Global promotion of decarbonisation by using sustainable bio-renewables is associated with generation of ash residues whose amounts have increased exponentially in the last decades. Bioashes are ...physicochemically complex, ultra-alkaline, and potentially hazardous solids, but with a huge potential to become (co)products with environmental/economic value. Their diverse nature lends itself to a wide range of uses in land remediation, wastewater treatment, civil and bio-tech engineering, end even medicine. However, there are issues hindering the usage of bioashes as valuable resources: i) large variation among specific fractions and types, ii) strong and long-lasting reactivity and potential toxicity, and iii) an incoherent, often non-existent, legislative and regulatory framework for management of specific bio-wastes. Overcoming these obstacles and uncertainties regarding the ecological and economic benefits vs. negative side-effects is a significant challenge. The research and implementation work is urgently needed to i) elucidate dosage-dependent biological outcomes of bioash amendments, especially those related to soil and aquatic microbiomes as the primary living barriers/biofilters for most substances released from bioashes, and ii) transform finely powdered matrices to easy-to-apply forms (from nano/micro-to mm-sized agglomerates) to reduce human health implications. The continued progress in material sciences and nanotechnology offers a fascinating array of solutions for re-purposing bioashes; however, given the stringent quality-demanding criteria, the separation and concentration of targeted submatrices (e.g. aluminosilicates) from the bulk bioashes are yet to be achieved on the lab to industrial scales. Meanwhile, a significant reuse potential of bioashes will remain under-exploited and compounded by the adverse environmental issues arising from landfill disposal.
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•Bioash can be re-purposed into a range of value-added products.•Bioash can ameliorate acid/low-nutrient soils without negative implications to biomes.•Pesticide mobility in soil can be suppressed and their degradation in water enhanced.•Bioash can be used for disinfection of sewage and stabilisation of sewage sludge.•Use of bioash in civil and bio-tech engineering would underpin circular bio-economy.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
3.
SiΛvio: A trigger for Λ-hyperons Münzer, Robert; Berger, Martin; Fabbietti, Laura ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
05/2014, Volume:
745
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
As online trigger for events containing Λ hyperons in p+p collisions at 3.1GeV a silicon-based device has been designed and built. This system has been integrated close to the target region within ...the FOPI spectrometer at GSI and was also employed as a tracking device to improve the vertex reconstruction of secondary decays. The design of the detector components, read-out, the trigger capability as well as the tracking performance are presented. An enrichment factor of about 14 was achieved for events containing a Λ-hyperon candidate.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
It is initially stated that a perforated vertical wall is a waterfront structure which influences the size of reflected waves, and hence the size of waves in front of the coast, the incidence of ...spilling over the structure, structure loading level, and erosion at foundation level. Authors present some existing structures as well as laboratory testing conducted on perforated structures, in order to analyse reflective properties of such structures, i.e. their characteristics relating to shape and geometry.
Azimuthal emission patterns of $K^\pm$ mesons have been measured in Ni + Ni
collisions with the FOPI spectrometer at a beam kinetic energy of 1.91 A GeV.
The transverse momentum $p_{T}$ integrated ...directed and elliptic flow of
$K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ mesons as well as the centrality dependence of $p_{T}$ -
differential directed flow of $K^{+}$ mesons are compared to the predictions of
HSD and IQMD transport models. The data exhibits different propagation patterns
of $K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ mesons in the compressed and heated nuclear medium and
favor the existence of a kaon-nucleon in-medium potential, repulsive for
$K^{+}$ mesons and attractive for $K^{-}$ mesons.
Azimuthal emission patterns of \(K^\pm\) mesons have been measured in Ni + Ni collisions with the FOPI spectrometer at a beam kinetic energy of 1.91 A GeV. The transverse momentum \(p_{T}\) ...integrated directed and elliptic flow of \(K^{+}\) and \(K^{-}\) mesons as well as the centrality dependence of \(p_{T}\) - differential directed flow of \(K^{+}\) mesons are compared to the predictions of HSD and IQMD transport models. The data exhibits different propagation patterns of \(K^{+}\) and \(K^{-}\) mesons in the compressed and heated nuclear medium and favor the existence of a kaon-nucleon in-medium potential, repulsive for \(K^{+}\) mesons and attractive for \(K^{-}\) mesons.
This paper presents an approach to the problems of detection and frequency estimation of a frequency modulated narrow-band signal in additive complex Gaussian noise. The signal is assumed to have an ...unknown amplitude, initial phase and frequency trajectory over time, while a priori information regarding random frequency variability is taken to be available. The proposed approach operates in the frequency domain and uses the magnitude and phase of the discrete-time Fourier transforms computed over nonoverlapping signal segments. Robustness at low signal-to-noise ratios is achieved by suppressing the segment-related likelihoods for which the phase estimation error is large. The approach utilises unthresholded transform data and thus works in a track-before-detect manner, and the frequency trajectory is estimated by applying a search over the frequency-time bins. The results of a simulation study involving two signal types with different frequency variability are described.
Abstract Neltuma alba (Algarrobo blanco), Neltuma chilensis (Algarrobo Chileno) and Strombocarpa strombulifera (Fortuna) are some of the few drought resistant trees and shrubs found in small highly ...fragmented populations, throughout the Atacama Desert. We reconstructed their plastid genomes using de novo assembly of paired-end reads from total genomic DNA. We found that the complete plastid genomes of N. alba and N. chilensis are larger in size compared to species of the Strombocarpa genus. The Strombocarpa species presented slightly more GC content than the Neltuma species. Therefore, we assume that Strombocarpa species have been exposed to stronger natural selection than Neltuma species. We observed high variation values in the number of cpSSRs (chloroplast simple sequence repeats) and repeated elements among Neltuma and Strombocarpa species. The p-distance results showed a low evolutionary divergence within the genus Neltuma , whereas a high evolutionary divergence was observed between Strombocarpa species. The molecular divergence time found in Neltuma and Strombocarpa show that these genera diverged in the late Oligocene. With this study we provide valuable information about tree species that provide important ecosystem services in hostile environments which can be used to determine these species in the geographically isolated communities, and keep the highly fragmented populations genetically healthy.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper considers track-before-detect algorithms that can be applied to modeling and tracking of dynamic time-frequency spectra where the number of spectral components is allowed to vary in time. ...The algorithms are the adaptive Dirichlet process mixture model-based Rao-Blackwellised particle filter (ADPM-RBPF) and the histogram probabilistic multi-hypothesis tracker with random matrices (H-PMHT-RM). The ADPM-RBPF uses a time-varying nonparametric Bayesian method based on the Dirichlet process prior to model spectral densities as mixtures of normal distributions with an unknown number of components. This approach estimates the time-varying mean and variance of each spectral mixture component and allows for the inclusion of outliers or clutter measurements. The H-PMHT-RM models each spectrum as a histogram observation of a mixture process. It uses a randomly evolving matrix to estimate the spread of each spectral component and a track management model that enables automated track initiation and termination. The algorithms are compared using simulated and experimental data.
Backgrounds and aims: Studies on the natural regeneration of plant species under hyperaridity conditions have been scarce, mainly because of the low germination percentage of the species under these ...conditions. Presumably, sporadic phenomena such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) could have a positive effect on the natural germination of these species, although this effect has not yet been satisfactorily explored.
M&M: To test the crucial assumption of our statement, a hyperarid region (average rainfall below 5 mm/year) was used as a model to determine the effect of ENSO years on the natural regeneration rate of adult individuals of the endemic legume Hoffmannseggia aphylla (retama) in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Thus, the vegetation density of an endemic leguminous species in a sector of the Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá Region, northern Chile, was analyzed for six years.
Results: The density of this species increased during ENSO years, mainly due to water flows from the highest sectors of the Tamarugal pampas, such as the town of Pica, in addition to the increase in humidity and summer rainfall.
Conclusion: Our results highlight the transcendence of the ENSO in the regeneration of leguminous plants.
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