NRC Designs—New Tools for Successful Agricultural Experiments

In a nested row–column design (NRC), the experimental units in each of n blocks are grouped into n1 rows and n2 columns. Due to its structure, this experimental design allows full control of the experimental material and a relatively simple feedback loop within the “statistical triangle”. By applying such designs in agricultural experiments, we provide an insurance policy against future unexpected problems. Until now, the cost of this policy has been a complex statistical analysis of experimental data. This paper proposes a new “direct” approach to ANOVA based on the latest literature on the subject. The paper provides the theoretical foundations of this approach, indicates the possibility of applying it to factorial and near-factorial experiments, and supplements the theory with a familiar letter-based representation of all-pairwise comparisons, which has so far been lacking in the literature. The methodology is illustrated by the analysis of a field experiment carried out to improve the use of fungicides against late blight in tomato processing. The presented analytical tools are supplemented with code in R.

Influence of positions of the geotextile on the load-settlement behaviour of circular footing resting on single stone column by 2D Plaxis software

Purpose: This study aims to study the load – settlement behaviour of circular footing rested on encased single stone column. Design/methodology/approach: The effect of vertical, horizontal and combined verticalhorizontal encasement of stone column on the load carrying capacity were examined numerically. The effect of stone column dimension (80 mm and 100 mm), length (400 mm and 500 mm), and spacing of reinforcement on the load carrying capacity and reinforcement ratio were assessed. Findings: The obtained results revealed that the load carrying capacity of geotextile encased stone columns are more than ordinary stone columns. For vertically encased stone columns as the diameter increases, the advantage of encasement decreases. Whereas, for horizontally encased stone column and combined vertical- horizontal encased stone column, the performance of encasement intensifies as the diameter of stone column increases. The improvement in the load carrying capacity of clay bed reinforced with combined verticalhorizontal encased stone columns are higher than vertical encased stone columns or horizontal encased stone column. The maximum performance of encasement was observed for VHESC1 of D = 80 mm. Research limitations/implications: For this study, the diameter of footing and stone column was kept same. The interface strength factor between stone column and clay bed was not considered. Practical implications: The encased stone column could be use improve the laod bearing capacity of weak soils. Originality/value: Many studies are available in literature regarding use of geosynthetic as vertical encasement and horizontal encasement of stone column. The study on combined effect of vertical and horizontal encasement of stone column on load carrying capacity of weak soil is very minimal. Keeping this in view, the present work was carried out.

Educational Research and Practice

Teachers must innovatively bring the best out of learning situation, classroom space and available learning resources. However, very few and mostly not serious researches have been published on effects of seat arrangements on cognition, lesson delivery and classroom control. This article was aimed at highlighting the principles and clarify the context in which school proprietors and teachers (of both elementary and secondary schools) can choose or make innovations on three popular student seating arrangements: the traditional long rows,(with its variants, stadium, theatre , or angled row seats), the U-shape or horseshoe design and the paired module (two or three person per desk) row by column design. These are discussed: based on their original design principles, literature on their usage, the researcher’s students-centered experiments on their limitations. The arrangement of pair desk modules was shown to be the best in all situation, easy to readjust into pod-community like design and into u-shape when appropriate, given its flexibility, advantage in time before lesson, and with the optimum results.

Investigating best available technique for CO2 chemical absorption: solvent selection based on empirical surrogate model and exergy loss

The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has reached extremely high levels, generating environmental concerns. Unfortunately, despite the climate change, CO2 is not included nowadays as a key environmental issue in Best Available Technique (BAT) reference documents (BREF). Industrially, the widespread industrial technology to capture CO2 is the chemical absorption using aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) at 30%wt, which is the basis of comparison for novel alternative techniques in the literature and seems a suitable candidate to be proposed as Best Available Technique. Nevertheless, there is an intense research to find alternative solvents that decrease the energy consumption for carbon capture and many solvents are claimed in the literature to outperform MEA. A novel empirical surrogate model and exergy balances are used to confirm that MEA is still the best candidate to be proposed as Best Available Technique. The surrogate model proposed in this study properly regresses the CO2 gas liquid equilibrium data. The regressed parameters of the model are tabulated in this study for many aqueous alkanolamines and their mixtures, being the basis for computationally inexpensive chemical absorption column design. The surrogate model parameter considering the temperature is related with the chemical absorption energy and the consumed energy for solvent recovery. The obtained results show that none of the considered alkanolamine outperforms MEA in all the considered aspects, i.e. energy and solvent flowrate. MEA minimum flowrate is 15.62 mol solvent/mol gas and its heat of absorption regression parameter is − 27,745 J/mol. The proposed mathematical method is useful as a fast assessment for other novel alternatives that will be proposed in the future, providing energetically more efficient and cleaner technologies for CO2 capture. Graphic abstract

Dividing-Wall Column Design: Analysis of Methodologies Tailored to Process Simulators

Dividing-wall columns (DWCs) are intensified processes that have attracted industrial and academic attention due to the reduction in operating and installation costs compared to traditional distillation systems. Several methodologies are available for the design of DWCs. Most of them consist of three parts: an analysis of operating variables; an analysis of the structural design (topology); and an optimization of the resulting preliminary design. This paper aims to study three widely used design methodologies reported in the literature for DWCs, i.e., Triantafyllou and Smith (T&S), minimum vapor (Vmin), and Sotudeh and Shahraki (S&S) methods, along with their implementation on process simulators. A proposed modification to the S&S methodology is also presented. A comparison of the methods is carried out and rated against designs with minimum total annual costs. The analysis considers the effect of different structural design variables to initialize the design procedure with each methodology. Five case studies involving mixtures with different ease of separation index were evaluated. The results show that the most efficient techniques were obtained with a modified Sotudeh and Shahraki’s methodology. It was also found that the T&S approach stands out from the other methods, as it provided excellent initial designs for the case studies tested in this work.

UHPC Infilled Circular steel Tube Column Design

Previous researchers studied the behavior of Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) columns confined with steel tubes. However, predicting the influence of the confinement effect and the compressive capacity of these columns has yet to be further examined. Currently, the Canadian design code limits for reinforced concrete do not reach the strength nor the strain produced by using UHPC. This project uses the Canadian design methods for a cross-section of UHPC to form a column interaction curve and compared it with six test specimens. The effects of steel tube confinement will also be examined. Additionally, the Eurocode 4 (EC4) method, which includes the strengths of UHPC and confinement of steel tube, was used to formulate another column interaction curve. The results show that the Canadian code severely underestimates the design strength of confined UHPC while the EC4 provides much more accurate results.