Thermocline management of stratified tanks for heat storage

Stratified tanks are useful for maximising the thermal energy efficiency of non-continuous and semi-continuous processes. Liquid at two or more dissimilar temperatures is stored within the same tank to provide a buffer for variations in heating and cooling loads. Control of the thermocline between the hot and cold fluid regions is needed to minimise thermocline growth and maximise operation of the storage tank. An experimental programme using a scale model of an industrial stratified tank (aspect ratio 3.5) and Perspex tank (aspect ratio 8.2) is reported. The behaviour and growth of the hot-cold thermocline under various operating conditions is presented. A siphoning method to re-establish the thermocline without interrupting the use of the tank is tested. Siphoning of the thermocline region from either 20%, 50% or 80% of the tank height is an effective strategy for uninterrupted interface re-establishment. However, the rate and position of siphoning and the load balance of the exit streams are critical variables for minimising the time for effective re-establishment of the two temperature zones

Estimating the age of Calliphora vicina eggs (Diptera: Calliphoridae): determination of embryonic morphological landmarks and preservation of egg samples

ORCID No. 0000-0002-8917-9646© The Author(s) 2016. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The attached file is the published version of the article

Incorporating behaviour into simple models of dispersal using the biological control agent Dicyphus hesperus

We explored the utility of incorporating easily measured, biologically realistic movement rules into simple models of dispersal. We depart from traditional random walk models by designing an individual-based simulation model where we decompose animal movement into three separate processes: emigration, between-patch movement, and immigration behaviour. These processes were quantified using experiments on the omnivorous insect Dicyphus hesperus moving through a tomato greenhouse. We compare the predictions of the individual-based model, along with a series of biased random walk models, against an independent experimental release of D. hesperus. We find that in this system, the short-term dispersal of these insects is described well by our individual-based model, but can also be described by a 2D grid-based biased random walk model when mortality is accounted for

Why a few social networking sites succeed while many fail

The purpose of this research is to study why a few social networking sites (SNSs) succeed, while many others fail. Collecting data from 89 Facebook users reveals that electronic word of mouth (EWOM), ease of use, source credibility, information usefulness, and user participation contribute to the success of SNSs.Godkänd; 2015; 20150115 (andbra

The community of Hymenoptera parasitizing necrophagous Diptera in an urban biotope

Most reports published in the field of forensic entomology are focused on Diptera and neglect the Hymenoptera community. However, Hymenoptera are part of the entomofaunal colonisation of a dead body. The use of Hymenoptera parasitoids in forensic entomology can be relevant to evaluate the time of death. Hymenoptera parasitoids of the larvae and pupae of flies may play an important role in the estimation of the post-mortem period, because their time of attack is often restricted to a small, well-defined windows of time in the development of the host insect. However, these parasitoids can interfere with the developmental times of colonising Diptera, and therefore a better understanding of their ecology is needed. The work reported here monitored the presence of adult Hymenoptera parasitoids on decaying pig carcasses in an urban biotope during the summer season (from May to September). Six families and six species were recorded in the field: Aspilota fuscicornis Haliday, Alysia manducator Panzer, Nasonia vitripennis Walker, Tachinaephagus zealandicus Ashmead, Trichopria sp., and Figites sp. In the laboratory, five species emerged from pupae collected in the field: Trichopria sp., Figites sp., A. manducator, N. vitripennis, and T. zealandicus. These five species colonise a broad spectrum of Diptera hosts, including those species associated with decomposing carcasses: Calliphoridae, Muscidae, Fanniidae, and Sarcophagida