Imitation is supposedly a fundamental mechanism for humans to learn new actions and to gain knowledge about another’s intentions. The basis of this behavior seems to be a direct influencing of the motor system by the perceptual system, affording fast, selective enhancement of a motor response already in the repertoire (response facilitation) as well as learning and delayed reproduction of new a...

This study compares environmental and economic impacts of using nanofluids to enhance solar collector efficiency as compared to conventional solar collectors for domestic hotwater systems. Results show that for the current cost of nanoparticles the nanofluid based solar collector has a slightly longer payback period but at the end of its useful life has the same economic savings as a convention...

The Kyoto protocol has defined the accounting framework for industrial GHG emissions on production-based accounting. Since then, international negotiations of Climate Change did not make significant progress on new GHG emissions ceiling. For numerous non-Annex 1 countries, an accounting framework based on consumption would be advantageous and could help in international negotiations. Similarly,...

Although capacity credits for wind power have been embodied in power systems in the U.S. and Europe, the current planning framework for electricity in China continues to treat wind power as a nondispatchable source with zero contribution to firm capacity. This study adopts a rigorous reliability model for the electric power system evaluating capacity credits that should be recognized for offsho...

Use of Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) has been proven to enhance structural fatigue resistance and reduce the use-phase emissions for transportation infrastructure. Carbonation curing offers an opportunity embodied carbon ECC via direct CO2 sequestration. In this study, impact carbonation on ECC’s was examined. uptake, static flexural behavior, performance, single fiber pull-out behav...

An overview of our work on evaluating an affective embodied agent within a nutritional scenario (over extended periods of interaction) is provided. Results from an investigation into how subjects respond to the agent’s emotional expressions are also detailed, with a particular focus on how subjects respond to mismatched emotional expressions (e.g. a happy face with a concerned voice).

Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA) are poised to constitute a specific category within persuasive systems, in particular through their ability to support affective dialogue. One possible approach consists in using ECA as virtual coaches or personal assistants and to make persuasion part of a dialogue game implementing specific argumentation or negotiation features. In this paper, we explore a...

F Forecasting the path of China’s CO2 emissions using provincelevel information Maximilian Auffhammer , Richard T. Carson Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 207 Giannini Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3310, USA University of California, San Diego, USA Received 31 December 2006 O CT ED P RO Abstract Our results suggest that the anticipated path of China’s carb...