Effects Of Reduced Ras And Volume On Anaerobic Zone Performance For A Septic Wastewater Biological Phosphorous Removal System

Enhanced Biological Phosphorous Removal (EBPR) performance was found to be adequate with reduced Return Activated Sludge (RAS) flows (50% of available RAS) to the anaerobic tank and smaller than typical anaerobic zone volume (1.08 hours hydraulic retention time or HRT). Three identical parallel biological nutrient removal (BNR) pilot plants were fed with strong, highly fermented (160 mg/L VFAs), domestic/industrial wastewater from a full scale wastewater treatment facility (WWTF). The pilot plants were operated at 100%, 50%, 40% and 25% RAS (percent of available RAS) flows to the anaerobic tank with the remaining RAS to the anoxic tank. In addition, varying anaerobic HRT (1.08 and 1.5 hours), and increased hydraulic loading (35% increase) was examined. The study was divided in four Phases, and the effect of these process variations on EBPR were studied by having one different variable between two identical systems. The most significant conclusions were that only bringing part of the RAS to the anaerobic zone did not decrease EBPR performance, instead changing the location of P release and uptake. Bringing less RAS to the anaerobic and more to the anoxic tank decreased anaerobic P release and increased anoxic P release (or decreased anoxic P uptake). Equally important is that with VFA rich influent wastewater, excessive anaerobic volume was shown to hurt overall P removal even when it resulted in increased anaerobic P release. Computer modeling with BioWin and UCTPHO was found to predict similar results to the pilot test results. Modeling was done with reduced RAS flows to the anaerobic zone (100%, 50%, and 25% RAS), increased anaerobic volume, and increased hydraulic loading. The most significant conclusions were that both models predicted EBPR did not deteriorate with less RAS to the anaerobic zone, in fact, improvements in EBPR were observed. Additional scenarios were also consistent with pilot test data in that increased anaerobic volume did not improve EBPR and increased hydraulic loading did not adversely affect EBPR

Cache-conscious Splitting of MapReduce Tasks and its Application to Stencil Computations

Modern cluster systems are typically composed by nodes with multiple processing units and memory hierarchies comprising multiple cache levels of various sizes. To leverage the full potential of these architectures it is necessary to explore concepts such as parallel programming and the layout of data onto the memory hierarchy. However, the inherent complexity of these concepts and the heterogeneity of the target architectures raises several challenges at application development and performance portability levels, respectively. In what concerns parallel programming, several model and frameworks are available, of which MapReduce [16] is one of the most popular. It was developed at Google [16] for the parallel and distributed processing of large amounts of data in large clusters of commodity machines. Although being very powerful tools, the reference MapReduce frameworks, such as Hadoop and Spark, do not leverage the characteristics of the underlying memory hierarchy. This shortcoming is particularly noticeable in computations that benefit from temporal locality, such as stencil computations. In this context, the goal of this thesis is to improve the performance of MapReduce computations that benefit from temporal locality. To that end we optimize the mapping of MapReduce computations in a machine’s cache memory hierarchy by applying cacheaware tiling techniques. We prototyped our solution on top of the framework Hadoop MapReduce, incorporating a cache-awareness in the splitting stage. To validate our solution and assess its benefits, we developed an API for expressing stencil computations on top the developed framework. The experimental results show that, for a typical stencil computation, our solution delivers an average speed-up of 1.77 while reaching a peek speed-up of 3.2. These findings allows us to conclude that cacheaware decomposition of MapReduce computations considerably boosts the execution of this class of MapReduce computations

A Comparative Study of Convolutional Neural Networks for the Detection of Strong Gravitational Lensing

As we enter the era of large-scale imaging surveys with the up-coming telescopes such as LSST and SKA, it is envisaged that the number of known strong gravitational lensing systems will increase dramatically. However, these events are still very rare and require the efficient processing of millions of images. In order to tackle this image processing problem, we present Machine Learning techniques and apply them to the Gravitational Lens Finding Challenge. The Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) presented have been re-implemented within a new modular, and extendable framework, LEXACTUM. We report an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.9343 and 0.9870, and an execution time of 0.0061s and 0.0594s per image, for the Space and Ground datasets respectively, showing that the results obtained by CNNs are very competitive with conventional methods (such as visual inspection and arc finders) for detecting gravitational lenses.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figure

Characterization and in vitro cytocompatibility of an acid-etched titanium surface

The aims of this study were to characterize the microstructure of a commercially pure titanium (cpTi) surface etched with HCl/H2SO4 (AE-cpTi) and to investigate its in vitro cytocompatibility compared to turned cpTi (T-cpTi). T-cpTi showed a grooved surface and AE-cpTi revealed a surface characterized by the presence of micropits. Surface parameters indicated that the AE-cpTi surface is more isotropic and present a greater area compared to T-cpTi. The oxide film thickness was similar between both surfaces; however, AE-cpTi presented more Ti and O and less C. Osteoblastic cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity, and bone-like nodule formation were greater on T-cpTi than on AE-cpTi. These results show that acid etching treatment produced a surface with different topographical and chemical features compared to the turned one, and such surface modification affected negatively the in vitro cytocompatibility of cpTi as demonstrated by decreasing culture growth and expression of osteoblastic phenotype.O objetivo deste estudo foi caracterizar a microestrutura de uma superfície de titânio comercialmente puro (cpTi) condicionada com HCl/H2SO4 (acid etched) (AE-cpTi) e investigar sua citocompatibilidade in vitro, comparada à do cpTi usinado (turned) (T-cpTi). O T-cpTi apresentou uma superfície com sulcos e o AE-cpTi exibiu uma superfície caracterizada pela presença de micro-vales. Os parâmetros de superfície indicaram que a superfície AE-cpTi é mais isotrópica e apresenta uma área maior quando comparada à superfície T-cpTi. A espessura da camada de óxido foi similar para as duas superfícies; no entanto, a AE-cpTi apresentou maiores quantidades de Ti e O e menor, de C. A proliferação de células osteoblásticas, a atividade de fosfatase alcalina e a formação de matriz mineralizada foram maiores na superfície T-cpTi que na AE-cpTi. Esses resultados mostram que o condicionamento ácido produziu uma superfície com características topográficas e químicas diferentes quando comparadas às da superfície usinada. Além disso, observou-se que essas modificações de superfície afetaram de forma negativa a citocompatibilidade in vitro do cpTi como demonstrado pela inibição da proliferação celular e da expressão do fenótipo osteoblástico

New Constraints on the Composition of Jupiter from Galileo Measurements and Interior Models

Using the helium abundance measured by Galileo in the atmosphere of Jupiter and interior models reproducing the observed external gravitational field, we derive new constraints on the composition and structure of the planet. We conclude that, except for helium which must be more abundant in the metallic interior than in the molecular envelope, Jupiter could be homogeneous (no core) or could have a central dense core up to 12 Earth masses. The mass fraction of heavy elements is less than 7.5 times the solar value in the metallic envelope and between 1 and 7.2 times solar in the molecular envelope. The total amount of elements other than hydrogen and helium in the planet is between 11 and 45 Earth masses.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures (1 color

Aplicación de la Teoría Crítica de Raza en la organización y representación del conocimiento

Se introducen las características y posibilidades metodológicas de la Teoría Crítica de Raza aplicada a la organización y representación del conocimiento, y más específicamente a los principales sistemas de clasificación bibliográficos utilizados en Brasil. Para ello, se identifican las clasificaciones bibliográficas como instituciones; y se esbozan los principales puntos de un proyecto de reemplazo de instancias de racismo por alternativas antirracistas

Supergravity for Effective Theories

Higher-derivative operators are central elements of any effective field theory. In supersymmetric theories, these operators include terms with derivatives in the K\"ahler potential. We develop a toolkit for coupling such supersymmetric effective field theories to supergravity. We explain how to write the action for minimal supergravity coupled to chiral superfields with arbitrary numbers of derivatives and curvature couplings. We discuss two examples in detail, showing how the component actions agree with the expectations from the linearized description in terms of a Ferrara-Zumino multiplet. In a companion paper, we apply the formalism to the effective theory of inflation.Comment: 26 page

CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO CONSUMO DE LEITE NO MUNICÍPIO DE PALMEIRA DAS MISSÕES – RS

Um dos principais produtos agropecuários no Brasil e no mundo, o leite tem importante papelnão só economicamente, mas também como um dos alimentos mais completos e fundamentais na alimentação humana. No Brasil, seu consumoainda está abaixo dos países desenvolvidos e das recomendações do Ministério da Saúde. Tendo em vista a tendência de crescimento do consumo em países emergentes, impulsionados pelo aumento da população, da renda familiar, pornovos hábitos alimentares e pela maior oferta deprodutos lácteos, descobrir o perfil do consumidor torna-se de extrema importância, pois se podem traçar ações que colaborem para o desenvolvimento da produção e do consumo de leite. Dessa forma este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar o perfil e as preferências do consumidor de leite,em Palmeira das Missões, avaliando qual é a percepção dos consumidores sobre os diferentes atributos do leite. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa com 427 questionários aplicados, nos quais foram avaliados os seguintes aspectos: caracterização do perfil do entrevistado; variáveis que interferem na hora da compra; hábitos de consumo e preferência em alimentos que substituem o leite; elasticidade da compra em relação à renda e aopreço do produto; e comportamento ante a oferta de um produto diferenciado no mercado. Os principaisresultados do trabalho indicaram que, dentre os entrevistados, 85% consomem leite, sendo que 36,1% preferem consumi-lo com a adição de café. Quanto ao produto que melhor substitui o leite, 36,8% dos respondentes destacaram o iogurte. Em relação aos fatores que podem orientar a compra, destacam-se a embalagem longa vida, otipo de leite integral e a qualidade como principais fatores determinantes. Já com relação à quantidadeideal para embalagem, destaca-se a preferência para o tradicional 1 litro, embora também seja evidenciadaa demanda por uma embalagem menor