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"Smart, Mike"
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Classification
PVC pressure pipes were first introduced approximately 90 years ago, when they were used at the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Since then, thermoplastic piping technology has evolved significantly. PVC-O pipes, developed around forty years ago, have in particular seen substantial advancement, undergoing five successive classification iterations.
Journal Article
When and How Should Commodity Buyers Subsidise Freight?
A stylised international commodity trade model is used to show that when economic geography is suitable and collective action is feasible, it can be in the buyers' interests to subsidise freight. Unit price subsidies to the highest-cost supplier provide the greatest consumer benefit. Free on Board (FOB) pricing is one way to implement such a subsidy. The subsidy scheme requires a buyer cartel, which is vulnerable to defection. These analytical insights are used to interpret the causes of initial success and ultimate failure of the iron ore price benchmarking system.
Journal Article
Understanding unified pipe stiffness
The measurement of attributes is standardised internationally; for example, a given speed is the same anywhere on earth. However, pipe stiffness is an exception that varies with the material. This is confusing and does not facilitate comparison – it must be corrected.
Journal Article
Classification- the \heart\ of thermoplastic pipes
SANS 16422 Pipes and joints made of oriented unplasticised poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC-O) for the conveyance of water under pressure -- Specifications defines all five classifications of PVC-O pressure pipes. It is critically important not to confuse 'classification' with 'class', which refers to the pressure rating (PN) of a pipe. Classification is determined by the strength of the material used to manufacture the pipe, whereas class denotes the maximum allowable continuous working pressure over the pipe's design life. In accordance with ISO protocols, all thermoplastic pipes are required to have a minimum service life of 50 years at 20°C, although some thermoplastic pipe systems are designed to achieve service lives of up to 100 years. The classification of the raw material is determined by its minimum required strength (MRS), expressed in megapascals (MPa), at 50 years and 20°C, as derived from the creep rupture regression curve (CRRC). The classification value is defined as ten times the MRS. Accordingly, the five PVC-O classification iterations are 315, 355, 400, 450 and 500, corresponding to MRS values of 31.5, 35.5, 40, 45 and 50 MPa respectively.
Trade Publication Article
Biologists in the Age of Totalitarianism
This fascinating volume resulted from one man's frustration with the series of whitewashed obituaries and laudations he had to endure in his long career in West Germany. These were often of biologists who had worked in the Third Reich, a period generally skipped over in such eulogies. Dr Eugeniusz Nowak, born in Poland in 1933, therefore decided to do some historical research of his own. His series of controversial 'alternative' biographies of mainly German biologists in various journals soon grew into a successful book, with German, Russian and Polish editions. Now at last translated into English, this revised and updated volume contains over 40 brief lives, illustrated by 113 often dramatic photographs. It uses material gathered from dozens of Central European archives only accessible since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. What makes this book so gripping is its personal element; Dr Nowak, with his contacts on both sides of the Iron Curtain, either knew these scientists personally or interviewed family members and colleagues. We see here how these victims (and perpetrators) were caught in the ideological nets of Nazism, Stalinism or Maoism, and how their lives were changed utterly by political forces beyond their control. As such, this book represents essential reading for those interested in the personal stories at the interface of totalitarian politics and biological science.
eBook
Transport Demand and Spatial Equilibria
Characteristics of transport demand are inferred from spatial equilibrium with exogenous locations. For non-trivial spatial distributions of firms and markets I derive computable expressions for elasticity of transport demand, producer surplus, and consumer surplus as a function of
the mass-distance price of transport. Producer surplus is likely to have one or more local maxima, suggesting a disincentive for producers to minimise transport costs. Numerical simulation is used to illustrate results. A method is suggested for computing simultaneous transport and commodity
market equilibria for spatially dispersed markets.
Journal Article
Adiabatic Capacitive Neuron: An Energy-Efficient Functional Unit for Artificial Neural Networks
This paper introduces a new, highly energy-efficient, Adiabatic Capacitive Neuron (ACN) hardware implementation of an Artificial Neuron (AN) with improved functionality, accuracy, robustness and scalability over previous work. The paper describes the implementation of a 12-bit single neuron, with positive and negative weight support, in an \\(0.18 m\\) CMOS technology. The paper also presents a new Threshold Logic (TL) design for a binary AN activation function that generates a low symmetrical offset across three process corners and five temperatures between \\(-55^o\\)C and \\(125^o\\)C. Post-layout simulations demonstrate a maximum rising and falling offset voltage of 9\\(mV\\) compared to conventional TL, which has rising and falling offset voltages of 27\\(mV\\) and 5\\(mV\\) respectively, across temperature and process. Moreover, the proposed TL design shows a decrease in average energy of 1.5\\(\\%\\) at the SS corner and 2.3\\(\\%\\) at FF corner compared to the conventional TL design. The total synapse energy saving for the proposed ACN was above 90\\(\\%\\) (over 12x improvement) when compared to a non-adiabatic CMOS Capacitive Neuron (CCN) benchmark for a frequency ranging from 500\\(kHz\\) to 100\\(MHz\\). A 1000-sample Monte Carlo simulation including process variation and mismatch confirms the worst-case energy savings of \\(\\>\\)90\\(\\%\\) compared to CCN in the synapse energy profile. Finally, the impact of supply voltage scaling shows consistent energy savings of above 90\\(\\%\\) (except all zero inputs) without loss of functionality.
Paper
Weight Mapping Properties of a Dual Tree Single Clock Adiabatic Capacitive Neuron
Dual Tree Single Clock (DTSC) Adiabatic Capacitive Neuron (ACN) circuits offer the potential for highly energy-efficient Artificial Neural Network (ANN) computation in full custom analog IC designs. The efficient mapping of Artificial Neuron (AN) abstract weights, extracted from the software-trained ANNs, onto physical ACN capacitance values has, however, yet to be fully researched. In this paper, we explore the unexpected hidden complexities, challenges and properties of the mapping, as well as, the ramifications for IC designers in terms accuracy, design and implementation. We propose an optimal, AN to ACN methodology, that promotes smaller chip sizes and improved overall classification accuracy, necessary for successful practical deployment. Using TensorFlow and Larq software frameworks, we train three different ANN networks and map their weights into the energy-efficient DTSC ACN capacitance value domain to demonstrate 100% functional equivalency. Finally, we delve into the impact of weight quantization on ACN performance using novel metrics related to practical IC considerations, such as IC floor space and comparator decision-making efficacy.
Paper