Driving in the wrong lane: towards a longer life-span of cars

Within the context of product longevity, one especially impactful and ubiquitous product demands further research: the car. Car longevity has been addressed in the context of product life extension and product lifetime optimisation but there have been a few studies on car longevity in the context of business and none specifically from an industrial design context. This paper presents initial findings from preliminary interviews with key industry representatives such as car designers and engineers. It discusses the barriers to and opportunities for designing a car with a longer life-span. This and further data will later be analysed in order to produce a design framework to inform car designers on life-span and usage optimization through design. Strategies such as increased longevity or use-intensity can potentially reduce the throughput - and thereafter the consumption - of cars. Such a shift in the automotive sector would support the transition from a linear economy to a more sustainable one. The initial findings, however, suggest that a longer life car is not an uncompromised solution and important concessions would have to be made in order to make this an acceptable product

User-intensive cars; design contributions for more sustainable approaches to personal transportation

Social changes in Europe and increase in urban population globally may generate new opportunities to develop different forms of personal transportation and ownership models, e.g. reducing the number of cars. Different solutions have been suggested in order to reduce their environmental burden. There is currently little evidence on whether user-intensive cars are fit for purpose or overcome issues such as ownership, cleanliness, and performance under different driving styles. This paper presents initial findings from ten interviews concerning user-intensive passenger cars with industry representatives such as car designers and engineers. It identifies, mainly from a design and development point of view, the barriers and opportunities to user-intensive vehicles. This will contribute to a better understanding of the car as a user-intensive product shared by a number of consumers as opposed to the dominant model of private ownership

Rigorous Formulation of Duality in Gravitational Theories

In this paper we evince a rigorous formulation of duality in gravitational theories where an Einstein like equation is valid, by providing the conditions under which the Hodge duals (with respect to the metric tensor g) of T^a and R_b^a may be considered as the torsion and curvature 2-forms associated with a connection D', part of a Riemann-Cartan structure (M,g',D'), in the cases g = g' and g does not equal g', once T^a and R_b^a are the torsion and curvature 2-forms associated with a connection D part of a Riemann-Cartan structure (M,g,D). A new form for the Einstein equation involving the dual of the Riemann tensor of D is also provided, and the result is compared with others appearing in the literature.Comment: 15 page

Galactic Archaeology with CoRoT and APOGEE: Creating mock observations from a chemodynamical model

In a companion paper, we have presented the combined asteroseismic-spectroscopic dataset obtained from CoRoT lightcurves and APOGEE infra-red spectra for 678 solar-like oscillating red giants in two fields of the Galactic disc (CoRoGEE). We have measured chemical abundance patterns, distances, and ages of these field stars which are spread over a large radial range of the Milky Way's disc. Here we show how to simulate this dataset using a chemodynamical Galaxy model. We also demonstrate how the observation procedure influences the accuracy of our estimated ages.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Astronomische Nachrichten, special issue "Reconstruction the Milky Way's History: Spectroscopic surveys, Asteroseismology and Chemo-dynamical models", Guest Editors C. Chiappini, J. Montalb\'an, and M. Steffe

Effect of Sowing Time on Phytomass Production during Early Growth of Two Varieties of \u3ci\u3eStylosanthes guianensis (Aubl.) Sw.\u3c/i\u3e

The objective of this research was to determine the effect of two sowing times on phytomass production of two varieties of Stylosanthes guianensis (var. pauciflora and var. vulgaris). Two experimental periods were studied (1: January - May/1998 and 2: November/1998 - March/1999) using a completely randomized factorial design 2 x 2 x 14 (two periods, two varieties and fourteen ages of evaluation), with four replications. The results showed a difference between the periods concerning the growth and development of Stylosanthes, and that period 2 was the most favourable to this forage plant. There was, also, different adaptability between the two varieties concerning the sowing times. The var. pauciflora was more adapted in period 1, and the var. vulgaris, in period 2. The data showed the possibility of selecting Stylosanthes cultivars adapted to different seasonal conditions

A consistent scalar-tensor cosmology for inflation, dark energy and the Hubble parameter

The authors are grateful for financial support to the Cruickshank Trust (CW), EPSRC/GG-Top (CW, JR), Omani Government (MA), Science Without Borders programme, CNPq, Brazil (DR), and STFC/CfFP (CW, AM, RB, JM). CW and AM acknowledge the hospitality of CERN, where this work was started. The University of Aberdeen and University of Edinburgh are charitable bodies registered in Scotland, with respective registration numbers SC013683 and SC005336.Peer reviewedPostprin

Produção de mudas de Berberis laurina Thunb.: resultados preliminares.

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Dengue disease, basic reproduction number and control

Dengue is one of the major international public health concerns. Although progress is underway, developing a vaccine against the disease is challenging. Thus, the main approach to fight the disease is vector control. A model for the transmission of Dengue disease is presented. It consists of eight mutually exclusive compartments representing the human and vector dynamics. It also includes a control parameter (insecticide) in order to fight the mosquito. The model presents three possible equilibria: two disease-free equilibria (DFE) and another endemic equilibrium. It has been proved that a DFE is locally asymptotically stable, whenever a certain epidemiological threshold, known as the basic reproduction number, is less than one. We show that if we apply a minimum level of insecticide, it is possible to maintain the basic reproduction number below unity. A case study, using data of the outbreak that occurred in 2009 in Cape Verde, is presented.Comment: This is a preprint of a paper whose final and definitive form has appeared in International Journal of Computer Mathematics (2011), DOI: 10.1080/00207160.2011.55454