In order to investigate effects of partial replacement of starch with neutral detergent soluble fiber (NDSF), 16 lambs were used in completely randomized design. The length of the experiment was 90 days. Dietary treatments were 1- Control (without beet pulp), 2-18% beet pulp, 3-36% beet pulp and 4-54% beet pulp (high soluble fiber). Dry matter and Organic matter digestibility was highest in treatment 1 and lowest in treatment 4. NDF and ADF digestibility significantly increased with increasing amount of beet pulp in the diet. Rumen ammonia nitrogen decreased significantly with increasing level of beet pulp in the diet. Highest and lowest hot carcass weight observed in treatment 1 and 4 respectively. Treatment 3 and 1 showed highest full and empty rumen weight respectively. Total carcass fat decreased with increasing level of beet pulp in the diet. Potential gas production was the same between treatments but the rate of gas production between straw and sugar cane pith were different. The results of this study indicate that partial replacement of starch with neutral detergent soluble fiber from beet pulp to 36% of ration dry matter could improve fiber digestibility and reduce rumen ammonia nitrogen concentration but inclusion of 54% beet pulp in the diet could not support growth like the high starch diet.

Background: Although several studies have assessed the relationship between dietary energy density and obesity, limited data are available in this regard in Iran. This study aimed to assess the association between dietary energy density and general and abdominal obesity among female students of School of Public Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 90 female students of School of Public Health were selected proportionally to size by cluster random sampling method. Usual dietary intakes were evaluated by the use of a 168-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Weight, height and waist circumference were assessed. General obesity was defined as having body mass index³30 kg/m2 and abdominal obesity as having waist circumference³80 cm.Findings: Mean BMI, dietary energy density and total energy intake of participants were 21.1 kg/m2, 87.0 kcal/g and 2122 kcal, respectively. General and abdominal obesity were prevalent among 9% and 8.9% of students, respectively. A significant negative association was found between dietary energy density and BMI (b=-4.9, P=0.03), even after adjustment for potential confounders (b=5.4, P=0.04).Waist circumference was not associated with dietary energy density.Conclusion: Although the prevalence of obesity was not different between tertiles of dietary energy density, it seems that BMI is significantly associated with this variable.

Background: Great interests have been drawn to the quality of diet. Dietary energy density is a good indicator of diet quality. In spite of the comprehensive concept of energy density rather than energy intake, no studies have evaluated the dietary energy density of lactating mothers. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the association between dietary energy density and infants’ growth.Methods: Dietary intake data were collected from 300 lactating mothers through the 168-item food frequency questionnaire. Data on physical activity were reported by participant’s responding International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The anthropometric features were taken from the health records in health centers.Findings: Infants’ weight, height, head circumference, and weight for height at birth, and 2 and 4 months later were not significantly different within any of 4 categories of energy density.Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that there is no association between quartiles of mothers’ dietary energy density and infants’ weight, length, weight for length, and head circumference growth by the age of 2 and 4 months.

VLSI technology scaling has resulted in the integration of a larger number of cores in a single chip in successive technology nodes, offering a great potential to realize task-level redundancy for reliability enhancement in safety-critical applications. However, since battery technology no longer advances commensurately with integration density, multi-core platforms may have limited utility in battery-powered embedded systems. In this paper, we propose an energy-budget-aware reliability management (enBudRM) method for multi-core embedded systems featuring hybrid energy source (with renewable and non-renewable energy sources). Our method is composed of two phases. In the offline phase, we only consider battery as the energy source and, according to the available energy-budget and slack time for each execution frame, tasks scheduling and voltage-frequency level are determined such that the tasks timing constraints are met while achieving the given reliability target. To increase the battery lifetime, in the online phase, we exploit released slack time at runtime for further voltage scaling. To compensate for the reliability loss of voltage scaling, we exploit an energy harvester along with the battery to enable executing more task replicas. Our experiments show that our energy budgeting method (the offline phase) compared to other approaches reduces the energy consumption on average by 57% (up to 80%). Also, by using harvester we can achieve up to 45% (on average 35%) battery energy saving, resulting in a higher battery life.

Evapotranspiration estimation is one of the most important water balance components and involves various complexities. In general, energy balance models are divided into two categories: single-source and two-source models. Choosing a model to estimate ET from among the existing energy balance models is challenging because each model has strengths and limitations. The goal of the present research is to introduce and compare several evapotranspiration estimation methods, including Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model, Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) model, Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) model, Simpled Surface Energy Balance Index (S-SEBI) model, Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model— Two- Source (soil + canopy) (TSM) model and Two-Source Time Integrated (TSTIM) model. Some advantages of the single-source energy balance model S_SEBI include the following: It is possible to implement it using only images without the need for weather data. Therefore, if the number of meteorological stations in the area is low, this method can be utilized. No need for a land use map. One disadvantage of this model is that it can only be used in cases where atmospheric conditions across the entire image are constant. Due to the simplicity and lower complexity of the structure and assumptions of the SSEBop model, it has increased operational capability for calculating actual evapotranspiration over large areas. However, it is not recommended for regions with heterogeneous vegetation cover, mountainous areas, high albedo regions, or high levels of radiation, and in such areas, the TSEB algorithm is recommended. Due to some errors and uncertainties in these surface energy balance models, extensive studies are required to overcome these limitations.