Capillary condenser/evaporator

A heat transfer device is disclosed for transferring heat to or from a fluid that is undergoing a phase change. The heat transfer device includes a liquid-vapor manifold in fluid communication with a capillary structure thermally connected to a heat transfer interface, all of which are disposed in a housing to contain the vapor. The liquid-vapor manifold transports liquid in a first direction and conducts vapor in a second, opposite direction. The manifold provides a distributed supply of fluid (vapor or liquid) over the surface of the capillary structure. In one embodiment, the manifold has a fractal structure including one or more layers, each layer having one or more conduits for transporting liquid and one or more openings for conducting vapor. Adjacent layers have an increasing number of openings with decreasing area, and an increasing number of conduits with decreasing cross-sectional area, moving in a direction toward the capillary structure

All-metal, compact heat exchanger for space cryocoolers

This report describes the development of a high performance, all metal compact heat exchanger. The device is designed for use in a reverse Brayton cryogenic cooler which provides five watts of refrigeration at 70 K. The heat exchanger consists of a stainless steel tube concentrically assembled within a second stainless steel tube. Approximately 300 pairs of slotted copper disks and matching annular slotted copper plates are positioned along the centerline axis of the concentric tubes. Each of the disks and plates has approximately 1200 precise slots machined by means of a special electric discharge process. Positioning of the disk and plate pairs is accomplished by means of dimples in the surface of the tubes. Mechanical and thermal connections between the tubes and plate/disk pairs are made by solder joints. The heat exchanger assembly is 9 cm in diameter by 50 cm in length and has a mass of 10 kg. The predicted thermal effectiveness is greater than 0.985 at design conditions. Pressure loss at design conditions is less than 5 kPa in both fluid passages. Tests were performed on a subassembly of plates integrally soldered to two end headers. The measured thermal effectiveness of the test article exceeded predicted levels. Pressure losses were negligibly higher than predictions

La mediación en la contratación de seguros

El Anteproyecto de Ley del Código Mercantil de 2014 regula la mediación en la contratación de seguros desde una perspectiva parcial, abordando únicamente la actividad derivada de los contratos de mediación, ya sea en la modalidad de agencia ya sea en la de correduría de seguros. Dedicamos este trabajo al estudio, también, del aspecto subjetivo de tal actividad, el de los protagonistas de la mediación en seguros privados. Junto a su régimen general, aplicable tanto a la agencia como a la correduría, nos centramos en la especificidad de cada modalidad, tomando en consideración asimismo no sólo la relación contractual que les une a la entidad aseguradora (y en el caso del corredor, también al cliente) sino también la especialidad del agente de seguros con naturaleza crediticia (el operador de banca-seguros). Referencia destacada merece la doble posibilidad de vinculación contractual del agente de seguros (y del operador de banca-seguros) con una o varias entidades de seguros, con el calificativo añadido de exclusivo o vinculado, respectivamente

Cognitive Linguistics and the Law

Cognitive Linguistics (CL) believes that the study of language can be informative with regards to human thought processes. If language is built on top of more basic, non-­‐‑linguistic cognitive skills, then some of the mechanisms behind language must surely also be used in other areas of cognition. This means that some of the explanations proposed by CL could help us clarify aspects of human behavior that go well beyond language. The present work is an attempt at looking at a number of mechanisms used in CL to explain language, and see how they shed light on one specific human area: that of our current legal system. The claim is that the processes that constitute our legal systems can be seen from a fresh perspective and can probably be better understood using some of the insights of cognitive linguistics. We will focus preferentially on mechanisms such as categorization processes, the windowing of attention, and framing strategies, including the use of metaphors

Doing justice: sentencing practices in Scottish sheriff courts

This thesis is an examination of the sentencing practices of judges (known as Sheriffs) in criminal cases heard in the Scottish sheriff courts. Despite the importance of sentencing, there is little knowledge of how exactly Sheriffs deal with cases. In particular, little is known about why and in which cases they decide that a custodial sentence is appropriate in the context of summary court proceedings. This research aims to understand the rationales behind the Sheriffs’ sentencing practice and, through this exploration, tries to examine how Sheriffs currently understand their role as sentencers. To achieve this objective, I negotiated access with the Scottish Judiciary which allowed me to carry out my fieldwork during the winter of 2016/2017. I interviewed, observed and shadowed 16 Sheriffs in 14 different Sheriff Courts throughout the country. The observation entailed shadowing the Sheriffs during what is called the ‘remand court’(RC). This is a day where they deal with all the criminal business - most of it on summary procedure - concerning sentencing diets. By the end of my fieldwork, I had observed Sheriffs dealing with more than 400 cases. One of the key findings was to confirm the perception that different Sheriffs have distinctive sentencing styles. However, I also found that there were structural legal and non-legal factors that partially explained those differences. Critically, my findings stressed how the Sheriffs' practices are shaped by the distinctive local realities in which they practice. This contextualization of sentencing practices allowed me to explore how different social, economic and geographical differences impacted the Sheriffs’ decision-making. Furthermore, through the observation of the Sheriffs in court and in their chambers, I was able to describe the routines behind sentencing practices. This allowed me to explore at which stages of these routines the Sheriffs’ decision-making begins to differ from one another. As a consequence, I was able to outline two models of sentencing practices. The first one is a depiction of the observable stages of the sentencing process. The second one is related to the fundamental questions the Sheriff faces during the individualisation of punishment which allow us to highlight at which moment the different sentencing styles emerge

Looking at metaphors: a picture-word priming task as a test for the existence of conceptual metaphor

Since 1987 a number of scholars have investigated the conceptualization of anger in several linguistic studies (Lakoff & Koveckes 1987, King, 1989, Matsuki, 1995). In their research, a body of conceptual metaphors have been identified that are supposed to structure the way we think about the emotion. In this paper, we evaluate the claim that conceptual metaphors are stable structures in the speakers’ minds (Murphy 1996; Lakoff & Kövecses 1980; Glucksberg & McGlone 1999). The present experiment was designed to investigate the use of conceptual metaphors by speakers of peninsular Spanish in relation to the emotion concept ANGER. The study evaluates the claim that conceptual metaphors are stable and automatic cross-domain conceptual projections in the speaker’s minds (Lakoff, 1993: 227-228, 245). Specifically, we examine the participation of domains like HOT FLUID or PRESSURIZED CONTAINER in the processing of anger expressions. Our specific goal is to study whether the activation of such source domains facilitates the recognition of anger words in a categorization task. In order to test this, a priming experiment was conducted in which subjects had to perform a categorization task after being exposed to an image. When the image was related to the source domain of an angerrelated conceptual metaphor (Lakoff & Kövecses, 1987, Soriano, 2005), the emotion was more easily identified in the subsequent task than it was after an unrelated image

Advanced interface heat exchangers for the Space Station main thermal bus

Future evolution and growth of the Space Station will place increasing demands on the thermal management system by the addition of new payloads and from increased activity in the habitat modules. To meet this need, Creare is developing advanced evaporators, condensors, and single-phase heat exchangers for operation in microgravity. The objective is to achieve a several-fold increase in the heat flux capability of these components, while operating at the same temperature difference as specified for the present interface heat exchangers. Two prototype interface heat exchangers are presently being developed: one to interface the main thermal bus to a payload two-phase ammonia bus, and the other, to interface with the crew module single-phase water loop. The results achieved to date in the development of these heat exchangers are reviewed

Implementation in MATLAB of a Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter for live estimation of a smart device's attitude

Volume 54, Issue 12This work introduces the tools used to teach the Kalman Filter (KF) to Aerospace Engineering students in the University of Seville. In particular, an easy-to-set-up application is introduced; based on the Matlab framework on its 2020b (or newer versions), it is able to display the attitude of a smart device in real time through a wireless connection to a computer. This tool is a simple yet powerful educative resource when teaching about the KF, since it showcases its performance while allowing the student to understand how a complex real-world problem can be solved using a relatively simple implementation of the KF; in particular, the Multiplicative Extended KF (MEKF) is chosen, but the framework can be easily adapted to other versions such as the Extended or Unscented KF. In addition, the tool allows the student to be aware of the inner workings of the filter itself, learning about its advantages and limitations compared with other attitude estimation algorithms. The student is also able to understand how the filter needs to be tuned, and to observe the results of the experiments in a visual and straightforward manner.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICIN). España PGC2018-100680-B-C2