As the seventh coal producer in the world, around 77% of South Africa’s electricity is generated from coal resulting in a high level of environmental degradation. South Africa’s per capita greenhouse ...emissions are the highest in Africa. Besides, centrally generated power is not able to reach the remote areas because of the lack of distribution infrastructure. South Africa has a large potential for both, solar and wind power generation, with smaller potential for biomass, landfill gas and hydropower. Our focus in this paper is the solar and wind energy implementation in South Africa. With an average of 2,500 hours of sunshine per year, and 4.5 to 6.6 kWh/ m2 of radiation level, South Africa is among the top three in the world. The total wind power potential of South Africa is estimated to be 6,7000 GW, and is found to be competitive with the solar potential. The Government of South Africa, Department of Energy, and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa have developed policies and projects for the procurement and implementation of renewable energy to supplement its fossil fuel based production for greater sustainability and diversification in energy sourcing. In turn the provincial and municipal leadership have produced their own strategies to instigate sustainable energy usage. The Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Program (REIPPPP) has allocated to over 92 Power Producers to injecting over 6,300MW of power into the power grid, mainly from solar and wind generation. The embracing of green energy has led to reduction in energy production costs, job creation, foreign investment and buy-in from local stakeholders. These projects are often located in rural areas, impacting local communities through job creation, development and improved quality of life. However, a number of impediments still need to be addressed as South Africa assimilates this new industry.
The aging of biochar is an important parameter for its sustainable application. However, data on the impact of field-aging biochar on soil biological properties is limited. In this study, the impact ...of three months aged biochar soil mixture and fresh biochar soil mixture on the physico-chemical characteristics (morphology, functional groups, cation exchange and water holding capacities) and biological activity (microbial and soil enzymes) was compared. Cymbopogon winterianus-derived biochar was used for the experiment at three different application rates. The physico-chemical properties of soil collected at different time points suggested that weathering of biochar soil mixture significantly increases the labile organic carbon and cation exchange capacity. However, a decrease in pH and water holding capacity was also observed. In the aged biochar-soil mixture, the rate of mineralization was higher as compared to the fresh biochar-soil mixture. It provided better sites for adsorption of NH4-N and NO3-N. Aged soil biochar mixture had higher microbial and enzymatic activities (dehydrogenase, acidic and alkaline phosphatase and urease) as compared to fresh biochar soil mixture except for β-glucosidase. Our results suggest that short-term field weathering of biochar would be able to improve the soil biological properties significantly.
•Short term field aging biochar enhanced the soil labile carbon significantly.•Aged biochar-soil mixture has better rate of mineralization.•Aged biochar provides better sites for adsorption of NH4-N and NO3-N.•Aged biochar-soil mixture had higher microbial and enzymatic activities.•Short term aging of biochar is suggested to improve soil biological health.
In this article, we aim to investigate various formulae for the
(
p
,
k
)
-analogues of Gauss hypergeometric functions, including the integral transforms and the operators of fractional calculus. All ...the outcomes presented here are of general attractiveness and can yield a number of previous works as special cases.
In this paper, we discuss various estimates to the right-hand (resp. left-hand) side of the Hermite–Hadamard inequality for functions whose absolute values of the second (resp. first) derivatives to ...positive real powers are log-convex. As an application, we derive certain inequalities involving the q-digamma and q-polygamma functions, respectively. As a consequence, new inequalities for the q-analogue of the harmonic numbers in terms of the q-polygamma functions are derived. Moreover, several inequalities for special means are also considered.
In this paper, we present some extensions of the k-hypergeometric functions and then develop the extended Caputo k-type fractional derivative operator by using two parameters k-Mittag–Leffler ...function. We also discuss some properties like generating functions and Mellin transform of the new extended Caputo k-type fractional derivative operator.
The fractional calculus of special functions has significant importance and applications in various fields of science and engineering. Here, we aim to find the fractional integral and differential ...formulas of the extended hypergeometric-type functions by using the Marichev–Saigo–Maeda operators. All the outcomes presented here are of general attractiveness and can yield a number of previous works as special cases due to the high degree of symmetry of the involved functions.
The Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) has become a major public health problem in the State of Karnataka, India where the disease was first identified and in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Goa ...covering the Western Ghats region of India. The incidence of positive cases and distribution of the Kyasanur Forest Disease virus (KFDV) in different geographical regions raises the need to understand the evolution and spatiotemporal transmission dynamics. Phylogeography analysis based on 48 whole genomes (46 from this study) and additionally 28 E-gene sequences of KFDV isolated from different regions spanning the period 1957-2017 was thus undertaken. The mean evolutionary rates based the E-gene was marginally higher than that based on the whole genomes. A subgroup of KFDV strains (2006-2017) differing from the early Karnataka strains (1957-1972) by ~2.76% in their whole genomes and representing spread to different geographical areas diverged around 1980. Dispersal from Karnataka to Goa and Maharashtra was indicated. Maharashtra represented a new source for transmission of KFDV since ~2013. Significant evidence of adaptive evolution at site 123 A/T located in the vicinity of the envelope protein dimer interface may have functional implications. The findings indicate the need to curtail the spread of KFDV by surveillance measures and improved vaccination strategies.
The main purpose of the present article is to introduce certain new Saigo fractional integral inequalities and their q-extensions. We also studied some special cases of these inequalities involving ...Riemann-Liouville and Erdelyi-Kober fractional integral operators.
Efficacy of inactivated poliovirus vaccine in India Jafari, Hamid; Deshpande, Jagadish M.; Sutter, Roland W. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2014, Letnik:
345, Številka:
6199
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) is efficacious against paralytic disease, but its effect on mucosal immunity is debated. We assessed the efficacy of IPV in boosting mucosal immunity. ...Participants received IPV, bivalent 1 and 3 oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV), or no vaccine. A bOPV challenge was administered 4 weeks later, and excretion was assessed 3, 7, and 14 days later. Nine hundred and fifty-four participants completed the study. Any fecal shedding of poliovirus type 1 was 8.8, 9.1, and 13.5% in the IPV group and 14.4, 24.1, and 52.4% in the control group by 6- to 11-month, 5-year, and 10-year groups, respectively (IPV versus control: Fisher’s exact test P < 0.001). IPV reduced excretion for poliovirus types 1 and 3 between 38.9 and 74.2% and 52.8 and 75.7%, respectively. Thus, IPV in OPV-vaccinated individuals boosts intestinal mucosal immunity.
Biochar prepared from aromatic spent was used as adsorbent for assessing its removal capacity of cadmium, chromium, copper and lead from aqueous acidic solutions. For the optimization of the ...processes, separate experiments were setup in fixed bed columns of biochar prepared from different biomasses in variable sizes at different temperatures, metal concentrations, flow rate and time. The effect of the above parameters on adsorption of metals was assessed in terms of maximum adsorption capacity, kinetics, theorem and thermodynamics. Results show that maximum removal of each metal was 60mg/g. The adsorption equilibrium data obeyed the Freundlich model and the kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption process is believed to proceed by an initial surface adsorption followed by intra-particle diffusion. In this regard to the proposed mechanism, modeling results implied that exchange of the hydrogen occurs during the low loading of metal. Opposite is true for the calcium, magnesium and sodium ions. Thermodynamic studies revealed the feasibility and endothermic nature of the system. Treatment of acidic mine water with biochar suggests that it buffers the acid and is capable of efficient removal of these metals.
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