"To a land of priests and petrol-heads": the Jeppestown motor ministry

The new motor-car has acquired systems that give it memory, intelligence and senses. Modern motorcars are taking on human attributes and have a religion and following all to themselves. In parallel, Jules Street, in Johannesburg’s original motor district is the place where the motor car goes to, post motor-plan. It is far departed from the glistening showrooms that are scattered over the rest of JHB- it is a place of vacant lots, workshops and passionate petrol-heads. Jules Street is however not a place of the past, the industry of this place is the future of every brand new car being built today. It is a place of necessary after-market vehicle service, although it is struggling to adapt to the evolving technology of the modern motorcar. Jules Street is also the home of a diverse, growing community. This new public has inspired the refurbishment of disused workshops into religious institutions, 11 on the Jules Street motor strip alone. These adapted places of worship provide an opportunity to view this fragile industry from a new perspective; that of a soul. The motor car, from a pristine assembly line to a filthy scrap-yard, has one continuing relationship, with people. This becomes the point of inquiry for this thesis, the life long relationship between cars and drivers, machines and people, industry and culture, beyond the assembly line and showrooms that it is often associated with. The people who design, build, drive, fix, recycle, pimp, admire and inspire cars over their lifespan are the basis for designing the architecture of the ever-enduring motorcar. The conflict between the hi-tech and low-tech, the sophisticated and the raw, define the challenges associated with automobility today, and the opportunities in investigating the auto-tecture that it requires

New advances in vehicular technology and automotive engineering

An automobile was seen as a simple accessory of luxury in the early years of the past century. Therefore, it was an expensive asset which none of the common citizen could afford. It was necessary to pass a long period and waiting for Henry Ford to establish the first plants with the series fabrication. This new industrial paradigm makes easy to the common American to acquire an automobile, either for running away or for working purposes. Since that date, the automotive research grown exponentially to the levels observed in the actuality. Now, the automobiles are indispensable goods; saying with other words, the automobile is a first necessity article in a wide number of aspects of living: for workers to allow them to move from their homes into their workplaces, for transportation of students, for allowing the domestic women in their home tasks, for ambulances to carry people with decease to the hospitals, for transportation of materials, and so on, the list don’t ends. The new goal pursued by the automotive industry is to provide electric vehicles at low cost and with high reliability. This commitment is justified by the oil’s peak extraction on 50s of this century and also by the necessity to reduce the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere, as well as to reduce the needs of this even more valuable natural resource. In order to achieve this task and to improve the regular cars based on oil, the automotive industry is even more concerned on doing applied research on technology and on fundamental research of new materials. The most important idea to retain from the previous introduction is to clarify the minds of the potential readers for the direct and indirect penetration of the vehicles and the vehicular industry in the today’s life. In this sequence of ideas, this book tries not only to fill a gap by presenting fresh subjects related to the vehicular technology and to the automotive engineering but to provide guidelines for future research. This book account with valuable contributions from worldwide experts of automotive’s field. The amount and type of contributions were judiciously selected to cover a broad range of research. The reader can found the most recent and cutting-edge sources of information divided in four major groups: electronics (power, communications, optics, batteries, alternators and sensors), mechanics (suspension control, torque converters, deformation analysis, structural monitoring), materials (nanotechnology, nanocomposites, lubrificants, biodegradable, composites, structural monitoring) and manufacturing (supply chains). We are sure that you will enjoy this book and will profit with the technical and scientific contents. To finish, we are thankful to all of those who contributed to this book and who made it possible.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

EcoAdapt Working Paper Series N3: Generation of shared knowledge and joint learning on water governance and climate change adaptation

EcoAdapt (www.ecoadapt.eu) is an ambitious, complex and demanding action-research project about water security in a context of climate change. The issues the project deals with are also complex and demanding. A central challenge is how to get the investigators, the project partner Model Forest local teams and the relevant local actors in the territories on the same page. That is why joint knowledge development and shared learning from different sources and ways of knowing is of such strategic importance in EcoAdapt. Moreover, a viable and sustainable community based response to environmental and climatic challenges requires a critical mass of motivated, informed and concerted local actors. To make good headway in this direction, an arduous but dynamic process has been set into motion resulting in a growing commitment and capacity building among the local actors in the three EcoAdapt territories. The project's mini and synthesis workshops were building- and stepping-stones in a continuous path of joint learning and capacity development. In the former events the information captured in the base line study was discussed with the locals actors, while in the second ones, the interest aroused was capitalized upon to form the change agents groups (an essential aspect of the EcoAdapt strategy) and to respond to the demand of more precise and accessible information, by means of a series of field learning activities. This had some promising outcomes such as contributing to a common interest and growing understanding of water as a central watershed ecosystem; widening of the horizon and view towards watershed and landscape management; strengthening of community drinking water systems with regards to its hardware and software (physical infrastructure, local management and governance); growing cooperation among urban and rural groups or between civil society and policy makers around water issues; creating a link between the legal framework and policy making and the processes on the ground. A spiral of learning took place. As people satisfy their curiosity and initial interest they want to know more and understand better, and they become even more investigative as the activity gets geared towards action and towards helping them achieve their needs and aspirations. Learning does not stop and is clearly evolving in the project with regards to aims, content and methods. This proves to be entirely in line with one of the working hypothesis of the project and also with constructivist theories such as meaningful learning. It has been fundamental and very instrumental to induce the formation of multi actor platforms of change agents in the three territories, through which the field learning activities are organized. These new instances are pivotal in the EcoAdapt learning and organization process by the local project partners: due to a broad representation of local groups and institutions, these platforms get grounded and obtain a growing legitimacy in the territory; they fill a real demand by tackling felt needs for local development around water issues and capitalizing human, institutional and financial opportunities and resources; information is spread and debated; trust and chemistry is built and a common language and vision developed; by lowering barriers between groups and institutions transaction costs are lowered and opportunities are taken advantage of to decrease operational costs and achieve higher effectiveness in ongoing or initial action around water issues and management. Hence it is also very cost effective in economic terms. Climate change adaptation is a variant of risk management to secure water, food and other means of living. Management of climate risks is a millenarian old need and practice, but recent climate change tendencies give it a whole new dimension. Traditional knowledge and practice is a good springboard to climate change adaptation, but new science based information and views must be inserted in what people already know, do and want to change (or conserve) to widen their horizon and action alternatives, and create in this way, a solid base for a viable and shared climate change adaptation plan. In that perspective it is essential that the complex issue of climate change is made transparent, understandable and meaningful. This still remains a great challenge in tactical and didactical terms. (Résumé d'auteur

Applications of aerospace technology in the public sector

Current activities of the program to accelerate specific applications of space related technology in major public sector problem areas are summarized for the period 1 June 1971 through 30 November 1971. An overview of NASA technology, technology applications, and supporting activities are presented. Specific technology applications in biomedicine are reported including cancer detection, treatment and research; cardiovascular diseases, diagnosis, and treatment; medical instrumentation; kidney function disorders, treatment, and research; and rehabilitation medicine

Extraction of Vehicle CAN Bus Data for Roadway Condition Monitoring

Obtaining timely information across the state roadway network is important for monitoring the condition of the roads and operating characteristics of traffic. One of the most significant challenges in winter roadway maintenance is identifying emerging or deteriorating conditions before significant crashes occur. For instance, almost all modern vehicles have accelerometers, anti-lock brake (ABS) and traction control systems. This data can be read from the Controller Area Network (CAN) of the vehicle, and combined with GPS coordinates and cellular connectivity, can provide valuable on-the-ground sampling of vehicle dynamics at the onset of a storm. We are rapidly entering an era where this vehicle data can provide an agency with opportunities to more effectively manage their systems than traditional procedures that rely on fixed infrastructure sensors and telephone reports. This data could also reduce the density of roadway weather information systems (RWIS), similar to how probe vehicle data has reduced the need for micro loop or side fire sensors for collecting traffic speeds