Potentially, pathogenic bacteria are one of the main infective agents against which a battery of chemical and physical barriers has evolved in animals. Among these are the secretions by the exocrine uropygial gland in birds. The antimicrobial properties of uropygial secretions may prevent colonization and growth of microorganisms on feathers, skin and eggshells. However, uropygial gland secreti...

It was previously suggested that the flight ability of feathered fossils could be hypothesized from the diameter of their feather rachises. Central to the idea is the unvalidated assumption that the strength of a primary flight feather (i.e. its material and structural properties) may be consistently calculated from the external diameter of the feather rachis, which is the only dimension that i...

UNLABELLED A study was conducted to establish the response of Pekin ducks to dietary Met from 15 to 35 d age. Experimental diets were formulated to contain 0.35, 0.45, 0.55, 0.65, and 0.75% Met (0.30, 0.39, 0.45, 0.56, and 0.68% on an analyzed basis, respectively) and 0.3% cysteine (0.25, 0.27, 0.26, 0.26, and 0.28% on an analyzed basis, respectively). Each diet was fed to 10 pens of 55 ducks/p...

Control measures are ineffective in curtailing Marek's disease virus (MDV) infection and replication in the feather follicle epithelium (FFE). Therefore, vaccinated birds which subsequently become infected with MDV, shed the virulent virus although they remain protected against disease. The present study investigated host responses generated against MDV infection in the feather. We observed tha...

The formation of periodic patterns is fundamental in biology. Theoretical models describing these phenomena have been proposed for feather patterning; however, no molecular candidates have been identified. Here we show that the feather tract is initiated by a continuous stripe of Shh, Fgf-4, and Ptc expression in the epithelium, which then segregates into discrete feather primordia that are mor...

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) was used to quantify the free volume and molecular packing in hydrolysate and hemicellulose-based barriers films, derived from process streams during wood processing operations. These hydrolysate films, comprising a fair share of lignin coexisting with poly- and oligo-saccharides, have very low but variable oxygen permeability but differ among ...

Electricity generation from wheat straw hydrolysate and the microbial ecology of electricity-producing microbial communities developed in two-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) were investigated. The power density reached 123 mW/m(2) with an initial hydrolysate concentration of 1,000 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/liter, while coulombic efficiencies ranged from 37.1 to 15.5%, corresponding to...

The purpose of this study was to produce microbial oil from Yarrowia lipolytica Po1g grown in defatted rice bran hydrolysate. After removing oil from rice bran by Soxhlet extraction, the bran is subjected to acid hydrolysis with various sulfuric acid concentrations (1-4% v/v), reaction times (1-8 h), and reaction temperatures (60-120°C). The optimal conditions for maximum total sugar production...

The aim of this study was focused on investigating the effects of chemical modifications and molecular weight distribution of phytate-removal Soybean Protein Isolate (SPI) hydrolysate on Degree of Hydrolysis (DH) and the iron binding ability. The chemical modifications included acid treatments, succinylation, acetylation and phosphorylation. Also the effects of molecular weight distribution of ...

a preliminary study on statistical modelling of a process for depolymerisation of cassava non-starch carbohydrate using halide salt assisted phosphoric and pyruvic acids were accomplished. the effects of three independent variables namely; acid concentration, potassium iodide salt and duration were studied using the central composite rotatable design on hydrolysis of the cassava non-starch carb...