Effect of bird age and storage system on physical properties of eggs from brown laying hens

A total of 108 eggs from a group of 100 brown laying hens housed in standard cages were analyzed. Thirty-six eggs were retired when the hens had 30 week of age, other 36 eggs were retired when the hens had 35 week of age and the remaining 36 eggs were retired five weeks afterwards. Each group of 36 eggs was radomly divided in three groups of 12 eggs. First group was analyzed at once, second group one was kept during one week in the refrigerator (5°C) and third group was kept also one week but on ambient temperature (25°C). Shell color, shell thickness, specific gravity, albumen height and Haugh units wre obtained. The bird age had significant effect on shell color and shell thickness, but the storage system had not influence on such variables. The hen age had not effect on specific gravity, but the storage system affected to this variable. Hen age and storage system had significant influence (P<0.05) on albumen height and Haugh units, and the interaction age × storage system was significant for these variables. The specific gravity had positive relations with shell thickness, yolk color, albumen height and Haugh units. It is concluded that bird age and storage system under high temperatures reduced the egg quality.

Effect of wheat inclusion and xylanase supplementation of the diet on intestinal enzyme activity, nutrient retention and performance in laying hen from 25 to 47 wks of age

A trial was conducted to examine the effects of increasing levels of wheat in the diet and xylanase (ES) supplementation on nitrogen and ether extract retention, pH of the GIT, productive performance from 25 to 47 wks of age, and enzyme activity at the small intestine level. The basal diets (from 25 to 33 wks and from 33 to 47 wks) consisted of soybean meal and corn, and the wheat was introduced in the experimental diets at expenses of corn, primarily.

Effect of hen age, egg weight and storage system on physical properties of egg from white-egg laying hens

A total of 72 eggs from a group of 100 white laying hens housed in standard cages were analyzed. Thirty-six eggs were retired when the hens had 44 week of age and the other 36 eggs were retired eight weeks afterwards. Each group of 36 eggs was radomly divided in three groups of 12 eggs. First group was analyzed at once (storage system C); second one was kept during one week in the refrigerator (5ºC) (storage system R), and third group were kept also one week but on ambient temperature (25ºC) (storage system ET). The hen age, egg weight and storage system had not significant (P>0.05) effect on shell thickness. The specific gravity (SG) has a positive relation with shell quality. The egg class and storage system significantly (P<0,05) affected to SG, while no influence of bird age on this variable was observed. The yolk color increased with hen age but storage system had not effect on this variable. The increase of the hen age and the R and AT storage systems significantly (P<0.05) reduced albumen height (H) and the interaction hen age x storage system was significant (P<0.025) for this variable. The reduction of the H due to R and ET storage systems was higher in the eggs from hens with 52 weeks of age than in those from hens with 44 weeks of age. The Haugh units (HU) was significantly (P<0.05) affected by hen age, egg class and storage system. The hen age increase reduced HU and the R and ET eggs had lower HU than C eggs. It is concluded that the bird age and storage system with high temperatures reduced the egg quality.

Speech Signals Feature Extraction Model for a Speaker’s Gender and Age Identification System

Durante el proceso de producción de voz, los factores anatómicos, fisiológicos o psicosociales del individuo modifican los órganos resonadores, imprimiendo en la voz características particulares. Los sistemas ASR tratan de encontrar los matices característicos de una voz y asociarlos a un individuo o grupo. La edad y sexo de un hablante son factores intrínsecos que están presentes en la voz. Este trabajo intenta diferenciar esas características, aislarlas y usarlas para detectar el género y la edad de un hablante. Para dicho fin, se ha realizado el estudio y análisis de las características basadas en el pulso glótico y el tracto vocal, evitando usar técnicas clásicas (como pitch y sus derivados) debido a las restricciones propias de dichas técnicas. Los resultados finales de nuestro estudio alcanzan casi un 100% en reconocimiento de género mientras en la tarea de reconocimiento de edad el reconocimiento se encuentra alrededor del 80%. Parece ser que la voz queda afectada por el género del hablante y las hormonas, aunque no se aprecie en la audición. ABSTRACT Particular elements of the voice are printed during the speech production process and are related to anatomical and physiological factors of the phonatory system or psychosocial factors acquired by the speaker. ASR systems attempt to find those peculiar nuances of a voice and associate them to an individual or a group. Age and gender are inherent factors to the speaker which may be represented in voice. This work attempts to differentiate those characteristics, isolate them and use them to detect speaker’s gender and age. Features based on glottal pulse and vocal tract are studied and analyzed in order to achieve good results in both tasks. Classical methodologies (such as pitch and derivates) are avoided since the requirements of those techniques may be too restrictive. The final scores achieve almost 100% in gender recognition whereas in age recognition those scores are around 80%. Factors related to the gender and hormones seem to affect the voice although they are not audible.

Inluence of source and level of glycerin in the diet on growth performance, liver characteristics, and nturient digestibility in broilers from hatching to 21 days of age

The influence of source and level of inclusion of raw glycerin (GLYC) in the diet on growth performance, digestive traits, total tract apparent retention (TTAR), and apparent ileal digestibility of nutrients was studied in broilers from 1 to 21 d of age. There was a control diet based on corn and soybean meal and 8 additional diets that formed a 2 × 4 factorial with 2 sources of GLYC and 4 levels of inclusion (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10%). The GLYC used were obtained from the same original batch of soy oil that was dried under different processing conditions and contained 87.5 or 81.6% glycerol, respectively. Type of processing of the GLYC did not affect any of the variables studied except DM and organic matter retention (P < 0.05) that was higher for the 87.5% glycerol diet. From d 1 to 21, feed conversion ratio (FCR) improved linearly (L, P ≤ 0.01) as the GLYC content of the diet increased, but ADG was not affected. On d 21, the relative weight (% BW) of the liver and the digestive tract increased (L, P < 0.01) as the level of GLYC in the diet increased, but lipid concentration in the liver was not affected. The TTAR of DM and organic matter increased quadratically (Q, P < 0.05) and the AMEn content of the diet increased linearly (L, P < 0.01) with increases in dietary GLYC. Also, the apparent ileal digestibility of DM (L, P < 0.05; Q, P = 0.07) and gross energy (L, P < 0.01) increased as the GLYC content of the diet increased. It is concluded that raw GLYC from the biodiesel industry can be used efficiently, up to 10% of the diet, as a source of energy for broilers from 1 to 21 d of age and that the energy content of well-processed raw GLYC depends primarily on its glycerol content.