Effects of physical activity on the deposition of traffic-related particles into the human lungs in silico

Traffic-related particle emissions have been a great concern over a number of years due to their adverse health effects. In this research project, traffic-related particle deposition in the human lungs is studied using lung deposition estimates based on the ICRP 66 model. This study covers four human groups, i.e. adult males, adult females and two groups of children aged 5 and 10 years. The study examines particle deposition in the human lungs in relation to four different physical exercise levels, i.e. sleeping, sitting, light exercise and heavy exercise. To conduct the study, the particle size distributions of diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) busses were monitored in field laboratory conditions. The study indicates that the total number of diesel particles measured is greater than the total number of CNG particles. The results further display that most of the diesel particles measured are smaller than 0.2 μm, whereas the CNG particles are smaller than 0.05 μm in aerodynamic diameter. The level of physical exercise, as well as the age and gender of a person affects the deposition of particles in the lungs. An increase in the physical activity results in larger amounts of small-size particles penetrating deeper into the respiratory system. The lung deposition of particles in males was substantially different compared to that of females and children. The deposited dose of particles was generally lower for females than for males and further lower for children than for females. This article argues that these groups should be discussed separately when conducting exposure assessments and that the level of physical activity should be taken into account when assessing potential health consequences.     

Effect of Oat Bran Fractions on Extrudates Made of Defatted Oats

Food and Bioprocess Technology - Oats are rich in dietary fibre (DF) especially in β-glucan which has several health-promoting effects. Oats are not commonly used in extruded snacks because...     

Analyses of PACTEL passive safety injection experiments GDE-21 through GDE-25

In advanced light water reactors (ALWR), gravity-driven passive safety injection systems (PSIS) replace pump-driven emergency core cooling systems. PSISs often rely on small density differences and driving forces for natural circulation. In a typical loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), interactions between different parts of the emergency core cooling system also take place. VTT Energy in Finland, in co-operation with the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), performed five experiments in the PACTEL loop to study PSIS performance during SBLOCAs. The purpose of the PSIS, a passive core make-up tank (CMT), was to provide high-pressure safety injection water to the primary circuit. The purpose of these experiments was to produce data to validate the current thermal-hydraulic safety codes, and to study the effects of break size on the PSIS behaviour. In all experiments the CMT ran as planned. No problems with rapid condensation in the CMT, as seen in earlier passive safety injection experiments in PACTEL. The main reason was the new CMT arrangement, with a flow distributor (sparger) installed. The analyses of the test data supported the use of McAdams correlation for calculating the heat transfer from the hot liquid layer to the CMT wall. The use of Nusselt film condensation correlation for condensation at the CMT walls seems correct. The APROS code simulated successfully the overall primary system behaviour in the GDE-24 experiment, such as timing of the core heat-up at the end of the experiment. The code had some problems, in the simulation of thermal stratification in the CMT.     

On the membrane locking of h–p finite elements in a cylindrical shell problem

We study the performance of high-order h–p finite clement schemes in approximating the nearly inexlensional deformation state of a thin cylindrical shell roof with both ends free. Severe locking is demonstrated for both quadratic and cubic elements, and even for higher order if the grid is not aligned with the axis of the cylinder. Carefully designed selective reduced integration is shown to improve the accuracy of the finite element approximation at low and moderately high orders. However, so far this technique seems to work well only on aligned grids.     

Using multicriterion optimization for strength design of composite laminates

Using multicriterion optimization methods for weight minimization of failure strength controlled composite structures is described. A composite lay-up design problem for minimizing the number of layers under strength constraints with respect to multiple loading conditions is formulated. The constrained problem is transferred into a sequence of unconstrained problems and solved with an interactive descent method. A typical design cycle that comprises the finite element mesh generator and solver as well as the laminate analysis and optimization modules is illustrated with a numerical example.     

Solution of population balances with breakage and agglomeration by high-order moment-conserving method of classes

A general high-order method of classes framework for numerical solution of population balances is developed and tested. It is based on conservation of an arbitrary number of moments in the numerical discretization of the integrodifferential population balance equation. Optimal construction of the product tables for agglomeration and breakage events are discussed separately. It is shown that if more than two moments are set to be conserved in the numerical scheme, accuracy can be improved by several orders of magnitude compared to the state-of-the-art methods. Several test cases related to pure breakage or agglomeration, and also to simultaneous breakage and agglomeration, are shown. The results show that the present method is extremely accurate for all tested cases already with a limited number of size categories.     

Characterizing the evolving research on enterprise content management

Innovations in network technologies in the 1990's have provided new ways to store and organize information to be shared by people and various information systems. The term Enterprise Content Management (ECM) has been widely adopted by software product vendors and practitioners to refer to technologies used to manage the content of assets like documents, web sites, intranets, and extranets In organizational or inter-organizational contexts. Despite this practical interest ECM has received only little attention in the information systems research community. This editorial argues that ECM provides an important and complex subfield of Information Systems. It provides a framework to stimulate and guide future research, and outlines research issues specific to the field of ECM.     

Gelatinisation of starch and wheat flour starch—A review

Gelatinisation of wheat starch is reviewed, making comparisons with other starches.Starch in wheat kernel endosperm is briefly described. Various aspects of gelatinisation of starch in water are considered, including swelling and interaction with water before the onset of gelatinisation, increase in consistency during gelatinisation, gelatinisation temperature, types of gelatinised system and gel and paste formation upon cooling. In addition, the traditional rationale of gelatinisation and gelatinisation from the viewpoint of water mobility are discussed.Experimental methods used to study gelatinisation are also reviewed, as are the effects of starch concentration, protein, pentosans, surface active agents, fats, salt and sugars on gelatinisation and shear rate on consistency.     

Effect of apartment building energy renovation on hourly power demand

ABSTRACT

Optimal energy renovations of apartment buildings in Finland have a great impact on annual energy demand. However, reduction of energy demand does not necessarily translate into similar changes in peak power demand. Four different types of apartment buildings, representing the Finnish apartment building stock, were examined after optimal energy retrofits to see the influence of retrofitting on hourly power demand. Switching from district heating to ground-source heat pumps reduced emissions significantly under current energy mix. However, the use of ground-source heat pumps increased hourly peak electricity demand by 46–153%, compared to district heated apartment buildings. The corresponding increase in electrical energy demand was 30–108% in the peak month of January. This could increase the use of high emission peak power plants and negate some of the emission benefits. Solar thermal collectors and heat recovery systems could reduce purchased heating energy to zero in summer. Solar electricity could reduce median power demand in summer, but had only a little effect on peak power demand. The reduction in peak power demand after energy retrofits was less than the reduction in energy demand.