Promoting Sustainability Awareness through Energy Engaged Virtual Communities of Construction Stakeholders

International audienceSustainability requires the engagement of every single constituent of the "building" product supply chain, from concept design to operation. The research explores ways of creating circles of impacts that bind building professionals, energy administrations, and citizens in a shared low carbon experience through a "one-stop-shop" Sustainable Construction Service Platform. The paper discusses awareness raising, stakeholders' engagement, technical requirements, and adoption and diffusion factors related to the platform. The research identifies the need to use advanced knowledge management functionality to leverage the value dimension of the proposed "one-stop-shop" service platform initiative

Looking back to see the future: building nuclear power plants in Europe

The so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ in Europe is promulgated by the execution of two large engineering projects involving the construction of two European Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) in Flamanville, France and Olkiluoto in Finland. As both projects have faced budget overruns and delays, this paper analyses their governance and history to derive lessons useful for the construction of future projects. Analysis indicates that the reasons for these poor outcomes are: overoptimistic estimations, first-of-a-kind (FOAK) issues and undervaluation of regulation requirements. These pitfalls have the potential to impact on many other engineering construction projects and highlight fruitful areas of further research into project performance

Pathotypic diversity of Rhynchosporium secalis (Oudem) in Tunisia

Scald, caused by Rhynchosporium secalis (Oudem), is an important disease of barley in Tunisia particularly in northern, northwestern and central parts of the country where the climate is usually cold and wet during most of the barley growing season. Pathogenic variability of the barley scald pathogen in Tunisia was determined by testing the pathogenicity of 100 isolates from 5 different regions on 19 host differentials. Pathotypic diversity was high, with 93 R. secalis pathotypes identified on two differential sets (one comprising 9 and the other 10 barley lines) containing known resistance genes. A few pathotypes comprised 2% of the isolates; however, the majorities were represented by a single isolate. None of the differential lines was resistant to all isolates. The differential cultivar “Astrix” was the least compatible with the scald pathotypes followed by the differential cultivars “Atlas” and “Abyssinia”. Compatibility of the pathotypes on “Rihane” (69%) was close to that on “Osiris” (73%) and “La Mesita” (61%). None of the pathotypes was found in all the five regions of Tunisia surveyed. Some pathotypes were specific to a single region while others were found in several regions. The incidence of pathotypes varied considerably among regions, with region 3 (northwestern Tunisia) comprising the largest number of pathotypes. Virulent pathotypes were recovered in all regions but more pathotypic variability (44%) was observed in the semi-arid region 3. Differential cultivars allowed classification of R. secalis in four virulence groups. Canonical discriminant analysis showed no apparent association between virulence and geographical origin of the populations. Pathogenic variability in R. secalis in Tunisia was found not to be associated with geographical region, hence, the necessity for deployment of different resistance sources in major barley growing areas.Key words: Rhynchosporium secalis, barley, virulence groups, pathotypic variation

Stiffness of Extracellular Matrix Components Modulates the Phenotype of Human Smooth Muscle Cells in Vitro and Allows for the Control of Properties of Engineered Tissues

AbstractSmooth muscle cells (SMCs) play a significant role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. 2D cultures elucidated valuable information about the interaction between SMCs and extracellular matrix (ECM) components. However, 3D constructs better represent the native vascular environment. Furthermore, a limited number of studies addressed the effect of ECM stiffness on SMCs phenotype. We investigated the effect of stiffness of different ECM substrates by modulating their concentrations, including the effect on morphology, proliferation, expression of the contractile protein α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and deposition of collagen type I (Col I) and collagen type III (Col III) proteins. At low concentrations of Col I gels and Col I gels supplemented with 10% fibronectin (Fn), SMCs exhibited non-elongated, ‘hill-and-valley’ shape and large mean cellular area, indicating a hypertrophic morphology, characteristic of the synthetic phenotype. However, with increasing concentration, mean cellular area and proliferation relative to cells cultured in 2D dropped. Whole protein secretion into the culture media and deposition of Col I and Col III generally decreased with increasing stiffness. Moreover, percentage of α-SMA+ SMCs decreased with increasing gel concentration, pointing to a shift towards the synthetic phenotype. Supplementing Col I with 10% Laminin (Ln) maintained higher cellular area and aspect ratio at all gel concentrations and did not change α-SMA expression significantly, compared to Col I alone or Col I + Fn. Overall, these results demonstrate that ECM components and stiffness could provide the tools to modulate the phenotype and function of SMCs in vitro, which allows for the control of properties of engineered tissues

Power quality enhancement using active power filter five-level cascade H-bridge under unbalanced and distorted grid

Introduction. To improve the power quality of a supply system, the total harmonic distortion (THD) is the most important parameter in the quantification of harmonics caused by nonlinear loads. In practice, it must be less than 5 %. The novelty of the proposed work consists in the use of a cascaded five level active filter, when the converter consisting of six H-bridge pairs, each one includes four transistors. Purpose. To increase the efficiency of this filter, two techniques for quantification of harmonic currents are proposed, first the PQ-theory which is simple but can only be used in case of a balanced grid, and second the synchronous reference frame theory (SFR-theory), which is capable of creating harmonic current not only in an unbalanced grid, but also in an unbalanced and distorted beam. Methods. Using the control techniques, the harmonic current is extracted from load current and considered as a reference. The constructed current should follow this reference. Results. The estimation of the active and reactive powers is based on the measurement of the currents crossing the load and the network voltages, these powers are used to determine the shape of the harmonic (reference) current. Using the PI regulator, the output current of the five-level inverter follows the reference current perfectly. The inverters output current is injected into the grid to eliminate harmonic currents. Practical value. In practice, the harmonic distortion rate THD is the most widely used criterion for criticizing the waveform of the currents and judging the quality of the energy involved. For currents on the source side, the THD is considered acceptable if it is less than 5 %, in our proposal the THD is 0.85 % with the PQ-theory and 2.34 % with SFR-theory, so it is optimal.Вступ. Для поліпшення якості електроенергії у системі електропостачання загальне гармонічне спотворення (ЗГС) є найважливішим параметром кількісної оцінки гармонік, викликаних нелінійними навантаженнями. На практиці вона має бути меншою за 5 %. Новизна запропонованої роботи полягає у використанні каскадного п’ятирівневого активного фільтра, коли перетворювач складається з шести пар Н-мостів, кожна з яких включає чотири транзистора. Мета. Щоб підвищити ефективність цього фільтра, пропонуються два методи кількісного визначення гармонійних струмів: по-перше, PQ-теорія, яка проста, але може використовуватися лише у разі збалансованої сітки, і, по-друге, теорія синхронної системи відліку (теорія SFR). , який здатний створювати гармонійний струм не тільки в несиметричній сітці, а й у несиметричному та спотвореному пучку. Методи. Використовуючи методи управління, гармонійний струм витягується зі струму навантаження і розглядається як опорний. Побудований струм повинен слідувати за цим посиланням. Результати. Оцінка активної та реактивної потужностей заснована на вимірюванні струмів, що проходять через навантаження, та мережевих напруг, за цими потужностями визначається форма гармонійного (опорного) струму. При використанні ПІ-регулятора вихідний струм п’ятирівневого інвертора точно відповідає опорному струму. Вихідний струм інвертора подається до мережі для усунення гармонійних струмів. Практична цінність. Насправді коефіцієнт гармонійних спотворень ЗГС є найбільш широко використовуваним критерієм для критики форми хвилі струмів та оцінки якості задіяної енергії. Для струмів на стороні джерела ЗГС вважається прийнятним, якщо він менше 5 %, за нашою пропозицією ЗГС становить 0,85 % з PQ-теорією і 2,34 % з SFR-теорією, тому він є оптимальним

Signatures of human skin in the millimetre wave band (80-100) GHz

© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. With the performance of millimeter wave security screening imagers improving (reduced speckle, greater sensitivity, and better spatial resolution) attention is turning to identification of anomalies which appear on the human body. Key to this identification is the understanding of how the emissive and reflective properties vary over the human body and between different categories of people, defined by age and gender for example. As the interaction of millimetre waves with the human body is only a fraction of a millimetre into the skin, precise measurement of the emission and reflection of this radiation will allow comparisons with the norm for that region of the body and person category. On an automated basis at security screening portals, this will increase detection probabilities and reduce false alarm rates, ensuring high throughputs at entrances to future airport departure lounges and transport networks. A technique to measure the human skin emissivity in vivo over the frequency band 80 GHz to 100 GHz is described. The emissivities of the skin of a sample of 60 healthy participants (36 males and 24 females) measured using a 90 GHz calibrated radiometer was found to range from 0.17±0.002 to 0.68±0.002. The radiometric measurements were made at four locations on the arm, namely: palm of hand, back of hand, dorsal surface of the forearm, and volar side of the forearm, where the water content and the skin thickness are known to be different. These measurements show significant variation in emissivity from person to person and, more importantly, significant variation at different locations on the arms of individuals. Males were found to have an emissivity 0.03 higher than those of females. The emissivity of the back of the hand, where the skin is thinner and the blood vessels are closer to the skin surface, was found to be lower by 0.0681 than the emissivity of the palm of the hand, where the skin is thicker. The measurements also show that the emissivity of the volar side location where the blood vessels are closer to the skin surface is lower by 0.0677 than the emissivity of the dorsal surface location. The measured differences agree with those differences estimated by a half space electromagnetic model of the interaction and can be interpreted in terms of the differing water contents and skin thickness of those regions of the body