On using available environmental data in service life estimations

In the process of service life prediction or estimation of building and construction components and materials, data of the prevailing exposure environment, (the conditions at and around a building or construction) is required. However, most environmental data is measured by and available from meteorological and air quality research communities. This data is collected at macro and meso levels, some distance from the object studied, and raises the need to transform data in order to describe the specific, local conditions adjacent to that object. To estimate levels of degradation agents in the exposure environment, especially those close to the building or construction at local and micro levels have to be considered. This paper will show and discuss useful environmental data sources, and how to transform such data by means of available distribution models.

Lorsqu'il s'agit de faire des prévisions ou des estimations de durée de vie de bâtiments ainsi que de composants et matériaux de construction, il faut disposer des données sur les conditions prévalantes d'exposition et d'environnement (conditions qui règnent dans un bâtiment ou à proximité). Or, la plupart des données environnementales sont mesurées et fournies par des instituts de recherche en météorologie et qualité de l'air. Ces données sont collectées à grande et à moyenne échelle, à une certaine distance de l'objet étudié, et elles doivent donc être transformées si l'on veut décrire les conditions spécifiques locales à proximité dudit objet. Pour estimer le niveau de dégradation dans l'environnement d'exposition, notamment à proximité des bâtiments ou constructions, il faut considérer les agents au micro-niveau et au niveau local. Cet article présente et examine des sources de données environnementales utiles et montre comment transformer ces données en utilisant les modèles de distribution existants.     

CASTTGRINDING~:灵活的环保型板坯表面精整工艺

CASTTGRINDINGR○ (铸造温度修磨 )工艺 ,通过对连铸板坯进行在线热精整 ,使其能够将板坯连铸生产与热轧工艺有机地形成一个整体。介绍了 CASTTGRINDINGR○热修磨工艺的主要特点和带来的好处 ,并举例说明与目前在碳钢精整时通常采用的传统式火焰清理设备相比 ,新工艺拥有的主要优点     

A decline rate study of Norwegian oil production

Norway has been a very important oil exporter for the world and an important supplier for Europe. Oil was first discovered in the North Sea in late 1960s and the rapid expansion of Norwegian oil production lead to the low oil prices in the beginning of the 1990s. In 2001, Norway reached its peak production and began to decline.     

Application of proteomics to understand the molecular mechanisms behind meat quality

The proteome is expressed from the genome, influenced by environmental and processing conditions, and can be seen as the molecular link between the genome and the functional quality characteristics of the meat. In contrast to traditional biochemical methods where one protein is studied at a time, several hundred proteins can be studied simultaneously. Proteomics is a promising and powerful tool in meat science and this is reflected by the increasing number of studies emerging in the literature using proteomics as the key tool to unleash the molecular mechanisms behind different genetic backgrounds or processing techniques of meat. Thus understanding the variations and different components of the proteome with regard to a certain meat quality or process parameter will lead to knowledge that can be used in optimising the conversion of muscles to meat. At present, there has been focus on development of techniques and mapping of proteomes according to genotypes and muscle types. In the future, focus should be more towards understanding and finding markers for meat quality traits. This review will focus on the methods used in the published proteome analyses of meat, with emphasis on the challenges related to statistical analysis of proteome data, and on the different topics of meat science that are investigated.     

The Round Earth Project-collaborative VR for conceptual learning

The Round Earth Project is a collaboration among researchers in computer science, education, and psychology. It investigates two alternative pedagogical strategies for teaching children that the Earth is spherical and the implications of that fact. One strategy, which we term the transformationalist approach, attempts to effect conceptual change by breaking down the children's prior models. In contrast, the selectionist strategy attempts to effect learning in an alternative setting (in our case, a small-diameter asteroid), free of preexisting biases, and to relate that learning back to the target domain-the Earth. Virtual reality (VR) technologies support both pedagogical strategies. In the transformationalist approach, VR simulates the launching of a spacecraft from the Earth's surface and subsequent exploration within a fixed-height orbit. In the selectionist approach, VR simulates a small-diameter asteroid     

Sustainable well-being: A potential synergy between sustainability and well-being research.

This article outlines a potential synergy between sustainability and well-being research. Currently aims within well-being and sustainability research focus on increasing well-being. First, sustainability is defined and important concepts within it highlighted, that is, aims, interdependencies, constraints, values and balanced adaptive processes. It is suggested that positioning well-being more clearly within the sustainability framework can enhance the role of sustainability; for example, in terms of aims and monitoring progress. In turn, the sustainability framework outlined, guides the second part of the article, illustrating how it can reciprocally enhance well-being research. That is, comprehensive empirical, evolutionary, cross-cultural, and self-conceptual evidence illustrate individuals' interdependencies with other people and nature. Despite this, contemporary hedonic and eudaimonic well-being approaches and accompanying measures are demonstrated to be isolating; investigating well-being individualistically and in a decontextualized manner. This is in line with the individualistic and independent values of Western cultures. Therefore, it is suggested that employing the sustainability framework emphasizing interdependencies within well-being research can be beneficial; perhaps even resulting in an all-inclusive increase in well-being. Limitations are also raised and future research directions suggested. The author concludes that both sustainability and well-being research can benefit from the synergy toward sustainable well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to transform local energy systems towards bioenergy? Three strategy models for transformation

During the last decades, the actors within the energy sector in Sweden—as well as in many other countries—have faced increasing demands to transform the energy system towards ecological sustainability. In Sweden these demands have led to numerous policies and economic incentives promoting the use of renewables (which in the Swedish discourse often also includes a connotation of “indigenous energy sources”), and especially the promotion of bioenergy.

To be successful, however, these policies and economic incentives need to be interpreted and adapted to different local contexts and translated into actual transformation processes. In Sweden the municipal authorities have played an important role as interpreters of such institutional frameworks and implementers of local transformation processes. In this article, we re-construct three transformation processes implemented by local municipal authorities, chiselling out the different strategy models developed through them. We argue that such re-constructions help to make visible the different and complex interactions between national institutional frameworks and local contexts as well as interactions within such local contexts. We hope that the strategy models presented can contribute to the understanding of the different kinds of local actions that can foster a further implementation of bioenergy into the energy system.     

A note on the derivation of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">J</Emphasis>-integral from potential energy

In a recent work Z.-H. Jin and C. T. Sun (2004) presented a derivation of the J-integral from the potential energy of a system, which is thought to circumvent previous cumbersome or flawed derivations. Two items in this work call for discussion; one is related to the effect of a singularity upon different types of contour integrals and the other to the strain energy difference term.