3,182 research outputs found
Embodied carbon and construction cost differences between Hong Kong and Melbourne buildings
Limiting the amount of embodied carbon in buildings can help minimize the damaging impacts of global warming through lower upstream emission of CO2. This study empirically investigates the embodied carbon footprint of new-build and refurbished buildings in both Hong Kong and Melbourne to determine the embodied carbon profile and its relationship to both embodied energy and construction cost. The Hong Kong findings suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 33-39% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 22-50% lower than new-build projects (per square metre of floor area). The Melbourne findings, however, suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 4% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 24% higher than new-build projects (per square metre of floor area). Embodied carbon ranges from 645-1,059 kgCO2e/m2 for new-build and 294-655 kgCO2e/m2 for refurbished projects in Hong Kong, and 1,138-1,705 kgCO2e/m2 for new-build and 900-1,681 kgCO2e/m2 for refurbished projects in Melbourne. The reasons behind these locational discrepancies are explored and critiqued. Overall, a very strong linear relationship between embodied energy and construction cost in both cities was found and can be used to predict the former, given the latter
A note on the third family of N=2 supersymmetric KdV hierarchies
We propose a hamiltonian formulation of the supersymmetric KP type
hierarchy recently studied by Krivonos and Sorin. We obtain a quadratic
hamiltonian structure which allows for several reductions of the KP type
hierarchy. In particular, the third family of KdV hierarchies is
recovered. We also give an easy construction of Wronskian solutions of the KP
and KdV type equations
Spin Star as Switch for Quantum Networks
Quantum state transfer is an important task in quantum information
processing. It is known that one can engineer the couplings of a
one-dimensional spin chain to achieve the goal of perfect state transfer. To
leverage the value of these spin chains, a spin star is potentially useful for
connecting different parts of a quantum network. In this work, we extend the
spin-chain engineering problem to the problems with a topology of a star
network. We show that a permanently coupled spin star can function as a network
switch for transferring quantum states selectively from one node to another by
varying the local potentials only. Together with one-dimensional chains, this
result allows applications of quantum state transfer be applied to more general
quantum networks.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figur
A direct disodium dihydrogen ethylenediaminetetraacetate titration procedure for magnesium in limestone
Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references (page 10)
Direct ethylenediaminetetraacetate titration procedure for calcium in biological substances : anion exchange separation of phosphate
Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references (page 10)
Time-dependent density-functional theory for open systems
By introducing the self-energy density functionals for the dissipative
interactions between the reduced system and its environment, we develop a
time-dependent density-functional theory formalism based on an equation of
motion for the Kohn-Sham reduced single-electron density matrix of the reduced
system. Two approximate schemes are proposed for the self-energy density
functionals, the complete second order approximation and the wide-band limit
approximation. A numerical method based on the wide-band limit approximation is
subsequently developed and implemented to simulate the steady and transient
current through various realistic molecular devices. Simulation results are
presented and discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure
Blockchain-IoT-driven nursing workforce planning for effective long-term care management in nursing homes
Due to the global ageing population, the increasing demand for long-term care services for the elderly has directed considerable attention towards the renovation of nursing homes. Although nursing homes play an essential role within residential elderly care, professional shortages have created serious pressure on the elderly service sector. Effective workforce planning is vital for improving the efficacy and workload balance of existing nursing staff in today's complex and volatile long-term care service market. Currently, there is lack of an integrated solution to monitor care services and determine the optimal nursing staffing strategy in nursing homes. This study addresses the above challenge through the formulation of nursing staffing optimisation under the blockchain-internet of things (BIoT) environment. Embedding a blockchain into IoT establishes the long-term care platform for the elderly and care workers, thereby decentralising long-term care information in the nursing home network to achieve effective care service monitoring. Moreover, such information is further utilised to optimise nursing staffing by using a genetic algorithm. A case study of a Hong Kong nursing home was conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed system. We found that the total monthly staffing cost after using the proposed model was significantly lower than the existing practice with a change of -13.48%, which considers the use of heterogeneous workforce and temporary staff. Besides, the care monitoring and staffing flexibility are further enhanced, in which the concept of skill substitution is integrated in nursing staffing optimisation
Multi-Qubit Gates in Arrays Coupled by 'Always On' Interactions
Recently there has been interest in the idea of quantum computing without
control of the physical interactions between component qubits. This is highly
appealing since the 'switching' of such interactions is a principal difficulty
in creating real devices. It has been established that one can employ 'always
on' interactions in a one-dimensional Heisenberg chain, provided that one can
tune the Zeeman energies of the individual (pseudo-)spins. It is important to
generalize this scheme to higher dimensional networks, since a real device
would probably be of that kind. Such generalisations have been proposed, but
only at the severe cost that the efficiency of qubit storage must *fall*. Here
we propose the use of multi-qubit gates within such higher-dimensional arrays,
finding a novel three-qubit gate that can in fact increase the efficiency
beyond the linear model. Thus we are able to propose higher dimensional
networks that can constitute a better embodiment of the 'always on' concept - a
substantial step toward bringing this novel concept to full fruition.Comment: 20 pages in preprint format, inc. 3 figures. This version has fixed
typos and printer-friendly figures, and is to appear in NJ
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