Investment in energy-efficient houses: An estimate of discount rates implicit in new home construction practices

Data on residential construction practices in 1975–1976, together with climatic data, construction costs and fuel costs, are used to calculate discount rates implicit in homeowner's decisions to invest in energy-saving measures in new homes. This process is repeated for ten cities for three heating fuels in each city. The resulting discount rates are significantly higher than market rates of interest, suggesting market imperfections which reduce the level of investment in energy efficiency below the socially optimal level.     

Effects of thermal cycling on trinitrotoluene and tritonal explosive compositions

The effects of thermal cycling of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) and tritonal were studied using unprocessed virgin TNT, reclaimed TNT and laboratory prepared tritonal. Small quantities of explosives were temperature cycled through ranges designed to simulate aerodynamic heating. The thermal chemical kinetics at isothermal temperatures were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry methods. Physical and Chemical changes were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC) techniques.     

Studies in the control of tubular reactors—III stabilization by observer design

The stabilization of an unstable nonlinear distributed chemical reactor system is examined when concentration measurements are not possible. The linearized form of the finite dimensional approximate model developed in Parts I[1] and II[2] is used to show that the observability index is equal to two. Furthermore it is shown that the dynamical characteristics of the reactor are such that, by a proper design of the Luenberger observer, the concentration estimation at a given collocation point can be made independently of the estimation at other collocation points.For purposes of control a one-dimensional observer is designed to directly estimate the control variable. Simulations of the nonlinear model of the reactor show that the observer design is quite successful in the stabilization of an unstable steady state when only temperature measurements along the reactor are available.     

The effect of alloying additions on the superplastic properties of Ti-6 pct Al-4 pct V

The superplastic deformation properties of Ti-6 pct Al-4 pct V and modified alloys containing 1/4 pct, 1/2 pct, 1 pct, and 2 pct of either cobalt or nickel have been investigated in the temperature range 950 to 750 °C. The results show that both cobalt and nickel modified alloys have reduced flow stresses, in comparison with Ti-6 pct Al-4 pct V, the reductions being particularly marked at the lower temperatures and lower strain rates. The results are shown to be consistent with an isostress model for the deformation of (α + β) two-phase alloys in which the varying β volume fractions and differing diffusivities of titanium, cobalt, or nickel in the β phase are taken into account.     

DiamondHelp: a new interaction design for networked home appliances

Ordinary people already have great difficulty using the advanced features of digitally enhanced household products, and the problem is getting worse as more features are continually being added. This usability problem cannot be solved using only the tiny displays and limited control buttons typically found on home appliances. By using a home network to share a larger and more powerful display, we can provide a new type of collaborative interface in which the product actively helps the user, especially with complex features that are only occasionally used. In this design competition prospectus, we concentrate on the key design principles underlying DiamondHelp. The generic DiamondHelp architecture has been implemented in Java; a prototype live demonstration similar to one of the animated simulations is currently under development. Please note: An interaction design is better explained using video than words and still pictures. Peter Thomas has therefore kindly agreed that the judges will review our video presentation, which may be found at http://www.merl.com/pub/diamondhelp.mov. This is a 10 min (2.8 MB) animated QuickTime movie with sound track. To download a free QuickTime player, visit http://quicktime.apple.com. Please view the video before reading this paper!     

A reconfigurable computing framework for multi-scale cellular image processing

Cellular computing architectures represent an important class of computation that are characterized by simple processing elements, local interconnect and massive parallelism. These architectures are a good match for many image and video processing applications and can be substantially accelerated with Reconfigurable Computers. We present a flexible software/hardware framework for design, implementation and automatic synthesis of cellular image processing algorithms. The system provides an extremely flexible set of parallel, pipelined and time-multiplexed components which can be tailored through reconfigurable hardware for particular applications. The most novel aspects of our framework include a highly pipelined architecture for multi-scale cellular image processing as well as support for several different pattern recognition applications. In this paper, we will describe the system in detail and present our performance assessments. The system achieved speed-up of at least 100× for computationally expensive sub-problems and 10× for end-to-end applications compared to software implementations.     

Event-level covariation of alcohol intoxication and behavioral risks during the first year of college.

The authors examined the global- and event-level associations between alcohol intoxication and 10 behavioral risks during the 1st year of college. Participants (n = 1113; 62% female; 54% Caucasian) completed 30 days of Web-based self-monitoring that assessed alcohol consumption and involvement in 10 behavioral risks. Generalized estimating equations analyses were used to determine which behaviors covaried with event-level versus global indices of intoxication as well as the moderating effects of gender on the intoxication-behavior associations. Alcohol use was globally related to 8 of the 10 behavioral risks; more important, 5 of the 10 behaviors specifically covaried with daily alcohol intoxication. The differential pattern of associations observed can inform clinical work by identifying groups of students who may most benefit from various intervention approaches and content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantum Subspace Measurements

Fundamental studies of quantum measurements and their capacity to acquire information are typically based on scenarios in which the full Hilbert space of the measured quantum system is open to measurement interactions. In this work, we consider a class of incomplete quantum measurements – quantum subspace measurements (QSM’s) – for which all measurement interactions are restricted to an arbitrary but specified subspace of the measured system Hilbert space. We define QSM’s formally through a condition on the measurement Hamiltonian, obtain forms for the post-measurement states and positive operators (POVM elements) associated with QSM’s acting in a specified subspace, and upper bound the accessible information for such measurements. Characteristic features of QSM’s are identified and discussed.     

Lightly branched comb polyesters: Application in fast drying solvent-borne coating formulations

Novel oxazoline-based comb-polymers possessing linoleyl or oleic side chains have been synthesized and used to produce low viscosity coatings. Inclusion of the polymers in model paint formulations results in coatings that exhibit faster drying times than commercially available alkyd resin formulations. The comb polymers were produced from diol substituted oxazoline monomers that were synthesized through a scalable, solvent free protocol and purified by simple recrystallisation. Co-polymerisation of the oxazolines with adipic acid at 160 °C in the bulk resulted in the targeted polyester comb type polymers. The polymers were soluble in a range of organic solvents and compatible with commercial alkyd resins. Model paint formulations containing up to 40 wt% of the linoleyl-based comb polymers exhibited a dramatic reduction in viscosity (from 35 to 13 Poise at 25 °C) with increasing quantities of polymer added. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) studies revealed that the drying rate of the model paint formulations containing the comb polymers was enhanced when compared with that of commercial alkyd resins.