Preference for Plants in an Office Environment

Plants in the workplace are known to bring a number of benefits including psychological as well as aesthetic and air quality benefits. Therefore, plants can have an impact on overall organisational performance. However, findings of previous studies have rarely been applied in the FM context and yet strategic FM delivery in improving workplace productivity is essential for business survival. The paper explores the importance of interior plants in maintaining the physical and psychological well-being of office occupants utilising a survey of participants’ perceptions of photographs of an office with various levels of planting installed from no plants up to very high levels of planting. The paper provides preliminary results of a longer programme of research into the benefits of plants within the FM context. The work demonstrates that a reasonable level of interior planting in offices is preferred over offices with no plants. These perceived benefits may have a direct impact on overall organisational performance and therefore incorporating elements of nature within building design and management may in future be considered imperative to achieving the desired strategic outcomes of the organisation

Total Quality Facilities Management and Innovation: A Synergistic Approach

The ideas of quality and performance management and innovation in facilities management service provision are not new. Total Quality Management (TQM) is widely recognised throughout the world as a concept capable of providing competitive advantage. Innovation has also received considerable attention as having a crucial role in securing sustainable competitive advantage. However, there has been little consideration of the potential for integration of TQM practices with innovation principles in determining facilities management performance. TQM and innovation appear to corroborate each other and are becoming increasingly important in facilities management. This study takes a theoretical approach to critically review the relationship between TQM and innovation and to determine the relationship between TQM and Innovation in regard to facilities service provision. The theoretical implication is that FM service providers may adopt a synergistic approach to TQM and innovation, leading to sustained competitive advantage in terms of better positioning themselves within the saturated FM marketplace

Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want

Too often discussions on curriculum development fail to examine underlying assumptions about the nature of education, the identity of design and technology as a 'subject', and its place in the whole school curriculum.' Even our National Curriculum document offers no rationale behind the statutory order2 Indeed there is a danger that design and technology teachers simply do not have time to reflect.3 The DATA consultative paper4 provided a valuable framework for discussion. The present article reports on a workshop at the 1998 DATA Conference. This took the form of a structured, participatory debate, led by two Nuffield Area Field Officers holding differing views on certain fundamental issues. Eight key issues were raised with the leaders presenting a range of arguments. Delegates were then invited to contribute further views before regis

Validity of the Cauchy-Born rule applied to discrete cellular-scale models of biological tissues.

The development of new models of biological tissues that consider cells in a discrete manner is becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to continuum methods based on partial differential equations, although formal relationships between the discrete and continuum frameworks remain to be established. For crystal mechanics, the discrete-to-continuum bridge is often made by assuming that local atom displacements can be mapped homogeneously from the mesoscale deformation gradient, an assumption known as the Cauchy-Born rule (CBR). Although the CBR does not hold exactly for noncrystalline materials, it may still be used as a first-order approximation for analytic calculations of effective stresses or strain energies. In this work, our goal is to investigate numerically the applicability of the CBR to two-dimensional cellular-scale models by assessing the mechanical behavior of model biological tissues, including crystalline (honeycomb) and noncrystalline reference states. The numerical procedure involves applying an affine deformation to the boundary cells and computing the quasistatic position of internal cells. The position of internal cells is then compared with the prediction of the CBR and an average deviation is calculated in the strain domain. For center-based cell models, we show that the CBR holds exactly when the deformation gradient is relatively small and the reference stress-free configuration is defined by a honeycomb lattice. We show further that the CBR may be used approximately when the reference state is perturbed from the honeycomb configuration. By contrast, for vertex-based cell models, a similar analysis reveals that the CBR does not provide a good representation of the tissue mechanics, even when the reference configuration is defined by a honeycomb lattice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for concurrent discrete and continuous modeling, adaptation of atom-to-continuum techniques to biological tissues, and model classification

The dual digestion of sewage sludge using air and pure oxygen

Dual Digestion is a two-stage system that combines autothermal thermophilic aerobic pre-treatment with conventional anaerobic digestion. The practicability of the system using pure oxygen is well proven. Disadvantages are the high cost of the pure oxygen and the absence of a detailed evaluation of anaerobic digester performance. This report discusses the results of a full-scale investigation into the dual digestion system (184m³ aerobic reactor and 1800m³ anaerobic digester), carried out in two phases: In the first using air alone for oxygenating the aerobic reactor and in the second using a combination of air and pure oxygen. During both phases the performance of the anaerobic digester was also monitored, but in greater detail in the second phase as far as the final sludge product is concerned. In phase I, with air, it was possible to maintain thermophilic temperatures in the aerobic reactor throughout the year. However, the required retention times were relatively long (3-6 days) in comparison with the pure oxygen reactor (~1 day) due to the high vapour heat losses. At long retention times, the volatile solids (VS) destruction was appreciable (~25%) and the reactor tended towards an autothermal thermophilic digester. Foaming, although unpredictable in its occurrence, significantly improved aerobic reactor performance by doubling the oxygen transfer efficiency. From liquid and gas mass and heat balances it was found that the specific biological heat yield and respiration quotient were approximately constant at 12.8 MJ/kg(O₂) and 0. 70 mol(CO₂)/mol(O₂) respectively over a wide range of operating conditions and consistent relationships between VS removal, heat generation, and oxygen utilisation could be established. Based on information collected, it was concluded that increased treatment capacity and greater temperature control of the aerobic reactor could be provided by supplementing air oxygenation with pure oxygen. In phase II, using a combination of air and pure oxygen, much higher loading rates on the aerobic reactor were possible. Thermophilic temperatures could be maintained at short retention times (1-2 days). Unfortunately, no foaming occurred during this period. Consequently, the benefit of improved oxygen transfer efficiency of the air oxygenation system, produced by the foam, could not be exploited. Liquid and gas mass and heat balances confirmed the specific heat yield and respiration quotient values and the relationship between oxygen utilisation, VS destruction and biological heating. During phase II, the anaerobic digester operated at a retention time of ~10 days. The sensible heat content of the hot sludge from the aerobic reactor was sufficient to force the digester into the thermophilic temperature range. The stability of the anaerobic process and final sludge product at this short retention time was monitored with % VS removal and residual specific oxygen utilisation rate tests and found to be similar to that of conventional mesophilic anaerobic digestion at 20 days retention time. Dewaterability as reflected by the specific resistance to filtration (SRF) was found to be poor, but 11ot much worse than for conventional mesophilic digestion. Sufficient information was obtained during phases I and II to allow a mathematical model to be compiled, which could reasonably reliably simulate all the main operating parameters of the dual digestion system. The model provided a means for assessing different system configurations with mesophilic or thermophilic digestion, with and without heat exchange or gas engine external heat sources, allowing technical and economical (capital and operating) feasibility to be evaluated and compared with that for conventional digestion. From both the experimental and modelled results, all the claimed benefits of the dual digestion system were verified with the exception of the claim that aerobic reactor heat pre-treatment of the sludge allows the anaerobic digester to operate at short retention times (~10 days). However, the digester can be operated at 10 days retention provided its temperature is in the thermophilic range, in which case a sufficiently stable sludge is produced; at mesophilic temperatures, a retention time of 15 days or longer is required to produce a sludge of equivalent stability to that from conventional mesophilic digestion. Consequently, it is not the stability of the anaerobic process per se that governs the minimum retention time but the quality required for the final sludge product. The aerobic reactor is an appropriate pre-treatment stage for the thermophilic digester because it provides the necessary temperature and pH buffering to allow stable operation in the thermophilic range. It is concluded that where application of conventional anaerobic digestion is contemplated, whether for new installations or for upgrading existing plants, the dual digestion system should be seriously considered as a possible option. It competes favourably both technically and economically with conventional mesophilic digestion and produces a superior sludge product which can be beneficially utilised in agriculture

A design-based approach to technology education - is it acceptable practice in Russia?

This paper discusses the results of an evaluation of a curriculum development project, aimed at introducing a design-based or 'project' approach to Technology education in one of the central regions in Russia. The work was started four years ago and in October 1999 it was evaluated for the first time. Qualitative methodology has been used for this evaluation, including interviews with students and teachers, project leaders and regional administrators, as well as questionnaires to students and teachers, and analysis of documents. The findings demonstrate that there is a very positive move in the 'right' direction and that the project has been successful. However, there are some deep, culturally rooted misinterpretations of the approach. Two main areas of concern have been discussed: understanding of the nature of projects in technology education and humanisation as a new epistemological basis for technology education. In the paper the interpretations of the findings are presented within the context of educational reform in Russia. Comparisons are drawn with trends in the practice of English teachers of Design and Technology

Is it possible or desirable to change the relationship between science and design and technology in secondary schools?

This paper will consider the findings of 'Interaction', a report commissioned by the Engineering Council and the Engineering Employers' Federation, to explore the relationship between science and design and technology in secondary schools. The paper begins by summarising the epistemological and other key differences between science and technology, based on a literature review. It will continue with a description of the methods used to investigate the views of the science and design and technology education communities. The paper will then report these views and use them to present a rationale for a closer relationship between the two subjects. Then the paper will describe models whereby a closer relationship may be achieved, taking into account the barriers to progress identified in the report. Following a list of the recommendations made in the 'Interaction' report, the paper will end with the progress made so far in implementing these recommendations and discuss how this implementation can be seen in terms of robust professional development and the creation of new professional knowledge