Behavioral parameters and surface temperatures of feed chicken with different leves vitamin E

The objective of this study was to evaluate the behavioural parameters and surface temperatures of broilers fed different vitamin E levels. A total of 240 male, day-old Cobb 500® broiler chicks were raised until the seventh day of life, according to the recommendations for the strain, receiving feed with only 50% of vitamin E requirements. At eight days of age, the birds were weighed and standardised, and the treatments distributed in a completely randomised design with four treatments (50, 100, 150 and 200% of vitamin E requirements) and six replicates of ten birds per experimental unit. The variables evaluated were the behavioural parameters of the birds (eating, drinking, idleness and other activities) and the feed intake within 24 hours as well as the maximum and minimum surface temperatures, and thermal amplitudes at the end of each life cycle (21 and 42 days). Vitamin E levels did not influence behavioural parameters or feed intake over 24 hours at 21 and 42 days of age. There was no interaction between vitamin E levels and maximum and minimum temperatures or thermal amplitudes. However, the maximum and minimum temperatures and thermal amplitudes were influenced by the morning and afternoon periods at 21 and 42 days of age. Dietary vitamin E levels did not influence the behavioural patterns of broilers at 21 and 42 days of age.

Determining the Optimum Set of Dressing Parameters Satisfying Minimum Surface Roughness when Conducting the Internal Grinding of Hardened SKD11 Steel

This study has been conducted to optimize the dressing parameters to find the minimum surface roughness for internal grinding of hardened SKD11 steel using the Taguchi method. The input parameters used are coarse dressing depth, number of coarse dressing, fine dressing depth, number of fine dressing, non-feeding dressing, and dressing feed speed. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and an analysis of the signal-to-noise (S/N) response are conducted to estimate the significance of each input parameter on the responses. It shows that the number of coarse dressing has the most decisive impact on Ra (88.28%). Furthermore, the discrepancy of the roughness average from the experiments and that from prediction are minor.

Climate Change in Rwanda: The Observed Changes in Daily Maximum and Minimum Surface Air Temperatures during 1961–2014

Rwanda has experienced high temperature rising phenomena over the last decades and hence, highly vulnerable to climate change. This paper examined the spatial and temporal variations of daily maximum and minimum surface air temperature (Tmin and Tmax) and diurnal temperature range (DTR). It studied variables at monthly, seasonal and annual time-scales from 1961 to 2014. The study applied various statistical methods such as ordinary least-square fitting, Mann-Kendall, Sen’ slope and Sequential Mann-Kendall statistical test to the new reconstructed ENACTS dataset that cover the period from 1983 to 2014 while pre-1983s recorded data from 24 meteorological stations have been added to complete the lengthiness of ENACTS data. The January to February season did not show a significant trend at seasonal time-scales. The authors decided only to consider March-to-May, June-to-August and October-to-December seasons for further analyses. Topography impacts on temperature classified stations into three regions: region one (R1) (1,000–1,500 m), region two (R2) (1,500–2,000 m) and region three (R3) (≥2,000 m). With high confidence, the results indicate a significant positive trend in both Tmin and Tmax in all three regions during the whole study period. However, the magnitude rate of temperatures change is different in three regions and it varies in seasonal and annual scale. The spatial distributions of Tmax and Tmin represent a siginificant warming trend over the whole country notably since the early 1980s. Surprisingly, Tmin increased at a faster rate than Tmax in R3 (0.27 vs. 0.07°C/decade in March-to-May) and (0.29 vs. 0.04°C/decade in October-to-December), resulting in a significant decrease in the DTR. This is another confirmation of warming in Rwanda. The mutation test application exhibited most of the abrupt changes in the seasonal and annual Tmax and Tmin trends between 1984 and 1990. The present work mainly focus on the spatial and temporal variability of Tmin, Tmax and DTR in Rwanda and their relationship with elevation change, leaving a gap in other potential cause factors explored in the future.

High performance hydroxyapatite ceramics and a triply periodic minimum surface structure fabricated by digital light processing 3D printing

High performance hydroxyapatite (HA) ceramics with excellent densification and mechanical properties were successfully fabricated by digital light processing (DLP) three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. It was found that the sintering atmosphere of wet CO2 can dramatically improve the densification process and thus lead to better mechanical properties. HA ceramics with a relative density of 97.12% and a three-point bending strength of 92.4 MPa can be achieved at a sintering temperature of 1300 , which makes a solid foundation for application ℃ in bone engineering. Furthermore, a relatively high compressive strength of 4.09 MPa can be also achieved for a DLP-printed p-cell triply periodic minimum surface (TPMS) structure with a porosity of 74%, which meets the requirement of cancellous bone substitutes. A further cell proliferation test demonstrated that the sintering atmosphere of wet CO2 led to improve cell vitality after 7 days of cell culture Moreover, with the possible benefit from the bio-inspired structure, the 3D-printed TPMS structure significantly improved the cell vitality, which is crucial for early osteogenesis and osteointegration.