Conceptual design of thermal energy storage systems for near term electric utility applications. Volume 1: Screening of concepts

Over forty thermal energy storage (TES) concepts gathered from the literature and personal contacts were studied for their suitability for the electric utility application of storing energy off-peak discharge during peak hours. Twelve selections were derived from the concepts for screening; they used as storage media high temperature water (HTW), hot oil, molten salts, and packed beds of solids such as rock. HTW required pressure containment by prestressed cast-iron or concrete vessels, or lined underground cavities. Both steam generation from storage and feedwater heating from storage were studied. Four choices were made for further study during the project. Economic comparison by electric utility standard cost practices, and near-term availability (low technical risk) were principal criteria but suitability for utility use, conservation potential, and environmental hazards were considered

Conceptual design of thermal energy storage systems for near term electric utility applications. Volume 2: Appendices - screening of concepts

Volume 2 of this 2 volume report is represented. This volume contains three appendices: (1) bibliography and cross references; (2) taxonomy - proponents and sources; and (3) concept definitions

Modelling Bathymetric Uncertainty

Modelling depth measurement uncertainty during data collection and processing has become common practice since the release of S-44 4th Edition (IHO, 1998). Hydrographic Offices have also attempted to model uncertainty of legacy bathymetry in order to determine their fitness for various uses. Additional uncertainty can be introduced into representative bathymetry models by various gridding techniques that interpolate depths between measurements. This article reviews sources of measurement uncertainty, looks at methods for estimating uncertainty in legacy data sets and uncer-tainty that is introduced into bathymetry (digital elevation/depth) models (DEMs/DDMs) by gridding. Applications that could benefit from bathymetric/DEM/DDM uncertainty information include bridge risk management and tsunami inundation modelling.Keywords: bathymetry, uncertainty, digital elevation modelsLa modelización de la incertidumbre de las medidas de profundidad durante la recogida y el procesa-do de datos se ha convertido en una práctica común desde la publicación de la 4ª Edición de la S-44 (OHI, 1998). Los Servicios Hidrográficos han intentado también modelar la incertidumbre de la batimetría tradicional para determinar su idoneidad para varios usos. Puede introducirse una incerti-dumbre adicional en modelos de batimetría representativos mediante varias técnicas de reticulado que interpolan profundidades entre las medidas. Este artículo revisa las fuentes de incertidumbre en las medidas, estudia métodos para estimar la incertidumbre en las colecciones de datos tradicionales y la incertidumbre que se introduce en modelos de batimetría (elevación digital/profundidad) (DEMs/DDMs) mediante el reticulado. Las aplicaciones que podrían beneficiar de información relativa a una incertidumbre batimétrica/DEM/DDM incluyen la gestión de los riesgos de puente y la modelización de las inundaciones causadas por los tsunamis.Palabras clave: batimetría, incertidumbre, modelos de elevación digitales.La modélisation de l‘incertitude des mesures des profondeurs pendant la collecte et le traitement des données est devenue pratique commune depuis la publication de la 4ème Edition de la S-44 (OHI, 1998). Les Services hydrographiques se sont également efforcés de modéliser l’incertitude de la bathymétrie traditionnelle afin de déterminer leur aptitude à différentes utilisations. Une incertitude supplémentaire peut être introduite dans des modèles de bathymétrie représentatifs au moyen de différentes techniques de quadrillage qui interpolent les profondeurs entre les mesurages. Cet article passe en revue les sources d‘incertitude dans les mesurages, examine les méthodes d‘estimation de l‘incertitude dans les ensembles de données traditionnels et l‘incertitude introduite dans les modèles d‘élévation ou de profondeurs numériques (DEM/DDM) bathymétriques à l‘aide du quadrillage. Les applications qui pourraient bénéficier d‘informations sur l‘incertitude bathymétrique/DEM/DDM incluent la gestion des risques sur la passerelle et la modélisation des inondations en cas de tsunami.Mots clés : bathymétrie, incertitude, modèles d’élévation numérique

Airborne multiwavelength High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2) observations during TCAP 2012 : Vertical profiles of optical and microphysical properties of a smoke/urban haze plume over the northeastern coast of the US

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.We present measurements acquired by the world's first airborne 3 backscatter (β) + 2 extinction (α) High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2). HSRL-2 measures particle backscatter coefficients at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, and particle extinction coefficients at 355 and 532 nm. The instrument has been developed by the NASA Langley Research Center. The instrument was operated during Phase 1 of the Department of Energy (DOE) Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) in July 2012. We observed pollution outflow from the northeastern coast of the US out over the western Atlantic Ocean. Lidar ratios were 50-60 sr at 355 nm and 60-70 sr at 532 nm. Extinction-related Ångström exponents were on average 1.2-1.7, indicating comparably small particles. Our novel automated, unsupervised data inversion algorithm retrieved particle effective radii of approximately 0.2 μm, which is in agreement with the large Ångström exponents. We find good agreement with particle size parameters obtained from coincident in situ measurements carried out with the DOE Gulfstream-1 aircraft.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

In defence of global egalitarianism

This essay argues that David Miller's criticisms of global egalitarianism do not undermine the view where it is stated in one of its stronger, luck egalitarian forms. The claim that global egalitarianism cannot specify a metric of justice which is broad enough to exclude spurious claims for redistribution, but precise enough to appropriately value different kinds of advantage, implicitly assumes that cultural understandings are the only legitimate way of identifying what counts as advantage. But that is an assumption always or almost always rejected by global egalitarianism. The claim that global egalitarianism demands either too little redistribution, leaving the unborn and dissenters burdened with their societies' imprudent choices, or too much redistribution, creating perverse incentives by punishing prudent decisions, only presents a problem for global luck egalitarianism on the assumption that nations can legitimately inherit assets from earlier generations – again, an assumption very much at odds with global egalitarian assumptions

Structural, item, and test generalizability of the psychopathology checklist - revised to offenders with intellectual disabilities

The Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) is the most widely used measure of psychopathy in forensic clinical practice, but the generalizability of the measure to offenders with intellectual disabilities (ID) has not been clearly established. This study examined the structural equivalence and scalar equivalence of the PCL-R in a sample of 185 male offenders with ID in forensic mental health settings, as compared with a sample of 1,212 male prisoners without ID. Three models of the PCL-R’s factor structure were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis. The 3-factor hierarchical model of psychopathy was found to be a good fit to the ID PCL-R data, whereas neither the 4-factor model nor the traditional 2-factor model fitted. There were no cross-group differences in the factor structure, providing evidence of structural equivalence. However, item response theory analyses indicated metric differences in the ratings of psychopathy symptoms between the ID group and the comparison prisoner group. This finding has potential implications for the interpretation of PCL-R scores obtained with people with ID in forensic psychiatric settings

Towards quality control in cancer chemotherapy.

A survey of all hospital pharmacies in the former North Western Regional Health Authority has revealed that hospital personnel continue to prepare cytotoxic drugs in suboptimal conditions, despite the widespread introduction of pharmacy cytotoxic reconstitution services. Other concerns include the lack of formal training for medical staff in the administration of these agents and the frequent absence of written procedures for dealing with extravasation and chemotherapy errors

Bounding the graviton mass with binary pulsar observations

By comparing the observed orbital decay of the binary pulsars PSRB1913+16 and PSRB1534+12 to that predicted by general relativity due to gravitational-wave emission, we are able to bound the mass of the graviton to be less than $7.6\times10^{-20} \text{eV}/c^2$ at 90% confidence. This is the first such bound to be derived from dynamic gravitational fields. It is approximately two orders of magnitude weaker than the static-field bound from solar system observations, and will improve with further observations.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Presented at Fourth Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Perth, 200