Photoperiod effects on carcass traits, meat quality, and stress response in heart and lung of broilers

This study evaluated effects of photoperiod treatments on slaughter and carcass traits, meat quality, indicators of oxidative stress, and heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) levels of lung and heart tissues in broilers. Five hundred Ross 308 broiler chicks were used. The treatments consisted of 23 hours of continuous light and one hour of darkness (23L1D), four hours of light followed by two hours of darkness (4L2D), eight hours of light and four hours of darkness (8L4D), and 16 hours of light and eight hours of darkness (16L8D). After 42 days, two birds from each replicate were slaughtered. Birds that had been subjected to 16L8D had lower slaughter, carcass, and breast weights than the other treatments. Significant correlations were observed for slaughter, carcass and breast weights and white stripe. At 10 min post mortem, the pH of the breast was the highest in 23L1D. Breasts from birds subjected to 23L1D and 16L8D had most fat and least protein, while white striping was not different among treatments. The 4L2D treatment resulted in the highest lung glutathione (GSH) concentration. Malondialdehyde (MDA) and GSH concentrations in the heart tissues of broilers from 8L4D and 4L2D were greater than those from 23L1D and 16:8. Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase concentrations were greatest for birds subjected to 16L8D. Heat shock protein 70 was lowest in lung and heart from birds subjected to 8L4D. Thus, shorter and more frequent periods of darkness can be recommended for welfare with little compromise in performance. Keywords: carcass quality, heat shock protein 70, oxidative stress, white strip

Characterization of Flocs in Dewatering of Coal Plant Tailings

Flocculation is a widely used method for dewatering fine coal tailings. Flocs must resist to the shear stresses during the following processes such as flotation, cyclone separation, and pumping. Therefore, the strength of the flocs must be considered during flocculation. In this study, the fine coal tailings were dewatered with an anionic flocculant SNF-923 at various dosages, and the floc size of the coal tailings was characterized using a laser diffraction particle size analyzer with respect to time in order to determine the change in the floc size and hence the floc strength. The results of this study clearly indicated that the determination of the floc size with a laser particle size analyzer could be a simple and good method to observe the flocculation efficiency in terms of the floc strength

Prevalence and risk factors of helminths and intestinal protozoa infections among children from primary schools in western Tajikistan

BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasitic infections represent a public health problem in Tajikistan, but epidemiological evidence is scarce. The present study aimed at assessing the extent of helminths and intestinal protozoa infections among children of 10 schools in four districts of Tajikistan, and to make recommendations for control. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in early 2009. All children attending grades 2 and 3 (aged 7-11 years) from 10 randomly selected schools were invited to provide a stool sample and interviewed about sanitary situation and hygiene behaviour. A questionnaire pertaining to demographic and socioeconomic characteristics was addressed to the heads of households. On the spot, stool samples were subjected to duplicate Kato-Katz thick smear examination for helminth diagnosis. Additionally, 1-2 g of stool was fixed in sodium acetate-acetic acid formalin, transferred to a specialized laboratory in Europe and examined for helminths and intestinal protozoa. The results from both methods combined served as diagnostic 'gold' standard. RESULTS: Out of 623 registered children, 602 participated in our survey. The overall prevalence of infection with helminths and pathogenic intestinal protozoa was 32.0% and 47.1%, respectively. There was pronounced spatial heterogeneity. The most common helminth species was Hymenolepis nana (25.8%), whereas the prevalences of Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm and Enterobius vermicularis were below 5%. The prevalence of pathogenic intestinal protozoa, namely Giardia intestinalis and Entamoeba histolytica/E. dispar was 26.4% and 25.9%, respectively. Almost half of the households draw drinking water from unimproved sources, such as irrigation canals, rivers and unprotected wells. Sanitary facilities were pit latrines, mostly private, and a few shared with neighbours. The use of public tap/standpipe as a source of drinking water emerged as a protective factor for G. intestinalis infection. Protecte spring water reduced the risk of infection with E. histolytica/E. dispar and H. nana. CONCLUSIONS: Our data obtained from the ecological 'lowland' areas in western Tajikistan call for school-based deworming (recommended drugs: albendazole and metronidazole), combined with hygiene promotion and improved sanitation. Further investigations are needed to determine whether H. nana represents a public health problem

INVESTIGATION OF ULTRASONICS USE FOR COLEMANITE FLOTATION

The aim of this study is to investigate ultrasonics use for colemanite flotation. The samples used in the study were provided from Eti Mines Inc.'s Emet Boron Works. The samples were 0-3 mm concentrates which could have not been increased to desirable B2O3 % grades. At first, determination of moisture and grinding experiments were carried out. The liberation size of the ore was determined as minus 250 mu m and minus 38 mu m was removed because of the negative effect of slime coatings in flotation. Then, it was decided to use -250 +38 mu m fractions in flotation tests. Flotation tests were carried out in two different approaches for purpose of determination of the effects of ultrasonic pre-treatment in colemanite flotation. Conventional flotation tests were carried out in the first step. After that, ultrasonically pre-treated samples were floated. The reagents were a sodium sulphonate type collector and an alcohol type frother. The frother quantity was kept at 100 g/t. However, the collector was tested in four different dosages: 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 g/t. In conclusion, ultrasonic pre-treatment was found to have positive effects on B2O3% grade and % recovery values. 41% B2O3 feed grade was increased to 49% by ultrasonic pre-treated flotation with 85 B2O3 recovery

ENHANCEMENT OF COLEMANITE FLOTATION BY ULTRASONIC PRE-TREATMENT

Ultrasonic treatment methods are widely used for surface cleaning purposes prior to application of flotation. In this study, enhancement possibility for colemanite recovery was investigated with use of an ultrasonic bath prior to flotation. Representative colemanite ore samples from Hisarcik and Espey open pit mines, located in Emet, Turkey were used for this purpose. Ultrasonic flotation experiments were carried out by using circularly shaped RK-106 model of ultrasonic bath with constant frequency and power, manufactured by Bandelin GmbH in Germany and Denver Sub-2A type flotation machine with an impeller speed of 1200 rpm and 1 cubic decimeter capacity. The reagent for colemanite flotation was Cytec-R825 with variable dosages during conventional and ultrasonic flotation experiments. The results showed that ultrasonic pre-treatment helps desliming and hence yields more borate recovery in floated part with lower borate content in tailing than under conventional flotation conditions by using similar reagent dosages

Signal Synchronization of Traffic Lights Using Reinforcement Learning

2022 International Conference on Data Analytics for Business and Industry, ICDABI 2022 -- 25 October 2022 through 26 October 2022 -- -- 186761Today, the traffic problem is a serious problem, especially in big cities. The increasing number of cars with the increasing population further increases the traffic problem. This traffic problem increases travel times, increases fuel consumption, causes many accidents, and negatively affects human psychology. One of the reasons that increase traffic on the roads the most is traffic lights. Since traffic lights are used at most intersections, large traffic occurs at intersections. The signal periods of most traffic lights are predetermined using data from the intersection. However, these traffic lights are not adaptive to different situations that may occur on the road. In the study, we tried to make non-adaptive traffic lights adaptive using deep reinforcement learning. In the study, the signal periods of traffic lights were managed by using a reinforcement learning agent trained on simulation. When the training performances of the Reinforcement learning agent suggested in the study were examined, it was seen that the training was successful. It has been observed that there is a decrease in queue length and average delays experienced by vehicles at the intersection. It has been observed that the reinforcement learning algorithm can work well at intersections. © 2022 IEEE

Effect of ultrasound on bubble-particle interaction in quartz-amine flotation system

In this study, the effect of ultrasound (US) on the quartz-amine flotation system was investigated in detail by considering various surface chemistry techniques. The effect of ultrasound on particle size, shape factor, and surface roughness were characterized by using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. The contact angle and bubble-particle attachment time, as well as adsorption density measurements was carried out to evaluate the effect of ultrasound on quartz surface wetting ability. In addition, atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses were conducted, and finally micro-flotation studies were performed. As a result, it was found that the micro-flotation recovery at 2 x 10(-5) M dodecyl amine hydrochloride (DAH) concentration increased from 45.45% to 63.64% with 30 W ultrasonic application at conditioning step. However, the micro-flotation recovery decreased to 37.50% when the ultrasonic power increased to 150 W. The results showed some effect of ultrasound on particle size, particle shape, and surface roughness in some extent. The increase in the contact angle and the decrease in the bubble-particle attachment time were observed. A slightly high adsorption density was measured. All these show a positive effect of ultrasound on quartz flotation with amine as a collector

Effect of Monovalent Sodium and Potasium Ions on the Settlement of Fine Coal Processing Plant Tailings

Solid-liquid separation has an important role in coal processing in terms of environmental, economical and technical concepts. In this study, the settlement possibilities of the fine coal tailings of Manisa Soma Imbat A.S. Coal Processing Plant in Turkey were investigated using an anionic flocculant (SPP-600) and monovalent ions (Na+ and K+). As a result, it was found that the coal tailings were not settled without the chemicals, 1x10(-3), and 1x10(-2) M NaCl and KCl solutions. The settling rate increased to 1.4 and 1.2 cm/min at 1 M NaCl and KCl solutions, respectively in 10 min. The use of 150 g/t SPP-600 increased the settling rate over 2 cm/min in 10 min. The turbidity tests showed that Na+ and K+ could not decrease the turbidity of the suspensions alone. However, the minimum turbidity values were obtained when 150 g/t SPP-600 used with 1 M NaCl. Moreover, this study also indicated that the particle size of the flocs increased to 138, 181 and 478 mu m, respectively with the use of 1 M KCl+150 g/t SPP-600, 1 M NaCl+150 g/t SPP-600, and 150 g/t SPP-600

Use of Divalent Calcium and Magnesium Ions on Solid-Liquid Seperation of Fine Coal Tailings

Solid-liquid separation of fine coal tailings is one of the most important problems of coal processing plants. In the concept of this paper, the solid-liquid separation of fine coal tailings collected from Manisa Soma Imbat A.S. Coal Processing Plant in Turkey was studied using divalent calcium and magnesium ions in absence and presence of SNF-923 flocculant. The results indicated that the settling rate of the tailing sample increased to 1.4 cm/min and 1.0 cm/min 10 min at 1x10(-1) M and 1x10(-2) M CaCl2 and MgCl2, respectively. The use of flocculant in the absence or presence of 1 x10(-1) M CaCl2 showed no effect on the settlement rate. However, the turbidity of the residual solution decreased to 8 NTU in the presence of 1x10(-1) M CaCl2 while it was 343 when SNF-923 used alone. The floc size analyses of the sample showed that the use of 150 g/t SNF-923 with 1 x10(-1) M CaCl2 or MgCl2 increased the floc size to 104 and 120 mu m, respectively (9% volume) while the particle size of the original sample was 104 mu m (5.7% volume). Furthermore, the particle size of the flocs increased to 363 mu m (9.1% volume) when 150 g/t SNF-923 used alone. These results clearly indicated that the use of divalent ions along with the flocculant improved considerably the settling process

Evaluation of Coal Preparation Plant Tailings by Ultrasonic Flotation

Ultrasound is one of the effective methods used for improving flotation results. In this study, the tailings of various coal preparation plants in the vicinity of the Catalagzi Thermal Power Plant in Zonguldak, Turkey were used to investigate the effects of ultrasound on coal flotation. In the experimental study, the conditioning was performed with and without the ultrasound. After that, the flotation tests were carried out with four different collector (diesel oil) dosages (215, 430, 645, and 860 g/t) while the frother dosage was kept as 16 mg/L. The ash analyses of the flotation products were performed, and the ash content, ash rejection recovery, combustible recovery, and separation efficiency values were calculated. Finally, the flotation results with and without ultrasound were compared to each other. The results indicated that the combustible recovery increased from 72% to 75 %, while the ash content of the concentrate decreased from 37% to 24% at 400 g/t diesel oil dosage. At the same disel dosage, ash rejection recovery increased from 77% to 88%, while separation efficiency increased from 50% to 63%