Abomasal infusion of branched-chain amino acids or branched-chain keto-acids alter lactation performance and liver triglycerides in fresh cows

Background Dairy cows are at high risk of fatty liver disease in early lactation,but current preventative measures are not always effective.Cows with fatty liver have lower circulating branched-chain amino acid(BCAA)concentra-tions whereas cows with high circulating BCAA levels have low liver triglyceride(TG).Our objective was to determine the impact of BCAA and their corresponding ketoacids(branched-chain ketoacids,BCKA)on production performance and liver TG accumulation in Holstein cows in the first 3 weeks postpartum.Methods Thirty-six multiparous Holstein cows were used in a randomized block design experiment.Cows were abomasally infused for the first 21 d postpartum with solutions of 1)saline(CON,n=12);2)BCA(67 g valine,50 g leu-cine,and 34 g isoleucine,n=12);and 3)BCK(77 g 2-ketovaline calcium salt,57 g 2-ketoleucine calcium salt,and 39 g 2-ketoisoleucine calcium salt,n=12).All cows received the same diet.Treatment effects were determined using PROC GLIMMIX in SAS.Results No differences were detected for body weight,body condition score,or dry matter intake averaged over the first 21 d postpartum.Cows receiving BCK had significantly lower liver TG concentrations compared to CON(6.60%vs.4.77%,standard error of the mean(SEM)0.49)during the first 3 weeks of lactation.Infusion of BCA increased milk yield(39.5 vs.35.3 kg/d,SEM 1.8),milk fat yield(2.10 vs.1.69 kg/d,SEM 0.08),and lactose yield(2.11 vs.1.67 kg/d,SEM 0.07)compared with CON.Compared to CON,cows receiving BCA had lower plasma glucose(55.0 vs.59.2 mg/dL,SEM 0.86)but higherβ-hydroxybutyrate(9.17 vs.6.00 mg/dL,SEM 0.80).Conclusions Overall,BCAA supplementation in this study improved milk production,whereas BCKA supplementa-tion reduced TG accumulation in the liver of fresh cows.

Mixed Integer Robust Programming Model for Multimodal Fresh Agricultural Products Terminal Distribution Network Design

The low efficiency and high cost of fresh agricultural product terminal distribution directly restrict the operation of the entire supply network.To reduce costs and optimize the distribution network,we construct a mixed integer programmingmodel that comprehensively considers tominimize fixed,transportation,fresh-keeping,time,carbon emissions,and performance incentive costs.We analyzed the performance of traditional rider distribution and robot distribution modes in detail.In addition,the uncertainty of the actual market demand poses a huge threat to the stability of the terminal distribution network.In order to resist uncertain interference,we further extend the model to a robust counterpart form.The results of the simulation show that the instability of random parameters will lead to an increase in the cost.Compared with the traditional rider distribution mode,the robot distribution mode can save 12.7%on logistics costs,and the distribution efficiency is higher.Our research can provide support for the design of planning schemes for transportation enterprise managers.

Effects of Functional Organic Materials on Fresh Weight,Quality,Single-melon Weight and SPAD Value of Watermelon

[Objectives]This study was conducted to explore a functional organic material formula suitable for watermelon cultivation with high quality,high yield and high efficiency.[Methods]Four treatments were set in the experiment,namely four functional organic materials,garlic straw treatment(T_(1)),onion straw treatment(T_(2)),garlic straw+sheep manure treatment(T_(3))and onion straw+chicken manure treatment(T_(4)),to investigate the effects of different functional organic materials on fresh weight,quality,single-melon weight and SPAD value of watermelon.[Results]The effects of different functional organic materials on fresh weight,quality,single-melon weight and SPAD value of watermelon were quite different.The fresh weight,quality,single-melon weight and SPAD value of watermelon were higher in treatment T_(3)applying garlic straw and sheep manure and treatment T_(4)applying onion straw and chicken manure than in treatment T_(1)applying garlic straw and treatment T_(2)applying onion straw.Specifically,the fresh weight of whole plant was the highest in treatment T_(3),followed by treatment T_(4),and the values of the two treatments increased by 12.83%and 5.94%respectively compared with treatment T_(1);the weight of single melon was the highest in treatment T_(3),followed by treatment T_(4),and the values of the two treatments increased by 42.45%and 31.77%respectively compared with treatment T_(2);and the SPAD values of treatments T_(3)and T_(4)were significantly higher than those of treatments T_(1)and T_(2),and the value of treatment T_(3)was the largest.[Conclusions]This study provides theoretical support for the popularization and application of fertilization techniques combining organic fertilizers and reduced chemical fertilizers for watermelon.

Fresh Processing Technology in Polygonatum odoratum Production Area and Its Comparison with Traditional Processing

[Objectives]To compare the effects of traditional processing and fresh processing on the quality of Polygonatum odoratum decoction piece.[Methods]The effects of fresh processing and traditional processing on the quality of P.odoratum decoction piece were compared and analyzed with appearance characteristics,total ash content,extract content,total polysaccharides content,and total flavonoids content as the evaluation indexes.[Results]Fresh processing method in different production areas has different effects on P.odoratum decoction piece.P.odoratum was dried in oven of 50℃.When moisture content was 41.44%-59.67%,it was cut.After complete drying at 50℃,the moisture content of dried P.odoratum was 8.94%-9.60%,and ethanol-soluble extract content was 77.29%-78.20%,and water-soluble extract was 77.7%-78.14%.At this time,the appearance characteristics of section of P.odoratum decoction piece were better than that of traditional processing,which was yellowish white.The total polysaccharide content was higher than that of traditional processing,and the content of total flavonoids was statistically significant different from that of traditional processing.[Conclusions]The quality of P.odoratum decoction piece by fresh processing is better than that of the traditional processing,and it is feasible to use fresh processing.

Analysis of Fresh Air Volume of Air-conditioning System for Railway Vehicles

The relevant standard requirements both in domestic and abroad provide the basis for designing air-conditioning system of railway vehicles present. However, there are great differences in the fresh air volume indicators among different standards requirements, and the requirements of each vehicle procurement contracts are also different. The design of air-conditioning become difficult above these. In this paper, the fresh air volume of different type railway vehicles is analyzed from health and equipment electricity consumption according to the railway vehicles air-conditioning system standard requirements in domestic and abroad. Some advises for designing air-conditioning system of railway vehicles through the fresh air volume calculation and comparison for domestic air-conditioning system of railway vehicles was provided.

Construction and realization of the knowledge base and inference engine of an IDSS model for air-conditioning cooling/heating sources selection

The knowledge representation mode and inference control strategy were analyzed according to the specialties of air-conditioning cooling/heating sources selection. The constructing idea and working procedure for knowledge base and inference engine were proposed while the realization technique of the C language was discussed. An intelligent decision support system (IDSS) model based on such knowledge representation and inference mechanism was developed by domain engineers. The model was verified to have a small kernel and powerful capability in list processing and data driving, which was successfully used in the design of a cooling/heating sources system for a large-sized office building.

Application of water loop variable refrigerant flow air-conditioning system in large-scale buildings in northern China

A water loop variable refrigerant flow（WLVRF）air-conditioning system is designed to be applied in large-scale buildings in northern China.The system is energy saving and it is an integrated system consisting of a variable refrigerant flow（VRF）air-conditioning unit,a water loop and an air source heat pump.The water loop transports energy among different regions in the buildings instead of refrigerant pipes,decreasing the scale of the VRF air-conditioning unit and improving the performance.Previous models for refrigerants and building loads are cited in this investigation.Mathematical models of major equipment and other elements of the system are established using the lumped parameter method based on the DATAFIT software and the MATLAB software.The performance of the WLVRF system is simulated.The initial investments and the running costs are calculated based on the results of market research.Finally,a contrast is carried out between the WLVRF system and the traditional VRF system.The results show that the WLVRF system has a better working condition and lower running costs than the traditional VRF system.

Entropy Assessment on Environmental Influence of Condense Heat in Recovery System in Air-Conditioning Refrigerating Machine

This paper presented an entropy evaluation method for the influences of condense heat recovery system on the environment.Aiming at the damage of the condense heat to the environment,an entropy of resource loss and an emission entropy from the condense heat recovery system in the air conditioning refrigerating machine were introduced.For the evaluation of the entropies,we developed a new algorithm for the parameter identification,called the composite influence coefficient,based on the Least Squares Support Vector Machine method.By simulation,the numerical experiments shows that the Least Squares Support Vector Machine method is one of the powerful methods for the parameter identification to compute the damage entropy of the condense heat,with the largest training error being-0.025(the relative error being-3.56%),and the biggest test error being 0.015(the relative error being 2.5%).

Impact of summer office set air-conditioning temperature on energy consumption and thermal comfort

To explore the relationship between summer office set air-conditioning temperature and energy consumption related to air conditioning use to provide human thermal comfort,a comparison experiment was conducted in three similar offices at temperatures of 24,26 and 28 ℃ respectively. A thermal comfort questionnaire survey was conducted. It is demonstrated that air-conditioner energy consumption at the set temperature of 28 ℃ is 113% and 271% lower than at 26 ℃ and 24 ℃,respectively. A linear relationship exists between air-conditioner energy consumption and the indoor and outdoor temperature difference. When comfortably dressed,over 80% of research participants accept the set temperature of 28 ℃. The regression analysis leads to a neutral temperature of 26.2 ℃ and an acceptable temperature of 28.2 ℃ for over 80% of the research participants subjects,indicating that the current 26 ℃ set temperature for offices in summer,required by Chinese General Office of the State Council,can be increased to 28 ℃. Moreover,analysis of predicted mean vote(PMV) index shows that a set temperature of 27 ℃,not 26 ℃,is sufficiently comfortable for office staff wearing long-sleeve shirts,long pants and leather shoes.

Genetic Optimization Algorithm of PID Decoupling Control for VAV Air-Conditioning System

Variable-air-volume (VAV) air-conditioning system is a multi-variable system and has multi coupling control loops. While all of the control loops are working together, they interfere and influence each other. A multivariable decoupling PID controller is designed for VAV air-conditioning system. Diagonal matrix decoupling method is employed to eliminate the coupling between the loop of supply air temperature and that of thermal-space air temperature. The PID controller parameters are optimized by means of an improved genetic algorithm in floating point representations to obtain better performance. The population in the improved genetic algorithm mutates before crossover, which is helpful for the convergence. Additionally the micro mutation algorithm is proposed and applied to improve the convergence during the later evolution. To search the best parameters, the optimized parameters ranges should be amplified 10 times the initial ideal parameters. The simulation and experiment results show that the decoupling control system is effective and feasible. The method can overcome the strong coupling feature of the system and has shorter governing time and less over-shoot than non-optimization PID control.

Selection of Weather Parameters for Air-Conditioning System Design for Buildings with Long Thermal Lag

Two building factors-a longer thermal lag of more than one hour for building envelops and a lag of indoor radiation to convert into cooling load-have impact on the instantaneous heat input and instantaneous cooling load.So the two factors should be taken into account when selecting the weather parameters for air-conditioning system design.This paper developed a new statistic method for the rational selection of coincident solar irradiance,dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures.The method was applied to historic weather records of 25 years in Hong Kong to generate coincident design weather data.And the results show that traditional design solar irradiance,dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures may be significantly overestimated in many conditions,and the design weather data for the three different constructions is not kept constant.

The Experiment and Simulation of Solid Desiccant Dehumidification for Air-Conditioning System in a Tropical Humid Climate

The aim of this research was to study and design a solid desiccant dehumidification system suitable for tropical climate to reduce the latent load of air-conditioning system and improve the thermal comfort. Different dehumidifiers such as desiccant column and desiccant wheel were investigated. The ANSYS and TRASYS software were used to predict the results of dehumidifiers and the desiccant cooling systems, respectively. The desiccant bed contained approximately 15 kg of silica-gel, with 3 mm average diameter. Results indicated that the pressure drop and the adsorption rate of desiccant column are usually higher than those of the desiccant wheel. The feasible and practical adsorption rate of desiccant wheel was 0.102 kgw/h at air flow rate 1.0 kg/min, regenerated air temperature of 55?C and at a wheel speed of 2.5 rpm. The humidity ratio of conditioning space and cooling load of split-type air conditioner was decreased to 0.002 kgw/kgda (14%) and 0.71 kWth (19.26%), respectively. Consequently, the thermal comfort was improved from 0.5 PMV (10.12% PPD) to 0.3 PMV (7.04% PPD).

An Energy-Saving Control Strategy on Central Air-Conditioning System

An energy-saving control strategy based on predictive control for central air-conditioning systems is proposed in this paper. The cold load model is developed to describe the dynamic characteristics of temperature control systems, and then parameters in the cold load model and in the central air-conditioning system model are estimated. Generalized predictive control (GPC) is used to establish an optimization model to minimize the consumption of energy and the control error of temperature. The simulated annealing (SA) algorithm, combined with quadratic programming, is adopted to solve the optimal problem. Contrasted with the simulation of traditional PID control, the results prove the effectiveness of this proposed strategy.

Changes of structure and functional properties of rice protein in the fresh edible rice during the seed development

It has been reported that fresh edible rice has more bioactive compounds and its protein is easier to digest and has lower hypoallergenic than mature rice. In this paper, the changes in structure and functional properties of proteins at five different stages, including early milky stage(EMS), middle milky stage(MMS), late milky stage(LMS), waxy ripe stage(WS)and ripening stage(RS), during the seed development were investigated. It was found that with the seed developing, the molecular weight of fresh rice protein gradually become larger while the secondary structure changed from the highest content of disordered structure at MMS to the highest content of ordered structure at RS, which affect the surface hydrophobicity and then the functional properties of proteins, including foaming properties, emulsifying properties and oil holding capacity. Fresh rice protein at MMS has the strongest surface hydrophobicity while fresh edible rice protein at RS has the strongest oil holding capability. The results of our study can provide a theoretical basis for the application of fresh rice protein in the food industry and help to develop new fresh edible rice food.

Application of Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation to Air-conditioning Competitive Power Analysis

As the conceptual design of air-conditioning is done using the theory of Quality Function Deployment (QFD),cus- tomer requirements should be understood and the product competitive power be analyzed as exactly as possible for new product de- signing.Lots of information in the process of this research is fuzzy and uncertain,but traditional QFD can not deal with it well. Fuzzy theory can solve the problem.So a fuzzy model for analyzing product competitive power is formulated in this paper to im- prove traditional QFD,after that it is applied to analyze air-conditioning competitive power.When air-conditioning competitive power is analyzed using this model,firstly the importance weight of the customer requirements o fair-conditioning is determined us- ing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) weighting process,then air-conditloning competitive power is evaluated using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation.It is proved that the model is feasible and has good applicability.

Application of Dual Throttling Air-Conditioning System to Explosion-Proof Frequency Converter

An explosion-proof dual throttling air-conditioning system was put forward to solve the heat dissipation and internal dewing problems of explosion-proof frequency converter in the underground coal mine. This study investigated the feasibility and benefits of explosion-proof dual throttling cooling and dehumidification air-conditioning system applied to the explosion-proof frequency converter. The physical model of dual throttling air-conditioning system was established and its performance parameter was described by mathematical method. The design calculation of the system has also been done. The experimental result showed that the system reached the steady state at the refrigeration mode after running 45 min, and the maximum internal temperature of the flame-proof cavity was 31.0 ℃. The system reached the steady state at the dehumidification mode after running 37 min. The maximum internal relative humidity and temperature of the flame-proof cavity were 33.4% and 36.3 ℃, respectively. Therefore, the proposed system had excellent ability of heat dissipation and avoided internal dewing. Compared with water cooling system, it was more energy-saving and economical. The airflow field of dual throttling air-conditioning system was also studied by CFD simulation. It was found that the result of CFD numerical simulation was highly consistent with the experimental data.

Simulation of Artificial Intelligence for Automotive Air-conditioning System

The artificial intelligence is applied to the simulation of the automotive air-conditioning system ( AACS )According to the system's characteristics a model of AACS, based on neural network, is developed. Different control methods of AACS are discussed through simulation based on this model. The result shows that the neural- fuzzy control is the best one compared with the on-off control and conventional fuzzy control method.It can make the compartment's temperature descend rapidly to the designed temperature and the fluctuation is small.

Energy performance assessment on central air-conditioning system of commercial building: A case study in China

Energy performance assessment on central air-conditioning system is essential to optimize operating, reduce operating costs, improve indoor environmental quality, and determine whether the retrofitting of the equipment is necessary. But it is difficult to evaluate it reasonably and comprehensively due to its complexity. A "holistic" approach was discussed to evaluate the energy performance of central air-conditioning system for an extra-large commercial building in a subtropical city. All procedures were described in detail, including field investigation method, field measurement instruments, data processing and data analyzing. The main factors affecting energy consumption of air-conditioning system were analyzed and the annual cooling-energy use intensity of this building was calculated and also compared with other shopping malls and other types of buildings in Guangzhou. And COP(coefficient of performance) of chiller, water transfer factor of chilled water system and cooling water system were taken into consideration. At last, the thermal comfort and indoor air quality issues were addressed. The results show that the chilled water pumps are over-sized and the indoor environmental quality should be improved. The purpose of this work is to provide reference for energy performance assessment method for air-conditioning system.

Wi-freshness:基于CSI的猪肉新鲜度检测系统研究

有效、快速地评价猪肉新鲜度对猪肉品质监测具有重要意义。然而,传统的感官评价方法过于主观,理化分析又耗时过长且具有破坏性。虽然射频信号被用于定位、材料识别、生命体征监测,但在肉类新鲜度检测方面并未受到重视。提出了一种实时、无损、低成本的基于信道状态信息(CSI,channel state information)的猪肉新鲜度检测系统Wi-freshness。该系统基于泛在网络(商用Wi-Fi)部署和实施,是物联网在生鲜农产品领域一个新的应用。Wi-freshness包括CSI数据感知、数据预处理、检测建模和新鲜度检测4个模块。考虑Wi-freshness需要处理的数据特征值不多,以及对预测的实时性要求较高的特点,提出一种基于宽度学习系统(BLS,broad learning system)的检测模型。实验结果表明,Wi-freshness系统能达到93%以上的检测准确率。

Research on the Arrangement of Dew Point Temperature Detectors of Capillary Plane Radiation Air-Conditioning

Based on analysis of the reason and process of condensation on ceiling radiant cooling panels, two kinds of arrangement of detectors are put forward. The physical model is established, the results show that detectors are arranged as the form of triangle is more suitable. It can not only satisfy the use requirement but also it is economical and practical. Finally we can conclude that the inlet water temperature 0.5°C higher than dew point temperature is safe and reliable.