The Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol: An Update

Studies conducted since the late 1970s have estimated the net energy value (NEV) of corn ethanol. However, variations in data and assumptions used among the studies have resulted in a wide range of estimates. This study identifies the factors causing this wide variation and develops a more consistent estimate. We conclude that the NEV of corn ethanol has been rising over time due to technological advances in ethanol conversion and increased efficiency in farm production. We show that corn ethanol is energy efficient as indicated by an energy output:input ratio of 1.34.ethanol, net energy balance, corn production, energy, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Investigating Simultaneous Wireless Connections for a Quiz Management System-A Case Study

Near Field Communication is a set of communication protocols for communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4cm or less and Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances using UHF radio waves in the industrial, scientific and medical radio bands, from 2.402 GHz to 2.480GHz, and building personal area networks (PANs). Both these protocols facilitate wireless/ internet less communication between devices that have the capabilities. The paper titled 201C;Establishing Simultaneous Server-Side Connections for NFC/Bluetooth enabled Quiz Management Systems201D; further expanded the concept and usage of these protocols via the examination of modifications made to a Quiz Management System. It highlighted the QMS which was further developed to address a key limitation that was observed in the prior system

Presence Detection with Bluetooth Low Energy: A Review and Experiment

Bluetooth is one of the most ubiquitous technologies in smart phone today and its prominence in other devices is rising rapidly. It has become the De Facto technology used when there is need for device-to-device communication. However, the evolving standard has much more to offer. Bluetooth can power many applications due to capabilities. A key metric of Bluetooth is the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and depending on the readings one can infer locality. This study evaluates existing research that attempts localization implemented using the Bluetooth protocol and the metrics that power those applications. A proof-of-concept software is developed to further investigate the feasibility of presence detection using Bluetooth Low Energy without connection to a device.&nbsp

An Approach to Establishing Simultaneous Server-Side Connections for NFC/Bluetooth enabled Quiz Management Systems

Near Field Communication is a set of communication protocols for communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4cm or less and Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances using UHF radio waves in the industrial, scientific and medical radio bands, from 2.402 GHz to 2.480GHz, and building personal area networks(PANs). Both these protocols facilitate wireless/ internet less communication between devices that have the capabilities. This paper seeks to further expand the concept and usage of these protocols via the examination of modifications made to a Quiz Management System. The Quiz Management System, which is a solution to further advance the notion of a smart classroom setup within the context of short-range wireless technologies has already seen iterations developed on both the NFC and Bluetooth side of things

U.S. Biodiesel Development: New Markets for Conventional and Genetically Modified Agricultural Products

With environmental and energy source concerns on the rise, using agricultural fats and oils as fuel in diesel engines has captured increasing attention. Substituting petroleum diesel with biodiesel may reduce air emissions, increase the domestic supply of fuel, and create new markets for farmers. U.S. agricultural fats and oils could support a large amount of biodiesel, but high production costs and competing uses for biodiesel feedstocks will likely prevent mass adoption of biodiesel fuel. Higher-priced niche markets could develop for biodiesels as a result of environmental regulations. Biodiesel has many environmental advantages relative to petroleum diesel, such as lower CO, CO2, SOx, and particulate matter emissions. Enhancing fuel properties by genetically modifiying oil crops could improve NOx emissions, cold flow, and oxidative stability, which have been identified as potential problems for biodiesel. Research activities need to be directed toward cost reduction, improving fuel properties, and analyzing the economic effects of biodiesel development on U.S. agriculture.biodiesel, biodiesel blends, fatty acid esters, soybean, oil crops, animal fats, plant genetics, diesel engines, alternative fuels, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Normal faulting and landsliding in morpho-structural domes related to buried salt stocks, Zagros Mountains, Iran. Insights into salt breakout

Normal faulting in domal structures above diapirs has important implications in hydrocarbon geoscience, but studies on surface faulting on exposed growing domes are scarce. Moreover, there is limited work addressing the erosional processes involved in the unroofing of active diapirs preceding salt emergence. This investigation analyses two morpho-structural domes (Gavbast Dome: GD; Kooh Bedoo Dome: KBD) associated with growing anticlines related to the rejuvenation of precursor buried salt stocks in the Zagros Mountains. The structural relief of the domes (1330 m in GD and 400 m in KBD) and the available chronological data on fold development indicate long-term uplift rates of around 0.1–0.4 mm/yr. GD displays three domains with different fault patterns: (1) fold-normal grabens in one half; (2) polygonal faulting with multiple enclosed graben depressions in the crest; and (3) fold-parallel faulting on the other half. KBD shows a major fold-normal graben restricted to the crest and one flank of the dome. The lack of the typical radial pattern related to multidirectional hoop extension can be attributed the suppression of extension in the fold-normal direction by regional shortening. Other factors such as complexities in the folding structure, outer-arc extension in the anticline crests, and plan geometry seem to play a local control on fault patterns. The studied domes display an extraordinarily high density of large slope movements, indicating that they play an instrumental role in the unroofing process. The slope failures, with sliding planes mainly developed in argillaceous units overlain by thick limestone packages, include incipient planar rock slides more than 5 km2 in area expressed as buckle folds in the lower part of the slopes. The main preparatory factors involved in the development of these slope collapses include rock mass weakening by faulting and slope over-steepening, both related to doming. Our detailed mapping and the examination of a number of salt diapirs in the Fars Arc suggest that episodic landsliding and more gradual fluvial dissection, often controlled by grabens, are the main erosional processes involved in the unroofing of active diapirs leading to salt emergence

Testing fundamental physics with distant star clusters: theoretical models for pressure-supported stellar systems

We investigate the mean velocity dispersion and the velocity dispersion profile of stellar systems in MOND, using the N-body code N-MODY, which is a particle-mesh based code with a numerical MOND potential solver developed by Ciotti, Londrillo and Nipoti (2006). We have calculated mean velocity dispersions for stellar systems following Plummer density distributions with masses in the range of $10^4 M_\odot$ to $10^9 M_\odot$ and which are either isolated or immersed in an external field. Our integrations reproduce previous analytic estimates for stellar velocities in systems in the deep MOND regime ($a_i, a_e \ll a_0$), where the motion of stars is either dominated by internal accelerations ($a_i \gg a_e$) or constant external accelerations ($a_e \gg a_i$). In addition, we derive for the first time analytic formulae for the line-of-sight velocity dispersion in the intermediate regime ($a_i \sim a_e \sim a_0$). This allows for a much improved comparison of MOND with observed velocity dispersions of stellar systems. We finally derive the velocity dispersion of the globular cluster Pal 14 as one of the outer Milky Way halo globular clusters that have recently been proposed as a differentiator between Newtonian and MONDian dynamics.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, Accepted in MNRA