Performance characteristics of compound curved sandwich shell structures

Sandwich shells have recently emerged as aesthetically pleasing, efficient and economical structural systems, with a number of applications. They combine the advantages of sandwich layer technology together with those of shell action. With different materials and thicknesses used in the sandwich layers, their performance characteristics largely remain un-quantified and there are no guidelines at present for their design. This research paper provides verification, through finite element modeling and testing, for the application of this technology to dome styled dwellings with research currently being conducted into the further application to roofing and floor structures.

Muscle, skin and core temperature after −110°C cold air and 8°C water treatment

The aim of this investigation was to elucidate the reductions in muscle, skin and core temperature following exposure to −110°C whole body cryotherapy (WBC), and compare these to 8°C cold water immersion (CWI). Twenty active male subjects were randomly assigned to a 4-min exposure of WBC or CWI. A minimum of 7 days later subjects were exposed to the other treatment. Muscle temperature in the right vastus lateralis (n = 10); thigh skin (average, maximum and minimum) and rectal temperature (n = 10) were recorded before and 60 min after treatment. The greatest reduction (P<0.05) in muscle (mean ± SD; 1 cm: WBC, 1.6±1.2°C; CWI, 2.0±1.0°C; 2 cm: WBC, 1.2±0.7°C; CWI, 1.7±0.9°C; 3 cm: WBC, 1.6±0.6°C; CWI, 1.7±0.5°C) and rectal temperature (WBC, 0.3±0.2°C; CWI, 0.4±0.2°C) were observed 60 min after treatment. The largest reductions in average (WBC, 12.1±1.0°C; CWI, 8.4±0.7°C), minimum (WBC, 13.2±1.4°C; CWI, 8.7±0.7°C) and maximum (WBC, 8.8±2.0°C; CWI, 7.2±1.9°C) skin temperature occurred immediately after both CWI and WBC (P<0.05). Skin temperature was significantly lower (P<0.05) immediately after WBC compared to CWI. The present study demonstrates that a single WBC exposure decreases muscle and core temperature to a similar level of those experienced after CWI. Although both treatments significantly reduced skin temperature, WBC elicited a greater decrease compared to CWI. These data may provide information to clinicians and researchers attempting to optimise WBC and CWI protocols in a clinical or sporting setting.

Core competencies required for managing occupational road risks

To provide valuable industry information with human resource applications, this study aimed to identify the minimum level of competency required within organisations to manage occupational road risk. Senior managers from four Australian organisations participated in individual semi-structured interviews. These senior managers were responsible for a combined workforce of approximately 46,000 and a combined fleet of approximately 20,000. The managers assessed a list of 39 safety management tasks that had previously been identified as critical to the management of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance within the construction industry. From this list the managers perceived that organisational personnel required competency in at least 14 of the safety tasks to meet a minimum standard of road risk management. Managers perceived that a full understanding of at least six of these tasks was critical. These six tasks comprised: hazard identification and control; providing OHS information and instruction; incident investigations; inspections of workplace and work tasks; researching and reporting on OHS issues and strategies; and applying legislative OHS requirements. It is hoped that the core competencies identified in this study may assist in the development of an internationally accepted competency framework for managing occupational road risks. This proposed competency framework could have many applications including guiding the design of job descriptions, training curriculums, and employee performance assessments. To build upon this study, the authors recommend future research be conducted to identify the key competencies required to manage occupational road safety across a broad range of organisational contexts.

Saturated core high-temperature superconducting fault current limiters as an alternative to conventional series reactors in a distribution grid

Series reactors are used in distribution grids to reduce the short-circuit fault level. Some of the disadvantages of the application of these devices are the voltage drop produced across the reactor and the steep front rise of the transient recovery voltage (TRV), which generally exceeds the rating of the associated circuit breaker. Simulations were performed to compare the characteristics of a saturated core High-Temperature Superconducting Fault Current Limiter (HTS FCL) and a series reactor. The design of the HTS FCL was optimized using the evolutionary algorithm. The resulting Pareto frontier curve of optimum solution is presented in this paper. The results show that the steady-state impedance of an HTS FCL is significantly lower than that of a series reactor for the same level of fault current limiting. Tests performed on a prototype 11 kV HTS FCL confirm the theoretical results. The respective transient recovery voltages (TRV) of the HTS FCL and an air core reactor of comparable fault current limiting capability are also determined. The results show that the saturated core HTS FCL has a significantly lower effect on the rate of rise of the circuit breaker TRV as compared to the air core reactor. The simulations results are validated with shortcircuit test results.

Core principles of CSR approaches

CSR is increasingly an essential issue for business enterprises. It is a company and multidimensional organizational ...

Efficient catalysts of zeolite nanocrystals grown with a preferred orientation on nanofibers

An innovative structure — nanozeolites (as shell) grown with preferred orientation on ceramic nanofibers (as core) was proposed. The Y-zeolite nanocrystals on TiO2 nanofibers exhibited superior ability to catalyze acetalization and carboxylation reaction, achieving high conversions to desired products with selectivity of 100% under moderate conditions.

Perdido ties together Shell digital oilfield technologies

Located in the Gulf of Mexico in nearly 8,000 ft of water, the Perdido project is the deepest spar application to date in the world and Shell’s first fully integrated application of its inhouse digital oilfield technology— called “Smart Field”—in the Western hemisphere. Developed by Shell on behalf of partners BP and Chevron, the spar and the subsea equipment connected to it will eventually capture about an order of magnitude more data than is collected from any other Shelldesigned and -managed development operating in the Gulf of Mexico. This article describes Shell’s digital oilfield design philosophy, briefly explains the five design elements that underpin “smartness” in Shell’s North and South American operations and sheds light on the process by which a highly customized digital oilfield development and management plan was put together for Perdido. Although Perdido is the first instance in North and South America in which these design elements and processes were applied in an integrated way, all of Shell’s future new developments in the Western hemisphere are expected to follow the same overarching design principles. Accordingly, this article uses Perdido as a real-world example to outline the high-level details of Shell’s digital oilfield design philosophy and processes.

How approach and avoidance constructs of personality and trait emotional intelligence predict core human values

In this paper we focus specifically on explaining variation in core human values, and suggest that individual differences in values can be partially explained by personality traits and the perceived ability to manage emotions in the self and others (i.e. trait emotional intelligence). A sample of 209 university students was used to test hypotheses regarding several proposed direct and indirect relationships between personality traits, trait emotional intelligence and values. Consistent with the hypotheses, Harm Avoidance and Novelty Seeking were found to directly predict Hedonism, Conformity, and Stimulation. Harm Avoidance was also found to indirectly predict these values through the mediating effects of key subscales of trait emotional intelligence. Novelty Seeking was not found to be an indirect predictor of values. Results have implications for our understanding of the relationship between personality, trait emotional intelligence and values, and suggest a common basis in terms of approach and avoidance pathways.

Identifying Core Functions of Asset Management

It is widely acknowledged that effective asset management requires an interdisciplinary approach, in which synergies should exist between traditional disciplines such as: accounting, engineering, finance, humanities, logistics, and information systems technologies. Asset management is also an important, yet complex business practice. Business process modelling is proposed as an approach to manage the complexity of asset management through the modelling of asset management processes. A sound foundation for the systematic application and analysis of business process modelling in asset management is, however, yet to be developed. Fundamentally, a business process consists of activities (termed functions), events/states, and control flow logic. As both events/states and control flow logic are somewhat dependent on the functions themselves, it is a logical step to first identify the functions within a process. This research addresses the current gap in knowledge by developing a method to identify functions common to various industry types (termed core functions). This lays the foundation to extract such functions, so as to identify both commonalities and variation points in asset management processes. This method describes the use of a manual text mining and a taxonomy approach. An example is presented.

The competent prescriber: 12 core competencies for safe prescribing

Prescribing errors remain a significant cause of patient harm. Safe prescribing is not just about writing a prescription, but involves many cognitive and decision-making steps. A set of national prescribing competencies for all prescribers (including non-medical) is needed to guide education and training curricula, assessment and credentialing of individual practitioners. We have identified 12 core competencies for safe prescribing which embody the four stages of the prescribing process – information gathering, clinical decision making, communication, and monitoring and review. These core competencies, along with their learning objectives and assessment methods, provide a useful starting point for teaching safe and effective prescribing.

Effects of joint thickness, adhesion and web shells to the face shell bedded concrete masonry loaded in compression

The Australian masonry standard allows either prism tests or correction factors based on the block height and mortar thickness to evaluate masonry compressive strength. The correction factor helps the taller units with conventional 10 mm mortar being not disadvantaged due to size effect. In recent times, 2-4 mm thick, high-adhesive mortars and H blocks with only the mid-web shell are used in masonry construction. H blocks and thinner and higher adhesive mortars have renewed interest of the compression behaviour of hollow concrete masonry and hence is revisited in this paper. This paper presents an experimental study carried out to examine the effects of the thickness of mortar joints, the type of mortar adhesives and the presence of web shells in the hollow concrete masonry prisms under axial compression. A non-contact digital image correlation technique was used to measure the deformation of the prisms and was found adequate for the determination of strain fi eld of the loaded face shells subjected to axial compression. It is found that the absence of end web shells lowers the compressive strength and stiffness of the prisms and the thinner and higher adhesive mortars increase the compressive strength and stiffness, while lowering the Poisson's ratio. © Institution of Engineers Australia, 2013.

Development of a Remote Sensing Core Curriculum submitted for the sessions on educational initiatives in Geoscience and Remote Sensing

A Remote Sensing Core Curriculum (RSCC) development project is currently underway. This project is being conducted under the auspices of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). RSCC is an outgrowth of the NCGIA GIS Core Curriculum project. It grew out of discussions begun at NCGIA, Initiative 12 (I-12): 'Integration of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems'. This curriculum development project focuses on providing professors, teachers and instructors in undergraduate and graduate institutions with course materials from experts in specific subject matter for areas use in the class room.

Internet teaching foundation for the Remote Sensing Core Curriculum program

The Remote Sensing Core Curriculum (RSCC) was initiated in 1993 to meet the demands for a college-level set of resources to enhance the quality of education across national and international campuses. The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing adopted the RSCC in 1996 to sustain support of this educational initiative for its membership and collegiate community. A series of volumes, containing lectures, exercises, and data, is being created by expert contributors to address the different technical fields of remote sensing. The RSCC program is designed to operate on the Internet taking full advantage of the World Wide Web (WWW) technology for distance learning. The issues of curriculum development related to the educational setting, with demands on faculty, students, and facilities, is considered to understand the new paradigms for WWW-influenced computer-aided learning. The WWW is shown to be especially appropriate for facilitating remote sensing education with requirements for addressing image data sets and multimedia learning tools. The RSCC is located at http://www.umbc.edu/rscc. The Remote Sensing Core Curriculum (RSCC) was initiated in 1993 to meet the demands for a college-level set of resources to enhance the quality of education across national and international campuses. The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing adopted the RSCC in 1996 to sustain support of this educational initiative for its membership and collegiate community. A series of volumes, containing lectures, exercises, and data, is being created by expert contributors to address the different technical fields of remote sensing. The RSCC program is designed to operate on the Internet taking full advantage of the World Wide Web (WWW) technology for distance learning. The issues of curriculum development related to the educational setting, with demands on faculty, students, and facilities, is considered to understand the new paradigms for WWW-influenced computer-aided learning. The WWW is shown to be especially appropriate for facilitating remote sensing education with requirements for addressing image data sets and multimedia learning tools. The RSCC is located at http://www.umbc.edu/rscc.

Remote sensing and core data needed to support planning and policy decision making

A variety of sustainable development research efforts and related activities are attempting to reconcile the issues of conserving our natural resources without limiting economic motivation while also improving our social equity and quality of life. Land use/land cover change, occurring on a global scale, is an aggregate of local land use decisions and profoundly impacts our environment. It is therefore the local decision making process that should be the eventual target of many of the ongoing data collection and research efforts which strive toward supporting a sustainable future. Satellite imagery data is a primary source of data upon which to build a core data set for use by researchers in analyzing this global change. A process is necessary to link global change research, utilizing satellite imagery, to the local land use decision making process. One example of this is the NASA-sponsored Regional Data Center (RDC) prototype. The RDC approach is an attempt to integrate science and technology at the community level. The anticipated result of this complex interaction between research and the decision making communities will be realized in the form of long-term benefits to the public.