Rubberlike elasticity experiment

Four rubber erasers from the campus bookstore, two green and two white, have been cut to have identical dimensions. These are loaded in compression with a mechanical test machine capable of applying cyclic loads and providing output to an X-Y plotter. The anelastic behavior of rubber as well as the relative stiffnesses of composite materials loaded transversely and longitudinally may be demonstrated to beginning students or used as input for computer analysis by students

A comparison of optical and radar measurements of mesospheric winds and tides

Optical measurements of mesospheric winds by Fabry‐Perot spectrometers, FPSs, at Mawson, 67.6°S 62.9°E, and Davis, 68.6°S 78.0°E, Antarctica are compared with similar measurements obtained using a spaced‐antenna MF radar at Davis. The FPSs observed the OH emission. Different analysis procedures, used to determine the mean wind, and amplitude and phase of the semidiurnal tide, have been compared. At these latitudes the diurnal tide is weak and the semi‐diurnal tide, although highly variable in amplitude, is usually the dominant periodicity. When comparing the amplitude and phase of the semidiurnal tide good agreement is obtained between measurements by the two instruments

NAVDEX, a helpful tool for the classification of environmental legislation

Since its launch in 1998 the thematic indexation of the Flemish Environmental Navigator is carried out manually by legal experts of the University of Ghent, Belgium. However, due to the exponential growth of legal documents a physical indexation process eventually was no longer tenable, nor desirable. Hence, a semi-automatic indexing tool for environmental legislation, called NAVDEX, was developed. A specific algorithm was determined, based On the presence of similar terms in law objects. A parameter was defined, reflecting the strength of the relation between law objects in order to computerise the return on a user's query. 1/7 view, of managing the relations between law objects, a visualisation tool was created in order to provide the legal experts with a detailed overview of all associated law Objects. The testing corpus was decided to be VLAREA, a Flemish order concerning waste prevention and management. The evaluation of the test results was carried out by experts in environmental legislation, who computed the relative recall of several search terms. With an average score of 0.63 NAVDEX is able to retrieve nearly two third of the associated law objects. Consequently the evaluators' conclusions were unanimous so as to define NAVDEX as a useful tool to determine and visualise associated LawObjects

Evaluation, practice and remarks on the IEC 61000-3-2 standard

This paper describes an evaluation,interpretation and discussion of the IEC61000-3-2standard [1]. Since January 2001, this standard isapplied. Some of the directives mentioned in thisreference are liable to interpretations, test conditionsare not well defined and warm up conditions areneglected (except for lamps). In practice, a lot ofsingle phase [2] as well as three phase non linear loadsdo not comply with the standard. All tested devicesshow bad power quality parameters. Using an IEC fullcompliant programmable power source and poweranalyzer, several test set ups are analyzed, withrespect to the IEC61000-3-2 standard.The paper presents some important remarks andconclusions, based on measurements on several singlephase non linear loads

Social media recruitment : communication characteristics and sought gratifications

This study examines how social media pages can be used to influence potential applicants' attraction. Based on the uses and gratifications theory, this study examines whether organizations can manipulate the communication characteristics informativeness and social presence on their social media page to positively affect organizational attractiveness. Moreover, we examine whether job applicants' sought gratifications on social media influence these effects. A 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design is used. The findings show that organizations can manipulate informativeness and social presence on their social media. The effect of manipulated informativeness on organizational attractiveness depends on the level of manipulated social presence. When social presence was high, informativeness positively affected organizational attractiveness. This positive effect was found regardless of participants' sought utilitarian gratification. Social presence had no significant main effect on organizational attractiveness. There was some evidence that the effect of social presence differed for different levels of social gratification

Methodology for energy audits in the framework of the energy efficiency directive

The Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU (EED) was released in October 2012 and transposed in June 2014 by Member States. The Directive requires large companies to carry out an energy audit before December 2015, which has to be repeated every 4 years. A possibility for companies to be exempted from regular energy audits is to be or become certified by an approved energy management system (EnMS), most likely the international standard ISO 50001. In both cases it means that companies have to set plans and define actions to comply with European and national requirements that aim at improving their energy efficiency. Considering the differences across European countries regarding the awareness and involvement of the industrial sector in terms of energy management, a large number of companies still lack systematic and comprehensive systems to understand, monitor and improve their energy consumption in a cost-effective and sustainable way. This paper presents a methodology to carry out indicative energy audits in compliance with the European standard EN 16247-1 and including the ISO 50001 requirements of the energy planning phase (e.g. energy review, energy baseline and energy performance indicators). The proposed methodology follows a top down approach, starting from the energy bill and identifying major energy sources. It covers the evaluation of the actual system’s energy efficiency, identifies energy savings opportunities and presents an innovative approach for energy consumption monitoring via surrogate models of processes. It makes use of state-of-the-art techniques such as data reconciliation, heat integration via total site pinch analysis and statistical tools. Since natural gas and electricity usually take up the largest share of the total energy consumption in industry, the focus is put on these two energy carriers. One of the interesting aspects of the methodology concerns the data gathering and processing phases. Here the required data are targeted and classified in a systematic way in order to characterise the energy consumers and identify the areas of significant energy use presenting a potential for energy efficiency improvement. Once the energy review step is carried out, strategies for energy consumption monitoring should be developed. The methodology proposes an innovative approach to generate specific energy consumption models of industrial processes (surrogate models) that could be used to monitor units, online or offline, and detect deviations from expected behaviour

Prolonged Glucocorticoid Treatment in ARDS: Impact on Intensive Care Unit-Acquired Weakness.

Systemic inflammation and duration of immobilization are strong independent risk factors for the development of intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICUAW). Activation of the pro-inflammatory transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) results in muscle wasting during disuse-induced skeletal muscle atrophy (ICU bed rest) and septic shock. In addition, NF-κB-mediated signaling plays a significant role in mechanical ventilation-induced diaphragmatic atrophy and contractile dysfunction. Older trials investigating high dose glucocorticoid treatment reported a lack of a sustained anti-inflammatory effects and an association with ICUAW. However, prolonged low-to-moderate dose glucocorticoid treatment of sepsis and ARDS is associated with a reduction in NF-κB DNA-binding, decreased transcription of inflammatory cytokines, enhanced resolution of systemic and pulmonary inflammation, leading to fewer days of mechanical ventilation, and lower mortality. Importantly, meta-analyses of a large number of randomized controlled trials investigating low-to-moderate glucocorticoid treatment in severe sepsis and ARDS found no increase in ICUAW. Furthermore, while the ARDS network trial investigating methylprednisolone treatment in persistent ARDS is frequently cited to support an association with ICUAW, a reanalysis of the data showed a similar incidence with the control group. Our review concludes that in patients with sepsis and ARDS, any potential direct harmful neuromuscular effect of glucocorticoids appears outweighed by the overall clinical improvement and reduced duration of organ failure, in particular ventilator dependency and associated immobilization, which are key risk factors for ICUAW