Methods for successful follow-up of elusive urban populations: an ethnographic approach with homeless men

Public health is paying increasing attention to elusive urban populations such as the homeless, street drug users, and illegal immigrants. Yet, valid data on the health of these populations remain scarce; longitudinal research, in particular, has been hampered by poor follow-up rates. This paper reports on the follow-up methods used in two randomized clinical trials among one such population, namely, homeless men with mental illness. Each of the two trials achieved virtually complete follow-up over 18 months. The authors describe the ethnographic approach to follow-up used in these trials and elaborate its application to four components of the follow-up: training interviewers, tracking participants, administering the research office, and conducting assessments. The ethnographic follow-up method is adaptable to other studies and other settings, and may provide a replicable model for achieving high follow-up rates in urban epidemiologic studies.     

Modeling the Effectiveness of Rain Barrels,Cisterns, and Downspout Disconnections for Reducing Combined Sewer Overflows in a City-Scale Watershed

Green Infrastructure / Low Impact Development (GI/LID) is an increasingly popular strategy to manage urban stormwater for individual properties, but the aggregate effect on runoff reduction at the city scale has not been thoroughly investigated. This study examined the potential combined effects of rain barrels, cisterns, and downspout disconnections on combined sewer overflows (CSOs) for a medium-sized urban center. To support a city-wide analysis, a novel simulation strategy was implemented using the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). In this new approach, a modeling at the source technique for subcatchment delineation was combined with a set of R-language utilities to automatically configure GI/LID management scenarios. The reconfigured SWMM model was used to examine 99 distinct management scenarios based on different sizes, numbers, and locations of the targeted GI/LID features for the city of Buffalo, New York. For a typical hydrologic year, the deployment of large residential rain barrels (1000-gallon) resulted in up to a 12% reduction in predicted CSO volume, while the inclusion of large commercial-roof cisterns (5000-gallon) contributed up to an additional 12% reduction. Large variations in the predicted CSO reductions were observed across the various management scenarios, and the simulation tools were able to identify locations where the GI/LID features were most effective. In general, the modeling at the source approach and the R-language tools substantially enhanced the utility of SWMM for evaluating the effectiveness of GI/LID deployment as a CSO management strategy at the city scale, and the methodology can readily be adapted to cities with similar CSO issues.

     

Optimization of Stirling engine performance based on an experimental design approach

The Stirling engine performances depend on several physicals characteristics and functioning parameters. The influence of each parameter and of their interactions is difficult to achieve with classical univariate studies. The experimental design is an alternative to identify the parameters sets allowing optimal Stirling engine performances. Hence, a four factor Central Composite Rotatable Design was used to observe the effect of cooling water flowrate, initial charge pressure, heating temperature, and operation time on a Stirling engine brake power. The influence of each parameter and the effect of the interaction between two or three parameters on the engine performances are presented and discussed. Using the surface response method, it appears that initial charge pressure and heating temperature are the more influencing parameters on the Stirling engine performances. With modeling, optimal conditions for the Stirling engine functioning are the following: charge pressure of 8 bar, heating temperature of 500 °C, and cooling water flow rates of 7.34 l/min, independent of the engine operation time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of the regenerator constituting material influence on a gamma type Stirling engine

A gamma Stirling engine with compressed air as working fluid was investigated. This engine operates at a maximum charge pressure of 10 bar, runs at a maximum rotation speed of 600 rpm and can provide 500 W of brake power on the shaft. The engine is equipped with several pressure sensors and thermocouples. This experimental study concentrates on the regenerator constituting material (porous medium). Four different materials were investigated: stainless steel, copper, aluminum and Monel 400. The obtained experimental results provide guidance to Stirling engine enhancement and selection of the appropriate regenerator material. As a conclusion, the regenerator has an important role to enhance the heat exchange and to improve Stirling engine performance, which closely depends on its constituting material.     

ORGANIC GEOCHEMISTRY OF CRUDE OILS AND UPPER CRETACEOUS SOURCE ROCKS FROM CONCESSION 11, WEST SIRTE BASIN,LIBYA

This paper reports the results of Rock‐Eval pyrolysis and total organic carbon analysis of 46 core and cuttings samples from Upper Cretaceous potential source rocks from wells in the West Sirte Basin (Libya), together with stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C) and biomarker analyses of eight oil samples from the Paleocene – Eocene Farrud/Facha Members and of 14 source rock extracts. Oil samples were analysed for bulk (°API gravity and δ¹³C) properties and elemental (sulphur, nickel and vanadium) contents. Molecular compositions were analysed using liquid and gas chromatography, and quantitative biological marker investigations using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry for saturated hydrocarbon fractions, in order to classify the samples and to establish oil‐source correlations. Core and cuttings samples from the Upper Cretaceous Etel, Rachmat, Sirte and Kalash Formations have variable organic content and hydrocarbon generation potential. Based on organofacies variations, samples from the Sirte and Kalash Formations have the potential to generate oil and gas from Type II/III kerogen, whereas samples from the Etel and Rachmat Formations, and some of the Sirte Formation samples, have the potential to generate gas from the abundant Type III kerogen. Carbon isotope compositions for these samples suggest mixed marine and terrigenous organic matter in varying proportions. Consistent with this, the distribution of n‐alkanes, terpanes and steranes indicates source rock organofacies variations from Type II/III to III kerogen. The petroleum generation potential of these source rocks was controlled by variations in redox conditions during deposition together with variations in terrigenous organic matter input. Geochemical analyses suggest that all of the oil samples are of the same genetic type and originated from the same or similar source rock(s). Based on their bulk geochemical characteristics and biomarker compositions, the oil samples are interpreted to be derived from mixed aquatic algal/microbial and terrigenous organic matter. Weak salinity stratification and suboxic bottom‐water conditions which favoured the preservation of organic matter in the sediments are indicated by low sulphur contents and by low V/Ni and Pr/Ph ratios. The characteristics of the oils, including low Pr/Ph ratio, CPI ～l, similar ratios of C₂₇:C₂₈:C₂₉ ααα‐steranes, medium to high proportions of rearranged steranes, C₂₉ <C₃₀‐hopane, low Ts/Tm hopanes, low sulphur content and low V/Ni ratio, suggest a reducing depositional environment for the source rock, which was likely a marine shale. All of the oil samples show thermal maturity in the early phase of oil generation. Based on hierarchical cluster analysis of 16 source‐related biomarker and isotope ratios, four genetic groups of extracts and oils were defined. The relative concentrations of marine algal/microbial input and reducing conditions decrease in the order Group 4 > Group 3 > Group 2 > Group1. Oil – source rock correlation studies show that some of the Sirte and Kalash Formations extracts correlate with oils based on specific parameters such as DBT/P versus Pr/Ph, δ¹³C_saturates versus δ¹³C_aromatics, and gammacerane/hopane versus sterane/hopane.     

Experimental investigations of a gamma Stirling engine

The present work deals with the measurement and performance of a gamma Stirling engine of 500 W of mechanical shaft power and 600 rpm of maximal revolutions per minute. Series of measurements concerning the pressure distribution, temperature evolution, and brake power were performed. The study of the different functioning parameters such as initial charge pressure, engine velocity, cooling water flowrate, and temperature gradient (between the sources of heat) has been analyzed. The engine brake power increases with the initial charge pressure, with the cooling water flow, and with the engine revolutions per minute. The working fluid temperature measurements have been recorded in different locations symmetrically along both regenerator sides. The recorded temperature in regenerator side one is about 252 °C and about 174 °C in the opposite side (side two). It shows an asymmetric temperature distribution in the Stirling engine regenerator; consequently, heat transfer inside this porous medium is deteriorated. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solutions and debugging for data consistency in multiprocessors with noncoherent caches

We analyze two important problems that arise in shared-memory multiprocessor systems. Thestale data problem involves ensuring that data items in local memory of individual processors are current, independent of writes done by other processors.False sharing occurs when two processors have copies of the same shared data block but update different portions of the block. The false sharing problem involves guaranteeing that subsequent writes are properly combined. In modern architectures these problems are usually solved in hardware, by exploiting mechanisms for hardware controlled cache consistency. This leads to more expensive and nonscalable designs. Therefore, we are concentrating on software methods for ensuring cache consistency that would allow for affordable and scalable multiprocessing systems. Unfortunately, providing software control is nontrivial, both for the compiler writer and for the application programmer. For this reason we are developing a debugging environment that will facilitate the development of compiler-based techniques and will help the programmer to tune his or her application using explicit cache management mechanisms. We extend the notion of a race condition for IBM Shared Memory System POWER/4, taking into consideration its noncoherent caches, and propose techniques for detection of false sharing problems. Identification of the stale data problem is discussed as well, and solutions are suggested.