Enabling and hindering factors of diffusion of energy service companies in Finland—results of a Delphi study

Energy service companies (ESCOs) are often seen as a focal mechanism to improve energy efficiency. However, ESCOs have not met all the expectations which have been loaded on them and their diffusion has been slower than expected. This paper focuses on analysing the development of the ESCO sector in Finland and identifying the key factors—both drivers and barriers—that are influencing the diffusion of Finnish ESCO market. We will do this with the help of a qualitative Delphi study. The results indicate that ESCOs are still understood and known rather poorly among potential customers. Also, the current financial situation and high transaction costs in comparison to potential savings were seen as challenges among the panellists whereas active information sharing was seen as a factor that would foster the ESCO business. However, from the point of view of reaching the energy efficiency targets, the panellists did not emphasize the role of ESCOs over several other energy service providers.     

Modeling the effectiveness of oil combating from an ecological perspective--a Bayesian network for the Gulf of Finland; the Baltic Sea

Maritime traffic poses a major threat to marine ecosystems in the form of oil spills. The Gulf of Finland, the easternmost part of the Baltic Sea, has witnessed a rapid increase in oil transportation during the last 15 years. Should a spill occur, the negative ecological impacts may be reduced by oil combating, the effectiveness of which is, however, strongly dependent on prevailing environmental conditions and available technical resources. This poses increased uncertainty related to ecological consequences of future spills. We developed a probabilistic Bayesian network model that can be used to assess the effectiveness of different oil combating strategies in minimizing the negative effects of oil on six species living in the Gulf of Finland. The model can be used for creating different accident scenarios and assessing the performance of various oil combating actions under uncertainty, which enables its use as a supportive tool in decision-making. While the model is confined to the western Gulf of Finland, the methodology is adaptable to other marine areas facing similar risks and challenges related to oil spills.     

Partial spatial coherence and partial polarization in random evanescent fields on lossless interfaces

We consider partial spatial coherence and partial polarization of purely evanescent optical fields generated in total internal reflection at an interface of two dielectric (lossless) media. Making use of the electromagnetic degree of coherence, we show that, in such fields, the coherence length can be notably shorter than the light's vacuum wavelength, especially at a high-index-contrast interface. Physical explanation for this behavior, analogous to the generation of incoherent light in a multimode laser, is provided. We also analyze the degree of polarization by using a recent three-dimensional formulation and show that the field may be partially polarized at a subwavelength distance from the surface even though it is fully polarized farther away. The degree of polarization can assume values unattainable by beamlike fields, indicating that electromagnetic evanescent waves generally are genuine three-dimensional fields. The results can find applications in near-field optics and nanophotonics.     

The extraction of yellow gentian root (Gentiana lutea L .)

 Several solvents have been investigated for the preparation of bitter compounds of gentian roots (Gentiana lutea L.) for food applications. The highest concentrations of the bitter compounds, amarogentin and gentiopicroside, were obtained with ethanol : water 55 : 45 (v/v), propylene glycol: water 30 : 70 (v/v) and ethanol: propylene glycol: water 20 : 20 : 60 (v/v/v). Enzyme treatment prior to solvent extraction gave a greater extract yield (3.5%) but the amarogentin and gentiopicroside concentrations remained the same. The volatile fraction was affected by the solvent used through the formation of esters of organic acids from the plant. Received: 22 January 1997 / Revised version: 18 March 1997     

Simple procedure for predicting long term average performance of nonconcentrating and of concentrating solar collectors

The Liu and Jordan method of calculating long term average energy collection of flat plate collectors is simplified (by about a factor of 4), improved, and generalized to all collectors, concentrating and nonconcentrating. The only meteorological input needed are the long term average daily total hemispherical isolation on a horizontal surface and, for thermal collectors the average ambient temperature. The collector is characterized by optical efficiency, heat loss (or U-value), heat extraction efficiency, concentration ratio and tracking mode. An average operating temperature is assumed. If the operating temperature is not known explicitly, the model will give adequate results when combined with the , f-chart of Klein and Beckman.A conversion factor is presented which multiplies the daily total horizontal insolation to yield the long term average useful energy delivered by the collector. This factor depends on a large number of variables such as collector temperature, optical efficiency, tracking mode, concentration, latitude, clearness index, diffuse insolation etc., but it can be broken up into several component factors each of which depends only on two or three variables and can be presented in convenient graphical on analytical form. In general, the seasonal variability of the weather will necessitate a separate calculation for each month of the year; however, one calculation for the central day of each month will be adequate. The method is simple enough for hand calculation.Formulas and examples are presented for five collector types: flat plate, compound parabolic concentrator, concentrator with east-west tracking axis, concentrator with polar tracking axis, and concentrator with 2-axis tracking. The examples show that even for relatively low temperature applications and cloudy climates (50°C in New York in February), concentrating collectors can outperform the flat plate.The method has been validated against hourly weather data (with measurements of hemispherical and beam insolation), and has been found to have an average accuracy better than 3 per cent for the long term average radiation available to solar collectors. For the heat delivery of thermal collectors the average error has been 5 per cent. The excellent suitability of this method for comparison studies is illustrated by comparing in a location independent manner the radiation availability for several collector types or operating conditions: 2-axis tracking versus one axis tracking; polar tracking axis versus east-west tracking axis; fixed versus tracking flat plate; effect of ground reflectance; and acceptance for diffuse radiation as function of concentration ratio.     

Methods for modelling the ultimate strength of orthotropic plate with a central hole under uniaxial tension

The stress state in plates with circular holes made of orthotropic homogeneous material has no singularities and it can be exactly determined. The numerical stress distribution calculation by the finite element method will be compared with those obtained by the analytical equations developed by several authors. The goal of this work is to validate the finite element method, in conjunction with in-plane and out of plane failure criteria, in order to calculate not only the stress distribution for orthotropic plates with circular holes but also to determine their ultimate strength.The tool used has been a user subroutine (UMAT) specially developed for this work that implements the features of the commercial FE program (ABAQUS). The code performs an implicit analysis of the stress-state with progressive damage modelling.Finally, both of them, numerical and analytical method, will be checked with experimental tests by means of strain gauges.     

Organizational emergence in networked collaboration

Research on complex adaptive systems has generated several conceptual parables to explain systems with emergent behaviour. One prominent use for terms such as self‐organization, evolutionary trajectories, co‐evolution and punctuated equilibrium has been in understanding human organizations. In such systems, emergent behaviour is demonstrated in novel structures, processes and spin‐offs that cannot be explained just by studying single components of the organization and the intelligence embedded in them. Instead of solely exploiting the qualitative explanatory power of the evolutionary concepts, this paper focuses also on quantitative methods to track emergent behaviour in a globally distributed, constantly fluctuating and highly networked project organization. The underlying case is that of CERN (CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Israel, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Yugoslavia (status suspended after the UN embargo, June 1992), the European Commission and UNESCO have observer status.) and its decade long accelerator project, which strongly relies on electronic communication and networking to achieve its major objectives due to be accomplished by the year 2006. By using time series and self‐organizing maps to analyse the global interaction among project groups and individuals the paper provides new insight to the understanding of emergent behaviour in human organizations. The key result of the study concerns the rigid deep structure of each case organization that seems to remain intact for the duration of the whole project. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.