Microalgae-bacterial biomass outperforms PN-anammox biomass for oxygen saving in continuous-flow granular reactors facing extremely low-strength freshwater aquaculture streams

The dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in water streams is one of the most important and critical quality parameters in aquaculture farms. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of two Continuous Flow Granular Reactors, one based on Partial Nitrification-Anammox biomass (Aquammox CFGR) and the other on Microalgae-Bacteria biomass (AquaMab CFGR), for improving dissolved oxygen availability in the recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS). Both reactors treated the extremely low-strength effluents from a freshwater trout farm (1.39 mg NH4 +-N/L and 7.7 mg TOC/L). The Aquammox CFGR, removed up to 68% and 100% of ammonium and nitrite, respectively, but the DO concentration in the effluent was below 1 mg O2/L while the anammox activity was not maintained. In the AquaMab CFGR, bioaugmentation of aerobic granules with microalgae was attained, producing an effluent with DO concentrations up to 9 mg O2/L and removed up to 77% and 80% of ammonium and nitrite, respectively, which is expected to reduce the aeration costs in fish farms.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Listening to Silence: An Insight into the Lives of the Deaf in Baguio City

Oftentimes, people describe the Deaf as unfortunate and pitiful. However, this is clearly not how they view themselves. This study’s objective is to bring awareness to the lives and struggles of the Deaf community as well as see how others, namely parents and students, perceive them in the present. To achieve this, 3 research questions were formulated: “What are the special skills and abilities of the Deaf?”, “How do Deaf individuals want to be treated by the general population?”, and “How do people feel about their interactions with the Deaf?” By using an inductive thematic analysis, this phenomenological qualitative study concluded that the Deaf excel in the area of arts (culinary, visual, and performing) and sports. This could be linked to a gain connected to Cross-Modal Neuroplasticity. The Deaf also explained that they do not want to be “fixed.” They simply want to be accepted and treated fairly. Still, they would appreciate it if others physically assist them in activities that are difficult for them due to their impairment. As for the perception of others, it was shown that parents of the Deaf had larger numbers of pessimistic initial reactions than hearing students. Stress levels are higher for parents as they have to consider the communication, financial support, and the upbringing of their Deaf children. It is worthwhile to note that other respondents viewed the Deaf as abled, skilled, and talented in certain fields. They were familiar and comfortable around the Deaf as they accepted them for who they are

Nitrogen removal from freshwater aquaculture effluents: sequencing versus continuous granular sludge reactors

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Granular sludge technology for valorization of water use: from high to low strength effluents in aquaculture

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The tomato terpene synthase gene family

Compounds of the terpenoid class play numerous roles in the interactions of plants with their environment, such as attracting pollinators and defending the plant against pests. We show here that the genome of cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) contains 44 terpene synthase (TPS) genes, including 29 that are functional or potentially functional. Of these 29 TPS genes, 26 were expressed in at least some organs or tissues of the plant. The enzymatic functions of eight of the TPS proteins were previously reported, and here we report the specific in vitro catalytic activity of 10 additional tomato terpene synthases. Many of the tomato TPS genes are found in clusters, notably on chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 8, and 10. All TPS family clades previously identified in angiosperms are also present in tomato. The largest clade of functional TPS genes found in tomato, with 12 members, is the TPS-a clade, and it appears to encode only sesquiterpene synthases, one of which is localized to the mitochondria, while the rest are likely cytosolic. A few additional sesquiterpene synthases are encoded by TPS-b clade genes. Some of the tomato sesquiterpene synthases use z,z-farnesyl diphosphate in vitro as well, or more efficiently than, the e,e-farnesyl diphosphate substrate. Genes encoding monoterpene synthases are also prevalent, and they fall into three clades: TPS-b, TPS-g, and TPS-e/f. With the exception of two enzymes involved in the synthesis of ent-kaurene, the precursor of gibberellins, no other tomato TPS genes could be demonstrated to encode diterpene synthases so far

Development of an airline revenue capability model for aircraft design

Typically value based approaches to the design of civil and commercial aircraft, be they net present value, surplus value, or any other utility based approach focus solely on the difference in cost between the alternatives, neglecting changes in revenue which might occur between the two concepts. Alternatively, if they do have a revenue focus, it is based upon simple relationships between payload capacity and revenue, assuming a either a fixed protfimargin or fixed yield. This approach works well when comparing two similar or closely related concepts, but falls apart when investigating more radically di erent systems, e.g. a cruise eficient short take-o and landing concept. By using a value based approach it is relatively simple to structure a decision model to incorporate changing revenue capability. However, the ability to investigate differences in design is very much dependent upon the revenue model and assumptions that are made. If the revenue elasticity is the same forthe two concepts then there is no benefi t in using a variable revenue approach. However, in the cases where the elasticity is different, the revenue approach offers the potential to more properly investigate some fundamentally different alternative concepts. © 2010 by Peter Sutcliffe & Peter Hollingsworth. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc

Superelastic damping at nanoscale in ternary and quaternary Cu-based shape memory alloys

Superelasticity is a characteristic thermomechanical property in shape memory alloys (SMA), which is due to a reversible stress-induced martensitic transformation. Nano-compression experiments made possible the study of this property in Cu–Al–Ni SMA micropillars, showing an outstanding ultra-high mechanical damping capacity reproducible for thousands of cycles and reliable over the years. This scenario motivated the present work, where a comparative study of the damping capacity on four copper-based SMA: Cu–Al–Ni, Cu–Al–Be, Cu–Al–Ni–Be and Cu–Al–Ni–Ga is approached. For this purpose, [001] oriented single-crystal micropillars of comparable dimensions (around 1 µm in diameter) were milled by focused ion beam technique. All micropillars were cycled up to two hundred superelastic cycles, exhibiting a remarkable reproducibility. The damping capacity was evaluated through the dimensionless loss factor η, calculated for each superelastic cycle, representing the dissipated energy per cycle and unit of volume. The calculated loss factor was averaged between three micro-pillars of each alloy, obtaining the following results: Cu–Al–Ni η = 0.20 ± 0.01; Cu–Al–Be η = 0.100 ± 0.006; Cu–Al–Ni–Be η = 0.072 ± 0.004 and Cu–Al–Ni–Ga η = 0.042 ± 0.002. These four alloys exhibit an intrinsic superelastic damping capacity and offer a wide loss factor band, which constitutes a reference for engineering, since this kind of micro/nano structures can potentially be integrated not only as sensors and actuators but also as dampers in the design of MEMS to improve their reliability. In addition, the study of the dependence of the superelastic loss factor on the diameter of the pillar was approached in the Cu–Al–Ni–Ga alloy, and here we demonstrate that there is a size effect on damping at the nanoscale.Fil: Gómez Cortés, J.F.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Fuster, Valeria de Los Angeles. Universidad del País Vasco; España. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Física de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Instituto de Física de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Pérez Cerrato, M.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Lorenzo, P.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Ruiz Larrea, I.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Breczewski, T.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Nó, M. L.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: San Juan, J. M.. Universidad del País Vasco; Españ

Demonstration of Universal Parametric Entangling Gates on a Multi-Qubit Lattice

We show that parametric coupling techniques can be used to generate selective entangling interactions for multi-qubit processors. By inducing coherent population exchange between adjacent qubits under frequency modulation, we implement a universal gateset for a linear array of four superconducting qubits. An average process fidelity of $\mathcal{F}=93\%$ is estimated for three two-qubit gates via quantum process tomography. We establish the suitability of these techniques for computation by preparing a four-qubit maximally entangled state and comparing the estimated state fidelity against the expected performance of the individual entangling gates. In addition, we prepare an eight-qubit register in all possible bitstring permutations and monitor the fidelity of a two-qubit gate across one pair of these qubits. Across all such permutations, an average fidelity of $\mathcal{F}=91.6\pm2.6\%$ is observed. These results thus offer a path to a scalable architecture with high selectivity and low crosstalk

Prevalence of orthostatic hypotension in a series of elderly Mexican institutionalized patients

Background: Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is a common problem among the elderly. It is associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality, but its prevalence in Mexico is unknown. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional prospective study of intern patients at several Mexican elderly assistance institutions. We carried out a history and took blood pressure readings in a seated position, immediately after standing up, and again after 3 min of standing up. Results: We evaluated 132 patients, mean age 82.3 ± 9.5 years, 74.1% of them female. Thirty-nine (29.3%) subjects had OH. They had a higher prevalence of hypothyroidism, Parkinson’s disease, depression and alcoholism. Their Minimental result was 15.45 ± 7.2 vs 16.12 ± 7.9 (p = 0.6) among those without OH, and their quality of life (Minnesota scale) was 12.1 ± 7.3 vs 9.15 ± 7.05 (p = 0.03). They used more ACEI, digoxin and levothyroxin. Hypertension and alcoholism showed respectively a RR of 2.6 (95% CI 0.9–7.6, p = 0.06) and 3.18 (95% CI 0.96–10.48, p = 0.05) to develop OH. Conclusions: OH was present in 29.3% of the studied population. A third of them had hypertension. The use of different medications does not solely explain OH, so it is necessary to look for different associations. Among those, chronic alcoholism stands out. OH is associated with a poorer quality of life and cognitive performance. OH is asymptomatic in most cases. (Cardiol J 2011; 18, 3: 282–288

Growth Performance and Ruminal Metabolic Variables of Goats Fed Rain Tree (Samanea saman) Pods

The effect of rain tree pods (RTP) or acacia pods on the growth performance, rumen metabolites, and digestibility of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) in goats was evaluated through feeding trial and in situ methods. Eighteen 7 month-old Philippine native goats with body weight range of 7.86±1.28 kg were divided into three groups consisting of six replicates and randomly assigned to one of treatment diets containing 0%, 50%, and 100% RTP in the concentrate portion of a ration containing 65% roughage and 35% concentrate. Three rumen-cannulated mature goats were used in the in situ studies to determine the dietary effects on rumen fluid pH, total volatile fatty acids (VFA), ammonia, and rumen DM and CP digestibilities.  Differences (P values 50% RTP generally resulted in lower above-stated performance parameters.  Rumen fluid pH of goats decreased after feeding and was lowest in goats fed with 50% RTP. Concentrations of VFA and ammonia were not significantly different. Slowly degradable DM of the test diets were higher in concentrate mixture without RTP. Degradable fractions of CP had highest value on concentrate mixture without RTP while lowest on 100% RTP. However, no differences were observed on potentially digestible fractions and degradability constants of DM and CP. It could be concluded that RTPs can be an alternative ingredient in concentrate mixtures given up to 50% in the mixture as part of a daily ration for goats