Valuing energy performance in home purchasing: an analysis of mortgage lending for sustainable buildings

Many UK lenders consider energy costs, but only as it relates to information about the customers and not the energy performance of the building. Lenders could include more detailed energy costs estimates that reflect energy performance alongside other ma jor household expenses when assessing customer affordability. At present, energy performance ratings required for all homes sold in the UK are of dubious quality and generally do not accurately reflect the likely energy costs. However, if lenders were to inc lude energy performance in their mortgage calculations this might ha ve the effect of improving the accuracy of energy performance ratings through market pressure. It may also have the consequence of increasing the value of more efficient homes, which would have lower energy costs and improve its affordability for customer s. It may also offer an opportunity for lenders to extend mortgages to improve the dwellings energy performance due to the potential increase in value. In this work, we set out the implications of mortgage lenders using the dwelling’s energy perfo rmance as part of their energy cost calculations. We also illustrate how improving the accuracy of ratings can achieve more precise estimates of energy costs. The implication of includ ing energy performance ratings when providing mortgages could result in £billions for lenders in terms of loan extensions and more accurately property values. It could also help potential purchasers understand the real costs of the properties they purchase

Artificial molecular quantum rings: Spin density functional theory calculations

The ground states of artificial molecules made of two vertically coupled quantum rings are studied within the spin density functional theory for systems containing up to 13 electrons. Quantum tunneling effects on the electronic structure of the coupled rings are analyzed. For small ring radius, our results recover those of coupled quantum dots. For intermediate and large ring radius, new phases are found showing the formation of new diatomic artificial ring molecules. Our results also show that the tunneling induced phase transitions in the coupled rings occur at much smaller tunneling energy as compared to those for coupled quantum dot systems.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

On the generalized continuity equation

A generalized continuity equation extending the ordinary continuity equation has been found using quanternions. It is shown to be compatible with Dirac, Schrodinger, Klein-Gordon and diffusion equations. This generalized equation is Lorentz invariant. The transport properties of electrons are found to be governed by Schrodinger-like equation and not by the diffusion equation.Comment: 9 Latex pages, no figure

Nondestructive Evaluation of Graphite/Epoxy Composite Damage

Ultrasonic and acoustic emission techniques were used to monitor and evaluate material damage in a graphite/epoxy laminate containing a machined hole as an initial flaw and subjected to fully reversed spectrum fatigue loading at room temperature. It was found that the flaw growth progressed radially around the initial hole at a uniform rate during cycling at the lower stress levels. At the higher levels, material damage accelerated dramatically, progressing faster in the transverse direction toward the free edges. By close examination of the A-scan and RF spectrum photographs, it was determined that damage modes could be defined as to their extent and relative location within the specimen. These conclusions were supported by photographs of the failed specimen

Individual Nurse Productivity in Preparing Patients for Discharge Is Associated with Patient Likelihood of 30-Day Return to Hospital

Objective: Applied to value-based health care, the economic term “individual productivity” refers to the quality of an outcome attributable through a care process to an individual clinician. This study aimed to (1) estimate and describe the discharge preparation productivities of individual acute care nurses and (2) examine the association between the discharge preparation productivity of the discharging nurse and the patient’s likelihood of a 30-day return to hospital [readmission and emergency department (ED) visits]. Research Design: Secondary analysis of patient-nurse data from a cluster-randomized multisite study of patient discharge readiness and readmission. Patients reported discharge readiness scores; postdischarge outcomes and other variables were extracted from electronic health records. Using the structure-process-outcomes model, we viewed patient readiness for hospital discharge as a proximal outcome of the discharge preparation process and used it to measure nurse productivity in discharge preparation. We viewed hospital return as a distal outcome sensitive to discharge preparation care. Multilevel regression analyses used a split-sample approach and adjusted for patient characteristics. Subjects: A total 522 nurses and 29,986 adult (18+ y) patients discharged to home from 31 geographically diverse medical-surgical units between June 15, 2015 and November 30, 2016. Measures: Patient discharge readiness was measured using the 8-item short form of Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale (RHDS). A 30-day hospital return was a categorical variable for an inpatient readmission or an ED visit, versus no hospital return. Results: Variability in individual nurse productivity explained 9.07% of variance in patient discharge readiness scores. Nurse productivity was negatively associated with the likelihood of a readmission (−0.48 absolute percentage points, P\u3c0.001) and an ED visit (−0.29 absolute percentage points, P=0.042). Conclusions: Variability in individual clinician productivity can have implications for acute care quality patient outcomes

Optical properties of high quality Cu2ZnSnSe4 thin films

Cu2ZnSnSe4 thin films, fabricated on bare or molybdenum coated glass substrates by magnetron sputtering and selenisation, were studied by a range of techniques. Photoluminescence spectra reveal an excitonic peak and two phonon replicas of a donor-acceptor pair (DAP) recombination. Its acceptor and donor ionisation energies are 27 and 7 meV, respectively. This demonstrates that high-quality Cu2ZnSnSe4 thin films can be fabricated. An experimental value for the longitudinal optical phonon energy of 28 meV was estimated. The band gap energy of 1.01 eV at room temperature was determined using optical absorption spectr

Dirichlet sigma models and mean curvature flow

The mean curvature flow describes the parabolic deformation of embedded branes in Riemannian geometry driven by their extrinsic mean curvature vector, which is typically associated to surface tension forces. It is the gradient flow of the area functional, and, as such, it is naturally identified with the boundary renormalization group equation of Dirichlet sigma models away from conformality, to lowest order in perturbation theory. D-branes appear as fixed points of this flow having conformally invariant boundary conditions. Simple running solutions include the paper-clip and the hair-pin (or grim-reaper) models on the plane, as well as scaling solutions associated to rational (p, q) closed curves and the decay of two intersecting lines. Stability analysis is performed in several cases while searching for transitions among different brane configurations. The combination of Ricci with the mean curvature flow is examined in detail together with several explicit examples of deforming curves on curved backgrounds. Some general aspects of the mean curvature flow in higher dimensional ambient spaces are also discussed and obtain consistent truncations to lower dimensional systems. Selected physical applications are mentioned in the text, including tachyon condensation in open string theory and the resistive diffusion of force-free fields in magneto-hydrodynamics.Comment: 77 pages, 21 figure

Spatial soliton robustness against spatially anisotropic phase perturbations

We demonstrate experimentally that spatial solitons in AlGaAs waveguides are resilient against spatially anisotropic perturbations in their phase caused by introducing a wedge in the soliton propagation path. In agreement with numerical simulations, the solitons maintained their initial beam shape and width, independent of the fraction of the soliton beam intercepted by the wedge