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Background Compared with the stomach of ruminant cattle, the stomach of horse is small and mainly for chemical digestion, but the microorganisms in the stomach play an important role in maintaining the homeostasis of the internal environment. Due to the complexity of the microbes in the stomach, little is known about the diversity and structure of bacteria in the equine stomach. Grains are the main energy source for plant-eating livestock and energy is derived through enzymatic hydrolysis of grains into glucose or their microbial fermentation into Volatile fatty acids (VFA). However, the mechanism through which these ingested grains are chemically digested as well as the effect of these grains on the stomach remains elusive. This study explored the effects of feeding different grains (corn, oats, and barley) on bacterial diversity, structure, and composition in the foal’s stomach content. Furthermore, the effects of different grains on the vitality of starch digestion-related stomach enzymes were investigated. Results No significant differences were observed (P > 0.05) in the bacterial rarefaction curves of Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) and diversity of the stomach microbiota in all foals. This study also revealed the statistical differences for Firmicutes, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, Fibrobacteres, Lactobacillaceae, Streptococcaceae, Unidentified_Clostridiales, Prevotellaceae, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Unidentified_Cyanobacteria, Unidentified_Clostridiales, Lactococcus, Sphingomonas, Lactobacillus_hayakitensis, Lactobacillus_equigenerosi, and Clostridium_perfringens. The linear discriminant analysis effect size analysis revealed 9 bacteria at each classification level. The functional analysis of species information by using FAPROTAX software was able to predict 35 functions, and the top 5 functions were chemoheterotrophy, fermentation, animal_parasites_or_symbionts, nitrate_reduction, and aerobic_chemoheterotrophy. The study also revealed statistical differences for pH, glucose concentration, β-amylase, maltase, and amylase. Conclusions The different grains had no significant effect on the microbial diversity of the stomach content of the foal. However, the relative bacterial abundances differed significantly in response to different diets. Particularly, oats fed to the foals significantly increased the relative abundance of Firmicutes, Lactobacillaceae, Lactobacillus, and Lactobacillus_hayakitensis. The grain had no significant effect on the pH of the stomach content, glucose concentration, and enzyme viability in the foal.

Background There is little objective information concerning the effect of steam-flaked grains on foal’s growth performance and faecal microbiota. To determine the effects of steam-flaked grains on foal’s growth performance and faecal microbiota, faecal samples were collection from 18 foals which had been fed either corn, oat or barley diets over the 60 days of the experiment. Body weight and conformation measurements were collected. Next-generation sequencing of the V3 + V4 region of the 16 S rRNA gene was used to assess the microbial composition of faeces. Alpha diversity, Venn graph, Relative abundance and beta diversity are presented. Results There was a significantly higher larger increase in the body weight of those foals fed barley compared to either corn or oats. There were also significant changes in the Alpha diversity of the gut microbiota. The Shannon and Simpson indices were significantly higher in the barley fed group than those fed corn or oats. The Chao1 index was significantly higher in the oat fed group than the corn or barley fed groups. There were significant changes in the relative abundance of bacteria in the microbiota in terms of phylum, family and genus. The histogram of LDA value distribution showed that the 12 statistically different biomarkers of the bacteria were present. Tax4Fun function annotation clustering heat map showed that functional information was detected from 26 species of bacteria in faecal samples from the foals. Conclusions Differences by starch sources were found in overall growth of the foals and in the faecal microbiota if either supplementary corn, oat or barley was fed. Further studies are required to determine the potential impact of the changes in the microbiota on the health and development of foals fed cereal starch of different sources.

This study compared the growth performance, nutrient utilization, and slaughter traits of Dorper crossbred male lambs fed as per the established nutrition recommendations for sheep, with an aim to verify the efficacy of different feeding standards. A total of 576 lambs (4 months of age, 28.3 ± 0.86 kg BW) were randomly allotted to 3 treatments with 12 replicates per treatment (16 lambs per replicate). The lambs were fed diets formulated according to the following 3 nutritional systems: the nutrient requirements of Dorper crossbred lambs established by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), NRC (National Research Council), (2007), and AFRC (Agricultural and Food Research Council) (1993). The experiment lasted for 81 d. Feed intake was recorded every 3 days, and lambs were weighed every 20 days. Digestibility trials were conducted with 6 lambs each group from d 42 to 53 and d 70 to 81. At the end of the experiment, 10 lambs randomly chosen from each group were sacrificed to determine the carcass traits and meat quality. The results indicated that the lambs in the NRC group had the highest dry matter intake (DMI), followed by those in the AFRC and CAAS groups (P 0.05). In conclusion, Dorper crossbred lambs fed diets formulated according to the CAAS recommendations exhibited superior growth performance than those fed diets formulated according to the American or British feeding standards. Keywords: Feeding standard, Lamb, Requirement, Energy, Protein

Regarding whole cottonseed (WCS), cottonseed meal (CSM), and cottonseed hull (CSH), in situ rumen incubation was applied to determine their nutrient and gossypol degradation characteristics and bacterial colonization profile in lactating Holstein cows. Nylon bags containing the cotton by-products were incubated for 0, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 h in the rumen, respectively. The relationship between nutrient degradability and free gossypol (FG) content were examined, and the differences in the composition and inferred gene function of the colonized microbiota were studied. As a result, CSM presented highest effective degradability of dry matter, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre, but the highest effective degradability of crude protein was found in WCS. Free gossypol disappearance rate increased significantly in the first 6 h, and it reached approximately 94% at 72 h of incubation among all samples. The level of FG did not affect nutrient degradability of cotton by-products. Significant differences were noted in attached bacterial community structure among cotton by-products after 24 h rumen incubation. Among the most abundant taxa at genus level, a greater abundance of Cercis gigantea and Succiniclasticum was observed in WCS samples, whereas the CSH and CSM samples contained a greater proportion of Prevotella 1 and Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group. The redundancy analysis revealed that the level of neutral detergent fibre, ether extract, and FG in cotton by-products were significantly positive related with the composition of the attached bacteria. Collectively, our results revealed the dynamics of degradation characteristics, and the difference in the composition of bacterial colonization. These findings are of importance for the targeted improvement of cotton by-products nutrient use efficiency in ruminants and further understanding of the gossypol degradation mechanism in the rumen.

BackgroundThere is little objective information concerning the effect of steam-flaked grains on foal’s growth performance and faecal microbiota.To determine the effects of steam-flaked grains on foal’s growth performance and faecal microbiota.Faecal samples were collection from 18 foals which had been fed corn, oat or barley diets over the 60 days of the experiment. Body weight and measurements were collected. Next-generation sequencing of the V3+V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was used to assess the microbial composition of faeces. Alpha diversity, Venn graph, Relative abundance and beta diversity are presented.ResultsThere was a significantly higher increase in the body weight of those foals fed barley compared to either corn or oats, both in terms of the total weight gain and the daily weight gain (P=0.0185). There were also significant changes in the Alpha diversity. The Shannon and Simpson indices were higher in the barley fed group than those fed corn or oats (PPPPPPConclusionsDifferences were seen in the faecal microbiota of foals fed either corn, oat or barley, and also differences in the overall growth of the foals. Different grains have different impact on faecal microbiota, which are mainly related to the grain sources. Further investigation is required to look at the potential impact of changes in the microbiota on the functional impact on foals when fed grains.

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that utilizes many qualitative-based tools to support each step. Those qualitative-based tools adopt a subjective approach to capture insights. Recently, the development of data science allows problem solvers to get deeper insights from objective evidence. The study proposes how data science techniques can be used to enrich design thinking process. The research also empirically demonstrated parts of the proposed approach with the Taiwan moving industry. The results of this study include suggestions and notices on each quantitative approach. The paper provides an enriched step-by-step design thinking method, with understandable guidance, to help design thinkers to improve their product design or service design.

Objective Chinese scholars believe that physical fitness means that individuals have sufficient energy to do daily work (study) without fatigue, spare no effort to enjoy the fun of leisure life, and have the ability to adapt to emergencies. According to the American academy of sports medicine, physical fitness includes "fitness for health" and "fitness for skill". Healthy fitness includes: cardiovascular fitness, muscle fitness, flexibility fitness and body fat percentage. In this study, female teachers aged 36 to 45 from Taiyuan institute of technology were tested for fitness test based on body composition, bone density and cardiovascular fitness to understand the fitness status of its health body and analyze its possible causes in combination with the questionnaire. The health risk analysis and the exercise prescription of improving health fitness were given to different teachers. Methods The Research uses the questionnaire survey method and the interview method to investigate the teacher's life rule, the experimental method to test the female teacher's body composition, the bone density, and the cardiovascular fitness. The main indicators are as follows: (1) Body composition index (Acmeway BH-380 Body composition analyzer, China): height, weight, body mass index, body fat rate, fat volume, visceral fat content. (2) Bone mineral density index (GE Achilles EXPII, America): T value, Z value, bone strength index. (3) Cardiovascular Fitness Index (A&D TM-2656VP, Japan): systolic and diastolic pressure. Results The body mass index of female teachers in this age range is 25.8±2.6 kg/m2. Body mass index is in the normal value of high close to the overweight threshold relative standard value ((normal: 18.5≤BMI