Assessment of nutritive value of cereal and legume straws based on chemical composition and in vitro digestibility

The nutritive value of 17 straws was determined on the basis of their chemical composition, in vitro dry matter (DM) digestibility and rumen fermentation kinetics (from gas production curves measured in vitro). Five roughages were from the cereal species Avena sativa (oat), Hordeum vulgare (barley), Secale cereale (rye), Triticum aestivum (wheat) and Zea mays (maize stover). The other 12 samples were legume straws, two samples from each of the species Cicer arietinum (chickpea), Lens culinaris (lentil) and Phaseolus vulgaris (bean) and one sample from each of the species Lathyrus sativus (chickling vetch), Lupinus albus (white lupin), Pisum sativum (field pea), Vicia articulata (one‐flowered vetch), Vicia ervilia (bitter vetch) and Vicia sativa (common vetch). All samples were collected after harvesting from different farms located in León (northwestern Spain). Based on their chemical composition, digestibility and gas production characteristics, species could be clustered into two groups with a significant linkage distance, one for cereal straws that merged at a level of similarity of 80% and the other for legume straws with a degree of similarity of 50%. Species varied widely and significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed between the two groups of straws. Legume straws showed higher crude protein (74 ± 6.1 vs 29 ± 2.2 g kg^?1 DM) and lower fibre (584 ± 18.1 vs 793 ± 27.5 g neutral detergent fibre kg^?1 DM) contents than cereal straws and, consequently, DM digestibility coefficients (0.670 vs 0.609; standard error of difference 0.0054) and metabolisable energy values (7.4 ± 0.15 vs 5.7 ± 0.24 MJ kg^?1 DM) were significantly greater in legume than in cereal straws. Although there were noticeable differences among species within each botanical family, legume straws showed better nutritional quality than cereal straws, indicating that they could be considered promising and interesting sources of roughage for incorporation into ruminant diets. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

DNB in liquid metal heated forced convection boiling

An experimental program was performed to investigate departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) in a flow boiling system heated by a liquid metal flow. The boiling fluid, freon 12, was circulated vertically upward and was heated by countercurrent flowing mercury. Magnitudes and trends of the heat flux and quality at DNB were compared to data obtained on a similar experimental facility employing uniform electrical heating of the test section wall. The results show that at a given quality, the magnitude of the DNB heat flux is larger in the case of uniform electrical heating. This result is not predicted by a DNB correlation based on data obtained from electrically heated test sections employing uniform and non-uniform axial heat flux distributions. It is demonstrated that the DNB phenomenon in a temperature controlled system (liquid metal heated) may not be well predicted from correlations based on data (uniformly or nonuniformly heated) obtained from heat flux controlled systems (electrically heated).     

Technique based on LED multispectral imaging and multivariate analysis for monitoring the conservation state of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The aim of this project is the development of a noninvasive technique based on LED multispectral imaging (MSI) for monitoring the conservation state of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) collection. It is well-known that changes in the parchment reflectance drive the transition of the scrolls from legible to illegible. Capitalizing on this fact, we will use spectral imaging to detect changes in the reflectance before they become visible to the human eye. The technique uses multivariate analysis and statistical process control theory. The present study was carried out on a "sample" parchment of calfskin. The monitoring of the surface of a commercial modern parchment aged consecutively for 2 h and 6 h at 80 °C and 50% relative humidity (ASTM) was performed at the Imaging Lab of the Library of Congress (Washington, DC, U.S.A.). MSI is here carried out in the vis-NIR range limited to 1 μm, with a number of bands of 13 and bandwidths that range from about 10 nm in UV to 40 nm in IR. Results showed that we could detect and locate changing pixels, on the basis of reflectance changes, after only a few "hours" of aging.     

ADSORPTION AT CRYSTAL FACES1

The growth of crystals and adsorption at crystal faces are important factors in many ceramic processes. In order to understand the mechanism of such growth and adsorption it is necessary to study the growth velocities of single crystals. The present paper concerns itself with the growth and solution of single copper sulphate crystals in the presence of gelatin and dyes.     

ADSORPTION AT CRYSTAL-SOLUTION INTERFACES

The present work is a continuation of the study of adsorption processes at solution-crystal interfaces. It consists of an investigation of the adsorption of dyes and gelatin by the various faces of potassium alum. The growth ratios of this alum were measured both in the presence and absence of the dyes and gelatin. It was found that Bismarck Brown and Diamine Sky Blue greatly affected the growth rates of the cube faces and also modified the crystal habit. This effect is explained on the basis of the ionic structure of the faces and the presence of polar groups in the dyes. The growth ratio V₁₀₀/V₁₁₁ for pure potassium alum was found to be 1.61.     

Neodymium-doped fluoro-zirconate fibre laser

We report for the first time lasing in a multimoded neodymium-doped fluoro-zirconate fibre. Close to threshold we observe a single line of less than 1 a?ngstrom width. The threshold is high and efficiency is low, but we believe that significant improvements will be achieved with single-mode geometry.