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The compositions and formation process of f-CaO in steel slag were identified and simulated to understand its expansion rules and hydration activity. BSE showed that the compositions of f-CaO, which included the calcium iron phase and calcium iron manganese phase, were diverse. The hydration activity sequence was Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 in bi-component CaO/Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 systems 2 Fe 2 O 5 systems 2 Fe 2 O 5 was hard to hydrate, and the volume expansion rates of the bi-component CaO/Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 systems varied with different compositions. Inductively, in steel slag, the hydration activity sequence was solid solution CaO-FeO x in bi-component f-CaO x was difficult to hydrate. The reason why CaO-FeO x was hard to hydrate was that its hydration reaction driving force, which is the absolute value of standard molar reaction Gibbs functions, decreased.

Exogenous protease has formed part of several commercial enzyme admixtures for the past 15–20 years but has become available as a mono-component enzyme only in the last 5–10 years (Cowieson and Adeola, 2005; Fru-Nji et al., 2011). As part of an enzyme admixture (often also containing various carbohydrases and/or phytase) it is difficult to separate the contributions of the component parts and the efficacy of each has implicit rather than explicit value. However, the effectiveness of mono-component enzymes can be readily assessed under different production and nutritional circumstances and their complementarity with alternative enzymes is readily rendered transparent. The motivation for the use of exogenous protease in non-ruminant nutrition is typically the reduction of feed cost at constant animal performance. This objective is usually achieved via displacement of expensive protein/amino acid sources in the diet through the assignment of a nutrient matrix on the enzyme in least cost formulation. Recently attention has moved from this classical approach to protease application to so-called ‘extra-proteinaceous’ effects including environmental benefits, litter management, enteric resilience, uniformity and microbial stability. Whilst these ‘secondary’ effects may not be the principal motivator for the use of proteases in animal production they are increasingly visible and require explanation. Furthermore, these responses, if understood, allow positive translation to production metrics such as reduced FCR and improved weight gain. It is the purpose of this review to briefly summarise the current state of the art in mono-component exogenous protease use in non-ruminants and to suggest mechanisms whereby the ‘extra-proteinaceous’ effects may be explained. Finally, key diet/animal factors that may promote beneficial effects of exogenous protease on live performance will be discussed.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of using gelatin as a partial protein source and protease in broilers diets. The experiment was carried out as a factorial arrangement, containing two levels of protease (0 and 200 gs per ton of diet) and four levels of gelatin (0, 2.82, 4.23 and 5.64% of the diet replacing 12.5, 18.75 and 25% of the SBM protein, respectively) with 6 replicates and 15 chicks in each pen. Body weight, feed intake and FCR were measured at day 7, 21 and 35. Ileal digesta viscosity, ileal morphology and ileal coliform and lactobacilli population were measured at day 35. In addition, apparent protein digestibility was determined between 28 and 35 days of age. Results show that the highest inclusion rate of gelatin decreased body weight and feed intake (P

Three experiments were conducted to quantify the efficacy of exogenous protease in poultry diets containing soybeans with varying trypsin inhibitor (TI) concentrations. Test diets contained 4 g/kg of TiO2 as a digestibility marker and protease (CIBENZA® DP100 at 300 U/g diet, Novus International). A randomized complete block design was analyzed using ANOVA with LSD multiple pair-wise comparison used to compare treatment means. For Exp 2 and 3, a common starter diet was fed to broiler chickens until d 16 of life and then switched to test diets. Exp 1 was a 2×6 factorial arrangement of 2 protease levels (0 and 300 U/g) and 6 dietary TI levels (0.72, 1.16, 1.61, 2.06, 2.50, and 2.95 mg/g) with 6 replicates/treatment; 8 chicks/pen. In Exp 2 (12 replicates/treatment; 8 chicks/pen), apparent ileal AA digestibility (AIAAD) was evaluated in diets containing 250 g/kg full fat extruded soybeans (FFES)+SBM (negative control; 5.8 mg/g TI) with or without protease or SBM (positive control; 3.1 mg/g TI). Test diets were fed from d 16–21 of age, AIAAD and relative pancreas weight was measured on d 21. In Exp. 3, broilers were allocated to a 2×2 factorial arrangement of treatments with 9 replicates/treatment and 8 chicks/pen. The dietary factors were SBM inclusion (420 or 960 g/kg; SBM TI = 3.85 mg/g), or protease inclusion (0 or 300 U/g). Test diets were fed from d 22–30, ileal digesta was collected on d 30. With increasing TI, pancreas weight increased (P

A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of mono-component proteases on performance and apparent ileal amino acid digestibility (AIAAD, %) in monogastrics. A total of 67 experimental trials were included in the meta-analysis from published and internal reports, contributing 467 lines of data. Poultry and swine data accounted for 81 and 19% of the dataset, respectively. Forty-four different proteases were included in the meta-analysis, accounting for commercial and non-commercial products. Mixed Model analysis was used to assess protease effect and the influence of inherent characteristics of the control on protease response. The mean performance response to protease was a reduction in feed conversion ratio (FCR) for poultry (1%, P0.05) and swine (4%, P0.05). The mean relative effect of protease on AIAAD over the control was 1.6 ± 0.3%, ranging from 1.2% for Arg, Phe and Trp to 2.6% for Cys. For the majority of amino acids, inherent AIAAD of control diets influenced (P0.05) the magnitude of the protease response such that, as inherent digestibility increased, the effect of protease on amino acid digestibility decreased. The dataset was subsequently divided into 2 subgroups: diets with and without other enzymes, namely non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzymes (NSPase) and phytase. Addition of protease in diets containing no other enzymes significantly (P0.05) increased AIAAD for the majority of amino acids and tended (P0.10) to improve Met, Trp, Pro, Gly, and Tyr. However, when other enzymes were included in the experiment, the beneficial effect of protease on AIAAD was lost (P0.05). These findings suggest that when other enzymes are already included in the diet, addition of protease requires further justification for use in monogastric diets.

The effect of surface composition of a development roll (mixture of the acrylic resin and the polyurethane) on the toner charge was investigated. The specific toner charge increased with the content of acrylic resin. The mass of toner layer coated on the development roll also increased with the content of acrylic resin because of the increased adhesion force between the toner and the development roll. The current was passed at the blade, the development roll and the supplying roll during the charging. The direction of current at the blade suggested that the blade worked for the charging to toner particles. On the other hand, the development roll worked for the discharging when the content of acrylic resin was less than 40%, while it worked for charging at the content higher than 40%. The charge distribution of toner particles was wider with increasing the acrylic resin because of the charging effect at the development roll.

SummaryA meta-analysis of the effect of a mono-component bacterial protease (RONOZYME® ProAct) on the apparent ileal digestibility of amino acids in poultry and swine diets was conducted to examine functional patterns, mean effects and variability of response. A total of 25 independently-conducted experiments were included comprising a total of 804 datapoints. The mean response to protease was +3.74% (SE 1.1%, P 0.05). However, the inherent digestibility of amino acids in the control diet as a single explanatory term explained around 47% of the variance (P

The sorption of Cu(II) and Pb(II) by Pithophora markedly decreased as the concentration of the secondary metal ion, Cu(II) or Pb(II), increased in the binary metal solution. However, the test alga showed a greater affinity to sorb Cu(II) than Pb(II) from the binary metal solution. Mono-component Freundlich, Langmuir, Redlich–Peterson and Sips isotherms successfully predicted the sorption of Cu(II) and Pb(II) from both single and binary metal solutions. None of the tested binary sorption isotherms could realistically predict Cu(II) and Pb(II) sorption capacity and affinity of the test alga for the binary metal solutions of varying composition, which mono-component isotherms could very well accomplish. Hence, mono-component isotherm modeling at different concentrations of the secondary metal ion seems to be a better option than binary isotherms for metal sorption from binary metal solution.

We have developed a synthetic strategy to selectively incorporate the imidazole ring into the 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) skeleton at the different position. The resulting conformationally rigid BINOL-based diimidazolyl ligands bearing both hydrogen-bond-acceptors and -donators can self-assemble into homochiral channel-like mono-component organic frameworks via intermolecular O-H···N hydrogen bonds between the phenolic hydroxyl group and the N2 or N4 atom of the imidazole ring.