A Watershed Scale Evaluation of Selected Second Generation Biofeedstocks on Water Quality

This study compares a novel simulation approach to the conventional Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeler\u27s approach for targeting biofuel crop production on marginal lands. In conventional SWAT modeling approach, non-spatial definition of hydrological response units (HRUs) results in the simulation of biofuel crops on both marginal and non-marginal land. This study provides an alternative approach in which a marginal-land raster was integrated into the land use and land cover (LULC) raster in such a way that the land uses were divided into marginal and non-marginal components. This modified LULC was used for model setup which resulted in marginal and non-marginal HRUs. This approach was evaluated for the L\u27Anguille River watershed (LRW) by calibrating and validating for total flow, surface flow, base flow, sediment, total phosphorus, and nitrate-nitrogen followed by the simulation of biofuel crops only on marginal HRUs. The results were analyzed for two cellulosic (second generation) biofuel crops: switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) and miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus). Compared to novel modeling approach, simulations using the conventional approach showed an increase in sediments by 20% and 61%, total phosphorus by 17% and 53%, and total nitrogen by 25% and 65% for the switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. Compared to simulated pollutant losses from a mix of baseline row crops, switchgrass and miscanthus showed 94% and 78% decrease in sediment, 96% and 90% decrease in total phosphorus, and 80% and 67% decrease in total nitrogen, respectively. This study provided a novel approach to incorporate marginal land into the SWAT model and the model outputs suggest that producing perennial grass biofuel crops on marginal lands of the LRW resulted in lower sediment, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen losses than that obtained by conventional SWAT modeling. Pollutant losses from the non-targeted marginal HRUs explained the differences in the sediment, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen losses. The simulation results also suggested that substantial reduction in pollutant losses could be achieved by replacing baseline row crops with perennial grass crops on marginal lands in the LRW

A Hybrid Artificial Reputation Model

Agent interaction in a community such as an online buyer-seller scenario is often risky and uncertain. An agent interacts with other agents where initially they know nothing about each other. Currently many reputation models are developed that help consumers select more reputable and reliable service providers. Reputation models also help agents to make a decision on who they should trust and transact with in the future. These reputation models are either built on interaction trust that involves direct experience as a source of information, or they are built upon witness information, also known as word-of-mouth, that involves the reports provided by others. Neither the interaction trust nor the witness information models alone fully succeed in such uncertain interactions. This thesis research introduces the hybrid reputation model combining both interaction trust and witness information to address the shortcomings of existing reputation models when taken separately. Experiments reveal that the hybrid approach leads to better selection of trustworthy agents where consumers select more reputed service providers, eventually lead to more gains by the consumer. Furthermore, the trust model developed is used in calculating trust values of service providers for the case study with a live website ecommerce

Studies towards the synthesis of the core structure of sarains A, B, and C

Sarains A-C are marine alkaloids produced by the sponge Reniera sarai, which exhibit antitumor, antibacterial, and insecticidal activities. Sarains A-C have a complex structure, which comprises of a 1,5-diazatetracyclo[6.2.1.1³,⁹.0⁴,¹¹]dodecane tricyclic core surrounded by two macrocycles. To date four groups have communicated the construction of the tricyclic core, however the total synthesis of sarains A-C has yet to be reported. This thesis describes the work undertaken towards the synthesis of a tricycle that contains the core structure of sarains A-C, by the use of a novel carbene mediated ylide rearrangement reaction. The initial objective was to construct the precursor for this rearrangement, a cis-fused octahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]pyrrole ring system bearing an endo acetic acid substituent in the three position. A number of strategies towards the construction of the desired octahydropyrrolo[2,3-b)]pyrrole ring system were investigated, these included: The electrophilic azidation of a cis-fused hexahydro-isoindole. The cyclisation of α-amino-(β-iodopyrrolidines). The formation of cyclic amidines. The Diels-Alder reaction between 2-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)buta-1,3-diene and an N-protected-pyrrolin-2-one dienophile. However, these approaches were unsuccessful. Following this, two closely related strategies were pursued, which gave promising results. A non-stereoselective strategy to the bicyclic system by the ring opening of butadiene monoxide with a lactam enolate was investigated. A cis-fused octahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]pyrrole ring system was formed using a model system based on an azido-lactam synthesised in this strategy. Finally, the use of a [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement provided a stereoselective method for construction of the required octahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]pyrrole ring system

Setting Up a Computer Simulation Model in an Arkansas Watershed for the MRBI Program

The Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI) program launched by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) aims to improve the water quality within the Mississippi River Basin. Lake Conway Point Remove (LCPR) watershed, being one of the MRBI watersheds, is a potential candidate for evaluating the effectiveness of MRBI program. Recommended best management practices (BMPs) for LCPR watershed are pond, wetland, pond and wetland, cover crops, vegetative filter strips, grassed waterways, and forage and biomass planting. Before simulating these practices, it is essential to prepare the data needed for model setup to avoid the issue of garbage in, garbage out. This chapter focuses on detailed steps of preparing the data for model setup along with the calibration and validation of the model. The calibration and validation results were within the acceptable bounds. The results from this study provide the data to help simulate the MRBI best management practices effectively and prioritize monitoring needs for collecting watershed response data in LCPR

Development of Solid Colour Shade Detection and Matching Machine

The color shade of dyed fabric or printed fabric color defect plays a major role in determining the quality of fabric color. Hence there is a need for inspection of color shade for its quality. Conventionally inspection for quality of color and defect in color shade is carried out either manually in mainstream of industries or by using color matching cabinet technique. In this paper, the focus is on the inspection of the variations in color strength and color shade of single uniform color using various LAB space models on computer generated image samples without any manual help for clarification. RGB colors sensor process is used various fields for analyzing different applications such as medical sciences, biological sciences. Various color sensor image types have been used to detect shade variation. This work is analyzed and compared two types of color sensor original frequency RGB and current frequency RGB color space, RGB color sensor and the comparative result is given. Methods/Statistical Analysis: We examined and analyzed the RGB original value and RGB detected current value sensor with color space using techniques such as pre-processing, segmentation, clustering for detecting shade of color, Results/Finding: In detecting the solid color, color becomes an important feature to identify the shade variation color and matching. We have considered RGB color sensor and used for garment enhancement and segmentation for extraction of the variation garment sample which are used to identify the shade mismatch level. Conclusion: RGB color sensor has given better clarity and RGB detection value which is suitable for fabric shade detection than computer color matching and color match cabinet