Salmonella mbandaka was isolated from cattle on three dairy farms. The duration of infection was less than four weeks and none of the animals became clinically ill. The animals had all consumed a diet...Full Text Available
Dairycattle of three genetic lines maintained year round in total confinement (either in loose housing or tie stall barn) were monitored for estrous cycle activity and reproductive performance. Only...Full Text Available
The reproducibility of pulmonary mechanics measurements in dairycattle was examined using two study designs. In design A measurements were made with six cows on two days, and in design B measurements...Full Text Available
We have exploited ``progeny testing'' to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying the genetic variation of milk production in a selected dairycattle population. A total of 1,518 sires, with progeny...Full Text Available
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection on production, reproduction and longevity in dairycattle. The study population was a commercial Holstein...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe decline noticed in several fertility traits of dairycattle over the past few decades is of major concern. Understanding of the genomic factors underlying fertility,...Full Text Available
Streptococcus agalactiae continues to be a major cause of subclinical mastitis in dairycattle and a source of economic loss for the industry. Veterinarians are often asked to provide information on...Full Text Available
The cattle industry in Canada has changed greatly over the past several decades. Size of the national dairy herd has reduced steadily but this reduction has been more than offset by an increase in...Full Text Available
The aim of the present study was to identify specific behavioral patterns that contribute to diminished estrus expression in lame cows. Behavioral scan and focal sampling were used to examine...Full Text Available
BackgroundMastitis in dairycattle results from infection of mammary tissue by a range of micro-organisms but principally coliform bacteria and Gram positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus...Full Text Available
A commercial blend of essential oil (EO) compounds was added to a grass, maize silage, and concentrate diet fed to dairycattle in order to determine their influence on protein metabolism by ruminal...Full Text Available
The objective of the current research was to examine the association of herd level disease incidence with the return over feed (ROF) (milk income minus feed cost) herd profit index offered through Canwest...Full Text Available
Multiple-breath nitrogen washouts (MBNW) were performed with 21 adult dairy cows (seven normal cows tested on two days each, four clinically normal cows tested on six days, and ten cows with respiratory...Full Text Available
We have exploited {open_quotes}progeny testing{close_quotes} to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying the genetic variation of milk production in a selected dairycattle population. A total of 1,518 sires, with progeny tests based on the milking performances of >150,000 daughters jointly, was genotyped for 159 autosomal microsatellites bracketing 1645 centimorgan or approximately two thirds of the bovine genome. Using a maximum likelihood multilocus linkage analysis accounting for variance heterogeneity of the phenotypes, we identified five chromosomes giving very strong evidence (LOD score {ge} 3) for the presence of a QTL controlling milk production: chromosomes 1, 6, 9, 10 and 20. These findings demonstrate that loci with considerable effects on milk production are still segregating in highly selected populations and pave the way toward marker-assisted selection in dairycattle breeding. 44 ...
Good performance in extended lactations of dairycattle may have a beneficial effect on food costs, health, and fertility. Because data for extended lactation performance is scarce, lactation persistency has been suggested as a suitable selection criterion. Persistency phenotypes were calculated in several ways: P1 was yield relative to an approximate peak, P2 was the slope after peak production, and P3 was a measure derived to be phenotypically uncorrelated to yield and calculated as a function of linear regressions on test-day deviations of days in milk. Phenotypes P1, P2, and P3 were calculated for sires as solutions estimated from a random regression model fitted to milk yield. Because total milk yield, calculated as the sum of daily sire solutions, was correlated to P1 and P2 (r=0.30 ...
African bovine trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma sp., is a major constraint on cattle productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. Some African Bos taurus breeds are highly tolerant of infection, but the potentially more productive Bos indicus zebu breeds are much more susceptible. Zebu cattle are well adapted for plowing and haulage, and increasing their tolerance of trypanosomiasis could have a major impact on crop cultivation as well as dairy and beef production. We used three strategies to obtain short lists of candidate genes within QTL that were previously shown to regulate response to infection. We analyzed the transcriptomes of trypanotolerant N'Dama and susceptible Boran cattle after infection with Trypanosoma congolense. We sequenced EST libraries from these two breeds to identify polymorphisms that might underlie previously identified quantitative trait loci (QTL), and we assessed QTL regions and ...
In this article, we propose a model selection method, the Bayesian composite model space approach, to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) in a half-sib population for continuous and binary traits. In our method, the identity-by-descent-based variance component model is used. To demonstrate the performance of this model, the method was applied to map QTL underlying production traits on BTA6 in a Chinese half-sib dairycattle population. A total of four QTLs were detected, whereas only one QTL was identified using the traditional least square (LS) method. We also conducted two simulation experiments to validate the efficiency of our method. The results suggest that the proposed method based on a multiple-QTL model is efficient in mapping multiple QTL for an outbred half-sib population and is more powerful than the LS method based on a single-QTL model. PMID:21487433
The principal object of this trial was to evaluate the influence of three alternatives of feeding suplementation in dairy cows in the post-partum period in ecuadorian highlands. Thirty sic animals in fist lactation were used in this experiment and were divided in three groups according to the feed intake: Group A diet was 5 Kg. of a commercial concentrate mixture with 12 per cent of crude protein plus pasture ad libitum; Group B diet was green banans (Musa paradisiaca) and pasture and Group C diet was the control only pasture. Using Radioimmunoassay technique (RIA), progesterone values were determinated in milk from each cow. the sampling was sequential, two samples a week, starting 6 days after parturition, until the animal was pregnant or until the study was finished, 150 days after post-partum for each cow. This research allowed us to evaluate the ovaric post-partum activity of each group: Frequency and length of the ...
The objective of the present investigation was to develop a Bayesian framework for updating and integrating covariate information into key parameters of metabolizable energy (ME) systems for dairy cows. The study addressed specifically the effects of genetic improvements and feed quality on key parameters in current ME systems. These are net and metabolizable energy for maintenance (NEM and MEM, respectively), efficiency of utilization of ME for milk production (kL) and growth (kG), and efficiency of utilization of body stores for milk production (kT). Data were collated from 38 studies, yielding 701 individual cow observations on milk energy, ME intake, and tissue gain and loss. A function based on a linear relationship between milk energy and ME intake and correcting for tissue energy lo...
The bibliography contains citations concerning waste treatment and disposal in the food processing industry. Methods, equipment, and technology are considered. References discuss waste heat recovery and examine treatment of wastes resulting from meat and seafood processing, dairy and beverage production, and fruit and vegetable processing. The citations explore conversion of the treated waste to fertilizer and for use in animal feeds, combustion for energy production, biogas production, and composting. The recovery and recycling of usable chemicals from the food waste are also covered. Food packaging recycling is considered in a related bibliography. (Contains 250 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.)
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of partially substituting cottonseed cake with graded levels of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) seed cake (BSC) on milk yield and quality in Guernsey cows. Sixteen cows in mid-lactation and in their third parity were allocated to diets containing 0% (control), 5%, 10%, and 15% BSC in a completely randomized design. Each cow was given a daily feed ration of 6?kg and a basal diet of soya bean stover ad libitum. There were no differences in daily feed intake (P?>?0.05), but basal intake differed among all treatment groups with cows on the control diet having the highest intake (30???0.34?kg/day). Mean daily milk yield differed (P?P?P?P?P?>?0.05). These results indicate that BSC can substitute soya bean cake in dairy diets, but milk produ...
The purpose of this study was to assess changes in dairy herd milk production and milk composition associated with changes in Salmonella contamination of bulk milk on dairy farms in southwestern Ontario....Full Text Available
Irish dairy herd fertility has been declining since the 1980s. The extent, nature and causes of this decline in fertility and the current status of Irish dairy herd fertility were described....Full Text Available
A potent link to dairy seems to exist for three hormone-responsive glands. Acne, breast cancer and prostate cancer have all been linked epidemiologically to dairy intake. Although mechanisms postulated...Full Text Available
Riparian agricultural environments in eastern Australia are widely used for cattle grazing, but are also preferred habitat for native, soil-disturbing mammals such as the bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus). We examined the effects of mound construction by wombats, and track development by cattle and wombats, on soil displacement in a riparian landscape at high and low levels of cattle usage. Splash erosion was measured on mounds and inter-mounds with splashboards, and changes in the profiles of cattle-wombat tracks were assessed using a profilemeter. Twice as much soil was detached by splash erosion from mounds than inter-mounds, irrespective of cattle usage, and about three-times more coarse sand and 40% more fine sand was detached from mounds and inter-mounds at the high cattle sites. ...
This study is part of a greater project from IPT (Sao Paulo's Institute of Technology), which foresaw an energetic use for elephant-grass (Pennisetum purpureum). Biomass gasification is an sustainable option for energy supply, which presents low pollutants emission rate and allows - through the global cycle of growing and consumption of feedstock (vegetables), a balance between consumption and production of carbonic gas, preventing an increase of the carbonic gas levels in the atmosphere. A gasifier was built with internal diameter of 400 mm and total height of 4600 mm . The equipment was tested for gasification of elephant-grass (Pennisetum purpureum) at a 100 kg/h rate. The equipment was tested and some constructive faults were detected. In the countryside, this biomass is commonly used for cattlefeeding It was evaluated an adequate diesel-electric-generator. to work at hybrid regime, using 70% biomass gas and 30% diesel. With the ...
The Synthesis Gas From Manure (SGFM) pilot plant was constructed at Texas Tech University to evaluate the gasification of cattle feedlot manure. A study of gas yield and composition as a function of operating conditions was performed. This report presents the results of a comparison of feedstocks other than manure in the pilot plant. Oak sawdust was the superior feedstock tested in terms of both gas yield and operability. Corn stover and mesquite were comparable and presented some handling problems. Cotton gin trash was unacceptable due to low-temperature ash fusion in the reactor. The gas yield from oak sawdust varied from 0.8 to 1.7 1/gm DAF feed at average temperatures of 650 to 770/sup 0/C. The gas contained approximately 15% hydrogen and 40% carbon monoxide by volume. It also contained 5 to 8% methane and 2 to 5% ethylene. All of these results were obtained using steam and air as the gasifying medium.
The study involved 110 randomly selected dairy farms located in the Ontario, Canada counties of Bruce, Grey, Huron, Oxford, Perth, Waterloo and Wellington. Herds were classified as "intensive" and "extensive"....Full Text Available
Pulmonary function tests were performed on seven adult dairy cows with an expanded lung field (ExLF) and the results were compared to the values from seven cows with normal lung fields. The cows with...Full Text Available
A prospective cohort study was undertaken in two commercial California dairies. The treatment group, 246 cows, received three doses of a whole cell bacterin of J5 Escherichia coli (mutant of E. coli...Full Text Available
Peripartal serum alkaline phosphatase activity and lactate dehydrogenase activity were measured in 30 dairy cows in order to examine the association between retained fetal membranes and enzyme activity....Full Text Available
Path analysis was used to determine the interrelationships between ambient temperature, age at calving, postpartum reproductive events and reproductive performance in dairy cows. The data used in the...Full Text Available
The presence of highly heat-resistant spores of Bacillus sporothermodurans in ultrahigh-temperature or sterilized consumer milk has emerged as an important item in the dairy industry....Full Text Available
A microcomputer-based herd management information system was implemented as part of the herd health program provided to 13 dairy clients by the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. The...Full Text Available
This study examines the results of bacterial culture from 159 endometrial biopsy samples from 97 commercial dairy cows and correlations between bacteriological and histological findings. Bacteria were...Full Text Available
Endometrial biopsies were taken for histological assessment from 97 cows which calved in a commercial dairy herd between April and August 1984. The main objectives of this study were to analyze the...Full Text Available
The effects of gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) on the reproductive performance of dairy cows with retained placenta were studied. Three hundred and seventy-eight cows diagnosed as having retained...Full Text Available
Johne disease, caused by Mycobacterium avium, subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is becoming increasingly widespread on dairy farms worldwide, due in part, to the absence...Full Text Available
Data from an epidemiological study in Ontario, involving 304 dairy herds, were used to identify associations between selected production indices and lipoarabinomannan antigen serological test results...Full Text Available
The objectives of this study were to quantify the effect of 16 ppm of dietary monensin on milk production and composition of dairy cows, and to investigate factors having a potential impact on this...Full Text Available
BackgroundMalignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a lethal disease of cattle, characterized by vasculitis, necrosis, and accumulation of activated, dysregulated cytotoxic lymphocytes...Full Text Available
AbstractThis study investigated the distribution of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in herds of cattle in Ireland over the years 1996 through 2000, prior to the introduction of...Full Text Available
An epidemiological study about mastitis in French dairy herds, supported by an ecopathological survey is described. The aim of this work was to explain variations of the annual frequencies of...Full Text Available
The Early Bronze Age barrows at Irthlingborough and Gayhurst in central England are notable for the large number of cattle (Bos taurus) remains associated with their human Beaker burials. Previous work using strontium isotope analysis has indicated that most of the cattle analysed, and one aurochs (Bos primigenius), were of local origin [Towers, J., Montgomery, J., Evans, J., Jay, M., Parker Pearson, M., 2010. An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 508-515.]. In this study, stable isotope analysis of enamel and bone was carried out to investigate whether the mature cattle had experienced similar husbandry practices, climate and environment. Bulk carbon, nitrogen a...
Endometrial biopsies were taken for histological assessment from 97 cows which calved in a commercial dairy herd between April and August 1984. Sixty-two cows were biopsied at both day 26 and 40 postpartum,...Full Text Available
Veterinarians and farmers employing multivalent killed vaccines in lactating dairy cows have reported transient losses in milk production. Few studies have quantified this loss. In this report, effects...Full Text Available
Selected sera from cattle naturally infected with Brucella abortus precipitate water soluble antigens extracted by sonication from B. abortus. One of these antigens resembles antigen E (Baughn and Freeman)...Full Text Available
Eastern Oregon cattle distribution was studied with global positioning (GPS) collars for 2 years on the Zumwalt prairie in the spring and fall and Hells Canyon during the winter to determine distribution and habitat selection differences between Spanish bred (Corriente X Longhorn) and English bred c...
Cattle or chicken manure is pelletized, and a bed of the pellets is combusted at the bottom to create a temperature gradient and to generate a fuel gas. Thus, an approximately 25 cm-high bed of approximately 5 mm-diameter chicken manure pellets was combusted to produce a fuel gas of 1622 kcal/kg manure.
... In order to produce organic livestock feed, feed mills must be inspected and certified. If they produce both organic and non-organic feed, they must implement procedures, backed up by records, to prevent the commingling of organic and non-organic feed. This includes steps to clean storage bins and mixing and bagging equipment prior to producing batches of organic feed. Organic feed mills also must prevent ...
As a consequence of the close integration of cattle into the food chain of humans, forensically relevant cases involving cattle (Bos taurus) DNA analysis are common. However, scientific publications reporting the information content of the commonly used bovine short tandem repeat (STR) loci remains scarce. Population studies were performed for 16 polymorphic STR loci (BM1818, BM1824, BM2113, CSRM60, CSSM66, ETH3, ETH10, ETH225, HAUT27, ILSTS006, INRA023, SPS115, TGLA53, TGLA122, TGLA126, and TGLA227) including 4,162 randomly selected cattle representing 20 distinct breeds. The power of parental exclusion, expected and observed heterozygosity, probability of identity, and non-amplifying (?null?) allele frequencies were calculated. Major differences existed in the information content between...
The aim of the present investigation was to study the effect of weather and available protection on the behaviour of outdoor-wintered beef cattle (Bos taurus). A herd of 78-85 cattle head was studied during four winter months in the Southwest of Sweden. Protection was offered by coniferous forest situated on and around the 12ha pasture, which we divided into protection categories. During 240h we observed 10 cows and 10 heifers as focal animals (each 3h/month) during day time and adjusted observation times to the altitude of the sun. Close to the animals and at an unprotected spot of the pasture we measured temperature, wind speed and solar radiation and combined these variables to a single measure called Wind Chill Temperature (WCT). During observations the animals were in the forest in 12...
Successfully using artificial insemination (AI) is defined as getting cows pregnant when the farmer wants them in-calf and making the best use of appropriate genetic potential. Over the past...Full Text Available
A total of 262 strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from the mammary gland of dairy cows were examined for the production of alpha-hemolysin. Strains were cultured in a liquid medium of casein...Full Text Available
A double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of a homeopathic treatment of neonatal calf diarrhoea was performed using 44 calves in 12 dairy herds. Calves with spontaneously derived diarrhoea were...Full Text Available
AbstractMilk residues and performance were evaluated in lactating cows that were fed up to 10 times the recommended dose of monensin. Following an acclimatization period of 14 d, during...Full Text Available
The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to identify factors that place a dairy cow with uncomplicated milk fever (MF) at significant risk of becoming an alert downer cow (ADC) and to verify...Full Text Available
Path analysis was used to determine the interrelationships between postpartum administration of gonadotrophin releasing hormone and cloprostenol and the occurrence of reproductive disease and reproductive...Full Text Available
Illthrift was observed in 20/60 lambs aged 40–45 days in a dairy sheep flock in Greece. Cryptosporidiosis had been diagnosed and successfully treated with halofuginone lactate a month earlier....Full Text Available
The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of dietary grain on calcium homeostasis. Six rumen-fistulated dairy cows with 3 or more previous lactations and no history of parturient...Full Text Available
SummaryIntended Outputs: Farmers' priorities in dairy health and production in the smallholder crop dairy production system defined.Methodology for applying FFS approach in the AH/LP setting developed, tested and promoted.Impact assessment of the livestock FFS approach.Establishment of a plan of action for the large-scale implementation including proposals for the Government of Kenya to seek funding.Livestock FFS manual: guidelines and reference material suitable for [continued...]ObjectivesTo adapt and test Farmer Field School (FFS) methodology for animal health and production, focussing upon smallholder dairy farmers.DescriptionProject Background: Dissemination has traditionally been seen by research and extension as finding effective ways of transferring technology, and passing on relevant, usable information to farmers. In complex situations, where farmers need to adjust to a changing situation -such as crop protection, ...
A randomized intervention study was conducted to determine if discontinuing use of calf milk replacer medicated with oxytetracycline results in increased tetracycline susceptibility in Salmonella...Full Text Available
The attitudes and expectations of producers toward the use of a microcomputer-based herd management information system were assessed. The study was conducted over a two-year period, beginning in January...Full Text Available
Twenty-two cases of indigestion occurred in a 650-cow herd. Five cows had severe sand abomasal impaction, diagnosed by laparotomy. The pH of prepartum cows’ urine was < 6.0 and of sand...Full Text Available
The bovine syncytial virus, a member of the retroviral subfamily Spumavirinae, causes a persistent, asymptomatic infection in cattle. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the viral genome revealed two overlapping...Full Text Available
AbstractThe tick-borne protozoan parasite Theileria annulata causes a debilitating disease of cattle called Tropical Theileriosis. The parasite predominantly invades...Full Text Available
There is a quest for the development of a new generation of vaccines consisting of well-defined subunit antigens. For a number of practical reasons it is attractive to develop vaccines on the basis...Full Text Available
Clinical salmonellosis in cattle is infrequently recorded in Botswana, the majority of salmonella isolations being made from apparently healthy animals. A salmonella carrier rate of 6·7% was...Full Text Available
Brucella abortus is a facultative, intracellular zoonotic pathogen which can cause undulant fever in humans and abortions in cattle. A 14-kDa protein of B. abortus...Full Text Available
Orthologous positions of 55 genes associated with height in four human populations were located on the bovine genome. Single nucleotide polymorphisms close to eight of these genes were significantly...Full Text Available
Seventy-nine Mycobacterium bovis isolates recovered from Mexican and Texas cattle were categorized into 16 and 25 distinct types on the basis of IS6110 and direct-repeat fingerprint patterns, respectively....Full Text Available
... were erroneous. The oriental rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis Rothschild, is considered to be the primary vector of ... laboratory and production of Weigl's exanthematous typhus vaccine. In Maintenance of hum...
BackgroundRecently, the discovery of copy number variation (CNV) led researchers to think that there are more variations of genomic DNA than initially believed. Moreover, a certain...Full Text Available
high biodiversity values and potential for development of sustainable agriculture (cattle and horse grazing, some organic cultivation), ...on global change and its effects on natural resources Details: Gill Heaton, 01865 373625, E-mail: gill.heaton@
Paratuberculosis (Johne's disease), an endemic mycobacteriosis of cattle that is caused by Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, is characterized by incoercible diarrhea and fecal shedding of bacteria. The...Full Text Available
Escherichia coli infection of the endometrium causes uterine disease after parturition and is associated with prolonged luteal phases of the ovarian cycle in cattle. Termination...Full Text Available
ObjectiveAnimal feeding practices in the United States have changed considerably over the past century. As large-scale, concentrated production methods have become the predominant...Full Text Available
Isolates of the most commonly observed salmonella serovars in Norwegian fish feed factories from 1998 to 2000 (Salmonella enterica serovar Agona, S. enterica...Full Text Available
The display of proteins such as feed enzymes at the surface of bacterial spore systems has a great potential use for animal feed. Feed enzymes increase the digestibility of nutrients, leading to greater...Full Text Available
A case of mycotic encephalitis in a horse with guttural pouch mycosis is described. A liquid pellet feed binder contaminated with Aspergillus sp. and erroneously mixed in a feed concentrate...Full Text Available
Abstract Studies of the megamouth shark, one of three planktivorous sharks, can provide information about their evolutionary history. Megamouth shark feeding has never been observed in life animals, but two alternative hypotheses on biomechanics suggest either feeding, i.e., ram feeding or suction feeding. In this study, the second moment of area of the ceratohyal cartilages, which is an indicator of the flexural stiffness of the cartilages, is calculated for 21 species of ram- and suction-feeding sharks using computed tomography. The results indicate that suction-feeding sharks have ceratohyal cartilages with a larger second moment of area than ram-feeding sharks. The result also indicates that the ram-suction index, which is an indicator of relative contribution of ram and suction behavi...
Little recent research is available about where specific types of farm managers search for information about better production practices. The objective of this study was to investigate what information sources managers used and how they rated the usefulness of each source. The authors administered mail questionnaires to probability samples from sampling frames they developed for four groups: dairy and fresh market vegetable producers from Wisconsin and berry and nursery producers from a multistate region. Questionnaire items asked operation managers to check off, from a list of information sources, those that they used in the last year to learn about new equipment or procedures to improve their operations and then to rate the usefulness of each source. In the last year, nursery, dairy, and berry managers most often used information from print media (63% to 84%), followed by other farmers (50% to 80%). Fresh market vegetable growers used ...
Dairy products doubly labeled with 45Ca and 47Ca were used to evaluate an extrinsic labeling procedure for calcium bioavailability determination. Nonfat milk, yogurt, and fresh cheese curd were prepared from caprine milk that was intrinsically labeled with 45Ca. The products were then labeled extrinsically with 47Ca and administered to rats by gavage. The 47Ca to 45Ca ratio in bone and teeth averaged about 1.00 with either milk, yogurt, or CaCl2, but the ratio was about 1.04 when dosed with cheese curd. Ca absorption, determined by whole-body counting of 47Ca, was lower (P less than 0.05) in cheese curd (59%) than in either milk (69%), yogurt (72%), or CaCl2 (72%). Expressed as percent of dose, the absorption of 47Ca was highly correlated with bone 47Ca (r = 0.973) and with bone 45Ca (r = 0.946). Correlation between tibia 47Ca and tibia 45Ca was r = 0.923. For the dairy products tested, our results indicated that extrinsic 47Ca was absorbed ...
The historical background of the 19th century electromagnetic theory is revisited from the standpoint of the opposition between alternative approaches in respect to the problem of interactions. The 19th century electrodynamics became the battle-field of a paramount importance to test existing conceptions of interactions. Hertz's experiments were designed to bring a solid experimental evidence in favor of one of them. The modern scientific method applied to analyze Hertz's experimental approach as well as the analysis of his laboratory notes, dairy and private letters show that Hertz's "\\textit{crucial}" experiments cannot be considered as conclusive at many points as it is generally implied. We found that alternative Helmholtz's electrodynamics did not contradict any of Hertz's experimental observations of transverse components as Maxwell's theory predicted. Moreover, as we now know from recently published Hertz's dairy and private notes, his ...
Abstract The importance of evaluating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dairy cows within the whole farm setting is being realized as more important than evaluating these emissions in isolation. Current whole farm models aimed at evaluating GHG emissions make use of simple regression equations to predict enteric methane (CH4) production. The objective of the current paper is to evaluate the performance of nine CH4 prediction equations that are currently being used in whole farm GHG models. Data used to evaluate the prediction equations came from a collection of individual (IND) and treatment averaged (TRT) data. Equations were compared based on mean square prediction error (MSPE) and concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) analysis. In general, predictions were poor, with root MSPE (as...
This study identifies new information on the recent distribution of an invasive bird species, the Cattle Egret Ardea ibis, in Algeria. Breeding and wintering distributions as well as breeding numbers were obtained from large-scale surveys in 1999 and 2007, and from historical data. Between 1999 and 2007, the total number of colonies found increased from 51 to 87, and most were located in the northern part of the country. The breeding distribution area, confined to the coastal areas in the 1970s, has shifted further south, and reached the northern part of the Sahara since the 2000s. Most colonies were established during the period 1980-1995. The oldest colonies were generally larger than the recent ones. The number of colonies increased by 83% between 1999 and 2007 in the 12 administrative ...
Abstract Development of inhibitors and vaccines that mitigate rumen-derived methane by targeting methanogens relies on knowledge of the methanogens present. We investigated the composition of archaeal communities in the rumens of farmed sheep (Ovis aries), cattle (Bos taurus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to generate fingerprints of archaeal 16S rRNA genes. The total archaeal communities were relatively constant across species and diets, and were less variable and less diverse than bacterial communities. There were diet- and ruminant-species-based differences in archaeal community structure, but the same dominant archaea were present in all rumens. These were members of three coherent clades: species related to Methanobrevibacter ruminan...
Summary The objective of this study was to quantify the genetic diversity among breeds under evaluation for tropical adaptability traits that affect the performance of beef cattle at the USDA/ARS SubTropical Agricultural Research Station (STARS) near Brooksville, FL, USA. Twenty-six microsatellite loci were used to estimate parameters of genetic diversity among the breeds American Brahman, Angus, Senepol and Romosinuano; the latter was comprised of two distinct bloodlines (Costa Rican and Venezuelan). Genotypes of 47 animals from each of these STARS herds were analysed for genetic diversity and genetic distance. Using two methods, the greatest genetic distance was detected between the Costa Rican line of Romosinuano and the Senepol. Gene diversity ranged between 0.64 (Costa Rican line of R...
The goal of the present study was to describe the clinical, haematological and ultrasonographic findings and treatment of 17 cattle with pyelonephritis. Fifteen cattle had an abnormal general condition, which varied in severity; five animals had signs of colic. The urine was brownish-red in 11 animals and cloudy in 13. Clumps of purulent material were seen in the urine of nine animals and clots of blood in two. The specific gravity was lower than normal in 13 animals and ranged from 1.005 to 1.020. A urine test strip revealed protein in 16 animals, blood in 16 and leukocytes in 12. Bacteriological examination of urine yielded Corynebacterium renale in 11 animals, Arcanobacter pyogenes in two and Escherichia coli in one. Rectal examination revealed abnormalities of the urinary tract in 11 a...
Analysis of the pattern of the chromosomal localization of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) is necessary for comprehensively understanding their functions. The chromosomal localization of QTLs controlling milk production traits has been studied in cattle chromosomes. The distribution of QTLs between chromosomes has proved to be binomial. Their distribution along each chromosome was, in general, uniform, except for the QTLs controlling the somatic cell score (SCS), which tended towards telomeric location. However, there are chromosomes either enriched with or particularly poor in QTLs. The QTL distribution patters are the most similar for the milk yield (M) and milk protein yield (P) and for milk fat yield (F) and milk fat content (%F). The pattern of the SCS QTLs stands out among those of ot...
An enterotoxin D (SED)-producing strain of Staphylococcus aureus was used to infect one mammary gland of each of 17 lactating dairy cows. All glands became infected and shed bacteria...Full Text Available
Results in this study are consistent with those of Murdock and his colleagues who clearly demonstrated that clonidine, an agonist of octopaminergic receptors in some insects, significantly increases sucrose feeding. Their studies, however, did not examine the effect of clonidine on protein feeding. Injection of a 20mg/ml/fly dose of clonidine significantly reduces protein feeding in both sexes of Phormia regina, instead of stimulating feeding as is observed with carbohydrate feeding. The manner in which the flies are fed prior to starvation and the method of testing influences the amounts of diet consumed. It is proposed that the biogenic amines influence the state of hunger (i.e., protein versus carbohydrates) while other chemicals and neural mechanisms (i.e., such as sulfakinins and stre...
DescriptionThe switch from production-linked to environmental payments has focussed attention on the environmental impacts of farming. There is a growing awareness of the need to reduce the contamination of air with carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and nitrogen gases (which contribute to the greenhouse effect) and to prevent the contamination of soil and water with excessive amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. As beef production moves to become more sustainable and fully integrated with the wide [continued...
... All rickettsial diseases respond to treatment with antibiotics such as doxycycline and tetracycline As of 10 May, the Government of South Africa has reported 186 confirmed cases of RVF in humans, including 18 deaths, in Free State Province, Eastern Cape Province, Northern Cape Province, Western Cape, and North West Province. RVF is a viral disease that primarily affects animals (such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels). The disease can also affect humans. The main mode of transmission of RVF ...
Cattle and pig wastes, orange peels, compost, and grain husks were hydrolyzed in an alkaline medium to investigate the CH4 generation capacity. The respective CH4 production capacities from pig wastes and rice hulls were approximately 1 and approximately 0.1 L/g. The CH4 produced can be used to supplement energy requirements of farms.
The previously described (M. De Kesel, P. Gilot, M.-C. Misonne, M. Coene, and C. Cocito, J. Clin. Microbiol., 31:947-954, 1993) a362 recombinant polypeptide of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis was used...Full Text Available
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), a retrovirus related to human T-cell leukemia virus types 1 and 2, can induce persistent nonneoplastic expansion of the CD5+ B-cell population, termed...Full Text Available
Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is a complex B-lymphotrophic retrovirus of cattle and the causative agent of enzootic bovine leukosis. Serum antibody in infected animals does not correlate with protection...Full Text Available
BackgroundHerbivore feeding elicits dramatic increases in defenses, most of which require jasmonate (JA) signaling, and against which specialist herbivores are thought to be better...Full Text Available
When attempting to feed on their hosts, ticks face the problem of host hemostasis (the vertebrate mechanisms that prevent blood loss), inflammation (that can produce itching or pain and thus...Full Text Available
The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence and genotypic relatedness of Salmonella enterica isolates recovered from feed and fecal samples in commercial swine production...Full Text Available
Several different neuronal populations are involved in regulating energy homeostasis. Among these, agouti-related protein (AgRP) neurons are thought to promote feeding and weight gain; however, the...Full Text Available
Insulin resistance plays a central role in type 2 diabetes and obesity, which develop as a consequence of genetic and environmental factors. Dietary changes including high fat diet (HFD) feeding promotes...Full Text Available
Percutaneous translumbar duodenostomy for enteral feeding was performed in one patient with nutritional difficulties. No complication was encountered. The procedure can be an alternative to percutaneous gastrostomy and jejunostomy for enteral feeding in special situations. (orig.).
Exposure of a group of horses to tetracycline-contaminated feed resulted in acute colitis and subsequent death in one horse and milder diarrhea in 3 others. The most severely affected animal demonstrated...Full Text Available
OBJECTIVE: To recommend appropriate intake of nutrients, food sources and feeding practices for premature infants. OPTIONS: Unfortified milk from the premature infant's own mother, fortified milk from...Full Text Available
Feed samples from 94 cases involving fungal contamination and suspected mycotoxicosis of farm animals in western Canada were examined during 1982-1994 to assess the incidence of mycotoxins. Samples...Full Text Available
BackgroundPeak bone mass, attained by early adulthood, is influenced by genetic and life-style factors. Early infant feeding and duration of breastfeeding in particular, associate...Full Text Available
BackgroundCichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika exhibit remarkable diversity in their feeding habits. Among them, seven species in the genus Perissodus are known for...Full Text Available
BackgroundA previous study showed for Anopheles gambiae s.s. a gradation of feeding preference on common plant species growing in a malaria holoendemic area in western...Full Text Available
Bacillus thuringiensis was isolated from 36 of 50 residue samples obtained from an animal feed mill (a stored-product environment). Of 710 selected colonies having Bacillus...Full Text Available
BackgroundBreast-feeding rates in the UK are known to vary by maternal socio-economic status but the latter function is imperfectly defined. We test if CTVB (Council Tax Valuation...Full Text Available
The association of breast feeding with rates of atopic illness during the first five years of life was assessed in a national study of 13 135 children studied during the first week and at age 5 years....Full Text Available
The function of the hyolingual complex in three odontocete species was investigated to compare adaptations of divergent feeding strategies, suction and ram feeding. Pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, members...Full Text Available
The major feed-water line break accident is re-analyzed, which is based on Guangdong Daya Bay nuclear power station final safety analysis report, to justify the impacts of the decreasing of auxiliary feed-water flow rate on the safety margin in Daya Bay. The results showed that the accident analysis can meet the demands of acceptance criteria with the auxiliary feed-water flowrate decreasing from 45 m"3/h to 41.8 m"3/h, and enough safety margin is still retained
In this work feed hardware for fed-batch cultivation is presented (broth recycle feed injection system or BRFIS). BRFIS proved superior to conventional submerged or dripped feed systems in reducing dissolved oxygen (DO) oscillations during Escherichia coli fed-batch cultivation (5 min coefficient of variation of 0.7% for BRFIS as compared to 26% or greater for conventional feeding hardware in a 2 L test reactor). Hence, BRFIS is useful for fed-batch cultivation systems where the DO signal is used in measurement or control. PMID:12675613
This document provides structural load requirements and their basis for maintaining the structural integrity of the Hanford Single-Shell Tanks during waste feed delivery and retrieval activities. The requirements are based on a review of previous requirements and their basis documents as well as load histories with particular emphasis on the proposed lead transfer feed tanks for the privatized vitrification plant.
...Keeping chickens: a beginner's guide : Directgov - Environment and greener living chickens, feeding chickens, egg marking, registering a ...flock, battery hens Chickens; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Registrations; Animals; Livestock; Local government; Local ...authorities A guide for people keeping chickens on the laws for registering and feeding them, and how to spot key diseases. A ...guide for people keeping chickens on the laws for registering and feeding them, and how to spot key diseases. Keeping chickens: ...
On six 400 m2 plots over 3 years, we excluded the sessile subduction and conveyer-belt feeding polychaete Arenicola marina which generates a pit-and-mound topography at the sediment surface from intertidal sands near the island of Sylt, Germany. This experiment was used to test whether other abundant deposit feeding polychaetes (the discretely motile and surface feeding ragworm Nereis diversicolor and the subsurface-feeding, motile orbiniid polychaete Scoloplos cf. armiger) benefit from competitive release. Ragworms took advantage from the absence of lugworms. Presumably they responded to a more stable and nutritious surface layer at lugworm exclusion plots (relief from inhibitive bioturbation). Contrary to this, S. cf. armiger was negatively affected by the exclusion of A. marina. It may ...
Most livestock farmers in the United States do not take advantage of anaerobic digester technology because of the high cost and large scale. These limitations therefore reduce the production of renewable energy from farmlands. In order to expand anaerobic digestion methods and improve environmental quality, affordable and smaller-scale digesters should be developed to enable most livestock farmers to convert manure to methane. Doing so would improve their economic efficiency and environmental sustainability. This paper provided an analogy to the development of the Model T to better explain the need and potential for this technology. A modified fixed-dome digester was installed on the Ohio State University dairy in Columbus, Ohio. The digester was unheated, buried, had a volume of 1 m{sup 3} and received diluted dairy manure as feedstock. Biogas was produced at digester temperatures as low 10 degrees C during colder ambient temperatures. Water ...
This paper reported on a life cycle assessment (LCA) study that compared the environmental impacts of business-as-usual manure management with those of a manure management operation incorporating anaerobic digestion with combined heat and power generation. The case study was based on a medium sized dairy farm in northern New York State. The study identified the benefits resulting from the displacement of fossil fuels, and reduction of related emissions. Although anaerobic digestion of dairy manure with energy recovery through biogas combustion is viewed as a positive environmental approach to increase the use of renewable energy, there are potential negative impacts that can counteract the environmental benefits. The negative impacts are associated with emissions of methane and nitrogen species during digestion and after spreading of digester effluent. The environmental impacts and their causes should be evaluated in order to promote best ...
The generation of thermal energy is the great importance for the agribusiness of dairy industry to conservation the quality of milk, taking into account that the electricity is the main source currently used for the thermal energy input. The small agribusiness dairy industry currently practiced in Brazil faces several problems related to the cost of electricity and the distance of rural properties of networks of power. In the current scenario of Brazilian dairy production, there is need for the generation of cold for the milk cooling, and also the heat for the production of hot water around 50 deg C to 60 deg C and also for cleaning of equipment used for milk production and processing. The main objective of this study is the modeling and simulation of integrated recovery process of solid waste, effluents and bioconversion. The specific project objectives are: comparison study of options and technological routes of low cost ...
Traditional farmers and harvesters of non-timber forest products in Peten treat the forest in ways that conserve and regenerate its resources. They believe no one owns the forest outright. Humans share it with other life forms and therefore no one has the right to monopolize or destroy forest resources. Traditional Peteneros find a use for almost everything in the forest, and believe it neither smart nor proper to use a given area for a single purpose, for example, to clear an area of all trees and devote it exclusively to a cattle pasture. In the traditional system most medicinal plants, basic foodstuffs, fuelwoods and construction materials are taken from the bosque (secondary forests within walking distance of human settlements). Peteneros` sustainable use of bosques eases pressure on the monte (primary forests). In the monte Peteneros` harvesting practices are protective of resources, causing minimal damage. Finding almost everything in the forest useful, ...
The behavior of melter feed (a mixture of nuclear waste and glass-forming additives) during waste-glass processing has a significant impact on the rate of the vitrification process. We studied the effects of silica particle size and sucrose addition on the volumetric expansion (foaming) of a high-alumina feed and the rate of dissolution of silica particles in feed samples heated at 5 C/min up to 1200 C. The initial size of quartz particles in feed ranged from 5 to 195 {micro}m. The fraction of the sucrose added ranged from 0 to 0.20 g per g glass. Extensive foaming occurred only in feeds with 5-{micro}m quartz particles; particles {ge}150 {micro}m formed clusters. Particles of 5 {micro}m completely dissolved by 900 C whereas particles {ge}150 {micro}m did not fully dissolve even when the temperature reached 1200 C. Sucrose addition had virtually zero impact on both foaming and the ...
The potential application of radioisotopes are not discussed in this review of trypanosome pathogenesis in cattle. Initially, structural changes in the lymphoid system are characterized by marked proliferation and germinal centre formation, whereas in long-standing infections the lymphoid organs become depleted. These changes appear associated with immunodepression. Anaemia dominates the clinical disease syndrome in bovine trypanosomiasis. It develops with the onset of parasitaemia and is largely haemolytic, resulting from increased red blood cell destruction by phagocytosis. Several factors may be involved in this process including haemolysins produced by the trypanosome, immunological mechanisms, fever, disseminated intravascular coagulation and an expanded and active mononuclear phagocytic system. During this phase of the disease, cattle respond well to chemotherapy. However, in later phases of the disease, when trypanosomes cannot be ...
The goal of the present study was to describe the clinical, haematological and ultrasonographic findings and treatment of 17 cattle with pyelonephritis. Fifteen cattle had an abnormal general condition, which varied in severity; five animals had signs of colic. The urine was brownish-red in 11 animals and cloudy in 13. Clumps of purulent material were seen in the urine of nine animals and clots of blood in two. The specific gravity was lower than normal in 13 animals and ranged from 1.005 to 1.020. A urine test strip revealed protein in 16 animals, blood in 16 and leukocytes in 12. Bacteriological examination of urine yielded Corynebacterium renale in 11 animals, Arcanobacter pyogenes in two and Escherichia coli in one. Rectal examination revealed abnormalities of the urinary tract in 11 animals; there was dilatation of the left ureter and/or enlargement of the left kidney in eight cases, and dilatation of the right ureter and/or enlargement of ...
Serotonin is an important signaling molecule involved in the control of feeding in flies and other animals. In this study, a potential neurohemal release site for serotonin and the effects of exogenous serotonin on protein feeding were examined in the black blow fly, Phormia regina. A dense network of varicose neural processes exhibiting serotonin-like immunoreactivity was identified on the dorsal region of the thoracico-abdominal ganglion in P. regina. This dorsal region of the central nervous system is a likely site for the release of serotonin into the hemolymph. Circulating serotonin may have multiple systemic effects on fly physiology, including modulating or regulating feeding related processes and diuresis. Injections of exogenous serotonin reduced protein meal size in female flies ...
AbstractThe efficacy of tilmicosin administered in the feed to control Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae infections in pigs was evaluated through a multisite, multitrial...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe aim of this report was to describe duodenal obstruction caused by a rubber foreign body in a cow.Case PresentationThe clinical, biochemical...Full Text Available
... Although the rest of the country is less affected, if UK annual feeding and milling volumes of wheat are approximately 120,000t the drought will inevitably result in a shortfall. Looking back at the 2010 season the organic arable market performed strongly, with average feed wheat values since Christmas of 𧷐/tonne - 䀆/t higher then the same period last year. This provided a profitable ...
We followed 183 infants for two years, 31 of whom were breast fed less than three and a half months (median 70 days; short breast feeding group) and a further 31 of whom were exclusively breast fed...Full Text Available
DescriptionThe plant enzyme polyphenol oxidase (PPO) has been demonstrated to reduce both proteolysis and lipolysis during the ensiling of red clover. The purpose of this work is to explore the potential for exploiting this beneficial trait in other dietary regimes for grazing ruminants. These studies will focus on the development of new strategies for forage management and livestock feeding by increasing the efficiency of feed protein-N utilisation and reducing saturated fatty acid production by ruminan [continued...
A C.sub.5 -900.degree. F. (C.sub.5 -482.degree. C.) liquid yield greater than 50 weight percent MAF feed coal is obtained in a coal liquefaction process wherein a selected combination of higher hydrogen partial pressure, longer slurry residence time and increased recycle ash content of the feed slurry are controlled within defined ranges.
The Project was started August 1, 1992. During these first two months, the Project Management plan was issued and approved during discussions at the Pittsburgh Energy and Technology Centre. Feed materials for the experimental work (with the exception of the second solvent) have been received. The analytical work up of these feed materials has been completed, and autoclave stability tests with the solvent and solvent fraction have been performed and analyzed. The Project is proceeding on schedule.
The Project was started August 1, 1992. During these first two months, the Project Management plan was issued and approved during discussions at the Pittsburgh Energy and Technology Centre. Feed materials for the experimental work (with the exception of the second solvent) have been received. The analytical work up of these feed materials has been completed, and autoclave stability tests with the solvent and solvent fraction have been performed and analyzed. The Project is proceeding on schedule.
This paper explores the potential of combining substance-flow modelling with water and wastewater sampling to trace consumption-related substances emitted through the urban wastewater. The method is exemplified on sucralose. Sucralose is a chemical sweetener that is 600 times sweeter than sucrose and has been on the European market since 2004. As a food additive, sucralose has recently increased in usage in a number of foods, such as soft drinks, dairy products, candy and several dietary products. In a field campaign, sucralose concentrations were measured in the inflow and outflow of the local wastewater treatment plant in Linkoping, Sweden, as well as upstream and downstream of the receiving stream and in Lake Roxen. This allows the loads emitted from the city to be estimated. A method c...
Treatment with gamma and electron radiation is becoming a common process for the sterilization of packages, mostly made of natural or synthetic plastics, used in the aseptic processing of foods and pharmaceuticals. The effect of irradiation on these materials is crucial for packaging engineering to understand the effects of these new treatments. Packaging material may be irradiated either prior to or after filling. The irradiation prior to filling is usually chosen for dairy products, processed food, beverages, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries in the United States, Europe, and Canada. Radiation effects on packaging material properties still need further investigation. This paper summarizes the work done by different groups and discusses recent developments in regulations and testing procedures in the field of packaging technology.
Entomological survey was conducted to know the breeding habitat preference of the forest breeder malaria vector Anopheles baimaii, known earlier as An. dirus species D in the northeastern region of India. Breeding potential of the vector in forest areas was found to be high in water stored in jungle pool (69.84%) followed by elephant footprints with clear water (39.13%) and with turbid water (26.19%), whereas in forest fringe areas, the vector breeding was more prominent in elephant footprints: 65.11% in clear water and 62.5% in turbid water. Although other habitats had shown only low breeding of the vector, all types of habitats were positively correlated with malaria occurrence. Cattle hoof marks (r?=?0.998) and elephant footprint (turbid; r?=?0.999) explained nearly the same amount of v...
Summary 1. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, bison Bison bison and elk Cervus canadensis nelsoni act as hosts for Brucella abortus. The presence of B. abortus within wildlife populations is an important conservation issue because of the risk of brucellosis transmission from wildlife to cattle. 2. We investigated conditions facilitating contact between bison (40-60% seroprevalence) and elk on a shared winter range in the Madison headwaters area of Yellowstone National Park. We evaluated the effects of snow pack, season, elk and bison population sizes, and wolf Canis lupus predation risk on the degree of spatial overlap between bison and elk from 1991 to 2006. 3. Sixty-eight per cent of 10 093 independent elk observations occurred within the known bison wintering range, 29% occurred with...
Abstract The distribution and abundance of native ungulates were measured on commercially managed, semi arid rangeland in central Kenya over a 3 year period that encompassed severe drought and above average rainfall. Native ungulate biomass density averaged 5282 kg km 2 over the study and was dominated by elephant (Loxodonta africana), impala (Aepyceros melampus) and dik dik (Madoqua kirkii). Biomass density of domestic cattle (Bos taurus) averaged 2280 kg km 2 during the study. Responses of native ungulates to severe drought were variable. Impala densities were similar to or greater than densities for similar habitat in protected areas, and varied from 12 to 16 km 2 during and following the drought to 24 29 km 2 following above average rainfall. Dik dik densities were also greater than de...
Pneumonia caused by Mannheimia haemolytica is an important disease of domestic sheep (DS, Ovis aries) and cattle (BO). M. haemolytica is a normal commensal of the upper respiratory tract in ruminants, but during stress and viral infection it breaches the host innate mucosal defense and descents into lungs causing fibrinous pleuropneumonia. Leukotoxin (Lkt) produced by M. haemolytica is cytolytic to all subsets of ruminant leukocytes. Earlier, we and others have shown that DS and BO LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18) and Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18) can mediate Lkt-induced cytolysis. It is not clear whether CR4 (CD11c/CD18), which is involved in chemotaxis, phagocytosis and regulates host immune response can also mediate Lkt-induced cytolysis in ruminants. The host innate immune response to M. haemolytica is poorly ...
This paper reports the use of molecular methods to characterize the coprophilous fungal communities (CFC) that inhabit the dung of four species of mammalian herbivores at two sites, Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) in New Mexico and Wind Cave National Park (WCNP) in South Dakota. Results reveal that CFC from domesticated cattle (Bos taurus) at SNWR, and bison (Bison bison) and black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) at WCNP were diverse but dominated primarily by members within eight taxonomic orders, including the rarely cultured and anaerobic order Neocallimastigales. In addition, 7.7% (138 of 1,788) of the sequences obtained from all dung samples were at least 97% similar to root-associated fungal (RAF) sequences previously described from blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis...
The effect of four extracts from neem seeds (Azadirachta indica) containing 2000, 5000, 9000 and 10,000ppm of azadirachtin A (AZA), quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and diluted to 1.25%; 2.5%; 5.0%; 10.0% and 12.8% was verified by in vitro tests with engorged females and larvae of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus. The results from the bioassays with the engorged females showed that the main toxic effect of the extracts was reduction of the reproductive parameters, with a sharp drop in the number of eggs laid and the hatching rate, mainly when the extracts were diluted to 10.0% and 12.8%. The product effectiveness (PE) calculations for all the solutions tested showed that the AZA solution at 10,000ppm (N10) was the most effective. However, statistical analy...
Poaching of wildlife animals for subsistence and commercial purposes has lead to population declines in Africa. In forensic cases, a need exists to identify the species of origin of carcasses, meat or blood. In the study presented here, the mitochondrial COI gene was sequenced to determine the species of unknown samples in three suspect South African forensic wildlife cases. In two cases the unknown samples were identified as originating from domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and in the third case the sample was identified as common reedbuck (Redunca arundinum). This is the first report of the COI sequence of common reedbuck. The study highlights the need for accurate wildlife reference material from each country in order to convict wildlife cases.
Brucella melitensis is a Gram-negative coccobacillus bacteria belonging to the Alphaproteobacteria subclass. It is an important zoonotic pathogen that causes brucellosis, a disease affecting sheep, cattle, and sometimes humans. The B. melitensis strain M5-90, a live attenuated vaccine cultured from the B. melitensis virulent strain M28, has been an effective tool to control brucellosis in goats and sheep in China. Here we report the complete genome sequences of B. melitensis M28 and M5-90, strains with different virulence backgrounds, which will serve as a valuable reference for future studies. PMID:21478357
We show that the HACCP system is not fully applicable at the primary production level, and that food safety is obtained through the careful implementation of good hygiene practice (GHP) at the farm. Guides to GHP intended at primary productions cover one activity, such as cattle rearing or corn production. Yet most farms have more than one activity. Hazards from one activity can be transferred to another activity, and in general this is not considered in one-activity guides. There is a need therefore for farmers to be able to detect and control such transfers. We suggest a horizontal complement to the Guides to GHP that would consider only the application of the Step 6 and Principle 1 of the HACCP system amended as follows: ''List all potential hazards transferred from one activity to anot...
Most prior climate change assessments for U.S. agriculture have focused on major world food crops such as wheat and maize. While useful from a national and global perspective, these results are not particularly relevant to the Northeastern U.S. agriculture economy, which is dominated by dairy milk production, and high-value horticultural crops such as apples (Malus domestica), grapes (vitis vinifera), sweet corn (Zea mays var. rugosa), cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata), and maple syrup (sugar maple, Acer saccharum). We used statistically downscaled climate projections generated by the HadCM3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model, run with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change future emissions scenarios Alfi (higher) and B1 (lower), to evaluate several climate thresholds of direct relevance to agriculture in the region. A longer (frostfree) growing season could create new opportunities for farmers with enough capital to take risks on new crops ...
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the toxicological effects of feeding the oils of Calophyllum inophyllum, Pentaclethra macrophylla and Terminalia catappa to rats. The effects on physical appearance, feed intake, weight gain, plasma and tissue cholesterol and triacyglycerol levels in rats with 5% of the oils in normal rat feed were determined. Weekly monitoring of the rats showed good physical appearance and steady weight gain, with no mortality recorded for the period of the study. Haematological analysis of the rats indicated that they were not anaemic. Histopathotogical examination of the sections of the heart, liver, kidney and spleen revealed moderate (T. catappa oil) to severe fatty change and necrosis in the liver. Glomerulonephrotic changes in the kidneys of rats fed with T...
Energy International is developing a technology that will create a staged formulation with the first coal form (Mulled Coal) that can be stored, transported, and pumped. Just prior to combustion, the Mulled Coal (MC) would be modified to provide the properties needed for proper atomization. This concept is an alternative to the expensive and energy intensive thermal drying processing of fine coal wet cakes. The material is suitable for both direct feed use in conventional and fluid bed combustors as well as on-site conversion to combustible slurries. By maintaining the coal form relatively close to the feed wet cake, only minor processing with low additive levels and low energy blending needed at the point of production. Its conversion to slurry or other use-feed form is made near the time of use and thus the requirements for stability, climatic control, and other storage, transport, and handling requirements are much less ...
Object: To suppress a quantity of impurities in a coolant fed into a reactor vessel. Structure: The concentration of oxygen in a coolant flowing from a condensation desalting instrument into a feed and condensation piping is measured by an oxygen-concentration detector to feed its signal to an adjusting instrument. A degree of opening of an oxygen flow control valve to maintain the concentration of oxygen in the cooling water flowing within the pipe in the range from about 10 to about 200 ppb. Also, the concentration of oxygen in the cooling water fed to the desalting instrument is maintained at a level less than 2 ppb. Thereby, the total amount of iron flown into the vessel can be suppressed to a fine amount such as less than about 1 ppb. (Kawakami, Y.).
Abstract Within the framework of the CRC 799 -TRIP-Matrix-Composites- at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg new composite materials consisting of TRIP steel and zirconium dioxide ceramics are designed in a powder route and a casting route. To manufacture faultless samples basic investigations of the feeding and infiltration behaviour within macro porous ceramics such as filters were needed. The effects of bottom pouring and top pouring were investigated as well as the effects of different preheating temperatures, contents of phosphorous in the steel and flow trough rates. Bottom pouring corrupts the feeding mainly of filters with high ppi (pores per inch). Top pouring improves the feeding, but generates inhomogeneous infiltration qualities, which can affected and enhanced by a increasing preheat...
Purpose: To stably control the reactor water level so as not to cause excess water feeding in a BWR type reactor. Constitution: A flow control valve is disposed to the exit of a feedwater pump for a nuclear reactor and the valve is controlled by a flow regulator to maintain the water level constant in the reactor. A signal from a water level controller is inputted to the flow regulator to thereby control the flow rate control valve. In this case, the flow regulator remains in a saturated state just after the starting of the feedwater pump, in which the pump flowrate is at 100% to result in an excess water feeding condition. In view of the above, a feedback circuit is provided to the flow regulator so that the saturated state is eliminated and the water feeding can be controlled directly from the water level controller. (Kamimura, M.).
During a regular inspection of the Boiler Auxiliaries at one of the Dutch Electricity Production Companies serious cracks were found in the cover and casings of the feed water circulation pumps in two units after 108.000 and 122.000 hours of boiler operation. Kema Laboratories carried out Failure analyses on boat samples at the cracked areas. Corrosion fatigue cracking was found on the inner side of the GS-24CrNiMo325 casing. Shop Weld repairs were carried out using a newly developed mechanized Plasma Welding Technique. The repaired feed water circulation pumps showed no problems alter several years of operation. The costs of repair were substantially lower than the costs of replacement. (orig.) 3 refs.
White seabream (Diplodus sargus) is today recognized as a potential species for Mediterranean aquaculture. Still, scarce information exists on weaning practices in order to reduce the live food period. This study aims to evaluate the effect of an early weaning on fish larvae digestive enzymes activities. In order to accomplish this, larvae were weaned with an inert diet at 20days after hatching (DAH) (feeding regime W20) and a control group was weaned at 27DAH (feeding regime W27). Before weaning, the onset and development of the main digestive enzymes were studied. The pattern of variation of digestive enzymes activities were analyzed at 0, 2, 9, 13 and 20DAH, and from then on at 0, 1 and 3weeks after diet introduction; that is, at 20, 27 and 41days for feeding regime W20, and days 27, 34...
Excessive physical activity plays an important role in the progression of anorexia nervosa (AN) by accelerating weight loss during dietary restriction. To search for mechanisms underlying this trait, a panel of mouse chromosome substitution strains derived from C57BL/6J and A/J strains was exposed to a scheduled feeding paradigm and to voluntary running wheel (RW) access. Here, we showed that A/J chromosomes 4, 12 and 13 contribute to the development of a disrupted RW activity in response to daily restricted feeding. This pattern is characterized by intense RW activity during the habitual rest phase and leads to accelerated body weight loss. Regions on mouse chromosomes 4, 12 and 13 display homology with regions on human chromosomes linked with anxiety and obsessionality in AN cohorts. The...
Commercial feed rations containing sulfamethazine at the level of 110 ppm were fed for a period of 65 days to market pigs in a study simulating normal farm practices. The levels of sulfamethazine at...Full Text Available
Upgrading of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), which is a main by-product of palm oil industry, to animal feeds by radiation pasteurization and fermentation was investigated for recycling the agro-resources and reducing the environmental pollution. The following results were obtained: 1) The necessary dose for pasteurization of EFB contaminated by various microorganisms including aflatoxin producing fungi was determined as 10 kGy. The chemical and biological properties of EFB were changed little by irradiation up to 50 kGy. 2) In the fermentation process, Pleurotus sajor-caju was selected as the most effective fungi and the optimum condition for fermentation was clarified. The process of fermentation in suspension was also established for the liquid seed preparation. 3) The digestibility and nutritional value of fermented products were evaluated as ruminant animal feeds and the mushroom can be produced as by-product. 4) The pilot plant named ...
Although deep-sea cephalopods are key marine organims, their feeding ecology remains essentially unknown. Here, we report for the first time the trophic structure of an assemblage of these animals (19...Full Text Available
BackgroundPercutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) allows long-term tube feeding. Safety of pull-type and introducer PEG placement in oncology patients with head/neck or oesophageal...Full Text Available
OBJECTIVE--The survey aimed at studying the associations between prevalent respiratory symptoms in an occupational population and sickness absence due to respiratory disorders. METHODS--A cross sectional...Full Text Available
The effects of homologous plasma HDL and VHDL fractions on established atherosclerotic lesions were studied in cholesterol-fed rabbits. Atherosclerosis was induced by feeding the animals a 0.5% cholesterol-rich...Full Text Available
Some pathological conditions with feeding pattern alterations, including obesity and Huntington disease (HD) are associated with hypothalamic dysfunction and neuronal cell death. Additionally, the hypothalamus...Full Text Available
BackgroundNeuropeptide Y is a key neurotransmitter of the central nervous system which plays a vital role in the feed energy homeostasis in mammals. Mutations in the regulatory and...Full Text Available
An extruder used by kneading stearic acid (St acid) into it for the production of polystyrene for injection molding was studied. Most disadvantageous of kneading methods, melt-feed method, was applied because this method enables the utilization of existing facilities. St acid is discolored when the temperature surpasses 270{sup 0}C in nitrogen atmosphere, and the contact with metals intensifies the discoloring. The discoloring is more intensified by the contact with nitriding steel than with stainless steel. Residence time is 85 seconds, and even the contact with nitriding steel does not discolor ST acid when the temperature is lower than 270{sup 0}C. In the melt-feed method, when the die is in a bad shape, it brings about dead space at the tip of the die and St acid holds up there. When the kneading is in bad condition (St acid and polymer are hard to mix because their viscosities are quite different), St acid gathers between the barrel wall ...
Sauropod dinosaurs, the dominant herbivores throughout the Jurassic, challenge general rules of large vertebrate herbivory. With body weights surpassing those of any other megaherbivore, they relied...Full Text Available
Mass mortalities among seals and dolphins inhabiting contaminated marine regions have led to speculation about a possible involvement of immunosuppression associated with environmental pollution. To...Full Text Available
Chrysomelid leaf beetles use chemical defenses to overcome predatory attack and microbial infestation. Larvae of Chrysomela lapponica that feed on willow sequester plant-derived salicin...Full Text Available
Fermented oil palm empty fruit bunch, now known as 'Sterifeed' has been characterized by physico-chemical properties. It has also been proven to have an improved digestibility (by in vitro and in-vivo test) over the original material. The remaining important aspect of feed to be examined is the long term effect of feeding this material to animals. The size of fermentation media bags used was 0.5 - 1 kg/bag. In the large scale production of these materials, the numbers of bags were increased. The production at pilot scale level reinvestigated the basic processing parameters for the 1 kg/bag media and also performed a trial run for different sizes of bags. These include: 1) investigation on the growth of fungi on fermentation media subjected to different treatment times and the non treated media, 2) evaluation of the processing rate, 3) trial run processing of 25-50 MT oil palm EFB into feed, and 4) processing of different ...
The following manual chapters are outlined and described: overview, boilers, juice evaporators, feed mills, refrigeration, additional energy savings potentials, emerging technologies, optimization of integrated plant energy systems, and economics. (MHR)
Little change was observed in primates fed 75 mg/kg adenine over the four-week period. Minimal tissue pathology was encountered upon completion of the study. In contrast to earlier studies in which oral feeding of adenine to dogs caused severe symptoms, a...
Rumen-cannulated cows (n = 4) were fed successively silage made from either conventional or genetically modified (GM) maize. Results revealed no effects of GM maize on the dynamics...Full Text Available
In virtually all organisms, life expectancy is profoundly affected by caloric intake. For example, dietary restriction (DR; a feeding regimen of fewer calories compared to the ad libitum level without...Full Text Available
The plant-parasitic nematode Heterodera schachtii stimulates plant root cells to form syncytial feeding structures which synthesize all nutrients required for successful nematode development....Full Text Available
A closed loop control process assures that a system performs within control limits. In closed loop control, the system's output feeds back directly to change the system's inputs. We describe an approach...Full Text Available
1. The effect on rat liver peroxisomal beta-oxidation of feeding diets containing various amounts of dietary oils was investigated. With increasing amounts (5-25%, w/w) of soya-bean oil an apparent,...Full Text Available
BackgroundComplementary feeding is currently recommended after six months of age, when the nutrients in breast milk alone are no longer adequate to support growth. Few studies have...Full Text Available
Studies on alcoholic liver injury mechanisms show a significant inhibition of the proteasome activity. To investigate this phenomenon, we isolated proteasome complexes from the liver of rats...Full Text Available
To assess the effects of increasing the mineral content of parenteral nutrition solutions on the biochemical and radiological indicators of metabolic bone disease of prematurity 27 neonates who required...Full Text Available
BackgroundBreast-feeding may affect the risk of developing allergy during childhood and may also cause exposure to immunotoxicants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe MYC transcription factors are known to be involved in the biology of many human cancer types. But little is known about the Myc/microRNAs cooperation in the regulation...Full Text Available
The effects on reproductive functions of feeding adult rhesus monkeys on a diet of irradiated wheat flour and potato was investigated. Wheat flour and potatoes were exposed to 75 000 and 10 000 rad, respectively, of #gamma#-irradiation and then fed to the animals. Various parameters of reproductive function were compared with those of animals fed on unirradiated food. These were: external changes in the reproductive organs, menstrual cycle, vaginal cytology, assay of urinary hormones (oestrogens and pregnanediol), and post-mortem histopathological examination of the reproductive organs. At the end of 3 months, the experimental and control animals behaved similarly with regard to their reproductive functions. (author).
A membrane process utilizing dialysis and selective complexation by water-soluble polymers has been developed. This process, termed affinity dialysis, has been shown to be selectively extract and concentrate both cations and anions in a manner similar to ion exchange or solvent extraction. The selective removal of calcium from sodium with selectivity of about 30, removal of chromate ion from dilute streams, and separation of transition metal ions such as Cu/Fe and Cu/Zn have all been successfully demonstrated. Effects of different polymers, polymer concentration, temperature, and flow rates have been studied. The effect of increased polymer concentration is to increase product concentration if appropriate changes in feed, polymer solution, and strip flow rates are made. A continuous polymer solution recycle and regeneration system has been constructed and operated with Cu/Zn and chromate/chloride feed streams. Removal of over 95% of the desired ...
Biogas, produced from anaerobic digestion of organic matter in domestic, industrial and rural wastewaters and residuals, represent an alternative and renewable source of energy, with growing use worldwide. In Brazil, high population and its spatial concentration and expressive agricultural and agricultural-industrial production indicate a substantial potential of biogas production. The results presented in this work show a potential of biogas production of almost 2 billion cubic feet a day of CH{sub 4}. Viability of biogas production and use depends substantially on project scale. Generally, biogas projects are viable from landfills and domestic wastewater treatment for populations higher than 50,000 inhabitants and swine and dairy farms with at least 5,000 and 1,000 animals, respectively. Biogas is also competitive when compared to fossil fuels used in industry and transport. Despite incentive mechanisms for biogas production and use, like Clean Development ...
Reproductive parameters were monitored in 50 post-partum Bos indicus x Bos taurus animals located on four farms in two ecological zones of Panama. Progesterone (P_4) concentrations were measured in four of these animals twice a week and their reproductive organs palpated per rectum once a week until 60 days post-artificial-insemination or post-natural-service. The other 46 cows were palpated for early pregnancy between days 45 and 60 post-service. The mean P_4 concentration in cows with palpable corpora lutea (CL) was 10.3#+-#4.0 nmol/L; when no Cl were detected, the mean P_4 level was 2.2#+-#1.6 nmol/L. Of the 46 animals palpated for early pregnancy, 36 (70%) were found to be pregnant, one (2%) exhibited early embryonic death and one (2%) aborted; the other eight cows (17%) were anoestrous. The mean P_4 concentration in pregnant cows was 11.9#+-#4.0 nmol/L and the calving to conception interval was 148 days. (author). 13 refs, 7 figs, 4 tabs.
Resistance against anthelmintics is widespread, particularly in parasitic nematode populations of small ruminants. Several new techniques or supplements have been developed or are under investigation. Biological control (BC) is one of these new methods. The net-trapping predacious fungus Duddingtonia flagrans produces thick walled resting spores, chlamydospores, which are able to survive passage through the gastrointestinal tract of cattle, horses, sheep and pigs. Under Danish climatic conditions it has been shown that the number of parasite larvae on pasture and the worm burden of the grazing animals is significantly reduced when animals are fed spores during the initial 2-3 months of the grazing season. Work with D. flagrans in France, Australia, USA, and Mexico has confirmed the strong BC potential of this fungus. Today much work is going into development of suitable delivery systems for grazing livestock worldwide. Ultimately, BC should be implemented in ...
The lakes formed in the Amazon floodplain play a key role in sustaining the highest populational density in the Amazon Basin because of its high primary productivity. The water volume in these lakes vary greatly during the year and possible water sources are the feeding river during high water state of the hydrographs and local inputs from its drainage basin. As these sources are chemically distinct, to understand the nutrient dynamics in these lakes, it is very important to know the relative water contribution of different water sources. In this paper we use "1"8O as a conservative to know the water sources for the lakes and our hypothesis is that: 1) In the high water stage lake water is derived predominantly from its feeding river. Therefore their #delta#"1"8O should be similar. 2) In the low water stage lake water is a mixture of watershed and last flood event waters. In this case, lake #delta#"1"8O should be indicative of the relative ...
CoTreat, a new inorganic ion exchange media, has been studied in the laboratory to support its application as a pre- coat to existing Funda filters in THORP feed pond plant (Sellafield, UK). This is a novel way of application of CoTreat, which is usually utilized in fixed-bed ion exchange columns in a granular form. The results present the effect of operating conditions (CoTreat dose, pond water chemistry) on CoTreat performance for the removal of Co-57 tracer from simulated pond water. Major findings include the strong dependence of Co-57 decontamination factor (DF) on feed activity. At the 200 Bq/L feed level, the observed DF was 10-20 but rose to 1000 and above when the feed level was increased to 20000 Bq/L. Calcium present in the feed was found to decrease the DF at concentrations higher than 1 ppm. The laboratory studies showed significantly higher DF's than what has ...
Formaldehyde oxidation was examined in a laboratory reactor over alumina-supported Pt, Pd, Rh, Ag, Cu-Cr, and Pd-Ag catalysts as part of a program to develop catalysts for lean-exhaust methanol-fueled vehicles. In general, the H/sub 2/CO oxidation behavior of the catalysts paralleled the CH/sub 3/OH oxidation behavior reported in Parts 1 and 2 of this series (Appl. Catal. 27(1986) 83; J. Catal. 103(1987) 419). Principal similarities were: high activity of Pt when there was no carbon monoxide (CO) in the feed, but strong inhibition by added CO; lower activity of Ag and Cu-Cr catalysts, but only weak inhibition due to added CO; enhanced activity of the Pd-Ag catalyst compared to Pd and Ag alone for feeds containing CO in addition to H/sub 2/CO; and, relatively poor activity of the Rh catalyst. The most unusual behavior was observed with the Pd catalyst, which showed local minima in the H/sub 2/CO conversion vs. temperature profiles. These saddles ...
Recent investigations have identified elevated concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (dioxins) in marine sediments and wildlife of Queensland, Australia. While it has been demonstrated that the contamination is widespread and predominantly land-based, limited information exists on the pathways and fate of these compounds within the near-shore marine system. This environment supports unique and threatened species including green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). Adult green turtles are predominantly herbivorous, feeding on seagrass and algae. Apart from initial migration to feeding grounds (at {proportional_to}10 years of age) and intermittent migrations to breeding grounds (at {proportional_to}30-50 years and thereafter), green turtles remain and feed within relatively small home ranges. Long life-span (50 years or more), near-shore feeding grounds and highly specialized food requirements ...
The simultaneous biosorption of Cr(VI) and Cu(II) on free Rhizopus arrhizus in a packed column operated in the continuous mode was investigated and compared to the single metal ion situation. The breakthrough curves were measured as a function of feed flow rate, feed pH, and different combinations of metal ion concentrations in the feed solutions. Column competitive biosorption data were evaluated in terms of the maximum (equilibrium) capacity in the column, the amount of metal loading on the R. arrhizus surface, the adsorption yield, and the total adsorption yield. In the single-ion situation the adsorption isotherms were developed for optimum conditions, and it was seen that the adsorption equilibrium data fit the noncompetitive Freundlich model. For the multicomponent adsorption equilibrium the competitive adsorption isotherms were also developed. The competitive Freundlich model for binary metal mixtures represented ...
Steam generators (SG) are the weak link of nuclear power plants, their service life is shorter than the service life of other NPP components. This paper is dedicated to a statistical analysis of SG damages and failures. Heat exchanging tubes (HET) are the most damaged elements in SG, there are on average 286 plugged or repaired tubes in each operating SG. The usually mechanisms of tube failure are the following: denting, corrosion at tube outside, pitting, fretting, and circular crack propagation. Most of damages are located in the transition zone above a tube plate. This study shows that the factors that are involved in the SG HET fault probability are: - design features of SG and secondary equipment elements (high pressure feed heaters (HPFH), low pressure feed heater (LPFH)), - water chemistry at different points of condensate feed pipe, composition and density of deposits on HET surface, efficiency of mechanical and ...
An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the use of local poultry by-product meal (PBM) in replacement of imported fishmeal in the diets of cobia, Rachycentron canadum. Six isolipidic (12%) and isoproteic (45%) experimental diets were formulated using PBM to replace fishmeal at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% dietary protein. Eleven juvenile cobia (initial mean weight of 30.7???0.78?g) were randomly stocked in 300-L circular fibreglass tanks and hand-fed based on the total biomass of each tank, twice a day at 0900?h and 1500?h. The fish were group weighed at 2-week intervals to monitor their growth performance in order to adjust the feeding ratio. At the end of the feeding trial, weight gains (WGs) ranging from 221 to 322% were obtained. The specific growth rate (SGR), WG and protein effi...
The effect of nutrition on reproductive performance was studied in a series of experiments using two models. Increased supply of nutrients was based on feeding lupin grain as a supplement and measurements of testicular growth or ovulation rates were used to measure reproductive characteristics. Purified sources of protein and energy were provided to determine the macronutrient(s), supplied with lupin feeding, responsible for initiating increases in testicular growth and ovulation rate. Increases in both of these parameters were closely related to the supply of additional energy but not protein. The production of acetate and glucose resulting from supplementary feeding with 750 g lupins/d was measured using infusions of "1"4C tracers. Subsequently, infusions of glucose and acetate (individually and in combination) were found to produce similar increases in ovulation rate to those measured in ewes receiving lupins. It was ...
A fuzzy-decision-making procedure is applied to find the optimal feed policy of a fed-batch fermentation process for fuel ethanol production using a genetically engineered Saccharomyces yeast 1400 (pLNH33). The policy consisted of feed flow rate, feed concentration, and fermentation time. The recombinant yeast 1400 (pLNH33) can utilize glucose and xylose simultaneously to produce ethanol. However, the parent yeast utilizes glucose only. A partially selective model is used to describe the kinetic behavior of the process. In this study, this partially selective fermentation process is formulated as a general multiple-objective optimal control problem. By using an assigned membership function for each of the objectives, the general multiple-objective optimization problem can be converted into a maximizing decision problem. In order to obtain a global solution, a hybrid method of differential evolution is introduced to solve ...
A schematic diagram shows the various processing steps to be performed during feed preparation in the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant (HWVP). The pretreated NCAW is transferred to the slurry receipt adjustment tank (SRAT) in the HWVP for concentration. Water removed during boildown is collected in the slurry mix evaporator condensate tank (SMECT). After waste treatment the water is returned to the storage tanks for eventual disposal. The pretreated Neutralized Current Acid Waste (NCAW) is concentrated in the SRAT to approximately 125 g waste oxides/ liter. Formic acid is then added at a controlled rate to improve rheological properties and achieve a required reduction/oxidation state. Reflux boiling is initiated and continued for several hours. The concentrated slurry is cooled and pumped to the slurry mix evaporator (SME). In the SME, glass frit is added, and the slurry is further concentrated to achieve a nominal composition of 500 g total oxides/liter. This ...
Methods were studied for using sugar as a feed additive for converting the sodium-bearing wastes stored at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant into granular, free flowing solids by fluidized-bed calcination at 500{degrees}C. All methods studied blended sodium-bearing wastes with Fluorinel wastes but differed in the types of sugar (sucrose or dextrose) that were added to the blend. The most promising sugar additive was determined to be sucrose, since it is converted more completely to inorganic carbon than is dextrose. The effect of the feed aluminum-to-alkali metal mole ratio on calcination of these blends with sugar was also investigated. Increasing the aluminum-to-alkali metal ratio from 0.6 to 1.0 decreased the calcine product-to-fines ratio from 3.0 to 1.0 and the attrition index from 80 to 15%. Further increasing the ratio to 1.25 had no effect.
The ability to feed on vertebrate blood has evolved many times in various arthropod clades. Each time this trait evolves, novel solutions to the problem posed by vertebrate hemostasis are generated. Consequently, saliva of blood-feeding arthropods has proven to be a rich source of antihemostatic molecules. Vasodilators include nitrophorins (nitric oxide storage and transport heme proteins), a variety of peptides that mimic endogenous vasodilatory neuropeptides, and proteins that catabolize or sequester endogenous vasoconstrictors. A variety of platelet aggregation inhibitors antagonize platelet responses to wound-generated signals, including ADP, thrombin, and collagen. Anticoagulants disrupt elements of both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. Molecular approaches (termed 'sialomics') to characterize the full inventory of mRNAs transcribed in salivary glands have revealed a surprising level of complexity within a single species. Multiple ...
A novel continuous laminar shear structuring crystallizer with a suitable cooling system was designed and built. This is a new method to continuously crystallize edible fat in the desirable polymorphic form from the melt while being uniformly sheared.The machine consists of four main sections: Feed unit, shearing mechanism, cooling system and power unit. In each of these sections specific design considerations are taken into account which makes the process controllable and continuous. The shearing unit is made of two concentric cylinders. The internal cylinder is stationary and has a cooling system inside for temperature control. The outer cylinder rotates to produce a uniform shear in the sample fluid placed in the 1.5mm gap between the cylinders. The sample's feed rate is controlled whil...
Francesco Colonnas Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (The Strife of Love in a Dream) of 1499 is a bizarre architectural-erotic fantasy whose imagery has often perplexed commentators. One particular banquet scene has defied scrutiny. This paper decodes the meal as a typical Renaissance banquet, as harmonious and balanced as any painting or edifice, yet offering an image of divine feeding. The flavors, ingredients and meal structure all reflect current culinary aesthetics as well as Neo-Platonic love theory, occult symbolism and humoral medicine. The banquet scene features foods and cooking methods which were popular in late 15th century Italy and yet includes exotic ingredients such as precious jewels and perfumes which were meant to denote divine feeding. For example, a confection served as a star...
Samples of two seawater farmed fish (crimson snapper (Lutjanus erythopterus) and snubnose pompano (Trachinotus blochii)), water, air, sediment, fish feed, macroalgae and phytoplankton were collected from two estuarine bays (Daya Bay and Hailing Bay) in South China. The concentrations of persistent halogenated compounds (PHCs) including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) varied widely with the different sample matrices under investigation. The compositional patterns in fish, fish feed, macroalgae and phytoplankton, as well as the good correlations between the abundances of p,pprime-DDT and BDE-209 and their metabolites (i.e., p,pprime-DDD and p,pprime-DDE for p,pprime-DDT and BDE-47 for BDE-209) in fish indicated the occurr...
The prevailing severe shortage of animal feed in most of the developing countries could, to a considerable extent, be overcome through improved range management, which includes introduction of high yielding drought-resistant forage crops, development of adequate water conservation measures, and as far as possible growing annual forage crops on part of the vast areas of arable land currently left fallow each year. Year round measurements are essential for a good understanding of soil water and nutrients dynamics, which allow for adequate evaluation of pasture management alternatives. The methods most commonly used for moisture measurements in soil profiles are discussed because such measurements are likely to form an essential part of any investigation aimed at increasing animal feed production through the development of adequate pasture management practices. (author).
A process and apparatus for the production of coke, asphalt and jet fuel m a feed of fossil fuels containing volatile carbon compounds therein is disclosed. The process includes the steps of pyrolyzing the feed in an entrained bed pyrolyzing means, separating the volatile pyrolysis products from the solid pyrolysis products removing at least one coke from the solid pyrolysis products, fractionating the volatile pyrolysis products to produce an overhead stream and a bottom stream which is useful as asphalt for road pavement, condensing the overhead stream to produce a condensed liquid fraction and a noncondensable, gaseous fraction, and removing water from the condensed liquid fraction to produce a jet fuel-containing product. The disclosed apparatus is useful for practicing the foregoing process. the process provides a useful method of mass producing and jet fuels from materials such as coal, oil shale and tar sands.
Imatran Voima Oy , (IVO) operates two Russian designed nuclear power plants of type VVER440/213. Unit 1 has been operating since 1977 and unit 2 since 1981. First damage of feed water distribution (FWD) pipes was observed in 1989. In closer examinations FWD-pipe T-connection and distribution nozzles suffered from severe erosion corrosion damage. Similar damages have been found also in other VVER-440 type NPPs. In 1994 the first FWD-pipe was replaced by a new design mounted over the tube bundle instead of the old FWD-pipe, which was located inside the tube bundle. The purpose of this paper is to describe the new FWD-pipe and discuss its effects on the steam generator chemistry. (author)
Aims and objectives.- To investigate infant well-being as measured by feeding and sleeping and parental support following discharge from the NICU in infants following major cardiac surgery. Background.- Infant feeding and sleeping have been identified as two of the most important concerns reported by parents. These concerns have been reported anecdotally for infants who have undergone cardiac surgery in the neonatal period. Design.- A prospective study using questionnaires and phone interviews followed a cohort of parents of neonates who underwent surgery in the neonatal period for congenital heart disease. Methods.- The study was conducted using validated questionnaires and phone interviews with a semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaires were administered prior to discharge from ...
Mesopelagic zooplankton may meet their nutritional and metabolic requirements in a number of ways including consumption of sinking particles, carnivory, and vertical migration. How these feeding modes change with depth or location, however, is poorly known. We analyzed fatty acid (FA) profiles to characterize zooplankton diet and large particle (>51?m) composition in the mesopelagic zone (base of euphotic zone ?1000m) at two contrasting time-series sites in the subarctic (station K2) and subtropical (station ALOHA) Pacific Ocean. Total FA concentration was 15.5 times higher in zooplankton tissue at K2, largely due to FA storage by seasonal vertical migrators such as Neocalanus and Eucalanus. FA biomarkers specific to herbivory implied a higher plant-derived food sou...
The growth response, total hemocyte count (THC), respiratory burst (release of superoxide anion), phenoloxidase (PO) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity as well as resistance to the pathogen Vibrio alginolyticus were measured in Litopenaeus vannamei, which had been fed diets supplemented with glycyrrhizin (the aqueous extract of licorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra, roots) at 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 mg/kg of feed for 8 wk. In the feeding trial, there was no significant difference in survival rate (P > 0.05). Significant higher specific growth rate was observed in treatments with dietary glycyrrhizin than that in the control group (P < 0.05). Shrimp fed a diet with 200 mg/kg of glycyrrhizin had significant higher THC, PO activity, respiratory burst a...
TAPP-3 and 4 reactors use large number of Self Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) for Neutronic lower measurement and control. To perform in-situ calibration of these detectors in select locations and to validate the reactor physics codes which predict flux at various points in the core, traveling in-core probes (TIP) are required. The TIP assembly consists of a miniature neutron sensitive detector. The detector is driven in and out of core using a mechanism which facilitates positioning of the detector anywhere inside a vertical tube (Central carrier tube of any of the six select Vertical Flux Units) in the core. TIP is driven through retractable feed mechanism for a stroke of 13 m. This paper describes the developmental efforts and the operational feedback of the retractable feed mechanism for the stroke of 13 m used at TAPP 3 and 4 reactor. (author)
This report describes experiments to determine whether a wiped film evaporator (WFE) might be used to concentrate low-level liquid radioactive waste (LLLW). Solutions used in these studies were surrogates that contain no radionuclides. The compositions of the surrogates were based on one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory`s (ORNL`s) Melton Valley Storage Tanks (MVSTs). It was found that a WFE could be used to concentrate LLLW to varying degrees by manipulating various parameters. The parameters studied were rotor speed, process fluid feed temperature and feed rate, and evaporator temperature. Product consistency varied from an unsaturated liquid to a dry powder. Volume reductions up to 68% were achieved. System decontamination factors were consistently in the range of 10{sup 4}.
The lower condition factors for two catfish species in water heated by effluents from APCo's Glen Lyn, Virginia plant as compared to control areas probably is not due to lack of food as evidenced by macroinvertebrate sampling and the fact that only 4.3 percent of the catfish stomachs were empty. Results suggested that young-of-the-year channel catfish were nonselectively eating food organisms present at both control and heated stations. The difference between stomach contents of flatheat catfish from the heated site and fauna available at that site indicated that fish were either moving out of the heated area to feed or were selectively feeding on organisms (particularly mayflies) which were in the substrate or drifted into the heated area. Stomach contents of the two species and distribution and abundance of the macroinvertebrate benthos community are detailed.
In organic livestock production systems, farm-management factors are thought to play an important role in the on-farm prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii. Serological results and the results of an HACCP analysis were combined to determine important risk factors for the prevalence of this protozoan parasite. Mathematical analysis demonstrated that feeding goat whey to pigs and the presence of a high number of cats were positively correlated to T. gondii seroprevalence in pigs. Not covering roughage and the farmers' assumption that pigs can come into contact with cat feces also showed a positive relationship. In order to decrease the risk of T. gondii infecting their pigs, farmers should limit the access and number of cats on their farms and refrain from feeding goat whey to their pigs. PMID:16989566
A multivariate bioprocess control approach, capable of tracking a pre-set process trajectory correlated to the biomass or product concentration in the bioprocess is described. The trajectory was either a latent variable derived from multivariate statistical process monitoring (MSPC) based on partial least squares (PLS) modeling, or the absolute value of the process variable. In the control algorithm the substrate feed pump rate was calculated from on-line analyzer data. The only parameters needed were the substrate feed concentration and the substrate yield of the growth-limiting substrate. On-line near-infrared spectroscopy data were used to demonstrate the performance of the control algorithm on an Escherichia coli fed-batch cultivation for tryptophan production. The controller showed good ability to track a defined biomass trajectory during varying process dynamics. The robustness of the control was high, despite significant external ...
The high pressure discharges (pulsed or D C corona, barrier, gliding and the others), have been studied both experimentally and theoretically as sources of low temperature plasma for pollution control technologies. The potential of electrical discharge methods has been demonstrated for the decomposition of many types of VOC. The air or oxygen are used as a feed gas in which pollutant is diluted. The ozone production in air or oxygen in such discharges is also discussed
DescriptionIn young pigs the post-weaning period is generally characterised by a marked reduction in voluntary feed intake, poor growth and development, and diarrhoea. The associated reduction in digestive and absorptive capacity of the gastrointestinal tract decreases the overall efficiency of nutrient capture and utilisation, thereby causing an increase in nutrient loading to the environment. The reduction in digestive and absorptive efficiency after weaning has implications for lifetime performance be [continued...
Use of treated effluent and duckweed biomass from a pilot-scale UASB-duckweed ponds system treating domestic sewage was evaluated in rearing Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Nutritional value of duckweed as sole feed was compared with wheat bran. Two sources of water were used for each feed trial, treated-sewage and freshwater. The experiment was conducted in parallel with a conventional settled sewage-fed fishpond. Results of growth performance demonstrated that, in case of freshwater ponds specific growth rate (SGR) of tilapia fed on fresh duckweed was significantly (p < 0.01) higher than the SGR in wheat bran fed pond. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed between the two feeding regimes in treated sewage fed ponds. The SGR of tilapia reared in the treated sewage-wheat bran-fed pond (TWP) was significant higher (p <0.01) than the SGR in the freshwater-wheat bran-fed pond (FWP). On the other ...
This paper describes a research and development project to quantify the effects of cleaning the coal feed on the yield patterns and processing rates for the Liquid Solvent Extraction (LSE) direct coal liquefaction process and to obtain information on the effect of the co-refining of coal-derived and petroleum distillates to premium transport fuels. 6 refs., 25 figs., 40 tabs.
This report discusses Test Campaign TC07 of the Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. (KBR) Transport Reactor train with a Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (Siemens Westinghouse) particle filter system at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) located in Wilsonville, Alabama. The Transport Reactor is an advanced circulating fluidized-bed reactor designed to operate as either a combustor or a gasifier using a particulate control device (PCD). The Transport Reactor was operated as a pressurized gasifier during TC07. Prior to TC07, the Transport Reactor was modified to allow operations as an oxygen-blown gasifier. Test Run TC07 was started on December 11, 2001, and the sand circulation tests (TC07A) were completed on December 14, 2001. The coal-feed tests (TC07B-D) were started on January 17, 2002 and completed on April 5, 2002. Due to operational difficulties with the reactor, the unit was taken offline several times. The reactor temperature was varied between ...
In this paper we propose a method for construction of feed-forward neural classifiers based on regularization and adaptive architectures. Using a penalized maximum likelihood scheme, we derive a modified form of the entropic error measure and an algebraic estimate of the test error. In conjunction with optimal brain damage pruning, a test error estimate is used to select the network architecture. The scheme is evaluated on four classification problems. PMID:12662736
The objective of this project is the development of a new class of metalloporphyrin materials used as catalsyts for use in fuel cell applications. The metalloporphyrins are excellent candidates for use as catalysts at both the anode and cathode. The catalysts reduce oxygen in 1 M potassium hydroxide, as well as in 2 M sulfuric acid. Covalent attachment to carbon supports is being investigated. The computer-aided molecular design is an iterative process, in which experimental results feed back into the design of future catalysts.
Most of the Turkish lignites have undesired fuel properties and they are extremely polluting. In this study, Sweet Sorghum was chosen as the energy plant. Combustion experiments of lignite and lignite-Sweet Sorghum mixtures were carried out in a fluidised bed system. The fuel-feeding ratio was set such that the thermal output of the system remained constant. Addition of Sweet Sorghum to the lignite reduces the pollutant concentration. The results were supported by experimental results.
Immune challenge induces behavioral changes including reduced ingestion of palatable food. Multiple pathways likely contribute to this effect, including viscerosensory pathways controlling hypothalamic...Full Text Available
This paper presents general considerations concerning the application of artificial neural networks algorithms, more specifically the back-propagation learning algorithm and feed-forward multi-layer networks, to several problems in power system. The main application in power systems is the load forecasting, and two solution methods are used to solve it. (author). 45 figs., 32 tabs., 144 refs.
...org/ (1 vote) defends the native forest ecosystems and communities of the Southeast United States which are threatened by industrial scale clearcutting to feed chip mills Added: Jan. 20, 2001 | Rate It Don't Buy SFI http://www.dontbuysfi.com/home/ (2 votes) campaign to show the \\
A fluidic pump comprises a two-diode pump having a first displacement vessel, a third diode connected to receive output from the two-diode pump through a delivery line and discharge to an outlet, and a second displacement vessel connected to the delivery line. There is a feed tank at a greater height than the two-diode pump, and a drive unit for alternately pressurising and venting the first and second displacement vessels. The drive pressure required to operate the pump can be of the order of half that for a single stage 2-diode pump. (author).
Whooper swans habitat in the coastal regions of Denmark can be affected by wind turbine arrays on the coast. The planned array consists of 55 wind turbines very close to the swan breeding area. A possibility of moving the swans away from the windmill area would be to spread the preferred swan feeds (rape, potatoes) outside their present breeding ground. (EG) 14 refs.
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the circadian rhythms of cortisol, thyroxine (T/sub 4/) and triiodothyronine (T/sub 3/) in pigs under two temperature and feeding regimes. Twenty-eight barrows were randomly assigned to one of the following: 1) ad-libitum fed at 5/sup 0/C(AL-5); 2) ad-libitum fed at 20/sup 0/C(AL-20); 3) meal fed at 5/sup 0/C(M-5); and 4) meal fed at 20/sup 0/C(M-20). M-5 and M-20 animals were fed at 0730 and 1400 hrs. Lights were on from 0600 to 2000 hrs. After 5 wks, blood samples were collected for 27 hrs. Serum cortisol, T/sub 4/ and T/sub 3/ concentrations were determined by RIA. No significant differences were found in the mesors, amplitudes or acrophases for cortisol. The mesors for T/sub 4/ (p<.01) were 60.6 +/- 5.6, 40.2 +/- 5.6, 61.2 +/- 5.6 and 49.1 +/- 5.0 ng/ml for AL-5, AL-20, M-5, and M-20, respectively. The mesors for T/sub 3/ (p<.01) were .85 +/- .06, .69 +/- .06, .92 +/- .06 and .66 +/- .05 ng/ml for AL-5, AL-20, M-5, ...
Since April 2010, a severe outbreak of duck viral infection, with egg drop, feed uptake decline and ovary-oviduct disease, has spread around the major duck-producing regions in China. A new virus, named...Full Text Available
Little is known about how diet and energy metabolism interact in determination of lifespan under ad libitum feeding. From 12 weeks of age until death, male and female wild-type (WT) and transgenic (TG)...Full Text Available
A prototype of a muffin-tin accelerating structure operating at 32 times the SLAC frequency (2.856 GHz) was built for research in high gradient acceleration. A traveling-wave design with single input and output feeds was chosen for the prototype which was fabricated by wire electrodischarge machining. Features of the mechanical design for the prototype are described. Design improvements are presented including considerations of cooling and vacuum.
The scope of the present study was upgrading a set of heavy aromatic hydrocarbons mixtures whose commercial value ranks close to fuel oil and should become even lower in the next future because of the introduction of more stringent regulations on fuels, through hydro-conversion to a synthetic feed for steam-cracking. The resulting process provides an opportunity to improve the economic return of a steamcracking plant, offering the chance of converting low-value mixtures produced by the plant itself, such as fuel oil of cracking (FOK), saving an equivalent amount of naphtha. The method can also be used for converting pyrolysis gasoline (pygas). Although pygas has at present a fair commercial value, it could suffer a significant penalization in the future due to further limitations on total aromatic content in gasoline. Pygas hydro-conversion to a synthetic steam-cracking feedstock has been recently reported. Fractions from refinery, such as heavy distillates (e.g. ...
Cesium ions (Cs"+) are used for the production of the feed ions necessary to obtain Fourier transform mass spectra (FTMS). The molecule chosen for the initial study of this Cs"+ desorption ionization (DI-FTMS) was vitamin B-12 because of its nonvolatile, thermally labile character. 21 references.
In order to evacuate the residual power in a nuclear reactor, a thermal valve system is presented for the modification of the heat exchange conditions at the pool exchanger level, which avoids the use of mechanical valves on the pipes. The system involves a vessel containing the exchanger, with openings at the upper end of the vessel and means for feeding the fluid at the lower end, and means for controlling the opening width.
DescriptionAt present, measurement of rumen pH for differnt diets and feeding regimes is only possible through direct sampling of the rumen fluid. Such invasive procedures are not practical at the farm level and they have ethical implications for research programmes. This approach also has limitations to its reliability due to spatial variations in acidity within the rumen. Mathematical modelling offers a non-invasive real-time alternative for monitoring rumen pH, and the purpose of the research propose [continued...
Total and net energies used harvesting 30-cm billets at 8 t/h were 1 and 0.3 kW x h/t, respectively. Harvested crop had 4% leaves, a 70% mass fraction of billets 30-40 cm long, and a 49/sup 0/ angle of repose. A self-unloading forage wagon with beaters and controls metered billets at 1.5 t/h to feed a juice-expression mill.
We developed prototype chemistry for nucleic acid hybridization on our bead-based diagnostics platform and we established an automatable bead handling protocol capable of 50 part-per-billion (ppb) sensitivity. We are working towards a platform capable of parallel, rapid (10 minute), raw sample testing for orthogonal (in this case nucleic acid and immunoassays) identification of biological (and other) threats in a single sensor microsystem. In this LDRD we developed the nucleic acid chemistry required for nucleic acid hybridization. Our goal is to place a non-cell associated RNA virus (Bovine Viral Diarrhea, BVD) on the beads for raw sample testing. This key pre-requisite to showing orthogonality (nucleic acid measurements can be performed in parallel with immunoassay measurements). Orthogonal detection dramatically reduces false positives. We chose BVD because our collaborators (UC-Davis) can supply samples from persistently infected animals; and because proof-of-concept field testing ...
Nitrogen metabolism and protozoa production rate using "1"4C-choline as marker were studied on 9 adult male crossbred (Tharparker x Brown Swiss) rumen fistulated animals divided into 3 groups (A, B and C). All the animals were fed concentrate mixture and wheatstraw. However, groundnut cake (GNC) in concentrate mixture was untreated in group A, 50 per cent formaldehyde treated in group B and 100 per cent formaldehyde treated in group C. Although, DM intake was similar in these groups but water intake was significantly (P<0.05) higher in control group. Total-N, ammonia-N and blood urea were significantly lower in group B and C as compared to group A. Apparent CP digestibility was not affected by addition of formaldehyde treated GNC at 50 and 100 per cent levels. However, N balances increased significantly (P<0.05) due to addition of protected protein in diet. Protozoal pool as well as production rate were significantly (P<0.01) decreased due to formaldehyde treatment of GNC ...
Digested sewage sludge was applied to pastures and tree plantations at 19 to 44 Mg/ha (dry weight) as part of a municipal sludge disposal program. The sludge had low concentrations of heavy metals and traces of /sup 137/Cs and /sup 60/Co. Monitoring of soils, soil solutions, and runoff indicated that N, P, heavy metals, and radionuclides were largely retained in the upper 15cm of the soil. Soil solutions had elevated NO/sub 3//sup /minus// concentrations often >100 mg/L, but no significant increases in groundwater NO/sub 3//sup /minus// were found during the first year. Runoff from active sites had elevated concentrations of NO/sub 3//sup /minus// (20--30 mg/L), soluble P (1 mg/L), BOD/sub 5/ (5--30 mg/L), and fecal coliform (up to 14,000 colonies per 100 ml), not unlike runoff from pastures with cattle. Enrichment of organic N (2 times), available (inorganic) N (5 to 10 times), and Bray-P in the upper soils persisted for several years following sludge ...
the medium to long freezing range alloys of aluminum such as A356, A357, A206, 319 for example are known to exhibit dispersed porosity, which is recognized as a factor affecting ductility, fracture toughness, and fatigue resistance of light alloy castings. The local thermal environment, for example, temperature gradient and freezing from velocity, affect the mode of solidification which, along with alloy composition, heat treatment, oxide film occlusion, hydrogen content, and the extent to which the alloy contracts on solidification, combine to exert strong effects on the porosity formation in such alloys. In addition to such factors, the availability of liquid metal and its ability to flow through the partially solidified casting, which will be affect by the pressure in the liquid metal, must also be considered. The supply of molten metal will thus be controlled by the volume of the riser available for feeding the particular casting location, its solidification ...
The performance of larger than bench scale ion exchange systems is evaluated by using solutions containing trace amounts of "1"3"7Cs, "8"5Kr, and "1"3"1I, and large amounts of either NaCl or Na_2HPO_4, H_3BO_3, and LiOH. The significant finding in this study is that the empirical rules of ionic selectivity of strong acid cation and strong base anion resins were followed by all ionic species, even though concentrations of some macrocomponents were nearly 10"6 times those of trace components. Other results of possible importance are the correlation between the instantaneous decontamination factor (DF) and the efficiency of column exchange capacity utilization, and the concept of time average decontamination factor (anti DF). The plot of anti DF vs. feed throughput will serve as a guide in determining when the feed should be discontinued in order to achieve a desired anti DF. Both of these correlations are derived from the breakthrough curves.
One of the most effective removing processes of iodine species is what is called ''Iodox Process'', which contains oxidation and absorption of iodine species by highly concentrated nitric acid. The result of fundamental test with bubble column in this process had been reported. Present paper describes the fundamental experiment by the use of packed column. This experiment has been carried out to clear the effect of feed gas flow rate, nitric acid flow rate, nitric acid concentration, and methyl iodide concentration on removal efficiency of methyl iodide. The following results were obtained. The decontamination factor of methyl iodide (DF) increases exponentially with nitric acid concentration, which agrees with the result obtained by using the bubble column. The factor is in inverse proportion to feed gas flow rate, and is also almost independent of nitric acid flow rate and methyl iodide concentration. The relation between the decontamination ...
A versatile, high brightness, volume type, low power RF source, capable of producing positive ion beams with intensities as high as 1 mA from gaseous feed materials and microamperes of negative ion beams has been characterized. The source can also be operated as a plasma sputter negative ion source to generate up to 1 mA of a selected species. The performance of the source in the positive and negative volume modes of operation can be greatly enhanced by addition of a removable, water cooled filament assembly in place of the negative sputter probe. For examine, the material utilization efficiencies of gaseous feed species can be more than doubled, total current intensities increased up to 40%, molecular dissociation fractions increased by 20% and minimum operating pressures reduced by a factor of four when operated in the volume mode. These added electrons also favorably effect, as a consequence of lower pressures, the emittance apparently ...
The oxidative dehydrodimerization of propylene to C/sub 3/-dimers (1,5-hexadiene and benzene) has been examined at 600/sup 0/C and atmospheric pressure using a (Bi/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 0.85/(La/sub 2/O/sub 3/)/sub 0.15/ oxide ion-conducting catalyst in a reactor where a catalyst disk separates a feed of propylene in helium from air. The surface of the disk exposed to propylene was reoxidized not by gaseous O/sub 2/, but by the dissociative adsorption and reduction of dioxygen at the oxidant side of the disk, followed by oxide ion conduction to replace spent lattice oxygen. Selectivity to C/sub 3/-dimers when using lattice oxide migration to reoxidize the catalyst was considerably greater than when O/sub 2/ was added to the propylene feed under the same reaction conditions. This result supports the proposal that lattice oxygen is predominantly involved in the selective oxidation of propylene to C/sub 3/-dimers, and demonstrates that Bi/sub ...
Macronutrient self-selection and responses to dietary protein dilution were investigated in Senegalese sole, a flatfish species of interest for Mediterranean aquaculture. Eight groups of six sole were distributed among 75-l tanks and allowed to feed on three experimental diets composed of pure macronutrients: PC (75% crude protein and 25% carbohydrate), PF (75% crude protein and 25% crude fat) and PFC (10% crude protein, 45% crude fat and 45% carbohydrate). Choosing from the above diets, the sole selected a diet containing 68.0% crude protein, 15.7% crude fat and 16.3% carbohydrate. When the PF diet was diluted 50% with cellulose, the fish increased their feed intake to sustain the energy intake (5.0?kJ/kg BW/day). Their selection of fat remained unchanged, while carbohydrate selection sig...
We describe a new concept for a MEMS-based active spatial filter for astronomical spectroscopy. The goal of this device is to allow the use of a diffraction-limited spectrometer on a seeing limited observation at improved throughput over a comparable seeing-limited spectrometer, thus reducing the size and cost of the spectrometer by a factor proportional to r0/D (For the case of a 10 meter telescope this size reduction will be approximately a factor of 25 to 50). We use a fiber-based integral field unit (IFU) that incorporates an active MEMS mirror array to feed an astronomical spectrograph. A fast camera is used in parallel to sense speckle images at a spatial resolution of lambda/D and at a temporal frequency greater than that of atmospheric fluctuations. The MEMS mirror-array is used as an active shutter to feed speckle images above a preset intensity threshold to the spectrometer, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the ...
Commercially available melter technologies were tested during 1994-95 as part of a multiphase program to test candidate technologies for vitrification of the low-level waste (LLW) stream to be derived from retrieval and pretreatment of Hanford Site tank wastes. Seven vendors were selected for Phase 1 testing to demonstrate vitrification of a high sodium content liquid LLW simulant. The tested melter technologies included four Joule-heated melters, a carbon electrode melter, a combustion melter, and a plasma melter. Various dry and slurry melter feed preparation processes were also tested. Various feed material samples, product glass samples, and process offgas streams were characterized to provide data for evaluation of process decontamination factors and material mass balances for each vitrification technology. This report describes the melter mass balance evaluations and results for six of the Phase 1 LLW melter vendor demonstration tests.
Steam generators of four VVER-440 units at nuclear power plants V-1 and V-2 in Jaslovske Bohunice (Slovakia) were gradually changed by new original 'Bohunice' design in period 1994-1998. Corrosion processes before and after these design and material changes in Bohunice secondary circuit were studied using Moessbauer spectroscopy during last 25 years. Innovations in the feed water pipeline design as well as material composition improvements were evaluated positively. Moessbauer spectroscopy studies of phase composition of corrosion products were performed on real specimens scrapped from water pipelines or in form of filter deposits. The corrosion of new feed water pipelines system (from austenitic steel) in combination to innovated operation regimes goes dominantly to magnetite. The hematite presence is mostly on the internal surface of steam generator body and its concentration increases towards the top of the body. In the results ...
Influence of residual K{sup +} on the preferential oxidation of CO in excess hydrogen (PROX) over CuO-CeO{sub 2} catalysts was investigated. CuO-CeO{sub 2} catalysts were characterized by BET, ICP, XRD, UV-Raman and TPR techniques. The results showed that the existence of residual K{sup +} made {alpha} peak in TPR of CuO-CeO{sub 2} catalysts shift to higher temperatures and depressed the PROX in the absence of CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O in the feed over CuO-CeO{sub 2} catalysts. However, small amount of residual K{sup +} was beneficial to the catalytic performance of CuO-CeO{sub 2} catalysts in the PROX in the presence of CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O in the feed. Consequently, residual K{sup +} with an appropriate content was beneficial to improve the catalytic performance of CuO-CeO{sub 2} catalysts in the presence of CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O. (author)
The application of foam in dealing with underground fire is well known due to its smothering action by cutting off air feed to burning fuel as well as acting as coolant. Besides plugging air feed to fire, water could be virtually reached to the fire affected areas much beyond the jet range as underground galleries with low roof restrict jet range of water. This method also enables a closer approach of a fire fighting team by isolating the toxic gases and smoke with a foam plug. The paper describes the development of high expansion foam composition and its application technology in order that foam plug method can be suitably utilized for combating mine fires in India. Three compositions were recommended for generation of high expansion foam: (a) 0.5% sodium/ammonium lauryl sulphate, 0.15 to 0.2% sodium carboxy methyl cellulose, 0.1% booster; (b) 0.5% sodium/ammonium lauryl sulfate, 0.12 to 0.15% alkaline solution of gum arabic, 0.1 to 0.2% ...
A new double-null, slotted divertor configuration will be installed for the DIII-D Radiative Divertor Program at General Atomics in late 1996. Four cryocondensation pumps, three new and one existing, will be part of this new divertor. The purpose of the pumps is to provide plasma density control and to limit the impurities entering the plasma core by providing pumping at each divertor strike point. The three new pumps are based on the design of the existing pump, installed in 1992 as part of the Advanced Divertor Program. The pump continues to operate successfully. The new pumps require geometry modifications to the original design. Therefore, extensive modal and dynamic analyses were performed to determine the behavior of these pumps and their helium and nitrogen feed lines during disruption events. Thermal and fluid analyses were also performed to characterize the helium two-phase flow regime in the pumps and their feedlines. A flow testing program was completed ...
A new double-null, slotted divertor configuration will be installed for the DIII-D Radiative Divertor Program at General Atomics in late 1996. Four cryocondensation pumps, three new and one existing, will be part of this new divertor. The purpose of the pumps is to provide plasma density control and to limit the impurities entering the plasma core by providing pumping at each divertor strike point. The three new pumps are based on the design of the existing pump, installed in 1992 as part of the Advanced Divertor Program. The new pumps require geometry modifications to the original design. Therefore, extensive modal and dynamic analyses were performed to determine the behavior of these pumps and their helium and nitrogen feed lines during disruption events. Thermal and fluid analyses were also performed to characterize the helium two-phase flow regime in the pumps and their feedlines. A flow testing program was completed to test the change in geometry of the pump ...
A new double-null, slotted divertor configuration will be installed for the DIII-D Radiative Divertor Program at General Atomics in late 1996. Four cryocondensation pumps, three new and one existing, will be part of this new divertor. The purpose of the pumps is to provide plasma density control and to limit the impurities entering the plasma core by providing pumping at each divertor strike point. The three new pumps are based on the design of the existing pump, installed in 1992 as part of the Advanced Divertor Program. The pump continues to operate successfully. The new pumps require geometry modifications to the original design. Therefore, extensive modal and dynamic analyses were performed to determine the behavior of these pumps and their helium and nitrogen feed lines during disruption events. Thermal and fluid analyses were also performed to characterize the helium two-phase flow regime in the pumps and their feedlines. A flow testing program was completed ...
Abstract As a marine carnivore exhibiting exceptionally high growth rates, cobia are considered a species for which fish oil (FO) replacement may be difficult. However, partial, if not complete, FO replacement is necessary to ensure sustainability. We evaluated the effects of graded substitution of dietary FO with soybean oil (SO) in cobia culture. Feeds contained FO (100% FO), SO (0% FO) or blends of the two (67% FO, 33% FO) as the supplemental lipid source. Production performance was largely unaffected by partial replacement of FO with SO: feed intake and final weight were reduced only in the 0% FO dietary treatment. Fillet total lipid fatty acid (FA) composition differed among the dietary treatments, closely approximating dietary FA profile. As increasing amounts of FO were replaced, SO...
By both increasing the optical iris of the video camera and removing the grid in fluoroscopic procedures involved in placement of a Dubbhoff feeding tube, the radiation dose to patients and staff was reduced by five to seven times. An average expected dose to a patient of about 300 mGy per procedure was reduced by two to three times when the grid was removed and by an additional three times when an iris of increased diameter was used. Because Dobbhoff procedures do not involve obtaining a diagnosis, the image degradation was acceptable and did not affect the total exposure times or ability to conduct the procedure. With the grid out, the difference between the mean exposure times of 5.1 minutes in 96 patient studies done with a normal iris opening and 4.0 minutes in 52 studies done with an enlarged iris was not statistically significant. The importance of reducing patient dose is reinforced by the finding that one-third of the patients underwent repeated ...
A fluidized bed combustor of 0.146 m diameter and 1 m length was fabricated from stainless steel to burn olive cake. Initially, and in order to obtain fluidization, the system was operated under cold conditions using a sand with particle size in the range of 500 to 710 microns. The continuous combustion experiments were carried out under controlled conditions, such that the effects of bed temperature, olive cake feed rate, fluidization velocity, and particle size on combustion efficiency and flue gas composition were investigated. It was found that the combustion efficiency decreases with the bed temperature, fluidization velocity, and the feed rate, while it increases with the particle size used. Further, the gas products analysis carried out using a gas chromatography analyzer have shown a nonmeasured amount of SO2, and small amounts of CO. Finally, the temperature distribution along the bed indicated that the temperature throughout the bed ...
The marine reactor MRX, an integral typed PWR with 100 MWt adopts one-through steam generators with coiling tubes. The cold feed water enters the steam generator and the super heated steam flows out. To avoid occurrence of flow instability in the steam generator due to a density wave oscillation, it is necessary to increase of flow resistance at the feed water inlet. The magnitude of flow resistance to stabilize the flow is determined by a simple linear analysis using a D-division method, of which accuracy is clarified by comparison with SRI's experiment. The external force due to heaving, one of ship motions will affect the flow behavior. Analysis by a modified RELAP5 capable of simulating the ship motions reveals that the effect of heaving becomes especially greater when the state of flow approaches both the conditions of density wave oscillation occurrence and resonance of flow oscillation with heaving. (author)
Plasma triglyceride turnover was measured during steady-state conditions in 22 postoperative patients. Nine had received nutritional support with an enteral regimen, seven had received an equivalent regimen as continuous parenteral nutrition, and six received the same parenteral regimen as a cyclical infusion. After 5 days of nutritional support, each patient received an intravenous bolus of tritiated glycerol. Plasma radiolabeled triglyceride content was measured during the subsequent 24 hours. The data were analyzed by means of a simple deterministic model of plasma triglyceride kinetics and compared with the results obtained by stochastic analysis. The rates of hepatic triglyceride secretion obtained by deterministic analysis were higher than those obtained by the stochastic approach. However, the mode of delivery of the nutritional regimen did not affect the rate of hepatic triglyceride secretion regardless of the method of analysis. The results suggest that neither complete ...
A method to reduce the fuel composition heterogeneity effect on the core performance parameters has been studied for the DUPIC fuel which is made of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuels by a dry refabrication process. This study focuses on the reactivity control method which uses either slightly enriched, depleted, or natural uranium to minimize the cost rise effect on the manufacturing of DUPIC fuel, when adjusting the excess reactivity control by slightly enriched and depleted uranium, reactivity control by natural uranium for high reactivity spent PWR fuels, and reactivity control by natural uranium for linear reactivity spent PWR fuels. The results of this study have shown that the reactivity control by slightly enriched and depleted uranium, all the spent PWR fuels can be utilized as the DUPIC fuel and the fraction of fresh uranium feed is 3.4% on an average. For the reactivity control by natural uranium, about 88% of spent PWR fuel can be utilized as ...
A process is described for removing carbon dioxide from a feed stream of natural gas, having at least methane, ethane and heavier hydrocarbon, comprising: separating the feed stream in a first separator to form a first stream, having substantially all of the propane and heavier hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide and ethane, and a second stream, having methane, carbon dioxide and ethane; mixing the second stream with a polar compound to form a third stream; separating the vapor and liquid of the third stream in the bottom portion of an absorber; absorbing carbon dioxide and ethane from the separated vapor of Step C in a lean portion of the polar compound in the absorber, the absorber carbon dioxide and ethane forming a fourth stream; separating the ethane from the polar compound and carbon dioxide in a separator; separating the first stream in a third separator to separate the propane and heavier hydrocarbons from the carbon dioxide and ethane: ...
This patent describes a process for removing carbon dioxide from a feed stream of natural gas having at least methane, ethane and heavier. It comprises: first, separating the feed stream in a first separator to form a first stream having substantially all of the propane and heavier hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide and ethane and a second stream, having methane, carbon dioxide and ethane; separating the second stream in a second separator into a stream of carbon dioxide product and a third stream having ethane, methane and carbon dioxide: mixing at least a portion of the third stream with a polar compound; stream after the mixing in an absorber; separating the vapor and liquid of the third stream after the mixing in an absorber; absorbing the remaining unabsorbed carbon dioxide in a lean portion of the polar compound in the absorber, the absorber carbon dioxide and ethane with the polar; separating the first stream in a third separator to ...
The biomass research program of the USDA, Southern Agricultural Energy Center is conducted at several locations throughout the United States. A portion of the research is directed toward improved systems to harvest, process and store biomass so that the energy density will be enhanced. Other research projects deal with: conversion and utilization of animal wastes in integrated energy-food production systems, including the production of liquid fuel and feed byproducts; producing low BTU gas to be utilized in internal combustion engines, including the system for continuous feeding of the gasifier; direct combustion of biomass for thermal energy; gasifying biomass so that the products of combustion can pass through a crop being dried without leaving deleterious residues; small scale systems for on-farm expelling of vegetable oil; and studies on the use of vegetable oils for diesel fuel substitutes. In summary, the low energy density of biomass ...
In this study based on the mass transfer theory, experiments for the evaporation rates depending on various conditions were carried out through the operation of the existing Natural Evaporation Facility in KAERI. Evaporation media were made of the cotton and polyester. Air circulation in the facility was forced by exhausting fans. The evaporation rate and the decontamination factor were calculated by the result of experiment. The evaporation rate increased as the flow rate of air supply, the feed rate of liquid waste, and the temperature of supplied air increased. As for the humility of supplied air, the evaporation rate was getting higher as the humidity was getting lower. As the result of this study, operation conditions of the Natural Evaporation Facility are optimized as follows; The air temperature above 8C .deg., the air humidity below 70%, the air flow rate 1.14-1.47 m/sec, and the liquid waste feed rate 4.6l/hr.m"2. The decontamination ...
A sensitivity study has been done to determine the composition of DUPIC fuel from the viewpoint of neutronics fuel design. The spent PWR fuel compositions were generated and fissile contents adjusted by blending fresh uranium after mixing two spent PWR fuel assemblies. The {sup 239}Pu and {sup 235}U enrichments of DUPIC fuel were adjusted by controlling the amount of fresh uranium feed and the ratio of slightly enriched and depleted uranium in the feed uranium. Based on the material balance calculation, it is recommended that DUPIC fuel composition be such that spent PWR fuel utilization is more than 90%. A sensitivity study on the temperature reactivity coefficient of DUPIC fuel and shown that it is desirable to increase the {sup 239}Pu and {sup 235}U contents to reduce both the fuel and coolant temperature coefficients. On the other hand, refueling simulations of the DUPIC core have shown that the channel power peaking factor, which is a ...
An overall view of the 1982 plant operating performance is presented. All periods of ON-FEED operation, UNSCHEDULED SHUTDOWNS, and SCHEDULED SHUTDOWNS are accounted for and tabulated. Causes of UNSCHEDULED SHUTDOWNS are identified and discussed. Plant solutions aimed at reducing the effect of similar future shutdowns or preventing recurrence of such shutdowns are explained. Details of repeated, major maintenance problems with various pieces of equipment are presented. Discussion of each problem and solutions found during 1982 are given, where applicable.
A summary of the 1983 Critical Solvent Deashing unit performance at the Wilsonville Advanced Coal Liquefaction R and D Facility is presented. All periods of on feed operation, unscheduled shutdowns, and scheduled shutdowns are accounted for and tabulated. Causes of unscheduled shutdowns are identified and discussed. Details of repeated, major maintenance problems with various pieces of equipment are presented. Where applicable, solutions are discussed. Historical operations and maintenance data are presented and used for comparison purposes in order to better indicate areas of improvement in the unit. 4 references, 7 figures, 3 tables.
Wetlands have important ecological values and functions. It is estimated that 80 percent of the Nation's coastal fisheries are dependent on wetlands for spawning, nursery areas, and food sources. Both coastal and inland wetlands provide essential breeding, nesting, feeding, and predator escape habitats for millions of waterfowl, other birds, mammals, and reptiles. Well over one-third of the 564 plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered in the United States utilize wetland habitats during some portion of their life cycle. Wetlands Stewardship is intended as a resource for everyone interested in wetlands protection.
Total mercury content and its distribution in muscles and viscera of male and female blue crab (Callinectes sapidus Rothbum) and deep water pink shrimp (Parapenacus longirostris) collected from the 3 main fishing grounds near the Alexandria coast in the Mediterranean sea was estimated. The results indicate that the mercury content in the muscles of both species differ according to fishing areas, size, sex, and species. More than 75% of total mercury were accumulated in the viscera of both species which indicates that the mercury entered in these organisms via the feed chain. PMID:3696196
The symbiotic polychaetes of the genus Osedax living on the bones of whale carcasses have become known as bone-eating worms. It is believed that whale bones are the source of nutrition for those gutless worms and that fatty acids are produced by their symbionts and transferred to the host. However, the symbionts are of the heterotrophic group Oceanospirillales and as such are not able to synthesize organic carbon de novo. Also, they are not housed in close contact to the bone material. We studied the ultrastructure of the integument overlying the symbiont housing trophosome in the ovisac region and the roots region and of the symbiont-free trunk region of Osedax to investigate the hosts possible contribution in feeding for the whole symbiosis. The epidermis differs conspicuously between th...
Reverse osmosis is a simple process and has relatively high decontamination factor compared to other processes used for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste. Furthermore the quantity of secondary waste of this process is small. In this study, test solution containing nine elements such as cesium, strontium, cobalt etc. in chloride forms are treated by reverse osmosis. Permeate rate decreases as the increase of osmotic pressure of feed solution and is expressed by linear equation. Decontamination factor of cations of univalency is more than ten, and about one tenth of that of bivalency. Decontamination factors of all the elements used in this experiment are approximately estimated using the solution-diffusion model.
Reverse osmosis is a simple process and has relatively high decontamination factor comparing to other processes used for the treatment of radioactive liquid waste. Furthermore the quantity of secondary waste of this process is small. In this study, test solution containing nine elements such as cesium, strontium, cobalt etc. in chloride forms are treated by reverse osmosis. Permeate rate decreases as the increase of osmotic pressure of feed solution and is expressed by linear equation. Decontamination factor of cations of univalency is more than ten, and about one tenth of that of bivalency. Decontamination factors of all the elements used in this experiment are approximately estimated using the solution-diffusion model. (author).
Stream invertebrates that feed on leaf litter are intimately tied to the nature and timing of the litter input. These invertebrates are called shredders; they consume streamside, riparian litter that has become trapped in the stream channel. This plant litter accumulates at the leading edge of obstructions in the current and settles out in pools, alcoves, and other depositional zones. Given the extensive literature that has accumulated over the last 20 years, researchers can now develop a general, testable model that relates riparian plant communities to the stream shredders, which depend upon litter derived from those communities.
Innate immune responses are regulated by microorganisms and cell death, as well as by a third class of stress signal from the nervous and endocrine systems. The innate immune system also feeds back, through the production of cytokines, to regulate the function of the central nervous system (CNS), and this has effects on behaviour. These signals provide an extrinsic regulatory circuit that links physiological, social and environmental conditions, as perceived by the CNS, with transcriptional 'decision-making' in leukocytes. CNS-mediated regulation of innate immune responses optimizes total organism fitness and provides new opportunities for therapeutic control of chronic infectious, inflammatory and neuropsychiatric diseases.
The polarized triple-axis spectrometer TASP at SINQ has been optimized for measuring magnetic cross sections in condensed matter. The neutrons are polarized or analyzed either by means of benders or Heusler monochromators. The beam divergence, i.e. the intensity, and the spectral range of the neutrons is rather large because of the supermirror coatings of the feeding neutron guide. The intensity can be further increased at the sample position by means of a focussing monochromator and a focussing anti-trumpet. The end position of TASP allows the tailoring of the neutron beam already before the monochromator and to scatter neutrons over very wide ranges of angles. (author) 6 figs., 1 tab., 8 refs.
In the present paper we propose a model of physical phenomena behind the front face of the electrodes in an impulse plasma accelerator. The model is based on the results of recent experimental observations and measurements. It correlates plasma dynamics with mechanism of phenomena in a column of pinching plasma. On the contrary to the previous model the current one suggests the series of relatively short pulses of metallic ions from the erosion of electrode material. Till now the pinch was treated rather as a nearly continuous source of metallic plasma, feeding the process with ions from the erosion of electrode material. (author)
Abstract in english Odontopus brevirostris (Hustache, 1936) feeding on Annona squamosa L., A. cherimola Mill., A. glabra L., and A. muricata L. was observed. The last three host plants are recorded for the first time. The endophitic oviposition occurs in the veins of the ventral surface of the young leaves. The larvae, leaf miners, eat the parenchyma and the adults make small holes in the leaves. The pupation occurs in spherical cocoons protected by a sort of nest (pupation chamber) between the two epidermal layers.
DescriptionBoth wild and aquaculture reared abalone, mussels and other shellfish of commercial importance as a food resource to man can be afflicted by poisoning if they feed on toxic species of small single-celled planktonic marine algae. If humans consume these shellfish that have become intoxicated by HAB's, illness or even death may occur. HAB's occur world-wide, but some regions are more severely affected than others. The incidence of HAB's also appear to be on the increase globally, perhaps because o [continued...
A study was conducted to examine the energy consumption in existing and new hog farming facilities and to analyse the potential for increased natural gas use in the Saskatchewan hog industry. Existing heating/cooling, ventilation and feed mill equipment choices offer possibilities for running on electricity, natural gas or propane. Energy costs are lowest when natural gas is used. To put the study in context, an overview of the Saskatchewan hog industry was provided. The potential increase in natural gas use in hog production by year 2005 was estimated. 10 refs., 6 tabs., 8 figs.
Westinghouse Electric Germany GmbH has developed fluid dynamic models for medium-actuated armatures using the thermal hydraulic code RELAP5 in order to reach a more realistic description of the armature behavior including fluid-structure interactions in case of transient flow conditions in piping systems. The contribution is concerned with the modeling of damped check valves. The model allows the description of the behavior during opening and closure of a check armature. The calculated results show good agreement with the available measured data.
Purpose: To prevent evaporization stills against corrosion due to radioactive liquid wastes. Constitution: Microwaves are supplied from a microwave generator by way of a wave guide tube and through a microwave permeation window to the inside of an evaporatization still. A matching device is attached to the wave guide tube for transmitting the microwaves in order to match the impedance. When the microwaves are supplied to the inside of the evaporization still, radioactive liquid wastes supplied from a liquid feed port by way of a spray tower to the inside of the evaporization still is heated and evaporated by the induction heating of the microwaves. (Seki, T.).
Processes of production and purification (necessary for fabricating fuel elements) of powdery uranium dioxide with particle size up to 1000 #mu#m and more have been studied. Developed is continuous process of UO_2 production with above particle size by converting uranium hexafloride into UO_2 solid particles in fluidized bed while their interaction with water vapor and hydrogen on the uranium dioxide nucleus material. The method allows to conduct continuous selection from the apparatus of UO_2 powder fraction with particle size near 1000 #mu#m without nucleus material additional feed.
The restricted temperature stability of the synthetic thermal oil which is used as heat carrier fluid in parabolic trough collectors so far limits the live steam parameters in the steam cycle to approximately 375 Celsius. In order to break through this limit, already for quite some time it is researched to replace the thermal oil by boiler feeding waters and to accomplish the evaporation in the collectors. The contribution under consideration gives an overview on the direct evaporation concept and summarizes the past operational experiences. Moreover, the challenges with the integration of this technology in a steam turbine cycle are elaborated.
By characterising the microstructure, quantitative image analysis allows to draw conclusions on the mechanical properties of materials. On fine microstructures with low contrast, e.g. of hardened steels, texture analysis has to be applied for quantification. Feeding texture parameters according to Haralick into a trained neural network, a correlation between the microstructure and the hardness of the steels C45 and 100Cr6 can be achieved. (orig.)
Energy savings in the synthetic fiber industry could be realized by using autoclave reactor condensate and boiler flue gas heat recovery. The non-cellulose (polyester) production process analysis shows that condensate returning from the reactor to the steam boiler raises inlet temperature, giving a reduced fuel requirement of about 8%. Also, boiler flue gas with a sufficiently high outlet temperature for boiler feed water and combustion air preheating results in further fuel savings. The process with an economizer saves up to 8.44%, and with a combustion air preheater, 6.25%. (Author)
... Do you certify Halal or Kosher meat? What fish feed do you allow? What levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in organic fish? How can I be sure that organic products from abroad are really organic? Do you prosecute businesses that break the rules? Does the Soil Association carry out any routine testing of food? Do you test for GM material? Why do you allow additives in organic food? Is organic food fortified with vitamins and minerals? Why choose organic during pregnancy?...
Fluidized bed technology was experimentally evaluated for the combustion and gasification of cotton gin waste. The isothermal bed temperatures in the reactors could be maintained below the ash fusion point of the waste. Raw stripper harvested cotton gin trash could be metered directly into the fluidized-bed reactors indicating that little feed preparation is required. H and CO were the primary products of gasification, and approximately 3200-400 Btu of gas were produced per lb of cotton gin waste. These techniques offer the potential of providing small-scale energy conversion systems for use on farms.
A simple closed-form equation to calculate the envelope correlation between any two receiver or transmitter antennas in a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system of an arbitrary number of elements is derived. The equation uses the scattering parameters obtained at the antenna feed point to calculate the envelope correlation coefficient. This approach has the advantage that it does not require knowledge of the antenna radiation pattern. Numerical data that include conductor and permittivity loss are shown to validate the approach. Using the scattering parameters for calculating the envelope correlation is less laborious and relatively cheaper, as compared to the radiation pattern approach.
Intensities of {gamma}-transitions emerging from the EC decay of {sup 203}Pb were measured precisely. The obtained relative {gamma}-intensities are 100%(279.2keV), 4.14+-0.08%(401.3keV) and 0.932+-0.022%(680.5keV). The 279.2 and 680.5keV level feeding {beta}-branching ratios were deduced to be 95.3+-0.1 and 4.7+-0.1% respectively. {sup 203}Pb is suggested for calibration purposes. (author).
We propose unsteady-state reverse osmosis cell modelling in two dimensions. The convection-diffusion equation describing the concentration of the relevant chemical species is solved by a finite difference technique, while the velocity field is described by empirical expressions for spiral-wound membrane cells. A non-constant permeability is introduced to take into account the effects of membrane compaction at high operating pressures. The role of concentration polarization is discussed for different values of the parameters describing the global process. Finally, the model is applied to predict the effects of a pulsating flow where a cyclic pressure feed is adopted to enhance the permeate flux. In this context, an experimental validation of the model is proposed.
A theoretical analysis is presented for the method of determining the concentration distribution of admixtures in zone melting and in the study of diffusion in melts. Continuous mode X-ray fluorescence analysis is considered. The convolution integral interpreting the analog output of the ratemeter was solved applying the mathematical apparatus of Z transformation. The feasibility of the method is tested on an example of the determination of tin distribution in tungsten. With respect to the statistical error (#delta#<1.5%), the maximum integration constant (100 s) and a very slow sample feed (0.025 mm/s) were used. The calculated transfer function reflects the total transfer function of the ratemeter and the recorder used. (M.D.).
... Areas of Consultation: All Areas About DECC Bioenergy Carbon capture & storage Carbon Reduction Commitment Climate Change Agreements CRC energy efficiency scheme Development, consents and planning reform Electricity Electricity network Emissions Emissions trading Energy markets Energy network Energy security Feed-in Tariffs Fuel poverty Funding and support Gas Governance Green Deal Hydroelectricity International climate change International energy Legislation Low-carbon Microgeneration News Nuclear Oil Renewable energy Saving energy and CO2 Site Wide Footer Smart ...
The RELAP5/MOD2 and MELCOR 1.8.1 codes have been used for simulate the PMK total loss of feedwater with secondary bleed and feed experiments done in a scale-model WWER-440 test facility. Nodalization studies and studies on several-core modelling options were also done. Good agreement was found between the calculations done by RELAP5/MOD2 and MELCOR 1.8.1 JY codes. (orig.) (5 refs., 31 figs.).
The extraction and recovery of cesium from simulated Purex waste solutions was successfully demonstrated in the pilot plant pulse column. Stable volumetric capacities as high as 670 gph/ft/sup 2/ (sum of both phases) were obtained for alkaline supernate-type waste; however, for efficient operation (transfer unit height - HTU -of two feet or less), the maximum throughput rate was limited to about 500 gph/ft/sup 2/. This rate could be achieved with feeds diluted to densities within 0.08 g/cc of the solvent density. Stable feed was prepared from simulated current, denitrated waste by addition of citric acid to complex the iron before neutralization to the desired operating pH of 7 to 8. Capacities of 500 gph/ft/sup 2/ were readily achieved with this feed, together with HTU's of 1.0 to 1.3 feet. Sodium extracted with the cesium was satisfactorily scrubbed from the solvent with a dilute citric ...
The conversion of highly radioactive waste liquor into glass by the pot vitrification process has been studied at Harwell using a full-scale inactive pilot plant. A summary of the off-gas behavior and its interpretation is presented. Experimental runs were carried out on 3 representative wastes (MAGNOX - thermal reactor, metal fuel, THORP - thermal oxide fuel and PFR - fast reactor oxide fuel) using 2 methods of feeding the glass-formers (slurry and crizzle). Materials were carried over from the vitrification vessel into the off-gas system by entrainment supplemented by volatilization. The overall behavior of the off-gas was consistent with the presence in it of 5 separate aerosols of particulate matter. Sources of entrainment gave rise to 3 aerosols, and a further 2 aerosols were formed as a result of chemical reaction (Ru) and condensation (Cs) processes involving the volatile species. Entrainment was enhanced when the feed contained free ...
A summary of the off-gas behavior in the HARVEST pot vitrification process is presented. Experimental runs were carried out on 3 representative wastes (MAGNOX - thermal reactor, metal fuel, THORP - thermal oxide fuel and PFR - fast reactor oxide fuel) using 2 methods of feeding the glass-formers (slurry and crizzle). Materials were carried over from the vitrification vessel into the off-gas system by entrainment supplemented by volatilization. The main volatile elements were Ru, B, Cs. Some volatility was also shown by Na and Li. The overall behavior of the off-gas was consistent with the presence in it of 5 separate aerosols of particulate matter. Sources of entrainment gave rise to 3 aerosols, and a further 2 aerosols were formed as a result of chemical reaction (Ru) and condensation (Cs) proceses involving the volatile species. Entrainment was enhanced when the feed contained free alkali nitrate. The Ru volatility correlated directly with ...
The complexity and diversity of the microbial communities in biogranules from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) bioreactor were determined in response to short-term changes in substrate feeds. The reactor was fed simulated brewery wastewater (SBWW) (70% ethanol, 15% acetate, 15% propionate) for 1.5 months (phase 1), acetate / sulfate for 2 months (phase 2), acetate-alone for 3 months (phase 3), and then a return to SBWW for 2 months (phase 4). Performance of the reactor remained relatively stable throughout the experiment as shown by COD removal and gas production. 16S rDNA, methanogen-associated mcrA and sulfate reducer-associated dsrAB genes were PCR amplified, then cloned and sequenced. Sequence analysis of 16S clone libraries showed a relatively simple community composed mainly of the methanogenic Archaea (Methanobacterium and Methanosaeta), members of the Green Non-Sulfur (Chloroflexi) group of Bacteria, followed by fewer numbers of Syntrophobacter, ...
We carried out a feeding study in rats aimed at extending our aboservations of contaminant-induced immunosuppression in harbour seals. Two herring batches were freeze-dried, supplemented and fed to female adult PVG rats for a period of 4 1/2 months. Daily contaminant intakes of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) toxic equivalents (TEQ) were estimated to be 0.3 ng/kg body weight and 1.6 ng/kg in the Atlantic and Baltic groups, respectively. At the end of the feeding experiment, no contaminant-related changes in spleen CD{sub 4}{sup +}/CD{sub 8}{sup +} cellularity, natural killer cell activity, or mitogen-induced proliferative responses of thymus or spleen cells could be detected. However, total thymocyte numbers and thymus CD{sub 4}{sup +}/CD{sub 8}{sup +} ratios were reduced in the Baltic group. A novel model was established to assess the specific T-cell response to rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV). When applied to the ...
Donnan dialysis with ion-exchange membranes was studied under various kinds of experimental conditions using ions of different valences. The diffusion coefficients (D{sub d}) of various kinds of ions in the ion-exchange membrane were obtained by curve fitting an equation derived from the mass balance to three kinds of Donnan dialytic experiments. It was found that the value of D{sub d}/D{sub s} using D{sub d} of monovalent ions in Donnan dialysis with a set of monovalent feed ions and bivalent driving ions was 1/175, where D{sub s} represents a diffusion coefficient in solution. D{sub s} was calculated from the Nernst-Einstein equation substituted by the ionic conductance of ions at infinite dilution in water. Using D{sub d} of bivalent ions in Donnan dialysis with the same set led to a D{sub d}/D{sub s} value of 1/438. Moreover, using D{sub d} in Donnan dialysis with the same set, the value of D{sub d}/D{sub e} was kept constant at 0.4 (D{sub e} expresses the ...
Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (Osler-Rendu-Weber disease) is a genetic disorder with autosomal dominance, variable penetrance, and an estimated prevalence of 1/10,000 inhabitants in France. Diagnosis is based on clinical criteria including epistaxis, telangiectasia, visceral manifestations, and familial occurrence. Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations, present in 15-33% of patients, are its primary visceral complications. The disease may be revealed by infectious and ischemic neurological manifestations due to paradoxical embolism. The high frequency of neurologic complications even in asymptomatic patients justifies systematic screening for pulmonary arteriovenous malformations. Treatment of these malformations is based on percutaneous transcatheter coil embolization of the feeding artery. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is rare in this disease. It may be due to systemic arteriovenous shunting in the liver, which increases cardiac output, or be similar to ...
The zinc-air battery/fuel cell is an old technology invented one hundred years ago. However, there is renewed interest in this technology in response to the growing need for clean energy technology. The zinc-air battery/fuel cell is more attractive than similar technologies because its characteristics include high power density, safe operation and storage, and low cost. Zinc-air battery/fuel cells can be made in milliwatts to mega watts to accommodate different applications. The zinc-air battery/fuel cell has four major designs, namely primary, mechanically rechargeable, continuous feed and electrically rechargeable zinc-air battery/fuel cells. Among the different designs, the most common is the air cathode. There are 3 generations of catalysts used in the air cathodes. This paper discussed the different designs of the zinc-air battery/fuel cell, and more specifically, the air cathode structure and performance.
Infinite loop space theory, both additive and multiplicative, arose largely from two basic motivations. One was to solve calculational questions in geometric topology. The other was to better understand algebraic K-theory. The Adams conjecture is intrinsic to the first motivation, and Quillen's proof of that led directly to his original, calculationally accessible, definition of algebraic K-theory. In turn, the infinite loop understanding of algebraic K-theory feeds back into the calculational questions in geometric topology. For example, use of infinite loop space theory leads to a method for determining the characteristic classes for topological bundles (at odd primes) in terms of the cohomology of finite groups. We explain just a little about how all that works, focusing on the central role played by E infinity ring spaces.
The primary objective of this task was to perform a variability study of the high activity waste (HAW) acidic feed to determine the impact of feed variability on the quality of the final grout and on the mixability of the salt solution into the dry powders. The HAW acidic feeds were processed through the neutralization/pH process, targeting a final pH of 12. These fluids were then blended with the dry materials to make the final waste forms. A secondary objective was to determine if elemental substitution for cost prohibitive or toxic elements in the simulant affects the mixing response, thus providing a more economical simulant for use in full scale tests. Though not an objective, the HAW simulant used in the full scale tests was also tested and compared to the results from this task. A statistically designed test matrix was developed based on the maximum molarity inputs used to make the acidic solutions. The maximum ...
The results of studies performed for the development of a new process of the thermal cracking of tar as a suspension with ground Baltic oil shale in order to obtain motor fuel components are reported. The experimental results suggest undoubted advantages of the process over industrial thermal cracking because the deep degradation of tar (the yields of a gasoline fraction with bp to 180?C, middle distillates with bp of 180?360?C, and feedstock for catalytic cracking with bp of 360?520?C were ~12, 43?44, and ~15?16 wt % on an initial tar basis) was achieved upon the single-stage processing of the raw material under relatively mild conditions (5 MPa, 425?C, and a feed space velocity of 1.0 h?1). The resulting coke-like products and V and Ni contained in the raw material were deposited on the ...
Mammalodon colliveri is an unusual toothed archaic mysticete (Cetacea) from the Upper Oligocene Jan Juc Formation of south-east Australia. The morphology of the holotype skull and postcrania are described in detail. Superimposed on the generally plesiomorphic archaeocete-like morphology of Mammalodon are subtle mysticete synapomorphies. Derived features of Mammalodon include a short and bluntly rounded rostrum, reduced premaxillae, and anterodorsally directed orbits. Within Mysticeti, this suite of features is unique. The aberrant rostral morphology of Mammalodon suggests specialization for suction feeding. Janjucetus hunderi is placed in an expanded family Mammalodontidae. Phylogenetic analysis corroborates the monophyly of Basilosauridae, Neoceti, Odontoceti, and Mysticeti, and yields a ...
Simple hydroxamic acids are shown to be useful reagents for the separation of Np and Pu from U within simplified, single cycle Purex flowsheets. They are compatible with the use of centrifugal contactors and laboratory scale flowsheet trials with aceto-hydroxamic acid have demonstrated high actinide recoveries and decontamination factors on products for active feeds of up to 40 wt.% Pu. They therefore show many ideal characteristics for Pu and Np recovery within flowsheet options for actinide recovery in advanced fuel cycles. Furthermore, in order to optimise the routing of Np with the Pu product in advanced flowsheets, additional studies of Np extraction in the primary co-decontamination contactor, prior to U/Pu partition, have been undertaken, combining experiment, modelling and flowsheet tests. (author)
The separation of humic substances by polysulfone has been done. Thisinvestigation aims at separating the humic substances contained in theestuary environment. Because of without sample pre-treatment, cheap and easythis method has been to choice. At preliminary study proved that byincreasing the pressure until 50 psia, the yield of flux was 13.5 l/m"2.jamand the reject coefficient was 90.98%, so that polysulfone membrane isappropriate to be applied. More over the pressure could be increased morethan 50 psia. The feed concentration should be lower than 150 ppm, though thevolume should be greater. The pH condition should be alkaline (pH> 7), sinceat this condition the filtration process is easily conducted and the rejectcoefficient could reach 95.09%. (author)
Many foods have been implicated in theories about the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease. While evidence has accumulated that nutritional factors as part of overall lifestyle changes may play a role in the growing incidence, no specific dietary recommendations except the promotion of breastfeeding can currently be given to decrease the risk of developing Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. For the treatment of Crohn's disease in children and adolescents, however, enteral feeding with a semi-elemental diet seems to be as effective as corticosteroids in inducing and maintaining remission. In the meta-analyses, advantages of one formula over the other are evened out, and more research is warranted into the anti-inflammatory properties of different nutrients, such as polyunsaturated fat...
This guide accompanies the following article: Gabrielle Poeschl, `What Family Organization Tells Us about Fairness and Power in Marital Relationships', Social and Personality Compass 1/1 (2007): 557-571, 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00026.x Author's Introduction One thing that often strikes me, when I talk with people, is the human capacity to accept and defend surprising aspects of the social life. Thus, we have some feeling that the separation between the domestic and the public spheres has not always existed, but we are ready to assume that in the first human groups, men went out hunting to feed their family, while women stayed in the camp to take care of the children. Even in the face of evidence to the contrary, we are reluctant to question the opinion that men and women differ in persona...
Benthic biological samples were taken in 1977 from the vicinity of the Farallon Islands radioactive waste disposal sites for characterization of the infaunal macroinvertebrates and foraminifera. A total of 120 invertebrate species were collected, of which 75 species (63 percent) were polychaetes. Forty-three of these polychaete species have not previously been reported from depths greater than 1000m. A total of 1044 macroinvertebrate specimens were collected of which 54 percent were polychates. Only the nematods were present at all six benthic stations, but the community structure was dominated by the polychaetes Tauberia gracilis, Allia pulchra, Chaetozone setosa, and Cossura candida. Living and dead foraminifera were reported. The possible role of polychaetes in bioturbation and in the marine food chain is briefly discussed with respect to the various polychaete feeding mechanisms.
In recent years, cobia has become an emerging farmed species in Asia due to its quick growth and high economic value. This study collects biological and economic data affecting the economic performance of cobia farming in three countries, namely Taiwan, China, and Vietnam. The data are collected by questionnaire sampling and analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis in order to compare the key factors affecting the production and economy of cobia farming in these three countries. The results show that Taiwan, China, and Vietnam have significant differences in input intensities and profitability. China has the highest input intensity (3372.42?TWD/m3), as its high stocking density increases feed input. Taiwan has the highest unit input cost (103.44?TWD/kg), as the high quality of the pro...
In the last few years the management of nuclear power plants as well as the supervising administration of the nuclear industry in Germany has focused more on emergency preparedness. The skills have been improved, but there are also improvements under way, yet. The study gives an overview about the status of emergency preparedness in German power plants, about the legal framework for emergency preparedness and about the elements of an effective emergency preparedness planning. However, it does not deal with technical accident management but with the organisational aspects of emergency planning. Also, the study gives a short outlook for future trends of development in the field of emergency preparedness in Germany. Major trends are the standardisation of organisational concepts, more training and more national and international feed back of know how on the topic. Yet, there is still some research work to be done, mainly to develop overall organisational standards and ...
An artificial neural network can be used as an intelligent controller to control non-linear, dynamic system through learning. It can easily accommodate non-linearities and time dependencies. Most common multi-layer feed-forward neural networks have drawbacks of large number of neurons and hidden layers required to deal with complex problems and require large training time. To overcome these drawbacks, a generalized neuron based non-linear controller has been developed and illustrated as a power system stabilizer. Studies on a five-machine power system show that the proposed controller can significantly improve the dynamic performance and provide good damping of the power system over a wide operating range.
Summary Despite the great interest of red porgy as a new species for Mediterranean aquaculture, its commercial production is constrained by the high incidence of skeletal deformities occurring in this species under culture conditions. Several studies have been conducted to better understand the origin of these anomalies in this species, using different system intensiveness, rotifers enrichment products or rotifers docosahexaenoic acid content. The first study showed that culture intensification increased the number of fish with an extra vertebrae, what was probably related to the different nutritional quality of live preys employed in each treatment, since water temperature, salinity and genetic background were identical for the different batches of fish studied. Total incidence of skeleta...
We have studied energy levels in "6"3Fe populated in the #beta#-decay of "6"3Mn. A new (preliminary) level scheme of "6"3Fe includes 10 excited states connected by 21 #gamma#-rays. The first excited states at 357 and 451 keV have the level half-lives of 110 ps and 780 ps, respectively. Three states, at 357, 451 and 1132 keV, are strongly #beta#-fed with log ft #approx# 5, while there is only a very week #beta#-feeding, if any at all, to the ground state. The new results imply that "6"3Fe departs from a simple shell model structure observed for heavier N = 37 isotones of "6"5Ni and "6"7Zn. (author)
The Mediated Electrochemical Oxidation (MEO) system is an aqueous process which treats low-level mixed wastes by oxidizing the organic components of he waste into carbon dioxide and water. As MEO system continues to run, dissolved ash and radionuclides slowly accumulate in the anolyte and must be removed to maintain process efficiency. At such time, all of the anolyte is pumped into a still feed tank, and the silver ions need to be removed before sending the solution to a thin-film evaporator for further concentration. The efficiency of removing silver ions in the solution needs to be high enough such that the residual silver sent to Final Forms would be less than 1% wt. The purpose of this work is to develop an efficient process to remove silver ions during the MEO cleanout and to demonstrate the capability of centrifugation for separating small silver chloride particles from the solution. This development work includes lab scale experiments and bench scale tests. ...
Ag nanoparticles were prepared in a water-phase system with a mixture of silver-ammonia complex, sodium borohydride, and lauric acid according to molar feed ratio of approximately 6:3:1. The mechanism of preparation and separation by chemical reduction-protection method was explored. The as-synthesized Ag nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-vis spectroscopy, respectively. It was found that the size of high purity Ag particles was ranging from 30 to 50 nm with slight agglomeration. In addition, the as-synthesized wet Ag nanoparticles were dispersed stably in organic vehicle to formulate electrically conductive nanopaste. Upon direct-written and sintered, the array pattern of the nanopaste with the resolution of about 30 {mu}m was achieved with the electrical resistivity in the order of magnitude of 10{sup -5} {Omega} cm.
Aqueous radioactive high-level waste slurries are combined during processing steps that ultimately produce a stable borosilicate glass waste form. Chemically treated waste slurries are combined with each other and with glass frit-water slurries to produce the melter feed. Understanding the evolution of the rheological properties of the slurries is an important aspect of removing and treating the stored waste. To a first approximation, combinations of colloidal waste slurry with {approx}0.1-mm mean diameter glass frit or glass beads act in an analogous matter to slurries of spherical beads in Newtonian liquids. The non-Newtonian rheological properties of the waste slurries without frit, however, add complexity to the hydrodynamic analysis. The use of shear rate dependent apparent viscosities with the modified Einstein equation was used to model the rheological properties of aqueous frit-waste slurries.
Preliminary plans for the 90 to 100-MW coal-fired combined cycle plant due to be built by a team headed by Southern California Edison and Texaco in the mid-1980s are reviewed. The basic operating goals call for having a gasifier with a 1,000 ton coal capacity per day feeding a 70-MW turbine which then provides waste heat to run a 30-MW steam turbine. Texaco will have responsibility for the gasifier part of the facility with the turbine-generator vendor charged with providing both gas and steam turbine equipment. If the 100-MW demonstration plant achieves 32 to 33% design efficiency, then a commercial plant with expansion turbines and steam reheat should hit 38% and require 20 to 30% less water than a conventional coal fired plant.
Insect attraction to host plants may be partly mediated by visual stimuli. In the present study, the responses of adult Hycleus apicicornis (Gur.) (Coleoptera: Meloidae) to plant models of different colours, different combinations of two colours, or three hues of blue of different shapes are compared. Single-colour models comprised the colours sky blue, bright green, yellow, red, white and black. Sky blue (reflecting light in the 440-500 nm region) is the most attractive, followed by white, which reflects light over a broader range (400-700 nm). On landing on sky blue targets, beetles exhibit feeding behaviour immediately. When different hues of blue (of different shapes) are compared, sky blue is preferred over turquoise, followed by dark blue, indicating that H. apicicornis is more attra...
Results of experiments performed utilizing high-power microwave sources for laser-discharge switching and preionization are reported. These results are not definitive, but are promising. Significant preionization using microwaves is possible. Some ability to switch the discharge and operate a laser have been demonstrated. More work needs to be performed to perfect the microwave coupling to the laser mixture. In particular, experiments with the microwaves better concentrated between the electrodes should be performed. The best way to accomplish this appears to be using the side-feed geometry; however, a large expansion of the microwaves should occur (to well below the power able to break down the window), and then a cylindrical lens should be used to focus the microwaves between the electrodes. 2 references.
The existence of multipole components in the dipole and quadrupole magnets is one of the factors limiting the beam stability in the RHIC operations. So, a realistic non-linear model is crucial for understanding the beam behavior and to achieve the ultimate performance in RHIC. A procedure is developed to build a non-linear model using the available multipole component data obtained from measurements of RHIC magnets. We first discuss the measurements performed at different stages of manufacturing of the magnets in relation to their current state in RHIC. We then describe the procedure to implement these measurement data into tracking models, including the implementation of the multipole feed down effect due to the beam orbit offset from the magnet center. Finally, the field quality analysis in the RHIC interaction regions (IR) is presented.
In the framework of the kt-factorization approach, the production and polarization of prompt J/Psi mesons in pp collisions at the LHC energy 7 TeV is studied. Both the direct production mechanism as well as feed-down contributions from chic1, chic2 and psi' decays are taken into account. Our consideration is based on the color singlet model supplemented with the off-shell matrix elements for the corresponding partonic subprocesses. The unintegrated gluon densities in a proton are determined using the CCFM evolution equation as well the Kimber-Martin-Ryskin prescription. We compare our numerical predictions with the first experimental data taken by the CMS, ATLAS and LHCb collaborations. The estimation of all polarization parameters which determine J/Psi spin density matrix is performed.
The invention is regeneration and recirculation of nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas of a nitric acid plant without using any material current and heat energy other than that generated in the process of producing nitric acid. Nitrogen oxide is recovered by at least two adsorbers each containing an acid resistant zeolite molecular sieve and operating in an alternate heat cycle; adsorption occurring at 20-40 degrees C and regeneration at 300-350 degrees C. The hot gas exiting from the oxidation U used in the production of nitric acid is used to regenerate the adsorbers and the nitrogen oxides set free during the said regeneration are introduced into the main feed stream of the nitric acid plant. In the final stage of the regeneration the adsorbers are cooled by rinsing them with exhaust gas or air at a temperature of 20-40 degrees C.
Experimental tests were performed in a continuous-flow hydrotreating unit at Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center to evaluate the performance of hydrous titanium-oxide supported (HTO) catalysts as hydrotreating catalysts for use in two-stage coal liquiefaction. Catalysts containing either a combination of CO, Ni, and Mo as the active metal components or Pd as the active metal componet were tested with representative hydrotreater feed stocks from the Wilsonville Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research and Development Facility. Catalyst performance evaluation was based on desulfurization and denitrogenation activity, the conversion of cyclohexane-insolbule material, and hydrogenation activity during 100-hour reactor runs. Results indicated that the HTO catalysts were comparable to a commercial Ni/Mo-alumina supported catalyst in the areas evaluated. 11 refs., 1 fig., 6 tabs.
We apply a notion of static renormalization to the preparation of cluster states for quantum computing, exploiting ideas from percolation theory. Such a strategy yields a novel way to cope with the randomness of non-deterministic quantum gates. This is most relevant in the context of linear optical architectures, where probabilistic gates are inevitable. We demonstrate how to efficiently construct cluster states without the need for rerouting, thereby avoiding a massive amount of feed-forward and conditional dynamics, and furthermore show that except for a single layer of fusion measurements during the preparation, all further measurements can be shifted to the final adapted single qubit measurements. Remarkably, the cluster state preparation is achieved using essentially the same scaling in resources as if deterministic gates were available. Further, techniques to reduce the size of the required resource states will be presented.
PROCAMPO (Program for Direct Assistance in Agriculture or Programa de Apoyos Directos al Campo) is an income transfer payment to Mexican farmers that compensates them for subsidies received by foreign competitors. Corn (Zea mays) has received the largest amount of PROCAMPO payments and is the primary component of Mexico?s food and feed supply. Results of a spatial and temporal model show that without PROCAMPO, Mexican annual average corn production would have been lower and corn imports would have been 40.5% higher in 2005?2007. Increased producer and consumer surplus and savings from reduced imports reveal that the benefits of PROCAMPO were higher than the program?s costs. Greater PROCAMPO support would decrease Mexican corn imports and increase domestic corn production. It is recommended...
Abstract Preparation of antibacterial alginate films incorporating extruded white ginseng (EWG) extracts was attempted. The antibacterial effect of EWG extract on six selected food pathogenic bacteria was compared with the effect of red ginseng (RG) and white ginseng (WG) extracts. The EWG was processed in a twin-screw extruder with feed moisture of 20% and barrel temperature of 115 and 130C. The data obtained by agar diffusion assay demonstrated that the film containing 1-g/mL of EWG at barrel temperatures of 115 (EWG-115) and 130C (EWG-130) exhibited stronger antibacterial activity against the four strains of bacteria than the other extracts RG and WG. All films sampled showed reduction in bacteria cell counts (log cycle) compared with the control. After 24-h of incubation, Pseudomonas a...
This study serves to investigate the uptake of POPs in the different trophic levels (scrapers, collectors, predators, shredders) of macroinvertebrate communities sampled from a glacial and a non-glacial stream in the Italian Alps. The presented results show that the contaminant concentrations in glacial communities are generally higher compared to those from non-glacial catchments, highlighting the importance of glaciers as temporary sinks of atmospherically transported pollutants. Moreover, the data also suggests that in mountain systems snow plays an important role in influencing macroinvertebrate contamination. The main chemical uptake process to the macroinvertebrates is considered to be bioconcentration from water, as similar contaminant profiles were observed between the different trophic levels. The role of biomagnification/bioaccumulation is thought to be absent or negligible. The enrichment of chemicals observed in the predators is likely to be related to their greater lipid ...
Desulphurization of gasoline and kerosene was carried out using organic and inorganic oxidants. Among the organic oxidants used were hydrogen peroxide in combination with acetic acid, formic acid, benzoic acid and butyric acid, while inorganic oxidants used included potassium permanganate and sodium perchlorate. The oxidation of each petroleum oil was carried out in two steps; the first step consisted of oxidation of the feed at moderate temperature and atmospheric pressure while in the second step, the oxidized mixture was extracted with azeotropic mixture of acetonitrile-water. A maximum desulphurization has occurred with NaClO4 and hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid, which are 68% and 61%, respectively in case of gasoline and 66% and 63%, respectively in case of kerosene oil. The FTIR st...
The aim of this study is to clarify the relation among developmental outcome, nutritional state during the neonatal period, maturational electroencephalographic changes. Thirteen extremely low birth weight infants who completed 6- or 9-year follow-up were a subject of this study. Undernutrition was defined as enteral feeding below 100mL/kg/day at 3weeks of age. Dysmature patterns were defined as the persistence of EEG patterns 2weeks or more immature for post-conceptional age. IQ was examined at 6 and 9years of age. Body height and weight, and head circumference at 6years of age were stratified by the percentile grades. Full and verbal IQ was significantly lower in infants with undernutrition than those with normal nutrition. Among infants with undernutrition, those with persistent dysmatu...
A more complete level scheme is presented here for the decay of [sup 187]Pt, incorporating many new lines and levels up to 2.4 MeV. Emphasis has been placed on the extraction of multipole mixing ratios from nuclear orientation data. Analysis of that data, however, required a more complete understanding of the level structure (including, in particular, branching ratios, conversion coefficients, and level feedings), prompting the collection of new spectroscopy data. The low-lying, positive-parity levels are described in terms of (odd-proton) single-particle Nilsson states coupled to a triaxial core. Multipole mixing ratios are compared to those calculated in the Particle-Plus-Triaxial-Rotor Model. (orig.).
A more complete level scheme is presented here for the decay of "1"8"7Pt, incorporating many new lines and levels up to 2.4 MeV. Emphasis has been placed on the extraction of multipole mixing ratios from nuclear orientation data. Analysis of that data, however, required a more complete understanding of the level structure (including, in particular, branching ratios, conversion coefficients, and level feedings), prompting the collection of new spectroscopy data. The low-lying, positive-parity levels are described in terms of (odd-proton) single-particle Nilsson states coupled to a triaxial core. Multipole mixing ratios are compared to those calculated in the Particle-Plus-Triaxial-Rotor Model. (orig.).
...The RSPB: Great crested grebe A delightfully elegant waterbird with ornate head plumes which led to its being hunted for its feathers, almost leading to its extermination from the UK. E-mail to a friendE-newsletterContact us Home England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales About Overview Awards & recognition Contact us Facts and figures History How we are run Inspiring work Job vacancies Looking to the future Media centre Offices The RSPB view ...status: Green Listen Get Flash player Play sound 1 videoLatin name Podiceps cristatusFamily Grebes (Podicipedidae)Overview A delightfully elegant waterbird with ornate head plumes which led to its being hunted for its feathers, almost leading to its extermination from the UK. They dive to feed and also to escape, preferring this to flying. On land they are clumsy because their feet are placed so far back on their bodies. ...
A method and device have been provided for distinguishing Africanized honeybees from European honeybees. The method is based on the discovery of a distinct difference in the acoustical signatures of these two species of honeybees in flight. The European honeybee signature has a fundamental power peak in the 210 to 240 Hz range while the Africanized honeybee signature has a fundamental power peak in the 260 to 290 Hz range. The acoustic signal produced by honeybees is analyzed by means of a detecting device to quickly determine the honeybee species through the detection of the presence of frequencies in one of these distinct ranges. The device includes a microphone for acoustical signal detection which feeds the detected signal into a frequency analyzer which is designed to detect the presence of either of the known fundamental wingbeat frequencies unique to the acoustical signatures of these species as an indication of the identity of the species and indicate the ...
Examinations of polished and dry cut sections of feed and tuyere coke revealed some possible mechanisms for the physical influence of mineral compounds on the reactivity and strength of coke. It was observed that rounded particles of mineral phases that are exposed to the pore walls and surface of coke at high temperature create an inorganic cover, thus reducing the surface available for gas-solid reactions. The particles of mineral matter that have a low melting point and viscosity can affect the coke at earlier stages in the blast furnace process, acting in the upper parts of the blast furnace (BF). The temperature-driven redistribution of mineral phases within the coke matrix probably leads to the creation of weak spots and in general to anisotropy in its properties, thus reducing its strength. 9 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.
Measurements of {gamma}-ray, {gamma}{gamma}-coincidence and internal conversion electron spectra from the {sup 106}Cd({alpha},n{gamma}){sup 109}Sn reaction were carried out at 15-20 MeV {alpha}-particle bombarding energies with Ge(HP) {gamma}-ray and superconducting magnetic lens plus Si(Li) electron spectrometers. The energies, relative intensities, internal conversion coefficients and coincidence relations of the {sup 109}Sn transitions were determined, and a more complete, consistent level scheme has been deduced. Spin and parity values have been determined from the internal conversion coefficients, the bombarding-energy dependence of the side-feeding intensities of the states and the available {gamma}-ray angular distribution data. The level scheme was interpreted in the framework of the quasi-particle shell model.
Long life cycles covering more than one year are known for all orders of insects. There are different mechanisms of prolongation of the life cycle: (1) slow larval development; (2) prolongation of the adult stage with several reproduction periods; (3) prolongation of diapause; (4) combination of these mechanisms in one life cycle. Lasting suboptimal conditions (such as low temperature, low quality of food or instability of food resources, natural enemies, etc.) tend to prolong life cycles of all individuals in a population. In this case, the larvae feed and develop for longer than a year, and the active periods are interrupted by dormancy periods. The nature of this dormancy is unknown: in some cases it appears to be simple quiescence, in others it has been experimentally shown to be a tru...
In an environment of rapid technological change, countries in the developed and developing worlds need to improve the population's skills and competences. Since 1992, education reforms and various education sector documents and policy frameworks have been implemented to improve quality of education by getting more children into school through the abolishing of school fees, and the school feeding programme, whilst special efforts are made to deal with issues of gender inequality and the empowerment of women to meet the goals of Education for All and the education-related Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3. Though gains have been made in the area of gross enrolment ratio, there are still gross disparities in net enrolment and completion rates at regional level, with girls lagging behind bo...
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) powder from waste bottles was degraded at atmospheric pressure in 7--13 M nitric acid at 70--100 C for 72 h, to clarify the mechanism of a feed stock recycling process. Terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG) were produced by the acid-catalyzed heterogeneous hydrolysis of PET in nitric acid, and the resulting EG was simultaneously oxidized to oxalic acid. The kinetics of the hydrolysis of PET in nitric acid could be explained by a modified shrinking core model of chemical reaction control, in which the effective surface area is proportional to the degree of unreacted PET, affected by the deposition of the product TPA. The apparent rate constant was inversely proportional to particle size and to the concentration of the nitric acid. The activation energy of the reaction was 101.3 kJ/mol.
In order to apply chemical-looping combustion to a practical power plant, carbon deposition on the solid particle is one of the key problems to be overcome. Six kinds of solid particles were examined to clarify the kinetic behavior of carbon deposition. The effects of the solid composition, feed gas composition, and reaction temperature on carbon deposition were investigated by thermogravimetrical reactor on the basis of NiO/YSZ particle. From the viewpoints of both reactivity and resistance against carbon deposition, the particle of NiO mixed with YSZ (i.e., yttria-stabilized zirconia) was found to be a good candidate for chemical-looping combustion. It has been observed that carbon deposition could be completely avoided with very low concentration of water vapor. By means of a proposed model, the condition that carbon deposition would be avoided was identified. 12 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.
Numerous studies have shown that large, herbivorous waterfowl can reduce quantity of aquatic plants during the breeding or wintering season, but relatively few document herbivory effects at staging areas. This study was done to determine if feeding activities of tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus columbianus) and Canada geese (Branta canadensis) had a measurable additive influence on the amount of aquatic plants, primarily muskgrass (Chara vulgaris), wild celery (Vallisneria americana), and sago pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus), removed during the fall migration period at Long Point, Lake Erie, Ontario. Exclosure experiments done in fall 1998 and 1999 showed that, as compared to ducks and abiotic factors, these two large herbivorous waterfowl did not have any additional impact on above or b...
This paper presents an assessment of recent improvements in the technology for direct coal liquefaction on the estimated commercial economics. The basis for the design and cost estimates is a series of studies sponsored by Amoco Corporation and Electric Power Research Institute, which were derived from the highly detailed Breckinridge Project, completed in the early 1980s under DOE sponsorship. The technology, design, and cost estimates reflect the current two-stage liquefaction technology practiced at the Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research facility in Wilsonville, Alabama. Details of the design bases and cost estimates and how they compare with the original Breckinridge study are described. Also examined are effects of feed coal rank, product slate, and the source of hydrogen (natural gas or coal) on the costs. Finally, the ways that projected future improvements in the technology will change the design and lead to lower costs are discussed. 7 refs., 5 figs., 7 ...
Asphaltenes precipitated from an Arabian Mix vacuum residue were hydrocracked in a batch autoclave at 435 and 460{degree}C for 5-90 min. Experiments without catalyst, with modified red mud and with an industrial Co Mo/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalyst were compared. The products were fractionated into gas, naphtha, oil, asphaltenes and coke. Feed asphaltenes and several product fractions were characterised by elemental analysis, by average molecular mass and by {sup 1}H n.m.r. Due to the hydrogenation activity, both catalysts caused - with similar efficiency - the decrease of coke formation and the increase of quantity and quality of oil. 21 refs., 9 figs., 5 tabs.
Abstract Few butterflies are pests of economic significance, but some may be locally destructive, such as the papilionid Graphium agamemnon Linnaeus, which is known to feed on the commercially important soursop (Annona muricata Linnaeus) in Vietnam. This paper documents the life history and ecology ofG. agamemnon and investigates commonly used control measures in south-east Vietnam. A novel method of controlling G. agamemnon infestation is described. If soursop basal rootstock (Annona glabra Linnaeus) is encouraged to shoot during times of peak butterfly activity, ovipositing G. agamemnon females are preferentially attracted to the new growth where the resulting early stages may be easily detected and removed by hand.
Shallow-water zooplanktivorous fish rely on their vision for foraging. In shallow water, feeding efficiency decreases in dim light and thus the fish cease foraging at crepuscular hours. Creatures living in the lower parts of their depth ranges are expected to be exposed to limited light levels for longer hours. However, observations of the zooplanktivore Dascyllus marginatus showed little change in foraging duration down to 40m deep. We asked whether the visual system's functionality changes with depth along the depth range of this damselfish; we examined eye and retina anatomy for changes in visual acuity and light sensitivity and used the optomotor response to test for spatial and temporal light summation. We found only minor changes in the anatomy of the eye that are not expected to aff...
Understanding the impacts of climate change on viticulture is especially essential in those areas producing high-quality wines. In this work, we create an operational framework to investigate climate change impact on viticulture in the Tuscany region (central Italy) the viticulture industry of which relies on producing high-quality wines to compete in a global market. The framework includes (i) statistical downscaling of General Circulation Model (GCM) outputs for the period 1975?2099 to a local scale; (ii) the use of downscaling outputs as driving variables in specific simulation models; (iii) the spatial interpolation of model outputs to feed an economic and (iv) a quality model. The results show that as a consequence of a progressive increase in temperature and a decrease in rainfall, (...
Abstract The benthic marine worm Xenoturbella is frequently contaminated with molluscan DNA, which had earlier caused confusion resulting in a suggested bivalve relationship. In order to find the source of the contaminant, we have used molluscan sequences derived from Xenoturbella and compared them to barcodes obtained from several individuals of the nonmicroscopic molluscs sharing the same environment as Xenoturbella. Using cytochrome oxidase 1, we found the contaminating sequences to be 98% similar to the bivalve Ennucula tenuis. Using the highly variable D1-D2 region of the large ribosomal subunit in Xenoturbella, we found three distinct species of contaminating molluscs, one of which is 99% similar to the bivalve Abra nitida, one of the most abundant bivalves in the Gullmarsfjord where...
The feasibility of continuous production of gallium arsenide ribbon single crystals, by passage of a molten zone through boron-oxide encapsulated GaAs feedstock, is being investigated. Polycrystalline GaAs ribbons have been grown in graphite boats by passage of a wide zone through B2O3-encapsulated feed-stock, confined by a quartz cover plate. Failure to remove the encapsulant above its glass transition temperature, however, resulted in cracking of the ribbons on cooling to room temperature. In order to study the crucial zone melting step in isolation from the encapsulation steps of the continuous process, a constrained-zone melting apparatus has been constructed in which the boron oxide serves only as a sealant to suppress arsenic vaporization. Large grained polycrystalline samples have been produced with this apparatus.
Processes in the feeders of basaltic volcanoes during Strombolian-type eruptions were examined with the use of a complex apparatus for modeling basaltic eruptions (CAMBE), which was designed and manufactured by the authors for this purpose. The experimental setup consists of modeling and registering units and has a height of 18 m. It was designed with regard for the geometric dimensions of a natural feeding volcanic system: the ratio of the inner diameter of the feeder to its height is approximately 1: 1000. CAMBE was the first modeling equipment making possible passing a flow of gas-saturated liquid through the conduit, which allowed us to study the nucleation of gas bubbles, their growth, coalescence, transformations of the gas structures, and the kinetics of the gas phase. The experimen...
The nuclear energy cycle requires the recycling of nuclear fuel, water, chemical reagents, and the volume reduction of radioactive liquid wastes. A fundamental technique for continuous recovery of water using a thin-film evaporator was examined. Appropriate recovery measurements were: an evaporator heat temperature of 323 K, a feed rate of 0.23 cm"3 x s"-"1, a vacuum pressure of 15 mmHg (2 kPa), and impeller rotational speeds of 500#approx#600 rpm (min"-"1). The concentration of trace technetium and rhenium in aqueous solutions was also studied. A decontamination factor of 10"5 for rhenium was obtained. (author)
In this work, a comprehensive model has been developed for the absorption of carbon dioxide into promoted hot potassium carbonate solution. The model, which is based on penetration theory, incorporates an extensive set of important reactions and takes into account the coupling between mass transfer and chemical kinetics. The penetration theory provides an appropriate absorption rate and enhancement factor for the chemical absorption. Operating data for carbon dioxide absorption into DEA-hot potassium carbonate solution has been compared with model predictions. The impact of parameters such inlet temperature of lean solution, promoter concentration, liquid split fraction, hot feed location and type of promoter on the performance of a split-flow absorber have been examined. The use of other promoters is an efficient way to enhance the carbon dioxide absorption, which has been discussed in this paper.
The superconducting magnets and associated cryogenic components in A-sector represent the initial phase of installation of the Fermilab superconducting accelerator, designed to accelerate proton beams to energies of 1 TeV. Installation of the magnets, comprising one-eighth of the ring, was completed in December, 1981. Cooldown and power tests took place in the first half of 1982, concurrent with main ring use for 400 GeV high energy physics. The tests described in this paper involved 151 cryogenic components in the tunnel: 94 dipoles, 24 quadrupoles, 25 spool pieces, 3 feed cans, 4 turn-around boxes and 1 bypass. Refrigeration was supplied by three satellite refrigerators, the Central Helium Liquefier, and two compressor buildings. The magnets were powered by a single power supply.
Purpose: To obtain stabilized operation by preventing over heat in emergency cooling pumps upon accidents of flow regulators. Constitution: A pressure suppression chamber pool and a pressure vessel are communicated to each other with a pipeway and the water in the suppression pool is charged by a charging pump to the pipeway. The pipeway is interposed with an emergency cooling pump so as to feed water in the pipeway to the pressure vessel and a water source and the emergency cooling pumps are connected by way of a closed pipeway. Further, the closed pipeway and the pipeway interposed with the charging pump are communicated to each other by way of a connecting pipeway, to which are interposed an instrument for detecting the increase in the temperature of the emergency cooling pumps due to abnormality in the closed pipe (such as troubles in flow regulators) and outputting control signals and an electrically actuated valve controlled by a control device. (Furukawa, ...
This patent describes an electrodeless lamp. It comprises: a microwave cavity; a source of microwaves in communication with the cavity; a lamp envelope containing a plasma-forming medium mounted within the microwave cavity; a gas manifold for feeding gas to at least one gas passageway for directing a stream of gas to the outer surface of the envelope; a gas leak passageway leading from the gas manifold; a conductive mesh assembly for retaining microwaves within the cavity and permitting light to be emitted from the cavity. The assembly including gas flow blocking means for preventing the flow of gas through the gas leak passageway when the screen is in place in the lamp; and means for shutting off the source of microwaves when the gas pressure in the manifold drops below a predetermined value.
The effects of dietary plant and yeast cerebroside (glucosylceramide), a major sphingolipid in plants and yeast, on atopic dermatitis (AD) like symptoms were investigated in a mouse model. After 7 wk of feeding with a diet containing maize glucosylceramide, plasma IgE levels became significantly lower and in contrast, the levels of interleukin (IL)-12, which induces cellular immunity, became significantly higher in the AD mice than in the controls. However, the sphingolipid constituents of the skin fraction in the maize glucosylceramide fed group did not contain sphingoid bases of plant origin, such as 8-unsaturated sphingoid bases. The results of the present study indicated that dietary plant glucosylceramide prevented AD-like symptoms in AD model mice via regulation of Th1/Th2 balance. P...
Methane and carbon dioxide are the two main constituents of biogas. Biogas also contains traces of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and hydrogen sulphide. When diesel engine runs on biogas, the combustion is poor as compared to diesel fuel. One of the reasons of poor combustion is the presence of carbon dioxide in the biogas. Percentage of methane and carbon dioxide in biogas varies with maturities of feed stock, temperature, water content, loading rate of raw material and bacterial actions. This paper examines the effect of variations of carbon dioxide in biogas on the performance of the engine to simulate the performance of the engine running with biogas from different sources (varying proportion of methane and carbon dioxide). (Author)
Climate variability greatly affects animals through direct and indirect effects. Animals with slow reproductive adaptation to ecological changes such as large mammals are likely to have evolved mechanisms to anticipate early such impacts of climate variability on the environment. One of the adaptive mechanisms between reproductive costs and benefits in mammals affects parental investment through biases in sex ratio. Deer might be likely to show an early detection of climate variability because conception takes place in early autumn, but the main raising cost in deer concerns lactation, which takes place at the end of the following spring. The aim of this paper is to assess whether there is a relationship between global indices of climate variability such as El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (EN...
Ideal free distribution (IFD) models are perhaps the group of mathematical models of behavior that have been the most widely and successfully applied by empiricists. These models can be applied to nearly any situation in which consumers compete?by any mechanism?for resources that are patchily distributed in their environment. Although IFD models have come to be broadly accepted, experiments that simultaneously test more than a single prediction are rare. Instead, investigators normally either test (1) for a relationship between the distribution of consumers and the distribution of resources or (2) whether average fitnesses are equal across resource patches. We conducted experiments with pea aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris) feeding on two patches of fava beans (Vicia faba L.) to fully in...
A Process for yellow cake production from local Euxenite was developed in Bench Scale by using sulphuric acid digestion with simultaneously ion-exchange and solvent extraction purification steps. Uranium was then precipitated as uranium diuranate by ammonia solution. Equipment used in this process includes : digestion vessels, columnar ion-exchange, solvent extraction and precipitation units Ore feed to the process could be adjusted up to 2 kilogram per day (8 hours operation) with yellow cake product purity meet the requirement of Usaec standard of about 10-50 gram per day. Included in this experiment are the leaching characteristics of the ore, the design and construction of continuous columnar 4-cycle ion exchange unit, determination of the extraction and stripping stages of a gravity flow mixer-settler and the design and construction of continuous yellow cake precipitation unit with large grain size and high density product
Waste cooking oil can be recovered and processed into animal feed additives after purification. Unfortunately, the traditional purification processes are insufficient for the removal of the harmful compounds formed during frying, mainly about malondialdehyde and other 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. In the present paper, firstly, a simple and reliable HPLC method was developed to measure the content of malondialdehyde in purified waste cooking oil. The detection limit and the standard recovery of the analysis method are 1.20x10-5gl-1 and 96.5-99.2%, respectively, which is accurate and valid enough for the detection of malondialdehyde in waste cooking oil. Furthermore, the removal of malondialdehyde and other 2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances from waste cooking oil was in...
Testing was performed to determine the feasibility and processing characteristics of evaporation of actual Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) recycle material. Samples of the Off Gas Condensate Tank (OGCT) and Slurry Mix Evaporator Condensate Tank (SMECT) were transferred from DWPF to the Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) Shielded Cells and blended with De-Ionized (DI) water and a small amount of Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) product. A total of 3000 mL of this feed was concentrated to approximately 90 mL during a semi-batch evaporation test of approximately 17 hours. One interruption occurred during the run when the feed tube developed a split and was replaced. Samples of the resulting condensate and concentrate were collected and analyzed. The resulting analysis of the condensate was compared to the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) limits for the F/H Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). Results from the test were compared to previous testing ...
To define the quantitative and qualitative effects of gossypol (GP) on deer (Cervus elaphus) semen, the animals were fed cottonseed (CS). Adult stags each received 350?g of CS for 109?days. Animals received 15?mg of gossypol per kilogram body weight per day. Quantitative and qualitative parameters of experimental ejaculates (n?=?182) were compared to ejaculates (n?=?571) of control animals (n?=?5) collected during three previous natural reproductive seasons. Ejaculate fractions were evaluated by classical methods used in domestic animals. In this paper, we show that mature male deer fed CS exhibited morphological changes and decreased motility of spermatozoa and abnormalities in spermatogenesis. Radioimmunoassay measured concentrations of various steroid hormones (T-testosterone, A4-andros...
Conversion of Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory radioactive sodium-bearing waste into a single solid waste form by evaporation was demonstrated in both flask-scale and pilot-scale agitated thin film evaporator tests. A sodium-bearing waste simulant was adjusted to represent an evaporator feed in which the acid from the distillate is concentrated, neutralized, and recycled back through the evaporator. The advantage to this flowsheet is that a single remote-handled transuranic waste form is produced in the evaporator bottoms without the generation of any low-level mixed secondary waste. However, use of a recycle flowsheet in sodium-bearing waste evaporation results in a 50% increase in remote-handled transuranic volume in comparison to a non-recycle flowsheet.
In view of the persisting and understandable fear of parents with regard to radioactivity in the food of their babies as a consequence of the Chernobyl reactor accident, the Commission on Nutrition of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Kinderheilkunde (German Society of Pediatrics) and the Strahlenschutzkommission have published a statement. According to this statement, the maximum permissible level of radioactivity in commercial baby food has been fixed by the EC to be 370 Bq/kg. The dietetic food industry itself has fixed a maximum for its products which is only a tenth of the radioactivity level permitted by the EC directive. The milk powders for infants tested since the reactor accident contained no measurable radioactivity or only very low amounts of Cs 134 or Cs 137, correspondung to a maximum of 25 Bq/kg in the product. Late damage to health is not to be expected. (orig./ECB).
The reference method used to analyse polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorodibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) is chromatography with high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS). It is interesting to check the suitability of screening methods that are faster and less expensive. Different matrices (milk, fish oil, chicken compound feed, pork tissue, chicken tissue, sepiolitic clay, whole egg and herring tissue) were analysed in the frame of the European project DIFFERENCE1. One of the aims of this project is to optimise screening methods. The CALUX bio-assay was one of the screening techniques used. This paper presents the extraction and purification methods used for the analyses. The CALUX results for dioxins and for dl-PCBs were compared to the corresponding GC-HRMS results.
Combustion characteristics of Korean anthracite in a circulating fluidized bed and freeboard were investigated. A test coal was selected with heating value of 4,429kcal/kg and ash content of 38%. Characteristics of combustion, sorbent effect on desulphurisation and emission of SO{sub x} and NO{sub x} were monitored by varying process variables such as feed rate, (Ca+K)/S ratio, and excess air ratio at the given properties of coal. Optimum operating conditions were studied by analysing: axial profiles of temperature, effect of excess air ratio, characteristics of loopseal and bag filter ashes, and emission of toxic gases. 9 refs., 9 figs., 3 tabs.
Measurements of local mass fluxes of liquid, local number fluxes of the drop and local drop size distributions at various locations in the test column were made for wide ranges of liquid flow rates and gas flow rates. An empirical correlation for the volume mean diameter of the drop at the nozzle exit was proposed. Measurements of the rates of absorption of carbon dioxide from carbon dioxide-air mixtures with water sprays (physical absorption) and aqueous sodium hydroxide sprays (chemical absorption) were made for wide range so fluid flow rates, feed gas concentrations, and initial alkali concentrations. The observed dimensionless rates of absorption were compared with the theoretical values by assuming penetration model with second-order irreversible reaction. 11 refs., 7 figs.
All of the direct reaction schemes described and the corresponding process schemes are still in an exploratory state. Ethylene by oxidative coupling of methane could become competitive if process schemes are developed with significantly less expenditures for separation of the product from unconverted feed. No encouragement for formaldehyde from methane can be presently derived from the existing knowledge. Liquid-phase oxidation of methane to methanol appears to be attractive but no final judgement is possible at present. Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylene and propane look promising although further catalyst improvement is required. Acetic acid from ethane and acrylonitrile from propane have a certain potential as an alternative to present technology. The outlook for acrolein and acrylic acid from propane is less favourable; new concepts for catalyst design are necessary. (orig.)
A Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalyst was prepared by slurry coating ZSM-5 zeolite onto a cordierite monolith, then subliming an iron salt onto the zeolite, calcining the monolith, and then dipping the monolith either into an aqueous solution of manganese nitrate and cerium nitrate and then calcining, or by similar treatment with separate solutions of manganese nitrate and cerium nitrate. The supported catalyst containing iron, manganese, and cerium showed 80 percent conversion at 113 degrees Celsius of a feed gas containing nitrogen oxides having 4 parts NO to one part NO.sub.2, about one equivalent ammonia, and excess oxygen; conversion improved to 94 percent at 147 degrees Celsius. N.sub.2O was not detected (detection limit: 0.6 percent N.sub.2O).
A Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalyst was prepared by slurry coating ZSM-5 zeolite onto a cordierite monolith, then subliming an iron salt onto the zeolite, calcining the monolith, and then dipping the monolith either into an aqueous solution of manganese nitrate and cerium nitrate and then calcining, or by similar treatment with separate solutions of manganese nitrate and cerium nitrate. The supported catalyst containing iron, manganese, and cerium showed 80 percent conversion at 113 degrees Celsius of a feed gas containing nitrogen oxides having 4 parts NO to one part NO.sub.2, about one equivalent ammonia, and excess oxygen; conversion improved to 94 percent at 147 degrees Celsius. N.sub.2O was not detected (detection limit: 0.6 percent N.sub.2O).
Biodynamic parameters of the ragworm Nereis diversicolor from southern Spain and south England were experimentally derived to assess the inter-population variability of physiological parameters of the bioaccumulation of Ag, Cd and Zn from water and sediment. Although there were some limited variations, these were not consistent with the local metal bioavailability nor with temperature changes. Incorporating the biodynamic parameters into a defined biodynamic model, confirmed that sediment is the predominant source of Cd and Zn accumulated by the worms, accounting in each case for 99% of the overall accumulated metals, whereas the contribution of dissolved Ag to the total accumulated by the worm increased from about 27 to about 53% with increasing dissolved Ag concentration. Standardised va...
Increasing quantities of chicken waste concerns the poultry industry because of escalating disposal costs and the potential for environmental pollution. Biological conversion of these wastes to valuable products such as methane and/or chemical feed-stocks appears to be feasible. Biomethanation of chicken waste by a sewage sludge microbial consortium produced as much as 69 mol% methane in the gas phase. Acetic and propionic acids were the major acids produced during the bioconversion. Addition of chelating agents and other micro-nutrients enhanced methane production and shifted the ratios of intermediates accumulated. Preliminary data indicate that more than 60% of the chicken waste carbon was converted and that the nitrogen-rich residue may have potential as a soil additive. (author).
Circadian rhythms affect several processes in the body physiology. This commentary revisits the topic of `metabolic basis of diseases' with a view to shed light on how cellular energy requirements feed-forward to a sequential signaling of hormonal response, blood glucose metabolism, antioxidant activities, and pathophysiology. Attempt is made to explain how diseases that may not appear to be closely related, such as bone metabolism and vasculopathy, have an increase in oxidative damage as a common underlying biochemistry. Importantly, this article identifies oxidative damage as an outcome of sleep disturbance and hypothesize that sleep complaint is not merely one of many resulting symptoms of PTSD, but a core feature that arise from trauma and gives rise to the stress biochemistry, which i...
Climate change is one of the main global issues of modern time. Ever increasing demand for food/feed and the need for higher environmental standards require shaping of the agricultural activities toward ecological and more sustainable efficient systems. One of the principal ways of attaining higher productivity and environmental standards is identification and adoption of beneficial management practices (BMP) by reviewing the conventional agricultural activities. The BMP are agricultural practices that promote sustainable land stewardship and maintain/increase profitability of farms. The BMP are from both crop and animal production systems and tradeoffs between the two systems could provide several opportunities in reducing, removing and/or avoiding of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Des...
Categorization is complete. Samples 11-3-1 (NSR-F-270409-01) and 11-3-2 (NSR-F-270409-02) are depleted uranium powders of moderate purity (#approx#65-80 % U). The uranium feed stocks for 11-3-1 and 11-3-2 have both experienced a neutron flux (as demonstrated by the presence of "2"3"2U). Sample 11-3-3 is indistinguishable from a natural uranium ore concentrate of moderate purity (#approx#70-80% U). Two anomalous objects (11-3-1-4 and 11-3-2-5) were found in the material during aliquoting. These objects might be valuable for route attribution.
Summary Topmouth culter (Culter alburnus), a freshwater carnivorous fish of the Cyprinidae, is one of the most popular fish species in aquatic market in China. The anatomy and histology features of fish intestine are very useful for understanding digestive physiology, diagnosing some intestinal diseases and formulating suitable feeds. Thus, here we first characterize topmouth culter intestine via light microscope, transmission electron microscope and scan electron microscope. The -Z- shaped intestine can be divided into three parts (e.g. the anterior intestine, middle intestine and posterior intestine), with an intestinal coefficient of 0.68. The anterior intestine possessed the longest mucosa folds and thickest muscularis among the three intestinal parts, and microvilli were very well-dev...
The present paper concerns the development of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells model in order to analyse the behaviour of the cell varying its operating parameters such as temperature (70-120 ^oC), pressure (1-3 atm), relative humidity (35-100%) and CO content (0-200 ppm) in the feeding gas. The voltage output and the relative current of a generic PEM fuel cell has been predicted through a mathematical method based on semi-empirical correlations derived from the experimental data available in literature. The model has been implemented in a commercial process simulator (AspenPlus) and it has been validated by comparing the obtained results with further experimental data (not utilized for the model development). The comparison has underlined a good agreement with the experimen...
Breaker failure relaying has been generally achieved through the use of a current monitoring relay to determine whether current continues to flow into a fault after a breaker has been instructed to interrupt the circuit. If current continues to flow after a predefined period of time, the circuit breaker is considered to have failed. Steps must then be taken to trip the next set of upstream breakers in the power system to remove the faulted circuit and prevent system damage. However, with industrial power systems, this may be the utility`s breakers on the feeding transmission line. Regardless, breaker failure schemes must be designed to isolate both the faulted circuit and the failed circuit breaker. This paper discusses a new and innovative method of protecting a circuit breaker from the failure described above, plus other failures that go unprotected with conventional schemes, this providing total breaker failure protection.
The study of the {alpha}-particle energy distributions associated with ND and SD states in {sup 151,152}Dy has been carried out. The Dy isotopes were produced in the reaction {sup 37}Cl+{sup 123}Sb at 191 MeV via the ({alpha}5n) and ({alpha}4n) channels, respectively. In {sup 151}Dy the {alpha}-particle energy distributions associated to ND and SD are very different from each other, both at the low and high energy sides inducing a difference of 3 MeV in the {alpha}-particle mean energy. In {sup 152}Dy the situation is different; the {alpha}-particle spectral shapes are similar and a difference in the {alpha}-particle mean energy of only 0.7 MeV is deduced. A description in terms of energy localization of entry states is given. (orig.)
Novel and unprecedented ion exchange resin cleaning system, for use in BWR plants and featuring a vibration separator and basic design factors of Radiological Solutions, Inc., had been delivered to Tokai No. 2 Power Station, Japan Atomic Power Company, in October 2005. This compactly-designed system effectively separates crud and resin fines from ion exchange resins, with no clogging of separation screens. It generates minimized waste liquid and has a specially designed over-pack cleaning tank. The system has been in operation for about 2 years and half now and favorable operational data, such as crud and sulfate concentration decrease in feed water and reactor water respectively, and evaluation results have been reported from Japan Atomic Power Company and so on. (author)
The ammoxidation of propane over VSb{sub y}O{sub x} catalysts (y=1, 2, 5) was investigated with respect to the role of different oxygen species in the selective and non selective reaction steps using transient experiments in the Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) reactor. Only lattice oxygen is involved in the oxidation reactions. Using isotopic labelled oxygen it is shown that two different active sites exist on the surface. On site A, which can be reoxidized faster by gas phase oxygen compared to site B, mainly CO is formed. On site B CO{sub 2} and acrolein as well as NO and N{sub 2}O in the presence of ammonia in the feed gas are formed and reoxidation mainly occurs with bulk lattice oxygen. (orig.)
Pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) is a very useful technique for recovering bioactive molecules from natural materials using subcritical compressed liquid water in the temperature range of 50-150degreeC. A novel process has been developed for making a natural sweetener from licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) roots involving selective chemical reaction and easy separation, for recovering mono-ammonium glycyrrhizate (MAG) using hot water with dissolved ammonia and pressurized with carbon dioxide. The performance of the novel PHWE process has been evaluated to ascertain the optimum process parameters to maximize the recovery of MAG by varying the parameters, such as temperature (30-120degreeC), pressure (1-10atm), extraction time (60-120min), water-to-feed ratio (20-40ml/g), number of stages...
Abstract Steam generation is an integral part of most chemical process plants; however, the steam plant often is or can be overlooked in the area of hazard analysis. The reasons for this oversight are obvious: steam generation is considered to be an old and well-understood process, and steam boiler systems are often not considered to pose the same hazards as other plant units. However, modern steam boiler systems are fueled with natural gas, pulverized coal, and/or fuel oil; each of which poses significant fire and explosion hazards. For example, a moderately sized chemical plant's boiler house may have two or three boilers operating at 240 MMBTU/hr, with each using approximately 11 ton/hr of subbituminous pulverized coal feed. Chemical plants rely on equipment design and installation, mai...
This paper reports on steam injection cycle which is similar to supplementary fired combined cycle, but for the utilized steam medium produced by HRSG, its temperature is higher and pressure is lower than in the combined cycle. In comparison with the thermodynamic advantage of the two cycles, a clear understanding of physical concept can be gotten simply by energy balance. The difference of total power output between them is subtraction of enthalpy difference of exhaust steam and feed water of HRSG in steam injection cycle from the rejected heat by water coolant of condenser in combined cycle, when using the identical gas turbine and the same amount of total fuel consumption. In general case, formulas and data are given to indicate this comparison by the ratio of steam mass flow supplied by HRSG of the two cycles. The analysis of Cheng Cycle Series 7 is applied as an example to give the practical result.
The paper describes two schemes that follow the model of Lamarckian evolution and combine differential evolution (DE), which is a population-based stochastic global search method, with the local optimization algorithm of conjugate gradients (CG). In the first, each offspring is fine-tuned by CG before competing with their parents. In the other CG is used to improve both parents and offspring in a manner that is completely seamless for individuals that survive more than one generation. Experiments involved training weights of feed-forward neural networks to solve three synthetic and four real-life problems. In six out of seven cases the DE?CG hybrid, which preserves and uses information on each solution?s local optimization process, outperformed two recent variants of DE.
An overall systems approach has been applied to develop action plans to support the retrieval and immobilization waste disposal mission. The review concluded that the systems and infrastructure required to support the mission are known. Required systems are either in place or plans have been developed to ensure they exist when needed. The review showed that since October 1996 a robust system engineering approach to establishing integrated Technical Baselines, work breakdown structures, tank farm structure and configurations and work scope and costs has been established itself as part of the culture within TWRS. An analysis of the programmatic, management and technical activities necessary to declare readiness to proceed with execution of the mission demonstrates that the system, people and hardware will be on line and ready to support the private contractors. The systems approach included defining the retrieval and immobilized waste disposal mission requirements and evaluating the ...
Placental insufficiency, inducing hypoxia-ischaemia, is considered a major cause of neuronal injury and impaired post natal development. Placental insufficiency alters the metabolism of arachidonic acid and its oxidation products. Premature labour and low-birth-weight infants are associated with reduced intrauterine blood-flow and infections of the reproductive tract. Thyroidal activity is depressed in undernutrition (placental insufficiency). Premature infants require extra vitamin C for normal tyrosine metabolism (tyrosine is the thyroxine precursor). Among the symptoms indicating infantile cretinism, which appear during 3-5 months of age are: delayed union of skull bones, torpid behaviour, slow feeding, cyanosis during feeding, excessive sleepiness, enlarged tongue, umbilical herniation, flabby musculature, short stature and delayed development. These symptoms have all been described in low-birth-weight infants and sudden infant death ...
A new diffuser/permeator design has been proposed for a new Savannah River Site tritium project. The use of a single heater well in the center of the shell had raised concerns that the Pd/Ag coils may be shielding radiative heat transfer to the walls thus reducing Pd/Ag tube temperatures near the shell below the recommended minimum operating temperature. The diffuser was fitted with thermocouples to measure shell temperatures during testing. Tests were run with the shell evacuated, helium feed flows of 0, 1000, and 2000 sccm; bleed pressures ranging from 0 to 203 kPa, and heater temperatures of 650, 675, and 700 degrees C. Hydrogen permeation tests were run with two hydrogen/helium mixtures and feed rates to simulate 1st and 2nd stage diffuser operations. Approximately 20 hours were required to bring the diffuser from ambient temperature to steady-state conditions. For tests with a heater temperature of 675 degrees C and no hydrogen flow, ...
The performance of PAN-based composite absorbers was evaluated in dynamic experiments at flow rates ranging from 25--100 bed volumes (BV) per hour. Composite absorbers with active components of ammonium molybdophosphate (AMP) PAN and K-Co ferrocyanide (KCoFC) PAN were used for separating Cs from a 1 M HNO{sub 3} + 1 M NaNO{sub 3} + 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} M CsCl acidic simulant solution. KCoFC-PAN and two other FC-based composite absorbers were tested for separating Cs from alkaline simulant solutions containing 0.01 M to 1 M NaOH and 1 M NaNO{sub 3} + x {times} 10{sup {minus}4} M CsCl. The efficiency of the Cs sorption on the AMP-PAN absorber from acidic simulant solutions was negatively influenced by the dissolution of the AMP active component. At flow rates of 50 BV/hr, the decontamination factor of about 10{sup 3} could be maintained for treatment of 380 BV of the feed. With the KCoFC-PAN absorber, the decontamination factor of about 10{sup 3} could be ...
The first quarter 1982 report summarizes the operating and test data obtained at the six ton per day Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research and Development Facility in Wilsonville, Alabama. The Wilsonville R and D Facility was in operation 52% of the period with scheduled shutdowns accounting for 33% of the downtime. Illinois 6 coal from the Burning Star No. 2 mine was processed during Run 236. The three process units of the Wilsonville facility were operated in a non-integrated mode to evaluate process parameters and to test equipment and operating modifications. Data were obtained in the following areas: In the SRC Unit: operation at low severity reaction conditions for single stage liquefaction with a high LSRC recycle rate using Illinois 6 coal; process solvent activity control; and preliminary feeding tests with hydrotreated SRC as a replacement for LSRC in the process solvent. In the CSD Unit: operation with T102 Vacuum Column bottoms produced at low severity ...
The present invention is a fully connected feed forward network that includes at least one hidden layer 16. The hidden layer 16 includes nodes 20 in which the output of the node is fed back to that node as an input with a unit delay produced by a delay device 24 occurring in the feedback path 22 (local feedback). Each node within each layer also receives a delayed output (crosstalk) produced by a delay unit 36 from all the other nodes within the same layer 16. The node performs a transfer function operation based on the inputs from the previous layer and the delayed outputs. The network can be implemented as analog or digital or within a general purpose processor. Two teaching methods can be used: (1) back propagation of weight calculation that includes the local feedback and the crosstalk or (2) more preferably a feed forward gradient decent which immediately follows the output computations and which also includes the local feedback and the ...
In the developed world, grid-connected photovoltaics (PVs) are the fastest-growing segment of the energy market. From 1999 to 2009, this industry had a 42% compound annual growth-rate. From 2009 to 2013, it is expected to grow to 45%, and in 2013 the achievement of grid parity - when the cost of solar electricity becomes competitive with conventional retail (including taxes and charges) grid-supplied electricity - is expected in many places worldwide. Grid-connected PV is usually perceived as an energy technology for developed countries, whereas isolated, stand-alone PV is considered as more suited for applications in developing nations, where so many individuals still lack access to electricity. This rationale is based on the still high costs of PV when compared with conventional electricity. We make the case for grid-connected PV generation in Brazil, showing that with the declining costs of PV and the rising prices of conventional electricity, urban populations in Brazil will also ...
The Steam Generator (SG) serves as an interface between primary and secondary cycle in Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). Failure of steam generator tubes result in leaking of active heavy water in the secondary closed loop. In Tarapur Atomic Power Station-3 and 4 (TAPS- 3 and 4), Scintillator detectors are provided to detect on line heavy water leakages in SG and moderator heat exchangers by monitoring Nitrogen-16 (16N) and Oxygen-19 (19O) activities. Efficacy of detection of these activities at designed detector position on SG blow down line in presence of background radiation field is analysed theoretically. The count rate of 19O and 16N estimated at the detector position inside Reactor Building (RB) shows that detectors only respond to very high leak rates due to presence of high ambient radiation level even though sensitivity is appreciably good. For detector position in RB in the accessible areas and out side the RE containment, the travel time for the blow down ...
Among the membrane filtration techniques, continuous cross-flow ultrafiltration (UF) is an innovative method to separate solid/liquid or liquid/liquid phases at a lower pressure of 5--150 psi compared to reverse osmosis (RO) in which the applied pressure is an order of magnitude higher. Recently, attempts have been made to combine processes of UF and other treatments for many applications. However, there is very little knowledge about the filtration process which combined coagulation and UF, and very few attempts have been made to apply coagulated UF to the treatment of fuel oil contaminated water. During the UF treatment of organic contaminants rapid declines in flux will occur due to the membrane fouling. Oil as a foulant plants an important role in the flux decrease. However, there are very limited pretreatment processes which can effectively remove fuel oil from water and hence solve the fouling problem. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of a simple method ...
In June 1997, the US Navy plans to close its Naval Air Facility on Sand Island and transfer the atoll to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for use as a National Wildlife Refuge. Midway provides breeding and feeding habitat for migratory seabirds, terrestrial and marine mammals, sea turtles and other reptiles, and a variety of reef fishes and invertebrates. As part of the base closure and transfer process, 36 sites of potential environmental concern were identified on Sand and Eastern islands. These sites include landfills and uncontrolled disposal areas, hazardous materials storage areas, abandoned transformers, sewer outfalls, and other potential hazardous waste sites. Potential contaminants include pesticides, PAHs, PCBs, and heavy metals. A screening ecological risk assessment was performed at each site with a goal of determining whether contaminants could pose any current or future risks to protected migratory bird or marine mammal wildlife species. Specific ...
#gamma# spectroscopy methods have been applied to determine the effects of two freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates, on reworking of sediments and the transfer of solutes across the sediment-water interface. Natural lake sediments and overlying water were contained in temperature-regulated rectangular plastic cells. After addition of Stylodrilus (oligochaete worms) and Pontoporeia (crustacean amphipods) to these microcosms, the vertical distribution of Cs-137 (a tracer of particle transport) and Na-22 (a tracer of solute transport) were determined. In cells with Stylodrilus, the Cs-137 layer moved downward at a rate that decreased exponentially with time. In cells with Pontoporeia, Cs-137 activity was smeared downward in time owing to eddy diffusive mixing of sediments over a small range (1-2 cm). In cells without worms, the veneer of Cs active material remained at the interface while the penetration of Na-22 into sediments was consistent with diffusion in free solution with small ...
The ELEX process for isotopic enrichment and separation of tritium from aqueous reprocessing effluents is described. After the development of an appropriate hydrophobic catalyst and the study of the separate constituent steps of the ELEX process, an integrated bench-scale installation with a detritiation capacity of 10 mol water per hour was constructed. It comprises essentially a 1.5 kW electrolyser and two 2 cm diameter by 3 m high exchange columns. In this mini-pilot the ELEX process was successfully demonstrated by detritiating more than 1000 dm"3 water containing up to 100 mCi tritium per dm"3, which is the feed concentration expected for application of the process in a reprocessing plant. The process decontamination factor was always larger than 100 and the overall tritium balance could be kept within the experimental errors of the various measurements. Depending on the duration of the runs, the volume reduction factor was between 10 and 15, but this factor ...
Four 10 MW, highly-stabilized power supply modules have been installed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL, to energize water-cooled, resistive, high-field research magnets. The power supply modules achieve a long term current stability if 10 ppM over a 12 h period with a short term ripple and noise variation of <10 ppM over a time period of one cycle. The power supply modules can operate independently, feeding four separate magnets, or two, three or four modules can operate in parallel. Each power supply module consists of a 12.5 kV vacuum circuit breaker, two three-winding, step-down transformers, a 24-pulse rectifier with interphase reactors, and a passive and an active filter. Two different transformer tap settings allow rated dc supply output voltages of 400 and 500 V. The rated current of a supply module is 17 kA and each supply module has a one-hour overload capability of 20 kA. The isolated output terminals of each power ...
A critical review of the literature revealed no experiments on uranyl ion transfer from an aqueous to a tributyl phosphate phase which positively measured the kinetics of the chemical reaction at the interphase. Drawing isorhythmic lines on a three component diagram gives a complex correlation for the compaction of three sizes of glass beads. Neither the use of thoria sols nor high feed solution concentrations of thorium nitrate gave any significant increase in mean particle diameters over those obtained from nitrate solutions of lower concentrations in flame denitration. A hydraulic film resistance has been detected in the anion exchange of uranyl sulfate into Dowex 2lK, and chloride elution was found to give a higher apparent uranium diffusion coefficient than nitrate elution. The rate of dissolution of mixed thorium-uranium oxides was determined as a function of the per cent of mixed oxides dissolved. Mixing in tanks packed with ...
A comprehensive study of biomass production conversion and utilisation systems has been carried out to examine complete bio-energy systems from biomass in the forest to electricity delivered to the grid. Models have been derived for all of the key steps in an integrated process which have been compiled into an overall system model. Biomass production from short rotation forestry and from conventional forestry is modelled on an individual operation basis in terms of the performance and cost of each step. This includes planting, maintenance, harvesting, chipping, storage and transport. Biomass conversion includes pretreatment (reception, storage, handling, comminution, screening and drying); atmospheric gasification (generic gasifier, water scrubbing, gas engine); pressure gasification (generic gasifier, hot gas clean-up, gas turbine, HRSG, steam turbine); fast pyrolysis for liquid bio-fuel-oil (pyrolyser, oil storage, dual fuel engine); combustion (fluid bed combustor, steam turbine). ...
In this study based on the mass transfer theory, experiments for the evaporation rates depending on various conditions were carried out through the operation of the existing Natural Evaporation Facility in KAERI. Evaporation media were made of the cotton and polyester. Air circulation in the facility was forced by exhausting fans. The evaporation rate and the decontamination factor were calculated by the result of experiment. The evaporation rate increased as the flow rate of air supply, the feed rate of liquid waste, and the temperature of supplied air increased. As for the humility of supplied air, the evaporation rate was getting higher as the humidity was getting lower. As the result of this study, operation conditions of the Natural Evaporation Facility are optimized as follows; The air temperature above 8C .deg., the air humidity below 70%, the air flow rate 1.14-1.47 m/sec, and the liquid waste feed rate 4.6l/hr.m{sup 2}. The ...
Energy from biomass is a CO{sub 2} neutral, sustainable form of energy. Anaerobic digestion is an established technology for converting biomass to biogas, which contains around 60% methane, besides CO{sub 2} and various contaminants. Most types of biomass contain material that cannot be digested; in woody biomass, this portion is particularly high. Therefore, conventional anaerobic digestion is not suited for the production of biogas from woody biomass. While wood is already being converted to energy by conventional thermal methods (gasification with subsequent methanation), dung, manure, and sewage sludge represent types of biomass whose energy potential remains largely untapped (present energetic use of manure in Switzerland: 0.4%). Conventional gas phase processes suffer from a low efficiency due to the high water content of the feed (enthalpy of vaporization). An alternative technology is the hydrothermal gasification: the water contained within the biomass ...
The improving uranium extraction efficiency of yellow cake production from shale deposit by acid pugging and curing with D263B resin adsorption is described in this paper. The analysis and examination show that the composition of uranium minerals in one of uranium ores is very complex, which directly influence the extraction efficiency of uranium and processing technology. Conventional experimental results indicate that uranium leaching efficiency is changed between 50?60% by conventional agitation method. In this case, acid pugging and curing experiments are employed in order to improving the extraction efficiency. A series of acid pugging and curing experiments are carried out to get parameters for heap leaching in pilot plant experiment. The experiment results by acid pugging and curing technology showed that uranium leaching efficiency can reach to 90% of extraction efficiency mixed with 1% manganese dioxide, 12% sulfuric acid pugging, curing 3 days and leached out with 5 g.L-1 ...
A developed flue gas desulfurization and dust removal process with a cross-flow moving bed filled with activated coke (AC) was tested on a pilot scale with the gas treatment capacity of 1000 mg x h(-t). The results show that a easy-operating and stable-running pilot-scale testing equipment can be reached, and under the conditions of testing space velocity, the feed gas temperature of 120 degrees C, SO2 concentrations of 3232-6006 mg x m(-3) and dust concentration of 89.3-1599.7 mg x m(-3), the high efficiency of flue gas desulfurization and dust removal is reached with the purity of dust less than 50 mg x m(-3). In the technology, the spent AC was regenerated by heating, and the SO2 concentration in the desorption gas is about 40.1%, which can be efficiently recovered as a sulfur resource. Favorable economy benefit can be reached by using the process. PMID:16850821
As a first step an attempt was made to integrate a personnel information facility into a system for optimising materials flow. The two systems developed did not reach a workable stage because the synthetic language would have required an input on the part of the personnel operating the system beyond what could reasonably be expected. The research in the second stage consisted in developing and testing a module with which language storage services could be built up on the basis of digitalised speech and controlled via the in-house telephone network. In language storage services users may feed in data or interrogate. Services of this kind can readily be integrated into available telephone installations working on the pulse selection principle. The low cost of the hardware involved means the system can be built up with modest investment while offering high effectiveness. 6 refs., 2 figs.
The ultra-high pressure waterjet technology was being evaluated at Florida International University (FIU) as a baseline technology. In conjunction with FIU's evaluation of efficiency and cost, this report covers the evaluation conducted for safety and health issues. It is a commercially available technology and has been used for various projects at locations throughout the country. The ultra-high pressure waterjet technology acts as a cutting tool for the removal of surface substrates. The Husky trademark pump feeds water to a lance that directs the high pressure water at the surface to be removed. The safety and health evaluation during the testing demonstration focused on two main areas of exposure. These were dust and noise. The dust exposure was found to be minimal, which would be expected due to the wet environment inherent in the technology, but noise exposure was at a significant level. Further testing for noise is recommended because of the outdoor ...
We present evidence for the existence of two ~35 day clocks in the Her X-1/HZ Her binary system. ~35 day modulations are observed 1) in the Turn-On cycles with two on- and two off-states, and 2) in the changing shape of the pulse profiles which re-appears regularly. The two ways of counting the 35 day cycles are generally in synchronization. This synchronization did apparently break down temporarily during the long Anomalous Low (AL3) which Her X-1 experienced in 1999/2000, in the sense that there must have been one extra Turn-On cycle. Our working hypothesis is that there are two clocks in the system, both with a period of about ~35 days: precession of the accretion disk (the less stable "Turn-On clock") and free precession of the neutron star (the more stable "Pulse profile clock"). We suggest that free precession of the neutron star is the master clock, and that the precession of the accretion disk is basically synchronized to that of the neutron star through a ...
Beyond a great number of applications in mineral process, the hydrocyclone separation has been used recently in an increasing number of fields, such as: environmental engineering, petrochemical engineering, food engineering, electrochemical engineering, pulp bioengineering, processes and paper industries, among others. Nowadays, the produced water is treated and then reinjected in the surface and also in return to the formation. In the offshore platforms, the produced water can be directly discarded in the ocean, since the dispersed phase concentration (oil) is according to Brazilian regulating agency limits. The basic principle used in hydrocyclone separation is the centrifugal sedimentation machine: the suspended particles are submitted to centrifugal acceleration, which separates them from the fluid. The basic geometry of a hydrocyclone consists of four parts: a cylindrical section for feeding, a conical section for swirling, an overflow and an under flow. The ...
The Mixed Waste Management Facility, or MWMF, has been proposed as a national testbed facility for the demonstration and evaluation of technologies that are alternatives to incineration for the treatment of mixed low-level waste. The facility design will enable evaluation of technologies at pilot scale, including all aspects of the processes, from receiving and feed preparation to the preparation of final forms for disposal. The MWMF will reduce the risk of deploying such technologies by addressing the following: (1) Engineering development and scale-up. (2) Process integration and activation of the treatment systems. (3) Permitting and stakeholder issues. In light of the severe financial constraints imposed on the DOE and federal programs, DOE/HQ requested a study to assess the cost benefit for the MWMF given other potential alternatives to meet waste treatment needs. The MVVMF Project was asked to consider alternatives specifically associated with ...
Recent high spatial and spectral resolution investigations of the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) have found significant evidence for small-scale variations in the interstellar gas on scales less than or equal to 1 pc. To better understand the nature of small-scale variations in the ISM, we have used the KPNO WIYN Hydra multi-object spectrograph, which has a mapping advantage over the single-axis, single-scale limitations of studies using high proper motion stars and binary stars, to obtain moderate resolution (~12 km/s) interstellar Na I D absorption spectra of 172 stars toward the double open cluster h and Chi Persei. All of the sightlines toward the 150 stars with spectra that reveal absorption from the Perseus spiral arm show different interstellar Na I D absorption profiles in the Perseus arm gas. Additionally, we have utilized the KPNO Coude Feed spectrograph to obtain high-resolution (~3 km/s) interstellar Na I D absorption spectra of 24 of the brighter ...
The Department of Energy selected caustic-side solvent extraction (CSSX) as the preferred cesium-removal technology for SRS high-level waste. In the pretreatment step of the CSSX flowsheet, the incoming salt solution, which contains entrained sludge, is contacted with MST to adsorb strontium and selected actinides. An alternative approach replaces MST with the addition of sodium permanganate, strontium nitrate, and hydrogen peroxide. The pretreatment operation then filters the resulting slurry to remove the sludge and MST or manganese oxide and strontium carbonate solids. The filtrate receives further treatment in the solvent extraction system. SRTC personnel coordinated tests using a SpinTek rotary microfilter at the vendor location in FY01. These tests demonstrated a significant improvement - 2.5 to 6 times increase - in performance relative to the conventional cross-flow filter units. Rotary microfilter testing used a filter disk with nominal pore size of either 0.1-micron or 0. ...
Terrestrial planets form in a series of dynamical steps from the solid component of circumstellar disks. First, km-sized planetesimals form likely via a combination of sticky collisions, turbulent concentration of solids, and gravitational collapse from micron-sized dust grains in the thin disk midplane. Second, planetesimals coalesce to form Moon- to Mars-sized protoplanets, also called "planetary embryos". Finally, full-sized terrestrial planets accrete from protoplanets and planetesimals. This final stage of accretion lasts about 10-100 Myr and is strongly affected by gravitational perturbations from any gas giant planets, which are constrained to form more quickly, during the 1-10 Myr lifetime of the gaseous component of the disk. It is during this final stage that the bulk compositions and volatile (e.g., water) contents of terrestrial planets are set, depending on their feeding zones and the amount of radial mixing that occurs. The main factors that influence ...
Structural and functional responses of a benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage to pulses of the insecticide imidacloprid were assessed in outdoor stream mesocosms. Imidacloprid pulses reduced invertebrate abundance and community diversity in imidacloprid-dosed streams compared to control streams. These results correlated well with effects of imidacloprid on leaf litter decomposition and feeding rates of Pteronarcys comstocki, a stonefly, in artificial streams. Reductions in oxygen consumption of stoneflies exposed to imidacloprid were also observed in laboratory experiments. Our findings suggest that leaf litter degradation and single species responses can be sensitive ecotoxicological endpoints that can be used as early warning indicators and biomonitoring tools for pesticide contamination. The data generated illustrates the value of mesocosm experiments in environmental assessment and how the consideration of functional and structural endpoints of natural ...
Concentrations of total arsenic (As) and individual compounds were determined in green and hawksbill turtles from Ishigaki Island, Japan. In both species, total As concentrations were highest in muscle among the tissues. Arsenobetaine was a major compound in most tissues of both turtles. High concentrations of trimethylarsine oxide were detected in hawksbill turtles. A significant negative correlation between standard carapace length (SCL), an indicator of age, and total As levels in green turtles was found. In contrast, the levels increased with SCL of hawksbill turtles. Shifts in feeding habitats with growth may account for such a growth-dependent accumulation of As. Although concentrations of As in marine sponges, the major food of hawksbill turtles are not high compared to those in algae eaten by green turtles, As concentrations in hawksbill turtles were higher than those in green turtles, indicating that hawksbill turtles may have a specific accumulation ...
A calculation program (URA 6.F4) was elaborated on FORTRAN IV language, that through finite differences solves the unidimensional scalar Helmholtz equation, assuming only one energy group, in spherical cylindrical or plane geometry. The purpose is the determination of the flow distribution in a reactor of spherical cylindrical or plane geometry and the critical dimensions. Feeding as entrance datas to the program the geometry, diffusion coefficients and macroscopic transversals cross sections of absorption and fission for each region. The differential diffusion equation is converted with its boundary conditions, to one system of homogeneous algebraic linear equations using the box integration technique. The investigation on criticality is converted then in a succession of eigenvalue problems for the critical eigenvalue. In general, only is necessary to solve the first eigenvalue and its corresponding eigenvector, employing the power method. The obtained results by ...
An experimental investigation of a humidification-dehumidification desalination (HDD) process using solar energy at the weather conditions of Suez City, Egypt, is presented. A test rig is designed and constructed to conduct this investigation under different environmental and operating conditions. The test rig consists of a solar water heater (concentrator solar collector type), solar air heater (flat plate solar collector type), humidifier tower and dehumidifier exchanger. Different variables are examined including the feed water flow rate, the air flow rate, the cooling water flow rate in the dehumidifier and the weather conditions. Comparisons between the experimental results and other published results are presented. It is found that the results of the developed mathematical model by the same authors are in good agreement with the experimental results. The tested results show that the productivity of the system is strongly affected by the saline water ...
An experimental investigation of a humidification-dehumidification desalination (HDD) process using solar energy at the weather conditions of Suez City, Egypt, is presented. A test rig is designed and constructed to conduct this investigation under different environmental and operating conditions. The test rig consists of a solar water heater (concentrator solar collector type), solar air heater (flat plate solar collector type), humidifier tower and dehumidifier exchanger. Different variables are examined including the feed water flow rate, the air flow rate, the cooling water flow rate in the dehumidifier and the weather conditions. Comparisons between the experimental results and other published results are presented. It is found that the results of the developed mathematical model by the same authors are in good agreement with the experimental results. The tested results show that the productivity of the system is strongly affected by the saline water ...
An experimental investigation of a humidification-dehumidification desalination (HDD) process using solar energy at the weather conditions of Suez City, Egypt, is presented. A test rig is designed and constructed to conduct this investigation under different environmental and operating conditions. The test rig consists of a solar water heater (concentrator solar collector type), solar air heater (flat plate solar collector type), humidifier tower and dehumidifier exchanger. Different variables are examined including the feed water flow rate, the air flow rate, the cooling water flow rate in the dehumidifier and the weather conditions. Comparisons between the experimental results and other published results are presented. It is found that the results of the developed mathematical model by the same authors are in good agreement with the experimental results. The tested results show that the productivity of the system is strongly affected by the saline water ...
A numerical investigation of a humidification dehumidification desalination (HDD) process using solar energy is presented. The HDD system consists mainly of a concentrating solar water heating collector, flat plate solar air heating collector, humidifying tower and dehumidifying exchanger. Two separate circulating loops constitute the HDD system, the first for heating the feed water and the second for heating air. A mathematical model is developed, simulating the HDD system, to study the influence of the different system configurations, weather and operating conditions on the system productivity. The model validity is examined by comparing the theoretical and experimental results of the same authors. It is found that the results of the developed mathematical model are in good agreement with the experimental results and other published works. The results show also that the productivity of the unit is strongly influenced by the air flow rate, cooling water flow rate ...
A numerical investigation of a humidification dehumidification desalination (HDD) process using solar energy is presented. The HDD system consists mainly of a concentrating solar water heating collector, flat plate solar air heating collector, humidifying tower and dehumidifying exchanger. Two separate circulating loops constitute the HDD system, the first for heating the feed water and the second for heating air. A mathematical model is developed, simulating the HDD system, to study the influence of the different system configurations, weather and operating conditions on the system productivity. The model validity is examined by comparing the theoretical and experimental results of the same authors. It is found that the results of the developed mathematical model are in good agreement with the experimental results and other published works. The results show also that the productivity of the unit is strongly influenced by the air flow rate, cooling water flow rate ...
This picture shows one of the 2 new cavities installed in 1978-1979. The main RF-system of the SPS comprises four cavities: two of 20 m length and two of 16.5 m length. They are all installed in one long straight section (LSS 3). These cavities are of the travelling-wave type operating at a centre frequency of 200.2 MHz. They are wideband, filling time about 700 ns and untuned. The power amplifiers, using tetrodes are installed in a surface building 200 m from the cavities. Initially only two cavities were installed, a third cavity was installed in 1978 and a forth one in 1979. The number of power amplifiers was also increased: to the first 2 MW plant a second 2 MW plant was added and by end 1979 there were 8 500 kW units combined in pairs to feed each of the 4 cavities with up to about 1 MW RF power, resulting in a total accelerating voltage of about 8 MV. See also 7412016X, 7412017X, 7411048X
The relationship between the current density distribution and the electron density profile during the flat-top phase of Ohmic discharges in TEXTOR has been investigated by means of far-infrared interferometry and polarimetry. It is found that neither gradual nor rapid changes of the electron density distribution (induced by continuous gas feed or pellet injection) alter the current profile significantly. The conclusion is drawn from the temporal evolution of the measured Faraday rotation signals #alpha#_e_x_p(x,t) which are proportional to the line integrals of n_c times the poloidal magnetic field component B_p_c along the probing beam paths (x is the distance of a chord from the plasma centre). By taking into account the known variation of the density profile but keeping the current distribution fixed, theoretical signals #alpha#_s_i_m(x,t) can be calculated which match the observed waveforms very well without any need to readjust the poloidal field. Under ...
The reduction of CO{sub 2} concentration in a gas stream containing 500ppm of CO{sub 2} by a technique combining chemical absorption with Higee (high gravity) was investigated in this study. Using a 2.0L aqueous amine-based solution to treat the feed gas with a flow rate which varied from 12.9 to 20.6Lmin{sup -1}, piperazine (PZ) was found to be more effective than 2-(2-aminoethylamino) ethanol (AEEA) and monoethanolamine (MEA) for reducing the CO{sub 2} concentration to a level below 20ppm. The effects of temperature, rotating speed, amine solution flow rate, and gas flow rate on the removal efficiency of CO{sub 2} were systematically examined. The results indicated that the proposed compact device could effectively reduce CO{sub 2} to a level below 20ppm, as required by a zinc/air battery, for a long period of time using PZ and its mixture with AEEA and MEA as the absorbents. (author)
The 380 MW combined cycle gas turbine power station in Peterborough changed its water supply from town mains to high purity reverse osmosis permeate in October 2000. The high purity water is produced from secondary treated sewage effluent using advanced membrane technology. Alpheus Environmental and British Gas staff have recently completed a study of the power station's demineralization plant to identify the differences in operating costs associated with the change in feedwater. The results show that the ultrapure water produced after the change to a high purity feed is of improved quality and that the demineralization plant regeneration operating costs have been reduced by over 90%. The demineralization plant availability has increased from 78 to 98% enabling almost 20% more ultra pure water to be produced. The change in feedwater has also improved the local environment by significantly reducing the amount of waste chemicals discharged from the site. ...
A study has been made of the reactor blockages occurring in the course of direct hydroliquefaction of Miike coal, Taiheiyo coal and Yallourn coal briquets in a tubular reactor. The liquefaction tests were carried out at 450 C under 24.6 MPa hydrogen pressure, with red mud and sulfur catalyst. From the observed balances for catalyst and coal ash, it was inferred that reactor blockages are due to sedimentation of catalyst and ash. The conditions for catalyst and coal ash run-off were determined after solvent and slurry flow rates had been altered to suit the type of coal being tested. It was found that ash run-off occurred more readily as the difference between the slurry flow velocity and the natural sedimentation velocity of red mud in the coal liquids increased. Even when ash run-off was occurring, however, the ash concentration of the slurry in the reactor was higher than the concentration in the feed slurry. This is taken as indicating that some of the solvent ...
Trying to achieve the optimal utilization of oil shale resources, and the production of a more environmentally acceptable fuel, as well as a solid waste with a low a sulphur content, thereby reducing acidic leachates, has led to this investigation. In this article, the influences of the bed temperature and the choice of fluidizing gas on the quality and quantity of the produced fuel gas, using a continuous feed fluidized bed reactor, were investigated. The composition and calorific value of the generated gas were determined. There was a nearly linear increase in the amount of fuel gas produced as a function of temperature, reaching {approx}350 kg per 10{sup 3} kg of dry raw shale and the gross calorific value ranged from 15 to 23 MJ-kg{sup -1} with CO and H{sub 2} being the major constituents. Subsequent experiments were carried out, employing a thermogravimetric analyser under similar conditions as applied to the fluidized bed reactor. Gasification of the ...
Most of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide result from the combustion of fossil fuels for energy production. Photosynthesis has long been recognized as a means, at least in theory, to sequester anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Aquatic microalgae have been identified as fast growing species whose carbon fixing rates are higher than those of land-based plants by one order of magnitude. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), Aquasearch, and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii are jointly developing technologies for recovery and sequestration of CO{sub 2} from stationary combustion systems by photosynthesis of microalgae. The research is aimed primarily at demonstrating the ability of selected species of microalgae to effectively fix carbon from typical power plant exhaust gases. This report covers the reporting period 1 April to 30 June 2003 in which PSI, Aquasearch and University of Hawaii conducted their tasks. Based on the work during the previous reporting ...
Glass produced during the Purex 4 campaigns of the Integrated Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Melter System (IDMS) and the 774 Research Melter contained a lower fraction of sludge components than targeted by the Product Composition Control System (PCCS). Purex 4 glass was more durable than the benchmark (EA) glass, but less durable than most simulated SRS high-level waste glasses. Also, Purex 4 glass was considerably less durable than predicted by the algorithm which will be used to control production of DWPF glass. A melter run was performed using the 774 Research Melter to determine if the initial PCCS target composition determined for Purex 4 would produce acceptable glass whose durability could be accurately modeled by Hydration Thermodynamics. Reagent grade oxides and carbonates were added to Purex 4 melter feed stock to simulate a higher sludge loading. Each canister of glass produced was sampled and the composition, crystallinity, and durability was ...
Glass produced during the Purex 4 campaigns of the Integrated DWPF Melter System (IDMS) and the 774 Research Melter contained a lower fraction of sludge components than targeted by the Product Composition Control System (PCCS). Purex 4 glass was more durable than the benchmark (EA) glass, but was less durable than most other simulated SRS high-level waste glasses. Further, the measured durability of Purex 4 glass was not as well correlated with the durability predicted from the DWPF process control algorithm, probably because the algorithm was developed to predict the durability of SRS high-level waste glasses with higher sludge content than Purex 4. A melter run, designated Purex 4 Remediation, was performed using the 774 Research Melter to determine if the initial PCCS target composition determined for Purex 4 would produce acceptable glass whose durability could be accurately modeled by the DWPF glass durability algorithm. Reagent grade oxides and carbonates were added to Purex 4 ...
In this paper, the combustible value (i.e. 100-Ash) and combustible recovery of coal flotation concentrate were predicted by regression and artificial neural network based on proximate and group macerals analysis. The regression method shows that the relationships between (a) in (ash), volatile matter and moisture (b) in (ash), in (liptinite), fusinite and vitrinite with combustible value can achieve the correlation coefficients (R{sup 2}) of 0.8 and 0.79, respectively. In addition, the input sets of (c) ash, volatile matter and moisture (d) ash, liptinite and fusinite can predict the combustible recovery with the correlation coefficients of 0.84 and 0.63, respectively. Feed-forward artificial neural network with 6-8-12-11-2-1 arrangement for moisture, ash and volatile matter input set was capable to estimate both combustible value and combustible recovery with correlation of 0.95. It was shown that the proposed neural network model could accurately reproduce all ...
Measurement of redshifted 21-cm emission from neutral hydrogen promises to be the most effective method for studying the reionisation history of hydrogen and, indirectly, the first galaxies. These studies will be limited not by raw sensitivity to the signal, but rather, by bright foreground radiation from Galactic and extragalactic radio sources and the Galactic continuum. In addition, leakage due to gain errors and non-ideal feeds conspire to further contaminate low-frequency radio obsevations. This leakage leads to a portion of the complex linear polarisation signal finding its way into Stokes I, and inhibits the detection of the non-polarised cosmological signal from the epoch of reionisation. In this work, we show that rotation measure synthesis can be used to recover the signature of cosmic hydrogen reionisation in the presence of contamination by polarised foregrounds. To achieve this, we apply the rotation measure synthesis technique to the Stokes I ...
Certain materials, especially Sn, passivate the rare earth-exchanged Y zeolite (REY) used in petrochemical fluid-cracking catalysts against vanadium degradation caused by V impurities in the feed oil. The mechanism of passivation was investigated here from the standpoint of high-temperature oxide acid-base reaction; i.e., where the controlling factors were considered to be Lewis acid-base reactions between V{sub 2}O{sub 5}, the RE oxides, SnO{sub 2}, etc. Molten salt tests at 680{degree}C showed SnO{sub 2}, presumably because of its acidic nature, to be essentially nonreactive with V{sub 2}O{sub 5} or Na{sub 2}O-V{sub 2}O{sub 5} compounds. A hypothesis was developed to explain how the passivation effect by Sn might result from the unique resistivity of SnO{sub 2} to reaction with V{sub 2}O{sub 5}.
Our goal was a process to convert methane to higher hydrocarbons oxidatively, since this circumvents thermodynamic yield limits of a strictly degydrogenative process. Keller and Bhasin converted thermodynamic yield limits of a strictly dehydrogenative process. Keller and Bhasin converted methane to higher hydrocarbons by using metal oxides as oxidants, without co-fed oxygen. They stated that selectivity is necessarily poor if gaseous oxygen is present. Jones and Sofranko have also used reducible metal oxides as oxidants in a group of their parents, but later used some of those materials with continuous O{sub 2} feed without much loss of selectivity. Baerns, Lunsford and Otsuka have shown that high selectivity could be possible with co-fed O{sub 2} at least for low O{sub 2} partial pressures, over PbO-A1{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Li-MgO and rare earths. The performance of a group of multicomponent oxide catalysts, containing lead and magnesium oxides, for oxidative conversion ...
Two computational problems were worked on for this study. The first chapter examines the option of coal combustion using oxygen feed with carbon dioxide recycle to control the adiabatic flame temperature. Computer simulations using an existing state-of-the-art 3-dimensional computer code for turbulent reacting flows with reacting particles were employed to study the effects of increased carbon dioxide mole fraction on the char burnout, radiant heat transfer, metal partitioning, and NOx formation. The second chapter compares assumptions for the CO/CO{sub 2} ratio at the surface of mineral inclusions made in previous studies to predictions obtained from a pseudo-steady state kinetic model (SKIPPY) for a single porous particle. The detailed kinetic simulations from SKIPPY for varying particle sizes and bulk gas compositions were used to develop algebraic expressions for the CO/CO{sub 2} ratio that can be incorporated into metal vaporization sub-models run as a post ...
A three-dimensional numerical simulation of the loss-of-feed water transient at the horizontal steam generator of the Kola nuclear power plant is performed. Presented numerical results show transient change of integral steam generator parameters, such as steam generation rate, water mass inventory, outlet reactor coolant temperature, as well as detailed distribution of shell side thermal-hydraulic parameters: swell and collapsed levels, void fraction distributions, mass flux vectors, etc. Numerical results are compared with measurements at the Kola NPP. The agreement is satisfactory, while differences are close to or below the measurement uncertainties. Obtained numerical results are the first ones that give complete insight into the three-dimensional and transient horizontal steam generator thermal-hydraulics. Also, the presented results serve as benchmark tests for the assessment and further improvement of one-dimensional models of horizontal steam generator ...
This final report summarizes the results of our research under Contract No. DE-AC22-92PC92112, Novel Catalysts for Methane Activation. In this research we prepared and tested fullerene soots for converting methane into higher hydrocarbons. We conducted the methane conversions using dehydrocoupling conditions, primarily in the temperature regimes of 600{degrees}-1000{degrees}C and atmospheric pressures. The research was divided into three sections. The first section focused on comparing fullerene soots with other forms of carbon such as acetylene black and Norit-A. We found that the fullerene soot was indeed more reactive than the other forms of carbon. However, due to its high reactivity, it was not selective. The second section focused on the effect of metals on the reactivity of the soots, including both transition metals and alkali metals. We found that potassium could enhance the selectivities of fullerene soot to higher hydrocarbons, but the effect was unique to fullerene soot and ...
Discusses the Methodological Directions for Expected Noise Calculation and Noise Reduction Design in Coal Preparation Plants developed at the Institute of Solid Fuel Preparation. Calculation of expected sound pressure levels is described. An exemplary chart of noise levels in the coal feed section of the coal preparation plant at the Taldinskii surface mine is presented. Procedures for planning noise pollution abatement measures and checking the expected noise levels are considered and explained on the example of the project of the coal crushing section in the Taldinskii plant (Kemerovugol' association) designed by Sibgiproshakht. A SMD-117 jaw crusher, 300 mm screen and a conveyor are to work in a space of 45,820 m{sup 3} with 30 m ceiling height. The expected noise level calculated for the working place of the crusher operator is 93-95 dBA without noise isolation and 85.5 dBA with noise isolation. A block diagram of a FORTRAN program for calculation of ...
This report is an assessment of emission-control costs for municipal-waste combustors (MWCs). The details of the cost estimates, including their development, components, and cost premises, are addressed. A model-plant approach was used in the sizing and costing of the emission control systems. Due to differences in the feed-waste characteristics, combustion parameters, and emissions, separate cost estimates were required for mass burning (MB), modular (MOD), refuse-derived fuel (RDF), and fluid-bed combustion (FBC) type furnaces. Cost estimates were developed for control of particulate matter (PM) emissions only and for control of both acid gas and PM emissions from the MWC model plants. Controlled PM emission levels of 0.03, 0.02, and 0.01 gr/dscf, corrected to 12% CO/sub 2/, and 90 and 70% reductions of HC1 and SO2, respectively, were used to develop the control cost estimates. Costs were developed using the cost information received from a number of ...
The morphological development of larval cobia Rachycentron canadum from 3 days post hatch (dph) until weaning (27 dph) was examined using S.E.M. Two groups of fish were studied: a control group (CF), reared under standard feeding protocol, and a group in which prey items were enriched with supplemental taurine (4 g l-1 day-1; TF). TF fish grew faster (P < 0001), attained greater size (mean s.e. 551 15 v. 339 10 mm total length) and had better survival (mean s.e. 293 04 v. 71 12 %) than CF fish. Canonical variance analysis confirmed findings with respect to differences in growth between the treatment groups with separation being explained by two cranial measurements. S.E.M. revealed that 3 dph larvae of R. canadum (in both groups) possess preopercular spines, superficial neuromasts on the h...
The optimizing criterion is assumed to be the maximum net present value of the project. The following summarizes the significant conclusions. (1) Over a large range of discount rates, mining and milling of the mineral deposit at a constant cutoff grade and a constant production rate consistently results in smaller annual discounted cash flows than the optimal schedule determined by the dynamic programming model (dpm) where the cutoff grade and mining rate are allowed to vary in response to fluctuating product price. (2) With an increasing discount rate, under the dpm the annual discounted cash flows decrease at a slower rate than if the mineral inventory is mined and milled at a constant cutoff grade and a constant production rate. (3) Cuttoff grade increases only where higher equity ore is available. Thus, to maintain the mill feed requirement, the mining rate also increases. (4) Not withstanding an anamolous mineral deposit of high quality, the mining rate ...
This paper presents a summary of the first phase of the EPA project, which encompasses surveys of residues from industrial sources in Alexandria. Studies to date indicate that wastes from various industries can be recovered economically. Wastes such as tin cans, glass, wastepaper, and food residues from processing of fruits, starch, and beer are examples of reusable industrial wastes in Egypt. The results of experimental studies for reuse of residues from oil refining, starch and yeast processing, and steel pickling are presented. Spent clay from edible oil refining is currently discarded, causing both handling and disposal problems. This clay contains as much as 40% oil; 90% can be recovered by extraction. The recovered oil can be successfully used in soap production, and the spent clay can be reused in oil bleaching. Other examples include starch and yeast wastes, which can be used for animal feed, and spent pickling liquor, which can be used as a coagulant aid ...
Purpose: To determine the value of MRI in the preoperative evaluation of chronic paranasal sinusitis and to compare the results with CT and intraoperative findings. Method/Materials: 42 patients with clinical signs of chronic paranasal sinusitis underwent MRI after CT evaluation on one day, with subsequent functional endoscopic sinus surgery on the next day. Coronary CT was obtained with 5-mm slices and table-feed in the prone position, while MRI was performed in the supine position with coronary T_2-TSE+pd and coronary and transverse HASTE, each with 5-mm slice thickness. Aquisition time in MRI was less than 8 minutes. Two radiologists reviewed the CT and MRI scans for signs of sinusitis and detection of anatomical landmarks. The results were correlated with the intraoperative findings. Results: MRI offered no artifacts of dental work and showed more often high quality pictures than CT. CT and MRI demonstrated a good correlation in the detection of mucosal ...
On June 19, 1998, after the first annual outage, Wolsung Unit 2 was shutdown at a controlled rate due to the continuous instability of Liquid Zone Control level. Investigation revealed that the Liquid Zone Control level instability was caused by water condensed inside the helium lines, generated from the moistened helium flow, especially, inside the helium balance header feed and bleed valve lines. It was found that improper installation of the diaphragm type isolation valves and the drain valve tap could easily contain the water inside the lines and be destined to form water traps causing the balance header pressure oscillation. After the lines were dried, Liquid Zone Control level instability was almost vanished, and approached the allowable equilibrium state. As the reactor power was increased, however, the zone level instability increased again. In order to compensate for the excessive, the Bulk Power Control Gain (Kp) was reduced to provide a more stable ...
This study evaluates the correlation between transplanted Asiatic clam and indigenous community responses to acid mine drainage and nutrient loading in first-to-third-order streams, by comparing the toxicological endpoints of clam survival and growth with benthic macro-invertebrate community indices as community responses to both acid mine drainage and nutrient loading. Clam survival was found to be positively correlated with water column pH and negatively correlated with conductivity and metal concentrations. There was also a positive correlation with the relative abundance of the macro-invertebrate Ephemeroptera, the most sensitive taxonomic group, to acid mine drainage in this watershed. No correlation was found between clam growth and acid mine drainage inputs, but there was evidence of positive correlation with nitrate concentrations and the relative abundance of collector-filterer functional feeding groups. These results suggest that clam growth is related to ...
The purpose of this paper is to assess a new local air coolers model in ISAAC 2.0, as ISAAC 1.0 could model local air coolers only at two locations. In the new model, local air coolers up to twelve locations could be handled. Large LOCA and loss of feed water sequences were selected for the model comparison. Two cases were analyzed with ISAAC 2.0: one with 6 local air coolers in one of the fueling machine room and in the steam generator room, respectively, and the other with 3 local air coolers at both fueling machine room and 6 local air coolers in the steam generator room. The study assumes that the safety systems such as emergency core cooling system, shield cooling system and moderator cooling system are unavailable. According to the ISAAC 2.0 results, the new local air coolers model showed almost no difference between two cases. Also it was found that as the location of LACs increased, the new model worked properly and the effect of LACs was consistent ...
Abstract in english Higher olefins are produced as a by product in a number of refinery processes and are one of the potential raw materials to produce propylene. In the present study, FCC model feed compound was considered to explore the olefin cracking features and options to enhance propylene using 30% SAPO-34 zeolite as catalyst in a micro-reactor. The superior selectivity of propylene (73 wt%) and higher total olefin selectivity was obtained over 30% SAPO-34 catalyst than over Y or ZSM- (more) 5 zeolite catalysts. The thermodynamical constraints were found to be relatively less serious in the case of 1-hexene conversion. Most of the 1-hexene follows a direct cracking pathway to give two propylene molecules, due to weak acid sites and better diffusion opportunities. The higher temperature and short residence time could also suppress the hydrogen transfer reactions. From OPE (olefins performance envelop) the products were classified as primary, secondary, or ...
Recently, the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) among the State of Washington Department of Ecology, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the cleanup of the Hanford Site was renegotiated. The revised agreement specifies vitrification as the encapsulation technology for low level waste (LLW). A demonstration, testing, and evaluation program underway at Westinghouse Hanford Company to identify the best overall melter-system technology available for vitrification of Hanford Site LLW to meet the TPA milestones. Phase I is a {open_quotes}proof of principle{close_quotes} test to demonstrate that a melter system can process a simulated highly alkaline, high nitrate/nitrite content aqueous LLW feed into a glass product of consistent quality. Seven melter vendors were selected for the Phase I evaluation: joule-heated melters from GTS Duratek, Incorporated (GDI); Envitco, Incorporated (EVI); Penberthy Electomelt, Incorporated (PEI); ...
Increasing salinity has the potential to affect freshwater organisms. Yet sub-lethal effects of salinity on macroinvertebrates are poorly understood. Growth and development of Ischnura heterosticta (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) was experimentally shown to be faster in 5-20 mS/cm than 0.1-1 mS/cm, while in 35 mS/cm all individuals died. In 30 mS/cm about half died and growth was similar to the 0.1 mS/cm treatment. The salinity-growth relationship cannot be explained indirectly, that is salinity affecting the survival of their prey. Tissue content and concentration of Ca, Mg, Na and K in emerged adults showed no evidence of deficiencies at low salinity. Heart beat rate was similar across treatments, except at 35 mS/cm, where it was slower. Respiration and feeding were similar at 0.1, 10 and 30 mS/cm. While there are similarities in I. heterosticta and other species' salinity response, there are differences and studies on more species are urgently needed. - This species ...
Several years ago the shipment of spent fuel of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) at Petten has come to a standstill resulting in an ever growing stock of fuel elements that are labelled 'fully burnt up'. Examination of those elements showed that a reasonably number of them have a relatively high {sup 235}U mass left. A reactor physics analysis showed that the use of such elements in the peripheral core zone allows the loading of four instead of five fresh fuel elements in many cycle cores. For the assessment of safety and performance parameters of HFR cores a new calculational tool is being developed. It is based on AEA Technology's Reactor physics code suite Winfrith Improved Multigroup Scheme (WIMS). NRG produced pre- and post-processing facilities to feed input data into WIMS's 2D transport code CACTUS and to extract relevant parameters from the output. The processing facilities can be used for many different types of application. ...
Abstract Juvenile cobia (Rachycentron canadum) (100-g) were fed four moist diets (447-476-g-kg-1-dry-wt) where 0, 130, 260 or 390-g-kg-1 of concentrated lizardfish (Saurida undosquamis) silage replaced fresh lizardfish, respectively. Blood and livers were sampled at 0, 6, 12, 24 and 48-h postfeeding at the end of the 3-week experiment. At 6-h postfeeding in all groups, maximum concentrations of most plasma essential amino acids were observed, while significantly lower levels of most non-essential amino acid levels were recorded compared to the other sampled times. At 6 and 12-h after feeding, the concentration of most plasma free amino acid (FAA) increased with an increase in dietary fish silage levels. Most FAA in livers of all groups peaked at 12 and 24-h postfeeding. However, at 48-h po...
Once the definition of the CHP (combined heat and power generation) certificate is clear, demand for it can be organised in several ways. A well-designed system of mandatory demand, by means of an obligation to acquire a certain amount of CHP certificates each year, is effective to meet the policy target. The voluntary willingness to pay for CHP certificates is likely to be small, resulting in a very thin market. Finally, instead of creating a demand solely targeted at the CHP certificates, demand could also result from interacting policy schemes such as emissions trading. Assuming that a CHP certificate scheme is going to be introduced, we would recommend to issue standard CHP certificates based on additional ('fuel-free') kWh output (substitution approach with standard certificates) and create demand by means of an incentive on electricity supply companies to purchase CHP certificates. The incentive could either be quantitative (an obligation) or a price incentive (fiscal or ...
The Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Program mission is to store, treat, and immobilize highly radioactive Hanford Site waste (current and future tank waste and the strontium/cesium capsules) in an environmentally sound, safe, and cost-effective manner. The scope of the TWRS Waste Pretreatment Program is to treat tank waste and separate that waste into HLW and LLW fractions and provide additional treatment as required to feed LLW and HLW immobilization facilities. Enhanced sludge washing was chosen as the baseline process for separating Hanford tank waste sludge. Section 1.0 briefly discusses the purpose of the evaluation plan and provides the background that led to the choice of enhanced sludge washing as the baseline process. Section 2.0 provides a brief summary of the evaluation plan details. Section 3.0 discusses, in some detail, the technical work planned to support the evaluation of enhanced sludge washing. Section 4.0 briefly discusses the potential ...
Apparatus and methods are described for generating heat and electricity from the consumption of a variety of aluminum products. The method consists of (A) a reaction chamber containing an aqueous electrolyte solution and adapted for introduction therein of aluminum pieces of various shapes and sizes up to a certain maximum predetermined size and for effecting a chemical reaction between said aqueous electrolyte and said aluminum pieces yielding aluminum hydroxide and an intermediate reactant; (B) means for feeding said aluminum pieces into said reaction chamber in small quantities upon demand; (C) means for removing the heat generated in said chamber as a result of said reaction; (D) means for removing said aluminum hydroxide reaction product; and (E) means for oxidizing said intermediate reactant in an electrochemical cell, thereby generating electrical energy. The intermediate reactant is preferably hydrogen or zinc. The latter may be used in a slurry type ...
Apparatus and methods for generating heat and electricity from the consumption of a variety of aluminum products comprise: (A) a reaction chamber containing an aqueous electrolyte solution and adapted for introduction therein of aluminum pieces of various shapes and sizes up to a certain maximum predetermined size and for effecting a chemical reaction between said aqueous electrolyte and said aluminum pieces yielding aluminum hydroxide and an intermediate reactant; (B) means for feeding said aluminum pieces into said reaction chamber in small quantities upon demand; (C) means for removing the heat generated in said chamber as a result of said reaction; (D) means for removing said aluminum hydroxide reaction product; and (E) means for oxidizing said intermediate reactant in an electrochemical cell, thereby generating electrical energy. The intermediate reactant is preferably hydrogen or zinc. The latter may be used in a slurry type zinc/air battery, whereas hydrogen ...
The purpose of this paper is to compare the techniques and results obtained when a general industrial or commercial building power electrical system is prepared using the US National Electrical Code{copyright} (NEC) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standards. The final design offer the reader the possibility of making an initial comparison and analyzation of the two methods based of their overall effectiveness (sizing, protection, co-ordination of protective devices with components etc.), safety and cost. In order to make such a comparison a specific example was developed and limited in detail to avoid complexity in this study. The power source selected will be a delta-wye utility supplied transformer feeding various load groups such as lighting and motor circuits (possibly through associated transformers). Relevant NE Code references, IEC standards, and appropriate justifications will be made at various points. Since this paper is for ...
The present study was performed to investigate the effects of various levels of dietary Bacillus subtilis and chitosan on the growth performance, non-specific immunity and protection against Vibrio harveyi infection in cobia, Rachycentron canadum. Fish were fed with the control diet and six different experimental diets containing three graded levels of B. subtilis at 2 x 10^1^0 CFU g^-^1 (0.0, 1.0, 2.0 g kg^-^1 diet) for each of two levels of chitosan (3.0 and 6.0 g kg^-^1 diet). The results of 8 weeks feeding trial showed that the survival rate ranged from 81.3% to 84.0% with no significant difference (P > 0.05). The SGR (%) in the fish fed with dietary treatments was significantly higher than that of the control fish except diet 6 group with 2.0 g kg^-^1B. subtilis and 3.0 g kg^-^1 chito...
Planktivores, zooplankton grazers, and macrobenthos were studied to determine how changes in animal community structure may alter the flow of material in Dunham Pond, CT. Chaoborus and chironomid larvae were studied to determine how they affect the flux of matter across the sediment/water interface. This was done by incubating undisturbed cores in situ and relating changes in water chemistry to larval density. The log-transformed flux rates of iron, manganese, and phosphorus were linearly related to larval biomass. Functional groups may be successfully used to predict rates of material flow. Changes in the mass of macroinvertebrates affect the flux rates of redox-active substances across the sediment/water interface. The use of population densities and feeding characteristics to estimate trophic transfer in Dunham Pond indicate that (1) visual planktivory by larval perch may result in overutilization of prey, (2) ambush planktivory by univoltine Chaoborus appears ...
The use of concentrated solar energy for co-producing Zn and synthesis gas from Zn O and natural gas upgrades the calorific value of the initial reactants by 39% and, when compared to the traditional carbothermic reduction of Zn O, has the potential of reducing CO{sub 2} emissions by up to 78%. An economic assessment for an industrial thermochemical plant, 30 to 51 MW solar input, indicates that the cost of solar production of zinc ranges between 89-133 $/t (excluding the cost of Zn O feed and credit for pollution abatement), and thus might be competitive with conventional fossil-fuel-based processes at current fuel prices. The cost of solar H{sub 2}, produced by splitting water with zinc, is estimated to be in the range 0.10-0.14 $/kWh, and it is a favorable long term prospect once the cost of energy will account for the environmental externalities from fossil fuel burning such as the costs for CO{sub 2} mitigation and pollution abatement. (author) 1 fig., 2 ...
After a lot of efforts to develop a spark-ignition type dual-fuel engine which can separately use both gas and liquid fuels, a dual-fuel engine which uses ethanol as a liquid fuel has been developed. In this paper, a 13A/LPG dual-fuel engine which uses LPG as an emergency fuel is also introduced. During the development of a dual-fuel engine using city gas (13A)/liquid fuel such 4 kinds of liquid fuel as kerosene, gasoline, ethanol and isobutanol have been examined. As a result of testing, it was proved that ethanol is preferable and a 13A/ethanol DF engine can be used as a generator of different outputs, 100KW for normal service and 70KW for emergency service, without any problems in practical use. On the other hand, a city gas (13A)/LPG dual-fuel engine requires the modification of the fuel feed system and the installation of a ignition device which can change the ignition timing by means of the fuel changeover. (6 figs, 5 tabs)
A natural gas and diesel dual-fuel turbocharged compression ignition (CI) engine is developed to reduce emissions of a heavy-duty diesel engine. The compressed natural gas (CNG) pressure regulator is specially designed to feed back the boost pressure to simplify the fuel metering system. The natural gas bypass improves the engine response to acceleration. The modes of diesel injection are set according to the engine operating conditions. The application of honeycomb mixers changes the flowrate shape of natural gas and reduces hydrocarbon (HC) emission under low-load and lowspeed conditions. The cylinder pressures of a CI engine fuelled with diesel and dual fuel are analysed. The introduction of natural gas makes the ignition delay change with engine load. Under the same operating conditions, the emissions of smoke and NO{sub x} from the dual-fuel engine are both reduced. The HC and CO emissions for the dual-fuel engine remain within the range of regulation. ...
A rapid extraction procedure has been developed for speciation of arsenic in chicken tissue. Water, methanol-water (1:1), and methanol-chloroform (1:1) were tested as extraction media. Individual use of an ultrasonic bath, a microwave oven, or an ultrasonic probe was not sufficient for quantitative recovery of As(III), dimethylarsinate, monomethylarsonate, As(V), and arsenobetaine in spiked samples of chicken tissue. A new extraction procedure using a methanol-water mixture and a microwave oven then an ultrasonic probe enabled extraction of the arsenic species in 7 min with efficiencies ranging from 80 to 100%. HPLC-UV-HG-AFS was used for the determinations. The extraction procedure was 100% efficient when applied to real samples of chicken tissue. AsB (48{+-}5 {mu}g As kg {sup -1}) and one containing-arsenic feed additive, Nitarsone (227{+-}5 {mu}g As kg {sup -1}) were detected. (orig.)
A methodology for assessing the impact of subacute concentrations of organometallic agents on bioenergetic and oxidative damage processes in animals, cells and energy transducing subcellular organelles is being developed. Several of the assays are noninvasive and thus lend themselves to human tests. At the whole-animal level we utilize a treadmill chamber where physiological parameters of exercising animals are monitored. These include parameters of whole animals' work performance such as oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide evolution and endurance. Oxidative damage can be monitored in experiments by analyzing expired air of the animals for ethane and n-pentane. These alkanes correlate with lipid peroxidation in vivo. At the cellular and subcellular levels, respiratory activity, lipid peroxidation and free radical species are assayed. Respiratory activity is measured in muscle homogenates and isolated mitochondria using substrates which feed into different ...
This paper describes the criteria used for the thermal, electrical, mechanical, hydraulical design of the submarine power cables crossing Long Island Sound to feed New York City. The cables are of the self contained fluid filled (SCFF) type. There is also a description of the special measures adopted to face the exceptionally aggressive environment, due to presence of hydrogen sulphide and of stray currents (caused by electric railways and pipes cathodic protection). The most significant example of such measures is a third sacrificial armour. Four single-core SCFF cables (one spare) were manufactured in Arco Felice (near Naples, Italy), for the New York Power Authority. The average length of the cables is 13 km, jontless. The Italian cable ship 'Giulio Verne', managed by Pirelli, was utilized for the transportation and laying. The ship is equipped with a turntable of 7000 tonnes capacity. The cables are protected all along the route with a total ...
Special T-shaped feedwater distribution pipes were installed in steam generators at the Loviisa (Finland) and Rovno (Russia) nuclear power plants. The new shape was tested in an extensive testing programme. Since the tubes frequently suffer from corrosion damage, large-scale water hammer experiments were performed on a model facility in 1996. The main objectives of the water hammer experiments were to find out the prevailing parameters leading to water hammers, as well as the sensitivity of hammering to boundary conditions. A water hammer may occur when the mass flow rate into the steam generator exceeds 6 kg/s and the temperature difference between steam generator and feedwater exceeds 100 degC. Visual experiments and stress analyses of the pipe were also carried out. The weakest part, the T-joint, may hold against such water hammers only for a limited time of the order of few minutes. (M.D.).
Penicillium crustosum is common in food and feed both in subtropical and temperate regions. Recently, it has also been found occurring frequently in glacier ice, sea ice and sea water of Arctic regions of Svalbard. The aim of the study was to compare isolates of the same fungal species from widely different habitats and geographic regions to see if the nutritional physiology and the profile of secondary metabolites were consistent or depended on the isolation source. All 121 strains examined produced the following families of secondary metabolites: penitrems (100%), roquefortines (100%), terrestric acids (99.2%) and viridicatols (100%), whereas 81 of 83 Arctic isolates additionally produced andrastin A. However, only 8 of 38 non-Arctic isolates produced detectable andrastin A. The quantitative profiles of 96 strains were compared using cluster, principal component and correspondence analyses. There was no clear grouping of Arctic versus non-Arctic, creatine ...
The paper reports a work-in-progress outlook of a R and D project aimed at developing an advanced boiler for the combustion of virgin and exhaust olive husks at small scale. Fluidized bed technology has been preferred because of its well known advantages that include large thermal inertia, high combustion efficiency, low NOx emissions and considerable heat transfer rate. A 100 kW atmospheric bubbling fluidized bed combustor has been designed and built. The facility is equipped with devices for continuous fuel feeding as well as heat extraction from the bed region. Measurements of temperature and gas concentrations are obtained by using thermocouples and gas-analyzer. Steady state tests of combustion were carried out at typical fluidized bed combustion temperatures. Tests proved that not only exhaust olive husks but also the virgin ones - with a water content larger than 50% by mass - can be reliably fed onto the fluidized bed. Further, they have been successful in ...
This 4.5-year project consisted of routine analytical support to DOE`s direct liquefaction process development effort (the Base Program), and an extensive effort to develop, demonstate, and apply new analytical methods for the characterization of liquefaction process streams (the Participants Program). The objective of the Base Program was to support the on-going DOE direct coal liquefaction process development program. Feed, process, and product samples were used to assess process operations, product quality, and the effects of process variables, and to direct future testing. The primary objective of the Participants Program was to identify and demonstrate analytical methods for use in support of liquefaction process develpment, and in so doing, provide a bridge between process design, development, and operation and analytical chemistry. To achieve this direct coal liquefaction-derived materials. CONSOL made an evaluation of each analytical technique. During the ...
This work presents an overview of the characterization physical-chemistry and energy of the aca pit used as input in process of generation of electricity through gasification. Acai pits analyses were accomplished with relationship to the acai pit drying, energy content, proximate and ultimate analyses, size, TGA experiments, bulk density. It was observed that the acai pit can be used as bioenergy but, it presents a low energy content (16,36 MJ/kg) in relationship that of the ' typical' biomass (21 MJ/kg ) and this is not due to the ash content that is very low (1,15%), but yes, the only composition that resembles each other more the Carbohydrates than to the typical composition of the usual biomass. The average diameter of 10 pits chosen at random was 9.5 mm. The acai pits have an angle of repose of {approx}20 degrees, making them ideal for feeding into gasification and combustion processes. (author)
The results from a hot test, using authentic HLLW solution, of the CTH actinide separation process are reported. The process consists of three solvent extraction cycles for separation of actinides and technetium from reprocessing high level liquid waste, utilizing HDEHP, TBP, and HDEHP in sequence, and an optional step for sorption on inorganic ion exchangers of the fission product content in the process raffinate. In general the process worked according to predictions but a malfunctioning feed pump gave a 10% loss of Pu to one stream. The hot test indicating that U and Pu can be recovered with losses below 0.1% and Am, Cm with a loss below 0.2%. Np and Tc were difficult to follow because of the low activity of /sup 237/Np and because /sup 99/Tc is a pure beta emitter, but the results indicate that also these elements behaved according to predictions, i.e., that recoveries >= 99.8% for Np and >= 97% for Tc can be achieved. For the HLLW stream the solvent ...
Burner for feeding a solid and a liquid or gaseous fuel to a kiln comprises a central supply pipe for liquid or gas surrounded concentrically by a first pipe providing an annular passage through which primary air is supplied. Concentrically surrounding that pipe is a second pipe providing an annular channel for supply of solid fuel in carrier air stream. The outlet end of the first concentric pipe is closed by a plate fixed mounted at the pipe end and providing multiple nozzles having their axes parallel to the burner axis. The surface of the plate facing the burning zone provides a divergence opening for the central pipe while the inner surface is formed with helical teeth. These are engaged by complementary teeth mounted on the end of the central pipe which is rotatable and biased by springs so that the teeth are in engagement. Rotation of the pipe causes relative axial motion of the teeth to create tangential slots for admission of primary air into the central ...
Concentrations of trace metals were determined in water, sediment, fish feed and two species of farmed fish, pompano and snapper, collected from Daya Bay and Hailing Bay of South China in July 2007 and January 2008. Total average concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Hg and As were 1.6, 2.7, 27.3, 0.025, 0.62, 0.18 and 0.59?g/gdrywt in pompano and 1.5, 2.6, 23.6, 0.020, 0.55, 0.22 and 0.53?g/gdrywt in snapper. In general, the concentrations of all target metals except Hg were positively correlated with lipid contents whereas negative correlations were observed between the metal concentrations and fish body weights. Model calculation indicated that dietary uptake of Zn and Cd predominate their accumulation in snapper, accounting for 99.9% and 98.2% of the total inputs. Risk ...
Feed-forward (FF) artificial neural networks (ANN) and radial basis function (RBF) ANN methods were addressed for evaluating the lightning performance of high voltage transmission lines. Several structures, learning algorithms and transfer functions were tested in order to produce a model with the best generalizing ability. Actual input and output data, collected from operating Hellenic high voltage transmission lines, as well as simulated output data were used in the training, validation and testing process. The aims of the paper are to describe in detail and compare the proposed FF and RBF ANN models, to state their advantages and disadvantages and to present results obtained by their application on operating Hellenic transmission lines of 150kV and 400kV. The ANN results are also compared with results obtained using conventional methods and real records of outage rate showing a quite satisfactory agreement. The proposed ANN methods can be used by electric power ...
The Abrasive Waterjet Cutting process was evaluated to determine if the equivalent could be utilized for cutting uranium metal at the Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC). In the process, a thin stream of ultrahigh pressure water carried grit material through a designated piecepart. In order to be acceptable for use at the FMPC, the equipment must be cost effective, minimize waste, and be adaptableto operating in an enclosure, and improve health and safety conditions. Observation of the cutting process showed that health and safety aspects could be optimized with an enclosed ventilated system. Also the equipment can be easily automated. The cutting action produced sparks similar to the sparks caused by a grinding operation. The sparks are captured in a water container under the workpiece that not only catches the sparks, but also serves to dissipiate the stream of water and residues produced by the cut. Metallographic tests performed on the cut surface of the ...
The aim was to gain experience on how to produce Alkali Metal Thermo-Electric-Converter (AMTEC) cells, for the demonstration of their principles and potentials, as a basis for future commercialization. These cells should be able to present an efficient and direct conversion of thermal energy to electric energy. The system is based on an electro-chemical concentration cell built around a {beta}`` aluminium oxide membrane that separates the two chambers. This material is a good conductor of sodium and a bad conductor of electrons, and it is this property which is taken advantage of. In the two chambers of the cell is found saturated sodium vapour at two temperatures. The motive power is the expansion over the membrane where the sodium ions are transported through it whilst the electrons are forced through the outer cycle. This concept is described in detail in addition to the choice of materials, performance testing and results. It was found possible to produce AMTEC electrodes via ...
The wholesomeness of irradiated wheat was investigated in a series of experiments involving several species of animals and a small number of children, at the National Institute of Nutrition in India. Our observations indicated some effects following the feeding of freshly irradiated wheat while no such changes were found in the groups fed either unirradiated or stored irradiated wheat. Also, there were no significant differences between the groups fed unirradiated and stored irradiated wheat. Based on these results, a recommendation had been made to the government that when subjected to irradiation, wheat should be stored for at least 3 months before considering it as safe for human consumption. Similar experiments conducted in an establishment of the Department of Atomic Energy in India indicated no undesirable effects, unlike those found in our studies, and this had led to the development of a serious controversy. In this paper, we have not only reviewed our ...
The purpose of this study was to develop a foraging model that engenders large meals. Eight free-feeding baboons were first given periodic access to a chocolate sugar-coated candy (M & Ms?) and then a jelly sugar-coated candy (Skittles?). Baboons had access to food 24?h each day, but they had to complete a two-phase operant procedure in order to eat. Responding on one lever during a 30-min appetitive phase was required before animals could start a consumption phase, where responding on another lever led to food delivery, i.e., a meal. 3?days a week for 8 or 9?weeks baboons received candy during the first meal and then food pellets were available: a 2?month interval when only pellets were available separated periods of candy access. All baboons ate as much candy in the single candy meal as ...