Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are expected to cause global warming which results in extreme weather changes that could affect crop yields and productivity, food supplies and food prices. It is also ...expected that climate change will have an impact on animal metabolism and health, reproduction and productivity. On the other hand, the expected increased demand of animal origin products in the coming years will increase the reared animal numbers and consequently GHG emissions. This paper outlines the main GHGs emitted from livestock which are CO2, CH4 and N2O, coming from respiration, enteric fermentation and manure management respectively, with CH4 and N2O having the highest global warming potential. Ruminant livestock has the highest contribution to these GHG emissions with small ruminants share being 12.25% of the total GHG emissions from livestock's enteric and manure CH4, and manure N2O in CO2 equivalent, producing 9.45 kg CO2 equivalent per kg body weight with the respective values for cattle, pigs and poultry being 5.45, 3.97 and 3.25. Since the production systems significantly affect the GHG emissions, the grazing, livestock crop complex, and intensive ones account for 30.5%, 67.29% and 5.51% for total CH4 emission (from enteric fermentation and manure management) and 24.32%, 68.11% and 7.57% for N2O respectively. Taking into account the positive and negative impacts of small ruminant livestock production systems to the environmental aspects in general, it is recommended that a number of potentially effective measures should be taken and the appropriate mitigation technologies should be applied in order to reduce effectively and essentially the GHG emissions to the atmosphere, with no adverse effects on intensification and increased productivity of small ruminants production systems.
► Ruminants have higher GHG emissions compared to monogastrics. ► Feeding system and manure management are the main factors affecting GHG emissions. ► Beef has the largest footprint followed by lamb, pork, chicken and milk. ► Grazing and livestock crop complex systems have higher carbon footprint than intensive. ► Mitigation strategies can be applied to livestock farming systems to reduce GHG.
We present results from the first demonstration of a fully integrated SDN-controlled bandwidth-flexible and programmable SDM optical network utilizing sliceable self-homodyne spatial superchannels to ...support dynamic bandwidth and QoT provisioning, infrastructure slicing and isolation. Results show that SDN is a suitable control plane solution for the high-capacity flexible SDM network. It is able to provision end-to-end bandwidth and QoT requests according to user requirements, considering the unique characteristics of the underlying SDM infrastructure.
A large number of factors generate uncertainty on traffic demands and requirements. In order to deal with uncertainty optical nodes and networks are equipped with flexibility. In this context, we ...define several types of flexibility and propose a method, based on entropy maximization, to quantitatively evaluate the flexibility provided by optical node components, subsystems, and architectures. Using this method we demonstrate the equivalence, in terms of switching flexibility, of finer spectrum granularity, and faster reconfiguration rate. We also show that switching flexibility is closely related to bandwidth granularity. The proposed method is used to derive formulae for the switching flexibility of key optical node components and the switching and architectural flexibility of four elastic optical node configurations. The elastic optical nodes presented provide various degrees of flexibility and functionality that are discussed in the paper, from flexible spectrum switching to adaptive architectures that support elastic switching of frequency, time, and spatial resources plus on-demand spectrum defragmentation. We further complement this analysis by experimentally demonstrating flexible time, spectrum, and space switching plus dynamic architecture reconfiguration. The implemented architectures support continuous and subwavelength heterogeneous signals with bitrates ranging from 190 Mb/s, for a subwavelength channel, to 555 Gb/s for a multicarrier superchannel. Results show good performance and the feasibility of implementing the architecture-on-demand concept.
The antioxidant activity of meat treated (homogenized) with oregano and sage essential oils, during meat storage, was determined using the following assays: a thiobarbituric acid (TBA) assay, a ...diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and a crocin assay. Porcine and bovine ground meat samples were divided into three experimental treatments, namely: control (no antioxidant), oregano (oregano essential oil 3% w/w) and sage (sage essential oil 3% w/w). Subsequently, the samples from each treatment were stored at 4
°C, in the raw and cooked (at 85
°C for 30
min) state, and the antioxidant activity was determined after 1, 4, 8 and 12 days of storage. The results showed that the essential oil treatments significantly reduced the oxidation, while the heat treatment and storage time significantly affected the antioxidant activity of the meat. The role of antioxidants appeared to be much more important in cooked meat than raw and the meat proteins greatly affected the antioxidant activity.
Greek protected designation of origin (PDO) cheeses are well-known for their quality and nutritive value. One hundred and twelve samples from 21 Greek PDO cheeses, a non-PDO and a potential PDO were ...analyzed for fatty acid (FA) profile and several physicochemical parameters including moisture, fat on dry matter (FDM), protein content, pH and salt content. Analyzed hard and semi-hard cheeses were Sfela, Kefalograviera, Kasseri, Ladotyri Mytilinis, Formaella Arachovas Parnassou, Graviera Agrafon, Graviera Kritis, Metsovone, Graviera Naxou, Mastelo, Batzos and San Michali. Soft, spread and whey cheeses included Kopanisti, Xynomyzithra Kritis, White cheese, Kalathaki Limnou, Manouri, Feta, Xygalo Siteias, Galotyri, Katiki Domokou, Pichtogalo Chanion and Anevato. The profile of 37 FAs combined with physiochemical properties was utilized to discriminate cheeses by label (cheese identity), cheese type (hard, semi-hard, soft, spread and whey) and milk type (cow, goat, sheep and combinations). The study found that Sfela had the highest salinity, Manouri the highest FDM and San Michali the highest content of proteins. Regarding FAs, the dominant ones in almost all cheeses were C
14:0
, C
16:0
, C
18:0
and
cis-9
C
18:1
. For classification concerning cheese identity, the most significant parameters were moisture, fat, C
18:2n-6c
, pH and salt. The most significant discriminants by cheese type were pH, moisture, FDM, salt and C
16:0
while C
10:0
, C
11:0
, C
14:1
, C
18:2n-6c
, C
20:0
, C
20:3n-6
and saturated FAs were more influential to separate by milk type. Results depict the FA profile of Greek PDO cheeses and show that in combination with physicochemical characteristics can be used as authenticity markers.
Software defined networking (SDN) and flexible grid optical transport technology are two key technologies that allow network operators to customize their infrastructure based on application ...requirements and therefore minimizing the extra capital and operational costs required for hosting new applications. In this paper, for the first time we report on design, implementation & demonstration of a novel OpenFlow based SDN unified control plane allowing seamless operation across heterogeneous state-of-the-art optical and packet transport domains. We verify and experimentally evaluate OpenFlow protocol extensions for flexible DWDM grid transport technology along with its integration with fixed DWDM grid and layer-2 packet switching.
A good nutritional strategy for enhancing the bioactive fatty acids (FAs) in goat milk could be the dietary supplementation with a moderate level of a combination of soybean oil with fish oil (SFO). ...Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the effects of a moderate forage diet supplementation with SFO on milk chemical composition and FA profile, as well as on plasma FA. Twelve dairy goats were assigned to two homogenous sub-groups. Treatments involved a control diet without added oil, and a diet supplemented with 55.5g soybean oil and 11.1g fish oil/day/animal. The results showed that SFO diet modifies the milk and plasma FA profile in the absence of any effect on milk fat content and on milk yield. In blood plasma the concentrations of trans-11 C18:2 (VA), cis-9, trans-11 C18:2 CLA, trans-10, cis-12, C18:2 CLA, C20:5n−3 (EPA) and C22:6n−3 (DHA) were significantly higher while those of C14:0, C15:0 C16:0 and C18:0 were lower in goats fed with SFO diet compared to control. The SFO supplementation in goat diet increased the concentrations of VA, cis-9, trans-11 C18:2 CLA, trans-10, cis-12, C18:2 CLA, EPA, DHA, monounsaturated FA (MUFA), polyusaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and n−3 FA and decreased those of short chain FA (SCFA), medium chain FA (MCFA), the saturated/unsaturated ratio and the atherogenicity index value in milk compared with the control. In conclussion, the SFO supplementation at the above levels in a goat diet, with moderate forage to concentrate ratio, improved the milk FA profile from human health standpoint.
Mycotoxin contamination is a common problem on feedstuffs, that can be formed on crops in the field, during harvest, storage, processing or feeding. The scope of the current study was to investigate ...the levels of Aflatoxin B1, Aflatoxin B2, Aflatoxin G1, Aflatoxin G2, Diacetoxyscirpenol, Ochratoxin A, Toxin HT-2, Toxin T-2 and zearalenone in a variety of feedstuffs (maize silage, alfalfa hay, cottonseed cake, corn grain and concentrates) fed to ruminants and the possible contamination of milk though consumption. For this purpose an easy and simple multiresidue LC-MS/MS method without any clean-up step was developed and successfully validated in feed and milk matrices. The LOQ of the method was set at 10 μg/kg for all analytes and 0.05 μg/kg for Aflatoxin M1 and Ochratoxin A in milk. The results showed that 7 cottonseed cake samples, out of 13 were contaminated with Aflatoxin B1 at a level higher than the maximum levels as set by EU Regulations and with Toxin T-2 with values ranging from 8 to 562 μg/kg. Nine maize silages and 6 alfalfa hay samples were contaminated with Aflatoxin G2 at levels higher than the maximum tolerance limit. No mycotoxins or their metabolites were found above the LOQ in any of the analyzed milk samples.
Cytoskeleton-mediated forces regulate the assembly and function of integrin adhesions; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The tripartite IPP complex, comprising ILK, Parvin, and ...PINCH, mediates the integrin-actin link at Drosophila embryo muscle attachment sites (MASs). Here, we demonstrate a developmentally earlier function for the IPP complex: to reinforce integrin-extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion in response to tension. In IPP-complex mutants, the integrin-ECM linkage at MASs breaks in response to intense muscle contractility. Mechanistically, the IPP complex is required to relay force-elicited signals that decelerate integrin turnover at the plasma membrane so that the integrin immobile fraction is adequate to withstand tension. Epistasis analysis shows that alleviation of muscle contractility, downregulation of endocytosis, and enhanced integrin binding to the ECM are sufficient to restore integrin-ECM adhesion and maintain integrin-adhesome organization in IPP-complex mutants. Our findings reveal a role for the IPP complex as an essential mechanosensitive regulatory switch of integrin turnover in vivo.
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•Loss of IPP-complex function weakens integrin-ECM adhesion in Drosophila•Integrin turnover is elevated in muscle attachment sites of IPP-complex mutants•Inhibition of endocytosis restores integrin-ECM adhesion in IPP-complex mutants•IPP complex mediates the force-dependent downregulation of integrin turnover
Vakaloglou et al. show that ILK, Parvin, and PINCH function as a mechanosensitive switch to restrain integrin dynamics at the plasma membrane. As a result, the IPP complex safeguards the amount of integrins amenable to engage in stable cell-matrix interactions and couples intracellular mechanical forces with ECM stiffness in the developing organism.
Selenoproteins and maternal nutrition Pappas, A.C.; Zoidis, E.; Surai, P.F. ...
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,
12/2008, Volume:
151, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element of fundamental importance to health due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive properties attributed to its presence within at least 25 ...selenoproteins (Sel). Sel include but not limited to glutathione peroxidases (GPx1–GPx6), thioredoxin reductases (TrxR1–TrxR3), iodothyronine deiodinases (ID1–ID3), selenophosphate synthetase 2 (SPS2), 15-kDa Sel (Sel15), SelH, SelI, SelK, SelM, SelN, SelO, SelP, SelR, SelS, SelT, SelV, SelW, as well as the 15-kDa Sel (Fep15), SelJ and SelU found in fish. In this review, we describe some of the recent progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of Sel synthesis. The impact of maternal Se intake on offspring is also discussed. The key regulatory point of Sel synthesis is Se itself, which acts predominantly at post-transcriptional levels, although recent findings indicate transcriptional and redox regulation. Maternal nutrition affects the performance and health of the progeny. Both maternal and offspring Se supplementations are essential for the antioxidant protection of the offspring. Prenatal Se supplementation provides an effective antioxidant system that is already in place at the time of birth while, postnatal Se supplementation becomes the main determinant of progeny Se status after the first few days of progeny life.
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