A framework for home energy management and its experimental validation

With the Smart Grid revolution and the increasing interest in renewable energy sources, the management of the electricity consumption and production of individual households and small residential communities is becoming an essential element of new power systems. The electric energy chain can greatly benefit from a flexible interaction with end-users based on the optimization of load profiles and the exploitation of local generation and energy storage. This paper proposes a framework for the development of a complete energy management system for individual residential units and small communities of domestic users, taking into account both the power system and the final users’ perspectives. All the main elements of the framework are considered, and contributions are provided on the users’ habits profiling, electricity generation forecast, energy load, and storage optimization. Specifically, we propose a linear regression model to predict the photovoltaic panels production, a stochastic method to forecast the home appliances usage, and two optimization models to optimize the electricity management of residential users with the goal of minimizing their bills. The study shows that it is possible to reduce the energy bill of residential users through the electricity optimization driven by dynamic energy prices. Moreover, remarkable improvements of the electric grid efficiency can be achieved with the cooperation among users, confirming that services for the coordination of the demand of groups of users allow huge benefits on the power system performance.     

Dynamical patterns in clapping behavior.

A nonlinear dynamics framework that has been applied successfully to several laboratory idealizations of rhythmic behaviors was applied to a more naturally occurring behavior, clapping. Inertial loading of limbs and frequency of oscillation were manipulated. Displacement of relative phase from perfectly in phase and the variability of relative phase, both of which are used as indexes of coordination dynamics, increased with greater inertial imbalance between limbs. Increasing frequency exaggerated these effects. These hallmark properties of coupled oscillator dynamics appeared whether or not the hands contacted, albeit with the latter condition revealing a significant asymmetry in the dynamics. Results highlight the generality of the coupled oscillator regime in interlimb coordination as well as its appropriateness for characterizing behaviors that involve contact of limb surfaces and suggest one way in which perceptual information may tune the dynamical regime. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiving the width and height of a hand-held object by dynamic touch.

The haptic perceptual subsystem of dynamic touch is prominent in manipulating and transporting objects, providing a nonvisible awareness of their linear dimensions. The hypothesis that perceptions of object width and height by dynamic touch are different functions of the inertia tensor is addressed. In two experiments heights and widths of nonvisible wielded objects were judged separately. Experiment 1 used solid rectangular parallelepipeds of different sizes; Experiment 2 used objects of identical mass and linear dimensions but nonidentical inertia ellipsoids. Width and height perceptions of comparable reliability and accuracy were found to vary as distinct functions of the objects' inertial eigenvalues. Discussion focused on the notion of tangible shape and on the selectivity of attention within dynamic touch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Solving the hub location problem with modular link capacities

This paper deals with a capacitated hub location problem arising in the design of telecommunications networks. The problem is different from the classical hub location problem in two ways: the cost of using an edge is not linear but stepwise and the capacity of a hub restricts the amount of traffic transiting through the hub rather than the incoming traffic. In this paper both an exact and a heuristic method are presented. They are compared and combined in a heuristic concentration approach to investigate whether it is possible to improve the results within limited computational times.     

Dynamical constraints on pictorial action lines.

Pictorial action lines are an effective way of portraying movement in a static drawing. When such lines emanate from the backs of characters, they can give a sense of the path or style of movement. Seven experiments assessed whether photographic streak lines (lines that depict actual movement paths) can, in and of themselves, be informative about the act that produced them. Lines were produced as a darkly clad actor with point-lights attached to his major joints performed a number of actions in front of an open-lens camera. Completely naive Ss had little success identifying events in these photographs. Once Ss were told of the photographic technique, however, striking proficiency was achieved. Subtle distinctions (e.g., whether the movement was forward or backward or performed while wearing weights) were made for some of the events. Results are discussed in terms of various treatments of pictorial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When nonwords activate semantics better than words

We conducted a strong test of the idea that visual word processing and the activation of a printed word's meaning proceeds at a rate scaled by the temporal evolution of a unique and stable phonological code. Using the lexical decision task, and readers fluent in the two alphabets of Serbo-Croatian, we compared the priming of a target word such as automat by the semantically related word ROBOT and by the nonword ROBOT. Whereas the Serbo-Croatian word ROBOT can support two phonological codes, /robot/ and /rovot/, the nonword ROBOT composed by illegally mixing Roman and Cyrillic letters can support only the phonological code /robot/, that corresponding to the word whose meaning is related to automat's. At a prime duration of 35 ms, the lexical decision on the target automat was facilitated by ROBOT but not by ROBOT. At a prime duration of 125 ms, the word ROBOT was the more effective prime. One consequence of phonology's leading role in visual word recognition is that a nonword can sometimes activate a given word's meaning better than the word itself.     

Inertia tensor and weight-percept models of length perception by static holding.

S. J. Lederman, S. R. Ganeshan, and R. E. Ellis (1996) reported an experiment demonstrating that for occluded rods of equal mass and length but different diameters length perception by static holding was larger for rods of smaller diameter. They concluded that participants inferred length from illusory weight percepts. However, rods of equal mass and length that differ in diameter also differ in the eigenvalues of their respective inertia tensors. In the present experiments, the authors manipulated the diameters (Experiment 1) and the inertial eigenvalues (Experiments 4 and 5) of statically held objects. As has been shown with wielded objects, perceived length was a function of the eigenvalues. Additional experiments failed to confirm the expectation from the weight-percept model that perceived length maps to the estimated weight (Experiments 2 and 3). Physical quantities, not psychological quantities, seem to explain length perception by static holding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction in alphabet priming with delay and degradation.

Phonologically ambiguous Serbo-Croatian words are named more slowly than their phonologically unique partners. This difference is reduced by nonword primes containing consonants unique to one or the other alphabet. In 2 experiments the hypothesis was investigated that alphabet priming is the inhibition of unique and ambiguous letter units of one alphabet by the unique letter units of the other alphabet. In Exp 1, ambiguous and unique words followed alphabet-specific nonwords at lags between 100 msec and 1,550 msec. The ambiguous–unique difference increased from 1 msec to 45 msec, consistent with a relaxing inhibitory process. Exp 2 compared priming of ambiguous words with and without visual noise. Priming was less for noisy than for intact stimuli, as would be expected if noise slows processing and if the inhibition responsible for priming weakens further during the additional processing time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Equal homophonic priming with words and pseudohomophones.

The hypothesis that the earliest representations in visual processing of print are activated word-specific units leads to the expectation that homophonic priming (HP) should be greater for word pairs than pseudohomophone pairs. Ten experiments with naming disconfirmed this hypothesis. At interstimulus intervals of 0, 129, 516, and 930 ms, HP for pseudohomophones (e.g., HOEZ-hoze vs. HOGZ-hoze) equaled HP for words (e.g., KNOWS-nose vs. KNEES-nose). The complementary finding of negative HP with pseudohomophones relative to positive HP with words was found in an additional investigation of lexical decision. The results confirm a critical early stage in visual word recognition, in which words are represented in purely phonological form, and implicate equal speeds in dual-route models for nonlexical and lexical processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Building Block Approach’ for Structural Analysis of Thermoplastic Composite Components for Automotive Applications

Advanced thermoplastic prepreg composite materials stand out with regard to their ability to allow complex designs with high specific strength and stiffness. This makes them an excellent choice for lightweight automotive components to reduce mass and increase fuel efficiency, while maintaining the functionality of traditional thermosetting prepreg (and mechanical characteristics) and with a production cycle time and recyclability suited to mass production manufacturing. Currently, the aerospace and automotive sectors struggle to carry out accurate Finite Elements (FE) component analyses and in some cases are unable to validate the obtained results. In this study, structural Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) has been done on a thermoplastic fiber reinforced component designed and manufactured through an integrated injection molding process, which consists in thermoforming the prepreg laminate and overmolding the other parts. This process is usually referred to as hybrid molding, and has the provision to reinforce the zones subjected to additional stresses with thermoformed themoplastic prepreg as required and overmolded with a shortfiber thermoplastic resin in single process. This paper aims to establish an accurate predictive model on a rational basis and an innovative methodology for the structural analysis of thermoplastic composite components by comparison with the experimental tests results.