Water reuse in the food industry

Due to the significant growing demand for water, it is urgent to those in the food industry to consider a more rational and sustainable use of such a scarce natural resource. This chapter highlights alternative food processing methods that contemplate recycling and reusing water. Based on a systematic literature review, it highlights the adoption of cleaner production methods. The chapter focus on the meat and fresh produce sectors where evidence shows that water sustainability related methods is the most needed. Suggestions are proposed to minimize water waste through the treatment of effluents and decrease the impact of effluent pollution on the environment. In so doing, clear environmental and economic benefits could be achieved through the reduction of costs and value-adding to the final product. Yet, the implementation of Cleaner Production Methods would require support from the industry, policymakers, and consumers to encourage the recycling and reuse of water.

Value of the Electronic Medical Record for Hospital Care: Update From the Literature

Background Electronic records could improve quality and efficiency of health care. National and international bodies propagate this belief worldwide. However, the evidence base concerning the effects and advantages of electronic records is questionable. The outcome of health care systems is influenced by many components, making assertions about specific types of interventions difficult. Moreover, electronic records itself constitute a complex intervention offering several functions with possibly positive as well as negative effects on the outcome of health care systems. Objective The aim of this review is to summarize empirical studies about the value of electronic medical records (EMRs) for hospital care published between 2010 and spring 2019. Methods The authors adopted their method from a series of literature reviews. The literature search was performed on MEDLINE with “Medical Record System, Computerized” as the essential keyword. The selection process comprised 2 phases looking for a consent of both authors. Starting with 1345 references, 23 were finally included in the review. The evaluation combined a scoring of the studies’ quality, a description of data sources in case of secondary data analyses, and a qualitative assessment of the publications’ conclusions concerning the medical record’s impact on quality and efficiency of health care. Results The majority of the studies stemmed from the United States (19/23, 83%). Mostly, the studies used publicly available data (“secondary data studies”; 17/23, 74%). A total of 18 studies analyzed the effect of an EMR on the quality of health care (78%), 16 the effect on the efficiency of health care (70%). The primary data studies achieved a mean score of 4.3 (SD 1.37; theoretical maximum 10); the secondary data studies a mean score of 7.1 (SD 1.26; theoretical maximum 9). From the primary data studies, 2 demonstrated a reduction of costs. There was not one study that failed to demonstrate a positive effect on the quality of health care. Overall, 9/16 respective studies showed a reduction of costs (56%); 14/18 studies showed an increase of health care quality (78%); the remaining 4 studies missed explicit information about the proposed positive effect. Conclusions This review revealed a clear evidence about the value of EMRs. In addition to an awesome majority of economic advantages, the review also showed improvements in quality of care by all respective studies. The use of secondary data studies has prevailed over primary data studies in the meantime. Future work could focus on specific aspects of electronic records to guide their implementation and operation.

Distributed Swarm Control Algorithm of Multiple Unmanned Surface Vehicles Based on Grouping Method

This paper addresses the distributed swarm control problem of multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in Euclidean space with virtual leader. Firstly, to investigate the topology of the neighborhood relations between vehicles, a new time-variant topology structure is proposed. Secondly, to research the dynamic properties of the group for the case where the number of virtual leader is different, a grouping method based on cosine similarity is proposed. Thirdly, to ensure the high effeciency of information transmission and the reduction of costs, a distributed swarm control algorithm is proposed, which is mainly composed of three parts: gradient descent term, velocity consensus term and navigational feedback term. To analyze the stability of system, the concept of translation framework is introduced. Based on the properties of the Hamiltonian and LaSalle invariance principle, the stability of multiple USVs swarm motion is proved. Finally, simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Analytical and Numerical Models of Thermoplastics: A Review Aimed to Pellet Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing

Recent developments in additive manufacturing have moved towards a new trend in material extrusion processes (ISO/ASTM 52910:2018), dealing with the direct extrusion of thermoplastic and composite material from pellets. This growing interest is driven by the reduction of costs, environmental impact, energy consumption, and the possibility to increase the range of printable materials. Pellet additive manufacturing (PAM) can cover the same applications as fused filament fabrication (FFF), and in addition, can lead to scale towards larger workspaces that cannot be covered by FFF, due to the limited diameters of standard filaments. In the first case, the process is known as micro- or mini-extrusion (MiE) in the literature, in the second case the expression big area additive manufacturing (BAAM) is very common. Several models are available in literature regarding filament extrusion, while there is a lack of modeling of the extrusion dynamics in PAM. Physical and chemical phenomena involved in PAM have high overlap with those characterizing injection molding (IM). Therefore, a systematic study of IM literature can lead to a selection of the most promising models for PAM, both for lower (MiE) and larger (BAAM) extruder dimensions. The models concerning the IM process have been reviewed with this aim: the extraction of information useful for the development of codes able to predict thermo-fluid dynamics performances of PAM extruders.

ENSAIO NÃO DESTRUTIVO (END) DE ANÁLISE DE VIBRAÇÕES APLICADO À MANUTENÇÃO PREDITIVA

Predictive maintenance consists of monitoring data obtained from monitoring, with the main results of increasing the availability and reliability of equipment. Several non-destructive testing can be performed by this type of maintenance, with vibration analysis being one of the most common. The aim of this study is to evaluate the relevance of vibration analysis in the context of industrial predictive maintenance, as well as its applicability in mechanical and electrical equipment. The scientific production of this article was based on the experiments carried out by several authors in their areas of expertise, based on bibliographic source. It was concluded that the vibration analysis is an important test for the application of predictive maintenance, being able to be implemented in several equipments, besides being a method that contributes directly to the reduction of costs in the supply chain. Finally, it is necessary to take into account that there are points of attention that must be considered for a more adequate implementation of the method.

Optimization of 210Po determination in soil

In recent years, naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) have become an important topic from the perspective of environmental protection. The list of isotopes that should be monitored in the environment is constantly growing as new amendments to international legislation are introduced. One of the often studied NORM elements is 210Po. In this study, a process of elaborating of a new method of 210Po determination in soil was presented. In the proposed method, several analytical aspects, like the influence of silica decomposition or optimization of an electrode material, were revised. The obtained procedure allows performance of complete radiochemical analysis in a single day, with the chemical efficiency of over 85% and great reduction of costs. Further, the influence of the use of phosphate fertilizers on polonium concentration in soil was also confirmed.

Costreductionin the micropropagation of Solanum lycopersicumL. var.cerasiforme

The aimof this study was to establish a low-cost alternative protocol for micropropagation ofSolanum lycopersicumL. var.cerasiforme,popularly known as cherry tomato. In the in vitroestablishment, culture mediacontaining Laboratory Reagent-grade (LR)and commercialsucrose and varied concentrations of corn starch and agarwere tested. The replacement of thermal sterilization, usingautoclave,withchemicalsterilization,adding sodium hypochlorite (2%) in the medium, was also evaluated. In the multiplication stage,the mediumwas supplemented with agar and/or corn starch and commercial sucrose.Forrooting, agrowth regulator-free medium withcommercialsucrose supplemented with agar and/or starch was used. Themicroplants were thentransplanted into plasticcontainerscontainingonlygarden substrateandsubsequentlyacclimatized in a greenhouse.The results make it possibleto conclude that the reduction of costs in the micropropagation of cherry tomatocan beobtained by replacing LRsucrose with commercial sucrose,and by the use of chemical sterilization of the culture medium withsodium hypochlorite. The replacement of agar withcorn starch can be done partially, in the stages of establishment and multiplication,and totally, during rooting

Integrated turbine-generators for hydropower plant – a review

The paper provide a comprehensive review on water turbine integrated with electrical generator. The integration consists in combining the generator with the turbine in one device without the use of a gearbox. The practical implementations of these solutions date back to the 1980s and are more and more common. Such a solution gives a wide possibility of integration and reduction of costs of the hydro unit, however, due to certain technological problems, it is not widely available. This article classifies the different types of integration and analyses it from a technical and economic point of view. Practical implementations and operational problems were also shown.

NON-CURRENT SETTLEMENTS IN THE MODERN ECONOMIC SPACE

The paper considers the development of a system of cashless payments in Russia, as well as in the regional context, using the example of the regions of the Central Black Earth Region and Voronezh Region over the past two years. The concept of non-cash payments and the main advantages of their use (flexibility of payments, transparency of all payments, exclusion of counterfeit banknotes, reduction of costs of economic entities for storage and collection of cash, etc.) are designated. Based on the research data of the SberData project from Sberbank, a comparison is made of regional and average statistics of the country, the level of penetration of cashless payments into the settlement system in 2018-2019 is determined. both at the end of the year and quarterly. It is noted that over 10 years the share of card payments has grown 10 times. Due to the expansion of the spread of non-cash payments and their demand, the share of cash use when paying for most goods and services is less than 50%. Categories were identified in which the population prefers banknotes more and the reasons for choosing this method of payment are determined. The differences between the regions by the percentage of citizens using cashless payments are analyzed. As a result of the analysis, tendencies in the development of cashless payments in the Central Black Earth Region were identified.

Value of the Electronic Medical Record for Hospital Care: Update From the Literature (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Electronic records could improve quality and efficiency of health care. National and international bodies propagate this belief worldwide. However, the evidence base concerning the effects and advantages of electronic records is questionable. The outcome of health care systems is influenced by many components, making assertions about specific types of interventions difficult. Moreover, electronic records itself constitute a complex intervention offering several functions with possibly positive as well as negative effects on the outcome of health care systems. OBJECTIVE The aim of this review is to summarize empirical studies about the value of electronic medical records (EMRs) for hospital care published between 2010 and spring 2019. METHODS The authors adopted their method from a series of literature reviews. The literature search was performed on MEDLINE with “Medical Record System, Computerized” as the essential keyword. The selection process comprised 2 phases looking for a consent of both authors. Starting with 1345 references, 23 were finally included in the review. The evaluation combined a scoring of the studies’ quality, a description of data sources in case of secondary data analyses, and a qualitative assessment of the publications’ conclusions concerning the medical record’s impact on quality and efficiency of health care. RESULTS The majority of the studies stemmed from the United States (19/23, 83%). Mostly, the studies used publicly available data (“secondary data studies”; 17/23, 74%). A total of 18 studies analyzed the effect of an EMR on the quality of health care (78%), 16 the effect on the efficiency of health care (70%). The primary data studies achieved a mean score of 4.3 (SD 1.37; theoretical maximum 10); the secondary data studies a mean score of 7.1 (SD 1.26; theoretical maximum 9). From the primary data studies, 2 demonstrated a reduction of costs. There was not one study that failed to demonstrate a positive effect on the quality of health care. Overall, 9/16 respective studies showed a reduction of costs (56%); 14/18 studies showed an increase of health care quality (78%); the remaining 4 studies missed explicit information about the proposed positive effect. CONCLUSIONS This review revealed a clear evidence about the value of EMRs. In addition to an awesome majority of economic advantages, the review also showed improvements in quality of care by all respective studies. The use of secondary data studies has prevailed over primary data studies in the meantime. Future work could focus on specific aspects of electronic records to guide their implementation and operation.