Business partners and working the pumps: Human resource managers in the recession

This article examines the work and roles of HR managers in the Irish recession. It tests the validity of three competing views about the future of HR: that the profession needs to become a business partner; that it is knee-deep in a legitimacy crisis; and that it is fragmenting by being unable to cope with the complexity of modern organizational life. Three key findings emerge from the research. First, HR managers have gained greater influence in business decision-making, but much of this influence arises from short-run retrenchment measures. Second, many HR managers remain committed to long established professional values and ideas of good practice. Third, modern HR managers are developing a professional identity that allows them to perform multiple, competing roles. These findings challenge existing arguments about the effects of the current recession. They also speak to ongoing debates about changing HR roles by showing how HR managers remain adept at making pragmatic adaptations to secure their role in organizational life. © The Author(s) 2012.

Geothermal Heat Pumps

If you're planning to build a new house or replace your heating and cooling system, you may want to consider a geothermal heat pump system. A GHP system can be installed in virtually any area of the country and will save energy and money. This gives tips on how to save money on heat pumps.

Detailed analysis of data from heat pumps installed via the Renewable Heat Premium Payment Scheme

The RHPP policy provided subsidies for private householders, Registered social landlords and communities to install renewable heat measures in residential properties. Eligible measures included air and ground-source heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar thermal. Around 18,000 heat pumps were installed via this scheme. DECC funded a detailed monitoring campaign, which covered 700 heat pumps (around 4% of the total). The aim of this monitoring campaign was to assess the efficiencies of the heat pumps and to estimate the carbon and bill savings and amount of renewable heat generated. Data was collected from 31/10/2013 to 31/03/2015. This report represents the analysis of this data and represents the most complete and reliable data in-situ residential heat pump performance in the UK to date.

Receipt from G. Lloyd, dealer in hot air furnaces, stoves, ranges, gas fixtures and pumps

Receipt from G. Lloyd, dealer in hot air furnaces, stoves, ranges, gas fixtures and pumps, located on King Street, St. Catharines regarding payment received for burners, dampers and other gas fixtures, Jan. 1, 1875.

Simulation of thermal performance of horizontal slinky-loop heat exchangers for ground source heat pumps

This paper presents results obtained from a numerical simulation for the horizontal slinky-loop heat exchanger of a ground-source heat pump system. A three-dimensional numerical model was developed and the results of the thermal performance of various heat exchanger configurations are presented. The investigation was carried out on five types of loop pitch (loop spacing), three types of loop diameter, three values of soil thermal properties, and allowing continuous and intermittent operation. Comparison was made for the heat transfer rate, the amount of pipe material needed, as well as excavation work required for the horizontal slinky-loop heat exchanger. The results indicate that system parameters have a significant effect on the thermal performance of the system

MetaPPase by in silico analyses predicting the novel gene operate as H+ pumps.

The lastyears declined the discovery of compounds to use in industrial and naturaldiversity has been the best supplier for novel genes, enzymes and compounds inhigh demand by the biotechnology industry. We know immense diversity of microorganisms,yet most remains unexplored. For these reason we use the metagenômica approach toinvestigate the potential of uncultured microorganisms. With this purpose weused the metagenomic library of from Eucalyptus spp. arboretum (EAA), wedid screening to found positive clone and them was submitted to the process of shotgun,the data obtained was submitted a bioinformatics analyses. Our results showsthe hypothesis of high unexplored microbial diversity of soil are able to foundnovel genes and metagenomic approach is and allowed to isolate novel genes and insilico analyses are essential part to identify a novel Inorganicpyrophosphatase (PPase) prediction indicated the novel gene operate as H+ pumps. Thissuggests that a special feature, our work in situ will be cloning thegene expression vector for subsequent kinetic characterization and crystallization.

A multi-objective genetic algorithm optimisation using variable speed pumps in water distribution systems

Due to its practical importance and inherent complexity, the optimisation of distribution networks for supplying drinking water has been the subject of extensive study for the past 30 years. The optimization is governed by sizing the pipes in the water distribution network (WDN) and / or optimises specific parts of the network such as pumps, tanks etc. or try to analyse and optimise the reliability of a WDN. In this thesis, the author has analysed two different WDNs (Anytown City and Cabrera city networks), trying to solve and optimise a multi-objective optimisation problem (MOOP). The main two objectives in both cases were the minimisation of Energy Cost (€) or Energy consumption (kWh), along with the total Number of pump switches (TNps) during a day. For this purpose, a decision support system generator for Multi-objective optimisation used. Its name is GANetXL and has been developed by the Center of Water System in the University of Exeter. GANetXL, works by calling the EPANET hydraulic solver, each time a hydraulic analysis has been fulfilled. The main algorithm used, was a second-generation algorithm for multi-objective optimisation called NSGA_II that gave us the Pareto fronts of each configuration. The first experiment that has been carried out was the network of Anytown city. It is a big network with a pump station of four fixed speed parallel pumps that are boosting the water dynamics. The main intervention was to change these pumps to new Variable speed driven pumps (VSDPs), by installing inverters capable to diverse their velocity during the day. Hence, it’s been achieved great Energy and cost savings along with minimisation in the number of pump switches. The results of the research are thoroughly illustrated in chapter 7, with comments and a variety of graphs and different configurations. The second experiment was about the network of Cabrera city. The smaller WDN had a unique FS pump in the system. The problem was the same as far as the optimisation process was concerned, thus, the minimisation of the energy consumption and in parallel the minimisation of TNps. The same optimisation tool has been used (GANetXL).The main scope was to carry out several and different experiments regarding a vast variety of configurations, using different pump (but this time keeping the FS mode), different tank levels, different pipe diameters and different emitters coefficient. All these different modes came up with a large number of results that were compared in the chapter 8. Concluding, it should be said that the optimisation of WDNs is a very interested field that has a vast space of options to deal with. This includes a large number of algorithms to choose from, different techniques and configurations to be made and different support system generators. The researcher has to be ready to “roam” between these choices, till a satisfactory result will convince him/her that has reached a good optimisation point.

Effect of pulsatility on the mathematical modeling of rotary blood pumps

In this study, the effect of time derivatives of flow rate and rotational speed was investigated on the mathematical modeling of a rotary blood pump (RBP). The basic model estimates the pressure head of the pump as a dependent variable using measured flow and speed as predictive variables. Performance of the model was evaluated by adding time derivative terms for flow and speed. First, to create a realistic working condition, the Levitronix CentriMag RBP was implanted in a sheep. All parameters from the model were physically measured and digitally acquired over a wide range of conditions, including pulsatile speed. Second, a statistical analysis of the different variables (flow, speed, and their time derivatives) based on multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the significant variables for pressure head estimation. Finally, different mathematical models were used to show the effect of time derivative terms on the performance of the models. In order to evaluate how well the estimated pressure head using different models fits the measured pressure head, root mean square error and correlation coefficient were used. The results indicate that inclusion of time derivatives of flow and speed can improve model accuracy, but only minimally.