Evaluating the performance of low-energy feed forward osmosis system for desalination using impaired and saline water sources

Forward Osmosis (FO) is a natural process of treating water or wastewater due to the difference in osmotic pressures. FO is a membrane separation technology, applicable to food processing, industrial wastewater treatment and seawater or brackish water desalination. The phenomena of FO processes occur whereby water molecules are driven across a semi-permeable membrane by an osmotic pressure gradient that is generated from a higher concentrate draw solution. FO processes can recover potable water resources from wastewater streams through the flow of pure water from a lower concen-trated feed solution towards higher concentrated draw solutions leaving behind pollutants, impurities, and salts in the semi-permeable membrane. This paper assesses the design, build and testing of a laboratory scaled Feed Forward Osmosis (FFO) system for treating river water collected from the River Medway, Kent, England. The FO process was a highly effective form of river water treatment and able to treat the River Water with high rejection rates of solutes (>90%). Experimental results showed that the FFO system can achieve a better performance when the molarity of the draw solution is higher. The average solute rejection rate of the FO membrane for both inorganic and organic compounds was 94.83 %. Moreover, the operation of the forward osmosis membrane illustrated that it has a lower fouling propensity and higher solute rejection ca-pabilities. The pilot scaled FFO system has the ability for greater salt rejection and lower electronic conductivity levels which resulted from the successful desalination of river water. A sodium chloride (NaCl) or saltwater draw solution performed posi-tively in inducing higher osmotic pressures with a substantial effect of lower energy requirements for the system. Lower en-ergy consumptions of the FFO system allow similar water treatment possibilities with energy savings potential. The FFO system showed to be an environmentally viable and economically feasible river water treatment technology

Measurement of Electromagnetic Activity of Yeast Cells at 42 GHz

This paper discusses the possibility of using a device composed of a resonant cavity, preamplifiers, and a spectrum analyzer to detect electromagnetic emission of yeast cells at a frequency of about 42 GHz. Measurement in this frequency range is based on the Frohlich\'s postulate of coherent polar oscillations as a fundamental biophysical property of biological systems and on the experiments of Grundler and Keilmann who disclosed effects of exposure to the electromagnetic field at 42 GHz on the growth rate of yeast cells. This article includes a detailed description of the laboratory equipment and the methods used to evaluate the obtained results

Centennial-scale evolution of Dansgaard-Oeschger events in the northeast Atlantic Ocean between 39.5 and 56.5 ka B.P

There is much uncertainty surrounding the mechanisms that forced the abrupt climate fluctuations found in many palaeoclimate records during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS)-3. One of the processes thought to be involved in these events is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), which exhibited large changes in its dominant mode throughout the last glacial period. Giant piston core MD95-2006 from the northeast Atlantic Ocean records a suite of palaeoceanographic proxies related to the activity of both surface and deep water masses through a period of MIS-3 when abrupt climate fluctuations were extremely pronounced. A two-stage progression of surface water warming during interstadial warm events is proposed, with initial warming related to the northward advection of a thin warm surface layer within the North Atlantic Current, which only extended into deeper surface layers as the interstadial progressed. Benthic foraminifera isotope data also show millennial-scale oscillations but of a different structure to the abrupt surface water changes. These changes are argued to partly be related to the influence of low-salinity deepwater brines. The influence of deepwater brines over the site of MD95-2006 reached a maximum at times of rapid warming of surface waters. This observation supports the suggestion that brine formation may have helped to destabilize the accumulation of warm, saline surface waters at low latitudes, helping to force the MOC into a warm mode of operation. The contribution of deepwater brines relative to other mechanisms proposed to alter the state of the MOC needs to be examined further in future studies

Universal relation between longitudinal and transverse conductivities in quantum Hall effect

We show that any critical transition region between two adjacent Hall plateaus in either integer or fractional quantum Hall effect is characterized by a universal semi-circle relationship between the longitudinal and transverse conductivities, provided the sample is homogeneous and isotropic on a large scale. This conclusion is demonstrated both for the phase-coherent quantum transport as well as for the incoherent transport.Comment: REVTEX 3.0, 1 figure, 4 pages. SISSA-08179

Relation of own growth of sires of bulls to sons in progeny test stations

Abstract: Live weights and daily gains of 8 243 performance tested young sires of Czech Fleckvieh (dual purpose) till the age 400 days were analysed using Random Regression (RR) and Single Trait Animal Models. Evaluations were for entire period and for daily gains in various consecutive monthly intervals. Systematic environmental effects explained a higher proportion of variability in the RR for gains in short consecutive intervals (GSCI) than for other definitions of growth. The expected average reliability of estimated Breeding Values (BV) of young animals was similar for all methods from 0.42 to 0.46, but the rankings of animals differed. Determination (r 2 ) of BV between methods ranged from 0.64 to 0.94. Within-method correlations of BV of parents with progeny according the data from performance-test stations were highest for the GSCI. Correlations of BV of sires for own growth at performance-test stations with the BV of net gain of groups of progeny at progeny-test stations with the final live weight around 600 kg and age 500 days were according the method of sires evaluation from 0.26 to 0.38. Preferred method was according GSCI. This method also allows include more data in the evaluations, and separate the growth curve into genetic and non-genetic parts

Bulk Versus Edge in the Quantum Hall Effect

The manifestation of the bulk quantum Hall effect on edge is the chiral anomaly. The chiral anomaly {\it is} the underlying principle of the ``edge approach'' of quantum Hall effect. In that approach, \sxy should not be taken as the conductance derived from the space-local current-current correlation function of the pure one-dimensional edge problem.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 1 postscript figur