Value chain analysis of bio-coal business in Finland: Perspectives from multiple value chain members

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive outline of the Value Chain (VC)¹ of bio-coal in Finland, define the proper business models of bio-coal business, and investigate the interrelationships between VC activities. The major findings are: 1) the study found significant interrelationships between support and primary activities in the bio-coal VC which suggest that we should not emphasis only the core value/primary activities of the bio-coal business, but pay more attentions to the “side values”/support activities; 2) The study identified political and environmental factors as the effective drivers, while technology and cost-profit uncertainty as major restrictions for the Finnish bio-coal business. The authors would like to suggest that instead of purely “environmental concerns”, the term “sustainability credentials” should be emphasized, which means value creating and adding items should not limit to monetary values, but consider social and environmental value propositions. 3) The study identified “low competition” in the current bio-coal business in Finland, which implies opportunities of market entrance for Finnish and international companies; 4) The study identified that the current Finnish bio-coal model is the decentralized model at the local level. However, the future Finnish bio-coal model will be a large scaled model, with a focus on export sales.     

A force modulation study on crystallization process in ferroelectric vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene copolymer films

This paper introduces the Force Modulation technique to the study of crystallization process in ferroelectric vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene copolymer films. Using this technique we have successfully visualized ferroelectric crystalline domains and observed that these ferroelectric domains grow out from amorphous phase, unite into strip-like structures, and finally congregate into a union. Force Modulation can weaken the influence of topography on imaging of ferroelectric domains, and reveal more details, which are difficult to be observed in topographical image.     

Investigation into the time-dependent behaviour of reinforced concrete specimens strengthened with externally bonded CFRP-plates

This paper deals with the influence of an external CFRP-reinforcement on the time dependent behaviour of flexural concrete beams. For this purpose, four reinforced concrete beams are tested in relaxation under three-point bending. Three of the four are strengthened with a composite plate bonded to their tensile soffit. The latter is not strengthened. The phenomenon of relaxation leads to a decrease in the loading force in the course of time. The test results are analysed in three ways: the first is a comparison between the global behaviour of the four beams. The second is a detailed analysis of the internal equilibrium of the beams in the course of time. The third is a global approach based on an incremental method suited to time analysis of composite structures. It can be concluded that composite reinforcement has a positive influence on the long term behaviour of strengthened beams. Their time dependent behaviours are different depending on whether the beam is pre-cracked before being strengthened. This difference may be taken into account using a coefficient of influence applied to the composite reinforcement. The existence of a period of loading before strengthening has a positive influence on the long-term behaviour of the beam.     

Synthesis of water-soluble single-walled carbon nanotubes by RAFT polymerization

Water-soluble single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were synthesized by grafting poly(acrylamide) (PAM) from the surface of SWNT via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. The RAFT agents were covalently attached to the SWNTs by functionalizing SWNTs with in situ generated diazonium compounds. The product was characterized by means of FT-IR, Raman, ¹H NMR, TGA and TEM. The results showed that PAM chains had successfully grafted from SWNT by RAFT polymerization. The amount of PAM grown from SWNT increased with the polymerization time. The acrylamide conversion increased linearly with the polymerization time, indicating the “living” characteristics of the RAFT polymerization. TEM was utilized to image PAM-g-SWNT, showing relatively uniform polymer coatings present on the surface of individual, debundled nanotubes.     

Influence of polymer on cement hydration in SBR-modified cement pastes

The influence of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) latex on cement hydrates Ca(OH)₂, ettringite, C₄AH₁₃ and C-S-H gel and the degree of cement hydration is studied by means of several measure methods. The results of DSC and XRD show that the Ca(OH)₂ content in wet-cured SBR-modified cement pastes increases with polymer-cement ratio (P/C) and reaches a maximum when P/C is 5%, 10% and 10% for the pastes hydrated for 3 d, 7 d and 28 d, respectively. With wet cure, appropriate addition of SBR promotes the hydration of cement, while the effect of SBR on the content of Ca(OH)₂ and the degree of cement hydration is not remarkable in mixed-cured SBR-modified cement pastes. XRD results illustrate that SBR accelerates the reaction of calcium aluminate with gypsum, and thus enhances the formation and stability of the ettringite and inhibits the formation of C₄AH₁₃. The structure of aluminum-oxide and silicon-oxide polyhedron is characterized by ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si solid state NMR spectrum method, which shows that tetrahedron and octahedron are the main forms of aluminum-oxide polyhedrons in SBR-modified cement pastes. There are only [SiO₄]⁴⁻ tetrahedron monomer and dimer in the modified pastes hydrated for 3 d, but there appears three-tetrahedron polymer in the modified pastes hydrated for 28 d. The effect of low SBR dosage on the structure of aluminum-oxide and silicon-oxide polyhedron is slight. However, the combination of Al³⁺ with [SiO₄]⁴⁻ is restrained when P/C is above 15%, and the structure of Al³⁺ is changed obviously. Meantime, the polymerization of the [SiO₄]⁴⁻ tetrahedron in C-S-H gel is controlled.     

Carbon spheres prepared via solvent-thermal reaction method and their microstructures after high temperature treatment

Carbon spheres with size of 50–300 nm were synthesized via a solvent-thermal reaction with calcium carbide and chloroform as reactants in a sealed autoclave. The morphologies and microstructures of carbon spheres before and after high temperature treatment (HTT) were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), energy diffraction spectroscopy (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The formation mechanism of carbon spheres was discussed. The results indicate that the carbon spheres convert to hollow polyhedron through HTT. Carbon spheres are composed of entangled and curve graphitic layers with short range order similar to cotton structure, and carbon polyhedron with dimension of 50–250 nm and shell thickness of 15–30 nm. The change of solid spheres to hollow polyhedron with branches gives a new evidence for formation mechanism of hollow carbon spheres.     

The impact of CCT on driving safety in the normal and accident situation: A VR-based experimental study

Correlated color temperature (CCT) of the light source inside the road tunnel plays a crucial role in ensuring driving safety, which is demonstrated by previous studies that CCT influences not only visual effects but also non-visual effects. Although conventional laboratory experiments could simulate the CCT environment inside the tunnel to some extent, they fail to restore driving experience, let alone simulate driving behavior in the accident situation. It has largely remained unclear whether and how CCT would influence visual/non-visual performance of the subjects who are performing driving tasks, especially in the accident situation. Motivated by this gap, a virtual-reality-based framework for assessing the influence of CCT on the visual and non/visual performance in normal driving situation and in accident situation was proposed. In this study, tunnel models under seven different CCTs were created and a rear-end accident was designed in the tunnel. By integrating analog driving equipment, all participants were required to perform virtual driving tasks both in the normal situation and in the accident situation. The non-visual performance (driving fatigue) and the visual performance (reaction time) of the participants were collected and analyzed. Results show that the CCT of light source inside the tunnel was significant on the driving fatigue of the driver who was performing driving task, and it also had a significant impact on the visual performance when the driver was faced with a rear-end accident. Detailed experimental methodology, behavioral explanations underlying these findings, validity of results and practical implications are also discussed in the paper.     

Performance Evaluation Indicator (PEI): A new paradigm to evaluate the competence of machine learning classifiers in predicting rockmass conditions

To illustrate an unprejudiced comparison among machine learning classifiers established on proprietary databases, and to guarantee the validity and robustness of these classifiers, a Performance Evaluation Indicator (PEI) and the corresponding failure criterion are proposed in this study. Three types of machine learning classifiers, including the strictly binary classifier, the normal multiclass classifier and the misclassification cost-sensitive classifier, are trained on four datasets recorded from a water drainage TBM project. The results indicate that: (1) the PEI successfully compares the competence of classifiers under different scenarios by isolating the effects of different overlapping-degree of rockmass classes, and (2) the cost-sensitive algorithm is warranted to classify rockmasses when the ratio of inter-class classes is more than 8:1. The contributions of this research are to fill the gap in performance evaluations of a classifier for imbalanced training data, and to identify the best situation to apply this classifier.     

Segmentation and recognition of phonetic features in handwritten Pitman shorthand

There is a wish to be able to enter text into mobile computing devices at the speed of speech. Only handwritten shorthand schemes can achieve this data recording rate. A new, overall solution to the segmentation and recognition of phonetic features in Pitman shorthand is proposed in this paper. Approaches to the recognition of consonant outlines, vowel and diphthong symbols and shortforms, which are different components of Pitman shorthand, are presented. A new rule is introduced to solve the issue of smooth junctions in the consonant outlines which was normally the bottleneck for recognition. Experiments with a set of 1127 consonant outlines, 2039 vowels and diphthongs and 841 shortforms from three shorthand writers have demonstrated that the proposed solution is quite promising. The recognition accuracies for consonant outlines, vowels and diphthongs, and shortforms achieved 75.33%, 96.86% and 91.86%, respectively. From the evaluation of 461 outlines with smooth junction, the introduction of the new rule has a great positive effect on the performance of the solution. The recognition accuracy of smooth junction improves from 37.53% to 93.41% given a writing time increase of 14.42%.