Energy efficient engine preliminary design and integration studies

The characteristics and systems benefits of an energy efficient engine (E3) suitable for use on advanced subsonic transport aircraft were determined. Relative to a current CF6-50C engine, the following benefits were estimated: 14.4% reduction in installed cruise specific fuel consumption, and a reduction in direct operating cost of more than 5%. The advanced technology E3 system would also permit: compliance with FAR 36 (1977) noise limits, and compliance with 1981 EPA emission standards

The Importance of Animal Comfort for Animal Production in Intensive Grassland Systems

Animals utilise a wide range of regulatory systems to control the conditions within their bodies or homeostasis. These regulatory systems control for example, body temperature, nutritional state, water balance, social interactions and fear and these systems react to environmental and endogenous stimuli so as to correct or prevent displacements from the optimal range. The behavioural and physiological responses utilised by the animal are usually proportional to the challenge to homeostasis. The stress response commences with the central nervous system perceiving a potential challenge to homeostasis. Once the central nervous system perceives a threat, it develops a biological response or defence that consists of some combination of the four general biological defence responses: behavioural responses, responses of the autonomic nervous system, responses of the neuroendocrine system and responses of the immune system. Although biological regulation is occurring constantly, adaptation is not always possible and when homeostasis fails, there are biological costs for the animal, which may include growth and reproductive failure, injury, disease as a consequence of immunosuppression or even death. While animal comfort is not strictly defined in the scientific literature, an appropriate definition of comfort that is utilised in this review is a dictionary definition, “at ease in body and mind”. With the likely trend to greater intensification of grassland production, there are a number of factors that will affect animal comfort. Both group size and space allowance are key features of the social environment that may affect animal comfort, while the nature of human contact is an important factor, which through fear, may also affect animal comfort. Thermal stressors can have significant impact on animal comfort with cold around parturition being a serious problem for the offspring and heat having adverse consequences for adult animal production and welfare. The concerns for animal comfort over husbandry procedures include practices ranging from simple interventions such as shearing that involve challenges including restraint, close human contact and isolation to more complex surgical interventions such as tail docking and castration that may include additional challenges such as acute and chronic pain, as well as short-term production depressions. Others issues include risks associated with animal biotechnologies, including simple manipulations such as twinning to more complex transgenic manipulations

Downsizing em estrutura de Alimentação & Bebidas de uma cadeia de hotéis em Portugal

Trabalho de natureza profissional para a atribuição do Título de Especialista do Instituto Politécnico do Porto, na área de Hotelaria e Restauração, defendido a 03-10-2017.O trabalho que se apresenta, de título “Downsizing em estrutura de Alimentação & Bebidas de uma cadeia de hotéis em Portugal” foi elaborado no âmbito da prestação de provas de reconhecimento como Especialista de Reconhecida Experiência e Competência Profissional regulado pelo Decreto-Lei 206/2009, e já detentor do mesmo ao abrigo do ponto ii) da alínea g) do artigo 3º, do Decreto-lei 115/2013, na área da Educação e formação 811 – Hotelaria e Restauração – de acordo com a Portaria 256/2005, de 16 de Março de 2005, pelo Conselho Científico da Universidade Portucalense. O exposto neste trabalho é o processo técnico iniciado enquanto diretor de unidade hoteleira e simultaneamente responsável pelo dossier de restauração da cadeia Ibis em Portugal. Os trabalhos efetuados originaram uma reflexão aprofundada sobre os resultados da restauração em 14 hotéis da cadeia Ibis em Portugal, iniciado no ano 2000, no sentido de melhorar a eficácia das estruturas de restauração nos hotéis, que tiveram um impacto económico importante nos resultados, e pautaram o desenvolvimento dos produtos de restauração a implantar nos hotéis económicos (e mais tarde noutras cadeias, tendo em conta as sinergias de grupo) em Portugal. A par destes resultados económicos, verificou-se uma reestruturação das competências e dos perfis dos profissionais que integram estes hotéis, além da estratégia de recursos humanos adotada neste seguimento. Perante a análise dos resultados da restauração dos hotéis da cadeia, foi detetada a possibilidade de melhoria dos resultados em alguns hotéis, pelo benchmarking com outras unidades da mesma cadeia em localidades distintas. A fim de procurar uma maior rentabilização do parque de restauração dos restaurantes Ibis, fez-se um estudo global sobre a rentabilidade de cada unidade hoteleira, as suas características específicas e desenharam-se soluções para cada uma delas. O trabalho em causa contava com a colaboração da direção de cada unidade hoteleira, no sentido de fornecer as informações de base da sua exploração de unidade, especificamente as vendas na restauração, a massa salarial diretamente ligada a esta atividade, e as horas despendidas com a execução das várias tarefas para o desenrolar dos serviços. Este trabalho teve como resultado prático um processo de downsizing das equipas de restauração dos hotéis, incorporado numa reestruturação que contemplava alteração dos serviços de acordo com as reais necessidades do cliente. O processo apresentado é de autoria própria, e foi desenvolvido enquanto diretor do Hotel Ibis Porto Gaia, e como responsável pelo “Comité de Restauração Ibis”, na cadeia Ibis em Portugal. A quase totalidade das tabelas e ilustrações apresentados são de autoria própria, no desenvolvimento do projeto.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Activity, stability and 3-D structure of the Cu(II) form of a chitin-active lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens

The enzymatic deconstruction of recalcitrant polysaccharide biomass is central to the conversion of these substrates for societal benefit, such as in biofuels. Traditional models for enzyme-catalysed polysaccharide degradation involved the synergistic action of endo-, exo-and processive glycoside hydrolases working in concert to hydrolyse the substrate. More recently this model has been succeeded by one featuring a newly discovered class of mononuclear copper enzymes: lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs; classified as Auxiliary Activity (AA) enzymes in the CAZy classification). In 2013, the structure of an LPMO from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, BaAA10, was solved with the Cu centre photoreduced to Cu(I) in the X-ray beam. Here we present the catalytic activity of BaAA10. We show that it is a chitin-active LPMO, active on both α and β chitin, with the Cu(II) binding with low nM KD, and the substrate greatly increasing the thermal stability of the enzyme. A spiral data collection strategy has been used to facilitate access to the previously unobservable Cu(II) state of the active centre, revealing a coordination geometry around the copper which is distorted from axial symmetry, consistent with the previous findings from EPR spectroscopy

Overview of the design of the ITER heating neutral beam injectors

The heating neutral beam injectors (HNBs) of ITER are designed to deliver 16.7MWof 1 MeVD0 or 0.87 MeVH0 to the ITER plasma for up to 3600 s. They will be the most powerful neutral beam\uf0a0(NB) injectors ever, delivering higher energy NBs to the plasma in a tokamak for longer than any previous systems have done. The design of the HNBs is based on the acceleration and neutralisation of negative ions as the efficiency of conversion of accelerated positive ions is so low at the required energy that a realistic design is not possible, whereas the neutralisation ofH 12 andD 12 remains acceptable ( 4856%). The design of a long pulse negative ion based injector is inherently more complicated than that of short pulse positive ion based injectors because: \u2022 negative ions are harder to create so that they can be extracted and accelerated from the ion source; \u2022 electrons can be co-extracted from the ion source along with the negative ions, and their acceleration must be minimised to maintain an acceptable overall accelerator efficiency; \u2022 negative ions are easily lost by collisions with the background gas in the accelerator; \u2022 electrons created in the extractor and accelerator can impinge on the extraction and acceleration grids, leading to high power loads on the grids; \u2022 positive ions are created in the accelerator by ionisation of the background gas by the accelerated negative ions and the positive ions are back-accelerated into the ion source creating a massive power load to the ion source; \u2022 electrons that are co-accelerated with the negative ions can exit the accelerator and deposit power on various downstream beamline components. The design of the ITER HNBs is further complicated because ITER is a nuclear installation which will generate very large fluxes of neutrons and gamma rays. Consequently all the injector components have to survive in that harsh environment. Additionally the beamline components and theNBcell, where the beams are housed, will be activated and all maintenance will have to be performed remotely. This paper describes the design of theHNBinjectors, but not the associated power supplies, cooling system, cryogenic system etc, or the high voltage bushingwhich separates the vacuum of the beamline fromthehighpressureSF6 of the high voltage (1MV) transmission line, through which the power, gas and coolingwater are supplied to the beam source. Also themagnetic field reduction system is not described

Craig Goch Report No. 9 Mass mortalities of adult salmon (Salmo salar L.) in the R. Wye, 1976

The physical, biological and chemical conditions leading to a mass mortality of adult salmon (Salmo salar L.) in the lower reaches of the R. Wye are described. As a result of sunny and low flow conditions during late June, 1976, water temperatures increased to a maximum of 27.6oC and accelerated the decay of substantial plant stands, the growth of which had been enhanced by the prevailing conditions: this resulted in severe de-oxygenation of the water. It is concluded that the low oxygen concentration in the water at this time was the principal factor in causing mass mortalities of fish and was probably accentuated by high water temperatures

Discovery, activity and characterisation of an AA10 lytic polysaccharide oxygenase from the shipworm symbiont Teredinibacter turnerae

Background: The quest for novel enzymes for cellulosic biomass-degradation has recently been focussed on lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs/PMOs), Cu-containing proteins that catalyse the oxidative degradation of otherwise recalcitrant polysaccharides using O2 or H2O2 as a co-substrate. Results: Although classical saprotrophic fungi and bacteria have been a rich source of lytic polysaccharide monooxy genases (LPMOs), we were interested to see if LPMOs from less evident bio-environments could be discovered and assessed for their cellulolytic activity in a biofuel context. In this regard, the marine shipworm Lyrodus pedicellatus represents an interesting source of new enzymes, since it must digest wood particles ingested during its natural tunnel boring behaviour and plays host to a symbiotic bacterium, Teredinibacter turnerae, the genome of which has revealed a multitude of enzymes dedicated to biomass deconstruction. Here, we show that T. turnerae encodes a cellulose-active AA10 LPMO. The 3D structure, at 1.4 Å resolution, along with its EPR spectrum is distinct from other AA10 polysaccharide monooxygenases insofar as it displays a “histidine-brace” catalytic apparatus with changes to the surrounding coordination sphere of the copper. Furthermore, TtAA10A possesses a second, surface accessible, Cu site 14 Å from the classical catalytic centre. Activity measurements show that the LPMO oxidises cellulose and thereby signifcantly augments the rate of degradation of cellulosic biomass by classical glycoside hydrolases. Conclusion: Shipworms are wood-boring marine molluscs that can live on a diet of lignocellulose. Bacterial sym bionts of shipworms provide many of the enzymes needed for wood digestion. The shipworm symbiont T. turnerae produces one of the few LPMOs yet described from the marine environment, notably adding to the capability of shipworms to digest recalcitrant polysaccharides

A prototype tool to enable farmers to measure and improve the welfare performance of the farm animal enterprise: The unified field index

Schemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementation. Here we propose the concept of elfare performance based on a broad set of performance attributes of an enterprise and describe a tool based on risk assessment and benchmarking methods for measuring and managing welfare performance. The tool termed the Unified Field Index is presented in a general form comprising three modules addressing animal, resource, and management factors. Domains within these modules accommodate the principle conceptual perspectives for welfare assessment: biological functioning; emotional states; and naturalness. Pan-enterprise analysis in any livestock sector could be used to benchmark welfare performance of individual enterprises and also provide statistics of welfare performance for the livestock sector. An advantage of this concept of welfare performance is its use of continuous scales of measurement rather than traditional pass/fail measures. Through the feedback provided via benchmarking, the tool should help farmers better engage in on-going improvement of farm practices that affect animal welfare