“Virtual Design Studio”—Part 1: Interdisciplinary design processes

The “Virtual Design Studio (VDS)” is a software platform currently under development in support of an integrated, coordinated and optimized design of buildings and their energy and environmental systems. It is intended to assist collaborating architects, engineers and project management team members throughout from the early phases to the detailed building design development. The platform helps to facilitate the workflow and the processing of information in combination with appropriate, task-based performance simulation tools as further analyzed in Part 2 of this study (DOI: 10.1007/s12273-013-0111-1). The present paper summarizes how VDS relates to the building design process and its typical project stages, performance-based design considerations and respective performance optimization strategies. It outlines the methodology and scope for the organization, implementation and respective requirements for the VDS platform development based on the interdisciplinary design needs. Part 2 will present the methodology for the systems integration and software implementation of VDS.     

Effects of radar system parameters,population, and environmental modulation on settlement visibility

Abstract.

The detectability of settlements and factors influencing their visibility are explored using imagery from two side-looking airborne radar systems. K-band and X-band imagery of diverse areas in the United States are examined to discover the minimum population needed for a settlement to be consistently detected. The percentage of settlements visible by size of population are calculated and omission/commission errors analysed. Particular attention is devoted to the effects of environmental modulation and a near-, mid-, or far-range location, but the factors of scale, resolution, and system are also addressed.     

Properties of p- and n-Type PbTe Microwires for Thermoelectric Devices

In thermopower measurements, microwires fabricated from as-purchased bulk PbTe exhibits p-type behavior between room temperature and ～600 K. At higher temperatures, it undergoes majority carrier inversion and exhibits n-type behavior. We report on the preparation and properties of potassium oxide and Zn-doped PbTe microwires, which exhibit stable p- and n-type behavior, respectively, between room temperature and 725 K. Thermoelectric figures of merit (ZT) are reported for device components prepared from bundles of such p- and n-type microwires in a glass matrix.     

Influence of Glass Content on Damping Properties of Plasma-Sprayed Mixtures of Zirconia and Glass

The addition by vacuum infiltration of small quantities of a polymer has been found to increase significantly the ability of a plasma-sprayed coating to dissipate vibratory energy at temperatures in the glassy-rubbery transition range of the polymer. As vitreous enamels and glasses undergo a glassy transition, but at much higher temperatures, the addition of a small amount of glass to a ceramic has the potential of providing high damping at such temperatures. Mixtures of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and a glass frit were plasma sprayed on specimens with bond coats. Measures of system response (resonant frequencies and loss factors) were extracted from frequency responses to excitations of cantilever beam specimens over a range of excitation amplitudes. Comparisons of values determined before and after coating were used to determine the damping properties of the coatings alone as functions of strain, at temperatures of special interest. Emphasis was given to identifying the lowest level of glass giving significantly more damping than that of the plasma-sprayed ceramic alone. Coatings with weight fractions of 5, 2, 1, ?, and 0% glass were tested. The inclusion of glass at all weight fractions considered was found to yield significant increases in both the stiffness and dissipation of the coatings.     

High voltage power supplies for ITER RF heating and current drive systems

The RF heating and current drive (H&CD) systems to be installed for the ITER fusion machine are the electron cyclotron (EC), ion cyclotron (IC) and, although not in the first phase of the project, lower hybrid (LH). These systems require high voltage, high current power supplies (HVPS) in CW operation.These HVPS should deliver around 50 MW electrical power to each of the RF H&CD systems with stringent requirements in terms of accuracy, voltage ripple, response time, turn off time and fault energy. The PSM (Pulse Step Modulation) technology has demonstrated over the past 20 years its ability to fulfill these requirements in many industrial facilities and other fusion reactors and has therefore been chosen as reference design for the IC and EC HVPS systems.This paper describes the technical specifications, including interfaces, the resulting constraints on the design, the conceptual design proposed for ITER EC and IC HVPS systems and the current status.     

No emotional “pop-out” effect in natural scene viewing.

It has been shown that attention is drawn toward emotional stimuli. In particular, eye movement research suggests that gaze is attracted toward emotional stimuli in an unconscious, automated manner. We addressed whether this effect remains when emotional targets are embedded within complex real-world scenes. Eye movements were recorded while participants memorized natural images. Each image contained an item that was either neutral, such as a bag, or emotional, such as a snake or a couple hugging. We found no latency difference for the first target fixation between the emotional and neutral conditions, suggesting no extrafoveal “pop-out” effect of emotional targets. However, once detected, emotional targets held attention for a longer time than neutral targets. The failure of emotional items to attract attention seems to contradict previous eye-movement research using emotional stimuli. However, our results are consistent with studies examining semantic drive of overt attention in natural scenes. Interpretations of the results in terms of perceptual and attentional load are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of Solids Formation and Gas Production on the Permeability of ZVI PRBs

The permeability of zero-valent iron permeable reactive barriers (ZVI PRBs) may be reduced by the production of gas and solid precipitates. The reduction in permeability was examined using column experiments, which showed that permeability loss was correlated with influent oxidant concentration. The column containing 100??mg/L nitrate experienced the greatest loss, approximately two orders of magnitude over the course of 200 pore volumes. However, the permeability loss owing to precipitated solids was largely independent of oxidant concentration, accounting for only 24% of the observed loss in the 100??mg/L nitrate column, suggesting that the majority of loss was attributable to gas, not precipitates. Geochemical modeling corroborated these findings, indicating that precipitation of solids in the 100??mg/L nitrate system does not account for more than a 10% permeability reduction. These findings suggest that in field PRBs in which a high reduction in permeability is observed, gas production may be implicated. Design choices that impede gas migration out of ZVI PRBs, such as capping, must be considered in light of the possibility of a high potential for permeability reduction.