admission. This proportion could already be greater in some parts of the country and may increase if referrals of cases of self-poisoning increase faster than the facilities for their assessment and management. The provision of social work and psychiatric expertise in casualty departments may be one means of preventing unnecessary medical admissions without risk to the patients. Dr Blake's and Dr Bramble's figures do not demonstrate, however, that any advantage would attach to medical teams taking over assessment from psychiatrists except that, by implication, assessments would be completed sooner by staff working on the ward full time. What the figures actually suggest is that if assessment of overdoses were left to house doctors there would be an increase in admissions to psychiatric units (by 19°U), outpatients (by 5O°'), and referrals to social services (by 140o). So for house doctors to assess overdoses would provide no economy for the psychiatric or social services. The study does not tell us what the consequences would have been for the six patients who the psychiatrists would have admitted but to whom the house doctors would have offered outpatient appointments. E J SALTER

Vitamin D deficiency.

Impatti, adattamento e vulnerabilita Le cause e le responsabilita dei cambiamenti climatici sono state trattate sul numero di ottobre della rivista Cda. Approfondiamo l’argomento presentando il documento: “Cambiamenti climatici 2007: impatti, adattamento e vulnerabilita” votato ad aprile 2007 dal secondo gruppo di lavoro del Comitato Intergovernativo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Si tratta del secondo di tre documenti che compongono il quarto rapporto sui cambiamenti climatici.

/pdf/climate-change-2007-impacts-adaptation-and-vulnerability-31xc1cf4d3.pdf

Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.

Renewable technologies are considered as clean sources of energy and optimal use of these resources minimize environmental impacts, produce minimum secondary wastes and are sustainable based on current and future economic and social societal needs. Sun is the source of all energies. The primary forms of solar energy are heat and light. Sunlight and heat are transformed and absorbed by the environment in a multitude of ways. Some of these transformations result in renewable energy flows such as biomass and wind energy. Renewable energy technologies provide an excellent opportunity for mitigation of greenhouse gas emission and reducing global warming through substituting conventional energy sources. In this article a review has been done on scope of CO2 mitigation through solar cooker, water heater, dryer, biofuel, improved cookstoves and by hydrogen.

https://www.beren.sakarya.edu.tr/sites/beren.sakarya.edu.tr/file/1380752545-07-RenewEn.pdf.pdf

Role of renewable energy sources in environmental protection: A review

The science and technology of ultracapacitors are reviewed for a number of electrode materials, including carbon, mixed metal oxides, and conducting polymers. More work has been done using microporous carbons than with the other materials and most of the commercially available devices use carbon electrodes and an organic electrolytes. The energy density of these devices is 3¯5 Wh/kg with a power density of 300¯500 W/kg for high efficiency (90¯95%) charge/discharges. Projections of future developments using carbon indicate that energy densities of 10 Wh/kg or higher are likely with power densities of 1¯2 kW/kg. A key problem in the fabrication of these advanced devices is the bonding of the thin electrodes to a current collector such the contact resistance is less than 0.1 cm2. Special attention is given in the paper to comparing the power density characteristics of ultracapacitors and batteries. The comparisons should be made at the same charge/discharge efficiency.

Ultracapacitors: Why, How, and Where is the Technology

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) constitute a class of flexible nonlinear models designed to mimic biological neural systems. In this entry, we introduce ANN using familiar econometric terminology and provide an overview of ANN modeling approach and its implementation methods. † Correspondence: Chung-Ming Kuan, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Sec. 2, Taipei 115, Taiwan; ckuan@econ.sinica.edu.tw. †† I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editor, Professor Steven Durlauf, for his patience and constructive comments on early drafts of this entry. I also thank Shih-Hsun Hsu and Yu-Lieh Huang for very helpful suggestions. The remaining errors are all mine.

Artificial neural networks

This book is the first in a series entitled ‘‘Series in Thermal and Fluid Physics and Engineering’’ published by Begell House, New York. As the title suggests, the focus is mathematical development of the subject with focus on analytical solutions, although a small chapter does consider finite difference solutions but not the finite element technique, which is equally popular in computational heat transfer. This book covers a wide assortment of topics in a rather concise space, which is both an advantage and a limitation. However, the author has done an excellent job of being concise without making it difficult for the reader to follow through by being selective. Topics selected appear to be consistent with the author’s own excellent prior research on the mathematical aspects of heat transfer. In eleven chapters the book covers the basic concepts, conservation equations, similarity methods, solution of boundary value problems, numerical methods, steady conduction, transient conduction, conduction with phase change, convection, diffusion, and radiation. The scope is very wide but the distribution of weight given to different topics is a bit unconventional. There are already many excellent books of mathematical nature dealing with conduction and diffusion. This is not so with convection and radiation. Thus, this book seems to fill a gap between books that deal with conduction only and those that deal with convection only. Also, it is not obvious who the book is intended for. As a postgraduate text its level is about right, but the distribution of weight to various topics may not always be suited for typical engineering heat transfer courses. Thus, some breadth would be helped. I believe the book is excellent for self-study and for practicing engineers who may need a review of the subject matter. The book should also interest applied mathematicians and to most engineering disciplines. Overall, the book is very well written. There are adequate references at the end of each chapter for further study if needed although in most cases these tend to be older references. References to other important textbooks of heat transfer would have helped the readers. The book tries with some success to bridge the gap between engineering and mathematics, as the author claims in his preface. Unfortunately, as the thermal problems found in practice become more and more complex and nonlinear it is increasingly difficult for the practicing engineer to depend on analytical solutions despite their elegance. Some treatment of the finite element technique would have added value too. To sum, this book will serve a niche readership interested in mathematical treatment of thermal sciences. It is recommended for libraries supporting heat transfer and related R&D as well as educational institutions. Drying Technology, 24: 245, 2006 Copyright # 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0737-3937 print/1532-2300 online DOI: 10.1080/07373930600559233

A Review of: “Mathematical Principles of Heat Transfer”

Review of: “Fluid Transport in Porous Media Edited by Prieur de Plessis” Published by Computational Mechanics Inc. 25 Bridge St.Billerica,MA 01821,US A

About 4 years ago I penned an editorial devoted to the future of engineering education by 2050. It was motivated by an interesting and thoughtful analysis of the issue as presented at http://www.newhorizons.org. As an engineering educator I have always been interested in the future of engineering education and research, because the engineering profession is intimately connected with wealth creation for every nation as opposed to wealth distribution. It can, if properly nurtured and channeled, increase the size of the economic pie and not simply cut the existing pie into pieces and redistribute it. The global situation in recent decades may give the naı̈ve onlooker the impression that indeed wealth creation is not that important if wealth can be accessed somehow without the hard work of generating it. Indeed, it seemed to have worked at the superficial level, with ‘‘soft’’ management or administrative work being rewarded better than ‘‘hard’’ engineering or technical work. This motivated an en masse switch from manufacturing to service industries. Indeed, globalization appears to have had an unanticipated negative effect of making global wealth available even to those who had the means to access it without actually producing it. The conservation law of wealth, which I am probably defining for the first time, requires that the total global wealth at any time shall diminish as significant parts of it are taken away for nonproductive (viz. non-wealth-creating) activities. This is probably an oversimplistic explanation for the current downturn in global economy but it does have a significant measure of truth in it. I believe that strong and rigorous engineering education is vital to a nation’s economy. It is also a key to innovative R&D, leading to enhancement of wealth. To attract the best talent to this ‘‘hard’’ profession the rewards must be commensurate with what the work entails. This has not been the case for decades where interest of young minds in science and technology has declined precipitously all over the world. Service-oriented professions have overtaken hardware-oriented professions to the detriment of wealth creation capabilities of most developed and appreciably developing countries. Talent has understandably migrated toward regions of higher financial returns than in their home countries and alleviated the problem in at least parts of the globe. However, flattening of the globe is making this process increasingly difficult and nonsustainable. Outsourcing of engineering services is a good but only a temporary solution for developed economies. Over the next four decades the globe will look very different, however, and reversal of talent flow directions is certainly likely and is already happening in some disciplines. In the following paragraphs I use the phrase engineering education to include education in applied sciences and technology as well. The current focus on pure sciences, though laudatory, is driven by the need of academic institutions to score high on various ranking exercises done by non-academic establishments. Each discipline has its optimum sustainable level but this is disturbed by the unfortunate ranking agencies around the world. Currently, basic sciences have already generated a huge gap between their state and its utilization for societal benefit. We need some catchup time in engineering and technology to justify the massive R&D expenses already incurred on basic research. Recall that it is engineering graduates who are still in greater demand for industrial work and R&D. Unfortunately, many major academic institutions that influence the emerging direction of engineering education and research are deviating seriously from fundamental strengths in engineering and migrating towards other ‘‘non-engineering’’ areas. The word engineering itself is being widely hijacked; e.g., we now have a ‘‘financial engineering’’ discipline as well. Of course, sciences are keys to engineering, as are humanities and management sciences. However, the focus should still be on engineering, which includes the ability to design, build, and operate engineering projects, which are becoming increasingly complex. Diluting engineering education to a point where engineering graduates cannot design or work effectively in an industrial setting is a serious matter that will affect a nation’s ability to excel. Maybe it will be necessary to stretch the duration of engineering programs; this will make engineering and applied sciences education even less attractive, however. A major challenge exists for those planning the future of engineering. It needs real visionaries with established track records of success. Also, institutions should ‘‘think global but act local’’. Thinking local and acting global has been a major problem with globalization in recent years! I do not have a solution to offer in a short editorial. Fortunately, the timescale of academic educational programs is long, so we have time to rectify weaknesses. I see current trends as disturbing and see them as at least a partial cause of problems we see today. Emphasis on ‘‘software’’ (read service) at the cost of ‘‘hardware’’ (read manufacturing or producing hard products) is a worrisome trend, especially if everyone around the world follows this trend. Remember, if there is no hardware, there is no need Drying Technology, 27: 627–628, 2009 Copyright # 2009 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0737-3937 print=1532-2300 online DOI: 10.1080/07373930902820705

Editorial: Future of Engineering Education

An analytical study is carried out to examine the combined heat and mass transfer characteristics under mixed convective flow along the external surface of a vertical circular cone. The analysis is limited to processes in which diffusion-thermo and thermo-diffusion effects can be neglected as well as limited to cones with large apex angles whereby the radial curvature effects can be neglected. The surface of the cone is subjected to uniform heat and mass fluxes. Numerical results of the local Sherwood number, the local Nusselt number and the local friction factor are obtained from the local similarity as well as local nonsimilarity approaches. Consideration is given to situations where the net buoyancy force assists and opposes the forced flow. Calculations are confined to diffusion of common gases and vapors into air.

Simultaneous heat and mass transfer in mixed convection along a vertical cone under uniform heat and uniform mass fluxes

I have long been an advocate of collaboration between academia and industry and also between academia dispersed around the world. It is well known that resources for research and development are dwindling almost all over the world. Increasingly, granting agencies must make choices between disciplines to fund R&D due to the paucity of resources—both financial and human. Some areas can fall through the cracks despite their importance to society at large. The nexus of water, food, and energy has been attracting much attention in recent years. In fact, drying technologies are important in all these thrust areas, but not always in an obvious way. The needs for R&D in drying are often not recognized readily, nor are they articulated well by those in the field. The result is limited, sometimes no, R&D support in many part of the world. In fact, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the availability of research support and the state of economic development of the country involved. Thus, emerging economies that depend heavily on manufacturing and processing of commodities seem to carry out more R&D in drying than those that are infected by the bio-nano-info fever. This is reflected through the contributions to the IDS conference series as well as to Drying Technology. However, we must find a way around this dilemma to ensure that drying R&D stays healthy despite the current state of affairs. Fortunately, drying research is not capital-intensive. Significant and useful output can be obtained with human resources and ‘‘brain-work’’ without the need for expensive instrumentation. As computing resources become cheaper, one can in fact intensify innovation in drying technologies via mathematical modeling, as demonstrated by Mujumdar and Zhonghua. Lack of funding is no excuse for lack of innovation in drying technologies. Open innovation and crowd-sourcing are also inexpensive and effective ways that we can enhance drying R&D. Industry can access innovative ideas, lab-scale data, and even scaling procedures developed by academics, typically at no cost. However, industry must devote resources to access such information via active participation in conferences and proactive collaboration with academics in their own areas or in fact anywhere in the world. The magic of the Internet has opened up a vast storehouse of knowledge to whomever wants it. The free flow of information at negligible cost should encourage networking and indeed lead to vastly improved productivity of researchers in nearly every field. By sharing financial and human resources, we can avoid duplication of effort, basically speeding up R&D and innovation. It is well recognized that multinational and multicultural diversity breeds creativity and hence innovation. The need for increased funding and manpower is reduced without reducing the output. The synergy in well organized international teams can in fact lead to a much higher degree of productivity. It is best when the collaborators are equal and bring different skill sets and expertise to the table. Drying is basically a combination of transport phenomena and materials science. Thus, a team of specialists in materials science working together with experts in transport phenomena can tackle a real drying problem much better than such teams working separately. I can give a personal perspective in terms of simple statistical data, which are readily available to anyone around the globe. I started the IDS series in the firm belief that globalization and industry–academia interaction was necessary for successful R&D in drying. I put this idea in practice consciously by developing cooperative research projects (many in drying but also some in other areas), as I faced a serious problem in obtaining research funding to support the many ideas I was able to generate and wanted to pursue. Fortunately, in most cases, I could find partners in several countries who had similar ideas and interests but different expertise they could bring to the project. Success in several initial efforts led to new collaborations, and the process continues even to this day. Statistically speaking, out of the 272 journal papers I have co-authored between January 2001 and October 15, 2012, 120 papers have been written with collaborators= co-authors from 16 countries. Major collaborations have been with China (60), Taiwan (14), India (21), Japan (7), Thailand (7), and Iran (6). These numbers exclude collaborations with authors of books and book chapters as well Drying Technology, 31: 365–366, 2013 Copyright # 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0737-3937 print=1532-2300 online DOI: 10.1080/07373937.2012.756669

Arun S. Mujumdar

Papers

A Review of: “Mathematical Principles of Heat Transfer”

Review of: “Fluid Transport in Porous Media Edited by Prieur de Plessis” Published by Computational Mechanics Inc. 25 Bridge St.Billerica,MA 01821,US A

Editorial: Future of Engineering Education

Simultaneous heat and mass transfer in mixed convection along a vertical cone under uniform heat and uniform mass fluxes

Networking—A New Paradigm for Increased R&D Productivity