The Effects of Changing Local Electricity Rate Structures to Accommodate Residential Battery Energy Storage, Based on New York\u27s Energy Storage Roadmap Goals

In June 2018, the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) released the Energy Storage Roadmap (ESR). The ESR detailed a plan to increase the capacity of Battery Energy Storage (BES) across the state by 2025 to reach goals for improving the electric grid. A model was created to find how the operation of a residential solar + storage system could achieve the goals in the ESR. The model used linear optimization to maximize the residential homeowner’s profit under different rate structures. Further analysis of the resulting system operation provided information on metrics directly related to the ESR goals; the cost reductions for the prosumer and utility, the CO2 emission reduction, limiting exported energy, decreasing energy peaks for the system, and increasing the self-consumption of renewable solar energy. Final comparisons showed that the rate structures could be grouped into two types based on their resulting battery operation; ‘Energy Arbitrage’ when the battery was used to buy and sell energy to/from the grid, and ‘Self-Consumption’ when the battery was used to store excess solar energy and discharge to meet household demand. Energy Arbitrage rates resulted in greater decreased costs, and better emission reduction is Costs of Carbon were considered. Self-Consumption rates resulted in increased self-consumption of renewable solar energy and decreased exporting of energy. Compared to a home with only solar under Net Energy Metering, neither Energy Arbitrage nor Self-Consumption rates reduced CO2 emissions for the region, or the peak demands of the residential system. Policy makers considering new rates structures will need to decide which ESR goals are more desirable for residential consumers before implementation

Risks to Global Primate Diversity from Climate Change and Other Pressures

Primate species are widely threatened from the impact of deforestation and other human activities, with many species already facing high risk of extinction. Climate change poses an additional threat to the world's biota. However, the extent to which future climate change poses a risk to primates in conjunction with the other threats remains largely unclear. This study will utilise bioclimate models in order to assess the potential changes in primate species richness under future climate change scenarios. These results will then be combined with country-level data on forest loss and projected increases in human populations, to establish the potential synergy between these drivers of environmental change and quantify the regions facing the greatest risks to primate species diversity. The response of primate species richness to future climate change was shown to vary between regions and to depend upon the climate model and emissions scenario used. Madagascar generally displayed the largest increase in suitable climate, whereas on the whole, African primates may potentially be impacted the most from adverse climate change. The greatest risk to primate species from the correlating threats of adverse climate change, forest loss and human population pressure, was found in countries of north-west Africa and Asia, in particular the south-east. The results demonstrate the complexity of the link between climate and biodiversity and highlight the importance of the choice of model used to assess climate change impacts on biodiversity. In addition, it is clear that there is a need for urgent conservation measures to be adopted in high risk regions in order to combat threats from climate change to already fragile primate populations

Exploration of new routes to boranes and carboranes

The crystal chemistry of binary metal borides in the composition range M(_4) to MB(_12) and the hydrolytic chemistry of reactive metal borides to give boranes are reviewed. The thermal interconversion reactions of the smaller volatile boranes from B(_2)H(_6) to B(_10)H(_14) is critically examined and a rationalisation of their reactions with the transient Lewis acid species {BH(_3)), (B(_3)H(_7)) and (B(_4)H(_8)) is developed. This approach reveals a pattern of step-wise cage-growth for nido boranes which first seem to ligate a BH(_3) unit and then eliminate H(_2) giving the next higher homologue. Also, a structure-reactivity relationship for B(_2)H(_6) and the arachno boranes is suggested where the terminal hydrogens of the BH(_2) groups are thought to possess hydridic character which dominates their reactions with the Lewis acid intermediates. This work is partially extended to the cage-expansion and pyrolysis reactions of the anionic boron hydrides. A detailed review is presented of the pyrolysis of tetraalkylammonium borohydrides to give [B(_10)H(_10)](^2-) and [B(_12)H(_12)](^2-) in high yield. A study of the acidic hydrolysis of MgB(_2) under a wide range of conditions is reported. The reactions of MgB(_2) with 100% H(_3)PO(_4) and with 7M H(_3)PO(_4) under the influence of ultrasonics are found to be promising methods for increasing the borane yield. The anions [B(_12)H(_120](^2-), [B(_10)H(_10)](_2) and possibly [B(_9)H(_14)](^-) are shown to be important products from MgB(_2) hydrolysis. A mechanism is proposed for this reaction incorporating initial production of CB(_6)H(_9)](^-) which is protonated to give B(_6)H(_10); degradation of this borane in the acidic solution is thought to account for generation of B(_5)H(_9) and B(_4)H(_10) which are the only other major volatile boron hydride products. Finally, some attempted "one-pot” carborane syntheses using MgB(_2) as the boron source are discussed

Generation of Mid-IR Wavelengths

Generation of mid-IR wavelengths Deborah Robinson, Robert Hartsock, and Kelly Gaffney Abstract Research to determine basic molecular properties utilizing pump/probe experiments is an on going effort at SLAC. Here we have been given the task to generate mid-IR laser pulses and commission a mid-IR detector for said experiments and research. The mid-IR pulses will be used to probe the changes in molecular properties induced by exciting the electrons in molecules with visible pump pulses. In order to accomplish this, an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) has been set-up and aligned. The pump beam for the OPA is a 40 femtosecond 800nm beam from a Ti:Sapphire chirped pulse amplified laser system with an output of approximately 1mJ/pulse. In the OPA, one photon of higher energy is frequency mixed or split into two photons of lower energy using nonlinear processes in a nonlinear crystal. Here we have generated 1400nm and 1900nm wavelengths in the near-IR spectrum out of the OPA from the 800nm pump. These signal and idler output wavelengths from the OPA will then be frequency difference mixed in a second nonlinear crystal to yield mid-IR wavelengths to test the mid-IR detector

The Extraction of One-Dimensional Flow Properties from Multi-Dimensional Data Sets

The engineering design and analysis of air-breathing propulsion systems relies heavily on zero- or one-dimensional properties (e.g. thrust, total pressure recovery, mixing and combustion efficiency, etc.) for figures of merit. The extraction of these parameters from experimental data sets and/or multi-dimensional computational data sets is therefore an important aspect of the design process. A variety of methods exist for extracting performance measures from multi-dimensional data sets. Some of the information contained in the multi-dimensional flow is inevitably lost when any one-dimensionalization technique is applied. Hence, the unique assumptions associated with a given approach may result in one-dimensional properties that are significantly different than those extracted using alternative approaches. The purpose of this effort is to examine some of the more popular methods used for the extraction of performance measures from multi-dimensional data sets, reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and highlight various numerical issues that result when mapping data from a multi-dimensional space to a space of one dimension

What America means to sixth grade children.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Spatially and Temporally Resolved Measurements of Velocity in a H2-air Combustion-Heated Supersonic Jet

This paper presents simultaneous measurements at multiple points of two orthogonal components of flow velocity using a single-shot interferometric Rayleigh scattering (IRS) technique. The measurements are performed on a large-scale Mach 1.6 (Mach 5.5 enthalpy) H2-air combustion jet during the 2007 test campaign in the Direct Connect Supersonic Combustion Test facility at NASA Langley Research Center. The measurements are performed simultaneously with CARS (Coherent Anti-stokes Raman Spectroscopy) using a combined CARS-IRS instrument with a common path 9-nanosecond pulsed, injection-seeded, 532-nm Nd:YAG laser probe pulse. The paper summarizes the measurements of velocities along the core of the vitiated air flow as well as two radial profiles. The average velocity measurement near the centerline at the closest point from the nozzle exit compares favorably with the CFD calculations using the VULCAN code. Further downstream, the measured axial velocity shows overall higher values than predicted with a trend of convergence at further distances. Larger discrepancies are shown in the radial profiles

The pH-dependence of lipid-mediated antimicrobial peptide resistance in a model Staphylococcal plasma membrane: a two-for-one mechanism of epithelial defence circumvention.

The mechanisms of membrane defence by lysylphosphatidylglycerol (LPG), were investigated using synthetic biomimetic mono- and bilayer models of methicillin resistant S. aureus ST239 TW, based on its lipid composition in both pH 7.4 (28% LPG) and pH 5.5 (51% LPG) cultures. These models incorporated a stable synthetic analogue of LPG (3adLPG) to facilitate long-duration biophysical studies, which were previously limited by the lability native LPG. Both increased 3adLPG content and full headgroup ionization at pH 5.5, increased bilayer order and dampened overall charge, via the formation of neutral ion pairs with anionic lipids. Ion pair formation in air/liquid interface lipid monolayers elicited a significant condensing effect, which correlated with the inhibition of subphase-injected magainin 2 F5W partitioning. In fluid phase lipid vesicles, increasing the proportion of 3adLPG from 28 to 51 mol% completely inhibited the adoption of the membrane-active ?-helical conformation of the peptide, without the need for full headgroup ionization. Neutron reflectivity measurements performed on biomimetic PG/3adLPG fluid floating bilayers, showed a significant ordering effect of mild acidity on a bilayer containing 30 mol% 3adLPG, whilst peptide binding/partitioning was only fully inhibited in a bilayer with 55 mol% 3adLPG at pH 5.5. These findings are discussed with respect to the roles of LPG in resistance to human epithelial defences in S. aureus and the continued evolution of this opportunistic pathogen’s virulence