Effect of sudden water release on the reservoir free outflow hydrograph

Osaka Bay is the most polluted enclosed sea area, in which is located the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. There are four kinds of sources on loadings of nutrients to Osaka Bay, which are land including rivers and industrial effluents beside coast, ocean sea water, release from bottom sediment to sea water, and wet and dry deposition from air. The pollutant loadings inflowing from the land to Osaka Bay have been cut by various policies since 1970’s. The concentrations of nutrients in the inner part of Osaka Bay have showed an obvious decreasing tendency. However, the water quality in offshore sea has not satisfied the environmental standard on nutrients. We investigated the amount of nutrients released from bottom sediments. The core samples were taken at two stations in the inner part of Osaka Bay once a month from February to November, 2015. The core incubation experiment in laboratory was conducted for 24 hours according to Tada et.al. The concentrations of ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N) and phosphate phosphorus (PO4-P) were measured by an automatic analyzer. The flux showed similar range with the values investigated in 1986. The results suggested that the flux of nutrients from bottom sediments in the inner part of Osaka Bay has not decreased during summer season at least since 1985. Therefore, the contribution of release from bottom sediment on the nutrients budget would relatively become larger in inner part of Osaka Bay.

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Calculation Model for the Mixing Amount of Internal Curing Materials in High-strength Concrete based on Modified MULTIMOORA

Science and Engineering of Composite Materials ◽

10.1515/secm-2020-0048 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 455-463

Author(s):

Lixia Guo ◽

Minghua Wang ◽

Ling Zhong ◽

Yanan Zhang

Keyword(s):

High Strength Concrete ◽

High Strength ◽

Calculation Model ◽

Internal Curing ◽

Total Water ◽

Water Release ◽

Strength Concrete ◽

Numerical Example ◽

Comprehensive Performance ◽

Mixing Method

AbstractThe internal curing technology has been widely applied to high-strength concrete, for it can make the high-strength concrete marked by low shrinkage and durable frost resistance. The key to its extension and application lies in the reasonable mixing amount of internal curing materials. To address this problem, scholars have proposed a method for determining the water demand in internal curing; however, the water release of internal curing materials is difficult to obtain by measurement due to the mixing method. Therefore, this paper proposed a calculation model for the mixing amount of internal curing materials based on the modified MULTIMOORA method (Multi-Objective Optimization on the basis of Ratio Analysis plus full multiplicative form). First, different internal curing materials (super absorbent polymer (SAP), lightweight aggregate (LWA)) and pretreatment methods were selected to calculate their compressive strength, self-shrinkage and frost durability according to a proposed test scheme on the mixing amount of internal curing materials, and in such case, the comprehensive performance evaluation of the above indexes was turned into a multi-attribute decision-making problem. Second, the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) method and the entropy weight method were used to determine the subjective and objective weights of the indexes respectively, to eliminate the impact of outliers in the subjective evaluation values. Finally, the comprehensive performance of each test group was sorted using MULTIMOORA, and based on the sorting results and the calculation model, the mixing amount of internal curing materials was determined. The numerical example application results showed that the mixing amount of SAP curing material calculated based on the model herein was 1.276 kg/m3, and the mixing method adopted the pre-water absorption method with the total water-binder ratio unchanged. The numerical example evaluation results were in good agreement with the test results. The internal curing effect of SAP was better than that of LWA, and reached the best when the mixing amount was calculated at 25 times the water release rate and the requirement for the maximum total water diversion was met. The study may provide new ideas for extension and application of the internal curing technology.

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Selenium in wastewater can be adsorbed by modified natural zeolite and reused in vegetable growth

Science Progress ◽

10.1177/00368504211019845 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 104 (2) ◽

pp. 003685042110198

Author(s):

Xiao Zhang ◽

Xinyuan Li ◽

Zihao Jin ◽

Sadam Hussain Tumrani ◽

Xiaodong Ji

Keyword(s):

Aqueous Solution ◽

Ph Value ◽

Soil Improvement ◽

Pollutant Removal ◽

Maximum Adsorption Capacity ◽

Selenium Content ◽

Water Release ◽

Soil Release ◽

Release Ratio ◽

Water Pollutant

Modified natural zeolites (MNZ) are widely used in pollutant removal, but how to address these MNZ that have adsorbed pollutants must be considered. Selenium is an essential trace element for metabolism and is also a water pollutant. Selenium is adsorbed in the water by MNZ in this study first. Then the Brassica chinensis L. was planted in the soil which contains the MNZ loaded with selenium (MNZ-Se) to explore selenium uptake. MNZ-Se release tests in water and soil were also considered. The results showed the following: (1) The maximum adsorption capacity of MNZ for selenium is 46.90 mg/g. (2) Water release experiments of MNZ-Se showed that regardless of how the pH of the aqueous solution changes, the trend of the release of selenium from MNZ-Se in aqueous solution is not affected and first decreases before stabilizing. (3) Soil release experiments of MNZ-Se showed that the selenium content in the soil increased and reached the concentration in the standard of selenium-rich soil. Addition amount and soil pH value will affect the release ratio. The release ratio of MNZ-Se in the water was higher than that in the soil. (4) With an increase in the soil MNZ-Se content, the selenium content in the soil and B. c increases. Above all, MZN can be a good medium for water pollutant removal and soil improvement.

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Acetan and Acetan-Like Polysaccharides: Genetics, Biosynthesis, Structure, and Viscoelasticity

Polymers ◽

10.3390/polym13050815 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 815

Author(s):

Janja Trček ◽

Iztok Dogsa ◽

Tomaž Accetto ◽

David Stopar

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Species ◽

Acetic Acid Bacteria ◽

Original Description ◽

Bioinformatic Analysis ◽

Industrial Sector ◽

Water Soluble ◽

Extracellular Polysaccharides ◽

Genetic Cluster ◽

Water Release ◽

Komagataeibacter Xylinus

Bacteria produce a variety of multifunctional polysaccharides, including structural, intracellular, and extracellular polysaccharides. They are attractive for the industrial sector due to their natural origin, sustainability, biodegradability, low toxicity, stability, unique viscoelastic properties, stable cost, and supply. When incorporated into different matrices, they may control emulsification, stabilization, crystallization, water release, and encapsulation. Acetan is an important extracellular water-soluble polysaccharide produced mainly by bacterial species of the genera Komagataeibacter and Acetobacter. Since its original description in Komagataeibacter xylinus, acetan-like polysaccharides have also been described in other species of acetic acid bacteria. Our knowledge on chemical composition of different acetan-like polysaccharides, their viscoelasticity, and the genetic basis for their production has expanded during the last years. Here, we review data on acetan biosynthesis, its molecular structure, genetic organization, and mechanical properties. In addition, we have performed an extended bioinformatic analysis on acetan-like polysaccharide genetic clusters in the genomes of Komagataeibacter and Acetobacter species. The analysis revealed for the first time a second acetan-like polysaccharide genetic cluster, that is widespread in both genera. All species of the Komagataeibacter possess at least one acetan genetic cluster, while it is present in only one third of the Acetobacter species surveyed.

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Dealing with multiple experts and non-stationarity in inverse reinforcement learning: an application to real-life problems

Machine Learning ◽

10.1007/s10994-020-05939-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Amarildo Likmeta ◽

Alberto Maria Metelli ◽

Giorgia Ramponi ◽

Andrea Tirinzoni ◽

Matteo Giuliani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reinforcement Learning ◽

Real World ◽

Real Life ◽

User Preferences ◽

Inverse Reinforcement Learning ◽

Water Release ◽

Reward Function ◽

Model Free ◽

Conflicting Objectives ◽

Multiple Experts

AbstractIn real-world applications, inferring the intentions of expert agents (e.g., human operators) can be fundamental to understand how possibly conflicting objectives are managed, helping to interpret the demonstrated behavior. In this paper, we discuss how inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) can be employed to retrieve the reward function implicitly optimized by expert agents acting in real applications. Scaling IRL to real-world cases has proved challenging as typically only a fixed dataset of demonstrations is available and further interactions with the environment are not allowed. For this reason, we resort to a class of truly batch model-free IRL algorithms and we present three application scenarios: (1) the high-level decision-making problem in the highway driving scenario, and (2) inferring the user preferences in a social network (Twitter), and (3) the management of the water release in the Como Lake. For each of these scenarios, we provide formalization, experiments and a discussion to interpret the obtained results.

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Water release through plant roots: new insights into its consequences at the plant and ecosystem level

New Phytologist ◽

10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.04039.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 193 (4) ◽

pp. 830-841 ◽

Cited By ~ 190

Author(s):

Iván Prieto ◽

Cristina Armas ◽

Francisco I. Pugnaire

Keyword(s):

Plant Roots ◽

Water Release ◽

Ecosystem Level

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Effect of Gluconacetobacter xylinus cultivation conditions on the selected properties of bacterial cellulose

Polish Journal of Chemical Technology ◽

10.1515/pjct-2016-0080 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 117-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Karol Fijałkowski ◽

Anna Żywicka ◽

Radosław Drozd ◽

Marian Kordas ◽

Rafał Rakoczy

Keyword(s):

Bacterial Cellulose ◽

Bacterial Strain ◽

Point Of View ◽

Synthesis Process ◽

Cellulose Synthesis ◽

Gluconacetobacter Xylinus ◽

Water Release ◽

Good Efficiency ◽

Cellulose Fibrils ◽

Culturing Conditions

Abstract The aim of the study was to analyze the changes in the parameters of bacterial cultures and bacterial cellulose (BC) synthesized by four reference strains of Gluconacetobacter xylinus during 31-day cultivation in stationary conditions. The study showed that the most visible changes in the analyzed parameters of BC, regardless of the bacterial strain used for their synthesis, were observed in the first 10–14 days of the experiment. It was also revealed, that among parameters showing dependence associated with the particular bacterial strain were the rate and period of BC synthesis, the growth rate of bacteria anchored to the cellulose fibrils, the capacity to absorb water and the water release rate. The results presented in this work may be useful in the selection of optimum culturing conditions and period from the point of view of good efficiency of the cellulose synthesis process.

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Determination of readiness for laying based on material moisture, corresponding relative humidity, and water release

Materials Testing ◽

10.1515/mt-2020-621012 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 62 (10) ◽

pp. 1033-1040

Author(s):

Christoph Strangfeld ◽

Sabine Kruschwitz

Keyword(s):

Relative Humidity ◽

Moisture Content ◽

Embedded Sensors ◽

Residual Water ◽

Floor Covering ◽

Water Release ◽

Content Determination ◽

Two Samples ◽

Moisture Content Determination

Abstract The moisture content of the subfloor has to be determined before installation to avoid damage to the floor covering. Only if readiness for layering is reached, can an installation without damage be expected in all cases. In general, three approaches exist to measure residual water content: determination of moisture content, determination of water release, or determination of the corresponding relative humidity. All three approaches are tested under laboratory conditions at eight screed types including two samples thicknesses in each case. Moisture content and water release are measured by sample weighing, the corresponding relative humidity is measured by embedded sensors. All three approaches are compared and correlated. The evaluations show only a weak correlation and, in several cases, contradicting results. Samples are considered ready for layering and not ready for layering at the same time, depending on the chosen approach. Due to these contradicting results, a general threshold for a risk of damage cannot be derived based on these measurements. Furthermore, the experiment demonstrates that the measurement of corresponding relative humidity is independent of the screed type or screed composition considered. This makes humidity measurement a potentially very promising approach for the installation of material moisture monitoring systems.

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