Energy efficiency improvement for broiler production using non-parametric techniques

The goal of this study was to evaluate the sustainability and efficiency of broiler production with regard to energy consumption in Ardabil province, Iran. To reach the goal, linear programming model and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) were employed.  Data were collected from the farmers using a face–to–face questionnaire performed in September–December 2014 period.  The DEA application results showed that the average values of technical, pure technical and scale efficiency scores of producers were 0.949, 0.988 and 0.960, respectively.   Also, energy saving target ratio for broiler production was calculated as 8.33%, indicating that by following the recommendations resulted from this study, about 12316.85 MJ/(1000 bird) of total input energy could be saved while holding the constant level of broiler production.  The results of linear programming model revealed that by using of optimum energy, producers could increase average yield by 17.6%.   Also the results indicated that the existing productivity level could be achieved even by reducing the existing energy use level by 13.89%.  Diesel fuel, natural gas and electricity energy inputs had the highest potential for saving energy in two methods; so, if inefficient producers would pay more attention towards these sources, they would considerably improve their energy productivity

Coronary calcium scoring: are the results comparable to computed tomography coronary angiography for screening coronary artery disease in a South Asian population?

Background: The need of having feasible screening tools like Coronary Calcium Scoring (CCS) and CT Coronary Artery (CTCA) for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) has become paramount. We aimed to evaluate the accuracy of CCS in determining the degree of stenosis of coronary vessels as compared to that determined by CTCA in a South Asian population. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at The Aga Khan University Hospital. A total of 539 patient records were reviewed who had undergone CCS and CTCA between 2008 and 2010. Patient records were reviewed by comparing their CCS and CTCA results. Results: About 268 out of 301 (89%) patients with a CCS of 0-9 were found to be free of stenosis on CTCA. On a CCS of 10-99, 110 out of 121 (91%) patients were either free of stenosis or had mild stenosis. About 66 out of 79 (84%) patients had moderate or severe stenosis with a calcium score of 100-400 while none of the patients were free of stenosis. Around 28 out of 38 (74%) patients with a CCS of more than 400 had severe stenosis. However, only 04 patients (11%) were found to have mild stenosis. Spearman\u27s rho revealed a correlation coefficient of 0.791 with a p-value of \u3c0.001. Conclusion: Our study reaffirms that in South Asian population, low CCS (\u3c100) is associated with no or minimal stenosis while high CCS warrants further investigation; hence, making it a reliable tool for screening patients with CAD

Analysis of Energy Efficiency of Mechanized Cultivation in Potato Production Using a Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Vo l u m e 1 0 -N u m b e r 1 7 -M a y 2 0 1 4 ( 6 1 -6 8

Characterization of Odorous Gaseous Emissions from a Rendering Plant by GC-MS and Evaluate the Performance of Existing Refiners

Background: Among the industrial activities that may cause odor nuisance problems, baking waste one is of the sources of bad odor, and therefore individuals complain from the industry. The aim of this study was to evaluation of pollutants released from poultry rendering plant and also performance of existing refiners in removing these pollutants. Methods: In this study, 66 air samples were collected from air pollution sources, environmental and worker's breathing zone using absorbent activated carbon and silica gel at two slaughterhouses in North and West of Iran. The samples were analyzed by GC-MS, and then efficiency of the three refiners condenser, thermal oxidation and water tank had been determined.Results: Overall, 56 chemical pollutants in the slaughterhouse A and 41 chemical pollutants in the slaughterhouse B had been identified. These compounds were  included hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, ethers, halogenated compounds, sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, acids and hormones. Condenser efficiency was 38 to 100%. Thermal oxidation efficiency was 15.41 to 100% and the efficiency of the water tank was 8.93 to 100%.Conclusions: Occupational exposure to pyridine and carbon disulfide, in the slaughterhouse A, and carbon disulfide in the slaughterhouse B, was excessive. The concentrations of toluene, carbon disulfide and pyridine in the slaughterhouse A and concentrations of toluene, carbon disulfide and acetone in a slaughterhouse B was much more than the threshold of smell. Results showed that the combination of condenser and thermal oxidation, could remove large volumes of gases emitted

Characterization of Odorous Gaseous Emissions from a Rendering Plant by GC-MS and Evaluate the Performance of Existing Refiners

Background: Among the industrial activities that may cause odor nuisance problems, baking waste one is of the sources of bad odor, and therefore individuals complain from the industry. The aim of this study was to evaluation of pollutants released from poultry rendering plant and also performance of existing refiners in removing these pollutants. Methods: In this study, 66 air samples were collected from air pollution sources, environmental and worker's breathing zone using absorbent activated carbon and silica gel at two slaughterhouses in North and West of Iran. The samples were analyzed by GC-MS, and then efficiency of the three refiners condenser, thermal oxidation and water tank had been determined.Results: Overall, 56 chemical pollutants in the slaughterhouse A and 41 chemical pollutants in the slaughterhouse B had been identified. These compounds were  included hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, ethers, halogenated compounds, sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, acids and hormones. Condenser efficiency was 38 to 100%. Thermal oxidation efficiency was 15.41 to 100% and the efficiency of the water tank was 8.93 to 100%.Conclusions: Occupational exposure to pyridine and carbon disulfide, in the slaughterhouse A, and carbon disulfide in the slaughterhouse B, was excessive. The concentrations of toluene, carbon disulfide and pyridine in the slaughterhouse A and concentrations of toluene, carbon disulfide and acetone in a slaughterhouse B was much more than the threshold of smell. Results showed that the combination of condenser and thermal oxidation, could remove large volumes of gases emitted

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors 2017 includes a comprehensive assessment of incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 354 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Previous GBD studies have shown how the decline of mortality rates from 1990 to 2016 has led to an increase in life expectancy, an ageing global population, and an expansion of the non-fatal burden of disease and injury. These studies have also shown how a substantial portion of the world's population experiences non-fatal health loss with considerable heterogeneity among different causes, locations, ages, and sexes. Ongoing objectives of the GBD study include increasing the level of estimation detail, improving analytical strategies, and increasing the amount of high-quality data. METHODS: We estimated incidence and prevalence for 354 diseases and injuries and 3484 sequelae. We used an updated and extensive body of literature studies, survey data, surveillance data, inpatient admission records, outpatient visit records, and health insurance claims, and additionally used results from cause of death models to inform estimates using a total of 68 781 data sources. Newly available clinical data from India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Nepal, China, Brazil, Norway, and Italy were incorporated, as well as updated claims data from the USA and new claims data from Taiwan (province of China) and Singapore. We used DisMod-MR 2.1, a Bayesian meta-regression tool, as the main method of estimation, ensuring consistency between rates of incidence, prevalence, remission, and cause of death for each condition. YLDs were estimated as the product of a prevalence estimate and a disability weight for health states of each mutually exclusive sequela, adjusted for comorbidity. We updated the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary development indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Additionally, we calculated differences between male and female YLDs to identify divergent trends across sexes. GBD 2017 complies with the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting