CHANGE AND CONFLICT IN LAND AND WATER USE: RESOURCE VALUATION IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION AMONG COMPETING USERS

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

COASTAL ALABAMA RECREATIONAL LIVE BAIT STUDY

Recreational fishing is major industry and reasonably priced, high quality bait plays an important role in sustaining recreational fishing's popularity. This study provides a summary of Alabama's coastal live bait market including information on previous live bait studies and results of two surveys on the live bait shrimp, bull minnow and other bait markets. Results indicated there were periods of supply shortages, dealer willingness to pay more for shrimp that live longer and a dealers' use of multiple supply sources. Lost income was reported from not having live bait shrimp available for sale at peak demand periods. The economics of shrimp mariculture needs to be examined to determine its feasibility in augmenting the current supply of shrimp to the live bait industry.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Identification of vortexes obstructing the dynamo mechanism in laboratory experiments

The magnetohydrodynamic dynamo effect explains the generation of self-sustained magnetic fields in electrically conducting flows, especially in geo- and astrophysical environments. Yet the details of this mechanism are still unknown, e.g., how and to which extent the geometry, the fluid topology, the forcing mechanism and the turbulence can have a negative effect on this process. We report on numerical simulations carried out in spherical geometry, analyzing the predicted velocity flow with the so-called Singular Value Decomposition, a powerful technique that allows us to precisely identify vortexes in the flow which would be difficult to characterize with conventional spectral methods. We then quantify the contribution of these vortexes to the growth rate of the magnetic energy in the system. We identify an axisymmetric vortex, whose rotational direction changes periodically in time, and whose dynamics are decoupled from those of the large scale background flow, is detrimental for the dynamo effect. A comparison with experiments is carried out, showing that similar dynamics were observed in cylindrical geometry. These previously unexpected eddies, which impede the dynamo effect, offer an explanation for the experimental difficulties in attaining a dynamo in spherical geometry.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physics of Fluid

Analysis and Design of 3-Phase Unfolding Based AC-DC Battery Chargers

This thesis presents the analysis and design of high-efficiency battery chargers for heavy duty EV applications. The rise in popularity of the electric vehicles (EVs) due to their increased efficiency over conventional internal combustion engines, has driven the need for more battery charging infrastructure. Furthermore, heavy duty vehicles are also being converted to electric to fill needs such as public transportation via bus fleets as well as cargo delivery via semi-trucks. Such heavy duty vehicles require more energy than personal transportation vehicles and thus require larger battery packs. To charge heavy duty battery packs in the same amount of time as the typical EV, higher power chargers are required. Energy is distributed through the grid network, and a battery charger is converts the grid power into a regulated output for battery charging. The novel battery charging designs investigated in this thesis are classified differently than traditional designs because they have fewer switching stages to convert the power. The unique approach taken allows these designs to have higher efficiency overall than a traditional battery charger design. The new converter designs are refereed to as the three-level (3L) asymmetrical full bridge (3LAFB)and 3L asymmetrical dual active bridge (3LADAB). The operation of each converter is briefly discussed to help develop context for the hardware and controller designs. The controller design for the 3LAFB topology is developed to explain the control objectives of the 3-port dc-dc converter. Hardware results prototype designs are presented to validate proposed chargers and controller designs. A high power extreme fast charger (XFC) structure is proposed using multiple lower power modules. The high-efficiency design of a single module is presented and hardware results are given

Hydrogen Two-Photon Continuum Emission from the Horseshoe Filament in NGC 1275

Far ultraviolet emission has been detected from a knot of Halpha emission in the Horseshoe filament, far out in the NGC 1275 nebula. The flux detected relative to the brightness of the Halpha line in the same spatial region is very close to that expected from Hydrogen two-photon continuum emission in the particle heating model of Ferland et al. (2009) if reddening internal to the filaments is taken into account. We find no need to invoke other sources of far ultraviolet emission such as hot stars or emission lines from CIV in intermediate temperature gas to explain these data.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

RELATING FARM AND OPERATOR CHARACTERISTICS TO MULTIPLE GOALS

Farm Management,