Evaluation of particle recovery from microalgae

Coccoliths are micro-structured biomineral particles found in cell protective covering layers of coccolithophore species. They are mainly composed of CaCO₃ and their individual crystal entities are arranged in such a way that they construct complex and unique structures. This complexity is found down to the individual particle level and appears to have promising properties to offer. This study focuses on the essential step prior to any kind of implementation, which is the recovery of the material. It summarizes cleaning protocols found in literature, compares them for the first time for the same freshly cultivated material and addresses challenges that still need to be overcome. Further, it highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the best cleaning protocols, suggests optimizations with promising results and uses size distribution measurements to analyse the recovery efficiency. To that end, further characterization techniques, new for coccoliths, are introduced and used to improve our current knowledge of the particles behaviour.     

傅里叶变换拉曼光谱在食品行业的应用

人们对于食品行业历来有着很高的关注度,食品检测、食品安全等各方面都成为了企业和社会关注的焦点问题。随着检测技术的不断发展,傅里叶变换拉曼(Fourier transform Raman, FT-Raman)光谱技术作为一种能够快速、无损、准确的光谱分析方法,已经在农业、医学、考古学等领域证明了其价值,在食品行业也得到了越来越多的应用。各种研究报告表明,除了仅通过光谱的视觉差异信息进行物质判别之外,FT-Raman光谱结合化学计量工具或与其他光谱手段进行联合分析,提供了更多可以应用在食品行业的高效检测、判别手段。本文简述了有关FT-Raman光谱技术的一些基本原理,综述了近10年(2010～2019)中FT-Raman光谱在食品行业中的应用,并对其未来的发展趋势进行了展望。     

基于多项式变换的参数估计方法

本文给出一种采用DPT估计SNCK信号时宽—带宽积的方法,并通过仿真该估计方法的性能与其它估计方法进行比较.首先给出SNCK信号参数估计的一般过程.为了便于计算和理论推导,根据估计出的中心频率将接收到的SNCK信号搬移到零频,从而进一步估计其它参数,如采用DPT估计SNCK信号时宽带宽积.本文将重点研究采用DPT算法估计SNCK信号值的方法.     

Prediction of composite suitability index for physical habitat simulations using the ANFIS method

A physical habitat simulation is a useful tool for assessing the impact of river development or restoration on river ecosystem. Conventional methods of physical habitat simulation use the habitat suitability index models and their success depends largely on how well the model reflects monitoring data. One of preferred habitat suitability index models is habitat suitability curves, which are normally constructed based on monitoring data. However, these curves can easily be affected by the subjective opinion of the expert. This study introduces the ANFIS method for predicting the composite suitability index for use in physical habitat simulations. The ANFIS method is a hybrid type of artificial intelligence technique that combines the artificial neural network and fuzzy logic. The method is known to be a powerful approach especially for developing nonlinear relationships between input and output datasets.In this study, the ANFIS method was used to predict the composite suitability index for the physical habitat simulation of a 2.5 km long reach of the Dal River in Korea. Zacco platypus was chosen as the target fish of the study area. A 2D hydraulic simulation was performed, and the hydraulic model was validated by comparing the measured and predicted water surface elevations. The distribution of the composite suitability index predicted by the ANFIS model was compared with that using the habitat suitability curves. The comparisons reveal that the two distributions are similar for various flows. In addition, the distribution of the composite suitability index of the Dal River is computed by the ANFIS method using monitoring data for the other watersheds, namely the Hongcheon River, the Geum River, and the Chogang Stream. The monitoring data for the Chogang Stream, correlation pattern of which was the most similar to that of the Dal River, yielded the distribution of the composite suitability index, which was very close to that obtained using data for the Dal River. This is also supported by the mean absolute percentage error for the difference in the weighted usable areas.     

Performance evaluation of noise reduction method during on-line monitoring of MV switchgear for PD measurements by non-intrusive sensors

Partial Discharge (PD) measurement is a globally accepted method for insulation diagnosis of electrical assets. The consequences of insulation breakdown are well known. The trend is to move from conventional offline testing to online monitoring for insulation life prediction, which results in the inclusion of high frequency noise in the captured signals. Therefore de-noising is of paramount importance in online monitoring to obtain useful information from the signal.In this research, a 20 kV switchgear panel has been subjected to PD faults in the laboratory and measurements have been carried out by using different non-intrusive sensors including a novel sensor, the D-dot sensor and recorded by a high frequency oscilloscope. The measured results show the effective applicability of sensors for switchgear. The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) has been used to de-noise PD signals in this paper. Time domain and frequency domain comparison of original and de-noised PD signals reveals the significance of this technique for online monitoring of Medium Voltage (MV) switchgear. Finally, an adaptive online de-noising concept, based on automatic de-noising is also proposed in this paper.     

Automated coronal hole segmentation from Solar EUV Images using the watershed transform

Region of interest segmentation in solar images is the subject of frequent research in solar physics. This study outlines watershed by immersion segmentation to identify coronal hole areas in solar images acquired using the Extreme UV Imaging Telescope (EIT). Solutions presented here produce highly accurate segmentation results of coronal holes of irregular shape, and what is more, they do so for images representing varied solar activity, recorded in different years and months. In addition, the solutions presented here make all the methods used operate very quickly. These methods include: the preprocessing step before the watershed segmentation, the watershed segmentation itself, and also the postprocessing of solar images after the watershed segmentation. The mean duration of the entire segmentation process of solar images amounts to 342 ms for a single coronal hole, without the parallel implementation of the methods used. The experiments were carried out on a computer with an Intel Core i7 CPU @ 2 GHz and 4 GB RAM. After the seed point is identified inside the coronal hole, the segmentation runs automatically.     

Prediction of sediment,particulate nutrient and dissolved nutrient concentrations in a dry tropical river to provide input to a mechanistic coastal water quality model

A Generalised Additive Modelling (GAM) approach is applied to prediction of both particulate and dissolved nutrient concentrations in a wet-tropical river (the Fitzroy River, Queensland, Australia). In addition to covariant terms considered in previous work (i.e. flow, discounted flow and a rising-falling limb term), we considered several new potential covariates: meteorological and hydrological variables that are routinely monitored, available in near-real time, and were considered to have potential predictive power. Of the additional terms considered, only flows from three tributaries of the Fitzroy River (namely, the Nogoa, Comet and Isaac Rivers) were found to significantly improve the model. Inclusion of one or more of these additional flow terms greatly improved results for dissolved nitrogen and dissolved phosphorus concentrations, which were not otherwise amenable to prediction. In particular, the Nogoa sub-catchment, dominated by pasture for cattle, was found to be important in determining dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations reaching the river mouth. This insight may direct further research, including future refinement of processed-based catchment models. The GAMs described here are used to provide near real-time river boundary conditions for a complex coupled hydrodynamic and biogeochemical model of the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon, and can be coupled with a forecasting hydrological model to allow integrated forecasting simulations of the catchment to coast system.     

A web-based software tool for participatory optimization of conservation practices in watersheds

WRESTORE (Watershed Restoration Using Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Resources) is a web-based, participatory planning tool that can be used to engage with watershed stakeholder communities, and involve them in using science-based, human-guided, interactive simulation–optimization methods for designing potential conservation practices on their landscape. The underlying optimization algorithms, process simulation models, and interfaces allow users to not only spatially optimize the locations and types of new conservation practices based on quantifiable goals estimated by the dynamic simulation models, but also to include their personal subjective and/or unquantifiable criteria in the location and design of these practices. In this paper, we describe the software, interfaces, and architecture of WRESTORE, provide scenarios for implementing the WRESTORE tool in a watershed community's planning process, and discuss considerations for future developments.