toxins in the JSC
Anthocyanin modified triphenylamine based organic sensitizer for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) - A theoretical approach
No full textComputational Optimization of Adaptive Hybrid Darrieus Turbine: Part 1
No full textDarrieus-type Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) are promising for small scale decentralized power generation because of their unique advantages such as simple design, insensitive to wind direction, reliability, and ease of maintenance. Despite these positive aspects, poor self-starting capability and low efficiency in weak and unsteady winds deteriorate further development. Adaptive Hybrid Darrieus Turbine (AHDT) was proposed by the author in the past study as a potential solution to enhance low wind speed characteristics. The objective of the current research is to optimize the parameters of AHDT. AHDT integrates a dynamically varying Savonius rotor with a Darrieus rotor. A fully detailed 2D numerical study employing Reynold-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) is carried out to investigate the impact of the Darrieus rotor diameter (DR) on the Savonius rotor (DT) with regard to hybrid turbine performance. The power coefficient of the Darrieus rotor is evaluated when the Savonius rotor is in the closed condition (cylinder) of various diameters. The influence of Reynolds number (Re) on the torque coefficient is examined. Power loss of 58.3% and 25% is reported for DR/DT ratio of 1.5 and 2 respectively for AHDT with solidity 0.5 at 9 m/s. The flow interaction between the Savonius rotor in closed configuration reveals the formation of von Karman vortices that interact with Darrieus blades resulting in flow detachment. An optimum diametrical ratio (DR/DT) of 3 is found to yield the maximum power coefficient of the Darrieus rotor
Effect of dietary inclusion of Achyranthes japonica extract on growth performance, fecal microbiota, fecal gas emission, nutrient digestibility, and meat-carcass grade quality traits in finishing pigs
Get PDFA ten-week experimental trial was carried out to determine the effect of - dietary inclusion of Achyranthes japonica extract (AJE) on finishing pigs overall performance. A total of 150 finishing pigs with initial body weight (BW) of 54.17 2.27 kg were randomly allocated to 5 dietary treatments. The dietary treatments were CON (Basal diet), TRT1 (Basal diet + 0.025% AJE), TRT2 (Basal diet + 0.05% AJE), TRT3 (Basal diet + 0.1% AJE), TRT4 (Basal diet + 0.2% AJE). Dietary AJE supplementation linearly increased BW, average daily gain (ADG), and gain to feed ratio (G:F) during week 5. At week 10 and overall experiment, there was tendency for linear increase in BW, ADG and ADFI. Dietary supplementation of AJE failed to show significant effects on nutrient digestibility, fecal microbiota, meat quality, and fecal gas emission. The dietary supplementation of AJE showed a linear increase in the backfat thickness at week 10 and there was no significant difference observed on the lean meat percentage. In summary, Achyranthes japonica extract supplementation diet had a beneficial effect on the growth performance and backfat thickness and also no effects on nutrient digestibility and fecal microbiota of the finishing pigs.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Dietary inclusion of mineral detoxified nano-sulfur dispersion on growth performance, fecal score, fecal microbial, gas emission, blood profile, nutrient digestibility and meat quality in finishing pigs
Get PDFThis study is to evaluate the effects of mineral Detoxified nano-Sulfur Dispersion (DSD) on growth performance, fecal score, fecal microbial, gas emissions, blood profile, nutrient digestibility and meat quality in finishing pigs. A total of 160 pigs with an initial body weight of 54.90 5.10 kg were randomly assigned to 2 treatments include basal diet and basal diet with 10ppm DSD. During 10 week trial there were no differences in body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and gain to feed ratio (G:F) between the control and DSD groups. Also, the fecal score, fecal microbiota, gas emission was not affected by DSD diet. Dietary inclusion of DSD tended to increase water holding capacity and decrease cooking loss and drip loss. At week 5, serum concentrations of glucose, calcium, total cholesterol, high-density level were increased, and triglyceride concentration was reduced in pigs fed with DSD than control diets. In summary, the inclusion of dietary DSD in the finishing pig diet has improved serum Ca, glucose concentrations and lipid profiles as well as it improves some meat quality traits.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Responsiveness of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis to leptin is impaired in diet-induced obese rats
No full textThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Background/objectives:
Diet-induced obese (DIO) rats have altered stress (HPA) axis activity compared to diet-resistant (DR) rats when chronically exposed to a high-fat (HF) diet. Since stress axis is tightly regulated by leptin, an adipocyte-secreted hormone that is important for controlling body weight, we hypothesized that leptin action is impaired in DIO rats leading to alterations in HPA axis activity.
Subjects/methods:
We intraperitoneally injected selectively bred DIO and DR rats with either saline or recombinant rat leptin. HPA axis activity was assessed by measuring norepinephrine (NE) in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in the median eminence, and serum corticosterone (CORT). To test if HF exposure duration and the corresponding increase in leptin differentially affects HPA axis activity, we placed animals on a chow or HF diet for 1 or 6 weeks.
Results:
Leptin injection significantly increased serum leptin levels in both DIO and DR animals. It also reduced PVN NE in both groups, indicating that noradrenergic neurons in both groups remain responsive to leptin. HF diet duration-dependently increased serum leptin only in DIO animals whereas PVN NE increased in both groups. While DR rats responded to HF diet by increasing CRH and CORT at both time-points, responses in DIO rats varied, suggesting that they have altered HPA axis activity that may be dependent on HF-induced leptin levels and/or signaling. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we measured pSTAT-3, a marker of leptin signaling, in brainstem noradrenergic neurons and found reduced pSTAT-3 in A1 region of HF-fed DIO rats. We also found higher serum free fatty acids (FFAs) and a pro-inflammatory cytokine, IL-1β.
Conclusions:
Collectively, these findings reveal that DIO rats have inherent neuroendocrine impairment in NE-HPA axis circuitry that worsens with the extent of HF diet exposure, possibly due to brainstem leptin resistance and/or elevated circulating FFAs and IL-1β
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Evaluating the potential of dietary crude protein manipulation in reducing ammonia emissions from cattle and pig manure: A meta-analysis
Get PDFDietary manipulation of animal diets by reducing crude protein (CP) intake is a strategic NH3 abatement option as it reduces the overall nitrogen input at the very beginning of the manure management chain. This study presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of scientific literature on NH3 reductions following a reduction of CP in cattle and pig diets. Results indicate higher mean NH3 reductions of 17 ± 6% per %-point CP reduction for cattle as compared to 11 ± 6% for pigs. Variability in NH3 emission reduction estimates reported for different manure management stages and pig categories did not indicate a significant influence. Statistically significant relationships exist between CP reduction, NH3 emissions and total ammoniacal nitrogen content in manure for both pigs and cattle, with cattle revealing higher NH3 reductions and a clearer trend in relationships. This is attributed to the greater attention given to feed optimization in pigs relative to cattle and also due to the specific physiology of ruminants to efficiently recycle nitrogen in situations of low protein intake. The higher NH3 reductions in cattle highlights the opportunity to extend concepts of feed optimization from pigs and poultry to cattle production systems to further reduce NH3 emissions from livestock manure. The results presented help to accurately quantify the effects of NH3 abatement following reduced CP levels in animal diets distinguishing between animal types and other physiological factors. This is useful in the development of emission factors associated with reduced CP as an NH3 abatement option. © 2017, The Author(s)
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
Get PDFOutbreaks of an unexplained acute neurologic illness affecting young children and associated with high case-fatality rates have been reported in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar state in India since 1995. The outbreaks generally peak in June and decline weeks later with the onset of monsoon rains. There have been multiple epidemiologic and laboratory investigations of this syndrome, leading to a wide spectrum of proposed causes for the illness, including infectious encephalitis and exposure to pesticides. An association between illness and litchi fruit has been postulated because Muzaffarpur is a litchi fruit-producing region. To better characterize clinical and epidemiologic features of the illness that might suggest its cause and how it can be prevented, the Indian National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and CDC investigated outbreaks in 2013 and 2014. Clinical and laboratory findings in 2013 suggested a noninflammatory encephalopathy, possibly caused by a toxin. A common laboratory finding was low blood glucose (<70 mg/dL) on admission, a finding associated with a poorer outcome; 44% of all cases were fatal. An ongoing 2014 investigation has found no evidence of any infectious etiology and supports the possibility that exposure to a toxin might be the cause. The outbreak period coincides with the month-long litchi harvesting season in Muzaffarpur. Although a specific etiology has not yet been determined, the 2014 investigation has identified the illness as a hypoglycemic encephalopathy and confirmed the importance of ongoing laboratory evaluation of environmental toxins to identify a potential causative agent, including markers for methylenecyclopropylglycine (MCPG), a compound found in litchi seeds known to cause hypoglycemia in animal studies. Current public health recommendations are focused on reducing mortality by urging affected families to seek prompt medical care, and ensuring rapid assessment and correction of hypoglycemia in ill children
