A policy framework and industry roadmap model for sustainable oil palm biomass electricity generation in Malaysia

The current global trends demonstrate the significant role of renewable energy in meeting the growing energy demand across all sectors to support national economic growth. In Malaysia, palm oil is one of the major agricultural export commodities with a total production of 17.7 million tonnes or 41% of the total world palm oil production in 2008. This research evaluates the sustainability of the grid-connected oil palm biomass renewable energy industry in Malaysia and proposes a policy framework and industry roadmap. The factors investigated include resource supply, the efficiency of waste to energy conversion technology used in the existing plants, and the attractiveness of the electricity interconnection scheme in encouraging exports of excess power from the participating mills to the main grid. A literature review and field survey were conducted to understand the barriers and possible enhancements to the current FiT system. The study concluded that harmonisation between upstream and downstream palm oil agricultural activities is essential for achieving the goal of making the oil palm biomass waste to energy industry sustainable. The policy framework and industrial roadmap models provide a distinctive enhancement to the FiT system besides indicating the way towards a sustainable biomass to the energy industry

Microscopic sub-barrier fusion calculations for the neutron star crust

Fusion of very neutron rich nuclei may be important to determine the composition and heating of the crust of accreting neutron stars. Fusion cross sections are calculated using time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory coupled with density-constrained Hartree-Fock calculations to deduce an effective potential. Systems studied include 16O+16O, 16O+24O, 24O+24O, 12C+16O, and 12C+24O. We find remarkable agreement with experimental cross sections for the fusion of stable nuclei. Our simulations use the SLy4 Skyrme force that has been previously fit to the properties of stable nuclei, and no parameters have been fit to fusion data. We compare our results to the simple S\~{a}o Paulo static barrier penetration model. For the asymmetric systems 12C+24O or 16O+24O we predict an order of magnitude larger cross section than those predicted by the S\~{a}o Paulo model. This is likely due to the transfer of neutrons from the very neutron rich nucleus to the stable nucleus and dynamical rearrangements of the nuclear densities during the collision process. These effects are not included in potential models. This enhancement of fusion cross sections, for very neutron rich nuclei, can be tested in the laboratory with radioactive beams.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, corrected small errors in Figs 10, 11, Phys. Rev. C in pres

Single-particle dissipation in TDHF studied from a phase-space perspective

We study dissipation and relaxation processes within the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach using the Wigner distribution function. On the technical side we present a geometrically unrestricted framework which allows us to calculate the full six-dimensional Wigner distribution function. With the removal of geometrical constraints, we are now able to extend our previous phase-space analysis of heavy-ion collisions in the reaction plane to unrestricted mean-field simulations of nuclear matter on a three-dimensional Cartesian lattice. From the physical point of view we provide a quantitative analysis on the stopping power in TDHF. This is linked to the effect of transparency. For the medium-heavy $^{40}$Ca+$^{40}$Ca system we examine the impact of different parametrizations of the Skyrme force, energy-dependence, and the significance of extra time-odd terms in the Skyrme functional.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 videos. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1201.526

3-D unrestricted TDHF fusion calculations using the full Skyrme interaction

We present a study of fusion cross sections using a new generation Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) code which contains no approximations regarding collision geometry and uses the full Skyrme interaction, including all of the time-odd terms. In addition, the code uses the Basis-Spline collocation method for improved numerical accuracy. A comparative study of fusion cross sections for $^{16}O + ^{16,28}O$ is made with the older TDHF results and experiments. We present results using the modern Skyrme forces and discuss the influence of the new terms present in the interaction.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure

Kepadatan Nyamuk Tersangka Vektor Filariasis Di Desa Panumbangan, Kabupaten Ciamis, Desa Jalaksana Kabupaten Kuningan Dan Batukuwung Kabupaten Serang

Filariasis merupakan satu di antara penyakit tular vektor yang masih menjadi masalah kesehatan masyarakat di Indonesia. Dampak kesehatan yang diakibatkan oleh filariasis adalah dapat menimbulkan demam, rasa kelelahan dan kecacatan permanen. Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui kepadatan nyamuk yang berperan sebagai vektor filaria dan mencari data mengenai kondisi lingkungan yang mendukung terjadinya penularan filariasis di Kab. Ciamis, Kab. Kuningan dan Kab. Serang. Jenis penelitian adalah penelitian deskriptif dengan desain observasional spot survei. Sampel adalah nyamuk tersangka vektor yang tertangkap dengan metode landing collection dan resting di rumah maupun di alam. Hasil penelitian menemukan spesies nyamuk yang dominan di tiga lokasi penelitian yang tertangkap baik secara umpan orang maupun istirahat adalah Cx. sitiens, Cx. tritaeniorhyncus dan Cx. quinquefasciatus. Nyamuk dominan di Desa Panumbangan, Kab. Ciamis adalah Cx. sitiens dengan nilai kelimpahan nisbi dan angka dominansi sebesar 0,579. Di Desa Jalaksana, Kab. Kuningan nyamuk dominan adalah Cx. sitiens dengan nilai kelimpahan nisbi 0,630 dan angka dominansi sebesar 0,525. Desa Batukuwung Kabupaten Serang yang dominan adalah Cx. quinquefasciatus dengan nilai kelimpahan nisbi dan angka dominansi sebesar 0,8414. Faktor lingkungan di wilayah penelitian mendukung untuk perkembangbiakan nyamuk sebagai vektor filarial.Kondisi lingkungan fisik suhu, kelembaban di lokasi tersebut, berturut-turut 24 – 25 oC dan 79 – 88%

Point symmetries in the Hartree-Fock approach: Symmetry-breaking schemes

We analyze breaking of symmetries that belong to the double point group D2h(TD) (three mutually perpendicular symmetry axes of the second order, inversion, and time reversal). Subgroup structure of the D2h(TD) group indicates that there can be as much as 28 physically different, broken-symmetry mean-field schemes --- starting with solutions obeying all the symmetries of the D2h(TD) group, through 26 generic schemes in which only a non-trivial subgroup of D2h(TD) is conserved, down to solutions that break all of the D2h(TD) symmetries. Choices of single-particle bases and the corresponding structures of single-particle hermitian operators are discussed for several subgroups of D2h(TD).Comment: 10 RevTeX pages, companion paper in nucl-th/991207

Screening and molecular identification of marine sponges with cytotoxic activities, collected from Gulf of Mannar, Indian Ocean

The marine environment, a rich source of biological and chemical diversity, offers tremendous scope for discovering novel metabolites with pharmacological activities. Marine invertebrates, especially sponges, have gained more attention in drug discovery programmes since they exhibit unique metabolic and physiological capabilities and an extraordinarily symbiotic association with diverse bacterial communities. The present study focuses on screening the cytotoxic activity of the methanolic extracts of sponges against the Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) cell line, NCI-H460. In the bioactivity screening, two sponges (IOS-11 and IOS-12) were found with potent cytotoxic activity. The sponge IOS-12 showed almost complete cell growth inhibition (99 %) at 50 µg/ml and 80 % inhibition at 5 µg/ml; whereas IOS-11 showed cell growth inhibition of 96 % and 77 % at 50 µg/ml and at 5 µg/ml, respectively. Amplification of the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) and subsequent nucleotide analysis enabled the identification of sponge samples, IOS-11 and IOS-12, as Rhabdastrella globostellata and Halichondria sp., respectively. The study concludes that the two marine sponges, Rhabdastrella globostellata and Halichondria sp., possess excellent cytotoxic activities and could be considered good candidates for the isolation of anticancer compounds with biomedical applications. The isolation, purification and structural elucidation of the lead molecules from these sponges are ongoing studies, which might yield potential new compounds with promising cytotoxic activities

Linear Responses in Time-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Method with Gogny Interaction

A numerical method to integrate the time-dependent Hartree-Fock Bogoliubov (TDHFB) equations with Gogny interaction is proposed. The feasibility of the TDHFB code is illustrated by the conservation of the energy, particle numbers, and center-of-mass in the small amplitude vibrations of oxygen 20. The TDHFB code is applied to the isoscalar quadrupole and/or isovector dipole vibrations in the linear (small amplitude) region in oxygen isotopes (masses A = 18,20,22 and 24), titanium isotopes (A = 44,50,52 and 54), neon isotope (A = 26), and magnesium isotopes (A = 24 and 34). The isoscalar quadrupole and isovector dipole strength functions are calculated from the expectation values of the isoscalar quadrupole and isovector dipole moments.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure

An Analyses of Onion Marketing in Toro District of Toro Local Government Area in Bauchi State, Nigeria

The broad objective of the study was to determine the profitability and marketing efficiency of onion marketing in Toro District of Toro local government area in Bauchi State. Questionaire was the main instrument of data collection from a sample of fourty (40) onion traders in the study area. Analytical tools used were; descriptive statistics, gross margin, marketing margin and market efficiency. Majority (67.5%) of the respondents were males. Also, majority (55%) of onion Traders falls within the age bracket of 41 - 50 years of age, the result indicates high proportions (85.00%) of the respondents were educated. The years of Onion marketing experience of the respondents indicates that half of the respondents (50%) had 11 - 20 years of marketing experience in onion trading and the study also indicates that majority (52.50%) went into onions marketing with money between ₦21,000:00 - ₦30,000:00. Greater proportion (87.50%) of the respondents belongs to cooperative associations. Major problems of onion marketing identified were those of transportation, storage facilities, starting capital, market information and low price. Result of the costs and returns analysis revealed that onion marketing was profitable to the turn of N1,315.00 per bag for wholesale and N2,020.00 per bag for retail traders of onion marketers respectively. This finding also indicated that marketing of onion is efficient with total efficiency of 141.28% for wholesalers and 150.80% for retailers. Proper functional programmes and policies should be made to improve onion production and marketing in the study area