Assessing the time-sensitive impacts of energy efficiency and flexibility in the US building sector

The building sector consumes 75% of US electricity, offering substantial energy, cost, and CO2 emissions savings potential. New technologies enable buildings to flexibly manage electric loads across different times of day and season in support of a low-cost, low-carbon electric grid. Assessing the value of such technologies requires an understanding of building electric load variability at a higher temporal resolution than is demonstrated in previous studies of US building efficiency potential. We adapt Scout, an open-access model of US building energy use, to characterize sub-annual variations in baseline building electricity use, costs, and emissions at the national scale. We apply this baseline in time-sensitive analyses of the energy, cost, and CO2 emissions savings potential of various degrees of energy efficiency and flexibility, finding that efficiency continues to have strong value in a time-sensitive assessment framework while the value of flexibility depends on assumed electricity rates, measure magnitude and duration, and the amount of savings already captured by efficiency

Abnormal attentions towards the British Royal Family. Factors associated with approach and escalation

Abnormal approach and escalation from communication to physical intrusion are central concerns in managing risk to prominent people. This study was a retrospective analysis of police files of those who have shown abnormal attentions toward the British Royal Family. Approach (n = 222), compared with communication only (n = 53), was significantly associated with specific factors, most notably serious mental illness and grandiosity. In a sample of those who engaged in abnormal communication (n = 132), those who approached (n = 79) were significantly more likely to evidence mental illness and grandiosity, to use multiple communications, to employ multiple means of communication, and to be driven by motivations that concerned a personal entitlement to the prominent individual. Logistic regression produced a model comprising grandiosity, multiple communications, and multiple means of communication, for which receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis gave an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.82. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to those for other target groups

Lunar surface roughness comminution study Final report, 20 Jul. 1964 - 7 Apr. 1965

Lunar surface roughness comminution estimated by considering meteoric body catering proces

Stellar Populations in Ten Clump-Cluster Galaxies of the Ultra Deep Field

Color-color diagrams for the clump and interclump emission in 10 clump-cluster galaxies of the Ultra Deep Field are made from B,V,i, and z images and compared with models to determine redshifts, star formation histories, and galaxy masses. The clump colors suggest declining star formation over the last ~0.3 Gy, while the interclump emission is older. The clump luminous masses are typically 6x10^8 Msun and their diameters average 1.8 kpc. Total galaxy luminous masses average 6.5x10^10 Msun. The distribution of axial ratios is consistent with a thick disk geometry. The ages of the clumps are longer than their internal dynamical times by a factor of ~8, so they are stable clusters, but the clump densities are only ~10 times the limiting tidal densities, so they could be deformed by tidal forces. This is consistent with the observation that some clumps have tails. The clumps could form by gravitational instabilities in accreting disk gas, or they could be captured as gas-rich dwarf galaxies. Support for this second possibility comes from the high abundance of nearly identical bare clumps in the UDF field. Several clump-clusters have disk densities that are much larger than in local disks, suggesting they do not survive but get converted into ellipticals by collisions.Comment: 34 pgs, including 12 figures, accepted by Astrophysical Journal for 20 July 2005 v.62

Architectural Precast Concrete Wall Panels: Their Technological Evolution, Significance, and Preservation

Architectural precast concrete wall panels played an important role in mid-twentieth century architecture by providing a concrete technology that could be applied to the curtain wall system of construction utilized in this time period. Moreover, the precasting process, which enabled the controlled production of expressive facing concrete mixes and surface treatments and finishes, made this a concrete technology that could contribute to the architectural expression of the building. To promote the preservation of these panels, this thesis investigates and illuminates their historical and architectural significance in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. There are, however, numerous technical challenges to the physical preservation of architectural precast wall panels, the most significant of which is due to their specially designed concrete mix and surface finish. Given the importance of preserving these characteristics, the general retroactive preservation action of applying patches to deteriorated concrete is unsatisfactory; instead, we must adopt a preventive approach. Towards this end, this thesis examines documents published in the United States between 1945 and 1975 that informed the design, production, and assembly of architectural precast wall panels. The information from these documents is used to trace the technological evolution of these panels and, ultimately, to identify potential material vulnerabilities and associated deterioration mechanisms to which they may be subject. This methodology provides foundational information to be used in the creation of preventive conservation plans for buildings constructed with this concrete technology