Solar thermal power storage applications lead laboratory overview

The implementation of the applications elements of the thermal energy storage for Solar Thermal Applications program is described. The program includes the accelerated development of thermal storage technologies matched to solar thermal power system requirements and scheduled milestones. The program concentrates on storage development in the FY80 to 85 time period with emphasis on the more near-term solar thermal power system application

Portable Tor Router: Easily Enabling Web Privacy for Consumers

On-line privacy is of major public concern. Unfortunately, for the average consumer, there is no simple mechanism to browse the Internet privately on multiple devices. Most available Internet privacy mechanisms are either expensive, not readily available, untrusted, or simply provide trivial information masking. We propose that the simplest, most effective and inexpensive way of gaining privacy, without sacrificing unnecessary amounts of functionality and speed, is to mask the user's IP address while also encrypting all data. We hypothesized that the Tor protocol is aptly suited to address these needs. With this in mind we implemented a Tor router using a single board computer and the open-source Tor protocol code. We found that our proposed solution was able to meet five of our six goals soon after its implementation: cost effectiveness, immediacy of privacy, simplicity of use, ease of execution, and unimpaired functionality. Our final criterion of speed was sacrificed for greater privacy but it did not fall so low as to impair day-to-day functionality. With a total cost of roughly $100.00 USD and a speed cap of around 2 Megabits per second we were able to meet our goal of an affordable, convenient, and usable solution to increased on-line privacy for the average consumer.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, IEEE ICCE Conferenc

USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS A STRATEGIC WEAPON: LESSONS FROM THE RED BARON

Organizations investing in information technology (IT) over the past decades have categorically seen the uses of IT change. At one point, IT was considered a key strategic tool to gain competitive advantage; however, today, acquiring basic IT functions is a necessity in order not to be at a competitive disadvantage. It takes advanced IT systems, coupled with good strategy to develop an IT competitive advantage. With good strategy and advanced IT systems, some organizations can use IT as a weapon to secure market share and/or eliminate the competition. We suggest in this article that there are strategic points of which organizations should be aware during the implementation and use of information technology. These lessons come from the strategic lesson plans of the ace aviation fighter pilot, the Red Baron.IT Strategy, Competitive advantage, Change, Aviation, Technology.

13 Better Use of Water Management Tools

Is this paper an original attempt to explicate the western states water law and to tell how to improve the legal tools we have at our disposal? No. There is nothing original about what I have written. I am merely trying to be a loyal carpenter to western water users and administrators and the antiwestern water law dogmatists alike, hammering away at the nails of our system of water allocation and administration at spaced intervals of time, hoping that something beneficial and constructive will evolve. Some of the nails (the principles of our water laws) may have been square when the West was being settled, but as with all important tools in constant use, most states went from square to round nails. Now we are finding a great need for the staple and special nail fitted to the local gun and the eastern power hammer. For all this rhetoric, I wish to make a few simple but fundamenta

Designing a sampling scheme to reveal correlations between weeds and soil properties at multiple spatial scales

Weeds tend to aggregate in patches within fields and there is evidence that this is partly owing to variation in soil properties. Because the processes driving soil heterogeneity operate at different scales, the strength of the relationships between soil properties and weed density would also be expected to be scale-dependent. Quantifying these effects of scale on weed patch dynamics is essential to guide the design of discrete sampling protocols for mapping weed distribution. We have developed a general method that uses novel within-field nested sampling and residual maximum likelihood (REML) estimation to explore scale-dependent relationships between weeds and soil properties. We have validated the method using a case study of Alopecurus myosuroides in winter wheat. Using REML, we partitioned the variance and covariance into scale-specific components and estimated the correlations between the weed counts and soil properties at each scale. We used variograms to quantify the spatial structure in the data and to map variables by kriging. Our methodology successfully captured the effect of scale on a number of edaphic drivers of weed patchiness. The overall Pearson correlations between A. myosuroides and soil organic matter and clay content were weak and masked the stronger correlations at >50 m. Knowing how the variance was partitioned across the spatial scales we optimized the sampling design to focus sampling effort at those scales that contributed most to the total variance. The methods have the potential to guide patch spraying of weeds by identifying areas of the field that are vulnerable to weed establishment

Microbial biomass, ammonium, and nitrate levels in the soil across a northern hardwood/mixed conifer chronosequence.

General EcologyWildfire is a disturbance that affects forest ecosystems and forest succession all over the world. Our study was conducted at a chronosequence that had been experimentally burned to simulate the effects of logging and wildfire on forest succession. We analyzed soil samples to determine microbial biomass (in the forms of amino N and total microbial N), ammonium content, and nitrate content in the soil across forest stands of three different ages. We found that microbial biomass was not correlated with stand age. We did find relationships between both ammonium and nitrate and stand age, as well as with microbial biomass and soil ammonium levels. The many roles of microbes in the soil are still not well known, but they do play an important role in nutrient cycling.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116854/1/Radosevich_Molly_2015.pd

Pengembangan Media Pembelajaran Matematika Berbantu Wondershare dengan Pendekatan Rme pada Materi SMP

Pemilihan media pembelajaran yang kurang tepat dapat membuat siswa kurang antusias terhadap mata pelajaran matematika. Sehingga banyak siswa yang mendapat nilai dibawah KKM. Solusinya dibutuhkan media pembelajaran yang menarik serta dapat menumbuhkan antusias siswa dalam belajar.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan media pembelajaran berbantu wondershare dengan pendekatan RME sehingga menghasilkan media yang layak dan efektif digunakan selama pembelajaran. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian Research and Development dengan menggunakan model pengembangan ADDIE, terdiri dari 5 tahapan yaitu analisis, design, developmen, implementasi, evaluasi.Sebelum diimplementasikan, media pembelajaran terlebih dahulu dilakukan uji validasi oleh ahli media, ahli materi serta angket tanggapan siswa. Hasil validasi ahli tersebut berkriteria sangat baik sehingga media pembelajaran layak untuk digunakan.Pembelajaran dengan media pembelajaran berbantu wondershare dengan pendekatan RME efektif digunakan oleh peserta didik. Hal ini di buktikan dari rata rata kelas eksperimen dan kontrol yaitu 82,03 dan 60,54. Ketuntasan belajar individu kelas ekperimen terdapat 31 siswa tuntas dari 36 siswa, dan kelas kontrol terdapat 8 siswa tuntas dari 27 siswa. Dilihat dari ketuntasan belajar klasikal siswa untuk kelas kontrol dan eksperimen sebesar 22,86% dan 86,11%. Dengan analisis menggunakan uji t pihak kanan diperoleh nilaiyaitu 9,607>1,667 maka H0 ditolak, jadi pembelajaran dengan menggunakan media pembelajaran berbantuan wondershare dengan pendekatan RME lebih baik dibandingkan dengan pembelajaran konvensional pada materi SMP

Overcoming Alienation in the Automobile Industry: A Survey of Applied Methods For Job Enrichment

Through the evolution of specialization in the automobile industry, production has become much more efficient but it has a major drawback: worker alienation. This thesis will trace the increasing trend of alienation through the evolution of specialization within the automobile industry, including a study of the division of labor, the introduction of the assembly line and its implications for mass production, as well as the recent emergence of lean production. Alienation is expressed in lack of job contentment which leads to increased turnover and absenteeism rates, as well as an increased chance of mental illness. A solution for alienation was found in the implementation of job enrichment; particularly through sociotechnological systems design approaches. To explore effective and ineffective methods of job enrichment, six case studies of automobile manufacturing sites are examined, as well as reasons traditional plants choose not employ these programs

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and Crime Rates in Apartment Settings

This comparative study has employed qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the implications of the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) theory. Due to significant inconsistencies in prior research, the effectiveness of CPTED in reducing crime rates was examined. Research analysis has examined the elements of CPTED present at three sample apartment complexes located in a large western city and determined if the apartment settings with physical elements consistent with CPTED experienced lower crime rates. Observational qualitative data and quantitative crime rates were applied in a comparative analysis