Hasil untuk "Dairy processing. Dairy products"

T.O. Cunha, P.L.J. Monteiro, Jr., W.S. Frizzarini et al.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to use a secondary analysis to investigate the use of feeding high and low-energy diets to alter BCS at dry-off, and to assess the subsequent changes in BCS on feed intake, calcemia, and assessment of immune function, including inflammation, during the periparturient period. Multiparous Holstein lactating dairy cows at 150 d of gestation were blocked by expected calving date and randomly assigned to receive one of 2 dietary treatments during late lactation until dry-off, aiming to maintain or decrease BCS. To this end, a low-energy diet (LE; 1.54 ± 0.01 Mcal/kg DM; n = 27) was formulated not to exceed energy requirements, and a high-energy diet (HE; 1.8 ± 0.01 Mcal/kg DM; n = 28) was formulated to exceed energy requirements based on the NEL of cows during late lactation. The HE cows that gained ≥0.5 BCS and LE cows that lost, maintained, or gained ≤0.25 BCS were included in this study for analysis. Cows that did not respond to dietary treatment were not included in the analysis, resulting in a cohort of 40 cows: 20 cows in the HE group that responded, and 20 cows in the LE group that responded to dietary treatments. After dry-off, all cows were fed the same diets for the duration of the study. In the last week of gestation, the BCS of the HE and LE cows averaged 3.85 and 3.26 ± 0.1, respectively. During the last 10 d prepartum, HE cows consumed, on average, 1.6 kg DM per day less than LE cows. Plasma concentrations of IL-6 and haptoglobin did not differ between groups 7 d before parturition (725 ± 147 pg/mL and 0.57 ± 0.04 ng/mL, respectively). Serum leptin concentrations also did not differ between groups 7 d before parturition. No differences were detected in ionized calcium, total magnesium (Mg), and total phosphorus (P) between groups from −1 to 3 DIM. Nonesterified fatty acid concentrations tended to be elevated in HE cows from −7 to 7 DIM. Neutrophil phagocytic capacity, oxidative burst, and the expression of the cellular adhesion selectin CD62L were also similar between groups. The expression of the cellular adhesion integrin CD18 on neutrophils was increased in the LE group at 2 DIM but was not different at 0 and 7 DIM. Overall, our findings from this secondary analysis of cows that altered BCS in response to dietary treatment indicate that feeding a HE diet during late lactation affected feed intake without significantly altering immune function or calcemia during the periparturient period.

M. Gómez-Carpio, A. Cesarani, L. Zullo et al.

ABSTRACT: Single-step GBLUP (ssGBLUP) is becoming the most used method to predict breeding values in livestock, offering several advantages in terms of computational efficiency and simplifying the genetic evaluation process by integrating genomic, pedigree, and phenotypic information in a single step. Genomic information is now available for the Italian Mediterranean buffalo (IMB), and its inclusion in the genetic evaluation system could increase both evaluation accuracy and genetic progress of the breeding objectives. The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of ssGBLUP and to present the first results of the implementation of a genomic evaluation for IMB. Phenotypic information on production traits (milk yield adjusted to 270 d, fat and protein yield and content, and cheese yield) and morphology traits (feet and legs scores and udder teat scores) were used in this study. Production records included 792,200 lactations from 293,633 buffalo cows born from 1984 to 2021. Morphological traits were from 99,609 buffalo cows from 2004 to 2023. Regarding the genotypes, a total of 3,647 genotyped animals were used. Data were analyzed fitting 2 multitrait animal models, a 6-trait model for production data, and a 2-trait model for morphology data. Breeding values (BV) were estimated with BLUP and ssGBLUP models, both considering unknown parent groups. The methods were compared in terms of correlation between BV and genetic trends. Results were also validated with the linear regression (LR) method. Three different scenarios were used according to the cut-off year used to create the partial datasets, namely T2013, T2016, and T2018. The genomic and nongenomic BV were strongly correlated, and genetic trends for each trait were similar. The average increase in accuracy moving from BLUP to ssGBLUP across traits ranged from +3% to +12%. The LR method statistics confirmed the effectiveness of the ssGBLUP method. The average validation correlations across production traits and scenarios for BLUP and ssGBLUP by female and bull groups were 0.54 and 0.47, and 0.63 and 0.52, respectively. Accuracies were also higher with ssGBLUP (0.62/0.55) compared with BLUP (0.53/0.51). The best dispersion values (i.e., closer to 1) were observed for ssGBLUP (T2013, T2016). The ssGBLUP method provided better results across genotyped and nongenotyped animals, particularly in terms of a relative increase in accuracy associated with the inclusion of phenotypes. These results showed that implementing ssGBLUP in the breeding program can generate more accurate predictions for production and morphological traits in dairy IMB.

Yining Meng, Wen Zhu, Shitong Han et al.

<i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> is a ubiquitous environmental bacterium that causes a variety of infections in humans and animals. Although antibiotic resistance in livestock has been extensively documented, continuous surveillance remains crucial for tracking emerging resistance trends and assessing control measures. During 2017 and 2018, 234 strains of <i>P. aeruginosa</i> were identified from 1063 strains of pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria isolated from raw milk of healthy and mastitis cows. In this study, 132 convenience <i>P. aeruginosa</i> isolates were recovered and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and the presence of antimicrobial resistance genes and virulence factors. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that these <i>P. aeruginosa</i> isolates were resistant to three (gentamicin, tobramycin, and ceftazidime) out of eight antibiotics. Real-time PCR targeting 21 antibiotic resistance genes indicated that aminoglycoside modifying enzyme (AME) gene <i>ant(3″)-I</i> was most frequently identified in both antimicrobial-resistant and -susceptible <i>P. aeruginosa</i> isolates, followed by <i>aac(6′)-II</i> and <i>aac(6′)-Ib</i>. The β-lactamase encoding gene, <i>bla</i>_PDC, was mainly identified in susceptible <i>P. aeruginosa</i> isolates. Virulence factors screening revealed the presence of <i>exoS</i>, <i>exoT</i>, <i>exoU</i>, <i>pyo</i>, <i>aprA</i>, <i>toxA</i>, <i>plcH</i>, <i>algD</i>, <i>lasB</i>, <i>lasI</i>, <i>lasR</i>, <i>rh1L</i>, and <i>rh1R</i> in resistant isolates, with the detection rates ranging from 16.7% to 88.9%. Additionally, next-generation sequencing was conducted on three resistant isolates to validate these findings. This study showed the antibiotic resistance of <i>P. aeruginosa</i> in raw milk samples from large-scale dairy farms in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, China.

Xiaoyuan ZHANG, Kailong LIU, Zhan YANG et al.

Bifidobacterium exhibits distinct physiological subpopulations during cultivation, which influences its metabolic activity and enhancement of the number of viable bacteria. This study focused on Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis B8762 (B8762) to explore the growth performance differences among its cell subpopulations under various carbon sources. Flow cytometry sorting was employed to separate B8762 cells following high-density fermentation with lactose, sucrose, and maltose as carbon sources. The study compared and analyzed the differences in carbon metabolism and growth performance across these subpopulations to assess the impact of different carbon sources on bacterial cell viability. The results revealed that the number and turbidity of B8762 cells varied depending on the carbon sources (P<0.05), with distinct subpopulations showing different metabolic activities. Specifically, the activity of fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase (F6PPK) in the live cell subpopulations cultured with lactose, sucrose, and maltose was 1.47, 2.42, and 2.83 times higher, respectively, compared to the damaged cell subpopulation. After re-cultivation, the viable bacteria count in the sucrose-cultured live cell subpopulation reached (2.46±0.01)×109 CFU/mL, significantly surpassing that of the other subpopulations (P<0.05). In conclusion, sucrose outperforms lactose and maltose as a carbon source in promoting cell activity, offering new insights and methods for optimizing the cultivation and preparation of highly active bacterial powders for dominant cell populations.

Arnout Roebben, Toon van Waterschoot, Jan Wouters et al.

In audio signal processing applications with a microphone and a loudspeaker within the same acoustic environment, the loudspeaker signals can feed back into the microphone, thereby creating a closed-loop system that potentially leads to system instability. To remove this acoustic coupling, prediction error method (PEM) feedback cancellation algorithms aim to identify the feedback path between the loudspeaker and the microphone by assuming that the input signal can be modelled by means of an autoregressive (AR) model. It has previously been shown that this PEM framework and resulting algorithms can identify the feedback path correctly in cases where the forward path from microphone to loudspeaker is sufficiently time-varying or non-linear, or when the forward path delay equals or exceeds the order of the AR model. In this paper, it is shown that this delay-based condition can be generalised for one particular PEM-based algorithm, the so-called two-channel adaptive feedback canceller (2ch-AFC), to an invertibility-based condition, for which it is shown that identifiability can be achieved when the order of the forward path feedforward filter exceeds the order of the AR model. Additionally, the condition number of inversion of the correlation matrix as used in the 2ch-AFC algorithm can serve as a measure for monitoring the identifiability.

Georgios Mylonopoulos, Luca Venturino, Emanuele Grossi et al.

This study considers a base station equipped with sensing and communication capabilities, which serves a ground user and scans a portion of the sky via a passive reconfigurable intelligent surface. To achieve more favorable system tradeoffs, we utilize a multi-frame radar detector, comprising a detector, a plot-extractor, and a track-before-detect processor. The main idea proposed here is that user spectral efficiency can be enhanced by increasing the number of scans jointly processed by the multi-frame radar detector while maintaining the same sensing performance. A numerical analysis is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed solution and to evaluate the achievable system tradeoffs.

Tiancheng Li, Jingyuan Wang, Guchong Li et al.

This is the third part of a series of studies that model the target trajectory, which describes the target state evolution over continuous time, as a sample path of a stochastic process (SP). By adopting a deterministic-stochastic decomposition framework, we decompose the learning of the trajectory SP into two sequential stages: the first fits the deterministic trend of the trajectory using a curve function of time, while the second estimates the residual stochastic component through parametric learning of either a Gaussian process (GP) or Student's-$t$ process (StP). This leads to a Markov-free data-driven tracking approach that produces the continuous-time trajectory with minimal prior knowledge of the target dynamics. Notably, our approach explicitly models both the temporal correlations of the state sequence and of measurement noises through the SP framework. It does not only take advantage of the smooth trend of the target but also makes use of the long-term temporal correlation of both the data noise and the model fitting error. Simulations in four maneuvering target tracking scenarios have demonstrated its effectiveness and superiority in comparison with existing approaches.

Selda Bulca, Monica Bayrakçıoğlu, Oğuzhan Yıldırım et al.

In recent years, the use of camel milk has gained popularity due to its nutritional and health benefits, such as its anticancer, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antiobesity properties, and against autism. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to incorporate these properties of camel milk into ice cream production. Camel milk is also known to provide a favorable environment for the growth of probiotic bacteria. To assess this potential, Bifidobacterium bifidum probiotic bacteria were added to ice cream samples made from 100% camel milk (with and without probiotic addition - Control), a mixture of 50% cow milk and 50% camel milk, and 100% cow milk. It was observed that the growth of probiotics was highest in ice cream made from 100% cow milk. Additionally, various analyses were conducted on the ice cream samples, including viscosity, first dripping time, complete melting time, overrun, total dry matter, volatile compounds, and sensory analyses. In the physicochemical tests, the ice cream produced from 100% camel milk with probiotic addition exhibited the lowest pH and viscosity values. Differences in viscosity values were attributed to variations in the dry matter content of the ice creams. Among the four ice cream samples, the mixture of 50% cow milk and 50% camel milk displayed the shortest first dripping and complete melting time. Sensory analysis results indicated that the most preferred ice cream was the one made from 100% camel milk without probiotic addition. 2-heptanone was detected in all four ice cream samples, with its concentration being highest in the cow milk ice cream.

Zelmar Rodriguez, Victor E. Cabrera, Henk Hogeveen et al.

ABSTRACT: Treatment of subclinical mastitis (SCM) during lactation is rarely recommended due to concerns related to both antimicrobial usage and the costs associated with milk discard. Nisin is a naturally produced antimicrobial peptide with a gram-positive spectrum that, when given to dairy cows, does not require milk discard. We evaluated the economic impact of the treatment of SCM during early lactation using a nisin-based intramammary treatment under different scenarios that included various treatment costs, milk prices, and cure rates. We stochastically simulated the dynamics of SCM detected during the first week of lactation. The net economic impact was expressed in US dollars per case. The probabilities of an event and their related costs were estimated using a model that was based on pathogen-specific assumptions selected from peer-reviewed articles. Nisin cure rates were based on results of pivotal studies included in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval submission. Based on our model, the average cost of a case of intramammary infection (i.e., only true-positive cases) in early lactation was $170 (90% = $148–$187), whereas the cost of a clinical mastitis case was $521 (90% range = $435–$581). Both estimates varied with etiology, parity, and stage of lactation. When comparing the net cost of SCM cases (i.e., CMT-positive tests) detected during the first week of lactation, nisin treatment generated an average positive economic impact of $19 per CMT-positive case. The use of nisin to treat SCM was beneficial 93% of the time. Based on the sensitivity analysis, treatment would result in an economically beneficial outcome for 95% and 73% of multiparous and primiparous cows, respectively. At the herd level, use of intramammary nisin to treat SCM in cows in early lactation was economically beneficial in most tested scenarios. However, the economic impact was highly influenced by factors such as rate of bacteriological cure, cost of treatment, and parity of the affected animal. These factors should be considered when deciding to use nisin as a treatment for SCM.

Wenwen Gao, Yanxi Wang, Siyu Liu et al.

ABSTRACT: During the perinatal period, dairy cows undergo negative energy balance, resulting in elevated circulating levels of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA). Although increased blood NEFA concentrations are a physiological adaptation of early lactation, excessive NEFA in dairy cows is a major cause of fatty liver. Aberrant lipid metabolism leads to hepatic lipid accumulation and subsequently the development of fatty liver. Both inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) have been validated for their association with hepatic lipid accumulation, including their regulatory functions in calf hepatocyte insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. Meanwhile, both IRE1α and JNK are involved in lipid metabolism in nonruminants. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate how IRE1α and JNK regulate lipid metabolism in bovine hepatocytes. An experiment was conducted on randomly selected 10 healthy cows (hepatic triglyceride [TG] content <1%) and 10 cows with fatty liver (hepatic TG content >5%). Liver tissue and blood samples were collected from experimental cows. Serum concentrations of NEFA and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) were greater, whereas serum concentrations of glucose and milk production were lower in cows with fatty liver. The western blot results revealed that dairy cows with fatty liver had higher phosphorylation levels of JNK, c-Jun, and IRE1α in the liver tissue. Three in vitro experiments were conducted using primary calf hepatocytes isolated from 5 healthy calves (body weight: 30–40 kg; 1 d old). First, hepatocytes were treated with NEFA (1.2 mM) for 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, or 12 h, which showed that the phosphorylated levels of JNK, c-Jun, and IRE1α increased in both linear and quadratic effects. In the second experiment, hepatocytes were treated with high concentrations of NEFA (1.2 mM) for 12 h with or without SP600125, a canonical inhibitor of JNK. Western blot results showed that SP600125 treatment could decrease the expression of lipogenesis-associated proteins (PPARγ and SREBP-1c) and increase the expression of fatty acid oxidation (FAO)-associated proteins (CPT1A and PPARα) in NEFA-treated hepatocytes. The perturbed expression of lipogenesis-associated genes (FASN, ACACA, and CD36) and FAO-associated gene ACOX1 were also recovered by JNK inhibition, indicating that JNK reduced excessive NEFA-induced lipogenesis and FAO dysregulation in calf hepatocytes. Third, short hairpin RNA targeting IRE1α (sh-IRE1α) was transfected into calf hepatocytes to silence IRE1α, and KIRA6 was used to inhibit the kinase activity of IRE1α. The blockage of IRE1α could at least partially suppressed NEFA-induced JNK activation. Moreover, the blockage of IRE1α downregulated the expression of lipogenesis genes and upregulated the expression of FAO genes in NEFA-treated hepatocytes. In conclusion, these findings indicate that targeting the IRE1α-JNK axis can reduce NEFA-induced lipid accumulation in bovine hepatocytes by modulating lipogenesis and FAO. This may offer a prospective therapeutic target for fatty liver in dairy cows.

Romario Gualdrón-Hurtado, Roman Jacome, Sergio Urrea et al.

Deep-learning (DL)-based image deconvolution (ID) has exhibited remarkable recovery performance, surpassing traditional linear methods. However, unlike traditional ID approaches that rely on analytical properties of the point spread function (PSF) to achieve high recovery performance - such as specific spectrum properties or small conditional numbers in the convolution matrix - DL techniques lack quantifiable metrics for evaluating PSF suitability for DL-assisted recovery. Aiming to enhance deconvolution quality, we propose a metric that employs a non-linear approach to learn the invertibility of an arbitrary PSF using a neural network by mapping it to a unit impulse. A lower discrepancy between the mapped PSF and a unit impulse indicates a higher likelihood of successful inversion by a DL network. Our findings reveal that this metric correlates with high recovery performance in DL and traditional methods, thereby serving as an effective regularizer in deconvolution tasks. This approach reduces the computational complexity over conventional condition number assessments and is a differentiable process. These useful properties allow its application in designing diffractive optical elements through end-to-end (E2E) optimization, achieving invertible PSFs, and outperforming the E2E baseline framework.

Vladimir Tourbabin, Boaz Rafaely

The auditory system of humanoid robots has gained increased attention in recent years. This system typically acquires the surrounding sound field by means of a microphone array. Signals acquired by the array are then processed using various methods. One of the widely applied methods is direction of arrival estimation. The conventional direction of arrival estimation methods assume that the array is fixed at a given position during the estimation. However, this is not necessarily true for an array installed on a moving humanoid robot. The array motion, if not accounted for appropriately, can introduce a significant error in the estimated direction of arrival. The current paper presents a signal model that takes the motion into account. Based on this model, two processing methods are proposed. The first one compensates for the motion of the robot. The second method is applicable to periodic signals and utilizes the motion in order to enhance the performance to a level beyond that of a stationary array. Numerical simulations and an experimental study are provided, demonstrating that the motion compensation method almost eliminates the motion-related error. It is also demonstrated that by using the motion-based enhancement method it is possible to improve the direction of arrival estimation performance, as compared to that obtained when using a stationary array.

Kristof Meixner, Kevin Feichtinger, Hafiyyan Sayyid Fadhlillah et al.

Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs), such as automated car manufacturing plants, execute a configurable sequence of production steps to manufacture products from a product portfolio. In CPPS engineering, domain experts start with manually determining feasible production step sequences and resources based on implicit knowledge. This process is hard to reproduce and highly inefficient. In this paper, we present the Extended Iterative Process Sequence Exploration (eIPSE) approach to derive variability models for products, processes, and resources from a domain-specific description. To automate the integrated exploration and configuration process for a CPPS, we provide a toolchain which automatically reduces the configuration space and allows to generate CPPS artifacts, such as control code for resources. We evaluate the approach with four real-world use cases, including the generation of control code artifacts, and an observational user study to collect feedback from engineers with different backgrounds. The results confirm the usefulness of the eIPSE approach and accompanying prototype to straightforwardly configure a desired CPPS.

Yu-Fen Huang, Nikki Moran, Simon Coleman et al.

In cross-modal music processing, translation between visual, auditory, and semantic content opens up new possibilities as well as challenges. The construction of such a transformative scheme depends upon a benchmark corpus with a comprehensive data infrastructure. In particular, the assembly of a large-scale cross-modal dataset presents major challenges. In this paper, we present the MOSA (Music mOtion with Semantic Annotation) dataset, which contains high quality 3-D motion capture data, aligned audio recordings, and note-by-note semantic annotations of pitch, beat, phrase, dynamic, articulation, and harmony for 742 professional music performances by 23 professional musicians, comprising more than 30 hours and 570 K notes of data. To our knowledge, this is the largest cross-modal music dataset with note-level annotations to date. To demonstrate the usage of the MOSA dataset, we present several innovative cross-modal music information retrieval (MIR) and musical content generation tasks, including the detection of beats, downbeats, phrase, and expressive contents from audio, video and motion data, and the generation of musicians' body motion from given music audio. The dataset and codes are available alongside this publication (https://github.com/yufenhuang/MOSA-Music-mOtion-and-Semantic-Annotation-dataset).

Saheed A. Ahmed, Ibrahim Kayode Banjoko, Olanrewaju Majeed Shuaib et al.

Five Matured Noiler chickens 3 months old weighing 3kg±120g were used for the experiment. The birds have fasted for 16 hours without food but with a supply of fresh cool water. The birds were slaughtered and dressed conventionally. The breast meat was excised within one-hour post-mortem and used for the preparation of Asun using charcoal and oven smoking. The breast meats were cut into fillets of average weight without bone; the fillets were spiced, rubbed with vegetable oil, and smoked using charcoal and oven to an internal temperature of 720C for 20 minutes with regular turning. The result shows a significant difference (p<0.05) in the nutritional and chemical composition of raw and smoke Noiler meat. The charcoal and oven-smoked Asun were not different, but both differ from the raw. The organoleptic properties show no significant difference (p>0.05) in color, aroma, and texture while flavor, juiciness, and overall acceptability differ. There was a significantly different (p>0.05) in WHC, cooking loss, and cooking yield. Preparation of Asun using charcoal and oven smoking contributed to the nutritional component except for the moisture content. The cholesterol, SFA, MUFA, PUFA, and amines were also increased. The value obtained shows that charcoal and oven-smoked Noiler meat Asun is safe for consumption and has no negative effect, also impacts positively on both the physical and organoleptic properties of the prepared product and therefore, recommended for the preparation of Asun using Noiler meat.

Giselle K.P. Guron, Phoebe X. Qi, Michael J. McAnulty et al.

ABSTRACT: Consumers' growing interest in fermented dairy foods necessitates research on a wide array of lactic acid bacterial strains to be explored and used. This study aimed to investigate the differences in the proteolytic capacity of Lactobacillus helveticus strains B1929 and ATCC 15009 on the fermentation of commercial ultra-pasteurized (UHT) skim milk and reconstituted nonfat dried milk powder (at a comparable protein concentration, 4%). The antihypertensive properties of the fermented milk, measured by angiotensin-I-converting enzyme inhibitory (ACE-I) activity, were compared. The B1929 strain lowered the pH of the milk to 4.13 ± 0.09 at 37°C after 24 h, whereas ATCC 15009 needed 48 h to drop the pH to 4.70 ± 0.18 at 37°C. Two soluble protein fractions, one (CFS1) obtained after fermentation (acidic conditions) and the other (CFS2) after the neutralization (pH 6.70) of the pellet from CFS1 separation, were analyzed for d-/l-lactic acid production, protein concentration, the degree of protein hydrolysis, and ACE-I activity. The CFS1 fractions, dominated by whey proteins, demonstrated a greater degree of protein hydrolysis (7.9%) than CFS2. On the other hand, CFS2, mainly casein proteins, showed a higher level of ACE-I activity (33.8%) than CFS1. Significant differences were also found in the d- and l-lactic acid produced by the UHT milk between the 2 strains. These results attest that milk casein proteins possessed more detectable ACE-I activity than whey fractions, even without a measurable degree of hydrolysis. Findings from this study suggest that careful consideration must be given when selecting the bacterial strain and milk substrate for fermentation.

Brahmaiah Pendyala, Pranav Vashisht, Fur-Chi Chen et al.

Introduction:Coxiella burnetii is a zoonotic Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen and the causative agent of query (Q) fever in humans. Contamination of milk by C. burnetii, as a consequence of livestock infection, is a significant public health concern. Effective methods to inactivate C. burnetii in milk are a critical aspect of food safety. Implementation of non-thermal UV-C processing technologies in the dairy industry can effectively preserve the sensory and nutritional quality of raw milk products while ensuring their safety, making them a viable alternative to traditional high-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization methods.Methods: Optical light attenuation factors, such as the absorption, scattering, and reflection by skim milk (SM) were evaluated using a spectrophotometer. SM inoculated with an avirulent strain of C. burnetii was irradiated using a collimated beam device equipped with a low-pressure UV-C 254 nm lamp at doses from 0 to 12 mJ/cm2. Optical properties were considered for the evaluation of the delivered UV-C dose. The pasteurization treatment was conducted using a lab scale HTST pasteurizer (72°C/15 s). The verification studies were conducted using Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 inoculated in a phosphate buffer (transparent fluid) and humic acid (opaque fluid). Salmonella enterica serovar Muenchen ATCC BAA 1674 inoculated in SM was tested for its suitability as a surrogate for C. burnetii, a bacterium that requires specialized equipment and expertise for experimentation.Results and Discussion: Absorption, reduced scattering coefficient, and the reflectance of SM at 254 nm were measured as 19 ± 0.3/cm, 26 ± 0.5/cm, and 10.6%, respectively. The UV-C results showed a log-linear inactivation of C. burnetii in SM with the UV-C sensitivity (D10) value of 4.1 ± 0.04 mJ/cm2. The results of HTST pasteurization revealed that C. burnetii was heat-sensitive with a D value of 1.75 min. Salmonella Muenchen showed similar UV inactivation kinetics and is, thereby, suggested as a suitable surrogate to C. burnetii for the pilot-scale UV-C processing studies of SM.

Hafedh Ben Zaabza, Curtis P. Van Tassell, Jeremie Vandenplas et al.

ABSTRACT: The calculation of exact reliabilities involving the inversion of mixed model equations poses a heavy computational challenge when the system of equations is large. This has prompted the development of different approximation methods. We give an overview of the various methods and computational approaches in calculating reliability from the era before the animal model to the era of single-step genomic models. The different methods are discussed in terms of modeling, development, and applicability in large dairy cattle populations. The paper also describes the problems faced in reliability computation. Many details dispersed throughout the literature are presented in this paper. It is clear that a universal solution applicable to every model and input data may not be possible, but we point out several efficient and accurate algorithms developed recently for a variety of very large genomic evaluations.

Yu Wang, Dongyao Li, Bimal Chitrakar et al.

ABSTRACT: Yogurt and its related products are popular worldwide. During transportation and storage, Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus in yogurt continues to metabolize to form lactic acid, the postacidification phenomenon of yogurt. Postacidification of yogurt is a widespread phenomenon in the dairy industry. Many scholars have done research on controlling the postacidification process, but few report on the molecular mechanisms involved. In this study, we used a molecular-assisted approach to screen food additives that can inhibit postacidification and analyzed its effects on yogurt quality as well as its regulatory mechanism from multi-omics perspectives in combination. The copper ion was found to upregulate the expression of the LDB_RS05285 gene, and the copper transporter-related genes were regulated by copper. Based on the metabolic-level analysis, copper was found to promote lactose hydrolysis, accumulate a large amount of glucose and galactose, inhibit the conversion of glucose to lactic acid, and reduce the production of lactic acid. The significantly greater abundance of l-isoleucine and l-phenylalanine increased the abundance of 3-methylbutyraldehyde (∼1.2 times) and benzaldehyde (∼7.9 times) to different degrees, which contributed to the formation of the overall flavor of yogurt. Copper not only stabilizes the acidity of yogurt, but also it improves the flavor of yogurt. Through this established method involving quantitative and correlation analyses at the transcriptional and metabolic levels, this study provides guidance for the research and development of food additives that inhibit postacidification of yogurt and provide a reference for studying the changes of metabolites during storage of yogurt.

Carlos E.C. Consentini, Tiago O. Carneiro, Humberto Neri et al.

The present study evaluated the addition of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) concomitant or 2 d after the beginning of protocols initiated with estradiol benzoate (EB). A total of 459 multiparous and 371 primiparous lactating Holstein cows were enrolled in the study. Weekly cohorts of cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental groups that differed in the strategy to initiate the timed AI (TAI protocol. On d 0, all cows received a 1.55-g progesterone (P4) implant. Additionally, cows in the EBd0 group received 2 mg of EB i.m.; cows in the EBd0-GnRHd0 group were treated simultaneously on d 0 with 2 mg of EB plus 100 µg of gonadorelin diacetate tetrahydrate (GnRH) i.m.; and cows in the EBd0-GnRHd2 group received 2 mg of EB on d 0 and 100 µg of GnRH 48 h later (d 2). The remaining treatments in the protocol were similar among groups and included 0.53 mg (i.m.) of cloprostenol sodium (PGF2α) on d 7, followed by a second PGF2α treatment on d 9 (at the time of P4 implant withdrawal) and 1 mg of estradiol cypionate i.m. Then, TAI was performed on d 11 (48 h after P4 removal) in all experimental groups. We detected an effect of treatment on pregnancy per AI (P/AI) on d 30, in which cows from the EBd0-GnRHd2 group demonstrated greater fertility than EBd0 cows, whereas cows in the EBd0-GnRHd0 group did not differ among EBd0 and EBd0-GnRHd0 (40.5 vs. 30.4 vs. 34.4%, respectively). In summary, GnRH treatment at the beginning of an estradiol and P4-based TAI protocol increased fertility only when GnRH was given on d 2. Moreover, a more pronounced positive effect of this strategy was observed in particular classes of cows: multiparous cows, cows with greater milk production, and those receiving the first service.