A Decision Support System Based on AHP for Ranking Strategies to Manage Emergencies on Drinking Water Supply Systems

Water Resources Management - The provision of critical services, such as drinking water, is crucial both in ordinary and in emergency conditions due to either natural (e.g. earthquakes, droughts,...     

Measuring the complexity of adaptive peer-to-peer systems

To improve the efficiency of peer-to-peer (P2P) systems while adapting to changing environmental conditions, static peer-to-peer protocols can be replaced by adaptive plans. The resulting systems are inherently complex, which makes their development and characterization a challenge for traditional methods. Here we propose the design and analysis of adaptive P2P systems using measures of complexity, emergence, self-organization, and homeostasis based on information theory. These measures allow the evaluation of adaptive P2P systems and thus can be used to guide their design. We evaluate the proposal with a P2P computing system provided with adaptation mechanisms. We show the evolution of the system with static and also changing workload, using different fitness functions. When the adaptive plan forces the system to converge to a predefined performance level, the nodes may result in highly unstable configurations, which correspond to a high variance in time of the measured complexity. Conversely, if the adaptive plan is less “aggressive”, the system may be more stable, but the optimal performance may not be achieved.     

Evidence for behavioural thermoregulation by the world's largest fish

Many fishes make frequent ascents to surface waters and often show prolonged surface swimming following descents to deep water. This affinity for the surface is thought to be related to the recovery of body heat lost at depth. We tested this hypothesis using data from time–depth recorders deployed on four whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). We summarized vertical movements into bouts of dives and classified these into three main types, using cluster analysis. In addition to day and night ‘bounce’ dives where sharks rapidly descended and ascended, we found a third type: single deep (mean: 340 m), long (mean: 169 min) dives, occurring in daytime with extremely long post-dive surface durations (mean: 146 min). Only sharks that were not constrained by shallow bathymetry performed these dives. We found a negative relationship between the mean surface duration of dives in the bout and the mean minimum temperature of dives in the bout that is consistent with the hypothesis that thermoregulation was a major factor driving use of the surface. The relationship broke down when sharks were diving in mean minimum temperatures around 25°C, suggesting that warmer waters did not incur a large metabolic cost for diving and that other factors may also influence surface use.     

Eco-efficiency analysis for remote area power supply selection in Western Australia

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Remote area power supply (RAPS) systems in Western Australia account for more than 56% of total off-grid electricity supply in Australia and utilise...     

Validation of a Method for Quantitation of Soybean Lectin in Commercial Varieties

Soybean agglutinin (SBA) protein, also known as soybean lectin, is regarded as an anti‐nutrient due to its negative effect on the ability of monogastric animals to gain weight following consumption of raw soybean seed. Historically, SBA has been measured using a time‐consuming and cumbersome hemagglutination procedure. The objective of our research was to obtain a validated methodology that is precise and accurate in the measurement of SBA while allowing minimally equipped laboratories to effectively conduct the analysis, thus our focus was on evaluating an existing commercially available ELISA, an enzyme‐linked‐lectin‐assay (ELLA), and a hybrid ELISA/ELLA. A new ELLA technique that can detect and quantify lectins was chosen and modified specifically for the quantitation of SBA in soybean seed. The proposed ELLA methodology is similar to a standard sandwich ELISA, and uses polyacrylamide‐linked N‐acetylgalactosamine (Gal–NAc–PAA) for a capture phase and the biotinylated version (Gal–NAc–PAA–Biotin) for detection. Based upon the validation data, the ELLA method can precisely and accurately determine soybean lectin levels in soybean seed. The validated ELLA method was used to quantify SBA in nine commercial soybean varieties introduced between 1972 and 2008 and demonstrated that the natural variability of SBA is subject to the effects of genotype and environment.     

Polycarbonate‐based composites reinforced by in situ polytetrafluoroethylene fibrillation: Preparation,thermal and rheological behavior

Fibrillar reinforced composites of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polycarbonate (PC) were prepared by in situ fibrillation of PTFE into PC matrix using twin screw extruder. Different samples were obtained by varying the relative ratio between PC and PTFE. The rheological properties of the PC/PTFE composites were found to depend on concentration of the PTFE fibrils. The melt strength analysis in nonisothermal conditions was also studied. The increase in force and decrease in drawability with increasing the PTFE content are associated with the PTFE fibrils formed in situ during the thermomechanical process in twin screw extruder. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42401.