Greenhouse Energy Consumption for Tomato Production in the Iberian Peninsula Countries

Greenhouse climate models are a powerful tool which allows the simulation of inside environmental conditions as a function of external conditions, construction and environmental control equipments characteristics. They also permit to evaluate the energy consumption necessary to obtain the predefined conditions. A theoretical study of the greenhouse energy requirements for all year round tomato production in Portugal and Spain is presented. A Greenhouse Climate Simulator (GCS) was used to analyse the energetic behaviour in different regions. GCS uses mensal mean weather data of several years of solar radiation, temperature, wind speed and relative humidity. A climate generator computes the mean hourly climatic data of a typical day for each month and location. As inputs GCS requires data related with the greenhouse characteristics, environmental control equipment and the crop. For the energy balance a static complex model is used which is based on the physics of heat and mass transfer. The results show the energy consumption due to the heating system in each of the studied locations, as well the heat dissipated by the cooling system along a characteristic year, for year round production in plastic greenhouses. This is used to estimate energy consumption indicators which allow generating predictive maps. It is an interesting tool which may contribute to the grower’s decision making and to the reduction of energy consumption, helping to lower production costs and environmental impacts

Greenhouse Energy Consumption for Rose Production in Different Regions of Portugal: Importance of Set-Points Definition and Energy Used

In this work results of an energy consumption study for rose production in multi-tunnel greenhouses, located in Porto (Pedras Rubras), Marinha Grande, Dois Portos, Zambujeira, Faro, Funchal and Ponta Delgada, are presented. The greenhouse considered with a surface area of about 1 ha had galvanised steel structure and was covered with three layer co-extruded plastic films. It was equipped with a hot water heating system, natural ventilation through lateral and roof openings, shadow screens and an evaporative cooling system. A Greenhouse Climate Simulator (GCS) was used to analyse the energetic behaviour in the different regions. The GCS used monthly mean data measured over several years for solar radiation, temperature, wind speed and relative humidity. A climate generator was used to obtain the mean hourly climate data of a typical day for each month and location. As inputs the GCS requires data related with greenhouse characteristics, environmental control equipments and crop. Simulation results show the hourly trend of climatic and technological variables, such as heating, cooling power, etc. For the energy balance a static complex model was used which is based on heat and mass transfer processes. The model considers the following components: heat gains due to the heating system, heat gains due to the solar radiation, heat transfer by convection and conduction through the cover, heat losses by evapotranspiration, heat losses due to the cooling system, heat intercepted by the shadow screen and heat transfer by natural ventilation. The results show the energy consumption due to the heating system in each of the studied locations, as well the heat dissipated by the cooling system during an average year. For this study, a heating period was considered and two temperature set-points were chosen. A brief economic analysis of energy management is also presented, considering location, temperature set-point and energy source, for year-round production of cut roses in Portugal

Sensorineural Hearing Loss In Hemorrhagic Dengue?

Introduction Dengue is an acute febrile infectious disease, with high fever followed by symptoms flu-like. Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is a vascular leak syndrome and could present spontaneous bleeding and worsening of symptoms after some days. Dengue could have some ENT manifestations, however hearing loss is not one of them. Sudden hearing loss is considered as sensorineural or perceptual hearing loss with a sudden onset in a person without other prior otological history. The relation between infectious diseases and sudden hearing are been investigated, some viruses were already linked, but the relation between dengue virus and sudden hearing still remains unknown. This article has the goal of presenting a case of DHF that evolved with SSHL in his hospitalization process. Presentation of case We report a 60 years-male patient of with DHF who developed bilateral secretory otitis media and sensorineural hearing loss after the fifth day of onset of symptoms. His hearing loss remained even after 7 months and the patient was referred for hearing aid fitting. Discussion and conclusion This is the first case report that brings together DHF and sudden hearing loss. In the development of this case no other cause to sudden hearing loss was found and the correlation between dengue and hearing loss was questioned. In the literature review was found that some viruses, as mumps virus, varicella-zoster virus and HSV-1 and HSV-2 are related to sudden hearing loss, all of them fit in the viral theory. Besides the viral theory of sudden hearing loss, there is the vascular theory that is the occlusion of the end artery that supplies the cochlea. DHF has a vascular commitment, and the hypothesis of a vascular cause could be elicited in this case. Many studies in this area are needed and this article has the objective of elicit the discussion about the subject. Could dengue be associated with sensorineural hearing loss?83841Simmons, C.P., Farrar, J.J., Vinh Chau, N., Wills, B., Dengue (2012) N Engl J Med, 366, pp. 1423-1432(2009) Dengue Guidelines for Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention and Control - New Edition, , http://www.who.int/topics/dengue/en/, WHOGuzman, M.G., Kourí, G., Dengue: An update (2002) Lancet Dis, 2 (1), p. 33Srikiatkhachorn, A., Kelley, J.F., Endothelial cells in dengue hemorrhagic fever (2014) Antiviral Res, 109, pp. 160-170Fonseca, B.A., Fonseca, S.N., Dengue virus infections (2002) Curr Opin Pediatr, 14 (1), pp. 67-71Figueiredo, R.M.P., Mourão, M.P.G., Abi-Abib, Y.E.C., Oliveira, C.M., Roque, R., Azara, T., Identification of dengue viruses in naturally infected Aedes aegypti females captured with BioGents (BG) - Sentinel traps in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil (2013) Rev Soc Bras Med Trop, 46 (2), pp. 221-222Plaza, G., Durio, E., Herráiz, C., Rivera, T., García-Berrocal, J.R., Asociación Madrileña de ORL. Consensus on diagnosis and treatment of sudden hearing loss. Asociación Madrileña de ORL (2011) Acta Otorrinolaringol Esp, 62 (2), pp. 144-157Schreiber, B.E., Agrup, C., Haskard, D.O., Luxon, L.M., Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (2010) Lancet, 375, pp. 1203-1211Merchant, S.N., Durand, M., Adams, J.C., Sudden deafness: Is it viral? (2008) ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec, 70 (1), pp. 52-62Greco, A., Fusconi, M., Gallo, A., Marinelli, C., Macri, G.F., Vincentiis, M., Sudden sensorineural hearing loss: An autoimmune disease? (2011) Autoimmun Rev, 10, pp. 756-761Cohen, B.E., Durstenfeld, A., Roehm, P.C., Viral causes of hearing loss: A review for hearing health professionals (2014) Trends Hear, 18, pp. 1-17Scalia, G., Palermo, C.I., Maiolino, L., Costanzo, C.M., Zappalà, D., Grillo, C., Detection of serum IgA to HSV1 and its diagnostic role in sudden hearing loss (2013) New Microbiol, 36, pp. 41-47Westmore, G.A., Pickard, B.H., Stern, H., Isolation of mumps virus from the inner ear after sudden deafness (1979) BMJ, 1, pp. 14-1

Recent African derivation of Chrysomya putoria from C. chloropyga and mitochondrial DNA paraphyly of cytochrome oxidase subunit one in blowflies of forensic importance

Chrysomya chloropyga (Wiedemann) and C. putoria (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are closely related Afrotropical blowflies that breed in carrion and latrines, reaching high density in association with humans and spreading to other continents. In some cases of human death, Chyrsomya specimens provide forensic clues. Because the immature stages of such flies are often difficult to identify taxonomically, it is useful to develop DNA-based tests for specimen identification. Therefore we attempted to distinguish between C. chloropyga and C. putoria using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data from a 593-bp region of the gene for cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI). Twelve specimens from each species yielded a total of five haplotypes, none being unique to C. putoria. Therefore it was not possible to distinguish between the two species using this locus. Maximum parsimony analysis indicated paraphyletic C. chloropyga mtDNA with C. putoria nested therein. Based on these and previously published data, we infer that C. putoria diverged very recently from C. chloropyga

Cosmological Model-independent Gamma-ray Bursts Calibration and its Cosmological Constraint to Dark Energy

As so far, the redshift of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can extend to $z\sim 8$ which makes it as a complementary probe of dark energy to supernova Ia (SN Ia). However, the calibration of GRBs is still a big challenge when they are used to constrain cosmological models. Though, the absolute magnitude of GRBs is still unknown, the slopes of GRBs correlations can be used as a useful constraint to dark energy in a completely cosmological model independent way. In this paper, we follow Wang's model-independent distance measurement method and calculate their values by using 109 GRBs events via the so-called Amati relation. Then, we use the obtained model-independent distances to constrain $\Lambda$CDM model as an example.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Equivalence between supersymmetric self-dual and Maxwell-Chern-Simons models coupled to a matter spinor superfield

We study the duality of the supersymmetric self-dual and Maxwell-Chern-Simons theories coupled to a fermionic matter superfield, using a master action. This approach evades the difficulties inherent to the quartic couplings that appear when matter is represented by a scalar superfield. The price is that the spinorial matter superfield represents a unusual supersymmetric multiplet, whose main physical properties we also discuss.Comment: v2, 16 pages, elsarticle.cls, accepted for publication in PL

Combined constraints on modified Chaplygin gas model from cosmological observed data: Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach

We use the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to investigate a global constraints on the modified Chaplygin gas (MCG) model as the unification of dark matter and dark energy from the latest observational data: the Union2 dataset of type supernovae Ia (SNIa), the observational Hubble data (OHD), the cluster X-ray gas mass fraction, the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. In a flat universe, the constraint results for MCG model are, $\Omega_{b}h^{2}=0.02263^{+0.00184}_{-0.00162}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+0.00213}_{-0.00195}$ $(2\sigma)$, $B_{s}=0.7788^{+0.0736}_{-0.0723}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+0.0918}_{-0.0904}$ $(2\sigma)$, $\alpha=0.1079^{+0.3397}_{-0.2539}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+0.4678}_{-0.2911}$ $(2\sigma)$, $B=0.00189^{+0.00583}_{-0.00756}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+0.00660}_{-0.00915}$ $(2\sigma)$, and $H_{0}=70.711^{+4.188}_{-3.142}$ ($1\sigma$) $^{+5.281}_{-4.149}$ $(2\sigma)$.Comment: 12 pages, 1figur

Does accelerating universe indicates Brans-Dicke theory

The evolution of universe in Brans-Dicke (BD) theory is discussed in this paper. Considering a parameterized scenario for BD scalar field $\phi=\phi_{0}a^{\alpha}$ which plays the role of gravitational "constant" $G$, we apply the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to investigate a global constraints on BD theory with a self-interacting potential according to the current observational data: Union2 dataset of type supernovae Ia (SNIa), high-redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) data, observational Hubble data (OHD), the cluster X-ray gas mass fraction, the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. It is shown that an expanded universe from deceleration to acceleration is given in this theory, and the constraint results of dimensionless matter density $\Omega_{0m}$ and parameter $\alpha$ are, $\Omega_{0m}=0.286^{+0.037+0.050}_{-0.039-0.047}$ and $\alpha=0.0046^{+0.0149+0.0171}_{-0.0171-0.0206}$ which is consistent with the result of current experiment exploration, $\mid\alpha\mid \leq 0.132124$. In addition, we use the geometrical diagnostic method, jerk parameter $j$, to distinguish the BD theory and cosmological constant model in Einstein's theory of general relativity.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Model-independent search for CP violation in D0→K−K+π−π+ and D0→π−π+π+π− decays

A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states K−K+π−π+ and π−π+π+π− is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the K−K+π−π+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the π−π+π+π− final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity

Search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decays Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ is performed with a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions at √s=7  TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of Bs0→e±μ∓ and B0→e±μ∓ candidates is consistent with background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions of both decays are determined to be B(Bs0→e±μ∓)101  TeV/c2 and MLQ(B0→e±μ∓)>126  TeV/c2 at 95% C.L., and are a factor of 2 higher than the previous bounds