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The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) pursues a broad physics program at Fermilab's Tevatron collider. Between Run II commissioning in early 2001 and the end of operations in September 2011, the Tevatron delivered 12 fb-1 of integrated luminosity of pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV. The physics at CDF includes precise measurements of the masses of the top quark and W boson, measurement of CP violation and Bs mixing, and searches for Higgs bosons and new physics signatures, all of which require heavy flavor tagging with large charged particle tracking acceptance. To realize these goals, in 2001 CDF installed eight layers of silicon microstrip detectors around its interaction region. These detectors were designed for 2-5 years of operation, radiation doses up to 2 Mrad (0.02 Gy), and were expected to be replaced in 2004. The sensors were not replaced, and the Tevatron run was extended for several years beyond its design, exposing the sensors and electronics to much higher radiation doses than anticipated. In this paper we describe the operational challenges encountered over the past 10 years of running the CDF silicon detectors, the preventive measures undertaken, and the improvements made along the way to ensure their optimal performance for collecting high quality physics data. In addition, we describe the quantities and methods used to monitor radiation damage in the sensors for optimal performance and summarize the detector performance quantities important to CDF's physics program, including vertex resolution, heavy flavor tagging, and silicon vertex trigger performance. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The efficient use of reversible thermal effects in magnetocaloric, electrocaloric, and elastocaloric materials is a promising avenue that can lead to a substantially increased efficiency of refrigeration and heat pumping devices, most importantly, those used in household and commercial cooling applications near ambient temperature. A proliferation in caloric material research has resulted in a wide array of materials where only the isothermal change in entropy in response to a handful of different field strengths over a limited range of temperatures has been evaluated and reported. Given the abundance of such data, there is a clear need for a simple and reliable figure of merit enabling fast screening and down-selection to justify further detailed characterization of those material systems that hold the greatest promise. Based on the analysis of several well-known materials that exhibit vastly different magnetocaloric effects, the Temperature averaged Entropy Change is introduced as a suitable early indicator of the material’s utility for magnetocaloric cooling applications, and its adoption by the caloric community is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach to the design of active window shades is developed to control the direct solar gain through a window. Using simple actuation hardware and sensors, a control strategy is presented that automatically adjusts window shades to save HVAC energy by controlling direct solar radiation passing through a window. The control algorithm is based on a simple approach that admits direct light in the winter and blocks the direct light in the summer, while providing shade adjustment that affords maximum visibility through the window. Cloudy skies or indirect sun result in horizontal placement of the shades, and the shades close at night. The implementation uses two thin-film photovoltaic cells as sensors and a control algorithm that is independent of the window orientation, latitude, or solar time, so that it operates properly in any installation location. Preliminary analytic and test results show significant energy savings when the automatic window shades are compared with a window without shades, and with a window outfitted with fixed horizontal shades.