Safeguarding Health at the Workplace: A Study of Work Engagement, Authenticity and Subjective Wellbeing among Religious Workers

: Research in work and organizational psychology has paid little attention to religious workers, something certainly surprising as faith-based organizations play a key role in the welfare state of many countries. This research shows that religious workers in a Catholic order present a high degree of subjective wellbeing, both in terms of flourishing and satisfaction with life in general, and a positive balance of positive and negative feelings. More specifically, this study examines the relationship between authenticity and wellbeing amongst religious workers. Survey responses from 142 religious workers in Spain were analyzed using partial least squares path modelling. The results reveal that subjective wellbeing at work is positively related to authenticity. In addition, this relationship is mediated by their level of work engagement

Fluidization of Group B particles with a rotating distributor

A novel rotating distributor fluidized bed is presented. The distributor is a rotating perforated plate, with 1% open-area ratio. This work evaluates the performance of this new design, considering pressure drop, Δp, and quality of fluidization. Bed fluidization was easily achieved with the proposed device, improving the solid mixing and the quality of fluidization. In order to examine the effect of the rotational speed of the distributor plate on the hydrodynamic behavior of the bed, minimum fluidization velocity, Umf, and pressure fluctuations were analyzed. Experiments were conducted in the bubbling free regime in a 0.19 m i.d. fluidized bed, operating with Group B particles according to Geldart's classification. The pressure drop across the bed and the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations, σp, were used to find the minimum fluidization velocity, Umf. A decrease in Umf is observed when the rotational speed increases and a rise in the measured pressure drop was also found. Frequency analysis of pressure fluctuations shows that fluidization can be controlled by the adjustable rotational speed, at several excess gas velocities. Measurements with several initial static bed heights were taken, in order to analyze the influence of the initial bed mass inventory, over the effect of the distributor rotation on the bed hydrodynamics.Publicad

Reflexiones sobre materiales manufacturados: acciones humanas con sentimientos encontrados

La energía forma parte del ser, del estar, pertenecer. El mero hecho de existir en sí es energía. Se ha producido en algún momento un proceso entrópico. La termodinámica es un proceso entrópico, y por tanto energético. La industria, desde que se cambió el modo de cultivar, hasta que surgió la primera máquina de vapor en la primera revolución industrial y todas las que le han continuado hasta hoy, son temas que me interesan y voy a tratar en este proyecto. Las dualidades y la bipolaridad entre cualquier fenómeno y su contrario es inevitable; eficiencia frente a ineficiencia, productivo e improductivo, orden y caos o entropía, industria y naturaleza, sólido, líquido y gas, estados de la materia, donde la energía quizás sea el único sustantivo o acción que no tenga su contrario ya que todo de alguna forma es energía. En definitiva son procesos energéticos que constantemente se producen ya sea por la propia naturaleza, geología, climatología, acciones animales y fundamentalmente, dentro de estas, las humanas, en las que me centraré y las cuales, desde mi punto de vista, son de carácter ineficientes y en constante búsqueda de la optimización, mientras que las demás son espontáneas, de orden, sin artilugios, ni experimentos. Dentro de las acciones humanas y formas de consumo, reflexiono y doy algunas pinceladas sobre determinados procesos industriales y producción de elementos tales como los recipientes, así como su composición, packaging, fundamentalmente, cajas de cartón. Me sirve como simbolismo para hablar del tema principal que es la energía asociada a la producción por la acción humana y el consumo asociado a la antropía.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Bellas Arte

Exergy Optimization of a Moving Bed Heat Exchanger

The MBHE proposed can be analyzed as a crossflow heat exchanger where one of the phases is a moving granular medium. In the present work the exergy analysis of the MBHE is carried out over operation data of the exchanger obtained in two ways: a numerical simulation of the stationary problem and a simplified analysis. The numerical simulation is carried over the two steady state energy equations (fluid and solid), involving (for the fluid) the convection heat transfer to the solid and the diffusion term in the flow direction, and (for the solid) only the convection heat transfer to the fluid. The simplified analysis followed the well-known e-NTU method, taking the equipment as a crossflow heat exchanger with both fluids unmixed.Publicad

Authenticity and Subjective Wellbeing within the Context of a Religious Organization

Although authenticity has a long history as a philosophical and psychological idea, this concept has received scarce attention in the business literature until very lately. Nevertheless, scholars belonging to a broad array of disciplines have pointed out the escalation in the individuals’ search for authenticity within developed societies. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to assess the link between authenticity and subjective wellbeing within the rarely explored context of faith-driven organizations, where the management of emotions attains a particular significance. Specifically, this study links authenticity with subjective wellbeing among the distinct groups that shape a large international Catholic organization. This study uses Partial Least Squares (PLS) to test our research model and hypotheses. This paper covers two noteworthy research gaps. On the one hand, it provides evidence of the relationship between authenticity and subjective wellbeing within the context of religious organizations. On the other hand, our results suggest that this relationship is not homogeneous among the distinct groups that shape the organization. Implications of the research are finally discussed

Detección de deslizamientos de ladera mediante imágenes Landsat TM: el impacto de estos disturbios sobre los bosques subtropicales del noroeste de Argentina

La teledetección aplicada a estudios medioambientales ha demostrado ser de gran utilidad para identificar, cartografiar y analizar la dinámica espacial y temporal de los ecosistemas. En el caso particular de los disturbios naturales como incendios y deslizamientos de ladera, la teledetección ayudará a evaluar su impacto a escala temporal y espacial amplias. Utilizando imágenes Landsat TM de los años 1986 y 2001 detectamos deslizamientos de ladera ocurridos en los bosques subtropicales del noroeste de Argentina, y evaluamos su impacto sobre las comunidades naturales. Mediante clasificaciones supervisadas se diferenciaron los deslizamientos de ladera del resto de las unidades del terreno, con una precisión general de 91% en la imagen de 1986 y 89% en la imagen de 2001. En base a estas clasificaciones determinamos el cambio en el tiempo del área de bosque afectada por los deslizamientos de ladera en el año 1986 y en el año 2001. Los estudios sobre deslizamientos de ladera basados en teledetección pueden aportar nuevos conocimientos en cuanto a la dinámica de este tipo de disturbio, su impacto en los bosques del noroeste argentino y su relación con los cambios climáticos (principalmente aumento de precipitaciones) registrados para la zona.Remote sensing technics applied to environmental studies has been used succesfully to identified, mapping and analizyng the spatial and temporal ecosystem dinamics. In studies of natural disturbances, such fires and landslides, the remote sensing approach can be used to asses the impact of these disturbances at broad spatial and temporal scale. Using 1986 and 2001 Landsat TM images we detected landslides accured on norwest Argentina subtropical forests, and we evaluated their impact on natural communities. Using supervised classifications, we diferenciated landslides from others land cover units with an overall accuracy of 91% in the 1986 image and 89% in the 2001 image. Landslides studies based on remote sensing technics can help to a better understanding of this kind of disturbance, in terms of their impact on the subtropical forests and their relationship with the climate change (specially precipitation) registered in the zone.Fil: Paolini, Leonardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas de las Yungas; ArgentinaFil: Sobrino, Jose Antonio. Universidad de Valencia; EspañaFil: Jimenez Muños, Juan Carlos. Universidad de Valencia; Españ

Numerical simulation of a 3-D gas-solid fluidized bed: Comparison of TFM and CPFD numerical approaches and experimental validation

This paper presents the results of a 3-D numerical simulation of a freely bubbling fluidized bed, based on the Eulerian¿Lagrangian approach, using the software Barracuda (CPFD-Barracuda). The main results obtained were assessed in terms of frequency analysis, bubble pierced length, bubble size, bubble passage frequency and bubble velocity. The results obtained were also compared with experimental data obtained in a 3-D fluidized bed using pressure and optical probes, and with the numerical results using the more common Eulerian-Eulerian approach, implemented in the commercial software Fluent (TFM-Fluent). The results show that CPFD-Barracuda satisfactorily predicts the global behaviour of bubbling beds with a low computational cost, although it computes smaller bubble sizes and lower bubble velocities than TFM-Fluent and experiments. Additionally, the spectra of pressure and particle volume fraction obtained with CPFD-Barracuda resemble those from the experiments and the TFM-Fluent simulations, but with a larger contribution of lower frequencies. The peaks of the pressure spectra from CPFD-Barracuda are close to those from the experiments and the TFM-Fluent simulations, whereas those in the solid volume spectra seem to be underestimated by CPFD-Barracuda. The results also indicate that the particle fraction threshold value chosen to distinguish bubbles contours notably influences the results of the bubble characteristics, especially for TFM-Fluent, whereas CPFD-Barracuda is less sensitive to this threshold value.This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Projects ENE2016-78908-R and RTI2018-096664- B-C21 (MICINN, FEDER/UE)) of the Spanish Government, the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (project SBPLY/17/180501/000412) and the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T)

Experimental heat transfer coefficients between a surface and fixed and fluidized beds with PCM

This work presents an experimental study to determine the capacity of a phase change material (PCM) in granular form to be used in fixed and bubbling fluidized beds for thermal energy storage. The experimental measurements are focused on determination of the heat transfer coefficient between a heated surface immersed in the bed and the granular PCM. The flow rate is varied to quantify its influence on the heat transfer coefficient. The PCM used is Rubitherm GR50 with a phase change temperature of approximately 50° C. The PCM is available in two different particle sizes, 0.54 mm and 1.64 mm, of which the finer is used in the fluidized bed and the coarser is used in the fixed bed. In addition, the results obtained for the PCM are compared with the heat transfer coefficients measured for sand, a material commonly used for thermal storage. In comparing the heat transfer coefficients for fixed and fluidized beds, the heat transfer coefficients in the fluidized bed with PCM are nearly three times higher than those for the fixed bed at the same gas flow rate. This increase in the heat transfer is a result of two main factors: first, the continuous renewal of PCM particles from the heated surface when they are fluidized, and second, the large quantities of energy in latent form absorbed by the PCM. In the fixed bed there is no renovation of particles, consequently only a small percentage of particles are able to change its phase. Hence, there is no increase in the heat transfer coefficient due to this fact.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Government (Project ENE2010-15403), theRegional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Project PPIC10-0055-4054) and Castilla-La Mancha University (Project GE20101662).Publicad

Thermal energy storage in a fluidized bed of PCM

The objective of the present work was to research the storage behavior of a fluidized bed filled with a granular phase change material (PCM) with a small particle diameter (d(p) = 0.54 mm). The performance of the fluidized bed was compared to that of well-known storage methods such as fluidized beds with sand and packed beds based of sand and PCM. For this purpose, heating experiments were conducted in a cylindrical bed with air as the working fluid. The influence of the bed height and flow rate on the storage and recovery efficiencies of the fluidized bed of PCM was analyzed. Additionally, the stability of the PCM during various charging-discharging cycles was studied. The results indicate that this PCM is an alternative material that can be used in fluidized bed systems to increase the efficiency of storing thermal energy in the form of latent heat. Under the experimental conditions tested in this study, higher charging efficiencies were observed for fixed and fluidized beds based on PCM than those of sand. High gas velocity and low bed height shorten the charging time but also reduce the charging efficiency. The cycling test shows that the PCM is stable under bubbling conditions up to 15 cycles, which corresponds to approximately 75 h of continuous operation.This work was founded partially by the Spanish Government (Project ENE2010-15403), the regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Project PPIC10-0055-4054) and Castilla-La Mancha University (Project GE20101662).Publicad

Energy storage with PCM in fluidized beds: Modeling and experiments

In recent years, the development of phase change materials (PCMs) has introduced new ways to increase the energy storage capacity of a system due to the high latent heat and high storage density of these materials. The aim of this work is to model the charging process of a fluidized bed with PCMs operating as an energy storage device. The temperature in the bed during the charging process of the fluidized bed has been modeled using the two phase theory of fluidization. The dense phase is taken to be perfectly mixed, and the bubble phase is taken to be in plug flow. The numerical model presented takes into account the fact that the phase change process of the bed material occurs over a temperature range and also estimates the energy stored in the wall of the bed and in the distributor plate. The energy equation of the dense phase is numerically solved in enthalpy form, considering the dependence of enthalpy on temperature for phase changes occurring over a range of temperatures. The model's validity is verified against experimental data for two granular materials: sand, a typical material used in fluidized beds, and a granular PCM with a mean particle diameter of 0.54 mm and a phase change temperature of approximately 50 °C. For the sand, the temperature profiles obtained numerically perfectly agree with the values measured experimentally. In the case of the granular PCM, the fitting of the curves is improved when slow and similar heating rates are selected for the experiments and for the DSC measurements used to determine the PCM enthalpy&-temperature curve.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Government (Project ENE2010-15403), the regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Project PPIC10-0055-4054) and Castilla-La Mancha University (Project GE20101662).Publicad