Space and biotechnology: An industry profile

The results of a study conducted by the Center for Space and Advanced Technology (CSAT) for NASA-JSC are presented. The objectives were to determine the interests and attitudes of the U.S. biotechnology industry toward space biotechnology and to prepare a concise review of the current activities of the biotechnology industry. In order to accomplish these objectives, two primary actions were taken. First, a questionnaire was designed, reviewed, and distributed to U.S. biotechnology companies. Second, reviews of the various biotechnology fields were prepared in several aspects of the industry. For each review, leading figures in the field were asked to prepare a brief review pointing out key trends and current industry technical problems. The result is a readable narrative of the biotechnology industry which will provide space scientists and engineers valuable clues as to where the space environment can be explored to advance the U.S. biotechnology industry

Smart homes, control and energy management:How do smart home technologies influence control over energy use and domestic life?

By introducing new ways of automatically and remotely controlling domestic environments smart technologies have the potential to significantly improve domestic energy management. It is argued that they will simplify users’ lives by allowing them to delegate aspects of decision-making and control - relating to energy management, security, leisure and entertainment etc. - to automated smart home systems. Whilst such technologically-optimistic visions are seductive to many, less research attention has so far been paid to how users interact with and make use of the advanced control functionality that smart homes provide within already complex everyday lives. What literature there is on domestic technology use and control, shows that control is a complex and contested concept. Far from merely controlling appliances, householders are also concerned about a wide range of broader understandings of control relating, for example, to control over security, independence, hectic schedules and even over other household members such as through parenting or care relationships. This paper draws on new quantitative and qualitative data from 4 homes involved in a smart home field trial that have been equipped with smart home systems that provide advanced control functionality over appliances and space heating. Quantitative data examines how householders have used the systems both to try and improve their energy efficiency but also for purposes such as enhanced security or scheduling appliances to align with lifestyles. Qualitative data (from in-depth interviews) explores how smart technologies have impacted upon, and were impacted by, broader understandings of control within the home. The paper concludes by proposing an analytical framework for future research on control in the smart home

Identifying the time profile of everyday activities in the home using smart meter data

Activities are a descriptive term for the common ways households spend their time. Examples include cooking, doing laundry, or socialising. Smart meter data can be used to generate time profiles of activities that are meaningful to households’ own lived experience. Activities are therefore a lens through which energy feedback to households can be made salient and understandable. This paper demonstrates a multi-step methodology for inferring hourly time profiles of ten household activities using smart meter data, supplemented by individual appliance plug monitors and environmental sensors. First, household interviews, video ethnography, and technology surveys are used to identify appliances and devices in the home, and their roles in specific activities. Second, ‘ontologies’ are developed to map out the relationships between activities and technologies in the home. One or more technologies may indicate the occurrence of certain activities. Third, data from smart meters, plug monitors and sensor data are collected. Smart meter data measuring aggregate electricity use are disaggregated and processed together with the plug monitor and sensor data to identify when and for how long different activities are occurring. Sensor data are particularly useful for activities that are not always associated with an energy-using device. Fourth, the ontologies are applied to the disaggregated data to make inferences on hourly time profiles of ten everyday activities. These include washing, doing laundry, watching TV (reliably inferred), and cleaning, socialising, working (inferred with uncertainties). Fifth, activity time diaries and structured interviews are used to validate both the ontologies and the inferred activity time profiles. Two case study homes are used to illustrate the methodology using data collected as part of a UK trial of smart home technologies. The methodology is demonstrated to produce reliable time profiles of a range of domestic activities that are meaningful to households. The methodology also emphasises the value of integrating coded interview and video ethnography data into both the development of the activity inference process

Fabrication of Diamond Nanowires for Quantum Information Processing Applications

We present a design and a top-down fabrication method for realizing diamond nanowires in both bulk single crystal and polycrystalline diamond. Numerical modeling was used to study coupling between a Nitrogen Vacancy (NV) color center and optical modes of a nanowire, and to find an optimal range of nanowire diameters that allows for large collection efficiency of emitted photons. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactive ion etching (RIE) with oxygen is used to fabricate the nanowires. Drop-casted nanoparticles (including $\mathrm{Au}$, $\mathrm{SiO_{2}}$ and $\mathrm{Al_2O_3}$) as well as electron beam lithography defined spin-on glass and evaporated $\mathrm{Au}$ have been used as an etch mask. We found $\mathrm{Al_2O_3}$ nanoparticles to be the most etch resistant. At the same time FOx e-beam resist (spin-on glass) proved to be a suitable etch mask for fabrication of ordered arrays of diamond nanowires. We were able to obtain nanowires with near vertical sidewalls in both polycrystalline and single crystal diamond. The heights and diameters of the polycrystalline nanowires presented in this paper are \unit[\approx1]{\mu m} and \unit[120-340]{nm}, respectively, having a \unit[200]{nm/min} etch rate. In the case of single crystal diamond (types Ib and IIa) nanowires the height and diameter for different diamonds and masks shown in this paper were \unit[1-2.4]{\mu m} and \unit[120-490]{nm} with etch rates between \unit[190-240]{nm/min}.Comment: 11 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Diamond and related Materials; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TWV-4Y7MM1M-1&_user=10&_coverDate=01%2F25%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=6dc58b30f4773a710c667306fc541cc

Frequency Domain Multiplexing for MKIDs: Comparing the Xilinx ZCU111 RFSoC with their new 2x2 RFSoC board

The Xilinx ZCU111 Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) is a promising solution for reading out large arrays of microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). The board boasts eight on-chip 12-bit / 4.096 GSPS analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) and eight 14-bit / 6.554 GSPS digital-to-analogue converters (DACs), as well as field programmable gate array (FPGA) resources of 930,000 logic cells and 4,272 digital signal processing (DSP) slices. While this is sufficient data converter bandwidth for the readout of 8,000 MKIDs, with a 2 MHz channel-spacing, and a 1 MHz sampling rate (per channel), additional FPGA resources are needed to perform the DSP needed to process this large number of MKIDs. A solution to this problem is the new Xilinx RFSoC 2x2 board. This board costs only one fifth of the ZCU111 while still providing the same logic resources as the ZCU111, albeit with only a quarter of the data converter resources. Thus, using multiple RFSoC 2x2 boards would provide a better balance between FPGA resources and data converters, allowing the full utilization of the RF bandwidth provided by the data converters, while also lowering the cost per pixel value of the readout system, from approximately EUR2.50 per pixel with the ZCU111, to EUR1 per pixel.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Presented at 19$^{th}$ International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors, 21$^{st}$ July 2023. Resubmission to correct minor typo in author lis

A data management platform for personalised real-time energy feedback

This paper presents a data collection and energy fe edback platform for smart homes to enhance the value of information given by smart energy meter da ta by providing user-tailored real-time energy consumption feedback and advice that can be easily accessed and acted upon by the household. Our data management platform consists of an SQL server back-end which collects data, namely, aggregate power consumption as well as consumption of major appliances, temperature, humidity, light, and motion data. These data streams allow us to infer information about the household’s appliance usage and domestic activities, which in t urn enables meaningful and useful energy feedback. The platform developed has been rolled ou t in 20 UK households over a period of just over 21 months. As well as the data streams mentioned, q ualitative data such as appliance survey, tariff, house construction type and occupancy information a re also included. The paper presents a review of publically available smart home datasets and a desc ription of our own smart home set up and monitoring platform. We then provide examples of th e types of feedback that can be generated, looking at the suitability of electricity tariffs a nd appliance specific feedback

Multidisciplinary investigation of the pit circuit at Durrington Walls, UK

ISBN: 9782753585874.– Comprehensive geophysical assessment of huge pits; ERT, GPR, mag and EM. – Novel approach to testing and interpreting pits via coring. – Largest pit circuit confirmed in both the Stonehenge landscape and the UK.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe