Identifying behavioural predictors of small power electricity consumption in office buildings

It is widely accepted that there is a gap between design energy and real world operational energy consumption. The behaviour of occupants is often cited as an important factor influencing building energy performance. However, its consideration, both during design and operation, is overly simplistic, often assuming a direct link between attitudes and behaviour. Alternative models of decision making from psychology highlight a range of additional influential factors and emphasise that occupants do not always act in a rational manner. Developing a better understanding of occupant decision making could help inform office energy conservation campaigns as well as models of behaviour employed during the design process. This paper assesses the contribution of various behavioural constructs on small power consumption in offices. The method is based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) which assumes that intention is driven by three factors: attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, but we also consider a fourth construct: habit measured through the Self- Report Habit Index (SRHI). A questionnaire was issued to 81 participants in two UK offices. Questionnaire results for each behavioural construct were correlated against each participant’s individual workstation electricity consumption. The intentional processes proposed by TPB could not account for the observed differences in occupants’ interactions with small power appliances. Instead, occupants were interacting with small power “automatically”, with habit accounting for 11% of the variation in workstation energy consumption. The implications for occupant behaviour models and employee engagement campaigns are discussed.

A comparison of greenhouse gas emissions in the residential sector of major Canadian cities

One of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada is the buildings sector, with over 30% of national energy end-use occurring in buildings. Energy use must be addressed to reduce emissions from the buildings sector, as nearly 70% of all Canada’s energy used in the residential sector comes from fossil sources. An analysis of GHG emissions from the existing residential building stock for the year 2010 has been conducted for six Canadian cities with different climates and development histories: Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. Variation across these cities is seen in their 2010 GHG emissions, due to climate, characteristics of the building stock, and energy conversion technologies, with Halifax having the highest per capita emissions at 5.55 tCO2e/capita and Montreal having the lowest at 0.32 tCO2e/capita. The importance of the provincial electricity grid’s carbon intensity is emphasized, along with era of construction, occupancy, floor area, and climate. Approaches to achieving deep emissions reductions include innovative retrofit financing and city level residential energy conservation by-laws; each region should seek location-appropriate measures to reduce energy demand within its residential housing stock, as well as associated GHG emissions.

Indoor microclimate in a South Africa School: impact of indoor environmental factors

Demand for good indoor air quality is increasing as people recorgnise the risks to their health and productivity from indoor pollutants. There is a tendency to reduce ventilation rates to ensure energy conservation in buildings; in this instance schools. However, evidence reviewed shows that this can be detrimental to health and wellbeing in schools because of the learner density within a small area (1.8 - 2.4m2/person); eventually indicating that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels can rise to very high levels in classroom occupancy periods. A preliminary study to investigate the impact of indoor environmental parameters has been performed in a secondary school classroom in Pretoria, South Africa. Factors monitored include temperature, relative humidity, lighting, air velocities and CO2 concentrations. From the results low air velocities are recorded (i.e. 0.1-0.3m/s) impacting on the retention of CO2 build-up in the classroom. Results presented in this paper are the initial findings of ongoing research.

Distinct subsets of hypothalamic genes are modulated by two different thermogenesis-inducing stimuli

Obesity results from an imbalance between food intake and energy expenditure, two vital functions that are tightly controlled by specialized neurons of the hypothalamus. The complex mechanisms that integrate these two functions are only beginning to be deciphered. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of two thermogenesis-inducing conditions, i.e., ingestion of a high-fat (HF) diet and exposure to cold environment, on the expression of 1,176 genes in the hypothalamus of Wistar rats. Hypothalamic gene expression was evaluated using a cDNA macroarray approach. mRNA and protein expressions were determined by reverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and immunoblot. Cold exposure led to an increased expression of 43 genes and to a reduced expression of four genes. HF diet promoted an increased expression of 90 genes and a reduced expression of 78 genes. Only two genes (N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor 2B and guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein G-alpha-i1) were similarly affected by both thermogenesis-inducing conditions, undergoing an increment of expression. RT-PCR and immunoblot evaluations confirmed the modulation of NMDA receptor 2B and GTP-binding protein G-alpha-i1, only. This corresponds to 0.93% of all the responsive genes and 0.17% of the analyzed genes. These results indicate that distinct environmental thermogenic stimuli can modulate predominantly distinct profiles of genes reinforcing the complexity and multiplicity of the hypothalamic mechanisms that regulate energy conservation and expenditure.

Transferência de calor combinando radiação e convecção no interior de dutos de geradores de vapor fumotubulares

Esta dissertação de mestrado considera a transferência de calor combinando convecção e radiação térmica no escoamento de gases participantes em dutos de seção circular. Partindo de uma metodologia geral, o trabalho enfoca principalmente os casos típicos de aplicação em geradores de vapor fumotubulares de pequeno e médio porte, em que gases em alta temperatura escoam através de um tubo mantido em temperatura uniforme. O escoamento é turbulento e o perfil de velocidade é plenamente desenvolvido desde a entrada do duto. A temperatura do gás, contudo, é uniforme na entrada, considerando-se a região de desenvolvimento térmico. Duas misturas de gases são tratadas, ambas constituídas por dióxido de carbono, vapor d’água e nitrogênio, correspondendo a produtos típicos da combustão estequiométrica de óleo combustível e metano. As propriedades físicas dos gases são admitidas uniformes em todo o duto e calculadas na temperatura de mistura média, enquanto que as propriedades radiantes são modeladas pela soma-ponderada-de-gases-cinzas. O campo de temperatura do gás é obtido a partir da solução da equação bidimensional da conservação da energia, sendo os termos advectivos discretizados através do método de volumes de controle com a função de interpolação Flux-Spline; as trocas de energia radiantes são avaliadas por meio do método das zonas, onde cada zona de radiação corresponde a um volume de controle. Em um primeiro passo, a metodologia é verificada pela comparação com resultados apresentados na literatura para a transferência de calor envolvendo apenas convecção e combinando convecção com radiação. Em seguida, discutem-se alguns efeitos da inclusão da radiação térmica, por exemplo, no número de Nusselt convectivo e na temperatura de mistura do gás. Finalmente, são propostas correlações para o número de Nusselt total, que leva em conta tanto a radiação quanto a convecção. Essa etapa exige inicialmente uma análise dos grupos adimensionais que governam o processo radiante para redução do número elevado de parâmetros independentes. As correlações, aplicáveis a situações encontradas em geradores de vapor fumotubulares de pequeno e médio porte, são validadas estatisticamente pela comparação com os resultados obtidos pela solução numérica.

Estudo do aproveitamento do rejeito da mineração de esmeraldas na produção de refratários conformados isolantes

Emerald mining is an important area of the economy in Brazil, country which is in second place among the exporting nations of this gem. Due to the process of extraction, a great amount of reject is generated. Since there is no appropriate destination, the reject is abandoned around the mining industries, contributing to environment degradation. Nowadays, some of the most relevant things to an industry in general are: energy conservation, cost reduction, quality and productivity enhancement. The production of isolating, transformed refractory materials achieves the sustainability dimension when protection of the environment is incorporated to such process. This work investigates the use of emerald mining rejects in the ceramic body of refractory materials, aiming at obtaining a product whose characteristics are compatible with commercial products and, at the same time, allow the use of such rejects to solve the environmental issue caused by its disposal in nature. X-ray fluorescence analysis show that the emerald reject obtained after the flotation to extract molybdenum and mica has 70% of silica and alumina (SiO2+Al2O3) and 21% of a basic oxides and alkaline metals and earthy alkaline mixture (Na2O, K2O, CaO e MgO). Because of the significant amount of silica and alumina present in the reject, four refractory ceramic bodies were prepared. Samples with a rectangular shape and dimensions 100x50x10 mm were pressed in a steel mold at 27,5 MPa and sintered at 1200ºC for 40 min. under environment atmosphere in a resistive oven. The sintered samples were characterized in relation to the chemical composition (FRX), mineralogical composition (DRX), microstructure (MEV) and physical and mechanical properties. The results indicate that the mixture with 45% of reject, 45% of alumina and 10% of kaolin presents a refractory quality of 1420ºC, dimensional linear variation below 2.00%, apparent specific mass of 1,56 g/cm3 and porosity of 46,68%, which demonstrates the potential use of the reject as raw material for the industry of isolating transformed refractory materials

Modelos analíticos para rádio fontes extragalácticas

The great majority of analytical models for extragalactic radio sources suppose self-similarity and can be classified into three types: I, II and III. We have developed a model that represents a generalization of most models found in the literature and showed that these three types are particular cases. The model assumes that the area of the head of the jet varies with the jet size according to a power law and the jet luminosity is a function of time. As it is usually done, the basic hypothesis is that there is an equilibrium between the pressure exerted both by the head of the jet and the cocoon walls and the ram pressure of the ambient medium. The equilibrium equations and energy conservation equation allow us to express the size and width of the source and the pressure in the cocoon as a power law and find the respective exponents. All these assumptions can be used to calculate the evolution of the source size, width and radio luminosity. This can then be compared with the observed width-size relation for radio lobes and the power-size (P-D) diagram of both compact (GPS and CSS) and extended sources from the 3CR catalogue. In this work we introduce two important improvement as compared with a previous work: (1)We have put together a larger sample of both compact and extended radio sources

Criação da matéria em cosmologias com velocidade da luz variável e eletrônico não-linear

In this work we obtain the cosmological solutions and investigate the thermodynamics of matter creation in two diferent contexts. In the first we propose a cosmological model with a time varying speed of light c. We consider two diferent time dependence of c for a at Friedmann-Robertson- Walker (FRW) universe. We write the energy conservation law arising from Einstein equations and study how particles are created as c decreases with cosmic epoch. The variation of c is coupled to a cosmological Λ term and both singular and non-singular solutions are possible. We calculate the "adiabatic" particle creation rate and the total number of particles as a function of time and find the constrains imposed by the second law of thermodynamics upon the models. In the second scenario, we study the nonlinearity of the electrodynamics as a source of matter creation in the cosmological models with at FRW geometry. We write the energy conservation law arising from Einstein field equations with cosmological term Λ, solve the field equations and study how particles are created as the magnetic field B changes with cosmic epoch. We obtain solutions for the adiabatic particle creation rate, the total number of particles and the scale factor as a function of time in three cases: Λ = 0, Λ = constant and Λ α H2 (cosmological term proportional to the Hubble parameter). In all cases, the second law of thermodynamics demands that the universe is not contracting (H ≥ 0). The first two solutions are non-singular and exhibit in ationary periods. The third case studied allows an always in ationary universe for a suficiently large cosmological term

Seasonal metabolic depression, substrate utilisation and changes in scaling patterns during the first year cycle of tegu lizards (Tupinambis merianae)

The tegus increase in body mass after hatching until early autumn, when the energy intake becomes gradually reduced. Resting rates of oxygen consumption in winter drop to 20% of the values in the active season (Vo(2)=0.0636 ml g(-1) h(-1)) and are nearly temperature insensitive over the range of 17-25degreesC (Q(10)=1.55). During dormancy, plasma glucose levels are 60% lower than those in active animals, while total protein, total lipids and beta-hydroxybutyrate are elevated by 24%, 43% and 113%, respectively. In addition, a significant depletion of liver carbohydrate (50%) and of fat deposited in the visceral fat bodies (24%) and in the tail (25%) and a slight loss of skeletal muscle protein (14%) were measured halfway through the inactive period. Otherwise, glycogen content is increased 4-fold in the brain and 2.3-fold in the heart of dormant lizards, declining by the onset of arousal. During early arousal, the young tegus are still anorexic, although Vo(2) is significantly greater than winter rates. The fat deposits analysed are further reduced (62% and 45%, respectively) and there is a large decrease in tail muscle protein (50%) together with a significant increase in glycogen (2-3-fold) and an increase in plasma glucose (40%), which suggests a role for gluconeogenesis as a supplementary energy source in arousing animals. No change is detectable in citrate synthase activity, but beta-hydroxyacyl CoA dehydrogenase activities are strongly affected by season, reaching a Mold and 5-fold increase in the liver tissue of winter and arousing animals, respectively, and becoming reduced by half in skeletal muscle and heart of winter animals compared with late fall or spring active individuals. From hatching to late autumn, the increase of the fat body mass relatively to body mass is disproportionate (b=1.44), and the mass exponent changes significantly to close to 1.0 during the fasting period. The concomitant shift in the Vo(2) mass exponent in early autumn (b=0.75) to values significantly greater than 1.0 in late autumn and during winter dormancy indicates an allometric effect on the degree of metabolic depression related to the size of the fat stores and suggests greater energy conservation in the smaller young.

Quantum toy model for black-hole backreaction

We propose a simple quantum field theoretical toy model for black-hole evaporation and study the backreaction of Hawking radiation onto the classical background. It turns out that the horizon is also pushed back in this situation (i.e., the interior region shrinks) though this backreaction is not caused by energy conservation but by momentum balance. The effective heat capacity and induced entropy variation can have both signs-depending on the parameters of the model.

Expression, purification and spectroscopic analysis of an HdrC: An iron-sulfur cluster-containing protein from Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

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Expressed sequence tags from Atta laevigata and identification of candidate genes for the control of pest leaf-cutting ants.

Leafcutters are the highest evolved within Neotropical ants in the tribe Attini and model systems for studying caste formation, labor division and symbiosis with microorganisms. Some species of leafcutters are agricultural pests controlled by chemicals which affect other animals and accumulate in the environment. Aiming to provide genetic basis for the study of leafcutters and for the development of more specific and environmentally friendly methods for the control of pest leafcutters, we generated expressed sequence tag data from Atta laevigata, one of the pest ants with broad geographic distribution in South America. Results: The analysis of the expressed sequence tags allowed us to characterize 2,006 unique sequences in Atta laevigata. Sixteen of these genes had a high number of transcripts and are likely positively selected for high level of gene expression, being responsible for three basic biological functions: energy conservation through redox reactions in mitochondria; cytoskeleton and muscle structuring; regulation of gene expression and metabolism. Based on leafcutters lifestyle and reports of genes involved in key processes of other social insects, we identified 146 sequences potential targets for controlling pest leafcutters. The targets are responsible for antixenobiosis, development and longevity, immunity, resistance to pathogens, pheromone function, cell signaling, behavior, polysaccharide metabolism and arginine kynase activity. Conclusion: The generation and analysis of expressed sequence tags from Atta laevigata have provided important genetic basis for future studies on the biology of leaf-cutting ants and may contribute to the development of a more specific and environmentally friendly method for the control of agricultural pest leafcutters.

Investigation into the impact of embedded generators on distribution system performance using theorem of superposition

Since the 1980s, huge efforts have been made to utilise renewable energy sources to generate electric power. One of the interesting issues about embedded generators is the question of optimal placement and sizing of the embedded generators. This paper reports an investigation of impact of the integration of embedded generators on the overall performances of the distribution networks in the steady state, using theorem of superposition. Set of distribution system indices is proposed to observe performances of the distribution networks with embedded generators. Results obtained from the case study using IEEE test network are presented and discussed.

Phase constraint for the waves diffracted by lossless symmetrical gratings at Littrow mount

The energy conservation of grating diffraction is analyzed in a particular condition of incidence in which two incident waves reach a symmetrical grating from the two sides of the grating normal at the first-order Littrow mounting. In such a situation the incident waves generate an interference pattern with the same period as the grating. Thus in each direction of diffraction, interference occurs between two consecutive diffractive orders of the symmetrical incident waves. By applying only energy conservation and the geometrical symmetry of the grating profile to this problem it is possible to establish a general constraint for the phases and amplitudes of the diffracted orders of the same incident wave. Experimental and theoretical results are presented confirming the obtained relations. © 2006 Optical Society of America.

Fenômenos não-lineares, incluindo-se os não-ideias, em captura de energia utilizando-se dispositivos piezoelétricos

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