There is interest in identifying natural products capable of manipulating rumen microbial activity to develop new feed additives for ruminant nutrition as a strategy to reduce methane. Two trials ...were performed using the in vitro gas production technique to evaluate the interaction of substrate (n = 5) and additive (n = 6, increasing doses: 0, 0.3, 3, 30, and 300 µL/L of essential oils-EO-of
or
, and monensin at 1.87 mg/L). The two EO utilized were selected because they differ markedly in their chemical composition, especially in the proportion of oxygenated compounds. For both EO, the interaction between the substrate and additive was significant for all variables; however, the interaction behaved differently for the two EO. Within each substrate, the response was dose-dependent, without effects at a low level of EO and a negative outcome at the highest dose. The intermediate dose (30 µL/L) inhibited methane with a slight reduction on substrate digestibility, with
being more effective than
. It is concluded that the effectiveness of the EO to reduce methane production depends on interactions between the substrate that is fermented and the additive dose that generates different characteristics within the incubation medium (e.g., pH); and thus, the chemical nature of the compounds of the EO modulates the magnitude of this response.
Purpose
Prolonged weightlessness exposure generates cardiovascular deconditioning, with potential implications on ECG circadian rhythms. Head-down (− 6°) tilt (HDT) bed rest is a ground-based ...analogue model for simulating the effects of reduced motor activity and fluids redistribution occurring during spaceflight. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of 60-day HDT on the circadianity of RR and ventricular repolarization (QTend) intervals extracted from 24-h Holter ECG recordings, scheduled 9 days before HDT (BDC-9), the 5th (HDT5), 21st (HDT21) and 58th (HDT58) day of HDT, the 1st (R + 0) and 8th (R + 7) day after HDT. Also, the effectiveness of a nutritional countermeasure (CM) in mitigating the HDT-related changes was tested.
Methods
RR and QTend circadian rhythms were evaluated by Cosinor analysis, resulting in maximum and minimum values, MESOR (a rhythm-adjusted mean), oscillation amplitude (OA, half variation within a night–day cycle), and acrophase (
φ
, the time at which the fitting sinusoid’s amplitude is maximal) values.
Results
RR and QTend MESOR increased at HDT5, and the OA was reduced along the HDT period, mainly due to the increase of the minima. At R + 0, QTend OA increased, particularly in the control group. The
φ
slightly anticipated during HDT and was delayed at R + 0.
Conclusion
60-Day HDT affects the characteristics of cardiac circadian rhythm by altering the physiological daily cycle of RR and QTend intervals. Scheduled day–night cycle and feeding time were maintained during the experiment, thus inferring the role of changes in the gravitational stimulus to determine these variations. The applied nutritional countermeasure did not show effectiveness in preventing such changes.
Purpose
Farming production in the lower part of Río Negro Valley (Argentina) has increased considerably during recent years, causing soil degradation and, specifically, decreasing the organic matter ...contents. This fact requires recovery measures, as organic amendments for soils, to improve its quality. The marked objectives for the present research is to evaluate compost as organic fertilizer, based on a mix of onion waste and bovine manure.
Methods
The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design, involving five treatments and one control, with ten copies of each one. Tests were performed in a greenhouse, using flowerpots and experimental plots, in a typical soil of the region (Aridisol), pH 8.3 and 2.2% of organic matter, mixed with different compost dosages (20, 40, 60 and 80 Mg ha
−1
) and the chemical treatment, Urea (0.26 Mg ha
−1
). A horticultural farming of 1 lettuce was sowed (
Lactuca sativa
). A conventional handling was carried out for the whole cultivation period, and at the end was harvested. Ten plants per plot were taken and were determined total fresh weight, aerial part fresh weight, root part fresh eight. In the dry controls total dry weight, aerial dry weight and root dry weight was determined.
Results
Results show, with an error (
p
< 0.05), significant differences in the fresh weight per plant calculated, between treatments and control; a noticeably greater effect can be observed in the treatments with 6 and 8 kg m
−2
compost amending and urea treatment. There is no evidence of the existence of significant differences (
p
< 0.05) between treatments and control, according to the values obtained for root size as well as aerial dry weight and root dry matter.
Conclusions
It can be concluded that the addition of organic fertilizer to soils, has positive effect on the Fresh weight of the plant, recommending the use of doses of 6 kg m
−2
while the dose of 8 kg m
−2
could replace the use of chemical fertilizers such as Urea.
The focal-plane module is the key component of the DEPFET sensor with signal compression (DSSC) mega-pixel X-ray imager and handles the data of 128 <inline-formula> <tex-math ...notation="LaTeX">\times512 </tex-math></inline-formula> pixels. We report on assembly-related aspects, discuss the experimental investigation of bonding behavior of different adhesives, and present the metrology and electrical test results of the production. The module consists of two silicon (Si) sensors with flip-chip connected CMOS integrated circuits, a Si-heat spreader, a low-temperature co-fired ceramics circuit board, and a molybdenum frame. A low-modulus urethane-film adhesive fills the gaps between on-board components and frame. It is also used between board and heat spreader, reduces the misfit strain, and minimizes the module warpage very efficiently. The heat spreader reduces the on-board temperature gradient by about one order of magnitude. The placement precision of the bare modules to each other and the frame is characterized by a standard deviation below 10 and 65 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. The displacement due to the in-plane rotation and vertical tilting errors remains below 80 and 50 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively. The deflection of the sensor plane shows a mean value below 30 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> with a standard deviation below 15 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula>. Less than 4% of the application-specified integrated circuits (ASICs) exhibit a malfunction. More than two-thirds of the sensors have a maximum leakage current below 1 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{A} </tex-math></inline-formula>.
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