8,531 research outputs found
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Greenhouse Gas Reduction Opportunities for Local Governments: A Quantification and Prioritization Framework
Local governments have steadily increased their initiative to address global climate change, and many present their proposed strategies through climate action plans (CAPs). This study conducts a literature review on current local approaches to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction strategies by assessing CAPs in California and presents common strategies in the transportation sector along with useful tools. One identified limitation of many CAPs is the omission of quantitative economic cost and emissions data for decision-making on the basis of cost-effectiveness. Therefore, this study proposes a framework for comparing strategies based on their life cycle emissions mitigation potential and costs. The results data can be presented in a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) to allow for side-by-side comparison of considered strategies. Researchers partnered with Yolo and Unincorporated Los Angeles Counties to analyze 7 strategies in the transportation and energy sectors (five and two, respectively). A MACC was subsequently developed for each county. Applying the life cycle approach revealed strategies that had net cost savings over their life cycle, indicating there are opportunities for reducing emissions and costs. The MACC also revealed that some emissions reduction strategies in fact increased emissions on a life cycle basis. Applying the MACC framework to two case study jurisdictions illustrated both the feasibility and challenges of including quantitative analysis in their decision-making process. An additional barrier to using the MACC framework in the context of CAPs, is the mismatch between a life cycle and annual accounting basis for GHG emissions. Future work could explore more efficient data collection, alternative scopes of emissions for reporting, and environmental justice concerns.View the NCST Project Webpag
Transport on randomly evolving trees
The time process of transport on randomly evolving trees is investigated. By
introducing the notions of living and dead nodes a model of random tree
evolution is constructed which describes the spreading in time of objects
corresponding to nodes. By using the method of the age-dependent branching
processes we derive the joint distribution function of the number of living and
dead nodes, and determine the correlation between these node numbers as a
function of time. Also analyzed are the stochastic properties of the end-nodes;
and the correlation between the numbers of living and dead end-nodes is shown
to change its character suddenly at the very beginning of the evolution
process. The survival probability of random trees is investigated and
expressions are derived for this probability.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, published in Phys. Rev. E 72, 051101 (2005
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The identification and psychological treatment of panic disorder in adolescents: a survey of CAMHS clinicians
Background
Panic disorder is experienced by around 1% of adolescents, and has a significant impact on social and academic functioning. Preliminary evidence supports the effectiveness of panic disorder specific treatment in adolescents with panic disorder, however panic disorder may be overlooked in adolescents due to overlapping symptoms with other anxiety disorders and other difficulties being more noticeable to others. The aim of this study was to establish what training National Health Service (NHS) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) clinicians have received in psychological therapies and panic disorder and how they identify and treat panic disorder in adolescents.
Method
CAMHS clinicians from a range of professions (n = 427), who were delivering psychological treatments to children and adolescents with anxiety disorders, participated. They completed a cross-sectional, online survey, including a vignette describing an adolescent with panic disorder, and were asked to identify the main diagnosis or presenting problem.
Results
Less than half the clinicians (48.6%) identified panic disorder or panic symptoms as the main presenting problem from the vignette. The majority of clinicians suggested CBT would be their treatment approach. However, few identified an evidence-based treatment protocol for working with young people with panic disorder. Almost half the sample had received no training in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and around a fifth had received no training in delivering psychological treatments.
Conclusions
Only half of CAMHS clinicians identified panic disorder from a vignette and although CBT treatments are widely offered, only a minority of adolescents with panic disorder are receiving treatments developed for, and evaluated with young people with panic disorder. There is a vital need for clinician training, the use of tools that aid identification and the implementation of evidence-based treatments within CAMHS
Acceleration Profiles and Processing Methods for Parabolic Flight
Parabolic flights provide cost-effective, time-limited access to "weightless"
or reduced gravity conditions experienced in space or on planetary surfaces,
e.g. the Moon or Mars. These flights facilitate fundamental research - from
materials science to space biology - and testing/validation activities that
support and complement infrequent and costly access to space. While parabolic
flights have been conducted for decades, reference acceleration profiles and
processing methods are not widely available - yet are critical for assessing
the results of these activities. Here we present a method for collecting,
analyzing, and classifying the altered gravity environments experienced during
a parabolic flight. We validated this method using a commercially available
accelerometer during a Boeing 727-200F flight with parabolas. All data and
analysis code are freely available. Our solution can be easily integrated with
a variety of experimental designs, does not depend upon accelerometer
orientation, and allows for unsupervised and repeatable classification of all
phases of flight, providing a consistent and open-source approach to
quantifying gravito-intertial accelerations (GIA), or levels. As academic,
governmental, and commercial use of space increases, data availability and
validated processing methods will enable better planning, execution, and
analysis of parabolic flight experiments, and thus, facilitate future space
activities.Comment: Correspondence to C.E. Carr ([email protected]). 15 pages, 4 figures, 3
supplemental figures. Code: https://github.com/CarrCE/zerog, Dataset:
https://osf.io/nk2w4
Antimicrobial Susceptibilities of Aerobic Isolates from Respiratory Samples of Young New Zealand Horses
3rd Annual IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2011, Phoenix, AZ, 17-22 September 2011This paper presents a method of mitigating the transient overshoots of DC-DC converters operating with large load disturbances. The method involves a small auxiliary power circuit with a complementary control scheme that provides a smooth absorption and release of excess energy from and to the main DC-DC converter in the events of large load changes. This control mechanism interactively mitigates the large transient overshoots which would otherwise appear at the converter output. Since the control scheme involves an adjustable-energy-storage feature, the proposed solution is effective for any level of step-load change within a pre-specified range.Department of Electronic and Information EngineeringRefereed conference pape
Antimicrobial Susceptibilities of Aerobic Isolates from Respiratory Samples of Young New Zealand Horses
New, nearby bright southern ultracool dwarfs
We report the discovery of twenty-one hitherto unknown bright southern
ultracool dwarfs with spectral types in the range M7 to L5.5, together with new
observations of a further three late M dwarfs previously confirmed. Three more
objects are already identified in the literature as high proper motion stars;we
derive their spectral types for the first time. All objects were selected from
the 2MASS All Sky and SuperCOSMOS point source databases on the basis of their
optical/near-infrared colours, -band magnitudes and proper motions. Low
resolution (R 1000) spectroscopy with the ESO/NTT SOFI spectrograph
has confirmed the ultracool nature of 24 targets, out of a total of 25
candidates observed. Spectral types are derived by direct comparison with
template objects and compared to results from HO and FeH indices. We also
report the discovery of one binary, as revealed by SOFI acquisition imaging;
spectra were taken for both components. The spectral types of the two
components are L2 and L4 and the distance 19 pc. Spectroscopic distances
and transverse velocities are derived for the sample. Two L5 objects lie
only 10 pc distant. Such nearby objects are excellent targets for
further study to derive their parallaxes and to search for fainter, later
companions with AO and/or methane imaging.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted to MNRA
Drying and cracking mechanisms in a starch slurry
Starch-water slurries are commonly used to study fracture dynamics. Drying
starch-cakes benefit from being simple, economical, and reproducible systems,
and have been used to model desiccation fracture in soils, thin film fracture
in paint, and columnar joints in lava. In this paper, the physical properties
of starch-water mixtures are studied, and used to interpret and develop a
multiphase transport model of drying. Starch-cakes are observed to have a
nonlinear elastic modulus, and a desiccation strain that is comparable to that
generated by their maximum achievable capillary pressure. It is shown that a
large material porosity is divided between pore spaces between starch grains,
and pores within starch grains. This division of pore space leads to two
distinct drying regimes, controlled by liquid and vapor transport of water,
respectively. The relatively unique ability for drying starch to generate
columnar fracture patterns is shown to be linked to the unusually strong
separation of these two transport mechanisms.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures [revised in response to reviewer comments
Drying and cracking mechanisms in a starch slurry
Starch-water slurries are commonly used to study fracture dynamics. Drying
starch-cakes benefit from being simple, economical, and reproducible systems,
and have been used to model desiccation fracture in soils, thin film fracture
in paint, and columnar joints in lava. In this paper, the physical properties
of starch-water mixtures are studied, and used to interpret and develop a
multiphase transport model of drying. Starch-cakes are observed to have a
nonlinear elastic modulus, and a desiccation strain that is comparable to that
generated by their maximum achievable capillary pressure. It is shown that a
large material porosity is divided between pore spaces between starch grains,
and pores within starch grains. This division of pore space leads to two
distinct drying regimes, controlled by liquid and vapor transport of water,
respectively. The relatively unique ability for drying starch to generate
columnar fracture patterns is shown to be linked to the unusually strong
separation of these two transport mechanisms.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures [revised in response to reviewer comments
Specialized psychotherapies for adults with borderline personality disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis
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