Levels of copper in the urine of women from nonpolluted farming regions of Japan.

Nearly 1500 spot urine samples were collected in the winter of 1987-1988 from women of seven farming prefectures located throughout Japan. Samples were analyzed for copper by flameless atomic absorption spectrometry. The copper content of the urine samples (Cu-U) distributed log-normally with a geometric mean (geometric standard deviation) of 36.9 (1.47) micrograms/l after adjustment for the specific gravity of urine of 1.016. The 95% confidence range was 17.1-79.7 micrograms/l. Neither alcohol consumption nor smoking habit affected the Cu-U. A literature survey showed that the observed level appears to be somewhat higher than previously reported values.     

Interaction effects of multiple pool fires

What are the effects of flame behavior of a number of fires burning in close proximity to one another? The results of measurements of burning rates, heat feedback, flame height, and flame trailing are reported for fires involving liquid pools.     

Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology Centre (FireSERT) University of Ulster: Recent Developments

The Institute of Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology Centre (FireSERT) at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland has been a major provider of higher technical fire safety education, fire related research and services to industry for over 20 years. Its internationally recognised research spans the fields of fire dynamics, structural fire engineering, human behaviour in fire and more recently fire (CFD) modelling. Since 1991, it has offered the only PG Dip/MSc Fire Safety Engineering programme in the United Kingdom. In September 2000 FireSERT was the recipient of a £5.7 m Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) Award to build new fire safety engineering laboratories on the University's Jordanstown campus. These new facilities unparallel in the University sector in the UK offer greater scope and depth to the FireSERT's research portfolios. The new facilities will be extensively used in support of FireSERT's suite of MSc Fire Safety Engineering and DPhil programmes. This paper presents a brief history of FireSERT and its achievements, together with an update on the new facility, current research themes, taught programmes, research opportunities and visions for the future.     

A colorimetric method for ammonia in natural waters

An improved phenol-hypochlorite method for determining ammonia in water using nitroprusside as catalyst has been investigated. Unlike other recently published methods, the method is simple (and sufficiently sensitive for low-level analyses) and does not require accurate time intervals between reagents, not expensive equipment. The method is well suited for routine use.

Beer's Law was obeyed over the whole ammonia range investigated. Reproducibility was 1·3 per cent with 10 μg N, and 5·7 per cent with 1 μg N.     

The spread of fire in corridors

Full- and quarter-scale experimental fires in corridor-room assemblies, using various combinations of floor, wall, and ceiling lining materials, yielded some interesting results. Between the small-and large-scale tests, there were marked differences in the relative effects of floor coverings and ceiling linings. Note: This paper is a contribution from the Division of Building Research, National Research Council of Canada and is published with the approval of the Director of the Division.     

The impact of using chilled water storage systems on the performance of air cooled chillers in Kuwait

In the air conditioning (AC) industry chilled water storage (CWS) systems are one form of cool thermal storage technology that can be used to time shift the electrical load of the system from the peak day periods to off peak night time periods. In this paper the data for the actual exported and generated electrical energy obtained for the power stations in Kuwait has been used to estimate the electrical energy consumption and the peak electrical load of AC systems. Since the chiller in an air cooled AC system represent more than 75% of the total electrical power consumed by an AC system during the peak demand period, the impact of using CWS systems with alternative operating strategies including partial (load levelling), partial (demand limiting) and full load has been investigated. In our conclusions we estimate that approximately 45% of the total annual exported electrical energy is consumed solely by AC systems as a result of the very high ambient temperatures occurring between March and October. Furthermore, it is estimated AC systems represent about 62% of the peak electrical load. The results demonstrate that CWS can reduce the peak electrical load of a chiller in an air cooled AC system by up to 100% and reduce the nominal chiller size by up to 33% depending upon the operating strategy adopted. This is achieved with only a 4% increase in power consumption of the chiller for all CWS strategies except for full storage where the energy consumption actually decreases by approximately 4%.     

A digital wind gust recorder

The instrument was a byproduct of an undergraduate final year project on wind power which was carried out by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Liverpool.The windmill test site was on an exposed, rocky island where there was no history of weather recording but a long tradition of violent winds.Field experience during the winter months suggested that corrosion fatigue arising from wind buffeting and salt spray would rank equally with maximum wind pressure as criteria of failure and if modern materials, so convenient for forming aerodynamic surfaces, were to be used then limited life concepts would need to be considered. This called for more knowledge of wind variations at the test site. A complete wind spectrum taken on chart recording instruments would have been ideal but since such such refined devices were not available the instrument to be described was designed.The only wind measuring instrument which was available was a rotating cup anemometer. This supplied an alternating voltage proportional to its rotational speed. It also operated a gear driven microswitch which could give an integrated “miles of wind” reading on an electromagnetic counter.Briefly the e.m.f. generated by the anemometer (Fig. 1) was matched against a pre-set voltage corresponding to the required gust velocity. When this was exceeded an appropriate counter was operated. Only the rising e.m.f. was significant. The subsequent fall was ignored. Initially three stages were incorporated which reported the gusts rising through forty, fifty and sixty knots, respectively. These recorded on separate counters. All basic settings were based on pitot-static speed determinations in a wind tunnel.     

Combined biological and ozone treatment of log yard run-off

Batch biological treatment of log yard run-off reduced biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and tannin and lignin (TL) concentration by 99%, 80%, and 90%, respectively. Acute (Microtox) toxicity was decreased over treatment, from an initial EC50 of 1.83% to a value of 50.4% after 48 h of treatment. Kinetics of biodegradation were determined using respirometry and fitted using the Monod and Tessier model. For the Monod model the maximum substrate uptake rate, and Ks values determined were 0.0038 mg BOD/mgVSS min, and 1.4 mg/L, respectively. The efficacy of ozone as a pre- and post- biological treatment stage was also assessed. During ozone pretreatment, TL concentration and acute toxicity were rapidly reduced by 70% and 71%, respectively. Pre-ozonation reduced BOD and COD concentration by < 10%, however a larger fraction of residual COD was non biodegradable after ozonation. Biologically treated effluent was subjected to ozonation to determine whether further improvements in effluent quality could be achieved. A reduction in COD and TL concentration was observed during ozonation, however no further improvement in toxicity was observed. Ozonation increased BOD by 38%, due to conversion of COD to BOD.     

Enhancement of bond strength for epoxy-coated rebar using river sand

In this paper, improvement of bond strength for epoxy-coated rebars is studied. Although the epoxy-coated rebar is well accepted as an alternative corrosion prevention method in engineering practice, it still suffers from its poor bond performance, which requires modification of design parameters such as development length and splice length. Following our previous study [Proceedings of the Third Structure Engineering Conference (1996) 651–659], it is proposed to mix the river sand in the epoxy to improve the bond strength of epoxy-coated rebar. Specimens of several sizes of river sand and sand/epoxy weight ratios were studied. The single-rebar pullout test was performed to examine the bond strength. The open circuit potential method and the linear DC polarization method were conducted for corrosion rate measurements to ensure for keeping the merit of epoxy-coated rebar, i.e. the ability of corrosion. Experimental results show that the proposed method is very promising.     

Heavy metals in maternal and cord blood

Heavy metal concentrations have been determined in maternal and cord blood samples collected from mothers in the age group 20-25 years with full-term neonates (37-40 weeks). The concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cu and Zn were found to be low in cord blood as compared to mother's blood and the ratio between cord blood and maternal blood for the respective elements was found to be approximately 0.80, 0.86, 0.47 and 0.40. On the other hand, the concentrations of Fe and Mg in the mother's blood were found to be lower than those in the cord blood. Prenatal exposure to lead in Mumbai, though low (5.1 microg/dl), is approximately 2-3 times higher than that observed in Canada or Italy. A strong correlation (r = 0.79) between the maternal and cord blood lead levels has been observed during the present study.