Plant Maintenance Research Articles

The Power of Far-Red Light at Night: Photomorphogenic, Physiological, and Yield Response in Pepper During Dynamic 24 Hour Lighting.

Supplemental light is needed during the winter months in high latitude regions to achieve the desired daily light integral (DLI) (photoperiod × intensity) for greenhouse pepper (Capsicum annuum) production. Peppers tend to have short internodes causing fruit stacking and higher labor time for plant maintenance when grown under supplemental light. Far-red light can increase internode length, and our previous study on tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) also discovered monochromatic blue light at night during continuous lighting (CL, 24 h) increased stem elongation. Furthermore, the use of low-intensity, long photoperiod lighting can reduce light fixture costs and overall electricity costs due to lower power prices during the night. Therefore, we investigated the use of blue and/or far-red light during the night period of CL to increase stem elongation. Three pepper cultivars with different internode lengths/growing characteristics (‘Maureno,’ ‘Gina,’ and ‘Eurix’) were used to investigate the effects on plant morphology in a short experiment, and one cultivar ‘Maureno’ was used in a long experiment to assess the impact on fruit yield. The five lighting treatments that were used are as follows: 16 h of white light during the day followed by either 8 h of darkness (16W – control), white light (24W), blue light only (16W + 8B), blue + far-red light (16W + 8BFR), or far-red light only (16W + 8FR). Calculated nighttime phytochrome photostationary state (PSS) was 0.833, 0.566, 0.315, and 0.186 for 24W, 16W + 8B, 16W + 8BFR, and 16W + 8FR respectively. All five treatments had the same DLI in photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and far-red light. The 16W + 8BFR and 16W + 8FR treatments significantly increased internode length compared to 16W and 24W but neither was more impactful than the other. The 16W + 8B treatment also increased internode length but to a lesser extent than 16W + 8BFR and 16W + 8FR. This indicates that a nighttime PSS of 0.315 is sufficient to maximize stem elongation. Both 16W + 8B and 16W + 8BFR drove photosynthesis during the nighttime supporting a similar yield compared to 16W. Therefore, 16W + 8BFR is the most potential lighting strategy as it can lead to a greater reduction in the light fixture and electrical costs while maintaining yield and enhancing internode length.

Temporal Spatial Mutations of Soil Erosion in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Lancang River Basin and Its Influencing Mechanisms

As a major threat to ecosystem functions and national food security, soil erosion also exerts an influence on the water quality in basins and the operation and maintenance of hydropower plants. Existing discussions about trends of soil erosion focus mainly on its variation and mutation over time. Few studies have addressed the spatial mutation of soil erosion and its influence mechanism. In this research, Sen’s slope estimation was coupled with a Mann–Kendall model to explore the spatiotemporal distribution, spatial mutation characteristics and influence mechanisms of soil erosion, and conduct a case study on the Middle and Lower reaches of the Lancang River Basin (ML-LRB) in China. There are three main conclusions from this study: (1) During 2000–2019, the annual soil erosion in the ML-LRB variation ranged from 0 to 7.00 × 103 t/(km2·a) with a multi-year mean of 1.53 × 103 t/(km2·a), decreasing year by year from north to south, while an increasing trend began to appear in the central above region after 2015. (2) The areas with decreased soil erosion were much larger than those with increased soil erosion during 2000–2019, and there was a concentrated increase in soil erosion in Dali and in Xishuangbanna. (3) The mutation of the soil erosion intensity was spatially consistent with that of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Overall, this paper provides a new perspective for the study of factors affecting the trends and spatial mutation of soil erosion.

Analysis of Plant Maintenance Measures for Landscape Construction Site Management

Analysis of Plant Maintenance Measures for Landscape Construction Site Management

EU DEMO Remote Maintenance System development during the Pre-Concept Design Phase

During the EU DEMO Pre-Concept Design Phase, the remote maintenance team developed maintenance strategies and systems to meet the evolving plant maintenance requirements. These were constrained by the proposed tokamak architecture and the challenging environments but considered a range of port layouts and handling system designs. The design-driving requirements were to have short maintenance durations and to demonstrate power plant relevant technologies. Work concentrated on the in-vessel maintenance systems, where the design constraints are the most challenging and the potential impact on the plant design is highest. A robust blanket handling system design was not identified during the Pre-Concept Design Phase. Novel enabling technologies were identified and, where these were critical to the maintenance strategy and not being pursued elsewhere, proof-of-principle designs were developed and tested. Technology development focused on pipe joining systems such as laser bore cutting and welding, pipe alignment, and on the control systems for handling massive blankets. Maintenance studies were also conducted on the ex-vessel plant to identify the additional transport volumes required to support the plant layout. The strategic implications of using vessel casks, and of using containment cells with cell casks, was explored. This was motivated by the costs associated with the storage of casks, one of several ex-vessel systems that can drive the overall plant layout.This paper introduces the remote maintenance system designs, describes the main developments and achievements, and presents conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations for future work.

Experimental Analysis of the Effect of Wear Factors on Guide Vane of Hydraulic Turbine

In this paper, in order to study the wear of the guide vane of the hydraulic turbine, a test bench was built according to the actual internal flow of the hydraulic turbine of the power station. The value of the wear of the surface of the guide vane after polishing was reduced by 18.1 μm compared with that before polishing of P = 30.9 MW and by 12.5 μm at P = 42.8 MW. In order to reduce the influence of sediment wear on the guide vane, a 0.3 mm thick tungsten carbide coating was sprayed on its surface, and the wear of the guide vane after spraying tungsten carbide was obtained. The wear of the guide vane was reduced by about a factor of three to four times compared with that before spraying. In addition, according to the pH value of 6.73 of the river where the power station is located, the change of dissolved oxygen in the water body will affect the wear of the metal material on the surface of the guide vane, and the dissolved oxygen varies with the change of the water body temperature, so we simulated the temperature of the water body in the flood and the dry period of the power station, and got the wear amount of the polished guide vane in the flood period under the two working conditions of 28.1 μm and 47.3 μm, respectively. The wear amounts of the guide vane in the dry period were 25.2 μm and 43.9 μm, respectively. In addition, the service life of the guide vane before and after polishing and after tungsten carbide spraying was estimated based on the wear data obtained from the test, which provides a basis for power plant maintenance.

Monitoring System For Tillandsia Ornamental Plants Using Fuzzy Algorithm

The national floriculture industry will continue to grow, along with the interest and demand for ornamental plants by the public the author intends to design a tool in the field of communication technology by utilizing the Internet of Thing (IoT) Platform so that it can be monitored remotely by covering the cultivated land of tillandsia ornamental plants. Temperature and humidity data will be analyzed using a fuzzy algorithm. Then the system gives a callback to the actuator (relay on the water pump) to work so that the temperature and humidity reach the expected conditions stably so that the care and maintenance of tillandsia plants is optimal and maintains the water conditions of tillandsia plants. In this research, found results with an average error of 0.4% on the temperature sensor with 7 tests, 0.83% on the light sensor with 3 trials. This system has succeeded in monitoring and controlling the prototype of the IoT-based mini greenhouse condition that can monitor remotely and automatically manage the conditions of temperature, humidity, and water light intensity to remain stable, making it easier for cultivation managers to monitor land or greenhouse conditions even though they are far away from the place of cultivation for the tools and pond managers are connected to the internet network.

Design and Application of Intelligent Unmanned Spot Inspection System in Thermal Power Plant

Thermal power plant is a typical equipment-intensive enterprise, and regular inspection and spot inspection of production equipment is the most important measure to find equipment defects in time and ensure safe production of enterprises. In many years of practical application, the traditional inspection method, which relies mainly on visual inspection by spot inspectors, has been widely used. There are many shortcomings, such as missing detection, low efficiency, insufficient depth of data mining and high security risk. Based on the equipment management mode of spot inspection and regular maintenance in power plants, this paper proposes an unmanned intelligent spot inspection system for power plants, which combines intelligent sensors with diagnostic algorithms, by sorting out the work content of traditional manual spot inspection. The intelligent and unmanned management of spot inspection and regular repair in thermal power plants is realized, which has certain reference significance for improving the operation reliability of power plants and reducing the safety risk of spot inspection personnel.

Gene Body Methylation in Plants: Mechanisms, Functions, and Important Implications for Understanding Evolutionary Processes.

Gene body methylation (gbM) is an epigenetic mark where gene exons are methylated in the CG context only, as opposed to CHG and CHH contexts (where H stands for A, C, or T). CG methylation is transmitted transgenerationally in plants, opening the possibility that gbM may be shaped by adaptation. This presupposes, however, that gbM has a function that affects phenotype, which has been a topic of debate in the literature. Here, we review our current knowledge of gbM in plants. We start by presenting the well-elucidated mechanisms of plant gbM establishment and maintenance. We then review more controversial topics: the evolution of gbM and the potential selective pressures that act on it. Finally, we discuss the potential functions of gbM that may affect organismal phenotypes: gene expression stabilization and upregulation, inhibition of aberrant transcription (reverse and internal), prevention of aberrant intron retention, and protection against TE insertions. To bolster the review of these topics, we include novel analyses to assess the effect of gbM on transcripts. Overall, a growing body of literature finds that gbM correlates with levels and patterns of gene expression. It is not clear, however, if this is a causal relationship. Altogether, functional work suggests that the effects of gbM, if any, must be relatively small, but there is nonetheless evidence that it is shaped by natural selection. We conclude by discussing the potential adaptive character of gbM and its implications for an updated view of the mechanisms of adaptation in plants.

Steam Package Boiler Expert System for Control and Maintenance of Fertilizer Plants using Rule-Base Fuzzy Logic

Generally, expert systems have been found very useful branch of artificial intelligence that makes extensive use of specialized knowledge to solve complex problems and even in fertilizer plants it has been deployed in handling operations in critical sections, such as material handling systems, online leak detection systems, granulation, air compressor among others. This paper presents research work for steam package boiler expert system for control and maintenance of fertilizer plants using rule-base fuzzy logic hybrid system, which has not been benefited much from expert system. The system handles cause of boiler failures in terms of controlling and maintaining the functional chemical components of the boiler drum and feed water parameters. validation on the system consistency, correctness, and its precision with six (6) steam package boiler parameters test value cases was conducted involving fourteen (14) fertilizer plant boiler domain partitioners. The boiler drum and feed water qualities with less or higher test value worst-cases validates the boiler system, showing each of the parameter’s bar turns red, as displayed on the boiler’s panel, while on test value best-cases, validates the system, displaying green on the boiler’s panel as users entered the right value of parameters per the design specification. We discovered that from 1 to 10 minutes run time for auto system run gives 10.8% errors as compared from 1 to 10 minutes time interval on manual system run that gives 80.2% error, this results to less effort in user interface application usage on auto operations better than manual. The expert system prevents damaged and malfunctioning as control the alkalinity, prevent scaling, both mechanical & chemical corrosion, forming, correct pH values and then the conductivity which deals with the feed boiler water and monitored the level in the boiler drum using the industry measurement parameters (pressure, temperature, level, and flow).

The Implementation of K-Means Clustering in Coal-fired Power Plant Performance

Performance monitoring for power plant industry is important to know current condition and determined the prior way for improvement strategy. This study aims to classified performance index which are Equivalent Availability Factor (EAF) and Equivalent Forced Outage Rate (EFOR) in various coal-fired power plant in Java Bali, Indonesia. The results of this plants grouping possible to be applied as one of the supports systems in real-time operational decisions to determine plant maintenance priorities. The proposed clustering model is possible to be applied for power plant’s control centre unit in Indonesia in grouping power plants based on performance indexes. The result show that there were 4 clusters of the power plant performance. The clustering drives to identify which plant that must be prioritized for improvement. The clustering method has a model accuracy rate of 87% which indicates that model was valid and applicable. For further research, a decision support system design was required for operational validation. Keywords—Decision-making, Decision support system, Kmeans clustering, Performance, Power plant.

BUDAYA DAN KEARIFAN LOKAL DALAM PENGELOLAAN LAHAN DENGAN POLA AGROFORESTRI DI KESATUAN PENGELOLAAN HUTAN LINDUNG BATUTEGI PROVINSI LAMPUNG

Agroforestry is a land management system widely applied in forest land utilization by incorporating forestry and agricultural crops. In its management, farmers have their way that is influenced by the local culture and wisdom inherited by their parents. Therefore, this research aims to identify farmers local culture and wisdom in land management with agroforestry patterns. Data retrieval has been conducted in February-March 2021 with case studies in 3 combined farmer groups (Gapoktan), namely Gapoktan Hijau Makmur, Gapoktan Mahardika, and Gapoktan Cempaka which are, in the protected forest management unit (KPHL) Batutegi, Lampung Province. Data collection is conducted with structured interviews and in-depth interviews. In this study it was identified that the way the culture of ngoret influences farmers land management, angin-anginan, nunas, perantingan, and setek on plant maintenance, mutil and ngunduh on harvesting and breeding activities. In addition, this culture also contains wisdom in babat belukar on the preparation of land and nandur on planting. This local wisdom is still applied in a limited way so that it needs to be developed to be widely applied to support forest sustainability in KPHL Batutegi.Key words: Breeding, Crop maintenance, Harvesting, Land preparation, Planting.

Office Workers’ Perceptions of Office Indoor Plant Rental Services

Background and objective With increasing interest in and use of plants indoors, office indoor plant rental services (OIPRS) can provide the proper design, establishment, and maintenance of indoor plants for the office. Methods This study investigated the current perceptions of OIPRS through a survey of 150 OIPRS users and 150 non-users. Both users and non-users considered aesthetic enhancements and relaxation of the mind as the primary advantages of indoor plants, rather than their physical functional effects. Although both groups of respondents recognized that the disadvantages of indoor plants were few, the OIPRS users considered the disadvantages to be much less than the non-users. Results The respondents considered that the advantages of OIPRS included the reduced burden of plant management, designs that were suited for the space, various plant experiences, and professional plant care, while they considered expensive rental costs and a required contract period as the disadvantages associated with the service. Regarding the enhancement of OIPRS, respondents preferred indoor plant management by an expert (3.89), and a variety of services with different designs and prices (3.61) were required the most. Respondents also expected that OIPRS should lead to interior improvements (4.16) and enhanced functionality, such as air purification (4.13). Although 62% of the non-users were willing to use OIPRS in the future, 52% of the OIPRS users did not want to reuse the service in the future, suggesting that improvements in the service should be considered to improve perceptions of OIPRS. Conclusion Overall, this study investigated the current perceptions of OIPRS, and these results provide supporting data to further establish and improve successful indoor plant rental services (IPRS).

A Machine Vision-Based Pipe Leakage Detection System for Automated Power Plant Maintenance.

Industrial pipework maintenance inspection can be automated through machine vision-based effusion monitoring. However, colorless effusions such as water can be difficult to detect in a complex industrial environment due to weak illumination and poor visibility of the background. This paper deploys the reflective characteristics of effusion and its lower temperature compared to the environment in order to develop an automatic inspection system for power plant pipeworks’ maintenance. Such a system is aimed at detecting the colorless fluid effusion based on dual source images and a contour features algorithm. In this respect, a visible light source unit highlights the reflective features of the effusion edge. Meanwhile, high-definition images of the potential effusion are acquired under both visible and infrared lights. A customized image processing procedure extracts the potential effusion features from the infrared image to retrieve the region of interest for segmentation purposes and transfer such information to the visible light image to determine the effusion contour. Finally, a decision-making support tool based on the image contour closure is enabled for classification purposes. The implementation of the proposed system is tested on a real industrial environment. Experimental results show a classification accuracy up to 99%, demonstrating excellent suitability in meeting industrial requirements.

A Review: Vital Role of Biofertilizers in Plant Growth Enhancement and Maintenance of Soil Health

A Review: Vital Role of Biofertilizers in Plant Growth Enhancement and Maintenance of Soil Health

Tousled-like kinase 2 targets ASF1 histone chaperones through client mimicry

Tousled-like kinases (TLKs) are nuclear serine-threonine kinases essential for genome maintenance and proper cell division in animals and plants. A major function of TLKs is to phosphorylate the histone chaperone proteins ASF1a and ASF1b to facilitate DNA replication-coupled nucleosome assembly, but how TLKs selectively target these critical substrates is unknown. Here, we show that TLK2 selectivity towards ASF1 substrates is achieved in two ways. First, the TLK2 catalytic domain recognizes consensus phosphorylation site motifs in the ASF1 C-terminal tail. Second, a short sequence at the TLK2 N-terminus docks onto the ASF1a globular N-terminal domain in a manner that mimics its histone H3 client. Disrupting either catalytic or non-catalytic interactions through mutagenesis hampers ASF1 phosphorylation by TLK2 and cell growth. Our results suggest that the stringent selectivity of TLKs for ASF1 is enforced by an unusual interaction mode involving mutual recognition of a short sequence motifs by both kinase and substrate.

Study Explores Cost-Effective, Ecologically Sound Fluid-Disposal Methods

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 202917, “Cost-Effective and Ecologically Sound Fluid Disposal During Well Cleanup and Post-Fracturing Flowback Operations,” by Yakov Shumakov, Florian Hollaender, SPE, and Bertrand Theuveny, SPE, Schlumberger. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The complete paper summarizes the results and lessons learned from the application of different methods used for fluid disposal in a wide range of well-testing operations around the globe. These were used to determine that economical and environmentally responsible solutions exist for fluid disposal during these operations. The complete paper also details a field-proven and cost-effective fluid-storage solution using a shuttle tanker during well-test and flowback operations offshore. Fluid-Disposal System Ecologically sound and safe fluid disposal during well testing and cleanup is one of the primary objectives, from an operational standpoint, of any temporary surface well-test package. Each fluid-disposal system is designed and sized for each operation according to the expected operating conditions. Typical fluid-disposal systems include the following. Water-Filtration System. In this system, produced water is first separated from hydrocarbons at the surface by using the well-test separator included in the temporary surface package; then, it is treated to remove as much oil as possible before discharge overboard. Even after effective treatment, however, produced water still contains traces of oil at parts-per-million levels. Overboard discharge of any kind is controlled strictly by environmental regulators and legislation. The primary pollutants of concern are hydrocarbons and grease; therefore, most treatment technology for water produced offshore is geared toward removing these contaminants. Mobile water-treatment systems are ideal for fast-response or urgent situations, as well as supplemental or temporary operations such as completions, workovers, or well testing. They are often used to assist during plant startup and maintenance outages when the water-treatment system is unavailable or cannot meet water-production requirements. Temporary Fluid Storage. Provisional storage of produced hydrocarbons has been used successfully in the past and is still considered an optimal solution for operations with a relatively small volume of liquid hydrocarbons produced. In offshore operations, one important factor beyond the space on the deck of offshore rigs is the limit on the volume of live crude that can be stored permanently on the rig. The limitation in recoverable liquid volume applies a significant constraint on the duration of the test; thus, this disposal technique is applicable mainly on gas wells and in environmentally sensitive areas.

Factors and Strategies for Improving Construction Management on Sites in Mega-Projects in South Africa: An Explorative Survey

Mega-projects, particularly for the development of infrastructure, are being undertaken increasingly in many developing countries. Mega-projects are highly complex and involve significant construction activities. However, mega-projects in Africa face critical challenges of delay and cost overruns because of their nature and the complexities involved. Therefore, using the context of mega-projects in South Africa and stakeholders’ perceptions, the factors that influence construction, and strategies that would alleviate the challenges and improve construction management at sites were examined in this study. Factor analysis and ordinal regression modelling were used to analyse data obtained from a survey conducted among stakeholders. Findings suggested that five principal components and associated factors, including stakeholders, plant and machinery, productivity, workforce and materials, significantly affect construction during mega-projects. Further, eight strategies that are aligned to stakeholder engagement, plants and machinery, productivity, human resources and materials are likely to improve construction management at sites of mega-projects in South Africa. The four most important strategies include making the availability of competent personnel for plant and machinery operation and maintenance, effective supervision and monitoring, the adoption of appropriate stakeholder engagement methods and ensuring transparent and effective engagement, and the implementation of an advanced and effective communication system. Further strategies, such as the identification of stakeholders and common goals and procurement and use of advanced and quality plant and machinery, including the use of robotics and automation, could improve construction at sites. Similarly, strategies such as ensuring availability of adequate and quality material, and management of the site for effective accessibility and operation, although likely to have lesser influence, could also improve construction at sites of mega-projects.

Facility management of gas turbine power plants using 3D laser scanning

ABSTRACT Industrial projects are extremely complex in terms of designing, engineering, construction, operation and maintenance. These projects involve extremely specialized activities during operation and maintenance phases. Optimizing the operation and maintenance phases for mega-industrial complexes such costs as power plants, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and oil refineries increases the potential cost saving and maximizes the net profit. Plant maintenance comprises thousands of tasks, hundreds of workers, huge amount of equipment and material highly dependent on plant size. This research proposes a procedure for facility management using 3D laser scanning technologies in gas turbine power plants. High Density Point Cloud (HDPC) is obtained from 3D laser scanning of the power plant to facilitate the process of maintenance. HDPC is converted to regions in Recap application and the Autodesk Revit add-in imports the point cloud to Autodesk Revit and populates all the required maintenance data. This research describes the developed Power Plant Operation and Maintenance Tool (PPOMT) platform and its components to synchronize the data of the power plant with the online workspace information. All equipment information, the type of maintenance and the tasks to be carried out are defined for facility management purpose.

Degree of compactness and soil quality of peach orchards with different production ages

Peach production is of great economic importance to Brazil. In 2020, over 201 ton of the fruit was harvested in the country, generating a production value of approximately R$456 million. In order to enhance peach productivity, it is necessary to improve soil physical quality in the orchards. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the degree of compactness, water infiltration rate, as well as perform the visual evaluation of soil structure (VESS) in different sampling positions of three peach producing commercial orchards of different ages in southern Brazil. The results showed that the rows of the orchards had lower values of degree of compactness, soil structural quality score (Sq) and higher infiltration rate, and differed from the interrow and wheeled interrow sampling positions. Regarding orchard age, there was no difference between then. The use of cover crops, maintenance of spontaneous plants in the interrows and the branches from the yearly pruning placed on the interrows, harvesting manually, and opting for using a compact tractor, may be contributing to avoid soil compaction and probably soil erosion, and maintaining soil physical quality in the wheeled interrow and interrow, even in the older orchards. The degree of compactness, soil structural quality score and water infiltration are aligned with each other and with bulk density, macroporosity and total porosity, and were good indicators to identify differences in soil structure in the orchards.

Rice sort machine design to improve rice granules quality

To produce quality rice, improvement in rice production management must begin at the farmer level (on-farm) by using high-quality seeds and good plant maintenance. Good quality rice is rice grains that don't break or crumble. To urge good quality rice, rice producers usually sort it manually. This method leads to long work processes and low productivity. Efforts to beat this problem are by designing a rice sorting machine which will separate whole rice and broken rice so on lighten the workload, improve rice quality, and increase prices. The results of the study obtained that the look specifications of the rice sieving machine were a). The sieving capacity is 10 kg of rice, the most drive is an electrical motor of 0.25 HP, a V-belt transmission, and an angled iron frame. Machine dimensions: length 120 cm, width 70 cm and height 90 cm). Machine testing the standard of rice grains employing a sorting machine can improve the standard of rice grains by reducing the presence of broken rice (size p=0.30 mm and below) a mean of 0.2 kg for 10 kg of sorted rice or increasing the standard by 1.91%. Machine testing from the ergonomic aspect.