65,694 research outputs found
A daily representation of Great Britain's energy vectors : Natural gas, electricity and transport fuels
In much of Europe there is a strong push to decarbonise energy demands, including the largest single end-use demand – heat. Moving heat demands over to the electrical network poses significant challenges and the use of hybrid energy vector and storage systems (heat and electrical storage) will be a critical component in managing this transition. As an example of these challenges (facing many developed countries), the scale of recently available daily energy flows through the UK’s electrical, gas and transport systems are presented. When this data is expressed graphically it illustrates important differences in the demand characteristics of these different vectors; these include the quantity of energy delivered through the networks on a daily basis, and the scale of variability in the gas demand over multiple timescales (seasonal, weekly and daily). As the UK proceeds to migrate heating demands to the electrical network in its drive to cut carbon emissions, electrical demand will significantly increase. Additionally, the greater variability and uncertainty shown in the gas demand will also migrate to the electrical demand posing significant difficulties for the maintenance of a secure and reliable electrical system in the coming decades. The paper concludes an analysis of the different means of accommodating increasingly volatile electricity demands in future energy networks
Optimization of the supplier selection process in prefabrication using BIM
Prefabrication offers substantial benefits including reduction in construction waste, material waste, energy use, labor demands, and delivery time, and an improvement in project constructability and cost certainty. As the material cost accounts for nearly 70% of the total cost of the prefabrication project, to select a suitable material supplier plays an important role in such a project. The purpose of this study is to present a method for supporting supplier selection of a prefabrication project. The proposed method consists of three parts. First, a list of assessment criteria was established to evaluate the suitability of supplier alternatives. Second, Building Information Modelling (BIM) was adopted to provide sufficient information about the project requirements and suppliers’ profiles, which facilitates the storage and sharing of information. Finally, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to rank the importance of the assessment criteria and obtain the score of supplier alternatives. The suppliers were ranked based on the total scores. To illustrate how to use the proposed method, it was applied to a real prefabrication project. The proposed method facilitates the supplier selection process by providing sufficient information in an effective way and by improving the understanding of the project requirements
Design for sustainable architecture and environments
This paper describes some of the research outcomes of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project partly funded by Department of Trade and Industry, UK. One of the aims of the project was to plan and develop designs for a range of autonomous eco-buildings through research into autonomous eco-building systems and techniques in order to identify best practice and the most appropriate systems for low-carbon buildings. The design of the Community Hall offering accommodations for a multi functional hall, café and exhibition, and offices, has been developed through partnership with mainstream design and construction companies in the region. Following a successful planning application and external fund raising exercise, the construction of the building is due to start shortly. The structure will be constructed using locally sourced materials and is designed to be ‘renewable’ whilst exceeding all the requirements of the current Building Regulations. It examines the potential of non traditional construction techniques and materials. The total environmental impact of the design as the result of environmental loads occurring during the life span of the building is estimated and compared with conventional practice. The building incorporates rain water collection, waste treatment, composting toilets and photovoltaics
XML content warehousing: Improving sociological studies of mailing lists and web data
In this paper, we present the guidelines for an XML-based approach for the
sociological study of Web data such as the analysis of mailing lists or
databases available online. The use of an XML warehouse is a flexible solution
for storing and processing this kind of data. We propose an implemented
solution and show possible applications with our case study of profiles of
experts involved in W3C standard-setting activity. We illustrate the
sociological use of semi-structured databases by presenting our XML Schema for
mailing-list warehousing. An XML Schema allows many adjunctions or crossings of
data sources, without modifying existing data sets, while allowing possible
structural evolution. We also show that the existence of hidden data implies
increased complexity for traditional SQL users. XML content warehousing allows
altogether exhaustive warehousing and recursive queries through contents, with
far less dependence on the initial storage. We finally present the possibility
of exporting the data stored in the warehouse to commonly-used advanced
software devoted to sociological analysis
Impacts of energy efficiency retrofitting measures on indoor PM concentrations across different income groups in England: a modelling study
As part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions in the UK, policies encouraging the energy-efficient retrofit of domestic properties are being implemented. Typical retrofits, including installation of insulation and double glazing can cause tightening of the building envelope which may affect indoor air quality (IAQ) impacting occupant health. Using the example of PM (an airborne pollutant with known health impacts), this study considers the influence of energy-efficient retrofits on indoor PM concentrations in domestic properties both above and below the low-income threshold (LIT) for a range of tenancies across England. Simulations using EnergyPlus and its integrated Generic Contaminant model are employed to predict indoor PM exposures from both indoor and outdoor sources in building archetypes representative of (i) the existing housing stock and (ii) a retrofitted English housing stock. The exposures of occupants for buildings occupied by groups above and below the LIT are then estimated under current conditions and following retrofits. One-way ANOVA tests were applied to clarify results and investigate differences between the various income and tenure groups. Results indicate that all tenures below the LIT experience greater indoor PM concentrations than those above, suggesting possible social inequalities driven by housing, leading to consequences for health
Outsourcing Back Office Services in Small Nonprofits: Pitfalls and Possibilities
Presents findings on small nonprofits' administrative, finance, and other office support needs; reasons and conditions for outsourcing as well as barriers; methods for evaluating options; and guiding principles. Examines three business models
Distributed Hybrid Simulation of the Internet of Things and Smart Territories
This paper deals with the use of hybrid simulation to build and compose
heterogeneous simulation scenarios that can be proficiently exploited to model
and represent the Internet of Things (IoT). Hybrid simulation is a methodology
that combines multiple modalities of modeling/simulation. Complex scenarios are
decomposed into simpler ones, each one being simulated through a specific
simulation strategy. All these simulation building blocks are then synchronized
and coordinated. This simulation methodology is an ideal one to represent IoT
setups, which are usually very demanding, due to the heterogeneity of possible
scenarios arising from the massive deployment of an enormous amount of sensors
and devices. We present a use case concerned with the distributed simulation of
smart territories, a novel view of decentralized geographical spaces that,
thanks to the use of IoT, builds ICT services to manage resources in a way that
is sustainable and not harmful to the environment. Three different simulation
models are combined together, namely, an adaptive agent-based parallel and
distributed simulator, an OMNeT++ based discrete event simulator and a
script-language simulator based on MATLAB. Results from a performance analysis
confirm the viability of using hybrid simulation to model complex IoT
scenarios.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1605.0487
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Antecedents and performance consequences of international outsourcing
The outsourcing of intermediate products to international suppliers is believed to improve firm performance. We investigate this claim and test key dimensions of the decision to outsource internationally using survey data on 200 manufacturing firms located in the Netherlands. We find that most international outsourcing is intra-regional in nature. Furthermore international outsourcing is a consequence of a firm‟s ability to search and evaluate foreign suppliers, which is co-determined by its size, multinationality, and frequency of cross-border communications. Finally, no performance effects were observed for international or global outsourcing. We conclude international outsourcing is a balancing act between lower production costs abroad and lower transaction costs locally
An application of hybrid life cycle assessment as a decision support framework for green supply chains
In an effort to achieve sustainable operations, green supply chain management has become an important area for firms to concentrate on due to its inherent involvement with all the processes that provide foundations to successful business. Modelling methodologies of product supply chain environmental assessment are usually guided by the principles of life cycle assessment (LCA). However, a review of the extant literature suggests that LCA techniques suffer from a wide range of limitations that prevent a wider application in real-world contexts; hence, they need to be incorporated within decision support frameworks to aid environmental sustainability strategies. Thus, this paper contributes in understanding and overcoming the dichotomy between LCA model development and the emerging practical implementation to inform carbon emissions mitigation strategies within supply chains. Therefore, the paper provides both theoretical insights and a practical application to inform the process of adopting a decision support framework based on a LCA methodology in a real-world scenario. The supply chain of a product from the steel industry is considered to evaluate its environmental impact and carbon ‘hotspots’. The study helps understanding how operational strategies geared towards environmental sustainability can be informed using knowledge and information generated from supply chain environmental assessments, and for highlighting inherent challenges in this process
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