Potential Design, Implementation, and Benefits of a Feebate Program for New Passenger Vehicles in California: Interim Statement of Research Findings

A comprehensive study was undertaken to assess the potential design, implementation, and benefits of a feebate program in California as well as possible stakeholder responses. A feebate is a market- based policy for encouraging greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions from new passenger vehicles by levying fees on relatively high-emitting vehicles and providing rebates to lower-emitting vehicles. This study finds that feebate policies can be used in California to achieve additional reductions in greenhouse gases from new passenger vehicles beyond those projected from emission standards alone. Specifically, feebate policies affect the average emissions levels for the new vehicle fleet sold in each model year. The amount will depend on the design features of the feebate policy and other modeling assumptions. For the period 2011-2025, a moderate feebate program based on a footprint system with average rebates of $600 and average fees of$700 yields a 3 percent improvement, or about 2 percent of the reductions needed to achieve the AB 32 target

Session D3: Net Ecosystem Services Analysis as a Floodplain Restoration and Management Tool

Abstract: Established ecological fundamentals typically determine design, success and efficiency of restoration and management of floodplain and aquatic resources. Some of the more common criticisms center around the facts that commonly used methods: 1) do not have a quantitative basis for the estimates, 2) are not transparent to allow thorough review and stakeholder input, and 3) do not demonstrate direct and indirect benefits to the affected public. Integrating ecosystem services concepts and approaches and their evaluation for planning and performing ecological restoration is a practical alternative to the traditional restoration approach and can improve the restoration product, provide stakeholder support and ultimate value to the local public. Increased human influence and potential global influences (e.g. climate change) will directly affect floodplains and aquatic resources in the future with potential for substantial changes in physical effects (e.g. flooding and storm events), chemical changes (water quality), biological (changes in habitat and species distribution), and ultimately how humans use the services provided by these ecosystems. This will have substantial financial and human use implications in floodplain areas and general ecosystem health that provide these services to humans. Recent scientific thinking is increasingly focused on an ecosystems services approach. The concept, advanced by the United Nation’ Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), brings a fresh approach to identifying and managing environmental risks within the limited financial and infrastructural resources available to most entities. This presentation will focus on the use of Net Ecosystem Services Analysis (NESA) for maximizing benefit and prioritizing future expenditures. The key to this is the quantification and rigorous analysis of the services provided by ecosystems that are important to people. NESA case studies will be used to demonstrate quantification tools and approaches used in similar assessments to manage floodplain ecosystem services

Senior Recital: Kobe Greene

A Senior Recital featuring Kobe Greene and Dr. Eric Jenkins.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2423/thumbnail.jp

Managing Risk and Knowledge: Frameworks to Guide Knowledge-Enabled Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is not only about the transfer of technology, but also about the transfer of knowledge, as evidenced by definitions of KM within the biopharma industry and beyond. However, knowledge transfer is often not well structured and its effectiveness – in particular for tacit knowledge (i.e., know how) – is an opportunity for improvement which can lead to many benefits. This article profiles recent research into the topic of improving knowledge transfer during technology transfer and presents several recently developed frameworks for improving such. The article furthermore explains how the frameworks can be co-deployed in support of robust knowledge transfer, supported by an illustrative case study

Patient experience of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) in a maternity unit in Ireland

The introduction of the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for maternity services in Ireland provided an opportunity to examine patient satisfaction and to examine what patients require from an Electronic Health Record. The implementation of the EHR in Ireland started in 2016, and at present, four of the 19 maternity units are digital. Patients at antenatal booking visits in an Irish maternity unit were invited to participate in the project. The invite was taken up by 201 women. The survey took 10-15 minutes to complete. The survey was conducted nine months following the implementation of the MN-CMS. The survey was anonymous and was divided into three distinctive sections; participant information, regarding the staff encounters on their visits and questions about the new system. 70% of participants rated their overall consultation from very good to outstanding. 73% of participants believe the computer system will ensure quality of care. Participants believe their personal information is safe (65%) in the new computer system. Over 75% of participants did not have any concerns regarding the new computer system. Eighty-one percent of participants noted that they would like access online to their charts and 91% of these respondents would like access to the full chart. Patients in this study were very receptive to the introduction of EHR and noted that it would be beneficial for their care. They also noted the impact the EHR could have on clinic time and interactions with staff. However, patients require access to their charts this they believe would provide them with ownership of their health. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Innovation & Technology lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework (https://www.theberylinstitute.org/ExperienceFramework). Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this len

Bootstrapping a Sustainable North American PEM Fuel Cell Industry: Could a Federal Acquisition Program Make a Difference?

The North American Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell industry may be at a critical juncture. A large-scale market for automotive fuel cells appears to be several years away and in any case will require a long-term, coordinated commitment by government and industry to insure the co-evolution of hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell vehicles (Greene et al., 2008). The market for non-automotive PEM fuel cells, on the other hand, may be much closer to commercial viability (Stone, 2006). Cost targets are less demanding and manufacturers appear to be close, perhaps within a factor of two, of meeting them. Hydrogen supply is a significant obstacle to market acceptance but may not be as great a barrier as it is for hydrogen-powered vehicles due to the smaller quantities of hydrogen required. PEM fuel cells appear to be potentially competitive in two markets: (1) Backup power (BuP) supply, and (2) electrically-powered MHE (Mahadevan et al., 2007a, 2007b). There are several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of PEM fuel cell systems for these applications but production levels have been quite low (on the order of 100-200 per year) and cumulative production experience is also limited (on the order of 1,000 units to date). As a consequence, costs remain above target levels and PEM fuel cell OEMs are not yet competitive in these markets. If cost targets can be reached and acceptable solutions to hydrogen supply found, a sustainable North American PEM fuel cell industry could be established. If not, the industry and its North American supply chain could disappear within a year or two. The Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Infrastructure Technologies (HFCIT) program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requested a rapid assessment of the potential for a government acquisition program to bootstrap the market for non-automotive PEM fuel cells by driving down costs via economies of scale and learning-by-doing. The six week study included in-depth interviews of three manufacturers, visits to two production facilities, review of the literature on potential markets in North America and potential federal government procurements, development of a cost model reflecting economies of scale and learning-by-doing, and estimation of the impact of federal PEM fuel cell procurements on fuel cell system costs and the evolution of private market demand. This report presents the findings of that study. Section 2 outlines the status of the industry and describes potential markets based on interviews of manufacturers and the existing literature. Section 3 describes the modeling methodology including key premises and assumptions, and presents estimates of market evolution under four scenarios: (1) Base Case with no federal government procurement program, (2) Scenario 1, an aggressive program beginning with less than 200 units procured in 2008 ramping up to more than 2,000 units in 2012, (3) Scenario 2 which is identical to Scenario 1 except that the private market is assumed to be twice as sensitive to price, and (4) Scenario 3, a delayed, smaller federal procurement program beginning in 2011 increasing to a maximum of just over 1,000 units per year in 2012. The analysis suggests that the aggressive program of Scenario 1 would likely stimulate a sustainable, competitive North American non-automotive PEM fuel cell industry. Given plausible assumptions about learning rates and scale economies, the procurements assumed in Scenario 1 appear to be sufficient to drive down costs to target levels. These findings are conditional on the evolution of acceptable hydrogen supply strategies, which were not explicitly analyzed in this study. Success is less certain under Scenarios 2 and 3, and there appears to be a strong probability that existing OEMs would not survive until 2011. In the Base Case, no program, a viable North American industry does not emerge before 2020

F-theory on Genus-One Fibrations

We argue that M-theory compactified on an arbitrary genus-one fibration, that is, an elliptic fibration which need not have a section, always has an F-theory limit when the area of the genus-one fiber approaches zero. Such genus-one fibrations can be easily constructed as toric hypersurfaces, and various $SU(5)\times U(1)^n$ and $E_6$ models are presented as examples. To each genus-one fibration one can associate a $\tau$-function on the base as well as an $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ representation which together define the IIB axio-dilaton and 7-brane content of the theory. The set of genus-one fibrations with the same $\tau$-function and $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ representation, known as the Tate-Shafarevich group, supplies an important degree of freedom in the corresponding F-theory model which has not been studied carefully until now. Six-dimensional anomaly cancellation as well as Witten's zero-mode count on wrapped branes both imply corrections to the usual F-theory dictionary for some of these models. In particular, neutral hypermultiplets which are localized at codimension-two fibers can arise. (All previous known examples of localized hypermultiplets were charged under the gauge group of the theory.) Finally, in the absence of a section some novel monodromies of Kodaira fibers are allowed which lead to new breaking patterns of non-Abelian gauge groups.Comment: 53 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables. v2: references adde

Gauge Fluxes in F-theory and Type IIB Orientifolds

We provide a detailed correspondence between G_4 gauge fluxes in F-theory compactifications with SU(n) and SU(n)x(1) gauge symmetry and their Type IIB orientifold limit. Based on the resolution of the relevant F-theory Tate models we classify the factorisable G_4-fluxes and match them with the set of universal D5-tadpole free U(1)-fluxes in Type IIB. Where available, the global version of the universal spectral cover flux corresponds to Type IIB gauge flux associated with a massive diagonal U(1). In U(1)-restricted Tate models extra massless abelian fluxes exist which are associated with specific linear combinations of Type IIB fluxes. Key to a quantitative match between F-theory and Type IIB is a proper treatment of the conifold singularity encountered in the Sen limit of generic F-theory models. We also shed further light on the brane recombination process relating generic and U(1)-restricted Tate models.Comment: 53 pages, 3 figures; v2: Refs added; v3: minor corrections to match version published in JHE