30,147 research outputs found
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Should energy labels for washing machines be expanded to include a durability rating?
Washing machines are a key household appliance that can be found in the majority of UK homes. Over 2.5 million are sold in the UK every year and account for one of the highest material and production impacts of householder products in the UK (WRAP, 2011). Energy efficiency ratings are provided as a method for consumers to make an informed purchasing decision and were brought in by EU legislation to reduce energy use and enable users to reduce running costs, as it is known that the greater environmental impact of a washing machine is during use. From 2014, all washing machines sold must be at a minimum A rated, with ratings increasing to A+++. However, under this current labelling system the embodied impacts and durability of the machines are ignored. Through semi-structured interviews with consumers, manufacturers and distributors, this paper explores different perceptions of longevity and expectations of performance and durability. The paper explores whether energy labels should be expanded to include durability information, as this could enable consumers to make a decision based not only on cost and energy efficiency but also on expected lifespan. Existing manufacturer’s guarantees may give an indication of the expected durability of the product and this is investigated to explore if there is a positive correlation. The findings will further discuss the potential impacts of providing durability information and how this could enable manufacturers and consumers to shift towards a low material and energy future
Spectral changes in layered -electron systems induced by Kondo hole substitution in the boundary-layer
We investigate the effect of disorder on the dynamical spectrum of layered
-electron systems. With random dilution of -sites in a single Kondo
insulating layer, we explore the range and extent to which Kondo hole
incoherence can penetrate into adjacent layers. We consider three cases of
neighboring layers: band insulator, Kondo insulator and simple metal. The
disorder-induced spectral weight transfer, used here for quantification of the
proximity effect, decays algebraically with distance from the boundary layer.
Further, we show that the spectral weight transfer is highly dependent on the
frequency range considered as well as the presence of interactions in the clean
adjacent layers. The changes in the low frequency spectrum are very similar
when the adjacent layers are either metallic or Kondo insulating, and hence are
independent of interactions. In stark contrast, a distinct picture emerges for
the spectral weight transfers across large energy scales. The spectral weight
transfer over all energy scales is much higher when the adjacent layers are
non-interacting as compared to when they are strongly interacting Kondo
insulators. Thus, over all scales, interactions screen the disorder effects
significantly. We discuss the possibility of a crossover from non-Fermi liquid
to Fermi liquid behavior upon increasing the ratio of clean to disordered
layers in particle-hole asymmetric systems.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Heterovalent interlayers and interface states: an ab initio study of GaAs/Si/GaAs (110) and (100) heterostructures
We have investigated ab initio the existence of localized states and
resonances in abrupt GaAs/Si/GaAs (110)- and (100)-oriented heterostructures
incorporating 1 or 2 monolayers (MLs) of Si, as well as in the fully developed
Si/GaAs (110) heterojunction. In (100)-oriented structures, we find both
valence- and conduction-band related near-band edge states localized at the
Si/GaAs interface. In the (110) systems, instead, interface states occur deeper
in the valence band; the highest valence-related resonances being about 1 eV
below the GaAs valence-band maximum. Using their characteristic bonding
properties and atomic character, we are able to follow the evolution of the
localized states and resonances from the fully developed Si/GaAs binary
junction to the ternary GaAs/Si/GaAs (110) systems incorporating 2 or 1 ML of
Si. This approach also allows us to show the link between the interface states
of the (110) and (100) systems. Finally, the conditions for the existence of
localized states at the Si/GaAs (110) interface are discussed based on a
Koster-Slater model developed for the interface-state problem.Comment: REVTeX 4, 14 pages, 15 EPS figure
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The role of consumption in material reduction opportunities: the impact of product lifetime in supplying the UK steel demand
Most of the products purchased in the UK are manufactured in other countries. As a result, worldwide greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions released to manufacture all products purchased in the UK are significantly higher than the UK territorial emissions. More than one half of global industrial emissions result from the use of steel, cement, paper, plastics, and aluminium. In this paper, the UK consumption of products that embody these five materials is estimated. For steel, which is the most widely used among these five materials, consumption and accumulation patterns are examined across four product categories. The impact of steel product lifetime extension is examined for the UK as one option for material demand reduction at the consumption stage of the supply chain. Different levels of steel product lifetimes are simulated for the UK in 2050 and their impacts are examined in terms of UK steel production, implicit steel imports, and global carbon dioxide emissions. Steel product lifetime extension promotes a reduction in the need for steel imports, by reducing the demand for new steel, which leads to lower carbon dioxide emissions required to supply the UK steel demand. The results demonstrate the criticality of a focus on the consumption stage, since any interventions made towards demand reduction of end-use goods leads to material reduction across the supply chain
Verifying black hole orbits with gravitational spectroscopy
Gravitational waves from test masses bound to geodesic orbits of rotating
black holes are simulated, using Teukolsky's black hole perturbation formalism,
for about ten thousand generic orbital configurations. Each binary radiates
power exclusively in modes with frequencies that are
integer-linear-combinations of the orbit's three fundamental frequencies. The
following general spectral properties are found with a survey of orbits: (i)
99% of the radiated power is typically carried by a few hundred modes, and at
most by about a thousand modes, (ii) the dominant frequencies can be grouped
into a small number of families defined by fixing two of the three integer
frequency multipliers, and (iii) the specifics of these trends can be
qualitatively inferred from the geometry of the orbit under consideration.
Detections using triperiodic analytic templates modeled on these general
properties would constitute a verification of radiation from an adiabatic
sequence of black hole orbits and would recover the evolution of the
fundamental orbital frequencies. In an analogy with ordinary spectroscopy, this
would compare to observing the Bohr model's atomic hydrogen spectrum without
being able to rule out alternative atomic theories or nuclei. The suitability
of such a detection technique is demonstrated using snapshots computed at
12-hour intervals throughout the last three years before merger of a kludged
inspiral. Because of circularization, the number of excited modes decreases as
the binary evolves. A hypothetical detection algorithm that tracks mode
families dominating the first 12 hours of the inspiral would capture 98% of the
total power over the remaining three years.Comment: 18 pages, expanded section on detection algorithms and made minor
edits. Final published versio
Phase Space Reduction for Star-Products: An Explicit Construction for CP^n
We derive a closed formula for a star-product on complex projective space and
on the domain using a completely elementary
construction: Starting from the standard star-product of Wick type on and performing a quantum analogue of Marsden-Weinstein
reduction, we can give an easy algebraic description of this star-product.
Moreover, going over to a modified star-product on ,
obtained by an equivalence transformation, this description can be even further
simplified, allowing the explicit computation of a closed formula for the
star-product on \CP^n which can easily transferred to the domain
.Comment: LaTeX, 17 page
Finite Cluster Typical Medium Theory for Disordered Electronic Systems
We use the recently developed typical medium dynamical cluster (TMDCA)
approach~[Ekuma \etal,~\textit{Phys. Rev. B \textbf{89}, 081107 (2014)}] to
perform a detailed study of the Anderson localization transition in three
dimensions for the Box, Gaussian, Lorentzian, and Binary disorder
distributions, and benchmark them with exact numerical results. Utilizing the
nonlocal hybridization function and the momentum resolved typical spectra to
characterize the localization transition in three dimensions, we demonstrate
the importance of both spatial correlations and a typical environment for the
proper characterization of the localization transition in all the disorder
distributions studied. As a function of increasing cluster size, the TMDCA
systematically recovers the re-entrance behavior of the mobility edge for
disorder distributions with finite variance, obtaining the correct critical
disorder strengths, and shows that the order parameter critical exponent for
the Anderson localization transition is universal. The TMDCA is computationally
efficient, requiring only a small cluster to obtain qualitative and
quantitative data in good agreement with numerical exact results at a fraction
of the computational cost. Our results demonstrate that the TMDCA provides a
consistent and systematic description of the Anderson localization transition.Comment: 20 Pages, 19 Figures, 3 Table
Computational modeling of passive transport of functionalized nanoparticles
Functionalized nanoparticles (NPs) are complex objects present in a variety of systems ranging from synthetic grafted nanoparticles to viruses. The morphology and number of the decorating groups can vary widely between systems. Thus, the modeling of functionalized NPs typically considers simplified spherical objects as a first-order approximation. At the nanoscale label, complex hydrodynamic interactions are expected to emerge as the morphological features of the particles change, and they can be further amplified when the NPs are confined or near walls. Direct estimation of these variations can be inferred via diffusion coefficients of the NPs. However, the evaluation of the coefficients requires an improved representation of the NPs morphology to reproduce important features hidden by simplified spherical models. Here, we characterize the passive transport of free and confined functionalized nanoparticles using the Rigid Multi-Blob (RMB) method. The main advantage of RMB is its versatility to approximate the mobility of complex structures at the nanoscale with significant accuracy and reduced computational cost. In particular, we investigate the effect of functional groups' distribution, size, and morphology over nanoparticle translational and rotational diffusion. We identify that the presence of functional groups significantly affects the rotational diffusion of the nanoparticles; moreover, the morphology of the groups and number induce characteristic mobility reduction compared to non-functionalized nanoparticles. Confined NPs also evidenced important alterations in their diffusivity, with distinctive signatures in the off-diagonal contributions of the rotational diffusion. These results can be exploited in various applications, including biomedical, polymer nanocomposite fabrication, drug delivery, and imaging
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