Proceedings of the 24th Project Integration Meeting

Progress made by the Flat-Plate Solar Array Project is described. Reports on silicon sheet growth and characterization, silicon material, process development, high-efficiency cells, environmental isolation, engineering sciences, and reliability physics are presented along with copies of visual presentations made at the 24th Project Integration Meeting

The availability and use of competitive and business intelligence in South African business organisations

Business intelligence (BI) plays a critical role in providing actionableintelligence to enable good business decision-making. Internationalresearch shows clear evidence of the benefi ts of implementing soundBI practices. However, within a South African business context, anunderstanding of the practice, impact and benefi ts of BI is only partlyaddressed by existing research. Consequently, this article presentsthe most salient fi ndings of a recent BI study, which was one of thefew such studies that have been conducted in South Africa in the21st century. Although the discussion refl ects fairly high generalsatisfaction levels with BI among South African businesses, someproblems related especially to external BI dimensions are highlighted.An equally important and major concern raised by the article is theapparent lack of companies capitalising on BI opportunities andcoordinating BI functions eff ectively. Of concern at the generalmanagement level, in particular, are the low satisfaction levels withBI quality, as well as various aspects of BI collection, analysis anddissemination. Despite the fact that businesses use BI functions andplanning support software, the survey fi ndings reveal insuffi cientinvestment in sophisticated BI analysis tools

Development of aircraft lavatory compartments with improved fire resistance characteristics, phase 1: Fire containment test of a wide body aircraft lavatory module

A test was conducted to evaluate the fire containment characteristics of a Boeing 747 lavatory module. Results showed that the fire was contained within the lavatory during the 30-minute test period with the door closed. The resistance of the lavatory wall and ceiling panels and general lavatory construction to burn-through under the test conditions was demonstrated

Benchmarking avi-tourism literacy rates among Gauteng school learners

Literacy on birds and the natural environment among young citizens is critical in addressing current and emerging environmental challenges. To improve the future awareness, involvement, knowledge, values and pro-environmental behaviour of young South Africans towards birds, the natural habitat of birds and avi-tourism, this article benchmarks avi-tourism literacy rates among secondary school learners. The study arrived at an avi-tourism literacy rate of 43.66% which presupposes passive behaviour of learners towards birds, bird habitat and avi-tourism activities. Besides lacking basic bird and environmental knowledge, learners have also not yet reached the desired levels of emotional affection towards birds and the natural environment. However, increased awareness and affinity, involvement, values and behavioural intention will most likely entice pro-avi and environmental behaviour. The research poses clear challenges to professionals and educators within the tourism industry of South Africa to increase learners’ willingness and motivation to act pro-environmentally through dedicated education. This supports the need to introduce an intervention programme in order to promote awareness, knowledge, values and pro-avi and environmental behaviour among learners

Fire safety evaluation of aircraft lavatory and cargo compartments

Large-scale aircraft lavatory and cargo compartment fire tests are described. Tests were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of these compartments to contain fire and smoke. Two tests were conducted and are detailed. Test 1 involved a production Boeing 747 lavatory of the latest design installed in an enclosure outside the aircraft, to collect gases and expose animals to these gases. Results indicate that the interior of the lavatory was completely burned, evolving smoke and combustion products in the enclosure. Test 2 involved a simulated Douglas DC-10 cargo compartment retro-fitted with standard fiberglass liner. The fire caused excessive damage to the liner and burned through the ceiling in two areas. Test objectives, methods, materials, and results are presented and discussed

Theory and practice: bulk synthesis of C3B and its H2- and Li-storage capacity.

Previous theoretical studies of C3B have suggested that boron-doped graphite is a promising H2- and Li-storage material, with large maximum capacities. These characteristics could lead to exciting applications as a lightweight H2-storage material for automotive engines and as an anode in a new generation of batteries. However, for these applications to be realized a synthetic route to bulk C3B must be developed. Here we show the thermolysis of a single-source precursor (1,3-(BBr2)2C6H4) to produce graphitic C3B, thus allowing the characteristics of this elusive material to be tested for the first time. C3B was found to be compositionally uniform but turbostratically disordered. Contrary to theoretical expectations, the H2- and Li-storage capacities are lower than anticipated, results that can partially be explained by the disordered nature of the material. This work suggests that to model the properties of graphitic materials more realistically, the possibility of disorder must be considered.We thank the ERC (Advance Investigator awards for D.S.W., C.P.G.), the EPSRC (T.C.K., P.D.M., H.G., J.C.), and the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (under grants ENE2011-24-412 and IPT-2011-1553-420000). We thank John Bulmer for Raman spectroscopy and Keith Parmenter for glass blowing. We thank the Schlumberger Gould Research Centre for XPS analysis.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.20141220

Spectroscopy of the neighboring massive clusters Abell 222 and Abell 223

We present a spectroscopic catalog of the neighboring massive clusters Abell 222 and Abell 223. The catalog contains the positions, redshifts, R magnitudes, V-R color, as well as the equivalent widths for a number of lines for 183 galaxies, 153 of them belonging to the A 222 and A 223 system. We determine the heliocentric redshifts to be z=0.2126+/-0.0008 for A 222 and z=0.2079+/-0.0008 for A 223. The velocity dispersions of both clusters in the cluster restframe are about the same: sigma = 1014^{+90}_{-71} km/s and sigma = 1032^{+99}_{-76} km/s for A 222 and A 223, respectively. While we find evidence for substructure in the spatial distribution of A 223, no kinematic substructure can be detected. From the red cluster sequence identified in a color--magnitude--diagram we determine the luminosity of both clusters and derive mass--to--light ratios in the R--band of (M/L)_A222 = (202+/-43) h_70 M_{su}n/L_{sun} and (M/L)_A223 = (149+/-33) h_70 M_{sun}/L_{sun}. Additionally we identify a group of background galaxies at z ~ 0.242.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 10 pages, 9 figures, full version of table 2 included in source distribution, version with higher quality images available from http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~dietrich