Sustainable goat production: modelling optimal performance in extensive systems

Particle loading as a design parameter for composite radiation shielding

A unified model of high-temperature fuel-cell heat-engine hybrid systems and analyses of its optimum performances

A goat is a small ruminant found across the globe. However, each and every type of goat has some unique characteristics and is popular for specific reasons in a specific area. The Black Bengal goat is the only recognized goat breed in Bangladesh and is famous for its high fertility, prolificacy, superior skin and meat quality, early sexual maturity, disease resistance and short kidding interval. In this chapter, we focused on available goat genetic resources in Bangladesh, breed characteristics, morphometric characterization, husbandry practices, feed and nutrition used for goat production, productive and reproductive performances under subsistence farming system, disease and health management, biotechnological approach for conservation like estrus synchronization, semen quality analysis, cryopreservation of semen, Artificial insemination, in vitro embryo production of embryos and multiple ovulation and embryo transfer. Moreover, the contribution of goat production in poverty alleviation and women empowerment in Bangladesh was also highlighted. Thereafter, constraints on goat production and future recommendations for sustainable goat production in Bangladesh were given.

The initial token value required to the optimal performance of discrete event systems can be decided by sum of delay time and synchronic time ratio, which are new synchronic variables in timed place Petri nets. For the system consisting of two live-and-bounded circuits (LB-circuits) fused in common transition-transition-path or common place-place-path, we grove that the synchronic time ratio is the initial token ratio between two LB-circuits to optimally perform system functions. These results are generalized and formulated as a theorem. The initial tokens of a specific place can imply shared resources. Using the theorem, we can decide the minimum number of the shared resources to obtain the optimal performance, and minimize the idling time of resources. As an example, an automated assembly system is modeled by timed place Petri net, and the initial tokens to achieve the optimal system performance are identified. All the values are verified by simulation.

In this work, we study the control of communication networks in the presence of both inelastic and elastic traffic flows. The characteristics of these two types of traffic differ significantly. Hence, earlier approaches that focus on homogeneous scenarios with a single traffic type are not directly applicable. We formulate a new network optimization problem that incorporates the performance requirements of inelastic and elastic traffic flows. The solution of this problem provides us with a new queueing architecture, and distributed load balancing and congestion control algorithm with provably optimal performance. In particular, we show that our algorithm achieves the dual goal of maximizing the aggregate utility gained by the elastic flows while satisfying the demands of inelastic flows. Our base optimal algorithm is extended to provide better delay performance for both types of traffic with minimal degradation in throughput. It is also extended to the practically relevant case of dynamic arrivals and departures. Our solution allows for a controlled interaction between the performance of inelastic and elastic traffic flows. This performance can be tuned to achieve the appropriate design tradeoff. The network performance is studied both theoretically and through extensive simulations.

Optimal performance in a countermanding saccade task

Sparse matrices and linear algebra are at the heart of scientific simulations. More than 70 sparse matrix storage formats have been developed over the years, targeting a wide range of hardware architectures and matrix types. Each format is developed to exploit the particular strengths of an architecture, or the specific sparsity patterns of matrices, and the choice of the right format can be crucial in order to achieve optimal performance. The adoption of dynamic sparse matrices that can change the underlying data-structure to match the computation at runtime without introducing prohibitive overheads has the potential of optimizing performance through dynamic format selection.In this paper, we introduce Morpheus, a library that provides an efficient abstraction for dynamic sparse matrices. The adoption of dynamic matrices aims to improve the productivity of developers and end-users who do not need to know and understand the implementation specifics of the different formats available, but still want to take advantage of the optimization opportunity to improve the performance of their applications. We demonstrate that by porting HPCG to use Morpheus, and without further code changes, 1) HPCG can now target heterogeneous environments and 2) the performance of the Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication (SpMV) kernel is improved up to 2.5× and 7× on CPUs and GPUs respectively, through runtime selection of the best format on each MPI process.

Streaming classification of big data is a method under stream data mining that learns from continuous, ordered sequences of data streams coming from diversified sources using limited computing and storage capabilities. SAMOA stands for scalable advanced massive online analysis, is a machine learning framework used to perform distributed data mining over streaming data. Vertical Hoeffding Tree (VHT) under SAMOA is a variant of very fast decision tree used for distributed classification of data streams. The performance of VHT depends on various critical parameters such as tie-threshold, grace value, confidence, split criterion, etc. Although, VHT is widely accepted as an efficient streaming classifier but one of the challenges in streaming classification is varying distribution of incoming data instances with respect to underlying classes in different datasets; therefore performance of VHT varies in different datasets. Therefore, achieving optimal performance from the stream classifier like VHT on different datasets is a challenging task and fixed set of values of critical parameters cannot be preconfigured for various types of datasets. This research work explores the capabilities of VHT streaming classifier of SAMOA in the light of various benchmarking performance statistics such as classification accuracy, kappa and kappa temporal. The work presented here, experimentally identifies suitable values of critical parameters of VHT that yield optimized performance on different datasets. Thus, this analytical study is extremely significant in developing streaming classifiers which achieve optimum performance via parameter tuning at run time.

Automated identification of individuals using biometric technologies is finding increasing application in diverse areas, yet designing practical systems can still present significant challenges. Choice of the modality to adopt, the classification/matching techniques best suited to the application, the most effective sensors to use, and so on, are all important considerations, and can help to ameliorate factors which might detract from optimal performance. Less well researched, however, is how to optimise performance by means of exploiting broader-based information often available in a specific task and, in particular, the exploitation of so-called biometric data is often overlooked. This paper proposes a novel approach to the integration of soft biometric data into an effective processing structure for an identification task by adopting a fuzzy representation of information which is inherently continuous, using subject age as a typical example. Our results show this to be a promising methodology with possible benefits in a number of potentially difficult practical scenarios.

The Consensus Statement by Racinais et al 1 on training and competing in the heat provides practical recommendations for athletes, clinicians and event organisers to optimise performance during sporting activities...

Optimizing mobility performance in wheelchair court sports (basketball, rugby and tennis) is dependent on a combination of factors associated with the user, the wheelchair and the interfacing between the two. Substantial research has been attributed to the wheelchair athlete yet very little has focused on the role of the wheelchair and the wheelchair-user combination. This article aims to review relevant scientific literature that has investigated the effects of wheelchair configuration on aspects of mobility performance from an ergonomics perspective. Optimizing performance from an ergonomics perspective requires a multidisciplinary approach. This has resulted in laboratory-based investigations incorporating a combination of physiological and biomechanical analyses to assess the efficiency, health/safety and comfort of various wheelchair configurations. To a lesser extent, field-based testing has also been incorporated to determine the effects of wheelchair configuration on aspects of mobility performance specific to the wheelchair court sports. The available literature has demonstrated that areas of seat positioning, rear wheel camber, wheel size and hand-rim configurations can all influence the ergonomics of wheelchair performance. Certain configurations have been found to elevate the physiological demand of wheelchair propulsion, others have been associated with an increased risk of injury and some have demonstrated favourable performance on court. A consideration of all these factors is required to identify optimal wheelchair configurations. Unfortunately, a wide variety of different methodologies have immerged between studies, many of which are accompanied by limitations, thus making the identification of optimal configurations problematic. When investigating an area of wheelchair configuration, many studies have failed to adequately standardize other areas, which has prevented reliable cause and effect relationships being established. In addition, a large number of studies have explored the effects of wheelchair configuration in either able-bodied populations or in daily life or racing wheelchairs. As such, the findings are not specific and transferable to athletes competing in the wheelchair court sports. This review presents evidence about the effects of wheelchair configuration on aspects of mobility performance specific to the wheelchair court sports to better inform athletes, coaches and manufacturers about the consequences of their selections. It also provides researchers with guidance on the design of future investigations into areas of wheelchair configuration, which are essential.

Global stability and Hopf bifurcation of a three-component model for cell production systems

The efficient and accurate evaluation of the transmission performance of high-capacity optical communication systems has always attracted significant research attentions. The enhanced Gaussian noise (EGN) model is considered as an excellent solution to predict the system performance taking into account linear and nonlinear transmission impairments. Since the conventional form of the EGN model is complicated and intractable for a fast computation, the closed-form simplification has been regarded as a direction to significantly reduce the computational complexity. However, the accuracy of such a closed-form EGN model becomes a main concern in the application of ultra-wideband optical communication systems. In this work, we have investigated the accuracy of the closed-form EGN model for ultra-wideband optical fiber communication systems, where the performance of the system using electronic dispersion compensation, multi-channel nonlinearity compensation and full-field nonlinearity compensation has been evaluated in terms of symbol rate, number of channels and signal power. Our work will provide an insight on the application of the EGN model in next-generation ultra-wideband long-haul optical fiber communication networks.

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of system of rearing (pasture-fed vs. stall-fed) on the growth performance in Tellicherry crossbred goats. A six-month feeding trial was carried out in Livestock Farm Complex, Madhavaram Milk Colony, Chennai-51. Eighteen goats between the age of 6-8 months were randomly divided into two groups (pasture fed and stall fed). Pasture fed goats were allowed to graze in cultivated pasture for 7 hours per day, whereas stall fed goats fed with ad libitum hybrid Napier grass and concentrate feed fed at rate of 1.5% of body weight. Nutritive value of cultivated pasture, hybrid Napier grass and concentrate feed were analyzed. Body weight of the goats was recorded fortnightly. Feed intake and Feed conversion ratio was recorded and calculated respectively. Blood parameters at the end of the trial were analyzed. The results indicated that stall fed group goats had significantly (P<0.05) higher final body weight and weight gain when compare to pasture fed goats. Significantly (P<0.05) higher dry matter intake noticed in stall fed group. The Stall-fed group goats had significantly higher (P<0.05) RBC, HGB and PCV/HCT levels when compare to pasture fed goats. Haematological improvements link to balanced minerals in formulated feeds. Cost per kg live weight gain was higher in stall fed goats. Based on the present findings, quality pasture plays a major role in economic and sustainable goat production. Hence, pasture system of goat rearing may be recommended for Tellicherry crossbred goats.

Sustainable Goat Production in the Changing Climate