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Laying hen nutrient requirements change throughout the day, due to the cyclic nature of egg formation. Generally, more energy and protein are required in the morning when the albumen is deposited around the yolk, and more calcium is required in the evening when the eggshell is formed. The aim of this study was to determine if feeding laying hens diets tailored to their specific nutritional and physiological requirements throughout the day, by feeding higher levels of protein and energy in the morning and higher levels of calcium in the evening, is more beneficial than feeding one diet all day. Hy-Line Brown laying hens (n = 360) were housed in free-range floor pens (18 pens with 20 hens/pen) from 34 to 53 weeks of age (WOA). Half of the birds (n = 180, nine replicate pens) were fed a conventional layer hen diet all day (control) and the remaining birds (n = 180, nine replicate pens) were fed an AM diet from 08:00 h to 16:00 h and PM diet from 16:00 h to 08:00 h (AM/PM). From 39 WOA, hens were given access to an outdoor range from 09:00 h to 18:00 h via pop holes. Egg weight and hen-day egg production were measured daily, and feed consumption and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) were measured weekly. Hen weight and egg size uniformity were determined at 43 and 53 WOA, and egg quality was measured at 53 WOA. A total of 72 hens (4 hens/pen, 36 hens/treatment) were euthanised at 53 WOA to determine ileal apparent energy and nitrogen digestibility. A cost–benefit analysis for the study period, based on feed costs and egg mass, was calculated. Overall, the results showed that the AM/PM treatment increased egg mass by 2.15% (60.4 vs. 59.1 g/hen/day, p = 0.086) and improved feed efficiency by 8.34% (2.231 vs. 2.436 kg feed/kg egg, p = 0.030) compared with the control. A higher yolk colour score was observed in eggs from hens on the AM/PM treatment (p = 0.002), but no other significant effects of the treatments on egg quality were observed. Ileal digestible energy and digesti

Monitoring the quality of feed and litter moisture in the poultry industries is necessary to maintain/increase production and improve chicken health and welfare. Wet chemistry methods are time consuming and near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) depends on sampling methods (same as wet chemistry) that introduce uncertainties. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) scans and analyses a large portion of a load, which minimises sampling error. In contrast to wet chemistry and NIR, HSI can display the variability within materials (feed and litter) and perform qualitative (identifying and sorting) and quantitative measurements simultaneously, which can be used in automatic quality monitoring systems using machine vision. In this study, we used wheat samples (ground and kernels) to investigate the possibility of using HSI combined with machine learning for quantifying carbon and nitrogen concentrations, identifying impurities and mouldy grains and quantifying deoxynivalenol (DON) infection (artificially added). We also investigated the possibility of using HSI for quantifying moisture contents in three poultry litter types (pine shavings, hardwood and re-used hardwood litter). The results showed that HSI was able to accurately quantify wheat carbon and nitrogen concentrations; identify impurities and moist/mouldy grains; identify, quantify and visualise mycotoxins in grains; and quantify/visualise moisture contents in different types of poultry litter. These capabilities, while partially dependent on future development and adoption of AgTech, could be applied to reduce the variabilities and impurities in feed ingredients, and contribute to improving the in-shed environment by accurately monitoring litter moisture.

Understanding the order of limiting amino acids (AA) in reduced-protein (RP) diets for laying hens will facilitate precise feed formulation and ensure that AA requirements are met cost-effectively. The order of the first three limiting AAs—lysine (Lys), methionine (Met), and threonine (Thr)—has been well established in RP laying hen diets. This study aimed to determine the priority order of eight additional limiting AAs (critically important AAs) when formulating wheat–sorghum-based RP diets for laying hens: tryptophan (Trp), valine (Val), isoleucine (Ile), arginine (Arg), leucine (Leu), histidine (His), phenylalanine (Phe), and glycineequivalent (Gly). A total of 330 Hy-Line Brown laying hens were randomly assigned to 11 dietary treatments (30 replicates of individual birds per treatment) from 20 to 39 weeks of age (WOA). Treatments were a standard-protein (17.24% CP) diet as the control (SP); a reduced-protein (15.00% CP) diet with sufficient levels of Lys, Met, and Thr but insufficient levels of the eight experimental essential AA (RP); a reduced-protein diet with sufficient levels of all essential AAs (RP-EAA); and eight subsequent dietary treatments of the RP-EAA diet with one of the experimental essential AAs removed: Trp (RP-EAA-Trp), Val (RP-EAA-Val), Ile (RP-EAA-Ile), Arg (RP-EAA-Arg), Leu (RP-EAA-Leu), His (RP-EAA-His), Phe (RP-EAA-Phe), and Gly (RP-EAA-Gly). Eggs were collected and weighed daily, and feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated weekly. External and internal egg quality was measured at 29 and 39 WOA. Nutrient digestibility, serum uric acid concentration, caecal microbiota composition, and tibia parameters were measured at 40 WOA. Overall, hens fed the RP-EAA-Val, RP-EAA-Ile, and RP diets presented significantly lower egg mass compared to hens fed the SP, RP-EAA-His, and RP-EAA-Gly diets (p < 0.001). Hens fed the RP diet and RP-EAA-Val diet had a higher FCR compared to those offered the RP-EAA, RP-EAA-Leu, RP-EAA-Phe, and RP

Stroke is the second largest cause of death in adults and the principal cause of long‐ term severe adult disability worldwide. Approximately 70% of patients present with upper limb weakness following stroke. One intervention for the treatment of upper limb impairment post-stroke is mental practice. This article critically appraises a systematic review which assesses the effectiveness of mental practice for limb dysfunction in patients who have experienced stroke.

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is an emerging rapid and non-destructive technology that has promising application within feed mills and processing plants in poultry and other intensive animal industries. HSI may be advantageous over near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as it scans entire samples, which enables compositional gradients and sample heterogenicity to be visualised and analysed. This study was a preliminary investigation to compare the performance of HSI with that of NIRS for quality measurements of ground samples of Australian wheat and to identify the most important spectral regions for predicting carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations. In total, 69 samples were scanned using an NIRS (400–2500 nm), and two HSI cameras operated in 400–1000 nm (VNIR) and 1000–2500 nm (SWIR) spectral regions. Partial least square regression (PLSR) models were used to correlate C and N concentrations of 63 calibration samples with their spectral reflectance, with 6 additional samples used for testing the models. The accuracy of the HSI predictions (full spectra) were similar or slightly higher than those of NIRS (NIRS Rc2 for C = 0.90 and N = 0.96 vs. HSI Rc2 for C (VNIR) = 0.97 and N (SWIR) = 0.97). The most important spectral region for C prediction identified using HSI reflectance was 400–550 nm with R2 of 0.93 and RMSE of 0.17% in the calibration set and R2 of 0.86, RMSE of 0.21% and ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 2.03 in the test set. The most important spectral regions for predicting N concentrations in the feed samples included 1451–1600 nm, 1901–2050 nm and 2051–2200 nm, providing prediction with R2 ranging from 0.91 to 0.93, RMSE ranging from 0.06% to 0.07% in the calibration sets, R2 from 0.96 to 0.99, RMSE of 0.06% and RPD from 3.47 to 3.92 in the test sets. The prediction accuracy of HSI and NIRS were comparable possibly due to the larger statistical population (larger number of pixels) that HSI provided, despite the fact that HSI had smaller spectral