Study on the antibacterial properties of superfine wool powder part I : experiment

The superfine wool-powder was prepared by ball and jet milling. According to FZ/T 01021-92 method the bacteriostatic property of the wool-powder was tested. The results showed that wool-powder had excellent antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus (MRSA), and the antibacterial rate of E. coli could reach 85% and the MRSA could exceed 70%. The IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were used to discuss the antibacterial properties of superfine wool-powder.

Evaluating the travel, physical activity and carbon impacts of a 'natural experiment' in the provision of new walking and cycling infrastructure : methods for the core module of the iConnect study

Introduction Improving infrastructure to support walking and cycling is often regarded as fundamental to encouraging their widespread uptake. However, there is little evidence that specific provision of this kind has led to a significant increase in walking or cycling in practice, let alone wider impacts such as changes in overall physical activity or carbon emissions. Connect2 is a major new project that aims to promote walking and cycling in the UK by improving local pedestrian and cycle routes. It therefore provides a useful opportunity to contribute new evidence in this field by means of a natural experimental study.

Methods and analysis iConnect is an independent study that aims to integrate the perspectives of public health and transport research on the measurement and evaluation of the travel, physical activity and carbon impacts of the Connect2 programme. In this paper, the authors report the study design and methods for the iConnect core module. This comprised a cohort study of residents living within 5 km of three case study Connect2 projects in Cardiff, Kenilworth and Southampton, supported by a programme of qualitative interviews with key informants about the projects. Participants were asked to complete postal questionnaires, repeated before and after the opening of the new infrastructure, which collected data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, travel, car fuel purchasing and physical activity, and potential psychosocial and environmental correlates and mediators of those behaviours. In the absence of suitable no-intervention control groups, the study design drew on heterogeneity in exposure both within and between case study samples to provide for a counterfactual.

Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by the University of Southampton Research Ethics Committee. The findings will be disseminated through academic presentations, peer-reviewed publications and the study website (http://www.iconnect.ac.uk) and by means of a national seminar at the end of the study.

Damage identification of civil infrastructure in the time domain using FEM calibrated ARMAX model

Due to environmental loads, mechanical damages, structural aging and human factors, civil infrastructure inevitably deteriorate during their service lives. Since their damage may claim human lives and cause significant economic losses, how to identify damages and assess structural conditions timely and accurately has drawn increasingly more attentions from structural engineering community worldwide. In this study, a fast and sensitive time domain damage identification method will be developed. First, a high quality finite element model is built and the structural responses are simulated under different damage scenarios. Based on the simulated data, an Auto Regressive Moving Average Exogenous (ARMAX) model is then developed and calibrated. The calibrated ARMAX model can be used to identify damage in different scenarios through model updating process using clonal selection algorithm (CSA). The identification results demonstrate the performance of the proposed methodology, which has the potential to be used for damage identification in practices.

Experiment and theoretical prediction of martensitic transformation crystallography in a Ni–Mn–Ga ferromagnetic shape memory alloy

A detailed study of martensitic transformation crystallography and microstructural characteristics in the Ni53Mn25Ga22 ferromagnetic shape memory alloy (FSMA) was performed by both experimental observation and theoretical calculation. It is revealed that there are two microscopically twin-related martensitic variants with a misorientation of ∼82° around the 〈1 1 0〉_M axis in each initial austenite grain. The twin interface plane was determined to be {0.399 0.383 0.833}_M (1.79° away from {1 1 2}_M). The ratio of the amounts of the two variants inherited from one single austenite grain is about 1.70. The prevalent orientation relationship between austenite and martensite was found to be Kurdjumov–Sachs (K–S) relationship with (1 1 1)_A//(1 0 1)_M, [110]A//[111]_M. A successful explanation of the crystallographic features during martensitic transformation will shed light on the development of FSMAs with optimal performance.

A novel crevice corrosion experiment using a wire beam electrode

This paper describes a new experiment for studying crevice corrosion. A wire beam electrode was employed in this experiment to measure electrochemical parameters directly from crevice area and these parameters were used to calculate instantaneous crevice corrosion kinetics. A clear correlation between calculated corrosion depth map and real corrosion appearance was obtained.

Study of electrical usage and demand at the container terminal

The electrical usage and demand at container terminal were studied for two years. The results provide a technique for calculating the maximum demand at container terminal with a more accurate result, leading to a substantial saving both in capital cost for electrical infrastructure investment and ongoing electricity costs.

Undergraduate electronics students' use of home experiment kits for distance education

Laboratory practicals form an essential component in any electronics or electrical engineering course. Many students choose to study engineering by means of distance education. Providing such students with effective and manageable practical experience has always been a significant challenge for those involved in providing distance education. Our university has employed an experimental electronics kit for teaching laboratory skills to distance-education students over the past several years. The chief limitation of the early kit was the inability to use it for performing AC experiments without an additional AC signal generator and an oscilloscope. We now supply distance-education students with the original components pack, and an additional “HELP” kit which contains the signal generator, PC-oscilloscope, a basic multimeter, logic probe, software and documentation. The combined kits allow these students to perform basic DC and AC electronics experiments at home in both freshman and sophomore electronics courses. A more recent development is introducing a small robot platform intended to enhance the student experience and interest in electronics and mechatronics, while still covering the basic skills necessary for the engineer-in-training. Distance-education students receive an updated experimental kit containing the robot, other equipment and components to allow them to complete a fuller suite of practical exercises in electronics in their first two years of study. Within this paper, we present these developments in our HELP kit and also make comparisons between on-campus and off-campus performance.

FEM calibrated ARMAX model updating method for time domain damage identification

Due to environmental loads, mechanical damages, structural aging and human factors, civil infrastructure inevitably deteriorate during their service lives. Since their damage may claim human lives and cause significant economic losses, how to identify damages and assess structural conditions timely and accurately has drawn increasingly more attentions from structural engineering community worldwide. In this study, a fast and sensitive time domain damage identification method will be developed. To do this, a finite element model of a steel pipe laid on the soil is built and the structural responses are simulated under different damage scenarios. Based on the simulated data, an Auto Regressive Moving Average Exogenous (ARMAX) model is then built and calibrated. The calibrated ARMAX model is used to identify different damage scenarios through model updating process using clonal selection algorithm (CSA). The results demonstrate the application potential of the proposed method in identifying the pipeline conditions. To further verify its performance, laboratory tests of a steel pipe laid on the soil with and without soil support (free span damage) are carried out. The identification results of pipe-soil system show that the proposed method is capable of identifying damagein a complex structural system. Therefore, it can be applied to identifying pipeline conditions.

Evaluation of salmon farming effects on marine systems in the inner seas of southern Chile : a large-scale mensurative experiment

The impact of salmon farming on the environment has been widely studied; there is, however, no consensus on the magnitude and quality of these effects and little information on their extent over large salmon farming areas. Forty-three salmon farm sites of which 29 are in full operation and grouped in nine locations in southern Chile were evaluated. Using statistical methods (two-way anova), no effects were found on water column variables such as nitrate, ammonia, orthophosphate and chlorophyll, whereas they were significant on sediment variables such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and organic carbon (OC), among others. Natural variability evaluation of some parameters revealed that P in sediments had the lowest coefficient of variation (23.2%) when compared with N (65.2%), particulate organic matter (POM) (139%) and OC (39%), and showed more marked salmon farming effects with no locality effects. Four of the nine locations showed stronger effects on sediments, with average P values ranging from 150 to 230 mmol that were six to nine times higher than in control sites (25 mmol). Nitrogen and carbon in sediments, while showing significant effects on salmon farming, also showed locality effects that revealed other biogenic processes influencing sediment composition. Thus, P in sediments was proposed as a promising indicator of impact on salmon farming, although the relationship with fauna in sediments was not linear and somewhat variable; more research is therefore needed to understand such connections. Considering entire geographical locations, no relationship was found between sediment conditions under salmon cages and the condition of the water column at a farm. This may indicate the possibility of high dilution rates and recycling processes, which so far preclude the detection of more global impacts beyond the cages shadow.

Six million in Melbourne or a network of sustainable midi-cities? A thought experiment

By 2050, it is projected that Melbourne will have a population of between 5.6 and 6.4 million (DPCD, 2012), an increase of nearly 50% above its current level. Despite Melbourne's status as the world's most liveable city, a recent survey found that Australians in general found smaller cities are better places to live and bring up families (Perkins, 2013). The Grattan Institute's report entitled "The Cities We Need" was "an invitation to a conversation" about our future cities (Kelly, 2010:5). One idea not canvassed in the report was that of decentralization to accommodate Melbourne's projected growth. In its discussion paper, "Let's Talk about the Future", the Victorian State Government proposes that Melbourne become a 'polycentric city' linked to its regional cities (DPCD, 2012). While growth in the present regional cities is acknowledged, the possibility that these and other new regional cities could absorb the future population projected for Melbourne is not considered, nor that these regional cities could be transformed into 'sustainable cities'. This paper explores the idea that a network of smaller 'midi-cities, based on the sustainable city concept of Sweden, might provide a better alternative to concentrated growth in one city. Fifteen new cities of 150,000 would be required to absorb the projected extra 2.3 million Victorian residents. The paper analyses the energy, food, water and land requirements of a typical sustainable city. The new cities would require approximately 12% of the State's land area for food and energy supply, as well as the built environment.