Methodology to Adapt and Update a Life Cycle Cost Calculator for Your Institution: A Step-by-Step Guide

This guide provides a methodology for adapting a life cycle cost (LCC) calculator to your institution. An LCC calculator can be used to examine the present and future costs of any expenditure and can include a proxy carbon price in its analysis. Adapting an existing tool saves time and resources when compared to building from scratch. It also provides the most accurate information by accounting for specifics of context, such as energy costs and the greenhouse gas emission rates of energy sources, which vary by region. This guide outlines a five-step process for adapting an LCC calculator to match your institutional context. Step one is identifying all assumptions and utilities that may be needed to complete a life cycle cost estimate (e.g. electricity, central plant steam). Step two is collecting the data for all identified utility rates and assumptions. Step three is preparing the tool for the data update. Step four is entering institutionally specific variables into the calculator. Step five is updating the tool with the best available data to maintain accurac

Understanding the magnetic resonance spectrum of nitrogen vacancy centers in an ensemble of randomly-oriented nanodiamonds

Nanodiamonds containing nitrogen vacancy (NV-) centers show promise for a number of emerging applications including targeted in vivo imaging and generating nuclear spin hyperpolarization for enhanced NMR spectroscopy and imaging. Here, we develop a detailed understanding of the magnetic resonance behavior of NV- centers in an ensemble of nanodiamonds with random crystal orientations. Two-dimensional optically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy reveals the distribution of energy levels, spin populations, and transition probabilities that give rise to a complex spectrum. We identify overtone transitions that are inherently insensitive to crystal orientation and give well-defined transition frequencies that access the entire nanodiamond ensemble. These transitions may be harnessed for high-resolution imaging and generation of nuclear spin hyperpolarization. The data are well described by numerical simulations from the zero- to high-field regimes, including the intermediate regime of maximum complexity. We evaluate the prospects of nanodiamond ensembles specifically for nuclear hyperpolarization and show that frequency-swept dynamic nuclear polarization may transfer a large amount of the NV- center's hyperpolarization to nuclear spins by sweeping over a small region of its spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

A how-to guide for the Smith College Proxy Carbon Life Cycle Cost Calculator

Detailed written guide for using the LCC calculator for Smith College. A similar guide can be adapted for users of the calculator at your institution. The Smith College Proxy Carbon Life Cycle Cost Calculator is a tool designed to include climate impacts in the evaluation of present and future costs of projects on campus. At the request of the Study Group on Climate Change, this Excel tool was developed as part of the implementation of a proxy carbon price at Smith College

Re-introduction of structurally complex wood jams promotes channel and habitat recovery from overwidening: Implications for river conservation

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Large wood is a powerful geomorphic agent in rivers, providing important habitat functions for a range of aquatic organisms, but has been subject to a long history of removal. Internationally, approaches to river restoration are increasingly incorporating large wood features, but generally favour simple flow deflectors (e.g. single logs, stripped of branches and anchored in place) over more complex structures that more accurately mimic natural wood jams. This paper explores channel response to wood-based restoration of an overwidened lowland chalk stream that incorporated whole felled trees. Hydraulics, sediment, topography and vegetation data were assessed for a 3year period for two restored reaches: an upstream reach where pre-restoration baseline data were obtained, and a downstream reach restored before data collection. Where pre-restoration data were available, the introduction of wood jams generated sediment deposition within jams leading to the development of vegetated marginal ‘benches’ and bed scour in adjacent areas of flow convergence. Patterns were less clear in the downstream reach, where restoration design was less ambitious and outcomes may have been affected by subsequent restoration work upstream. The results indicate that reintroduction of large wood (whole trees), can promote channel and habitat recovery from overwidening in lowland rivers, creating important ecological benefits through the provision of structurally complex marginal habitat and associated food resources. Longer-term assessments are required to establish whether the trajectories of change are persistent. The work emphasizes the effectiveness of restoration approaches that aim to ‘work with nature’. The ambitious design, incorporating structurally complex wood jams, was also low-cost, using materials available from the river corridor (existing riparian trees). Furthermore, ecosystem engineering effects were amplified by the colonization of wood jams by aquatic vegetation. The approach should, therefore, be transferable to other lowland rivers, subject to wider catchment constraints

Kink-Antikink Interaction Forces and Bound States in a φ\u3csup\u3e4\u3c/sup\u3e Model with Quadratic and Quartic dispersion

In the present work we explore the competition of quadratic and quartic dispersion in producing kink-like solitary waves in a model of the nonlinear Schrödinger type bearing cubic nonlinearity. We present the first 6 families of multikink solutions and explore their bifurcations as the strength of the quadratic dispersion is varied. We reveal a rich bifurcation structure for the system, connecting two-kink states with states involving 4-, as well as 6-kinks. The stability of all of these states is explored. For each family, we discuss a “lower branch” adhering to the energy landscape of the 2-kink states. We also, however, study in detail the “upper branches” bearing higher numbers of kinks. In addition to computing the stationary states and analyzing their stability within the partial differential equation model, we develop an effective particle ordinary differential equation theory that is shown to be surprisingly efficient in capturing the kink equilibria and normal (as well as unstable) modes. Finally, the results of the bifurcation analysis are corroborated by means of direct numerical simulations involving the excitation of the states in a targeted way in order to explore their instability-induced dynamics