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Single-wire gas metal arc welding (SGMAW) and high power tandem GMAW (TGMAW) are evaluated with respect to energy efficiency. The key performance indicator electrical deposition efficiency is applied to reflect the energy efficiency of GMAW in different material transfer modes. Additionally, the wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is determined in order to identify the overall energy consumption. The results show that energy efficiency can be increased by 24% and welding time is reduced over 50% by application of the tandem processes. A comparative life cycle assessment of a 30-mm-thick weld is conducted to investigate the influences of the energy efficiency on the environmental impacts. The environmental impacts on the categories global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential can be reduced up to 11% using an energy-efficient TGMAW process.

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) is a comprehensive, standard terminology published in 2014. The standard is intended to unify habitat classification efforts, in order to allow for broader integration and comparison of data. The standard is well-developed, and has been implemented in some regions, but CMECS not been tested extensively in the deep sea. NOAA has set a milestone to adopt recommended best practices and standards, such as CMECS, within NOAA's Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping Program, since 2013 (NOC 2013), so there is a timely need for guidance directed toward the deep-sea research community about how to apply this standardized methodology. This report summarizes the findings from a short-term research project that engaged field teams during three deep-sea benthic surveys in the US Pacific in 2015, including telepresence-enabled cruises in Southern California and Hawaii. The researchers conducted post-cruise analyses to process images from surveys aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, E/V Nautilus from Ocean Exploration Trust (OET), and R/V Shearwater from the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS). Thirty-two remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives and more than 6,400 still images were analyzed using a simple CMECS annotation. The report considered three of the four CMECS components geoform, water column, and substrate. The biotic component was not reported here, this was reserved for separate study. Biotic units can be derived from species diversity and abundance but the quantification of these categories is evolving and needs refinement. Published Refereed Current 14.a N/A Validated (tested by third parties)

In the last few years, numerous approaches have been introduced for supporting design engineers in developing more sustainable products. However, so far, these efforts have not led to the establishment of a commonly acknowledged standard methodology for Sustainable Product Development (SPD). This brings into question the relevance of developing new methods and calls for more efforts in testing the available ones. This article provides a reflection about the benefits and obstacles of applying existing SPD approaches to a real product development project. It reports the results of a project aimed at developing a new mobility solution under the constraints of sustainability-related targets. This project has led to the development of a new pedelec concept, focusing on the substitution of small passenger cars with the help of three SPD methods - Design for Sustainability Guidelines, Product Sustainability Index, and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. These methods have proved to be generally beneficial, thanks to a combination of qualitative and quantitative perspectives. However, the multitude of criteria offered by the methods put forth difficulties in evaluating which sustainability aspects are relevant and therefore lead to higher effort for information retrieval analysis and decision processes. Furthermore, the methods still lack an integrated perspective on the product, the corresponding services and the overarching system.

This paper investigates gas metal arc welding (GMAW) with respect to energy consumption and its associated environmental impacts. Different material transfer modes and power levels for single wire GMAW (SGMAW) and tandem GMAW (TGMAW) are evaluated by means of the indicator electrical deposition efficiency. Furthermore, the wall-plug efficiency of the equipment is measured in order to describe the total energy consumption from the electricity grid. The results show that the energy efficiency is highly affected by the respective process and can be significantly enhanced by a TGMAW process. The wall-plug efficiency of the equipment shows no significant dependency on the power range or the material transfer mode. Moreover, the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) is adopted in order to investigate the influences of energy efficient welding on the environmental impacts. In the comparative LCA study, the demand of electrical energy is reduced up to 24%. In consequence, the indicator values for global warming potential (100), acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential are reduced up to 11%.

The striate area devoted to the lower visual field (LVF) is larger than that devoted to the upper visual field (UVF). A similar anatomical asymmetry also exists in the LGN. Here we take advantage of two experimental tasks that are known to modulate the direction and amplitude of saccades to demonstrate a visual field asymmetry in oculomotor maps. Participants made visually guided saccades. In Experiment 1, the saccade target was accompanied by a visual distractor. The distractor's presence modulated the direction of saccades, and this effect was much stronger for LVF targets. In Experiment 2, the temporal gap between the offset of the fixation stimulus and the onset of the saccade target was manipulated. This manipulation modulated the amplitude of saccades and this modulation was stronger for saccades towards UVF targets. Taken together, these results suggest that the representation of both meridians and eccentricities in the LVF is compressed in oculomotor maps.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is applied in evaluating environmental impacts of state-of-the-art welding technologies. Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW), Laser Arc-Hybrid Welding (LAHW) and two Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) variants are used to join a plate of 20 mm thick structural steel. The LCA results indicate that for 1 m weld seam, MMAW causes the highest environmental impacts in global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP), and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) among the selected processes, and the LAHW variant performances the least. Filler material and electricity consumptions generally dominate the impacts and reach shares of up to 80% and 61% in the respective impact categories. However, electrode coating consumption in MMAW remarkably contributes impacts on AP and EP, for instance 52% of AP and 76% of EP. Strategies for improvement of the applied welding technologies are discussed.

A classical LCA methodology is here applied to green roofs including in this analysis also the whole life cycle of the substrate, that represented a lack of previous LCA studies on green roofs. This inclusion will allow a complete and proper application of the LCA methodology to achieve an environmental accounting of the “green roof” performance. We have here chosen to approach the problem by analysing a specific substrate, that is used within an actual extensive green roof. Afterwards, we have applied the LCA methodology to the whole actual extensive green roof whose substrate under analysis is part of. In this manner, we achieved an environmental accounting of the “green roof” performance. In this study the contribution of production, maintenance and end of life to the whole environmental burden of extensive green roofs has been illustrated as well. Furthermore, in the present work we have speculated about the required level of data for allowing a complete LCA analysis of a green roof. Particularly, we have focused here our attention on the role of fertilizers used for the green roof maintenance and on the disposal of substrate, which seem to play a significant role in the whole LCA balance.