Vindingpiper0828

This paper deals with the efficiency of capillary modules without an external housing, which were used as submerged modules in the membrane distillation process. The commercial hydrophobic capillary membranes fabricated for the microfiltration process were applied. Several constructional variants of submerged modules were discussed. The influence of membrane arrangement, packing density, capillary diameter and length on the module performance was determined. The effect of process conditions, i.e., velocity and temperature of the streams, on the permeate flux was also evaluated. The submerged modules were located in the feed tank or in the distillate tank. It was found that much higher values of the permeate flux were obtained when the membranes were immersed in the feed with the distillate flowing inside the capillary membranes. The efficiency of submerged modules was additionally compared with the conventional membrane distillation (MD) capillary modules and a similar performance of both constructions was achieved.Some cultivars of Pyrus communis develop mature fruit with a distinctive red blush. Investigating the patterns of pear colour development in response to sunlight has implications for orchard management of these pears. read more The objectives of these experiments are to study the seasonal patterns of colour development and investigate the influence of shade and sunlight exposure on the red colour and harvest quality of blush pears "ANP-0118" and "ANP-0131". Several long, medium and short shading treatments were applied at different stages of fruit development from 28 ("ANP-0131") and 29 ("ANP-0118") days after full bloom (DAFB) until harvests at 119 DAFB ("ANP-0118") and 175 DAFB ("ANP-0131"). Fruits were measured every three weeks for colour parameters (a*, hue angle, chroma) and at harvest for quality parameters (fresh weight, visual assessments of percentage blush coverage and blush intensity, flesh firmness and soluble solids concentration). In the unshaded control, red colour increased during the growing season (increase in a* value and decrease in hue angle), as well as increasing in chroma value. Periods of shading during the season negatively affected red colour in both cultivars, as evidenced by significant decreases in a* value and increases in hue angle. Shaded fruits that were subsequently re-exposed to sunlight reacted with a dynamic increase in a* value and decrease in hue angle. Fruit shaded for the length of the experiment or prior to harvest had significantly lower a* values than the control at harvest. Visual assessment at harvest of percentage blush coverage and blush intensity were significantly affected by shading in both cultivars. Shading treatments applied early in the experiment had a negative effect on the fresh fruit weight of "ANP-0118".Aberrant activation of a Wnt/β-catenin pathway results in nuclear accumulation of β-catenin in colon cancer. Inhibiting β-catenin is one strategy for treating colon cancer. Here, we identified Z-ajoene, a sulfur containing compound isolated from crushed garlic, as an inhibitor of colon cancer cell growth. Z-Ajoene repressed β-catenin response transcriptional activity, intracellular β-catenin levels, and its representative target protein levels (c-Myc and cyclin D1) in SW480 colon cancer cells. To clarify the regulatory mechanism of decreased β-catenin levels, we examined the effect of Z-ajoene on β-catenin phosphorylation, which is involved in β-catenin degradation. Z-Ajoene promoted the phosphorylation of β-catenin at Ser45 in a casein kinase 1α (CK1α)-dependent manner, which is an essential step in β-catenin degradation in the cytosol. These findings indicate that Z-ajoene from garlic may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent by modulating CK1α activity and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have become one of the state-of-the-art methods for various computer vision and pattern recognition tasks including facial affective computing. Although impressive results have been obtained in facial affective computing using CNNs, the computational complexity of CNNs has also increased significantly. This means high performance hardware is typically indispensable. Most existing CNNs are thus not generalizable enough for mobile devices, where the storage, memory and computational power are limited. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of CNNs on mobile devices for real-time facial affective computing tasks. We propose a light-weight CNN architecture which well balances the performance and computational complexity. The experimental results show that the proposed architecture achieves high performance while retaining the low computational complexity compared with state-of-the-art methods. We demonstrate the feasibility of a CNN architecture in terms of speed, memory and storage consumption for mobile devices by implementing a real-time facial affective computing application on an actual mobile device.Fall Armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda) is a polyphagous and highly destructive pest of many crops. It was recently introduced into Africa and now represents a serious threat to food security, particularly because of yield losses in maize, which is the staple food for the majority of small-scale farmers in Africa. The pest has also led to increased production costs, and threatens trade because of quarantines imposed on produce from the affected countries. There is limited specific knowledge on its management among smallholders since it is such a new pest in Africa. Some synthetic insecticides have been shown to be effective in controlling FAW, but in addition to the economic, health and environmental challenges of pesticide use insecticide resistance is highly prevalent owing to years of FAW management in the Americas. Therefore, there is a need for the development and use of alternatives for the management of FAW. These include plant-derived pesticides. Here we review the efficacy and potential of 69 plant species, which have been evaluated against FAW, and identify opportunities for use among small-scale maize farmers with a focus on how pesticidal plants might be adopted in Africa for management of FAW. The biological activities were diverse and included insecticidal, insectistatic (causing increased larval duration), larvicidal, reduced growth and acute toxicity (resulting in adverse effects within a short time after exposure). While most of these studies have been conducted on American plant taxa many South American plants are now cosmopolitan weeds so these studies are relevant to the African context.