Energy consumption in the United States’ residential sector has been marked by a steady growth over the past few decades, in spite of the implementation of several energy efficiency policies. To develop effective energy policies for the residential sector, it is of utmost importance to study the various factors affecting residential energy consumption. Earlier studies have identified and classified various individual factors responsible for the increment in household energy consumption, and have also analyzed the effect of socio-economic factors such as standard-of-living and income on overall household energy consumption. This research study identifies the socio-economic factors affecting household energy consumption. Potential reasons for the variation in residential energy efficiency consumption have been investigated in previous studies that only represent viewpoints of investigators analyzing specific problems. Additionally, a comprehensive review of literature failed to reveal existing research that had systematically explored the interdependencies among the various factors that could possibly affect residential energy consumption to give an overall perspective of these factors. Widely used academic and scholarly scientific databases were employed by two independent investigators to search for original research investigations. A total of more than 200 research studies were found by the investigators, with almost ninety percent agreement between the two investigators. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this research study the authors systematically reviewed 51 prominent research studies to create a comprehensive list of factors affecting residential energy consumption. The results are discussed in this review.

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In deep sub-micron VLSI chips, when several transistors in physical proximity switch simultaneously, a substantial power supply drop, known as droop, may occur because of concurrent load on a via of the power grid. As a result of lower supply voltage, transistors may slow down. Such timing faults are termed as droop faults. Modeling of droop faults and understanding their effects on the functionality and timing behavior of the circuit are yet to be fully understood. In this paper, a new model for droop faults is proposed. A simple ATPGbased procedure for stuck-at faults has been adapted to test droop faults. For validation of the methodology in combinational circuits, a set of appropriate clusters of gates is selected to cover potential droop-prone regions in a circuit. Experimental results on ISCAS-85 benchmark circuits reveal that a very high droop fault coverage can be obtained by a short sequence of test vectors.

Objective:The objective of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of migraine and headache symptoms in a national sample of US office employees. Also, we explored the association of headache symptoms with indoor environmental parameters of the work place.Background:Sick building syndrome (SBS), which includes headache, is a common global phenomenon, but the underlying environmental cause is uncertain.Materials and Methods:We used data from the 1994–1998 US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Building Assessment and Survey Evaluation, a cross-sectional study of workers employed in 100 public and private office buildings across 25 states. The study used a self-administered questionnaire to assess headache frequency and prevalence of self-reported physician-diagnosed (SRPD) migraine. Indoor environmental parameters (IEP) were collected per EPA protocol from each building over a 1-week period and included carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, temperature, relative humidity, particulate matter, volatile organic compound, illuminance, and sound level. The standards of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers were used to categorize IEP as either within- or out-of-comfort range for human dwelling. These limits delineate whether a parameter value is safe for human dwelling. Out-of-comfort range IEPs are associated with SBS and other human diseases. SRPD migraine and headache frequency were the primary outcome measures of the study. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed for the purpose of assessing the association between the outcome variable and IEPs.Results:Of the 4326 participants, 66% were females and 60% were between 30 and 49 years. Headache frequency during the last 4 weeks was as follows: None in 31%, 1–3 days in 38%, 1–3 days per week in 18%, and every or almost every workday in 8%. Females had higher SRPD migraine prevalence compared to males (27% vs. 11%, P<0.001) and were more likely to report any headache in the last month compared to males (75% vs. 53%, P<0.001). Odds of SRPD migraine were higher (P<0.05) for those exposed to IEP out-of-comfort range, and odds of exposure to out-of-comfort range IEPs were higher in groups who reported higher headache frequencies.Conclusions:Migraine diagnosis and elevated headache frequency are associated with an uncomfortable indoor environment. Periodic assessments and adjustments of IEP may have a beneficial impact on employees who are vulnerable to SBS.