Critical parameters for coarse coal underground slurry haulage systems

Factors are identified which must be considered in meeting the requirements of a transportation system for conveying, in a pipeline, the coal mined by a continuous mining machine to a storage location neat the mine entrance or to a coal preparation plant located near the surface. For successful operation, the slurry haulage the system should be designed to operated in the turbulent flow regime at a flow rate at least 30% greater than the deposition velocity (slurry flow rate at which the solid particles tend to settle in the pipe). The capacity of the haulage system should be compatible with the projected coal output. Partical size, solid concentration, density, and viscosity of the suspension are if importance as well as the selection of the pumps, pipes, and valves. The parameters with the greatest effect on system performance ar flow velocity, pressure coal particle size, and solids concentration

Geologic considerations in underground coal mining system design

Geologic characteristics of coal resources which may impact new extraction technologies are identified and described to aid system designers and planners in their task of designing advanced coal extraction systems for the central Appalachian region. These geologic conditions are then organized into a matrix identified as the baseline mine concept. A sample region, eastern Kentucy is analyzed using both the developed baseline mine concept and the traditional geologic investigative approach

IMPLICATIONS OF THE TAX REFORM ACT OF 1976 FOR FARM ESTATE PLANNING

An intergeneration transfer simulation model is used to project estate transfer costs and the value of transfers to the heirs before and after the tax reform act of 1976. Lower Federal estate taxes result for estates that qualify for the special use valuation of farmland provision of the new law. Replacing the $60,000 estate exemption with the$47,000 estate tax credit and revising the tax rate schedule increases Federal estate taxes when the taxable estate is between $1.175 million and$9.353 million. The new carryover basis rules for estate assets acquired from decedents dying after 1979 also increase transfer costs.Agricultural Finance,

Forensic gait analysis — Morphometric assessment from surveillance footage

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Following the technological rise of surveillance cameras and their subsequent proliferation in public places, the use of information gathered by such means for investigative and evaluative purposes sparked a large interest in the forensic community and within policing scenarios. In particular, it is suggested that analysis of the body, especially the assessment of gait characteristics, can provide useful information to aid the investigation. This paper discusses the influences upon gait to mitigate some of the limitations of surveillance footage, including those due to the varying anatomical differences between individuals. Furthermore, the differences between various techniques applied to assess gait are discussed, including biometric gait recognition, forensic gait analysis, tracking technology, and marker technology. This review article discusses the limitations of the current methods for assessment of gait; exposing gaps within the literature in regard to various influences impacting upon the gait cycle. Furthermore, it suggests a ‘morphometric’ technique to enhance the available procedures to potentially facilitate the development of standardised protocols with supporting statistics and database. This in turn will provide meaningful information to forensic investigation, intelligence-gathering processes, and potentially as an additional method of forensic evaluation of evidence

Forensic image analysis – CCTV distortion and artefacts

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. As a result of the worldwide deployment of surveillance cameras, authorities have gained a powerful tool that captures footage of activities of people in public areas. Surveillance cameras allow continuous monitoring of the area and allow footage to be obtained for later use, if a criminal or other act of interest occurs. Following this, a forensic practitioner, or expert witness can be required to analyse the footage of the Person of Interest. The examination ultimately aims at evaluating the strength of evidence at source and activity levels. In this paper, both source and activity levels are inferred from the trace, obtained in the form of CCTV footage. The source level alludes to features observed within the anatomy and gait of an individual, whilst the activity level relates to activity undertaken by the individual within the footage. The strength of evidence depends on the value of the information recorded, where the activity level is robust, yet source level requires further development. It is therefore suggested that the camera and the associated distortions should be assessed first and foremost and, where possible, quantified, to determine the level of each type of distortion present within the footage. A review of the ‘forensic image analysis’ review is presented here. It will outline the image distortion types and detail the limitations of differing surveillance camera systems. The aim is to highlight various types of distortion present particularly from surveillance footage, as well as address gaps in current literature in relation to assessment of CCTV distortions in tandem with gait analysis. Future work will consider the anatomical assessment from surveillance footage

2018 NASA Green Propulsion Technology Development Roadmap

The NASA Green Propulsion Working Group (GPWG) was tasked by the NASA Chemical Propulsion Subcapabilities Management (CPSM) with the development of this NASA Green Propulsion Technologies Development Roadmap, herein referred to as the Green Propulsion Roadmap, or simply the Roadmap, to provide guidance to NASA through the CPSM on green propulsion technology development. Other agencies or commercial partners may refer to this roadmap as well. It is envisioned that the synthesis of various Center-based activities and knowledge repositories will result in a cumulative knowledge gain, and will provide capabilities beyond the sum contribution of individual Centers. Ultimately, a well-defined roadmap of technology investment path, the enhanced coordination and alignment of activities among NASA Centers and other Federal Agencies, and a well-supported green propulsion community will facilitate the path towards the broader infusion of green propulsion technologies for science and human exploration missions, as well as a deeper understanding of the fundamental behaviors and characteristics of these systems that is on par with other historically used monopropellant propulsion systems, such as hydrazine

Using ontologies to map between research data and policymakers’ presumptions: the experience of the KNOWMAK project

Understanding knowledge co-creation in key emerging areas of European research is critical for policy makers wishing to analyze impact and make strategic decisions. However, purely data-driven methods for characterising policy topics have limitations relating to the broad nature of such topics and the differences in language and topic structure between the political language and scientific and technological outputs. In this paper, we discuss the use of ontologies and semantic technologies as a means to bridge the linguistic and conceptual gap between policy questions and data sources for characterising European knowledge production. Our experience suggests that the integration between advanced techniques for language processing and expert assessment at critical junctures in the process is key for the success of this endeavour

Random Topologies and the emergence of cooperation: the role of short-cuts

We study in detail the role of short-cuts in promoting the emergence of cooperation in a network of agents playing the Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG). We introduce a model whose topology interpolates between the one-dimensional euclidean lattice (a ring) and the complete graph by changing the value of one parameter (the probability p to add a link between two nodes not already connected in the euclidean configuration). We show that there is a region of values of p in which cooperation is largely enhanced, whilst for smaller values of p only a few cooperators are present in the final state, and for p \rightarrow 1- cooperation is totally suppressed. We present analytical arguments that provide a very plausible interpretation of the simulation results, thus unveiling the mechanism by which short-cuts contribute to promote (or suppress) cooperation