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What does the future hold for utility electricity efficiency programs?
This study develops projections of future spending and savings from electricity efficiency programs funded by electric utility customers in the United States through 2030 based on three scenarios. Our analysis relies on detailed bottom-up modeling of current state energy efficiency policies, demand-side management and integrated resource plans, and regulatory decisions. The three scenarios represent a range of potential outcomes given the policy environment at the time of the study and uncertainties in the broader economic and state policy environment in each state. We project spending to increase to 11.1 billion in 2030 and remains relatively flat in the low case ($6.8 billion in 2030). Our analysis suggests that electricity efficiency programs funded by utility customers will continue to impact load growth significantly at least through 2030, as savings as a percent of retail sales are forecast at 0.7 percent in the medium scenario and 0.98 percent in the high scenario
Quantum theory for electron spin decoherence induced by nuclear spin dynamics in semiconductor quantum computer architectures: Spectral diffusion of localized electron spins in the nuclear solid-state environment
We consider the decoherence of a single localized electron spin due to its
coupling to the lattice nuclear spin bath in a semiconductor quantum computer
architecture. In the presence of an external magnetic field and at low
temperatures, the dominant decoherence mechanism is the spectral diffusion of
the electron spin resonance frequency due to the temporally fluctuating random
magnetic field associated with the dipolar interaction induced flip-flops of
nuclear spin pairs. The electron spin dephasing due to this random magnetic
field depends intricately on the quantum dynamics of the nuclear spin bath,
making the coupled decoherence problem difficult to solve. We provide a
formally exact solution of this non-Markovian quantum decoherence problem which
numerically calculates accurate spin decoherence at short times, which is of
particular relevance in solid-state spin quantum computer architectures. A
quantum cluster expansion method is developed, motivated, and tested for the
problem of localized electron spin decoherence due to dipolar fluctuations of
lattice nuclear spins. The method is presented with enough generality for
possible application to other types of spin decoherence problems. We present
numerical results which are in quantitative agreement with electron spin echo
measurements in phosphorus doped silicon. We also present spin echo decay
results for quantum dots in GaAs which differ qualitatively from that of the
phosphorus doped silicon system. Our theoretical results provide the ultimate
limit on the spin coherence (at least, as characterized by Hahn spin echo
measurements) of localized electrons in semiconductors in the low temperature
and the moderate to high magnetic field regime of interest in scalable
semiconductor quantum computer architectures.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure
Wavefunction considerations for the central spin decoherence problem in a nuclear spin bath
Decoherence of a localized electron spin in a solid state material (the
``central spin'' problem) at low temperature is believed to be dominated by
interactions with nuclear spins in the lattice. This decoherence is partially
suppressed through the application of a large magnetic field that splits the
energy levels of the electron spin and prevents depolarization. However,
dephasing decoherence resulting from a dynamical nuclear spin bath cannot be
removed in this way. Fluctuations of the nuclear field lead to uncertainty of
the electron's precessional frequency in a process known as spectral diffusion.
This article considers the effect of the electron's wavefunction shape upon
spectral diffusion and provides wavefunction dependent decoherence time
formulas for free induction decay as well as spin echoes and concatenated
dynamical decoupling schemes for enhancing coherence. We also discuss dephasing
of a qubit encoded in singlet-triplet states of a double quantum dot. A central
theoretical result of this work is the development of a continuum approximation
for the spectral diffusion problem which we have applied to GaAs and InAs
materials specifically
Renewing Teaching Practices: Differentiated Instruction in the College Classroom
At a time of high college student attrition rates, faculty who work in higher education settings are being challenged more than ever before with accountability for student learning. The purpose of this article is to share insights relative to a multi-year professional development initiative that provided college faculty with an opportunity to explore changes in their teaching. Over the course of three years, faculty members honed their knowledge, skills, and dispositions relative to a specific instructional strategy for their own classrooms: differentiated instruction. An experiential approach to the initiative was used, and the degree to which participants committed to change their own instructional practices was evaluated. Results indicated an encouraging degree of success, especially in technology integration, providing clear objectives and feedback to students, and enhanced student engagement
Interactions between vaccinia virus and sensitized macrophages in vitro
The action of peritoneal exudate cells (PEC) from normal and vaccinia virus infected mice on infectious vaccinia virus particles was investigatedin vitro. PEC from immune mice showed a significantly higher infectivity titre reduction (virus clearance, VC) than normal cells. This effect could be clearly attributed to the macrophage. Vaccinia virus multiplied in PEC from normal animals while there was no virus propagation in cells from immunized mice. The release of adsorbed or engulfed virus was reduced significantly in PEC from immunized animals. Anti-vaccinia-antibodies seem to activate normal macrophages to increased virus clearance. This stimulating effect was demonstrable only in the IgG fraction of the antiserum.
The activity of macrophages from mice injected three times over a period of 14 days with vaccinia virus could be entirely blocked with anti-mouse-IgG, while PEC from mice injected one time six days previously were not inhibited
Decoherence in qubits due to low-frequency noise
The efficiency of the future devices for quantum information processing is
limited mostly by the finite decoherence rates of the qubits. Recently a
substantial progress was achieved in enhancing the time, which a solid-state
qubit demonstrates a coherent dynamics. This progress is based mostly on a
successful isolation of the qubits from external decoherence sources. Under
these conditions the material-inherent sources of noise start to play a crucial
role. In most cases the noise that quantum device demonstrate has 1/f spectrum.
This suggests that the environment that destroys the phase coherence of the
qubit can be thought of as a system of two-state fluctuators, which experience
random hops between their states. In this short review we discuss the current
state of the theory of the decoherence due to the qubit interaction with the
fluctuators. We describe the effect of such an environment on different
protocols of the qubit manipulations - free induction and echo signal. It turns
out that in many important cases the noise produced by the fluctuators is
non-Gaussian. Consequently the results of the interaction of the qubit with the
fluctuators are not determined by the pair correlation function only.
We describe the effect of the fluctuators using so-called spin-fluctuator
model. Being quite realistic this model allows one to evaluate the qubit
dynamics in the presence of one fluctuator exactly. This solution is found, and
its features, including non-Gaussian effects are analyzed in details. We extend
this consideration for the systems of large number of fluctuators, which
interact with the qubit and lead to the 1/f noise. We discuss existing
experiments on the Josephson qubit manipulation and try to identify
non-Gaussian behavior.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure
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