• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.4_spc
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• pp.730-741
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• 2024

Pig production is one of the viable enterprises of the livestock sub-sector of agriculture. It contributes significantly to the economy and animal protein supply to enhance food security in Africa and globally. This article explored the present status of pig production in Africa, the challenges, prospects and potentials. The pig population of Africa represents 4.6% of the global pig population. They are widely distributed across Africa except in Northern Africa where pig production is not popular due to religio-cultural reasons. They are mostly reared in rural parts of Africa by smallholder farmers, informing why majority of the pig population in most parts of Africa are indigenous breeds and their crosses. Pig plays important roles in the sustenance of livelihood in the rural communities and have cultural and social significance. The pig production system in Africa is predominantly traditional, but rapidly growing and transforming into the modern system. The annual pork production in Africa has grown from less than a million tonnes in year 2000 to over 2 million tonnes in 2021. Incidence of disease outbreak, especially African swine fever is one of the main constraints affecting pig production in Africa. Others are lack of skills and technical know-how, high ambient temperature, limited access to high-quality breeds, high cost of feed ingredients and veterinary inputs, unfriendly government policies, religious and cultural bias, inadequate processing facilities as well as under-developed value-chain. The projected human population of 2.5 billion in Africa by 2050, increasing urbanization and decreasing farming population are pointers to the need for increased food production. The production systems of pigs in Africa requires developmental research, improvements in housing, feed production and manufacturing, animal health, processing, capacity building and pig friendly policies for improved productivity and facilitation of export.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1501-1509
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• 2003

The simultaneous addition of xylanase (5,600 EXU/kg) and phytase (500 FTU/kg) feed enzymes to wheat-based broiler diets was investigated. Starter, grower and finisher diets, with three tiers of nutrient specifications, were fed to 1,440 broiler chicks kept on deep litter from 1-42 days post-hatch, without and with xylanase plus phytase, to determine the effects of diet type and enzyme supplementation on growth performance. The nutrient specifications of type A diets were standard; energy density and protein/amino acid levels were reduced on a least-cost basis to formulate type B diets and further reduced to type C diets. Phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca) levels were adjusted in supplemented diets. From 1-42 days post-hatch, diet type significantly influenced growth performance. Birds on type C diets had lower growth rates (2,429 vs. 2,631 g/bird; p<0.001), higher feed intakes (4,753 vs. 4,534 g/bird; p<0.005) and less efficient feed conversion (1.96 vs. 1.72; p<0.001) than birds offered type A diets. Enzyme supplementation increased growth rates by 3.2% (2,580 vs. 2,501 g/bird; p<0.005) and improved feed efficiency by 2.7% (1.80 vs. 1.85; p<0.05) over the entire feeding period. There were no interactions between diet type and enzyme supplementation. At 21 days, 5 out of 30 birds per pen were transferred to cages to ascertain treatment effect on apparent metabolisable energy (AME) and nitrogen (N) retention. Xylanase plus phytase enhanced AME (13.48 to 13.91 MJ/kg DM; p<0.001) and N retention (56.3 to 59.7%; p<0.005). Carcass and breast weights of the caged birds were determined following commercial processing. Diet type significantly influenced breast weight, carcass weight and yield. Birds offered Type A diets, in comparison to Type C diets, supported heavier breast (467 vs. 424 g; p<0.001) and carcass weights (1,868 vs. 1,699 g; p<0.001) with superior carcass yields (71.8 vs. 70.6%; p<0.005). Enzyme addition increased carcass weight by 3.9% (1,752 vs. 1,821 g; p<0.005) and breast weight by 5.8% (431 vs. 456 g; p<0.01) without influencing yields. Feed ingredient costs per kg live weight gain and per kg carcass weight indicated that enzyme addition was economically feasible, where supplementation of Type A diets generated the most effective results. Importantly, soluble and total non-starch polysaccharide and phytate contents of the wheat used were typical by local standards. This study confirms the potential of supplementing wheat-based broiler diets with xylanase plus phytase but further investigations are required to define the most appropriate inclusion rates and dietary nutrient specifications in this context.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.306-311
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• 2013

Purpose: With the ever-rising energy prices, thermal energy heavily consuming facilities of the agricultural sector such as commercialized greenhouses and large-scale Rice Processing Complexes (RPCs) need to cut down their energy cost if they must run profitable businesses continually. One possible way to reduce their energy cost is to utilize combustible agricultural by-products or low-price oil instead of light oil as the fuel for their boiler systems. This study aims to analyze the heavy oil combustion characteristics of a newly developed hot water boiler system that can use both rice husk and heavy oil as its fuel convertibly. Methods: Heavy oil combustion experiments were conducted in this study employing four fuel feed rates (7.6, 8.5, 9.5, 11.4 $l/h$) at a combustion furnace vacuum pressure of 500 Pa and with four combustion furnace vacuum pressures (375, 500, 625, 750 Pa) at fuel feed rates of 9.5 and 11.4 $l/h$. Temperatures at five locations inside the combustion furnace and 20 additional locations throughout the whole hot water boiler system were measured to ascertain the combustion characteristics of the heavy oil. From the temperature measurement data, the thermal efficiency of the system was calculated. Flue gas smoke density and concentrations of air-polluting components in the flue gas were also measured by a gas analyzer. Results: As the fuel feed rate or combustion furnace vacuum pressure increased, the average temperature in the combustion furnace decreased but the thermal efficiency of the system showed no distinctive change. On the other hand, the thermal efficiency of the system was inversely proportionally to the vacuum level in the furnace. For all experimental conditions, the thermal efficiency remained in the range of 80.1-89.6%. The CO concentration in the flue gas was negligibly low. The NO and $SO_2$ concentration as well as the smoke density met the legal requirements. Conclusions: Considering the combustion temperature characteristics, thermal efficiency, and flue gas composition, the optimal combustion condition of the system seemed to be either the fuel feed rate of 9.5 $l/h$ with a combustion furnace vacuum pressure of 375 Pa or a fuel feed rate of 11.4 $l/h$ with a furnace vacuum pressure between 500 Pa and 625 Pa.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.116-121
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• 2014

Low pressure die casting and flow forming have been successfully used to produce sound road wheels from magnesium alloy AM80. In the current study, high speed compression testing was initially conducted to simulate the flow forming of a Mg wheel. Subsequently the flow forming was simulated with "Forge$^{TM}$", an FEM software package. On the basis of flow forming simulations, the flow forming of the Mg wheel was performed under different conditions. For the flow forming experiments, the preform castings were made by low pressure die casting from AM80, a commercial magnesium alloy. In flow forming of the magnesium preform wheel, the flow forming of the Mg wheel was successfully accomplished when the feed rate was less than half that for the forming of an aluminum road wheel. The reduction in feed rate was 52%. Finally, a comparison with the flow forming simulations was made.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.57 no.9
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• pp.29.1-29.9
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• 2015

This review provides an overview of the published data on the canola meal and its suitability for duck as an alternative plant-origin protein source to soybean meal. Canola meal is a legume origin protein source containing comparable amino acid profile to soybean meal and rich in essential minerals and vitamins. Nonetheless, it is known to contain less in energy content than soybean meal. Factors like field conditions and processing methods creates compositional variations among canola meal. Presence of anti-nutritional factors such as phenolic substances, phytate and glucosinolates which are known to reduce growth performance in livestock animals, are the major drawbacks for canola meal to be a competitive plant-origin protein source in the feed industry. This review is focused to address i) nutritional characteristics and feeding value of canola meal for ducks and ii) impacts of feeding canola meal on performances of ducks.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.109-115
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• 1997

Laser cladding is a technique for modification of metal surface. In this laser cladding experiment a metal powder feeding system was developed for more efficient laser cladding. This system can reduce processing time and be used simpler than the conventional method. The feeding of metal powder has given a rise to the process for sequential buildup of bulk rapidly solidified materials in the form of fine powder stream to the laser cladding process. The parameters of laser cladding have been investigated using this experimental equipment. Bronze on aluminum alloy and copper on aluminum alloy were experimented by using defocused beam, powder feeding system, and gas shielding. Good cladding was achieved in the range of beam travel speed of 2.25m/min. In the case of copper/aluminum and bronze/aluminum substrate, the absorption of laser beam was too high to produce low diluted clad. In the case of copper/1050 aluminum, the optimal laser cladding condition was of laser power of 2.8kW, powder feed rate of 0.31g/s and beam travel speed of 2.25m/min. In the case of bronze/aluminum the optimal condition is of laser power of 2.5kW, powder feed rate of 0.31g/s, and beam travel speed of 2.36m/min.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.1017-1020
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• 2002

The pure Ti is taken annealing process for one hour at 90$0^{\circ}C$. The pure Ti is sufficient for ASTM B348 Grade2. The rolling mill roll the Ti-8Ta-3Nb(wt%) which became vacuum melting in arc furnace until the length is about 45mm and the thickness is about 6.05mm. Then it is made 6mm$\times$6mm$\times$44mm by wire cutting with EDM and it is made ∮ 6mm by rough cutting with the general purpose lathe. The machining accuracy of implant parts in the dental and medical science are decided by dimension, shpe, straightness, surface roughness. It is difficult to cut for the Ti alloy. It is caused problems of straight degree and surface roughness to the Ti alloy have many cases which length is smaller than diameter in cutting. Total 24 specimens different kind of 4 alloies are used in experiment to gain a cutting property. According to the cutting velocity, cutting depth, cutting temperature, feed and clearance angle experiments are performed. Conclusively it is expected that cutting depth of 0.5mm, feed velocity of 0.07mm/rev and cutting velocity of 80m/min could make a suitable result.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.597-600
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• 1993

An experiment was conducted using 160 Arbor Acres broiler strain of chickens to evaluate the effects of partial replacement of soyabean meal with feather meal on the diets of broiler chickens raised from day old to 8 weeks of age. Feathers, obtained from a local poultry processing plant, were boiled in water for 30 minutes, sun-dried and ground using a 2 mm sieve for inclusion into the experimental diets at 0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5% levels at the expense of soyabean meal. The feather meal was assayed and found to contain 86.5% crude protein and to be low in lysine, methionine and histidine amino acids. The inclusion of such processed feather meal up to 3% in the diet did not (p>0.05) affect growth or feed conversion ratio. However, the highest level of inclusion of feather meal in the diet, 4.5%, significantly reduced both growth rate and feed conversion ratio of the birds. The results of this experiment showed that up to 3% of water-boiled feather meal, which represents 12% of dietary protein, the equivalent of 6% level of use of soyabean meal in the diet, can be successfully included as a protein source in the diets of broiler chickens.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 1998

Animal cells in culture typically convert most of the glucose they consume into lactate. The accumulation of lactate, however, is commonly cited as one of the factors that inhibit cell growth and limit the maximum cell concentration that can be achieved in culture. The specific production of lactate and the amount of glucose converted to lactate can be reduced when cells are grown in a fed-batch culture in which the residual glucose concentration is maintained at low levels. Such a fed-batch culture was used to grow and adapt hybridoma cells into a low-lactate-producing state before changing into continuous culture. The cells reached and maintained a high viable cell concentration at steady state. In a similar manner, cells that were initially grown in batch culture and a glucose-rich environment reached a steady state with a cell concentration that is much lower. The feed composition and dilution rates for both cultures were similar, suggesting steady state multiplicity. From a processing perspective the desired steady state among those is the one with the least metabolite production. At such seady state nutrient concentration in the feed can be further increased to increase cell and product concentrations without causing the metabolite inhibitory effect typically seen in a cell culture. Controlling cell metabolism in a continuous culture to reduce or eliminate waste metabolite production may significantly improve the productivity of mammalian cell culture processes.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.314-322
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• 2018

AlSi12 is a heat-resistant aluminum alloy that is lightweight, corrosion-resistant, machinable and attracting attention as a functional material in aerospace and automotive industries. For that reason, AlSi12 powder has been used for high performance parts through 3D printing technology. The purpose of this study is to observe deposition characteristics of AlSi12 powder in a direct energy deposition (DED) process (one of the metal 3D printing technologies). In this study, deposition characteristics were investigated according to various process parameters such as laser power, powder feed rate, scan speed, and slicing layer thickness. In the single track deposition experiment, an irregular bead shape and balling or humping of molten metal were formed below a laser power of 1,000 W, and the good-shaped bead was obtained at 1.0 g/min powder feed rate. Similar results were observed in multi-layer deposition. Observation of deposited height after multi-layer deposition revealed that over-deposition occurred at all conditions. To prevent over-deposition, slicing layer thickness was experimentally determined at given conditions. From these results, this study presented practical conditions for good surface quality and accurate geometry of deposits.