Anaerobic Digester Bioaugmentation Influences Quasi Steady State Performance and Microbial Community

Nine anaerobic digesters, each seeded with biomass from a different source, were operated identically and their quasi steady state function was compared. Subsequently, digesters were bioaugmented with a methanogenic culture previously shown to increase specific methanogenic activity. Before bioaugmentation, different seed biomass resulted in different quasi steady state function, with digesters clustering into three groups distinguished by methane (CH4) production. Digesters with similar functional performance contained similar archaeal communities based on clustering of Illumina sequence data of the V4V5 region of the 16S rRNA gene. High CH4 production correlated with neutral pH and high Methanosarcina abundance, whereas low CH4production correlated to low pH as well as high Methanobacterium and DHVEG 6 family abundance. After bioaugmentation, CH4 production from the high CH4 producing digesters transiently increased by 11 ± 3% relative to non-bioaugmented controls (p \u3c 0.05, n = 3), whereas no functional changes were observed for medium and low CH4producing digesters that all had pH higher than 6.7. The CH4 production increase after bioaugmentation was correlated to increased relative abundance of Methanosaeta and Methaospirillum originating from the bioaugment culture. In conclusion, different anaerobic digester seed biomass can result in different quasi steady state CH4production, SCOD removal, pH and effluent VFA concentration in the timeframe studied. The bioaugmentation employed can result in a period of increased methane production. Future research should address extending the period of increased CH4 production by employing pH and VFA control concomitant with bioaugmentation, developing improved bioaugments, or employing a membrane bioreactor to retain the bioaugment

Evaluation of a self-equilibrium cutting strategy for the contour method of residual stress measurement

An assessment of cutting-induced plasticity (CIP) is performed, by finite element (FE) prediction of the plastic strain accumulation along the cut tip when the EDM wire sections the NeT TG4 weld benchmark specimen along two cutting directions. The first direction corresponds to a conventional (C) cutting strategy, whereby the EDM wire cuts through the thickness of the weld specimen and travels in a direction transverse to the weld. The second direction corresponds to a self-equilibrating cutting (SE) strategy, whereby the EDM wire cuts across the transverse direction of the weld specimens and travels through the thickness of the plate. The cutting thus progresses simultaneously through the compression-tension-compression regions of present weld residual stress (WRS) field. This type of cutting strategy is believed to minimize the CIP by minimising residual stress redistribution during cutting, due to stress equilibration across the sectioned material. The simulated cutting procedures are conducted under a range of clamping conditions to assess whether mechanical restraint has a primary or secondary influence on CIP accumulation. Both predictions of CIP and the resultant back-calculated WRS demonstrate that (i) mechanical restraint is the primary variable influencing CIP development, and (ii) under no circumstance does a self-equilibrating cutting strategy perform significantly better than a conventional cutting approach. The reason that self-equilibrating cuts are not effective is illustrated by calculating the Mode I (KI) stress intensity factor (SIF) along the cut tip, and correlating trends in KI to CIP development

El triple juego de las comunicaciones bidireccionales

Fil: Alvarez-Hamelin, J. Ignacio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaTelefonía, televisión e Internet son actualmente servicios requeridos en la sociedad. Este nuevo paradigma crea intereses entre las empresas que brindan alguno de estos servicios, y el desafío de proveerlos conjuntamente. Sin embargo, la ola de Internet parece cubrirlo todo ya que esta tecnología permite implementar cualquier servicio donde la clave es la propiedad de la bidireccionalidad de las comunicaciones. Internet se inició en los 70 y Argentina comenzó a conectarse a mediados de los 90. En 2000, la red estaba ampliamente difundida y aceptada en el mundo. Este hecho fue observado por las compañías involucradas en el negocio de Internet y en otro tipo de tecnologías de comunicaciones. Surgió entonces el término "triple-play"

Heterogeneous-k-core versus Bootstrap Percolation on Complex Networks

We introduce the heterogeneous-$k$-core, which generalizes the $k$-core, and contrast it with bootstrap percolation. Vertices have a threshold $k_i$ which may be different at each vertex. If a vertex has less than $k_i$ neighbors it is pruned from the network. The heterogeneous-$k$-core is the sub-graph remaining after no further vertices can be pruned. If the thresholds $k_i$ are $1$ with probability $f$ or $k \geq 3$ with probability $(1-f)$, the process forms one branch of an activation-pruning process which demonstrates hysteresis. The other branch is formed by ordinary bootstrap percolation. We show that there are two types of transitions in this heterogeneous-$k$-core process: the giant heterogeneous-$k$-core may appear with a continuous transition and there may be a second, discontinuous, hybrid transition. We compare critical phenomena, critical clusters and avalanches at the heterogeneous-$k$-core and bootstrap percolation transitions. We also show that network structure has a crucial effect on these processes, with the giant heterogeneous-$k$-core appearing immediately at a finite value for any $f > 0$ when the degree distribution tends to a power law $P(q) \sim q^{-\gamma}$ with $\gamma < 3$.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Importance de l’intéraction entre les cultivars de blé et les souches du Fusarium graminearum dans l’évaluation de la résistance à la fusariose de l’épi

Des expériences factorielles ont été réalisées au champ à deux stations, le campus de l'Université Laval en 1991 et 1992 et la ferme de Saint-Louis-de-Pintendre en 1992 et 1993, pour préciser si le développement de la fusariose de l'épi du blé est influencé par l'interaction entre les cultivars et les souches du Fusarium graminearum. Neuf souches du F. graminearum ont été inoculées à onze cultivars de blé (Triticum aestivum) et un cultivar de triticale (x Triticosecale) représentatifs de la gamme de sensibilité à cette maladie au Québec. L'analyse de la variance combinée a mis en évidence des interactions significatives entre les cultivars, les souches et les environnements. Les interactions cultivars x souches et cultivars x environnements expliquent une faible proportion de la somme des carrés totale et n'entraînent pas de modifications majeures dans le classement moyen de la sensibilité des cultivars. Concernant l'interaction cultivars x souches, le classement moyen de la sensibilité des cultivars, notamment Casavant et Concorde, variait avec les souches. Cette recherche contre pour la première fois que l'importance relative des différentes interactions entre les souches, les cultivars et les environnements est comparable dans l'évaluation de la résistance à la fusariose de l'épi du blé.Factorial experiments were carried out in the field at the campus of Universite Laval in 1991 and 1992, and Saint-Louis-de-Pintendre station in 1992 and 1993. The objective was to specify if wheat scab development caused by Fusarium graminearum is significantly affected by cultivar x strain interactions. Eleven wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars and one triticale (x Triticosecale) cultivar representing the range of sensitivity to this disease in Quebec were inoculated with nine strains of F. graminearum. Significant interactions between cultivars, strains and environments were shown by the results of a combined analysis of variance. Cultivar x strain and cultivar x environment interactions explained a small proportion of the total sum of squares and did not have a strong impact on cultivar average ranking by environment or strain. However, the examination of cultivar x strain interactions revealed that the rank of cultivars such as Casavant and Concorde changed when different strains were compared. This research shows for the first time that all interactions involving cultivars, strains and environments have a similar impact on wheat scab resistance screening

Reduction of Dilute Ising Spin Glasses

The recently proposed reduction method for diluted spin glasses is investigated in depth. In particular, the Edwards-Anderson model with \pm J and Gaussian bond disorder on hyper-cubic lattices in d=2, 3, and 4 is studied for a range of bond dilutions. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of using bond dilution to elucidate low-temperature properties of Ising spin glasses, and provide a starting point to enhance the methods used in reduction. Based on that, a greedy heuristic call ``Dominant Bond Reduction'' is introduced and explored.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, final version, find related material at http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/boettcher

Importance de l’intéraction entre les cultivars de blé et les souches du Fusarium graminearum dans l’évaluation de la résistance à la fusariose de l’épi

Des expériences factorielles ont été réalisées au champ à deux stations, le campus de l'Université Laval en 1991 et 1992 et la ferme de Saint-Louis-de-Pintendre en 1992 et 1993, pour préciser si le développement de la fusariose de l'épi du blé est influencé par l'interaction entre les cultivars et les souches du Fusarium graminearum. Neuf souches du F. graminearum ont été inoculées à onze cultivars de blé (Triticum aestivum) et un cultivar de triticale (x Triticosecale) représentatifs de la gamme de sensibilité à cette maladie au Québec. L'analyse de la variance combinée a mis en évidence des interactions significatives entre les cultivars, les souches et les environnements. Les interactions cultivars x souches et cultivars x environnements expliquent une faible proportion de la somme des carrés totale et n'entraînent pas de modifications majeures dans le classement moyen de la sensibilité des cultivars. Concernant l'interaction cultivars x souches, le classement moyen de la sensibilité des cultivars, notamment Casavant et Concorde, variait avec les souches. Cette recherche contre pour la première fois que l'importance relative des différentes interactions entre les souches, les cultivars et les environnements est comparable dans l'évaluation de la résistance à la fusariose de l'épi du blé.Factorial experiments were carried out in the field at the campus of Universite Laval in 1991 and 1992, and Saint-Louis-de-Pintendre station in 1992 and 1993. The objective was to specify if wheat scab development caused by Fusarium graminearum is significantly affected by cultivar x strain interactions. Eleven wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars and one triticale (x Triticosecale) cultivar representing the range of sensitivity to this disease in Quebec were inoculated with nine strains of F. graminearum. Significant interactions between cultivars, strains and environments were shown by the results of a combined analysis of variance. Cultivar x strain and cultivar x environment interactions explained a small proportion of the total sum of squares and did not have a strong impact on cultivar average ranking by environment or strain. However, the examination of cultivar x strain interactions revealed that the rank of cultivars such as Casavant and Concorde changed when different strains were compared. This research shows for the first time that all interactions involving cultivars, strains and environments have a similar impact on wheat scab resistance screening