Paleoceanography and dinoflagellate cyst record of northwestern North Pacific ODP Site 882 during the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition

A palynological study of the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition (2761 to 2497 ka) at Ocean Drilling Program Site 882, located on the Detroit Seamount in the western Subarctic Gyre of the northern North Pacific, provides a detailed record from 68 productive samples of dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) and acritarchs with preservation varying from good to moderate. Dinocyst assemblages are characterized by an overwhelming dominance of round brown cysts, scarcity of phototrophs including Impagidinium species, and low taxonomic richness (a total of 11 dinocyst taxa for the entire study), reflecting the elevated nutrient levels but harsh conditions and reduced salinities of the North Pacific Subarctic Gyre. Cool, saline surface waters characterize the interval from 2761 to 2.72 Ma, as indicated by relatively abundant Impagidinium species including I. pallidum. Following the establishment of the modern halocline at ~2.72 Ma, significant shifts are recorded in both dinocyst concentrations and abundances of the acritarch Cymatiosphaera? invaginata. Productivity evidently remained fairly high even during glacial cycles, including the intense glacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) G4 at 2.70 Ma marked by common Habibacysta tectata and Pyxidinopsis reticulata, implying ice-free conditions at least during the summer. Dinocyst concentrations, and by inference productivity, are at their lowest during MIS 104 (2.6 Ma) which is associated with pronounced cooling in the northern North Atlantic and across the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Low abundances of Cymatiosphaera? invaginata throughout the interval 2600–2565 ka, which includes interglacial MIS 103, unusually suggest reduced precipitation and hence elevated salinities at this time. The interval 2558–2497 ka registers a return to sporadically abundant Cymatiosphaera? invaginata in glacial MIS 100 and interglacial MISs 101 and 99, suggesting the return of reduced salinities and perhaps enhanced nutrient levels. In general, productivity seems to remain relatively unchanged although with a peak in interglacial MIS 101. Most species recorded occur within their published stratigraphic ranges. However, this study extends the highest reported occurrence of Impagidinium detroitense Zorzi et al., 2020 from Upper Pliocene (2700 ka) to Lower Pleistocene (2544 ka)

Screening Tuberkulosis pada Pasien Diabetes Mellitus untuk Meningkatkan Case Notification Rate di Kota Denpasar

Background: Case Notifivation Rate (CNR) is one of  survailance tuberculosis (TB) program goals indicator in public health centre which is indicate the discovery rate of new tuberculosis patients in society, however Denpasar City TB CNR in last three years (2011-2013) tends to decrease. Aims study: for implementation and evaluation TB case screening activities in patients with DM (Diabetes Melitus) in Denpasar Public Health Centres. Method: Implementation was carried out by  applying the TB screening form to 26 DM patients in West Denpasar Public Health Centre II and followed by sputum examination in laboratory. Furthermore sceening activities evaluation was held based on surveillance arttributes which was next analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Result and discussion: Result showed 7.6% (2) had been infected with tuberculosis:  57.6% (5) with TB symtoms and 50% (13) were reffered for sputum examination. As many 10 peoples felt disposed to take the sputum examination, with 8 peoples registered to laboratory, 6 peoples gave up the sputum, and 1 person positive TB.  Screening evaluation result: the proportion of TB positive cases among those who were examided was 16.7%. Farther, we got the estimation of CNR increase in 2014 amount 34.37% by extrapolationg the 2013 CNR.Conclusion: TB case screening activities in DM patients potentially could increase the CNR TB goals in Denpasar City and expected could be developed in all Denpasar Public Health Centres, especially for the Public Health Centres with high DM cases

Paleoceanography and dinoflagellate cyst record of northwestern North Pacific ODP Site 882 during the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition

A palynological study of the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition (2761 to 2497 ka) at Ocean Drilling Program Site 882, located on the Detroit Seamount in the western Subarctic Gyre of the northern North Pacific, provides a detailed record from 68 productive samples of dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts) and acritarchs with preservation varying from good to moderate. Dinocyst assemblages are characterized by an overwhelming dominance of round brown cysts, scarcity of phototrophs including Impagidinium species, and low taxonomic richness (a total of 11 dinocyst taxa for the entire study), reflecting the elevated nutrient levels but harsh conditions and reduced salinities of the North Pacific Subarctic Gyre. Cool, saline surface waters characterize the interval from 2761 to 2.72 Ma, as indicated by relatively abundant Impagidinium species including I. pallidum. Following the establishment of the modern halocline at ~2.72 Ma, significant shifts are recorded in both dinocyst concentrations and abundances of the acritarch Cymatiosphaera? invaginata. Productivity evidently remained fairly high even during glacial cycles, including the intense glacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) G4 at 2.70 Ma marked by common Habibacysta tectata and Pyxidinopsis reticulata, implying ice-free conditions at least during the summer. Dinocyst concentrations, and by inference productivity, are at their lowest during MIS 104 (2.6 Ma) which is associated with pronounced cooling in the northern North Atlantic and across the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Low abundances of Cymatiosphaera? invaginata throughout the interval 2600–2565 ka, which includes interglacial MIS 103, unusually suggest reduced precipitation and hence elevated salinities at this time. The interval 2558–2497 ka registers a return to sporadically abundant Cymatiosphaera? invaginata in glacial MIS 100 and interglacial MISs 101 and 99, suggesting the return of reduced salinities and perhaps enhanced nutrient levels. In general, productivity seems to remain relatively unchanged although with a peak in interglacial MIS 101. Most species recorded occur within their published stratigraphic ranges. However, this study extends the highest reported occurrence of Impagidinium detroitense Zorzi et al., 2020 from Upper Pliocene (2700 ka) to Lower Pleistocene (2544 ka)

Estimation of Unsaturated Flow Parameters by Inverse Modeling and GPR Tomography

The main goal of this work was to evaluate the possibility of estimating the flow parameters and geological structure of the unsaturated zone, also called vadose zone, using both geophysical and hydrological data and methods. The vadose zone at Moreppen field site located near Oslo’s Gardermoen airport was used as the case study. Moreppen field site has been the subject of numerous studies related to sedimentological, hydrological, geophysical and geochemical processes in the saturated and vadose zone. However, in the field of hydrology none of the previous studies at Moreppen used spatially continuous geophysical data to estimate the flow parameters at the field site. In this study, cross well GPR travel time tomography for the first time was used at Moreppen to map the spatial and temporal distribution of the electromagnetic (EM) wave velocity at the field site. The EM wave velocities were converted to the soil water content using a petrophysical relationship. Then using an inverse flow modeling conditioned on volumetric soil water content, we estimated hydrological parameters in the field site. Since snowmelt is the main groundwater recharge at Gardermoen, we focused our study to the water flow through the vadose zone during the snowmelt

Representation of Septic Tanks in Stormwater Management Model (SWMM)

This is the author accepted manuscript.Septic tank systems are commonly used for treating domestic wastewater and an essential part of decentralized wastewater management systems. Many studies have considered septic tanks in terms of their design, performance and their impact on the environment. However, studies that have modelled septic tanks to test their performance for the removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS) are scant. This paper presents an approach to model septic tanks using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM).The developed approach has been then applied to assess the influence of septic tank design configurations on pollution reduction.The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Libya for the financial support to this PhD studies

Energy Optimization Using a Pump Scheduling Tool in Water Distribution Systems

Water distribution management system is a costly practice and with the growth of population, the needs for creating more cost-effective solutions are vital. This paper presents a tool for optimization of pump operation in water systems. The pump scheduling tool (PST) is a fully dynamic tool that can handle four different types of fixed speed pump schedule representations (on and off, time control, time-length control, and simple control [water levels in tanks]). The PST has been developed using Visual Basic programming language and has a linkage between the EPANET hydraulic solver with the GANetXL optimization algorithm. It has a user-friendly interface which allows the simulation of water systems based on (1) a hydraulic model (EPANET) input file, (2) an interactive interface which can be modified by the user, and (3) a pump operation schedule generated by the optimization algorithm. It also has the interface of dynamic results which automatically visualizes generated solutions. The capabilities of the PST have been demonstrated by application to two real case studies, Anytown water distribution system (WDS) and Richmond WDS as a real one in the United Kingdom. The results show that PST is able to generate high-quality practical solutions

Hearing aid with probabilistic hearing loss compensation

A hearing aid includes: an input transducer for provision of an audio signal in response to sound; a hearing loss model for calculation of a hearing loss as a function of a signal level of the audio signal; and a probabilistic hearing loss compensator that is configured to process the audio signal into a hearing loss compensated audio signal in such a way that the hearing loss is restored to normal hearing in accordance with the hearing loss model.</p

Self-adaptive fitness formulation for constrained optimization

A self-adaptive fitness formulation is presented for solving constrained optimization problems. In this method, the dimensionality of the problem is reduced by representing the constraint violations by a single infeasibility measure. The infeasibility measure is used to form a two-stage penalty that is applied to the infeasible solutions. The performance of the method has been examined by its application to a set of eleven test cases from the specialized literature. The results have been compared with previously published results from the literature. It is shown that the method is able to find the optimum solutions. The proposed method requires no parameter tuning and can be used as a fitness evaluator with any evolutionary algorithm. The approach is also robust in its handling of both linear and nonlinear equality and inequality constraint functions. Furthermore, the method does not require an initial feasible solution