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The behaviour of different cellulosic fibres during acid hydrolysis has been investigated and the levelling-off degree of polymerisation (LODP) has been determined. The study included a bleached kraft pulp (both never-dried and once-dried) and two dissolving pulps (once-dried). Additionally, cotton cellulose from new cotton sheets and sheets discarded after long-time use was studied. Experimental results from the investigation, together with results found in literature, imply that ultrastructural differences between different fibres affect their susceptibility towards acid hydrolysis. Drying of a bleached kraft pulp was found to enhance the rate of acid hydrolysis and also result in a decrease in LODP. This implies that the susceptibility of cellulosic fibres towards acid hydrolysis is affected by drying-induced stresses in the cellulose chains. In cotton cellulose, it was found that use and laundering gave a substantial loss in the degree of polymerisation (DP), but that the LODP was only marginally affected.

Bioenergy is increasingly being used to meet EU objectives for renewable energy generation and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Problems with using biomass however include high moisture contents, lower calorific value and poor grindability when compared to fossil fuels. Torrefaction is a pre-treatment process that aims to address these issues. In this paper four torrefaction treatments of pine were performed and a mass-energy balance calculated. Using experimental data, a pellet production supply chain incorporating torrefaction was modelled and compared to an existing wood pellet system to determine life-cycle GHG emissions. Two utility fuels, wood chips and natural gas, were considered to provide process heat in addition to volatile gases released during torrefaction (torgas). Experimental results show that torrefaction reduces the moisture content and increases the calorific value of the fuels. Increasing torrefaction temperature and residence time results in lower mass and energy yields. GHG emissions reduce with increasing torrefaction severity. Emissions from drying & torrefaction and shipping are the highest GHG contributors to the supply chain. All 4 torrefaction conditions assessed outperformed traditional wood pellet supply chain emissions but more land is required which increases with temperature and residence time. Sensitivity analysis results show that emissions increase significantly where natural gas is used for utility fuel and no torgas is utilised.

In the past, several research programs were undertaken at European Carbon Capture (CC) pilot plants. The results of these individual MEA based campaigns are brought together in order to better understand the solvent degradation at CC pilot plants. The data correlation analysis shows that nickel catalyzes significantly the formation of some degradation products (e.g. HEPO) at low concentrations of 2 mg/l. The iron impact was less clear than determined for nickel. All pilot plants show HEGly and HEPO as the main degradation products, followed by HEF. Within the group of carboxylic acids, formate is the major degradation product.

Polymerised High Internal Phase Emulsions (PolyHIPEs) are manufactured via emulsion templating and exhibit a highly interconnected microporosity. These materials are commonly used as thin membranes for 3D cell culture. This study uses emulsion templating in combination with microstereolithography to fabricate PolyHIPE scaffolds with a tightly controlled and reproducible architecture. This combination of methods produces hierarchical structures, where the microstructural properties can be independently controlled from the scaffold macrostructure. PolyHIPEs were fabricated with varying ratios of two acrylate monomers (2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA) and isobornyl acrylate (IBOA)) and varying nominal porosity to tune mechanical properties. Young’s modulus, ultimate tensile stress (UTS) and elongation at failure were determined for twenty EHA/IBOA compositions. Moduli ranged from 63.01±9.13 to 0.36±0.04MPa, UTS from 2.03±0.33 to 0.11±0.01MPa and failure strain from 21.86±2.87% to 2.60±0.61%. Selected compositions were fabricated into macro-porous woodpile structures, plasma treated with air or acrylic acid and seeded with human embryonic stem-cell derived mesenchymal progenitor cells (hES-MPs). Confocal and two-photon microscopy confirmed cell proliferation and penetration into the micro- and macro-porous architecture. The scaffolds supported osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal cells and interestingly, the stiffest IBOA-based scaffolds that were plasma treated with acrylic acid promoted osteogenesis more strongly than the other scaffolds.

Heavy oil and bitumen resources will need to be exploited to supplement depleting conventional oils worldwide as they gradually approach their peak production in the forthcoming decades. However, the physico-chemical characteristics of heavy oil and bitumen include high density, low distillates fraction, high viscosity, and high hetero-atom content which make extraction difficult and relatively expensive. The Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) and 'add-on' Catalytic upgrading process in situ (CAPRI) were spe- cifically developed for the recovery and upgrading of heavy oil and bitumen. In this study, the effects of reaction gas media used in THAI-CAPRI were investigated, in particular the effects of using hydrogen, methane, nitrogen, and a blended gas mixture to simulate THAI combustion gases with Co-Mo/c-Al2O3 catalyst at a reaction temperature of 425 C, pressure 10 bar, and gas-to-oil ratio 50 mL mL � 1 . Ex situ regeneration of the spent catalyst by thermal oxidation of the asphaltenes and coke deposits was also investigated. It was found that the average changes in API gravity of the produced oil were 4 using hydrogen, 3 with methane, 2.9 with THAI gas, and 2.7 with nitrogen above the value of 14 API gravity for the feed oil. The viscosity reduction and conversion of hydrocarbons with boiling point 343 C+ into lower boiling distillable fractions followed the same trend as the API gravity. The percentage loss in spe- cific surface areas as a result of coke deposition in the different reaction gases were as follows: 57.2% for hydrogen, 68% for methane, and 96% for nitrogen relative to the surface area of the fresh catalyst of 214.4 m 2 g � 1 . It was found that the spent catalyst contained 6 and 3 wt.% less coke after six hours oper- ation when using hydrogen and methane reaction gases respectively compared to 23.5 wt.% coke content in a nitrogen atmosphere. Also, 48.5% of the catalyst specific surface area was recovered after oxidative regeneration.

Sedimentary phosphate occurs largely at Gafsa mining basin. Among these occurrences Jebel Alima (Redeyf region) is an open pit quarry. After extraction, raw phosphate requires several stages of treatments to become concentrated: crushing, grinding, scrubbing, sizing, attrition, de-sliming and flotation. The coarse reject, generated from the first step of ore processing, constitutes the main pollution source in the mining area around the washing plant. Since composition contains a host of environmentally hazardous chemical elements such as Cd, U, Pb…. The results of the chemical characterization also show that the raw sample can achieve P2O5 grade of 13.52%. After 170 scrubbing tests, with 4kg of solid waste for each test, the liberated fraction showed a content of 24.33% P2O5. After sieving, the fraction under 315 microns was recovered for flotation, whereas the fraction greater than 315 microns goes through grinding. 11 grinding tests were carried out taking into account the parameter variations (rotational speed, grinding time, solid concentration and load). The result of the optimum grinding is: Load: 7/1; speed: 60 tr / min; time: 5,5min; Cs: 45%. The liberated fraction content is 20.24%. Before the reverse flotation, the product from scrubber outlet (fraction 315 microns) were mixed. The feed material has a content of 22.44% P2O5. The beneficiation of waste reject was carried out by reverse flotation in acid medium with amines and esters.The content reached 28.16% P2O5 with carbonation rate of 1.6. This content is very close to 29% (content of commercial phosphates). Therefore the coarse waste reject could be considered as potential reserves for the future.

Accurate and precise chemical characterization of biomass feedstocks and process intermediates is a requirement for successful technical and economic evaluation of biofuel conversion technologies. The uncertainty in primary measurements of the fraction insoluble solid (FIS) content of dilute acid pretreated corn stover slurry is the major contributor to uncertainty in yield calculations for enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose. This uncertainty is propagated through process models and impacts modeled fuel costs. The challenge in measuring FIS is obtaining an accurate measurement of insoluble matter in the pretreated materials, while appropriately accounting for all biomass derived components. Three methods were tested to improve this measurement. One used physical separation of liquid and solid phases, and two utilized direct determination of dry matter content in two fractions. We offer a comparison of drying methods. Our results show utilizing a microwave dryer to directly determine dry matter content is the optimal method for determining FIS, based on the low time requirements and the method optimization done using model slurries.

Highlights • Biomass is generated during management of low input high diversity (LIHD) landscapes. • Samples of LIHD biomass were subjected to fast pyrolysis. • Demineralization through washing and pressing was associated with higher oil yields. • Oil yields were within the range following fast pyrolysis of Miscanthus and Willow. • Gross estimates of 4 × 105 tonne per year of oil could be displaced using Welsh LIHD biomass., Waste biomass is generated during the conservation management of semi-natural habitats, and represents an unused resource and potential bioenergy feedstock that does not compete with food production. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to characterise a representative range of biomass generated during conservation management in Wales. Of the biomass types assessed, those dominated by rush (Juncus effuses) and bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) exhibited the highest and lowest volatile compositions respectively and were selected for bench scale conversion via fast pyrolysis. Each biomass type was ensiled and a sub-sample of silage was washed and pressed. Demineralization of conservation biomass through washing and pressing was associated with higher oil yields following fast pyrolysis. The oil yields were within the published range established for the dedicated energy crops miscanthus and willow. In order to examine the potential a multiple output energy system was developed with gross power production estimates following valorisation of the press fluid, char and oil. If used in multi fuel industrial burners the char and oil alone would displace 3.9 × 105 tonnes per year of No. 2 light oil using Welsh biomass from conservation management. Bioenergy and product development using these feedstocks could simultaneously support biodiversity management and displace fossil fuels, thereby reducing GHG emissions. Gross power generation predictions show good potential.

We present a non-oxidative production route to few layer graphene via the electrochemical intercalation of tetraalkylammonium cations into pristine graphite. Two forms of graphite have been studied as the source material with each yielding a slightly different result. Highly orientated pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) offers greater advantages in terms of the exfoliate size but the source electrode set up introduces difficulties to the procedure and requires the use of sonication. Using a graphite rod electrode, few layer graphene flakes (2nm thickness) are formed directly although the flake diameters from this source are typically small (ca. 100–200nm). Significantly, for a solvent based route, the graphite rod does not require ultrasonication or any secondary physical processing of the resulting dispersion. Flakes have been characterized using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

The energy sector provides fuel for much of everyday life, particularly economically and socially. Fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, a well-functioning and resilient energy sector is vital for maintaining the operation of critical infrastructures, including, most importantly, the health sector, and timely economic recovery. Notwithstanding its importance in everyday life and crises, the energy sector itself is currently in a complex and far-reaching transformation to combat climate change whilst supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy and society, mainly through the development of variable renewable energy sources (RES) such as wind and solar photovoltaics. This paper highlights the need for energy resilience as countries face the triple challenge of the COVID-19 health crisis, the consequent economic crisis, and the climate crisis. Focusing on Europe, it is advanced here that with the ability to balance fluctuating electricity generation and demand, flexibility allows the energy sector to utilise low-carbon RES reliably, ensuring a more resilient and sustainable energy future. This paper derives five urgent policy recommendations for Europe that address possible impacts of COVID-19 on the economic and societal prerequisites for flexibility in energy systems.

In supply chain inventory management it is generally accepted that safety stocks are a suitable strategy to deal with demand and supply uncertainty aiming to prevent inventory stock-outs. Safety stocks have been the subject of intensive research, typically covering the problems of dimensioning, positioning, managing and placement. Here, we narrow the scope of the discussion to the safety stock dimensioning problem, consisting in determining the proper safety stock level for each product. This paper reports the results of a recent in-depth systematic literature review (SLR) of operations research (OR) models and methods for dimensioning safety stocks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of the application of OR-based approaches to investigate this problem. A set of 95 papers published from 1977 to 2019 has been reviewed to identify the type of model being employed, as well as the modeling techniques and main performance criteria used. At the end, we highlight current literature gaps and discuss potential research directions and trends that may help to guide researchers and practitioners interested in the development of new OR-based approaches for safety stock determination., This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020, and by the European Structural and Investment Funds in the FEDER component, through the Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Program (COMPETE 2020) [Project no. 39479, Funding reference: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-39479].

Decarbonisation of the iron and steel (I&S) industry is crucial in the efforts to meet the EU GHG emission reduction objectives in 2030 … 2050. Promoting decarbonisation in this sector will necessarily require the identification, development, and diffusion of breakthrough technologies for I&S production. This paper uses an approach inspired by the Technology Innovation System (TIS) to analyse the development of technology in the EU I&S industry and identify potential avenues of its decarbonisation. We have described key elements of the TIS, analyse the functioning of these elements and their interactions in a more general context of innovation dynamics and policy design; The focus has been put on the role of actors and the identification of the main specific blocking and inducement mechanism in the TIS to better explain its functioning. Risks and uncertainties have also been discussed. We argue that deep decarbonisation in the I&S industry is feasible but its TIS requires firm support, mostly political, to finance intensive R&D and reduce the business risk. To this end, all actors shall support more effectively the invention and implementation of new radical production technologies. The recommendations are mostly addressed to politicians although stressing the importance of collaboration of all actors., Highlights • Problems, boundaries and difficulties in the I&S industry decarbonisation. • TIS structural components, links and interactions of I&S industry decarbonisation. • Mapping of functional patterns and evaluation of TIS functionality in I&S industry. • Blockades, incentives and innovation risks in the I&S industry decarbonisation. • TIS analysis as a tool for granting public funds for I&S projects.

Highlights • Holistic analysis of electric light commercial vehicles for low emission transport. • Total cost of ownership of some electric vehicle variants is already favourable now. • High penetration scenarios decrease CO2 and other emissions by 2030 above 3%. • Electric light commercial vehicles can reduce particulate concentrations by ca. 2%. • Besides fiscal support measures, other policies needed to remove market barriers., Transport emissions need to be drastically decreased in order to put Europe on a path towards a long-term climate neutrality. Commercial transport, and especially last mile delivery is expected to grow because of the rise of e-commerce. In this frame, electric light commercial vehicles (eLCVs) can be a promising low-emission solution. Literature holistically analysing the potential of eLCVs as well as related support policies is sparse. This paper attempts to close this research gap. To this aim, the total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons for eLCVs and benchmark vehicles are performed and support measures that target the improvement of the eLCV TCO are analysed. Various eLCV deployment scenarios until 2030 are explored and their impact on carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutant emissions as well as pollutant concentrations are calculated. It is found that while in several European Union (EU) countries eLCVs are already cost competitive, because of fiscal support, some remaining market barriers need to be overcome to pave the way to mass market deployment of eLCVs. High penetration of eLCVs alone can lead to a reduction of total transport CO2 emissions by more than 3% by 2030. For pollutant emissions, such as nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM), the reduction would be equal or even higher. In the case of PM, this can translate to reductions in concentrations by nearly 2% in several urban areas by 2030. Carefully designed support policies could help to ensure that the potential of eLCVs as a low-emission alternative is fully leveraged in the EU.

Slow economic recovery, market concentration, and scant alternative energy sources make the Iberian energy market quite idiosyncratic when compared to the rest of the EU. This paper focusses on the Iberian energy market by dealing with the analysis of the relationship between energy consumption and energy prices by using fractional integration in the Iberian market. This technique is used in order to examine the degree of persistence of the series, looking at the spot and futures markets in Spain and Portugal. The results indicate that all the series are fractionally integrated, showing long memory and mean reverting behaviour. Moreover, a close relation between energy consumption and energy prices is found in the spot market whereas it is not found in the futures market. In fact, there is a weak relationship between the futures market and energy consumption. However, regarding energy pricing, the relationship is stronger but with the spot market itself., Highlights • The relationship between energy consumption and energy prices is examined by using fractional integration. • We use this technique in order to examine the degree of persistence of the series. • We look at the spot and futures markets in Spain and Portugal. • The results indicate that all series are fractionally integrated. • They also show long memory and mean reverting behaviour. • A close relation between the two variables is found in the spot market but not in the futures market.

Buried culverts are important components of highway infrastructure. Most large culverts are built decades ago from corrugated metal or reinforced concrete materials and now have reached their design life. A variety of renewal techniques can be utilized to enhance load carrying capacity of the existing deteriorated culverts and extend their design life. Spray applied pipe lining (SAPL) is a trenchless renewal methodology that applies layers of liner on the interior surface of the deteriorated host culvert. The SAPL’s substances generally fall into two categories: cementitious and polymeric materials. Currently, there is no standard method available for structural design of SAPLs that resulting in various methods being applied by SAPL vendors. To provide the essentials for development of a design methodology for SAPLs, the objective of this paper is to examine the structural performance of full scale soil box testing of 60 in. (1.5 m) diameter circular invert deteriorated (invert-cut) corrugated metal pipes (CMPs) renewed with three different thicknesses of polymeric SAPL. The inverts of the CMPs were cut to simulate an invert deteriorated culvert in service condition and maximize the applied static load on the SAPL. The pipe samples were backfilled with loose SP soil and buried under two feet (0.6 m) of soil cover. The performances of SAPL renewed CMPs were compared with a same size invert-cut bare CMP under the same testing configuration. The results indicated that depending on thickness of the polymeric SAPL, application of this method could improve the structural capacity of a fully deteriorated invert CMP culverts up to 80%.

This paper presents part of the research on traffic risk estimation for Bucharest City area. The aim of our research is to develop complex models as tools of urban traffic risk assessment in planning phase. In this way, several urban planning alternatives could be analysed and evaluate before important transport infrastructure investment are made. The first part of the paper analyses the state of road accidents recorded in Bucharest. The second part of the paper demonstrates how the intersection conflict index can be used in traffic micro-simulation models to assess measures of traffic risk reducing.

International audience; 4D modeling has been an applied research area for around two decades since the first seminal works in the nineties. In the last years, a number of case studies have been published both for demonstrating the various applications of 4D and for assessing technological propositions. However, in most papers only little place is given to the particular content of 4D models. In parallel, following the growing implementation of Building Information Modeling, 4D modeling process is usually recognized as a “BIM use”. In BIM implementations and protocols, the Level Of Development of datasets is a fundamental issue. This paper describes the application of two distinct “4D uses” conducted on a single pilot project. They aim to assess the levels of graphical and temporal details required for the implemented uses. The authors finally discuss the diversity of 4D uses with 4D models, both planned or ad-hoc, as well as the logical understanding related to 4D LOD.

The literature dealing with general management recognizes two important phases of any project's and product's life cycle, the solution development and solution implementation. Both of the phases have been explored on the case of IT industry and the model recognizes two important variables: number of agents and level of interdisciplinarity. This paper will try to determine whether such an approach is also appropriate for the construction industry and will also try to prove whether design and build is an appropriate method of integrating the design (solution development) and construction (solution implementation) phases of a construction project because even though design and build is an integral part of many other manufacturing industries, that is not always the case in construction industry. This proposed solution is in line with the knowledge based approach of the previous research because it enables the design team and the implementation team to work together from the earliest phases of the project, therefore enabling the iterative design process and learning from one another. The results of the paper would be useful not only to further scientific research but also as evidence to support the implementation of design and build in the countries in which the legislation discourages its use.

In spite of the fact that direct steam generation (DSG) technology in solar thermal power plants is one of the most promising options for both improving efficiency and reducing electricity costs, no cost-effective storage technology is still available. In this paper a new approach based on the use ofthermotropic liquid crystals (LC) as PCMs is presented. These materials are organic based molecular compounds that do not exhibit only a single transition from solid to isotropic liquid but rather a cascade of transitions involving intermediate fluid phases calledmesophases. By using liquid crystalstwo main benefits are expected: energy exchange will take place by convection –thus a two tank system configuration is applicable-, and the discharging power curve will be constant with time –improving the annual energy yield and dispatchability of the plant-. In this paper, a preliminary estimation of the figures of merit of potential LC candidates, in terms of phase change enthalpies and specific cost have been calculated by comparison with latent storage systems with low-k inorganic salts plus a heat transfer enhancement mechanism, which is the option widely considered today. Since the organic nature of LC allows tailoring their thermal properties, it should be possible to prepare materials that fit the requirements for DSG storage applications. In this way we believe that this totally new perspective of liquid crystals application is worth being developed in order to demonstrate the experimental viability of the concept.

To more accurately describe the evolution process of traffic flow, a novel method was proposed on the basis of the polynomial trend model and the Kalman filtering theory in the paper. The state variables were defined as the deviations of the actual origin destination (OD) flow from the historical values. These deviations were presented as a stochastic evolution process with a sliding trend. Furthermore, the dynamic OD matrix was estimated and predicated by establishing a polynomial trend filtering model. A large number of simulation results prove that the performance of the algorithm proposed in this paper is better than the traditional method, and this algorithm can acquire more accurate estimation and prediction information for OD matrix.

The maintenance works (e.g. inspection, repair) of aero-engines while still attached on the airframes requires a desirable approach since this can significantly shorten both the time and cost of such interventions as the aerospace industry commonly operates based on the generic concept "power by the hour". However, navigating and performing a multi-axis movement of an end-effector in a very constrained environment such as gas turbine engines is a challenging task. This paper reports on the development of a highly flexible slender (i.e. low diameter-to-length ratios) continuum robot of 25 degrees of freedom capable to uncoil from a drum to provide the feeding motion needed to navigate into crammed environments and then perform, with its last 6 DoF, complex trajectories with a camera equipped machining end-effector for allowing in-situ interventions at a low-pressure compressor of a gas turbine engine. This continuum robot is a compact system and presents a set of innovative mechatronics solutions such as: (i) twin commanding cables to minimise the number of actuators; (ii) twin compliant joints to enable large bending angles (ź90°) arranged on a tapered structure (start from 40mm to 13mm at its end); (iii) feeding motion provided by a rotating drum for coiling/uncoiling the continuum robot; (iv) machining end-effector equipped with vision system. To be able to achieve the in-situ maintenance tasks, a set of innovative control algorithms to enable the navigation and end-effector path generation have been developed and implemented. Finally, the continuum robot has been tested both for navigation and movement of the end-effector against a specified target within a gas turbine engine mock-up proving that: (i) max. deviations in navigation from the desired path (1000mm length with bends between 45° and 90°) are ź10mm; (ii) max. errors in positioning the end-effector against a target situated at the end of navigation path is 1mm. Thus, this paper presents a compact continuum robot that could be considered as a step forward in providing aero-engine manufacturers with a solution to perform complex tasks in an invasive manner. A novel slender continuum robot is introduced for in-situ repair/inspection of jet engines.A new kinematic model is introduced for the new tapered design.Modes of control for the continuum robot were developed, including tip-following, feeding-in/out, Machining commands.Navigation and inspection/machining tests in engine model were introduced.

Bamboo has been widely known as a sustainable building material due to some reasons among others are bamboo can be easily cultivated and harvested in a relative short time and can be reused. Bamboo as building materials is easy to bend and lithe. Those characters are very suitable for organic shaped building construction. This paper attempts to discuss how bamboo is being used in organic shaped building. Several case studies are taken to describe the relation between shape, structure, construction and joint system. It will classify how bamboo is formed in curved thus result is an organic form. The paper result will show that bamboo can be a potential building material for organic shaped buildings and become an alternative building material other than steel and concrete.

The Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) that are installed in commercial and institutional buildings contain a gold mine of data, which could be exploited for the purpose of ongoing commissioning of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. Two applications are presented in this paper. First the paper discusses the feasibility of a virtual air flow meter to estimate the outdoor air flow rate brought in the air-handling units. Second the paper presents the development of benchmarking models of electric demand of chillers in terms of measurements of the following variables: the chilled water flow rate, the supply air flow rate at the air-handling unit, and the return chilled water temperature.

This paper presents an overview of the CO2 storage element of the projects that are part of the European CCS Demonstration Project Network, an FP7 funded project to support the knowledge exchange among the CCS projects that have received funding under the EEPR framework. These projects include the ROAD project (The Netherlands) and the Don Valley project (UK). The Hontomín project (Spain) can be regarded as the third project, as it was developed as the research site for the Compostilla project in Spain; the Compostilla project, also a beneficiary of EEPR funds, was discontinued in 2013 after completing FEED studies. The Sleipner project joined the Network in 2011 and provided its experience and expertise to the EEPR funded projects. Together, the projects in the Network cover a wide range of storage options, from a depleted gas field to saline sandstone and carbonate formations. The ROAD project uses a compartment of an offshore depleted gas field, and the Don Valley project is developing an offshore saline aquifer. The Hontomín site, dedicated to research, uses an onshore carbonate reservoir. This paper gives an overview of the storage solutions developed or under development by these projects.

Data compatibility and system interoperability are fundamental for crosswalks and collaboration between domains. The most frequently used references for information sharing are time and location. In order to understand the requirements, fundamental processes, and core information concepts of a domain, a comprehensive, but standardised documentation is needed. In spatial data infrastructures models presented in Unified Modelling Language (UML) are widely used to facilitate the uptake of standards and valorise best practices of various communities. The European agricultural decision makers must deal with many components described in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in order to optimize data integration and achieve transparency. Geospatial information plays a key role in the implementation of this policy, which comprises the establishment and maintenance of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS). In the past the IACS of the MS has principally served a single high level business case: to run a correct administration of the CAP. However, the recent reform and the synergies with environmental and societal policies create increasing expectations for IACS, which impact upon system interoperability and data usability. These objectives can be achieved by establishing a framework that is standard based, allows flexible extensions, and that supports efficient implementation and information exchange between the stakeholders. This paper presents the development process and describes the structure of a domain model we propose for IACS. This standard driven model was designed to translate requirements into technical elements, ensuring interoperability, and providing flexible extensions at the same time. For this purpose we set-up a formal requirement model, formalized use cases, and integrated ISO/TC 211 and INSPIRE UML based class diagrams. As such, this paper proposes a methodology to help guide how the policy can be implemented. The importance of traceability from IACS and third party business rules to the information concepts was proven by simulation runs. The developed modelling approach yielded a reference for conformance testing, indicated critical points of potential errors, and highlighted the impact of eventual changes. Storing all concepts and implementation options of IACS in a unique framework helps to eliminate redundant efforts, provides a strong basis for developing various applications, underpins interoperability with other domains and enhances transparency of the CAP.

The depletion of fossil fuel and the ozone layer has been a global concern for decades. The International Organization for Standardization has published earth-moving machine sustainability standards for the industry to provide information to satisfy their customers' interests in their construction projects. Furthermore, steeply rising energy prices and the collapse of financial institutions in recent years have sparked demand for ways to improve individual energy efficiency. Original equipment manufacturers of earth-moving machines must address sustainability requirements, as well as remaining competitive and they aim to do this by improving machine efficiency, adopting advanced fleet management systems, providing operator training courses etc. Clearly high fuel efficiency is important to reduce depletion of fossil fuels and damage to the environment. However, the objectives of achieving the highest possible productivity (m3/h) and improving fuel efficiency (kg/l) are often considered separately. Many equations have been formulated to measure a machine's highest possible productivity level, yet there is a lack of consensus between academia and industry sources on the terms which should be considered within such equations. Perhaps more importantly, none have explicitly considered the relationship between fuel efficiency and productivity, and only scant consideration is given to the role of operators in achieving optimum productivity for fuel efficiency. Therefore, this paper presents an eco-approach to enable operators to achieve optimal productivity for fuel efficiency of a hydraulic excavator. Hydraulic excavators are primarily designed for excavating with a bucket. Their ease of use, versatility and high productivity have won them major segments of the construction equipment market, therefore the focus on hydraulic exactors in this paper is justifiable. The research presented in this paper has adopted an applied research methodology to collect measurable, empirical evidence through scientific experiments in order to test several hypotheses that focus on the reduction of GHG produced by construction machines. The research has examined two variables, engine speed and bucket cut depth, to determine their effects on productivity and fuel efficiency of a hydraulic excavator. The experimental results show that the combinations of various engine speed settings and bucket cut depths can increase productivity by 30% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 24%, consequentially moving 62% more spoil every hour for every litre of fuel consumed. The results also suggest that identifying the correct bucket cut depth is the key to significant improvements in productivity and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The paper therefore concludes that adoption of an appropriate construction machine operation style can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with hydraulic excavators. Hence, educating operators to select the right engine speed and bucket cut depth is a cost effective approach to lowering the operational costs and carbon emissions through lower fuel consumption and greater machine longevity.

Researchers and Practitioners have been interested in the field of conspicuous consumption (CC) for the past few decades. Much of these works have been concerned with defining and measuring the CC tendencies among leisure class. Less effort has been directed toward determining the factors that underlie the tendency to consume conspicuously by ‘less income earners’, such as small-scale farmers (SCFs). This paper examines empirically the relationship between CC tendencies and rural poverty in farming community in Kurunegala district based on the hypothesis that there is a strong relationship between the CC and status of poverty among farmers. The reasons for selecting the Kurunegala district for analysis were, amongst the others: it is the third biggest district in Sri Lanka with 30 Divisional Secretariats; the nominal poverty line is Rs. 3,667, which is Rs.328 below the national average; as a percentage of total population of Sri Lanka, it has 7.3% of the population, and the majority of them are engage in agriculture. This study identifies several different types of circumstances and sensory stimuli that serve as cues for triggering CC. A wide range of journal databases and books were referred to review the works of various researchers in this field. 260 households who can provide information on these criteria were selected from two Divisional Secretariats, namely: (1) Galgamuwa, and (2) Nikaweratiya using Stratified Random Sampling techniques. Each household was interviewed, personally and in-depth, with the help of a semi-structured interview schedule. The ordered Logistic regression techniques were used for statistical analysis. The results suggest that there is a significant relationship between CC and poverty among farming community. The paper will be useful for marketing practitioners and researchers towards comprehensive understanding of the CC in farming community.

© 2014 The Authors. This paper introduces a new approach to water management that is 'Safe & SuRe'. This includes presenting a conceptual framework to link the emerging threats of climate change and variability, rapid urbanization and population growth, energy constraint and tightening environmental regulation through to their consequences on social, economic and environmental recipients. The framework allows identification of the role and need for mitigation, adaptation and coping strategies. The paper proposes definitions and discusses what engineering, organizational and/or social options can potentially develop the degree of resilience and sustainability needed to deal with these 21st century threats. The paper goes on to propose how these approaches might be objectively assessed and identifies gaps in our knowledge that require further research.

This paper reports a case study investigating the productive value of designers' creative practice within complex academic-industrial collaborations in which a designer's practice had a formative role. Adopting a pragmatic approach, collaborators' experiences of this project were reconstructed through interviews and ‘annotated timelines.’ Collaborators were found to value the designer's work in responding to their particular concerns whilst also opening up new possibilities. This paper discusses how such benefit is attributable to the ‘designerly thinking’ of skilled designers, shifting the focus of work from problem-solving to problematisation and enabling participants to collectively formulate concerns, roles, and potentialities. The paper concludes that designers' creative practice can enable collaborative projects to build upon and transcend participants' expertise and expectations through ‘creative exchange.’

In this paper, I advance debates that argue that we need to reconceptualise global work from a mobilities perspective by looking how the representation of movement connects with the experience of movement. By looking at the imaginative geographies of Singapore for the British corporate expatriate, I explore how the qualitative representation of place is changing within managerial discourses from a hardship to an opportunity. In doing so, the paper argues that we need to combine understandings of the global economic flows that move some transnational migrants with their everyday lived experiences in order to explore what qualitatively makes work global. This allows us to highlight the multiplicity of ways in which transnational migrants can be understood rather than trying to impose singularity.

The aim of this paper is the examination of the dynamic of fluid in tank. Dynamic fluid analysis will be performed by finite element method (FEM). As a tool for FEM analysis will serve the commercial software ANSYS Workbench FLUENT, which is often used in technical practice because of its fast and effective means of FEM model creation. A case study of a fuel tank partially filled with fluid was simulated in this paper using Volume of Fluid (VOF) multiphase model. In this paper, a part of the project which aims to develop a computer aided methodology for developing/designing of the fuel tanks based on static and dynamic analysis is presented. Further research can be undertaken in improving the optimum configuration and dimensions of the baffles in order to further reduce the sloshing in the fuel tank.

This paper introduces the characteristic of Japanese dynamic pricing model, meanwhile, summarizes the results from an exploratory analysis of about 200 households that took part in dynamic price experiment in Kitakyushu, Japan. Using hourly load data collected from smart meter, we find statistically load reduction for participants during the DP time block. With the incentive of different levels of DP, the peak demand reduction ratio changes from 6% to 14% which proved that residential customers have the potential to respond to variable price signals. In addition, we also discussed the effect of dynamic pricing which influenced by temperature. The result indicates that the size of load reduction is the largest during the extreme temperature. This paper contributes to the implementation of dynamic pricing and provides a good experience to other countries.

To ensure sustainability and reliability of water supply infrastructure, we must apply a basic pre-condition, which is, its continual renewal. For renewal planning, there are many methods, techniques and software tools for decision support, but most of them, in many cases, focus only on water mains. Water supply systems, however, consist of different parts and structures than just water pipes. It is therefore not appropriate to invest in the renewal planning only in relation to one part of the water supply infrastructure. The knowledge of the current technical condition of the water supply infrastructure is crucial to maintain its planned performance and optimise its maintenance and renewal. Effective detailed evaluation of the technical condition requires deployment of specialists, reliable database, considerable amount of time and instrumentation and software. Therefore, it is preferable to perform the first rapid and efficient preliminary identification of problematic areas and elements of water supply systems. This paper presents the methodology and the Technical Energy Audit (TEA Water), the effective preliminary assessment of the technical state of water supply systems (WSS). The paper presents the structure of the proposed technical indicators, the method of their determination and evaluation, including the presentation of case studies of implementing the methodology and software tool in the Czech Republic. Článek prezentuje metodiku předběžného hodnocení technického stavu vodárenské infrastruktury se zaměřením důležitý prvek infrastruktury - vodovodní síť. Tomuto prvku odpovídá modul TEAN a je zde podrobně popsán. Pozornost je také věnována aplikaci TEA Water.

The GSOM (Generic second order modelling) family of traffic flow models combines the LWR model with dynamics of driver -specific attributes and can be expressed as a system of conservation laws. The object of the paper is to show that a proper lagrangian formulation of the GSOM model can be recast as a Hamilton-Jacobi equation, the solution of which can be expressed as the value function of an optimal control problem. This value function is interpreted as the position of vehicles, and the optimal trajectories of the optimal control formulation can be identified with the characteristics. Further the paper analyzes the initial and boundary conditions, proposes a generalization of the inf-morphism and the Lax-Hopf formulas to the GSOM model, and considers numerical aspects.

The paper highlights the findings of the research on the thermal limits of a speed reducer equipped with a worm face gear with modified geometry made of hardened steel 42MoCr11x by nitrocarburizing (cylindrical worm) and improved steel OLC 45 (worm face wheel). This type of gear is a worm face gear variant where of the worm flanks are executed with equal pressure angles to simplify the geometry tools and execution technology. The paper made a comparison with thermal limit values for other types of worm face gears obtained by the authors.

At vehicles technical inspection stations, the braking system of a load-carrying vehicle is tested when the vehicle is free of any load; however, such tests do not reflect the operation of the brakes in loaded vehicles. In the Paper, methods for testing the braking system of a load-carrying vehicle are discussed upon; other scientific papers related to operation and testing of brakes are reviewed. In addition, research on establishing interdependence between the wheel braking force and the brake pedal pressing force was carried out.

Whilst carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are now in the demonstration phase, they are still characterised by a range of technical, economic, policy, social and legal uncertainties. This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary research project funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The aim of the project was to analyse the main uncertainties facing potential investors in CCS and policy makers wishing to support these technologies through demonstration to commercial deployment. The paper presents a framework for the analysis of these uncertainties, and applies this framework to nine analogue case studies of CCS. These case studies have focused on historical developments in technologies and/or policy frameworks where one or more of these uncertainties has been prominent – and have, in most cases, been partly resolved. The paper also shows applies the insights from these historical case studies to develop three potential pathways for CCS deployment in the UK over the period to 2030. Finally, the paper concludes with some implications for CCS policies and strategies.

This paper proposes a new methodology for the finite element (FE) modelling of failure in adhesively bonded joints. Cohesive and adhesive failure are treated separately which allows accurate failure predictions for adhesive joints of different thicknesses using a single set of material parameters. In a companion paper (part I), a new smeared-crack model for adhesive joint cohesive failure was proposed and validated. The present contribution gives an in depth investigation into the interaction among plasticity, cohesive failure and adhesive failure, with application to structural joints. Quasi-static FE analyses of double lap-joint specimens with different thicknesses and under different levels of hydrostatic pressure were performed and compared to experimental results. In all the cases studied, the numerical analysis correctly predicts the driving mechanisms and the specimens’ final failure. Accurate fatigue life predictions are made with the addition of a Paris based damage law to the interface elements used to model the adhesive failure.

The paper deals with the problems of project management and project management tools in practice in the Czech Republic. The introduction describes the essence of project management and characterizes its key tools. Special attention is paid to the analysis and evaluation of the current level of project management and exploitation of the project management tools in the Czech Republic. The paper presents and compares the outcomes of the research carried out by organization Spolecnost pro projektove rizeni with some other global researches from the points of view of project outcomes monitoring, success of project implementation, awareness of project management tools, utilization of project management tools, including software tools, project management knowledge and the reasons why some project implementations fail.

In order to achieve to minimize car-based trips, transport planners have been particularly interested in understanding the factors that explain modal choices. In the transport modelling literature there has been an increasing awareness that socioeconomic attributes and quantitative variables are not sufficient to characterize travelers and forecast their travel behavior. Recent studies have also recognized that users’ social interactions and land use patterns influence travel behavior, especially when changes to transport systems are introduced, but links between international and Spanish perspectives are rarely deal. In this paper, factorial and path analyses through a Multiple-Indicator Multiple-Cause (MIMIC) model are used to understand and describe the relationship between the different psychological and environmental constructs with social influence and socioeconomic variables. The MIMIC model generates Latent Variables (LVs) to be incorporated sequentially into Discrete Choice Models (DCM) where the levels of service and cost attributes of travel modes are also included directly to measure the effect of the transport policies that have been introduced in Madrid during the last three years in the context of the economic crisis. The data used for this paper are collected from a two panel smartphone-based survey (n=255 and 190 same respondents, respectively) of Madrid.

The main purpose of this paper is to identify appropriate solutions considered essential for the implementation of an authentic sustainable engineering education for the students in engineering. This is completed with the aim to increase the adaptation of the graduates in engineering to a competitive and dynamic economy, characterized by the attributes of sustainable development and the current society needs and has in view Romania's situation. The paper introduces new solutions for the promotion of technological entrepreneurship and also presents the original inventory of qualities needed for a student in engineering to become an authentic technopreneur. The findings of this paper have the potential to help graduates in engineering to be able to develop their innovative side, being better “equipped” to become technological entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs.

Composite materials made of glass and carbon fibres have revolutionised many industries. Demand for\ud composites is experiencing rapid growth and global demand is expected to double. As demand for\ud composites grows it is clear that waste management will become an important issue for businesses.\ud Technically composite materials evoke difficult recycling challenges due to the heterogeneity of their\ud composition. As current waste management practices in composites are dominated by landfilling, governments\ud and businesses themselves foresee that this will need to change in the future. The recycling of\ud composites will play a vital role in the future especially for the aerospace, automotive, construction and\ud marine sectors. These industries will require different recycling options for their products based on\ud compliance with current legislation, the business model as well as cost effectiveness. In order to be able\ud to evaluate waste management strategies for composites, a review of recycling technologies has been\ud conducted based on technology readiness levels and waste management hierarchy. This paper analyses\ud 56 research projects to identify growing trends in composite recycling technologies with pyrolysis,\ud solvolysis and mechanical grinding as the most prominent technologies. These recycling technologies\ud attained high scores on the waste management hierarchy (either recycling or reuse applications) suggesting\ud potential development as future viable alternatives to composite landfilling. The research\ud concluded that recycling as a waste management strategy is most popular exploration area. It was found\ud mechanical grinding to be most mature for glass fibre applications while pyrolysis has been most mature\ud in the context of carbon fibre. The paper also highlights the need to understand the use of reclaimed\ud material as important assessment element of recycling efforts. This paper contributes to the widening\ud and systematising knowledge on maturity and understanding composites recycling technologies.

For the nowadays industry, the hydrostatic actuation is indispensable, thus reducing the energy losses in valves that control the parameters of hydraulic energy, it has become an area of interest in applied research. The paper aims to conduct a study on hydraulic resistors, following the hydrodynamic forces that appear in an adjustable valve like a load for the valve actuator. Three types of holes (circular, rectangular, triangular) for the sleeve were assembled with each of the three spools chamfered at different angles resulting different geometry for the active edge. The results show that the variant in which the openings are rectangular and the edge of the piston is tapered at an angle of 60°, develop the lower hydrodynamic force and thus lower energy dissipation. The paper presents the experimental setup used, which offers the possibility of monitoring also the noise during operation, being able to establish the time of cavitation occurrence using spectral analyzes. The optimizations achieved by reducing the hydrodynamic forces, are important in terms of energy.

The analysis of moisture migration in building materials and elements is crucial for its behaviour knowledge also affecting its durability, waterproofing, degradation and thermal performance. Based on this breach it is intended to analyse the interface effect in the capillary process in ceramic brick. Ceramic brick is a common material in Portuguese exterior walls, where usually it has mortar joints. In the foremost cases, Portuguese exterior walls are multilayer walls with materials in perfect contact and/or with an air space. Knowing that, in this paper, an experimental research using samples to capillary tests are used considering four different cases: monolithic and three interfaces: perfect contact, air space and hydraulic continuity (mortar). Since a long time, moisture is one of the primary causes for the observed damage on the buildings envelope, increasing the importance of this research with the goal of controlling the real moisture migration process. This paper has two special purposes: (a) The analysis of ceramic brick capillarity coefficient without interfaces (monolithic) and with three different interfaces: perfect contact, air space and hydraulic continuity (mortar) and (b) The calculation of the hydric resistance in the interface that conditions the maximum flow transmitted FLUMAX. This value is an important input in numerical simulations with multilayer building components and is a parameter to be obtained experimentally. In the first weights the water front is lower than the interface position so it would be expected that the capillary coefficient, calculated for the first step, is not to much influenced by the interface. It is expected that the maximum flow transmitted – FLUMAX, in the three different interfaces, is lower to air space, higher to hydraulic continuity, being the perfect contact in the middle

A series of triaxial compression tests are carried out for frozen saline sandy soil with Na2SO4 contents 0.0, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5% under confining pressures from 0 MPa to 16 MPa at −6 °C, respectively. The test results indicate that, the Critical State Line (CSL) of frozen saline sandy soil is curve and is not through the origin in (p,q) plane, and the soil particles have the properties of initial anisotropic rotational angle and loaded anisotropy in process of loading. In order to describe the deformation properties of frozen saline sandy soil, a new double yield surface constitutive model is proposed based on the triaxial compression tests in this paper. The proposed model contains the influence of salt contents on mechanical characteristics, so it is suitable for describing the stress–strain relation of frozen saline soil. The proposed model has the following properties: (1) By defining a modified effective stress p∗, a critical state strength envelope function is established according to the Modified Cam Clay model. The envelope approximates a straight line under low confining pressures, but it is curve downward under high confining pressures due to pressure melting. (2) The effect of the initial anisotropic rotational angle and loaded anisotropy, during process of loading under plastic volumetric compression mechanism, on yield surface of rotational hardening is taken into account. (3) A paraboloid yield surface function, including the rotational hardening law induced by loading, is proposed under plastic shear mechanism. The universality of the proposed model is verified by the test results of frozen saline sandy soil under different stress paths. Finally, in order to further study the applicability of the proposed model in this paper, the stress–strain relation of the cemented clay is simulated by it. And the influences of the pressure melting phenomenon and the rotational hardening rule on the calculated results of the proposed model are investigated. The research results indicate that the proposed model can simulate not only the mechanics properties of materials whose CSL is straight but also those of materials whose CSL is curved, other than predict the deformation regularity of frozen saline sandy soil well.

The market for small Solar CombiSystems (SCSs) is penalized by its lack of common performance test method. The methodology proposed in this paper is based on the SCSPT procedure which tests each combisystem as a whole system on a semi-virtual test bench. Test results are used to identify a “Gray Box” model of the tested SCS, which includes an Artificial Neural Network. This model can then simulate the behavior of the system for any climate and any building. Results of all those simulations are finally used according to the FSC procedure in order to characterize the tested SCS performances with a simple curve. An experimental study of this methodology with two real SCS is presented in this paper.

Major advances in memory forensics in the past decade now allow investigators to efficiently detect and analyze many types of sophisticated kernel-level malware. With operating systems vendors now routinely enforcing driver signing and integrating strategies for protecting kernel data, such as Patch Guard, userland attacks are becoming more attractive to malware authors, as evidenced in the notorious Crisis malware. We therefore turn our attention to improving memory forensics techniques for analysis of malware in userland.In this paper, we focus on new methods for detecting userland malware written in Objective-C on Mac OS X. As the paper illustrates, Objective-C provides a rich set of APIs that malware can use to manipulate and steal application data and to perform other malicious activities. Our novel memory forensics techniques deeply examine the state of the Objective-C runtime inside of targeted processes, identifying a number of suspicious activities, from keystroke logging to pointer swizzling. We then examine our techniques against memory samples infected with malware found in targeted OS X attacks.

Nowadays, many applications by default use encryption of network traffic to achieve a higher level of privacy and confidentiality. One of the most frequently applied cryptographic protocols is Transport Layer Security (TLS). However, also adversaries make use of TLS encryption in order to hide attacks or command & control communication. For detecting and analyzing such threats, making the contents of encrypted communication available to security tools becomes essential. The ideal solution for this problem should offer efficient and stealthy decryption without having a negative impact on over-all security. This paper presents TLSkex (TLS Key EXtractor), an approach to extract the master key of a TLS connection at runtime from the virtual machine's main memory using virtual machine introspection techniques. Afterwards, the master key is used to decrypt the TLS session. In contrast to other solutions, TLSkex neither manipulates the network connection nor the communicating application. Thus, our approach is applicable for malware analysis and intrusion detection in scenarios where applications cannot be modified. Moreover, TLSkex is also able to decrypt TLS sessions that use perfect forward secrecy key exchange algorithms. In this paper, we define a generic approach for TLS key extraction based on virtual machine introspection, present our TLSkex prototype implementation of this approach, and evaluate the prototype.

Rapid Prototyping has come out as the best technology in the recent times, which allows the direct conversion of CAD files into the functional prototypes where it mainly decreases the lead time to produce the physical prototype important for design verification and operational analysis by creating the prototype directly from CAD data. Part quality of the prototype in the RP technique mainly depends upon the parameters such as hatch cure depth, layer thickness, orientation, laser power, temperature, hatch spacing. Thus an attempt was made to study and optimization of process parameters governing the system which are linked with part characteristics by using the Taguchi experimental design technique. This paper proposes to characterize the influence of physical build parameters over the part quality. This paper mainly represents the influence of three parameters i.e. Laser power, Temperature and Part Orientation for the dimensional accuracy and micro-hardness of part made in Selective Laser Sintering technique by using the Taguchi technique and an orthogonal array of experiment was developed which has least number of experimental runs with above three process parameters and also made by analysis tools such as ANOVA (Analysis of Variance).

This paper presents a new dynamic physical energy model of building for simulating the energy demand of cities. Firstly, a justification it is given regarding the necessity of a new building model and the advantages of using modular building simulation when dealing with large numbers of buildings in an urban context. The main motivation was a flexible and very modular interaction of 3D urban geometry description with the CityGML data format and energy related attributes for building parts. The paper then presents the modular dynamic building model and its validation with a real case of study for single buildings. The model integration into an urban modeling platform named SimStadt is explained with the necessary input data for a city heat demand calculation.