Assessing effects of site characteristics on remediation secondary life cycle impact with a generalised framework

The 'sustainable remediation' concept has been broadly embraced by industry and governments in recent years in both the US and Europe. However, there is a strong need for more research to enhance its 'practicability'. In an attempt to fill this research gap, this study developed a generalised framework for selecting the most environmentally sustainable remedial technology under various site conditions. Four remediation technologies were evaluated: pump and treat (P&T), enhanced in situ bioremediation (EIB), permeable reactive barrier (PRB), and in situ chemical reduction (ISCR). Within the developed framework and examined site condition ranges, our results indicate that site characteristics have a profound effect on the life cycle impact of various remedial alternatives, thus providing insights and valuable information for determining what is considered the most desired remedy from an environmental sustainability perspective. © 2014 © 2014 University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Ten Years of the Relative Risk Model and Regional Scale Ecological Risk Assessment

It has been 10 years since the publication of the relative risk model (RRM) for regional scale ecological risk assessment. The approach has since been used successfully for a variety of freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments in North America, South America, and Australia. During this period the types of stressors have been expanded to include more than contaminants. Invasive species, habitat loss, stream alteration and blockage, temperature, change in land use, and climate have been incorporated into the assessments. Major developments in the RRM have included the extensive use of geographical information systems, uncertainty analysis using Monte Carlo techniques, and its application to retrospective assessments to determine causation. The future uses of the RRM include assessments for forestry and conservation management, an increasing use in invasive species evaluation, and in sustainability. Developments in risk communication, the use of Bayesian approaches, and in uncertainty analyses are on the horizon.

Emergy Assessment of a Wheat-Maize Rotation System with Different Water Assignments in the North China Plain

Sustainable water use is seriously compromised in the North China Plain (NCP) due to the huge water requirements of agriculture, the largest use of water resources. An integrated approach which combines the ecosystem model with emergy analysis is presented to determine the optimum quantity of irrigation for sustainable development in irrigated cropping systems. Since the traditional emergy method pays little attention to the dynamic interaction among components of the ecological system and dynamic emergy accounting is in its infancy, it is hard to evaluate the cropping system in hypothetical situations or in response to specific changes. In order to solve this problem, an ecosystem model (Vegetation Interface Processes (VIP) model) is introduced for emergy analysis to describe the production processes. Some raw data, collected by investigating or observing in conventional emergy analysis, may be calculated by the VIP model in the new approach. To demonstrate the advantage of this new approach, we use it to assess the wheat-maize rotation cropping system at different irrigation levels and derive the optimum quantity of irrigation according to the index of ecosystem sustainable development in NCP. The results show, the optimum quantity of irrigation in this region should be 240-330 mm per year in the wheat system and no irrigation in the maize system, because with this quantity of irrigation the rotation crop system reveals: best efficiency in energy transformation (transformity = 6.05E + 4 sej/J); highest sustainability (renewability = 25%); lowest environmental impact (environmental loading ratio = 3.5) and the greatest sustainability index (Emergy Sustainability Index = 0.47) compared with the system in other irrigation amounts. This study demonstrates that application of the new approach is broader than the conventional emergy analysis and the new approach is helpful in optimizing resources allocation, resource-savings and maintaining agricultural sustainability.

Assessment of coastal zone sustainable development: A case study of Yantai, China

The assessment of sustainable development is a challenging task as its measuring is rather complex without a mature framework. In this paper, as a case study, a coastal city of China-Yantai was assessed for sustainable development in the period from 1998 to 2007. We used a methodological framework based on 36 indicators and three composite indices from the dimensions of environment, economy and society subsystems. The assessment results indicated that Yantai was almost in the potentially unsustainable development or intermediate sustainable development, except in 1998 and in 2007. Accordingly, the progress of sustainable development was divided into two stages in the light of the relative changes of three subsystems. Some relevant issues, such as natural capital, GPI vs. GDP in sustainable development assessment were discussed. Finally, an uncertainty analysis was also given in the assessment. In conclusion, the sustainable development in Yantai had experienced a shift from environment-based to social-economic-based in the past 10 years. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systematic assessment of the training needs of health library staff

Urquhart, C., Spink, S., Thomas, R. & Durbin, J. (2005). Systematic assessment of the training needs of health library staff. Library and Information Research, 29(93), 35-42. Sponsorship: National Library for Health (NLH)

A novel breast tissue density classification framework

Oliver, A., Freixenet, J., Marti, R., Pont, J., Perez, E., Denton, E. R. E., Zwiggelaar, R. (2008). A novel breast tissue density classification framework. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in BioMedicine, 12 (1), 55-65

Analysis and Assessment of Conclusions in the White Book regarding Threats and Challenges in EU Common Security and Defence Policy

Among the many issues that were raised in the White Book on National Security of the Republic of Poland (WBNSRP), there were also those related to the functioning of a Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Its importance for the security of Poland was indicated, as well as the need on the part of EU Member States to broaden collaboration in the sphere of security and defence. The key problems occurring in the context of CSDP were also emphasised and their causes indicated. The aim of the article is to present the factors responsible for the weakening of CSDP effectiveness, ones taken into account in the White Book, and subsequently to present a Framework for their analysis in the light of further scholarship.

Building effectiveness communication ratios (BECs): an integrated ‘life-cycle’ methodology for mitigating energy-use in buildings

Current building regulations are generally prescriptive in nature. It is widely accepted in Europe that this form of building regulation is stifling technological innovation and leading to inadequate energy efficiency in the building stock. This has increased the motivation to move design practices towards a more ‘performance-based’ model in order to mitigate inflated levels of energy-use consumed by the building stock. A performance based model assesses the interaction of all building elements and the resulting impact on holistic building energy-use. However, this is a nebulous task due to building energy-use being affected by a myriad of heterogeneous agents. Accordingly, it is imperative that appropriate methods, tools and technologies are employed for energy prediction, measurement and evaluation throughout the project’s life cycle. This research also considers that it is imperative that the data is universally accessible by all stakeholders. The use of a centrally based product model for exchange of building information is explored. This research describes the development and implementation of a new building energy-use performance assessment methodology. Termed the Building Effectiveness Communications ratios (BECs) methodology, this performance-based framework is capable of translating complex definitions of sustainability for energy efficiency and depicting universally understandable views at all stage of the Building Life Cycle (BLC) to the project’s stakeholders. The enabling yardsticks of building energy-use performance, termed Ir and Pr, provide continuous design and operations feedback in order to aid the building’s decision makers. Utilised effectively, the methodology is capable of delivering quality assurance throughout the BLC by providing project teams with quantitative measurement of energy efficiency. Armed with these superior enabling tools for project stakeholder communication, it is envisaged that project teams will be better placed to augment a knowledge base and generate more efficient additions to the building stock.

Patient-based outcome assessment instruments in acupuncture research.

BACKGROUND: Outcome assessment can support the therapeutic process by providing a way to track symptoms and functionality over time, providing insights to clinicians and patients, as well as offering a common language to discuss patient behavior/functioning. OBJECTIVES: In this article, we examine the patient-based outcome assessment (PBOA) instruments that have been used to determine outcomes in acupuncture clinical research and highlight measures that are feasible, practical, economical, reliable, valid, and responsive to clinical change. The aims of this review were to assess and identify the commonly available PBOA measures, describe a framework for identifying appropriate sets of measures, and address the challenges associated with these measures and acupuncture. Instruments were evaluated in terms of feasibility, practicality, economy, reliability, validity, and responsiveness to clinical change. METHODS: This study was a systematic review. A total of 582 abstracts were reviewed using PubMed (from inception through April 2009). RESULTS: A total of 582 citations were identified. After screening of title/abstract, 212 articles were excluded. From the remaining 370 citations, 258 manuscripts identified explicit PBOA; 112 abstracts did not include any PBOA. The five most common PBOA instruments identified were the Visual Analog Scale, Symptom Diary, Numerical Pain Rating Scales, SF-36, and depression scales such as the Beck Depression Inventory. CONCLUSIONS: The way a questionnaire or scale is administered can have an effect on the outcome. Also, developing and validating outcome measures can be costly and difficult. Therefore, reviewing the literature on existing measures before creating or modifying PBOA instruments can significantly reduce the burden of developing a new measure.

A framework for revising preservice curriculum for nonphysician clinicians: The mozambique experience.

Mozambique, with approximately 0.4 physicians and 4.1 nurses per 10,000 people, has one of the lowest ratios of health care providers to population in the world. To rapidly scale up health care coverage, the Mozambique Ministry of Health has pushed for greater investment in training nonphysician clinicians, Tιcnicos de Medicina (TM). Based on identified gaps in TM clinical performance, the Ministry of Health requested technical assistance from the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) to revise the two-and-a-half-year preservice curriculum. A six-step process was used to revise the curriculum: (i) Conducting a task analysis, (ii) defining a new curriculum approach and selecting an integrated model of subject and competency-based education, (iii) revising and restructuring the 30-month course schedule to emphasize clinical skills, (iv) developing a detailed syllabus for each course, (v) developing content for each lesson, and (vi) evaluating implementation and integrating feedback for ongoing improvement. In May 2010, the Mozambique Minister of Health approved the revised curriculum, which is currently being implemented in 10 training institutions around the country. Key lessons learned: (i) Detailed assessment of training institutions' strengths and weaknesses should inform curriculum revision. (ii) Establishing a Technical Working Group with respected and motivated clinicians is key to promoting local buy-in and ownership. (iii) Providing ready-to-use didactic material helps to address some challenges commonly found in resource-limited settings. (iv) Comprehensive curriculum revision is an important first step toward improving the quality of training provided to health care providers in developing countries. Other aspects of implementation at training institutions and health care facilities must also be addressed to ensure that providers are adequately trained and equipped to provide quality health care services. This approach to curriculum revision and implementation teaches several key lessons, which may be applicable to preservice training programs in other less developed countries.

Mechanistic-based Design-Integrated Reliability Validation Framework for Mechanical Systems

Abstract: New product design challenges, related to customer needs, product usage and environments, face companies when they expand their product offerings to new markets; Some of the main challenges are: the lack of quantifiable information, product experience and field data. Designing reliable products under such challenges requires flexible reliability assessment processes that can capture the variables and parameters affecting the product overall reliability and allow different design scenarios to be assessed. These challenges also suggest a mechanistic (Physics of Failure-PoF) reliability approach would be a suitable framework to be used for reliability assessment. Mechanistic Reliability recognizes the primary factors affecting design reliability. This research views the designed entity as a “system of components required to deliver specific operations”; it addresses the above mentioned challenges by; Firstly: developing a design synthesis that allows a descriptive operations/ system components relationships to be realized; Secondly: developing component’s mathematical damage models that evaluate components Time to Failure (TTF) distributions given: 1) the descriptive design model, 2) customer usage knowledge and 3) design material properties; Lastly: developing a procedure that integrates components’ damage models to assess the mechanical system’s reliability over time. Analytical and numerical simulation models were developed to capture the relationships between operations and components, the mathematical damage models and the assessment of system’s reliability. The process was able to affect the design form during the conceptual design phase by providing stress goals to meet component’s reliability target. The process was able to numerically assess the reliability of a system based on component’s mechanistic TTF distributions, besides affecting the design of the component during the design embodiment phase. The process was used to assess the reliability of an internal combustion engine manifold during design phase; results were compared to reliability field data and found to produce conservative reliability results. The research focused on mechanical systems, affected by independent mechanical failure mechanisms that are influenced by the design process. Assembly and manufacturing stresses and defects’ influences are not a focus of this research.

A finite volume unstructured mesh approach to dynamic fluid-structure interaction: an assessment of the challenge of flutter analysis

Computational modelling of dynamic fluid-structure interaction (DFSI) is problematical since conventionally computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is solved using finite volume (FV) methods and computational structural mechanics (CSM) is based entirely on finite element (FE) methods. Hence, progress in modelling the emerging multi-physics problem of dynamic fluid-structure interaction in a consistent manner is frustrated and significant problems in computation convergence may be encountered in transferring and filtering data from one mesh and solution procedure to another, unless the fluid-structure coupling is either one way, very weak or both. This paper sets out the solution procedure for modelling the multi-physics dynamic fluid-structure interaction problem within a single software framework PHYSICA, using finite volume, unstructured mesh (FV-UM) procedures and will focus upon some of the problems and issues that have to be resolved for time accurate closely coupled dynamic fluid-structure flutter analysis.

A finite volume unstructured mesh approach to dynamic fluid–structure interaction: an assessment of the challenge of predicting the onset of flutter

Computational modelling of dynamic fluid–structure interaction (DFSI) is a considerable challenge. Our approach to this class of problems involves the use of a single software framework for all the phenomena involved, employing finite volume methods on unstructured meshes in three dimensions. This method enables time and space accurate calculations in a consistent manner. One key application of DFSI simulation is the analysis of the onset of flutter in aircraft wings, where the work of Yates et al. [Measured and Calculated Subsonic and Transonic Flutter Characteristics of a 45° degree Sweptback Wing Planform in Air and Freon-12 in the Langley Transonic Dynamic Tunnel. NASA Technical Note D-1616, 1963] on the AGARD 445.6 wing planform still provides the most comprehensive benchmark data available. This paper presents the results of a significant effort to model the onset of flutter for the AGARD 445.6 wing planform geometry. A series of key issues needs to be addressed for this computational approach. • The advantage of using a single mesh, in order to eliminate numerical problems when applying boundary conditions at the fluid-structure interface, is counteracted by the challenge of generating a suitably high quality mesh in both the fluid and structural domains. • The computational effort for this DFSI procedure, in terms of run time and memory requirements, is very significant. Practical simulations require even finer meshes and shorter time steps, requiring parallel implementation for operation on large, high performance parallel systems. • The consistency and completeness of the AGARD data in the public domain is inadequate for use in the validation of DFSI codes when predicting the onset of flutter.

Risk mitigation framework for a robust design process

The increasing complexity of new manufacturing processes and the continuously growing range of fabrication options mean that critical decisions about the insertion of new technologies must be made as early as possible in the design process. Mitigating the technology risks under limited knowledge is a key factor and major requirement to secure a successful development of the new technologies. In order to address this challenge, a risk mitigation methodology that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative analysis is required. This paper outlines the methodology being developed under a major UK grand challenge project - 3D-Mintegration. The main focus is on identifying the risks through identification of the product key characteristics using a product breakdown approach. The assessment of the identified risks uses quantification and prioritisation techniques to evaluate and rank the risks. Traditional statistical process control based on process capability and six sigma concepts are applied to measure the process capability as a result of the risks that have been identified. This paper also details a numerical approach that can be used to undertake risk analysis. This methodology is based on computational framework where modelling and statistical techniques are integrated. Also, an example of modeling and simulation technique is given using focused ion beam which is among the investigated in the project manufacturing processes.

Predictive reliability, prognostics and risk assessment for power modules

This paper describes a framework that is being developed for the prediction and analysis of electronics power module reliability both for qualification testing and in-service lifetime prediction. Physics of failure (PoF) reliability methodology using multi-physics high-fidelity and reduced order computer modelling, as well as numerical optimization techniques, are integrated in a dedicated computer modelling environment to meet the needs of the power module designers and manufacturers as well as end-users for both design and maintenance purposes. An example of lifetime prediction for a power module solder interconnect structure is described. Another example is the lifetime prediction of a power module for a railway traction control application. Also in the paper a combined physics of failure and data trending prognostic methodology for the health monitoring of power modules is discussed.