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Cars and Chargers in the Country: Rural PEV Owner Accounts of Charging and Travel in California
Under the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) rule, California must move to 100% zero emission vehicle (ZEV) sales by 2035. Tomake this transition equitable, it is important to understand how we can support ZEV adoption in all communities–including rural communities. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences and perceptions of current rural plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners, identify barriers to charging and ownership, and suggest factors to guide the development of infrastructure in rural areas. (PEVs include battery-electric vehicles [BEVs] and plug-in hybrid vehicles.) Semi-structured interviews were conducted with rural PEV owners and included questions related to travel behavior, at-home and public charging experiences, and motivation for household vehicle purchase. Major themes were extracted from the interviews including that PHEV owners tend to have minimal at-home and public charging requirements, while BEV owners require access to Level 2 charging at home and reliable fast charging in public spaces. Additionally, the magnitude of public charging reliability and availability issues appear to be greater in rural than non-rural areas. Grid reliability issues and specific vehicle requirements were also points of discussion among rural PEV owners. The findings of this report could inform policy makers, car manufacturers, and PEV charging companies to better serve rural communities in the transition to 100% PEV sales
LODE: Linking Open Descriptions of Events
People conventionally refer to an action or occurrence taking place at a certain time at a specific location as an event. This notion is potentially useful for connecting individual facts recorded in the rapidly growing collection of linked data sets and for discovering more complex
relationships between data. In this paper, we provide an overview and comparison of existing event models, looking at the different choices they make of how to represent events. We describe a model for publishing records of events as Linked Data. We present tools for populating this
model and a prototype "event directory" web service, which can be used to locate stable URIs for events that have occurred, provide RDFS+OWL descriptions and link to related resources
The development of a new measure of quality of life for children with congenital cardiac disease
The purpose of the study was to develop a questionnaire measuring health-related R1 quality of life for children and adolescents with congenital heart disease, the ConQol, that would have both clinical and research applications. We describe here the process of construction of a questionnaire, the piloting and the development of a weighted scoring system, and data on the psychometric performance of the measure in a sample of 640 children and young people recruited via 6 regional centres for paediatric cardiology from across the United Kingdom. The ConQol has two versions, one designed for children aged from 8 to 11 years, and the other for young people aged from 12 to 16 years. Initial findings suggest that it is a valid and reliable instrument, is acceptable to respondents, and is simple to administer in both a research and clinical context
Vocabularies for description of accessibility issues in multimodal user interfaces
In previous work, we proposed a unified approach for describing multimodal human-computer interaction and interaction constraints in terms of sensual, motor, perceptual and cognitive functions of users. In this paper, we extend this work by providing formalised vocabularies that express human functionalities and anatomical structures required by specific modalities. The central theme of our approach is to connect these modality representations with descriptions of user, device and environmental constraints that influence the interaction. These descriptions can then be used in a reasoning framework that will exploit formal connections among interaction modalities and constraints. The focus of this paper is on specifying a comprehensive vocabulary of necessary concepts. Within the context of an interaction framework, we describe a number of examples that use this formalised knowledge
Vocabularies for description of accessibility issues in multimodal user interfaces
In previous work, we proposed a unified approach for describing multimodal human-computer interaction and interaction constraints in terms of sensual, motor, perceptual and cognitive functions of users. In this paper, we extend this work by providing formalised vocabularies that express human functionalities and anatomical structures required by specific modalities. The central theme of our approach is to connect these modality representations with descriptions of user, device and environmental constraints that influence the interaction. These descriptions can then be used in a reasoning framework that will exploit formal connections among interaction modalities and constraints. The focus of this paper is on specifying a comprehensive vocabulary of necessary concepts. Within the context of an interaction framework, we describe a number of examples that use this formalised knowledge
Stabilisation of short-wavelength instabilities by parallel-to-the-field shear in long-wavelength flows
Magnetised plasma turbulence can have a multiscale character: instabilities
driven by mean temperature gradients drive turbulence at the disparate scales
of the ion and the electron gyroradii. Simulations of multiscale turbulence,
using equations valid in the limit of infinite scale separation, reveal novel
cross-scale interaction mechanisms in these plasmas. In the case that both
long-wavelength (ion-gyroradius-scale) and short-wavelength
(electron-gyroradius-scale) linear instabilities are driven far from marginal
stability, we show that the short-wavelength instabilities are suppressed by
interactions with long-wavelength turbulence. The observed suppression is a
result of two effects: parallel-to-the-field-line shearing by the long
wavelength flows, and the modification of the
background density gradient by long-wavelength fluctuations. In contrast,
simulations of multiscale turbulence where instabilities at both scales are
driven near marginal stability demonstrate that when the long-wavelength
turbulence is sufficiently collisional and zonally dominated the effect of
cross-scale interaction can be parameterised solely in terms of the local
modifications to the mean density and temperature gradients. We discuss
physical arguments that qualitatively explain how a change in equilibrium drive
leads to the observed transition in the impact of the cross-scale interactions.Comment: 20 pages, 28 figure
The heavy fermion damping rate puzzle
: We examine again the problem of the damping rate of a moving heavy fermion
in a hot plasma within the resummed perturbative theory of Pisarski and
Braaten. The ansatz for its evaluation which relates it to the imaginary part
of the fermion propagator pole in the framework of a self-consistent approach
is critically analyzed. As already pointed out by various authors, the only way
to define the rate is through additional implementation of magnetic screening.
We show in detail how the ansatz works in this case and where we disagree with
other authors. We conclude that the self-consistent approach is not
satisfactory.Comment: 17 page
Urban agriculture in shared spaces : the difficulties with collaboration in an age of austerity
The expanding critical literature on Urban Agriculture (UA) makes links between the withdrawal of state services and the institutionalisation of volunteering, while observing that
challenging funding landscapes can foster competitive environments between third sector organisations. Where these organisations are forced to compete for survival at the expense of collaboration, their ability to collectively upscale and expand beneficial activities can be compromised. This paper focuses on a lottery-funded UA project and draws predominantly on observations and interviews held with project staff and growing group volunteers. Research conducted in Wythenshawe, Manchester (UK), highlights difficulties experienced by
organisations attempting to function in an environment disfigured by depletion, illustrating conflicts that can arise between community groups and charitable organisations competing for space and resources. Inter-organisational dynamics are considered at two scales; at the grassroots level between growing groups, and at a structural level between project partners. In a landscape scarred by local authority cutbacks and restructures, a dearth of funding
opportunities and increasingly precarious employment, external initiatives can be met with suspicion or hostility, particularly when viewed as superfluous interventions. The resulting “siege mentality” reflects the need for organisational self-preservation but perhaps paradoxically results in groups with similar goals and complementary ideologies working against each other rather than in cooperation.
Keywords: Urban Agriculture; critical geography; neoliberalism; community growing; urban farmin
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