Factory Eco-Efficiency Modelling: Framework Development and Testing

Eco-efficiency is becoming an increasingly important organisational performance measure. Its indicators are regularly used alongside productivity, cost, quality, health and safety in operations and corporate social responsibility reporting. The purpose of this paper is to show an eco-efficiency modelling framework, and its application in the case of an automotive manufacturer. The framework composes, models and analyses resource and production data. Focus on energy, water distributions and material transformations in manufacturing, utility and facility assets are used to analyse eco-efficiency. Resources are examined in respect to three data granularity factors: subdivision, pulse, and magnitude. Models are linked with performance indicators to assess asset eco-efficiency. This work contributes to industrial sustainability literature by introducing a modelling framework that links with data granularity and eco-efficiency indicators

Lumbo-pelvic motor control in adolescents with and without low back pain

The prevalence of low back pain (LBP) in the adolescent population is high, with rates approaching adult levels. It has previously been shown that those with LBP during adolescence are at greater risk of experiencing LBP in adult life. Concomitantly, the costs of treating LBP are marked - in Australia direct treatment costs in 2001 were estimated at more than $1 billion/year.Despite the high prevalence and evidence for the progressive development of this condition during adolescence, relatively little is known about the disorder during this life-stage. Previously the disorder in adolescents had been characterised as being dominated by psychosocial factors, despite limited detailed studies in the physical domain. In comparison to the wealth of research investigating LBP in adults, relatively little has been undertaken in adolescence. This is especially true in relation to studies of trunk motor control and the impacts of LBP. Whether results from adult research are transferrable to the younger age group is not known.Prior evidence in adults suggests that non-specific chronic LBP (NSCLBP), where there is no known patho-anatomical diagnosis, should be studied from a biopsychosocial perspective. Previous research in adults has identified several distinct sub-groups of NSCLBP based on differing physical and psychosocial variables. Identification of sub-groups of NSCLBP is recognised as important in research and clinical management. The aim of this doctoral study was to investigate adolescent NSCLBP, the significance and multifactorial nature of this disorder and more specifically to investigate differences in trunk motor control in a detailed laboratory based study of adolescents with and without NSCLBP and sub-groups of NSCLBP. Better information will help inform the development of successful interventions in this age-group and may assist to decrease the societal cost of this disorder across the life-span.This dissertation comprises four studies, comparing adolescents with and without NSCLBP and sub-groups of NSCLBP. First, an investigation of the dimensions of pain, disability and kinesiophobia and associated physical and psychosocial features was undertaken. However the main focus of this doctoral research, the final three studies, was the detailed examination of trunk motor control during sitting, standing and forward bending, all known aggravating factors for NSCLBP. This is the first investigation in an adolescent population of the presence of sub-groups of NSCLBP and the first to investigate physical features in detailed laboratory studies. Further, this is the first study in either an adolescent or adult population to examine spinal regional differences in a lumbar repositioning task.The findings across the four studies showed that adolescents with NSCLBP, before sub-grouping was conducted, had similar levels of pain to previous adult studies, but lower levels of kinesiophobia, disability and duration of pain. Adolescents with NSCLBP had increased experience of stressful family life events, decreased trunk extensor and squat endurance, increased trunk extensor muscle activation in standing and decreased spinal repositioning error compared with healthy adolescents. Results from this dissertation support that, as in adults, NSCLBP in adolescence is a significant health concern and multifactorial in nature. In contrast to prior reports, these adolescent results indicate that for this group with NSCLBP the disorder is dominated by physical factors.The laboratory-based aspects of this research provided evidence that, as in adults, sub-grouping adolescents with NSCLBP based on their pain and motor control patterns demonstrates that they are not a homogenous group. Differences were shown between sub-groups and gender representation, trunk extensor and squat endurance, usual and slump sitting postures, range-of-motion during forward bending, levels of trunk extensor muscle activation in forward bending and spinal repositioning error. In fact, the equal and opposite effect of results between sub-groups for sitting posture and both range-of-motion and trunk extensor activation in forward bending resulted in a wash-out effect when results were pooled for those with NSCLBP. That differences were only noted with sub-grouping supports the importance of doing so in future research.Differences were shown between adolescent and adult data based on regional spinal differences. This was so in sitting posture where NSCLBP in adolescents was shown to be more consistently associated with differences in the upper lumbar spine between sub-groups of NSCLBP and healthy adolescents. Regional differences were also shown in tests of spinal repositioning accuracy, the first study (adolescent or adult) to do so.Differences between adolescent and adult studies were observed for posture, kinematics, trunk muscle activation and variability in spinal repositioning acuity; suggesting that there are inherent differences in the disorder between life-stages. The noted differences between this current study of adolescents and previous adult studies may be due to immaturity of the motor control system, differences in spinal morphology and/or in maturation of the NSCLBP disorder.The dissertation concludes that NSCLBP in adolescence is a significant health disorder and is multifactorial in nature. In this group of adolescents it is dominated by physical factors. Whilst this research was of a small group of adolescents with NSCLBP, results broadly support previous postural and kinematic findings from adult studies. Results for trunk muscle activation and accuracy of spinal repositioning suggest that adolescent NSCLBP is not the same as adult NSCLBP. As in adults the consideration of sub-groups of NSCLBP is central to future research and clinical management of the disorder. This investigation of NSCLBP in adolescence provides a contribution towards understanding the disorder and may help inform the development of targeted interventions. Early intervention in NSCLBP during adolescence may help to decrease the large social cost

Junk: rubbish to gold

The aim of this paper is to explore the entangled social relations of a specific commodity as its meanings and materiality transform, shifting between sites of disposal, production and consumption, crossing and expanding upon the boundaries of rubbish, transient and maybe even durable as crafted art. Our paper investigates issues concerning the conceptual development and operational intricacies towards staging JUNK: rubbish to gold, a performative and participatory installation project, which is motivated by social and ecological concerns, questioning the intrinsic value of design and the value of recycled and upcycled materials. The project aims to experiment with innovative and collaborative design methodologies and a playful exploration of ideas of community economies and associated activities of exchange, bartering, gathering, earning, harvesting and giving. In today’s society when we think of re-using we imagine the recycling of packaging and unwanted consumer objects, we think of the up-cycling of consumer leftovers into a new and desirable luxury, but we do not however think very often about the changing status of the object and the relation between monetary value and design value. In our visually biased society we focus on the object, the material. Recycling sees conversion of one object to another, ideally from unwanted to desired, but mostly in terms of new consumer product ready to buy. JUNK: rubbish to gold seeks to shake this presumption through making the entire process of creation the ‘work of art’, from material selection to (re)construction, the focus is shifted from the object to the social interactions and agency usually hiding behind it

Sting of passion

A new exhibition of contemporary jewellery by 12 up-and-coming international jewellery artists opens at Manchester Art Gallery this July. Curated by Manchester-based jewellery artist Jo Bloxham, the exhibition features new conceptual works of jewellery by artists from as far afield as the USA and Mexico. All the works on display have been inspired by Pre-Raphaelite paintings from Manchester Art Gallery’s prestigious collections. The paintings have all been selected by the exhibition curator, Jo Bloxham and include Pre-Raphaelite favourites such as Arthur Hughes’ Ophelia and Rossetti’s The Bower Meadow and Astarte Syriaca. The works portray women as a femme fatale, a seductress, and in some cases, purely as an object of beauty. Bloxham comments that each of the jewellers has responded individually, the works have provoked some strong reactions, and astonishing results: “The jewellers have created an exciting body of work using a diverse selection of materials, from gold and garnets to concrete and broken glass. The Sting of Passion is an opportunity to explore an area of jewellery design rarely seen in the UK.” Polish jeweller, Arek Wolski has added modern irony to his work for Eve Tempted by John Stanhope. Playing on words, Wolski has created a t-shirt brooch, changing the phrase ‘Last Forever’ to a more cynical ‘Lust Forever’. French jeweller, Benjamin Lignel found The Bower Meadow by Dante Gabriel Rossetti deeply unsettling. Lignel says “Here are the real desperate housewives: typecast for maximum excitement. Rossetti’s dancing beauties live the test-tube lives of neutered she-monsters in a tree-lined water-tank.” Nanna Melland from Germany has created a fine, gold chain, to sit around the waist of Rossetti’s Astarte Syriaca in the form of a new girdle

Quantifying the Uncertainty in the Eurasian Ice-Sheet Geometry at the Penultimate Glacial Maximum (Marine Isotope Stage 6)

North Sea Last Interglacial sea level is sensitive to the fingerprint of mass loss from polar ice sheets. However, the signal is complicated by the influence of glacial isostatic adjustment driven by the Penultimate Glacial Period Eurasian ice sheet and its geometry remain significantly uncertain. Here, we produce new reconstructions of the Eurasian ice sheet during the Penultimate Glacial Maximum (PGM), for use as input to sea-level and climate models, by employing large ensemble experiments from a simple ice-sheet model that depends solely on basal sheer stress, ice extent, and topography. To explore the range of uncertainty in possible ice geometries, we use a parameterised shear-stress map as input that has been developed to incorporate bedrock characteristics and ice-sheet basal processes. We perform Bayesian uncertainty quantification to calibrate against global ice-sheet reconstructions of the last deglaciation to rule out combinations of input parameters that produce unrealistic ice sheets. The refined parameter space is then applied to the PGM to create an ensemble of plausible 3D Eurasian ice-sheet geometries. Our reconstructed PGM Eurasian ice-sheet volume is 51.16&plusmn;6.13 m sea-level equivalent which suggests a 14.3 % reduction in the volume of the PGM Laurentide ice-sheet. We find that the Barents-Kara Sea region displays both the largest mean volume and relative variability of 26.80 &plusmn; 3.58 m SLE while the British-Irish sector&rsquo;s volume of 1.77 &plusmn; 0.11 m SLE is smallest, yet most implausible. Our new workflow may be applied to other locations and periods where ice-sheet histories have limited empirical data.</p

Quantifying the uncertainty in the Eurasian ice-sheet geometry at the Penultimate Glacial Maximum (Marine Isotope Stage 6)

The North Sea Last Interglacial sea level is sensitive to the fingerprint of mass loss from polar ice sheets. However, the signal is complicated by the influence of glacial isostatic adjustment driven by Penultimate Glacial Period ice-sheet changes, and yet these ice-sheet geometries remain significantly uncertain. Here, we produce new reconstructions of the Eurasian ice sheet during the Penultimate Glacial Maximum (PGM) by employing large ensemble experiments from a simple ice-sheet model that depends solely on basal shear stress, ice extent, and topography. To explore the range of uncertainty in possible ice geometries, we use a parameterised shear-stress map as input that has been developed to incorporate bedrock characteristics and the influence of ice-sheet basal processes. We perform Bayesian uncertainty quantification, utilising Gaussian process emulation, to calibrate against global ice-sheet reconstructions of the Last Deglaciation and rule out combinations of input parameters that produce unrealistic ice sheets. The refined parameter space is then applied to the PGM to create an ensemble of constrained 3D Eurasian ice-sheet geometries. Our reconstructed PGM Eurasian ice-sheet volume is 48±8 m sea-level equivalent (SLE). We find that the Barents–Kara Sea region displays both the largest mean volume and volume uncertainty of 24±8 m SLE while the British–Irish sector volume of 1.7±0.2 m SLE is the smallest. Our new workflow may be applied to other locations and periods where ice-sheet histories have limited empirical data

De-Tuning Albedo Parameters in a Coupled Climate Ice Sheet Model to Simulate the North American Ice Sheet at the Last Glacial Maximum

The Last Glacial Maximum extent of the North American Ice Sheets is well constrained empirically but has proven to be challenging to simulate with coupled Climate-Ice Sheet models. Coupled Climate-Ice Sheet models are often too computationally expensive to sufficiently explore uncertainty in input parameters, and it is unlikely that values calibrated to reproduce modern ice sheets will reproduce the known extent of the ice at the Last Glacial Maximum. To address this, we run an ensemble with a coupled Climate-Ice Sheet model (FAMOUS-ice), simulating the final stages of growth of the last North American Ice Sheets' maximum extent. Using this large ensemble approach, we explore the influence of numerous uncertain ice sheet albedo, ice sheet dynamics, atmospheric, and oceanic parameters on the ice sheet extent. We find that ice sheet albedo parameters determine the majority of uncertainty when simulating the Last Glacial Maximum North American Ice Sheets. Importantly, different albedo parameters are needed to produce a good match to the Last Glacial Maximum North American Ice Sheets than have previously been used to model the contemporary Greenland Ice Sheet due to differences in cloud cover over ablation zones. Thus, calibrating coupled climate-ice sheet models on one ice sheet may produce strong biases when the model is applied to a new domain

Characteristics of chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain in children and adolescents attending a rheumatology outpatients clinic: a cross-sectional study

Background: Chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain (CNSMSP) may develop in childhood and adolescence, leading to disability and reduced quality of life that continues into adulthood. The purpose of the study was to build a biopsychosocial profile of children and adolescents with CNSMSP. Methods: CNSMSP subjects (n = 30, 18 females, age 7-18) were compared with age matched pain free controls across a number of biopsychosocial domains. Results: In the psychosocial domain CNSMSP subjects had increased levels of anxiety and depression, and had more somatic pain complaints. In the lifestyle domain CNSMSP subjects had lower physical activity levels, but no difference in television or computer use compared to pain free subjects. Physically, CNSMSP subjects tended to sit with a more slumped spinal posture, had reduced back muscle endurance, increased presence of joint hypermobility and poorer gross motor skills. Conclusion: These findings support the notion that CNSMSP is a multidimensional biopsychosocial disorder. Further research is needed to increase understanding of how the psychosocial, lifestyle and physical factors develop and interact in CNSMSP