Effects of the natural sweetener rebaudioside A on intake, nutrient digestion, rumen fermentation, and blood biochemical parameters in adult goats during summer.

The effects of dietary rebaudioside A inclusion on feed intake, digestion of nutrients, rumen fermentation, and blood biochemical parameters of goats were evaluated in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square study. Nine adult goats during summer were fed a basal forage/concentrate-based diet and the forage was chopped rice straw. The three dietary treatments were 0, 350, and 700 mg rebaudioside A per kg chopped rice straw on a DM basis. No significant improvement was observed in dry matter intake (DMI) of forage and diet among treatments. Nutrient digestibility of DM and organic matter (OM) showed a significant trend (p < .10) across groups. Rebaudioside A inclusion significantly (p < .01) increased the concentration of total volatile fatty acids in the rumen, however, there were no differences in concentration of ruminal ammonia, and molar proportions of acetate, propionate, and butyrate. About blood metabolites, increasing rebaudioside A in the diet caused a quadratic response in glucose and total protein, and albumin concentrations. Under the conditions of this study, supplementation with rebaudioside A at 350 and 700 mg/kg forage did not improve consumption of rice straw-based diet in adult goats in summer. However, the responses in digestibility, rumen fermentation, and blood metabolites appear to indicate the potential of rebaudioside A as a bio-active substance in goats.

[Effects of Long-term Fertilization on Enzyme Activities in Profile of Paddy Soil Profiles].

The enzyme activity, which is closely related to soil material cycling (mineralization, transformation, etc.), can reflect soil quality and nutrient status. In order to explore the effect of long-term fertilization on the enzyme activity in paddy soil profile (0-40 cm), soils with organic fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer, and non-fertilized soils were selected, and the carbon and nitrogen contents, and the activities of ß-1,4-glucosidase (BG), and ß-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) in 10cm depths of soil were analyzed. The results showed that the activities of BG and NAG in the soils treated with inorganic fertilizer and organic fertilizer increased by 0.73-47.87 nmol·(g·h)-1 and 1.33-128.81 nmol·(g·h)-1, and 0.19-9.72 nmol·(g·h)-1 and 0.92-57.66 nmol·(g·h)-1, respectively, compared to those for non-fertilized soil. Soil enzyme activity decreased with increasing soil depth. Soil enzyme activity in soil from 0-20 cm was significantly higher than that of soil from 20-40 cm. Soil enzyme activities were significantly affected by long term fertilization at different soil depths. RDA analysis showed that soil carbon and nitrogen contents had significant positive relationships with the activities of BG and NAG in the 0-20 cm soil profiles, however, negative relationships were observed in the 20-40 cm soil profiles. The long-term application of organic fertilizer significantly increased soil biomass and enzyme activity, both of which decreased with the increase in soil depth. Long-term fertilization could increase soil nutrient contents, microbial biomass, and extracellular enzyme activities, which has important theoretical significance for optimizing farmland fertilizer management and improving soil productivity.

[Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Biologically-based Phosphorus Fractions in the Farmland Soil].

A suitable fractionation method of phosphorus (P) is a key to effective assessment of soil P componential features. Here a new biologically-based P (BBP) method was used to evaluate the P fractions in the upland and paddy soils across large-scale area in China. The soil P was divided into four components:① soluble or rhizosphere-intercepted (CaCl2-P), ② organic acid activated and inorganic weakly bound (Citrate-P), ③ enzyme mineralization of organic P (Enzyme-P), ④ potential activation of inorganic P (HCl-P). Then, the relationships between biologically-based P fractions and standard Olsen-P were investigated, and driving factors of P fractions were identified. The results showed that P content was in order of HCl-P>Citrate-P>Enzyme-P>CaCl2-P. All P components of upland soil displayed higher levels than those of paddy soil. Moreover, the P components were highly positively correlated with the Olsen-P, suggesting that each P component contributed to soil P availability. However, it was found that Olsen-P was most highly correlated with CaCl2-P and Enzyme-P (R2=0.359; R2=0.386) in upland soil, while Olsen-P was most highly with Citrate-P (R2=0.788) in paddy soil. This result indicated that available P of upland soil was mainly from organic P mineralization and soluble P, and available P in paddy soil was mainly from inorganic P activation. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that the P components were mainly affected by soil pH and silt content, which suggested that it could enhance the P availability via regulating soil pH in the agricultural activities.

[Application of magnetic materials in analysis on Chinese herb medicines].

China is the cradle of Chinese herb medicines,with rich plant resources. However, traditional processing methods have many disadvantages, such as high comsumption of organic solvent, long extraction time and high loss of effective constituents. For the purpose of rational use of Chinese herb medicines and accurate analysis on their constituents,the sample pre-treatment method with magnetic nanoparticles as the carrier brought new opportunities in recent years. after consulting literatures,the essay summarizes traditional extraction methods of Chinese herb medicines, characteristics of magnetic materials and their application in the analysis on Chinese herb medicines.

[Effects of mulching and intercropping on temporal-spatial variation of soil temperature in tea plantation in subtropical hilly region].

The study of four years straw mulching and white clover intercropping in a tea plantation in subtropical hilly region showed that the soil temperature in the plantation presented a distinct dynamic temporal-spatial variation and hysteresis, which was greatly accorded with the fittest temperature of tea growth. Straw mulching and white clover intercropping altered the nature of soil thermal exchanging layer (soil surface), decreased daily temperature difference, enhanced the temperature stability in the same soil layer, and had duplex effects of lowering temperature when it went up and increasing and keeping temperature when it went down. The effectiveness was in the order of white clover intercropping > straw mulching > control, 13:00 > 19:00 >7:00,and lowering temperature > increasing and keeping temperature, and decreased with soil depth. Straw mulching and white clover intercropping adjusted the switching point of the temporal-spatial variation of soil temperature, and evidently decreased the emergence of harmful high temperature. During the period of continual high temperature, these measures markedly lowered soil temperature, and effectively shortened the duration of this period.