Thermal performance of thermal paint and surface coatings in buildings in heating dominated climates

A purported approach to reducing heating energy in solid wall “hard to heat” housing is the simple application of a thin layer (< 1mm) of thermal paint containing insulating additives. The objective of this study was to test the energy saving claims by a systematic study of the material characteristics and thermal performance of internal coatings using accepted international standard test methods. The coatings have been compared with conventional internal coverings such as emulsion paint, wallpapers and expanded polystyrene liner. A dynamic model of the Energy House research facility has been used to evaluate energy savings, costs, and payback times. The thermal resistance of the thermal paint coatings was generally found to be not much better than that of conventional vinyl textured wallpapers with a lining paper. When all building heat losses are considered, modelling predictions for thermal paint coatings indicate an unfavourable payback period of several hundred years, and energy savings of between 0.4% and 2.9% depending on coating thickness and type. The evidence from the results and models, as well as scanning electron microscopy, do not support the claims that the additive powder particles are effectively nano-porous, evacuated, or that the coatings have low emissivity surfaces

Large-scale latitudinal and vertical distributions of NMHCs and selected halocarbons in the troposphere over the Pacific Ocean during the March-April 1999 Pacific Exploratory Mission (PEM-Tropics B)

Nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and selected halocarbons were measured in whole air samples collected over the remote Pacific Ocean during NASA's Global Tropospheric Experiment (GTE) Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics B (PEM-Tropics B) in March and early April 1999. The large-scale spatial distributions of NMHCs and C2Cl4 reveal a much more pronounced north-south interhemispheric gradient, with higher concentrations in the north and lower levels in the south, than for the late August to early October 1996 PEM-Tropics A experiment. Strong continental outflow and winter-long accumulation of pollutants led to seasonally high Northern Hemisphere trace gas levels during PEM-Tropics B. Observations of enhanced levels of Halon 1211 (from developing Asian nations such as the PRC) and CH3Cl (from SE Asian biomass burning) support a significant southern Asian influence at altitudes above 1 km and north of 10° N. By contrast, at low altitude over the North Pacific the dominance of urban/industrial tracers, combined with low levels of Halon 1211 and CH3Cl, indicate a greater influence from developed nations such as Japan, Europe, and North America. Penetration of air exhibiting aged northern hemisphere characteristics was frequently observed at low altitudes over the equatorial central and western Pacific south to ∼5° S. The relative lack of southern hemisphere biomass burning sources and the westerly position of the South Pacific convergence zone contributed to significantly lower PEM-Tropics B mixing ratios of the NMHCs and CH3Cl south of 10° S compared to PEM-Tropics A. Therefore the trace gas composition of the South Pacific troposphere was considerably more representative of minimally polluted tropospheric conditions during PEM-Tropics B. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union

NMHCs and halocarbons in Asian continental outflow during the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) Field Campaign: Comparison with PEM-West B

We present an overview of the spatial distributions of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and halocarbons observed over the western north Pacific as part of the NASA GTE Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE‐P) airborne field campaign (February–April 2001). The TRACE‐P data are compared with earlier measurements from the Pacific Rim during the Pacific Exploratory Mission‐West B (PEM‐West B), which took place in February–March 1994, and with emission inventory data for 2000. Despite the limited spatial and temporal data coverage inherent to airborne sampling, mean levels of the longer‐lived NMHCs (including ethane, ethyne, and benzene) were remarkably similar to our results during the PEM‐West B campaign. By comparison, mixing ratios of the fire extinguisher Halon‐1211 (CF2ClBr) increased by about 50% in the period between 1994 and 2001. Southern China (south of 35°N), and particularly the Shanghai region, appears to have been a substantial source of Halon‐1211 during TRACE‐P. Our previous analysis of the PEM‐West B data employed methyl chloroform (CH3CCl3) as a useful industrial tracer. However, regulations have reduced its emissions to the extent that its mixing ratio during TRACE‐P was only one‐third of that measured in 1994. Methyl chloroform mixing ratio “hot spots,” indicating regions downwind of continuing emissions, included outflow from the vicinity of Shanghai, China, but particularly high emission ratios relative to CO were observed close to Japan and Korea. Tetrachloroethene (C2Cl4) levels have also decreased significantly, especially north of 25°N, but this gas still remains a useful indicator of northern industrial emissions. Methyl bromide (CH3Br) levels were systematically 1–2 pptv lower from 1994 to 2001, in accord with recent reports. However, air masses that had been advected over Japan and/or South Korean port cities typically exhibited elevated levels of CH3Br. As a consequence, emissions of CH3Br from Japan and Korea calculated employing CH3Br/CO ratios and scaled to CO emission inventory estimates, were almost as large as for all of south China (south of 35°N). Total east Asian emissions of CH3Br and CH3Cl were estimated to be roughly 4.7 Gg/yr and 167 Gg/yr, respectively, in 2001

Sustainable bioethanol production combining biorefinery principles using combined raw materials from wheat undersown with clover-grass

To obtain the best possible net energy balance of the bioethanol production the biomass raw materials used need to be produced with limited use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Intercropping strategies are known to maximize growth and productivity by including more than one species in the crop stand, very often with legumes as one of the components. In the present study clover-grass is undersown in a traditional wheat crop. Thereby, it is possible to increase input of symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen into the cropping systems and reduce the need for fertilizer applications. Furthermore, when using such wheat and clover-grass mixtures as raw material, addition of urea and other fermentation nutrients produced from fossil fuels can be reduced in the whole ethanol manufacturing chain. Using second generation ethanol technology mixtures of relative proportions of wheat straw and clover-grass (15:85, 50:50, and 85:15) were pretreated by wet oxidation. The results showed that supplementing wheat straw with clover-grass had a positive effect on the ethanol yield in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation experiments, and the effect was more pronounced in inhibitory substrates. The highest ethanol yield (80% of theoretical) was obtained in the experiment with high fraction (85%) of clover-grass. In order to improve the sugar recovery of clover-grass, it should be separated into a green juice (containing free sugars, fructan, amino acids, vitamins and soluble minerals) for direct fermentation and a fibre pulp for pretreatment together with wheat straw. Based on the obtained results a decentralized biorefinery concept for production of biofuel is suggested emphasizing sustainability, localness, and recycling principle

Safe and complete contig assembly via omnitigs

Contig assembly is the first stage that most assemblers solve when reconstructing a genome from a set of reads. Its output consists of contigs -- a set of strings that are promised to appear in any genome that could have generated the reads. From the introduction of contigs 20 years ago, assemblers have tried to obtain longer and longer contigs, but the following question was never solved: given a genome graph $G$ (e.g. a de Bruijn, or a string graph), what are all the strings that can be safely reported from $G$ as contigs? In this paper we finally answer this question, and also give a polynomial time algorithm to find them. Our experiments show that these strings, which we call omnitigs, are 66% to 82% longer on average than the popular unitigs, and 29% of dbSNP locations have more neighbors in omnitigs than in unitigs.Comment: Full version of the paper in the proceedings of RECOMB 201

Assessment of Occupational Satisfaction on Performance among Employees of a Forest Resources Management Institution in Nigeria

An organization usually sees an average worker as the source of quality and productivity gains. The study examined the impact of occupational satisfaction on performance among employees of a Forest Resources Management institution in Nigeria using a structured questionnaire for data collection. The data analysis from the study revealed that employee\u2019s level of education enhanced job satisfaction. Furthermore, chi-square results showed that there was no significant relationship (p>0.05) between personal characteristics and their satisfaction level. In addition, correlation results showed that there was a significant relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance. Thus, the study recommends that organizations should intensify efforts in the area of non-financial rewards as a means of influencing greater performance from the employees as well as getting more employee commitment to the organization

Porphyromonas gingivalis and related bacteria: from colonial pigmentation to the type IX secretion system and gliding motility

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a gram-negative, non-motile, anaerobic bacterium implicated as a major pathogen in periodontal disease. P. gingivalis grows as black-pigmented colonies on blood agar, and many bacteriologists have shown interest in this property. Studies of colonial pigmentation have revealed a number of important findings, including an association with the highly active extracellular and surface proteinases called gingipains that are found in P. gingivalis. The Por secretion system, a novel type IX secretion system (T9SS), has been implicated in gingipain secretion in studies using non-pigmented mutants. In addition, many potent virulence proteins, including the metallocarboxypeptidase CPG70, 35 kDa hemin-binding protein HBP35, peptidylarginine deiminase PAD and Lys-specific serine endopeptidase PepK, are secreted through the T9SS. These findings have not been limited to P. gingivalis but have been extended to other bacteria belonging to the phylum Bacteroidetes. Many Bacteroidetes species possess the T9SS, which is associated with gliding motility for some of these bacteria

Monitoring Cognitive and Emotional Processes Through Pupil and Cardiac Response During Dynamic Versus Logical Task

The paper deals with the links between physiological measurements and cognitive and emotional functioning. As long as the operator is a key agent in charge of complex systems, the definition of metrics able to predict his performance is a great challenge. The measurement of the physiological state is a very promising way but a very acute comprehension is required; in particular few studies compare autonomous nervous system reactivity according to specific cognitive processes during task performance and task related psychological stress is often ignored. We compared physiological parameters recorded on 24 healthy subjects facing two neuropsychological tasks: a dynamic task that require problem solving in a world that continually evolves over time and a logical task representative of cognitive processes performed by operators facing everyday problem solving. Results showed that the mean pupil diameter change was higher during the dynamic task; conversely, the heart rate was more elevated during the logical task. Finally, the systolic blood pressure seemed to be strongly sensitive to psychological stress. A better taking into account of the precise influence of a given cognitive activity and both workload and related task-induced psychological stress during task performance is a promising way to better monitor operators in complex working situations to detect mental overload or pejorative stress factor of error

Development of Ground Truth Data for Automatic Lumbar Spine MRI Image Segmentation

Artificial Intelligence through supervised machine learning remains an attractive and popular research area in medical image processing. The objective of such research is often tied to the development of an intelligent computer aided diagnostic system whose aim is to assist physicians in their task of diagnosing diseases. The quality of the resulting system depends largely on the availability of good data for the machine learning algorithm to train on. Training data of a supervised learning process needs to include ground truth, i.e., data that have been correctly annotated by experts. Due to the complex nature of most medical images, human error, experience, and perception play a strong role in the quality of the ground truth. In this paper, we present the results of annotating lumbar spine Magnetic Resonance Imaging images for automatic image segmentation and propose confidence and consistency metrics to measure the quality and variability of the resulting ground truth data, respectively

Measurement of 222Rn dissolved in water at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The technique used at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) to measure the concentration of 222Rn in water is described. Water from the SNO detector is passed through a vacuum degasser (in the light water system) or a membrane contact degasser (in the heavy water system) where dissolved gases, including radon, are liberated. The degasser is connected to a vacuum system which collects the radon on a cold trap and removes most other gases, such as water vapor and nitrogen. After roughly 0.5 tonnes of H2O or 6 tonnes of D2O have been sampled, the accumulated radon is transferred to a Lucas cell. The cell is mounted on a photomultiplier tube which detects the alpha particles from the decay of 222Rn and its daughters. The overall degassing and concentration efficiency is about 38% and the single-alpha counting efficiency is approximately 75%. The sensitivity of the radon assay system for D2O is equivalent to ~3 E(-15) g U/g water. The radon concentration in both the H2O and D2O is sufficiently low that the rate of background events from U-chain elements is a small fraction of the interaction rate of solar neutrinos by the neutral current reaction.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; v2 has very minor change