Abstract: An outstanding part of the animal products are based on the grasslands, due to the fact that the grassland ecosystems can be found all over the globe. In places where economical and successful crop production cannot be managed, the grassland based animal husbandry can be an efficient way of food production. In addition, these ecosystems have an important role in carbon sequestration, and with their rich flora – and fauna connected to it – in conservation of biodiversity. The protection of nature, and the sustainable agriculture is getting more and more attention in the European Union, but, looking at the consumers’ needs, the production of healthy food cannot be neglected either. Because of these facts, the effects of two specific composts - which are officially authorized in organic farming, in Agri-environment Schemes and Natura 2000 programs – on grass yields and sward compositions were investigated in a field trial. The investigation took place in Hungary, on a natural grassland based on solonetz soil. Three rates of compost (10 t/ha, 20 t/ha, 30 t/ha) were tested on 3 m X 10 m experimental plots. Every treatment had four replications and both type of compost had four-four control plots too, this way 32 experimental plots were included in the investigations. The yield of the pasture was harvested two-times (in May and in September) and before cutting the plots, measurements on botanical compositions were made. Samples for laboratory analysis were also taken. Dry matter yield of pasture showed positive responses to the rates of composts. The increase in dry matter yield was partly due to some positive changes in sward composition. It means that the proportions of grass species with higher yield potential increased in ground cover of the sward without depressing out valuable native species of diverse natural grasslands. The research results indicate that the use of organic compost can be an efficient way to increase grass yields in a sustainable way.
Abstract: Environmental contamination is a major problem being faced by the society today. Industrial, agricultural, and domestic wastes, due to the rapid development in the technology, are discharged in the several receivers. Generally, this discharge is directed to the nearest water sources such as rivers, lakes, and seas. While the rates of development and waste production are not likely to diminish, efforts to control and dispose of wastes are appropriately rising. Wastewaters from textile industries represent a serious problem all over the world. They contain different types of synthetic dyes which are known to be a major source of environmental pollution in terms of both the volume of dye discharged and the effluent composition. From an environmental point of view, the removal of synthetic dyes is of great concern. Among several chemical and physical methods, adsorption is a promising technique due to the ease of use and low cost compared to other applications in the process of discoloration, especially if the adsorbent is inexpensive and readily available. The focus of the present study was to assess the potentiality of Brahea edulis (BE) for the removal of synthetic dye Yellow bemacid (YB) from aqueous solutions. The results obtained here may transfer to other dyes with a similar chemical structure. Biosorption studies were carried out under various parameters such as mass adsorbent particle, pH, contact time, initial dye concentration, and temperature. The biosorption kinetic data of the material (BE) was tested by the pseudo first-order and the pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Thermodynamic parameters including the Gibbs free energy ΔG, enthalpy ΔH, and entropy ΔS have revealed that the adsorption of YB on the BE is feasible, spontaneous, and endothermic. The equilibrium data were analyzed by using Langmuir, Freundlich, Elovich, and Temkin isotherm models. The experimental results show that the percentage of biosorption increases with an increase in the biosorbent mass (0.25 g: 12 mg/g; 1.5 g: 47.44 mg/g). The maximum biosorption occurred at around pH value of 2 for the YB. The equilibrium uptake was increased with an increase in the initial dye concentration in solution (Co = 120 mg/l; q = 35.97 mg/g). Biosorption kinetic data were properly fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The best fit was obtained by the Langmuir model with high correlation coefficient (R2 > 0.998) and a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 35.97 mg/g for YB.
Abstract: Recently, fluidized bed gasification becomes an attractive technology for power generation due to its higher efficiency. The main objective pursued in this work is to investigate the producer gas production potential from sized biomass (sawdust and pigeon pea) by applying the air gasification technique. The size of the biomass selected for the study was in the range of 0.40-0.84 mm. An experimental study was conducted using a fluidized bed gasifier with 210 mm diameter and 1600 mm height. During the experiments, the fuel properties and the effects of operating parameters such as gasification temperatures 700 to 900 °C, equivalence ratio 0.16 to 0.46 were studied. It was concluded that substantial amounts of producer gas (up to 1110 kcal/m3) could be produced utilizing biomass such as sawdust and pigeon pea by applying this fluidization technique. For both samples, the rise of temperature till 900 °C and equivalence ratio of 0.4 favored further gasification reactions and resulted into producer gas with calorific value 1110 kcal/m3.
Abstract: Waste polyethylene (PE) is classified as waste low
density polyethylene (LDPE) and waste high density polyethylene
(HDPE) according to their densities. Pyrolysis of plastic waste may
have an important role in dealing with the enormous amounts of
plastic waste produced all over the world, by decreasing their
negative impact on the environment. This waste may be converted
into economically valuable hydrocarbons, which can be used both as
fuels and as feed stock in the petrochemical industry. End product
yields and properties depend on the plastic waste composition.
Pyrolytic biochar is one of the most important products of waste
plastics pyrolysis. In this study, HDPE and LDPE plastic wastes were
co-pyrolyzed together with waste olive pomace. Pyrolysis runs were
performed at temperature 700°C with heating rates of 5°C/min.
Higher pyrolysis oil and gas yields were observed by the using waste
olive pomace. The biochar yields of HDPE- olive pomace and LDPEolive
pomace were 6.37% and 7.26% respectively for 50% olive
pomace doses. The calorific value of HDPE-olive pomace and
LDPE-olive pomace of pyrolysis oil were 8350 and 8495 kCal.
Abstract: Less availability of high quality green forages leads to low productivity of national dairy herd of Sri Lanka. Growing grass and fodder to suit the production system is an efficient and economical solution for this problem. CO-3 is placed in a higher category, especially on tillering capacity, green forage yield, regeneration capacity, leaf to stem ratio, high crude protein content, resistance to pests and diseases and free from adverse factors along with other fodder varieties grown within the country. An experiment was designed to determine the effect of organic sheep manure, inorganic fertilizers and liquid sheep manure on growth, yield and nutritive value of CO-3. The study was consisted with three treatments; sheep manure (T1), recommended inorganic fertilizers (T2) and liquid sheep manure (T3) which was prepared using bucket fermentation method and each treatment was consisted with three replicates and those were assigned randomly. First harvest was obtained after 40 days of plant establishment and number of leaves (NL), leaf area (LA), tillering capacity (TC), fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW) were recorded and second harvest was obtained after 30 days of first harvest and same set of data were recorded. SPSS 16 software was used for data analysis. For proximate analysis AOAC, 2000 standard methods were used. Results revealed that the plants treated with T1 recorded highest NL, LA, TC, FW and DW and were statistically significant at first and second harvest of CO-3 (p˂ 0.05) and it was found that T1 was statistically significant from T2 and T3. Although T3 was recorded higher than the T2 in almost all growth parameters; it was not statistically significant (p ˃0.05). In addition, the crude protein content was recorded highest in T1 with the value of 18.33±1.61 and was lowest in T2 with the value of 10.82±1.14 and was statistically significant (p˂ 0.05). Apart from this, other proximate composition crude fiber, crude fat, ash, moisture content and dry matter were not statistically significant between treatments (p ˃0.05). In accordance with the results, it was found that the organic fertilizer is the best fertilizer for CO-3 in terms of growth parameters and crude protein content.
Abstract: Experimental data of refractive index, excess molar volume and viscosity of binary mixture of morpholine with cumene over the whole composition range at 298.15 K, 303.15 K, 308.15 K and normal atmospheric pressure have been measured. The experimental data were used to compute the density, deviation in molar refraction, deviation in viscosity and excess Gibbs free energy of activation as a function of composition. The experimental viscosity data have been correlated with empirical equations like Grunberg- Nissan, Herric correlation and three body McAllister’s equation. The excess thermodynamic properties were fitted to Redlich-Kister polynomial equation. The variation of these properties with composition and temperature of the binary mixtures are discussed in terms of intermolecular interactions.
Abstract: An experiment was carried out for three consecutive years at Owo, southwest Nigeria. The objective of the investigation was to determine the effect of Cocoa Pod Ash (CPA) and Poultry Manure (PM) applied solely and their combined form, as sources of fertilizers on soil properties, leaf nutrient composition, growth and yield of cocoyam. Three soil amendments: CPA, PM (sole forms), CPA and PM (mixture), were applied at 7.5 t ha-1 with an inorganic fertilizer (NPK 15-15-15) at 400 kg ha-1 as a reference and a natural soil fertility, NSF (control), arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results showed that soil amendments significantly increased (p = 0.05) corm and cormel weights and growth of cocoyam, soil and leaf N, P, K, Ca and Mg, soil pH and organic carbon (OC) concentrations compared with the NSF (control). The mixture of CPA+PM treatment increased corm and cormel weights, plant height and leaf area of cocoyam by 40, 39, 42, and 48%, respectively, compared with inorganic fertilizer (NPK) and 13, 12, 15 and 7%, respectively, compared with PM alone. Sole or mixed forms of soil amendments showed remarkable improvement in soil physical properties compared with NPK and the NSF (control). The mixture of CPA+PM applied at 7.5 t ha-1 was the most effective treatment in improving cocoyam yield and growth parameters, soil and leaf nutrient composition.
Abstract: Transient simulation of the hydrogen-assisted self-ignition of propane-air mixtures were carried out in platinum-coated micro-channels from ambient cold-start conditions, using a two-dimensional model with reduced-order reaction schemes, heat conduction in the solid walls, convection and surface radiation heat transfer. The self-ignition behavior of hydrogen-propane mixed fuel is analyzed and compared with the heated feed case. Simulations indicate that hydrogen can successfully cause self-ignition of propane-air mixtures in catalytic micro-channels with a 0.2 mm gap size, eliminating the need for startup devices. The minimum hydrogen composition for propane self-ignition is found to be in the range of 0.8-2.8% (on a molar basis), and increases with increasing wall thermal conductivity, and decreasing inlet velocity or propane composition. Higher propane-air ratio results in earlier ignition. The ignition characteristics of hydrogen-assisted propane qualitatively resemble the selectively inlet feed preheating mode. Transient response of the mixed hydrogen- propane fuel reveals sequential ignition of propane followed by hydrogen. Front-end propane ignition is observed in all cases. Low wall thermal conductivities cause earlier ignition of the mixed hydrogen-propane fuel, subsequently resulting in low exit temperatures. The transient-state behavior of this micro-scale system is described, and the startup time and minimization of hydrogen usage are discussed.
Abstract: This study was conducted for the investigation of
number of cellulolytic bacteria and their ability in decomposition.
Seven samples surface soil were collected on cellulose Zailiskii
Alatau slopes. Cellulolitic activity of new strains of Bacillus, isolated
from soil is determined. Isolated cellulose degrading bacteria were
screened for determination of the highest cellulose activity by
quantitative assay using Congo red, gravimetric assay and
colorimetric DNS method trough of the determination of the
parameters of sugar reduction. Strains are assigned to: B.subtilis,
B.licheniformis, B. cereus and, В. megaterium. Bacillus strains
consisting of several different types of cellulases have broad substrate
specificity of cellulase complexes formed by them. Cellulolitic
bacteria were recorded to have highest cellulase activity and selected
for optimization of cellulase enzyme production.
Abstract: Not all proteins have the same nutritional value, since
protein quality strongly depends on its amino acid composition and
digestibility. The meat of game animals could be a high protein
source because of its well-balanced essential amino acids
composition. Investigations about biochemical composition of game
meat such as wild boar (Sus scrofa scrofa), roe deer (Capreolus
capreolus) and beaver (Castor fiber) are not very much. Therefore,
the aim of the investigation was evaluate protein composition of
game meat hunted in Latvia. The biochemical analysis, evaluation of
connective tissue and essential amino acids in meat samples were
done, the amino acids score were calculate. Results of analysis
showed that protein content 20.88-22.05% of all types of meat
samples is not different statistically. The content of connective tissue
from 1.3% in roe deer till 1.5% in beaver meat allowed classified
game animal as high quality meat. The sum of essential amino acids
in game meat samples were determined 7.05–8.26g100g-1. Roe deer
meat has highest protein content and lowest content of connective
tissues among game meat hunted in Latvia. Concluded that amino
acid score for limiting amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine is high
and shows high biological value of game meat.
Abstract: In this study, total fatty acid composition of muscle
lipids of Cyprinus carpio L. living in Suğla Dam Lake, Altinapa Dam
Lake, Eğirdir Lake and Burdur Lake were determined using GC.
During this study, for the summer season of July was taken from each
region of the land and they were stored in deep-freeze set to -20
degrees until the analysis date. At the end of the analyses, 30
different fatty acids were found in the composition of Cyprinus
carpio L. which lives in different lakes. Cyprinus carpio Suğla Dam
Lake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), were higher than other
lakes. Cyprinus carpio L. was the highest in the major SFA palmitic
acid. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of carp, the most abundant
fish species in all lakes, were found to be higher than those of
saturated fatty acids (SFA) in all lakes. Palmitic acid was the major
SFA in all lakes. Oleic acid was identified as the major MUFA.
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was the most abundant in all lakes. ω3
fatty acid composition was higher than the percentage of the
percentage ω6 fatty acids in all lake. ω3/ω6 rates of Cyprinus carpio
L. Suğla Dam Lake, Altinapa Dam Lake, Eğirdir Lake and Burdur
Lake, 2.12, 1.19, 2.15, 2.87, and 2.82, respectively. Docosahexaenoic
acid (DHA) was the major PUFA in Eğirdir and Burdur lakes,
whereas linoleic acid (LA) was the major PUFA in Altinapa and
Suğla Dam Lakes. It was shown that the fatty acid composition in the
muscle of carp was significantly influenced by different lakes.
Abstract: Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) has been
introduced and globally gained increasing attention on its usefulness.
Continuous application of EMS may lead to the increment of muscle
mass and indirectly will increase the strength. This study can be used
as an alternative to help people especially those living a sedentary
lifestyle to improve their muscle activity without having to go
through a heavy workout session. Therefore, this study intended to
investigate the effectiveness of EMS training program in 5 weeks
interventions towards male body composition. It was a quasiexperimental
design, held at the Impulse Studio Bangsar, which
examined the effects of EMS training towards skeletal muscle mass
among the subjects. Fifteen subjects (n = 15) were selected to assist
in this study. The demographic data showed that, the average age of
the subjects was 43.07 years old ± 9.90, height (173.4 cm ± 9.09) and
weight was (85.79 kg ± 18.07). Results showed that there was a
significant difference on the skeletal muscle mass (p = 0.01 < 0.05),
upper body (p = 0.01 < 0.05) and lower body (p = 0.00 < 0.05).
Therefore, the null hypothesis has been rejected in this study. As a
conclusion, the application of EMS towards body composition can
increase the muscle size and strength. This method has been proven
to be able to improve athlete strength and thus, may be implemented
in the sports science area of knowledge.
Abstract: This paper describes a subarray based low
computational design method of multiuser massive multiple
input multiple output (MIMO) system. In our previous works, use of
large array is assumed only in transmitter, but this study considers
the case both of transmitter and receiver sides are equipped with
large array antennas. For this aim, receive arrays are also divided
into several subarrays, and the former proposed method is modified
for the synthesis of a large array from subarrays in both ends.
Through computer simulations, it is verified that the performance
of the proposed method is degraded compared with the original
approach, but it can achieve the improvement in the aspect of
complexity, namely, significant reduction of the computational load
to the practical level.
Abstract: The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species
namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria
robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia
africana were studied. Properties studied included species density,
gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash content, organic carbon and
elemental composition. Fuel properties were determined using
standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the gross
calorific value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22
MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the
GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass
materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane.
The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%,
and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the
properties of the six biomass materials suggested that Piptadenia
africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and
Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a
holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before
selecting it for fuel purpose.
Abstract: This study integrates a larger research empirical
project that examines second language (SL) learners’ profiles and
valid procedures to perform complete and diagnostic assessment in
schools. 102 learners of Portuguese as a SL aged 7 and 17 years
speakers of distinct home languages were assessed in several
linguistic tasks. In this article, we focused on writing performance in
the specific task of narrative essay composition. The written outputs
were measured using the score in six components adapted from an
English SL assessment context (Alberta Education): linguistic
vocabulary, grammar, syntax, strategy, socio-linguistic, and
discourse. The writing processes and strategies in Portuguese
language used by different immigrant students were analysed to
determine features and diversity of deficits on authentic texts
performed by SL writers. Differentiated performance was based on
the diversity of the following variables: grades, previous schooling,
home language, instruction in first language, and exposure to
Portuguese as Second Language. Indo-Aryan languages speakers
showed low writing scores compared to their peers and the type of
language and respective cognitive mapping (such as Mandarin and
Arabic) was the predictor, not linguistic distance. Home language
instruction should also be prominently considered in further research
to understand specificities of cognitive academic profile in a
Romance languages learning context. Additionally, this study also
examined the teachers’ representations that will be here addressed to
understand educational implications of second language teaching in
psychological distress of different minorities in schools of specific
host countries.
Abstract: Industries produce millions of cubic meters of effluent
every year and the wastewater produced may be released into the
surrounding water bodies, treated on-site or at municipal treatment
plants. The determination of organic matter in the wastewater
generated is very important to avoid any negative effect on the
aquatic ecosystem. The scope of the present work is to assess the
physicochemical composition of the wastewater produced from one
of the brewery industry in South Africa. This is to estimate the
environmental impact of its discharge into the receiving water bodies
or the municipal treatment plant. The parameters monitored for the
quantitative analysis of brewery wastewater include biological
oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total
suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, ammonia, total oxidized
nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, phosphorus and alkalinity content. In
average, the COD concentration of the brewery effluent was 5340.97
mg/l with average pH values of 4.0 to 6.7. The BOD5 and the solids
content of the wastewater from the brewery industry were high. This
means that the effluent is very rich in organic content and its
discharge into the water bodies or the municipal treatment plant could
cause environmental pollution or damage the treatment plant. In
addition, there were variations in the wastewater composition
throughout the monitoring period. This might be as a result of
different activities that take place during the production process, as
well as the effects of peak period of beer production on the water
usage.
Abstract: It is the worldwide problem that the recycled PVB is
not recycled and it is wildly stored in landfills. However, PVB has
similar chemical properties such as PVC. Moreover, both of these
polymers are plasticized. Therefore, the study of thermal properties
of plasticized PVC and the recycled PVB obtained by recycling of
windshields is carried out. This work has done in order to find nondegradable
processing conditions applicable for both polymers.
Tested PVC contained 38% of plasticizer diisononyl phthalate
(DINP) and PVB was plasticized with 28% of triethylene glycol,
bis(2-ethylhexanoate) (3GO). The thermal and thermo-oxidative
decomposition of both vinyl polymers are compared by calorimetric
analysis and by tensile strength analysis.
Abstract: It is well known that in recent years magnetic
materials have received increased attention due to their properties.
For this reason a significant number of patents that were published
during the last decade are oriented towards synthesis and study of
such materials. The aim of this work is to create and study ferrite
nanocrystalline materials with spinel structure, using sol-gel
technology with participation of auto-combustion. This method is
perspective in that it is a cheap and low-temperature technique that
allows for the fine control on the product’s chemical composition.
Abstract: Co metal supported on SiO2 and Al2O3 catalysts with
a metal loading varied from 30 of 70 wt.% were evaluated for
decomposition of methane to COx free hydrogen and carbon
nanomaterials. The catalytic runs were carried out from 550-800oC
under atmospheric pressure using fixed bed vertical flow reactor. The
fresh and spent catalysts were characterized by BET surface area
analyzer, XRD, SEM, TEM and TG analysis. The data showed that
50% Co/Al2O3 catalyst exhibited remarkable higher activity at 800oC
with respect to H2 production compared to rest of the catalysts.
However, the catalytic activity and durability was greatly declined at
higher temperature. The main reason for the catalytic inhibition of Co
containing SiO2 catalysts is the higher reduction temperature of
Co2SiO4. TEM images illustrate that the carbon materials with
various morphologies, carbon nanofibers (CNFs), helical-shaped
CNFs and branched CNFs depending on the catalyst composition and
reaction temperature were obtained.
Abstract: The composite pavement system considered in this
paper is composed of a functional surface layer, a fiber reinforced
asphalt middle layer and a fiber reinforced lean concrete base layer.
The mix design of the fiber reinforced lean concrete corresponds to the
mix composition of conventional lean concrete but reinforced by
fibers. The quasi-absence of research on the durability or long-term
performances (fatigue, creep, etc.) of such mix design stresses the
necessity to evaluate experimentally the long-term characteristics of
this layer composition. This study tests the creep characteristics as one
of the long-term characteristics of the fiber reinforced lean concrete
layer for composite pavement using a new creep device. The test
results reveal that the lean concrete mixed with fiber reinforcement
and fly ash develops smaller creep than the conventional lean
concrete. The results of the application of the CEB-FIP prediction
equation indicate that a modified creep prediction equation should be
developed to fit with the new mix design of the layer.