Fire is a complex phenomenon including many parameters. The nature of fire makes it a very dangerous and hazardous. For many reasons the number of tunnels are increasing on earth and fire safety is one of the major problem related to tunnels. This makes important to predict and understand the behavior of fire, i.e., heat release rate, smoke movement, ventilation effect etc. The literature includes many experimental and numerical analyses for different conditions for tunnel fires. This study investigates pool fire of three different fuel sources: ethanol, gasoline and their mixture for different ventilation conditions, different geometries and different amounts. Combustion gases and the burning rates of the fuel sources are measured and analyzed. The numerical simulation of the cases is done with Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), a CFD code developed by NIST.

In Texas, landowner associations for the management of common-pool resources such as wildlife and groundwater have become increasingly popular. Successful management of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) depends upon the collective decision-making of landowners. Likewise, aquifer reserves are a trans-boundary resource subject to the "rule of capture." Numerous factors may affect the success of common-pool associations, including property ownership and habitat characteristics, landowner demographics, and social capital. I used a mail questionnaire to explore the relationship between these factors and their effect on association activities and management practices for eight Wildlife Management Associations (WMAs) occurring within the Lower Post Oak Savannah (LPOS) and the Central Post Oak Savannah (CPOS). In addition, I compared responses of members of WMAs in CPOS to members of the Brazos Valley Water Alliance (BVWA), a groundwater association situated in the region. Compared to CPOS, members of WMAs within the LPOS belonged to much larger groups, were generally more recent landowners that met more often, raised more money using more funding methods, and tended to have longer association membership than CPOS landowners, yet they had lower social capital. CPOS landowners owned significantly more land and considered relaxation/leisure and hunting more important land uses than LPOS landowners. The smaller group size in CPOS may be the most important factor in building social capital. Intra-association trust was positively influenced by the longevity of property ownership, the number of association meetings, the percentage of males in the association, and other factors. Negative influences on trust included absentee ownership and Habitat Cover Index, which was a measure of the amount of wooded habitat present. In CPOS, members of the BVWA were part of a much larger, more heterogeneous, and more recently formed group than members of WMAs. They also placed greater importance on utilitarian aspects of their properties, as opposed to land stewardship for conservation as practiced by members of WMAs. If associations are kept small ( < 50) with more frequent meetings, greater social capital and information sharing may be achieved, which may lead to increased land stewardship practices. However, landowners may be motivated more by their shared values independent of any benefit from their association.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 119 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The air-sea interaction thermodynamics of the western equatorial Pacific, the Earth's largest region of warm SST, is a major component of the global climate system. Along the equator, warm pool thermodynamics and momentum are influenced by equatorial ocean visco-inertial boundary layer dynamics that occur within a few degrees of the equator because of the sign reversal of the Coriolis force. Designed to study this system, COARE Enhanced Monitoring Array (EMA) observations of temperature, salinity, velocity, and surface meteorology were centered at 0, 156°E from February 1992 through April 1994. They sampled variability on the equator over larger space/time-scales than the concurrent Intensive Flux Array (IFA) centered at 2°S, 156°E. The EMA data are examined within the context of the larger scale equatorial Pacific and the El Niño conditions that occurred at that time. / ABSTRACT: There is a structural change in the equatorial Pacific near the dateline resulting from the winds that are strong, steady, and easterly in the east and generally weak, punctuated by westerly wind bursts, in the west. East of the dateline the EUC's speed and transport increases downstream, while in the west it tends to be zonally uniform, consistent with the extra-tropical ocean interior water pathways that tend to converge on the equator east of the dateline. At 0°, 156°E in the western Pacific deep, seasonal upwelling (appearing stronger after the peak of the 1991/92 El Niño than during the following weaker El Niño year) occurs within the thermocline in boreal summer with magnitudes as large as upwelling in the eastern Pacific cold tongue. This large upwelling is associated with large downward turbulent heat flux and large turbulent shear stress. / ABSTRACT: While the inferred mixing is quantitatively inconclusive because of unresolved potential errors, it is consistent with the visco-inertial boundary layer concepts from early theory [e.g. Arthur 1960; Robinson 1960; Stommel 1960; and Charney and Spiegel 1971]. These findings suggest that the equatorial thermodynamics differ from those of the IFA. Further process experimentation is necessary to quantify these results. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

保險業承擔社會大眾轉嫁之風險，其自身亦需要透過風險之分散，以避免危險過度集中，而危及永續經營之能力。而保險市場之專業保險人間，常透過彼此技術之結合運用，達風險分散之目的。其中保險聯營，即為典型聯合數保險人之能量，合力承受特殊危險，協助個別保險人分散風險之方式，亦是目前各國或特定區域之保險業所偏好使用之制度之一。 保險聯營於我國已行之多年，保險業多利用其消納分散巨災或高度風險，抑或配合政府保險政策設立組織，對於我國保險市場而言，具有不可或缺之重要性。然而，保險聯營制度因為譯名與共同保險類似，導致實務對於此兩種同為保險人風險分散之制度產生觀念性之混淆，因無法確切了解其區別，所以產生立法上之錯誤及運作上之爭議。 本文以「保險聯營制度之研究-兼論保險業之風險分散方式」為題，試圖透過深入探討保險聯營制度，並比較其他類似方式，包括共同保險、再保險及交換業務等，以釐清各制度之差異，了解其功能、運作及契約當事人之法律關係；其次則介紹國內風險分散機制，以分析其本質，並就我國保險聯營實務問題為探究與建議。 本文研究結果發現，共同保險、再保險、交換業務及保險聯營制度，即便外觀及功能上多有重疊，但實際上係屬不同之機制。而國內風險分散機制，多數依其運作方式雖得歸類於保險聯營組織，惟究其與會員間之約定，得發現其混合其他風險分散機制之性質，因此不能單純以單一制度視之。關於保險聯營制度之實務問題探討，我國實務因對於「共保」兩字概念涵括範圍定義不一，造成保險法第一百四十四條之一之立法用字有所爭議，本文以為立法條文應儘量以明確用字，降低法律適用模糊的可能性；而聯營組織之型態，應以其功能性區別之，即組織本身若直接承接危險者或有其他對外代表性者，則應成立法人組織，使其享有法人權利，並履行法人義務；最後於公平法限制競爭之探討上，考量到保險聯營設立之特殊性，公平會之審查權限應受限縮，倘聯營組織之設立具備合理性及必要性，且其成效對於社會有顯著正面價值，應可排除公平法之適用。

Steadily increasing heat dissipation in electronic devices has generated renewed interest in direct immersion cooling. The ideal heat transfer fluid for direct immersion cooling applications should be chemically and thermally stable, and compatible with the electronic components. These constraints have led to the use of Novec fluids and fluroinerts as coolants. Although these fluids are chemically stable and have low dielectric constants, they are plagued by poor thermal properties. These factors necessitate the development of new heat transfer fluids with improved heat transfer properties and applicability. Computer Aided Molecular Design (CAMD) approach was used in this work to systematically design novel heat transfer fluids that exhibit significantly better properties than those of current high performance electronic coolants. The candidate fluids generated by CAMD were constrained by limiting their boiling points, latent heat of vaporization and thermal conductivity. The selected candidates were further screened using a figure of merit (FOM) analysis. Some of the fluids/additives that have been identified after the FOM analysis include C₄H₅F₃O, C₄H₄F₆O, C₆H₁₁F₃, C₄ H₁₂O₂Si, methanol, and ethoxybutane. The heat transfer performance of these new fluids/fluid mixtures was analyzed through pool boiling and flow boiling experiments. All the fluid mixtures tested showed an improvement in the critical heat flux (CHF) when compared to the base fluid (HFE 7200). A pool boiling model was developed using the phase field method available in COMSOL. Although these simulations are computationally expensive, they provide an alternate solution to evaluate several candidate fluids generated using the CAMD approach.

Darbo objektas: Lietuvos kūno kultūros akademijos teikiamų baseino komercinių paslaugų pasirinkimo ypatumai. Aktualumas: paslaugoms būdingi kiti ypatumai nei materialinėms vertybėms. Šiuos ypatumus lemia paslaugų verslo prigimtis ir paslaugų savybės: jų neapčiuopiamumas, nedalijamumas (t. y. neatskiriamumas nuo teikimo šaltinių), epizodiškumas, kokybės nepastovumas ir kt. Paslaugų savybių visuma lemia nevienodą paslaugų kokybę ir sudėtingą jos vertinimą. Norint įvertinti paslaugų kokybę, pirmiausia būtina išsiaiškinti, kaip ją suvokia klientai. Tik tuomet paslaugų teikėjas galės kontroliuoti ir koreguoti šiuos vertinimus norima linkme. Neatsižvelgiant į klientų nuomonę dėl kokybės, galima suklysti, o išleisti pinigai ir laikas bus prarasta investicija. Paslaugos šiandien atsidūrė ekonominės veiklos dėmesio centre: jos tampa privaloma priemone siekiant patenkinti svarbiausius norus bei reikmes ir kelti visuomenės gerovę (Kindurys, 1998), tačiau ekonominiu aspektu LKKA teikiamos baseino paslaugos šiame darbe neanalizuojamos. Paslaugos pasirinkimo motyvai kiekvieno vartotojo yra individualūs. Vartotojo reikšmingumas įpareigoja paslaugų teikėjus nuodugniai išanalizuoti visus veiksnius ir imtis reikiamų sprendimų, susijusių su paslaugų kokybės tobulinimu. Todėl norint teikti atitinkamos kokybės paslaugas, svarbu žinoti, kokie motyvai vartotojams yra svarbiausi renkantis paslaugų teikėją ir kokiais kriterijais remdamasis jis suvokia gaunamos paslaugos kokybę. Šio darbo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / An object of the work: peculiarities of selection rendering commercial services by the swimming pool of Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education. Relevance: Services, compare it to material values, are incident to particular peculiarities. Those peculiarities are determined by the nature of service business, services characteristics, for instance, its impalpability, indivisibility that is inherency of its rendering derivation, transience and impermanence of their quality and etc. Totality of services characteristics determine complicated quality of services and even more complicated its evaluation. First of all on purpose to evaluate the quality of services it is necessary to ascertain, how clients perceive it themselves. At that point the services supplier can control these evaluations and shift it on desirable direction. Irrespective of clients’ opinion in point of quality, could be initiated deceptive actions while expended money and time would be meaningless investment. Services appeared in the center of economical brief: it’s become compulsory implement on purpose to satisfy the main desires and needs also to increase public welfare (Kindurys, 1998), however services provided by LAPE swimming pool will not be analyzed in economical aspect. Services organization, which provides qualitative services, gains the acceptance and loyalty of consumers, increases market share, forms and maintains competent personnel and becomes less exposed concerning the strife of prices... [to full text]

<p>Increasing energy needs globally have recently led to an interest in effectively bringing energy services in the trading system. Energy services were part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, whose main achievement was the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The objective of the GATS is to achieve progressive liberalisation and reduction or elimination of trade barriers of all services sectors, including energy services. The GATS has made commendable progress in liberalising many service sectors, however it has not made meaningful progress with energy services. Furthermore though the SADC region engages in energy services trade through bilateral and regional agreements, a variety of&nbsp / barriers inhibit major successes from being achieved. Effective energy services trade and liberalisation has therefore proved problematic both at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level. This study, seeks to investigate why energy services liberalisation and trade at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level is problematic, with a particular focus on&nbsp / the SADC region.</p>

An innovative auxiliary control system is developed to cooperate with an unskilled welder in a manual GTAW in order to obtain a consistent welding performance. In the proposed system, a novel mobile sensing system is developed to non-intrusively monitor a manual GTAW by measuring three-dimensional (3D) weld pool surface. Specifically, a miniature structured-light laser amounted on torch projects a dot matrix pattern on weld pool surface during the process; Reflected by the weld pool surface, the laser pattern is intercepted by and imaged on the helmet glass, and recorded by a compact camera on it. Deformed reflection pattern contains the geometry information of weld pool, thus is utilized to reconstruct its $3$D surface. An innovative image processing algorithm and a reconstruction scheme have been developed for (3D) reconstruction. The real-time spatial relations of the torch and the helmet is formulated during welding. Two miniature wireless inertial measurement units (WIMU) are mounted on the torch and the helmet, respectively, to detect their rotation rates and accelerations. A quaternion based unscented Kalman filter (UKF) has been designed to estimate the helmet/torch orientations based on the data from the WIMUs. The distance between the torch and the helmet is measured using an extra structure-light low power laser pattern. Furthermore, human welder's behavior in welding performance has been studied, e.g., a welder`s adjustments on welding current were modeled as response to characteristic parameters of the three-dimensional weld pool surface. This response model as a controller is implemented both automatic and manual gas tungsten arc welding process to maintain a consistent full penetration.

ANTECEDENTS: La natació té beneficis per la salut, però l’assistència a piscines comporta l’exposició a subproductes de la cloració (SPC). Els banyistes podrien tenir cert risc de patir efectes respiratoris, com l’asma, però l’evidència és inconsistent. L’objectiu principal és determinar si l’assistència a piscines s’associa a efectes respiratoris aguts i crònics, especialment l’asma infantil. MÈTODES: Per avaluar efectes aguts es mesura funció pulmonar i diferents biomarcadors respiratoris a 48 adults sans abans i després de nedar en una piscina clorada. Per avaluar efectes crònics: estudi transversal a Sabadell (9-12 anys; N=3.223) i estudi longitudinal en una cohort de naixement (ALSPAC, Regne Unit; 7-10 anys; N=5.738). Informació sobre assistència a piscines durant la infància i símptomes d’asma i al lèrgia recollida amb qüestionari i espirometria. RESULTATS: L’únic efecte agut detectat és un lleuger augment de la permeabilitat pulmonar, estimada amb la concentració de CC16 en sang, correlacionat amb l’exposició a SPC i l’exercici físic. L’assistència a piscines no s’associa a un augment del risc d’asma, tampoc entre els nens atòpics, però s’associa a una menor prevalença d’alguns símptomes respiratoris i millor funció pulmonar. Els nens asmàtics que havien anat a la piscina tenen menys símptomes d’asma. CONCLUSIÓ: Es detecta un lleuger efecte agut sobre la permeabilitat de l’epitel li pulmonar dels banyistes, però actualment se’n desconeix la rellevància clínica. Aquest treball no dóna suport a la hipòtesi que l’assistència a piscines durant la infància augmenta el risc d’asma. Al contrari, la natació s’associa lleugerament a menys símptomes d’asma entre els 7 i 12 anys d’edat. / BACKGROUND: Swimming is a healthy activity, but swimming pool attendance enhances the exposure to disinfection by-products (DBP). Swimming pool attendants may have a higher risk of suffering from respiratory conditions, such as asthma, but the evidence is unconsistent. The aim is determine if swimming pool attendance is associated with acute and chronic respiratory effects, especially childhood asthma. METHODS: To evaluate acute effects lung function and several respiratory biomarkers were measured in 48 healthy adults before and alter swimming in a chlorinated pool. To evaluate chronic effects: crosssectional study in Sabadell (9-12 years; N=3,223) and longitudinal study in a birth cohort (ALSPAC, UK; 7- 10 years; N=5,738). Information on swimming pool attendance and asthma and allergic symptoms was collected by questionnaire and spirometry. RESULTS: The only acute effect detected was an slight increase in the lung epithelium permeability, estimated by serum CC16 concentration, correlated with DBP exposure and physical activity. Swimming pool attendance was not associated to an increased asthma risk, neither in atopic children, but was associated with a lower prevalence of some respiratory symptoms and higher lung function. Asthmatic children who attended swimming pools had less asthma symptoms. CONCLUSION: An slight acute effect on the lung epithelium permeability was detected among swimmers, but the clinical relevance is currently not understood. This work do not support the hypothesis that swimming pool attendance during childhood increases the asthma risk. On the contrary, swimming is associated to slightly lower prevalence of asthma symptoms in children 7 to 12 years old.

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss.