EFFECTS OF DIETARY GLYCINE BETAINE ON BLOOD CHARACTERISTICS AND PORK QUALITY

This study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary glycine betaine on pork quality and blood characteristics. A total of 80 female pigs (Landrace  ×  Yorkshire  ×  Duroc) were randomly allotted into one of four experimental diet groups. Each group of pigs fed with a commercial diet (control) added with 0.2 g glycine betaine (T1), 0.4 g glycine betaine (T2) and 0.6 g glycine betaine (T3)/kg diet during 40 days. Glycine betaine concentrations in plasma and loin muscle were significantly increased by dietary glycine betaine; however, triglyceride concentration in serum was decreased by dietary glycine betaine. Creatine phosphokinase concentrations in plasma had no significant difference among the dietary groups. Redness ( a* ) was significantly higher in T2 and T3; however, at the first and seventh days of storage, redness ( a* ) was not significantly different between dietary groups. Shear force was significantly higher in dietary glycine betaine groups at the first day of storage. Cholesterol content was significantly lower in T2 and T3, whereas T1 was not significantly different compared with the control group. In fatty acid composition, the ratio of saturated fatty acids was increased, whereas unsaturated fatty acids were decreased by dietary glycine betaine.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Glycine betaine is an amino acid (trimethylglycine) present in most organisms, and is an obligatory intermediate in the catabolism of choline. Glycine betaine has been reported to affect some aspects of pork qualities. As a result of this study, dietary glycine betaine should improve meat redness and reduce cholesterol. However, dietary glycine betaine did not influence creatine phosphokinase levels in plasma. These results will be helpful to the pork industry and meat scientists for improving meat qaulity.     

Feed/Seed比值对好氧生物处理效率的影响

好氧生物反应器的进料物（Feed）是经厌氧作用的消化污泥，而其接种体（Seed）是活性污泥。主要研究了四种Feed／Seed比值（1：0，3：1，1：1和0：1）对好氧生物处理效率的影响。对于Feed／Seed比值为1：0和0：1而言，污泥的TSS和VSS的去除率很低。而另外两种比值的实验结果表明，TSS和VSS的去除率均随Feed／Seed比值的增加而增加。对于Feed／Seed比值为3的生物反应器，28天的TSS和VSS的去除率分别达到了49％和50％。并且TSS和VSS的降解服从一级反应动力学。动力学降解常数（k）也随Feed／Seed比值的增加而增加。而且VSS的去除率略高于TSS。另外，硝化反应的发生导致好氧生物反应器中的硝酸根离子浓度的增加和pH的降低。     

Protein and Amino Acid Profiles in Natural and Artificial Shark Fins using Capillary Electrophoresis

The potential utility of capillary electrophoresis (CE) for differentiation between natural and artificial shark fins was established. Three major protein components (peaks I-III) of shark fins were well-separated and used as parameters for differentiation between natural and artificial shark fins. The height ratio of protein peak III to protein peak I was higher in natural shark fins than that in artificial products. Further, the profile of amino acids in natural dried shark fins was somewhat different from that in artificial samples. The level of tyrosine was especially high (5.11-8.11%) in natural dried shark fins, but low or not detectable (0-0.22%) in artificial samples.     

An improved neural network model for the prediction of cutting tool life

In recent years, the backpropagation neural network has been shown to be a good modelling method for complex problems because of its self-adjusting ability, and the fact that it can be used with small amounts of data. However, some factors in the data may be insignificant and correlated, or there may be some noise present. These phenomena will cause the model to predict inaccurately. In this research, we propose a statistical method to avoid such situations, by screening variables and testing for normality. The model built by using screened variables shows a better fit and yields accurate predictions. To demonstrate the proposed method, we conduct cutting experiments and build cutting tool life models as an example. Then we compare the results of the constructed models among the backward stepwise regression, the neural network and the proposed neural network methods. The proposed neural network method shows the most accurate prediction.     

A hybrid distributed-centralized conflict resolution approach for multi-aircraft based on cooperative co-evolutionary

Conflict resolution （CR） plays a crucial role in safe air traffic management （ATM）. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid distributed-centralized tactical CR approach based on cooperative co-evolutionary named the CCDG （cooperative co-evolutionary with dynamic grouping） strategy to overcome the drawbacks of the current two types of approaches, the totally centralized approach and distributed approach. Firstly, aircraft are divided into several sub-groups based on their interdependence. Besides, a dynamic grouping strategy is proposed to group the aircraft to better deal with the tight coupling among them. The sub-groups are adjusted dynamically as new conflicts appear after each iteration. Secondly, a fast genetic algorithm （GA） is used by each sub-group to optimize the paths of the aircraft simultaneously. Thirdly, the aircraft＇s optimal paths are obtained through cooperation among different sub-groups based on cooperative co-evolutionary （CC）. An experimental study on two illustrative scenarios is conducted to compare the CCDG method with some other existing approaches and it is shown that CCDG which can get the optimal solution effectively and efficiently in near real time, outperforms most of the existing approaches including Stratway, the fast GA, a general evolutionary path planner, as well as three well-known cooperative co-evolution algorithms.