In 2007, incentives for farmers to grow nonfood bio fuel crops, increasing transportation costs, climate change, growing consumer demand and population growth caused major food shortages in the world, especially within the high famine-risk sub-Saharan Africa. The inconsistent food cultivated products in Zanzibar combined with high consumer prices suppresses the economic growth of the agricultural sector on the island. The large decrease in what once was the primary economical driver (Agriculture) left the Island only to rely on the tourism sector to enhance the economics of Zanzibar. If a successful strategy is implemented within the agricultural sector of Zanzibar, the country could revert toward becoming, once again, a place of agricultural richness. This dissertation proposes an Agricultural research and educational facility to act as a catalyst for agricultural reintegration. The agricultural history of Zanzibar and its future potential became the underlining subject of the research and development framework proposed for the Chumbuni area. The site location and the programme will function as an incubator for local small industries, local farming and micro industries that will directly assist with increasing food security on the island. The Agricultural research and educational facility is therefore to become a structure that houses a number of beneficial programmes (focused on an educational and symbiotic relationship between industry and public). Public-funding driven cycles of basic education, agricultural education, physical practice and research thus have a platform to influence and be influenced by industry. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

Materials are a significant aspect of architectural design, the construction components are selected for their availability, location, cultural meaning, physical characteristics and properties. The construction components are defined by their processes of fabrication and making. This thesis investigates processes of making utilizing local materials. It focuses on the relationship between raw material, fabrication, building application and spatial experiences. The proposed site is the former brickyard located outside Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, Canada. Material excavation, fabrication, and construction will all take place on-site. Through material studies, site strategies, and phased program development, it is hoped that an architectural language has been generated that successfully represents the potentials of developing underutilized locally sources material.

The plot is situated south of the small village Alberga in the south west of the municipality of Eskilstuna. The project is an example of how a landscape can be made accessible for people and through emotional conection be considered worth protecting, and at the same time offer a house for community. This is done with a House for the People - Folkets hus - together with a small spa inspired public bath with a fireplace in is center, and a research facility for conducting limnological and ecological research in the close marshy area and the lake Hjälmaren. The building is situated on top of three man made ponds, one new for the project, held upp by low pillars giving the house a floating impression. The architecture consists of a timber structure suported by rammed earth walls, the earth taken from the site when constructiong af a new pond. The three different usages of the program is separated into its own body and connecting them is a series of walkways, in some places suspended from the timber rafters. The project should... - Bring the community together in a flexible meeting place for many different activities- Preserv and strengthen a landscape´s ecology - Put a small village on the map and build a larger net of interconnectedness / Tomten ligger söder om den lilla byn Alberga i sydvästra Eskilstuna kommun. Projektet är ett exempel på hur ett landskap kan göras tillgängligt för människor och genom känslomässig koppling anses värt att skydda, och samtidigt erbjuda ett hus för gemenskap. Detta görs med en hybridbyggnad av ett Folkets hus tillsammans med ett litet spa-inspirerat bad med öppen spis i centrum samt en forskningsanläggning för att bedriva limnologisk och ekologisk forskning i det närliggande våtmarksmrådet och sjön Hjälmaren. Byggnaden ligger ovanpå tre konstgjorda dammar, en ny för projektet, hållna uppe av låga pelare som ger huset ett flytande uttryck. Arkitekturen består av en limträkonstruktion som bärs upp av stampade jordväggar, jorden hämtad från platsen vid anläggandet av en ny damm. De tre olika användningsområdena för programmet är uppdelade i varsin kropp och är sammankopplande med bryggor.Projektet ska... – Föra samman boende i takten genom samlingslokaler för flera olika aktiviteter - Ta till vara på ett unikt landskap samt att stärka dess ställning och ekologi – Gynna bygdens tillväxt med besöksnäring genom attraktivt besöksmål

A state-of-art research facility has been built at the University of Ottawa, which is suitable for thermalhydraulic experiments in support of the development of the Canadian Supercritical-Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR). The facility is a recirculating flow loop, using carbon dioxide as a medium and having three different test sections, two tubes with inner diameters of 8 and 22 mm, respectively, and a three-rod bundle. The loop can operate within ranges of pressure, temperature, heat flux and mass flux, which are of interest to the current SCWR design. The present thesis includes a comprehensive description of the facility. It also documents the procedure and results of its commissioning, as well as some preliminary measurements that have been collected so far. It is intended to provide an insight to the design of the facility and its functionality and to serve as a reference for future research activities. A number of tests performed by previous researchers in other facilities were replicated and nearly identical results were obtained. It was demonstrated that the design of the facility is sound and its performance is adequate within the intended ranges of operation conditions. It is expected that the results obtained in this facility will make a significant contribution to the understanding of supercritical heat transfer and pressure losses in the SCWR context.

A dynamic mannequin testing facility has been constructed to test the thermal protective properties of Navy uniforms and protective clothing. The existing facility consists of a traversing mannequin mechanism that passes through a fire that has been spatially characterized by temperature and heat flux measurements. The fire is provided by 8 propane sand burners in a modified ISO 9705 room. The current project is a continuation of work done by WPI Students over the last 5 years. A copper disk surface heat flux transducer has been designed and calibrated in the WPI Cone Calorimeter. The mannequin has been instrumented with 40 of these transducers for the acquisition of heat flux data during fire exposures. Heat Flux data was collected with the bare mannequin and through protective clothing for a range of exposure times. A finite difference method approach is used to model the skins temperature response at the epidermis-dermis interface. This temperature is used to predict 1st and 2nd degree skin burns using Henrique's burn damage integral. The percent total body area (%TBA) affected by burns can be calculated by this method. The facility is now capable of providing comparative data on the relative thermal protection provided by different clothing.

A study of Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea Müller) colonization in relation to changes in aquatic vegetation community as a result of management of Hydrilla verticillata (L. f.) Royle with grass carp was conducted at the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility (LAERF), Lewisville, TX, from April 2015 through October 2016. Percent vegetation cover, C. fluminea abundance and water quality metrics (pH, turbidity, conductivity, DO, calcium, chlorophyll a) from 16 experimental subjects were analyzed. Treatments included four replicated grass carp stocking densities; 1-control with no fish stocked (n = 4), 2-low density of 40-43 fish per vegetated ha (n = 4), 3-medium density of 72-81 fish per vegetated ha (n = 4) and 4-high density of 110-129 fish per vegetated ha (n = 4). Data analysis showed statistical significance in the relation of C. fluminea abundance to percent vegetation cover (multiple linear regression, r2 = 0.820), grass carp stocking densities (two-way analysis of variance, p = <0.001) and chlorophyll a (multiple linear regression, r2 = 0.339). Findings of this research indicate the possibility that management of hydrilla had enabled establishment of secondary invasive species.