Experience Curves of Photovoltaic Technology

This paper examines the technological evolution, application, and cost trend of photovoltaic (PV) technology over the last three decades. It presents the longest experience curve for PV systems assembled to date; stretching back to the pre-commercialization period in the late 1960s. Cooperative investments by manufacturers and individual governments have resulted in the accumulation of experience within the solar industry and the subsequent cost reduction of PV systems. Significant cost reductions have occurred in both PV modules, that house the solar cells, and the ancillary components, known as balance-of-system (BOS). Between 1968 and 1998, the worldwide cumulative installed capacity of PV modules doubled more than thirteen times, from 95 kW to 950MW, while costs ($/Wp) were reduced by an average of 20.2% for each doubling. Cost reductions for PV modules are attributed to technology innovation, manufacturing improvements, and economies of scale. Though BOS are difficult to compare to one another - due to the customization of PV applications - targeted studies have shown that BOS costs have fallen over the past two decades and in some instances, more than module costs. BOS cost reductions are attributed to greater system integration and the experience of system designers and installers. Future cost improvements will be attained through greater standardization and pre-assembly of BOS components in the factory

Nondestructive assessment of penetration of electron-beam welds

Empirical method correlates penetration of an electron-beam weld with external measurements of the weld. Empirical polygon accurately confirms full-penetration welds while a second, larger polygon provides for penetration of welds near the tip

Design of a monitor and simulation terminal (master) for space station telerobotics and telescience

Based on Space Station and planetary spacecraft communication time delays and bandwidth limitations, it will be necessary to develop an intelligent, general purpose ground monitor terminal capable of sophisticated data display and control of on-orbit facilities and remote spacecraft. The basic elements that make up a Monitor and Simulation Terminal (MASTER) include computer overlay video, data compression, forward simulation, mission resource optimization and high level robotic control. Hardware and software elements of a MASTER are being assembled for testbed use. Applications of Neural Networks (NNs) to some key functions of a MASTER are also discussed. These functions are overlay graphics adjustment, object correlation and kinematic-dynamic characterization of the manipulator

New laboratory methodologies to analyse the top of rail friction modifier performance across different test scales

Test methodologies originally developed for greases have been adapted to be used for top of rail friction modifiers (TORFMs). This has included: a small-scale benchtop tribometer to measure the tackiness of different TORFMs, attaching an applicator bar to a section of rail and rolling a scaled-wheel through the TORFM applied to the rail head to analyse the effect of different variables on pick-up, and applying TORFM to a full-scale test facility to analyse the scaling effects and the effect of slip, load and speed on pick-up. These methods can be used to measure the relative performance of different TORFMs with respect to how much product is picked up by the wheel. The results have shown that the relative ranking of different TORFMs is the same across the three test scales. This shows that these small-scale test methods that are more suitable for inclusion in test standards could be used to reduce the need for the more time-consuming and expensive larger scale tests, as the relative performance is the same

Are We Beasts? Churchill and the Moral Question of World War II Area Bombing

The historical reassessment of the World War II British bombing campaign notes that though in 1940 Churchill declared that he was waging a military and not a civilian war to destroy military objectives and not women and children, within eighteen months types would be struck by Bomber Command. The author searches for the reasons in three contiguous realms of strategic influence: moral (and legal), political, and military. The study concludes that although for much of the war area bombing of cities was a tragic necessity meeting the reasonable man\u27s standard of what was decently allowable given the blunt weapons the Allies had and the evils faced, nonetheless Allied leaders could have and should have abandoned indiscriminate bombing in the last phases of the conflict, when more precise means were at hand and Nazi power had been overmatched.https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/usnwc-newport-papers/1000/thumbnail.jp

Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret

In 1988, only two years before the Soviet empire fell, secret scientific efforts were still turning germs into weapons and creating entirely new germs. In Koltsovo, a hidden Siberian city, scientist Nikolai Ustinov died from an accident while working with the Marburg virus, designed to bleed victims to death. With clinical detachment, he documented his own decline in a journal with bloodspotted pages. His colleagues found that the virus had mutated while killing him. Their response was consistent with their careers—they buried the scientist in a zinc-lined coffin and turned the “new” virus into a weapon, naming it “Variant U,” in tribute to Ustinov

The Cuddle Club

With The Cuddle Club, I intended to make a film that sought to examine intimacy as it relates to the extremes; in the film I subvert expectations of intimacy to make the audience reconsider why we draw our physical boundaries where we do. And while everybody may need a little cuddle every now and then, men have no right to touch women without their express permission. This paper will be an examination of the story behind the story. Of my thoughts on the process of creating my thesis film The Cuddle Club as it pertains to the screenwriting, preproduction, production and postproduction process. There will be a step-by-step analysis of the plot, as well as an introduction explaining how The Cuddle Club came to be. The Appendix will include all of the documents created during the preproduction process

Validating the Use of Vignettes for Subjective Threshold Scales

Comparing self-assessed indicators of subjective outcomes such as health, work disability, political efficacy, job satisfaction, etc. across countries or socio-economic groups is often hampered by the fact that different groups use systematically different response scales. Anchoring vignettes have been introduced as an effective tool to correct for such differences. This paper develops an integrated framework in which objective measurements are used to validate the vignette-based corrections. The framework is applied to vignettes and objective and subjective self-assessments of drinking behavior by students in Ireland. Model comparisons using the Akaike information criterion favor a specification with response consistency and vignette corrected response scales. Put differently, vignette based corrections appear quite effective in bringing objective and subjective measures closer together.anchoring vignettes;reporting bias;hopit model