Knorr-Bremse (France)

ABSTRACT This article is a review of advances in sustainability metric (SM), focusing on life cycle assessment (LCA) and material flow analysis (MFA), the most commonly used among all SMs. The presentations at the past 10 Society and Materials (SAM) conferences were used as a database. LCA, the most popular of these methodologies, is thriving among academics, practitioners and clients. Standardized initially by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the European Commission, it passed from the Global North to the Global South and branched into Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) that provide LCA‐formatted information, initially to the construction sector. Some important issues have progressed but are not completely resolved yet: multifunctional products or processes, circulatory practices, dynamic LCA, regionalization, monetarization, human and eco‐toxicity, biodiversity loss or resource availability, and they need more development work. Although LCA focuses on a microscale vision of the economy, MFA, being macroscale, emphasizes strategic and policy issues, thanks to its dynamic version. MFAs are now available for at least one third of the substances in the periodic table and for countless materials, from metals, to composites and construction aggregates for civil engineering. MFA has shed light on many strategic issues, such as (1) the fate of end‐of‐life goods and of the materials of which they are made, which constitute the so‐called urban mine, (2) the role of stocks in driving material demand and long‐term evolution of production (the so‐called Intensity‐of‐Stock model), (3) the connections with economic and social models that extend the scope and ambition of MFA, and (4) material flow accounting (MFAc), particularly Total Material Requirement (TMR). These two SMs are entirely devoted to objectifying the connection between human activities and the environment, mostly, based on quantitative indicators originating from Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). However, LCA and MFA have left aside the full depth of society’s dynamics, as described by Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines. Contributions from SSH disciplines do not match the indicator‐based approach: they explored the concepts of social value of materials and social acceptance, used non‐engineering metaphors to report on hard‐science issues, called on Humanities, from History to Literary Criticism, on Science and Technology Studies (STS), on Design studies, on Ethics or Gender issues to shed light on sustainability issues. How the divide between SSH and SMs can be bridged is not yet fully clear. However, attempts were made to develop approaches that would mimic SMs: Social Cycle of Materials (SCM) mixes Design philosophy with STS, and ANT‐reliant LCA , which posits that materials have agency, takes on board Actor Network Theory (ANT) , a sociological model of society as a whole, to report on objects described by LCA. In between STEM and SSH approaches, lie approaches based on thermodynamics, which claim that physics can tackle social and economic dimensions: thermoeconomics is one of them.

BackgroundCystoisospora suis (C. suis) infects piglets in their first week of life and can subsequently lead to diarrhoea and production losses. The detection of C. suis oocysts relies mostly on the collection of piglet faeces as sampling material and analysis through flotation and autofluorescence microscopy, which involves repeated sampling. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of sponges for environmental sampling for the detection of C. suis via real-time PCR and its suitability for surveillance programs applied on farms.ResultsAll farms included in the study were positive for C. suis according to qPCR, with positivity rates ranging from 20 to 100%. The frequency of positive cases was 68% for faecal samples and 67% for samples collected by sponges. The alignment between the different sampling protocols was 100% achieved at the farm level. In the case of the individual pair samples, a difference in 27 samples was observed (10.8%). Considering the faecal sampling strategy as the gold standard, the sensitivity of the sampling protocol with sponges was 91.2%, and the specificity was 84.8%. Compared with the sponge-collected samples, the faecal samples presented slightly greater DNA masses, with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.51, indicating a moderate positive relationship between the two sampling methods. An influence towards a higher DNA load with samples with a pasty and semiliquid consistency was observed, mainly in the case of the sponge technique.ConclusionsOur results indicate that the collection of faecal samples at the litter or farm level and comparisons with environmental samples yield similar detection rates when sampling is combined with qPCR. From that perspective, the use of sponges for the detection of C. suis in organic material from the farrowing crate environment can be considered a good alternative to the more laborious and time-consuming collection of faecal samples.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40813-025-00454-5.

Qual o poder de persuasão que o discurso técnico/científico da gestão contemporânea tem sobre os gestores em formação ?

<div class="htmlview paragraph">A new family of low cost electronic fuel control units is being proposed for small gas turbine engines of remotely piloted vehicles and auxiliary power units. It has a modular design incorporating an electronically actuated metering valve which can be matched with various types of differential pressure valves controlling the pressure drop across the metering valve. Four different configurations are proposed: metering valve only, metering valve with diaphragm type differential pressure valve, metering valve with bypass valve and double valve configuration, the latter with a back-up capability. These configurations can satisfy various demands from gas turbine engine producers. Some components of automotive fuel injection system could be used to reduce the cost of these units as well as components from the DP-F2 fuel control which has been in production for a long time. This adds to the confidence of the reliability and durability of this new design.</div>

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Surface conditioning is one way of reducing the duration and magnitude of the initial transients occurring in friction materials. In developing a laser searing system for semimetallic materials the changes occurring on the surface were characterized as a function of the power density. Excessive power melted the surface of the lining and produced an undesirable microstructure, while too little power did not produce the changes desired. The changes produced by laser searing were found to be similar to the changes produced by other types of surface conditioning.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The friction and wear performance was studied for linings seared with different power densities. Laser searing primarily increased the low speed, low temperature, pre-burnish friction level. The amount of increase was proportional to the amount of searing. After burnishing the searing did not effect the friction level of the lining. Excessive power densities produced undesirable surface microstructures and persistent rotor scoring.</div>

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Brake noise is a complex phenomenon and a full understanding of it has eluded investigators for many years. Initially, methods of evaluating the noisiness of a given brake consisted of running it in a vehicle road test and recording the test driver's opinion of its noise characteristics. When a brake was judged to be excessively noisy, the friction material took the brunt of the blame, and the frequent approach to curing the problem consisted of running more vehicle tests using alternate friction materials. In this paper, a more systematic approach to the control of disc brake noise is suggested. First are described test methods, based on the use of modern techniques, including the Fast Fourier Transform Analyzer and Computer Data Acquisition Systems which replace or supplement tests where the output is the subjective opinion of a test driver. Second are described approaches to the design of quiet brakes which consider not only the friction material, but also the friction pad assembly and other components.</div>

A method for cooling carbide tools by increasing their effective thermal conductivity was investigated. Its essence is in coating the tool with a layer of high thermal conductivity material, specifically copper or silver. Reduction in cutting temperature near the cutting edge was verified by the embedded thermocouple and tool-work thermocouple measurement techniques. Theoretical models of the tool further support the experimental results and demonstrate a greatly altered temperature gradient at the cutting edge and its vicinity.

A ERODYNAMIC configurations with isolated regions of separated flow often produce unsteady flows with high levels of turbulent flow fluctuations. Some examples are: a bomb bay, an automobile window or sun roof, and a cavity flush with an aerodynamic surface. General principles are described for altering the aerodynamic configuration in order to control the free shear layer and reduce flow fluctuations. These principles were applied to an actual aerodynamic configuration. The flow fluctuations were measured in a wind tunnel and in flight. The root-mean-square velocity fluctuations beneath the shear layer were reduced to 2% of the stream velocity. Pressure fluctuations beneath the shear layer were 0.4% of the freestream dynamic pressure (of the order of the surface pressure fluctuations beneath a turbulent boundary layer on a smooth flat p la te ] ) .