Sustainable exhibit design: guidelines for designers of small scale interactive and travelling exhibits

This study was commissioned as part of Lincolnshire County Council’s FLOWS ‘2B’ Information and Symbols Project and UK match funding for this particular FLOWS Project has been provided by East Midlands Development Agency. The aim of FLOWS is to improve the sustainability of development in flood risk areas through development of ‘good practice’, by improved integration of flood risk information into decision-support systems for spatial planning and water management. FLOWS involves over 40 individual projects which are based in four Work Packages. Lincolnshire County Council is jointly leading Work Package 3 (Spatial Planning) and is also leading on Projects in Work Package 2 (Public Perception/Dissemination). This study has been produced as part of Lincolnshire County Council’s ‘FLOWS 2B Information and Symbols Project’ and in the wider context, is focussing on raising public awareness of flooding and flood risk by exploring innovative methods of disseminating information on the subject of flood risk to the public. This project involves the production of interactive exhibits aimed at raising the awareness of flood risk in Lincolnshire and is a partnership between Lincolnshire County Council and the School of Architecture at the University of Lincoln. A study focussing on creating sustainable exhibitions has been undertaken via the University of Lincoln that will directly inform the FLOWS exhibits. As detailed in the project brief, this study on Sustainable Exhibit Design will investigate best practice in sustainable exhibit design and produce a report setting out guidelines for designers of small interactive and travelling exhibits, guidelines which are directly applicable to the proposed FLOWS exhibit. The report will form a contribution to exhibition design knowledge through wider distribution via the University of Lincoln and FLOWS websites and a conference presentation

Low order harmonic cancellation in a grid connected multiple inverter system via current control parameter randomization

In grid connected multiple inverter systems, it is normal to synchronize the output current of each inverter to the common network voltage. Any current controller deficiencies, which result in low order harmonics, are also synchronized to the common network voltage. As a result the harmonics produced by individual converters show a high degree of correlation and tend to be additive. Each controller can be tuned to achieve a different harmonic profile so that harmonic cancellation can take place in the overall system, thus reducing the net current total harmonic distortion level. However, inter-inverter communication is required. This paper presents experimental results demonstrating an alternative approach, which is to arrange for the tuning within each inverter to be adjusted automatically with a random component. This results in a harmonic output spectrum that varies with time, but is uncorrelated with the harmonic spectrum of any other inverter in the system. The net harmonics from all the inverters undergo a degree of cancellation and the overall system yields a net improvement in power quality

Elimination of subharmonics in direct look-up table (DLT) sine wave reference generators for low-cost microprocessor-controlled inverters

This paper investigates distortion of an inverter reference waveform generated using a direct look-up (DLT) algorithm. The sources of various distortion components are identified and the implications for application to variable speed drives and grid connected inverters are described. Harmonic and subharmonic distortion mechanisms are analyzed, and compared with experimental results. Analytical methods are derived to determine the occurrence of subharmonics, their number, frequencies and maximum amplitudes. A relationship is established identifying a discrete set of synthesizable frequencies which avoid sub-harmonic distortion as a function of look-up table length and a practical method for calculation of the look-up table indices, based on finite length binary representation, is presented. Real time experimental results are presented to verify the analytical derivations

Suppression of line voltage related distortion in current controlled grid connected inverters

The influence of selected control strategies on the level of low-order current harmonic distortion generated by an inverter connected to a distorted grid is investigated through a combination of theoretical and experimental studies. A detailed theoretical analysis, based on the concept of harmonic impedance, establishes the suitability of inductor current feedback versus output current feedback with respect to inverter power quality. Experimental results, obtained from a purpose-built 500-W, three-level, half-bridge inverter with an L-C-L output filter, verify the efficacy of inductor current as the feedback variable, yielding an output current total harmonic distortion (THD) some 29% lower than that achieved using output current feedback. A feed-forward grid voltage disturbance rejection scheme is proposed as a means to further reduce the level of low-order current harmonic distortion. Results obtained from an inverter with inductor current feedback and optimized feed-forward disturbance rejection show a THD of just 3% at full-load, representing an improvement of some 53% on the same inverter with output current feedback and no feed-forward compensation. Significant improvements in THD were also achieved across the entire load range. It is concluded that the use of inductor current feedback and feed-forward voltage disturbance rejection represent cost–effect mechanisms for achieving improved output current quality

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials

Background: Daily calorie restriction regimens are still the most common diet strategies implemented for weight loss. [2,3] In the recent years, intermittent fasting (IMF) has gained popularity among some of the easier diets to follow.[4] Objective: The objective of this study is to use the available data on short- and long-term effects of intermittent fasting, either by time restricted feeding or alternate day fasting and help healthcare providers decide on which patients should be recommended IMF as a dietary option. Study design: Searched Google Scholar, CINAHL, PubMed and Cochrane databases for evidence-based literature on intermittent fasting. Included studies: non-religious intermittent fasting for the purpose of health benefits. Excluded studies: intermittent fasting for religious reasons. Outcomes measured include systolic BP, weight loss, insulin resistance, LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides and inflammatory markers. Targeted audience: healthcare providers. Results: Results from adult human randomized controlled trials show individuals who did short term IMF had a drop in SBP by 9.67 ± 1mmHg (p Conclusion: According to these findings, even a 5-10-week period of IMF can reduce systolic blood pressure levels, total lipid profile and inflammatory markers. Short term IMF can also increase insulin resistance making it favorable among prediabetic and diabetic individuals. Three months or greater of consecutively fasting can reduce systolic blood pressure levels, total lipid profile and inflammatory markers at a steady state. The most effective way of losing weight in overweight populations is to incorporate IMF with exercise as the health benefits are greater (increase HDL levels). IMF long term stabilizes cardiac risk factors (lipids, BP) while further decreasing HA1c levels and weight loss. Even though intermittent fasting might not be ideal for everyone and further research must be done on risks vs benefits for an individual patient, IMF is an ideal dietary option that should be recommended by healthcare providers for men and women who are of normal weight, overweight or have type II diabetes mellitus and are interested in lowering their insulin resistance, lipid profile, and cardiovascular risk. Keywords: Intermittent fasting, diet, healthcare providers, time restricted feeding, cardiovascular risk, obesit

‘The Buddha in the home’: dwelling with domestic violence in urban Sri Lanka

This paper examines how home is produced by women under conditions of violence. It contends why domestic violence (DV) is not a disruption, but a ‘condition of possibility’ in the production of the ideal home. Drawing on cultural aphorisms the paper highlights the role of gender norms in simultaneously idealizing the mother and normalizing DV in Sri Lanka. The veneration of the mother in all ethno-religious communities, the paper argues, is conditioned upon a woman’s capacity for nurture and her absorption of violence through the embodiment of feminine virtues: selflessness, forbearance, and long-suffering. The paper contributes to discussions of home and domestic violence in three ways. First, it illuminates cross-cultural meanings of home and the gendered labour that produces it. Second, it describes how women dwell with DV by embodying gender norms through acts of care and repair. Finally, the paper aims to underscore the materiality of gender norms in creating a ‘moral-economy of care’; that is, the ways by which cultural truisms – in postulating a triumvirate of woman-home-suffering – emotionally tethers woman to home compelling her to produce it under conditions of violence

Discipline in Sri Lanka, punish in Pakistan: neoliberalism, governance and housing compared

In discussions of urban infrastructure and land, neoliberalism is often presented as a hegemonic economic model with, seemingly, identical outcomes across a range of historical and political circumstances. For instance, in large cities of the Global South, a combination of speculative capitalism, and increased privatisation in the provision of public services, has been blamed for structural dispossession and the pushing out of working-class and vulnerable groups from urban centres. However, little has been said about how these processes interact with more contextual specificities—longer histories of state provision, existing inequalities, local political dynamics and legislative structures. Through comparative work on urban infrastructure projects in Lahore and Colombo, this article tells a story in which historical differences in state policy on housing and governance have impacted the ways in which dispossession is meted out, experienced and contested. Contributing to calls for studies of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ (Wacquant 2012), we illustrate the importance of closely examining the relationship between neoliberal policies and dispossession on the ground through a historical perspective

Intimate Evictability : Urban Displacement, Familial Violence and Women’s Claim to Home in Urban Sri Lanka

‘Evictability’ describes the role urban displacements play in the governance of ‘unwanted’ citizens in Europe where eviction is imminent yet uncertain. This paper proposes ‘intimate evictability’. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the paper illuminates how the governance of the working-class poor via eviction and relocation interfaces with the intimate sphere to produce hostilities between kin. The life-stories of four women illustrate how state policies that discard the poor by denying their right to a home percolate to the home in the form of inheritance disputes and domestic violence. The dual effects of urban displacement and familial violence, the paper argues, is a gendered form of ‘slow violence’ occurring on multiple scales. This paper makes a case for why bureaucratic processes that ‘other’ the poor must be read as existing on the same continuum as acrimonious kinship relations that are about discarding unwanted women from home and family

Migrant mothers, family breakdown, and the modern state: an analysis of state policies regulating women migrating overseas for domestic work in Sri Lanka

This paper aims to critically examine the Family Background Report Circular (2013) and analyse its implications as a policy document from a feminist perspective. The paper then draws from a research study conducted in four districts to ascertain the response to the policy as well understand impact of the implementation of the policy on the lives of migrant women workers and migrant-hopefuls.