Search Results (728)

The withdrawal of antibiotic growth promoters has fundamentally changed the priorities of poultry nutrition, shifting attention from growth promotion towards maintenance of intestinal homeostasis and physiological resilience, defined here as the capacity of the organism to maintain or restore functional homeostasis when exposed to biological, nutritional, or environmental challenges. Although plant-derived feed additives have attracted considerable interest as natural alternatives, their biological activity is still commonly interpreted as a collection of independent antimicrobial, antioxidant, or immunomodulatory effects. This fragmented perspective may not fully capture the interconnected and context-dependent nature of their effects across experimental models. This review develops an integrated conceptual framework in which phytogenic feed additives are considered as potential systems-level modulators of the microbiota–gut–immune axis rather than as isolated sources of bioactive compounds. We synthesise experimental evidence from 155 broiler chickens identified through searches of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar from database inception to June 2026, covering microbial ecology, intestinal morphology and barrier function, microbial metabolites, redox balance, inflammatory signalling, and innate and adaptive immunity across infectious, nutritional, and environmental challenge models. Particular attention is given to the different levels of evidence provided by culture-based and targeted analyses, microbiome profiling, integrated host–microbiome studies, and multi-omics approaches. The available evidence suggests that structurally diverse phytochemicals can influence overlapping regulatory networks linking microbial ecology, epithelial barrier integrity, redox balance, inflammatory signalling, and immune function. However, the magnitude and direction of these responses vary substantially according to botanical source, phytochemical composition, dose, formulation, duration of supplementation, animal genotype, basal diet, and experimental challenge. Collectively, the available evidence supports a paradigm shift from compound-centred interpretation towards network-based regulation of host homeostasis. Within this context, physiological resilience refers to the capacity to maintain or restore functional homeostasis in response to biological, nutritional, or environmental challenges. It may emerge from coordinated interactions among the intestinal microbiota, the epithelial barrier, and the immune system. Phytogenic supplementation may contribute to resilience by simultaneously modulating several components of this network, although causal relationships remain incompletely established for many proposed mechanisms. This systems-level perspective provides a framework for integrating heterogeneous evidence and for identifying priorities for future research, including dose–response relationships, phytochemical combinations, longitudinal multi-omics approaches, and validation under commercially relevant production conditions, with implications for precision poultry nutrition. Full article

As a key pixel-level analysis technology, semantic segmentation is widely deployed in autonomous driving and medical imaging. Fully supervised segmentation relies on labour-intensive pixel-wise annotations, so weakly supervised semantic segmentation (WSSS) with only image-level labels has attracted wide attention. Existing Vision Transformer (ViT)-based WSSS methods suffer from two critical limitations: ViT’s global self-attention mechanism leads to insensitivity to local small target features and incomplete foreground activation; its class-agnostic attention maps frequently misactivate background regions as foreground objects, introducing heavy noise. To tackle these two issues, this paper proposes a single-stage weakly supervised segmentation algorithm based on local–global class labelling comparison. First, we design a local–global class labelling comparison (LTG) module. By feeding both original images and randomly cropped local patches into ViT, we adopt InfoNCE contrastive loss to align local class tokens with global class tokens, enhancing the feature integrity of local target regions and suppressing background false activation. Second, a class-aware stimulus module (CSM) is embedded into ViT’s multi-head attention branch. It injects category semantic constraints into self-attention to generate class-aware attention maps, guiding the model to focus on real foreground targets and reduce background interference. Finally, we construct a feature fusion class-aware activation map (FFCAM) by fusing ViT global output features and CSM class-aware attention features to generate high-quality pseudo-labels for segmentation training. Extensive experiments are conducted on PASCAL VOC 2012 and MS COCO 2014 datasets. Our method achieves 78.5% mIoU on the validation set of PASCAL VOC 2012 and 50.9% mIoU on MS COCO 2014, showing competitive numerical performance among the compared single-stage ViT-based WSSS approaches. Ablation experiments verify the independent and joint effectiveness of LTG, CSM and FFCAM. The proposed method effectively improves the completeness of target activation regions and suppresses background noise, and it maintains strong generalization for slender, small and texture-sparse objects. In future work, we will further lightweight the ViT backbone to reduce computational overhead for embedded deployment. Full article

Zearalenone-14-glucoside (Z14G) is a common modified mycotoxin attracting considerable attention due to its high occurrence in feed and food, and its potential to transform into the parent form zearalenone (ZEN) in vivo. However, the toxicokinetic data in ruminants remain scarce. In this study, male sheep (n = 5) were orally administered a single dose of Z14G at 2 mg·kg⁻¹ BW. Serum, rumen fluid, urine, and fecal samples were collected at designated time points, and tissue samples were obtained at slaughter 168 h post-dosing. Concentrations of Z14G, ZEN, α-zearalenol (α-ZOL), β-zearalenol (β-ZOL), α-zearalanol (α-ZAL), β-zearalanol (β-ZAL), zearalanone (ZAN), and zearalenone-14-sulfate (Z14S) in these samples were determined using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry (LC-Qtrap-MS/MS), so as to explore the absorption, distribution, biotransformation, excretion patterns, and tissue residue profiles of Z14G. The results showed that Z14G was rapidly hydrolyzed in the rumen, with multiple metabolites detected within 1 h. Among these, β-ZOL exhibited concentrations of 154.75 ± 55.66 ng·mL⁻¹, followed by ZEN 83.56 ± 33.36 ng·mL⁻¹. In serum, ZEN, β-ZOL, and Z14G all reached peak concentrations at 30 min, with values of 20.25 ± 2.55, 3.01 ± 0.59 and 2.15 ± 0.78 ng·mL⁻¹, respectively. The half-lives of all three analytes were less than 3 h, with Z14G eliminated the fastest (t_1/2 = 0.94 ± 0.31 h) and ZEN the slowest (t_1/2 = 2.91 ± 1.49 h). The total excretion of Z14G and its metabolites in feces and urine accounted for 0.90 ± 0.14% and 0.04 ± 0.01%, respectively. Z14G was not detected in any tissues, but ZEN was detected (1.38–3.61 ng·g⁻¹). As the first systematic toxicokinetic investigation of Z14G in ruminants, this study provides critical data for food safety risk assessment of Z14G, and offers a theoretical basis for controlling Z14G contamination in ruminant feed. Full article

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad., a drought-tolerant member of the Cucurbitaceae family, has been used in traditional medicine for centuries and has recently attracted increasing interest because of its potential pharmacological, agricultural, and ecological applications. This review examines current information on the plant’s distribution, ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemical composition, biological activities, applications in poultry, and ecological significance. Its bioactive constituents include cucurbitacins, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, glycosides, fatty acids, and tocopherols. These compounds have been associated with anticancer, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, and other biological activities, although most of the available evidence comes from in-vitro and preclinical studies. Initial findings also indicate that the plant may have value as a phytogenic feed additive in poultry and as a drought-tolerant species for soil stabilization, rangeland rehabilitation, and desertification control. However, the practical application of these findings is still constrained by differences in research methods, variation in phytochemical composition, limited clinical evidence, and the plant’s narrow therapeutic window and dose-dependent toxicity. Consequently, its therapeutic effectiveness and suitability for routine agricultural use cannot yet be established with certainty. Future research should focus on phytochemical standardization, quality control, thorough toxicological assessment, mechanistic studies, and well-designed clinical and animal trials using standardized preparations. Collectively, the available evidence indicates that C. colocynthis is a promising source of bioactive compounds with potential pharmaceutical, veterinary, and ecological applications, although rigorous scientific validation is required before its safe and effective utilization can be recommended. Full article

Copepods are widely recognized as biologically superior live prey for many marine fish larvae, yet their routine large-scale production remains a major bottleneck in aquaculture. Within this context, the harpacticoid genus Tigriopus has attracted increasing attention because it combines broad environmental tolerance, ease of culture, and promising nutritional and biotechnological value. This review critically examines the current state of knowledge on the genus Tigriopus, with particular emphasis on its aquaculture relevance, while integrating the biological, ecological and ecotoxicological framework needed to interpret the specific case of the Mediterranean species T. fulvus. The available literature shows that in aquaculture, the potential of this copepod genus is supported by complementary evidence across species. T. californicus currently provides the strongest proof of concept for pilot-scale biomass production and biochemical valorization, particularly as a source of omega-3- and astaxanthin-rich biomass. T. japonicus contributes most clearly to culture optimization and live-feed application, especially with respect to feeding performance and stocking-density effects. Tigriopus fulvus, in contrast, remains an earlier-stage but credible Mediterranean candidate, showing promising diet-dependent naupliar production and survival, although its culture technology is still underdeveloped. Overall, Tigriopus should be regarded as a genus of growing relevance for aquaculture, not only as live prey but also as a potential source of functional biomass. Future progress will depend on improved mass-culture methods, feeding optimization, harvesting efficiency, and a comparative species-level framework linking biological traits to specific aquaculture applications. Full article

Pseudocereals such as quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat have attracted increasing attention as ingredients for extruded snack products because of their nutritional value, gluten-free status, and content of bioactive compounds. The quality of extruded products is governed by complex interactions among processing variables, including barrel temperature, screw speed, feed moisture content, and formulation characteristics. As a result, mathematical modelling has become an important tool for predicting product properties and identifying suitable processing conditions. This review summarizes modelling approaches applied to extruded food products with a focus on pseudocereal extrusion. Particular emphasis is placed on response surface methodology (RSM), artificial neural networks (ANNs), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS), support vector regression (SVR), and hybrid optimisation strategies. Published studies indicate that RSM remains the most commonly used approach because of its simplicity and interpretability, while ANN-based models generally provide much higher predictive accuracy when strong nonlinear relationships are present. The widespread use of small experimental datasets and limited external validation remains a major challenge for the practical implementation of advanced machine-learning models. This review examines the strengths and limitations of current modelling approaches and discusses future opportunities for integrating predictive models with digital manufacturing frameworks. Full article

Thermite mixtures are attractive for downhole well plug-and-abandonment (P&A) sealing, where a consistent, controllable burn matters more than peak energy. Because propagation is governed by particle size and packing, predictive blend design needs a model that resolves microstructure. I present a zero-tuning multiscale framework that links a discrete element method (DEM) packing directly to combustion-front behaviour. The DEM contact graph sets a contact-resistance effective conductivity (a thermal-network solve on the contacts, cross-checked against a packed-bed model); the particle sizes set a diffusion-limited, product-layer (shrinking-core) reaction rate with the measured activation energy of the Al-Fe₂ O₃ reaction (Eₐ = 145 kJ mol⁻¹); and these feed an analytical condensed-phase travelling-wave speed that is mesh-free by construction and confirmed against a converged numerical eigenvalue solve. Here “zero-tuning” means no coefficient is fitted to the blend dataset: every transport and kinetic parameter is DEM-derived or taken from the literature, and a single diffusion pre-factor is anchored to an independent fine-powder benchmark. Applied to a generic Fe₂ O₃/Al+ sand system across eight coarse (∼256–462 µm) +40/+70 blends, the framework predicts front speeds of ∼2–4 mm/s—about an order of magnitude below fine powders (27–47 mm/s)—i.e., finer-is-faster, as expected for diffusion-controlled aluminothermic reactions; the residual size dependence is the net of competing diffusion-kinetic and radiative effects rather than a clean monotonic lever. A DEM-derived Kozeny–Carman permeability shows gas convection contributes ≲15% of the front enthalpy, justifying the conduction–radiation formulation. The DEM-microstructure-to-rate mapping is validated externally on Ni–Al self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS), whose measured particle-size ordering it reproduces. The contribution is the framework itself—a predictive, microstructure-resolved route requiring no blend-specific fitting. The computational implementation used a supervised AI-agent workflow (implementation, execution, verification); all scientific content was conceived and verified by the author. Full article

Poly(3-hydroxypropionate) (P3HP) is a biodegradable member of the polyhydroxyalkanoate family that can be degraded into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a three-carbon organic acid with potential biological activity. Although P3HP has attracted considerable interest for its microbial production and industrial applications, its potential as a feed ingredient in monogastric animals remains largely unexplored. Therefore, we aim to assess the effects of dietary P3HP supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal N retention and apparent N absorption, selected culturable fecal bacterial counts, and in vitro fecal fermentation in growing pigs. A total of 100 [Duroc × (Landrace × Yorkshire) pigs; initial body weight 25.03 ± 1.70 kg] were assigned to four dietary treatments containing 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3% P3HP for 6 weeks. At the end of the experimental period, dietary P3HP supplementation did not significantly (p > 0.05) affect final body weight, average daily gain, dry matter digestibility, nitrogen digestibility, apparent nitrogen absorption variables, or in vitro fecal fermentation in growing pigs but exhibited linear or quadratic trends (p < 0.1), with the most favorable numerical responses observed at the 0.2% inclusion level. In summary, although dietary P3HP supplementation did not significantly affect the principal measured outcomes, the favorable trends observed support further investigation of its potential as a novel feed additive for growing pigs. Full article

Yeast hydrolysate (YH) has attracted increasing interest as a functional feed additive because of its potential benefits for maternal nutrition and offspring development. However, its effects on milk composition and the physiological responses of donkey foals remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the effects of dietary YH supplementation in lactating Dezhou jennies on milk composition, as well as growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, and fecal microbiota in their foals. Sixteen healthy jennies and their foals were randomly assigned to a control group (OCON) or a YH-supplemented group (OYE; 0.5 g/kg diet) for 60 days. Maternal dietary YH supplementation significantly increased milk fat and milk protein contents. Foals in the OYE group showed a tendency toward greater back skin thickness, although the difference was not statistically significant, while body weight and neck skin thickness were unaffected. Serum biochemical analysis showed increased HDL-C and total cholesterol concentrations together with decreased triglyceride and LDL-C concentrations in the OYE group. In addition, serum ALT activity was significantly decreased, whereas AST levels were significantly increased. Fecal microbiota analysis indicated that YH supplementation did not significantly affect overall microbial diversity but altered the relative abundance of several bacterial taxa, including Prevotella, Alistipes, and Olsenella. Overall, maternal dietary YH supplementation was associated with changes in milk composition, selected serum biochemical parameters, and the relative abundance of specific fecal bacterial taxa in donkey foals. However, no significant improvement in offspring growth performance was observed, and the underlying mechanisms require further investigation. Full article

Resveratrol is a plant-derived stilbene polyphenol that has attracted interest as a potential dietary additive for improving edible fish muscle quality. This review summarizes current evidence on pre-harvest dietary resveratrol supplementation and its possible effects on nutritional composition, flavor-related biochemical traits, and physicochemical quality of fish muscle or fillets. We distinguish nutritional quality, including proximate composition, amino-acid profiles, and fatty-acid composition, from flavor-related and sensory-relevant proxies, such as free amino acids, inosine monophosphate, volatile precursors, color, pH, water-holding capacity, and texture. Direct evidence from edible fish muscle remains limited and fragmented, and most available studies rely on biochemical or instrumental endpoints rather than trained-panel sensory evaluation or consumer acceptance testing. Reported effects suggest species- and dose-dependent changes in muscle protein deposition, amino-acid accumulation, fatty-acid composition, pH, cooking or drip loss, and texture-related traits. Putative mechanisms may involve antioxidant protection, muscle fiber remodeling, lipid metabolism, endoplasmic-reticulum stress, and delivery-dependent bioavailability; however, many mechanistic links are still inferred from hepatic tissues, mammalian models, or in vitro systems. Future studies should combine standardized dose–response feeding trials with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)-based volatile profiling, lipid and protein oxidation indices, instrumental texture analysis, sensory evaluation, and shelf-life testing before resveratrol can be recommended as a robust feed-based strategy for improving edible fish muscle quality. Full article

Polyamide nanofiltration (NF) membranes offer a scalable and energy-efficient pathway for lithium concentration from lake brines and battery leachates, but practical implementation hinges on achieving high selectivity of Li⁺ over Mg²⁺. The active layer of these membranes can be positively or negatively charged, carrying both amine groups that can be protonated and carboxyl groups that can be deprotonated with an ionization state that is set by the feed pH. Here, molecular dynamics simulations are used to elucidate how pH-dependent charged functional groups within the polymeric nanostructure of NF membranes govern Li⁺/Mg²⁺ selectivity, arising from electrostatic charge interactions between ions and functional groups at the molecular scale as well as steric size exclusion within the membrane pore structure. Although single-salt Li⁺ or Mg²⁺ feed solutions exhibit similar ion penetration behavior, mixed Li⁺/Mg²⁺ feeds show markedly enhanced Li⁺/Mg²⁺ selectivity at low concentrations when the membrane is positively charged. This selectivity arises because Mg²⁺ interacts more strongly than Li⁺ with repulsive protonated amine (NH₂⁺) groups, suppressing divalent ion transport, an effect that emerges specifically when the two cations compete for the same ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ ions in a mixed feed. In contrast, for negatively charged membranes, attractive interactions with deprotonated carboxylate (${\mathrm{COO}}^{-}$) groups strongly hinder the transport of both ions, resulting in poor selectivity. Ion clustering within membrane pores further reduces transport through steric effects. These results provide molecular-level insight into how charged functional groups control mono/divalent ion selectivity when competing ions are present and highlight positively charged membranes as optimal platforms for lithium separation applications. Full article

Protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs), including protonic ceramic fuel cells, electrolysis cells and reversible cells, have attracted increasing attention as efficient solid-state devices for electricity generation, hydrogen production and chemical conversion at intermediate temperatures. Recent advances in electrolyte thinning, electrode nanostructuring and interface engineering have enabled remarkable device performance, including reversible operation at 500–650 °C, operation below 450 °C, and expanded fuel flexibility toward hydrogen, ammonia and methane-containing feeds. However, the working-state mechanisms governing their performance and durability remain insufficiently understood. In particular, proton incorporation, surface hydration, proton exchange, proton-coupled oxygen reduction/evolution, electrode reconstruction and buried interface degradation are highly dynamic processes that cannot be fully resolved by ex situ or post-mortem characterization. Operando characterization provides a powerful route to bridge this knowledge gap by directly correlating structural, chemical and electrochemical evolution under realistic temperature, steam, gas atmosphere and electrochemical bias. In this review, we summarize recent progress in operando and in situ characterization of PCECs, with emphasis on vibrational spectroscopy, X-ray-based techniques, neutron methods, electron microscopy and electrochemical diagnostics. We discuss how operando DRIFTS and H/D isotope exchange reveal voltage-dependent proton exchange kinetics, how operando Raman captures oxygen-electrode surface reconstruction, how X-ray and neutron methods probe redox chemistry and proton dynamics, and how EIS/DRT analysis links structural changes to reaction resistance. We further highlight current challenges, including limited access to buried interfaces, difficulty in quantifying protonic defects, insufficient multimodal correlation and the lack of standardized operando cell configurations. Finally, we propose future directions based on isotope-resolved spectroscopy, multimodal operando platforms, AI-assisted spectral/impedance analysis and theory-guided interpretation. This review aims to establish a working-state mechanistic framework for rationally designing durable, high-performance PCECs. Full article

This article proposes, to the best of our knowledge, the first dual-port compact dual-polarized ultrawideband wearable textile antenna covering lower UHF bands for off-body communications in Internet-of-Things-based wireless body area network (IoT-based WBAN) scenarios. The antenna covers key bands for diverse services, including the 470–510 MHz LoRa WAN, 700 MHz offline emergency communication, 900 MHz NB-IoT, and 1–1.2 GHz satellite internet bands. The antenna adopts a square-ring loaded wide slot structure and a multi-mode resonant feeding structure to achieve ultrawideband operation. Moreover, it utilizes oppositely placed advanced microstrip feeding networks to excite the horizontal and vertical polarization modes, respectively, and four narrow slots around the wide slot to extend the current path, thus enabling a compact size of 0.30 × 0.28 × 0.0035 λ_l³ (where λ_l is the largest operating wavelength). Measured −10 dB impedance bandwidths are 119.1% (0.35–1.38 GHz) for Port 1 and 115.9% (0.39–1.37 GHz) for Port 2 on the human body, with more than 19 dB port isolation over the operating band. The measured average gains are about 4.21 dBi for Port 1 and 3.54 dBi for Port 2 on the human body, respectively. Specific absorption rate analysis confirms compliance with the IEEE C95.1 limit at 0.5 W input power. Wireless transmission experiments at IoT bands further validate reliable off-body links with excellent signal-to-noise ratios for both polarizations. The antenna shall be very attractive for off-body communications in IoT-based WBAN scenarios. Full article

Xylanases catalyze the hydrolysis of β-1,4-xylosidic linkages in xylan, a major component of plant cell walls, and are widely used in the food, feed, pulp and paper, and biofuel industries. GH11 xylanase from the hemicellulose-degrading bacterium Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum (TsaGH11) exhibits high catalytic activity, making it an attractive enzyme for industrial applications. The flexibility of the thumb domain of TsaGH11 has been investigated under cryogenic and room temperature conditions; however, the substrate recognition mechanism of TsaGH11 at the optimal temperature is unknown. To better understand the molecular mechanism of substrate recognition, the high-resolution crystal structure of TsaGH11 was determined at 1.4 Å resolution. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations at 300, 320, 340, and 360 K revealed that increasing the temperature induced fluctuations in the substrate-recognizing thumb domain. At an optimal temperature of 340 K, the substrate-binding cleft of TsaGH11 predominantly adopted a closed conformation. However, the thumb domain exhibited larger fluctuations at 340 K than at other temperatures, sampling both open and closed conformations, suggesting that substrate recognition in TsaGH11 proceeds through a conformational selection-like mechanism. At 360 K, TsaGH11 unfolded partially at a site opposite the substrate-binding cleft, providing potential targets for protein engineering to improve its thermostability for industrial applications. These findings provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of TsaGH11 and offer valuable guidance for the rational engineering of GH11 xylanases for industrial applications. Full article

Sparse antenna arrays are attractive for compact microwave and millimeter-wave front ends because they can achieve prescribed radiation performance with fewer radiating elements, thereby reducing the number of feeding channels, hardware cost, weight, and power consumption. However, the joint optimization of element positions and complex excitations remains challenging, since the element positions enter the array factor nonlinearly and the element-count objective is inherently combinatorial. This paper presents an iterative reweighted ℓ₁ synthesis framework for sparse antenna arrays with continuous element positions. At each iteration, position perturbations are introduced and the array factor is linearized using a first-order Taylor expansion within a trust region. The resulting non-convex sparse synthesis problem is then approximated by convex programing through an iteratively reweighted ℓ₁ relaxation, allowing the excitation amplitudes, phases, and element positions to be updated simultaneously. Additional aperture, minimum-spacing, and minimum-directivity requirements are formulated as convex constraints and incorporated when required, enabling joint control of sparsity, sidelobe level, physical layout, and radiation performance. The proposed method is validated through four representative examples, including a shaped-beam linear array, a tri-pattern reconfigurable linear array, a planar pencil-beam array, and a directivity-constrained planar array. Compared with fixed-grid reweighted ℓ₁ methods under the same specifications, the proposed approach produces sparser layouts while avoiding the grid-resolution limitation. In the directivity-constrained benchmark, it also achieves competitive element reduction while enforcing a prescribed minimum element spacing. These results indicate that the proposed framework provides a flexible and practical synthesis tool for compact and integrated sparse antenna-array design. Full article