Comparison of energy efficiency incentive programs: Rebates and white certificates

With increased interest in energy efficiency in recent years, energy efficiency portfolio standards (EEPS) have gained popularity in state policymaking. This analysis employed New Jersey specific data to compare two incentive based approaches to EEPS implementation: rebates and white certificates. Quantitative modeling suggests that white certificate approaches that depend on market-clearing prices generate much larger upfront incentive outlays than rebate programs. They do not however increase societal burden. Both programs overcome high upfront efficiency measure costs and both recoup the expenses over the long run. Administration costs and participation rates can affect this dynamic however and require additional research to determine which approaches are most cost effective for various energy efficiency measures.     

Construction delay analysis techniques

Construction projects continue to suffer delays. Things go wrong and the project's completion date gets pushed back, with someone to be blamed for it. In practice, attempts are made to identify the causes of delays and schedules are modified to incorporate revised duration and new project time. The analysis itself is usually complex and can be aided by a computerized approach. This paper discusses different delay analysis techniques that are currently used by practitioners in the construction industry. It also discusses a proposed new delay analysis technique called the Isolated Delay Type (IDT). These techniques were tested against a case example and their strengths and weaknesses highlighted. The new technique can be used as a standalone module for delay analysis or could be incorporated within a computer system for construction delay analysis and claims preparation called Computerized Delay Claims Analysis (CDCA) that integrates different software including an expert system and management software such as scheduling and a database or spreadsheet.     

喜空CSKY Willa的慢递咖啡屋

正喜空,一个立志宣扬青年文化扶植青年艺术家梦想的美好空间这里有音乐,咖啡和手工点心自制明信片和属于你的私人杯子独立青年艺术人的作品和展览一些寄放和交换的书籍一间不大却服务周到的放映厅一个艺术工作室外加一无与伦比的开放式天台风格特立独行的喜空成为上海青年们聚集的人气据点     

Scheduling of deconstruction projects under resource constraints

In many countries a large part of the building stock will have to be maintained, renovated, rehabilitated or even removed in the next few decades. Although profitability will be one of the major requirements to be met when these works are carried out, there will be more and more emphasis on the environmental requirements to be respected. To make the modernization of the building stock more efficient, dismantling with the aim of producing high quality recycling materials at reasonable costs is a promising approach. This paper presents an integrated approach to deconstruction site management that focuses on both economic and environmental goals. As a first step, material flow management aims at the closed-loop recycling of various construction materials. In a second step, resource constrained project planning models are used to evaluate strategies for optimized deconstruction site management. The approach offers high flexibility and can be adapted readily to different conditions. Results show that time and cost for deconstruction can be reduced by more than 50%, together with recycling quotas of more than 90%. Even when resources are strictly limited or when strong budget and time restrictions have to be respected, tremendous improvements in deconstruction site management can be achieved.     

Towards sustainable cities

Abstract

Sustainability has interconnected economic, social and ecological aspects. Spatial restructuring could make a significant contribution. Key public policies include transport, land‐use planning, housing, infrastructure, and the redistribution of work and incomes. Australia has the opportunity to be an international exemplar in addressing the challenge of sustainability. Existing economic structures, spatial inertia and the lack of political will are significant obstacles.     

New Visions for Old Cities: The Role of Visioning in Planning

Many plans and strategies these days are underpinned by ‘visions’. This article examines the cultural and policy shift in planning in the UK toward more integrated and participative practice, and the potential role of visioning in this new climate. Reviewing examples of vision planning in the US, where the process has a longer lineage, it argues that these interventions suffer from a lack of evaluation of the effects of ‘visioning’. Yet this visioning approach has been adopted in certain cities and towns in Northern Ireland in recent years. This article assesses the impact of this approach in a detailed case study and finds the impact to have been modest.     

Numerical Simulation of the Head/Disk Interface for Patterned Media

The use of patterned media is a new approach proposed to extend the recording densities of hard disk drives beyond 1 Tb/in.². Bit-patterned media (BPM) overcome the thermal stability problems of conventional media by using single-domain islands for each bit of recorded information, thereby eliminating the magnetic transition noise (Albrecht et al., Magnetic Recording on Patterned Media, 2003). Considering steady state conditions, we have transferred the pattern from the disk surface onto the slider surface and have investigated the pressure generation due to the bit pattern. To reduce the numerical complexity, we have generated the bit pattern only in the areas of the slider near the trailing edge, where the spacing is small. Cylindrical protrusions were modeled using very small mesh size on the order of nanometers to obtain the flying characteristics for the entire slider air bearing surface (ABS) using the “CMRR” finite element Reynolds equation simulator (Duwensee et al., Microsyst Technol, 2006; Wahl et al., STLE Tribol Trans, 39(1), 1996). The effect of pattern height, pattern diameter, slider skew angle, and slider pitch angle on flying height of a typical slider is investigated. Numerical results show that the flying height decreases for a patterned slider and the change in flying height is a function of the pattern height and ratio of the pattern diameter to the pattern pitch. In comparison to discrete track media, the flying height loss is larger for a patterned slider disk interface for the same recessed area of pattern.     

Surface quality in milling of hardened H13 steel

In the final milling process of free-form surfaces, commonly employed in the production of molds and dies, knowledge of the cutting conditions and a strategy for choosing adequate processing routes can provide a significant reduction in the manufacturing times. The objective of this work is to evaluate quantitatively and qualitatively the surface quality behavior of a steel used in the production of dies and molds. The analysis was carried out for hardened AISI H13 tool steel inclined at an angle of 60° and for different cutting path orientations. The roughness of milled surfaces was measured and verified by scanning electron microscopy in order to compare the strategies and the surface textures obtained. Four different cutting path strategies were employed in these experiments, with horizontal and vertical single-direction rastering, both upward and downward. The conclusion is that, in the vertical upward strategy, the surface displays greater roughness and an irregularity with regard to plastic deformation. The other strategies showed lower roughness and similar regularity. Magnetic Barkhausen noise, used for sub-surface characterization, was found to be largest when measured along the cutting direction of the inserts. These directions coincided with the directions of greatest plastic deformation in the sub-surface region.     

Fiber-optical measurement of form deviations of rotation-symmetric parts

The quality inspection of products poses a challenge towards existing production metrology techniques in terms of accuracy and speed, especially when it comes to inline or in-process measurements. In this terms, optical metrology proves its capabilities, in particular for sensible and fragile work pieces. For the inspection inside small spaces and cavities or for complex geometries, many optical metrology system are to inflexible or cannot be miniaturized enough. Within this work a set-up for a fiber-optic low-coherence interferometer system is described. Due to the high degree of miniaturization of the sensing probe, the system can be used for demanding measuring tasks like roundness of small drilling holes or the run-out of shafts. Different evaluation measurement are presented, which underline the potential of the described system for highly accurate, non-contact inspection of rotational parts.     

填充了碳纳米管的连续纳米纤维的静电纺丝

<正>尽管在单壁碳纳米管(SWNTs)的合成和表征方面已经取得了重大进展,但还有一重大挑战,即寻找一条有效途径来接通纳米管及工程材料和结构之间的尺寸和性能的通道。为了将SWNT的超性能转化到中型和大型结构中,人们已经花费了很大精力来开发线性和平面SWNT组件。本文描述的静电