Aerospace digital computer design trends

Aerospace digital computer design trends including computer programs and input/output routine

Geology and Hydrogeology of Faults on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada: an overview

Cape Breton Island provides a hydrogeological view into the roots of an ancient mountain range, now exhumed, glaciated, and tectonically inactive. It exhibits deep crustal faults and magma chambers associated with formation of the Appalachian mountain belt and the Maritimes Basin during the Paleozoic, as well as Mesozoic rifting relating to the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Cenozoic exhumation brought these features near surface and into the active groundwater flow field where they were impacted by glaciation and fluctuating sea level. The faults have been important from a societal viewpoint in development of municipal groundwater supplies, controlling inflows to excavations, hydrocarbon exploration, quarry development, and geotechnical investigations. Conceptual models presented here outline fault control on groundwater flow based on seven case studies. Future research should focus on basin-bounding faults in support of managing their role in aquifer development and protection, mountain-front recharge, controlling large-magnitude springs, groundwater–stream interaction, and channel morphology. The hydrogeological importance of these faults has historically been underappreciated

The geology and hydrogeology of buried bedrock valley aquifers on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia: an overview

Buried bedrock valley aquifers are common across Canada, where multiple glaciations have buried both pre-glacial and Pleistocene valleys. These aquifers are becoming increasingly important as a supply of potable groundwater, for supporting aquatic habitat, and as part of strategies in adapting to a changing climate. However, in Canada, there are considerable knowledge gaps at national, regional, and local scales, such that many buried bedrock valleys remain unidentified or underexplored. Cape Breton Island provides a hydrogeological view into the roots of an ancient mountain range, now exhumed, glaciated, deglaciated, and tectonically inactive. Since the Cretaceous, a variety of geological processes have formed several buried bedrock valley aquifers over the island. These aquifers are important in providing municipal and commercial groundwater supplies, controlling mine dewatering, protection of salmonids, design and monitoring of waste disposal sites, and geotechnical investigations for infrastructure design. Of 150 sites assessed, 61% provided evidence of buried aquifers comprising unconsolidated sand and gravel of Cretaceous, Pleistocene, and Holocene ages. These sites provided the basis for five conceptual, 3-D hydrogeological block models. Three hydrogeological case studies provided further insight into the functioning of two of these models. Future studies should identify and characterize aquifers in high demand areas and/or those that support important riverine ecosystems. Research should focus on aquifer properties, groundwater-stream interaction, and the impact of changing climate with sea-level rise

Investor Behaviour Facing Risk : Neurofinance and Financial Crises

Cette thèse étudie le comportement des investisseurs au travers de leur performance et de leurs attentes durant les crises financières de 2008-2011 et de leurs croyances. Elle se compose de trois chapitres. Dans le premier chapitre, nous faisons une revue de la littérature existante sur la performance des investisseurs individuels, leur biais comportementaux et leurs préférences. Nous montrons les principales lacunes en termes de performance des investisseurs individuels ainsi que leurs principaux biais comportementaux. Nous mettons également en lumière l’apport des neurosciences dans la compréhension du comportement des investisseurs individuels. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous étudions l’impact des crises financières de 2008-2011 sur la performance des investisseurs individuels et leurs attentes à l’égard de leurs intermédiaires financiers dans quatre différents pays : Allemagne, Belgique, Luxembourg, France. Nous établissons également une comparaison en fonction du niveau de richesse des investisseurs à l’intérieur de chaque pays mais aussi globalement. Nos données proviennent de questionnaires distribués à des gestionnaires d’actifs dans les plus grandes banques des pays pris en considération ainsi que des données de marché historiques pour chacun de ces pays. Nous montrons que les investisseurs les plus fortunés sont les moins réfractaires à la prise de risque que ce soit avant ou après les crises financières, quel que soit le pays pris en considération. Nous remarquons aussi que ces derniers adoptent les stratégies d’investissement les moins conservatrices. Enfin nous notons un important changement des attentes des investisseurs par rapport à leurs intermédiaires financiers, demandant plus de transparence et un meilleur service clientèle, quel que soit le niveau de richesse. Nous montrons enfin que ces attentes peuvent être contradictoires notamment chez les investisseurs les moins fortunés. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous fournissons un test expérimental sur la formation des croyances chez les investisseurs individuels d’après le modèle de Brunnermeier et Parker (2005). Nous utilisons à cet effet une expérimentation avec deux loteries identiques exceptées leur skewness. Nous montrons que les participants à cette expérimentation ressentent des émotions par anticipation une fois qu’ils ont pris connaissance de la loterie à laquelle ils vont jouer. Ces émotions se forment à partir de la deuxième minute d’attente et restent stables jusqu’à ce qu’ils prennent connaissance de leurs gains. Par ailleurs, ces émotions par anticipation sont aussi fortes que celles ressenties une fois leurs gains connus. Enfin nous montrons que les sujets participants à la loterie avec une skewness positive présente moins de capacité d’auto régulation que les autres sujets. Les émotions qu’ils ressentent sont plus fortes et plus persistantes que chez les autres.This thesis studies the investors behaviour through their performance and their expectations during the 2008-2011 financial crises as well as their beliefs formation. It consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, we review the literature on individual investors performance, their behavioural biases and their preferences. We highlight their lack of performance on financial markets and their main behavioural biases. We also exhibit the contribution of neurosciences in the understanding of the investor’s brain. In the second chapter, we study the impacts of the 2008-2011 financial crises on individual investors returns and their expectations towards their financial intermediaries in four different countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg. We also consider investors differences regarding their endowment, inside each country and globally. Our dataset is extracted from questionnaires administered to asset managers in the main banks in the countries considered as well as historical market data for each country. We show that wealthier investors are less risk averse and their level of risk aversion has not changed with financial crises whatever the country considered. Furthermore, these wealthier investors adopt less conservative investment strategies than retail ones. We notice an important shift regarding the investors’ expectations towards their financial intermediaries, since the crises they ask for more transparency and more client services. We also show that these expectations may be contradictory a bit in retail investors. In the third chapter, we provide an experimental test of investors beliefs formations according to Brunnermeier and Parker model (2005). For this purpose, we use a two identical lotteries design except in terms of skewness. We show that participants to this experiment feel anticipatory emotions once they have learned the lottery they will play. These emotions are formed from the second waiting minute and remain stable until they learn their gains. Besides, anticipatory emotions are as strong as emotions felt once the payoffs known. Finally, we demonstrate that subjects participating in the positively skewed lottery exhibit less self-regulation than other subjects. Hence, their emotions are stronger and more persistent

Investor Behaviour Facing Risk : Neurofinance and Financial Crises

Cette thèse étudie le comportement des investisseurs au travers de leur performance et de leurs attentes durant les crises financières de 2008-2011 et de leurs croyances. Elle se compose de trois chapitres. Dans le premier chapitre, nous faisons une revue de la littérature existante sur la performance des investisseurs individuels, leur biais comportementaux et leurs préférences. Nous montrons les principales lacunes en termes de performance des investisseurs individuels ainsi que leurs principaux biais comportementaux. Nous mettons également en lumière l’apport des neurosciences dans la compréhension du comportement des investisseurs individuels. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous étudions l’impact des crises financières de 2008-2011 sur la performance des investisseurs individuels et leurs attentes à l’égard de leurs intermédiaires financiers dans quatre différents pays : Allemagne, Belgique, Luxembourg, France. Nous établissons également une comparaison en fonction du niveau de richesse des investisseurs à l’intérieur de chaque pays mais aussi globalement. Nos données proviennent de questionnaires distribués à des gestionnaires d’actifs dans les plus grandes banques des pays pris en considération ainsi que des données de marché historiques pour chacun de ces pays. Nous montrons que les investisseurs les plus fortunés sont les moins réfractaires à la prise de risque que ce soit avant ou après les crises financières, quel que soit le pays pris en considération. Nous remarquons aussi que ces derniers adoptent les stratégies d’investissement les moins conservatrices. Enfin nous notons un important changement des attentes des investisseurs par rapport à leurs intermédiaires financiers, demandant plus de transparence et un meilleur service clientèle, quel que soit le niveau de richesse. Nous montrons enfin que ces attentes peuvent être contradictoires notamment chez les investisseurs les moins fortunés. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous fournissons un test expérimental sur la formation des croyances chez les investisseurs individuels d’après le modèle de Brunnermeier et Parker (2005). Nous utilisons à cet effet une expérimentation avec deux loteries identiques exceptées leur skewness. Nous montrons que les participants à cette expérimentation ressentent des émotions par anticipation une fois qu’ils ont pris connaissance de la loterie à laquelle ils vont jouer. Ces émotions se forment à partir de la deuxième minute d’attente et restent stables jusqu’à ce qu’ils prennent connaissance de leurs gains. Par ailleurs, ces émotions par anticipation sont aussi fortes que celles ressenties une fois leurs gains connus. Enfin nous montrons que les sujets participants à la loterie avec une skewness positive présente moins de capacité d’auto régulation que les autres sujets. Les émotions qu’ils ressentent sont plus fortes et plus persistantes que chez les autres.This thesis studies the investors behaviour through their performance and their expectations during the 2008-2011 financial crises as well as their beliefs formation. It consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, we review the literature on individual investors performance, their behavioural biases and their preferences. We highlight their lack of performance on financial markets and their main behavioural biases. We also exhibit the contribution of neurosciences in the understanding of the investor’s brain. In the second chapter, we study the impacts of the 2008-2011 financial crises on individual investors returns and their expectations towards their financial intermediaries in four different countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg. We also consider investors differences regarding their endowment, inside each country and globally. Our dataset is extracted from questionnaires administered to asset managers in the main banks in the countries considered as well as historical market data for each country. We show that wealthier investors are less risk averse and their level of risk aversion has not changed with financial crises whatever the country considered. Furthermore, these wealthier investors adopt less conservative investment strategies than retail ones. We notice an important shift regarding the investors’ expectations towards their financial intermediaries, since the crises they ask for more transparency and more client services. We also show that these expectations may be contradictory a bit in retail investors. In the third chapter, we provide an experimental test of investors beliefs formations according to Brunnermeier and Parker model (2005). For this purpose, we use a two identical lotteries design except in terms of skewness. We show that participants to this experiment feel anticipatory emotions once they have learned the lottery they will play. These emotions are formed from the second waiting minute and remain stable until they learn their gains. Besides, anticipatory emotions are as strong as emotions felt once the payoffs known. Finally, we demonstrate that subjects participating in the positively skewed lottery exhibit less self-regulation than other subjects. Hence, their emotions are stronger and more persistent

War, a threat to sustainable water supply

War, a threat to sustainable water suppl

Oxygen flux through unmodified and modified La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-8 hollow fibre membranes and application to methane oxidation

PhD ThesisImproved catalytic routes could help to transform the exploitation of the large worldwide natural gas reserves, whose principal component is methane. They transform methane into more valuable chemicals and fuels through carbon dioxide reforming of methane (CDRM), steam reforming of methane (SRM) and partial oxidation of methane (POM). These reactions facilitate the formation of syngas, which is subsequently converted to fuels through the Fischer-Tröpsch synthesis. Mixed Ionic and Electronic Conducting (MIEC) membrane reactors are of interest because they have the potential to produce high purity oxygen from air at lower costs and provide a continuous oxygen supply to reactions or/and industrial processes, and hence avoid sourcing the pure oxygen from air by conventional cryogenic separation technology. In addition, the MIEC ceramic membrane shows the ability to carry out simultaneous oxygen permeation and hydrocarbons oxidation into single compact ceramic membrane reactor at high temperature. This can reduce the capital investment for gas-to-liquid (GTL) plants and for distributing hydrogen. This study compares the oxygen release and oxygen uptake obtained through a LaSrCoFeO hollow fibre membrane (referred as LSCF6428-HFM) under an 0.60.40.20.83-δ Air/He gradient at 850°C and 900°C. The separation and quantification of these two processes permitted the determination of the oxygen incorporated into LSCF6428 structure and the development of a model for apparent overall rate constant using the molar flow of the oxygen at the inlet and outlet in different side of membrane (i.e. shell side and lumen side). The results show that the oxygen flux is enhanced by rising helium flow rates, this is due to an increased driving force for oxygen migration across the membrane and also the air flow determines the oxygen amount that permeates across the membrane. In addition, the oxygen flux improves at higher temperatures, due to its dependence on bulk oxygen diffusion and the oxygen surface reaction rates. The temperature increase improves the mobility of the lattice oxygen vacancies and also the concentration of lattice oxygen vacancies in the perovskite. The impact of surface modification was also studied by coating CoO and 5%Ni-LSCF6428 34 catalysts on the shell side surface of the LSCF6428 hollow fibre membrane for oxygen permeation. It was found that the oxygen flux significantly improved under Air/He gradient for catalyst-coated LSCF6428-HFM. However, under continuous operation conditions over a long time both the unmodified and the modified perovskite LSCF6428-HFM reactors suffered segregation of metal oxides or redistribution of metal composition at the surface membrane, although the bulk LSCF6428 membrane stoichiometry did not change. The apparent overall rate constants for oxygen permeation of the CoO/LSCF6428-HFM and 34 5%Ni/LSCF6428-HFM were enhanced 3-4 fold compared to unmodified LSCF6428-HFM. Comparison of both modified HFM reactors revealed that the apparent overall rate constants for CoO/LSCF6428-HFM were 2 fold higher than those obtained for 5%Ni- 34 LSCF6428/HFM. According to the distribution of total oxygen permeation residence for unmodified and modified LSCF6428-HFM reactor, the oxygen permeation rate is limited by surface exchange on the oxygen lean side or lumen side (R) at 850°C and 900°C and the ex contribution of bulk diffusion on the oxygen permeation rate increased with a rise in the temperature (900°C). The methane oxidation reaction was studied in unmodified and modified 5%Ni- LSCF6428/LSCF6428 hollow fibre membrane in reactors at 850°C. The results suggest that catalytic pathways in methane oxidation depended upon flow operation modes, oxygen concentration, Htreatment and on the type of catalyst. The performances in methane conversion of LSCF6428-HFM and 5%Ni/LSCF6428-HFM modules facilitated the formation of SrCO3 because of the reaction of CO2 with segregated strontium oxide.University of Newcastle upon Tyne (EPSRC