scholarly journals Utilization of Sodium Bicarbonate as Anesthetic During Routine Husbandry Activities in Ornamental Fish

2021 ◽  
Vol 934 (1) ◽  
pp. 012001
Author(s):  
C M A Caipang ◽  
J E Deocampo ◽  
R V Pakingking ◽  
I Suharman ◽  
J T Fenol ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sodium Bicarbonate ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ornamental Fish ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Physiological Mechanisms ◽  
Post Exposure ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Fish Industry ◽  
Experimental Runs

Abstract The tropical ornamental fish industry requires the stock to be reared in captivity before being sold; thus, exposing them to various handling- and transport-related stressors. A number of commercially available anesthetics are used during fish husbandry procedures, but these products are expensive and not readily available to small-scale ornamental fish operators. The use of sodium bicarbonate as an inexpensive anesthetic during routine husbandry activities in molly, Poecilia sp., a freshwater ornamental fish was assessed in terms of its effect on sedation, recovery and survival post-exposure in three independent experimental runs. Juvenile molly were exposed to sodium bicarbonate at a concentration of 100 g L−1 and the time to sedation and recovery were monitored. It took longer for the fish to be fully sedated than their recovery. Survival of the fish a week post-exposure ranged 40-60%. Simulated transport of fish for 6 hrs in water containing 1 g L−1 of sodium bicarbonate showed survival ranging 70-100% a week after transport. These findings demonstrated that sodium bicarbonate could be potentially used as a low-cost anesthetic during handling and short-term transport of ornamental fish. Future studies shall focus on discovering the underlying physiological mechanisms in fish following sedation with this chemical.

scholarly journals An On-Line Low-Cost Irradiance Monitoring Network with Sub-Second Sampling Adapted to Small-Scale PV Systems

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 3405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Espinosa-Gavira ◽  
Agustín Agüera-Pérez ◽  
Juan González de la Rosa ◽  
José Palomares-Salas ◽  
José Sierra-Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Sensor Networks ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Absolute Error ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Photovoltaic Systems ◽  
Real Time Control ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Time Control ◽  
Cloud Motion

Very short-term solar forecasts are gaining interest for their application on real-time control of photovoltaic systems. These forecasts are intimately related to the cloud motion that produce variations of the irradiance field on scales of seconds and meters, thus particularly impacting in small photovoltaic systems. Very short-term forecast models must be supported by updated information of the local irradiance field, and solar sensor networks are positioning as the more direct way to obtain these data. The development of solar sensor networks adapted to small-scale systems as microgrids is subject to specific requirements: high updating frequency, high density of measurement points and low investment. This paper proposes a wireless sensor network able to provide snapshots of the irradiance field with an updating frequency of 2 Hz. The network comprised 16 motes regularly distributed over an area of 15 m × 15 m (4 motes × 4 motes, minimum intersensor distance of 5 m). The irradiance values were estimated from illuminance measurements acquired by lux-meters in the network motes. The estimated irradiances were validated with measurements of a secondary standard pyranometer obtaining a mean absolute error of 24.4 W/m 2 and a standard deviation of 36.1 W/m 2 . The network was able to capture the cloud motion and the main features of the irradiance field even with the reduced dimensions of the monitoring area. These results and the low-cost of the measurement devices indicate that this concept of solar sensor networks would be appropriate not only for photovoltaic plants in the range of MW, but also for smaller systems such as the ones installed in microgrids.

scholarly journals Gloxinia—An Open-Source Sensing Platform to Monitor the Dynamic Responses of Plants

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 3055
Author(s):  
Olivier Pieters ◽  
Tom De Swaef ◽  
Peter Lootens ◽  
Michiel Stock ◽  
Isabel Roldán-Ruiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Dynamic Responses ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Data Logging ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Sensing Platforms

The study of the dynamic responses of plants to short-term environmental changes is becoming increasingly important in basic plant science, phenotyping, breeding, crop management, and modelling. These short-term variations are crucial in plant adaptation to new environments and, consequently, in plant fitness and productivity. Scalable, versatile, accurate, and low-cost data-logging solutions are necessary to advance these fields and complement existing sensing platforms such as high-throughput phenotyping. However, current data logging and sensing platforms do not meet the requirements to monitor these responses. Therefore, a new modular data logging platform was designed, named Gloxinia. Different sensor boards are interconnected depending upon the needs, with the potential to scale to hundreds of sensors in a distributed sensor system. To demonstrate the architecture, two sensor boards were designed—one for single-ended measurements and one for lock-in amplifier based measurements, named Sylvatica and Planalta, respectively. To evaluate the performance of the system in small setups, a small-scale trial was conducted in a growth chamber. Expected plant dynamics were successfully captured, indicating proper operation of the system. Though a large scale trial was not performed, we expect the system to scale very well to larger setups. Additionally, the platform is open-source, enabling other users to easily build upon our work and perform application-specific optimisations.

Tools of Transformation: Appropriate Technology in U.S. Countercultural Literature

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Peter Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Appropriate Technology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Environmental Transformation ◽  
Buckminster Fuller ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Environmentally Sound ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Second Wave

This essay takes its cue from second-wave ecocriticism and from recent scholarly interest in the “appropriate technology” movement that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in California and elsewhere. “Appropriate technology” (or AT) refers to a loosely-knit group of writers, engineers and designers active in the years around 1970, and more generally to the counterculture’s promotion, development and application of technologies that were small-scale, low-cost, user-friendly, human-empowering and environmentally sound. Focusing on two roughly contemporary but now largely forgotten American texts Sidney Goldfarb’s lyric poem “Solar-Heated-Rhombic-Dodecahedron” (1969) and Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip (1971)—I consider how “hip” literary writers contributed to eco-technological discourse and argue for the 1960s counterculture’s relevance to present-day ecological concerns. Goldfarb’s and Norman’s texts interest me because they conceptualize iconic 1960s technologies—especially the Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome and the Volkswagen van—not as inherently alienating machines but as tools of profound individual, social and environmental transformation. Synthesizing antimodernist back-to-nature desires with modernist enthusiasm for (certain kinds of) machinery, these texts adumbrate a humanity- and modernity-centered post-wilderness model of environmentalism that resonates with the dilemmas that we face in our increasingly resource-impoverished, rapidly warming and densely populated world.

scholarly journals Development of a simplified gas ultracleaning process: experiments in biomass residue-based fixed-bed gasification syngas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Frilund ◽  
Esa Kurkela ◽  
Ilkka Hiltunen
Keyword(s):  
Activated Carbons ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Fixed Bed ◽  
Carbonyl Sulfide ◽  
Gas Analysis ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cleaning Process ◽  
Medium Temperature ◽  
Gas Cleaning ◽  
Adsorption Affinity

AbstractFor the realization of small-scale biomass-to-liquid (BTL) processes, low-cost syngas cleaning remains a major obstacle, and for this reason a simplified gas ultracleaning process is being developed. In this study, a low- to medium-temperature final gas cleaning process based on adsorption and organic solvent-free scrubbing methods was coupled to a pilot-scale staged fixed-bed gasification facility including hot filtration and catalytic reforming steps for extended duration gas cleaning tests for the generation of ultraclean syngas. The final gas cleaning process purified syngas from woody and agricultural biomass origin to a degree suitable for catalytic synthesis. The gas contained up to 3000 ppm of ammonia, 1300 ppm of benzene, 200 ppm of hydrogen sulfide, 10 ppm of carbonyl sulfide, and 5 ppm of hydrogen cyanide. Post-run characterization displayed that the accumulation of impurities on the Cu-based deoxygenation catalyst (TOS 105 h) did not occur, demonstrating that effective main impurity removal was achieved in the first two steps: acidic water scrubbing (AWC) and adsorption by activated carbons (AR). In the final test campaign, a comprehensive multipoint gas analysis confirmed that ammonia was fully removed by the scrubbing step, and benzene and H2S were fully removed by the subsequent activated carbon beds. The activated carbons achieved > 90% removal of up to 100 ppm of COS and 5 ppm of HCN in the syngas. These results provide insights into the adsorption affinity of activated carbons in a complex impurity matrix, which would be arduous to replicate in laboratory conditions.

scholarly journals The Impact of Short-Term Exposure to Air Pollution on the Exhaled Breath of Healthy Adults

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2518
Author(s):  
Ariana Lammers ◽  
Anne H. Neerincx ◽  
Susanne J. H. Vijverberg ◽  
Cristina Longo ◽  
Nicole A. H. Janssen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Exhaled Breath ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Post Exposure ◽  
Short Term Exposure ◽  
Validation Set ◽  
The Impact

Environmental factors, such as air pollution, can affect the composition of exhaled breath, and should be well understood before biomarkers in exhaled breath can be used in clinical practice. Our objective was to investigate whether short-term exposures to air pollution can be detected in the exhaled breath profile of healthy adults. In this study, 20 healthy young adults were exposed 2–4 times to the ambient air near a major airport and two highways. Before and after each 5 h exposure, exhaled breath was analyzed using an electronic nose (eNose) consisting of seven different cross-reactive metal-oxide sensors. The discrimination between pre and post-exposure was investigated with multilevel partial least square discriminant analysis (PLSDA), followed by linear discriminant and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, for all data (71 visits), and for a training (51 visits) and validation set (20 visits). Using all eNose measurements and the training set, discrimination between pre and post-exposure resulted in an area under the ROC curve of 0.83 (95% CI = 0.76–0.89) and 0.84 (95% CI = 0.75–0.92), whereas it decreased to 0.66 (95% CI = 0.48–0.84) in the validation set. Short-term exposure to high levels of air pollution potentially influences the exhaled breath profiles of healthy adults, however, the effects may be minimal for regular daily exposures.

scholarly journals Understanding Spatial Variability of NO2 in Urban Areas Using Spatial Modelling and Data Fusion Approaches

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Said Munir ◽  
Martin Mayfield ◽  
Daniel Coca
Keyword(s):  
Data Fusion ◽  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Dispersion Model ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Spatial Modelling ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The City

Small-scale spatial variability in NO2 concentrations is analysed with the help of pollution maps. Maps of NO2 estimated by the Airviro dispersion model and land use regression (LUR) model are fused with measured NO2 concentrations from low-cost sensors (LCS), reference sensors and diffusion tubes. In this study, geostatistical universal kriging was employed for fusing (integrating) model estimations with measured NO2 concentrations. The results showed that the data fusion approach was capable of estimating realistic NO2 concentration maps that inherited spatial patterns of the pollutant from the model estimations and adjusted the modelled values using the measured concentrations. Maps produced by the fusion of NO2-LCS with NO2-LUR produced better results, with r-value 0.96 and RMSE 9.09. Data fusion adds value to both measured and estimated concentrations: the measured data are improved by predicting spatiotemporal gaps, whereas the modelled data are improved by constraining them with observed data. Hotspots of NO2 were shown in the city centre, eastern parts of the city towards the motorway (M1) and on some major roads. Air quality standards were exceeded at several locations in Sheffield, where annual mean NO2 levels were higher than 40 µg/m3. Road traffic was considered to be the dominant emission source of NO2 in Sheffield.

scholarly journals A low-cost technique to measure bank erosion proces ses along middle-size river reaches

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Duró ◽  
Alessandra Crosato ◽  
Maarten G. Kleinhans ◽  
Wim S. J. Uijttewaal
Keyword(s):  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Bank Erosion ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Observation Distance ◽  
River Bank ◽  
Erosion Processes ◽  
Rtk Gps

Abstract. Diverse methods are currently available to measure river bank erosion at broad-ranging temporal and spatial scales. Yet, no technique provides low-cost and high-resolution to survey small-scale bank processes along a river reach. We investigate the capabilities of Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry applied with imagery from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to describe the evolution of riverbank profiles in middle-size rivers. The bank erosion cycle is used as a reference to assess the applicability of different techniques. We surveyed 1.2 km of a restored bank of the Meuse River eight times within a year, combining different photograph perspectives and overlaps to identify an efficient UAV flight to monitor banks. The accuracy of the Digital Surface Models (DSMs) was evaluated compared with RTK GPS points and an Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) of the whole reach. An oblique perspective with eight photo overlaps was sufficient to achieve the highest relative precision to observation distance of ~1:1400, with 10 cm error range. A complementary nadiral view increased coverage behind bank toe vegetation. The DSM and ALS had comparable accuracies except on banks, where the latter overestimates elevations. Sequential DSMs captured signatures of the erosion cycle such as mass failures, slump-block deposition, and bank undermining. Although this technique requires low water levels and banks without dense vegetation, it is a low-cost method to survey reach-scale riverbanks in sufficient resolution to quantify bank retreat and identify morphological features of the bank failure and erosion processes.

Integrated Process for Textile Cotton Waste (TCW) Valorization: Waste-to-Energy and Wastewater Decontamination

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ribeiro ◽  
C. Vilarinho ◽  
J. Araújo ◽  
J. Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Calorific Value ◽  
Waste To Energy ◽  
Synthetic Wastewater ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
World Population ◽  
Cotton Waste ◽  
Textile Industries

The increasing of world population, industrialization and global consuming, existing market products existed in the along with diversification of raw materials, are responsible for an exponential increase of wastes. This scenario represents loss of resources and ultimately causes air, soils and water pollution. Therefore, proper waste management is currently one of the major challenges faced by modern societies. Textile industries represents, in Portugal, almost 10% of total productive transforming sector and 19% of total employments in the sector composed by almost 7.000 companies. One of the main environmental problems of textile industries is the production of significant quantities of wastes from its different processing steps. According to the Portuguese Institute of Statistics (INE) these industries produce almost 500.000 tons of wastes each year, with the textile cotton waste (TCW) being the most expressive. It was estimated that 4.000 tons of TCW are produced each year in Portugal. In this work an integrated TCW valorisation procedure was evaluated, firstly by its thermal and energetic valorisation with slow pyrolysis followed by the utilization of biochar by-product, in lead and chromium synthetic wastewater decontamination. Pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a small scale rotating pyrolysis reactor with 0.1 m3 of total capacity. Results of pyrolysis experiments showed the formation of 0,241 m3 of biogas for each kilogram of TCW. Results also demonstrated that the biogas is mostly composed by hydrogen (22%), methane (14 %), carbon monoxide (20%) and carbon dioxide (12%), which represents a total high calorific value of 12.3 MJ/Nm3. Regarding biochar, results of elemental analysis demonstrated a high percentage of carbon driving its use as low cost adsorbent. Adsorption experiments were conducted with lead and chromium synthetic wastewaters (25, 50 and 100 mg L−1) in batch vessels with controlled pH. It was evaluated the behaviour of adsorption capacity and removal rate of each metal during 120 minutes of contact time using 5, 10 and 50 g L−1 of adsorbent dosage. Results indicated high affinity of adsorbent with each tested metal with 78% of removal rate in chromium and 95% in lead experiments. This suggests that biochar from TCW pyrolysis may be appropriated to wastewaters treatment, with high contents of heavy metals and it can be an effective alternative to activated carbon.

MECHANIZATION OF POTATO GRADING ON SMALL-SCALE FARMS: A CASE STUDY FROM PERU

2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. BUTLER ◽  
T. BERNET ◽  
K. MANRIQUE
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Small Scale Farmers ◽  
Important Cash Crop

Potatoes are an important cash crop for small-scale producers worldwide. The move away from subsistence to commercialized farming, combined with the rapid growth in demand for processed agricultural products in developing countries, implies that small-scale farmers and researchers alike must begin to respond to these market changes and consider post-harvest treatment as a critical aspect of the potato farming system. This paper presents and assesses a low cost potato-grading machine that was designed explicitly to enable small-scale potato growers to sort tubers by size for supply to commercial processors. The results of ten experiments reveal that the machine achieves an accuracy of sort similar to commercially available graders. The machine, which uses parallel conical rollers, has the capacity to grade different tuber shapes and to adjust sorting classes, making it suitable for locations with high potato diversity. Its relatively low cost suggests that an improved and adapted version of this machine might enhance market integration of small-scale potato producers not only in Peru, but in other developing countries as well.

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