Cluster-based characterisation of Australian apartment electricity demand and its implications for low-carbon cities

Understanding of residential electricity demand has application in efficient building design, network planning and broader policy and regulation, as well as in planning the deployment of energy efficiency technologies and distributed energy resources with potential emissions reduction benefits as well societal and household cost savings. Very few studies have explored the specific demand characteristics of apartments, which house a growing proportion of the global urban population. We present a study of apartment electricity loads, using a dataset containing a year of half-hourly electricity data for 6000 Australian households, to examine the relationship between dwelling type, demographic characteristics and load profile. The focus on apartments, combined with the size of the data set, and the representative seasonal load profiles obtained through clustering full annual profiles, is unique in the literature. We find that median per-occupant household electricity use is 21% lower for apartments than for houses and that, on average, apartments have lower load factor and higher daily load variability, and show greater diversity in their daily peak times, resulting in a lower coincidence factor for aggregations of apartment loads. Using cluster analysis and classification, we also show the impact of dwelling type on the shape of household electricity load profiles.

La responsabilidad institucional pública: un análisis para el mejoramiento de la gestión y la gerencia en la administración pública

<p>Las crecientes demandas de organizaciones sociales y defensoras de Derechos Humanos frente a la gestión de las Entidades públicas y privadas, exigen que éstas busquen superar la simple producción de bienes o servicios a usuarios internos y externos, en razón a que los ciudadanos reclaman una relación basada en su reconocimiento como sujetos de derechos y en una gestión ética que no se limite a la básica aplicación formal de normas legales. Desde esta perspectiva, en el marco de la Responsabilidad social y partiendo del concepto de lo público (en el que está implícito lo social), este estudio pretende señalar lineamientos para la construcción de la Responsabilidad Institucional Pública (RIP) -equivalente a la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial del sector privado-, con el fin de contribuir al fortalecimiento del sentido misional y legitimidad de las Entidades Estatales, desde una llamada a lo ético; ello, a partir de los resultados del diagnóstico de las prácticas de RIP evidenciadas en tres entidades del sector público colombiano: una entidad del nivel ejecutivo central, una empresa social del estado(ejecutora) y un organismo de control . De los resultados obtenidos se encuentra que, el factor que alcanza mayor coincidencia en la afirmación de tales prácticas, es el de transparencia (en lo que hace referencia al cumplimiento de requisitos formales); en tanto que el de desarrollo del capital humano, es en el que se da menor reconocimiento de su aplicación.</p><p>Abstract</p><p>The increasing demands of social organizations and human rights defenders facing the management of public and private entities, they require looking beyond the mere production of goods or services to internal users and external liabilities due to citizens claiming a relationship based on their recognition as subjects of rights and ethical management that goes beyond the formal application of basic legal standards. From this perspective, in the context of social responsibility and based on the Aristotelian concept of the public (which is implicit in the social), this study seeks to identify guidelines for the construction of a public policy Public Institutional Responsibility (RIP)-equivalent Corporate Social Responsibility-private sector, to help strengthen the sense of mission and legitimacy of state entities, from a call to the ethical, therefore, from the results of diagnostic practices evidenced in RIP sector three entities. In turn, the higher reaches coincidence factor in the affirmation of such practices is that of transparency (which refers to the formal requirements) while the development of human capital, which gives less recognition of their application.</p>

WHY LIBYAN STUDENTS CHOOSE DENTISTRY AS A CAREER?

Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore the reasons for choosing dentistry as a career among Libyan undergraduate dental students attending the Dental Faculty, University of Benghazi during the academic year 2011-2012.Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of a cohort of 192 dentalstudents (87 males and 105 females; 19-26 years old) attending the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Benghazi. An anonymous questionnaire included 30 questions was administered to all the students and they were required to rate the importance of 28 items on a 10 point Visual Analogue Scale ‘VAS’. Parametric tests were employed toexplore the significant discrepancies between scores of different groups.Results: Dentistry was the first choice for 78.6% with no significant sex difference.Helping people was given the maximum score by the students followed by the scientific factor. While, the least scores were given to the coincidence factor. There were no observed sexual dimorphism in the response of all the questions (p ≥0.058), except that females appeared to be significantly influenced by their high grades at high schools compared to males (P= 0.032).Conclusions: Helping people and scientific factors were found to be the most motivating factors for both sexes. Career education programmes at schools might help students to choose their careers.