Influence of Capillary Heterogeneity on Leakage of Co2 From a Borehole

We used a modified invasion percolation (MIP) model to examine the effect of capillary heterogeneity, buoyancy forces, and viscous forces on the surface area and saturation of a CO2 plume leaking into a shallow aquifer. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of how CO 2 migrates from a borehole, which is essential in implementing effective simulation and monitoring regimes to accurately detect CO2 leakage from sequestration sites. The MIP model approach will simulate invasion of a light non-wetting fluid (e.g., CO2) into a medium initially saturated with a dense wetting fluid (water). The style of capillary heterogeneity, the strength of buoyancy and viscous forces, and the size of the CO2 source were systematically varied yielding 168 different simulation scenarios. We find that the interplay between capillary heterogeneity, buoyancy forces, and viscous forces controls the surface area and saturation of gaseous CO2 leaking into an aquifer system. In unstructured systems with the absence of buoyancy and viscous forces, the CO2 surface area and saturation are relatively large. In most cases, the CO 2 surface area decreases in weakly stratified systems, and as stratification increases, the CO2 surface area increases and the CO2 saturation decrease. Buoyancy forces stretch the invading CO2 into a narrower structure, resulting in a higher surface area and a lower saturation. Our model implements weak viscous forces which cause CO2 to pool around the leak source until, at a radial distance, either buoyancy or capillary forces begin to dominate CO2 invasion. The dissolution rate of gaseous CO2 into groundwater is proportional to the surface area of the CO2 phase. Our study shows that variations in the style of capillary heterogeneity and the strength of buoyancy and viscous forces can lead to large differences in CO2 dissolution rates

Eficiência dos Sistemas de Informação no Processo de Tomada de Decisão nas Instituições de Ensino Superior: um Estudo de Caso

A necessidade de tomar decisões mais rápidas e acertadas no dia-a-dia de uma Instituição de Ensino Superior (IES) requer ferramentas que venham auxiliar o gestor. Para isso os sistemas de informações buscam atender tal necessidade e as IES têm investido cada vez mais nestes recursos. Em contrapartida os mesmos devem repassar às instituições quantidade e qualidade nas informações. Com isto, buscou-se neste artigo verificar o grau de eficiência de um sistema de informação utilizado por uma IES para auxiliar no processo de tomada de decisão. Para tanto se utilizou do método de estudo de caso, e a pesquisa teve seu caráter exploratório e descritivo. A instituição pesquisada é uma faculdade de Fortaleza CE, com cursos de graduação e pós-graduação. A análise dos dados foi tanto qualitativa quanto quantitativa. O instrumento de coleta de dados utilizado foi a entrevista semi-estruturada realizada com o gestor da instituição por telefone. Por fim chegaram-se aos seguintes resultados: o sistema de informação gerencial foi implantado em novembro de 2005, não havendo outro sistema antes sendo usado pela instituição. As necessidades da instituição, em termos de informações, são de relatórios administrativos, gerenciais e estratégicos, sendo que destes o sistema atende grande parte, deixando a desejar em alguns na questão de layouts. Quanto ao nível de atendimento para o gestor, este está em 70% e já em relação a instituição de uma forma geral encontra-se em 50%. Sendo assim há a necessidade da instituição entrar em contato com a empresa desenvolvedora a fim de fazer adaptações

Solving for y: digital soil mapping using statistical models and improved models of land surface geometry

Digital soil mapping (DSM) is a rapidly growing area of soil research that has great potential for enhancing soil survey activities and advancing knowledge of soil-landscape relationships. To date many successful studies have shown that geographic datasets can be used to model soil spatial variation. This thesis addresses two issues relevant to DSM, scale effects on digital elevation models, and predicting soil properties. The first issue examined was the effect of spatial extent on the calculation of geometric land surface parameters (LSP) (e.g. slope gradient). This is a significant issue as they represent some of the most common predictors used in DSM. To examine this issue two case studies were designed. The first evaluated the systematic effects of varying both grid and neighborhood size on LSP, while the second examined how the correlation between soil and LSP vary with grid and neighborhood size. Results of the first case study demonstrate that finer grid sizes were more sensitive to the scale of LSP calculation than larger grid sizes. While the magnitude of effect was diminished when comparing a high relief landscape to a low relief landscape, the shape and location of the effect was similar. Results of the second case study showed that the correlation between soil properties and slope curvatures were similarly optimized when varying the spatial extent, but that the effect was more sensitive to grid size than neighborhood size. Slope gradient also showed significant correlations with some of the soil properties, but was not sensitive to changes in grid or neighborhood size.;The second study attempted to predict numerous physical and chemical soil properties for several depth intervals (0-15, 15-60, 60-100, and 100-150-centimeters), using generalized linear models (GLM) and geographic datasets. The area examined was the Upper Gauley Watershed on the Monongahela National Forest, which covers approximately 82,500 acres (33,400 hectares). This watershed represents a complex landscape with contrasting geologic strata, deciduous and coniferous forests, and steep slopes. Given this landscape diversity it was still possible to fit GLM which explained on average 38 percent of the adjusted deviance for rock fragment content, and exchangeable calcium and magnesium, and phosphorus. Some of the most commonly selected environmental predictors were slope curvatures, lithology types, and relative slope position indices. This seems to validate the prominence of these variables in theoretical soil-landscape models. Had the correlation between the soil properties and slope curvatures not been optimized by varying the spatial extent, it is likely that another less suitable LSP would have been selected

The Brazilian plant-based meats industrial flourishment

The increasing global demand for meat in the 2020s threatens the sustainability and continuity of the food system. While reducing meat consumption is essential, stimulating changes in dietary patterns is complex, and promoting vegetarianism is not suffice. Plant-based meats are a novel food category that has been developed to replicate the culinary, sensory, and nutritional characteristics of traditional animal tissues. Silicon Valley-based food tech startups have added novel food technology to formerly 1960s-developed grain extrusion and texturing industrial processes to create plant-based meats with the potential to expand the consumption of vegetable proteins, thereby saving animals, the environment, the climate, our current food system, and human lives. A collaborative market narrative has sustained the nascent food category, attracting investors interested not only in greening their portfolio but also in disruptive innovation with multiplicative potential. In light of this international food market scenario, we inquired about the role of the Brazilian agrifood sector in this novel food category and how the local foodscape would incorporate it. Brazil's agribusiness is highly productive, particularly in exporting commoditized grains and meats. However, innovation is hindered, especially in food manufacturing instances. Financial flows in Latin America are less fluid than those established in the northern hemisphere, constraining innovation development and implementation. Although prosumer and activist entrepreneur enterprises are working on plant-based meats in Brazil, the country remained on the periphery of the emerging meat substitute industry. The Good Food Institute and FAIRR's multi-level actuation clarified the association between investments in plant-based meats and ESG, while also increasing pressure on global meat corporations and investors to gradually transform the animal farming system, directly impacting the formation and configuration of the Brazilian assemblage. Through an ethnographic study, we report the assembly of a unique conjuncture in Brazil that allowed the flourishing of the plant-based meat industry through the collaboration of various actors with different and sometimes even contrary interests. By following institutional events and mapping market devices, we describe this assemblage as being strategically mediated and partly mirrored in market events previously occurred in the United States. We demonstrate a multi-actor collaborative implementation of an innovative modus operandi, detailing Future Farm, JBS, Archer Daniels Midland, Marfrig, and The Good Food Institute Brasil, and other performative actors in the Brazilian plant-based meat industry. Thus, we explain how this assemblage overcame presupposed weaknesses and obstacles inherent to the Brazilian food industry by mobilizing multiple market devices to construct a shared narrative that framed, guided, and gave meaning to performances and market practices such as unprecedented collaborations, startup modus operandi, international learning, launch speed, competitiveness, and innovation across the whole value chain. Far from primarily focusing on consumers or food technology itself, the assemblage is embedded in the financial market interests. We conclude that the newly flourishing Brazilian plant-based meat industry enhances the chances of a sustainable transformation in the global food system. The study's findings are meaningful to policymakers, investors, and stakeholders in the global food system, mainly for those positioned in other peripheral countries or contexts.A crescente demanda global por carne projetada para a década de 2020 ameaça a sustentabilidade e a continuidade do sistema alimentar humano. Embora a redução do consumo de carne seja essencial, estimular mudanças nos padrões alimentares é complexo e promover o vegetarianismo não é suficiente. As carnes vegetais são uma nova categoria de alimentos desenvolvida para replicar as características culinárias, sensoriais e nutricionais das carnes animais em seus cortes e produtos mais tradicionais. As foodtech do Vale do Silício adicionaram novas tecnologias de alimentos a processos industriais de extrusão e texturização de grãos datados da década de 1960 para criar carnes vegetais com potencial de expandir o consumo de proteínas vegetais para além dos nichos vegetarianos, salvando assim os animais, o meio ambiente, o clima, nosso sistema alimentar atual e vidas humanas. Uma narrativa de mercado colaborativa sustentou a nascente categoria de alimentos, atraindo investidores interessados não apenas em esverdear seu portfólio, mas também em inovação disruptiva com potencial de crescimento exponencial. Diante desse cenário do mercado internacional de alimentos, indagamos sobre o papel do setor agroalimentar brasileiro junto a essa nova categoria de alimentos e como a paisagem alimentar local a incorporaria. O agronegócio brasileiro é altamente produtivo, principalmente na exportação de grãos comoditizados e carnes, também consideradas commodities. No entanto, a inovação é travada, especialmente nas instâncias de processamento de alimentos. Os fluxos financeiros na América Latina são menos fluidos do que os estabelecidos no hemisfério norte, restringindo o desenvolvimento e a implementação de inovações. Embora iniciativas prosumidoras e de empreendedorismo ativista tenham iniciado projetos de carnes vegetais no Brasil, inicialmente a indústria brasileira e o mercado alimentar local estavam à margem da emergente indústria de substitutos da carne. A atuação multinível do Good Food Institute e do FAIRR esclareceu a associação entre investimentos em carnes vegetais e ESG, ao mesmo tempo em que aumentou a pressão sobre as companhias globais de processamento de carnes e investidores para transformar gradativamente o sistema pecuário; o que impactou diretamente a formação e configuração da assemblage brasileira de carnes vegetais. Por meio de um estudo etnográfico, relatamos a assemblagem de uma conjuntura única no Brasil que permitiu o florescimento da indústria de carnes vegetais por meio da colaboração de diversos atores com interesses variados e por vezes até contrários. Ao acompanhar eventos institucionais e mapear dispositivos de mercado, descrevemos essa assemblagem como sendo estrategicamente mediada e parcialmente espelhada em eventos de mercado ocorridos anteriormente nos Estados Unidos. Demonstramos a implementação colaborativa dessa indústria detalhando os casos de Fazenda Futuro, JBS, Archer Daniels Midland, Marfrig e The Good Food Institute Brasil, e outros atores performativos na indústria brasileira de carne vegetais. Assim, explicamos como essa assemblagem superou fragilidades e obstáculos pressupostos inerentes à indústria alimentar brasileira ao mobilizar múltiplos dispositivos de mercado para construir uma narrativa compartilhada que emoldurasse, orientasse e desse sentido a performances e práticas de mercado como colaborações inéditas, startup modus operandi, aprendizado internacional, aceleração de lançamentos, competitividade e inovação em toda a cadeia de valor. Ao invés de se sustentar nas demandas dos consumidores ou na própria tecnologia de alimentos, essa assemblagem está pautada pela lógica do mercado financeiro. Concluímos que a recém-florescida indústria brasileira de carnes vegetais aumenta as chances de uma transformação sustentável no sistema alimentar global. As descobertas do estudo são significativas para políticas públicas, investidores e stakeholders do sistema alimentar, principalmente para aqueles posicionados em outros países ou contextos periféricos

Criteria for Architectural Integration of Active Solar Systems IEA Task 41, Subtask A

AbstractThe upcoming growing use of active solar technologies, photovoltaics and solar thermal, brings an important challenge for designers willing to keep a high architectural quality of buildings. The IEA Task 41 “Solar Energy and Architecture” brought together international experts to address key issues in this process.Subtask A dealt with the specific architectural integration issues brought by active solar systems, solar thermal and photovoltaics. A description of the main criteria and of the various ways the architect can use each technology to satisfy these criteria has been produced.The reasons for the limited use of such systems are presented, as identified through a large international web survey, pinpointing low architects knowledge and low products integrability as major barriers (deliverable T.41.A.1). Architectural integration criteria are defined, based on previous studies, and related guidelines for architects and products developers are presented in separate targeted deliverables (T.41.A.2 and T.41.A.3). Deliverable T.41.A.2 provides a comprehensive set of integration guidelines addressed to architects, highlighting all the integration possibilities offered today by both solar thermal and photovoltaics systems. Deliverable T.41.A.3 is intended to counter the lack of innovative products conceived for building integration, by addressing to manufacturers a detailed set of products development guidelines. Finally, already existing innovative products achieving good integrability characteristics are collected and presented in a new attractive website (T.41.A.6)

Digitized Products: Challenges and Practices from the Creative Industries

Recent digital technologies like the Internet of Things and Augmented Reality have brought IT into companies’ core products. What were previously purely physical products are becoming hybrid or digitized. Despite receiving a lot of recent attention, digitized products have only seen a slow uptake in businesses so far. In this paper, we study the challenges that keep companies from realizing the desired impacts of digitized products and the practices they employ to address these challenges. To do so, we looked at companies from a set of industries that are highly affected by digital transformation, but at the same time hesitant to move to a more digitized world: the creative industries. Based on a literature review and twelve interviews in creative industries, we developed a conceptual model that can serve as a basis for formulating testable hypotheses for further research in this area

A Game-Based Multimedia Approach to Library Orientation

How can 6,000 new Ohio State University students and their families become familiar with a major research library system before they begin their first day of classes? Simple. They play the Libraries’ interactive multimedia games distributed to all incoming freshmen. The Libraries’ Instruction Office, in collaboration with the University Office of First Year Experience, created an innovative series of casual, interactive online games to orient the thousands of incoming freshmen to the University Libraries, resources, people, and basic library skills. A survey of first-quarter freshmen perceptions helped to determine what new students want to know about the Libraries. By completing interactive crossword, multiple guess, jigsaw puzzles, and drag-and-drop matching games, students become familiar with library terminology, library locations, unique services, study spaces, available databases, borrowing options, and call numbers. They also can view short movies from librarians, VIPs, and students who describe their experiences with the Libraries. The games use Flash, Captivate, and other software to create this casual introduction and positive welcome to the University Libraries. A demonstration of the final library orientation product will be given. Additionally, the presentation will address why the game format was chosen, share baseline data from the 2006 library perceptions survey of new freshmen, and discuss the design and development process. Presenters will relate how consultation with faculty experts, the University’s First Year Experience Office, and user testing influenced the project, as well as the pedagogical implications of using casual games to facilitate learning

Experimental assessment of bi-directional transmission distribution functions using digital imaging techniques

Many daylighting applications require a precise knowledge of the directional transmission features of advanced fenestration materials. These photometric properties are described by a bi-directional transmission distribution function (BTDF), whose experimental assessment requires an appropriate equipment. A novel bi-directional photogoniometer, based on digital imaging techniques, has been designed and developed for that purpose. The main advantages of this device are the significant reduction of the time required for data measurement and its capability to assess an almost continuous BTDF function. These features can be achieved only through detailed and accurate calibration procedures of the bi-directional photogoniometer, which are described in this paper, together with digital image and data processing. Several experimental results, obtained for different fenestration materials, are used to illustrate the capabilities of this novel equipment