The Guy at the Controls: Labor Quality and Power Plant Efficiency

This paper examines the impact of individual human operators on the fuel efficiency of power plants. Although electricity generation is a fuel and capital intensive enterprise, anecdotal evidence, interviews, and empirical analysis support the hypothesis that labor, particularly power plant operators, can have a non-trivial impact on the operating efficiency of the plant. We present evidence to demonstrate these effects and survey the policies and practices of electricity producing firms that either reduce or exacerbate fuel efficiency differences across individual plant operators.

Computer program analyzes Buckling Of Shells Of Revolution with various wall construction, BOSOR

Computer program performs stability analyses for a wide class of shells without unduly restrictive approximations. The program uses numerical integration, finite difference of finite element techniques to solve with reasonable accuracy almost any buckling problem for shells exhibiting orthotropic behavior

Adverse selection and emissions offsets

Programs where firms sell emissions “offsets” to reduce their emissions continue to provide important complements to traditional environmental regulations. However in many cases, particularly with current and prospective climate change policy, they continue to be very controversial. The problem of adverse selection lies at the heart of this controversy, as critics of offset programs continue to produce evidence that these projects are paying firms for actions they would have undertaken anyway, and are not producing “additional” reductions. This paper explores the theoretical sources of non-additional offsets. An important distinction arises between sales that indicate adverse selection and those that reveal information about aggregate emissions levels

Buckling of shells of revolution with various wall constructions. Volume 1 - Numerical results

Numerical results of buckling of shells of revolution for computer progra

Buckling of shells of revolution with various wall constructions. Volume 3 - User's manual for BOSOR

Computer program for analysis of shells of revolution with axisymmetric loadin

Buckling of shells of revolution with various wall constructions. Volume 2 - Basic equations and method of solution

Basic equations and method of solution for computerized analysis of shells of revolution with axisymmetric collapse and nonsymmetric bifurcation buckling behavio

Computer program for compressible laminar or turbulent nonsimilar boundary layers

Description of computer program for solving two dimensional and axisymmetric forms of compressible boundary layer equations for continuity, mean momentum, and mean total enthalp

The Economics of Carbon Offsets

Although international programs for carbon offsets play an important role in current and prospective climate-change policy, they continue to be very controversial. Asymmetric information creates several incentive problems, include adverse selection and moral hazard, in offset markets. The current regulatory focus on additionality tends to paint all these problems with a broad brush without proper consideration of the context or their implications.

Downstream influence of swept slot injection in hypersonic turbulent flow

Results of an experimental and numerical investigation of tangential swept slot injection into a thick turbulent boundary layer at Mach 6 are presented. Film cooling effectiveness, skin friction, and flow structure downstream of the swept slot injection were investigated. The data were compared with that for unswept slots, and it was found that cooling effectiveness and skin friction reductions are not significantly affected by sweeping the slot