Greenport greenhouse as a source of inspiration

The Greenport greenhouse in Venlo is a benchmark in greenhouse cultivation. Tomato grower, Joep Raemakers, achieves 10 percent higher productivity and a savings of 35 percent in energy costs with this semi-closed greenhouse. The nearby Health Centre, and the Mytyl School can also rack up large energy savings by using the surplus heat from the Greenport greenhouse

‘Because of this network we really are involved in energy saving’

Talking in crop specific terms about tomatoes and trusses, for example, has become passé. Now it’s all about dry matter and stomatal apertures. This change was necessary because otherwise the growers in the greenhouse Innovation network Nieuwe Energie Systemen (INES) [New Energy Systems] in North Limburg could never have learned from each other. This is because the growers in this network are not organised into crop sectors anymore, but form a mixed group representing various crop sectors together. This is one of the conditions for fruitful sharing of experiences in cultivation using new energy systems. The approach works

The relevance of telehealth across the digital divided the transfer of knowledge over distance

This paper explores the concept of Relevance as an explanatory factor to the diffusion of ITuse, or, in this paper particularly, the use of Telehealth. Relevance is the net value of performance expectancy and effort expectancy and contains both micro-relevance (i.e. here-and-now) and macro-relevance (i.e. actual goals) Following the case-study approach, two Telehealth situations were studied in Rwanda and The Netherlands. In the comparison, two more existing studies in Canada and Tanzania were included. The conclusion is that Relevance is the explanatory factor, whereas particularly micro-relevance is crucial. Without the micro-relevant occasions that initiate use, there will be no use on longer term In the cases studied the micro-relevance of knowledge-transfer was crucial. Furthermore distance determined Telehealth relevance. Practical conclusions to cases were drawn

Possibilities for soilless cultivation in cut chrysanthemum: Effect of irrigation frequencies and spacing schedules

Three levels of irrigation frequencies, provided by root misting, combined with three plant densities and two spacing treatments were tested to evaluate the optimum conditions during the first crop stages of chrysanthemum in a soilless cultivation system (aeroponics) in an experiment conducted in autumn. The optimum misting frequency was 3¿2’ times ¿ min h-1. A higher frequency (12¿1’) had no additional effect, whereas the lowest frequency (1¿6’) had a negative effect on total shoot dry mass (TDMs). The highest plant densities (172 and 344 plants m-2) could be used until week 2 with hardly any negative effect on TDMs, and resulted in higher light interception and higher total shoot dry mass per m2. During the period between week 2 and 4 after planting, a higher density (172 compared to 86 plants m-2) had a strong negative impact on the TDMs, while a further increase to 344 plants m-2 had only a minor effect. When spacing (week 2) from 344 to 172 plants m-2, TDMs at week 4 was not negatively affected by the high starting density, though spacing from 172 to 86 plants m-2 resulted in a 13% reduced TDMs, as compared to plants grown at 86 plants m-2 continuously. It is concluded that the irrigation frequency until week 4 after planting under these light conditions, should be three times per hour. Furthermore, very high plant densities (e.g., 344 plants m-2) are feasible until week 2 with hardly any negative effects on plant growth, while spacing schemes give several possibilities for a smaller reduction of the TDMs, than that expected by the higher initial densities

Friction of Teflon-S-coated Ti-6Al-4V under conditions of oscillatory relative motion

An extendable prosthesis for implantation in a human leg has been developed. The friction forces during extension of the prosthesis must be low, so a coating of Teflon-S was applied to the sliding surfaces. During walking, damage can occur as a result of oscillatory relative motion. Therefore experiments were performed with an apparatus which simulated this type of motion. It was found that the coefficient of friction reached a maximum value within one million movement cycles. This maximum value of the coefficient of friction increased with decreasing coating thickness. Even at an initial coating thickness of less than 1 μm, coating with Teflon-S was found to be very effective in reducing friction

Interpolation between multi-dimensional histograms using a new non-linear moment morphing method

A prescription is presented for the interpolation between multi-dimensional distribution templates based on one or multiple model parameters. The technique uses a linear combination of templates, each created using fixed values of the model's parameters and transformed according to a specific procedure, to model a non-linear dependency on model parameters and the dependency between them. By construction the technique scales well with the number of input templates used, which is a useful feature in modern day particle physics, where a large number of templates is often required to model the impact of systematic uncertainties.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures. Algorithm publicly available in RooFi