scholarly journals Side-by-side testing to assess the benefits of adding insulation to a commercial electric pressure cooker using the ‘Aobosi YBW60’ 6 litre.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Monk ◽  
Richard Blanchard ◽  
John Barton

Reducing the costs of cooking is one of the enablers to improve access to MECS (modern energy cooking services). Electric pressure cookers (EPCs) already compare favourably against conventional stoves, and very favourably against biomass cooking, in terms of energy consumption, but have evolved to satisfy wealthy consumers’ expectations which don’t necessarily match the needs of the global south. Choosing an EPC with an air-gapped lid provided the opportunity to replicate how a factory might install insulation, but displacing trapped-air insulation can be seen to provide limited benefit. This also demonstrates that improving something that is already high performing provides diminishing returns. In contrast, a poorly designed EPC may benefit to a greater degree.

Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Shobhit Chaturvedi ◽  
Elangovan Rajasekar ◽  
Sukumar Natarajan

Operational uncertainties play a critical role in determining potential pathways to reduce the building energy footprint in the Global South. This paper presents the application of a non-dominated sorting genetic (NSGA II) algorithm for multi-objective building design optimization under operational uncertainties. A residential building situated in a mid-latitude steppe and desert region (Köppen climate classification: BSh) in the Global South has been selected for our investigation. The annual building energy consumption and the total number of cooling setpoint unmet hours (h) were assessed over 13,122 different energy efficiency measures. Six Pareto optimal solutions were identified by the NSGA II algorithm. Robustness of Pareto solutions was evaluated by comparing their performance sensitivity over 162 uncertain operational scenarios. The final selection for the most optimal energy efficiency measure was achieved by formulating a robust multi-criteria decision function by incorporating performance, user preference, and reliability criteria. Results from this robust approach were compared with those obtained using a deterministic approach. The most optimal energy efficiency measure resulted in 9.24% lower annual energy consumption and a 45% lower number of cooling setpoint unmet h as compared to the base case.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 6910
Author(s):  
Avijit Saha ◽  
Md. Abdur Razzak ◽  
M. Rezwan Khan

Detrimental effects exerted by biomass-based traditional cookstoves on health, environment, hygiene, and the soaring price of gas makes it imperative to investigate the feasibility of electric cooking as a promising clean cooking fuel in the context of Bangladesh. However, the adoption of electric cooking is unlikely to be welcomed if the monthly cost of electricity consumed by the electric cooking appliances is not comparable to traditional cooking fuels. So far, no study has been reported in this respect. Therefore, this paper is aimed to assess the energy consumption of available electric cooking appliances for cooking typical Bangladeshi dishes. Estimated monthly electricity cost of electric cooking is also reported and then compared to that of traditional cooking fuels. For the study purpose, three respondent families were provided with a rice cooker, hot plate, induction cooker and electric pressure cooker for cooking their daily meals. After four months of use, data related to dish cooked, amount of food, cooking time, and energy consumption were collected which shows that hot plate and rice cooker were the least preferred appliances due to their poor workmanship and limited use respectively. On the contrary, despite the fact that electric pressure cookers cannot perform all types of frying, it was the most preferred appliance owing to its ability to significantly reduce the cooking time and its less energy consumption. Induction cooker was less preferred for the additional requirement of compatible cook pots. The study also reveals that monthly energy requirements for electric cooking varied from 72–87 kWh corresponding to a cooking electricity bill ranging from BDT 504–609 per month (USD 6–7.5) which is less expensive as compared with biomass and LPG based cooking. This paper also highlights the prospects and challenges associated with the adoption of electricity as the primary cooking fuel in Bangladesh.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Reynaert

Access to handwashing facilities is limited in cities in the Global South. On-site recycling of water can improve access to handwashing facilities in places that lack water and wastewater related infrastructure. A handwashing station prototype that uses recycled water was tested in real-life applications in Switzerland and South Africa, where it addresses both social and environmental goals. The transdisciplinary approach taken by the research team (a strategy where researchers from different disciplines work closely together with the users and beneficiaries of interventions) was a crucial factor in the acceptance of the handwashing station using recycled water.


Author(s):  
Pauline A. Mashima

Important initiatives in health care include (a) improving access to services for disadvantaged populations, (b) providing equal access for individuals with limited or non-English proficiency, and (c) ensuring cultural competence of health-care providers to facilitate effective services for individuals from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, 2001). This article provides a brief overview of the use of technology by speech-language pathologists and audiologists to extend their services to underserved populations who live in remote geographic areas, or when cultural and linguistic differences impact service delivery.


2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hartmann

Spearman's Law of Diminishing Returns (SLODR) with regard to age was tested in two different databases from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The first database consisted of 6,980 boys and girls aged 12–16 from the 1997 cohort ( NLSY 1997 ). The subjects were tested with a computer-administered adaptive format (CAT) of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) consisting of 12 subtests. The second database consisted of 11,448 male and female subjects aged 15–24 from the 1979 cohort ( NLSY 1979 ). These subjects were tested with the older 10-subtest version of the ASVAB. The hypothesis was tested by dividing the sample into Young and Old age groups while keeping IQ fairly constant by a method similar to the one developed and employed by Deary et al. (1996) . The different age groups were subsequently factor-analyzed separately. The eigenvalue of the first principal component (PC1) and the first principal axis factor (PAF1), and the average intercorrelation of the subtests were used as estimates of the g saturation and compared across groups. There were no significant differences in the g saturation across age groups for any of the two samples, thereby pointing to no support for this aspect of Spearman's “Law of Diminishing Returns.”


Author(s):  
Bettina von Helversen ◽  
Stefan M. Herzog ◽  
Jörg Rieskamp

Judging other people is a common and important task. Every day professionals make decisions that affect the lives of other people when they diagnose medical conditions, grant parole, or hire new employees. To prevent discrimination, professional standards require that decision makers render accurate and unbiased judgments solely based on relevant information. Facial similarity to previously encountered persons can be a potential source of bias. Psychological research suggests that people only rely on similarity-based judgment strategies if the provided information does not allow them to make accurate rule-based judgments. Our study shows, however, that facial similarity to previously encountered persons influences judgment even in situations in which relevant information is available for making accurate rule-based judgments and where similarity is irrelevant for the task and relying on similarity is detrimental. In two experiments in an employment context we show that applicants who looked similar to high-performing former employees were judged as more suitable than applicants who looked similar to low-performing former employees. This similarity effect was found despite the fact that the participants used the relevant résumé information about the applicants by following a rule-based judgment strategy. These findings suggest that similarity-based and rule-based processes simultaneously underlie human judgment.


2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Jaussi ◽  
Michael Palanski ◽  
Walter Reichman
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