Ecolabels: boon for the environment or confusion for the consumer?

The rise of green consumerism led to a proliferation of products claiming to be environmentally friendly, however consumers often found the statements given in support of these claims confusing. `Ecolabels' are intended to help consumers recognise products which have been manufactured and which perform their intended function in an environmentally friendly way. This article gives an overview of the current position regarding ecolabelling within the Member States of the European Union (EU) and proposals for strengthening the EU Ecolable Regulations     

Computation for the Navier-Stokes Equations

1. Introduction The dimensionaless form of the Navier-Stokcs Equations are (1.1) with boundary condition     

Use of the BioHole™ device for the creation of tunnel tracks for buttonhole cannulation of fistula for hemodialysis

Buttonhole cannulation is a method of cannulation of native arteriovenous fistulae traditionally practiced by self‐cannulators. At St Michael's Hospital, this method has been modified to allow its use in problematic fistulae by multiple cannulators. In a busy dialysis unit, the need for a few specific cannulators to establish the tunnel tracks in combination with the variable dialysis schedules creates logistical challenges. A new method of creating tunnel tracks with the use of the BioHole^? device was evaluated. Buttonhole tracks were created in 12 patients using a peg of polycarbonated material with a holder (BioHole^? kit). The peg was inserted into the path left by the hemodialysis sharp needle following the index cannulation. Four of the 12 patients had an alternate access. Buttonhole tracks were successfully created in all the patients, albeit in 2 patients, the initial attempt to establish buttonhole tracks was aborted due to complications and the procedure was rescheduled. Compared with the modified buttonhole technique, pain on cannulation following track creation was significantly less in the BioHole^? group (P<0.001). Ease of cannulation was significantly improved in the BioHole^? group (P<0.05) when compared with that in thrice‐weekly patients using the modified buttonhole technique. Hemostasis postdialysis did not differ between the study groups. The use of the BioHole^? device is effective in the creation of tunnel tracks for buttonhole cannulation, is associated with less pain, and simplifies the logistics of arranging patient and nurses' schedules.     

Research on the Assessment Strategies for the Product Multi-lifecycle System

1　ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＴｈｅＰｒｏｄｕｃｔＭｕｌｔｉ ＬｉｆｅｃｙｃｌｅＳｙｓｔｅｍ(ＰＭＬＳ)ｉｓａｇｅｎｅｒａｌｔｅｒｍｒｅｆｅｒｒｉｎｇｔｏｔｈｅｅｎｇｉｎｅｅｒｉｎｇｔｅｃｈｎｉｑｕｅｓａｎｄｒｅｌａｔｅｄｔｈｅｏｒｉｅｓｃｏｍｍｏｎｌｙｃｏｎｃｅｒｎｅｄｗｉｔｈｔｈｅｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔｉｎｆｌｕｅｎｃｅ,ｒｅｓｏｕｒｃｅｕｓａｇｅａｎｄｐｒｏｄｕｃｔｌｉｆｅｄｕｒ ｉｎｇｔｈｅｔｏｔａｌＰｒｏｄｕｃｔＭｕｌｔｉ Ｌｉｆｅｃｙｃｌｅ (ＰＭＬ)ｗｈｅｎａｐｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｓｄｅｓｉｇｎｅｄ…     

Techniques for the Preparation of Porous Metals

Porous metals have been developed greatly and swiftly in recent years.In this paper ,main types of these materials are described briefly,and their preparation methods are related primarily, with the purpose offering some clues for optimizing the producing technology.     

Alloy Model for the Stacking Fault Energy

An accurate and simple model of stacking fault energy for alloys (solid solutions) has beendeveloped based on the embedded-atom method. The calculated value of stacking fault energy35 mJ/m2 for 304 austenitic stainless steel, is in a good agreement with the experimental one,30 mJ/m2. In the present model we find that the Hirth's empirical relationship is also suitablefor alloy.     

Studies on the Future of the Standardization for Tropical Agricultural Machinery

Tropicalcropsmainlyrepresentedbynaturalrubber,sisalhemp,sugarcane,cassava,coffee,pepperandcoconut,andtropicalfruitsrepresentedbypineapple,mango,banana,longan,litchiarespecialeconomicalcropsintropicalandsubtropicalregionsinourcoun-try.Tropicalagriculturalmachineryisthemachineryusedforplanting,managing,harvestingandprocess-ingtropicalcropsandfruits.Inrecentyears,tropicalagriculturalmachineryhasbeengrowingveryfast,andhasasignificantlypositiveeffectonthegrowthofagriculturaleconomyintropicalregions…     

Design of the Cryogen-Free Cryogenic System for the CUORE Experiment

We present here the final design of the cryogenic system where the CUORE detector will be installed in 2010. It is a large cryogen-free cryostat cooled by pulse tubes and by a high-power dilution refrigerator. To avoid radioactive background, about 15000 kg of lead will be cooled to below 1 K and only few construction materials are acceptable. The detector assembly will have a total mass of about 1500 kg and must be cooled to less than 10 mK in a vibration-free environment. We discuss the adopted technical solutions, the results of the preliminary thermal analysis of the system, and its expected performance.      

A Sine Driving System for the Dynamic Experiment of the Aerofoil Model

1IntroductionThereisagreatdifferencebetweenthedynamicstallpropertyandthestaticoneoftheaerocraft,forexample,thedynamicstallisusuallyfollowedwithbothgreatliftforceandresistanceincrementaswellasthegreatyieldmomentandmoreover,thepneumaticcurveformsasluggishloopobviouslyinasinecycle.Thesepneumaticpropertiesarenotablyexpressedespeciallyintherotary-wingofthehelicopter.Basedontheaeromechanics,duringthecourseofflyingahead,themotionlawofthesectionattackangleoftherotary-wingisakindofsine,andtherefore,tov…     

Response corridors for the medial–lateral compressive stiffness of the human arm: Implications for side impact protection

The biofidelity of side impact anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) is crucial in order to accurately predict injury risk of human occupants. Although the arm serves as a load path to the thorax, there are currently no biofidelity response requirements for the arm. The purpose of this study was to characterize the compressive stiffness of male and female arms in medial–lateral loading and develop corresponding stiffness response corridors. This was accomplished by performing a series of pendulum tests on 18 isolated post-mortem human surrogate (PMHS) arms, obtained from four male and five female surrogates, at impact velocities of 2 m/s and 4 m/s. Matched tests were performed on the arm of the SID-IIs ATD for comparison. The arms were oriented vertically with the medial side placed against a rigid wall to simulate loading during a side impact automotive collision. The force versus deflection response data were normalized to that of a 50th percentile male and a 5th percentile female using a new normalizing technique based on initial arm width, and response corridors were developed for each impact velocity. A correlation analysis showed that all non-normalized dependent variables (initial stiffness, secondary stiffness, peak force, and peak deflection) were highly correlated with the initial arm width and initial arm circumference. For both impact velocities the PMHS arms exhibited a considerable amount of deflection under very low force before any substantial increase in force occurred. The compression at which the force began to increase considerably was consistent with the average tolerable medial–lateral arm compression experienced by volunteers. The initial stiffness (K1), secondary stiffness (K2), peak force, and peak deflection were found to significantly increase (p < 0.05) with respect to impact velocity for both the non-normalized and normalized PMHS data. Although the response of the SID-IIs arm was similar to that of the female PMHS arms for both impact velocities, the SID-IIs arm did not exhibit a considerable toe region and therefore did not fall within the response corridors for the 5th percentile female. Overall, the results of the current study could lead to improved biofidelity of side impact ATDs by providing valuable data necessary to validate the compressive response of the ATD arm independent of the global ATD thoracic response.     

Framework for the China Energy Efficiency Label System

On August 13, 2003, the National Development and Reform Commission and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of P.R.C (AQSIQ) jointly formulated and issued The Regulations for Energy Efficiency La-     

The Meeting for Promotion of the Standards for Water Saving Held in Beijing

Jointly hosted by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) and the National Development and Reform Commission, the Meeting for Promotion of the Standards for Water Saving was held in Beijing on Oct. 5th, 2004, with the aim of promoting development of water intake technology, improving efficiency of water using and developing recycle economy. The meeting analyzed the current situation     

Predicting computer run-time for the Barnes–Hut multipole method for electromagnetic scattering

This paper presents a novel simple methodology for quickly predicting and optimizing computer run-time for the Barnes–Hut multipole method for boundary element electromagnetic scattering problems. The methodology is easily extended to other multipole methods (e.g. Greengard–Rokhlin) and to other physics. The novel idea is to simply count the number of element-cell interactions, number of direct element–element interactions, and the number of cell multipole expansion creations (each expansion weighted by the number of elements in the cell), and then finally combine these three results with the associated unit costs to obtain the total computer run-time to perform a single matrix–vector multiply. By counting operations instead of actually performing them, the time to predict the computer run-time is orders of magnitude smaller than the time to actually perform the associated calculations. This new approach allows for very quick optimization of parameters, such as the maximum number of elements in a final generation cell of the tree. Numerical examples are presented herein in which the rate of return (time saved over time spent finding optimal parameter values) is significantly more than two orders of magnitude.     

Standardization innovation is the foundation for enterprises'''' globalization

Beijing Futon Environmental Protection Power Co., Ltd. (Beijing Futon) is a hi-tech company specialized in light-duty diesel oil/gasoline engines manufacturing and marketing jointly invested by Futon Automobile, Suweifu, Beijing Tractor Company. Main product portfolio of Beijing Futon includes 4JB1, 4Y and 4D24. Beijing Futon has full understanding on the vital importance of standardization for an enterprise's current and future development. By rescheduling and repositioning its standardization work, enhancing organizational consciousness of standardization, speeding up standard adoption and pro-active participating in national standard stipulation and amendment work, the standardization work in Beijing Futon has been further strengthened. All these measures mentioned above helped Beijing Futon in improving its product competitive power, eliminating technical barriers restricting its product export trade as well as making initial preparation for its brand and product approaching the world market.