Designing on-site: Facilitating participatory contextual architecture with mobile phones

Some movements within modern architecture particularly emphasise the importance of matching buildings to their surroundings. However, practicing such “contextual architecture” is highly challenging and typically not something the future inhabitants of a building are well equipped for participating in. This paper explores the potentials of using mobile phone technology for facilitating such client participation in the parts of an architecture process that take place on the building site. For this we introduce ArchiLens, a mobile system for interactive on-site 3D visualisation of houses, and findings from a field study with 40 participants in the process of building or modifying their home. The study showed that using the system helped evoke people’s imagination of the look and feel of their future house, and envision it in context. This enabled them to participate more closely in the design process on-site by iteratively reviewing design alternatives and exploring, for example, other placements and materials.     

A GC–MS-based metabonomic investigation of blood serum from irritable bowel syndrome patients undergoing intervention with acidified milk products

In the present study, the use of gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS)-based metabonomics to characterize blood serum in an intervention study of patients suffering from the common gastrointestinal disorder irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) was investigated. The patients included in the study consumed an acidified milk product with (n = 30) or without probiotics (n = 31) (Lactobacillus paracasei F19, Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 and Bifidobacterium lactis BB-12) for an 8-week period, and blood serum samples were collected before and after the intervention. Acidified milk is commonly used as a delivering vector for probiotics in commercial consumer settings. The serum samples were extracted and derivatized using N-Methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA), and GC–MS analysis was carried out. Multivariate data analysis including principal component analysis (PCA), orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and S-plot was applied on the obtained GC–MS data, which revealed higher serum lactate, glutamine, proline creatinine/creatine, and aspartic acid levels and lower serum glucose levels after the intervention period for both treatment groups. Consequently, the present study indicated an effect of acidified milk consumption on the plasma metabolite profile, which was independent of a concomitant intake of probiotics. In addition, the present study demonstrates that GC–MS is a useful analytical technique for metabonomics studies of blood serum.     

Modeling dynamic stall on wind turbine blades under rotationally augmented flow fields

This paper presents an investigation of two well‐known aerodynamic phenomena, rotational augmentation and dynamic stall, together in the inboard parts of wind turbine blades. This analysis is carried out using the following: (1) the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Unsteady Aerodynamics Experiment Phase VI experimental data, including constant as well as continuously pitching blade conditions during axial operation; (2) data from unsteady delayed detached eddy simulations (DDES) carried out using the Technical University of Denmark's in‐house flow solver Ellipsys3D; and (3) data from a reduced order dynamic stall model that uses rotationally augmented steady‐state polars obtained from steady Phase VI experimental sequences, instead of the traditional two‐dimensional, non‐rotating data. The aim of this work is twofold. First, the blade loads estimated by the DDES simulations are compared with three select cases of the N‐sequence experimental data, which serves as a validation of the DDES method. Results show reasonable agreement between the two data in two out of three cases studied. Second, the dynamic time series of the lift and the moment polars obtained from the experiments are compared with those from the dynamic stall model. This allowed the differences between the stall phenomenon on the inboard parts of harmonically pitching blades on a rotating wind turbine and the classic dynamic stall representation in two‐dimensional flow to be investigated. Results indicated a good qualitative agreement between the model and the experimental data in many cases, which suggests that the current two‐dimensional dynamic stall model as used in blade element momentum‐based aeroelastic codes may provide a reasonably accurate representation of three‐dimensional rotor aerodynamics when used in combination with a robust rotational augmentation model. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing of self‐similarity and helical symmetry in vortex generator flow simulations

Vortex generators (VGs) are used increasingly by the wind turbine industry as flow control devices to improve rotor blade performance. According to experimental observations, the vortices generated by VGs have previously been observed to be self‐similar for both the axial (u_z) and azimuthal (u_θ) velocity components. Furthermore, the measured vortices have been observed to obey the criteria for helical symmetry. These are powerful results, as it reduces the highly complex 3‐D flow to merely four parameters and therefore significantly facilitates the modeling of this type of flow, which in a larger perspective can assist in parametric studies to increase the total power output of wind turbines. In this study, corresponding computer simulations using Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations have been carried out and compared with the experimental observations. The main objective is to investigate how well the simulations can reproduce these aspects of the physics of the flow, i.e., investigate if the same analytical model can be applied and therefore significantly facilitate the modeling of this type of flow, which in a larger perspective can assist in parametric studies to increase the total power output of wind turbines. This is especially interesting since these types of flows are notoriously difficult for the turbulence models to predict correctly. Using this model, parametric studies can be significantly reduced, and moreover, reliable simulations can substantially reduce the costs of the parametric studies themselves. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of wind turbine wake properties in non‐sheared inflow predicted by different computational fluid dynamics rotor models

The wake of the 5MW reference wind turbine designed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is simulated using computational fluid dynamics with a fully resolved rotor geometry, an actuator line method and an actuator disc method, respectively. Simulations are carried out prescribing both uniform and turbulent inflows, and the wake properties predicted by the three models are compared. In uniform inflow, the wake properties predicted by the actuator disc and line methods are found to be in very close agreement but differ significantly from the wake of the fully resolved rotor, which is characterized by much higher turbulence levels. In the simulations with turbulent inflow, the wake characteristics predicted by the three methods are in close agreement, indicating that the differences observed in uniform inflow do not play an important role if the inflow is turbulent. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Freshness Assessment of Thawed and Chilled Cod Fillets Packed in Modified Atmosphere Using Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Near-infrared reflectance (NIR) spectra was recorded of 105 samples of cod mince prepared from chill stored thawed cod fillets of varying quality in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). Traditional chemical, physical, microbiological and sensory quality methods developed for assessing fresh fish products were determined on the same cod fillets. The purpose was to evaluate the potential of NIR spectroscopy for estimating (i) frozen storage temperature, (ii) frozen storage period and (iii) chill storage period of thawed-chilled MAP Barents Sea cod fillets. Furthermore, the potential for measuring of selected quality attributes as drip loss, water holding capacity and content of dimethylamine by NIR was evaluated. The results of the investigation were presented using multivariate modelling methods such as partial least-squares regression (PLSR) and discriminant partial least-squares regression (DPLSR). Systematic differences in the NIR measurements on minced cod fillets were primarily due to the chill storage duration (days at 2°C) on thawed-chilled MAP fillets. PLSR models based on wavelengths selected by a new Jack-knife method resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.90 between measured and predicted duration of chill storage period (days at 2°C). The root-mean-square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) was 3.4 d at 2°C. NIR measurements provided promising results for evaluation of freshness for thawed-chilled MAP cod fillets completing the traditionally quality methods. However, it is necessary to study the effect of e.g. sample preparation, season, fishing ground and cod size together with more sophisticated pre-treatments of NIR spectra before the NIR method can be integrated as a method for evaluation of thawed-chilled MAP cod fillets.     

Inverse wave field extrapolation: a different NDI approach to imaging defects

Nondestructive inspection (NDI) based on ultrasound is widely used. A relatively recent development for industrial applications is the use of ultrasonic array technology. Here, ultrasonic beams generated by array transducers are controlled by a computer. This makes the use of arrays more flexible than conventional single-element transducers. However, the inspection techniques have principally remained unchanged. As a consequence, the properties of these techniques, as far as characterization and sizing are concerned, have not improved. For further improvement, in this paper we apply imaging theory developed for seismic exploration of oil and gas fields on the NDI application. Synthetic data obtained from finite difference simulations is used to illustrate the principle of imaging. Measured data is obtained with a 64-element linear array (4 MHz) on a 20-mm thick steel block with a bore hole to illustrate the imaging approach. Furthermore, three examples of real data are presented, representing a lack of fusion defect, a surface breaking crack, and porosity.     

Simple and accurate four-node axisymmetric element

Based on the assumed strain method, a simple four-node axisymmetric solid element is introduced. The assumed strain field is carefully selected to preserve the correct rank of the element stiffness matrix and to achieve high accuracy. The strain field is developed in conjunction with orthogonal projections and no matrix inversions are needed. The coarse mesh accuracy in bending and in typical axisymmetric load cases is excellent even for nearly incompressible materials. The strain-driven format obtained is well suited for materials with non-linear stress–strain relations. Several numerical examples are presented where the excellent performance of the proposed simple element is verified. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Classification of Amyloidosis by Model-Assisted Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics

Amyloidosis is a rare disease caused by the misfolding and extracellular aggregation of proteins as insoluble fibrillary deposits localized either in specific organs or systemically throughout the body. The organ targeted and the disease progression and outcome is highly dependent on the specific fibril-forming protein, and its accurate identification is essential to the choice of treatment. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics has become the method of choice for the identification of the amyloidogenic protein. Regrettably, this identification relies on manual and subjective interpretation of mass spectrometry data by an expert, which is undesirable and may bias diagnosis. To circumvent this, we developed a statistical model-assisted method for the unbiased identification of amyloid-containing biopsies and amyloidosis subtyping. Based on data from mass spectrometric analysis of amyloid-containing biopsies and corresponding controls. A Boruta method applied on a random forest classifier was applied to proteomics data obtained from the mass spectrometric analysis of 75 laser dissected Congo Red positive amyloid-containing biopsies and 78 Congo Red negative biopsies to identify novel “amyloid signature” proteins that included clusterin, fibulin-1, vitronectin complement component C9 and also three collagen proteins, as well as the well-known amyloid signature proteins apolipoprotein E, apolipoprotein A4, and serum amyloid P. A SVM learning algorithm were trained on the mass spectrometry data from the analysis of the 75 amyloid-containing biopsies and 78 amyloid-negative control biopsies. The trained algorithm performed superior in the discrimination of amyloid-containing biopsies from controls, with an accuracy of 1.0 when applied to a blinded mass spectrometry validation data set of 103 prospectively collected amyloid-containing biopsies. Moreover, our method successfully classified amyloidosis patients according to the subtype in 102 out of 103 blinded cases. Collectively, our model-assisted approach identified novel amyloid-associated proteins and demonstrated the use of mass spectrometry-based data in clinical diagnostics of disease by the unbiased and reliable model-assisted classification of amyloid deposits and of the specific amyloid subtype.     

An integrated qualitative and quantitative modeling framework for computer‐assisted HAZOP studies

The article proposes a novel practical framework for computer‐assisted hazard and operability (HAZOP) that integrates qualitative reasoning about system function with quantitative dynamic simulation in order to facilitate detailed specific HAZOP analysis. The practical framework is demonstrated and validated on a case study concerning a three‐phase separation process. The multilevel flow modeling (MFM) methodology is used to represent the plant goals and functions. First, means‐end analysis is used to identify and formulate the intention of the process design in terms of components, functions, objectives, and goals on different abstraction levels. Based on this abstraction, qualitative functional models are constructed for the process. Next MFM‐specified causal rules are extended with systems specific features to enable proper reasoning. Finally, systematic HAZOP analysis is performed to identify safety critical operations, its causes and consequences. The outcome is a qualitative hazard analysis of selected process deviations from normal operations and their consequences as input to a traditional HAZOP table. The list of unacceptable high risk deviations identified by the qualitative HAZOP analysis is used as input for rigorous analysis and evaluation by the quantitative analysis part of the framework. To this end, dynamic first‐principles modeling is used to simulate the system behavior and thereby complement the results of the qualitative analysis part. The practical framework for computer‐assisted HAZOP studies introduced in this article allows the HAZOP team to devote more attention to high consequence hazards. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J 60: 4150–4173, 2014