Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how to design and manage complex engineering systems over their life cycles. Issues such as requirements engineering, reliability, logistics, coordination of different teams, testing and evaluation, maintainability and many other disciplines necessary for successful system development, design, implementation, and ultimate decommission become more difficult when dealing with large or complex projects. Systems engineering deals with work-processes, optimization methods, and risk management tools in such projects. It overlaps technical and human-centered disciplines such as control engineering, industrial engineering, software engineering, organizational studies, and project management. Systems engineering ensures that all likely aspects of a project or system are considered, and integrated into a whole.

The systems engineering process is a discovery process that is quite unlike a manufacturing process. A manufacturing process is focused on repetitive activities that achieve high quality outputs with minimum cost and time. The systems engineering process must begin by discovering the real problems that need to be resolved, and identify the most probable or highest impact failures that can occur - systems engineering involves finding elegant solutions to these problems.

Classical thermodynamics considers three main kinds of thermodynamic process: change in a system, cycles in a system, and flow processes.

Defined by change in a system, a thermodynamic process is a passage of a thermodynamic system from an initial to a final state of thermodynamic equilibrium. The initial and final states are the defining elements of the process. The actual course of the process is not the primary concern, and often is ignored. This is the customary default meaning of the term 'thermodynamic process'. In general, during the actual course of a thermodynamic process, the system passes through physical states which are not describable as thermodynamic states, because they are far from internal thermodynamic equilibrium. Such processes are useful for thermodynamic theory.

Defined by a cycle of transfers into and out of a system, a cyclic process is described by the quantities transferred in the several stages of the cycle, which recur unchangingly. The descriptions of the staged states of the system are not the primary concern. Cyclic processes were important conceptual devices in the early days of thermodynamical investigation, while the concept of the thermodynamic state variable was being developed.

Process philosophy (or ontology of becoming) identifies metaphysical reality with change and development. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, while processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances. If Socrates changes, becoming sick, Socrates is still the same (the substance of Socrates being the same), and change (his sickness) only glides over his substance: change is accidental, whereas the substance is essential. Therefore, classic ontology denies any full reality to change, which is conceived as only accidental and not essential. This classical ontology is what made knowledge and a theory of knowledge possible, as it was thought that a science of something in becoming was an impossible feat to achieve.

In opposition to the classical model of change as accidental (as argued by Aristotle) or illusory, process philosophy regards change as the cornerstone of reality — the cornerstone of Being thought of as Becoming. Modern philosophers who appeal to process rather than substance include Nietzsche, Heidegger, Charles Peirce, Alfred North Whitehead, Alan Watts, Robert M. Pirsig, Charles Hartshorne, Arran Gare, Nicholas Rescher, Colin Wilson, and Gilles Deleuze. In physics Ilya Prigogine distinguishes between the "physics of being" and the "physics of becoming". Process philosophy covers not just scientific intuitions and experiences, but can be used as a conceptual bridge to facilitate discussions among religion, philosophy, and science.

Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved their game and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows down decomposition by turning residual moisture into ice, inhibiting the growth of most bacterial species. In the food commodity industry, there are two processes: mechanical and cryogenic (or flash freezing). The freezing kinetics is important to preserve the food quality and texture. Quicker freezing generates smaller ice crystals and maintains cellular structure. Cryogenic freezing is the quickest freezing technology available due to the ultra low liquid nitrogen temperature −196 °C (−320 °F).

Preserving food in domestic kitchens during the 20th and 21st centuries is achieved using household freezers. Accepted advice to householders was to freeze food on the day of purchase. An initiative by a supermarket group in 2012 (backed by the UK's Waste & Resources Action Programme) promotes advising the freezing of food "as soon as possible up to the product's 'use by' date". The Food Standards Agency was reported as supporting the change, providing the food had been stored correctly up to that time.

Freezing is a BBC comedy series starring Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern about an otherwise successful couple in their forties who find themselves out of work. Matt (Bonneville) is a publisher who has recently lost his job and Elizabeth (McGovern) is an Oscar-nominated American actress who is having a hard time getting work since moving to live with Matt in London.

Freezing was originally a one-off comedy as part of BBC Four's Tight Spot season in February 2007, which then became the first episode of the series when it aired on BBC Two in February 2008.

Freezing is written by James Wood and directed by Simon Curtis.

Trivia

Elizabeth McGovern is herself an Oscar nominated actress who moved to London to live with her husband, Simon Curtis.

References

External links

Freezing is a 2007 film directed by Simon Curtis, written by James Wood, which premiered on 28 February 2007.

The plot involves an Oscar-nominated American movie actress who will be working at home for the first time with her English publisher husband.

External links

Quicksand were a band from Port Talbot in Wales who were active from 1969 until 1975.

History

Originally formed in 1969, they featured Michael “Will” Youatt (bass), Jimmy Davies (guitar) and Anthony Stone (drums). This line up recorded one single "Passing By"/"Cobblestones" (both written by Youatt) in 1970. Youatt left to join briefly Piblokto! then Man. Phil Davies (bass) and Robert Collins (keyboards) then joined the band. A second single "Time To Live"/"Empty Street, Empty Heart" was released in 1973 and was soon followed by the album Home Is Where I Belong later the that year. The band ceased to exist in 1975 when Davies formed Alkatraz with Youatt.

Subsequent careers

After the band split up Collins became a sound man, initially for Man, but later for such people as Eric Clapton. Davies re-joined Youatt in a new band Alkatraz who recorded one album Doing a Moonlight for United Artists.

Discography

Quicksand

Album

Various artists albums