Digestion of carbohydrates and utilization of energy in sows fed diets with contrasting levels and physicochemical properties of dietary fiber

Three experimental diets were used to investigate the digestion of carbohydrates and utilization of energy in sows fed diets with different levels and physicochemical properties of dietary fiber (DF). The low-fiber diet (LF; DF, 16%; soluble DF, 4.8%) was based on wheat and barley. The high-fiber 1 diet (HF1; DF, 41%; soluble DF, 11%) was based on wheat and barley supplemented with the coproducts: sugar beet pulp, potato pulp, and pectin residue, and the high-fiber 2 diet (HF2; DF, 44%; soluble DF, 7.3%) was based on wheat and barley supplemented with approximately 1/3 of the coproducts used in diet HF1 and 2/3 of brewers spent grain, seed residue, and pea hull (1:1:1, respectively). The diets were studied in 2 series of experiments. In Exp. 1, the digestibility and ileal and fecal flow of nutrients were studied in 6 ileal-cannulated sows placed in metabolic cages designed as a repeated 3 x 3 Latin square design. In Exp. 2, energy metabolism was measured in respiration chambers using 6 sows in a repeated 3 x 3 Latin square design. The DF level influenced the ileal flow of most nutrients, in particular carbohydrates, which increased from 190 g/d when feeding the LF diet to 538 to 539 g/d when feeding the HF diets; this was also reflected in the digestibility of OM and carbohydrates (P < 0.05). The ranking of total excretion of fecal materials was HF2 > > HF1 > LF, which also was reflected in the digestibility of OM, protein, and carbohydrates. Feeding HF diets resulted in greater CH(4) production, which was related to the amount of carbohydrates (r = 0.79) and OM (r = 0.72) fermented in the large intestine, but with no difference in heat production (12.2 to 13.1 MJ/kg of DM). Retained energy (MJ/kg of DM) was decreased when feeding HF1 compared with LF and negative when feeding HF2. Feeding sows HF1 reduced the activity of animals (5.1 h/24 h) compared with LF (6.1 h/24 h; P = 0.045).     

Expression of tissue factor in experimental bovine pneumonic pasteurellosis and endotoxemia

Tissue factor (TF), a cell surface-associated cofactor and activator of coagulation factor VII, has been implicated in the local and systemic activation of coagulation associated with sepsis. This study describes the pattern of TF expression in experimental bovine pneumonic pasteurellosis and endotoxemia. Immunohistochemical techniques were used to localize TF antigen in tissue sections. Tissue factor expression was not observed in tissues from control animals. In response to Pasteurella haemolytica challenge, TF was expressed within alveolar walls, by mononuclear inflammatory cells within alveoli, and in walls of arteries, arterioles, bronchi, and bronchioles. Tissue factor was not detected in unaffected lung, liver, spleen, lymph node or kidney tissue. Administration of Escherichia coli endotoxin intravenously resulted in tissue factor expression in lung, spleen, and lymph node tissue. Results of this study indicate that TF is expressed locally at sites of inflammation and systemically in endotoxemia. Therefore, TF may be involved in coagulation events associated with pneumonic pasteurellosis.     

The potential of informal institutions for marine fisheries management—A case study of a coastal commune in Vietnam

The potential of informal institutions for sustainable management of marine fisheries was examined. The study is based on both primary data collected through two group discussions and interviews and secondary information, including material related to fishing gear operation and whale worship. It shows that informal institutions, including fisher groups, fishing community norms, fisher's knowledge and whale worship have potential to strengthen institutional, ecological, social and community aspects of sustainable fisheries development. Although these informal institutions are not able to fix completely all the problems faced by formal institutions, they are able to complement and consolidate formal institutions to manage marine fisheries effectively. The findings of this study suggest it is imperative that formal institutions should be improved simultaneously with informal institutions to enhance current management for sustainable marine fisheries development.     

Pesticide exposure assessment for surface waters in the EU. Part 1: Some comments on the current procedure

In 2001, the European Commission introduced a risk assessment project known as FOCUS (FOrum for the Coordination of pesticide fate models and their USe) for the surface water risk assessment of active substances in the European Union. Even for the national authorisation of plant protection products (PPPs), the vast majority of EU member states still refer to the four runoff and six drainage scenarios selected by the FOCUS Surface Water Workgroup. However, our study, as well as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has stated the need for various improvements. Current developments in pesticide exposure assessment mainly relate to two processes. Firstly, predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) of pesticides are calculated by introducing model input variables such as weather conditions, soil properties and substance fate parameters that have a probabilistic nature. Secondly, spatially distributed PECs for soil–climate scenarios are derived on the basis of an analysis of geodata. Such approaches facilitate the calculation of a spatiotemporal cumulative distribution function (CDF) of PECs for a given area of interest and are subsequently used to determine an exposure concentration endpoint as a given percentile of the CDF. For national PPP authorisation, we propose that, in the future, exposure endpoints should be determined from the overall known statistical PEC population for an area of interest, and derived for soil and climate conditions specific to the particular member state. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry     

Flexible exchange of farming device data

A new trend in the farming business is to replace conventional farming devices with computerized farming devices. Accordingly, numerous computer-based farming devices for logging, processing and exchanging data have recently been installed on moving farm machinery such as tractors. The exchange of data generally takes place between the devices and farming systems, mostly installed at the premises of farmers, contractors, advisory services, etc. In most cases, data exchange is based on farming data exchange standards and is bi-directional. Bi-directional data exchange allows different devices and systems to exchange data based on a predefined set of rules. In consequence, many hand-coded data exchange solutions have been developed in the farming business. Although efforts regarding incorporating data exchange standards have been made, their actual usage so far has been limited, due to the fact that hand-coded bi-directional data exchange solutions have proven themselves too complex to maintain. Maintenance need to occur as requirements change frequently and the existing data exchange techniques lack flexibility with regards to efficient requirements change management. In addition, requirements change results in managing low-level code rather than a high-level specifications. This paper presents a bi-directional data exchange solution in the farming business that is based on high-level specifications without any need for hand-coding. The proposed solution supports ISOBUS based bi-directional data exchange as well as efficient requirements change management through a graphical user interface. The paper also demonstrates the use of the proposed solution based on a farming case study and open source technologies.     

Landslide densities associated with rainfall,stand age,and topography on forested landscapes,southwestern Washington,USA

Elevated landslide rates in forested landscapes can adversely impact aquatic habitat and water quality and remove and/or degrade soil resources required for forest regeneration. As a result, understanding the associations between management actions, natural factors, and landslide rates is important information needed for land managers. An unusual and powerful storm in early December, 2007, caused record flooding and thousands of landslides across southwest Washington and northwest Oregon, USA, and provided a rare opportunity to examine the effects of both natural factors and forest management practices on landslide density. Landslide inventory data were collected from both aerial photos and systematic field surveys to provide a broad survey database that was used to develop estimates of landslide density and to examine associations between landslide density, precipitation, topography, and forest stand age across a 152,000 ha forested landscape in the Willapa Hills, Washington. We estimated the probability of detecting landslides on aerial photos for six strata defined by forest stand age and a broad range of rainfall intensity, expressed as percent of the 100-year, 24-h, maximum rainfall. Key findings are that landslide detection probability decreased with increasing stand age, but was similar across rainfall intensities. The overall fraction of field-detected landslides that were not detected on 1:12,000-scale aerial photos was 39%. Very few landslides occurred in the 0–100% of 100-year rainfall category, regardless of stand age or slope gradient class. At higher rainfall intensities, significantly higher landslide densities occurred on steep slopes (>70% gradient) compared to lower gradient slopes, as expected. Above ∼150% of 100-year rainfall, the density of landslides was ∼2–3 times larger in the 0–5 and 6–10 year stand age categories than in the 11–20, 21–30, 31–40, and 41+ categories. The effect of stand age was strongest at the highest rainfall intensities. Our results demonstrate that ground-based landslide inventory data are required in order to correct for detection bias from aerial photos, develop reasonable estimates of landslide density across environmental gradients such as rainfall magnitude and topography, and make unbiased interpretations of relationships between forest management associations and landslide occurrence.     

Biodegradation measurements confirm the predictive value of the O:C‐ratio for biochar recalcitrance

Suitable predictors of degradability are sought to support the identification of biochars with large potential to increase C sequestration in soils. We determined the biodegradation of 9 chars from hydrothermal carbonization and pyrolysis in two agricultural soils. The 200‐ and 115‐day degradation correlated strongly with the O:C‐ and slightly with the H:C‐atomic ratio of 9 and 14 biochars, respectively. Highest temperature treatment and ash content did not show similar correlations.