scholarly journals Pattern languages as a design tool to tackle “wicked problems” in sustainability science

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-242
Author(s):  
Lilian Ricaud ◽  
Maxime Thibon ◽  
Laurent Marseault ◽  
Jean-Luc Chotte

Humanity is facing global and local sustainability challenges that call for the involvement of a wide range of expertise drawn from academia, civil society, the private sector, as well as funding and development agencies. The challenge will be to leverage this diversity to nurture decision making. To make such discussions successful we propose a pattern language approach. It can be used as a practical step-by-step process to guide interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers and to facilitate transdisciplinary interactions between the academic and nonacademic worlds. The patterns are documented and freely accessible online in the Sustainable Science Pattern database.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline O’Keeffe ◽  
Laura Rhian Pickard ◽  
Juan Cao ◽  
Giuliano Allegri ◽  
Ivana K. Partridge ◽  
...  

AbstractConventional carbon fibre laminates are known to be moderately electrically conductive in-plane, but have a poor through-thickness conductivity. This poses a problem for functionality aspects that are of increasing importance to industry, such as sensing, current collection, inductive/resistive heating, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, etc. This restriction is of course more pronounced for non-conductive composite reinforcements such as glass, organic or natural fibres. Among various solutions to boost through-thickness electrical conductivity, tufting with hybrid micro-braided metal-carbon fibre yarns is one of the most promising. As a well-characterised method of through thickness reinforcement, tufting is easily implementable in a manufacturing environment. The hybridisation of materials in the braid promotes the resilience and integrity of yarns, while integrating metal wires opens up a wide range of multifunctional applications. Many configurations can be produced by varying braid patterns and the constituting yarns/wires. A predictive design tool is therefore necessary to select the right material configuration for the desired functional and structural performance. This paper suggests a fast and robust method for generating finite-element models of the braids, validates the prediction of micro-architecture and electrical conductivity, and demonstrates successful manufacturing of composites enhanced with braided tufts.


2007 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Gamblen ◽  
Sherri Schamehorn ◽  
Anne Marie Crustolo ◽  
Tracy Hussey ◽  
Nick Kates ◽  
...  

The Hamilton Health Service Organization Nutrition Program integrates nine registered dietitians (RDs) into the offices of 80 family physicians (FPs) at 50 sites in Hamilton, Ontario. The program is based on a shared care model, in which FPs and RDs work collaboratively to provide nutrition services aimed at prevention, treatment, and management of nutrition-related problems. In addition to their clinical role, dietitians in the program are involved in health promotion, disease prevention and early intervention strategies, interdisciplinary collaboration, building links with community services, and research. The RDs’ specialized knowledge, skills, and experience allow them to provide a wide range of services that complement and augment those of the FP. This model is consistent with Canadian health care reform recommendations and offers significant benefits for both health care providers and consumers.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3406
Author(s):  
Jie Jiang ◽  
Yin Zou ◽  
Lidong Chen ◽  
Yujie Fang

Precise localization and pose estimation in indoor environments are commonly employed in a wide range of applications, including robotics, augmented reality, and navigation and positioning services. Such applications can be solved via visual-based localization using a pre-built 3D model. The increase in searching space associated with large scenes can be overcome by retrieving images in advance and subsequently estimating the pose. The majority of current deep learning-based image retrieval methods require labeled data, which increase data annotation costs and complicate the acquisition of data. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised hierarchical indoor localization framework that integrates an unsupervised network variational autoencoder (VAE) with a visual-based Structure-from-Motion (SfM) approach in order to extract global and local features. During the localization process, global features are applied for the image retrieval at the level of the scene map in order to obtain candidate images, and are subsequently used to estimate the pose from 2D-3D matches between query and candidate images. RGB images only are used as the input of the proposed localization system, which is both convenient and challenging. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method can localize images within 0.16 m and 4° in the 7-Scenes data sets and 32.8% within 5 m and 20° in the Baidu data set. Furthermore, our proposed method achieves a higher precision compared to advanced methods.


Author(s):  
Juri Bellucci ◽  
Federica Sazzini ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Lorenzo Arcangeli ◽  
...  

This paper focuses on the use of the CFD for improving a steam turbine preliminary design tool. Three-dimensional RANS analyses were carried out in order to independently investigate the effects of profile, secondary flow and tip clearance losses, on the efficiency of two high-pressure steam turbine stages. The parametric study included geometrical features such as stagger angle, aspect ratio and radius ratio, and was conducted for a wide range of flow coefficients to cover the whole operating envelope. The results are reported in terms of stage performance curves, enthalpy loss coefficients and span-wise distribution of the blade-to-blade exit angles. A detailed discussion of these results is provided in order to highlight the different aerodynamic behavior of the two geometries. Once the analysis was concluded, the tuning of a preliminary steam turbine design tool was carried out, based on a correlative approach. Due to the lack of a large set of experimental data, the information obtained from the post-processing of the CFD computations were applied to update the current correlations, in order to improve the accuracy of the efficiency evaluation for both stages. Finally, the predictions of the tuned preliminary design tool were compared with the results of the CFD computations, in terms of stage efficiency, in a broad range of flow coefficients and in different real machine layouts.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 572-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Nelson ◽  
Z. S. Filipi ◽  
D. N. Assanis

A technique which uses trained neural nets to model the compressor in the context of a turbocharged diesel engine simulation is introduced. This technique replaces the usual interpolation of compressor maps with the evaluation of a smooth mathematical function. Following presentation of the methodology, the proposed neural net technique is validated against data from a truck type, 6-cylinder 14-liter diesel engine. Furthermore, with the introduction of an additional parameter, the proposed neural net can be trained to simulate an entire family of compressors. As a demonstration, a family of compressors of different sizes is represented with a single neural net model which is subsequently used for matching calculations with intercooled and nonintercooled engine configurations at different speeds. This novel approach readily allows for evaluation of various options within a wide range of possible compressor configurations prior to prototype production. It can also be used to represent the variable geometry machine regardless of the method used to vary compressor characteristics. Hence, it is a powerful design tool for selection of the best compressor for a given diesel engine system and for broader system optimization studies.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip L. Andrew ◽  
Harika S. Kahveci

Avoiding aerodynamic separation and excessive shock losses in gas turbine turbomachinery components can reduce fuel usage and thus reduce operating cost. In order to achieve this, blading designs should be made robust to a wide range of operating conditions. Consequently, a design tool is needed—one that can be executed quickly for each of many operating conditions and on each of several design sections, which will accurately capture loss, turning, and loading. This paper presents the validation of a boundary layer code, MISES, versus experimental data from a 2D linear cascade approximating the performance of a moderately loaded mid-pitch section from a modern aircraft high-pressure turbine. The validation versus measured loading, turning, and total pressure loss is presented for a range of exit Mach numbers from ≈0.5 to 1.2 and across a range of incidence from −10 deg to +14.5 deg relative to design incidence.


Author(s):  
Madoc Sheehan

Developing an engineering student's awareness of sustainability through the embedding of sustainability curricula is widely considered to be essential to modernising chemical engineering degree programs. In this chapter, the chemical engineering program at James Cook University is used as a case study to illustrate the design and sequencing of embedded curricula associated with developing a students' awareness of sustainability. There are a wide range of examples of skills, techniques, and characteristics associated with developing this awareness. In this chapter, an approach is described whereby a set of generic and interdisciplinary capabilities are developed to provide a degree of flexibility in how sustainability is interpreted and taught. A cognitive learning matrix is utilised as a design tool that facilitates determination of new subject learning outcomes aligned with the sustainability capabilities. A variety of curriculum examples are introduced and described.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1167-1186
Author(s):  
Mike Brown

Education for Sustainability (EfS) in Higher Education (HE) is described as developing through three waves. These are overviewed in this chapter and given due acknowledgement but are shown to fall short of what is needed going forward. Consequently, a fourth wave of EfS in HE is proposed. The fourth wave of EfS in HE needs to be directed at the collaborative project of constructing “sustainable universities” (Sterling, Maxey, & Luna, 2013). The concept of “neo-sustainability” (Farley & Smith, 2014) is adopted as the basis of this next wave, as is the three nested rings model of sustainability. The argument for a strategy to educate the HE educators is outlined. It is suggested that contemporary global and local sustainability issues need to become part of student engagement within all HE courses. Finally, effort needs to be exerted by HE lecturers to develop pedagogical practices that align to the aims and principles of EfS.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gajanan S Revankar ◽  
Noriaki Hattori ◽  
Yuta Kajiyama ◽  
Tomohito Nakano ◽  
Masahito Mihara ◽  
...  

Abstract In Parkinson’s disease, a precursor phenomenon to visual hallucinations presents as ‘pareidolias’ which make ambiguous forms appear meaningful. To evoke and detect pareidolias in patients, a noise pareidolia test was recently developed, although its task-dependent mechanisms are yet to be revealed. When subjected to this test, we hypothesized that patients exhibiting pareidolias would show altered top-down influence of visual processing allowing us to demonstrate the influence of pareidolic illusionary behaviour in Parkinson’s disease patients. To that end, we evaluated eye-movement strategies and fixation-related presaccadic activity on scalp EEG when participants performed the test. Twelve healthy controls and 21 Parkinson’s disease patients, evaluated for cognitive, visuo-spatial and executive functions, took a modified computer-based version of the noise pareidolia test in a free-viewing EEG eye-tracking experiment. Eye-tracking metrics (fixation-related durations and counts) documented the eye movement behaviour employed in correct responses (face/noise) and misperceptions (pareidolia/missed) during early and late visual search conditions. Simultaneously, EEG recorded the presaccadic activity in frontal and parietal areas of the brain. Based on the noise pareidolia test scores, we found certain Parkinson’s disease patients exhibited pareidolias whereas others did not. ANOVA on eye-tracking data showed that patients dwelled significantly longer to detect faces and pareidolias which affected both global and local search dynamics depending on their visuo-perceptual status. Presaccadic activity in parietal electrodes for the groups was positive for faces and pareidolias, and negative for noise, though these results depended mainly on saccade size. However, patients sensitive to pareidolias showed a significantly higher presaccadic potential on frontal electrodes independent of saccade sizes, suggesting a stronger frontal activation for pareidolic stimuli. We concluded with the following interpretations (i) the noise pareidolia test specifically characterizes visuo-perceptual inadequacies in patients despite their wide range of cognitive scores, (ii) Parkinson’s disease patients dwell longer to converge attention to pareidolic stimuli due to abnormal saccade generation proportional to their visuo-perceptual deficit during early search, and during late search, due to time-independent alteration of visual attentional network and (iii) patients with pareidolias show increased frontal activation reflecting the allocation of attention to irrelevant targets that express the pareidolic phenomenon. While the disease per se alters the visuo-perceptual and oculomotor dynamics, pareidolias occur in Parkinson’s disease due to an abnormal top-down modulation of visual processing that affects visual attention and guidance to ambiguous stimuli.


Author(s):  
Omer Anil Turkkan ◽  
Hai-Jun Su

Flexure mechanisms are the central part of numerous precision instruments and devices that are used in a wide range of science and engineering applications and currently, design of flexure mechanisms often heavily relies on designers’ previous hands-on experience. Therefore, a design tool that will speed up the design process is needed and this paper will introduce a systematic approach for building the necessary equations that are based on screw theory and linear elastic theory to analyze flexure mechanisms. A digital library of commonly used flexure elements must be available for a design tool and therefore, we first present the compliance matrices of commonly used flexure components. Motion twists and force wrenches of the screw theory can be related with these compliance matrices. Then, we introduce an algorithm that constructs the required linear system equations from individual compliance equations. This algorithm is applicable to flexure mechanisms with serial, parallel or hybrid chains. Finally, the algorithm is tested with a flexure mechanisms and it is shown that this approach can be the core of a future design tool.


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