>Cities and People,A Social and Architectural History

In the late 1950s the Bacardi Rum Corporation commissioned Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to design an office building in Mexico. Bacardi used the commission to shape its image as a sophisticated and cosmopolitan enterprise, as it reinvented itself in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution. The Bacardi project serves as a case study of corporate patronage of modern architecture in Latin America, marking a moment when both the image and organization of Mies's architecture helped build a reliable, mainstream international brand. Paradoxically, Mies's Bacardi building would also become part of a “mix” of architectural commissions that would include emerging alternatives to International Style modernism.     

Hans Scharoun and the aftermath of the First World War

The connection between the First World War experience and the inter-war German avant-garde is axiomatic. Current scholarship focuses almost exclusively on artists and writers although it was architects such as Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut and Hans Scharoun who led the German avant-garde in the 1920s. It is, of course, easier to uncover connections between art and war than between architecture and war since artists often drew, painted or sculpted pieces that directly addressed the trauma of war whereas buildings do not. Nevertheless, architects were profoundly influenced by the events of 1914–1918 and commented on the significance of the war experience to their work. The little scholarship that does examine architects focuses almost exclusively on war memorials and ignores the effect the war had on aesthetic ideas and the direction of progressive architectural design. This paper explores the case of Hans Scharoun, who was one of Germany's most important architects in the first half of the twentieth century, to probe the ways his war service, and the events he participated in and witnessed, may have affected the course of his inter-war practice.     

Scale and scope of environmental planning transformations: The Israeli case

This paper explores the scale and scope of transformations in the environmental planning field, and the factors that may advance or impede their widespread adoption. A conceptual model is offered which examines scope (defined as type, breadth and structure of the transformation), and the scale of its impact (categorized as stakeholder, organizational, institutional or societal) and applies it to the analysis of several cases in Israel where environmental transformations, affecting the way in which planning is conducted, have been adopted. Conclusions include identification of conditions for facilitating and advancing transformations, including knowledge of innovative alternatives, initiative, willingness to adopt new practices, and identification of policy windows that emerge during conflict, reform, or crisis. The fostering of relations between environmental non-government organizations and planning systems and leadership roles are also significant in catalyzing environmental transformation.     

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) disclosure of the effects of snake venom on living tissue integrity and cell surfaces

The tissue destruction produced by the bite of the viper is well known and the venom enzyme[s] that produce it have been thoroughly studied. Not so well examined is the view of the damage available to the electron microscope, especially the scanning electron microscope. Here we have used the SEM to view the effects of viper venom on living tissue in situ. SCANNING 32: 155–158, 2010. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Detection and Characterization of Blisters On Carbon-Graphite Mechanical Seal Faces

Blisters that develop on carbon-graphite mechanical seal faces are irregularities in surface topography that result in poor sealing performance and a high incidence of catastrophic failure. On first inspection, a blister is a burnished area that is slightly elevated above the surrounding seal surface. In this study, the topography of several hundred blisters was examined with interference microscopy. The shape of the burnished area is typically elliptical or cylindrical. The leading edge against the direction of rotation of the mating seal ring extends abruptly upward from the surrounding seal surface. The trailing surface gradually merges into the parent seal face. Most blisters have a maximum height of 0.25 μm to 0.75 μm (10 μ-in to 30 μ-in).     

ICME at GE: Accelerating the insertion of new materials and processes

The accelerated insertion of materials (AIM) initiative provides the opportunity to reduce the materials development cycle time by up to 50% and thereby lessen the lead time required for new materials and processes. The program was founded to revolutionize the way designers and materials engineers interact, to achieve a leap forward in the application of computational materials science and integration with design engineering tools, and to create an environment where the design/materials team can learn from and build on previous developments. The centerpiece of the AIM system is the designer knowledge base, which provides a framework for managing experimental data, executing linked models describing processing, microstructure, properties, and producibility, and calculating confidence bounds for system predictions.     

Relative fat oxidation is higher in children than adults

Background  

Prepubescent children may oxidize fatty acids more readily than adults. Therefore, dietary fat needs would be higher for children compared with adults. The dietary fat recommendations are higher for children 4 to 18 yrs (i.e., 25 to 35% of energy) compared with adults (i.e., 20 to 35% of energy). Despite this, many parents and children restrict dietary fat for health reasons.     

Adsorption and electrothermal desorption of organic vapors using activated carbon adsorbents with novel morphologies

Novel morphologies of activated carbons such as monolith, beads and fiber cloth can effectively capture organic vapors from industrial sources. These adsorbent materials are also unique because they can undergo direct electrothermal regeneration to recover the adsorbed organic vapors for potential re-use. This investigation compares and contrasts the properties of these adsorbents when using electrothermal-swing adsorption. The adsorption systems consisted of an organic vapor generation system, an electrothermal-swing adsorption vessel, a gas detection unit, and a data acquisition and control system. The activated carbon monolith (ACM) had the lowest pressure drop, highest permeability, highest electrical resistivity and lowest cost as compared to the activated carbon beads (ACB) and the activated carbon fiber cloth (ACFC). ACB had the largest throughput ratio and lowest length of unused bed as compared to the other adsorbents. However, ACFC had the largest adsorption capacity for toluene when compared to ACM and ACB. ACFC was also faster to regenerate and had a larger concentration factor than ACM and ACB. These results describe relevant physical, electrical, adsorption and cost properties for specific morphologies of the adsorbents to more effectively capture and recover organic vapors from gas streams.     

Comparison of Particle Number Counts Measured with an Ink Jet Aerosol Generator and an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer

Aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) users typically calibrate the particle sizing capabilities, but not the counting efficiency upon which aerosol concentration results are based. Herein, comparisons were made between the counts provided by an ink jet aerosol generator (IJAG) with those measured by an APS. Near-monodisperse (geometric standard deviation of about 1.06) liquid or solid aerosols in the size range of 0.95 to 13.3 μm aerodynamic diameter (AD) generated with an IJAG were released into the inner inlet-tube of the APS in a manner that rendered APS wall and aspiration losses negligible. For most experiments, the IJAG generated 75 particles/s, which rate was maintained by the IJAG system through control of electrical pulses applied to its ink jet cartridge. For particles in the size range of 2–13.3 μm AD, the ratio of relative detection efficiency (ratio of the number of particles counted by the APS to the number reported as generated by the IJAG) was 99.3 ± 1.4%; however, for test particles between 0.95 and 2 μm AD, the relative detection efficiency was somewhat lower, but the drop off was less than about 2%. This slight drop off is likely associated with the light scattering detection approach and corresponding counting algorithm of the APS. Tests were conducted where the IJAG produced 7.0 μm AD particles at rates of 1 to 500 s^-1 and the results showed essentially a 1:1 correspondence between IJAG and APS counts. The presence of smaller-sized background particles did not affect the measured APS counts of larger-sized challenge particles.

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research