Re-use of an ontology for modelling urban energy systems

The use of ontologies for the interoperability of software models is widespread, with many applications also in the energy domain. By formulating a shared data structure and a definition of concepts and their properties, a language is created that can be used between modellers and - formalised in an ontology - between model components. When modelling energy systems, connections between different infrastructures are critical, e.g. the interaction between the gas and electricity markets or the need for various infrastructures including power, heat, water and transport in cities. While a commonly shared ontology of energy systems would be highly desirable, the fact is that different existing models or applications already use dedicated ontologies, and have been demonstrated to work well using them. To benefit from linking data sources and connecting models developed with different ontologies, a translation between concepts can be made. In this paper a model of an urban energy system built upon one ontology is initialised using energy transformation technologies defined in another ontology, thus illustrating how this common perspective might benefit researchers in the energy domain. ©2010 IEEE

The Environmental and Macroeconomic Effects of Socially Responsible Investment

We analyze the effects of socially responsible investment and public abatement on environmental quality and the economy in a continuous-time dynamic growth model featuring optimizing households and firms. Environmental quality is modelled as a renewable resource. Consumers can invest in government bonds or firm equity. Since investors feel partly responsible for environmental pollution when holding firm equity, they require a premium on the return to equity. We show that socially responsible investment behaviour by households partially offsets the positive effects on environmental quality of public abatement policies.socially responsible investment, economic growth, environmental economics, resource dynamics, stock market

Project on comparison of structural parameters and electron density maps of oxalic acid dihydrate

Results obtained from four X-ray and five neutron data sets collected under a project sponsored by the Commission on Charge, Spin and Momentum Densities are analyzed by comparison of thermal parameters, positional parameters and X - N electron density maps. Three sets of theoretical calculations are also included in the comparison. Though several chemically significant features are reproduced in all the experimental density maps, differences in detail occur which caution against overinterpretation of the maps. Large differences between vibrational tensor elements Uij are observed which can often not be corrected by the scaling of all temperature parameters in a set. Positional parameters are reproducible to precisions of 0.001 Å or better. The biggest discrepancies between theoretical and experimental deformation density maps occurs in the lone-pair regions where peaks are higher in the theoretical maps. However, this comparison may be affected by inadequacies in the thermal-motion formalism which must be invoked before experimental and theoretical maps can be compared in a quantitative way

Improving water productivity in agriculture in developing economies: in search of new avenues

Water ProductivityCrop productionWheatCottonEvapotranspirationEcnomic aspects

Spacetime Foam, Holographic Principle, and Black Hole Quantum Computers

Spacetime foam, also known as quantum foam, has its origin in quantum fluctuations of spacetime. Arguably it is the source of the holographic principle, which severely limits how densely information can be packed in space. Its physics is also intimately linked to that of black holes and computation. In particular, the same underlying physics is shown to govern the computational power of black hole quantum computers.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX; Talk given by Jack Ng, in celebration of Paul Frampton's 60th birthday, at the Coral Gables Conference (in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on December 17, 2003). To appear in the Proceedings of the 2003 Coral Gables Conferenc

Hydrodynamics with Triangle Anomalies

We consider the hydrodynamic regime of theories with quantum anomalies for global currents. We show that a hitherto discarded term in the conserve current is not only allowed by symmetries, but is in fact required by triangle anomalies and the second law of thermodynamics. This term leads to a number of new effects, one of which is chiral separation in a rotating fluid at nonzero chemical potential. The new kinetic coefficients can be expressed, in a unique fashion, through the anomalies coefficients and the equation of state. We briefly discuss the relevance of this new hydrodynamic term for physical situations, including heavy ion collisions.Comment: 4 pages; v2: error in Eq.(4) correcte