Effect of replacing conventional feeds with tropical agricultural by-products on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility and ruminal microbiota of water buffaloes.

This study investigated the effect of replacing corn grain, soybean meal and wheat bran with tropical agricultural by-products, such as palm kernel cake (PKC), cassava residue and dried distiller's grain with solubles (DDGS), on the dry matter intake (DMI), growth performance, apparent nutrient digestibility, ruminal short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and ruminal microbial communities of water buffaloes. Thirty healthy 15-month-old crossbred water buffaloes with a similar initial body weight of 353.1 ± 23.7 kg were randomly allocated into three dietary experimental groups, and they were fed with same forage but three different concentrates for 50 days fattening. The dietary treatments were as following: typical concentrate (TC, 65% corn + 15% wheat bran + 15% soybean meal), partial replacement concentrate Ⅰ (PRC I, 50% corn + 22.5% corn gluten + 22.5% PKC) and partial replacement concentrate Ⅱ (PRC II, 50% corn + 22.5% cassava residue + 22.5% DDGS). The results showed that the average daily gain of the PRC II group was the highest, and the DMI, acid detergent fibre digestibility and neutral detergent fibre digestibility value of the three groups were different and in the following order: PRC II group > TC group > PRC I group. The crude protein digestibility of PRC II was higher than that of the TC and PRC I groups (p < .05). The ruminal concentrations of total SCFA, acetate, propionate and butyrate of TC group were higher than the other two groups (p < .05). The PRC I group had the highest Bacteroidetes-to-Firmicutes ratio (B/F) and relative abundance of the genus Prevotella, while the PRC II group had the lowest B/F and relative abundance of Prevotella. In conclusion, using PKC and corn gluten to completely replace common feed ingredients in the buffalo concentrate ration decreased, while using cassava residue and DDGS increased animal growth performance, mainly due to the different combination influenced nutrient digestibility and ruminal microbial community composition was shifted.

A comparative study on rumen ecology of water buffalo and cattle calves under similar feeding regime.

In all, 12 male water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) calves and Holstein (Bos taurus) calves of similar age (10 ± 5 days) were selected to explore the mechanism underlying the differences in growth performance and feed conversion ratio between the two species. The experiment contains 33 days of sucking period and 40 days of post-weaning period. Both calves were fed the same amounts of milk in sucking period, and starter and oat grass were supplied ad libitum both before and after the weaning period. Feed intake, growth performance, ruminal fermentation parameters and the ruminal microbial community were measured the during experiment period. Results showed no differences in growth performance and feed intake between the two species in sucking period; however, the feed/gain ratio (F/G) of the water buffalo was higher than that of Holstein calve (p > 0.05). After weaning, the intake of starter by the Holstein calf was higher while intake of grass by the water buffalo was higher resulting in higher growth performance of and a lower F/G ratio for Holstein (p < 0.05). The rumen of Holstein calf showed higher levels of propionate, lower levels of acetate and branched-chain fatty acids than that of water buffalo during both periods (p < 0.05). The rumen of water buffalo showed a higher number of observed bacterial species and Shannon diversity as compared with that of Holstein calf. The members belonging to the bacterial phylum Bacteroides and genus Prevotella in the rumen of Holstein calf were higher (p < 0.05), while Firmicutes and fibrolytic bacteria Ruminobacter and Ruminococcus were lower (p < 0.05) than that of water buffalo. In conclusion, the water buffalo calves demonstrated clearly of having significant population of bacterial community and better fibre digestion than those of cattle calves.

A Novel Application of Phosphorene as a Flame Retardant.

Black phosphorene-waterborne polyurethane (BPWPU) composite polymer with 0.2 wt % of black phosphorene was synthesized. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of phosphorene in polyurethane matrix, which indicated that the phosphorene distributes uniformly in the PU matrix. The flammability measurements were carried out to investigate the flame-resistant performances of phosphorene, which indicated that phosphorene could effectively restrict the degradation of the PU membrane. Compared by the pure WPU, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) of BPWPU increased by 2.6%, the heat flow determined by thermal analysis significantly decreased by 34.7% moreover, the peak heat release rate (PHRR) decreased by 10.3%.

Fluorinated hyperbranched polyurethane electrospun nanofibrous membrane: fluorine-enriching surface and superhydrophobic state with high adhesion to water.

The fluorination of hyperbranched polyurethane (HPU) was achieved by atom transfer radical grafting polymerization (ATRgP) of dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate that was initiated from 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide-modified end groups of HPU. The nanofibrous membrane of fluorinated HPU was prepared by electrospinning. The structure of fluorinated HPU was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum (1H NMR). The surface of nanofibrous membrane was investigated with scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and water contact angle (WCA) analysis, respectively. The results suggested that compared with the reported linear fluorine-containing polyurethane materials, rather high fluorine content up to 29.14% was achieved on the surface of fluorinated HPU nanofibrous membrane. Meanwhile, a superhydrophobic surface (WCA 159.7°) with high adhesion to water was successfully fabricated via a convenient electrospinning process. The prepared material is promising for the application in microfluidic devices.

Regulation of sleep by neuropeptide Y-like system in Drosophila melanogaster.

Sleep is important for maintenance of normal physiology in animals. In mammals, neuropeptide Y (NPY), a homolog of Drosophila neuropeptide F (NPF), is involved in sleep regulation, with different effects in human and rat. However, the function of NPF on sleep in Drosophila melanogaster has not yet been described. In this study, we investigated the effects of NPF and its receptor-neuropeptide F receptor (NPFR1) on Drosophila sleep. Male flies over-expressing NPF or NPFR1 exhibited increased sleep during the nighttime. Further analysis demonstrated that sleep episode duration during nighttime was greatly increased and sleep latency was significantly reduced, indicating that NPF and NPFR1 promote sleep quality, and their action on sleep is not because of an impact of the NPF signal system on development. Moreover, the homeostatic regulation of flies after sleep deprivation was disrupted by altered NPF signaling, since sleep deprivation decreased transcription of NPF in control flies, and there were less sleep loss during sleep deprivation and less sleep gain after sleep deprivation in flies overexpressing NPF and NPFR1 than in control flies, suggesting that NPF system auto-regulation plays an important role in sleep homeostasis. However, these effects did not occur in females, suggesting a sex-dependent regulatory function in sleep for NPF and NPFR1. NPF in D1 brain neurons showed male-specific expression, providing the cellular locus for male-specific regulation of sleep by NPF and NPFR1. This study brings a new understanding into sleep studies of a sexually dimorphic regulatory mode in female and male flies.