Effect of flushing frequency on emitter clogging in microirrigation with effluents

Flushing is an important maintenance task that removes accumulated particles in microirrigation laterals that can help to reduce clogging problems. The effect of three dripline flushing frequency treatments (no flushing, one flushing at the end of each irrigation period, and a monthly flushing during the irrigation period) was studied in surface and subsurface drip irrigation systems that operated using a wastewater treatment plant effluent for three irrigation periods of 540 h each. The irrigation systems had two different emitters, one pressure compensating and the other not, both molded and welded onto the interior dripline wall, placed in laterals 87 meters long. Dripline flow of the pressure compensating emitter increased 8% over time, while in the nonpressure compensating emitter, dripline flow increased 25% in the surface driplines and decreased 3% in the subsurface driplines by the emitter clogging. Emitter clogging was affected primarily by the interactions between emitter location, emitter type, and flushing frequency treatment. The number of completely clogged emitters was affected by the interaction between irrigation system and emitter type. There was an average of 3.7% less totally clogged emitters in flushed surface driplines with the pressurecompensating emitter as compared to flushed subsurface laterals with the nonpressure compensating emitter

Selecting Scientific Papers for Publication via Citation Auctions

The scientific community has been suffering from peer review for decades. This process (also called refereeing) subjects an author's scientific work or ideas to the scrutiny of one or more experts in the field. Publishers use it to select and screen manuscript submissions, and funding agencies use it to award research funds. The goal is to get authors to meet their discipline's standards and thus achieve scientific objectivity. Publications and awards that haven't undergone peer review are often regarded with suspicion by scholars and professionals in many fields. However, peer review, although universally used, has many drawbacks. We propose replacing peer review with an auction-based approach: the better the submitted paper, the more scientific currency the author likely bid to have it published. If the bid correctly reflects the paper's quality, the author is rewarded in this new scientific currency; otherwise, the author loses this currency. We argue that citations are an appropriate currency for all scientists. We believe that citation auctions encourage scientists to better control their submissions' quality. It also inspire them to prepare more exciting talks for accepted papers and to invite discussion of their results at congresses and conferences and among their colleagues. In the long run, citation auctions could have the power to greatly improve scientific research

Citation auctions as a method to improve selection of scientific papers

This paper describes the basis of citation auctions as a new approach to selecting scientific papers for publication. Our main idea is to use an auction for selecting papers for publication through - differently from the state of the art - bids that consist of the number of citations that a scientist expects to receive if the paper is published. Hence, a citation auction is the selection process itself, and no reviewers are involved. The benefits of the proposed approach are two-fold. First, the cost of refereeing will be either totally eliminated or significantly reduced, because the process of citation auction does not need prior understanding of the paper's content to judge the quality of its contribution. Additionally, the method will not prejudge the content of the paper, so it will increase the openness of publications to new ideas. Second, scientists will be much more committed to the quality of their papers, paying close attention to distributing and explaining their papers in detail to maximize the number of citations that the paper receives. Sample analyses of the number of citations collected in papers published in years 1999-2004 for one journal, and in years 2003-2005 for a series of conferences (in a totally different discipline), via Google scholar, are provided. Finally, a simple simulation of an auction is given to outline the behaviour of the citation auction approach

Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ) para el estudio del consumo de cacao en estudiantes de ciencias de la salud

Tot i que el cacau i la xocolata són una gran font de polifenols, aquests aliments no es troben entre les fonts alimentàries de polifenols més consumides. Algunes dades suggereixen un aport inferior al 10% de polifenols a través d’aquests. Aquest fet podria ser causa de les diferents metodologies i l'enfocament dels qüestionaris de freqüència de consum d'aliments (FFQ) utilitzats en aquests estudis. La majoria de FFQ validats utilitzen una extensa llista d'aliments per a les fruites i verdures, però no distingeixen adequadament les diverses fonts de xocolata i cacau. Aquests fets recolzen la necessitat d'una avaluació del consum de productes de cacau per tal de poder conèixer la ingesta real de cacau, especialment en la població jove, on la xocolata és un aliment consumit freqüentment.