Search

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a blend of essential oils from eucalyptus, citrus, bromohexene HCl, thymole and camphor on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, intestinal morphology, serum biochemistry, and immune response of broiler chickens. A total of 240 day-old chicks were divided into four groups, each with six replicates containing ten birds. The experiment was conducted under a completely randomized design (CRD). Different concentrations of the oil blend (0mL/kg, 0.15mL/kg, 0.30mL/kg and 0.45mL/kg) were added to the diet. The findings showed that, in comparison to the other groups, the birds that were given a blend of essential oils at concentrations of 0.30 and 0.45 mL/kg showed improved weight gain, feed efficiency, carcass yield, villus height, crypt depth, and greater immune response against Newcastle disease vaccination (p

ABSTRACT The goal of the current study was to determine how selenium-supplemented diets affected the growth performance, carcass traits, and blood biochemistry of Rhode Island Red (RIR) chickens. Organic and inorganic selenium (SE) was fed to the birds at 0.30ppm, whereas the control diet was not supplemented with selenium in either organic or inorganic form. A total of 225 day-old RIR chicks were indiscriminately distributed in three groups according to the experimental diets, in a completely randomized design. Each treatment group was repeated 5 times (replicates), and each replicate had 15 birds. Parameters of growth performance, carcass characteristics, and blood biochemistry were assessed. Birds fed an inorganic selenium-supplemented diet had higher feed intake than those fed an organic selenium-supplemented diet or the control diet, whereas birds fed an organic selenium-supplemented diet had higher body weight gains and better feed conversion ratios. Birds fed organic SE in the diet showed higher breast and thigh weight than those receiving inorganic Se, whereas dressing percentage, drumstick yield, and weights of liver, gizzard, heart, and wing were not significantly different across treatments. The organic Se group showed higher values for total protein and globulin in the blood relative to those fed inorganic Se and the control diet. Similarly, organic Se fed birds showed higher blood Se concentration than the other two groups. However, no significant differences in albumin, glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, and uric acid were observed among the diets. These results lead to the conclusion that organic Se may be utilized in diets to improve the poor performance of RIR chicken.

This study reports the morphological characteristics of anomalous variations in Global Navigation Satellite System Total Electron Content (GNSS-TEC) prior to the strong local earthquakes (EQ) that occurred during the period of 2011–2015. We have analyzed 20 earthquakes of magnitude M ≥ 5.6. A statistical technique is implemented on the data of six GNSS stations located in Tashkent, Kitab, and Maidanak in Uzbekistan, and Islamabad, Multan, Quetta in Pakistan. The results show continuous anomalous variations in TEC during 24 h before the occupancy of local earthquakes. It is shown that the precursors before the occurrence of strong earthquakes, in particular of magnitude 5.7, 7.7, 7.5, 7.8 and 7.3 are detected near Eastern Uzbekistan (26 May 2013), Southwestern Pakistan (24 September 2013), Hindukush region of Afghanistan (26 October 2015), and Central Nepal (25 April 2015) and (12 May 2015), respectively. The ionospheric anomalies appearing before the strong earthquakes at six GNSS stations are registered in 14 cases (70%) out of 20 selected EQs. It is depicted that anomalies referred to as ionospheric precursors appeared about 1–7 days prior to the occurrence of strong earthquakes.

Electricity Transmission plays an imperative role in smooth provision of power to the consumers. High voltage direct current (HVDC) system has a lead over high voltage alternate current (HVAC) system in various aspects. As DC transmissions lines transmit electricity over long distance, it is crucial to find the malfunctioning part of the line in case of faults occurrence. In this work, a decision-making based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control strategy is presented for identifying fault location in HVDC transmission lines. The technique is developed on two layered control systems, i.e., command station (Leader Agent) and UAV agents (Local Agents) control. The Markov decision process (MDP) based reward policy for both agents is defined mathematically and has been implemented in MATLAB to depict their behavior. The resulting policy is optimized through the value iteration algorithm based on reward functions and transition probabilities.

ABSTRACT: This study examined how selenium-supplemented diets affected the performance of naked neck chickens. The birds were fed both organic and inorganic selenium at 0.30 ppm, while the control diet did not include any additional selenium. A total of 225 one-day-old naked neck chicks were randomly divided into 3 experimental groups, each of which was replicated 5 times (replicates) and contained 15 birds. This was done using a completely randomized design. The data was collected after growth, meat quality, and blood profile parameters were assessed. The findings showed that the birds fed inorganic selenium in the diet displayed increased (P < 0.05) feed intake followed by those administered organic selenium and the control diet. On the other hand, birds fed organic selenium in the diet showed enhanced body weight gain and better feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05). Similarly, organic selenium supplementation increased (P < 0.05) breast and thigh weight compared to inorganic selenium, but no other metrics, such as dressing percentage, drumstick weight, liver weight, gizzard weight, heart weight, or wing weight, significantly differed between treatments (P > 0.05). When compared to birds fed inorganic Se and control diet, the birds fed organic Se had greater (P < 0.05) blood levels of total protein and globulin. Additionally, it was discovered that organic Se-fed birds had greater (P < 0.05) blood Se concentrations than control and inorganic Se-fed birds. However, no differences between treatments were found in albumin, glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, or uric acid (P > 0.05). In conclusion, adding Se-enriched yeast, as an organic selenium source, to diets may enhance the poor growth and slaughter characteristics of naked neck chicks without negatively affecting blood chemistry.

Abstract Camel milk was obtained from A-block UVAS Ravi Campus Pattoki. After pasteurization at 72 °C (15 sec) it was cooled to 42 °C, then glutathione treated transglutaminase enzyme was added with the concentration of 0.5 g/300 mL, 1 g/300 mL, 1.5 g/300 mL, 2 g/300 mL while control sample with the addition of 1.5 g/300 mL gelatin. Then inoculation of milk was done with standard cultures of Yoghurt Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus at the rate of 2% for 3-4 hours at 42 °C. Samples were stored at 4 °C and were analyzed on 1st day and 28th day of storage. In our findings, there was slight increase in sensorial properties of all the samples. It was also observed that syneresis was reduced with the increase of enzyme quantity.

The May 2024 super storm is one of the strongest geomagnetic storms during the past 20 years. One of the most remarkable ionospheric responses to this event over East and Southeast Asia is the complex ionospheric fluctuations following the storm commencement. The fluctuations created multiple oscillations of total electron content (TEC) embedded in the diurnal variation, with amplitudes up to 10 TECu. Along the same latitude, the fluctuations were nearly synchronized over a wide longitude span up to 35°. In the meridional direction, the fluctuations over low latitudes were the most significant and complex, which contained two main components, the poleward extending oscillations originated from the magnetic equator, and the equatorward propagating traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) from high latitudes. The TIDs likely occurred around the globe. The storm‐time interplanetary electric fields penetrating into equatorial latitudes of the ionosphere and the auroral energy input were suggested to drive the poleward extending oscillations and the equatorward TIDs, respectively. Plain Language Summary: The ionospheric responses to strong geomagnetic storms are mainly in the form of global or hemispheric scale plasma density enhancement or suppression, termed as positive or negative ionospheric storms, respectively. Previous studies have also reported fine‐scale ionospheric structures during geomagnetic storms, which were manifested as wavelike fluctuations in TEC. Multiple mechanisms were proposed to be responsible for the TEC fluctuations, including the magnetospheric compression effect, storm‐time penetration electric field, refilling process linked with plasma pressure, and traveling ionospheric disturbances triggered from high latitude and polar regions. During the May 2024 super storm, complex ionospheric fluctuations consisting of two major components, that is, poleward extending fluctuations originated from the magnetic equator and equatorward traveling oscillations from high latitude and polar regions were observed over East and Southeast Asia. It is important to figure out what mechanisms could dominate the generation and evolution of complex fluctuations over specific regions. Based on the TEC continuously measured along dense observational chains, in combination with multiple other types of observations, the characteristics and possible mechanisms of the complex ionospheric fluctuations are investigated. Key Points: Complex ionospheric fluctuations consisting of poleward extending and equatorward traveling disturbances were identified during super geomagnetic stormThe poleward oscillations were synchronized over a wide longitude and driven by multiple penetrations of electric fieldsThe equatorward traveling disturbances likely occurred around the globe that could be due to auroral energy input [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work analyzed the ionospheric disturbances over the Asian‐Australian and American sectors during the superstorm that started from ∼17 UT on 10 May 2024. During 17–22.5 UT, the equatorial ΔH recorded the positive and negative disturbances in American and Asian sectors due to the penetration electric fields (PEFs). The Total Electron Content (TEC) at American was enhanced for ∼9 hr within 50°S–40°N, while TEC at Asian‐Australian decreased for ∼3 hr within 10°S–25°N. The equatorward disturbance winds promptly propagated to middle and low latitudes after 1 hr of the storm onset in Asian sector and impeded the negative TEC induced by the westward PEFs. In the recovery phase, the repeated elevations of hmF2s were observed in two sectors under the multiple PEFs resulting from the interplanetary magnetic fields Bz south‐north turning before 12 UT on 11 May. After that, in the American sector the westward disturbance dynamo electric fields were remarkable, and induced the negative storm effects at low latitudes; while in Asian‐Australian sector, the TEC presented the negative storm in the Northern Hemisphere and positive storm in the Southern Hemisphere. In Asian sector, the middle negative TEC storm became positive after 14–24 UT on 11 May and then switched to negative, which firstly occurred in the eastern regions and spread to westward and equatorward. These longitude gradients might be caused by disturbance winds and O/N2. Besides, the positive storm reinforced in conjugated Australian sector when the positive TEC was observed in Asian sector, indicating the possible contribution of the reinforced plasmasphere refilling. Key Points: A combination of the penetration electric field and disturbance wind caused the different ionosphere responses in the main phase in two longitude sectorsA strong westward disturbance dynamo electric fields was present in the dayside, which induced the negative storm in American sectorRemarkable longitude gradients occurred in the middle and low latitude ionosphere over the Asian‐Australian sector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a new three-parameter Marshall-Olkin Burr-R (MOB-R) family which extends the generalize Burr-G class. Some of its general properties are discussed. One of its special models called the MOB-Lomax distribution is studied in detail for illustrative purpose. A modified chi-square test statistic is provided for right censored data from the MOB-L distribution. The model parameters are estimated via the maximum likelihood and simulation results are obtained to assess the behavior of the maximum likelihood approach. Applications to real data sets are provided to show the usefulness of the proposed MOB-Lomax distribution. The modified chi-square test statistic shows that the MOB-Lomax model can be used as a good candidate for analyzing real censored data.

In this paper, we introduce a truncated general-G class of distributions. This class can be viewed as a weighted family of distributions with a general weight function, and also it generalizes the beta generator family proposed by Eugene et al. (2002). Some features of the class are stated with a comprehensive study to the truncated Burr-G (TB-G) family as one of the important subclass of the introduced class. The study includes the mixture representation in terms of baseline distribution, moments, moment generating function, stochastic ordering, stress-strength parameter, entropies, estimation by the maximum likelihood. The applicability of some new sub-models of the TB-G family is shown using two practical data sets.

Purpose: The objective of this study is to assess whether the quality of sustainability disclosure has any effect on the stock returns of Russian firms. Methodology: This study collects data from the 140 annual and sustainability reports of 23 Russian firms for the period 2013-2019. The study estimates corporate social responsibility (CSR) score based on the content analysis of the reports on the following dimensions: community contribution, environmental impact, employee relations, and provision of social products and services. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and ordinary least squared regression were used to examine the nexus between CSR score and stock returns. Findings: No statically significant relationship was observed between CSR disclosure and stock returns of Russian firms. Though, the study documented a tremendous increase in the volume, as well as the quality of CSR disclosures over the sample period. This finding suggests that Russian firms are driven by other reasons for improving disclosure of sustainability practices other than variation in stock prices. The study also reports a statistically significant relationship of CSR disclosure with other variables utilized in the model, particularly total assets, return on assets (ROA), and leverage. Practical Implications: The study has several practical and theoretical implications. The findings of the study motivate the managers to improve the content of disclosed information, and for policymakers by providing criteria to assess the completeness and quality of disclosures, thereby indirectly enchasing more CSR initiatives and bringing social good. Originality/value: The study pictures the evolvement of CSR disclosures over the most recent sevenyear period, including the years of the increased popularity of sustainability practices. Russian market presents an interesting case for the research of CSR due to its post-communist background which shaped a unique set of societal values. The study extends and contributes to prior literature in understanding the evolvement of the role of CSR for Russian firms. Key words: CSR, environment, society, community, contribution, stock returns.