A Pattern Based Approach to Defining the Dynamic Infrastructure of UML 2.0

The 2U Consortium has recently submitted a proposal for the definition of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. This uses an innovative technique of rapidly “stamping out” the definition using a small number of patterns commonly found in software architecture. The patterns, their instantiation, and any further language details are described using precise class diagrams and OCL, this enables the definition to be easily understood. The main focus of the 2U approach is on the static part of the definition. A further concern when modelling software, using languages such as the UML, is describing the dynamic behaviour of the system over time. The contribution of this paper is to provide a template that can be used to “stamp out” the dynamic part of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. We argue for the suitability of the dynamic template because it makes little commitment to concrete abstractions and can, therefore, be used to support a broad spectrum of behavioural languages

Water neutral developments : how to successfully integrate micro-algae systems into wastewater management

Treating municipal wastewater is necessary to limit the impact carbonaceous, nitrogenous and phosphorus matter present in spent water may have on receiving aquatic systems. Conventional wastewater treatment systems employing the activated sludge or biological nutrient removal process as the main phase of treatment, demonstrate a high proficiency at removing these contaminants. Despite this, these processes are described as problem shifting, simply causing secondary pollution because of high energy consumed, production of waste sludge and greenhouse gases. To improve the environmental impact of wastewater treatment, particularly in light of stricter effluent discharge standards, treatment processes that have low energy consumption without affecting performance are needed. A potential, more sustainable biological treatment process to remediate the contaminants from wastewater is by using microalgae. Although this concept has been extensively researched, limited commercial development has been achieved. A major hindrance to the implementation of microalgae to treat wastewater is the cultivation process, which is one of the main cost and energy burdens, and as such would not result in the much-desired reduction in overall energy consumption of wastewater treatment. This thesis evaluated the performance of a microalgae treatment process for primary settled municipal wastewater (PSW) in a laboratory setting under static culturing conditions, to examine the feasibility of a low energy treatment process. Initial experiments assessed three freshwater microalga to treat PSW under both optimal (aerated) and static (non-aerated) culture conditions. From these results, Chlorella vulgaris identified itself as the most promising species, exhibiting high inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus removal. The availability of a suitable carbon substrate was determined to be the main limiting-factor affecting the algal treatment performance under static cultivation. To investigate this, initial experiments of PSW enriched with glucose ( 90% reduction of the inorganic compounds in each batch. Lastly, to overcome the material cost of applying commercial sources of organic carbon, experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of the carbohydrate rich by-product, pot ale, from the production of malt whiskey as a carbon substrate to promote microalgae growth and remediation in PSW. In batch experiments, repeated three times with wastewater collected and treated separately and sequentially, the efficiency of the microalgae in pot ale enriched PSW demonstrated a high variability at reducing NH3-N and PO4-P, between 99 to 58% and 94 to 58% respectively. When operated under semi-continuous mode the microalgae demonstrated to be reliable in treating pot ale enriched PSW however, the removal efficiency in NH3-N, PO4-P and COD declined slightly in each subsequent cycle following the replenishment of PSW. The results of the pot ale enriched experiments highlight future research needs, such as the optimisation of nutrient ratios in the PSW and control over pH, to ensure a consistent and reliable treatment performance. Overall the application of C. vulgaris to treat enriched PSW, without aeration, offers a key area to develop as an alternative low energy, biological wastewater treatment optio

Surface grafting of electrospun fibers using ATRP and RAFT for the control of biointerfacial interactions

BACKGROUND The ability to present signalling molecules within a low fouling 3D environment that mimics the extracellular matrix is an important goal for a range of biomedical applications, both in vitro and in vivo. Cell responses can be triggered by non-specific protein interactions occurring on the surface of a biomaterial, which is an undesirable process when studying specific receptor-ligand interactions. It is therefore useful to present specific ligands of interest to cell surface receptors in a 3D environment that minimizes non-specific interactions with biomolecules, such as proteins. METHOD In this study, surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of poly(ethylene glycol)-based monomers was carried out from the surface of electrospun fibers composed of a styrene/vinylbenzyl chloride copolymer. Surface initiated radical addition-fragmentation chain transfer (SI-RAFT) polymerisation was also carried out to generate bottle brush copolymer coatings consisting of poly(acrylic acid) and poly(acrylamide). These were grown from surface trithiocarbonate groups generated from the chloromethyl styrene moieties existing in the original synthesised polymer. XPS was used to characterise the surface composition of the fibers after grafting and after coupling with fluorine functional XPS labels. RESULTS Bottle brush type coatings were able to be produced by ATRP which consisted of poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate and a terminal alkyne-functionalised monomer. The ATRP coatings showed reduced non-specific protein adsorption, as a result of effective PEG incorporation and pendant alkynes groups existing as part of the brushes allowed for further conjugation of via azide-alkyne Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. In the case of RAFT, carboxylic acid moieties were effectively coupled to an amine label via amide bond formation. In each case XPS analysis demonstrated that covalent immobilisation had effectively taken place. CONCLUSION Overall, the studies presented an effective platform for the preparation of 3D scaffolds which contain effective conjugation sites for attachment of specific bioactive signals of interest, as well as actively reducing non-specific protein interactions.This research was supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for Polymers (CRCP)

Addressing the resilience of tomato farmers in Ghana facing a double exposure from climate and market

Ghanaian tomato farmers are severely impacted by changing climate and related more frequent and extreme weather events such as drought and heavy rainfall. Furthermore, tomato production represents one of the main sources of income for these farmers, which leaves them highly exposed to market price variations. However, the full impact of changing climate and price variations for these farmers has not been assessed. Here, we examined how Ghanaian tomato farmers experience and respond to a double exposure from climate and market related shocks. The objectives were threefold: (i) to investigate how farmers in two different agroecological zones (savannah and semi-equatorial) experience climate and market shocks, (ii) to examine the major response strategies implemented in face of this double exposure, and (iii) to identify paths toward systemic changes to enhance resilience. A survey was conducted with 344 tomato smallholder farmers in the two agroecological zones. The results from the survey were complemented by semi-structured interviews and focus groups. We found that farmers are severely exposed to climate and market shocks, which causes a reduction in both production activities and revenues. A set of agricultural and water management practices, such as crop rotation, supplementary fertilization, and water tanks, have been adopted by farmers as response mechanisms to climate variations. However, no response mechanisms, other than agricultural diversification, are in place yet to face the economic shocks. Thus, enhancing systemic resilience becomes particularly important to face this double exposure and restructure and change feedback mechanisms within the current system. The reestablishment of tomato processing plants or formalizing the stakeholders’ network could both be ways to integrate value-chain stakeholders and support appropriate structures. Encompassing both climate and trading attributes through specific agro-food policies are much-needed for a sustainable and resilient transformation of the tomato production system.publishedVersio

A pattern based approach to defining the dynamic infrastructure of UML 2.0.

The 2U Consortium has recently submitted a proposal for the definition of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. This uses an innovative technique of rapidly “stamping out” the definition using a small number of patterns commonly found in software architecture. The patterns, their instantiation, and any further language details are described using precise class diagrams and OCL, this enables the definition to be easily understood. The main focus of the 2U approach is on the static part of the definition. A further concern when modelling software, using languages such as the UML, is describing the dynamic behaviour of the system over time. The contribution of this paper is to provide a template that can be used to “stamp out” the dynamic part of the UML 2.0 infrastructure. We argue for the suitability of the dynamic template because it makes little commitment to concrete abstractions and can, therefore, be used to support a broad spectrum of behavioural languages

Development of an index to rank dairy females on expected lifetime profit

peer-reviewedThe objective of this study was to develop an index to rank dairy females on expected profit for the remainder of their lifetime, taking cognizance of both additive and nonadditive genetic merit, permanent environmental effects, and current states of the animal including the most recent calving date and cow parity. The cow own worth (COW) index is intended to be used for culling the expected least profitable females in a herd, as well as inform purchase and pricing decisions for trading of females. The framework of the COW index consisted of the profit accruing from (1) the current lactation, (2) future lactations, and (3) net replacement cost differential. The COW index was generated from estimated performance values (sum of additive genetic merit, nonadditive genetic merit, and permanent environmental effects) of traits, their respective net margin values, and transition probability matrices for month of calving, survival, and somatic cell count; the transition matrices were to account for predicted change in a cow’s state in the future. Transition matrices were generated from 3,156,109 lactation records from the Irish national database between the years 2010 and 2013. Phenotypic performance records for 162,981 cows in the year 2012 were used to validate the COW index. Genetic and permanent environmental effects (where applicable) were available for these cows from the 2011 national genetic evaluations and used to calculate the COW index and their national breeding index values (includes only additive genetic effects). Cows were stratified per quartile within herd, based on their COW index value and national breeding index value. The correlation between individual animal COW index value and national breeding index value was 0.65. Month of calving of the cow in her current lactation explained 18% of the variation in the COW index, with the parity of the cow explaining an additional 3 percentage units of the variance in the COW index. Females ranking higher on the COW index yielded more milk and milk solids and calved earlier in the calving season than their lower ranking contemporaries. The difference in phenotypic performance between the best and worst quartiles was larger for cows ranked on COW index than cows ranked on the national breeding index. The COW index is useful to rank females before culling or purchasing decisions on expected profit and is complementary to the national breeding index, which identifies the most suitable females for breeding replacements