Dry powders containing a live-attenuated Newcastle disease vaccine (LZ58 strain) and intended for mass vaccination of poultry were prepared by spray drying using mannitol in combination with trehalose or inositol, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and/or bovine serum albumin (BSA) as stabilizers. These powders were evaluated for vaccine stabilizing capacity during production and storage (at 6 °C and 2...

An accurate, rapid, and convenient method is presented for moisture content (MC) 10 determination of solid wood based on dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Poly(methyl methacrylate)-equivalent thicknesses (PMMA-EThs) of sugi (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) wood blocks and pure water were measured by means of a wide range of X-ray tube voltages (20–100 kV). The ratio of the PMMA-ETh of pure w...

It is widely known that variation of the C/N ratio is dependent on many state variables during composting processes. This study attempted to develop a genetic algorithm aided stepwise cluster analysis (GASCA) method to describe the nonlinear relationships between the selected state variables and the C/N ratio in food waste composting. The experimental data from six bench-scale composting reacto...

BACKGROUND The tremendous supply and low cost of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) make it an attractive feedstuff for aquaculture diets. Also, several studies have shown that DDGS can be successfully fed to various finfish. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of inclusion rate of DDGS (0, 250, 500 g kg(-1) ), feed moisture content (350, 450 g kg(-1) ) and die ope...

The objective of this paper is to present the contribution of a new dielectric constant characterisation for the modelling of radar backscattering behaviour. Our analysis is based on a large number of radar measurements acquired during different experimental campaigns (Orgeval'94, Pays de Caux'98, 99). We propose a dielectric constant model, based on the combination of contributions from both s...

A series of experiments of shallow and strong smouldering fronts in boreal peat have been conducted under laboratory conditions to study the CO and CO2 emissions. Peat samples of 100 mm by 100 mm in cross section and 50 mm in depth were smouldered in the cone calorimeter apparatus. Two laboratory variables, moisture content and the external heat flux are varied over a wide range of values to es...

The biogeographical distribution of soil bacterial communities has been widely investigated. However, there has been little study of the biogeography of soil archaeal communities on a regional scale. Here, using high-throughput sequencing, we characterized the archaeal communities of 94 soil samples across the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Thaumarchaeota was the predominant archael phylum in all the...

Leaf water potential, leaf relative water content, and relative transpiration of barley were determined daily under greenhouse conditions at 3 growth stages: tillering to boot, boot to heading, and heading to maturity. The leaf moisture characteristic curve (relative water content versus leaf water potential) was the same for leaves of the same age growing in the same environment for the first ...

Upon an increase of moisture, unsaturated soil may collapse or swell, depending on the loading state and history. This important characteristic must be realistically reproduced by a constitutive model aimed for practical applications. In addition to collapse/swelling, other essential features, such as deformation and failure following arbitrary shearing paths, must also be realistically reprodu...