The effects of residual energy intake on nutrient use, methane emissions and microbial composition in dairy cows.

For sustainable food production selection and breeding of feed efficient animals is crucial. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether multiparous dairy cows, ranked during their first lactation based on residual energy intake (REI) as efficient (low; L-REI) or inefficient (high; H-REI), differ in terms of nutrient use efficiency, methane emissions, rumen fermentation, and gut microbiota composition. Six L-REI and 6 H-REI cows were offered two diets with either a low or high proportion of concentrates (30 vs.

Ion Beam Assisted E-Beam Deposited TiN Microelectrodes-Applied to Neuronal Cell Culture Medium Evaluation.

Microelectrode material and cell culture medium have significant roles in the signal-to-noise ratio and cell well-being in electrophysiological studies. Here, we report an ion beam assisted e-beam deposition (IBAD) based process as an alternative titanium nitride (TiN) deposition method for sputtering in the fabrication of state-of-the-art TiN microelectrode arrays (MEAs). The effects of evaporation and nitrogen flow rates were evaluated while developing the IBAD TiN deposition process.

Optimised PDMS Tunnel Devices on MEAs Increase the Probability of Detecting Electrical Activity from Human Stem Cell-Derived Neuronal Networks.

Measurement of the activity of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived neuronal networks with microelectrode arrays (MEAs) plays an important role in functional brain modelling and in neurotoxicological screening. The previously reported hPSC-derived neuronal networks do not, however, exhibit repeatable, stable functional network characteristics similar to rodent cortical cultures, making the interpretation of results difficult. In earlier studies, microtunnels have been used both to control and guide cell growth and amplify the axonal signals of rodent neurons.