Effect of different levels of raw and heated grass pea seed (Lathyrus sativus) on nutrient digestibility,intestinal villus morphology and growth performance of broiler chicks

This study aimed to investigate chemical composition and effect of different levels (0%, 10% and 20%) of raw grass pea (RGP) and heat‐treated (120 °C for 30 min) grass pea seed (HGP) on nutrient digestibility, dressing percentage, relative internal organ weights, intestinal villous morphology and broiler chicks' performance. A total number of 200 day‐old male chicks were raised under similar condition for 10 days. On day 11, chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments and four replicates of 10 birds each. The result of chemical analysis indicated that Iranian grass pea seed has low levels of total and condensed tannin, and it may be considered as a good source of protein (36.1%) and energy (17.09 kJ GE/g). Heat treatment reduced (p < 0.05) the total and condensed tannin to 21% and 78% respectively. Grass peas seed had higher levels of nitrogen‐free extract, P, Na, Mg and Zn than soya bean meal. The apparent digestibility of gross energy and lipid was affected (p < 0.01) by the treatment diets, and it was the lowest after feeding 20% of HGP (p < 0.05). The relative weight of breast and pancreas (p < 0.05) was affected by treatments. Percentage weight of breast and pancreas increased (p < 0.05) after feeding high levels (20%) of RGP and HGP. Substitution of 20% of RGP and HGP increased the duodenal crypt depth (p < 0.05); however, it had no suppressive effect on villus height as the absorptive surface of intestine. The feed conversion ratio was not affected by the treatments in the total experimental period. This study showed that, although the high level of grass pea seed caused a remarkable increase in the relative weight of pancreas and decreased the apparent digestibility of gross energy and lipid, it had beneficial effect on breast relative weight. It seems that heat processing is not effective method for improving quality of Iranian grass pea seed.     

Production of an Antibody Fragment (scFv) Targeting PcrV Protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Fed-Batch Cultivation Mode

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the opportunistic pathogens causing frequent hospital-acquired life-threatening infections in mechanically ventilated patients. The most significant virulence factor of P. aeruginosa is T3SS. PcrV is an important structural protein of the T3SS. Methods:In the current investigation, a recombinant scFv mAb against the PcrV protein was expressed in EnBase® (fed-batch) cultivation mode. The pETiteTM N-His SUMO Kan vector, including anti-PcrV scFv gene, was transformed into Escherichia coli (BL21) cells. The expression and solubility of anti-PcrV scFv protein were investigated at two different temperatures (25 °C and 30 °C) and at different induction times (4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 hours). Results:Increased efficiency was achieved by EnBase® compared to LB broth; owing to the slow release of glucose, the maximum level of solubility and total protein expression was observed in EnBase® cultivation system at 30 °C and 24 h post induction. Furthermore, IC₅₀ for anti-PcrV scFv protein was determined to be approximately 7 μg/mL. Conclusion:Anti-PcrV scFv produced in this study showed promising in vitro results, protecting RBC from lysis by P. aeruginosa (exoU+). Key Words: Fed Batch, recombinant protein, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, scFv     

Effects of nitrogen forms and calcium amounts on growth and elemental concentration in Rosa hybrida cv. ‘Vendentta’

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of calcium and nitrogen on quality and quantity of Rosa hybrida in hydroponic culture, using factorial complete randomized design with different levels of ammonium-N (0, 2.5, and 5 mM) and calcium (1.6 and 4.8 mM). The results indicated that ammonium-N concentration of 2 mM increased the number of flowers, length of pedicles, and fresh weight of flower stem per plant. 5 mM of ammonium-N caused a significant decrease in most of the measured characteristics. Increase in calcium concentration enhanced nitrogen, calcium, manganese, and boron; while, potassium, zinc, and copper decreased in the leaf. Flower diameter and fresh weight of flower stems per plant increased significantly. With application of ammonium in the nutrient solution, calcium and potassium concentration in the leaf decreased, whereas phosphorus, zinc, manganese, iron, and boron significantly increased. Therefore, application of 2.5 mM ammonium-N and 4.8 mM calcium are recommended.     

Combined Removal of Zinc (II) and Cadmium (II) from Aqueous Solutions by Adsorption onto High-Calcium Turkish Fly Ash

The aim of this work is the investigation of possible use of flyash in the removal of zinc (Zn²⁺) and cadmium (Cd²⁺) contained in aqueous solutions. Batch adsorption experiments wereperformed in order to evaluate the removal efficiency oflignite-based fly ash. The parameters studied include contact time, pH,temperature, initial concentration of the adsorbate and fly ashdosage. The contact time necessary to attain equilibrium was found to be two hours. Maximum adsorption occurred in the pH range of 7.0 to 7.5. The percent adsorption of Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ increased with an increase in concentration of Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺, dosage of fly ash and temperature. Theapplicability of Langmuir isotherm suggests the formation ofmonolayer coverage Zn²⁺ and Cd²⁺ ions at the outer surface of the adsorbent. Thermodynamic parameters suggested the endothermic nature of the adsorption process. The fly ashwas found to be an metal adsorbent as effective as activated carbon.     

Estimation of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity by artificial neural networks ensemble in smectitic soils

The saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_s) of the soil is one of the main soil physical properties. Indirect estimation of this parameter using pedo-transfer functions (PTFs) has received considerable attention. The Purpose of this study was to improve the estimation of K_s using fractal parameters of particle and micro-aggregate size distributions in smectitic soils. In this study 260 disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from Guilan province, the north of Iran. The fractal model of Bird and Perrier was used to compute the fractal parameters of particle and micro-aggregate size distributions. The PTFs were developed by artificial neural networks (ANNs) ensemble to estimate K_s by using available soil data and fractal parameters. There were found significant correlations between K_s and fractal parameters of particles and microaggregates. Estimation of K_s was improved significantly by using fractal parameters of soil micro-aggregates as predictors. But using geometric mean and geometric standard deviation of particles diameter did not improve K_s estimations significantly. Using fractal parameters of particles and micro-aggregates simultaneously, had the most effect in the estimation of K_s. Generally, fractal parameters can be successfully used as input parameters to improve the estimation of K_s in the PTFs in smectitic soils. As a result, ANNs ensemble successfully correlated the fractal parameters of particles and micro-aggregates to K_s.     

Improvement in estimation of soil water retention using fractal parameters and multiobjective group method of data handling

Soil water retention characteristic is required for modeling of water and substance movement in unsaturated soils and need to be estimated using indirect methods. Point pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for prediction of soil water content at matric suctions of 1, 5, 25, 50, and 1500 kPa were developed and validated using a data-set of 148 soil samples from Hamedan and Guilan provinces, Iran, by multiobjective group method of data handling (mGMDH). In addition to textural and structural properties, fractal parameters of the power-law fractal models for both particles and aggregates distributions were also included as predictors. Their inclusion significantly improved the PTFs’ accuracy and reliability. The aggregate size distribution fractal parameters ranked next to the particle size distribution (PSD) in terms of prediction accuracy. The mGMDH-derived PTFs were significantly more reliable than those by artificial neural networks but their accuracies were practically the same. Similarity between the fractal behavior of particle and void size distributions may contribute to the improvement of the derived PTFs using PSD fractal parameters. It means that both distributions of the pore and particle size represent the fractal behavior and can be described by fractal models.     

Productivity and optimal management of the uneven-aged hardwood forests of Hyrcania

Hyrcania is a productive region near the southern coast of Caspian Sea. Her forests are mostly uneven-aged beach-dominated hardwood mixtures. There is increasing willingness to treat these forests without clear-felling, following the ideas of continuous cover management. However, lack of growth and yield models have delayed this endeavor, and no instructions for uneven-aged management have been issued so far. This study developed a set of models that enable the simulation of stand development in alternative management schedules. The models were used to optimize stand structure and the way in which various initial stands should be converted to the optimal uneven-aged structure. The model set consists of individual-tree diameter increment model, individual-tree height model, survival model, and a model for ingrowth. The models indicate that the sustainable yield of the forests ranges from 2.2 to 7 m³ ha^?1 a^?1 in uneven-aged management, depending on species composition. Better ingrowth would substantially enhance productivity. The optimal stand structure for maximum sustained yield has a wide descending diameter distribution, the largest trees of the post-cutting stand being 80–100 cm in dbh. If cuttings are conducted at 30- or 40-year intervals, they should remove 20–40 largest trees per hectare. Despite moderate growth rate, uneven-aged management produces high incomes, 850–1,000 UDS ha^?1a^?1, because the timber assortments that are obtained from the removed large trees have very high selling prices. Optimal conversion to uneven-aged structure showed that the steady-state stand structure depends on initial stand condition and discount rate when the length of the conversion period is fixed. Discount rates higher than 1 % lead to reduced wood production, heavy cuttings, and low basal areas of the steady-state forest.     

Morphometric study of the testis in sheep embryos using unbiased design-based stereology

Sheep have been used as translational models of human postnatal testicular development. However, the morphometric features of the normal developing testis in sheep embryos have not been previously investigated using stereology. The objective of the present work was to establish normal quantitative parameters for fetal testicular tissue components in sheep, using unbiased design-based stereological methods. Twenty-four sheep embryos were divided into four gestational age groups (9–11, 12–14, 15–17 and 18–20 weeks of gestation) on the basis of the embryos’ crown-rump length. Isotropic, systematic uniform random sections of the left testes were obtained by employing the orientator method. Testicular total volume, the absolute and proportional volumes occupied by the seminiferous tubules and interstitial tissue, as well as the seminiferous tubule length, were estimated using the point-counting system and the unbiased counting frame principle. All the parameters, with the exception of the interstitial tissue's fractional volume, gradually increased along with gestational age, with the maximum increase especially seen in the late fetal stages. The proportional volume of the interstitial tissue, on the other hand, showed a decreasing trend along with increasing gestational age. The absolute volume of the testes, of the seminiferous tubules and of the interstitial tissue, and the length of the seminiferous tubules showed a significant (p< 0.05) positive linear correlation with gestational age. Several similarities were observed with human testicular embryogenesis. The stereological data emerging from the present study might prove useful as basic contribution to the fields of andrology and embryology and stimulate further research in these areas.     

Development and assessment of a novel servo-controlled spraying system for real time adjustment of the orientation angle of the nozzles of a boom sprayer

Background

Pesticide spray drift, which is the movement of pesticide by wind to any location other than the intended area, is hazardous to human, animal, food safety and environmental health. It is not possible to completely eliminate spray drift during spraying with field crop sprayers, but spray drift can be reduced by developing new technologies. The most common methods to reduce spray drift are carrying the droplets to the target with air-assisted spraying, electrostatic spraying, preferring air induction nozzles and boom shields. With these methods, it is not possible to make a change on the sprayer depending on the wind intensity during spraying. In this study, a novel servo-controlled spraying system was designed and developed to change the nozzle orientation angle in the reverse direction of the wind current to reduce the ground spray drift in real time and automatically in a wind tunnel. The displacement in the spray pattern (D_c) was used as a ground drift indicator for each nozzle to evaluate the spray drift.

Results

The developed system, operated by LabVIEW software, calculated different nozzle orientation angles depending on nozzle types, wind velocities and spraying pressures. Orientation angles calculated for different test conditions achieved in reduction were up to 49.01% for XR11002 nozzle, 32.82% for AIXR11002 nozzle and 32.31% for TTJ6011002 nozzle at 400 kPa spray pressure and 2.5 m s⁻¹ wind velocity.

Conclusion

The developed system, which has a self-decision mechanism, calculated the nozzle orientation angle instantaneously according to the wind velocity. It has been observed that the adjustable spraying nozzle system, sprayed with high precision towards the wind in the wind tunnel, and the developed system have advantages compared to conventional spraying systems. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.