8364 research outputs found
Sort by
The Influence of Recreational Activity on Upland Ecosystems in the UK: A Review of Evidence
Get PDFThe uplands are an important destination for people wishing to experience the outdoors. These areas are also of great importance for biodiversity, landscape and understanding the effects of recreational activity in upland areas is important to ensuring that their use is environmentally sustainable.
This work was commissioned so that the findings could be used by all those with an interest in or responsibility for, upland areas and to help make informed decisions about a range of activities and how they relate to the upland environment. Natural England commission a range of reports from external contractors to provide evidence and advice to assist us in delivering our duties. The views in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Natural England
Introduction: 2023 RSA Annual Conference: Special RSA Highlights: Regional Studies Association's Annual Conference
Get PDFThis introduction provides a high-level highlight of the Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference programme organised in collaboration with the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana and the Slovenian Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development in June 2023. The text recaps the events happening throughout the conference, participants and the thematic sessions held. It also promotes the bursaries offered by the Regional Studies Association to attend the conference
Effects of Big Data Analytics on Sustainable Manufacturing: A Comparative Study Analysis
Get PDFApplication of big data analytics (BDA) is seen in various disciplines within an organization to predict trends, explore opportunities and monitor performance. Among all the industries, BDA presents immense value in sustainable manufacturing (SM) given that it is an industry that consumes a high amount of energy, emits high amounts of waste and carbon emissions and requires a large amount of manpower. This paper aims at illustrating the effects of BDA in supporting SM by studying the Indian manufacturing firms which have unfavorable labor laws compared to other developing countries. With an extensive literature review, this paper discusses the relationship between BDA and sustainability, the capabilities of BDA, the concept of SM, the BDA framework for SM, the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SM and the challenges of implementing BDA. Using qualitative meta-analysis research methodology, the paper examines the nine common critical success factors that enable SM through BDA implementation by comparing 15 primary studies. Finally, the paper concludes the research findings and outlines future research directions. The study provides theoretical and practical contributions to BDA implementation in achieving effective SM practices in emerging economies
A Case Study of the Integration of Mine water into Smart Cooling and Heating Network systems
Get PDFMinewater presents a significant opportunity as an energy source and store in the UK and elsewhere. This research investigates the feasibility and factors necessary to successfully integrate minewater into smart cooling and heating network systems that can support acceleration towards the UK’s net zero target. Heat recovery from minewater offers a lowcarbon source of energy for either heating or cooling and can provide thermal storage, potentially valuable for inter-seasonal demand. The work builds on a feasibility study in Barnsley, Yorkshire, which explored the design of a heat network that integrates heat, power, and mobility and uses waste heat from a glass factory. This work focusses on analyzing the subsurface factors including flowrate, yield, mine void volume, and interconnectivity, which affect the flow and consequently thermal behavior of the available minewater. A 3D model using Petrel and Groundhog have been created combining data from the available boreholes and Coal Authority maps to characterise the subsurface conditions
Bibliometric Review of Professional Skills Development in Engineering Education: Implications for Engineering Management Programs
Get PDFEngineering managers benefit from having professional skills in areas such as communication, teamwork, decision-making, project management, ethical awareness, and an appreciation of contemporary issues. These skills complement the technical engineering foundation in relevant areas of science and mathematics combined with a solid grounding in engineering analysis, design and practice. However, there are continuing challenges in regard to understanding the optimal approaches for integrating professional skills and knowledge development in engineering management programs and more broadly across engineering education. Therefore, this study conducted a bibliometric review on professional skills development in engineering education. The method is based on systematic searching of the extant literature, which identified 88 documents according to keyword retrieval over a 5 year period from 2018 to 2022. The documents are categorized in terms of publication metrics (such as publication year, subject area and country of origin) followed by bibliometric analysis to determine co-occurrence of keywords, co-occurrence of text, and co-authorship in terms of countries. The study includes content analysis of the 10 publications having the highest citation count. This analysis allowed emerging trends on the publications to be identified as well as collaboration patterns, research strategies, and structure of the knowledge base. The study concludes with a set of implications for engineering management programs arising from the bibliometric review
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Construction Costing Practice
Get PDFCost estimation is a crucial process in the construction sector as the efficiency of the overall project cost serves as one metric in determining project success. Prevailing traditional approach suffers from human subjectivity and bias which affect accuracy. With the development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as the use of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms, the construction industry is experiencing brisk technological change and new ways of working, particularly in terms of cost predictions and estimations. However, the application of AI is still in its infancy and the industry still prioritises traditional cost modelling approaches in determining early estimates. This research explores the application of the various ML methods for costing and assesses their usage and application in the costing practice via an exploratory critical review. Findings indicate that ML algorithms would improve the accuracy and efficiency of costing practice but cannot replace the professionals and data availability
A Critical Examination of Nigeria's Electricity Generation and Supply between 2001 and 2020
Get PDFThis study focuses on Nigeria's journey towards achieving the United Nations' 7th Sustainable Energy Goal by 2030, which aims to provide cheap, sustainable, and reliable energy access worldwide. It reviews Nigeria's electricity policies from 2001 to 2020 and employs a deterministic modelling tool to identify the least-cost electrification options for the entire country.
Nigeria, being in its early economic stages, is advised to promote renewable energy to diversify its energy mix and build renewable power plants. This shift towards renewables
is seen as advantageous. The modelling tool introduced allows policymakers, even those without technical expertise, to assess the potential impacts of their decisions before
implementation.
The study's projections indicate that a combination of renewable and non-renewable energy sources is the optimal path for Nigeria's future energy network. However, challenges such as oil price fluctuations, supply chain issues, and a high cost of living may slow the adoption of renewable energy.
Two scenarios are examined: the Forecast scenario based on the current national grid performance and the Policy scenario aligning with the Nigerian Government's 2030 electrification plan. Both scenarios suggest that increasing transmission lines and power generation while integrating renewables can significantly reduce operational costs. Currently, only about 60% of Nigeria's population has access to electricity, and it is often unreliable. To support economic growth and population needs, the study emphasises the necessity of incorporating more renewable energy sources in Nigeria's energy expansion plans. Climate change and global warming underscore the importance of a resilient and stable energy sector.
Furthermore, the study identifies policies that have contributed to electricity generation and supply, especially in rural and off-grid areas. These policies encourage investment, support diverse energy sources, and involve various stakeholders in the electricity value chain. By implementing the right regulations to attract renewable energy investors, Nigeria can address its power sector issues and expand electricity access to unconnected regions.
In conclusion, Nigeria's path to sustainable and reliable energy involves a balanced mix of renewable and non-renewable sources, improved policies, and investments in untapped natural resources like solar, wind, biomass, and tidal energy. This approach can create a cleaner, more sustainable energy future for the country
Investigation of the thermal management potential of phase change material for lithium-ion battery
Get PDFWith the rapid development of electric vehicles, lithium-ion battery has been widely used as an energy source. However, to avoid thermal runaway and to ensure the correct operation of lithium-ion battery system, effective battery thermal management would be required. In this study the capacity of phase change materials with different thermal-physical properties to respectively manage thermal issues associated with lithium-ion battery is theoretically investigated using computational fluid dynamics. The impacts of shell material, heat transfer coefficient, phase change material fill volume and the shape of the battery pack on the thermal performance of the lithium-ion battery/phase change material system are investigated in detail. The results show that when the ambient temperature was 20°C or 30°C, phase change material-RT35 shows the best temperature control ability for the proposed system, while the phase change material-RT50 has better thermal management capability when the ambient temperature is 40°C. Also, higher heat transfer coefficient or shell material with higher thermal conductivity, effectively reduce the maximum temperature of the lithium-ion battery and the temperature difference within the proposed system. Specifically, the phase transition time in the lithium-ion battery/phase change material system with a heat transfer coefficient of 10 W/m2K is more than twice longer compared to that of 1 W/m2K and the maximum temperature is 47.18 °C after 150 minutes of charging and discharging. It is also observed that the phase change material with larger volume ratio leads to lower system temperature during phase transition and the continuous charging and discharging after completing transformation of the phase change material impacts negatively on the thermal management of the lithium-ion battery system. Besides, the rectangular lithium-ion battery/phase change material system surpasses the circular one by 14.78°C in maximum temperature, while attaining a minimum temperature difference of 9.6°C after 150 minutes of charging and discharging
Flexure Response of Stainless-Steel-Reinforced Concrete (SSRC) Beams Subjected to Fire
Get PDFThis paper examines the behavior of stainless-steel-reinforced concrete (SSRC) flexural members subjected to fire. Stainless steel (SS) reinforcement has gained popularity due to its corrosion resistance and long maintenance-free life. However, there is an insufficiency of performance data and design guidance in the present literature. This paper presents a numerical assessment of SSRC structural elements using a material model based on experimental tests. A finite element model was utilized to simulate and analyze the response of SSRC beams under fire. This study compared the behavior of SSRC beams with traditional carbon-steel-reinforced concrete (CSRC) beams, demonstrating that SSRC members have a higher load carrying capacity and can sustain fire exposure for longer durations. Additionally, SSRC beams exhibited higher deflections during fire exposure compared to CSRC beams
A human ear-inspired ultrasonic transducer (HEUT) for 3D localization of sub-wavelength scatterers
Get PDFThe proposed technology aims to enable 3D localization of scatterers using single element ultrasonic transducers, which are traditionally limited to 1D measurements. This is achieved by designing a bespoke acoustic lens with a spiral-shaped pattern similar to the human outer ear, a shape that has evolved for sound source localization. This lens breaks the surface symmetry of the transducer, allowing ultrasonic waves arriving from different directions to be encoded in a certain way that can later be decoded to extract directional information. By employing the mechanism of spatial-encoding of the received signals and decoding via signal processing, the location of sub-wavelength scatterers can be detected in 3D with a single measurement for sparsely distributed scatterers. The proposed technology is first verified through a simulation study, and then 3D printed acoustic lenses are used to demonstrate the 3D encoding functionality of the Human Ear-inspired Ultrasonic Transducer (HEUT) experimentally. A framework is created to localize scatterers in 3D by processing received signals acquired by a HEUT prototype. With this technology, a single transducer can obtain multi-dimensional information with a single pulse-echo measurement, reducing the number of elements required for performing 3D ultrasound localization. The proposed spatial-encoding and -decoding technology can be applied to other wave-based imaging methods to develop affordable, practical, and compact sensing devices