Policy Design for Controlling Set-Point Temperature of ACs in Shared Spaces of Buildings

Air conditioning systems are responsible for the major percentage of energy consumption in buildings. Shared spaces constitute considerable office space area, in which most office employees perform their meetings and daily tasks, and therefore the ACs in these areas have significant impact on the energy usage of the entire office building. The cost of this energy consumption, however, is not paid by the shared space users, and the AC's temperature set-point is not determined based on the users' preferences. This latter factor is compounded by the fact that different people may have different choices of temperature set-points and sensitivities to change of temperature. Therefore, it is a challenging task to design an office policy to decide on a particular set-point based on such a diverse preference set. As a result, users are not aware of the energy consumption in shared spaces, which may potentially increase the energy wastage and related cost of office buildings. In this context, this paper proposes an energy policy for an office shared space by exploiting an established temperature control mechanism. In particular, we choose meeting rooms in an office building as the test case and design a policy according to which each user of the room can give a preference on the temperature set-point and is paid for felt discomfort if the set-point is not fixed according to the given preference. On the other hand, users who enjoy the thermal comfort compensate the other users of the room. Thus, the policy enables the users to be cognizant and responsible for the payment on the energy consumption of the office space they are sharing, and at the same time ensures that the users are satisfied either via thermal comfort or through incentives. The policy is also shown to be beneficial for building management. Through experiment based case studies, we show the effectiveness of the proposed policy.Comment: Journal paper accepted in Energy & Buildings (Elsevier

Nonlocality-controlled interaction of spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals

We demonstrate experimentally that the interactions between a pair of nonlocal spatial optical solitons in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) can be controlled by the degree of nonlocality. For a given beam width, the degree of nonlocality can be modulated by varying the pretilt angle of NLC molecules via the change of the bias. When the pretilt angle is smaller than pi/4, the nonlocality is strong enough to guarantee the independence of the interactions on the phase difference of the solitons. As the pretilt angle increases, the degree of nonlocality decreases. When the degree is below its critical value, the two solitons behavior in the way like their local counterpart: the two in-phase solitons attract and the two out-of-phase solitons repulse.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Novel proton conductors in the layered oxide material LixlAl0. 5Co0. 5O2

It is demonstrated that good proton conductors can be obtained in transition-element-rich layered intercalation materials such as LixAl0.5Co0.5O2. A power density of 173 mW cm−2 is achieved at 525 °C with a thick electrolyte (0.79 mm thick). The ionic conductivity of nominal LiAl0.5Co0.5O2 is 0.1 S cm−1 at 500 °C. This is the highest among known polycrystalline proton-conducting materials

The Impact of Data Agglomeration on Export Structure Upgrading in Cities: A Factor Mobility Perspective

The digital economy and export upgrading are important topics of common concern for policymakers and academics during the period of high-quality economic development. From the perspective of factor mobility, this paper constructs the two-way fixed effect, mediation effect, and spatial Durbin models to analyze the impacts of data agglomeration on urban export structure upgrading. Using panel data of 280 cities at the prefecture level and above in China from 2005 to 2018, the empirical analysis reveals a positive impact of data agglomeration on urban export structure upgrading, with capital transfer and technology diffusion further reinforcing this impact. Additionally, data agglomeration promotes urban export structure upgrading by optimizing innovation resource allocation and exhibits a spatial spillover effect on urban export structure upgrading. Finally, the facilitating effect on urban export structure upgrading is heterogeneous. Consequently, it is imperative to expedite the construction of new digital infrastructure, foster the integration and symbiotic evolution of data and traditional production factors, and implement distinct innovation development pathways based on regional comparative advantages