Assessing the effects of technological progress on energy efficiency in the construction industry: A case of China

Energy-saving technologies in buildings have received great attention from energy efficiency researchers in the construction sector. Traditional research tends to focus on the energy used during building operation and in construction materials production, but it usually neglects the energy consumed in the building construction process. Very few studies have explored the impacts of technological progress on energy efficiency in the construction industry. This paper presents a model of the building construction process based on Cobb-Douglas production function. The model estimates the effects of technological progress on energy efficiency with the objective to examine the role that technological progress plays in energy savings in China's construction industry. The modeling results indicated that technological progress improved energy efficiency by an average of 7.1% per year from 1997 to 2014. Furthermore, three main technological progress factors (the efficiency of machinery and equipment, the proportion change of the energy structure, and research and development investment) were selected to analyze their effects on energy efficiency improvement. These positive effects were verified, and results show the effects of first two factors are significant. Finally, recommendations for promoting energy efficiency in the construction industry are proposed

Differential space-time block-coded OFDMA for frequency-selective fading channels

Combining differential Alamouti space-time block code (DASTBC) with orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), this paper introduces a multiuser/multirate transmission scheme, which allows full-rate and full-diversity noncoherent communications using two transmit antennas over frequency-selective fading channels. Compared with the existing differential space-time coded OFDM designs, our scheme imposes 10 restrictions on signal constellations, and thus can improve the spectral efficiency by exploiting efficient modulation techniques such as QAM, APSK etc. The main principles of our design are s follows: OFDMA eliminates multiuser interference, and converts multiuser environments to single-user ones; Space-time coding achieves performance improvement by exploiting space diversity available with multiple antennas, no matter whether channel state information is known to the receiver. System performance is evaluated both analytically and with simulations

New neighborhood based rough sets

Neighborhood based rough sets are important generalizations of the classical rough sets of Pawlak, as neighborhood operators generalize equivalence classes. In this article, we introduce nine neighborhood based operators and we study the partial order relations between twenty-two different neighborhood operators obtained from one covering. Seven neighborhood operators result in new rough set approximation operators. We study how these operators are related to the other fifteen neighborhood based approximation operators in terms of partial order relations, as well as to seven non-neighborhood-based rough set approximation operators

Magnetic Moments of JP=3/2+J^P={3/2}^+ Pentaquarks

If the $J^P$ of $\Theta_5^+$ and $\Xi_5^{--}$ pentaquarks is really found to be ${1\over 2}^+$ by future experiments, they will be accompanied by $J^P={3\over 2}^+$ partners in some models. It is reasonable to expect that these $J^P={3\over 2}^+$ states will also be discovered in the near future with the current intensive experimental and theoretical efforts. We estimate $J^P={3/2}^+$ pentaquark magnetic moments using different models.Comment: 13 page

Numerical simulations of negative-index refraction in wedge-shaped metamaterials

A wedge-shaped structure made of split-ring resonators (SRR) and wires is numerically simulated to evaluate its refraction behavior. Four frequency bands, namely, the stop band, left-handed band, ultralow-index band, and positive-index band, are distinguished according to the refracted field distributions. Negative phase velocity inside the wedge is demonstrated in the left-handed band and the Snell's law is conformed in terms of its refraction behaviors in different frequency bands. Our results confirmed that negative index of refraction indeed exists in such a composite metamaterial and also provided a convincing support to the results of previous Snell's law experiments.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Heavy Pentaquarks

We construct the spin-flavor wave functions of the possible heavy pentaquarks containing an anti-charm or anti-bottom quark using various clustered quark models. Then we estimate the masses and magnetic moments of the $J^P={1\over 2}^+$ or ${3\over 2}^+$ heavy pentaquarks. We emphasize the difference in the predictions of these models. Future experimental searches at BESIII, CLEOc, BELLE, and LEP may find these interesting states

Pentaquark Magnetic Moments In Different Models

We calculate the magnetic moments of the pentaquark states from different models and compare our results with predictions of other groups.Comment: 17 pages, no figur