CACHED MULTI-BOUNCE SOLUTION AND RECONSTRUCTION FOR VOXEL-BASED GLOBAL ILLUMINATION

International audienceWe address the main shortcomings of the voxel-based multi-bounce global illumination method of Chatelier and Malgouyres (2006), by introducing an iterated cached method which allows increasing sampling coarse-ness at each bounce for improved efficiency, and by introducing a ray-tracing based reconstruction process for a better final image quality. The result is a competitive accurate multi-bounce global illumination method with octree voxel-based irradiance caching

How Humoral Response and Side Effects Depend on the Type of Vaccine and Past SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Since the end of December 2020, it has been possible to vaccinate against COVID-19. Our aim was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of the vaccines available at the time of the mass vaccination program in Poland and also to look into the most common adverse side effects. Patients’ anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies levels were checked before vaccination and after the first and after the second/last dose by the anti-SARS-CoV-2 QuantiVac ELISA (IgG) (EUROIMMUN MedicinischeLabordiagnostica AG; Luebeck; Germany) test. Before each blood collection, all patients filled out a questionnaire regarding experienced side effects. We observed that 100% of patients responded to the vaccinations. After the first dose, convalescents had much higher levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies than naive patients, although after the second dose, 61 out of 162 convalescents (37.7%) had lower results than before. The comparison of immunological responses in the convalescents group after the first dose and in the naive group after the second dose showed that convalescents had higher antibody titers, which may suggest the possibility of changing the vaccination schedule for convalescents. The highest antibody titers after both the first and second doses were observed after Moderna shots. Fever was identified as a significant factor regarding higher levels of antibodies after the first and second doses of the vaccine

Torrefaction of oat straw to use as solid biofuel, an additive to organic fertilizers for agriculture purposes and activated carbon – TGA analysis, kinetics

In this paper authors present research results which are the optimum parameters of the torrefaction process using straw from oats and maize. The most important parameters for the torrefaction process are temperature and residence time. Both parameters are essential to designing and construction of industrial biomass torrefaction installations. Energy crops and waste coming from agricultural production have the most promising perspective from all kind of renewable energy sources in Poland. Currently, intensive studies on the process of biomass torrefaction are being carried out. In this experimental investigation, authors examined the torrefaction process of two types of agriculture biomass, such as: oats, maize. The main overarching objective of the experimental studies described below is the development of various biochar as an additive to agricultural fertilizers resulting from the conversion of biomass from agriculture residues – straw from oats and maize. The last of enumerated biomasses is treated through different conversion processes such as: drying, torrefaction to homogenize their physical and chemical properties. Among many of its areas, it is extremely important to optimize the production of biomass energy plants and its refinement (in the torrefaction process), which will improve the balance and profitability of energy production from RES, and reduce the logistics and storage costs of this fuel and improve the efficiency of biomass combustion process. When implementing new technologies indicated in this work and optimizing the harvesting of plant biomass, the negative impact on the environment caused by stored municipal waste can be reduced. This biomass torrefaction process temperature and residence time were necessary for the design and construction of semi-pilot scale biomass torrefaction installations with dryer and torrefaction reactor to perform a continuous biomass torrefaction process using superheated stea