Search results for: yield enhancement

Authors: Regina A. Tayong, Reza Barati

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A stable, fast and robust three-phase, 2D IMPES simulator has been developed for assessing the influence of; breaker concentration on yield stress of filter cake and broken gel viscosity, varying polymer concentration/yield stress along the fracture face, fracture conductivity, fracture length, capillary pressure changes and formation damage on fracturing fluid cleanup in tight gas reservoirs. This model has been validated as against field data reported in the literature for the same reservoir. A 2-D, two-phase (gas/water) fracture propagation model is used to model our invasion zone and create the initial conditions for our clean-up model by distributing 200 bbls of water around the fracture. A 2-D, three-phase IMPES simulator, incorporating a yield-power-law-rheology has been developed in MATLAB to characterize fluid flow through a hydraulically fractured grid. The variation in polymer concentration along the fracture is computed from a material balance equation relating the initial polymer concentration to total volume of injected fluid and fracture volume. All governing equations and the methods employed have been adequately reported to permit easy replication of results. The effect of increasing capillary pressure in the formation simulated in this study resulted in a 10.4% decrease in cumulative production after 100 days of fluid recovery. Increasing the breaker concentration from 5-15 gal/Mgal on the yield stress and fluid viscosity of a 200 lb/Mgal guar fluid resulted in a 10.83% increase in cumulative gas production. For tight gas formations (k=0.05 md), fluid recovery increases with increasing shut-in time, increasing fracture conductivity and fracture length, irrespective of the yield stress of the fracturing fluid. Mechanical induced formation damage combined with hydraulic damage tends to be the most significant. Several correlations have been developed relating pressure distribution and polymer concentration to distance along the fracture face and average polymer concentration variation with injection time. The gradient in yield stress distribution along the fracture face becomes steeper with increasing polymer concentration. The rate at which the yield stress (τ_o) is increasing is found to be proportional to the square of the volume of fluid lost to the formation. Finally, an improvement on previous results was achieved through simulating yield stress variation along the fracture face rather than assuming constant values because fluid loss to the formation and the polymer concentration distribution along the fracture face decreases as we move away from the injection well. The novelty of this three-phase flow model lies in its ability to (i) Simulate yield stress variation with fluid loss volume along the fracture face for different initial guar concentrations. (ii) Simulate increasing breaker activity on yield stress and broken gel viscosity and the effect of (i) and (ii) on cumulative gas production within reasonable computational time.

Keywords: formation damage, hydraulic fracturing, polymer cleanup, multiphase flow numerical simulation

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Authors: Awais Ahmad, Mostafa Muhammad Selim, Ali Abdullah Alderfasi

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Water limitation is undoubtedly a critical environmental constraint limiting the crop production under arid and semiarid areas. Mung bean is susceptible to both drought and water logging stresses. Therefore, present study was conducted to assess the water deficit stress consequences of yield components and water use efficiency in Mung bean. A field experiment was conducted at Educational Farm, Crop Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Kind Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Trail comprised of four irrigation levels — total amount of irrigation divided into irrigation intervals — (3, 5, 7 and 9 days interval) and three Mung bean genotypes; Kawmay-1, VC-2010 and King from Egypt, Thailand and China respectively. Experiment was arranged under split plot design having irrigation as main while genotype as subplot treatment, and replicated thrice. Plant height, 100 seed weight, biological yield, seed yield, harvest index and water use efficiency were recorded at harvesting. Results revealed that decrease in irrigation have significantly hampered all the studied parameters. Mung bean genotypes have also shown significant differences for all parameters, whereas irrigation genotype interaction was highly significant for seed yield, harvest index and water use efficiency (WUE) while it was significant for biological yield. Plant height and 100 seed weight were recorded non-significant for irrigation genotype interaction. A statistically highly significant correlation among recorded parameters was observed. Minimum irrigation interval (3 days) significantly produced maximum values while VC-2010 comparatively performed better under low irrigation levels. It was concluded that Mung bean may be successfully adopted under Saudi Arabian climate but it needs high water or frequent irrigation, however, genotypic differences are a hope to develop some improved varieties with high water use efficiency.

Keywords: mung bean, irrigation intervals, water use efficiency, genotypes, yield

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Authors: Reza Sirjani, Nobosse Tafem Bolan

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Many optimization techniques available in the literature have been developed in order to solve the problem of voltage stability enhancement in power systems. However, there are a number of drawbacks in the use of previous techniques aimed at determining the optimal location and size of reactive compensators in a network. In this paper, an Improved Cuckoo Search algorithm is applied as an appropriate optimization algorithm to determine the optimum location and size of a Static Var Compensator (SVC) in a transmission network. The main objectives are voltage stability improvement and total cost minimization. The results of the presented technique are then compared with other available optimization techniques.

Keywords: cuckoo search algorithm, optimization, power system, var compensators, voltage stability

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Authors: Auwal Garba, Rabiu Maijama’a, Abdullahi Muhammad Jalam

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Variability in climate has affected the agricultural production all over the globe. This concern has motivated important changes in the field of research during the last decade. Climate variability is believed to have declining effects towards rice production in Nigeria. This study examined climate variability and its impact on rice productivity in Dass Local Government Area, Bauchi State, by employing Linear Trend Model (LTM), analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis. Annual seasonal data of the climatic variables for temperature (min. and max), rainfall, and solar radiation from 1990 to 2015 were used. Results confirmed that 74.4% of the total variation in rice yield in the study area was explained by the changes in the independent variables. That is to say, temperature (minimum and maximum), rainfall, and solar radiation explained rice yield with 74.4% in the study area. Rising mean maximum temperature would lead to reduction in rice production while moderate increase in mean minimum temperature would be advantageous towards rice production, and the persistent rise in the mean maximum temperature, in the long run, will have more negatively affect rice production in the future. It is, therefore, important to promote agro-meteorological advisory services, which will be useful in farm planning and yield sustainability. Closer collaboration among the meteorologist and agricultural scientist is needed to increase the awareness about the existing database, crop weather models among others, with a view to reaping the full benefits of research on specific problems and sustainable yield management and also there should be a special initiative by the ADPs (State Agricultural Development Programme) towards promoting best agricultural practices that are resilient to climate variability in rice production and yield sustainability.

Keywords: climate variability, impact, productivity, rice

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Authors: Farag Ahwide, Souhel Bousheha

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A technical assessment has been made of electricity generation, considering wind turbines ranging between Vestas (V80-2.0 MW and V112-3.0 MW) and the air density is equal to 1.225 Kg/m3, at different towns in Libya. Wind speed might have been measured each 3 hours during 10 m stature at a time for 10 quite sometime between 2000 Furthermore 2009, these towns which are spotted on the bank from claiming Mediterranean ocean also how in the desert, which need aid Derna 1, Derna 2, Shahat, Benghazi, Ajdabya, Sirte, Misurata, Tripoli-Airport, Al-Zawya, Al-Kofra, Sabha, Nalut. The work presented long term "wind data analysis in terms of annual, seasonal, monthly and diurnal variations at these sites. Wind power density with different heights has been studied. Excel sheet program was used to calculate the values of wind power density and the values of wind speed frequency for the stations; their seasonally values have been estimated. Limit variable with rated wind pace to 10 different wind turbines need to be been estimated, which is used to focus those required yearly vitality yield of a wind vitality change framework (WECS), acknowledging wind turbines extending between 600 kW and 3000 kW).

Keywords: energy yield, wind turbines, wind speed, wind power density

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Authors: Tamrat Tesfaye, Bruce Sithole

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Box-Behnken Response surface methodology was used to determine the optimum processing conditions that give maximum extraction yield and whiteness index from mango seed. The steeping time ranges from 2 to 12 hours and slurring of the steeped seed in sodium metabisulphite solution (0.1 to 0.5 w/v) was carried out. Experiments were designed according to Box-Behnken Design with these three factors and a total of 15 runs experimental variables of were analyzed. At linear level, the concentration of sodium metabisulphite had significant positive influence on percentage yield and whiteness index at p<0.05. At quadratic level, sodium metabisulphite concentration and sodium metabisulphite concentration2 had a significant negative influence on starch yield; sodium metabisulphite concentration and steeping time*temperature had significant (p<0.05) positive influence on whiteness index. The adjusted R2 above 0.8 for starch yield (0.906465) and whiteness index (0.909268) showed a good fit of the model with the experimental data. The optimum sodium metabisulphite concentration, steeping hours, and temperature for starch isolation with maximum starch yield (66.428%) and whiteness index (85%) as set goals for optimization with the desirability of 0.91939 was 0.255w/v concentration, 2hrs and 50 °C respectively. The determined experimental value of each response based on optimal condition was statistically in accordance with predicted levels at p<0.05. The Mango seeds are the by-products obtained during mango processing and possess disposal problem if not handled properly. The substitution of food based sizing agents with mango seed starch can contribute as pertinent resource deployment for value-added product manufacturing and waste utilization which might play significance role of food security in Ethiopia.

Keywords: mango, synthetic sizing agent, starch, extraction, textile, sizing

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Authors: Zhang Shuqi, Liu Dan

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For the problems in intelligent network anomaly traffic detection models, such as low detection accuracy caused by the lack of training samples, poor effect with small sample attack detection, a classification model enhancement method, F-ACGAN(Flow Auxiliary Classifier Generative Adversarial Network) which introduces generative adversarial network and adversarial training, is proposed to solve these problems. Generating adversarial data with category labels could enhance the training effect and improve classification accuracy and model robustness. FACGAN consists of three steps: feature preprocess, which includes data type conversion, dimensionality reduction and normalization, etc.; A generative adversarial network model with feature learning ability is designed, and the sample generation effect of the model is improved through adversarial iterations between generator and discriminator. The adversarial disturbance factor of the gradient direction of the classification model is added to improve the diversity and antagonism of generated data and to promote the model to learn from adversarial classification features. The experiment of constructing a classification model with the UNSW-NB15 dataset shows that with the enhancement of FACGAN on the basic model, the classification accuracy has improved by 8.09%, and the score of F1 has improved by 6.94%.

Keywords: data imbalance, GAN, ACGAN, anomaly detection, adversarial training, data augmentation

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Authors: Getalem E. Haylia

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The Ribb dam is one of the irrigation projects in the Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia, to irrigate the Fogera plain. Reservoir sedimentation is a major problem because it reduces the useful reservoir capacity by the accumulation of sediments coming from the watersheds. Estimates of sediment yield are needed for studies of reservoir sedimentation and planning of soil and water conservation measures. The objective of this study was to simulate the Ribb dam catchment sediment yield using SWAT model and to estimate Ribb reservoir effective life according to trap efficiency methods. The Ribb dam catchment is found in North Western part of Ethiopia highlands, and it belongs to the upper Blue Nile and Lake Tana basins. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was selected to simulate flow and sediment yield in the Ribb dam catchment. The model sensitivity, calibration, and validation analysis at Ambo Bahir site were performed with Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2). The flow data at this site was obtained by transforming the Lower Ribb gauge station (2002-2013) flow data using Area Ratio Method. The sediment load was derived based on the sediment concentration yield curve of Ambo site. Stream flow results showed that the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE) was 0.81 and the coefficient of determination (R²) was 0.86 in calibration period (2004-2010) and, 0.74 and 0.77 in validation period (2011-2013), respectively. Using the same periods, the NS and R² for the sediment load calibration were 0.85 and 0.79 and, for the validation, it became 0.83 and 0.78, respectively. The simulated average daily flow rate and sediment yield generated from Ribb dam watershed were 3.38 m³/s and 1772.96 tons/km²/yr, respectively. The effective life of Ribb reservoir was estimated using the developed empirical methods of the Brune (1953), Churchill (1948) and Brown (1958) methods and found to be 30, 38 and 29 years respectively. To conclude, massive sediment comes from the steep slope agricultural areas, and approximately 98-100% of this incoming annual sediment loads have been trapped by the Ribb reservoir. In Ribb catchment, as well as reservoir systematic and thorough consideration of technical, social, environmental, and catchment managements and practices should be made to lengthen the useful life of Ribb reservoir.

Keywords: catchment, reservoir effective life, reservoir sedimentation, Ribb, sediment yield, SWAT model

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Authors: Dijan Supramono, Eny Kusrini, Haisya Yuana

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Pyrolysis, a thermal cracking process in inert environment, may be used to produce bio-oil from biomass and plastic waste thus accommodating the use of renewable energy. Abundant amount of biomass waste in Indonesia are not utilised and plastic wastes are not well processed for clean environment. The aim of present work was to evaluate effect of mass ratio of plastic material to biomass in the feed blend of corn cobs and high density polyethylene (HDPE) of co-pyrolysis on bio-oil yield and chemical composition of bio-oil products. The heating rate of the co-pyrolysis was kept low and residence time was in the order of seconds to accommodate high yield of oil originating from plastic pyrolysis. Corn cobs have high cellulose and hemicellulose content (84%) which is potential to produce bio-oil. The pyrolysis was conducted in a laboratory-scale using a fixed bed reactor with final temperature of 500°C, heating rate 5 °C/min, flow rate N2 750 mL/min, total weight of biomass and plastic material of 20 g, and hold time after peak temperature of 30 min. Set up of conditions of co-pyrolysis should lead to accommodating the production of oil originating from HDPE due to constraint of HDPE pyrolysis residence time. Mass ratio of plastics to biomass in the feed blend was varied 0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0. It was found that by increasing HDPE content up to 100% in the feed blend, the yield of bio-oil at different mass ratios prescribed above were 28.05, 21.55, 14.55, 9.5, and 6.3wt%, respectively. Therefore, in the fixed bed reactor, producing bio-oil is constrained by low contribution of plastic feedstock to the pyrolysis liquid yield. Furthermore, for the same variation of the mass ratio, yields of the mixture of paraffins, olefins and cycloalkanes contained in bio-oil were of 0, 28.35, 40.75, 47.17, and 67.05wt%, respectively. Olefins and cycloalkanes are easily hydrogenised to produce paraffins, suitable to be used as bio-fuel. By increasing composition of HDPE in the feed blend, viscosity and pH of bio-oil change approaching to those of commercial diesel oil.

Keywords: co-pyrolysis, corn cobs, fixed bed reactor, HDPE

Procedia PDF Downloads 355

Authors: Kalpana Jamdhade, Anita Chorey, Bharti Tijare, V. M. Bhale

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A field experiment was conducted during summer season of 2011 at Agronomy research farm, Dr. PDKV, Akola, to study the effect of irrigation regime and nitrogen levels on growth and productivity of summer sesame. The experiment was laid out in split plot Design in which three irrigation scheduling on the basis of IW/CPE ratio viz., irrigation at 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 IW/CPE ratios (I1, I2 and I3, respectively) and one irrigation scheduling based on critical growth stages of sesame (I4), in main plot and three nitrogen levels 0, 30 and 60 kg N ha-1 (N0, N1 and N2, respectively) in subplot. The result showed that plant height, number of leaves plant-1, leaf area and dry matter accumulation were maximum in irrigation scheduling at 1.0 IW/CPE ratio, which significantly superior over 0.6 IW/CPE ratio and irrigation at critical growth stages but were statistically at par with irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE ratio. Nitrogen levels, application of 60 kg N ha-1 was recorded significantly superior all growth parameters over treatment 30 kg N ha-1 and 0 kg N ha-1. In case of yield attributes viz., No. of capsules plant-1, Test wt., grain yield and Stalk yield (qha-1) were maximum in irrigation scheduling at 1.0 IW/CPE ratio and were significantly superior over 0.8 IW/CPE ratio, 0.6 IW/CPE ratio and irrigation at critical growth stages. Application of 60 kg N ha-1 increased all yield attributing characters over application of 30 and 0 kg N ha-1. In case of economics of crop same trend was found and the highest B:C ration was obtained in irrigation scheduling at 1.0 IW/CPE ratio. Whereas, application of 30 kg N ha-1 was recorded highest B:C ration over application of 60 and 0 kg N ha-1. Interaction effect of irrigation and nitrogen levels were found to be non significant in summer season.

Keywords: irrigation regimes, nitrogen levels, summer sesame, agricultural technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: Udomporn Pangnakorn, Settawut Prasatporn, Sombat Chuenchooklin

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The effect of biopesticide on growth, yield and pest infestation of maize (Zea mays Linn.) (variety DK 6818) was evaluated during the drought season. The experimental plots were located at research station of Faculty of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand. The extracted substance from plants was evaluated in the plots in 4 treatments: 1) water as control; 2) bitter bush (Chromolaena odorata L.); 3) neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss), 4) golden shower (Cassia fistula Linn.). The experiment was followed a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 4 treatments and 4 replications per treatment. The results showed that golden shower gave the highest growth of maize in term of height (203.29 cm), followed by neem and bitter bush with average height of 202.66 cm and 191.66 cm respectively with significance different. But neem treatment given significantly higher average of yield component in term of length, width, and weight of pod corn with 18.89 cm 13.91 cm and 166.46 g respectively. Also, treatment of neem showed the highest harvested yield at 284.06 kg/ha followed by the golden shower and bitter bush with harvested yield at 245.86 kg/ha and 235.52 kg/ha respectively. Additionally, treatment of neem and golden shower were the highest effectiveness for reducing insects pest infestation of maize: corn leaf aphid Rhopalosiphum maidis Fitch, corn borer Ostrinia fumacalis Guenee and corn armyworm Mythimna separata Walker. The treatment of neem, golden shower, and bitter bush given reduction insect infestation on maize with leaves area were infested at 5,412 mm², 6,827 mm² and 8,910 mm² respectively with significance different when compared to control.

Keywords: maize, Zea mays Linn., biopesticide, bitter bush, Chromolaena odorata L.), neem, Azadirachta indica A. Juss, golden shower, Cassia fistula Linn.

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: H. Shokouhmand, M. Tajerian

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A numerical investigation of laminar forced convection flows through a square cross section micro heat pipe by applying electrohydrodynamic (EHD) field has been studied. In the present study, pentane is selected as working fluid. Temperature and velocity profiles and heat transfer enhancement in the micro heat pipe by using EHD field at the two-dimensional and single phase fluid flow in steady state regime have been numerically calculated. At this model, only Coulomb force is considered. The study has been carried out for the Reynolds number 10 to 100 and EHD force field up to 8 KV. Coupled, non-linear equations governed on the model (continuity, momentum, and energy equations) have been solved simultaneously by CFD numerical methods. Steady state behavior of affecting parameters, e.g. friction factor, average temperature, Nusselt number and heat transfer enhancement criteria, have been evaluated. It has been observed that by increasing Reynolds number, the effect of EHD force became more significant and for smaller Reynolds numbers the rate of heat transfer enhancement criteria is increased. By obtaining and plotting the mentioned parameters, it has been shown that the EHD field enhances the heat transfer process. The numerical results show that by increasing EHD force field the absolute value of Nusselt number and friction factor increases and average temperature of fluid flow decreases. But the increasing rate of Nusselt number is greater than increasing value of friction factor, which makes applying EHD force field for heat transfer enhancement in micro heat pipes acceptable and applicable. The numerical results of model are in good agreement with the experimental results available in the literature.

Keywords: micro heat pipe, electrohydrodynamic force, Nusselt number, average temperature, friction factor

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Authors: Anil Kumar, Diwakar Aggarwal, M. Sudhakara Reddy

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The wood of Eucalyptus, Populus and bamboos are some important species used as raw material for the manufacture of pulp. However, higher levels of lignin pose a problem during Kraft pulping and yield of pulp is also lower. In order to increase the yield of pulp per unit wood and reduce the use of chemicals during kraft pulping it is important to reduce the lignin content and/or increase cellulose content in wood. Cellulose biosynthesis in wood takes place by the coordinated action of many enzymes. The two important enzymes are KORRIGAN and SUCROSE SYNTHASE. KORRIGAN (Endo-1,4--glucanase) is implicated in the process of editing growing cellulose chains and improvement of the crystallinity of produced cellulose, whereas SUCROSE SYNTHASE is involved in providing substrate (UDP-glucose) for growing cellulose chains. The present study was aimed at the cloning, characterization and overexpression of these genes in Eucalyptus and Populus. An efficient shoot organogenesis protocol from leaf explants taken from micro shoots of the species has been developed. Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105 and LBA4404 harboring binary vector pBI121 was achieved. Both the genes were cloned from cDNA library of Populus deltoides. These were subsequently characterized using various bioinformatics tools. The cloned genes were then inserted into pBI121 under the CaMV35S promotors replacing GUS gene. The constructs were then mobilized into above strains of Agrobacterium and used for the transformation work. Subsequently, genetic transformation of these clones with target genes following already developed protocol is in progress. Four transgenic lines of Eucalyptus tereticornis overexpressing Korrigan gene under the strong constitutive promoters CaMV35S have been developed, which are being further evaluated. Work on development of more transgenic lines overexpressing these genes in Populus and Eucalyptus is also in progress. This presentation will focus on important developments in this direction.

Keywords: Eucalyptus tereticornis, genetic transformation, Kraft pulping Populus deltoides

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Authors: Aqsa Jamil, Tamura Hiroshi, Katsuchi Hiroshi, Wang Jiaqi

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The yield point represents the upper limit of forces which can be applied to a specimen without causing any permanent deformation. After yielding, the behavior of the specimen suddenly changes, including the possibility of cracking or buckling. So, the accumulation of damage or type of fracture changes depending on this condition. As it is difficult to accurately detect yield points of the several stress concentration points in structural steel specimens, an effort has been made in this research work to develop a convenient technique using thermography (temperature-based detection) during tensile tests for the precise detection of yield point initiation. To verify the applicability of thermography camera, tests were conducted under different loading conditions and measuring the deformation by installing various strain gauges and monitoring the surface temperature with the help of a thermography camera. The yield point of specimens was estimated with the help of temperature dip, which occurs due to the thermoelastic effect during the plastic deformation. The scattering of the data has been checked by performing a repeatability analysis. The effects of temperature imperfection and light source have been checked by carrying out the tests at daytime as well as midnight and by calculating the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the noised data from the infrared thermography camera, it can be concluded that the camera is independent of testing time and the presence of a visible light source. Furthermore, a fully coupled thermal-stress analysis has been performed by using Abaqus/Standard exact implementation technique to validate the temperature profiles obtained from the thermography camera and to check the feasibility of numerical simulation for the prediction of results extracted with the help of the thermographic technique.

Keywords: signal to noise ratio, thermoelastic effect, thermography, yield point

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Authors: Sultan Ben Jaber

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Optical properties of molecules exhibit dramatic changes when adsorbed close to nano-structure metallic surfaces such as gold and silver nanomaterial. This phenomena opened a wide range of research to improve conventional spectroscopies efficiency. A well-known technique that has an intensive focus of study is surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), as since the first observation of SERS phenomena, researchers have published a great number of articles about the potential mechanisms behind this effect as well as developing materials to maximize the enhancement. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy are complementary techniques; thus, surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) also shows a noticeable enhancement of molecules in the mid-IR excitation on nonmetallic structure substrates. In the SEIRA, vibrational modes that gave change in dipole moments perpendicular to the nano-metallic substrate enhanced 200 times greater than the free molecule’s modes. SEIRA spectroscopy is promising for the characterization and identification of adsorbed molecules on metallic surfaces, especially at trace levels. IR reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) is a well-known technique for measuring IR spectra of adsorbed molecules on metallic surfaces. However, SEIRA spectroscopy sensitivity is up to 50 times higher than IRAS. SEIRA enhancement has been observed for a wide range of molecules adsorbed on metallic substrates such as Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Al, and Ni, but Au and Ag substrates exhibited the highest enhancement among the other mentioned substrates. In this work, trace levels of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) have been detected using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) substrates with surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA). AuNPs were first prepared and washed, then mixed with different concentrations of MDMA samples. The process of fabricating the substrate prior SEIRA measurements included mixing of AuNPs and MDMA samples followed by vigorous stirring. The stirring step is particularly crucial, as stirring allows molecules to be robustly adsorbed on AuNPs. Thus, remarkable SEIRA was observed for MDMA samples even at trace levels, showing the rigidity of our approach to preparing SEIRA substrates.

Keywords: surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), amphetamines, methylene dioxy- methamphetamine (MDMA), enhancement factor

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Authors: Khamael M. Abualnaja, Lidija Šiller, Ben R. Horrocks

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Metal enhanced luminescence of alkyl-capped silicon quantum dots (C11-SiQDs) was obtained by mixing C11-SiQDs with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). C11-SiQDs have been synthesized by galvanostatic method of p-Si (100) wafers followed by a thermal hydrosilation reaction of 1-undecene in refluxing toluene in order to extract alkyl-capped silicon quantum dots from porous Si. The chemical characterization of C11-SiQDs was carried out using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). C11-SiQDs have a crystalline structure with a diameter of 5 nm. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) of two different sizes were synthesized also using photochemical reduction of silver nitrate with sodium dodecyl sulphate. The synthesized Ag nanoparticles have a polycrystalline structure with an average particle diameter of 100 nm and 30 nm, respectively. A significant enhancement up to 10 and 4 times in the luminescence intensities was observed for AgNPs100/C11-SiQDs and AgNPs30/C11-SiQDs mixtures, respectively using 488 nm as an excitation source. The enhancement in luminescence intensities occurs as a result of the coupling between the excitation laser light and the plasmon bands of Ag nanoparticles; thus this intense field at Ag nanoparticles surface couples strongly to C11-SiQDs. The results suggest that the larger Ag nanoparticles i.e.100 nm caused an optimum enhancement in the luminescence intensity of C11-SiQDs which reflect the strong interaction between the localized surface plasmon resonance of AgNPs and the electric field forming a strong polarization near C11-SiQDs.

Keywords: silicon quantum dots, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), luminescence, plasmon

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Authors: Ahmed Elgharably, Nivien Nafady

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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth promoting microbes (PGPM) can promote plant growth under saline conditions. This study investigated how AMF and PGPM affected the growth and grain yield of wheat at different soil salinity levels (0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl). AMF colonization percentage, grain yield and dry weights and lengths of shoot and root, N, P K, Na, malondialdehyde, chlorophyll and proline contents and shoot relative permeability were determined. Salinity reduced NPK uptake and malondialdehyde and chlorophyll contents, and increased shoot Na concentration, relative permeability, and proline content, and thus declined plant growth. PGPM inoculation enhanced AMF colonization, P uptake, and K/Na ratio, but alone had no significant effect on plant growth and grain yield. AMF inoculation significantly enhanced NPK uptake, increased chlorophyll content and decreased shoot relative permeability, proline and Na contents, and thus promoted the plant growth. The inoculation of PGPM significantly enhanced the positive effects of AMF in controlling Na uptake and in increasing chlorophyll and NPK contents. Compared to AMF inoculation alone, dual inoculation with AMF and PGPM resulted in approximately 10, 25 and 25% higher grain yield at 0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl, respectively. The results provide that PGPM inoculation can maximize the effects of AMF inoculation in alleviating the deleterious effects of NaCl salts on wheat growth.

Keywords: mycorrhizal fungi, salinity, sodium, wheat

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Authors: Azizurahman Sakhizadah, Tsugiyuki Masunaga

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The use of sulfur fertilizer by Afghanistan farmers for wheat production has never been practiced, although sulfur deficiency has been expected for wheat production. A field experiment was conducted at Poza e Ishan Research Station Farm, Baghlan province, Afghanistan to examine the effect of sulfur fertilizer on growth and yield components of wheat. The experiment was laid out in randomize complete block design (RCBD), having three replications and eight treatments. The initial soil of experiment was alkaline (pH8.4), with textural class of sandy clay loam, available sulfur (40.8) mg kg-1, and Olsen-P (28.8) mg kg-1. Wheat variety, Kabul 013 was cultivated from November 2015 to June 2016. The recommended doses of nitrogen and Phosphors (Urea and DAP at 250 and 125 kg ha-1) were applied by broadcasting except control plot. Sulfur was applied by foliar spray (K2 SO4) at the rate of 10, 20, and 30 kg ha-1, split at tillering and flowering stages. The results demonstrated that sulfur application positively influenced on growth and yield of wheat crop with combination of nitrogen. Plant did not respond to sole sulfur application. Plant height, spike length, spikelet's number spike-1, were increased and yield g m-2 was also increased by 1.2, 19.1 and 25.1 % for 10, 20 and 30 kg sulfur ha-1 application.

Keywords: sulfur, nitrogen, wheat, foliar

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Authors: Tesfaye Walle Mekonnen

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Maize is one of the most important staple food crops for most low-income households in the Sub-Saharan (SSA). Combined heat and drought stress is the major production threats that reduce the yield potential of biofortified maize and restrain various macro and micronutrient deficiencies highly prevalent in low-income people who rely solely on maize-based diets, SSA. This problem can be alleviated by crossing the biofortified inbred lines with different nutritional attributes, Fe, Zn, Protein, and Provitamin A, and developing agronomically superior and stable multi-nutrient maize of various genetic backgrounds. This aimed to understand the correlation between biofortified inbred lines per se and hybrid performance under combined heat and drought stress conditions (CSC). The experiment was conducted at CIMMYT, Zimbabwe, using α-lattice design with three replications. The hybrid effect was highly significant for zein fractions (α-, β-, γ- and δ-zein) zinc, (Zn), and iron (Fe) provitamin A, phytic acid, and grain yield. Under CSC, Fe, Zn concentration, provitamin A in grain and grain yield of hybrids were significantly decreased, however, the zein fraction content and phytic acid content increases in grain were increased under CSC. The phenotypic correlation between grain yield with Zn, Fe concentration, and Provitamin A in grain was strongly positive and higher under CSC than in well-watered conditions. The present investigation confirmed that under CSC, Fe, and Zn-enhanced hybrids could be forecasted to a certain scope based on the performance of and scientifically selected for desirable grain yield and related traits with CSC tolerance during hybrid development programs. In conclusion, the development of high-yielding and micronutrient-dense maize variety is possible under CSC, which could reduce the highly prevalent micronutrient in SSA.

Keywords: drought, Fe, heat, maize, protein, zein fractions, Zn

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Authors: Eka Sari

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Potential degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose during the fungal pretreatment of lignocellulose has led to fermentable sugar yield will be low. This potential is even greater if the pretreatment of lignocellulosic that have low lignin such as water hyacinth. In order to prepare lignocellulose that have low lignin content, especially water hyacinth efforts are needed to prevent the degradation of cellulose and cellulose. One attempt to prevent the degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose is to replace the substrate needed by the addition of a simple carbon compounds such as glucose. Glucose sources used in this study is molasses. The purpose of this research to get the right of concentration of molasses to reduce the degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose during the pretreatment process and obtain fermentable sugar yields on high. The results showed that the addition of molasses with a concentration of 2% is able to reduce the degradation of cellulose from 25.53% to 10% and hemicellulose degradation of 20.12% to 10.89%. Fermentable sugar yields produced only reached 43.91%. To improve the yield of glucose is then performed additional combonation of molasses of 2% molasses and co-factor Mn2+ 0.5%. Fermentable sugar yield increased to 67.66% and the degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose decreased to 2.44% and 2.71%, respectively.

Keywords: water hyacinth, cellulose, hemicelulose, degradation, pretreatment, fungus

Procedia PDF Downloads 559

Authors: Richard White, Anne Drabble, Maureen O’Neill

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The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) offers secondary school students in the final two years of school (Years 11 and 12, 16 – 18 years of age) an opportunity to participate in a program which provides an accelerated pathway to tertiary studies. Whilst still at secondary school, the students undertake two first year university subjects that are required subjects in USC undergraduate degree programs. The program is called Integrated Learning Pathway (ILP) and offers a range of disciplines, including business, design, drama, education, and engineering. Between 2010 and 2014, 38% of secondary students who participated in an ILP program commenced undergraduate studies at USC following completion of secondary school studies. The research reported here considers “before and after” literacy and numeracy competencies of students to determine what impact participation in the ILP program has had on their academic skills. Qualitative and quantitative data has been gathered via numeracy and literacy testing of the students, and a survey asking the students to self-evaluate their numeracy and literacy skills, and reflect on their views of these academic skills. The research will enable improved targeting of teaching strategies so that students will acquire not only course-specific learning outcomes but also collateral academic skills. This enhancement of academic skills will improve undergraduate experience and improve student retention.

Keywords: academic skills enhancement, accelerated pathways, improved teaching, student retention

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Authors: Brian Marsh

Abstract:

Nitrogen fertilizer is the most used and often the most mismanaged nutrient input. Nitrogen management has tremendous implications on crop productivity, quality and environmental stewardship. Sufficient nitrogen is needed to optimum yield and quality. Soil and in-season plant tissue testing for nitrogen status are a time consuming and expensive process. Real time sensing of plant nitrogen status can be a useful tool in managing nitrogen inputs. The objectives of this project were to assess the reliability of remotely sensed non-destructive plant nitrogen measurements compared to wet chemistry data from sampled plant tissue, develop in-season nitrogen recommendations based on remotely sensed data for improved nitrogen use efficiency and assess the potential for determining yield and quality from remotely sensed data. Very good correlations were observed between early-season remotely sensed crop nitrogen status and plant nitrogen concentrations and subsequent in-season fertilizer recommendations. The transmittance/absorbance type meters gave the most accurate readings. Early in-season fertilizer recommendation would be to apply 40 kg nitrogen per hectare plus 16 kg nitrogen per hectare for each unit difference measured with the SPAD meter between the crop and reference area or 25 kg plus 13 kg per hectare for each unit difference measured with the CCM 200. Once the crop was sufficiently fertilized meter readings became inconclusive and were of no benefit for determining nitrogen status, silage yield and quality and grain yield and protein.

Keywords: wheat, nitrogen fertilization, chlorophyll meter

Procedia PDF Downloads 394

Authors: Bijaya Kumar Sahoo

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The effect of III-V nitride semiconductors on performance of a graphene-on-gold surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor has been investigated theoretically. III-V nitrides (AlN, GaN and InN) have been grown between gold (Au) and graphene layers. The sensitivity and performance of the biosensor have been computed for with and without semiconductors. Due to superior electronic and optical properties, III-V nitrides demonstrate high sensitivity and performance over Si and Ge. The enhancement of evanescent electric field due to III-V nitrides have been computed and found highest for InN. The analysis shows that for a high-sensitive imaging biosensor the required optimal thickness of gold, InN and graphene are respectively 49 nm, 11 nm and 0.34 nm for the light of wavelength =633 nm (red He-Ne laser). This study suggests that InN would be a better choice for fabrication of new imaging SPR biosensors.

Keywords: SPR biosensor, optical properties, III-V nitrides, sensitivity, enhancement of electric field, performance of graphene gold SPR biosensor

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Authors: Rehan Siddiqui, Brendan Quine

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The Radiance Enhancement (RE) and integrated absorption technique is applied to develop a synthetic model to determine the enhancement in radiance due to cloud scene and Shortwave upwelling Radiances (SHupR) by O2, H2O, CO2 and CH4. This new model is used to estimate the magnitude variation for RE and SHupR over spectral range of 900 nm to 1700 nm by varying surface altitude, mixing ratios and surface reflectivity. In this work, we employ satellite real observation of space orbiting Argus 1000 especially for O2, H2O, CO2 and CH4 together with synthetic model by using line by line GENSPECT radiative transfer model. All the radiative transfer simulations have been performed by varying over a different range of percentages of water vapor contents and carbon dioxide with the fixed concentration oxygen and methane. We calculate and compare both the synthetic and real measured observed data set of different week per pass of Argus flight. Results are found to be comparable for both approaches, after allowing for the differences with the real and synthetic technique. The methodology based on RE and SHupR of the space spectral data can be promising for the instant and reliable classification of the cloud scenes.

Keywords: radiance enhancement, radiative transfer, shortwave upwelling radiative flux, cloud reflectivity, greenhouse gases

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Manjot Kaur, Harminder Singh, S. K. Jawandha

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The present investigations were carried out at Fruit Research Farm, Department of Fruit Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana during the years 2016 and 2017, with the aim of assessing the effect of amino acids on fruit development, shoot growth and yield of peach. The six-year-old peach trees of cv. Florida Prince were sprayed with 0.25 % and 0.50 % concentrations of amino acids (Peptone P1 023), 7 and 14 days after full bloom and the sprays were repeated after 15 and 30 days. Experimental findings showed that all the amino acid treatments increased fruit growth, shoot growth, fruit retention and yield and decreased fruit drop as compared to control during both the years. Maximum fruit retention (89.29 %) and minimum fruit drop (10.71 %) was observed in T8 (2 sprays @ 0.50%). Highest mean shoot growth (113.89 cm) was recorded in T12 (3 sprays @ 0.50%) while the minimum was in control plants (88.23 cm). Fruit yield was also found to be maximum (53.92 kg/tree) under double spray treatment T8 (2 sprays @ 0.50%) of amino acids and minimum in plants sprayed with triple spray of amino acids. Fruit maturity was advanced by 3-4 days by double spray treatments of amino acids as compared to control. In brief, the application of double spray of amino acids @ 0.50% (applied 14 days after full bloom and 15 days later), was found to be best to improve the fruit growth, fruit retention and yield of Florida Prince peach under Punjab conditions.

Keywords: amino acids, fruit growth, maturity, peach, shoot growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: Cihan Cilbircioğlu

Abstract:

Allium sativum L.(garlic) and Allium. cepa L. (onion) are the most common species of the Allium spp. and are produced at the very high rate all over the world. The yield loss caused by pests is the most important problem in the production of these crops. In the absence of control measures, yield loss would be around 35% on average. The yield loss sometimes depending on the pest species and population density can reach about 100%. Mites and nematodes are the most important pests of them. These pests that cause damage to A. sativum and A. cepa shows a wide range of taxonomic categories. The number of common pest mite and nematode species that cause damage to either A. sativum and A. cepa are over 20 species. In this study, detailed information on morphology, life cycle, management, and symptoms of the economically most important harmful important mite (acari) and nematode species of onion and garlic has been provided through careful survey of corresponding researches in Turkey and given information about new practices and approaches on their controls.

Keywords: onion, garlic, pest, acari, nematoda control methods, Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 488

Authors: Mohammed S. Aly, Abou-Zeid N. El-Shahat, Nabila Y. Naguib, Huussie A. Said-Al Ahl, Atef M. Zakaria, Mohamed A. Abou Dahab

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This study was conducted during two successive seasons of 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 to evaluate the response of Anethum graveolens L. plants to nitrogen fertilizer with or without bio-fertilizer on fruits yield, total flavonoids and carbohydrates content, essential oil yield and constituents. Results cleared that the treatment of 60 Kg N/feddan without and with bio-fertilizer gave the highest umbels number per plant through the two seasons and these increments were significant in comparison with control plants. Meanwhile, fruits weight (g/plant) showed significant increase with the treatments of nitrogen fertilizers alone and combined with bio-fertilizers compared with control plants in the first and second season. Maximum increments were resulted with the previous treatment (60 Kg N/fed). Fruits yield (Kg/fed) revealed the same trend of fruits weight (g/plant). Total flavonoids contents were significantly increased with all of used treatments. Maximum increase was noticed with bio-fertilizers combined with 60 Kg N/fed during two seasons. Total carbohydrate contents showed significant increase with applied nitrogen fertilizers treatments as alone, meanwhile total carbohydrate contents were increased non-significantly with the other used treatments during the two seasons in comparison with control plants content. The treatment of bio-fertilizer and in most of nitrogen fertilizer levels significantly increased essential oil percentage, content and yield. The treatment of 60 Kg N/fed with or without bio-fertilizer gave the best values. All identified compounds were observed in the essential oil of all treatments. The major compounds were limonene, carvone and dillapiole. The most effective fertilization on limonene content was 40 Kg N/fed and/or bio-fertilizers. Meanwhile 20 Kg N/fed with or without bio-fertilizers increased carvone, but most of fertilization treatments except those of bio-fertlizers and 40 Kg N/fed increased dillapiole content.

Keywords: carbohydrates, dill, essential oil, fertilizer, flavonoids

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Authors: Vaibhav Baliyan, S. S. Parihar

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With the rise in temperature during reproductive phase and moisture stress, winter wheat yields are likely to decrease because of limited plant growth, higher rate of night respiration, higher spikelet sterility or number of grains per spike and restricted embryo development thereby reducing grain number. Crop management practices play a pivotal role in minimizing adverse effects of terminal heat stress on wheat production. Amongst various agronomic management practices, adjusting sowing date, crop cultivars and irrigation scheduling have been realized to be simple yet powerful, implementable and eco-friendly mitigation strategies to sustain yields under elevated temperature conditions. Taking into account, large variability in wheat production in space and time, a study was conducted to identify the suitable wheat varieties under both early and late planting with suitable irrigation schedule for minimizing terminal heat stress effect and thereby improving wheat production. Experiments were conducted at research farms of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, separately for timely and late sown conditions with suitable varieties with staggering dates of sowing from 1st November to 30th November in case of timely sown and from 1st December to 31st December for late sown condition. The irrigation schedule followed for both the experiments were 100% of ETc (evapotranspiration of crop), 80% of ETc and 60% of ETc. Results of the timely sown experiment indicated that 1st November sowing resulted in higher grain yield followed by 10th November. However, delay in sowing thereafter resulted in gradual decrease in yield and the maximum reduction was noticed under 30th November sowing. Amongst the varieties, HD3086 produced higher grain yield compared to other varieties. Irrigation applied based on 100% of ETc gave higher yield comparable to 80% of ETc but both were significantly higher than 60% of ETc. It was further observed that even liberal irrigation under 100% of ETc could not compensate the yield under delayed sowing suggesting that rise in temperature beyond January adversely affected the growth and development of crop as well as forced maturity resulting in significant reduction of yield attributing characters due to terminal heat stress. Similar observations were recorded under late sown experiment too. Planting on 1st December along with 100% ETc of irrigation schedule resulted in significantly higher grain yield as compared to other dates and irrigation regimes. Further, it was observed that reduction in yield under late sown conditions was significantly large than the timely sown conditions irrespective of the variety grown and irrigation schedule followed. Delayed sowing resulted in reducing crop growth period and forced maturity in turn led to significant deterioration in all the yield attributing characters and there by reduction in yield suggesting that terminal heat stress had greater impact on yield under late sown crop than timely sown due to temperature rise coinciding with reproductive phase of the crop.

Keywords: climate, irrigation, mitigation, wheat

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Deniz Dincel, Sena Ardicli, Hale Samli, Mustafa Ogan, Faruk Balci

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The aim of the study was to determine the effects of some environmental and genetic factors on growth, fertility traits, milk yield and composition in Saanen goats. For this purpose, the total of 173 Saanen goats and kids were investigated for growth, fertility and milk traits in Marmara Region of Turkey. Fertility parameters (n=70) were evaluated during two years. Milk samples were collected during the lactation and the milk yield/components (n=59) of each goat were calculated. In terms of CSN3 and AGPAT6 gene; the genotypes were defined by PCR-RFLP. Saanen kids (n=86-112) were measured from birth to 6 months of life. The birth, weaning, 60ᵗʰ, 90ᵗʰ, 120ᵗʰ and 180tᵗʰ days of average live weights were calculated. The effects of maternal age on pregnancy rate (p < 0.05), birth rate (p < 0.05), infertility rate (p < 0.05), single born kidding (p < 0.001), twinning rate (p < 0.05), triplet rate (p < 0.05), survival rate of kids until weaning (p < 0.05), number of kids per parturition (p < 0.01) and number of kids per mating (p < 0.01) were found significant. The impacts of year on birth rate (p < 0.05), abortion rate (p < 0.001), single born kidding (p < 0.01), survival rate of kids until weaning (p < 0.01), number of kids per mating (p < 0.01) were found significant for fertility traits. The impacts of lactation length on all milk yield parameters (lactation milk, protein, fat, totally solid, solid not fat, casein and lactose yield) (p < 0.001) were found significant. The effects of age on all milk yield parameters (lactation milk, protein, fat, total solid, solid not fat, casein and lactose yield) (p < 0.001), protein rate (p < 0.05), fat rate (p < 0.05), total solid rate (p < 0.01), solid not fat rate (p < 0.05), casein rate (p < 0.05) and lactation length (p < 0.01), were found significant too. However, the effect of AGPAT6 gene on milk yield and composition was not found significant in Saanen goats. The herd was found monomorphic (FF) for CSN3 gene. The effects of sex on live weights until 90ᵗʰ days of life (birth, weaning and 60ᵗʰ day of average weight) were found significant statistically (p < 0.001). The maternal age affected only birth weight (p < 0,001). The effects month at birth on all of the investigated day [the birth, 120ᵗʰ, 180ᵗʰ days (p < 0.05); the weaning, 60ᵗʰ, 90ᵗʰ days (p < 0,001)] were found significant. The birth type was found significant on the birth (p < 0,001), weaning (p < 0,01), 60ᵗʰ (p < 0,01) and 90ᵗʰ (p < 0,01) days of average live weights. As a result, screening the other regions of CSN3, AGPAT6 gene and also investigation the phenotypic association of them should be useful to clarify the efficiency of target genes. Environmental factors such as maternal age, year, sex and birth type were found significant on some growth, fertility and milk traits in Saanen goats. So consideration of these factors could be used as selection criteria in dairy goat breeding.

Keywords: fertility, growth, milk yield, Saanen goats

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Youngji Yoo, Seung Hwan Park, Daewoong An, Sung-Shick Kim, Jun-Geol Baek

Abstract:

The yield management system is very important to produce high-quality semiconductor chips in the semiconductor manufacturing process. In order to improve quality of semiconductors, various tests are conducted in the post fabrication (FAB) process. During the test process, large amount of data are collected and the data includes a lot of information about defect. In general, the defect on the wafer is the main causes of yield loss. Therefore, analyzing the defect data is necessary to improve performance of yield prediction. The wafer bin map (WBM) is one of the data collected in the test process and includes defect information such as the fail bit patterns. The fail bit has characteristics of spatial point patterns. Therefore, this paper proposes the feature extraction method using the spatial point pattern analysis. Actual data obtained from the semiconductor process is used for experiments and the experimental result shows that the proposed method is more accurately recognize the fail bit patterns.

Keywords: semiconductor, wafer bin map, feature extraction, spatial point patterns, contour map

Procedia PDF Downloads 385