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In order to solve the problem of the threshing performance of a large combine harvester being reduced due to the non-adjustable diameter of the threshing drum, a variable-diameter threshing drum with movable radial plates based on the principle of concentric regulation was studied. It was mainly composed of a mechanism for adjusting the diameter by moving the radial plates, six fixed threshing tooth rods, six retractable threshing tooth rods and the single piston rod hollow hydraulic cylinder. The threshing gap can be adjusted by a stepless change of the drum diameter. By using RecurDyn simulation and field performance tests, the adjustable ranges of diameter and gap of the movable variable-diameter threshing drum were 670~710 mm and 10~30 mm. Based on the feed amount of the combine, the rotation speed of the threshing drum and the threshing gap (the diameter of the drum) as the influencing parameters, and the grain entrainment loss rate, grain un-threshed rate and grain breakage rate as the evaluation indexes, the three-factor and three-level response surface tests were carried out, and the result data were analyzed using Design-Expert 13.0. The optimal threshing gap and rotation speed of the threshing drum were determined under different feeding quantities. A comparative test was carried out to adjust and fix the threshing gap and rotation speed of the threshing drum in real time according to the change in feeding amount. The results showed that when the working parameter combination under different feeding amounts was adjusted in real time, the entrainment loss rate was 0.65%, the un-threshed rate was 0.063% and the breakage rate was 0.47%. Compared with the threshing gap and the rotation speed of the threshing drum being fixed, the entrainment loss rate, the un-threshed rate and the breakage rate were reduced by 44.9%, 27.6% and 34.1%, respectively. A threshing drum with variable diameter was provided for a large multi-crop harvesting combine to realize the concentric stepless adjustment of the threshing gap.

In complex field environments, wheat grows densely with overlapping organs and different plant weights. It is difficult to accurately predict feed quantity for wheat combine harvester using the existing YOLOv5s and uniform weight of a single wheat plant in a whole field. This paper proposes a feed quantity prediction method based on the improved YOLOv5s and weight of a single wheat plant without stubble. The improved YOLOv5s optimizes Backbone with compact bases to enhance wheat spike detection and reduce computational redundancy. The Neck incorporates a hierarchical residual module to enhance YOLOv5s’ representation of multi-scale features. The Head enhances the detection accuracy of small, dense wheat spikes in a large field of view. In addition, the height of a single wheat plant without stubble is estimated by the depth distribution of the wheat spike region and stubble height. The relationship model between the height and weight of a single wheat plant without stubble is fitted by experiments. Then, feed quantity can be predicted using the weight of a single wheat plant without stubble estimated by the relationship model and the number of wheat plants detected by the improved YOLOv5s. The proposed method was verified through experiments with the 4LZ-6A combine harvester. Compared with the existing YOLOv5s, YOLOv7, SSD, Faster R-CNN, and other enhancements in this paper, the mAP50 of wheat spikes detection by the improved YOLOv5s increased by over 6.8%. It achieved an average relative error of 4.19% with a prediction time of 1.34 s. The proposed method can accurately and rapidly predict feed quantity for wheat combine harvesters and further realize closed-loop control of intelligent harvesting operations.

This study investigated how different fish feed inputs (20, 40, and 60 g/m 2 ) influence water quality, nutrient availability, and the growth performance of tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) and lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ) in a recirculating aquaponic system. Understanding optimal feed levels is essential for improving nutrient recycling and overall system productivity. Tilapia were stocked at a density of 80 fish/m 3 with an initial weight of 85.43 ± 2.54 g. Fish were fed commercial pellets twice daily at 20 and 40 g feed/m², and three times daily at 60 g feed/m². Water quality parameters, nutrient concentrations (macro- and micro-minerals), fish growth metrics, proximate composition, and lettuce biomass and nutrient content were recorded throughout the study. Data were statistically analysed to determine significant differences among treatments. Increasing feed inputs significantly affected system water chemistry. At 60 g/m 2 , pH declined from 7.74 ± 0.22 to 6.35 ± 0.01, while electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, and nitrogenous compounds (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite) increased ( p  < 0.05). Dissolved oxygen decreased to 4.15 ± 0.14 mg/L at the highest feeding level. Macro- and micro-minerals (Ca, K, Mg, P, Mn, Mo, Zn) increased in both the water and plant tissues as feed input increased. Tilapia fed 60 g/m² exhibited the greatest growth performance, with a final weight of 768.30 ± 17.60 g, a specific growth rate of 1.89 ± 0.10%, and the lowest feed conversion ratio of 1.67 ± 0.07%. Higher feeding also enhanced the proximate composition of the fish. Lettuce grown under 60 g feed/m² produced the highest biomass (14.51 ± 3.82 kg/m 2 ) and showed improved protein and mineral content. Feeding at 60 g feed/m 2 strengthened nutrient recycling, fish performance, and lettuce productivity without exceeding acceptable water quality limits. The enhanced mineral availability and plant uptake indicate strong nutrient coupling between the aquaculture and hydroponic components. Overall, feed optimization is a key driver of balanced aquaponic performance and sustainable nutrient utilization. Future studies should investigate higher feed levels to identify the maximum effective feeding rate.

Ramie is an important cash crop in China, and ramie fiber is an important raw material for the textile industry. As a shrub plant, the spatial distribution of the ramie plant is different from that of herbaceous crops, and its plant spacing and row spacing are not fixed, which affects the cutting operation during harvest. In order to solve the above problems, this study constructed a ramie spatial distribution model with statistical methods, and built a prediction model of ramie harvesting feeding quantity on this basis. Based on the analysis of the absolute motion trail of the ramie harvester cutting knife, the calculation equation of the missing cutting area was established, and then the prediction model of the mis-cutting rate was obtained. The results of the ramie field harvest showed that the prediction model of the feed quantity and mis-cutting rate was effective. These methods can provide references to the control and optimization of ramie harvester parameters.

This chapter contains sections titled: Nutritional Regulation of Reproductive Endocrine Function Factors Regulating Puberty Effect of Heifer RFI on Fertility Links between Stress, Feed Efficiency, and Fertility Factors Regulating Cow Lifetime Productivity Cow Lifetime Productivity and RFI Effect of RFI on Bull Fertility Conclusions and Implications References

Water represents 71% of all earth area and about 97% of this water is salty water. So, only 3% of the overall world water quantity is freshwater. Human can benefit only from 1% of this water and the remaining 2% freeze at both poles of earth. Therefore, it is important to preserve the freshwater through increasing the plants consuming salty water. The future prosperity of feed resources in arid and semi-arid countries depends on economic use of alternative resources that have been marginalized for long periods of time, such as halophytic plants, which are one such potential future resource. Halophyte plants can grow in high salinity water and soil and to some extent during drought. The growth of these plants depends on the contact of the salted water with plant roots as in semi-desert saline water, mangrove swamps, marshes, and seashores. Halophyte plants need high levels of sodium chloride in the soil water for growth, and the soil water must also contain high levels of salts, as sodium hydroxide or magnesium sulfate. There are many uses for halophyte plants, including feed for animals, vegetables, drugs, sand dune stabilizers, wind shelter, soil cover, wetland cultivation, laundry detergents, and paper production. This paper will focus on the use of halophytes as a feed additive for animals. In spite of the good nutritional value of halophytes, some anti-nutritional factors as nitrates, nitrite complexes, tannins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, saponins, oxalates, and alkaloids may be present in some of them. The presence of such anti-nutritional agents makes halophytes unpalatable to animals, which tends to reduce feed intake and nutrient use. Therefore, the negative effects of these plants on animal performance are the only objection against using halophytes in animal feed diets. This review article highlights the beneficial impact of considering halophytes in animal feeding on saving freshwater and illustrates its nutritive value for livestock from different aspects.

Owing to superior physio-chemical characteristics, titanium alloys are widely adopted in numerous fields such as medical, aerospace, and military applications. However, titanium alloys have poor machinability due to its low thermal conductivity which results in high temperature during machining. Numerous lubrication and cooling techniques have already been employed to reduce the harmful environmental footprints and temperature elevation and to improve the machining of titanium alloys. In this current work, an attempt has been made to evaluate the effectiveness of two cooling and lubrication techniques namely cryogenic cooling and hybrid nanoadditive–based minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). The key objective of this experimental research is to compare the influence of cryogenic CO 2 and hybrid nanofluid–based MQL techniques for turning Ti–6Al–4V. The used hybrid nanofluid is alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in vegetable oil. Taguchi-based L9 orthogonal-array was used for the design of the experiment. The design variables were cutting speed, feed rate, and cooling technique. Results showed that the hybrid nanoadditives reduced the average surface roughness by 8.72%, cutting force by 11.8%, and increased the tool life by 23% in comparison with the cryogenic cooling. Nevertheless, the cryogenic technique showed a reduction of 11.2% in cutting temperature compared to the MQL-hybrid nanofluids at low and high levels of cutting speed and feed rate. In this regard, a milestone has been achieved by implementing two different sustainable cooling/lubrication techniques.

Microbial ingredients such as Candida utilis yeast are known to be functional protein sources with immunomodulating effects whereas soybean meal causes soybean meal-induced enteritis in the distal intestine of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.). Inflammatory or immunomodulatory stimuli at the local level in the intestine may alter the plasma proteome profile of Atlantic salmon. These deviations can be helpful indicators for fish health and, therefore potential tools in the diagnosis of fish diseases. The present work aimed to identify local intestinal tissue responses and changes in plasma protein profiles of Atlantic salmon fed inactive dry Candida utilis yeast biomass, soybean meal, or combination of soybean meal based diet with various inclusion levels of Candida utilis. A fishmeal based diet was used as control diet. Inclusion of Candida utilis yeast to a fishmeal based diet did not alter the morphology, immune cell population or gene expression of the distal intestine. Lower levels of Candida utilis combined with soybean meal modulated immune cell populations in the distal intestine and reduced the severity of soybean meal-induced enteritis, while higher inclusion levels of Candida utilis were less effective. Changes in the plasma proteomic profile revealed differences between the diets but did not indicate any specific proteins that could be a marker for health or disease. The results suggest that Candida utilis does not alter intestinal morphology or induce major changes in plasma proteome, and thus could be a high-quality alternative protein source with potential functional properties in diets for Atlantic salmon.

The cryptophyte Rhodomonas sp. is a potential feed source for aquaculture live feed and resource for phycoerythrin (PE) production. This research investigates the influence of light, both quality and quantity, on the biomass productivity, composition and growth rate of Rhodomonas sp. The incident light intensity used in the experiments was 50 μmolphotons m−2 s−1, irrespective of the colour of the light, and cultivation took place in lab-scale flat-panel photobioreactors in turbidostat mode. The highest productivity in volumetric biomass (0.20 gdry weight L−1 day−1), measured under continuous illumination, was observed under green light conditions. Blue and red light illumination resulted in lower productivities, 0.11 gdry weight L−1 day−1 and 0.02 g L−1 day−1 respectively. The differences in production are ascribed to increased absorption of green and blue wavelength by phycoerythrin, chlorophyll and carotenoids, causing higher photosynthetically usable radiation (PUR) from equal photosynthetically absorbed irradiance (PAR). Moreover, phycoerythrin concentration (281.16 mg gDW−1) was stimulated under red light illumination. Because photosystem II (PSII) absorbs poorly red light, the algae had to induce more pigments in order to negate the lower absorption per unit pigment of the incident available photons. The results of this study indicate that green light can be used in the initial growth of Rhodomonas sp. to produce more biomass and, at a later stage, red light could be implemented to stimulate the synthesis of PE. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis demonstrated a significant difference between the cells under different light quality, with higher contents of proteins for samples of Rhodomonas sp. cultivated under green light conditions. In comparison, higher carbohydrate contents were observed for cells that were grown under red and blue light.

In machining of soft alloys, the sticky nature of localized material instigated by tool-work interaction exacerbates the tribological attitude and ultimately demeans it machinability. Moreover, the endured severe plastic deformation and originated thermal state alter the metallurgical structure of machined surface and chips. Also, the used tool edges are worn/damaged. Implementation of cooling-lubrication (C/L) agents to reduce friction at faying surfaces can ameliorate overall machinability. That is why, this paper deliberately discussed the influence of pure C/L methods, i.e., such as dry cutting (DC) and nitrogen cooling (N 2 ), as well as hybrid C/L strategies, i.e., nitrogen minimum quantity lubrication (N 2 MQL) and Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube (RHVT) N 2 MQL conditions in turning of Al 7075-T6 alloy, respectively. With respect to the variation of cutting speed and feed rate, at different C/Ls, the surface roughness, tool wear, and chips are studied by using SEM and 3D topographic analysis. The mechanism of heat transfer by the cooling methods has been discussed too. Furthermore, the new chip management model (CMM) was developed under all C/L conditions by considering the waste management aspects. It was found that the R-N 2 MQL has the potential to reduce the surface roughness up to 77% and the tool wear up to 118%. This significant improvement promotes sustainability in machining industry by saving resources. Moreover, the CMM showed that R-N 2 MQL is more attractive for cleaner manufacturing system due to a higher recyclability, remanufacturing, and lower disposal of chips.