Open sourcing as 99%'s technologies

To me 99% is not just an economic movement but a global individualistic movement that have been inspired by power of internet. There are growing awareness and agitation against monopoly of corporations over creation and distribution of wealth and technology and inspired by spirit of internet, open sourcing are becoming as a means for global resistance. Rationally speaking, corporations are responsible for availability of technologies and world need them for bringing newer ones but at the same time, their unchecked monopoly are creating new classes in society. To check their monopoly and keep the individuals' information integrity and freedom, open sourcing is the technology of 99%.

As technology stands at the core of both creation and distribution so people try to come up with innovative ideas. If Wikipedia and Wikileaks are efforts to liberate information, the bitcoin (I am not sure about its credibility yet so I am just curious how next generation digital peer to peer exchange technologies will evolve; Just for sake of information I have provided a video at the end of this knol). The experiments of the alternative and decentralized currencies have not been successful yet because of their limited usage yet they provide space for thinking out of the box. Besides who knows if a peer-peer technology emerges that totally change our concept of currency or wealth. Seems very idealistic but as Sherlock Holmes (character) says, "I suspect nothing and I suspect all" so we can appreciate these ideas by considering who knows....

Reprap printer, again an open source technology for designing and manufacturing plastic goods are another effort to make people manufacture things and lessen their dependencies. I am not sure how future technologies will help in liberating individuals but meantime this device is a must have for schools where students want to nourish their creativity and put their innovative ideas in practice... (I would appreciate if you share more open source technologies with us)

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

...........................................................................................

...........................................................................................

Can I.Q level become a measure of governance?

I.Q level is used as measure of intelligence. Though there are many disagreements on its credibility but still it is a measure of use of intelligence. Especially when we apply it to a group of people we can link it to certain issues. For example it could be a measure of progress of people as progress means more reliance on brain than body. We know the technologies are replacing physical works but at the same time the amount of mental works increased. As much reliance on technologies are increasing so the reliance on mental works are also increasing. Reliance on mental works is evolving brain. As I.Q is a type of mental measurement so it could be an indication of level of progress but here is another problem and that is spread of technology. As technologies are marketed massively into markets around the world with great diversities so these technologies are included in lives of people massively. This is also a factor in reliance on mental works. So it makes the position of I.Q as a weak measure of governance. Besides, weak governance make people on their own so people struggle harder in weak governments than strong governments, so here it is another factor that make position of I.Q weaker. As we saw there are many variables to I.Q which can affect the application of it in governance. However, one aspect that dominantly affects the I.Q level is education. Besides, it is not only education which affect I.Q level but educational standards that affect most. Hence the I.Q level dominantly could measure governance even in presence of variables like presence of technologies and struggles of people.

It is not only problem of technologies and educational services but certain other factors also which questions the application of I.Q levels. We know that I.Q has been used for political purposes especially in racist politics. I.Q has been used to prove the supremacy of a race over other. We know that a depressed person can’t use all potentials of his mind to a confident man. Similarly an oppressed group of people lose confidence to oppressors, so here oppressors can use the measurements like I.Q to legitimize their acts. When it comes to politics the science and scientific data are used to take favor of a public opinion. So, question arises, whether intelligence is a genetic adaptation or is the effects of environments. If it is genetically adopted then it is natural that genetically related groups, e.g., a race would remain backward. In this case progression is a natural act and these races couldn’t be helped. On contrary, if intelligence is the effects of environment then it is environment of people that caused them to be backward. We can help these people by changing their environment.

When we come to comparative studies, then the brain sizes is a very clear evidence of the intelligence. We know that reptiles are less intelligent than mammals and mammals are less intelligent than Homo sapiens. Certainly, brain sizes are correlated with intelligence in reptiles, mammals and Homo sapiens. Brain sizes are increasing respectively so are intelligences. As in case of Homo sapiens there are slight differences in brain sizes like brain size differences between men and women but the environment has greater influences as we have seen more intelligent women than men whose had better environments of educations and cultural learning. Black African Americans are socially and economically backward than white American, so the I.Q was used to correlate their backwardness with their low levels of intelligence. Anyone familiar with history of USA can easily correlate backwardness of Black African American to socially unjust treatments that had. They were brought to America as slaves so they were no educated and given rights to progress. Still when the slavery abolished from USA, again they were not given the rights to vote and they were treated as second citizen. It was the civil movements of 60’s that changed the course of lives of Black African American. Now in 2009, the world is evident of a Black as a president of USA. The history of Black African American is a clear evidence of effects of environment on intelligence beside slight genetic differences in humankind.

Until now, we are in position to conclude following results about intelligence:

1- Brain sizes are correlated with intelligence as it is evident in differences between brain sizes of reptiles, mammals and Homo sapiens. There are very small differences in brain sizes of human like difference between brain sizes of men and women.

2- Intelligence is an act of environment. Society can affect the intelligence of a group as it is evidenced from history of Black African American.

3- Intelligence could be learned as it is evidenced from rate of neuron connections to levels of use of brain areas. Certainly a geologist is more intelligent than others in identifications of rocks and minerals as he has practiced identification of rocks and minerals so his brain areas related in identification of rocks or minerals. May be this example confuse some individuals so we give a clearer example. Take example of an artist or a graphic designer. He is more intelligent than common men related to colors. They are more conscious about colors and shades of colors. Their brain areas related to identification of colors are like other people but with more neuron connections. The use of particular areas of brain increases the neuron connectivity and hence those areas of brain process the information more rapidly and hence one becomes more intelligent in those areas.

From these three first hand conclusions we can make a second hand of three conclusions as follows:

Intelligence is a function of:

a- Genetic adaptations

b- Social adaptations

c- Individual adaptations

As there is very less differences in genetics adaptations of men so the main reasons for the differences of intelligence in humankind is social adaptations and individual adaptations. Can government help its citizens in developing their intelligence? The answer is a clear YES. Before World War II the Japanese had 10 points less I.Q levels than white USA citizens. After the World War II the I.Q levels of Japanese rose 10 points higher than USA citizen. Certainly in this short time the genes can’t be evolved. Genetic evolution requires very long times in terms of human lives. What was the reason of rising of Japanese I.Q? With no doubt, the social reforms in Japan caused educational, technological and economical progress which raised the intelligence levels of Japanese. We can track back the intelligence levels into medieval ages and ancient times also. We can find particular ages in history of nations when they produced great men but later as their civilizations fall there no significant great men. The most noticeable example is that of ancient Greece. In golden times of ancient Greece, when there was real democracy in Athens, great philosophers and mathematicians born this shaped the human knowledge. But after fall of Greece to Romans the Greece failed to produce noticeable philosopher or mathematician till present times.

Conclusion: From our brief discussion, now it is evident there the I.Q could become the measure of governance. By introducing a standard educational system and providing equal but competitive opportunities the I.Q levels of people will raise. Better governance makes people able to focus on progressive works and hence people will use the education they got to become an active part of progression.

Judging Culture

Calculated Discipline's Epistemology (Part: 3)

Culture is collective judgments of a group of people over a large time. A group of people which creates a society is comparable to an organism which adopts certain factors by accepting or rejecting certain factors. These acceptances and rejections are based on collective judgments. What are collective judgments? Collective judgments are composed of three basic judgments which we have discussed in part 1 and 2 of the calculated discipline’s epistemology are as follows,

a- Practical judgments (Everyday life judgments). In everyday life our sensations though receiving data from environment but send selective information to brain to make life easier.
b- Artistic judgments (The judgments of appearances). It is detailed observation, especially to creative composition of objects related to concepts and ideas. Here colors, shades, timing and perspectives are important.
c- Aided judgments or instrumental judgments. The scientific judgments or use of instruments like microscopes, mass spectrometry etc for judgments of objects beyond our senses.

Studying societies through collective judgments provides us great insights in understanding the society in their very nature. Following are some points which make it more elaborate,

1- It provides us a tool to analyze evolution of a culture as we can logically and historically deduce that,

i) Practical judgment was first to evolve and it must influenced dominantly, the beginning cultures.

ii) Artistic judgments were second and it influenced the practical judgments by being more impressive and unique.

It was artistic judgments that put the foundations of real civilizations. Artistic judgments evolved from artistic observations to artistic compositions which had great economical, social, political military, philosophical and scientific impacts over societies. The effect of arts and art crafts are well documented and well researched. The human history is divided as Stone Age (Due to developments and use of stone instruments), Bronze Age, and Iron Age etc. These words are showing importance of tool making or art crafts which are results of developments of artistic judgments. The search for cultivable grains, extractable minerals and their use in different products requires artistic observations into earth, water, air, life and their cycles. The products that were results of artistic observations enabled ancient people to create empires that are mostly quoted in studying history.

iii) Aided Observation lead to scientific revolution that crossed the cultural boundaries and created a global culture. Aided judgments provided a base for all cultures to become more harmonized. The most quoted shift of cultures to more harmonized beliefs with the aid of aided judgments is shift from earth centric to sun centric views then from soul centric to biological centric shifts. Evolution of subatomic particles, elements, compounds, organism and simply cosmic evolution have made clear position of men in universe and in earth which have harmonized and brought closer the cultures to more global and humanist culture which still to have a long way to go to become a true humanist culture but are at least on the way.

2- Collective judgments create world views. It is the most wanted piece of information in analyzing and defining culture. Once we know what the source of world view is then it becomes easy to define and analyze cultures. World view not only steer the opinions and behaviors of individuals but also the progress and evolution of cultures. From perspective of world view we can go back to origin and evolution of cultures.

i) Collective judgments help us appreciate the differences as natural phenomenon and make intercultural dialogues with clear understanding and accepting of differences.

ii) It helps us to set up an educational system that nurture the minds of generations based on futuristic needs. A student attached to his society nourishes both his creative/emotional/artistic judgments and scientific judgments.

iii) It helps educators to divide their focus based on developmental stages while planning and deciding about educational programs and policies.

a- Early stages: Development of practical judgments by focusing on sensual and cultural education

b- Artistic judgments: Development of creative judgments by focusing on arts education

c- Scientific judgment: Development of rationality and critical thinking by focusing on scientific and philosophical education

3- It provides a tool for psychoanalyze a personality based on his biography based on his exposures to collective judgments. When we compare and analyze the composition of collective judgments of a culture or a society we focus on ratio of richness of its judgments or in other words we focus on composition of judgments. We can a personality’s works based on his reactions on the times he has been exposed to the collective judgments. The influence of the collective judgments in a time is key to judge the developments of his works.

4- Composition of collective judgments tells us about levels of organization in a society. Organizations and institutions define and shape the composition of the collective judgments. Certainly, lack of artistic and scientific organizations and institutions result in lacking of artistic and scientific judgments. The lack of artistic and scientific organizations also shows lack of social organizations. It is the loose and weak social organizations which fail to or feel fewer needs for setting of organizations to develop artistic and scientific judgments. Strong judgments, lead to higher levels of social organizations and artistic and scientific organizations.

5- We have seen the divisions of cultures into higher or lower levels of culture, natural or synthetic cultures and cultures attached a class group of society. Usually this division is done on levels of refinements of the judgments. Refinement of judgments is especially important in artistic judgments as artistic judgments are unique and individualistic. The uniqueness of artistic judgments is more elaborated by symbolic expressions. The symbolic expressions of artistic judgments are more powerful than world views. Most of the times it is symbolic expressions of the same ideas within people of common beliefs or common language that distinct them and their culture.

6- Composition of collective judgments also indicates the economic conditions of that culture at that time. Economically improved cultures have richer expressions of artistic and aided judgments. Though pure arts express world views but art crafts tell us the important tools of economy and economic conditions.

7- Collective judgments are composed of three basic elements of judgments. Though the compositions of judgments differ from culture to culture but as the elements are same so they make common humanist judgments also. We can find geographical and historical factors that influence distinctness and uniqueness of compositions in each culture.

8- Culture is becoming very important in modern societies. The reason for increasing importance is era of information and more competitiveness of businesses and financial activities. The judgments are very important in progressing as well as sustaining the progress of societies. Societies are struggling to develop the levels and diversities of skills, knowledge and imaginations. Societies with weak levels of organizations suffered from emigrations of their skills, knowledge and imaginations in a process known as brain drain to societies where higher levels of social organizations promised more sustainable progress. It is not only the underdeveloped or developing countries which suffered but some mistakes of developed countries also causing shifts of technologies and investments. The cheap skillful and knowledgeable work forces as well as cheap commodities, accommodations and lower taxes made some businesses to shift their businesses to other countries like China, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc. The modern world is evidence of importance of role of judgments and its composition in lives of people and in shape of societies. In modern world only those cultures will lead the world which generate and attract individuals and organizations with best judgments. Brain drain and business dislocations will shape the faces and identities of cultures and societies...

(NOTE; This knols was part of my series of efforts during 2004-2008 to build a Philosophical system which I left incomplete for a better time to return...)

Some recent approaches in Recirculation aquaculture system to sustain water quality and increase food production

Introduction:

In recent decades several factors have changed the practices of aquaculture drastically to change it from small scale homestead activities to large scale commercial farming. The decrease in consumption of meat and egg and increase in consumption of fish and legume per capita from one side and increased regulatory pressure focusing on the discharge to natural water bodies are forcing aquaculture industry for more innovative approaches. One of the growing fields in aquaculture both in terms of research and commercial activities is Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS). But there are big challenges that RAS is facing like, limitations in quality and quantity of water, availability and cost of land and limitations on water discharge and natural environmental impacts. Besides these another major challenge for RAS is increasing costs of energy for heating and pumping.

This paper will present an overview of some basic research areas like manipulation of species adapted to cold water like arctic char, mutualism of which with phytoplankton like Tilapia and Chlorella and the challenges that RAS is facing in internal treatments of contaminants. RAS is using the knowledge of ecosystems in internal treatments of contaminants by manipulating nitrifying bacteria to make RAS a sustainable aquaculture practice by increasing in production but with lesser costs and more environmental friendlier practices.

Table of Contents

1. Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS)
2. Arctic char
3. Manipulating mutualism between West African Tilapia and Chlorella in warm water RAS
4. Biological filters
5. References

1. Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS):

RAS is a set of approaching in fish farming which use a closed-loop system that retain, treat and reuse the water. The main objective is to preserve the water the water quality and minimize the nutrient pollutants. RAS is mainly composed of a growing tank, Tank of particulate removal device, biofilter, oxygen injection with U-tube aeration and water circulating pump. The water start flowing from growing tank and after passing treatment components return back to the growing tank and due to this circulation of water this closed-loop, it is called Recirculatory Aquaculture System. To get more from this system some RAS, grow herbs and vegetables in nutrient rich water. Vegetables uptake of nutrients from water not only helps in their rapid growth but also in filtration of water. This practice is called aquaponics as contrasting to hydroponics.

Image Source:

http://www.christoutreachministrieshonduras.org/images/2005ViewsAquaponics.jpg

2. Arctic char:

The natural home of Arctic char is Scandinavian countries and it is fished in Siberia, Iceland, Greenland, Norway and northern Canada. In northern countries listed above the wild char is fished and there are also extensive aquacultures of char in these countries. Arctic char is well known for its adaptation of cold water and it is the only fish species in the Lake Hazen that is commonly thought of as the Northern most Lake of Canada, though smaller lakes are present further north. The Arctic Char live both in fresh water and sea water. Based on living habitats, Arctic Char is of two basic types. First type lives in fresh water in winter and migrates to sea in summer to feed. The second types is live totally in fresh water and do not migrate. Arctic Char store food during summer feeding and use these stored fat by feeding very less during winter.

The farming of Arctic Char is dominated the fresh water production of fish in Nordic countries. There are several factors that make char a preferred fish in cold water regions. Char is considered as the most cold adapted species within Salmonid family (Johnson, 1980). Char have excellent fillet yield, tolerate high density culture conditions, amenable to niche marketing and are suitable for production within super-intensive Recirculatory system (Jobling, 1987, Johnston, 2002, Summerfelt et al., 2004 a, b.)

Despite the mentioned characteristics of char, the seasonal changes in growth rates of char are a real concern in farming of char. In autumn the growth rate of wild char drops (It is known as autumn depression), so it is a problem for those char farmers who catch wild char and farm them to marketable sizes. In contrast to wild char, hatchery-produced char didn’t show seasonal changes in their growth rates.

To test this observation Sten and his colleagues in Nofima (The Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research) has compared the growth performance of wild and hatchery-produced char in a commercial coldwater recirculation system (Villmarksfisk, Bardu, 688N, 198E, Norway). They reared both hatchery-produced char and wild char for 240 days by measuring length and weight of sampled fishes at intervals of 0, 40, 90, 150, 200 and 240 days. The hatchery-produced fishes were taken from Sjoblink Blokken hatchery facility and Wild char is caught from Lake Altevan in Bardu. The initial body mass of char fishes were 115 gram. Two weeks before start of experiments 240 char comprising of 120 wild char and 120 hatchery-produced char were anesthetized and tagged. Similarly, Wild char is weaned to dry feed during two weeks prior to experiments by adding 10% cod roe at day first and gradually reducing to zero at the day 14. The tagged fishes were then randomly distributed among four 2000 L fiberglass tanks, two tanks per group each holding 60 tagged and 240 untagged fish. All the fish were reared under identical condition at a mean temperature of 9.2 8C and on continuous light (150 lx).

The results indicated that there was no much difference till day 40 between wild and hatchery produced char but at day of 90, there was sharp difference between wild and hatchery produced char. The difference between growth rates continues till end of experiments at day 240, in which hatchery produced char gained a weight of 451 as compared to 231 g of wild char. Besides the growth differences the mortality rates are also showed significant differences. The mortality rate in hatchery produced char was 4% as compared to 42% of that of wild char. The result of the this study by Sten clearly show that the superiority of hatchery produced char as compared to wild char both in terms of weight gains and less mortality. Hatchery-produced char would certainly a better choice for cold water RAS.

3. Manipulating mutualism between West African Tilapia and Chlorella in warm water RAS;

Following carp, Tilapia is the second as most important farmed fish in the world. Tilapia is an omnivore, with high growth rate, high resistant to diseases, tolerant to low oxygen levels, live in diverse range of salinities and could be cultured in different density levels. These characteristics along its palatability make it a fish of choice for fish farming. Tilapia is a common name used for many cichlid species of three genera, Oreochromis, Sarotherodon, and Tilapia (Watanabe et al. 2002). Tilapia live mostly in fresh water but due to its tolerance for diverse salinity it shows a diverse range of habitats like, stream, rivers, ponds, lakes and estuaries. Two disadvantage of Tilapia are warm water habitat and self-reproducing populations. As Tilapia can’t survive in cold waters below 16 degree Celsius so it is a limiting factor for its farming in temperate areas. Tilapia’s juveniles matures at six months but spawning occurs year-around. Males grow faster and larger in sizes as females use energy for reproduction and mature earlier. Due year-round spawning and high tolerance they become invasive species in warm waters.

Although Tilapia is an omnivore fish and can adapt to any food available but it mainly feed on the phytoplankton and benthic alga. In closed fish farming like RAS the removal of ammonia excreted by fish is a challenge. On other hand availability of CO2 in Chlorella algae is limiting factor for it. Phytoplankton based RAS is one of the current eco-technological solution. In such a RAS, Tilapia fish could be benefited by feeding on Chlorella as well as by removal of ammonia and oxygenation of water by their photosynthesis. Similarly, Chlorella could be benefited from Co2 produced by Tilapia’s respiration as well as cleaning its environments by their filter feeding habits.

To analyze the practical advantage this mutualism in warm water RAS, Sylvain Gilles and his colleagues at IRD, Senegal, conducted an experiment. The experiment duration was 24 hours, in which 36 tubs filled with filtered water (to remove rotifers) from a phytoplankton pond is used. The tubs were arranged in two rows in a greenhouse to avoid dilution and contamination by rainwater and other falling particles.

Fishless Unfed Fishes Fed Fishes
A graphical presentation of the arrangements of tubs and treatments of the tubs with fish and Chlorella

A 3-level trilapia treatment (C, fishless control: F, Unfed fish and Ff, Fed fish) with four-level Chlorella treatment (With 10%, 50%, 80% and 100% of routine algal density in the prototype “phytoplankton RAS or recycle pond”) was conducted. To achieve initial Chlorella density, prototype water (Salinity 15 g/L, 100% algal density = 33 x 10 6 cells mL -1 ) was mixed with a water from a well dug 30 m from ocean shoreline (Same salinity but no phytoplankton).
The 24 female tilapia which were starved for 24 hours, prior to start of experiment were distributed in 24 of 36 tubs. Only fed fish got a single 2 gram ration in pellets of 1.5 mm. The phytoplankton were sampled successively just in half hour of start of experiment (8:30), in 2 hours (10:00), in 6 hours (14:00), in 12 hours (20:00) and in 24 hours (8:00, next morning). The samples collected in first half an hour of were experiment was taken as a mean density of chlorella. Samples were collected at mid depth with 30-mL container and phytoplankton immediately fixed by adding a 3 drops of 4% of formaldehyde.

Chlorella concentrations were determined by colorimetry with a Hanna C203 photometer and counts were performed using a Burker cell under an OLYMPUS CX41 stereomicroscope (40X magnification).
The result of experiment showed that the density of Chlorella decreased in fishless tubs at lowest and highest initial Chlorella densities respectively. Compared to fishless tubs, the tubs with unfed fish shown an increase in Chlorella density. Similarly, fed fish tubs showed more increase in density than unfed fish tubs. Beside an increase in algal density from fishless to unfed fish and fed fish tubs, the initial density of Chlorella is also affected the resulting Chlorella. Higher initial densities resulted in higher Algal densities. Researchers in this experiment concluded that this mutualism between Tilapia not only can be manipulated in mass production in photosynthetic suspended-growth systems but can also be used for treatment of wastewater.

4. Biological filters:

The wastes in effluent are a major problem in aquaculture. Wu for example estimated that 85% of phosphorus, 80-88% carbon and 52 -95% of nitrogen of mass feed will end up as particulate matter, dissolved chemicals and gases (Wu, 1995). On other hand RAS technology can reduce the effluent waste stream by a factor of 500-1000 (Chen et al., 1997: Timmons et al., 2001). RAS technologies use biofilters to treat internally the dissolved ammonia and other dissolved organics and greatly reduces the amount of water use as well as discharge from aquaculture operations.

Biofilters are mediums for bacteria to colonize and remove unwanted dissolved gases and organic content. Biofilters are for different purposes like improve air quality, improving water quality and waste water managements. In aquaculture biofilters are used to convert ammonia to nitrites and nitrite into nitrate and oxidize organic matter. For this purpose the bacteria medium requires oxygen to continue nitrification process. In RAS, there are two types of biofilters are used. Fixed biofilms, in which bacteria is provided a fixed substrate to colonize and grow. In contrast, there are also suspensions biofilters in which bacteria is maintained suspended.
Although RAS is an environmental friendly technology but its operational costs are higher than pond or flow through systems so currently it is more feasible for higher priced fishes like fingerlings and bloodstock. Increasing efficiency of biofilters is key in making them more cost competitive. Maria Teresa Gutierrez-Wing and Ronald F. Malone have summarized a few suggestions in their paper that is based partially on ideas come of the discussions that took place at Workshop Design and Selection of Biological Filters for Freshwater and Marine Applications held in Honolulu, Hawaii on 8-11 November 2004, hosted by Oceanic Institute’s Aquaculture Interchange Program under leadership of Dr. Cheng-Sheng Lee. Notable suggestions by authors are listed as,
Though suspended growth systems is less favored to fixed film systems due to poor water quality however to meet economic expectations force the aquaculture community to revalidate the suspended biofilters especially for hardy species or fishes with high levels of tolerance for contaminations and low oxygen levels. Waste water managements have developed more efficient biofilters like MBBR (Moving bed biofilm reactors) and BAF (Biological aerated filters). These biofilters have started to be introduced into RAS and it is needed that the introductions of these new biofilters should be compared and evaluated with currently used biofilters and in RAS. Two factors of marine species make them attractive for RAS. The first is the high demand for reliable supply of marine species as sea bass, sea bream, flatfish and cobia (Schwarz et al., 2004) and their higher market prices make them an attractive niche for RAS. The second is the demand of marine larval systems for ultraoligotrophic category of water (maximum oligotrophic category for fresh water and fingerlings are set 0.3 mg N/L and marine larval systems requires TAN concentration below 0.1 mg/L) and sensitivity to feed sizes in different stages of developments. For example, larvae of the shrimp have three distinctive stages of growth, nauplius, zoea and mysis and each of them requiring different feeding regimes and very high quality water, as they are very sensitive to suspended solids, and bacterial infections.

References

1- Atanabe, W. O., T. M. Losordo, K. Fitzsimmons, and F. Hanley. 2002. Tilapia production systems in the Americas: Technological advances, trends, and challenges. Reviews in Fisheries Science 10:465-498.

2- Alon Singer, Shmuel Parnes, Amit Gross, Amir Sagi, Asher Brenner, A novel approach to denitrification processes in a zero-discharge recirculating system for small-scale urban aquaculture, Pages 72-77
3- FAO. © 2003-2009. Fisheries Topics: Technology. Fisheries technology. In: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department [online]. Rome. Updated 2006 15 09. [Cited 20 October 2009]. http://www.fao.org/fishery/sofia/en
4- Hamlin, HJ; MichaelS, JT; Beaulaton, CM; Graham, WF; Dutt, W; Steinbach, P; Losordo, TM; Schrader, KK; Main, KL. Comparing denitrification rates and carbon sources in commercial scale upflow denitrification biological filters in aquaculture. Aquacultural Engineering. 2008; 38(2): 79-92.
5- Maria Teresa Gutierrez-Wing, Ronald F. Malone, Biological filters in aquaculture: Trends and research directions for freshwater and marine applications, Pages 163-171,
6- Nafsika Karakatsouli, Sofronios E. Papoutsoglou, Georgios Panopoulos, Eustratios S. Papoutsoglou, Stella Chadio, Dimitris Kalogiannis, Effects of light spectrum on growth and stress response of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss reared under recirculating system conditions, Pages 36-42
7- Steinar Skybakmoen, Sten Ivar Siikavuopio, Bjørn-Steinar Sæther, Coldwater RAS in an Arctic charr farm in Northern Norway, Pages 114-121,
8- Sten Ivar Siikavuopio, Steinar Skybakmoen, Bjørn-Steinar Sæther, Comparative growth study of wild- and hatchery-produced Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus L.) in a coldwater recirculation system, Pages 122-126,
9- Steven T. Summerfelt, Mark J. Sharrer, Scott M. Tsukuda, Michael Gearheart, Process requirements for achieving full-flow disinfection of recirculating water using ozonation and UV irradiation, Pages 17-27
10- Sylvain Gilles, Gérard Lacroix, Daniel Corbin, Ngansoumana Bâ, Carla Ibañez Luna, Jacob Nandjui, Allassane Ouattara, Ousséni Ouédraogo, Xavier Lazzaro, Mutualism between euryhaline tilapia Sarotherodon melanotheron heudelotii and Chlorella sp.—Implications for nano-algal production in warmwater phytoplankton-based recirculating systems, Pages 113-121,

Creating self to find self

Ice breaker speech (My first speech at Toastmasters Club)

Respected Toastmaster, ladies and gentleman good evening!

The Turks from Azerbaijan can’t pronounce the sound “K”. They pronounce “K” as “Ch”. For example they call Pakistan as Pachistan and this aspect of Azerbaijani Turks were a source of amusement for fifth graders. Our science teacher was an Azerbaijani Turk and students were listening carefully to him and were making fun of them after class by repeating his words. This Turkish teacher attracted me. Unlike my class fellows I didn’t attracted to his pronunciation but to his world perspective.

I was busy sketching that a voice made me come out of myself, “What are you creating Khudadad?” It was my Turkish teacher that was looking to my sketch for long but I didn’t notice him until he didn’t ask me. I was speechless at the moment but he liked my sketches. I was always hiding my sketches from my teachers because they were always either too abstract or they were just caricatures. The word, “creating” from my Turkish teacher, the same teacher who all making fun of him, had changed my perspective about myself.

I was no more an individual to fit in anything. I was always wanted to change everything by recreating them. I was always in hot debates with my friends on every subject. I remember a debate that we had on theory of relativity. We didn’t realize that our discussion is so loud that our it is disturbing the conversations of other people around us. A young student came to us and while putting both of his palms together requested us, “Sir! Please let theory of relativity live one more day. Don’t kill it today.” We laughed and ended our discussion. The closest among my likeminded friends was my youngest uncle. We were mining gypsum from near mountain to make clays for our models. We built a small furnace to melt down aluminum and plastic to create our models. We were making casts from different materials to pour into our molds. We were wandering around markets of spare parts and second hand tools for suitable parts into our designs. We were trying to recreate everything from clothing to buildings to sports to philosophy to whole society. We want to change everything and every potential idea was attracting us. We piled up large and diversified range of books on different topics from philosophy to rocket science. Certainly we liked and moved by personalities some of whom people don’t like great Khan Genghis Khan, Lenin, Mao, Socrates, Dr Iqbal, Mir Damad, Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Lincoln, Henry Ford, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin. We liked these personalities because they were revolutionary figures in their disciplines and areas irrespective of the results and impacts of their struggles.

As we were doing our experiments, reading and debating we realized that, it is not easy to recreate everything as we were thinking so I started to change my attention from sketching and making models to philosophy. Playing with ideas was relatively easy so I started to create my own philosophy and it was the dividing lines between me and my friends. I did not know as we were growing our interests were also diverging and more than that we were selecting different fields. I chose geology and my friends’ chemistry. I became Science teacher and then lecturer of Geology and again changed my subject to paleobiology. The result of this all struggle came up in form of a book and two more books that I will publish them in summer.

Ladies and gentle man!

There were a lot of individuals who influenced me in different manners but four men in human history influenced more than others. I am influenced by commitment of Socrates to truth, by commitment of Genghis Khan to his people, by commitment Einstein to imaginations and by commitment of Charles Darwin to nature. It is me Khudadad, Laugh please.......................