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Keeping Animals Cool

Heat Stress Resources

Managing Feedlot Heat Stress

Standards Nebraska

Animal Welfare Codes

Border Collie Optimization

Border Collie Optimization

University Institute of Technology, Burdwan, India
CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India
Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, Jalpaiguri, India
FEECS, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

 

Abstract:  In recent times, several metaheuristic algorithms have been proposed for solving real world optimization problems. In this paper, a new metaheuristic algorithm, called the Border Collie Optimization is introduced. The algorithm is developed by mimicking the sheep herding styles of Border Collie dogs. The Border Collie’s unique herding style from the front as well as from the sides is adopted successfully in this paper. In this algorithm, the entire population is divided into two parts viz., dogs and sheep. This is done to equally focus on both exploration and exploitation of the search space. The Border Collie utilizes a predatory move called eyeing.

This technique of the dogs is utilized to prevent the algorithm from getting stuck into local optima. A sensitivity analysis of the proposed algorithm has been carried out using the Sobol’s sensitivity indices with the Sobol g-function for tuning of parameters. The proposed algorithm is applied on thirty-five benchmark functions. The proposed algorithm provides very competitive results, when compared with seven state-of-the-art algorithms like Ant Colony optimization, Differential algorithm, Genetic algorithm, Grey-wolf optimizer, Harris Hawk optimization, Particle Swarm optimization and Whale optimization algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm is analytically and visually tested by different methods to judge its supremacy. Finally, the statistical significance of the proposed algorithm is established by comparing it with other algorithms by employing Kruskal-Wallis test and Friedman test.

CLICK HERE to order the complete article (Free public access)

 

 

Empirical Analysis of Risk for Sports Facilities

 

Neel Prajapati, et. al

Department of Computer Science & Math |  Fairleigh Dickinson University 

Abstract: In today’s digital landscape, organizations depend on intricate information systems to manage sensitive data, maintain operations, and ensure business continuity. As these systems become more complex, the need for effective risk management strategies grows. Improving facilities, student satisfaction, event attendance, and sustainability are great successes in operational policies, procedures, and event management. Additionally, the sports building serves a diverse community, including students, faculty, staff, and external guests, supporting daily recreation, varsity athletics, and large-scale events. Therefore, this study presents a focused risk management approach based on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF 2.0) for athletics centers in sports facilities, such as indoor game spaces, fitness centers, and outdoor game spaces, at academic institutions. Thus, this study aims to evaluate asset management practices and identify physical and logical vulnerabilities by conducting in-depth interviews with students, coaches, and other supporting staff, and by gathering firsthand insights into operational workflows, physical security measures, and system-level safeguards. These qualitative findings, combined with realistic frameworks, form the foundation of analysis. In conclusion, sports operations and this study underscore the institution’s commitment to technical reliability, risk awareness, and corresponding mitigation, as well as 24/7 assistant services.

Summer Sport

 

Electrical Power System Research

https://youtu.be/SufEe-d4DN4?si=c07WOdgnlaVybant

Summer Sport

“No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…

what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing

the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

— (Plato, Republic 403d)

Athena with Hermes, God of Sport

Today we slice horizontally through the multitude of technical and policy silos applicable to seasonal recreational and competitive sport activity.  We limit our examination to the conformance catalogs of ANSI. ASHRAE. ASTM, AWWA, ICC, IEEE, IES, NFPA, NSF International, and UL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_Summer_Olympics

Relevant changes proposed for the next revision of the International Building Code:

Sprinkler coverage over bleachers or sport spectator seating (p. 665)

Lightning Protection Systems (p. 751)

Spectator live loading on bleachers (p. 1098)

Permitting of outdoor luminaires per zoning codes (p. 2587-2593)

Last year we examined the standards that applies to the 2024 Paris Olympics; worth a second look this year and in anticipation of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles

Beach Volleyball

Equestrian

Rowing

Sailing

Swimming & Diving

Track & Field

We deal with the catalogs of CSA, DNV GL  ISO, IEC, SGS, TIC and TÜV in a separate, international session.

Swimming Pool Dimensions and Construction

Engineering in Sport

Readings / Sport, Culture & Society

National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security

Maths and Sport

A novel smart energy management system in sports stadiums

Athletic Equipment Safety Standards

More:

Category: Recreation and Sport Facilities

Sports Equipment & Surfaces

Student Membership | @ASTMStudentFans

“The National Game” 1889 Arthur Streeton

Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Sport programs, facilities and equipment support one of the most visible and emotionally engaging enterprises in the education communities.   These programs are central to the brand identity of the community and last, but not least, physical activity keeps our young people healthy in body and mind.

ASTM International is one of the first names among the 300-odd ANSI accredited standards setting organizations whose due processes discover and promulgate the standard of care for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of the facilities that support these enterprises.   The parent committee is linked below:

ASTM Committee F08 on Sports Equipment, Playing Surfaces, and Facilities

To join the meeting today contact Joe Koury, Staff Manager for Committee F08, jkoury@astm.org

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While ASTM bibliography is largely product-oriented, there are many titles that set the standard of care for sport enterprises and the accessories to these enterprises.  To identify a few:

ASTM 1487-17 Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use

ASTM F1774  Standard Specification for Climbing and Mountaineering Carabiners

ASTM F2060-00(2011) Standard Guide for Maintaining Cool Season Turfgrasses on Athletic Fields

ASTM F1703-13 Standard Guide for Skating and Ice Hockey Playing Facilities

ASTM F1953-10 Standard Guide for Construction and Maintenance of Grass Tennis Courts

ASTM F1081-09(2015) Standard Specification for Competition Wrestling Mats

ASTM F2950-14 Standard Safety and Performance Specification for Soccer Goals

ASTM F2461-16e1 Standard Practice for Manufacture, Construction, Operation, and Maintenance of Aquatic Play Equipment

When the General Requirements of an athletic facility construction project indicates: “Conform to all applicable standards” then, in the case of an sport facility, the ASTM title is likely the document that defines the standard of care from a product standpoint.  Interoperability of the products in a sport setting are quite another matter.

At the international level, we track action in ISO/TC 83 Sports and other recreational facilities and equipment administered globally by the Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V.   ASTM International is ANSI’s Technical Advisory Group for  this committee.

University of Maine

The ASTM standards development process depends heavily on face-to-face meetings — typically two times per year – in different parts of the United States.   The benefit of this arrangement lies in the quality of discussion among subject matter experts that results produced from face-to-face discussion.  The price to pay for this quality, however, lies in the cost of attendance for the user-interest in the education industry.   Relatively few subject matter experts directly employed by a school district, college or university who are charged with lowering #TotalCostofOwnership can attend the meetings.   Many of the subject matter experts who are in attendance at the ASTM meetings from the education industry tend to be faculty who are retained by manufacturers, insurance, testing laboratories, conformity and compliance interests.  (See our discussion of Incumbent Interests)

That much said, ASTM welcomes subject matter experts on its technical committees (Click here)  We encourage participation by end users from the education industry — many of them in the middle of athletic facility management organization charts.   The parent committee meets twice a year; after which we usually find public review redlines developed during those meetings to hit our radar.  The link to the schedule of face-to-face meetings appears below:

F08 Meetings

Note that the August 2020 cancelled but the November 2020 meeting still appears on the schedule.  It is likely that much of the committee work will be done online.

We are required to review draft ASTM consensus products with some care — owing to copyright restrictions — so we do it interactively online during teleconferences devoted to Sport.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [7-7] [10-32] [13-165] [20-156] 

Category: Sport, Management, Risk Management

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, George Reiher, Richard Robben

Synthetic Turf Guidelines

 

In loco parentis

CLICK IMAGE

 

Ohio

$1.45B “The Swamp” Stadium

Standards Florida

 

Fall Field Sport

Power-Limited Circuits

Today at the usual hour we review best practice literature for the design, construction and operation of Power-Limited Circuits in healthcare facilities.  With our previous tenure on Code Panel 15 of the National Electrical Code (which covers healthcare facilities, primarily) and our recent appointment by IEEE to Code Panel 3 (which covers power limited circuits in all occupancy classes) we set ourselves up to respond to the proposals that will shape the 2029 NEC.   Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

vbvbvbvbvb

If one imagines that three-phase hospital power distribution systems as “arteries” then power limited circuits can be imagined as the “capillaries” that drive hundreds of end use clinical equipment and devices. The analogy captures the hierarchical, physiological structure of hospital electrical systems—much like the human circulatory system—where power flows from high-capacity trunks to precision, low-risk endpoints.

Three-Phase Systems: The Arteries and Veins

Three-phase hospital power distribution systems function as the arteries and veins: they are the robust, high-volume “vascular” network. Incoming utility power (or on-site generators) arrives as three-phase medium voltage, stepped down through transformers and switchgear into the Essential Electrical System (EES). This backbone—normal power, life-safety, critical, and equipment branches—delivers bulk kilowatts across the facility to major loads: HVAC, lighting, elevators, imaging suites, and operating-room receptacles. Like arteries, these feeders carry large currents over long distances with minimal loss; like veins, they return current safely while maintaining redundancy and selective coordination to keep the “body” (hospital) alive during outages.

Power-Limited Circuits: The Capillaries

Power-limited circuits (NEC Article 725/724 Class 2 and Class 3) are the capillaries. They are the countless, tiny, energy-restricted final branches that directly “perfuse” end-use clinical devices. These circuits are deliberately power-limited—typically ≤30 V and ≤100 VA—to prevent fire, shock, or interference in patient-care spaces. They supply nurse-call systems, bedside monitors, infusion-pump controls, alarm signaling, data links, and low-voltage sensors. Just as capillaries exchange oxygen and nutrients cell-by-cell without flooding tissue, power-limited circuits deliver only the precise, safe wattage needed by sensitive electronics while isolating them from the high-energy main distribution. Their thin insulation, separation rules, and inherent current-limiting transformers mirror the delicate walls of capillaries.

The comparison illuminates why hospitals cannot rely solely on heavy three-phase feeders: without these microscopic “capillaries,” clinical devices would either lack power or be exposed to dangerous fault energies. The analogy shows how the entire system maintains life—bulk transport for infrastructure, micro-delivery for patient care—while enforcing safety through progressive limitation. In essence, the capillaries make the circulatory system functional at the point of use.

Solar (Summer)

Sie strahlt vor Freude über ihre Auszeichnung – TH-Alumna Melanie Klaus. Für ihre Bachelorarbeit im Bereich Erneuerbare Energien wurde sie vom Solarenergieförderverein Bayern geehrt. In ihrer Bachelorarbeit im Studiengang Elektro- und Informationstechnik untersuchte sie das Zusammenspiel von Wind- und Solarenergie und den Nutzen, der sich hieraus für die regenerative Energieerzeugung erzielen lässt. Untersucht wurde also die Nutzung der natürlichen Kombination von Wind und Sonne für die Energieerzeugung. Um die Rentabilität dieser Einspeisekombination zu ermitteln, hat Melanie Klaus ein Software-Tool entwickelt, welches zur Planung und Simulation abgestimmter Photovoltaik-Wind-Kombinationen dient und bereits für die Errichtung einer Photovoltaik-Anlage zu einem Windpark eingesetzt wird.

Starting 2023 we separated our coverage of solar energy standards from our standing Electrical and Energy colloquia and placed emphasis on seasonal life cycle returns.   We start with the following titles

IEC TC 82 Solar photovoltaic energy systems

Underwriters Laboratories 1703 PV Module Certification

ASTM E772 Standard Terminology of Solar Energy Conversion

IEEE 1562 Guide for Array and Battery Sizing in Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Systems

NEMA Solar Photovoltaic Council

NECA 412 Standard for Installing and Maintaining Photovoltaic Power Systems

NFPA 70 Articles 690-691

NFPA 70 Articles 705 & 855

International Code Council Section 1607 Photovoltaic panels or modules

ASHRAE International: 90.1 Building Energy Code & 189.1 Green Energy Code

Time permitting: Example design specification and construction contract.

"Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another" - G.K. Chesterton

Other standards developers and publishers are also present in this domain but this list is where we will start given that we only have an hour.   Join us today at 16:00 with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Readings:

What are the hidden costs of solar panels?

Do We Have Enough Silver, Copper, And Other Materials To Keep Up With The Growth Of Solar?

Mining Raw Materials for Solar Panels: Problems and Solutions

Grid-Connected Microgrid Battery Energy Storage Systems

Reaction: June 18 Open Meeting

FERC HOME

Presentation & Report | The 2026 Summer Energy Market and Electric Reliability Assessment

 

The Commission voted on a series of mostly consent agenda items focused on electric reliability, market rules, compliance, infrastructure, and related matters.  Some of them are relevant to large, sometimes privatized, campus power systems:

Major initiative to accelerate large-load interconnections. The Commission’s headline action was the issuance of six “show cause” orders directing every jurisdictional RTO/ISO (except Texas/ERCOT) to justify or reform how they connect very large electric loads, particularly AI data centers. The objective is to reduce delays while protecting grid reliability and ensuring that costs are appropriately assigned.

Large customers expected to bear infrastructure costs. FERC made clear that new large loads should generally pay for the transmission and distribution upgrades needed to serve them, rather than shifting those costs onto existing retail customers. This principle is expected to influence future tariff filings nationwide

Encouragement of customer-owned generation. The Commission encouraged tariff structures that would allow large customers to supply some or all of their own electricity—such as on-site generation, microgrids, or other behind-the-meter resources—to reduce impacts on the bulk power system.

MISO emergency demand-resource improvements. The Commission conditionally accepted tariff revisions from MISO that improve the visibility, dispatch, and operation of demand-side resources during grid emergencies beginning with the 2028–2029 planning year. This strengthens reliability during extreme system conditions.

A clear policy shift toward speed-to-power. The June meeting signaled perhaps the strongest policy emphasis in years on rapidly connecting new electric demand while maintaining reliability. The Commission characterized the integration of very large loads—especially AI-related facilities—as a national priority and indicated that existing interconnection practices may no longer be adequate

For universities, research campuses, hospitals, semiconductor manufacturers, and data center developers, the June 2026 meeting represents a significant shift in federal policy. Rather than treating large-load requests as exceptional cases, FERC is moving toward standardized, faster interconnection procedures coupled with clearer cost-allocation rules. Institutions planning major campus expansions or new energy-intensive facilities should monitor the forthcoming tariff revisions from their regional transmission organizations, as these changes could substantially affect project schedules, interconnection costs, and opportunities to incorporate on-site generation or microgrids.

Power transformers and distribution transformers will face supply deficits of 30% and 10% in 2025

 

March 19, 2026

Key Reliability & Cybersecurity Actions. FERC approved important updates to Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Reliability Standards. These included modernized rules for virtualization (allowing secure use of virtual machines), enhanced security management controls for low-impact cyber systems (CIP-003-11), and refinements to the definition of “control center” to better protect high-risk assets. The changes aim to strengthen the bulk-power system against rising cyber threats and extreme weather while reducing unnecessary administrative burdens.

Electric Rate and Complaint Resolutions. The Commission resolved several long-running rate complaints, including setting a base return on equity (ROE) of 9.57% for New England Transmission Owners. It addressed complaints involving spot market sales exceeding price caps in the WECC region and cost allocation issues in MISO related to DOE emergency orders. Several tariff revisions and generator interconnection filings were also accepted.

Other Actions. FERC modernized Electric Quarterly Report (EQR) filing requirements, authorized multiple asset transactions and dispositions, and approved several natural gas pipeline, storage, and abandonment projects. A presentation on the 2025 State of the Markets Report was also delivered.

FERC’s involvement in CHP plants at universities and hospitals depends on and how the facility interacts with the bulk electric power system and wholesale markets. In many cases, FERC’s role is indirect—but it can become significant under certain conditions.  We cover this topic separately in our periodic US Department of Energy Combined Heat & Power eCATALOG

Next Open Meeting: May 21.  Keep in mind that much “bandwidth” is devoted to administrative issues; the technical specifics of primary interest to us referenced in case dockets that are referenced here:  FERC Online

The current full complement of five FERC commissioners is relatively new as of December 23, 2025. The two most recent additions — Chairman Laura V. Swett (term expiring June 30, 2030) and Commissioner David A. LaCerte (term expiring June 30, 2026) — were confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 7, 2025.
Ω
This restored FERC to its full five members after prior vacancies and transitions earlier in the year. The other commissioners (David Rosner, Lindsay S. See, and Judy W. Chang) have been in place since mid-2024 or earlier, but the current lineup only fully formed about two and a half months ago.
Ω
This followed changes tied to the new administration, including shifts in majority and leadership.
January 22.  Issues of interest discussed at the FERC Open Meeting on January 22, 2026, centered primarily on electric sector matters related to generator interconnection reforms, expedited processes for resource adequacy.  Our interest lies in the effect of FERC action will have on the utility costs of educational settlements which, of course, practically involves all utilities and how those decisions are reflected in state tariffs.
One issue of particular interest for Michigan: Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) Expedited Resource Addition Study (ERAS) process (Docket No. ER25-2454-002): The Commission addressed arguments on rehearing and sustained its prior July 21, 2025, order approving MISO’s ERAS framework. This provides an expedited interconnection study process for generation projects addressing urgent near-term resource adequacy and reliability needs in the MISO region.  Discussions involved balancing reliability concerns (e.g., load growth, resource shortfalls) against claims of undue discrimination or preference in interconnection queuing, as raised by public interest groups.  We will see these conclusions reflected in Michigan Public Service Commission action.Other agenda elements likely included routine administrative matters (e.g., A-1 Agency Administrative Matters, A-2 Customer Matters/Reliability/Security/Market Operations) and consent items (often non-controversial electric, gas, hydro, or certificate matters voted en bloc without discussion).
No major presentations were noted, and the meeting focused on these reliability/interconnection and market integrity issues amid broader grid challenges like queue backlogs, rapid load growth, and transitioning resources.The Q&A afterward involved energy media, with emphasis by Laura V. Swett on reliability concerns ahead of likely winter storms. The next public open meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 19th. 

December 18. The public meetings are dominated by administrative procedures and mutual admiration.  Technical issues that require in-depth, expert-level understanding of complex laws, rules, guidelines, and precedents beyond surface-level awareness appear deeper into the FERC website.  There you will generally find:

  • Nuanced interpretation of statutes and agency decisions
  • Awareness of historical context and evolving policies
  • Insight into how rules interact with technical, economic, and operational realities
  • Impacts of changes and navigate compliance strategically

As interest and time allows we can pick through technical specifics regarding FERC oversight of interstate electricity with the IEEE colleagues.

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Whats On a Utility Pole

Midwest Energy Communications: What’s On a Utility Pole?

 

 

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