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Simple Summary: Efficient breeding of meat ducks using three-dimensional and multi-layer cages is a novel approach being actively explored in China. In this process, timely and accurate detection of abnormal situations among ducks is crucial for optimizing and refining the cage-rearing system, and ensuring animal health and welfare. This study focused on the overturned and dead status of cage-reared ducks using YOLOv8 as the basic network. By introducing GAM and Wise-IoU loss functions, we proposed an abnormal-situation recognition method for cage-reared ducks based on YOLOv8-ACRD. Building on this, we refined the identification of key body parts of cage-reared ducks, focusing on six key points: head, beak, chest, tail, left foot, and right foot. This resulted in the development of an abnormal posture estimation model for cage-reared ducks, based on HRNet-48. Furthermore, through multiple tests and comparative verification experiments, it was confirmed that the proposed method exhibited high detection accuracy, generalization ability, and robust comprehensive performance. The method proposed in this study for perceiving abnormal situations in cage-reared ducks not only provides foundational information for the progress and improvement of the meat duck cage-reared system but also offers technological references for the intelligent breeding of other cage-reared poultry. Overturning and death are common abnormalities in cage-reared ducks. To achieve timely and accurate detection, this study focused on 10-day-old cage-reared ducks, which are prone to these conditions, and established prior data on such situations. Using the original YOLOv8 as the base network, multiple GAM attention mechanisms were embedded into the feature fusion part (neck) to enhance the network's focus on the abnormal regions in images of cage-reared ducks. Additionally, the Wise-IoU loss function replaced the CIoU loss function by employing a dynamic non-monotonic focusing mechanism to balance the data samples and mitigate excessive penalties from geometric parameters in the model. The image brightness was adjusted by factors of 0.85 and 1.25, and mainstream object-detection algorithms were adopted to test and compare the generalization and performance of the proposed method. Based on six key points around the head, beak, chest, tail, left foot, and right foot of cage-reared ducks, the body structure of the abnormal ducks was refined. Accurate estimation of the overturning and dead postures was achieved using the HRNet-48. The results demonstrated that the proposed method accurately recognized these states, achieving a mean Average Precision (mAP) value of 0.924, which was 1.65% higher than that of the original YOLOv8. The method effectively addressed the recognition interference caused by lighting differences, and exhibited an excellent generalization ability and comprehensive detection performance. Furthermore, the proposed abnormal cage-reared duck pose-estimation model achieved an Object Key point Similarity (OKS) value of 0.921, with a single-frame processing time of 0.528 s, accurately detecting multiple key points of the abnormal cage-reared duck bodies and generating correct posture expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Y2O3 and SiO2 co-doped ZrO2 powders with various additions of SiO2 substitution Y2O3 have been prepared by co-precipitation method. The microstructure, phase and chemical composition, phase transformation process, and phase stability after repeated calcination at 1300 °C of these powders have been investigated. The main phase of all powders is t′-ZrO2. There is no phase transformation when the powders are heated from room temperature to 1400 °C. Increasing the ratio (1:4 to 4:1) of SiO2 substitution Y2O3 will reduce the tetragonality of the powder at 1300 °C. The amorphous SiO2 will inhibit the growth of grains to a certain extent during the calcination process. The increase of the substitution ratio of SiO2for Y2O3will lead to the m-ZrO2more stable and the t′-ZrO2more unstable. The relationship among the SiO2 substitution Y2O3 addition, phase composition, and high-temperature phase stability of the powders has been discussed. Highlight: The main phase of the Y2O3 and SiO2 co-doped ZrO2 powder is t′-ZrO2. Increasing the ratio of SiO2 substitution Y2O3 will reduce the tetragonality of the powder at 1300 °C. The amorphous SiO2 will inhibit the growth of grains to a certain extent during the calcination process. The increase of the substitution ratio of SiO2 for Y2O3 will lead to the m-ZrO2 more stable and the t′-ZrO2 more unstable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the characteristics of horizontal fractures in shallow low-permeability oil layers after hydraulic fracturing in multilayer reservoirs, horizontal fractures are taken equivalent to an elliptical cylinder with the reservoir thickness using the equivalent permeability model; then, upon the elliptic seepage theory, the seepage field which has led by a vertical well with horizontal fractures is divided into two parts: (1)radial flow from the external formation to the equivalent area of horizontal fracture and (2) elliptic flow in the equivalent area of horizontal fracture. The loss of pressure caused by threshold pressure gradient, material balance in the reservoir, and multi-well pressure superposition principle are synthesized to calculate the performance. Finally, separate-layer multi-stage horizontal fractured well performance is deduced by summing the performance of high-permeability oil layers and fractured thin low-permeability oil layers. Low-permeability thin oil layers in Xing Shu-Gang oilfield are taken as practical cases, and the well space limits and economic reservoir thickness limits are calculated by the performance model; the relationship among recovery and productivity intensity, and the ratio of thin low-permeability oil layers thickness to the total thickness are also discussed.

Incubation temperature is a crucial environmental factor affecting embryonic development and chick quality. Metabolism during the embryonic stage, particularly liver lipid metabolism, is essential for the growth and development of poultry. This study aimed to investigate the effects of embryo thermal manipulation with high (TMH , 39.5 °C, 65% RH, 8 h/d) and low (TML , 20 °C, 65% RH, 1 h/d) temperatures during 8th to 15th embryonic age on hatching performance and liver lipid metabolism in layer chicks. Additionally, the duration of TM effects was evaluated through a short-term feeding trial. The results indicated that TMH accelerated the hatching process without significantly affecting hatchability and growth performance. In contrast, TML delayed hatching time and significantly reduced hatchability and chick quality. After hatching, TML also increased residual yolk weight and reduced the relative liver weight in relation to body weight and yolk-free body mass. Moreover, lipid droplets in the liver were stained with Oil Red O, and the lipid content in the liver and serum was further detected. TMH had no significant impact on triglyceride (TG) and total-cholesterol (TCHO) content in the liver and serum but upregulated the expression of lipogenesis-related genes ACC , Fas , and Fatp1 compared to the TML group. Conversely, TML significantly reduced liver TG content, enhanced lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity, and promoted the expression of lipid oxidation-related genes CPT-1 , PGC-1α , and PPARα. At 7 d of age, liver LPL activity was significantly increased in the TMH group. However, there were no significant changes in the content of TG and TCHO in the liver and the expression of lipid metabolism-related genes in the TML group. Overall, these results indicate that embryonic TM alters hatching performance and liver lipid metabolism in layer chicks. TML reduces TG content by increasing liver lipid oxidation capacity. However, this effect is not long-lasting, as the influence of TM diminishes as the chicks develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]