Search

Amongst all the working elements of single grip harvesters, the working elements of felling and processing play an important role within the cut-to-length (CTL) harvester’s working phases. This includes the felling cutting and cross-cutting of stems within the felling and processing operation. The detailed investigation of such individual machine activities may help to analyse and improve the performance of forest machines. The objective of this study was to investigate the cutting duration and other performance parameters, including the fuel consumption, of a CTL harvester’s sawing unit under real working conditions. Detailed information on the felling cutting and cross-cutting performance was collected at short intervals using CAN bus data of two single grip harvesters in final felling from two different sites in Eastern Finland. As a result, models for effective time consumption in the work phase of cutting as a function of stem size were developed, both for felling cutting and cross-cutting. Felling cutting and cross-cutting durations were somewhat identical until the cutting diameters of 400–450 mm, depending on the site. Thereafter, the cutting time difference increased and was higher in felling cutting. At the site with large diameters of 550–650 mm, the difference varied between 15% and 28%, between the comparisons of formulae. In addition, other performance parameters, including the respective fuel consumption of this working phase, were part of the study. The study revealed a higher hourly based fuel consumption for the entire guide bar movement time compared to the pure cutting time in cross-cutting with stem diameters below 400 mm. Detailed knowledge of the performance of the sawing unit’s activities might help the planning process of future studies, as well as support the future development of efficient and intelligent machinery.

The use of sustainably sourced biomass is an important tool for mitigating the effects of climate change; but biomass is far from being a homogeneous resource. The aim of this study was to examine the decision-making process of industrial end-users considering biomass procurement. An online, two-part survey generated responses from 27 experienced professionals, representing a portfolio of facilities varying in size, technology, and biomass types, across Australia, Canada, Finland, and Sweden. A PAPRIKA conjoint analysis approach was used to analyze the data so that the attributes that influenced procurement decisions could be weighted and ranked. The results provided an insight into end-users' views on factors including facility location, size, and biomass storage, handling, and procurement for different wood-based industrial services. The most important decision-making attribute appeared to be the type of biomass assortment, at individual, national, and aggregated levels. Of seven sub-categories of biomass assortments, sawdust (35%) was the most preferred type followed by stem wood chips (20%) and energy wood (15%). We concluded that, from the end-user's perspective, a pre-defined biomass assortment is the most important factor when deciding on feedstock procurement at a bioenergy facility. These results help us better understand end-users' perceptions of biomass properties in relation to their conversion processes and supply preferences and can inform product development and the securement of new niches in alternative business environments by existing and future biohubs.

With the purpose of establishing life-mind-language continuity, the paper thematizes an important phenomenon missing from Maturana’s (1988) theory of languaging: the generative basis of second order consensual coordination. While Maturana suggests that coordination involving biological information is qualitatively different from coordination involving concepts, we make the case that the two should be seen as continuous. We critically expand on Clark’s (2003) point that language and technical artefacts extend human cognitive capacities while challenging Clark’s Shannon-based view on information. Rather than focusing on language as a representational medium we turn to how languaging is enabled by multiple, qualitatively different organizational levels in organism-environment systems. On our view, language is irreducible to the exchange of predetermined, conceptual meanings. Rather, we hold, human linguistic abilities are based in embodied hierarchies of molecular coding in the sense that some of these hierarchies rise to neuronal (electromagnetic) and cognitive patterns that enable meaning-making activities (including languaging) connected with a particular praxis. Our account is based on the case of synthetic evolution and engineering (Evoneering) of humans with intelligent (bio)nanomaterials and (bio)chips implanted into their body for medical purposes. With the purpose of establishing life-mind-language continuity, the paper thematizes an important phenomenon missing from Maturana’s (1988) theory of languaging: the generative basis of second order consensual coordination. While Maturana suggests that coordination involving biological information is qualitatively different from coordination involving concepts, we make the case that the two should be seen as continuous. We critically expand on Clark’s (2003) point that language and technical artefacts extend human cognitive capacities while challenging Clark’s Shannon-based view on information. Rather than focusing on language as a representational medium we turn to how languaging is enabled by multiple, qualitatively different organizational levels in organism-environment systems. On our view, language is irreducible to the exchange of predetermined, conceptual meanings. Rather, we hold, human linguistic abilities are based in embodied hierarchies of molecular coding in the sense that some of these hierarchies rise to neuronal (electromagnetic) and cognitive patterns that enable meaning-making activities (including languaging) connected with a particular praxis. Our account is based on the case of synthetic evolution and engineering (Evoneering) of humans with intelligent (bio)nanomaterials and (bio)chips implanted into their body for medical purposes.