Explore the vast range of titles available.

To maximise the black soldier fly (BSF) bioconversion capacity, a waste that is not suitable for use as it is, can have a positive effect if combined with others in a formulation. In this perspective, a total of 3600 of 6-day-old larvae were inoculated on 6 iso-proteic, iso-lipidic and iso-energetic diets (named from D1 to D6; 100 larvae/replicate; 6 replicates/treatment) formulated with 21 by-products. To evaluate growth performance, 30 larvae per replicate were randomly sampled every 4 days until the 40% reached the prepupae phase, in which survival rate (SR), larva-prepupae time duration and bioconversion indexes were calculated. When a pupa was identified, it was moved in the emergence box (23 pupae/treatment) to evaluate the adult parameters: pupa-fly duration time, fly live weight, weight reduction, fly lifespan, puparium weight and emergence rate (ER). Considering SR (>92%) and ER (>94.6%), all diets were suitable for the BSF breeding. The D1 and D5 (composed by brewers spent grain, vegetable and fruit waste) groups overall performed the best larvae growth and development time, while D2 (composed by glaze waste and buffalo milk whey) displayed the worst (p < 0.05). The D5 maintained good weight in prepupae, pupae and adult stages and also D2 reached the same outcome. The bioconversion indexes followed the trend of the larvae performance. In conclusion, the results herein obtained allowed to discriminate the protein, fat and energy variables on the BSF life history traits and observe other factors of influence, such as the ash content, which will need to be evaluated with future research.

The black soldier fly is considered the most promising insect species for mass production; however, information on the effects of handling, which is unavoidable during experimental trials and rearing practices, is still limited. To address this gap, three different manipulation intensities were tested on 100 6-day-old larvae per replica (6 replicates/treatments) fed on Gainesville diet: (1) hard-handled (HH), larvae underwent continuous manipulation until the end of larval stage, (2) soft-handled (SH), larvae were manipulated after the appearance of the first prepupa, (3) no-handled (NH), larvae remained untouched. Every 4 days from the beginning to the end of the larval stage, the manipulations lasted 30 min and occurred under laboratory conditions (20°C). During the sampling operations, at least 30 larvae were randomly extracted, washed, dried, and weight-mimicked. At the end of larval stage, all the boxes remained untouched until the adult fly stage, and the emergency rate and sex ratio were evaluated on dead flies. Data were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS V20.0.0 software and the considered significance level was  < 0.05. The larval stage lasted 8.2 days for both HH and SH (  > 0.05). Despite the HH larvae being the most manipulated, no difference was also observed in final weight (HH, 160 mg; SH, 150 mg;  > 0.05) and survival rate (HH, 96.2%; SH, 94.5%;  > 0.05). The manipulation did not influence the bioconversion capacity of the larvae (bioconversion efficiency corrected for the residue: HH, 14.3%; SH, 12.91%; reduction rate: HH, 58.4%; SH, 55.9%; waste reduction index: HH, 7.28%/day; SH, 7.25%/day;  > 0.05). Finally, the development time from larva to fly (about 20.7;  > 0.05), the emergency rate (NH: 92.8%; SH: 89.5%; HH: 82.7%) and sex ratio (~1.2% to male flies) were not affected by the handling (  > 0.05). In conclusion, the handling procedures used in the current study did not influence the life history traits of the black soldier fly. However, further studies are needed to evaluate if different experimental protocols on various scales, the colony strain or other handling procedures may suggest a different scenario or confirm the results.

This study evaluated the effects of dietary Hermetia illucens (HI) meal on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, general health status and gut health of post-weaning piglets reared under commercial conditions. A total of 336, 28–days-old mixed-sex weaned piglets were randomly allotted to 4 dietary treatments (control [C] and 3, 6 and 9% HI meal inclusion [HI3, HI6 and HI9], with 4 replicate boxes/treatment, 21 animals/box and 3 feeding phases) and slaughtered after 63 days of trial (4 animals/box, 16 piglets/diet). In the whole trial, the average daily gain and feed conversion ratio showed a linear response to dietary HI meal inclusion (p < 0.05). The nutrient digestibility also displayed a linear and/or quadratic response to dietary HI meal inclusion during phases I and II, while the opposite trend was highlighted during phase III (p < 0.05). Increased blood antioxidant response was also identified for HI6- and HI9-fed animals (p < 0.01). Dietary HI meal inclusion did not influence gut histomorphology or organ histopathological findings, as well as caecal microbiota alpha and beta diversity. However, selected amplicon sequence variants were associated with specific dietary treatments (p < 0.05), such as Dorea, Faecalitalea, Bacteroides, Anaerostipes and Oscillospiraceae (HI3), Phascolarctobacterium, Rhodospirillales and Odoribacter (HI9), Lachnospiraceae, Oscillospiraceae, Anaerovoracaceae, Faecalibacterium, Lachnospira, Alistipes, Lachnoclostridium and Acinetobacter (HI3 and HI6), and Enterobacter, Roseburia, Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Bifidobacterium (HI-based diets). In conclusion, including up to 9% of HI meal enhanced growth performance and antioxidant response, and partially improved nutrient digestibility and caecal microbiota of the weaned piglets, without impairing their gut morphology and overall health status.

The Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment is a new initiative towards constructing a multi-cubic-kilometre neutrino telescope to expand our observable window of the Universe to the highest energies, and will be installed within the deep Pacific Ocean underwater infrastructure of Ocean Networks Canada.

Contact tracing is one of several strategies employed in many countries to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Digital contact tracing (DCT) uses tools such as cell-phone applications to improve tracing speed and reach. We model the impact of DCT on the spread of the virus for a large epidemiological parameter space consistent with current literature on SARS-CoV-2. We also model DCT in combination with random testing (RT) and social distancing (SD). Modelling is done with two independently developed individual-based (stochastic) models that use the Monte Carlo technique, benchmarked against each other and against two types of deterministic models. For current best estimates of the number of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers (approximately 40%), their contagiousness (similar to that of symptomatic carriers), the reproductive number before interventions ( R 0 at least 3) we find that DCT must be combined with other interventions such as SD and/or RT to push the reproductive number below one. At least 60% of the population would have to use the DCT system for its effect to become significant. On its own, DCT cannot bring the reproductive number below 1 unless nearly the entire population uses the DCT system and follows quarantining and testing protocols strictly. For lower uptake of the DCT system, DCT still reduces the number of people that become infected. When DCT is deployed in a population with an ongoing outbreak where O (0.1%) of the population have already been infected, the gains of the DCT intervention come at the cost of requiring up to 15% of the population to be quarantined (in response to being traced) on average each day for the duration of the epidemic, even when there is sufficient testing capability to test every traced person.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

We demonstrate that megaton-mass neutrino telescopes are able to observe the signal from long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model, in particular the stau, the supersymmetric partner of the tau lepton. Its signature is an excess of charged particle tracks with horizontal arrival directions and energy deposits between 0.1 and 1 TeV inside the detector. We exploit this previously-overlooked signature to search for stau particles in the publicly available IceCube data. The data shows no evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. We derive a new lower limit on the stau mass of \\(320\\) GeV (95\\% C.L.) and estimate that this new approach, when applied to the full data set available to the IceCube collaboration, will reach world-leading sensitivity to the stau mass (\\(m_=450\\,GeV\\)).

We propose a decentralized digital contact tracing service that preserves the users' privacy by design while complying to the highest security standards. Our approach is based on Bluetooth and measures actual encounters of people, the contact time period, and estimates the proximity of the contact. We trace the users' contacts and the possible spread of infectious diseases while preventing location tracking of users, protecting their data and identity. We verify and improve the impact of tracking based on epidemiological models. We compare a centralized and decentralized approach on a legal perspective and find a decentralized approach preferable considering proportionality and data minimization.