The Material Sample Management Tool is a label generator and database to support creative communities in documenting and sharing material experiments. It was designed around the idea of collaboratively building an archive of alternative design materials with an emphasis on materials that are easily renewable, reusable, (home) compostable within 90 days, locally abundant and make use of local waste streams. The open-source tool, which functions as a collaborative archive as well as label generator to help showcase material experiments, was developed to help any community of creatives (especially students) share them with peers online and offline, and showcase them the physical material wall in their shared workspaces, studios and tool shops.The “Material Sample Management Tool” was developed in 2020-2021 by AUAS computer engineering students Alec Wouda, Sam Overheul, Kostas Mylothridis, Mitchell de Vries and Jarno van der Velde, with wonderful guidance from Okechukwu Onwunli and the teaching team of the Enterprise Web Applications semester course.Entries into the material archive are produced by students in several courses at AUAS.This tool is part of a larger material archiving project funded by NWO by means of a Comenius Teaching Fellowship awarded to senior lecturer and researcher Loes Bogers. In close collaboration with Textile Lab Amsterdam at Waag, a dedicated project team consisting of design educators, researchers and partners at Waag will develop archiving tools for sharing research into sustainable design materials in higher education. The project is inspired by, and a continuation of the Material Archive developed at Waag by Cecilia Raspanti, Maria Viftrup and other (2017-2019). The project will run until January 2022.The project is further supported by the AUAS learning community on Critical Making and Research through Design: a partnership between the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and various research groups at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences: Fashion Research & Technology Visual Methodologies Collective Play and Civic MediaCC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0)
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To accelerate differentiation between Staphylococcus aureus and Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS), this study aimed to compare six different DNA extraction methods from 2 commonly used blood culture materials, i.e. BACTEC and Bact/ALERT. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of reduced blood culture times for detection of Staphylococci directly from blood culture material. A real-time PCR duplex assay was used to compare 6 different DNA isolation protocols on two different blood culture systems. Negative blood culture material was spiked with MRSA. Bacterial DNA was isolated with: automated extractor EasyMAG (3 protocols), automated extractor MagNA Pure LC (LC Microbiology Kit MGrade), a manual kit MolYsis Plus, and a combination between MolYsis Plus and the EasyMAG. The most optimal isolation method was used to evaluate reduced bacterial culture times. Bacterial DNA isolation with the MolYsis Plus kit in combination with the specific B protocol on the EasyMAG resulted in the most sensitive detection of S.aureus, with a detection limit of 10 CFU/ml, in Bact/ALERT material, whereas using BACTEC resulted in a detection limit of 100 CFU/ml. An initial S.aureus load of 1 CFU/ml blood can be detected after 5 hours of culture in Bact/ALERT3D by combining the sensitive isolation method and the tuf LightCycler assay.
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We propose aesthetic engagement as a valuable construct for organisation studies to advance its contribution to organising for sustainability. Aesthetic engagement is defined as a set of material practices that re-engage humans and systems to trigger and accelerate transitions towards regenerative futures. We adopt an aesthetic, practice-based approach to study the emerging field of circular fashion, zooming in on six research projects evolving around bio-based textile design. Our results show that matter needs to matter more in sustainable organising in three key material practices: (1) re-presenting alternative systems, (2) re-imagining affective materialities and (3) re-claiming embodied ethical agency. Matter that reflects new ‘imagined’ realities - whether in artefacts, bodies or socio-material spaces - could greatly support stakeholder engagement and collective identity-building towards transitioning to regenerative futures.
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By making fashion with data as a material, we believe that we can critically create for everyone; no matter what shape,size or color. Data is the key to personalized fashion as it empowers and enables individuality yet retains the social potential of fashion. Fashion has believed for centuries that clothes used to be personally tailored, we intend to make that true for all.This is an important moment for fashion. Much of the industry is bankrupt,creating opportunities to rebuild with new ideas surrounding technology and sustainability. Data is key to thedigital transformation of fashion,meaning new craftsmanship is also required. Furthermore,the unique qualities of fashion allow for our research to inform technology and data science.
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Bio-based and circular building materials and techniques can play an important role in the transition toward a more sustainable construction sector. This study focuses on the Northern Netherlands and explores those competencies (in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitude) required by construction workers to meet thechallenges of material transition. The perspectives on this topic of construction companies, vocational education institutions, and local networking initiatives have been collected and analyzed by using the thematic analysis method. The results indicate that the limited knowledge availability, combined with the restricted experimentation possibilities, shape the current experiences, as well as the positioning of these stakeholders, regarding the desired competencies of construction workers. It is found that mainly attitudinal aspects of the construction workers need to receive particular attention and prioritization. To achieve that, the results highlight the importance of knowledge exchange and awareness-raising initiatives, as well as the development of a flexible, regional, and comprehensive learning environment.
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Caribbean coral reefs are in rapid decline and artificial reefs are increasingly often deployed to restore lost three-dimensional structure. The majority of artificial reefs and other marine infrastructure is built from concrete, with Ordinary Portland Cement (CEM I) as the most important ingredient. However, the production of CEM I results in substantial CO2 emissions. In addition, there are indications that the material is colonized by different benthic assemblages compared to natural reefs. To make artificial reefs more sustainable and ecologically optimal, research into alternative materials is required. For this study, CEM I was compared with five alternative substrates: a mixture of CEM III cement with recycled CEM I fines (CEM III), Calcium Sulfoaluminate cement (CSA), geopolymer-sediment tiles (GS), lime-sediment tiles (LS), and Xiriton (E0). Settlement of the long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum on the different materials was tested under marine laboratory conditions. Competent D. antillarum larvae were added to beakers with a tile made from one of the substrates and monitored for settlement after two days. Half of the tiles of each material were covered with a four-week old biofilm, the other half had no biofilm. Results show that substrate type and the presence of a biofilm affected settlement rates significantly. After 48h, highest settlement rates were found on CEM III with biofilm (30% settlement), CSA with biofilm (26% settlement) and E0 with biofilm (20% settlement). Without biofilm, the same substrates yielded only 4 to 10% settlement. CEM I, GS, and LS had overall low settlement rates (<5%) irrespective of biofilm. Post-settlement morphology was not affected by substrate type or biofilm, with juveniles having a mean test diameter of 593 ± 12 µm and a mean spine length of 487 ± 27 µm. This study provides alternative choices for regular concrete that enhance the larval settlement of the key herbivore D. antillarum. We recommend studying these alternative materials in the field to obtain a better understanding of the effects of substrate on the ecological community development over larger time- and spatial scales.
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This paper generalizes existing BRDF fitting algorithms presented in the literature that aims to find a mapping of the parameters of an arbitrary source material model to the parameters of a target material model. A material model in this context is a function that maps a list of parameters, such as roughness or specular color, to a BRDF. Our conversion function approximates the original model as close as possible under a chosen similarity metric, either in physical reflectivities or perceptually, and calculates the error with respect to this conversion. Our conversion function imposes no constraints other than that the dimensionality of the represented BRDFs match.
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Background: Particulate matter (PM) exposure is an important health risk, both in daily life and in the workplace. It causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and results in 800,000 premature deaths per year worldwide. In earlier research, we assessed workers’ information needs regarding workplace PM exposure, the properties and effects of PM, and the rationale behind various means of protection. We also concluded that workers do not always receive appropriate risk communication tools with regards to PM, and that their PM knowledge appears to be fragmented and incomplete. Methods: We considered several concepts for use as an educational material based on evaluation criteria: ease of use, costs, appropriateness for target audiences and goals, interactivity, implementation issues, novelty, and speed. We decided to develop an educational folder, which can be used to inform employees about the properties, effects and prevention methods concerning PM. Furthermore, we decided on a test setup of a more interactive way of visualisation of exposure to PM by means of exposimeters. For the development of the folder, we based the information needs on our earlier mental models-based research. We adjusted the folder based on the results of ten semi-structured interviews evaluating its usability. Results: The semi-structured interviews yielded commentaries and suggestions for further improvement, which resulted in a number of alterations to the folder. However, in most cases the folder was deemed satisfactory. Conclusion: Based on this study, the folder we developed is suitable for a larger-scale experiment and a practical test. Further research is needed to investigate the efficacy of the folder and the application of the exposimeter in a PM risk communication system.
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In the project the students were asked to design a material bank to facilitate a circular construction industry. The insights they gained were used to create opportunities to renovate the road ' 'Griffiersveld” circularly. This research report was written by three students involved in the course "Industrial and sustainable building" of Saxion University of Applied Sciences.
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