Smart water-use feedback : options, preferences, impacts, and implications for implementation

University of Technology Sydney. Institute for Sustainable Futures.Smart water metering (SW metering) is enabling the water industry to enter into the digital age and to embrace new levels of water usage awareness, data analysis and communication. While implementations have been advancing internationally, less progress has been made in extending the benefits of this data and information to access by householders, including in Australia. This thesis investigates the opportunity for more detailed information and feedback on household water consumption by: (i) conceptualising the different options for the presentation of detailed feedback enabled via SW metering (ii) uncovering householder interests and preferences; (iii) measuring the various impacts of detailed feedback on householders and their consumption of water; and (iv) developing an implementation framework. These issues are investigated in relation to furthering implementations and the contribution of SW metering towards more sustainable urban water management (SUWM). This empirical research was conducted via two trials in New South Wales, Australia to address the urgent need for improved knowledge and experiences of the issues relating to the provision of detailed water-use feedback via SW metering. The ‘Home Water Update’ (HWU) study provided detailed household water- and end-use feedback via paper-based reports. The ‘My Home Our Water’ (MHOW) study provided consumption feedback according to time of use in near real-time via an online portal. A mixed methods approach was used to analyse the trials using smart water meter data, surveys and interviews. This research shows that providing more detailed water-use feedback through SW metering generates significant householder interest and produces measurable savings (up to 8% in the HWU (paper) study and 4.2% over the longer term in the MHOW (online) study). Moreover, the wide range of options for detailed feedback enabled by SW metering identified in the research—together with the variety found in householder preferences for and responses to detailed feedback—suggests that greater customisation would further elevate the value of feedback to customers and improve engagement. The implementation framework developed further provides a detailed overview of the key elements for decision-making for detailed water-use feedback programs, categorised as strategic, practical and evaluative considerations. Overall, the research findings cover a broad range of aspects critical to the design of future trials and large-scale roll-outs of SW metering and detailed feedback and the promotion of use that foster more SUWM. For wider industry adoption of detailed water-use feedback programs enabled via SW metering, the importance of the following is underlined (i) conducting quality, robust research and its implications for project resources; (ii) facilitating knowledge sharing in order to further the water industry’s understanding and experience regarding methods and approaches to feedback provision; (iii) building knowledge on how to address heterogeneity among customers is recommended in order to customise approaches to feedback provision (e.g. via a large scale preferences survey and subsequent experimentation with greater levels of customisation, particularly with robust scaled research trials); and (iv) developing the business case for detailed water-use feedback provision by fully documenting methods and making these available for wider evaluation and industry recommendations and improvements. Further developments in this direction, using the implementation framework, will enable the water industry to work towards large-scale implementation of detailed feedback provision which take more full advantage of the customised options made possible via SW metering and the digital age

The distributional and nutritional impacts and mitigation potential of emission-based food taxes in the UK

Agriculture and food production are responsible for a substantial proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. An emission based food tax has been proposed as one option to reduce food related emissions. This study introduces a method to measure the impacts of emission based food taxes at a household level which involves the use of data augmentation to account for the fact that the data record purchases and not consumption. The method is applied to determine the distributional and nutritional impacts of an emission based food tax across socio-economic classes in the UK. We find that a tax of £2.841/tCO2e on all foods would reduce food related emissions by 6.3% and a tax on foods with above average levels of emissions would reduce emissions by 4.3%. The tax burden falls disproportionately on households in the lowest socio-economic class because they tend to spend a larger proportion of their food expenditure on emission intensive foods and because they buy cheaper products and therefore experience relatively larger price increases

Helping Diminish the College Knowledge and Access Divide: Development of a College Outreach Camp to Serve Community Needs

This descriptive case study examined the development of a college outreach summer camp at a university in Texas. The camp aims to diminish the college knowledge and access divide that exists between first generation college-going, lower-income, and underrepresented students and their counterparts in the region in which the university is located. Drawing on one year of survey data, interviews with program personnel, program documents, and newspaper articles about the camp, this study highlights some of the camp’s early successes, as well as growing pains of starting such an effort to serve community needs

The Variability of Seyfert 1.8 and 1.9 Galaxies at 1.6 microns

We present a study of Seyfert 1.5-2.0 galaxies observed at two epochs with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at 1.6 microns. We find that unresolved nuclear emission from 9 of 14 nuclei varies at the level of 10-40% on timescales of 0.7-14 months, depending upon the galaxy. A control sample of Seyfert galaxies lacking unresolved sources and galaxies lacking Seyfert nuclei show less than 3% instrumental variation in equivalent aperture measurements. This proves that the unresolved sources are non-stellar and associated with the central pc of active galactic nuclei. Unresolved sources in Seyfert 1.8 and 1.9 galaxies are not usually detected in HST optical surveys, however high angular resolution infrared observations will provide a way to measure time delays in these galaxies.Comment: accepted by ApJLetters (emulateapj latex

Field performance of four vibrating-wire piezometer installation methods

Vibrating wire piezometers provide a number of advantages over the traditional hydraulic piezometer design. There are many methods and configurations for installing vibrating-wire piezometers, with the most common being: single piezometers in sand packs (SP), multilevel piezometers in sand packs (MLSP), and fully-grouted multilevel piezometers using either bentonite (FGB) or cement-bentonite grout (FGCB). This study assesses the performance of these four different installation methods for vibrating wire piezometers at a field site possessing complex stratigraphy, including glacial and marine sediments. Pore pressure data recorded between December 2017 and July 2019 were analyzed to accomplish this objective. Data indicate that SP, MLSP, and FGB piezometers performed well. This determination is based on the fact that piezometers installed at the same depth with these arrangements recorded similar pressure variations that were coherent with the hydrogeological setting. Of the two fully-grouted installations using cement-bentonite grout, one installation failed completely due to a hydraulic short circuit, caused either by shrinkage of the grout or flow occurring along the wires of the embedded instruments. While the FGB-type piezometers used in this study worked correctly, the lack of standard methods concerning both the construction of fully-grouted piezometers is concerning. Furthermore, the lack of a standard method for mixing cement-bentonite grout likely contributed to the failure of the FGCB installations. Thus, due to the lack of guidance for both construction and grout preparation, the use of a bentonite grout removes a degree of uncertainty when fully-grouted installation techniques are used

The Multitude of Unresolved Continuum Sources at 1.6 microns in Hubble Space Telescope images of Seyfert Galaxies

We examine 112 Seyfert galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at 1.6 microns. We find that ~50% of the Seyfert 2.0 galaxies which are part of the Revised Shapeley-Ames (RSA) Catalog or the CfA redshift sample contain unresolved continuum sources at 1.6 microns. All but a couple of the Seyfert 1.0-1.9 galaxies display unresolved continuum sources. The unresolved sources have fluxes of order a mJy, near-infrared luminosities of order 10^41 erg/s and absolute magnitudes M_H ~-16. Comparison non-Seyfert galaxies from the RSA Catalog display significantly fewer (~20%), somewhat lower luminosity nuclear sources, which could be due to compact star clusters. We find that the luminosities of the unresolved Seyfert 1.0-1.9 sources at 1.6 microns are correlated with [OIII] 5007A and hard X-ray luminosities, implying that these sources are non-stellar. Assuming a spectral energy distribution similar to that of a Seyfert 2 galaxy, we estimate that a few percent of local spiral galaxies contain black holes emitting as Seyferts at a moderate fraction, 10^-1 to 10^-4, of their Eddington luminosities. With increasing Seyfert type the fraction of unresolved sources detected at 1.6 microns and the ratio of 1.6 microns to [OIII] fluxes tend to decrease. These trends are consistent with the unification model for Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies.Comment: accepted by Ap

Hydrogeology of a complex Champlain Sea deposit (Quebec, Canada) : implications for slope stability

The thick sequences of marine clayey deposits which blanket the St. Lawrence Lowlands in south-eastern Canada are highly susceptible to landslides. With 89% of the population of the Province of Quebec living in this region, improving our understanding of the mechanisms causing landslides in these sediments is a matter of public security. To accomplish this goal, instruments were deployed at a field site in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, Canada to monitor atmospheric, soil, and groundwater conditions. Field and laboratory measurements of soil geotechnical and hydraulic properties were also performed. Results indicate that the groundwater and pore pressure dynamics at the site cannot be explained using simplified site conceptual models. Further analysis indicates that groundwater dynamics and pore pressures in the massive clay deposits on-site are determined by (i) the highly-heterogeneous nature of the local geological materials (ii) the contrasting hydraulic and geotechnical properties of these materials, (iii) the presence of two unconfined aquifers at the site, one surficial and one at depth, and (iv), the presence of the Sainte-Anne River. These results were used to create a new conceptual model which illustrates the complex groundwater flow system present on site, and shows the importance of including hydrogeologic context in slope stability analysis

A novel whole-cell lysate kinase assay identifies substrates of the p38 MAPK in differentiating myoblasts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) is a critical mediator of myoblast differentiation, and does so in part through the phosphorylation and regulation of several transcription factors and chromatin remodelling proteins. However, whether p38α is involved in processes other than gene regulation during myogenesis is currently unknown, and why other p38 isoforms cannot compensate for its loss is unclear.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To further characterise the involvement of p38α during myoblast differentiation, we developed and applied a simple technique for identifying relevant <it>in vivo </it>kinase substrates and their phosphorylation sites. In addition to identifying substrates for one kinase, the technique can be used <it>in vitro </it>to compare multiple kinases in the same experiment, and we made use of this to study the substrate specificities of the p38α and β isoforms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Applying the technique to p38α resulted in the identification of seven <it>in vivo </it>phosphorylation sites on six proteins, four of which are cytoplasmic, in lysate derived from differentiating myoblasts. An <it>in vitro </it>comparison with p38β revealed that substrate specificity does not discriminate these two isoforms, but rather that their distinguishing characteristic appears to be cellular localisation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest p38α has a novel cytoplasmic role during myogenesis and that its unique cellular localisation may be why p38β and other isoforms cannot compensate for its absence. The substrate-finding approach presented here also provides a necessary tool for studying the hundreds of protein kinases that exist and for uncovering the deeper mechanisms of phosphorylation-dependent cell signalling.</p

Peer-Led Team Learning in Mathematics: An Effort to Address Diversity and Inclusion Through Learning and Leadership

The Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) model has shown to be an effective instructional method to support females, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The collaborative problem-solving setting, led by a peer leader, fosters learning that engages all the students. There are six critical components that are vital to the PLTL model: 1) The PLTL Workshop is integral to the course; 2) Faculty is actively involved; 3) Peer Leaders are well trained; 4) The PLTL Workshop modules are challenging; 5) PLTL workshops are allocated time and space; and 6) There is institutional support. City Tech has implemented the PLTL workshops in selected foundation mathematics courses over the past five years because of the dismal pass and withdrawal rates. Overall results have shown that females, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation college students who actively participated in the PLTL workshops have higher course grades and lower withdrawal rates. Students are also afforded the opportunity to participate in the PLTL Leadership program. Through the PLTL Leadership program, females, underrepresented minorities, and first-generation college students (107 peer leaders in total) who have successfully completing their STEM degrees, are either in the STEM workforce or pursuing advanced STEM degrees. The PLTL model supports students who are academically disadvantaged, and provides students with an opportunity to build their leadership skills and to create a pathway to graduate school