Estimating Water Footprint and Water Economic Values in the Southeastern U.S.

Population growth and climate change have brought water disputes to the southeastern United States. To achieve sustainable water use of the region’s water resources and to alleviate future water stress, it is important to determine 1) current water quantity used to support regional economic activities, and 2) the economic value of water in the southeastern U.S. This thesis has three objectives: 1) build a Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) model to describe multiregional transactions for the following analyses; 2) conduct a water footprint analysis to evaluate how much water use is required for meeting changes in final demand of specific region and economic sectors; 3) set up an MRIO Linear Programming (MRIO-LP) to determine water use demand curves for the southeastern U.S. The water footprint analysis indicates that water requirements embedded in the production of a good varies across study region. The MRIO-LP analysis reveals that economic transactions between regions have a significant impact on the water used to meet regional economic demand. The shadow value of water is higher when multi-regional transactions are introduced into the LP model. In general, the southeastern U.S. economy is less likely to experience water stress until the water availability decrease to 60% of the 2010 USGS level of 82,825,409 acre feet. At this level, the aggregated industry price for water in the southeastern U.S. ranges between 4,041 $/ac.ft. to 5,614$/ac.ft., depending on assumptions pertaining to inter-regional transactions

Conducting metal oxide materials for printed electronics

Printed electronics as a manufacturing process has many advantages, mainly, it allows for the high throughput rapid fabrication of thin, flexible electronic components with minimal waste. There are many printing processes that can be utilised for printing electronics and although each process can differ vastly, the materials currently used in these processes are generally the same, silver and carbon. However, to develop printing as a more mainstream manufacturing method for electronics, a wider variety of materials are required which can provide better stability and longevity of components, new functionality for printed applications and allow for in-situ processing and tuning of components. Conducting metal oxides are a good candidate for integrating into printed electronics processes, these materials are typically semiconductors, they have bandgaps, and properties can be altered via altering the band gap. They are also oxides, so they cannot oxidise further and therefore atmospheric damage is reduced compared to pure metals. They can also be fabricated into a wide range of particle morphologies, all with advantages in different fields and electronic applications. Therefore, the ability to print these materials is valuable to the field. In this thesis, the integration of conducting metal oxide electro-ceramic materials into the field of printed electronics has been explored. This was performed through the completion of five research objectives including, the selection of appropriate materials for the research, the formulation of conductive inks with the materials, the investigation of post-processing techniques for printed films and further research into passive component fabrication and sensor applications. Firstly, following an extensive literature review, four materials were selected including three doped zinc oxide materials synthesised via different methods. The fourth material is commercially sourced indium tin oxide (ITO). A nitrocellulose vehicle was determined to be the most compatible with the oxides and selected for ink formulation. Inks were then formulated with all four materials, with optical and electrical properties analysed. Gallium doped Zinc Oxide (GZO) and ITO were selected for further investigation based on the excellent conductivity of the indium tin oxide (57.77Ω□-1) and the highly transparent optical properties of the gallium doped zinc oxide (>84% transmittance). Laser processing was selected as a post processing method. It was found that the laser processing dramatically increased conductivity. The GZO improving from a non-conductive film to 10.21% of bulk conductivity. The ITO improved from 3.46% to 40.47% of the bulk conductivity. It was also found that the laser processing invoked a carbothermal reduction process allowing for a rapid manufacturing process for converting spherical particles into useful nanoparticle morphologies (nanorods, nanowires etc). Following this, resistive and capacitive applications involving laser processing and conventionally heat-treated conductive oxide inks were developed. Combining the new materials and manufacturing processes, tuneable printed resistors with a tuning range of 50 to 20M could be fabricated. All metal oxide, ITO based capacitors were also fabricated and characterised. These were then developed into humidity sensors which provided excellent humidity sensing properties, showing linearity between 5 and 95% relative humidity (RH) and sensitivities of up to 7.76pF/RH%, demonstrating higher performance than commercial equivalents (0.2 – 0.5pF/RH%). In conclusion, this work provides a breakthrough for conductive metal oxide materials research and its place in Printed Electronics research by providing insight into the processes required to make these materials conduct and by developing useful manufacturing methods, post processing techniques and applications.</div

Bonneville International v. Utah State Tax Commission : Addenda

ADDENDUM TO BRIEF OF PETITIONER Petition for Review of the Final Order of the Utah State Tax Commissio

The value of community pharmacy incident reporting in optimising the safety and quality use of medicines

Medication safety has emerged as a healthcare priority with the launch of the World Health Organization’s third global patient safety challenge. Understanding the complex interplay between human and system factors that potentiate medication incidents can illuminate improvement opportunities in organisational safeguards and safe medication practices. This thesis aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate systematic incident reporting system (IRS) to identify, characterise and address risks to medication safety and quality use of medicines (QUM) in primary care. The study was conducted in 30-community pharmacies in Sydney, Australia, through a confidential and anonymous IRS called QUMwatch. The study used the Advanced Incident Management System (AIMS) taxonomy, which is a hierarchical classification system based on error theory. Analysis of 1,013 incident reports collected over 30 months, identified medication incidents (MIs) that affected patients over 65 years old, the prescribing stage, and medicines acting on the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Human, task, and organisational factors contributed to MIs, particularly healthcare providers' cognitive errors, communication problems, poor risk management, and safety culture. Factors that facilitated error recovery included individual attributes, appropriate intervention, effective communication, and the use of standardised protocols. Remedial actions included changes in care plans, dosages, reviews of medicines, and medicine cessation. The study evaluated the QUMwatch program's tools and methods using a mixed-methods approach and found that 16 out of 20 variables on the data collection form had over 90% complete data, and data consistency was high. Anonymity was the preferred method of reporting. The stimulatory package significantly raised the reporting rate from a baseline average of 32.4 to 77.3 reports/month (p < .001). The AIMS taxonomy for MIs had substantial validity for high-order medication processes for the Australian community pharmacy context. The study demonstrated the feasibility of a well-designed IRS in community pharmacy to identify MIs and to generate safety lessons and recommendations

A machine learning taxonomic classifier for science publications

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engineering and Management of Information SystemsThe evolution in scientific production, associated with the growing interdomain collaboration of knowledge and the increasing co-authorship of scientific works remains supported by processes of manual, highly subjective classification, subject to misinterpretation. The very taxonomy on which this same classification process is based is not consensual, with governmental organizations resorting to taxonomies that do not keep up with changes in scientific areas, and indexers / repositories that seek to keep up with those changes. We find a reality distinct from what is expected and that the domains where scientific work is recorded can easily be misrepresentative of the work itself. The taxonomy applied today by governmental bodies, such as the one that regulates scientific production in Portugal, is not enough, is limiting, and promotes classification in areas close to the desired, therefore with great potential for error. An automatic classification process based on machine learning algorithms presents itself as a possible solution to the subjectivity problem in classification, and while it does not solve the issue of taxonomy mismatch this work shows this possibility with proved results. In this work, we propose a classification taxonomy, as well as we develop a process based on machine learning algorithms to solve the classification problem. We also present a set of directions for future work for an increasingly representative classification of evolution in science, which is not intended as airtight, but flexible and perhaps increasingly based on phenomena and not just disciplines.A evolução na produção de ciência, associada à crescente colaboração interdomínios do conhecimento e à também crescente coautoria de trabalhos permanece suportada por processos de classificação manual, subjetiva e sujeita a interpretações erradas. A própria taxonomia na qual assenta esse mesmo processo de classificação não é consensual, com organismos estatais a recorrerem a taxonomias que não acompanham as alterações nas áreas científicas, e indexadores/repositórios que procuram acompanhar essas mesmas alterações. Verificamos uma realidade distinta do espectável e que os domínios onde são registados os trabalhos científicos podem facilmente estar desenquadrados. A taxonomia hoje aplicada pelos organismos governamentais, como o caso do organismo que regulamenta a produção científica em Portugal, não é suficiente, é limitadora, e promove a classificação em domínios aproximados do desejado, logo com grande potencial para erro. Um processo de classificação automática com base em algoritmos de machine learning apresenta-se como uma possível solução para o problema da subjetividade na classificação, e embora não resolva a questão do desenquadramento da taxonomia utilizada, é apresentada neste trabalho como uma possibilidade comprovada. Neste trabalho propomos uma taxonomia de classificação, bem como nós desenvolvemos um processo baseado em machine learning algoritmos para resolver o problema de classificação. Apresentamos ainda um conjunto de direções para trabalhos futuros para uma classificação cada vez mais representativa da evolução nas ciências, que não pretende ser hermética, mas flexível e talvez cada vez mais baseada em fenómenos e não apenas em disciplinas

Index to NASA Tech Briefs, 1974

The following information was given for 1974: (1) abstracts of reports dealing with new technology derived from the research and development activities of NASA or the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, arranged by subjects: electronics/electrical, electronics/electrical systems, physical sciences, materials/chemistry, life sciences, mechanics, machines, equipment and tools, fabrication technology, and computer programs, (2) indexes for the above documents: subject, personal author, originating center

Waste Material Recycling in the Circular Economy

This book highlights current challenges and developments in waste material recycling in the framework of a circular economy. The increase in the standard of living has resulted in the large consumption of several materials, mainly polymers. Therefore the problem of waste recycling, specifically polymer recycling, in an environmentally friendly way is more urgent than ever. Nowadays, more specialized recycling methods are required to manage a wide variety of wastes. Over fourteen chapters in three sections, this book addresses such topics as chemical recycling techniques, recycling of polyethylene, denim production and recycling, valorization of waste materials, urban mining, the circular economy, and much more