Fraunhofer Chalmers Research Centre for Industrial Mathematics
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How to increase the attractiveness of the construction industry - by tackling imbalance in gender
No full textThe population in Sweden is quickly growing with increasing demands for more buildings and infrastructure. At the same time, the construction industry has a comprehensive labour deficiency, that hinders the industry from producing according to the need of the market. Forecasts indicate that the labour deficiency will increase. Concurrently, the construction industry has a major imbalance in gender. Unfortunately, the industry is unwelcoming towards women. The conditions are gender unequal, and discrimination occur at all levels in the industry. However, research has shown that gender equal organizations increase their competitive advantages, quality of output, and much more. Not only would an increase of women solve the labour deficiency, it would also improve the Swedish construction industry and make it more competitive globally. The aim of this study is to identify how the construction industry can become more attractive, and how to tackle the problem of imbalance in gender. A qualitative research methodology has been used, and interviewees with 14 representatives from both the construction industry and other industries compile the empirical data. Additionally, theory in relation to the construction industry and other industries is used for analysis. The result show that that with increased equality the industry will become more profitable, more innovative, and will be able to produce according to the need of the market. Organizations who become more equal will improve their competitive advantages and the productivity of their employees. To attract women an improvement of reputation is required. Role models, equal conditions to perform and leadership are other critical factors for the industry to both attract and retain women. Organizations who aim to become gender equal must adopt the iterative process of equality knowledge, actions, result, follow up and monitoring, and feedback and improvement. There are many incentives for the industry, organization and employee to engage in the equality progress. The most powerful incentive for increased equality in the construction industry would be if organizations demand equality from business partners
Inland Waterways Logistics Operational Requirements & Vessels’ Characteristics
No full textInland waterway transport (IWT) is a complex system with numerous components and specifications; performance and competitiveness of IWT rely, to a large extent, on the fleet, the vessels’ structure and capacity, the vessels’ equipment and management. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse and distinguish the fleets according to their performance, equipment and technical parameters. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to investigate the operational requirements and vessel characteristics required for the well-functioning IWT in the area of Göta älv - Lake Vänern.
The data for the study was collected through the relevant literature, study visits and interviews as well as cross-referencing them with the authors own experiences. This objective however would have been achievable only by investigating the vessels characteristics, operational features and reasons behind those in Northern Europe’s main Inland waterways. The main and dominant of these inland waterways are, the Danube and Rhine; also including some countries on the routes investigated. Sequentially, it follows the general characteristics of inland waterways’ vessels in those two routes, the operational features and reasons behind, in the two main dominant Inland waterways. In the same way, operational requirements and conditions of IWT for the area of project have been investigated to find out shortcomings and render a SWOT analysis developed for the presenting of recommendations for the threats and weakness on the bases of key learnings and finding from the Northern Europe Inland waterways vessels characteristics, operational features of vessels and terminals.
Findings on the Rhine and Danube IWT indicate that vessels’ characteristics and operational features as well as the ports conditions are regionally different and are affected by various factors such as the locks’ allowance, nautical status of waterways, economy of the region, etc.
The recommendations for the promotion of IWT business in the Göta Älv-Lake Vänern are made in the domain of vessels’ characteristics and operational features, the facility requirements, such as futures locks’ dimensions, lifting gear for the container operation either on the vessels or ports, and the regulations’ requirements for the ice and pilotage, etc
The effect of applied paediatric burn blister fluid and extracted exosomes from different depths on human dermal fibroblasts and keratinocytes
No full textBurn injuries are common types of wounds which have different degrees of severity depending on the affected tissue depth and size. The depths are classified as superficial-partial thickness, deep-partial thickness or full thickness. During the burn wound healing process fluid filled blisters can form in the skin, however the effect of these are not fully understood yet. This Master’s thesis project aimed to examined the effect of paediatric burn blister fluid and isolated exosomes on human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) and partly on keratinocyte-like HaCaTs. Assays such as WST-1, TGF-β pathway real-time PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) and microscopic methods were used to examine the metabolic and proliferative activity as well as gene expression and cytokine production. The exosomes were extracted from burn blister fluid using ultracentrifugation and characterized using western blot, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA).
The project have successfully been able to, for the first time, characterize exosomes in burn blister fluid from different burn depths. The exosomes were detectable in TEM images and results obtained from the NTA showed particles predominantly in the size 150 nm in the concentration 1010-11 particles/ml. Exosomes did not have a significant proliferative effect neither increased the metabolic activity of treated HFFs cultures. Real-time PCR and ELISA results showed an gene up-regulation of TGF-β1 at 24 h and at 48 h its physical presence in deep exosome treated HFF cultures. The result showed a down-regulation of COL1A1 and IL-6 at 24 and 48 h in superficial and full thickness exosome cultures and no sign of cytokine production. Whole burn blister fluid from superficial-partial and deep-partial paediatric burns were used in the same functional assays. The obtained result showed that burn blister fluid have the ability to increase the metabolic activity and proliferation of HFFs as well as HaCaTs, altough not in the same extent. At 24 h burn blister treated HFFs have an up-regulated gene expression of TGF-β1 and a downregulated expression of COL1A1 and IL-6 compared to serum free control, this is however not replicated at the same timepoint in the ELISA result, were no TGF-β1 was detected. IL-6 and IL-1β was detected in almost all burn blister sample treated HFF cultures. The result indicates that burn blister fluid and extracted exosomes have various effects on HFFs and HaCats
E-band/W-band corrugated horn feed for the Onsala Space Observatory 20 m radio telescope
No full textThe Development of the Fundamentals of a Silicon-Based Point-Of-Care Device for Future Electrochemical Detection of Pathogen Mycobacterium Avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis (MAP) DNA.
No full textThis 60 ECTS M.Sc. thesis project aimed to develop the fundamentals for a straightforward, low-cost silion-based three-electrode sensing essay for future on-site detection of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). The backbone of the sensor development was in-hood metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon using hydrofluoric acid and three different metals, namely gold, silver and platinum. The modified silicon pieces were analyzed using SEM and furthermore assembled on glass slides along two commercial inks to create the three-electrode setup, and the silicon electrodes were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry using ferricyanide and methylene blue redox solutions at pH 7 and room temperature. Gold-coated silicon was evaluated the furthest and the results suggest an overall reversible system though the sensor prototype stability was lacking due to its crude nature and assembly. The electrochemical testing showed variance in the system’s ability to detect different concentrations of redox solutions, but high degrees of reversibility and promising promising potential scanning windows. In order to analyze the silicon electrodes further, more reliable sensor components and increased metal-to-silicon adhesion would be necessary
Effective velocity of biomass particles in a fluidized bed reactor
No full textThe growing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the EU are produced mainly by the consumption of energy. For this reason, using more sustainable energy systems will contribute to reduce these emissions and then help to mitigate the climate change and the air pollution.
The CFB (circulating fluidized bed) technology has the capability of burning a wide range of fuels meeting SOx and NOx limits, which makes it an attractive energy system to achieve a successful efficiency of the combustion. However, to ensure an efficient conversion, it is necessary to achieve an effective mixing of the bed material and the fuel particles (controlled in axial and lateral directions). This control is not easy due to the chaotic behavior of the solid particles inside the furnace.
The present work investigates the behavior of the mixing of biomass particles (wood chips and wood pellets) when they circulate in a CFB when there is interaction with the inert particles and when there is not. For doing this investigation, the terminal velocities of each kind of biomass that were taken in the laboratory and the current existing models (by MATLAB) were compared
