Shading devices control daylight transmission through fenestration systems, which influences the occupant's visual comfort and the building's energy performance. Fenestration systems containing a ...light-redirecting layer, such as shading devices, are known as complex fenestration systems (CFSs). Despite the increased optimization in the building performance simulation field over the last decade, few studies have focused on optimizing CFSs. Instead, the majority of studies have focused on minimizing energy consumption and neglected visual comfort metrics in the objective/cost function. This paper aims to optimize a fixed exterior CFS component of offices located in Montreal (Canada), Boulder (USA), Miami (USA) and Santiago (Chile). The studied CFS comprises a set of opaque, curved, and perforated horizontal louvers. The optimization problem minimizes a cost function that includes two visual comfort criteria (spatial daylight autonomy (SDA) and annual sunlight exposure (ASE)) and the total energy consumption. The CFS's design variables are the percentage of perforations, tilt angle and spacing of the louvers. The GenOpt optimization engine with the hybrid PSO-HJ algorithm is coupled to mkSchedule, Radiance and EnergyPlus to perform integrated lighting and thermal simulations. The main findings are that a CFS optimized solely based on total energy consumption does not meet the visual comfort metrics; however, including visual comfort metrics in the cost function enables such goals to be achieved by trading-off energy consumption. Moreover, the optimization process is efficient and robust, as the optimized CFS solutions are close to the exact solutions and the simulations' number to find optimum CFSs is reduced by 97%.
•Optimum CFS based on the energy use criterion does not meet the visual comfort.•Optimum CFS are extremely close to the exact solution.•GentOpt is integrated with mkSchedule, Radiance and EnergyPlus.•Optimum CFSs are obtained in 34–50 simulations using the hybrid PSO-HJ algorithm.
This paper employs a multi-level perspective approach to examine the development of policy frameworks around energy storage technologies. The paper focuses on the emerging encounter between existing ...social, technological, regulatory, and institutional regimes in electricity systems in Canada, the United States, and the European Union, and the niche level development of advanced energy storage technologies. The structure of electricity systems as vertically integrated monopolies, or liberalized or semi-liberalized markets, is found to provide different mechanisms for niche formation and niche to regime transition pathways for energy storage. Significant trade-offs among these pathways are identified. The overwhelming bulk of energy storage policy development activities are found to be taking place in liberalized or semi-liberalized markets. The key policy debates in these markets relate to technical barriers to market participation by storage resources, the ability of storage technologies to offer multiple services in markets simultaneously, the lack of clear rules related to the aggregation of distributed energy resources, and issues related to the meaning of “technological neutrality” in liberalized market systems. Landscape conditions, particularly jurisdictional commitments to pursue deliberate reconfigurations of their energy systems towards low-carbon energy sources, emerge as the most significant factor in the implementation of policy reforms in these areas.
•Storage is an enabling technology which may disrupt conventional utility models.•Private capital is increasingly interested in storage technology development.•The strengths of liberalized markets for new technologies are also their weaknesses.•The existing rules present barriers to full utilization of energy storage technologies.•The low-carbon reconfiguration of energy systems will define the role of storage.
The 2017 fire season was one of the largest on record for British Columbia (BC), Canada, in terms of total area burned (estimated 1.2 million ha), affecting the safety and air quality of numerous ...communities. Moreover, fires of this number and extent alter the wood supply for harvesting, the nature of habitat for wildlife, and can affect regional and national carbon budgets. As a result, it is important to map these fires accurately and to monitor within-year fire progression in order to quantify the resulting forest-disturbance impacts fully. The Bayesian Updating of Land Cover (BULC) algorithm was used to merge burned-area classifications of individual fires from a range of remote sensing sources such as Landsat-7, Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, and MODIS (MCD64A1) burned-area dataset. Together, these provisional classifications imaged each pixel within a known fire perimeter an average of 33.8 times between April 1 and December 1. The resulting 35-week time-series stack had updated weekly burned areas for each of the 89 fires in BC in 2017. Province-wide fire progression was variable throughout the period analyzed, characterized by a steady burn phase of 41,437 ha (5% of total area burned) over a two-week period in early July, an accelerated burn phase of 149,422 ha (17%) from mid-July to early August, another steady burn phase of 218,079 ha (24%) for one month until early September, and a second accelerated burn phase of 301,931 ha (34%) over two weeks in late September with subsequent steady growth of 180,119 ha (20%) over 1.5 months until containment in late October. Herein, we demonstrate how such temporally dense fire classification stacks can be used to analyze fire progression over the course of a fire season (both retrospectively and in near-real time) providing useful metrics to characterize and compare fire events. End-of-season burned-area estimates correspond with estimates derived from the National Burned Area Composite (NBAC) product that is generated retrospectively from fire best-available mapping approaches. This rapid interpretation of information enables the analysis of suppression success and potential drivers of fires spread while facilitating analyses of carbon budget consequences as well as impacts to communities and timber supply.
•Retrospective and near real-time wildfire maps using data from multiple sensors•Bayesian-synthesized earth observation data for mapping wildfire progression•Daily and weekly fire progression metrics to quantify and characterize fire behaviour•35-week time series provided updated weekly burned areas for 89 fires in 2017.•Each pixel within a fire perimeter observed an average of 34 times April–December.
The construction and demolition (C&D) waste generated by the Canadian construction industry accounts for 27 % of the total municipal solid waste disposed in landfills. However, it is evident that ...over 75 % of what the construction industry generates as waste has a residual value, and therefore could be recycled, salvaged and/or reused. The need for comprehensive and integrated waste management mechanisms, technologies, rating systems and policies is widely recognized. Owing to increasing C&D waste volumes, shortage of landfills and long-term adverse environmental, economic and social impacts of the disposed C&D waste, sustainable C&D waste management is becoming increasingly essential to protect public health and natural ecosystems. This paper proposes a conceptual C&D waste management framework to maximise the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) and minimise the disposal of construction waste by implementing sustainable and comprehensive strategy throughout the lifecycle of construction projects. In addition, a life cycle based C&D waste sustainability index is developed. This approach can be used to make decisions related to selection of material, sorting, recycle/reuse and treatment or disposal options for C&D waste.
ABSTRACT
Insurance pricing is subject to stricter regulation in some states than others. This cross-sectional variation, coupled with the occurrence of staggered deregulation in several states, ...enables a powerful test of the political cost hypothesis that managers manipulate accruals to mitigate adverse effects of rate regulation. We show that insurers understate their loss reserve accruals in more regulated regimes, a finding that contrasts with most prior studies documenting expense-increasing accruals in regulatory pricing settings like utilities. We theorize and find evidence that regulator-enabled cartel-like collective rate making leads to premiums being higher than the competitive level. Our results are consistent with accounting manipulation being used to justify deviating from these high rates and showcase a role for accounting in cartel enforcement.
JEL Classifications: M41; G18; G22; G32.
One major challenge in current brain research is generating an integrative understanding of the brain's functions and disorders from its multiscale neuronal architectures and connectivity. Thus, ...innovative neurotechnology tools are urgently required for deciphering the multiscale functional and structural organizations of the brain at hierarchical scales from the molecular to the organismal level by multiple brain research initiatives launched by the European Union, United States, Australia, Canada, China, Korea, and Japan. To meet this demand, microfluidic chips (μFCs) have rapidly evolved as a trans-scale neurotechnological toolset to enable multiscale studies of the brain due to their unique advantages in flexible microstructure design, multifunctional integration, accurate microenvironment control, and capacity for automatic sample processing. Here, we review the recent progress in applying innovative μFC-based neuro-technologies to promote multiscale brain research and uniquely focus on representative applications of μFCs to address challenges in brain research at each hierarchical level. We discuss the current trend of combinational applications of μFCs with other neuro- and biotechnologies, including optogenetics, brain organoids, and 3D bioprinting, for better multiscale brain research. In addition, we offer our insights into the existing outstanding questions at each hierarchical level of brain research that could potentially be addressed by advancing microfluidic techniques. This review will serve as a timely guide for bioengineers and neuroscientists to develop and apply μFC-based neuro-technologies for promoting basic and translational brain research.
Using an extended Kaya decomposition, we identify the drivers of long-run CO2 emissions since 1800 for Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the UK, the United ...States, Canada and Japan. By considering biomass and carbon-free energy sources along with fossil fuels, we are able to shed light on the effects of past and present energy transitions on CO2 emissions. We find that at low levels of income per capita, fuel switching from biomass to fossil fuels is the main contributing factor to emissions growth. As income levels increase, scale effects, especially income effects, become dominant. Technological change proves to be the main offsetting factor in the long run. Particularly in the last decades, technological change and fuel switching have become important contributors to the decrease in emissions in Europe. Our results also contrast the differentiated historical paths of CO2 emissions taken by these countries.
•We study the long-run drivers of CO2 emissions in twelve developed economies.•We use novel data and apply an extended Kaya decomposition.•At low levels of income per capita, fuel switching is usually the main CO2 driver.•Scale effects are most important at higher levels of income and in the long-run.•Technological change is the main offsetting factor in the long-run.
Canada's cellulosic ethanol biorefinery concept is supported by federal and provincial government legislative ethanol mandates as well as enabling science and innovation policies for technology ...development to support the economic and sustainable production of cellulosic ethanol and co-products from Canada's abundant supply of lignocellulosic agricultural and forestry biomass. In particular, the development of pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation technologies is regarded as a critical integrating step for the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol biorefinery business concepts. These critical steps are necessitated by the chemical structure of lignocellulosic biomass comprising carbohydrate polymers and lignin which constrains the ability of enzymes to convert these polymers into fermentable sugars without expensive and highly capital intensive pretreatment processes. This paper reviews science and innovation efforts by Canadian researchers in finding solutions to these constraints, in particular the development of hydrolysis and fermentation technologies. This paper also highlights the role of multi-institutional science and innovation collaborative approaches for advancing Canada's cellulosic ethanol biorefinery concept further downstream. While highlighting Canada's scientific progress, this review also outlines technology commercialization lags between basic research and full scale commercialization of a Canadian cellulosic ethanol biorefinery concept. Although this paper focuses on the near-term goal of cellulosic ethanol production, it nevertheless recognizes that ethanol is only the first step in the longer-term goal aimed at a full integrated bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels and a wide range of value-added biochemicals and biomaterials, consistent with the cellulosic biorefinery concept.
Fish growth and survival are largely determined by the nutritional quality of their food, and the fish that grow quickly during early life stages are more likely to reproduce. To adequately estimate ...the quality of the prey for fish, it is necessary to understand the trophic links at the base of the food-web. Trophic biomarkers (e.g., stable isotopes and fatty acids) are particularly useful to discriminate and quantify food-web relationships. We explored the connections between plankton food-web components, and the seasonal and spatial dynamics of the trophic biomarkers and how this determines the availability of high-quality prey for juvenile Pacific salmon and Pacific herring in the Strait of Georgia, Canada. We demonstrate that the plankton food-web in the region is largely supported by diatom and flagellate production. We also show that spatial differences in terms of energy transfer efficiency exist in the region. Further, we found that the fatty acid composition of the zooplankton varied seasonally, matching a shift from diatom dominated production in the spring to flagellate dominated production in the summer. This seasonal shift conferred a higher nutritional value to zooplankton in the summer, indicating better quality prey for juvenile salmon and herring during this period.
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•Carbohydrates and phenolics were obtained from straws using pressurized fluids.•Temperature and ethanol concentration influenced biocompound removal.•Optimal biocompounds removal was ...obtained with PAE (20%) at 180 °C and 50 bar.•The PAE improved delignification of barley and canola straws compared to sCW.•Thermal stability of straw residues improved after pressurized fluid treatment.
Canada produces annually vast amounts of barley and canola straws. In this study, barley and canola straws were hydrolyzed using subcritical water (sCW) and pressurized aqueous ethanol (PAE) at 140–220 °C, 50–200 bar and 20–100% (v/v) ethanol concentrations for maximum removal of carbohydrates and phenolics. Total carbohydrates, phenolics, antioxidant activity and brown color formation were quantified via UV-spectrophotometer. Temperature and ethanol concentration were important process parameters for the removal of biocompounds from barley and canola straws. Optimum process conditions for removal of phenolics (45.4 ± 1.8 mg GAE/g barley straw and 52.9 ± 2.0 mg GAE/g canola straw) and carbohydrates (527.6 ± 0.5 mg GE/g barley straw and 442.7 ± 14.8 mg GE/g canola straw) were 180 °C, 50 bar and 20% ethanol. Furthermore, 54 and 45% of total lignin were removed using PAE (20%) from barley and canola straws, respectively. The FT-IR, TG, DTG and SEM analysis confirmed the removal of non-cellulosic materials.
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