Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Bilevel Optimization Model Based On Edge Computing For Microgrid, Yi Chen, Kadhim Hayawi, Meikai Fan, Shih Yu Chang, Jie Tang, Ling Yang, Rui Zhao, Zhongqi Mao, Hong Wen

All Works

With the continuous progress of renewable energy technology and the large-scale construction of microgrids, the architecture of power systems is becoming increasingly complex and huge. In order to achieve efficient and low-delay data processing and meet the needs of smart grid users, emerging smart energy systems are often deployed at the edge of the power grid, and edge computing modules are integrated into the microgrids system, so as to realize the cost-optimal control decision of the microgrids under the condition of load balancing. Therefore, this paper presents a bilevel optimization control model, which is divided into an upper-level optimal control …

The Cost And Benefits Of Measuring Sustainability, Julia R. Sweeney

Faculty and Staff Works

The cost of not adopting sustainable measures is growing exponentially. The world-wide economic impact of global warming crises affecting trade, supply in products, availability of fossil fuels, and prices for goods and services makes moving towards renewable energy and sustainability more imperative than ever. Discussions and initial commitments to reduce global warming has been an important first step in creating a sustainable future; however, corporations now need enforceable policies and procedures to remain accountable.

Ecological And Economic Benefits And Risks Of Using Botanical Insecticides In Tanzanian Farms, Lilia Garcia

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Insect damage is a major concern for smallholder farmers in developing countries like Tanzania. Synthetic insecticides can tame infestations, however they can be expensive, inaccessible, and their misuse can threaten farmer health and ecological conditions. Botanical insecticides are cheap alternatives to treat infestations while preserving beneficial insects such as pollinators, predators, and parasitoids. This study assesses how both synthetic and botanical insecticides affect beneficial insects, crop yield and profit/costs. This study finds botanical insecticides slightly less harmful towards non-target insects. Botanical insecticides seldomly improve crop yields but usually result in a higher profit/lower cost. Due to high variation in ecological …

Does Helping-At-The-Nest Help? The Case Of The Acorn Woodpecker, Walter D. Koenig, Eric L. Walters, Sahas Barve

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Cooperative breeding groups often involve "helpers-at-the-nest"; indeed, such behavior typically defines this intriguing breeding system. In few cases, however, has it been demonstrated that feeding nestlings by helpers, rather than some other behavior associated with helpers' presence, leads to greater reproductive success. One prediction of the hypothesis that feeding behavior per se is responsible for the fitness benefits conferred by helpers is that there should be close congruence between the patterns of helping-at-the-nest and the fitness effects of helpers. Here we look for such a relationship in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) in order to begin …

Chronic Disease Management: How It And Analytics Create Healthcare Value Through The Temporal Displacement Of Care, Steven M. Thompson, Jonathan W. Whitaker, Rajiv Kohli, Craig Jones

Management Faculty Publications

The treatment of chronic diseases consumes 86% of U.S. healthcare costs. While healthcare organizations have traditionally focused on treating the complications of chronic diseases, advances in information technology (IT) and analytics can help clinicians and patients manage and slow the progression of chronic diseases to result in higher quality of life for patients and lower healthcare costs.

We build on prior research to introduce the notion of temporal displacement of care (TDC), in which IT and analytics create healthcare value by displacing the time at which providers and patients make interventions to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce costs. We propose …

Better Inpatient Health Quality At Lower Cost: Should I Participate In The Online Healthcare Community First?, Kai Luo, Qiu-Hong Wang, Hock Hai Teo, Xi Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As policy makers across the globe look to health information technology (HIT) as a meansof improving the efficiency of the healthcare systems, it has sparked significant interestin understanding how HIT might help achieve that. While researchers have examined anddocumented the efficiency-improving effect of various institution HITs (e.g., electronicclinic pathways and telemedicine), the impacts of consumer HITs such as onlinehealthcare communities have been generally overlooked. Utilizing two unique datasetsfrom both an online healthcare community and a general hospital, we study the impactof online healthcare community on offline inpatient care efficiency. Through rigorousanalysis, we find that communications between physicians and patients on …

The Emergence Of Institutional Repositories: A Conceptual Understanding Of Key Issues Through Review Of Literature, O. P. Saini

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

It is the responsibility of the libraries to keep update its users by incorporating different technologies or tricks among the services offered to users. The libraries are managing diversified collection in both electronic and physical formats including the theses and dissertations awarded by their respective parent institutes in physical form. The academic libraries are directed by the Indian government through a mandate to protect and preserve the theses and dissertation in electronic form and provide access to the public domain. Institutional Repositories (IRs) have the perspective to store any amount of information electronically. Therefore, many of the academic libraries are …

Slides: Dam Operations: Does A Changing World Call For Changing Plans?, Reed D. Benson

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenter: Reed D. Benson, University of New Mexico School of Law

13 slides

Individual-Level Simulation Model For Cost Benefit Analysis In Healthcare, Nagesh Shukla, Vu Lam Cao, Van Hoang Phuong, Marian D. Shanahan, Alison Ritter, Pascal Perez

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

Illicit drug use creates significant burden at societal, family and personal levels. Every year substantial resources are allocated for treatment and the consequences of illicit drug use in Australia and around the world. Heroin is one of the major forms of illicit drugs. Several independent heroin treatment strategies or interventions exist and state-of-the art research demonstrates their efficacy and relative costeffectiveness. However, assessing total potential gains and burden from providing all treatment interventions or varying the mix of heroin treatments has never been attempted. This paper proposed an individual-level simulation model (ISM) which addresses net social benefit over a lifetime …

Ultra-High Performance, High-Temperature Superconducting Wires Via Cost-Effective, Scalable, Co-Evaporation Process, Ho-Sup Kim, Sang-Soo Oh, Hong-Soo Ha, Dojun Youm, Seung-Hyun Moon, Jung Ho Kim, S X. Dou, Yoon-Uk Heo, Sung-Hun Wee, Amit Goyal

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

Long-length, high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires capable of carrying high critical current, Ic, are required for a wide range of applications. Here, we report extremely high performance HTS wires based on 5 μm thick SmBa2Cu3O7 − δ (SmBCO) single layer films on textured metallic templates. SmBCO layer wires over 20 meters long were deposited by a cost-effective, scalable co-evaporation process using a batch-type drum in a dual chamber. All deposition parameters influencing the composition, phase, and texture of the films were optimized via a unique combinatorial method that is broadly applicable for co-evaporation of other promising complex materials containing several cations. …

The Cost Of Green Infrastructure: Worth The Investment?, Martha Sheils

Green Infrastructure

Is GI worth the investment?

• LID techniques often lead to cost savings when we look at WHOLE PROJECT COSTS

• Natural Infrastructure investments for flood control, drinking water protection and wildlife habitat can yield SIGNIFICANT AVOIDED COSTS and additional co-benefits to communitites

A Critique Of The Productivity Commissions Cost Benefit, Mark D. Harrison

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

In its 2011 NDIS report, the Productivity Commission rationalises its policy recommendation by means of a cost-benefit analysis, claiming that ‘the benefits of the [National Disability Insurance] scheme would significantly outweigh the costs’. But methodology the PC adopts departs from conventional cost-benefit analysis in ways that understates costs, presumes the benefits, muddies policy comparisons, and jumbles equity and efficiency issues. These problems are traceable to the Commission’s use of a ‘distributional weights approach’ to equity benefits. The ‘basic needs approach’ is an alternative way of dealing with equity considerations that better captures the underlying preferences of citizens and the rationale …

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

The Problem Of Road Congestion: The Fultility Of 'Avoidable Cost' Estimates, Mark D. Harrison

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics estimates of the costs of road congestion in Australian capital cities ($9.4 billion in 2005 and projected to more than double by 2020) are widely cited. But these projections appear to overstate the problem and provide little, if any, guidance for sound policy development. They are not measures of the net gain from introducing congestion charging. Moreover, such numbers provide no help for evaluating the net benefits of other policies to deal with congestion, such as increasing road capacity. Without efficiency-based cost-benefit analysis of all policies to deal with road congestion, governments …

The Economics Of The Atomic Bomb: Cost And Utilization, Jonathan M. Davis Mr.

Senior Honors Theses

Few moments in human history can be compared to the culmination of events that brought the atomic bomb into creation. It is incredible to contemplate that while a nation was fighting a two front war that spanned from Europe into the Pacific, that the United States was able to utilize the time, energy, brains, materials, manpower, and capital to complete a project in four years. That under any other circumstances would have taken greater than half a century to complete.

First, this thesis will discuss breakthroughs in research that led scientists to believe that the atomic weapons could be built, …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings, New England Environmental Finance Center, Muskie School Of Public Service

Water

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings (Presentation), New England Environmental Finance Center, Muskie School Of Public Service

Water

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

Culvert Material Cost Comparison, New England Environmental Finance Center

Water

The following tables provide a detailed look at the role that culvert material and culvert diameter play in the overall cost of a culvert replacement project.

Slides: Acts: Anadarko Completion Transport System, Jeff Dufresne

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Jeff Dufresne, Completions Manager, Anadarko Corporation

18 slides

Construction Cost Models, Barry Dikeman

Economics and Finance

The following are a series of cost estimate models similar in format to a typical engineer’s estimate that were developed in support of our financial impact assessment report for LD 1725. The models us current material costs, labor costs, and equipment costs for the region to provide a comparative cost analysis of seven culvert replacement scenarios. The models provide information about what the cost impact of LD 1725 would be for typical culvert replacements in Maine. However, due to the inherent restrictions of the cost modeling framework we were not able to include the abundance of variables that would be …

An Intelligent Approach For Cost Minimization Of Power Generation, Ahmed M. A. Haidar, Ibrahim A. Ahmed, Norazila Jaalam

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

Cost reduction is one of the main targets in power industry due to economic load dispatch problem and allocating loads to plants for minimum cost. The principal objective in economic dispatch of thermal generators in a power system is to determine the economic loadings of the generators so that the load demand can be met and the loadings are within the feasible operating regions of the generators. This study presents an optimization approach for fuel cost and power loss minimization based on genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization methods. To demonstrate the global optimization power of the presented techniques, these …

Multiresonator-Based Chipless Rfid System For Low-Cost Item Tracking, Stevan Preradovic, Isaac Balbin, Nemai Karmakar, Gerhard F. Swiegers

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

A fully passive printable chipless RFID system is presented. The chipless tag uses the amplitude and phase of the spectral signature of a multiresonator circuit and provides I : 1 correspondence of data bits. The tag comprises of a microstrip spiral multiresonator and cross-polarized transmitting and receiving microstrip ultra-wideband disc loaded monopole antennas. The reader antenna is a log periodic dipole antenna with average 5.5-dBi gain. Firstly, a 6-bit chipless tag is designed to encode 000000 and 010101 IDs. Finally, a 35-bit chipless tag based on the same principle is presented. The tag has potentials for low-cost item tagging such …

Automatic Reaction To A Chemical Event Detected By A Low-Cost Wireless Chemical Sensing Network, Stephen Beirne, King Tong Lau, Brian Corcoran, Dermot Diamond

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

A test-scale wireless chemical sensor network (WCSN) has been deployed within a controlled Environmental Chamber (EC). The combined signals from the WCSN were used to initiate a controllable response to the detected chemical event. When a particular sensor response pattern was obtained, a purging cycle was initiated. Sensor data were continuously checked against user-defined action limits, to determine if a chemical event had occurred. An acidic contaminant was used to demonstrate the response of the sensor network. Once the acid plume was simultaneously detected by a number of wireless chemical sensor nodes, an automatic response action, which was the purging …

Restoration Of Dredged Canals In Wetlands: A Comparison Of Methods, Joseph Baustian, R. Eugene Turner, Nancy F. Walters, David P. Muth

Faculty Publications

A comparison of two methods for restoring dredged canals to wetlands was examined at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s Barataria Preserve Unit near New Orleans, LA. Both northern and southern canals had the remnant dredged spoil material returned to the canal, but the southern canal had additional sediment pumped in from a nearby lake. The water depth in the southern canal shallowed significantly from 1.2 to 0.4 m following backfilling and sediment addition, while the depth of the northern canal (which received no additional sediment) remained unchanged following backfilling. Neither site had complete soil restoration, but the …

Chemical Event Tracking Using A Low-Cost Wireless Chemical Sensing Network, Stephen T. Beirne, B Corcoran, K T Lau, D Diamond

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

A recently developed low-cost light emitting diode (LED) chemical sensing technique is integrated with a Mica2Dot wireless communications platform to form a deployable wireless chemical event indicator network. The operation of the colorimetric sensing node has been evaluated to determine its reproducibility and limit of detection for an acidic airborne contaminant. A test-scale network of five similar chemical sensing nodes is deployed in a star communication topology at fixed points within a custom built Environmental Sensing Chamber (ESC). Presented data sets collected from the deployed wireless chemical sensor network (WCSN) show that during an acidic event scenario it is possible …

Evaluation Of A Low Cost Wireless Chemical Sensor Network For Environmental Monitoring, Jer Hayes, Stephen Beirne, King-Tong Lau, Dermot Diamond

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

We present work on the development and testing of a low-cost wireless chemical sensor network (WCSN) for monitoring irritant/toxic gases in the environment. The WCSN used in this work takes advantage of recent advances in low power wireless communication platforms and uses colorimetric sensors to detect the presence of certain target gases. This sensor network adopts a star configuration and performs one way RF communications from individual sensor nodes to the base-station. Each node in the network is composed of a multiple sensor platform that measures light intensity, temperature and motion. The light sensor was used as the chemical sensing …

Development And Performance Evaluation Of A Flexible, Low Cost Manet, Mehran Abolhasan, Brett Hagelstein, Jerry Chun-Ping Wang, D. Franklin, Farzad Safaei, Tadeusz A. Wysocki

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

Performance evaluations of multi-hop ad hoc network routing protocols have been primarily conducted through analytic and simulation-based studies, which frequently fail to accurately predict real-world performance and behaviour. One reason for this is the challenge in developing low cost, representative test beds with the degree of flexibility and mobility required. We have developed a Portable Wireless Ad hoc Node (PWAN) device which establishes multi-hop routes using the OLSR routing protocol. The PWAN’s performance has been investigated using two test bed configurations to evaluate its capacity under conditions of high node density in a short-range, multi-hop environment. Our results illustrate that …

The Growing Together Guide: A Companion Resource To The New England Environmental Finance Center/Melissa Paly Film, New England Environmental Finance Center

Smart Growth

What local leader or public official wants to be faced with an SOS the “same old story” of public discord and confrontation over growth and development in one’s community? That situation has become a problem for efforts to promote smart growth. Investments are needed in the walkable, compact, traditional‐streetscape and mixed use neighborhoods and developments that are more sustainable and healthy than sprawl, for both people and the landscape. Yet attempts at such change all too often end up mired in costly public controversy and stalemate.

A Simulation Model For Determining Cost-Effectiveness Of Fences For Reducing Deer Damage, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Michael J. Lavelle, Scott E. Hygnstrom

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The installation of fences to protect agricultural products, natural resources, or other areas from deer (Odocoileus spp.) can be expensive and potential benefits of fencing are difficult to quantify. A rational method is needed to help evaluate whether fencing can be cost-effective and which fence designs will be optimal for particular applications. We describe an interactive, dynamic simulation model that conducts economic analyses and predicts economic benefit associated with fences for crops relative to area and perimeter of protected plot, value of crop, percentage of crop damaged by deer annually prior to fencing, efficacy of fence, and costs of fence …

Low-Cost Surface-Mount Led Gas Sensor, Roderick Shepherd, William S. Yerazunis, King Tong Lau, Dermot Diamond

Australian Institute for Innovative Materials - Papers

A low-cost chemical sensor comprising surface-mount light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has been developed for colorimetric gas detection. The device consists of a pair of LEDs connected to a simple PIC microcontroller circuit and in the most basic form, requires the use of only two input-output (I/O) pins on the chip. The key features of this sensor are the use of a LED rather than a photodiode for light detection and an all-digital light detection protocol that leads to a reduction in cost and power consumption by avoiding the need for an analog-to-digital converter. The surface-mount diodes employed are more compact than …