The study of air fuel ratio for open furnace MILD combustion of biogas on bluff-body burner

Economical fuel cost is very critical in the heating industry. Lean combustion with high air fuel ratio (AFR) is normally practiced by the industry. Low air fuel ratio or rich combustion will result in unburned hydrocarbons (UHC). UHC is a waste and pollution to the environment. This paper discussed on the modelling of air fuel ratio for the moderate and intense low oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion of biogas on bluff-body burner. Biogas is a low calorific value (LCV) gas which was formulated by using 50% methane, 20% hydrogen and 30% carbon dioxide. AFR is the ratio of air and fuel injected to the combustion chamber. Nozzle outlet size for air and fuel plays important role to determine AFR. In this study, the air and fuel nozzle size ratio used is 23:1. The AFR will be evaluated based on the UHC produced by the combustion. Stoichiometric AFR occurred when zero UHC and zero excess oxygen flow through the EGR pipe. The result shows that when AFR is 4.0, zero UHC was detected in the EGR. UHC in EGR will be waste and create unwanted combustion at the wrong location

Mild acute stress improves response speed without impairing accuracy or interference control in two selective attention tasks: Implications for theories of stress and cognition.

Acute stress is generally thought to impair performance on tasks thought to rely on selective attention. This effect has been well established for moderate to severe stressors, but no study has examined how a mild stressor-the most common type of stressor-influences selective attention. In addition, no study to date has examined how stress influences the component processes involved in overall selective attention task performance, such as controlled attention, automatic attentional activation, decision-making, and motor abilities. To address these issues, we randomly assigned 107 participants to a mild acute stress or control condition. As expected, the mild acute stress condition showed a small but significant increase in cortisol relative to the control condition. Following the stressor, we assessed attention with two separate flanker tasks. One of these tasks was optimized to investigate component attentional processes using computational cognitive modeling, whereas the other task employed mouse-tracking to illustrate how response conflict unfolded over time. The results for both tasks showed that mild acute stress decreased response time (i.e., increased response speed) without influencing accuracy or interference control. Further, computational modeling and mouse-tracking analyses indicated that these effects were due to faster motor action execution time for chosen actions. Intriguingly, however, cortisol responses were unrelated to any of the observed effects of mild stress. These results have implications for theories of stress and cognition, and highlight the importance of considering motor processes in understanding the effects of stress on cognitive task performance

Developing physical capability standards that are predictive of success on special forces selection courses

Free to read This study aimed to develop minimum standards for physical capability assessments (vertical jump, sit and reach, push-ups, seven-stage sit-ups, heaves, agility, 20-m shuttle run, loaded 5-km pack march, and 400-m swim) that candidates must pass before they can commence Australian Army Special Forces (SF) selection courses. Soldiers (Part A: n = 104; Part B: n = 92) completed the physical capability assessments before commencing a SF selection course. At the beginning of these selection courses, participants attempted two barrier assessments (3.2-km battle run and 20-km march). Statistical analysis revealed several physical capability assessments were associated with performance on the barrier assessments and selection course outcome (Part A); however, these statistical models were unable to correctly classify all candidates as likely to pass or fail the selection course. Alternatively, manual analysis identified a combination of physical capability standards that correctly classified 14% to 18% of candidates likely to fail, without excluding any candidates able to pass (Part A). The standards were applied and refined through Part B and included completing the 5-km pack march in ≤45:45 minutes : seconds, achieving ≥level five on the sit-up test, or completing ≥66 push-ups. Implementation of these standards may reduce attrition rates and enhance the efficiency of the SF recruitment process

More poor kids in more poor places: children increasingly live where poverty persists

More poor kids in more poor places: children increasingly live where poverty persist