Effects of music stimulus on behavior response,cortisol level,and horizontal immunity of growing pigs

An enriched environment is widely used to improve domestic animals’ welfare and promote their natural behaviors. Music can reduce abnormal behavior in humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents. However, little is known about the effects of music on pigs. This study aims to explore the effects of repeated music stimulation on the behavior, physiology, and immunity of growing pigs. A total of 72 hybrid piglets (Large White × Duroc × Minpig) were randomly divided into three groups, including music (Mozart K.448, 60 to 70 dB), noise (recorded mechanical noise, 80 to 85 dB), and control (natural background sound, <40 dB), and 6 h sound stimulation was given per day (1000 to 1600 hours) from 40 to 100 d of age. The behavioral activities of the pigs were observed during the music stimulation, and their serum cortisol, salivary cortisol, and serum immune indices were also measured. Compared with the control group, the music group and noise group increased activity but decreased lying of pigs (P < 0.05). A significant increase in tail-wagging, playing, and exploring behaviors of pigs was found in the music group (P < 0.05), and the noise significantly increased the aggressive behavior of the pigs (P < 0.05). Tail-wagging, playing, exploring, manipulating, and aggressive behaviors decreased over time. Short-term (8 d) music stimulus had a lower cortisol level than that of the noise and control groups (P < 0.05), whereas long-term (60 d) music stimulus increased immunoglobulin G (IgG), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) levels (P < 0.05) and decreased interleukin-4 (IL-4) level (P < 0.05). Long-term noise stimulus significantly reduced the level of IgG (P < 0.05) but did not affect the level of IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-γ levels (P > 0.05). In conclusion, short-term music stimulus (8 d) reduced the stress response, whereas long-term music stimulus (60 d) enhanced the immune responses. In addition, the noise increased the aggressive behavior, and long-term noise reduced the immunity of the growing pigs.     

Impact of climate change on maize yield in China from 1979 to 2016

Climate change severely impacts agricultural production, which jeopardizes food security. China is the second largest maize producer in the world and also the largest consumer of maize. Analyzing the impact of climate change on maize yields can provide effective guidance to national and international economics and politics. Panel models are unable to determine the group-wise heteroscedasticity, cross-sectional correlation and autocorrelation of datasets, therefore we adopted the feasible generalized least square(FGLS) model to evaluate the impact of climate change on maize yields in China from 1979–2016 and got the following results:(1) During the 1979–2016 period, increases in temperature negatively impacted the maize yield of China. For every 1°C increase in temperature, the maize yield was reduced by 5.19 kg 667 m–2(1.7%). Precipitation increased only marginally during this time, and therefore its impact on the maize yield was negligible. For every 1 mm increase in precipitation, the maize yield increased by an insignificant amount of 0.043 kg 667 m–2(0.014%).(2) The impacts of climate change on maize yield differ spatially, with more significant impacts experienced in southern China. In this region, a 1°C increase in temperature resulted in a 7.49 kg 667 m–2 decrease in the maize yield, while the impact of temperature on the maize yield in northern China was insignificant. For every 1 mm increase in precipitation, the maize yield increased by 0.013 kg 667 m–2 in southern China and 0.066 kg 667 m–2 in northern China.(3) The resilience of the maize crop to climate change is strong. The marginal effect of temperature in both southern and northern China during the 1990–2016 period was smaller than that for the 1979–2016 period.     

蜗壳式离心泵外特性仿真与实验研究

为探索不同仿真方法的适用性,对ns=157的单级蜗壳离心泵不同工况的扬程和效率进行定常和非定常计算,并分别分析了定常计算时不同叶片夹角及非定常计算时不同时间步长的影响,通过与实验对比,得到的主要结论有:定常计算仅适用于额定工况外特性仿真,其扬程和效率计算误差分别为4.9%和2.9%,而定常多相位的计算误差分别为7.1%和3.2%;非定常仿真计算时,以4°为时间步长,并间隔20°保存一次计算数据,较好地预测出扬程曲线走势,额定工况扬程和效率计算误差约1.1%和1.8%,但小流量和大流量区间扬程计算误差达到10%左右。因此在水力优化设计时,若只关注高效点位置及其扬程和效率,可采用定常计算,若还关注扬程曲线走势,则应采用非定常计算。     

郑州市黄河南岸景观格局变化及其对生态空间的影响

以郑州市沿黄河南岸6个区(县)1997、2009、2019年3期遥感影像为基础数据,借助ENVI、Frag-stats和ArcGIS软件,运用景观单一动态度、土地利用转移矩阵、景观格局指数等方法,对研究区景观格局变化特征及对生态空间的影响进行了分析,并进一步分析了黄河南岸郑州段景观格局演变特征,揭示了郑州市沿黄河6个区(县)景观格局变化对黄河生态空间的影响.结果表明:(1)1997～2019年郑州市的快速发展使沿黄河大面积区域从郊区变为城镇,耕地面积占比由49.2％下降至21.4％,建设用地占比由5.36％上升至28.52％,土地利用变化整体处于不平衡状态,相互之间转换频繁;(2)1997～2009年,研究区处于无序蔓延的城市扩张状态,2009～2019年研究区内城市快速扩张的同时,开始注重区域内生态环境的建设;(3)研究区总体上景观格局呈现破碎化趋势,斑块形状趋于规则,景观空间分布不集中,连通性较差;(4)黄河南岸大堤外5000 m范围内生态空间被不断侵占,生境质量和连通性差.受人类活动不断增强的影响,近22年黄河南岸郑州段景观格局变化显著,生态空间不断被城市发展用地挤占,必将削弱黄河生态屏障功能,威胁区域生态安全.     

大数据环境下的数字图书馆多元转型策略研究

大数据环境的变化,不仅改变了用户的信息行为,也使得数字图书馆服务朝着越加个性化、知识化、多元化的角度不断发展,由此带动了数字图书馆资源特征与服务特征的适应性的变化,促使数字图书馆朝着创新服务模式、融合服务元素、拓展服务功能、知识化建设、精确化服务等角度的转型发展,也包括数字图书馆自身对于服务力量的不断强化和服务展现形式的多元化等方面的转型发展,推动数字图书馆不断改变原有的服务范式而朝着更加个性化、知识化和技术化的角度不断发展。     

右江流域水生态补偿机制研究初探

为保护右江流域生态环境,协调郁江乃至珠江上下游各方经济利益,更好的激励上游地区生态环境保护行为,通过分析右江流域水生态现状、存在问题、现有生态补偿政策环境及其在郁江流域、珠江流域中的地位和作用,利用外部性理论,分析提出了右江流域水生态补偿模式。通过对标对表有关生态保护规划和区划成果,立足百色市实际,提出了右江流域水生态补偿内容、补偿主客体、补偿标准和补偿方式,初步构建右江流域水生态补偿机制框架,并提出有针对性的补偿政策建议,为水生态补偿实施提供了参考。     

Comparison of the microbial communities of alpacas and sheep fed diets with three different ratios of corn stalk to concentrate

The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of ruminal microbial communities of alpacas (Lama pacos) and sheep (Ovis aries) fed three diets with varying ratios of roughage (corn stalk) to concentrate, 3:7 (LS), 5:5 (MS) and 7:3 (HS). Six alpacas (one-year-old and weighing 29.5 ± 7.1 kg) and six sheep (one-year-old and weighing 27.9 ± 2.7 kg) were used in this study, in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square experiment. Total protozoa concentration was determined under the microscope; total fungi and methanogens were assessed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and expressed as a percentage of total bacterial 16S rRNA gene copies; bacterial communities were investigated by targeted 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4 region) sequencing. The percentage of fungi was significantly higher in alpacas than in sheep under the LS diet, while the concentration of protozoa was significantly lower in alpacas under HS, MS and LS diets. The alpha diversity including Shannon, Chao l and ACE indices of bacterial communities was higher in alpacas than in sheep, under the LS diet. A total of 299 genera belonging to 22 phyla were observed in the forestomach of alpaca and sheep, with Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes dominating both animal species. Phyla Armatimonadetes and Fusobacteria, as well as 64 genera, were detected only in alpacas, whereas phyla Acidobacteria and Nitrospira, as well as 44 genera, were found only in sheep. The abundance of cellulolytic bacteria, including Butyrivibrio and Pseudobutyrivibrio, was higher in alpacas than in sheep under all three diets. These differences in the forestomach microbial communities partly explained why alpacas displayed a higher poor-quality roughage digestibility, and a lower methane production. Results also revealed that the adverse effects of high-concentrate diets (70%) were lesser in alpacas than in sheep.     

叶轮出口边对双蜗壳泵压力脉动的影响

泵的叶轮扫掠蜗壳隔舌时产生的压力脉动是引起船用泵振动噪声的原因之一.为尽可能弱化这一影响,分别设计了叶片出口边与前后盖板基本面垂直和倾斜的2种不同形式叶轮,将其配置在相同的双蜗壳中,通过数值计算与样机试验相结合的手段,对蜗壳内9个不同位置的压力脉动情况进行对比分析.结果表明:出口边倾斜的叶轮相比于出口边垂直的叶轮可明显改善蜗壳内次脉动的“驼峰”现象,且可以进一步降低隔舌处主波动的压力峰值;对蜗壳内2个隔舌稍前的位置,出口边倾斜的叶轮反而会使得该点的压力系数幅值明显增大,且该点主波动的周期数发生改变;2种叶轮出口边的不同形式对蜗壳出口位置的压力脉动的影响基本相同;采用出口边倾斜叶轮对改善因叶轮与隔舌间的液流压力脉动是可行的.     

The RNA interference

The phenomenon of RNA interference (RNAi) is highly conserved mechanism in the organism evolution. As a immune system, RNAi is a ubiquitous mechanism against invading microorganism in plant and animal cells. Recently, it has been found that RNAi is the process by which double-strand RNA(dsRNA) directs sequence-specific degradation of messenger RNA and the mediations of sequence specific messenger RNA degradation are 21-and 23-nucleotide small interfering RNAs that generate by ribonuclease from endogenous longer dsRNA or by transfectious technics from heterologous dsRNA. Over the past few years, the way in which cells respond to dsRNA by silencing homologous genes has revealed a new regulating paradigm in biology.