Implementing welfare technologies: On wash toilets and self-reliant citizens

Welfare technology, along with science and innovation, is often presented as a means to solve what is referred to as the demographic challenge: an ageing population with more chronic diseases, fewer re-sources and fewer hands to take care of their needs. In this paper, the focus is on implementation practices regarding the use of welfare technologies for elderly people, exemplified by the implementation of the wash toilet in a specific municipality. Adhering to a socio-material view on technologies, the article focuses on how welfare technologies are enacted in terms of what they are expected to do and what kind of elderly people they are expected to produce. Based on an analysis of national and local strategies, and interviews with employees involved in various aspects of implementation, it is found that legislations, policy strategies, rehabilitation and the business-case logic enact welfare technologies/the wash toilet with different expectations and notions of the citizen, namely the self-reliant citizen, the compensated citizen and the in-dependent (of rehabilitation) citizen. The paper discusses identified tensions within and between these enactments. The main contribution of the article is to make visible the various versions of welfare technology, enacted by different socio-technical techniques involved in the implementation of welfare technologies and thereby to question the naturalised link between welfare technology and self-reliance

Adjusting Mechanical Properties of Forging Dies Produced by Ausforming

Due to high thermo-mechanical loads, tools used in hot forming operations need a high resistance to different damage phenomena, such as deformation, cracking and abrasion. They are exposed to cyclic thermo-mechanical stress conditions, which leads to tool failure and subsequent tool replacement during cost-intensive production interruptions. To increase wear resistance, forging tools can be produced in the metastable austenite area. Forming of steel below the recrystallisation temperature, also known as “ausforming”, offers the possibility to increase strength without affecting ductile properties. This is due to grain refinement during forming. In this study, the thermo-mechanical treatment ausforming will be used to form the final contour of forging dies. For this purpose, an analogy study was performed where a cup-preform is ausformed, which represents the inner contour of a highly mechanically loaded forging die. It is investigated to what extent a fine-grained microstructure generated in the last forming stage can be achieved and how it influences the tool's performance. The hot-working tool steel X37CrMoV5-1 (AISI H11) was used as workpiece material. To achieve optimal properties, process routes with tempering temperatures from 300 °C to 500 °C and global true plastic strains of φ = 0.25 and φ = 0.45 were examined. The results were evaluated by pulsation tests, metallographic analysis and hardness measurements of the formed parts. Optimal ausforming parameters were derived to produce a high performance forging die

Effects on metabolic parameters in young rats born with low birth weight after exposure to a mixture of pesticides

Abstract Pesticide exposure during fetal life can lead to low birth weight and is commonly observed in reproductive toxicology studies. Associations have also been found in low birth weight babies born from pesticide-exposed gardeners. Since low birth weight is also linked to metabolic disorders, it can be speculated that early life exposure to pesticides could increase the risk of becoming obese or developing diabetes later in life. We have analyzed potential long-term effects of gestational and lactational exposure to a low dose mixture of six pesticides that individually can cause low birth weight: Cyromazine, MCPB, Pirimicarb, Quinoclamine, Thiram, and Ziram. Exposed male offspring, who were smaller than controls, displayed some degree of catch-up growth. Insulin and glucagon regulation was not significantly affected, and analyses of liver and pancreas did not reveal obvious histopathological effects. Efforts towards identifying potential biomarkers of metabolic disease-risk did not result in any strong candidates, albeit leptin levels were altered in exposed animals. In fat tissues, the key genes Lep, Nmb and Nmbr were altered in high dosed offspring, and were differentially expressed between sexes. Our results suggest that early-life exposure to pesticides may contribute to the development of metabolic disorders later in life