Smart Grids in the City: Splintering Urbanism in a Smart Urban Future

This thesis examines how the emergence of smart grids is changing urban development practices and shifting the power relations between the government, private industry and end consumers. The research was undertaken as part of the Customer Led Network Revolution – a UK smart grid research project investigating a shift towards a low carbon economy. This thesis is just one outcome of the project and examines the ways in which smart grids are being produced internationally across a variety of different contexts, conducted with qualitative research with the aim to understand the implications for public responses to new energy technologies. The study first surveyed the development of smart grids projects internationally before selecting the case of the Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas, to examine the drivers and barriers to the development of smart grids in detail. Drawing on the concepts of splintering urbanism and using the literature of large technical systems, the thesis argues that there are three critical dynamics to the emergence of the smart grid in Austin – the energy discourse that allows a smart grid to emerge; state backing of the project for economic development purposes; and changes in urban planning structures to facilitate smart growth. This study suggests that the growth of smart grids can be tailored to benefit a wide variety of stakeholders, but could “splinter” urban environments with potential risks for rising inequality. The research offers a valuable contribution to how smart grids can be produced in the UK and how they should be managed

Appreciating the Strengths and Weaknesses of Transthoracic Echocardiography in Hemodynamic Assessments

Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is becoming the choice of hemodynamic assessment tool in many intensive care units. With an ever increasing number of training programs available worldwide, learning the skills to perform TTE is no longer a limiting factor. Instead, the future emphasis will be shifted to teach the users how to recognize measurement errors and artefacts (internal validity), to realize the limitations of TTE in various applications, and finally how to apply the information to the patient in question (external validity). This paper aims to achieve these objectives in a common area of TTE application—hemodynamic assessments. We explore the strengths and weaknesses of TTE in such assessments in this paper. Various methods of hemodynamic assessments, such as cardiac output measurements, estimation of preload, and assessment of fluid responsiveness, will be discussed

Cardiac biomarkers in the intensive care unit

Cardiac biomarkers (CB) were first developed for assisting the diagnosis of cardiac events, especially acute myocardial infarction. The discoveries of other CB, the better understanding of cardiac disease process and the advancement in detection technology has pushed the applications of CB beyond the 'diagnosis' boundary. Not only the measurements of CB are more sensitive, the applications have now covered staging of cardiac disease, timing of cardiac events and prognostication. Further, CB have made their way to the intensive care setting where their uses are not just confined to cardiac related areas. With the better understanding of the CB properties, CB can now help detecting various acute processes such as pulmonary embolism, sepsis-related myocardial depression, acute heart failure, renal failure and acute lung injury. This article discusses the properties and the uses of common CB, with special reference to the intensive care setting. The potential utility of "multimarkers" approach and microRNA as the future CB are also briefly discussed

New and Revised Llandovery (Early Silurian) Rugose Corals from Central Western New South Wales

Revision of some of the early Silurian rugose coral faunas from central western New South Wales and study of additional new collections warrants the introduction of a number of new taxa and some previous generic assignments need to be updated. The new cystiphyllinid genus Gephyrelasma  McLean is proposed, comprising type species  Dentilasma ramosum  McLean and  G. stevensi  McLean sp. nov. The new kodonophyllid genus  Vitiliphyllum   McLean, with type species  V. jenkinsi   McLean sp. nov., and the new arachnophyllid genus  Latomiphyllum  McLean, with type species  Arachnophyllum  ?  epistomoides  Etheridge, are introduced. Additional new species include the tryplasmatids  Aphyllum ulahense  McLean and  A. picketti  McLean, as well as the ptychophyllinid  Ptychophyllum sutorense  McLean.  Grewingkia neumani   McLean is now regarded as a probable representative of the kodonophyllid  Cyatholasma  Ivanovskiy, while  Dentilasma honorabile  Ivanovskiy sensu McLean is now only tentatively assigned to that species. Since the original studies of the coral faunas, there has been considerable revision of the lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the relevant sequences. The most current interpretations are reviewed and summarized here

Bench-to-bedside review: The value of cardiac biomarkers in the intensive care patient

The use of cardiac biomarkers in the intensive care setting is gaining increasing popularity. There are several reasons for this increase: there is now the facility for point-of-care biomarker measurement providing a rapid diagnosis; biomarkers can be used as prognostic tools; biomarkers can be used to guide therapy; and, compared with other methods such as echocardiography, the assays are easier and much more affordable. Two important characteristics of the ideal biomarker are disease specificity and a linear relationship between the serum concentration and disease severity. These characteristics are not present, however, in the majority of biomarkers for cardiac dysfunction currently available. Those clinically useful cardiac biomarkers, which naturally received the most attention, such as troponins and B-type natriuretic peptide, are not as specific as was originally thought. In the intensive care setting, it is important for the user to understand the degree of specificity of these biomarkers and that the interpretation of the results should always be guided by other clinical information. The present review summarizes the available biomarkers for different cardiac conditions. Potential biomarkers under evaluation are also briefly discussed

Un-Splintering Urbanism: Examining the Integration of Urban Infrastructures

Modern cities today are dependent upon the large infrastructure networks that provide citizens with food, energy, water, telecommunications, transport and waste removal, yet in many cities infrastructures are more than a century old and in need of replacement or repair. The privatisation of many utilities and the often ‘siloed’ management structures of infrastructures can create problems arising from the lack of ‘integrated’ service provision. Today there is a growing discourse around the potential for ‘infrastructure integration’ which is offered as a way to create resource and service efficiencies and to create space for technical and system innovations. There is recognition that future infrastructure needs to be smarter, more cost-efficient and more environmentally friendly and ‘integration’ is often cited as a way to achieve this. However, what exactly is meant by the term infrastructure integration? Although there is broad agreement about the importance of integration, precisely what this means in practice is unclear. This PhD project aims to open the black box of infrastructure integration, to examine the evolving context and the potential of integration and to explore its meanings and implications in theory and practice. The conceptual ideas of the study are grounded on in-depth qualitative research in three cities reflecting different institutional and cultural contexts: Seattle in the United States, Munich in Germany, and Sheffield in the United Kingdom. The approach seeks to test some hypotheses about the links between the institutional, organisational and regulatory context of cities and the potential for urban infrastructure integration. I treat infrastructures as socio-technical systems and I aim to demonstrate that the meanings and implications of infrastructure integration are dependent upon the socio-political institutional frameworks that cities operate in. This research finds three different forms of infrastructure integration: evolutionary integration in Seattle, in which integration arises out of the day to day operational necessities of infrastructure management; innovative integration in Munich, in which integration arises as a result of innovative organisational practices inherent within the city; and aspiring strategic integration in Sheffield, in which the city aims to coordinate the investment priorities of privatised utilities, yet lacks the authority to coerce the privatised utilities to cooperate