Analysis of Eco-Friendly Bricks

Analysis of Eco-Friendly Bricks SMART MATERIAL IN CONSTRUCTION: DEFINITION : Smart materials are reactive materials. Their properties can be changed by exposure to stimuli, such as electric and magnetic fields, stress, moisture and temperature.(BBC UK) The smart material can of Wood Metal Ceramics Polymers Metals etc In construction these sort of materials are used to achieve the desired strength, they should be economical and prove beneficial to the environment and to the stakeholders. A large number of innovations are seen in this modern world e.g. self healing concrete ,green cement ,carbon neutral cements etc. The materials , which have been recently invented by two MIT students and Professor Carmen Trudall are eco blac brick and Breathe bricks respectively. The detailed analysis of such an inventions are discussed below ECO FRIENDLY BRICKs: INTRODUCTION : Brick is mostly considered as a major component of a building. It is found generally in a rectangular shape with different dimensions. They are famous for their strength at low cost. These bricks when introduced to high temperature during their manufacturing. These kilns are mainly operated by coal and diesel resulting in harmful waste affecting both the environment and the people working in these kilns. NEED OF ECO FRIENDLY BRICKS: Currently the modern world is facing some serious environmental issues , which is resulting in global warming . the fuel used for these kilns are the major contributors to the pollution and the environment is exposed directly to them. In todays day ,the think tanks of the industry and the environmental agencies are trying to make building more greener and at least carbon neutral. Moreover, recently a Chinese artist made a brick from the pollutants entrapped in the air. This shocked the whole country and then the authorities came into action and started to take the environmental issues seriously. For the purposes mentioned above ,it is important to use these sort of bricks to make the environment more greener. ECO BLAC BRICK: The idea of these bricks was first introduced by the students of MIT with the aim that how to manufacture bricks without using kilns. Fig :showing a typical blac brick These bricks are mainly made from boiler ash. Boiler ash is an ash produced by the burning of various materials, mainly paper ,wood etc in the factories or anywhere else. Boiler ash is mainly dumped in the land ,resulting in clogging . The boiler ash is combined with the alkali activation technology .This technology utilizes the boiler ash as an alumino-silicate,fusing it with an alkaline activator solution. When they are combined, the ash dissolves, followed by the construction of a geo-polymer gel, a solid 3D network that gives the bricks strength and durability. This solution reuses industrial waste (70% in the current model) rather than topsoil, and is low-cost and low energy. By using a chemical reaction rather than firing, the bricks gain strength at ambient temperatures, not requiring the massive consumption of coal (roughly 24 million tons annually) in traditional clay-fired brick production. This process also produces no emissions, unlike the traditional kiln technology, which produces carbon dioxide (roughly 76 million tons CO2/ year), carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, black carbon, and particulate matter.(arch daily) These bricks when subjected to different test , had more durability, showed more water resistance and had more compressive strength then the normal clay brick. SALIENT FEATURES: Some features of these bricks are: better for human health than an ordinary brick. better for the environment . better in resource . Less CO2 emissions. Waste consumption. BREATHE BRICKS: Breathe bricks are invented by a Carmen Trudell, an assistant professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispos school of architecture . Fig :showing a breathe brick Fig showing Breathe brick section The Breathe Brick is designed on an idea to form a part of a buildings regular ventilation system, with a double-layered facade ,exterior of the building is made of these special bricks , accompanied by a standard internal layer providing insulation. At the mid , the breathe bricks function is cyclone filtration, an idea inspired from modern vacuum cleaners, which separates out the heavy pollutant particles from the air and drops them into a removable hopper at the base of the wall. Fig showing : structural gravity and lateral loading system of a breathe brick The system is composed of two key parts: concrete bricks, and a recycled plastic coupler, which both helps to align bricks and creates a route from the outside into the bricks hollow centre. The concrete bricks themselves feature a faceted surface which helps to direct airflow into the system, and a separate cavity for inserting steel structure. The Breathe Brick can perform multiple functions i.e. mechanical and passive ventilation systems, as the brick simply transports strained air into the walls general assembly, this air can then be sent to the buildings interior through mechanical equipment or through filter vents driven by passive systems such as stack ventilation In wind tunnel tests, the system was found more efficient filtering 30% of fine particles (such as airborne pollutants) and 100% of coarse particles such as dust. As the entire system is relatively inexpensive, the Trudell posits the Breathe Brick as a way to lower pollution levels in developing countries, where rapid expansion of industry and less stringent environmental regulations often cause problems. ADVANTAGES OF ECOFRIENDLY BRICKS: Cost efficient High strength Water resistant Eco friendly Carbon neutral Top soil preserved Low amount of mortar used Less labour affected No use of kilns No use of fuels Helping agriculture Conclusion: To conclude, the bricks made of clay has strength but are major contributors to the pollution as on other hand the eco bricks which are made from wastes is useful for the environment as well as the people. With equivalent stent as the ordinary bricks these brisk can take over the future and has the ability to replace these bricks in the near future. REFERENCING https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instantion=1espv=2ie=UTF-8

How Did Climate Serve as a Trigger Event for the Bangladeshi Liberation

Climate issues have come to the forefront of popular culture and is a hot topic in the arena of politics and beyond. More recently numerous academics have started to research how not only global warming, but climate can increase the risk of civil war or ignite armed conflict. One of the most introductory article on the subject is written by Marshall Burke and discusses how climate has increased the risk of civil war in Africa. One of the conclusions Burke and his colleagues draw from their quantitative research is that not only can climate trigger civil conflict but also â€Å"that climate change will worsen instability in already volatile regions† (Burke, p.1). Moreover, during the time of the Bangladeshi Liberation War that was the case. Bangladesh, at the time referred to as East Pakistan was in a tumultuous state and a breeding ground for conflict. However, it wasn’t until the 1970 Bhola cyclone that devastated the area that the East Pakistani’s decided to move forward in their secession from West Pakistan, which led to the Bangladeshi Liberation War. This paper will be divided into four sections. The first section will set the theoretical foundation for how climate can cause conflict. The second section will identify and analyze the different conflict factors that were present in East Pakistan and were amplified/affected by the cyclone. The third section will examine the extent and damage caused by the cyclone, focusing on numbers and logistics. The last section will take the information that had been presented previously and create the links between it and how it relates to argument of the Bhola cyclone triggering the lib eration war. There has not yet been a tremendous amount of research done on how exactly climate can trigg... ... 132- 144. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Apr. 2012. Nanda, Ved. "Self-Determination in International Law: The Tragic Tale of Two Cities--Islamabad (West Pakistan) and Dacca (East Pakistan)." American Journal of International Law. 66.2 (1972): 321-336. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. Sappenfield, Mark. "CLIMATE MAY HEAT CONFLICT, TOO." Christian Science Monitor 06 Dec. 2007: 13+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. Schanberg, Sydney. "Pakistan Divided." Foreign Affairs. (1971): 125-135. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. Schanberg, Sydney. "Yahya Concedes 'Slips' In Relief. "New York Times [New York] 22 NOV 1970, 10. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. Staff Writer, . "East Pakistani Leaders Assail Yahya on Cyclone Relief." New York Times [New York] 23 NOV 1970, 5. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2012.

Designing Activity Systems Research Essay

The greatest challenge facing an Activity-Theory-based approached to researching interconnected networks and activity systems is the tension between the necessarily holistic view of â€Å"better contextuality† suggested by Kuuti, and the need for an appropriate level of analytic abstraction and â€Å"generalizable† research results required for the research to have utility across disciplines (as cited in Nardi, 1996, p. 22; Nardi, 1996, p. 70). This tension can be partially mitigated by focusing simultaneously on object/motive-oriented research of individuals and on community-object-oriented research of larger subject communities. Thus in a research setting, the object, activity, and operation levels of each individual subject would be documented, both as subjectively articulated in interviews, and as prescribed in that individual’s task description. The overarching community object, activity, and operation levels of the various interacting subject communities would also be documented, in terms of a written prospectus of the group’s initial goals and any obtainable data regarding any sub-group’s particular objects, either explicitly or implicitly stated. Because of the magnitude of data likely resulting from such research techniques, trends from the collected data are probably best analyzed through statistics-based computer modeling. Any truly contextual understanding of activity systems requires researchers to pay close attention in particular to what Kuuti calls action-operation dynamics, noting when and how, for individual subjects, the orientation phase of a given action has passed and the action has been internalized as operation (as cited in Nardi, 1996, p. 31). This phenomenon could be identified in a number of ways. For instance, when individuals begin to elide unnecessary orientation-phase-steps in a process, or when they have re-articulated their objects to indicate a broadening of scope, it is likely because they have moved beyond the orientation phase for a given action and internalized it as operation. Research into interrelated activity systems and networks also requires a nuanced understanding of how community subjects interact, both which each other and with individual subjects. Documenting these interactions through research would require a thorough enumeration of how both formal and informal subject groups affect one another, and the specific â€Å"contradictions† that they exhibit through their objects (Kutti as cited in Nardi, 1996, p. 34). For example, to fully define and therefore research the activity of a software company working on a new database platform, researchers would need to understand the myriad goals of each sub-group and engineer within the company, as well as the company’s larger goals, and the intentions of competing companies. This would require ongoing observation and interview data, and given the vast amounts of data likely to be mined in this process, a computer-based, statistical approach would likely be most effective. Situated Action vs. Activity Theory Because Situated Action Models explicitly reject an intention or goal-based definition of action, they do not lend themselves well to analytical abstraction. Each model being â€Å"inextricably embedded in a particular situation,† no two models are likely to offer enough commonality to allow comparison across situations, let alone across disciplines (Nardi, 1996, p. 1). Activity Theory, by contrast, offers its fundamental tenet as its organizing schema: consciousness and intent are the defining the elements of all activity (Nardi, 1996, p. 11). This perspective has several benefits. First, since Situated Action refuses to consider a subject’s intent in its analysis, â€Å"the activity can only be known as it plays out in situ† (Nardi, 1996, p. 82). This means that Situated Action researchers must posit their own interpretation of a subject’s actions, and ignore the subject’s stated intention. Such â€Å"constructed rationalizations† are more the province of speculative psychology than observational science (Nardi, 1996, p. 82). This view appears even more absurd in light of the fact that Situated Action offers no explanation as to why, despite its guiding premise, human subjects invariably do explain their actions through their intentions, and often â€Å"demand or believe† such explanations from others (Nardi, 1996, p. 81). Second, Activity Theory, by starting from the premise that intention and consciousness are fundamental elements in the definition of action, immediately offers a means of demarcating and understanding activity that Situated Action Models lack (Nardi, 1996, p. 83). As Nardi points out, two subjects in identical environments may display disparate actions that can only be parsed in light of each subject’s intent or object (Nardi, 1996, p. 83). Using the â€Å"object† as the organizing rinciple further allows Activity Theory to maintain a consistent analytical schema across disciplines and at varying levels of generality. For instance, both individual subjects and subject communities can be parsed according to the subject/object and object/action/operation paradigm. Lastly, Activity Theory allows research to continue over a â€Å"longer time horizon† because, while the situations examined in Situated Action Models tend to be quite ephemeral, the objects of Activity Theory may persist for months or years (Nardi, 1996, p. 3). This allows research of a given subject to proceed cumulatively, and not be wasted as soon as a given situation expires. It further allows researchers to focus on a higher level of abstraction, recurrence, and commonality than Situated Action Models, and to avoid the â€Å"claustrophobic thicket of descriptive detail† that becomes necessary when disregarding intentionality (Nardi, 1996, p. 92).

Building the Bridge as You Walk on It - 1448 Words

Robert E. Quinn’s first book, Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within, expounded on the idea that changes in leadership styles and effectiveness required changes first and foremost within the leader’s self. In the years that followed, reader feedback provided Quinn with a new model of leadership, one that reflected leadership as a state of being rather than just a pattern of behavioral modifications. Quinn, R. (2004). Building the bridge as you walk on it: A guide for leading change, San Francisco, CA, Jossey Bass (ISBN 0-7879-7112-X) Thus emerged Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guide for Leading Change. Ensconced in these pages of literature are valuable insights that detail the fundamental state of leadership, how you can†¦show more content†¦We are taking definite action and fully agree with what we are doing. 3. Appreciative Inquiry - â€Å"Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery† - Thomas Moore Appreciative Inquiry is the discipline of asking thoughtful questions; respectfully delving further into an area of concern that needs attention. In our normal state we may fire twenty questions at a teenager that has come in after curfew, causing them to become defensive and silent. With Appreciative Inquiry, we would calmly explain our concern for their wellbeing and ask thoughtful questions that can help us understand what caused their tardiness. 4. Grounded Vision - â€Å"Real vision demands that we make tough choices.† - Michael F. Easley Grounded Vision is the discipline of getting to the heart of something; cutting past the obstacles and really focusing in on the matter at hand. In our normal state we are all faced with distractions from all directions. We need to clean the garage, we have been thinking about it and psyching our self up for it for weeks and finally the weekend comes that we were going to do it and we realize it is time for dinner and we still haven’t gotten to the task at hand. We wonder what happened to the day. The answer is that we got distracted. With Grounded Vision, we are able to meet the distractions and, one-by-one, place them aside so that we can tackle our original goal for the day. We remain focused on our taskShow MoreRelatedBuilding The Bridge As You Walk On It : A Guide For Leading Change2259 Words   |  10 PagesAfter reading Building the Bridge as You Walk on It: A Guid e for Leading Change, by Robert E. Quinn. The basic idea is that behavioral patterns effect leadership and the actions we take on a day-to-day basis. There are some organizations today that are inherently selfish, have no courage and, are not focused on the day-to-day operations. 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