Combustion behaviour of some biodesulphurized coals assessed by TGA/DTA

Thermal analysis, i.e. TGA/DTA is used to study the changes in the combustion behaviour of microbially treated coals. In view of their high sulphur content and industrial significance three samples are under consideration, i.e. one lignite and two subbituminous from different region in Bulgaria. The differences in burning profiles can be related to structural changes resulted from biological treatments. The overall biological treatment generates these changes probably due to the oxidation process. Concerning organic sulphur biodesulphurization there is no change in any drastic mannerof the thermal characteristic parameters. In general, applied biotreatments provoke a complex influence on combustion coal behaviour. From one side a better ignition performance, a minor decrease in higher heating value and diminishing peak temperature of maximum weight loss rate for all biotreated samples are observed. From other side some decrease in the combustibility indicated by an increase in the combustion time and the end of combustion temperature are obvious. Also well determined decrease of self-heating temperature after biotreatments evolves high risk of spontaneous unmanageable coal combustion

Combustion behaviour of some biodesulphurized coals assessed by TGA/DTA

Thermal analysis, i.e. TGA/DTA is used to study the changes in the combustion behaviour of microbially treated coals. In view of their high sulphur content and industrial significance three samples are under consideration, i.e. one lignite and two subbituminous from different region in Bulgaria. The differences in burning profiles can be related to structural changes resulted from biological treatments. The overall biological treatment generates these changes probably due to the oxidation process. Concerning organic sulphur biodesulphurization there is no change in any drastic mannerof the thermal characteristic parameters. In general, applied biotreatments provoke a complex influence on combustion coal behaviour. From one side a better ignition performance, a minor decrease in higher heating value and diminishing peak temperature of maximum weight loss rate for all biotreated samples are observed. From other side some decrease in the combustibility indicated by an increase in the combustion time and the end of combustion temperature are obvious. Also well determined decrease of self-heating temperature after biotreatments evolves high risk of spontaneous unmanageable coal combustion

The Status of Social Rights Protection in Tanzania (2001-2012)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 facilitated and strengthened a number of developments necessary in internationalization of human rights.  As a result, protection of human rights has acquired global status and importance and has grown tremendously both in conception and content over the years. One dimension of human right which has achieved growth is Social rights. Michael, K (2013), asserts that, social rights are human rights which guarantee a social system whereby the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens in matters such as adequate health care, quality education, safe and clean water, enough food, housing and social security. This paper starts by providing an understanding of social rights and how they are being protected in Tanzania. It gives an overview of social rights guaranteed as well as impediments to full realization in promotion and protection of such rights caused by prevailing legal framework. Furthermore, the paper used results from Afro-barometer to analyze trend of protection of social rights in Tanzania over the period of 12 years (2001 – 2012). Findings reveal that, the status of the state in assuming its primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens is deteriorating. As such the proportion of citizens with access to and who affords adequate food, enough fuel for cooking, safe water, appropriate medical care, and quality education has been declining. The paper argues that although Tanzania is a signatory to major international human rights instruments, which are also involved in promoting and protecting of social rights; large-scale human rights abuses still exist in the country and social rights have become a neglected category of human rights. It also prescribes roles which the government and NGOs must play so as to ensure optimal realization on promotion and protection of social rights within the country. Keywords: Human Rights, Social Rights Protection, Tanzania

OPTIMALISASI CITRA CT SCAN KEPALA MENGGUNAKAN VARIASI REKONTRUKSI INCREMENT DAN BRAIN WINDOW PADA KASUS STROKE HEMORAGIK

Stroke hemoragik merupakan stroke yang terjadi karena pecahnya pembuluh darah, sehingga mengakibatkan darah di otak mengalir ke rongga sekitar jaringan otak. Salah satu modalitas dioagnostik yang mampu memperlihatkan stroke hemoragi adalah CT Scan. Rekontruksi Increment adalah jarak antara gambaran rekonstruksi dalam data volume. Nilai rekontruksi increment pada pemeriksaan CT Scan kepala dengan kasus stroke 0.5 mm dan 2.5 mm. Metode Penelitian yang digunakan yaitu penelitian kuantitatif dengan pendekatan eksperimen, penelitian ini akan dilakukan menganalisi rekontruksi increment dengan meggunakan variasi : 0.7mm, 1mm, 2mm, dan 2.5mm. Pengambilan data dilakukan pada bulan Mei-Juli 2022 di Instalasi Radiologi RSU Surya Husadha Denpasar. Penulis mengambil data pemeriksaan CT Scan kepala pada stroke hemoragik sebayak 10 sampel pasien. Hasil penelitian menyatakan bahwa menggunakan variasi rekontruksi increment 0.7mm, 1mm, 2mm, 2.5mm terdapat adanya pengaruh terhadap kriteria anatomi

Biodesulphurized subbituminous coal by different fungi and bacteria studied by reductive pyrolysis. Part 1: Initial coal

One of the perspective methods for clean solid fuels production is biodesulphurization. In order to increase the effect of this approach it is necessary to apply the advantages of more informative analytical techniques. Atmospheric pressure temperature programming reduction (AP-TPR) coupled with different detection systems gave us ground to attain more satisfactory explanation of the effects of biodesulphurization on the treated solid products. Subbituminous high sulphur coal from ‘‘Pirin” basin (Bulgaria) was selected as a high sulphur containing sample. Different types of microorganisms were chosen and maximal desulphurization of 26% was registered. Biodesulphurization treatments were performed with three types of fungi: ‘‘Trametes Versicolor” – ATCC No. 200801, ‘‘Phanerochaeta Chrysosporium” – ME446, Pleurotus Sajor-Caju and one Mixed Culture of bacteria – ATCC No. 39327. A high degree of inorganic sulphur removal (79%) with Mixed Culture of bacteria and consecutive reduction by 13% for organic sulphur (Sorg) decrease with ‘‘Phanerochaeta Chrysosporium” and ‘‘Trametes Versicolor” were achieved. To follow the Sorg changes a set of different detection systems i.e. AP-TPR coupled ‘‘on-line” with mass spectrometry (AP-TPR/MS), on-line with potentiometry (AP-TPR/pot) and by the ‘‘off-line” AP-TPR/GC/MS analysis was used. The need of applying different atmospheres in pyrolysis experiments was proved and their effects were discussed. In order to reach more precise total sulphur balance, oxygen bomb combustion followed by ion chromatography was used

Co-firing of biomass and other wastes in fluidised bed systems

A project on co-firing in large-scale power plants burning coal is currently funded by the European Commission. It is called COPOWER. The project involves 10 organisations from 6 countries. The project involves combustion studies over the full spectrum of equipment size, ranging from small laboratory-scale reactors and pilot plants, to investigate fundamentals and operating parameters, to proving trials on a commercial power plant in Duisburg. The power plant uses a circulating fluidized bed boiler. The results to be obtained are to be compared as function of scale-up. There are two different coals, 3 types of biomass and 2 kinds of waste materials are to be used for blending with coal for co-firing tests. The baseline values are obtained during a campaign of one month at the power station and the results are used for comparison with those to be obtained in other units of various sizes. Future tests will be implemented with the objective to achieve improvement on baseline values. The fuels to be used are already characterized. There are ongoing studies to determine reactivities of fuels and chars produced from the fuels. Reactivities are determined not only for individual fuels but also for blends to be used. Presently pilot-scale combustion tests are also undertaken to study the effect of blending coal with different types of biomass and waste materials. The potential for synergy to improve combustion is investigated. Early results will be reported in the Conference. Simultaneously, studies to verify the availability of biomass and waste materials in Portugal, Turkey and Italy have been undertaken. Techno-economic barriers for the future use of biomass and other waste materials are identified. The potential of using these materials in coal fired power stations has been assessed. The conclusions will also be reported

Hybrid RL: Using Both Offline and Online Data Can Make RL Efficient

We consider a hybrid reinforcement learning setting (Hybrid RL), in which an agent has access to an offline dataset and the ability to collect experience via real-world online interaction. The framework mitigates the challenges that arise in both pure offline and online RL settings, allowing for the design of simple and highly effective algorithms, in both theory and practice. We demonstrate these advantages by adapting the classical Q learning/iteration algorithm to the hybrid setting, which we call Hybrid Q-Learning or Hy-Q. In our theoretical results, we prove that the algorithm is both computationally and statistically efficient whenever the offline dataset supports a high-quality policy and the environment has bounded bilinear rank. Notably, we require no assumptions on the coverage provided by the initial distribution, in contrast with guarantees for policy gradient/iteration methods. In our experimental results, we show that Hy-Q with neural network function approximation outperforms state-of-the-art online, offline, and hybrid RL baselines on challenging benchmarks, including Montezuma's Revenge.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figures. Published at ICLR 2023. Code available at https://github.com/yudasong/Hy

Developing a Service Quality Measurement Model of Public Health Center in Indonesia

Many researches were conducted in order to develop service quality measurement model for health service. However, the majority of the researches were conducted in hospital service context and only small numbers of the researches were done in developing countries. Furthermore, the previous researches also have not tested the stability of service quality measurement model because of the differences in socio-demographic profiles (sex, age, and income) of the users. Therefore, this research tried to develop a new service quality measurement model for public health center (PHC) in Indonesia, a developing country.In order to build the model, research data were gathered from 800 PHC users using survey method. The authors applied some statistical analysis, such as: exploratory factor analysis to identify the dimensions of service quality; confirmatory factor analysis to test the goodness of fit, discriminant validity, and convergent validity; Cronbach Alpha analysis to ensure the reliability, and stability analysis based on socio-demographic profiles of the respondents.The result shows that service quality measurement model of PHC in Indonesia consists of 24 indicators which are divided into four dimensions, namely the quality of healthcare delivery, the quality of healthcare personnel, the adequacy of healthcare resources, and the quality of administration process. This service quality measurement model has not only met the criteria of goodness of fit, discriminant validity, convergent validity, and reliability but also proved to be stable tested against respondents’ sexes, ages, and incomes

Search for the solar neutrons using the Yangbajing neutron monitor and the neutron telescope during the 23rd solar cycle

The geographical location of Yangbajing (latitude 30, 4300m above sea level) has advantages for the direct detection of the solar are neutron events. The Yangbajing neutron monitor and neutron telescope were established in 1998 October at Yangbajing under the China-Japan cooperation and be used for the observation of solar neutron events during the 23th solar cycle. On 28 November 1998 the Yangbajing neutron monitor recorded a 3.8 sigma excess that has time coincidence with the reported neutron event of the Yangbajing neutron telescope. The response of Yangbajing neutron monitor and neutron telescope on the solar particle event associated with theX17.2 class are at October 28, 2003 was researched too