Aquaponics: the ugly duckling in european organic regulation

Aquaponics is an integrated closed-loop multi-trophic food production system that combines elements of a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) and hydroponics (Endut et al., 2010; Goddek et al., 2015; Graber and Junge, 2009). Organic agriculture has in principle the same approach defined by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM, September 2005) "Organic Agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved."N/

Fluorine-19 MRI at 21.1 T: enhanced spin-lattice relaxation of perfluoro-15-crown-5-ether and sensitivity as demonstrated in ex vivo murine neuroinflammation

OBJECTIVE: Fluorine MR would benefit greatly from enhancements in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This study examines the sensitivity gain of (19)F MR that can be practically achieved when moving from 9.4 to 21.1 T. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied perfluoro-15-crown-5-ether (PFCE) at both field strengths (B(0)), as a pure compound, in the form of nanoparticles (NP) as employed to study inflammation in vivo, as well as in inflamed tissue. Brains, lymph nodes (LNs) and spleens were obtained from mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) that had been administered PFCE NPs. All samples were measured at both B(0) with 2D-RARE and 2D-FLASH using (19)F volume radiofrequency resonators together. T(1) and T(2) of PFCE were measured at both B(0) strengths. RESULTS: Compared to 9.4 T, an SNR gain of > 3 was observed for pure PFCE and > 2 for PFCE NPs at 21.1 T using 2D-FLASH. A dependency of (19)F T(1) and T(2) relaxation on B(0) was demonstrated. High spatially resolved (19)F MRI of EAE brains and LNs at 21.1 T revealed signals not seen at 9.4 T. DISCUSSION: Enhanced SNR and T(1) shortening indicate the potential benefit of in vivo (19)F MR at higher B(0) to study inflammatory processes with greater detail

Design, development and testing of multi-functional non-linear ultrasonic instrumentation for the detection of defects and damage in CFRP materials and structures

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Composites Science and Technology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Composites Science and Technology Vol. 87 (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.compscitech.2013.07.014A multi-functional non-linear ultrasonic testing approach is presented for in situ and ex-situ detection of a variety of defects (e.g. micro-cracking, delamination and disbonding) induced by various damage mechanisms (stress, impact, heat) in CFRP materials and structures. Such multi-functionality is provided via programmable and re-configurable instrumentation that incorporates a wide range of non-linear ultrasonic testing regimes, including harmonic and overtone generation, inter-modulation product generation, resonant frequency shift and pulse-inversion techniques. The capabilities of this multi-functional approach to defect detection are demonstrated by examining CFRP samples subjected to various forms of damage, specifically stress, impact and heat induced damage. We show that the multi-functional non-linear approach is well-suited to the detection of such forms of damage and that the pulse-inversion technique, largely ‘ignored’ in the CFRP literature, potentially provides a powerful, but as yet un-tapped, simple and effective route to the defect and damage detection