Balance Experiments Research Articles

Thermal Engineering Tests of Heating Boiler Houses when Working on Peat Fuel

Modern development of society and the economy is generally accompanied by abandonment of non-renewable fuels in the system of existing attitudes toward environmental issues and resource conservation. The paper presents the results of complex operational tests of КВм-2.0 water boilers with automatic stoker and КВр-0.4K at heat supply facilities of the Arkhangelsk region under the typical operating conditions on coal, fuel mixtures, and also peat briquettes and sod peat. Experimental work was carried out using modern methods and advanced technical means. Within the framework of the research on the conversion of boilers to peat fuel, balance experiments were carried out; technical, economic and environmental performance indicators were obtained; the selection and analysis of focal residues were carried out, fine solid and soot particles polluted into the environment were studied in detail. The paper presents graphs of changes in gross efficiency, heat loss with exhaust gas, heat loss with incomplete combustion, and concentrations of sulfur and nitrogen oxides during the cycle between loading peat briquettes into the КВр-0.4K boiler, as well as graphs of changes in the heat balance components and gross efficiency all boiler units under investigation. The conversion of heat generating plants to peat fuel combustion makes it possible to achieve a significant reduction in emissions of solid and soot particles without upgrading ash-collecting plants. Complex experimental studies conducted of existing hot water boilers with a nominal heating capacity of 0.4 and 2.0 MW have shown the possibility, as well as the energy-environmental efficiency of burning briquetted and sod peat in the combustion chambers of these heat generating plants.

Acceleration Strategies for MR-STAT: Achieving High-Resolution Reconstructions on a Desktop PC Within 3 Minutes.

MR-STAT is an emerging quantitative magnetic resonance imaging technique which aims at obtaining multi-parametric tissue parameter maps from single short scans. It describes the relationship between the spatial-domain tissue parameters and the time-domain measured signal by using a comprehensive, volumetric forward model. The MR-STAT reconstruction solves a large-scale nonlinear problem, thus is very computationally challenging. In previous work, MR-STAT reconstruction using Cartesian readout data was accelerated by approximating the Hessian matrix with sparse, banded blocks, and can be done on high performance CPU clusters with tens of minutes. In the current work, we propose an accelerated Cartesian MR-STAT algorithm incorporating two different strategies: firstly, a neural network is trained as a fast surrogate to learn the magnetization signal not only in the full time-domain but also in the compressed low-rank domain; secondly, based on the surrogate model, the Cartesian MR-STAT problem is re-formulated and split into smaller sub-problems by the alternating direction method of multipliers. The proposed method substantially reduces the computational requirements for runtime and memory. Simulated and in-vivo balanced MR-STAT experiments show similar reconstruction results using the proposed algorithm compared to the previous sparse Hessian method, and the reconstruction times are at least 40 times shorter. Incorporating sensitivity encoding and regularization terms is straightforward, and allows for better image quality with a negligible increase in reconstruction time. The proposed algorithm could reconstruct both balanced and gradient-spoiled in-vivo data within 3 minutes on a desktop PC, and could thereby facilitate the translation of MR-STAT in clinical settings.

Energy and thermodynamic analysis of a typical cement production system based on experimental and simulated investigations

Cement production is one of the most energy-consuming industries in the world, and the grate cooler plays a vital role in cement quality and energy recovery. In this paper, a mass and thermal balance experiment of a 5000 t/d cement plant in China is performed to obtain the operating parameters and energy distribution. The experimental results indicate fuel combustion is the main source of energy due to the generation of about 74.8% of the total heat input energy of the system. In the output energy, the formation heat of clinker and the sensible heat of air account for 39.8% and 37.7%, respectively. The proportion of surface heat dissipation is not high, only 6.9%, mainly concentrated in the preheater and kiln shell. Furthermore, based on the experimental parameters, a novel two-equation energy model of the grate cooler is constructed, which shows higher accuracy due to the introduction of thermal dispersion and thermal radiation. The effects of different operating parameters on the heat transfer and energy recovery efficiency of the grate cooler are analyzed. On the premise of ensuring the quality and output of cement, the grate bed speed of 0.01 m/s is considered optimal.

345 Evaluation of the Effects of Hempseed Cake on Ruminal Fermentation Parameters, Nutrient Digestibility, Nutrient Flow, and Nitrogen Balance in Finishing Steers

Abstract There is interest in feeding industrial hemp production byproducts to livestock, but little is known about the digestibility and ruminal fermentation parameters associated with this feedstuff. A nutrient balance experiment using crossbred steers (n = 5; initial BW = 542 kg, SD = 40 kg) in a Youden square design was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding hempseed cake (HEMP) or dried corn distillers grains plus solubles [DDGS; each included at 20% of diet dry matter (DM) in respective treatments] in comparison with a dry-rolled corn-based negative control treatment (CON) on ruminal fermentation parameters, nutrient digestibility, nutrient flow and nitrogen (N) balance. Organic matter (OM) tended (P = 0.07) to increase and OM total tract apparent digestibility decreased (P = 0.03) in steers fed the HEMP diet compared with steers fed the DDGS and CON diets. Total tract apparent N digestibility was greatest (P < 0.01) in steers fed the HEMP diet, while total tract apparent digestibility in all other nutrients was not influenced (P ≥ 0.13) by treatment. Furthermore, apparent ruminal digestibility of OM was greatest (P < 0.01) in steers fed the HEMP or CON diets, and neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber (ADF), and true ruminal digestibility of N was greatest (P ≤ 0.04) in steers fed the HEMP diet. Ruminal total amino acid degradation and total ruminal VFA concentration was greatest (P < 0.01) in steers fed the HEMP diet. A treatment by hour interaction (P = 0.01) was observed for ruminal ammonia concentration. Nitrogen retention was greatest (P < 0.01) in steers fed the HEMP diet, suggesting that feeding hempseed cake improved utilization of N. These results suggest that although ruminal digestibility of all nutrients is greater in steers fed the HEMP diet, greater ADF concentration in hempseed cake negatively influences total tract apparent OM digestibility when fed to finishing steers.

Evaluation of the effects of wood-sourced biochar as a feedlot pen surface amendment on manure nutrient capture.

Feedstuffs utilized in U.S. feedlot finishing rations incorporate high concentrations of N and P, with less than 15% of fed N and P retained by the animal. The remaining N and P are excreted in the manure, where the opportunity for manure N loss via ammonia (NH3) volatilization from the feedlot pen surface is a risk to the environment and lowers the value of manure as a fertilizer. Two nutrient mass balance experiments were conducted during the winter and summer seasons to evaluate the effects of spreading unprocessed Eastern red cedar biochar onto the feedlot pen surface on manure nutrient capture and cattle performance. A 186-d feedlot finishing experiment was conducted from December to June (WINTER) and a subsequent 153-d finishing experiment was conducted from June to November (SUMMER). The WINTER experiment evaluated three treatments (5 pens per treatment; 10 steers per pen), including biochar spread on pen surface during the feeding period (1.40 kg biochar/m2; 17.6 m2/steer soil surface of the pen), hydrated lime spread on pen surface at end of feeding period (1.75 kg/m2) and control (no treatment applied). The SUMMER experiment evaluated biochar treatment (1.40 kg biochar/m2; 5 pens per treatment; 8 steers per pen; and 22 m2/steer soil surface of the pen) against control. There were no differences in N and P intake, retention, or excretion (P ≥ 0.38) between WINTER treatments. Steer performance (P ≥ 0.10) and carcass characteristics (P ≥ 0.50) were not impacted by pen treatment in WINTER. Nitrogen and P intake and excretion (P ≥ 0.35) were not different between treatments in SUMMER and retention of N and P was significantly greater for the biochar treatment (P ≤0.04) due to greater ADG (P = 0.05). There was no difference in DMI (P = 0.48) in SUMMER, steers on biochar pen treatment had heavier HCW (P = 0.05) and greater ADG, resulting in a tendency for greater feed efficiency (P = 0.08). In both experiments, biochar addition to the pen surface tended (P = 0.07) to increase manure N as a percent of manure DM, but this increase in N concentration did not impact kg of N removed from the feedlot pens (P ≥ 0.15) or N losses (P ≥ 0.68). The addition of red cedar biochar to the feedlot pen surface did not increase manure nutrient capture of N or P and did not reduce N losses associated with soil-based feedlot pens.

Research on Pneumatic–liquid On-Line Automatic Balance Technology for High-End Turbine Units

Rotor mass imbalance is the main cause of vibration overload of high-end turbine units, which can easily induce a variety of failures such as shaft tile and seal wear, and blade breakage. The online automatic balancing system can solve the problem of imbalance of rotor mass during the operation of the equipment, and at the same time can ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment. Therefore, a new pneumatic–liquid on-line automatic balance (PLOABS) system is proposed for high-end turbine units, which has the advantages of simple structure, no moving parts in the rotating element, closed action environment, reversible balancing process and can maintain the original state when restarted. Using ANSYS software, the gas driving force and the internal gas–liquid rotating flow field of the actuator are simulated and analyzed, and the actuator structure has been further optimized. At the same time, a set of the PLOABS system is built to conduct automatic balancing experiments. The results showed that the rotor amplitude was reduced from 18.3 to 10.6 μm, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the PLOABS technology and laid the foundation for the subsequent engineering application of the PLOABS technology.

X-parameter modeling investigation for microwave power devices

In order to address the complex problem of large-signal parameter extraction for microwave power devices, in this paper an X-parameter modeling approach for microwave power devices based on artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed. Since extreme learning machine (ELM) and general regression neural network (GRNN) have outstanding performance in expressing nonlinearity. Thus, ELM and GRNN are used to model X-parameters of transistors respectively. Next, for the sake of verify the effect for these two models, harmonic balance experiment is carried out, after that the third harmonic and modulus value of predicted data and expected data are obtained. After comparisons, it is proved that the three harmonic errors of ELM model are 3.577dBm, 1.092dBm and 2.511dBm, respectively. And the three harmonic errors of GRNN model are 0.130 dBm, 0.001 dBm, 1.235 dBm, respectively. Otherwise, the three harmonic modulus errors of ELM are 0.002, 0.321e, 0.685e, respectively, and the errors of GRNN model are 0.001, 0.235e, 0.304e, respectively. Therefore, the established GRNN model can accuracy can accurately characterize large signals more than for GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT).

A multi‐objective parallel layered equalizer for large‐scale lithium ion battery system

The equalisers available are difficult to give consideration to both high balance efficiency and fast balance speed, and their performances are unstable as the number of the series-connected batteries increases, so they are unsuitable for a large-scale battery system. A multi-objective parallel layered equaliser based on battery working states for the large-scale lithium-ion battery system is presented. The equaliser has two types of balance objects and two corresponding layers, and the first layer and the second layer take the single battery and the battery unit as the balance object, respectively. The multi-objective parallel layered balance means that multiple balance objects are selected as the balance objectives simultaneously at each layer. The balance speed is fast due to the multi-objective parallel balance. The balance efficiency is high due to the short energy path and the complementary pulse width modulation (PWM) control in the first layer, and the double voltage value of the balance object in the second layer. Moreover, the performance of the equaliser is stable, even when the number of series-connected batteries is large. In short, the proposed equaliser features high efficiency, fast speed, and strong scalability. Further, the experimental platform for a battery system with twelve series-connected lithium-ion phosphate batteries is built, and then the balance experiments have been completed. Finally, the effectiveness of the equaliser is verified by the corresponding experimental results.

Water effect on adsorption carbon capture in metal-organic framework: A molecular simulation

Considering water vapor is a component in almost all CO2-rich industrial gas streams, it is of critical importance to understand interaction mechanisms between adsorbent and adsorbate. This paper aims to comprehensively analyze water effect on CO2 adsorption for metal-organic framework (MOF) in a broad working pressure range which may bring some new insights based on a molecular simulation. First, Mg-MOF-74 is selected and synthesized according to previous literature. Equilibrium adsorption capacity and enthalpy are obtained by grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation, and the results for high-pressure CO2 adsorption are validated through magnetic suspension balance experiment. It is indicated that there are three adsorption stages for pure CO2 and four adsorption stages for pure H2O under different pressure. Adsorption enthalpy also varies with adsorption capacity, which is fully explained from the angle of adsorption stages and energies. Further simulation of flue gas (CO2/H2O/N2) adsorption at different humidity are carried out, and selectivity between CO2 and H2O is analyzed. At 298 K, 100 kPa, with 3% water content, CO2/H2O selectivity is 5.6 × 10−5. When temperature rises to 388 K, CO2/H2O selectivity rises to 6.2 × 10−3. Adsorption density distributions, simulation snapshots, and radial distribution functions are used in analysis processes, which could provide a general perspective for analyzing CO2 adsorbents in the presence of H2O.

Expandable On-Board Real-Time Edge Computing Architecture for Luojia3 Intelligent Remote Sensing Satellite

Since the data generation rate of high-resolution satellites is increasing rapidly, to relieve the stress of data downloading and processing systems while enhancing the time efficiency of information acquisition, it is important to deploy on-board edge computing on satellites. However, the volume, weight, and computability of on-board systems are strictly limited by the harsh space environment. Therefore, it is very difficult to match the computability and the requirements of diversified intelligent applications. Currently, this problem has become the first challenge of the practical deployment of on-board edge computing. To match the actual requirements of the Luojia3 satellite of Wuhan University, this manuscript proposes a three-level edge computing architecture based on a System-on-Chip (SoC) for low power consumption and expandable on-board processing. First, a transfer level is designed to focus on hardware communications and Input/Output (I/O) works while maintaining a buffer to store image data for upper levels temporarily. Second, a processing framework that contains a series of libraries and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is designed for the algorithms to easily build parallel processing applications. Finally, an expandable level contains multiple intelligent remote sensing applications that perform data processing efficiently using base functions, such as instant geographic locating and data picking, stream computing balance model, and heterogeneous parallel processing strategy that are provided by the architecture. It is validated by the performance improvement experiment that following this architecture, using these base functions can help the Region of Interest (ROI) system geometric correction fusion algorithm to be 257.6 times faster than the traditional method that processes scene by scene. In the stream computing balance experiment, relying on this architecture, the time-consuming algorithm ROI stabilization production can maintain stream computing balance under the condition of insufficient computability. We predict that based on this architecture, with the continuous development of device computability, the future requirements of on-board computing could be better matched.

Balance experiments on the purification of waste gases of thermal power plants from SO2 and NOХ by carbonate melt

The conceptual scheme of the waste gas treatment technology of the CHP includes the organization of interconnected processes of chemical absorption of SO2 and NOx by the carbonate melt of alkali metals and further regeneration of the carbonate-sulfate melt by natural gas. In previous studies, it was shown that it is possible to purify waste gases from sulfur and regenerate the melt with carbon monoxide. The limitations of these works were the use of CO as a reducing agent during the regeneration of the melt, and the practical lack of data on the behavior of nitrogen compounds. These gaps are eliminated in this paper. Based on the results of balance experiments of the process of chemical absorption of SO2 and NOx from waste gases by a carbonate melt, and the regeneration of a carbonate-sulfate melt by natural gas, the principal possibility of implementing a closed technology for deep purification of gases from SO2 and NOx is shown. It is shown that the process of chemical absorption of gases by a carbonate melt and the regeneration of the melt by natural gas at the same temperature of 500 °C allows the technology to be implemented using a single reactor. It was found that during the chemical absorption of SO2 and NOx from the waste gases of the CHP by the carbonate melt of alkali metals, more than 95 % of sulfur and ~60 % of nitrogen compounds are captured. It is shown that in the process of regeneration of a carbonate-sulfate melt with natural gas, 100% extraction of sulfur and nitrogen into the gas phase is achieved with the formation of alkali metal carbonates in the melt. The results of the material balance of the process of chemical absorption and regeneration of the carbonatesulfate melt by reduction with natural gas are presented.

A cryogenic torsion balance using a liquid-cryogen free, ultra-low vibration cryostat.

We describe a liquid-cryogen free cryostat with ultra-low vibration levels, which allows for continuous operation of a torsion balance at cryogenic temperatures. The apparatus uses a commercially available two-stage pulse-tube cooler and passive vibration isolation. The torsion balance exhibits torque noise levels lower than room temperature thermal noise by a factor of about four in the frequency range of 3-10 mHz, limited by residual seismic motion and by radiative heating of the pendulum body. In addition to lowering thermal noise below room-temperature limits, the low-temperature environment enables novel torsion balance experiments. Currently, the maximum duration of a continuous measurement run is limited by accumulation of cryogenic surface contamination on the optical elements inside the cryostat.

The effect of vitamins A and D on the protein balance in the body of young rabbits

In feed for farm animals, the most expensive component is protein. To increase the intensity of its metabolism, fat-soluble vitamins are included in the feed of herbivorous animals. The effect of vitamins A and D on the balance of protein (nitrogen) in the body of young rabbits was studied by classical methods in a series of exchange (balance) experiments in the Department of Fur Animal Husbandry and Rabbit Breeding of the V. A. Afanasyev Scientific Research Institute of Fur Farming and Rabbit Breeding. From 12 heads of young rabbits of the Soviet Chinchilla breed at the age of 45 days, 3 groups of 4 heads each were formed according to the principle of analogues. Rabbits of the 1st - control group received full-fledged granular mixed feed (PGK) without additives, vitamin A was added to the mixed feed of rabbits of the 2nd group at the rate of 500 IU per 100 g, vitamin D was added to the mixed feed of the 3rd group at the rate of 150 IU per 100 g of mixed feed. As a result of three balance experiments, it was found that the groups practically did not differ in the amount of digested nitrogen. The excretion of nitrogen in the urine was stable, without significant differences in the groups. Thus, the addition of synthetic vitamins A and D to the diet does not affect the intensity of protein metabolism in young rabbits. The indicator of daily nitrogen deposition in rabbits aged 45-74 days is quite stable, on average 1.5 g per head. The percentage of nitrogen deposition to the accepted one is on average 49.55. The deposition of nitrogen in the body of young rabbits to the digested nitrogen of the diet is quite high – 76.5%, which indicates the rational use of protein by rabbits for plastic needs.

Detection of QCD axion dark matter by coherent scattering

The QCD axion is a promising candidate of the dark matter. In this paper, we discuss elastic scattering processes between nucleons and the QCD axion dark matter. We point out that the cross section can be enhanced by more than $\mathcal{O}({10}^{25})$ by the coherent effect, compared to classical processes. As a result, for example, we show that QCD axions may scatter at the sun with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ probability for ${f}_{a}\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{11}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$. In addition, one may expect stimulated emission effects can also enhance the cross section because the number density of the axion DM is very large. The enhancement factor can be as large as another $\mathcal{O}({10}^{25})$ and, if the factor exists, the force from the dark matter wind may be detected via, e.g., torsion balance experiments. However, it is also found that there is a cancellation of the stimulated emission factor and the force is too small to be detected.

A comparative evaluation on the energetic values and digestibility of fatty acids in rice bran oil and palm oil for broilers

The objective of this study was to compare the digestibility of energy and fatty acids (FA) in rice bran oil (RBO) and palm oil (PO) fed to growing Arbor Acre (AA) broilers. A corn-soybean meal basal diet and the basal diet supplemented with 8% RBO or PO were evaluated. A total of 72 AA male broilers (initial BW = 1,173 ± 6 g; age = 22 d) were randomly divided to 3 dietary treatments with 6 replicates of 4 broilers in each. The growth performance and the ME and FA digestibility in oils were compared with a balance experiment of broilers from d 22 to 28. The ME of the RBO diet was greater (P < 0.05) than PO diet and basal diet, and the ME of the PO diet was greater (P < 0.05) than basal diet. However, no statistical difference was observed in the ME intake of broilers fed basal, RBO, and PO diets. To maintain daily ME intake, broilers ingested more basal diet relative to other diets, resulting in increased CP intake (P < 0.01) and retention (P < 0.01) than broilers fed diets supplemented with RBO and PO. This finding resulted in greater (P < 0.01) BWG and ADG from d 22 to 28 for broilers fed the basal diet relative to other diets, but there was no difference for BWG and ADG across oil sources. However, broilers fed RBO had numerically greater BWD and ADG than those fed PO, likely because the RBO provided greater AME, AMEn, AME/GE, AMEn/GE (P < 0.01) as well as ether extract (EE) digestibility (P = 0.0536) relative to PO. The digestibility of palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0), oleic (C18:1), and linoleic (C18:2) were greater (P < 0.01) in RBO than PO, which positively influenced the energy values for RBO. These results indicate RBO has greater ME and digestibility of EE and FA, which positively influenced the growth performance of AA broilers. Therefore, RBO can be used to replace PO in broiler diets.

Study on Wetted Soil Geometry of a Negative Pressure Irrigation (NPI) System

The limited water resource is a main constraint on agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions like Saudi Arabia. The Negative Pressure Irrigation (NPI) is one of the attractive irrigation systems since it consumes less water, leads irrigated water down up to root zone, minimizes evaporation and prevents deep percolation than other traditional irrigation systems. The aim of this paper is to get information on the soil water dynamics, which is very essential for the design and operation of the NPI system. With this view, the water balance experiment was carried out in the NPI system for different time intervals for three different negative pressures ( Pn = -0.02m, -0.07m and -0.10m). After finishing the experiment, the dry soil was removed from the column to measure the configuration of wet soil. This geometry of wetted soil represents the soil water dynamics and the wetted soil volume represents the water stored in soil at different negative pressures and elapsed time. A good relationship was obtained between the wetted soil geometry, time and negative pressure. This study reveals that for a certain negative pressure and time interval, the depth, width and volume of wetted soil can be predicted.

Double‐layer equalizer with multi‐winding transformer and resonance switched capacitor module for series‐connected batteries

A double-layer architecture for series-connected modules is proposed to decrease the long battery string's equalizer circuit complexity, which is based on multi-winding transformers and resonance switched capacitors. Cell voltages in a module are equalized by the multi-winding transformer equalizer, while module voltages are unified by resonance switched capacitor converters. Both multi-winding transformer and resonance switched capacitor share a half-bridge, and all of the switches are derived by one pair of pulse-width modulation (PWM). The theoretical and dynamic balance experiments are conducted to verify the equalizer feasibility. The results show that both layers’ system can realize the automatic balance without cell-monitoring circuits. The efficiency of the proposed equalizer reaches 93.2%.

DARQ: Deep learning of quality control for stereotaxic registration of human brain MRI to the T1w MNI-ICBM 152 template

Linear registration to stereotaxic space is a common first step in many automated image-processing tools for analysis of human brain MRI scans. This step is crucial for the success of the subsequent image-processing steps. Several well-established algorithms are commonly used in the field of neuroimaging for this task, but none have a 100% success rate. Manual assessment of the registration is commonly used as part of quality control. To reduce the burden of this time-consuming step, we propose Deep Automated Registration Qc (DARQ), a fully automatic quality control method based on deep learning that can replace the human rater and accurately perform quality control assessment for stereotaxic registration of T1w brain scans.In a recently published study from our group comparing linear registration methods, we used a database of 9325 MRI scans and 64476 registrations from several publicly available datasets and applied seven linear registration tools to them. In this study, the resulting images that were assessed and labeled by a human rater are used to train a deep neural network to detect cases when registration failed. We further validated the results on an independent dataset of patients with multiple sclerosis, with manual QC labels available (n=1200).In terms of agreement with a manual rater, our automated QC method was able to achieve 89% accuracy and 85% true negative rate (equivalently 15% false positive rate) in detecting scans that should pass quality control in a balanced cross-validation experiments, and 96.1% accuracy and 95.5% true negative rate (or 4.5% FPR) when evaluated in a balanced independent sample, similar to manual QC rater (test-retest accuracy of 93%).The results show that DARQ is robust, fast, accurate, and generalizable in detecting failure in linear stereotaxic registrations and can substantially reduce QC time (by a factor of 20 or more) when processing large datasets.

210 Evaluation of the Effects of Wood-Sourced Biochar as a Feedlot Pen Surface Amendment on Manure Nutrient Capture

Abstract Two nutrient mass balance experiments were conducted during winter and summer seasons to evaluate the effects of spreading unprocessed Eastern red cedar biochar onto the feedlot pen surface on manure nutrient capture and cattle performance. A 186-d feedlot finishing experiment was conducted from December to June (WINTER) and a subsequent 153-d feedlot finishing experiment was conducted from June to November (SUMMER). The WINTER experiment evaluated 3 treatments, including biochar spread to the pen surface during the feeding period (24 kg/steer; 10 steers per pen), hydrated lime spread to pen surface at end of feeding period (31 kg/steer), and control (no treatment applied). The SUMMER experiment evaluated biochar treatment (31 kg/steer; 8 steers per pen) against control. There was no difference in N and P intake, retention, or excretion (P ≥ 0.38) between WINTER treatments. Steer performance (P ≥ 0.10) and carcass characteristics (P ≥ 0.50) were not impacted by pen treatment in WINTER. Nitrogen and P intake and excretion (P ≥ 0.35) were similar between treatments in SUMMER and retention of N and P was significantly greater for the biochar treatment (P = 0.04) due to greater ADG. There was no difference in DMI (P = 0.48) in SUMMER, steers on biochar pen treatment had heavier HCW and increased ADG (P = 0.05), resulting in improved feed efficiency (P = 0.08). In both experiments, biochar addition to the pen surface tended (P = 0.07) to increase manure N as a percent of manure DM, but this increase in N concentration did not impact kg of N removed from the feedlot pens (P ≥ 0.15) or N losses (P ≥ 0.68). The addition of unprocessed red cedar biochar to the feedlot pen surface did not improve manure nutrient capture of N or P and did not reduce N losses associated with soil-based feedlot pens.

Performance optimization of annealing salp swarm algorithm: frameworks and applications for engineering design

AbstractSwarm salp algorithm is a swarm intelligence optimization algorithm enlightened by the movement and foraging behaviors of the salp population. The salp swarm algorithm (SSA) has a simple structure and fast processing speed and can gain significant results on objective functions with fewer local optima. However, it has poor exploration ability and is easy to suffer from the local optimal solutions, so it performs poorly on multimodal objective functions. Besides, its unfair balance of exploration and exploitation is another notable shortcoming. To ameliorate these shortcomings and enhance the algorithm’s performance on multimodal functions, this research proposes simulated annealing (SA) improved salp swarm algorithm (SASSA). SASSA embeds the SA strategy into the followers’ position updating method of SSA, performs a certain number of iterations of the SA strategy, and uses Lévy flight to realize the random walk in the SA strategy. SASSA and 23 original and improved competitive algorithms are compared on 30 IEEE CEC2017 benchmark functions. SASSA ranked first in the Friedman test. Compared with SSA, SASSA can obtain better solutions on 27 benchmark functions. The balance and diversity experiment and analysis of SSA and SASSA are carried out. SASSA’s practicability is verified by solving five engineering problems and the fertilizer effect function problem. Experimental and statistical results reveal that the proposed SASSA has strong competitiveness and outperforms all the competitors. SASSA has excellent exploration ability, suitable for solving composition functions with multiple peaks. Meanwhile, SASSA brings about a good balance of exploration and exploitation and dramatically improves the quality of the solutions.