Use Of Innovative Materials Research Articles

Toward the sustainable adaptation of existing facilities

PurposeMuch of the existing commercial building stock in Western Australia has the ability to adapt to varying conditions such as climate change, which provides some potential for reusability and sustainability. Current sustainability assessment systems tend to be relevant only for new construction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) to address this gap by considering the influence of occupant behaviour on performance.Design/methodology/approachFeedback provided from 39 stakeholders during a public review of NABERS and a subsequent trial of NABERS on nine office buildings in Sydney and Victoria are examined. The data are obtained from the Department of Environment and Heritage and NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability (now the Department of Environment and Climate Change).FindingsAssessment of the environment performance of existing facilities is needed to improve their energy efficiency. These findings need to be given serious thought when considering an adaptation strategy or the construction of a new facility. From a sustainability perspective, it will almost always be a more viable option to use an adaptive re‐use strategy. The use of adaptation will require clients and designers to re‐examine how their facilities are to be used and require them to embrace whole‐life costing and the use of innovative materials and technologies.Originality/valueAdaptive re‐use has received limited attention in Australia, as there has been a tendency to demolish or construct new buildings in response to client demands. However, adaptation is proving to be an effective strategy in ensuring a sustainable built environment. This research provides the impetus and foundations for exploring the invaluable role of adaptation and energy efficiency of existing facilities.

China: Innovative Use of Materials for Highway Construction

Ever since the Open Door Policy was set forth, China has been developing rapidly and infrastructure construction has been booming and leaping forward with the economy. The highway network is developing at an unprecedented speed and turns out to be successful and fruitful, reaching almost all cities throughout the country in a decade. The freeway length increases by several thousand kilometers annually. By the end of 2007, the freeways nested inside the entire roadway system of 3.57 million km had reached the length of 53,600 km. The fast development of the highway network improves mobility throughout China, while effectively supporting the economic development in both cities and countryside. Highway development relies heavily on current advanced technologies and applied science, and the innovation and renovation of construction techniques accelerate highway construction in China. In recent years, many important innovations and technical breakthroughs with renovations have occurred in various aspects of highway construction in China. The Global Positioning System GPS , remote sensing RS , and computer-aided design CAD have been integrated for road surveying; in particular, this integrated system is used for scenic design of mountain roads and ramp design of mountain highways. In addition, a single radio station is incorporated into a network-based GPS with a multipleantenna sensing technique. Recently, new techniques have been applied to construct a subgrade/subbase on deserts, freeze-susceptible soils, yellow soils, expansive soils, and soils with substrata rich in calcite and/or dolomite. Mixtures of large-size crushed stones and soils have been used to construct roadway bases. Moreover, new methods are being innovated for stabilizing roadway cut slopes, mitigating embankment settlement and deformation, designing roadway drainage systems, and constructing transition segments connecting highways to bridges. Asphalt paving technologies have been renovated by using modified bituminous binders with polymers, rubber powders, and rubber particles. Also being put into practices are new pavement maintenance strategies, pavement distress survey and assessment using advanced technologies, accelerating bridge deck construction, fire-resistant materials for pavements through tunnels, ultrathin asphalt pavement construction, emulsified asphalt binders for interface coating, and lean concrete treatment to subgrade. These construction technologies incorporated with current environmental protection and safety improvement plans in the road network throughout China will greatly enhance the performance of the entire roadway system.

A independência brasileira: Novas dimensões

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of works on Brazil’s independence and First Empire. While the general story has not changed, the methods and materials used to explore the breakdown of the colonial system and the rise of the western hemisphere’s only lasting empire have. However, most work to date has appeared in narrowly focused monographs that are of interest only to Brazilianists. Therein lies the need for and strength of this book: by bringing together researchers that approach Brazilian independence from such varied perspectives as print culture, late colonial economics, Atlantic world currents, and regional studies, a complex, complicated, and inherently more complete picture of the period emerges, a picture that lends itself to cross-cultural comparisons.A indepêndencia brasileira is a collection of essays based on a semester-long seminar held at Oxford University in 2003. The book divides Brazil’s independence period into three sections: the late colonial period, the transfer of the court, and the crisis of 1820 – 23. Each section contains several chapters that revolve around key questions for that period. Chapters by Jorge Miguel Pedreira and João Pinto Furtado in the first section, for example, focus on the key issue of colonial antecedents for Brazilian independence. Were the aborted revolutions of the late eighteenth century (Inconfidência Mineira, Revolt of the Tailors, etc.), forerunners of independence? One of the most interesting points to emerge from this section is an acknowledgement that the transfer of the court challenged the successful colonial system and led to a crisis in Portugal. Ultimately, the authors argue that independence was not the culmination of a process that emerged from the colonial period in Brazil.The second section includes a chapter by Kirsten Schultz that builds on her work in Tropical Versailles (Routledge, 2001), and a chapter by the book’s editor on Brazilian elites at independence. Both chapters address the valuable question of how exactly the transfer of the court in 1808 affected Brazil. Did the presence of the monarch on Brazilian soil advance or retard independence? Schultz places the Brazilian movement for independence into the context of the Atlantic world in the age of revolutions, arguing that independence appeared as a conservative alternative to republicanism. In this light, the Portuguese in Rio supported a movement that would protect the monarchy, even at the loss of the colony.The third section highlights the use of innovative materials to examine independence. From chapters on Brazilians in the Portuguese court, to the impact of the nascent political press in Rio, to the rituals of independence, the authors find that independence pervaded Brazilian culture and society. While the materials used to this point may be innovative, the actors are familiar. For the most part, the actions of elites in Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon tell the story of independence. Hendrik Kraay addresses this issue in his chapter “Muralhas da independência e liberdade do Brasil: A participação popular nas lutas políticas (Bahia, 1820-25).” Kraay examines the motives held by enslaved, freed, and free Afro-Brazilians as they fought for independence in the National Guard in Bahia. He highlights the complexity of the race and class system by arguing that there was little ideological cohesion among the various groups, though the white elite saw a unified threat to social order. While more work remains to be done on integrating popular classes in our understanding of independence movements, this chapter shows one possible window into the motives and understandings of those who left few records.The concluding section by Anthony McFarlane focuses on the position of Brazil-ian independence in the larger Atlantic world and illuminates both the strengths and weaknesses of the book as a whole. The process of collecting together numerous scholars examining independence through a multitude of lenses exposes the complexity of Brazilian independence and highlights new approaches to the period. The most significant contribution of the book is the placement of Brazil’s independence movement into larger contexts — Portugal, the Atlantic world, and Spanish America. The only significant limitation is the language of publication. The questions, arguments, and conclusions will be of interest to a broad range of scholars. Those working on independence movements in Spanish America and the impact of enlightenment political philosophy in the larger Atlantic world will find much here to inform their research. As the organizer and editor himself acknowledges: “comparative analyses between the Hispanic world and Portuguese America are practically nonexistent” (p. 45). This book goes a long way toward rectifying that problem.

Acoustic characterization and noise reduction strategies for a general aviation aircraft

This work concerns with the vibro‐acoustic characterization of a general aviation aircraft with the objective of designing solutions to reduce the inside noise level during the flight; first of all a new passive insulation, and then verifying the possibility of an active noise control approach. The acoustic characterization was performed into two different step; in‐flight acoustic and vibration measurements during a typical mission of the vehicle were initially measured, to characterize the acoustic levels and spectra elated to the different flight operations. Ground measurement were also performed to characterize the sound insulation properties of the aircraft structure. The next item was the partial re‐design of the sound insulation pack for the vehicle by the use of innovative material; the choice of the best technical solution has been performed by the use of numerical prediction models and through experimental tests on modified samples of the aircraft structure. The in‐flight acoustic and vibration measurement showed also the presence of dominant low frequencies tonal components related to the BPF's and upper harmonics. This situation suggested the possibility to implement an active noise control approach. All these activities will be herein presented and discussion of the main results will be performed within the paper.

Clinical and Economic Effects of Central Venous Catheters on Oncology Patient Care

Central Venous Catheters (CVC) and ports are essential devices to the medical care of cancer patients. Every year about one million CVCs are inserted in cancer patients. The field of oncohematology is making a great contribution to the development of new models of catheters and to the use of innovative materials. New therapeutic protocols, based on continuous administration and higher doses of anticancer drugs with relative phlebitis problems, have raised the issue of long CVC in situ permanence. Different complications are related to the intravascular catheters such as those associated with insertion (pneumothorax, damages to arteries and nerves), or with the duration of catheterization (thrombosis and infections). Furthermore, Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections (CRBSI), in particular, cause significant mortality and excessive hospital costs. The aim of this prospective study was to analyze the costs related to the use of polyurethane (PU) CVC. 44 patients with a non tunneled double lumen PU CVC in place were followed for 6 months, and for each patient, time of permanence, possible antibiotic prophylaxis, blood parameters, adverse events and medical treatments were monitored. Our results suggest that physicians should pay greater attention to the correlation between new medical devices and the real benefit for the patient, and economic consequences.

POTENTIAL OF A CORN STARCH-BASED BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC FILM FOR SOIL SOLARIZATION

In temperate regions soil solarization with plastic films represents a valuable alternative to the use of methyl bromide for the control of soil borne diseases. However, large quantities of wastes are derived by plastic materials used for solar heating, whose inappropriate management could affect negatively the whole agro-ecosystem. Use of biodegradable films, which spontaneously start up a degradation process after their soil application, could represent a potential solution to these disposal problems. Greenhouse and open field experiments were undertaken in 2002 and 2003 in Southern Italy with the aim to assess the effect of soil solarization with a corn starch-based biodegradable plastic film on soil temperature, root-knot nematode (Melodogyne spp.) and weed control and crop yield, in comparison with EVA and LDPE plastic films. Mechanical and spectroradiometrical properties of the films were also studied. Use of biodegradable films resulted effective, particularly in greenhouse, for the control of nematodes and weeds improving yield and quality of melon fruits. INTRODUCTION Soil solarization is widely applied as an effective alternative to the use of chemicals for the control of soil phytoparasitic nematodes and weeds (Katan, 1981). However, the disposal of the large amounts of wastes deriving by the massive application of plastic materials in agriculture is more and more a serious environmental problem to solve. A possible solution could be represented by the use of innovative materials, such as biodegradable films, that spontaneously start up a degradation process after their application (Castronuovo, 2003). Nevertheless, technical performances of these films should be verified, more specifically if their mechanical and spectroradiometrical properties are comparable to those of traditional materials. Therefore, greenhouse and open field experiments were undertaken in southern Italy in 2002 and 2003 in order to verify the effectiveness of a corn starch based biodegradable film for solarization against phytoparasitic nematodes and weeds, in relation to its mechanical and spectroradiometrical properties. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three solarizing films, a corn starch-based biodegradable milky coloured film (40 μm thick) and two traditional transparent films (LDPE 50 μm; EVA 35 μm) were examined. Mechanical and spectroradiometrical characteristics of the films were determined at 15 days intervals during solarization using a computerized press (Galdabini PMA 10) and two spectrophotometer, working in UV-VIS-NIR (Jasco V-570) and IR (Jasco FT/IR-430), respectively. Mechanical measurements were determined by tensile (UNI 8422) and tearing (UNI 9563) strength tests, in order to obtain values of ultimate tensile strength, percentage stretch at break and tearing strength resistance (Manera et al., 2003). Proc. VI IS on Chemical and Non-Chemical Soil and Substrate Disinfestation Ed. A. Vanachter Acta Hort. 698, ISHS 2005 202 After laboratory tests the plastic films were used in two solarization trials in 2002 and 2003, either in metal and plastic tunnel greenhouse (LDPE 200 μm) and in open field in the Experimental Farm Pantanello at Metaponto (40°20’N; 16°48’E; 10 m a.s.l.). In both years, solarization treatment was applied from July 13 to September 13 on 30 m plots, after rotavation and irrigation of the soil. Plots were arranged according to a randomized block design with three replications for each treatment. During solarization soil temperatures were monitored at 10 and 30 cm depth every 30 min by precision probes (PT 100) and a CR10x data logger. Moreover, for each film the number of hours above 40°C, assumed as the minimum effective temperature on soil pathogens, was also calculated. Melon (Cucumis melo L. var. reticulatus Naud. cv. ‘Drake F1’) was cultivated in experimental plots in spring (March – July) 2003, either in greenhouse and in open field, with the aim to verify the yield response of a vegetable crop to the solarization treatment. In each plot, number and weight of marketable fruit were recorded on a 16 m area (eight plants) and soluble solids (°Brix) and pulp dry matter content were determined on ten fruits. Moreover, root-knot nematode M. javanica gall index was determined on eight plants of each plot, according to a 0-5 scale (Di Vito et al., 1979) and weeds from a 2 m sample area were counted and weighed. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and means separated by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test.

Technical textiles with benefits for weight, function and design

Engineers are now focusing on technical textiles more and more because of the considerable increase in their use in vehicles. The following article by Johann Borgers GmbH & Co. KG demonstrates the benefits of textile parts in interior and exterior for weight, function and design thanks to the use of innovative materials and production processes and also shows potential fields of application.

Turner Centre, Margate: competition entry

The innovative use of materials, an inventive approach to gallery lighting and clarity of organisation distinguish this short-listed competition entry for a visual arts facility on a dramatic coastal site.The design philosophy upon which our work is based may be summarized in our attitude towards the origins of a building, light as a primary agent of change, a respect for the nature of construction, the changing states of a building and the memory of other buildings and places.

Asphalt Pavement Design using Results of Laboratory Fatigue Tests of Asphalt Mixtures

ABSTRACT Fatigue tests with use of 4 Point Bending test were performed on conventional and innovative asphalt mixtures: typical asphalt concrete, high stiffness modulus asphalt concrete and stone mastic asphalt with conventional and special binders, multigrade or elastomer-bitumen. The results of fatigue testing were applied for development of fatigue characteristics of particular asphalt mixtures. Pavement design analysis was performed with design of thickness of asphalt layers and prediction of their fatigue life. It was shown that use of fatigue law developed from laboratory test results for asphalt mixture enabled to prove the efficiency of use of innovative materials. It is possible to reduce total thickness of asphalt layers when applying in base course high stiffness modulus asphalt with special binders without decrease in fatigue life.

Classroom reform five years down the track: The experiences of two teachers

This case study research investigated changing teacher roles associated with two teachers’ use of innovative mathematics materials at Grade Six level, in a setting which contained all the ideal ingredients for professional growth. Participant observation and interviews with the teachers over a seven-month period early in the use of the innovative materials and for a brief time five years later provided a picture of changing teacher roles, but also a sense of issues that had emerged. or persisted in the longer term. The greatest changes in these teachers’ roles (in the short and long term) related to increasing comfort with posing non-routine problems to students and allowing them to struggle together, and the provision of structured opportunities for student reflection upon activities and learning. However, little change was evident over the five year period in the teachers’ use of assessment practices or in their articulation of the “big ideas” of mathematics in the middle school years.

Reconciling Authenticity and Repair in the Conservation of Modern Architecture

AbstractThis paper is a precis of that presented at the Modern Matters conference organized by English Heritage in October 1995. The conference, subtitled Principles and Practice in Conserving Recent Architecture, sought to address some of the current issues faced by those involved in the care and conservation of buildings from our twentieth-century cultural heritage.The present paper attempts to outline some of the apparent philosophical difficulties raised by the conservation of modern buildings, which arise largely from specific practical or physical issues. The current interest in authenticity in relation to the conservation of historic buildings is particularly relevant for buildings from our more recent past, forcing us to reassess existing principles and approaches. It is modem architecture's characteristic utilization of new technologies, together with the use of innovative materials and construction detailing, that makes the reconciliation of material and design, or aesthetic authenticity, proble...

An innovative lamp-post design of 1916 — a fine example of urban heritage in Ottawa

In 1916, the Ottawa Improvement Commission, now the National Capital Commission, installed a concrete lamp-post to provide electric lighting along the Federal Driveway as part of its mandate to landscape and maintain parks and parkways in the capital. The design is highly significant both for its innovative use of materials and for its visual impact on the landscape. The lamp-post today is a heritage landmark, representative of urban reform introduced in the early 20th century under the influence of the City Beautiful movement. Key words: City Beautiful; urban design; street lighting; park furniture; Ottawa Improvement Commission; Lincoln Park, Chicago; Prairie School architecture.

Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing: 7–12 January, 1991 University of Arizona, Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing: 7–12 January, 1991 University of Arizona, Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing: 7–12 January, 1991 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing: 7–12 January, 1991 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing

Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing

Announcement and call for papers : Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing 7–12 January, 1991 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

Announcement and call for papers : Third international conference on constitutive laws for engineering materials: Theory and applications and workshop on innovative use of materials in industrial and infrastructure design and manufacturing 7–12 January, 1991 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

A system for describing the expected hazards of building fires

The Building Firesafety Model serves as an efficient tool for systematically evaluating complete building designs or specific elements of a fire code, such as those standards regarding the flame spread rating of wall coverings and the location of exits. This model enables the evaluation of fire safety implied by compliance with codes such as the HUD/MPS, NFPA 101, and the model building codes used throughout the United States. Furthermore, the model provides the flexibility to evaluate the use of new materials, while ensuring an acceptable level of fire safety without causing undue or unnecessary costs. Both the designer and code official may use this tool, once it has been perfected, as a guide to predict the building's fire safety performance before it is constructed. By using the model, these professionals may jointly assess the trade-off in a variety of architectural and engineering designs incorporating the use of innovative materials. Projects involving, for example, low-cost housing, new community development, structural rehabilitation, and energy conservation systems could also be analyzed. Thus far, the Building Firesafety Model has been used to evaluate: 1. (1) full-scale fire tests; 2. (2) alternative single-family dwelling designs; 3. (3) fire door in a multifamily dwelling; 4. (4) smoke control procedures in a care-type facility; 5. (5) stove hoods in mobile homes; 6. (6) escape potential in the Beverly Hills Supper Club; 7. (7) the effect of room size on fire safety. These applications have illustrated the importance of considering the complex interactions among factors related to the occupant capabilities; building and room dimensions; barriers; variations in fuel loading, ignitability, and flame spread rating; and environment characteristics such as wind conditions and humidity. The Building Firesafety Model also provides a framework for evaluating the trade-off between individual and community fire detection and suppression capabilities. Such innovation could, in the short run, increase construction costs; but, in the long run, decrease the cost of building ownership by reducing the losses due to fire. This will eventually lead to a reduction in insurance costs and, perhaps, taxes due to decreased reliance on community fire suppression services.