Using data from connected thermostats to track large power outages in the United States

The detection of power outages is an essential activity for electric utilities. A large, national dataset of Internet-connected thermostats was used to explore and illustrate the ability of Internet-connected devices to geospatially track outages caused by hurricanes and other major weather events. The method was applied to nine major outage events, including hurricanes and windstorms. In one event, Hurricane Irma, a network of about 1000 thermostats provided quantitatively similar results to detailed utility data with respect to the number of homes without power and identification of the most severely affected regions. The method generated regionally uniform outage data that would give emergency authorities additional visibility into the scope and magnitude of outages. The network of thermostat-sensors also made it possible to calculate a higher resolution version of outage duration (or SAIDI) at a level of customer-level visibility that was not previously available

Effects of Hyperbaric Hypoxia on Some Enzyme Systems in the Mammalian Liver

The metabolic effects of hypobaric hypoxic stress on the mammalian liver were studied. The lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity of mouse liver homogenates were measured after exposure to an equivalent altitude of 36,000 feet and compared to controls kept at zero altitude. After six and twelve hour incubation periods, the altitude exposed samples demonstrated a significantly higher LDH activity than controls. SDH activity remained unchanged from controls after six hours but was significantly lower than controls after a 12 hour exposure to altitude. It is concluded that the changes in enzyme activity reflect a metabolic control mechanism attempting to maintain adequate energy production during periods of exposure to hypobaric hypoxic stress

Radiation Hardness and Linearity Studies of CVD Diamonds

We report on the behavior of CVD diamonds under intense electromagnetic radiation and on the response of the detector to high density of deposited energy. Diamonds have been found to remain unaffected after doses of 10 MGy of MeV-range photons and the diamond response to energy depositions of up to 250 GeV/cm^3 has been found to be linear to better than 2 %. These observations make diamond an attractive detector material for a calorimeter in the very forward region of the detector proposed for TESLA.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; Proceeding for the topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors Siena, 21-24 October 2002; to appear in Nucl.Phys. B (Proceedings Supplement

CW and pulsed electrically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 263 GHz/12 T on operating amorphous silicon solar cells

Here we describe a new high frequency/high field continuous wave and pulsed electrically detected magnetic resonance (CW EDMR and pEDMR) setup, operating at 263 GHz and resonance fields between 0 and 12 T. Spin dependent transport in illuminated hydrogenated amorphous silicon p-i-n solar cells at 5 K and 90 K was studied by in operando 263 GHz CW and pEDMR alongside with complementary X-band CW EDMR. Benefiting from the superior resolution at 263 GHz, we were able to better resolve EDMR signals originating from spin dependent hopping and recombination processes. 5 K EDMR spectra were found to be dominated by conduction and valence band tale states involved in spin dependent hopping, with additional contributions from triplet exciton states. 90 K EDMR spectra could be assigned to spin pair recombination involving conduction band tail states and dangling bonds as dominating spin dependent transport process, with additional contributions from valence band tail and triplet exciton states.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Swiss ethnoveterinary knowledge on medicinal plants - a within-country comparison of Italian speaking regions with north-western German speaking regions

BACKGROUND: Ethnoveterinary knowledge in Europe may play an important role as a basis for sustainable treatment options for livestock. Aims of our study were (a) to compare the ethnoveterinary practices of two culturally and sociodemographically different regions of Switzerland, (b) to compare results with earlier ethnoveterinary studies conducted in Switzerland and in adjacent Italian regions and, (c) to evaluate possible reasons for regional differences in European ethnoveterinary medicine. METHODS: 25 interviews were conducted in 2014 in all Italian speaking regions (ItR) of Switzerland, and 31 interviews were held in five north-western German speaking Cantons (GeC). Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect detailed information regarding plant species, mode of preparation, dosage, route of administration, category of use, origin of knowledge, frequency of use, and satisfaction with outcomes of the treatments. RESULTS: A total of 162 homemade remedies in ItR and 219 in GeC were reported, out of which 125 and 145, respectively, were reported to contain only one plant species (homemade single species herbal remedy report, HSHR). 44 ItR and 43 GeC plant species were reported to treat livestock, of which only a half were used in both regions. For each HSHR, we classified the treatment intention of all use reports (UR), leading to a total of 205 and 219 UR in ItR and GeC respectively. While cattle were the most often treated livestock species in both study regions, in ItR 40% of UR were administered to small ruminants. Main indications in both regions were gastrointestinal diseases and skin afflictions, but in ItR a high number of URs were reported as antiparasitics. URs were mainly handed down from the past generation, but in GeC the source of knowledge for 20% of URs were from courses. Regarding the used plant species, ItR showed a higher concordance with Swiss than Italian studies, but with some differences to all regions. A total of 22 (14 ItR; 8 GeC) plant species in this study have not been reported before in ethnoveterinary studies of Swiss and Italian alpine regions. CONCLUSIONS: ItR and GeC, show differences and similarities with respect to their own ethnoveterinary practices and earlier Swiss and Italian ethnoveterinary studies. Linguistic, geographical, as well as social and farm-structural conditions influence the regional ethnoveterinary knowledge. However, political borders seem to be more important than language or geographical barriers

Eigenvalue spectrum for single particle in a spheroidal cavity: A Semiclassical approach

Following the semiclassical formalism of Strutinsky et al., we have obtained the complete eigenvalue spectrum for a particle enclosed in an infinitely high spheroidal cavity. Our spheroidal trace formula also reproduces the results of a spherical billiard in the limit $\eta\to1.0$. Inclusion of repetition of each family of the orbits with reference to the largest one significantly improves the eigenvalues of sphere and an exact comparison with the quantum mechanical results is observed upto the second decimal place for $kR_{0}\geq{7}$. The contributions of the equatorial, the planar (in the axis of symmetry plane) and the non-planar(3-Dimensional) orbits are obtained from the same trace formula by using the appropriate conditions. The resulting eigenvalues compare very well with the quantum mechanical eigenvalues at normal deformation. It is interesting that the partial sum of equatorial orbits leads to eigenvalues with maximum angular momentum projection, while the summing of planar orbits leads to eigenvalues with $L_z=0$ except for L=1. The remaining quantum mechanical eigenvalues are observed to arise from the 3-dimensional(3D) orbits. Very few spurious eigenvalues arise in these partial sums. This result establishes the important role of 3D orbits even at normal deformations.Comment: 17 pages, 7 ps figure

Response of single junction GaAs/GaAs and GaAs/Ge solar cells to multiple doses of 1 MeV electrons

A comparison of the radiation tolerance of MOCVD-grown GaAs cells and GaAs/Ge cells was undertaken using 1 MeV electrons. The GaAs/Ge cells are somewhat more tolerant of 1 MeV electron irradiation and more responsive to annealing than are the GaAs/GaAs cells examined in this study. However, both types of cells suffer a greater degradation in efficiency than has been observed in other recent studies. The reason for this is not certain, but it may be associated with an emitter thickness which appears to be greater than desired. The deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) spectra following irradiation are not significantly different for the GaAs/Ge and the GaAs/GaAs cells, with each having just two peaks. The annealing behavior of these peaks is also similar in the two samples examined. It appears that no penalty in radiation tolerance, and perhaps some benefit, is associated with fabricating MOCVD GaAs cells on Ge substrates rather than GaAs substrates

The neural network behind the eyes of a fly

With its regular, almost crystal-like structure, the fly optic lobe represents a particularly beautiful piece of nervous system, which consequently has attracted the attention of many researchers over the years. While the anatomy of the various cell types had been known from Golgi studies for long, their visual response properties could only recently be revealed thanks to the advent of cell-specific driver lines and genetically encoded indicators of neural activity. Furthermore, dense EM reconstruction of several columns of the fly optic lobe now provides information about the synaptic connections between the different cell types, and RNA sequencing sheds light on the transmitter systems and ionic conductances used for communication between them. Together with the molecular tools allowing for blocking and activating individual, genetically targeted cell types, the fly optic lobe can soon be one of the best-understood visual neuropils in neuroscience. In this review, we summarize what we have learned so far, and discuss the major difficulties that keep us from a complete understanding of visual processing in the fly optic lobe