• Title/Summary/Keyword: Intensive Production Systems

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Suitability of Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) Hay as a Supplement to Fresh Grass in Dairy Cows

  • Scharenberg, A.;Kreuzer, M.;Dohme, Frigga
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.22 no.7
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    • pp.1005-1015
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    • 2009
  • Two experiments were carried out to determine the utility of sainfoin hay, a temperate tanniferous forage legume, as a dietary supplement for grass-fed cows. The condensed tannins (CT) of sainfoin might counteract the typical metabolic ammonia load of cows in intensive grazing systems. Furthermore, the physical fibrousness of sainfoin might improve ruminal pH stability. In the preliminary experiment, the eating rate of non-lactating Holstein cows of two tanniferous hays, sainfoin and birdsfoot trefoil, was compared to that of a grass-clover hay after specific periods of time (n = 4). The eating rate of sainfoin was superior to that of the other forages. In the main experiment, designed as a replicated 3${\times}$3 Latin square, six ruminally-cannulated, lactating Red Holstein cows received grass, concentrate and either no supplementation, 3 kg/d of grass hay or 3 kg/d of sainfoin hay (n = 6). Measured intakes of the grass hay and the sainfoin hay were 2.0 and 1.5 kg DM, and two cows entirely refused to eat the sainfoin hay and had to be excluded from data analysis. Grass DMI was similar for cows supplemented with sainfoin hay and cows fed only grass whereas intake of concentrate was higher (p<0.01) for the latter treatment. Continuous measurement of ruminal pH showed that the minimum pH at night tended to be lower (p<0.10) with grass-only feeding compared to sainfoin supplementation, but pH did not decline below the threshold of subacute acidosis for a longer period of time. The slightly higher intake of nitrogen (N) for cows supplemented with sainfoin hay (413 g/d) compared to cows fed only grass (399 g/d) was accompanied by an increased (p<0.05) fecal N excretion and a tendency for an increased (p<0.10) urinary N excretion. Ruminal ammonia concentration, as well as plasma and milk urea, were not affected by sainfoin supplementation. In conclusion, the lack of positive effects typical for CT might be explained either by the limited CT content of this plant species (55 g/kg DM) or the relatively low proportion of sainfoin in the total diet or both. Moreover, due to the unexpected low grass quality, the general ammonia load might have been too low for CT to have an impact.

Consequences of Water Induced Disasters to Livelihood Activities in Nepal

  • Gurung, Anup;Karki, Arpana;Karki, Rahul;Bista, Rajesh;Oh, Sang-Eun
    • Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.129-136
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    • 2012
  • BACKGROUND: The changes in the climatic conditions have brought potentially significant new challenges, most critical are likely to be its impact on local livelihoods, agriculture, biodiversity and environments. Water induced disasters such as landslides, floods, erratic rain etc., are very common in developing countries which lead to changes in biological, geophysical and socioeconomic elements. The extent of damages caused by natural disasters is more sever in least developing countries. However, disasters affect women and men differently. In most of the cases women have to carry more burden as compared to their male counterpart during the period of disasters. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study examines the impact of disasters on the local livelihood especially agriculture and income generating activities of women in three districts of Nepal. The study uses the primary data collected following an exploratory approach, based on an intensive field study. The general findings of the study revealed that women had to experience hard time as compared to their male counterpart both during and after the disaster happen. Women are responsible for caring their children, collecting firewood, fetching water, collecting grass for livestock and performing household chores. Whereas, men are mainly involved in out-migration and remained out-side home most of the time. After the disaster occurred, most of the women had to struggle to support their lives as well as had to work longer hours than men during reconstruction period. Nepal follows patriarchal system and men can afford more leisure time as compared to women. During the disaster period, some of the households lost their agricultural lands, livestock and other properties. These losses created some additional workload to women respondent, however at the same time; they learn to build confidence, self-respect, self-esteem, and self-dependency.Although Nepal is predominantly agriculture, majority of the farmers are at subsistence level. In addition, men and women have different roles which differ with the variation in agro-production systems. Moreover women are extensively involved in agricultural activities though their importances were not recognized. Denial of land ownership and denial of access to resources as well as migration of male counterparts are some of the major reasons for affecting the agricultural environments for women in Nepal. CONCLUSION: The shelter reconstruction program has definitely brought positive change in women's access to decision making. The gradual increase in number of women respondent in access to decision making in different areas is a positive change and this has also provided them with a unique opportunity to change their gendered status in society.Furthermore, the exodus out-flow of male counterparts accelerated the additional burden and workload on women.

Estimating soils properties using NIRS to assess amendments in intensive horticultural production

  • Pena, Francisco;Gallardo, Natalia;Campillo, Carmen Del;Garrido, Ana;Cabanas, Victor Fernandez;Delgado, Antonio
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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    • 2001.06a
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    • pp.1615-1615
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    • 2001
  • During the past ten years, Near Infrared Spectroscopy has been successfully applied to the analysis of a great variety of agriculture products. Previous works (Morra et al., 1991; Salgo et al., 1998) have shown the potential of this technology for soil analysis, estimating different parameters just with one single scan. The main advantages of NIR applications in soils are the speed of response, allowing the increase of the number of samples analysed to define a particular soil, and the instantaneous elaboration of recommendations for fertilization and soil amendment. Another advantage is to avoid the use of chemical reagents at all, being an environmentally safe technique. In this paper, we have studied a set of 129 soil samples selected from representative glasshouse soils from Southern Spain. The samples were dried, milled, and sieved to pass a 2 mm sieve and then analysed for organic carbon, total nitrogen, inorganic nitrogen (nitrate ammonium), hygroscopic humidity, pH and electrical conductivity in the 1:1 extract. NIR spectra of all samples were obtained in reflectance mode using a Foss NIR Systems 6500 spectrophotometer equipped with a spinning module. Calibration equations were developed for seven analytical parameters (ph, Total nitrogen, organic nitrogen, organic carbon, C/N ratio and Electric Conductivity). Preliminary results show good correlation coefficients and standard errors of cross validation in equations obtained for Organic Carbon, Organic Nitrogen, Total Nitrogen and C/N ratio. Calibrations for nitrates and nitrites, ammonia and electric conductivity were not acceptable. Calibration obtained for pH had an acceptable SECV, but the determination coefficient was found very poor probably due to the reduced range in reference values. Since the estimation of Organic Carbon and C/N ratio are acceptable NIIRS could be used as a fast method to assess the necessity of organic amendments in soils from Mediterranean regions where the low level of organic matter in soils constitutes an important agronomic problem. Furthermore, the possibility of a single and fast estimation of Total Nitrogen (tedious determination by modifications of the Kjeldahl procedure) could provide and interesting data to use in the estimation of nitrogen fertilizer rates by means of nitrogen balances.

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Prospect of Sustainable Organic Tea Farming in Lwang, Kaski, Nepa (네팔 르왕지역의 지속적 유기농차 재배 방향)

  • Chang, K.J.;Huang, D.S.;Park, C.H.;Jeon, U.S.;Jeon, S.H.;Binod, Basnet.
    • Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.137-150
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    • 2010
  • Traditionally, like many people in mountain region of the Himalaya, the Lwang communities depend on mix of subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, and seasonal migrant labor for their livelihoods. These traditional systems are characterized by low productivity, diverse use of available natural resources (largely for home consumption), limited markets, and some aversion for innovation. The potential to generate wealth through commerce has largely been untapped by these mountain residents and thus is undervalued in local and national economies. Introduction of organic tea farming is a part of Lwang community's several initiatives to break the vicious poverty cycle Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) played facilitating roles in all their efforts since beginning. In five years, the tea plantation emerged as a new means for secured a livelihood. This study aims to analyze the current practices in tea farming both in terms of farm management and soil nutrient status(technical) and the prosperity of the tea farmers (social). The technical aspect covers the soil and tea leaf analysis of various nutrients contents in the soil and tea leaf. Originally, the technical aspect of the study was not planned but later during the consultation with the advisor it was taken into consideration which added value to the research study. The sample were collected from different locations and analyzed on the field itself. The other part of the study i.e. the social aspect was done through questionnaire survey and focus group discussion. the tea farming provided them not only a new opportunity but also earned an identity in the region. This initiative was undertaken as a piloting measure. Now that the tea is in production with processing unit established locally, more serious consideration has to be given for better yield and economic prosperity. This research finding will help the community to analyze their efforts and make correction measures in tea garden management and application of fertilizer. It is also expected to fill up the gaps of knowledge and information required to reduce economic stresses and enhance capacity of farmers to make the tea farming a sustainable and beneficial business. The findings are expected to Sustainability of organic tea farming has direct impacts on biodiversity conservation compared to the other traditional farming practices that are more resource intensive. The study will also contribute to identify key action points required for reducing poverty while conserving environment and enhancing livelihoods

Hybrid Offloading Technique Based on Auction Theory and Reinforcement Learning in MEC Industrial IoT Environment (MEC 산업용 IoT 환경에서 경매 이론과 강화 학습 기반의 하이브리드 오프로딩 기법)

  • Bae Hyeon Ji;Kim Sung Wook
    • KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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    • v.12 no.9
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    • pp.263-272
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    • 2023
  • Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is an important factor in increasing production efficiency in industrial sectors, along with data collection, exchange and analysis through large-scale connectivity. However, as traffic increases explosively due to the recent spread of IIoT, an allocation method that can efficiently process traffic is required. In this thesis, I propose a two-stage task offloading decision method to increase successful task throughput in an IIoT environment. In addition, I consider a hybrid offloading system that can offload compute-intensive tasks to a mobile edge computing server via a cellular link or to a nearby IIoT device via a Device to Device (D2D) link. The first stage is to design an incentive mechanism to prevent devices participating in task offloading from acting selfishly and giving difficulties in improving task throughput. Among the mechanism design, McAfee's mechanism is used to control the selfish behavior of the devices that process the task and to increase the overall system throughput. After that, in stage 2, I propose a multi-armed bandit (MAB)-based task offloading decision method in a non-stationary environment by considering the irregular movement of the IIoT device. Experimental results show that the proposed method can obtain better performance in terms of overall system throughput, communication failure rate and regret compared to other existing methods.

Application of Plant Flavonoids as Natural Antioxidants in Poultry Production (가금 생산에서 천연 항산화제로서 식물성 Flavonoids의적용)

  • Kang-Min, Seomoon;In-Surk, Jang
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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    • v.49 no.4
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    • pp.211-220
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    • 2022
  • Poultry are exposed to extremely high levels of oxidative stress as a consequence of the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by endogenous and exogenous stressors, such as high-stocking densities, thermal stress, environmental and feed contamination, along with factors associated with intensive breeding systems. Oxidative stress promotes lipid peroxidation, DNA damage, and inflammation, which can have detrimental effects on the health of birds. During the course of evolution, birds have developed antioxidant defense mechanisms that contribute to maintaining homeostasis when exposed to endogenous and exogenous stressors. The primary antioxidant defense systems are enzymatic and non-enzymatic in nature and play roles in protecting cells from ROS attack. Recently, plant flavonoids, which have been established to reduce oxidative stress, have been attracting considerable attention as potential feed additives. Flavonoids are a group of polyphenolic compounds that can be stabilized by binding structural compounds with ROS, and can promote the elimination of ROS by inducing the expression of antioxidant enzymes. However, although flavonoids can contribute to reducing lipid peroxidation and thereby enhance the antioxidant capacity of birds, they have low solubility in the gastrointestinal tract, and consequently, it is necessary to develop a delivery technology that can facilitate the effect intestinal absorption of these compounds. Furthermore, it is important to determine the dietary levels of flavonoids by assessing the exact antioxidant effects in the gastrointestinal tract wherein the concentrations of dietary flavonoids are highest. It is also necessary to examine the expression of transcriptional factors and vitagenes associated with the efficient antioxidant effects induced by flavonoids. It is anticipated that the application of flavonoids as natural antioxidants will become a particularly important field in the poultry industry.

Agroclimatic Zone and Characters of the Area Subject to Climatic Disaster in Korea (농업 기후 지대 구분과 기상 재해 특성)

  • 최돈향;윤성호
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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    • v.34 no.s02
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    • pp.13-33
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    • 1989
  • Agroclimate should be analyzed and evaluated accurately to make better use of available chimatic resources for the establishment of optimum cropping systems. Introducing of appropriate cultivars and their cultivation techniques into classified agroclimatic zone could contribute to the stability and costs of crop production. To classify the agroclimatic zones, such climatic factors as temperature, precipitation, sunshine, humidity and wind were considered as major influencing factors on the crop growth and yield. For the classification of rice agroclimatic zones, precipitation and drought index during transplanting time, the first occurrence of effective growth temperature (above 15$^{\circ}C$) and its duration, the probability of low temperature occurrence, variation in temperature and sunshine hours, and climatic productivity index were used in the analysis. The agroclimatic zones for rice crop were classified into 19 zones as follows; (1) Taebaek Alpine Zone, (2) Taebaek Semi-Alpine Zone, (3) Sobaek Mountainous Zone, (4) Noryeong Sobaek Mountainous Zone, (5) Yeongnam Inland Mountainous Zone, (6) Northern Central Inland Zone, (7) Central Inland Zone, (8) Western Soebaek Inland Zone, (9) Noryeong Eastern and Western Inland Zone, (10) Honam Inland Zone, (ll) Yeongnam Basin Zone, (12) Yeongnam Inland Zone, (13) Western Central Plain Zone, (14) Southern Charyeong Plain Zone, (15) South Western Coastal Zone, (16) Southern Coastal Zone, (17) Northern Eastern Coastal Zone, (18) Central Eastern Coastal Zone, and (19) South Eastern Coastal Zone. The classification of agroclimatic zones for cropping systems was based on the rice agroclimatic zones considering zonal climatic factors for both summer and winter crops and traditional cropping systems. The agroclimatic zones were identified for cropping systems as follows: (I) Alpine Zone, (II) Mountainous Zone, (III) Central Northern Inland Zone, (IV) Central Northern West Coastal Zone, (V) Cental Southern West Coastal Zone, (VI) Gyeongbuk Inland Zone, (VII) Southern Inland Zone, (VIII) Southern Coastal Zone, and (IX) Eastern Coastal Zone. The agroclimatic zonal characteristics of climatic disasters under rice cultivation were identified: as frequent drought zones of (11) Yeongnam Basin Zone, (17) North Eastern Coastal Zone with the frequency of low temperature occurrence below 13$^{\circ}C$ at root setting stage above 9.1%, and (2) Taebaek Semi-Alpine Zone with cold injury during reproductive stages, as the thphoon and intensive precipitation zones of (10) Hanam Inland Zone, (15) Southern West Coastal Zone, (16) Southern Coastal Zone with more than 4 times of damage in a year and with typhoon path and heavy precipitation intensity concerned. Especially the three east coastal zones, (17), (18), and (19), were subjected to wind and flood damages 2 to 3 times a year as well as subjected to drought and cold temperature injury.

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Trends and Interpretation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Carbon Footprinting of Fruit Products: Focused on Kiwifruits in Gyeongnam Region (과수의 탄소발자국 표지를 위한 LCA 동향 및 해석: 경남지역 참다래를 중심으로)

  • Deurer, Markus;Clothier, Brent;Huh, Keun-Young;Jun, Gee-Ill;Kim, In-Hea;Kim, Dae-Il
    • Horticultural Science & Technology
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    • v.29 no.5
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    • pp.389-406
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    • 2011
  • As part of a feasibility study for introducing carbon labeling of fruit products in Korea, we explore the use of carbon footprints for Korean kiwifruit from Gyeongnam region as a case study. In Korea, the Korean Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) is responsible for the carbon footprint labeling certification, and has two types of certification programs: one program focuses on climate change response (carbon footprint labeling analysis) and the other on low-carbon products (reduction of carbon footprints analysis). Currently agricultural products have not yet been included in the program. Carbon labeling could soon be a prerequisite for the international trading of agricultural products. In general the carbon footprints of various agricultural products from New Zealand followed the methodology described in the ISO standards and conformed to the PAS 2050. The carbon footprint assessment focuses on a supply chain, and considers the foreground and the background systems. The basic scheme consists of four phases, which are the 'goal', 'scope', 'inventory analysis', and 'interpretation' phases. In the case of the carbon footprint of New Zealand kiwifruit the study tried to understand each phase's contribution to total GHG emissions. According to the results, shipping, orchard, and coolstore operation are the main life cycle stages that contribute to the carbon footprint of the kiwifruit supply chain stretching from the orchard in New Zealand to the consumer in the UK. The carbon emission of long-distance transportation such as shipping can be a hot-spot of GHG emissions, but can be balanced out by minimizing the carbon footprint of other life cycle phases. For this reason it is important that orchard and coolstore operations reduce the GHG-intensive inputs such as fuel or electricity to minimize GHG emissions and consequently facilitate the industry to compete in international markets. The carbon footprint labeling guided by international standards should be introduced for fruit products in Korea as soon as possible. The already established LCA methodology of NZ kiwifruit can be applied for fruit products as a case study.

Economic Impact of HEMOS-Cloud Services for M&S Support (M&S 지원을 위한 HEMOS-Cloud 서비스의 경제적 효과)

  • Jung, Dae Yong;Seo, Dong Woo;Hwang, Jae Soon;Park, Sung Uk;Kim, Myung Il
    • KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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    • v.10 no.10
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    • pp.261-268
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    • 2021
  • Cloud computing is a computing paradigm in which users can utilize computing resources in a pay-as-you-go manner. In a cloud system, resources can be dynamically scaled up and down to the user's on-demand so that the total cost of ownership can be reduced. The Modeling and Simulation (M&S) technology is a renowned simulation-based method to obtain engineering analysis and results through CAE software without actual experimental action. In general, M&S technology is utilized in Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Multibody dynamics (MBD), and optimization fields. The work procedure through M&S is divided into pre-processing, analysis, and post-processing steps. The pre/post-processing are GPU-intensive job that consists of 3D modeling jobs via CAE software, whereas analysis is CPU or GPU intensive. Because a general-purpose desktop needs plenty of time to analyze complicated 3D models, CAE software requires a high-end CPU and GPU-based workstation that can work fluently. In other words, for executing M&S, it is absolutely required to utilize high-performance computing resources. To mitigate the cost issue from equipping such tremendous computing resources, we propose HEMOS-Cloud service, an integrated cloud and cluster computing environment. The HEMOS-Cloud service provides CAE software and computing resources to users who want to experience M&S in business sectors or academics. In this paper, the economic ripple effect of HEMOS-Cloud service was analyzed by using industry-related analysis. The estimated results of using the experts-guided coefficients are the production inducement effect of KRW 7.4 billion, the value-added effect of KRW 4.1 billion, and the employment-inducing effect of 50 persons per KRW 1 billion.

Effects of Body Weight and Dietary Protein Level on Ammonia Excretion by the Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (나일틸라피아의 암모니아 배설에 미치는 어체중과 사료 내 단백질 함량의 영향)

  • Oh, Sung-Yong;Jo, Jae-Yoon
    • Journal of Aquaculture
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.122-129
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    • 2005
  • Ammonia is the major limiting factor in intensive aquaculture production systems. Therefore, quantification of ammonia excretion is important for the water quality management in aquaculture systems. Ammonia excretion is known to be affected by many factors such as body weight and dietary protein level (DPL). In this study, experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of body weight and DPLs on the rates of ammonia excretion of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. Three sizes of fishes (mean initial weight; 4.8 g,42.7 g and 176.8 g) were fed each of two dietary protein levels (30.5% and 35.5%). Daily feeding levels for the three fish sizes of 4.8 g, 42.7 g and 176.8 g were 6%, 3%, and 1.5% body weight per day, respectively. Each group of fish was stocked in a 17.1-L aquarium and all treatments were triplicated. Following feeding, the weight-specific ammonia excretion rate of O. niloticus increased, peaked at 4 to 8 h, and returned to pre-feeding levels within 24 h. Total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) excretion.ate per unit weight decreased with the increase of fish weight for each diet (P<0.05). The TAN excretion rate increased with increasing dietary protein content for each fish size (P<0.05). TAN excretion rates (Y) for each diet with different fish weights were described by the following equations: low DPL diet (30.5%): $Y\;(mg\;kg^{-1}\;d^{-1})=955.69-147.12\;lnX\;(r^2=0.95)$, high DPL diet (35.5%): $Y\;(mg\;kg^{-1}\;d^{-1})=1362.41-209.79\;lnX\;(r^2=0.99)$. Where: X=body weight (g wet wt.). The TAN excretion rates ranged 28.5%-37.1% of the total nitrogen ingested for the low DPL diet (30.5%) and 37.4-38.5% for the high DPL diet (35.5%). Total nitrogen losses of fish fed the high DPL diet $(35.5%;\;0.26\sim0.91g\;kg^{-1}\;d^{-1})$ were higher than those fed the low DPL diet $(30.5%;\;0.22\sim0.68g\;kg^{-1}\;d^{-1})$. The losses decreased per kg of fish as fish size increased. Results will provide valuable information fer water quality management and culture of Nile tilapia in recirculating aquaculture systems.