Reduce Resource Usage Research Articles

Best management practices for environmental restoration programs

AbstractBased on a review of hundreds of environmental restoration program optimization reviews, this article describes management tools found in successful and efficient remediation programs. Projects that consistently struggled to achieve their objectives were observed to be missing certain, or to have inadequately used, these tools. The tools are articulated as best practices because when they are present and actively used, project shortcomings were minimal. Priority objectives for site owners and project managers include improving efficiency and effectiveness through performance management, reducing resource usage and energy consumption, ensuring protectiveness, and reducing uncertainty in management decision making.Restoring environmental resources damaged by historic waste management practices began in earnest in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the broad recognition of the problems caused by environmental discharges and spills when wastes are not managed appropriately. Under new regulations, soil and groundwater remediation projects could be, and were, conducted within a defined framework.The number and variety of restoration projects that were launched resulted in a slew of projects progressing through the stages of characterization, decision, and cleanup, and more were added to the cleanup process each year. In the 1990s, the Department of Defense noted that many cleanup efforts were projected to incur substantial operational, maintenance, and monitoring costs for decades into the future. This was correctly perceived as an opportunity to optimize those systems and programs, minimize costs, and reduce health and environmental risks. The best practices outlined in this article address management tools that were identified in optimization efforts that led to effective and efficient environmental remediation projects. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Nectar secretion strategy in three Japanese species: changes in nectar volume and sugar concentration dependent on flower age and flowering order

We explored how changes in nectar volume and nectar sugar concentration depend on flower age and flowering order in Gentiana triflora Pallas var. japonica (Kusnez.) Hara, Lobelia sessilifolia Lamb., and Hemerocallis middendorffii Trautv. et Mey. var. esculenta (Koidz.) Ohwi. In G. triflora var. japonica and H. middendorffii var. esculenta, change in nectar volume was small, whereas larger changes in nectar sugar concentration occurred depending on flower age. In L. sessilifolia, both the mean nectar volume and nectar sugar concentration clearly decreased with flower age. In all species, the mean nectar volume of the early-flowering group per plant was high. In terms of the change in sex allocation, the investment in male and female organs of the early-flowering group was high in G. triflora var. japonica and L. sessilifolia. We suggest that plants of G. triflora var. japonica and H. middendorffii var. esculenta secrete floral nectar for up to several days to sustain nectar volume to keep attracting pollinators while simultaneously reducing resource usage. Greater nectar secretion in the early-flowering group, in which flowers have more pollen and ovules, may contribute to greater reproductive success and may be effective for pollinators in learning the location of the plants and flowers. In addition, learning by pollinators should result in increased reproductive success of the later blooming flowers.

Green-component life-cycle value on design and reverse manufacturing in semi-closed supply chain

Due to increasing competitive pressure, shortened life cycle and environmental consciousness, more attentions have been paid to resource usage reduction and ecology protection. Green product design has received much attention recently, because product design significantly influences the cost of disassembly, component inspection and repair, remanufacturing and recycling. We investigate the impact of the green product design, the new technology evolution and remanufacturing on the production-inventory policy, and develop an integrated deteriorating inventory model with green-component life-cycle value design and remanufacturing. We provide time-weighted inventory (TWI) approach to analyze the saw-tooth inventory for the replenishment policy of the integrated production-inventory deteriorating model. A numerical example is also presented to illustrate the theory. The results show that the new technology evolution, take-back ratio and the system's holding costs are the critical factors affecting the decision-making in a green supply chain inventory control.

Streamlined life cycle assessment of residue utilization options in Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) water extract manufacturing process

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to compare alternative process options in terms of their overall impact on the environment to easily identify the most environmentally friendly alternative. In this work, a streamlined LCA study was conducted to assess three different residue utilization schemes for Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) extract production. The case study was firstly simulated using a batch process simulation software. The results of mass and energy balances obtained from the simulation software were then subjected to life cycle analysis. By evaluating the different schemes for using the fibrous residue from the extraction process, the potential for environmental process improvement was identified. Overall, use of the residue as process fuel was found to be the most environmentally friendly option. It produces the least emissions and reduces resource usage per unit of product than the other options evaluated.

Chronische Rhinosinusitis

Against the background of constantly intensifying economic pressure in the healthcare sector, in the future confirmation of subjective and economic benefit of different forms of therapy will be the criterion applied by the health insurance companies to decide whether to reimburse the costs they involve. The aim of this study was to provide confirmation that patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) do benefit from functional endonasal sinus surgery (FESS). One year after undergoing FESS for the treatment of CRS, 82 patients completed various questionnaires. The Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) was used, as it is a validated instrument for the assessment of benefit. In addition, the patients were asked to complete questionnaires relating to pre- and postoperative use of resources (use of antibiotics, visits to their doctors and time unfit for work) and also to give an overall rating of their satisfaction with the outcome, the difference in their symptoms after FESS and the likelihood that they would recommend this treatment to friends or relatives. Three out of four GBI scales [total score (+22.6), general benefit (+26.8), physical functioning (+23.7)] indicated that patients experienced significant benefit. The frequency of visiting their doctors, their intake of antibiotics and the amount of time off work were all significantly reduced. The vast majority of patients were satisfied with the overall result and the level of symptom relief achieved and would recommend FESS to friends and relatives. The vast majority of these patients with CRS experienced FESS as highly beneficial. A significant reduction of resource usage was reported after the operation.

Energy and quality aware query processing in wireless sensor database systems

Query processing has been studied extensively in traditional database systems. However, few existing methods can be directly applied to wireless sensor database systems (WSDSs) due to their characteristics, such as decentralized nature, limited computational power, imperfect information recorded, and energy scarcity in individual sensor nodes. This paper proposes a quality-guaranteed and energy-efficient (QGEE) algorithm. QGEE utilizes in-network query processing method to task WSDSs through declarative queries, and confidence interval strategy to determine the accuracy of query answers. In QGEE, the correlation between a query and a node is calculated by vector space model (VSM), and a query correlation indicator (QCI) is designed to quantify the priority of becoming active for individual nodes. Given a query, the QGEE algorithm will adaptively form an optimal query plan in terms of energy efficiency and quality awareness. This approach can reduce disturbance from measurements with extreme error and minimize energy consumption, while providing satisfying service for various applications. Simulation results demonstrate that QGEE can reduce resource usage by about 50% and frame loss rate by about 20%. Moreover, the confidence of query answers is always higher than, or equal to, the users’ pre-specified precision.

Reducing Resource Usage Based on User Hints and Policies

Multimedia applications often have performance requirements that make these applications computing resource intense; e.g., the number of video frames displayed to the user must be about 25 frames per second. A user hint is an indication of the interest that a user has in an application. Examples of user hints include a screen saver being invoked or covering a window with another window. In the case that the user is running video, the occurrence of these hints imply that the user is no longer viewing the video. However, the resource usage of the application has not changed. This paper describes an architecture that make use of user hints to reduce the resource consumption of an application. The emphasis is on network traffic and CPU usage. Experimental results are presented.

Provably-correct hardware compilation tools based on pass separation techniques

Abstract This paper presents a framework for verifying compilation tools for parametrised hardware designs with placement information. The framework involves Pebble, a simple declarative language based on Structural VHDL which supports the use of placement information to guide circuit layout; such information often leads to efficient designs that are particularly important for hardware libraries. Relative placement information enables control of circuit layout at a higher level of abstraction than placement information in the form of explicit coordinates. An approach based on pass separation techniques is adopted for specifying and verifying two Pebble abstraction mechanisms: a flattening procedure and a relative placement method. For the flattening procedure, which takes a set of parametrised blocks and unfolds the circuit description into a netlist, we provide semantic descriptions of both the hierarchical and the flattened Pebble languages to prove its functional correctness. For the relative placement method, we specify the compilation procedure from Pebble programs with relative placement information to Pebble programs with explicit coordinate expressions, often in the form of symbolic placement constraints. This compilation procedure can be used in conjunction with partial evaluation to optimise the size and speed of parametrised circuit descriptions using relative placement, without flattening the original hierarchical descriptions. Our approach has been used for optimising a pattern matcher design, which results in a 33% reduction in resource usage. For DES encryption, our method can reduce the size of a DES design by 60%.

Configuring Traffic Grooming VP Ns

A VPλN is an optical virtual private network (oVPN) built of wavelength paths within a multihop wavelength routing (WR) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network. An efficient and general graph-theoretic model (the wavelength-graph (WG)) has been proposed along with an integer linear programming (ILP) formulation of setting up VPλNs with given traffic requirements over a given WR-DWDM network with two protection scenarios. Here, we have exploited the advantages of traffic grooming, i.e., numerous traffic streams of a VPN can share a wavelength path. We have also generalized the model for setting up VPNs over a WR-DWDM system where multiple VPNs can share a single wavelength path. The objective of the optimization is in all cases to reduce resource usage at upper (electrical) layers (i.e., to reduce the load of the virtual routers), subject to constrained amount of capacity of each wavelength channel and limited number of wavelengths. Here, we propose and compare three basic methods for configuring oVPNs and investigate various parameter settings.

The cougar approach to in-network query processing in sensor networks

The widespread distribution and availability of small-scale sensors, actuators, and embedded processors is transforming the physical world into a computing platform. One such example is a sensor network consisting of a large number of sensor nodes that combine physical sensing capabilities such as temperature, light, or seismic sensors with networking and computation capabilities. Applications range from environmental control, warehouse inventory, and health care to military environments. Existing sensor networks assume that the sensors are preprogrammed and send data to a central frontend where the data is aggregated and stored for offline querying and analysis. This approach has two major drawbacks. First, the user cannot change the behavior of the system on the fly. Second, conservation of battery power is a major design factor, but a central system cannot make use of in-network programming, which trades costly communication for cheap local computation.In this paper, we introduce the Cougar approach to tasking sensor networks through declarative queries. Given a user query, a query optimizer generates an efficient query plan for in-network query processing, which can vastly reduce resource usage and thus extend the lifetime of a sensor network. In addition, since queries are asked in a declarative language, the user is shielded from the physical characteristics of the network. We give a short overview of sensor networks, propose a natural architecture for a data management system for sensor networks, and describe open research problems in this area.

Management of thromboembolism in the outpatient setting

Low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) are suitable for self-administration at home, because they have a predictable anticoagulant effect following subcutaneous injection and do not require laboratory monitoring. Clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of LMWHs in the outpatient setting for the prevention of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after orthopedic surgery and for the treatment of established DVT are reviewed. Extended LMWH prophylaxis reduces the incidence of venographically detected DVT by approximately 50%. Medical practice relies heavily on clinical diagnosis of DVT, for which both sensitivity and specificity are poor. It is uncertain how the results of research trials on DVT prevention based on venography relate to ordinary practice. In the treatment of established DVT, there was no significant difference between outpatient management with LMWH and inpatient treatment with unfractionated heparin (UFH). However, outpatient management offered a considerable reduction in resource usage, with associated cost savings.

VEGETATION CONTROL IN EASTERN ELECTRICITY

Summary The best way to save costs with regard to the impact of trees on overhead electricity lines is by tree trimming, rather than by waiting for tree-related faults to occur. The history of tree trimming in Eastern Electricity is briefly reviewed. The company had a culture of short-term, very variable, tree trimming contracts. For example, these typically lasted from between 5–6, or 10 weeks, and at times involved over 60 individual contractors. Gradually, the culture changed, and longer term contracts were let, to smaller numbers of contractors. Eventually, open, management-style contracts were let, lasting 4 years, with an additional six month lead-in period. At this stage the number of contractors had reduced to only four. Benefits to contractors and to Eastern Electricity were considerable, and they are reviewed here. It is concluded that the latter, more participative management style has lead to benefits in the quality of overhead line management, to cost savings, and to reduced resource usage.