Town of Strafford NROC Projects

The three Strafford committees formed through the work with the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition in 2004 and supported by the grant award from the New Hampshire Estuaries Project have succeeded in furthering land protection, water quality protection, and managing growth here in Strafford. The original NROC meetings brought many new volunteer citizens into the process, but even their enthusiasm and willingness to work could not have earned these results without the financial support of the NHEP grant award. Hours of letter writing and personal contact with landowners by the volunteers of the Land Protection Group have raised awareness of the need for land protection and the ways it can be accomplished. The previous experience of the Strafford Conservation Commission in working with a landowner who was donating an easement showed us that the legal and logistical work involved is daunting. The NHEP grant allowed the land Protection Group to contract the professional services of Dan Kern of Bear-Paw Regional Greenways. His work streamlined the process for the landowners, and the Land Protection Group was able to celebrate the closing of two donated easements in 2006. Several other landowners have begun the process to protect their lands, and the Land Protection Group will continue its volunteer work. The Water Quality Group was pleased to have more than a dozen volunteers willing to focus on the need for tributary monitoring as a way to gauge and protect Bow Lake’s water quality. Testing supplies from the grant funds were essential. The sample gathering carried out at two-week intervals took place at a critical time for Bow Lake studies. Both Strafford and Northwood were in a period of legal moratorium on new development, and tributary monitoring at this time provides unique baseline data. It was not only useful in the establishment of Strafford’s Wetlands Overlay District ordinance, but will be used in future Bow Lake studies. After the Managed Growth Committee spent its time discovering gaps between the goals of the 2002 Strafford Master Plan and the present Strafford ordinances, Strafford Regional Planning Commission members helped with research for ordinances that had worked in other towns. The grant funds allowed the Committee to keep the public involved in the process and aware of the slate of proposed new ordinances that were coming up on the 2006 ballot. The blanket mailing to every Strafford address and the public meeting that followed are largely responsible for the successful passage of three new growth control ordinances. The Committee continued its work and has new measures to present to the town in 2007. The impetus and organization from NROC, and the financial support from NHEP have been a great gift to the Town of Strafford. Our thanks will be evident in the continued work and progress we make in protecting our land and water and the very nature of our town

Using infrared thermography for monitoring thermal efficiency of buildings - case studies from Nottingham Trent University

Global warming and the continuous increase of energy cost are driving the need for reducing energy consumption. Buildings are responsible for approximately 50% of the UK energy consumption. Major part of this consumption is for heating and air conditioning of buildings. Nottingham Trent University is a leading university in the UK in relation to improving the performance of its buildings in order to improve insulation and energy consumption. The experimental case studies presented in this paper highlights some of the new measures taken to reduce energy consumption and enhance the sustainability of the University buildings. Infrared thermography is used to evaluate insulation measures and energy performance. The results indicate that enhanced insulation combined with modern sustainable technologies can significantly reduce energy consumption

Dietary patterns, insulin sensitivity and inflammation in older adults.

Background/objectivesSeveral studies have linked dietary patterns to insulin sensitivity and systemic inflammation, which affect risk of multiple chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary patterns of a cohort of older adults, and to examine relationships of dietary patterns with markers of insulin sensitivity and systemic inflammation.Subjects/methodsThe Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) Study is a prospective cohort study of 3075 older adults. In Health ABC, multiple indicators of glucose metabolism and systemic inflammation were assessed. Food intake was estimated with a modified Block food frequency questionnaire. In this study, dietary patterns of 1751 participants with complete data were derived by cluster analysis.ResultsSix clusters were identified, including a 'healthy foods' cluster, characterized by higher intake of low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish and vegetables. In the main analysis, the 'healthy foods' cluster had significantly lower fasting insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance values than the 'breakfast cereal' and 'high-fat dairy products' clusters, and lower fasting glucose than the 'high-fat dairy products' cluster (P≤0.05). No differences were found in 2-h glucose. With respect to inflammation, the 'healthy foods' cluster had lower interleukin-6 than the 'sweets and desserts' and 'high-fat dairy products' clusters, and no differences were seen in C-reactive protein or tumor necrosis factor-α.ConclusionsA dietary pattern high in low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish and vegetables may be associated with greater insulin sensitivity and lower systemic inflammation in older adults

Orbital Fluctuation-Induced Triplet Superconductivity : Mechanism of Superconductivity in Sr2RuO4{\rm Sr}_{2}{\rm RuO}_{4}

The mechanism of superconductivity in ${\rm Sr}_{2}{\rm RuO}_{4}$ is studied using a degenerate Hubbard model within the weak coupling theory. When the system approaches the orbital instability which is realized due to increasing the on-site Coulomb interaction between the electrons in the different orbitals, it is shown that the triplet superconductivity appears. This superconducting mechanism is only available in orbitally degenerate systems with multiple Fermi surfaces.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Callus Induction and Plant Regeneration of Commercial Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars

Manipulation of agronomic traits at the cellular and molecular levels offers an efficient approach to enhance conventional breeding efforts for rice improvement. Plant regeneration protocols, required for biotechnological applications, have not yet been developed for a number of important rice cultivars. This study was conducted to establish a system for plant regeneration of elite rice cultivars adapted to the southern U.S.A. Callus was induced from dehusked grains of cultivars Alan, Katy, and LaGrue, on MS media containing 0.5, 2, and 4 mg L-1 2,4-D, with 0.5 mg L-1 kinetin or without kinetin. Plant regeneration was accomplished by transferring the callus to a hormone-free medium. Callus proliferation was influenced by 2,4-D, kinetin, and genotype in two-way interactions. The effects of these factors on embryogenesis and rhizogenesis was expressed in a three-way interaction. Depending upon the genotype up to 50% plant regeneration was obtained. In most cases treatments consisting of 0.5 to 2 mg L-1 2,4-D plus 0.5 mg L-1 kinetin produced the best callus proliferations with the highest embryogenic capacity. Regenerants grew to maturity in soil and produced viable seeds. The establishment of this regeneration system is essential for the development of a genetic transformation system for the aforementioned commercial rice cultivars

Egg shape changes at the theropod–bird transition, and a morphometric study of amniote eggs

The eggs of amniotes exhibit a remarkable variety of shapes, from spherical to elongate and from symmetrical to asymmetrical. We examine eggshell geometry in a diverse sample of fossil and living amniotes using geometric morphometrics and linear measurements. Our goal is to quantify patterns of morphospace occupation and shape variation in the eggs of recent through to Mesozoic birds (neornithe plus non-neornithe avialans), as well as in eggs attributed to non-avialan theropods. In most amniotes, eggs show significant deviation from sphericity, but departure from symmetry around the equatorial axis is mostly confined to theropods and birds. Mesozoic bird eggs differ significantly from extant bird eggs, but extinct Cenozoic bird eggs do not. This suggests that the range of egg shapes in extant birds had already been attained in the Cenozoic. We conclude with a discussion of possible biological factors imparting variation to egg shapes during their formation in the oviduct

Recovery of Crystallographic Texture in Remineralized Dental Enamel

Dental caries is the most prevalent disease encountered by people of all ages around the world. Chemical changes occurring in the oral environment during the caries process alter the crystallography and microstructure of dental enamel resulting in loss of mechanical function. Little is known about the crystallographic effects of demineralization and remineralization. The motivation for this study was to develop understanding of the caries process at the crystallographic level in order to contribute towards a long term solution. In this study synchrotron X-ray diffraction combined with scanning electron microscopy and scanning microradiography have been used to correlate enamel crystallography, microstructure and mineral concentration respectively in enamel affected by natural caries and following artificial demineralization and remineralization regimes. In particular, the extent of destruction and re-formation of this complex structure has been measured. 2D diffraction patterns collected at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility were used to quantify changes in the preferred orientation (crystallographic texture) and position of the (002) Bragg reflection within selected regions of interest in each tooth slice, and then correlated with the microstructure and local mineral mass. The results revealed that caries and artificial demineralization cause a large reduction in crystallographic texture which is coupled with the loss of mineral mass. Remineralization restores the texture to the original level seen in healthy enamel and restores mineral density. The results also showed that remineralization promotes ordered formation of new crystallites and growth of pre-existin

Evaluating the Antecedents of the Technology Acceptance Model in Saudi Arabia

Antecedents of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) have been the focus of research on user intentions toward new technology in developed countries for years. Findings from these studies can potentially reveal new methods to improve employee acceptance and use of new systems. The present study investigates whether the antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use also apply in developing countries, specifically in Saudi Arabia. Findings indicate that the antecedents of TAM do, in fact, apply in Saudi Arabia, and therefore also have implications for businesses in developing countries to improve the user acceptance and use of new technologies