Understanding the limitations of eco-feedback: a one-year long-term study

For the last couple of decades the world has been witnessing a change in habits of energy consumption in domestic environments, with elec tricity emerging as the main source of energy consumed. The effects of these changes in our eco-system are hard to assess, therefore encouraging researchers from different fields to conduct studies with the goal of understanding and im proving perceptions and behaviors regarding household energy consumption. While several of these studies report success in increasing awareness, most of them are limited to short periods of time, thus resulting in a reduced knowledge of how householders will behave in the long-term. In this paper we attempt to reduce this gap presenting a long-term study on household electricity consump tion. We deployed a real-time non-intrusive energy monitoring and eco feedback system in 12 families during 52 weeks. Results show an increased awareness regarding electricity consumption despite a significant decrease in interactions with the eco-feedback system over time. We conclude that after one year of deployment of eco-feedback it was not possible to see any significant increase or decrease in the household consumption. Our results also confirm that consumption is tightly coupled with independent variables like the house hold size and the income-level of the families.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

What-a-Watt: exploring electricity production literacy through a long term eco-feedback study

This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of an eco-feedback system capable of providing detailed household consumption information and also real-time production breakdown per energy source. We build on recent studies reporting an increased awareness generated by eco feedback systems that also integrate micro-production information, taking advantage of a closed grid production network on an island with a high concentration of renewables, we deployed the What-a-Watt system in a building with 9 households for a period of 34 consecutive weeks. Results show that all the participating families have shown increased awareness of the production and distribution of electricity, thus becoming more familiarized with concepts such as the different sources of energy and how their availability relates to external variables such as weather conditions and time of day. Furthermore, our results also show, that the families using our system have managed to reduce their overall consumption. This research is a first attempt to provide more effective eco-feedback systems to consumers by integrating complex Smartgrid information in the feedback.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Experimental and Analytical Study of Two-Phase Flow in Microgravity

Design of the two-phase flow systems which are anticipated to be utilized in future spacecraft thermal management systems requires a knowledge of two-phase flow and heat transfer parameters in reduced gravities. A program has been initiated by NASA to design a two-phase test loop and to perform a series of experiments to study the effect of gravity on the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) and onset of instability. The test loop is also instrumented to generate data for two-phase pressure drop. In addition to low gravity airplane trajectory testing, the experimental program consisted of a set of laboratory tests which were intended to generate data under the bounding conditions (+1 g and -1 g) in order to plan the test matrix. One set of airplane trajectory tests has been performed and several modifications to the test set-up have been identified. Preliminary test results have been used to demonstrate the applicability of the earth gravity models for prediction of the two-phase friction pressure drop

Watt-I-see: design and evaluation of an interactive installation using eco-feedforward strategies

In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of Watt-I-See (WISE), a tangible interactive installation aimed at probing awareness in two target audiences (children and adults) about renew able energy resources that could inform eco-feedforward strategies. Our system combines a tan gible interface representing five different energy sources, with a set of Lego™ blocks used to manipulate different weather conditions that affect the available energy mix. Through the evalu ation of WISE, our main goal was to expose users to the effort necessary to produce the energy used in our day-to-day lives. We evaluated the installation separately for children and adults. The focus on children was due to their importance in the overall household consumption and their role in future scenarios where consumers will have to adapt to the availability of renewable energy sources. The focus on adults was to observe the impact of such information in their decision mak ing regarding their routines. Our findings highlight the success of the interface in engaging chil dren and adults, creating awareness between weather conditions and energy production and the fossil-fuel energy baseline in the grid. Overall, the study highlights the importance of providing a close point-of-interaction feedback as it enables a better understanding of energy-related decisions, reactions, and availability of resources.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perspectiva de Género y Política Pública deportiva: El Caso de (CONADE)

This article is a revision about the incorporation of the gender mainstreaming in the CONADE, the objective was to identify with interviews and an analysis from a qualitative perspective the situation of the incorporation of the gender mainstreaming in the sports public policy of high performance between the 2012 and 2018, and also to identify some gender gaps. The method was the grounded theory where the theory is created from the information.  It was found that women have been gradually accessing decision-making positions but there is still a long way to go, also the lack of policies of conciliation of work, family and social life, as well as attention in cases of harassment. It is concluded that progress in terms of gender perspective and sport has been slow since it is observed that some measures are still a sample of good actions without major importance as the lack of giving information to athletes about harassment.El presente artículo es una revisión sobre la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en la CONADE, cuyo objetivo consistió en identificar a través de entrevistas y análisis desde un enfoque cualitativo la situación de la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en el ámbito de la política pública de deporte de alto rendimiento en México, entre el 2012 y el 2018.  , así como la identificación de algunas brechas de género. El acercamiento fue desde el método de teoría fundamentada donde los datos van construyendo la teoría. Se encontró que las mujeres han ido accediendo de manera gradual a puestos de toma de decisiones pero aún hay un gran camino por recorrer, también se evidenció la falta de políticas de conciliación de la vida laboral, familiar y social, así como las estrategias de atención ante casos de acoso y hostigamiento. Se concluye que el avance en materia de perspectiva de género y deporte ha sido lento pues se observa que algunas medidas se quedan en un punto de buenas acciones sin mayor trascendencia como la falta de capacitación a deportistas sobre temas de acoso y hostigamiento

Física na história : uma abordagem histórico-filosófica no ensino de Ciências

O presente artigo descreve uma proposta pedagógica para um curso de física no nível secundário, com enfoque histórico-filosófico, em que são levadas ao ambiente dos alunos as inquietações filosóficas que permearam as investigações científicas sobre a natureza, num espaço e tempo específicos da história. A sua metodologia apresenta a História da Ciência de forma contextualizada mesclando experimentos históricos com a teoria, discutindo questões fundamentais ao desenvolvimento do eletromagnetismo. Ao longo do projeto são relatados e avaliados, de forma qualitativa, os resultados da pesquisa sobre a relevância da inserção da História da Ciência como agente influenciador no processo ensino-aprendizagem e o seu impacto sobre os alunos

Representative elementary volumes for evaluating effective seismic properties of heterogeneous poroelastic media

Understanding and quantifying seismic energy dissipation in fluid-saturated porous rocks is of considerable interest because it offers the perspective of extracting information with regard to the elastic and hydraulic rock properties. An important, if not dominant, attenuation mechanism prevailing in the seismic frequency band is wave-induced fluid pressure diffusion in response to the contrasts in elastic stiffness in the mesoscopic-scale range. An effective way to estimate seismic velocity dispersion and attenuation related to this phenomenon is through the application of numerical upscaling procedures to synthetic rock samples of interest. However, the estimated seismic properties are meaningful only if the underlying sample volume is at least of the size of a representative elementary volume (REV). In the given context, the definition of an REV and the corresponding implications for the estimation of the effective seismic properties remain largely unexplored. To alleviate this problem, we have studied the characteristics of REVs for a set of idealized rock samples sharing high levels of velocity dispersion and attenuation. For periodically heterogeneous poroelastic media, the REV size was driven by boundary condition effects. Our results determined that boundary condition effects were absent for layered media and negligible in the presence of patchy saturation. Conversely, strong boundary condition effects arose in the presence of a periodic distribution of finite-length fractures, thus leading to large REV sizes. The results thus point to the importance of carefully determining the REV sizes of heterogeneous porous rocks for computing effective seismic properties, especially in the presence of strong dry frame stiffness contrasts. </jats:p

An analytical study of seismoelectric signals produced by 1-D mesoscopic heterogeneities

The presence of mesoscopic heterogeneities in fluid-saturated porous rocks can produce measurable seismoelectric signals due to wave-induced fluid flow between regions of differing compressibility. The dependence of these signals on the petrophysical and structural characteristics of the probed rock mass remains largely unexplored. In this work, we derive an analytical solution to describe the seismoelectric response of a rock sample, containing a horizontal layer at its centre, that is subjected to an oscillatory compressibility test. We then adapt this general solution to compute the seismoelectric signature of a particular case related to a sample that is permeated by a horizontal fracture located at its centre. Analyses of the general and particular solutions are performed to study the impact of different petrophysical and structural parameters on the seismoelectric response. We find that the amplitude of the seismoelectric signal is directly proportional to the applied stress, to the Skempton coefficient contrast between the host rock and the layer, and to a weighted average of the effective excess charge of the two materials. Our results also demonstrate that the frequency at which the maximum electrical potential amplitude prevails does not depend on the applied stress or the Skempton coefficient contrast. In presence of strong permeability variations, this frequency is rather controlled by the permeability and thickness of the less permeable material. The results of this study thus indicate that seismoelectric measurements can potentially be used to estimate key mechanical and hydraulic rock properties of mesoscopic heterogeneities, such as compressibility, permeability and fracture complianc