An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in Product-Service Systems?

Copyright @ 2014 Greenleaf Publishing.Eco-efficient Product-Service Systems (PSS, in which the economic interest of the stakeholders involved in the offer continuously foster the optimisation of environmental resource consumption) represent a promising approach to sustainability. However, despite their potential win–win characteristics, the application of this concept is still limited. One key reason is that eco-efficient PSSs are often radical innovations and their adoption usually challenges existing customers’ habits (cultural barriers), companies’ organisations (corporate barriers), and regulative framework (regulative barriers). Starting from these considerations this chapter first investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptance of eco-efficient PSS alternatives. A debate is then opened on the aesthetics of eco-efficient PSSs and the way in which aesthetics could enhance specific inner qualities of eco-efficient PSSs, i.e. facilitating and enhancing their wider diffusion. Through the analysis of several case studies, and integrating insights from semiotics, the chapter then outlines several research hypotheses on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptance and satisfaction

An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction

Semiosic Processes and Design Processes. Inventiveness, Dialogue, Narrativity, Translation

Design semiotics could lead to two lines of research: the study of design products and the study of design processes. As much as the analysis of artifacts has significance, the survey about semiosic processes inside design processes is the one that defines the unique nature of semiotics in the design context. This investigation follows “the pragmatist route” to design semiotics, for two reasons: (1) because it understands design as an activity that leverages the concept of inventive abduction and can provide answers to cognitive challenges; (2) because the work of design is never to be conceived as concluded in the final result, but embedded in a f low of unlimited semiosis. I will focus on the concept of semiosis according to Peirce’s semiotics, understood as a process of production of sense. In this way, I will deal with the following four processes: 1. Inventiveness, whose logical model refers to abduction, the process that enables exploration of the ways to possible meanings. 2. Based on Bakhtin’s literary theory and Bohm’s epistemology, dialogicity, which will be considered as the social interaction model underpinning every social idea of design. 3. Narrativity, understood as the general scheme that is implemented in a project, understood as a series of actions leading to the achievement of a goal, and as a process of transformation. 4. Translation, considered not only as an interpretation process that takes place between different forms of expression, but especially as a transition from a problem or desire to an “interpretant artifact.

Low Mach Number Modeling of Type Ia Supernovae. IV. White Dwarf Convection

We present the first three-dimensional, full-star simulations of convection in a white dwarf preceding a Type Ia supernova, specifically the last few hours before ignition. For these long-time calculations we use our low Mach number hydrodynamics code, MAESTRO, which we have further developed to treat spherical stars centered in a three-dimensional Cartesian geometry. The main change required is a procedure to map the one-dimensional radial base state to and from the Cartesian grid. Our models recover the dipole structure of the flow seen in previous calculations, but our long-time integration shows that the orientation of the dipole changes with time. Furthermore, we show the development of gravity waves in the outer, stable portion of the star. Finally, we evolve several calculations to the point of ignition and discuss the range of ignition radii.Comment: 42 pages, some figures degraded to conserve space. Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal (http://journals.iop.org/

Multidimensional Modeling of Type I X-ray Bursts. I. Two-Dimensional Convection Prior to the Outburst of a Pure Helium Accretor

We present multidimensional simulations of the early convective phase preceding ignition in a Type I X-ray burst using the low Mach number hydrodynamics code, MAESTRO. A low Mach number approach is necessary in order to perform long-time integration required to study such phenomena. Using MAESTRO, we are able to capture the expansion of the atmosphere due to large-scale heating while capturing local compressibility effects such as those due to reactions and thermal diffusion. We also discuss the preparation of one-dimensional initial models and the subsequent mapping into our multidimensional framework. Our method of initial model generation differs from that used in previous multidimensional studies, which evolved a system through multiple bursts in one dimension before mapping onto a multidimensional grid. In our multidimensional simulations, we find that the resolution necessary to properly resolve the burning layer is an order of magnitude greater than that used in the earlier studies mentioned above. We characterize the convective patterns that form and discuss their resulting influence on the state of the convective region, which is important in modeling the outburst itself.Comment: 47 pages including 18 figures; submitted to ApJ; A version with higher resolution figures can be found at http://astro.sunysb.edu/cmalone/research/pure_he4_xrb/ms.pd

White Dwarf Mergers on Adaptive Meshes I. Methodology and Code Verification

The Type Ia supernova progenitor problem is one of the most perplexing and exciting problems in astrophysics, requiring detailed numerical modeling to complement observations of these explosions. One possible progenitor that has merited recent theoretical attention is the white dwarf merger scenario, which has the potential to naturally explain many of the observed characteristics of Type Ia supernovae. To date there have been relatively few self-consistent simulations of merging white dwarf systems using mesh-based hydrodynamics. This is the first paper in a series describing simulations of these systems using a hydrodynamics code with adaptive mesh refinement. In this paper we describe our numerical methodology and discuss our implementation in the compressible hydrodynamics code CASTRO, which solves the Euler equations, and the Poisson equation for self-gravity, and couples the gravitational and rotation forces to the hydrodynamics. Standard techniques for coupling gravitation and rotation forces to the hydrodynamics do not adequately conserve the total energy of the system for our problem, but recent advances in the literature allow progress and we discuss our implementation here. We present a set of test problems demonstrating the extent to which our software sufficiently models a system where large amounts of mass are advected on the computational domain over long timescales. Future papers in this series will describe our treatment of the initial conditions of these systems and will examine the early phases of the merger to determine its viability for triggering a thermonuclear detonation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Low Mach Number Modeling of Type Ia Supernovae

We introduce a low Mach number equation set for the large-scale numerical simulation of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs experiencing a thermonuclear deflagration. Since most of the interesting physics in a Type Ia supernova transpires at Mach numbers from 0.01 to 0.1, such an approach enables both a considerable increase in accuracy and savings in computer time compared with frequently used compressible codes. Our equation set is derived from the fully compressible equations using low Mach number asymptotics, but without any restriction on the size of perturbations in density or temperature. Comparisons with simulations that use the fully compressible equations validate the low Mach number model in regimes where both are applicable. Comparisons to simulations based on the more traditional anelastic approximation also demonstrate the agreement of these models in the regime for which the anelastic approximation is valid. For low Mach number flows with potentially finite amplitude variations in density and temperature, the low Mach number model overcomes the limitations of each of the more traditional models and can serve as the basis for an accurate and efficient simulation tool.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal 31 pages, 5 figures (some figures degraded in quality to conserve space