Experimental investigation of fast flame propagation in stratified hydrogen–air mixtures in semi-confined flat layers

This paper presents results of an experimental investigation on fast flame propagation and the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) and following detonation propagation in a semi-confined flat layer filled with stratified hydrogen–air mixtures. The experiments were performed in a transparent, rectangular channel open from below. The combustion channel has a width of 0.3 m and a length of 2.5 m. The effective layer thickness in the channel was varied by using different linear hydrogen concentration gradients. The method to create quasi-linear hydrogen concentration gradients that differ in the range and slope is also presented. The ignited mixtures were accelerated quickly to sonic flame speed in the first obstructed part of the channel. The interaction of the fast flame propagation with different obstacle set-ups was studied in the second part of the channel. The experimental results show an initiation of DDT by one additional metal grid in the obstructed semi-confined flat layer. Detonation propagation and failed detonation propagation were observed in obstructed and unobstructed parts of the channel.     

Issues of the Human Reliability Analysis in the Context of Probabilistic Safety Studies

This article addresses methodological issues of the human reliability analysis (HRA) in the context of probabilistic safety studies. Several conventional HRA techniques, more often used for the evaluation of the human error probabilities (HEPs), have been classified. A taxonomy of human actions, failure events, and related factors is outlined in order to distinguish action phases, human behavior types and incorrect outputs (errors of omission or commission), error types (slips, lapses, and mistakes), and performance-shaping factors (PSFs) influencing the human performance. A tree is proposed to facilitate the selection of a specific method for the evaluation of human reliability with regard to attributes of the situation analyzed. A software system based on the expert system technology to facilitate and document PSA and HRA is outlined. At the end of the article some research challenges in the domain are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Shift Work Schedules and Spillover in a Sample of Nurses

The aim of the present study was to estimate spillover effects between the work and the family sphere in a sample of nurses (N = 2058). Hierarchical regression analyses investigated whether shift work schedules were associated with negative or positive spillover, both from family to work and vice versa, controlling for demographic factors, job demands and decision latitude. With daytime work as a reference group, all types of shift work (day and evening shift, night shift only and rotating 3 shift) were associated with higher negative work-to-family spillover. Night work was associated with significantly less negative family-to-work spillover. None of the different shift work schedules were related to any type of positive spillover. The results indicate that working outside of daytime hours is less compatible with workers’ family lives, compared to working ordinary day shifts. On the other hand, working night shifts only was associated with reduced negative family-to-work spillover.     

Scapegoating in the Wild: A Burkean Analysis of Two Outdoor Adventures Gone Wrong

Aron Ralston and Christopher McCandless, two outdoor adventurers, have captured the hearts of many American environmentalists. Each has attained the status of cultural icons and inspired books and films to recount their tales. While entertainment media have romanticized both individuals, news media are not as easy on one—McCandless is vilified while Ralston is valorized. When reporting these stories, news media outlets attempted to retell each story in a way that conforms to the dominant American ideology of wilderness, where “progress” is marked by control over nature—control that both Ralston and McCandless clearly unsettled. In addition, both committed many of the same errors in being underprepared. Despite these similarities, why are they each presented so differently in the news media? This paper offers a rhetorical analysis of newspaper articles on each story, where the phenomenon of scapegoating alienates McCandless, and the phenomenon of mortification purifies Ralston, restabilizing this American environmental ideology in both stories. In conclusion, I argue that the essential difference between these two stories is that they present two opposing ideals of a human–nature relationship, with Ralston's ideology including a space for technology and industrial knowledge, and thus construed as more appropriate than McCandless' ideology.     

Achieving sustainability in manufacturing via organisational and operational learning

The contribution contained in this paper focuses on providing a possible framework or approach in respect of how manufacturing companies can economically introduce environmentally friendly practices to their production operations, whilst at the same time encouraging organisational and operational learning with the aim of eventual evolution of the firm into an eco-efficient concern. A key premise associated with the approach advocated is economical organisational and operational learning over time, thus providing a sequential movement of the company through various stages of cultural change and technological capability to eventually achieve eco-efficiency in its production activities. At each stage in the process, it is suggested that a balance must be maintained between on the one hand, a reduction in operational economics consistent with on the other hand, an improvement in the environmental sustainability of company activities. To that end, some previously suggested monitoring metrics are examined in the text for their efficacy and economic rapport via hypothetical examples of how they might be applied in practice to monitor movement towards industrial–environmental sustainability.     

Prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of cloacal exstrophy associated with myelocystocele complex by the ‘elephant trunk–like’ image and review of the literature

A case of cloacal exstrophy (CE) was detected by ultrasound as early as 22 weeks of gestation in association with myelocystocele complex, an unusual form of occult spinal dysraphism often associated with such a disease. The ultrasonographic diagnosis was made through the detection of a wavy cord-like segment of soft tissue protruding from the anterior abdominal wall, just below the umbilical cord insertion, strongly resembling the trunk of an elephant. Our article enforces the suggestion that the ultrasound elephant trunk–like image should be added to the existing major criteria for making prenatal diagnosis of CE. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Revealing the economic channels of natural impacts: an extended input–output subsystems application to GHG gases and water use

While a small set of economic activities generates most of the direct environmental burdens, the complexity of connections within an economic system requires consideration of the effects caused by the interdependences between its different agents. To date, however, the input–output (I–O) subsystems literature has been limited to uncovering the intersectoral linkages of direct and indirect environmental impacts within an economy and the connections between sectors and private consumption have thus not attracted much attention. This paper proposes an I–O subsystems model that endogenously incorporates not only production sectors but also household consumption to capture the entire channel of environmental impacts. The empirical application focuses on carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-eq.) emissions and water use associated with production sectors and households defined in the I–O table for a Spanish region, Extremadura. The results highlight the key role of the effects induced by private consumption on the environmental burdens of services.     

(Relative) autonomism,policy currents and the politics of mobilisation for food sovereignty in the United States: the case of Occupy the Farm*

Food sovereignty movements (FSMs) globally have sought to rearrange relations between land, power, state actions and societal forces outside the state, towards a new ideal of democratised, egalitarian and ecological food systems. The question of how best to reach this ideal has vexed movements and scholars alike, with many anti-capitalist theorists proposing that because of the historical dedication of states to maintaining unequal and unsustainable capitalist relations, change must be pursued outside and against the state rather than through it (i.e. through “autonomism”). Yet, analysis of FSMs globally shows that autonomism is relative, partial and best seen as an aspirational ideal rather than a fixed dogma. This paper deepens this insight by analysing a case within the United States where a local direct action group promoted food sovereignty by illegally occupying public land. The case shows how even apparently autonomist movements can through influence on state and societal actors contribute to state-based “policy currents” that flow in the direction of food sovereignty. This mutual codetermination by actors in and out of state institutions of the possibility and shape of “policy currents” renders state–society relations as important, even to those interested in (relative) autonomism. This paper thus leaves behind dichotomous interpretations of (and recommendations for) FSMs vis-à-vis autonomism, in order to unpack the influence (in thought) and impact (in action) of autonomist tendencies in food sovereignty construction.