IPH response to DOE Consultation 'Preparing a Road Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland 2010-20'

The Department of Environment (NI)  recently held a consultation on preparing a new road safety strategy for Northern Ireland which will cover the years 2010 to 2020.  The consultation ran from 16 March 2010 to 15 June 2010.  The consultation paper outlined key challenges to be addressed over the lifetime of the strategy and proposed a number of action measures which have been agreed by the statutory road safety partners.  Views were invited on preparing a new road safety strategy for Northern Ireland that will shape the way ahead for safety on roads over the next decade.

Doe-menetelmän käyttö kilpa-auton testityön vähentämiseksi

Tämä insinöörityö käsittelee eri kilpa-autoluokkien testityötä ja Doe-menetelmän soveltuvuutta tämän testityön helpottamiseksi. Työssä syvennytään ralliautoilun N-ryhmään perinpohjaisesti auton rakentamisesta varsinaiseen testaamiseen asti. Tutkittavana kilpa-autona on Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9. Tarkoituksena on tutkia AVL Cameo -ohjelman ja Doe-menetelmän soveltuvuus ralliautoilun testaamiseen. Työ aloitettiin perehtymällä teorian tasolla Doe-menetelmän soveltuvuutta ralliautoiluun, rata-autoiluun ja kiihdytysautoiluun. Jokaisesta kilpa-autoilumuodosta kerrotaan tarkemmin yleistä tietoa ja millaisiin asioihin Doe-menetelmää voitaisiin soveltaa. Cameo on alun perin suunniteltu moottorien säätö- ja testityön vähentämiseen, joten työssä selostetaan myös ohjelman ominaisuuksia. Lisäksi suoritetaan testit N-ryhmän kilpa-autolla Cameon suunnittelemalla tavalla ja tuloksista optimoidaan ajallisesti paras vaihtoehto. Työn tuloksena saatiin selvitettyä, kuinka Cameo ja sen käyttämä Doe-menetelmä soveltuvat kilpa-autojen testaamiseen ja kuinka testityön määrää saatiin vähennettyä.

A DOE based approach for the design of RBF artificial neural networks applied to prediction of surface roughness in AISI 52100 hardened Steel turning

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Formation of titania nanotube arrays by anodisation: DOE approach

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Applying design of experiments (DOE) to flavonoid extraction from Passiflora alata and P. edulis

The Passifloraceae family is extensively used in native Brazilian folk medicine to treat a wide variety of diseases. The problem of flavonoid extraction from Passiflora was treated by application of design of experiments (DOE), as an experiment with mixture including one categorical process variable. The components of the binary mixture were: ethanol (component A) and water (component B); the categorical process variable: extraction method (factor C) was varied at two levels: (+1) maceration and (-1) percolation. ANOVA suggested a cubic model for P. edulis extraction and a quadratic model for P. alata.These results indicate that the proportion of components A and B in the mixture is the main factor involved in significantly increasing flavonoid extraction. In regard to the extraction methods, no important differences were observed, which indicates that these two traditional extraction methods could be effectively used to extract flavonoids from both medicinal plants. The evaluation of antioxidant activity of the extract by ORAC method showed that P. edulis displays twice as much antioxidant activity as P. alata. Considering that maceration is a simple, rapid and environmentally friendly extraction method, in this study, the optimized conditions for flavonoid extraction from these Passiflora species is maceration with 75% ethanol for P. edulis and 50% ethanol for P. alata.

Effect of starch substitution with crude glycerol on growing rabbit and lactating doe performance

The aim of this work was to study the effect of dietary inclusion of 2.5 or 5.0% of glycerol in substitution for starch on performance of lactating does and fattening rabbits. Over four consecutive reproductive cycles, a total of 81 New Zealand ´ Californian rabbit does and 813 young rabbits weaned at 25 (fattening trial 1) or 35 (fattening trial 2) days of age were allocated at random to the experimental treatments. Inclusion of glycerol in the diet up to 5% did not influence total feed consumption of does and suckling rabbits, body weight and bioelectrical impedance of does at parturition or at day 21 of lactation and litter weight at weaning, or reproductive efficiency. Substitution of starch with glycerol did not affect feed intake, weight gain or mortality during fattening. The results of the current study indicate that crude glycerol from the biofuel industry can be used at levels up to 5% in rabbit diets without any detrimental or beneficial effect on performance