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Reaping what WEEE sow: The potential for harvesting spare parts for repair and refurbishment
No full textA Circular Economy (CE) calls for the value of materials and products to be maintained and recovered through narrowing, closing, and slowing loops. However, there remain challenges in moving up the waste hierarchy and not only recycling materials from products, but also capturing value through reuse of components in refurbished and repaired products. In this paper, we examine the practice of “harvesting” spare parts from discarded white goods and consumer electronics in Norway, Sweden and California. Through literature review and interviews, we examine the sources of WEEE and potential spare parts, the use and markets for harvested spare parts, and the harvesting process itself. We identify key conditions, actors, and barriers and discuss how spare part harvesting could be upscaled to support increasing repair and refurbishment activities, which can increase product lifetimes and reduce waste
Responsibility of users in a circular economy and implications for designers: a discussion paper
No full textThis paper contributes to the debate on user responsibility in a circular economy. It discusses the responsibility of users (for instance related to product care and product end-of-use) in various circular business models and consider show designers can help users fulfil the irresponsibility. The paper explores two extreme conceptions of user responsibility: high user responsibility that typically occurs in classic sales models, and low user responsibility, for instance in product-as-a-service models. Potential directions are given to designers to stimulate care, maintenance, repair and circular end-of-use paths without scaring off or punishing users
Scaling circular collaborations in cities through engagement
No full textCircular economy has gained traction within companies resulting in many exploring new product and business model combinations. Yet, to transition towards a circular economy on a societal level requires going beyond new product and market-based opportunities. To enable societal level change, ecosystem-level innovations are important and so collaboration plays a key role. Cities are considered in this paper as hubs of innovation playing a key role in transitioning to a circular economy. They are responsible for 80% of global resource consumption, with a high concentration of capital, data and talent spread over a relatively small geographic area; making them an important part of societal level transitions. The current work stresses the need to understand and support collaborations in transitioning towards a circular economy. This paper explores what factors influence collaborations and how organizations collaborate for a circular economy in the context of cities. An initial literature review resulted in a framework for exploration, which informed the set-up of the questionnaire. This helped in conducting semi-structured interviews with people ranging from founders, designers to engineers from six circular start-ups, which operate and utilize the resources in cities; to understand how different organisations collaborate in cities. Results showed they focus on operationalizing their innovation through engagement with various stakeholders. As they increased their visibility in cities showcasing their value, increasing the ways and number of engagements, the organisation engaged with people and organisations having similar values and grew by scaling through engagement. This paper elaborates the idea of scaling through engagement as a way for circular organisations to scale
Expanding the upcycling paradigm: a case study in the creative use of waste streams and waste plastic in interlocking blocks
No full textThis paper contributes to the discourse of upcycling. It attempts to apply an understanding of upcycling to large-scale complex mass production processes, by exploring an ongoing case study that is repurposing waste plastics into interlocking building blocks, using ubiquitous manufacturing processes. In so doing, the paper responds to a call for more case studies of real-life industrial practices in material recovery. The paper however does not attempt to argue that the concept of upcycling, in its current form, is a perfect fit for this case study. Instead, it will identify those elements of upcycling culture and practice from which we can learn, and potentially apply to the management of plastic waste. Thus, the paper also contributes to an expanded understanding of upcycling, helping to legitimize it within mainstream practice, and move it beyond its current designation as a niche, though worthy, activity
Application of the paternalism principle to constitutional rights: Mental health case-law in Ireland
No full textIn adjudicating on matters relating to fundamental constitutional or human rights, courts make important statements about the principles which apply. The principles articulated will have a profound impact on the outcomes of such cases, and on the development of case-law in the relevant field. In the fields of medical law and mental health law, various courts have moved away from deference to medical decision-making and paternalism to a person-centred rights-based approach. However, courts in Ireland have continued to interpret mental health law in a paternalistic fashion, praising paternalism as if it is particularly suitable for mental health law. This raises profound questions about judicial attitudes to people with mental health conditions and judicial reluctance to confer full personhood on people with disabilities. This article outlines case-law in Ireland regarding paternalism in mental health law and discusses the consequences for constitutional rights in Ireland
Specification of an Information Delivery Tool to Support Optimal Holistic Environmental and Energy Management in Buildings
No full textThe Third National Conference of IBPSA-USA (SimBuild 2008), Berkeley, California, United States of America, 30 July - 1 August 2008Building performance assessment for the operational phase of a building’s life cycle is heuristic, typicallywork- ing from available historical metered data and focusing on bulk energy assessment. Building Management Systems are used in the operational phase of the building to con- trol the building’s internal environment according to the design criteria outlined during the design phase. Recent developments in mechanisms that communicate building performance such as standardised building per- formance objectives and metrics enable the use of the out- put from whole building energy simulation tools by non- technical personnel and all project stakeholders. This paper proposes to specify and demonstrate the utilisation of an Information Delivery Tool that supports optimum holistic environmental and energy analysis aimed at an established profile of building managers utilising standardised performance objectives and metricsSustainable Energy Irelan
24th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2020; Virtual, Online
No full textHerein we review aspects of leading-edge research and innovation in Materials Sciencethatexploits big data and Machine Learning(ML), two computer science conceptsthat combine to yield computationalintelligence. ML can accelerate the solution of intricate chemical problems and even solve problems that otherwise would not be tractable. But the potential benefits of ML come at the cost of big data production; that is, the algorithmsdemand large volumes of data of various natures and from different sources, from materials properties to sensor data. In the survey, we propose a roadmap for future developments with emphasis on computer-aided discoveryof new materials1and analysis of chemical sensingcompounds, both prominent research fields for ML in the context of Materials Science. In addition to providing an overview of recent advances, we elaborate upon the conceptual and practical limitations of big data and ML applied to Materials Science, outlining processes, discussing pitfalls, and reviewing cases of success and failure
Drug delivery for fighting infectious diseases: a global perspective
No full textEpidemiologists have predicted that viral infections might spread fast in our highly globalized world. For example, a report on “Preparedness for a high-impact respiratory pathogen pandemic” was published in September 2019 by Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security [1]. This report ranked aerosol transmitted viral diseases as the highest risk for a wide-spreading pandemic and named, as an example beyond infuenza, also severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as a zoonotic coronavirus. In approximately 1 year, SARSCoV-2 (coronavirus type 2) has developed into a true pandemic and reminds
is that problems must be taken seriously in a timely manner. In the case of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we profited from the protocols established during earlier pandemics. Following the infuenza (H1N1) pandemic in 2009, a pandemic preparedness plan was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). SARS-CoV infections in 2003 and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 2012 lead to research in this type of Coronaviridae and strategies to combat them. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa 2014–2016 activated a push for programs in preventive and therapeutic strategies driven by governmental and non-governmental institution
Enabling machine learning on the edge using SRAM conserving efficient neural networks execution approach
No full textEdge analytics refers to the application of data analytics and
Machine Learning (ML) algorithms on IoT devices. The concept of edge
analytics is gaining popularity due to its ability to perform AI-based analytics at the device level, enabling autonomous decision-making, without
depending on the cloud. However, the majority of Internet of Things
(IoT) devices are embedded systems with a low-cost microcontroller unit
(MCU) or a small CPU as its brain, which often are incapable of handling
complex ML algorithms.
In this paper, we propose an approach for the efficient execution of already
deeply compressed, large neural networks (NNs) on tiny IoT devices. After
optimizing NNs using state-of-the-art deep model compression methods,
when the resultant models are executed by MCUs or small CPUs using
the model execution sequence produced by our approach, higher levels
of conserved SRAM can be achieved. During the evaluation for nine
popular models, when comparing the default NN execution sequence with
the sequence produced by our approach, we found that 1.61-38.06% less
SRAM was used to produce inference results, the inference time was
reduced by 0.28-4.9 ms, and energy consumption was reduced by 4-84
mJ. Despite achieving such high conserved levels of SRAM, our methThis publication has emanated from research supported in part by a research grant
from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant Number SFI/16/RC/3918
(Confirm) and also by a research grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2289 P2 (Insight), with both grants co-funded
by the European Regional Development Fund
Epidemiology of age-dependent prevalence of Bovine Herpes Virus Type 1 (BoHV-1) in dairy herds with and without vaccination
No full textMany studies report age as a risk factor for BoHV-1 infection or seropositivity. However, it is unclear whether this pattern reflects true epidemiological causation or is a consequence of study design and other issues. Here, we seek to understand the age-related dynamics of BoHV-1 seroprevalence in seasonal calving Irish dairy herds and provide decision support for the design and implementation of effective BoHV-1 testing strategies. We analysed seroprevalence data from dairy herds taken during two Irish seroprevalence surveys conducted between 2010 and 2017. Age-dependent seroprevalence profiles were constructed for herds that were seropositive and unvaccinated. Some of these profiles revealed a sudden increase in seroprevalence between adjacent age-cohorts, from absent or low to close to 100% of seropositive animals. By coupling the outcome of our data analysis with simulation output of an individual-based model at the herd scale, we have shown that these sudden increases are related to extensive virus circulation within a herd for a limited time, which may then subsequently remain latent over the following years. BoHV-1 outbreaks in dairy cattle herds affect animals independent of age and lead to almost 100% seroconversion in all age groups, or at least in all animals within a single epidemiological unit. In the absence of circulating infection, there is a year-on-year increase in the age-cohort at which seroprevalence changes from low to high. The findings of this study inform recommendations regarding testing regimes in the context of contingency planning or an eradication programme in seasonal calving dairy herds.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin