Beyond sustainable buildings: eco-efficiency to eco-effectiveness through cradle-to-cradle design

Sustainable building development focuses on achieving buildings that meet performance and functionality requirements with minimum adverse impact on the environment. Such eco-efficiency strategies are however not feasible for achieving long-term economic and environmental objectives as they only result in damage reduction without addressing design flaws of contemporary industry. The cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design philosophy which has been described as a paradigm changing innovative platform for achieving ecologically intelligent and environmentally restorative buildings appears to offer an alternative vision which, if embraced, could lead to eco-effectiveness and the achievement of long-term environmental objectives. Adoption of C2C principles in the built environment has however been hindered by several factors especially in a sector where change has always been a very slow process. From a review of extant literature, it is argued that the promotion of current sustainable and/or gree n building strategies - which in themselves are not coherent enough due to their pluralistic meanings and sometimes differing solutions - are a major barrier to the promotion of C2C principles in the built environment. To overcome this barrier to C2C implementation, it is recommended that research should focus on developing clearly defined and measurable C2C targets that can be incorporated into project briefs from the inception of development projects. These targets could enable control, monitoring and comparison of C2C design outcomes with eco-efficient measures as well as serve as a guide for project stakeholders to achieve eco-effective “nutrient” management from the project conceptualization phase to the end of life of the building

The valuation tool user guide: monetizing Cradle to Cradle®

This User Guide outlines the object, scope and expected deliverables from the Valuation Tool component of the Cradle to Cradle ® C2C BIZZ project. It describes the compendium of subtools that have been developed comprising: i) overview of funding tools; ii) C2C investment appraisal tool; and iii) C2C value indexing tool. The underpinning methodologies, as well as their inherent strengths and limitations are also described. The C2C BIZZ project as a whole aims specifically to promote and enhance the implementation of C2C methods in business site development within North Western Europe (NWE) (PAD, p.14). It is intended to infuse C2C notions into conventional site development, restructuring and management. The primary focus of the project is on planning, building and managing of business sites with C2C credentials (PAD, p.18) using sites in Lille Metropole (La Lainiere), London (London Sustainable Industries Park) and Luxemburg (Ecoparc Windhof) as experimental fields. C2C BIZZ is not concerned with the internal operations and activities of occupiers or users of the developed site. Accordingly, the scope of the valuation tool is confined to the planning, building and management of C2C sites. The deliverable from this component is a compendium of subtools (see Figure 1 below) that may be used to analyse the financial performance of C2C credentials in business sites to aid the making of a business case for such developments and evaluating the financial incentives for particular C2C site development projects. This entire work is premised on the argument that the wider adoption of C2C principles within the built environment depends on the rate of uptake by the private sector. The private sector, being profit driven, are likely to engage in C2C site development if they are convinced of its capacity to contribute to their business goals which ultimately is a return on their investment. The tool development described in this document attempts to provide a framework for collating an evidence base that can assist in articulating the business case for C2C in business site developments

A Prediction of the B*_c mass in full lattice QCD

By using the Highly Improved Staggered Quark formalism to handle charm, strange and light valence quarks in full lattice QCD, and NRQCD to handle bottom valence quarks we are able to determine accurately ratios of the B meson vector-pseudoscalar mass splittings, in particular, (m(B*_c)-m(B_c))/(m(B*_s)-m(B_s)). We find this ratio to be 1.15(15), showing the `light' quark mass dependence of this splitting to be very small. Hence we predict m(B_c*) = 6.330(7)(2)(6) GeV where the first two errors are from the lattice calculation and the third from existing experiment. This is the most accurate prediction of a gold-plated hadron mass from lattice QCD to date.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Chaos assisted adiabatic passage

We study the exact dynamics underlying stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) for a particle in a multi-level anharmonic system (the infinite square-well) driven by two sequential laser pulses, each with constant carrier frequency. In phase space regions where the laser pulses create chaos, the particle can be transferred coherently into energy states different from those predicted by traditional STIRAP. It appears that a transition to chaos can provide a new tool to control the outcome of STIRAP

Genotoxic Effect of Atrazine, Arsenic, Cadmium and Nitrate, Individually and in Mixtures at Maximum Contaminant Levels on mammalian Breast Cell Lines

There is strong evidence that hormonally active agents (HAAs) such as Atrazine (ATZ), Cadmium (Cd), Arsenic (As) and Nitrate (NO3) have both estrogenic activity and carcinogenic potential. Atrazine has clastogenic effects and may also act as tumor promoter as it induces the aromatase enzyme. Arsenic and Cadmium have been implicated in the etiology of skin, lung, prostate and liver cancers. Nitrate in drinking water has been found to increase the risk of bladder cancer.This study examined the genotoxicity of the aforementioned HAAs alone and in mixtures using mammalian breast cell lines, MCF-7 and MCF-10A, which are estrogen receptorpositive (ER+) and estrogen receptor-negative (ER-), respectively. To study the clastogenic potential by whole cell and flow karyotype damage, cells were exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of ATZ, Cd, As and NO3 for 4 and 7 days.Results indicated that all treatments induced whole cell clastogenicity in MCF-7 cells; except Cd and NO3 after 4 and 7 days as well as the 10% quaternary As mixture after 1 week. In MCF-10A cells, all treatments except the 10% mixture induced whole cell clastogenicity after 4 days, where flow karyotype damage was detected in all treatments except for the 10% mixture after 1 week. Estrogen caused whole cell damage but not flow karyotype damage in MCF-7. On the other hand, estrogen caused flow karyotype damage and not whole cell damage in MCF-10A cells, suggesting that estrogen receptor modulated the genotoxicity of estrogen. Cd caused flow karyotype damage but not whole cell damage in MCF-7 indicating that Cd’s gentoxicity is not related to its estrogenic activity.Keywords: HAAs, clastogenicity, flow-karyotype, genotoxicity, MCF-7, MCF-10

Superpartner Solutions of a BPS Monopole in Noncommutative Space

We construct U(2) BPS monopole superpartner solutions in N=2 non-commutative super Yang-Mills theory. Calculation to the second order in the noncommutative parameter $\theta$ shows that there is no electric quadrupole moment that is expected from the magnetic dipole structure of noncommtative U(2) monopole. This might give an example of the nature of how supersymmetry works not changing between the commutative and noncommutative theories.Comment: 8 page

14-Bromo-12-chloro-2,16-dioxapentacyclohenicosa-3(8),10,12,14-tetraene-7,20-dione

In the title compound, C19H16BrClO4, both the fused xanthene rings and one of the cyclohexane rings adopt envelope conformations, while the other cyclohexane ring is in a chair conformation. In the crystal, molecules are linked by C-H...O hydrogen bonds, forming infinite chains running along [10-1] incorporating R22(16) ring motifs. In addition, C-H...[pi] interactions and weak [pi]-[pi] stacking interactions [centroid-centroid distance = 3.768 (3) Å] help to consolidate the packing

Estimating the furrow infiltration characteristic from a single advance point

Management and control of surface irrigation, in particular furrow irrigation, is limited by spatio-temporal soil infiltration variability as well as the high cost and time associated with collecting intensive field data for estimation of the infiltration characteristics. Recent work has proposed scaling the commonly used infiltration function by using a model infiltration curve and a single advance point for every other furrow in an irrigation event. Scaling factors were calculated for a series of furrows at two sites and at four points down the length of the field (0.25 L, 0.5 L, 0.75 L and L). Differences in the value of the scaling factor with distance were found to be a function of the shape of the advance curves. It is concluded that use of points early in the advance results in a substantial loss of accuracy and should be avoided. The scaling factor was also strongly correlated with the furrow-wetted perimeter suggesting that the scaling is an appropriate way of both predicting and accommodating the effect of the hydraulic variability

BPS Monopole Equation in Omega-background

We study deformed supersymmetries in N=2 super Yang-Mills theory in the Omega-backgrounds characterized by two complex parameters $\epsilon_1, \epsilon_2$. When one of the $\epsilon$-parameters vanishes, the theory has extended supersymmetries. We compute the central charge of the algebra and obtain the deformed BPS monopole equation. We examine supersymmetries preserved by the equation.Comment: 14 pages, typos corrected, published version in JHE