4,154 research outputs found
Geothermal probabilistic cost study
A tool is presented to quantify the risks of geothermal projects, the Geothermal Probabilistic Cost Model (GPCM). The GPCM model was used to evaluate a geothermal reservoir for a binary-cycle electric plant at Heber, California. Three institutional aspects of the geothermal risk which can shift the risk among different agents was analyzed. The leasing of geothermal land, contracting between the producer and the user of the geothermal heat, and insurance against faulty performance were examined
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A Galerkin boundary element method for high frequency scattering by convex polygons
In this paper we consider the problem of time-harmonic acoustic scattering in two dimensions by convex polygons. Standard boundary or finite element methods for acoustic scattering problems have a computational cost that grows at least linearly as a function of the frequency of the incident wave. Here we present a novel Galerkin boundary element method, which uses an approximation space consisting of the products of plane waves with piecewise polynomials supported on a graded mesh, with smaller elements closer to the corners of the polygon. We prove that the best approximation from the approximation space requires a number of degrees of freedom to achieve a prescribed level of accuracy that grows only logarithmically as a function of the frequency. Numerical results demonstrate the same logarithmic dependence on the frequency for the Galerkin method solution. Our boundary element method is a discretization of a well-known second kind combined-layer-potential integral equation. We provide a proof that this equation and its adjoint are well-posed and equivalent to the boundary value problem in a Sobolev space setting for general Lipschitz domains
Results on the Wess-Zumino consistency condition for arbitrary Lie algebras
The so-called covariant Poincare lemma on the induced cohomology of the
spacetime exterior derivative in the cohomology of the gauge part of the BRST
differential is extended to cover the case of arbitrary, non reductive Lie
algebras. As a consequence, the general solution of the Wess-Zumino consistency
condition with a non trivial descent can, for arbitrary (super) Lie algebras,
be computed in the small algebra of the 1 form potentials, the ghosts and their
exterior derivatives. For particular Lie algebras that are the semidirect sum
of a semisimple Lie subalgebra with an ideal, a theorem by Hochschild and Serre
is used to characterize more precisely the cohomology of the gauge part of the
BRST differential in the small algebra. In the case of an abelian ideal, this
leads to a complete solution of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition in this
space. As an application, the consistent deformations of 2+1 dimensional
Chern-Simons theory based on iso(2,1) are rediscussed.Comment: 39 pages Latex file, 1 eps figure, typos and proof of lemma 5
correcte
Nanocrystalline Zr3Al Made through Amorphization by Repeated Cold Rolling and Followed by Crystallization
The intermetallic compound Zr3Al is severely deformed by the method of
repeated cold rolling. By X-ray diffraction it is shown that this leads to
amorphization. TEM investigations reveal that a homogeneously distributed
debris of very small nanocrystals is present in the amorphous matrix that is
not resolved by X-ray diffraction. After heating to 773 K, the crystallization
of the amorphous structure leads to a fully nanocrystalline structure of small
grains (10 - 20 nm in diameter) of the non-equilibrium Zr2Al phase. It is
concluded that the debris retained in the amorphous phase acts as nuclei. After
heating to 973 K the grains grow to about 100 nm in diameter and the compound
Zr3Al starts to form, that is corresponding to the alloy composition
Deficits in Analogical Reasoning in Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury
Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) exhibit deficits in executive control, which may impact their reasoning abilities. Analogical reasoning requires working memory and inhibitory abilities. In this study, we tested adolescents with moderate to severe TBI and typically developing (TD) controls on a set of picture analogy problems. Three factors were varied: complexity (number of relations in the problems), distraction (distractor item present or absent), and animacy (living or non-living items in the problems). We found that TD adolescents performed significantly better overall than TBI adolescents. There was also an age effect present in the TBI group where older participants performed better than younger ones. This age effect was not observed in the TD group. Performance was affected by complexity and distraction. Further, TBI participants exhibited lower performance with distractors present than TD participants. The reasoning deficits exhibited by the TBI participants were correlated with measures of executive function that required working memory updating, attention, and attentional screening. Using MRI-derived measures of cortical thickness, correlations were carried out between task accuracy and cortical thickness. The TD adolescents showed negative correlations between thickness and task accuracy in frontal and temporal regions consistent with cortical maturation in these regions. This study demonstrates that adolescent TBI results in impairments in analogical reasoning ability. Further, TBI youth have difficulty effectively screening out distraction, which may lead to failures in comprehension of the relations among items in visual scenes. Lastly, TBI youth fail to show robust cortical–behavior correlations as observed in TD individuals
The perceived barriers to the inclusion of rainwater harvesting systems by UK house building companies
This work investigates the barriers that exist to deter the implementation of rainwater harvesting into new UK housing. A postal questionnaire was sent to a selection of large, medium and small house-builders distributed across the UK. Questions were asked concerning potential barriers to the inclusion of rainwater harvesting in homes separated into five sections; (1) institutional and regulatory gaps, (2) economic and financial constraints, (3) absence of incentives, (4) lack of information and technical knowledge, and (5) house-builder attitudes. The study concludes that although the knowledge of rainwater systems has increased these barriers are deterring house-builders from installing rainwater harvesting systems in new homes. It is further acknowledged that the implementation of rainwater harvesting will continue to be limited whilst these barriers remain and unless resolved, rainwater harvesting's potential to reduce the consumption of potable water in houses will continue to be limited
Comment on `A scattering quantum circuit for measuring Bell's time inequality: a nuclear magnetic resonance demonstration using maximally mixed states'
A recent paper by Souza, Oliveira and Sarthour (SOS) reports the experimental
violation of a Leggett-Garg inequality (sometimes referred to as a temporal
Bell inequality). The inequality tests for quantum mechanical superposition: if
the inequality is violated, the dynamics cannot be explained by a large class
of classical theories under the heading of macrorealism. Experimental tests of
the LG inequality are beset by the difficulty of performing the necessary
so-called 'non-invasive' measurements (which for the macrorealist will extract
information from a system of interest without disturbing it). SOS argue that
they nevertheless achieve this difficult goal by putting the system in a
maximally mixed state. The system then allegedly undergoes no perturbation
during their experiment. Unfortunately the method is ultimately unconvincing to
a skeptical macrorealist, and so the conclusions drawn by SOS are unjustified.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Quantum Forbidden-Interval Theorems for Stochastic Resonance
We extend the classical forbidden-interval theorems for a
stochastic-resonance noise benefit in a nonlinear system to a quantum-optical
communication model and a continuous-variable quantum key distribution model.
Each quantum forbidden-interval theorem gives a necessary and sufficient
condition that determines whether stochastic resonance occurs in quantum
communication of classical messages. The quantum theorems apply to any quantum
noise source that has finite variance or that comes from the family of
infinite-variance alpha-stable probability densities. Simulations show the
noise benefits for the basic quantum communication model and the
continuous-variable quantum key distribution model.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
Equilibrium basal-plane magnetization of superconductive YNi(2)B(2)C - the influence of non-local electrodynamics
For a single crystal of YNi(2)B(2)C superconductor, the equilibrium
magnetization M in the square basal plane has been studied experimentally as a
function of temperature and magnetic field. While the magnetization M(H)
deviates from conventional London predictions, a recent extension of London
theory (to include effects of non-local electrodynamics) describes the
experiments accurately. The resulting superconductive parameters are well
behaved. These results are compared with corresponding findings for the case
with M perpendicular to the basal plane.Comment: 7 pages, 5 Postscript Figures, 2 table
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