Design, morale et justification : le design pour la santé sexuelle

Les connaissances liées à la compréhension du consommateur, soit l’humain, permet au designer industriel d’œuvrer dans une multitude de secteurs. Cependant, comprendre pourquoi il fait un choix en tant que professionnel lui permet d’être aux aguets de biais personnels qui peuvent influencer la valeur de son projet. Celle-ci n’est plus liée uniquement à l’esthétique de l’objet. L’éthique professionnelle implique des composantes morales qui touchent autant le designer que son produit. Des valeurs s’y rattachent. Il est intéressant de se pencher sur sa manière d’exercer dans ces secteurs diversifiés, notamment celui de la sexualité. Le milieu de la santé sexuelle, bien qu’en continuelle recherche d’innovation, comporte des enjeux issus de tabous, de la diversité de cultures, des croyances et du bagage personnel de chacun. Étant humain, le designer est lui-même perméable à ces états de conscience morale. Notre étude s’interroge sur l’engagement moral d’un professionnel du design aux prises avec cette thématique à forte implication morale. Précisément, nous explorons les discours justificatifs du designer industriel et son implication personnelle vis-à-vis de tels sujets. Pour ce faire, les données d’observations sont obtenues par le biais de quatre verbatims obtenus lors d’une charrette de design accueillant quatre équipes pour un total de onze participants. Les analyses exploratoires du discours justificatif des designer sont supportées par six cités (1) proposées par Boltanski et Thévenot (1991) dans le livre De la justification, et portant sur les compétences sociales en matière de justification. En ce sens, notre hypothèse principale est que le travail du designer se justifiera majoritairement par une perspective issue de la cité industrielle et qui est supportée par le principe d’efficacité, une qualité propre au design industriel. Parmi les 34 passages isolés des verbatims, nous constatons que la cité industrielle, observée à 27 reprises, est la plus présente dans les discours. Cependant, les autres cités sont aussi présentes dans le discours de trois équipes, selon la tangente principale de leur projet. Ainsi, la cité inspirée est proéminente dans les justifications d’une équipe, et les deux autres ont beaucoup visité la cité domestique. Étonnamment, les trois autres cités, bien que peu présentes, son tout de même observées au travers du discours justificatif à au moins une reprise et chez au moins un groupe. Cette recherche nous permet d’établir que le designer peut intervenir sur des thématiques à forte implication morale et que son discours se développe selon les contraintes qu’il rencontre et du type de projet qu’il développe. De plus, le projet de design peut être impacté par l’aisance du professionnel avec une thématique ou encore ses préférences personnelles. Ces observations soutiennent la pertinence de développer un ordre qui demande aux designers une formation continue et des outils pour une intégration de l’aspect social aux projets. Le tout devrait ultimement s’effectuer dans le but de les aider à comprendre les aspects motivants leur choix lors du projet. 1. Les cités domestique, civique, industrielle, de l’opinion, inspirée et marchandeIndustrial designers work in a multitude of sectors wherein understanding consumer and their choices is fundamental. This means that understanding why industrial designers’ choices as professionals allows them to be on the lookout for personal biases that can influence the value of the project. Professional ethics may involve moral components that affect the designer as much as their product and that are no longer linked to the aesthetics of the object alone. There are values attached to that object. In this study our interest is to understand the industrial designer’s way of practicing in these diverse sectors, especially when the sector is that of sexuality and sexual health. While in constant search of innovation, the field of sexual health involves issues that arise in terms of taboos, cultural diversity, beliefs and personal backgrounds. Being human, the designer is confronted with states of moral conscience in this field. This study questions the moral commitment of a design professional grappling with issues that present strong moral implications. We explore the industrial designers’ intentions and justifications and their personal implication vis-à-vis such subjects. This study proceeds as an exploratory study, with data collection that included 4 narratives extrapolated from a design charrette with four teams, and a total of eleven participants. Exploratory analysis of the justifying discourse of designers is supported by The Six cities2 model proposed by Boltanski and Thévenot (1991) in the book “De la justification” and focuses on social competences in terms of justification of decision-making. The overarching hypothesis is that the work of the designer will be justified mainly by an “industrial city” perspective, supported by the principle of efficiency, a quality specific to industrial design product development. The analysis revealed emergent themes and issues of relevance to this model and the principles explored. This study proposes that the designer has a role to play in the consideration of topics with a strong moral implication. The designers’ discourse develops according to the constraints encountered and the type of project being developed. In addition, the design project can be impacted by professional’s comfort with such a difficult topic or even their personal preferences, and. ultimately understanding the motivating aspects of their choices during the project is of value in future products and the training received by designers

Optimal Evacuation of Process Plants in Case of Tank Fires

Effective firefighting and evacuation as integral parts of emergency response in petrochemical plants play a key role in protecting human lives in the event of major tank fires. Compared to firefighting, however, studies devoted to planning and optimizing evacuation plans in the event of tank fires, and particularly concurrent tank fires, have been very few. In the present study, considering the thermal dose as the main cause of casualties in outdoor fires, an innovative methodology is developed to identify proactive evacuation plans for credible fire scenarios. The methodology consists of three main parts: (1) For a given fire scenario (e.g., a single or multiple tank fires), the tank terminal is modelled as a thermal graph in which the weight of each node presents the corresponding heat flux, and the weight of each edge presents the thermal dose between the connected nodes; (2) Dijkstra’s algorithm is used to find the shortest paths (a series of connected edges with the least total thermal dose) to the safe spots (e.g., shelters); (3) Considering the limited capacities of safe spots, mathematical programming is used to identify the number of evacuees to be assigned to each safe spot so as to minimize the total risk of casualties during evacuation. Application of the methodology to an illustrative process plant resulted in intuitive evacuation plans, which is indicative of the methodology’s validity, particularly in the absence of similar studies for comparison and validation purposes

Comparison of the explosion characteristics and flame speeds of pulverised coals and biomass in the ISO standard 1 m3 dust explosion equipment

Pulverised coal has been known to pose explosion risks since the 19th century, with the advent of biomass use in coal fired power generation boilers the explosion risk may need revision. The objective of the present work was to compare the explosibility of two samples of bituminous coal used in UK power stations with two biomass fuels and to review available explosion data in the literature for pulverised coal and biomass. The 1 m3 ISO explosion vessel was used to determine the explosion characteristics: deflagration index (KSt), maximum explosion pressure (Pmax) and minimum explosible concentration (MEC). Flame speeds were also measured and these are relevant to understanding the mechanism of turbulent flame propagation in power station burners, which is related to the problem of flame flashback or blow-off. Despite the similarities in composition of both coals, the explosion reactivity of Colombian coal was much higher, with a KSt value of 129 bar m/s compared to 78 bar m/s for Kellingley coal. The main difference between the two fuels was the surface area of particles which was higher for Colombian coal. It was shown that the char burn out rate at 900 °C in air was higher for Colombian coal, due to the greater oxygen diffusion in the higher porosity of the char. Results for two biomass fuels are also presented with similar values for KSt and the literature review shows that both coal and biomass have very variable flame reactivities. There is no general trend that coal is less reactive than biomass, although this could be the case for specific coals and biomass

Berries as a case study for crop wild relative conservation, use, and public engagement in Canada

Conservation of plant biodiversity, in particular crop wild relatives including those tended and cultivated by Indigenous Peoples, is critical to food security and agricul ture. Building on the 2019 road map for crop wild relatives, we examine berries as a case study for crop wild relative conservation, use, and public engagement. We focus on berries due not only to their economic, cultural, and nutritional importance but also because they are consumed fresh, providing a unique opportunity for individuals and communities to connect with plants. We outline health benefits, geographic dis tribution, and species at risk for Canadian berries. We describe practices, strategies, and approaches used by Indigenous Peoples to steward berries and emphasize the importance of traditional knowledge. We highlight opportunities for in situ and ex situ berry conservation and use of berries in plant breeding and Indigenous foodways. Our aim is to lay the groundwork for future collaborative efforts in these areas and to showcase berries as a useful case study for conservation of food plant biodiversity and public engagement

The influence of injector design on the decay of pre-ignition turbulence in a spherical explosion chamber

This paper reports on an experimental study to characterize the turbulent flow field inside a 20 l Siwek chamber during the preignition period. An acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene model of the chamber was constructed with optical quality windows enabling laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) to be used for turbulence measurements. Alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) particles were used as the seed dust for measuring the gas-phase turbulence. Three specific dust dispersion systems have been investigated: (1) the deflector plate (also referred to as the rebound nozzle); (2) the perforated annular nozzle; and (3) the circular "Dahoe" nozzle. It is assumed that changing the method of dust dispersion alters the turbulence characteristics. The flow field is non-stationary, i.e., the mean (or predominant fluid flow) and superimposed velocity fluctuations upon the mean decrease with time. Furthermore, there are variations from injection to injection. A procedure has been developed to analyze this non-stationary signal to extract the mean and fluctuating components of velocity, thereby paving the way for decay "laws" to be determined for a particular nozzle configuration

Explosion reactivity characterisation of pulverised torrefied spruce wood

Pulverised biomass is increasingly being used for power generation in 100% biomass plants or mixed with coal as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The fire and explosion hazards of pulverised wood and other agricultural waste materials have been recognised for some time. However, safety data for biomass are very scarce in the public literature, and non-existent for upgraded biomass products such as torrefied biomass. This is largely due to the challenges that biomass poses for explosion characterisation in the standard methods (1 m3 ISO vessel or 20 L sphere). The authors have developed and calibrated a new system for the 1 m3 ISO vessel that overcomes these challenges. In this work we present the first data in the open literature for the explosion characteristics of torrefied biomass. Results for untreated Norway spruce wood and Kellingley coal are also included for comparison. Flame speeds and post-explosion residue analysis results are also presented. Torrefied spruce wood was found to be more reactive than Kellingley coal and slightly more reactive than its parent material in terms of KSt, Pmax and flame speed. The differences between coal and biomass samples highlight that it should not be assumed that safety systems for coal can be applied to torrefied or raw wood materials without suitable modifications