Coverage mobilization by different no-tillage in-line handling mechanisms

Vegetation cover on soil acts positively in maintaining temperature and soil moisture, yet, it has been imposing specific operational conditions on seeders. The objective of this study was to evaluate performance of different mechanisms regarding straw mobilization, employed in a no-till seeder. The experimental area was conducted on clayey soil under no-tillage with a large quantity of sorghum residue. The experiment was established in a randomized block design, as the treatments consisted of a combination of two mechanisms at front of the furrow opener composed of cutting disc and row cleaners, and three mechanisms behind the seed furrower, covering discs prototype model M1, Spider and commercial model, with the combination of cutting disc and Spider model not being evaluated. We assessed the coverage permanence on soil index, vegetation mass on surface and inside the line. The treatment containing the row cleaner mechanism efficiently removed straw from the surface of sowing line as well as the return one acted on straw replacement. It was identified that use of the cutting disc at the front of seeder contributed to the increase of straw installation inside the line, three times more than in the row cleaner system when operating individually. Covering mechanism with row cleaners reduced straw inside the line and kept line covering similar to treatment of cutting disc operating alone.

Financial losses in pork supply chain: a study of the pre-slaughter handling impacts

Brazil is amongst the world’s largest swine producers. However, its competitiveness has been vulnerable due to a lack of cooperation between the supply chain players. This condition makes the financial losses to be evaluated taking into account only an individual node, and most of the time, these damages are imputed by swine breeders. Living weight losses occur between the farm to slaughterhouses, and the main cause of these losses is the pre-slaughter handling, especially during animal transportation. In this research, we analyzed the pre-slaughter handling in a swine farm in Brasilândia, MS, Brazil. Analyzed data were provided by five slaughterhouses (farm clients) from the studied region, in which it was considered living weight losses, carcass bruising, animal injury, and death rate. The results indicated that total financial losses represent 160 thousand dollars per year, when taking into account the supply chain management.

Technical-economic analysis of different lighting systems for broiler poultry

ABSTRACT Broiler poultry is highly dependent on artificial lightening. Power consumption costs of artificial lighting systems is the second largest expense related to broiler industry, second only to feed expenses. Therefore, the current study focused to analyze technical and economic feasibility of replacing incandescent lamps already used in aviaries with other lamp types. Costs related to power consumption, implementation and maintenance of the lighting systems were evaluated with the aid of financial mathematics using net present value, return over investment and payback. Systems composed of six lamp types were analyzed in two different configurations to meet the minimum illuminance of 5 and 20 lux and for use in conventional sheds and dark house. The lamps tested were incandescent (LI) of 100 W, compact fluorescent (CFL) of 34 W, mixed (ML) 160 W sodium vapor (SVL) of 70 W, tubular fluorescent T8 (TFL T8) of 40 W and tubular fluorescent T5 (TFL T5) of 28 W. For the systems tested, it was found that the tubular fluorescent lamps T8 and T5 showed the best results of technical and economic feasibility.

Proactive and Preventive Student Welfare Activities in Finnish Preschool and Elementary School: Handling of Transition to Formal Schooling and a National Anti-Bullying Program as Examples

Prerequisites and effects of proactive and preventive psycho-social student welfare activities in Finnish preschool and elementary school were of interest in the present thesis. So far, Finnish student welfare work has mainly focused on interventions and individuals, and the voluminous possibilities to enhance well-being of all students as a part of everyday school work have not been fully exploited. Consequently, in this thesis three goals were set: (1) To present concrete examples of proactive and preventive psycho-social student welfare activities in Finnish basic education; (2) To investigate measurable positive effects of proactive and preventive activities; and (3) To investigate implementation of proactive and preventive activities in ecological contexts. Two prominent phenomena in preschool and elementary school years—transition to formal schooling and school bullying—were chosen as examples of critical situations that are appropriate targets for proactive and preventive psycho-social student welfare activities. Until lately, the procedures concerning both school transitions and school bullying have been rather problem-focused and reactive in nature. Theoretically, we lean on the bioecological model of development by Bronfenbrenner and Morris with concentric micro-, meso-, exo- and macrosystems. Data were drawn from two large-scale research projects, the longitudinal First Steps Study: Interactive Learning in the Child–Parent– Teacher Triangle, and the Evaluation Study of the National Antibullying Program KiVa. In Study I, we found that the academic skills of children from preschool–elementary school pairs that implemented several supportive activities during the preschool year developed more quickly from preschool to Grade 1 compared with the skills of children from pairs that used fewer practices. In Study II, we focused on possible effects of proactive and preventive actions on teachers and found that participation in the KiVa antibullying program influenced teachers‘ self-evaluated competence to tackle bullying. In Studies III and IV, we investigated factors that affect implementation rate of these proactive and preventive actions. In Study III, we found that principal‘s commitment and support for antibullying work has a clear-cut positive effect on implementation adherence of student lessons of the KiVa antibullying program. The more teachers experience support for and commitment to anti-bullying work from their principal, the more they report having covered KiVa student lessons and topics. In Study IV, we wanted to find out why some schools implement several useful and inexpensive transition practices, whereas other schools use only a few of them. We were interested in broadening the scope and looking at local-level (exosystem) qualities, and, in fact, the local-level activities and guidelines, along with teacherreported importance of the transition practices, were the only factors significantly associated with the implementation rate of transition practices between elementary schools and partner preschools. Teacher- and school-level factors available in this study turned out to be mostly not significant. To summarize, the results confirm that school-based promotion and prevention activities may have beneficial effects not only on students but also on teachers. Second, various top-down processes, such as engagement at the level of elementary school principals or local administration may enhance implementation of these beneficial activities. The main message is that when aiming to support the lives of children the primary focus should be on adults. In future, promotion of psychosocial well-being and the intrinsic value of inter- and intrapersonal skills need to be strengthened in the Finnish educational systems. Future research efforts in student welfare and school psychology, as well as focused training for psychologists in educational contexts, should be encouraged in the departments of psychology and education in Finnish universities. Moreover, a specific research centre for school health and well-being should be established.

Obtention of injectable platelets rich-fibrin (i-PRF) and its polymerization with bone graft: technical note

The use of autologous platelet concentrates, represent a promising and innovator tools in the medicine and dentistry today. The goal is to accelerate hard and soft tissue healing. Among them, the platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is the main alternative for use in liquid form (injectable). These injectable form ofplatelet concentrates are often used in regenerative procedures and demonstrate good results. The aim of this study is to present an alternative to these platelet concentrates using the platelet-rich fibrin in liquid form (injectable) and its use with particulated bone graft materials in the polymerized form.

Logistics of North-West Russia and Rail Baltica: Standpoints of Private Sector

The main aims of the present report are to describe the current state of railway transport in Russia, and to gather standpoints of Russian private transportation logistics sector towards the development of new railway connection called Rail Baltica Growth Corridor, connecting North-West Russia with Germany through the Baltic States and Poland. North-West Russia plays important role not only in Russian logistics, but also wider European markets as in container sea ports handling is approx. 2.5 mill. TEU p.a. and handling volume in all terminals is above 190 million tons p.a. The whole transportation logistics sector is shortly described as an operational environment for railways – this is done through technical and economic angles. Transportation development is always going in line with economics of the country, so the analysis on economical development is also presented. Logistics integration of the country is strongly influenced by its engagement in the international trade. Although, raw material handling at sea ports and container transports (imports) are blossoming, domestic transportation market is barely growing (in long-term perspective). Thus, recent entrance of Russia into World Trade Organization (WTO) is analyzed theme in this research, as the WTO is an important regulator of the foreign trade and enabler of volume growth in foreign trade related transportation logistics. However, WTO membership can influence negatively the development of Russia’s own industry and its volumes (these have been uncompetitive in global markets for decades). Data gathering in empirical part was accomplished by semi-structured case study interviews among North-West Russian logistics sector actors (private). These were conducted during years 2012-2013, and research compiles findings out of ten case company interviews. Although, there was no sea port involved in the study, most of the interviewed companies relied in European Logistics within significant parts in short sea shipping and truck combined transportation chains (in Russian part also using railways). As the results of the study, it could be concluded that Rail Baltica is seen as possible transport corridor in most of the interviewed companies, if there is enough cargo available. However, interviewees are a bit sceptical, because major and large-scale infrastructural improvements are needed. Delivery time, frequency and price level are three main factors influencing the attractiveness of Rail Baltica route. Price level is the most important feature, but if RB can offer other advantages such as higher frequency, shorter lead times or more developed set of value-added services, then some flexibility is possible for the price level. Environmental issues are not the main criteria of today, but are recognized and discussed among customers. Great uncertainty exists among respondents e.g. on forthcoming sulphur oxide ban on Baltic Sea shipping (whether or not it is going to be implemented in Russia). Rather surprisingly, transportation routes to Eastern Europe and Mediterranean area are having higher value and price space than those to Germany/Central Europe. Border crossing operations (traction monopoly at rails and customs), gauge widths as well as unclear decision-making processes (in Russia), are named as hindering factors. Performance standards for European connected logistics among Russian logistics sector representatives are less demanding as compared to neighbourhood countries belonging to EU.

Identification of research trends in the field of separation processes. Application of epidemiological model, citation analysis, text mining, and technical analysis of the financial markets

Choice of industrial development options and the relevant allocation of the research funds become more and more difficult because of the increasing R&D costs and pressure for shorter development period. Forecast of the research progress is based on the analysis of the publications activity in the field of interest as well as on the dynamics of its change. Moreover, allocation of funds is hindered by exponential growth in the number of publications and patents. Thematic clusters become more and more difficult to identify, and their evolution hard to follow. The existing approaches of research field structuring and identification of its development are very limited. They do not identify the thematic clusters with adequate precision while the identified trends are often ambiguous. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop methods and tools, which are able to identify developing fields of research. The main objective of this Thesis is to develop tools and methods helping in the identification of the promising research topics in the field of separation processes. Two structuring methods as well as three approaches for identification of the development trends have been proposed. The proposed methods have been applied to the analysis of the research on distillation and filtration. The results show that the developed methods are universal and could be used to study of the various fields of research. The identified thematic clusters and the forecasted trends of their development have been confirmed in almost all tested cases. It proves the universality of the proposed methods. The results allow for identification of the fast-growing scientific fields as well as the topics characterized by stagnant or diminishing research activity.

SobekCM’s Community Ecosystems & Socio-Technical Practices

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Container logistic innovations in forest-energy sector: Markets, future service concepts and technical improvements

The report presents the results of the commercialization project called the Container logistic services for forest bioenergy. The project promotes new business that is emerging around overall container logistic services in the bioenergy sector. The results assess the European markets of the container logistics for biomass, enablers for new business creation and required service bundles for the concept. We also demonstrate the customer value of the container logistic services for different market segments. The concept analysis is based on concept mapping, quality function deployment process (QFD) and business network analysis. The business network analysis assesses key shareholders and their mutual connections. The performance of the roadside chipping chain is analysed by the logistic cost simulation, RFID system demonstration and freezing tests. The EU has set the renewable energy target to 20 % in 2020 of which Biomass could account for two-thirds. In the Europe, the production of wood fuels was 132.9 million solid-m3 in 2012 and production of wood chips and particles was 69.0 million solidm3. The wood-based chips and particle flows are suitable for container transportation providing market of 180.6 million loose- m3 which mean 4.5 million container loads per year. The intermodal logistics of trucks and trains are promising for the composite containers because the biomass does not freeze onto the inner surfaces in the unloading situations. The overall service concept includes several packages: container rental, container maintenance, terminal services, RFID-tracking service, and simulation and ERP-integration service. The container rental and maintenance would provide transportation entrepreneurs a way to increase the capacity without high investment costs. The RFID-concept would lead to better work planning improving profitability throughout the logistic chain and simulation supports fuel supply optimization.

Calcium handling by vascular myocytes in hypertension

Calcium ions (Ca2+) trigger the contraction of vascular myocytes and the level of free intracellular Ca2+ within the myocyte is precisely regulated by sequestration and extrusion mechanisms. Extensive evidence indicates that a defect in the regulation of intracellular Ca2+ plays a role in the augmented vascular reactivity characteristic of clinical and experimental hypertension. For example, arteries from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) have an increased contractile sensitivity to extracellular Ca2+ and intracellular Ca2+ levels are elevated in aortic smooth muscle cells of SHR. We hypothesize that these changes are due to an increase in membrane Ca2+ channel density and possibly function in vascular myocytes from hypertensive animals. Several observations using various experimental approaches support this hypothesis: 1) the contractile activity in response to depolarizing stimuli is increased in arteries from hypertensive animals demonstrating increased voltage-dependent Ca2+ channel activity in hypertension; 2) Ca2+ channel agonists such as Bay K 8644 produce contractions in isolated arterial segments from hypertensive rats and minimal contraction in those from normotensive rats; 3) intracellular Ca2+ concentration is abnormally increased in vascular myocytes from hypertensive animals following treatment with Ca2+ channel agonists and depolarizing interventions, and 4) using the voltage-clamp technique, the inward Ca2+ current in arterial myocytes from hypertensive rats is nearly twice as large as that from myocytes of normotensive rats. We suggest that an alteration in Ca2+ channel function and/or an increase in Ca2+ channel density, resulting from increased channel synthesis or reduced turnover, underlies the increased vascular reactivity characteristic of hypertension

Effect of metabolic acidosis on renal tubular sodium handling in rats as determined by lithium clearance

Systemic metabolic acidosis is known to cause a decrease in salt and water reabsorption by the kidney. We have used renal lithium clearance to investigate the effect of chronic, NH4Cl-induced metabolic acidosis on the renal handling of Na+ in male Wistar-Hannover rats (200-250 g). Chronic acidosis (pH 7.16 ± 0.13) caused a sustained increase in renal fractional Na+ excretion (267.9 ± 36.4%), accompanied by an increase in fractional proximal (113.3 ± 3.6%) and post-proximal (179.7 ± 20.2%) Na+ and urinary K+ (163.4 ± 5.6%) excretion when compared to control and pair-fed rats. These differences occurred in spite of an unchanged creatinine clearance and Na+ filtered load. A lower final body weight was observed in the acidotic (232 ± 4.6 g) and pair-fed (225 ± 3.6 g) rats compared to the controls (258 ± 3.7 g). In contrast, there was a significant increase in the kidney weights of acidotic rats (1.73 ± 0.05 g) compared to the other experimental groups (control, 1.46 ± 0.05 g; pair-fed, 1.4 ± 0.05 g). We suggest that altered renal Na+ and K+ handling in acidotic rats may result from a reciprocal relationship between the level of metabolism in renal tubules and ion transport.

Neonatal handling induces anovulatory estrous cycles in rats

Since previous work has shown that stimulation early in life decreases sexual receptiveness as measured by the female lordosis quotient, we suggested that neonatal handling could affect the function of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. The effects of neonatal handling on the estrous cycle and ovulation were analyzed in adult rats. Two groups of animals were studied: intact (no manipulation, N = 10) and handled (N = 11). Pups were either handled daily for 1 min during the first 10 days of life or left undisturbed. At the age of 90 days, a vaginal smear was collected daily at 9:00 a.m. and analyzed for 29 days; at 9:00 a.m. on the day of estrus, animals were anesthetized with thiopental (40 mg/kg, ip), the ovaries were removed and the oviduct was dissected and squashed between 2 glass slides. The number of oocytes of both oviductal ampullae was counted under the microscope. The average numbers for each phase of the cycle (diestrus I, diestrus II, proestrus and estrus) during the period analyzed were compared between the two groups. There were no significant differences between intact and handled females during any of the phases. However, the number of handled females that showed anovulatory cycles (8 out of 11) was significantly higher than in the intact group (none out of 10). Neonatal stimulation may affect not only the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, as previously demonstrated, but also the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis in female rats.

Effect of inhibition of nitric oxide synthase on blood pressure and renal sodium handling in renal denervated rats

The role of sympathetic nerve activity in the changes in arterial blood pressure and renal function caused by the chronic administration of NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), an inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis, was examined in sham and bilaterally renal denervated rats. Several studies have demonstrated that sympathetic nerve activity is elevated acutely after L-NAME administration. To evaluate the role of renal nerve activity in L-NAME-induced hypertension, we compared the blood pressure response in four groups (N = 10 each) of male Wistar-Hannover rats weighing 200 to 250 g: 1) sham-operated vehicle-treated, 2) sham-operated L-NAME-treated, 3) denervated vehicle-treated, and 4) denervated L-NAME-treated rats. After renal denervation or sham surgery, one control week was followed by three weeks of oral administration of L-NAME by gavage. Arterial pressure was measured weekly in conscious rats by a tail-cuff method and renal function tests were performed in individual metabolic cages 0, 7, 14 and 21 days after the beginning of L-NAME administration. L-NAME (60 mg kg-1 day-1) progressively increased arterial pressure from 108 ± 6.0 to 149 ± 12 mmHg (P<0.05) in the sham-operated group by the third week of treatment which was accompanied by a fall in creatinine clearance from 336 ± 18 to 222 ± 59 µl min-1 100 g body weight-1 (P<0.05) and a rise in fractional urinary sodium excretion from 0.2 ± 0.04 to 1.62 ± 0.35% (P<0.05) and in sodium post-proximal fractional excretion from 0.54 ± 0.09 to 4.7 ± 0.86% (P<0.05). The development of hypertension was significantly delayed and attenuated in denervated L-NAME-treated rats. This was accompanied by a striking additional increase in fractional renal sodium and potassium excretion from 0.2 ± 0.04 to 4.5 ± 1.6% and from 0.1 ± 0.015 to 1.21 ± 0.37%, respectively, and an enhanced post-proximal sodium excretion compared to the sham-operated group. These differences occurred despite an unchanged creatinine clearance and Na+ filtered load. These results suggest that bilateral renal denervation delayed and attenuated the L-NAME-induced hypertension by promoting an additional decrease in tubule sodium reabsorption in the post-proximal segments of nephrons. Much of the hypertension caused by chronic NO synthesis inhibition is thus dependent on renal nerve activity.

Do retail investors use technical analysis? Evidence from Stuttgart stock exchange.

Tutkielma käyttää automaattista kuviontunnistusalgoritmia ja yleisiä kahden liukuvan keskiarvon leikkauspiste –sääntöjä selittääkseen Stuttgartin pörssissä toimivien yksityissijoittajien myynti-osto –epätasapainoa ja siten vastatakseen kysymykseen ”käyttävätkö yksityissijoittajat teknisen analyysin menetelmiä kaupankäyntipäätöstensä perustana?” Perusolettama sijoittajien käyttäytymisestä ja teknisen analyysin tuottavuudesta tehtyjen tutkimusten perusteella oli, että yksityissijoittajat käyttäisivät teknisen analyysin metodeja. Empiirinen tutkimus, jonka aineistona on DAX30 yhtiöiden data vuosilta 2009 – 2013, ei tuottanut riittävän selkeää vastausta tutkimuskysymykseen. Heikko todistusaineisto näyttää kuitenkin osoittavan, että yksityissijoittajat muuttavat kaupankäyntikäyttäytymistänsä eräiden kuvioiden ja leikkauspistesääntöjen ohjastamaan suuntaan.