Unified Risk-Based Assessment Framework to Assess Sustainability and Resiliency of Civil Infrastructure

Sustainable development, which measures the impact on the environment, economy, and society has become a major focus in research. Civil infrastructure inherently has a direct connection with all three aspects of sustainability. As major climate events pose a threat to infrastructure, the potentiality of failure may increase with non-robust designs. In consideration of risk, as well as the need for sustainable development, a holistic assessment method is required to measure the quality of civil infrastructure. Proposed here is a unified assessment method that balances the resiliency and sustainability of civil infrastructure by the risk of occurrence of catastrophic events

Weak Form Efficiency in Sports Betting Markets

Betting on sports is increasingly popular, and legal in the United States. Many states have moved to legalize sports betting both in-person and on-line. In this paper we evaluate the sports betting market and assess its efficiency in the financial sense. Using a large dataset of betting odds and outcomes across a wide range of sports over an extended period, we evaluate the weak-form efficiency of the sports betting market. While we find some minor technical inefficiencies, overall, the markets are generally efficient, and no odds-based betting strategy will yield statistically significant long-term profits. But some bets are better than others. Slight underdog bets in professional and collegiate football and the UFC have had positive returns over an extended time frame, though they do not clear a statistical significance test. On the other hand, we find some bets clearly under perform. Longshot bets in college basketball are among the worst bets and longshot biases can be shown to exist in collegiate football and basketball as well as baseball

The Impact of Mobile Order Ahead Apps on QSR Queuing

Order ahead mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular at Quick Serve Restaurants. These apps allow customers skip the line when arriving at the store. We investigate the hybrid queuing system created by these applications. We define an overall structure for the hybrid queuing system. Using discrete event simulation, we examine the impact these apps can have on system performance. Our analysis indicates that overall, the mobile application increases the efficiency of the system as a whole. By completing food preparation before the customer arrives the total waiting time for all customers is reduced. The walk-in customer also sees the benefits as overall system efficiency improves although they may feel slighted as customers arrive and skip the line

Large wind turbines: A utility option for the generation of electricity

The wind resource is such that wind energy generation has the potential to save 6-7 quads of energy nationally. Thus, the Federal Government is sponsoring and encouraging the development of cost effective and reliable wind turbines. One element of the Federal Wind Energy Programs, Large Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Development, is managed by the NASA Lewis Research Center for the Department of Energy. There are several ongoing wind system development projects oriented primarily toward utility application within this program element. In addition, a comprehensive technology program supporting the wind turbine development projects is being conducted. An overview is presented of the NASA activities with emphasis on application of large wind turbines for generation of electricity by utility systems

Conservatism implications of shock test tailoring for multiple design environments

A method for analyzing shock conservation in test specifications that have been tailored to qualify a structure for multiple design environments is discussed. Shock test conservation is qualified for shock response spectra, shock intensity spectra and ranked peak acceleration data in terms of an Index of Conservation (IOC) and an Overtest Factor (OTF). The multi-environment conservation analysis addresses the issue of both absolute and average conservation. The method is demonstrated in a case where four laboratory tests have been specified to qualify a component which must survive seven different field environments. Final judgment of the tailored test specification is shown to require an understanding of the predominant failure modes of the test item

Large wind turbines: A utility option for the generation of electricity

The economic and technical potential of wind energy in the United States is discussed. Particular attention is given to the status of wind turbine operational experience as well as the environmental posture of the technology

Rapid Titrimetric Determination of Sulfate in Mixtures of Gypsum, Anhydrite, Calcium Oxide, and Calcium Sulfide Using Ion Exchange

The conventicnal sulfate determination by gravimetrically precipitating barium sulfate is very tedious and time consuming. The present technique uses an ion exchanger so the sulfate can be titrimetrically determined as sulfuric acid. An analysis can be completed in 30 minutes. This method is being used for the routine analysis of sulfate in mixtures of gypsum, anhydrite, calcium oxide, and calcium sulfide. The mixturrs are produced from laboratory and pilot plant investigations on the