Cost-Availability Curves for Hierarchical Implementation of Residential Energy-Efficiency Measures

Historical residential electricity data and natural gas consumption data were collected for, respectively, 1,200 and 178 residences in a small town in the USA. These data were merged with local building and weather databases, and energy consumption models were developed for each residence, revealing substantial variation in heating and cooling intensity. After estimating approximate physical building characteristics, energy profiles for each residence were calculated, and savings from adoption of the most cost-effective energy-efficiency measures for each residence were estimated. Effectively, we wish to leverage commonly available data sets to infer characteristics of building envelopes and equipment, without the need for detailed on-site audits. This study evaluates the potential energy savings for the residences studied and, by extrapolation, for the entire town, as a function of cost if the savings measures were to be implemented in rank-order of cost effectiveness to show that savings penetration for the community comes with nonlinearly increasing cost. The results show that nearly a 32 % collective savings in HVAC energy use could be achieved with a collective levelized cost for energy-saving measures of $10/mmBTU saved if the most cost-effective measures among the entire community are implemented first

What is the impact of clinically assisted hydration in the last days of life? A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Clinically assisted hydration (CAH) can be provided in the last days of life as drinking declines. The impact of this practice on quality of life or survival in the last days of life is unclear. Practice varies worldwide concerning this emotive issue. METHOD: Systematic literature review and narrative synthesis of studies evaluating the impact of, or attitudes toward, CAH in the last days of life. Databases were searched up to December 2019. Studies were included if the majority of participants were in the last 7 days of life, and were evaluated using Gough's 'Weight of Evidence' framework. Review protocol registered with PROSPERO, registration number CRD42019125837. RESULTS: Fifteen studies were included in the synthesis. None were judged to be both of high quality and relevance. No evidence was found that the provision of CAH has an impact on symptoms or survival. Patient and family carer attitudes toward assisted hydration were diverse. CONCLUSION: There is currently insufficient evidence to draw firm conclusions on the impact of CAH in the last days of life. Future research needs to focus on patients specifically in the last days of life, include those with non-malignant diagnoses, and evaluate best ways to communicate effectively about this complex topic with patients and their families

Establishing Building Recommissioning Priorities and Potential Energy Savings from Utility Energy Data

An energy reduction program for commercial buildings is implemented for a SW Ohio natural gas utility. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that historical utility data for individual building customers, along with knowledge of pertinent building information (square footage, year built, number of floors, height of floors, wall construction type, and use type) available in county auditor databases, could be used to identify the best candidate buildings for recommissioning in terms of energy savings and simple payback. A study is completed for all natural gas customers of a utility in Montgomery and Clinton counties in Ohio. A total of 400 candidate buildings for recommissioning are identified. These buildings (1) have seen increases in heating or non-weather-dependent energy over time or (2) have large baseline energy intensities indicative of combined heating/cooling year round. For these buildings, individual energy reports are created and shared with the building owners. For a subset of buildings, on-site recommissioning evaluations were used to confirm estimates derived from utility data alone

Anticipatory prescribing in community end-of-life care in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic: online survey

Funder: National Institute for Health Research; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272Background: Anticipatory prescribing (AP) of injectable medications in advance of clinical need is established practice in community end-of-life care. Changes to prescribing guidelines and practice have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aims and objectives: To investigate UK and Ireland clinicians’ experiences concerning changes in AP during the COVID-19 pandemic and their recommendations for change. Methods: Online survey of participants at previous AP national workshops, members of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland and other professional organisations, with snowball sampling. Results: Two hundred and sixty-one replies were received between 9 and 19 April 2020 from clinicians in community, hospice and hospital settings across all areas of the UK and Ireland. Changes to AP local guidance and practice were reported: route of administration (47%), drugs prescribed (38%), total quantities prescribed (35%), doses and ranges (29%). Concerns over shortages of nurses and doctors to administer subcutaneous injections led 37% to consider drug administration by family or social caregivers, often by buccal, sublingual and transdermal routes. Clinical contact and patient assessment were more often remote via telephone or video (63%). Recommendations for regulatory changes to permit drug repurposing and easier community access were made. Conclusions: The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic for UK community palliative care has stimulated rapid innovation in AP. The extent to which these are implemented and their clinical efficacy need further examination

On-orbit calibration and performance of the EMIT imaging spectrometer

The Earth surface Mineral dust source InvesTigation (EMIT) is a remote visible to shortwave infrared (VSWIR) imaging spectrometer that has been operating onboard the International Space Station since July 2022. This article describes EMIT's on-orbit spectroradiometric calibration and validation. Accurate spectroscopy is vital to achieve consistent mapping results with orbital imaging spectrometers. EMIT takes a unique approach to this challenge, with just six optical elements, no shutter, and no onboard calibration systems. Its simple design focuses on uniformity and stability to enable vicarious spectroradiometric calibration. Our experiments demonstrate that this approach is successful, approaching the fidelity of manual field spectroscopy in some cases, and enabling new and more accurate products across diverse Earth science disciplines. EMIT achieves several notable firsts for an instrument of its class. It demonstrates successful on-orbit adjustments of Focal Plane Array (FPA) alignment with sub-micron precision. It offers spectral uniformity better than 98%. Optical artifacts in the measurement channels are at least three orders of magnitude below the primary solar-reflected surface signals. Its noise performance enables percent-level discrimination in the depths of mineral absorption features. In these aspects, EMIT satisfies the stringent performance needs for the next generation of VSWIR imaging spectrometers to observe the Earth's ecosystems, geology, and water resources.EMIT is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Venture Instrument program, under the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate. K. Dana Chadwick is supported by the NASA Applied Sciences Program. Carlos P´ erez García- Pando and María Gonçalves Ageitos acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant FRAGMENT (grant agreement No. 773051), and the AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center funded by the AXA Research Fund. Martina Klose has received funding through the Helmholtz Association’s Initiative and Networking Fund (grant agreement No. VH-NG-1533). We thank Jeffrey Czapla-Myers and the University of Arizona team for their maintenance and operation of the Railroad Valley automated calibration facility. This research was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We acknowledge the support and assistance of NASA’s International Space Station Program. The USGS authors’ contribution to this published Work was prepared by U.S. federal government employees as part of their official duties and constitutes a “work of the United States government,” and is considered to be in the public domain and therefore domestic copyright does not apply. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Copyright 2024 California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. US Government Support Acknowledged.Peer ReviewedArticle signat per 56 autors: David R. Thompson, Robert O. Green, Christine Bradley, Philip G. Brodrick, Natalie Mahowald, Eyal Ben Dor, Matthew Bennett, Michael Bernas, Nimrod Carmon, K. Dana Chadwick, Roger N. Clark, Red Willow Coleman, Evan Cox, Ernesto Diaz, Michael L. Eastwood, Regina Eckert, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Paul Ginoux, María Gonçalves Ageitos, Kathleen Grant, Luis Guanter, Daniela Heller Pearlshtien, Mark Helmlinger, Harrison Herzog, Todd Hoefen, Yue Huang, Abigail Keebler, Olga Kalashnikova, Didier Keymeulen, Raymond Kokaly, Martina Klose, Longlei Li, Sarah R. Lundeen, John Meyer, Elizabeth Middleton, Ron L. Miller, Pantazis Mouroulis, Bogdan Oaida, Vincenzo Obiso, Francisco Ochoa, Winston Olson-Duvall, Gregory S. Okin, Thomas H. Painter, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Randy Pollock, Vincent Realmuto, Lucas Shaw, Peter Sullivan, Gregg Swayze, Erik Thingvold, Andrew K. Thorpe, Suresh Vannan, Catalina Villarreal, Charlene Ung, Daniel W. Wilson, Sander Zandbergen.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::13 - Acció per al ClimaPostprint (published version

Estimating aboveground carbon density and its uncertainty in Borneo's structurally complex tropical forests using airborne laser scanning

Borneo contains some of the world's most biodiverse and carbon-dense tropical forest, but this 750 000 km(2) island has lost 62% of its old-growth forests within the last 40 years. Efforts to protect and restore the remaining forests of Borneo hinge on recognizing the ecosystem services they provide, including their ability to store and sequester carbon. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) is a remote sensing technology that allows forest structural properties to be captured in great detail across vast geographic areas. In recent years ALS has been integrated into statewide assessments of forest carbon in Neotropical and African regions, but not yet in Asia. For this to happen new regional models need to be developed for estimating carbon stocks from ALS in tropical Asia, as the forests of this region are structurally and composition-ally distinct from those found elsewhere in the tropics. By combining ALS imagery with data from 173 permanent forest plots spanning the lowland rainforests of Sabah on the island of Borneo, we develop a simple yet general model for estimating forest carbon stocks using ALS-derived canopy height and canopy cover as input metrics. An advanced feature of this new model is the propagation of uncertainty in both ALS- and ground-based data, allowing uncertainty in hectare-scale estimates of carbon stocks to be quantified robustly. We show that the model effectively captures variation in aboveground carbon stocks across extreme disturbance gradients spanning tall dipterocarp forests and heavily logged regions and clearly outperforms existing ALS-based models calibrated for the tropics, as well as currently available satellite-derived products. Our model provides a simple, generalized and effective approach for mapping forest carbon stocks in Borneo and underpins ongoing efforts to safeguard and facilitate the restoration of its unique tropical forests.Peer reviewe

Probing Iceland's dust-emitting sediments: Particle size distribution, mineralogy, cohesion, Fe mode of occurrence, and reflectance spectra signatures

Characterising the physico-chemical properties of dust-emitting sediments in arid regions is fundamental to understanding the effects of dust on climate and ecosystems. However, knowledge regarding highlatitude dust (HLD) remains limited. This study focuses on analysing the particle size distribution (PSD), mineralogy, cohesion, iron (Fe) mode of occurrence, and visible-near infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectra of dustemitting sediments from dust hotspots in Iceland (HLD region). Extensive analysis was conducted on samples of top sediments, sediments, and aeolian ripples collected from seven dust sources, with particular emphasis on the Jökulsá basin, encompassing the desert of Dyngjunsandur. Both fully and minimally dispersed PSDs and their respective mass median particle diameters revealed remarkable similarities (56±69 and 55±62 μm, respectively). Mineralogical analyses indicated the prevalence of amorphous phases (68±26 %), feldspars (17±13 %), and pyroxenes (9.3±7.2 %), consistent with thorough analyses of VNIR reflectance spectra. The Fe content reached 9.5±0.40 wt %, predominantly within silicate structures (80±6.3 %), complemented by magnetite (16±5.5 %), hematite/goethite (4.5±2.7 %), and readily exchangeable Fe ions or Fe nano-oxides (1.6±0.63 %). Icelandic top sediments exhibited coarser PSDs compared to the high dust-emitting crusts from mid-latitude arid regions, distinctive mineralogy, and a 3-fold bulk Fe content, with a significant presence of magnetite. The congruence between fully and minimally dispersed PSDs underscores reduced particle aggregation and cohesion of Icelandic top sediments, suggesting that aerodynamic entrainment of dust could also play a role upon emission in this region, alongside saltation bombardment. The extensive analysis in Dyngjusandur enabled the development of a conceptual model to encapsulate Iceland's rapidly evolving high dust-emitting environments.This research has been supported by the European Research Council, EU H2020 European Research Council (grant no. 773051), the AXA Research Fund (AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms), the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (grant no. 2020_FI B 00678), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant nos. 264907654 and 416816480), and the Helmholtz Association (grant no. VH-NG-1533). The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Peer reviewe

Characterization of the particle size distribution, mineralogy, and Fe mode of occurrence of dust-emitting sediments from the Mojave Desert, California, USA

Constraining dust models to understand and quantify the effect of dust upon climate and ecosystems requires comprehensive analyses of the physiochemical properties of dust-emitting sediments in arid regions. Building upon previous studies in the Moroccan Sahara and Iceland, we analyse a diverse set of crusts and aeolian ripples (n=55) from various potential dust-emitting basins within the Mojave Desert, California, USA. Our focus is on characterizing the particle size distribution (PSD), mineralogy, aggregation/cohesion state, and Fe mode of occurrence. Our results show differences in fully and minimally dispersed PSDs, with crusts exhibiting average median diameters of 92 and 37 µm, respectively, compared to aeolian ripples with 226 and 213 µm, respectively. Mineralogical analyses unveiled strong variations between crusts and ripples, with crusts being enriched in phyllosilicates (24 % vs. 7.8 %), carbonates (6.6 % vs. 1.1 %), Na salts (7.3 % vs. 1.1 %), and zeolites (1.2 % and 0.12 %) and ripples being enriched in feldspars (48 % vs. 37 %), quartz (32 % vs. 16 %), and gypsum (4.7 % vs. 3.1 %). The size fractions from crust sediments display a homogeneous mineralogy, whereas those of aeolian ripples display more heterogeneity, mostly due to different particle aggregation. Bulk Fe content analyses indicate higher concentrations in crusts (3.0 ± 1.3 wt %) compared to ripples (1.9 ± 1.1 wt %), with similar proportions in their Fe mode of occurrence: nano-sized Fe oxides and readily exchangeable Fe represent ∼1.6 %, hematite and goethite ∼15 %, magnetite/maghemite ∼2.0 %, and structural Fe in silicates ∼80 % of the total Fe. We identified segregation patterns in the PSD and mineralogy differences in Na salt content within the Mojave basins, which can be explained by sediment transportation dynamics and precipitates due to groundwater table fluctuations described in previous studies in the region. Mojave Desert crusts show similarities with previously sampled crusts in the Moroccan Sahara in terms of the PSD and readily exchangeable Fe yet exhibit substantial differences in mineralogical composition, which should significantly influence the characteristic of the emitted dust particles

Characterization of the particle size distribution, mineralogy, and Fe mode of occurrence of dust-emitting sediments from the Mojave Desert, California, USA

Constraining dust models to understand and quantify the effect of dust upon climate and ecosystems requires comprehensive analyses of the physiochemical properties of dust-emitting sediments in arid regions. Building upon previous studies in the Moroccan Sahara and Iceland, we analyse a diverse set of crusts and aeolian ripples (nCombining double low line55) from various potential dust-emitting basins within the Mojave Desert, California, USA. Our focus is on characterizing the particle size distribution (PSD), mineralogy, aggregation/cohesion state, and Fe mode of occurrence. Our results show differences in fully and minimally dispersed PSDs, with crusts exhibiting average median diameters of 92 and 37 μm, respectively, compared to aeolian ripples with 226 and 213 μm, respectively. Mineralogical analyses unveiled strong variations between crusts and ripples, with crusts being enriched in phyllosilicates (24 % vs. 7.8 %), carbonates (6.6 % vs. 1.1 %), Na salts (7.3 % vs. 1.1 %), and zeolites (1.2 % and 0.12 %) and ripples being enriched in feldspars (48 % vs. 37 %), quartz (32 % vs. 16 %), and gypsum (4.7 % vs. 3.1 %). The size fractions from crust sediments display a homogeneous mineralogy, whereas those of aeolian ripples display more heterogeneity, mostly due to different particle aggregation. Bulk Fe content analyses indicate higher concentrations in crusts (3.0 ± 1.3 wt %) compared to ripples (1.9 ± 1.1 wt %), with similar proportions in their Fe mode of occurrence: nano-sized Fe oxides and readily exchangeable Fe represent ĝ1/41.6 %, hematite and goethite ~15 %, magnetite/maghemite ~2.0 %, and structural Fe in silicates ~80 % of the total Fe. We identified segregation patterns in the PSD and mineralogy differences in Na salt content within the Mojave basins, which can be explained by sediment transportation dynamics and precipitates due to groundwater table fluctuations described in previous studies in the region. Mojave Desert crusts show similarities with previously sampled crusts in the Moroccan Sahara in terms of the PSD and readily exchangeable Fe yet exhibit substantial differences in mineralogical composition, which should significantly influence the characteristic of the emitted dust particles.This research has been supported by the European Research Council, EU H2020 (Consolidator Grant FRAGMENT, grant no. 773051); the AXA Research Fund (AXA Chair on Sand and Dust Storms BSC); the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (grant no. 2020_FI B 00678); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant nos. 264907654 and 416816480); the Helmholtz Association (grant no. VH-NG-1533); and the Earth Sciences Division (NASA Earth Venture Instrument – Science Mission Directorate). The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).Peer reviewe