39,091 research outputs found
Life cycle energy and carbon analysis of domestic combined heat and power generators
Micro Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) generators combine the benefits of the high-efficiency cogeneration technology and microgeneration and is being promoted as a means of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by decentralizing the power network. Life Cycle Assessment of energy systems is becoming a part of decision making in the energy industry, helping manufacturers promote their low carbon devices, and consumers choose the most environmentally friendly options. This report summarizes a preliminary life-cycle energy and carbon analysis of a wall-hung gas-powered domestic micro-CHP device that is commercially available across Europe. Combining a very efficient condensing boiler with a Stirling engine, the device can deliver enough heat to cover the needs of a typical household (up to 24kW) while generating power (up to 1kW) that can be used locally or sold to the grid. Assuming an annual heat production of 20 MWh, the study has calculated the total embodied energy and carbon emissions over a 15 years operational lifetime at 1606 GJ and 90 tonnes of CO2 respectively. Assuming that such a micro CHP device replaces the most efficient gas-powered condensing boiler for domestic heat production, and the power generated substitutes electricity from the grid, the potential energy and carbon savings are around 5000 MJ/year and 530 kg CO2/year respectively. This implies a payback period of the embodied energy and carbon at 1.32 - 2.32 and 0.75 - 1.35 years respectively. Apart from the embodied energy and carbon and the respective savings, additional key outcomes of the study are the evaluation of the energy intensive phases of the device’s life cycle and the exploration of potential improvements
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Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor Parallaxes For Four Classical Novae
We have used data obtained with the Fine Guidance Sensors on the Hubble Space Telescope to derive precise astrometric parallaxes for four classical novae: V603 Aql, DQ Her, GK Per, and RR Pic. All four objects exceeded the Eddington limit at visual maximum. Re-examination of the original light curve data for V603 Aql and GK Per has led us to conclude that their visual maxima were slightly brighter than commonly assumed. With known distances, we examine the various maximum magnitude-rate of decline relationships that have been established for classical novae. We find that these four objects show a similar level of scatter about these relationships as seen in larger samples of novae whose distances were determined using indirect techniques. We also examine the nebular expansion parallax method and find that it fails for three of the four objects. In each case it was possible to find an explanation for the failure of that technique to give precise distance estimates. DQ Her appears to suffer from an anomalously high extinction when compared to field stars on its sight line. We suggest that this is likely due to local material, which may also be the source of the IRAS detections of this object.NASA from the Space Telescope Science Institute AR12617NASA NAS 5-26555McDonald Observator
The Internal Proper Motions Of Stars In The Open Cluster M35
Relative proper motions, based on 108 orbits of Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor data extending from 1992 to 2006, are reported for 74 stars in the open cluster M35 (NGC 2168). A subset of 22 of these objects are then used to compute the cluster's internal proper motion dispersions in both right ascension and declination. We find that these dispersions are equal to within their measurement errors. The average one-dimensional dispersion is 0.018 +/- 0.002 arcsec century(-1). When combined with the M35 radial velocity dispersion of 0.65 +/- 0.10 km s(-1) found by Geller et al., this produces a cluster distance of 762 +/- 145 pc. Using isochrone fits to the cluster main sequence, this distance suggests that M35 has an age of about 133 Myr. Although this age is consistent with that typically found for M35, the formal error in the dynamical distance of +/- 19% can accommodate ages between 65 Myr and 201 Myr.McDonald Observator
Finite pseudo orbit expansions for spectral quantities of quantum graphs
We investigate spectral quantities of quantum graphs by expanding them as
sums over pseudo orbits, sets of periodic orbits. Only a finite collection of
pseudo orbits which are irreducible and where the total number of bonds is less
than or equal to the number of bonds of the graph appear, analogous to a cut
off at half the Heisenberg time. The calculation simplifies previous approaches
to pseudo orbit expansions on graphs. We formulate coefficients of the
characteristic polynomial and derive a secular equation in terms of the
irreducible pseudo orbits. From the secular equation, whose roots provide the
graph spectrum, the zeta function is derived using the argument principle. The
spectral zeta function enables quantities, such as the spectral determinant and
vacuum energy, to be obtained directly as finite expansions over the set of
short irreducible pseudo orbits.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, typos corrected, references added, vacuum energy
calculation expande
Conjugative transfer frequencies of mef(A)-containing Tn1207.3 to macrolide-susceptible Streptococcus pyogenes belonging to different emm types
The aim of this study was to examine the gene transfer potential of mef(A)-containing Tn120.3 to macrolide-susceptible Streptococcus pyogenes belonging to different emm types. Using the filter mating technique, Tn1207.3 was transferred by conjugation to 23 macrolide-susceptible recipients representing 11 emm types. PCR analysis confirmed the presence of the mef(A) gene and the comEC junction regions of the Tn1207.3 insertion in resultant transconjugants. Significant variation was found in the transfer frequency of Tn1207.3 to different Strep. pyogenes strains, and this phenomenon may contribute to the differences in mef(A) frequency observed among clinical isolates. Significance and Impact of the Study: The spread of antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic bacteria is an important problem, but the mechanisms of horizontal transfer between strains and species are often poorly understood. For instance, little is known on how macrolide resistance spreads between strains of the human pathogen Strep. pyogenes and why certain strains more commonly display resistance than others. Here, we show that Strep. pyogenes strains vary greatly in their ability to acquire a transposon encoding macrolide resistance by horizontal gene transfer in vitro. These data provide a novel insight into the transfer of antibiotic resistance between bacterial strains and offer an explanation for the differences in the frequency of resistance determinates and resistance seen among clinical isolates. © 2014 The Authors Letters in Applied Microbiology
Confinement-induced Berry phase and helicity-dependent photocurrents
The photocurrent in an optically active metal is known to contain a component
that switches sign with the helicity of the incident radiation. At low
frequencies, this current depends on the orbital Berry phase of the Bloch
electrons via the "anomalous velocity" of Karplus and Luttinger. We consider
quantum wells in which the parent material, such as GaAs, is not optically
active and the relevant Berry phase only arises as a result of quantum
confinement. Using an envelope approximation that is supported by numerical
tight-binding results, it is shown that the Berry phase contribution is
determined for realistic wells by a cubic Berry phase intrinsic to the bulk
material, the well width, and the well direction. These results for the
magnitude of the Berry-phase effect suggest that it may already have been
observed in quantum well experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Vacuum Alignment in SUSY A4 Models
In this note we discuss the vacuum alignment in supersymmetric models with
spontaneously broken flavour symmetries in the presence of soft supersymmetry
(SUSY) breaking terms. We show that the inclusion of soft SUSY breaking terms
can give rise to non-vanishing vacuum expectation values (VEVs) for the
auxiliary components of the flavon fields. These non-zero VEVs can have an
important impact on the phenomenology of this class of models, since they can
induce an additional flavour violating contribution to the sfermion soft mass
matrix of right-left (RL) type. We carry out an explicit computation in a class
of SUSY A4 models predicting tri-bimaximal mixing in the lepton sector. The
flavour symmetry breaking sector is described in terms of flavon and driving
supermultiplets. We find non-vanishing VEVs for the auxiliary components of the
flavon fields and for the scalar components of the driving fields which are of
order m_{SUSY} x and m_{SUSY}, respectively. Thereby, m_{SUSY} is the
generic soft SUSY breaking scale which is expected to be around 1 TeV and
is the VEV of scalar components of the flavon fields. Another effect of these
VEVs can be the generation of a mu term.Comment: 23 pages; added a new section on the relation to Supergravity;
version accepted for publication in JHE
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