Interferences during the boarding procedure are one of the main reasons of delay and increased turnaround time, becoming a relevant problem for airlines. Observations of the boarding process and ...questionnaires inside the aircraft revealed three main bottlenecks during the boarding process: (1) Hand luggage: Storage space is not sufficient and/or not used efficiently; (2) Preparation: Passengers are not well prepared for the boarding process; and (3) Communication: Audio announcements are unclear and unfocused. By translating these bottlenecks as possibilities for improvement, solutions were designed for the airport and aircraft interiors to reduce boarding time and improve the passenger boarding experience. Concepts ranged from an app to scan your hand luggage at home and make a reservation for overhead bin space; to a redesigned waiting area to help passengers prepare for boarding; to new boarding methods and redesigned aircraft seats. In this paper, several design concepts are presented in more detail.
•Observational research on actual passenger behaviour during aircraft boarding.•Three main bottlenecks are: hand luggage, lack of preparation (by pax), communication.•Bottlenecks were translated into design solutions to improve boarding experience.•Design opportunities seem possible, besides experimenting with boarding strategies.•Solutions for providing a faster and more comfortable boarding process.
The study of evanescent-wave radiative heat transfer is a relatively new subject, but has its roots in the discovery of black-body radiation. With Planck’s law describing the emittance of a black ...body only in the far-field limit, it left physicists pondering what happens in the near field. Evanescent-wave radiative heat transfer, also known as near-field radiation, is the production of an exponentially decaying electromagnetic field outside a material’s surface due to its temperature. The interaction of these evanescent fields between two surfaces allows heat to propagate across a small vacuum gap at rates several orders of magnitude above that of far-field radiation. Although this effect has been discussed for many decades, experimental verification of evanescent-wave heat transfer has been very limited. Within the past few years physicists from around the world have designed experiments that have measured the effect for a sphere plane geometry. However, the motivation for this dissertation requires an experiment that can measure the evanescent-wave heat transfer for a parallel plane geometry. The motivation to study evanescent-wave radiative heat transfer was driven by its possible use in the search for gravitational waves. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a set of interferometric detectors, with arms 4 kg long, run by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC). LIGO is designed to detect gravitational waves from cosmic sources. Looking towards the future, the LSC desires to improve LIGO’s sensitivity to allow it to look further into space to detect gravitational-wave sources. One method for improvement is to reduce thermal noise by cryogenically cooling LIGO. To do this brings up many design challenges, one of which is maintaining the cold temperature of the test mass mirrors when the absorbtion of laser light heats them up. A requirement for cooling is that the mirrors are not touched by a cooling surface which would bypass the suspension system tasked with damping out seismic noise. However, if a cooling surface was brought near to (but not touching) the test mass mirrors, the heat radiated out of the test masses would increase from its far-field limit. The experiment described in this dissertation has demonstrated that evanescence can be put to work to transfer heat from an object without actually touching it.
Near-field radiative heat transfer allows heat to propagate across a small vacuum gap in quantities that are several orders of magnitude greater then the heat transfer by far-field, blackbody ...radiation. Although heat transfer via near-field effects has been discussed for many years, experimental verification of this theory has been very limited. We have measured the heat transfer between two macroscopic sapphire plates, finding an increase in agreement with expectations from theory. These experiments, conducted near 300 K, have measured the heat transfer as a function of separation over mm to \(\mu\)m and as a function of temperature differences between 2.5 and 30 K. The experiments demonstrate that evanescence can be put to work to transfer heat from an object without actually touching it.
► We examine the urban dynamics of Beijing in an institutional transformation context. ► Economic Clusters are the major driver of urban development. ► The vibrant economy is driving Beijing towards ...being a world city, but with problems. ► A key issue is to establish a mutually shaped economic-spatial development mechanism.
Although the scale and speed of China’s urban and economic transition is well acknowledged, a detailed account of the transformation of a single city’s development in this context is quite rare. This paper provides an insight into the recent dynamics of China’s capital city, Beijing. In the early 1980s, China’s transition process from a planned to a market economy started to deeply affect the urban economy of Beijing, so much so that the city is on its way to become one of the world’s leading cities. This article focuses on this development by looking at Beijing’s institutional context and its economic-spatial dynamics over the past 30years. Economic Clusters (ECs) are also discussed because they have contributed significantly to Beijing’s rapid growth and change. The city’s development is however under increasing pressures of ecological deterioration, limited water resources, high living costs and uncertainties regarding the future urban policy orientation of the city region. These current challenges and responses in planning are assessed and discussed.
This study aims to raise the level of attention paid to surface water management issues in spatial planning and urban development processes. In the case of cities located in alluvial river plains, ...surface water bodies may occupy large areas but severe ecological and environmental consequences can arise if they are given insufficient weight in the planning and development processes. After discussing in general terms some of the connections between surface water bodies and urban land use we specifically examine the situation in Wuhan, one of the largest cities in China, which has many surface water bodies in its urban region. We measure and analyse land use changes between 1993 and 2004 to lakes and shallow water bodies and their riparian areas using data derived from detailed land use surveys of the city. Our results show that urban expansion has had a significant impact on Wuhan's surface water bodies and their riparian zones. The reduction, disappearance and pollution of surface water may contribute to the undervaluation of water bodies, thereby increasing the likelihood of further impacts taking place. An integrative and proactive land use planning and management system at regional strategic level and local action level is considered to be essential if surface water systems are to be conserved and improved. Increased recognition of their societal and ecological value should be reflected in more detailed attention to the spatial requirements of water bodies and riparian areas in urban planning policies.
The ultrafiltration/diafiltration (UF/DF) process is a crucial step in the canola protein isolation process from rapeseed meal. The process involves using a multi-stage membrane system to separate ...components of the mixture. As diafiltration dilutes the feed stream in the ultrafiltration system, a large amount of diafiltration water is required. Reducing the diafiltrate for sustainability reasons can be done by carefully selecting process variables or using recycle streams. However, finding the optimum process variables can be a meticulous process if performed experimentally or via trial and error. In this study, we performed an optimization using a mechanistic model integrated with a genetic algorithm to aid in finding an optimum combination of process variables. The mechanistic ultrafiltration model was derived by taking into account transport phenomena within the filtration system. Parameters were characterized experimentally in term of viscosity coefficient, membrane resistance, cake porosity, aggregate diameter equivalent, and material compressibility factors. Using the mechanistic model-based optimization in combination with actual experimental values, the performance of a four-stage UF/DF system could already be improved despite fixing the configuration, albeit at the cost of a reduction in purity. Further improvement could be achieved by using recycle streams. The optimized system achieved a diafiltrate reduction of up to 79%, an increase of purity of up to 31%, and an increase of dry matter content of up to 18%, while maintaining the product purity of the reference set-up.
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•A multi-stage ultrafiltration/diafiltration system for canola protein was optimized using mechanistic model.•The filtration model was developed using Kozeny-Carman equation, which properties were estimated experimentally.•Optimization was performed using a multi-criteria decision making technique, combined with genetic algorithm.•Optimum solution suggested the use of recycled streams to reduce diafiltrate and to increase productivity and dry matter.
This article is centered on a formerly obscure deposit in remote Inner Mongolia that rose to collector fame belatedly as a result of the incorrect locality attribution of two rare borate ...minerals-cahnite and borcarite-whose discoveries were announced in 2011. We first look at the rise in interest in Inner Mongolia as a source of new specimens for collectors, then the confusion in localities and species naming, and finally the main theme, the emergence of the Shijiangshan mine as one of global collecting significance.
Heterogeneity within brain injury presents a challenge to the development of informative molecular diagnostics. Recent studies show progress, particularly in cerebrospinal fluid, with biomarker ...assays targeting one or a few structural proteins. Protein-based assays in peripheral fluids, however, have been more challenging to develop, in part because of restricted and intermittent barrier access. Further, a greater number of molecular variables may be required to inform on patient status given the multi-factorial nature of brain injury. Presented is an alternative approach profiling peripheral fluid for a class of small metabolic by-products rendered by ongoing brain pathobiology. Urine specimens were collected for head trauma subjects upon admission to acute brain injury rehabilitation and non-traumatized matched controls. An innovative data-independent mass spectrometry approach was employed for reproducible molecular quantification across osmolarity-normalized samples. The postacute human traumatic brain injury urinary signature encompassed 2476 discriminant variables reproducibly measured in specimens for subject classification. Multiple subprofiles were then discerned in correlation with injury severity per the Glasgow Comma Scale and behavioral and neurocognitive function per the Patient Competency Rating Scale and Frontal Systems Behavioral Scale. Identified peptide constituents were enriched for outgrowth and guidance, extracellular matrix, and post-synaptic density proteins, which were reflective of ongoing post-acute neuroplastic processes demonstrating pathobiological relevance. Taken together, these findings support further development of diagnostics based on brain injury urinary signatures using either combinatorial quantitative models or pattern-recognition methods. Particularly, these findings espouse assay development to address unmet diagnostic and theragnostic needs in brain injury rehabilitative medicine.
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