Potential and implications of sustainability action plans: lessons from the Greater Middlehaven Regeneration Project

Purpose – Sustainability action plans are emerging as a management tool to facilitate the delivery of sustainability objectives which are planned, measured and achievable in practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential to support an integrated approach to delivering sustainability across the phases of a construction project. A holistic approach to sustainability is promoted which aims to be understandable, managed and aligned with available sustainability assessment methods. Design/methodology/approach – The application of a sustainability action plan is explored in the Greater Middlehaven Regeneration Project (UK). Six key stakeholders were interviewed to consider the rational of its application, structure, role of sustainability assessment and contribution to project development and delivery. Two workshops involving practitioners and experts in sustainable construction explored the implications for the wider context. Findings – A framework around which sustainability can be managed through a series of integrated tailored action plans applied across each project phase was highlighted. Clear benefits were presented in facilitating the sharing of knowledge, communicating aspirations and in providing leadership to project members. Research limitations/implications – The case study enjoys a supportive environment to embed best practice and thus full appreciation of potential barriers to implementation in other contexts was not possible. Practical implications – The research illustrates the need to promote a common sustainability legacy across the project phases and highlights the role of a sustainability action plan in facilitating this consistency. Originality/value – A holistic approach founded on an understandable philosophy remains innovative in practice and explored are its value and implications. </jats:sec

An Investigation of the Electrical Response of A Variable Speed Motor Drive for Mechanical Fault Diagnosis

Motor current signal analysis has been an effective way for many years to monitor electrical machines. However, little research work has been reported in using this technique for monitoring variable speed drives and their downstream equipment. This paper investigates the dynamic responses of the electrical current signals measured from a variable speed drive for monitoring the faults from a downstream gearbox. An analytical study is firstly presented in the paper to show the characteristics of the current signals due to load variation, fault effects and signal phase variation. Experimental study is then conducted under different gear fault conditions to explore the changes of the signals. Both conventional spectrum analysis and an amplitude modulation (AM) bispectrum representation are used to highlight the changes for reliable fault detection. It has been found experimentally that mechanical faults lead to much higher increases in bispectral amplitudes compared to conventional spectra and hence that detection performance of the AM bispectrum is better when the drive operates non-slip compensation mode. For slip compensation, more accurate signal analysis techniques have to be developed to differentiate the small changes in the signals

The teaching apparatus : Understanding the material entanglement of practices in the upper secondary classroom

Utdanning er en levende prosess som består av hverdagslige undervisningssituasjoner og deres romlige og kroppslige sammenhenger. Materialiteten i pedagogisk praksis blir i økende grad adressert i forskning. Imidlertid er empiriske beretninger om hvordan materielle praksiser oppstår i faktiske klasseromsundervisningssituasjoner sjeldne. Derfor tar denne doktorgradsavhandlingen sikte på å forstå ‘undervisningens’ materielle kompleksiteten gjennom å undersøke hvordan den oppstår som et relasjonelt og kollektivt forhandlet fenomen i et norsk videregående klasserom. For å undersøke dette bruker avhandlingen et sosiomateriell rammeverk og et videobasert etnografisk forskningsdesign. I tråd med rammeverket plasseres det analytiske fokuset på den diskursive rollen som materielle relasjoner og prosesser spiller i pedagogiske møter. Bruken av videoopptak i kombinasjon med en etnografisk tilnærming støtter prosjektets empiriske utforskning av hvilke materiell-diskursive praksiser som har betydningsfulle konsekvenser i undervisning. Oppgaven består av tre artikler og en kappe. Mens artiklene følger tett de kroppslige og romlige prosessene i videregående klasserom, fokuserer hver artikkel på et spesifikt sett av materielle relasjoner i undervisningssituasjonene. Den første artikkelen handler om forskningspraksisen og de etiske relasjonene i feltet. Ved å trekke på relasjonell etikk og tidligere konseptualiseringer av kontinuerlig samtykkepraksis, utforsker artikkelen hvilke måter forskeren kan tilnærme seg informert samtykke som en situert og relasjonelt konstituert prosess. Artikkelen bruker empiriske eksempler fra feltarbeidet for å diskutere prinsippet om informert samtykke som et refleksivt og etisk verktøy som kan brukes gjennom hele forskningsprosessen, inkludert i fasene før, underveis, og etter feltarbeidet. Artikkelen argumenterer for at ‘eksplisitt og implisitt (re)forhandlet samtykke og dissens’ er en måte for forskere å kalibrere sin etiske respons med en relasjonell og prosessuell forståelse av kvalitativ forskning. Den andre artikkelen undersøker hvordan romlige og kroppslige prosesser kan forståes som å produsere ‘undervisning’ som et fenomen. Artikkelen bruker begrepene affekt, orientering og justeringer (‘alignment’) for å undersøke hvordan klassens handlinger etablerer klasserommets ‘romlige politikk’. Diskusjonen belyser hvordan spesifikke orienteringer fikk betydning (‘came to matter’), gjennom å gi retning til elevenes oppmerksomhet og responser, og ble etablert som legitime måter å ‘gjøre skole’ på. Et tilbakevendende mønster i dette klasserommet var elevenes praksis med å orientere seg mot hver situasjons regler, grenser og muligheter. Artikkelen hevder derfor at praksisen med å ‘tilpasse seg den lokale konfigurasjonen av response-ability’ var en kroppslig og romlig prosess som formet ‘undervisning’ som fenomen. Den tredje artikkelen undersøker hvilke materiell-diskursive praksiser som har betydning (‘matter’) i videregående undervisningssituasjoner og hvordan deltakernes kropper ble formet og formet av disse praksisene. Artikkelen kombinerer et posthumant sosiomateriell praksisbegrep med de agentisk realistiske begrepene material-diskursivitet og apparatus for å skape en relasjonell redegjørelse for hvordan flere praksiser oppstår og samarbeider. De empiriske eksemplene viser hvordan to distinkte praksiser fremtrer fra det analytiske arbeidet: ‘Oppgavepraksisen’ og ‘vennskapspraksisen’. Artikkelens hovedargument er at disse to praksisenes gjensidige forviklinger fører til at de virker sammen som en større materielt og relasjonelt arrangement, kalt ‘undervisningsapparatusset’. Konseptet bidrar med et nytt perspektiv på undervisning. Ved å rette oppmerksomheten mot det sammenvevde og uforutsigbare prosessene i klasserommet, tillater dette konseptet en finmasket forståelse av undervisningen og dens relasjonelle kvaliteter. Samlet sett viser denne studiens funn hvordan flere materiell-diskursive praksiser er involvert i å produsere fenomenet undervisning, inkludert oppgaver-, vennskap, og forskningspraksiser. Avhandlingens argumenter styrker eksisterende forskning på undervisning som komplekst relasjonelt og kontekstuelt fenomen. Avhandlingens konseptualisering av undervisning som et apparatus legger vekt på at kropper, rom og praksiser inngår som aktive deler i dens materiell-diskursive produksjon. Avslutningsvis hevdes det at denne artikulasjonen tillater en alternativ, ikke-instrumentell tilnærming til å vurdere undervisningens kvaliteter.Education is a living process that consists of everyday teaching situations and their spatial and bodily interrelationships. The materiality of educational practice is increasingly addressed in research. However, empirical accounts of how material practices emerge in actual classroom teaching situations are rare. Therefore, this PhD thesis aims to understand the material complexity of ‘teaching’ by investigating how it arises as a relationally and collectively negotiated phenomenon in a Norwegian upper secondary classroom. The thesis employs a sociomaterial framework and a video-based ethnographic research design to address this aim. In line with this framework, the analytical focus is on the discursive role played by material relations in educational encounters. The use of video recordings in combination with an ethnographic approach supported the empirical exploration of which material-discursive practices ‘matter’ in teaching situations. The thesis consists of three articles and an extended abstract. While the articles provide close tracings of the bodily and spatial processes in the upper secondary classroom, each focuses on a distinct set of material relations and practices in the teaching situations. The first article concerns the research practice and its ethical, in-field relationships. By drawing on relational ethics and previous conceptualisation of continuous consent practices, the article explores how we can approach informed consent as a situated and relationally constituted process. The article uses empirical examples from the ethnographic fieldwork to discuss the principle of informed consent as a reflexive and ethical tool that can be used throughout the inquiry, including its pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post-fieldwork phases. The article argues that ‘explicitly and implicitly (re)negotiated consent and dissent’ is one way for researchers to align their ethical responsiveness with a relational and processual understanding of qualitative research. The second article examines how spatial and bodily processes produce ‘teaching’ as a phenomenon. The article uses the concepts of affect, orientation and alignment to investigate how the class enacts the spatial politics of the upper secondary classroom. The discussion illuminates how specific orientations came to ‘matter’ as legitimate ways of ‘doing school’ through the direction of attention and alignment of responses. A recurrent pattern of this classroom was the students’ practice of orientating towards each situation’s boundaries, rules and allowances. The article contends that the practice of ‘aligning with the local configuration of response-abilities’ was a bodily and spatial process that shaped the phenomenon of teaching. The third article investigates which material-discursive practices ‘mattered’ in the upper secondary teaching situations and how participants’ bodies were shaping and being shaped by these practices. The article combines a posthuman sociomaterial concept of practice with the agential realist concepts of material-discursivity and apparatus to create a relational account of how multiple practices emerge and co-operate. The empirical examples show how two distinct practices emerged from the analytical work: ‘the practice of tasks’ and ‘the practice of friendship’. The article’s main argument is that these two practices’ mutual entanglement co-perform a larger sociomaterial arrangement, termed ‘the teaching apparatus’. The concept of a teaching apparatus offers a new perspective on teaching. By drawing attention to the classroom’s inter-connectedness and unpredictability, the conceptualisation of a teaching apparatus allows for a more fine-grained understanding of teaching and its relational qualities. Overall, this study's findings show how multiple material-discursive practices are involved in producing the phenomenon of teaching, including the practices of tasks and friendship, as well as the practices of research. The thesis’ arguments strengthen existing research accounts of teaching as a complex relational and contextually embedded phenomenon. The thesis conceptualises a teaching apparatus that emphasise bodies, spaces and practices as active parts of its material-discursive production. In conclusion, it is argued that this articulation offers an alternative, affirmative and non-instrumental approach to considering the qualities of teaching.Doktorgradsavhandlin

An experimental study of unsupported pipe buckling in live well intervention

Master's thesis in Petroleum engineeringIn this experimental study, unsupported pipe experiments are conducted. Information regarding intervention operation, focusing on snubbing operations in live well interventions and unsupported buckling during these operations, are described as well as the conducted experiments. The loads and forces acting on the pipes during these experiments are compared to the already known theoretical buckling load calculations. Determination of buckling loads, yield strength and Young’s elasticity modulus has been conducted on short to intermediate columns for local buckling in this study. Equations used in the oil and gas industry today are used to show the experimental results, such as slenderness ratio, short column and intermediate column critical buckling loads. At last, the use of the two different slenderness ratio equations are investigated and compared with the experiment results. Indication from these results shows that the use of one of these two slenderness ratio equations, used in the oil and gas industry today, may not be applicable after all

Implementing continuous consent in qualitative research

This article examines ways of approaching informed consent as a relationally constituted process in qualitative research practices. It argues that a researcher’s operationalization of informed consent should be coherent with the overall epistemological framework of the project. Based on empirical examples from an ethnographic inquiry in an educational setting, the principle of informed consent is discussed as a reflexive and ethical tool throughout the inquiry, including its pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post-fieldwork phases. Strategies of explicitly and implicitly (re)negotiated consent and dissent are discussed and illustrated by drawing on some of the recent discussions of continuous consent practices. The article’s conceptualization of a continuous, situated and relational approach to informed consent is also supported by the concepts of response-ability and thinking with care in research ethics.publishedVersio

‘Are we going to do that now?’ Orientations and response-abilities in the embodied classroom

Asking ‘How do spatial and bodily processes produce teaching as a phenomenon?’ this paper approaches ‘teaching’ as a relational, spatial and bodily encounter. Findings from a video-based ethnographic account of everyday teaching situations in a Norwegian upper secondary classroom are explored using an analytical framework inspired by feminist perspectives on bodies. The argument made is that material organisations of social practices are politically and ethically charged. A series of pedagogical encounters are mapped and discussed by engaging the concepts of affect, orientation and alignment. The article demonstrates that one recurring material relation was the collective orientation towards a configuration of the boundaries for ‘doing school’. The bodily and spatial practice of aligning with the local configuration of response-abilities is proposed as a material relation that actively contributed to producing teaching as a phenomenon.publishedVersio

German-Norwegian relations in security and defence : What kind of partnership?

publishedVersio

Exercise training and losartan improve endothelial function in heart failure rats by different mechanisms

Objectives. To investigate the mechanisms of losartan- and exercise training-induced improvements on endothelial dysfunction in heart failure. Design. Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to left coronary artery ligation inducing myocardial infarction and heart failure were randomized to losartan treatment, high-intensity exercise training, or both. Results. Losartan, but not exercise training, reduced the heart failure-associated elevation in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (26 ± 2 mmHg vs. 19 ± 1 mmHg after losartan). In contrast, both exercise training and losartan improved exercise capacity, by 40% and 20%, respectively; no additional effects were observed when exercise training and losartan were combined. Aortic segments were mounted on a force transducer to determine vasorelaxation. Heart failure impaired endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, observed as a 1.9-fold reduced response to acetylcholine (EC50). Exercise and losartan improved acetylcholine-mediated vasorelaxation to the same extent, but by different mechanisms. Exercise training upregulated the nitric oxide pathway, whereas losartan upregulated a non-nitric oxide or -prostacyclin pathway; possibly involving the endothelium-dependent hyperpolarizing factor. Conclusions. Both losartan and exercise training reversed endothelial dysfunction in heart failure; exercise training via nitric oxide-dependent vasorelaxation, and losartan via an unknown mechanism that may involve endothelium-dependent hyperpolarizing factor. Thus, the combined treatment activated an additional nitric oxide- independent mechanism that contributed to reduce endothelial dysfunction

Simulated Mechanical Control of Nitellopsis obtusa under Mesocosm Conditions

Management efforts to control starry stonewort [Nitellopsis obtusa (Desvaux in Loiseleur) J. Groves] have been limited to stressing the thalli and have not been able to directly target the reproductive bulbils. Smaller-scale efforts such as the use of hand pulling can be employed, but hand pulling is not realistic for larger infestations. This research was conducted to test the effects of clipping stress on N. obtusa to provide a baseline for the effect of stress on the production of bulbils and the regrowth of thalli. Mesocosms were set up under greenhouse conditions to test the effects on N. obtusa of simulated mechanical harvesting once, twice, and four times per growing season. Different seasonal timing and frequency of clipping treatments will remove different amounts of thalli biomass. The four-clipping treatment always reduced thalli biomass in this study at both 16 and 52 wk after treatment (WAT) compared with the nontreated reference, but there was no difference among clipping treatments at 52 WAT. At 16 WAT, one clipping reduced bulbil density by 44% (Trial 1) to 50% (Trial 2), two clippings reduced bulbil density by 28% (Trial 2) to 52% (Trial 1), and four clippings reduced bulbil density by 22% (Trial 2) to 88% (Trial 1). At 52 WAT, bulbil densities were 69% and 93% lower than those of the nontreated reference Trials 2 and 1, respectively. Results from this study indicate that clipping may be effective for N. obtusa control and could impact bulbil production