Main Design Options Research Articles

Study of the electric field density distribution in cylindrical chamber with coaxial feed of super high frequency radiation energy

The main design options for supplying SHF energy to the end wall of a cylindrical resonator were considered. 2 types of designs for coaxial feed of energy were selected and optimized, differing in the location of the coaxial line relative to the required direction of wave propagation. As a result of the calculations, the electric fields inside the cylindrical chamber and in the horn coaxial antennas were found, and the SWR of the systems was determined. A comparison in distribution of the electric field when metal objects were placed in the chamber was carried out. The areas of occurrence of a plasma SHF discharge on the surface of a cylindrical object were shown.

Presidents in Parliamentary Democracies

Management and administration of a state are important functions to ensure security, protection, and shape environments where peoples of a country live. Depending on the context, various institutional design options have served as basis for governing a country. In democratic societies, three main institutional design options for a country’s governance are observed. The first institutional design option is Parliamentarism, where main officials mandate originates from an electoral system. The second is Presidentialism, where citizens can select directly by the vote the Parliamentarian/ Congressman and the President through different election processes. The third is Semipresidentialism, where there is more integration of the different branches, and the executive and legislative aren’t so strictly separated. This abstract gives a snapshot in the current year, about the main powers of the Presidents across Europe, by analyzing the exercising of power of the Presidents that is at an extent is influenced by the election procedure, whether the President derives from the election of the members of the Parliament or by electoral vote of the citizens (https://crsreports.congress.gov). This article provides an overview of the features of the key institutional design options in a country’s governance, with a view on the role and merits of Presidents versus types of institutional designs. At the same time, it contributes to raising consciousness about reforms needed in the current governance system, and setting priorities for choosing the institutional rules. The research method used for the purposes of writing of this article, is secondary research. This has involved review of various external sources from a variety of channels. Format sources reviewed have included published datasets, reports, articles, other. The analytical framework covers the following data sets: political systems, regime types, economic freedom, government defense integrity, freedom in the world, corruption perception index. The results indicate for a potential correlational relationship between the governance institutional design and level of development of a country. Data gathered shows that presidentialism and semipresidentialism are prevailing governance systems. But parliamentarians countries, tend to perform better in national sectoral assessments. Presidentialism or semipresidentialism countries, perform lower and, usually poor, in what is assessed as quality governance, and democratic regimes.

A literature review of IoT energy platforms aimed at end users

The rising interest in connecting everything to the Internet has not gone unnoticed in the energy sector. New actors that aim to remotely monitor and control home devices such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), light bulbs, or distributed energy resources (e.g., batteries, PV panels…) have come into play. However, transitioning from isolated often not interoperable home automation systems to open, yet secure, solutions that integrate external sources of information and cloud computing to make a more efficient use of energy, is not trivial. It requires designing and implementing hierarchical architectures and standard solutions to facilitate interoperability, one of the challenges of cross-domain smart-city applications as no standard solution has been established yet. Even though most solutions share a set of building blocks that have fostered the appearance of Internet of Things (IoT) middlewares to accelerate development, most existing energy platforms are still tailor-made for specific applications. This paper targets three audiences. First, for those interested in using or selecting an energy platform, the study carries out a comparative analysis of some of the most popular alternatives. Second, for those that are considering building new energy platforms, this paper analyzes the necessary hierarchical blocks, and the main design options and strategies. Finally, for those interested in comparing platforms, a new set of IoT levels that evaluate the adoption of IoT technologies is proposed.

Not Simply Green: Nature-Based Solutions as a Concept and Practical Approach for Sustainability Studies and Planning Agendas in Cities

The concept of a nature-based solution (NBS) has been developed in order to operationalize an ecosystem services approach within spatial planning policies and practices, to fully integrate the ecological dimension, and, at the same time, to address current societal challenges in cities. It exceeds the bounds of traditional approaches that aim ‘to protect and preserve’ by considering enhancing, restoring, co-creating, and co-designing urban green networks with nature that are characterized by multifunctionality and connectivity. NBSs include the main ideas of green and blue infrastructure, ecosystem services, and biomimicry concepts, and they are considered to be urban design and planning tools for ecologically sensitive urban development. Nowadays, NBSs are on their way to the mainstream as part of both national and international policies. The successful implementation of NBSs in Europe and worldwide, which is becoming increasingly common, highlights the importance and relevance of NBS for sustainable and livable cities. This paper discusses the roles, development processes, and functions of NBSs in cities by taking Leipzig as a case study. Using data from interviews conducted from 2017 to 2019, we study the past and current challenges that the city faces, including the whole process of NBS implementation and successful realization. We discuss the main drivers, governance actors, and design options of NBSs. We highlight the ecosystem services provided by each NBS. We discuss these drivers and governance strategies by applying the framework for assessing the co-benefits of NBSs in urban areas in order to assess the opportunities and challenges that NBSs may have. This way, we are able to identify steps and procedures that help to increase the evidence base for the effectiveness of NBS by providing examples of best practice that demonstrate the multiple co-benefits provided by NBSs.

Correlations for estimating the specific capital cost of multi-effect distillation plants considering the main design trends and operating conditions

This work proposes a correlation for the specific capital cost of multi-effect distillation (MED) plants, considering their main design options and parameters, such as the number of effects, size/capacity, and heat source temperature. These parameters are varied within a large range to cover as many different cases as possible. The cost correlation decouples the evaporator cost and includes in the expression the ratio of the heat exchanger area to a reference one. This area is calculated using a validated MED numerical model, with the results then processed to produce fitted expressions. Two versions of this correlation with different levels of complexity are proposed, which provide similar results. The results of the improved correlation have been compared with the actual specific cost of a limited number of MED plants for validation purposes. It has been shown that this correlation provides more accurate results in most of the cases, although the sample is small due to limited availability of data from other plants. The specific capital cost of typical MED plants is then examined, presenting the cost when the number of effects and heat source temperature change. These calculations capture the expected trend of the plant cost under different main design options.

Design and status of the new WEST IR thermography system

The WEST (Tungsten Environment for Steady State Tokamak) platform aims at testing ITER like divertor targets in an integrated tokamak environment, to minimize risks for procurement and operation. After 4 years of construction, WEST is now operational, with the first plasma breakdown achieved in December 2016. To operate long plasma discharge in WEST, infrared thermography is a key device, which enables a safe operation by means of a real time surface temperature monitoring, while providing essential data for various physics studies.For WEST, the IR thermography system has been deeply renewed, to match with the new tokamak configuration, and to fulfil the new measurement requirements. It consists of a set of 5 different diagnostics: 1) 7 endoscopes located in upper ports viewing the whole lower divertor and the 5 heating devices 2) a tangential endoscope located in a median port, providing a wide angle view of the vacuum vessel, and in particular of the upper divertor and first wall protections 3) a submillimetre resolution view on the divertor strike points from an upper port endoscope 4) 2 additional views of the divertor and of the heating devices.The paper describes the new IR diagnostics configuration (spatial covering, IR cameras, optics, data processing hardware and software), the main design options, manufacturing and installation issues, and some measurement performances.

Experimental Results on a Wireless Wattmeter Device for the Integration in Home Energy Management Systems

This paper presents a home area network (HAN)-based domestic load energy consumption monitoring prototype device as part of an advanced metering system (AMS). This device can be placed on individual loads or configured to measure several loads as a whole. The wireless communication infrastructure is supported on IEEE 805.12.04 radios that run a ZigBee stack. Data acquisition concerning load energy transit is processed in real time and the main electrical parameters are then transmitted through a RF link to a wireless terminal unit, which works as a data logger and as a human-machine interface. Voltage and current sensing are implemented using Hall effect principle-based transducers, while C code is developed on two 16/32-bit microcontroller units (MCUs). The main features and design options are then thoroughly discussed. The main contribution of this paper is that the proposed metering system measures the reactive energy component through the Hilbert transform for low cost measuring device systems.

Energy savings potential of uninterruptible power supplies in European Union

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are key components of information and communications technologies (ICT) systems, ensuring reliability by maintaining the continuity and quality of the systems’ power supply. The energy consumption of UPS should be an important consideration due to its high impact on the lifecycle costs, but in most applications of UPS, energy efficiency is not the most important issue, since the operational reliability of the ICT systems and the related security of data processing and storage are the major concerns. However, the conversion efficiency of UPS systems has been improving in recent years and high energy savings can be achieved with the adoption of new technologies without a reduction of the reliability levels. The Ecodesign Preparatory Study for UPS (Lot 27) aimed to identify and recommend ways to improve, at their design phase, the environmental performance of UPS in the European Union throughout their lifetime. This paper presents the work developed during the Preparatory Study for UPS focused on the technical analysis of the best available and not yet available technologies, as well as the potential energy savings that can be achieved. Several technologies were considered at component and product level. The main design options were then modelled, and the potential energy savings achievable with policy options focused on minimum efficiency performance standards and energy labelling were assessed, showing a potential for energy savings in European Union in 2025 of 11.4 TWh (65 % energy saving relative to predicted energy requirement of EU ICT system UPS based on current practice).

The ITER safety control systems—Status and plans

The operation of a complex experimental machine like ITER will involve a number of potential hazards to personnel, the environment, and to the machine itself. While some protections are usually embedded within the overall control system, when it comes to the protection of people, the environment or the safe operation of the machine, dedicated systems are required. At ITER, the safety control systems are dedicated to the protection of people and the environment. These systems represents one of the three independent tiers on which the ITER Instrumentation and Control is based. They have to respect stringent requirements in terms of reliability, availability, safety and maintainability for operation, security and national and/or international safety regulations. This paper describes the current status and plans of the safety control systems, the functions to be performed, the envisaged architecture and the main design options including the principles of separation and independence between the three tiers.

First density profile measurements using frequency modulation of the continuous wave reflectometry on JET

We present the main design options and implementation of an X-mode reflectometer developed and successfully installed at JET using an innovative approach. It aims to prove the viability of measuring density profiles with high spatial and temporal resolution using broadband reflectometry operating in long and complex transmission lines. It probes the plasma with magnetic fields between 2.4 and 3.0 T using the V band [approximately (0-1.4)x10(19) m(-3)]. The first experimental results show the high sensitivity of the diagnostic when measuring changes in the plasma density profile occurring ITER relevant regimes, such as ELMy H-modes. The successful demonstration of this concept motivated the upgrade of the JET frequency modulation of the continuous wave (FMCW) reflectometry diagnostic, to probe both the edge and core. This new system is essential to prove the viability of using the FMCW reflectometry technique to probe the plasma in next step devices, such as ITER, since they share the same waveguide complexity.

Detailed electromagnetic numerical evaluation of eddy currents induced by toroidal and poloidal magnetic field variation and halo currents

A detailed evaluation of the EM loads in the ITER divertor during plasma disruptions is mandatory for the correct dimensioning of the divertor component. The EM loads during plasma disruptions are mainly produced by: (1) toroidal flux variation (TFV) during the thermal quench (TQ) and current quench (CQ); (2) halo currents (HC); and (3) poloidal flux variation (PFV) during TQ and CQ phase. The new ITER reference disruption and the last changes in the divertor design have been considered in the EM models created to calculate all the EM loads due to TFV, HC and PFV. All the analyses have been performed for the three different main design options of the divertor plasma facing units (PFU). The effects of PFV have been analyzed using an EM-zooming procedure that has allowed a good detail of the component model, while new numerical approaches have been developed for the evaluation of the effects due to TFV and HC maintaining the same detail for the divertor model. Separate models have been developed to evaluate the equivalent electrical resistivities of the various PFU options; this allows in the full 3D model a strong simplification of a geometry which would otherwise be very complex. The effect of an electrical surface bridging of the PFU castellation has also been taken into account.

Visual Persuasion: Issues in the Translation of the Visual in Advertising

This contribution is concerned with the decoding of advertising messages and the question of whether and how such messages are received by members of other cultures. The answers to these questions are important when considering the role of the translator in adapting global campaigns. Most advertisers concentrate on avoiding linguistic pitfalls when adapting advertisements for new markets, but in any advertisement, consumers are primarily attracted by visual elements. It can be said that an advertisement’s potential for triggering a train of connotations in the consumers’ minds is the most important aspect of advertisement design. According to Barthes, images are polysemous, but it is not clear whether all connotations are accessible to viewers in different cultures. The visual in advertising exploits the original and the stereotypical – novelty attracts attention, while the stereotypical serves as a reference to established knowledge. The main design options discussed are layout and directionality, as well as the choice of subject, which also allows a range of visual rhetorical options to be encoded. Decoding depends on practical, cultural and aesthetic knowledge. The challenge to the translator lies in assessing whether the choices made in the original advertisement and its connotation potential can be transferred to a new language market with different cultural practices. The analysis draws on the semiotics of Barthes, and presents more recent approaches from cultural studies. It is illustrated by examples of the strategies adopted for global advertising campaigns by companies operating world-wide and includes a case study on advertising in China.

Internet connectivity for mobile ad hoc networks: solutions and challenges

The interconnection of mobile ad hoc networks to fixed IP networks is one of the topics receiving more attention within the MANET working group of the IETF as well as in many research projects funded by the European Union. Several solutions have recently been proposed, but at this time it is unclear which ones offer the best performance compared to the others. In addition to introducing the main challenges and design options that need to be considered, we perform a simulation-based evaluation aiming at providing some insight on the performance of these approaches. These simulation results have proven themselves valuable by showing that some of the most eye-catching features of the proposed approaches have practical performance issues which need to be enhanced.

Il contributo dell'epidemiologia alla valutazione dei servizi psichiatrici

SummaryA discussion of epidemiologic researches for the evaluation of psychiatric care is presented. With regard to the Italian context the author stresses the importance of analytical studies over the descriptive ones. The main design options for the evaluation of quality of care are then considered in the psychiatric framework.

Striving to deconfound the fundamentals of epidemiologic study design

The fundamentals of epidemiologic study design have remained a matter of confusion. Most authors still see the main design options to consist of the “cohort” study and the “case-control” study, augmented by the “cross-sectional” study. Others regard these as options only with respect to the perceived “directionality” dimension of design decisions. Few have come to appreciate that, realistically, there are no options as to directionality in the usual sense of “following forward” vs “investigating backward”, or in the related sense of “inferential reasoning” being “from cause to effect” vs “from effect to cause”. Related to this, few appreciate that the perceived duality of options constituted by “sampling by exposure” and “sampling by outcome” is, similarly, but an illusion. Old illusions like these confound the discernment of even those who, today, strive to deconfound the fundamentals of epidemiologic study design.