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.     

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 )。     

合理调整山西人民食物结构的策略与途径

合理调整我国人民的食物结构是提高全民族身体素质,推进社会文明进步,具有深远的战略意义的一项国策。调整国民食物结构是一个科学性,政策性很强,社会涉及面广,地区人群民食习惯差别大的极为复杂的动态系统工程。作者针对山西省情实际,从追朔我国饮食传统,膳食民习,食物资源及演变趋向探求,提出合理调整山西人民食物结构的策略与途径。     

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.