18 CFR 292.308 - Standards for operating reliability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... reliability. 292.308 Section 292.308 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY... SMALL POWER PRODUCTION AND COGENERATION Arrangements Between Electric Utilities and Qualifying... may establish reasonable standards to ensure system safety and reliability of interconnected...

Design and Scheduling of Microgrids using Benders Decomposition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nagarajan, Adarsh; Ayyanar, Raja

2016-11-21

The distribution feeder laterals in a distribution feeder with relatively high PV generation as compared to the load can be operated as microgrids to achieve reliability, power quality and economic benefits. However, renewable resources are intermittent and stochastic in nature. A novel approach for sizing and scheduling an energy storage system and microturbine for reliable operation of microgrids is proposed. The size and schedule of an energy storage system and microturbine are determined using Benders' decomposition, considering PV generation as a stochastic resource.

Dynamic decision-making for reliability and maintenance analysis of manufacturing systems based on failure effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ding; Zhang, Yingjie

2017-09-01

A framework for reliability and maintenance analysis of job shop manufacturing systems is proposed in this paper. An efficient preventive maintenance (PM) policy in terms of failure effects analysis (FEA) is proposed. Subsequently, reliability evaluation and component importance measure based on FEA are performed under the PM policy. A job shop manufacturing system is applied to validate the reliability evaluation and dynamic maintenance policy. Obtained results are compared with existed methods and the effectiveness is validated. Some vague understandings for issues such as network modelling, vulnerabilities identification, the evaluation criteria of repairable systems, as well as PM policy during manufacturing system reliability analysis are elaborated. This framework can help for reliability optimisation and rational maintenance resources allocation of job shop manufacturing systems.

Use of participatory modeling workshops in a water-stressed basin of northern Mexico to assess sustainable water resources management and conduct community outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vivoni, E. R.; Mayer, A. S.; Halvorsen, K. E.; Robles-Morua, A.; Kossak, D.

2016-12-01

A series of iterative participatory modeling workshops were held in Sonora, México with the goal of developing water resources management strategies in a water-stressed basin subject to hydro-climatic variability and change. A model of the water resources system, consisting of watershed hydrology, water resources infrastructure, and groundwater models, was developed deliberatively in the workshops, along with scenarios of future climate and development. Participants used the final version of the water resources systems model to select from supply-side and demand-side water resources management strategies. The performance of the strategies was based on the reliability of meeting current and future demands at a daily time scale over a year's period. Pre- and post-workshop surveys were developed and administered. The survey questions focused on evaluation of participants' modeling capacity and the utility and accuracy of the models. The selected water resources strategies and the associated, expected reliability varied widely among participants. Most participants could be clustered into three groups with roughly equal numbers of participants that varied in terms of reliance on expanding infrastructure vs. demand modification; expectations of reliability; and perceptions of social, environmental, and economic impacts. The wide range of strategies chosen and associated reliabilities indicate that there is a substantial degree of uncertainty in how future water resources decisions could be made in the region. The pre- and post-survey results indicate that participants believed their modeling abilities increased and beliefs in the utility of models increased as a result of the workshops

Multi-state time-varying reliability evaluation of smart grid with flexible demand resources utilizing Lz transform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Heping; Jin, Wende; Ding, Yi; Song, Yonghua; Yu, Dezhao

2017-01-01

With the expanding proportion of renewable energy generation and development of smart grid technologies, flexible demand resources (FDRs) have been utilized as an approach to accommodating renewable energies. However, multiple uncertainties of FDRs may influence reliable and secure operation of smart grid. Multi-state reliability models for a single FDR and aggregating FDRs have been proposed in this paper with regard to responsive abilities for FDRs and random failures for both FDR devices and information system. The proposed reliability evaluation technique is based on Lz transform method which can formulate time-varying reliability indices. A modified IEEE-RTS has been utilized as an illustration of the proposed technique.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weston, F.; Harrington, C.; Moskovitz, D.

Distributed resources can provide cost-effective reliability and energy services - in many cases, obviating the need for more expensive investments in wires and central station electricity generating facilities. Given the unique features of distributed resources, the challenge facing policymakers today is how to restructure wholesale markets for electricity and related services so as to reveal the full value that distributed resources can provide to the electric power system (utility grid). This report looks at the functions that distributed resources can perform and examines the barriers to them. It then identifies a series of policy and operational approaches to promoting DRmore » in wholesale markets. This report is one in the State Electricity Regulatory Policy and Distributed Resources series developed under contract to NREL (see Annual Technical Status Report of the Regulatory Assistance Project: September 2000-September 2001, NREL/SR-560-32733). Other titles in this series are: (1) Distributed Resource Distribution Credit Pilot Programs - Revealing the Value to Consumers and Vendors, NREL/SR-560-32499; (2) Distributed Resources and Electric System Reliability, NREL/SR-560-32498; (3) Distribution System Cost Methodologies for Distributed Generation, NREL/SR-560-32500; (4) Distribution System Cost Methodologies for Distributed Generation Appendices, NREL/SR-560-32501« less

The Role of Demand Response in Reducing Water-Related Power Plant Vulnerabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macknick, J.; Brinkman, G.; Zhou, E.; O'Connell, M.; Newmark, R. L.; Miara, A.; Cohen, S. M.

2015-12-01

The electric sector depends on readily available water supplies for reliable and efficient operation. Elevated water temperatures or low water levels can trigger regulatory or plant-level decisions to curtail power generation, which can affect system cost and reliability. In the past decade, dozens of power plants in the U.S. have curtailed generation due to water temperatures and water shortages. Curtailments occur during the summer, when temperatures are highest and there is greatest demand for electricity. Climate change could alter the availability and temperature of water resources, exacerbating these issues. Constructing alternative cooling systems to address vulnerabilities can be capital intensive and can also affect power plant efficiencies. Demand response programs are being implemented by electric system planners and operators to reduce and shift electricity demands from peak usage periods to other times of the day. Demand response programs can also play a role in reducing water-related power sector vulnerabilities during summer months. Traditionally, production cost modeling and demand response analyses do not include water resources. In this effort, we integrate an electricity production cost modeling framework with water-related impacts on power plants in a test system to evaluate the impacts of demand response measures on power system costs and reliability. Specifically, we i) quantify the cost and reliability implications of incorporating water resources into production cost modeling, ii) evaluate the impacts of demand response measures on reducing system costs and vulnerabilities, and iii) consider sensitivity analyses with cooling systems to highlight a range of potential benefits of demand response measures. Impacts from climate change on power plant performance and water resources are discussed. Results provide key insights to policymakers and practitioners for reducing water-related power plant vulnerabilities via lower cost methods.

Applying Resource Utilization Groups (RUG-III) in Hong Kong nursing homes.

PubMed

Chou, Kee-Lee; Chi, Iris; Leung, Joe C B

2008-01-01

Resource Utilization Groups III (RUG-III) is a case-mix system developed in the United States for categorization of nursing home residents and the financing of residential care services. In Hong Kong, RUG-III is based on several board groups of residents. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the RUG-III in Hong Kong nursing homes. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in seven residential facilities operated by one agency. Residents ( N = 1,127) were assessed by the Minimum Data Set (MDS) and nursing as well as auxiliary staff care times were recorded within 2 weeks before or after the completion of MDS assessment. Forty-five out 1,127 residents were re-interviewed by an independent assessor to assess the inter-rater reliability. The inter-rater reliability of MDS assessment was excellent (kappa = 0.76) and the original RUG-III accounted for about 30 per cent of nursing staff time. Results provide preliminary evidence to support that RUG-III is a reliable and valid case-mix system for Hong Kong nursing homes, but future studies must be explored to reduce the variance of resource use explained by this case-mix system.

Coordinative Voltage Control Strategy with Multiple Resources for Distribution Systems of High PV Penetration: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhu, Xiangqi; Zhang, Yingchen

This paper presents an optimal voltage control methodology with coordination among different voltage-regulating resources, including controllable loads, distributed energy resources such as energy storage and photovoltaics (PV), and utility voltage-regulating devices such as voltage regulators and capacitors. The proposed methodology could effectively tackle the overvoltage and voltage regulation device distortion problems brought by high penetrations of PV to improve grid operation reliability. A voltage-load sensitivity matrix and voltage-regulator sensitivity matrix are used to deploy the resources along the feeder to achieve the control objectives. Mixed-integer nonlinear programming is used to solve the formulated optimization control problem. The methodology has beenmore » tested on the IEEE 123-feeder test system, and the results demonstrate that the proposed approach could actively tackle the voltage problem brought about by high penetrations of PV and improve the reliability of distribution system operation.« less

Technical Analysis Feasibility Study on Smart Microgrid System in Sekolah Tinggi Teknik PLN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suyanto, Heri

2018-02-01

Nowadays application of new and renewable energy as main resource of power plant has greatly increased. High penetration of renewable energy into the grid will influence the quality and reliability of the electricity system, due to the intermittent characteristic of new and renewable energy resources. Smart grid or microgrid technology has the ability to deal with this intermittent characteristic especially if these renewable energy resources integrated to grid in large scale, so it can improve the reliability and efficiency of the grid. We plan to implement smart microgrid system at Sekolah Tinggi Teknik PLN as a pilot project. Before the pilot project start, the feasibility study must be conducted. In this feasibility study, the renewable energy resources and load characteristic at the site will be measured. Then the technical aspect of this feasibility study will be analyzed. This paper explains that analysis of ths feasibility study.

Scheduling and Pricing for Expected Ramp Capability in Real-Time Power Markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ela, Erik; O'Malley, Mark

2016-05-01

Higher variable renewable generation penetrations are occurring throughout the world on different power systems. These resources increase the variability and uncertainty on the system which must be accommodated by an increase in the flexibility of the system resources in order to maintain reliability. Many scheduling strategies have been discussed and introduced to ensure that this flexibility is available at multiple timescales. To meet variability, that is, the expected changes in system conditions, two recent strategies have been introduced: time-coupled multi-period market clearing models and the incorporation of ramp capability constraints. To appropriately evaluate these methods, it is important to assessmore » both efficiency and reliability. But it is also important to assess the incentive structure to ensure that resources asked to perform in different ways have the proper incentives to follow these directions, which is a step often ignored in simulation studies. We find that there are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. We also find that look-ahead horizon length in multi-period market models can impact incentives. This paper proposes scheduling and pricing methods that ensure expected ramps are met reliably, efficiently, and with associated prices based on true marginal costs that incentivize resources to do as directed by the market. Case studies show improvements of the new method.« less

Key issues for determining the exploitable water resources in a Mediterranean river basin.

PubMed

Pedro-Monzonís, María; Ferrer, Javier; Solera, Abel; Estrela, Teodoro; Paredes-Arquiola, Javier

2015-01-15

One of the major difficulties in water planning is to determine the water availability in a water resource system in order to distribute water sustainably. In this paper, we analyze the key issues for determining the exploitable water resources as an indicator of water availability in a Mediterranean river basin. Historically, these territories are characterized by heavily regulated water resources and the extensive use of unconventional resources (desalination and wastewater reuse); hence, emulating the hydrological cycle is not enough. This analysis considers the Jucar River Basin as a case study. We have analyzed the different possible combinations between the streamflow time series, the length of the simulation period and the reliability criteria. As expected, the results show a wide dispersion, proving the great influence of the reliability criteria used for the quantification and localization of the exploitable water resources in the system. Therefore, it is considered risky to provide a single value to represent the water availability in the Jucar water resource system. In this sense, it is necessary that policymakers and stakeholders make a decision about the methodology used to determine the exploitable water resources in a river basin. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

76 FR 39470 - Integrated Resource Plan

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-06

... region's natural resources. One component of this mission is the generation, transmission, and sale of reliable and affordable electric energy. TVA operates the nation's largest public power system, producing 4... 56 directly served large industrial and Federal customers. The TVA Act requires the TVA power system...

Reliability-Productivity Curve, a Tool for Adaptation Measures Identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chávez-Jiménez, A.; Granados, A.; Garrote, L. M.

2015-12-01

Due to climate change effects, water scarcity problems would intensify in several regions. These problems are going to impact negatively in the water low-priority demands, since these will be reduced in favor of those with high-priority. An example would be the reduction of agriculture water resources in favor of the urban ones. Then, it is important the evaluation of adaptation measures for a better water resources management. An important tool to face this challenge is the economic valuation of the water demands' impact within a water resources system. In agriculture this valuation is usually performed through the water productivity evaluation. The water productivity evaluation requires detailed information regarding the different crops like the applied technology, the agricultural supplies management, the water availability, etc. This is a restriction for an evaluation at basin scale due to the difficulty of gathers this level of detailed information. Besides, only the water availability is taken into account, but not the period when the water is distributed (i.e. water resources reliability). Water resources reliability is one of the most important variables in water resources management. This research proposes a methodology to determine the agriculture water productivity, using as variables the crops information, the crops price, the water resources availability, and the water resources reliability, at a basin scale. This methodology would allow identifying general water resources adaptation measures, providing the basis for further detailed studies in critical regions.

UNIX-based operating systems robustness evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chang, Yu-Ming

1996-01-01

Robust operating systems are required for reliable computing. Techniques for robustness evaluation of operating systems not only enhance the understanding of the reliability of computer systems, but also provide valuable feed- back to system designers. This thesis presents results from robustness evaluation experiments on five UNIX-based operating systems, which include Digital Equipment's OSF/l, Hewlett Packard's HP-UX, Sun Microsystems' Solaris and SunOS, and Silicon Graphics' IRIX. Three sets of experiments were performed. The methodology for evaluation tested (1) the exception handling mechanism, (2) system resource management, and (3) system capacity under high workload stress. An exception generator was used to evaluate the exception handling mechanism of the operating systems. Results included exit status of the exception generator and the system state. Resource management techniques used by individual operating systems were tested using programs designed to usurp system resources such as physical memory and process slots. Finally, the workload stress testing evaluated the effect of the workload on system performance by running a synthetic workload and recording the response time of local and remote user requests. Moderate to severe performance degradations were observed on the systems under stress.

Chapter 15. Plant pathology and managing wildland plant disease systems

Treesearch

David L. Nelson

2004-01-01

Obtaining specific, reliable knowledge on plant diseases is essential in wildland shrub resource management. However, plant disease is one of the most neglected areas of wildland resources experimental research. This section is a discussion of plant pathology and how to use it in managing plant disease systems.

A Resource Service Model in the Industrial IoT System Based on Transparent Computing.

PubMed

Li, Weimin; Wang, Bin; Sheng, Jinfang; Dong, Ke; Li, Zitong; Hu, Yixiang

2018-03-26

The Internet of Things (IoT) has received a lot of attention, especially in industrial scenarios. One of the typical applications is the intelligent mine, which actually constructs the Six-Hedge underground systems with IoT platforms. Based on a case study of the Six Systems in the underground metal mine, this paper summarizes the main challenges of industrial IoT from the aspects of heterogeneity in devices and resources, security, reliability, deployment and maintenance costs. Then, a novel resource service model for the industrial IoT applications based on Transparent Computing (TC) is presented, which supports centralized management of all resources including operating system (OS), programs and data on the server-side for the IoT devices, thus offering an effective, reliable, secure and cross-OS IoT service and reducing the costs of IoT system deployment and maintenance. The model has five layers: sensing layer, aggregation layer, network layer, service and storage layer and interface and management layer. We also present a detailed analysis on the system architecture and key technologies of the model. Finally, the efficiency of the model is shown by an experiment prototype system.

A Resource Service Model in the Industrial IoT System Based on Transparent Computing

PubMed Central

Wang, Bin; Sheng, Jinfang; Dong, Ke; Li, Zitong; Hu, Yixiang

2018-01-01

The Internet of Things (IoT) has received a lot of attention, especially in industrial scenarios. One of the typical applications is the intelligent mine, which actually constructs the Six-Hedge underground systems with IoT platforms. Based on a case study of the Six Systems in the underground metal mine, this paper summarizes the main challenges of industrial IoT from the aspects of heterogeneity in devices and resources, security, reliability, deployment and maintenance costs. Then, a novel resource service model for the industrial IoT applications based on Transparent Computing (TC) is presented, which supports centralized management of all resources including operating system (OS), programs and data on the server-side for the IoT devices, thus offering an effective, reliable, secure and cross-OS IoT service and reducing the costs of IoT system deployment and maintenance. The model has five layers: sensing layer, aggregation layer, network layer, service and storage layer and interface and management layer. We also present a detailed analysis on the system architecture and key technologies of the model. Finally, the efficiency of the model is shown by an experiment prototype system. PMID:29587450

Reliability and Engineering | Photovoltaic Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

-Time PV and Solar Resource Testing We study long-term performance, reliability, and failures of PV (NCPV) at NREL, we focus on photovoltaic (PV) reliability research and development (R&D) to improve PV technologies. We test modules and systems for long-term performance and stress them in the field

Comparing Resource Adequacy Metrics and Their Influence on Capacity Value: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ibanez, E.; Milligan, M.

2014-04-01

Traditional probabilistic methods have been used to evaluate resource adequacy. The increasing presence of variable renewable generation in power systems presents a challenge to these methods because, unlike thermal units, variable renewable generation levels change over time because they are driven by meteorological events. Thus, capacity value calculations for these resources are often performed to simple rules of thumb. This paper follows the recommendations of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation?s Integration of Variable Generation Task Force to include variable generation in the calculation of resource adequacy and compares different reliability metrics. Examples are provided using the Western Interconnection footprintmore » under different variable generation penetrations.« less

Design Development Test and Evaluation (DDT and E) Considerations for Safe and Reliable Human Rated Spacecraft Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, James; Leggett, Jay; Kramer-White, Julie

2008-01-01

A team directed by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) collected methodologies for how best to develop safe and reliable human rated systems and how to identify the drivers that provide the basis for assessing safety and reliability. The team also identified techniques, methodologies, and best practices to assure that NASA can develop safe and reliable human rated systems. The results are drawn from a wide variety of resources, from experts involved with the space program since its inception to the best-practices espoused in contemporary engineering doctrine. This report focuses on safety and reliability considerations and does not duplicate or update any existing references. Neither does it intend to replace existing standards and policy.

Energy Policy Case Study - California: Renewables and Distributed Energy Resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Homer, Juliet S.; Bender, Sadie R.; Weimar, Mark R.

2016-09-19

The purpose of this document is to present a case study of energy policies in California related to power system transformation and renewable and distributed energy resources (DERs). Distributed energy resources represent a broad range of technologies that can significantly impact how much, and when, electricity is demanded from the grid. Key policies and proceedings related to power system transformation and DERs are grouped into the following categories: 1.Policies that support achieving environmental and climate goals 2.Policies that promote deployment of DERs 3.Policies that support reliability and integration of DERs 4.Policies that promote market animation and support customer choice. Majormore » challenges going forward are forecasting and modeling DERs, regulatory and utility business model issues, reliability, valuation and pricing, and data management and sharing.« less

Integrated Forecast-Decision Systems For River Basin Planning and Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Georgakakos, A. P.

2005-12-01

A central application of climatology, meteorology, and hydrology is the generation of reliable forecasts for water resources management. In principle, effective use of forecasts could improve water resources management by providing extra protection against floods, mitigating the adverse effects of droughts, generating more hydropower, facilitating recreational activities, and minimizing the impacts of extreme events on the environment and the ecosystems. In practice, however, realization of these benefits depends on three requisite elements. First is the skill and reliability of forecasts. Second is the existence of decision support methods/systems with the ability to properly utilize forecast information. And third is the capacity of the institutional infrastructure to incorporate the information provided by the decision support systems into the decision making processes. This presentation discusses several decision support systems (DSS) using ensemble forecasting that have been developed by the Georgia Water Resources Institute for river basin management. These DSS are currently operational in Africa, Europe, and the US and address integrated water resources and energy planning and management in river basins with multiple water uses, multiple relevant temporal and spatial scales, and multiple decision makers. The article discusses the methods used and advocates that the design, development, and implementation of effective forecast-decision support systems must bring together disciplines, people, and institutions necessary to address today's complex water resources challenges.

Many-objective optimization and visual analytics reveal key trade-offs for London's water supply

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matrosov, Evgenii S.; Huskova, Ivana; Kasprzyk, Joseph R.; Harou, Julien J.; Lambert, Chris; Reed, Patrick M.

2015-12-01

In this study, we link a water resource management simulator to multi-objective search to reveal the key trade-offs inherent in planning a real-world water resource system. We consider new supplies and demand management (conservation) options while seeking to elucidate the trade-offs between the best portfolios of schemes to satisfy projected water demands. Alternative system designs are evaluated using performance measures that minimize capital and operating costs and energy use while maximizing resilience, engineering and environmental metrics, subject to supply reliability constraints. Our analysis shows many-objective evolutionary optimization coupled with state-of-the art visual analytics can help planners discover more diverse water supply system designs and better understand their inherent trade-offs. The approach is used to explore future water supply options for the Thames water resource system (including London's water supply). New supply options include a new reservoir, water transfers, artificial recharge, wastewater reuse and brackish groundwater desalination. Demand management options include leakage reduction, compulsory metering and seasonal tariffs. The Thames system's Pareto approximate portfolios cluster into distinct groups of water supply options; for example implementing a pipe refurbishment program leads to higher capital costs but greater reliability. This study highlights that traditional least-cost reliability constrained design of water supply systems masks asset combinations whose benefits only become apparent when more planning objectives are considered.

Five Indisputable Facts on Modern Power Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bloom, Aaron P; Brinkman, Gregory L; Lopez, Anthony J

This presentation overviews five indisputable facts about modern power systems: Fact one: The grid can handle more renewable generation than previously thought. Fact two: Geographic and resource diversity provide additional reliability to the system. Fact three: Wind and solar forecasting provide significant value. Fact four: Our electric power markets were not originally designed for variable renewables -- but they could be adapted. Fact five: Modern power electronics are creating new sources of essential reliability services.

Two-stage stochastic unit commitment model including non-generation resources with conditional value-at-risk constraints

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, Yuping; Zheng, Qipeng P.; Wang, Jianhui

2014-11-01

tThis paper presents a two-stage stochastic unit commitment (UC) model, which integrates non-generation resources such as demand response (DR) and energy storage (ES) while including riskconstraints to balance between cost and system reliability due to the fluctuation of variable genera-tion such as wind and solar power. This paper uses conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) measures to modelrisks associated with the decisions in a stochastic environment. In contrast to chance-constrained modelsrequiring extra binary variables, risk constraints based on CVaR only involve linear constraints and con-tinuous variables, making it more computationally attractive. The proposed models with risk constraintsare able to avoid over-conservative solutions butmore » still ensure system reliability represented by loss ofloads. Then numerical experiments are conducted to study the effects of non-generation resources ongenerator schedules and the difference of total expected generation costs with risk consideration. Sen-sitivity analysis based on reliability parameters is also performed to test the decision preferences ofconfidence levels and load-shedding loss allowances on generation cost reduction.« less

Measurement-based reliability/performability models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hsueh, Mei-Chen

1987-01-01

Measurement-based models based on real error-data collected on a multiprocessor system are described. Model development from the raw error-data to the estimation of cumulative reward is also described. A workload/reliability model is developed based on low-level error and resource usage data collected on an IBM 3081 system during its normal operation in order to evaluate the resource usage/error/recovery process in a large mainframe system. Thus, both normal and erroneous behavior of the system are modeled. The results provide an understanding of the different types of errors and recovery processes. The measured data show that the holding times in key operational and error states are not simple exponentials and that a semi-Markov process is necessary to model the system behavior. A sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the significance of using a semi-Markov process, as opposed to a Markov process, to model the measured system.

7 CFR 1730.61 - RUS policy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., or reliability on the borrower's electric power system or other electric power systems interconnected to the borrower's electric power system. The Agency encourages borrowers to consider model policy... ELECTRIC SYSTEM OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE Interconnection of Distributed Resources § 1730.61 RUS policy...

7 CFR 1730.61 - RUS policy.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., or reliability on the borrower's electric power system or other electric power systems interconnected to the borrower's electric power system. The Agency encourages borrowers to consider model policy... ELECTRIC SYSTEM OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE Interconnection of Distributed Resources § 1730.61 RUS policy...

Small and Rural Wastewater Systems

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Many tools, training, technical assistance, and funding resources are available to develop and maintain reliable and affordable wastewater treatment systems in small and rural communities including in tribal and U.S.-Mexico Border area.

Improved Acquisition for System Sustainment: Multiobjective Tradeoff Analysis for Condition-Based Decision-Making

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-10-21

depend on the quality of allocating resources. This work uses a reliability model of system and environmental covariates incorporating information at...state space. Further, the use of condition variables allows for the direct modeling of maintenance impact with the assumption that a nominal value ... value ), the model in the application of aviation maintenance can provide a useful estimation of reliability at multiple levels. Adjusted survival

Using computerised patient-level costing data for setting DRG weights: the Victorian (Australia) cost weight studies.

PubMed

Jackson, T

2001-05-01

Casemix-funding systems for hospital inpatient care require a set of resource weights which will not inadvertently distort patterns of patient care. Few health systems have very good sources of cost information, and specific studies to derive empirical cost relativities are themselves costly. This paper reports a 5 year program of research into the use of data from hospital management information systems (clinical costing systems) to estimate resource relativities for inpatient hospital care used in Victoria's DRG-based payment system. The paper briefly describes international approaches to cost weight estimation. It describes the architecture of clinical costing systems, and contrasts process and job costing approaches to cost estimation. Techniques of data validation and reliability testing developed in the conduct of four of the first five of the Victorian Cost Weight Studies (1993-1998) are described. Improvement in sampling, data validity and reliability are documented over the course of the research program, the advantages of patient-level data are highlighted. The usefulness of these byproduct data for estimation of relative resource weights and other policy applications may be an important factor in hospital and health system decisions to invest in clinical costing technology.

Smart Operations in Distributed Energy Resources System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Li; Jie, Shu; Zhang-XianYong; Qing, Zhou

Smart grid capabilities are being proposed to help solve the challenges concerning system operations due to that the trade-offs between energy and environmental needs will be constantly negotiated while a reliable supply of electricity needs even greater assurance in case of that threats of disruption have risen. This paper mainly explores models for distributed energy resources system (DG, storage, and load),and also reviews the evolving nature of electricity markets to deal with this complexity and a change of emphasis on signals from these markets to affect power system control. Smart grid capabilities will also impact reliable operations, while cyber security issues must be solved as a culture change that influences all system design, implementation, and maintenance. Lastly, the paper explores significant questions for further research and the need for a simulation environment that supports such investigation and informs deployments to mitigate operational issues as they arise.

Demand response, behind-the-meter generation and air quality.

PubMed

Zhang, Xiyue; Zhang, K Max

2015-02-03

We investigated the implications of behind-the-meter (BTM) generation participating in demand response (DR) programs. Specifically, we evaluated the impacts of NOx emissions from BTM generators enrolled in the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)'s reliability-based DR programs. Through analyzing the DR program enrollment data, DR event records, ozone air quality monitoring data, and emission characteristics of the generators, we found that the emissions from BTM generators very likely contribute to exceedingly high ozone concentrations in the Northeast Corridor region, and very likely account for a substantial fraction of total NOx emissions from electricity generation. In addition, a companion study showed that the emissions from BTM generators could also form near-source particulate matter (PM) hotspots. The important policy implications are that the absence of up-to-date regulations on BTM generators may offset the current efforts to reduce the emissions from peaking power plants, and that there is a need to quantify the environmental impacts of DR programs in designing sound policies related to demand-side resources. Furthermore, we proposed the concept of "Green" DR resources, referring to those that not only provide power systems reliability services, but also have verifiable environmental benefits or minimal negative environmental impacts. We argue that Green DR resources that are able to maintain resource adequacy and reduce emissions at the same time are key to achieving the cobenefits of power system reliability and protecting public health during periods with peak electricity demand.

Systems Integration Fact Sheet

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

2016-06-01

This fact sheet is an overview of the Systems Integration subprogram at the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. The Systems Integration subprogram enables the widespread deployment of safe, reliable, and cost-effective solar energy technologies by addressing the associated technical and non-technical challenges. These include timely and cost-effective interconnection procedures, optimal system planning, accurate prediction of solar resources, monitoring and control of solar power, maintaining grid reliability and stability, and many more. To address the challenges associated with interconnecting and integrating hundreds of gigawatts of solar power onto the electricity grid, the Systems Integration program funds research, development, and demonstrationmore » projects in four broad, interrelated focus areas: grid performance and reliability, dispatchability, power electronics, and communications.« less

A review of health resource tracking in developing countries.

PubMed

Powell-Jackson, Timothy; Mills, Anne

2007-11-01

Timely, reliable and complete information on financial resources in the health sector is critical for sound policy making and planning, particularly in developing countries where resources are both scarce and unpredictable. Health resource tracking has a long history and has seen renewed interest more recently as pressure has mounted to improve accountability for the attainment of the health Millennium Development Goals. We review the methods used to track health resources and recent experiences of their application, with a view to identifying the major challenges that must be overcome if data availability and reliability are to improve. At the country level, there have been important advances in the refinement of the National Health Accounts (NHA) methodology, which is now regarded as the international standard. Significant efforts have also been put into the development of methods to track disease-specific expenditures. However, NHA as a framework can do little to address the underlying problem of weak government public expenditure management and information systems that provide much of the raw data. The experience of institutionalizing NHA suggests progress has been uneven and there is a potential for stand-alone disease accounts to make the situation worse by undermining capacity and confusing technicians. Global level tracking of donor assistance to health relies to a large extent on the OECD's Creditor Reporting System. Despite improvements in its coverage and reliability, the demand for estimates of aid to control of specific diseases is resulting in multiple, uncoordinated data requests to donor agencies, placing additional workload on the providers of information. The emergence of budget support aid modalities poses a methodological challenge to health resource tracking, as such support is difficult to attribute to any particular sector or health programme. Attention should focus on improving underlying financial and information systems at the country level, which will facilitate more reliable and timely reporting of NHA estimates. Effective implementation of a framework to make donors more accountable to recipient countries and the international community will improve the availability of financial data on their activities.

Model of load balancing using reliable algorithm with multi-agent system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afriansyah, M. F.; Somantri, M.; Riyadi, M. A.

2017-04-01

Massive technology development is linear with the growth of internet users which increase network traffic activity. It also increases load of the system. The usage of reliable algorithm and mobile agent in distributed load balancing is a viable solution to handle the load issue on a large-scale system. Mobile agent works to collect resource information and can migrate according to given task. We propose reliable load balancing algorithm using least time first byte (LFB) combined with information from the mobile agent. In system overview, the methodology consisted of defining identification system, specification requirements, network topology and design system infrastructure. The simulation method for simulated system was using 1800 request for 10 s from the user to the server and taking the data for analysis. Software simulation was based on Apache Jmeter by observing response time and reliability of each server and then compared it with existing method. Results of performed simulation show that the LFB method with mobile agent can perform load balancing with efficient systems to all backend server without bottleneck, low risk of server overload, and reliable.

Reliability and economy -- Hydro electricity for Iran

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jahromi-Shirazi, M.J.; Zarbakhsh, M.H.

1998-12-31

Reliability is the probability that a device or system will perform its function adequately, for the period of time intended, under the operating conditions intended. Reliability and economy are two important factors in operating any system, especially in power generation. Due to the high rate in population growth in Iran, the experts have estimated that the demand for electricity will be about 63,000 MW in the next 25 years, the installed power is now about 26,000 MW. Therefore, the energy policy decision made in Iran is to go to power generation by hydroelectric plants because of reliability, availability of watermore » resources and the economics of hydroelectric power.« less

RGCA: A Reliable GPU Cluster Architecture for Large-Scale Internet of Things Computing Based on Effective Performance-Energy Optimization

PubMed Central

Chen, Qingkui; Zhao, Deyu; Wang, Jingjuan

2017-01-01

This paper aims to develop a low-cost, high-performance and high-reliability computing system to process large-scale data using common data mining algorithms in the Internet of Things (IoT) computing environment. Considering the characteristics of IoT data processing, similar to mainstream high performance computing, we use a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) cluster to achieve better IoT services. Firstly, we present an energy consumption calculation method (ECCM) based on WSNs. Then, using the CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) Programming model, we propose a Two-level Parallel Optimization Model (TLPOM) which exploits reasonable resource planning and common compiler optimization techniques to obtain the best blocks and threads configuration considering the resource constraints of each node. The key to this part is dynamic coupling Thread-Level Parallelism (TLP) and Instruction-Level Parallelism (ILP) to improve the performance of the algorithms without additional energy consumption. Finally, combining the ECCM and the TLPOM, we use the Reliable GPU Cluster Architecture (RGCA) to obtain a high-reliability computing system considering the nodes’ diversity, algorithm characteristics, etc. The results show that the performance of the algorithms significantly increased by 34.1%, 33.96% and 24.07% for Fermi, Kepler and Maxwell on average with TLPOM and the RGCA ensures that our IoT computing system provides low-cost and high-reliability services. PMID:28777325

RGCA: A Reliable GPU Cluster Architecture for Large-Scale Internet of Things Computing Based on Effective Performance-Energy Optimization.

PubMed

Fang, Yuling; Chen, Qingkui; Xiong, Neal N; Zhao, Deyu; Wang, Jingjuan

2017-08-04

This paper aims to develop a low-cost, high-performance and high-reliability computing system to process large-scale data using common data mining algorithms in the Internet of Things (IoT) computing environment. Considering the characteristics of IoT data processing, similar to mainstream high performance computing, we use a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) cluster to achieve better IoT services. Firstly, we present an energy consumption calculation method (ECCM) based on WSNs. Then, using the CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) Programming model, we propose a Two-level Parallel Optimization Model (TLPOM) which exploits reasonable resource planning and common compiler optimization techniques to obtain the best blocks and threads configuration considering the resource constraints of each node. The key to this part is dynamic coupling Thread-Level Parallelism (TLP) and Instruction-Level Parallelism (ILP) to improve the performance of the algorithms without additional energy consumption. Finally, combining the ECCM and the TLPOM, we use the Reliable GPU Cluster Architecture (RGCA) to obtain a high-reliability computing system considering the nodes' diversity, algorithm characteristics, etc. The results show that the performance of the algorithms significantly increased by 34.1%, 33.96% and 24.07% for Fermi, Kepler and Maxwell on average with TLPOM and the RGCA ensures that our IoT computing system provides low-cost and high-reliability services.

Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications: Second Edition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sengupta, Manajit; Habte, Aron; Gueymard, Christian

As the world looks for low-carbon sources of energy, solar power stands out as the single most abundant energy resource on Earth. Harnessing this energy is the challenge for this century. Photovoltaics, solar heating and cooling, and concentrating solar power (CSP) are primary forms of energy applications using sunlight. These solar energy systems use different technologies, collect different fractions of the solar resource, and have different siting requirements and production capabilities. Reliable information about the solar resource is required for every solar energy application. This holds true for small installations on a rooftop as well as for large solar powermore » plants; however, solar resource information is of particular interest for large installations, because they require substantial investment, sometimes exceeding 1 billion dollars in construction costs. Before such a project is undertaken, the best possible information about the quality and reliability of the fuel source must be made available. That is, project developers need reliable data about the solar resource available at specific locations, including historic trends with seasonal, daily, hourly, and (preferably) subhourly variability to predict the daily and annual performance of a proposed power plant. Without this data, an accurate financial analysis is not possible. Additionally, with the deployment of large amounts of distributed photovoltaics, there is an urgent need to integrate this source of generation to ensure the reliability and stability of the grid. Forecasting generation from the various sources will allow for larger penetrations of these generation sources because utilities and system operators can then ensure stable grid operations. Developed by the foremost experts in the field who have come together under the umbrella of the International Energy Agency's Solar Heating and Cooling Task 46, this handbook summarizes state-of-the-art information about all the above topics.« less

Stochastic simulation of power systems with integrated renewable and utility-scale storage resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Degeilh, Yannick

The push for a more sustainable electric supply has led various countries to adopt policies advocating the integration of renewable yet variable energy resources, such as wind and solar, into the grid. The challenges of integrating such time-varying, intermittent resources has in turn sparked a growing interest in the implementation of utility-scale energy storage resources ( ESRs), with MWweek storage capability. Indeed, storage devices provide flexibility to facilitate the management of power system operations in the presence of uncertain, highly time-varying and intermittent renewable resources. The ability to exploit the potential synergies between renewable and ESRs hinges on developing appropriate models, methodologies, tools and policy initiatives. We report on the development of a comprehensive simulation methodology that provides the capability to quantify the impacts of integrated renewable and ESRs on the economics, reliability and emission variable effects of power systems operating in a market environment. We model the uncertainty in the demands, the available capacity of conventional generation resources and the time-varying, intermittent renewable resources, with their temporal and spatial correlations, as discrete-time random processes. We deploy models of the ESRs to emulate their scheduling and operations in the transmission-constrained hourly day-ahead markets. To this end, we formulate a scheduling optimization problem (SOP) whose solutions determine the operational schedule of the controllable ESRs in coordination with the demands and the conventional/renewable resources. As such, the SOP serves the dual purpose of emulating the clearing of the transmission-constrained day-ahead markets (DAMs ) and scheduling the energy storage resource operations. We also represent the need for system operators to impose stricter ramping requirements on the conventional generating units so as to maintain the system capability to perform "load following'', i.e., respond to quick variations in the loads and renewable resource outputs in a manner that maintains the power balance, by incorporating appropriate ramping requirement constraints in the formulation of the SOP. The simulation approach makes use of Monte Carlo simulation techniques to represent the impacts of the sources of uncertainty on the side-by-side power system and market operations. As such, we systematically sample the "input'' random processes -- namely the buyer demands, renewable resource outputs and conventional generation resource available capacities -- to generate the realizations, or sample paths, that we use in the emulation of the transmission-constrained day-ahead markets via SOP . As a result, we obtain realizations of the market outcomes and storage resource operations that we can use to approximate their statistics. The approach not only has the capability to emulate the side-by-side power system and energy market operations with the explicit representation of the chronology of time-dependent phenomena -- including storage cycles of charge/discharge -- and constraints imposed by the transmission network in terms of deliverability of the energy, but also to provide the figures of merit for all metrics to assess the economics, reliability and the environmental impacts of the performance of those operations. Our efforts to address the implementational aspects of the methodology so as to ensure computational tractability for large-scale systems over longer periods include relaxing the SOP, the use of a "warm-start'' technique as well as representative simulation periods, parallelization and variance reduction techniques. Our simulation approach is useful in power system planning, operations and investment analysis. There is a broad range of applications of the simulation methodology to resource planning studies, production costing issues, investment analysis, transmission utilization, reliability analysis, environmental assessments, policy formulation and to answer quantitatively various what-if questions. We demonstrate the capabilities of the simulation approach by carrying out various studies on modified IEEE 118- and WECC 240-bus systems. The results of our representative case studies effectively illustrate the synergies among wind and ESRs. Our investigations clearly indicate that energy storage and wind resources tend to complement each other in the reduction of wholesale purchase payments in the DAMs and the improvement of system reliability. In addition, we observe that CO2 emission impacts with energy storage depend on the resource mix characteristics. An important finding is that storage seems to attenuate the "diminishing returns'' associated with increased penetration of wind generation. Our studies also evidence the limited ability of integrated ESRs to enhance the wind resource capability to replace conventional resources from purely a system reliability perspective. Some useful insights into the siting of ESRs are obtained and they indicate the potentially significant impacts of such decisions on the network congestion patterns and, consequently, on the LMPs. Simulation results further indicate that the explicit representation of ramping requirements on the conventional units at the DAM level causes the expected total wholesale purchase payments to increase, thereby mitigating the benefits of wind integration. The stricter ramping requirements are also shown to impact the revenues of generators that do not even provide any ramp capability services.

"Reliability Of Fiber Optic Lans"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Code n, Michael; Scholl, Frederick; Hatfield, W. Bryan

1987-02-01

Fiber optic Local Area Network Systems are being used to interconnect increasing numbers of nodes. These nodes may include office computer peripherals and terminals, PBX switches, process control equipment and sensors, automated machine tools and robots, and military telemetry and communications equipment. The extensive shared base of capital resources in each system requires that the fiber optic LAN meet stringent reliability and maintainability requirements. These requirements are met by proper system design and by suitable manufacturing and quality procedures at all levels of a vertically integrated manufacturing operation. We will describe the reliability and maintainability of Codenoll's passive star based systems. These include LAN systems compatible with Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) and MAP (IEEE 802.4), and software compatible with IBM Token Ring (IEEE 802.5). No single point of failure exists in this system architecture.

Water Resources Management and Hydrologic Design Under Uncertain Climate Change Scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teegavarapu, R. S.

2008-05-01

The impact of climate change on hydrologic design and management of water resource systems could be one of the important challenges faced by future practicing hydrologists and water resources managers. Many water resources managers currently rely on the historical hydrological data and adaptive real-time operations without consideration of the impact of climate change on major inputs influencing the behavior of hydrologic systems and the operating rules. Issues such as risk, reliability and robustness of water resources systems under different climate change scenarios were addressed in the past. However, water resources management with the decision maker's preferences attached to climate change has never been dealt with. This presentation discusses issues related to impacts of climate change on water resources management and application of a soft-computing approach, fuzzy set theory, for climate-sensitive management of water resources systems. A real-life case study example is presented to illustrate the applicability of soft-computing approach for handling the decision maker's preferences in accepting or rejecting the magnitude and direction of climate change.

78 FR 43198 - Flexible and Local Resources Needed for Reliability in the California Wholesale Electric Market...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-19

... Local Resources Needed for Reliability in the California Wholesale Electric Market; Notice of Staff... Flexible and Local Resources Needed for Reliability in the California Wholesale Electric Market July 31... development of a durable, market-based mechanism to provide incentives to insure reliability needs are met...

A Significant Role for Renewables in a Low-Carbon Energy Economy?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newmark, R. L.

2015-12-01

Renewables currently make up a small (but growing) fraction of total U.S. electricity generation. In some regions, renewable growth has resulted in instantaneous penetration levels of wind and solar in excess of 60% of demand. With decreasing costs, abundant resource potential and low carbon emissions and water requirements, wind and solar are increasingly becoming attractive new generation options. However, factors such as resource variability and geographic distribution of prime resources raise questions regarding the extent to which our power system can rely on variable generation resources. Here, we describe scenario analyses designed to tackle engineering and economic challenges associated with variable generation, along with insights derived from research results. These analyses demonstrate the operability of high renewable systems and quantify some of the engineering challenges (and solutions) associated with maintaining reliability. Key questions addressed include the operational and economic impacts of increasing levels of variable generation on the U.S. power system. Since reliability and economic efficiency are measured across a variety of time frames, and with a variety of metrics, a suite of tools addressing different system impacts are used to understand how new resources affect incumbent resources and operational practices. We summarize a range of modeled scenarios, focusing on ones with 80% RE in the United States and >30% variable wind and solar in the East and the West. We also summarize the environmental impacts and benefits estimated for these and similar scenarios. Results provide key insights to inform the technical, operational and regulatory evolution of the U.S. power system. This work is extended internationally through the 21st Century Power Partnership's collaborations on power system transformation, with active collaboration in Canada, Mexico, India, China and South Africa, among others.

Practical Issues in Implementing Software Reliability Measurement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nikora, Allen P.; Schneidewind, Norman F.; Everett, William W.; Munson, John C.; Vouk, Mladen A.; Musa, John D.

1999-01-01

Many ways of estimating software systems' reliability, or reliability-related quantities, have been developed over the past several years. Of particular interest are methods that can be used to estimate a software system's fault content prior to test, or to discriminate between components that are fault-prone and those that are not. The results of these methods can be used to: 1) More accurately focus scarce fault identification resources on those portions of a software system most in need of it. 2) Estimate and forecast the risk of exposure to residual faults in a software system during operation, and develop risk and safety criteria to guide the release of a software system to fielded use. 3) Estimate the efficiency of test suites in detecting residual faults. 4) Estimate the stability of the software maintenance process.

Utilization and Monetization of Healthcare Data in Developing Countries.

PubMed

Bram, Joshua T; Warwick-Clark, Boyd; Obeysekare, Eric; Mehta, Khanjan

2015-06-01

In developing countries with fledgling healthcare systems, the efficient deployment of scarce resources is paramount. Comprehensive community health data and machine learning techniques can optimize the allocation of resources to areas, epidemics, or populations most in need of medical aid or services. However, reliable data collection in low-resource settings is challenging due to a wide range of contextual, business-related, communication, and technological factors. Community health workers (CHWs) are trusted community members who deliver basic health education and services to their friends and neighbors. While an increasing number of programs leverage CHWs for last mile data collection, a fundamental challenge to such programs is the lack of tangible incentives for the CHWs. This article describes potential applications of health data in developing countries and reviews the challenges to reliable data collection. Four practical CHW-centric business models that provide incentive and accountability structures to facilitate data collection are presented. Creating and strengthening the data collection infrastructure is a prerequisite for big data scientists, machine learning experts, and public health administrators to ultimately elevate and transform healthcare systems in resource-poor settings.

Utilization and Monetization of Healthcare Data in Developing Countries

PubMed Central

Bram, Joshua T.; Warwick-Clark, Boyd; Obeysekare, Eric; Mehta, Khanjan

2015-01-01

Abstract In developing countries with fledgling healthcare systems, the efficient deployment of scarce resources is paramount. Comprehensive community health data and machine learning techniques can optimize the allocation of resources to areas, epidemics, or populations most in need of medical aid or services. However, reliable data collection in low-resource settings is challenging due to a wide range of contextual, business-related, communication, and technological factors. Community health workers (CHWs) are trusted community members who deliver basic health education and services to their friends and neighbors. While an increasing number of programs leverage CHWs for last mile data collection, a fundamental challenge to such programs is the lack of tangible incentives for the CHWs. This article describes potential applications of health data in developing countries and reviews the challenges to reliable data collection. Four practical CHW-centric business models that provide incentive and accountability structures to facilitate data collection are presented. Creating and strengthening the data collection infrastructure is a prerequisite for big data scientists, machine learning experts, and public health administrators to ultimately elevate and transform healthcare systems in resource-poor settings. PMID:26487984

Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Transmission Planning Process

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Nathan

A REZ is a geographical area that enables the development of profitable, cost-effective, grid-connected renewable energy (RE). The REZ Transmission Planning Process is a proactive approach to plan, approve, and build transmission infrastructure connecting REZs to the power system which helps to increase the share of solar, wind and other RE resources in the power system while maintaining reliability and economics, and focuses on large-scale wind and solar resources that can be developed in sufficient quantities to warrant transmission system expansion and upgrades.

Towards Integrating Distributed Energy Resources and Storage Devices in Smart Grid.

PubMed

Xu, Guobin; Yu, Wei; Griffith, David; Golmie, Nada; Moulema, Paul

2017-02-01

Internet of Things (IoT) provides a generic infrastructure for different applications to integrate information communication techniques with physical components to achieve automatic data collection, transmission, exchange, and computation. The smart grid, as one of typical applications supported by IoT, denoted as a re-engineering and a modernization of the traditional power grid, aims to provide reliable, secure, and efficient energy transmission and distribution to consumers. How to effectively integrate distributed (renewable) energy resources and storage devices to satisfy the energy service requirements of users, while minimizing the power generation and transmission cost, remains a highly pressing challenge in the smart grid. To address this challenge and assess the effectiveness of integrating distributed energy resources and storage devices, in this paper we develop a theoretical framework to model and analyze three types of power grid systems: the power grid with only bulk energy generators, the power grid with distributed energy resources, and the power grid with both distributed energy resources and storage devices. Based on the metrics of the power cumulative cost and the service reliability to users, we formally model and analyze the impact of integrating distributed energy resources and storage devices in the power grid. We also use the concept of network calculus, which has been traditionally used for carrying out traffic engineering in computer networks, to derive the bounds of both power supply and user demand to achieve a high service reliability to users. Through an extensive performance evaluation, our data shows that integrating distributed energy resources conjointly with energy storage devices can reduce generation costs, smooth the curve of bulk power generation over time, reduce bulk power generation and power distribution losses, and provide a sustainable service reliability to users in the power grid.

Towards Integrating Distributed Energy Resources and Storage Devices in Smart Grid

PubMed Central

Xu, Guobin; Yu, Wei; Griffith, David; Golmie, Nada; Moulema, Paul

2017-01-01

Internet of Things (IoT) provides a generic infrastructure for different applications to integrate information communication techniques with physical components to achieve automatic data collection, transmission, exchange, and computation. The smart grid, as one of typical applications supported by IoT, denoted as a re-engineering and a modernization of the traditional power grid, aims to provide reliable, secure, and efficient energy transmission and distribution to consumers. How to effectively integrate distributed (renewable) energy resources and storage devices to satisfy the energy service requirements of users, while minimizing the power generation and transmission cost, remains a highly pressing challenge in the smart grid. To address this challenge and assess the effectiveness of integrating distributed energy resources and storage devices, in this paper we develop a theoretical framework to model and analyze three types of power grid systems: the power grid with only bulk energy generators, the power grid with distributed energy resources, and the power grid with both distributed energy resources and storage devices. Based on the metrics of the power cumulative cost and the service reliability to users, we formally model and analyze the impact of integrating distributed energy resources and storage devices in the power grid. We also use the concept of network calculus, which has been traditionally used for carrying out traffic engineering in computer networks, to derive the bounds of both power supply and user demand to achieve a high service reliability to users. Through an extensive performance evaluation, our data shows that integrating distributed energy resources conjointly with energy storage devices can reduce generation costs, smooth the curve of bulk power generation over time, reduce bulk power generation and power distribution losses, and provide a sustainable service reliability to users in the power grid1. PMID:29354654

Participatory Water Resources Modeling in a Water-Scarce Basin (Rio Sonora, Mexico) Reveals Uncertainty in Decision-Making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayer, A. S.; Vivoni, E. R.; Halvorsen, K. E.; Kossak, D.

2014-12-01

The Rio Sonora Basin (RSB) in northwest Mexico has a semi-arid and highly variable climate along with urban and agricultural pressures on water resources. Three participatory modeling workshops were held in the RSB in spring 2013. A model of the water resources system, consisting of a watershed hydrology model, a model of the water infrastructure, and groundwater models, was developed deliberatively in the workshops, along with scenarios of future climate and development. Participants were asked to design water resources management strategies by choosing from a range of supply augmentation and demand reduction measures associated with water conservation. Participants assessed water supply reliability, measured as the average daily supply divided by daily demand for historical and future periods, by probing with the climate and development scenarios. Pre- and post-workshop-surveys were developed and administered, based on conceptual models of workshop participants' beliefs regarding modeling and local water resources. The survey results indicate that participants believed their modeling abilities increased and beliefs in the utility of models increased as a result of the workshops. The selected water resources strategies varied widely among participants. Wastewater reuse for industry and aquifer recharge were popular options, but significant numbers of participants thought that inter-basin transfers and desalination were viable. The majority of participants indicated that substantial increases in agricultural water efficiency could be achieved. On average, participants chose strategies that produce reliabilities over the historical and future periods of 95%, but more than 20% of participants were apparently satisfied with reliabilities lower than 80%. The wide range of strategies chosen and associated reliabilities indicate that there is a substantial degree of uncertainty in how future water resources decisions could be made in the region.

Self managing experiment resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stagni, F.; Ubeda, M.; Tsaregorodtsev, A.; Romanovskiy, V.; Roiser, S.; Charpentier, P.; Graciani, R.

2014-06-01

Within this paper we present an autonomic Computing resources management system, used by LHCb for assessing the status of their Grid resources. Virtual Organizations Grids include heterogeneous resources. For example, LHC experiments very often use resources not provided by WLCG, and Cloud Computing resources will soon provide a non-negligible fraction of their computing power. The lack of standards and procedures across experiments and sites generated the appearance of multiple information systems, monitoring tools, ticket portals, etc... which nowadays coexist and represent a very precious source of information for running HEP experiments Computing systems as well as sites. These two facts lead to many particular solutions for a general problem: managing the experiment resources. In this paper we present how LHCb, via the DIRAC interware, addressed such issues. With a renewed Central Information Schema hosting all resources metadata and a Status System (Resource Status System) delivering real time information, the system controls the resources topology, independently of the resource types. The Resource Status System applies data mining techniques against all possible information sources available and assesses the status changes, that are then propagated to the topology description. Obviously, giving full control to such an automated system is not risk-free. Therefore, in order to minimise the probability of misbehavior, a battery of tests has been developed in order to certify the correctness of its assessments. We will demonstrate the performance and efficiency of such a system in terms of cost reduction and reliability.

Remote Sensing Applications with High Reliability in Changjiang Water Resource Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, L.; Gao, S.; Yang, A.

2018-04-01

Remote sensing technology has been widely used in many fields. But most of the applications cannot get the information with high reliability and high accuracy in large scale, especially for the applications using automatic interpretation methods. We have designed an application-oriented technology system (PIR) composed of a series of accurate interpretation techniques,which can get over 85 % correctness in Water Resource Management from the view of photogrammetry and expert knowledge. The techniques compose of the spatial positioning techniques from the view of photogrammetry, the feature interpretation techniques from the view of expert knowledge, and the rationality analysis techniques from the view of data mining. Each interpreted polygon is accurate enough to be applied to the accuracy sensitive projects, such as the Three Gorge Project and the South - to - North Water Diversion Project. In this paper, we present several remote sensing applications with high reliability in Changjiang Water Resource Management,including water pollution investigation, illegal construction inspection, and water conservation monitoring, etc.

Success criteria for electronic medical record implementations in low-resource settings: a systematic review.

PubMed

Fritz, Fleur; Tilahun, Binyam; Dugas, Martin

2015-03-01

Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have the potential of supporting clinical work by providing the right information at the right time to the right people and thus make efficient use of resources. This is especially important in low-resource settings where reliable data are also needed to support public health and local supporting organizations. In this systematic literature review, our objectives are to identify and collect literature about success criteria of EMR implementations in low-resource settings and to summarize them into recommendations. Our search strategy relied on PubMed queries and manual bibliography reviews. Studies were included if EMR implementations in low-resource settings were described. The extracted success criteria and measurements were summarized into 7 categories: ethical, financial, functionality, organizational, political, technical, and training. We collected 381 success criteria with 229 measurements from 47 articles out of 223 articles. Most papers were evaluations or lessons learned from African countries, published from 1999 to 2013. Almost half of the EMR systems served a specific disease area like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The majority of criteria that were reported dealt with the functionality, followed by organizational issues, and technical infrastructures. Sufficient training and skilled personnel were mentioned in roughly 10%. Political, ethical, and financial considerations did not play a predominant role. More evaluations based on reliable frameworks are needed. Highly reliable data handling methods, human resources and effective project management, as well as technical architecture and infrastructure are all key factors for successful EMR implementation. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Open-source point-of-care electronic medical records for use in resource-limited settings: systematic review and questionnaire surveys

PubMed Central

Bru, Juan; Berger, Christopher A

2012-01-01

Background Point-of-care electronic medical records (EMRs) are a key tool to manage chronic illness. Several EMRs have been developed for use in treating HIV and tuberculosis, but their applicability to primary care, technical requirements and clinical functionalities are largely unknown. Objectives This study aimed to address the needs of clinicians from resource-limited settings without reliable internet access who are considering adopting an open-source EMR. Study eligibility criteria Open-source point-of-care EMRs suitable for use in areas without reliable internet access. Study appraisal and synthesis methods The authors conducted a comprehensive search of all open-source EMRs suitable for sites without reliable internet access. The authors surveyed clinician users and technical implementers from a single site and technical developers of each software product. The authors evaluated availability, cost and technical requirements. Results The hardware and software for all six systems is easily available, but they vary considerably in proprietary components, installation requirements and customisability. Limitations This study relied solely on self-report from informants who developed and who actively use the included products. Conclusions and implications of key findings Clinical functionalities vary greatly among the systems, and none of the systems yet meet minimum requirements for effective implementation in a primary care resource-limited setting. The safe prescribing of medications is a particular concern with current tools. The dearth of fully functional EMR systems indicates a need for a greater emphasis by global funding agencies to move beyond disease-specific EMR systems and develop a universal open-source health informatics platform. PMID:22763661

Water System Resiliency: Lessons from Boston's 2010 Water Emergency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, N.; Boston Urban Metabolism Ultra-Ex Team

2010-12-01

On May 1, 2010, a ten foot diameter water pipe, the sole pipe supplying potable water to 2.2 million residents of Greater Boston, burst. Categorized as a "catastrophic" leak by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Governor Deval Patrick declared a State of Emergency, mobilizing local, state and federal disaster responses. By May 4, 2010, a boil-water order was lifted after the leak was fixed. This event has provided many lessons about the resiliency of municipal water system infrastructure, the level of human understanding of reliability and vulnerability of resource distribution systems, and the human capacity to adapt in short and longer terms to disturbances in resource distribution systems, and to learn. This talk will use a narrative of the events during May 2010 in Boston to explore the broader question of the nature of resilient resource distribution networks, and describe a heuristic, semi-quantitative model for resilient urban resource distribution networks, including water.

Performance of a system of reservoirs on futuristic front

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saha, Satabdi; Roy, Debasri; Mazumdar, Asis

2017-10-01

Application of simulation model HEC-5 to analyze the performance of the DVC Reservoir System (a multipurpose system with a network of five reservoirs and one barrage) on the river Damodar in Eastern India in meeting projected future demand as well as controlling flood for synthetically generated future scenario is addressed here with a view to develop an appropriate strategy for its operation. Thomas-Fiering model (based on Markov autoregressive model) has been adopted for generation of synthetic scenario (monthly streamflow series) and subsequently downscaling of modeled monthly streamflow to daily values was carried out. The performance of the system (analysed on seasonal basis) in terms of `Performance Indices' (viz., both quantity based reliability and time based reliability, mean daily deficit, average failure period, resilience and maximum vulnerability indices) for the projected scenario with enhanced demand turned out to be poor compared to that for historical scenario. However, judicious adoption of resource enhancement (marginal reallocation of reservoir storage capacity) and demand management strategy (curtailment of projected high water requirements and trading off between demands) was found to be a viable option for improvement of the performance of the reservoir system appreciably [improvement being (1-51 %), (2-35 %), (16-96 %), (25-50 %), (8-36 %) and (12-30 %) for the indices viz., quantity based reliability, time based reliability, mean daily deficit, average failure period, resilience and maximum vulnerability, respectively] compared to that with normal storage and projected demand. Again, 100 % reliability for flood control for current as well as future synthetically generated scenarios was noted. The results from the study would assist concerned authority in successful operation of reservoirs in the context of growing demand and dwindling resource.

Reliability issues in PACS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taira, Ricky K.; Chan, Kelby K.; Stewart, Brent K.; Weinberg, Wolfram S.

1991-07-01

Reliability is an increasing concern when moving PACS from the experimental laboratory to the clinical environment. Any system downtime may seriously affect patient care. The authors report on the several classes of errors encountered during the pre-clinical release of the PACS during the past several months and present the solutions implemented to handle them. The reliability issues discussed include: (1) environmental precautions, (2) database backups, (3) monitor routines of critical resources and processes, (4) hardware redundancy (networks, archives), and (5) development of a PACS quality control program.

Design and implementation of online automatic judging system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Haohui; Chen, Chaojie; Zhong, Xiuyu; Chen, Yuefeng

2017-06-01

For lower efficiency and poorer reliability in programming training and competition by currently artificial judgment, design an Online Automatic Judging (referred to as OAJ) System. The OAJ system including the sandbox judging side and Web side, realizes functions of automatically compiling and running the tested codes, and generating evaluation scores and corresponding reports. To prevent malicious codes from damaging system, the OAJ system utilizes sandbox, ensuring the safety of the system. The OAJ system uses thread pools to achieve parallel test, and adopt database optimization mechanism, such as horizontal split table, to improve the system performance and resources utilization rate. The test results show that the system has high performance, high reliability, high stability and excellent extensibility.

Analysis of off-grid hybrid wind turbine/solar PV water pumping systems

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

While many remote water pumping systems exist (e.g. mechanical windmills, solar photovoltaic , wind-electric, diesel powered), very few combine both the wind and solar energy resources to possibly improve the reliability and the performance of the system. In this paper, off-grid wind turbine (WT) a...

Architecture Framework for Trapped-Ion Quantum Computer based on Performance Simulation Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahsan, Muhammad

The challenge of building scalable quantum computer lies in striking appropriate balance between designing a reliable system architecture from large number of faulty computational resources and improving the physical quality of system components. The detailed investigation of performance variation with physics of the components and the system architecture requires adequate performance simulation tool. In this thesis we demonstrate a software tool capable of (1) mapping and scheduling the quantum circuit on a realistic quantum hardware architecture with physical resource constraints, (2) evaluating the performance metrics such as the execution time and the success probability of the algorithm execution, and (3) analyzing the constituents of these metrics and visualizing resource utilization to identify system components which crucially define the overall performance. Using this versatile tool, we explore vast design space for modular quantum computer architecture based on trapped ions. We find that while success probability is uniformly determined by the fidelity of physical quantum operation, the execution time is a function of system resources invested at various layers of design hierarchy. At physical level, the number of lasers performing quantum gates, impact the latency of the fault-tolerant circuit blocks execution. When these blocks are used to construct meaningful arithmetic circuit such as quantum adders, the number of ancilla qubits for complicated non-clifford gates and entanglement resources to establish long-distance communication channels, become major performance limiting factors. Next, in order to factorize large integers, these adders are assembled into modular exponentiation circuit comprising bulk of Shor's algorithm. At this stage, the overall scaling of resource-constraint performance with the size of problem, describes the effectiveness of chosen design. By matching the resource investment with the pace of advancement in hardware technology, we find optimal designs for different types of quantum adders. Conclusively, we show that 2,048-bit Shor's algorithm can be reliably executed within the resource budget of 1.5 million qubits.

Is Wikipedia a Reliable Learning Resource for Medical Students? Evaluating Respiratory Topics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azer, Samy A.

2015-01-01

The aim of the present study was to critically evaluate the accuracy and readability of English Wikipedia articles on the respiratory system and its disorders and whether they can be a suitable resource for medical students. On April 27, 2014, English Wikipedia was searched for articles on respiratory topics. Using a modified DISCERN instrument,…

A distributed computing approach to mission operations support. [for spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larsen, R. L.

1975-01-01

Computing mission operation support includes orbit determination, attitude processing, maneuver computation, resource scheduling, etc. The large-scale third-generation distributed computer network discussed is capable of fulfilling these dynamic requirements. It is shown that distribution of resources and control leads to increased reliability, and exhibits potential for incremental growth. Through functional specialization, a distributed system may be tuned to very specific operational requirements. Fundamental to the approach is the notion of process-to-process communication, which is effected through a high-bandwidth communications network. Both resource-sharing and load-sharing may be realized in the system.

A GA based penalty function technique for solving constrained redundancy allocation problem of series system with interval valued reliability of components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, R. K.; Bhunia, A. K.; Roy, D.

2009-10-01

In this paper, we have considered the problem of constrained redundancy allocation of series system with interval valued reliability of components. For maximizing the overall system reliability under limited resource constraints, the problem is formulated as an unconstrained integer programming problem with interval coefficients by penalty function technique and solved by an advanced GA for integer variables with interval fitness function, tournament selection, uniform crossover, uniform mutation and elitism. As a special case, considering the lower and upper bounds of the interval valued reliabilities of the components to be the same, the corresponding problem has been solved. The model has been illustrated with some numerical examples and the results of the series redundancy allocation problem with fixed value of reliability of the components have been compared with the existing results available in the literature. Finally, sensitivity analyses have been shown graphically to study the stability of our developed GA with respect to the different GA parameters.

Status and Needs of Power Electronics for Photovoltaic Inverters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Y. C.; Mohan, N.; West, R.; Bonn, R.

2002-06-01

Photovoltaics is the utility connected distributed energy resource (DER) that is in widespread use today. It has one element, the inverter, which is common with all DER sources except rotating generators. The inverter is required to transfer dc energy to ac energy. With all the DER technologies, (solar, wind, fuel cells, and microturbines) the inverter is still an immature product that will result in reliability problems in fielded systems. Today, the PV inverter is a costly and complex component of PV systems that produce ac power. Inverter MTFF (mean time to first failure) is currently unacceptable. Low inverter reliability contributes to unreliable fielded systems and a loss of confidence in renewable technology. The low volume of PV inverters produced restricts the manufacturing to small suppliers without sophisticated research and reliability programs or manufacturing methods. Thus, the present approach to PV inverter supply has low probability of meeting DOE reliability goals.

Power Extension Package (PEP) system definition extension, orbital service module systems analysis study. Volume 10: PEP project plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Contents: project plan summary; project and mission objectives; related studies and technology support activities; technical summary; management; procurement approach; project definition items and schedule; resources; management review; controlled items; and safety, reliability, and quality assurance.

Systems Engineering | Photovoltaic Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Research Other Reliability & Engineering pages: Real-Time PV & Solar Resource Testing Accelerated community toward developing comprehensive PV standards. Each year, NREL researchers, along with solar Engineering Systems Engineering We provide engineering testing and evaluation of photovoltaic (PV

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Magee, Thoman

The Consolidated Edison, Inc., of New York (Con Edison) Secure Interoperable Open Smart Grid Demonstration Project (SGDP), sponsored by the United States (US) Department of Energy (DOE), demonstrated that the reliability, efficiency, and flexibility of the grid can be improved through a combination of enhanced monitoring and control capabilities using systems and resources that interoperate within a secure services framework. The project demonstrated the capability to shift, balance, and reduce load where and when needed in response to system contingencies or emergencies by leveraging controllable field assets. The range of field assets includes curtailable customer loads, distributed generation (DG), batterymore » storage, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, building management systems (BMS), home area networks (HANs), high-voltage monitoring, and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The SGDP enables the seamless integration and control of these field assets through a common, cyber-secure, interoperable control platform, which integrates a number of existing legacy control and data systems, as well as new smart grid (SG) systems and applications. By integrating advanced technologies for monitoring and control, the SGDP helps target and reduce peak load growth, improves the reliability and efficiency of Con Edison’s grid, and increases the ability to accommodate the growing use of distributed resources. Con Edison is dedicated to lowering costs, improving reliability and customer service, and reducing its impact on the environment for its customers. These objectives also align with the policy objectives of New York State as a whole. To help meet these objectives, Con Edison’s long-term vision for the distribution grid relies on the successful integration and control of a growing penetration of distributed resources, including demand response (DR) resources, battery storage units, and DG. For example, Con Edison is expecting significant long-term growth of DG. The SGDP enables the efficient, flexible integration of these disparate resources and lays the architectural foundations for future scalability. Con Edison assembled an SGDP team of more than 16 different project partners, including technology vendors, and participating organizations, and the Con Edison team provided overall guidance and project management. Project team members are listed in Table 1-1.« less

Storage resource manager

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Perelmutov, T.; Bakken, J.; Petravick, D.

Storage Resource Managers (SRMs) are middleware components whose function is to provide dynamic space allocation and file management on shared storage components on the Grid[1,2]. SRMs support protocol negotiation and reliable replication mechanism. The SRM standard supports independent SRM implementations, allowing for a uniform access to heterogeneous storage elements. SRMs allow site-specific policies at each location. Resource Reservations made through SRMs have limited lifetimes and allow for automatic collection of unused resources thus preventing clogging of storage systems with ''orphan'' files. At Fermilab, data handling systems use the SRM management interface to the dCache Distributed Disk Cache [5,6] and themore » Enstore Tape Storage System [15] as key components to satisfy current and future user requests [4]. The SAM project offers the SRM interface for its internal caches as well.« less

78 FR 65416 - Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement-Integrated Resource Plan

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-31

... this mission is the generation, transmission, and sale of reliable and affordable electric energy. TVA Power System TVA operates the nation's largest public power system, producing 4 percent of all the... requires the TVA power system to be self-supporting and operated on a nonprofit basis and directs TVA to...

Distributed Computing for the Pierre Auger Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chudoba, J.

2015-12-01

Pierre Auger Observatory operates the largest system of detectors for ultra-high energy cosmic ray measurements. Comparison of theoretical models of interactions with recorded data requires thousands of computing cores for Monte Carlo simulations. Since 2007 distributed resources connected via EGI grid are successfully used. The first and the second versions of production system based on bash scripts and MySQL database were able to submit jobs to all reliable sites supporting Virtual Organization auger. For many years VO auger belongs to top ten of EGI users based on the total used computing time. Migration of the production system to DIRAC interware started in 2014. Pilot jobs improve efficiency of computing jobs and eliminate problems with small and less reliable sites used for the bulk production. The new system has also possibility to use available resources in clouds. Dirac File Catalog replaced LFC for new files, which are organized in datasets defined via metadata. CVMFS is used for software distribution since 2014. In the presentation we give a comparison of the old and the new production system and report the experience on migrating to the new system.

Impact of Distributed Energy Resources on the Reliability of a Critical Telecommunications Facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robinson, D.; Atcitty, C.; Zuffranieri, J.

2006-03-01

Telecommunications has been identified by the Department of Homeland Security as a critical infrastructure to the United States. Failures in the power systems supporting major telecommunications service nodes are a main contributor to major telecommunications outages, as documented by analyses of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) outage reports by the National Reliability Steering Committee (under auspices of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions). There are two major issues that are having increasing impact on the sensitivity of the power distribution to telecommunication facilities: deregulation of the power industry, and changing weather patterns. A logical approach to improve the robustness of telecommunicationmore » facilities would be to increase the depth and breadth of technologies available to restore power in the face of power outages. Distributed energy resources such as fuel cells and gas turbines could provide one more onsite electric power source to provide backup power, if batteries and diesel generators fail. But does the diversity in power sources actually increase the reliability of offered power to the office equipment, or does the complexity of installing and managing the extended power system induce more potential faults and higher failure rates? This report analyzes a system involving a telecommunications facility consisting of two switch-bays and a satellite reception system.« less

Identifying Electricity Capacity at Risk to Changes in Climate and Water Resources in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miara, A.; Macknick, J.; Vorosmarty, C. J.; Corsi, F.; Fekete, B. M.; Newmark, R. L.; Tidwell, V. C.; Cohen, S. M.

2016-12-01

Thermoelectric plants supply 85% of electricity generation in the United States. Under a warming climate, the performance of these power plants may be reduced, as thermoelectric generation is dependent upon cool ambient temperatures and sufficient water supplies at adequate temperatures. In this study, we assess the vulnerability and reliability of 1,100 operational power plants (2015) across the contiguous United States under a comprehensive set of climate scenarios (five Global Circulation Models each with four Representative Concentration Pathways). We model individual power plant capacities using the Thermoelectric Power and Thermal Pollution model (TP2M) coupled with the Water Balance Model (WBM) at a daily temporal resolution and 5x5 km spatial resolution. Together, these models calculate power plant capacity losses that account for geophysical constraints and river network dynamics. Potential losses at the single-plant level are put into a regional energy security context by assessing the collective system-level reliability at the North-American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) regions. Results show that the thermoelectric sector at the national level has low vulnerability under the contemporary climate and that system-level reliability in terms of available thermoelectric resources relative to thermoelectric demand is sufficient. Under future climates scenarios, changes in water availability and warm ambient temperatures lead to constraints on operational capacity and increased vulnerability at individual power plant sites across all regions in the United States. However, there is a strong disparity in regional vulnerability trends and magnitudes that arise from each region's climate, hydrology and technology mix. Despite increases in vulnerabilities at the individual power plant level, regional energy systems may still be reliable (with no system failures) due to sufficient back-up reserve capacities.

Accelerated Testing and Analysis | Photovoltaic Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

& Engineering pages: Real-Time PV & Solar Resource Testing Systems Engineering Systems PV standards. Each year, NCPV researchers, along with solar companies and other national lab Accelerated Testing and Analysis Accelerated Testing and Analysis PV Research Other Reliability

Cooperation in Human-Agent Systems to Support Resilience: A Microworld Experiment.

PubMed

Chiou, Erin K; Lee, John D

2016-09-01

This study uses a dyadic approach to understand human-agent cooperation and system resilience. Increasingly capable technology fundamentally changes human-machine relationships. Rather than reliance on or compliance with more or less reliable automation, we investigate interaction strategies with more or less cooperative agents. A joint-task microworld scenario was developed to explore the effects of agent cooperation on participant cooperation and system resilience. To assess the effects of agent cooperation on participant cooperation, 36 people coordinated with a more or less cooperative agent by requesting resources and responding to requests for resources in a dynamic task environment. Another 36 people were recruited to assess effects following a perturbation in their own hospital. Experiment 1 shows people reciprocated the cooperative behaviors of the agents; a low-cooperation agent led to less effective interactions and less resource sharing, whereas a high-cooperation agent led to more effective interactions and greater resource sharing. Experiment 2 shows that an initial fast-tempo perturbation undermined proactive cooperation-people tended to not request resources. However, the initial fast tempo had little effect on reactive cooperation-people tended to accept resource requests according to cooperation level. This study complements the supervisory control perspective of human-automation interaction by considering interdependence and cooperation rather than the more common focus on reliability and reliance. The cooperativeness of automated agents can influence the cooperativeness of human agents. Design and evaluation for resilience in teams involving increasingly autonomous agents should consider the cooperative behaviors of these agents. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Cyber Security: Assessing Our Vulnerabilities and Developing an Effective Defense

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spafford, Eugene H.

The number and sophistication of cyberattacks continues to increase, but no national policy is in place to confront them. Critical systems need to be built on secure foundations, rather than the cheapest general-purpose platform. A program that combines education in cyber security, increasing resources for law enforcement, development of reliable systems for critical applications, and expanding research support in multiple areas of security and reliability is essential to combat risks that are far beyond the nuisances of spam email and viruses, and involve widespread espionage, theft, and attacks on essential services.

Reliability of mobile systems in construction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narezhnaya, Tamara; Prykina, Larisa

2017-10-01

The purpose of the article is to analyze the influence of the mobility of construction production in the article taking into account the properties of reliability and readiness. Basing on the studied systems the effectiveness and efficiency is estimated. The construction system is considered to be the complete organizational structure providing creation or updating of construction facilities. At the same time the production sphere of these systems joins the production on the building site itself, material and technical resources of the construction production and live labour in these spheres within the construction dynamics. The author concludes, that the estimation of the degree of mobility of systems the of construction production makes a great positive effect in the project.

Application of SAW method for multiple-criteria comparative analysis of the reliability of heat supply organizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhmetova, I. G.; Chichirova, N. D.

2016-12-01

Heat supply is the most energy-consuming sector of the economy. Approximately 30% of all used primary fuel-and-energy resources is spent on municipal heat-supply needs. One of the key indicators of activity of heat-supply organizations is the reliability of an energy facility. The reliability index of a heat supply organization is of interest to potential investors for assessing risks when investing in projects. The reliability indices established by the federal legislation are actually reduced to a single numerical factor, which depends on the number of heat-supply outages in connection with disturbances in operation of heat networks and the volume of their resource recovery in the calculation year. This factor is rather subjective and may change in a wide range during several years. A technique is proposed for evaluating the reliability of heat-supply organizations with the use of the simple additive weighting (SAW) method. The technique for integrated-index determination satisfies the following conditions: the reliability level of the evaluated heat-supply system is represented maximum fully and objectively; the information used for the reliability-index evaluation is easily available (is located on the Internet in accordance with demands of data-disclosure standards). For reliability estimation of heat-supply organizations, the following indicators were selected: the wear of equipment of thermal energy sources, the wear of heat networks, the number of outages of supply of thermal energy (heat carrier due to technological disturbances on heat networks per 1 km of heat networks), the number of outages of supply of thermal energy (heat carrier due to technologic disturbances on thermal energy sources per 1 Gcal/h of installed power), the share of expenditures in the cost of thermal energy aimed at recovery of the resource (renewal of fixed assets), coefficient of renewal of fixed assets, and a coefficient of fixed asset retirement. A versatile program is developed and the analysis of heat-supply organizations is performed by the example of the Republic of Tatarstan. The assessment system is based on construction of comparative ratings of heat-supply organizations. A rating is the assessment of reliability of the organization, is characterized by a numerical value, and makes it possible to compare organizations engaged in the same kind of activity between each other.

Automation-induced monitoring inefficiency: role of display location.

PubMed

Singh, I L; Molloy, R; Parasuraman, R

1997-01-01

Operators can be poor monitors of automation if they are engaged concurrently in other tasks. However, in previous studies of this phenomenon the automated task was always presented in the periphery, away from the primary manual tasks that were centrally displayed. In this study we examined whether centrally locating an automated task would boost monitoring performance during a flight-simulation task consisting of system monitoring, tracking and fuel resource management sub-tasks. Twelve nonpilot subjects were required to perform the tracking and fuel management tasks manually while watching the automated system monitoring task for occasional failures. The automation reliability was constant at 87.5% for six subjects and variable (alternating between 87.5% and 56.25%) for the other six subjects. Each subject completed four 30 min sessions over a period of 2 days. In each automation reliability condition the automation routine was disabled for the last 20 min of the fourth session in order to simulate catastrophic automation failure (0 % reliability). Monitoring for automation failure was inefficient when automation reliability was constant but not when it varied over time, replicating previous results. Furthermore, there was no evidence of resource or speed accuracy trade-off between tasks. Thus, automation-induced failures of monitoring cannot be prevented by centrally locating the automated task.

Automation-induced monitoring inefficiency: role of display location

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singh, I. L.; Molloy, R.; Parasuraman, R.

1997-01-01

Operators can be poor monitors of automation if they are engaged concurrently in other tasks. However, in previous studies of this phenomenon the automated task was always presented in the periphery, away from the primary manual tasks that were centrally displayed. In this study we examined whether centrally locating an automated task would boost monitoring performance during a flight-simulation task consisting of system monitoring, tracking and fuel resource management sub-tasks. Twelve nonpilot subjects were required to perform the tracking and fuel management tasks manually while watching the automated system monitoring task for occasional failures. The automation reliability was constant at 87.5% for six subjects and variable (alternating between 87.5% and 56.25%) for the other six subjects. Each subject completed four 30 min sessions over a period of 2 days. In each automation reliability condition the automation routine was disabled for the last 20 min of the fourth session in order to simulate catastrophic automation failure (0 % reliability). Monitoring for automation failure was inefficient when automation reliability was constant but not when it varied over time, replicating previous results. Furthermore, there was no evidence of resource or speed accuracy trade-off between tasks. Thus, automation-induced failures of monitoring cannot be prevented by centrally locating the automated task.

IEEE Honors DeBlasio with Steinmetz Award | News | NREL

Science.gov Websites

for the Interconnection of Distributed Resources with the Electric Power System) removed many of the grid utilizing distributed generation, including renewable electric systems," DeBalsio said. " sustained dedication to the growth and development of the Photovoltaic Testing and Reliability, Distributed

Solar Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

the System Advisor Model (SAM) PV engineering PV performance reliability and safety Solar resource Research Photo of a city landscape with a sun in the background. Solar energy research at NREL includes photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, solar grid and systems integration, and market research

Technical Potential Assessment for the Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Process: A GIS-Based Approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Nathan; Roberts, Billy J

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based energy resource and technical potential assessments identify areas capable of supporting high levels of renewable energy (RE) development as part of a Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Transmission Planning process. This document expands on the REZ Process to aid practitioners in conducting GIS-based RE resource and technical potential assessments. The REZ process is an approach to plan, approve, and build transmission infrastructure that connects REZs - geographic areas that have high-quality RE resources, suitable topography and land-use designations, and demonstrated developer interest - to the power system. The REZ process helps to increase the share of solarmore » photovoltaic (PV), wind, and other resources while also maintaining reliability and economics.« less

Program Retrieval/Dissemination: A Solid State Random Access System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weeks, Walter O., Jr.

The trend toward greater flexibility in educational methods has led to a need for better and more rapid access to a variety of aural and audiovisual resource materials. This in turn has demanded the development of a flexible, reliable system of hardware designed to aid existing distribution methods in providing such access. The system must be…

Applying Resource Utilization Groups (RUG-III) in Hong Kong Nursing Homes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Kee-Lee; Chi, Iris; Leung, Joe C. B.

2008-01-01

Resource Utilization Groups III (RUG-III) is a case-mix system developed in the United States for categorization of nursing home residents and the financing of residential care services. In Hong Kong, RUG-III is based on several board groups of residents. The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the RUG-III in Hong Kong…

The Virtual Xenbase: transitioning an online bioinformatics resource to a private cloud

PubMed Central

Karimi, Kamran; Vize, Peter D.

2014-01-01

As a model organism database, Xenbase has been providing informatics and genomic data on Xenopus (Silurana) tropicalis and Xenopus laevis frogs for more than a decade. The Xenbase database contains curated, as well as community-contributed and automatically harvested literature, gene and genomic data. A GBrowse genome browser, a BLAST+ server and stock center support are available on the site. When this resource was first built, all software services and components in Xenbase ran on a single physical server, with inherent reliability, scalability and inter-dependence issues. Recent advances in networking and virtualization techniques allowed us to move Xenbase to a virtual environment, and more specifically to a private cloud. To do so we decoupled the different software services and components, such that each would run on a different virtual machine. In the process, we also upgraded many of the components. The resulting system is faster and more reliable. System maintenance is easier, as individual virtual machines can now be updated, backed up and changed independently. We are also experiencing more effective resource allocation and utilization. Database URL: www.xenbase.org PMID:25380782

Climate Narratives: Combing multiple sources of information to develop risk management strategies for a municipal water utility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yates, D. N.; Basdekas, L.; Rajagopalan, B.; Stewart, N.

2013-12-01

Municipal water utilities often develop Integrated Water Resource Plans (IWRP), with the goal of providing a reliable, sustainable water supply to customers in a cost-effective manner. Colorado Springs Utilities, a 5-service provider (potable and waste water, solid waste, natural gas and electricity) in Colorado USA, recently undertook an IWRP. where they incorporated water supply, water demand, water quality, infrastructure reliability, environmental protection, and other measures within the context of complex water rights, such as their critically important 'exchange potential'. The IWRP noted that an uncertain climate was one of the greatest sources of uncertainty to achieving a sustainable water supply to a growing community of users. We describe how historic drought, paleo-climate, and climate change projections were blended together into climate narratives that informed a suite of water resource systems models used by the utility to explore the vulnerabilities of their water systems.

Family resources for families of children with cerebral palsy in Jordan: psychometric properties of the Arabic-family resources scale.

PubMed

Almasri, N A; Saleh, M; Dunst, C J

2014-05-01

Resource-based, family-centred practices are associated with better health, emotional, and social well-being of children with disabilities. The adequacy of resources available for families of children with disabilities in Middle Eastern countries has not been described adequately in part because of lack of measures that are culturally adapted to be used in Arabic countries. Therefore, this study aims to (1) to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Arabic-Family Resource Scale (A-FRS) on a sample of families of children cerebral palsy (CP); (2) examine the adequacy of family resources as perceived by parents of children with CP in Jordan; and (3) examine the influence of child and family demographic variables on how parents report resources available to their families. A cross-section design was applied. One-hundred fifteen parents of children with CP with mean age 4.6 years (SD = 4.4) and their parents participated in the study. Research assistants interviewed the participants to complete the A-FRS, and family and child demographic questionnaire, and determined the Gross Motor Function Classification System level of children. The principal axis factoring of the A-FRS yielded a six-factor solution that accounted for 67.39% of the variance and that is different than the factor structure reported by the developers of the FRS. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of the total score of family resources was 0.86 indicating a good internal consistency and the test–retest reliability for the total scale score was r = 0.92 (P = 0.000) indicating excellent test–retest reliability. Child health and family income were significantly associated with the total score of the A-FRS. The A-FRS is a valid and reliable measure of family resources for Jordanian families of children with CP. Service providers are encouraged to use A-FRS with families to plan resource-based interventions in which family resources are mobilized to meet family needs.

Transferring Aviation Practices into Clinical Medicine for the Promotion of High Reliability.

PubMed

Powell-Dunford, Nicole; McPherson, Mark K; Pina, Joseph S; Gaydos, Steven J

2017-05-01

Aviation is a classic example of a high reliability organization (HRO)-an organization in which catastrophic events are expected to occur without control measures. As health care systems transition toward high reliability, aviation practices are increasingly transferred for clinical implementation. A PubMed search using the terms aviation, crew resource management, and patient safety was undertaken. Manuscripts authored by physician pilots and accident investigation regulations were analyzed. Subject matter experts involved in adoption of aviation practices into the medical field were interviewed. A PubMed search yielded 621 results with 22 relevant for inclusion. Improved clinical outcomes were noted in five research trials in which aviation practices were adopted, particularly with regard to checklist usage and crew resource-management training. Effectiveness of interventions was influenced by intensity of application, leadership involvement, and provision of staff training. The usefulness of incorporating mishap investigation techniques has not been established. Whereas aviation accident investigation is highly standardized, the investigation of medical error is characterized by variation. The adoption of aviation practices into clinical medicine facilitates an evolution toward high reliability. Evidence for the efficacy of the checklist and crew resource-management training is robust. Transference of aviation accident investigation practices is preliminary. A standardized, independent investigation process could facilitate the development of a safety culture commensurate with that achieved in the aviation industry.Powell-Dunford N, McPherson MK, Pina JS, Gaydos SJ. Transferring aviation practices into clinical medicine for the promotion of high reliability. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(5):487-491.

Application of exercise ECG stress test in the current high cost modern-era healthcare system.

PubMed

Vaidya, Gaurang Nandkishor

Exercise electrocardiogram (ECG) tests boasts of being more widely available, less resource intensive, lower cost and absence of radiation. In the presence of a normal baseline ECG, an exercise ECG test is able to generate a reliable and reproducible result almost comparable to Technitium-99m sestamibi perfusion imaging. Exercise ECG changes when combined with other clinical parameters obtained during the test has the potential to allow effective redistribution of scarce resources by excluding low risk patients with significant accuracy. As we look towards a future of rising healthcare costs, increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease and the need for proper allocation of limited resources; exercise ECG test offers low cost, vital and reliable disease interpretation. This article highlights the physiology of the exercise ECG test, patient selection, effective interpretation, describe previously reported scores and their clinical application in today's clinical practice. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Scheduling for Emergency Tasks in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Xia, Changqing; Kong, Linghe; Zeng, Peng

2017-01-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely applied in industrial manufacturing systems. By means of centralized control, the real-time requirement and reliability can be provided by WSNs in industrial production. Furthermore, many approaches reserve resources for situations in which the controller cannot perform centralized resource allocation. The controller assigns these resources as it becomes aware of when and where accidents have occurred. However, the reserved resources are limited, and such incidents are low-probability events. In addition, resource reservation may not be effective since the controller does not know when and where accidents will actually occur. To address this issue, we improve the reliability of scheduling for emergency tasks by proposing a method based on a stealing mechanism. In our method, an emergency task is transmitted by stealing resources allocated to regular flows. The challenges addressed in our work are as follows: (1) emergencies occur only occasionally, but the industrial system must deliver the corresponding flows within their deadlines when they occur; (2) we wish to minimize the impact of emergency flows by reducing the number of stolen flows. The contributions of this work are two-fold: (1) we first define intersections and blocking as new characteristics of flows; and (2) we propose a series of distributed routing algorithms to improve the schedulability and to reduce the impact of emergency flows. We demonstrate that our scheduling algorithm and analysis approach are better than the existing ones by extensive simulations. PMID:28726738

Improving the Cost Efficiency and Readiness of MC-130 Aircrew Training: A Case Study

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-01

51 Jiang, Changbing, "A reliable solver of Euclidean traveling salesman problems with Microsoft excel add-in tools for small-size systems...DisplayPage.aspx?DocType=Reference&ItemId=+++1 343364&Pubabbrev=JAWA 124 Jiang, Changbing, "A Reliable Solver of Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problems with...49 Figure 4.5 Training Resources Locations Traveling Salesperson Problem In order to participate in training, aircrews must fly to the

Operation and planning of coordinated natural gas and electricity infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xiaping

Natural gas is becoming rapidly the optimal choice for fueling new generating units in electric power system driven by abundant natural gas supplies and environmental regulations that are expected to cause coal-fired generation retirements. The growing reliance on natural gas as a dominant fuel for electricity generation throughout North America has brought the interaction between the natural gas and power grids into sharp focus. The primary concern and motivation of this research is to address the emerging interdependency issues faced by the electric power and natural gas industry. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the interactions between the two systems regarding the short-term operation and long-term infrastructure planning. Natural gas and renewable energy appear complementary in many respects regarding fuel price and availability, environmental impact, resource distribution and dispatchability. In addition, demand response has also held the promise of making a significant contribution to enhance system operations by providing incentives to customers for a more flat load profile. We investigated the coordination between natural gas-fired generation and prevailing nontraditional resources including renewable energy, demand response so as to provide economical options for optimizing the short-term scheduling with the intense natural gas delivery constraints. As the amount and dispatch of gas-fired generation increases, the long-term interdependency issue is whether there is adequate pipeline capacity to provide sufficient gas to natural gas-fired generation during the entire planning horizon while it is widely used outside the power sector. This thesis developed a co-optimization planning model by incorporating the natural gas transportation system into the multi-year resource and transmission system planning problem. This consideration would provide a more comprehensive decision for the investment and accurate assessment for system adequacy and reliability. With the growing reliance on natural gas and widespread utilization of highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP), it is also questionable that whether the independent design of infrastructures can meet potential challenges of future energy supply. To address this issue, this thesis proposed an optimization framework for a sustainable multiple energy system expansion planning based on an energy hub model while considering the energy efficiency, emission and reliability performance. In addition, we introduced the probabilistic reliability evaluation and flow network analysis into the multiple energy system design in order to obtain an optimal and reliable network topology.

Family resources study: part 1: family resources, family function and caregiver strain in childhood cancer.

PubMed

Panganiban-Corales, Avegeille T; Medina, Manuel F

2011-10-31

Severe illness can disrupt family life, cause family dysfunction, strain resources, and cause caregiver burden. The family's ability to cope with crises depends on their resources. This study sought to assess families of children with cancer in terms of family function-dysfunction, family caregiver strain and the adequacy of family resources using a new family resources assessment instrument. This is a cross-sectional study involving 90 Filipino family caregivers of children undergoing cancer treatment. This used a self-administered questionnaire composed of a new 12-item family resources questionnaire (SCREEM-RES) based on the SCREEM method of analysis, Family APGAR to assess family function-dysfunction; and Modified Caregiver Strain Index to assess strain in caring for the patient. More than half of families were either moderately or severely dysfunctional. Close to half of caregivers were either predisposed to strain or experienced severe strain, majority disclosed that their families have inadequate economic resources; many also report inaccessibility to medical help in the community and insufficient educational resources to understand and care for their patients. Resources most often reported as adequate were: family's faith and religion; help from within the family and from health providers. SCREEM-RES showed to be reliable with Cronbach's alpha of 0.80. There is good inter-item correlation between items in each domain: 0.24-0.70. Internal consistency reliability for each domain was also good: 0.40-0.92. Using 2-point scoring system, Cronbach's alpha were slightly lower: full scale (0.70) and for each domain 0.26-.82. Results showed evidence of association between family resources and family function based on the family APGAR but none between family resources and caregiver strain and between family function and caregiver strain. Many Filipino families of children with cancer have inadequate resources, especially economic; and are moderately or severely dysfunctional. Many caregivers are predisposed to caregiver strain or are already experiencing severe strain. To provide appropriate care for these families, physicians should regularly assess family function, resources and strain experienced by caregivers. The SCREEM-RES questionnaire used in this study is a helpful and reliable instrument to assess adequacy of family resources.

Knowledge-based personalized search engine for the Web-based Human Musculoskeletal System Resources (HMSR) in biomechanics.

PubMed

Dao, Tien Tuan; Hoang, Tuan Nha; Ta, Xuan Hien; Tho, Marie Christine Ho Ba

2013-02-01

Human musculoskeletal system resources of the human body are valuable for the learning and medical purposes. Internet-based information from conventional search engines such as Google or Yahoo cannot response to the need of useful, accurate, reliable and good-quality human musculoskeletal resources related to medical processes, pathological knowledge and practical expertise. In this present work, an advanced knowledge-based personalized search engine was developed. Our search engine was based on a client-server multi-layer multi-agent architecture and the principle of semantic web services to acquire dynamically accurate and reliable HMSR information by a semantic processing and visualization approach. A security-enhanced mechanism was applied to protect the medical information. A multi-agent crawler was implemented to develop a content-based database of HMSR information. A new semantic-based PageRank score with related mathematical formulas were also defined and implemented. As the results, semantic web service descriptions were presented in OWL, WSDL and OWL-S formats. Operational scenarios with related web-based interfaces for personal computers and mobile devices were presented and analyzed. Functional comparison between our knowledge-based search engine, a conventional search engine and a semantic search engine showed the originality and the robustness of our knowledge-based personalized search engine. In fact, our knowledge-based personalized search engine allows different users such as orthopedic patient and experts or healthcare system managers or medical students to access remotely into useful, accurate, reliable and good-quality HMSR information for their learning and medical purposes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Next-generation healthcare: a strategic appraisal.

PubMed

Montague, Terrence

2009-01-01

Successful next-generation healthcare must deliver timely access and quality for an aging population, while simultaneously promoting disease prevention and managing costs. The key factors for sustained success are a culture with aligned goals and values; coordinated team care that especially engages with physicians and patients; practical information that is collected and communicated reliably; and education in the theory and methods of collaboration, measurement and leadership. Currently, optimal population health is challenged by a high prevalence of chronic disease, with large gaps between best and usual care, a scarcity of health human resources - particularly with the skills, attitudes and training for coordinated team care - and the absence of flexible, reliable clinical measurement systems. However, to make things better, institutional models and supporting technologies are available. In the short term, a first step is to enhance the awareness of the practical opportunities to improve, including the expansion of proven community-based disease management programs that communicate knowledge, competencies and clinical measurements among professional and patient partners, leading to reduced care gaps and improved clinical and economic outcomes. Longer-term success requires two additional steps. One is formal inter-professional training to provide, on an ongoing basis, the polyvalent human resource skills and foster the culture of working with others to improve the care of whole populations. The other is the adoption of reliable information systems, including electronic health records, to allow useful and timely measurement and effective communication of clinical information in real-world settings. A better health future can commence immediately, within existing resources, and be sustained with feasible innovations in provider and patient education and information systems. The future is now.

Future Opportunities and Challenges with Using Demand Response as a Resource in Distribution System Operation and Planning Activities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cappers, Peter; MacDonald, Jason; Page, Janie

2016-01-01

This scoping study focuses on identifying the ability for current and future demand response opportunities to contribute to distribution system management. To do so, this scoping study will identify the needs of a distribution system to operate efficiently, safely and reliably; summarize both benefits and challenges for the operation of the distribution system with high penetration levels of distributed energy resources; define a suite of services based on those changing operational needs that could be provided by resources; identify existing demand response opportunities sponsored by distribution utilities and/or aggregators of retail customers; assess the extent to which distribution system servicesmore » can be provided via DR opportunities both in their current form and with alterations to their design; and provide a qualitative assessment of coordination issues that bulk power and distribution system providers of DR opportunities will need to address.« less

Online Analysis of Wind and Solar Part I: Ramping Tool

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Etingov, Pavel V.; Ma, Jian; Makarov, Yuri V.

2012-01-31

To facilitate wider penetration of renewable resources without compromising system reliability concerns arising from the lack of predictability of intermittent renewable resources, a tool for use by California Independent System Operator (CAISO) power grid operators was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in conjunction with CAISO with funding from California Energy Commission. This tool predicts and displays additional capacity and ramping requirements caused by uncertainties in forecasts of loads and renewable generation. The tool is currently operational in the CAISO operations center. This is one of two final reports on the project.

[A Medical Devices Management Information System Supporting Full Life-Cycle Process Management].

PubMed

Tang, Guoping; Hu, Liang

2015-07-01

Medical equipments are essential supplies to carry out medical work. How to ensure the safety and reliability of the medical equipments in diagnosis, and reduce procurement and maintenance costs is a topic of concern to everyone. In this paper, product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are cited to establish a lifecycle management information system. Through integrative and analysis of the various stages of the relevant data in life-cycle, it can ensure safety and reliability of medical equipments in the operation and provide the convincing data for meticulous management.

The USAID-NREL Partnership: Delivering Clean, Reliable, and Affordable Power in the Developing World

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Watson, Andrea C; Leisch, Jennifer E

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are partnering to support clean, reliable, and affordable power in the developing world. The USAID-NREL Partnership helps countries with policy, planning, and deployment support for advanced energy technologies. Through this collaboration, USAID is accessing advanced energy expertise and analysis pioneered by the U.S. National Laboratory system. The Partnership addresses critical aspects of advanced energy systems including renewable energy deployment, grid modernization, distributed energy resources and storage, power sector resilience, and the data and analytical tools needed to support them.

Methods and systems for providing reconfigurable and recoverable computing resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stange, Kent (Inventor); Hess, Richard (Inventor); Kelley, Gerald B (Inventor); Rogers, Randy (Inventor)

2010-01-01

A method for optimizing the use of digital computing resources to achieve reliability and availability of the computing resources is disclosed. The method comprises providing one or more processors with a recovery mechanism, the one or more processors executing one or more applications. A determination is made whether the one or more processors needs to be reconfigured. A rapid recovery is employed to reconfigure the one or more processors when needed. A computing system that provides reconfigurable and recoverable computing resources is also disclosed. The system comprises one or more processors with a recovery mechanism, with the one or more processors configured to execute a first application, and an additional processor configured to execute a second application different than the first application. The additional processor is reconfigurable with rapid recovery such that the additional processor can execute the first application when one of the one more processors fails.

An assessment of waste processing/resource recovery technologies for lunar/Mars life applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Verostko, Charles E.; Packham, Nigel J. C.; Henninger, Donald H.

1992-01-01

NASA's future manned missions to explore the solar system are by nature of long duration, mandating extensive regeneration of life support consumables from wastes generated in space-based habitats. Long-duration exploration missions would otherwise be prohibitive due to the number and frequency of energy-intensive resupply missions from Earth. Resource recovery is therefore a critical component of the controlled ecological life support system (CELSS). In order to assess resource recovery technologies for CELSS applications, the Crew and Thermal Systems Division at NASA-Johnson Space Center convened a three-day workshop to assess potential resource recovery technologies for application in a space-based CELSS. This paper describes the methodology of assessing and ranking of these technologies. Recommendations and issues are identified. Evaluations focused on the processes for handling and treatment of inedible plant biomass, human waste, and human generated trash. Technologies were assessed on the basis of safety, reliability, technology readiness, and performance characteristics.

Analysis of the solar/wind resources in Southern Spain for optimal sizing of hybrid solar-wind power generation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quesada-Ruiz, S.; Pozo-Vazquez, D.; Santos-Alamillos, F. J.; Lara-Fanego, V.; Ruiz-Arias, J. A.; Tovar-Pescador, J.

2010-09-01

A drawback common to the solar and wind energy systems is their unpredictable nature and dependence on weather and climate on a wide range of time scales. In addition, the variation of the energy output may not match with the time distribution of the load demand. This can partially be solved by the use of batteries for energy storage in stand-alone systems. The problem caused by the variable nature of the solar and wind resources can be partially overcome by the use of energy systems that uses both renewable resources in a combined manner, that is, hybrid wind-solar systems. Since both resources can show complementary characteristics in certain location, the independent use of solar or wind systems results in considerable over sizing of the batteries system compared to the use of hybrid solar-wind systems. Nevertheless, to the day, there is no single recognized method for properly sizing these hybrid wind-solar systems. In this work, we present a method for sizing wind-solar hybrid systems in southern Spain. The method is based on the analysis of the wind and solar resources on daily scale, particularly, its temporal complementary characteristics. The method aims to minimize the size of the energy storage systems, trying to provide the most reliable supply.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Thomas, H. P.; Basso, T. S.; Kroposki, B.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Distributed Power Program (DPP) is conducting work to complete, validate in the field, and support the development of a national interconnection standard for distributed energy resources (DER), and to address the institutional and regulatory barriers slowing the commercial adoption of DER systems. This work includes support for the IEEE standards, including P1547 Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems, P1589 Standard for Conformance Test Procedures for Equipment Interconnecting Distributed Resources with Electric Power Systems, and the P1608 Application Guide. Work is also in progress on system integration research and development (R&D) on themore » interface and control of DER with local energy systems. Additional efforts are supporting high-reliability power for industry, evaluating innovative concepts for DER applications, and exploring plug-and-play interface and control technologies for intelligent autonomous interconnection systems. This paper summarizes (1) the current status of the IEEE interconnection standards and application guides in support of DER, and (2) the R&D in progress at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for interconnection and system integration and application of distributed energy resources.« less

Assessing Performance of Multipurpose Reservoir System Using Two-Point Linear Hedging Rule

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sasireka, K.; Neelakantan, T. R.

2017-07-01

Reservoir operation is the one of the important filed of water resource management. Innovative techniques in water resource management are focussed at optimizing the available water and in decreasing the environmental impact of water utilization on the natural environment. In the operation of multi reservoir system, efficient regulation of the release to satisfy the demand for various purpose like domestic, irrigation and hydropower can lead to increase the benefit from the reservoir as well as significantly reduces the damage due to floods. Hedging rule is one of the emerging techniques in reservoir operation, which reduce the severity of drought by accepting number of smaller shortages. The key objective of this paper is to maximize the minimum power production and improve the reliability of water supply for municipal and irrigation purpose by using hedging rule. In this paper, Type II two-point linear hedging rule is attempted to improve the operation of Bargi reservoir in the Narmada basin in India. The results obtained from simulation of hedging rule is compared with results from Standard Operating Policy, the result shows that the application of hedging rule significantly improved the reliability of water supply and reliability of irrigation release and firm power production.

The Role of Reliability, Vulnerability and Resilience in the Management of Water Quality Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lence, B. J.; Maier, H. R.

2001-05-01

The risk based performance indicators reliability, vulnerability and resilience provide measures of the frequency, magnitude and duration of the failure of water resources systems, respectively. They have been applied primarily to water supply problems, including the assessment of the performance of reservoirs and water distribution systems. Applications to water quality case studies have been limited, although the need to consider the length and magnitude of violations of a particular water quality standard has been recognized for some time. In this research, the role of reliability, vulnerability and resilience in water quality management applications is investigated by examining their significance as performance measures for water quality systems and assessing their potential for assisting in decision making processes. The importance of each performance indicator is discussed and a framework for classifying such systems, based on the relative significance of each of these indicators, is introduced and illustrated qualitatively with various case studies. Quantitative examples drawn from both lake and river water quality modeling exercises are then provided.

Improving the Performance of Highly Constrained Water Resource Systems using Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms and RiverWare

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, R.; Kasprzyk, J. R.; Zagona, E. A.

2015-12-01

Instead of building new infrastructure to increase their supply reliability, water resource managers are often tasked with better management of current systems. The managers often have existing simulation models that aid their planning, and lack methods for efficiently generating and evaluating planning alternatives. This presentation discusses how multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) decision support can be used with the sophisticated water infrastructure model, RiverWare, in highly constrained water planning environments. We first discuss a study that performed a many-objective tradeoff analysis of water supply in the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) in Texas. RiverWare is combined with the Borg MOEA to solve a seven objective problem that includes systemwide performance objectives and individual reservoir storage reliability. Decisions within the formulation balance supply in multiple reservoirs and control pumping between the eastern and western parts of the system. The RiverWare simulation model is forced by two stochastic hydrology scenarios to inform how management changes in wet versus dry conditions. The second part of the presentation suggests how a broader set of RiverWare-MOEA studies can inform tradeoffs in other systems, especially in political situations where multiple actors are in conflict over finite water resources. By incorporating quantitative representations of diverse parties' objectives during the search for solutions, MOEAs may provide support for negotiations and lead to more widely beneficial water management outcomes.

Hierarchical control framework for integrated coordination between distributed energy resources and demand response

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Di; Lian, Jianming; Sun, Yannan

Demand response is representing a significant but largely untapped resource that can greatly enhance the flexibility and reliability of power systems. In this paper, a hierarchical control framework is proposed to facilitate the integrated coordination between distributed energy resources and demand response. The proposed framework consists of coordination and device layers. In the coordination layer, various resource aggregations are optimally coordinated in a distributed manner to achieve the system-level objectives. In the device layer, individual resources are controlled in real time to follow the optimal power generation or consumption dispatched from the coordination layer. For the purpose of practical applications,more » a method is presented to determine the utility functions of controllable loads by taking into account the real-time load dynamics and the preferences of individual customers. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is validated by detailed simulation studies.« less

The Potential of Energy Storage Systems with Respect to Generation Adequacy and Economic Viability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bradbury, Kyle Joseph

Intermittent energy resources, including wind and solar power, continue to be rapidly added to the generation fleet domestically and abroad. The variable power of these resources introduces new levels of stochasticity into electric interconnections that must be continuously balanced in order to maintain system reliability. Energy storage systems (ESSs) offer one potential option to compensate for the intermittency of renewables. ESSs for long-term storage (1-hour or greater), aside from a few pumped hydroelectric installations, are not presently in widespread use in the U.S. The deployment of ESSs would be most likely driven by either the potential for a strong internal rate of return (IRR) on investment and through significant benefits to system reliability that independent system operators (ISOs) could incentivize. To assess the potential of ESSs three objectives are addressed. (1) Evaluate the economic viability of energy storage for price arbitrage in real-time energy markets and determine system cost improvements for ESSs to become attractive investments. (2) Estimate the reliability impact of energy storage systems on the large-scale integration of intermittent generation. (3) Analyze the economic, environmental, and reliability tradeoffs associated with using energy storage in conjunction with stochastic generation. First, using real-time energy market price data from seven markets across the U.S. and the physical parameters of fourteen ESS technologies, the maximum potential IRR of each technology from price arbitrage was evaluated in each market, along with the optimal ESS system size. Additionally, the reductions in capital cost needed to achieve a 10% IRR were estimated for each ESS. The results indicate that the profit-maximizing size of an ESS is primarily determined by its technological characteristics (round-trip charge/discharge efficiency and self-discharge) and not market price volatility, which instead increases IRR. This analysis demonstrates that few ESS technologies are likely to be implemented by investors alone. Next, the effects of ESSs on system reliability are quantified. Using historic data for wind, solar, and conventional generation, a correlation-preserving, copula-transform model was implemented in conjunction with Markov chain Monte Carlo framework for estimating system reliability indices. Systems with significant wind and solar penetration (25% or greater), even with added energy storage capacity, resulted in considerable decreases in generation adequacy. Lastly, rather than analyzing the reliability and costs in isolation of one another, system reliability, cost, and emissions were analyzed in 3-space to quantify and visualize the system tradeoffs. The modeling results implied that ESSs perform similarly to natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) systems with respect to generation adequacy and system cost, with the primary difference being that the generation adequacy improvements are less for ESSs than that of NGCC systems and the increase in LCOE is greater for ESSs than NGCC systems. Although ESSs do not appear to offer greater benefits than NGCC systems for managing energy on time intervals of 1-hour or more, we conclude that future research into short-term power balancing applications of ESSs, in particular for frequency regulation, is necessary to understand the full potential of ESSs in modern electric interconnections.

Characterization of a Low-Cost Multi-Parameter Sensor for Resource Applications: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Habte, Aron M; Sengupta, Manajit; Andreas, Afshin M

Low-cost multi-parameter sensing and measurement devices enable cost-effective monitoring of the functional, operational reliability, efficiency, and resiliency of the electrical grid. The National Renewable Research Laboratory (NREL) Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL), in collaboration with Arable Labs Inc., deployed Arable Lab's Mark multi-parameter sensor system. The unique suite of system sensors measures the down-welling and upwelling shortwave solar resource and longwave radiation, humidity, air temperature, and ground temperature. This study describes the shortwave calibration, characteriza-tion, and validation of measurement accuracy of this instrument by comparison with existing instruments that are part of NREL-SRRL's Baseline Measurement System.

Many-Objective Robust Decision Making: Managing Water in a Deeply Uncertain World of Change (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, P. M.

2013-12-01

Water resources planning and management has always required the consideration of uncertainties and the associated system vulnerabilities that they may cause. Despite the long legacy of these issues, our decision support frameworks that have dominated the literature over the past 50 years have struggled with the strongly multiobjective and deeply uncertain nature of water resources systems. The term deep uncertainty (or Knightian uncertainty) refers to factors in planning that strongly shape system risks that maybe unknown and even if known there is a strong lack of consensus on their likelihoods over decadal planning horizons (population growth, financial stability, valuation of resources, ecosystem requirements, evolving water institutions, regulations, etc). In this presentation, I will propose and demonstrate the many-objective robust decision making (MORDM) framework for water resources management under deep uncertainty. The MORDM framework will be demonstrated using an urban water portfolio management test case. In the test case, a city in the Lower Rio Grande Valley managing population and drought pressures must cost effectively maintain the reliability of its water supply by blending permanent rights to reservoir inflows with alternative strategies for purchasing water within the region's water market. The case study illustrates the significant potential pitfalls in the classic Cost-Reliability conception of the problem. Moreover, the proposed MORDM framework exploits recent advances in multiobjective search, visualization, and sensitivity analysis to better expose these pitfalls en route to identifying highly robust water planning alternatives.

Hot Thermal Storage in a Variable Power, Renewable Energy System

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

vehicle PV photovoltaic SCES super capacitors energy storage SPIDERS Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability TE thermoelectric ...4  Figure 3.  Photovoltaic solar resources of the United States, from [24]. ...........................9  Figure 4.  Annual...collectors, solar photovoltaic collectors and small wind turbines coupled with facility suitable thermal storage systems. D. LITERATURE REVIEW The

Applying RUG-III in Japanese Long-Term Care Facilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ikegami, Naoki; And Others

1994-01-01

Tested U.S. nursing home case-mix system, Resource Utilization Groups, Version III (RUG-III) in Japanese long-term care facilities. Measured staff time and resident characteristics for 871 patients. Found acceptable reliability for items defining RUG-III, and system explained 44% of variance in wage-weighted staff time (cost). Japanese and U.S.…

Using Google Blogs and Discussions to Recommend Biomedical Resources: A Case Study

PubMed Central

Reed, Robyn B.; Chattopadhyay, Ansuman; Iwema, Carrie L.

2013-01-01

This case study investigated whether data gathered from discussions within the social media provide a reliable basis for a biomedical resources recommendation system. Using a search query to mine text from Google Blogs and Discussions, a ranking of biomedical resources was determined based on those most frequently mentioned. To establish quality, these results were compared to rankings by subject experts. An overall agreement between the frequency of social media discussions and subject expert recommendations was observed when identifying key bioinformatics and consumer health resources. Testing the method in more than one biomedical area implies this procedure could be employed across different subjects. PMID:24180648

Video Monitoring a Simulation-Based Quality Improvement Program in Bihar, India.

PubMed

Dyer, Jessica; Spindler, Hilary; Christmas, Amelia; Shah, Malay Bharat; Morgan, Melissa; Cohen, Susanna R; Sterne, Jason; Mahapatra, Tanmay; Walker, Dilys

2018-04-01

Simulation-based training has become an accepted clinical training andragogy in high-resource settings with its use increasing in low-resource settings. Video recordings of simulated scenarios are commonly used by facilitators. Beyond using the videos during debrief sessions, researchers can also analyze the simulation videos to quantify technical and nontechnical skills during simulated scenarios over time. Little is known about the feasibility and use of large-scale systems to video record and analyze simulation and debriefing data for monitoring and evaluation in low-resource settings. This manuscript describes the process of designing and implementing a large-scale video monitoring system. Mentees and Mentors were consented and all simulations and debriefs conducted at 320 Primary Health Centers (PHCs) were video recorded. The system design, number of video recordings, and inter-rater reliability of the coded videos were assessed. The final dataset included a total of 11,278 videos. Overall, a total of 2,124 simulation videos were coded and 183 (12%) were blindly double-coded. For the double-coded sample, the average inter-rater reliability (IRR) scores were 80% for nontechnical skills, and 94% for clinical technical skills. Among 4,450 long debrief videos received, 216 were selected for coding and all were double-coded. Data quality of simulation videos was found to be very good in terms of recorded instances of "unable to see" and "unable to hear" in Phases 1 and 2. This study demonstrates that video monitoring systems can be effectively implemented at scale in resource limited settings. Further, video monitoring systems can play several vital roles within program implementation, including monitoring and evaluation, provision of actionable feedback to program implementers, and assurance of program fidelity.

A data management system to enable urgent natural disaster computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leong, Siew Hoon; Kranzlmüller, Dieter; Frank, Anton

2014-05-01

Civil protection, in particular natural disaster management, is very important to most nations and civilians in the world. When disasters like flash floods, earthquakes and tsunamis are expected or have taken place, it is of utmost importance to make timely decisions for managing the affected areas and reduce casualties. Computer simulations can generate information and provide predictions to facilitate this decision making process. Getting the data to the required resources is a critical requirement to enable the timely computation of the predictions. An urgent data management system to support natural disaster computing is thus necessary to effectively carry out data activities within a stipulated deadline. Since the trigger of a natural disaster is usually unpredictable, it is not always possible to prepare required resources well in advance. As such, an urgent data management system for natural disaster computing has to be able to work with any type of resources. Additional requirements include the need to manage deadlines and huge volume of data, fault tolerance, reliable, flexibility to changes, ease of usage, etc. The proposed data management platform includes a service manager to provide a uniform and extensible interface for the supported data protocols, a configuration manager to check and retrieve configurations of available resources, a scheduler manager to ensure that the deadlines can be met, a fault tolerance manager to increase the reliability of the platform and a data manager to initiate and perform the data activities. These managers will enable the selection of the most appropriate resource, transfer protocol, etc. such that the hard deadline of an urgent computation can be met for a particular urgent activity, e.g. data staging or computation. We associated 2 types of deadlines [2] with an urgent computing system. Soft-hard deadline: Missing a soft-firm deadline will render the computation less useful resulting in a cost that can have severe consequences Hard deadline: Missing a hard deadline renders the computation useless and results in full catastrophic consequences. A prototype of this system has a REST-based service manager. The REST-based implementation provides a uniform interface that is easy to use. New and upcoming file transfer protocols can easily be extended and accessed via the service manager. The service manager interacts with the other four managers to coordinate the data activities so that the fundamental natural disaster urgent computing requirement, i.e. deadline, can be fulfilled in a reliable manner. A data activity can include data storing, data archiving and data storing. Reliability is ensured by the choice of a network of managers organisation model[1] the configuration manager and the fault tolerance manager. With this proposed design, an easy to use, resource-independent data management system that can support and fulfill the computation of a natural disaster prediction within stipulated deadlines can thus be realised. References [1] H. G. Hegering, S. Abeck, and B. Neumair, Integrated management of networked systems - concepts, architectures, and their operational application, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 340 Pine Stret, Sixth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104-3205, USA, 1999. [2] H. Kopetz, Real-time systems design principles for distributed embedded applications, second edition, Springer, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA, 2011. [3] S. H. Leong, A. Frank, and D. Kranzlmu¨ ller, Leveraging e-infrastructures for urgent computing, Procedia Computer Science 18 (2013), no. 0, 2177 - 2186, 2013 International Conference on Computational Science. [4] N. Trebon, Enabling urgent computing within the existing distributed computing infrastructure, Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, August 2011, http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~ntrebon/docs/dissertation.pdf.

Strategies and Decision Support Systems for Integrating Variable Energy Resources in Control Centers for Reliable Grid Operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, Lawrence E.

This report provides findings from the field regarding the best ways in which to guide operational strategies, business processes and control room tools to support the integration of renewable energy into electrical grids.

The Virtual Xenbase: transitioning an online bioinformatics resource to a private cloud.

PubMed

Karimi, Kamran; Vize, Peter D

2014-01-01

As a model organism database, Xenbase has been providing informatics and genomic data on Xenopus (Silurana) tropicalis and Xenopus laevis frogs for more than a decade. The Xenbase database contains curated, as well as community-contributed and automatically harvested literature, gene and genomic data. A GBrowse genome browser, a BLAST+ server and stock center support are available on the site. When this resource was first built, all software services and components in Xenbase ran on a single physical server, with inherent reliability, scalability and inter-dependence issues. Recent advances in networking and virtualization techniques allowed us to move Xenbase to a virtual environment, and more specifically to a private cloud. To do so we decoupled the different software services and components, such that each would run on a different virtual machine. In the process, we also upgraded many of the components. The resulting system is faster and more reliable. System maintenance is easier, as individual virtual machines can now be updated, backed up and changed independently. We are also experiencing more effective resource allocation and utilization. Database URL: www.xenbase.org. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Some key considerations in evolving a computer system and software engineering support environment for the space station program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckay, C. W.; Bown, R. L.

1985-01-01

The space station data management system involves networks of computing resources that must work cooperatively and reliably over an indefinite life span. This program requires a long schedule of modular growth and an even longer period of maintenance and operation. The development and operation of space station computing resources will involve a spectrum of systems and software life cycle activities distributed across a variety of hosts, an integration, verification, and validation host with test bed, and distributed targets. The requirement for the early establishment and use of an apporopriate Computer Systems and Software Engineering Support Environment is identified. This environment will support the Research and Development Productivity challenges presented by the space station computing system.

Agile: From Software to Mission System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trimble, Jay; Shirley, Mark H.; Hobart, Sarah Groves

2016-01-01

The Resource Prospector (RP) is an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology demonstration mission, designed to search for volatiles at the Lunar South Pole. This is NASA's first near real time tele-operated rover on the Moon. The primary objective is to search for volatiles at one of the Lunar Poles. The combination of short mission duration, a solar powered rover, and the requirement to explore shadowed regions makes for an operationally challenging mission. To maximize efficiency and flexibility in Mission System design and thus to improve the performance and reliability of the resulting Mission System, we are tailoring Agile principles that we have used effectively in ground data system software development and applying those principles to the design of elements of the mission operations system.

DMS Advanced Applications for Accommodating High Penetrations of DERs and Microgrids

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pratt, Annabelle; Veda, Santosh; Maitra, Arindam

Efficient and effective management of the electric distribution system requires an integrated approach to allow various systems to work in harmony, including distribution management systems (DMS), distributed energy resources (DERs), distributed energy resources management systems, and microgrids. This study highlights some outcomes from a recent project sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, including information about (i) the architecture of these integrated systems and (ii) expanded functions of two example DMS applications to accommodate DERs: volt-var optimisation and fault location, isolation, and service restoration. In addition, the relevant DER group functions necessary tomore » support communications between the DMS and a microgrid controller in grid-tied mode are identified.« less

Model Predictive Control-based Optimal Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mayhorn, Ebony T.; Kalsi, Karanjit; Lian, Jianming

2013-01-07

Distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy resources (wind, solar), energy storage and demand response, can be used to complement conventional generators. The uncertainty and variability due to high penetration of wind makes reliable system operations and controls challenging, especially in isolated systems. In this paper, an optimal control strategy is proposed to coordinate energy storage and diesel generators to maximize wind penetration while maintaining system economics and normal operation performance. The goals of the optimization problem are to minimize fuel costs and maximize the utilization of wind while considering equipment life of generators and energy storage. Model predictive controlmore » (MPC) is used to solve a look-ahead dispatch optimization problem and the performance is compared to an open loop look-ahead dispatch problem. Simulation studies are performed to demonstrate the efficacy of the closed loop MPC in compensating for uncertainties and variability caused in the system.« less

Model Predictive Control-based Optimal Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mayhorn, Ebony T.; Kalsi, Karanjit; Lian, Jianming

2013-04-03

Distributed energy resources, such as renewable energy resources (wind, solar), energy storage and demand response, can be used to complement conventional generators. The uncertainty and variability due to high penetration of wind makes reliable system operations and controls challenging, especially in isolated systems. In this paper, an optimal control strategy is proposed to coordinate energy storage and diesel generators to maximize wind penetration while maintaining system economics and normal operation performance. The goals of the optimization problem are to minimize fuel costs and maximize the utilization of wind while considering equipment life of generators and energy storage. Model predictive controlmore » (MPC) is used to solve a look-ahead dispatch optimization problem and the performance is compared to an open loop look-ahead dispatch problem. Simulation studies are performed to demonstrate the efficacy of the closed loop MPC in compensating for uncertainties and variability caused in the system.« less

An inventory of state natural resources information systems. [including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martinko, E. A. (Principal Investigator); Caron, L. M.; Stewart, D. S.

1984-01-01

Data bases and information systems developed and maintained by state agencies to support planning and management of environmental and nutural resources were inventoried for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. The information obtained is assembled into a computerized data base catalog which is throughly cross-referecence. Retrieval is possible by code, state, data base name, data base acronym, agency, computer, GIS capability, language, specialized software, data category name, geograhic reference, data sources, and level of reliability. The 324 automated data bases identified are described.

High Reliability and the Evaluation of ATC System Configuration by Communizing Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamamoto, Masanori

Automatic Train Control (ATC) in the railway signalling system is required high safety, high availability, reduction of unit, energy saving and cost reduction. This paper described the resources communization redundancy of the ATC system that shared the redundant units in preparation for common use units in order to accommodate with this issue by keeping safety and availability in the same level of conventional ATC. It was evaluated on N+2 redundant system which established 2 spares for the common use system N piece in transmission division. It was done the safety evaluation of the N+2 redundant system by way of hazard analysis of FTA method and safety issue was confirmed by FMEA. The new redundant system concludes that 19% of downsizing and 36% of the energy saving are surely possible.

Evaluating the Relevance, Reliability, and Applicability of CMIP5 Climate Projections for Water Resources and Environmental Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brekke, L. D.; Scott, J.; Ferguson, I. M.; Arnold, J.; Raff, D. A.; Webb, R. S.

2012-12-01

Water managers need to understand the applicability of climate projection information available for decision-support at the scale of their applications. Applicability depends on information reliability and relevance. This need to understand applicability stems from expectations that entities rationalize adaptation investments or decisions to delay investment. It is also occurring at a time when new global climate projections are being released through the World Climate Research Programme Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), which introduces new information opportunities and interpretation challenges. This project involves an interagency collaboration to evaluate the applicability of CMIP5 projections for use in water and environmental resources planning. The overarching goal is to develop and demonstrate a framework that involves dual evaluations of relevance and reliability informing an ultimate discussion and judgment of applicability, which is expected to vary with decision-making context. The framework is being developed and demonstrated within the context of reservoir systems management in California's Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins. The relevance evaluation focuses on identifying the climate variables and statistical measures relevant to long-term management questions, which may depend on satisfying multiple objectives. Past studies' results are being considered in this evaluation, along with new results from system sensitivity analyses conducted through this effort. The reliability evaluation focuses on the CMIP5 climate models' ability to simulate past conditions relative to observed references. The evaluation is being conducted across the global domain using a large menu of climate variables and statistical measures, leveraging lessons learned from similar evaluations of CMIP3 climate models. The global focus addresses a broader project goal of producing a web resource that can serve reliability information to applicability discussions around the world, with evaluation results being served through a web-portal similar to that developed by NOAA/CIRES to serve CMIP3 information on future climate extremes (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/ipcc/extremes/). The framework concludes with an applicability discussion informed by relevance and reliability results. The goal is to observe the discussion process and identify features, choice points, and challenges that might be summarized and shared with other resource management groups facing applicability questions. This presentation will discuss the project framework and preliminary results. In addition to considering CMIP5 21st century projection information, the framework is being developed to support evaluation of CMIP5 decadal predictability experiment simulations and reconcile those simulations with 21st century projections. The presentation will also discuss implications of considering the applicability of bias-corrected and downscaled information within this framework.

75 FR 72909 - Revision to Electric Reliability Organization Definition of Bulk Electric System

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-26

...) Comments 135 (b) Commission Determination 139 6. Impact on Generation Owners and Operators 142 (a) Comments... Organization, the electrical generation resources, transmission lines, interconnections with neighboring... above that interconnect with registered generation facilities are excluded from NPCC's list of bulk...

Impact of Distributed Energy Resources on the Reliability of Critical Telecommunications Facilities: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robinson, D. G.; Arent, D. J.; Johnson, L.

2006-06-01

This paper documents a probabilistic risk assessment of existing and alternative power supply systems at a large telecommunications office. The analysis characterizes the increase in the reliability of power supply through the use of two alternative power configurations. Failures in the power systems supporting major telecommunications service nodes are a main contributor to significant telecommunications outages. A logical approach to improving the robustness of telecommunication facilities is to increase the depth and breadth of technologies available to restore power during power outages. Distributed energy resources such as fuel cells and gas turbines could provide additional on-site electric power sources tomore » provide backup power, if batteries and diesel generators fail. The analysis is based on a hierarchical Bayesian approach and focuses on the failure probability associated with each of three possible facility configurations, along with assessment of the uncertainty or confidence level in the probability of failure. A risk-based characterization of final best configuration is presented.« less

Revenue Sufficiency and Reliability in a Zero Marginal Cost Future

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Frew, Bethany A.

Features of existing wholesale electricity markets, such as administrative pricing rules and policy-based reliability standards, can distort market incentives from allowing generators sufficient opportunities to recover both fixed and variable costs. Moreover, these challenges can be amplified by other factors, including (1) inelastic demand resulting from a lack of price signal clarity, (2) low- or near-zero marginal cost generation, particularly arising from low natural gas fuel prices and variable generation (VG), such as wind and solar, and (3) the variability and uncertainty of this VG. As power systems begin to incorporate higher shares of VG, many questions arise about themore » suitability of the existing marginal-cost-based price formation, primarily within an energy-only market structure, to ensure the economic viability of resources that might be needed to provide system reliability. This article discusses these questions and provides a summary of completed and ongoing modelling-based work at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to better understand the impacts of evolving power systems on reliability and revenue sufficiency.« less

Revenue Sufficiency and Reliability in a Zero Marginal Cost Future: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Frew, Bethany A.; Milligan, Michael; Brinkman, Greg

Features of existing wholesale electricity markets, such as administrative pricing rules and policy-based reliability standards, can distort market incentives from allowing generators sufficient opportunities to recover both fixed and variable costs. Moreover, these challenges can be amplified by other factors, including (1) inelastic demand resulting from a lack of price signal clarity, (2) low- or near-zero marginal cost generation, particularly arising from low natural gas fuel prices and variable generation (VG), such as wind and solar, and (3) the variability and uncertainty of this VG. As power systems begin to incorporate higher shares of VG, many questions arise about themore » suitability of the existing marginal-cost-based price formation, primarily within an energy-only market structure, to ensure the economic viability of resources that might be needed to provide system reliability. This article discusses these questions and provides a summary of completed and ongoing modelling-based work at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to better understand the impacts of evolving power systems on reliability and revenue sufficiency.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hansen, Jacob; Edgar, Thomas W.; Daily, Jeffrey A.

With an ever-evolving power grid, concerns regarding how to maintain system stability, efficiency, and reliability remain constant because of increasing uncertainties and decreasing rotating inertia. To alleviate some of these concerns, demand response represents a viable solution and is virtually an untapped resource in the current power grid. This work describes a hierarchical control framework that allows coordination between distributed energy resources and demand response. This control framework is composed of two control layers: a coordination layer that ensures aggregations of resources are coordinated to achieve system objectives and a device layer that controls individual resources to assure the predeterminedmore » power profile is tracked in real time. Large-scale simulations are executed to study the hierarchical control, requiring advancements in simulation capabilities. Technical advancements necessary to investigate and answer control interaction questions, including the Framework for Network Co-Simulation platform and Arion modeling capability, are detailed. Insights into the interdependencies of controls across a complex system and how they must be tuned, as well as validation of the effectiveness of the proposed control framework, are yielded using a large-scale integrated transmission system model coupled with multiple distribution systems.« less

DOD Financial Management: Improvements Needed in Army’s Efforts to Ensure the Reliability of Its Statement of Budgetary Resources

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-01

a cost- effective approach for achieving audit readiness. To help minimize the inefficient use of resources when previously identified deficiencies...System (GFEBS) emphasizing the implementation of effective business processes. However, the Army did not fully complete certain tasks in accordance...represent material portions of future SBRs and, if not auditable, will likely affect the Army’s ability to achieve audit readiness goals as planned

Family resources study: part 1: family resources, family function and caregiver strain in childhood cancer

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Severe illness can disrupt family life, cause family dysfunction, strain resources, and cause caregiver burden. The family's ability to cope with crises depends on their resources. This study sought to assess families of children with cancer in terms of family function-dysfunction, family caregiver strain and the adequacy of family resources using a new family resources assessment instrument. Methods This is a cross-sectional study involving 90 Filipino family caregivers of children undergoing cancer treatment. This used a self-administered questionnaire composed of a new 12-item family resources questionnaire (SCREEM-RES) based on the SCREEM method of analysis, Family APGAR to assess family function-dysfunction; and Modified Caregiver Strain Index to assess strain in caring for the patient. Results More than half of families were either moderately or severely dysfunctional. Close to half of caregivers were either predisposed to strain or experienced severe strain, majority disclosed that their families have inadequate economic resources; many also report inaccessibility to medical help in the community and insufficient educational resources to understand and care for their patients. Resources most often reported as adequate were: family's faith and religion; help from within the family and from health providers. SCREEM-RES showed to be reliable with Cronbach's alpha of 0.80. There is good inter-item correlation between items in each domain: 0.24-0.70. Internal consistency reliability for each domain was also good: 0.40-0.92. Using 2-point scoring system, Cronbach's alpha were slightly lower: full scale (0.70) and for each domain 0.26-.82. Results showed evidence of association between family resources and family function based on the family APGAR but none between family resources and caregiver strain and between family function and caregiver strain. Conclusion Many Filipino families of children with cancer have inadequate resources, especially economic; and are moderately or severely dysfunctional. Many caregivers are predisposed to caregiver strain or are already experiencing severe strain. To provide appropriate care for these families, physicians should regularly assess family function, resources and strain experienced by caregivers. The SCREEM-RES questionnaire used in this study is a helpful and reliable instrument to assess adequacy of family resources. PMID:22040272

Enhanced Communication Network Solution for Positive Train Control Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fatehi, M. T.; Simon, J.; Chang, W.; Chow, E. T.; Burleigh, S. C.

2011-01-01

The commuter and freight railroad industry is required to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) by 2015 (2012 for Metrolink), a challenging network communications problem. This paper will discuss present technologies developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to overcome comparable communication challenges encountered in deep space mission operations. PTC will be based on a new cellular wireless packet Internet Protocol (IP) network. However, ensuring reliability in such a network is difficult due to the "dead zones" and transient disruptions we commonly experience when we lose calls in commercial cellular networks. These disruptions make it difficult to meet PTC s stringent reliability (99.999%) and safety requirements, deployment deadlines, and budget. This paper proposes innovative solutions based on space-proven technologies that would help meet these challenges: (1) Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology, designed for use in resource-constrained, embedded systems and currently in use on the International Space Station, enables reliable communication over networks in which timely data acknowledgments might not be possible due to transient link outages. (2) Policy-Based Management (PBM) provides dynamic management capabilities, allowing vital data to be exchanged selectively (with priority) by utilizing alternative communication resources. The resulting network may help railroads implement PTC faster, cheaper, and more reliably.

Optimal Wind Energy Integration in Large-Scale Electric Grids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albaijat, Mohammad H.

The major concern in electric grid operation is operating under the most economical and reliable fashion to ensure affordability and continuity of electricity supply. This dissertation investigates the effects of such challenges, which affect electric grid reliability and economic operations. These challenges are: 1. Congestion of transmission lines, 2. Transmission lines expansion, 3. Large-scale wind energy integration, and 4. Phaser Measurement Units (PMUs) optimal placement for highest electric grid observability. Performing congestion analysis aids in evaluating the required increase of transmission line capacity in electric grids. However, it is necessary to evaluate expansion of transmission line capacity on methods to ensure optimal electric grid operation. Therefore, the expansion of transmission line capacity must enable grid operators to provide low-cost electricity while maintaining reliable operation of the electric grid. Because congestion affects the reliability of delivering power and increases its cost, the congestion analysis in electric grid networks is an important subject. Consequently, next-generation electric grids require novel methodologies for studying and managing congestion in electric grids. We suggest a novel method of long-term congestion management in large-scale electric grids. Owing to the complication and size of transmission line systems and the competitive nature of current grid operation, it is important for electric grid operators to determine how many transmission lines capacity to add. Traditional questions requiring answers are "Where" to add, "How much of transmission line capacity" to add, and "Which voltage level". Because of electric grid deregulation, transmission lines expansion is more complicated as it is now open to investors, whose main interest is to generate revenue, to build new transmission lines. Adding a new transmission capacity will help the system to relieve the transmission system congestion, create profit for investors for renting their transmission capacity, and cheaper electricity for end users. We propose a hybrid method based on a heuristic and deterministic method to attain new transmission lines additions and increase transmission capacity. Renewable energy resources (RES) have zero operating cost, which makes them very attractive for generation companies and market participants. In addition, RES have zero carbon emission, which helps relieve the concerns of environmental impacts of electric generation resources' carbon emission. RES are wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal. By 2030, the expectation is that more than 30% of electricity in the U.S. will come from RES. One major contributor of RES generation will be from wind energy resources (WES). Furthermore, WES will be an important component of the future generation portfolio. However, the nature of WES is that it experiences a high intermittency and volatility. Because of the great expectation of high WES penetration and the nature of such resources, researchers focus on studying the effects of such resources on the electric grid operation and its adequacy from different aspects. Additionally, current market operations of electric grids add another complication to consider while integrating RES (e.g., specifically WES). Mandates by market rules and long-term analysis of renewable penetration in large-scale electric grid are also the focus of researchers in recent years. We advocate a method for high-wind resources penetration study on large-scale electric grid operations. PMU is a geographical positioning system (GPS) based device, which provides immediate and precise measurements of voltage angle in a high-voltage transmission system. PMUs can update the status of a transmission line and related measurements (e.g., voltage magnitude and voltage phase angle) more frequently. Every second, a PMU can provide 30 samples of measurements compared to traditional systems (e.g., supervisory control and data acquisition [SCADA] system), which provides one sample of measurement every 2 to 5 seconds. Because PMUs provide more measurement data samples, PMU can improve electric grid reliability and observability. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Climate and water resource change impacts and adaptation potential for US power supply

DOE PAGES

Miara, Ariel; Macknick, Jordan E.; Vorosmarty, Charles J.; ...

2017-10-30

Power plants that require cooling currently (2015) provide 85% of electricity generation in the United States. These facilities need large volumes of water and sufficiently cool temperatures for optimal operations, and projected climate conditions may lower their potential power output and affect reliability. We evaluate the performance of 1,080 thermoelectric plants across the contiguous US under future climates (2035-2064) and their collective performance at 19 North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) sub-regions. Joint consideration of engineering interactions with climate, hydrology and environmental regulations reveals the region-specific performance of energy systems and the need for regional energy security and climate-water adaptationmore » strategies. Despite climate-water constraints on individual plants, the current power supply infrastructure shows potential for adaptation to future climates by capitalizing on the size of regional power systems, grid configuration and improvements in thermal efficiencies. Without placing climate-water impacts on individual plants in a broader power systems context, vulnerability assessments that aim to support adaptation and resilience strategies misgauge the extent to which regional energy systems are vulnerable. As a result, climate-water impacts can lower thermoelectric reserve margins, a measure of systems-level reliability, highlighting the need to integrate climate-water constraints on thermoelectric power supply into energy planning, risk assessments, and system reliability management.« less

Climate and water resource change impacts and adaptation potential for US power supply

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miara, Ariel; Macknick, Jordan E.; Vörösmarty, Charles J.; Tidwell, Vincent C.; Newmark, Robin; Fekete, Balazs

2017-11-01

Power plants that require cooling currently (2015) provide 85% of electricity generation in the United States. These facilities need large volumes of water and sufficiently cool temperatures for optimal operations, and projected climate conditions may lower their potential power output and affect reliability. We evaluate the performance of 1,080 thermoelectric plants across the contiguous US under future climates (2035-2064) and their collective performance at 19 North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) sub-regions. Joint consideration of engineering interactions with climate, hydrology and environmental regulations reveals the region-specific performance of energy systems and the need for regional energy security and climate-water adaptation strategies. Despite climate-water constraints on individual plants, the current power supply infrastructure shows potential for adaptation to future climates by capitalizing on the size of regional power systems, grid configuration and improvements in thermal efficiencies. Without placing climate-water impacts on individual plants in a broader power systems context, vulnerability assessments that aim to support adaptation and resilience strategies misgauge the extent to which regional energy systems are vulnerable. Climate-water impacts can lower thermoelectric reserve margins, a measure of systems-level reliability, highlighting the need to integrate climate-water constraints on thermoelectric power supply into energy planning, risk assessments, and system reliability management.

Climate and water resource change impacts and adaptation potential for US power supply

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miara, Ariel; Macknick, Jordan E.; Vorosmarty, Charles J.

Power plants that require cooling currently (2015) provide 85% of electricity generation in the United States. These facilities need large volumes of water and sufficiently cool temperatures for optimal operations, and projected climate conditions may lower their potential power output and affect reliability. We evaluate the performance of 1,080 thermoelectric plants across the contiguous US under future climates (2035-2064) and their collective performance at 19 North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) sub-regions. Joint consideration of engineering interactions with climate, hydrology and environmental regulations reveals the region-specific performance of energy systems and the need for regional energy security and climate-water adaptationmore » strategies. Despite climate-water constraints on individual plants, the current power supply infrastructure shows potential for adaptation to future climates by capitalizing on the size of regional power systems, grid configuration and improvements in thermal efficiencies. Without placing climate-water impacts on individual plants in a broader power systems context, vulnerability assessments that aim to support adaptation and resilience strategies misgauge the extent to which regional energy systems are vulnerable. As a result, climate-water impacts can lower thermoelectric reserve margins, a measure of systems-level reliability, highlighting the need to integrate climate-water constraints on thermoelectric power supply into energy planning, risk assessments, and system reliability management.« less

System principles, mathematical models and methods to ensure high reliability of safety systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaslavskyi, V.

2017-04-01

Modern safety and security systems are composed of a large number of various components designed for detection, localization, tracking, collecting, and processing of information from the systems of monitoring, telemetry, control, etc. They are required to be highly reliable in a view to correctly perform data aggregation, processing and analysis for subsequent decision making support. On design and construction phases of the manufacturing of such systems a various types of components (elements, devices, and subsystems) are considered and used to ensure high reliability of signals detection, noise isolation, and erroneous commands reduction. When generating design solutions for highly reliable systems a number of restrictions and conditions such as types of components and various constrains on resources should be considered. Various types of components perform identical functions; however, they are implemented using diverse principles, approaches and have distinct technical and economic indicators such as cost or power consumption. The systematic use of different component types increases the probability of tasks performing and eliminates the common cause failure. We consider type-variety principle as an engineering principle of system analysis, mathematical models based on this principle, and algorithms for solving optimization problems of highly reliable safety and security systems design. Mathematical models are formalized in a class of two-level discrete optimization problems of large dimension. The proposed approach, mathematical models, algorithms can be used for problem solving of optimal redundancy on the basis of a variety of methods and control devices for fault and defects detection in technical systems, telecommunication networks, and energy systems.

Forecasting Wind and Solar Generation: Improving System Operations, Greening the Grid (Spanish Version)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tian, Tian; Chernyakhovskiy, Ilya; Brancucci Martinez-Anido, Carlo

This document is the Spanish version of 'Greening the Grid- Forecasting Wind and Solar Generation Improving System Operations'. It discusses improving system operations with forecasting with and solar generation. By integrating variable renewable energy (VRE) forecasts into system operations, power system operators can anticipate up- and down-ramps in VRE generation in order to cost-effectively balance load and generation in intra-day and day-ahead scheduling. This leads to reduced fuel costs, improved system reliability, and maximum use of renewable resources.

Anti-aliasing filter design on spaceborne digital receiver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Danru; Zhao, Chonghui

2009-12-01

In recent years, with the development of satellite observation technologies, more and more active remote sensing technologies are adopted in spaceborne system. The spaceborne precipitation radar will depend heavily on high performance digital processing to collect meaningful rain echo data. It will increase the complexity of the spaceborne system and need high-performance and reliable digital receiver. This paper analyzes the frequency aliasing in the intermediate frequency signal sampling of digital down conversion in spaceborne radar, and gives an effective digital filter. By analysis and calculation, we choose reasonable parameters of the half-band filters to suppress the frequency aliasing on DDC. Compared with traditional filter, the FPGA resources cost in our system are reduced by over 50%. This can effectively reduce the complexity in the spaceborne digital receiver and improve the reliability of system.

A pilot study to explore the feasibility of using theClinical Care Classification System for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services.

PubMed

Dykes, Patricia C; Wantland, Dean; Whittenburg, Luann; Lipsitz, Stuart; Saba, Virginia K

2013-01-01

While nursing activities represent a significant proportion of inpatient care, there are no reliable methods for determining nursing costs based on the actual services provided by the nursing staff. Capture of data to support accurate measurement and reporting on the cost of nursing services is fundamental to effective resource utilization. Adopting standard terminologies that support tracking both the quality and the cost of care could reduce the data entry burden on direct care providers. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of using a standardized nursing terminology, the Clinical Care Classification System (CCC), for developing a reliable costing method for nursing services. Two different approaches are explored; the Relative Value Unit RVU and the simple cost-to-time methods. We found that the simple cost-to-time method was more accurate and more transparent in its derivation than the RVU method and may support a more consistent and reliable approach for costing nursing services.

PREDICTIVE UNCERTAINTY IN HYDROLOGIC AND WATER QUALITY MODELING: APPROACHES, APPLICATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, AND FUTURE CHALLENGES (PRESENTATION)

EPA Science Inventory

Extant process-based hydrologic and water quality models are indispensable to water resources planning and environmental management. However, models are only approximations of real systems and often calibrated with incomplete and uncertain data. Reliable estimates, or perhaps f...

PREDICTIVE UNCERTAINTY IN HYDROLOGIC AND WATER QUALITY MODELING: APPROACHES, APPLICATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

EPA Science Inventory

Extant process-based hydrologic and water quality models are indispensable to water resources planning and environmental management. However, models are only approximations of real systems and often calibrated with incomplete and uncertain data. Reliable estimates, or perhaps f...

Open Access to Mexican Academic Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adame, Silvia I.; Llorens, Luis

2016-01-01

This paper presents a description of the metadata harvester software development. This system provides access to reliable and quality educational resources, shared by Mexican Universities through their repositories, to anyone with Internet Access. We present the conceptual and contextual framework, followed by the technical basis, the results and…

Notes on a storage manager for the Clouds kernel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pitts, David V.; Spafford, Eugene H.

1986-01-01

The Clouds project is research directed towards producing a reliable distributed computing system. The initial goal is to produce a kernel which provides a reliable environment with which a distributed operating system can be built. The Clouds kernal consists of a set of replicated subkernels, each of which runs on a machine in the Clouds system. Each subkernel is responsible for the management of resources on its machine; the subkernal components communicate to provide the cooperation necessary to meld the various machines into one kernel. The implementation of a kernel-level storage manager that supports reliability is documented. The storage manager is a part of each subkernel and maintains the secondary storage residing at each machine in the distributed system. In addition to providing the usual data transfer services, the storage manager ensures that data being stored survives machine and system crashes, and that the secondary storage of a failed machine is recovered (made consistent) automatically when the machine is restarted. Since the storage manager is part of the Clouds kernel, efficiency of operation is also a concern.

HealthCyberMap: a semantic visual browser of medical Internet resources based on clinical codes and the human body metaphor.

PubMed

Kamel Boulos, Maged N; Roudsari, Abdul V; Carso N, Ewart R

2002-12-01

HealthCyberMap (HCM-http://healthcybermap.semanticweb.org) is a web-based service for healthcare professionals and librarians, patients and the public in general that aims at mapping parts of the health information resources in cyberspace in novel ways to improve their retrieval and navigation. HCM adopts a clinical metadata framework built upon a clinical coding ontology for the semantic indexing, classification and browsing of Internet health information resources. A resource metadata base holds information about selected resources. HCM then uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) spatialization methods to generate interactive navigational cybermaps from the metadata base. These visual cybermaps are based on familiar medical metaphors. HCM cybermaps can be considered as semantically spatialized, ontology-based browsing views of the underlying resource metadata base. Using a clinical coding scheme as a metric for spatialization ('semantic distance') is unique to HCM and is very much suited for the semantic categorization and navigation of Internet health information resources. Clinical codes ensure reliable and unambiguous topical indexing of these resources. HCM also introduces a useful form of cyberspatial analysis for the detection of topical coverage gaps in the resource metadata base using choropleth (shaded) maps of human body systems.

Simulation of hybrid wind/solar systems for typical areas of Brazil and Cuba

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Villar Ale, J.A.; Garcia, F.H.

Brazil and Cuba share a common history of serious problems related to the electrification of their isolated communities. Both countries have renewable resources of energy that allow, for instance, the use of photovoltaic and wind systems. These systems can be used in an integrated way, known as hybrid systems, achieving better reliability and economy. This work presents a simplified methodology for the design of such systems to be applied to the electrification of rural areas in both countries.

Coexistence of enhanced mobile broadband communications and ultra-reliable low-latency communications in mobile front-haul

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ying, Kai; Kowalski, John M.; Nogami, Toshizo; Yin, Zhanping; Sheng, Jia

2018-01-01

5G systems are supposed to support coexistence of multiple services such as ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communications. The target of eMBB communications is to meet the high-throughput requirement while URLLC are used for some high priority services. Due to the sporadic nature and low latency requirement, URLLC transmission may pre-empt the resource of eMBB transmission. Our work is to analyze the URLLC impact on eMBB transmission in mobile front-haul. Then, some solutions are proposed to guarantee the reliability/latency requirements for URLLC services and minimize the impact to eMBB services at the same time.

Transaction-based building controls framework, Volume 2: Platform descriptive model and requirements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Akyol, Bora A.; Haack, Jereme N.; Carpenter, Brandon J.

Transaction-based Building Controls (TBC) offer a control systems platform that provides an agent execution environment that meets the growing requirements for security, resource utilization, and reliability. This report outlines the requirements for a platform to meet these needs and describes an illustrative/exemplary implementation.

A Rich Metadata Filesystem for Scientific Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bui, Hoang

2012-01-01

As scientific research becomes more data intensive, there is an increasing need for scalable, reliable, and high performance storage systems. Such data repositories must provide both data archival services and rich metadata, and cleanly integrate with large scale computing resources. ROARS is a hybrid approach to distributed storage that provides…

76 FR 72203 - Voltage Coordination on High Voltage Grids; Notice of Reliability Workshop Agenda

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-22

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. AD12-5-000] Voltage... currently coordinate the dispatch of reactive resources to support forecasted loads, generation and... reactive power needs of the distribution system or loads are coordinated or optimized. Panelists: Khaled...

CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 12: User evaluation of experimental land use maps and related products from the central Atlantic test site

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alexander, R. H. (Principal Investigator); Mcginty, H. K., III

1975-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Recommendations resulting from the CARETS evaluation reflect the need to establish a flexible and reliable system for providing more detailed raw and processed land resource information as well as the need to improve the methods of making information available to users.

System-reliability studies for wave-energy generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dawson, J. M.; Din, S.; Mytton, M. G.; Shore, N. L.; Stansfield, H. B.

1980-06-01

A study is reported that is being undertaken in the United Kingdom to determine means of developing the potential of the large wave-energy resource around the coast, in particular, that to the west facing the Atlantic. It is shown that derivation of the mean annual energy to be expected involved knowledge, not only of the wave climates, conversion efficiency characteristics of the proposed devices and of the power transmission system, but also of factors reflecting the availability overall. Attention is given to a simplified approach to the quantifying of reliability for each stage of the process. An appropriate method of analysis is established and a summary of the results obtained is given.

Ground Penetrating Radar for SMART CITIES

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soldovieri, Francesco; Catapano, Ilaria; Gennarelli, Gianluca

2016-04-01

The use of monitoring and surveillance technologies is now recognized as a reliable option of the overall smart cities management cycle, for the advantages that they offer in terms of: economically sustainable planning of the ordinary and extraordinary maintenance interventions; situational awareness of possible risks factors in view of a reliable early warning; improvement of the security of the communities especially in public environments. In this frame, the abstract will deal with the recent advances in the development and deployment of radar systems for the urban surveillance, exploitation of the subsurface resources and civil engineering structures. In particular, we will present the recent scientific developments and several examples of use of these systems in operational conditions.

Energy manager design for microgrids

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Firestone, Ryan; Marnay, Chris

2005-01-01

On-site energy production, known as distributed energy resources (DER), offers consumers many benefits, such as bill savings and predictability, improved system efficiency, improved reliability, control over power quality, and in many cases, greener electricity. Additionally, DER systems can benefit electric utilities by reducing congestion on the grid, reducing the need for new generation and transmission capacity, and offering ancillary services such as voltage support and emergency demand response. Local aggregations of distributed energy resources (DER) that may include active control of on-site end-use energy devices can be called microgrids. Microgrids require control to ensure safe operation and to make dispatchmore » decisions that achieve system objectives such as cost minimization, reliability, efficiency and emissions requirements, while abiding by system constraints and regulatory rules. This control is performed by an energy manager (EM). Preferably, an EM will achieve operation reasonably close to the attainable optimum, it will do this by means robust to deviations from expected conditions, and it will not itself incur insupportable capital or operation and maintenance costs. Also, microgrids can include supervision over end-uses, such as curtailing or rescheduling certain loads. By viewing a unified microgrid as a system of supply and demand, rather than simply a system of on-site generation devices, the benefits of integrated supply and demand control can be exploited, such as economic savings and improved system energy efficiency.« less

In-situ Resources In Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curreri, Peter A.

2005-01-01

This tutorial is a primer on the motivational and materials science basis for utilizing space resources to lower the cost and increase the safety and reliability of human systems beyond Earth's orbit. Past research in materials processing in orbit will be briefly reviewed to emphasize the challenges and advantages inherent in processing materials in space. Data on resource availability from human Lunar and robotic/sensor missions beyond the Moon will be overviewed for resource relevance to human exploration and development of space. Specific scenarios such as propellant production on the Moon and Mars, and lunar photovoltaic power production from in-situ materials will be discussed in relation to exploration and commercialization of space. A conclusion will cover some of the visionary proposals for the use of space resources to extend human society and prosperity beyond Earth.

Getting Out of Orbit: Water Recycling Requirements and Technology Needs for Long Duration Missions Away from Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barta, Daniel J.

2017-01-01

Deep-space crewed missions will not have regular access to the Earth's resources or the ability to rapidly return to Earth if a system fails. As crewed missions extend farther from Earth for longer periods, habitation systems must become more self-sufficient and reliable for safe, healthy, and sustainable human exploration. For human missions to Mars, Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) must be able operate for up to 1,100 days with minimal spares and consumables. These missions will require capabilities to more fully recycle atmospheric gases and wastewater to substantially reduce mission costs. Even with relatively austere requirements for use, water represents one of the largest consumables by mass. Systems must be available to extract and recycle water from all sources of waste. And given that there will be no opportunity to send samples back to Earth for analysis, analytical measurements will be limited to monitoring hardware brought on board the spacecraft. The Earth Reliant phase of NASA's exploration strategy includes leveraging the International Space Station (ISS) to demonstrate advanced capabilities for a robust and reliable ECLSS. The ISS Water Recovery System (WRS) includes a Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) for distillation and recovery of water from urine and a Water Processor Assembly (WPA) to process humidity condensate and urine distillate into potable water. Possible enhancements to more fully "close the water loop" include recovery of water from waste brines and solid wastes. A possible game changer is the recovery of water from local planetary resources through use of In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies. As part of the development and demonstration sequence, NASA intends to utilize cis-Lunar space as a Proving Ground to verify systems for deep space habitation by conducting extended duration missions to validate our readiness for Mars.

[Strategic measures for patient safety in the National Health System: on-line training resources and access to scientific knowledge].

PubMed

Novillo-Ortíz, D; Agra, Y; Fernández-Maíllo, M M; del Peso, P; Terol, E

2008-12-01

Patient safety (PS) is a priority strategy included in the Quality Plan for the Spanish National Health System and its first objective is to promote PS culture among professionals and patients. The Internet is playing a key role in the access to clinical evidence and in the training of health professionals. A multidisciplinary working group was created, who defined the criteria to help improve clinical practice in the field of patient safety, by making available and using web-based patient safety training resources and information. Taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the Internet in terms of training, two online self-training tutorials were developed on risk management, patient safety and adverse event prevention. A Newsletter was also launched, together with two specific patient safety Supplements. Moreover, to extend the reach of the PS Strategy, a patient safety web page and weblog were created, in addition to a collaborative (internal) working group tool. Excelenciaclinica.net was also developed; a meta-search engine specialized in evidence-based information for health professionals, to make it easier to access reliable and valuable information. Health professionals were also allowed to consult, free of charge, reliable health information resources, such as the GuiaSalud platform, the Cochrane Library Plus and the resources of the Joanna Briggs Institute. The involvement of health professionals in these measures and the role that these measures may be expected to play in the development of a premium-quality health service.

Characterization of a Low-Cost Multiparameter Sensor for Solar Resource Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Habte, Aron M; Sengupta, Manajit; Andreas, Afshin M

Low-cost, multiparameter sensing and measurement devices enable cost-effective monitoring of the functional, operational reliability, efficiency, and resiliency of the electric grid. The National Renewable Research Laboratory (NREL) Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL), in collaboration with Arable Labs, Inc., deployed Arable Lab's Mark multiparameter sensor system. The device measures the downwelling and upwelling shortwave solar resource and longwave radiation, humidity, air temperature, and ground temperature. The system is also equipped with six downward-and upward-facing narrowband spectrometer channels that measure spectral radiation and surface spectral reflectance. This study describes the shortwave calibration, characterization, and validation of measurement accuracy of this instrument bymore » comparison with existing instruments that are part of NREL-SRRL's Baseline Measurement System.« less

Analyzing Reliability and Performance Trade-Offs of HLS-Based Designs in SRAM-Based FPGAs Under Soft Errors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tambara, Lucas Antunes; Tonfat, Jorge; Santos, André; Kastensmidt, Fernanda Lima; Medina, Nilberto H.; Added, Nemitala; Aguiar, Vitor A. P.; Aguirre, Fernando; Silveira, Marcilei A. G.

2017-02-01

The increasing system complexity of FPGA-based hardware designs and shortening of time-to-market have motivated the adoption of new designing methodologies focused on addressing the current need for high-performance circuits. High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools can generate Register Transfer Level (RTL) designs from high-level software programming languages. These tools have evolved significantly in recent years, providing optimized RTL designs, which can serve the needs of safety-critical applications that require both high performance and high reliability levels. However, a reliability evaluation of HLS-based designs under soft errors has not yet been presented. In this work, the trade-offs of different HLS-based designs in terms of reliability, resource utilization, and performance are investigated by analyzing their behavior under soft errors and comparing them to a standard processor-based implementation in an SRAM-based FPGA. Results obtained from fault injection campaigns and radiation experiments show that it is possible to increase the performance of a processor-based system up to 5,000 times by changing its architecture with a small impact in the cross section (increasing up to 8 times), and still increasing the Mean Workload Between Failures (MWBF) of the system.

The technology roadmap for plant/crop-based renewable resources 2020

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McLaren, J.

1999-02-22

The long-term well-being of the nation and maintenance of a sustainable leadership position in agriculture, forestry, and manufacturing, clearly depend on current and near-term support of multidisciplinary research for the development of a reliable renewable resource base. This document sets a roadmap and priorities for that research. America needs leadership that will continue to recognize, support, and move rapidly to meet the need to expand the use of sustainable renewable resources. This roadmap has highlighted potential ways for progress and has identified goals in specific components of the system. Achieving success with these goals will provide the opportunity to hitmore » the vision target of a fivefold increase in renewable resource use by 2020.« less

The Technology Roadmap for Plant/Crop-Based Renewable Resources 2020

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

1999-02-01

The long-term well-being of the nation and maintenance of a sustainable leadership position in agriculture, forestry, and manufacturing, clearly depend on current and near-term support of multidisciplinary research for the development of a reliable renewable resource base. This document sets a roadmap and priorities for that research. America needs leadership that will continue to recognize, support, and move rapidly to meet the need to expand the use of sustainable renewable resources. This roadmap has highlighted potential ways for progress and has identified goals in specific components of the system. Achieving success with these goals will provide the opportunity to hitmore » the vision target of a fivefold increase in renewable resource use by 2020.« less

Mathematical Modelling-Based Energy System Operation Strategy Considering Energy Storage Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ryu, Jun-Hyung; Hodge, Bri-Mathias

2016-06-25

Renewable energy resources are widely recognized as an alternative to environmentally harmful fossil fuels. More renewable energy technologies will need to penetrate into fossil fuel dominated energy systems to mitigate the globally witnessed climate changes and environmental pollutions. It is necessary to prepare for the potential problems with increased proportions of renewable energy in the energy system, to prevent higher costs and decreased reliability. Motivated by this need, this paper addresses the operation of an energy system with an energy storage system in the context of developing a decision-supporting framework.

The Shuttle processing contractors (SPC) reliability program at the Kennedy Space Center - The real world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCrea, Terry

The Shuttle Processing Contract (SPC) workforce consists of Lockheed Space Operations Co. as prime contractor, with Grumman, Thiokol Corporation, and Johnson Controls World Services as subcontractors. During the design phase, reliability engineering is instrumental in influencing the development of systems that meet the Shuttle fail-safe program requirements. Reliability engineers accomplish this objective by performing FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis) to identify potential single failure points. When technology, time, or resources do not permit a redesign to eliminate a single failure point, the single failure point information is formatted into a change request and presented to senior management of SPC and NASA for risk acceptance. In parallel with the FMEA, safety engineering conducts a hazard analysis to assure that potential hazards to personnel are assessed. The combined effort (FMEA and hazard analysis) is published as a system assurance analysis. Special ground rules and techniques are developed to perform and present the analysis. The reliability program at KSC is vigorously pursued, and has been extremely successful. The ground support equipment and facilities used to launch and land the Space Shuttle maintain an excellent reliability record.

The Framework for Life Cycle Cost Management,

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-01-01

in the early phases of system development before full- scale development and initial production, O&S cost projections are too un- certain to...Ensure that each increment of cost and schedule investment in R&M contributes significantly to the above objectives. DoDD 5000.40, Reliability and...Major systems are characterized by large investments of time and resources in the uncertain periods of development, production, and deployment and in

A mobile field-work data collection system for the wireless era of health surveillance.

PubMed

Forsell, Marianne; Sjögren, Petteri; Renard, Matthew; Johansson, Olle

2011-03-01

In many countries or regions the capacity of health care resources is below the needs of the population and new approaches for health surveillance are needed. Innovative projects, utilizing wireless communication technology, contribute to reliable methods for field-work data collection and reporting to databases. The objective was to describe a new version of a wireless IT-support system for field-work data collection and administration. The system requirements were drawn from the design objective and translated to system functions. The system architecture was based on fieldwork experiences and administrative requirements. The Smartphone devices were HTC Touch Diamond2s, while the system was based on a platform with Microsoft .NET components, and a SQL Server 2005 with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. The user interfaces were based on .NET programming, and Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. A synchronization module enabled download of field data to the database, via a General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) to a Local Area Network (LAN) interface. The field-workers considered the here-described applications user-friendly and almost self-instructing. The office administrators considered that the back-office interface facilitated retrieval of health reports and invoice distribution. The current IT-support system facilitates short lead times from fieldwork data registration to analysis, and is suitable for various applications. The advantages of wireless technology, and paper-free data administration need to be increasingly emphasized in development programs, in order to facilitate reliable and transparent use of limited resources.

Maui Smart Grid Demonstration Project Managing Distribution System Resources for Improved Service Quality and Reliability, Transmission Congestion Relief, and Grid Support Functions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

none,

2014-09-30

The Maui Smart Grid Project (MSGP) is under the leadership of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The project team includes Maui Electric Company, Ltd. (MECO), Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. (HECO), Sentech (a division of SRA International, Inc.), Silver Spring Networks (SSN), Alstom Grid, Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), University of Hawaii-Maui College (UHMC), and the County of Maui. MSGP was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FC26-08NT02871, with approximately 50% co-funding supplied by MECO. The project was designed to develop and demonstrate an integrated monitoring, communications,more » database, applications, and decision support solution that aggregates renewable energy (RE), other distributed generation (DG), energy storage, and demand response technologies in a distribution system to achieve both distribution and transmission-level benefits. The application of these new technologies and procedures will increase MECO’s visibility into system conditions, with the expected benefits of enabling more renewable energy resources to be integrated into the grid, improving service quality, increasing overall reliability of the power system, and ultimately reducing costs to both MECO and its customers.« less

Integrated Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring Technology Demonstration for Deep Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perry, Jay L.; Abney, Morgan B.; Knox, James C.; Parrish, Keith J.; Roman, Monserrate C.; Jan, Darrell L.

2012-01-01

Exploring the frontiers of deep space continues to be defined by the technological challenges presented by safely transporting a crew to and from destinations of scientific interest. Living and working on that frontier requires highly reliable and efficient life support systems that employ robust, proven process technologies. The International Space Station (ISS), including its environmental control and life support (ECLS) system, is the platform from which humanity's deep space exploration missions begin. The ISS ECLS system Atmosphere Revitalization (AR) subsystem and environmental monitoring (EM) technical architecture aboard the ISS is evaluated as the starting basis for a developmental effort being conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) via the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) Project.. An evolutionary approach is employed by the ARREM project to address the strengths and weaknesses of the ISS AR subsystem and EM equipment, core technologies, and operational approaches to reduce developmental risk, improve functional reliability, and lower lifecycle costs of an ISS-derived subsystem architecture suitable for use for crewed deep space exploration missions. The most promising technical approaches to an ISS-derived subsystem design architecture that incorporates promising core process technology upgrades will be matured through a series of integrated tests and architectural trade studies encompassing expected exploration mission requirements and constraints.

Characteristics of gaps and natural regeneration in mature longleaf pine flatwoods ecosystems

Treesearch

Jennifer L. Gagnon; Eric J. Jokela; W.K. Moser; Dudley A. Huber

2004-01-01

Developing uneven-aged structure in mature stands of longleaf pine requires scientifically based silvicultural systems that are reliable, productive and sustainable. Understanding seedling responses to varying levels of site resource availability within forest gaps is essential for effectively converting even-aged stands to uneven-aged stands. A project was initiated...

Role of information systems in public health services.

PubMed

Hartshorne, J E; Carstens, I L

1990-07-01

The purpose of this review is to establish a conceptual framework on the role of information systems in public health care. Information is indispensable for effective management and development of health services and therefore considered as an important operational asset or resource. A Health Information System is mainly required to support management and operations at four levels: namely transactional and functional; operational control; management planning and control; and strategic planning. To provide the necessary information needs of users at these levels of management in the health care system, a structured information system coupled with appropriate information technology is required. Adequate and relevant information is needed regarding population characteristics, resources available and expended, output and outcome of health care activities. Additionally information needs to be reliable, accurate, timely, easily accessible and presented in a compact and meaningful form. With a well-planned health information system health authorities would be in a position to provide a quality, cost-effective and efficient health service for as many people as need it, optimal utilisation of resources and to maintain and improve the community's health status.

In-Situ Resource Utilization for Space Exploration: Resource Processing, Mission-Enabling Technologies, and Lessons for Sustainability on Earth and Beyond

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hepp, A. F.; Palaszewski, B. A.; Landis, G. A.; Jaworske, D. A.; Colozza, A. J.; Kulis, M. J.; Heller, R. S.

2015-01-01

As humanity begins to reach out into the solar system, it has become apparent that supporting a human or robotic presence in transit andor on station requires significant expendable resources including consumables (to support people), fuel, and convenient reliable power. Transporting all necessary expendables is inefficient, inconvenient, costly, and, in the final analysis, a complicating factor for mission planners and a significant source of potential failure modes. Over the past twenty-five years, beginning with the Space Exploration Initiative, researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), academic collaborators, and industrial partners have analyzed, researched, and developed successful solutions for the challenges posed by surviving and even thriving in the resource limited environment(s) presented by near-Earth space and non-terrestrial surface operations. In this retrospective paper, we highlight the efforts of the co-authors in resource simulation and utilization, materials processing and consumable(s) production, power systems and analysis, fuel storage and handling, propulsion systems, and mission operations. As we move forward in our quest to explore space using a resource-optimized approach, it is worthwhile to consider lessons learned relative to efficient utilization of the (comparatively) abundant natural resources and improving the sustainability (and environment) for life on Earth. We reconsider Lunar (and briefly Martian) resource utilization for potential colonization, and discuss next steps moving away from Earth.

In-Situ Resource Utilization for Space Exploration: Resource Processing, Mission-Enabling Technologies, and Lessons for Sustainability on Earth and Beyond

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hepp, A. F.; Palaszewski, B. A.; Landis, G. A.; Jaworske, D. A.; Colozza, A. J.; Kulis, M. J.; Heller, Richard S.

2014-01-01

As humanity begins to reach out into the solar system, it has become apparent that supporting a human or robotic presence in transit and/or on station requires significant expendable resources including consumables (to support people), fuel, and convenient reliable power. Transporting all necessary expendables is inefficient, inconvenient, costly, and, in the final analysis, a complicating factor for mission planners and a significant source of potential failure modes. Over the past twenty-five years, beginning with the Space Exploration Initiative, researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), academic collaborators, and industrial partners have analyzed, researched, and developed successful solutions for the challenges posed by surviving and even thriving in the resource limited environment(s) presented by near-Earth space and non-terrestrial surface operations. In this retrospective paper, we highlight the efforts of the co-authors in resource simulation and utilization, materials processing and consumable(s) production, power systems and analysis, fuel storage and handling, propulsion systems, and mission operations. As we move forward in our quest to explore space using a resource-optimized approach, it is worthwhile to consider lessons learned relative to efficient utilization of the (comparatively) abundant natural resources and improving the sustainability (and environment) for life on Earth. We reconsider Lunar (and briefly Martian) resource utilization for potential colonization, and discuss next steps moving away from Earth.

Impact of distributed energy resources on the reliability of a critical telecommunications facility.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robinson, David; Zuffranieri, Jason V.; Atcitty, Christopher B.

2006-03-01

This report documents a probabilistic risk assessment of an existing power supply system at a large telecommunications office. The focus is on characterizing the increase in the reliability of power supply through the use of two alternative power configurations. Telecommunications has been identified by the Department of Homeland Security as a critical infrastructure to the United States. Failures in the power systems supporting major telecommunications service nodes are a main contributor to major telecommunications outages. A logical approach to improve the robustness of telecommunication facilities would be to increase the depth and breadth of technologies available to restore power inmore » the face of power outages. Distributed energy resources such as fuel cells and gas turbines could provide one more onsite electric power source to provide backup power, if batteries and diesel generators fail. The analysis is based on a hierarchical Bayesian approach and focuses on the failure probability associated with each of three possible facility configurations, along with assessment of the uncertainty or confidence level in the probability of failure. A risk-based characterization of final best configuration is presented.« less

Electric service reliability cost/worth assessment in a developing country

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandey, Mohan Kumar

Considerable work has been done in developed countries to optimize the reliability of electric power systems on the basis of reliability cost versus reliability worth. This has yet to be considered in most developing countries, where development plans are still based on traditional deterministic measures. The difficulty with these criteria is that they cannot be used to evaluate the economic impacts of changing reliability levels on the utility and the customers, and therefore cannot lead to an optimum expansion plan for the system. The critical issue today faced by most developing countries is that the demand for electric power is high and growth in supply is constrained by technical, environmental, and most importantly by financial impediments. Many power projects are being canceled or postponed due to a lack of resources. The investment burden associated with the electric power sector has already led some developing countries into serious debt problems. This thesis focuses on power sector issues facing by developing countries and illustrates how a basic reliability cost/worth approach can be used in a developing country to determine appropriate planning criteria and justify future power projects by application to the Nepal Integrated Electric Power System (NPS). A reliability cost/worth based system evaluation framework is proposed in this thesis. Customer surveys conducted throughout Nepal using in-person interviews with approximately 2000 sample customers are presented. The survey results indicate that the interruption cost is dependent on both customer and interruption characteristics, and it varies from one location or region to another. Assessments at both the generation and composite system levels have been performed using the customer cost data and the developed NPS reliability database. The results clearly indicate the implications of service reliability to the electricity consumers of Nepal, and show that the reliability cost/worth evaluation is both possible and practical in a developing country. The average customer interruption costs of Rs 35/kWh at Hierarchical Level I and Rs 26/kWh at Hierarchical Level II evaluated in this research work led to an optimum reserve margin of 7.5%, which is considerably lower than the traditional reserve margin of 15% used in the NPS. A similar conclusion may result in other developing countries facing difficulties in power system expansion planning using the traditional approach. A new framework for system planning is therefore recommended for developing countries which would permit an objective review of the traditional system planning approach, and the evaluation of future power projects using a new approach based on fundamental principles of power system reliability and economics.

Risk-based water resources planning: Coupling water allocation and water quality management under extreme droughts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mortazavi-Naeini, M.; Bussi, G.; Hall, J. W.; Whitehead, P. G.

2016-12-01

The main aim of water companies is to have a reliable and safe water supply system. To fulfil their duty the water companies have to consider both water quality and quantity issues and challenges. Climate change and population growth will have an impact on water resources both in terms of available water and river water quality. Traditionally, a distinct separation between water quality and abstraction has existed. However, water quality can be a bottleneck in a system since water treatment works can only treat water if it meets certain standards. For instance, high turbidity and large phytoplankton content can increase sharply the cost of treatment or even make river water unfit for human consumption purposes. It is vital for water companies to be able to characterise the quantity and quality of water under extreme weather events and to consider the occurrence of eventual periods when water abstraction has to cease due to water quality constraints. This will give them opportunity to decide on water resource planning and potential changes to reduce the system failure risk. We present a risk-based approach for incorporating extreme events, based on future climate change scenarios from a large ensemble of climate model realisations, into integrated water resources model through combined use of water allocation (WATHNET) and water quality (INCA) models. The annual frequency of imposed restrictions on demand is considered as measure of reliability. We tested our approach on Thames region, in the UK, with 100 extreme events. The results show increase in frequency of imposed restrictions when water quality constraints were considered. This indicates importance of considering water quality issues in drought management plans.

A social-ecological database to advance research on infrastructure development impacts in the Brazilian Amazon.

PubMed

Tucker Lima, Joanna M; Valle, Denis; Moretto, Evandro Mateus; Pulice, Sergio Mantovani Paiva; Zuca, Nadia Lucia; Roquetti, Daniel Rondinelli; Beduschi, Liviam Elizabeth Cordeiro; Praia, Amanda Salles; Okamoto, Claudia Parucce Franco; da Silva Carvalhaes, Vinicius Leite; Branco, Evandro Albiach; Barbezani, Bruna; Labandera, Emily; Timpe, Kelsie; Kaplan, David

2016-08-30

Recognized as one of the world's most vital natural and cultural resources, the Amazon faces a wide variety of threats from natural resource and infrastructure development. Within this context, rigorous scientific study of the region's complex social-ecological system is critical to inform and direct decision-making toward more sustainable environmental and social outcomes. Given the Amazon's tightly linked social and ecological components and the scope of potential development impacts, effective study of this system requires an easily accessible resource that provides a broad and reliable data baseline. This paper brings together multiple datasets from diverse disciplines (including human health, socio-economics, environment, hydrology, and energy) to provide investigators with a variety of baseline data to explore the multiple long-term effects of infrastructure development in the Brazilian Amazon.

A social-ecological database to advance research on infrastructure development impacts in the Brazilian Amazon

PubMed Central

Tucker Lima, Joanna M.; Valle, Denis; Moretto, Evandro Mateus; Pulice, Sergio Mantovani Paiva; Zuca, Nadia Lucia; Roquetti, Daniel Rondinelli; Beduschi, Liviam Elizabeth Cordeiro; Praia, Amanda Salles; Okamoto, Claudia Parucce Franco; da Silva Carvalhaes, Vinicius Leite; Branco, Evandro Albiach; Barbezani, Bruna; Labandera, Emily; Timpe, Kelsie; Kaplan, David

2016-01-01

Recognized as one of the world’s most vital natural and cultural resources, the Amazon faces a wide variety of threats from natural resource and infrastructure development. Within this context, rigorous scientific study of the region’s complex social-ecological system is critical to inform and direct decision-making toward more sustainable environmental and social outcomes. Given the Amazon’s tightly linked social and ecological components and the scope of potential development impacts, effective study of this system requires an easily accessible resource that provides a broad and reliable data baseline. This paper brings together multiple datasets from diverse disciplines (including human health, socio-economics, environment, hydrology, and energy) to provide investigators with a variety of baseline data to explore the multiple long-term effects of infrastructure development in the Brazilian Amazon. PMID:27575915

Centralized and Decentralized Control for Demand Response

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Shuai; Samaan, Nader A.; Diao, Ruisheng

2011-04-29

Demand response has been recognized as an essential element of the smart grid. Frequency response, regulation and contingency reserve functions performed traditionally by generation resources are now starting to involve demand side resources. Additional benefits from demand response include peak reduction and load shifting, which will defer new infrastructure investment and improve generator operation efficiency. Technical approaches designed to realize these functionalities can be categorized into centralized control and decentralized control, depending on where the response decision is made. This paper discusses these two control philosophies and compares their relative advantages and disadvantages in terms of delay time, predictability, complexity,more » and reliability. A distribution system model with detailed household loads and controls is built to demonstrate the characteristics of the two approaches. The conclusion is that the promptness and reliability of decentralized control should be combined with the predictability and simplicity of centralized control to achieve the best performance of the smart grid.« less

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Core Nurse Resource Scale.

PubMed

Simpson, Michelle R

2010-11-01

To examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability and concurrent-related validity of the Core Nurse Resource Scale. A cross-sectional survey study design was used to obtain a sample of 149 nurses and nursing staff [Registered Nurse (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurse (LPNs) and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNAs)] working in long-term care facilities. Exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha and bivariate correlations were used to evaluate validity and reliability. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a scale with 18 items on three factors, accounting for 52% of the variance in scores. Internal consistency reliability for the composite and Core Nurse Resource Scale factors ranged from 0.79 to 0.91. The Core Nurse Resource Scale composite scale and subscales correlated positively with a measure of work engagement (r=0.247-0.572). The initial psychometric evaluation of the Core Nurse Resource Scale demonstrates it is a sound measure. Further validity and reliability assessment will need to be explored and assessed among nurses and other nursing staff working in other practice settings. The intent of the Core Nurse Resource Scale is to evaluate the presence of physical, psychological and social resources of the nursing work environment, to identify workplaces at risk for disengaged (low work engagement) nursing staff and to provide useful diagnostic information to healthcare administrators interested in interventions to improve the nursing work environment. © 2010 The Author. Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Marginal Cost Pricing in a World without Perfect Competition: Implications for Electricity Markets with High Shares of Low Marginal Cost Resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Frew, Bethany A.; Clark, Kara; Bloom, Aaron P.

A common approach to regulating electricity is through auction-based competitive wholesale markets. The goal of this approach is to provide a reliable supply of power at the lowest reasonable cost to the consumer. This necessitates market structures and operating rules that ensure revenue sufficiency for all generators needed for resource adequacy purposes. Wholesale electricity markets employ marginal-cost pricing to provide cost-effective dispatch such that resources are compensated for their operational costs. However, marginal-cost pricing alone cannot guarantee cost recovery outside of perfect competition, and electricity markets have at least six attributes that preclude them from functioning as perfectly competitive markets.more » These attributes include market power, externalities, public good attributes, lack of storage, wholesale price caps, and ineffective demand curve. Until (and unless) these failures are ameliorated, some form of corrective action(s) will be necessary to improve market efficiency so that prices can correctly reflect the needed level of system reliability. Many of these options necessarily involve some form of administrative or out-of-market actions, such as scarcity pricing, capacity payments, bilateral or other out-of-market contracts, or some hybrid combination. A key focus with these options is to create a connection between the electricity market and long-term reliability/loss-of-load expectation targets, which are inherently disconnected in the native markets because of the aforementioned market failures. The addition of variable generation resources can exacerbate revenue sufficiency and resource adequacy concerns caused by these underlying market failures. Because variable generation resources have near-zero marginal costs, they effectively suppress energy prices and reduce the capacity factors of conventional generators through the merit-order effect in the simplest case of a convex market; non-convexities can also suppress prices.« less

Storm surge and tidal range energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewis, Matthew; Angeloudis, Athanasios; Robins, Peter; Evans, Paul; Neill, Simon

2017-04-01

The need to reduce carbon-based energy sources whilst increasing renewable energy forms has led to concerns of intermittency within a national electricity supply strategy. The regular rise and fall of the tide makes prediction almost entirely deterministic compared to other stochastic renewable energy forms; therefore, tidal range energy is often stated as a predictable and firm renewable energy source. Storm surge is the term used for the non-astronomical forcing of tidal elevation, and is synonymous with coastal flooding because positive storm surges can elevate water-levels above the height of coastal flood defences. We hypothesis storm surges will affect the reliability of the tidal range energy resource; with negative surge events reducing the tidal range, and conversely, positive surge events increasing the available resource. Moreover, tide-surge interaction, which results in positive storm surges more likely to occur on a flooding tide, will reduce the annual tidal range energy resource estimate. Water-level data (2000-2012) at nine UK tide gauges, where the mean tidal amplitude is above 2.5m and thus suitable for tidal-range energy development (e.g. Bristol Channel), were used to predict tidal range power with a 0D modelling approach. Storm surge affected the annual resource estimate by between -5% to +3%, due to inter-annual variability. Instantaneous power output were significantly affected (Normalised Root Mean Squared Error: 3%-8%, Scatter Index: 15%-41%) with spatial variability and variability due to operational strategy. We therefore find a storm surge affects the theoretical reliability of tidal range power, such that a prediction system may be required for any future electricity generation scenario that includes large amounts of tidal-range energy; however, annual resource estimation from astronomical tides alone appears sufficient for resource estimation. Future work should investigate water-level uncertainties on the reliability and predictability of tidal range energy with 2D hydrodynamic models.

18 CFR 39.3 - Electric Reliability Organization certification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Electric Reliability... CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION; AND PROCEDURES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.3 Electric Reliability Organization certification. (a) Any...

18 CFR 39.3 - Electric Reliability Organization certification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Electric Reliability... CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION; AND PROCEDURES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.3 Electric Reliability Organization certification. (a) Any...

18 CFR 39.3 - Electric Reliability Organization certification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Electric Reliability... CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION; AND PROCEDURES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.3 Electric Reliability Organization certification. (a) Any...

18 CFR 39.3 - Electric Reliability Organization certification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Electric Reliability... CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION; AND PROCEDURES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.3 Electric Reliability Organization certification. (a) Any...

Online Analysis of Wind and Solar Part II: Transmission Tool

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makarov, Yuri V.; Etingov, Pavel V.; Ma, Jian

2012-01-31

To facilitate wider penetration of renewable resources without compromising system reliability concerns arising from the lack of predictability of intermittent renewable resources, a tool for use by California Independent System Operator (CAISO) power grid operators was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in conjunction with CAISO with funding from California Energy Commission. The tool analyzes and displays the impacts of uncertainties in forecasts of loads and renewable generation on: (1) congestion, (2)voltage and transient stability margins, and (3)voltage reductions and reactive power margins. The impacts are analyzed in the base case and under user-specified contingencies.A prototype of the toolmore » has been developed and implemented in software.« less

Development of Carbon Dioxide Removal Systems for NASA's Deep Space Human Exploration Missions 2016-2017

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knox, James C.

2017-01-01

NASA has embarked on an endeavor that will enable humans to explore deep space, with the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. This journey will require significant developments in a wide range of technical areas, as resupply is unavailable in the Mars transit phase and early return is not possible. Additionally, mass, power, volume, and other resources must be minimized for all subsystems to reduce propulsion needs. Among the critical areas identified for development are life support systems, which will require increases in reliability and reductions in resources. This paper discusses current and planned developments in the area of carbon dioxide removal to support crewed Mars-class missions.

History of SO2 removal system at the Meramec plant of union electric.

PubMed

Dreifke, G E; McLaughlin, J F; Smith, J D

1975-01-01

In line with the then emerging air pollution control regulations Union Electric installed a limestone injection wet scrubber sulfur dioxide removal system on an intermediate size coal-fired utility boiler at its Meramec Power Plant on an experimental basis in September, 1968. Approximately 3 years of operation many difficulties were encountered with plugging and scaling of various system components by calcium sulphate. As a result of this experience along with related experiences by other utilities employing similar systems, the experiment was terminated in June, 1971. As a result of the experiences gained, however, second generation experiments in sulfur dioxide removal have been initiated elsewhere with the hope of improved performance. A number of experimental projects are still under tests. Costs in resources, reliability, and disposal of residual by-products are matters of great concern. The ture cost of sulfur dioxide removal systems in dollars and resources is not well known and perhaps a reevaluation of current and future SO2 removal projects is in order at this time before additional resources are committed.

Observable measure of quantum coherence in finite dimensional systems.

PubMed

Girolami, Davide

2014-10-24

Quantum coherence is the key resource for quantum technology, with applications in quantum optics, information processing, metrology, and cryptography. Yet, there is no universally efficient method for quantifying coherence either in theoretical or in experimental practice. I introduce a framework for measuring quantum coherence in finite dimensional systems. I define a theoretical measure which satisfies the reliability criteria established in the context of quantum resource theories. Then, I present an experimental scheme implementable with current technology which evaluates the quantum coherence of an unknown state of a d-dimensional system by performing two programmable measurements on an ancillary qubit, in place of the O(d2) direct measurements required by full state reconstruction. The result yields a benchmark for monitoring quantum effects in complex systems, e.g., certifying nonclassicality in quantum protocols and probing the quantum behavior of biological complexes.

Batching System for Superior Service

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2001-01-01

Veridian's Portable Batch System (PBS) was the recipient of the 1997 NASA Space Act Award for outstanding software. A batch system is a set of processes for managing queues and jobs. Without a batch system, it is difficult to manage the workload of a computer system. By bundling the enterprise's computing resources, the PBS technology offers users a single coherent interface, resulting in efficient management of the batch services. Users choose which information to package into "containers" for system-wide use. PBS also provides detailed system usage data, a procedure not easily executed without this software. PBS operates on networked, multi-platform UNIX environments. Veridian's new version, PBS Pro,TM has additional features and enhancements, including support for additional operating systems. Veridian distributes the original version of PBS as Open Source software via the PBS website. Customers can register and download the software at no cost. PBS Pro is also available via the web and offers additional features such as increased stability, reliability, and fault tolerance.A company using PBS can expect a significant increase in the effective management of its computing resources. Tangible benefits include increased utilization of costly resources and enhanced understanding of computational requirements and user needs.

Microgrid Analysis Tools Summary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jimenez, Antonio; Haase, Scott G; Mathur, Shivani

2018-03-05

The over-arching goal of the Alaska Microgrid Partnership is to reduce the use of total imported fuel into communities to secure all energy services by at least 50% in Alaska's remote microgrids without increasing system life cycle costs while also improving overall system reliability, security, and resilience. One goal of the Alaska Microgrid Partnership is to investigate whether a combination of energy efficiency and high-contribution (from renewable energy) power systems can reduce total imported energy usage by 50% while reducing life cycle costs and improving reliability and resiliency. This presentation provides an overview of the following four renewable energy optimizationmore » tools. Information is from respective tool websites, tool developers, and author experience. Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM) Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) Renewable Energy Optimization (REopt) Tool Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER).« less

Modelling utility-scale wind power plants. Part 2: Capacity credit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milligan, Michael R.

2000-10-01

As the worldwide use of wind turbine generators in utility-scale applications continues to increase, it will become increasingly important to assess the economic and reliability impact of these intermittent resources. Although the utility industry appears to be moving towards a restructured environment, basic economic and reliability issues will continue to be relevant to companies involved with electricity generation. This article is the second in a two-part series that addresses modelling approaches and results that were obtained in several case studies and research projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This second article focuses on wind plant capacity credit as measured with power system reliability indices. Reliability-based methods of measuring capacity credit are compared with wind plant capacity factor. The relationship between capacity credit and accurate wind forecasting is also explored. Published in 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Land Resources Allocation Strategies in an Urban Area Involving Uncertainty: A Case Study of Suzhou, in the Yangtze River Delta of China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Shasha; Guan, Xingliang; Zhou, Min; Wang, Yang

2014-05-01

A large number of mathematical models have been developed to support land resource allocation decisions and land management needs; however, few of them can address various uncertainties that exist in relation to many factors presented in such decisions (e.g., land resource availabilities, land demands, land-use patterns, and social demands, as well as ecological requirements). In this study, a multi-objective interval-stochastic land resource allocation model (MOISLAM) was developed for tackling uncertainty that presents as discrete intervals and/or probability distributions. The developed model improves upon the existing multi-objective programming and inexact optimization approaches. The MOISLAM not only considers economic factors, but also involves food security and eco-environmental constraints; it can, therefore, effectively reflect various interrelations among different aspects in a land resource management system. Moreover, the model can also help examine the reliability of satisfying (or the risk of violating) system constraints under uncertainty. In this study, the MOISLAM was applied to a real case of long-term urban land resource allocation planning in Suzhou, in the Yangtze River Delta of China. Interval solutions associated with different risk levels of constraint violation were obtained. The results are considered useful for generating a range of decision alternatives under various system conditions, and thus helping decision makers to identify a desirable land resource allocation strategy under uncertainty.

The Future of Electricity Resource Planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kahrl, Fredrich; Mills, Andrew; Lavin, Luke

Electricity resource planning is the process of identifying longer-term investments to meet electricity reliability requirements and public policy goals at a reasonable cost. Resource planning processes provide a forum for regulators, electric utilities, and electricity industry stakeholders to evaluate the economic, environmental, and social benefits and costs of different investment options. By facilitating a discussion on future goals, challenges and strategies, resource planning processes often play an important role in shaping utility business decisions. Resource planning emerged more than three decades ago in an era of transition, where declining electricity demand and rising costs spurred fundamental changes in electricity industrymore » regulation and structure. Despite significant changes in the industry, resource planning continues to play an important role in supporting investment decision making. Over the next two decades, the electricity industry will again undergo a period of transition, driven by technological change, shifting customer preferences and public policy goals. This transition will bring about a gradual paradigm shift in resource planning, requiring changes in scope, approaches and methods. Even as it changes, resource planning will continue to be a central feature of the electricity industry. Its functions — ensuring the reliability of high voltage (“bulk”) power systems, enabling oversight of regulated utilities and facilitating low-cost compliance with public policy goals — are likely to grow in importance as the electricity industry enters a new period of technological, economic and regulatory change. This report examines the future of electricity resource planning in the context of a changing electricity industry. The report examines emerging issues and evolving practices in five key areas that will shape the future of resource planning: (1) central-scale generation, (2) distributed generation, (3) demand-side resources, (4) transmission and (5) uncertainty and risk management. The analysis draws on a review of recent resource plans for 10 utilities that reflect some of the U.S. electricity industry’s extensive diversity.« less

2005 8th Annual Systems Engineering Conference. Volume 4, Thursday

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-10-27

requirements, allocation , and utilization statistics Operations Decisions Acquisition Decisions Resource Management — Integrated Requirements/ Allocation ...Quality Improvement Consultants, Inc. “Automated Software Testing Increases Test Quality and Coverage Resulting in Improved Software Reliability.”, Mr...Steven Ligon, SAIC The Return of Discipline, Ms. Jacqueline Townsend, Air Force Materiel Command Track 4 - Net Centric Operations: Testing Net-Centric

75 FR 14103 - Version One Regional Reliability Standard for Resource and Demand Balancing

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-24

... meant to maintain scheduled frequency and avoid loss of firm load following transmission or generation... capacity is available at all times to maintain scheduled frequency, and avoid loss of firm load following... the possibility that firm load could be shed due to the loss of a single element on the system.\\40...

Removing Barriers for Effective Deployment of Intermittent Renewable Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arabali, Amirsaman

The stochastic nature of intermittent renewable resources is the main barrier to effective integration of renewable generation. This problem can be studied from feeder-scale and grid-scale perspectives. Two new stochastic methods are proposed to meet the feeder-scale controllable load with a hybrid renewable generation (including wind and PV) and energy storage system. For the first method, an optimization problem is developed whose objective function is the cost of the hybrid system including the cost of renewable generation and storage subject to constraints on energy storage and shifted load. A smart-grid strategy is developed to shift the load and match the renewable energy generation and controllable load. Minimizing the cost function guarantees minimum PV and wind generation installation, as well as storage capacity selection for supplying the controllable load. A confidence coefficient is allocated to each stochastic constraint which shows to what degree the constraint is satisfied. In the second method, a stochastic framework is developed for optimal sizing and reliability analysis of a hybrid power system including renewable resources (PV and wind) and energy storage system. The hybrid power system is optimally sized to satisfy the controllable load with a specified reliability level. A load-shifting strategy is added to provide more flexibility for the system and decrease the installation cost. Load shifting strategies and their potential impacts on the hybrid system reliability/cost analysis are evaluated trough different scenarios. Using a compromise-solution method, the best compromise between the reliability and cost will be realized for the hybrid system. For the second problem, a grid-scale stochastic framework is developed to examine the storage application and its optimal placement for the social cost and transmission congestion relief of wind integration. Storage systems are optimally placed and adequately sized to minimize the sum of operation and congestion costs over a scheduling period. A technical assessment framework is developed to enhance the efficiency of wind integration and evaluate the economics of storage technologies and conventional gas-fired alternatives. The proposed method is used to carry out a cost-benefit analysis for the IEEE 24-bus system and determine the most economical technology. In order to mitigate the financial and technical concerns of renewable energy integration into the power system, a stochastic framework is proposed for transmission grid reinforcement studies in a power system with wind generation. A multi-stage multi-objective transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) methodology is developed which considers the investment cost, absorption of private investment and reliability of the system as the objective functions. A Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA II) optimization approach is used in combination with a probabilistic optimal power flow (POPF) to determine the Pareto optimal solutions considering the power system uncertainties. Using a compromise-solution method, the best final plan is then realized based on the decision maker preferences. The proposed methodology is applied to the IEEE 24-bus Reliability Tests System (RTS) to evaluate the feasibility and practicality of the developed planning strategy.

Low Probability Tail Event Analysis and Mitigation in BPA Control Area: Task One Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Shuai; Makarov, Yuri V.

This is a report for task one of the tail event analysis project for BPA. Tail event refers to the situation in a power system when unfavorable forecast errors of load and wind are superposed onto fast load and wind ramps, or non-wind generators falling short of scheduled output, the imbalance between generation and load becomes very significant. This type of events occurs infrequently and appears on the tails of the distribution of system power imbalance; therefore, is referred to as tail events. This report analyzes what happened during the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reliability event on Februarymore » 26, 2008, which was widely reported because of the involvement of wind generation. The objective is to identify sources of the problem, solutions to it and potential improvements that can be made to the system. Lessons learned from the analysis include the following: (1) Large mismatch between generation and load can be caused by load forecast error, wind forecast error and generation scheduling control error on traditional generators, or a combination of all of the above; (2) The capability of system balancing resources should be evaluated both in capacity (MW) and in ramp rate (MW/min), and be procured accordingly to meet both requirements. The resources need to be able to cover a range corresponding to the variability of load and wind in the system, additional to other uncertainties; (3) Unexpected ramps caused by load and wind can both become the cause leading to serious issues; (4) A look-ahead tool evaluating system balancing requirement during real-time operations and comparing that with available system resources should be very helpful to system operators in predicting the forthcoming of similar events and planning ahead; and (5) Demand response (only load reduction in ERCOT event) can effectively reduce load-generation mismatch and terminate frequency deviation in an emergency situation.« less

Grid-Level Application of Electrical Energy Storage: Example Use Cases in the United States and China

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Yingchen; Gevorgian, Vahan; Wang, Caixia

Electrical energy storage (EES) systems are expected to play an increasing role in helping the United States and China-the world's largest economies with the two largest power systems-meet the challenges of integrating more variable renewable resources and enhancing the reliability of power systems by improving the operating capabilities of the electric grid. EES systems are becoming integral components of a resilient and efficient grid through a diverse set of applications that include energy management, load shifting, frequency regulation, grid stabilization, and voltage support.

The challenge of mapping between two medical coding systems.

PubMed

Wojcik, Barbara E; Stein, Catherine R; Devore, Raymond B; Hassell, L Harrison

2006-11-01

Deployable medical systems patient conditions (PCs) designate groups of patients with similar medical conditions and, therefore, similar treatment requirements. PCs are used by the U.S. military to estimate field medical resources needed in combat operations. Information associated with each of the 389 PCs is based on subject matter expert opinion, instead of direct derivation from standard medical codes. Currently, no mechanisms exist to tie current or historical medical data to PCs. Our study objective was to determine whether reliable conversion between PC codes and International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis codes is possible. Data were analyzed for three professional coders assigning all applicable ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes to each PC code. Inter-rater reliability was measured by using Cohen's K statistic and percent agreement. Methods were developed to calculate kappa statistics when multiple responses could be selected from many possible categories. Overall, we found moderate support for the possibility of reliable conversion between PCs and ICD-9-CM diagnoses (mean kappa = 0.61). Current PCs should be modified into a system that is verifiable with real data.

Benchmark analysis of forecasted seasonal temperature over different climatic areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giunta, G.; Salerno, R.; Ceppi, A.; Ercolani, G.; Mancini, M.

2015-12-01

From a long-term perspective, an improvement of seasonal forecasting, which is often exclusively based on climatology, could provide a new capability for the management of energy resources in a time scale of just a few months. This paper regards a benchmark analysis in relation to long-term temperature forecasts over Italy in the year 2010, comparing the eni-kassandra meteo forecast (e-kmf®) model, the Climate Forecast System-National Centers for Environmental Prediction (CFS-NCEP) model, and the climatological reference (based on 25-year data) with observations. Statistical indexes are used to understand the reliability of the prediction of 2-m monthly air temperatures with a perspective of 12 weeks ahead. The results show how the best performance is achieved by the e-kmf® system which improves the reliability for long-term forecasts compared to climatology and the CFS-NCEP model. By using the reliable high-performance forecast system, it is possible to optimize the natural gas portfolio and management operations, thereby obtaining a competitive advantage in the European energy market.

Individual styles of professional operator's performance for the needs of interplanetary mission.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boritko, Yaroslav; Gushin, Vadim; Zavalko, Irina; Smoleevskiy, Alexandr; Dudukin, Alexandr

Maintenance of the cosmonaut’s professional performance reliability is one of the priorities of long-term space flights safety. Cosmonaut’s performance during long-term space flight decreases due to combination of the microgravity effects and inevitable degradation of skills during prolonged breaks in training. Therefore, the objective of the elaboration of countermeasures against skill decrement is very relevant. During the experiment with prolonged isolation "Mars-500" in IMBP two virtual models of professional operator’s activities were used to investigate the influence of extended isolation, monotony and confinement on professional skills degradation. One is well-known “PILOT-1” (docking to the space station), another - "VIRTU" (manned operations of planet exploration). Individual resistance to the artificial sensory conflict was estimated using computerized version of “Mirror koordinograf” with GSR registration. Two different individual performance styles, referring to the different types of response to stress, have been identified. Individual performance style, called "conservative control", manifested in permanent control of parameters, conditions and results of the operator’s activity. Operators with this performance style demonstrate high reliability in performing tasks. The drawback of the style is intensive resource expenditure - both the operator (physiological "cost") and the technical system operated (fuel, time). This style is more efficient while executing tasks that require long work with high reliability required according to a detailed protocol, such as orbital flight. Individual style, called "exploratory ", manifested in the search of new ways of task fulfillment. This style is accompanied by partial, periodic lack of control of the conditions and result of operator’s activity due to flexible approach to the tasks perfect implementation. Operators spent less resource (fuel, time, lower physiological "cost") due to high self-regulation in tasks not requiring high reliability. "Exploratory" style is more effective when working in nonregulated and off-nominal situations, such as interplanetary mission, due to possibility to use nonstandard innovative solutions, save physiological resources and rapidly mobilize to demonstrate high reliability at key moments.

The Healthy Brain Network Serial Scanning Initiative: a resource for evaluating inter-individual differences and their reliabilities across scan conditions and sessions

PubMed Central

O’Connor, David; Potler, Natan Vega; Kovacs, Meagan; Xu, Ting; Ai, Lei; Pellman, John; Vanderwal, Tamara; Parra, Lucas C.; Cohen, Samantha; Ghosh, Satrajit; Escalera, Jasmine; Grant-Villegas, Natalie; Osman, Yael; Bui, Anastasia; Craddock, R. Cameron

2017-01-01

Abstract Background: Although typically measured during the resting state, a growing literature is illustrating the ability to map intrinsic connectivity with functional MRI during task and naturalistic viewing conditions. These paradigms are drawing excitement due to their greater tolerability in clinical and developing populations and because they enable a wider range of analyses (e.g., inter-subject correlations). To be clinically useful, the test-retest reliability of connectivity measured during these paradigms needs to be established. This resource provides data for evaluating test-retest reliability for full-brain connectivity patterns detected during each of four scan conditions that differ with respect to level of engagement (rest, abstract animations, movie clips, flanker task). Data are provided for 13 participants, each scanned in 12 sessions with 10 minutes for each scan of the four conditions. Diffusion kurtosis imaging data was also obtained at each session. Findings: Technical validation and demonstrative reliability analyses were carried out at the connection-level using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient and at network-level representations of the data using the Image Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Variation in intrinsic functional connectivity across sessions was generally found to be greater than that attributable to scan condition. Between-condition reliability was generally high, particularly for the frontoparietal and default networks. Between-session reliabilities obtained separately for the different scan conditions were comparable, though notably lower than between-condition reliabilities. Conclusions: This resource provides a test-bed for quantifying the reliability of connectivity indices across subjects, conditions and time. The resource can be used to compare and optimize different frameworks for measuring connectivity and data collection parameters such as scan length. Additionally, investigators can explore the unique perspectives of the brain's functional architecture offered by each of the scan conditions. PMID:28369458

Wind farm optimization using evolutionary algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ituarte-Villarreal, Carlos M.

In recent years, the wind power industry has focused its efforts on solving the Wind Farm Layout Optimization (WFLO) problem. Wind resource assessment is a pivotal step in optimizing the wind-farm design and siting and, in determining whether a project is economically feasible or not. In the present work, three (3) different optimization methods are proposed for the solution of the WFLO: (i) A modified Viral System Algorithm applied to the optimization of the proper location of the components in a wind-farm to maximize the energy output given a stated wind environment of the site. The optimization problem is formulated as the minimization of energy cost per unit produced and applies a penalization for the lack of system reliability. The viral system algorithm utilized in this research solves three (3) well-known problems in the wind-energy literature; (ii) a new multiple objective evolutionary algorithm to obtain optimal placement of wind turbines while considering the power output, cost, and reliability of the system. The algorithm presented is based on evolutionary computation and the objective functions considered are the maximization of power output, the minimization of wind farm cost and the maximization of system reliability. The final solution to this multiple objective problem is presented as a set of Pareto solutions and, (iii) A hybrid viral-based optimization algorithm adapted to find the proper component configuration for a wind farm with the introduction of the universal generating function (UGF) analytical approach to discretize the different operating or mechanical levels of the wind turbines in addition to the various wind speed states. The proposed methodology considers the specific probability functions of the wind resource to describe their proper behaviors to account for the stochastic comportment of the renewable energy components, aiming to increase their power output and the reliability of these systems. The developed heuristic considers a variable number of system components and wind turbines with different operating characteristics and sizes, to have a more heterogeneous model that can deal with changes in the layout and in the power generation requirements over the time. Moreover, the approach evaluates the impact of the wind-wake effect of the wind turbines upon one another to describe and evaluate the power production capacity reduction of the system depending on the layout distribution of the wind turbines.

A data management life-cycle

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ferderer, David A.

2001-01-01

Documented, reliable, and accessible data and information are essential building blocks supporting scientific research and applications that enhance society's knowledge base (fig. 1). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a leading provider of science data, information, and knowledge, is uniquely positioned to integrate science and natural resource information to address societal needs. The USGS Central Energy Resources Team (USGS-CERT) provides critical information and knowledge on the quantity, quality, and distribution of the Nation's and the world's oil, gas, and coal resources. By using a life-cycle model, the USGS-CERT Data Management Project is developing an integrated data management system to (1) promote access to energy data and information, (2) increase data documentation, and (3) streamline product delivery to the public, scientists, and decision makers. The project incorporates web-based technology, data cataloging systems, data processing routines, and metadata documentation tools to improve data access, enhance data consistency, and increase office efficiency

A methodology towards virtualisation-based high performance simulation platform supporting multidisciplinary design of complex products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Lei; Zhang, Lin; Tao, Fei; (Luke) Zhang, Xiaolong; Luo, Yongliang; Zhang, Yabin

2012-08-01

Multidisciplinary design of complex products leads to an increasing demand for high performance simulation (HPS) platforms. One great challenge is how to achieve high efficient utilisation of large-scale simulation resources in distributed and heterogeneous environments. This article reports a virtualisation-based methodology to realise a HPS platform. This research is driven by the issues concerning large-scale simulation resources deployment and complex simulation environment construction, efficient and transparent utilisation of fine-grained simulation resources and high reliable simulation with fault tolerance. A framework of virtualisation-based simulation platform (VSIM) is first proposed. Then the article investigates and discusses key approaches in VSIM, including simulation resources modelling, a method to automatically deploying simulation resources for dynamic construction of system environment, and a live migration mechanism in case of faults in run-time simulation. Furthermore, the proposed methodology is applied to a multidisciplinary design system for aircraft virtual prototyping and some experiments are conducted. The experimental results show that the proposed methodology can (1) significantly improve the utilisation of fine-grained simulation resources, (2) result in a great reduction in deployment time and an increased flexibility for simulation environment construction and (3)achieve fault tolerant simulation.

A Diagnostic Assessment of Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization for Water Resources Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, P.; Hadka, D.; Herman, J.; Kasprzyk, J.; Kollat, J.

2012-04-01

This study contributes a rigorous diagnostic assessment of state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) and highlights key advances that the water resources field can exploit to better discover the critical tradeoffs constraining our systems. This study provides the most comprehensive diagnostic assessment of MOEAs for water resources to date, exploiting more than 100,000 MOEA runs and trillions of design evaluations. The diagnostic assessment measures the effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, and controllability of ten benchmark MOEAs for a representative suite of water resources applications addressing rainfall-runoff calibration, long-term groundwater monitoring (LTM), and risk-based water supply portfolio planning. The suite of problems encompasses a range of challenging problem properties including (1) many-objective formulations with 4 or more objectives, (2) multi-modality (or false optima), (3) nonlinearity, (4) discreteness, (5) severe constraints, (6) stochastic objectives, and (7) non-separability (also called epistasis). The applications are representative of the dominant problem classes that have shaped the history of MOEAs in water resources and that will be dominant foci in the future. Recommendations are provided for which modern MOEAs should serve as tools and benchmarks in the future water resources literature.

Lunar Regenerative Fuel Cell (RFC) Reliability Testing for Assured Mission Success

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bents, David J.

2009-01-01

NASA's Constellation program has selected the closed cycle hydrogen oxygen Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Regenerative Fuel Cell (RFC) as its baseline solar energy storage system for the lunar outpost and manned rover vehicles. Since the outpost and manned rovers are "human-rated," these energy storage systems will have to be of proven reliability exceeding 99 percent over the length of the mission. Because of the low (TRL=5) development state of the closed cycle hydrogen oxygen PEM RFC at present, and because there is no equivalent technology base in the commercial sector from which to draw or infer reliability information from, NASA will have to spend significant resources developing this technology from TRL 5 to TRL 9, and will have to embark upon an ambitious reliability development program to make this technology ready for a manned mission. Because NASA would be the first user of this new technology, NASA will likely have to bear all the costs associated with its development.When well-known reliability estimation techniques are applied to the hydrogen oxygen RFC to determine the amount of testing that will be required to assure RFC unit reliability over life of the mission, the analysis indicates the reliability testing phase by itself will take at least 2 yr, and could take up to 6 yr depending on the number of QA units that are built and tested and the individual unit reliability that is desired. The cost and schedule impacts of reliability development need to be considered in NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) plans, since life cycle testing to build meaningful reliability data is the only way to assure "return to the moon, this time to stay, then on to Mars" mission success.

Serial Back-Plane Technologies in Advanced Avionics Architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Varnavas, Kosta

2005-01-01

Current back plane technologies such as VME, and current personal computer back planes such as PCI, are shared bus systems that can exhibit nondeterministic latencies. This means a card can take control of the bus and use resources indefinitely affecting the ability of other cards in the back plane to acquire the bus. This provides a real hit on the reliability of the system. Additionally, these parallel busses only have bandwidths in the 100s of megahertz range and EMI and noise effects get worse the higher the bandwidth goes. To provide scalable, fault-tolerant, advanced computing systems, more applicable to today s connected computing environment and to better meet the needs of future requirements for advanced space instruments and vehicles, serial back-plane technologies should be implemented in advanced avionics architectures. Serial backplane technologies eliminate the problem of one card getting the bus and never relinquishing it, or one minor problem on the backplane bringing the whole system down. Being serial instead of parallel improves the reliability by reducing many of the signal integrity issues associated with parallel back planes and thus significantly improves reliability. The increased speeds associated with a serial backplane are an added bonus.

Program evaluation in integrated resource planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Council, C.D.

1994-12-31

The Western Area Power Administration along with the Southwestern and Southeastern Power Administrations joined together to develop a set of integrated resource planning (IRP) tools to help their customers development and implement an IRP process. The project has been entitled the Resource Planning Guide (RPG), and is specifically designed to help small- to mid-sized utilities analyze supply- and demand-side alternatives as part of an IRP process. The RPG project will be available in January 1994 and will include such support as: workshops, technical assistance, an RPG hotline, and an RPG User`s Group for the project. The RPG grew out ofmore » the interest shown by utility customers who wanted a user-friendly tool to aid in their application of the IRP process. The project has been field tested by 43 utilities and related organizations over the last year, has sparked interest both nationally and internationally, and is now available for public use. The program evaluation aspects of the IRP process are heightened by a requirement of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 which requires all long-term power customers of the Western Area Power Administration to develop, implement, and monitor an IRP process. The EPAct defines IRP as: A planning process for new energy resources that evaluates the full range of alternatives, including new generating capacity, power purchases, energy conservation and efficiency, cogeneration and district heating and cooling applications, and renewable energy resources, to provide adequate and reliable service to its electric customers at the lowest system cost. The process takes into account necessary features for system operation, such as diversity, reliability, dispatchability, and other factors of risk; the ability to verify energy savings achieved through energy conservation and efficiency and the projected durability of such savings measured over time; and treats demand and supply resources on a consistent and integrated basis.« less

Design, analysis, operation, and advanced control of hybrid renewable energy systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whiteman, Zachary S.

Because using non-renewable energy systems (e.g., coal-powered co-generation power plants) to generate electricity is an unsustainable, environmentally hazardous practice, it is important to develop cost-effective and reliable renewable energy systems, such as photovoltaics (PVs), wind turbines (WTs), and fuel cells (FCs). Non-renewable energy systems, however, are currently less expensive than individual renewable energy systems (IRESs). Furthermore, IRESs based on intermittent natural resources (e.g., solar irradiance and wind) are incapable of meeting continuous energy demands. Such shortcomings can be mitigated by judiciously combining two or more complementary IRESs to form a hybrid renewable energy system (HRES). Although previous research efforts focused on the design, operation, and control of HRESs has proven useful, no prior HRES research endeavor has taken a systematic and comprehensive approach towards establishing guidelines by which HRESs should be designed, operated, and controlled. The overall goal of this dissertation, therefore, is to establish the principles governing the design, operation, and control of HRESs resulting in cost-effective and reliable energy solutions for stationary and mobile applications. To achieve this goal, we developed and demonstrated four separate HRES principles. Rational selection of HRES type: HRES components and their sizes should be rationally selected using knowledge of component costs, availability of renewable energy resources, and expected power demands of the application. HRES design: by default, the components of a HRES should be arranged in parallel for increased efficiency and reliability. However, a series HRES design may be preferred depending on the operational considerations of the HRES components. HRES control strategy selection: the choice of HRES control strategy depends on the dynamics of HRES components, their operational considerations, and the practical limitations of the HRES end-use. HRES data-driven control: information-rich data should be used to assist in the intelligent coordination of HRES components in meeting its operating objectives when additional computation can be afforded and significant benefits can be realized.

A Reserve-based Method for Mitigating the Impact of Renewable Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krad, Ibrahim

The fundamental operating paradigm of today's power systems is undergoing a significant shift. This is partially motivated by the increased desire for incorporating variable renewable energy resources into generation portfolios. While these generating technologies offer clean energy at zero marginal cost, i.e. no fuel costs, they also offer unique operating challenges for system operators. Perhaps the biggest operating challenge these resources introduce is accommodating their intermittent fuel source availability. For this reason, these generators increase the system-wide variability and uncertainty. As a result, system operators are revisiting traditional operating strategies to more efficiently incorporate these generation resources to maximize the benefit they provide while minimizing the challenges they introduce. One way system operators have accounted for system variability and uncertainty is through the use of operating reserves. Operating reserves can be simplified as excess capacity kept online during real time operations to help accommodate unforeseen fluctuations in demand. With new generation resources, a new class of operating reserves has emerged that is generally known as flexibility, or ramping, reserves. This new reserve class is meant to better position systems to mitigate severe ramping in the net load profile. The best way to define this new requirement is still under investigation. Typical requirement definitions focus on the additional uncertainty introduced by variable generation and there is room for improvement regarding explicit consideration for the variability they introduce. An exogenous reserve modification method is introduced in this report that can improve system reliability with minimal impacts on total system wide production costs. Another potential solution to this problem is to formulate the problem as a stochastic programming problem. The unit commitment and economic dispatch problems are typically formulated as deterministic problems due to fast solution times and the solutions being sufficient for operations. Improvements in technical computing hardware have reignited interest in stochastic modeling. The variability of wind and solar naturally lends itself to stochastic modeling. The use of explicit reserve requirements in stochastic models is an area of interest for power system researchers. This report introduces a new reserve modification implementation based on previous results to be used in a stochastic modeling framework. With technological improvements in distributed generation technologies, microgrids are currently being researched and implemented. Microgrids are small power systems that have the ability to serve their demand with their own generation resources and may have a connection to a larger power system. As battery technologies improve, they are becoming a more viable option in these distributed power systems and research is necessary to determine the most efficient way to utilize them. This report will investigate several unique operating strategies for batteries in small power systems and analyze their benefits. These new operating strategies will help reduce operating costs and improve system reliability.

A survey of the neuroscience resource landscape: perspectives from the neuroscience information framework.

PubMed

Cachat, Jonathan; Bandrowski, Anita; Grethe, Jeffery S; Gupta, Amarnath; Astakhov, Vadim; Imam, Fahim; Larson, Stephen D; Martone, Maryann E

2012-01-01

The number of available neuroscience resources (databases, tools, materials, and networks) available via the Web continues to expand, particularly in light of newly implemented data sharing policies required by funding agencies and journals. However, the nature of dense, multifaceted neuroscience data and the design of classic search engine systems make efficient, reliable, and relevant discovery of such resources a significant challenge. This challenge is especially pertinent for online databases, whose dynamic content is largely opaque to contemporary search engines. The Neuroscience Information Framework was initiated to address this problem of finding and utilizing neuroscience-relevant resources. Since its first production release in 2008, NIF has been surveying the resource landscape for the neurosciences, identifying relevant resources and working to make them easily discoverable by the neuroscience community. In this chapter, we provide a survey of the resource landscape for neuroscience: what types of resources are available, how many there are, what they contain, and most importantly, ways in which these resources can be utilized by the research community to advance neuroscience research. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modified personal interviews: resurrecting reliable personal interviews for admissions?

PubMed

Hanson, Mark D; Kulasegaram, Kulamakan Mahan; Woods, Nicole N; Fechtig, Lindsey; Anderson, Geoff

2012-10-01

Traditional admissions personal interviews provide flexible faculty-student interactions but are plagued by low inter-interview reliability. Axelson and Kreiter (2009) retrospectively showed that multiple independent sampling (MIS) may improve reliability of personal interviews; thus, the authors incorporated MIS into the admissions process for medical students applying to the University of Toronto's Leadership Education and Development Program (LEAD). They examined the reliability and resource demands of this modified personal interview (MPI) format. In 2010-2011, LEAD candidates submitted written applications, which were used to screen for participation in the MPI process. Selected candidates completed four brief (10-12 minutes) independent MPIs each with a different interviewer. The authors blueprinted MPI questions to (i.e., aligned them with) leadership attributes, and interviewers assessed candidates' eligibility on a five-point Likert-type scale. The authors analyzed inter-interview reliability using the generalizability theory. Sixteen candidates submitted applications; 10 proceeded to the MPI stage. Reliability of the written application components was 0.75. The MPI process had overall inter-interview reliability of 0.79. Correlation between the written application and MPI scores was 0.49. A decision study showed acceptable reliability of 0.74 with only three MPIs scored using one global rating. Furthermore, a traditional admissions interview format would take 66% more time than the MPI format. The MPI format, used during the LEAD admissions process, achieved high reliability with minimal faculty resources. The MPI format's reliability and effective resource use were possible through MIS and employment of expert interviewers. MPIs may be useful for other admissions tasks.

Energy Management Challenges and Opportunities with Increased Intermittent Renewable Generation on the California Electrical Grid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eichman, Joshua David

Renewable resources including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectric, wave and tidal, represent an opportunity for environmentally preferred generation of electricity that also increases energy security and independence. California is very proactive in encouraging the implementation of renewable energy in part through legislation like Assembly Bill 32 and the development and execution of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS); however renewable technologies are not without challenges. All renewable resources have some resource limitations, be that from location, capacity, cost or availability. Technologies like wind and solar are intermittent in nature but represent one of the most abundant resources for generating renewable electricity. If RPS goals are to be achieved high levels of intermittent renewables must be considered. This work explores the effects of high penetration of renewables on a grid system, with respect to resource availability and identifies the key challenges from the perspective of the grid to introducing these resources. The HiGRID tool was developed for this analysis because no other tool could explore grid operation, while maintaining system reliability, with a diverse set of renewable resources and a wide array of complementary technologies including: energy efficiency, demand response, energy storage technologies and electric transportation. This tool resolves the hourly operation of conventional generation resources (nuclear, coal, geothermal, natural gas and hydro). The resulting behavior from introducing additional renewable resources and the lifetime costs for each technology is analyzed.

Wildland inventory and resource modeling for Douglas and Carson City Counties, Nevada, using LANDSAT and digital terrain data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brass, J. A.; Likens, W. C.; Thornhill, R. R.

1983-01-01

The potential of using LANDSAT satellite imagery to map and inventory pinyon-juniper desert forest types in Douglas and Carson City Counties, Nevada was demonstrated. Specific map and statistical products produced include land cover, mechanical operations capability, big game winter range habitat, fire hazard, and forest harvestability. The Nevada Division of Forestry determined that LANDSAT can produce a reliable and low-cost resource data. Added benefits become apparent when the data are linked to a geographical information system (GIS) containing existing ownership, planning, elevation, slope, and aspect information.

AgRISTARS: Agriculture and resources inventory surveys through aerospace remote sensing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The major objectives and FY 1980 accomplishments are described of a long term program designed to determine the usefulness, cost, and extent to which aerospace remote sensing data can be integrated into existing or future USDA systems to improve the objectivity, reliability, timeliness, and adequacy of information. A general overview, the primary and participating agencies, and the technical highlights of each of the following projects are presented: early warning/crop condition assessment; foreign commodity production forecasting; yield model development; supporting research; soil moisture; domestic crops and land cover; renewable resources inventory; and conservation and pollution.

First Steps in the Smart Grid Framework: An Optimal and Feasible Pathway Toward Power System Reform in Mexico

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bracho, Riccardo; Linvill, Carl; Sedano, Richard

With the vision to transform the power sector, Mexico included in the new laws and regulations deployment of smart grid technologies and provided various attributes to the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission to enact public policies and regulation. The use of smart grid technologies can have a significant impact on the integration of variable renewable energy resources while maintaining reliability and stability of the system, significantly reducing technical and non-technical electricity losses in the grid, improving cyber security, and allowing consumers to make distributed generation and demand response decisions. This report describes for Mexico's Ministry of Energymore » (SENER) an overall approach (Optimal Feasible Pathway) for moving forward with smart grid policy development in Mexico to enable increasing electric generation from renewable energy in a way that optimizes system stability and reliability in an efficient and cost-effective manner.« less

The Standard Autonomous File Server, A Customized, Off-the-Shelf Success Story

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Semancik, Susan K.; Conger, Annette M.; Obenschain, Arthur F. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The Standard Autonomous File Server (SAFS), which includes both off-the-shelf hardware and software, uses an improved automated file transfer process to provide a quicker, more reliable, prioritized file distribution for customers of near real-time data without interfering with the assets involved in the acquisition and processing of the data. It operates as a stand-alone solution, monitoring itself, and providing an automated fail-over process to enhance reliability. This paper describes the unique problems and lessons learned both during the COTS selection and integration into SAFS, and the system's first year of operation in support of NASA's satellite ground network. COTS was the key factor in allowing the two-person development team to deploy systems in less than a year, meeting the required launch schedule. The SAFS system has been so successful; it is becoming a NASA standard resource, leading to its nomination for NASA's Software of the Year Award in 1999.

Examining Psychometric Dimensions of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Inventory: A Cross-Country Comparison between Taiwan and the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Ching-I

2013-01-01

The Taiwanese early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) system is modeled after the federal legislation and practices of the U.S., incorporating specific cultural beliefs in Taiwan. Nonetheless, in EI/ECSE assessments, several challenges are presented, including: (a) limited resources and funding, (b) lack of reliable and…

Mining protein interactomes to improve their reliability and support the advancement of network medicine.

PubMed

Alanis-Lobato, Gregorio

2015-01-01

High-throughput detection of protein interactions has had a major impact in our understanding of the intricate molecular machinery underlying the living cell, and has permitted the construction of very large protein interactomes. The protein networks that are currently available are incomplete and a significant percentage of their interactions are false positives. Fortunately, the structural properties observed in good quality social or technological networks are also present in biological systems. This has encouraged the development of tools, to improve the reliability of protein networks and predict new interactions based merely on the topological characteristics of their components. Since diseases are rarely caused by the malfunction of a single protein, having a more complete and reliable interactome is crucial in order to identify groups of inter-related proteins involved in disease etiology. These system components can then be targeted with minimal collateral damage. In this article, an important number of network mining tools is reviewed, together with resources from which reliable protein interactomes can be constructed. In addition to the review, a few representative examples of how molecular and clinical data can be integrated to deepen our understanding of pathogenesis are discussed.

[Process design in high-reliability organizations].

PubMed

Sommer, K-J; Kranz, J; Steffens, J

2014-05-01

Modern medicine is a highly complex service industry in which individual care providers are linked in a complicated network. The complexity and interlinkedness is associated with risks concerning patient safety. Other highly complex industries like commercial aviation have succeeded in maintaining or even increasing its safety levels despite rapidly increasing passenger figures. Standard operating procedures (SOPs), crew resource management (CRM), as well as operational risk evaluation (ORE) are historically developed and trusted parts of a comprehensive and systemic safety program. If medicine wants to follow this quantum leap towards increased patient safety, it must intensively evaluate the results of other high-reliability industries and seek step-by-step implementation after a critical assessment.

Health and medication information resources on the World Wide Web.

PubMed

Grossman, Sara; Zerilli, Tina

2013-04-01

Health care practitioners have increasingly used the Internet to obtain health and medication information. The vast number of Internet Web sites providing such information and concerns with their reliability makes it essential for users to carefully select and evaluate Web sites prior to use. To this end, this article reviews the general principles to consider in this process. Moreover, as cost may limit access to subscription-based health and medication information resources with established reputability, freely accessible online resources that may serve as an invaluable addition to one's reference collection are highlighted. These include government- and organization-sponsored resources (eg, US Food and Drug Administration Web site and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' Drug Shortage Resource Center Web site, respectively) as well as commercial Web sites (eg, Medscape, Google Scholar). Familiarity with such online resources can assist health care professionals in their ability to efficiently navigate the Web and may potentially expedite the information gathering and decision-making process, thereby improving patient care.

Information systems for mental health in six low and middle income countries: cross country situation analysis.

PubMed

Upadhaya, Nawaraj; Jordans, Mark J D; Abdulmalik, Jibril; Ahuja, Shalini; Alem, Atalay; Hanlon, Charlotte; Kigozi, Fred; Kizza, Dorothy; Lund, Crick; Semrau, Maya; Shidhaye, Rahul; Thornicroft, Graham; Komproe, Ivan H; Gureje, Oye

2016-01-01

Research on information systems for mental health in low and middle income countries (LMICs) is scarce. As a result, there is a lack of reliable information on mental health service needs, treatment coverage and the quality of services provided. With the aim of informing the development and implementation of a mental health information sub-system that includes reliable and measurable indicators on mental health within the Health Management Information Systems (HMIS), a cross-country situation analysis of HMIS was conducted in six LMICs (Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda), participating in the 'Emerging mental health systems in low and middle income countries' (Emerald) research programme. A situation analysis tool was developed to obtain and chart information from documents in the public domain. In circumstances when information was inadequate, key government officials were contacted to verify the data collected. In this paper we compare the baseline policy context, human resources situation as well as the processes and mechanisms of collecting, verifying, reporting and disseminating mental health related HMIS data. The findings suggest that countries face substantial policy, human resource and health governance challenges for mental health HMIS, many of which are common across sites. In particular, the specific policies and plans for the governance and implementation of mental health data collection, reporting and dissemination are absent. Across sites there is inadequate infrastructure, few HMIS experts, and inadequate technical support and supervision to junior staff, particularly in the area of mental health. Nonetheless there are also strengths in existing HMIS where a few mental health morbidity, mortality, and system level indicators are collected and reported. Our study indicates the need for greater technical and resources input to strengthen routine HMIS and develop standardized HMIS indicators for mental health, focusing in particular on indicators of coverage and quality to facilitate the implementation of the WHO mental health action plan 2013-2020.

2025 California Demand Response Potential Study - Charting California’s Demand Response Future. Final Report on Phase 2 Results

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alstone, Peter; Potter, Jennifer; Piette, Mary Ann

California’s legislative and regulatory goals for renewable energy are changing the power grid’s dynamics. Increased variable generation resource penetration connected to the bulk power system, as well as, distributed energy resources (DERs) connected to the distribution system affect the grid’s reliable operation over many different time scales (e.g., days to hours to minutes to seconds). As the state continues this transition, it will require careful planning to ensure resources with the right characteristics are available to meet changing grid management needs. Demand response (DR) has the potential to provide important resources for keeping the electricity grid stable and efficient, tomore » defer upgrades to generation, transmission and distribution systems, and to deliver customer economic benefits. This study estimates the potential size and cost of future DR resources for California’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs): Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E). Our goal is to provide data-driven insights as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) evaluates how to enhance DR’s role in meeting California’s resource planning needs and operational requirements. We address two fundamental questions: 1. What cost-competitive DR service types will meet California’s future grid needs as it moves towards clean energy and advanced infrastructure? 2. What is the size and cost of the expected resource base for the DR service types?« less

The national coal-resources data system of the U.S. geological survey

USGS Publications Warehouse

Carter, M.D.

1976-01-01

The National Coal Resources Data System (NCRDS) was designed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to meet the increasing demands for rapid retrieval of information on coal location, quantity, quality, and accessibility. An interactive conversational query system devised by the USGS retrieves information from the data bank through a standard computer terminal. The system is being developed in two phases. Phase I, which currently is available on a limited basis, contains published areal resource and chemical data. The primary objective of this phase is to retrieve, calculate, and tabulate coal-resource data by area on a local, regional, or national scale. Factors available for retrieval include: state, county, quadrangle, township, coal field, coal bed, formation, geologic age, source and reliability of data, and coal-bed rank, thickness, overburden, and tonnage, or any combinations of variables. In addition, the chemical data items include individual values for proximate and ultimate analyses, BTU value, and several other physical and chemical tests. Information will be validated and deleted or updated as needed. Phase II is being developed to store, retrieve, and manipulate basic point source coal data (e.g., field observations, drill-hole logs), including geodetic location; bed thickness; depth of burial; moisture; ash; sulfur; major-, minor-, and trace-element content; heat value; and characteristics of overburden, roof rocks, and floor rocks. The computer system may be used to generate interactively structure-contour or isoline maps of the physical and chemical characteristics of a coal bed or to calculate coal resources. ?? 1976.

Business Cases for Microgrids: Modeling Interactions of Technology Choice, Reliability, Cost, and Benefit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanna, Ryan

Distributed energy resources (DERs), and increasingly microgrids, are becoming an integral part of modern distribution systems. Interest in microgrids--which are insular and autonomous power networks embedded within the bulk grid--stems largely from the vast array of flexibilities and benefits they can offer stakeholders. Managed well, they can improve grid reliability and resiliency, increase end-use energy efficiency by coupling electric and thermal loads, reduce transmission losses by generating power locally, and may reduce system-wide emissions, among many others. Whether these public benefits are realized, however, depends on whether private firms see a "business case", or private value, in investing. To this end, firms need models that evaluate costs, benefits, risks, and assumptions that underlie decisions to invest. The objectives of this dissertation are to assess the business case for microgrids that provide what industry analysts forecast as two primary drivers of market growth--that of providing energy services (similar to an electric utility) as well as reliability service to customers within. Prototypical first adopters are modeled--using an existing model to analyze energy services and a new model that couples that analysis with one of reliability--to explore interactions between technology choice, reliability, costs, and benefits. The new model has a bi-level hierarchy; it uses heuristic optimization to select and size DERs and analytical optimization to schedule them. It further embeds Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate reliability as well as regression models for customer damage functions to monetize reliability. It provides least-cost microgrid configurations for utility customers who seek to reduce interruption and operating costs. Lastly, the model is used to explore the impact of such adoption on system-wide greenhouse gas emissions in California. Results indicate that there are, at present, co-benefits for emissions reductions when customers adopt and operate microgrids for private benefit, though future analysis is needed as the bulk grid continues to transition toward a less carbon intensive system.

The Federated Satellite Systems paradigm: Concept and business case evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Golkar, Alessandro; Lluch i Cruz, Ignasi

2015-06-01

This paper defines the paradigm of Federated Satellite Systems (FSS) as a novel distributed space systems architecture. FSS are networks of spacecraft trading previously inefficiently allocated and unused resources such as downlink bandwidth, storage, processing power, and instrument time. FSS holds the promise to enhance cost-effectiveness, performance and reliability of existing and future space missions, by networking different missions and effectively creating a pool of resources to exchange between participants in the federation. This paper introduces and describes the FSS paradigm, and develops an approach integrating mission analysis and economic assessments to evaluate the feasibility of the business case of FSS. The approach is demonstrated on a case study on opportunities enabled by FSS to enhance space exploration programs, with particular reference to the International Space Station. The application of the proposed methodology shows that the FSS concept is potentially able to create large commercial markets of in-space resources, by providing the technical platform to offer the opportunity for spacecraft to share or make use of unused resources within their orbital neighborhood. It is shown how the concept is beneficial to satellite operators, space agencies, and other stakeholders of the space industry to more flexibly interoperate space systems as a portfolio of assets, allowing unprecedented collaboration among heterogeneous types of missions.

ACARA - AVAILABILITY, COST AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Viterna, L. A.

1994-01-01

ACARA is a program for analyzing availability, lifecycle cost, and resource scheduling. It uses a statistical Monte Carlo method to simulate a system's capacity states as well as component failure and repair. Component failures are modelled using a combination of exponential and Weibull probability distributions. ACARA schedules component replacement to achieve optimum system performance. The scheduling will comply with any constraints on component production, resupply vehicle capacity, on-site spares, or crew manpower and equipment. ACARA is capable of many types of analyses and trade studies because of its integrated approach. It characterizes the system performance in terms of both state availability and equivalent availability (a weighted average of state availability). It can determine the probability of exceeding a capacity state to assess reliability and loss of load probability. It can also evaluate the effect of resource constraints on system availability and lifecycle cost. ACARA interprets the results of a simulation and displays tables and charts for: (1) performance, i.e., availability and reliability of capacity states, (2) frequency of failure and repair, (3) lifecycle cost, including hardware, transportation, and maintenance, and (4) usage of available resources, including mass, volume, and maintenance man-hours. ACARA incorporates a user-friendly, menu-driven interface with full screen data entry. It provides a file management system to store and retrieve input and output datasets for system simulation scenarios. ACARA is written in APL2 using the APL2 interpreter for IBM PC compatible systems running MS-DOS. Hardware requirements for the APL2 system include 640K of RAM, 2Mb of extended memory, and an 80386 or 80486 processor with an 80x87 math co-processor. A dot matrix printer is required if the user wishes to print a graph from a results table. A sample MS-DOS executable is provided on the distribution medium. The executable contains licensed material from the APL2 for the IBM PC product which is program property of IBM; Copyright IBM Corporation 1988 - All rights reserved. It is distributed with IBM's permission. The standard distribution medium for this program is a set of three 5.25 inch 360K MS-DOS format diskettes. The contents of the diskettes are compressed using the PKWARE archiving tools. The utility to unarchive the files, PKUNZIP.EXE, is included. ACARA was developed in 1992.

BlueSky Cloud Framework: An E-Learning Framework Embracing Cloud Computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Bo; Zheng, Qinghua; Qiao, Mu; Shu, Jian; Yang, Jie

Currently, E-Learning has grown into a widely accepted way of learning. With the huge growth of users, services, education contents and resources, E-Learning systems are facing challenges of optimizing resource allocations, dealing with dynamic concurrency demands, handling rapid storage growth requirements and cost controlling. In this paper, an E-Learning framework based on cloud computing is presented, namely BlueSky cloud framework. Particularly, the architecture and core components of BlueSky cloud framework are introduced. In BlueSky cloud framework, physical machines are virtualized, and allocated on demand for E-Learning systems. Moreover, BlueSky cloud framework combines with traditional middleware functions (such as load balancing and data caching) to serve for E-Learning systems as a general architecture. It delivers reliable, scalable and cost-efficient services to E-Learning systems, and E-Learning organizations can establish systems through these services in a simple way. BlueSky cloud framework solves the challenges faced by E-Learning, and improves the performance, availability and scalability of E-Learning systems.

Management. A continuing bibliography with indexes. [March 1980

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

This bibliography cites 604 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in 1979 covering the management of research and development, contracts, production, logistics, personnel, safety, reliability and quality control. Program, project, and systems management; management policy, philosophy, tools, and techniques; decision making processes for managers; technology assessment; management of urban problems; and information for managers on Federal resources, expenditures, financing, and budgeting are also covered. Abstracts are provided as well as subject, personal author, and corporate source indexes.

Helicopter Reliability and Maintainability Trends during Development and Production.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-07-01

engine entry (the T-53) showed improvement in successive models. For helicopters, we have mixed results: some improved (YUH-60A, CH-47, UH-lD, AH-IG...understand the linkage between R&M program goals and life cycle costs, however, it is necessary to understand-- (1) what resource levels are required during...attributes of the system; (3) how those field attributes affect the cost of owner- ship of the system; and (4) whether or not, and at what cost, R&M values

RELAV - RELIABILITY/AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS PROGRAM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bowerman, P. N.

1994-01-01

RELAV (Reliability/Availability Analysis Program) is a comprehensive analytical tool to determine the reliability or availability of any general system which can be modeled as embedded k-out-of-n groups of items (components) and/or subgroups. Both ground and flight systems at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have utilized this program. RELAV can assess current system performance during the later testing phases of a system design, as well as model candidate designs/architectures or validate and form predictions during the early phases of a design. Systems are commonly modeled as System Block Diagrams (SBDs). RELAV calculates the success probability of each group of items and/or subgroups within the system assuming k-out-of-n operating rules apply for each group. The program operates on a folding basis; i.e. it works its way towards the system level from the most embedded level by folding related groups into single components. The entire folding process involves probabilities; therefore, availability problems are performed in terms of the probability of success, and reliability problems are performed for specific mission lengths. An enhanced cumulative binomial algorithm is used for groups where all probabilities are equal, while a fast algorithm based upon "Computing k-out-of-n System Reliability", Barlow & Heidtmann, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON RELIABILITY, October 1984, is used for groups with unequal probabilities. Inputs to the program include a description of the system and any one of the following: 1) availabilities of the items, 2) mean time between failures and mean time to repairs for the items from which availabilities are calculated, 3) mean time between failures and mission length(s) from which reliabilities are calculated, or 4) failure rates and mission length(s) from which reliabilities are calculated. The results are probabilities of success of each group and the system in the given configuration. RELAV assumes exponential failure distributions for reliability calculations and infinite repair resources for availability calculations. No more than 967 items or groups can be modeled by RELAV. If larger problems can be broken into subsystems of 967 items or less, the subsystem results can be used as item inputs to a system problem. The calculated availabilities are steady-state values. Group results are presented in the order in which they were calculated (from the most embedded level out to the system level). This provides a good mechanism to perform trade studies. Starting from the system result and working backwards, the granularity gets finer; therefore, system elements that contribute most to system degradation are detected quickly. RELAV is a C-language program originally developed under the UNIX operating system on a MASSCOMP MC500 computer. It has been modified, as necessary, and ported to an IBM PC compatible with a math coprocessor. The current version of the program runs in the DOS environment and requires a Turbo C vers. 2.0 compiler. RELAV has a memory requirement of 103 KB and was developed in 1989. RELAV is a copyrighted work with all copyright vested in NASA.

Acuity systems dialogue and patient classification system essentials.

PubMed

Harper, Kelle; McCully, Crystal

2007-01-01

Obtaining resources for quality patient care is a major responsibility of nurse leaders and requires accurate information in the political world of budgeting. Patient classification systems (PCS) assist nurse managers in controlling cost and improving patient care while appropriately using financial resources. This paper communicates acuity systems development, background, flaws, and components while discussing a few tools currently available. It also disseminates the development of a new acuity tool, the Patient Classification System. The PCS tool, developed in a small rural hospital, uses 5 broad concepts: (1) medications, (2) complicated procedures, (3) education, (4) psychosocial issues, and (5) complicated intravenous medications. These concepts embrace a 4-tiered scale that differentiates significant patient characteristics and assists in staffing measures for equality in patient staffing and improving quality of care and performance. Data obtained through use of the PCS can be used by nurse leaders to effectively and objectively lobby for appropriate patient care resources. Two questionnaires distributed to registered nurses on a medical-surgical unit evaluated the nurses' opinion of the 5 concepts and the importance for establishing patient acuity for in-patient care. Interrater reliability among nurses was 87% with the author's acuity tool.

Wholesale Electricity Market Design with Increasing Levels of Renewable Generation: Incentivizing Flexibility in System Operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ela, Erik; Milligan, Michael; Bloom, Aaron

This paper discusses the importance and challenges of incentivizing flexibility during short-term operations of the bulk power system due to the increasing variability and uncertainty from growing penetrations of variable generation (VG). Operational flexibility can refer to many aspects of a resource's capability to support the power system, such as the speed, range, and duration of power output, as well as the ability to autonomously respond to frequency or voltage changes. Inefficient utilization of existing flexibility, or unwillingness of resources to provide flexibility, can compromise system reliability by not meeting the changing net load, and it can also lead tomore » higher costs when an inefficient use of flexibility resources occurs. There are many existing characteristics of market design that incentivize flexibility in some manner. How they incentivize the provision of flexibility as well as the level of flexibility is still debated. We explore some of these existing market designs, as well as new market mechanisms, such as pay-for-performance regulating reserve and flexible ramping products, that aim to explicitly incentivize the provision of more flexibility to the system, particularly as a result of increasing VG penetration levels.« less

A 200kW central receiver CPV system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lasich, John, E-mail: jbl@raygen.com; Thomas, Ian, E-mail: ithomas@raygen.com; Hertaeg, Wolfgang

2015-09-28

Raygen Resources has recently completed a Central Receiver CPV (CSPV) pilot plant in Central Victoria, Australia. The system is under final commissioning and initial operation is expected in late April 2015. The pilot demonstrates a full scale CSPV repeatable unit in a form that is representative of a commercial product and provides a test bed to prove out performance and reliability of the CSPV technology. Extensive testing of the system key components: dense array module, wireless solar powered heliostat and control system has been performed in the laboratory and on sun. Results from this key component testing are presented herein.

A comparative reliability analysis of free-piston Stirling machines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schreiber, Jeffrey G.

2001-02-01

A free-piston Stirling power convertor is being developed for use in an advanced radioisotope power system to provide electric power for NASA deep space missions. These missions are typically long lived, lasting for up to 14 years. The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for providing the radioisotope power system for the NASA missions, and has managed the development of the free-piston power convertor for this application. The NASA Glenn Research Center has been involved in the development of Stirling power conversion technology for over 25 years and is currently providing support to DOE. Due to the nature of the potential missions, long life and high reliability are important features for the power system. Substantial resources have been spent on the development of long life Stirling cryocoolers for space applications. As a very general statement, free-piston Stirling power convertors have many features in common with free-piston Stirling cryocoolers, however there are also significant differences. For example, designs exist for both power convertors and cryocoolers that use the flexure bearing support system to provide noncontacting operation of the close-clearance moving parts. This technology and the operating experience derived from one application may be readily applied to the other application. This similarity does not pertain in the case of outgassing and contamination. In the cryocooler, the contaminants normally condense in the critical heat exchangers and foul the performance. In the Stirling power convertor just the opposite is true as contaminants condense on non-critical surfaces. A methodology was recently published that provides a relative comparison of reliability, and is applicable to systems. The methodology has been applied to compare the reliability of a Stirling cryocooler relative to that of a free-piston Stirling power convertor. The reliability analysis indicates that the power convertor should be able to have superior reliability compared to the cryocooler. .

Optimum spaceborne computer system design by simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, T.; Weatherbee, J. E.; Taylor, D. S.

1972-01-01

A deterministic digital simulation model is described which models the Automatically Reconfigurable Modular Multiprocessor System (ARMMS), a candidate computer system for future manned and unmanned space missions. Use of the model as a tool in configuring a minimum computer system for a typical mission is demonstrated. The configuration which is developed as a result of studies with the simulator is optimal with respect to the efficient use of computer system resources, i.e., the configuration derived is a minimal one. Other considerations such as increased reliability through the use of standby spares would be taken into account in the definition of a practical system for a given mission.

Initial Test Firing Results for Solid CO/GOX Cryogenic Hybrid Rocket Engine for Mars ISRU Propulsion Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rice, Eric E.; St. Clair, Christopher P.; Chiaverini, Martin J.; Knuth, William H.; Gustafson, Robert J.; Gramer, Daniel J.

1999-01-01

ORBITEC is developing methods for producing, testing, and utilizing Mars-based ISRU fuel/oxidizer combinations to support low cost, planetary surface and flight propulsion and power systems. When humans explore Mars we will need to use in situ resources that are available, such as: energy (solar); gases or liquids for life support, ground transportation, and flight to and from other surface locations and Earth; and materials for shielding and building habitats and infrastructure. Probably the easiest use of Martian resources to reduce the cost of human exploration activities is the use of the carbon and oxygen readily available from the CO2 in the Mars atmosphere. ORBITEC has conducted preliminary R&D that will eventually allow us to reliably use these resources. ORBITEC is focusing on the innovative use of solid CO as a fuel. A new advanced cryogenic hybrid rocket propulsion system is suggested that will offer advantages over LCO/LOX propulsion, making it the best option for a Mars sample return vehicle and other flight vehicles. This technology could also greatly support logistics and base operations by providing a reliable and simple way to store solar or nuclear generated energy in the form of chemical energy that can be used for ground transportation (rovers/land vehicles) and planetary surface power generators. This paper describes the overall concept and the test results of the first ever solid carbon monoxide/oxygen rocket engine firing.

Characterizing wind power resource reliability in southern Africa

DOE PAGES

Fant, Charles; Gunturu, Bhaskar; Schlosser, Adam

2015-08-29

Producing electricity from wind is attractive because it provides a clean, low-maintenance power supply. However, wind resource is intermittent on various timescales, thus occasionally introducing large and sudden changes in power supply. A better understanding of this variability can greatly benefit power grid planning. In the following study, wind resource is characterized using metrics that highlight these intermittency issues; therefore identifying areas of high and low wind power reliability in southern Africa and Kenya at different time-scales. After developing a wind speed profile, these metrics are applied at various heights in order to assess the added benefit of raising themore » wind turbine hub. Furthermore, since the interconnection of wind farms can aid in reducing the overall intermittency, the value of interconnecting near-by sites is mapped using two distinct methods. Of the countries in this region, the Republic of South Africa has shown the most interest in wind power investment. For this reason, we focus parts of the study on wind reliability in the country. The study finds that, although mean Wind Power Density is high in South Africa compared to its neighboring countries, wind power resource tends to be less reliable than in other parts of southern Africa—namely central Tanzania. We also find that South Africa’s potential varies over different timescales, with higher reliability in the summer than winter, and higher reliability during the day than at night. This study is concluded by introducing two methods and measures to characterize the value of interconnection, including the use of principal component analysis to identify areas with a common signal.« less

Characterizing wind power resource reliability in southern Africa

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fant, Charles; Gunturu, Bhaskar; Schlosser, Adam

Producing electricity from wind is attractive because it provides a clean, low-maintenance power supply. However, wind resource is intermittent on various timescales, thus occasionally introducing large and sudden changes in power supply. A better understanding of this variability can greatly benefit power grid planning. In the following study, wind resource is characterized using metrics that highlight these intermittency issues; therefore identifying areas of high and low wind power reliability in southern Africa and Kenya at different time-scales. After developing a wind speed profile, these metrics are applied at various heights in order to assess the added benefit of raising themore » wind turbine hub. Furthermore, since the interconnection of wind farms can aid in reducing the overall intermittency, the value of interconnecting near-by sites is mapped using two distinct methods. Of the countries in this region, the Republic of South Africa has shown the most interest in wind power investment. For this reason, we focus parts of the study on wind reliability in the country. The study finds that, although mean Wind Power Density is high in South Africa compared to its neighboring countries, wind power resource tends to be less reliable than in other parts of southern Africa—namely central Tanzania. We also find that South Africa’s potential varies over different timescales, with higher reliability in the summer than winter, and higher reliability during the day than at night. This study is concluded by introducing two methods and measures to characterize the value of interconnection, including the use of principal component analysis to identify areas with a common signal.« less

Concept for a Wireless Sensor Network to support GIS based water and land resource management in the Aksu-Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doluschitz, Reiner; Feike, Til

2013-04-01

Farmers in the oases along the Aksu-Tarim River suffer from severe seasonal water shortage caused by high fluctuations of river run-off. The uncertainty of water availability makes the planning of crop production and related investments extremely difficult. As a consequence farm management is often sub-optimal, manifesting in low input efficiencies, and the value generated in the agricultural sector being way below its potential. The "Tarim Basin Water Resource Bureau" (TBWRB) was founded in the 1990s. Its major task is to implement a basin wide water resources management plan, which involves fair allocation of water resources among the farmers in the different administrative units along the river. Among others, the lack of reliable and timely information on water quantities and qualities within the major water bodies of the basin hinders the implementation of an effective water management plan. Therefore we introduce the concept of a wireless sensor network (WSN) that provides reliable instantaneous information on the status of all important water resources within the basin. In the first step a GIS including all vital geospatial data, like river courses, channel and reservoir network and capacities, soil and land use map, is built. In the second step a WSN that monitors all important parameters at essential positions throughout the basin needs to be established. Measured parameters comprise meteorological data, river run-off, water levels of reservoirs, groundwater levels, and salinity levels of water resources. All data is centrally collected and processed by the TBWRB. Apart from generating a prompt and complete picture of currently available water resources, the TBWRB can use the system to record actual water allocation, and develop an early warning system for upcoming droughts or floods. Finally an integrated water and land management scheme can be established that allocates resources maximizing the benefits at basin level. Financed by public funding, the data collected by the WSN should be accessible to the public. Considering the environmental, economic and social cost of inefficient, intransparent and unfair allocation of water resources, the investments into a WSN are reasonable. However, it requires strong efforts from highest governmental agencies to enable the TBWRB to compile all the required data (e.g. meteorological, soil, river run-off), which is customarily collected and controlled by the respective administrative unit.

The Healthy Brain Network Serial Scanning Initiative: a resource for evaluating inter-individual differences and their reliabilities across scan conditions and sessions.

PubMed

O'Connor, David; Potler, Natan Vega; Kovacs, Meagan; Xu, Ting; Ai, Lei; Pellman, John; Vanderwal, Tamara; Parra, Lucas C; Cohen, Samantha; Ghosh, Satrajit; Escalera, Jasmine; Grant-Villegas, Natalie; Osman, Yael; Bui, Anastasia; Craddock, R Cameron; Milham, Michael P

2017-02-01

Although typically measured during the resting state, a growing literature is illustrating the ability to map intrinsic connectivity with functional MRI during task and naturalistic viewing conditions. These paradigms are drawing excitement due to their greater tolerability in clinical and developing populations and because they enable a wider range of analyses (e.g., inter-subject correlations). To be clinically useful, the test-retest reliability of connectivity measured during these paradigms needs to be established. This resource provides data for evaluating test-retest reliability for full-brain connectivity patterns detected during each of four scan conditions that differ with respect to level of engagement (rest, abstract animations, movie clips, flanker task). Data are provided for 13 participants, each scanned in 12 sessions with 10 minutes for each scan of the four conditions. Diffusion kurtosis imaging data was also obtained at each session. Technical validation and demonstrative reliability analyses were carried out at the connection-level using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient and at network-level representations of the data using the Image Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. Variation in intrinsic functional connectivity across sessions was generally found to be greater than that attributable to scan condition. Between-condition reliability was generally high, particularly for the frontoparietal and default networks. Between-session reliabilities obtained separately for the different scan conditions were comparable, though notably lower than between-condition reliabilities. This resource provides a test-bed for quantifying the reliability of connectivity indices across subjects, conditions and time. The resource can be used to compare and optimize different frameworks for measuring connectivity and data collection parameters such as scan length. Additionally, investigators can explore the unique perspectives of the brain's functional architecture offered by each of the scan conditions. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Breaking down the barriers of using strong authentication and encryption in resource constrained embedded systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knobler, Ron; Scheffel, Peter; Jackson, Scott; Gaj, Kris; Kaps, Jens Peter

2013-05-01

Various embedded systems, such as unattended ground sensors (UGS), are deployed in dangerous areas, where they are subject to compromise. Since numerous systems contain a network of devices that communicate with each other (often times with commercial off the shelf [COTS] radios), an adversary is able to intercept messages between system devices, which jeopardizes sensitive information transmitted by the system (e.g. location of system devices). Secret key algorithms such as AES are a very common means to encrypt all system messages to a sufficient security level, for which lightweight implementations exist for even very resource constrained devices. However, all system devices must use the appropriate key to encrypt and decrypt messages from each other. While traditional public key algorithms (PKAs), such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), provide a sufficiently secure means to provide authentication and a means to exchange keys, these traditional PKAs are not suitable for very resource constrained embedded systems or systems which contain low reliability communication links (e.g. mesh networks), especially as the size of the network increases. Therefore, most UGS and other embedded systems resort to pre-placed keys (PPKs) or other naïve schemes which greatly reduce the security and effectiveness of the overall cryptographic approach. McQ has teamed with the Cryptographic Engineering Research Group (CERG) at George Mason University (GMU) to develop an approach using revolutionary cryptographic techniques that provides both authentication and encryption, but on resource constrained embedded devices, without the burden of large amounts of key distribution or storage.

Sensitivities and Tipping Points of Power System Operations to Fluctuations Caused by Water Availability and Fuel Prices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Connell, M.; Macknick, J.; Voisin, N.; Fu, T.

2017-12-01

The western US electric grid is highly dependent upon water resources for reliable operation. Hydropower and water-cooled thermoelectric technologies represent 67% of generating capacity in the western region of the US. While water resources provide a significant amount of generation and reliability for the grid, these same resources can represent vulnerabilities during times of drought or low flow conditions. A lack of water affects water-dependent technologies and can result in more expensive generators needing to run in order to meet electric grid demand, resulting in higher electricity prices and a higher cost to operate the grid. A companion study assesses the impact of changes in water availability and air temperatures on power operations by directly derating hydro and thermo-electric generators. In this study we assess the sensitivities and tipping points of water availability compared with higher fuel prices in electricity sector operations. We evaluate the impacts of varying electricity prices by modifying fuel prices for coal and natural gas. We then analyze the difference in simulation results between changes in fuel prices in combination with water availability and air temperature variability. We simulate three fuel price scenarios for a 2010 baseline scenario along with 100 historical and future hydro-climate conditions. We use the PLEXOS electricity production cost model to optimize power system dispatch and cost decisions under each combination of fuel price and water constraint. Some of the metrics evaluated are total production cost, generation type mix, emissions, transmission congestion, and reserve procurement. These metrics give insight to how strained the system is, how much flexibility it still has, and to what extent water resource availability or fuel prices drive changes in the electricity sector operations. This work will provide insights into current electricity operations as well as future cases of increased penetration of variable renewable generation technologies such as wind and solar.

An innovative way of thinking nuclear waste management - Neutron physics of a reactor directly operating on SNF.

PubMed

Merk, Bruno; Litskevich, Dzianis; Bankhead, Mark; Taylor, Richard J

2017-01-01

A solution for the nuclear waste problem is the key challenge for an extensive use of nuclear reactors as a major carbon free, sustainable, and applied highly reliable energy source. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) promises a solution for improved waste management. Current strategies rely on systems designed in the 60's for the massive production of plutonium. We propose an innovative strategic development plan based on invention and innovation described with the concept of developments in s-curves identifying the current boundary conditions, and the evolvable objectives. This leads to the ultimate, universal vision for energy production characterized by minimal use of resources and production of waste, while being economically affordable and safe, secure and reliable in operation. This vision is transformed into a mission for a disruptive development of the future nuclear energy system operated by burning of existing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) without prior reprocessing. This highly innovative approach fulfils the sustainability goals and creates new options for P&T. A proof on the feasibility from neutronic point of view is given demonstrating sufficient breeding of fissile material from the inserted SNF. The system does neither require new resources nor produce additional waste, thus it provides a highly sustainable option for a future nuclear system fulfilling the requests of P&T as side effect. In addition, this nuclear system provides enhanced resistance against misuse of Pu and a significantly reduced fuel cycle. However, the new system requires a demand driven rethinking of the separation process to be efficient.

An innovative way of thinking nuclear waste management – Neutron physics of a reactor directly operating on SNF

PubMed Central

Litskevich, Dzianis; Bankhead, Mark; Taylor, Richard J.

2017-01-01

A solution for the nuclear waste problem is the key challenge for an extensive use of nuclear reactors as a major carbon free, sustainable, and applied highly reliable energy source. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) promises a solution for improved waste management. Current strategies rely on systems designed in the 60’s for the massive production of plutonium. We propose an innovative strategic development plan based on invention and innovation described with the concept of developments in s-curves identifying the current boundary conditions, and the evolvable objectives. This leads to the ultimate, universal vision for energy production characterized by minimal use of resources and production of waste, while being economically affordable and safe, secure and reliable in operation. This vision is transformed into a mission for a disruptive development of the future nuclear energy system operated by burning of existing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) without prior reprocessing. This highly innovative approach fulfils the sustainability goals and creates new options for P&T. A proof on the feasibility from neutronic point of view is given demonstrating sufficient breeding of fissile material from the inserted SNF. The system does neither require new resources nor produce additional waste, thus it provides a highly sustainable option for a future nuclear system fulfilling the requests of P&T as side effect. In addition, this nuclear system provides enhanced resistance against misuse of Pu and a significantly reduced fuel cycle. However, the new system requires a demand driven rethinking of the separation process to be efficient. PMID:28749952

Assessment of renewable energy technology and a case of sustainable energy in mobile telecommunication sector.

PubMed

Okundamiya, Michael S; Emagbetere, Joy O; Ogujor, Emmanuel A

2014-01-01

The rapid growth of the mobile telecommunication sectors of many emerging countries creates a number of problems such as network congestion and poor service delivery for network operators. This results primarily from the lack of a reliable and cost-effective power solution within such regions. This study presents a comprehensive review of the underlying principles of the renewable energy technology (RET) with the objective of ensuring a reliable and cost-effective energy solution for a sustainable development in the emerging world. The grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system incorporating a power conversion and battery storage unit has been proposed based on the availability, dynamism, and technoeconomic viability of energy resources within the region. The proposed system's performance validation applied a simulation model developed in MATLAB, using a practical load data for different locations with varying climatic conditions in Nigeria. Results indicate that, apart from being environmentally friendly, the increase in the overall energy throughput of about 4 kWh/$ of the proposed system would not only improve the quality of mobile services, by making the operations of GSM base stations more reliable and cost effective, but also better the living standards of the host communities.

Assessment of Renewable Energy Technology and a Case of Sustainable Energy in Mobile Telecommunication Sector

PubMed Central

Okundamiya, Michael S.; Emagbetere, Joy O.; Ogujor, Emmanuel A.

2014-01-01

The rapid growth of the mobile telecommunication sectors of many emerging countries creates a number of problems such as network congestion and poor service delivery for network operators. This results primarily from the lack of a reliable and cost-effective power solution within such regions. This study presents a comprehensive review of the underlying principles of the renewable energy technology (RET) with the objective of ensuring a reliable and cost-effective energy solution for a sustainable development in the emerging world. The grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system incorporating a power conversion and battery storage unit has been proposed based on the availability, dynamism, and technoeconomic viability of energy resources within the region. The proposed system's performance validation applied a simulation model developed in MATLAB, using a practical load data for different locations with varying climatic conditions in Nigeria. Results indicate that, apart from being environmentally friendly, the increase in the overall energy throughput of about 4 kWh/$ of the proposed system would not only improve the quality of mobile services, by making the operations of GSM base stations more reliable and cost effective, but also better the living standards of the host communities. PMID:24578673

Overview of the LINCS architecture

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fletcher, J.G.; Watson, R.W.

1982-01-13

Computing at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has evolved over the past 15 years with a computer network based resource sharing environment. The increasing use of low cost and high performance micro, mini and midi computers and commercially available local networking systems will accelerate this trend. Further, even the large scale computer systems, on which much of the LLNL scientific computing depends, are evolving into multiprocessor systems. It is our belief that the most cost effective use of this environment will depend on the development of application systems structured into cooperating concurrent program modules (processes) distributed appropriately over differentmore » nodes of the environment. A node is defined as one or more processors with a local (shared) high speed memory. Given the latter view, the environment can be characterized as consisting of: multiple nodes communicating over noisy channels with arbitrary delays and throughput, heterogenous base resources and information encodings, no single administration controlling all resources, distributed system state, and no uniform time base. The system design problem is - how to turn the heterogeneous base hardware/firmware/software resources of this environment into a coherent set of resources that facilitate development of cost effective, reliable, and human engineered applications. We believe the answer lies in developing a layered, communication oriented distributed system architecture; layered and modular to support ease of understanding, reconfiguration, extensibility, and hiding of implementation or nonessential local details; communication oriented because that is a central feature of the environment. The Livermore Interactive Network Communication System (LINCS) is a hierarchical architecture designed to meet the above needs. While having characteristics in common with other architectures, it differs in several respects.« less

Job submission and management through web services: the experience with the CREAM service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aiftimiei, C.; Andreetto, P.; Bertocco, S.; Fina, S. D.; Ronco, S. D.; Dorigo, A.; Gianelle, A.; Marzolla, M.; Mazzucato, M.; Sgaravatto, M.; Verlato, M.; Zangrando, L.; Corvo, M.; Miccio, V.; Sciaba, A.; Cesini, D.; Dongiovanni, D.; Grandi, C.

2008-07-01

Modern Grid middleware is built around components providing basic functionality, such as data storage, authentication, security, job management, resource monitoring and reservation. In this paper we describe the Computing Resource Execution and Management (CREAM) service. CREAM provides a Web service-based job execution and management capability for Grid systems; in particular, it is being used within the gLite middleware. CREAM exposes a Web service interface allowing conforming clients to submit and manage computational jobs to a Local Resource Management System. We developed a special component, called ICE (Interface to CREAM Environment) to integrate CREAM in gLite. ICE transfers job submissions and cancellations from the Workload Management System, allowing users to manage CREAM jobs from the gLite User Interface. This paper describes some recent studies aimed at assessing the performance and reliability of CREAM and ICE; those tests have been performed as part of the acceptance tests for integration of CREAM and ICE in gLite. We also discuss recent work towards enhancing CREAM with a BES and JSDL compliant interface.

Evaluation of potential emission spectra for the reliable classification of fluorescently coded materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brunner, Siegfried; Kargel, Christian

2011-06-01

The conservation and efficient use of natural and especially strategic resources like oil and water have become global issues, which increasingly initiate environmental and political activities for comprehensive recycling programs. To effectively reutilize oil-based materials necessary in many industrial fields (e.g. chemical and pharmaceutical industry, automotive, packaging), appropriate methods for a fast and highly reliable automated material identification are required. One non-contacting, color- and shape-independent new technique that eliminates the shortcomings of existing methods is to label materials like plastics with certain combinations of fluorescent markers ("optical codes", "optical fingerprints") incorporated during manufacture. Since time-resolved measurements are complex (and expensive), fluorescent markers must be designed that possess unique spectral signatures. The number of identifiable materials increases with the number of fluorescent markers that can be reliably distinguished within the limited wavelength band available. In this article we shall investigate the reliable detection and classification of fluorescent markers with specific fluorescence emission spectra. These simulated spectra are modeled based on realistic fluorescence spectra acquired from material samples using a modern VNIR spectral imaging system. In order to maximize the number of materials that can be reliably identified, we evaluate the performance of 8 classification algorithms based on different spectral similarity measures. The results help guide the design of appropriate fluorescent markers, optical sensors and the overall measurement system.

Reliability of a retail food store survey and development of an accompanying retail scoring system to communicate survey findings and identify vendors for healthful food and marketing initiatives.

PubMed

Ghirardelli, Alyssa; Quinn, Valerie; Sugerman, Sharon

2011-01-01

To develop a retail grocery instrument with weighted scoring to be used as an indicator of the food environment. Twenty six retail food stores in low-income areas in California. Observational. Inter-rater reliability for grocery store survey instrument. Description of store scoring methodology weighted to emphasize availability of healthful food. Type A intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) with absolute agreement definition or a κ test for measures using ranges as categories. Measures of availability and price of fruits and vegetables performed well in reliability testing (κ = 0.681-0.800). Items for vegetable quality were better than for fruit (ICC 0.708 vs 0.528). Kappa scores indicated low to moderate agreement (0.372-0.674) on external store marketing measures and higher scores for internal store marketing. "Next to" the checkout counter was more reliable than "within 6 feet." Health departments using the store scoring system reported it as the most useful communication of neighborhood findings. There was good reliability of the measures among the research pairs. The local store scores can show the need to bring in resources and to provide access to fruits and vegetables and other healthful food. Copyright © 2011 Society for Nutrition Education. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Evolvable Multi-Agent Approach to Space Operations Engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mandutianu, Sanda; Stoica, Adrian

1999-01-01

A complex system of spacecraft and ground tracking stations, as well as a constellation of satellites or spacecraft, has to be able to reliably withstand sudden environment changes, resource fluctuations, dynamic resource configuration, limited communication bandwidth, etc., while maintaining the consistency of the system as a whole. It is not known in advance when a change in the environment might occur or when a particular exchange will happen. A higher degree of sophistication for the communication mechanisms between different parts of the system is required. The actual behavior has to be determined while the system is performing and the course of action can be decided at the individual level. Under such circumstances, the solution will highly benefit from increased on-board and on the ground adaptability and autonomy. An evolvable architecture based on intelligent agents that communicate and cooperate with each other can offer advantages in this direction. This paper presents an architecture of an evolvable agent-based system (software and software/hardware hybrids) as well as some plans for further implementation.

Profit-based conventional resource scheduling with renewable energy penetration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reddy, K. Srikanth; Panwar, Lokesh Kumar; Kumar, Rajesh; Panigrahi, B. K.

2017-08-01

Technological breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies (RETs) enabled them to attain grid parity thereby making them potential contenders for existing conventional resources. To examine the market participation of RETs, this paper formulates a scheduling problem accommodating energy market participation of wind- and solar-independent power producers (IPPs) treating both conventional and RETs as identical entities. Furthermore, constraints pertaining to penetration and curtailments of RETs are restructured. Additionally, an appropriate objective function for profit incurred by conventional resource IPPs through reserve market participation as a function of renewable energy curtailment is also proposed. The proposed concept is simulated with a test system comprising 10 conventional generation units in conjunction with solar photovoltaic (SPV) and wind energy generators (WEG). The simulation results indicate that renewable energy integration and its curtailment limits influence the market participation or scheduling strategies of conventional resources in both energy and reserve markets. Furthermore, load and reliability parameters are also affected.

Implementing a resource management program for accreditation process at the medical laboratory.

PubMed

Yenice, Sedef

2009-03-01

To plan for and provide adequate resources to meet the mission and goals of a medical laboratory in compliance with the requirements for laboratory accreditation by Joint Commission International. The related policies and procedures were developed based on standard requirements for resource management. Competency assessment provided continuing education and performance feedback to laboratory employees. Laboratory areas were designed for the efficient and safe performance of laboratory work. A physical environment was built up where hazards were controlled and personnel activities were managed to reduce the risk of injuries. An Employees Occupational Safety and Health Program (EOSHP) was developed to address all types of hazardous materials and wastes. Guidelines were defined to verify that the methods would produce accurate and reliable results. An active resource management program will be an effective way of assuring that systems are in control and continuous improvement is in progress.

Feasibility of Stochastic Voltage/VAr Optimization Considering Renewable Energy Resources for Smart Grid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Momoh, James A.; Salkuti, Surender Reddy

2016-06-01

This paper proposes a stochastic optimization technique for solving the Voltage/VAr control problem including the load demand and Renewable Energy Resources (RERs) variation. The RERs often take along some inputs like stochastic behavior. One of the important challenges i. e., Voltage/VAr control is a prime source for handling power system complexity and reliability, hence it is the fundamental requirement for all the utility companies. There is a need for the robust and efficient Voltage/VAr optimization technique to meet the peak demand and reduction of system losses. The voltages beyond the limit may damage costly sub-station devices and equipments at consumer end as well. Especially, the RERs introduces more disturbances and some of the RERs are not even capable enough to meet the VAr demand. Therefore, there is a strong need for the Voltage/VAr control in RERs environment. This paper aims at the development of optimal scheme for Voltage/VAr control involving RERs. In this paper, Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) method is used to cover full range of variables by maximally satisfying the marginal distribution. Here, backward scenario reduction technique is used to reduce the number of scenarios effectively and maximally retain the fitting accuracy of samples. The developed optimization scheme is tested on IEEE 24 bus Reliability Test System (RTS) considering the load demand and RERs variation.

Opportunity for offshore wind to reduce future demand for coal-fired power plants in China with consequent savings in emissions of CO2.

PubMed

Lu, Xi; McElroy, Michael B; Chen, Xinyu; Kang, Chongqing

2014-12-16

Although capacity credits for wind power have been embodied in power systems in the U.S. and Europe, the current planning framework for electricity in China continues to treat wind power as a nondispatchable source with zero contribution to firm capacity. This study adopts a rigorous reliability model for the electric power system evaluating capacity credits that should be recognized for offshore wind resources supplying power demands for Jiangsu, China. Jiangsu is an economic hub located in the Yangtze River delta accounting for 10% of the total electricity consumed in China. Demand for electricity in Jiangsu is projected to increase from 331 TWh in 2009 to 800 TWh by 2030. Given a wind penetration level of 60% for the future additional Jiangsu power supply, wind resources distributed along the offshore region of five coastal provinces in China (Shandong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Fujian) should merit a capacity credit of 12.9%, the fraction of installed wind capacity that should be recognized to displace coal-fired systems without violating the reliability standard. In the high-coal-price scenario, with 60% wind penetration, reductions in CO2 emissions relative to a business as usual reference could be as large as 200.2 million tons of CO2 or 51.8% of the potential addition, with a cost for emissions avoided of $29.0 per ton.

78 FR 7773 - Notice of Commissioner and Staff Attendance at North American Electric Reliability Corporation...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-04

... Attendance at North American Electric Reliability Corporation Meetings The Federal Energy Regulatory... following meetings: North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Member Representatives Committee and... Resources Committee, and Standards Oversight and Technology Committee Meetings. Hotel del Coronado, 1500...

An Attack-Resilient Middleware Architecture for Grid Integration of Distributed Energy Resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Yifu; Mendis, Gihan J.; He, Youbiao

In recent years, the increasing penetration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) has made an impact on the operation of the electric power systems. In the grid integration of DERs, data acquisition systems and communications infrastructure are crucial technologies to maintain system economic efficiency and reliability. Since most of these generators are relatively small, dedicated communications investments for every generator are capital cost prohibitive. Combining real-time attack-resilient communications middleware with Internet of Things (IoTs) technologies allows for the use of existing infrastructure. In our paper, we propose an intelligent communication middleware that utilizes the Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics to complementmore » the conventional Quality of Service (QoS) evaluation. Furthermore, our middleware employs deep learning techniques to detect and defend against congestion attacks. The simulation results illustrate the efficiency of our proposed communications middleware architecture.« less

[Monitoring evaluation system for high-specialty hospitals].

PubMed

Fajardo Dolci, Germán; Aguirre Gas, Héctor G; Robledo Galván, Héctor

2011-01-01

Hospital evaluation is a fundamental process to identify medical units' objective compliance, to analyze efficiency of resource use and allocation, institutional values and mission alignment, patient safety and quality standards, contributions to research and medical education, and the degree of coordination among medical units and the health system as a whole. We propose an evaluation system for highly specialized regional hospitals through the monitoring of performance indicators. The following are established as base thematic elements in the construction of indicators: safe facilities and equipment, financial situation, human resources management, policy management, organizational climate, clinical activity, quality and patient safety, continuity of care, patients' and providers' rights and obligations, teaching, research, social responsibility, coordination mechanisms. Monitoring refers to the planned and systematic evaluation of valid and reliable indicators, aimed at identifying problems and opportunity areas. Moreover, evaluation is a powerful tool to strengthen decision-making and accountability in medical units.

Efficiency Management in Spaceflight Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Karen

2016-01-01

Efficiency in spaceflight is often approached as “faster, better, cheaper – pick two”. The high levels of performance and reliability required for each mission suggest that planners can only control for two of the three. True efficiency comes by optimizing a system across all three parameters. The functional processes of spaceflight become technical requirements on three operational groups during mission planning: payload, vehicle, and launch operations. Given the interrelationships among the functions performed by the operational groups, optimizing function resources from one operational group to the others affects the efficiency of those groups and therefore the mission overall. This paper helps outline this framework and creates a context in which to understand the effects of resource trades on the overall system, improving the efficiency of the operational groups and the mission as a whole. This allows insight into and optimization of the controlling factors earlier in the mission planning stage.

Reliability analysis of a wastewater treatment plant using fault tree analysis and Monte Carlo simulation.

PubMed

Taheriyoun, Masoud; Moradinejad, Saber

2015-01-01

The reliability of a wastewater treatment plant is a critical issue when the effluent is reused or discharged to water resources. Main factors affecting the performance of the wastewater treatment plant are the variation of the influent, inherent variability in the treatment processes, deficiencies in design, mechanical equipment, and operational failures. Thus, meeting the established reuse/discharge criteria requires assessment of plant reliability. Among many techniques developed in system reliability analysis, fault tree analysis (FTA) is one of the popular and efficient methods. FTA is a top down, deductive failure analysis in which an undesired state of a system is analyzed. In this study, the problem of reliability was studied on Tehran West Town wastewater treatment plant. This plant is a conventional activated sludge process, and the effluent is reused in landscape irrigation. The fault tree diagram was established with the violation of allowable effluent BOD as the top event in the diagram, and the deficiencies of the system were identified based on the developed model. Some basic events are operator's mistake, physical damage, and design problems. The analytical method is minimal cut sets (based on numerical probability) and Monte Carlo simulation. Basic event probabilities were calculated according to available data and experts' opinions. The results showed that human factors, especially human error had a great effect on top event occurrence. The mechanical, climate, and sewer system factors were in subsequent tier. Literature shows applying FTA has been seldom used in the past wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) risk analysis studies. Thus, the developed FTA model in this study considerably improves the insight into causal failure analysis of a WWTP. It provides an efficient tool for WWTP operators and decision makers to achieve the standard limits in wastewater reuse and discharge to the environment.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Johnson, Jay Tillay

For three years, Sandia National Laboratories, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated a smart grid vision in which renewable-centric Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) provided ancillary services with interoperable distributed energy resources (DER). This team researched, designed, built, and evaluated real-time VPP designs incorporating DER forecasting, stochastic optimization, controls, and cyber security to construct a system capable of delivering reliable ancillary services, which have been traditionally provided by large power plants or other dedicated equipment. VPPs have become possible through an evolving landscape of state and national interconnection standards, which now require DER to include grid-supportmore » functionality and communications capabilities. This makes it possible for third party aggregators to provide a range of critical grid services such as voltage regulation, frequency regulation, and contingency reserves to grid operators. This paradigm (a) enables renewable energy, demand response, and energy storage to participate in grid operations and provide grid services, (b) improves grid reliability by providing additional operating reserves for utilities, independent system operators (ISOs), and regional transmission organization (RTOs), and (c) removes renewable energy high-penetration barriers by providing services with photovoltaics and wind resources that traditionally were the jobs of thermal generators. Therefore, it is believed VPP deployment will have far-reaching positive consequences for grid operations and may provide a robust pathway to high penetrations of renewables on US power systems. In this report, we design VPPs to provide a range of grid-support services and demonstrate one VPP which simultaneously provides bulk-system energy and ancillary reserves.« less

ERTS-1 applications in hydrology and water resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salomonson, V. V.; Rango, A.

1973-01-01

After having been in orbit for less than one year, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) has shown that it provides very applicable data for more effective monitoring and management of surface water features over the globe. Mapping flooded areas, snowcover, and wetlands and surveying the size, type, and response of glaciers to climate are among the specific areas where ERTS-1 data were applied. In addition the data collection system has proven to be a reliable tool for gathering hydrologic data from remote regions. Turbidity variations in lakes and rivers were also observed and related to shoreline erosion, industrial plant effluent, and overall water quality.

Quality Evaluation Scores are no more Reliable than Gestalt in Evaluating the Quality of Emergency Medicine Blogs: A METRIQ Study.

PubMed

Thoma, Brent; Sebok-Syer, Stefanie S; Colmers-Gray, Isabelle; Sherbino, Jonathan; Ankel, Felix; Trueger, N Seth; Grock, Andrew; Siemens, Marshall; Paddock, Michael; Purdy, Eve; Kenneth Milne, William; Chan, Teresa M

2018-01-30

Construct: We investigated the quality of emergency medicine (EM) blogs as educational resources. Online medical education resources such as blogs are increasingly used by EM trainees and clinicians. However, quality evaluations of these resources using gestalt are unreliable. We investigated the reliability of two previously derived quality evaluation instruments for blogs. Sixty English-language EM websites that published clinically oriented blog posts between January 1 and February 24, 2016, were identified. A random number generator selected 10 websites, and the 2 most recent clinically oriented blog posts from each site were evaluated using gestalt, the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) score, and the Medical Education Translational Resources: Impact and Quality (METRIQ-8) score, by a sample of medical students, EM residents, and EM attendings. Each rater evaluated all 20 blog posts with gestalt and 15 of the 20 blog posts with the ALiEM AIR and METRIQ-8 scores. Pearson's correlations were calculated between the average scores for each metric. Single-measure intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) evaluated the reliability of each instrument. Our study included 121 medical students, 88 EM residents, and 100 EM attendings who completed ratings. The average gestalt rating of each blog post correlated strongly with the average scores for ALiEM AIR (r = .94) and METRIQ-8 (r = .91). Single-measure ICCs were fair for gestalt (0.37, IQR 0.25-0.56), ALiEM AIR (0.41, IQR 0.29-0.60) and METRIQ-8 (0.40, IQR 0.28-0.59). The average scores of each blog post correlated strongly with gestalt ratings. However, neither ALiEM AIR nor METRIQ-8 showed higher reliability than gestalt. Improved reliability may be possible through rater training and instrument refinement.

Right place of human resource management in the reform of health sector.

PubMed

Hassani, Seyed Abas; Mobaraki, Hossein; Bayat, Maboubeh; Mafimoradi, Shiva

2013-01-01

In this paper the real role and place of human resource (HR) in health system reform will be discussed and determined within the whole system through the comprehensive Human Resource Management (HRM) model. Delphi survey and a questionnaire were used to 1) collect HR manager ideas and comments and 2) identify the main challenges of HRM. Then the results were discussed in an expert panel after being analyzed by content analysis method. Also, a deep focus study of recorded documents related to Health Human Resource Management was done. Then based on all achieved results, a rich picture was drawn to illustrate the right place of HRM in health sector. Finally, the authors revitalize the missed function of HRM within the health sector by drawing a holistic conceptual model. The most percentage of frequency about HR belongs to "Lack of reliable HR information system" (91%) and the least percentage of frequency belongs to "Low responsibility of HR" (28%). The most percentage of frequency about HR manager belongs to "Inattention to HR managers as key managers and consider them in background" (80%) and the least percentage of frequency belongs to "Lack of coordination between universities' policies" (30%). According to the conceptual framework, human resources employed in health system are viewed from two comprehensive approaches: instrumental approach and institutional. Unlike the common belief that looks HRM through the supportive approach, it is discussed that HRM not only has an instrumental role, but also do have a driver role.

Innovative safety valve selection techniques and data.

PubMed

Miller, Curt; Bredemyer, Lindsey

2007-04-11

The new valve data resources and modeling tools that are available today are instrumental in verifying that that safety levels are being met in both current installations and project designs. If the new ISA 84 functional safety practices are followed closely, good industry validated data used, and a user's maintenance integrity program strictly enforced, plants should feel confident that their design has been quantitatively reinforced. After 2 years of exhaustive reliability studies, there are now techniques and data available to support this safety system component deficiency. Everyone who has gone through the process of safety integrity level (SIL) verification (i.e. reliability math) will appreciate the progress made in this area. The benefits of these advancements are improved safety with lower lifecycle costs such as lower capital investment and/or longer testing intervals. This discussion will start with a review of the different valve, actuator, and solenoid/positioner combinations that can be used and their associated application restraints. Failure rate reliability studies (i.e. FMEDA) and data associated with the final combinations will then discussed. Finally, the impact of the selections on each safety system's SIL verification will be reviewed.

Key Residential Building Equipment Technologies for Control and Grid Support PART I (Residential)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Starke, Michael R; Onar, Omer C; DeVault, Robert C

2011-09-01

Electrical energy consumption of the residential sector is a crucial area of research that has in the past primarily focused on increasing the efficiency of household devices such as water heaters, dishwashers, air conditioners, and clothes washer and dryer units. However, the focus of this research is shifting as objectives such as developing the smart grid and ensuring that the power system remains reliable come to the fore, along with the increasing need to reduce energy use and costs. Load research has started to focus on mechanisms to support the power system through demand reduction and/or reliability services. The powermore » system relies on matching generation and load, and day-ahead and real-time energy markets capture most of this need. However, a separate set of grid services exist to address the discrepancies in load and generation arising from contingencies and operational mismatches, and to ensure that the transmission system is available for delivery of power from generation to load. Currently, these grid services are mostly provided by generation resources. The addition of renewable resources with their inherent variability can complicate the issue of power system reliability and lead to the increased need for grid services. Using load as a resource, through demand response programs, can fill the additional need for flexible resources and even reduce costly energy peaks. Loads have been shown to have response that is equal to or better than generation in some cases. Furthermore, price-incentivized demand response programs have been shown to reduce the peak energy requirements, thereby affecting the wholesale market efficiency and overall energy prices. The residential sector is not only the largest consumer of electrical energy in the United States, but also has the highest potential to provide demand reduction and power system support, as technological advancements in load control, sensor technologies, and communication are made. The prevailing loads based on the largest electrical energy consumers in the residential sector are space heating and cooling, washer and dryer, water heating, lighting, computers and electronics, dishwasher and range, and refrigeration. As the largest loads, these loads provide the highest potential for delivering demand response and reliability services. Many residential loads have inherent flexibility that is related to the purpose of the load. Depending on the load type, electric power consumption levels can either be ramped, changed in a step-change fashion, or completely removed. Loads with only on-off capability (such as clothes washers and dryers) provide less flexibility than resources that can be ramped or step-changed. Add-on devices may be able to provide extra demand response capabilities. Still, operating residential loads effectively requires awareness of the delicate balance of occupants health and comfort and electrical energy consumption. This report is Phase I of a series of reports aimed at identifying gaps in automated home energy management systems for incorporation of building appliances, vehicles, and renewable adoption into a smart grid, specifically with the intent of examining demand response and load factor control for power system support. The objective is to capture existing gaps in load control, energy management systems, and sensor technology with consideration of PHEV and renewable technologies to establish areas of research for the Department of Energy. In this report, (1) data is collected and examined from state of the art homes to characterize the primary residential loads as well as PHEVs and photovoltaic for potential adoption into energy management control strategies; and (2) demand response rules and requirements across the various demand response programs are examined for potential participation of residential loads. This report will be followed by a Phase II report aimed at identifying the current state of technology of energy management systems, sensors, and communication technologies for demand response and load factor control applications for the residential sector. The purpose is to cover the gaps that exist in the information captured by the sensors for energy management system to be able to provide demand response and load factor control. The vision is the development of an energy management system or other controlling enterprise hardware and software that is not only able to control loads, PHEVs, and renewable generation for demand response and load factor control, but also to do so with consumer comforts in mind and in an optimal fashion.« less

National Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data. U.S. Geological Survey Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations, Book 9

USGS Publications Warehouse

2015-01-01

The mission of the Water Resources Discipline of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is to provide the information and understanding needed for wise management of the Nation's water resources. Inherent in this mission is the responsibility to collect data that accurately describe the physical, chemical, and biological attributes of water systems. These data are used for environmental and resource assessments by the USGS, other government agenices and scientific organizations, and the general public. Reliable and quality-assured data are essential to the credibility and impartiality of the water-resources appraisals carried out by the USGS. The development and use of a National Field Manual is necessary to achieve consistency in the scientific methods and procedures used, to document those methods and procedures, and to maintain technical expertise. USGS field personnel use this manual to ensure that the data collected are of the quality required to fulfill our mission.

NSI operations center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zanley, Nancy L.

1991-01-01

The NASA Science Internet (NSI) Network Operations Staff is responsible for providing reliable communication connectivity for the NASA science community. As the NSI user community expands, so does the demand for greater interoperability with users and resources on other networks (e.g., NSFnet, ESnet), both nationally and internationally. Coupled with the science community's demand for greater access to other resources is the demand for more reliable communication connectivity. Recognizing this, the NASA Science Internet Project Office (NSIPO) expands its Operations activities. By January 1990, Network Operations was equipped with a telephone hotline, and its staff was expanded to six Network Operations Analysts. These six analysts provide 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week coverage to assist site managers with problem determination and resolution. The NSI Operations staff monitors network circuits and their associated routers. In most instances, NSI Operations diagnoses and reports problems before users realize a problem exists. Monitoring of the NSI TCP/IP Network is currently being done with Proteon's Overview monitoring system. The Overview monitoring system displays a map of the NSI network utilizing various colors to indicate the conditions of the components being monitored. Each node or site is polled via the Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP). If a circuit goes down, Overview alerts the Network Operations staff with an audible alarm and changes the color of the component. When an alert is received, Network Operations personnel immediately verify and diagnose the problem, coordinate repair with other networking service groups, track problems, and document problem and resolution into a trouble ticket data base. NSI Operations offers the NSI science community reliable connectivity by exercising prompt assessment and resolution of network problems.

Optimal Control of Distributed Energy Resources using Model Predictive Control

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mayhorn, Ebony T.; Kalsi, Karanjit; Elizondo, Marcelo A.

2012-07-22

In an isolated power system (rural microgrid), Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as renewable energy resources (wind, solar), energy storage and demand response can be used to complement fossil fueled generators. The uncertainty and variability due to high penetration of wind makes reliable system operations and controls challenging. In this paper, an optimal control strategy is proposed to coordinate energy storage and diesel generators to maximize wind penetration while maintaining system economics and normal operation. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem with the goals of minimizing fuel costs and changes in power output of diesel generators, minimizingmore » costs associated with low battery life of energy storage and maintaining system frequency at the nominal operating value. Two control modes are considered for controlling the energy storage to compensate either net load variability or wind variability. Model predictive control (MPC) is used to solve the aforementioned problem and the performance is compared to an open-loop look-ahead dispatch problem. Simulation studies using high and low wind profiles, as well as, different MPC prediction horizons demonstrate the efficacy of the closed-loop MPC in compensating for uncertainties in wind and demand.« less

Development and Reliability Evaluation of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Video Game Play.

PubMed

Levac, Danielle; Nawrotek, Joanna; Deschenes, Emilie; Giguere, Tia; Serafin, Julie; Bilodeau, Martin; Sveistrup, Heidi

2016-06-01

Virtual reality active video games are increasingly popular physical therapy interventions for children with cerebral palsy. However, physical therapists require educational resources to support decision making about game selection to match individual patient goals. Quantifying the movements elicited during virtual reality active video game play can inform individualized game selection in pediatric rehabilitation. The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the feasibility and reliability of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Game Play (MRI-VRGP). Item generation occurred through an iterative process of literature review and sample videotape viewing. The MRI-VRGP includes 25 items quantifying upper extremity, lower extremity, and total body movements. A total of 176 videotaped 90-second game play sessions involving 7 typically developing children and 4 children with cerebral palsy were rated by 3 raters trained in MRI-VRGP use. Children played 8 games on 2 virtual reality and active video game systems. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) determined intra-rater and interrater reliability. Excellent intrarater reliability was evidenced by ICCs of >0.75 for 17 of the 25 items across the 3 raters. Interrater reliability estimates were less precise. Excellent interrater reliability was achieved for far reach upper extremity movements (ICC=0.92 [for right and ICC=0.90 for left) and for squat (ICC=0.80) and jump items (ICC=0.99), with 9 items achieving ICCs of >0.70, 12 items achieving ICCs of between 0.40 and 0.70, and 4 items achieving poor reliability (close-reach upper extremity-ICC=0.14 for right and ICC=0.07 for left) and single-leg stance (ICC=0.55 for right and ICC=0.27 for left). Poor video quality, differing item interpretations between raters, and difficulty quantifying the high-speed movements involved in game play affected reliability. With item definition clarification and further psychometric property evaluation, the MRI-VRGP could inform the content of educational resources for therapists by ranking games according to frequency and type of elicited body movements.

Development and Reliability Evaluation of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Video Game Play

PubMed Central

Nawrotek, Joanna; Deschenes, Emilie; Giguere, Tia; Serafin, Julie; Bilodeau, Martin; Sveistrup, Heidi

2016-01-01

Background Virtual reality active video games are increasingly popular physical therapy interventions for children with cerebral palsy. However, physical therapists require educational resources to support decision making about game selection to match individual patient goals. Quantifying the movements elicited during virtual reality active video game play can inform individualized game selection in pediatric rehabilitation. Objective The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the feasibility and reliability of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Game Play (MRI-VRGP). Methods Item generation occurred through an iterative process of literature review and sample videotape viewing. The MRI-VRGP includes 25 items quantifying upper extremity, lower extremity, and total body movements. A total of 176 videotaped 90-second game play sessions involving 7 typically developing children and 4 children with cerebral palsy were rated by 3 raters trained in MRI-VRGP use. Children played 8 games on 2 virtual reality and active video game systems. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) determined intra-rater and interrater reliability. Results Excellent intrarater reliability was evidenced by ICCs of >0.75 for 17 of the 25 items across the 3 raters. Interrater reliability estimates were less precise. Excellent interrater reliability was achieved for far reach upper extremity movements (ICC=0.92 [for right and ICC=0.90 for left) and for squat (ICC=0.80) and jump items (ICC=0.99), with 9 items achieving ICCs of >0.70, 12 items achieving ICCs of between 0.40 and 0.70, and 4 items achieving poor reliability (close-reach upper extremity-ICC=0.14 for right and ICC=0.07 for left) and single-leg stance (ICC=0.55 for right and ICC=0.27 for left). Conclusions Poor video quality, differing item interpretations between raters, and difficulty quantifying the high-speed movements involved in game play affected reliability. With item definition clarification and further psychometric property evaluation, the MRI-VRGP could inform the content of educational resources for therapists by ranking games according to frequency and type of elicited body movements. PMID:27251029

Demonstration of a Variable Phase Turbine Power System for Low Temperature Geothermal Resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hays, Lance G

2014-07-07

A variable phase turbine assembly will be designed and manufactured having a turbine, operable with transcritical, two-phase or vapor flow, and a generator – on the same shaft supported by process lubricated bearings. The assembly will be hermetically sealed and the generator cooled by the refrigerant. A compact plate-fin heat exchanger or tube and shell heat exchanger will be used to transfer heat from the geothermal fluid to the refrigerant. The demonstration turbine will be operated separately with two-phase flow and with vapor flow to demonstrate performance and applicability to the entire range of low temperature geothermal resources. The vapormore » leaving the turbine is condensed in a plate-fin refrigerant condenser. The heat exchanger, variable phase turbine assembly and condenser are all mounted on single skids to enable factory assembly and checkout and minimize installation costs. The system will be demonstrated using low temperature (237F) well flow from an existing large geothermal field. The net power generated, 1 megawatt, will be fed into the existing power system at the demonstration site. The system will demonstrate reliable generation of inexpensive power from low temperature resources. The system will be designed for mass manufacturing and factory assembly and should cost less than $1,200/kWe installed, when manufactured in large quantities. The estimated cost of power for 300F resources is predicted to be less than 5 cents/kWh. This should enable a substantial increase in power generated from low temperature geothermal resources.« less

Electric Power Infrastructure Reliability and Security (EPIRS) Reseach and Development Initiative

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rick Meeker; L. Baldwin; Steinar Dale

2010-03-31

Power systems have become increasingly complex and face unprecedented challenges posed by population growth, climate change, national security issues, foreign energy dependence and an aging power infrastructure. Increased demand combined with increased economic and environmental constraints is forcing state, regional and national power grids to expand supply without the large safety and stability margins in generation and transmission capacity that have been the rule in the past. Deregulation, distributed generation, natural and man-made catastrophes and other causes serve to further challenge and complicate management of the electric power grid. To meet the challenges of the 21st century while also maintainingmore » system reliability, the electric power grid must effectively integrate new and advanced technologies both in the actual equipment for energy conversion, transfer and use, and in the command, control, and communication systems by which effective and efficient operation of the system is orchestrated - in essence, the 'smart grid'. This evolution calls for advances in development, integration, analysis, and deployment approaches that ultimately seek to take into account, every step of the way, the dynamic behavior of the system, capturing critical effects due to interdependencies and interaction. This approach is necessary to better mitigate the risk of blackouts and other disruptions and to improve the flexibility and capacity of the grid. Building on prior Navy and Department of Energy investments in infrastructure and resources for electric power systems research, testing, modeling, and simulation at the Florida State University (FSU) Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), this project has continued an initiative aimed at assuring reliable and secure grid operation through a more complete understanding and characterization of some of the key technologies that will be important in a modern electric system, while also fulfilling an education and outreach mission to provide future energy workforce talent and support the electric system stakeholder community. Building upon and extending portions of that research effort, this project has been focused in the following areas: (1) Building high-fidelity integrated power and controls hardware-in-the-loop research and development testbed capabilities (Figure 1). (2) Distributed Energy Resources Integration - (a) Testing Requirements and Methods for Fault Current Limiters, (b) Contributions to the Development of IEEE 1547.7, (c) Analysis of a STATCOM Application for Wind Resource Integration, (d) Development of a Grid-Interactive Inverter with Energy Storage Elements, (e) Simulation-Assisted Advancement of Microgrid Understanding and Applications; (3) Availability of High-Fidelity Dynamic Simulation Tools for Grid Disturbance Investigations; (4) HTS Material Characterization - (a) AC Loss Studies on High Temperature Superconductors, (b) Local Identification of Current-Limiting Mechanisms in Coated Conductors; (5) Cryogenic Dielectric Research; and (6) Workshops, education, and outreach.« less

Risk, Reliability and Resilience: Phytolith Evidence for Alternative ‘Neolithization’ Pathways at Kharaneh IV in the Azraq Basin, Jordan

PubMed Central

Ramsey, Monica N.

2016-01-01

‘Neolithization’ pathway refers to the development of adaptations that characterized subsequent Neolithic life, sedentary occupations, and agriculture. In the Levant, the origins of these human behaviors are widely argued to have emerged during the Early Epipaleolithic (ca. 23 ka cal BP). Consequently, there has been a pre-occupation with identifying and modeling the dietary shift to cereal and grains during this period, which is considered to have been a key development that facilitated increasing sedentism and, eventually, agriculture. Yet, direct evidence of plant use in the form of macrobotanical remains is extremely limited at Epipaleolithic sites and the expected ‘Neolithization’ pathway has not been robustly demonstrated. However, new direct microbotanical phytolith evidence from the large aggregation site of Kharaneh IV, in the Azraq Basin, suggests that increasingly settled occupation was not the result of wild grass and cereal use, but rather the result of a typical hunter-gatherer balance, based on the use of mostly reliable resources supplemented by some risky resources. Moreover, and illustrating this balance, the direct botanical evidence emphases the importance of the wetlands as an under-recognized reliable plant resource. Significantly, the use of these reliable wetland plant resources at Kharaneh IV represents an unexpected ‘Neolithization’ pathway. PMID:27760164

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schneider, Kevin; Tuffner, Frank; Elizondo, Marcelo

Regulated electricity utilities are required to provide safe and reliable service to their customers at a reasonable cost. To balance the objectives of reliable service and reasonable cost, utilities build and operate their systems to operate under typical historic conditions. As a result, when abnormal events such as major storms or disasters occur, it is not uncommon to have extensive interruptions in service to the end-use customers. Because it is not cost effective to make the existing electrical infrastructure 100% reliable, society has come to expect disruptions during abnormal events. However, with the increasing number of abnormal weather events, themore » public is becoming less tolerant of these disruptions. One possible solution is to deploy microgrids as part of a coordinated resiliency plan to minimize the interruption of power to essential loads. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using microgrids as a resiliency resource, including their possible benefits and the associated technical challenges. A use-case of an operational microgrid is included.« less

Microgrids and distributed generation systems: Control, operation, coordination and planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Che, Liang

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) which include distributed generations (DGs), distributed energy storage systems, and adjustable loads are key components in microgrid operations. A microgrid is a small electric power system integrated with on-site DERs to serve all or some portion of the local load and connected to the utility grid through the point of common coupling (PCC). Microgrids can operate in both grid-connected mode and island mode. The structure and components of hierarchical control for a microgrid at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) are discussed and analyzed. Case studies would address the reliable and economic operation of IIT microgrid. The simulation results of IIT microgrid operation demonstrate that the hierarchical control and the coordination strategy of distributed energy resources (DERs) is an effective way of optimizing the economic operation and the reliability of microgrids. The benefits and challenges of DC microgrids are addressed with a DC model for the IIT microgrid. We presented the hierarchical control strategy including the primary, secondary, and tertiary controls for economic operation and the resilience of a DC microgrid. The simulation results verify that the proposed coordinated strategy is an effective way of ensuring the resilient response of DC microgrids to emergencies and optimizing their economic operation at steady state. The concept and prototype of a community microgrid that interconnecting multiple microgrids in a community are proposed. Two works are conducted. For the coordination, novel three-level hierarchical coordination strategy to coordinate the optimal power exchanges among neighboring microgrids is proposed. For the planning, a multi-microgrid interconnection planning framework using probabilistic minimal cut-set (MCS) based iterative methodology is proposed for enhancing the economic, resilience, and reliability signals in multi-microgrid operations. The implementation of high-reliability microgrids requires proper protection schemes that effectively function in both grid-connected and island modes. This chapter presents a communication-assisted four-level hierarchical protection strategy for high-reliability microgrids, and tests the proposed protection strategy based on a loop structured microgrid. The simulation results demonstrate the proposed strategy to be an effective and efficient option for microgrid protection. Additionally, microgrid topology ought to be optimally planned. To address the microgrid topology planning, a graph-partitioning and integer-programming integrated methodology is proposed. This work is not included in the dissertation. Interested readers can refer to our related publication.

Development of an intensive care unit resource assessment survey for the care of critically ill patients in resource-limited settings.

PubMed

Leligdowicz, Aleksandra; Bhagwanjee, Satish; Diaz, Janet V; Xiong, Wei; Marshall, John C; Fowler, Robert A; Adhikari, Neill Kj

2017-04-01

Capacity to provide critical care in resource-limited settings is poorly understood because of lack of data about resources available to manage critically ill patients. Our objective was to develop a survey to address this issue. We developed and piloted a cross-sectional self-administered survey in 9 resource-limited countries. The survey consisted of 8 domains; specific items within domains were modified from previously developed survey tools. We distributed the survey by e-mail to a convenience sample of health care providers responsible for providing care to critically ill patients. We assessed clinical sensibility and test-retest reliability. Nine of 15 health care providers responded to the survey on 2 separate occasions, separated by 2 to 4 weeks. Clinical sensibility was high (3.9-4.9/5 on assessment tool). Test-retest reliability for questions related to resource availability was acceptable (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.94; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-0.99; mean (SD) of weighted κ values = 0.67 [0.19]). The mean (SD) time for survey completion survey was 21 (16) minutes. A reliable cross-sectional survey of available resources to manage critically ill patients can be feasibly administered to health care providers in resource-limited settings. The survey will inform future research focusing on access to critical care where it is poorly described but urgently needed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Implementation strategies influence the structure, process and outcome of quality systems: an empirical study of hospital departments in Sweden.

PubMed

Kunkel, S; Rosenqvist, U; Westerling, R

2009-02-01

To analyse whether the organisation of quality systems (structure, process, and outcome) is related to how these systems were implemented (implementation prerequisites, cooperation between managers and staff, and source of initiative). A questionnaire was developed, piloted and distributed to 600 hospital departments. Questions were included to reflect implementation prerequisites (adequate resources, competence, problem-solving capacity and high expectations), cooperative implementation, source of initiative (manager, staff and purchaser), structure (resources and administration), process (culture and cooperation) and outcome (goal evaluation and competence development). The adjusted response rate was 75%. Construct validity and reliability was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis, and Cronbach alpha scores were calculated. The relationships among the variables were analysed with structural equation modelling with LISREL. Implementation prerequisites were highly related to structure (0.51) and process (0.33). Cooperative implementation was associated with process (0.26) and outcome (0.34). High manager initiative was related to structure (0.19) and process (0.17). The numbers in parentheses can be interpreted as correlations. Construct validity was good, and reliability was excellent for all factors (Cronbach alpha>0.78). The model was a good representation of reality (model fit p value = 0.082). The implementation of organisationally demanding quality systems may require managers to direct and lead the process while assuring that their staff get opportunities to contribute to the planning and designing of the new system. This would correspond to a cooperative implementation strategy rather than to top-down or bottom-up strategies. The results of this study could be used to adjust implementation processes.

Systematic Evaluation of Stochastic Methods in Power System Scheduling and Dispatch with Renewable Energy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Yishen; Zhou, Zhi; Liu, Cong

2016-08-01

As more wind power and other renewable resources are being integrated into the electric power grid, the forecast uncertainty brings operational challenges for the power system operators. In this report, different operational strategies for uncertainty management are presented and evaluated. A comprehensive and consistent simulation framework is developed to analyze the performance of different reserve policies and scheduling techniques under uncertainty in wind power. Numerical simulations are conducted on a modified version of the IEEE 118-bus system with a 20% wind penetration level, comparing deterministic, interval, and stochastic unit commitment strategies. The results show that stochastic unit commitment provides amore » reliable schedule without large increases in operational costs. Moreover, decomposition techniques, such as load shift factor and Benders decomposition, can help in overcoming the computational obstacles to stochastic unit commitment and enable the use of a larger scenario set to represent forecast uncertainty. In contrast, deterministic and interval unit commitment tend to give higher system costs as more reserves are being scheduled to address forecast uncertainty. However, these approaches require a much lower computational effort Choosing a proper lower bound for the forecast uncertainty is important for balancing reliability and system operational cost in deterministic and interval unit commitment. Finally, we find that the introduction of zonal reserve requirements improves reliability, but at the expense of higher operational costs.« less

On the Development of Speech Resources for the Mixtec Language

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

The Mixtec language is one of the main native languages in Mexico. In general, due to urbanization, discrimination, and limited attempts to promote the culture, the native languages are disappearing. Most of the information available about the Mixtec language is in written form as in dictionaries which, although including examples about how to pronounce the Mixtec words, are not as reliable as listening to the correct pronunciation from a native speaker. Formal acoustic resources, as speech corpora, are almost non-existent for the Mixtec, and no speech technologies are known to have been developed for it. This paper presents the development of the following resources for the Mixtec language: (1) a speech database of traditional narratives of the Mixtec culture spoken by a native speaker (labelled at the phonetic and orthographic levels by means of spectral analysis) and (2) a native speaker-adaptive automatic speech recognition (ASR) system (trained with the speech database) integrated with a Mixtec-to-Spanish/Spanish-to-Mixtec text translator. The speech database, although small and limited to a single variant, was reliable enough to build the multiuser speech application which presented a mean recognition/translation performance up to 94.36% in experiments with non-native speakers (the target users). PMID:23710134

Mobile agent application and integration in electronic anamnesis system.

PubMed

Liu, Chia-Hui; Chung, Yu-Fang; Chen, Tzer-Shyong; Wang, Sheng-De

2012-06-01

Electronic anamnesis is to transform ordinary paper trails to digitally formatted health records, which include the patient's general information, health status, and follow-ups on chronic diseases. Its main purpose is to let the records could be stored for a longer period of time and could be shared easily across departments and hospitals. Which means hospital management could use less resource on maintaining ever-growing database and reduce redundancy, so less money would be spent for managing the health records. In the foreseeable future, building up a comprehensive and integrated medical information system is a must, because it is critical to hospital resource integration and quality improvement. If mobile agent technology is adopted in the electronic anamnesis system, it would help the hospitals to make the medical practices more efficiently and conveniently. Nonetheless, most of the hospitals today are still using paper-based health records to manage the medical information. The reason why the institutions continue using traditional practices to manage the records is because there is no well-trusted and reliable electronic anamnesis system existing and accepted by both institutions and patients. The threat of privacy invasion is one of the biggest concerns when the topic of electronic anamnesis is brought up, because the security threats drag us back from using such a system. So, the medical service quality is difficult to be improved substantially. In this case, we have come up a theory to remove such security threats and make electronic anamnesis more appealing for use. Our theory is to integrate the mobile agent technology with the backbone of electronic anamnesis to construct a hierarchical access control system to retrieve the corresponding information based upon the permission classes. The system would create a classification for permission among the users inside the medical institution. Under this framework, permission control center would distribute an access key to each user, so they would only allow using the key to access information correspondingly. In order to verify the reliability of the proposed system framework, we have also conducted a security analysis to list all the possible security threats that may harm the system and to prove the system is reliable and safe. If the system is adopted, the doctors would be able to quickly access the information while performing medical examinations. Hence, the efficiency and quality of healthcare service would be greatly improved.

Advanced Exploration Systems Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perry, J.; Abney, M.; Conrad, R.; Garber, A.; Howard, D.; Kayatin, M.; Knox, J.; Newton, R.; Parrish, K.; Roman, M.;

Modelling Single Tree Structure with Terrestrial Laser Scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yurtseven, H.; Akgül, M.; Gülci, S.

2017-11-01

Recent technological developments, which has reliable accuracy and quality for all engineering works, such as remote sensing tools have wide range use in forestry applications. Last decade, sustainable use and management opportunities of forest resources are favorite topics. Thus, precision of obtained data plays an important role in evaluation of current status of forests' value. The use of aerial and terrestrial laser technology has more reliable and effective models to advance the appropriate natural resource management. This study investigates the use of terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) technology in forestry, and also the methodological data processing stages for tree volume extraction is explained. Z+F Imager 5010C TLS system was used for measure single tree information such as tree height, diameter of breast height, branch volume and canopy closure. In this context more detailed and accurate data can be obtained than conventional inventory sampling in forestry by using TLS systems. However the accuracy of obtained data is up to the experiences of TLS operator in the field. Number of scan stations and its positions are other important factors to reduce noise effect and accurate 3D modelling. The results indicated that the use of point cloud data to extract tree information for forestry applications are promising methodology for precision forestry.

Embedded real-time operating system micro kernel design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Xiao-hui; Li, Ming-qiang; Wang, Xin-zheng

2005-12-01

Embedded systems usually require a real-time character. Base on an 8051 microcontroller, an embedded real-time operating system micro kernel is proposed consisting of six parts, including a critical section process, task scheduling, interruption handle, semaphore and message mailbox communication, clock managent and memory managent. Distributed CPU and other resources are among tasks rationally according to the importance and urgency. The design proposed here provides the position, definition, function and principle of micro kernel. The kernel runs on the platform of an ATMEL AT89C51 microcontroller. Simulation results prove that the designed micro kernel is stable and reliable and has quick response while operating in an application system.

Use of software engineering techniques in the design of the ALEPH data acquisition system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charity, T.; McClatchey, R.; Harvey, J.

1987-08-01

The SASD methodology is being used to provide a rigorous design framework for various components of the ALEPH data acquisition system. The Entity-Relationship data model is used to describe the layout and configuration of the control and acquisition systems and detector components. State Transition Diagrams are used to specify control applications such as run control and resource management and Data Flow Diagrams assist in decomposing software tasks and defining interfaces between processes. These techniques encourage rigorous software design leading to enhanced functionality and reliability. Improved documentation and communication ensures continuity over the system life-cycle and simplifies project management.

Management of the Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roman, Monsi; Perry, Jay; Howard, David

2013-01-01

The Advanced Exploration Systems Program's Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project is working to further optimize atmosphere revitalization and environmental monitoring system architectures. This paper discusses project management strategies that tap into skill sets across multiple engineering disciplines, projects, field centers, and industry to achieve the project success. It is the project's objective to contribute to system advances that will enable sustained exploration missions beyond Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) and improve affordability by focusing on the primary goals of achieving high reliability, improving efficiency, and reducing dependence on ground-based logistics resupply. Technology demonstrations are achieved by infusing new technologies and concepts with existing developmental hardware and operating in a controlled environment simulating various crewed habitat scenarios. The ARREM project's strengths include access to a vast array of existing developmental hardware that perform all the vital atmosphere revitalization functions, exceptional test facilities to fully evaluate system performance, and a well-coordinated partnering effort among the NASA field centers and industry partners to provide the innovative expertise necessary to succeed.

Theoretical Framework for Integrating Distributed Energy Resources into Distribution Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lian, Jianming; Wu, Di; Kalsi, Karanjit

This paper focuses on developing a novel theoretical framework for effective coordination and control of a large number of distributed energy resources in distribution systems in order to more reliably manage the future U.S. electric power grid under the high penetration of renewable generation. The proposed framework provides a systematic view of the overall structure of the future distribution systems along with the underlying information flow, functional organization, and operational procedures. It is characterized by the features of being open, flexible and interoperable with the potential to support dynamic system configuration. Under the proposed framework, the energy consumption of variousmore » DERs is coordinated and controlled in a hierarchical way by using market-based approaches. The real-time voltage control is simultaneously considered to complement the real power control in order to keep nodal voltages stable within acceptable ranges during real time. In addition, computational challenges associated with the proposed framework are also discussed with recommended practices.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eto, Joseph H.; Stewart, Emma M.; Smith, Travis

This report addresses the potential use of phasor measurement units (PMUs) within electricity distribution systems, and was written to assess whether or not PMUs could provide significant benefit, at the national level. We analyze examples of present and emerging distribution-system issues related to reliability, integration of distributed energy resources, and the changing electrical characteristics of load. We find that PMUs offer important and irreplaceable advantages over present approaches. However, we also find that additional research and development for standards, testing and calibration, demonstration projects, and information sharing is needed to help industry capture these benefits.

NREL’s Controllable Grid Interface Saves Time and Resources, Improves Reliability of Renewable Energy Technologies; NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) controllable grid interface (CGI) test system at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) is one of two user facilities at NREL capable of testing and analyzing the integration of megawatt-scale renewable energy systems. The CGI specializes in testing of multimegawatt-scale wind and photovoltaic (PV) technologies as well as energy storage devices, transformers, control and protection equipment at medium-voltage levels, allowing the determination of the grid impacts of the tested technology.

System Risk Balancing Profiles: Software Component

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelly, John C.; Sigal, Burton C.; Gindorf, Tom

2000-01-01

The Software QA / V&V guide will be reviewed and updated based on feedback from NASA organizations and others with a vested interest in this area. Hardware, EEE Parts, Reliability, and Systems Safety are a sample of the future guides that will be developed. Cost Estimates, Lessons Learned, Probability of Failure and PACTS (Prevention, Avoidance, Control or Test) are needed to provide a more complete risk management strategy. This approach to risk management is designed to help balance the resources and program content for risk reduction for NASA's changing environment.

The Standard Autonomous File Server, a Customized, Off-the-Shelf Success Story

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Semancik, Susan K.; Conger, Annette M.; Obenschain, Arthur F. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The Standard Autonomous File Server (SAFS), which includes both off-the-shelf hardware and software, uses an improved automated file transfer process to provide a quicker, more reliable, prioritized file distribution for customers of near real-time data without interfering with the assets involved in the acquisition and processing of the data. It operates as a stand-alone solution, monitoring itself, and providing an automated fail-over process to enhance reliability. This paper will describe the unique problems and lessons learned both during the COTS selection and integration into SAFS, and the system's first year of operation in support of NASA's satellite ground network. COTS was the key factor in allowing the two-person development team to deploy systems in less than a year, meeting the required launch schedule. The SAFS system his been so successful, it is becoming a NASA standard resource, leading to its nomination for NASA's Software or the Year Award in 1999.

Combining Machine Learning Systems and Multiple Docking Simulation Packages to Improve Docking Prediction Reliability for Network Pharmacology

PubMed Central

Hsin, Kun-Yi; Ghosh, Samik; Kitano, Hiroaki

2013-01-01

Increased availability of bioinformatics resources is creating opportunities for the application of network pharmacology to predict drug effects and toxicity resulting from multi-target interactions. Here we present a high-precision computational prediction approach that combines two elaborately built machine learning systems and multiple molecular docking tools to assess binding potentials of a test compound against proteins involved in a complex molecular network. One of the two machine learning systems is a re-scoring function to evaluate binding modes generated by docking tools. The second is a binding mode selection function to identify the most predictive binding mode. Results from a series of benchmark validations and a case study show that this approach surpasses the prediction reliability of other techniques and that it also identifies either primary or off-targets of kinase inhibitors. Integrating this approach with molecular network maps makes it possible to address drug safety issues by comprehensively investigating network-dependent effects of a drug or drug candidate. PMID:24391846

Developing an Internet-based Communication System for Residency Training Programs

PubMed Central

Fortin, Auguste H; Luzzi, Kristina; Galaty, Leslie; Wong, Jeffrey G; Huot, Stephen J

2002-01-01

Administrative communication is increasingly challenging for residency programs as the number of training sites expands. The Internet provides a cost-effective opportunity to address these needs. Using the World Wide Web, we developed a single, reliable, accurate, and accessible source of administrative information for residents, faculty, and staff in a multisite internal medicine residency at reduced costs. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the website was determined by tracking website use, materials and personnel costs, and resident, staff, and faculty satisfaction. Office supply and personnel costs were reduced by 89% and personnel effort by 85%. All users were highly satisfied with the web communication tool and all reported increased knowledge of program information and a greater sense of “connectedness.” We conclude that an internet-based communication system that provides a single, reliable, accurate, and accessible source of information for residents, faculty, and staff can be developed with minimum resources and reduced costs. PMID:11972724

Investigation of Desiccants and CO2 Sorbents for Exploration Systems 2016-2017

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knox, James C.; Watson, David W.; Giesy, Timothy J.; Cmarik, Gregory E.; Miller, Lee A.

2017-01-01

NASA has embarked on the mission to enable humans to explore deep space, including the goal of sending humans to Mars. This journey will require significant developments in a wide range of technical areas as resupply and early return are not possible. Additionally, mass, power, and volume must be minimized for all phases to maximize propulsion availability. Among the critical areas identified for development are life support systems, which will require increases in reliability as well as reduce resource usage. Two primary points for reliability are the mechanical stability of sorbent pellets and recovery of CO2 sorbent productivity after off-nominal events. In this paper, we discuss the present efforts towards screening and characterizing commercially-available sorbents for extended operation in desiccant and CO2 removal beds. With minimized dusting as the primary criteria, a commercial 13X zeolite was selected and tested for performance and risk.

NDE research efforts at the FAA Center for Aviation Systems Reliability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Donald O.; Brasche, Lisa J. H.

1992-01-01

The Federal Aviation Administration-Center for Aviation Systems Reliability (FAA-CASR), a part of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology at Iowa State University, began operation in the Fall of 1990 with funding from the FAA. The mission of the FAA-CASR is to develop quantitative nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods for aircraft structures and materials including prototype instrumentation, software, techniques, and procedures and to develop and maintain comprehensive education and training programs in aviation specific inspection procedures and practices. To accomplish this mission, FAA-CASR brings together resources from universities, government, and industry to develop a comprehensive approach to problems specific to the aviation industry. The problem areas are targeted by the FAA, aviation manufacturers, the airline industry and other members of the aviation business community. This consortium approach ensures that the focus of the efforts is on relevant problems and also facilitates effective transfer of the results to industry.

Integrating Solar PV in Utility System Operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mills, A.; Botterud, A.; Wu, J.

2013-10-31

This study develops a systematic framework for estimating the increase in operating costs due to uncertainty and variability in renewable resources, uses the framework to quantify the integration costs associated with sub-hourly solar power variability and uncertainty, and shows how changes in system operations may affect these costs. Toward this end, we present a statistical method for estimating the required balancing reserves to maintain system reliability along with a model for commitment and dispatch of the portfolio of thermal and renewable resources at different stages of system operations. We estimate the costs of sub-hourly solar variability, short-term forecast errors, andmore » day-ahead (DA) forecast errors as the difference in production costs between a case with “realistic” PV (i.e., subhourly solar variability and uncertainty are fully included in the modeling) and a case with “well behaved” PV (i.e., PV is assumed to have no sub-hourly variability and can be perfectly forecasted). In addition, we highlight current practices that allow utilities to compensate for the issues encountered at the sub-hourly time frame with increased levels of PV penetration. In this analysis we use the analytical framework to simulate utility operations with increasing deployment of PV in a case study of Arizona Public Service Company (APS), a utility in the southwestern United States. In our analysis, we focus on three processes that are important in understanding the management of PV variability and uncertainty in power system operations. First, we represent the decisions made the day before the operating day through a DA commitment model that relies on imperfect DA forecasts of load and wind as well as PV generation. Second, we represent the decisions made by schedulers in the operating day through hour-ahead (HA) scheduling. Peaking units can be committed or decommitted in the HA schedules and online units can be redispatched using forecasts that are improved relative to DA forecasts, but still imperfect. Finally, we represent decisions within the operating hour by schedulers and transmission system operators as real-time (RT) balancing. We simulate the DA and HA scheduling processes with a detailed unit-commitment (UC) and economic dispatch (ED) optimization model. This model creates a least-cost dispatch and commitment plan for the conventional generating units using forecasts and reserve requirements as inputs. We consider only the generation units and load of the utility in this analysis; we do not consider opportunities to trade power with neighboring utilities. We also do not consider provision of reserves from renewables or from demand-side options. We estimate dynamic reserve requirements in order to meet reliability requirements in the RT operations, considering the uncertainty and variability in load, solar PV, and wind resources. Balancing reserve requirements are based on the 2.5th and 97.5th percentile of 1-min deviations from the HA schedule in a previous year. We then simulate RT deployment of balancing reserves using a separate minute-by-minute simulation of deviations from the HA schedules in the operating year. In the simulations we assume that balancing reserves can be fully deployed in 10 min. The minute-by-minute deviations account for HA forecasting errors and the actual variability of the load, wind, and solar generation. Using these minute-by-minute deviations and deployment of balancing reserves, we evaluate the impact of PV on system reliability through the calculation of the standard reliability metric called Control Performance Standard 2 (CPS2). Broadly speaking, the CPS2 score measures the percentage of 10-min periods in which a balancing area is able to balance supply and demand within a specific threshold. Compliance with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards requires that the CPS2 score must exceed 90% (i.e., the balancing area must maintain adequate balance for 90% of the 10-min periods). The combination of representing DA forecast errors in the DA commitments, using 1-min PV data to simulate RT balancing, and estimates of reliability performance through the CPS2 metric, all factors that are important to operating systems with increasing amounts of PV, makes this study unique in its scope.« less

Developing an Approach for Analyzing and Verifying System Communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stratton, William C.; Lindvall, Mikael; Ackermann, Chris; Sibol, Deane E.; Godfrey, Sally

2009-01-01

This slide presentation reviews a project for developing an approach for analyzing and verifying the inter system communications. The motivation for the study was that software systems in the aerospace domain are inherently complex, and operate under tight constraints for resources, so that systems of systems must communicate with each other to fulfill the tasks. The systems of systems requires reliable communications. The technical approach was to develop a system, DynSAVE, that detects communication problems among the systems. The project enhanced the proven Software Architecture Visualization and Evaluation (SAVE) tool to create Dynamic SAVE (DynSAVE). The approach monitors and records low level network traffic, converting low level traffic into meaningful messages, and displays the messages in a way the issues can be detected.

75 FR 65964 - Version One Regional Reliability Standard for Resource and Demand Balancing

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-27

... Standard developed by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and approved by the North American... Electricity Coordinating Council 6 C. WECC Regional Reliability Standard BAL-002-WECC-1... 9 II. Discussion 14... Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) and approved by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation...

78 FR 63172 - Commission Information Collection Activities (FERC-733); Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-23

... Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and EIA, to fielding and collecting data using a FERC designed... Commission in time to complete the 2014 report to Congress. NERC, as the Electric Reliability Organization... dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources that it needs to conduct its reliability work. Reporting demand...

[Computerization and the importance of information in health system, as in health care resources registry].

PubMed

Troselj, Mario; Fanton, Davor

2005-01-01

The possibilities of creating a health care resources registry and its operating in Croatia as well as the importance of information in health system are described. At the Croatian Institute of Public Health, monitoring of human resources is performed through the national Health Workers Registry. It also covers basic data on all health units, bed capacities of health facilities included. The initiated health care computerization has urged the idea of forming one more database on physical resources, i.e. on registered medical devices and equipment, more complete. Linking these databases on health resources would produce a single Health Care Resources Registry. The concept views Health Care Resources Registry as part of the overall health information system with centralized information on the health system. The planned development of segments of a single health information system is based on the implementation of the accepted international standards and common network services. Network services that are based on verified Internet technologies are used within a safe, reliable and closed health computer network, which makes up the health intranet (WAN--Wide Area Network). The resource registry is a software solution based on the relational database that monitors history, thus permitting the data collected over a longer period to be analyzed. Such a solution assumes the existence of a directory service, which would replace the current independent software for the Health Workers Registry. In the Health Care Resources Registry, the basic data set encompasses data objects and attributes from the directory service. The directory service is compatible with the LDAP protocol (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), providing services uniformly to the current records on human and physical resources. Through the storage of attributes defined according to the HL7 (Health Level Seven) standard, directory service is accessible to all applications of the health information system. Directory service does not follow the history of attribute changes, and is optimized for a large number of authorizing inquiries. With it, one follows the following objects and attributes: persons, groups of people (patients, physicians, other personnel), roles (right of access and administrator permissions), organizational units, unit locations, devices and services (according to the list of services and procedures). One can add to the Health Care Resource Registry such attributes as are nonessential for inclusion in the directory service, but are of public health value. Authentication, authorization and digital signature are done by means of Smart Cards, which are used as protective elements against access to system functions, and simultaneously as a physical medium for the storage of the official certificate with which documents are signed digitally. As FINA (state financial control agency) has completed a system for certificate issuance and verification, the option of official digital signature is also available as a computer network service. Any changes taking place in the directory service are transferred by XML messages to a separate part of the Registry that reads them and automatically modifies records in the relational database. Because data input and data changes are made in health units, this makes the data updated and directly connected with health working operations. This avoids all one-time data collection campaigns using form filling about the devices and equipment in the future. As it is very difficult to monitor from a central standpoint how accurate and update the information is, it is necessary to delegate the permissions and duties associated with making changes to the directory service. By this organizational setup, the time needed to ensure data quality control is reduced. In the case described, the Health Care Resource Registry becomes an indicator of change, acquiring certain characteristics of an analytical system. An analysis of topical data renders possible proactive action and makes more effective the planning and utilization of available resources. Providing answers on the current data quickly could also be important to solution-seeking in emergencies. The present proposal to establish the Registry is intended to facilitate the future process of planning and striking a balance between investments in human and physical resources. For health expenditure control, having reliable information related to the use and purchase of new medical technology is particularly important. World Health Organization and European Union have also emphasized the need to develop new indicators in this area.

Foundational Report Series: Advanced Distribution Management Systems for Grid Modernization, Business Case Calculations for DMS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Xiaonan; Singh, Ravindra; Wang, Jianhui

Distribution Management System (DMS) applications require a substantial commitment of technical and financial resources. In order to proceed beyond limited-scale demonstration projects, utilities must have a clear understanding of the business case for committing these resources that recognizes the total cost of ownership. Many of the benefits provided by investments in DMSs do not translate easily into monetary terms, making cost-benefit calculations difficult. For example, Fault Location Isolation and Service Restoration (FLISR) can significantly reduce customer outage duration and improve reliability. However, there is no well-established and universally-accepted procedure for converting these benefits into monetary terms that can be comparedmore » directly to investment costs. This report presents a methodology to analyze the benefits and costs of DMS applications as fundamental to the business case.« less

CFDP for Interplanetary Overlay Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burleigh, Scott C.

2011-01-01

The CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) File Delivery Protocol for Interplanetary Overlay Network (CFDP-ION) is an implementation of CFDP that uses IO' s DTN (delay tolerant networking) implementation as its UT (unit-data transfer) layer. Because the DTN protocols effect automatic, reliable transmission via multiple relays, CFDP-ION need only satisfy the requirements for Class 1 ("unacknowledged") CFDP. This keeps the implementation small, but without loss of capability. This innovation minimizes processing resources by using zero-copy objects for file data transmission. It runs without modification in VxWorks, Linux, Solaris, and OS/X. As such, this innovation can be used without modification in both flight and ground systems. Integration with DTN enables the CFDP implementation itself to be very simple; therefore, very small. Use of ION infrastructure minimizes consumption of storage and processing resources while maximizing safety.

Reliability and Maintainability Engineering - A Major Driver for Safety and Affordability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Safie, Fayssal M.

2011-01-01

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is in the midst of an effort to design and build a safe and affordable heavy lift vehicle to go to the moon and beyond. To achieve that, NASA is seeking more innovative and efficient approaches to reduce cost while maintaining an acceptable level of safety and mission success. One area that has the potential to contribute significantly to achieving NASA safety and affordability goals is Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) engineering. Inadequate reliability or failure of critical safety items may directly jeopardize the safety of the user(s) and result in a loss of life. Inadequate reliability of equipment may directly jeopardize mission success. Systems designed to be more reliable (fewer failures) and maintainable (fewer resources needed) can lower the total life cycle cost. The Department of Defense (DOD) and industry experience has shown that optimized and adequate levels of R&M are critical for achieving a high level of safety and mission success, and low sustainment cost. Also, lessons learned from the Space Shuttle program clearly demonstrated the importance of R&M engineering in designing and operating safe and affordable launch systems. The Challenger and Columbia accidents are examples of the severe impact of design unreliability and process induced failures on system safety and mission success. These accidents demonstrated the criticality of reliability engineering in understanding component failure mechanisms and integrated system failures across the system elements interfaces. Experience from the shuttle program also shows that insufficient Reliability, Maintainability, and Supportability (RMS) engineering analyses upfront in the design phase can significantly increase the sustainment cost and, thereby, the total life cycle cost. Emphasis on RMS during the design phase is critical for identifying the design features and characteristics needed for time efficient processing, improved operational availability, and optimized maintenance and logistic support infrastructure. This paper discusses the role of R&M in a program acquisition phase and the potential impact of R&M on safety, mission success, operational availability, and affordability. This includes discussion of the R&M elements that need to be addressed and the R&M analyses that need to be performed in order to support a safe and affordable system design. The paper also provides some lessons learned from the Space Shuttle program on the impact of R&M on safety and affordability.

Validity and reliability of a health care service evaluation instrument for tuberculosis

PubMed Central

Scatena, Lucia Marina; Wysocki, Anneliese Domingues; Beraldo, Aline Ale; Magnabosco, Gabriela Tavares; Brunello, Maria Eugênia Firmino; Netto, Antonio Ruffino; Nogueira, Jordana de Almeida; Silva, Reinaldo Antonio; Brito, Ewerton William Gomes; Alexandre, Patricia Borges Dias; Monroe, Aline Aparecida; Villa, Tereza Cristina Scatena

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the validity and reliability of an instrument that evaluates the structure of primary health care units for the treatment of tuberculosis. METHODS This cross-sectional study used simple random sampling and evaluated 1,037 health care professionals from five Brazilian municipalities (Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte; Cabedelo, state of Paraíba; Foz do Iguaçu, state of Parana; Sao José do Rio Preto, state of Sao Paulo, and Uberaba, state of Minas Gerais) in 2011. Structural indicators were identified and validated, considering different methods of organization of the health care system in the municipalities of different population sizes. Each structure represented the organization of health care services and contained the resources available for the execution of health care services: physical resources (equipment, consumables, and facilities); human resources (number and qualification); and resources for maintenance of the existing infrastructure and technology (deemed as the organization of health care services). The statistical analyses used in the validation process included reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS The validation process indicated the retention of five factors, with 85.9% of the total variance explained, internal consistency between 0.6460 and 0.7802, and quality of fit of the confirmatory factor analysis of 0.995 using the goodness-of-fit index. The retained factors comprised five structural indicators: professionals involved in the care of tuberculosis patients, training, access to recording instruments, availability of supplies, and coordination of health care services with other levels of care. Availability of supplies had the best performance and the lowest coefficient of variation among the services evaluated. The indicators of assessment of human resources and coordination with other levels of care had satisfactory performance, but the latter showed the highest coefficient of variation. The performance of the indicators “training” and “access to recording instruments” was inferior to that of other indicators. CONCLUSIONS The instrument showed feasibility of application and potential to assess the structure of primary health care units for the treatment of tuberculosis. PMID:25741651

Distributed autonomous systems: resource management, planning, and control algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, James F., III; Nguyen, ThanhVu H.

2005-05-01

Distributed autonomous systems, i.e., systems that have separated distributed components, each of which, exhibit some degree of autonomy are increasingly providing solutions to naval and other DoD problems. Recently developed control, planning and resource allocation algorithms for two types of distributed autonomous systems will be discussed. The first distributed autonomous system (DAS) to be discussed consists of a collection of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are under fuzzy logic control. The UAVs fly and conduct meteorological sampling in a coordinated fashion determined by their fuzzy logic controllers to determine the atmospheric index of refraction. Once in flight no human intervention is required. A fuzzy planning algorithm determines the optimal trajectory, sampling rate and pattern for the UAVs and an interferometer platform while taking into account risk, reliability, priority for sampling in certain regions, fuel limitations, mission cost, and related uncertainties. The real-time fuzzy control algorithm running on each UAV will give the UAV limited autonomy allowing it to change course immediately without consulting with any commander, request other UAVs to help it, alter its sampling pattern and rate when observing interesting phenomena, or to terminate the mission and return to base. The algorithms developed will be compared to a resource manager (RM) developed for another DAS problem related to electronic attack (EA). This RM is based on fuzzy logic and optimized by evolutionary algorithms. It allows a group of dissimilar platforms to use EA resources distributed throughout the group. For both DAS types significant theoretical and simulation results will be presented.

Developing a Cognitive and Communications Tool for Burn Intensive Care Unit Clinicians.

PubMed

Nemeth, Christopher; Anders, Shilo; Strouse, Robert; Grome, Anna; Crandall, Beth; Pamplin, Jeremy; Salinas, Jose; Mann-Salinas, Elizabeth

2016-05-01

Burn Intensive Care Unit (BICU) work is necessarily complex and depends on clinician actions, resources, and variable patient responses to interventions. Clinicians use large volumes of data that are condensed in time, but separated across resources, to care for patients. Correctly designed health information technology (IT) systems may help clinicians to treat these patients more efficiently, accurately, and reliably. We report on a 3-year project to design and develop an ecologically valid IT system for use in a military BICU. We use a mixed methods Cognitive Systems Engineering approach for research and development. Observations, interviews, artifact analysis, survey, and thematic analysis methods were used to reveal underlying factors that mold the work environment and affect clinician decisions that may affect patient outcomes. Participatory design and prototyping methods have been used to develop solutions. We developed 39 requirements for the IT system and used them to create three use cases to help developers better understand how the system might support clinician work to develop interface prototypes. We also incorporated data mining functions that offer the potential to aid clinicians by recognizing patterns recognition of clinically significant events, such as incipient sepsis. The gaps between information sources and accurate, reliable, and efficient clinical decision that we have identified will enable us to create scenarios to evaluate prototype systems with BICU clinicians, to develop increasingly improved designs, and to measure outcomes. The link from data to analyses, requirements, prototypes, and their evaluation ensures that the solution will reflect and support work in the BICU as it actually occurs, improving staff efficiency and patient care quality. Reprint & Copyright © 2016 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Time Triggered Protocol (TTP) for Integrated Modular Avionics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Motzet, Guenter; Gwaltney, David A.; Bauer, Guenther; Jakovljevic, Mirko; Gagea, Leonard

2006-01-01

Traditional avionics computing systems are federated, with each system provided on a number of dedicated hardware units. Federated applications are physically separated from one another and analysis of the systems is undertaken individually. Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) takes these federated functions and integrates them on a common computing platform in a tightly deterministic distributed real-time network of computing modules in which the different applications can run. IMA supports different levels of criticality in the same computing resource and provides a platform for implementation of fault tolerance through hardware and application redundancy. Modular implementation has distinct benefits in design, testing and system maintainability. This paper covers the requirements for fault tolerant bus systems used to provide reliable communication between IMA computing modules. An overview of the Time Triggered Protocol (TTP) specification and implementation as a reliable solution for IMA systems is presented. Application examples in aircraft avionics and a development system for future space application are covered. The commercially available TTP controller can be also be implemented in an FPGA and the results from implementation studies are covered. Finally future direction for the application of TTP and related development activities are presented.

Birds see the true colours of fruits to live off the fat of the land

PubMed Central

Schaefer, H. Martin; Valido, Alfredo; Jordano, Pedro

2014-01-01

Communication is a characteristic of life, but its reliability and basic definition are hotly debated. Theory predicts that trade among mutualists requires high reliability. Here, we show that moderate reliability already allows mutualists to optimize their rewards. The colours of Mediterranean fleshy-fruits indicate lipid rewards (but not other nutrients) to avian seed dispersers on regional and local scales. On the regional scale, fruits with high lipid content were significantly darker and less chromatic than congeners with lower lipid content. On the local scale, two warbler species (Sylvia atricapilla and Sylvia borin) selected fruit colours that were less chromatic, and thereby maximized their intake of lipids—a critical resource during migration and wintering. Crucially, birds were able to maximize lipid rewards with moderate reliability from visual fruit colours (r2 = 0.44–0.60). We suggest that mutualisms require only that any association between the quality and sensory aspects of signallers is learned through multiple, repeated interactions. Because these conditions are often fulfilled, also in social communication systems, we contend that selection on reliability is less intense than hitherto assumed. This may contribute to explaining the extraordinary diversity of signals, including that of plant reproductive displays. PMID:24403330

Development and practical implications of the Exercise Resourcefulness Inventory.

PubMed

Fast, Hilary V; Kennett, Deborah J

2015-05-01

To determine the validity and reliability of the Exercise Resourcefulness Inventory (ERI) designed to assess the self-regulatory strategies used to promote regular exercise. In Study 1, the inventory's relationship with other established scales in the exercise behavior change field was examined. In Study 2, the test-retest reliability and predictive validity of the ERI was established by having participants from Study 1 complete the inventory a second time. Internal consistency, and convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity were supported in both studies. The test-retest correlation of the ERI was .80. As well, participants scoring higher on the ERI in Study 1 were more likely to be at a higher stage of change in Study 2, and greater increases in exercise resourcefulness over time were predictive of advancement to higher stages of change. ERI is a reliable and valid measure to assess the self-regulatory strategies used to promote regular exercise. Facilitators may want to tailor exercise programs for individuals scoring lower in resourcefulness to prevent them from relapsing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Who to Blame: Irrational Decision-Makers or Stupid Modelers? (Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists Lecture)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madani, Kaveh

2016-04-01

Water management benefits from a suite of modelling tools and techniques that help simplifying and understanding the complexities involved in managing water resource systems. Early water management models were mainly concerned with optimizing a single objective, related to the design, operations or management of water resource systems (e.g. economic cost, hydroelectricity production, reliability of water deliveries). Significant improvements in methodologies, computational capacity, and data availability over the last decades have resulted in developing more complex water management models that can now incorporate multiple objectives, various uncertainties, and big data. These models provide an improved understanding of complex water resource systems and provide opportunities for making positive impacts. Nevertheless, there remains an alarming mismatch between the optimal solutions developed by these models and the decisions made by managers and stakeholders of water resource systems. Modelers continue to consider decision makers as irrational agents who fail to implement the optimal solutions developed by sophisticated and mathematically rigours water management models. On the other hand, decision makers and stakeholders accuse modelers of being idealist, lacking a perfect understanding of reality, and developing 'smart' solutions that are not practical (stable). In this talk I will have a closer look at the mismatch between the optimality and stability of solutions and argue that conventional water resources management models suffer inherently from a full-cooperation assumption. According to this assumption, water resources management decisions are based on group rationality where in practice decisions are often based on individual rationality, making the group's optimal solution unstable for individually rational decision makers. I discuss how game theory can be used as an appropriate framework for addressing the irrational "rationality assumption" of water resources management models and for better capturing the social aspects of decision making in water management systems with multiple stakeholders.

A Comparison of a Brain-Based Adaptive System and a Manual Adaptable System for Invoking Automation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, Nathan R.; Scerbo, Mark W.; Freeman, Frederick G.; Mikulka, Peter J.; Scott, Lorissa A.

2004-01-01

Two experiments are presented that examine alternative methods for invoking automation. In each experiment, participants were asked to perform simultaneously a monitoring task and a resource management task as well as a tracking task that changed between automatic and manual modes. The monitoring task required participants to detect failures of an automated system to correct aberrant conditions under either high or low system reliability. Performance on each task was assessed as well as situation awareness and subjective workload. In the first experiment, half of the participants worked with a brain-based system that used their EEG signals to switch the tracking task between automatic and manual modes. The remaining participants were yoked to participants from the adaptive condition and received the same schedule of mode switches, but their EEG had no effect on the automation. Within each group, half of the participants were assigned to either the low or high reliability monitoring task. In addition, within each combination of automation invocation and system reliability, participants were separated into high and low complacency potential groups. The results revealed no significant effects of automation invocation on the performance measures; however, the high complacency individuals demonstrated better situation awareness when working with the adaptive automation system. The second experiment was the same as the first with one important exception. Automation was invoked manually. Thus, half of the participants pressed a button to invoke automation for 10 s. The remaining participants were yoked to participants from the adaptable condition and received the same schedule of mode switches, but they had no control over the automation. The results showed that participants who could invoke automation performed more poorly on the resource management task and reported higher levels of subjective workload. Further, those who invoked automation more frequently performed more poorly on the tracking task and reported higher levels of subjective workload. and the adaptable condition in the second experiment revealed only one significant difference: the subjective workload was higher in the adaptable condition. Overall, the results show that a brain-based, adaptive automation system may facilitate situation awareness for those individuals who are more complacent toward automation. By contrast, requiring operators to invoke automation manually may have some detrimental impact on performance but does appear to increases subjective workload relative to an adaptive system.

Emergency Severity Index version 4: a valid and reliable tool in pediatric emergency department triage.

PubMed

Green, Nicole A; Durani, Yamini; Brecher, Deena; DePiero, Andrew; Loiselle, John; Attia, Magdy

2012-08-01

The Emergency Severity Index version 4 (ESI v.4) is the most recently implemented 5-level triage system. The validity and reliability of this triage tool in the pediatric population have not been extensively established. The goals of this study were to assess the validity of ESI v.4 in predicting hospital admission, emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS), and number of resources utilized, as well as its reliability in a prospective cohort of pediatric patients. The first arm of the study was a retrospective chart review of 780 pediatric patients presenting to a pediatric ED to determine the validity of ESI v.4. Abstracted data included acuity level assigned by the triage nurse using ESI v.4 algorithm, disposition (admission vs discharge), LOS, and number of resources utilized in the ED. To analyze the validity of ESI v.4, patients were divided into 2 groups for comparison: higher-acuity patients (ESI levels 1, 2, and 3) and lower-acuity patients (ESI levels 4 and 5). Pearson χ analysis was performed for categorical variables. For continuous variables, we conducted a comparison of means based on parametric distribution of variables. The second arm was a prospective cohort study to determine the interrater reliability of ESI v.4 among and between pediatric triage (PT) nurses and pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians. Three raters (2 PT nurses and 1 PEM physician) independently assigned triage scores to 100 patients; k and interclass correlation coefficient were calculated among PT nurses and between the primary PT nurses and physicians. In the validity arm, the distribution of ESI score levels among the 780 cases are as follows: ESI 1: 2 (0.25%); ESI 2: 73 (9.4%); ESI 3: 289 (37%); ESI 4: 251 (32%); and ESI 5: 165 (21%). Hospital admission rates by ESI level were 1: 100%, 2: 42%, 3: 14.9%, 4: 1.2%, and 5: 0.6%. The admission rate of the higher-acuity group (76/364, 21%) was significantly greater than the lower-acuity group (4/415, 0.96%), P < 0.001. The mean ED LOS (in minutes) for the higher-acuity group was 257 (SD, 132) versus 143 (SD, 81) in the lower-acuity group, P < 0.001. The higher-acuity group also had significantly greater use of resources than the lower-acuity group, P < 0.001. The percentage of low-acuity patients receiving no resources was 54%, compared with only 26% in the higher-acuity group. Conversely, a greater percentage of higher-acuity patients utilized 2 or more resources than the lower-acuity cohorts, 43% vs 12%, respectively, P < 0.001. In the prospective reliability arm of the study, 15 PT nurses and 8 PEM attending physicians participated in the study; k among nurses was 0.92 and between the primary triage nurses and physicians was 0.78, P < 0.001. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.96 for PT nurses and 0.91 between the primary triage nurse and physicians, P < 0.001. Emergency Severity Index v.4 is a valid predictor of hospital admission, ED LOS, and resource utilization in the pediatric ED population. It is a reliable pediatric triage instrument with high agreement among PT nurses and between PT nurses and PEM physicians.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Hsien-Hsin S

The overall objective of this research project is to develop novel architectural techniques as well as system software to achieve a highly secure and intrusion-tolerant computing system. Such system will be autonomous, self-adapting, introspective, with self-healing capability under the circumstances of improper operations, abnormal workloads, and malicious attacks. The scope of this research includes: (1) System-wide, unified introspection techniques for autonomic systems, (2) Secure information-flow microarchitecture, (3) Memory-centric security architecture, (4) Authentication control and its implication to security, (5) Digital right management, (5) Microarchitectural denial-of-service attacks on shared resources. During the period of the project, we developed several architectural techniquesmore » and system software for achieving a robust, secure, and reliable computing system toward our goal.« less

An evaluation of the ERTS data collection system as a potential operational tool. [automatic hydrologic data collection and processing system for geological surveys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paulson, R. W.

1974-01-01

The Earth Resources Technology Satellite Data Collection System has been shown to be, from the users vantage point, a reliable and simple system for collecting data from U.S. Geological Survey operational field instrumentation. It is technically feasible to expand the ERTS system into an operational polar-orbiting data collection system to gather data from the Geological Survey's Hydrologic Data Network. This could permit more efficient internal management of the Network, and could enable the Geological Survey to make data available to cooperating agencies in near-real time. The Geological Survey is conducting an analysis of the costs and benefits of satellite data-relay systems.

Primary Care Providers and a System Problem

PubMed Central

Wiener, Renda Soylemez; Sullivan, Donald; Ganzini, Linda; Slatore, Christopher G.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: As lung cancer screening with low-dose CT scanning is implemented, an increasing number of people will be diagnosed with pulmonary nodules. Primary care clinicians care for the vast majority of these patients, but their experiences with communication and managing distress in this population are not well understood. METHODS: We conducted qualitative interviews of 15 primary care providers (PCPs) at two academic medical centers who care for patients with pulmonary nodules. We used qualitative description analysis, focusing on clinicians’ information exchange and other communication behaviors. RESULTS: Most PCPs believed they had inadequate information to counsel patients regarding lung nodules, although this information is desired. PCPs were concerned patients could “fall through the cracks” but did not have access to a reliable system to ensure follow-up adherence. They were limited by time, knowledge, and resources in providing the preferred level of care. Most PCPs did not discuss the specific risk a nodule was lung cancer, in part because they did not have ready access to this information. PCPs believed most patients did not have substantial distress as a result of nodule detection. Most PCPs did not include patients when making decisions about the follow-up plan. CONCLUSIONS: PCPs often lack systemic resources to optimize patient-centered approaches when discussing incidental pulmonary nodules with patients. With the advent of lung cancer screening, pulmonologists can assist primary care colleagues by providing accurate information to counsel patients and assisting in managing conversations about the risk of cancer. Pulmonologists should support efforts to implement reliable systems to ensure adherence to follow-up. PMID:25790082

Strategies towards an optimized use of the shallow geothermal potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schelenz, S.; Firmbach, L.; Kalbacher, T.; Goerke, U.; Kolditz, O.; Dietrich, P.; Vienken, T.

2013-12-01

Thermal use of the shallow subsurface for heat generation, cooling and thermal energy storage is increasingly gaining importance in reconsideration of future energy supplies, e.g. in the course of German energy transition, with application shifting from isolated to intensive use. The planning and dimensioning of (geo-)thermal applications is strongly influenced by the availability of exploration data. Hence, reliable site-specific dimensioning of systems for the thermal use of the shallow subsurface will contribute to an increase in resource efficiency, cost reduction during installation and operation, as well as reduction of environmental impacts and prevention of resource over-exploitation. Despite large cumulative investments that are being made for the utilization of the shallow thermal potential, thermal energy is in many cases exploited without prior on-site exploration and investigation of the local geothermal potential, due to the lack of adequate and cost-efficient exploration techniques. We will present new strategies for an optimized utilization of urban thermal potential, showcased at a currently developed residential neighborhood with high demand for shallow geothermal applications, based on a) enhanced site characterization and b) simulation of different site specific application scenarios. For enhanced site characterization, surface geophysics and vertical high resolution direct push-profiling were combined for reliable determination of aquifer structure and aquifer parameterization. Based on the site characterization, different site specific geothermal application scenarios, including different system types and system configurations, were simulated using OpenGeoSys to guarantee an environmental and economic sustainable thermal use of the shallow subsurface.

Cloud-based calculators for fast and reliable access to NOAA's geomagnetic field models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woods, A.; Nair, M. C.; Boneh, N.; Chulliat, A.

2017-12-01

While the Global Positioning System (GPS) provides accurate point locations, it does not provide pointing directions. Therefore, the absolute directional information provided by the Earth's magnetic field is of primary importance for navigation and for the pointing of technical devices such as aircrafts, satellites and lately, mobile phones. The major magnetic sources that affect compass-based navigation are the Earth's core, its magnetized crust and the electric currents in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. NOAA/CIRES Geomagnetism (ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/) group develops and distributes models that describe all these important sources to aid navigation. Our geomagnetic models are used in variety of platforms including airplanes, ships, submarines and smartphones. While the magnetic field from Earth's core can be described in relatively fewer parameters and is suitable for offline computation, the magnetic sources from Earth's crust, ionosphere and magnetosphere require either significant computational resources or real-time capabilities and are not suitable for offline calculation. This is especially important for small navigational devices or embedded systems, where computational resources are limited. Recognizing the need for a fast and reliable access to our geomagnetic field models, we developed cloud-based application program interfaces (APIs) for NOAA's ionospheric and magnetospheric magnetic field models. In this paper we will describe the need for reliable magnetic calculators, the challenges faced in running geomagnetic field models in the cloud in real-time and the feedback from our user community. We discuss lessons learned harvesting and validating the data which powers our cloud services, as well as our strategies for maintaining near real-time service, including load-balancing, real-time monitoring, and instance cloning. We will also briefly talk about the progress we achieved on NOAA's Big Earth Data Initiative (BEDI) funded project to develop API interface to our Enhanced Magnetic Model (EMM).

Climate and Water Vulnerability of the US Electricity Grid Under High Penetrations of Renewable Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macknick, J.; Miara, A.; O'Connell, M.; Vorosmarty, C. J.; Newmark, R. L.

2017-12-01

The US power sector is highly dependent upon water resources for reliable operations, primarily for thermoelectric cooling and hydropower technologies. Changes in the availability and temperature of water resources can limit electricity generation and cause outages at power plants, which substantially affect grid-level operational decisions. While the effects of water variability and climate changes on individual power plants are well documented, prior studies have not identified the significance of these impacts at the regional systems-level at which the grid operates, including whether there are risks for large-scale blackouts, brownouts, or increases in production costs. Adequately assessing electric grid system-level impacts requires detailed power sector modeling tools that can incorporate electric transmission infrastructure, capacity reserves, and other grid characteristics. Here, we present for the first time, a study of how climate and water variability affect operations of the power sector, considering different electricity sector configurations (low vs. high renewable) and environmental regulations. We use a case study of the US Eastern Interconnection, building off the Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study (ERGIS) that explored operational challenges of high penetrations of renewable energy on the grid. We evaluate climate-water constraints on individual power plants, using the Thermoelectric Power and Thermal Pollution (TP2M) model coupled with the PLEXOS electricity production cost model, in the context of broader electricity grid operations. Using a five minute time step for future years, we analyze scenarios of 10% to 30% renewable energy penetration along with considerations of river temperature regulations to compare the cost, performance, and reliability tradeoffs of water-dependent thermoelectric generation and variable renewable energy technologies under climate stresses. This work provides novel insights into the resilience and reliability of different configurations of the US electric grid subject to changing climate conditions.

Feasibility of a Semi-computerized Line Bisection Test for Unilateral Visual Neglect Assessment.

PubMed

Jee, H; Kim, J; Kim, C; Kim, T; Park, J

2015-01-01

Commonly used paper-and-pencil based test modalities for assessing the degree of unilateral visual neglect (ULN) in patients with hemispheric cerebral lesions consume human resources with a significant inter and intra-rater variability. To explore the feasibility of a semi-computerized electronic-pen based ULN assessment system (e-system) to improve assessment quality without altering the conventional user interface. Thirty cognitively healthy participants (HG) and 11 participants diagnosed with right-hemispheric lesion and unilateral visual neglect (NG) were recruited to evaluate the e-system. Line bisection tests (LBT) were repeatedly conducted twice for the inter-rater and intra-rater (reliability) comparisons. The LBT results were assessed by the e-system and the golden standard methods (manual rater assessment). The percent deviation (%), assessment duration (sec), and number of neglected line (each) were evaluated. The inter-rater comparisons of the assessed deviation (%) variable showed excellent interrater reliabilities (CCCs) ranging from .84 (.59 to .95 (p < .001)) to .99 (.90 to .99 (p < .001)) for HG and NG. The Bland Altman mean difference (B-A) plots with bias (95% LOA (limits of agreement)) showed similar agreements between the e-system and the raters ranging from -.04 % (-2.10 to 1.97) to 1.30 % (-2.23 to 4.84) for HG and NG. The effect sizes (ES), which show similarities between the assessment methods, yielded smaller ranges from .01 to .30 for HG and NG. The reliability (test-retest) comparisons showed similar assessment results between the e-system, rater 1, and rater 2. The manual rater assessment time ranging from 5.85 to 6.00 minutes and inter- and intraassessment variations were virtually eliminated with the e-system. The semi-computerized system with the conventional paper-and pencil user-interface showed valid and reliable assessment results. It may be a feasible replacement for the manual rater assessment modality even in a clinical setting.

A multivariate time series approach to modeling and forecasting demand in the emergency department.

PubMed

Jones, Spencer S; Evans, R Scott; Allen, Todd L; Thomas, Alun; Haug, Peter J; Welch, Shari J; Snow, Gregory L

2009-02-01

The goals of this investigation were to study the temporal relationships between the demands for key resources in the emergency department (ED) and the inpatient hospital, and to develop multivariate forecasting models. Hourly data were collected from three diverse hospitals for the year 2006. Descriptive analysis and model fitting were carried out using graphical and multivariate time series methods. Multivariate models were compared to a univariate benchmark model in terms of their ability to provide out-of-sample forecasts of ED census and the demands for diagnostic resources. Descriptive analyses revealed little temporal interaction between the demand for inpatient resources and the demand for ED resources at the facilities considered. Multivariate models provided more accurate forecasts of ED census and of the demands for diagnostic resources. Our results suggest that multivariate time series models can be used to reliably forecast ED patient census; however, forecasts of the demands for diagnostic resources were not sufficiently reliable to be useful in the clinical setting.

A Drought Cyberinfrastructure System for Improving Water Resource Management and Policy Making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

AghaKouchak, Amir

2015-04-01

Development of reliable monitoring and prediction indices and tools are fundamental to drought preparedness, management, and response decision making. This presentation provides an overview of the Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System (GIDMaPS) which offers near real-time drought information using both remote sensing observations and model simulations. Designed as a cyberinfrastructure system, GIDMaPS provides drought information based on a wide range of model simulations and satellite observations from different space agencies. Numerous indices have been developed for drought monitoring based on various indicator variables (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture, water storage). Defining droughts based on a single variable (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture or runoff) may not be sufficient for reliable risk assessment and decision making. GIDMaPS provides drought information based on multiple indices including Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSI) and the Multivariate Standardized Drought Index (MSDI) which combines SPI and SSI probabilistically. In other words, MSDI incorporates the meteorological and agricultural drought conditions for overall characterization of droughts, and better management and distribution of water resources among and across different users. The seasonal prediction component of GIDMaPS is based on a persistence model which requires historical data and near-past observations. The seasonal drought prediction component is designed to provide drought information for water resource management, and short-term decision making. In this presentation, both monitoring and prediction components of GIDMaPS will be discussed, and the results from several major droughts including the 2013 Namibia, 2012-2013 United States, 2011-2012 Horn of Africa, and 2010 Amazon Droughts will be presented. The presentation will highlight how this drought cyberinfrastructure system can be used to improve water resource management in California. Furthermore, the presentation provides an overview of the information farmers need for better decision making and how GIDMaPS can be used to improve decision making and reducing drought impacts. Further Reading Hao Z., AghaKouchak A., Nakhjiri N., Farahmand A., 2014, Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System, Scientific Data, 1:140001, 1-10, doi: 10.1038/sdata.2014.1. Momtaz F., Nakhjiri N., AghaKouchak A., 2014, Toward a Drought Cyberinfrastructure System, Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 95(22), 182-183, doi:10.1002/2014EO220002. AghaKouchak A., 2014, A Baseline Probabilistic Drought Forecasting Framework Using Standardized Soil Moisture Index: Application to the 2012 United States Drought, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 18, 2485-2492, doi: 10.5194/hess-18-2485-2014.

Demonstration of Essential Reliability Services by a 300-MW Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Loutan, Clyde; Klauer, Peter; Chowdhury, Sirajul

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), First Solar, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a demonstration project on a large utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plant in California to test its ability to provide essential ancillary services to the electric grid. With increasing shares of solar- and wind-generated energy on the electric grid, traditional generation resources equipped with automatic governor control (AGC) and automatic voltage regulation controls -- specifically, fossil thermal -- are being displaced. The deployment of utility-scale, grid-friendly PV power plants that incorporate advanced capabilities to support grid stability and reliability is essential for the large-scale integrationmore » of PV generation into the electric power grid, among other technical requirements. A typical PV power plant consists of multiple power electronic inverters and can contribute to grid stability and reliability through sophisticated 'grid-friendly' controls. In this way, PV power plants can be used to mitigate the impact of variability on the grid, a role typically reserved for conventional generators. In August 2016, testing was completed on First Solar's 300-MW PV power plant, and a large amount of test data was produced and analyzed that demonstrates the ability of PV power plants to use grid-friendly controls to provide essential reliability services. These data showed how the development of advanced power controls can enable PV to become a provider of a wide range of grid services, including spinning reserves, load following, voltage support, ramping, frequency response, variability smoothing, and frequency regulation to power quality. Specifically, the tests conducted included various forms of active power control such as AGC and frequency regulation; droop response; and reactive power, voltage, and power factor controls. This project demonstrated that advanced power electronics and solar generation can be controlled to contribute to system-wide reliability. It was shown that the First Solar plant can provide essential reliability services related to different forms of active and reactive power controls, including plant participation in AGC, primary frequency control, ramp rate control, and voltage regulation. For AGC participation in particular, by comparing the PV plant testing results to the typical performance of individual conventional technologies, we showed that regulation accuracy by the PV plant is 24-30 points better than fast gas turbine technologies. The plant's ability to provide volt-ampere reactive control during periods of extremely low power generation was demonstrated as well. The project team developed a pioneering demonstration concept and test plan to show how various types of active and reactive power controls can leverage PV generation's value from being a simple variable energy resource to a resource that provides a wide range of ancillary services. With this project's approach to a holistic demonstration on an actual, large, utility-scale, operational PV power plant and dissemination of the obtained results, the team sought to close some gaps in perspectives that exist among various stakeholders in California and nationwide by providing real test data.« less

A Game Changer: Electrifying Remote Communities by Using Isolated Microgrids

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Xiaonan; Wang, Jianhui

Microgrids, as self-contained entities, are of increasing interest in modern electric grids. Microgrids provide a sustainable solution to aggregate distributed energy resources (DERs) [e.g., photovoltaics (PVs), wind turbines], energy storage, and loads in a localized manner, especially in distribution systems. As a controllable unit, a microgrid can manage and balance the source and load power inside it to ensure stable and reliable operation. Moreover, through coordination with upper-level control systems, it can be dispatched and respond to the control commands issued by the central controller in the distribution system-in other words, a system that is effectively a distribution management systemmore » (DMS).« less

The Surgeons' Leadership Inventory (SLI): a taxonomy and rating system for surgeons' intraoperative leadership skills.

PubMed

Henrickson Parker, Sarah; Flin, Rhona; McKinley, Aileen; Yule, Steven

2013-06-01

Surgeons must demonstrate leadership to optimize performance and maximize patient safety in the operating room, but no behavior rating tool is available to measure leadership. Ten focus groups with members of the operating room team discussed surgeons' intraoperative leadership. Surgeons' leadership behaviors were extracted and used to finalize the Surgeons' Leadership Inventory (SLI), which was checked by surgeons (n = 6) for accuracy and face validity. The SLI was used to code video recordings (n = 5) of operations to test reliability. Eight elements of surgeons' leadership were included in the SLI: (1) maintaining standards, (2) managing resources, (3) making decisions, (4) directing, (5) training, (6) supporting others, (7) communicating, and (8) coping with pressure. Interrater reliability to code videos of surgeons' behaviors while operating using this tool was acceptable (κ = .70). The SLI is empirically grounded in focus group data and both the leadership and surgical literature. The interrater reliability of the system was acceptable. The inventory could be used for rating surgeons' leadership in the operating room for research or as a basis for postoperative feedback on performance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

U.S. Geological Survey Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jastram, John D.

2017-08-22

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) serves the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. In support of this mission, the USGS Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center works in cooperation with many entities to provide reliable, impartial scientific information to resource managers, planners, and the public.

Networked Resources, Assessment and Collection Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samson, Sue; Derry, Sebastian; Eggleston, Holly

2004-01-01

This project provides a critical evaluation of networked resources as they relate to the library's collection development policy, identifies areas of the curriculum not well represented, establishes a reliable method of assessing usage across all resources, and develops a framework of quantitative data for collection development decision making.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aliprantis, Dionysios; El-Sharkawi, Mohamed; Muljadi, Eduard

The main objective of this special issue is to collect and disseminate publications that highlight recent advances and breakthroughs in the area of renewable energy resources. The use of these resources for production of electricity is increasing rapidly worldwide. As of 2015, a majority of countries have set renewable electricity targets in the 10%-40% range to be achieved by 2020-2030, with a few notable exceptions aiming for 100% generation by renewables. We are experiencing a truly unprecedented transition away from fossil fuels, driven by environmental, energy security, and socio-economic factors.Electric machines can be found in a wide range of renewablemore » energy applications, such as wind turbines, hydropower and hydrokinetic systems, flywheel energy storage devices, and low-power energy harvesting systems. Hence, the design of reliable, efficient, cost-effective, and controllable electric machines is crucial in enabling even higher penetrations of renewable energy systems in the smart grid of the future. In addition, power electronic converter design and control is critical, as they provide essential controllability, flexibility, grid interface, and integration functions.« less

An architectural approach to create self organizing control systems for practical autonomous robots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greiner, Helen

1991-01-01

For practical industrial applications, the development of trainable robots is an important and immediate objective. Therefore, the developing of flexible intelligence directly applicable to training is emphasized. It is generally agreed upon by the AI community that the fusion of expert systems, neural networks, and conventionally programmed modules (e.g., a trajectory generator) is promising in the quest for autonomous robotic intelligence. Autonomous robot development is hindered by integration and architectural problems. Some obstacles towards the construction of more general robot control systems are as follows: (1) Growth problem; (2) Software generation; (3) Interaction with environment; (4) Reliability; and (5) Resource limitation. Neural networks can be successfully applied to some of these problems. However, current implementations of neural networks are hampered by the resource limitation problem and must be trained extensively to produce computationally accurate output. A generalization of conventional neural nets is proposed, and an architecture is offered in an attempt to address the above problems.

The LANDSAT system operated in Brazil by CNPq/INPE - results obtained in the area of mapping and future perspectives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dejesusparada, N. (Principal Investigator); Barbosa, M. N.

1981-01-01

The LANDSAT system, operated in the country by CNPg/INPE since 1973, systematically acquires, produces, and distributes both multispectral and panchromatic images obtained through remote sensing satellites to thousands of researchers and technicians involved in the natural resources survey. To cooperate in the solution of national problems, CNPq/INPE is developing efforts in the area of manipulation of those images with the objective of making them useful as planimetric bases for the simple revision of already published maps or for its utilization as basic material in regions not yet reliability mapped. The results obtained from performed tests are presented and the existing limitations are discussed. The new system purchased to handle data from the next series of LANDSAT as well as from MAPSAT and SPOT which will be in operation within the 80's decade, and are designed not only for natural resources survey but also for the solution of cartographic problems.

National Institute for Rocket Propulsion Systems 1st Annual Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doreswamy, Rajiv; Fry, Emma; Swindell, Tina

2012-01-01

The National Institute for Rocket Propulsion Systems (NIRPS) is a Government -wide initiative that seeks to ensure the resiliency of the Nation fs rocket propulsion community in order for the enterprise to remain vibrant and capable of providing reliable and affordable propulsion systems for the nation fs defense, civil and commercial needs. Recognizing that rocket propulsion is a multi-use technology that ensures the nation fs leadership in aerospace, the Government has a vested interest in maintaining this strategic capability through coordinated and synchronized acquisition programs and continual investments in research and development. NIRPS is a resource for collaboration and integration between all sectors of the U.S. propulsion enterprise, supporting policy development options, identifying technology requirements, and offering solutions that maximize national resources while ensuring that capability exists to meet future demand. NIRPS functions as a multi ]agency organization that our nation fs decision makers can look to for comprehensive information regarding all issues concerning the propulsion enterprise.

18 CFR 39.10 - Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule. 39.10 Section 39.10 Conservation of Power and Water... ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.10 Changes to an Electric...

18 CFR 39.10 - Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule. 39.10 Section 39.10 Conservation of Power and Water... ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.10 Changes to an Electric...

18 CFR 39.10 - Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule. 39.10 Section 39.10 Conservation of Power and Water... ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.10 Changes to an Electric...

18 CFR 39.10 - Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Changes to an Electric Reliability Organization Rule or Regional Entity Rule. 39.10 Section 39.10 Conservation of Power and Water... ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.10 Changes to an Electric...

glideinWMS—a generic pilot-based workload management system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sfiligoi, I.

2008-07-01

The Grid resources are distributed among hundreds of independent Grid sites, requiring a higher level Workload Management System (WMS) to be used efficiently. Pilot jobs have been used for this purpose by many communities, bringing increased reliability, global fair share and just in time resource matching. glideinWMS is a WMS based on the Condor glidein concept, i.e. a regular Condor pool, with the Condor daemons (startds) being started by pilot jobs, and real jobs being vanilla, standard or MPI universe jobs. The glideinWMS is composed of a set of Glidein Factories, handling the submission of pilot jobs to a set of Grid sites, and a set of VO Frontends, requesting pilot submission based on the status of user jobs. This paper contains the structural overview of glideinWMS as well as a detailed description of the current implementation and the current scalability limits.

glideinWMS - A generic pilot-based Workload Management System

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sfiligoi, Igor; /Fermilab

The Grid resources are distributed among hundreds of independent Grid sites, requiring a higher level Workload Management System (WMS) to be used efficiently. Pilot jobs have been used for this purpose by many communities, bringing increased reliability, global fair share and just in time resource matching. GlideinWMS is a WMS based on the Condor glidein concept, i.e. a regular Condor pool, with the Condor daemons (startds) being started by pilot jobs, and real jobs being vanilla, standard or MPI universe jobs. The glideinWMS is composed of a set of Glidein Factories, handling the submission of pilot jobs to a setmore » of Grid sites, and a set of VO Frontends, requesting pilot submission based on the status of user jobs. This paper contains the structural overview of glideinWMS as well as a detailed description of the current implementation and the current scalability limits.« less

Interaction and Impact Studies for Distributed Energy Resource, Transactive Energy, and Electric Grid, using High Performance Computing ?based Modeling and Simulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kelley, B. M.

The electric utility industry is undergoing significant transformations in its operation model, including a greater emphasis on automation, monitoring technologies, and distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS). With these changes and new technologies, while driving greater efficiencies and reliability, these new models may introduce new vectors of cyber attack. The appropriate cybersecurity controls to address and mitigate these newly introduced attack vectors and potential vulnerabilities are still widely unknown and performance of the control is difficult to vet. This proposal argues that modeling and simulation (M&S) is a necessary tool to address and better understand these problems introduced by emergingmore » technologies for the grid. M&S will provide electric utilities a platform to model its transmission and distribution systems and run various simulations against the model to better understand the operational impact and performance of cybersecurity controls.« less

Neural-network quantum state tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torlai, Giacomo; Mazzola, Guglielmo; Carrasquilla, Juan; Troyer, Matthias; Melko, Roger; Carleo, Giuseppe

2018-05-01

The experimental realization of increasingly complex synthetic quantum systems calls for the development of general theoretical methods to validate and fully exploit quantum resources. Quantum state tomography (QST) aims to reconstruct the full quantum state from simple measurements, and therefore provides a key tool to obtain reliable analytics1-3. However, exact brute-force approaches to QST place a high demand on computational resources, making them unfeasible for anything except small systems4,5. Here we show how machine learning techniques can be used to perform QST of highly entangled states with more than a hundred qubits, to a high degree of accuracy. We demonstrate that machine learning allows one to reconstruct traditionally challenging many-body quantities—such as the entanglement entropy—from simple, experimentally accessible measurements. This approach can benefit existing and future generations of devices ranging from quantum computers to ultracold-atom quantum simulators6-8.

A comparison of substance dependence treatment information system in America, England, and Iran.

PubMed

Ajami, Sima; Mellat-Karkevandi, Zahra; Saghaeiannejad-Isfahani, Sakineh; Salehi, Mehrdad; Jahanbakhsh, Maryam

2014-01-01

Addiction, as a social problem, is a phenomenon that causes structural changes in cultural, social, political, and economic system in society. Prevention of this problem means decrease of risk factors and increase of protective factors; and recognition of these factors is possible with the help of update, accurate, and complete information in information systems. The aim of this study was to compare substance dependence treatment information system (SDTIS) in America, England, and Iran. This research was an applied and comparison-descriptive study, in which SDTIS was compared in America, England, and Iran. These countries were chosen based on available information on the Internet and also on the development of these countries in the health information management field. Information resources included library resources, electronic resources, and expert people (Health Information Management, Medical Records Education, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, and Medical Informatics). The data collection tool was the data raw form, whose reliability was proved by expert people. Findings were analyzed by theory and descriptive method. America and England had the SDTIS. Their systems had special characteristics such as goals, scope, special method for collecting, processing, reporting, quality and validity control, and confidentiality principles. However, there was no such system in Iran and the present situation in Iran has many differences with similar situations in the studied countries. Presence of an information system in the substance dependence treatment field helps to prevent, control, and treat addicted people. Hence, we try to submit a suitable model for implementing this system.

Resources, indicators, data management, dissemination and use in health information systems in sub-Saharan Africa: results of a questionnaire-based survey.

PubMed

Mbondji, Peter Ebongue; Kebede, Derege; Soumbey-Alley, Edoh William; Zielinski, Chris; Kouvividila, Wenceslas; Lusamba-Dikassa, Paul-Samson

2014-05-01

To describe the status of health information systems in 14 sub-Saharan African countries of the World Health Organization African Region. A questionnaire-based survey. Fourteen sub-Saharan African countries of the African Region. Key informants in the ministries of health, national statistics offices, health programmes, donors and technical agencies. State of resources, indicators, data sources, data management, information products, dissemination and use of health information. The highest average score was in the identification and harmonisation of indicators (73%), reflecting successful efforts to identify priority indicators and reach international consensus on indicators for several diseases. This was followed by information products (63%), which indicated the availability of accurate and reliable data. The lowest score (41%) was in data management, the ability to collect, store, analyse and distribute data, followed by resources - policy and planning, human and financial resources, and infrastructure (53%). Data sources (e.g. censuses, surveys) were on average inadequate with a score of 56%. The average score for dissemination and use of health information was 57%, which indicated limited or inadequate use of data for advocacy, planning and decision-making. National health information systems are weak in the surveyed countries and much more needs to be done to improve the quality and relevance of data, and their management, sharing and use for policy-making and decision-making. © The Royal Society of Medicine.

MIROS: A Hybrid Real-Time Energy-Efficient Operating System for the Resource-Constrained Wireless Sensor Nodes

PubMed Central

Liu, Xing; Hou, Kun Mean; de Vaulx, Christophe; Shi, Hongling; Gholami, Khalid El

2014-01-01

Operating system (OS) technology is significant for the proliferation of the wireless sensor network (WSN). With an outstanding OS; the constrained WSN resources (processor; memory and energy) can be utilized efficiently. Moreover; the user application development can be served soundly. In this article; a new hybrid; real-time; memory-efficient; energy-efficient; user-friendly and fault-tolerant WSN OS MIROS is designed and implemented. MIROS implements the hybrid scheduler and the dynamic memory allocator. Real-time scheduling can thus be achieved with low memory consumption. In addition; it implements a mid-layer software EMIDE (Efficient Mid-layer Software for User-Friendly Application Development Environment) to decouple the WSN application from the low-level system. The application programming process can consequently be simplified and the application reprogramming performance improved. Moreover; it combines both the software and the multi-core hardware techniques to conserve the energy resources; improve the node reliability; as well as achieve a new debugging method. To evaluate the performance of MIROS; it is compared with the other WSN OSes (TinyOS; Contiki; SOS; openWSN and mantisOS) from different OS concerns. The final evaluation results prove that MIROS is suitable to be used even on the tight resource-constrained WSN nodes. It can support the real-time WSN applications. Furthermore; it is energy efficient; user friendly and fault tolerant. PMID:25248069

The uncertainty of atmospheric processes in planning a hybrid renewable energy system for a non-connected island

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daniil, Vasiliki; Pouliasis, George; Zacharopoulou, Eleni; Demetriou, Evangelos; Manou, Georgia; Chalakatevaki, Maria; Parara, Iliana; Georganta, Xristina; Stamou, Paraskevi; Karali, Sophia; Hadjimitsis, Evanthis; Koudouris, Giannis; Moschos, Evangelos; Roussis, Dimitrios; Papoulakos, Konstantinos; Koskinas, Aristotelis; Pollakis, Giorgos; Gournari, Panagiota; Sakellari, Katerina; Moustakis, Yiannis

2017-04-01

Non-connected islands to the electric gird are often depending on oil-fueled power plants with high unit cost. A hybrid energy system with renewable resources such as wind and solar plants could reduce this cost and also offer more environmental friendly solutions. However, atmospheric processes are characterized by high uncertainty that does not permit harvesting and utilizing full of their potential. Therefore, a more sophisticated framework that somehow incorporates this uncertainty could improve the performance of the system. In this context, we describe several stochastic and financial aspects of this framework. Particularly, we investigate the cross-correlation between several atmospheric processes and the energy demand, the possibility of mixing renewable resources with the conventional ones and in what degree of reliability, and critical financial subsystems such as weather derivatives. A pilot application of the above framework is also presented for a remote island in the Aegean Sea. Acknowledgement: This research is conducted within the frame of the undergraduate course "Stochastic Methods in Water Resources" of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The School of Civil Engineering of NTUA provided moral support for the participation of the students in the Assembly. *The "Stochastics in Energy Resources Management (NTUA)" Team: Nikos Mamasis, Andreas Efstratiadis, Hristos Tyralis, Panayiotis Dimitriadis, Theano Iliopoulou, Georgios Karakatsanis, Katerina Tzouka, Ilias Deligiannis, Vicky Tsoukala, Panos Papanicolaou and Demetris Koutsoyiannis

MIROS: a hybrid real-time energy-efficient operating system for the resource-constrained wireless sensor nodes.

PubMed

Liu, Xing; Hou, Kun Mean; de Vaulx, Christophe; Shi, Hongling; El Gholami, Khalid

2014-09-22

Operating system (OS) technology is significant for the proliferation of the wireless sensor network (WSN). With an outstanding OS; the constrained WSN resources (processor; memory and energy) can be utilized efficiently. Moreover; the user application development can be served soundly. In this article; a new hybrid; real-time; memory-efficient; energy-efficient; user-friendly and fault-tolerant WSN OS MIROS is designed and implemented. MIROS implements the hybrid scheduler and the dynamic memory allocator. Real-time scheduling can thus be achieved with low memory consumption. In addition; it implements a mid-layer software EMIDE (Efficient Mid-layer Software for User-Friendly Application Development Environment) to decouple the WSN application from the low-level system. The application programming process can consequently be simplified and the application reprogramming performance improved. Moreover; it combines both the software and the multi-core hardware techniques to conserve the energy resources; improve the node reliability; as well as achieve a new debugging method. To evaluate the performance of MIROS; it is compared with the other WSN OSes (TinyOS; Contiki; SOS; openWSN and mantisOS) from different OS concerns. The final evaluation results prove that MIROS is suitable to be used even on the tight resource-constrained WSN nodes. It can support the real-time WSN applications. Furthermore; it is energy efficient; user friendly and fault tolerant.

Examining Reliability and Validity of an Online Score (ALiEM AIR) for Rating Free Open Access Medical Education Resources.

PubMed

Chan, Teresa Man-Yee; Grock, Andrew; Paddock, Michael; Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Yarris, Lalena M; Lin, Michelle

2016-12-01

Since 2014, Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) has used the Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) score to critically appraise online content. The primary goals of this study are to determine the interrater reliability (IRR) of the ALiEM AIR rating score and determine its correlation with expert educator gestalt. We also determine the minimum number of educator-raters needed to achieve acceptable reliability. Eight educators each rated 83 online educational posts with the ALiEM AIR scale. Items include accuracy, usage of evidence-based medicine, referencing, utility, and the Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine rating score. A generalizability study was conducted to determine IRR and rating variance contributions of facets such as rater, blogs, posts, and topic. A randomized selection of 40 blog posts previously rated through ALiEM AIR was then rated again by a blinded group of expert medical educators according to their gestalt. Their gestalt impression was subsequently correlated with the ALiEM AIR score. The IRR for the ALiEM AIR rating scale was 0.81 during the 6-month pilot period. Decision studies showed that at least 9 raters were required to achieve this reliability. Spearman correlations between mean AIR score and the mean expert gestalt ratings were 0.40 for recommendation for learners and 0.35 for their colleagues. The ALiEM AIR scale is a moderately to highly reliable, 5-question tool when used by medical educators for rating online resources. The score displays a fair correlation with expert educator gestalt in regard to the quality of the resources. The score displays a fair correlation with educator gestalt. Copyright © 2016 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Added Value of Reliability to a Microgrid: Simulations of Three California Buildings

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marnay, Chris; Lai, Judy; Stadler, Michael

The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model is used to estimate the value an Oakland nursing home, a Riverside high school, and a Sunnyvale data center would need to put on higher electricity service reliability for them to adopt a Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions Microgrid (CM) based on economics alone. A fraction of each building's load is deemed critical based on its mission, and the added cost of CM capability to meet it added to on-site generation options. The three sites are analyzed with various resources available as microgrid components. Results show that the value placed on highermore » reliability often does not have to be significant for CM to appear attractive, about 25 $/kWcdota and up, but the carbon footprint consequences are mixed because storage is often used to shift cheaper off-peak electricity to use during afternoon hours in competition with the solar sources.« less

Management: A continuing literature survey with indexes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

This bibliography lists 782 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in 1977. The citations, and abstracts when available, are reproduced exactly as they appeared originally in IAA and STAR, including the original accession numbers from the respective announcement journals. Topics cover the management of research and development contracts, production, logistics, personnel, safety, reliability and quality control citations. Includes references on: program, project and systems management; management policy, philosophy, tools, and techniques; decisionmaking processes for managers; technology assessment; management of urban problems; and information for managers on Federal resources, expenditures, financing, and budgeting.

A System Level Mass and Energy Calculation for a Temperature Swing Adsorption Pump Used for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) on Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hasseeb, Hashmatullah; Iannetti, Anthony

2017-01-01

Mars ISRU converts atmospheric CO2 to generate O2 and CH4. Reduces launch mass, thus mission cost. Increases mission duration and independence. CO2 acquisition system must: a) Reliably extract CO2 over the varying Martian environment. 1) approx. 0.67-0.93 kPa pressure and 2) 125 C to 40 C. b) Provide and compress high purity gas to chemical plants. 1) Separate N2, Ar2, etc. from approx. 95% CO2 atmosphere and 2) Current pressure targets: 50 kPa-500 kPa.

The Software Management Environment (SME)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Valett, Jon D.; Decker, William; Buell, John

1988-01-01

The Software Management Environment (SME) is a research effort designed to utilize the past experiences and results of the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) and to incorporate this knowledge into a tool for managing projects. SME provides the software development manager with the ability to observe, compare, predict, analyze, and control key software development parameters such as effort, reliability, and resource utilization. The major components of the SME, the architecture of the system, and examples of the functionality of the tool are discussed.

A hormone-related female anti-aphrodisiac signals temporary infertility and causes sexual abstinence to synchronize parental care.

PubMed

Engel, Katharina C; Stökl, Johannes; Schweizer, Rebecca; Vogel, Heiko; Ayasse, Manfred; Ruther, Joachim; Steiger, Sandra

2016-03-22

The high energetic demand of parental care requires parents to direct their resources towards the support of existing offspring rather than investing into the production of additional young. However, how such a resource flow is channelled appropriately is poorly understood. In this study, we provide the first comprehensive analysis of the physiological mechanisms coordinating parental and mating effort in an insect exhibiting biparental care. We show a hormone-mediated infertility in female burying beetles during the time the current offspring is needy and report that this temporary infertility is communicated via a pheromone to the male partner, where it inhibits copulation. A shared pathway of hormone and pheromone system ensures the reliability of the anti-aphrodisiac. Female infertility and male sexual abstinence provide for the concerted investment of parental resources into the existing developing young. Our study thus contributes to our deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying adaptive parental decisions.

U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program—Mineral resource science supporting informed decisionmaking

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilkins, Aleeza M.; Doebrich, Jeff L.

2016-09-19

The USGS Mineral Resources Program (MRP) delivers unbiased science and information to increase understanding of mineral resource potential, production, and consumption, and how mineral resources interact with the environment. The MRP is the Federal Government’s sole source for this mineral resource science and information. Program goals are to (1) increase understanding of mineral resource formation, (2) provide mineral resource inventories and assessments, (3) broaden knowledge of the effects of mineral resources on the environment and society, and (4) provide analysis on the availability and reliability of mineral supplies.

SSME component assembly and life management expert system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ali, M.; Dietz, W. E.; Ferber, H. J.

1989-01-01

The space shuttle utilizes several rocket engine systems, all of which must function with a high degree of reliability for successful mission completion. The space shuttle main engine (SSME) is by far the most complex of the rocket engine systems and is designed to be reusable. The reusability of spacecraft systems introduces many problems related to testing, reliability, and logistics. Components must be assembled from parts inventories in a manner which will most effectively utilize the available parts. Assembly must be scheduled to efficiently utilize available assembly benches while still maintaining flight schedules. Assembled components must be assigned to as many contiguous flights as possible, to minimize component changes. Each component must undergo a rigorous testing program prior to flight. In addition, testing and assembly of flight engines and components must be done in conjunction with the assembly and testing of developmental engines and components. The development, testing, manufacture, and flight assignments of the engine fleet involves the satisfaction of many logistical and operational requirements, subject to many constraints. The purpose of the SSME Component Assembly and Life Management Expert System (CALMES) is to assist the engine assembly and scheduling process, and to insure that these activities utilize available resources as efficiently as possible.

Research on numerical control system based on S3C2410 and MCX314AL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Qiang; Jiang, Tingbiao

2008-10-01

With the rapid development of micro-computer technology, embedded system, CNC technology and integrated circuits, numerical control system with powerful functions can be realized by several high-speed CPU chips and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) chips which have small size and strong stability. In addition, the real-time operating system also makes the attainment of embedded system possible. Developing the NC system based on embedded technology can overcome some shortcomings of common PC-based CNC system, such as the waste of resources, low control precision, low frequency and low integration. This paper discusses a hardware platform of ENC (Embedded Numerical Control) system based on embedded processor chip ARM (Advanced RISC Machines)-S3C2410 and DSP (Digital Signal Processor)-MCX314AL and introduces the process of developing ENC system software. Finally write the MCX314AL's driver under the embedded Linux operating system. The embedded Linux operating system can deal with multitask well moreover satisfy the real-time and reliability of movement control. NC system has the advantages of best using resources and compact system with embedded technology. It provides a wealth of functions and superior performance with a lower cost. It can be sure that ENC is the direction of the future development.

Demonstration Advanced Avionics System (DAAS) function description

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, A. J.; Bailey, D. G.; Gaabo, R. J.; Lahn, T. G.; Larson, J. C.; Peterson, E. M.; Schuck, J. W.; Rodgers, D. L.; Wroblewski, K. A.

1982-01-01

The Demonstration Advanced Avionics System, DAAS, is an integrated avionics system utilizing microprocessor technologies, data busing, and shared displays for demonstrating the potential of these technologies in improving the safety and utility of general aviation operations in the late 1980's and beyond. Major hardware elements of the DAAS include a functionally distributed microcomputer complex, an integrated data control center, an electronic horizontal situation indicator, and a radio adaptor unit. All processing and display resources are interconnected by an IEEE-488 bus in order to enhance the overall system effectiveness, reliability, modularity and maintainability. A detail description of the DAAS architecture, the DAAS hardware, and the DAAS functions is presented. The system is designed for installation and flight test in a NASA Cessna 402-B aircraft.

The human resource information system: a rapid appraisal of Pakistan’s capacity to employ the tool

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Human resources are an important building block of the health system. During the last decade, enormous investment has gone into the information systems to manage human resources, but due to the lack of a clear vision, policy, and strategy, the results of these efforts have not been very visible. No reliable information portal captures the actual state of human resources in Pakistan’s health sector. The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided technical support for the assessment of the existing system and development of a comprehensive Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in Pakistan. Methods The questions in the WHO-HRIS Assessment tool were distributed into five thematic groups. Purposively selected (n=65) representatives from the government, private sector, and development partners participated in this cross sectional study, based on their programmatic affiliations. Results Fifty-five percent of organizations and departments have an independent Human Resources (HR) section managed by an establishment branch and are fully equipped with functional computers. Forty-five organizations (70%) had HR rules, regulations and coordination mechanisms, yet these are not implemented. Data reporting is mainly in paper form, on prescribed forms (51%), registers (3%) or even plain papers (20%). Data analysis does not give inputs to the decision making process and dissemination of information is quite erratic. Most of the organizations had no feedback mechanism for cross checking the HR data, rendering it unreliable. Conclusion Pakistan is lacking appropriate HRIS management. The current HRIS indeed has a multitude of problems. In the wake of 2011 reforms within the health sector, provinces are even in a greater need for planning their respective health department services and must work on the deficiencies and inefficiencies of their HRIS so that the gaps and HR needs are better aligned for reaching the 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets. PMID:24016066

Integration of hydrologic and water allocation models in basin-scale water resources management considering crop pattern and climate change: Karkheh River Basin in Iran

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The paradigm of integrated water resources management requires coupled analysis of hydrology and water resources in a river basin. Population growth and uncertainties due to climate change make historic data not a reliable source of information for future planning of water resources, hence necessit...

A smart checkpointing scheme for improving the reliability of clustering routing protocols.

PubMed

Min, Hong; Jung, Jinman; Kim, Bongjae; Cho, Yookun; Heo, Junyoung; Yi, Sangho; Hong, Jiman

2010-01-01

In wireless sensor networks, system architectures and applications are designed to consider both resource constraints and scalability, because such networks are composed of numerous sensor nodes with various sensors and actuators, small memories, low-power microprocessors, radio modules, and batteries. Clustering routing protocols based on data aggregation schemes aimed at minimizing packet numbers have been proposed to meet these requirements. In clustering routing protocols, the cluster head plays an important role. The cluster head collects data from its member nodes and aggregates the collected data. To improve reliability and reduce recovery latency, we propose a checkpointing scheme for the cluster head. In the proposed scheme, backup nodes monitor and checkpoint the current state of the cluster head periodically. We also derive the checkpointing interval that maximizes reliability while using the same amount of energy consumed by clustering routing protocols that operate without checkpointing. Experimental comparisons with existing non-checkpointing schemes show that our scheme reduces both energy consumption and recovery latency.

A Smart Checkpointing Scheme for Improving the Reliability of Clustering Routing Protocols

PubMed Central

Min, Hong; Jung, Jinman; Kim, Bongjae; Cho, Yookun; Heo, Junyoung; Yi, Sangho; Hong, Jiman

2010-01-01

In wireless sensor networks, system architectures and applications are designed to consider both resource constraints and scalability, because such networks are composed of numerous sensor nodes with various sensors and actuators, small memories, low-power microprocessors, radio modules, and batteries. Clustering routing protocols based on data aggregation schemes aimed at minimizing packet numbers have been proposed to meet these requirements. In clustering routing protocols, the cluster head plays an important role. The cluster head collects data from its member nodes and aggregates the collected data. To improve reliability and reduce recovery latency, we propose a checkpointing scheme for the cluster head. In the proposed scheme, backup nodes monitor and checkpoint the current state of the cluster head periodically. We also derive the checkpointing interval that maximizes reliability while using the same amount of energy consumed by clustering routing protocols that operate without checkpointing. Experimental comparisons with existing non-checkpointing schemes show that our scheme reduces both energy consumption and recovery latency. PMID:22163389

A system dynamics simulation model for sustainable water resources management and agricultural development in the Volta River Basin, Ghana.

PubMed

Kotir, Julius H; Smith, Carl; Brown, Greg; Marshall, Nadine; Johnstone, Ron

2016-12-15

In a rapidly changing water resources system, dynamic models based on the notion of systems thinking can serve as useful analytical tools for scientists and policy-makers to study changes in key system variables over time. In this paper, an integrated system dynamics simulation model was developed using a system dynamics modelling approach to examine the feedback processes and interaction between the population, the water resource, and the agricultural production sub-sectors of the Volta River Basin in West Africa. The objective of the model is to provide a learning tool for policy-makers to improve their understanding of the long-term dynamic behaviour of the basin, and as a decision support tool for exploring plausible policy scenarios necessary for sustainable water resource management and agricultural development. Structural and behavioural pattern tests, and statistical test were used to evaluate and validate the performance of the model. The results showed that the simulated outputs agreed well with the observed reality of the system. A sensitivity analysis also indicated that the model is reliable and robust to uncertainties in the major parameters. Results of the business as usual scenario showed that total population, agricultural, domestic, and industrial water demands will continue to increase over the simulated period. Besides business as usual, three additional policy scenarios were simulated to assess their impact on water demands, crop yield, and net-farm income. These were the development of the water infrastructure (scenario 1), cropland expansion (scenario 2) and dry conditions (scenario 3). The results showed that scenario 1 would provide the maximum benefit to people living in the basin. Overall, the model results could help inform planning and investment decisions within the basin to enhance food security, livelihoods development, socio-economic growth, and sustainable management of natural resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Frontier In-Situ Resource Utilization for Enabling Sustained Human Presence on Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moses, Robert W.; Bushnell, Dennis M.

2016-01-01

The currently known resources on Mars are massive, including extensive quantities of water and carbon dioxide and therefore carbon, hydrogen and oxygen for life support, fuels and plastics and much else. The regolith is replete with all manner of minerals. In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) applicable frontier technologies include robotics, machine intelligence, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, 3-D printing/additive manufacturing and autonomy. These technologies combined with the vast natural resources should enable serious, pre- and post-human arrival ISRU to greatly increase reliability and safety and reduce cost for human colonization of Mars. Various system-level transportation concepts employing Mars produced fuel would enable Mars resources to evolve into a primary center of trade for the inner solar system for eventually nearly everything required for space faring and colonization. Mars resources and their exploitation via extensive ISRU are the key to a viable, safe and affordable, human presence beyond Earth. The purpose of this paper is four-fold: 1) to highlight the latest discoveries of water, minerals, and other materials on Mars that reshape our thinking about the value and capabilities of Mars ISRU; 2) to summarize the previous literature on Mars ISRU processes, equipment, and approaches; 3) to point to frontier ISRU technologies and approaches that can lead to safe and affordable human missions to Mars; and 4) to suggest an implementation strategy whereby the ISRU elements are phased into the mission campaign over time to enable a sustainable and increasing human presence on Mars.

Utilization of wireless structural health monitoring as decision making tools for a condition and reliability-based assessment of railroad bridges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flanigan, Katherine A.; Johnson, Nephi R.; Hou, Rui; Ettouney, Mohammed; Lynch, Jerome P.

2017-04-01

The ability to quantitatively assess the condition of railroad bridges facilitates objective evaluation of their robustness in the face of hazard events. Of particular importance is the need to assess the condition of railroad bridges in networks that are exposed to multiple hazards. Data collected from structural health monitoring (SHM) can be used to better maintain a structure by prompting preventative (rather than reactive) maintenance strategies and supplying quantitative information to aid in recovery. To that end, a wireless monitoring system is validated and installed on the Harahan Bridge which is a hundred-year-old long-span railroad truss bridge that crosses the Mississippi River near Memphis, TN. This bridge is exposed to multiple hazards including scour, vehicle/barge impact, seismic activity, and aging. The instrumented sensing system targets non-redundant structural components and areas of the truss and floor system that bridge managers are most concerned about based on previous inspections and structural analysis. This paper details the monitoring system and the analytical method for the assessment of bridge condition based on automated data-driven analyses. Two primary objectives of monitoring the system performance are discussed: 1) monitoring fatigue accumulation in critical tensile truss elements; and 2) monitoring the reliability index values associated with sub-system limit states of these members. Moreover, since the reliability index is a scalar indicator of the safety of components, quantifiable condition assessment can be used as an objective metric so that bridge owners can make informed damage mitigation strategies and optimize resource management on single bridge or network levels.

Reliability Quantification of Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) Components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shah, Ashwin R.; Korovaichuk, Igor; Zampino, Edward

2010-01-01

The Advanced Stirling Convertor, is intended to provide power for an unmanned planetary spacecraft and has an operational life requirement of 17 years. Over this 17 year mission, the ASC must provide power with desired performance and efficiency and require no corrective maintenance. Reliability demonstration testing for the ASC was found to be very limited due to schedule and resource constraints. Reliability demonstration must involve the application of analysis, system and component level testing, and simulation models, taken collectively. Therefore, computer simulation with limited test data verification is a viable approach to assess the reliability of ASC components. This approach is based on physics-of-failure mechanisms and involves the relationship among the design variables based on physics, mechanics, material behavior models, interaction of different components and their respective disciplines such as structures, materials, fluid, thermal, mechanical, electrical, etc. In addition, these models are based on the available test data, which can be updated, and analysis refined as more data and information becomes available. The failure mechanisms and causes of failure are included in the analysis, especially in light of the new information, in order to develop guidelines to improve design reliability and better operating controls to reduce the probability of failure. Quantified reliability assessment based on fundamental physical behavior of components and their relationship with other components has demonstrated itself to be a superior technique to conventional reliability approaches based on utilizing failure rates derived from similar equipment or simply expert judgment.

[The assessment of family resources and need for help: Construct validity and reliability of the Systematic Exploration and Process Inventory for health professionals in early childhood intervention services (SEVG)].

PubMed

Scharmanski, Sara; Renner, Ilona

2016-12-01

Health professionals in early childhood intervention and prevention make an important contribution by helping burdened families with young children cope with everyday life and child raising issues. A prerequisite for success is the health professionals' ability to tailor their services to the specific needs of families. The "Systematic Exploration and Process Inventory for health professionals in early childhood intervention services (SEVG)" can be used to identify each family's individual resources and needs, enabling a valid, reliable and objective assessment of the conditions and the process of counseling service. The present paper presents the statistical analyses that were used to confirm the reliability of the inventory. Based on the results of the reliability analysis and principal component analysis (PCA), the SEVG seems to be a reliable and objective inventory for assessing families' need for support. It also allows for calculation of average values of each scale. The development of valid and reliable assessments is essential to quality assurance and the professionalization of interventions in early childhood service. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

The Environment Friendly Power Source for Power Supply of Mobile Communication Base Stations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rudenko, N. V.; Ershov, V. V.; Evstafiev, V. V.

2017-05-01

The article describes the technical proposals to improve environmental and resource characteristics of the autonomous power supply systems of mobile communication base stations based on renewable energy sources, while ensuring the required reliability and security of power supply. These include: the replacement of diesel-generator with clean energy source - an electrochemical generator based on hydrogen fuel cells; the use of wind turbines with a vertical axis; use of specialized batteries. Based on the analysis of the know technical solutions, the structural circuit diagram of the hybrid solar-wind-hydrogen power plant and the basic principles of the algorithm of its work were proposed. The implementation of these proposals will improve the environmental and resource characteristics.

Supporting research sites in resource-limited settings: Challenges in implementing IT infrastructure

PubMed Central

Whalen, Christopher; Donnell, Deborah; Tartakovsky, Michael

2014-01-01

As Information and Communication Technology infrastructure becomes more reliable, new methods of Electronic Data Capture (EDC), datamarts/Data warehouses, and mobile computing provide platforms for rapid coordination of international research projects and multisite studies. However, despite the increasing availability of internet connectivity and communication systems in remote regions of the world, there are still significant obstacles. Sites with poor infrastructure face serious challenges participating in modern clinical and basic research, particularly that relying on EDC and internet communication technologies. This report discusses our experiences in supporting research in resource-limited settings (RLS). We describe examples of the practical and ethical/regulatory challenges raised by use of these newer technologies for data collection in multisite clinical studies. PMID:24321986

Hydrographic Data Curation and Stewardship: GO-SHIP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stephen, Diggs; Lynne, Talley; Martin, Kramp; Bernadette, Sloyan

2014-05-01

Expert data management (access, formats, data life-cycle) facilitates the successful re-use of information which address many important scientific questions such as detecting decadal and longer-term changes in global ocean heat and freshwater content. Modern hydrographic data management has its origins in the WOCE program where new and existing distributed resources were identified and organized into an effective "super DAC". Data from this program are referenced in hundreds of scientific papers. The distributed hydrographic data system, now under the name GO-SHIP, exists today and has adapted to the new geoscience demands of the 21st century. This presentation will describe science drivers and the required data center resources (CCHDO, CDIAC, JCOMMOPS) which together provide reliable access for the global research community.

Supporting research sites in resource-limited settings: challenges in implementing information technology infrastructure.

PubMed

Whalen, Christopher J; Donnell, Deborah; Tartakovsky, Michael

2014-01-01

As information and communication technology infrastructure becomes more reliable, new methods of electronic data capture, data marts/data warehouses, and mobile computing provide platforms for rapid coordination of international research projects and multisite studies. However, despite the increasing availability of Internet connectivity and communication systems in remote regions of the world, there are still significant obstacles. Sites with poor infrastructure face serious challenges participating in modern clinical and basic research, particularly that relying on electronic data capture and Internet communication technologies. This report discusses our experiences in supporting research in resource-limited settings. We describe examples of the practical and ethical/regulatory challenges raised by the use of these newer technologies for data collection in multisite clinical studies.

Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roman, Monsi; Howard, David

2015-01-01

Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) is a project focused on evolving existing and maturing emerging 'closed loop' atmosphere revitalization (AR) life support systems that produce clean, breathable air for crewmembers, and developing a suite of low mass, low power environmental monitors to detect and measure air- and waterborne constituents and contaminants. The objective is to improve reliability and efficiency, reduce mass and volume, and increase recovery of oxygen from carbon dioxide created by human metabolism from 43% to greater than 90%. The technology developments under ARREM are vital to extending human space missions from low-Earth orbit like the International Space Station to destinations deeper into space such as Mars where dependency on Earth for resupply of maintenance items and critical life support elements such as water and oxygen is not possible. The primary goal of the ARREM project is to demonstrate that systems meet the more stringent performance parameters for deep space exploration and are compatible with other systems within closed loop life support through a series of integrated tests performed in an environmental test chamber capable of simulating human metabolic activities and measuring systems outputs.

High Reliability Organizations--Medication Safety.

PubMed

Yip, Luke; Farmer, Brenna

2015-06-01

High reliability organizations (HROs), such as the aviation industry, successfully engage in high-risk endeavors and have low incidence of adverse events. HROs have a preoccupation with failure and errors. They analyze each event to effect system wide change in an attempt to mitigate the occurrence of similar errors. The healthcare industry can adapt HRO practices, specifically with regard to teamwork and communication. Crew resource management concepts can be adapted to healthcare with the use of certain tools such as checklists and the sterile cockpit to reduce medication errors. HROs also use The Swiss Cheese Model to evaluate risk and look for vulnerabilities in multiple protective barriers, instead of focusing on one failure. This model can be used in medication safety to evaluate medication management in addition to using the teamwork and communication tools of HROs.

Self-Adaptive Strategy Based on Fuzzy Control Systems for Improving Performance in Wireless Sensors Networks.

PubMed

Hernández Díaz, Vicente; Martínez, José-Fernán; Lucas Martínez, Néstor; del Toro, Raúl M

2015-09-18

The solutions to cope with new challenges that societies have to face nowadays involve providing smarter daily systems. To achieve this, technology has to evolve and leverage physical systems automatic interactions, with less human intervention. Technological paradigms like Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are providing reference models, architectures, approaches and tools that are to support cross-domain solutions. Thus, CPS based solutions will be applied in different application domains like e-Health, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation and so on, to assure the expected response from a complex system that relies on the smooth interaction and cooperation of diverse networked physical systems. The Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) are a well-known wireless technology that are part of large CPS. The WSN aims at monitoring a physical system, object, (e.g., the environmental condition of a cargo container), and relaying data to the targeted processing element. The WSN communication reliability, as well as a restrained energy consumption, are expected features in a WSN. This paper shows the results obtained in a real WSN deployment, based on SunSPOT nodes, which carries out a fuzzy based control strategy to improve energy consumption while keeping communication reliability and computational resources usage among boundaries.

Self-Adaptive Strategy Based on Fuzzy Control Systems for Improving Performance in Wireless Sensors Networks

PubMed Central

Hernández Díaz, Vicente; Martínez, José-Fernán; Lucas Martínez, Néstor; del Toro, Raúl M.

2015-01-01

The solutions to cope with new challenges that societies have to face nowadays involve providing smarter daily systems. To achieve this, technology has to evolve and leverage physical systems automatic interactions, with less human intervention. Technological paradigms like Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are providing reference models, architectures, approaches and tools that are to support cross-domain solutions. Thus, CPS based solutions will be applied in different application domains like e-Health, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation and so on, to assure the expected response from a complex system that relies on the smooth interaction and cooperation of diverse networked physical systems. The Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) are a well-known wireless technology that are part of large CPS. The WSN aims at monitoring a physical system, object, (e.g., the environmental condition of a cargo container), and relaying data to the targeted processing element. The WSN communication reliability, as well as a restrained energy consumption, are expected features in a WSN. This paper shows the results obtained in a real WSN deployment, based on SunSPOT nodes, which carries out a fuzzy based control strategy to improve energy consumption while keeping communication reliability and computational resources usage among boundaries. PMID:26393612

Separation of Allelopathy from Resource Competition Using Rice/Barnyardgrass Mixed-Cultures

PubMed Central

Fang, Chang Xun; Lin, Zhi Hua; Yu, Zheng Ming; Lin, Wen Xiong

2012-01-01

Plant-plant interference is the combined effect of allelopathy, resource competition, and many other factors. Separating allelopathy from resource competition is almost impossible in natural systems but it is important to evaluate the relative contribution of each of the two mechanisms on plant interference. Research on allelopathy in natural and cultivated plant communities has been hindered in the absence of a reliable method that can separate allelopathic effect from resource competition. In this paper, the interactions between allelopathic rice accession PI312777, non-allelopathic rice accession Lemont and barnyardgrass were explored respectively by using a target (rice)-neighbor (barnyardgrass) mixed-culture in hydroponic system. The relative competitive intensity (RCI), the relative neighbor effect (RNE) and the competitive ratio (CR) were used to quantify the intensity of competition between each of the two different potentially allelopathic rice accessions and barnyardgrass. Use of hydroponic culture system enabled us to exclude any uncontrolled factors that might operate in the soil and we were able to separate allelopathy from resource competition between each rice accession and barnyardgrass. The RCI and RNE values showed that the plant-plant interaction was positive (facilitation) for PI312777 but that was negative (competition) for Lemont and barnyardgrass in rice/barnyardgrass mixed-cultures. The CR values showed that one PI312777 plant was more competitive than 2 barnyardgrass plants. The allelopathic effects of PI312777 were much more intense than the resource competition in rice/barnyardgrass mixed cultures. The reverse was true for Lemont. These results demonstrate that the allelopathic effect of PI312777 was predominant in rice/barnyardgrass mixed-cultures. The most significant result of our study is the discovery of an experimental design, target-neighbor mixed-culture in combination with competition indices, can successfully separate allelopathic effects from competition. PMID:22590655

75 FR 3220 - Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-20

..., recreation, and visual resources. Cultural resources. Socioeconomics. Air quality and noise. Reliability and... Participation section. Currently Identified Environmental Issues We have already identified issues that we think...

Reliable Collection of Real-Time Patient Physiologic Data from less Reliable Networks: a "Monitor of Monitors" System (MoMs).

PubMed

Hu, Peter F; Yang, Shiming; Li, Hsiao-Chi; Stansbury, Lynn G; Yang, Fan; Hagegeorge, George; Miller, Catriona; Rock, Peter; Stein, Deborah M; Mackenzie, Colin F

2017-01-01

Research and practice based on automated electronic patient monitoring and data collection systems is significantly limited by system down time. We asked whether a triple-redundant Monitor of Monitors System (MoMs) to collect and summarize key information from system-wide data sources could achieve high fault tolerance, early diagnosis of system failure, and improve data collection rates. In our Level I trauma center, patient vital signs(VS) monitors were networked to collect real time patient physiologic data streams from 94 bed units in our various resuscitation, operating, and critical care units. To minimize the impact of server collection failure, three BedMaster® VS servers were used in parallel to collect data from all bed units. To locate and diagnose system failures, we summarized critical information from high throughput datastreams in real-time in a dashboard viewer and compared the before and post MoMs phases to evaluate data collection performance as availability time, active collection rates, and gap duration, occurrence, and categories. Single-server collection rates in the 3-month period before MoMs deployment ranged from 27.8 % to 40.5 % with combined 79.1 % collection rate. Reasons for gaps included collection server failure, software instability, individual bed setting inconsistency, and monitor servicing. In the 6-month post MoMs deployment period, average collection rates were 99.9 %. A triple redundant patient data collection system with real-time diagnostic information summarization and representation improved the reliability of massive clinical data collection to nearly 100 % in a Level I trauma center. Such data collection framework may also increase the automation level of hospital-wise information aggregation for optimal allocation of health care resources.

18 CFR 39.5 - Reliability Standards.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

.... 39.5 Section 39.5 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT RULES CONCERNING CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION; AND PROCEDURES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT, APPROVAL, AND ENFORCEMENT OF ELECTRIC...

Risk-Based Probabilistic Approach to Aeropropulsion System Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tong, Michael T.

2002-01-01

In an era of shrinking development budgets and resources, where there is also an emphasis on reducing the product development cycle, the role of system assessment, performed in the early stages of an engine development program, becomes very critical to the successful development of new aeropropulsion systems. A reliable system assessment not only helps to identify the best propulsion system concept among several candidates, it can also identify which technologies are worth pursuing. This is particularly important for advanced aeropropulsion technology development programs, which require an enormous amount of resources. In the current practice of deterministic, or point-design, approaches, the uncertainties of design variables are either unaccounted for or accounted for by safety factors. This could often result in an assessment with unknown and unquantifiable reliability. Consequently, it would fail to provide additional insight into the risks associated with the new technologies, which are often needed by decision makers to determine the feasibility and return-on-investment of a new aircraft engine. In this work, an alternative approach based on the probabilistic method was described for a comprehensive assessment of an aeropropulsion system. The statistical approach quantifies the design uncertainties inherent in a new aeropropulsion system and their influences on engine performance. Because of this, it enhances the reliability of a system assessment. A technical assessment of a wave-rotor-enhanced gas turbine engine was performed to demonstrate the methodology. The assessment used probability distributions to account for the uncertainties that occur in component efficiencies and flows and in mechanical design variables. The approach taken in this effort was to integrate the thermodynamic cycle analysis embedded in the computer code NEPP (NASA Engine Performance Program) and the engine weight analysis embedded in the computer code WATE (Weight Analysis of Turbine Engines) with the fast probability integration technique (FPI). FPI was developed by Southwest Research Institute under contract with the NASA Glenn Research Center. The results were plotted in the form of cumulative distribution functions and sensitivity analyses and were compared with results from the traditional deterministic approach. The comparison showed that the probabilistic approach provides a more realistic and systematic way to assess an aeropropulsion system. The current work addressed the application of the probabilistic approach to assess specific fuel consumption, engine thrust, and weight. Similarly, the approach can be used to assess other aspects of aeropropulsion system performance, such as cost, acoustic noise, and emissions. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.

Modeling water resources as a constraint in electricity capacity expansion models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newmark, R. L.; Macknick, J.; Cohen, S.; Tidwell, V. C.; Woldeyesus, T.; Martinez, A.

2013-12-01

In the United States, the electric power sector is the largest withdrawer of freshwater in the nation. The primary demand for water from the electricity sector is for thermoelectric power plant cooling. Areas likely to see the largest near-term growth in population and energy usage, the Southwest and the Southeast, are also facing freshwater scarcity and have experienced water-related power reliability issues in the past decade. Lack of water may become a barrier for new conventionally-cooled power plants, and alternative cooling systems will impact technology cost and performance. Although water is integral to electricity generation, it has long been neglected as a constraint in future electricity system projections. Assessing the impact of water resource scarcity on energy infrastructure development is critical, both for conventional and renewable energy technologies. Efficiently utilizing all water types, including wastewater and brackish sources, or utilizing dry-cooling technologies, will be essential for transitioning to a low-carbon electricity system. This work provides the first demonstration of a national electric system capacity expansion model that incorporates water resources as a constraint on the current and future U.S. electricity system. The Regional Electricity Deployment System (ReEDS) model was enhanced to represent multiple cooling technology types and limited water resource availability in its optimization of electricity sector capacity expansion to 2050. The ReEDS model has high geographic and temporal resolution, making it a suitable model for incorporating water resources, which are inherently seasonal and watershed-specific. Cooling system technologies were assigned varying costs (capital, operations and maintenance), and performance parameters, reflecting inherent tradeoffs in water impacts and operating characteristics. Water rights supply curves were developed for each of the power balancing regions in ReEDS. Supply curves include costs and availability of freshwater (surface and groundwater) and alternative water resources (municipal wastewater and brackish groundwater). In each region, a new power plant must secure sufficient water rights for operation before being built. Water rights constraints thus influence the type of power plant, cooling system, or location of new generating capacity. Results indicate that the aggregate national generating capacity by fuel type and associated carbon dioxide emissions change marginally with the inclusion of water rights. Water resource withdrawals and consumption, however, can vary considerably. Regional water resource dynamics indicate substantial differences in the location where power plant-cooling system technology combinations are built. These localized impacts highlight the importance of considering water resources as a constraint in the electricity sector when evaluating costs, transmission infrastructure needs, and externalities. Further scenario evaluations include assessments of how climate change could affect the availability of water resources, and thus the development of the electricity sector.

Developing a Psychometric Instrument to Measure Physical Education Teachers' Job Demands and Resources.

PubMed

Zhang, Tan; Chen, Ang

2017-01-01

Based on the job demands-resources model, the study developed and validated an instrument that measures physical education teachers' job demands-resources perception. Expert review established content validity with the average item rating of 3.6/5.0. Construct validity and reliability were determined with a teacher sample ( n = 397). Exploratory factor analysis established a five-dimension construct structure matching the theoretical construct deliberated in the literature. The composite reliability scores for the five dimensions range from .68 to .83. Validity coefficients (intraclass correlational coefficients) are .69 for job resources items and .82 for job demands items. Inter-scale correlational coefficients range from -.32 to .47. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the construct validity with high dimensional factor loadings (ranging from .47 to .84 for job resources scale and from .50 to .85 for job demands scale) and adequate model fit indexes (root mean square error of approximation = .06). The instrument provides a tool to measure physical education teachers' perception of their working environment.

Developing a Psychometric Instrument to Measure Physical Education Teachers’ Job Demands and Resources

PubMed Central

Zhang, Tan; Chen, Ang

2017-01-01

Based on the job demands–resources model, the study developed and validated an instrument that measures physical education teachers’ job demands–resources perception. Expert review established content validity with the average item rating of 3.6/5.0. Construct validity and reliability were determined with a teacher sample (n = 397). Exploratory factor analysis established a five-dimension construct structure matching the theoretical construct deliberated in the literature. The composite reliability scores for the five dimensions range from .68 to .83. Validity coefficients (intraclass correlational coefficients) are .69 for job resources items and .82 for job demands items. Inter-scale correlational coefficients range from −.32 to .47. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the construct validity with high dimensional factor loadings (ranging from .47 to .84 for job resources scale and from .50 to .85 for job demands scale) and adequate model fit indexes (root mean square error of approximation = .06). The instrument provides a tool to measure physical education teachers’ perception of their working environment. PMID:29200808

Identification of Staphylococcus saprophyticus isolated from patients with urinary tract infection using a simple set of biochemical tests correlating with 16S-23S interspace region molecular weight patterns.

PubMed

Ferreira, Adriano Martison; Bonesso, Mariana Fávero; Mondelli, Alessandro Lia; da Cunha, Maria de Lourdes Ribeiro de Souza

2012-12-01

The emergence of Staphylococcus spp. not only as human pathogens, but also as reservoirs of antibiotic resistance determinants, requires the development of methods for their rapid and reliable identification in medically important samples. The aim of this study was to compare three phenotypic methods for the identification of Staphylococcus spp. isolated from patients with urinary tract infection using the PCR of the 16S-23S interspace region generating molecular weight patterns (ITR-PCR) as reference. All 57 S. saprophyticus studied were correctly identified using only the novobiocin disk. A rate of agreement of 98.0% was obtained for the simplified battery of biochemical tests in relation to ITR-PCR, whereas the Vitek I system and novobiocin disk showed 81.2% and 89.1% agreement, respectively. No other novobiocin-resistant non-S. saprophyticus strain was identified. Thus, the novobiocin disk is a feasible alternative for the identification of S. saprophyticus in urine samples in laboratories with limited resources. ITR-PCR and the simplified battery of biochemical tests were more reliable than the commercial systems currently available. This study confirms that automated systems are still unable to correctly differentiate CoNS species and that simple, reliable and inexpensive methods can be used for routine identification. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Creation of Power Reserves Under the Market Economy Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahnitko, A.; Gerhards, J.; Lomane, T.; Ribakov, S.

2008-09-01

The main task of the control over an electric power system (EPS) is to ensure reliable power supply at the least cost. In this case, requirements to the electric power quality, power supply reliability and cost limitations on the energy resources must be observed. The available power reserve in an EPS is the necessary condition to keep it in operation with maintenance of normal operating variables (frequency, node voltage, power flows via the transmission lines, etc.). The authors examine possibilities to create power reserves that could be offered for sale by the electric power producer. They consider a procedure of price formation for the power reserves and propose a relevant mathematical model for a united EPS, the initial data being the fuel-cost functions for individual systems, technological limitations on the active power generation and consumers' load. As the criterion of optimization the maximum profit for the producer is taken. The model is exemplified by a concentrated EPS. The computations have been performed using the MATLAB program.

Cloud Computing for the Grid: GridControl: A Software Platform to Support the Smart Grid

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

GENI Project: Cornell University is creating a new software platform for grid operators called GridControl that will utilize cloud computing to more efficiently control the grid. In a cloud computing system, there are minimal hardware and software demands on users. The user can tap into a network of computers that is housed elsewhere (the cloud) and the network runs computer applications for the user. The user only needs interface software to access all of the cloud’s data resources, which can be as simple as a web browser. Cloud computing can reduce costs, facilitate innovation through sharing, empower users, and improvemore » the overall reliability of a dispersed system. Cornell’s GridControl will focus on 4 elements: delivering the state of the grid to users quickly and reliably; building networked, scalable grid-control software; tailoring services to emerging smart grid uses; and simulating smart grid behavior under various conditions.« less

Modeling and Analysis of Remote, Off-grid Microgrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madathil, Sreenath Chalil

Over the past century the electric power industry has evolved to support the delivery of power over long distances with highly interconnected transmission systems. Despite this evolution, some remote communities are not connected to these systems. These communities rely on small, disconnected distribution systems, i.e., microgrids, to deliver power. Power distribution in most of these remote communities often depend on a type of microgrid called "off-grid microgrids". However, as microgrids often are not held to the same reliability standards as transmission grids, remote communities can be at risk to experience extended blackouts. Recent trends have also shown an increased use of renewable energy resources in power systems for remote communities. The increased penetration of renewable resources in power generation will require complex decision making when designing a resilient power system. This is mainly due to the stochastic nature of renewable resources that can lead to loss of load or line overload during their operations. In the first part of this thesis, we develop an optimization model and accompanying solution algorithm for capacity planning and operating microgrids that include N-1 security and other practical modeling features (e.g., AC power flow physics, component efficiencies and thermal limits). We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model and solution approach on two test systems: a modified version of the IEEE 13 node test feeder and a model of a distribution system in a remote Alaskan community. Once a tractable algorithm was identified to solve the above problem, we develop a mathematical model that includes topology design of microgrids. The topology design includes building new lines, making redundant lines, and analyzing N-1 contingencies on generators and lines. We develop a rolling horizon algorithm to efficiently analyze the model and demonstrate the strength of our algorithm in the same network. Finally, we develop a stochastic model that considers generation uncertainties along with N-1 security on generation assets. We develop a chance-constrained model to analyze the efficacy of the problem under consideration and present a case study on an adapted IEEE-13 node network. A successful implementation of this research could help remote communities around the world to enhance their quality of life by providing them with cost-effective, reliable electricity.

Causal simulation and sensor planning in predictive monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doyle, Richard J.

1989-01-01

Two issues are addressed which arise in the task of detecting anomalous behavior in complex systems with numerous sensor channels: how to adjust alarm thresholds dynamically, within the changing operating context of the system, and how to utilize sensors selectively, so that nominal operation can be verified reliably without processing a prohibitive amount of sensor data. The approach involves simulation of a causal model of the system, which provides information on expected sensor values, and on dependencies between predicted events, useful in assessing the relative importance of events so that sensor resources can be allocated effectively. The potential applicability of this work to the execution monitoring of robot task plans is briefly discussed.

System Reliability-Based Design Optimization Under Input and Model Uncertainties

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-02-02

Standard Form 298 (Rev 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 W911NF-09- 1 -0250 319-335-5684 Final Report 56025-NS.40 a. REPORT 14. ABSTRACT 16...resource. In such cases the inaccuracy and uncertainty of the surrogate model needs to 1 . REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 13...estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the

A Tale of Two Cities: Greensburg Resurrected as a National Model for Green Communities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shelley Gonzales

This fact sheet provides a summary of how NREL's technical assistance in Greensburg, Kansas, helped the town rebuild green after recovering from a tornado in May 2007. To help local distributed system owners get the most value for electricity sent back to the grid, NREL drafted safety and reliability ordinances, an interconnection agreement, and net-metering policies for the city to consider. NREL and the Energy Department also assisted with wind energy resource analysis, feasibility studies, and business plans.

Ground-Water Resources of the Lower Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin in Parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia-Subarea 4 of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basins

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-01-01

Counties, Ga . Evaluation of ground- water-development potential in the virtually untapped Intermediate system has questionable reliability due to the...Alabama, Florida, and Georgia into 4 districts: Fall Line Hills, Dougherty Plain, Tifton Upland, and Gulf Coastal Lowlands. Physiographic descriptions...approximately with the boundary between the Tifton Uplands and the Dough- erty Plain districts and the Gulf Coastal Lowlands district occupies the

The Physician's Workstation: Recording a Physical Examination Using a Controlled Vocabulary

PubMed Central

Cimino, James J.; Barnett, G. Octo

1987-01-01

A system has been developed which runs on MS-DOS personal computers and serves as an experimental model of a physician's workstation. The program provides an interface to a controlled vocabulary which allows rapid selection of appropriate terms and modifiers for entry of clinical information. Because it captures patient descriptions, it has the ability to serve as an intermediary between the physician and computer-based medical knowledge resources. At present, the vocabulary permits rapid, reliable representation of cardiac physical examination findings.

Analysis the Transient Process of Wind Power Resources when there are Voltage Sags in Distribution Grid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nhu Y, Do

2018-03-01

Vietnam has many advantages of wind power resources. Time by time there are more and more capacity as well as number of wind power project in Vietnam. Corresponding to the increase of wind power emitted into national grid, It is necessary to research and analyze in order to ensure the safety and reliability of win power connection. In national distribution grid, voltage sag occurs regularly, it can strongly influence on the operation of wind power. The most serious consequence is the disconnection. The paper presents the analysis of distribution grid's transient process when voltage is sagged. Base on the analysis, the solutions will be recommended to improve the reliability and effective operation of wind power resources.

Will Astronauts Wash Clothes on the Way to Mars?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ewert, Michael K.; Jeng, Frank F.

2015-01-01

Future human space exploration missions will lengthen to years, and keeping crews clothed without a huge resupply burden is an important consideration for habitation systems. A space laundry system could be the solution; however, the resources it uses must be accounted for and must win out over the reliable practice of simply bringing along enough spare underwear. NASA has conducted trade-off studies through its Logistics Reduction Project to compare current space clothing systems, life extension of that clothing, traditional water-based clothes washing, and other sanitizing techniques. The best clothing system depends on the mission and assumptions but, in general, analysis results indicate that washing clothes on space missions will start to pay off as mission durations approach a year.

Is a Space Laundry Needed for Exploration?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ewert, Michael K.; Jeng, Frank F.

2014-01-01

Future human space exploration missions will lengthen to years, and keeping crews clothed without a huge resupply burden is an important consideration for habitation systems. A space laundry system could be the solution; however, the resources it uses must be accounted for and must win out over the very reliable practice of bringing along enough spare underwear. Through NASA's Logistics Reduction and Repurposing project, trade off studies have been conducted to compare current space clothing systems, life extension of that clothing, traditional water based clothes washing and other sanitizing techniques. The best clothing system of course depends on the mission and assumptions, but in general, analysis results indicate that washing clothes on space missions will start to pay off as mission durations push past a year.

Assessing Vulnerability under Uncertainty in the Colorado River Basin: The Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jerla, C.; Adams, P.; Butler, A.; Nowak, K.; Prairie, J. R.

2013-12-01

Spanning parts of the seven states, of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, the Colorado River is one of the most critical sources of water in the western United States. Colorado River allocations exceed the long-term supply and since the 1950s, there have been a number of years when the annual water use in the Colorado River Basin exceeded the yield. The Basin is entering its second decade of drought conditions which brings challenges that will only be compounded if projections of climate change are realized. It was against this backdrop that the Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study was conducted. The Study's objectives are to define current and future imbalances in the Basin over the next 50 years and to develop and analyze adaptation and mitigation strategies to resolve those imbalances. Long-term planning in the Basin involves the integration of uncertainty with respect to a changing climate and other uncertainties such as future demand and how policies may be modified to adapt to changing reliability. The Study adopted a scenario planning approach to address this uncertainty in which thousands of scenarios were developed to encompass a wide range of plausible future water supply and demand conditions. Using Reclamation's long-term planning model, the Colorado River Simulation System, the reliability of the system to meet Basin resource needs under these future conditions was projected both with and without additional future adaptation strategies in place. System reliability metrics were developed in order to define system vulnerabilities, the conditions that lead to those vulnerabilities, and sign posts to indicate if the system is approaching a vulnerable state. Options and strategies that reduce these vulnerabilities and improve system reliability were explored through the development of portfolios. Four portfolios, each with different management strategies, were analyzed to assess their effectiveness at reducing system vulnerabilities and the improving the resiliency of the Basin to vulnerable conditions. The Study is the most comprehensive long-term assessment to date of the Basin and it confirmed that without action, the Colorado River system will become increasingly challenged to sustain the communities and resources that rely on its water supply. The Study was conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation and its consultant team (CH2M Hill, Black & Veatch, and the RAND Corporation) and the seven Colorado River Basin States, in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders throughout the Basin. The Study's strong technical foundation forms a basis from which important discussions can begin regarding possible actions to resolve future supply and demand imbalances in order to help ensure the sustainability of the Colorado River system. This talk will provide an overview of the Study's approach and findings, with a focus on the Study's assessment and characterization of vulnerability under uncertainty.

Students' Evaluation Strategies in a Web Research Task: Are They Sensitive to Relevance and Reliability?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodicio, Héctor García

2015-01-01

When searching and using resources on the Web, students have to evaluate Web pages in terms of relevance and reliability. This evaluation can be done in a more or less systematic way, by either considering deep or superficial cues of relevance and reliability. The goal of this study was to examine how systematic students are when evaluating Web…

Methods of measuring pumpage through closed-conduit irrigation systems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kjelstrom, L.C.

1991-01-01

Methods of measuring volumes of water withdrawn from the Snake River and its tributaries and pumped through closed-conduit irrigation systems were needed for equitable management of and resolution of conflicts over water use. On the basis of evaluations and field tests by researchers from the University of Idaho, Water Resources Research Institute, Moscow, Idaho, an impeller meter was selected to monitor pumpage through closed-conduit systems. In 1988, impeller meters were installed at 20 pumping stations along the Snake River between the Upper Salmon Falls and C.J. Strike Dams. Impeller-derived pumpage data were adjusted if they differed substantially from ultrasonic flow-meter- or current-meter-derived values. Comparisons of pumpage data obtained by ultrasonic flow-meter and current-meter measurements indicated that the ultrasonic flow meter was a reliable means to check operation of impeller meters. The equipment generally performed satisfactorily, and reliable pumpage data could be obtained using impeller meters in closed-conduit irrigation systems. Many pumping stations that divert water from the Snake River for irrigation remain unmeasured; however, regression analyses indicate that total pumpage can be reasonably estimated on the basis of electrical power consumption data, an approximation of total head at a pumping station, and a derived coefficient.

High reliability outdoor sonar prototype based on efficient signal coding.

PubMed

Alvarez, Fernando J; Ureña, Jesús; Mazo, Manuel; Hernández, Alvaro; García, Juan J; de Marziani, Carlos

2006-10-01

Many mobile robots and autonomous vehicles designed for outdoor operation have incorporated ultrasonic sensors in their navigation systems, whose function is mainly to avoid possible collisions with very close obstacles. The use of these systems in more precise tasks requires signal encoding and the incorporation of pulse compression techniques that have already been used with success in the design of high-performance indoor sonars. However, the transmission of ultrasonic encoded signals outdoors entails a new challenge because of the effects of atmospheric turbulence. This phenomenon causes random fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of traveling acoustic waves, a fact that can make the encoded signal completely unrecognizable by its matched receiver. Atmospheric turbulence is investigated in this work, with the aim of determining the conditions under which it is possible to assure the reliable outdoor operation of an ultrasonic pulse compression system. As a result of this analysis, a novel sonar prototype based on complementary sequences coding is developed and experimentally tested. This encoding scheme provides the system with very useful additional features, namely, high robustness to noise, multi-mode operation capability (simultaneous emissions with minimum cross talk interference), and the possibility of applying an efficient detection algorithm that notably decreases the hardware resource requirements.

Risk Assessment Challenges in the Ares I Upper Stage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stott, James E.; Ring, Robert W.; Elrada, Hassan A.; Hark, Frank

2007-01-01

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is currently at work developing hardware and systems for the Ares I rocket that will send future astronauts into orbit. Built on cutting-edge launch technologies, evolved powerful Apollo and Space Shuttle propulsion elements, and decades of NASA spaceflight experience, Ares I is the essential core of a safe, reliable, cost-effective space transportation system -- one that will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system. Ares I is an in-line, two-stage rocket configuration topped by the Orion crew vehicle and its launch abort system. In addition to the vehicle's primary mission -carrying crews of four to six astronauts to Earth orbit --Ares I may also use its 25-ton payload capacity to deliver resources and supplies to the International Space Station, or to "park" payloads in orbit for retrieval by other spacecraft bound for the moon or other destinations. Crew transportation to the International Space Station is planned to begin no later than 2014. The first lunar excursion is scheduled for the 2020 timeframe. This paper presents the challenges in designing the Ares I upper stage for reliability and safety while minimizing weight and maximizing performance.

A Computational Architecture Based on RFID Sensors for Traceability in Smart Cities.

PubMed

Mora-Mora, Higinio; Gilart-Iglesias, Virgilio; Gil, David; Sirvent-Llamas, Alejandro

2015-06-10

Information Technology and Communications (ICT) is presented as the main element in order to achieve more efficient and sustainable city resource management, while making sure that the needs of the citizens to improve their quality of life are satisfied. A key element will be the creation of new systems that allow the acquisition of context information, automatically and transparently, in order to provide it to decision support systems. In this paper, we present a novel distributed system for obtaining, representing and providing the flow and movement of people in densely populated geographical areas. In order to accomplish these tasks, we propose the design of a smart sensor network based on RFID communication technologies, reliability patterns and integration techniques. Contrary to other proposals, this system represents a comprehensive solution that permits the acquisition of user information in a transparent and reliable way in a non-controlled and heterogeneous environment. This knowledge will be useful in moving towards the design of smart cities in which decision support on transport strategies, business evaluation or initiatives in the tourism sector will be supported by real relevant information. As a final result, a case study will be presented which will allow the validation of the proposal.

A Computational Architecture Based on RFID Sensors for Traceability in Smart Cities

PubMed Central

Mora-Mora, Higinio; Gilart-Iglesias, Virgilio; Gil, David; Sirvent-Llamas, Alejandro

2015-01-01

Information Technology and Communications (ICT) is presented as the main element in order to achieve more efficient and sustainable city resource management, while making sure that the needs of the citizens to improve their quality of life are satisfied. A key element will be the creation of new systems that allow the acquisition of context information, automatically and transparently, in order to provide it to decision support systems. In this paper, we present a novel distributed system for obtaining, representing and providing the flow and movement of people in densely populated geographical areas. In order to accomplish these tasks, we propose the design of a smart sensor network based on RFID communication technologies, reliability patterns and integration techniques. Contrary to other proposals, this system represents a comprehensive solution that permits the acquisition of user information in a transparent and reliable way in a non-controlled and heterogeneous environment. This knowledge will be useful in moving towards the design of smart cities in which decision support on transport strategies, business evaluation or initiatives in the tourism sector will be supported by real relevant information. As a final result, a case study will be presented which will allow the validation of the proposal. PMID:26067195

Pre-implementation studies of a workforce planning tool for nurse staffing and human resource management in university hospitals.

PubMed

van Oostveen, Catharina J; Ubbink, Dirk T; Mens, Marian A; Pompe, Edwin A; Vermeulen, Hester

2016-03-01

To investigate the reliability, validity and feasibility of the RAFAELA workforce planning system (including the Oulu patient classification system - OPCq), before deciding on implementation in Dutch hospitals. The complexity of care, budgetary restraints and demand for high-quality patient care have ignited the need for transparent hospital workforce planning. Nurses from 12 wards of two university hospitals were trained to test the reliability of the OPCq by investigating the absolute agreement of nursing care intensity (NCI) measurements among nurses. Validity was tested by assessing whether optimal NCI/nurse ratio, as calculated by a regression analysis in RAFAELA, was realistic. System feasibility was investigated through a questionnaire among all nurses involved. Almost 67 000 NCI measurements were performed between December 2013 and June 2014. Agreement using the OPCq varied between 38% and 91%. For only 1 in 12 wards was the optimal NCI area calculated judged as valid. Although the majority of respondents was positive about the applicability and user-friendliness, RAFAELA was not accepted as useful workforce planning system. Nurses' performance using the RAFAELA system did not warrant its implementation. Hospital managers should first focus on enlarging the readiness of nurses regarding the implementation of a workforce planning system. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Hydro pumped storage, international experience: An overview of ASCE task committee report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Makarechian, A.H.; Rummel, G.

1995-12-31

This paper presents an overview of a report that is being prepared by ASCE Task Committee on Pumped Storage, International Experience. The reader is referred to the committee report that will be available in 1996. Many pumped storage projects in Europe, but particularly in Japan are becoming an indispensable resource in management of loads and resources on the electrical system. They serve to enhance reliability of the system and to provide for efficient utilization of thermal resources. Pumped storage is increasingly being used as a system management tool. To serve such purposes and to function in this key role, pumpedmore » storage projects are designed for very fast loading and unloading, for very fast mode reversals from pumping to generating and visa versa, for synchronous generation, and more importantly for load ramping during the pumping mode. This is achieved by use of variable-speed pump turbine units. The use of variable-speed units has proven so successful in Japan that many older projects are retrofitted with this new feature. Other interesting equipment applications are discussed including utilization of multi-stage unregulated pump turbines for very high heads (up to 1,250 m), and continued extension of the experience for high head reversible Francis unit, currently in excess of 750 m.« less

The Clouds distributed operating system - Functional description, implementation details and related work

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dasgupta, Partha; Leblanc, Richard J., Jr.; Appelbe, William F.

1988-01-01

Clouds is an operating system in a novel class of distributed operating systems providing the integration, reliability, and structure that makes a distributed system usable. Clouds is designed to run on a set of general purpose computers that are connected via a medium-of-high speed local area network. The system structuring paradigm chosen for the Clouds operating system, after substantial research, is an object/thread model. All instances of services, programs and data in Clouds are encapsulated in objects. The concept of persistent objects does away with the need for file systems, and replaces it with a more powerful concept, namely the object system. The facilities in Clouds include integration of resources through location transparency; support for various types of atomic operations, including conventional transactions; advanced support for achieving fault tolerance; and provisions for dynamic reconfiguration.

HappyFace as a generic monitoring tool for HEP experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawamura, Gen; Magradze, Erekle; Musheghyan, Haykuhi; Quadt, Arnulf; Rzehorz, Gerhard

2015-12-01

The importance of monitoring on HEP grid computing systems is growing due to a significant increase in their complexity. Computer scientists and administrators have been studying and building effective ways to gather information on and clarify a status of each local grid infrastructure. The HappyFace project aims at making the above-mentioned workflow possible. It aggregates, processes and stores the information and the status of different HEP monitoring resources into the common database of HappyFace. The system displays the information and the status through a single interface. However, this model of HappyFace relied on the monitoring resources which are always under development in the HEP experiments. Consequently, HappyFace needed to have direct access methods to the grid application and grid service layers in the different HEP grid systems. To cope with this issue, we use a reliable HEP software repository, the CernVM File System. We propose a new implementation and an architecture of HappyFace, the so-called grid-enabled HappyFace. It allows its basic framework to connect directly to the grid user applications and the grid collective services, without involving the monitoring resources in the HEP grid systems. This approach gives HappyFace several advantages: Portability, to provide an independent and generic monitoring system among the HEP grid systems. Eunctionality, to allow users to perform various diagnostic tools in the individual HEP grid systems and grid sites. Elexibility, to make HappyFace beneficial and open for the various distributed grid computing environments. Different grid-enabled modules, to connect to the Ganga job monitoring system and to check the performance of grid transfers among the grid sites, have been implemented. The new HappyFace system has been successfully integrated and now it displays the information and the status of both the monitoring resources and the direct access to the grid user applications and the grid collective services.

Constructing the 'Best' Reliability Data for the Job - Developing Generic Reliability Data from Alternative Sources Early in a Product's Development Phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kleinhammer, Roger K.; Graber, Robert R.; DeMott, D. L.

2016-01-01

Reliability practitioners advocate getting reliability involved early in a product development process. However, when assigned to estimate or assess the (potential) reliability of a product or system early in the design and development phase, they are faced with lack of reasonable models or methods for useful reliability estimation. Developing specific data is costly and time consuming. Instead, analysts rely on available data to assess reliability. Finding data relevant to the specific use and environment for any project is difficult, if not impossible. Instead, analysts attempt to develop the "best" or composite analog data to support the assessments. Industries, consortia and vendors across many areas have spent decades collecting, analyzing and tabulating fielded item and component reliability performance in terms of observed failures and operational use. This data resource provides a huge compendium of information for potential use, but can also be compartmented by industry, difficult to find out about, access, or manipulate. One method used incorporates processes for reviewing these existing data sources and identifying the available information based on similar equipment, then using that generic data to derive an analog composite. Dissimilarities in equipment descriptions, environment of intended use, quality and even failure modes impact the "best" data incorporated in an analog composite. Once developed, this composite analog data provides a "better" representation of the reliability of the equipment or component. It can be used to support early risk or reliability trade studies, or analytical models to establish the predicted reliability data points. It also establishes a baseline prior that may updated based on test data or observed operational constraints and failures, i.e., using Bayesian techniques. This tutorial presents a descriptive compilation of historical data sources across numerous industries and disciplines, along with examples of contents and data characteristics. It then presents methods for combining failure information from different sources and mathematical use of this data in early reliability estimation and analyses.

IMPROVING INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS RELIABILITY TO ENHANCE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

EPA Science Inventory

Sustainable development includes the recovery of resources from industrial manufacturing processes. One valuable resource that can often be purified and reused is process wastewater. Typically, pollutants are removed from process wastewater using physical, chemical, and biologica...

Microreactor System Design for a NASA In Situ Propellant Production Plant on Mars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

TeGrotenhuis, W. E.; Wegeng, R. S.; Vanderwiel, D. P.; Whyatt, G. A.; Viswanathan, V. V.; Schielke, K. P.; Sanders, G. B.; Peters, T. A.; Nicholson, Leonard S. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The NASA In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) program is planning near-term missions to Mars that will include chemical processes for converting the carbon dioxide (CO2) and possibly water from the Martian environment to propellants, oxygen, and other useful chemicals. The use of indigenous resources reduces the size and weight of the payloads from Earth significantly, representing enormous cost savings that make human exploration of Mars affordable. Extraterrestrial chemical processing plants will need to be compact, lightweight, highly efficient under reduced gravity, and extraordinarily reliable for long periods. Microchemical and thermal systems represent capability for dramatic reduction in size and weight, while offering high reliability through massive parallelization. In situ propellant production (ISPP), one aspect of the ISRU program, involves collecting and pressurizing atmospheric CO2, conversion reactions, chemical separations, heat exchangers, and cryogenic storage. A preliminary system design of an ISPP plant based on microtechnology has demonstrated significant size, weight, and energy efficiency gains over the current NASA baseline. Energy management is a strong driver for Mars-based processes, not only because energy is a scarce resource, but because heat rejection is problematic; the low pressure environment makes convective heat transfer ineffective. Energy efficiency gains are largely achieved in the microchemical plant through extensive heat recuperation and energy cascading, which has a small size and weight penalty because the added micro heat exchangers are small. This leads to additional size and weight gains by reducing the required area of waste heat radiators. The microtechnology-based ISPP plant is described in detail, including aspects of pinch analysis for optimizing the heat exchanger network. Three options for thermochemical compression Of CO2 from the Martian atmosphere, adsorption, absorption, and cryogenic freezing, are presented, as well as three options for water decomposition, low temperature electrolysis, high temperature electrolysis, and thermochemical decomposition. Other elements of the plant include Sabatier and reverse water gas shift reactors, water recovery, chemical separations, and cryogenic storage. Data are presented supporting preliminary sizing of components, and results of the system design are compared to the existing NASA baseline that is based on conventional technologies.

Power management and frequency regulation for microgrid and smart grid: A real-time demand response approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pourmousavi Kani, Seyyed Ali

Future power systems (known as smart grid) will experience a high penetration level of variable distributed energy resources to bring abundant, affordable, clean, efficient, and reliable electric power to all consumers. However, it might suffer from the uncertain and variable nature of these generations in terms of reliability and especially providing required balancing reserves. In the current power system structure, balancing reserves (provided by spinning and non-spinning power generation units) usually are provided by conventional fossil-fueled power plants. However, such power plants are not the favorite option for the smart grid because of their low efficiency, high amount of emissions, and expensive capital investments on transmission and distribution facilities, to name a few. Providing regulation services in the presence of variable distributed energy resources would be even more difficult for islanded microgrids. The impact and effectiveness of demand response are still not clear at the distribution and transmission levels. In other words, there is no solid research reported in the literature on the evaluation of the impact of DR on power system dynamic performance. In order to address these issues, a real-time demand response approach along with real-time power management (specifically for microgrids) is proposed in this research. The real-time demand response solution is utilized at the transmission (through load-frequency control model) and distribution level (both in the islanded and grid-tied modes) to provide effective and fast regulation services for the stable operation of the power system. Then, multiple real-time power management algorithms for grid-tied and islanded microgrids are proposed to economically and effectively operate microgrids. Extensive dynamic modeling of generation, storage, and load as well as different controller design are considered and developed throughout this research to provide appropriate models and simulation environment to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies. Simulation results revealed the effectiveness of the proposed methods in providing balancing reserves and microgrids' economic and stable operation. The proposed tools and approaches can significantly enhance the application of microgrids and demand response in the smart grid era. They will also help to increase the penetration level of variable distributed generation resources in the smart grid.

Development and validation of a nursing professionalism evaluation model in a career ladder system.

PubMed

Kim, Yeon Hee; Jung, Young Sun; Min, Ja; Song, Eun Young; Ok, Jung Hui; Lim, Changwon; Kim, Kyunghee; Kim, Ji-Su

2017-01-01

The clinical ladder system categorizes the degree of nursing professionalism and rewards and is an important human resource tool for managing nursing. We developed a model to evaluate nursing professionalism, which determines the clinical ladder system levels, and verified its validity. Data were collected using a clinical competence tool developed in this study, and existing methods such as the nursing professionalism evaluation tool, peer reviews, and face-to-face interviews to evaluate promotions and verify the presented content in a medical institution. Reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of the clinical competence evaluation tool were verified using SmartPLS software. The validity of the model for evaluating overall nursing professionalism was also analyzed. Clinical competence was determined by five dimensions of nursing practice: scientific, technical, ethical, aesthetic, and existential. The structural model explained 66% of the variance. Clinical competence scales, peer reviews, and face-to-face interviews directly determined nursing professionalism levels. The evaluation system can be used for evaluating nurses' professionalism in actual medical institutions from a nursing practice perspective. A conceptual framework for establishing a human resources management system for nurses and a tool for evaluating nursing professionalism at medical institutions is provided.

Power system modeling and optimization methods vis-a-vis integrated resource planning (IRP)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arsali, Mohammad H.

1998-12-01

The state-of-the-art restructuring of power industries is changing the fundamental nature of retail electricity business. As a result, the so-called Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) strategies implemented on electric utilities are also undergoing modifications. Such modifications evolve from the imminent considerations to minimize the revenue requirements and maximize electrical system reliability vis-a-vis capacity-additions (viewed as potential investments). IRP modifications also provide service-design bases to meet the customer needs towards profitability. The purpose of this research as deliberated in this dissertation is to propose procedures for optimal IRP intended to expand generation facilities of a power system over a stretched period of time. Relevant topics addressed in this research towards IRP optimization are as follows: (1) Historical prospective and evolutionary aspects of power system production-costing models and optimization techniques; (2) A survey of major U.S. electric utilities adopting IRP under changing socioeconomic environment; (3) A new technique designated as the Segmentation Method for production-costing via IRP optimization; (4) Construction of a fuzzy relational database of a typical electric power utility system for IRP purposes; (5) A genetic algorithm based approach for IRP optimization using the fuzzy relational database.

Advances in knowledge-based software engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Truszkowski, Walt

1991-01-01

The underlying hypothesis of this work is that a rigorous and comprehensive software reuse methodology can bring about a more effective and efficient utilization of constrained resources in the development of large-scale software systems by both government and industry. It is also believed that correct use of this type of software engineering methodology can significantly contribute to the higher levels of reliability that will be required of future operational systems. An overview and discussion of current research in the development and application of two systems that support a rigorous reuse paradigm are presented: the Knowledge-Based Software Engineering Environment (KBSEE) and the Knowledge Acquisition fo the Preservation of Tradeoffs and Underlying Rationales (KAPTUR) systems. Emphasis is on a presentation of operational scenarios which highlight the major functional capabilities of the two systems.

Development of a short version of the new brief job stress questionnaire.

PubMed

Inoue, Akiomi; Kawakami, Norito; Shimomitsu, Teruichi; Tsutsumi, Akizumi; Haratani, Takashi; Yoshikawa, Toru; Shimazu, Akihito; Odagiri, Yuko

2014-01-01

This study was aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability and validity of a short version of the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (New BJSQ) whose scales have one item selected from a standard version. Based on the results from an anonymous web-based questionnaire of occupational health staffs and personnel/labor staffs, we selected higher-priority scales from the standard version. After selecting one item with highest item-total correlation coefficient from each scale, a 23-item questionnaire was developed. A nationally representative survey was administered to Japanese employees (n=1,633) to examine test-retest reliability and validity. Most scales (or items) showed modest but adequate levels of test-retest reliability (r>0.50). Furthermore, job demands and job resources scales (or items) were associated with mental and physical stress reactions while job resources scales (or items) were also associated with positive outcomes. These findings provided a piece of evidence that the short version of the New BJSQ is reliable and valid.

Development of a Short Version of the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire

PubMed Central

INOUE, Akiomi; KAWAKAMI, Norito; SHIMOMITSU, Teruichi; TSUTSUMI, Akizumi; HARATANI, Takashi; YOSHIKAWA, Toru; SHIMAZU, Akihito; ODAGIRI, Yuko

2014-01-01

This study was aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability and validity of a short version of the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (New BJSQ) whose scales have one item selected from a standard version. Based on the results from an anonymous web-based questionnaire of occupational health staffs and personnel/labor staffs, we selected higher-priority scales from the standard version. After selecting one item with highest item-total correlation coefficient from each scale, a 23-item questionnaire was developed. A nationally representative survey was administered to Japanese employees (n=1,633) to examine test-retest reliability and validity. Most scales (or items) showed modest but adequate levels of test-retest reliability (r>0.50). Furthermore, job demands and job resources scales (or items) were associated with mental and physical stress reactions while job resources scales (or items) were also associated with positive outcomes. These findings provided a piece of evidence that the short version of the New BJSQ is reliable and valid. PMID:24975108

Developing a Psychometric Instrument to Measure Physical Education Teachers' Job Demands and Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Tan; Chen, Ang

2017-01-01

Based on the job demands-resources model, the study developed and validated an instrument that measures physical education teachers' job demands-resources perception. Expert review established content validity with the average item rating of 3.6/5.0. Construct validity and reliability were determined with a teacher sample (n = 397). Exploratory…

43 CFR 11.44 - What does the authorized official do after the close of the comment period?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... the Interior NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS Type A Procedures § 11.44 What does the authorized... reliable evidence that the NRDAM/CME or NRDAM/GLE application covers resources beyond his or her trustee... trustee jurisdiction over those resources join in the type A assessment; or (2) Eliminate any damages for...

43 CFR 11.44 - What does the authorized official do after the close of the comment period?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... the Interior NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS Type A Procedures § 11.44 What does the authorized... reliable evidence that the NRDAM/CME or NRDAM/GLE application covers resources beyond his or her trustee... trustee jurisdiction over those resources join in the type A assessment; or (2) Eliminate any damages for...

Autonomous system for launch vehicle range safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrell, Bob; Haley, Sam

2001-02-01

The Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) is a launch vehicle subsystem whose ultimate goal is an autonomous capability to assure range safety (people and valuable resources), flight personnel safety, flight assets safety (recovery of valuable vehicles and cargo), and global coverage with a dramatic simplification of range infrastructure. The AFSS is capable of determining current vehicle position and predicting the impact point with respect to flight restriction zones. Additionally, it is able to discern whether or not the launch vehicle is an immediate threat to public safety, and initiate the appropriate range safety response. These features provide for a dramatic cost reduction in range operations and improved reliability of mission success. .

Restoring Redundancy to the MAP Propulsion System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

O'Donnell, James R., Jr.; Davis, Gary T.; Ward, David K.; Bauer, Frank H. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) is a follow-on to the Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) instrument on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Due to the MAP project's limited mass, power, and financial resources, a traditional reliability concept including fully redundant components was not feasible. The MAP design employs selective hardware redundancy, along with backup software modes and algorithms, to improve the odds of mission success. In particular, MAP's propulsion system, which is used for orbit maneuvers and momentum management, uses eight thrusters positioned and oriented in such a way that its thruster-based attitude control modes can maintain three-axis attitude control in the event of the failure of any one thruster.

Fixed Point Learning Based Intelligent Traffic Control System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zongyao, Wang; Cong, Sui; Cheng, Shao

2017-10-01

Fixed point learning has become an important tool to analyse large scale distributed system such as urban traffic network. This paper presents a fixed point learning based intelligence traffic network control system. The system applies convergence property of fixed point theorem to optimize the traffic flow density. The intelligence traffic control system achieves maximum road resources usage by averaging traffic flow density among the traffic network. The intelligence traffic network control system is built based on decentralized structure and intelligence cooperation. No central control is needed to manage the system. The proposed system is simple, effective and feasible for practical use. The performance of the system is tested via theoretical proof and simulations. The results demonstrate that the system can effectively solve the traffic congestion problem and increase the vehicles average speed. It also proves that the system is flexible, reliable and feasible for practical use.

Geothermal energy program overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1991-12-01

The mission of the Geothermal Energy Program is to develop the science and technology necessary for tapping our nation's tremendous heat energy sources contained within the Earth. Geothermal energy is a domestic energy source that can produce clean, reliable, cost-effective heat and electricity for our nation's energy needs. Geothermal energy - the heat of the Earth - is one of our nation's most abundant energy resources. In fact, geothermal energy represents nearly 40 percent of the total U.S. energy resource base and already provides an important contribution to our nation's energy needs. Geothermal energy systems can provide clean, reliable, cost-effective energy for our nation's industries, businesses, and homes in the form of heat and electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Energy Program sponsors research aimed at developing the science and technology necessary for utilizing this resource more fully. Geothermal energy originates from the Earth's interior. The hottest fluids and rocks at accessible depths are associated with recent volcanic activity in the western states. In some places, heat comes to the surface as natural hot water or steam, which have been used since prehistoric times for cooking and bathing. Today, wells convey the heat from deep in the Earth to electric generators, factories, farms, and homes. The competitiveness of power generation with lower quality hydrothermal fluids, geopressured brines, hot dry rock, and magma (the four types of geothermal energy), still depends on the technical advancements sought by DOE's Geothermal Energy Program.

Optimizing Hydropower Day-Ahead Scheduling for the Oroville-Thermalito Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veselka, T. D.; Mahalik, M.

2012-12-01

Under an award from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Water Power Program, a team of national laboratories is developing and demonstrating a suite of advanced, integrated analytical tools to assist managers and planners increase hydropower resources while enhancing the environment. As part of the project, Argonne National Laboratory is developing the Conventional Hydropower Energy and Environmental Systems (CHEERS) model to optimize day-ahead scheduling and real-time operations. We will present the application of CHEERS to the Oroville-Thermalito Project located in Northern California. CHEERS will aid California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) schedulers in making decisions about unit commitments and turbine-level operating points using a system-wide approach to increase hydropower efficiency and the value of power generation and ancillary services. The model determines schedules and operations that are constrained by physical limitations, characteristics of plant components, operational preferences, reliability, and environmental considerations. The optimization considers forebay and afterbay implications, interactions between cascaded power plants, turbine efficiency curves and rough zones, and operator preferences. CHEERS simultaneously considers over time the interactions among all CDWR power and water resources, hydropower economics, reservoir storage limitations, and a set of complex environmental constraints for the Thermalito Afterbay and Feather River habitats. Power marketers, day-ahead schedulers, and plant operators provide system configuration and detailed operational data, along with feedback on model design and performance. CHEERS is integrated with CDWR data systems to obtain historic and initial conditions of the system as the basis from which future operations are then optimized. Model results suggest alternative operational regimes that improve the value of CDWR resources to the grid while enhancing the environment and complying with water delivery obligations for non-power uses.

Managing the CMS Data and Monte Carlo Processing during LHC Run 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wissing, C.; CMS Collaboration

2017-10-01

In order to cope with the challenges expected during the LHC Run 2 CMS put in a number of enhancements into the main software packages and the tools used for centrally managed processing. In the presentation we will highlight these improvements that allow CMS to deal with the increased trigger output rate, the increased pileup and the evolution in computing technology. The overall system aims at high flexibility, improved operational flexibility and largely automated procedures. The tight coupling of workflow classes to types of sites has been drastically relaxed. Reliable and high-performing networking between most of the computing sites and the successful deployment of a data-federation allow the execution of workflows using remote data access. That required the development of a largely automatized system to assign workflows and to handle necessary pre-staging of data. Another step towards flexibility has been the introduction of one large global HTCondor Pool for all types of processing workflows and analysis jobs. Besides classical Grid resources also some opportunistic resources as well as Cloud resources have been integrated into that Pool, which gives reach to more than 200k CPU cores.

biochem4j: Integrated and extensible biochemical knowledge through graph databases.

PubMed

Swainston, Neil; Batista-Navarro, Riza; Carbonell, Pablo; Dobson, Paul D; Dunstan, Mark; Jervis, Adrian J; Vinaixa, Maria; Williams, Alan R; Ananiadou, Sophia; Faulon, Jean-Loup; Mendes, Pedro; Kell, Douglas B; Scrutton, Nigel S; Breitling, Rainer

2017-01-01

Biologists and biochemists have at their disposal a number of excellent, publicly available data resources such as UniProt, KEGG, and NCBI Taxonomy, which catalogue biological entities. Despite the usefulness of these resources, they remain fundamentally unconnected. While links may appear between entries across these databases, users are typically only able to follow such links by manual browsing or through specialised workflows. Although many of the resources provide web-service interfaces for computational access, performing federated queries across databases remains a non-trivial but essential activity in interdisciplinary systems and synthetic biology programmes. What is needed are integrated repositories to catalogue both biological entities and-crucially-the relationships between them. Such a resource should be extensible, such that newly discovered relationships-for example, those between novel, synthetic enzymes and non-natural products-can be added over time. With the introduction of graph databases, the barrier to the rapid generation, extension and querying of such a resource has been lowered considerably. With a particular focus on metabolic engineering as an illustrative application domain, biochem4j, freely available at http://biochem4j.org, is introduced to provide an integrated, queryable database that warehouses chemical, reaction, enzyme and taxonomic data from a range of reliable resources. The biochem4j framework establishes a starting point for the flexible integration and exploitation of an ever-wider range of biological data sources, from public databases to laboratory-specific experimental datasets, for the benefit of systems biologists, biosystems engineers and the wider community of molecular biologists and biological chemists.

biochem4j: Integrated and extensible biochemical knowledge through graph databases

PubMed Central

Batista-Navarro, Riza; Dunstan, Mark; Jervis, Adrian J.; Vinaixa, Maria; Ananiadou, Sophia; Faulon, Jean-Loup; Kell, Douglas B.

2017-01-01

Biologists and biochemists have at their disposal a number of excellent, publicly available data resources such as UniProt, KEGG, and NCBI Taxonomy, which catalogue biological entities. Despite the usefulness of these resources, they remain fundamentally unconnected. While links may appear between entries across these databases, users are typically only able to follow such links by manual browsing or through specialised workflows. Although many of the resources provide web-service interfaces for computational access, performing federated queries across databases remains a non-trivial but essential activity in interdisciplinary systems and synthetic biology programmes. What is needed are integrated repositories to catalogue both biological entities and–crucially–the relationships between them. Such a resource should be extensible, such that newly discovered relationships–for example, those between novel, synthetic enzymes and non-natural products–can be added over time. With the introduction of graph databases, the barrier to the rapid generation, extension and querying of such a resource has been lowered considerably. With a particular focus on metabolic engineering as an illustrative application domain, biochem4j, freely available at http://biochem4j.org, is introduced to provide an integrated, queryable database that warehouses chemical, reaction, enzyme and taxonomic data from a range of reliable resources. The biochem4j framework establishes a starting point for the flexible integration and exploitation of an ever-wider range of biological data sources, from public databases to laboratory-specific experimental datasets, for the benefit of systems biologists, biosystems engineers and the wider community of molecular biologists and biological chemists. PMID:28708831

Sharing Data and Analytical Resources Securely in a Biomedical Research Grid Environment

PubMed Central

Langella, Stephen; Hastings, Shannon; Oster, Scott; Pan, Tony; Sharma, Ashish; Permar, Justin; Ervin, David; Cambazoglu, B. Barla; Kurc, Tahsin; Saltz, Joel

2008-01-01

Objectives To develop a security infrastructure to support controlled and secure access to data and analytical resources in a biomedical research Grid environment, while facilitating resource sharing among collaborators. Design A Grid security infrastructure, called Grid Authentication and Authorization with Reliably Distributed Services (GAARDS), is developed as a key architecture component of the NCI-funded cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™). The GAARDS is designed to support in a distributed environment 1) efficient provisioning and federation of user identities and credentials; 2) group-based access control support with which resource providers can enforce policies based on community accepted groups and local groups; and 3) management of a trust fabric so that policies can be enforced based on required levels of assurance. Measurements GAARDS is implemented as a suite of Grid services and administrative tools. It provides three core services: Dorian for management and federation of user identities, Grid Trust Service for maintaining and provisioning a federated trust fabric within the Grid environment, and Grid Grouper for enforcing authorization policies based on both local and Grid-level groups. Results The GAARDS infrastructure is available as a stand-alone system and as a component of the caGrid infrastructure. More information about GAARDS can be accessed at http://www.cagrid.org. Conclusions GAARDS provides a comprehensive system to address the security challenges associated with environments in which resources may be located at different sites, requests to access the resources may cross institutional boundaries, and user credentials are created, managed, revoked dynamically in a de-centralized manner. PMID:18308979

Reliability and cost/worth evaluation of generating systems utilizing wind and solar energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bagen

The utilization of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy for electric power supply has received considerable attention in recent years due to adverse environmental impacts and fuel cost escalation associated with conventional generation. At the present time, wind and/or solar energy sources are utilized to generate electric power in many applications. Wind and solar energy will become important sources for power generation in the future because of their environmental, social and economic benefits, together with public support and government incentives. The wind and sunlight are, however, unstable and variable energy sources, and behave far differently than conventional sources. Energy storage systems are, therefore, often required to smooth the fluctuating nature of the energy conversion system especially in small isolated applications. The research work presented in this thesis is focused on the development and application of reliability and economic benefits assessment associated with incorporating wind energy, solar energy and energy storage in power generating systems. A probabilistic approach using sequential Monte Carlo simulation was employed in this research and a number of analyses were conducted with regards to the adequacy and economic assessment of generation systems containing wind energy, solar energy and energy storage. The evaluation models and techniques incorporate risk index distributions and different operating strategies associated with diesel generation in small isolated systems. Deterministic and probabilistic techniques are combined in this thesis using a system well-being approach to provide useful adequacy indices for small isolated systems that include renewable energy and energy storage. The concepts presented and examples illustrated in this thesis will help power system planners and utility managers to assess the reliability and economic benefits of utilizing wind energy conversion systems, solar energy conversion systems and energy storage in electric power systems and provide useful input to the managerial decision process.

Exploring Tradeoffs in Demand-side and Supply-side Management of Urban Water Resources using Agent-based Modeling and Evolutionary Computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanta, L.; Berglund, E. Z.

2015-12-01

Urban water supply systems may be managed through supply-side and demand-side strategies, which focus on water source expansion and demand reductions, respectively. Supply-side strategies bear infrastructure and energy costs, while demand-side strategies bear costs of implementation and inconvenience to consumers. To evaluate the performance of demand-side strategies, the participation and water use adaptations of consumers should be simulated. In this study, a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) framework is developed to simulate consumer agents that change their consumption to affect the withdrawal from the water supply system, which, in turn influences operational policies and long-term resource planning. Agent-based models are encoded to represent consumers and a policy maker agent and are coupled with water resources system simulation models. The CAS framework is coupled with an evolutionary computation-based multi-objective methodology to explore tradeoffs in cost, inconvenience to consumers, and environmental impacts for both supply-side and demand-side strategies. Decisions are identified to specify storage levels in a reservoir that trigger (1) increases in the volume of water pumped through inter-basin transfers from an external reservoir and (2) drought stages, which restrict the volume of water that is allowed for residential outdoor uses. The proposed methodology is demonstrated for Arlington, Texas, water supply system to identify non-dominated strategies for an historic drought decade. Results demonstrate that pumping costs associated with maximizing environmental reliability exceed pumping costs associated with minimizing restrictions on consumer water use.

Power requirements for the first lunar outpost (FLO)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cataldo, Robert L.; Bozek, John M.

1993-01-01

NASA's Exploration Program Office is currently developing a preliminary reference mission description that lays the framework from which the nation can return to the Moon by the end of the decade. The First Lunar Outpost is the initial phase of establishing a permanent presence on the Moon and the next step of sending humans to Mars. Many systems required for missions to Mars will be verified on the Moon, while still accomplishing valuable lunar science and in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Some of FLO's major accomplishments will be long duration habitation, extended surface roving (both piloted and teleoperated) and a suite of science experiments, including lunar resources extraction. Of equal challenge will be to provide long life, reliable power sources to meet the needs of a lunar mission.

NASA-Ames workload research program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hart, Sandra

1988-01-01

Research has been underway for several years to develop valid and reliable measures and predictors of workload as a function of operator state, task requirements, and system resources. Although the initial focus of this research was on aeronautics, the underlying principles and methodologies are equally applicable to space, and provide a set of tools that NASA and its contractors can use to evaluate design alternatives from the perspective of the astronauts. Objectives and approach of the research program are described, as well as the resources used in conducting research and the conceptual framework around which the program evolved. Next, standardized tasks are described, in addition to predictive models and assessment techniques and their application to the space program. Finally, some of the operational applications of these tasks and measures are reviewed.

18 CFR 39.4 - Funding of the Electric Reliability Organization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... Reliability Organization. 39.4 Section 39.4 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT RULES CONCERNING... interruption as it transitions from one method of funding to another. Any proposed transitional funding plan...

18 CFR 39.4 - Funding of the Electric Reliability Organization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... Reliability Organization. 39.4 Section 39.4 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT RULES CONCERNING... interruption as it transitions from one method of funding to another. Any proposed transitional funding plan...

18 CFR 39.4 - Funding of the Electric Reliability Organization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... Reliability Organization. 39.4 Section 39.4 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT RULES CONCERNING... interruption as it transitions from one method of funding to another. Any proposed transitional funding plan...

18 CFR 39.4 - Funding of the Electric Reliability Organization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... Reliability Organization. 39.4 Section 39.4 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE FEDERAL POWER ACT RULES CONCERNING... interruption as it transitions from one method of funding to another. Any proposed transitional funding plan...

Reliability Analysis of Money Habitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delgadillo, Lucy M.; Bushman, Brittani S.

2015-01-01

Use of the Money Habitudes exercise has gained popularity among various financial professionals. This article reports on the reliability of this resource. A survey administered to young adults at a western state university was conducted, and each Habitude or "domain" was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha procedures. Results showed all six…

Maximizing Statistical Power When Verifying Probabilistic Forecasts of Hydrometeorological Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeChant, C. M.; Moradkhani, H.

2014-12-01

Hydrometeorological events (i.e. floods, droughts, precipitation) are increasingly being forecasted probabilistically, owing to the uncertainties in the underlying causes of the phenomenon. In these forecasts, the probability of the event, over some lead time, is estimated based on some model simulations or predictive indicators. By issuing probabilistic forecasts, agencies may communicate the uncertainty in the event occurring. Assuming that the assigned probability of the event is correct, which is referred to as a reliable forecast, the end user may perform some risk management based on the potential damages resulting from the event. Alternatively, an unreliable forecast may give false impressions of the actual risk, leading to improper decision making when protecting resources from extreme events. Due to this requisite for reliable forecasts to perform effective risk management, this study takes a renewed look at reliability assessment in event forecasts. Illustrative experiments will be presented, showing deficiencies in the commonly available approaches (Brier Score, Reliability Diagram). Overall, it is shown that the conventional reliability assessment techniques do not maximize the ability to distinguish between a reliable and unreliable forecast. In this regard, a theoretical formulation of the probabilistic event forecast verification framework will be presented. From this analysis, hypothesis testing with the Poisson-Binomial distribution is the most exact model available for the verification framework, and therefore maximizes one's ability to distinguish between a reliable and unreliable forecast. Application of this verification system was also examined within a real forecasting case study, highlighting the additional statistical power provided with the use of the Poisson-Binomial distribution.

The state of energy storage in electric utility systems and its effect on renewable energy resources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rau, N S

1994-08-01

This report describes the state of the art of electric energy storage technologies and discusses how adding intermittent renewable energy technologies (IRETs) to a utility network affects the benefits from storage dispatch. Load leveling was the mode of storage dispatch examined in the study. However, the report recommended that other modes be examined in the future for kilowatt and kilowatt-hour optimization of storage. The motivation to install storage with IRET generation can arise from two considerations: reliability and enhancement of the value of energy. Because adding storage increases cost, reliability-related storage is attractive only if the accruing benefits exceed themore » cost of storage installation. The study revealed that the operation of storage should not be guided by the output of the IRET but rather by system marginal costs. Consequently, in planning studies to quantify benefits, storage should not be considered as an entity belonging to the system and not as a component of IRETS. The study also indicted that because the infusion of IRET energy tends to reduce system marginal cost, the benefits from load leveling (value of energy) would be reduced. However, if a system has storage, particularly if the storage is underutilized, its dispatch can be reoriented to enhance the benefits of IRET integration.« less

Process-based costing.

PubMed

Lee, Robert H; Bott, Marjorie J; Forbes, Sarah; Redford, Linda; Swagerty, Daniel L; Taunton, Roma Lee

2003-01-01

Understanding how quality improvement affects costs is important. Unfortunately, low-cost, reliable ways of measuring direct costs are scarce. This article builds on the principles of process improvement to develop a costing strategy that meets both criteria. Process-based costing has 4 steps: developing a flowchart, estimating resource use, valuing resources, and calculating direct costs. To illustrate the technique, this article uses it to cost the care planning process in 3 long-term care facilities. We conclude that process-based costing is easy to implement; generates reliable, valid data; and allows nursing managers to assess the costs of new or modified processes.

The Internet School of Medicine: use of electronic resources by medical trainees and the reliability of those resources.

PubMed

Egle, Jonathan P; Smeenge, David M; Kassem, Kamal M; Mittal, Vijay K

2015-01-01

Electronic sources of medical information are plentiful, and numerous studies have demonstrated the use of the Internet by patients and the variable reliability of these sources. Studies have investigated neither the use of web-based resources by residents, nor the reliability of the information available on these websites. A web-based survey was distributed to surgical residents in Michigan and third- and fourth-year medical students at an American allopathic and osteopathic medical school and a Caribbean allopathic school regarding their preferred sources of medical information in various situations. A set of 254 queries simulating those faced by medical trainees on rounds, on a written examination, or during patient care was developed. The top 5 electronic resources cited by the trainees were evaluated for their ability to answer these questions accurately, using standard textbooks as the point of reference. The respondents reported a wide variety of overall preferred resources. Most of the 73 responding medical trainees favored textbooks or board review books for prolonged studying, but electronic resources are frequently used for quick studying, clinical decision-making questions, and medication queries. The most commonly used electronic resources were UpToDate, Google, Medscape, Wikipedia, and Epocrates. UpToDate and Epocrates had the highest percentage of correct answers (47%) and Wikipedia had the lowest (26%). Epocrates also had the highest percentage of wrong answers (30%), whereas Google had the lowest percentage (18%). All resources had a significant number of questions that they were unable to answer. Though hardcopy books have not been completely replaced by electronic resources, more than half of medical students and nearly half of residents prefer web-based sources of information. For quick questions and studying, both groups prefer Internet sources. However, the most commonly used electronic resources fail to answer clinical queries more than half of the time and have an alarmingly high rate of inaccurate information. Copyright © 2014 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Availability and End-to-end Reliability in Low Duty Cycle Multihop Wireless Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Suhonen, Jukka; Hämäläinen, Timo D; Hännikäinen, Marko

2009-01-01

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is an ad-hoc technology that may even consist of thousands of nodes, which necessitates autonomic, self-organizing and multihop operations. A typical WSN node is battery powered, which makes the network lifetime the primary concern. The highest energy efficiency is achieved with low duty cycle operation, however, this alone is not enough. WSNs are deployed for different uses, each requiring acceptable Quality of Service (QoS). Due to the unique characteristics of WSNs, such as dynamic wireless multihop routing and resource constraints, the legacy QoS metrics are not feasible as such. We give a new definition to measure and implement QoS in low duty cycle WSNs, namely availability and reliability. Then, we analyze the effect of duty cycling for reaching the availability and reliability. The results are obtained by simulations with ZigBee and proprietary TUTWSN protocols. Based on the results, we also propose a data forwarding algorithm suitable for resource constrained WSNs that guarantees end-to-end reliability while adding a small overhead that is relative to the packet error rate (PER). The forwarding algorithm guarantees reliability up to 30% PER.

Southwest Oregon Biscuit Fire: an analysis of forest resources and fire severity

Treesearch

David L. Azuma; Joseph Donnegan; Donald Gedney

2004-01-01

The Biscuit Fire in southwestern Oregon was one of the largest and most costly in recent history, burning over 499,000 acres and costing over 150 million dollars in suppression efforts. This study uses prefire resource information in conjunction with postfire burn severity to generate statistically reliable prefire resource estimates for the land within the Biscuit...

Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain

DOE Data Explorer

Steven Knudsen

2012-01-01

Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits are routinely used in the oil and gas industry for drilling medium to hard rock but have not been adopted for geothermal drilling, largely due to past reliability issues and higher purchase costs. The Sandia Geothermal Research Department has recently completed a field demonstration of the applicability of advanced synthetic diamond drill bits for production geothermal drilling. Two commercially-available PDC bits were tested in a geothermal drilling program in the Chocolate Mountains in Southern California. These bits drilled the granitic formations with significantly better Rate of Penetration (ROP) and bit life than the roller cone bit they are compared with. Drilling records and bit performance data along with associated drilling cost savings are presented herein. The drilling trials have demonstrated PDC bit drilling technology has matured for applicability and improvements to geothermal drilling. This will be especially beneficial for development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems whereby resources can be accessed anywhere within the continental US by drilling to deep, hot resources in hard, basement rock formations.

Discrete event command and control for networked teams with multiple missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewis, Frank L.; Hudas, Greg R.; Pang, Chee Khiang; Middleton, Matthew B.; McMurrough, Christopher

2009-05-01

During mission execution in military applications, the TRADOC Pamphlet 525-66 Battle Command and Battle Space Awareness capabilities prescribe expectations that networked teams will perform in a reliable manner under changing mission requirements, varying resource availability and reliability, and resource faults. In this paper, a Command and Control (C2) structure is presented that allows for computer-aided execution of the networked team decision-making process, control of force resources, shared resource dispatching, and adaptability to change based on battlefield conditions. A mathematically justified networked computing environment is provided called the Discrete Event Control (DEC) Framework. DEC has the ability to provide the logical connectivity among all team participants including mission planners, field commanders, war-fighters, and robotic platforms. The proposed data management tools are developed and demonstrated on a simulation study and an implementation on a distributed wireless sensor network. The results show that the tasks of multiple missions are correctly sequenced in real-time, and that shared resources are suitably assigned to competing tasks under dynamically changing conditions without conflicts and bottlenecks.

Science to support the understanding of Ohio's water resources, 2014-15

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shaffer, Kimberly; Kula, Stephanie P.

2014-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) works in cooperation with local, State, and other Federal agencies, as well as universities, to furnish decision makers, policy makers, USGS scientists, and the general public with reliable scientific information and tools to assist them in management, stewardship, and use of Ohio’s natural resources. The diversity of scientific expertise among USGS personnel enables them to carry out large- and small-scale multidisciplinary studies. The USGS is unique among government organizations because it has neither regulatory nor developmental authority—its sole product is impartial, credible, relevant, and timely scientific information, equally accessible and available to everyone. The USGS Ohio Water Science Center provides reliable hydrologic and water-related ecological information to aid in the understanding of the use and management of the Nation’s water resources, in general, and Ohio’s water resources, in particular. This fact sheet provides an overview of current (2014) or recently completed USGS studies and data activities pertaining to water resources in Ohio. More information regarding projects of the USGS Ohio Water Science Center is available at http://oh.water.usgs.gov/.

Assembly reliability of CSPs with various chiip sizes by accelerated thermal and mechanical cycling test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ghaffarian, R.

2000-01-01

A JPL-led chip scale package (CSP) Consortium, composed of team members representing government agencies and private companies, recently joined together to pool in-kind resources for developing the quality and reliability of chip scale packages (CSPs) for a variety of projects.

Power Electronics and Electric Machines | Transportation Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

-to resource for information from cutting-edge thermal management research, making wide-scale adoption battery, the motor, and other powertrain components. NREL's thermal management and reliability research is thermal management technologies to improve performance, cost, and reliability for power electronics and

18 CFR 39.8 - Delegation to a Regional Entity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... Regional Entity. 39.8 Section 39.8 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY... OF ELECTRIC RELIABILITY STANDARDS § 39.8 Delegation to a Regional Entity. (a) The Electric Reliability Organization may enter into an agreement to delegate authority to a Regional Entity for the...

18 CFR 375.311 - Delegations to the Director of the Office of Enforcement.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Federal Power Act for the purpose of directing the Electric Reliability Organization or the applicable... the Commission for consideration. (u) Direct the Electric Reliability Organization or the applicable... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Delegations to the...

Effects of spatially distributed sectoral water management on the redistribution of water resources in an integrated water model: SECTORAL WATER MANAGEMENT IN IA-ESM

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Voisin, Nathalie; Hejazi, Mohamad I.; Leung, L. Ruby

To advance understanding of the interactions between human activities and the water cycle, an integrated terrestrial water cycle component has been developed for Earth system models. This includes a land surface model fully coupled to a river routing model and a generic water management model to simulate natural and regulated flows. A global integrated assessment model and its regionalized version for the U.S. are used to simulate water demand consistent with the energy technology and socio-economics scenarios. Human influence on the hydrologic cycle includes regulation and storage from reservoirs, consumptive use and withdrawal from multiple sectors ( irrigation and non-irrigation)more » and overall redistribution of water resources in space and time. As groundwater provides an important source of water supply for irrigation and other uses, the integrated modeling framework has been extended with a simplified representation of groundwater as an additional supply source, and return flow generated from differences between withdrawals and consumptive uses from both groundwater and surface water systems. The groundwater supply and return flow modules are evaluated by analyzing the simulated regulated flow, reservoir storage and supply deficit for irrigation and non-irrigation sectors over major hydrologic regions of the conterminous U.S. The modeling framework is then used to provide insights on the reliability of water resources by isolating the reliability due to return flow and/or groundwater sources of water. Our results show that high sectoral ratio of withdrawals over consumptive demand adds significant stress on the water resources management that can be alleviated by reservoir storage capacity. The return flow representation therefore exhibits a clear east-west contrast in its hydrologic signature, as well as in its ability to help meet water demand. Groundwater use has a limited hydrologic signature but the most pronounced signature is in terms of decreasing water supply deficit. The combined return flow and groundwater use signature conserves the east-west constrast with overall uncertainties due to the groundwater-return flow representation, varying ratios combined with different hydroclimate conditions, storage infrastructures, sectoral water uses and dependence on groundwater. The redistribution of surface and groundwater by human activities, and the uncertainties in their representation have important implications to the water and energy balances in the Earth system and land-atmosphere interactions.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Poore, WP

The vision of the Distributed Energy Research Program (DER) program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is that the United States will have the cleanest and most efficient and reliable energy system in the world by maximizing the use of affordable distributed energy resources. Electricity consumers will be able to choose from a diverse number of efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly distributed energy options and easily connect them into the nation's energy infrastructure while providing benefits to their owners and other stakeholders. The long-term goal of this vision is that DER will achieve a 20% share of new electricmore » capacity additions in the United States by 2010, thereby helping to make the nation's electric power generation and delivery system more efficient, reliable, secure, clean, economical, and diverse in terms of fuel use (oil, natural gas, solar, hydroelectric, etc.) and prime mover resource (solar, wind, gas turbines, etc.). Near- and mid-term goals are to develop new technologies for implementing and operating DER and address barriers associated with DER usage and then to reduce costs and emissions and improve the efficiency and reliability of DER. Numerous strategies for meeting these goals have been developed into a research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) program that supports generation and delivery systems architecture, including modeling and simulation tools. The benefits associated with DER installations are often significant and numerous. They almost always provide tangible economic benefits, such as energy savings or transmission and distribution upgrade deferrals, as well as intangible benefits, such as power quality improvements that lengthen maintenance or repair intervals for power equipment. Also, the benefits routinely are dispersed among end users, utilities, and the public. For instance, an end user may use the DER to reduce their peak demand and save money due to lower demand charges. Reduced end user peak demand, in turn, may lower a distribution system peak load such that upgrades are deferred or avoided. This could benefit other consumers by providing them with higher reliability and power quality as well as avoiding their cost share of a distribution system upgrade. In this example, the costs of the DER may be born by the end user, but that user reaps only a share of the benefits. This report, the first product of a study to quantify the value of DER, documents initial project efforts to develop an assessment methodology. The focus of currently available site-specific DER assessment techniques are typically limited to two parties, the owner/user and the local utility. Rarely are the impacts on other stakeholders, including interconnected distribution utilities, transmission system operators, generating system operators, other local utility customers, local and regional industry and business, various levels of government, and the environment considered. The goal of this assessment is to quantify benefits and cost savings that accrue broadly across a region, recognizing that DER installations may have local, regional, or national benefits.« less

The supersonic molecular beam injector as a reliable tool for plasma fueling and physics experiment on HL-2A.

PubMed

Chen, C Y; Yu, D L; Feng, B B; Yao, L H; Song, X M; Zang, L G; Gao, X Y; Yang, Q W; Duan, X R

2016-09-01

On HL-2A tokamak, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) has been developed as a routine refueling method. The key components of the system are an electromagnetic valve and a conic nozzle. The valve and conic nozzle are assembled to compose the simplified Laval nozzle for generating the pulsed beam. The appurtenance of the system includes the cooling system serving the cooled SMBI generation and the in situ calibration component for quantitative injection. Compared with the conventional gas puffing, the SMBI features prompt response and larger fueling flux. These merits devote the SMBI a good fueling method, an excellent plasma density feedback control tool, and an edge localized mode mitigation resource.

Design, Development, Test, and Evaluation of Atmosphere Revitalization and Environmental Monitoring Systems for Long Duration Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roman, Monsi C.; Perry, Jay L.; Jan, Darrell L.

2012-01-01

The Advanced Exploration Systems Program's Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project is working to mature optimum atmosphere revitalization and environmental monitoring system architectures. It is the project's objective to enable exploration beyond Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) and improve affordability by focusing on three primary goals: 1) achieving high reliability, 2) reducing dependence on a ground-based logistics resupply model, and 3) maximizing commonality between atmosphere revitalization subsystem components and those needed to support other exploration elements. The ARREM project's strengths include using existing developmental hardware and testing facilities, when possible, and and a well-coordinated effort among the NASA field centers that contributed to past ARS and EMS technology development projects.

Availability of quality vaccines: policies of a non-government organization.

PubMed

Poore, P

1992-01-01

The availability of vaccines, or any other health service, depends upon, first, the existence of a reliable system of delivery, and the effective management of this system to reach the target population and, second, the acceptance by parents or guardians of the value of the vaccine in preventing death and disability in young children and their mothers. This system must be fully funded and resourced for the foreseeable future if the service is to be sustainable. Today the major obstacles to effective immunization of young children in developing countries is the inadequate, insecure and unpredictable availability of funds and their management. Unless these problems are addressed and solved, the immunization targets set by the World Health Assembly (WHA) will not be met.

Point-of-Care Diagnostics in Low Resource Settings: Present Status and Future Role of Microfluidics

PubMed Central

Sharma, Shikha; Zapatero-Rodríguez, Julia; Estrela, Pedro; O’Kennedy, Richard

2015-01-01

The inability to diagnose numerous diseases rapidly is a significant cause of the disparity of deaths resulting from both communicable and non-communicable diseases in the developing world in comparison to the developed world. Existing diagnostic instrumentation usually requires sophisticated infrastructure, stable electrical power, expensive reagents, long assay times, and highly trained personnel which is not often available in limited resource settings. This review will critically survey and analyse the current lateral flow-based point-of-care (POC) technologies, which have made a major impact on diagnostic testing in developing countries over the last 50 years. The future of POC technologies including the applications of microfluidics, which allows miniaturisation and integration of complex functions that facilitate their usage in limited resource settings, is discussed The advantages offered by such systems, including low cost, ruggedness and the capacity to generate accurate and reliable results rapidly, are well suited to the clinical and social settings of the developing world. PMID:26287254

Science to support the understanding of Ohio's water resources

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shaffer, Kimberly; Kula, Stephanie; Bambach, Phil; Runkle, Donna

2012-01-01

Ohio’s water resources support a complex web of human activities and nature—clean and abundant water is needed for drinking, recreation, farming, and industry, as well as for fish and wildlife needs. The distribution of rainfall can cause floods and droughts, which affects streamflow, groundwater, water availability, water quality, recreation, and aquatic habitats. Ohio is bordered by the Ohio River and Lake Erie and has over 44,000 miles of streams and more than 60,000 lakes and ponds (State of Ohio, 1994). Nearly all the rural population obtain drinking water from groundwater sources. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) works in cooperation with local, State, and other Federal agencies, as well as universities, to furnish decisionmakers, policymakers, USGS scientists, and the general public with reliable scientific information and tools to assist them in management, stewardship, and use of Ohio’s natural resources. The diversity of scientific expertise among USGS personnel enables them to carry out large- and small-scale multidisciplinary studies. The USGS is unique among government organizations because it has neither regulatory nor developmental authority—its sole product is reliable, impartial, credible, relevant, and timely scientific information, equally accessible and available to everyone. The USGS Ohio Water Science Center provides reliable hydrologic and water-related ecological information to aid in the understanding of use and management of the Nation’s water resources, in general, and Ohio’s water resources, in particular. This fact sheet provides an overview of current (2012) or recently completed USGS studies and data activities pertaining to water resources in Ohio. More information regarding projects of the USGS Ohio Water Science Center is available at http://oh.water.usgs.gov/.

Building a generalized distributed system model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mukkamala, R.

1993-01-01

The key elements in the 1992-93 period of the project are the following: (1) extensive use of the simulator to implement and test - concurrency control algorithms, interactive user interface, and replica control algorithms; and (2) investigations into the applicability of data and process replication in real-time systems. In the 1993-94 period of the project, we intend to accomplish the following: (1) concentrate on efforts to investigate the effects of data and process replication on hard and soft real-time systems - especially we will concentrate on the impact of semantic-based consistency control schemes on a distributed real-time system in terms of improved reliability, improved availability, better resource utilization, and reduced missed task deadlines; and (2) use the prototype to verify the theoretically predicted performance of locking protocols, etc.

Planetary Regolith Delivery Systems for ISRU

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mantovani, James G.; Townsend, Ivan I., III

2012-01-01

The challenges associated with collecting regolith on a planetary surface and delivering it to an in-situ resource utilization system differ significantly from similar activities conducted on Earth. Since system maintenance on a planetary body can be difficult or impossible to do, high reliability and service life are expected of a regolith delivery system. Mission costs impose upper limits on power and mass. The regolith delivery system must provide a leak-tight interface between the near-vacuum planetary surface and the pressurized ISRU system. Regolith delivery in amounts ranging from a few grams to tens of kilograms may be required. Finally, the spent regolith must be removed from the ISRU chamber and returned to the planetary environment via dust tolerant valves capable of operating and sealing over a large temperature range. This paper will describe pneumatic and auger regolith transfer systems that have already been field tested for ISRU, and discuss other systems that await future field testing.

Assessing land-use impacts on biodiversity using an expert systems tool

USGS Publications Warehouse

Crist, P.J.; Kohley, T.W.; Oakleaf, J.

2000-01-01

Habitat alteration, in the form of land-use development, is a leading cause of biodiversity loss in the U.S. and elsewhere. Although statutes in the U.S. may require consideration of biodiversity in local land-use planning and regulation, local governments lack the data, resources, and expertise to routinely consider biotic impacts that result from permitted land uses. We hypothesized that decision support systems could aid solution of this problem. We developed a pilot biodiversity expert systems tool (BEST) to test that hypothesis and learn what additional scientific and technological advancements are required for broad implementation of such a system. BEST uses data from the U.S. Geological Survey's Gap Analysis Program (GAP) and other data in a desktop GIS environment. The system provides predictions of conflict between proposed land uses and biotic elements and is intended for use at the start of the development review process. Key challenges were the development of categorization systems that relate named land-use types to ecological impacts, and relate sensitivities of biota to ecological impact levels. Although the advent of GAP and sophisticated desktop GIS make such a system feasible for broad implementation, considerable ongoing research is required to make the results of such a system scientifically sound, informative, and reliable for the regulatory process. We define a role for local government involvement in biodiversity impact assessment, the need for a biodiversity decision support system, the development of a prototype system, and scientific needs for broad implementation of a robust and reliable system.

Challenges in Managing Trustworthy Large-scale Digital Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, B. J. K.

2017-12-01

The increased use of large-scale international digital science has opened a number of challenges for managing, handling, using and preserving scientific information. The large volumes of information are driven by three main categories - model outputs including coupled models and ensembles, data products that have been processing to a level of usability, and increasingly heuristically driven data analysis. These data products are increasingly the ones that are usable by the broad communities, and far in excess of the raw instruments data outputs. The data, software and workflows are then shared and replicated to allow broad use at an international scale, which places further demands of infrastructure to support how the information is managed reliably across distributed resources. Users necessarily rely on these underlying "black boxes" so that they are productive to produce new scientific outcomes. The software for these systems depend on computational infrastructure, software interconnected systems, and information capture systems. This ranges from the fundamentals of the reliability of the compute hardware, system software stacks and libraries, and the model software. Due to these complexities and capacity of the infrastructure, there is an increased emphasis of transparency of the approach and robustness of the methods over the full reproducibility. Furthermore, with large volume data management, it is increasingly difficult to store the historical versions of all model and derived data. Instead, the emphasis is on the ability to access the updated products and the reliability by which both previous outcomes are still relevant and can be updated for the new information. We will discuss these challenges and some of the approaches underway that are being used to address these issues.

Spatiotemporal variation of long-term drought propensity through reliability-resilience-vulnerability based Drought Management Index

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chanda, Kironmala; Maity, Rajib; Sharma, Ashish; Mehrotra, Rajeshwar

2014-10-01

This paper characterizes the long-term, spatiotemporal variation of drought propensity through a newly proposed, namely Drought Management Index (DMI), and explores its predictability in order to assess the future drought propensity and adapt drought management policies for a location. The DMI was developed using the reliability-resilience-vulnerability (RRV) rationale commonly used in water resources systems analysis, under the assumption that depletion of soil moisture across a vertical soil column is equivalent to the operation of a water supply reservoir, and that drought should be managed not simply using a measure of system reliability, but should also take into account the readiness of the system to bounce back from drought to a normal state. Considering India as a test bed, 5 year long monthly gridded (0.5° Lat × 0.5° Lon) soil moisture data are used to compute the RRV at each grid location falling within the study domain. The Permanent Wilting Point (PWP) is used as the threshold, indicative of transition into water stress. The association between resilience and vulnerability is then characterized through their joint probability distribution ascertained using Plackett copula models for four broad soil types across India. The joint cumulative distribution functions (CDF) of resilience and vulnerability form the basis for estimating the DMI as a five-yearly time series at each grid location assessed. The status of DMI over the past 50 years indicate that drought propensity is consistently low toward northern and north eastern parts of India but higher in the western part of peninsular India. Based on the observed past behavior of DMI series on a climatological time scale, a DMI prediction model comprising deterministic and stochastic components is developed. The predictability of DMI for a lead time of 5 years is found to vary across India, with a Pearson correlation coefficient between observed and predicted DMI above 0.6 over most of the study area, indicating a reasonably good potential for drought management in the medium term water resources planning horizon.

The interaction of cannibalism and omnivory: consequences for community dynamics.

PubMed

Rudolf, Volker H W

2007-11-01

Although cannibalism is ubiquitous in food webs and frequent in systems where a predator and its prey also share a common resource (intraguild predation, IGP), its impacts on species interactions and the dynamics and structure of communities are still poorly understood. In addition, the few existing studies on cannibalism have generally focused on cannibalism in the top-predator, ignoring that it is frequent at intermediate trophic levels. A set of structured models shows that cannibalism can completely alter the dynamics and structure of three-species IGP systems depending on the trophic position where cannibalism occurs. Contrary to the expectations of simple models, the IG predator can exploit the resources more efficiently when it is cannibalistic, enabling the predator to persist at lower resource densities than the IG prey. Cannibalism in the IG predator can also alter the effect of enrichment, preventing predator-mediated extinction of the IG prey at high productivities predicted by simple models. Cannibalism in the IG prey can reverse the effect of top-down cascades, leading to an increase in the resource with decreasing IG predator density. These predictions are consistent with current data. Overall, cannibalism promotes the coexistence of the IG predator and IG prey. These results indicate that including cannibalism in current models can overcome the discrepancy between theory and empirical data. Thus, we need to measure and account for cannibalistic interactions to reliably predict the structure and dynamics of communities.

Staff, space, and time as dimensions of organizational slack: a psychometric assessment.

PubMed

Mallidou, Anastasia A; Cummings, Greta G; Ginsburg, Liane R; Chuang, You-Ta; Kang, Sunghyun; Norton, Peter G; Estabrooks, Carole A

2011-01-01

: In the theoretical and research literature, organizational slack has been largely described in terms of financial resources and its impact on organizational outcomes. However, empirical research is limited by unclear definitions and lack of standardized measures. : The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a new organizational slack measure in health care settings. : A total of 752 nurses and 197 allied health care professionals (AHCPs) employed in seven pediatric Canadian hospitals completed the Alberta Context Tool, an instrument measuring organizational context, which includes the newly developed organizational slack measure. The nine-item, 5-point Likert organizational slack measure includes items assessing staff perceptions of available human resources (staffing), time, and space. We report psychometric assessments, bivariate analyses, and data aggregation indices for the measure. : The findings indicate that the measure has three subscales (staff, space, and time) with acceptable internal consistency reliability (alphas for staff, space, and time, respectively:.83,.63, and.74 for nurses;.81,.52, and.76 for AHCPs), links theory and hypotheses (construct validity), and is related to other relevant variables. Within-group reliability measures indicate stronger agreement among nurses than AHCPs, more reliable aggregation results in all three subscales at the unit versus facility level, and higher explained variance and validity of aggregated scores at the unit level. : The proposed organizational slack measure assesses modifiable organizational factors in hospitals and has the potential to explain variance in important health care system outcomes. Further assessments of the psychometric properties of the organizational slack measure in acute and long-term care facilities are underway.

Integrating Solar PV in Utility System Operations: Analytical Framework and Arizona Case Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Jing; Botterud, Audun; Mills, Andrew

2015-06-01

A systematic framework is proposed to estimate the impact on operating costs due to uncertainty and variability in renewable resources. The framework quantifies the integration costs associated with subhourly variability and uncertainty as well as day-ahead forecasting errors in solar PV (photovoltaics) power. A case study illustrates how changes in system operations may affect these costs for a utility in the southwestern United States (Arizona Public Service Company). We conduct an extensive sensitivity analysis under different assumptions about balancing reserves, system flexibility, fuel prices, and forecasting errors. We find that high solar PV penetrations may lead to operational challenges, particularlymore » during low-load and high solar periods. Increased system flexibility is essential for minimizing integration costs and maintaining reliability. In a set of sensitivity cases where such flexibility is provided, in part, by flexible operations of nuclear power plants, the estimated integration costs vary between $1.0 and $4.4/MWh-PV for a PV penetration level of 17%. The integration costs are primarily due to higher needs for hour-ahead balancing reserves to address the increased sub-hourly variability and uncertainty in the PV resource. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.« less

Modeling Electricity Sector Vulnerabilities and Costs Associated with Water Temperatures Under Scenarios of Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macknick, J.; Miara, A.; Brinkman, G.; Ibanez, E.; Newmark, R. L.

2014-12-01

The reliability of the power sector is highly vulnerable to variability in the availability and temperature of water resources, including those that might result from potential climatic changes or from competition from other users. In the past decade, power plants throughout the United States have had to shut down or curtail generation due to a lack of available water or from elevated water temperatures. These disruptions in power plant performance can have negative impacts on energy security and can be costly to address. Analysis of water-related vulnerabilities requires modeling capabilities with high spatial and temporal resolution. This research provides an innovative approach to energy-water modeling by evaluating the costs and reliability of a power sector region under policy and climate change scenarios that affect water resource availability and temperatures. This work utilizes results from a spatially distributed river water temperature model coupled with a thermoelectric power plant model to provide inputs into an electricity production cost model that operates on a high spatial and temporal resolution. The regional transmission organization ISO-New England, which includes six New England states and over 32 Gigawatts of power capacity, is utilized as a case study. Hydrological data and power plant operations are analyzed over an eleven year period from 2000-2010 under four scenarios that include climate impacts on water resources and air temperatures as well as strict interpretations of regulations that can affect power plant operations due to elevated water temperatures. Results of these model linkages show how the power sector's reliability and economic performance can be affected by changes in water temperatures and water availability. The effective reliability and capacity value of thermal electric generators are quantified and discussed in the context of current as well as potential future water resource characteristics.

Potential for natural evaporation as a reliable renewable energy resource

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cavusoglu, Ahmet-Hamdi; Chen, Xi; Gentine, Pierre

About 50% of the solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface drives evaporation, fueling the water cycle that affects various renewable energy resources, such as wind and hydropower. Recent advances demonstrate our nascent ability to convert evaporation energy into work, yet there is little understanding about the potential of this resource. Here in this paper we study the energy available from natural evaporation to predict the potential of this ubiquitous resource. We find that natural evaporation from open water surfaces could provide power densities comparable to current wind and solar technologies while cutting evaporative water losses by nearly half. Wemore » estimate up to 325 GW of power is potentially available in the United States. Strikingly, water’s large heat capacity is sufficient to control power output by storing excess energy when demand is low, thus reducing intermittency and improving reliability. Our findings motivate the improvement of materials and devices that convert energy from evaporation.« less

Fault tolerant, radiation hard, high performance digital signal processor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holmann, Edgar; Linscott, Ivan R.; Maurer, Michael J.; Tyler, G. L.; Libby, Vibeke

1990-01-01

An architecture has been developed for a high-performance VLSI digital signal processor that is highly reliable, fault-tolerant, and radiation-hard. The signal processor, part of a spacecraft receiver designed to support uplink radio science experiments at the outer planets, organizes the connections between redundant arithmetic resources, register files, and memory through a shuffle exchange communication network. The configuration of the network and the state of the processor resources are all under microprogram control, which both maps the resources according to algorithmic needs and reconfigures the processing should a failure occur. In addition, the microprogram is reloadable through the uplink to accommodate changes in the science objectives throughout the course of the mission. The processor will be implemented with silicon compiler tools, and its design will be verified through silicon compilation simulation at all levels from the resources to full functionality. By blending reconfiguration with redundancy the processor implementation is fault-tolerant and reliable, and possesses the long expected lifetime needed for a spacecraft mission to the outer planets.

Potential for natural evaporation as a reliable renewable energy resource

DOE PAGES

Cavusoglu, Ahmet-Hamdi; Chen, Xi; Gentine, Pierre; ...

2017-09-26

About 50% of the solar energy absorbed at the Earth’s surface drives evaporation, fueling the water cycle that affects various renewable energy resources, such as wind and hydropower. Recent advances demonstrate our nascent ability to convert evaporation energy into work, yet there is little understanding about the potential of this resource. Here in this paper we study the energy available from natural evaporation to predict the potential of this ubiquitous resource. We find that natural evaporation from open water surfaces could provide power densities comparable to current wind and solar technologies while cutting evaporative water losses by nearly half. Wemore » estimate up to 325 GW of power is potentially available in the United States. Strikingly, water’s large heat capacity is sufficient to control power output by storing excess energy when demand is low, thus reducing intermittency and improving reliability. Our findings motivate the improvement of materials and devices that convert energy from evaporation.« less

Optimal service distribution in WSN service system subject to data security constraints.

PubMed

Wu, Zhao; Xiong, Naixue; Huang, Yannong; Gu, Qiong

2014-08-04

Services composition technology provides a flexible approach to building Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Service Applications (WSA) in a service oriented tasking system for WSN. Maintaining the data security of WSA is one of the most important goals in sensor network research. In this paper, we consider a WSN service oriented tasking system in which the WSN Services Broker (WSB), as the resource management center, can map the service request from user into a set of atom-services (AS) and send them to some independent sensor nodes (SN) for parallel execution. The distribution of ASs among these SNs affects the data security as well as the reliability and performance of WSA because these SNs can be of different and independent specifications. By the optimal service partition into the ASs and their distribution among SNs, the WSB can provide the maximum possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. This paper proposes an algorithm of optimal service partition and distribution based on the universal generating function (UGF) and the genetic algorithm (GA) approach. The experimental analysis is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the suggested algorithm.

Optimal Service Distribution in WSN Service System Subject to Data Security Constraints

PubMed Central

Wu, Zhao; Xiong, Naixue; Huang, Yannong; Gu, Qiong

2014-01-01

Services composition technology provides a flexible approach to building Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Service Applications (WSA) in a service oriented tasking system for WSN. Maintaining the data security of WSA is one of the most important goals in sensor network research. In this paper, we consider a WSN service oriented tasking system in which the WSN Services Broker (WSB), as the resource management center, can map the service request from user into a set of atom-services (AS) and send them to some independent sensor nodes (SN) for parallel execution. The distribution of ASs among these SNs affects the data security as well as the reliability and performance of WSA because these SNs can be of different and independent specifications. By the optimal service partition into the ASs and their distribution among SNs, the WSB can provide the maximum possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. This paper proposes an algorithm of optimal service partition and distribution based on the universal generating function (UGF) and the genetic algorithm (GA) approach. The experimental analysis is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the suggested algorithm. PMID:25093346

Recent Trend of New Type Power Delivery System and its Demonstrative Project in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morozumi, Satoshi; Nara, Koichi

Recently many such distributed generating systems as co-generation, photovoltaic, wind, fuel cells etc. are introduced into power distribution system, and the power system must cope with the situation with distributed generators. Moreover, such industries as IT request reliable and high quality power to preserve their businesses, and some other electric energy based industries request less reliable but cheaper electricity. From these backgrounds, several new type power delivery systems are emerging where lots of distributed generators (DGs) can be connected and many benefits offered by DGs can be realized without affecting the existing power system. They are referred to various names. In U.S.A., Microgrid, Power Park and Virtual Utilities, etc. are proposed. In Europe, DISPOWER or Smart Grid is under developing. In Japan, FRIENDS and Demand Area Network System etc. are proposed and tested in real sites. In this paper, first, general concepts of such new type power delivery systems and new businesses expected to be created by using DGs are introduced. Then, recent research activities in this area in Japan are introduced so as to stimulate new business opportunities. In the later part of this paper, related NEDO's demonstrative projects are introduced. NEDO is the largest public R&D management organization and promoting several projects regarding grid connecting issues on the power system. Those projects were planned to solve several problems on the power system where distributed renewable energy resources are installed.

Wind Energy Facilities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Laurie, Carol

2017-02-01

This book takes readers inside the places where daily discoveries shape the next generation of wind power systems. Energy Department laboratory facilities span the United States and offer wind research capabilities to meet industry needs. The facilities described in this book make it possible for industry players to increase reliability, improve efficiency, and reduce the cost of wind energy -- one discovery at a time. Whether you require blade testing or resource characterization, grid integration or high-performance computing, Department of Energy laboratory facilities offer a variety of capabilities to meet your wind research needs.

Feasibility study for the Swaziland/Mozambique interconnector. EPC specifications. Export trade information

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1997-11-01

This study, conducted by Black & Veatch, was funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. The report, produced for the Ministry of National Resources, Energy and Environment (MNRE) of Swaziland, determines the least cost capacity expansion option to meet the future power demand and system reliability criteria of Swaziland, with particular emphasis on the proposed Interconnector between Swaziland and Mozambique. Volume 3 contains EPC Specifications and is divided into the following divisions: (1) Commercial; (2) General Technical Requirements; (3) Transmission Line Technical Requirements; (4) Substation Technical Requirements; (5) Specifications.

Final Report Navajo Transmission Project (NTP)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bennie Hoisington; Steven Begay

2006-09-14

The Diné Power Authority is developing the Navajo Transmission Project (NTP) to relieve the constraints on the transmission of electricity west of the Four Corners area and to improve the operation flexibility and reliability of the extra-high-voltage transmission system in the region. The NTP creates the wholesale transmission capacity for more economical power transfers, sales, and purchases in the region. It will facilitate the development of Navajo energy resources, improve economic conditions on the Navajo Nation as well as allow DPA to participate in the western electrical utility industry.

Test and evaluation of 23 electric vehicles for state-of-the-art assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dustin, M. O.; Denington, R. J.

1978-01-01

Data developed by ERDA used to evaluate the performance parameters of modern electric vehicles is presented with reference to range, acceleration, coast-down, and braking. Eight of the tested vehicles had some type of regenerative braking system, which provided range increases from 1 to 31 percent. In comparison with conventional vehicles, performance was found to be lower, and reliability poorer. Energy consumption was the same, but electric power is less damaging to the environment than hydrocarbon fuels, and does not use up an increasingly scarce resource.

Modular standards for emerging avionics technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radcliffe, B.; Boaz, J.

The present investigation is concerned with modular standards for the integration of new avionics technologies into production aircraft, taking into account also major retrofit programs. It is pointed out that avionics systems are about to undergo drastic changes in the partitioning of functions and judicious sharing of resources. These changes have the potential to significantly improve reliability and maintainability, and to reduce costs. Attention is given to a definition of the modular avionics concept, the existing module program, the development approach, development progress on the modular avionics standard, and the future of avionics installation standards.

Wind Energy Facilities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

This book takes readers inside the places where daily discoveries shape the next generation of wind power systems. Energy Department laboratory facilities span the United States and offer wind research capabilities to meet industry needs. The facilities described in this book make it possible for industry players to increase reliability, improve efficiency, and reduce the cost of wind energy -- one discovery at a time. Whether you require blade testing or resource characterization, grid integration or high-performance computing, Department of Energy laboratory facilities offer a variety of capabilities to meet your wind research needs.

Study on evaluation index system of operational performance of municipal wastewater treatment plants in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiaoxin, Zhang; Jin, Huang; Ling, Lin; Yan, Li

2018-05-01

According to the undeveloped evaluation method for the operational performance of the municipal wastewater treatment plants, this paper analyzes the policies related to sewage treatment industry based on the investigation of the municipal wastewater treatment plants. The applicable evaluation method for the operational performance was proposed from environmental protection performance, resources and energy consumption, technical and economic performance, production management and main equipment, providing a reliable basis for scientific evaluation of the operation as well as improving the operational performance of municipal wastewater treatment plant.

A Distribution-class Locational Marginal Price (DLMP) Index for Enhanced Distribution Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akinbode, Oluwaseyi Wemimo

The smart grid initiative is the impetus behind changes that are expected to culminate into an enhanced distribution system with the communication and control infrastructure to support advanced distribution system applications and resources such as distributed generation, energy storage systems, and price responsive loads. This research proposes a distribution-class analog of the transmission LMP (DLMP) as an enabler of the advanced applications of the enhanced distribution system. The DLMP is envisioned as a control signal that can incentivize distribution system resources to behave optimally in a manner that benefits economic efficiency and system reliability and that can optimally couple the transmission and the distribution systems. The DLMP is calculated from a two-stage optimization problem; a transmission system OPF and a distribution system OPF. An iterative framework that ensures accurate representation of the distribution system's price sensitive resources for the transmission system problem and vice versa is developed and its convergence problem is discussed. As part of the DLMP calculation framework, a DCOPF formulation that endogenously captures the effect of real power losses is discussed. The formulation uses piecewise linear functions to approximate losses. This thesis explores, with theoretical proofs, the breakdown of the loss approximation technique when non-positive DLMPs/LMPs occur and discusses a mixed integer linear programming formulation that corrects the breakdown. The DLMP is numerically illustrated in traditional and enhanced distribution systems and its superiority to contemporary pricing mechanisms is demonstrated using price responsive loads. Results show that the impact of the inaccuracy of contemporary pricing schemes becomes significant as flexible resources increase. At high elasticity, aggregate load consumption deviated from the optimal consumption by up to about 45 percent when using a flat or time-of-use rate. Individual load consumption deviated by up to 25 percent when using a real-time price. The superiority of the DLMP is more pronounced when important distribution network conditions are not reflected by contemporary prices. The individual load consumption incentivized by the real-time price deviated by up to 90 percent from the optimal consumption in a congested distribution network. While the DLMP internalizes congestion management, the consumption incentivized by the real-time price caused overloads.