Instruments for the promotion of a sustainability oriented management of waste by inter-industrial coordination within an industrial region

The raise of material efficiency is of special importance in the provision of solutions for a more sustainable path of development. One of the main approaches in this direction is the resource saving closure of material circulations among industrial actors. This means at least: maximum rate of recycling combined with a minimum in downgrading processes and spatially close output-input relations - or, in other words: a substantial reduction of social, entropic and spatial distance within the circle-closing process. How can these distances be reduced in order to promote the further spreading of an industrial closed circle economy? What are the present obstacles in the industrial reality and how can they be removed on the level of a firm, an industrial district or an industrial region? These were important questions at the beginning of a research process funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology (BMBF) in order to encourage eco-industrial development in the of Rhine-Neckar region. Taking the results of our close cooperation especially with SME, the problem solving capacity of this industrial region is high enough to close the circles for industrial residues regionally. The dimension of an industrial agglomeration with more than 1,5 million inhabitants could thus already be regarded as a potential output-input system for industrial waste. Nevertheless this capacity is far from being exploited. Taken the fact, that the largest deficiencies were found in the informational situation of SME, two kinds of instruments were developed to facilitate the acquisition and the advantageous usage of waste information by inter-industrial coordination on the level of the industrial region. As informational basis the project coordinators developed a comprehensive, clear and systematic informational structure. A socalled 'AGUM waste manager' was developed as a software tool, that meets all the needs not only for internal information and communication but also for exchanges with potentially fitting output-input partners outside the border of the enterprise. As information on the composition of a certain waste is relatively scarce, the transfer of materials goes together with substantial costs for control, that can only be diminished or substituted by mutual confidence between the two actors. And even a pure informational exchange of waste manager-data between different enterprises would hardly work without a face-to-face contact. Our transparency-guided approach to promote regional sustainability did thus include the development and institutionalisation of an inter-industrial network, that first of all incorporates industrial producers (especially SME) but also other actors, that stand for the problem solving capacity of the region (i.e. universities, political administrations and other institutions) and can thus contribute to the identification and implementation of sustainable-oriented solutions in a regional context.

Neural activation and functional connectivity during motor imagery of bimanual everyday actions

© 2012 Szameitat et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Bimanual actions impose intermanual coordination demands not present during unimanual actions. We investigated the functional neuroanatomical correlates of these coordination demands in motor imagery (MI) of everyday actions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For this, 17 participants imagined unimanual actions with the left and right hand as well as bimanual actions while undergoing fMRI. A univariate fMRI analysis showed no reliable cortical activations specific to bimanual MI, indicating that intermanual coordination demands in MI are not associated with increased neural processing. A functional connectivity analysis based on psychophysiological interactions (PPI), however, revealed marked increases in connectivity between parietal and premotor areas within and between hemispheres. We conclude that in MI of everyday actions intermanual coordination demands are primarily met by changes in connectivity between areas and only moderately, if at all, by changes in the amount of neural activity. These results are the first characterization of the neuroanatomical correlates of bimanual coordination demands in MI. Our findings support the assumed equivalence of overt and imagined actions and highlight the differences between uni- and bimanual actions. The findings extent our understanding of the motor system and may aid the development of clinical neurorehabilitation approaches based on mental practice.This study was funded by the Medical Research Council, UK (CEG 61501; Dr Sterr)

Aftermath

The design brief for this project was to create a one- or two-piece dress that was patterned using draping

Radiation characteristics of corner reflector antennas.

PhDThis thesis presents a study of the radiation characteristics of corner reflector antennas. The influence of the design parameters on the radiation characteristics are assessed using an analytical method and the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. The FDTD method for corner reflector antennas which are electrically small to medium sized antennas is developed in detail. The important subject of the Absorbing Boundary Conditions (ABCs) is studied including a study of Mur ABC and Perfectly Matched Layers. It is shown that both methods reduce the reflections from the boundaries sufficient so that the far-field radiation pattern can be computed accurately. An analytical solution to compute the far-field radiation pattern for infinite comer reflector antennas is derived and used to understand the radiation mechanisms. Based on those results, the FDTD method is used to conduct a parametric study on finite sized comer reflector antennas. Experimental antennas have been built and measured in order to verify the computational predictions. Very good agreement is reported The novel idea of a variable beam-width comer reflector antenna is developed and practical designs of such an antenna are presented. The principle is to design the comer reflector antenna such that the beam-width of the antenna can be precisely modified. Data on the gain and beam-width are presented. This has been done both by computational and by an experimental model. The influence on the performance of the comer reflector antenna when substituting the solid reflector plates by rods has been investigated. The computational predictions have been verified by measurements of an experimental antenna. Very good agreement has been achieved. III[ The possibility of modifying the shape of the comer reflector antenna is investigated. It is shown that a modified comer reflector antenna with less depth produces the same far-field pattern as a standard corner reflector antenna. It is also shown that the performance of small aperture size corner reflector antennas is superior to a cylindrical parabolic reflector antenna