Influence of senescence on the differentiation of the ingredients of grain legume straw as a basis for the calculation of theoretical biogas potentials

Der Einsatz von Getreidekorn oder Mais als Substrat für die Biogasanlage wird durch das Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) zukünftig schrittweise auf maximal 44 % begrenzt (EEG, 2017, § 39 h). Zusätzlich hierzu wird bei den meisten bestehenden und neuen Anlagen die Festvergütung entfallen, was eine weitere Herausforderung hinsichtlich der Wirtschaftlichkeit von Substraten darstellt. Koppelprodukte aus der Landwirtschaft stellen eine bisher weitestgehend ungenutzte, kostengünstige Alternative dar. Für einen erfolgreichen Einsatz von stroh­artigen und damit lignozellulosereichen Substraten in Biogasanlagen ist es jedoch notwendig, Daten zum Biogaspotential zu generieren. Den bisherigen hauptsäch­lichen Anbaureiz bei Körnerleguminosen stellt der Vorfruchtwert der Kultur dar (Zerhusen-Blecher et al., 2016). Die Nutzung dieses Koppelprodukts in Biogas­anlagen könnte einen zusätzlichen Anbaureiz schaffen und die Wirtschaftlichkeit von Körnerleguminosen verbessern. Um die Auswirkung der zunehmenden Seneszenz auf die Inhaltsstoffe des Strohs bei Körnerleguminosen zu prüfen, wurden jeweils drei Genotypen von Futter­erbsen Pisum sativum L. und Ackerbohnen Vicia faba L. in zwei Jahren, an zwei Standorten in vierfacher Wiederholung zu unterschiedlichen Terminen geerntet und als Stroh oder Strohsilage konserviert. Die Termine sollten die Zeitspanne von einer beginnenden Drusch­reife (BBCH 84 – 89), zur Druschreife (BBCH 89 – 94) und später Druschreife (BBCH 96 – 98) bis hin zur vollständigen Totreife (BBCH 99) abdecken. Die Untersuchung der Inhaltsstoffe umfasste den Rohprotein-, Hemizellulose-, Zellulose- und Ligningehalt nach van Soest. Anhand dieser Inhaltsstoffe wurden theoretische Biogaspotentiale berechnet. Die Untersuchungen ergaben bei beiden Arten eine Abnahme des Rohproteingehalts mit zunehmender Seneszenz. Bei den anderen Inhaltsstoffen gab es Unterschiede zwischen den Arten und Konser­vierungsverfahren. Der Hemizellulosegehalt lag, durch die Silierung abgebaut und zu organischen Säuren umgewandelt, bei den Silagen unterhalb der Gehalte im Stroh, trotz identischem Ausgangsmaterial. Insgesamt wurde eine Zunahme der Gerüstsubstanzen mit fortschreitender Seneszenz festgestellt. Die theoretischen Biogas­potentiale nahmen mit fortschreitender Seneszenz zu oder blieben davon unbeeinflusst. Es wurden Biogasausbeuten von etwa 530 l/kg TM und Methangasausbeuten von etwa 265 l/kg TM berechnet, dies entspricht etwa 75 % der Methangasausbeute von Silomais (Karpenstein-Machan, 2005). Die Sortenunterschiede waren bei den Gasausbeuten der Ackerbohnen gering, daher ist der Strohertrag ein wichtigerer Parameter für die Nutzung als Biogassubstrat. Bei den Ackerbohnen sind die Sorten Fuego und Tiffany zu empfehlen, da hier die Stroherträge gesichert höher waren als die der Sorte Taifun. Bei den Erbsen hatte die Sorte Respect einen höheren Stroh­ertrag und etwas höhere Gasausbeuten als die anderen Sorten, jedoch konnte diese Sorte nicht vollständig geprüft werden, weshalb keine Sortenempfehlung gegeben wird.The use of cereal grains or maize as substrate for the biogas plant will in future be gradually limited to a maximum of 44 % by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG, 2017, § 39 h). In addition, the fixed payment will no longer apply to most existing plants and new plants, which represents a further challenge with regard to the economic efficiency of substrates. Co-products from agriculture represent a so far largely unused, cost-effective alternative. Up to now, the main motivation for growing grain legumes has been the preceding crop value of the crop (Zerhusen-Blecher et al., 2016). The use of this co-product in biogas plants could provide an additional cultivation inducement and improve the profitability of grain legumes. However, for a successful use of straw-like and thus lignocellulose-rich substrates in biogas plants it is necessary to generate data on the biogas potential. In order to test the effect of increasing senescence on straw ingredients in grain legumes, three genotypes each of field peas Pisum sativum L. and field beans Vicia faba L. were harvested at different dates and conserved as straw or straw silage in two years, at two locations with four repetitions. Harvesting dates should cover the period from beginning of threshing maturity (EC 84–89), to threshing maturity (EC 89–94) and later threshing matu­rity (EC 96–98) until complete dead maturity (EC 99). The examina­tion of the ingredients included the crude protein, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin content accord­ing to van Soest. Based on these ingredients, theoretical biogas potentials were calculated. The investigations showed a decrease of the crude protein content with increas­ing senescence in both species. For the other ingredients, there were differences between the species and preservation methods. The hemicellulose content degraded by ensiling and converted to organic acids was lower in the silages than in the straw, despite the same starting material. Overall, an increase in the structural substances with progressive senescence was observed. The theoretical biogas potentials increased with pro­gressive senescence or remained unaffected by it. Biogas yields of about 530 l/kg DM and methane gas yields of about 265 l/kg DM were calculated, which is about 75 % of the methane gas yield of silage maize (Karpenstein-Machan, 2005). The differences in the gas yields of field bean varieties were small, therefore straw yield as a parameter for use as biogas substrate is more important. For field beans, the varieties Fuego and Tiffany are recommended, since the straw yields were significantly higher than those of the variety Taifun. For peas, the variety Respect had a higher straw yield and slightly higher gas yields than the other varieties, but this variety could not be completely tested, which is why no variety recommendation is given

Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution

Pollution by chemicals and waste impacts human and ecosystem health on regional, national, and global scales, resulting, together with climate change and biodiversity loss, in a triple planetary crisis. Consequently, in 2022, countries agreed to establish an intergovernmental science–policy panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, complementary to the existing intergovernmental science–policy bodies on climate change and biodiversity. To ensure the SPP’s success, it is imperative to protect it from conflicts of interest (COI). Here, we (i) define and review the implications of COI, and its relevance for the management of chemicals, waste, and pollution; (ii) summarize established tactics to manufacture doubt in favor of vested interests, i.e., to counter scientific evidence and/or to promote misleading narratives favorable to financial interests; and (iii) illustrate these with selected examples. This analysis leads to a review of arguments for and against chemical industry representation in the SPP’s work. We further (iv) rebut an assertion voiced by some that the chemical industry should be directly involved in the panel’s work because it possesses data on chemicals essential for the panel’s activities. Finally, (v) we present steps that should be taken to prevent the detrimental impacts of COI in the work of the SPP. In particular, we propose to include an independent auditor’s role in the SPP to ensure that participation and processes follow clear COI rules. Among others, the auditor should evaluate the content of the assessments produced to ensure unbiased representation of information that underpins the SPP’s activities

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia