What is energy know-how and how can it be shared and acquired by householders?

Our aim in this short paper is to contribute to conceptual, practical and policy discussions about the role of householder knowledge in the context of policy ambitions to reduce domestic energy consumption. More specifically, we are interested in the characteristics of this knowledge, the ways in which householders acquire such knowledge, and the kinds of activities and policies that might support this. Within this context, literacy approaches emphasise factual knowledge, cognitive reasoning, and ideal attitudes and behaviours; within this mainstream approach, education and communications are key policy recommendations. In contrast, know-how approaches are critical of literacy approaches and emphasise practical skills, experience and guidance. Key policy recommendations focus on tailored guidance delivered through activities such as demonstration homes and home audits. Smart Communities was a community action and action research project on energy demand reduction. The activities in the project drew on both literacy and know-how approaches, and the research methods focussed on in-depth interviews, a survey and informal interactions with project participants and partners. The project strongly supports the ideas that are expressed in the know-how literature, but also highlights the practical challenge of scaling-up activities such as home visits. Meanwhile, approaches that drew on literacy approaches produced less change, but were easier to implement at scale. In our discussion, we raise the need for know-how approaches to be more adequately supported in policy, and the need to investigate and experiment with novel approaches that would allow these activities to be scaled-up. In support of these objectives, we present a concise expression of the concept of energy know-how. In addition, we suggest that the know-how literature is perhaps overly critical of the literacy approach, and we discuss some ways in which literacy approaches can be more effective

Extragalactic Sources of TeV Gamma Rays: A Summary

The development of techniques whereby gamma rays of energy 100 GeV and above can be studied from the ground, using indirect, but sensitive, techniques has opened up a new area of high energy photon astronomy. The most exciting result that has come from these is the detection of highly variable fluxes of TeV gamma rays from the relativistic jets in nearby AGN. The recent detection of signals from a starburst galaxy and from a radio galaxy opens the possibility that the extragalactic emission of TeV gamma rays is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Here we attempt to summarize the properties of the sources detected so far.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, New Astronomy Reviews; Summary Talk at the "2nd VERITAS Symposium on TeV Astrohysics of Extragalactic Sources", April 24-26, 200

Supersymmetric Dark Matter and Yukawa Unification

An analysis of supersymmetric dark matter under the Yukawa unification constraint is given. The analysis utilizes the recently discovered region of the parameter space of models with gaugino mass nonuniversalities where large negative supersymmetric corrections to the b quark mass appear to allow $b-\tau$ unification for a positive $\mu$ sign consistent with the $b\to s+\gamma$ and $g_{\mu}-2$ constraints. In the present analysis we use the revised theoretical determination of $a_{\mu}^{SM}$ ($a_{\mu}= (g_{\mu}-2)/2$) in computing the difference $a_{\mu}^{exp}-a_{\mu}^{SM}$ which takes account of a reevaluation of the light by light contribution which has a positive sign. The analysis shows that the region of the parameter space with nonuniversalities of the gaugino masses which allows for unification of Yukawa couplings also contains regions which allow satisfaction of the relic density constraint. Specifically we find that the lightest neutralino mass consistent with the relic density constraint, $b\tau$ unification for SU(5) and $b-t-\tau$ unification for SO(10) in addition to other constraints lies in the region below 80 GeV. An analysis of the maximum and the minimum neutralino-proton scalar cross section for the allowed parameter space including the effect of a new determination of the pion-nucleon sigma term is also given. It is found that the full parameter space for this class of models can be explored in the next generation of proposed dark matter detectors.Comment: 28 pages,nLatex including 5 fig

Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration

Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements from the first three years of RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy, yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse momenta (p_T), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, non-statistical fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high p_T. The results are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.Comment: 510 authors, 127 pages text, 56 figures, 1 tables, LaTeX. Submitted to Nuclear Physics A as a regular article; v3 has minor changes in response to referee comments. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Observation of Scaling Violations in Scaled Momentum Distributions at HERA

Charged particle production has been measured in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) events over a large range of $x$ and $Q^2$ using the ZEUS detector. The evolution of the scaled momentum, $x_p$, with $Q^2,$ in the range 10 to 1280 $GeV^2$, has been investigated in the current fragmentation region of the Breit frame. The results show clear evidence, in a single experiment, for scaling violations in scaled momenta as a function of $Q^2$.Comment: 21 pages including 4 figures, to be published in Physics Letters B. Two references adde