Biogas production from black water, kitchen refuse and farm waste : lab assessment and practical application at MCF Yatta, Kenya

The possibilities for biogas production from black water, kitchen waste and farm waste are examined in this thesis. Theory on the subject of anaerobic digestion and biogas production is presented. Mulli’s Children Family (MCF) farm at Yatta, Kenya is used as a real life example. In addition to this, a biogas lab experiment is included. The available resources for biogas production at MCF Yatta include animal waste, vegetable waste and human waste. The estimated biogas potential of the available resources is 7877 m3 /year or 21.58 m3 /day, assuming 60% methane content. The maximum energy equivalent of the estimated biogas potential is 184.3 GJ. A system for biogas production using a fixed dome bioreactor is proposed. Fecal sludge from pit latrines and vegetable waste from the kitchen is proposed as the main feedstock. Biogas utilization in cooking and lighting is recommended and reuse of the slurry and the effluent in the agriculture. Post treatment is recommended in drying beds for the slurry and a polishing bed with reeds for the effluent. The samples used in the biogas lab experiment were black water (7.95 gr TS/l and 6.47 gr VS/l), kitchen waste (initially 168.52 gr TS/l and 150.33gr VS/l, later 49.97 gr TS/l and 44.39 gr VS/l after dilution) and a mixture of both (52.86 gr TS/l and 45.61 gr/VS/l). The incubation period was 30 days. The presented results represent the biogas production of the mixed sample and inoculum substrates. The reason is that the inoculum used was not fully degraded and consequently a substantial fraction of the produced biogas is attributed to it. The black water sample produced 371.64 ml biogas/gr VS added with 79.46% methane content. The kitchen waste and the mixture samples were inhibited because of high organic loading and pH drop

ACCURACY AND THROWING VELOCITY IN HANDBALL

INTRODUCTION: Accuracy and throwing velocity in handball are regarded as basic parameters of performance during competition. Several investigators have studied the relationship between the velocity of movement of the upper limbs and accuracy in hitting the target, which has led to interesting theories (Schmidt, 1982, Eliasz et al., 1990, Hore, 1996). The aim of the present study was the comparative analysis of accuracy, in combination with ball velocity, while performing shots in handball, using as subjects athletes of various levels and non-athletes. METHODS: In order to measure accuracy, an innovative electronic device was used which was placed on the inner side of a goal post and functioned as a ‘targetpointer’ (by means of a red light) and ‘hit-detector’. Another lab-made laser device was used for measuring ball velocity. Three groups of subjects took part in the experiments : one group of 15 handball athletes, the best of League A1 scorers (age 24.86 ± 2.91 yrs), another group of 12 handball athletes, the best of League A2 scorers (age 26.84 ± 5.67 yrs) and a random sample of 15 physical education students (21.72 ± 0.89 yrs). Accuracy and ball velocity were examined in three types of throws: (a) on the spot, (b) with a cross-over step and (c) with a vertical jump. The results were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: In all three types of throws examined, there was a significant difference in accuracy among groups, attributed to the higher deviation from the target observed in the student group (on the spot: Fratio= 16.422, p £ 0.001; with a crossover step: Fratio= 22.493, p £ 0.001; with an a vertical jump: Fratio= 6.825, p £ 0.003) (Table 1). Table 1 Mean values (± SD) of deviation from the target (in cm) and of ball velocity (in m/s), in the three types of throws for the three groups of subjects. on the spot with a cross-over step with a vertical jump [table] With regard to throwing velocity, a significant difference among groups was found in all types of throws examined (on the spot: Fratio= 54.585, p £ 0.001; with a crossover step: Fratio= 33.578, p £ 0.001; with an a vertical jump: Fratio= 20.795, p £ 0.001), which was attributable to the fact that all three groups differed significantly from each other. In the throw with a vertical jump the difference between the two groups of athletes was less than that observed in the other two types of throw. This was probably due to the advanced technical skill required for performing this type of throw. CONCLUSIONS: The throwing performance of the three groups of subjects was assessed both by the level of accuracy and the magnitude of ball velocity in their throws. The performance of the best scores in the League A1 group significantly exceeded that of the other groups for the variables studied in the three types of throwing examined by the present study. REFERENCES: Schmidt, R. (1982). Motor Control and Learning. A Behavioral Emphasis, 336-350. Eliasz, J., Janiak, J., Wit, A. (1990). Sport Wyczynowy 9/10, 17-23. Hore, J., Watt, S., Martin, J., Miller, B. (1995). Exp. Brain Res. 103, 277-286

Frustration και απρόοπτη μεταβολή συνθηκών στα ναυλοσύμφωνα - Συγκριτική μελέτη αγγλικού και ελληνικού δικαίου

Η ανάλυση που εμπεριέχεται στην εργασία έχει ως βάση την μελέτη του θεσμού της frustration στο αγγλικό δίκαιο των συμβάσεων ναύλωσης, του θεσμού δηλαδή εκείνου που οδηγεί στην αυτόματη λύση μιας σύμβασης ναύλωσης όταν ενόψει μεταβολής των συνθηκών η εκπλήρωση της συμβατικής υποχρέωσης καθίσταται αδύνατη, η μεταβολή δε των συνθηκών δεν οφείλεται σε υπαιτιότητα των συμβαλλομένων μερών ούτε θα μπορούσε να προβλεφθεί από τα τελευταία. Βασικές κατηγορίες λόγων που μπορούν να οδηγήσουν στην λύση της σύμβασης με την εφαρμογή του θεσμού της frustration, είναι (α) η αδυναμία παροχής, φυσική (impossibility) ή νομική (illegality), (β) η σημαντική δυσχέρεια εκπλήρωσης (impracticability) και (γ) η ματαίωση του σκοπού χρήσης της παροχής (frustration of purpose). Ιδιαίτερη θέση στην μελέτη, κατέχει η περίπτωση της υπερμετρης καθυστέρησης, η οποία μεθοδολογικά εντάσσεται στην υπό (α) περίπτωση της αδυναμίας παροχής, εξετάζεται δε ενδελεχώς, ενόψει και της ιδιαίτερης θέσης του στοιχείου του χρόνου στις συμβάσεις ναύλωσης. Η ανάλυση ξεκινά από την εξέταση της εφαρμογής της frustration στην περίπτωση της φυσικής αδυναμίας, για την κατανόηση δε της περίπτωσης αυτής στις συμβάσεις ναύλωσης, αναγκαία κρίθηκε η προηγούμενη επίσκοπηση της εμφάνισης του θεσμού σε συνδυασμό με το θεωρητικό του υπόβαθρο. Στο πλαίσιο της ιστορικής αυτής αναδρομής, αναφέρονται παραδείγματα περιπτώσεων που εντάσσονται στην υπό (γ) περίπτωση (frustration of purtpose). Ακολουθεί ανάλυση περί της νομικής αδυναμίας και στη συνέχεια εξετάζεται η περίπτωση της υπερμετρης καθυστέρησης, στο πλαίσιο της οποίας γίνεται μνεία στην υπό (β) περίπτωση της σημαντικής δυσχέρειας εκπλήρωσης. Συγχρόνως στις ανωτέρω περιπτώσεις εξετάζεται υποθετικά η θέση του ελληνικού δικαίου, συμπεριλαμβάνοντας τα αποτελέσματα στα οποία θα οδηγούσε η εφαμοργή του. Έπεται η εξέταση των περιορισμών που τίθενται κατά την εφαρμογή του θεσμού της frustration και, τέλος, τα αποτελέσματα στα οποία οδηγεί.The analysis contained in the thesis is based on the study of the doctrine of frustration in the English law of charterparties, the institution that is leading to the automatic termination of a charter contract when the change of circumstances renders impossible the fulfillment of the contractual obligations and that change of circumstances is not due to the fault of the parties and could not be foreseen by the parties. The main categories of reasons that may lead to the termination of the contract with the application of the doctrine of frustration are impossibility, impracticability and frustration of purpose. A particular place in the present study is the case of excessive delay, which is methodologically included in the case of impossibility and it will be examined in detail, in view of the particular position of the time element in charterparties. The analysis begins with the examination of the application of the doctrine of frustration in the case of impossibility, and in this case it was considered necessary the previous review of the appearance of the doctrine in combination with its theoretical background. In the context of this historical review, there will be examples of cases falling within the framework of frustration of purpose. The case of excessive delay is then considered, where reference is made to cases of impracticability. At the same time, in the cases mentioned, Greek law is being examined by including the results from its implementation. Finally the study considers the examination of the limitations imposed on the implementation of the doctrine of frustration and the results it leads

Synthesis and evaluation of novel 2,4-disubstituted arylthiazoles against T. brucei.

The design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of the 4-substituted-2-[3-(adamant-1-yl)-4-fluorophenyl]thiazoles 1a-j, the 4-substituted-2-[4-(adamant-1-yl)phenyl]thiazoles 2a-h, the 2-substituted-4-[4-(adamant-1-yl)phenyl]thiazoles 3a-e, the N-substituted 2-phenylthiazol-4-ethylamides 4a, b and the N-substituted 4-phenylthiazol-2-ethylamides 4c, d is described. Compounds 1a and 2a exhibit trypanocidal activity in the range of IC50 = 0.42 μM and IC50 = 0.80 μM, respectively. Both of these derivatives bear a lipophilic end, which consists of a 4-(1-adamantyl) phenyl or a 3-(1-adamantyl)phenyl moiety, a 1,3-thiazole ring and a functional end, which comprises of an alkylamine and can be considered as promising candidates for the treatment of Trypanosoma brucei infections

TrickVOS: A Bag of Tricks for Video Object Segmentation

Space-time memory (STM) network methods have been dominant in semi-supervised video object segmentation (SVOS) due to their remarkable performance. In this work, we identify three key aspects where we can improve such methods; i) supervisory signal, ii) pretraining and iii) spatial awareness. We then propose TrickVOS; a generic, method-agnostic bag of tricks addressing each aspect with i) a structure-aware hybrid loss, ii) a simple decoder pretraining regime and iii) a cheap tracker that imposes spatial constraints in model predictions. Finally, we propose a lightweight network and show that when trained with TrickVOS, it achieves competitive results to state-of-the-art methods on DAVIS and YouTube benchmarks, while being one of the first STM-based SVOS methods that can run in real-time on a mobile device.Comment: Accepted to ICIP 202