The economic impact of uncertainties associated with energy-saving technologies

We will analyze the economic sensitivity of new energy-saving technologies to weather, future energy price, and system lifetime uncertainties. Graphical rate of return analysis is employed. A representative residential solar water heating investment is analyzed to illustrate the impact of uncertainties. The wide range of reasonable rates of return found suggests some considerations for policy makers and some areas of future research.     

Indoor temperature changes in retrofit homes

The behavioral response (e.g. changes in indoor temperatures, attention to window and door openings) to residential technical efficiency improvements (e.g. attic insulation, storm windows) is an important and largely unresolved issue. Although there is considerable discussion concerning the extent to which households take back some of the energy savings due to technical efficiency improvements in increased comfort, there is almost no empirical evidence on the subject.Detailed electricity billing data (from mid-1981 to mid-1983) were analyzed for 79 households that received financial assistance from the Bonneville Power Administration to retrofit their homes in mid-1982. The mean retrofit expenditure in these homes was $1900; the mean reduction in annual electricity use was 4700 kWh, of which 83% was due to reductions in space heating electricity use. Analysis of the electricity billing data suggests that these households increased their indoor temperature settings after retrofit by almost 1 °F on average. This temperature increase led to an estimated average loss of almost 600 kWh of electricity saving. In other words, roughly 10% of the energy saving due to retrofit was taken back in terms of increased comfort. These results concerning changes in indoor temperatures should be viewed cautiously because of limitations in the analytical method and the large variation across households.     

Assessment of the value of rivers for Otters (Lutra lutra)

The British otter Lutra lutra L. requires good water quality, an adequate supply of fish and certain types of vegetation or cavities (holts) adjacent to water bodies for resting and breeding sites. In the U.K. otters and their holts are legally protected. Trained surveyors are needed to confirm the presence of otters on a river as the animals are rarely seen, but their tracks and droppings (spraints) may be detected. To evaluate a river for otters, information is required on water quality, fish species and biomass, as well as available habitat. Pioneer evaluation work based on the River Corridor Survey techniques has been done on Welsh rivers with good otter populations. Riparian vegetation, especially trees, is shown to be particularly important. This work is now being extended to areas on the margins of otter distribution such as the lower river Wye in England and Wales. Such surveys provide important management information for water authorities and give opportunities for enhancement work to benefit this animal.     

A new technique for on-line and off-line high speed computation

A novel technique for both online and offline computation is presented. With this technique, a reconstruction analysis in elementary particle physics, otherwise prohibitively long, has been accomplished. It will be used online in an upcoming Fermilab experiment to reconstruct more than 100000 events per second and to trigger on the basis of that information. The technique delivers 40 gigaoperations per second, has a bandwidth on the order of gigabytes per second, and has a modest cost. An overview of the program, details of the system, and performance measurements are presented     

Predicting Youth Access to Tobacco: The Role of Youth Versus Store-Clerk Behavior and Issues of Ecological Validity.

Twenty-one 15- to 17-year-olds attempted to purchase cigarettes in 232 stores in the manner that confederates typically do in access studies, as well as in the manipulative ways (e.g., lying about their ages) that youth smokers do, thereby modeling youth access to tobacco within versus outside of studies, respectively. Youth typical-research versus manipulative behavior was contrasted with clerk behavior (requests for youth ID cards) to examine the relative contributions of both to youth access to tobacco for the 1st time. Results revealed that clerk behavior was the strongest predictor of cigarette sales to youth and hence underscore the need for interventions with merchants. Sales nonetheless were higher under youth-manipulative conditions and thereby highlight the low ecological validity of access research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Precision winding of fiber optic filament. II. Winding control

For pt.I see ibid., vol.39, no.3, p.258-67 (1992). The winding of fiber optic filament in the hoop, or precision, pattern is considered. Various automatic control options that have been designed and tested are described. The controllers are designed to regulate the fiber lag angle, which is the angle at which the feed filament approaches the take-up spool. Successful, flawless winding is directly related to accurate lag regulation. The contributions are distinguished by the fact that the automatic winding rate is 10 to 30 times greater than that achieved before by operator-assisted winding     

Multifactorial assessment of bulimia nervosa.

Investigated a multifactorial approach to the assessment of bulimia nervosa by means of hierarchical factor analysis. 245 bulimia nervosa patients and 68 patients with either anorexia nervosa or eating disorders not otherwise specified were administered a self-report battery that was organized into 21 dimensions relevant to eating disorder patients. When dimensions from this battery were subjected to hierarchical factor analysis, support for bulimia nervosa as a unique diagnostic category was obtained. However, the emergence of 3 secondary factors and 6 primary factors suggests that bulimia nervosa can also be described more complexly. The emergence of a multifactorial model of bulimia nervosa that incorporates several existing unidimensional models suggests the potential for both divergent and complicated clinical presentation in bulimia nervosa patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heat transfers in treatment furnaces

For heat treating cylindrical metal billets, their lay-out in a furnace usually resembles that of an in-line heat-exchanger tube bank, with the air flows orthogonal to the billets. For maximum effectiveness of transferring thermal energy from the forced convecting air to the billets, the optimal horizontal pitch-to-diameter ratio for the billets should be 1·33 ± 0·05. For this same purpose it is advantageous to employ a vertical spacing (between the billets) as large as can be permitted for a given load of billets.