Open-design Recirculating Systems for Zebrafish Culture

The zebrafish is an established vertebrate-animal model in biomedical research. Currently, their mass culture is mainly done using systems provided by commercial suppliers. Commercial systems are compact, recirculating, and use auto-cleaning tanks. These features minimize space use, labour cost, and water wastage; thus, facilitating maintenance of a large number of zebrafish using minimal resources. However, the often considered costs associated with these systems often impose a barrier to current and prospective researchers, especially those with limited funds or working in labs with no access to institutional centralized zebrafish culture facilities. In contrast to commercial systems, custom-made zebrafish maintenance systems are also described in the literature. To distinguish custom-made system from commercial systems, we termed them as “open-design” systems. Open-design systems are cost-effective, modular, and frequently being improved by zebrafish researchers. However, for further development and to present them as a viable option for zebrafish researchers around the world, a review of their current status and technical understanding is required. Here, we compile the disparate data on the purpose and technological development of the open-design systems. We believe this review will be a valuable resource for all zebrafish users and help streamline the open-design technology for zebrafish culture.     

Experimental investigation on the transport of different fish species in a jet fish pump

A jet fish pump with a throat of ø60 mm was designed to study its performance in the transport of different fish species and the physiological changes in fish thereafter. Experiments were conducted to investigate the fish transport rate and energy required to transport each ton of fish when transporting Carassius auratus, commonly known as the Chinese goldfish, Megalobrama amblycephala, or Wuchang bream, and Ctenopharyngodon idella, the grass carp. Fish were examined for external injuries as well as for several important enzymes and hormones which are indicators of tissue injury and stress. The results showed that the transport rate for all three species of fish rose dramatically with an increase in the primary stream rate. In this experiment, the transport rates of C. auratus, M. amblycephala and C. idella reached 2357 ± 37.2 kg ∙ h⁻¹, 2888 ± 41.6 kg ∙ h⁻¹, and 2060 ± 40.2 kg ∙ h⁻¹, respectively. However, both injury rate and energy required to transport each ton of fish increased no matter whether the primary stream rate was too low or too high. Considering both transport rate and injury rate, the mean primary stream rate of 80 m³ ∙ h⁻¹ was determined to be the optimal operating condition in this experiment. Fish were stressed and most likely some of their organs were damaged. However, most physiological indexes almost fully recovered after several hours.     

优化预处理及脱毒工艺以制备玉米芯半纤维素水解液

为了降低玉米芯半纤维素水解液中的乙酸、糠醛和酚类等有毒物质含量,使可利用糖类含量增加。本研究以玉米芯为原料制备水解液,对预处理及脱毒工艺进行优化,并利用高效液相色谱(HPLC)检测优化效果。结果表明,10~20目的玉米芯在10%氨水浸泡24 h后,可将乙酸和酚类物质的脱除率,分别提高至93.4%和32.3%,而糠醛的含量也大大降低。经过真空浓缩、CaO脱毒以及2%活性炭吸附后,使有毒物质含量再次降低,此时的水解液可完全用于菌株的发酵试验,达到了去除的目的。本文所得到的最佳水解液处理步骤,其结果符合菌株发酵用标准,说明水解液处理方式的不同,直接影响着水解液的制备。这为研究和利用木质纤维素等可再生资源提供了思路,也为发酵生产奠定了理论基础。     

高蛋白料精等量替代鱼粉饲喂肥育猪对比试验

应用高蛋白料精等量替代鱼粉饲喂肥育猪 ,其结果在 42d试验期内高蛋白料精组头均增重 19.0 6kg ,比鱼粉组多增重 2 .12kg ,增重率提高 12 .5 2 %,头均多增收益 2 1.2 1元 ,差异显著 (P <0 .0 5 )。     

一种基于硼氢化钠的新型储氢材料研究

硼氢化钠的水解产物是一种新的储氢材料，其良好的可逆储氢能力在5MPa氢气压力真空条件下3分钟后在室温下吸收氢150。根据报道，它已被证明，这两种改变的催化剂NaBH4水解和添加催化剂直接插入接口是两个非常有效进一步提高接口的储氢容量。对hpsb-y2o3脱氢TiO2分别掺杂均达到重量2.4%和重量4.6%。重要的是对hpsb-y2o3可逆的脱氢能力不下降后成功———超循环。相比之下，对hpsb-ceo2可逆脱氢高达到重量5.9%，在室温下5分钟后3MPa氢气压力150氢吸附。     

A computer vision system for oocyte counting using images captured by smartphone

This work proposes a computer vision procedure for counting Twospot astyanax (Astyanax bimaculatus) oocytes in Petri dishes using images captured by smartphone. First, the proposed procedure uses simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) to divide the images into groups of pixels (superpixels). Then, based on their color and space characteristics, the images are classified into light background, dark background, dirt, or oocyte by a machine learning algorithm. Five different types of machine learning algorithms were tested: support vector machines (SVM), decision trees using the algorithm J48 and random forest, k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), and Naive Bayes. To train the algorithms, 8.578 superpixels were classified by an expert into oocyte (n = 354), dirtiness (n = 651), dark background (n = 3.622), and light background (n = 3.951). Of the five learning algorithms, SVM obtained the best result with 97% correct oocyte recognition. Given the wide availability of smartphones, we therefore conclude that the presented procedure can be a valuable tool in future experiments and studies on fertilization and hatching success in Twospot astyanax.     

Monitoring shrimp growth with control charts in aquaculture

This work proposes a method for the statistical monitoring of the weekly weight of shrimp in a fish farm. The design of control charts for shrimp growth presents several challenges, the main ones being the presence of trend and autocorrelation. Several control charts are proposed, the most efficient being a chart based on the residuals of a second order autoregression whose parameters vary with the week. A control chart with less computational complexity is also provided. It is simply based on growth rates and works well at detecting negative weight changes. Real data from a large shrimp farm has been used for both the design and the evaluation.     

仿生法评定抗草甘膦玉米和转Bt基因玉米的酶水解物能值的研究

本试验旨在分析抗草甘膦玉米和转Bt基因玉米原料及饲粮与同源非转基因玉米原料及饲粮体外总能消化率以及酶水解物能值,为转基因玉米的营养实质等同性仿生评定方法的研究提供参考。试验采用单因素完全随机设计,使用单胃动物仿生消化系统模拟饲料原料和饲粮在鸡胃肠道的消化过程,分析同源非转基因玉米、抗草甘膦玉米和转Bt基因玉米以及对应的3种玉米-豆粕饲粮在不同体外模拟消化阶段的干物质消化率、总能消化率和酶水解物能值的差异。结果表明:同源非转基因玉米、抗草甘膦玉米和转Bt基因玉米以及对应饲粮在常规概率成分含量上是相似的。抗草甘膦玉米及饲粮与同源非转基因玉米及饲粮相比,在干物质和能量胃消化率、全消化道消化率及酶水解物能值上均没有显著差异(P0.05)。转Bt基因玉米全消化道总能消化率低于同源非转基因玉米(P=0.03,变异系数=0.50%),对应玉米饲粮的酶水解物能值则高于同源非转基因玉米饲粮(P=0.02,变异系数=1.12%),但均处于仿生消化系统测试的误差范围内(变异系数≤1.64%)。由此可见,抗草甘膦玉米的酶水解物能值与同源对照玉米没有差异,而转Bt基因玉米存在统计学意义上的差异,但所有的测值均处于仿生消化系统的测试误差之内。仿生法发现的差异是否具有生物学意义有待体内试验验证。仿生法可为转基因饲料营养等同性研究提供一种新方法。     

Effects of dietary Bacillus coagulans and yeast hydrolysate supplementation on growth performance,immune response and intestinal barrier function in weaned piglets

The present study investigated the effects of Bacillus coagulans and yeast hydrolysate supplementation on growth performance, immune response and intestinal barrier function of weaned piglets. Twenty-four weaned piglets with an average body weight (BW) of 6.89 ± 0.15 kg were divided into four diets for 28 days. The treatments were basal diet (control), basal diet supplemented with antibiotic (20 mg/kg colistin sulphate and 40 mg/kg bacitracin zinc, AT), probiotics (400 mg/kg Bacillus coagulans ≥5 × 109 CFU/g, BC) or yeast hydrolysate (5000 mg/kg yeast hydrolysate, YH). Average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) were improved by AT and YH diets (p < 0.05), while BC diet only increased ADG (p < 0.05). The complement 3 (C3), lysozyme (LZM) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) concentrations in serum were increased in BC diet (p < 0.05). Feeding AT and YH caused the increase of jejunal villus height (p < 0.05), and a higher ratio of villus height/crypt depth was observed in AT, BC and YH groups (p < 0.05). The mRNA expression of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) in jejunal mucosa was up-regulated by AT, BC and YH diets (p < 0.05). Dietary AT, BC or YH inclusion decreased the interleukin-1β (IL-1β) concentration and TNF-α mRNA expression (p < 0.05), and YH supplementation even down-regulated toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and CD14 expressions (p < 0.05). In summary, the dietary administration of BC or YH both improves growth performance through promoting the intestinal barrier function, indicating both of them can serve as potential alternatives to antibiotics growth promoters for the piglet production.