Senate \u27libelously\u27 labeled by Campus

Letter to the editor of The Maine Campus. We feel it necessary to take issue with your recent editorial, entitled, Elected Cowardice. The seven authors of the letter express support for the decision made by the University Senate to deny finding to the Wilde-Stein club and vow, ...if they successfully obtain travel funds, we intend to approach the senate with the idea of one of our classmates and form a Happy Hetero Club, and [ask] for funds to travel [to] prime chick locations

WRI 50: Strategies for Cooling Electric Generating Facilities Utilizing Mine Water. Final Report

Power generation and water consumption are inextricably linked. Because of this relationship DOE/NETL has funded a competitive research and development initiative to address this relationship. This report is part of that initiative and is in response to DOE/NETL solicitation DE-PS26-03NT41719-0. Thermal electric power generation requires large volumes of water to cool spent steam at the end of the turbine cycle. The required volumes are such that new plant siting is increasingly dependent on the availability of cooling circuit water. Even in the eastern U.S., large rivers such as the Monongahela may no longer be able to support additional, large power stations due to subscription of flow to existing plants, industrial, municipal and navigational requirements. Earlier studies conducted by West Virginia University (WV 132, WV 173 phase I, WV 173 Phase II, WV 173 Phase III, and WV 173 Phase IV in review) have identified that a large potential water resource resides in flooded, abandoned coal mines in the Pittsburgh Coal Basin, and likely elsewhere in the region and nation. This study evaluates the technical and economic potential of the Pittsburgh Coal Basin water source to supply new power plants with cooling water. Two approaches for supplying new power plants were evaluated. Type A employs mine water in conventional, evaporative cooling towers. Type B utilizes earth-coupled cooling with flooded underground mines as the principal heat sink for the power plant reject heat load. Existing mine discharges in the Pittsburgh Coal Basin were evaluated for flow and water quality. Based on this analysis, eight sites were identified where mine water could supply cooling water to a power plant. Three of these sites were employed for pre-engineering design and cost analysis of a Type A water supply system, including mine water collection, treatment, and delivery. This method was also applied to a ''base case'' river-source power plant, for comparison. Mine-water system cost estimates were then compared to the base-case river source estimate. We found that the use of net-alkaline mine water would under current economic conditions be competitive with a river-source in a comparable-size water cooling system. On the other hand, utilization of net acidic water would be higher in operating cost than the river system by 12 percent. This does not account for any environmental benefits that would accrue due to the treatment of acid mine drainage, in many locations an existing public liability. We also found it likely that widespread adoption of mine-water utilization for power plant cooling will require resolution of potential liability and mine-water ownership issues. In summary, Type A mine-water utilization for power plant cooling is considered a strong option for meeting water needs of new plant in selected areas. Analysis of the thermal and water handling requirements for a 600 megawatt power plant indicated that Type B earth coupled cooling would not be feasible for a power plant of this size. It was determined that Type B cooling would be possible, under the right conditions, for power plants of 200 megawatts or less. Based on this finding the feasibility of a 200 megawatt facility was evaluated. A series of mines were identified where a Type B earth-coupled 200 megawatt power plant cooling system might be feasible. Two water handling scenarios were designed to distribute heated power-plant water throughout the mines. Costs were developed for two different pumping scenarios employing a once-through power-plant cooling circuit. Thermal and groundwater flow simulation models were used to simulate the effect of hot water injection into the mine under both pumping strategies and to calculate the return-water temperature over the design life of a plant. Based on these models, staged increases in required mine-water pumping rates are projected to be part of the design, due to gradual heating and loss of heat-sink efficiency of the rock sequence above the mines. Utilizing pumping strategy No.1 (two mines) capital costs were 25 percent lower and operating cost 19 percent higher than a conventional river-water cooling water scheme. Utilizing pumping strategy No.2 (three mines), capital costs were 20 percent lower and operating costs 192 percent higher. Major capital cost advantages are obtained by using earth-coupled cooling, due in large part to elimination of need for cooling towers. In addition, the lack of cooling towers and of thermal-pollution considerations may be positive factors in power plant permitting. However, application of Type B earth-coupled cooling will be technically feasible limited at a much smaller number of sites than Type A systems due to requirements involving mine size, geometry, and hydraulic conditions. Innovations such as directional drilling may be required to create mine interconnections across barriers where none presently exist

MBE growth of telecommunication wavelength single photon emitters

Long-distance quantum communication relies on the ability to efficiently generate and prepare single photons at telecom wavelengths. MBE grown single photon emitters in the telecom E-band produce indistinguishable photons in a range of configurations including photons emitted from different quantum dots that are in separate photonics structures. During growth, circular InAs quantum dots spontaneously form on InP surfaces during cooling of a planar InAs layer that is grown at an elevated temperature. Despite manipulation of the dot shape, brightness suffers at c-band wavelengths, which is evaluated using atomic resolution electron microscopy and attributed to extended defects forming in and around the larger dots. ?? 2018 SPIE

Origin of spectral brightness variations in InAs/InP quantum dot telecom single photon emitters

Long-distance quantum communication relies on the ability to efficiently generate and prepare single photons at telecom wavelengths. Low-density InAs quantum dots on InP surfaces are grown in a molecular beam epitaxy system using a modified Stranski-Krastanov growth paradigm. This material is a source of bright and indistinguishable single photons in the 1.3 mu m telecom band. Here, the exploration of the growth parameters is presented as a phase diagram, while low-temperature photoluminescence and atomic resolution images are presented to correlate structure and spectral performance. This work identifies specific stacking faults and V-shaped defects that are likely causes of the observed low brightness emission at 1.55 mu m telecom wavelengths. The different locations of the imaged defects suggest possible guidance for future development of InAs/InP single photon sources for c-band, 1.55 mu m wavelength telecommunication systems

Use of SNOMED CT to Represent Clinical Research Data: A Semantic Characterization of Data Items on Case Report Forms in Vasculitis Research

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the coverage provided by SNOMED CT for clinical research concepts represented by the items on case report forms (CRFs), as well as the semantic nature of those concepts relevant to post-coordination methods. DESIGN: Convenience samples from CRFs developed by rheumatologists conducting several longitudinal, observational studies of vasculitis were selected. A total of 17 CRFs were used as the basis of analysis for this study, from which a total set of 616 (unique) items were identified. Each unique data item was classified as either a clinical finding or procedure. The items were coded by the presence and nature of SNOMED CT coverage and classified into semantic types by 2 coders. MEASUREMENTS: Basic frequency analysis was conducted to determine levels of coverage provided by SNOMED CT. Estimates of coverage by various semantic characterizations were estimated. RESULTS: Most of the core clinical concepts (88%) from these clinical research data items were covered by SNOMED CT; however, far fewer of the concepts were fully covered (that is, where all aspects of the CRF item could be represented completely without post-coordination; 23%). In addition, a large majority of the concepts (83%) required post-coordination, either to clarify context (e.g., time) or to better capture complex clinical concepts (e.g., disease-related findings). For just over one third of the sampled CRF data items, both types of post-coordination were necessary to fully represent the meaning of the item. CONCLUSION: SNOMED CT appears well-suited for representing a variety of clinical concepts, yet is less suited for representing the full amount of information collected on CRFs

Above- and Below-Ground Responses of C3-C4 Species Mixtures to Elevated CO2 and Soil Water Availability

We evaluated the influences of CO2 and soil water on above- and below-ground responses of C3 and C4 plants in monocultures and two density mixtures