1,395 research outputs found
Assessing the critical material constraints on low carbon infrastructure transitions
We present an assessment method to analyze whether the disruption in supply of a group of materials endangers the transition to low-carbon infrastructure. We define criticality as the combination of the potential for supply disruption and the exposure of the system of interest to that disruption. Low-carbon energy depends on multiple technologies comprised of a multitude of materials of varying criticality. Our methodology allows us to assess the simultaneous potential for supply disruption of a range of materials. Generating a specific target level of low-carbon energy implies a dynamic roll-out of technology at a specific scale. Our approach is correspondingly dynamic, and monitors the change in criticality during the transition towards a low-carbon energy goal. It is thus not limited to the quantification of criticality of a particular material at a particular point in time. We apply our method to criticality in the proposed UK energy transition as a demonstration, with a focus on neodymium use in electric vehicles. Although we anticipate that the supply disruption of neodymium will decrease, our results show the criticality of low carbon energy generation increases, as a result of increasing exposure to neodymium-reliant technologies. We present a number of potential responses to reduce the criticality through a reduction in supply disruption potential of the exposure of the UK to that disruption
Large eddy simulations and direct numerical simulations of high speed turbulent reacting flows
The main objective is to extend the boundaries within which large eddy simulations (LES) and direct numerical simulations (DNS) can be applied in computational analyses of high speed reacting flows. In the efforts related to LES, we were concerned with developing reliable subgrid closures for modeling of the fluctuation correlations of scalar quantities in reacting turbulent flows. In the work on DNS, we focused our attention to further investigation of the effects of exothermicity in compressible turbulent flows. In our previous work, in the first year of this research, we have considered only 'simple' flows. Currently, we are in the process of extending our analyses for the purpose of modeling more practical flows of current interest at LaRC. A summary of our accomplishments during the third six months of the research is presented
Non-local anomaly of the axial-vector current for bound states
We demonstrate that the amplitude does not vanish in the limit of zero quark masses. This
represents a new kind of violation of the classical equation of motion for the
axial current and should be interpreted as the axial anomaly for bound states.
The anomaly emerges in spite of the fact that the one loop integrals are
ultraviolet-finite as guaranteed by the presence of the bound-state wave
function. As a result, the amplitude behaves like in the limit of
a large momentum of the current. This is to be compared with the amplitude
which remains
finite in the limit .
The observed effect leads to the modification of the classical equation of
motion of the axial-vector current in terms of the non-local operator and can
be formulated as a non-local axial anomaly for bound states.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, numerical value for in Eq. (19) is
corrected, Eqs. (22) and (23) are modified. New references added. Results
remain unchange
Cross-language high similarity search using a conceptual thesaurus
This work addresses the issue of cross-language high similarity and
near-duplicates search, where, for the given document, a highly similar one is to
be identified from a large cross-language collection of documents. We propose
a concept-based similarity model for the problem which is very light in computation
and memory. We evaluate the model on three corpora of different nature
and two language pairs English-German and English-Spanish using the Eurovoc
conceptual thesaurus. Our model is compared with two state-of-the-art models
and we find, though the proposed model is very generic, it produces competitive
results and is significantly stable and consistent across the corpora.This work was done in the framework of the VLC/CAMPUS Microcluster on Multimodal Interaction in Intelligent Systems and it has been partially
funded by the European Commission as part of the WIQ-EI IRSES project (grant no.
269180) within the FP 7 Marie Curie People Framework, and by the Text-Enterprise
2.0 research project (TIN2009-13391-C04-03). The research work of the second author
is supported by the CONACyT 192021/302009 grantGupta, P.; Barrón Cedeño, LA.; Rosso, P. (2012). Cross-language high similarity search using a conceptual thesaurus. En Information Access Evaluation. Multilinguality, Multimodality, and Visual Analytics. Springer Verlag (Germany). 7488:67-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33247-0_8S6775748
A Human Development Framework for CO2 Reductions
Although developing countries are called to participate in CO2 emission
reduction efforts to avoid dangerous climate change, the implications of
proposed reduction schemes in human development standards of developing
countries remain a matter of debate. We show the existence of a positive and
time-dependent correlation between the Human Development Index (HDI) and per
capita CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Employing this empirical
relation, extrapolating the HDI, and using three population scenarios, the
cumulative CO2 emissions necessary for developing countries to achieve
particular HDI thresholds are assessed following a Development As Usual
approach (DAU). If current demographic and development trends are maintained,
we estimate that by 2050 around 85% of the world's population will live in
countries with high HDI (above 0.8). In particular, 300Gt of cumulative CO2
emissions between 2000 and 2050 are estimated to be necessary for the
development of 104 developing countries in the year 2000. This value represents
between 20% to 30% of previously calculated CO2 budgets limiting global warming
to 2{\deg}C. These constraints and results are incorporated into a CO2
reduction framework involving four domains of climate action for individual
countries. The framework reserves a fair emission path for developing countries
to proceed with their development by indexing country-dependent reduction rates
proportional to the HDI in order to preserve the 2{\deg}C target after a
particular development threshold is reached. Under this approach, global
cumulative emissions by 2050 are estimated to range from 850 up to 1100Gt of
CO2. These values are within the uncertainty range of emissions to limit global
temperatures to 2{\deg}C.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
The UK market for energy service contracts in 2014–2015
This paper provides an overview of the UK market for energy service contracts in 2014 and highlights the growing role of intermediaries. Using information from secondary literature and interviews, it identifies the businesses offering energy service contracts, the sectors and organisations that are purchasing those contracts, the types of contract that are available, the areas of market growth and the reasons for that growth. The paper finds that the UK market is relatively large, highly diverse, concentrated in particular sectors and types of site and overwhelmingly focused upon established technologies with high rates of return. A major driver is the emergence of procurement frameworks for energy service contracts in the public sector. These act as intermediaries between clients and contractors, thereby lowering transaction costs and facilitating learning. The market is struggling to become established in commercial offices, largely as a result of split incentives, and is unlikely to develop further in this sector without different business models, tenancy arrangements and policy initiatives. Overall, the paper concludes that energy service contracts can play an important role in the transition to a low-carbon economy, especially when supported by intermediaries, but their potential is still limited by high transaction costs
Muon Physics: A Pillar of the Standard Model
Since its discovery in the 1930s, the muon has played an important role in
our quest to understand the sub-atomic theory of matter. The muon was the first
second-generation standard-model particle to be discovered, and its decay has
provided information on the (Vector -Axial Vector) structure of the weak
interaction, the strength of the weak interaction, G_F, and the conservation of
lepton number (flavor) in muon decay. The muon's anomalous magnetic moment has
played an important role in restricting theories of physics beyond the standard
standard model, where at present there is a 3.4 standard-deviation difference
between the experiment and standard-model theory. Its capture on the atomic
nucleus has provided valuable information on the modification of the weak
current by the strong interaction which is complementary to that obtained from
nuclear beta decay.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Invited paper for the Journal of Physical Society
in Japan (JPSJ), Special Topics Issue "Frontiers of Elementary Particle
Physics, The Standard Model and beyond
Anomalies and WZW-term of two-flavour QCD
The U(2)_R x U(2)_L symmetry of QCD with two massless flavours is subject to
anomalies which affect correlation functions involving the singlet currents
A^0_\mu or V^0_\mu. These are relevant for pion-photon interactions, because -
for two flavours - the electromagnetic current contains a singlet piece. We
give the effective Lagrangian required for the corresponding low energy
analysis to next-to-leading order, without invoking an expansion in the mass of
the strange quark. In particular, the Wess-Zumino-Witten term that accounts for
the two-flavour anomalies within the effective theory is written down in closed
form.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur
Drop impact upon micro- and nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces
We experimentally investigate drop impact dynamics onto different
superhydrophobic surfaces, consisting of regular polymeric micropatterns and
rough carbon nanofibers, with similar static contact angles. The main control
parameters are the Weber number \We and the roughness of the surface. At small
\We, i.e. small impact velocity, the impact evolutions are similar for both
types of substrates, exhibiting Fakir state, complete bouncing, partial
rebouncing, trapping of an air bubble, jetting, and sticky vibrating water
balls. At large \We, splashing impacts emerge forming several satellite
droplets, which are more pronounced for the multiscale rough carbon nanofiber
jungles. The results imply that the multiscale surface roughness at nanoscale
plays a minor role in the impact events for small \We \apprle 120 but an
important one for large \We \apprge 120. Finally, we find the effect of
ambient air pressure to be negligible in the explored parameter regime \We
\apprle 150Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
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