Monensin for lactating dairy cows grazing mixed-alfalfa pasture and supplemented with partial mixed ration

The effect of monensin on milk production was evaluated in 58 lactating Holstein cows (48 multiparous; 10 primiparous) grazing a mixed-alfalfa pasture and supplemented with a partial mixed ration in a completely randomized design with repeated measurements. Cows were paired by calving date, lactation number, previous lactation milk production, body weight, and body condition score and were assigned to one of 2 treatments: control or monensin. Cows on the monensin treatment received 2 monensin controlled-release capsules (335 mg/d for 90 d), one 30 d before the expecting calving date and the other 60 d after calving. Short-term (0 to 150 d in milk) and long-term (305-d adjusted lactation) effects of monensin were evaluated. Pasture (measured by difference between pre- and postgrazing pasture mass), supplements, and total dry matter intake did not differ between treatments and averaged 8.7, 14.1, and 22.9 kg/d, respectively. In the short-term, monensin increased milk production (27.7 vs. 26.6 kg/d) and milk protein yield (0.890 vs. 0.860 kg/d); milk fat yield was not affected (0.959 kg/d). Monensin decreased milk fat content (3.51 vs. 3.60%) with no changes in milk protein content (3.25%). In the long term, milk production and milk protein yield were also increased by monensin: 214 and 7 kg, respectively. Monensin reduced the loss of body condition score and increased percentage of pregnancy at first service (44.8 vs. 20.7%). Monensin improves production and reproduction performance of dairy cows grazing a mixed-alfalfa pasture and supplemented with a partial mixed ration.     

Leptin,Acting at Central Level,Increases FGF21 Expression in White Adipose Tissue via PPARβ/δ

The altered function of adipose tissue can result in obesity, insulin resistance, and its metabolic complications. Leptin, acting on the central nervous system, modifies the composition and function of adipose tissue. To date, the molecular changes that occur in epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) during chronic leptin treatment are not fully understood. Herein we aimed to address whether PPARβ/δ could mediate the metabolic actions induced by leptin in eWAT. To this end, male 3-month-old Wistar rats, infused intracerebroventricularly (icv) with leptin (0.2 μg/day) for 7 days, were daily co-treated intraperitoneally (ip) without or with the specific PPARβ/δ receptor antagonist GSK0660 (1 mg/kg/day). In parallel, we also administered GSK0660 to control rats fed ad libitum without leptin infusion. Leptin, acting at central level, prevented the starvation-induced increase in circulating levels of FGF21, while induced markedly the endogenous expression of FGF21 and browning markers of eWAT. Interestingly, GSK0660 abolished the anorectic effects induced by icv leptin leading to increased visceral fat mass and reduced browning capacity. In addition, the pharmacological inhibition of PPARβ/δ alters the immunomodulatory actions of central leptin on eWAT. In summary, our results demonstrate that PPARβ/δ is involved in the up-regulation of FGF21 expression induced by leptin in visceral adipose tissue.     

Face recognition using a permutation coding neural classifier

Face recognition is an important security task. We propose a high-level method to solve this problem: a permutation coding neural classifier (PCNC). A PCNC with a special feature extractor for face image recognition systems is a relatively new method that has been tested with good results to classify real environment images (such as larvae of various types and handmade elements). As baseline methods, a support vector machine (SVM) and the iterative closest point (ICP) method are selected for comparison. We applied these methods to gray-level images from the FRAV3D face database. Fifteen experiments were performed to examine a large set of training and testing conditions. As a general result, it was observed that errors are lower with the PCNC than with the SVM and the ICP classifier. We aggregated various distortions for the initial images to improve the PCNC. We analyze and discuss the obtained results.     

Radical copolymerization studies of an amphiphilic macromonomer derived from Triton X-100. Reactivity ratios determination by in situ quantitative H NMR monitoring

This article deals with the estimation of the reactivity of a novel methacrylic macromonomer with amphiphilic character derived from Triton X-100 (MT) in radical copolymerisation reaction with acrylic acid (AA). Two approaches to estimate the reactivity ratio of the macromonomer are described. The first involves the use of the Jaacks equation valid for systems with a large excess of one of the comonomers and leads to r_AA=0.31. The second method uses a low molecular weight model monomer (MTm) that reproduces the chemical structure of the macromonomer. A non-linear fitting of the experimental data of the system MTm-AA to an integrated form of the copolymerisation equation which describes the terminal model postulated by Mayo and Lewis, gave reactivity ratio values of r_MTm=2.5 and r_AA=0.30. The results obtained from the two estimations suggest that methacrylic double bond reactivity is not affected by poly(oxyethylene oxide) chain length. In situ quantitative ¹H NMR analysis was used to monitor monomer consumption and therefore to follow the course of the copolymerisation reaction in both approaches.     

On-line thermal dependence study of the main solar cell electrical photoconversion parameters using low thermal emission lamps

This paper presents a non-conventional methodology and an instrumental system to measure the effect of temperature on the photovoltaic properties of solar cells. The system enables the direct measurement of the evolution of open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current intensity in relation to a continuously decreasing temperature. The system uses a high-intensity white light-emitting diode light source with low emissions of radiation in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, resulting in a reduced heating of the photovoltaic devices by the irradiation source itself. To check the goodness of the system and the methodology designed, several measurements were performed with monocrystalline silicon solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, and thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells, showing similar tendencies to those reported in the literature.     

On the mobile‐to‐mobile linear time‐variant shallow‐water acoustic channel response

We expose some concepts concerning the channel impulse response (CIR) of linear time‐varying (LTV) channels to give a proper characterization of the mobile‐to‐mobile underwater channel. We find different connections between the linear time‐invariant (LTI) CIR of the static channel and 2 definitions of LTV CIRs of the dynamic mobile‐to‐mobile channel. These connections are useful to design a dynamic channel simulator from the static channel models available in the literature. Such feature is particularly interesting for overspread channels, which are hard to characterize by a measuring campaign. Specifically, the shallow water acoustic (SWA) channel is potentially overspread because of the signal low velocity of propagation, which prompts long delay spread responses and great Doppler effect. Furthermore, from these connections between the LTI static CIRs and the LTV dynamic CIRs, we find that the SWA mobile‐to‐mobile CIR does not only depend on the relative speed between transceivers, but also on the absolute speed of each of them referred to the velocity of propagation. Nevertheless, publications about this topic do not consider it and formulate their equations in terms of the relative speed between transceivers. We illustrate our find using 2 couples of examples where, even though the relative speed between the mobiles is the same, their CIRs are not.     

Environmental performance of ceramic tiles: Improvement proposals

Ceramic tile is one of the most widely used materials in construction. Due to the increased demand for environmentally responsible construction and the ever more restrictive environmental requirements derived from the legislation, there is a need for a tool to enable the environmental behaviour of such material to be evaluated. By the application of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, this study is focused on calculating indicators capable of measuring the environmental behaviour of ceramic tiles. Taking the production of 1 m² of ceramic as a functional unit, the aim was to perform a life cycle inventory that covers all the stages from mining the red clay and atomising it to glaze manufacture and the production of the ceramic tiles and their delivery to customers. Next, the stages/materials/processes that have the greatest impact were identified, and a series of improvements were proposed with a view to enhancing the energetic efficiency of the firing process and minimising the emissions into the atmosphere, while at the same time reducing the noise pollution resulting from the pressing process. The environmental and economic feasibility of such a improvements was also studied.