Pastoral farmland habitat diversity in south-east Ireland

In this study, habitat surveys were undertaken on 50 grass-based farms in SE Ireland and data digitised onto aerial photography. Additional data i.e. stocking rates, and participation (or otherwise) in the Irish Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) were collected and analysed as possible explanatory variables for farm habitat composition.Results indicated that approximately 14.3% of the land area of sampled farms comprised of semi-natural habitat types, a proportion substantially greater than has been reported for many other European countries. The most frequently recorded semi-natural habitats included, field boundaries, scrub, and deciduous and riparian woodlands.Multivariate analysis of farm habitat configuration showed a strong dichotomy between dairy and non-dairy farming systems. Habitats such as intensively managed grassland and built ground were closely associated with dairy-based enterprises. In contrast, the incidence of other habitat types was associated with non-dairy and/or REPS participating enterprises. The ecological quality of field boundaries as assessed by the Field Boundary Evaluation and Grading System (FBEGS) Index was significantly greater on dairy, compared with dry-stock farms.This dichotomy in farm habitat composition is not reflected within current Agri-Environment (AE) policy. Integration of locally important drivers of habitat diversity into the design and implementation of AE policy, is integral to the successful performance of AE schemes.     

Critical perspectives of sustainable development research and practice

Sustainable development has been intensely debated for more than twenty years, but real progress of our societies to become more sustainable is very slow. Therefore this special issue provides a forum for critical perspectives of Sustainable Development Research and Practice. The papers are grouped into three clusters: a. Sustainability Science, b. Economic Problems and c. Corporate Contributions to Sustainable Development.Although a single special issue cannot address the entire array of issues pertaining to progress of sustainability related research, the selected papers highlight special aspects of sustainability research either due to their theoretical contributions or because they report on valuable empirical evidence. The main goal of sustainability research should be to contribute to our understanding of sustainability problems and to develop and help to implement solutions to solve them. This can be described as the relevance of sustainability research. A precondition to gain relevance is the rigor of sustainability science: it has to be based on solid scientific principles and methods. Additionally it has to be regarded that Sustainable Development is dynamic and that it has both normative and practical aspects. It is concluded that sustainability science and practice should be based upon these four central aspects: rigor, relevance, normative aspects and dynamic     

Integrating energy efficiency performance in production management – gap analysis between industrial needs and scientific literature

For governments and for manufacturing companies, global warming, rising energy prices, and customers’ increasing ecological awareness have pushed energy efficient manufacturing to the top of the agenda. Governments and companies are both striving to identify the most effective measures to increase energy efficiency in manufacturing processes. Based on results of a recent EU-funded roadmapping project, this paper highlights the needs of industrial companies for integrating energy efficiency performance in production management. First, it analyses concepts and tools for measurement, control and improvement of energy efficiency in production management proposed in literature. Second, the paper outlines that ICT tools and standardization are important enablers for energy efficient manufacturing. Third, industrial needs in these areas are presented based on expert interviews. The industrial needs thus identified are contrasted with concepts proposed in literature to point out the implementation gaps between practice and theory. The paper demonstrates that there exists a gap between the solutions available and the actual implementation in industrial companies. It concludes by deriving requirements for energy management in production that future collaborative research projects should address.     

Use of coatings to minimise acid emissions during ceramic tile firing

The manufacture of traditional ceramic products (ceramic tiles, roof tiles, and bricks) is often associated with the emission of F, Cl, and S compounds during the firing stage. According to the literature, fluorine emissions can be reduced by adding CaCO₃ to the raw materials mixture used in fabricating these products. However, data available to the authors indicate that this procedure, which has been successfully applied in manufacturing structural ceramics (roof tiles and bricks), is ineffective in ceramic tile manufacture and modifies tile end properties.This paper examines the possibility of reducing such emissions by applying coatings of alkaline-earth carbonates on to the ceramic tile bottom surface to retain the acid compounds emitted during tile firing. The effectiveness of MgCO₃, CaCO₃, SrCO₃, and BaCO₃ coatings for retaining these acid emissions was studied, using the evolved gas analysis (EGA) technique with a TG-DSC-FTIR-QM instrument.The SrCO₃ coating was found to provide the greatest retention, showing that SO₂ and HCl were retained more efficiently than HF. The presence of fluorides, chlorides, and sulphates of Ca, Sr, and Ba was verified in the respective fired coatings, confirming the existence of chemical reactions between the emitted acid compounds and the coating materials at high temperature.     

Evaluating repeated patient handling injuries following the implementation of a multi-factor ergonomic intervention program among health care workers

Objective

The objective of this study was to evaluate repeated patient handling injuries following a multi-factor ergonomic intervention program among health care workers.

Methods

This was a quasi-experimental study which had an intervention group and a non-randomized control group. Data were collected from six hospitals in Saskatchewan, Canada from September 1, 2001 to December 1, 2006.

Results

A total of 1,480 individuals who had a previous injury were eligible for the study. Medium and small size hospitals in the intervention group had significantly fewer repeated injuries than in the control group. Multivariate analysis showed that the intervention group had 38.1% lower odds of having repeated injury compared to the control group, after adjusting for hospital size.

Conclusions

The work-related repeated injury after a multi-factor intervention program was reduced. The synergistic relationships between components of multi-factor intervention and applicability of injury prevention programs to different settings need to be further explored.

Impact on Industry

Implementing a multi-factor program with the right equipment and training can lower the risk of injury among health care workers.     

Numerical simulation of propane detonation in medium and large scale geometries

A modelling strategy has been developed for consequence analysis of medium and large scale gaseous detonation. The model is based on the solution of Euler equations with one-step chemistry. The Van Leer flux limited method which is a total variation diminishing scheme is used for shock capturing. Preliminary calculations were firstly conducted for small domains with fine grids which resolve the wave, relatively coarse grids which have less than 10 grids across the wave and coarse grids in which the minimum grid size is larger than the wave thickness to ensure that the reaction scheme has been properly tuned to capture the correct detonation pressure, temperature and velocity in the resolutions used in the different cases. The model was firstly tested against a medium scale detonation test in a shock tube with U-bends. Reasonably good agreement is achieved on detonation pressure and mean shock wave velocities at different measuring segments of the tube. Following the validation, the detonation of a hypothetical planar propane-air cloud is simulated. The predictions uncovered some interesting features of such large scale detonation phenomena which are of significance in the safety context, especially for accidental investigations. The findings from the present analysis are in line with the forensic evidence on damages in some historic accidents and challenges previous analysis of a major accident in which forensic evidence suggested localised detonation but was considered as the consequence of fire storms by the investigation team.