A systems analysis of solar power potential in coming decades

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32).Energy is a very important aspect of human life. In the past few centuries, energy consumption has increased dramatically to a point where humans are very much dependant of energy. Under the current nonrenewable energy extraction technique of burning fossil fuels there are many externalities that are negatively impacting the earth. Society is approaching a limit where these formerly cheap forms of energy will become increasingly more expensive due to the difficulty of their extraction. As such, it is apparent that new renewable forms of energy will develop out of necessity to fulfill the energy demand. The purpose of this paper is to examine the different aspects of the promising area of solar energy. The conclusions of the analysis show that a portfolio of alternative energies will be necessary in the future with solar energy, in particular photovoltaic cells, filling the bulk of the energy generation.by Chris Bateman.S.B

Doctor shortages: Unpacking the ‘Cuban solution’

The programme which trains South Africans as doctors in Cuba will expand nearly tenfold for the next 5 years, pouring 1 000 undergraduates annually into our currently under-resourced local medical campuses from 2018 onwards. For the past 3 years, the annual output of Cuban-trained South Africans, ‘polished up’ in their final year at local medical schools, came to about 8% of the 1 300 graduates fully-trained locally.

Autism – mitigating a global epidemic

As autism burgeons worldwide, with the latest estimates of 1 in 50 children in the USA between 6 and 17 years old now affected,[1] parents are imploring physicians to go ‘all out’ for early diagnoses to enable highly effective and timely nutritional and behavioural intervention

SA’s drink/drug abuse future could hang on a thread

A 35-year old South African entrepreneur firmly believes he can revolutionise the local alcohol and drug testing market through gold standard hair testing technology that provides up to three months (and often more) of accurate abuse history. What it requires, he told Izindaba, is for government policy and legislation to catch up with science and emulate other countries where his technology is widely used, enhancing judicial rulings across a host of fields. Not only could drunk or drug-taking drivers (the latter for whom no legally enforceable test exists locally) be accurately and quickly tested, but drug abusers in rehabilitation, parents or guardians with alcohol and drug dependencies and prospective adoptive parents could also be checked for historical abuse. Using a 381 mm (1,5 inch) length of hair, the analysis evaluates the number of drug metabolites imbedded inside the hair shaft, (via sweat) - with every 381mm or half inch of hair providing a 30-day history of drug or alcohol usage

SAMA president, medicopolitical veteran, psychiatrist and treatment pioneer.

Keeping a cool head and listening and communicating while being ‘relevant and realistic’ is what the new President of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), top psychiatrist Prof. Denise White, a 12-year veteran of SAMA leadership, hopes to bring to her executive and council

Honing healthcare leaders’ competence and attitudes equals facility-level delivery

Just when you thought there was enough evidence to give up on our public and private healthcare sectors ever partnering to deliver quality, affordable care to a critical mass of South Africans – National Health Insurance notwithstanding – along come several potentially game-changing training initiatives