The Durban Climate Change Strategy: Lessons learnt from the 2021 strategy review and implementation plan

Urban local governments are increasingly developing climate change adaptation plans. However, there is limited literature on climate change adaptation experiences of African cities, particularly with regard to moving from strategy development to implementation. This continues to hamper efforts to understand and guide city climate change actions on the continent. This article helps address this gap by providing critical insights into the opportunities and challenges experienced, and the solutions found in the process of developing and implementing the Durban Climate Change Strategy (DCCS) in the City of Durban, South Africa. The initial 2015 DCCS was reviewed in 2020/2021, and an analysis of the process and its outcomes provide useful focus areas that could guide other cities across the Global South and beyond for implementing climate change strategies. Based on these focus areas, the article demonstrates that there are considerable governance and other barriers to this process that span multiple scales, but also many opportunities such as good organisation, ongoing support across multiple departments and scales, and perseverance that can be harnessed. The findings have significant practical and policy implications for developing and implementing urban climate strategies and provide important conceptual insights for building transformative resilience in challenging governance contexts

Using Lean Six Sigma to redesign the supply chain to the operating room department of a private hospital to reduce associated costs and release nursing time to care

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2021-10-18, pub-electronic 2021-10-20Publication status: PublishedSeán Paul Teeling - ORCID: 0000-0002-4102-7280 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4102-7280Continuity of the supply chain is an integral element in the safe and timely delivery of health services. Lean Six Sigma (LSS), a continuous improvement approach, aims to drive efficiencies and standardisation in processes, and while well established in the manufacturing and supply chain industries, also has relevance in healthcare supply chain management. This study outlines the application of LSS tools and techniques within the supply chain of an Operating Room (OR) setting in a private hospital in Dublin, Ireland. A pre-/post-intervention design was employed following the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) framework and applying LSS methodology to redesign the current process for stock management both within the OR storage area and within a pilot OR suite, through collaborative, inclusive, and participatory engagement with staff. A set of improvements were implemented to standardise and streamline the stock management in both areas. The main outcomes from the improvements implemented were an overall reduction in the value of stock held within the operating theatre by 17.7%, a reduction in the value of stock going out of date by 91.7%, and a reduction in the time spent by clinical staff preparing stock required for procedures by 45%, all demonstrating the effectiveness of LSS in healthcare supply chain management.18pubpub2

Micromechanical finite element modelling of thermo-mechanical fatigue for P91 steels

In this paper, the cyclic plasticity and fatigue crack initiation behaviour of a tempered martensite ferritic steel under thermo-mechanical fatigue conditions is examined by means of micromechanical finite element modelling. The crystal plasticity-based model explicitly reflects the microstructure of the material, measured by electronic backscatter diffraction. The predicted cyclic thermo-mechanical response agrees well with experiments under both in-phase and out-of-phase conditions. A thermo-mechanical fatigue indicator parameter, with stress triaxiality and temperature taken into account, is developed to predict fatigue crack initiation. In the fatigue crack initiation simulation, the out-of-phase thermo-mechanical response is identified to be more dangerous than in-phase response, which is consistent with experimental failure data. It is shown that the behaviour of thermo-mechanical fatigue can be effectively predicted at the microstructural level and this can lead to a more accurate assessment procedure for power plant components

Pregnancy-specific stress, fetoplacental haemodynamics, and neonatal outcomes in women with small for gestational age pregnancies: a secondary analysis of the multicentre Prospective Observational Trial to Optimise Paediatric Health in Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Objectives: To examine associations between maternal pregnancy-specific stress and umbilical (UA PI) and middle cerebral artery pulsatility indices (MCA PI), cerebroplacental ratio, absent end diastolic flow (AEDF), birthweight, prematurity, neonatal intensive care unit admission and adverse obstetric outcomes in women with small for gestational age pregnancies. It was hypothesised that maternal pregnancy-specific stress would be associated with fetoplacental haemodynamics and neonatal outcomes. Design: This is a secondary analysis of data collected for a large-scale prospective observational study. Setting: This study was conducted in the seven major obstetric hospitals in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Participants: Participants included 331 women who participated in the Prospective Observational Trial to Optimise Paediatric Health in Intrauterine Growth Restriction. Women with singleton pregnancies between 24 and 36 weeks gestation, estimated fetal weight <10th percentile and no major structural or chromosomal abnormalities were included. Primary and secondary outcome measures Serial Doppler ultrasound examinations of the umbilical and middle cerebral arteries between 20 and 42 weeks gestation, Pregnancy Distress Questionnaire (PDQ) scores between 23 and 40 weeks gestation and neonatal outcomes. Results: Concerns about physical symptoms and body image at 35–40 weeks were associated with lower odds of abnormal UAPI (OR 0.826, 95% CI 0.696 to 0.979, p=0.028). PDQ score (OR 1.073, 95% CI 1.012 to 1.137, p=0.017), concerns about birth and the baby (OR 1.143, 95% CI 1.037 to 1.260, p=0.007) and concerns about physical symptoms and body image (OR 1.283, 95% CI 1.070 to 1.538, p=0.007) at 29–34 weeks were associated with higher odds of abnormal MCA PI. Concerns about birth and the baby at 29–34 weeks (OR 1.202, 95% CI 1.018 to 1.421, p=0.030) were associated with higher odds of AEDF. Concerns about physical symptoms and body image at 35–40 weeks were associated with decreased odds of neonatal intensive care unit admission (OR 0.635, 95% CI 0.435 to 0.927, p=0.019). Conclusions: These findings suggest that fetoplacental haemodynamics may be a mechanistic link between maternal prenatal stress and fetal and neonatal well-being, but additional research is required

A precipitate evolution-based continuum damage mechanics model of creep behaviour in welded 9Cr steel at high temperature

A multiaxial, physically based, continuum damage mechanics methodology for creep of welded 9Cr steels is presented, incorporating a multiple precipitate-type state variable, which simulates the effects of strain- and temperature-induced coarsening kinematics. Precipitate volume fraction and initial diameter for carbide and carbo-nitride precipitate types are key microstructural variables controlling time to failure in the model. The heat-affected zone material is simulated explicitly utilising measured microstructural data, allowing detailed investigation of failure mechanisms. Failure is shown to be controlled by a combination of microstructural degradation and Kachanov-type damage for the formation and growth of creep cavities. Comparisons with experimental data demonstrate the accuracy of this model for P91 material.This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of (i) the Irish Research Council under Project Number GOIPG/2015/3944 and (ii) Science Foundation Ireland as part of the MECHANNICS joint project between NUI Galway and University of Limerick under Grant Number SFI/14/IA/2604.peer-reviewe

Cyclic plasticity of welded P91 material for simple and complex power plant connections

This paper focuses on with the cyclic plasticity modelling of welded, ex-service P91 material. A multi material model is developed for high temperature cyclic plasticity, including the effects of the three different material zones in the vicinity of the weld: parent metal, weld metal and heat-affected zone. The cyclic plasticity behaviour of the three zones is identified from previously-published high temperature, low cycle fatigue experimental tests on uniaxial parent metal, weld metal and cross-weld (repair weld) specimens on ex-service P91 material. The heat-affected zone is shown to be significantly softer than the parent and weld metals and to act as a focus for concentration of plastic strain, leading to significantly inhomogeneous distributions of stress and strain in the weldment. The multi-material cyclic plasticity model is applied, via a three-dimensional finite element analysis of a welded T-piece header-branch connection, to predict the effects of cyclic internal pressure and small amplitude thermal fluctuations. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland under Grant Number SFI/2010/IN.1/I3015 and Grant Number 14/IA/2604. The modelling work was supported by the Irish Center for High-End Computing (ICHEC). The Authors also acknowledg the contributions made by the collaborators in this project, including Mr David Joyce and Dr Dongfeng Li (formerly NUI Galway), Prof. Noel P. O’Dowd, Dr. Peter Tiernan, and Mr. Brian J. Golden of the University of Limerick, Ms Adelina Adams of ESB Energy International and Prof. Tom H. Hyde, Prof. Wei Sun and Dr Christopher J. Hyde of the University of Nottingham.peer-reviewe

Improving the management of threatened ecosystems in an urban biodiversity hotspot through the Durban Research Action Partnership

Not abstract availabl

Cyclic plasticity and low cycle fatigue damage characterisation of thermally simulated X100Q heat affected zone

This paper presents the cyclic plasticity and low cycle fatigue (LCF) damage characterisation of thermally simulated heat affected zone (HAZ) for API 5L X100Q weldments. Microstructures representative of the HAZ for two cooling rates are generated using a Gleeble thermomechanical simulator for manufacture of strain-controlled cyclic plasticity test specimens. The simulated HAZ specimens are subjected to a strain controlled test programme which examines the cyclic effects of strain-range and the tensile response at room temperature. A modified version of the Chaboche rate independent plasticity model, which accounts for early stage damage is implemented to characterise the cyclic plasticity response, including isotropic and kinematic hardening effects. The constitutive parameters are fitted to experimental data using an optimisation procedure developed within a MATLAB code. The measured response of the simulated HAZ specimens is compared to that of the X100Q parent material (PM), and the simulated HAZ is shown to share the early stage fatigue damage behaviour of the PM, but exhibits significantly a higher yield and cyclic strength