Functional Warsaw: A challenge from the past

This article describes the planning concept known as ‘Functional Warsaw’ (Warszawa Funkejonalna) prepared in 1934 by the architects and urban planners Jan Chmielewski and Szymon Syrkus. This planning exercise can be considered both as a most spectacular example of progressive trends in Polish urban planning thought in the inter‐war period, and as an attempt to respond to the challenge created by the widely known ‘Charter of Athens’ regarding the postulates of the functional urban region.

The article is divided into four sections. The first considers the national background in which circumstances conducive to development of urban thought in Poland created favourable conditions for the relatively early practice of regional planning. The next section deals with the international context, the influence of the foreign avant garde movement as represented in CIAM (the International Congresses of Modern Architecture). In the third section, the authors’ model of the functional urbanized region is described; some critical comments are offered. In the last section the impact of Functional Warsaw is considered against the development of spatial planning not only of Warsaw but of the country as well.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF YIELD STRESS OF WESTERN CANADIAN COAL WATER FUELS

The concept of a yield value is important to many areas of slurry coal water fuel transport such as in predicting its stability or estimating the pressure requirements for pipe-line start-up and turbulent flow. This paper describes techniques to accurately measure coal water fuel yield point. In order to display a wide variation in coal water fuel properties, slurries made from two Western Canadian coals were made available to CRL for yield point study. The proprietory Salzgiter Industrial AG technology (DENSECOAL) was used for a low volatile or bituminous coal (A) and the CARBOGEL process for a medium volatile bituminous (B).     

Effect of plasma treatment on the surface properties of polydimethylsiloxane

In this work, the analysis of the plasma modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates was conducted. The influence of the modification onto the changes occurred within the geometrical structure and chemical composition of the surface was analyzed. Due to the study of the atomic force microscopy, it was possible to determine the relationships between the surface development and applied process parameters, defining the conditions facilitating to obtain isotropic or anisotropic orientations of wrinkles. A precise analysis of the chemical composition of the surface, executed before and after the modification processes, enabled to define the changes in their elementary composition. Moreover, the modification influence onto the changes of the contact angle and the surface free energy were also analyzed. So, based on the research it was stated that the increase of value of the surface free energy is proportional to the sp³ phase contents in the DLC coatings. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41635.     

Children's use of the common ground in interpreting ambiguous referential utterances.

Common ground is contextual information shared by a listener and speaker that enables the listener to convert an ambiguous utterance to an informative communication. Four experiments examined young children's understanding of the common ground in interpreting ambiguous referential utterances. Kindergarten and 2nd-grade children and college students were read short vignettes containing statement, joint activity, status common ground, and an ambiguous or informative utterance about a display of 4–6 object drawings. The subjects were asked (a) whether the listener knew which object to pick (Experiment 1), (b) to pick an object themselves or choose "none" (Experiment 2), (c) the source of the listener's knowledge in the context or utterance (Experiment 3), and (d) whether a designated object was the "right one," the one the speaker "meant," or the one the speaker "could have meant" (Experiment 4). Even the kindergarten children used statement information effectively in interpreting ambiguous utterances, and all groups had difficulty using status information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ultrasonic inspection of austenitic steel joints by coupled‐head scanning

This work covers short-circuit metal transfer in the MIG/MAG process, where the current is the direct regulation variable, in contrast with the conventional mode in which the direct regulation variable is the voltage. It sets out the general theory for this technique and describes a new system, not yet commercially offered, developed by LABSOLDA at UFSC. The control bases of the process are described, presenting oscillograph results and performance results in relation to root passes and production of splatter. In addition, some results from an existing commercial system are set out with the aim of making direct comparisons between the control strategies and the implications for the largest dependent factors, such as drop diameters, average current, arc efficiency and arc power. Questions are posed such as the criteria for monitoring the variables and the calculations for arc power, which are as important for these new technologies as they are in the case of conventional systems.     

Mechanics of Oil Sands Slurry Flow in a Flexible Pipeline System

Slurry transportation is an economic haulage system in oil sands and coal-mining operations characterized by long haulage distances and rugged terrain. In such conditions, the ton-km-hr limits are exceeded creating extreme tire wear and high maintenance costs. Steep haul grades and rugged terrain also cause mechanical wear and tear, which decrease haulage equipment economic life. Hydraulic transportation is a proven and viable technology for slurry transportation in such conditions. Currently, stationary pipeline transportation is being used in transporting minerals in many mines. There is an increasing demand to create slurrified minerals at the mining faces to be transported to the processing plant. However, stationary pipelines are not capable for dealing with the rapidly changing configuration of the mining faces. In this paper, the authors develop the ground articulating pipeline (GAP) technology to address this problem. The GAP system consists of pipelines connected together with flexible joints in each pipe section, which allows deflection to avoid torsional stresses from the adjoining frames. This flexible arrangement accommodates the horizontal and vertical displacements of the mobile system as it follows the hydraulic shovels in the excavation process. The mechanics of the GAP system, as well as the production–economic function, are formulated and simulated over an extended period using data and information from Syncrude’s North Mine. The results show that the GAP system is technically and economically viable for productivity between 6,300 and 6,500 tons per hour. The simulated head loss for the GAP system is 15.66 m per 400 m, which compares with 20 m per 400 m for the existing stationary system at Syncrude. The pressure gradient-radius curves are asymptotic to the pipe boundaries, which indicates steep axial pressure gradient in these areas.     

Regulation through comparative performance evaluation

Ofwat used comparative performance regulation in the 1994 periodic review of prices. We consider such a regulatory mechanism when there are technological spillovers. The regulator cannot observe firms effort and must design a regulatory contract which induces the socially optimal level of cost reduction. The extent to which cost reducing activities are non-appropriable is shown to affect the optimal choice of regulation. In general, comparative performance regulation is optimal and yardstick competition emerges only as a special case. However, when spillovers are spread evenly across an industry, an optimal comparative regime does not exist.     

MULSOPS: Multivariate Optimized Pit Shells Simulator for tactical mine planning

Abstract

Production planning, scheduling and allocation of resources in large-scale surface mining operations present a great challenge to mine planning engineers. Ore and waste extraction plans must be executed to achieve tactical objectives using appropriate tools. Many production planning and scheduling and resource allocation methods are based on trial and error, crisis management or subjective judgements with no detailed economic basis or mathematical rigour. In addition, these methods do not consider the random processes governing critical development and production variables. In this study, the authors develop a multivariate pit shell simulator, MULSOPS, which addresses these problems. Rigorous geometric formulations of the ellipsoidal approximations of the pit shells geometry, their expansions and sequential interactions are modeled to mimic material displacement dynamics in an open pit operation. Stochastic and numerical modeling techniques are used to provide solutions to the time-dependent geometric models in random multivariate states Under different production and economic paradigms, the geometric models are simulated to yield the source and characteristics of appropriate cuts. Combined production from successive exposed cuts provides periodic targets for tactical planning. Variance simulation is also used to provide analysts with sensitive stochastic variables for input data definition and tight production target tolerance. A numerical example is used to illustrate the use of MULSOPS for tactical planning in a typical open pit operation.