HD 4915: A Maunder Minimum Candidate

We study the magnetic activity cycle of HD 4915 using the \ion{Ca}{2} H \& K emission line strengths measured by Keck I/HIRES spectrograph. The star has been observed as a part of California Planet Search Program from 2006 to present. We note decreasing amplitude in the magnetic activity cycle, a pattern suggesting the star's entry into a Magnetic Grand Minimum (MGM) state, reminiscent of the Sun's Maunder and Dalton Minima. We recommend further monitoring of the star to confirm the grand minimum nature of the dynamo, which would provide insight into the state of the Sun's chromosphere and the global magnetic field during its grand minima. We also recommend continued observations of H \& K emission lines, and ground or space based photometric observations to estimate the sunspot coverage.Comment: To be submitted to AAS Journals; comments welcom

BioScript: programming safe chemistry on laboratories-on-a-chip

This paper introduces BioScript, a domain-specific language (DSL) for programmable biochemistry which executes on emerging microfluidic platforms. The goal of this research is to provide a simple, intuitive, and type-safe DSL that is accessible to life science practitioners. The novel feature of the language is its syntax, which aims to optimize human readability; the technical contributions of the paper include the BioScript type system and relevant portions of its compiler. The type system ensures that certain types of errors, specific to biochemistry, do not occur, including the interaction of chemicals that may be unsafe. The compiler includes novel optimizations that place biochemical operations to execute concurrently on a spatial 2D array platform on the granularity of a control flow graph, as opposed to individual basic blocks. Results are obtained using both a cycle-accurate microfluidic simulator and a software interface to a real-world platform

Heat Pumps and Their Role in Decarbonising Heating Sector: A Comprehensive Review. ESRI WP628, June 2019

Household appliances represent significant load demand within the domestic electricity market, and therefore present considerable challenges for grid managers, specifically during peak demand periods. This paper presents the results of a statistically representative study of Irish households, undertaken specifically to assess peak period domestic appliance use, with respect to time of use and the socio-economic characteristics of the users. Specific attention is devoted to both an analysis of appliance use patterns, and to the likelihood of individuals using such appliances during the evening peak period, with respect to socio-economic characteristics. Results highlight the presence of potentially deferrable load associated with domestic appliances within the evening peak. Findings from both logit and zero-inflated negative binomial models provide insights into differences in appliance use patterns with regard to employment status, household size, the number of individuals present in the home during the day, and respondents' income. These results highlight the possibility of either targeted marketing campaigns to encourage appliance deferral to periods of lesser demand, or direct load control to reduce peak period appliance demand. In particular, both engagement in full time employment and number of household members present in the home during the day, are found to be significant predictors of whether or not a given household is a peak period appliance user. This suggests that there is scope for automated or remote appliance control to reduce peak period load without adversely impacting consumers. In contrast, household size and income emerge as predictors of the number of appliance use events that occur during the evening peak period