Can Carbassa: An off-grid solution for a rural home

This project aims to design an off-grid electrical installation based on renewable sources that can successfully solve the energy requirements of Can Carbassa, a rural home in the Alt Empordà. To do so the project is divided into four main chapters. In the first chapter the residence is described, along with its geographical location and climate. In the following chapter off-grid electrical installations are studied from a theoretical point of view, looking at the components that make up the system and what role they play in it, as well as the different technological solutions available on the market today. In the third chapter the current electrical installation is analysed to determine the current consumption and production and determining the weak points of the system. The conclusions of this analysis will be used in the following chapter to design the new installation, sizing all the components and defining the connections between them

Wilkinson Call, Soldier and Senator, Part I

If Wilkinson Call was fortunate politically in being of a family already prominent in Florida affairs, he may have suffered historically as the nephew of a great uncle and the uncle of a great nephew; his own colorful career, including eighteen years as a United States senator, being obscured by the earlier glory of Richard Keith Call, as soldier and territorial governor of Florida, and to the present generation by the recent service of Rhydon M. Call, State and Federal jurist. Relatively few Floridians of today remember more than the name of Wilkinson Call and of these, fewer know that Tallahassee was his home from boyhood until he had first been elected a senator from Florida

Wilkinson Call, Soldier and Senator, Part II

Part I of this paper, which appeared in the last number of the Quarterly, recorded Call’s birth in Russellville, Kentucky; the removal, in his boyhood, to Tallahassee ; his early legal and political activities; his service in. the Confederate States army; his election to the United States Senate in 1865, and the refusal of that body to seat him; his removal to Jacksonville in 1867 or 1868; his defeat for United States senator in 1875; and his successive defeats for presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1868, 1872, and 1876. In connection with the latter, on page 113 of that number of the Quarterly, “Electoral ticket” should be “‘Electoral Commission.

Adolescents Growing Up in Stressful Environments, Dual Diagnosis, and Sources of Success

This article considers the social and psychological challenges to youth in contemporary society. The authors examine the variety of social impediments that face youths in most of our social institutions, from schools and the juvenile justice system to the family. They underscore the need for prevention, health promotion, and comprehensive assessment. Further, they assert that ‘‘dual diagnosis’’ needs to be considered not as a ‘‘special population’’ but as the typical or common experience of at-risk youths once they are diagnosed at mental health centers or juvenile justice reception and diagnostic centers. They conclude that evidence-based assessment, intervention, prevention, and health promotion will start to unravel the matter of misdirected diagnosis and treatment. The articles in this special issue amply illustrate what can be done

Recent Developments in Montana Natural Resources Law

Recent Developments In Montana Natural Resources La

Historical Perspectives on the Care and Treatment of the Mentally Ill

An examination of the history of mental illness and its treatment over the centuries reveals that the mentally ill have few advocates except each other and that their treatment has consisted of confinement and neglect. Reformers have pioneered for change, experienced brief success, but ultimately conditions for the mentally ill regress. Society continues to abhor mental illness as though its collective consciousness still believes in possession by evil spirits. Discussion of the early history moves from banishment to ships of fools, to European asylums, and to institutions run by the states in America. More recent history focuses on the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and its campaign for child guidance clinics, the Community Mental Health Centers legislation and community support projects. Meanwhile new research provides evidence of the genetic and biological roots of mental illness and advocacy organizations composed of patients and their families pressure for continued reform, public education and research

Effect Of Coronary Bypass And Valve Structure On Outcome In Isolated Valve Replacement For Aortic Stenosis

Reports differ regarding the effect of concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients who undergo aortic valve replacement (AVR) for aortic stenosis (AS), and no reports have described the effect of aortic valve structure in patients who undergo AVR for AS. A total of 871 patients aged 24 to 94 years (mean 70) whose AVR for AS was their first cardiac operation, with or without first concomitant CABG, were included. Patients who underwent mitral valve procedures were excluded. In comparison with the 443 patients (51%) who did not undergo CABG, the 428 (49%) who underwent concomitant CABG were significantly older, were more often male, had lower transvalvular peak systolic pressure gradients and larger valve areas, had lower frequencies of congenitally malformed aortic valves, had lighter valves by weight, had higher frequencies of systemic hypertension, and had longer stays in the hospital after AVR. Early and late (to 10 years) mortality were similar by propensity-adjusted analysis in patients who did and did not undergo concomitant CABG. Congenitally unicuspid or bicuspid valves occurred in approximately 90% of those aged 21 to 50, in nearly 70% in those aged 51 to 70 years, and in just over 30% in those aged 71 to 95 years. Unadjusted and adjusted survival was significantly higher in patients with unicuspid or bicuspid valves compared to those with tricuspid valves. In conclusion, although concomitant CABG had no effect on the adjusted probability of survival, the type of aortic valve (unicuspid or bicuspid vs tricuspid) significantly affected the unadjusted and adjusted probability of survival. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Am J Cardiol 2012;109:1334-1340)Statistic

Static Torsion Testing and Modeling of a Variable Thickness Hybrid Composite Bull Gear

Torsional strength of a variable thickness hybrid gear web was measured by performing static testing on the part in a large torsion test frame. The outer rim of the hybrid gear web was fixed to the bottom of the test frame and loading was applied to the web through a shaft. The test setup included the installation of digital image correlation (DIC) systems to obtain deformation and strain measurements from the surfaces of the hybrid gear web and the mechanical test equipment to ensure reliability of the test. The results indicated that the variable thickness hybrid gear web achieved approximately twice the torsional strength compared to that of previous hybrid gear designs. The DIC analysis showed significantly more straining of the loading shaft than the actual test article. Additionally, the results demonstrated the importance and affect that the metallic, lobed interlock features had on the principal strain and out-of-plane displacement fields. The analysis revealed that the fixed outer rim was in fact rotating and a rigid body motion compensation (RBMC) function was computed to determine the actual rotation of the hub and composite web relative to the outer rim. Modeling simulations were performed for the variable thickness hybrid gear web and correlated well with the RBMC rotational deformation seen in the DIC analysis. In addition to benchmarking the load capacity of the hybrid gear web, measuring its strength is useful information to define the parameters needed for dynamic, endurance, and other testing of the part

Non-Uniform Smoothness for Gradient Descent

The analysis of gradient descent-type methods typically relies on the Lipschitz continuity of the objective gradient. This generally requires an expensive hyperparameter tuning process to appropriately calibrate a stepsize for a given problem. In this work we introduce a local first-order smoothness oracle (LFSO) which generalizes the Lipschitz continuous gradients smoothness condition and is applicable to any twice-differentiable function. We show that this oracle can encode all relevant problem information for tuning stepsizes for a suitably modified gradient descent method and give global and local convergence results. We also show that LFSOs in this modified first-order method can yield global linear convergence rates for non-strongly convex problems with extremely flat minima, and thus improve over the lower bound on rates achievable by general (accelerated) first-order methods