A rural agricultural-sustainable energy community model and its application to Felton Valley, Australia

Energy and food security require a delicate balance which should not threaten or undermine community prosperity. Where it is proposed to derive energy from conventional fossil fuel resources (such as coal, shale oil, natural gas, coal seam gas) located in established rural areas, and particularly where these areas are used for productive agricultural purposes, there are often both intense community concern as well as broader questions regarding the relative social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of different land uses and, increasingly, different energy sources. The advent of mainstream renewable energy technologies means that alternative energy options may provide a viable alternative, allowing energy demand to be met without compromising existing land uses. We demonstrate how such a Sustainable Energy Rural Model can be designed to achieve a balance between the competing social goals of energy supply, agricultural production, environmental integrity and social well-being, and apply it to the Felton Valley, a highly productive and resilient farming community in eastern Australia. Research into available wind and solar resources found that Felton Valley has a number of attributes that indicate its suitability for the development of an integrated renewable energy precinct which would complement, rather than displace, existing agricultural enterprises. Modelling results suggest a potential combined annual renewable energy output from integrated wind and solar resources of 1,287 GWh/yr from peak installed capacity of 713 MW, sufficient to supply the electrical energy needs of about 160,000 homes, in combination with total biomass food production of 31,000 tonnes per annum or 146 GWh/yr of human food energy. The portfolio of renewable energy options will not only provide energy source diversity but also ensures long-term food security and regional stability. The Felton Valley model provides an example of community-led energy transformation and has potential as a pilot project for the development of smart distributed grids that would negate the need for further expansion of coal mining and coal fired power stations

Design Expert System to Simulate Control System of Gas Generating Stations

The use of computer technology to support technical decisions and training is now widespread and pervasive across a broad range of technical areas. Accordingly, computer-aided diagnosis has become an increasingly important area for intelligent computational systems. The objective of project research is to design an expert system able to  provide the way to simulate the technical crew training , technical crew evaluating, testing of station parts, fault diagnosing of gas turbine power plant which uses natural gas to help the technical  maintenance crew and others trainees to reduce the error of the technical crew as minimum as possible and significantly reduce the cost of the training technical crew ,and  in same time can be applied this proposed system in all generating stations which work in ministry of electricity and private sector stations. The proposed system contains two main modules first one is the System Information and the second model is Expert system. Those two models creates our system simulators. The Information System of proposed system contains the static information about different malfunctions of the gas turbine power plant field which is used for training crews by showing pictures and videos about affected part of the station and giving the correct action,  and containing exam question for evaluating technical crew level to give the correct decision about them such as an increase training period of the crew,  and containing testing procedure steps of the station parts with given correct action to start  up  the station or wait according  to test result ,and containing fault diagnosing of the station with advice and required solution, and containing information related to monitoring and remote control the station with given correct action using visual Basic 6.0, and can make the prediction and warning  according to environment information and received parameters from station compared with the standard level which is stored in system and giving the required advice to protect the system from damage .The second model of proposed system is Expert system of which performs the program, so this system represents a computer program design to simulate human ability to solve the problem, and it consists of knowledge base which contain all knowledge and information which are collected from experts (engineers) about specific problems in specific domain and inference machine to search for knowledge base to find the solution of the problem in this restricted domain, this research clearly also  describes  how the  neural computing system designed to support the technical decision process to save the station from damage and continuously prepare good technical crew and develop their capability . The most prominent feature of our proposed system is simplicity, flexibility and friendly user interface with high speed of the execution. Keywords: Gas Turbine, Expert system, Simulation, power Generation, control Syste

Nutrient requirement, canopy development and fruit yield of high density guava (Psidium guajava L.) production in subtropics of Northern Karnataka

Nutrient requirement for guava under high density planting is much higher than normal planting. Combined application of organic manures and chemical fertilizers will enhance nutrient use efficiency. The field experiment was carried out at Raichur, Karnataka, India during 2017 to standardize rate of fertilizers and organic manures for Guava (Psidium guajava L.)  cv. Allahabad safeda under high density planting. Treatments consists of application of fertilizers for normal planting compared with 100:40:75 g NPK/plant as recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF), 75% and 50% of high density planting (HDP) along with 25 kg farmyard manure, organic manure alone and foliar application of urea @ 1 % at 2,3 and 4 months after pruning. Results indicated that application of NPK@ 235: 118: 120 g per plant as per the RDF for HDP along with 25 kg FYM has resulted in taller plants, plant spread E-W as well as N-S directions, canopy volume and leaf area index. Higher fruits/plant, average fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit yield per plant and fruit yield (48.58 t ha-1) was recorded by application of NPK@ 235: 118: 120 g per plant same as that of HDP along with 25 kg FYM. Application of 50 % of HDP recommendation along with foliar application of urea @ 1% at 2, 3 and 4 months after pruning and 25 kg FYM was also found effective in achieving higher fruit yield of guava

Association of Physical Activity with Co-morbid Conditions in Geriatric Population

To find out association of physical activity with co-morbid conditions in geriatric population, a cross-sectional study was conducted in different cties of Pakistan in 2015. A total of 114 participants were inducted by non-probability convenience sampling technique. Data was collected after informed verbal consent by a validated questionnaire that is Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA). Participants were categorized into two groups i.e. physically active and physically inactive. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 20. There were 66 (57.9%) males and 48 (42.1%) females with mean age of 57.04±7.348 years. Among hypertensive individuals (n=43, 37.7%) there were 39 (90.7%) physically inactive, among individuals having angina (n=17, 14.9%) there were 15 (88.2%) physically inactive. Out of 37 (32.5%) diabetics, 35 (94.6%) were physically inactive. Among individuals suffering from arthritis (n=40, 35.1%), there were 38 (95%) physically inactive. A significant association was found between physical activity and diabetes and arthritis with p-value of 0.048 and 0.029 respectively. Physical activity is significantly associated with diabetes and arthritis in geriatric population. Adequate physical activity should be performed to reduce the risk of co-morbid conditions and improve the quality of life in geriatric population

Innovation-ecofriendly employment of waste paper for producing lightweight aggregate for concrete

Lightweight concrete mentions to any concrete produced to an oven-dry density less than 2000 kg/m3. This can reached by replacement of natural aggregates with lightweight aggregate, no fine aggregate and or adding foamed agent to the concrete. This research usage of recycled paper as an aggregate replacement in producing a lightweight concrete for construction purpose. It was used two type of production of paper aggregate (The paper aggregate treatment with cement and paper aggregate treatment with wood glue) and then replacement with natural aggregate. The results shown increasing of replacement natural aggregate (gravel) with paper aggregate will leads to decreasing in density of concrete. The paper aggregate treatment with cement give a significant compressive strength than the concrete made with paper aggregate treatment with wood glue. Paper aggregate treatment with wood glue give a significant reduction in density than the concrete made with the paper aggregate treatment with cement. The large decreasing in splitting strength due to presence of paper when the replacement is 100% from the natural aggregate (gravel). However, the percentage of replacement 50% of paper aggregate given better splitting strength than the replacement of 100%

Effect of short chain fatty acids on the expression of free fatty acid receptor 2 (Ffar2), Ffar3 and early-stage adipogenesis

Adipose tissue has a major influence on insulin sensitivity. Stimulation of free fatty acid receptor 2 (FFAR2) has been proposed to influence adipocyte differentiation. We hypothesised that exposing preadipocytes to short chain fatty acids would induce earlier expression of nuclear receptors that co-ordinate adipogenesis, triglyceride accumulation and leptin secretion. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were differentiated in the presence of 1 μM acetate, 0.1–10 μM propionate or vehicle control. In experiment 1, expression of Ffar2 and nuclear receptor mRNA was measured by quantitative PCR over 48 h following onset of differentiation. In experiment 2, extracellular leptin concentration and intracellular triglyceride content were measured at days 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 following the onset of differentiation. Control cells exhibited similar temporal dynamics of gene expression, triglyceride accumulation and leptin secretion as reported previously. We were unable to detect expression of Ffar3 mRNA at any stage of differentiation. Consistent with a lack of Ffar2 expression in the first 24 h of differentiation, acetate and propionate had no significant effect on nuclear receptor expression. Furthermore, acetate or propionate treatment did not alter leptin concentration or triglyceride content. In conclusion, we observed no significant effect of propionate or acetate on adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells using validated quantitative techniques

Mechanical Behavior of Modified Reactive Powder Concrete with Waste Materials Powder Replacement

Across the world, a huge amount of waste materials is deposited from different industrial or construction activities. Out of this massive waste quantity, a petite is recycled and remaining is dumped in vulnerable lands. This paper deals with the potential utilization of solid waste in reactive powder concrete, practically powdered glass originating from waste glass bottles and powdered ceramics tile from waste of construction process. First, the optimum ratio of waste pozzolanic material (ceramics to glass ratio) was obtained by pozzolinic activity test. Then, the optimal waste pozzolanic material was incorporated in reactive powder concrete at several substitution levels. The waste pozzolanic material in 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, 20 %, and 25 % were added in the reactive powder concrete mixes as fractional supplement of silica fume. Strength and water absorption of the modified reactive powder concrete were evaluated. A significant enhancement was observed in mechanical behavior of modified reactive powder concrete containing 15 % waste pozzolanic material. Results directed irrelevant raise in water absorption as increasing the waste replacement material. &nbsp

Contributory factors in surgical incidents as delineated by a confidential reporting system

Background Confidential reporting systems play a key role in capturing information about adverse surgical events. However, the value of these systems is limited if the reports that are generated are not subjected to systematic analysis. The aim of this study was to provide the first systematic analysis of data from a novel surgical confidential reporting system to delineate contributory factors in surgical incidents and document lessons that can be learned. Methods One-hundred and forty-five patient safety incidents submitted to the UK Confidential Reporting System for Surgery over a 10-year period were analysed using an adapted version of the empirically-grounded Yorkshire Contributory Factors Framework. Results The most common factors identified as contributing to reported surgical incidents were cognitive limitations (30.09%), communication failures (16.11%) and a lack of adherence to established policies and procedures (8.81%). The analysis also revealed that adverse events were only rarely related to an isolated, single factor (20.71%) – with the majority of cases involving multiple contributory factors (79.29% of all cases had more than one contributory factor). Examination of active failures – those closest in time and space to the adverse event – pointed to frequent coupling with latent, systems-related contributory factors. Conclusions Specific patterns of errors often underlie surgical adverse events and may therefore be amenable to targeted intervention, including particular forms of training. The findings in this paper confirm the view that surgical errors tend to be multi-factorial in nature, which also necessitates a multi-disciplinary and system-wide approach to bringing about improvements

Combined Spatially Resolved Optical Emission Imaging and Modeling Studies of Microwave-Activated H₂/Ar and H₂/Kr Plasmas Operating at Powers and Pressures Relevant for Diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition

Microwave (MW) activated H2/Ar (and H2/Kr) plasmas operating under powers and pressures relevant to diamond chemical vapor deposition have been investigated experimentally and by 2-D modeling. The experiments return spatially and wavelength resolved optical emission spectra of electronically excited H2 molecules and H and Ar­(/Kr) atoms for a range of H2/noble gas mixing ratios. The self-consistent 2-D­(r, z) modeling of different H2/Ar gas mixtures includes calculations of the MW electromagnetic fields, the plasma chemistry and electron kinetics, heat and species transfer and gas–surface interactions. Comparison with the trends revealed by the spatially resolved optical emission measurements and their variations with changes in process conditions help guide identification and refinement of the dominant plasma (and plasma emission) generation mechanisms and the more important Ar–H, Ar–H2, and H–H2 coupling reactions. Noble gas addition is shown to encourage radial expansion of the plasma, and thus to improve the uniformity of the H atom concentration and the gas temperature just above the substrate. Noble gas addition in the current experiments is also found to enhance (unwanted) sputtering of the copper base plate of the reactor; the experimentally observed increase in gas phase Cu* emission is shown to correlate with the near substrate ArH+ (and KrH+) ion concentrations returned by the modeling, rather than with the relatively more abundant H3+ (and H3O+) ions