Determining major climatic factors and their variations in the central agricultural region of Mongolia

Non-Peer ReviewedIn accordance of the World Meteorological Organization, the weather conditions between 1961 and 1990 is defined as the climate and mean of climatic factors over that time-period is considered as the climatic normal. Climate is formed as a result of interactions between atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere (geosphere), biosphere, and cryosphere. It develops and changes due to various external factors, periodic and non-periodic fluctuations in these systems. Number of studies has shown some strong indications of global warming in Mongolia. Objective of this study was to determine the changes and trends in the major climatic factors such as annual air temperature and precipitation in Orkhon-Selenge Basin, the Central Agricultural Region of Mongolia, over the last 15 years (1991-2006). Our study has revealed that over the past 15 years, from 1991 to 2006, the mean annual air temperature in the Central Agricultural Region of Mongolia has risen by 0.7-1.2 degrees Celsius or 0.04-0.07 degrees Celsius per year. Consequently, there has been higher frequency of years exhibiting drought like conditions negatively impacting vegetation growth. The warming has been causing a higher frequency of occurrence of drier years with moisture deficit for vegetation growth

Membrane capacitive deionisation as an alternative to the 2nd pass for seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant for bromide removal

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Most Australian surface and ground waters have relatively high concentration of bromide between 400 and 8000 μg/L and even higher concentration in seawater between 60,000–78,000 μg/L. Although bromide is not regulated, even at low concentrations of 50–100 μg/L, it can lead to the formation of several types of harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs) during the disinfection process. One of the major concerns with brominated DBPs is the formation of bromate (BrO3−), a serious carcinogen that is formed when water containing a high concentration of bromide is disinfected. As a result, bromate is highly regulated in Australian water standards with the maximum concentration of 20 μg/L in the drinking water. Since seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plays an important role in augmenting fresh water supplies in Australia, SWRO plants in Australia usually adopt 2nd pass brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) for effective bromide removal, which is not only energy-intensive to operate but also has higher capital cost. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of membrane capacitive deionisation (MCDI) as one of the alternatives to the 2nd pass BWRO for effective bromide removal in a more energy efficient way

Primary subfertility with partial septate uterus and longitudinal vaginal septum

A 22 year old married woman presented with the complaints of severe dyspareunia, difficulty in conceiving for 18 months, menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoea since menarche. Clinical examination revealed longitudinal vaginal septum. Ultrasound scan revealed two endometrial cavities with a single cervix. Hysterosalpingogram revealed septum which had separated the endometrial cavity with no free spillage of contrast media on both fallopian tubes. Ultrasound KUB and intravenous urethrography did not reveal any abnormality in the urinary system. Resection of vaginal septum, hysteroscopic septoplasty and diagnostic laparoscopy were performed. Three months after the surgery, she was relieved from the symptoms. However, no comments on fertility issue can be made at the moment as the couple is practicing contraceptive methods

Primary subfertility with partial septate uterus and longitudinal vaginal septum

A 22 year old married woman presented with the complaints of severe dyspareunia, difficulty in conceiving for 18 months, menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoea since menarche. Clinical examination revealed longitudinal vaginal septum. Ultrasound scan revealed two endometrial cavities with a single cervix. Hysterosalpingogram revealed septum which had separated the endometrial cavity with no free spillage of contrast media on both fallopian tubes. Ultrasound KUB and intravenous urethrography did not reveal any abnormality in the urinary system. Resection of vaginal septum, hysteroscopic septoplasty and diagnostic laparoscopy were performed. Three months after the surgery, she was relieved from the symptoms. However, no comments on fertility issue can be made at the moment as the couple is practicing contraceptive methods

The Fruit Flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) in Bhutan: New Faunistic Records and Compendium of Fauna

Based on a field survey from 2017, twenty-three species are reported from Bhutan for the first time: Acroceratitis ceratitina, A. hardyi, Anomoia approximata, Bactrocera connecta, B. latifrons, B. nigrifacia, B. syzygii, Campiglossa sororcula, Cecidochares connexa, Dacus jacobi, Gastrozona fasciventris, Hoplandromyia antelopa, Lenitovena ultima, Ptilona confinis, Rioxoptilona dunlopi, R. formosana, R. vaga, Spathulina acroleuca, Themara yunnana, Trypeta indica, Zeugodacus apiciflavus, Z. diversus, and Z. fereuncinatus. Four species of the genera Cornutrypeta, Hemilea, Morinowotome, and Vidalia are also recorded for the first time, but the precise determination to species needs additional study and material. As the result, 71 species is listed from Bhutan by far. Their taxonomic position and key characters are discussed. Illustrations for most of the newly recorded species are given

Educating Health Professionals about Disability: A Review of Interventions

Health professionals need to understand the human rights and health needs of disabled people. This review of evidence on interventions demonstrates that a range of often innovative approaches have been trialled. Lectures by faculty are less effective in changing attitudes than contact with disabled people themselves. Existing examples of good practice need to be scaled up, and better and more long-term evaluations of impact are required

Statistical and Hydrological Evaluation of TRMM-Based Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis over the Wangchu Basin of Bhutan: Are the Latest Satellite Precipitation Products 3B42V7 Ready for Use in Ungauged Basins?

The objective of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the successive Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) products and further to explore the improvements and error propagation of the latest 3B42V7 algorithm relative to its predecessor 3B42V6 using the Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (CREST) hydrologic model in the mountainous Wangchu Basin of Bhutan. First, the comparison to a decade-long (2001-2010) daily rain gauge dataset reveals that: 1) 3B42V7 generally improves upon 3B42V6s underestimation both for the whole basin (bias from -41.15 to -8.38) and for a 0.250.25 grid cell with high-density gauges (bias from -40.25 to 0.04), though with modest enhancement of correlation coefficients (CC) (from 0.36 to 0.40 for basin-wide and from 0.37 to 0.41 for grid); and 2) 3B42V7 also improves its occurrence frequency across the rain intensity spectrum. Using the CREST model that has been calibrated with rain gauge inputs, the 3B42V6-based simulation shows limited hydrologic prediction NSCE skill (0.23 in daily scale and 0.25 in monthly scale) while 3B42V7 performs fairly well (0.66 in daily scale and 0.77 in monthly scale), a comparable skill score with the gauge rainfall simulations. After recalibrating the model with the respective TMPA data, significant improvements are observed for 3B42V6 across all categories, but not as much enhancement for the already well-performing 3B42V7 except for a reduction in bias (from -26.98 to -4.81). In summary, the latest 3B42V7 algorithm reveals a significant upgrade from 3B42V6 both in precipitation accuracy (i.e., correcting the underestimation) thus improving its potential hydrological utility. Forcing the model with 3B42V7 rainfall yields comparable skill scores with in-situ gauges even without recalibration of the hydrological model by the satellite precipitation, a compensating approach often used but not favored by the hydrology community, particularly in ungauged basins

Probabilistic adaptive model predictive power pinch analysis (PoPA) energy management approach to uncertainty

This paper proposes a probabilistic power pinch analysis (PoPA) approach based on Monte–Carlo simulation (MCS) for energy management of hybrid energy systems uncertainty. The systems power grand composite curve is formulated with the chance constraint method to consider load stochasticity. In a predictive control horizon, the power grand composite curve is shaped based on the pinch analysis approach. The robust energy management strategy effected in a control horizon is inferred from the likelihood of a bounded predicted power grand composite curve, violating the pinch. Furthermore, the response of the system using the energy management strategies (EMS) of the proposed method is evaluated against the day-ahead (DA) and adaptive power pinch strategy