A Study of the Economic Impact of Water Impoundment Through the Development of a Comparative-Projection Model

Using two established reservoir projects, an economic simulation model for reservoir development was constructed. The two comparative areas used for the model development are both reservoirs in central Texas and were constructed during approximately the same time period. The simulation model divides reservoir development into three stages--Construction, Fill-Up and Post Fill-Up. For each of the stages economic variables were chosen which reflected economic activity attributable to the reservoir. Inputs of construction money, operations and maintenance, recreation and investments were related to each respective stage and then used to determine the economic impact of the reservoir on the local area economy. A synthetic index based on economic inputs other than those used for the model was developed utilizing a control area. The index served as guideline to the mathematical development of the model and as a measure of the predictive accuracy of the model. A recreational survey was conducted at average recreational expenditures and develop the Post Fill-Up Stage of the model. Overall recreational attendance was projected, and to this figure experience ratios of the survey were applied. After the simulation model was developed and applied to two established reservoir projects, it was utilized to generate prediction data for the primary study area. Checks were made on reliability of the data since the primary area is only in the second stage of development. The project data, the results, and recommendations of the study are published as Technical Report No. 8 of the Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M University. Copies of the report have been sent to all persons cooperating and furnishing data for the study

Droplet size and morphology characterization for diesel sprays under atmospheric operating conditions

The shape of microscopic fuel droplets may differ from the perfect sphere, affecting their external surface area and thus the heat transfer with the surrounding gas. Hence there is a need for the characterization of droplet shapes, and the estimation of external surface area, in order to enable the development of physically accurate mathematical models for the heating and evaporation of diesel fuel sprays. We present ongoing work to automat-ically identify and reconstruct the morphology of fuel droplets, primarily focusing in this study on irregularly-shaped, partially-deformed and oscillating droplets under atmospheric conditions. We used direct imaging tech-niques based on long-working distance microscopy and ultra-high-speed video to conduct a detailed temporal investigation of droplet morphology. We applied purpose-built algorithms to extract droplet size, velocity, vol-ume and external surface area from the microscopic ultra-high-speed video frames. High resolution images of oscillating droplets and a formation of a droplet form ligament, sphericity factors, volume as well as external surface area are presented for 500 bar injection pressure in the near nozzle region (up to 0.7 mm from nozzle exit) under atmospheric conditions. We observed a range of different liquid structures, including perfectly spher-ical, non-spherical droplets and stretched ligaments. We found that large droplets and ligaments exceeding the size of the nozzle hole could be found at the end of injection. In order to estimate droplet volume and external surface area from two-dimensional droplet information, a discrete revolution of the droplet silhouette about its major centroidal axis was used. Special attention was paid to the estimation of actual errors in the prediction of volume and surface characteristics from a droplet silhouette. In addition to the estimation of droplet volume and external surface area, the actual shape reconstruction in 3D coordinates from a droplet silhouette was performed in order to enable future numerical modelling studies of real droplets

Using the Computer to Communicate: Creating a Computerized Conferencing System on UNIX

This paper discusses a computerized conferencing system being developed at our institute. The system, which we call Telecenter, is similar to others of its genre; using it one can create conferences, add participants, enter new conference comments, modify old comments, learn who has seen which comments in any given conference, get an overview of one's own status in all one's own conferences, and so forth. Telecenter's current form, however, is not the topic of this paper. What we wish to address here is how and why Telecenter was developed. The "how" has to do with our UNIX operating system and is the subject of Part Two. The "why" has to do with our users and their needs and is addressed in Part One. Regarding both users and UNIX, we have tried to conform to certain general principles recognized by others involved in designing and implementing computerized conferencing systems, office automation and decision support systems. One result, we believe, is that we have made considerable strides with surprisingly few resources. For example, Telecenter itself was created with approximately one man-week's programming effort. This is noteworthy considering the usual requirements for developing such a system. Murray Turoff, a pioneer in the field of computerized conferencing writes in "The Network Nation": "At the moment, most of the (computerized conferencing) systems that have been implemented represent many person-years of programming effort. There is no suitable higher-level language that allows a concise and appropriate specification of a human communication process. All current efforts at using FORTRAN, APL, BASIC, etc. are like describing a picture of the Mona Lisa in words only.... Currently we are beginning to understand the basic functions that characterize conferencing systems and it can be expected that a computer language will evolve that can allow these systems to be created in a few person-months of effort." (Hiltz and Turoff, p. 391) The kind of higher-level language for human communication processes that Turoff speculates about has yet to be invented. Relevant to this statement, however, is the fact that software tools used to construct conferencing systems a few years ago are inferior to tools developed more recently. That Telecenter was made operational so quickly is primarily the result of its having been fashioned under an interactive and comparatively state-of-the-art time-sharing operating system, but it is also partly the result of our attitude toward user needs

The effect of operating conditions on post-injection fuel discharge in an optical engine

After the end of injection, the needle closes and residual fuel present inside the injector sac and orifices is discharged due to the high fluid inertia. This so-called post-injection fuel discharge can present several problems. The excess fuel can undergo incomplete combustion due to its large, slow moving and often surface-bound nature. Not only does this have a negative effect on emissions and performance, but it has been speculated that the by-products of incomplete combustion are implicated in the growth of carbonaceous deposits on the tips of fuel injectors. Accumulation of these deposits is known to lead to premature fuel injector failure that can lead to re-ductions in power output and engine lifetime. Seeing as modern multiple-injection strategies give rise to an in-creased number of transient injection phases, post-injection discharges are an increasingly common occurrence during normal operating conditions. In order to develop a phenomenological model for the fluid dynamics after the end of injection, there is a need to characterise the causes of this discharge and how they might be influenced by engine operating conditions. In this study we present ongoing analysis into results from the first visualisation of post injection fuel discharge at the microscopic level under engine-like operating conditions. We observed the process of fuel discharge for multi-hole injectors, using a high-speed camera fitted with a long-distance micro-scope and a high-speed laser illumination source. We related the effect of a variety of operating conditions on the severity of this process, including injection pressure and in-cylinder pressure along with a characterisation of the dynamics of the various modes by which these undesired liquid structures are produced. We present the different modes by which this process occurs and we conclude that the extent of post-injection discharge depends on both the in-cylinder and injection pressures

An evaluation of combined geophysical and geotechnical methods to characterize beach thickness

Beaches provide sediment stores and have an important role in the development of the coastline in response to climate change. Quantification of beach thickness and volume is required to assess coastal sediment transport budgets. Therefore, portable, rapid, non-invasive techniques are required to evaluate thickness where environmental sensitivities exclude invasive methods. Site methods and data are described for a toolbox of electrical, electromagnetic, seismic and mechanical based techniques that were evaluated at a coastal site at Easington, Yorkshire. Geophysical and geotechnical properties are shown to be dependent upon moisture content, porosity and lithology of the beach and the morphology of the beach–platform interface. Thickness interpretation, using an inexpensive geographic information system to integrate data, allowed these controls and relationships to be understood. Guidelines for efficient site practices, based upon this case history including procedures and techniques, are presented using a systematic approach. Field results indicated that a mixed sand and gravel beach is highly variable and cannot be represented in models as a homogeneous layer of variable thickness overlying a bedrock half-space

Comparison of case note review methods for evaluating quality and safety in health care

Objectives: To determine which of two methods of case note review – holistic (implicit) and criterion-based (explicit) – provides the most useful and reliable information for quality and safety of care, and the level of agreement within and between groups of health-care professionals when they use the two methods to review the same record. To explore the process–outcome relationship between holistic and criterion-based quality-of-care measures and hospital-level outcome indicators. © 2010 Crown Copyrigh

Static And Dynamic Properties Of Fibonacci Multilayers

We theoretically investigate static and dynamic properties of quasiperiodic magnetic multilayers. We considered identical ferromagnetic layers separated by non-magnetic spacers with two different thicknesses chosen based on the Fibonacci sequence. Using parameters for Fe/Cr, the minimum energy was determined and the equilibrium magnetization directions found were used to calculate magnetoresistance curves. Regarding dynamic behavior, ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) curves were calculated using an approximation known from the literature. Our numerical results illustrate the effects of quasiperiodicity on the static and dynamic properties of these structures. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.11317Grünberg, P., Schreiber, R., Pang, Y., Brodsky, M.B., Sowers, H., (1986) Phys. Rev. Lett., 57, p. 2442. , 10.1103/PhysRevLett.57.2442Baibich, M.N., Broto, J.M., Fert, A., Nguyen Van Dau, F., Petroff, F., Etienne, P., Creuzet, G., Chazelas, J., (1988) Phys. Rev. Lett., 61, p. 2472. , 10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.2472Binasch, G., Grünberg, P., Saurenbach, F., Zinn, W., (1989) Phys. Rev. B, 39, p. 4828. , 10.1103/PhysRevB.39.4828Prinz, G.A., (1998) Science, 282, p. 1660. , 10.1126/science.282.5394.1660Kools, J.C.S., (1996) IEEE Trans. Magn., 32, p. 3165. , 10.1109/20.508381Stiles, M.D., Zangwill, A., (2002) Phys. Rev. B, 66, p. 014407. , 10.1103/PhysRevB.66.014407Lakys, Y., Zhao, W.S., Devolder, T., Zhang, Y., Klein, J.O., Ravelosona, D., Chappert, C., (2012) IEEE Trans. Magn., 48, p. 2403. , 10.1109/TMAG.2012.2194790Chaves, R.C., Cardoso, S., Ferreira, R., Freitas, P.P., (2011) J. Appl. Phys, 109, pp. 07E506. , 10.1063/1.3537926Vedyayev, A., Dieny, B., Ryzhanova, N., Genin, J.B., Cowache, C., (1994) Europhys. Lett., 25, p. 465. , 10.1209/0295-5075/25/6/012Albuquerque, E.L., Cottam, M.G., (2004) Polaritons in Periodic and Quasiperiodic Structures, , (Elsevier, Amsterdam)Bezerra, C.G., Albuquerque, E.L., (1997) Physica A, 245, p. 379. , 10.1016/S0378-4371(97)00309-9Bezerra, C.G., De Araujo, J.M., Chesman, C., Albuquerque, E.L., (1999) Phys. Rev. B, 60, p. 9264. , 10.1103/PhysRevB.60.9264Bezerra, C.G., De Araujo, J.M., Chesman, C., Albuquerque, E.L., (2001) J. Appl. Phys., 89, p. 2286. , 10.1063/1.1340600Bezerra, C.G., Cottam, M.G., (2002) J. Magn. Magn. Mater., 240, p. 529. , 10.1016/S0304-8853(01)00838-1Bezerra, C.G., Cottam, M.G., (2002) Phys. Rev. B, 65, p. 054412. , 10.1103/PhysRevB.65.054412Mauriz, P.W., Albuquerque, E.L., Bezerra, C.G., (2002) J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 14, p. 1785. , 10.1088/0953-8984/14/8/308Fullerton, E.E., Conover, M.J., Mattson, J.E., Sowers, C.H., Bader, S.D., (1993) Phys. Rev. B, 48, p. 15755. , 10.1103/PhysRevB.48.15755Machado, L.D., Bezerra, C.G., Correa, M.A., Chesman, C., Pearson, J.E., Hoffmann, A., (2012) Phys. Rev. B, 85, p. 224416. , 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.22441

Dynamic Front Transitions and Spiral-Vortex Nucleation

This is a study of front dynamics in reaction diffusion systems near Nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch bifurcations. We find that the relation between front velocity and perturbative factors, such as external fields and curvature, is typically multivalued. This unusual form allows small perturbations to induce dynamic transitions between counter-propagating fronts and nucleate spiral vortices. We use these findings to propose explanations for a few numerical and experimental observations including spiral breakup driven by advective fields, and spot splitting

Insights into Nuclear Clusters in 28^{28}Si via Resonant Radiative Capture Measurements

International audienceThe heavyion radiative capture reaction 12C(16O,$\gamma$)28Si has been studied at three energies on( ELab = 20.0 and 21.2 MeV) and off( ELab = 20.7 MeV) resonance at Triumf (Vancouver) using the stateoftheart Dragon 0° spectrometer and its very efficient associated BGO $\gamma$ array. Intermediate states around Ex = 11.5 MeV, carrying a large part of the resonant flux have been observed for the first time in this system. The nature of those doorway states is discussed in terms of recently calculated cluster bands in 28Si. The results are compared to a recent similar investigation of the 12C(12C,$\gamma$)24Mg reaction