Self-evaluative privilege

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/dl_proceedings/1101/thumbnail.jp

Institutional analysis of solar heating and cooling of housing : summary report

Photovoltaics ProjectThis paper is one of a series resulting from institutional analysis of photovoltaic (PV) acceptance. It is the summary report on a study of several residential projects which are part of the DOE-HUD Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Program. Other papers in this series look in detail at aspects of the residential institutional arena, and more fully present the cases. The study of solar thermal applications in housing provides useful guidance in structuring programs for PV acceptance in the residential sector. The five cases illustrate one or more institutional forces which influence the acceptance of solar energy in housing. The cases involve residential developments of various sorts, located in Massachusetts, Maryland, Indiana, New Mexico and California. It is determined that each actor in the residential sector has different, and complex motivations for considering, using and continuing to use an innovation such as solar energy. The choices of any given actor are a function of the type, source, density and continuity of information exchanges found within the institutional arena in which he/she operates. Finally, the probability of rate and extent of innovation acceptance will be increased to the degree that the innovation is made comprehensible

Products Liability and Optional Safety Equipment—Who Knows More?

How should the courts treat a product accessorized by optional safety equipment? Should it be treated as an acceptably safe product for which the manufacturer is not liable, or as a defectively designed product giving rise to the manufacturer\u27s strict liability in tort? Many courts have indicated that the manufacturer may not shift the burden of providing a safe product; however, others have allowed such a shifting. Courts confronted with the optional safety equipment situation have addressed the problem as one of design defect; therefore, Part II of this article presents the various design defect tests that courts have developed. Part III of this article presents the solutions that courts have offered to the optional safety equipment quandary and the current status of the law in this area, while Part IV offers a composite approach to the problem developed from existing case law

Mobile-component housing and solar energy : the possibilities

This paper is part of a body of work directed at enhancing the acceptance of photovoltaics in various sectors of the U.S. economy. The focus here is on residential applications. The work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of its photovoltaics program. Earlier work has considered the nature of institutional forces in the housing sector generally, including a study of several housing developments incorporating solar thermal technologies with the assistance of the HUD-DOE Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Program. This earlier work resulted in a series of papers summarizing the application of institutional analysis methods to housing, including a research design (Nutt-Powell, 1979), and preliminary sector explorations covering housing production (Swetky and Nutt-Powell, 1979), governmental involvement in housing (McDaniel and Nutt-Powell, 1979), research and socialization in housing (Furlong and Nutt-Powell, 1979), energy provision in housing (Reamer, Heim and Nutt-Powell, 1979), and standards in housing (Parker and Nutt-Powell, 1979). The housing development case studies are reported in three papers (Nutt-Powell et al., 1979; Nutt-Powell, 1979b; Parker, 1980.) Additionally a separate analysis was undertaken of the HUD-DOE program, focused on implications for program design of PV acceptance in the housing sector (Nutt-Powell, 1980). This analytic work has paralleled and contributed to development of specific approaches to residential acceptance, including a Residential Application Implementation Plan (MIT EL/LL, 1979).The various studies and plans completed to date have taken a very broad view of the housing sector. As the technology develops, coming closer to cost and production feasibility on a large scale, it is appropriate to begin more detailed analyses of the housing sector. Among such detailed analyses are those considering the possibilities for acceptance of PV among different modes of housing construction. This paper is one such analysis. The focus is on that form of housing production defined as "mobile-component housing," a type of housing built in a factory to a single national construction standard administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.There are four sections in this paper. The first section describes the structure of the manufactured housing industry. It provides definitions and terminology necessary to a discussion of mobile-component housing.It then reviews the production activity and approach, distribution, consumer and financing for this mode of housing. The second section presents the product characteristics of mobile-component housing. The third section reviews solar technologies, and discusses their relation to mobile-component housing. The fourth section focuses specifically on factors influencing receptivity to solar by the mobile-component housing industry. The conclusion to this paper summarizes the analysis as it relates to the possibilities for photovoltaics in mobile-component housing

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich temperature of the intracluster medium

The relativistic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect offers a method, independent of X-ray, for measuring the temperature of the intracluster medium (ICM) in the hottest systems. Here, using N-body/hydrodynamic simulations of three galaxy clusters, we compare the two quantities for a non-radiative ICM, and for one that is subject both to radiative cooling and strong energy feedback from galaxies. Our study has yielded two interesting results. Firstly, in all cases, the SZ temperature is hotter than the X-ray temperature and is within ten per cent of the virial temperature of the cluster. Secondly, the mean SZ temperature is less affected by cooling and feedback than the X-ray temperature. Both these results can be explained by the SZ temperature being less sensitive to the distribution of cool gas associated with cluster substructure. A comparison of the SZ and X-ray temperatures (measured for a sample of hot clusters) would therefore yield interesting constraints on the thermodynamic structure of the intracluster gas.Comment: This version accepted for publication in MNRAS following minor revisio

Home Ranges of Rusty Blackbirds Breeding in Wetlands: How Much Would Buffers from Timber Harvest Protect Habitat?

We calculated the home ranges and core areas of 13 adult Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) in Maine to determine (1) the area requirements of breeding adults, (2) whether area requirements of the sexes and of colonial and noncolonial individuals differ, and (3) the proportion of the home range and core area that would be protected by a buffer of no logging of 50–100 m around occupied wetlands. Mean home ranges (37.5 ± 12.6 ha) and core areas (11.1 ± 2.8 ha) were large in comparison to those of other breeding icterids, and adults often foraged in multiple unconnected wetlands. Rusty Blackbirds that were part of a loose colony had home ranges and core areas three times larger than those of pairs that nested solitarily, which we speculate may be due to adults following one other to feed on unpredictable emergences of aquatic insects. Home ranges and core areas included a surprisingly small amount of wetland habitat, only 12% and 19% respectively, but adults often foraged in small wet patches (\u3c16 m2) in otherwise upland habitat. The 75-m buffers around wetlands that we recommended in a concurrent study may help protect the Rusty Blackbird\u27s nesting habitat, but such buffers contained less than half the average home range, suggesting that they may be of only limited benefit as a conservation strategy for protecting foraging habitat

Solar heating and cooling of housing : five institutional analysis case studies

This paper is one of a series resulting from institutional analysis of photovoltaic (PV) acceptance. The case studies reported here involve use of solar thermal technologies in variuos residential settings. All of the projects are part of the DOE-HUD Solar Heating and Cooling Demonstration Program. This program provides grants to developers to prompt them to use this innovation. Each of the five cases illustrates one or more institutional forces which influence the acceptance of solar energy in the residential sector. Friends Community is an instance of developer involvement for reasons other than profit, and the way in which other factors (such as designers and consumers) react to such housing development. Reservoir Hills Solar Houses illustrates the process of entry by new development firms, the role of public agencies in encouraging various forms of housing and the problems of using product innovations without adequately developed industry support infrastructures. Project Solar for Indiana illustrates the importance of supporting institutional networks, in this case the homebuilders association, the state government and key individuals, who play mediating and legitimating roles in solar acceptance. Solar in California discusses public efforts at a city level -- Santa Clara, a county level -- San Diego, and the state level in what is generally regarded as the state most active in turning to forms of solar energy. Finally, PNM/AMREP illustrates the process of large development corporation decision making, and the manner in which an investorowned utility is shifting its orientation of energy provision

Toward a theory of institutional analysis

This paper provides the basic analytic framework for institutional analysis with particular reference to the acceptance of innovations. A theory of institutions is developed, then assessed in light of various theories of organizations. It is posited that there are six types of institutional entities -- formal and informal organizations, members, persons, collectivities and social orders. Institutions are characterized by function, activity and role. Institutional action consists of exchanges for which the critical datum is information. Such exchanges occur within an institutional arena. Innovation forces institutional action by disrupting existing social meaning. Based on this theory a methodology is developed which enables study of innovation acceptance in various institutional arenas. The methodology involves several steps: (1) Determine study sector and purpose; (2) Preliminary sector exploration; (3) Construct hypothesized institutional arena; (4) Identify perturbation prompter; (5) Devise specific research design; (6) Monitor perturbation; (7) Analyze institutional arena

Understanding the Success and Failure of Oyster Populations: Periodicities of Perkinsus Marinus, and Oyster Recruitment, Mortality, and Size

Ten-year time series (1992 to 2002) of salinity, Dermo disease, and size-class structure and mortality measured for an eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) population at a reef in Bay Tambour, Terrebonne Parish, LA, were analyzed using wavelet techniques to determine dominant frequencies and correlations. Along the Gulf Coast of the United States, Dermo disease (caused by Perkinsus marinus) responds to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate signal through its response to salinity. During the La Nina portion of ENSO, decreased rainfall leads to an increase in salinity, which triggers a rise in Dermo disease prevalence and intensity, producing increased oyster mortality. Although disease responds to the 4-y periodicity of ENSO and salinity, the oyster population dynamics do not appear to be controlled by disease at this site. A significant 4-y coherency exists between recruitment and salinity, with recruitment being higher during periods of high salinity. \u27Recruit numbers and submarket numbers also exhibit a strong 4-y periodicity. However, a relationship between the recruit time series and the subsequent change in market-size abundance did not exist. The complexity of postsettlement processes and the extended time over which these processes interact decrease the predictability of the recruit-to-market transition. Even the strong pulse of recruits associated with La Nina and its locally elevated salinities did not result in an exceptional abundance of market oysters. Understanding the environmental and biotic factors that favor the production of large oysters is critical because large oysters not only supply the fishery, but, upon their death, contribute the bulk of the shell required for reef sustainability