Effects of graded levels of dietary microbial 6-phytase on performance, intestinal histomorphology, caecal microbial population and short-chain fatty acid composition of Lohmann white-classics.

1. This study was conducted to determine the effects of graded levels of phytase on the performance, egg quality and gut health of white laying hens.2. Treatments consisted of a negative control (NC) diet containing 0.14% available phosphorus (avP), positive control (PC) diet containing 0.35% avP provided via dicalcium phosphate (DCP) and DCP replaced in the PC by with three graded levels of phytase derived from Komagataella phaffii at 500 (PC-500), 750 (PC-750) and 1000 (PC-1000) FTU/kg which provided 0.176%, 0.188% and 0.200% of avP, respectively.3. Egg production, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and jejunal morphometry were negatively affected in NC-fed birds (p < 0.05). Considering the whole period, birds fed a diet supplemented with graded levels of phytase shared the same egg production and feed intake levels with PC birds (p < 0.05). Feed conversion ratio was significantly lowered by 4.9%, 1.6% and 7.6% in hens fed on diets PC-500, PC-750 and PC-1000, respectively compared to those fed the PC (p < 0.05).4. Neither of the dietary treatments affected cracked eggs, dirty eggs, eggshell breaking strength and eggshell thickness. Dietary supplementation of phytase significantly increased villus surface area by 15%, 36% and 40% in PC-500, PC-750 and PC-1000 birds, respectively compared to PC (p < 0.05).5. A significant increase in lactobacillus count was observed in line with increasing the level of phytase (p < 0.05). Dietary treatments had no effect on the caecal coliform or aerobic populations. Furthermore, phytase supplementation significantly increased the concentrations of total caecal short-chain fatty acid (SCFA; p < 0.01).6. In conclusion, along with improving performance parameters, the inclusion of phytase in laying hen diets can ameliorate intestinal morphology and stimulate caecal microflora and increase SCFA concentrations.

Ultrasound elastography using a regularized modified error in constitutive equations (MECE) approach: a comprehensive phantom study.

Many of the current techniques in transient elastography, such as shear wave elastography (SWE) assume a dominant planar shear wave propagating in an infinite medium. This underlying assumption, however, can be easily violated in real scenarios in vivo, leading to image artifacts and reconstruction errors. Other approaches that are not bound to planar shear wave assumption, such solutions based on the partial differential equation, can potentially overcome the shortcomings of the conventional SWE. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the advantages of the modified error in constitutive equations (MECE) formulation with total variation regularization (MECE + TV) over SWE in reconstructing the elastic moduli of different tissue-mimicking phantoms. Experiments were conducted on phantoms with inclusions of well-defined shapes to study the reconstruction of specific features relevant to practical applications. We compared the performances of MECE + TV and SWE in terms of quantitative metrics to estimate reconstruction accuracy, inclusion shape recovery, edge preservation and edge sharpness, inclusion size representation, and shear elasticity and contrast accuracies. The results indicate that the MECE + TV approach outperforms SWE based on several of these metrics. It is concluded that, with further development, the proposed method may offer elastography reconstructions that are superior to SWE in clinical applications.

Phenol disgrace via Periodate in integrating by using Supersonic Radiation.

In this study, a successful degradation of phenol was achieved by a combination of processes, ultrasonic irradiation and periodate. The effect of pH, dosage of IO4-, dosage of initial phenol and ultrasonic irradiation time on the phenol degradation were examined. Furthermore, the impacts of ion intensity on phenol degradation were examined. The findings indicated that the disgrace ratio advanced in acidic conditions and an upper degradation was achieved in combination processes. The current new investigation examined the effect of ion intensity and the findings determined that the principal intensity of solution is an inactive variable on phenol disgrace with these systems. A comparison research among IO4-/ US system and IO4- and US separately determined the COD removal and indicated that an combined method of IO4-/ US system had the best execution.

Egg yolk fatty acid profile of avian species--influence on human nutrition.

Lipids are an important nutritional component of the avian egg. A review of the literature was completed to determine the fatty acid compositions in egg yolk from some avian species. Additionally, the nutritional influence of lipid and lipoprotein content on the plasma of male participants during 30-day feeding was discussed. The ostrich eggs had the highest unsaturated fatty acid and the lowest cholesterol content in relation to other avian species. Ostrich had a higher proportion of 18:3n-3 (p < 0.01) compared with other species. Chicken yolk numerically contained much higher levels of 22:6n-3 than those found in turkeys, quails and geese, but the amount of 22:6n-3 in ostrich egg was lower by comparison with other species (p < 0.01). After the storage of eggs at the room temperature, there was a notable loss of vitamin E (vitE) in the yolks of all species and this decrease was marginal (p < 0.01) in ostrich compared with other species. There were significant (p < 0.05) increases in plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level in all male subjects. Plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level decreased (p < 0.05) only in men who were fed chicken or ostrich eggs daily. Consumption of different species' eggs had no influence on the total male plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels. LDL-C:HDL-C ratio increased (p < 0.05) after goose and turkey egg consumption. Consumption of one egg/month by healthy human subjects had no effect on serum total cholesterol and triglyceride. The LDL-C:HDL-C ratio (which is a strong predictor of coronary heart disease risk) increased, although non-significantly, by consuming chicken, quail and ostrich eggs.

The influence of inclusions of vitamin E and corn oil on semen traits of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica).

Reported was an investigation of the effect of vitamin E (Vit.E) and corn oil on semen traits of male Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). From 8 to 20 wk of age, birds were raised on corn-based diets supplemented with corn oil (0 and 3%) and Vit.E (National Research Council (NRC) recommended 25mg/kg/day/dry matter and 150 mg/kg/day/dry matter) in a 2×2 factorial manner. The diet was supplemented with corn oil and Vit.E (E2C2) which provided additional n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the form of 20:4n-6 and 22:4n-6 in spermatozoa phospholipid. The left testes weights were increased (P<0.01) in groups that received Vit.E in the diet (3.95 and 4.12 g, respectively) (P=0.03) and combined testes weight was the greatest in E2C2 group (7.57g) (P=0.02). Semen volume increased throughout the experiment in the E2C2 group. E2C1 and E2C2 birds had the greatest (90.05% and 92.1%, respectively) live sperm percent by comparison with other groups. The susceptibility of semen to lipid peroxidation in vitro was increased in quail fed E1C1 and E1C2, but was reduced when 150 mg Vit.E kg/day/dry matter feed was provided in the diet. The amount of Vit.E in the seminal plasma of E1C1 and E1C2 groups was (P<0.01) less than that in the other two groups (E2C1 and E2C2). From this study, it may be concluded that increasing diet n-6/n-3 ratio can be beneficial for semen traits, however, this application increased sperm peroxidation sensitivity but it can be controlled by inclusion of antioxidant such as Vit.E (150 mg/kg/day/dry matter) to diet.