406 research outputs found
Double Bind: On Material Ethics
No full textGreen Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.OLD Architectural Theor
Social inequalities in height: persisting differences today depend upon height of the parents
No full textBACKGROUND: Substantial increases in height have occurred concurrently with economic development in most populations during the last century. In high-income countries, environmental exposures that can limit genetic growth potential appear to have lessened, and variation in height by socioeconomic position may have diminished. The objective of this study is to investigate inequalities in height in a cohort of children born in the early 1990s in England, and to evaluate which factors might explain any identified inequalities. METHODS AND FINDINGS: 12,830 children from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a population based cohort from birth to about 11.5 years of age, were used in this analysis. Gender- and age-specific z-scores of height at different ages were used as outcome variables. Multilevel models were used to take into account the repeated measures of height and to analyze gender- and age-specific relative changes in height from birth to 11.5 years. Maternal education was the main exposure variable used to examine socioeconomic inequalities. The roles of parental and family characteristics in explaining any observed differences between maternal education and child height were investigated. Children whose mothers had the highest education compared to those with none or a basic level of education, were 0.39 cm longer at birth (95% CI: 0.30 to 0.48). These differences persisted and at 11.5 years the height difference was 1.4 cm (95% CI: 1.07 to 1.74). Several other factors were related to offspring height, but few changed the relationship with maternal education. The one exception was mid-parental height, which fully accounted for the maternal educational differences in offspring height. CONCLUSIONS: In a cohort of children born in the 1990s, mothers with higher education gave birth to taller boys and girls. Although height differences were small they persisted throughout childhood. Maternal and paternal height fully explained these differences.Bruna Galobardes, Valerie A. McCormack, Peter McCarron, Laura D. Howe, John Lynch, Debbie A. Lawlor and George Davey Smit
Gladstone Permanent Transect Seagrass Monitoring: April 2012 interim update report
No full textSeagrass has been monitored quarterly at permanent transects at seven locations in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay since November 2009 (excluding Redcliffe which has been monitored since August 2010) (see maps on pages 3 to 5). The program was established to determine within and among year variation in seagrass condition and form the key sensitive receptor sites for assessing seagrass condition during the Western Basin dredging operation.
In September 2011, Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited commissioned additional monthly surveys outside of the regular quarterly monitoring to provide more frequent assessments of seagrass condition during dredging operations. These additional monthly surveys are conducted aerially to avoid damaging sites through repeated on-ground sampling.
In December 2011, an additional permanent transect site was established at Wiggins Island due to the development of the Wiggins Island Coal Terminal near the original site. Both sites are being monitored to determine if there are significant differences in seagrass communities between sites.
In March 2012, an additional permanent transect site was also established at Facing Island where changes in meadow distribution resulted in the original site being situated at the edge of the meadow. Both sites are also being monitored to determine if there are significant differences in seagrass communities between sites.
This interim update report provides results for seagrass percent cover from the most recent monthly survey of permanent transects undertaken from the 18th to 19th April 2012. The report also provides results of a comparison between new and original sites at Wiggins Island and Facing Island
Gladstone Permanent Transect Seagrass Monitoring: additional September 2011 assessment update report
No full textSeagrass has been monitored quarterly at permanent transects at seven locations in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay since November 2009 (excluding Redcliffe which has been monitored since August 2010) (Map 1). The program was established to determine within and among year variation in seagrass condition and form the key sensitive receptor sites for assessing seagrass condition during the Western Basin dredging operation.
In September 2011, Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited commissioned an additional survey outside of the regular quarterly monitoring to update seagrass condition in response to excedences in predetermined turbidity trigger levels in the harbour
Gladstone Permanent Transect Seagrass Monitoring: January 2012 interim update report
No full textSeagrass has been monitored quarterly at permanent transects at seven locations in Port Curtis and Rodds Bay since November 2009 (excluding Redcliffe which has been monitored since August 2010) (see maps on pages 2 to 4). The program was established to determine within and among year variation in seagrass condition and form the key sensitive receptor sites for assessing seagrass condition during the Western Basin dredging operation.
In September 2011, Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited commissioned additional monthly surveys outside of the regular quarterly monitoring to provide more frequent assessments of seagrass condition during dredging operations.
In December 2011 it became apparent that the Wiggins Island permanent transect is located within the construction footprint for the Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal project expected to commence in early 2012. Consequently, an additional permanent transect site was established at Wiggins Island in December 2012 (Map 5) to eventually replace the original site. Both sites will continue to be monitored until construction commences to determine if there are significant differences in seagrass communities between sites.
This interim update report provides results of the most recent monthly survey of seagrass percent cover at permanent transects undertaken on the 23rd and 24th of January 2012 and provides a comparison between the original and new permanent transect sites at Wiggins Island
The Delft intense slow positron beam 2D-ACAR facility for analysis of nanocavities and quantum dots
No full textPositron annihilation spectroscopy is a powerful method to study materials containing very small concentrations of atomic defects and embedded quantum dots. Depending on the method of producing positrons, there are bulk spectroscopies using fast positrons and depth profiling spectroscopies using slow positrons. Both types of spectroscopies are available at the Positron Centre Delft of the Interfaculty Reactor Institute and are applied in material science. This thesis describes the construction of and the first results obtained with a unique two-dimensional angular correlation of annihilation radiation (2D-ACAR) setup coupled to the continuous high intensity slow positron beam (POSH). This new setup allows for the first time high-resolution momentum distribution measurements of thin films, multilayers, interfaces and metallic quantum dots. Important new information con- cerning the geometric and electronic structure of these systems can be obtained with this setup. At this moment the facility is the only one of this kind in the world.Interfaculty Reactor Institut
Multiscale and probabilistic modelling of micro electromechanical systems
No full textMicro electromechanical systems (MEMS) are nowadays used in many applications, such as airbag accelerometers and inkjet printer heads. With the number of applications growing, the need for advanced numerical tools to aid in the design of MEMS increases. The development of such tools is far from trivial, since numerical modelling of MEMS poses various challenges, such as the simulation of multiphysical effects, multiscale effects and effects of microstructural randomness. In this dissertation, computational techniques have been developed to asses the reliability of MEMS. More specifically, a cohesive zone formulation has been used to mimic crack growth in piezoelectric continua. A multiphysical finite element model has been developed to correctly simulate the electromechanical coupling in such materials. A computational homogenisation method has been proposed to efficiently incorporate microstructural effects in a macroscale analysis. Stochastic finite element methods have been employed to include the effects of microstructural imperfections on the behaviour of MEMS.Aerospace Materials & ManufacturingAerospace Engineerin
Effect of N<sub>2</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> bubbles on gas volume fraction and flow pattern in a quasi-2D bubble column by shadow imaging
No full textThis study reports the effect of N2 and CO2 bubbles on dilute to dense gas-liquid two-phase bubbly flow. A shadowgraph imaging technique captured bubble images at a high spatiotemporal resolution. The recordings of bubble images allow us to compute gas fraction distribution. It requires challenging segmentation and gas-liquid interface detection approaches in image processing. Hence a novel gas contour characterization technique has been introduced in this study that analyses light intensity per pixel for quantifying the effect of local gas volume fraction. The dominant gas structure and repetitive gas pattern have also been determined here using Fourier transform-based power spectral density and 2D cross-correlation functions, respectively. Gas-liquid flow regimes of dissolved CO2 bubbles are found quite different than that of N2 bubbles. The plausible reasons are that gas fraction distribution at the sparger region may inhibit bubble coalescence and the positive surface charge of CO2 bubbles acts as a barrier to the interface deformation.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.ChemE/Transport PhenomenaChemE/O&O groe
Second-round interlaboratory comparison of hepatic ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity in white sucker (Catostomus commersoni) exposed to bleached-kraft pulp mill effluent
No full textLivers were collected from six male and six female white sucker (Catostomus commersoni) at both a bleached-kraft pulp mill effluent (BKME)-exposed site and a reference site during the 1992 spring spawning migration. A semistandardized methodology for 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) analysis was proposed that featured similar physical and chemical conditions yet allowed for different instrumentation and techniques. Postmitochondrial supernatants (PMSs) were analyzed for EROD activity by 14 laboratories, and repeat EROD analyses were performed within one laboratory to estimate within-laboratory variability. All laboratories found significantly higher levels of EROD activity (approximately threefold) in males from the BKME-exposed site; only 5 of 14 laboratories found significantly higher levels in exposed females. Data from three labs were dropped from the analysis because of outlying values. The mean coefficient of variation (C.V.) for the remaining 11 laboratories was 34.7%, which was not significantly different from the C.V. determined for six analyses by one technician (28.4%). The mean C.V. for five analysts within one laboratory was significantly lower (16.4%) than either of the former values. There was no difference in absolute values or the variability of microplate and conventional EROD assay data. Analysis of Bradford and Lowry protein data showed that both assays have low variability (C.V.s = 16.8 and 17.4%, respectively); these two techniques produced very similar estimates of protein content. Immunochemical analysis demonstrated a significant correlation existed among microsomal P4501A concentration and EROD activity. Sources of commercially available resorufin standard were tested, and the mean molar extinction coefficient was 54.0 +- 1.1 cm-1 mM-1.PT: J; UT: BIOSIS:PREV199598459590Source type: Electronic(1
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