Fast-Tracking Isolation, Identification and Characterization of New Microalgae for Nutraceutical and Feed Applications

Microalgae contain high-value biochemical compounds including fatty acids (FA), protein and carotenoids, and are promising bioresources to enhance nutrition of food and animal feed. Important requirements for commercial strains are rapid growth and high productivities of desirable compounds. As these traits are believed to be found in aquatic environments with fluctuating conditions, we collected microalgae from marine and freshwater environments that are subjected to eutrophication and/or tidal fluctuations. Using this directed approach, 40 monoalgal cultures were isolated and 25 identified through 18S rDNA sequencing and morphological characterization. Based on their high growth rates (0.28–0.60 day−1) and biomass productivities (0.25–0.44 g L−1day−1) in commercial fertilizer under standardized conditions, six new strains were selected. Scenedesmus sp. GW63 produced quality FA-rich biomass with high omega-3 polyunsaturated FA (28.5% of total FA (TFA)) contents, especially α-linolenic acid (ALA; 20.0% of TFA) with a very low n-6/n-3 ratio (0.4), and high FA productivity (32.6 mg L−1 day−1). A high protein productivity (34.5 mg L−1 day−1) made Desmodesmus sp. UQL1_26 (33.4% of dry weight (DW)) attractive as potential protein-rich feed and nutrition supplement. Monoraphidium convolutum GW5 displayed valuable carotenoid production (0.8% DW) with high carotenoid accumulation capability (0.8 mg L−1 day−1). This research provides a pathway for fast-tracking the selection of high-performing local microalgae from different environments for nutraceuticals, functional foods and animal feed applications.

Evaluasi Penerapan Manajemen Waktu Pada Proyek Pembangunan Ciputra School of Business Makassar

Dunia konstruksi masih banyak ditemukan proyek yang pelaksanaannya tidak sesuai waktu yang ditentukan. Oleh karena itu perlu dilakukan evaluasi penerapan manajemen waktu pada proyek konstruksi gedung Ciputra School of Business yang mengalami keterlambatan pada beberapa sub bagian pekerjaan. Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini yaitu metode analisis deskriptif. Dari hasil penelitian dapat diketahui bahwa dalam pelaksanaan proyek kurva-S digunakan sebagai time schedule dalam melakukan monitoring progress dan penjadwalan pekerjaan, kontraktor perlu melakukan pekerjaan secara paralel dengan metode percepatan fast tracking dan memberlakukan lembur agar target mingguan dan bulanan terpenuhi. Dari hasil analisis dapat disimpulkan bahwa pengendalian menggunakan kurva-S dimana baseline dilakukan pertiga bulan selama 1 tahun waktu pelaksanaan menunjukkan besaran deviasi progress pekerjaan pada tahap pertama 1.085%, tahap kedua 1.324%, tahap ketiga -8,971%, dan tahap keempat -5,639%

How a Single Field Development is Becoming a Hub

The work presented in this paper shows how a single development evolved in a main Production Hub to unlock stranded resources, fast tracking subsequent marginal gas discoveries, by improving the flexibility of the subsea and treatment facilities. The approach was supported by a coherent activity about exploration program in the area, JV partnership and contracting strategy. During the Execution phase of a subsea development, a new discovery was made in deep water, 35 km from the Floating Production Unit (FPU). Following this discovery, given the potential for further developments in the area (stranded gas reservoirs and further new gas discoveries), the decision of considering the FPU as a future Production Hub has been taken and FPU has been converted accordingly. The inlet facilities have been designed to guarantee the possibility of receiving well fluids at different pressure levels (high pressure for the new developments and low pressure for productions in depletion) with high production flexibility. Several verifications have been performed to maximize the production flowrates at different pressure values, according to the envelope of data from exploration activities, via adequate arrangements for future expansion. These verifications considered the FPU as it is and with the implementation of minor and major modifications (including retrofitting offshore of new process modules). Design and timing of new equipment as minor/major brownfield modification have been set-up to cope with the modulate field profiles to keep FPU operating flowrate to its maximum value for longer time. In particular, the choice of new booster gas compressors has been planned, in order to select the best configuration for the most recent Hub development plan and to install them at the right time. Converting a barycentric infrastructure in a Hub ensures a significant reduction of CAPEX for future developments (limited to subsea tie-backs only), allowing to reconsider projects previously evaluated economically unsustainable. Moreover, the Hub shall guarantee a long-term gas production by continuous addition of new discoveries in the area, making it an essential facility for the energy future of the Country.

Adaptive Notch Filter for Piezo-Actuated Nanopositioning System via Position and Online Estimate Dual-Mode

Due to the excellent advantages of high speed, high precision, and driving force, piezoelectric actuators nanopositioning systems have been widely used in various micro/nanomachining fields. However, the inherent resonance dynamic of the nanopositioning system generated by the flexure-hinge greatly deteriorates the positioning performance and limits the closed-loop bandwidth. Even worse, the notch filter for eliminating the effect of resonance does not work due to the varying resonant frequency resulting from the external disturbance or mass load. To this end, an adaptive notch filter for piezo-actuated nanopositioning system via position and online estimate dual-mode (POEDM) has been proposed in this paper, which can estimate the varying resonant frequency in real-time and suppress the resonance to improve the closed-loop bandwidth. First, a novel variable forgetting factor recursive least squares (VFF-RLS) algorithm for estimating resonant frequency online is presented, which is robust to the noise and provides the performances of both fast tracking and stability. Then, a POEDM method is proposed to achieve the online identification of the resonant frequency in the presence of noise and disturbance. Finally, a series of validation simulations are carried out, and the results indicate that, the frequency of input signal and the bandwidth have been achieved up to 12.5% and 87.5% of the first resonant frequency, respectively.

An Automatic Conflict Detection Framework for Urban Intersections Based on an Improved Time Difference to Collision Indicator

Urban road intersections are one of the key components of road networks. Due to complex and diverse traffic conditions, traffic conflicts occur frequently. Accurate traffic conflict detection allows improvement of the traffic conditions and decreases the probability of traffic accidents. Many time-based conflict indicators have been widely studied, but the sizes of the vehicles are ignored. This is a very important factor for conflict detection at urban intersections. Therefore, in this paper we propose a novel time difference conflict indicator by incorporating vehicle sizes instead of viewing vehicles as particles. Specially, we designed an automatic conflict recognition framework between vehicles at the urban intersections. The vehicle sizes are automatically extracted with the sparse recurrent convolutional neural network, and the vehicle trajectories are obtained with a fast-tracking algorithm based on the intersection-to-union ratio. Given tracking vehicles, we improved the time difference to the conflict metric by incorporating vehicle size information. We have conducted extensive experiments and demonstrated that the proposed framework can effectively recognize vehicle conflict accurately.

Fast-tracking Research Methodology Immersion for Students: Experiences from a Project on Fairwork in the Gig Economy

This paper showcases an innovative student research project in a South African taught Masters programme, where students learnt to apply a sound research methodology in the real world, and align their work with a global research project. The Fairwork (https://fair.work) project assesses the extent to which gig work platforms in a number of countries conform to ‘fair work’ principles for their workers. The Fairwork project has a clearly defined and rigorous research methodology used by senior academics around the world to rate labour-broking platforms such as those in e-hailing (Bolt, Uber) or delivery services (UberEats) to rate their adoption of fair work principles for their workers. The University of Pretoria adopted this research methodology in the context of a student-based group project in a taught 2020 “Digital Economy” Masters programme. Student groups used the same methodology and interviewed South African platform workers to score seven different platforms. The key motivations and intended benefits were that the research methodology was already tried and tested, students should able to apply the skills taught in an earlier (theoretical) research methods course, subject specific knowledge around the gig economy had to be researched and was internalized, each group had the freedom to select its own platform, results could be validated against publicly available ratings, students engaged themselves in real world empirical research, and their research outputs had a real world relevance. In addition, this project turned out to work well under Covid19 partial lockdown circumstances. The student submissions exceeded the expectations of everyone involved, and some groups produced research results which matched the level of highly experienced researchers. This project also provides a strong contribution to the academic community, not only because it provides a validation benchmark and alternative research approach to the Fairwork project, but also because this project is easily portable to similar courses in other country contexts.

Should we vaccinate the better seroconverters or the most vulnerable? Game changing insights for COVID-19 vaccine prioritization policies

Background With the rapid rise in COVID 19 cases incomparable to the number of vaccinations available, there has been a demand to prioritize the older age groups receiving the vaccine as they have more risk of morbidity and mortality and thus better outcome from vaccination. Main body Some studies showed a lower seroconversion rate in older group patients; thus, we discuss the necessity to reprioritize vaccinations to younger age groups who have better seroconversion rates, but we may face some ethical dilemma that could hinder our hypothesis. Decreased seroconversion rates in adults are attributable to immuno-senescence which involves a decrease in humoral and cellular-mediated immunity with age. Despite this fact, there remains some ethical dilemma that can hinder widespread vaccination of younger generations, the most important of which is the unknown long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccines due their fast-tracking under the pressure of the pandemic. Short conclusion Prioritizing children vaccination against COVID-19 seems an interesting strategy that can help in containing the pandemic. Resolving some ethical dilemma needs to be done before implementing such strategy.

A Four-Component Framework Toward Patient-Centered, Integrated Mental Healthcare in Kenya

Background: How can we fast-track the global agenda of integrated mental healthcare in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Kenya? This is a question that has become increasingly important for individuals with lived experiences, policymakers, mental health advocates and health care providers at the local and international levels.Discussion: This narrative synthesis and perspective piece encompasses an overview of mental health care competencies, best practices and capacity building needed to fast track patient responsive services. In that vein we also review key policy developments like UHC to make a case for fast-tracking our four-step framework.Results: While there is an increasingly global impetus for integrated mental healthcare, there is a lack of clarity around what patient-responsive mental healthcare services should look like and how to measure and improve provider readiness appropriately. Here, our collaborative team of local and international experts proposes a simple four-step approach to integrating responsive mental healthcare in Kenya. Our recommended framework prioritizes a clear understanding and demonstration of multidimensional skills by the provider. The four steps are (1) provider sensitization, (2) continuous supervision, (3) continuous professional training, and (4) leadership empowerment.Conclusion: Our proposed framework can provide pointers to embracing patient-centered and provider empowerment focused quality of care improvements. Though elements of our proposed framework are well-known, it has not been sufficiently intertwined and therefore not been integrated. We think in the current times our integrated framework offers an opportunity to “building back better” mental health for all.

Enhancing performance of grid-connected photovoltaic systems based on three-phase five-level cascaded inverter

<span lang="EN-US">Multilevel inverters play an important role in power converters due to their good advantages. The cascaded H-bridge inverter is one of the most prominent and most suitable multilevel inverters in PV systems. Each H-bridge has a separate photovoltaic (PV) array as an independent direct current (DC) source. This paper introduces a three-phase cascaded H-bridge inverter with five levels connected to the grid to improve the performance and efficiency of the photovoltaic system. In the proposed system, each PV group has MPPT to extract the maximum power point from the PV group at certain irradiation and temperature and also to mitigate the mismatch that causes in the imbalance transmitted power from inverter to the main grid. The proposed control scheme with modulation compensation was used, and the system was simulated in MATLAB/Simulink with two different scenarios. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed connection in minimizing the total harmonic distortion (THD) to acceptable limit, low overshoot, and fast-tracking to the desired value.</span>