Reducing Black Carbon from Wood Burning in Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks, Alaska has been home to air quality concerns for years. Heat sources like wood boilers emit black carbon, a pollutant akin to soot. In Fairbanks\u27s harsh winters, black carbon is trapped close to the earth and creates health problems for residents. Black carbon has a more global effect as well, however, and climate scientists have recently begun to consider reducing black carbon emissions as a viable way to slow the pace of climate change. Fairbanks is uniquely situated to react to this call for action. Reducing black carbon emissions from wood burning in Fairbanks would not only contribute to the greater fight against climate change, but would alleviate significant local air quality and health concerns. This Comment summarizes the issue of black carbon in Fairbanks, and proposes several legal approaches to mitigate its negative environmental and health effects, including public nuisance claims, local regulations, and stricter compliance with federal environmental laws

Note From the Editor

Denna rapport är en examensarbetsavhandling utförd vid KTH, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, under mars-augusti 2013. Arbetet har gjorts i samarbete med Nexus Marine som är en ledande tillverkare av marin navigationsutrustning för segelbåtar. Syftet med examensarbetet var att utveckla en ny konstruktionslösning för en vattentät kapsling till företagets instrument. Kapslingen skulle gå att öppna och stänga och skruv eller lim skulle inte användas i konstruktionen. Arbetet innefattade inte kapslingens yttre design som skall utföras i ett senare skede. Kapslingen skulle uppfylla de krav som finns uppställda för klassningen IPX7. Nexus Marines navigationssystem och nuvarande sortiment studerades för att ge en bild av vilka funktioner som kapslingen skulle innefatta och i vilken miljö den skulle användas. Befintliga vattentäta produkter på marknaden studerades även för att hitta olika lösningar för vattentäta konstruktioner. Studiebesök genomfördes på Plastsystem AB i Anderstorp, en av Nexus Marines tillverkare av plastdetaljer. Information om plastformsprutning, verktygsutformning och plastval samlades in. Telefonintervjuer hölls även senare under konstruktionsarbetet för frågor angående materialval etc. Standarden SS-EN 60529 studerades för att se vilka krav som skulle uppfyllas för klassningen IPX7 samt hur tester för att undersöka om de aktuella kraven är uppfyllda skulle gå tillväga. Ett antal koncept togs fram och visualiserades med 3D-modeller. Koncepten utvärderades med hjälp av en Pugh-matris. Det slutgiltiga konceptvalet diskuterades vid en workshop med anställda på företaget. Den slutgiltiga konstruktionen sammanfogas med snäppen längs instrumentets sidor. En front i transparent plast snäpps ihop med ett bakstycke. En yttre front snäpps sedan på för att dölja resterande delar av instrumentet. Mellan bakstycket och fronten placeras en skumgummitätning för att ge en vattentät sammanfogning. En prototyp togs fram i samarbetet med företaget Prototal AB för att utföra funktionstester av konstruktionen. Tester utfördes under vatten samt med tryckluft för ett antal olika tätningsmaterial. Slutligen togs förslag fram för hur konstruktionen skulle kunna förbättras utifrån resultatet av de prototyptester som genomförts.This report is a Master’s Degree Thesis written at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, during March to August 2013. The project was done in collaboration with Nexus Marine, a leading developer of marine navigation systems for sailboats. The aim of this project was to develop a new design for a waterproof enclosure for the company’s equipment. The enclosure should be able to open and close and screws or glue should not be used in the design. The work did not include the outer design of the housing which should be done at a later stage. The enclosure should meet the requirement that is stated for IPX7. Nexus Marines navigation systems and current products were studied to give an idea of which features that should be included in the enclosure and in which environment it was supposed to be used. Existing waterproof products on the market was also studied to find different solutions for waterproof designs. A visit was made to Plastsystem AB in Anderstorp, one of Nexus Marines manufacturers of plastic details. Information about injection molding, design of manufacturing tools and plastic materials were collected. Telephone interviews were also held at a later stage in the design process regarding choice of materials etc. The standard SS-EN 60529 was studied to give information on which requirements that has to be met for IPX7 and how tests to see if these requirements are fulfilled should be conducted. A number of concepts were developed and visualized with 3D models. The concepts were evaluated using a Pugh matrix. The final concept selection was discussed at a workshop with employees at the company. The final design is joined with snap fits along the instruments sides. A front in a transparent plastic is snapped on to a back cover. An external front is then mounted to hide the rest of the instrument. A foam rubber gasket is placed between the back and front cover to give a waterproof joining of the parts. A prototype was developed in cooperation with Prototal AB to perform functional test of the design. Tests were done under water and with compressed air with a variety of different sealing materials. Proposals for how the design could be improved based on the results from the prototype tests were then presented

Estimation of Sounding Uncertainty from Measurements of Water Mass Variability

Analysis techniques are introduced that allow for estimation of potential sounding uncertainty due to water mass variability from reconnaissance campaigns in which oceanographic parameters are measured at a high temporal and spatial resolution. The analysis techniques do not require sounding data, thus analyses can be tailored to match any survey system; this allows for pre-analysis campaigns to optimize survey instrumentation and sound speed profiling rates such that a desired survey specification can be maintained. Additionally, the output of the analysis methods can potentially provide a higher fidelity estimation of sounding uncertainty due to water mass variability than uncertainty models in common use

Uncertainty Wedge Analysis: Quantifying the Impact of Sparse Sound Speed Profiling Regimes on Sounding Uncertainty

Recent advances in real-time monitoring of uncertainty due to refraction have demonstrated the power of estimating and visualizing uncertainty over the entire potential sounding space. This representation format, referred to as an uncertainty wedge, can be used to help solve difficult survey planning problems regarding the spatio-temporal variability of the watercolumn. Though initially developed to work in-line with underway watercolumn sampling hardware (e.g. moving vessel profilers), uncertainty wedge analysis techniques are extensible to investigate problems associated with low-density watercolumn sampling in which only a few sound speed casts are gathered per day. As uncertainty wedge analysis techniques require no sounding data, the overhead of post-processing soundings is circumvented in the situation when one needs to quickly ascertain the impact of a particular sampling regime. In keeping with the spirit of the underlying real-time monitoring tools, a just in time analysis of sound speed casts can help the field operator assess the effects of watercolumn variability during acquisition and objectively seek a watercolumn sampling regime which would balance the opposing goals of maximizing survey efficiency and maintaining reasonable sounding accuracy. In this work, we investigate the particular problem of estimating the uncertainty that would be associated with a particular low-density sound speed sampling regime. A pre-analysis technique is proposed in which a high-density set of sound speed profiles provides a baseline against which various low-density sampling regimes can be tested, the end goal being to ascertain the penalty in sounding confidence that would be associated with a particular low-density sampling regime. In other words, by knowing too much about the watercolumn, one can objectively quantify the impact of not knowing enough. In addition to the goal-seeking field application outlined earlier, this allows for more confi- dent attribution of uncertainty to soundings, a marked improvement over current approaches to refraction uncertainty estimation

Alien Registration- Beaudoin, Albert J. (Brunswick, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/31930/thumbnail.jp

Simulation levels of detail for plant motion

In this paper we describe a method for simulating motion of realistically complex plants interactively. We use a precomputation stage to generate the plant structure, along with a set of simulation levels of detail. The levels of detail are made by continuously grouping branches starting from the tips of the branches and working toward the trunk. Grouped branches are simulated as single branches that have similar simulation characteristics to the original branches. During run-time, we traverse the plant and determine the allowable error in the simulation of branch motion. This allows us to choose the appropriate simulation level of detail and we provide smooth transitions from level to level. Our level of detail approach affects only the simulation parameters, allowing geometry to be handled independently. Using this method we can significantly improve simulation times for complex trees