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ABSTRACTFrom the perspective of animal welfare, sows housed in group housing systems are recommended, which is conducive to health problems and the release of natural behaviour, but can lead to other problems such as social pressure due to competition for limited resources. Sow natural behaviour can be used to improve physiological and mental health to ameliorate reproductive performance. However, the natural behaviour of sow is ignored in modern intensive housing groups. The challenges faced by social behaviour, maternal behaviour and dietary behaviour of sows in a group-housing system are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, many management strategies will affect sow behaviour, such as diet management and housing systems, providing adequate nutrition, and a reasonable environment for sows. These can be considered the basis for the successful farrowing of high-production sows. Therefore, sow performance can be improved by influencing sow behaviour through management strategies such as reasonable stocking density, a good feeding environment and suitable feed for the growth stage.

The hilly area of Southwest China is a typical rice production area which is limited by seasonal droughts and low temperature in the early rice growth period. A field experiment was conducted on three typical paddy fields (low-lying paddy field, medium-elevation paddy field, and upland paddy field) in this region. Nitrogen (N) treatment (180 kg N ha−1year−1) was compared to a control treatment (0 kg N ha−1year−1) to evaluate the effects of integrated rice management (IRM) on rice growth, grain yield, and N utilization. Integrated rice management integrated raised beds containing plastic mulch, furrow irrigation, and triangular transplanting. In comparison to traditional rice management (TRM), IRM promoted rice tiller development, with 7–13 more tillers per cluster at the maximum tillering stage and 1–6 more tillers per cluster at the end of tillering stage. Integrated rice management significantly increased the rice aboveground biomass by 34.4%–109.0% in different growth periods and the aboveground N uptake by 25.3%–159.0%. Number of productive tillers significantly increased by 33.0%, resulting in a 33.0% increase in grain yield and 8.0% improvement of N use efficiency (NUE). Grain yields were significantly increased in all three paddy fields assessed, with IRM being the most important factor for grain yield and productive tiller development. Effects of paddy field type and N level on N uptake by aboveground plants were reflected in the rice reproductive growth period, with the effects of IRM more striking due to the dry climate conditions. In conclusion, IRM simultaneously improved rice yield and NUE, presenting a valuable rice management technique in the paddy fields assessed.

A new dendritic scaffoldhas been developed in which virtually all natural amino acids can be incorporated as building blocks. The synthesis on a PEG resin and preliminary physical properties of these chiral peptide dendrimers are reported; the diagram shows one example of such a dendrimer after cleavage from the resin.

Generation 1–4 Fréchet-type dendritic bromides were covalently linked to anthyridine ( 6) to give “sticky” dendrons 7a–7d. The binding constants of 1:1 complexes between 7and benzamidinium salt 8were measured to assess their ability to act as building blocks for self-assembly. A 2:1 complex of 7and pentamidine 9formed in 1% CD3CNCDCl3indicating the utility of these compounds for constructing larger dendritic assemblies.

The self-assembly behaviour of tetraacids1a–c and tetraester 4 in CDCl3 and [2H8 ]tetrahydrofuran {[2H8 ]THF} has been investigated by the small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) technique. The experimental SANS data were compared with simulated scattering data derived from structural models proposed previously for the aggregates. These studies suggest that dendritic monomers 1b,c self-assemble into cyclic hexameric aggregates, whereas 1a forms a large tubular aggregate in CDCl3 . Further study on 1c in CDCl3 as a function of concentration suggests that the cyclic hexameric aggregates strongly interact with each other at higher concentrations. The control compound 4 was shown to be monomeric in both solvents.

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