An investigation into biological treatment of fruit cannery wastes

Includes bibliographical references.The production of canned fruits and vegetables in the Republic of South Africa is an important factor in the country's export trade. South Africa exported goods valued at R2 016m in 1972, of which R69m was accounted for by canned fruits and vegetables. (Bulletin of Statistics 1974 and Stats 1974). The major fruit and vegetable growing areas are in the Western Cape and the canneries are situated in those towns in close proximity to both the farms and railheads. The wastewaters generated by the numerous canneries vary greatly in composition - being dependent upon the particular fruit or vegetable being processed. The wastes generally have high BOD or COD concentrations (mainly due to sugars and starches) and low concentrations of the nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus. In many towns the seasonal 'pollution' load from the canneries can exceed by several times the municipal load. Usually the municipal waste water treatment facilities are inadequate to handle the seasonal peak loads. This, in conjunction with the nutrient deficient nature of the cannery wastes, results in poor treatment efficiencies being recorded at the purification works

Individual differences in preferences for cues to intelligence in the face

Date of acceptance: 03/02/2014We tested for individual differences in women's preferences for cues to intelligence in male faces in accordance with hormonal status (i.e. menstrual cycle phase and use of hormonal contraceptives), relationship status and context, and self-rated intelligence. There were no effects of hormonal or relationship status (Studies 1 and 2) on preferences. There was, however, a positive relationship between self-rated intelligence and preferences for cues to intelligence in the face in the context of a long-term relationship, suggesting context-specific assortment (Study 3). In Study 4, self-rated partner intelligence correlated with preferences for facial cues to intelligence. We discuss these results in the context of intelligence as a fitness indicator and suggest that future research must control for assortative mating for cognitive traits in order to better understand intelligence in mate choice.PostprintPeer reviewe

Changing Hands: Recommendations to Improve New York’s System of Gubernatorial Succession

Despite the frequency with which the state’s highest executive offices have changed hands, New York is unprepared to deal with a panoply of issues relating to its constitution’s gubernatorial succession provisions. In this report, the Fordham Law School Rule of Law Clinic proposes reforms to address four principal issues with the existing gubernatorial succession provisions: gubernatorial inability, gubernatorial absence, lieutenant governor replacement, and the gubernatorial line of succession.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/rule_of_law_clinic/1000/thumbnail.jp

A generative model for segmentation of tumor and organs-at-risk for radiation therapy planning of glioblastoma patients

We present a fully automated generative method for simultaneous brain tumor and organs-at-risk segmentation in multi-modal magnetic resonance images. The method combines an existing whole-brain segmentation technique with a spatial tumor prior, which uses convolutional restricted Boltzmann machines to model tumor shape. The method is not tuned to any specific imaging protocol and can simultaneously segment the gross tumor volume, peritumoral edema and healthy tissue structures relevant for radiotherapy planning. We validate the method on a manually delineated clinical data set of glioblastoma patients by comparing segmentations of gross tumor volume, brainstem and hippocampus. The preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of the method

Skin Blood Perfusion and Oxygenation Colour Affect Perceived Human Health

Skin blood perfusion and oxygenation depends upon cardiovascular, hormonal and circulatory health in humans and provides socio-sexual signals of underlying physiology, dominance and reproductive status in some primates. We allowed participants to manipulate colour calibrated facial photographs along empirically-measured oxygenated and deoxygenated blood colour axes both separately and simultaneously, to optimise healthy appearance. Participants increased skin blood colour, particularly oxygenated, above basal levels to optimise healthy appearance. We show, therefore, that skin blood perfusion and oxygenation influence perceived health in a way that may be important to mate choice