Experiments and experiences with dependability for a large autonomous industrial vehicle

This paper describes the experiences gained performing multiple experiments while developing a large autonomous industrial vehicle. Hot Metal Carriers (HMCs) are large forklift-type vehicles used in the light metals industry to move molten or hot metal around a smelter. Autonomous vehicles of this type must be dependable as they are large and potentially hazardous to infrastructure and people. This paper will talk about four aspects of dependability, that of safety, reliability, availability and security and how they have been addressed on our experimental autonomous HMC.

Applying digital product memories in industrial production

Industrial production and supply chains face increased demands for mass customization and tightening regulations on the traceability of goods, leading to higher requirements concerning flexibility, adaptability, and transparency of processes. Technologies for the ’Internet of Things' such as smart products and semantic representations pave the way for future factories and supply chains to fulfill these challenging market demands. In this chapter a backend-independent approach for information exchange in open-loop production processes based on Digital Product Memories DPMs is presented. By storing order-related data directly on the item, relevant lifecycle information is attached to the product itself. In this way, information handover between several stages of the value chain with focus on the manufacturing phase of a product has been realized. In order to report best practices regarding the application of DPM in the domain of industrial production, system prototype implementations focusing on the use case of producing and handling a smart drug case are illustrated.

Wastewater pollution abatement in China: A comparative study of fifteen industrial sectors from 1998 to 2010

This study analyzes the management of wastewater pollutants in a number of Chinese industrial sectors from 1998 to 2010. We use decomposition analysis to calculate changes in wastewater pollutant emissions that result from cleaner production processes, end-of-pipe treatment, structural changes in industry, and changes in the scale of production. We focus on one indicator of water quality and three pollutants: chemical oxygen demand (COD), petroleum, cyanide, and volatile phenols. We find that until 2002, COD emissions were mainly reduced through end-of-pipe treatments. Cleaner production processes didn’t begin contributing to COD emissions reductions until the introduction of a 2003 law that enforced their implementation. Petroleum emissions were primarily lowered through cleaner production mechanisms, which have the added benefit of reducing the input cost of intermediate petroleum. Diverse and effective pollution abatement strategies for cyanide and volatile phenols are emerging among industries in China. It will be important for the government to consider differences between industries should they choose to regulate the emissions of specific chemical substances.

Water use and wastewater discharge of industrial sector in China

Problem of water scarcity has been increasingly severe in China. Though industrial sectors play important role for the rapid economic growth, and they consumes water and discharge wastewater. The purpose of this study is to examine the efficiency of water use and wastewater discharge in comparison with those of other inputs and production output in Chinese industry. Measuring efficiency of each input and output factor from 2002 to 2008, we find the average inefficiencies of industrial water use and industrial wastewater discharge are higher than those of capital, labor, and production output in China. In addition, the productivity levels to save water in the water shortage areas are not higher compared to the others. The water use inefficiency has a high dispersion especially in the regions where the amounts of water resources per capita is less than 3000 cubic meter.

A novel experimental method to assess industrial aerosol deposition in idealized porous channels

A novel and economical experimental technique has been developed to assess industrial aerosol deposition in various idealized porous channel configurations. This judicious examination on aerosol penetration in porous channels will assist engineers to better optimize designs for various engineering applications. Deposition patterns differ with porosity due to geometric configurations of the channel and superficial inlet velocities. Interestingly, it is found that two configurations of similar porosity exhibit significantly higher deposition fractions. Inertial impaction is profound at the leading edge of all obstacles, whereas particle build-up is observed at the trailing edge of the obstructions. A qualitative analysis shows that the numerical results are in good agreement with experimental results.

Post-industrial Intervention : An Activity-Theoretical Expedition Tracing the Proximal Development of Forms of Conducting Interventions

Ei saatavilla

Concentrates based on sorghum grain provide a basis for a finishing system for crossbred lambs

In parts of Australia, sorghum grain is a cheaper alternative to other cereal grains but its use and nutritive value in sheep feeding systems is not well understood. The aim of this work was to compare growth and carcass characteristics for crossbred lambs consuming several simple, sorghum-based diets. The treatments were: (1) whole sorghum grain, (2) whole sorghum grain + urea and ammonium sulfate, (3) cracked sorghum grain + urea and ammonium sulfate, (4) expanded sorghum grain + urea and ammonium sulfate, (5) whole sorghum grain + cottonseed meal, and (6) whole sorghum grain + whole cottonseed. Nine lambs were slaughtered initially to provide baseline carcass data and the remaining 339 lambs were gradually introduced to the concentrate diets over 14 days before being fed concentrates and wheaten hay ad libitum for 41, 56 or 76 days. Neither cracking nor expanding whole sorghum grain with added non-protein nitrogen (N) resulted in significantly (P > 0.05) increased final liveweight, growth rates or carcass weights for lambs, or in decreased days on feed to reach 18-kg carcass weight, although carcass fat depth was significantly (P < 0.05) increased compared with the whole sorghum plus non-protein N diet. However, expanding sorghum grain significantly (P < 0.05) reduced faecal starch concentrations compared with whole or cracked sorghum diets with added non-protein N (79 v. 189 g/kg DM after 59 days on feed). Lambs fed whole sorghum grain without an additional N source had significantly (P < 0.05) lower concentrate intake and required significantly (P < 0.05) more days on feed to reach a carcass weight of 18 kg than for all diets containing added N. These lambs also had significantly (P < 0.05) lower carcass weight and fat depth than for lambs consuming whole sorghum plus true protein diets. Substituting sources of true protein (cottonseed meal and whole cottonseed) for non-protein N (urea and ammonium sulfate) did not significantly (P > 0.05) affect concentrate intakes or carcass weights of lambs although carcass fat depth was significantly (P < 0.05) increased and the days to reach 18-kg carcass weight were significantly (P < 0.05) decreased for the whole sorghum plus cottonseed meal diet. In conclusion, processing sorghum grain by cracking or expanding did not significantly improve lamb performance. While providing an additional N source with sorghum grain significantly increased lamb performance, there was no benefit in final carcass weight of lambs from substituting sources of true protein for non-protein N.

Near infrared spectroscopy as a rapid non-invasive tool for agricultural and industrial process management with special reference to avocado and sandalwood industries

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can play a vital role as a cost effective, rapid, non-invasive, reproducible diagnostic tool for many environmental management, agricultural and industrial waste water monitoring applications. In this paper we highlight the ability of NIRS technology to be used as a diagnostic tool in agricultural and environmental applications through the successful assessment of Fourier Transform NIRS to predict α santalol in sandalwood chip samples, and maturity of ‘Hass’ avocado fruit based on dry matter content. Presented at the Third International Conference on Challenges in Environmental Science & Engineering, CESE-2010. 26 September – 1 October 2010, The Sebel, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Econometric models of Finnish non-industrial private forest owners' timber supply and timber stock

This dissertation examines the short- and long-run impacts of timber prices and other factors affecting NIPF owners' timber harvesting and timber stocking decisions. The utility-based Faustmann model provides testable hypotheses of the exogenous variables retained in the timber supply analysis. The timber stock function, derived from a two-period biomass harvesting model, is estimated using a two-step GMM estimator based on balanced panel data from 1983 to 1991. Timber supply functions are estimated using a Tobit model adjusted for heteroscedasticity and nonnormality of errors based on panel data from 1994 to 1998. Results show that if specification analysis of the Tobit model is ignored, inconsistency and biasedness can have a marked effect on parameter estimates. The empirical results show that owner's age is the single most important factor determining timber stock; timber price is the single most important factor in harvesting decision. The results of the timber supply estimations can be interpreted using utility-based Faustmann model of a forest owner who values a growing timber in situ.

Circulating concentrations of leptin, ovarian follicle number, and oocyte lipid content and active mitochondria, in Zebu crossbred cows maintained on standard or improved nutrition

Zebu (Bos indicus) crossbred beef cows (Droughtmaster) were maintained long-term (16 months) on standard nutrition (SN) or improved nutrition (IN). Cows on IN had better body condition and greater (P<0.05) circulating concentrations of leptin than cows on SN (0.7±0.1n/ml and 1.7±0.1n/ml, respectively). There were no outstanding differences between SN and IN cows in basal number of ovarian follicles (≤4mm, 5-8mm, and≥9mm) and there were also no differences in number of oocytes recovered by oocyte pick-up. Cows on IN had a greater (P<0.05) number of total follicles after stimulation with FSH than cows on SN. Oocytes from cows on IN had greater (P<0.05) lipid content than cows on SN (-0.23±0.16 and 0.20±0.18 arbitrary units, respectively) and oocytes of the former cows also tended to have more active mitochondria, although this was not significant. Cows on IN showed a positive relationship (R2=0.31, P<0.05) between plasma leptin and oocyte lipid content. Lipids are utilized by oocytes during high energy consumptive processes including fertilization and early cleavage. The greater lipid content of oocytes from IN cows could therefore confer a reproductive advantage. The present study has shown relationships between nutrition, body condition, circulating leptin, and oocyte lipid content, but a clear cause-and-effect requires further investigation in the cow. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Industrial Removal Office records undated, 1899-1922

Contains Board of Directors minutes (1903, 1907), Executive Committee minutes (1907), Removal Committee minutes (1903-1917), Annual Reports (1910, 1913), Monthly Reports (1901-1919), Monthly Bulletins (1914-1915), studies of those removed, Bressler's "The Removal Work, Including Galveston," and several papers relating to the IRO and immigration. Financial papers include a budget (1914), comparative per capita cost figures (1909-1922), audits (1915-1918), receipts and expenditures (1918-1922), investment records, bank balances (1907-1922), removal work cash book (1904-1911), office expenses cash account (1903-1906), and the financial records of other agencies working with the IRO (1906). Includes also removal case records of first the Jewish Agricultural Society (1899-1900), and then of the IRO (1901-1922) when it took over its work, family reunion case records (1901-1904), and the follow-up records of persons removed to various cities (1903-1914). Contains also the correspondence of traveling agents' contacts throughout the U.S. from 1905-1914, among them Stanley Bero, Henry P. Goldstein, Philip Seman, and Morris D. Waldman.

The ghost in the city industrial complex: Le Corbusier and the fascist theory of Urbanisme

Le Corbusier participated in an urban dialogue with the first group in France to call itself fascist: the journalist Georges Valois’s militant Faisceau des Combattants et Producteurs (1925-1927), the “Blue Shirts,” inspired by the Italian “Fasci” of Mussolini. Le Corbusier’s portrait photograph materialised on the front cover of the January 1927 issue of the Faisceau League’s newspaper Le Nouveau Siècle edited by the former anarcho-syndicalist journalist Georges Valois, its leader, who fashioned himself as the French Mussolini. Le Corbusier was described in the Revue as one of les animateurs (the “organisers”) of the Party1 – meaning a member of the technical elite who would drive the Faisceau’s plans. On 1 May 1927, the Nouveau Siècle printed a full-page feature “Le Plan Voisin” on Le Corbusier’s 1922 redesign of Paris : the architect’s single-point perspective sketch appeared below an extract lifted from the architect’s original polemic Le Centre de Paris on the pages of Le Corbusier’s second book Urbanisme published two years earlier, a treatise on urbanism.2 Three weeks later, Le Corbusier presented a slide show of his urban plans at a fascist rally for the inauguration of the Faisceau’s new headquarters on the rue du faubourg Poissonniere, thereby crystalising the architect’s hallowed status in the league...

Ultrastructure of Biofilms Formed by Bacteria from Industrial Processes

Microorganisms exist predominantly as sessile multispecies communities in natural habitats. Most bacterial species can form these matrix-enclosed microbial communities called biofilms. Biofilms occur in a wide range of environments, on every surface with sufficient moisture and nutrients, also on surfaces in industrial settings and engineered water systems. This unwanted biofilm formation on equipment surfaces is called biofouling. Biofouling can significantly decrease equipment performance and lifetime and cause contamination and impaired quality of the industrial product. In this thesis we studied bacterial adherence to abiotic surfaces by using coupons of stainless steel coated or not coated with fluoropolymer or diamond like carbon (DLC). As model organisms we used bacterial isolates from paper machines (Meiothermus silvanus, Pseudoxanthomonas taiwanensis and Deinococcus geothermalis) and also well characterised species isolated from medical implants (Staphylococcus epidermidis). We found that coating of steel surface with these materials reduced its tendency towards biofouling: Fluoropolymer and DLC coatings repelled all four biofilm formers on steel. We found great differences between bacterial species in their preference of surfaces to adhere as well as their ultrastructural details, like number and thickness of adhesion organelles they expressed. These details responded differently towards the different surfaces they adhered to. We further found that biofilms of D. geothermalis formed on titanium dioxide coated coupons of glass, steel and titanium, were effectively removed by photocatalytic action in response to irradiation at 360 nm. However, on non-coated glass or steel surfaces irradiation had no detectable effect on the amount of bacterial biomass. We showed that the adhesion organelles of bacteria on illuminated TiO2 coated coupons were complety destroyed whereas on non-coated coupons they looked intact when observed by microscope. Stainless steel is the most widely used material for industrial process equipments and surfaces. The results in this thesis showed that stainless steel is prone to biofouling by phylogenetically distant bacterial species and that coating of the steel may offer a tool for reduced biofouling of industrial equipment. Photocatalysis, on the other hand, is a potential technique for biofilm removal from surfaces in locations where high level of hygiene is required. Our study of natural biofilms on barley kernel surfaces showed that also there the microbes possessed adhesion organelles visible with electronmicroscope both before and after steeping. The microbial community of dry barley kernels turned into a dense biofilm covered with slimy extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) in the kernels after steeping in water. Steeping is the first step in malting. We also presented evidence showing that certain strains of Lactobacillus plantarum and Wickerhamomyces anomalus, when used as starter cultures in the steeping water, could enter the barley kernel and colonise the tissues of the barley kernel. By use of a starter culture it was possible to reduce the extensive production of EPS, which resulted in a faster filtration of the mash.