Cattle diet can impact manure quality and quantity, but has minimal impact on methane production from anaerobic digestion of manure. Quality of manure, measured as organic matter (OM) content, does affect methane production and is largely impacted by the environment cattle are housed in and methods used to collect manure. In three anaerobic digestion trials, as the amount of ash contamination o...

Effects of cow BW, hip height, and estimated genetic potentials (EBV) for weaning weight direct and milk on cow productivity, fecal OM output, OM intake, and efficiency (kilograms of calf BW/kilogram of OM intake by the cow) were evaluated with 44 free-grazing crossbred cows under semidesert conditions. Calf BW were measured during early, mid-, and late lactation. Data were collected in four pe...

Calorie restriction (CR) affects adipocyte function and reduces body weight. However, the effects of alternate-day fasting (ADF) on adipose biology remain unclear. This study examined the effects of ADF and modified ADF regimens on adipocyte size, triglyceride (TG) metabolism, and adiponectin levels in relation to changes in body weight and adipose mass. Twenty-four male C57BL/6J mice were rand...

Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus L. is a herbaceous perennial plant that could be drought tolerant once established after the first year. To evaluate the effects of water stress on growth parametersand forage quality of this plant, a field experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design with three replications in Isfahan, Iran during 2013-2015. Treatments wer...

BACKGROUND Obesity is a worldwide health problem with increasing prevalence. Decrease in energy intake has been shown to lower the risk of coronary artery disease in obese subjects. The common form of dietary restriction is daily calorie restriction (CR). Another form is alternate-day fasting (ADF). This study examined the ability of modified ADF to facilitate weight loss and lower cardiovascul...

The effect of phosphorus supplementation to ammoniated rice straw was studied. The in vitro experiment was carried out following the first stage of Tilley and Terry method. The treatments consisting of four diets were A= 50% ammoniated rice straw + 50% concentrate (control), B= A + 0.2% phosphorus (P) supplement, C= A + 0.4% phosphorus (P) supplement, and D= A + 0.6% phosphorus (P) supplement o...

This study evaluated three white-rot basidiomycetes for their potential to improve the ruminal degradation of wheat straw. Pleurotus ostreatus (PO), Pleurotus ostreatus-mutant (PO-M) and Trametes gibbosa (TG) were incubated on wheat straw for 30 days at 28 degrees C. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), crude protein and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) were deter...

Sixteen cultivars (three resistant species and thirteen susceptible to cochineal insects) were included in the experiment evaluate their nutritional chemical compositions determine vitro digestibility of cladodes Opuntia species. Cultivars showed highly significant (p < 0.001) differences composition. The cultivars’ content ash, crude protein (CP), dry matter (DM), organic (OM), (IVDMD), (IV...

Actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) is an 18.5-kD protein with pH-dependent reciprocal F-actin binding and severing/depolymerizing activities. We previously showed developing muscle down-regulates ADF (J. R. Bamburg and D. Bray. 1987. J. Cell Biol. 105: 2817-2825). To further study this process, we examined ADF expression in chick myocytes cultured in vitro. Surprisingly, ADF immunoreactivity inc...

The aim of this work was to develop simple and fast tests to predict anaerobic biogasification potential (ABP) of ingestates and digestates from a biogas plant. Forty-six samples of both ingestates and digestates were collected within an eight-month observation period and were analyzed in terms of biological and chemical parameters, namely, ABP test, oxygen demand in a 20-h respirometric test (...