445 research outputs found
Battles without bullets: The story of economic warfare
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/1001/thumbnail.jp
The United Kingdom smart meter rollout through an energy justice lens
The United Kingdomâs Smart Meter Implementation Programme (SMIP) creates the legal framework so that an in-home display unit and a smart gas and electricity meter can be installed in every household by the end of 2020. Intended to reduce household energy consumption, the SMIP is one of the worldâs most complex smart meter rollouts. It is also proving to be a challenging one as a series of obstacles has characterised and potentially restricted implementation. This chapter first gives background to the most recent smart meter roll out developments in the UK and second, uses an energy justice framework to explore the emergent challenges under the titles of distributional justice, procedural justice and justice as recognition. Applying this framework to an analysis of the UK SMIP provides opportunities to accurately record, present and expose potential forthcoming injustices. In light of this, we offer a series of policy recommendations
Evaluation available encapsulation materials for low-cost long-life silicon photovoltaic arrays
Experimental evaluation of selected encapsulation designs and materials based on an earlier study which have potential for use in low cost, long-life photovoltaic arrays are reported. The performance of candidate materials and encapsulated cells were evaluated principally for three types of encapsulation designs based on their potentially low materials and processing costs: (1) polymeric coatings, transparent conformal coatings over the cell with a structural-support substrate; (2) polymeric film lamination, cells laminated between two films or sheets of polymeric materials; and (3) glass-covered systems, cells adhesively bonded to a glass cover (superstrate) with a polymeric pottant and a glass or other substrate material. Several other design types, including those utilizing polymer sheet and pottant materials, were also included in the investigation
Outsourcing or efficiency? Investigating the decline in final energy consumption in the UK productive sectors
Over the past two decades reductions in the final energy consumption of the productive sectors (industry, public administration, commercial services and agriculture), have made important contributions to overall reductions in UK final energy consumption. This study investigates the drivers of the reductions in final energy consumption in the UK productive sectors between 1997 and 2013 using a decomposition analysis that incorporates two novel approaches. Firstly, it uses results from a multi-regional input-output model to investigate how much of the structural change in the economy has been driven by outsourcing production overseas. Secondly, it utilises energy conversion chain analysis to determine how much increases in the conversion efficiency from final energy to useful exergy have contributed to improvements in final energy intensity. In aggregate all energy savings from structural change are attributed to outsourcing. Improvements in the conversion efficiency produced savings of a similar size. However energy savings from both factors have stalled since 2009. Improvements in useful exergy intensity, the useful exergy used per unit of monetary output, provided the biggest share of energy savings, but these savings are concentrated in a few sectors and rarely lead to absolute reductions in final energy use. All of this suggests that a return to the rates of energy reduction seen between 2001 and 2009 should not be taken for granted and that active policy interventions might be required to achieve further reductions
The Contributions of Muscle and Machine Work to Land and Labor Productivity in World Agriculture Since 1800
Since 1800, there have been enormous changes in mechanical technologies farmers use and in the relative contributions of human and animal muscles and machines to farm work. We develop a database from 1800 to 2012 of on-farm physical work in world agriculture from muscles and machines. We do so to analyze how on-farm physical work has contributed to changes in land and human labor productivities. We find two distinct periods. First, from 1800 to around 1950, land productivity (measured as kcal food supply per hectare of cropland) was relatively stagnant at about 1.7 million kcal/ha, in part due to a scarcity of on-farm physical work. During this period, physical work was scarce because most of on-farm physical work (approximately 80% in 1950) was being powered by low power, low energy efficiency muscle work provided by humans and draft animals. From 1950 to 2012, land productivity nearly tripled as more machine-based work inputs became available. The additional machine-based work inputs have contributed to the growth in land and labor productivities, as they have enabled farmers to control more physical work enabling more irrigation and agrochemical applications. However, the tripling of land productivity has required a near 4.5-fold increase in physical work per hectare, suggesting diminishing returns. Farmers accomplished this extra work with less final energy because they transitioned from low-efficiency muscle work to high-efficiency machines which drove farm-wide energy conversion efficiency up fourfold from 1950 to 2012. By 1990, machine conversion efficiencies started to plateau. Given diminishing returns and plateauing efficiencies, we predict that fuel and electricity usage on farms will increase to continue raising land productivity
Dimming Supernovae without Cosmic Acceleration
We present a simple model where photons propagating in extra-galactic
magnetic fields can oscillate into very light axions. The oscillations may
convert some of the photons departing a distant supernova into axions, making
the supernova appear dimmer and hence more distant than it really is. Averaging
over different configurations of the magnetic field we find that the dimming
saturates at about 1/3 of the light from the supernovae at very large
redshifts. This results in a luminosity-distance vs. redshift curve almost
indistinguishable from that produced by the accelerating Universe, if the axion
mass and coupling scale are m ~ 10^-16 eV, M ~ 4 10^11 GeV. This phenomenon may
be an alternative to the accelerating Universe for explaining supernova
observations.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex, 2 figures included. Comments on effects of
refraction within galaxies and references adde
A novel potential field model for perimeter and agent density control in multiagent swarms
parameters for the computation of control vectors. This restriction often limits the structures that can evolve,
since agents are unable to modify their behaviour based on their structural role. This paper proposes an
enhanced model that uses the perimeter status of agents in selecting control parameters. This allows a wider
variety of emergent behaviours, many of which result in much improved swarm structures. The model is
based upon equivalence classes of agent pairs, defined by their perimeter status. Array-valued parameters are
introduced to allow each equivalence class to be given its own parameter values. The model also introduces a
new control vector to âflattenâ reflex angles between neighbouring agents on the swarm perimeter, often leading
to significantly improved swarm structure. Extensive experiments have been conducted that demonstrate how
the new model causes a variety of useful behaviours to emerge from random swarm deployments. The results
show that several important behaviours, such as shape control, void removal, perimeter packing and expansion,
and perimeter rotation, can be produced without the need for explicit inter-agent communication. The
approach is applicable to a variety of applications, including reconnaissance, area-coverage, and containment
Electromagnetic Polarization Effects due to Axion Photon Mixing
We investigate the effect of axions on the polarization of electromagnetic
waves as they propagate through astronomical distances. We analyze the change
in the dispersion of the electromagnetic wave due to its mixing with axions. We
find that this leads to a shift in polarization and turns out to be the
dominant effect for a wide range of frequencies. We analyze whether this effect
or the decay of photons into axions can explain the large scale anisotropies
which have been observed in the polarizations of quasars and radio galaxies. We
also comment on the possibility that the axion-photon mixing can explain the
dimming of distant supernovae.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur
Photon-axion conversion in intergalactic magnetic fields and cosmological consequences
Photon-axion conversion induced by intergalactic magnetic fields causes an
apparent dimming of distant sources, notably of cosmic standard candles such as
supernovae of type Ia (SNe Ia). We review the impact of this mechanism on the
luminosity-redshift relation of SNe Ia, on the dispersion of quasar spectra,
and on the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background. The original idea of
explaining the apparent dimming of distant SNe Ia without cosmic acceleration
is strongly constrained by these arguments. However, the cosmic equation of
state extracted from the SN Ia luminosity-redshift relation remains sensitive
to this mechanism. For example, it can mimic phantom energy.Comment: (14 pages, 9 eps figures) Contribution to appear in a volume of
Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer-Verlag) on Axion
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