Development of a General Scheme for Fuel Cycles and Life Cycles from all Energy Technologies as a Basis for the European Energy Risk Monitor (ERMON)

Abstract is not availableJRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet

Advancing the deployment of utility-scale photovoltaic plants in the northeast

As one of the premier research laboratories operated by the Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is pursuing an energy research agenda that focuses on renewable energy systems and will help to secure the nation's energy security. A key element of the BNL research is the advancement of grid-connected utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, particularly in the northeastern part of the country where BNL is located. While a great deal of information has been generated regarding solar PV systems located in mostly sunny, hot, arid climates of the southwest US, very little data is available to characterize the performance of these systems in the cool, humid, frequently overcast climates experienced in the northeastern portion of the country. Recognizing that there is both a need and a market for solar PV generation in the northeast, BNL is pursuing research that will advance the deployment of this important renewable energy resource. BNL's research will leverage access to unique time-resolved data sets from the 37MWp solar array recently developed on its campus. In addition, BNL is developing a separate 1MWp solar research array on its campus that will allow field testing of new PV system technologies, including solar modules and balance of plant equipment, such as inverters, energy storage devices, and control platforms. These research capabilities will form the cornerstone of the new Northeast Solar Energy Research Center (NSERC) being developed at BNL. In this paper, an overview of BNL's energy research agenda is given, along with a description of the 37MWp solar array and the NSERC

Conversas de aprendizagem em museus de ciências: como os deficientes visuais interpretam os materiais educativos do museu de microbiologia?

The processes of science communication and science education became especially important in the last quarter of the last century. Science museums, as non-formal spaces have an important role in amplifying and refining these processes. Being spaces open to the general public will be expected to develop programs that include all of its citizens. The Museum of Microbiology of the Butantan Institute has developed a series of activities and educational materials focusing on microorganisms that were designed to facilitate a closer integration of the visually impaired public with the scientific culture. In the present study, we sought to understand how visually deficient visitors interpreted the materials presented, determine the level of understanding that the use of these materials provided and study the significance attributed to them. Visually impaired visitors were interviewed during their interactions with the materials with the aid of an audio guide, and the talks generated were analyzed within interpretative categories. The most frequent category was “Strategic talk (Use)” (11.8%), in which the visually deficient visitors gave their opinions concerning the uses of the Micro-Touch Program. Two other categories, “Affective talk (Pleasure)” (10.2%) and “Perceptual talk (Identification)” (8.6%) were also established. A combination of tactile and auditory tools was fundamental to solve problems and to the creation of visual representations that are important to constructing and understanding scientific concepts and to facilitate the organization of theoretical thought. We suggest here the necessity of elaborating activities contents that favors the establishment of conceptual talks and considering the previously acquired knowledge of visually impaired visitors during the design of displays, providing higher frequency of other learning talkshttp://dx.doi.org/10.5902/1984686X4341Os processos de divulgação e educação em Ciências vêm tomando grande importância, principalmente a partir do último quarto do século passado. Os museus de ciências, enquanto espaços de educação não formal, têm papel importante na ampliação e refinamento desses processos e, sendo locais abertos à população, são demandados a desenvolver propostas inclusivas. O Museu de Microbiologia do Instituto Butantan desenvolveu uma série de atividades e materiais educativos sobre microrganismos para facilitar a aproximação entre o público deficiente visual e a cultura científica. No presente estudo procurou-se compreender como os visitantes deficientes visuais interpretam os materiais desenvolvidos, verificar qual o entendimento que o uso desses materiais propicia e estudar os tipos de significados que lhes são dados. Pessoas com deficiência visual foram entrevistadas durante a exploração do material com o auxílio de um áudio-guia e as conversas geradas foram analisadas, estabelecendo-se categorias interpretativas. A categoria mais frequente foi a “Estratégica de Uso” (11,8%), quando os deficientes visuais manifestavam suas impressões sobre como utilizar o Programa MicroToque. Outras duas categorias, “Afetiva de Prazer” (10,2%) e “Perceptiva de Identificação” (8,6%) foram também encontradas. A junção das ferramentas tátil e auditiva foi fundamental para a resolução de problemas e criação de representações visuais, importantes para construção e compreensão de conceitos e facilitando a organização do pensamento teórico. Sugere-se aqui a necessidade de uma organização dos conteúdos que favoreça o estabelecimento de conversas interpretativas conceituais e também a consideração dos conhecimentos prévios de visitantes com deficiência visual na elaboração dos aparatos a eles destinados, o que poderia propiciar maior frequência de outras elaborações conversacionais.Palavras-chave: Deficientes visuais. Museu de Ciências. Materiais para toque. Conversas de aprendizado.

European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) Consensus Statement on Outcome Measures in Liver Transplantation According to Value-Based Health Care

Liver transplantation is a highly complex, life-saving, treatment for many patients with advanced liver disease. Liver transplantation requires multidisciplinary teams, system-wide adaptations and significant investment, as well as being an expensive treatment. Several metrics have been proposed to monitor processes and outcomes, however these lack patient focus and do not capture all aspects of the process. Most of the reported outcomes do not capture those outcomes that matter to the patients. Adopting the principles of Value-Based Health Care (VBHC), may provide an opportunity to develop those metrics that matter to patients. In this article, we present a Consensus Statement on Outcome Measures in Liver Transplantation following the principles of VBHC, developed by a dedicated panel of experts under the auspices of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT) Guidelines' Taskforce. The overarching goal is to provide a framework to facilitate the development of outcome measures as an initial step to apply the VMC paradigm to liver transplantation

Learning about Microorganisms in Childhood: Four- to Six-Year-Old Children’s Voice in Kindergartens and Museums

The main purpose of this research was to identify 4 to 6-year-old children’s ideas about microorganisms, taking into consideration the learning processes carried out in different educational contexts. To this end, data were collected from two institutions – a science museum and a kindergarten – by means of interviews, recorded conversations, drawings, and the application of a didactic sequence with the kindergarten group. A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that children associate the presence of microorganisms with dirty places and see them as pathological agents. The children demonstrated that they understand the idea of scale and the need for magnifying instruments. We found that they consider microorganisms morphologically similar to insects and that they use various scientific words appropriately. It was concluded that young children understand the theme “microorganisms”, and that it should be addressed more actively by institutions that teach four- to six-year-olds, which are responsible for contributing to their scientific literacy and science learning in childhood. It is proposed that the following themes be developed in educational activities with young children: biodiversity, scale, biological functions, and relationships with humans and food

VarGoats project : a dataset of 1159 whole-genome sequences to dissect Capra hircus global diversity

Since their domestication 10,500 years ago, goat populations with distinctive genetic backgrounds have adapted to a broad variety of environments and breeding conditions. The VarGoats project is an international 1000-genome resequencing program designed to understand the consequences of domestication and breeding on the genetic diversity of domestic goats and to elucidate how speciation and hybridization have modeled the genomes of a set of species representative of the genus Capra. A dataset comprising 652 sequenced goats and 507 public goat sequences, including 35 animals representing eight wild species, has been collected worldwide. We identified 74,274,427 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 13,607,850 insertion-deletions (InDels) by aligning these sequences to the latest version of the goat reference genome (ARS1). A Neighbor-joining tree based on Reynolds genetic distances showed that goats from Africa, Asia and Europe tend to group into independent clusters. Because goat breeds from Oceania and Caribbean (Creole) all derive from imported animals, they are distributed along the tree according to their ancestral geographic origin. We report on an unprecedented international effort to characterize the genome-wide diversity of domestic goats. This large range of sequenced individuals represents a unique opportunity to ascertain how the demographic and selection processes associated with post-domestication history have shaped the diversity of this species. Data generated for the project will also be extremely useful to identify deleterious mutations and polymorphisms with causal effects on complex traits, and thus will contribute to new knowledge that could be used in genomic prediction and genome-wide association studies

Treating People With Epilepsy in Rural Low-Income Countries Is Feasible. Observations and Reflections From a “Real Life Experience” After a Long Lasting Intervention in the Rural Chaco

Introduction: Epilepsy represents an important public health issue, in particular in low and middle-income countries where significant disparities are present in the care available for patients with epilepsy. Treatment cost and unavailability of drugs represent important barriers in treating people with epilepsy especially in rural setting. Aim of the study was to evaluate, by means of routine data, the current real-life clinical practice in epilepsy in the rural communities of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Treatment activity followed educational campaigns and an anthropological fieldwork over more than 20 years.Material and Methods: Medical records of people with epilepsy (PWE) living in the rural communities of the Bolivian Chaco who received antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), from 2012 to 2016, and were followed-up for at least 1 year were analyzed. Treatment delivery and follow up visits were managed by a neurologist with the support of rural health care workers.Results: From 2012 to 2016, 157 PWE (76 men with a mean age of 24.2 ± 15.7) have been included in the study. Structural epilepsy was the most common type, recorded in 54 cases (34.4%) and the most common reported causes were perinatal factors, present in 11 subjects (20.0%). Almost all patients presented epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic seizures (91.4%). The most common AED prescribed was phenobarbital followed by carbamazepine. During the follow-up, a dramatic seizures reduction was observed, with 31 subjects (19.7%) being seizures-free at the last follow-up. However, 48 subjects (30.6%) did not assume the medication regularly and 10 interrupted the drug intake. More than 20% of PWE did not receive any financial supports for AEDs. During the follow-up period 10 patients died but only in one case the death was probably caused by epilepsy.Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that PWE in rural areas of the Bolivian Chaco are willing to seek medical attention and to receive antiepileptic treatment. However, improvement in care is needed to assure compliance to AED treatment, including activity to increase awareness toward epilepsy among community members and health staff of the rural communities and to guarantee the coverage of treatment costs and drug supply

Genomic diversity and disease prevalence in Ugandan cattle

Ugandan cattle are represented by three main types: the long-horned Ankole, the short-horned zebu, and the Ankole-zebu crosses called “Nganda”. In the course of the EU-funded project Nextgen, Ugandan cattle have been extensively sampled over the whole country to investigate the association between genotypes and resistance/tolerance to endemic diseases (e.g. tsetse fly- and tick-born diseases)

Genomic diversity and Population Structure of Ugandan Taurine and Zebuine Cattle Breeds

An extensive sampling of Ugandan cattle was carried out in the course of the European project Nextgen to identify possible associations between genotypes, livestock endemic diseases and environmental variables. As a prior to the GWAS and selection signatures analyses planned within the project, we analyzed the population structure of Ugandan cattle genotyped with both 54K and 800K HD SNP panels in the context of the worldwide cattle genomic diversity