Non-continuous and variable rate processes: Optimisation for energy use

The need to develop new and improved ways of reducing energy use and increasing energy intensity in industrial processes is currently a major issue in New Zealand. Little attention has been given to optimisation of non-continuous processes in the past, due to their complexity, yet they remain an essential and often energy intensive component of many industrial sites. Novel models based on pinch analysis that aid in minimising utility usage have been constructed here through the adaptation of proven continuous techniques. The knowledge has been integrated into a user friendly software package, and allows the optimisation of processes under variable operating rates and batch conditions. An example problem demonstrates the improvements in energy use that can be gained when using these techniques to analyse non-continuous data. A comparison with results achieved using a pseudo-continuous method show that the method described can provide simultaneous reductions in capital and operating costs

Behaviour of moist and saturated sand during shock and release

Relatively little is known about the changes that occur in the shock compaction and release of granular matter with varying levels of moisture. Here, we report a series of plate impact experiments giving shock Hugoniot and release data for a well characterized sand at dry, 10% moist and saturated water contents. The results reveal that at low moisture content the shock impedance is slightly reduced, while the release remains predominantly inelastic. Close to saturation, much more substantial changes occur: the shock impedance stiffens substantially, the Hugoniot appears to split into two branches, and the release becomes almost completely elastic. We discuss mechanisms underpinning these changes in behavior.This work was supported through the Force Protection Engineering research programme led by QinetiQ Plc. on behalf of DSTL.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP via http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.493468

Educating Negotiators for a Connected World: Volume 4 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series

In 2011 more than 60 of the world\u27s leading negotiation scholars gathered in Beijing for the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project’s third and final international conference. The event, like the preceding conferences in Rome and Istanbul, was designed to inspire a diverse and energetic group of scholars to push forward their thinking on what is taught and how it is taught in contemporary negotiation courses. The resulting productivity required two volumes. This one wraps up the project as a whole. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams address the challenges of teaching negotiation in the face of profound cultural difference; move forward a project special focus on “wicked problems” (those ill-defined, ambiguous challenges for which even defining “the problem” is elusive, let alone attaining a “solution”); design innovative and concrete teaching tools for use both in and outside of the classroom; and introduce an array of new topics for the field, ranging from the possibilities of “informal” education to the role of physical movement in negotiation instruction.https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/dri_press/1003/thumbnail.jp

Educating Negotiators for a Connected World: Volume 4 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series

In 2011 more than 60 of the world\u27s leading negotiation scholars gathered in Beijing for the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project’s third and final international conference. The event, like the preceding conferences in Rome and Istanbul, was designed to inspire a diverse and energetic group of scholars to push forward their thinking on what is taught and how it is taught in contemporary negotiation courses. The resulting productivity required two volumes. This one wraps up the project as a whole. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams address the challenges of teaching negotiation in the face of profound cultural difference; move forward a project special focus on “wicked problems” (those ill-defined, ambiguous challenges for which even defining “the problem” is elusive, let alone attaining a “solution”); design innovative and concrete teaching tools for use both in and outside of the classroom; and introduce an array of new topics for the field, ranging from the possibilities of “informal” education to the role of physical movement in negotiation instruction.https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/dri_press/1003/thumbnail.jp

Educating Negotiators for a Connected World: Volume 4 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series

In 2011 more than 60 of the world\u27s leading negotiation scholars gathered in Beijing for the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project’s third and final international conference. The event, like the preceding conferences in Rome and Istanbul, was designed to inspire a diverse and energetic group of scholars to push forward their thinking on what is taught and how it is taught in contemporary negotiation courses. The resulting productivity required two volumes. This one wraps up the project as a whole. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams address the challenges of teaching negotiation in the face of profound cultural difference; move forward a project special focus on “wicked problems” (those ill-defined, ambiguous challenges for which even defining “the problem” is elusive, let alone attaining a “solution”); design innovative and concrete teaching tools for use both in and outside of the classroom; and introduce an array of new topics for the field, ranging from the possibilities of “informal” education to the role of physical movement in negotiation instruction

Effectiveness of short-term heat acclimation on intermittent exercise in thermoneutral and hot environments

It is well-established that repetition of heat stress exposure has been shown to facilitate adaptations to the heat but these protocols have tended to be of a fixed work intensity, continuous exercise, long-term in duration (>7 days) and use hydration. Secondly, there is limited information on the potential use of heat acclimation as a training method for human performance in thermoneutral conditions. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of short-term heat acclimation (STHA) for 5 days, using the controlled hyperthermia technique with dehydration, on intermittent exercise in thermoneutral and hot environments

The Legacy of Space Shuttle Flight Software

The initial goals of the Space Shuttle Program required that the avionics and software systems blaze new trails in advancing avionics system technology. Many of the requirements placed on avionics and software were accomplished for the first time on this program. Examples include comprehensive digital fly-by-wire technology, use of a digital databus for flight critical functions, fail operational/fail safe requirements, complex automated redundancy management, and the use of a high-order software language for flight software development. In order to meet the operational and safety goals of the program, the Space Shuttle software had to be extremely high quality, reliable, robust, reconfigurable and maintainable. To achieve this, the software development team evolved a software process focused on continuous process improvement and defect elimination that consistently produced highly predictable and top quality results, providing software managers the confidence needed to sign each Certificate of Flight Readiness (COFR). This process, which has been appraised at Capability Maturity Model (CMM)/Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5, has resulted in one of the lowest software defect rates in the industry. This paper will present an overview of the evolution of the Primary Avionics Software System (PASS) project and processes over thirty years, an argument for strong statistical control of software processes with examples, an overview of the success story for identifying and driving out errors before flight, a case study of the few significant software issues and how they were either identified before flight or slipped through the process onto a flight vehicle, and identification of the valuable lessons learned over the life of the project

Urban Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Validation of Emission Inventories

There exists a pressing need for high resolution emissions inventories for cities. For greenhouse gases, cities and regions need a careful analysis of their carbon footprint to design effective policies to control and mitigate emissions. High resolution emissions inventories can be used in conjunction with meteorology models and atmospheric measurements to place top-down constraints on emissions. High resolution emissions inventories for criteria pollutants like NOx, CO, and O3 enable urban-scale air pollution modeling down to the neighborhood level. For example, the Vulcan project estimates CO2 using county-scale vehicle miles traveled (VMT) from the National Mobile Inventory Model (NMIM) County Database (NCD). The Hestia Project similarly allocates CO2 from Vulcan’s county-level inventory down to the building scale using eQUEST and building footprints. On-road transport is the most important sector for anthropogenic CO2, 38% in Portland, 32% nationally. Here we show a new model of CO2 emissions for the Portland, OR metropolitan region. The backbone is traffic counter recordings made by the Portland Bureau of Transportation at 9,352 sites over 21 years (1986-2006), augmented with PORTAL (The Portland Regional Transportation Archive Listing) freeway data. We constructed a regression model to fill in traffic network gaps using GIS data such as road class and population density. EPA MOVES was used to estimate transportation CO2 emissions. Our transportation emissions served as input into WRF meteorological modeling to simulate atmospheric CO2 at sites where frequent CO2 measurements are made. We show preliminary model results

Do patients registered with CAM-trained GPs really use fewer health care resources and live longer? A response to Kooreman and Baars. Eur J Health Econ (2012). 13:469–776

Comment on Kooreman, P., Baars, E.W.: Patients whose GP knows complementary medicine tend to have lower costs and live longer. Eur. J. Health Econ.13(6), 769–776 (2012). doi:10.​1007/​s10198-011-0330-

Groups of two galaxies in SDSS: implications of colours on star formation quenching time-scales

We have devised a method to select galaxies that are isolated in their dark matter halo (N=1 systems) and galaxies that reside in a group of exactly two (N=2 systems). Our N=2 systems are widely-separated (up to $\sim$\,200\,$h^{-1}$\,kpc), where close galaxy-galaxy interactions are not dominant. We apply our selection criteria to two volume-limited samples of galaxies from SDSS DR6 with $M_{r}-5 \log_{10} h \leq$ -19 and -20 to study the effects of the environment of very sparse groups on galaxy colour. For satellite galaxies in a group of two, we find a red excess attributed to star formation quenching of 0.15\,$\pm$\,0.01 and 0.14\,$\pm$\,0.01 for the -19 and -20 samples, respectively, relative to isolated galaxies of the same stellar mass. Assuming N=1 systems are the progenitors of N=2 systems, an immediate-rapid star formation quenching scenario is inconsistent with these observations. A delayed-then-rapid star formation quenching scenario with a delay time of 3.3 and 3.7\,Gyr for the -19 and -20 samples, respectively, yields a red excess prediction in agreement with the observations. The observations also reveal that central galaxies in a group of two have a slight blue excess of 0.06\,$\pm$\,0.02 and 0.02\,$\pm$\,0.01 for the -19 and -20 samples, respectively, relative to N=1 populations of the same stellar mass. Our results demonstrate that even the environment of very sparse groups of luminous galaxies influence galaxy evolution and in-depth studies of these simple systems are an essential step towards understanding galaxy evolution in general.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, accepted to MNRA