Some Comparisons of Thermal Energy Consumption in a Temperature Versus a Subtropical Zone

Content: The aim of this desk study is to compare consumption of thermal energy in temperate vs. (sub)tropical climate for two representative processes: float heating (bating and dyeing) and chamber drying, with the view of contributing towards overall assessment of thermal energy consumption for tanneries operating under rather different conditions. The energy consumption is calculated for 1 t of wet salted hides and assuming that 1000 kg of wet salted weight corresponds to 1100 kg of pelt weight containing 838 kg of water and 262 kg of collagen subsequently segregated into grain leather and usable splits. Float rates (200% on pelt/shaved weight), average inlet water temperatures (15 oC vs. 25 oC), process float temperatures for bating (35 oC) and dyeing (60 o C) have been defined. Similarly, for computation of thermal energy for chamber drying, identical initial (45 %) and target leather humidity (20 %) are set and average respective fresh air temperature (15 oC vs. 30 oC) and fresh air relative humidity (50% vs. 70%) estimated and operating conditions such as exhaust air temperature and relative humidity defined. Based on such parameters and assumptions, specific ratios for thermal energy consumption for float heating (bating & dyeing) and for chamber drying have been calculated and comparisons made; the results might not quite coincide with common perceptions. The energy needs computed are net amounts, i.e. regardless of the source and without taking into account any losses and disregarding energy consumption for ambient heating and/or cooling. Thus, the total energy needs are much higher. The ratios computed for grain leather are valid for split leather as well. However, if the solar energy is used to support water heating, the conditions in the tropic zone are substantially more favourable, due to higher insolation and higher efficiency factor (i.e. difference of the final vs. inlet water temperature). Take-Away: Based on such parameters and assumptions, specific ratios for thermal energy consumption for float heating (bating & dyeing) and for chamber drying have been calculated and comparisons made; the results might not quite coincide with common perceptions. However, if the solar energy is used to support water heating, the conditions in the tropic zone are substantially more favourable, due to higher insolation and higher efficiency factor (i.e. difference of the final vs. inlet water temperature)

Recent Tectonic Activity in the Imotsko Polje Area

Displacements of the Adriatic microplate, particularly of its southern part, are of crucial importance for the understanding of recent tectonic movements. Deformations of the structural fabric and the resulting tectonic activity also encompass the studied area. There are four most active fault zones - Mosor-Biokovo, Zagvozd-Vrgorac-Metkovic, Trilj-Tihaljina-Capljina and Imotski-Medjugorje-Popovo polje. In the explored area, these zones delimit the Imotsko polje. The calculated regional stress is oriented in the range between 10-190° and 350-170°. The relationship between the orientation of structural units and stress enables reverse displacements, most frequently in the direction of the south and south-east. The change in stress orientation in the Mt. Biokovo hinterland makes the aforementioned fault zones surrounding the Imotsko polje favourably oriented in respect to the stress, thus enabling dextral horizontal tectonic transport of the structures in different fault blocks. In the two fault zones - Trilj-Tihaljina-Capljina and Imotski-Medjugorje-Popovo polje, there are 98 outcrops suitable for the structural geology measurements. The obtained data on the local stress orientation and spatial displacement of structures are the most important. The character of faults and the most active fault sections are marked, as well as the local structures that are formed due to strong horizontal component of structural displacement in the studied fault zones. Recent tectonic activity is confirmed by the occurrence of earthquakes. Spatial distribution of the earthquake epicentres depicts zones of seismotectonic activity that are related to the aforementioned most important fault zones. Two of the fault zones - Trilj-Tihaljina-Capljina and Imotski-Medjugorje-Popovo polje are especially well marked by earthquakes occurring at depths of between 3 and 15 km

Meta-Research: Large-scale language analysis of peer review reports

Peer review is often criticized for being flawed, subjective and biased, but research into peer review has been hindered by a lack of access to peer review reports. Here we report the results of a study in which text-analysis software was used to determine the linguistic characteristics of 472,449 peer review reports. A range of characteristics (including analytical tone, authenticity, clout, three measures of sentiment, and morality) were studied as a function of reviewer recommendation, area of research, type of peer review and reviewer gender. We found that reviewer recommendation had the biggest impact on the linguistic characteristics of reports, and that area of research, type of peer review and reviewer gender had little or no impact. The lack of influence of research area, type of review or reviewer gender on the linguistic characteristics is a sign of the robustness of peer review

Dynamics of weakly interacting bosons in optical lattices with flux

Realization of strong synthetic magnetic fields in driven optical lattices has enabled implementation of topological bands in cold-atom setups. A milestone has been reached by a recent measurement of a finite Chern number based on the dynamics of incoherent bosonic atoms. The measurements of the quantum Hall effect in semiconductors are related to the Chern-number measurement in a cold-atom setup; however, the design and complexity of the two types of measurements are quite different. Motivated by these recent developments, we investigate the dynamics of weakly interacting incoherent bosons in a two-dimensional driven optical lattice exposed to an external force, which provides a direct probe of the Chern number. We consider a realistic driving protocol in the regime of high driving frequency and focus on the role of weak repulsive interactions. We find that interactions lead to the redistribution of atoms over topological bands both through the conversion of interaction energy into kinetic energy during the expansion of the atomic cloud and due to an additional heating. Remarkably, we observe that the moderate atomic repulsion facilitates the measurement by flattening the distribution of atoms in the quasimomentum space. Our results also show that weak interactions can suppress the contribution of some higher-order nontopological terms in favor of the topological part of the effective model

Factors influencing the promotion and implementation of research integrity in research performing and research funding organizations: a scoping review

Promoting and implementing research integrity is considered the joint responsibility and effort of multiple stakeholders in the research community. We conducted a scoping review and analyzed 236 research articles and gray literature publications from biomedical sciences, social sciences, natural sciences (including engineering), and humanities that dealt with the factors that may positively or negatively impact the promotion and implementation of research integrity. Critical appraisal of evidence was performed for studies describing interventions aimed at research integrity promotion in order to provide insight into the effectiveness of these interventions. The results of this scoping review provide a comprehensive taxonomy of factors with positive or negative impact and their relatedness to individual researchers, research performing and funding organizations, and the system of science. Moreover, the results show that efforts for fostering and promoting research integrity should be implemented at all three levels (researcher, institution, system) simultaneously to deliver greater adherence and implementation of research integrity practices. Although various educational interventions aiming at research integrity promotion exist, we were not able to conclude on the effectiveness of explored interventions due to the methodological quality issues in the studies.Horizon 2020(H2020)824481Medieval and Early Modern Studie

Introducing the Library of Guidance for Health Scientists (LIGHTS): a living database for methods guidance

IMPORTANCE: Improving methodological quality is a priority in the health research community. Finding appropriate methods guidance can be challenging due to heterogeneous terminology, poor indexing in medical databases, and variation in formats. The Library of Guidance for Health Scientists (LIGHTS) is a new searchable database for methods guidance articles. OBSERVATIONS: Journal articles that aim to provide guidance for performing (including planning, design, conduct, analysis, and interpretation), reporting, and assessing the quality of health-related research involving humans or human populations (ie, excluding basic and animal research) are eligible for LIGHTS. A team of health researchers, information specialists, and methodologists continuously identifies and manually indexes eligible guidance documents. The search strategy includes focused searches of specific journals, specialized databases, and suggestions from researchers. A current limitation is that a keyword-based search of MEDLINE (and other general databases) and manual screening of records were not feasible because of the large number of hits (n = 915 523). As of September 20, 2022, LIGHTS included 1246 articles (336 reporting guidelines, 80 quality assessment tools, and 830 other methods guidance articles). The LIGHTS website provides a user-oriented search interface including filters for study type, specific methodological topic, research context, guidance type, and development process of the guidance. Automated matching of alternative methodological expressions (eg, enter loss to follow-up and find articles indexed with missing data) enhances search queries. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: LIGHTS is a peer-supported initiative that is intended to increase access to and use of methods guidance relevant to health researchers, statisticians, methods consultants, methods developers, ethics boards, peer reviewers, journal editors, and funding bodies

Psychological Status and Recurrent Aphthous Ulceration

A B S T R A C T Recurrent aphthous ulceration (RAU) are a disease of an unknown etiology and mediated through T-cel

Education and training policies for research integrity: insights from a focus group study

Education is important for fostering research integrity (RI). Although RI training is increasingly provided, there is little knowledge on how research stakeholders view institutional RI education and training policies. Following a constructivist approach, we present insights about research stakeholders’ views and experiences regarding how research institutions can develop and implement RI education and training policies. We conducted thirty focus groups, engaging 147 participants in eight European countries. Using a mixed deductive-inductive thematic analysis, we identified five themes: (1) RI education should be available to all; (2) education and training approaches and goals should be tailored; (3) motivating trainees is essential; (4) both formal and informal educational formats are necessary; and (5) institutions should take into account various individual, institutional, and system-of-science factors when implementing RI education. Our findings suggest that institutions should make RI education attractive for all and tailor training to disciplinary-specific contexts.Horizon 2020(H2020)824481Merit, Expertise and Measuremen

Navika tjelesne aktivnosti kod autora koji su objavljivali u Hrvatskom časopisu za javno zdravstvo

Navike se mogu definirati kao stečeni oblik ponašanja. Navike nastaju višestrukim, višegodišnjim, ponavljanjem odgovarajućih pokreta ili radnji. Postoje razne vrste navika npr. navike ponašanja, higijenske navike, radne navike itd. Neke od njih su pozitivne, a neke negativne. Tjelesna aktivnost je primjer pozitivne navike, koja pridonosi poboljšanju psiho-fizičkog stanja čovjeka, te je stog vrlo važna u primarnoj prevenciji niza kroničnih i akutnih bolesti. Da bi se stvorila navika redovitog tjelesnog vježbanja potrebno je, unatoč fizičkom zamoru koji proizlazi iz same aktivnosti, ponavljati odgovarajuće vježbe ili aktivnosti iz dana u dan, iz godine u godinu. Kada organizam počne prepoznavati umor u vrijeme treninga, a pogotovo nakon treninga, kao vrhunac ugode, tada možete biti sigurni da ste ovisnik o jednoj pozitivnoj navici- tjelesnoj aktivnosti.