Leveraging Biomimicry and Additive Manufacturing to Improve Load Transfer in Brittle Materials

With the emergence of Additive Manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) in construction, new strategically designed shapes can be created to improve load transfer through structural members and foundations. Cross-sections can be optimized to carry load using less material, or even using weaker constituent materials, like soils, which are cheap and abundant. The goal of this research is to investigate the benefits of using cellular patterns which leverage biomimicry in civil engineering applications, since nature has perfectly engineered materials and patterns which carry loads with the least amount of material possible. Most of the periodic cellular work to date has focused on metallic materials, which exhibit ductile performance. Therefore, this study is specifically related to brittle materials as there is a need to understand the load transfer mechanisms in this type of material. An initial investigation of biomimicry was carried out, and organisms thatpresented improved mechanical behavior due to geometry were identified. Analogue prototypes inspired by these biological findings were designed and specimens were 3D printed using a binderjetting device which offers a resulting part with a brittle behavior, mimicking a cemented soil. Solid samples using the same gross area were also printed to compare performance with the cellular shapes. Uniaxial compression tests were performed in the specimens and in cylinders used to track the properties of the material. The variability of the 3D printer utilized in this study and the material’s susceptibility to experimental differences were found to be important factors and some printer settings made it difficult to compare the cellular and solid specimens directly. Overall, the results show that the cellular structures exhibited a significant improvement in the load-toweight ratio compared to the solid configuration. Applying this improvement in material efficiency to building products can lead to more sustainable and cost-effective construction practices

The evolution of shell form in tropical terrestrial microsnails

Mollusca form an important animal phylum that first appeared in the Cambrian, and today is,after Arthropoda, the second largest animal phylum, with more than 100,000 extant species(Bieler, 1992, Brusca and Brusca, 2003), with the class Gastropoda accounting for 80% of the extant species in the Mollusca. Despite its species-richness, a generalised gastropod shell architecture is maintained because of conserved developmental processes. All of the shelled gastropods grow by adding, in a unidirectional accretionary way, shell material with the mantle edge organ, usually at different deposition rates around the existing aperture. This shell ontogeny, or to be more specific aperture ontogeny, gives the general spiral form for the shells. However, spiral forms can vary when there are changes in any one of the aspects in the aperture ontogeny profiles, namely, the rate and direction of shell deposition around the aperture, size and shape of the aperture (i.e. mantle edge), and the total length of the shell ontogeny processes. The interplays between these developmental parameters have generated a great diversity in shell form, for which taxonomists and evolutionary biologist are now trying to accurately characterise and to understand with regard to its evolution.This thesis reveals several hitherto unknown aspects of Plectostoma shell forms,in terms of the developmental homology, the aperture ontogeny profile, anti-predation functionality, and evolutionary pattern in shell characters and ontogenetic morphospace evolution. In fact, these are the issues that have been targeted by biologists for centuries in order to improve the way shell shape is characterised and to improve understanding of shell form evolution.he research presented in this thesis was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, grant no. 819.01.012).UBL - phd migration 201

Advances in Optimization and Nonlinear Analysis

The present book focuses on that part of calculus of variations, optimization, nonlinear analysis and related applications which combines tools and methods from partial differential equations with geometrical techniques. More precisely, this work is devoted to nonlinear problems coming from different areas, with particular reference to those introducing new techniques capable of solving a wide range of problems. The book is a valuable guide for researchers, engineers and students in the field of mathematics, operations research, optimal control science, artificial intelligence, management science and economics

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

This open access book discusses current thinking and presents the main issues and challenges associated with climate change in Africa. It introduces evidences from studies and projects which show how climate change adaptation is being - and may continue to be successfully implemented in African countries. Thanks to its scope and wide range of themes surrounding climate change, the ambition is that this book will be a lead publication on the topic, which may be regularly updated and hence capture further works. Climate change is a major global challenge. However, some geographical regions are more severly affected than others. One of these regions is the African continent. Due to a combination of unfavourable socio-economic and meteorological conditions, African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. The recently released IPCC special report "Global Warming of 1.5º C" outlines the fact that keeping global warming by the level of 1.5º C is possible, but also suggested that an increase by 2º C could lead to crises with crops (agriculture fed by rain could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020) and livestock production, could damage water supplies and pose an additonal threat to coastal areas. The 5th Assessment Report produced by IPCC predicts that wheat may disappear from Africa by 2080, and that maize— a staple—will fall significantly in southern Africa. Also, arid and semi-arid lands are likely to increase by up to 8%, with severe ramifications for livelihoods, poverty eradication and meeting the SDGs. Pursuing appropriate adaptation strategies is thus vital, in order to address the current and future challenges posed by a changing climate. It is against this background that the "African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation" is being published. It contains papers prepared by scholars, representatives from social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects in Africa, and working with communities across the African continent. Encompassing over 100 contribtions from across Africa, it is the most comprehensive publication on climate change adaptation in Africa ever produced

Plants and Plant Products in Local Markets Within Benin City and Environs

AbstractThe vulnerability of agriculture systems in Africa to climate change is directly and indirectly affecting the availability and diversity of plants and plant products available in local markets. In this chapter, markets in Benin City and environs were assessed to document the availability of plants and plant products. Markets were grouped into urban, suburban, and rural with each group having four markets. Majority of the plant and plant product vendors were women and 88 plant species belonging to 42 families were found. Their scientific and common names were documented as well as the parts of the plant and associated products available in the markets. Most of the plant and plant products found in local markets belong to major plant families. Urban markets had the highest diversity of plants and plant products. Three categories of plants and plant products were documented. Around 67% of the plants and plant products were categorized as whole plant/plant parts, 28% as processed plant parts, while 5% as reprocessed plant/plant parts. It was revealed that 86% of these plants are used as foods, 11% are for medicinal purposes, while 3% is used for other purposes. About 35% of plants and plant products across the markets were fruits, which is an indication that city and environs are a rich source of fruits. The local knowledge and practices associated with the plants and plant products can contribute towards formulating a strategic response for climate change impacts on agriculture, gender, poverty, food security, and plant diversity

Triple Helix as a Strategic Tool to Fast-Track Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Kenya: Case Study of Marsabit County

AbstractThe lack of affordable, clean, and reliable energy in Africa's rural areas forces people to resort to poor quality energy source, which is detrimental to the people's health and prevents the economic development of communities. Moreover, access to safe water and food security are concerns closely linked to health issues and children malnourishment. Recent climate change due to global warming has worsened the already critical situation.Electricity is well known to be an enabler of development as it allows the use of modern devices thus enabling the development of not only income-generating activities but also water pumping and food processing and conservation that can promote socioeconomic growth. However, all of this is difficult to achieve due to the lack of investors, local skills, awareness by the community, and often also government regulations.All the above mentioned barriers to the uptake of electricity in rural Kenya could be solved by the coordinated effort of government, private sector, and academia, also referred to as Triple Helix, in which each entity may partially take the other's role. This chapter discretizes the above and shows how a specific county (Marsabit) has benefited from this triple intervention. Existing government policies and actions and programs led by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies are reviewed, highlighting the current interconnection and gaps in promoting integrated actions toward climate change adaptation and energy access

Maritime expressions:a corpus based exploration of maritime metaphors

This study uses a purpose-built corpus to explore the linguistic legacy of Britain’s maritime history found in the form of hundreds of specialised ‘Maritime Expressions’ (MEs), such as TAKEN ABACK, ANCHOR and ALOOF, that permeate modern English. Selecting just those expressions commencing with ’A’, it analyses 61 MEs in detail and describes the processes by which these technical expressions, from a highly specialised occupational discourse community, have made their way into modern English. The Maritime Text Corpus (MTC) comprises 8.8 million words, encompassing a range of text types and registers, selected to provide a cross-section of ‘maritime’ writing. It is analysed using WordSmith analytical software (Scott, 2010), with the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as a reference corpus. Using the MTC, a list of keywords of specific salience within the maritime discourse has been compiled and, using frequency data, concordances and collocations, these MEs are described in detail and their use and form in the MTC and the BNC is compared. The study examines the transformation from ME to figurative use in the general discourse, in terms of form and metaphoricity. MEs are classified according to their metaphorical strength and their transference from maritime usage into new registers and domains such as those of business, politics, sports and reportage etc. A revised model of metaphoricity is developed and a new category of figurative expression, the ‘resonator’, is proposed. Additionally, developing the work of Lakov and Johnson, Kovesces and others on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a number of Maritime Conceptual Metaphors are identified and their cultural significance is discussed