Understanding Consumer Behaviour to Reduce Environmental Impacts through Sustainable Product Design

The use phase of the lifecycle of electrical products has a significant environmental impact, mainly determined by the consumer’s behaviour. Many consumers do not make the link between their daily consumption behaviour in the household and environmental problems such as climate change. In the 21st century, the residential sector, together with transport and industry, is one of the largest man-made contributors in the UK to climate change. It is argued that technological innovations, current eco-efficient products and consumer education have been ineffective in creating the long term radical behavioural change needed to reduce the impact of product use. Products, as the interface between consumers and consumption activities, have the potential to influence the way in which consumption occurs. In the sustainable design field however, designer responsibility traditionally considers raw material selection and product disposal. There is limited work that addresses the environmental impacts relating directly to use behaviour of the product. This paper illustrates that user behaviour studies can be the preliminary step for designers to improve energy efficiency of products. A single product type, household cold appliance, was chosen as a case to explore the capacity of designer-conducted user study to identify unsustainable aspects of product use. Adopting a user-centred approach, two pilot studies were used to gain an insight into domestic fridge and freezer use in the UK. Qualitative ethnographical research methods were employed to investigate the daily practices and “real” needs of user as well as the connection between the knowledge, attitudes, intention and actual action. The design suggestions drawn from the user behaviour analysis provide examples of how energy impact level of the interaction with the product can be reduced through design. Keywords: User-Centred Research; Sustainable Product Design; Changing Consumer Behaviour; Design Research; Household Energy Consumption; Household Cold Appliance.</p

Effects of the Detection Efficiency on Multiplicity Distributions

In this paper we investigate how a finite detection efficiency affects three popular multiplicity distributions, namely the Poisson, the Binomial and the Negative Binomial distributions. We found that a multiplicity-independent detection efficiency does not change the characteristic of a distribution, while a multiplicity-dependent detection efficiency does. We layout a procedure to study the deviation of moments and their derivative quantities from the baseline distribution due to a multiplicity-dependent detection efficiency.Comment: 4 page

A co-operating solver approach to building simulation

This paper describes the co-operating solver approach to building simulation as encapsulated within the ESP-r system. Possible adaptations are then considered to accommodate new functional requirements

Shock evolution in non-radiative supernova remnants

We present a new analytical approach to derive approximate solutions describing the shock evolution in non-radiative supernova remnants (SNRs). We focus on the study of the forward shock and contact discontinuity while application to the reverse shock is only discussed briefly. The spherical shock evolution of a SNR in both the interstellar medium with a constant density profile and a circumstellar medium with a wind density profile is investigated. We compared our new analytical solution with numerical simulations and found that a few percent accuracy is achieved. For the evolution of the forward shock, we also compared our new solution to previous analytical models. In a uniform ambient medium, the accuracy of our analytical approximation is comparable to that in Truelove&McKee (1999). In a wind density profile medium, our solution performs better than that in Micelotta et al. (2016), especially when the ejecta envelope has a steep density profile. The new solution is significantly simplified compared to previous analytical models, as it only depends on the asymptotic behaviors of the remnant during its evolution.Comment: Add discussion for contact discontinuit

Gamma-Ray Emission from Supernova Remnant Interaction with Molecular Clumps

Observations of the middle-aged supernova remnants IC 443, W28 and W51C indicate that the brightnesses at GeV and TeV energies are correlated with each other and with regions of molecular clump interaction, but not with the radio synchrotron brightness. We suggest that the radio emission is primarily associated with a radiative shell in the interclump medium of a molecular cloud, while the gamma-ray emission is primarily associated with the interaction of the radiative shell with molecular clumps. The shell interaction produces a high pressure region, so that the gamma-ray luminosity can be approximately reproduced even if shock acceleration of particles is not efficient, provided that energetic particles are trapped in the cooling region. In this model, the spectral shape \ga 2 GeV is determined by the spectrum of cosmic ray protons. Models in which diffusive shock acceleration determines the spectrum tend to underproduce TeV emission because of the limiting particle energy that is attained.Comment: 15 pages, ApJ Letters, accepte

The Establishment of Employer Based Car Sharing Schemes in West Yorkshire.

This paper describes the initial findings of an SSRC sponsored project to establish and monitor organised car sharing schemes in West Yorkshire. It follows from an earlier project funded by the TRRL, which aimed to predict the likely outcome of such schemes using micro-simulation methods. The removal of most of the legal obstacles to car sharing in November 1978 made it possible to establish and monitor the effectiveness of actual schemes and to check upon the validity of the earlier models. With the help of West Yorkshire County Council, three major employers were approached and agreed to co-operate. Following initial surveys aimed at describing existing commuting patterns, all employees were circulated with application forms affording them the opportunity to give lifts to, receive lifts from, or to pool cars with fellow- commuters. Compatible applicants were matched by manual means and informed of prospective partners. At all three sites, discounts on automotive products were offered as an inducement to carsharers and at one, free reserved car parking spaces were also made available. Applications to join the schemes were received from less than 7% of the workforces and less than 2% of the workforces actually became carsharers as a result of the scheme. About two thirds of the arrangements involved simple lift giving, with the same person driving at all times and receiving payments from passengers to cover costs. The remainder were carpools in which people took turns to drive. There appears to be evidence that this form of arrangement is adopted primarily to release the car for use at home rather than to save costs. The net effect of the scheme is an insignificant (<0.5%) reduction in work journey car mileage and a somewhat larger, though still marginal abstraction of public transport patronage. These findings broadly correspond to those of the earlier microsimulation models. Though detailed deviations occur, the experiments bear out the model's predictions that the effects of this type of carsharing scheme are likely to be extremely modest and the communitx benefits are unlikely to justify the costs of administration unless the impacts can be magnified or localised. The experience gained in running these experiments may prove useful to others contemplating the establishment of schemes elsewhere

Flow and non-flow correlations from four-particle multiplets in STAR

Elliptic flow results are presented for Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 130$ GeV in RHIC. This signal is investigated as a function of transverse momentum, rapidity and centrality. Results from four-particle correlation analysis, which can filter out contributions to the flow signal from correlations unrelated to the event reaction plane (``non-flow''), are presented and compared to the conventional method, in which non-flow effects are treated as part of the systematic uncertainty.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, uses the class "aipproc