Thermal Recycling of Waelz Oxide Using Concentrated Solar Energy

The dominating Zn recycling process is the so-called Waelz process. Waelz oxide (WOX), containing 55-65% Zn in oxidic form, is mainly derived from electric arc furnace dust produced during recycling of galvanized steel. After its wash treatment to separate off chlorides, WOX is used as feedstock along with ZnS concentrates for the electrolytic production of high-grade zinc. Novel and environmentally cleaner routes for the purification of WOX and the production of Zn are investigated using concentrated solar energy as the source of high-temperature process heat. The solar-driven clinkering of WOX and its carbothermal reduction were experimentally demonstrated using a 10kWth packed-bed solar reactor. Solar clinkering at above 1265°C reduced the amount of impurities below 0.1wt.%. Solar carbothermal reduction using biocharcoal as reducing agent in the 1170-1320°C range yielded 90wt.% Z

The statistics of atmospheric turbulence at Maunakea measured by RAVEN

Prior statistical knowledge of the turbulence such as turbulence strength, layer altitudes and the outer scale is essential for atmospheric tomography in adaptive-optics (AO). These atmospheric parameters can be estimated from measurements of multiple Shack-Hartmann wave-front sensors (SH-WFSs) by the SLOpe Detection And Ranging (SLODAR). In this paper, we present the statistics of the vertical CN^2 and the outer scale L_0 at Maunakea in Hawaii estimated from 60 hours telemetry data in total from multiple SH-WFSs of RAVEN, which is an on-sky multi-object AO demonstrator tested on the Subaru telescope. The mean seeing during the RAVEN on-sky observations is 0.475 arcsec, and 55% turbulence is below 1.5 km. The vertical profile of CN^2 from the RAVEN SLODAR is consistent with the profiles from CFHT DIMM and MASS, and TMT site characterization

Calculating the fertilizer value of manure from livestock operations

Revised June 1991. Reprinted November 1993. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Designing dairy free stalls

Stalls must be large enough to provide a comfortable bed and ad- equate room for cows to rise. As animals get larger, so must the free stalls.Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

“Be an ambassador for change that you would like to see”: a call to action to all stakeholders for co-creation in healthcare and medical research to improve quality of life of people with a neuromuscular disease

BACKGROUND: Patient and public involvement for co-creation is increasingly recognized as a valuable strategy to develop healthcare research targeting patients’ real needs. However, its practical implementation is not as advanced and unanimously accepted as it could be, due to cultural differences and complexities of managing healthcare programs and clinical studies, especially in the rare disease field. MAIN BODY: The European Neuromuscular Centre, a European foundation of patient organizations, involved its key stakeholders in a special workshop to investigate the position of the neuromuscular patient community with respect to healthcare and medical research to identify and address gaps and bottlenecks. The workshop took place in Milan (Italy) on January 19–20, 2018, involving 45 participants who were mainly representatives of the patient community, but also included experts from clinical centers, industry and regulatory bodies. In order to provide practical examples and constructive suggestions, specific topics were identified upfront. The first set of issues concerned the quality of life at specific phases of a patient’s life, such as at the time of diagnosis or during pediatric to adult transition, and patient involvement in medical research on activities in daily living including patient reported outcome measures. The second set of issues concerned the involvement of patients in the management of clinical research tools, such as registries and biobanks, and their participation in study design or marketing authorization processes. Introductory presentations were followed by parallel working group sessions, to gain constructive contributions from all participants. The concept of shared decision making was used to ensure, in discussions, a partnership-based identification of the wishes and needs of all stakeholders involved, and the “ladder of participation” tool served as a model to evaluate the actual and the desired level of patients’ involvement in all topics addressed. A general consensus on the outcome of the meeting was collected during the final plenary session. This paper reports the outcome of the workshop and the specific suggestions derived from the analysis of the first set of topics, related to quality of life. The outcomes of the second set of topics are reported elsewhere and are only briefly summarized herein for the sake of completeness. CONCLUSIONS: The neuromuscular community proved to be very active and engaged at different levels in the healthcare initiatives of interest. The workshop participants critically discussed several topics, providing practical examples where different stakeholders could play a role in making a change and bridging gaps. Overall, they indicated the need for education of all stakeholders for better communication, where everyone should become an ambassador to promote real change. Support should also come from institutions and healthcare bodies both at structural and economic level

Automatic detection and tracking in underwater environments with marine snow

This project addresses the issue of automatic detection and tracking of man-made objects in subsea environments with poor visibility and marine snow. Underwater research and engineering is a quickly growing field and there are few computer vision techniques that specifically address these challenges. The proposed system involves minimizing noise and video artifacts, estimating camera motion, detecting line segments and tracking targets. Overall, the system performs well under the conditions in the test video and the equal error rate is approximately 16%. Tests show how parameters may be tuned to account for changes in environmental conditions and to trade off the number of false negatives and false positives. System performance is affected by many factors. Poorest performance occurs under conditions of heavy marine show, low-contrast targets, and fast camera motion. Performance also suffers if the background conditions in the image change. This research makes two contributions. First, we provide a survey of techniques that address similar problems and evaluate their suitability for this application, Second, we integrate existing techniques into a larger system. Techniques include median filtering, Canny edge detection, Hough transforms, Lucas-Kanade first-order optical flow and particle filtering. Where gaps exist between system components, new methods are developed. Testing evaluates the effects of system parameters and the conditions under which the system is effective.Science, Faculty ofComputer Science, Department ofGraduat

Development of a Highly Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Scientific Data Collection

Abstract — For decades engineers have been developing the tools necessary for marine scientists to study our oceans; the work being done with autonomous vehicles has presented these scientists with a new dimension of possibilities. Researchers at the University of Victoria are developing an autonomous underwater vehicle capable of monitoring and reacting to scientific events during a long term deployment in an area of interest. This problem presents challenges in several areas. Long term deployments (weeks or months) with significant periods of loitering underwater will require the development of a localized positioning system that can give an absolute position update, much like GPS. This periodic position update can be used to counter drift in the navigation solution. In addition, the platform must be versatile so that it can carry a variety of sensor packages, which may be tethered, and utilize the sensor output for path planning and high level decision making. This versatility requires a sophisticated onboard software package capable of recognizing sensors and adapting to new vehicle configurations

Design and construction of demonstration/research wetlands for treatment of dairy farm wastewater

EPA 600/R-93/105The report discusses the construction of nine wetland cells at the Oregon State University dairy farm. These wetlands will be used in a long-term project which will attempt to: (1) Develop optimal loading rates for milking parlor wastewater and diluted dairy cow manure, not only for maximum treatment efficiency, but also for adequate treatment of wastewater to allow direct discharge into surface waters; (2) Measure seasonal variation in treatment effectiveness; (3) Develop design criteria for farms with limited wastewater generations; (4) Measure variation in treatment efficiencies between several wetland plant species and develop propagation techniques for wetland plants. Over the next five years, observations and data from these wetlands should help develop better design criteria and economics for form-scale wetlands

Potato Harvester Chain Speed Adjustment

Growers can minimize tuber bruising during harvesting by eliminating all of the soil with the primary chain. Then keep the other chains as full of tubers as possible without spill-out, rollback, or back-feeding. This bulletins explains in detail, with tables and mathematical equations, how to achieve less tuber bruising by adjusting the harvesting equipment. 8 pages