Valuing the attributes of renewable energy investments in Scotland

This study was funded by a grant from the Scottish Economic Policy Network (SEPN) with funding assistance provided by the University of Glasgow, Department of Economics (Professor Nick Hanley) and the University of Sterling (Robert Wright). The goal of the project was to determine the value of differing types of renewable energy projects by how they would effect environmental and community quality of life factors. The key issues examined include; air quality, landscape, wildlife, and long term local employment. Stated preference methods were employed through the use of a discrete choice experiment survey approach. Willingness-to-pay for different types of renewable energy projects was estimated, i.e., moderate onshore windmill farms, large onshore windmill farms, offshore windmill farms, and biomass fueled power plants. The most significant findings were that rural areas likely to be most highly impacted by the new energy projects were willing to accept low or moderate environmental damage in exchange for commercial development gains. Urban respondents on the other hand were more likely to oppose any disturbance to the landscape or wildlife and had no value placed on the economics development gains for the rural areas; income level of households showed no significant difference in environmental values

Interfacing requirements for MEMS components in system-on-chip methodologies

Modern VLSI design is moving towards a System-on-Chip design paradigm, where chip design involves the integration of separate macrocells from different manufacturers. This paper explores the obstacles to adopting this same methodology for systems incorporating MEMS components. These obstacles include the technology specific nature of most MEMS devices, interference between MEMS sensors, and the limited electronics device density of mixed MEMS/Microelectronics technologies. It is conjectured that one fruitful avenue for further work is the development of MEMS interface circuits which can be incorporated into a single SoC along with other electronics macrocells, and which men connect to discrete MEMS sensor chips

Measuring a coherent superposition

We propose a simple method for measuring the populations and the relative phase in a coherent superposition of two atomic states. The method is based on coupling the two states to a third common (excited) state by means of two laser pulses, and measuring the total fluorescence from the third state for several choices of the excitation pulses.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, twocolumn REVTe

Hardware support for real-time reconfigurable system-on-chip

This paper introduces a computer architecture suitable for embedded real-time applications where low power consumption is a requirement. This is achieved through the use of a hybrid hardware-software system. A system architecture is proposed which allows for modules of a system to be implemented at run-time in either hardware or software. Implementation choices may be made dynamically based on the loading of the host microprocessor, in a multi-tasking environment. An approach to inter-module communication is described, along with how this is affected by dynamic configuration. Some research goals are identified, including investigating the effects on real-time performance, power consumption and the design process involved in reconfigurable systems

Egret: A platform for reconfigurable system-on-chip

Reconfigurable System-on-Chip (rSoC) design is inherently a complex task with enormous freedom in design parameters such as processor, operating system, and backplane buses. Design efficiency can be improved by the use of an rSoC platform which constrains these choices, and allows new designs to leverage much of the expertise of previous designs. Egret is an rSoC prototyping platform being developed at the University of Queensland, Australia, and this paper explains and justifies the design decisions for the first version of Egret

Oscillations of the magnetic polarization in a Kondo impurity at finite magnetic fields

The electronic properties of a Kondo impurity are investigated in a magnetic field using linear response theory. The distribution of electrical charge and magnetic polarization are calculated in real space. The (small) magnetic field does not change the charge distribution. However, it unmasks the Kondo cloud. The (equal) weight of the d-electron components with their magnetic moment up and down is shifted and the compensating s-electron clouds don't cancel any longer (a requirement for an experimental detection of the Kondo cloud). In addition to the net magnetic polarization of the conduction electrons an oscillating magnetic polarization with a period of half the Fermi wave length is observed. However, this oscillating magnetic polarization does not show the long range behavior of Rudermann-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida oscillations because the oscillations don't extend beyond the Kondo radius. They represent an internal electronic structure of the Kondo impurity in a magnetic field. PACS: 75.20.Hr, 71.23.An, 71.27.+

Lepton number violating interactions and their effects on neutrino oscillation experiments

Mixing between bosons that transform differently under the standard model gauge group, but identically under its unbroken subgroup, can induce interactions that violate the total lepton number. We discuss four-fermion operators that mediate lepton number violating neutrino interactions both in a model-independent framework and within supersymmetry (SUSY) without R-parity. The effective couplings of such operators are constrained by: i) the upper bounds on the relevant elementary couplings between the bosons and the fermions, ii) by the limit on universality violation in pion decays, iii) by the data on neutrinoless double beta decay and, iv) by loop-induced neutrino masses. We find that the present bounds imply that lepton number violating neutrino interactions are not relevant for the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems. Within SUSY without R-parity also the LSND anomaly cannot be explained by such interactions, but one cannot rule out an effect model-independently. Possible consequences for future terrestrial neutrino oscillation experiments and for neutrinos from a supernova are discussed.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figures, Late