Occurrence and transport of salinity and selenium in a tile-drained irrigated agricultural system

2017 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document

Private car transport and the 10% RES-T target - quantifying the contribution of EVs and biofuels

In 2008, renewable energy accounted for less than 1% of final energy consumption in the Irish transport sector. In order to increase this share to 10% by 2020 as required under EU directive 2009/28/EC, the Irish government has introduced two specific measures: 10% of the transport fleet is to be powered by electricity by 2020, and an obligation on road transport fuel suppliers that biofuels account for a certain portion of their fuel sales. This study forecasts the impact of these existing measures towards meeting the 10% RES-T target by 2020, focussing on private car transport. The methodology presented is derived from a forecast of private car fuel demand based on a technological stock model of Ireland’s fleet. This paper demonstrates the use of this as a tool firstly as an energy forecasting technique and secondly as a method for evaluating the effects of policy measures on the technological composition and consequent renewable energy demand and related CO2emissions of private cars. Technological scenarios examined in this light are electric vehicles, compressed natural gas vehicles and biofuel blendin

Some novel applications of instrumental analytical techniques to the brewing industry

Modem instrumental analytical techniques play an important role in the brewing industry today. They are extensively used for both a quality control/quality assurance function and for research purposes. At all stages of the production process, from the assessment of raw materials, through the brewing process, fermentation, maturation, blending of finished beer, packaging and shelf life studies instrumental analytical techniques provide critical data which allow the brewer to understand and keep his process in control Research is ongoing to develop new, more efficient, more sensitive and more selective analytical techniques to achieve a greater understanding of the processes described above and to provide better quality beer at low cost. This thesis describes some such analytical methods which were developed as a result of specific practical needs which arose during normal brewing practice over a number of years Roasted barley is a most significant ingredient of Guinness Brewing Worldwide stout products. A novel analytical method is presented for the analysis of the volatile flavour constituents of roasted barley which is rapid and requires little sample preparation. Secondary coolants are widely used in brewery production plants. A sensitive method was developed for the detection of possible coolant contamination in beer. The method was based on the addition of a fluorescent dye to the coolant in so that in the event of leakage into beer this contamination could be detected by a simple fluorescence measurement of beer. The development of a gas chromatographic method for the analysis of propylene glycol in beer is presented Propylene glycol is a major constituent of the secondary coolant used at the Guinness Ireland Group, Dublin site It is also naturally present in beer. Two analytical methods are described for the analysis for styrene in beers Styrene is present due to the ability of some yeast strains to decarboxylate phenolic acids present in wort Such yeasts are classified as Pof“ yeasts 1 e produce phenolicoff- flavour Methods are described for the classification of phenollc-off-flavour (Pof1) producing yeast strains Formation of styrene during a fermentation was investigated. Studies into the kinetics of styrene production were also carried out

Web-based sensor streaming wearable for respiratory monitoring applications.

This paper presents a system for remote monitoring of respiration of individuals that can detect respiration rate, mode of breathing and identify coughing events. It comprises a series of polymer fabric-sensors incorporated into a sports vest, a wearable data acquisition platform and a novel rich internet application (RIA) which together enable remote real-time monitoring of untethered wearable systems for respiratory rehabilitation. This system will, for the first time, allow therapists to monitor and guide the respiratory efforts of patients in real-time through a web browser. Changes in abdomen expansion and contraction associated with respiration are detected by the fabric sensors and transmitted wirelessly via a Bluetooth-based solution to a standard computer. The respiratory signals are visualized locally through the RIA and subsequently published to a sensor streaming cloud-based server. A web-based signal streaming protocol makes the signals available as real-time streams to authorized subscribers over standard browsers. We demonstrate real-time streaming of a six-sensor shirt rendered remotely at 40 samples/s per sensor with perceptually acceptable latency (<0.5s) over realistic network conditions

Water rights transfers and community irrigation in New Mexico's acequias

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-60).Small farmers across New Mexico irrigate with acequias, a system of cooperative, gravity-fed ditches introduced in Spanish colonial times that remains well adapted to managing scarce water in a dry climate. While the acequia system has proven to be a self-sustaining means of managing common pool resources, it exists in tension with dominant legal doctrines that treat water as subject to tradable property rights. In recent decades, the growth of the state's urban areas has increased pressure on farmers to sell their water rights to urban developers. But because acequias are a cooperative system, transfers of their water rights threaten their ability to flexibly provide water for irrigation. Since 2003, state law has allowed acequias to rule on applications to transfer water out of the acequia and also to create "water banks" that protect individual water rights from loss to findings of non-use. To do so, however, an acequia must adopt changes to its bylaws and follow new procedures that can be complicated and unfamiliar. In the face of increasing pressure on rural water users to sell their rights and the varying governance practices of acequias, this thesis asks: how have New Mexico's laws equipped acequias to persist despite growing demand for their water rights? And to what extent are acequias taking the necessary steps to take advantage of their legal rights? I find that, when properly implemented, the powers granted by current law effectively empower acequias to resist the pressure of water markets, but that further efforts are needed to increase implementation of the measures. Through outreach, education, and the spread of innovative practices, acequias and their advocates can realize a powerful opportunity to restore community autonomy over water allocation.by Brian T. Daly.M.C.P

Explaining Knock-on Effects of Bias Mitigation

In machine learning systems, bias mitigation approaches aim to make outcomes fairer across privileged and unprivileged groups. Bias mitigation methods work in different ways and have known "waterfall" effects, e.g., mitigating bias at one place may manifest bias elsewhere. In this paper, we aim to characterise impacted cohorts when mitigation interventions are applied. To do so, we treat intervention effects as a classification task and learn an explainable meta-classifier to identify cohorts that have altered outcomes. We examine a range of bias mitigation strategies that work at various stages of the model life cycle. We empirically demonstrate that our meta-classifier is able to uncover impacted cohorts. Further, we show that all tested mitigation strategies negatively impact a non-trivial fraction of cases, i.e., people who receive unfavourable outcomes solely on account of mitigation efforts. This is despite improvement in fairness metrics. We use these results as a basis to argue for more careful audits of static mitigation interventions that go beyond aggregate metrics.Comment: This paper was accepted at NeurIPS 2023 worksho

Responses of Mn\u3csup\u3e2+\u3c/sup\u3e Speciation in \u3cem\u3eDeinococcus radiodurans\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e to γ-Radiation by Advanced Paramagnetic Resonance Methods

The remarkable ability of bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans to survive extreme doses of γ-rays (12,000 Gy), 20 times greater than Escherichia coli, is undiminished by loss of Mn-dependent superoxide dismutase (SodA). D. radiodurans radiation resistance is attributed to the accumulation of low-molecular-weight (LMW) “antioxidant” Mn2+–metabolite complexes that protect essential enzymes from oxidative damage. However, in vivo information about such complexes within D. radiodurans cells is lacking, and the idea that they can supplant reactive-oxygen-species (ROS)–scavenging enzymes remains controversial. In this report, measurements by advanced paramagnetic resonance techniques [electron-spin-echo (ESE)-EPR/electron nuclear double resonance/ESE envelope modulation (ESEEM)] reveal differential details of the in vivo Mn2+ speciation in D. radiodurans and E. coli cells and their responses to 10 kGy γ-irradiation. The Mn2+ of D. radiodurans exists predominantly as LMW complexes with nitrogenous metabolites and orthophosphate, with negligible EPR signal from Mn2+ of SodA. Thus, the extreme radiation resistance of D. radiodurans cells cannot be attributed to SodA. Correspondingly, 10 kGy irradiation causes no change in D. radiodurans Mn2+ speciation, despite the paucity of holo-SodA. In contrast, the EPR signal of E. coli is dominated by signals from low-symmetry enzyme sites such as that of SodA, with a minority pool of LMW Mn2+ complexes that show negligible coordination by nitrogenous metabolites. Nonetheless, irradiation of E. coli majorly changes LMW Mn2+ speciation, with extensive binding of nitrogenous ligands created by irradiation. We infer that E. coli is highly susceptible to radiation-induced ROS because it lacks an adequate supply of LMW Mn antioxidants

Inter-individual variation in nucleotide excision repair in young adults: effects of age, adiposity, micronutrient supplementation and genotype

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is responsible for repairing bulky helix-distorting DNA lesions and is essential for the maintenance of genomic integrity. Severe hereditary impairment of NER leads to cancers such as those in xeroderma pigmentosum, and more moderate reductions in NER capacity have been associated with an increased cancer risk. Diet is a proven modifier of cancer risk but few studies have investigated the potential relationships between diet and NER. In the present study, the plasmid-based host cell reactivation assay was used to measure the NER capacity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from fifty-seven volunteers aged 18–30 years before and after 6 weeks of supplementation with micronutrients (selenium and vitamins A, C and E). As a control, nine individuals remained unsupplemented over the same period. Volunteers were genotyped for the following polymorphisms in NER genes: ERCC5 Asp1104His (rs17655); XPC Lys939Gln (rs2228001); ERCC2 Lys751Gnl (rs13181); XPC PAT (an 83 bp poly A/T insertion–deletion polymorphism in the XPC gene). NER capacity varied 11-fold between individuals and was inversely associated with age and endogenous DNA strand breaks. For the first time, we observed an inverse association between adiposity and NER. No single polymorphism was associated with the NER capacity, although significant gene–gene interactions were observed between XPC Lys939Gln and ERCC5 Asp1104His and XPC Lys939Gln and ERCC2 Lys751Gnl. While there was no detectable effect of micronutrient supplementation on NER capacity, there was evidence that the effect of fruit intake on the NER capacity may be modulated by the ERCC2 Lys751Gnl single nucleotide polymorphism