CE

This randomized controlled trial compares the dance movement therapy (DMT) group’s effect on stress management improvement and stress reduction with a wait-listed control group (WG). 162 self-selected clients suffering from stress were randomly assigned to a WG or a DMT intervention that received 10 group therapy sessions. Stress management (SVF 120), psychopathology and overall distress (Brief Symptom Inventory/BSI) were evaluated at baseline (t1: pre-test), immediately after completion of the ten sessions DMT group intervention (t2: post-test), and 6 months after the DMT treatment (t3: follow-up test). Analysis of variance was calculated to evaluate the between-group (time x condition) and within-group (time) effect of the DMT intervention. Negative stress management strategies decreased significantly in the short-term at t2 (p < .005) and long-term at t3 (p < .05), Positive Strategy Distraction improved significantly in the short-term (p < .10), as well as Subtest Relaxation (p < .10). Significant short-term improvements were observed in the BSI psychological distress scales Obsessive-Compulsive (p < .05), Interpersonal Sensitivity (p < .10), Depression (p < .05), Anxiety (p < .005), Phobic Anxiety (p < .01), Psychoticism (p < .05), and in Positive Symptom Distress (p < .02). Significant long-term improvement in psychological distress through DMT existed in Interpersonal Sensitivity (p < .05), Depression (p < .000), Phobic Anxiety (p < .05), Paranoid Thinking (p < .005), Psychoticism (p < .05), and Global Severity Index (p < .01). Results indicate that DMT group treatment is more effective to improve stress management and reduce psychological distress than non-treatment. DMT effects last over time.
Keywords: Dance movement therapy (DMT) research, Stress management and stress reduction, Randomized controlled trial (RCT), Treatment effectiveness.

"" This paper is the first publication that reported the concentrations of a number of rare earth elements in biodetritus. The rare earth elements are a key component of modern hi-technology products and they are a new component in the modern solid wastes and waste waters. This paper is an innovative and significant contribution to the database for modern environmental monitoring.
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Biodetritus that formed over a 7-month period in microcosms with Viviparus viviparus, Unio pictorum , and Ceratophyllum demersum contained a number of elements. This is the first study to determine concentrations of some elements in biodetritus. Neutron activation analysis showed that the elements’ concentrations decrease in the following order: Ca > Zn > Ba > Br > Ce > Se > Nd > La > U > Hf > Sb > Th > Sm > S > Cs > Au. The data obtained contribute to understanding of the polyfunctional role of aquatic organisms in aquatic ecosystems.
Key words:
Zn, viviparus, unio, U, Th, Sm, Se, Sb, rare, pictorum, Nd, La, Hf, elements, ecosystems, earth, detritus, demersum, Cs, ceratophyllum, Ce, Ca, Br, Ba, Au, aquatic, biogeochemistry,
Title: The role of biodetritus in accumulation of elements in aquatic ecosystems
Author(s): Ostroumov S. A.; Kolesov G. M.
Source: CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY,  Volume: 3,  Issue: 4,  Pages: 369-373,  DOI: 10.1134/S1995425510040016,  Published: AUG 2010; full text free: http://ru.scribd.com/doc/155530269/
abstract:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/75098592/

The reference in a traditional form:
Ostroumov S. A., Kolesov G. M. The role of biodetritus in accumulation of elements in aquatic ecosystems. -  CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF ECOLOGY,  3 (4): 369-373.
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The main focus of this paper is to indicate the effect of quality management practices and concurrent engineering on business performance improvement. The research has been done by taking one of Brewery Company (Meta Abo Brewery S. Co) as a case study. Practical secondary data have been collected and analyzed to understand what it seems the actual company’s business results growth rate in terms of annual sales, profit before income tax, production volume and costs of production. These results are compared to the ideal continuous improvement organization business results. Primary data are also analyzed to test quality practice levels of the company. The results of these discussions approve that there exists a direct relationship between TQM & CE, and company’s business performance improvement. Finally, proposed business improvement model and modified TQM & CE implementation models are presented.

Time-symmetric integration schemes share with symplectic schemes the property that their energy errors show a much better behavior than is the case for generic integration schemes. Allowing adaptive time steps typically leads to a loss of symplecticity. In contrast, time symmetry can be easily maintained, at least for a continuous choice of time step size. In large-scale N-body simulations, however, one often uses block time steps, where all time steps are forced to take on values as powers of two. This greatly facilitates parallelization, and hence code efficiency. Straightforward implementation of time-symmetry, translated to block time steps, faces significant hurdles. For example, iteration can lead to oscillatory behavior, and even when such behavior is suppressed, energy errors show a linear drift in time. We present an approach that circumvents these problems.

As the fossil fuels are depleting day by day due to heavy demand in various sectors like agriculture, transport etc., escalation of fuel prices in International Oil Market causing economic burden on developing countries like India and increase of environmental problems like Global warming and Green-house effect with IC engine with the use of fossil fuels, the search for alternative fuels has become pertinent and necessary. Gaseous fuels have many advantages than liquid fuels, as their calorific values of fuels are high, pollutants emitted by gaseous fuels are low and less dangerous when compared with liquid fuels. The drawbacks associated with use of vegetable oils in diesel engines such as high viscosity and low volatility can be reduced to some extent by converting them into biodiesel. However, they (biodiesel) cause combustion problems in diesel engine and hence call for low heat rejection (LHR) engine, which can burn low calorific value fuel, give high heat release rate and faster rate of combustion. They are many methods to induct gaseous fuels such as port injection, carburetion technique, injection of gaseous fuel at the near end of compression stroke etc,. Investigations were carried out with biogas gas as primary fuel inducted by port injection and cottonseed biodiesel was injected into the engine in conventional manner. Particulate matter (PM), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon mono oxide (CO) levels and un-burnt hydro carbons (UBHC) are the exhaust emissions from a diesel engine. They cause health hazards, once they are inhaled in. They also cause environmental effects like Green-house effect and Global Warming. Hence control of these emissions is an immediate effect and an urgent step. The pollutants of PM, NOx,CO and UBHC were determined at full load operation of the engine with varied injection pressure and compared with diesel operation on conventional engine. The maximum induction of biogas was 35% of total mass of biodiesel as full load operation. Particulate emissions were determined by AVL Smoke meter, while other emissions were measured by Netel Chromatograph multi-gas analyzer at full load operation. These pollutants were drastically reduced with induction of biogas and further reduced with an increase of injection pressure.

In this study, neodymia doped poly(vinyl) alcohol/zirconium–cerium acetate (PVA/Zr-Ce) nanofibers were prepared using the electrospinning technique, and then calcined at 800°C for 2 hours. For this purpose, PVA/Zr-Ce polymer solutions doped with different concentrations of neodymia were prepared using electrospinning technique, and then calcined and sintered at 800°C for 2 hours. The effect of neodymia doping was investigated in terms of solution properties, morphological changes and thermal characteristics. The fibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The measurements showed that the conductivity, pH, viscosity, and surface tension of the hybrid polymer solutions have decreased with increasing Nd acetate content. The FT-IR spectra of the fibers were in good accordance with the literature. The average crystal size values for calcined and sintered samples which were obtained from precursor solutions were calculated. XRD analysis showed that the crystallite size was decreased with increasing Nd content. This result is verified by the calculation of the total areas of the peaks appeared in the XRD spectra. The very sharp and high intense peaks found in the diffraction patterns revealed the crystalline nature of the product. Moreover, the SEM micrograph of the fibers showed that the average fiber diameters decreased with increasing Nd content.

In this study, magnesia stabilized zirconia based nanocrystalline ceramics were produced through a polymer precursor route using gadolinium and boron. The powders were characterized during the various steps by structural and morphological techniques (FT-IR, XRD, and SEM). XRD results proved that a tetragonal phase is predominant for all samples with varying magnesium contents and no monoclinic zirconia solid solution appears. The crystallite sizes of the samples were calculated using Scherrer equation. The smallest crystallite size was obtained for the sample containing Zr/Mg/Ce/Gd/B ratio of 82/0/10/8/0. The lattice parameters were calculated for cubic, tetragonal, hexagonal, and orthorhombic structures. SEM results show all the samples have spherical grains. The average grain diameters were calculated for all the samples. The smallest average grain diameter was obtained for the sample containing Zr/Mg/Ce/Gd/B ratio of 82/0/10/8/0.

Alcohols and vegetable oils are promising fuels for replacing conventional diesel fuel. The advantages of alcohol (more volatility, low carbon to hydrogen ratio) and vegetable oils (comparable calorific value and cetane number) are attracting features to use them as substituted fuels in diesel engines. However demerits of alcohol (low calorific value and low cetane number (measure of combustion quality in diesel engines)) and vegetable oils (high viscosity and low volatility) call for low heat rejection (LHR) engine which has high heat release rate and faster rate of combustion. Heat flow to the coolant is minimized by providing thermal insulation in the path of heat flow to the coolant. Investigations were carried out to study the exhaust emissions from high grade low heat rejection (LHR) diesel engine consisting of air gap insulated piston with 3-mm air gap with superni (an alloy of nickel) crown, air gap insulated liner with superni insert and ceramic coated cylinder head with normal temperature condition of crude cottonseed oil and carbureted alcohol (methanol/butanol) with varied injection pressure and compared with methanol operation over butanol operation and also with net diesel operation on conventional engine (CE). Exhaust emissions of particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were recorded by AVL Smoke meter and Netel Chromatograph NOx analyzer respectively at full load operation of the engine. Aldehydes were measured by dinitrophenyl hydrazine (DNPH) method at full load operation of the engine. Particulate levels and NOx levels decreased by 92% and 12% respectively with LHR engine at recommended injection timing of 27o bTDC (before top dead centre) and at an injection pressure of 190 bar with methanol operation in comparison with neat diesel operation on CE.

Investigations were carried out to control the exhaust emissions from four─ stroke, variable speed, variable compression ratio, single -cylinder, spark ignition (SI) engine, with test fuels of butanol blended gasoline (80% gasoline and 20% butanol by volume) and ethanol blended gasoline (gasohol) (80% gasoline blended with 20% ethanol) having copper coated combustion chamber [CCCC, copper-(thickness, 300 μ) coated on piston crown, inner side of cylinder head and on liner] provided with catalytic converter with copper as catalyst and compared with conventional SI engine (CE) with neat gasoline operation. Aldehydes were measured by wet chemical method. Exhaust emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and un-burnt hydrocarbon (UBHC) were evaluated at different values of brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) of the engine. Aldehydes were evaluated at full load operation of the engine. A microprocessor-based analyzer was used for the measurement of CO/UBHC in the exhaust of the engine. Copper coated combustion chamber with gasohol considerably reduced pollutants in comparison with CE with pure gasoline operation. Catalytic converter with air injection significantly reduced pollutants with test fuels on both configurations of the engine. The catalyst, copper reduced the pollutants effectively with both test fuels in both versions of the engine.

In this study, neodymia doped poly(vinyl) alcohol/zirconium–cerium acetate (PVA/Zr-Ce) nanofibers were prepared using the electrospinning technique, and then calcined at 800°C for 2 hours. For this purpose, PVA/Zr-Ce polymer solutions doped with different concentrations of neodymia were prepared using electrospinning technique, and then calcined and sintered at 800°C for 2 hours. The effect of neodymia doping was investigated in terms of solution properties, morphological changes and thermal characteristics. The fibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The measurements showed that the conductivity, pH, viscosity, and surface tension of the hybrid polymer solutions have decreased with increasing Nd acetate content. The FT-IR spectra of the fibers were in good accordance with the literature. The average crystal size values for calcined and sintered samples which were obtained from precursor solutions were calculated. XRD analysis showed that the crystallite size was decreased with increasing Nd content. This result is verified by the calculation of the total areas of the peaks appeared in the XRD spectra. The very sharp and high intense peaks found in the diffraction patterns revealed the crystalline nature of the product. Moreover, the SEM micrograph of the fibers showed that the average fiber diameters decreased with increasing Nd content.